Daily Arizona silver belt., 1909-04-18
THE GOLD MINE FAKER

THE GOLD MINE fAhEH
 There are some intrinsically admir- able qualities in the house burglar that no one may gainsay.
 He sneaks, but he sneaks boldly. He violates, but at a personal risk.
 He makes no virtuous pretensions.
 He operates in the dark when honest men sleep, and seeks no better society than those of his kind. He is strong of arm and full of physical courage. If he is not shrewd thinker and man of cool judgment, he very quickly pays the heavy price that society exacts from those of his trade. If he would direct his energy, strength and cunning into channels that society could approve, tho average burglar would be among our best cltizens.
 The difference between a burglar and a getrich-quick gold mining faker is the difference between the willy fox and the crawling snake. There are things to admire in the fox, but the snake we can only loathe.
 A boy earning SIP week recently saw an advertisement which stated that certain geld mining corporation was prepared to offer to small investors shares of stock at their par value, and absolutely promising total dividends of $180 upon an investment of $10. The advertisement said, "If you are going to get in on this you will have to do it Quick.'' The word "quick' was to emphasize that one must hustle the S1O into the mail if he wished to take advantage of this magnificent offer.
 The SIP week boy had never heard of anything SO fine as this promise of 1900 per cent profit that he could make on an investment, so he wrote quickly. He didn't enclose s1G however, but asked for further information. True to the spirit of the lad" the pros. pective investor received a quick re- sponse. We quote from the letter the boy received:
 "Dear Sir-In reply to your in
 quiry of April 9, the reason that we
 are able to offer ten shares of stock for $10 and assure you total divi-
 dends Of S1s0 is simply because this company owns outright 384 placer
 claims, being the choice and pick
 and covering almost the whole of the - basin, which has been
 valued in bulletin No.-- of the
 state department of Ca South Amer
 ican republic) at over S180, 100000
 in 23 karat gold dust. "The value of this report pub lished by said government IS said to be as worthy of credit and faith as anything published by the United
 States government by the authori- ties at Washington, D. O. ''Your S10 therefore, represents portion of this huge pile of gold
 dust contained in our property. We
 are the only mining company in the
 world that can state how much mon ey a share of stock will probably
 
 verified and backed up by the re- port published by the government department and said report ap- proved as correct by another gov
 ernment department.
 ''We give the small investor such
 as yourself exactly the same chance
 with the big investor, getting full
 protection and his share of profts.'' Glib talk! Big sounding talk! Talk in millions. Ghttering, aliuring general ities about precious gold! Talk about governmental Talk about authorities! Talk intended for the ears of men and women who work honestly for their ex- istence and believe that most men are honest like themselves.
 We are tho only mining. company in the world that can state how much money share of stock will probably earn" A burglar would be too hon est, would be too manly, to write that line. with the absolute promise in anoth- CT paragraph of the letter that S10 will earn s1so.
 Such fake gold mining concerns spend many thousands of dollars in ad- vertising. They flourish just as long as the suckers come bearing their burdens