Evening star. [volume], September 27, 1908, Page 2, Image 46

About Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972

Image provided by: Library of Congress, Washington, DC

                
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POLICEMAN WEST
Tells the Story of Gen.
Grant's Arrest in 1872 for
Fast Driving ? President
Was Satisfied to Go to the
Station House ? Gave $20
Collateral, Which Was Declared
Forfeited ? Commended
the Policeman for
His Attention to Duty, and
Would Not Allow the Man
to Suffer for Arresting Him
?The General's Love for
Horses and His Pleasure
in Driving Were the Cause
cf His Trouble?In After
Years Was Always Genial
and Friendly to the Colored
Policeman.
LIVING in retirement in Washing
ton. after thirty-five years o
service, is the only policemai
who ever arrested a President o
the. United States. Former Police
man William West is the man an<
Ulysses S. Grant was the President wh'
allowed himself to be arrested.
Gen. Grant was an ardent admirer of i
good horse and loved nothing better thai
to sit behind a pair of spirited animals
He was a good driver, and sometimes *"Ie
them out" to fry their mettle. In 1872
however, there were speed regulations
but one day the general forgot them Ir
the enthusinasm occasioned by the brighi
sunlight, the pleasant weather and th?
good condition which his team exhibited
Policeman West placed him under arresi
and took him to the station house. Th?
President deposited J1U at the desk. Hi:
name was entered on the police blotter
~ ... t i. ? 11 i 4. ?_
IIUI III Uitr moiiiui^ litr liimru LU apptitr il
court and the deposit was forfeited.
During the many succeeding years 01
his active police duty West, who is a col
ored man, was very reticent about his
connection with the affair. Since his re
tirement, however, he has decided to lei
the public know the true story of tin
arrest, as the reports previously published
lie says, have been scattered and meage;
in detail. His story follows:
Must Do His Whole Duty.
"I was appointed to the metropolitai
police force the 25th of July. 1871. am
was immediately assigned to duty in th<
sixth precinct station, which was thei
located at the intersection of 9th stree
and New York avenue. I.ieut. Adolphu
Kckloff was in charge, and he was note<
TWENTY-FIVE
Methods of. Finding
the Diamonds ? A
Look at the Great Kimberley
Pipe?Underground
in the Dutoitspan?Blasting
for Jewels?A Great
Diamond Syndicate Managed
by Americans.
iCorrrlrht. IPOS, l>y Frank O. Carpenter.)
Special Corre*i>nn<leuce of Tlie Star.
KIMBERLET.
K1.MHERI.EY is tlie I.ord's great
est treasure vault. Stored awa;
here in live mighty pipes o
liatd rock, going down no on
knows h?>w deep Into the earth, i:
a blue i a> sprinkled with diamonds. A1
r< ady more ?.v<ntoo,oud worth o
T.r?- ii.iiv Mimt'.s .;avc men 'alien Iron
them, a till t hei e are still hundreds of mil
lions in sight. For many years the sale:
have amounted to from twenty to thtrt;
million dollars, anil there are today lylnj
out here in the open fields, still mixei
with 11. :s rlajr, diamonds which wouh
have set Aladdin crazy or made covetou
tne heart of Sinbad the Sailor.
These mir.es lie right i lose to Kimber
ley. They form a necklace around it, am
that one of the most valuable necklace
oil earth. The necklace is decorated anet
every year with #i"i.000.000 worth of bril
liants. which are taken from there mines
They are allowed to blaze away for
lew months um'er the African sun. an
are then shipped o(T to dazzle the draw
in? rooms of all parts of the globe.
The town is a strange one to be th
capital of such wealth. It lias no palace
nor skyscrapers, and. like the jewels c
Portia, its treasures are kept In caskei
of lead. The offices of the diamond tru:
themselves are no better than many
factory In the T'nited States, and
few thousand dollars would equal tl
cost of any building Inside the towi
The most of the houses are bungalows <
brick roofed with galvanized iron. The
ail have wide porches about them, ar
many have gardens filled with beautifi
flowers. The city has wide streets ar
amusement grounds. It has a theale
churches and hotels. Its stores are lar*
and its business Is good. The city
lighted by electricity and It has all tl
modern improvements. The water com
from the Vaal river, which is scventee
miles away.
A Bird's-Eye View of the Mines.
