Rand Gold Mines
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(Copyright, J90S, by Frank O. Carpenter).
iOMAWiWUHW-hpkiii Lor-
r!ponaonce or iti ti.j lane
out your watch, hold it to your
ear and llKien to the tlcka. Far
every one of them M wor:h of
;il!ow sold la now coming out
.at mlnea under my feet. That
... .i.i; mcasuro of the stream and it guei
on te.ond after aecond, minute after mln
u.o, hour afler hour, day and ntght, ar
lh year through. Tha steady output ol
li.u gald mines of the Hand la now (4
1'tr s.cor.d, Kto rer minute, more than
fHtfi) per hour and over $MO,0Cp per. day.
In VM the product was more than $130,
Kv.OCO, or more than 111,030,000 worth of
V.m yellow metal every month.
Ti-nnsvanl'a Golden Flood.
In t.U li.'s'.ory there lias been no such
WJliIon f.ooJ a that which Is now pour
)!'. forth from the Transvaal. The mines
of U.CU, of Cro uo and of Bolomon were
as noth.ng- bcsMe It. The treasures of
Mtxlco flnJ Peru in the times of Cortes
an P.sarro dwindle in comparison, and
Australia, Alaska and California have had
Kothinff like unto this. The mines of the
Hand are now producing more than one
fourth of all the new gold in the world.
They were discovered only a little more
than twenty years ago and they have al
ready turned out more than S1,0U0,UX,000
worth of bullion. This is equal to ono
twelfth of all the gold from all the mines
of all the world since Columbus discovered
America. In weight it is Just about U00
tons, or so much that if you loaded it on
two-horse wagons at a ton to the wagon
It would take line of teams twelve or
fifteen mile long to carry It all.
More than this, these mlnea promise to
continue pouring out gold tor generations
to come. They could produce twice as
much today If they had the labor and
they could treble that amount and keep
the mines going for years. The gold reefs
In which the precious metal lies have b en
proved for a length of more than sixty
miles and experts say that they can be
worked to a depth of 6,000 feet If they
were worked to 4,000 tho amount so far
tuken out would be just about 3 per cent
cf the whole, and at that rate there is
from UO.UAOoOAO to (lu.OOO.ooo.Cvt) worth of
the precious bullion led.
The production has been Increasing by
leaps and bounds ever since gold was
discovered here. In 18S4 the output was
about $00,000, and ten years later it had
Jumped to $38,000,000 per annum. It'
steadily Increased to about 80,000,(w0, which
was the annual product at the beginning
of the Boer war. It then fell to almost
nothing for a year or so, but In 1904 It
was again $80,000,000. In l0o it reached $100,
(00,000, In 1900 It wus more than $1:0.000,000,
and In 19P7 the vast sum of $138,760,000. These
amounts are Inconceivable, but they are
n bout what the mines are producing today.
The aggregate dividends Uat year were
$35,000,000, and the mines which paid them
ur capitalized at over $120,000,000. I have
lefore me a newspaper which glvea the
produc'lH of a doztn of tho leading mining
companies during the last 'month. None
of ll.oi.i has paid less than $7,500 for every
ilay of that month, and some have run as
high as $1J,000 per day for the thirty days.
Talk about gold. Where will you find it
ilsewhore as here?
Golden Donah of the Rand.
I almost despair of describing these
avea of Aladdin on the highlands of
South Africa. They are not like any
mineral region of North or South America,
and I doubt if they have their counterpart
on the face of the globa. The country la
half desert and there are no indications
of minerals. The gold is found in several
great reefs of rock which run through a
range of low hills for a distance of about
130 miles. The land Is a mile or more
above the sea, and these nils run from
100 to 800 feet higher. The reefs begin
at the surface and extend down at a
regular slope for no one knows how deep
Into the earth. They are great sand
wiches of gold-bearing rocks, streaked here
and there with a conglomerate or pudding
containing quarti pebbles. The pebblles
may be called the ralslna in the pudding.
They range In slso from the egg of a
wallow up to that of a goose, but dough
of the pudding, or the cement which holds
these quarU and other rocks together.
