The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1896-09-27
SHARK AND TENDERFOOT
swINDLING IN BUYING AND SELLING
OF MINING PROPERTIES.
The "SaIting" of Mines, and How 1t Is
Done-Mining a Legitimate and
HIegifimate business.
Copyrighted. 1896. by Frank G. carperter.,


cious metals. Cripple Creek has within five
years produced more THAN S13.000,000 worth
of gold, and there a half dozen other
camps in Colorado which have turned out
millions. Utah's vast wealth of gold and
silver is just beginning to he known. In
all of the Rocky mountain States new
mines are being opened and within the
next few years hundreds of fortunes will
be made. At the same time hundreds will
lose the money that they put into mines
and mining, and the old saying that it
takes 81 in work and losses to get 81 out
of the earth will hold good. There is
business in which men will risk SO much
as in mining, and none into which they
will go so blindly. Managed legitimately
and on business principles 1 believe the
getting out of gold and silver is more GER
tain of profit than four-fifths of the other
businesses of the United States. How few
of our professional men make fortunesi
The statistics show that 80 per cent. of the
merchants fail. / am told here that more
than 10 per cent. of those who use the same
business judgment, care and time, as
are needed for other businesses, in
working and dealing in mines, succeed. 1t
will seem strange to many people to think
that you can tell just what mine is
worth Nevertheless this, to large ex-
tent, can be estimated by experts. Mines
are often sold for the amount of ore in
sight. BY going down q certain distance
on vein and by testing the rock at the
different levels you can tell almost how
much ore you are sure of getting out, and
you can buy the mine for this sum with a
big chance of getting more gold further
down Good mines cannot be bought for
nothing but properly purchased, many
show little chances of loss. with big pros
poets of fortune making in their develop
ment We now have a large class of men
who may be called mining investors. They
do not buy holes in the ground without
those holes have already produced gold or
silver in paying quantities. They have eX-
perts look at the mines and carefully in
vestigate the titles to them before they
purchase. Many of them do not invest
until they have been here for six months
or year, and they the same care as to
mining that they would were they investing
in business property or putting their
money into a manufacturing plant.
SOME PAYING INVESTMENTS
There is a great fascination in mining
speculation. A good mine pays well and
so fast that the temptation is great,
and a mine which has produced something
and has a good prospect for the future is
not hard to sell. I rode not long ago with
Colonel Dick Kerens, the railroad million
aire and Republican politician of ST. Louis,
from his summer home in West Virginia to
Washington. During the trip he told me
of an investment which James G. Blaine,
Stephen B. Elkins and himself made in
a silver mine at Leadville. 1T was said
he, called the Small Hopes and it cost
us just about 100000 to buy and develop
it. You cannot imagine how fast the mon
ey came back to We got $4,000 a
a period of more than four years, and we
have already taken more than $4,250 900
worth of silver out of it." Jay Cooke, after
his failure in business in New York, went
west to Utah and invested in a mine there.
He brought into the deal the same careful
judgment and business brains that he used
in selling his government bonds, and when
he returned he organized a company to de-
velop his property, taking as his share one
fourth of the stock. That fourth, 1 am
told, paid him more than million dollars
and made him again rich. Senator
Hearst's millions were made in mines, and
he kept up his buying until the day of his
death. He dealt in silver, gold and copper,
and made money in all. The Rothschilds
have it is said, recently bought his inter
ests in the great copper mine at Anacon-
d. Mont, paying $4,000 900 for them. There
are large number of men here in Col
orado who buy mines to develop them, and
I believe that men with capital can find
plenty of good investments in the West
to-day The opportunities are by no means
confined to the Cripple Greek region, nor
to Colorado. There is good mining terri
tory in Montana, Nevada. Arizona, Utah and
California, and the right man with little
money or much money can do more bust
ness here just now than in almost any
other part of the United States.
MONEY IN MINES.
By this I do not mean that money is to
be made by careless speculation. Wherever
dollars are offered for cents and big divi-
dends are guaranteed for small sum in
vested it is pretty safe to believe that the
matter is a gamble. There is plenty of
money out here in Colorado and Utah, and
things of that kind are not going to waste
Many prospects, however are offered for
sale on the ground of their being a gamble.
Two men may have what they think a
good thing but may lack the money to de-
yeIop it. They will form a company,
serving a certain part of the stock for
themselves and selling the rest for develop
ment. If they are honest men they will tell
YOU that the matter is a speculation. and
YOU can find whether they are using your
money in developing the property. If they
do so you may be sure that their enterprise
is a legitimate one, and II II succeeds you
will get your share.
Well, in the first place, any man who in
| vests much in mines ought to come out
/ here and stay long enough to know how to
| Judge a mine. He ought to look well before
| he buys and he should have the report of
| a good mining engineer or expert on the
| property in which he invests. There are a
| number of such men here and you can
/ easily find whether they reliable. If
! one wishes to invest in mines and cannot
come to the West he ought to inquire as to
! the reliability of the party with whom he
| deals through his banker. ANY bank in
| the country can find out through the banks
| of the Rocky mountains as TO the char
/ acter of any of the men who are dealing in
| mines, and both the banks and the news
| papers are ready and anxious to expose
| gambling specuations. The editors of the
| Cripple Creek and Salt Lake newspapers
have requested me 10 invite examination
of men and property through them, and /
do not believe there is newspaper editor
in Colorado or Utah who would not give
an honest reply in such a case, and who
would not aid in exposing fraud In buy