The Big Trip

Chapter Six

Editorial Correspondence

A visit to Fredericktown—

Editorial Convention and How Editors Were Entertained—

A Greenback Paper that Supports the Money Bag—

A Bravo Old Man From the Other Century—

Habits and Patience of the Forefathers—

A Mother's Work-Visit to the Great Mine La Motte lead Mines—

Come Here and go to Work—

Cotton Kings and Wanderings—

Now for Arkansas

(Copyrighted according to law for future publication in book form, by M.. M. Pomeroy.)

On Board Special Car, St. Louis, Iron Mountain & Southern Railway, at Fredericktown, June 7, 1877.

Fredericktown had been selected by the editors of Missouri as the place for the holding of their annual convention for 1877.

This is their day for meeting. We find the city filled with them and their wives, and representatives to the number of about 300. They are stowed in here and there, in hotels and private houses, until the citizens of the place are almost paralyzed in astonishment.

Such a visitation has never come upon them before. There are editors in front of them, editors to the right of them, editors to the left of them and editors behind them, no matter which way they turn. They promenade the streets, stand upon the street corners, file into saloons, and places where cigars and tobacco can be had, and then wend their way to the court-house, a small bobby-looking building where the convention is held and the deliberations pursued.

As a general thing the editors of Missouri do not make many mistakes. Those who are interested in the welfare of this State, committed a serious blunder last year when they supported either Hayes or Tilden instead of the candidates who represented the only financial policy which will bring prosperity to Missouri and all the great producing States of the union. They made another error when they came to a town of this size.

Fredericktown contains about 1,000 inhabitants. It is one of the old places of the State and almost as unambitious as it is old.

There are here three newspapers, with business enough to support only one.

These papers are the Plain-dealer, the Farmer and Miner, and the Jeffersonian.

The Plain dealer is an old paper, but not very lively.

The Jeffersonian is a new venture, lately planted here by H. M. Williams. He is a believer in the application of the Greenback principle, financially, but intends, as he informs us, to support the Democratic or county ring here because on that end of the pole is the slice of bread and butter. The Jeffersonian is named in honor of Thomas Jefferson, the father of Democracy in the United States, and the man whose great teachings were directly in opposition to the work of those who of late years have come to be the leaders of the Democratic party. Thomas Jefferson was never in favor of issuing bonds or making them exempt from taxation. In fact he declared that this evil, if allowed to take root, would result in overthrowing the Republic, unless there would come to the rescue enough Democrats to over-throw the evil, and rescue liberty from the hands of its despoilers.

Knowing Mr. Williams to be in sympathy with the Greenback cause, and well posted in its ideas and merits, we felt greatly disappointed when he told us that, though he believed with the Greenback men and knew that there was no help save from the application of that principle, that it would be his duty, to himself, financially, to work with those who are more intent upon pocketing plunder than protecting principle. He assures us, however, that he will do all he can to prevail upon the ones who claim apostolic possession in the administration of county affairs to adopt a Greenback standard, and that if they do not, that he shall bolt the nominations whenever they are made.

A better way would be to bolt them in advance, because as a general thing, those who go with the hogs to the trough, dip their noses as deep in the swill, never thinking to bolt, but squealing whenever any one at-tempts to drive them away.

The Farmer and Miner is a little paper edited by Mr. Danifer. It has more of the seed of independence in it than there is to be found in either of the other papers. Its editor seems to be more in sympathy with the farmers and miners and with those who toil than with those who claim that they inherit a divine or political right to help rivet the chains of slavery about the neck of industry. We found the office of the Farmer and. Miner to be in a small building, perhaps 16 feet square. The printing and editorial office is all in one room. This room contains a medium-sized upright hand press, of the old style we served an apprenticeship to in the years agone. There are also a few cases filled with bright, new, clean type, and a very small amount of office furniture—the entire outfit not costing so much as one diamond ring worn by the mistress of some untaxed Bondholder in New York City. There is no carpet upon the floor; the walls of the office are of boards, devoid of battening on. the out-side or plastering on the in. Through the cracks, between the boards, a man could thrust his fingers, to shake hands with the mosquitoes on the outside, or to cool them after snuffing the candle on the inside. But there is an air of cleanness and neatness to recommend it to the one who loves thrift and order. Passing along the sidewalk we noticed the little room with a few bouquets of freshly cut flowers in the window .  They so reminded us of the flowers in our sanctum at home we could not resist the inclination to step inside, and, on learning that the editor was in attendance upon the convention at the court-house, we picked up a stick, went to the case and put a brief letter in type, leaving the same standing on a galley, with our best wishes.

