Eureka daily sentinel. [volume] (Eureka, Nev.) 1871-1887, 1878-02-23
SILVER MINING IN MEXICO.
How Eastern Capitalists 60 into the
Business.

A correspondent, whose letter Is too
long to be published entire, has the
following pertinent remarks on silver
mining in Mexico, a portion of which
is applicable to timid capitalists who
have invested in Eastern Nevada mines:
THE OPPORTUNITY FOR CAPITALISTS.
In this article my only desire is to
show what an opening there is for CAPT
tai in this State when properly applied
chihuahua contains about one hundred
and seventy thousand population, and
exceeds in size any of the States, ex.
ceptlng Texas, if my memory serves
me right, and probably California.
You speak to capitalists about max.
ing an investment in Chihuahua, aud
they will most probably refer you to
some of their friends, who, they claim i,
have been 'bitten" bya mining invest
ment. l desire to show, that those
who come to Mexico and fail in silver
mining, do not deserve success. and
should they undertake any other bnsi-
ness, in any other place, and give it the
satne management, they would fail
most ignominiously.
In the first place, 1t takes money and
brains to put in proper working order
a silver mining property. You can't
do 1t with five, ten, or twenty thousand
dollars, and do not know of but two
companies that have had sufficient
money to begin with, and had the
nerve and business management TO
spend it prudently. Silver mining is
just as legitimate as a dry goods or
grocery business, but to make a sue
cess of it you must work it to its limit,
or nearly so. Suppose a friend would
come to you and say, 81 am going to
start a jobbing dry goods house in San
Francisco, and have $40 900, which l
think will fix me out" Am l correct
in presuming that you would advise
your friend not to Try il? He would
stand about IN equal chance with a
$40 900 company in Mexico. The sop
position" in mining is not competitive,
as in dry goods, but there are obstacles
to meet, that only money, and plenty
of it, directed by men who know their
business, can overcome; and once on
your way, you sail to
suREANDsPEEDY PROSPERITY,
Reaping rich harvests from your to-
vestments. A st. Louis company,
some three years ago, purchased a
mining property about two hundred
miles west from this city and sent two
gentlemen out to put the place in or.
der. These gentlemen were not gifted
with much natural executive ability,
but they did the best they could. They
bought horses, mules, wagons and
goods, built houses for the "machin-
yet to come, and spent about
SIS, 900 aside from what they paid on
their mining property. After clean
ing out their mine at some conSidera-
bile * Expense, they exposed the ore
which had been promised them.
They took samples from the entire
surface exposed and sent them to st.
Louis for assay and examination, &C.
~companying the specimens with a re-
QUESTION for machinery and money.
The ores were assayed and proved
good. A meeting was called, and the
money and machinery questions were
discussed. One learned gent said,
"that for his part he did not see why
the superintendent needed any more
money; that il he had so much ore in
as he had represented, why did
he not dig it out, it up into bars,
and send it in ? and then if he wanted
machinery they could pay for it out of
money!" Another intelligent
"mining" gentleman thoughtthe anne
In fact, a majority of those
learned gentlemen actually voted mot
dollar for working mines or
machinery" when they
had no machinery at all, and / pre-
sumo these same gentlemen would tell
you how they "were drawn into a
Mexican silver mining swindle." In
the language of some poet. whose
name l can not just remember,
"served the id fools right" They
net deserve success; they did not
get it, and | for one have no Sympathy
with them. They abandoned these
men here, who still chung to the hope
that they would stand up like men,
until at length they were compelled to
leave with unpaid board bills. and sa-
cred loans given them by Americans
here, who could not afford charity on
SO grand a scale. This is but a fair
of a failure of an American
company in Mexico. Would they
have succeeded with the best ever
opened?
The mines of Mexico have such good
that a majority of people
suppose that all that it is Necessary to
do is to erect some kind of machinery,
matter what Chat Brown or Jones
tells you is a good thiug), set her GO
ing. and then have some fellow down
the hill, with tho molds, ready to catch
the silver that never comes to them. 1t
is a remarkable fact that every out.
fit coming into Mexico brings from six
to a dozen molds for silver ~bars-larg-
size, of course-when, in all proba
bility, one moderately large n will
answer their purpose. You can find
them In the warehouses where the
useless tons of iron are stored,
that might with proper thought and
care, have been brought III in such a
shape as to be of use instead of a bur.
den.