Year: 1877

The Town of Clifton ana its Inha

 bItants-A Remarkable Work Ju

 aQuiet Way.

 There are two ways to get to Clifton | You can go vis Bowie to Silver City anC thence northwest to Clifton, or you cal

 gn to Camp Grant and thence via Pue

 bio Viejo and the Pinal road to it Junction with the Silver City road anC turn nothwest thence 10 Clifton. The

 latter Is the route for one to take going from Tucson, unless he has plenty O

 time and money and wishes to go 6

 very roundabout way to see the coun

 try or to get meal at Ralston, New

 Mexico. We left Silver City, under

 the kind conveyance of Messrs. Glea

 son and Polk, of the Thomson mine

 in Clifton district, and after crossing the Gila nine times on the route, WIG left the river and ascended the hills and wound in and out of the noun

 tains, upon and m the precipitou, bosoms of which rest the Clifton mines It is a terribly hard country to get into, and after you get into it the mountains become more and more precipitous until you can't find any standing room and if you wish to get anywhere you simply sit down and slide to the desired point. No one thinks of going to sleep without tying himself fast l. would be a magnificent country for prize fights; If fellow could only get in one good lick on his antagonist he would knock him where he could never get back in time to come to time.

 But there were great, sodden masses of almost pure copper in this decidedly uphill country, and the mercantile house of II. Lesiusky & Co. picked up the unpromislng hand dealt by nature 

 and have been playing pretty fine and quiet game for the past four years. IL has been a very close game and with the usual quiet attendant upon deep play, and the brave house have now got the game pretty much all their own way. Some of the results of the con- test are these: A good road now runs up from the GIla river and winds along the sides of steep hills, and finds a way through deep caGonS, and turns and twists until it finally slopes down to the FrescO river. This river is named OF the maps, the Francisco. One ac- customed to the slight rivers of Ari- zona is agreeably surprised at the vol umc of the Fresco, and they told Us 1t was lower than eyer before known. It's a real nIce, healthy river. After the road strikes it, you continue along the banks q mile or so when you come to the town of Clifton. This is con- posed of the humble houses of miners and wOrkmen, and the offices of the Longfellow Mining Company ln the center, and the smelling furnaces on the north end, all being on the west bank of the Fresco On the east side there is but one building, comfortable residence built by MT Henry Lesinsky. In Clifton live about 800 people. These are the company officers and their workmen, engaged at the furnaces or work connected herewith. The town is prettily situated, closely hemmed m by surrounding tall mountain cliffs The town IS simply an unpretending mining camp and is only noticeable from being the center of the Long fellow company's operations and the location of the smeltiug furnaces. These latter have been the chief obstacle in the way of the company's success and have been the cause of vast expenditure of money and wear and tear on brains. They couldn't get the furnaces to work. They obtained the best, most costly and fire proof material, but noth- ing would withstand tue terrible heat et smelling the peculiar ore of Clifton. Thousands of dollars were spent on scientists and their theoretical expert ments. but the molten metal would burn holes through the furnaces and fill the hearts of the workers with des- pair. Henry Lesinsky has naturally Grifted toward mining from childhood. He had assumed charge of the com, pany's operations in is darkest day and when accumulated debt from pre- vious experiments and great natural obstacles to be overcome made the case. look very bad. He is a solidly built quiet man, and he vert to work to' succeed and didn't intend to fail But these inevitable holes burning in the furnace walls began 10 worry him inst a little He was wondering toI himself one day what kind of material the gates of hell might possibly bel lined with, when he was told by one of the men that the furnace had burn ed through agan. Irritated at being in terrupted in his mediiations and nOtic- ing a piece of copper plate. about an inch thick, lying by, he ordered the hole to be covered temporarily on the inside by that copper plate. He had often observed that as the molten cop per ran out of the furnaces and came in contact with the air it would harden