Gilpin observer., 1900-04-19
MINES AND MINING STOCKS.
Examples of Difference of Value Between
the Two.


the Two.
Reference has been made in this
journal to the avidity with which
ComstOck shares were seized genera
ton ago. In those days the value of
the mine cut little figures in the street
value of the stocks. Stocks sold at hun
dreds of dollars per share when the
mining properties they represented
paid no dividend, not even running eX-
penses. Twenty-Five years ago to-day
April Z. 1S75-930 shares of Bullion
Mining COmpany's stock We're bought
In the San Francisco Stock Exchange
at $50 per share. The mine is still be-
ing assessed-NO. 50 was the latest
and has never paid dividend. No in
vidiOus reference is intended. The
mine mentioned is merely typical of
the way mining stocks went then. No
one minded much, so there was stock
to play with.
In marked contrast is the present
condition in the one lively mining share
market to-day-that of Cripple Creek.
COlOradO-where the singular anomaly
is presented of higher cash price be-
ing paid in actual purchase of mining
properties than the valuation of the
stocks Of those properties in the min
ing stock market. The COmstock
mine stocks We're manifestly too high:
the Cripple Greek mining stocks are
as manifestly too low.
There are several causes for the diff
ference in mining stock market condi-
tions past and present. The COmstock
era was one of reckless speculation. a
plethora of money and n general craze
the same frame of mind that now
makes man mortgage his home and
start for Cape Nome-hope told fat
tering tale. and men confused their
dreams with static facts Then. too.
in those days were masters of mining
stock manipulation. Not even Rhodes
or Barnato outshone the old "bonanza
crowd" of California and Nevada in
ability to boom" stocks. Again. in the
old ComstOck days there We're cliques
and combinations constantly clamoring
for control of certain mines, and they
kept prices up even of adjacent proper
ties that profited by such contiguity.
Cripple Creeks mines are worth more
than the market price of their stocks
to-day because of the fact of that war
ring element: because of cessation of
speculative demand in the East: be-
cause of absence of such past grand
manipulatOrS as dealt the ComStock
game; because of more active legiti-
mate investment in mining property
and development as legitimate busi-
ness proposition: because. too. the trend
of the times is to hold possession of
control in more direct way than by
the intermediary methods of the stock
brokers. and. finally. because the in
crease of the value of the mines them
selvs Outruns the belief of the outside
buying public. The pendulum now
swings the other way. The servant
girls and clerk. the walters and vege-
table peddlers who bought ComstOck
shares. no longer invest their surplus
money that way. Men who rightly un-
derstand the great value of Cripple
Creeks gold mines are getting control
themselves. and they don't do so much
business with the stock broker. 1t is
not so good for the stock broker. but.
eventually, 1t means bigger sales of
mining machinery. more men at work.
greater mining areas discovered and
developed. and more general prosperi-
ty In the state.-Mining and Scientific
Press.