The daily Gate City. [volume] (Keokuk, Iowa) 1855-1916, 1911-10-22
ALMOST. DOWN
TO DEVIL 5 HOME
President Taft Goes Down 100 Feet
Below Ground Into Dakota Gold
Mine and Enjoys
Trip.
HANDED A GOLD BRICK
Was Worth $4,000 and Weighed t25
Pounds But He Had to Give
1t Back to the
Assayer.

'SSs't'Nfo x
RAPID CITY, s. D., Oct 2l--Elev-
en- hundred feet down in the bowels
of the EARTH President Taft today
toiled and puffed through three miles
of the lower levels of the Homestake
Gold mine at Lead.
1t was a weary, sweaty, gasping
president with soiled clothing and
wilted collar that climbed out the cage
with an acetylene miners lamp in one
hand and chunk of sold-bearing
quartz, picked up in the mine, in the
other Perspiration poured from his
face and he stepped from the cage
with sigh OF relief when 1t reached
the surface. but he gasped: 1T was
fine-a great sight
The underground trip was sur
prise to the chief executive. but he
enjoyed it. The officials of the Home.
stake mine had closed it down for the
day. Every one of the 2,700 men en-
ployed in the mine. except those abb
solutely necessary to man the shafts
and illustrate the mine workings to
the president, was taken off for the
day. This was done to secure ahso-
lutte safety for the executive.
/ After three mile automobile ride
through the snow covered hills Of
South Dakota from Deadwood, in !.
soft snowfall, the president greeted
the entire population from Lead from
stand in natural ampitheatre. He
| talked on the relations of trusts TO
| business and went little further
than before in expressing his determi-
nation to prosecute all violations OF
the Sherman law.
'They found fault because we did
not enforce It," he said, "and now
they find fault because we do en-
force it. It's a case of be damned
If we do and be damned If we don't
I propose to be damned for doing my
duty and enforcing the law accord
ing to my oath of office"
When he concluded his speech, the
, Pinkerton men who have guarded the
Homestake mine since the big strike
; there two years ago took up the task
of protecting the president His party
alone were admitted to the mine and
the special police watched him every
moment Half a score of gun men
were on hand. They preceded the
president across a narrow tramway
trestle and up three flights of ladder
like stairs to the shaft house of the
Homestake mine. When he reached
the top. despite a freezing tempera-
ture, he was perspiring as If he had
been chasing golf bali about the
. IS,t- r,I.. Js,,J,, ,,, A n
he never cooled off until he left the
mine an hour later.
After looking over the big engines
in the shaft house the president was
furnished with a miners lamp and led
to the cage. It was double-decked
affair and half of the party climbed
into the upper compartment while the
president and Secretary Hilles occu-
pied the lower deck Throughout the
long drop, the president shouted
Jokes at those above, his hearty laugh
sounding loud above the wierd
screeching of the cage cables as they
tore through the guides
With a shudder and jolt. the cage
stopped at the / 100 foot level and the
president and his party climbed out
Then followed three mile walk
through the dark, musty galleries
with the miners lamps flashing
brightly in the gloom.
: Through the lonesome drip, drip.
e drip of the seeping water through the
! solid rock, the voice OF the president
n and his party broke in incompressed
! tones. At one point the president
e stopped to observe a pounding COM
y pressed air drill at work grinding into
0 the solid quartz. At another point
s he stood in the center of a big cham
J Der and looked up $50 feet to where,
= in an upper gallery a group OF miners
lamps flashed along the roof of the
= cavern.
q After trudging along the damp
e tramway tracks for about half an
e hour the president came TO another
4 shaft and was lifted to the open all
y again. The underground trip was the
e. most strenuous exercise the presi
n dent had undertaken on the trip and
" when he emerged from the mine. ht
n was just about all in.
~ Just before he entered the mine
the president visited the assay office
| Continued on page "a