Page images
PDF
EPUB

from him. In the darkness the violin called and sobbed and called again, and in answer came the weary, lagging pressure on the mat. Armstrong felt a sudden dread of something, he did not know of what -a sudden desire to be out of the water jar, but its slippery earthen walls held him fast.

The cloud was passing; through its frayed edges the moonlight filtered again. Armstrong leaned forward. There were yes, surely, there were two heads! Then, as if by the stroke of a giant brush, the cobwebs were swept from the moon and light flooded Singhi Mountain. Armstrong's heart contracted. "God!" he cried.

Something sinuous, brown, had reared itself out of the shadow; it was swaying very close to Florence. He saw the white breast, the drawn hood of skin, the eyes glowing red like tiny danger lights. He saw the smooth, lithe body turning-retreating-advancing, and was pow

erless!

"Florence!" he called.

The cobra drew his hood erect and hissed, but the violin sang on. Florence did not hear; her eyes looked unseeingly ahead.

"O God!" he cried, "what shall I do!"

His voice rang like a discord in the melody. The movements of the

snake became less rhythmical, contortionate; it hissed again, and the light in the little red eyes grew bright. The forked tongue darted in and out; it licked the woman's hair; it touched her hand!

Another scudding cloud was hurrying past the moon; already the light was growing dim, uncertain. Armstrong, in an agony, leaned from his prison, and something clicked against the water jar. It was the butt of his revolver; he had forgotten it.

The two were very close together now, and still the violin sang. Could his aim be true? The light was growing growing faint. The room seemed filled with swaying, flat, brown heads. Armstrong gathered himself together, and three bullets whizzed in the air.

[blocks in formation]

When Florence opened her eyes, the sun was smiling through the camphor trees, and her husband was kneeling beside her..

"Why, Warren," she asked, "what is it? I feel so-queer. Am I ill?”

"Just a little, dear," he said, but he covered her hand with kisses. "And, Flossie," he went on, with a brave show of unconcern, "I've cabled to the L. & D.' to send out another man. We're going home, please God!"

FEARLESS

By MAY SPENCER

Little shell, fragile shell, low on the shore,
Have you no fear of the ocean's roar,
Lest his pitiless waves should bear you away
Ten thousand leagues from this peaceful bay?

Ah, no! ah, no! O question strange!

Why should I tremble at storm or change?
Life's joy that was mine is forever lost,

What matters to me the shore where I'm tossed?

The Borax Industry and Its Chief Promoter

Mr. F. M. Smith.

T

HE borax industry in the United States may be said to have had its real beginning in the discovery of borax in Teels Marsh by Mr. Francis M. Smith.

The character of Mr. Smith is embodied in the three words, energy, foresight, and shrewdness. Born at Richmond, Walworth County, Wisconsin, fifty-seven years ago, he has solely by his own efforts, made himself one of the leading capitalists of the West. This is more remarkable from the fact that he built up his fortune in the very heart of the worst desert on this continent, where there was everything seemingly to contend with.

The fall of 1872 found him in the wood camps about ten miles from Columbus, Nevada. From 1867 he had been following the various mining camps of the West, accepting all available employments that offered

but only as incident to finding a good mine or some opening where he could make a fortune. Like thousands of others he had been engaged in teaming, contracting for the delivery of wood to the mills and timbers to mines; but his worldly possessions to this date, as he humorously says himself, consisted of two or three wood ranches, a band of pack animals, and the usual variety of wild-cat claims to mines. He was living in a good, comfortable cabin in a narrow gulch which commanded a fine view of the outlying country. From the timber lands he could see the Columbus borax marsh, which was then being worked, and Teel's marsh glistening like beds of snow in the desert below. It was not known, however, that at that time there was any borax in Teel's marsh.

The outlying marshes of the West differ very much in appearance from what is known in the East as a marsh. In the West they are not necessarily very soft or watery. They are generally dry lakes or lagoons covered with a crust of alkaline in some of its forms. They occupy the low depressions in the bottom of the desert, and receive the drainage from a large surrounding area, and the saline matters accumulating, give them a light, whitish appearance. After a local storm or cloudburst, they may be wet and soft for some time, but when their waters evaporate, they glisten like fields of snow.

At the time when Mr. Smith discovered the borax it was a dry season, and the alkaline areas were more than ordinarily extensive. From the hilltops he could see the

[graphic]
[graphic][merged small][merged small]

gleaming white Teel's marsh, and taking two wood-choppers with him one day he visited the marsh and found a heavy incrustation which seemed rich in borax on testing. It appeared afterwards that he had by chance stepped upon the richest portion of the marsh first. He was so impressed with the appearance of the marsh that he took a small quantity of provisions and some pack-animals from the woodcamp, returned to the desert, and made a dry camp on the edge of the dry lake, and at once located several thousand acres, most of which afterwards proved to be worthless.

