Orleans independent standard. [volume] (Irasburgh, Vt.) 1856-1871, 1864-04-15

instance poor man or a company OF
poor men discover a valuable mine, do
not have much money, and are obliged
to sell some Of their ground to pay ex-
penses, the rich spectators are satisfied
that the mine is valuable, they come on
and buy up controlling interest in the
mine, csjole the poor stockholders by
false promises to get the mine incorpor-
ated, and then when they have got the
poor devils fast, commence putting on
unnecessary expense in the way of cost
ly machinery, before the claim will pros
duce anything to pay expenses, and TO
do this are, of course, obliged to lay
heavy assessments, and the man Of small
means struggles along until he can no
longer raise money TO pay assessments,
while the rich capitalists have done every
thing in their power to reduce the value
of the stock in the market, and then the
poor mans interest in the claim is sold
to pay expenses, and Oftentimes he loses
all he has paid in, in the way OF assess
ments, and his share in the mine besides.
AS soon as all Of the small fry are froz-
en- out, then the capitalists shape their
ends to realize dividends as soon as pos
sible. ] frequently hear the story told,
(and / have no reason to doubt it, that
one man commenced in the Gould 81
Curry claim with eighty thousand dol
lars to pay assessments with 4; he had
large amount of ground, and the CAPT
talists had controlling interest in the
claim, and put on unnecessary expense
until the unlucky mans eighty thousand
dollars was gone, and he SO much in
volved in debt that his interest in the
claim was sold at auction to pay back as
sessments, and when the rascally capi-
taliSts had got the unlucky mans share
of the valuable mine into their own
greedy hands, they, the following week
declared small dividend out Of the net
product Of the mine. presume they
were good christian people, of good
in the church, and the transac-
ton was all right, because done accord
ing to law.
In one of the Virginia papers this /
| noticed an estimation of the
product of the mines of the Territory
for the past year, to be eight millions of
dollars, while another paper estimated
he amount at between eleven and twelve
Millions. Now call it twelve for the sake
If round numbers, which | think is far
above the amount taken out, and reckon
he population of the Territory at forty
i've thousand people, and say each per-
on works all the woraing days in the
rear, and the y millions will only pay
hem about So cents per day--not
nough to pay their board.
a na;uins 6tatu VI Territory, destitute
# agricultural resources, is but poor I
ountry, for the reason that all Of the
roduct of the mines have to be sent
way to purchase necessary articles Of
BOD ETC., and the money never returns
, circulate in the country.
Persons reading the accounts of the
lrge shipments of bullion from min
lg country, think it ought TO be a very
iyored land, but they do not stop to
link that perhaps bullion is the only }
roduct of that country, and that it is
reduced by few mines, and that the /
rofts are divided among a few rich
capitalists, while the miners at large, in
8 cases out of 100, utterly fail in all of II
,eir attempts to make fortunes, or even II
} make decent living. In most n
ases the prospectors for silver mines
bend their hard earnings of years in
ain attempts to get suddenly rich. 81
The mines that | have been writing IL
bout are situated near Virginia and n
Iold Hill, about 175 miles west from q
ere on the Overland Route to Califor- 'C
ia. The first mines found in the vicin- u
y were found year ago last fall, but &c
d not attract much attention until last u
INNER. Some very rich rock was sent q
ON here to Virginia and California, u
lring the spring and forepart of the &c
INNER, and the lying papers gave such u
owing accounts of the country that III
,ople came rushing here by hundreds, sc
might say by thousands. came here al
st September, and do not like the coun- al
Y. | do not think it is near as rich as e'
has been represented. There is some al
ny rich rock, but l think the quantity sc
too limited for the country ever to Ill
lount TO much, and besides that, it is
far from the base for supplies and :"
,od, and water is so scarce that the de- "
lopment of the mines, even if rich :,
4 extansiua ,un,ld hn diAin,,lt NJ.