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Fitzgerald Leader. FITZGERALD, GEORGIA. —published by— HINAPP * sowr. The head waiter will have to look to his laurels, declares the New York Tribune. The head waitress is dis¬ placing him in certain Now England hotels. As is usually the case, the women are doing the work well. Should any great numbers succeed in getting into the Yukon region this fall, the Portland Oregonian predicts, there will be a tragedy the like of which hits not been known to the world since Napoleon's Russian cam¬ paign. _ Superstition still lives in England. Angill Castle, Westmoreland, which cost $70,000 to build aud which was sold some years ago for $10,000, has now been resold for $3250, because it is reputed to be haunted by mysteri¬ ous flaming spirits flitting about tho premises. Jerome II. Raymond, who twenty years ago was a newsboy in the streets of Chicago, is now, at the age of twen¬ ty-nine, President of the West Vir¬ ginia University, at Morgantown. He left newspaper selling to become an office boy for George M. Pullman. He is believed to be the youngest college President in the United States. It seems, notes the New York Ob¬ server, that opposition to the singing of hymns in Scotland has practically died out. When hymns are given out worshipers no longer rise from their seats in wrath and stalk out of church. During recent years many hymn-books have been made in Scotland. This change of ideas has been largely bronght about by the general singing of Sankey hymns. During the American Revolution an English magazine published nn esti¬ mate of the future population of the North American colonies. Placing tho population then at 2,000,000 and as¬ suming that it would double itself every twenty-five years, the writer estimated that in the year 1890 the number would have increased to 04,- 000,000. This may be taken as a most remarkable prophecy, inasmuch as the census of 1890 fixes the total popula¬ tion at 02,622,250. Lord Wolseley, Commander-in-Ckiei of the British army, has publicly an- nounced that “the meteor flag of Eng-’ land” will never again be carried into battle, in land fights at least. In pre¬ senting new colors to a regiment re¬ cently he said: “In future it would be madness and a crime to order any man to carry colors into action. You might as well order him to be assassinated. The Germans carry the poles on which the colors used to be, so that they at¬ tract no notice in action. AVe have had most reluotantly to abandon a practice to which we attached great importance, and which, under past and gone conditions of fighting, was in¬ valuable in keeping alive tho regimen¬ tal spirit upon which our British troops depended so much. ” According to the New York Post, some time ago a movement was quietly inaugurated to divide the Territory of Alaska. In May last active work was begun, and the project is nevy ready for public attention. Petitions for a division are in circulation in the in¬ terior along the Yukon River and in all mining camps, aud should reach Washington early in September. The miners heartily endorse the idea, with its prospect of direct governmental supervision, land titles and incentives to good citizenship. Lincoln is the name suggested for the proposed new territory, and the city of We.ve, a t the mouth of the Tauana River, 800 miles from the sea and on the Yukon River, is favored as the seat of govern¬ ment. Tributary to Weare on all sides are the great placer-mining gold fields. There is ample room for two or more territories, the area of Alaska being twelve times that of the State of New York. The proposed territory of Lin¬ coln would comprise 500,000 square miles of the interior and northern coast, country, and would embrace within its boundaries the valleys of the Yukon River and its tributaries, and the coast along Bering Sea. After division there would remain in Alaska all of the territory along the Northern Pacific seacoast and the Aleutian Isl¬ ands. This includes all the agricul¬ tural lands in Alaska and that part of the territory which enjoys a com- paratively mild and equable climate on account of the well-known influ¬ ences of the Japan current. It would retain the coast trade and tho quartz mines of Douglas Island. PLACER MINING • J IN THE KLONDIKE. (O f£>; A Full Description of Out the of Way the the Earth. Precious Dust Is Taken (P X So far all the mining that has been done in the Klondike country has been what is known as placer mining. This is the simplest and oldest form of mining, and