Show THE CONGRESS AT BOISE the fourth annual session of the In international mining congress will be held at boise idaho beginning july and continuing three days at the last session of the congress held in milwaukee there were any number of leading and progressive cities in the east and west which were eager for the next Ees session sion but bat boise beautiful boise the gem of the mountains carried off the palm and the thousands of delegates who will be in attendance at the forthcoming session of the congress will be more than pleased that this place was selected for the next meet it is invariably the cased case that we all have impressions of places we have never visited and it is usually the rule that our fanciful paintings of places and localities are never correct it is highly probable that the army of delegates appointed to the boise congress will base their ideas of the place upon their acquaintance with isolated eastern villages or western towns in this the delegates will be agreeably disappointed as in boise they will find a city of ten thousand inhabitants a city that is a marvel of thrift of cleanliness and blessed with all the modern improvements and luxuries which go so far towards making life enjoyable they will find boise a perfect garden spot a city of beautiful chomej decked with lawns and almost smothered with flowers the sidewalks all over the city are paved the telephone electric light and electric car lines are no new innovations vat ions while in a business way with its numerous sound and substantial banks its progressive gres sive business houses and a general air of prosperity boise will appeal to the poetic as well as to the business instinct of everyone attending atten attending din 9 the congress either as a delegate or as a visitor we are glad that boise was selected for the meeting place of the next congress as it will give our eastern friends some idea of what a t typical y western city is like at boise they will find hot and cold springs and a n nata ata barium that is unrivalled anywhere in the west at boise there is a military post a branch of the U S mint a soldiers home and numerous other institutions of a private and public nature it is a great fruit and farming section and is surrounded by some of the richest and most productive mining camps in the west the boise river runs through the edge of the city and up and down its course there are farms and ranches galore in fact boise is an oasis in the desert 12 a veritable garden of eden and if the visiting delegates do not enjoy their visit to this charming spot in july next they really will not enter into the full enjoyment of the abr world above when they get there which be it said should not be their portion if they fall fail to realize the many beauties and advantages of capital city advance in metallurgical arts by the side of what was once a fora forge e as a crude blowpipe and part of the re remains of a bellows were found there was unearthed an ingot mould ornamented in a style peculiar to phoenician art and a clay crucible with similar decorations the debris around the ancient smelting smelling sm elting plant showed that the metal being worked for was gold that the ores were crushed between large stones much in the same way as the mexicans employ even now in some of their frontier towns after which it was passed through a sluice with riffles fiffles on its floor behind which the gold dust and nuggets lodged finally the cleanup clean up with the black sand still in it was smelted smelter to purity in the crucible fragments of slag were discovered which showed that the artisans of the day had learned that black sand iron oxide would flux off any quartz still adhering to the gold and that if the cleanup clean up tip contained too much of the base metal it was only necessary to add a little straight quartz ore to secure a satisfactory purification of the precious metal |