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DRY WASHING IN THE DESERT.! v Gold Hunting After the Old Mexican ' Plan. ( *--1The desert country of the south- * west is rich in legends of lucky strik- 1 es made by dry washers. And the I o ( ,y. *'Xh*l(iV ls ?ot a laundry utensil f designed tor use where water is too t scarce to be used other than inter- s nally. It is the sole mechanical invention with which the native Mexi- ?, can is credited, a means of taking pla- ccr gold from the sand in which wind ( supplies the place of water. Given a good head of water and * the man with the hydraulic giant will \ w ish a fortune for auriferous gravel .< tl'al carries a few cents' worth of gold to the square yard. The fellow 1 with the pan must find fifty t.euts j worth or better in the same area to t make wages but ^the dry washer re- t gards the ground as barren if he i does not find a dollar's worth of the yellow metal on his riffles after screening the same amount of sand, i There was old man Cushcnberry, whose haunt was south of Casa'Dom'a, that curious volcanic plateau which is visible from a hundred miles around ^ uma. He was in his chronic condition of hard luck when a shovelful of sand left the riffles of his primitive dry washer clogged to overflowing with dust and nuggets. In naif an hour he had taken out *14,000 and in the next six months he had spent every cent of it in an ineffectual effort to raise water from the Colorado for more extensive operalions. ITe never found another pock<>t. Down around Yuma, when you talk | of dry washing, they will also'tell you ( of flie ditched hobo. A Southern Pa- i cilic brakeman ejected him Prom a side < door Pullman, and lie sought the wa- ( terfront, which was an institution ( then celebrated from the Dallas to the < Yaqui country. "The I'Yont," was a narrow strip , of shore just below the old govern- ! ment cornu, where by ancient usage was established the commonwealth of j the dead broke. Everything was own- j ed in common. They had a mayor , and an unwritten code enforced bv a Kangaroo court. In earlier days no j loss of caste attached to residence on 'The Front," today's insolvent was frequently tomorrow's magnate. Gra- j dually however, the hoho element came to be predominant, and (lie city | marshal abated the sanctuary as a ] nuisance. Hnt to return to the ditched hobo ] lie told the Fronters a hard luck story that would a few years ago have ' insured aid, comfort and indolence. The taming of the Apache and the extension of the Santa Fe and the < Southern Pacatie had, however, made them familiar with his kind, and his wa.- very promptly disposed of. A , grubstake was made up and lie was advised to accompany a couple of men j who were just starting on a dry wash- ^ ing expedition up the river. That same day the outfit uncovered a gold ledge that was shot and speckled with free gold and the hobo's . share brought him $50,000. All hobo- , land preserves traditions of the per- ( iod of plenty that followed. Incidentally not one of the trio that struck ] the lode was alive a year later. But as to the dry washer and the man who operates it. The tourist , who crosses the sand and alkali wastes J in a Pullman, or is whirled in an an- j tomobile to the bonanza to look at the good thing the superintendent has framed up for him sees neither. The desert prospector is the brother of silence, a silence so profound ' and pervasive that when a vagrant wind raises a level jil of sand and moves it a yard or two the silken swish of its transit is audible for furlongs. \ The scamper of the horned toad ' fills the void corridor of the ear, the , fpotfall of the .sad-eyed burro is percussive. Only at night, when the coyote lifts a lean muzzle to the bland moon is the stillness shattered as infinite desolation fi.uls a voice. Another sound there is that speaks . of man's presence. In the heart of the waste, miles from the railway and equally remote from wood and water, there may be heard a recurrent popping that is not to be confounded * with the parring rataplan of the stamp mill. It is like the pop-pojv-popping of a . gasolene launch, and the tenderfoot might fancy that the ship of the desert had been brought up to date and equipped with those mysterious applianecs of which the motor enthusiast ; loves to discourse. Approach the sound and you will come upon a man and his machine?a ^ sun browned and solitary man, the corners of his eyes wrinkled like an apple that has been frozen and thawed, by the instinctive contraction of the lids against the glare of refracted j rays. He is the last of the placer miners, ^ 'V the survival of a type that levels $ hills and fills valleys by a magic that ^ VU"I,1 dUlKi-b the ivsl 0f ,u? mistlly Mzard, Michael Scott. w?