is usually adopted in new gold fields. In its crudest form, placer mining is simply the picking up of a panful of dirt from the bed of a stream where gohl is supposed to ex¬ ist, the washing away of the dirt and pebbles aud the gathering of the gold, which, beoause of its weight, sinks to the bottom of the pan. For example, let us follow a pros¬ pector on some stream in our Western gold fields, where the complication of eternally frozen ground does not enter into the question. After traveling perhaps many weary days he comes on a stream coming down some moun¬ tain gorge that looks “likely,” as he says, to his practiced eye. He stops and examines the pebbles on the bot¬ tom, and finds a good many of them are of quartz. This, although not in itself an indi¬ cation of gold, is a good sign, so the prospector scrapes away the earth and stones at the bottom of the stream to the depth of a foot or so, and then i $ i<? i* M. -• r. Hi Cat Wm - ynt*-) nr’Vfij l|ffl I 7 m Ill it \Mm 1: fliliifP 7 ii iff tfm !> Vs ■J I . If?/ in £3 a ’ f K 4- TWO TYPICAL KLONlftCEIlS IN PULL DBESS takes out a panful of dirt. The pan, by the way, is nothing but a broad, shallow dish of strong sheet iron. Having done this, he puts in enough water to make the panful semi-liquid, aud then gives it a rapid, twirling mo¬ tion. This causes the gold, if there is any, to sink to the bottom of the pan. Then the gravel and sand are carefully washed out until only the heavy resi¬ due remains in the pan. This residue is carefully examined to see how many “colors” there are in it. “Colors” is the term miners give to the "particles or nuggets, if there are any, of gold that can be seen at the bottom of the pan. But gold is not the only thing that sinks to the bottom of the pan. Al¬ most always there is found with gold a fine black sand, which is magnetio iron ore, and from this the gold has to be separated. Of course, if the gold is in nuggets "of any size this is a simple process, but if it is in fine dust, as is generally the case, the mercury pro¬ cess is employed. In this tho residue in the 5 pan is placed in a barrel with some water and § Is. V" l X 'vtfV' J I it. 1 i "A ■h Jmm, 7 tftt f. mm. Wj II Si ;) m v=* m ^Sifetigi .iiih ■qo gpr *2 V 201 w. w & 7/ SLUICING AT A RICH CLAIM IN THE KLONDIKE. (From this mine $8000 was taken from a piece of ground 24 by 14 feet in piano dimen¬ sions. It is officially designated us “No. 2, Below,” Bonanza.) mercury. The gold, when it touches the mercury, forms an amalgam. After a quantity of gold has been put in the barrel the mercury is taken out, squeezed through a buckskin bag, and what remains in the bag is heated, either in a retort or in some other way, until what mercury is left is va¬ porized, and the gold remains, nearly pure. This is placer mining in its most primitive form, but it is slow work, and long ago various methods were devised bo shorten it where it was to be carried on to any extent. The first step in advance in placer mining is the use of the “rocker.” The rocker looks like one of the old cradles we find onee in a while in the attic of some old house up in the coun¬ try. It is a box about throe feet long and two feet wide, placed on rockers just like a cradle. A part of the box is covered with a piece of heavy sheet iron, placed a few inches below the top and punched full of holes about a quarter of an inch in diameter. The bottom of the rest of the box slants towards the lower end and is covered with a piece of woolen blanket. To¬ wards the end of the box slats are plaoed across, with mercury behind them, to catch what gold gets by above. The miner sets up his rocker near the stream and piles his gravel on the the sheet iron, keeping it wet all the while aud keeping the rocker in motion. The fine gold and sand sift through to the blanket, while nuggets of any size remain on the iron. The finer gold settles on the blanket and the dust is caught by the mercury behind the slats. The blanket is frequently rinsed in a barrel of water with mercury at the bottom, and this mercury, together with that behind the slats, is “roasted” as in the other method. But even this method is not used when “sluicing” is possible, as if* is when the stroam has sufficient fall. In sluicing a number of long boxes are made which fit into each other like a stovepipe. Across these boxes slats are placed with mercury behind them, or sometimes the bottoms are bored full of holes and mercury placed under¬ neath. A long line of these boxes is placed at a considerable