The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1879-10-16

of his days in making acquaintance
happy by his marvellous deeds Of generos.
ity. This stranger in o sttange land,
who In his own conceit that in q few
weeks he has found out all there is 10 know
about mining, 10 taken to the mine by the
prospector, allowed with his own hand
to pick out Of the vein piece of ore,
carry it TO oe assayed, and in every way
to satisfy nimself that it is glorious
chance-in fact, one not equaled by any
other in the mountains. RAlf Of his for
tune-say five thousand dollars-he puts
into the mine, the other half into ma
chinery end stock for Development
when, to his sorrow, he finds It takes
fifteen hundred dollars to blast, hoist,
and ship ore that will return him but one
thousand. 1t was my fortune in lne day,
in one of the oldest ard most substantial
towns of the State, to go to @ shoemaker
who had sunk five thousand to o hotel
whose landlord had previously been a
capitalist to the amount of ten thousand,
and to talk with one of the boarders who
had parted with seventy-fiye thousand,
tho product of q fiue business in Phia.
delphia. 1thad all gone into splendid
mining. property-or, rather, property
where the indications were good. Now,
none of these have cent to show; but
all own splendid mines, worth millions
which they would part with for email
consideration.
These are not the exception, but the
rule; the exceptions are those who have
made good thing out of legitimate
mining. The proprietors and sharpers
who sold these properties made good
thing; these wonderful strikes and sales
ero reported through the press of the
State, but the miserable failures that
follow are never heard of. Where did
the SEQ, 600 come from that was made in
these three transactions? Out of the
mines of Colorado?. No, not one cent of
it; it came from ceiling shoes, ETC., in
the Eastern STATES. The case is often the
same with largo capitalists, and when
they do get good mine tho chances are
ofton against their getting anything after
all the leaks that may occur between the
superintendent, engineer, assayers, smell
ter, ETC., are taken into account.
Another way to make money at min
ing is to get up stock company of ten
or twenty millions. Don't fool around
with any small sums; but put it right up
to twenty, millions {; people will have con-
fdencc then that there are millions in it,
Get out few thousands of dollars worth
of ore on the dump, let the experts come
and see it, pay them well for glowing
account which they can give without
telling any literal lies but will deceive;
then throw the stock upon the market,
Get anything you can for it--ffty cents
or dollar share, sell q hundred thou.
sand shares aDl walk off with the pro.
ceeds. a
The Bassick mine, at Silver Cliff, is
one of the most promising of the twenty
million dollar mines, although the vein
contracted to nothing O short time ayo
whom they were getting their pile of ore
ont, in order to have the necessary hun
dred thousand or 60 "in sight" and
although the formation of that section
ID so broken up that it is very uncertain
what iB to be found, and again,
although not ton of ore has been milled,
still Mr. Bassick is sporting around with
over million and quarter cash in his
pocket, the proceeds of part of his inter-
est in this mine. This may turn out a
good thing for the company that brought
Mr.. Bassick out; it probably will. 1t
may also turn out we'll for the stockhold-
ems, but to say the least, the chances arc
even that the mine will fail either in
working or in ore and the stock at last 20
a-begging. .l4 ss
CeHn!enance is given &c .h;s kind Of
business by very few successful compa.
nies, such as the Little Pittsburg, at
Leadville, which has paid in q few
months in dividends nine hundred thou.
sand dollars, and which, it is expected,
will pay dividend of one hundred and
fifty thousand dollars for the month of
September. If siais holds out. as it prob
ably will for some time at least from the
fact that one million dollars worth of ore
has been blocked out SO it is in sight, the
there il just one Little Pittsburg in Colo.
RADIO, and out of the scores OF mines Tint
have stock upon the markets, less than
half a dozen, according to the "Afining
Journal" are dividend paying. By the
way, say there is but one Little Pitts.
burg in Colorado; the fact is there are
several Richmonds in the field, and /
would advise people to look out IL thew
buy in Little Pittsburg to see to it that the
one they buy in is not in Boulder coun-
sy or some other locality outside of
Leadville. a mine sells better in the
East just now if it is called Little Pitts
burg.
Taking all things into consideration,
haye the mines Of Colorado been q
source of wealth to the country? The
press of the State has been telling rs all
along that $25, ,0e0, 900, in bullion was to
come out of the mines this year. Official
returns for the first six monthsgive, how.
ever, only $5,000,000, which will give,
SlO,OO0,000 or say S12,000,00O, for the
year
Suppose the 100000 prospeotors had
worked as hard in raising wheat in the
Red River country as they have on top
of the barren mountains, add what they
have made to the capital that has been
expended without the slightest hope of
any return, and believe it would be
found that every dollar in bullion that has
been taken out is Offset by two put into
the mines. Is the country, Ms q whole,
as yet any better OH for having this vast
mineral belt7 Would the nation be
enriched by Minnesota's wheat field If it
took 1000, 900 in labor and capital to
raise a crop worth 20,000,O00? Why can
not mining be carried on in just as iegit-
innate way aud give just as sure returns
as farming7 Simply because It is uncer-
tain; it iE game Of chance; hence it
gives rise TO speculation and vast ven
lures.
Five men in hundred may by hook
and by crook make something ont Of!
mining; it would be a poor farming
country where FIVE men in q hundred
failed tomak anything. There can be no
question but that labor and email capi-
tai are indefinitely better off in farming
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