Show I 1YIonte Cal110 of the Great West yh Has Butte Been Rightly Named NIGHT SCENES IN THE MINING CAMP jJ I J j Firce Passion For Gambling and Attendant 1 At-tendant Vices Favorite Resorts of the Men Who Seek to Woo and Win the Fickle Ooddebs of Fortune lu the Midst < < of it All Quiet Reigns in the Greatest of All Americas Mining Camps Fora a Business View I Butte Mont May 30Butte is one 2pf the most interesting cities on this jfiestern continent for not only is it the greatest mining camp in the world but it Is also the favorite resort of the western gambler The knight of the gren cloth is omnipresent in Butte and he finds the hardy miner an easy and willing victim A round half million mil-lion in wages is paid out monthly to the men employed in the mines in and about Butte and it is no exaggeration to say that the greatest part of this vast sum finds its way into the pockets of the professional gambler Many of the miners spend all their leisure time at gaming table and no man is so careless or prodigal of his earnings as a miner except it be a sailor The gambling houses of Butte are licensed and run faro games and round the I table poker Roulette red and black wheel of fortune hazard or any game with a kitty or percentage drawback are forbidden Day and night shifts of dealers are worked Faro bank dealers work for wages 6 per day and eat out of the drawer The Lihit in most houses is 1250 but some proprietors allow their patrons or victims vic-tims to bet as high as they wish From t wn to dawn the clicking of the chips is heard there is hardly any cessation Butte is essentially an allnight town It Js day all day in the daytime and thre is no night in Butte et me describe life in Butte as I have found it It is 11 oclock on a beautiful starlight night The street crowds have gradually ebbed away and the life of the camp is indoors Step from Main street into a prominent resort On the left as one enters is the drinking bar Facing it at twoS two-S gambling tables by the opposite will sit the dealers by each a keeneyed lookout in a high spiral chair Around these tables sometimes two or three deep and playing over each others shoulders and under each others arms are young men middle aged men miners working for 4 a day and mine owners who may make a cool 100000 out of the years output Front the faro tables to the bar back anti forth the players circulate as they please the white chips of the game being each good fo a 25 cent drink the cheapest ldto the whiteaproned and grave looking bartender Back of the faro tables are poker tables on either side of the room Further back still at the other end of the long apartment i a refreshment counter and an open fire iit which one may have a steak or a l iop or a omelet cooked before ones eyes with small dining tables scattered opposite There are no deadly weapons visible save now and then the glimpse of a pistol in th dealers drawer and general good order prevails Further down the hill around the corner on Park street are the variety theatres long wooden buildings with wooden chairs downstairs and boxes upstairs communicating generally with the stage Some of the best variety trcipes in the country play in Butte ftK audience smokes and drinks as it chooses and pays excellent attention A particularly taking act will often bring down a shower of silver quarters and halves from the boxes to the stage a gratuity not at all unwelcome to many a song and dance artist Excellent Excel-lent performances are given prolonged sometimes till after midnight as they begin late But there are none of the low concert saloons or dance housed which once disgraced the Michigan timber tim-ber peninsula and even the pretty waiter girl saloons are few and far between be-tween While the scenes I have described are teing enacted in the mining camp propS prop-S dozens of quartz mills are pounding i dway with ceseless roar and scores of 1 smelters are belching forth thick vol unsmoke The day shift of min1 ers atx play but the night shift is at wqk hundreds of feet below the sur fa of th shafthouse digging hauling haul-ing and blasting for silver and copper The miners of Butte are never at rest sav for a cleanup or repairs at long I Inttervals Physically they are a fine body of meii made up of all elements II The English Welsh and Irish predomi nte but there are many Italians and I not a few representatives from the i Slavic provinces of the AustroHun garian Empire They generally dress i 3n long boots slouch hat woolen shirts and blue overalls I must be a very cold day that induces in-duces a miner to bother with such a 1 trifle as an overcoat They are the most I careless of mortals and never take precautions pre-cautions against catching cold They j cfrne out reeking with perspiration fuom the bowels of the earth and brave the nipping blast with bare breasts and necks Pneumonia has been doing do-ing its deadly work among them since 1 the advent of the grip four or five years ago and the pat season has been no exception in the way of mortality The patient breathing thin arid vita e iirj t has li iDtle hope of shaking off pneui inonia in Butte and in consequence the average of fatal cases is large I is ipid that men who abstain from Btrong liquors suffer even more than those who drink heavily and nearly all seejn to agree that alcohol in some form is an absolutely needed mode of of treatment under such conditions as exist here My personal observation has been that a goodsized majority of I the mae denizens of Butte seem to live in constant dread of pneumonia and thoroughly believe in fortifying themselves spiritually against all l evil chances At the same time I must say thfet a more kindly disposed pleasantly behaved community does not exist anywhere any-where Hospitality is a municipal watchword in the mountain city and nearly exerbody goes wearing sn expression pression of p ace an earth tom to-m < rt good will I any man of bad will should however happen along he can find plenty o accommodation in i Butte Ten thousand tons a day is no unusual un-usual output of ore for the mines of Butte The camp lies on an easy slope of the mountains with mines above below and all around it Look which way yOu may from the heart of they c the-y y6u will see a shaft house a stamp m or a smelter And Butte has herm her-m l share of mining romances There islthe 1 Lexington for which