slant and the miner shovels his gravel in at the up¬ per end, lets the water run down the sluice and the gold, if in nuggets, sinks and is held by the slats, or, if fine, is caught by the mercury. Three times as much gold can be washed out in this way as by a rocker, because three times as much dirt can be washed. Aud after the boxes are all done with they are burned , , and , the ,, ashes , washed , , for the gold held by the wood. These are the various methods of placer mining aud thus they are prac¬ tised in the Klondike region, hampered only by the natural conditions of the country. Let us now look for a mo¬ ment at what these conditions compel the Klondike miner to do. Let us suppose the gold-hunter has passed through the difficult journey and arrived at the gold fields. He first goes out and prospects until he finds a claim where the “colors" in his pan encourage him to locate. If he should happen to be early on a new field he would probably stake out a claim next to one that was already paying in the hope that his would pay, too. A Klondike claim is supposed to be laid out 500 feet long parallel with the general direction of the creek, and 666 feet crosswise, the idea being to give each location the width of the gravel from rim rock to rim rock. Most of the creeks up there have a slight fall with wide bottoms. Bed¬ rock is anywhere from four to twenty feet below tho surface and pay dirt is apt to extend clear down to bedrock. Of course, the great difficulty that the miner has to contend with is the fact that the ground is frozen solid about all the year, and even in summer thaws only a few inches. This makes it necessary to thaw the ground arti¬ ficially, ing.” and this is done by “burn¬ Fires are built on the surface and the ground thawed a little ways. This is then dug out; another fire is built in the hole, and this process is con- tinued until bedrock is reached. Then fires are built against the side of the shaft, and drifts and tunnels are thawed out. All the dirt thus taken out is piled outside until the stream opens in the spring. Then the sluice boxes are set up and the wintor’s diggings washed out. Thus a miner is enabled to keep busy about all the year. This method of burning out a shaft and tunnels is by no means new, for it has been carried on for many years in the basins of the Amoor and Lena Rivers in Siberia, where the conditions are very similar to those in the Klon¬ dike region. ’V? 1 >. J A J® llUiinlitm - i V. 9 xJ v.*< A- tit . f I 1 i 1 m i i Va m 1 VJfr't "yy/jX '/yy/ MXy, yyy^ % 9k 7//y XyA I m <§ 'y'A Mi/ % #72,. 'My 'My/ ' m '/a Wm V,\ 7 mm ysyys yyM € as ■m Ty//* % m Ty'y ^azizar- m «fli vy?* wm > 1. THAWING OUT THE DIRT. 2. DIGGING AND DUMPING. Plaoer mining in Alaska differs from placer mining in warmer climates only in that the dirt has to be thawed out, and that water for washing can be ob¬ tained there only a month or two in each year. And even when bedrock is reached it is in many cases filled with cracks and seams which are rich in gold and well worth the digging out. As to the value of explosives in this frozen soil authorities differ. The Mining and Scientific Press said recently that they can be used effectively, while the Min¬ ing and Engineering Journal, in speak¬ ing of the Siberian mines, where the conditions are similar, says their effect is simply to mat the ground together harder- For this same reason, says the latter journal, the ground cannot be dug with a pick and shovel until thqwed out. Lumber, by the way, in the Klon¬ dike country, fit for sluice boxes, costs from $130 to $150 a thousand feet. So far - most of the gold found in placer mining in the Klondike region • 77 \, w V v. ■ 'Wsr&efiZg?- \ — \ \ , ArwUi AVfcl A 2V/ xv h!| -.A "4 \V\\ \\ A SLUICE BOX. has been coarse, and many of the nug¬ gets have been found attached to quartz. This, according to experts, indicates that the veins from which it originates are not far distant from the alluvial deposits. Plaoer gold is lib¬ erated by the erosive’ agencies of ice, rocks and water from the rock matrix in which it is held. It is tougher than tho rock which holds it and resists abrasion better. Drawing an inference from other regions where plaoer gold has been found in large quantities, it is reasonable to expect that in the Yukon country rich gold lodes will be found. And this brings us to the subject of quartz mining in Alaska, for,the gold- bearing region up there is by no means confined to the Klondike country. Ac¬ hand-book cording to the recently