Somehow or other we cannot help feeling a love and sympathy for the editor who is poor and trying to pick his way along up the hill. We never see a poor and scantily furnished printing-office that we do not think of the days when we were struggling with poverty, visited with misfortune, under the shadow of the sheriff, but always determined not to squander money in dissipation nor to follow the lead of the plunderer.

How we do wish that the editorial fraternity would all unite in protecting the poor. In giving the influence of the press only to those laws and principles which, in their ad-ministration, result in the greatest good to the greatest number. How we wish that editors would refuse to sell their souls for a mess of pottage! That they would refuse to be parties to the heaping of taxes upon the people beyond the line of actual necessities for the public good. That they have souls above the contemplation of county patronage, as though. the only object of journalism were to fasten the newspaper, like a leech, upon the udder of industry. All through this country we see the poorest, leanest, lankiest, gauntest of. sows, hardly able to walk, while two or three runty and grunty pigs, fatter than their mothers, follow along squealing and clamoring for suck. These thin, shad-bellied, shadow like sows remindus of impoverished  counties in all this Western country, while the fat pigs, representing the editorial bunters for county pap, eager to fill their bellies no matter how poor their mother, or how near she is to the very edge of destruction. Never mind. The time is coming when editors will rise above this contemplation of soap-grease. When they will be able to see that the interests of journalism rest more upon the rich fields and about the prosperous mines than in the shadow of the courthouse building. When this day comes, every farmer, farmer's wife, and farmer's child will be a subscriber to the county, the State, and other newspapers, and will give to the industrious, far-sighted and comprehensive journalist his measure full of prosperity, and to his memory the wreaths of evergreen to which it shall be entitled.

Fredericktown is too small a place for the holding of an editorial convention, especially when it is attended by nearly all the editors in the State and their "friends," on a dead-head excursion, many of whom are accompanied by their wives. There is here an entire lack of accommodations and of the spirit of enterprise which provides it. The committee of arrangements did not know what to do, or knowing did not perform their duty. The hotels and places were crowded as is a Kansas field with

grasshoppers, while the up-town landlords more than emulated the impoverished bed-bug, who hails with delight the fat traveler as he disrobes and seeks rest, little thinking of the nippers and the maw enthused with glee at the prospect of filling their pumpkin-seed shaped stomachs with the blood to it has so long been a stranger..

Not fewer than 23 editors have told us that this was the worst convention, in all that pertained to the entertainment of editors, they ever attended. Those who were fortunate enough to find entertainment and refreshment at private houses opened to receive them were well off, while others who were quartered at hotels, at their own expense were so thoroughly and completely bled that we should not be surprised if a dozen or more Missouri papers owed their discontinuance, during the coming year, to the visit of their editors to Fredericktown.

Of course the editors of the State them-selves are such good fellows that they will not, as a general thing, feel like saying any-thing against their entertainers, therefore we honor the request made by one of the officers of the body to express the opinion of the convention in a paper published outside of the State, and therefore not liable to sustain any loss from a recital of the truth. Therefore we do for one editorial brethren what a profane boy was asked to do for a Quaker deacon, when his potatoes rolled out of the wagon down the hill, and when he wanted to swear but could not for the reason that the rules of his church forbade the use of expletives.

Madison County, in which Fredericktown is situated, is, generally speaking, far richer in agricultural and mineral wealth than in enterprise, if we except the village and property of Mine La Motte, which stands as a flourishing exception to the rule of laziness. It is not a densely populated county, but has a soil capable of supporting more than ten times its present population, and of making them all not only comfortable in their possessions but in reality rich. In 1820 Madison County contained but 2,000 inhabitants; in 1870 it contained 6,000. As Northern men are obtaining a foothold here and vigorously pressing the evidence of homes and enterprise into the rich soil hereabout, the prospect is that by 1880 the population will be more than twice what it was in 1870.

This county was originally a portion of Cape Gerardean and St. Genevieve Counties, from which defined tracts it was set off some years ago with a real estate inheritance of 291.200 acres and told to shift and thrive for itself.

