Eureka daily sentinel. [volume] (Eureka, Nev.) 1871-1887, 1877-04-11
RICHMOND CONsOLIDArEp.
A Gard from the President Of the
Company.

A Gard from the President Of the
Company.
The subjoined letter from Mr.. John
Elliott, President of the Richmond
Consolidated Mining Company, ap.
pears in a late number of the London
Mining World. 1t was written to set
the London management right in
some particulars and will, we have no
doubt, be perused with interest by the
local readers OF the SENTINEL:
SIR:-I have occupied the position Of chair
man OF the Richmond Company nearly from
the time OF Its commencement In 1871, and at
every public meeting of the Shareholders
they have invariably passed a cordial vote
OF thanks to myself and the board for the
services rendered. On several of these coca
sions l made a point of drawing the attention
OF the proprietors to the lying statements
ABOUT the mine, and the abomina bic calum-
MES propagated and circulated by anony-
nous writers, with the Obj ect Of creating dis
trust IN the property and its directors In or
der to further mar operations, and on each
OF such occasions l publicly challenged the
authors of such shameful SANDERS to stand up
and repeat them, If they dared, before their
fsliow-sharsholders.
Your columns have always contained very
able reports of those meetings, and you had
thus within your knowledge the fact that I
had always publicly met and refuted every
accusation made, and you quote from your
own report of my speech in December, 1875,
that in order to prove how strong my faith
was in the property that | named 10 the
shareholders that although only $50 shares
stood in my name in the books that | really
held some 400 shares.
1t did not suit me to pay at once for all |
bought, and they stood therefore in the
names Of those friends who were content to
advance me part of the cost. My object was
to buy for income, and but for heavy losses
IN another colapany l should have passed
them all into my own name. l did not sell q
single share of my own at the high prices at
one time attained, and keld to my holding
with a tenacity which leaves me from $4,000
to alO,O 900 the worse Of my faith.
The article in Truth" from which you
quote, and on which you comment, was
shamefully unfair. The writer quotes from
the ledger the statement OF my purchases and
apparent sales down to 1875, in order to es-
tablish his charge that " the chairman specu-
lates largely in the shares Of his company"
and most disingenuously ~coneeals the fact,
that from that time to within these Jew
weeks the transactions were little more than
nominal, those sold for some temporary need
being replaced as soon as convenient. When
/ was buying largely / told the sharehold-
ers openly OF it, and Of the reasons which in
duced me to do SO, stating that l rarely
bought shares on any favorable news
from the mine. which was always made
known at unce to ali, but when statements,
thatI knew to be lies, had been successful in
depressing the shares, and since the time that
| made that open statement, which was re-
ceived without q dissenting voice, | have ro-
Trained from any transactions in the shares
which could be considered speculative in the
sense meant by the writer in Truth"
Ii the directors and their personal friends
had not at various important periods. sup
ported the property with their money and
influence the shareholders generally would
have been great sufferers. 1t vas imperative
for some time thus to nurse the mine; it is
now old enough to run alone and its charac-
ter is esta blished.
Directors are simply partners entrusted by
their co-partners with the general manage
posed to devote more than a few hours a
week to such work, and many shareholders
expect this TO be done without pay, or some-
thing that is very like nothing. Tn six di-
Tectors Of the Richmond for live years re-
ceived among them $500 per annum of which
they voted me f200 as chairman. For nearly
six years l have given up q large portion of
my time to the business of the company; the
labor has bsen incessant, the anxiety most
trying; nothing but the continued confidence
of tho shareholders would have induced nae
TO retain the post. l assert, unhssitatingly,
that 1 have earned tb at confidence. and that
in no single instance have | ever failed in the
diligent and conscientious discharge of the
duties l have undertaken, and that all asser-
tons to the contrary are false and ealumni-
Gus.
Your statement that the shareholders au-
thorized tie directors to withhold the tele-
grams for twenty hours is utterly untrue.
The board were asked not to open the Tues
day s cAblegrams, which usually arrive at 10
o'clock, till 4 o'clock; and this plan, with ono
or two exceptions since the sales commenced,
has been adopted, and the contents sent
out Immediately to the papers.
You repeat the charges 10 Truth" about
the sales made by members of my family on
information supposed to 30 given by me to
them in advance of anything known to the
shareholders. This 10 utterly false. The
only sales made by my three relatives
amounted to just ITO shares, sold since the
drop, at IRON ga to 6A, as tho transfers will
prove. 1t is quite true that my wife sold 800
shares in February, but also since the drop.
1t is also the fact that | have sold a large
portion of my holding for private reasons.
the chief of them being my determination to
limit all investments OIL a speculative charac-
ter. a determination formed some months
since, but which, unfortunately, L delayed
carrying into effect till the fall commenced.
not before as it was falsely stated.
My faith in the mine is as strong as ever;
/ did not care q straw for the protests lodged
against us, the news of which was known on
the Exchange December 2lst. The cable
gram Of January l7th, Of which so much has
been made, was nothing more than q state
msnt that an interim Injunction was obtained
against the company, which would be heard
in ten days-it was o heard and dismissed
this was all the information then known to
the board about tho suits. The reports of the
ten days proceedings. as reported in the. Eu-
reka SENTINEL which has recently arrived,
reveal an amount of infamous treachery, and
INSCRIPTIONS evidence which is startling,
even for America, and proves that We must
BIO prepared for a vitality important, long and
expensive contest to defend and retain our
property from the frauds attempted, and tho
robbery contemplated.
If the shareholders think that my long ex-
perienee and knowledge of all the points in
yolved arr of no moment in the coming con-
tests, they had better elect some one else to
take my place; most certainly l will not re-
support. l am. &C.,
john ELLIOTT, Chairman.
A Coleman st, London. 10th March, 1877.