OCR Text |
Show THE BLACK BILLS. Moultun Heard From, and He Is Not Entirely Happy. The Outlook Not Flatterin-, Vet There is Gold hi the Hills. Galena, August Id, '77. Editors lltnihh In these times when war convulses i the grenl nations of Europe aud the wildorti excitement prevails throughout through-out the eastern states, you muy have little room for Black HiMs note, or : your readers little time or interest to read them; however, we will have our B.-ty, that being about all we have had bo far. Matters hereabout drig s'owly on for want of capital, and the developments develop-ments are not such hh would warrant one in an opinion upon the future ot the camp. It has Iwi-u a marked peculiarity of this country that nu n of means seem to have a mania lur millB and not a dollar for development develop-ment of milieu. Our camp Ima at present two steam saw nulls, one water power mill, (of homo nmrnif-ic ture), two reverberatory !urocue (not yet set up), with two larye blal furnaces en route, where report had had them since early spring, and if thfi rnrtfij rnnrinna nnn.l tl ' f.Mj i.uuumiD guuu u n-jr will arrive on or about the same day ihut the Jewish saviour will make his ad vent. Men are talking of putting up more smelters, stamp mills and an additional addi-tional saw mill or two. Galena has four stores, three e.iting houses, three of those institutions designated smelters, (described in a former letter) and kuown in other localities as saloons; all ttiese things we can bast of, but nary mine as yet. There are some excellent prospects which will from all indications prove valuable mines when developed. The i'ellow Jacket, Florence and Red Cloud have each made a shipment ship-ment of ore, the torme'r to St. Louis and the twu latter to Omaha. Work has lately been resumed on the El Rt.fugee, and from the ore body exposed near the surface sur-face work is being pushed ahead and tho ore is being crushed,, sampled and sacked for shipment to St. Louis. Prospects on the gold ledges ! the upper portion of the district are flattering, and two stamp mills will be in operation on them soon, one partly owned and operated by Mr. 3. Wilkinson of American Fork, Utah, whose Hiiecess in milling gold rock on the Alpha or Woolsey ol Deauwood is a guarantee ot success here. May Stephen live long and prosper, but never grow any longer. Deadwood and its tributaries are yielding Uirly in placer gold, and tump mills uro p'euliml. I am unable un-able to give iha exact number or the refculta, but p.-rhapa it would be safe iooy twrniy, with results generally sat id factory. As to the ledges or de-Doiiis de-Doiiis tl f y aro somewhat like the animal so resembling the horse having a head like a horse and a tail like a horse, ui,d yet is not a boras. A ia owner, B comes to look. B saya, "What is your opinion of these ledges ?" A Bays, "Big thing," looking mysteriously at B, who remarks, re-marks, ''So do I; have you got any matches ?" as be feels tor his pipe, they part, wiser il not better men, ttehng that it is a good thing to exchange ex-change opinions on subjects of sjch engrossing interest to scientific minds. No sales of any magnitude have been made, and probably will not be this I season. Capitalists, ao far, have been like Salt Lake aristocracy more shadow than lubstance, and have all been affected with the stamp-mill contagion. They have, however, shown a splendid nerve and willingness willing-ness to take chances oa a purchase where no cash was required nor a chance of expense for working. Certainly Cer-tainly the air is light, or some ol our friends would ba7 to carry "ballast." Sittine Bull still livps and is perhaps per-haps 100 per cent, more formidable than one year ago, if we look upon all things as they were and as they are. Then he was in a position to act only on the defensive with Crazy Horse and agency Indians, all da-pending da-pending upon the chase for food. Now Crazy Horse with his band is being led at Red Cloud while they are murdering and plundering the settlers in this vicinity, while Sitting Bull is 1 arranging alliances with northern In- ! dians for offensive operations, and should be succeed in his plans he will standvreasonable chances of taking in a greater portion of Montana and all of this section of country aa far south as the North Platte, for in such an event there could be perhaps 25,000 warriors brought into the field, leaving leav-ing enough at the agencies to draw and carry supplies to those engaged. Now, with such an outloek, what chance have the settlers for life or property, and as for aid from government, govern-ment, it is an idle waste of words to talk of such a thing so long as the government continues to bo absorbed hy railroad and Indian rings, for whenever a move is made by the military mil-itary to equelch oue of these out- nreaiis, then a howl goes up from the ring to restrain the military and allow thwm to come out and make a new bargain with the worthless devils, to furnish them more provisions and let them kill more white people as they did lait season, and then the most influential members of the ring and its chief oracle, Bishop Whipple, are detailed to work on the sympathies of eastern pwple by long aud touching letters in which the plainest falachoods are tuld of the acts of military men. Could anything be more criminal than such sacrifice of j life to the greed of thieving politicians, j or seem more strange than that biah- 1 ops of Chribtirin churches Bhould descend from their high calling to traflic in the blood ol innocent men, women and children for money? Surely the Christianity of to-day is but a hollow, meaninglrsa mockery of the doctrines taught by the Great Master. From our late civil war we inherited in-herited corruption, pride, extravagance extrava-gance of living aud mooopoly. We sowed the wind and are reaping the whirlwind. Let us hope the Beed sown tiy the labor strikes in the eustern states may give a political tree bearing bear-ing a new Iruit. and that the old may be plucked ofl' and cast away as worthless and oiltjnsive garbage. The weather continues dry and warm, with but littln thunder, and cool nights. The festive grasshopper looks down upon us at times from hia lofty heigh!., hut does not deign to come down aud lunch on bai-on. Sic semper hopper. Big Horn expeditions from the hills have been fitting up and starting out for the pint three months. Nothing so far hs been struck of which any ono h s been ad vieod hereabout. G. B. Moulton. |