El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1914-08-29

OF miners and keeps $50 women al
I work The OrurO mines have ALWAYS
I paid well, and today +hey are produce
( ing good dividends. 1 visited them
! when l was here some years ago. be-
lore the railroad to La PaZ had vet
been constructed The fuel then used
vas the llama manure, brought in bv
caravans from all over the country.
II took four tons of that stuff to
rur the forty horsepower engine
twenty-four hours, and I remembeT
] gong with one Of the managers of
the mine into the pit where the fuel
was stored It then contained $50 0O0
pounds OF llama droppings The stuff
looked like gray bullets or gravel it
was as dry as bone and gave fortn
no smell
Today the company is using coal at
a cost Of about $50 a ton. 1t has in
stalled the most modern machinery.
and II IS saving money by employing
anthracite gas engines that give a 20
/ per cent fuel efficiency, using one
pound and a half Of anthracite per
horsepower per hour This saves a
great deal in q region where the coal
freights from the seacoast are from
S25 to $50 per ton.
Millions Worth of Tin Wasted
I have already written OF the mines
OF POtosi that were opened BY the
Spaniards- Since their beginning they
nave produced three or four billion
dollars worth Of silver. and il is now
thought millions Of dollars more were
thrown away in the tin. which was
mixed with the silver. The people did
not understand the value Of the baser
metal They could not realize that it
might some day be worth S1.1O0 a ton
which has been its selling price within
the past year although it is now very
much less So they took out the sill
yer and left the tin on the dumps.
whence IL has been washed away BY
the streams All this is changed and
the great profit is now in the tin. the
Potosi owners having originated A
syndicate to operate the property on
a silver basis. They will work the
mines almost solely for tin and will
capitalize them largely on their fame
in the past as silver producers
There are other tin mines Of enorm-
Gus value in the POtosi district. Ia
Salvatore has produced as much as
100000 pounds Of pure tin in 4 month
and the Uncia mines are now Weld
ing more than a half million hounds
OF that mineral every twelve hours.
The Uncia mines are the property Of
Simon J. PatinO. who might be called
the tin king Of the world. He is worth
many millions, and it all comes from
From Poor Clerk to Tin King
It is only a few years ago that Pa
tinO was a poor clerk. working for a
Few dollars a month He had indian
blood in his veins, and no one supposed
ne "o1id ever De more than a hire
ling. Then he found this prospect and
tried to get his employers to work II.
Ihey had no faith in him or his nroD-
erty. and so he denounced the claim
for himself. In some way he managed
TO get a small capital At first he
practically lived in the mine. laborfng
there with the few indians he could
hlre at low wages. He finally struck
A rich vein and since then the mine
has paid as high as $4,000. Ono a wear.
II sometimes yields as much as s3OO 400
a month
Fatlno has suddenly Jumped from
poverty to extravagant riches ar5 he
has hard work to invest the surD1us.
he is interested in banks and he has