the French S sockholders are said to have paia S31 70t0O to theman who purchased from f t the original locator for 1 The manager man-ager is closemouthed and nobody can tell what the Lexington has produced But it must pay for the ore is still coming from a depth of 1200 feet below the surface The Gagnon is another Butte mine with a queer history It was worked for a silver ledge and a ten stamp mill crushed several hundred thousand dollars out of highgrade ore Gradually the percentage of silver diminished di-minished but the copper increased until for years it has produced ore which gives from 6 to 12 per cent of copper and from 15 to 40 ounces of silver The character of the mine changed entirely but its value did not decrease and it has i the record of over 31000000 production The famous Anaconda was a silver mine and a lowgrade one at that to begin with but from lowgrade silver the Anaconda turned into the most wonderful copper mine in America producing more copper than the famous fa-mous Calumet and Hecla of the Lake uperior region Eleven years ago the Anaconda changed hands at figures below be-low a weeks pay roll of the present time In 18S3 John B Haggin Lloyd Mining Types S Tevis and George Hearst the Californians Cali-fornians started in to develop the property with Marcus Daly as their manager To the original works which cost 2500000 have since been added a still larger plant with a capacity ca-pacity of 2000 tons a day An engine of 1000 horse power the largest west of the Missouri supplements the waterpower water-power Eleven hundred men at the works and 1500 at the mine are carried car-ried on the Anaconda pay rolls which disburse 90000 a month at Anaconda and 100000 at Butte A wellbuilt city of 4000 inhabitants has its being as a result of the Anaconda works and it boasts of the finest hotel between Minneapolis Min-neapolis and Tacoma I is well named The Smelter City The Anacondas freight bill is 75000 a month Its annual an-nual consumption of coal is 73000 tons and of wood 48000 cords Haggin and his associates have spent over 20000 000 on their plant When all this is considered one is not surprised to learn at the mine which is on one of the highest elevations of Butte that there is ore enough blocked out < to supply sup-ply the smelters for five years without any more development work and that thisore dies in bodiel frOm 50 t 100 feet in width and will assay 10 percent per-cent copper An investment of 20 000000 is a big thing but 500000 net profit a month or 6000000 a year is a bigger thing Life in Butte has its romance now and then and the story of Angus Mc Queen proves it Fifteen years ago he was plodding along in a small Canadian village feeling constantly that in the wide world outside there was a field wherein he could accomplish greater things He tied his bundles together and left the home of his childhood This was not all He had fallen in love with a pretty modest little girl and they were engaged to be married but with no time set for the wedding for Angus insisted that he could not think of taking any girl from her home until un-til he had a home to offer her in return turn And thus were affairs between them when he shook the dust of Canada off his feet and came to the United States The young man drifted out into Montana There was plenty of work for willing hands and Angus was no sluggard he worked hard he worked early and late but luck did not attend him Eight years of the same dreary routine went by and during that time Angus went back to his old home twice On both occasions he had long talks with the girl who was patiently waiting for him and feeling I at each visit more and more despondent ent he tried to convince her that she ent was wasting her life for a fancy told her in so many words that he did not i believe he ever would be rich enough so he dare marry but the girl was braver than he and would not be relinquished re-linquished Six years ago Angus reached the end of his lane and found the turn He struck pay dirt one day and in a few weeks realized that he was worth something like 50000 He did not telegraph tele-graph the good news home he did not take the first train home he did not even write to the dear ones there of his good fortune Prosperity had not fazed him in the least but it caused hini toset a mark he should strive to reach and when that ijhould be attained at-tained he determined to go home and i his promised wife was still true he i would marry her and make her happy The months rolled by and Angus Mc Queen had got a foothold in Butte Here he got track of a mine located in the centre of the town that to him seemed able to realize all his hopes if he could secure it He easily learned the owners name but his whereabouts was another matter With the same I persistence however that had characterized charac-terized his whole life he began to search for him Fortune having once smiled upon him now seemed lavish of her favors and he found his man Redid Re-did not attempt any doubledealing things about He told the owner many Butte that he did not know and offered of-fered him 25000 each for his holding The proposition was accepted the papers made out and Angus became the proprietor of a mine that in less than three months proved to be in truth what in fancy he had dreamed Then began his little scheme for a romance The excuse he sought forgoing for-going suddenly home came upon him in a most unpleasant manner he received re-ceived a dispatch that his mother was very ill At a moments notice he started for Canada and there happily found his mother recovered He also found his girl waiting for him still Again he went through the arguments hehad used before but the girl said no she did not care for money and she said she would not be a drag upon him She had confidence in his ability to earn enough to live on and that was all she asked Angus was overjoyed but repressed all emotion He merely said Wel set ready and we will get married mar-ried and go back west together This they did a quiet wedding took place and two weeks later they were settled in i a pleasant home here in Butte The faithful Canadian lass had in the end not only found a husband but a rich one too A pretty story but with a shrug of the shoulders you ask Is i true Well if you do not believe i > i r come to Butte and have a chat with Mrs Angus McQueen NELSON Then ASHLEY you will |