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Show The Market and the Mines We of the west are not yet accustomed to the ways of high finance as applied to mining properties. "We are familiar, It is true, with the promoter who, having acquired by hook or by crook, title to a more or less promising prospect, incorporates it, annexes a certain proportion of the stock to himself and sells as much as he can of the remainder to prevlde a "working capital." This process, however, differs from "high finance" in the same way that the whip of the mule drivei differs from tne team that pulls the load. It is the novelty of the real thing that causes the San Francisco Journal of Commerce to print and a local paper to copy a column story or the manner in which Charles M. Schwab acquired control of the Montgomery-Shoshone property at Bullfrog, Nev. "It Is not probable," says the report, "that Schwab put up a great amount of money. Those who profess to know considerable regarding the arrangement declare that he did not put up a cent." The statement of "those who profess to know" is not in the least unreasonable. If Schwab had put up "a great amount of money" the deal would not have been a high financial transaction and Schwab would not have been a high financier. Nor is there reason to question the rest of the story. That Schwab, or someone near him, advanced ad-vanced $100,000 to satisfy the claim of Thomas E. Edwards, Is probable. Edwards had sold his half Interest to Malcolm McDonald for that price before be-fore McDonald began to dicker with Schwab and was not disposed to wait, but the rest of the money paid to Montgomery and MacDonald came, you may be sure, not from the bank account of the steel magnate, but from the sale of stock in the newly incorporated company. Simply by identifying identify-ing himself with the stock Schwab made it marketable mar-ketable in the east. He capitalized his good will to that extent, and he was repaid by the appreciation apprecia-tion of the shares that remained in his own strong box. He differed from the ordinary promoter in this, that his personality actually gave value to the thing he had to sell, not by increasing the., mineral wealth In the mine, but by creating the belief be-lief that the wealth was there. The principal asset as-set of a high financier is his name. Speaking of names, there is a certain cynical humor in the statement of a morning paper that "W. K. Merdoch," who has just been appointed superintendent su-perintendent of the Honerlne properties at Stockton, Stock-ton, "Is a young man and in his new position has a chance to carve a name for himself." The humor hu-mor lies In the fact that the paper mentioned had already created a name for him. The new superintendent super-intendent is known to, his friends and is down in the family bible as "Mordock." He may console himself with the reflection that a displacement of names is one of the accessories of his present job. The name of his predecessor was properly spelled R-a-d-d-a-t-z, but the reporters and printers have made it anything from "Radish" to "Rafferty." J & & Some time will elapse before the mining public will learn to recognize the Honerlne without E. J. Raddatz as a landmark. He it was who carried to successful Issue the drain tunnel project that has made of Stockton a new camp. For seven years he has been the motive power at the great workings. work-ings. While working at the Honerlne he has been acquiring mining interests of his own in camp and it is the desire to mine for himself that prompted prompt-ed his resignation. He will still serve as consulting consult-ing engineer for the Honerlne company. The past week has also witnessed a change In the personnel of the Bingham Con. The directors elevated General Gen-eral Manager Duncan MacVichie to the position of managing director and Installed Harry L. Charles of Butte City as manager. At the same meeting the board of directors set aside ?400,000 as a fund to enlarge the capacity of the Bingham Bing-ham smelting plant and add a number of lead furnaces to Its equipment. . . . j (j Thus the surmise of Goodwin's Weekly has nothing sensational In the Utah copper field. His nothing sensational In the Utah coper field. His time was taken up with the administration of the property he.already controls. His most Interesting action was to authorize expenditures which will add greatly to the productiveness of Its mines and the capacity of its mills. & ? New York Bonanza, usually mild and docile, has "become wild and woolly and hard to curry so much so that the most accomplished stock-. stock-. busters have become exceedingly cautious about getting Into the saddle. The bears have all but . retired from the field. Cash transactions have increased in-creased In number and many who went short during dur-ing the last decline have covered at a loss. Still there are enough unfilled contracts to make times quite lively on the exchange if the upward trend of the shares continues. tC Eliminate the professional transactions In South Columbus and Nevada HIls and the Mining Min-ing Stock exchange was without features this week. Dealings In the first named stock are based almost wholly on faith with a seasoning of surface sur-face indications. It will be weeks and perhaps months, before the property will afford a tangible basis for the fluctuation of its shares. Nevertheless Neverthe-less the performances of the stock have been thrilling enough to entertain the most blase brok- or.. A decline from 53 to 37 and a subsequent jump to 57 affords all the facilities for making and losing money that any reasonable person could ask. Interest in Nevada Hills declined after the jH returns were received on the second shipment. ' jH Too much was expected of this lot of ore and the settlement, while highly profitable, caused the jH price of stock to go off a few points. A little . jH prayerful consideration convinced the dealers that 'H the profits were high enough to justify the higher Quotations and the shares rallied again. & & t Little Bell has been virtually out of the run- jH nlng. One hundred shares changed hands on 'H Tuesday -at ?10, and that was all. At the same 'H time there has been a marked Improvement in the vein matted on the 300 level which now approaches the high standard set by the shoot on the 700. Silver King made a new low record with the sale of 20 shares at ?23.50. May Day, with a drop 'M from 15 to 10 cents, was lower than at any time for months. Beck Tunnel, which opened at 84, ended the week Wednesday afternoon at 79. Ne-vada Ne-vada Hills went from ?2.30 to $2.27. during the H period. Thompson, from 3G declined to 34. Honerlne lost out 5 cents worth, closing at $2.45. Carissa dropped from. 28 to 25. Columbus Con. gained a nickel, rising from ?7.G0 to ?7.G5. Star H Con. bettered Itself slightly, going from 10 to jH 12, but still the stockholders who bought in around 40 and 50 are not jubilant. This was one of New York's good weeks. The first sale was at 30. Soon afterward the stock touched 32 and jH it closed the week at 31. Its strength is at-tributed at-tributed to recent developments on the 700 level ' where the pay streak, containing from 8 to 20 H inches of ?100 ore, has been followed for 100 feet. ( ' S If the management makes good its promise to . ship 100 tons a week sensational developments H may be expected on the stock exchange. . 9 |