davidaulloa/AmericanStories huggingface dataset:
The Birmingham age-herald., 1916-03-26

ton of water would fill a 25O-gallon hogshead. Now, if you should drop your spoonful of salt into the hogs head and churn up the water until the salt is thoroughly mixed through it all, you would have just the proportion of the gold and rock in the mine of which I am writing. Think of getting the pea made of gold powder out or the cartload of rock in such a way that half of it will more than pay all the costs and you have tlle problem which the operators of this mine have sue cessfully solved.
 It seems a petty business, does it not?
 Nevertheless, it is one of the biggest ! businesses of the world of today. 1t takes millions to work the mine and it will probably pay millions in profits. The mine I refer to is the Alaska Cas- tineau property. It is only one of sev- eral mighty low grade propositions along the Gastineau chahnel which will keep thousands oi miners and millions of dollars Of machinery at work here for century to come. Ad- joining it is the Alaska Juneau mine, a similar mountain of gold which is now at it's very beginning. Farther along is the Ebner mine, another great prop erty, and there are other deposits about of enormous extent. Today I shall write of the Alaska Gastineau only.
 The mountain of low grade ore over the Alaska Gastineau mine rises almost precipitously from the Gastineau chan nell Its ore body is said to cover some thing like 2000 acres 1t is more than two miles in length and the miners have already made 20 miles of tunnels and crcss-cuts in their development works director, D. c. Jackling. to the stockhold- 2l, ,O00, 900 tons above a certain level and at least 100,O0O,OOO tons above the level of the sea. The Treadwell group on the opposite side of the channel is now extending mines under the sea. so that there is really no telling how large the Gastneau ore body is.
 The outcroppingS of the mines begin at a half-mile or more above the sea level and tunnels have been cut at intervals from there down to 2000 feet The mines have been further prospected by diamond drills and by shafts and crosscuts. so that it's owners should know pretty well what they have.
 All this has cost millions. Fortunes were put into the property before it came into the hands of the present owners. and they have spent millions more in installing machinery that will do the work at the least possible cost, and in the institution of hydro-electric plant tuated 10 miles away which gives them
The Birmingham age-herald., 1916-03-26

the Hudson can do what is far better than to describe the scenery-he can feel it. If you are inclined to like the military, favor preparedness and that sort of thing, then you will be as much impressed and thrilled hy sight of the est Point Military academy as I was.
 Regular summer resorts specialize on few things as attractions. but New York city offers everything that all com- bined could offer. And then it has more tc show for regular "humdrun'' everyday life upon Manhattan is. to one with the faintest spark of imagination, better than looking through hugh life-kaleidoscopc. It Is color variety. mystery beauty. won- der. It is an educational study if you will, recreation and a pastime if you wish. It is the world-it is lfe-life it. self, and he who, through the seeming tumble and conglomerateness of sound, can yet detect it's steady. rhythmic, giant heartthrob. hears a music sweeter than has yet swayed any audience-the sym phony of life itself. the theme of which is great. eternal love. And hearing it. desires to raise his arms to heaven and say, God make me worthy of my fellow nan"
 Came New York man whose name is known on Wall street. to me the other day, speaking thus; Why don't you mem tion in some of your articles, that the short skirt. now so long popular here. has brought to light the fact there is an astounding number of bow-legged women in New York these days?"
 And I answered him by confessing that I had not noticed it. Adding. however. that I had noticed the-the-short skirts. os course, but had not dared to follow up such ob observations more closely. They do say bowlegs are sign of speed, but what las that to do with the fall of Verdun-or an aviator?
 The most wholly worthless thing in New York city today is spring poem.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1916-03-26

