The Mount Holly news. [volume] (Mount Holly, Burlington Co., N.J.) 1891-1942, 1918-01-29


The people who would have saved them |
from disaster now let them alone, and |
waited for the catastrophe. 1t was |
bound to come with the first clean up. |
The mill was bought and laboriously |
hauled to the mine and set up. It had |
'ost a thousand dollars for every stamp |
fore II was ready for work. Provi- |
sions for a year We're taken up to the |
mine and force of men engaged. They |
knew the uselessness of the work, but |
they were paid to work and not to
give advice.
The twenty stamps were pollShed Till
they shone. The big hopper was ready
filed with ore. The blankets had been
laid along the incline and the trough
made ready. The little stream of wa
ter that was to mix with the pulverized
rock was waiting to begin its work.
The turbines below were filed with
water, and the quicksilver there. All
was waiting for the signal, but the
Ingrams had spent their last dollar.
Then, the great machine began to
/ move, the stamps to rise and fall with
rhythmic regularity the broken rock
TO fill the trough and the water to
flow. The Keystone mill was in full
operation.
Winter had been abnormally open
and so far not a flake of snow had
fallen in the mountains. Only few
light rains, and so it was that after
nine weeks of blind labor the first real
knowledge of the value of the mine
would be known. The young people
up at the mine were happy, and felt
that their prospects were bright. The
| joy of achievement was greater than
anything else. They would know to-
morrow. The New Year should see the
| elimination of their toll and sacrifice,
! and Its recompense.
But in her ignorance Mary had not
foreseen how much she was to need
her mother" until New Years eve.
Finally one of the men at the saloon
| remarked: 1.-THE whole business won't
pan out an ounce. They were In a
devil of a fix before, and now-well
I'm sorry for them"
| GO dlli Sdtlu lDOC EollllSUIg anu
Pm sorry just thirty ounces"
One of the other men remarked to
the ceiling that he was sorry fifty
ounces. Finally all present "chipped
i'm and there was gathering of near
ly two hundred ounces of gold, some of
it in bottoms, from the retorts, some
river dust, and some the dull grains
from placers.
Almost without a sound the crowd
started for the Keystone with the gold
they had contributed. The Waterman
was so glad that he was not to be
lynched for not having told the fool
ish children the truth that he was per
fectly willing to enter the plot, which
was to place all this gold into the
turbine tub and allow Ingram to be
lieve it gold from his mine. The mair
point now was to keep the fatal trutf
from them. Later-well they would
see. So, they all sat down to wal
for daylight and possibly news from
the shack. They put stone in thu
gear of the turbine so that the motor
would not wash out the fine particles
of dust, as they could not gather will
the quicksilver and form amalgam oil
account of the multiplying effects Of tn
arsenic,
After long and cold wait there wa
a lusty wall, a sound never to be for
gotten, and they listened breathlessl,
for news from the doctor,
Its the finest boy in Kern county,
said the doctor, just as the tardy SUI
came over the mountain. One maj
: wanted to celebrate the day by lynch
ing the man that sold the mill to tn,
innacents, but just then the doc
opened again and Ed came boundlp,
to them saying:
"Say, boys, I've got son. VIII yo'
come in and see him? Mary Is will
ing but she mustn't talk. And, Tn
dad you've come. Oh, yes, Happy New
:. Year."
"Yes-Happy New Year for us all
and the hoy in participant" the mel
shouted as they followed Ed to tn
shack Ed continued:
"Youli ali stay to breakfast, for W,
are going to have the first cleanup
right away"
"Just so-Jast so," said Jim, ant
then with hushed steps they went int
he little shack as though they wer
treading on holy ground. The beaut,
md grace of motherhood had fallen Oh
} Mary and her smile was ineffable. Evel
the mine was forgotten in her swee
10y.