THE MOTHER LODE IDEAT-^iylTHthe revival of gold-mining f(\f\~iz3 we constantly hear ul inquiiies IIM^II; almost all over the world about

the great mother lode of California. The jforeign investor wishes to know more jabont this mineral belt, the fame of which jhas spread everywhere— what is its ex-tent, the character of its ores and thepossibility of favorable returns for moneyexpended. That he has a very indefi-nite idea of the character of the motherlode is not to be wondered at, and itis not jsurprising also that this term to his mindmeans everything of any real value in jCalifornia. But at home, however, wherewe have snch a good opportunity of ac- j

quiring some definite conception of what jis meant by this term itis surprising thatthere should exist such an indistinct ideaof its significance.

Such is the magic influence of the termthat not only does every miner in themain gold belt of California feel assured \u25a0

tbat his property is more valuable if he

can trace the mother lode through it,buteven in far Siskiyou or San Diego or inthe hot stretches of the desert the pros-pector, when he has found something ap-parently valuable asks himself ifitcannotbe possible that his property is on a con-tinuation of the great lode of the centralpart of the State. He sometimes goes sofar as to lay down a rule on the map for jthe purpose of seeing if the course of the jlode in the central counties willnot carry Iitnear his discovery.

Descriptions of mines sent abroad fortbe purpose of making sales are sure toattract much more attention if it is as-serted that they are on the mother lode.Every new camp of any importance is sureto have its mother lode. We frequentlyhear of itlately at Randsburg.

Those who are familiar with the origi-nal mother lode know its really uniquecharacter as a. continuous mineral bell of jremarkable richness, but they also know jthat because a mine is on this belt it isnot necessarily a bonanza, is not neces- jsarily even a paying mine; that here as |elsewhere are met the same difficulties in •

mining, the same low grade or barren iveins; in fact, the same chances of success Ior failure which characterize mining |everywhere. Aman who has a compre- Ihensive knowledge of the character of the jgold deposits of California as a whole {knows that there are just as good minesoff the so-called mother lode as on it,and 1that the undue exaltation of tnis lode notonly injures its permanent reputation, butworks against the mines in other parts :of the State.

As was to be expected when gold wasfirst discovered here attention was givenexclusively to the placers, but these, how- jever, could not last. As far as we know Ithe term mother lode was first used in El !Dorado County when the miners began to ;

leave the shallow placers and seek for the |source of the gold. Ithad frequently beenfound in quartz bowlders, and conse- iquently its original occurrence mmt be jlooked for in the great veins of quartz jwhich ran through the country.

While these veins were found to con-tain gold over a great area of the SierraNevada foothills it was soon recognizedtbat there was one remarkable mineralzone stretching from Mariposa Countynorthward. For over 100 miles the pros-pector traced this remarkable lode, some-times able to walk on its croppings formiles at a stretch. For long distancesthe fissure occupied by the most import-ant vein had the appearance of being con- itinuous, and while contracting here and \u25a0

there was characterized at certain spots bygreat "blowouts" of quartz affecting eventhe topography of the country. Thegreatest body of quartz exposed aboveground is fonnd on tho Mariposa grantinMariposa County. Itrises eighty feet,with a length of 100 and a thickness at

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the base of twenty feet. Itis known as !the May Rock and presents a most strik- ;ing appearance. Carson Hill, QuartzMountain and other eminences are due to iaggregates of quartz veins. The lode doesnot always occur as one great vein, forthrough much of its length it consists ofnumerous veins scattered ina belt of blackslate through which course dikes of green-stone parallel to the stratification. Thusit has happened that while the wholewestern slope of the Sierra Nevada ismore or less mineralized, the geologic Istructure is such that ithas favored great- Jer development of fissures and subse- Jquent quartz veins along a comparatively jnarrow line.

