The Montgomery advertiser., 1904-02-07
WHITAKER WRIGHTS STORY
HANKS WITH LAW, HooLEx AND THE HUMBERTs-srATE-
 MENTs HE MADE DIFFER ENT TO THE CAUSES OF
 HIS SUCCESSES AND HIS FAILUREs-HIs CAREER FILLED WITH SUDDEN AND EXCITING ExPERIENcEs

I he went to Philadelphia in 1885 and rent
 en an office in the old Merchants Ex-
 change Building. where the Stock Ex- | change of that city now stands. He was
 a broker in cotton, grain and petroleum.
 but was not connected with the Stock Exchange. He lived in fine style in the suburb of Haverford from 1887 to 1891 While living In Philadelphia he was nat uralized and married. He estimated his i fortune'at $l,OO0.O0O in 1887. After increas-
 ing this largely he decided to go to Lon
 don with the purpose of retiring from business with competency. But the de-
 pression in values in some of his invest ments led him to speculate on the London Stock Exchange. His knowledge of min ing induced him to embark in the devel- opment of mines in West Australia in
 1895. Of his experiences with the mining ventures there in which he was interested he once gave this account:
 ''The experts decided 1t was likely 10
 prove a better gold field than was SUD-
 posed. Discoveries were rapidly made,
 and in a few months there was wild ex-
 citement. Prospecting parties went in every direction, and made what appeared
 to be rich finds day after day. Becoming satisfied that the colony would develop into satisfactory gold mining camp, as the ores were of high grade. instruct ed my agents to buy up all the richest discoveries that could be had for req sonable price. and in this way acquired the very best shows on the gold fields properties some of which might we'll oe described as golden treasure houses, whose gold glittered on the surface of the ground like jewellers window. In some of them huge powders of pure gold wele found. -
 Subsequently these properties were merged into the West Australia Explor- ation Company, which promised enormous returns, owning one mine at least that bade fair to rival the famous Londonder- ry mine, in which a ton of gold was ta- ken from a ten-foot hole. Then came setback. After going down few feet the rich deposit vanished, and. though we spent more than half a million dollars in subsequent development we were never able to recover the reef or vein. Of
 course. If this rich ore on the surface had
 held out as we went down the mine would
 have paid us millions. But that was the
 natural condition in most of West Aus tralia, following the memorable law, yet
 am duly blamed for the failure of the ore to hold out.
 This was the history of several of the
 richest appearing. properties. but, in spite
 of everything, this exploration company
 brought more money into the colony and
 did more to develop its resources than all the other companies combined. The fact
 that these properties, though so rich at the surface, did not go deep. gave me
 much food for thought, and one night when my wife was i'll and the physician
 had advised me not to retire, sat in my dressing gown in front of a fire and
 thought all through the night, ruminating
 on the conditions in these mines.
 Finally I thought of a little property
 called the Lake View Mine, owned by a
 few practical miners, who, with their modest development and paltry appli- ances. were sti1l taking out $1.509 a month. I thought 10 myself that 1t might be wis CT to buy this property than to keep on acquiring undeveloped mines, and in- structed one of my experts, to whom was paying the modest salary of $so.O0O year under a three years contract, to examine the property and see if 1t was likely to live in depth. His report was favorable. as were those of other experts
 I employed. I bought the mine and or ganized what was known as the Lake | View Consols Company to take it over. When puI into shares, tine purchase mon- ey amounted to only few shillings a
 share. but it soon advanced to 8 and $i
 a share. Or steadily increasing output from the mine, the stock eventually rose to $50 a share, and the West Australia Exploration Company made q first profit l of $5.O0O.o00.
 On the same financial basis Wright ex- plotted. in 1897, the London and Globe
 Finance Corporation. with a capital of @, ,O00, 900; the British-American Corpora
 ton. with e1,5OO,OOO capital: two more
 companies in 1898, with e2.5O0,0OO capital;
 two more the following year, with 21.-
 50O.000 capital. and in 1900 five additional
 ones, the combined capital of which was R4,6S5,000. He had meanwhile purchased
 great estate in Surrey. on which large ! sums of money were spent, and had in- | terested many men of social and financial prominence in his ventures, 1t being said ! that royalty was not averse to subscrip-