The Providence news. (Providence [R.I.]) 1891-1906, 1898-07-29
GOLDEN SEA GULLS.

GOLDEN SEA GULLS.
/ We have heard from time to time. for
year or more, of the Rev. p. #. Jer-
negan and his great scheme OF extract
| ing gold from sea water to engage in
which apparently lucrative operation
a stock company has been in process OF
organization with capitalization OF
| SIC, 900. 600.
OF course there was nothing new In
the idea that there is gold in the oceans
though, in a commercial sense, 1t has
never been widely believed that there
were oceans of gold. Indeed. the exist
ence of the precious metal in the deep
blue sea had. until Rev. Mr.. Jernegan
came upon the scene, been of interest
only to the microscopic. Probably Mr..
Jernegan didn't know anything about
the matter himself until in an idle hour
an encyclopedia disclosed the scientific
truth and then, as the divine, being
without a pulpit, had plenty of idle
hours he conceived the idea of the great
Electrolytic Marine Salts Company
which was authorized to use the only
Jernegan "secret process" for bailing
gold from the seas and the msrabers of
which were privileged to buy stock un-
till the inventor. patenter and chief
boomer got tired of taking in money.
1t now appears that Rev. Mr.. Jerne-
gan has reached a point where he
doesn't want any more money for he
is reported to have gone to Europe and
left the Electrolytic Marine Salts stock
holders to go on scooping gold from the
deep blue sea to their hearts content
without any interference from him.
They are at liberty to make use Of his
"secret process" IL they can find 1t and
all he asks of them is not to bother him
to come home and explain how the old
thing works.
The astonishing part of the success
of the scheme is that so many intelli-
gent and clever men seem to have been
fooled by It, One would have thought
that the fact that a scientific idea so old
as that which lay at the bottom of the
Rev. Jernegans project had been so
long neglected by Inventive genius and
capital would have conveyed It's own
warning when backwoods minister
bobbed up with the scheme all worked
out. But apparently the Rev. Jerne-
gan found no difficulty in winning the
confidence of number of reputable
and sensible business men whose con-
nection with the enterprise naturally
won the confidence Of thousands of
others less able to investigate intelli-
gently into the merits Of such a prop
osition. And for all the numerous
Klondike schemes that have appealed
SO fetchingly to the unwary within
the same period of time. the Jernegan
golden sea scheme found guls enough
to take up all the capital stock and it's
triumph outranks, by far any similar
enterprise that has flourished here
abouts in many years.
SO. just at present such Of us as
yearn for gold in quantity must fall
back on the limited opportunities af-
forded by digging 1t or earning II I'm our
ordinary pursuits at so much per week.
The Chicago concern which has been
turning discarded lead pipe or some
such base metal into gold went up sew
eral weeks ago and now the Jernegan
plan OF ladling II out OF the ocean
ceases to inspire confidence. What the
next fantastic scheme will be OF course
cannot be prophesied but equally OF
course there will be n new one right
soon. And, alas. when It comes Il may
confidently rely on finding plenty Of
victims