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BIGGEST GOLD BRICK
Exhibit From Nome Alaska at
Lwis and Clark Fair
WEIGHS ABOUT 2UNETY POUNDS
It Is a oot liontf Four Indies Deep
and Five Wide NnsnceiH That At
truct Attention of Other
Minerals Which Tell of Noinea Un
told Wculth
The biggest gold brick ever cast
nearly as large as two building bricks
placed end to end which contains 25
000 worth of gold that is purer than
the gold in a twenty dollar coin re
cently arrived at the Lewis and Clark
exposition in Portland Ore and Is be
ing exhibited by the Nome district of
Alaska as evidence that Nome is still a
great gold producing region says W
E Brindley The gold brick is a foot
long four Inches deep and five Inches
wide and It weighs approximately
ninety pounds
The city of Nome on the Seward
peninsula In the extreme north of
Alaska beyond the string of Islands
that stand out like the bill of a snipe
contains a population of from 2500 to
3000 people in the winter time and ten
times as many people In the summer
The town has an enterprising chamber
of commerce which in fifteen days got
together the most wonderful mineral
exhibit ever displayed by one region
While the gold brick which Nome Is
showing has attracted more attention
than any other single article In the
United States government building at
the fair three nuggets worth In the
aggregate S000 stand second in pop
ularity These are exhibited In a small
wire cage and a man who wears in his
belt a revolver of the size common to
melodrama and wild west shows
stands guard over them The biggest
nugget of the three which weighs 182
ounces Is worth 3270 There is a hole
In one side of the cage big enough for
one to put his hand through It but not
large enough to enable him to take out
the nugget Over the chunk of gold
there is a legend which reads You
can lift the nugget but dont take it
away and all day long people crowd
one another for a chance to hold 3276
worth of gold for just a fraction of a
minute
The nuggets and the gold bricks con
stitute Nomes most Interesting gold
display They are owned by the Pio
neer Mining company and were found
in Anvil creek near Nome Near the
nugget cage is a table on which under
glass are small boxes of pay dirt This
display Is not so spectacular as that
In the nugget cage which by the way
Includes a host of smaller nuggets in
nddition to the three big ones but It
Is remarkably interesting The pay
dirt shows no gold and looks like ordi
nary gravelly soil One box of it Is
labeled Pay dirt from Anvil creek
Average value 120 per bucket One
at once begins to figure how many
buckets an ordinary man could fill in
a day and the figures are startling
Another box contains broken rock and
is labeled Portion of bedrock from
Portland bench claim 421000 result
of work of seven men for sixty days
But gold is not the only mineral resource-
of the country round about
Nome Some 150 miles from Nome at
a place called Cape York on Buck
creek there is a mountain of tin where
25500000 worth of the metal is in
sight The tin is found in a substance
called cassiterite crystals which con
tains 72 per cent of metallic tin and
from 40 cents to a dollars worth of
gold to the ton There Is a whole moun
tain top ten miles long by two miles
wide of this cassiterite which is worth
441 a ton at the present price of tin
80 cents a pound Last winter 500
tons of the ore were taken out and the
magnitude of the Industry is hardly
to be conceived Then again at Ears
mountain on Shismaroff inlet 180
miles northwest of Nome there Is a
ledge of cassiterite The ledge is ex
posed to a width of 15 feet and runs
1000 feet up the mountain reaching
an elevation of 400 feet From this it
is presumed that the ore vein is 400
feet deep
And then there Is quicksilver anoth
er new proposition and a very profita
ble one from all appearances Quick
silver ore is found on the Kuskokwin
river distant 800 miles southeast of
Nome Some of it runs 400 worth to
the ton but 100 Is probably the aver
age The ore is found on the surface
It Is burned in an Immense caldron
so that the quicksilver vapors rise and
are afterward precipitated or con
densed into liquid quicksilver by be
ing immersed in cold water At tho
exposition the richness of the ore Is
demonstrated by a piece from which
the quicksilver has been smelted The
rock Is honeycombed like a pumice
stone
It costs 20 cents a pound on the aver
age to transport coal from the mines in
British Columbia to Nome hence the
Importance of the discovery of a coal
mine which produces a fairly good
grade In the far north The coal mine
fs located on Chicago creek which
flows Into the Kugruk river which In
turn flows Into Kotzebue sound At
the surface three tons of coal were
found to be equal in heat producing
power to one ton of Wellington coal
Now a shaft has been sunk 300 feet
and two tons of the coal at that depth
are worth one of Wellington By
means of this coal which Is essential
to i winter mining In the far north
250000 worth of gold was taken out
last winter The discovery of the coal
thus opens up Immense possibilities in
winter mining It assures a regular
year round population for Nome
Such are a few of the things exhibit
edby the enterprising city of Nome
THE DOG DAYS
In the Conrftc of Time Sirlnw May
Rlne In Midwinter
Dog days begin according to the tra
ditions of boyhood in certain parts of
the United States when the green
scum algae begins to appear on the
surface of the lakes and rivers Then
It is supposed to be unsafe to go in
