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About Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922 | View Entire Issue (Nov. 18, 1906)
7.". ' 1 f 'A ! f . UpSi DESOLATE 5POT ON EARTH TAKING C?4 hj kalcyop aspect pf feisco in OTABLE In the affairs of the nTM to-day Is the enormous In crease in the output of sold. In comparatively brief period the product has almost doubled, and In the fierce quest for the yellow metal lies thia story of the re-derrrp-Jon by American and Brit!. enter prise of Uie most desolate, dreary and hopeless edgt of the earth rand's end of this rolling ball, the Jumping off rlaee, slnster an the pit Itself. If Terr del Fargo Is ever made healthful, or even habitable, th.it triumph will forever shine as a hope n.t i Inst the worst here or hereafter. Hat": Frrjluand Slag. Han. when h!a ad vcniurous squadron grilled with lifting keels ou the shoals of his stormy strait, fvt-r dreamed that his ships had crunched Into sands ol gold the (Treat circumnavl ga,t r would In all likelihood have gone no further. But he knew nothing ,' the treasure that was under foot and it re-' maincd undiscovered and unsusper'ed uMl I' found by wretched, wandering convicts in: the enrly eighties of the last century. The. d scovery made a hurrah In Buenos Ayres. A fierce flus'i of gold fever ei?.el I the KuTopeao and Yankee colonies of Ar-' gentina, and a concourse of Ignorant, des-j perate men, mostly criminals, set sail in, Antarctica's argosy, and headed for the curbed little convict cam? set midway In i the Siriln of Migellan by the Argentine; govei nn-ent. ILv,n? for the venture little! knowledge, les sense, a confuson of' tongues and a shirttail eq-ulprment, lliey, yet f.iund much fine gold gold which t. e wild Atlantic had garnered, betched and treasure! In the wto-miest place In a.l of the Hcven sea. For weather, glacier, stream an'l ocean are the eternai primal elemental gold, ruby, diamond anJ plail nuin n.lneri of the world. i News or the first success limited abroad brought many, some -ay thousands, m ly Atistrlans. Tnese wandered in rain, sleet and snow In sjekerless despair. Combing the beaches w'th bloody lingers by day; fighting, murd.rmg and dying by night, and ail the time drinking a devil's dist. na tion of dbsi.iilie and Mahla rum. The a Iv. mures of these adventurers make rich t lie story of the southern sci akin lo tunae of the lands where the red god.t oil. And there. In whispered awe. the name of Julius I'opper is yet spoken With bated breath. I'opper was an Anglo-Auslrian, a flying THE KArJ3 m ?r 11 ' . ' .. ' ' i ,. ii iii ii - MxtrOAli-'W wt -ini --'.. . .. . . mini n.jim I ACTIONAL HOWE IDR "UE OF TOKCKAK" i. -.. it".; r. mm t '.. . v ; -; " rcvicvvv J Phojo B O SARONG Eiutchman, wraith atllt tho fog und slbillty. Then a ftrlollng 5id a master- piece of spu.r-o:-'hu-:na.-nent thinking and 1 made himself a marvel In the navy to this day. He didn't breathe a word of his dis coveries, but determined then and there to come back to the strange island and seek for gold on his own account Xtn hit homeward trip the Alliance lay !n Buenos Ayres long enough to convince young Sutphen that the Argentines did not I urthermort, storms around the Horn. With short sluices, secrecy and mercury he made a stun. He got together a setni-miiltary r.ff raff. then appropriated by fraudulent leases and flotltioiw denouncements th- best gold, know much about asphalt ucaciit's arounn nun saoastian uay. stran gers ur Indians so luckless as to stiay near his diggings were turned back or turned over, by grace of Winchester. .U calibre. But Popper showed a patriotic care of his own Austrian countrymen, tent pegging these down to the beacn, In thun der and lightning, under a heavy fiat can vas cover, and for days at a time. Wheni liberated they vamoosed and never both ered I'opper again. Popper 1 sued Coin. Full of resource, Popper sought to turn every wheel. He actually issued gold coin, when all South America was on some false or fictitious money bottom one and five dollar pieces, stamped with ct'u.