If we are putting you among the too poor class, however, we will go up a bit. Suppose you have a little flivver of your own-one that you would trust for few miles only. Very well, right up the drive you go. along the upper boule- ward. under great trees, with the majes- tic Hudson at your lower left all the way, until you reach Arrow Head Inn. Here you alight and enjoy one of the most impressive views imaginable--that of the Hudson and the Palisades be- yond, and, tiring of even that, you en- ter and are served with as good a dinner as your purse can buy. You feel as if you are almost out in the heart of forest, yet you are still upon Manhattan Island and can be home in a few min utes-always provided the flivver works satisfactorily.
 Suppose you wish to summer here, vet do not like living in the heart of the city. There is an answer to that, too; over on the Jersey shore, under the shad ows of the Palisades are rows and rows of white tents every summer. You can be in Manhattan in--well, as soon you can get across the river. yet there you are in the wilds. as 1t were. with all the comforts of camp in the woods, and the additional luxury of the far-famed Jersey mosquito.
 Another form of diversion to be had here in summer is the boat trip. This can be- taken in any direction. You have the privilege of going actually out to sea and back for small sum. or you can go up one of the rivers, and, personally, know of no more beautiful days trip than that offered by the Albany Day Line up the Hudson. The boats leave at various hours, but the trip can prob- ably best be made by leaving here at 9 o'clock in the morning. and returning at 4:30 o'clock in the afternoon. Describing impressive scenery is d bit out of my province. but he who takes that trip up
The Birmingham age-herald., 1916-03-26

Christian to climb We had acetylene lamps to pick our way over the beds of ore underfoot and we crawled up- and down over thousands of tons of gold bear ing rock before we stood under the roof of a low chamber covering more than an acre
 We could now see the miners al work. Each had his own light, which shone dim in the distance. They were oper- ating drills moved by compressed air, and were putting in the dynamite for blasting the ore. At certain hours the blasts are shot off, and the great masses of rock are thus taken out and broken for the cars and the mills.
 Each stope or cavern is AGO feet long, 120 feet wide and 400 feet deep. Its con tents are equal to d solid block of rock with the base of an acre extending to a height of 400 feet. or more than two thirds that of the Washington monument. Think of a block that size streaked with gold. As I lifted my accetylene lamp to the roof I could see the veins of white quartz running this way and that and I was fortunate to be able to pick out with my knife blade a grain of gold the size of the head of pin.
 As did so the superintendent told
  worked
 After leaving the mines I went to the mills. They are said to be the largest and most modern of any gold crushing plant in the world. Within the past year the company has spent s5,00o, O0O upon them and nothing has been spared to make machinery do every possible 'art of the work. Everything is moved by electricity. Electric cranes, some of which will lift 90 tons, carry great loads from place to place. The same force raises the ore and there are automatic sllips of five tons each that load and empty themselves, moving on day and night all the year through.
 The ore comes from the mines on trains drawn by electric engines. It is dumped by electricity upon screens, the wires of which are as thick as your thumb, and it passes thence into im- mense crushers, which take the largest pieces and break them into Jumps about two inches thick.
 From these screens the ore goes into storage bins of 10000 tons each. ana from them it is carried by skips and wide belt conveyors through sets of steel rollers that work on the princi- pie of clothes wringer. The rollers are so graduated that they crush the ore finer and finer as it goes through one set after another, until the great rocks are reduced to a powder as fine as the flour of which cream crackers are made.
 The flour, which contains the rock and gold, is then passed over shaking
The Birmingham age-herald., 1916-03-26