Everything in nature seems to haveconspired to make this belt one of the jgreatest centers of mining in the world.Inthe first place itis situated in a health- iful, pleasant region, well watered andwith plenty of timber, and comparativelyeasy of access. The geological formationknown as the Mariposa slates, which thelode follows almost continuously fromMariposa through the intervening coun-ties to the south fork of the American jRiver,

( has a- comparatively regular dip Iand strike in general parallel to tne lineOf the Sierras, thus contrasting strongly jwith much of the mntaphoric rock in!other parts of the State. The disturbing {forces which folded the slates and the jdices which have been intruded parallel 'with them have given opportunity for the |formation of regular and extensive fissures jwhich were subsequently penetrated by !the mineral-bearing solutions as they per- !colated upward and filled with the goid- ibearing quartz. Ithardly seems possible jthat the oottom of the slates will'ever be Ireached in mining, and it is more than"likely that gold willstill remain when the

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greatest depths which can be worked withprofit .ball have been reached. Naturecould hardly have done better for us alongthe great gold belt of California.- Itispossible that if she had been more prodi-gal the gold would, have been obtained soeasily that it would not have the value forus which itnow has. JJJ

What do we understand then by the'

mother lode? AsIhave used it, and as Ibelieve itwas originally used, itis applied ito this continuous narrow belt of veins \u25a0

lyingin black slate or on the contact of!slate with greenstone or other eruptives, iand extending through Mariposa, Tuol-umne, Calaveras, Amador and El Doradocounties. Iknow, however, that thisdefinition will not suit all. But thenwhat is the need of any term at all, ifwemake it cover everything in the State?Nature has certainly produced, in tliecounties mentioned, a mineral belt whichis geologically distinct, but the individualmines there are no richer, or more easilyworked, or more permanent, than else-where in the State. Those who are famil-iar with the ground can cite as rich minesoff this belt as on it. The man whosemine is not situated on tills comparativelynarrow zone may not be satisfied with thisdefinition, nor those who are interested inmines in Nevada, Placer, Butte cr Plumascounties.

Thesmple fact of it is that mines inthese counties are just as rich and valu-

r able in every way, have just as regularjand permanent ore bodies as those farther jsouth, but tbe geological conditions are j

Isomewhat different, and unless weapply I• the term mother lode to the whole min-eral belt the length of the State we shouldlimit it in some way, and, in so doing,that given is the original and only naturalone.

The miner in Siskiyou need not worry

about the mother lode. We know therearc good mines there, and if his happens

!to be one of them, or if, on tbe contrary,!ithappens to be a poor one, itis not goingj to help him any to have iton the mother| lode. To be sure, in making a sale abroad!where the real character of the mineralibelt of California is not known and only

tne mother lode has been heard of itmaymake some difference where the mine issituated, but this will not always bo thecase. When the foreign investor finds

! that he can be cheated in buying minessituated on the mother lode, as he canelsewhere, the mere name will cease to

have any direct money value.It is coming to be realized that Califor-

nia's wealth in gold is even greater thanhas been supposed. The mineral beltstretches the whole length of the State,although apparently cut off by some of| the larger valleys. It is probable; that, with the exception of the gold-bearingjquartz veins at Bodie and a few other( minor localities the deposits belong toabout the same period of mineralization.They are, hence, all genetically related,having many characteristics in common.The recent important discoveries of goldn the Mojave desert, taken together withour wider knowledge of its occurrence anddistribution, impress upon us the fact thatthere is no immediate danger of Californiareaching its maximum production and

; then declining. As the richer and more| easily worked deposits known at present:become exhausted there is still a certainty, that others will be found to take theirjplaces, while the ever growing improve-|ment in the methods of mining and in thej extraction of gold from low-grade oresmakes it possible to work the immense

!bodies of low-grade quartz which are|known to exist. Gold is not so rare as weIsometimes think it is. Careful examina-j tion has shown that it is present in very

J small Quantities inmost all rocks and inIsea water. In these conditions it is prob- :| ably forever inaccessible.

It is very probable that as the globe| cooled down from its original liquidcon-Idition to form the solid rocks this metal| was nowhere concentrated in the form in

which it is found to-day but dissemi-Inated, as Ihave before said. Ages of

convulsion followed the primary cooling,Ichange succeeded change, periods ofquiet,|now of volcanic outburst with th^ sinkingj and uplifting of great ranges of moun-j tains. The history of our State is in noIway peculiar. Its mountains form but a, part of the great Cordilleran system run-;ning the whole length of the westernicoasts of North and South America.IMinerals are found the whole length ofj these mountains, one in excess here, an-j other there. The country embraced byCalifornia is but a small part of th's greatstretch of mineral-bearing mountains. Itwonla sometimes appear from the pres- jent-day knowledge of the earth that thegreat gold deposits had been found, andthat the total production might lessen ina few years. We must learn, however,from the recent discoveries in Alaska that

imany possibilities yet exist where per-Ihaps we least expect them.