>'.s, Iron, ||,? i'rozt.? ha of the north to cienegas of the Imvc long since ?iven up their two of ye low nictal. The pan, the ongtom and the flume exploited thein, i ter which the hydraulic recovered ortunes from tailings or from gravel oo poor to work by the more expensive method. But the desert is rich in auriferous ,ia\t . I here are thousands of iquare miles i? the Mojave and the -olorado that yield placer gold in ,Uyh quantities thai, given water, the "tput of Cripple Creek and Tonopah u>uld be made to look like a grub ilake proposition. Water is not, but there is wind. (lrv w.asher is merely a rude belows of the familiar blacksmith pater". It forces a current of air iiough a sheet of muslin set on an nclined plane and crossed at right ingles by sticks of woods called riffles. A he gravel is made to run down t his nuslin incline, while the bellow* lifts1 t over the riffles. The gold being teavy is caught and held under the ross pieces; pebbles and sand are sjected at the bottom. 'N anous forms of the dry washer lave been patented, but the simplest ypc remains the best; an old soap )i>x, a few yards of tarpaulin, half a ard of line muslin and a little balng wire are all the material required or its construction. Th* whole ap>aratus need not weigh over twenty rounds and the prospector can pack t from place to place on Ins back. Down in southwestern Arizona the Mexican is credited with the inveniou of the dry washer and nothing dse. It is the last resource of the H'ospeclor who cannot get a grub stake. 1'or miles around Yuma on jither side of the Colorado, one may .'ount 011 taking out an average of a lollar a day with this crude appliance uid as .+.> will grub stake a man for a nontli there is little excuse for being Flat broke. For twenty miles north of the continence of the Gila and the Colorado the barren gulches are honeycombed with the work of the dry washer. The ivork of the while man is easily distinguishable from that of the chula. In places the bedrock has been exposed for hundreds of feet along the iottom of the shalloy gulch, the cenent strata swept clean with a whistH'ootn, since pay dirt is found mostly at the bottom. This is the work of the American. The Mexican seldom lays bare more than a square yard iind from that, so the envious Gringo isseils, lie gets what lie is after. A still more simple a .id primitive nethod of dry washing is indicated iy innumerable basin-like depressions ilong the sides of these gulches. From 2aeh has been taken about a bucketful of sand which is placed, a handful it a time, in an ordinary gold pan, a russia iron basin a little larger than the-ordinary tin wash ba.un. This, by a dexterous turn of the wrist, the Mexican throws into the iiir, at the same time blowing through it. As it falls he lilts the pan, allowing it to run in a thin stream over the edge. His bead-like eye is caught and sent back to the foxtail of black sand and concentrates on the opposite edge of the pan. In half an hour he is solvent, and the placer ground will know him n<> more until a run of hard hick at oockfighting or monte sends l>.iui hack to the band nature has provided for him. ll is confidently asserted throughout the southwest that the Mexican possesses a sixth sense which enables liim to locate infallibly the pockets which niiilc men either miss altogether or only stumble upon by accident Men have carefully studied the natural features of these spots, but ire unable to discover the indications which point them out to the native. II is maddening to work ten days unlet1 a blazing sun for a few dollars' worth of dust and nuggets, and then o see a la/.v Mexican walk directly to a j.pot a few rods away, pan a nickelful of dirt and slouch off after :aif an hour's work with $50 worth >f liie \ellow metal knotted up in his ?audy handkerchief But if ihe Mexican possesses this <ense, ho is easeful noi to abuse it. do takes only cnorgh for his immediate necex?ities, and Via." a lofty conetnpt f.ir the A-nc. van's ambit! )?. 0 a.'ipnre ricii.'S. Xn" will he locate 1 quartz vein if he happens na?over .me. By an unwritten law these dry ?lacers above Yuma are free to all. STo o.'o stakes a claim other than ho?.c ! ca'od by dredging companies, tvlio after years of disaster liava not >*et gi-'cn over Hie a?.enipt to eat iway <he bank s^f tie Colorado nail they have opened a passage in to he desert. ManvjV-: discoveri.-5 ' of quartz ode? Iiayo l.x.-en made by ?.Vy washers 1 iiiI ?o;n?* have been v>cked by the same prim.! "e method Now and then a rich stringer, a fcin an inch or two wide, is found, j ml i? lot ol snllieiem volnme to ' 'must , l?|l ? crude quart/. crusher operby ,m,le or oven l,v hand. K M, wu?'