Evening star., 1896-09-26

by its owners at 10000. and that they |
hoped 1t would bring million. Many of
the best mines today have been sold for |
or cents and upward a share. The An |
choria Leland, now one Of the most valua- |
BILE properties of Cripple Creek, was
hawked about at A. and cents share.
During the past year ore has been taken
out of It worth more than $1,000 to the ton,
and a man who leased 1t has made a for
tune. All Cripple Creek mines are capital
lied very high. higher. think. than the
any kind Of a 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. l have
before me table of the Incorporated min
ing ,mpanies Of the Cripple Creek region.
There are more than a thousand OF them.
and the capitalization of the new mining
companies incorporated last year aggre-
gated $6O0,OOO,OOO The fee which Colorado
gets for each incorporation q a million is
500, and the state received more than w.
COO last year for interpretations alone. 1t is
estimated that capital stock OF race value
of $500 100000 has been floated on the Grip
PIE Creek mines within the past year, and
1t Is probable that the other new mining
companies of the state, added to 1t, would
have a face value equal to the national
debt.
Stock Buying I'm 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 1t is said
when you hire a servant girl there you
have to give her an hour off in the middle
of the day 20 attend to her stock specula-
tions. With stock selling at one cent
share, such girl could buy 100 shares for
dollar, or If she had received her
monthly wages, she could, perhaps. buy
thousand shares of these one-cent stocks
for $40 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 a one-cent mine turns out well the
investors realize largely. OF course. most
of such investments are gambling. and
| large proportion Of those who invest In
| them take the stock flyer" many not
| even knowing anything about the mine
| which they are buying. One of the shrewd-
| est mining capitalists in Colorado said to
me the other day:
Many of the tenderfeet who come out
| here seem to v ant 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 as to whether it Is
| good. Some Of them want to buy gold lands
by the acre. and, in fact, large part of the
| speculation in Colorado mines this year has
| been fostered by real estate agents. You
| see. Denver has 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 Cripple Creek. and
! bought land by the acre near the mining
| camps and capitalized 1t. At the same time
| real estate fak.rs from different parts of
| the country came in. They went through
| the ceremony of digging 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 share and in many cases
the buyers are still waiting to hear further
from them. The truth is, the man who be-
| heves in guarantee of 81 out of a one
! cent investment Is a fool. There Is a
| chance for such an occurrence, 1t is true
and know that there have been many in
| stances of this kind in Cripple Creek. l
| know. fol example. one man who bought
| Portland stock when 1t was 3k cents
| share. He invested 500 in it, and when he
| sold the other day he cleared S9O,oOu.
| into other stocks and whose stocks are not
| now worth more than the paper on
which they are printed. Buying cheap and
| unlisted stock Is like gambling in Monte
| Carlo. The chances are almost altogether
against you
| The Mount Pisgnh Swindle.
And still you can never tell where gold is
| until you find it. Some of those one-cent
! holes may turn out to be worth fortunes
ard 1t may pay you to invest in some of
tfem If you will take the preliminary steps
/ which l 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 $I,5o0, and only about six years
| ago there were thousands of miners wan
| dellng over these gold fields which are now
| producing a million dollars a month and
| cursns the authors of the famous Mount
! Pisgah swindle. Mount Pisgah is only a
! few miles from Cripple Creek You can see
mines of the region. 1t was at that time
the center OF a gold excitement brought
about by two swindling prosDectors These
| prospectors dug hole on Mount Pisgah
ara Salted the mine, it is termed by
| bringing rit h gold ore from other parts of
the state and burying il in their shaft
| Ihey then took specimens of this ore and
carried them to Leadville. stating that they
had struck it rich on Mount Pisgah There
was u great excitement at once. LeadyiIle
| capitalists went back with them. and
Lought the mine of the swindlers for
$1,000 For some reason, however. the
| money was not paid the spo,
| and in the meantime the story of the
| gold being found was heard in Denver and
Colorado Springs. There was at once a
| rush for Mount Pisgah. Mr. George
| Ady, the general agent of the Union Pa
cific company of Denver. told me that he
| could not get enough cars to carry the pas
| sengerS. Said he:
1--WE put on extra trains, and within
| less than week there were thousands of
| men marching over what is now Cripple
Creek to get to Mount Pisgah. Among
| IL Gil were SOOu miners, ana within
| pie of days these men saw that the mine
| was fraud. They saw that 1t had been
| salted. The news soon got out, and the
| thousands of men came back leaving un-
| touched the gold fields between them and
the railroad. The fraud was disc oyered he
fore the money was paid, and the salters
had to keep out of the way for fear of be-
| ing lynched.'
SultinS Mines.
There is little sailing mines done today
| There are too many honest experts and i,
Is seldom that worthless property brings
an immense torture. STILL the man who
wishes to buy mines wants to keep his
eyes open, ind the expert " no would Judge
a mine correctly ought to go through it al
| most alone. If he does not and picks his
samples from the places suggested he will
| be apt to strike only the richest parts OF
the vein, and he may get ore that is salted
| An average mine may be salted with rich
| pieces of rock here and there, and the re-
suit Of the assay will make it look far
richer than 1t is. A good expert takes his
samples from number Of places. He uses
| good-siZed chunks. well as small bits
and he takes them from all parts of the
hole. Sailing is often done by means OF
II.