The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1896-09-27

| own 1t, and secondly whether the money
received is actually being put into the
| ground.
SwINDLING IN MINES.
| In all mining camps some swindling goes
On. Men will try to cheat in mining quite
as much as they do in other businesses,
and there are instances where worthless
/ holes have been stocked for millions, and
| the shares sold for few cents apiece, the
| incorporators putting the money into their
/ pockets. When Cripple Creek was first
/ opened there was quite a lot of such
/ schemes, and it hard to tell the legiti-
/ mate from the illegitimate. The fact that
| d prospect was stocked at a million at
| face value of a dollar a share, and that the
stock sold for 1 cent share. was no
sign that the property was not good one
| 1t only showed that the mine was estimated
by its owners at $4,000 and that they hoped
| it would bring million. Many of the best
mines to-day have been sold for l or
| cents and upward a Share. The Anchoria
Leland now one OF the most valuable prop
| critics of Cripple Creek, was hawked about
/ at 4, and cents a share. During the past
/ year has been taken out of 1t worth
more than ST. 900 to the ton, and a man who
| leased it has made a fortune All Cripple
Creek mines are capitalized very high,
higher. think than the mines of the Mer-
/ cur district No one stocks any kind OF
/ hole in Cripple Creek for a face value of
much less than a million, but purchasers
| look at the market value and not at the
! face value of the shares. I have before
| me table of the Incorporated mining COM
| panies of the Cripple Greek region. There
are more than a thousand of them, and
| the capitalization of the new mining COM
panies Incorporated last year aggregated
$500 ooO, 900. The fee which Colorado gets for
| each incorporation of a million is 500. and
/ the State received more than 100000 last
year for interpretations alone. 1t is esu-
mated that capital stock of a face value
| of $500, 900, 900 has been f1oated on the Grip
| pie Creek mines within the past year. and
| it is probable that the other new mining
| companies of the State added to it, would
have a face value equal to the national
debt.
STOCK BUYING IN COLORADO.
Stocks in many of these mines are bought
| and sold on the exchange There are stock
exchanges in all of the mining cities. Den
yer has two, Cripple Creek two, and the
| people of Colorado Springs speculate so
| generally in mining stock that it is said
/ when you hire servant girl there you
have to give her an hour off in the middle
| of the day to attend to her stock specula-
| tons With stock selling at l cent a share,
such girl could buy one hunded shares
for a dollar. or, if she had received her
monthly wages, she could, perhaps, buy
! thousand shares of these 1-cent stocks for
| So The mines are capitalized in this way,
largely as a result of the hard times. A
| great deal Of the mining done now is by
| combination of small investors, and in case
| 1-cent mine turns out well the investors
realize largely. OF course, most of such in
vestments are gambling, and a large pro-
| nf w invest them a
! the stock as a flyer many not even
| knowing anything about the mine which
| they are buying. One of the shrewdest
mining capitalists in Colorado said to me
the other day:
| MANY of the tenderfeet who come out
here seem to want to be humbugged. They
| don't investigate the properties in which
| they buy stock, and they don't seem to
want legitimate mines. Their sole care
seems to be whether the stock is cheap or
not, paying little regard to whether it
is good Some of them want to buy gold
| lands by the acre, and, in fact, a large
| part of the speculation in Colorado mines
| this year has been fostered by the real
| estate agents. You see, Denver lns been
very dull during the hard times and the
real-estate men were almost starving when
/ the Cripple Creek gold fever broke out. AT
| this time they left Denver and went to
|
near the mining camps and capitalized it,
/ At the same time real-estate fakirs from
| different parts of the country came III.
| They went through the ceremony Of dig
| ging holes. called them mines and stocked
them. They took their stock books home
with them and filled them out ad libitum.
! They sold their stock at a few cents a
share, and in many cases the buyers are
still waiting to hear further from them.
| The truth is, the man who believes in a
| guarantee of 81 out of a one-cent invest
menr is a fool. There is a chance for such
/ an occurrence it is true, and L know that
| there have been many instances of this
| kind in Cripple Creek I know, for exam
| pie, one man who bought Portland stock
when it 312 cents share. He invest
$500 in it, and when he sold out the other
| day he cleared $50 0O0 I know of other fell
| lows who have put $500 into other stocks,
| and whose stocks are not now worth more
| than the paper on which they printed.
Buying cheap and unlisted stock is like
| gambling in Monte Carlo. The chances are
/ almost altogether against YOU
| THE MOUNT PISGAH SWINDLE.
And still you can never tell where gold is
until you find it. Some OF those 1-cent
/ holes may turn out TO be worth fortunes,
| and it may pay you to invest in some of
them if you will take the preliminary steps
which / have advised at the beginning of
this letter to find out as to whether they
are offered by reliable parties The best
| part of the Cripple Creek region was once
sold for $500 and only about six years
ago there We're thousands of miners wan
dering over these gold fields which
/ producing a million dollars a month and
cursing the authors of the famout Mount
Pisgah swindle. Mount Pisgah is only
few miles from Cripple Creek. You can see
! ii from almost any one of the famous
| mines of the region. It was at that time
| the center of a gold excitement brought
about by two swindling prospectors. These
| prospectors dug a hole on Mount Pisgah
| and sailed the mine, as it is termed, by
| bringing rich gold ore from other parts of
the State and burying it in their shaft.
| They then took specimens of this ore and
| carried them to Leadville, stating that they
had struck it rich on Mount Pisgah. There
| was a great excitement at once. Leadville
| capitalists went back with them and bought
/ the mine of the swindlers for 81, 900. For
/ some reason, however, the money was not
|