Weekly Arizona citizen., 1880-06-19
BarneT'a Honanz?.

Under this caption, the San Fran cisco Chronicle of the 14th, gives what it calls an inside history of the Silver King miee management" and alleges that "all the dividends were paid from the proceeds of lease 10 the principal owners Arizona boDk- keeper. After the first organization of the company, Col. Barney was made Treasurer and general manager. The Chronicle says:
 About the first act of the Board of Directors after organizing and in the same month of the incorporation was to execute lease Of the mine for two years and a half from May, 1877, to December 3l, 1880 This they did on lhe strength of 0 letter written by Barney To them stating that he had as business manager made q lease Of the property for that term to a responsible person in Arizona, for $I51,000. Who the responsible person was, Barney did not state and the Board did not inquire.
 The history proceeds for some time and then says;
 No inquiry being made into the matter. it was hot until January l3, 1S>U, when the first and only reports of the officers were made, and 1t was learned that the lease Was being made out as being 10 l.. N. Phillips, the bonk-keeper of James II. Barney This responsible person it is under stood had no means of carrying on such work as the erection of d mill, and other expenses necessary to work and develop a great mine, and a disin Ierested observer up a tree might con lecture that he WAS acting as stalk ing horse for somebody else in the transaction, and that Barney was real ly lhe lessor and lessee of his own property. Work was begun on the mine at once, and Tn November the first $j0,000 under the lease was paid Under the terms of the contract $70U0 was paid down In May, when the lease Was executed.
 For want of space we again omit some or the history aud take it up here:
 Dividends recurred, passing from one pocket to the other of the Barney brooches with the regularity of rent day, uatll the whole S+5s, ,0U0 agreed upon in the lease was paId. The stock WAS sold in lots to suit favorei pur- chssers, Booth getting 5000 shares, and many other people here and in the East smaller lots at prices ranging from S7 to S25 per share. The p"r chaserS continued to draw their divi- dends with great satisfaction and se- curity, few, if any of them, having any her idea about 1t than that it was the pr.:fiLs of working the mlne. The only hint of the lease was the brief minute on the books oi the directors, and few stockholders ever saw them or heard of the lease. The dividends were paid on the stock, Barney using his 10 pay for the Rea- gan stock. The lasi of lhe S451 ,000 lease money was paid and disbursed again in the October dividend of 1878. Then the dividends ceased, to the nn small amaZement of stockholders, and
 
 knowing the existence Of the lease uu- dcrStood the reason of this, but the ig- nnrant ones were at | loss 10 compre henG if, as the reports from the mine continued of as high color as ever. The mine was worked by the lessee until the expiration of his lease, at the end of last year.
 We drop out more of the Chronicle's s history and give only this bit more;
 IL is not known how much of the stock has been sOit!, hut ceTtaiaiy many thousand shares Of It, and some was disposed of in the East nt s25 per share. while it was quoted here at S6 and g.. How much profit was made by the lessee in working the mine for two years and halT under this lease Is not known. It was probably very large, as a great deal of rock vas milled, and il Was very rich. More over, under the terms of the lease, the tailinCS belong to the lessee. The mine has been worked righ, ainng since January 1 of this year On com pany's account. No dividends and the directors say they can get no satisfsc- t"Iy data upon which to figure mp the finances of the company. The accounts, as far as they are kept at all, are kept in the personal books of J. II. Barn y. Suit has been commenced by Di- rector Booth to compel payment of $75,000 or more, and by il many more interesting facts are expected to be disclosed.