We wish to call the attention of farmers to one very important fact. At the time of the late famine in Ireland, when there was sent from different counties to different States in the Union wheat for the relief of the poor and distressed of Erin, there was appointed in England a scientific commission to examine and report upon the quality of the wheat sent from this country to Ireland. Never before had there such an opportunity occurred for the determining which portions of the United States were the best adapted for the production of wheat containing the largest amount of life-giving, or life-sustaining properties

The donations going, as they did, so directly from different counties through to consigners in Ireland, gave to scientific men the opportunity to obtain samples of grain from each of a thousand counties in the United States, whose benevolent citizens forwarded supplies. This work of investigation was continued for a long time, the result being given in the proof and publication of the fact that the Winter wheat raised in Madison County, Missouri, and sent from this county to Ireland, contained a larger amount of life-sustaining material than was to be found in any other wheat sent from this country. Its quality was far better than that sent from New York, Ohio, Illinois, Indiana or Michigan. It was proved to be purer, possessed of more pearl, and to be better and more valuable in all respects. And yet in the face of this fact but little attention has been paid to the raising of wheat in this county. Within a few years the plow has been drawn forward and large crops are being raised. And this work will go on still more rapidly in the future, as people are now coming to see that their interests are in the thorough cultivation of the soil equally, if not more, than in the working of the mines and securing of the immense mass of mineral to be found under the surface, the decomposition of which gives life to grain, fruits and vegetables.

The history of this county, or this portion of the country, is one that interests us greatly. We presume that all our readers will be alike interested therein, and therefore devote some little space for the benefit of those who would know of the geography of the West and of historical land-marks.

Madison County is situated in the southeast portion of Missouri. The first settlement that country, now defined by the boundary line of Madison county, was made in 1719 by Frenchman named La Motte. He was one of the early explorers of this country, coming here with others in search of silver, which the Spaniards and Indians said existed in this vicinity in fabulous quantities. He located on a tract of land four miles from the present site of Fredericktown, and which location is known as Mine La Motte.    Here he discovered and opened the mining property which now bears his name, but which is now owned by Rowland Hazard, a resident of South Kingston, R. I. Of his possessions and the value thereof more extended remarks will be made further on in this chapter. La Motte did not find silver here as he expected, but did find the country to be rich in lead.

He set to work at once directing those who were engaged in his service, and very soon had streams of metal running out from the masses of ore, which were burned in stumps, in rude furnaces or piles of logs to which fire was applied.

The product of these primitive mines was run into sheets or oblong squares 12 by 14 inches and two And two inches thick. The molds into which this lead was run was indeed primitive. The workman, with a flat stone or stick, would make a little bed in the clay, or hard soil, to the depth of two inches. Near the center of this little bed, or hand made depression, in which the molten metal was poured, a stick about two inches in diameter would be driven. When the lead poured into this place it would cool about the stick, which would serve as a help to pull the lead from the ground, and which, when driven out , left a hole in the metal. Through these holes thongs of cowhide or branches of trees would be thrust or woven, so that two of these sheets of lead could be carried, one on each side of a horse, mule or ox, from La Motte's mine to the river at St. Genevieve, 40 miles distant, thence to Fort Chartres, Ill., 10 miles above, and from there shipped in batteaux down the river to New Orleans and thence to France.

There is on record a certified copy of the grant of land from Boisbriant Desursius, dated June 14, 1723, to parties who were to have and. to hold this land as an encouragement to them to aid in the development and civilization of the country. Among the "American State Papers," or title papers is recorded the claim of John Baptist, Francis Menard, and Mary Josefa Menard, for two leagues of land at Mine La Motte, on account of their settlement and improvement. The date of this claim we were not able to obtain, but it was one of the things of the long, long ago. In the year of 1800, the Spanish government which then owned this immense territory of Louisiana, granted 5,000 arpents of lead—something like 4,500 acres—to 15 French families for settlement and cultivation. This grant does not cover the Mine La Motte property, but is between that and Fredericktown. About 1780 there came here several families from Kentucky, Virginia, Tennessee and North Carolina, all settling close together to keep themselves from the Osage, Kickapoo and other hostile Indians, who claimed this country their hunting grounds. It was as much theirs as they were God's; but they stood no more show for retaining possession than the severely-whipped people of the South have for a prosperous future, unless they organize to withstand the encroachment of the untaxed Money Power, whose Democratic agents in the city of New York direct the engine of aristocratic destruction against the people now, exactly as the land-grasping explorers of olden time directed their weapons and enterprise against the Indians who, as do the Western and Southern Democrats, for a time supposed that everything that came from the East was their friend.

