Evening star., 1936-12-11
RY ROBINSON MacLEAN.


toDns.
= BY ROBINSON MacLEAN.
KIRKLAND LAKE, Ontario, De-
eember 1l.-If I were hngerman for
an American gang I would write .
letter to my boss.
Dear boss" I would say, "since
there Is q certain difficulty involving
electricity in kidnapping these days,
and since liquor Is now being disposed
of publicly, would suggest that an
enterprising individual could make
himself some marbles in Kirkland
Lake of Timmins which Is in On
Sario."
/. Then I would point out that the
local individuals each year divide
nearly a million marbles which they
have borrowed from the gold mines In
these areas.
NV boss wouldn't know anything
about mining, SO would tell him
about gold mining as follows:
Dear boss: Up in these parts they
Nill dig over a $100, 100000 out OF the
ground this year. These dollars Will
be in the form Of gold. This gold Is
scattered through the rocks which
are in the ground almost everywhere.
Most of this gold is very little pieces
such as you cannot even see, ana
MANY of the individuals who dig for
this gold do not even see it. They only
dig out the rocks from which scien-
fists divide up which Is gold and
which is not gold. Since We are not
scientists we will forget that sort OF
gold for minute.
Some Of Gold Visible.
"But some of this gold you can see.
sone of 1t stands out like dandruh
on your best black suit. 1t is that kind
of gold which certain Of the local in
diyiduals use for their little racket
which they call 'highgrading' and
which Is indeed q very high grade
racket.
"The difficulty in getting this gold
Is that the individuals that run these
mines want the gold themselves. For
that reason they will not allow you to
20 down in their mines with q suit
case in which you could put some
samples.
But many of the individuals in
these parts are miners, and they are
more or less familiar around these
mines. Several Of these persons In
form me that they go down in these
mines every day and that certain Of
the less upright persons in the mine
IN IN
grade gold rock and lay pieces of 1t
aside for themselves, after they are
certain that no other individuals are
looking.
"They tell me that there is GER
tain difficulty in bringing this gold
home in their pants pockets because
the men who own the gold mines make
them change clothes before they 60
home, and they even make the min
ers leave their lunch pals in an ONCE
where they can be searched before
they are carried home.
Lower Pail Into Mine.
But 1t seems that some of these
miners have been sufficiently das-
tardly to hide many chunks of 1t
Ing that there are several entrances
into the mine.
"Then, when 1t is dark, they will
skinny over the fence and lower q
pail down one of these entrances and
another person in the mine puts the
gold into the pail which they will
haul up some hundreds of feet.
This is very strenuous work, but
1t is very interesting since hun
dred pounds of this gold Is worth
$4,000 marbles.
There are other persons who work
in the places where the scientists use
chemistry to pick out the little pieces
of gold. And to use this chemistry
they mix the gold with mercury or
lead. Some of these persons have
been known to die of lead and mercury
poisoning, which is considered strange,
because in the places they work they
have protection against these sub
stances. Some people are even un-
kind enough to suggest that the rea-
son they got the poisoning was be-
cause they carried some Of the gold
mixed with mercury home under their
fingernails every night and cooked out
the mercury on their kitchen stove"
Pleased to Give Us Gold.
BY this time I think would have
given my boss enough general explana-
tion Of gold mining, and would get
down to business.
Since we are persons who would
mot care to work down in these mines
ourselves" I would say, "I consider
st would be wisest for us to let the
miner individuals bring up the gold
for us. Then we could take our Ros-
Goes and call on some of these indi-
;viduals, whom we would spend our
;daytines finding out about.
"If we should take our Roscoes and
call on these persons and find their
gold, consider they would be pleased
to give their gold to us. I do not think
they would tell the police that we had
taken their gold, because the police
might wonder where they had got the
gold.
I'm fact, there Is so little protest
made by such persons that I UNDER
stand there have been cases in which
real policemen, called in to arrest
them for having this gold, took their
gold from them and forgot to say any