The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1896-08-09

ner, is also a millionaire. He is said
to be the most expert judge of mines
in the West. He was riding over the
mountain above Cripple Creek about
four years ago when he passed that
"hole In the ground Two experienced
miners were working at it. They
stopped Smith and asked him to come
to look at their claim. He went over
and crawled down into the hole. He
inspected the rock and saw that it
contained a fine vein of ore.
He grunted a little as he got out as
though it did not amount to much, and
upon he men saying that they would
sell the mine for s65, 900, he laughed at
them and went away. AS soon as he
returned to Leadville, however. he tel
egraphed his agents to find out whether
the parties had a title to the mine and
to buy 1t If they could. They did buy
1t, paying the owners 1000 cash. with
an option on 1t for one year for Sos, 00O
This Is the way many mines are bought.
The understanding is that the pur-
CHASER shall at once put his men in to
develop the mine, and all the gold TAX
en- out up to the amount of the option
snail belong to the sellers. t. in the
course of some specified time, nine
months or a year. he fails to take ,ut
that amount or fails to pay it, the mine.
with all the gold taken out, reVefts to
the original owners. The Victor mine
paid for itself from the start Within
month several thousand dollars
worth OF good paying ore had been
sent to the smelters, and long before
the year was up Moffat and Smith.
out of the proceeds of their ore, had
received back the $1,000, had paid the
$6O,O0O additional, all the expense of
putting up their works and also some
big dividends. They then capitalized
the mine at a face value of 81 900 900
and offered to sell the stock. This was
along in about 1892, when the whole
mine was offered by them for sale in
New York for $270,000 The New York
capitalists, however, were afraid of 1t
and 1t went begging. They continued
to develop the mine, and later on they
sold the first lot of stock at 80 per
cent of its par value to the French
syndicate, guaranteeing dividends for
a limited time. Now they have sold
the balance Of the stock at 25 per cent
above par, and have. as 1 have said,
cleared nearly a million and a quarter
of dollars in less than four years out
of single investment.
PROSPECTING FOR GOLD
The above seems to be an easy way
of making money. 1t represents, how
ever, an enormous amount of labor,
fortune invested in machinery and the
use of executive ability equal to that
of managing a big manufacturing es-
tablishment. Some people seem to
have the idea that all that is necessary
to get gold, when you have found a
mine, is to push a wheelbarrow up to
the mountain and dig out the bullion
with pick. The truth is an enormous
amount of work is connected with the
discovery and development of every
good mine. All over the hills about
Cripple Creek you will see piles of dirt
They look like newmade graves of
disappointed hopes and expectations.
They are the holes Of unfortunate pros
pectors and the huts situated near
them are in most instances the places
which form the homes of prospectors
who lived thus when they were try
ing to strike it rich. The whole re-
gion surrounding the Victor and the
other big mines of this Cripple Creek
region is honeycombed with prospects,
I rode to Cripple Creek through the
Ute cannon via the Florence and Grip
pie Creek railroad. We wound in and
out through gorges, the red granite
walls of which rose straight up for
hundreds of feet. Now and then these
rocky walls seemed to almost touch
the sky. A clear mountain river flowed
through the cannon, and in these walls
of rock and along the stream were little
dugouts and rude huts At places 1
saw caves In the rocks walled In front
with logs, and 1 was told that all Of
these places were the homes of men,
Some of the huts are not big enough for
a man to stand upright within them,