tals. One day, at his office, desiring to pass into a brother-clerk's room, he found the entrance obstructed by a gentleman sitting in the doorway, whom he politely requested to move. The gentle man neither looked at him nor replied. The Colonel made his request again, in a more decided manner, with the same result. Our Colonel's patience being exhausted, he made a more touching appeal by upsetting the contumacious offender upon the floor. The occupants of the room rushing to the scene of action explained to him that his victim was a deaf mute, upon which the enraged Colonel exclaimed, in an injured tone, "Vell then, vy didn't he tell me so ?" back and treat you." He went back to the tavern and treated his "Resolution" till he was drunk as usual, and went home to boast of the strength of his resolution to his good wife. THE old Colonel owned a flock of hens, which he was very careful to keep shut up during planting season, and his wife would let them out occasionally to enjoy themselves in the garden. The Colonel seeing them in the garden one day, supposed of course they belonged to his neighbor, and, greatly enraged at the destruction of his property, he seized his old musket and blazed away at them, and sent a lad with the dead chickens to his neighbor's house, with a message couched in language rather more A LETTER came a short time since to the Drawer, forcible than polite. The next day the operation indorsed on the outside as follows: "SOLDIER'S LETTER-shove it ahead, Plenty of hard tack, but no soft bread, Six months' pay due, and nary a red." A FEW years since the Legislature of Michigan passed what was termed the "Four-Gallon Act," which prohibited the sale of ale or malt liquors in less quantities than four gallons. Governor Wisner -who, in the late rebellion, as Colonel of the Twenty-second Michigan Infantry, gave up his life for his country-signed the bill, and it became law. The day after it took effect the Governor, being in a saloon-a place he very seldom visited-called upon some friends to take a glass of ale with him. The ale was drank, and the Governor threw down on the counter a quarter eagle gold-piece in payment. The bar-tender put the money in the drawer, and went directly about other matters. The Governor called his attention to the fact that he had not given him back his change, when the bar-tender remarked, "Governor, the piece you gave me just paid for four gallons of ale, and you can have the rest of the four gallons when you choose to call for it. You, Governor, signed the law that compels us to sell the liquid so, and should not complain if its practical workings do not suit you." Governor Wisner's friends here brought in the laugh, and he good-humoredly joined with them. Whether on account of this experience, or for other reasons, the "Four-Gallon Law" was afterward repealed. ONE of our lovers in Vermont writes: Many years ago, when Dover, New Hampshire, and the adjacent county were first settled, there lived in the town of Somersworth, in that State, one Colonel Higgins, a notorious old toper, who was in the habit of visiting a tavern near where the village of Great Falls now stands, and partaking rather freely of toddy, and returning by way of Dover, where he always wound up with getting jolly drunk, and going home in that plight, much to the annoyance of his good wife. One fine morning he started on his usual rounds, and his wife entreated him rather harder than usual to see if his resolution would not let him get by that tavern once. So the old Colonel made his usual visit to Great Falls, and did not visit the tavern; then went to Dover, as usual, and when he approached the tavern he put spurs to his horse and dashed by, much to the astonishment of the landlord and the by-standers. He did not go but a few rods, however, before he wheeled short around and exclaimed, "Well done, Resolution! You have done nobly to let me get by that tavern once, and now I will go was repeated, and so on for several days; and the Colonel was greatly astonished at his neighbor's silence and good-nature, as he never sent back any more than very polite thanks for the "gift," as he expressed it. Well, it so happened that the Colonel went to look after his hens one day, and found but very few in the pen. After looking and wondering for a while the reason for his neighbor's goodnature dawned upon him, and he was heard to exclaim, "I have been killing my own hens, and that cld rascal has eaten them all!" The old fellow never heard the last of those hens, and was never known to shoot another. A WESTERN pettifogger once broke forth in the following indignant strain: "Sir, we're enough for be intimated nor tyrannized over; mark that. And, ye, the hull of ye. Me and my client can't never Sir, just so sure as this Court decides against us, we'll file a writ of progander, Sir, and we-" Here wanted to know what he meant by a writ of prohe was interrupted by the opposition counsel, who is a-a—a—it's a—wa'al, I don't just remember "Mean? why, Sir, a writ of progander gander. the exact word, but it's just what'll knock thunder out of your one-horse court, any how." A LONDON letter-writer says that a cheap bookseller in London has put out the following sign: FOR SALE HERE: Mill on Political Economy. Ditto on the Floss. PROFESSOR W—, of - University, is something of a wag, and the boys seldom get the start of him in the way of practical jokes. One day, going into recitation-room, Freshman class present, he found a sheep sitting tied in a chair. His sole remark, addressed politely to the sheep, "How are you, Freshman ?" rather turned the joke on the boys. Similarly, when, at another time, opening his desk, a goose flew out, "Aha, gentlemen! another class-mate, I see!" SAID a very high functionary to his scape-grace son: "Look at me! Here am I, at the top of the tree; and what is my reward? Why, when I die, my son is the greatest rascal in England!" To this made answer young hopeful: "Yes, dad, when you die; but not till then, you see!" NEW MONTHLY MAGAZINE. No. CLXXXV.