These early settlers had a hard time of it. They had large fields, each field being enclosed, by one fence, and each field being owned in common, every person cultivating a portion thereof. The villagers, or settlers went to their daily avocations armed, as men now go to war. The fence about their field, which surrounded their houses, was heavily built and served the double purpose of preventing their cattle from running away into the woods, and of protection against Indians. While they were at work, sentinels were kept stationed on the bill-tops, or high points of ground, out and away from the fence, who would communicate by signals with the woman and children stationed on the fence, who in turn would give the alarm to the working in the field. When an alarm came, every man dropped his hoe and axe, seized his gun, and was ready to defend his possessions.

There was more vigilance than now, be-cause these people realized that eternal vigilance was not only the price of liberty, but the protection of life. These were braver men than their descendants that we find here to-day, for when there was anything to be done they went right to work at it. They did not stop and wait for some one else to do that which they could do themselves. As a result they made for themselves homes and came to have for themselves the jolliest kind of times.

The Indians soon learned that they were no match for their wary and vigilant visitors. When they dared to meet them in open fight the powder and bullet was longer in range and more deadly than the arrow of the Indian. Sometimes the Indians would rush with such force upon the settlers as to drive than from the posts into their fields and from there to the block-house or fort, erected for common defense; but once behind their walls they held the Indians at bay and met them with astonishing readiness and steadiness.

In 1801 the village of St Michael was built in the bottom or on the flat land on the north side of Saline Creek immediately opposite where now stands the court-house of the old village of Fredericktown.

In 1823 this village of St. Michael came to contain 50 dwellings and several stores. Previous to this date a terrific flood swept through this valley, the water in the creek rising higher than ever before known, or than it has ever reached since. It drove the people not only into the upper parts of their houses, but onto the roofs thereof and sometimes to the tree-tops. After this flood some of them felt a little timid about building in these bottoms or creek sides, and went out on the higher grounds where Fredericktown now stands, to be laughed at for their timidity.

The leader of this removal from St. Michael to the higher ground was a man named Frederick; the settlement at once took the name of Frederick's town, as now retained.

In a little while the majority of the inhabitants were on that side of the creek. Then it was that others began to move from the low-lands to the higher, and at last St. Michael as left thin and spare.

During the late war the last building of all the survivors of ancient time was burned, so that the old land-mark has gone to ashes. At the present time, since the advent of the railroad, the depot and buildings of the St . Louis, Iron Mountain & Southern railroad have been located where stood St. Michael, so that Fredericktown and its suburbs cover not only the country where Frederick first went to find refuge from the rising flood, but quite a little stretch of territory all about here.

On the night of June 5th we addressed fair, but not large, audience in Madison Hall, Fredericktown. Prominent among those assembled we noticed a tall, straight, heroic-looking old man, whose full form, clear, bright eye and attentive listening gave particular indications of his age. His face was fresh and fair. His forehead high and noble, while from his brow back toward his shoulders swept an abundance of long white hair. At the close of our lecture this old man came forward, shook hands, and said that doing the right kind of work. That the Greenback party was the only one which could save this country from destruction, and carry out the aims and designs of the builders of the republic

This old man was Paul de Guire, who for the past 77 years has resided right here in Fredericktown. Paul de Guire is a character. A living strata of humanity projecting far out from the rocks of the past. He is now in his 89th year, although but few persons would take him to be more than 60. He walks without the aid of a cane, reads newspapers and books without glasses, and is a complete encyclopedia of facts, figures and memories of the past, and especially that portion of it between

the years 1800 and 1860, when the war began. The old man is at present residing with Mrs. Allen, his daughter. She is the landlady of the hotel where our party took their meals during our sojourn in Fredericktown.