All of the mines are within a rifle she
of the center of Klmberley. If wo dim
^r%ipr
in his day as an ofllcial who believed in
enforcing the law. He would always
stand by his men when they made an
arrest, no matter who the lawbreaker
might be. He assigned me to a beat
some blocks north and west of the station
house, and impressed on me the necessity
of doing my whole duty. He
called my attention to the alleged infractions
of the speed law in the neighborhood
of 13th and M streets, which
was then in the aristocratic section of
the city.
"Several of the residents of the neighborhood
had complained . of horsemen
who speeded their horses along 13th
street while driving to and from tne
Brightwood race track. This old track
was the recognized speedway for horsemen
in those days, and as 13th street,
was the best driving thoroughfare the
trip to and from the track was made
over it.
"President T'lysses S. Grant was one
of the drivers who used 13th street, and
many a time he engaged in a speed
contest with his friends. In fact, spurts
of speed were frequent occurrences,
and the street was at times dangerous
for women a id children.
"Citizens complained time and again
to the police about the conditions prevailing
along their street on account of
the furious racing going on, and orders
were Issued for the police to slop the
racers."
That is the way matters stood when
Lieut. KcklofT placed Policeman West
* on the beat. About this time a woman
i and a six-year-old child were Knocked
f down by a swiftly driven team and
badly injured. Policeman West hurried
to the scene, but the driver of the team
3 had made good his escape. The people
0 in the neighborhood were very much
excited over the affair, and were loud
a in their exclamations against tile racing
persons and the police.
Stopped President Grant.
t As the citizens who had collected
!. were discussing the accident another
, bevy of racers appeared on the scene.
1 Policeman West held up his hand for
t them to stop. One carriage stopped,
; and that contained President Grant and
some friends. Grant was driving a pair
! of fast steppers and he had some diff*culty
in halting them, but this he mani
aged to do. He drove to where West
i was standing, surrounded by the indig
, nant citizens.
, "Well, officer, what do you want with
me?"
"I want to inform you. Mr. President,
f that you are violating the law by speed
ing along this street. Your fast driving.
s sir. has set the example for a lot of other
- gentlemen. It is endangering the lives of
t the people who have to cross the street
5 in tlds locality." said Officer West, "and
I. only this evening a lady was knocked
r down by one of these racing teams."
"I am very sorry," said President
Grant, "and I'll promise that hereafter
1 will hold my team down to the regui
lation speed: and, by the way, is the lady
j who was run down seriously hurt?"
The officer informed the President of
the extent of the young woman's inju11
ries. and Gen. Grant, again asserting that
t In the future he would observe the speed
s laws, drove away.
i The next evening Policeman West was
i MILLION DOLL
to the top of the higher buildh.gs we may
see the skeletons of the washing machines
on every side and between them
t lie vast weathering floors where the
precious earth containing the brilliants is
allowed to lay and melt. Moving to them,
from the mines, are great lines of what,
in the distance, seem to be ants. They
are marching in single Hie and are racing
with one another as they pass to and
fro. Now take your glass and you will
see that each ant is a steel car fl.led with
diamordlferous earth, and that it is flying
along under a wire cable from the
mines to the fields. These fields are called
floors. Every mine lias its own floor,
and in every direction you can see the
cars moving. The b'ack pygmies who are
handling the cars are the natives, and
the white ones on tlie outside are the
guards to see that the blacks do not
steal as tliey work.
Now turn your glass again to the mines.
y About each is a mighty pit dug out of the
f earth. That is the opening of the mine.
e the wide basin, where the earth lias been
cut away until the great rock pipe, which
s contains the blue clay and the diamonds,
" Is found.
f Pipes of Diamonds.
T'ntil these Kimborley mines were dis
covered, an ine diamonds iuuiiu wt-rw
s picked up out of gravel which lay on or
y near the surface of the earth. The Indian
5 diamonds, among which were the Kold]
noor. the Great Mogul, the Regent and ttie
OrlofT. came from alluvial washings coniS
posed of a mixture of broken sandstone,
quartz, jaspar, flint and granite. The
deposit was about twenty feet thick and
rt was covered by a few feet of black
s cotton soil. It lay near the bed of a
\ river in India not far from Golconda,
_ which was the chief city to which the
diamonds were taken and sold. The
diamonds of Brai.il were first diseovered
a in 172b. They were found in deposits of
d clay, quartz, pebbles and sand, buried
under about thirty feet of other earth.