-OCTOBER, 1865.-VOL. XXXI. THE REDUCTION WORKS. O event in the history of American enter- | that period a series of territories equal in the prise has promoted in a greater degree the aggregate to a third of the continent has been extension of civilization than the discovery of brought within the humanizing influences of the gold placers of California in 1848. Since labor and commerce. The discovery of the Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1865, by Harper and Brothers, in the Clerk's Office of the Diatrict Court for the Southern District of New York. VOL. XXXI.-No. 185.-00 ing of the California quicksilver mines, the proprietors and lessees of the old Almaden mine controlled the bullion of the world. The monopoly of quicksilver confers extraordinary pow ers. In foreign hands it would be a serious drawback, if not an insuperable barrier, to the development of our mineral regions, and might, in the event of war, prove disastrous beyond all other causes to the finances of our country. The discovery of vast and inexhaustible deposits of cinnabar within our own borders almost simultaneously with the rush of emigration to our gold placers and subsequent discoveries of silver, must be regarded as peculiarly fortunate. It relieves us of all apprehensions for the future, and enables us to wield a controlling influence upon the price of quicksilver in the markets of the world. precious metals in the barren recesses of the mountains has led to the building of cities, the opening of new and important branches of trade, and the settlement and cultivation of rich arable valleys, hitherto occupied by roving bands of Indians. In regular progression one beneficial result has followed another, till nearly the whole of that vast region divided in part by the Rocky Mountains and stretching west to the Pacific Ocean, bordered on the north by the British Possessions and on the south by Mexico, has been redeemed from the sway of the nomadic, tribes and rendered available to the uses of civilized man. Already a population approaching a million of hardy, enterprising, and intelligent freemen is spread over the States of California, Oregon, and Nevada, and the Territories of Washington, Idaho, Montana, Utah, Colorado, New Mexico, and Arizona. All the industrial pursuits are represented, from the high-comprehending as it does the very basis of our est branches of science to the most primitive grades of muscular labor. The subject is one of such unusual importance, financial prosperity, that I am induced to believe the results of my observations during a recent visit to New Almaden will not be uninteresting to the readers of this Magazine. Information bearing so directly upon the supply of the precious metals from our new Territories seems peculiarly appropriate at this time. I examined our great quicksilver mines very thoroughly, and obtained some reliable data in reference to their history and present condition. It is no reflection upon the author of the interesting article on New Almaden which appeared in the June number of Harper for 1863, to say that great changes have taken place both there and throughout our mineral possessions on the Pacific coast since 1857, the date of his visit. The famous quicksilver mines of New Almaden are situated in Santa Clara County, California, twelve miles from the Pueblo of San Jose and about sixty miles south from San Francisco. The rancho upon which the principal mine was discovered comprehends the valley of Capitancillos. This valley runs nearly north and south, and lies among the mountains of the Coast Range. According to tradition the tribes who resided in it in early days were governed by two chiefs of diminutive stature but great muscular strength, upon whom the Spaniards conferred the affectionate sobriquet of "Capitancillos," or the "Little Captains," and hence the name of the valley. Throughout this vast range of country deposits of the precious metals have been found in veins of such richness and magnitude as to challenge credulity; and there is scarcely a mineral adapted to purposes of human industry which does not exist within its limits. In contemplating the present condition and probable destiny of this great interoceanic world one is apt to be dazzled by the splendor of the considerations involved, and lose sight of the wonderful system of coincidences by which the designs of Providence are carried into effect. The discovery of gold and silver in California and the adjacent Territories would have been of little avail but for another discovery within our territorial limits of a mineral indispensable in the operations of mining. None of the precious metals can be separated from the baser products of the earth in which they are found imbedded