We greatly enjoyed a conversation with this brave old worker, and from him learned many facts and incidents which have never before been published. He is a Frenchman-Paul de Guire, Paul of Guire.  Paul, grandson of Andrew de Guire, who was in his day in command of Upper Louisiana, as this portion of the Territory of Louisiana was known. Andrew de Gnire, or Andrew of the old French family of Guire, thus making him Andrew de Guire was sent here early in the Seventeenth Century, and was a chum or companion of the first president of the American Fur Company, who was ever here in charge of the Fur Company's interests. This officer of the Fur Company was a man named Sayre, who was a brother- in-law of the grandfather of Paul de Guire, our inform-ant and the old man with whom we had such an interesting conversation. This old man, Sayre, was called by the French and Indians, Lawchance, signifying luck. He was known as the luckiest man of all whom the old pioneers knew. He was sharp, shrewd, keen of wit, brave, far-sighted, and never in doubt as to what to do. He seemed possessed of in-formation that ran a hundred years back and a hundred years directly into the future. So it was that, turning his knowledge and intuitions into account, he acquired the name Lawchance Sayre. Instead of being sneered at for his ability to penetrate dark clouds, and see his way into the coming of the future, he was respected for his sagacity and recognized as a leader and advisor.

Paul de Guire was born in St. Genevieve, and came with his father and mother from that place to this, in the year 1800. His father was a man of singular progressive genius and enduring brain power. He was a natural mechanic—because there are such born, and into whose hands tools of all kinds fit themselves in humble submission.

He came to this place, then called St. Michael, confident of his ability to better his condition, and make money and property, and to acquire, by honest effort, through his skill and genius, not only a good reputation, but influence. With him came his wife and their son Paul. His wife was a stout, good-looking, kind-hearted, sympathetic woman, who added to her many accomplishments the skill of a physician, or doctress.

For a long time she was the only doctor, or professor of medicine to be found anywhere in this part of the country. All her remedies were obtained from the woods. Drug-stores were then unknown in this part of the world. She held to the correct belief that nature gives in her vegetation a remedy for every ill that flesh is heir to. So it was that she bound up wounds, cured aches, dispelled fever, and by the aid of her simple yet effective remedies made from herbs, barks, roots and flowers, pushed disease and suffering back and brought health and strength to the front. Be-side attending to the wants of those who

called upon her as a physician, she had a loom wherein she wove cloth from cotton thread prepared by her own hands, so that she was of great account, not only to her family, but to the neighborhood.

Her husband was the village blacksmith, silversmith, gunsmith, inventor, hunter and farmer. He made hoes, hatchets .and axes, rude, but long-lasting and useful. He made clocks, rude but correct. And when there was no call for this extraordinary work he spent his time in making guns and repairing them. Two or three rich old settlers had watches of ancient make, whose works were constantly out of repair. Whenever these works to the blacksmith-shop of the father of Paul de Guire, they were repaired. When all the guns were in order, then the old man busied himself making gun-powder. The citizens of this place were up early in the morning, and quickly off to their work, or hunting. They lived very much on game from the woods, and the produce of their gardens. Those who were engaged in mining, or smelting lead, found profitable employment, as they always obtained from three to four, and sometimes five cents a pound for the lead de-livered on the river at St. Genevieve. This metal brought to them a return of gold and silver coin, principally Mexican stamped. Those who transported the slabs of lead from Mine La Motte to the river, returned with packages of tea, coffee, knives, guns and such articles as the traders brought with them up the river from New Orleans. In these old times the best coffee could be had for 50 cents per pound, sugar averaged for years 25 cents per pound, while tea, which was but little used, sold for $1 per pound.

The creeks were full of fish, while the woods were abounding in game, so that there was not occasion for fattening hogs or cattle. The man who remained at home working in the shop could always sell what he made off game. Those who manufactured cloth from cotton, which was grown all about here, could easily exchange the product of the loom for that of the shop, carpenter's bench, or the game of the hunter. Thus it was that enterprise took root, the country grew, and the people, as thy produced wealth, came steadily to better conditions.

The old settlers used to have lots of fun. Whiskey-drinking and card-playing were not so common as now; betting on elections was unknown; pool-selling or betting on faro was not engaged in; there was no “Beast” Butler to steal their spoons, nor brother Beechers to stand on the ragged edge of despair, dangling heir heels against the tin sides and furnish gossip for those who roll such morsels under their tongues and call them sweet. There were no bulldozers in those days, no returning boards, nor high joint commissions, with their infamous swindles.

There were no United States bonds out for the creating of non-tax-paying aristocracies. Had there been, those early pioneers would have bulleted them immediately, because they were braver and more patriotic than the majority of the party-following citizens of the present day, who do not think for themselves, or who, if they do think, are too cowardly to put their thought into action.

