Gold Hill daily news. [volume] (Gold Hill, N.T. [Nev.]) 1863-1882, 1866-01-29
From tho New York Mining Index.
THE .wORTHLEsSo SILVER
MINES OF NEVADA.

NAAEN VT Nn ~
- -H.
why Some OF Them do not Pny-How
thing. have been Conducted - Are
h Mines to Blame.
Soon after the discovery Of auriferous
quartz in California, a mania for investing
in quartz lodes broke out in London, the
evil influence Of which is felt there to TIL;
day. so that the very name Of Califor-
Ma" suggests to many British minds
quartz" and ruin" The losses sus-
tanned by British capital in California
quartz mines. resulted, not from poverty
of the lodes, but Encouragement. Every
British company, we believe, thought II
necessary to have q Resident Director. q
Superintendent and a number OF Sub-Su-
perintendents, Surveyors, Assayers, Clerks
and so forth, with enormous salaries, sen.
out from England at great cost. With
such 4 grand staff, the Resident Director
imagined i, necessary TO lay out work on
a commensurate scale, and in this way
hundreds of thousands Of pounds sterling
were expended upon each mine, until
"iust as the mine was about TO pay the
owners of stock became discouraged, re-
fused to pay assessments, and there was a
grand smash. The English blame the
California mines, but it was not the fault
Of the quartz il. no matter how rich it
turned out. every penny was swallowed
up in the payment OF so many useless
high-priced officers, whose united salaries
would have given the stockholders large
dividends for their investments. 1t might
naturally have been supposed that such a
lesson would not soon pass from memory.
Yet, Notwithstanding its teachings-and
despite the knowledge that these same
mines, as afterwards worked by Amerl-
cans in an economical manner, paid large
prof,s-the fingers Of stockholders have
again been burnt this time. American
fingers. Misrepresentation is always most
potent when built upon no matter how
himsy a foundation of truth. So. because
a few great silver mines were discovered
and apparently p~roftably worked in
Washoe, everybody believed that all the
Washoe lodes must be as rich, and
so everybody invested. Time rolled on.
Fortunes wero made aud lost, m
times in a single day, by the fluctuations
of stock. II was openly stated on the
streets of San Francisco and in other cities,
that operators" didn't care a snap whether
certain figures represented a mine or not /;
all they cared for was the market price of
that particular stock. Hundreds OF thou
sands were made in this way BY buying
and selling stock that, so far as any mine
was concerned, was utterly worthless.
Economy and judicious management were
absolutely ridiculed. He was the best
Superintendent who, by Justification, d.
rect or indirect, ran stock up or down &C.
cording as it suited the ring" We
remember a case in point, where the Su-
p]erintendent of a certain silver mining
company operating in Washoe. sent a tel
egram TO his Directors early one morning a:
1--WE have struck q ledge particulars
by Pony" Up went the stock, so or 100,
or more per cent, perhaps /; at which hg-
ure the knowing ones sold out. At night
the Pony Express arrived, and the prom
ised particulars by Pony turned out to
be: "As to the ledge we struck this
morning. there's nothing IN Il "-and down
went the stock, when the knowing ones
would buy in again. This dodge was
| played so often that it ultimately became
a standing joke among operators. In
stances are not wanting of absolute misap-
preparation of the c~ompany's funds by its
officers. In fact it was but the other day
that it was stated in the San Francisco
Bulletin that a certain company could be
named that have expended $50, 900 in
working" a mine, and yet only $4,000
worth of work has actually been done.
Where the balance went is not stated.
These were the palmy days Of Washoe
stock operating. Time passed on. Peo-
pies eyes began gradually to unshut. and
then with a start, TO open wide. \ grand
crash cusued. Down tumbled every
description of Washoe, and every
other stock. From being quoted at
thousands OF dollars, shares fell to
hundreds, and even itties. The reaction
was as bad for q time as the original dis
ease. Valuable stocks went almost beg
ging for a purchaser. Endeavoring TO grasp
too much, many lost all. Like the greedy
dog crossing the stream, in endeavoring to
secure the shadow, they lost the substance.
This has not occurred once, but many
times since, in less degree, and losers are
only too prone TO blame the mines instead
ofthose working them-not the hard-fisted
miner, who does his part faithfully enough,
but the officers Of the companies. Often,
very often, in San Francisco or New York,
Directors attempt to work their compa-
MES mines hundreds or thousands OF miles
away. How absurd! From oil these,
and many more incidental causes, the
great silver mines Of Nevada do not inspire
that serene confidence Of large returns that
they deserve. Give a dog a bad name,
and it is apt TO stick to him. We might
classify these causes thus: First-exces-
sive initiation sccond-eHcessive depres-
sion, consequent OF that initiation. These
might be sub-dlvided into, first the silver
mining mania that prevailed to such a de-
gree that one might almost say that the
demon Of speculation held ~undisputed
sway in the brain of every Californian Of
that time ; second the hulling and bear
ing Of stock brokers in San Francisco ;
third the bulling and bearing operations
of company officers (; fourth reckless ex-
penditures in useless works, etc., by un
principled Superintendents fifth {: useless
expenditures by Superintenden,s, honest.
but ignorant of mining and milling sixth:
litigation, arising from defective mining
laws, which allowed. and still allow, 80
much on the line Of the lode, with all its
dips, spurs and angles, by means Of which
wealthy companies endeavor to grasp as
their own the adjacent lodes Of their poorer
n~eighbors; and seventh, ian incident Of
the last). the fact that Nevada was so long
cursed with a corrupt Judiciary. Blame
the innocent silver mines Of Nevada, o ye
spectators and brokers'! Blame them as
the English blamed the California quartz
mines, because they did not pay dividends
under gross Encouragement. But bear
this in mind ~mismanage and abuse them
as you will, the day is at hand when those
coming after you shall. by properly APP
piled skill and ordinary prudence, reap
rich harvests of silver from that wondrous
Eeld,