Page:The Overland Monthly Volume 56 Issue 2.djvu/87

 mine stamps, the hum of motors, the clanging of underground electric trams, all attest the economic revolution witnessed in Mexican mining.

The company is now building a branch from its main transmission line to Pachuca, one of the oldest mining camps in Mexico. In this district mines which, under former methods, were not worth working, are being re-opened and operated on a large scale. A unique fact which illustrates the change which electric power and modern methods have made may be seen in the history of the Real del Monte Mining Company of Pachuca. That company has operated continuously for two hundred years, and to-day, with two centuries of work to its credit, is preparing to double its production! The electric light has supplanted the miner's lamp, the motor driven stamp mill and tube mill have succeeded the old patio process, and the electric tram the wicker basket. Ten thousand horse-power of motors will in the next ten years be the means of producing as much wealth, luxuries and comforts of life as two centuries of slow and tedious hand labor.

MOONLIGHT

BY C. ASHTON SMITH

