CHINESE BOGUS GOLD.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XVIII, Issue XII, 20 March 1897, Page 344

CHINESE BOGUS GOLD.

For ways that are dark and for tricks That are rain The Heathen Chinee is peculiar. This quotation from Bret Harte’s celebrated poem came to my mind one warm June day as old Jerrv and I sat smoking our after-dinner pipes under the shade of a pine tree in front of our little cabin in the Sierra. We were ont on a summer prospecting tour and were taking things easy. Our other partner. Jack Potter, had just returned from an exploring expedition and was showing us his trophies, consisting of a silver-mounted opium pipe, a pair of chop sticks and a large, flat piece of metal the colour and texture of gold, which looked as though it had been melted and turned out on a saucer. • In digging up the earth under that old China camp down vonder,’ he said, • I came across these,’ and he held up his treasures to our wondering gaze. •Well, you are lucky,’ said I. How much is it worth ?’ 'Don't know.’ replied Jack, eyeing his find with a satisfied expression. Then old Jerry, who had been closely examining the metal and weighing it in the palm of his hand, gravely shook his head with the remark. ' It’s my belief, bovs. that thar yellar stuff ain’t gold at all. but fist spelter.' ‘Spelter!’ exclaimed Jack and I together, ‘what’s that ?’ ‘ It’s something I’ve heerd of and been fooled on manv a time, but never actually knew existed before,’ said Jerry. Of course we boys were curious and begged him to explain. ’ Well,’ said Jerry, resuming his seat and letting his thoughts wander back to the old days when California made her rfei sU into the world of progress, ‘ I used to buy gold dust from some of the men in the diggin s fist to ’commodate ’em ’ike, and a good portion of mv customers were Chinese. Their gold was a’, wavs the cleanest and brightest dust that I got, and sold readily in Coloma or Hangtown, but Mitchell, the Wells, Fargo and Co.’s agent at Coloma, used to say he lost more than he made on all the dust he bought. I had heard about “ spelter."

as the boys called it. They said the Chinese manufactured it out of brass, copper, and sich like fixin’s. and it was so near like gold that you couldn't tell the difference until you came to burn it in acid, when it would melt away, but I never took the trouble to burn any. because after I heard about it I never happened to detect any of the Chinese tryin' to sell it. But before that I remember once that Wing Foy, a Chinese who purchased from his countrymen and afterward sold the dust to me. brought me four ouncesof the prettiest dust I ever saw. It was clean and of a beautiful colour, and when I suggested burnin' it be said :*' Oh. you no burn him. Him heap clean ; no dirt ; too nice to burn.' ’ So I put it away. In taking my dust to Mitchell I used to separate it in different lots, as the prices ranged according to the localities where it was mined. The Chinese gold I also kept separate, but Mitchell, after buying it from me. usually dumped it all together. On this particular lot he told me he lost more than usual, and it was evident that Wing Foy’s four ounces were more than half spelter. At any rate he never brought such a large amount at one time again, so I could not catch him.’ * You think this is “ spelter.” then,’ said 1. ‘ Yes, I believe it is.’ The assay we had made of it proved Jerry's surmise to be correct, for there was no value whatever in Jack’s And ; therefore I end as I began. ' For ways that are dark and for tricks that are vain, the heathen Chinee is peculiar ’