Arizona republican., 1899-06-22
GCOD ADVICE TO INVESTORS
 MINES.

The following extracts frcm letter contributed to the Los Angeles Times by one of it's special correspondents IS worthy of the notice of intending in Vestors in mines:
 tn nearly every instance claims can be bonded for a reasonable amount, that is you pay down a comparatively small sum- say enough to cover the cost of the work already cone anu liv- ing expenses during the fife of your opaon; take a bond for six, nine or twelve months, for an agreed upon price: put men to work and on or bs- fore the expiration of your bond if you are satisfied, you have developed sufi- cent ore to pay for the mine and a mill and give you d good profit with the full extent of the ore body yet un- developed, you pay him the price agneed upon and take the inc; if not, quit il and give it back to him. Where is the gamble in that any more than opening a mercantile establishment in a territory already fully covered by other firms?
 How are you to dstermfne what is q good prospect. If you do not care to go to the expense Of an expert, secure the services of some good practical, trustworthy underground miner in the locality in which you wish to in vest; there are thousands of such. and let him go and prospect IL for you; if he tells you he does not like it. let is alone and go find another one or let him do it for you. It is a tTita saying and one generally accepted that ''n0 man can see farther, in the ground than the one drilling the hole
 Your best plan is to decide on a To- cality in which to operate, employ 9 practical miner in whom you. have con- fdence, visit the mining districts and inspect the numerous prospects. Every prOspector will extend you the hospi- talities of his camp and take pride in showing you his claim. Do not expect to buy for a song claim that is pay ing from the grass roots, TOT one '-clOse to a railroad that carries sh D. ping ore" such claims are not often for sale, and if they are they come high. If you think the price of a claim too high do not cheapen it. or try it, as you would horse CT build ing lot; it is not 3 good policy. If you want the claim come out squarely and tell the owrer that is more than you can pay; he will respect you the more for it. and there is possibility that you may acquire an interest in il. but do not ask for ty-One-hU1dnGdths of it for few dollars. take half and half and if you make a good impression you may acquire 8 one-half interest by supplying the money while he carries on the work. The great trouble of re- cent years is that capitalists have been trying, to buy s20 gold pieces for $10. The majority of them will not share l. -f--1-. develop twenty, fly or hundred thousand dollars worth of ore, and they will talk of bending it, and if they can develop three or four times as much they may buy, but thsy will not pay anything approx. mating the value the ProspectOr originally had in l sight; what risk there is the prospect or must take it, and the capitalist will reapt the profits At least that is the i way he situation is now regarded i throughout the mining camps. If you have only few hundred dollars do i not go into the mining business alone, ! unless you go out and find one Of your own. If you buy a prospect you must ! expect to put money in before you take any cut: it requires money to develop : mine, but orce a mine begins paying i you are ''on velvet" it c0mss like find i ing it.
 To return to the Inexperienced in | vestor; he is too easily excited, a. the sight of a thin string of yellow gold i at the bottom of a horn spoon, he loses . his head and displays a f5verish aEx- iety to 'get in" that m8kss him an easy prey to the unscrupulous. or rath- ST did; it is different now. Those same investors who are saying that mining Is a gamble would not have thought Of a fruit ranch on the state ment Of the seller that 1t was "a gco1 ] one;" neither would they have accept ed his statement that the title was all right. They would not even buy a family horse on the word of the deal CT that it was gentle and tractable; then why did they invest in a nine on the statement of a comparative strang- CT and a piece of ore probably the sIze oYa hens egg? ust about as much business sense in such a proposition as for him to loan money t0 a stranger on his statement that he would bn'ng