In those old times they had foot races for small prizes. Men wrestled and jumped, vying with each other As to the developing of strength. Women did not go so crazy in the following of fashion as now, and Though they did not have so much of the comforts as they should have had, still there was not in their Hearts so much of the rankling seed of envy. The people had their pastimes and holidays, all of which They enjoyed. On extra occasions there would be a shooting match, a fat bullock the usual prize. Those Who participated in the sport would each give a silver quarter of a dollar to the owner of the bullock, Who sometimes would receive more quarters and sometimes less, according to the number of those Who were ready to shoot for the prize, or to the number of rounds of shots the purchasers would secure For themselves. The bullock was divided not five prizes, the same being the two hind quarters, the two For quarters, and, fifth, the hide.

The mother of Paul de Guiore was a devout Catholic who, from the title pages, and the large letters Of the Bible, and then from the smaller ones, taught her son to read, and afterward to write. In those Days such persons as had education were given it at home by their mothers, whose duty was not only To bring children into the world, but to fit them for living and for dying. The men had about all they could do to defend themselves from the Indians, subdue the wilderness and furnish food. They produced and brought in while the women prepared and cared for. Those old times have all passed away. A few

old citizens here remain, as does the soil which is richer than any of them ever dreamed of. They knew from the first, such was the teaching of those who came with their minds stored with information, that all this country was rich in mineral, but yet they did not know to what extent it was to be found.

Four miles from Fredericktown, north of east from the little city, is the celebrated lead mining property Called Mine La Motte. Here is a village wherein live about 300 miners and industrious laboring men Employed in the production of lead, together with their families. The population of the place is in the Neighborhood of 1,000. This village is under the government of Mr. Hazard, the owner of the Mining property. His possessions in this one tract amount to the snug little sum of 24,000 acres. This Property is located, one-third in St. Francis and two-thirds in Madison County. Beside this immensely Valuable

tract he has 10,000 acres of pine timber land in Madison County, 10 miles distant from Fredericktown.

Our artist succeeded in obtaining several very fine views of the furnaces and other works here in Powerful and profitable operation; some of which views will appear in our book describing this Southwestern country and its wonderful fields for enterprise.

The manner of obtaining mineral is different here from the St. Joe mine, where the company owns the Mines and itself operates in the rock, lifting its own mineral. The village here is a very quiet and Attractive one, seeming like a nest in the hill-tops, surrounded with timber-laden crests of hills and Ranges, spurring and interlining each other for miles in every direction. The superintendent of this Property is W. B. Coggswell, formerly of Syracuse, New York. He is a very efficient, well-posted, Well-educated, practical, ambitious and reliable agent of the proprietor, and is a man of far more Than ordinary first-rate executive ability.

There is not a saloon, or a place where liquor can be obtained, on all of this property of ten Thousand acres. Consequently the miners and their families are better cared for, happier and More prosperous than they possibly could be were liquor constantly thrust under the noses Of men who labor, by that other class of men who live in idelness and whose eyes nor Hearts are affected by the sight of poverty and wretchedness, resulting from their Instigation to dissipation.

All about the village of Mine La Motte mineral holes, like large wells, have been sunk into The ground. Some of these holes are down 20 and others 50 to 60 feet. There are hundreds Of them, each hole representing a claim. Any person, no matter who or where from, if he Has the disposition to work, can come here, stake out a claim, provided he does not trespass Upon the small boundaries of another man. The real estate belongs to Mr. Hazard. Whoever Wishes to operate here can go down into the ground, blast and lift the lead-bearing rock and Elevate it to the surface, whence it is taken by the agents of the owner to the reducing works.   The man, or men, carrying on all this light mining, or working, in these shafts, receiver from $16 to $18 fro every 1,000 pounds of lead their ore or mineral-bearing rock produces. The rock   is taken to the immense rock-crushing establishments, driven by powerful machinery influenced by steam.

In this rock or quartz mill it is broken and crushed to fragments about the size of kernels of Wheat. By this process the rock is separated from the particles of mineral. This broken mass is passed through a succession of jumping boxes, or jigs, as they are called, into each of which flows a steady stream of water. This continuous jumpity-jump up and down, as the particles of lead being heavier then the rock, sinks the mineral to the bottom, the debris of rock is forced to the top, when it is raked or cleaned off and thrown away, leaving the bright, dean, pure mineral at the bottoms of the jigs. From here this mineral goes to the smelting furnace, where, under the application of intense heat it is smelted or liberated from its old-time conditions so that it runs out into a stream like silver, to be run into iron moulds or boxes, making pig lead, each pig produced at this mine weighing 81 pounds. The entire product of this mine goes directly to St. Louis by the Iron Mountain railway, where it is disposed of by one agent who has the handling of all this yield.

