Waterbury evening Democrat., 1907-05-29
NATURES STORE OF WEALTH
All is Not Gold That Critters in a
 Prospectus Comstock Letter.

in two volumes. The first has long become dusty with time. It tells of the "Battle-horn State," but .ts chap ter of thrilling interest is. the narration of the discovery of gold culminating in the finding of the Comstock lode. From the time the glint of metal first was seen in the mountain fastnesses or the dreary alkali deserts until Com stock gave up its last ton of wealth. Nevada added to the worlds riches close to billion and half of dollars, sum equal to the wealth of fifteen hundred millionaires. Comstock alone produced $6S0, ,0O0, ,0O0, the one piece of ground in all the world which made millionaires by the score, which ran lines of steel to connect the Atlantic with the Pacific. which f1oated on many seas steamers to carry the worlds commerce, which connected Europe and America with the wires of the cable and dissipated time, which sent senators to Washington, endowed universities and colleges and art gal leries, which reared great palaces OH the banks of the Mediterranean and which incidentally gave to the United States the best mining laws ot any country. The second volume is of fresher pages. Its chapters are still ili the writing. None have been complet- ed, though some have assumed final forms but others still remain to be written. It is in the pages of this second volume that there must be told the story of the new Nevada, once the Silver State, but now the Golden, a veritable modern day field of the cloth of gold.
 .Anu it is here that must be set forth the tale of how. Tonopah and Goldfeld again drew the eyes of the world to the great Nevada desert and how from all corners there came the ven turesome prospectors and miners arm in arm with the financier, the artisan and the professional man. to add new stores to the worlds wealth, to rear new towns, to build new railroads, to conquer new empire. And as the story proceeds Goldfeld and Bulifrog and Manhattan and Jefferson Canon, Round Mountain, Fairyiew, Duluth, Searchlight, Ramsey, Buckskin. Johnnie, Lida, Ely, Greenwatcr and a score of other camps are given places in history until the chapter ends but only for the present.
 And as if to make the cycle com plete, Comstock itself may again find place in the story of the new Nev- ada, for plans are afoot to drain the mines, to bring them the economies of modern mechanical attachments and il greater mining skill and once again to dig down into the darkness of the earth for the deposits believed to have eluded even the keen search of the past.
 What the average person wants to know is this: Does the mining busi- ness pay? Is there anything solid or substantial behind the publicty or the reports of rich strikes? Can mine be as solid an investment as a steel mill? Are the men who manage the mines as honest as those who run q railroad? And is the Nevada boem over?
 In answer to the first question a few facts can be set down without any attempts to change their import. By producing mine Is meant from which metal in paying quantities Is actually being taken from which actual cash is derived and out of which real divi- dends are being paid.
 There is just as much solidity in q good silver or gold mine as there Is in coal mine. The payment of $l.5C3,- GOO in dividends last year on a capita. stock of only S1.0CO,000 is ample to show that those who put their money in Tonopah stock were not buncoe,i.
 A similar statement can be made of the Mohawk, Jumbo, Combination and others at Goldfield; the Montgomery Shoshone, at Bullfroc. the Wonder and some others in the Nevada hills.
 PAYING OF DIVIDENDS.
 When a mining company pays regu- larly large dividend from the sale of ore it is entirely we'll established and may be regarded as safe an ln- vestment as an ordinary industrial plant.
 As to the other question, is the mining boom over? 1t can he said that 1t is certainly not over By this it is not meant that stocks nave not declin- cd. because they have; but 1t is meant that the good properties have not van ished and until they do tbere must hc as much genuine interest in them as there is in the Reading anthracite mines.
 The investor in mining stocks is be- coming shrewder in discriminating be- tween a mere claim or prospect and a mine. He is also learning to tell gool mines from an inferior one
 Nevada mines have made many mill liOnaires and the leasing system in the Nevada district has been the making of Goldfield and. the other camps from which has come food of wealth.
 Leasing is regarded by many au- thorities to be the most important de- velopment of modern mining. It has time and again made real mines out of mere prospects, but it's greatest achievement was to make the Mohawk when it's shares were worth cents and place the mine in a position where the shares are worth dollars. And when the leaser does make a strike there is shown q bustling activity to realize the utmost before the lease expires. such as is not known ortside IEe mining district. Two and three sai.s,s of men keep up operations day aud night. holidays and Sundays. No ex- pense is spared 10 keep production to the very maximum. for in the closing days of the lease and hour wasted