Money Is often called dough In our alang.
but the dough of the Transvaal la the
Blmon-pure thlug and U really sprinkled
with gold.
mm the Great Kerf.
I can describe this better by taking you
with me on a trip over the reef and going
down into one of the mlnea. We iplght
start at Johannesburg and go east and
west for sixty odd miles and sea nothing
but mines all the way. We get the train
t Park station and are aoon flying by
the great work with their mountains of
tailings. We can ee the black smoke
stacks cutting the sky at the front and
behind us, and we could throw a atone
into the great hills of dassllng white sand
which have been left near the mine after
extracting the gold. On each of those
hills cars are crawling up and down. Some
of them are attached to steel cables,
which bring the refuse for several miles
and automatically dump It on th top
of the hi 11. crawling on without stop
ping until they are back at the works
ready to be loaded again. The cars look
like enormous ants or bugs. They are
going en the dead run over the white
sand, which ahlnes out under the rays
it tho African auu.
Jut w go the train swops every few
momenta, and at every atop Is a, mine.
Thin mi a range of sand hill, th ma
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UNDERGROUND IN A RAND GOLD MINE.
terial of which Is as fine a that you use
for scouring your floors. Let it rise right
out of the green hills and extend on for
forty odd miles, and you have some Idea
of these enormous piles of refuse which
have come from the reef. Remember, as
you look at It, that every grain of that
sand was once part of a rock containing
gold, and that hundreds of millions of
dollars' worth of gold has come from It.
If you continue your ride you will find a
fence of Iron smokestacks along th
whole forty miles, and you will never be
outside of the din of the stamps which are
crushing the rocks to get out the gold.
In n BIsT Boath African Mine.
It Is only one of these mines that we
shall visit today. It Is the "Simmer Bnd
Jack," within a half hour's rldt by train
from Johannesburg, covering an enormous
territory sprinkled with gold. This mine
has produced mere than $3,CO0.0O0 worth of
gold during the last year, and It yielded
about $000,f00 worth of gold last month. It
I a great gold factory, devoted to taking
tho rock out of tho earth and reducing It
to bullion. The ore contains only about
From the Story
A Child's Etiqnette.
HORTLY after the removal to
SI the suburbs of the household
I In which Claire, aged 4, 1 tho
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taken ill. The nearest physi
cian was called in. After her
mm
mourn- had explained what she thought
was wrong, questions were directed to th
little lady herself. In contrast with her
usual display of volubility, Claire became
extremely noncommittal.
"Does your head ache, little .one?"
"No-o."
"Is tho pain here?" aaked the dootor,
softly, pointing to the patient' stomach."
"No," very emphatic.
"Are you cold?" and the professional
hand sought the pulse.
No answer, simply a tolerance of con
ditions that gave him the right to touch
her.
"Now, please tell me Just where you
don't feel quite right," coaxed the doctor.
Dead silence.
"Precious, tell the doctor where you
feel sick," cooed the mother.
"I don't feel sick anywhere not now."
The man of medicine gave directions,
wrote prescriptions and went his way.
"Why, Claire!" the mother reproached.
"You've acted very badly. Mother never
knew her little girl to be so rude. The
doctor came to help you get strong so
you can run and play. Aren't you sorry
to displease mother? You always told Dr.
Regan how you felt." .
"Mother, I'm sorry, but not much. It's
this way: Dr. Regan always comes In hi
carriage and hi horse stands at the door.
This doctor" with a not of contempt
"Just sneaks In with a little black bag
and all the other children will think we've
got Just a common doctor." New York
Time. .
What lie Could Do.
John J. Hayee, the Marathon hero, at a
dinner In New York concluded a toast
with a story.
"Truly," he said, "we must work. We
must not rest on our laurels. A tho
president told us, it would be a pity to
see an Olympic winner twenty years
hence a tramp.
"Yet such things have happened. A
cousin of mine, the foreman of a Chicago
iron mill, once employed a tramp who
hud been a Yule base ball champion.
Their acquaintance began In a way that
showed the tramp still to be game and
cheery.
"It was a cold autumn dawn, and the
tramp had slept In front of a furnace on
a warm stone.