They lay along the banks of rivers and
ie in a few cases were imbedded in sand's
stone. It was the same with the diamonds
>f of Borneo, of British Guiana. Australia
ts and California, and also of those which
it were first discovered along the Yaal
a river near here in South Africa,
a It ts now over forty years since the first
ie African diamond was found. A man
rn named O'Reilly?not the one who ran the
"?f hotel, but John O'Reilly, the hunter?
V made the first diamond discovery. It
id was when he was stopping over night
til with a Boer farmer not far off from
Kimberley. During the evening he saw
r. the children playing with some beautiful
pebbles. He admired the stones and
is took some home with him. To Ids surprise
he found one would cut glass, and
os upon showing it to a Jeweler he was told
u that it was a diamond and worth $2,500.
Two years after that another big stone
was discovered by a Hottentot who
traded it to this same Boer farmer for
>t $2,000. The Boer sold it to a diamond
b merchant and it was sent to England and
! > '* ' "- '. \ ,~K fV
:/. >.-.lv,.vi?:* '< :* .WEBSk.. ?aM/WSAall^v^
i
standing on the corner of 13th and M
streets when Jie observed a score or more
of teams literally burning up the roadway.
Tn the front ol" them all was President
Grant, and when West held up his club
for the racers to stop the general turned
into M street. Though he tugged madly
at the reins to bring his horses to a standstill.
he was going at so great a speed
that he was not able to get the animals
under control until he reached 14th street,
when he returned to the place where the
policeman '-ad signaled him. Six o'her
drivers, some of whom were prominent
officials, followed.
Arrested the President.
The President addressed the policeman
crnrwl nntnrpfllv
g\/uu ii? vu* vv*>^ *
"Do you think, officer, that I wai violating
the speed laws?"
"I do. Mr. President." replied Wept,
who says that when the general asked
him the question, he had a rare smile on
his face, and presented the look of a
schoolboy who had been caught In a
guilty act by his teacher. <
"Well." said Grant, "what do you want
me to do?"
"I cautioned you yesterday, Mr, President,"
answeerd the policeman, "about
fast driving, and you said, sir, that it
would not occur again." 1
"Did I?" mused Grant, still with a quizzical
smile on his features. "Well, I sup- ;
pose I forgot it, and that T might have
been going a little bit too fast this evening;
but hang It, officer, these animals of
mine are thoroughbreds, and there is no 1
holding them." ]
"1 am very sorry. Mr. President, to have ,
to do it. for you are the chief of the nation,
and I am nothing hut a policeman,
but duty is duty, sir. and f will have to
place you under arrest," West replied. j
"All right," cried Grant, "where do you
wish me to go with you?"
The policeman said he must go to the
station house. At the President's in vita- ,
tion the policeman took a seat in the vehicle
and the war hero questioned him ,
about himself and his antecedents. West ]
told him he had been a soldier and had ,
been at the evacuation of Richmond. Gen.
Grant told him that he would not get into .
any trouble for making the arrest, as he j
admired a man who did his duty.
Arriving at the police station the Presi- ]
dent of the United States put up $20 col- j
lateral, and the six other drivers who
had followed West and the President to
the station were now rounded up by Lieut.
Eckloff and his men, and they, despite
their violent protests, were placed under
arrest and required to put up $20 collateral
each. i
Forfeited His Collateral.
These men were all personal friends of
,ARS' WORTH C
was eventually sold to the Countess of
Dudley for $100,000.
These two finds set South Africa crazy.
TiiamnnH spckers came at once hv the
thousands, and the Vaal and Orange
rivers were soon covered with mining
camps. Men went about everywhere
digging up the gravel and searching for
stdnes. As the river beds became exhausted,
the miners spread out over tlie
vonntry, and finally got here to Kiniberley,
*/hich is fifteen miles from the Vaal. One
day a Boer discovered some diamonds in
a clay bed out of which he was taking
mateiial to build a mud hut. He kept
on digging, and the result was the
Dutoitspan mine, which has proved one
of the richest diamond pipes ever found.
About the same time other claims were
taken up and developed, and as u result
came the five great mines which now
form the basis of the De Beers syndicate.
As the miners went down into the earth
Grant, who was very much amused at
their protests. Ho stood in the doorway
of the station while they Were being questioned
and seemed to be highly amused at
their discomfiture.
All these eases for fast driving were
credited to Policeman West and he appeared
in the Police Court the next day to
aid in the prosecution of the cases. Wncn
Gen. Grant's name was called there was
no response and his was declared forfeited.
The other six men talked about
outrageous conduct on the part of the
policeman in daring to arrest gentlemen
out for r. pleasant drive.