There is more economy in the saving of mineral here than in any lead smelting establishment we have seen. Every particle of rock which contains even a show or tint of mineral is passed from place to place under treatment until at last it is ground or pulverized to a powder that is almost impalpable. Everything that is lead, either pure or mixed with nickel, cobalt or antimony is saved. The final crushing process brings things down to so fine a point that the particles of lead float in a reservoir of water, being thus, in their infinitesimal fineness, lighter in their several particles than the water on which they ride This bluish scum is raked, or skimmed off, saved, and goes into the roasting furnace with other ore, so fine that it must be roasted and reduced to what is called matte, some-thing like a cinder, which holds the mineral until it can be operated upon by fire.

If this fine stuff were put into, or on the furnace, it is so light that the draft would carry it up the chimney. The finest of these particles of lead thus saved to be smelted are so fine that 1,000 of these particles placed in a line would not extend one inch. From this some idea may be had of the ingenuity of man and the power of the brain, inspired by genius, to work out great results, as man's mental is made to control and shape the material.

The product of Mine La Motte averages 500 pigs a day. It is not so soft or pure in quality as that made at the St. Joe Mine, and sells at one-fourth per cent per pound below the St. Joe, or soft lead, and this because it has a tint of copper which hardens it to degree.

The statistical year of these mines ends the first of April. For the year reaching from April 1,1876 to April 1,1877, the exact product of Mine La Motte was 85,000 pigs of 81 pounds each.

After the mineral is ready to be smelted, it is carried from the crushing works and jigs and gathering pools to the furnaces, which somewhat resemble the furnaces or forges in first-class blacksmith shops.   On these forges, or hearths as they are called, a fire is kindled, which is fed by charcoal. Into this mass of burning charcoal, shovel full's of mineral from which all rock and stone has been taken is sprinkled from time to time, as the farmer's wife who makes mush of Indian meal sprinkles salt

therein, except that it is done from a shovel.

Each of these hearths is managed, or operated by two men who make an average of 20 pigs in six hours.  Each workman receives 8 per cent per pig for his services and conducting operations, keeping up the fire, al-lowing the lead to ran out into a pot from which he dips it into the molds to cool. Sometimes two men working as partners will produce 25 pigs in working six hours, or a shift as it is called. At other times they will not be able to produce more than 16 pigs, and this because not all the mineral is alike in its quality, or willingness to be treated, or subdued by fire. The manufacture of one pig of lead on these hearths requires the consumption of one and one-quarter bushel of char-coal. This may be made from hard or soft timber. New charcoal is the best. That which is right from the coal pit making nearly one-third more heat than that which has been exposed to the air for a year.

In the blast furnaces where the matte, or the product of the roasting ovens, is reduced, coke is used. This coke comes here from Dade County, Georgia, all the way by rail. It is the best coke for this purpose that can be found—at least it is cheapest. The price paid for it is.13 1/2 cents a bushel. It is not so good as it would be if the coals from which it is made in Georgia were washed or cleansed entirely of the slate. Were this slate taken out, as could easily be done, at an expense not exceeding 25 cents per ton for washing, the coke would be worth 30 or 40 per cent more per ton than it now is, with its residuum of slate.

The infinitesimally fine mineral is roasted in an immense oven which is 40 feet long and 20 feet wide. This oven is located on rising ground, the mouth or furnace part thereof being at the down hill end, while the tall chimney, or flue, rises from the upper end. On each side of this long furnace are eight little doors, into which the bluish, dark mineral, fine as flour, is piled, to be roasted until the contents of the ovens, all enclosed in heavy stone work, are at a white heat. The fire is applied at the mouth of the furnace, so that the heat sweeps through it, through and through this mass of ore to completely roast it. Workmen with heavy iron shovels attached to long iron handles, from time to time agitate, stir and turn this ore which is almost at a white heat, from the top of the oven down toward its month. About six hours are required to roast this ore so that the lead can be taken there from. Then it is raked out and cooled, when another charge is put in the oven, and the process repeated. This roasted stuff goes into blast furnaces where the most intense heat is applied, and from the bottom of which furnace, when pricked or opened, a stream of hot metal runs into a large, shallow cast-iron bowl, the sides of which have been well smeared with hot clay. The lead being the heaviest sinks to the bottom of this shallow bowl, while there rises to the top a scum or surface something like a crust thereto. This crust or scum is called matte. It contains nickel, cobalt and antimony. As it cools all this kind of mineral separates from the lead. When the crust, or matte, is cooled and hardened sufficiently it is drawn off or pulled away from the mass of metal lead flowing beneath and allowed to cool on the ground. The lead is then dipped out by ladles into rows of Iron boxes, and thus pigs are made.