without the use of quicksilver-an article approximating in value more nearly to bullion than any other mineral, and possessing peculiar affinities for which there is no substitute. It is the only known substance which unites readily with gold, silver, tin, lead, zinc, bismuth, and other metals, and gathers them into the form of an amalgam. Prior to the discovery of the New Almaden mines the principal cinnabar lodes of which we have any knowledge were those of "Guanca Velica" in Peru, "Idria" in Austria, and "Almaden" in Spain. The earliest mention made of quicksilver was by Aristotle and Theophrastus, who called it fluid silver. In the time of Pliny the mines of Almaden yielded annually 700,000 pounds of cinnabar. The supply from these sources is limited, and would be wholly inadequate to the demands of our new mineral regions, even if other considerations were not involved. But the use of a product derived from sources over which we have no control, and so essential to our mining interests, would be liable These early colonists found in the valley of to serious difficulty in cases of national misun- Capitancillos a cave to which the Indians were derstanding. It is a well-known fact in the in the habit of resorting for a vermilion-colored history of financial affairs, that, before the open-earth with which to adorn their bodies. The revolution of Mexico opened to the restless spirits of the mother country a new field for enterprise and adventure. Many persons of distinguished intellectual attainments and great force of character found their way to Upper California as colonists; and their descendants are now prominent among the proudest families of the native population. By the ruder inhabitants they were called the gente de razon—people of reason or intelligence-which is still the distinctive appellation of the superior orders. This ward off the attacks of hostile Indians he had erected a strong defensive work, then and now known as "Sutter's Fort." mercurial pigment produced an irritation of the skin. The simple minded aborigines supposed it must be an invention of El Pulli, the Evil Spirit, to punish them for some offense, and Sutter having hospitably received many of they made annual offerings to him in the hope the adventurous Americans who crossed the of procuring his forgiveness. Finding him in-plains at that period, became enamored of their exorable after the lapse of sufficient time for any ordinary spirit to relent, they washed the paint from their bodies and trusted to other means for salvation. These tribes have passed away. The Capitancillos and their followers are no longer known save in the traditions of the country. The progress of civilization has nearly swept them from the memory of man. Up to the year 1824 the vermilion cave was not known as a mine. In that year a French gentleman named Antoine Surrol, who resided in the vicinity, conceived the idea of working the ore. Supposing it to contain gold or silver, he sent to the town of San Luis Obispo, some three hundred miles down the coast, for a flask of quicksilver with which to prosecute the work. His experiment, of course, was a failure, and nothing more was heard or thought of the cave until 1845. Early in that year the Mexican nation, under the Presidency of Paredes, found itself in imminent danger of a war with the United States. A native of Switzerland, John A. Sutter, who had served in the armies of Napoleon, had emigrated to California, and established near the banks of the Sacramento a rancho, or farm. In order to discourse, which breathed the spirit of liberty; and, possibly fired by the story of Tell and Gessler, inclined to make the fort a rendezvous for such of his new friends as chose to surround him. The Mexican Government was prompt in adopting measures to resist the threatened incursions of the Americans. Don Andres Castillero, a cavalry officer of the Mexican army, was dispatched to California with instructions to negotiate with Sutter for the purchase of his fort. It was deemed of great importance to possess this strong-hold; and Castillero was empowered to pay for it, if necessary, as much as a hundred thousand dollars. Sutter, with an unselfish devotion to our interests which has never been properly appreciated, rejected the offer. Castillero, during his sojourn, visited the valley of the "Capitancillos," where he was received with the hospitality due to his official position. The vermilion cave was shown to him as one of the curiosities of the country. Being a person of some culture he discovered, as he thought, something more interesting than demons in this mysterious place, and consulted on the subject with a priest named Real, a man of great shrewdness and learning, who resided at the Mission of Santa Clara. They together resolved to make certain experiments in order to test the occupied weeks, and comprehended every refernature and character of the rock found in the ence, illustration, and authority that bore the cave. By means of a gun-barrel and a tub of remotest relation to the subject. Perhaps since water they smelted and condensed a small quan- the beginning of the Government no cause has tity, from which they obtained several globules been presented for adjudication in the courts inof quicksilver. Castillero made an informal de- volving greater interests, or graver or more comnouncement of his discovery before the Alcalde