Much has been said about the depth towhich the gold ore3of California extend.The question arises in every new camp asithits in Randsburg, Do the veins go

down? What reason have we to doubttbat they go down? There is but one im-portant district in the State where they

Ihave seemed to give out, and there the| conditions are very peculiar. The veins; certainly go down, and if rich on the sur-i face there is no reason to suppose that oni the average they willbe poorer in depthas far as they can be opened. The pros-pector who has toiled miles over the hot

;desert and at last uncovered a little veinof good ore should not. deceive himself

1 with the thought that it will certainlyj grow better with depth. Itmay do so,and again it may not. Experience only

!willshow.though the life of the prospector is a

j hard one, he is also a free man and canIcome and go as he pleases, and, although| money is needed for the successful work-;ing of many great discoveries, yet he neednot generally go hungry. Good prospectsare always indemand. The great trouble

i generally is that with the thought of thepossible wealth buried below he is apt todemand several times what the would-beinvestor is warranted in paying.

Great as is the mother lode with its un-\u25a0 told millions still hidden, yet opportuni-j tics for new discoveries at the present timoi are greater in other and less known partsjof .the State. These other regions arei coming to the front, and in time the ques--1 tion will not be asked with such earnest-

ness about any particular mine, is it on| the mother lode, but what is iton its ownj merits? We can give the aue proportionof attention to the mother lode which it

Ideserves, a gold belt which for magnitudeiand favorable situation cannot be equaledj in the world, but at the same time realize

that itis composed of innumerable veins,j each having a character of its own somej being good and some poor, as in other' district?. The success of mining therewith the frequently occurring low-grade

j ores itis most closely connected with theskill and care shown by those in charge

THE OATS OE SIENA.A Paradise of Felines 'If This OldI

Italian City.Strangers in Siena often speak of the

great quantity of pet cats to be seen there.At each doorway opening directly on thestreet tils a pet cat, staid and respectable, !with a ribbon or some piece of color tiedabout her neck toshow that she belongs toa human family. Workmen in their littleshops have a cat to keep them company,

jsometimes sitting on a low counter at thewindow. All are within reach of any

! teasing hana; but ,Inever saw a catchased or teased iv any way, and it is

!plain that they feel perfectly safe and did|not expect "any injury. Personally, Ii found t.em unsociable, and tbat when I| spoke to them they took no notice and|made no reply, even when Ilearned anIItalian word or two to say to them. They

were happy at home, and did not need to!make new iriends.J InNaples there are men whose business, it is to feed cais tvery day at noon. Peo-j pie with economical tables subscribe a!small sum to have their cats provided foriby the cats' food man. The cats begin toIfeel quite hungry about noon, and strollout from the shops, in all those crowded| streets to watch for their dinner. I<ould

j not imagine what was the excitementj among them the first day Iwas out at thathour. Presently Isaw a part of the dailydistribution on bust inn Chiaja. Therewere cats there who feemed to watch whatwas dealt out to them very critically, as ifthey intended to make a complaint iftheir dinner was not as good as itought

; to be.liiFlorence the cats enjoy the freedom

they love, and never didIsee one. chased

or looking timid and anxious as if uncer-tain where to run to. Iremember a cat Iused to pass near the old: Medici Churchof San Spirito. \u25a0 She seemed to live on oneof the upper floors of a large house, andshe could only look up to her window bysitting in the middle of the street. Shewould never answer my greeting, but con-tinued to look up as if watching herfriends, or perhaps signaling to them thatshe was ready to go home.