"My cousin, being short of laborer, on
Ills morning tour of Inspection, spied th
fellow and thought he would give blm a
Job.
" 'My man,' he said, 'can you do any
thing with a shovel r
"The tramp smiled.
" 'Well, I can fry a piece pf ham on
It.' "Philadelphia Record.
It Was for HU Friend.
"Don't cenfuva," said John Ellis, the
well known apostle of the unemployed, the
other day in Washington, "don't confuse
the hobo, ths tramp and the bum, for these
men are very different one from another.
"The hobo," Mr. EUls went on, "works
and wanders. The tramp dreams and wan
ders. The bum drinks and wandera.
'This man, for Instance, would not be a
hobo.
"He rang the bell of a suburban house
and when the master appeared he said
earnestly:
" Could you, lr. for the love of heaven,
give a hard-working but unfortunate man
some employment T '
"The houueholder laid hi hand cordially
on the other's ragged shoulder.
" 'Here's work for you right on the spot,'
he said. 'I've got out in my back yard
a great pile of wood that'
" Thank you, sir,' said the man a be
hook the hand from hi shoulder gently.
I'll let my friend know at once. It's not
for myself I'm hunting a Job, but for a
friend a little way up the road.' "Wash
ington Star.
Aboat All They Dleeaaacd.
Postmaster General Meyer is of a serious
turn of mind, hut he has a bit of humor
in hi makeup, ueverlhelee. Being looked
Produce Ten Million Dollars
profit Is riot more than 17 cents on every
ton handled. It ha the best of mining ma
chinery and It works between 8.000 and
6,000 men day and night, Sunday and week
days, all the year through. It has more
than 4,000 Chinese, 1,000 black natives and
the hundred of white who act a skilled
laborer and a overseer and managers.
Gold Sandwich.
The Simmer and Jack begins at the sur
face and It gold bearing rock run down
at an angle of 43 degree to no one know
how deep. The gold Is In a great sandwich
of rock more than a mile wide and on th
slant four-fifths of a mile long. Already
ten of thousand of ton of tho gold bear
ing conglomerate have been taken out and
60.C09 tons are now being raised every
month. The sandwich starts In a great
plalr.'. It leans, as I have said, at a broad
angle, and one can look down between the
walls out of which It ha been cut, and by
. hanging onto ropes can slide down Inside
them for hundreds of feet.
The manager of the underground work
$7.50 worth of gold to the ton, and the
ing In the Simmer and Jack Is an Amerl-
Teller's Pack
upon aa the shrewdest politician In the
president' cabinet, he I the objective
point for newspaper correspondents on
cabinet days.
Last week a Mr. Meyer emerged from
the Whit House a newspaper man asked:
"Mr. Postmaster General, can't you give
us some new about the cabinet meeting?"
"There is really nothing to say," replied
th cabinet officer. "We discussed noth
ing of especial importance."
"Do you mean to say you did not dis
cuss politics?" the newspaper man queried.
Th postmaster general burst into laugh
ter. When he recovered h s uiu il serenity
he said:
"Do you suppose we were all muizled?"
Washington Times.
Doabtfol Powder,
' pne day after listening to a story par
ticularly offensive with age Lincoln Mc
Connell, the Georgia evangelist, told this:
An old darkey went into a store dowu
In Georgia and aaked:
"Say, boss, you got any gun powdah
heah?"
"Yes, we have gun powder."
"Lemme see some of that theah gun
powdah."
The dealer showed him com.
"Pore a little of that powitah in my
hand."
The old darkey took the powder' near the
light, ran his forefinger around and around
in It, looked at it critically, and then
melled it two or three times.
"And you say this heah is powdah?'
"Yep," answered the dealer sharply, "that
Is powder. What is the matter with it?"
"Dunno, boss" the darkey shook his
head doubtfully "but hit smells to me like
It's done been shot oft befoah." Judge.
Sailing Soop.
Captain Charles Gerolomlch, the million
aire skipper of the Martha Washington,
saJJ one n ght in the steamer's saloon, as
he ate some very rich and fragrant turtle
soup: '
"This soup reminds me of something that
happened: to my old friend, Captain Jere
miah Gotschalk of the brig Scud.
