Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1879-09-01
sHALL WE BUY MINING STOCKS !.

Great efforts are making to produce
activity in mining speculation. The
Mining Board is active; new stocks get
admission to the Stock Exchange list;
there are new companies and new mines;
advertisements, renewed every day, mar
rate the wonderful good fortune secured
by some enterprising purchaser; there is
an outburst of circulars and prospectus
es. Not few people in the country
districts have yielded to these persua-
sions; and thousand more have received
or will receive them.
1t is seldom that the general public
are invited to join in developing mines
of iron, lead, copper, or any of the hum
bier family; although they are all really |
more valuable than their two shining
relatives, the precious" metals dazzle
best. II is true that gold and silver
are valuable; that million of dollars
worth of them have been and will yet
be taken from the earth !; and that a
dollar of either is unquestionably worth
dollar of any mans money-when it
has been taken out. But Nature has
made the law of labor supreme over
mining as well as over gardening. The
quantity of metal which can be picked
up or washed out without labor is very
small, and is always first and soon ex-
hausted then comes labor. If a coined.
lo,, hlo---,s Z 2 : 7Y :
rock in your back pasture, and to blast
it out would cost twenty-five dollars,
the gold would still be ''worth'' twenty
dollars, and yet you would leave it un-
disturbed. But every dollar of metal
dug from the earth will cost some por-
tion of dollar to get it out and sepa-
rate it-sometimes it costs more than a
dollar. Such mining is evidently un-
profitable. But the metal in the mine
is the same, practically. as the gold
imagined to be in the rock, with this
difference: you do not know how little
the metal is, or how much getting at it
. will cost. Therefore put mark against
. this statement: for the first thing, you
must take the risks in mining of an ex-
penditure indefinitely large and of a
yield indefinitely small. Is this like
gardening? Yes-and no. Honest min.
: ing is lottery of chances, the only GER
{ tain thing in advance being that expens.
es will be heavy.
1t is true that some mines do yield
{ enormously, and everybody has heard Of
bonanzas. But the stocks of even those
o same mines have ruined people in Sar
b Francisco, and bonanza stocks are moi
S offered to the public. Nobody has 6
d monopoly of sel6shness, and the mer
n who own mines which really return
u their investment every few months arr
/ just as likely to invite outsiders to shar,
|, with them as you would be to call IL
y your neighbors to divide big nugget
j. If you should find one under the side o
6 the hedge in your farthest back-pasture
d Those who really have good thing keel
g it to themselves, unless, of course, the,
actually need money for working it.
,e But the prospectuses are Away
e, so sure. 1t is demonstrable-it is dem
5. onstrated. Large dividends are Ger
IS tain the mine is already paying. ant
m when the machinery, etc., for whic
m alone the stock is offered, is ready, the
t; wonders will be done, etc., etc. Blu
ell have you ever inquired how it is tina
&c these fortunate mine-owners are S
n far from the mine to get little NOR
r. capital or even how it is that the grea
It's cities, which are full of idle money, le
of such suberb opportunities slip by them
y, Nor must you forget, in the thir
ny place, that not only are the best mine
en- kept close, and the poorest or the e1
re hausted ones offered to the public, b,
L.. that there are hundreds of mines whic
ed exist only on paper. In England, thel
on is smooth sort of person called ''pr
les moter," whose profitable occupation is
nd sell to the credulous the stock of bubb
ere companies. He does not have that di
tinctive name in this country, but he
re- here. Fifteen years ago. soon after p
ev. troleum was discovered in Pennsylvan
er. there was an oil speculation which las
ed ed until the public would no longer
ID. deceived. Downtown New York w
IS, afame with companies, and the stoc
lily were conveniently put as low as twent
the five cents share, SO that the opportu
och ity to be cheated was brought with
the the reach of all. At first. speculate
,rs. bought farms and bored for oil tn
cad they sailed farms with it and orga
MI lied companies at last. penniless adve
Gus turers that became so bold, and t
'as- public so credulous, that companies We
the formed without the formality of owni
'ev. any property. and offices were stock
n with pictures of the company's "work
'me and neat samples of the product"
nen latter being furnished to order in Sc
by 1t is easy to have handsome stock-c
yes. tifcates made. and gorgeous and gu
was overwhelming pamphlets written. a
nds ;ntorost;nr oomnlao of ssora' raodu