There is a special cat < hurch in Florence,San Lorenzo, Mh*church in which so manyMedici are buried. Idon't know whethertnat family was particularly fond of catsor tow it happened, but. the cloisters ofSan Lorenzo are reserved for homeless cats,whether they come there by themselves orare brought by people who want to dis-pose of them. Ihad read in my guide-book that these animals are fed every dayat noon from scraps brought inby peoplefrom the neighborhood, soIwas particularto time my first visit at noon, and wasdisappointed to hear that for some reasonthe break ast hour had been changed to

9 a. m.There is a large raised green center in

the cloisters, on which grow some shrubsand trees; and asleep under the bushesor loitering around the stone ledge thatinclosed the green were a dozen or twoof the charily cats. Legend says they arewitches, who have consented to take thisharmless shape and to keep out of mis-chief. They were a rather dilapidated-looking lot, but stiil interesting, becauseall cat-< have a great deal of individuality,and, wben possible, of independence also.Icannot envy the horses and dogs of

Italy and certainly not the birds; but ifIbad to be changed into an animal Imightchoose to be an Italian cat.— Our AnimalFriends.

EXPENSIVE BRASS BANDS.Over Ten Thousand Dollars for a Jew-

eled Cornet.

The writer was recently accorded theprivilege of a peep into the museum at-tached to the factory of one of the largestfirms of brass instrument makers inLon-don. Here are to be seen types, fac-similesand models ofevery kind of musical in-strument that the mind of man has everdevised, invented or produced.

Inone corner Is a duplicate ot what isbelieved to be the most costly presenta-tion cornet ever produced. It was madeto the order of the late Czarof Russia, andis of sterling silver, richly graven with va-riousl devices, among which the arras ofthe mperial bouse of Romanoff figure

conspicuously.The whole of the ornamentation is of

beaten gold filigree work, and the "bell"of the instrument is thickly me ustedwith rubies and emeralds. Its net valueis a trifle over 2000 guineas.

Amelancholy interest attaches to a bat-tered and blood-stained bugle which waspicked up on the field of Isandiwana. Inaddition to the dark patches

—which were

once splashes of wet blood sundry frag-ments of woolly hair were adhering to thebell of the instrument when first found, apretty conclu-j.ve indication that the gal-lant owner had used it ina last desperateeffort to beat off his relentless foe*. Itmaybe that some ebony-skinned Zulu stillwanders about withan indentation in hisskull whom it would be difficult to con-vince thai "music hath charms."

Near to this interesting relic is a fac- |simile of a set of drums whicu were madefor the new Rhodesia Horse. The peculi-

'arity lies in the fact that the cases are ofaluminum, a precaution rendered neces-sary by the number of white ants that in-fest that country. The other instrumentsare of brass, silver-plated, and the wholeband costs some £350.

The above is, of course, a comparativelymodest turnout. For real itorgeousness inbrass bands itis necessary to inspect someof the costly and magnificent sets of in-struments turned out for Eastern poten- Itates. The bands of even the smartest ofour crack cavalry corps are absolutely notin it, so far as elegance of appearance is

'concerned, with the private bands of some jof the Indian tributary Princes, althoughprobably the latter would nave to give tueiormer several points if it came to*, amusical contest between them.

The private band of the Rao ofOutcb,for instance, cost originally £900 andrenews most of the instruments every fouror fiveyears. The ti_er skin used by theRao's big drummer, which was sentover here to be prepared and mounted,was taken from an animal killed by hisHighness, ana measured over sevenfeet in length. It is lined through-

( out with heavy corded crimson silk,!and the brute's eyes are simulated

oy a pair of big yellow diamonds.Another very fine band was made three

Iyears ago to the order of the late Shah ofPersia. Allthe instruments were of pure|silver

—which, by the way, does not give

iforth so good a sound as brass, besides< being heavier to handle— inlaid withgold.|The total cost of this band de luxe was aItrifle under 3000 guineas. A very differ--1 ent kind of band was that made last year,!by the same firm, for the Mimkish In-jdians, a tribe of savages living near AlertiBay, in British Columbia. The -band isnearly all drum, and the mouthpieces of

!tho few brass instruments are tipped withjindiarubber, to obviate the inconvenienceof applying metal to the lips in.a ter-n perature of some thirty or lorty degrees