"Captain Gotschalk and his first mate
were doing London. On a tine summer
morning they walked in the Row and saw
tho fashionables horsebacklng; they strolled
in Piccadilly, where all the great clubs
are; they looked over the guns and men's
things In Bond street; and lastly they got
hungry.
"For lunch they entered a temart looking
restaurant. A maid In a white cap took
their order. The things In the little res
taurant were rather cheaper than they
had expected. Still, that was all the bet
ter, provided the quality was good.
"In a few minutes the maid put two
plates of thin, transparent fluid with, a
somewhat salty taste before Captain Gots
chslk and his mate.
"The mate tasted It and coughed.
' "Put a name to this, cap'n, will ye?'
said he.
"Captain Gotschalk tried a spoonful and
then beckoned the waitress to him.
" 'What might ye call thla here, my lass?'
says he, lifting up a spoonful and letting'
it fall back into the plate.
" 8oup, sir,' say th waitress.
" 'Soopl' cried Captain Gotchalk.
" 'Yes, ignorance,' the waitress answered,
flushing up.
"The captain turned to the mate.
" 'Soop!' he cried. 'Soopl By tar. Bill,
Juat think o' that! Here you and me
been sallln' on soop all our lives and nevir
knowed It till now." "Philadelphia Ledger.
He Wasn't Friend.
The editor private stenographer wss
pretty and it became an advertised fact
around the office that reporters and others
had more business during her service with
the editor than under the regimes of
former stenographer in that office.
One day last wek the assistant city ed
itor went into the editor's room to see the
editor. Outside the window was a painter,
who, in order to aet In a more advantagu
oua position, bung by his hand to the top
of tha window frame, and wa la this posi
tion when the assistant city editor entered
the. room.
The assistant city editor looked up at the
suspended figure and said, laughingly:
"Frlaad of yours, Mia Blank?"
TIIE OMAITA SUNDAY BFTR: NOVTOfBER 8, 190S.
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READT FOR THE UNDERGROUND.
can. He 1 a California engineer named
Seagrave, who has been In Africa for
ome year. Upon my telling him that Z
wanted to go Into the mine he said there
were ixty mile of tunnel and under
ground passages, and I therefor asked him
to show me a much a he could in one
day. Before descending w put on miner'
clothing. W then entered a great skip or
bucket which had Just brought up two ton
of ore. Then a signal from the engineer
dropped u down into the darkness and an
other signal stopped us at a tunnel (00 feet
from the surface. Here we left the skip
and walked through tunnel after tunnel
cut out of the sandwich, now and then
topping to look down th incline.
Imagine a mighty cave Just high enough
for a man to stand upright within It and
running down at an angle of forty degrees
for hundreds of feet, making a flat, slant
ing hall covering acres. There are rock
wall above and rock floors below and
away down theslant hundred of feet
distant are score of yellow Chinese
pounding the drills to make hole for th
blasting. The Chinese are bare to the
waist and they sing a they work. Each
"No; he' only a hanger-on!" St. Louis
Republic.
B.-.fe.
Homer Davenport, the cartoonist, was
talking at hi Morris Plains stock farm
about Arabian hcries, of which he make
a specialty,
"They must, be treated kindly," he said.
"Never a blow of the whip. That would
drive them mad with rage and humiliation.
"Animal. Ilk children, must be kindly
treated. A blow spoils all."
"But a regards children you know," the
reporter objected, "didn't Solomon say,
'Spare the rod and spoil the child'?"
"Ah, yes," said Mr. Davenport, "but he
didn't say it till after he had grown up."
Baltimore American.
Arresting tho General.
Once during a South American revolution
a certain general wa hiding In the capital
city of hi iiativ land. HI hiding place
was less than a block from hi mother's
home, and the government, hi foe, more
than auspected It, for It had sent an
officer around to hi mother' to make
Inquiries concerning the general.
His mother, of course, and his sisters
and his cousins and aunts were all voluable
In maintaining that the man In hiding wa
not in the city, that he had escaped over
the mountain to the eeacoast, that he
was probably already on his way to New
York or Paris, those branch office of
South American revolution.
