Next morning Sedgwick ordered a forty-stamp gold quartz mill complete,
with two rock-breakers, the batteries to be of five-stamp each and low
mortars, with a single pan for cleaning up--a free gold quartz mill.
Instead of one heavy engine, he ordered two, each of forty-horse power
to work on the same shaft, to be supplied by six thirty-horse-power
boilers to be set in two batteries. He ordered also one six-inch and one
four-inch steam pump, with the necessary boilers, and besides, a donkey
hoisting engine, good for an eight-hundred hoist. The order included
all the needed attachments, belting, retorts, duplicates of all parts
subject to breakage or wear, a forge, and shoes and dies enough to last
two years.
He stipulated, too, that the wood-work of the battery should be gotten
out, exactly framed and marked, and that all the pulleys, bolts, etc.,
should be included.
In two days the specifications were gotten ready, and the contract
signed, which included a clause that the whole should be ready in sixty
days, or less, from that date.
Then Sedgwick wrote fully to Jordan, giving him the account of what he
had done, and sending him a draft of the ground plan of the mill, and
full details as to the grading, hoping he would receive the letter and
have the rocks hauled, the battery blocks gotten out, and the grading
done.
This work under way, the exultant man devoted all his time to Grace,
except that every day, when in the city, he would make a run two or three
times to the foundry to mark the progress of the work.
Meanwhile, the happy pair visited every point of interest in and about
San Francisco. They frequented the theatres, drove to the Park and the
Cliff House, and both declared that San Francisco was the most delightful
spot on earth.
They were all the world to each other. In the happiness that filled their
hearts their eyes were softened, so that everything they looked at took
on roseate hues--the world had become a throne to them, over which had
been drawn a cover of cloth of gold.
Once they made a journey to Virginia City, and descended the Gould and
Curry shaft, and Sedgwick showed his bride where he and Jack first
discussed the probability of trying to make a little raise in stocks.
They went and looked at the lodging-house on the Divide where Jack and
Sedgwick roomed so long; visited the mills, saw crude bullion cast into
bars, and watched the procession of a miner's funeral, and in their
rambles Sedgwick stopped many a miner whom he had known, and presented
his bride.
Returning, they got off at Sacramento and waited over one day. There
Sedgwick ordered four seven-ton wagons, with four trail wagons of five
tons each, and four more of three tons each, and twelve sets of team
harness, a dozen of yokes and no end of chains; also a strong, covered
spring wagon with harness to match.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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