tables flooded with water in such a way that gravity separates the miner als from the rocks, the heaviest parti- cles falling to lower sides of the table. You can then see the various minerals, each having its own streak of color. There is the lead with it's mixture of gold and silver; there at the bottom thespure gold, a streak of yellow grains and dust. About the lead is the lighter black iron sand.
 After the gold and lead are thus sep arated they are passed over WilfeY tables covered with mercury. The mer- cury takes up the gold, and it is then put through the furnace and vaporized, to get the gold out.
 Until now the mines and mills have been working at 1000 or 5000 tons per day. but during the present year the manager expects to increase this amount to, a least. 10000 tons, ana from that time on there will be a steady stream of gold ore moving out of the mountains through the mills and down to the sea. Ten thousand tons of ore at $1.50 of gold to the ton means Sl9.- 900 per day added to the gold supply of the world. 1t means that the output of this mine will eventually be. more than s5,00O,000 worth of gold per year. and if the estimates of the engineers are correct it means that this output will continue for from 75 to 100 years to come. To return to my former com parison, all this will be made of peas of gold and pinches of dust.
 As to the human element in the Gastineau mines, the labor and man agement seem to be excellent There are now about HOO men employed upon the property, and I am told that the number will not be greatly increased when the mine is working at double it's present capacity, the machinery being such that units can be added and the same men do double the work.
 The men are of better class than the average miner of the United States proper. Fully one-third of them are Americans, and, in addition, there are large numbers of English, Irish and Scotch There are also Slavs, Italians, Swedes and Norwegians. Not a few have come here as prospectors and have been attracted to the work by the high wages paid. Common Ia borers get $3 and upward a day and skilled men $A.50 and S5 The experts and officers receive the highest of salaries. The general manager Mir B. l.. Thane, is a young Californian who has made record for his efficiency and mining ability.
 I find that the employees are we'll bunk houses or dormitories in which the men sleep, and it also has dining halls which will seat 300 at one meal. I sat down with that number at din ner The food was excellent and bet
The Birmingham age-herald., 1916-03-26

ments here upon Manhattan. However, the man or woman who would habitual- ly live life of loneliness, of solitude, of aloofness from his or her fellow be- ings, is somehow radically wrong. Such an one has permitted selfishness to usurp the throne of love- is not normal, and is not even making an effort to lead the life outlined by the Great Teacher.
 The majority of people unaccustomed to them, hate crowds" The New York CT is not included in that majority As a rule he loves them, she is at home with them at his best among them He is even perfectly himself in them, yet recognizes the fact that others are also present
 But, lest we get too far away from New York as summer resort Here on the island are all the comforts and all the delights of city life. It is never a question of what can we do?" but always which shall we do?" Broadway never leaves, and Broadway is practi- cally exhaustless to the pleasure seek CT. Yet Broadway is but a part of all that Manhattan offers. And here, too. are so many parks that the poorest never lack for shade and rest if they desire them.
 The chiefest argument, perhaps. in favor of New York city as a summer resort, lies in the fact that it is situated within easy reach of almost every kind of diversion, environment, atmosphere or pleasure any one could possibly want. Living here, it is not necessary to go away for a summer to get anything, unless it is merely change that is de- sired. And people coming here from elsewhere in the summer, find them selves not in one summer resort, but in the center of whole swarm of them. and realize that they can take in any kind they wish. leave it when they wish. and in not more than an hour, be back
The Birmingham age-herald., 1916-03-26

5000 horsepower Nearly all the work of the mines and the mills is done by electricity, and it is the dropping of the water on the turbines 10 miles away that gives the force that is now dragging this gold from the earth, and changing it into the great yellow bricks which go to the mint. I have visited many mining properties here and there over the world, but nowhere have I seen machinery that seems so near human in it's economical operation and in giving the maximum re- suits for the minimum consumption of human muscle and brain
 But come with me and take look at 2 this mountain of gold, whose treasures electricity and it's helpers, the sooty- faced miners, are bringing forth to the light of the sun. We take the motor car stage at Juneau and fly over the board streets to the outskirts of the city We wind around under the noun rains ill full sight of the Treadwel mines across the channel over the way, and at the end of three miles come to Thane. where are the offices and homes of those " ho manage the great milling plants and reduction works of the property We can see the mills T00 feet above us on the sides of the mountain. They seem to grow out of the rocks, extending for a long distance down the slopes, so that gravity carries the ore through one pro- cess after another
 The offices are right on the sea- The mines themselves are three miles back ir the mountains. They begin about, 250O feet above where we are now. and we are hauled up by a cable to visit them. our car Is an open platorm on wheels, with wall at the lower end to keep us from falling or sliding, as the car climbs the track The road has a s per cent grade, and the way is almost straight up the side of a cliff covered with forests.
 At the end of the cable we meet what might be called the private car of tha managers. It is a steel box upon wheels with open doors at the sides and seats under cover. It is equipped with stor- age battery, and is so small that it can SC anywhere throughout the mine. In it we ride around the side of the noun tain. We; fly through canyon and en- ter tunnel which is two miles in length and 4000 feet below the snow-clad peaks overhead. It is through this tunnel that the ore goes in trains to the mills
 The tunnel is cut right through the ore, and there is an ore body 2000 feet thick overhead. There are other tunnels at various levels and the chutes are so cut that ore from all of these levels can be dropped into the cars far below
 The tunnel is so large that a Pullman train could go through it without scratch ing the paint. It is lighted by incan- descent lamps which hang down from above. It has a double track so that con- tinuous trains of cars can move back and forth at the same time. All of the haul
The Birmingham age-herald., 1916-03-26