And the officer sent by the government
was quite willing to be convinced. He didn't
realy care, because the general supposed to
be In hiding was a good friend of his.
Duty had been fulfilled, he oould report to
the government that the general could not
be found.
But Just as he was engaged In backing
out of the door with a series of compli
cated 8panlsh bows the servant of the gen
eral in hiding suddenly entered from the'
street and, completely falling to slie up
the situation, remarked to the mistress of
the house:
"The general says to please send him his
slippers."
It was too good a Joke to spoil. With a
smile the officer of the government, acting
exactly as If he had heard nothing, con
tinued to bow and bick out of the house.
Then You'll emtmbrr Me.
George W. Coleman, sociologist, discussed,
during the recent sociological conference
at Sagamore Beach, tips and tipping.
"I have a friend," Mr. Coleman said,
"who belongs to an antl-tlpplng association"
My friend in obeying the rules of his
society, has many quaint experiences.
"Ha went trayellng in the west In the
spring. He dined one night In a fashionable
western restaurant, and after paying his
bill he gathered u; the change that had
been brought upon a sliver plate and drop
ped It Into his a ilstcoat pocket.
"As he arose to depart the wa.lter said
In a low, appealing voice:
" 'Surely you won't forget me. sir?"
" 'No. no,' said my friend; 'I'll write to
you.' "
Brlsrhtuess Ahead.
A man who died recently In the north of
England and had been Uvlr.y a dishonest
life under the cloak of religion, wishing
to pese as a good man to the last, said to
these around him:
"All Is bright before ine."
"Aye," said one of those present, whom
he had swindled out of a sum of money,
"an' In about ten minutes thee'll be near
em ugh to see the blase!"
Something Jaat as Good.
There is an evangelint In Boston who is
so devout that, so Ms friends say, he
scarcely ever permit himself a secular
thought or his tongue, a worldly word. It
appears that this evangelist has a very
bright daughter, aged S. Not long since
she answered the doorbell and found there
the Iceman with a bill.
"Father is not home," she said, "but If
you will come In, you poor, perishing soul,
perhaps mamma will pray for you "
Cause" and Effect.
A theological student was sent one Sun
day to supply a vacant pulpit In a Con
necticut valley town. A few days after
ward he received a copy of the weekly
paper of that place, with the following
item marked: "JUjv, of the senior
class at Yale seminary supplied the pulpit
at the Congregational church last Sun
day, and the church win ha closed for
three weeks tor refialre,
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CHINES&
ha a candle, and th light from this give
lhra a weird appearance a h slaves,
away down there in the darkness. Th
Chinese are paid at the rate of 1 cent for
each Inch of hole drilled, and an ordinary
man drill fifty Inche or more in a day.
They are gouging out the holes for the
dynamite candle. At certain hour the
charge are put in and several scores of
blast are set off at once. After this th
or, which ha been blown out, 1 hov
eled down Into th cars In the tunnel be
low. It 1 then carried to the shaft, up
which it file In great Iron klp and onto
the stamps which crush th gold out.
Look attth Ore.
A I went through the mine Mr. Sea
graves showed me the gold bearing pud
ding. It lies here and there in streaks or
streams In the rock, now widening and
now narrowing. It is a blue conglomerate
filled with pebbles of white quart em
bedded In a cement which is impregnated
with iron and gold. The gold Is In crys
tal and flake so small a to be Invisible
to the eye. I could see no yellow metal
whatever, and the rock looked more like
limestone than anything els. Th min
In the Field
Corrent Power on Railroads.