-sed pick and shovel, and wlio.se superscription was "Popjier." These are now numismatic gems But I'opper loved tropical Paris too well, and In an evil day got an overdose! of knockout drops In liuenos Ayres, and the world knew li.m no more. After Popper things languished. Organ ized labor i-eised. t'haos and the elements resumed their reign. The country had never comprehended its wealth and re sources. It merely had assumed there was gold all over the surface rf the country, but too thin to pay. Kveryihlng lay hid den, awaiting the man. and the m.tn event ually appeared in tlie person of Lieutenant Kdaon W. Sutphen. a young Kn cker bocker graduate from Annapolis In lS. In lv7. In the I'nited States gunboat Alliance. Tie cruised through the Innumerable Isl unds. islets and fiords of America's Ant arctic archipelago. iuiyin land and sea. Amusing was the sweep of this fledgling from far North, t'harl-s lvarwln, reading the so il of nature lik a scroll, lingered for weeks In Terra del Fuego and saw only desolation and darkness. Britain had sur veyed, sounded and scanned the Island for tin's and any nautical ,ir commercial pos- v--c 4 'tss ..,-3i'.- III? mi : a. t pry V;-'- T, amm. Jkir:f- IN ' W ; y ;'??"- -; ' '7;j..'''tK.vx;l . . . LlXhAt. Jr gems, which with California give now a sunset vision of three golden grjees. crowning tha continent w.th argent cor-thy onet. Furthermore, the Argentine, across the strait, has been found to be surprisingly auriferous, and as a proof of the excite ment going on down there no less than twenty local Chilian companies have been organized and financed to do serious busi ness. In consequence the Chilian govern ment, as far back as September, ifiiu, had 1 present proportions. About thirty-four years ago dredging was first started on the Molyneux River, New Zealand, ths swiftest of rivers. The first operation was conducted by a spoon, curiously wrought from bullock hide, and a steel cutting lip fastened on the end of a pole. This pole was pulled In by a hand windlass, placed on a floating barge made of planks and barrels. Hesults were so surprising that steam was Introduced on a dredge, con structed with a belt of buckets. This proved to be the forerunner of tha big steam dredges which are In operation to day. The Fuegan rivers ore too small to float the huge barge on which the dredge sets. Flotation i provided by damming the river behind the bnrgo. As the dredge eats Its way forward a waterway follows. The dam is made of cast hack, used up for gravel. An almost unlimited supply of water Is necrs.-ary for such work. Through lack of It some of the earth's best gold bearings must remain unhar vosted. This Is sadly true of a large part of Alaska, where the dredgeable yeir Is but three months long, the water being locked at other times In Icy fetters. Also it is Impossible to get coal and machinery dog convoys Into Interior Alaska, where some of the best pincers abound. Whether glacatlon cut out and deposited more gold north or south is a question, but certainly under the prows of the glaciers at the top and bottom of the world lie hidden great deposits. One differ ence In the situation north and soutli is that Alaska has been explored to limits by gold exiHTts of two governments, and by been asked by Chilian companies alone for g0d geekers from everywhere, while the 120.000 claims covering over 60),tfK) lie. tares. Orders for the most powerful and best dredges have been placed. The names and the capital of the later companies are as follows: southern gold and its pnssib lltieg are et so new as to bo untouched by eminent ex pert Ism. 7he Contrast of Afjsks. In Alaska a small army of American miners the best, bravest, most alert and Catiltnl. . t.Ci.mio 1 l . ...u.l ' i:;.Yi-ni ambitious the world ever knew searched . )."i.iwi and sifted, combed and harrowed for four ' !iii !""'