published on “Klondike,” written by L. A. Coolidge, of Washington, there arc in southeastern Alaska gold mines which have been worked for the past twelve years, and which in 1895 added over $2,000,000 to the gold surplus of the world. Of this mining region Juneau is the centre, and its discovery is shared by Richard Harris and Joseph Juneau. In 1880 these two men started out from Sitka—it was in the summer—and in August discov¬ ered gold in a stream which they named Gold Creek. Later they ex¬ plored this stream to its source in a mountain valley, which they named Silver Bow Basin. Then a town site was established at the mouth of Gold Creek, which was at first named Har- risburg. Later it rvas changed to Rockwell and then to Juneau, which name it still holds. This last christen¬ ing took place in 1881. The next year both placer and quartz mines were discovered on Doug¬ las Island, about four miles from Juneau. These are now the famous Treadwell mines, having been bought by John Treadwell in 1884, and, says Mr. Ooolidge, “from these enough ore has been taken out to pay the purchase money J of Alaska and more.” The ore of ... these mmes average only from $2.50 to $3 a ton, but owing to the enormous scale on which they are worked and the low cost of extracting the ore there is a large profit in working them, All around Juneau and, for that mat- ter, all along the Alaskan coast, gold- '^7/ r r if . ~r—: tf x ii \(M ■’j s\ w '-.v.s ■ - X -tv.' ~~ T ji X >■7 X. . 1 & ZAif*-if 7^ 7 miner testing gravel. bearing , . quartz is . found, „ and in many places is being profitably worked. There seems to be little doubt among mining experts that extensive quartz mines will be located in this Yukon country before long. This will mean the introduction into that , country of , all sorts of improved mining mackin- ery, rock drills, stamp mills and soon. Just what method wil be employed to extract the ore from the rock will de¬ pend on what kind of ore is found. It may only have to be crushed, and separated by mercury. It may be re¬ fractory ore and have to go through some one of the various processes now in use for separating such ore. As soon as the mines are found meaus of transporting the machinery will be provided and the mines will be started. Mines in rock, of course,will uot be delayed by the weather condi- j tions which make placer mining so dif- ficult in that country, Rock doesn’t | freeze and the deeper down the mines go the warmer it will get, so perhaps this kind of mining^ will be the pleas¬ anter of the two. Boats Like Big Baskets. Curious boats which look like big baskets are used in Busrah, the Ven¬ ice of Turkish Arabia. As a matter of fact, . they are practically . . -askets, , be- ing made of wickerwork, plastered to keep out the water. They are known j as gophers, aud the European who boards them feels himself to be muoh like the three men of Gotham who went to sea in a bowl. Lntil compara- tively recent times a boat something similar in shape and made with the same material, called coracles, were used by fishermen on many of the turbulent streams in Wales. No other form of a boat could hope to survive the navigation of those streams, and 1 181 sgS g WICKER BOATS OE TUBKISH ARABIA. bumping against bowlders and drop¬ ping over small cataracts in them did them no material damage. In China certain literary degrees can be purchased of the Government for about $75. Taking advantage of that fact, some unprincipled person has lately hoaxed the Celestials by selling them what purported to be diplomas which would bring the holders under the jurisdiction of foreign consular offices. FOUNDER OF JUNEAU. A Kamil Man on Pioneer Exjieiieneo In Alaska. I H. Juneau, Dodge City, Kan., who was the founder of the City of Juneau, Alaska, in nn interview gave some im¬ portant information regarding the Klondike gold fields. He said: “I cannot see the reason for advising travel by the Yukon River route, a distance of 2500 miles or more from Juneau to the Klondike gold fields, when there is a shorter route, perhap s more difficult, which is over the Chil- koot Pass, reducing the distance to 400 miles from Juneau. “Indians, both men and women, are employed in making the ascent of the pass. They carry goods on their ; backs from the head of Linn Channel to the nearest point where you strike the Yukon River, a distance of about seventy-five miles, and oharge $15 to $20 a hundred pounds. Two weeks; are required to make the trip. An Indian will carry 100 pounds besides his own clothing and