ing is done by electricity. In this main tunnel the cars work upon troleys. The other tunnels are smaller and there the ore cars are hauled by storage battery engines, in order to keep the miners from touching the live wires.
 We get off and stand at one side, as an ore train comes laundering along. It is drawn by a powerful electric en- zine. The train consists of 2S steel cars. each of which holds 10 tons of ore. It carries 2SO tons of gold bearing rock. and there is at least. $500 worth of gold in it's cars.
 All of the loading is done by gravity. The ore is blasted out in the great Stopes, or caverns, which have been made alone the eight levels above us. The stopes are connected with the tunnels of the various levels, and the ore is brought in steel cars from them to the chutes, from where it falls into the great ore Din above the main tunnel where we arc now
 The loading arrangements are such that the mere pulling of a lever will drop a river of ore into a car, Four cars gre loaded at once, and within two min utes by my watch saw 40 tons put on the train, and within 15 or 20 minules a whole train was loaded. After this the cars carry the ore straight to the mills There it is automatically dumped and the machinery is such that it is hardly touched by mans hands until the gold has been wOn
 But suppose we take trip through the mine, visiting some of the tunnels and going into the stopes. We are ac- conlpanied by MT. G. T. Jackson, the assistant manager of the company, and MT. B. B. Nieding, the mine superin- tendent We climb into the cars, and ride through tunnel after tunnel stop ping now and then in a vain search Tor geld in the rock overhead, Its coior might be called battleship gray. It is a drab slate with little veins and stringers of quartz that the gold, lead and iron which from the minerals of the ore body are found. in some of the rich places you can see specks of yellow. The veins run in streaks through the slate rock, and the diamond drills show that such streaks are found everywhere in the great body of ore not yet outlined Ey the tunnels.
 By and by we leave our electric, en- zine and ride on one of the shaft ele- vators to the level above. Our eleva- tor boy is a giant over six feet in height, and he wears a long oilslin coat which makes him look taller. As we pass from level to level we can. see the cars moving by: and finally at 1000 feet above where we started we step out and tramp through tunnel to visit a stope where the miners are working.
 Here the darkness is almost Egyptian and the path is as rough as that of the Hill of Difficulty which so wearied poor
The Birmingham age-herald., 1916-03-26