! teen years, and only found nominal re- i t ii i. no i suits. In the face of starvation and ireez- I Ing. of seemingly, insuperable difficulties, I they fought on with increasing courage. until Mct'urniiie In IS'.M struck the 2,0o0 ton Klondike bonanza. History has no par ' ullel for the campaign and conquest of Alaska. In contrast how ii'signiflcunt and Vpon a giant dipping steel crane, ""known has been the Inquest of Fuego! :an be raised or lowered, this pro- 'r years I'opper, like the dog In the man- Ootid eaitg tream- jI5XKAv?i tfTKET5--rJ .el or he discovered that the government con templated letting a concession for asphalt, for gold In and around Terra del Fuego. Ing the city. The young lieutenant saw Ini -piie wonders of the new go'.d dredging this an opportunity and. having served his. plants in New Zealand had come In tre oountry for more than twelve years on ; quo,.,.t reports, and wltli the reports a reaJ amall pay and slow promotion, decided to i jaiton that these same methods might take up the virtue of resignation. After avail In this bleak south land. Following his resignation had been accepted by the many preliminary borings, denounce Navy Department he secured the contract. nients and claims, the best gold bearing asphalted the city and, having thus gained lands were silently secured. Everything u start in tho financial world, turned his 0t promise -was tiLken In -without opposi tion or suspicion on pioneer government; out the world. Word came from prospect mining grants Sutphen suffered littleiors that.all was velvet gold plentiful and cso:rietttio.n and no rivalry. I more accessible, with wood, coal and rhere Is but one dredge as yet In Terral water handier than elsewhere in the mln 1 Fuego. but another, a I'juu.omi struc-'lne world, the Transvaal and Alaska not I JXtt viJLtM-u f ever made, is on the way, under charge and such tidings every ship brought throngs or I construction o! Sutphen's right hand man, mining experts, engineers and capitalists. ICapt.ln Albert Burnstine, formerly of the and Sandy Point resembles now the attention to his cherished scheme of mining navy. This dredge has a minimum digging halcyon dais of 'Frisco in "49, its town capacity or 200 cuioic yards of gravel per runia Arenas oeing a Dooming piace own hour to a depth at forty feet. The old lnS water and electric outrlts and in tele dredge, running steadily night and day In graphic touch with the outer world. It is eight hour shifts, sluices through 200 cubic now the rtcoirnized centre of the South yards of gravel per hour to a dopih of American gold dredging area, and the twenty-five fee:. Both machines are steel magnet which has drawn to itself the throughout. many prospectors, speculators, dredging Sutphen ran his dredge full blast all the' engineers and the innumerable other who while, and the news went travelling broad-i ever follow In the wake of conquest. cast to the gold mining fraternity throusb- Alaska aad Fuego! America's polar rtlo del Oro Itln Verde lialleg.. Chico uruusw li-k Iennox Ilrn fie M;i":i'li:n-. Lava.Jeroi d; Oro Je Terrs d-1 I- iiejodreldi Dredge mining is essentially a mechan ical return to glacier and stream mining, to nature's first principles in gold mining. Instead of the glacier grinding out and the glacial stream sluicing down the gold continuous chain of steel buckets docs the work. I'l cession of large steel buckets, turned bylK'T. detled and held away experience and an umlless steel chain, eats into beach orj capital. river bed and carves out the gold bearing; All the gold so far secured In Fuego, by sand or gravel. Mounted on a movable! much wear and erosion, shows It has trav platform or boat, tills powerful dlggins elled far from the veins where It first tool gouges down to bedrock, where most! cooled and set. When gold goes travelling of the gold collects. j It is with the rush of water or Ice. and As the chain turns the buckets bring up' when gold has been travelling for ages in and dump tne;r contents into a large, long: uch a sloping country as Terra del t uego sluice or trough In the sluice the large, some of It lingers on the route in nooks bowlders are screened off as valueless. Theland crevices In river bottoms, but most, fine gravel Is washed on down the sluice,; from the hurry of Ice and water, will be In the bottom of which tho large nuggetsj swept along until It comer to rest In settle into; wooden pockets. The fine gold permanent pocket, or until, met by the dust is caught in large auger holes bored: dash of the