Leaving the men at work on these locations, Mr. Smith started on a round of visits to his wood-ranches and thence to Columbus. Before reaching Columbus, the certificates of analyses were handed to him, stating that the samples he had sent from Teel's marsh were the finest specimens of borate of soda that had been found up to that time. In Columbus he enlisted two associates, laid in fresh supplies, and started back for Teel's marsh, unconscious that his fortune hung upon a slender thread, but his indomitable energy led him aright, for he was so anxious to anticipate any attempt on the part of others to locate the deposits that he made a night march across the desert, guided only by the camp-fires of his laborers, reaching camp long after midnight. Here he found a friend in the chemist who had analyzed his

samples at Columbus, and who had been sent out to locate borax deposits. Guided by the camp on the lake, this man found Mr. Smith's men, and remained with them over night. Before long, he asked Mr. Smith where Teel's marsh was, and was told that there was an alkali flat about twenty miles from there, and that he could take one of the men as a guide to accompany him.

The visitor left early the next morning, accompanied by one of Mr. Smith's choppers, and was gone three days. It is scarcely necessary to say that by the time of his return, Mr. Smith had the Teel's marsh property thoroughly located and the foundation for his fortune and for the borax industry of the Pacific Coast secured. A few days later, he put in an appearance, and Mr. Smith staked out a good location for the chemist himself, and put him on it, a pleasing gift, though perhaps hardly deserved. Uniting with his brother, a Chicago company was organized, a small plant put up, and the production of borax was begun.

Borax was first discovered on January 8, 1856, by Dr. John A. Veatch, who was boiling some of the water of Tuscan Spring in Shasta County and set the water aside to cool, when it happened to be concentrated enough for the borax to crystallize out. The first borax produced in the United States was made at Borax Lake, at the south end of Clear Lake in Lake County,

[merged small][merged small][graphic][merged small][merged small]

carbonate of lime and the carbonate of soda or borax or borax are produced. Many small plants for the production of these cottonballs were erected, and their output created a special stir. Borax was still worth 30 cents a pound when the Teel's marsh deposits were discovered, and a rush was started that almost ruined the market.

The Smith brothers finally obtained sole control of Teel's marsh by buying out over one hundred lo

pound. In 1894 the product was 5,770 tons, worth 7 cents a pound. In 1901, 10,815 tons, worth 7 cents a pound. In other words, during the first ten years the output increased from an average of a ton a month to 76 tons. In the next decade this was increased to 85 tons. In the third decade it was increased to 480 tons, and at the present time the product is over 1000 tons per month. While the Teel's marsh was important, it was probably the de

velopment of the borax fields of Death Valley in 1880 that brought Mr. Smith the reputation which made his name a household word all over the world.

It is impossible to give a pen picture of the difficulties encountered. The bottom of Death Valley is nearly 400 feet below sea level. In 1880 the operating point was over 250 miles from San Bernardino, the base of supplies. In that distance there was scarcely a spring or a drop of water, yet lumber, horses, wagons and supplies had to be taken through. Houses were built fast, the work of making borax went right on, and the "Twenty-Mule Team" became a household word. The The wagons usually used for bringing borax from the desert were the largest and most economical ever built, holding ten tons each, and drawn by eighteen mules and two horses, and steered by a single "jerk" line. This "jerk" line or single rein by which the gigantic team was guided was hundred and twenty-five feet long. Two of these wagons held a carload of borax. In the picture of them, familiar to everyone, will be seen a huge water tank trailing along behind. The route of this wagon was over one of the most rugged and precipitous mountain ranges in the world, namely, the Panamint Mountains.

one

For eight years, or until 1888, the work was maintained. With the discovery of colemanite in the Calico Mountains, near Daggett, the scene of operations was changed. This colemanite, which is a borate of lime, lies in veins and is mined. just as gold quartz would be mined. Owing to the scarcity of water at Daggett for manufacturing purposes, the crude material is shipped to the Alameda Refinery for supplying the Pacific Coast market, and to the huge refinery at Bayonne, New Jersey, which supplies the entire borax trade in the East.

Mr. Smith has been a public bene

factor in bringing this great resource of the desert into the homes of this nation. Thirty years ago borax was an expensive luxury. Today it is so cheap that it is an ordinary household necessity. What has been procured at an outlay of so much physical discomfort and at so great a cost in many of the dreariest portions of the universe, is one of our greatest labor-saving and health-preserving agents.

Borax finds innumerable uses and these are ever-increasing. It is extensively used in assaying and in the metallurgy of ores and in the smelting of copper; it is said to be an excellent insecticide; it is employed in the preservation of meats and fruits; it has been largely applied to the manufacture of the porcelain-coated utensils known generally as granite ware; and the white-enameled bath-tubs, so common everywhere, owe their clean and beautiful surface mainly to borax. It is used in the manufacture of pottery and earthenware as a glaze; it is put up in packages for the household, and borax of the "Twenty- Mule - Team - Brand" is known the world over; it is widely used in the home and in laundries on account of its great cleansing properties; it is a valuable cosmetic, rendering the skin soft, and it is claimed it will prevent a great many skin diseases. Cotton goods saturated with a solution of borate of ammonia and dried, become inflammable. It is used in making tough grades of glass and for glass staining and in caustic tiles; it is needed in the manufacture of "strass," the basis of artificial gems. Varnishes are made of it, and substitutes for gum. It is used in tanning when wools and furs are treated, as it cleans, softens and prevents the hair from falling out. It is known extensively in medicine.

The use of borax and various borates in chemistry would make a still longer list. In fact, the use of borax is mainly in the household

« PreviousContinue »