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Show THE GALICIAN MINES OF WAX. A Carton Indattrial Field That America Capital Will Control. "The wax mines oroiokerit deposits of eastern Galfcia, which a syndicate of American capitalists have leased or purchased," pur-chased," said D. M. Fox, of Pennsylvania, who recently returned from the oil fields of Austro-Hungary, '-form one of the most curious fields of industry imaginable. imagin-able. They are at and around Boryslaw, which is also the center of the eastern oi! district of that part of Austria. They have been for generations in the possession posses-sion of Polish Jews of the most avaricious avarici-ous class, who hare worked them in the most primitive mauner. The wax lies in beds, like clay, at depths of from 830 to 800 feet. Shafts re sunk to the beds. The sides are curbed with timbers, but in such a careless and unscientifio way that they are constantly caving in and burying workmen in the depths. From four to six men are kfUed in this way every week. The owners of the mines persistently refuse to go to the expense of making their shafts safe, and the laborers are at their mercy. "The Boryslaw wax field is only fifty seres in extent, and upon that 10,000 shafts have been sunk. Twelve thousand men live and work on that tract. The owners of the deposits have made immense im-mense fortunes from the product, as it is very valuable, bringing eight cents a pound at the pita. Its use until within a few years was wrafined solely to making candles, but the manifold uses to which paraffine has been adapted has given this Galician deposit a much wider utility. The region is intensely Catholic, and holy days are 'constantly occurring, upon which occasions vast numbers of candles are used. The czokerft lies in veins sixteen six-teen inches thick. It is dug out with shovels and raised from the shaft with buckets and windlass.'' The owners are the only merchants, bankers and hotel keepers in the region. Everytking is mortgaged to them. The men shave their heads, leaving only a tuft of hair at each temple. The women also shave their heads, wearing mohair wigs instead of their natural head covering. "There is more in this primitive field of mineral wax passing into tle control of American capital than appears on the surface. These deposits have inter&red In no small degree with the market fov American paraffine in European mar- 1 kets, and American paraffine is an im-portant im-portant product. The men who will control this Ualiclan natural paraffine are greatly interested in the American artificial paraffine, and they iDtend to hare the market in one way if they can't in another," New York Sun. |