Judge Snell was presiding judge in this
celebrated case, and thirty-two ladies of
the most retined character and surroundings
voluntarily came into court and testified
against the drivers. The cases
were contested bitterly. The court finally
Imposed heavy fines and delivered a
seatchlng rebuke to the six drivers. The
convicted men appealed .their oases to a
higher court, hut Judge Sncll's ruling in
the case was sustained.
While the six dissatisfied men were
fighting Judge Snell's ruling in the higher
court a ruinor reached President Grant
that Officer West's position was in jeopardy
on account of the antagonism of
the men whom lie had arrested. Grant
immediately sent a special messengor tm
the chief of police, complimenting West
on his fearlessness in making arrests, and
made it plain that he would not allow on
any harm to come to West. ar
Met Grant Later. w;
A few months after West had arrested Wi
the President he was assigned to the
mounted force, and was detailed to do
duty in what was known as the second at
precinct, then located at the corner of ha
7th and U streets. While doing duty r;1
along the famous Bright wood road West
met President Giant frequently. The W(
general loved tc? drive his celebrated cu
trotters, which were then among the fastest
in the District of Columbia. The
President and the policeman at times
discussed the relative merits of certain '
horses, and the policeman's advice was ^
often acted upon by the civil war hero. ed
Just about this time a ruler of some ex
semi-civilized country sent to the Prestdent
a pair of handsome Arabian stal- 1
lions. They stood seventeen hands high, of
had speed records and were valued at '
?10.000 each. to
Gen. Grant placed them on Gen. Beale's ,,f
r.'irm. about six miles from the Soldiers' i.l
Home and on the Rlggs road, adjoining j-e
the farm of the late banker, George W. tv.
Riggs. h<
One morning tlie news reached Gen. jlf!
Grant that in some mysterious manner his
two Arabian stallions had been stolen
from the Beale farm overnight. Conster- f.0
nation reigned in the President's house- at
)F DIAMONDS E,
the area in which the precious stones th
were discovered became narrower and TI
narrower, until at last it was, in each ;;<j
case, found to consist entirely of a sort or
of bine rock or clay inside great walls ro
of other and harder rock. These walls th
were in the shape of a pipe, and the th
pipes were found to extend down, down, ro
down into the c ;rtti, and each was filled ni
with this biue ground. As the miners th
went down the diamonds did not diminish. 0f
They were found everywhere plentifully m
scattered through the blue clay, and this w
is so at tlie depths where they are mining
today, although in the Kimberley pipe w
tlie lower levels are more than one-half riJ
mile from the surface.
Tlie Kimberley mine gives one an ex- n
cellent idea of how the diamonds lie in tii
these pipes in the earth. The pipe be- a,
gins witli a great funnel which at the top aj
lias a mouth covering tliirty-ttve acres j()
and which slopes down to the pipe proper, a(
AT WORK IN TH
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?OUCEMAK WyT fl
1.1. Tb- police force in Washington was <
oroughly aroused over the affair, and at 1
ce a search was instituted. Gen. Beale, ,
dent horseman tiiat he was. felt keenly i
e loss of his valuable charges, and it :
is more annoying to him. because he j
is just on the eve of departure for C'allrnia,
where he had large business interts.
1
lie at once sent for Policeman West
id told him that all the information he
id concerning the horse thieves was a
gged cap. evidently dropped at the ]
able door by one >.f the men engaged in
e robbery. With this slender clue to (
irk on Officer West set about the dittiilt
task of working up a case. .
Located His Man.
\ccompanying Gen. Beale to his farm
est got one of the employes in a secludcorner,
and, after a thorough cross- <
aminatlon. lie discovered that one Ed t
dan. who was formerly in tihe employ
Gen. Beale, was the owner of the cap. 1
ro find Ed Nolan West was compelled 5
travel nearly over the entire state i
Maryland. But he at last succeeded
catching up with his man. and when did
so he found him in company with
ro men, Harry Thomas and George
?rcor. and a colored boy named Abra:m
Lincoln. These rr.en, so W est asrts,
were convicted of the crime of
ealing the horses. As the crime was <
mmitted in Maryland they were tried
I'pper Marlboro, a?d received sentences
i\CH YEAR FR<
e inside of which is at>out eight acyes.
