The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1893-10-22
SALTED WESTERN MINES.
How SharperS Take Strangers in
With Worthless Bargains.

Scheme to Cheat the Mcdonald
Brothers and It's Sequel.
From the New York Sun.
| A sailed mine, according to the aged
! prospector, is so called because it re-
moves the outer layer of freshness from
the guileless eastern tenderfoot, who
comes west to grow rich in night. FIT
teeen years ago the bait took, and the
suckers made fine food for mining sharks !;
nowadays it is as difficult to sell sailed
mine as it is to find good one. Like
three-card monte and the game of the
| three shells and funny little ball, it will
not become a fine art, but will develop the
! skill of the authors as it becomes more
difficult to work.
The Emma mine swindle was the most
famous of its kind, because it was swung
by men of high reputation in politics and
society 1t was the first dose to be
| gulped down by English investors in
American mines, and it had most salu-
tary effect. To-day the best mining ex-
perts in the west, with such exceptions
as Henry Bratnober of Helena, Henry
| Wertenweiler of Idaho, and Prof. A.
| D. Churchill of Butte, are Englshmen,
and it is also true that, of all investors
in recent years in western mining prop
critics, the Englishmen have been most
successful.
There are several ways of sailing a
mine. Like the cooks famous adage con
corning the rabbit, first find the mine.
| This is not difficult, for the ones sailed
| have been worked for pay ore, run out,
and may be had as cheap as chrome with
! five pounds of tea. Old prospect holes
| dressed up with dump of quartz and a
new within are as good as any A gold dis
| trict is always to be preferred, because it
| is just as easy to salt gold mine and a
| great deal more profitable if the sucker
| bites. The low price of silver and the
| consequent increased demand for gold
properties makes gold sailing all the more
| desirable to the schemer.
! Having the prospect hole and whim
| to reach the bottom, it is necessary for
! the shark to have capital enough to pur-
| chase a few ounces of fine, clean blown
| gold dust and q small rubber hand-blOwer.
| or bellows. If the ore at the bottom of
| the shaft or face of the tunnel is dry and
| loose the shark has only to blow the
| dust carefully across the alleged vein, or
| lead, wet down the surface, and take his
! chances. He returns for the sucker, &C
| companies him to the "Small-POtato-
| Hard-tO-Peel" or the Golden APPLE
mine, which ever name he thinks suits
| the suckers fancy, and grows eloquent on
! the great deposit ofmineral wealth which,
unfortunately, he cannot develop for lack
of capital. Don't take my word for it,
| but take the assay" he will add /;
this is new ground, and I can't tell what
| it is worth, but it ought to run 500 to
! the TOM This looks fair enough, and
| the sucker returns to the surface with
| canvas bagful of ore. This is sealed with
wax at the suggestion of the shark, to
| prevent any errors, and taken to the best
| known of the aSSayers, which are as
numerous in a mining country as weevils
in wheat field. The shark will then
| quietly whisper to the sucker that, while
| the assayer bears a fine reputation, it
| will be just as well to watch the assay,
| "just to satisfy yourself The assayer
| is not offended, because, however honest
| he may be, he is used to that sort of
| treatment from miners, who are the most
| suspicious of all people. The climax of
the test comes when the assayer quietly
writes 1000 opposite the test value on
the certificate.
Then the tenderfoot either faints or
stretches up three inches and hastens to
| the telegraph Office to tell his friends to
close the deal without asking questions.
The mild-mannered and greeu-iOoking
prospector looks serious enough until the
money is in hand, and then enjoys a
weeks turn with the faro bank or goes
east to the old folks In two weeks time
the teuderfeet are writing letters to the
home paper about fake mining schemes in
the west.
Another way of taking in the sucker is
to change the ore samples. This requires
sleight of hand as well as nerve, and was
once successfully worked on Chairman
Thomas Henry Carter of the Republican
National Committee. This was soon af-
ter Carter had worked his way to Mon
tana by selling the Footprints of Time"
but his experience as a book agent could
not stand off that of a famous colored
mining shark in Helena called "Blue
Dick"
Dick has made $50,000 in mining gold,
silver and sapphires. He is known all
over the western country as a good man
to look out for when a deal is on hand
One day he called on Carter and told in
a mysterious way of his discovery of fine
silver prospect, the ore of'which ran S95
to the ton This is an unusual assay
value for silver, and Carriers eyes fairly
bulged out of his head when he learned,
in addition, that there was a four-fOot
lead of solid ore.
Dick explained that he wanted to sell
because he had no money to develop, and
Carter told him to lay low and say moth
ing. That night conference was held
with a well-lnown Helena banker, who
agreed to advance one-half of $4,000 if
Carter would furnish the rest. The money
was raised and the next day Carter,
Dick, and an expert visited the prospect
which was in fine silver country 100
miles north of Helena. Carter did not
know much about mining; he only wanted
TO satisfy himself that the mine was there
and leave the expert to do the rest
They found the lead, just as Dick had
said, with all indications that it would
widen out. 1t ran along the side of hill
which could be easily tunneled, and not
far away was fine water power to run
the mills which were already running in
the willy politicians vision.
The expert was satisfied with the loca-
ton, bagful of ore was blown out, and
the party returned to Dicks cabin for
the night Then Dick took hand in the
game. After Carter and the experts
were dreaming the dreams of Col. Null
berry Sellers the smooth colored man ex-
changed the bag of samples for one ex-
actly like it in surface appearance.
Dick, however, missed what was proba-
bly, a more astounding surprise to Carter
than Cleveland's majority in 1892. This
was when the assayer returned figures to
show that the ore at all points of the
lead ran over $1,000 to the ton. Carter
and the banker couldn't believe the re-