. '? i'leeisei IIC boil ut null to which the l>|,a. bin. Iwrnowml Samson, tteeoi-diug to the familiar picture by Dure. The 2*7, ";e? '%* a spring pestle mlrt pulverizes the rotten the through tlic dry washer. Early in the 90's two young: fellZL T such.a stri,W near the 7n,iP ?f With !i> ? . y Wnsher ,h?.v managed to K-el out several thousand dollars' y th ot dust, but a good deal of the oek was too refractory to be worked that nay and this was sacked in the form of specimens and eonccn$10,000 ?Ie an,wunti,,? to over They came down the river in a boat, ?Inch was tipped over in three feet <>t water within a few miles of Yuma .V a Jig- doo- that accompanied the party, and tried to climb aboard after being- pitched out for a swim. Not a cent s worth of the cargo Was saved. I he bottom of the Colorado is a vast deposit of silt and quicksand. Dredgers have sunk seventy feet in it rock6 LayUlm vvit,lout touching bedThe placer miners say the gold of the desert which the dry wrisher recovers in such minute quantities was deposited by the river, the bed of which is liable to/change materially in a few weeks. In the mile deep canyon that is one of the world's wonders, a ditch from five to fifteen miles wide and hundreds of miles long-, cut through a hig-hly mineralized region, there must have been many rich lodes,' richer perhaps than any of which the world holds record. These, the nation <?i the water through countless ages has disintegrated and carried far down toward the delta of the great liver m the form of dust and nuggets. he Colorado is a natural flume. Its bottom, deep under the silt whore nits and ridges of bedrock form mile wide riffles, is a treasure nouse whose riches no man may estimate. Hut even the opaque water is said > carry an average of twenty-five cents' worth ot gold to the ton, held in solution or floating on the surface. ft wm' "I'161' knows that ?old will tloat, the flour gold whose particles are so minute that only the avid grip ot quicksilver may clutch and hold it. erhaps some day some Jernigan will make good and wrest it from the .broad and shallow Colorado a treasure that will complicate anew the relation of the precjous metals Mcai.wl.il? the chief source of product ion, |,r. Ms l|l0Sc plju>cii. (le posits are concerned, will continue to be that legacy of the Aztecs, the drv washer. Barbecuo. I will furnish a fii-st class barbecue at Jno. P. Wicker's August 22, to be prepared by J. A. Graham and H. M. \\ lckcr. Everybody come and enjoy ft good dinner. * W. L. Graham. Notice. An extra meeting of the County i aimers Lmon is hereby called for Saturday August 17, on important business. All local unions wMl see 1liat delegates are chosen. J. R. O'Neall Hollowav, T, Scc,'?tary County Union. \\. Brown, I'resident. Broaddus and Huffs oc tablets have >< ( ?i and more paper in them than pan be bought elsewhere. Buy one mid see tor yourself. Barbecue at Sligh's. M.. Jno. C. Mills will furnish a nirbccue nt Sligh's on Auarust 17. the ycasion being the meering of (he I aimers' union. Prominent speakers will be present and will deliver addresses. The price of dinner will be d-> cents and 40 cents. ttverybody is invited and a good dinner is'guaranteed. NOTICE. THE BEE HIVE will move Sept. 1st into the store room now used by Shelley&Sumformerly occupied by Kibler-Dennis Furniture Co., opposite Daniel YViI!iam^on's Jewelry Store E. L. BAILES GO. i C 8 ft ? THE GLOBI "i 1 We announce Foil and Win of our Merchant " ment which will b a Special Reprt THE CLOSE TAILO Makers of the best tt CINCINNA August 15, Over 500 Suitings, Overcoatings wil for your in Smith & Newberr Orders taken for immedi Measures taken ' ' V Just received, car load 2 1-2 and 2 3-4 Wagons, we will sell these Wagoi It's the strongest, best m< Wagon on the market. I Buggies! I We carry but one line c jufactured by The Summe ville, Ga. These Buggies !be the best and neatest j |market. Our prices and Buy a Summers Buggy C factured at Barnsville, Ga No more broken wheels shafts, broken springs c only parties handling the: Come and see our stock < and you will buy from ~ 1 ~~ :1 Z, IS IT? i the formal ter Opening Tailoring Depart- I e in charge of I jsentative of I RING COMPANY, iere is inTailoring TI, OHIO 1 16 and 17 Trouserings and II be displayed spection. Wearn, y, S. C. I ate or fufure delivery. Scientifically. of Fish Bros, high grade For the next 30 days ns regardless of profits, ade and easiest running Buggies! )f Buggies in stock, manirs Buggy Co, of Barns: are considered by all to :ob ever offered on this Terms are reasonable. Company's Buggy, manu 1 i., and you have the best, s, ^plit bodies, cracked )r bent tops. We are the se Buggies in this county, of Wagons and Buggies