The Burlington weekly hawk-eye. [volume] (Burlington [Iowa]) 1860-1876, 1864-04-23

|tOcKS. so I0r mas this gone t0al Huta7N
Exchange has been organized, and meets
iaily for no other purpose than to dabble
ia gold-mine shares, Of Idaho, California,
and Arizona. The columns of
the daily papers are filled with advertise
ments of new mining companies, all Of
which make promises and offer from ten
to eighty thousand shares at various prices,
and propose making up working capitals
Of from half million to four millions Of
dollars!
Besides these new companies . large
number may be classed - old-that is they
are already organized and their shares du-
" quoted at the Board day after day
How many Of them are legitimate busi-
ness companies having solid basis, and
are being conducted with view to the in
terest OF the shareholders, we have no
means Of knowing. Some few of them, no
doubt, are realities and may prove profita-
BILE. But the mass of them are equally
beyond doubt mere schemes for the trans
fer of the money of honest or credulous
simpletons to the purses Of the vampires
who originate and manage them. They
have as little real substance as the schemes
for mining in Mississippi, started in France
by Law, something more than o century
since, and which for q time made all
Frenchmen crazy with anticipations of
countless wealth. They are as baseless
and will prove as fruitless as the more re-
cent English mania for Railroads.
Nevertheless the shares sell. Nothing
seems too visionary for the credulity of the
coniding public. One company advertises
that laborers can be obtained in Arizona
for ten dollars . month, aud no one seems
to dream of questioning the statement!--
Whatever respectable men choose to affix
their names to is gulped down with as
much avidity as q bit Of choice meat by q
dog. No one seems surprised that
men who profess to own ''lodes" of uuim.
aginable productivenessa are charitably dis
pensing them to all who choose to share
in their good fortune, at mere nominal
sums! 1t is taken for granted that the
goid-diggers really have so much more
than they want. that their only anxiety is
how to distribute their surplus among the
people! To be sure they demand trifle
for an interest in their mines" But then
it is so small compared with the enormous
profits which are to be divided, tina. it is
scarcely worth noting.
These facts indicate the faulty which
has taken possession Of the public mind in
the Metropolis. They show how blind peo-
pie become when lured by golden visions,
and made hungry for more by the pos
session of q little. These bubbles, which
are bound to burst ut the slightest pune
ture, would attract no attention in ordi-
nary times. No man could dream of in
vesting his means in them, unless under
some abnormal influence. The simple
fact that such schemes find favor and en-
couragement-that the shares of any Of
them sell in the market, that those who
originate them manage to make them
pay" is the very best evidence we could
have that speculation has about reached its
height and that the great bubble must
speedily burst. Men Of sense will see the
sign and stand from under.
@-We notice that certain of the Rail-
road Companies at Chicago claim the right