ged that the Government controls the levees, but it will
cost the country a great deal of money. Twenty-five million dollars to
begin with, and more than five millions every year afterward, is the
estimated cost.

* * * * *

An experiment to make gold out of other metals has been attempted in
Washington.

Ever since the world was young, men have been trying to discover a means
of making gold.

The old alchemists, who were accused of being magicians, and having
dealings with the powers of evil, were always trying to make gold.
Apparently no one ever succeeded.

Lately, a man from Chicago, a Mr. Brice, went to the Government and
asked for a patent on a method of making gold, which he offered to sell
the Government.

It has long been known to scientists that the precious metals, silver
and gold, are present in many of the baser metals, such as antimony and
lead.

Mr. Brice claimed that he could extract the gold from these metals, and
that he could also make gold.

When he applied for his patent it was refused to him, on the ground that
he had not shown that the work could really be done. He continued to ask
for the patent; and, as the laboratory of the Patent Office was too
small for him to show his process to the authorities, he was allowed to
use the laboratory of the Mint Bureau for his experiments.

A committee of scientists was appointed to conduct the experiments, and
Mr. Brice furnished them with his formula for making the gold.

The first experiments were tried with metals that were known to contain
gold and silver. From these, by Mr. Brice's process, eighty-four per
cent of the gold was recovered and fifty-six per cent of the silver.

They then tried to make gold from minerals that were free from the
precious metals, but this experiment failed; no gold resulted.

In making their report of the attempts to make gold, the committee
pronounced them failures.

They said, first, that in the attempt to extract gold from metals known
to contain gold and silver, Mr. Brice's process had only extracted a
portion of this metal.

Second, that the claim of making gold was entirely without foundation.

Mr. Brice replied to this, by complaining that the commission did not
follow his formula.

He declared that certain chemicals had been used which he had expressly
stated would ruin his process if added to his formula. He said that the
commission had also declined to use a certain