provisions, weighing thirty pounds or more, Mules and horses are no good in this mountain climbing. “Alaska is a country full of disap- pointments. i People who go there have no idea of the many discomforts. The country is covered with moss, a vine that contains prickles as sharp as the quills of a porcupine, with barbed points. These get into the flesh and stick deep. The barbs break as you pull them out and a portion remains in the flesh. The only way to get them out is to dig them out. The pricks make a sore. They are about lj to 2 inches long, and there is ex- cruciating pain when you pull them from your flesh. “Alaska is a country on edge, it is so mountainous. The basins are mainly filled with ice. The weather is always extreme. Where there is no ice there is moss and devil’s club, the latter be¬ ing a vine that winds, around every¬ thing it can clutch. Persons walking become entwined in a network of moss tremely and , difficult. “ But u }P there assa ? is e ti great ex ; atore ecious mineralsin Alaska behind these barriers. “I helped to lay out the town of Juneau in 1881. I have been there three times, the last time in 1885. My cousin, Joseph Juneau, discovered gold there in company with a man named Harris. The place was for a time called Harrisburg, but afterward the ■ name was changed to Juneau. There was no law in the country then, and wo adopted the Washington Ter¬ ritorial civil law aud the United States mineral laws. One feature of the law was that the Chinese were to bo ex- eluded, aud that law holds good in Juneau to-day. “Along the sea coast Alaska pre- sents a grand and picturesque view from an ocean steamer. Its scenery surpasses any mountainous scenery in the world. Ice by acres is constantly tumbling into the sea, making a noise like an earthquake and endangering vessels. Mount Crelion is three miles high, and stands in pyramid form, with towers above towers, like a city of steeples in tho distance. Ice does not stick to the sides of these moun- tain peaks, but slides into the water in great avalauches. “Alaska is a rich country from many poiuts of view. It is rich in minerals, but not much vegetation survives, though portions of the territory have extenaive and valuable forests. It is a country of vast extremes, but it may ve j. p rove t 0 Ue the richest possession tbe United States , though all of the terrors of the country have not been overdrawn. ” A New Fuel. In the future we may be importing p la3U t instead of exporting coal. Masut a byproduct in the distillation of raw petroleum. It is also manufac- ^ured from a cheap, brown coal found 111 * t,ilxo:u y- Tnere nas been, until re¬ oentl y« g raat troub!e m a flu '- uace for burning it. It is now bl °'™ b y. Etca “ m to f s P eclal on tne principle of c the Lucigeu light, and used without difficulty. It is forty or fifty per cent, cheaper than coal, and is twenty per cent, better as a heat raiser. Steam can be got up quicker and kept at a high pressure and more work be done by the ma¬ chinery. From a naval point of view these are vitally important facts. No sign of a ship under full steam will be shown iu tho sky) for masut is a smo i te ioss fuel. Russia and Italy are us ; u g jt j.j their navies, and Germany j las i a tcly made some valuable experi- mentg At Kie i ; Wilkelnjshaven and ]) atiz ig are tanks from which it can be p um p@d into ships. It 3 specific grav- of p y being so much less than that coa ] ( a ship’s buoyancy is greatly in- creased when the bunkers are filled with it. Heavier armor or cargoes can be carried. The heating capacity being greater, the ship can travel faster ' or farther. It is yet to be learned what improvements the Ger¬ mans have introduced into their fur¬ naces and what are the disadvantages of masut. Corn as Fuel. A bulletin issued by the experiment station cf the University of Nebraska, giving results of tests of the value of corn as fuel, shows that the burning of corn may be a proceeding greatly to the farmer’s benefit when the price of corn is low and that of coal high. The tests showed that one pound of screened Wyoming coal, costing $6.65 per ton, evaporated 1.9 times as much water in a steam boiler as could be evaporated by one pound of a good grade of yellow dent corn on the ear, not thoroughly dry. The following figures show the value of corn per bushel as fuel when coal of the same variety as that used in the tests is sell¬ ing at the prices given: ■ Coal .per ton.$4.?7 $5.41 $5.95 $G.49 $7.11 $7.57 $8.11 Corn per 9 HA 11 12 13 14 15 bus,