Gold Hill daily news. [volume] (Gold Hill, N.T. [Nev.]) 1863-1882, 1864-01-19
Montgomery Street in Trouble.

4
to the Pacific world as Montgomery
Street Miners" have peck of trouble.
Their woes and wailings come to US at
odd times, through the columns Of the
Bay papers; but candidly speaking We
must admit they they excite but little
commisseration. 1t would seem, from all
that one can gather from the papers, that
the people of San Francisco have run
mining mad" and have invested to an
enormous extent in mines, or in certificates
Of mining stock, about which they neither
know anything nor seek to inform them
selves. AL that they know, or seek to
know, concerning the matter is what they
find written and printed on the face of
their certificates of stock. There may be
such mine, or there may not. The
chances are as strong in favor of one
proposition as Of the other. The fact in
the case is one to be easily ascertained,
but it would seem that to ascertain it not
an effort is made. There are more news
papers published in this Territory than in
any other community on the face of the
earth of the same population. These
papers devoted very considerable por-
ton of their space to information con-
corning the numerous mines of the Terri
tory, and as far as our knowledge and eS-
perience goes, the descriptions of and in
formation relative to the mines, are care
fully collected and strictly reliable. The
purchaser of worthless "wild cat" has
only his wilful blindness to blame. If n
person, remote by hundreds of miles from
the silver mines of this Territory, will
invest his money in what purports to be
mining shares, without making an effort
to ascertain the primary fact that such a
mine exists, he or she deserves no SYM
pathy, if the money so invested be utterly
lost. Again A vast deal of this whining
and moaning comes from persons who
have invested their surplus funds in the
stock of mines which do actually exist,
and which are in all probability valuable.
Their mines, however, are undeveloped,
and their development viii inevitably cost
a vast outlay. This is fact, which the
Spectator in silver mines ought to be
aware when he enters that field of specu-
lation. The individual who finds mining
stocks offered in the market at from one
dollar to ten or twelve dollars foot,
knows, or ought to know, that he is buy
ing into an undeveloped mine, the proof
of the real value of which is to cost a vast
deal of money and that the fact of its
richness is only to be ascertained by
months of labor and the outlay of thous-
ands. The man of small capital, who
hopes to at one day become an owner in
a paying mine, must not exhaust his
means in the purchase of undeveloped
mines. He should fully consider the in
evitable assessments which must follow,
and confne his investments to such a
number of shares as his income will be
able to maintain. That is the course pur-
sued by people who know what they are
about. and who expect to be owners in a
mine when it becomes paying institu-
ton. The class of people who buy
mining stock, with the expectation that
its value will increase by mere lapse of
time, without the expenditure of labor,
whether those persons are professional
stockholders, or innocent, credulous
Woodworking people, who only mine
On Montgomery street with their
surplus hard earnings, are simply gamblers
and nothing more or less. They put their
money down on this or that certificate Of
stock, as the quicker" at faro does upon
a card. One, US much as the other, has a
fair right to expect to double or quadru-
pie his money. Thousands Of good, wor-
thy, religious people, who would expect
shower of fire and birthstone should
they bet dollar on the "case king, are
unwittingly doing precisely the same thing
every day on Montgomery street. 1t is
simply talking the chances, and the one
is no more of "non-producer than the
other. 1t is from this class of stock
gamblers that the bitter complaints arise
that fill the papers of the Bay City. Here
is specimen from the Morning Call:
There can be no doubt, from glance at the
notices of sales advertised in the papers, that
the crisis long dreaded by holders Of mining
stock is upon us. Assessments are becoming
onerous-they are crushing everybody, and
many are allowing their stock to go to sale,
rather than attempt to keep pace with the
rapid accumulation Of assessments. This is
the foreseen result of the senseless mania
which for a year past has pervaded all classes
Of people to become possessed of extensive
interests in large number Of mines, instead
of combining themselves to a moderate inter-
est in one or two mines. the prospect Of which
has been approved to their Judgment by care
full examination or reliable information. How
many men in this city, with an income which
would not justify speculative expenditure Of
over fifteen or twenty dollars per month, have
denied themselves and their families Of COM
forts, and even necessaries, in order to pay
assessments on stock in different mines,
amounting to nearly their whole reyenues
This is perfect case in point, and, no
doubt expresses the condition of things
in that city truthfuIly. As to the "sense-
less mania" portion of it we, however,
enter mild demurrer. The desire to ac-
quire wealth is natural one, and by no
means senseless; and the possession of a