'\u25a0 beiow zero.A curious offer was received a short

time ago from the Emperor of Morocco,It was for eighty clarionets for one band.As the instruments in question were all inone key, itis probable that they were tobe played in unison. The effect upon anoverage man of eighty band clarionetsblown simultaneously would probably beto create in him a wild desire to take tothe woods and become anaborigine. Evento imagine such an ear-piercing combi-nation sets one's tympanum quivering. —Answers. EBSGw

THE LARGEST BBIDGE.A Great Structure Recently Erected

Over tho Danube River.The longest railroad bridge in Europe,

and, in fact, the world, was recentlyopened to traffic with great ceremony.The new railroad bridge over the DanubeRiver at Czeruavoda is one of the mostimjartant technical achievements of re-cent date. For more than nine miles thisbridge crosses the Danube proper and theso-called inundation which is annuallyunder water for a certain period of time.The largest spans are over the main cur-rent of the river, there being one of 020feet and four of 455 feet each. The totallength of the bridge proper, without anyapproaches, is 13,325 feet, while thelargest railroad bridges in the world meas-ure as follows: Tay bridge, Scotland.10,725 feet; Mississippi biidge at Mem-phis. 10.600 feet; the Forth bridge, Scot-land, 7800 feet; the Morody bridge, in Ga-licia, 4800 feet, and the bridge over theVolga, near fcysran, 4700 feet.

Tne clear height oi the bridge over themain channel is so calculated '.hat even athigh water the largest vessels sailing onthe Danube may pass under it. Tne clearheight of the distance from high-watermark, whichis taken at 35 leet above low-water mark, measure* 105 leet to the low-e.-t ratters of the superstructure. Thecaissons upon which the foundations ofthe bridge piers rest reach to rock bottomor 115 feet below high-water mark. TheRoumanian Government has just causeto be proud of this magnificent structure,wbich enables travelers from London toConstantinople or India to shorten theirtrip'by fully sixteen hours. The promiseof diverting: transcontinental mails fromotber lines was tbe most potent factor inbringing about the construction of thisbridge over the Danube on the part ofRoumania.

—Atlanta Constitution.The "Prisoner of Chillon" was Francois

de Bonnivard, a Frenchman, who residedat Geneva; Switzerland, ana making him-sell obnoxious to Charles 111 ,Duke ofSavoy, by hi* poltical opinions," was im-prisoned for six years ina dungeon ot theChateau ac Chillon, a castle ut the eastend of the Lake of Geneva. He was after-ward released by the Kernes-, who were atwar withSavoy.

MINES& MINERS

S. K. Thornton, vice-president of. the Cali-!fornia Miners* Association, is meeting withmuch success In his present zealous efforts toorganize new branch county associations, tostimulate those already organized and tobring them all into co-operation with theSiate Association, which needs their support.Heis making a tour of the mining countiesas an officer and representative of the associa-tion, sent out by the executive committee,and spent the last week in El Dorado County.He believes that a total membership of 10,000can be secured in the State. There is nothingbut good wishes anywhere for the success ofthe association, which has so completely wonthe confidence of the mining and the generalpublic by its high and representative char-acter and tha remarkable success which ithasachieved in securing legislation inbehalf ofthe industry.

With the comparatively recent discoverythat the veins of the mother lode are apt to beas rich at the greatest depths reached asabove, deep mining has become a matter ofmuch importance to California. Tne increasedgold production of the mother lode region inthe future willcome from operations at deeperlevels as wellas from the development of newmines. The Bendigo field in Australia hastaken the lead Indeep gold mining,and justnow holds the record.

The Dlestelhorst dredger on the Klamath,which ls one of the interesting attempts atdredge river mining, isnow near the mouthof Scott River inSiskiyou County. One of theliveliest sections of Siskiyou County now is onThompson Creek, where there are many hy-draulic miucs in fulloperation, including theNanetta B and the Seattle. The hydraulicmines at Oro Flno, Siskiyou County, are Infullblast, with plenty of water for the giant* andpromise of water until July. A Chinese com-pany has in operation the Garrett mine atHumbug Bar, which was purchased last fall.

