Bennington semi-weekly banner. (Bennington, Vt.) 1894-1902, 1895-11-01

BARNEY bAkNAIo' nation Is to be
found in the fact that for fully five years
the owners of small accumulations of cap
ital in England and Europe have been IN
able to find safe and lucrative employment
for their money. People who depend
wholly or in part upon the income from
Investments for their support, and they
are q very large class in England, have
been driven to desperation by the long
years of depression. For many months it
has been impossible to find investments
that offered per cent income upon CAPT
tai combined with absolute safety. This
has meant all the difference between conf
fort and absolute want to many thousands.
1t has put discount upon thrift and a
premium upon prodigality among the
earners. OF what use was 1t to save If the
increment of the savings were so trifling
as to be utterly inadequate to meet the
simplest wants of old age or disability
The spread of this spirit has been
marked among all classes of Englishmen
during the last two or three years. 1t Is
not surprising, indeed it was inevitable,
that rapid growth of the gambling spirit
should be Concident with it. The same
condition Of things obtained in hardly less
degree in France, in Germany, and in
other continental countries. If safe invest
ments were lacking or were Improbable
then the field of speculation alone re-
manned. Even that was without special
allurements until the newly discovered re-
sources Of South Africa and West Austria
liza furnished them in abundant measure.
What wonder, then, that the response to
the golden temptation furnishes the most
nn1n al, hn I,,gf for
gold has given to the modern world
A fin dc steele gold fever is n quite differ
ent malady in it's general manifestations
from all past crazes of this nature. The
Californian and Austrian gold discoveries
acted like magnets, drawing men from all
parts of the world to the "new diggings."
Picks and shovels, hard labor and great
personal hardships were the prices to be
paid for any share in the golden prizes.
There has been no great rush to the gold
fields Of South Africa and West Australia.
Prospectors are there in plenty, but the
working miner, who pegs out his claim
and works it for his own profit, is not
much in evidence. Time has changed all
that The prospector, the mining expert,
the company promoter, and the sanguine
public all have their functions to perform
before mine is worked seriously.
The prospector who finds a promising
gold bearing reef takes from it only few
of the best specimens of rock he can OBJ
tain. He hastens to have this assayed at
the nearest town. Armed with the report
Of this test, showing quartz producing
gold at the rate Of so many ounces to the
ton, he goes to the company promoter or
representative of London syndicate and
the mining expert. ThS examine his I'M
developed claim, and the company pro-
moter makes him cash offer for it or Sc
cures from him an option. just now the
offer made to him, If his claim is at all
promising, is likely to be so tempting that
he will do far better to accept it at once
than try to develop the property himself
In fact, the competition to secure newly
discovered claims in both the South At
rioan and West Australian fields is so greet
that no decent property of this nature re-
mains long in It's original hands.
The process Of floating mine on the
London market is extremely interesting.
1t is the working of this machinery, and
not the yield Of the mines themselves, that