The Wallace miner. [volume] (Wallace, Idaho) 1907-current, 1915-05-06
Stories of Celebrated Ore Steals.
Denver Mining Record.

when ore was sampled In the old fash
ioned way are being retold by old
time miners when Leadyille was a
city of tents and Colorado miners. hot
blooded young fellows who came west
to dig gold from the earth or die, are
being circulated around hotel Hobbies
and office buildings of Denver, just as
they went the rounds of Colorado min
ing camps forty years ago The STORY
OF the Sal 900 difference between the
Cresson mine people and their smelling
company over the assaying OF samples
taken from the wonderful golden cham
Der discovered in the great strike in
their Cripple Creek property has quick
ened the memories of the old miners
and brought to their recollection tales
OF the good old days when they WELD
ed the pick and shovel.
Colonel James A. Shinn, miner of
the old school, disposed his enormous
bulk form comfortably in great chair
al the st. James hotel yesterday,
clasped his big hands around his knee,
and smiled happily as he began his
"reminiscences,
Yves, suppose smelling companies
were cheated out Of hundreds OF thou
sands and perhaps millions Of dollars
by crooked samping deals In the old
DAYS" he said And on the other
hand, certain practices Of theirs short
ened up the profits Of the miners con-
siderably, SO guess 1t was about an
even break.
He Watched Ore Sampled.
There was one fellow who had
lease on the old Galliger mine in Stray
Horse guch, at Leadville. Well. he
struck grade ore. And ne al
WAYS insisted that he be allowed to
watch the smelter company sampling
his ore.
The assay ran up so high that the
smelter company officers began to be
suspicious. They watched that man
closely every time they sampled his
ore, but they couldn't catch him salt
ing It Finally, one of the smelter men
noticed him dumping ashes out OF the
bowl of his pipe. Some Of the ashes
fell on the sample pile. The next time
they were sampling his ore, he did the
same thing. Examination of the ashes
showed that they were chloride of sill
yer It was against the law to cheat
n smelling company then, and the man
was arrested and convicted. But In
the meantime he had got away with
$4,000 or so Of the smelling eompany's
money, which he had salted away
where they never did get hold Of 1t.
"You see, the old-fashloned sampl-
ing Of ore was done this way. The ore
mines to the smelter hauling the ore
in great, heavy wagons. At the smelt-
or the custom was to sample from ten
to 100-ton lots Of the ore. The wagons
would drive up to the smelter and the
husky hauler would throw one shovel
full into the sample bin, then three
shovelrulls into the general bin In sue
cession, until the load was exhausted,
Ore in Sampler Is Crushed Fine.
Then the ore In the samplIng bin
was crushed fine. After that It was
divided into four piles. two Of which
were thrown out into the general bin,
The process was repeated until the orr
was reduced to sample YOU could
hold in your two hands. 1t was here
that the salter got in his crooked work
when the sample was small. This last
sample was divided into three parts
one was kept by the sampllng COM
pany for assaying; another was given
to the man who owned the ore, so he
could have his own assayer test 1t, and
the 'N'rd was reserved In case the
smelS'r company and the owner
couldn't come to terms on the amount
their samples assayed. In this event,
an unn're was appointed
"Many Of the smelling companies |
beat the miners out of a good deal OF
lnorey by always turning in an ASSAY
report little below that Of the miner
Then they'd offer to split the differ
ence. Surprising the miner split with |
the company on q two-ounce differ
ence in silver smelling; that would
make 100 ounces to the hundred ton
With silver at s1I9 an ounce, which
II sold for in the old days, that made
$120 lost to the miner with the smelt-
ing of every hundred-ton lot, the sum
being put into the pocket of the smelt-
or owner. 7
"Another way some of the miners
got II b. elk on the smelling companies !
was in the loading of their sample
wagons They would put n layer Of
the highest grade ore prOcurahle In the
bottom Of the wagon, Then they'd FIJI
them up with lower grade ore. When
the hauler bent his broad back over
the shovel at the smelter he had dis
tinct understanding with his employer
that he was to shovel from the bottom
of The wagon into the sampllng bin !
and from the top into the general hin
You can see how that worked out only
the higher grade ore was sampled and
the miner got a good deal more money
than he should have for his ore,
"Old One Eyed Ike. of I4eadvile