TrinityCounty ls having a bigbut legiti-mate mining boom. There is greater activitythan ever before in placer mining and thecountry is lullofprospectors. TrinityCounty Jnow leads in hydraulic mining and has roomlor much greater development. On the East jFork of the Trlaity many new placer mines Ihave been opened this winter, old claims have |been suceessiuliy worked and much attentionls being given to quartz mining. Cannon & \Hanley of French Gulch in a quartz location Inear Castella have a 20-foot ledge of freemilling ore. Hedges & Pelletreau Sr. havesold the Highland placer mine, opposite Tay- |lors Flat, to Red Bluff men. The property Icomprises about seventy acres of gravel, with !water right. The claim Is a high bench Iand had teen overlooked for years until the ipresent owners took possession and beganworking the mine.

The mill at the Northern Belle mine, SierraCounty, will soon be started up. after a longseason of enforced idleness.— At the Bald !Mountain extension mine, in this county, the jnorth tunnel is being pushed ahead at the rate

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of forty fee*, a week. IiIs expected that the;channel willbe reached in another 200 feet.— iThe Sunnyside mine, in Plumas County,which ls owned in the East, is expected tosoon undergo development on an extensivescale.— tunnel at the Dardanelles mine, |Placer County, is being reopened.— Operations |

have begun at the Gray Ktgle mine. PlacerCounty, and a large force of men has been putto work.

J. H.Challen and S*n Jose people have In-corporated the Topaz Centennial mine, near jSpanish Ranch, Butte County, and it is now Ibeing worked, a bedrock tunnel being devel- ioped with good results. -Mr. Warner of SanFrancisco has bonded the Buchanan gravel Imine, Butte County, for six months. He willrun a tunnel to the channel.— ln Calaveras JCounty there is activity everywher*s. The |California Exploration Compauy has put a Igaso. hoist in the Gold Hill mine.— At theGwin work Is prosecuted on the 1300 and i1400 levels, the drifts being driven north andsouth from the shaft at ooth levels. Theminers are stoplng and uprasing in Ml driftsand taking out rock sufficient to keep theforty stamp** running night and day.—Theshaft Inths E-peranza is down to 400 feet ingood ore. Work is being resumed in theKeystone, and the Great Western has beenstarted up with a full force of men.— AttheBurgess development work goes rapidly onwith a force of fourteen men.—Preparationsare being made at the Valr tunnel, nearMokelumne Hill, to utilize the water from theMokelumne Hilland Campo Seco Canal Com-pany's ditch for power to run the air-compressor and machine drills which will beput in. ,;.."•:

The old Jeffries mine In El Dorado Countywill soon have a ten-stamp grave: mill inoperation.— The Starlight in this count** istaking out rich ore from the 270 level.—Atwenty-stamp millIs being erected by French&Bell on their mine at the head of Crom-becker Creek, Nevada County.— The Millikenmine in this county willbe Inoperation againIn a month. The burned timbers aro beingremoved—Machinery is en route from Emi-

grant Gap to the Le Dvand the Nancy Hanksmines, Nevada County, which are owned byDrs. McMahon and Dow ofSan Jose.

The shaft in the Potazuba mine, AmadorCounty, is to be sunk 200 feet funher, to adepth ol 450 feet.— A great amount of develop-ment wont is going on throughout this county,which has a great future fore it. The SouthEureka is sinking a new shaft, the Gold Hillis being exploited bya company under a two-year bond and negotiations for the sale of thePrhe mine at Plymouth are under way.—TheTripp and the Roaring Gimlet mines, on theMokelumne River, will soon be opened up.The new hoist at the Amador Queen No. 1iscompleted. The machinery is adapted to adepth of 2000 feet.— Amador Record, pub-lished at Sutter Creek, has issued a specialedition of forty pages, devoted to the miningInterests of the county, ft is very interestingand willbe valued by all who are interestedinnotalone Amador County but inCaliforniaminingaffairs.

An executive committee of twenty to pro-mote the proposed National Gold MiningCon-vention at Denver had been appointed by theChamber of Commerce, Miners' Bureau, Min-ingExchange and Real Estate Exchange ofDenver— Acompany has been formed to con-nect the town! of the Cripple Creek districtby a railroad. This would further stimulatethe development of Cripple Creek by increas-ingand cheapening the facilities forgettingore to the smelters.

