The weekly miner. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1878-1881, 1879-12-30
THE BUTTE Room.

Recent developments warrant us in repeat
ing that the future of the Summit Valley
Mining District and especially of the mines
in the immediate vicinity of Butte was never
so full of promise as at the present time, and
it is encouraging to note that those most en-
thusiastic in foreshadowing the destiny of the
camp are men whose long residence in the
district and thorough acquaintance with its
resource add weight and value to the opinion.
Butte is in no sense a mushroom camp. 1t is
not supported by money brought in by out
siders. 1t stands and will continue to stand
on its own solid merits. 1t is not the home
of stock gamblers and wildcat mining sharps.
1t is a camp whose mines are their own adj
vertisement. They are growing richer and
larger with every stroke of the pick and on
this fact alone do we depend to attract the
capital now lying idle awaiting opportunities
for investment.
The distrust prevailing at one time in regard
to the character of the ore when develop
direction has entirely disappeared. ENplora-
lions in the Alice banana have sufficiently
demonstrated the absurdity of the theory at
one time current in that regard, and it is now
conceded that our small surface development
has proved far less profitable than future
operations will become as increased depth is
attained. 1t is getting to be well understood
in Eastern moneyed circles that. legitimate
mining is far more certain of success than
merchandising, manufacturing or railroading,
the new industry { I'M, with reason to sup
port the assertion, thu under economical and
honest management the investment of capital
in mines which have been favorably and
properly exported is absolutely safe. True
it is that vast capital has been wasted in
improbable mining operations, but that fact
is easy of explanation. The great bulk of
the money invested for the last fifteen years
has been expended either in California or
Nevada, and not until lately has it been ascer-
States are, as a rule, INSCRIPTIONS and dis
honest men. The chief Bonanza operators
are a shoal of sharks whose constant aim has
been not to make money from the proceeds of
legitimate mining enterprise, but direct from
the purses of those unwaly men of means
whom they can induce to invest in mines of
which they, the insiders, have full and abso-
control.
1t is not generally known, but it is never
theless a fact, that all the mills and shelters
IN which pra from fha 1orra ~ ,p;,o,
is reduced in Nevada, are the individual
property CT q few bonanza kings, who charge
their own prices for its treatment and who
claim the tailings as IA %perquisite. Under
these circumstances it IS not strange that
dividends are not oftener declared, for it is
an easy matter so to regulate the first manip-
ulatiOn of the ores that the bulk of the silver
and gold which they contain is not extracted
by the initial process. The remarkable ra-
pidity with which these inside bonanza
gentlemen accumulate their millions is at the
same time made easy of explanation. In the
light of these facts, therefore, which have but
recently been ventilated, it is easy to perceive
the object OF Eastern investors in fighting shy
of Nevada mining speculation and of turning
their attention to the mines of this Territory.
Agentleman at present visiting Butte, and who
in a recent yisitto New York, had abundant op-
portunity to inquire into the feeling in that
great money centre as to the advisability of in
vesting money in Montana mining property,
spoke yesterday in enthusiastic terms con-
corning our prospects of attracting a large
amount of Eastern capital for the develop
ment of the Summit Valley mines. The en-
tent and permanence of the Alice which
have been placed beyond the pale of doubt by
recent exploration, are creating great interest
in all surrounding properties, and in the
early spring, it is not too much to predict,
that a boom never before equaled in the
mining industry of the country will be started,
and that subsequent success will keep it
lively.
Prom the Terminus.