The San Francisco call., 1897-06-20

Ing which. within year or two, has seIzad
hold OF the people OF this state The orqani.
Eaton OF these companies is not ut all con
fined to San Francisco. San Jose. Stockton
Los Angeles, San Diego, Fresno. Sacramento
etc, companies are created weekly AS in.
tlmated before, these interpretations do not
represent the biggest amounts of California
Capital being invested in gold mines Tpdj-
vldual men of wealth, mally of them. arc
constantly seeking for promising investments
and when they make them they are made
through expert agents. and little is said about
1t. list of the san Francisco wholesale buai
ness men OF wealth who have within one or
Two years turned to the California gold regions
as field of quiet investment would be sur.
prising one.
One noticeable and gratifying thing about
the new gold mining activity in California is
that SO much OF it is due to California capital
Statistics in this regard are Impossible to pat
out competent judges say that haf or more of
the vast amount of money that is lust now
going into the buying OF claims and mines. the
sinking OF shafts, the running of tunnels the
erection OF prospecting and milling machinery.
the development of electric power for mines
and so on. is California capital The shrewdest
mining Investors of London and the East have
In the past year been making welcome invest
ments and starting important deveIopment
operations, but these outside investments are
generally in partly developed or old mines,
"here the investment is paIpably pretty safe
one. The Cal1fornians are doing the most in
the way OF real development, for the Califnr-
mans are the most ready to take hold of mere
prospect or slightly developed mine and fnd
out what there is in it.
All this directs attention to the peculiar sit
uation which gold-mining in California occu-
pies. California is the only important gold
nf
IBERIA, In which the stock-gambling fever does
not send legitimate production to second
place. The absence of stock speculation h re
is Inc one thing that gives an outward appear
ance OF quietude to California amid all this
worldwide gold-mining excitement In Lon
don the speculative fever rules the mining
affairs OF South Africa and Western Australia.
The theme of interest is the price of stocks.
and the mining news of interest Is the news
which affects the prices of stocks
Permanent values and actual production
take secondary place. In British Columbia,
where wonderful activity and great promise
attend a production that is but a traction of
CalifOrnia's, the formation and over-capitali-
cation of stock companies and the variations
OF stock prices are the most prominent fes-
lures of the mining news. In Colorado espe-
cially in the great Cripple Creek district, the
speculative fever is still the controlling thing,
although stock gambling has struck the era of
hard times which precedes and attends pro-
duc:ive prosperity
But in California the public has not got
over its sickening dose of Comstock mining,
and nowhere in the world has mining stock
speculation so poor a field to flourish in.
There is in this State a strong reaction from
the Comstock gambling period, which had
much to do with the late quietude in gold
mining here. There is another condition
somewhat peculiar to California which, for
tunately, represses the stock speculative ten.
dency. The gold mines of California produce
little silver. and their values are steady ana
permanent as rule. A persistent value in a
mine affords no opportunities for rises aud
falls in stocks, such as attended the strikes in
the Comstock silver mines.
Last year California produced about SI7-
250 900 in gold, and the widespread, active
and growing development now going on, the
greater part of which cannot reach the stage
of large production within two years, prom
ises that before great while California alone
will surpass South Africa and Australia in the.
value of its gold product ana be the greatest
gold producing region of the world. This new
development, just fairly begun, has infused
new life into every mining county of the
State and each month increases the scale of
investment and development on q legitimate
and permanent basis