Besides the smaller orders inhand, the min-ing machinery department of the Union IronWorks isnow engaged on a100-slamp millforAustralia, a 20-stamp mill for Mexico, a 10---stamp mill for this State and a large hoistingplant for the Anaconda copper mine, addi-

jtional to the hoists put ln last year. This or-jder Includes two sets of hoisting engines,with 30-inch stroke, operating a flat steel ropea haif-iuch thick and eight inches wide, whichwillhoist four tons of ore at tne rate of 40feet per second. This isa dup'icate of the bighoist put ln by this firm last year and is equalto the biggest In the world. A similar hoistwas supplied .o the Homestake mine in theBlack Hi.ls last year. Twoother sets of hoist-ingengines are being built for undergroundoperation in the Anaconda.Itis predicted that this spring willsee twice

as mauy men prospecting In the Black Hillsas were ever there before. The Old Dominioncopper mine at Globe, Ariz., employing 300,men, has closed. It is reported that a nickeldeposit has been found in Nevada County,thi-.State. An asphalt refinery is to be builtat Ventura.

Colonel Hardy is workingnight and day ona beach mine on the Del Norte County coast.The mine was recently bought from EdwinGates and has been supplied with a largerplant. Albert Mailman ol Gross Valley hasgone to China to take charge of some miningoperations. San Francisco manufacturers ofmining machinery are now tl.llnga goodmany orders from Southern Oregon, which issnaring the gei.eral activity ingold mining.More extensive hydraulic operations thanever before attempted in that region areunder way,and there is a great deal of pros-pecting for ledges with many discoveries.

HOW COLFAX WAS BEATEN.A Good Story Told of the Late Joseph I

* I*. McCullagh,

One of tbe best stories of the late JosephB. McCullagd is his own account of howhe prevented the renomination of Schuy- !ler Colfax for Vice-President in 1872, says !the St. Louis Republic. '\u25a0/.'\u25a0\u25a0

As Mr. McCullagh described the event, |Colfax had treated! tho newspaper repre- jsentatives who had legitimate businesswith him in Washington very shabbily,and thus prep ired the way for a hostiledemonstration on their part. Mr.. Mc-Cullagh look up the cause of tne Wash-ington correspondents and at the Phila-delphia convention was chosen to leadtheir movement against Colfax.

The first step was to secure a rival can- ididate on whom to concentrate their favor-

',able work. At a council of war held iust

'before the convention i>D9ned Henry Wil-son was chosen. McCullagh then went to |lobn W. Forney, the editor of the Phila- idelphia Press, and said:

"We want you to help ns beat Colfax." I"But," protested Mr. Forney, "Ihave j

promised Mr. Colfax that Iwould bring jtbe Press out in his favor. lam not par-ticularly a Colfax man, but Imust keepmy word.".

"Well," said McCullaeh, "willyou letme run the nolitical matter in your news jcolumns? You boom Colfax editorially and |Iwillquietly attend to our man through |the rest of the paper."

Forney consented to this, and McCul-lagh applied himself to work on the localand telegraph paces of the Press. Eveiymorning the paper appeared with an cdi- itorial leader in favor of Colfax, while else-

where were published special telegramsfrom all over the country, describing en-thusiastic feeling in favor of Henry Wil-son lor the Vice-Presidency. Th * localcolumns made the most of every Wilsonpreference expressed by arriving dele-gates at the hotels and' elsewhere, andthere were reports of railway trains hav-ing been

'polled and -indicating an over-whelming desire for Wilson's nomination.All this had a vastly, greater influenceupon the publicmind than Forney's edi-torial panegyrics.

Just at the right juncture McCullaghraked up an ola letter that Colfax hadwritten to ths New -York Tribune inISO,announcing that at the completion of hispending official term he would not be acandidate tor renomination, it being hisdetermination to retire permanently frompolitical life. This letter was written atthe time when the war upon Grant was at |its height, and McCullagh shrewdly real- jized that it would be accepted by the idelegates to Philadelphia as Colfax's pub- \u25a0

lie repudiation of Grant and his adminis-tration. In less than two hours the jletter was in type and was circulated bymeans of handbills all over Philadelphia, jIn this way the impression was created !that in the very midst of General Grunt'ssorest trouble-* his lieutenant had volun-tarily assisted in the conspiracy to killhim. Ithad its effect; «o, when the con-vention met, Colfax'? hold was thoroughlyunsettled. Grant was nominated by ac-clamation. The first ballot for Vice-President result in a stand off betweenColfax and Wilson, some Southern Stateshaving thrown idle complimentary votes.