EVERAL notable strides In sub-
S tituting electricity for steam
I power on railroads are sched
I ,.1.4 f lh. .nnln vr tin.
der pressure of public- opinion
against the locomotive smoke
nuisance on the lake front of Chicago, the
directors of the Illinois Central have In
structed the company's engineers to pre
pare plans for changing the motive power
on the Chicago terminal. On the Canadian
Pacific the management intends placing
electric locomotives on about 700 miles of
the line In the western mountain ranges,
particularly where many tunnels exist and
where power will be generated from moun
tain streams. A similar change on the Cas
cade division of the Great Northern road
in the state of Washington. It is well
understood the Central Paclflo will utilise
the abundant water power of the Sierra
when the projected straightening of the
line is finished and the necessary tunnels
are bored in Nevada and California. This
work Involves the abolition of snow sheds
and greatly reduced grades, and may re
quire two years to complete. Around New
York City next year will witness a
large Increase in electric power on the
railroad terminals. The Pennsylvania line
tunnels' under Manhattan Island and Into
Long Island will be completed, and elec
tric power used exclusively. On the New
Haven road the electric uower new em
ployed within the city limits Is to be ex
tended so as to cover Its suburban service
as far a Stamford, Conn.
The action of the Illinois Central direc
tory is considered the first decisive step
toward the banishment of steam locomo
tives from the railroad terminals of Chi
cago. There are many roads In tha city
which are not In as good a position to elec
trify a the Illinois Central and, these fear
the spread of the movement. Several of
the roads insist that compulsory electrifi
cation would spell financial ruin at thi
time. It Is understood that a conference
of railway president will soon be called
with a view to a thorough discussion of
the question and in the hope of securing
uniform action with reference to electri
fication. A few years ago Senator Depew predicted
that in ten year the steam locomotive will
disappear from view, relegated to the'
crap heap or the museum, and electric
power take it place on all railroads. This
prediction was oversangulne at tha (ime,
as It Is now, but the progress being made
in spots Justify confidence in the early
retirement of belching locomotives from the
cities, and the, substitution of the clean
and noiseless electric motor.
Copper Welded Vpon Steel.
Electrical transmission of energy by the
overhead system, whether for street rail
way, telephone, electric lighting, or power
purposes, remarks the Technical World
Magazine, requires the use of wire or cablo
of high conductivity in order to avoid
heavy losses of power that would result
from an attempt to overcome the resistance
to the passage of the current In metals
that are poor conductors.
Copper Is one of the best known con
ductors, and posseses noncorrosive qual
ities that are valuable; but copper is ex
pensive anpd lacks tvnsile strength. For
economic reasons, tensile strength Is a most
desirable quality In a metal used for line
work, while low cost Is, of course, of prime
Importance. Steel pnsseses both strength
and cheapness, but Is low In conductivity
and rusts quickly when exposed to the ele
ment. Foreseeing the value of a combination of
the desirable qualities of these two motals,
investors and metallurgists have mado var
ious attempts to perfect a process of coat
ing st'.-el wire with copper. ,
Partial failures convinced a French
metallurgist, J. Ferrcol Monnot, that the
two metals must be wlded together homo
geneously, and he aet to work on the prob
lem. He finally achieved entirely satis
factory results by first cleaning a steel
billet sis Inches In diameter and thirty-six
Inches long and then welding on to this at
Mgh temperature a thick coating of soft
copper.
The copper can be of any desired thick
in Bullion a Month
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BARS TO THE WAIST, BING AS THBT WORK.
er disregard the pebbles, for they have
been crushed again and again and found
to oontain no gold whatsoever.
Th gold-bearing strata lie upon gran
It. It I supposed to have been deposited
by mean of water in sand and clay,
which In time ha turned to oement, and
which by volcanic force ha been forced
up Into the slanting ridge which now
forms th southern watershed of the con
tinent. Indeed, it may be that the gold
wa once in the water Just a gold Is now
aid to be In the water of the ocean.
Some sclentlits assert that there 1 about
forty million dollars' worth of gold In
every cubic mile of sea water, and if this
Is so It would only take three oubto mile
of the ocean to equal the present mighty
yearly output of the Rand.
