Evening star., 1916-12-11

fords a fine chance to the enterprising
man who knows his business.
The mine seeker goes to land own
er whose land lies in such a location
that the miner. whether a practical
or technical expert. has reason to be-
Ieve 1t covers a zinc deposit. Miner
and owner then strike a bargain. by
which the former leases the mineral
rights of the land. This is usually
done on a royalty basis, by which the
man who owns the land gets 10 or Is
per cent OF the net profits of whatever
mines are sunk. The land owner real
ly has the best OF the whole bargain;
a number Of such men are drawing tat
monthly incomes now, for which they
were never put to more trouble than
to agree to let some man or company
md out what lay 200 feet below the
corn fields on their farms. The corn
fields are not necessarily disturbed
by the process either. Plenty of land
supports farms on top and zinc mines
below. Such super-farmers are wont
to say that they raise fifty-three crops
crops of ore.
The ore. as may be guessed from that
statement. is sold weekly. Thursday
is sale day. Prices rule on a basis of
ore that is so per cent metallic zinc
Ore that goes higher than this nets a
premium. The buyers drive out from
Joplin. in autpa aob bileSs AID buggies
equipped with little sampline bottles
They strike bargain with the owner
over his bins. and then pick out bits
of the ore here and there to determine
the actual price to be paid. the bar
gain only concerning itself with so
per cent ore. The sample is assayed
and made the basis of the settlement.
picking the sample is obviously task
for an expert
Another striking feature of this mid
die western zinc field is the character
of the labor 1t is all
All Ameri- American labor. The
r foreigner has never got
the ghos. of hold
here and any attempt on his part to
enter the field is discouraged. The
laborers deny that they are afraid of
foreign competition in any sense, but
they say the presept spirit of the dis
trict, sort of cheerful democracy
where the shovel men feel they may be
mine owners tomorrow, would be de-
stroyed by the presence of immigrant
labor that would not look higher than
weekly pay check. The present force
Is composed largely of raw-boned ma
tiVes of the middle western states
Texans. Missourians. Kansans-and
they perform some stupendous feats of
physical strength.
The ore is blasted from its bed below the
earth and shoveled down in the mine
into great iron buckets called "cans."
to be hoisted to the surface Such a can
holds thousand pounds. The work is
pieceworF the shoveler and the miner
being paid by the number of cans they
I'LL. When the great price boom struck
the district and every mine was strain
ed to the limit to get the maximum ton
mage on the market while high prices
lasted the miners worked in a yeritable
fury under the stimulus of extra pay
Those were the days when one man
earned s5s in single week, with
nothing but a pair of arms and a shovel
and strong back To do it, though
he had to fill about 100 cans "A day and
each can weighed 1000 pounds. Figure
1T out-1o0. 900 pounds of ore. swung by
ed his money. They say they have Gre
ated a new profession here that of
skilled shoveler.
In the first days of the rush some
workmen literally worked themselves
to death. Straining every muscle for
hours under the earth, working in an
atmosphere of rock dust thrown off by
the drills. coming up into the cold air
all a-drip. they succumbed to a wide
range of ailments. The new conditions
came on so suddenly that for the mo-
ment they were not adequately met
Now the dry drills have been replaced
with dustless water drills. and dog
houses" are provided at the mouth Of
the mine. where the workmen~are com
PEELED to change clothing and cool off
before going farther. They even have
sanitary drinking cups nowadays. The
whote industry. in fact. is being read
1usted TO meettnew and more prosper
GUS times and conditions. Whatever
may be true of Belgium. the war was
good thing for American zinc