plicated questions, embracing as they did the of San Jose, and soon after returned to Mexico learning of the French jurisconsults, the princito give an account of his mission, taking with ples of the laws of nations, the history of all him specimens of the ore. The land upon which mining countries, ancient and modern; the docthe discovery was made was claimed by an old trines of the Common Law of England as to the ranchero named Berryessa, under a grant for rights of miners and the tenure of the soil, and military services. Castillero having exhibited the language, literature, and laws of Spain and his specimens in the City of Mexico, and made | Mexico. The list of witnesses included the such representations as to induce the Govern- names of nearly all the prominent men who held ment to grant him facilities for the development office in Mexico at and about the dates of the of the mine, was about to return to California, title-papers in question; and it is said a steamwhen certain of the Anglo-Mexican capitalists ship was chartered to convey them from Mexico procured from him a cession of his claim, and to San Francisco. Day after day the courtin 1848 proceeded to work the mine, and take room was thronged with the beauty, wealth, and such steps as they deemed necessary to perfect fashion of San Francisco. For the first time in their title. A strict compliance with the Ordi- the history of its judicial proceedings places were nances of 1783, established by the King of Spain assigned to the gentler sex, The forensic disand still in force, was required under the Mex- cussion was worthy the cause and the scene. ican law. It was necessary to the validity of a The fame of the speakers, the novelty of the denouncement that a careful survey should be questions, the magnitude of the prize at stake, made, the course and inclination of the vein rendered the occasion one of surpassing interest. accurately defined, and a detailed registration The Castillero title was based upon a claim made before the proper authorities. That these to three thousand varas of ground in every direquirements were not complied with by Castil-rection from the centre of the mine, in virtue of lero appears from the decision of the case by the his denouncement; also to a two-league grant Supreme Court. of land from the Mexican Government. Two grants of land had been made in 1842 by Governor Alvarado, of California-one to a person named Justillarios, and the other to José Reyes Berryessa; and the mines were claimed by adverse parties under these grants, both of which had been confirmed by the Land Commission. Their boundaries, however, were in dispute, and this was the gist of nearly all the litigation. The Justillarios title was acquired by a man named Fossat, and that part of the "Capitancillos" became known as the Fossat Ranch. The Berryessa grant was acquired by the holders of the Castillero title, and was known as the San Vincente Ranch. There were various intermediate conveyances and complications, of no interest to the general reader. Upper California was ceded to the United States by the treaty of Guadaloupe-Hidalgo, on the 2d of February, 1848. Our Government bound itself to protect the private property of all Mexicans in the territory acquired. The Mexican Government had made many grants of land for the purpose of colonization, and it became necessary to provide for the separation of the public from the private lands. Congress, in 1851, created a Board of Land Commissioners to pass upon the claims presented under the terms of the treaty. The title-papers to the New Almaden mine, derived from Andres Castillero, were recognized as genuine by two members of the Commission, and the title pronounced valid; the third Commissioner, assuming the genuineness of the papers, pronounced them invalid as a title. The case was carried to the United States District Court, where it was found in 1858 by Mr. Stanton, the present Secretary of War, who, under instructions from the Attorney-General, took proceedings to prevent the further working of the mine by the parties in possession. It was charged by the Government that the papers upon which the Castillero title was based had been fabricated after the cession of California, and consequently that the title was void. A writ of injunction was granted by the Court, restraining the parties in possession from the further working of the mine. The claimants then secured the professional aid of Reverdy Johnson and J. P. Benjamin, and the testimony and papers in the cause became expanded into several volumes. The arguments After much deliberation the United States District Court decided in favor of Castillero's three-thousand-vara grant, but rejected his twoleague grant. From this decision the Government took an appeal to the Supreme Court of the United States, before which tribunal it was argued in 1863. The Fossat and Berryessa grants had been confirmed, but their boundaries were still in controversy. Government claimed as public domain the range of hills in which the quicksilver mines are located. The Supreme Court decided against the validity of the Castillero title. The efforts of the Government counsel were then principally directed to a determination of the boundaries which would exclude the mines from the Fossat and Berryessa grants, and place them upon public land. An exciting contest ensued; and it was not until April, |