I have been In many gold mines, but In
none where the dangers are greater than
in these great slanting caves of South
Africa. The walls so dtp that you have to
take a-Tope or chain to hold on to, as you
move through the stopes, and a slip would
send you rolling down over the rocks for
hundreds of feet. The accident are so
many that visitor are required to give a
of Electricity
ness to suit It to various commercial pur
poses. After receiving Its copper coat tho
billet Is reheated and put through ordinary
rolls such as are used in eteel mUls foe
rolling down steel or iron rods from largj
billet. The resultant wire, three-eighth
of an Inch In diameter. Is then lent to the
drawing jnlll and drawn Into wire of any
lie down to No, 40B & 8. gauge, If de
sired. Th copper and steel drawn down equally
and In the final product the copper coat
ing i relatively the same a In th original
billet, so that It 1 easy to determine be
forehand the precise proportion that the
copper will bear to the steel and the actual
thickness of the coat. The thickness Is
the same throughout the length of the
wire and is also perfectly intact.
Locomotive Cab Slgrnal.
The' following is a description of the sys
tem of cab signalling now under trial on
the Great Western railway of England:
The system has been In use for the drivers
on th Fairford branch (twenty-one miles
long) sine December. 1906, when the sema
phore "dlstants" were removed by sanction
of the Board of Trade. The Great Western
official are now completely fitting their
four main track between Slough and
Reading with the apparatus. The require
ments to whloh all signalling systems of
this character must conform are: (1) that
the signal shall be audible, and given In
the cab of the engine; (2) that two Indica
tion shall be given according to the state
of the line ahead one for "all right," and
another quite distinct for "danger;" (J)
that in the event of failure, If the appa
ratus Is wholly or partially electrical, the
danger signal shall be given In other
words, such an apparatus should, if It err
at ail. err on the right side; (4) that there
should be no moving parts on the track;
(6) that the signal, when given, shall con
tinue to sound until acknowledged by the
driver shutting It off. At each distant
signalling post a ramp is bolted to tho
sleeper midway between the rails, so that
a shoe on the engine may be lifted, whether
the engine la running tender or funnel
first. This ramp cannot be moved, and its
function Is primarily to lift a shoe placed
on the engine for the purpose every time
the engine passes over It. The ramp is In
clined, with a rise of about two and a half
Inches la thirty feet o that th blow
struck by the shoe when the contact take
place Is reduced to a minimum. In con
nection with the shoe on the engine there
la an apparatus for operating either a
special steam whistle or an electric bell,
according to whether the signal I to Indi
cate "danger" or "all right." Thi ap
paratus consist briefly of a closed circuit
whan the shoe Is in It normal position,
th electro-magnet connected therewith
having, when energised, sufficient power
to prevent the steam whistle from open
ing. Supposing the signal to be at "dan
ger" when the ramp is reached, the shoe
will be lifted; when lifted, It will mechan
ically break the engine circuit above re
ferred to. When the circuit la broken, the
restraining force I removed from the
whistle, and. being of the self-operating
type, the whistle sounds until stopped by
the driver. The "all right" signal is glvtn
In the following manner, nnd In this lies
the chief value of the invention. When It
is desired to give the "all right" indica
tion, the signalman pulls over hi distant
signal lever. This action closes another
circuit which . electrifies the ramp, and.
when the engine shoe touches it, causes
a currAit to flow through the shoe and
through another pair of colls having equal
power with the pair before referred to.
and forming, besides, a circuit - through
an electric bell. Thus, although the lift
ing of the shoe should, in the ordinary
way, break the local circuit on the engine,
and thus cause the whistle to Bound, this
result Is prevented by energizing an aux
iliary pair of culls direct from the en
gine box, und In add:t!on the signal box
circuit passes through the bell, which con
tinues to ring until stopped by the driver.
A tare !.-
When an old maid make a jocse of
herself It merely prove that li 1 no
chick n,
D
1
4
1 f '
pledge before they enter the mine that no
action will be taken against the company
In case they are Injured during the Jour
ney. The mines are not timbored, as the
rock Is solid, but nevertheless the blast
ing frequently cracks the walls and
masses fall down Into the tunnel upon
those who pass through. There are also
cars whizzing along, the ore rolls down
the planes and rocks weighing tons fly
this way and that.
Bis Mill of the Transvaal.
But let us go to the surface and walk
through this mighty gold factory. The
mines of the Transvaal have machinery
equal to the finest used in America, and
the Simmer and Jack ha $20 stamps,
which work away day and night, crush
ing the ore for tha mercury plates and
cyanide vats. . '
As the rock comes to the surface it Is
in lumps of all sixes from that of my fist
to a half bushel measure or larger. It Is
of a bluish color, and It looks much like
the limestone we use for fixing the turn
pike. There is not a glint of gold to be
seen anywhere, and when crushed the rock
looks Just like the dust on the roads.