McCullagh stood on tbe platform nearthe presiding officer's desk. He knewthere was likely to be a stampede, andthat if the States were recognized in al-phabetical order Wilson might yet beslaughtered; stampeders invariably go asihey are led, and Alabama was liable tochange to Colfax.

Alabama was already on her feet clam-oring forrecognition.

"Recognize Virginia," whispered Mc-Cullagh to Judge Settle, president of theconvention, and Judge Settle did so. -

Virginia changed her vote from Colfaxto Wilson, as had been arranged in ad-vance. That started a hurrah, and thestampede was turned the way McCullaghwanted.

Colfax's private secretary stood just be-hind McCullagh at that moment. WhenVirginia announced her change McCul-lagh turned and said:

"You may go and tell Colfax he isbeaten, and that the newspaper men didit."

This performance McCullagh always re-parded as one of the cleverest politicalstrokes he had ever made.

A NEW SOUP SPOON.A Desired Improvement Which Will Be

Appreciated by Moustached Diners.Destiny is shaping the end of the man

who foryears has been breaking hearts byhis efforts to fetch the point of his soupspoon "head on between the wings of hismoustache. He may refuse to be shaped,of course, and may continue to dislocatehis shoulder at each mouthful and towreck a frillof his neighbor's sleeve ateach hoisting cf his elbow, but he can nolonger in fashionable houses j;et the pointof his SDOon into his mouth.

An.l the reason is lite that which thelittle boy gave for refusing to give the coreof his apple. "There wasn't going to beany core," and there isn't any point to the inew soup spoon. A round spoon, not so !very unlike a miniature ladle in its shapeas to entirely escape the calumny, has ;been eagerly adopted by those who like !up-to-date services, and is now beingbought at the rate of thousands a week bythose who follow fashion.

Very heavy single spoons of the nrn*style were sold lor Christmas gifts at $4 Iand $5 each, but lighter ones of the usual ]weicnt for soup spoons are sold at from i$30 to $50 a dozen. A chrysanthemumpattern, made exclusively by a Union- isquare firm ofsilversmiths, has ceen enor-mously successful, over $10,000 worth ofspoons and similar small tableware havingbeen sol. lby them in a few days.

To make a rather esthetic comptnionfor the new soup spoon, that it may not |go forth into the worldalone, so to speak,there is to be the debut this week of a posi-tively new pastry fork.

A "pie fork" they would probably callthis in the land where Ralph Waldo Em- Ierson, a favorite non, is reverenced for

| having once answered a man who askeaIhim ifhe really ate pie at breakfast, "But,my dear sir, what is pie for?" .' \u25a0

---A "pantry fore" itis called here, but by

even a more euphemistic name yet it

would be an interesting invention and ahigh novelty. The wavy edge, which hasmade a certain sort of bread knife famous*,has teen applied to the pastry fork, to-gether with a curving shape, which makesitpossible lor even a nervous man to keepthe tip of his fork on his plate and sawthrough an obstinate bit. of puff pastry.

To le spared the old familiar agony ofseeing the soft and melting heart of his"sweetie" go sailing away, to make a cran-berry island on his next neighbor's whitesatin lap is worth more than $2 a forK toany man.— New V *rk Herald.

; *-—•——•

Two Danish officers who recently ex-plored the Pamir country north of theHimalayas found there unknown tribeswho are fire-worshipers and ignorant

of the use. of money. Their animals areall dwarfed, the cows being the size ofponies, the donkeys of large dogs, and thesheep of small poodles. Women are soldfor fiveor six cows or fifteen sheep apiece.

Their chief article of hatter is furs..

THE SAN FRANCISCO CALL; SUNDAY, APRIL 25; 1897.30

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