This matte, which resembles the dark slate-colored cinder, is then taken to a quartz crusher, broken into small pieces, packed in stout casks and sent as freight to Hamburg, where it is purchased by the German government, and treated in the immense furnaces at Hamburg. This matter contains for every 100 pounds of ore 20 pounds of nickel and 10 pounds of cobalt. The works necessary for the reduction and separating of these metals cost a great deal of money—so much that none of them have as yet been erected in the United States. The German government buys these, and the products of the mines of other countries, and treats it there in a scientific manner. It pays for this product several hundred dollars per ton, all of which sum is virtually clear profit to the manufacturer of lead.

From the mine all this lead is hauled on wagons drawn by four, six or eight mule teams to the Railroad track 2 ½ mill distant. All of the teaming from this place, or hauling of lead from The furnaces to the railroad, and the hauling of merchandise back from the depot to the mine, Is done by M. M. Finch, who has a seven-years contract for his performances of this work. Mr. Finch was formerly a lumberman residing at Eau Claire, Wiscosin.  He came here a few years Since a northern man with very little money, but a great deal of pluck. He went to work without Whining or doubting the future, and now finds himself fully established in a large and profitable Business. He has 20 teams constantly employed. He receives four cents a pig for hauling lead From the mine to the track, and 75 cents per 1,000 pounds for his return of freight. When the Roads are good each of his six mule teams takes 100 pigs at a load. They make four trips a Day. The amount of coke consumed here is large, as will be known by the fact that from 400 to 500 car loads a year, all the way from Georgia, must be transported from the railroad to these mines.

The people of this portion of the state (southeast) are rapidly learning two lessons. One is that The raising of cotton alone and selling this crop to purchase corn, fruits and meats is a lasting Business. So it is that they are each year paying more and more attention to the cultivation of Grains, grasses and products of gardens or small fields. In this work they find more profit, A greater degree of strength as communities, and better and surer reward for their escape from The money lender. Still there are in this country men who insist that “cotton is king.” They Engage in the culture of this crop as men engage in gambling, in the hope of a big hand, or A big yield tomorrow. There is not so much fighting against the men who cultivates grasses And grain now as there was a few years ago. The cotton planter sees that the home of his Neighbor, whose crops are diversified, in each year growing better and better than is own, and Though the lesson has been a hard one to learn, it is being accepted as a fact in the increase Of that spirit of progress by which hundreds of thousands of southern men today have been Better off had they honored one half as much as they have contended against. Another thing People of this section are learning, is that political rings are unprofitable, corrupt, demoralizing To the public, and very expensive. The Democrats of this section are not so much pleased over The election of Bogy to the United States Senate as they were when he was elected; and before They knew that his place was secured to him by himself and a few ring agents at an outlay of Thousands of dollars in money, paid by the Senator himself or by others for him, for the Votes and influence which made him a Senator. They are coming to understand that the Power of money in the hands of such men is not an instrument for the public good.

As they look back over their late Congressional contests and see for themselves how a few Scheming, designing men stole into and took possession of their convention, and by one of Tammany's tricks managed the same, even as the St. Louis Convention was manages to the Nominating of a person who was not a candidate of the people, they are becoming more And more completely disgusted with partisan politics, and are reaching out their Hands for those ballots which in the future will be cast, not for the partisan and plunderer, But for those honest, fearless, independent deserving men, whose sympathies are with The people, and who are not the tools and hirelings of those sharpers and speculators who, Of late years, have come to control not only Republican and radical conventions, but the Management of the once hones and powerful Democratic party. When the Democracy was Managed by those who were at heart Democrats, and who had the welfare of the poor in Their minds; then it was more of an honor to be a Democrat than it is to one now, when none But men of wealth, like Bogy, Tilden, and other corrupters of political morals, and Have their names emblazoned in gilt on political banners, which now float only to mark The camping ground of the marauder.

Pomeroys Democrat - June 30, 1877

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