The Worthington advance. [volume] (Worthington, Minn.) 1874-1908, 1882-11-09
MINING SWINDLES.
The Various Ways Of "Salting'' Mines
The Mining Swindles OF the Stock
Exchange-some Noted Examples.
-

ExchanGe-6ome Noted Examples.
New York News.
The frauds in gold: and silver mining
may be divided into two great classes
The '.salted ledges'' are the frauds per
petrated by Jones, the sale to Smith Of
hedges which have no valuable mineral
in them. The wildcat" mines are the
frauds:perpetrated.b by Smith upon the
public at large through the medium o.
the stock market. The two classes may
be said to be the positive and superla
tive of mining frauds; for the first is t.
the second in importance what a retail
business is to the wholesale. While
thousands of dollars have been los1
through the sailed lodges, millions Have
been thrown away in the wildcat mines
Taking the smaller of the two evils first
the conditions necessary for the sal Of
sailed lodges are flow of capital into
the mining, the success of some of those
engaged in it, ledge Of some kind t.
salt, shrewdness on the part of the mer
who negotiate the sale, and credulity
and lack of knowledge on the part o.
those who pay the money. Given these
conditions, fraud is always possible; and
given these conditions, fraud will always
be practiced. One instance will illus
trate how this is done In 1867, as the
story goes, Mr.. Henry Thompson ar
rived in the city of Albany with mine
for sale. This was situated in Idaho,
and being undoubtedly the finest mine
in the territory, was appropriately
named the Flower of Idaho. 1t was
ownel by Mr.. Thompson and his two
partners, and consisted of a ledge OF
quartz carrying ore Of high grade. AL.
though the ore was scattered through it
very irregularly, Mr.. Thompson stated
that, taking the ledge all through, the
rock would run from $50 to $3.50 a ton
with an average, say ,$ll2.5 80. His partners
and himself had sunk shaft 100 feet and
had driven a level 25O feet, SO that the
vein was in a condition to be examined.
He had little money, and if the pur-
chasers would sign contract to buy at
his figures, 100000 in cash and thirty
per cent. of the stock, providing an i'll.
spection Of the mine by their own ex-
pert confirmed the story as told, he would
day the expenses Of that expert to and
from the mine. Mr.. Smith, a progress
sive capitalist, became interested, and
interested his wealthy friends. \ con-
tract was drawn up, which, in addition
to the payment, pledged the signers to
raise $3.50, 600 working capital. Mr.. Smith
and his son, q graduate from 4 school of
mines, went out to inspect the
property, and after some weeks returned
with some bags Of specimens for assay.
These were tested by expert assayists,
and the reports confirmed each other
III of hn
talists, feeling that they had good thing
came to the front, the 500, 600 was paid,
the mine incorporated, and 80 per cent.
of the stock issued to Thompson as rep
resenting the ex-owners, the $3.50, 600 was
raised for working capital. and Thompson
left for the west. A short time after
ward a superintendent was sent out, and
the company was greatly astonished to
hear from him that the Flower OF Idaho
was "a worthless ledge of quartz which
would not average ten dollars to the ton!
The way in which the swindle had
been worked was simplicity itself.
BY making bread seal Thompson had
been able to open the bags during the alb
sence ofthe expert Having opened them
he substituted for a part Of their contents
some rich ore procured from q mine at
some distance away. Then he sealed
them again. The history of the mine is
somewhat different from that,told by the
guileless Thompson. 1t had been opened
to it's extent by men who, having be-
come convinced that it was worthless,
had abandoned it in disgust. Thomp-
son, who, was gambler by profession,
had with. his partners taken possession
Of the property, and had spent enough
of money upon it to clear it of water,
when they sold it in the manner de-
scribed. .,1.4,.. - G,7ris<i
Barring the change of names and To-
calities, this story is strictly true. It H.
lustrates we'll the methods taken to dis
pose of sailed lodges, although the salt
in this case was placed in the bags rather
than in the mine. Instances have not
been lacking where the latter; work has
been done by men who desired to sell
worthless and fraudulent claims. In
such case the ore is procured from a mine
somewhere in the neighborhood, if pos
sible, and mixed with that on the dump.
The faces of the levels and the sides
Of the shafts are plugged at intervals;
that is, holes are made in which the val
liable ore is placed. Great skill
is sometimes shown i'll this plugging op-
Grafton, and a very natural appearance
10 gwen W CiAC NCpOSAG' l0uO, I'D IL IulC,
the men who are deceived are those who
have made the sailed lodges possible.
1t is not very often that men attempt
to salt developed mine. AS a rule,
they confine themselves to ledge on
which they own claim, and for very
simple reason. The smaller the area of
observation of the value of 4 ledge, the
greater the ease with which the ledge is
suited. If ledge be found that has not
more than twenty or thirty feet showing
on the surface, it is comparatively easv
to prepare it for sale to an ''emigrant'
as the late arrival from the east is called
The owner gets some weathered ore
from some mine in the district which
carries the same kind of gaugue. This
be scatters along the ledge and around
it. Then procuring some that is mot
weathered, he proceeds to make cut.
ting in the ledge of say ten feet deep
In this he places some of the salt, mix.
ing the remainder with the rock thrown
into the dump. He generally fills the
place where one blast has been fred
with the mixture of salt and vein-matter
The "emigrant" sees the vein and sthe
rock lying all around it; he has some OF
the rock assayed, and he, concludes al
once, being guided by sense Of q most
common kind. that the claim is valuable
The Making Of Greenbaclta
The United States notes are printed on
paper made in Dalton, a small town in
Massachusetts and each blank shoot nj