Morning appeal. [volume] (Carson City, Nev.) 1877-1906, 1903-06-28
TEN YEARS OF CHEAP SILVER.
June Is, 1893, the White Metal Took
First Disastrous Tumble.

June 26, 1893, the White Metal Took
First Disastrous Tumble.
!. 1t was just ten years Tuesday since
the awful slump in silver, due to the
, threatened repeal of the Sherman act,
began. 1t is just ten years since the
mfpers in the silver camps, who had
been trembling in their boots for sew
eral months utterly collapsed with
fear for<t.te iutMe, for it then appear
ed - though tho Industry would be.
come AZ thing of the. past in short Of
der. On Saturday, the Gath day Of
June. 1893, silver was quoted at S0E
26th, it dropped to TIC. the day fol-
slowing to >73c. the next day to COO
and on the 3Oth it had fallen to 63c
an ounce. At the close Of that day 1t
had rallied SC 10 CSC, tand, people felt
that a crisis hid been pasked Outing
August of that year it gradually ad-
vanced to 75Ac, but that was the high
'narl4 aad it ibis never cut even to
that Ehsufe since. In November, 'ss,
the Sherman purchasing act was re-
,peeleds and in the following March the
metal struck what proved to be a
low notch for some time ,5SAc an
OUNCE .~Hsr c;.si4 -.%',-n,.
by that time the miners worst fears
began to, be realized. Silver mines ev-
-erywhere were closed down and those
which continued to hang on were run
with reduced forces and in many in
stances at reduced pay. The mines of
. Colorado and Butte were hit the hard
est, though Park City, the Comstock
Tintic, Frisco. Phoebe and numerous
other camps suffered greatly. The On
;tario and Daily finally gave up in
90, but the Anchor pegged along.
she management determined to con-
tinue development whether it lost mo-
,ney or not. The Silver King, also. con
tinued without interruption. but its
rich ores enabled it to stand the pres
sure that proved fatal to ITS neighbors.
All the mines Of Butte, in which the
chief values were silver. closed down
and no attempt has been made to
mine there for that metal, with the
single exception of Senator Clark, who
last fall pumped the 1000 feet of Wa
ter out of the Travonia and has since
continued to operate it.
Immediately following the disas.
trous drop in the price OF the white
metal, miners and prospectors every
where began the search for gold
and in the meantime mining engineers
and metallurgists undertook the task
of devising ways and means of pro
ducing and treating silver-bearine
ores at less COST 1t was found that
mining, milling and smelling had been
carried on without due regard to &c
onomy and within year or two ma
ny mines that had been previously
considered worthless were reopened
and worked at a modest profit. Then
attention was directed toward cop
per. and after a while the miner begar
to realize on many things that pre-
viously had not been considered
worthy of notice, and, although tn,
white metal dropped several point:
under soc an ounce a few months ago
there was no talk of closing down. .
ho 70
morning was 525sc per ounce, the
same as the day before, or 275sc al
ounce less than it was the day before
the heavy slump came, but there are
now more mines working than at tina
time, and the dividends paid are ma
ny times greater-Salt Lake Herald