The Use of Gold

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The Times, of Hamilton, C. W., publishes a paragraph headed "To the West.—Gold!" and proceeds to give some wonderful particulars furnished them by a gentleman from Adrian, Mich., concerning the great quantity of gold which is found in the quartz of that neighborhood. The sands of the Missouri river, it informs us, are full of gold j and the postmaster of Osceola, Iowa, says that " the gold excitement is very high here. There is a company with fifty hands at work, all expecting plenty of the precious metal." From this information it would seem as though a gold excitement was to be got up out West, aud that some land speculators were trying, by false representations, to induce emigration to their territory. Now we believe in genuine, solid progress. We believe that laud, as land, capable of cultivation, is urofth more, practically, for the advancement of civilization than the gold mines of Peru or the diamond mines of Golconda. That there may be gold there we do not doubt, because, although the most precious, it is the most cUf* fused of all metals j but the mere presence of gold is not wealth. In many instances, we may say in the majority, the presence of gold is poverty, for it often costs one dollar and a half to extract a dollat's worth of gold from a piece of quartz. California has gold enough for us at present, and therefore, those .who have any idea of going West should be prepared "to dig, to sow, to reap, to mow," rather than to search after gold, for in a new country it is of no use, and is not for one moment to be placed in the scale with the honest hand and head labor of a man.

Scientific American Magazine Vol 13 Issue 38This article was published with the title “The Use of Gold” in Scientific American Magazine Vol. 13 No. 38 (), p. 304
doi:10.1038/scientificamerican05291858-304a

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