lie Kimherley mouth is. I judge, about
0 feet wide, and it slopes evenly down
1 all sides. The pipe itself is almost
>und. its walls are of a black rock;
iey are almost as regularly shaped as
ough cut out by a chisel, and they nar>w
only slightly as they go down for
ore than 2.0OO feet. For that distance
is area of eight acres was all composed
blue rock carrying diamonds, and the
ine is producing piillions of dollars'
orth of diamonds still. The first earth
as dug tip with pick and shovel and
ashed in a rtide way. Then wires were
in down into the mine and the blue
ound was carried up by means of them.
is now elevated by great engines
irough shafts outside the mine itself,
id a continuous line of steel cars rising
! day long. Something like 70 >.0 >'? carads
were taken up last year, and there
e now more than a million loads lying
- .a
mmm.
if- 7^ ;
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E STIFLING HEAT,
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fte&jiYe.ar? Aqo
>f ten years each. all except the colored a
x>y, who, on account of his youth, was
committed to the Marlboro jail, where, t
tfter serving his time, he was liberated f
ind taken hack to the Beale farm and j
given employment.
T-"or twenty-live years West remained in
the second precinct, which was afterward *
known as the eighth police precinct, and
in his many years of service there he was f
responsible for the apprehension of many
desperate criminals, one of whom was the 1
noted murderer Jenkins, a negro who 1
chopped his wife to pieces with a meat t
cleaver one rainy night years ago. and t
who fled the house after committing the
crime. f
? - ' . m m a C
Caught "the Avenger." ^
Another exc ting adventure tliat Officer 1
West was engaged in was the pursuit and J
capture of Bill Jones, "the avenger," who (]
ook a couple of shots at Guiteau, the <
murderer of President Garfield, as lie I
nas being conveyed from the court back J
o the United States jail in the van wagon y
itter he was tried. t
Perry Carson, a colored politician of I
Washington, was in charge of the van
that morning, while Jim Reynolds, col- ^
ored. was the driver. As they came ^
along, a man rode up on a white horse j
and. shouting that he was "the aveng- -v
rr." blazed away at the van wagon. One .1
ot the bullets from his pistol shaved off 1
a lock of Guiteau's hair, as he sat cower- j
DM THE KIMBE
nut on the floors, in order that the wind. ?
tlie rain and the sun may so weather J
them that the diamonds can be taken out. \
The value per load is only a few dollars, r
hut there must be at least six minion dol- j
lars' worth of diamonds in the ground on 1
tlie Kimberley floors.
1 walked around the Kimberley mine \
with its manager, Mr. C. M. Henrothi. an c
American mechanical and mining engi- <
neer. wlio graduated at Cornell in tlie t
class of ls'.tT. and tlie son of the former ?
president of tlie Women's Clubs of tlie 1
United States. He tells me there are t
more than a million and a quarter loads
of this precious clay above the level at t
which his men are now working. v
It was in company with another Amer- v
ican mininer eneaneer that I cvnlrireil tlie n
underground workings of the Dutoitspan. ?
one of the largest diamond mines of the t
world. This was Mr. J. T. Fuller, a grad- r
uate of the Lehigh I'niversity. In fact, \
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ag in a corner of the closed prison van.
The mounted officers In charge of the
agon started after Jones, but In those
ays Bill Jones was one of the fastest ?
iders in this section of the country. He
asily distanced t lie several mounted men
ho were in pursuit of him. but the pocemen.
though on inf- rior mounts, manged
to keep the strenuous Bill in sight.
,t tiie same time blazing away at him.
I " .. . . *. .t * i n- tlmt It.. mmit.l K. . 111 i et;1
IXlK'VtlJl^ i i ui I 11'" ? 'nun i" juii nuru,
tones had provided himself with a relay
lorse, which lie left at the corner of
sorth Capitol and <> streets. When he
cached this point lie mounted his fresh
ior.sc and was rapidly distancing' the poloemen.
At Harewoiici road West, who was atracted
by tiie running tire of shots, got
nto the game, hut Jones had passed the
mint where West took up tiie trail The
ffloer no sooner glimpsed the dying figire
than he recognized Hill Jones and
oined in the chase.
When Jones arrived at his home, which
ras situated on tiie Bates road north of
Jrookland. West was close behind him.
t lew moments afterward Officers Hole
ind MoGraw joined West at the Jones
dace, and the three men. despite Bill's
earning not to enter on pain of being
:illed. went in to the dwelling and placet!
till under arrest. Popular sympathy was
ill witli Bill Jones, the people of Washugton
regarded "the avenger" as a popilar
hero, and he escaped with a very
ight punishment.