swimming And it is then that ac
cording to the tradition of many adults
as well as of boys dogs most frequent
ly go mad All nations and races of
civilization apparently have had a pe
riod during the summer known as dog
days when many maladies were sup
posed to be common But the madness
of dogs hydrophobia was never associ
ated with dog days by the ancients
Dog days are a rather indefinite pe
riod according to this green scum rule
but there is a disagreement of authori
ties as to when dog days really do be
gin and end According to the diction
ary dog days are part of the year
about the time of the heliacal rising of
the dog star Sirius that Is when the
dog star rises in conjunction with the
sun or as nearly In conjunction as may
be observed Various dates from July
3 to Aug 15 have been assigned for
the beginning of dog days and they
are given various durations of from
thirty to fifty days
It seems to have been from the helia
cal rising of Sirius that the ancients
most commonly reckoned the dog days
Thus at the present time dog days
would begin July 3 and will end Aug
11 Sirius is the brightest star in the
heavens and it was easy to associate
the mutual heat of the brightest star
and of the sun with the hottest and
most unkindly period of the year Hip
pocrates 450 B C declared the dog
days to be the most unhealthy part of
the summer
Dog days are continually dropping
farther back in the calendar Now
they are twelve days behind the sched
ule to which they held in the period of
the pharaohs In time Sirius may rise
in the dead of winter The Egyptians
maintained that the first indication of
the rise of the Nile took place on the
morning of the longest day when as
they said the sun and Sothis Sirius
rose together They attributed the rise
of the river entirely to the great heat
generated by this star in conjunction
with the sun
Sirius is situated in the mouth of the
constellation Cauls Major the great
dog The Latin name of dog days
was dies canicularis and from this
comes the term canicular year
which was known among the Egyp
tians and Ethiopians It was computed
from one heliacal rising of Sirius to
the next and consisted ordinarily of
3G5 days every fourth year having 3G6
days Chicago News
Giants of History
Turner the naturalist declares that
he once saw upon the coast of Brazil
a race of gigantic savages whose av
erage height was over ten feet some
individuals exceeding twelve and a half
feet M Thevet of France In his de
scription of America which was pub
lished in Paris in 1575 says that he
was once present when the skeleton of
a South American savage eleven feet
and two inches in height was disin
terred The Chinese have a record of
several giants between twelve and six
teen feet in height which have lived in
the Flowery Kingdom within the last
300 years Josephus mentions a Jew
who was ten feet two inches and
Pliny was well acquainted with Ga
bath the Arabian giant who was nine
feet nine Inches In height Coming
down to modern times we find that
John Middleton who lived In the time
of James I was nine feet three Inches
and had a hand seventeen inches long
by eight and a half broad Murphy
one of the celebrated trio of Irish
giants Charles Byrne and OBrien be
ing the other two was eight feet ten
inches and OBrien two inches taller
Old Thunder Notions
The Prognostication Everlasting of
one Leonard Digges published in
1556 tells us that thunder in the morn
ing denotes wind at noon rain and in
the evening a great tempest He goes
further still and declares that Sun
days thunder should bring the death
of learned men judges and others
Mondays the death of women Tues
days plenty of grain Wednesdays
bloodshed Thursdays plenty of sheep
and corn Fridays the slaughter of a
great man and other horrible murders
Saturdays a great pestilent plague
and great dearth
The BInzer
The name blazer was originally
applied to the bright red uniform of
the Lady Margaret Boat club of St
Johns college Cambridge The bril
liant scarlet which was the invariable
characteristic of the Johnian blazer
doubtless suggested the name and as
an expressive slang epithet it proved a
hit In course of time the application
of the term widened and is now ex
tended to any bright or pale colored
flannel jacket striped or plain wheth
er for cricket football tennis boating
or seaside wear London Standard
Distrusted Him
I dont believe Windys tips on the
races are any good
Why not
Well he said they were a sure
thing and then he wasnt willing to
lend me the money to bet with De
troit Free Press
The Main Point
Victim What has happened Where
am I Doctor You have been serious
ly Injured In a trolley accident But
cheer up you will recover Victim
How much Cleveland Leader
The man who tries to hide hi3 reli
gion will soon have none that any one
could find
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Wkirag
Has completed arrangements with several large eastern
buggy concerns to make a great display of buggies in
McCook during the carnival week August 28thSeptember
2nd And with each buggy or spring wagon sold for cash
during that week a round trip ticket to Denver will be given
free These tickets will be good to go from August 30 to
September 4th return good to September 12th This is the
opportunity of your life you cant afford to miss it
mm m i m
Fair and Carnival
August 28 - September 2
sblisilsi ells sbSas M H alil
Worlds
HHH
Greatest
BALANCER
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With C W PARKER AMUSEMENT GO
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