ways to reserve table in advance. And Long Beach promises to be more popu- lar this summer than ever before.
 Then, there are the Rockaways. still nearer. They are Rockaway and Far Rockaway, the latter boasting a bit more tone than the former. Neither is the gathering place of the creme de la creme, perhaps, but there is a good time to be had at either, plenty of good bathing, splendid surf and all kinds and descrip- tions of bathing suits--which may pos sess an appeal for d few people. The ride to Far Rockaway is itself a pleas ure, provided you do not hate crowds, for the trains are always crowded. But from their windows you see stretches of pretty country, and passing the water. here and there. see the summer houses built over the glistening waves. Those who dwell in them go to their front doors in boats and leave them after the same fashion, unless just out for a swim.
 Coming still closer in we have Brighton and dear old Coney. The fare is five cents, and if you are willing to let go, do as the Romans, you will probably have the time of your life. Brighton and Coney are right together. They are for the poorer classes, as a rule, and at times families are permitted to lie all night on the sands. when it is very hot back in the tenements from which they came.
 Along the Hudson there are recreation riers for the poorer people, and on these they can cool off in the afternoons and evenings, and creditable music makes dancing possible. Riverside Drive. with its miles of benches, is free to all, and sea ted on one of them you may pass for either man of wealth or a down-and- outer--that is up to you. they are daily and nightly occupied by all classes, for there is always breeze blowing from over Jersey way.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1916-03-26

she is clad in a garment of
 sticky, slushy snow. we again
 awaken to "a realization of the nearness
 of the general exodus from this and other
 cities. Soon those who can afford to will
 be rushing pell-mel to the watering
 places. From the smaller inland towns
 and cities they will go in search of more
 water and less heat, and from this me-
 tropolis they will go-who knows whither,
 and for God knows what, unless it be to avoid saying, II am not going anywhere this summer"
 You begin to suspect the drift already? We'll, guess no more-yes. New York city. it seems to me, offers as many and more charms and comforts as summer resort than any place generally recog- nized and referred to as such in this country. No, there is no laugh intended, and there is proof to offer in support of the statement.
 Why do so many people living elsewhere think of New York as sort of over- heated hell pit in summer? Because they hear of it only through those who leave it. and through the press which writes. for the most part, about those who are called the best people and about those who are called the worst, Between these. however, is vast middle class which l lives it's life in it's own way. seldom break | ing into the limelight of publicity. living for living's sake, and not for what it will appear to be, should others choose to take notice.
 All summer long, New York city houses these people in great numbers, but people l in other sections hear little or nothing about them They read of the unbear- able heat that drives the poor tenement l |dweller out upon his fire escape at night.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1916-03-26
Back Again


 A young married couple decided that, because of the mmensity of their love for one another they could be happy on a desert isle or within the walls of their bungalow. Accordingly they set them- selves gently to sever the bonds which had connected them with society. with their church, and with their relatives. f1 themselves they justified their withdrawal on tile grounds that society is superficial, that the church is rank with cant and hypocrisy, and that relatives are tires some
 For time they felt vindieated and happy But it wasn't long before they began to discover flaws and to suspect that their souls were not perfect affinis ties, After considera ble perplexity and disappointment they turned again to tha world for most of what they had expected from one another.
 Young married people should not be foolish even though they feel that way
The Birmingham age-herald., 1916-03-26

ter cooked than in most of the res taurants scattered throughout the states. The company serves 2000 such meals every day for the miners and an equal number, judge, to the hands in the mills.
 I was interested in the kitchens. They have steam cookers and bakers. They have boilers that will cook a barrel of soup at a time and ranges as wide d dining table and 12 feet in length. The vegetables are peeled by electricity. the coffee is ground by an electric current, and the same force washes the dishes and mixes, the bread taking a whole bar rel of flour for one big lump of dough.
 Connected with the eating establish ment is bakery that turns out cakes and pies by the hundreds and serves hot rolls every night and hot cakes Tor breakfast. The company charges its men $l day for board and room, and the receipts therefrom are spent in keeping up this part of the estab- lshment
 For the married men there are com fortable cottages lighted by electricity and heated by steam. The rent paid is $4 per month per room and each fam ily boards itself. The company has it's own stores, where the men can buy for cash or for coupons advanced on the basis of their monthly wages. There are also clubrooms, equipped with billiard arrangements and tables for cards, checkers and dominoes The men work day and night shifts of nine hours each. and for this reason the clubrooms are usually filled day and night by those who are off work There is also reading room, with the latest magazines and papers, and the men have their clubs of one kind or another.