The rock Is first sorted by maohlnery,
that the larger pieces may be broken
before they go Into the crushers. They
are then ground up after the same fash
ion that our grandmothers ground coffee,
ave that these crushing mill will chew
to piece rock the aise of a peck meas
ure. When the ore is comparatively fine It
Is dropped down Into the tampa ajid
pounded by them to dust. These stamps
are great bars of steel, which are always
dropping upon the gold-bearing rock.
There are S20 of them, and aa they fall
they make a noise like that of Victoria
Fall or the rushing of Niagara. The din
is so great that the workmen have to stop
their ear with cotton to keep from losing
their hearing. Indeed, I found myself
putting my hands to the sides of my head
to shut out the sound.
When the rock comes from the stamps
It Is a fine flour of gold ore. It must be
fine enough to go through a wire meali
with holes not much larger than the point
of u needle. It Is now carried by water
over the tables covered with mercury,
which catches the gold and allows the
sand to go on. After this the refuse Is
treated to a. bath of cyanide of potassium
and water, which takes up such gold as
is left. The processes are about the same
as those used In our great mines of. the
west and as a result practically all of the
gold is saved.
With th Aasayers.
I was much Interested In going through
the assay offices of this great mine. The
ere has to be tested again and again to
know Juat how tha mine Is working and
to be sure that nothing is lost. Something
like a thousand different assays are made
every day. A very little bit of ore Is
taken each time, but the gold and silver
Is all gotten out of It and then, by measur
ing and multiplying, one can tell Just how
much gold -there Is to the ton. In this as
say office lead Is added to the ore and
from each sample comes a button of lead
about as big as the end of your thumb.
In this lead is the gold. The button is
roasted in bone ash, during which process
the lead disappears and the goM only Is
seen. The Bpeck of gold Is often not big
ger than the point of a fine needle, but
th weighing machine are so fine that
the asaa. can easily tell Just how much
the stuff runs to the ton.
eea the Real Thing.
Before leaving I mentioned to the as
sayer that I had spent a whole day In the
Simmer and Jack and had been told again
and aga'n of the million of dollars' worth
of gold It was producing. I said that I
had seen thousands of tons of ore alleged
to be loaded with gold, but had yet to
observe the first glint of yellow or any
sign of the pure golden thing.
"If you have any doubts as to the reality
of the gold here," said the scientist, "I
can dispel them by - showing you some
bricks, made here within the last few
weeks, which we are. about to ship to
London,"
With that he took me Into the bCH
room of his ' tin-roofed assay office and
by the twist of his wrist unlocked a vault
In the wall. He then touched an elect. iq
button, swung a combination lock around
five times, and threw open a safe, out ol
which he pulled a great brick of pure gold.
He dropped it on the counter and asked
me to lift It. I tried to do- so, but failed,
although I might have succeeded had tht
brick been lying on the floor instead of
at the height of my waist. It wa a solid
lump of bright yellow metal, shaped like
a paving brick and perhaps two. inches
tt.kker. lie put it on the scale and
showed me that It weighed over seventy
pounds. He taid that its value wi $1SO,CO).
In the limn vault I was shown oti er bricks
which ran up to more than $1,000 OiO.
During my conversation with the assayer
I asked him how the gold wus sent to
London. He replied:
"It u!l goes on the ears from here to
Cupe Town and thence by the mail fcteam
ura to Southampton. Th shipments are
made eery Monday In order that the
trains may reach the cape for (hi) ship
suiting Wednrsduy. Knch brli'k Is put up
In ri scpirnta wooden box. which Is bound
around with strap Iron and i..-aled. Tim
banks do the shipping and the railways
are reipoikslblo tor the gold from here to
Cape Town. 'On crtaln Mondays of the
Hi' nth the shipments amount to $4,000,000,
including about twenty-five of these big
golden bricks."
FRANK a CARPENTER.