OCR Text |
Show THE WESTERN UNION Telegraph company appears to be in a flourishing condition. According to reports of its officers the net profits for the quarter ending Dec. 31st, based upon official returns for October, nearly complete returns for November, and estimating the business for December, (reserving an amount sufficient to meet the claims of the Atlantic and Pacific Telegraph Company under existing agreements) will be about $1,476,841; surplus on October 1st, $1, 146,873; total $2,610,714, from which, appropriating the interest on the bonded debt, $197,000, construction, purchase of stocks of leased lines and other properties, $175,000, sinking fund appropriations $20,000, leaves a balance of $2,317,714. A dividend of 14 per cent. requires $717,549, deducting which leaves a surplus after paying the dividend of $1,600,174. Our idea is that better is a million dollars in the stock of such a concern, than a patent on a labor-saving churn-dasher, or a hundred feet in a wild cat mine. |