The Eaton Democrat. (Eaton, Ohio) 1875-1903, 1882-11-09

Since then numerous discoveries of won- |
derful reefs all over the country have
been reported, yet the market remains
sluggish. Of the thirty seven companies
formed to work Indian gold mines not a
single one has paid q dividend from actu-
al working. although one or two have
distributed money received for portions
of their property sold to other companies.
About half-a-dozen of the Indian min
ing undertakings are now being wound
up; another half-dozen are on the brink
of liquidation, and the remainder are
either moribund or in a very low finan-
cial position. Thousands of widows and
orphans have practically lost all they
possess through investing in these mere
tricious undertakings; and the cool OBJ
server cannot but wonder at the faulty
of investors who have rushed into the
latest financial craze as the dupes of old
rushedinto the " South-Sea Bubble"
Quickly following the Indian gold-min-
ing rage has come a furore for shares in
electric-lighting companies, many of
which had their capital subscribed ten
times over. 1t is a surprising fact that
there have been no fewer than forty-fve
electric-light companies started in Lon
don, with an aggregate authorized CAPT.
tai of f17, 44S. 600. 1t is perfectly clear
that all OF these companies cannot pay.
Great inventions are of slow growth.
Years elapse before the success of the
laboratory or workship becomes the ne
cessity of commerce. The mass of peo-
| pie who regard Watt as the inventor of
the steam engine forget that more than a
century before his birth a steam engine
was working in Great Britain. The dis
covery of any great invention is a very
small thing as regards the industrial arts
and commerce. Years of patient work
are generally requisite before it can take
a place in practical life. As Brunei said:
sit is one thing to invent, and another to
make the invention work" The invest
ing public here is apt to forget this
fundamental fact. Directly some great
scientific discovery is made. and a sue
cessful experimental demonstration
shown, people rush in to invest their
millions, and a regular u qut peut
ensues in the manufacture or industry
threatened by the new invention or dis
covery. Then comes some hitch, OF
merely a delay, in the bright hopes held
out, and the speculation pendulum
swings back. A few far-sighted specu.
lators have made enormous fortunes,
while numbers of bona-fide investors
have lost all they possess.
That the electric light is the light Of
the future, as the electric motor will be
the motor of the future, few unprecedented
minds can doubt; but it does not follow
that all the forty-five electric light com
panies will flourish. The general opin,
ion here is that the next year or two will
see a 'war of selection" which will re
suit in the Survival of the fttest," and,
until the result of the warfare is seen
cautious investors will fight shy of thu
electric-light companies. There is M
question but that the best system o.
electric lighting will be the n eventu
ally adopted, and it is equally certain
that the half-hundred companies alread,
formed cannot all succeed. Like Indial
mining companies, lone of the Englisl
electric lighting companies have yet pail
a dividend from actual working. Severa
assets have been distributed from none,
received from the sale of subsidiary right
to affiliated companies, but these ar
golden eggs, of which the patent hen cal
only lay a limited number .-Philedet
phia Bulletins, London Cor.