All Washington Aroused.
A murder which had the entire city of
iVashington aroused at tiie time it ocurred
was the celebrated Philip Hirth
ragedy that resulted in tlie death of Mr.
firth, a prominent Washington business
nan. He was lieaten to death by five
icgroes one night at the corner of lklli
md P streets northwest.
Hirth, at the time, was on his way to f.
he home of his fiancee, a lady whose
amily was one of the most prominent
n Washington, wnen ne was neia up ior
he purpose of robbery by five negroes
vith handkerchiefs tied over their faces.
The leader of this gang was a desperate
ellow, then in the employ of Phil Hirth,
vliose nante was Habe Bedford, liis felow-assailants
were Sandy Plnn. Queenan
md one Ben Johnson. wlio afterward
urned state's evidence and was used as
t witness against tlie otliers. It was
iaimed at the time of the trial that it
vas not the intention of the thugs to
nurder Mr. Hirth. but to rob him. In
he struggle the handkerchief fell from
he face of Bedford, whom Mr. Hirth at.
nice recognized. Calling his name. Hirth
ried out to him not to murder him. but
Bedford, so the evidence stated, finding
hat he was discovered, acted upon the
heory that dead men tell no tales, lie
tnd his companions, with stones rolled
ip in rags in the form of slungshots, beat
'hil Hirth to death.
All Washington was- aroused by the
leed. and every available policeman was
ilaced on the case. West among them,
."he next morning West succeeded iu ap
irehendtng (Jueenan ana nen junnsnn,
vho confessed the whole affair. With
lohnson as tiie government's witness the
nen were all convicted and paid llio
tenuity for their atrocious crime.
RLEY MINES.
ill of the mines here are managed by
tmerieans. They were opened up and de- v
"eloped by Mr. Gardiner Williams, who is
tow a resident of Washington, and their
tresent general manager is Mr. Alplieus *
A'illiams, his son.
In another place I shall speak of the
'..ebii./m ? >/! ti.l\ 'una* tho\- *i rn Itu nrllnit
iiitside the mine.*. An army of over
>" ? is here employed, and of these more
han L'H.noo are natives, who are k"pt in
piarded compounds and who are not alowed
to go outside during the terms of
iieir contracts.
But come with me and take a look at
lie Dutoitspan. This is the mine which
vas discovered by the farmer when ho
vas building a clay hut. It is the biggest
if al! the mines of the De Beers Company,
tnd so large that the Kimberley pipe and
he De Beers pipe, which together are
low producing something like $15,OOO.oOd
vorth of diamonds every twelve months,
ould be lost inside it# It lias thlrtyight
miles of tunnels in its underground
workings, and that altliough it is not yet
uie-third as deep as tiie Kimberley.
Before entering tiie mine I was shown
he maps of the surveyors. Tiie blue
round area covers about thirty acres,
nd this is all drawn to a scale so that
ne can tell the condition of every tunnel ?
rom the surface down to tlie 750-foot
we I where the bottom now is. A great
haft has been sunk outside tiie pipe, and
unnels have been run in at intervals of
urty feet to get tiie diamond earth out.
5y this shaft this thirty-acre pipe has
litis been explored to a depth equal to
ne and one-half times the height of the
Washington Monument, and the blue
round has been found peppered with dihilonds
throughout. From some of the
pper levels much of the ground has been
xtracted. but mining Is now going on 111
very level, the amount of eartii taken
tit decreasing until at the bottom there
re little more than the tracks used to
arry the cars of blue clay to tiie shaft.
All the ore Is taken from the lowest
?vel. Great wells have been sunk
irough the pipe from top to bottom, and
he blue ground of eacli height is carried
hrough tunnels to these wells and
rnnmxt ir.to reservoirs at the bottom.
here it Is loaded by gravity into the ears
iiieh carry it to the shaft. At present
hey are raising ltUJOO loads to the surtce
every day. Four thousand negroes
re employed, and in busy seasons the
liners work day and night.
Scenes in the Mines.
It was in company with Mr. Fuller that
went through the Uutoitspan. The
lines are dirty and the rock is so sharp
lat it cuts one's shoes. For this reason
e were given hoots of sole leather sncli .
s are used by the miners, and were clad ^
1 miners' clothes.
Filtering the shaft, we dropped quickly
> the 7.">Vfoot level and made our way by
?<?t through the tunnels into the great
^Continued on Fifth Page.), , ^
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