The citizen-Republican. (Scotland, Bon Homme County, S.D.) 1???-19??, 1914-06-04
MEXICO IS TREASURE
HOUSE, SAYS REFUGEE
Lakes Of Oil, Great Ranches and
Vast Natural Resources
There.

A man who has spent years OF his
ME on the south of the Rio Grande and
whom the stormy times of the last few
years in Mexico had driven back to
New York, was telling about the things
ne had left behind there the other night
and this was the burden Of his tale.
Bays the New York Times.
He told of a su~bterranean lake OF
oil. known to be 200 miles long and
from 15 to 20 miles wide, with a fsgush-
err that flowed more than 800, 900 bar
rels In "a hours before it was capped"
n regulated; of valleys filled with
oil in that "a hours; OF vegetation
drenched for miles around. Oil-crude
pills worth roughly 81 a barrel at
the well.
He told Of ore that assayed sS6,000 to
the ton. n hundreds Of tons of it in
sight, and The eyes Of the Americans
who listened opened wide.
Under Spanish rule" said the man
from Mexico. "the mines of Guanajuato
alone produced over $1,000, 600, 900 worth
of silver. The mine owners made mill
lions so quickly that one Of the Span
der ~forbidding them from scattering
handfuls Of silver on the streets be-
u it increased the number of beg
gars. Also, it was a public nuisance.
Well, it isn't very different in the
year 1914. For instance. there's Pedro
4 Cl W liz oWllclt III lIlS x i
mine. He is an ignorant Indian who
a no idea how much money he has,
nor any idea of It's value. In the last
few years he has built so churches, at
least 100 schools, and has given away
several fortunes. Christmas, 1910,
Pedro Alvardo gave away $4,000, 900 to.
the poor for the love of Cod he said.
Pedro dresses like a peon, but he
has a beautiful home in which there 1s
the finest furniture, several pianos n
20 talking machines. Before Porfrio
Diaz abdicated, Pedro offered to pay off
the national debt Of Mexico. When his
request was refused he asked to be al
lowed to pay off a piece Of 1t, anyway.
When this was also refused he got IN
dignant and gave away a fortune est1-
mated to equal the interest on the ma
tional debt for five years. Fact!
There's a mine in the state Of Son
ora, not far from Arizpe, which is prob
IDLY the richest mine in the northern
half of the republic, This property a
high gold as. we'll as silver values. An
visit the mine and the Mexican owner
asked him to sample and assay q snip
ment Of SO tons Of ore that was going
to the smelter The owner said ne
didn't think the smelter was giving nm
full value. He didn't care for the
money, but he wasn't going 10 y"
robbed by anybody.
"The engineer assayed the ore. men:
thinking he had made a mistake ne iau
two other assayers check MS resui.s.
All three assays checked within a rev
dollars. That ore was worth more IMAM
$50, 900 q ton, The shipments had peen
going on regularly for quite a WINS
The owner used the mine as a pahk:
Whenever he needed money ne Woulu
send a few men into 1T and axe out q
small fortune. l know thal' eooo
was the engineer. 49,
s'There is another property IN tne
same district and his is how IL was
discovered: There had been a traul.!o.
In that region about q wondertuiiy rtcn
mine, which had been worked by tms
to be in a certain direction from a ms
sion. now ruined and could be seen
from a corner OF the main building. An
American prospector followed the u
rections. He was sure he was close 70
it, but he couldn't locate the Ola Woih-
ings.
A last he took a trip to Spain; ne
said he was going to see If he couldnt
find some record of the mine III eLe
18th century archives winch We're SUI
posed to exist there. 1t has never peeh
proved what he did In Spain, u ne re.
in which the mine was said to pc ana
walked right on the property. He TOOK
out a fortune in less than a year. Inen
he sold tho mine to a syndicate, Whlcn
was doing very Well WHe1l INC WaAs
broke out, when it suspended opera
tons.
"The old workings, Of the mine had
been carefully covered over when tho
American discovered it, and the re-
mains of 40-odd Indians were found
walled up in the tunnel. By walling up
the Indian miners, you see, the Span
iards a made sure that the location
of the property would not be betrayed.
They thought they.were coming back to
Mexico some day, and intended re-
opening the mine.
why, there are lots of creeks or
streams, particularly in Sonora, where
a peon or a Chinaman can make from
S. to $40 a day washing for gold with
an ordinary pan. They call these little
streams poor mems banks
you mustn't forget the cattle, when
you think of Mexico. Until the various
armies began to eat them up, the own
ers in the two big ranches of Sonora
and chihuahua had no idea how many
COWS they had. These cattle are what
the armies are living off now; that's
how they get their meat. A few years
ago when / was mining on the big
ranch in Sonora, we never ATTEMPTED
to buy meat. We just gave the Chinese
cook a Winchester and two cartridges
only two, because he'd go hunting if
you gave him more, and twouldn't re-
turn-and that night we'd have Beef
steak for supper.
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