The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1920-05-14

tools out of the delivery body on be
hind, and pitch in. And you can i'm
agine the other changes that accom-
pany that one. OF course, that's es
peciaily typical of Arizona. but we ge
1t In Montana, too. I'm not saying tina
the color has gone out entirely, be
cause 1t hasn't, but In the old days thu
West was the West, and now it's NOV
ing East as fast as 1t conveniently can
so that IL you want to get the pure
spirit of it, as 1t is today, you'll have
to go down to Wall street. That:
where it lives"
"Mining-miningI unused Mr.. Cul
len. Sounds adventurous just to say
it," He gazed at the fountain.
And no industry is less understood
even by intelligent men, Mr.. Cullen
AS matter Of fact, the public doesn't
even understand most of the common
est terms. The buying public doesn't
even know what it is buying. That's
why it's so easy to sell worthless
stock"
"Oh, Mr.. billiard I"
"For instance" he said. 81 spoke of
a certain number Of tons in sight, and
that's one of the very -commonest ex-
pressiOns in fake prospectus. sup
pose you know you couldn't see it,
don't your
why, no" said Mr.. Cullen, blank
ly. Couldn't II"
'You might actually sec a few thou
sand dollars worth"
"Why," said Angela, supposedly. 81
thought it stuck right out on the walls
In gobs And you knocked it off with
pickax! And shoveled it upw
mot, exactly that" said HilllHrd
kindly. Sometimes you go at an Ore
body with steam shovels, and other
times you don't. But when you remem-
Der that three or four pounds of cop
per to every hundred pounds of rock
means a very handsome profit, If your
costs aren't excessive, you have some
idea of how little you could knock off
a wall. No-yoI tear down the whole
mass. You go at 1t wholesale"
"What / meant by romance" said
Mr.. Cullen, "wasn't necessarily luck.
And besides, this yarn you've just told
us doesn't illustrate what l call a
business proposition. What I'm try
ing to get at is that you've got an oc-
cupatiOn that isn't cut-and-dried one
like the average. There's breadth to
it-vision. There's drama. There's
the outdoor side to 1t. There's"
Don't forget" billiard warned him,
"that I purposely gave you that illus
tration, and 1 think you've missed the
moral. 1t was business proposition.
My friends bought the mine for the
values they knew were there. They'd
have made money IL they'd gone ahead
unwatering and timbering and develop
ing the old shaft-so that 1t wasn't
all bull luck, not by any means. And
I claim that the romance and the
drama and the excitement is in the
combination of business sense with
that wonderful possibility of accident.
You don't go in at random; you use
your best judgment. and expect about
ten per cent on your money--and It's
the chance Of getting a thousand per
cent that keeps the game alive. Some
men don't even get the ten
mighty few ever get the thousand.
I'm satisfied, and more than satisfied,
that the gods have been good to me,
and put me somewhere in between"
Il suppose for the people on the in
SIDE" said Mr.. Cullen, "a mining prop
osition is just as safe and businesslike
as anything else. The trouble comes
in knowing when a mines a mine, and
when it's a swindle, and i guess you
haye to be a metallurgical shark to
know that anyway. But the way things
have been going for the last year or
two, with all this speculation In the
metals, and all the fortunes that have
been made, sort of set me to thinking
that with good advice, you"
Il beg your pardon" said billiard
quickly. There's been mighty little
speculation in metals, Mr.. Cullen; but
there's been tremendous amount of