surf of the sea- at the mouth In the bottom of the sluice and filled witnlof the river. liquid quicksilver. This dust is directed Spmo of the Alaskan miners now making Into these quicksilver pockets by llttlel New York headquarters until Alaska opens troughs or riflles, placed in the sluice's! In the spring say surfa-e beach gold which bottom. All the stuff In the sluice is pans out Ili.M per day, which ii the un washed onward and kept agitated and! broken record of Fuego s nee l.O. means moving by water from the buckets and a powerful centripetal pump. Alluvial dredging for the recovery of something big below. They say, moreover. that nowhere on the Alaskan coast, not even at Nome, would such surface sand gold has taken many years to develop to pan out similar sums. vy li 4 mr r IN NW JR5T. by flarie J. S&each-Cfarkt. said. 'Where is my metre that you have! "Every one thought my clothes the latest worn to a frazzle? I had Ideas and suited1 fall, style, but this was due to mistaken metre to them. You've taken my metre identity, on account of my resemblance to and simply used words and sold It. I have a prominent clothier residing !ji the vlcin had little itlory and no cash, and you mustjtty. A woman eat In a tent Telling for tell me all you know and give me a motor, tunes. I had both palms read. 'Wonderful, car. too.' She gasped. -Reporters of to-day I You have a pat and a future, but no pres are silent and retiring beside you. you rellcn'.' ahe said, 'something that I have never of antiquity!' Of course, this title was a:een before. You inherit your characterls degree unknown to me. but I thanked heroes from your descendants. You are the and said more about the auto. She finallyeventy-sever.th son of a seventy-seventh said. -I guess I do owe you something,' and on, your mother was a remarkable woman gave me a check on the Kahwav Bank tor' and won the Koosevelt Cup Inscrllied Ie .6u0. and said I could get an auto for that, lighted! The American people are proud of By the way.' she remarked, -you could' woman who seen her duty and done It. have got one for your tobacco tags If you'The three handles of the cup represented had saved them, for those Narghils con-IP111014- perseverance and plutocracy. urn i m,,..v, u n.i .!.! -Tha desisn was a stork rampant wltn used one. I know.' ' ia border o.' ii.fanui bottles Inverted. Your SE ATKD on my piazza, facing the Rail way rod, one mild Thursday tn Sep tember. I was amazed to see a man clad In ancient Per.ian fashion entering Hie yrd and ddres!ng me In modern Knghsh. "Madam." he ald slowly. In a nius cal voice, "can you d.rect me to Kh wiy?" AasweiiiU In the affirmative, I pointed in the right direction down the dusty road. Before leaving he offered me his card, bearing the name Omar Khayyam, and told me that he was mak ing a pilgrimage to the home of Carolyn ford, remarking that ha needed gasolene. Omar took off his motor togs, saying that Miss Wells had kept his turban for a sou venir. "Well!" he said. "loot's lunch, I got that ditch of fortune Is so deep that it is unsafe for you to try automot.illng. You will meet with an accident and be mistaken for an other. Your trulley line leads due west, and your clothes line ind.caus that you Wells, who s.emed to be continually droo ping into Kubaiyau. He expressed ur- expression from Carolyn, who Invited me prise that sne had not looked him up on;to tea wlIh the words 'Let's tea.' Wheniance, but astral control. 1 stood Rubaiy her recent foreign tour. Asking him to we had had one cup of tea she said, ats by Wallace Irwin In bo.ik form, Fltz stop on hi return and tell me of his inter- 'What's one tea to us?' and gave me an- 'it-raid's commentaries on my work. w;th view with Miss Wells. I heard hlra mur- "ther cupful. She's a queer woman. Yougreat pain and grief, but when the Ttu- know in Persia the only women that we balyat of a Motor Car.' by Carolvn Wells used to notice were our mothers and wives appeared, without brake or mud guards, and the young and beautiful. Now Caro-jthe Chief of Shades, with his gold badge, lyn Is not a mother or a wife, and I'm aP-pe-'red and said. Discharged! Where ill very sure shat she does not conform to you ticket to?" 