ROUGHING IT IN A GOLD MINE.


DEAR EDITOR:

I am not a subscriber to your interesting little paper, THE GREAT
ROUND WORLD, but my teacher Miss Margaret Gannon subscribed for this
paper and she reads it to us, that is, to the class, when it comes. I was
very much interested in the letter "Little Friend" wrote to you. She must
be a very kind-hearted little girl. It may be interesting to some of your
readers to hear how I went to a gold mine and got out some gold. As I was
going to "rough it" I only took my rifle, mackintosh, and boots, and a
small valise with my other necessary articles. I got on the train, and it
took two hours for me to get to the little station at Cedar Falls, N.C.
The mine was two miles from the village. I reached there at five o'clock.
The little shanty where we lived while we were there was about twelve feet
long by eight feet wide.

The bunks were folded up during the day and unfolded at night.

After hanging up my gun and putting my valise in the corner, I went to the
shaft or hole from which the gold ore is taken. After the two men went
down the shaft, the men at the top hauled up the bucket, and they put in
the tools, which were eight sharp drills, an eight-pound sledge-hammer,
and a scraper about three feet long. I got in among the tools, and down I
went. It was warm above, but on the way down the shaft, which was thirty
feet deep, it became cooler and damper. I stood on one side with a small
pick to cut out nuggets, while the men drilled a hole about two inches in
diameter and one foot deep, which they afterward filled with dynamite.