'Jersey for mine." I said. Persian standard of beauty. Wnen I I'l want to see Carolyn. She's taken my ant her motor car.' That Is how I came by the auto, mur as he withdrew: "Oh! 1 bn rl e when stnpplnf by the way A Kaliway bard-aa tliuoit.hiS wr poor lay. And ur lo tir ltb hit old Peralao locsae, 'Go slowly, geotiy. sitter, feuily. pray.' ' The next day my astronomer-poet friend ...-.. . r.V 'T. " wrote the Uubaiyat It was the expression , Rubalyat. and I !1 . . , , ' """.of my innermost thoughts; my soul wa that I could only recogr.l,. his gait, a cross ananit, ani, , llfted up5 , Vo.yce J between a glide and a -hurtle Hi. chauf- Carolyn say. she lifted a mortgage w:th feur disappeared in the direction of Crao- Uer verse and that she wrote because she "Carolyn would not talk to me for a long time, because nhe was afraid that 1 would "I a-sked here where I could put up for the night. She said at the Se.waren Hotel. After purcha-slng luy auto and proper ap parel from a chauffeur who did not object nu.l , U nn, X ... v HAAHa tn KmIII-7 hid TT'.rl rtl'OP' a nvn.hlna Warn: vr ' wjz t .::;:,7"";iwui be connected win, the unom, busi taa i. . v.Q.,- ' ... ,f,.th ririent T r-xe,.A 'hr,.n,.h a i,au-neoS. Your itiouat of Sian Is won devel leaving Rahway I visited Boynton Beach. ' called Woodbrldse. of which more anon, and w hen I saw the popcorn hulls and ' Leaving my auto at the hotel, I asked the tasted Ice cream soda I regretted that I landlord where to spend the evening, and had not been able to sell my poems." ne 1011 me about Boynton Beach, where "But how d:d you get here ." I asked. 1 he sa'l -heY always had high Jinks Thurs "You died long ago." Ina' evenings. I stopped to rent a boat "That's true." he confessed, "but In the ' a man whose name was Oleaeker, and place of departed shades, w here I have 1 f imd aim a new species. He acted and summered and w intered and also sprung looked like a modern Dane, but we did not and fallen for some time, one Is onlv fraternize, for he wanted payment In ad obl ged to stay until something on earth vance. and I could not trust h'.m with my said about them passes not human endur-, money, for I thought the boat m;ght sink. Crab Beaoh, where I really learned what had drinks were and that they seemed to make the consumers soft, I ran Into a wagon with W. L. Ilarned on the side I mean .the name "W. K Harned' on the side, for the owner ef the name and wagon is a Just man and a dealer In near food. "The Sheriff put am attachment on the automobile 4n behalf of Harned t: at Is. he said he did, for I could not see it, i.l put on apeed to see how strong It was. 1. do not know yet, for I turned around and savr nothing, not even the Sheriff, and here I am." "You poor old thing." I said. "What a time you have had! I fear even this resl at my cottage has not refreshed you. but your auto Is at the door, and I am due in New York this evening to lecture on your visit. Small personal matters like the af finity between us must be forgotten. Be tween the place of departed shades and New Jersey there Is a great gulf fixed, wider than Newark Bay. You died years ago and I shall never see you again. Jut oped on the har.d you were born with, .ndjf" 'hat am not boJn " 'ou l shows that you will have a devil of time In the near future. You will be pur sued by a dark man, and a delivery wagon will cross your path. Your tastes are do mestic You have a keen sense of Justice and do not forget an Injury, even a future one.' "This morning I have been buy. Left the hotel after tittln, and, longim; to get back to you, I threw my lever on the third spead. Just outside Woodoridge, near easily forget me." Sneaking iii.v,n toe walk In his sandals I heard him say: Here with a leaf i.f hread toneiirh the l ni.h, A Jutr of win.', a Ikmik of rerae. unl tu. u lW,',ie on- ri'V'h- 111 w Je'-. J-rae it-elf rrt I'm a lire mow! The prisent vanished and the past gi w clear, then faded and disappeared. u-.U with It onar K hayyatn and the ouiior . .ir, leaving only Carolyn Well nd Lie .m mortal Rubalyat. f" e .1 tteal her Ideas. This was too much. I MWmA 10 m