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Show INTER-MOUNTAI- MINING REVIEW. N 3 prospectors to develop tection for the investor is an average their claims to the full extent of their amount of caution and common sense. abilities. Every dollar thvta expended There is an abundance of stocks of is likely to return a hundred fold. known merit upon the Salt Lake marClaim owners who are unable to develket, which can reasonably be expected Devoted to the Mining and Smelting Interests of West. the op or unwilling to take the chances, to appreciate in value and concerning should place their properties within which full and reliable information is Published Weekly by C. T. HARTE, Room the reach of those who easily obtainable, and people who prewill develop. 223 Atlas Block. fer securities of doubtful worth are TERMS: entitled to small consideration. Exposure of Swindles. It INTER-MOUNTA- IN behooves MINING REVIEW. Inter-Moonta- in (Payable in Advance.) One Year . Six Months Three Months To England, Mexico and Canada, $2.00 1.00 50 $3 postage prepaid. per year, Entered at the Salt Lake City Postoffice as matter. s San Fbancisco Office : 61 and 65 Merchants' Exchange, where this paper is kept on file. Advertising contracts can be made with E. C. second-clas- Dake, Agent. Salt Lake City, April 30, 1896. Concerning Prospects. For every developed, dividend-payin- g mine there are 100 buyers; for every buyer of an undeveloped prospect there are 100 sellers. This was the observa- r, tion of a in conversation with the editor of the Mining Review, and he described the situation precisely. He might have elaborated and stated that few Eastern capitalists desire to invest in anything except a gold mine, equipped with a mill and inprofl-tabl- e operation. And some investors insist that the ore be free milling, looking with disfavor upon any process more complicated than the stamp battery and copper plates. Some, also, will have nothing to do with ore that carries silver, preferring $10 in gold alone to $50 in gold and 25 ounces in silver. While it is not true that there is no market for undeveloped properties, the supply greatly exceeds the demand, and prospects can only be sold at such low prices as will tempt capital to brave the risk involved in the development of a mining claim. For capital is inclined towards the sure thing in mining, as in everything else. There is a lesson for the prospector in the present situation. That lesson is that a prospect will not command the price of a mine. Nothing risked, nothing gained, and if the claim-owninsists upon capital assuming the risk, then capital must be given the opportunity for the gain. These remarks are justified by the fact that the development of many districts in Utah and Idaho is retarded by the attitude s. of the The moment a possible purchaser appears upon the field, prices go ballooning. After the disappointed investor has found that everything is held beyond his reach and has quit the camp, the claim-owneget back to the earth, a fit of despondency ensues and the lethargy of capital is bemoaned. People who have not the means to develop their holdings should fix such prices upon at least a portion of them as will induce sales. And even after every encouragement has been offered Eastern investors, the mining region must depend largely upon its own resources for the development of its mines, for there are not purchasers for one-ha- lf the claims upon which surface indications justify the expenditure of money. A hole in the ground is not a mine. mine-owne- er claim-owner- rs A constant reader of The Mining Review at Denver desires to know why this paper does not expose and burn up the mining swindles, and deplores the cowardice of the daily press in dealing with the crooks of the mining world. There is not in this whole region, says he, a paper that dares to publish a word about these swindles. The people who invest their money in stocks and mines are more interested in the expose of these schemes than they are in the condition of every Tom, Dick and Harrys prospect, which runs $3000 or more at the grass roots. We fear this Denver friend labors under the misapprehension that the region this side of the range is as thickly infested with wild cats as Colorado. The Mining Review is hardly old enough nor strong enough to protect the lambs of the Centennial State, and the local situation does not justify a campaign against the mining operators. It is the boast of the people of Utah and Idaho that they have not permitted mining stock swindlers to gain a foothold on this side of the divide, but this immunity is more the result of luck than of any effort directed against such swindles. It may be also due to a greater scarcity of suckers. The Review believes that some of the Camp Floyd companies entertain inflated notions concerning the values of their stocks and that neither the actual nor prospective worth of the properties justifies such prices as a few of the companies are asking, but an accusation of fraud would not be warranted freon this account. quently ask more for their mines than they are worth, and merchants sometimes charge outrageous prices for inferior goods, but the press is not expected to publish them to the world as swindlers It is only when it becomes apparent that the public is being deceived by gross misrepresentations that The Review deems it to be its duty to warn investors, and upon two recent occasions it has given such warning. It has also called attention to the peculiar methods of companies owning properties of actual worth, these promotors having actually injured the standing of their own stocks through n manipulation. clumsy, be a great condoubtless It would venience to investors were the press to employ a small army of experts to make a careful examination of the claims of every gas-ba- g mining incorporation that is launched, but the revenues of few papers would permit such an expense. And why should the press be expected to do it? It is not asked to employ experts to determine the grade of goods sold by the merchant, nor to ascertain whether the grocer waters his molasses. The best possible pro inter-- mountain cut-and-sla- sh Mine-owne- rs tin-hor- The ore chutes and stopes in mines are often designated in strange terms, the fancy of the miners taking as wide a range as that of the prospectors in naming their claims. In the Mammoth mine the richest ore body is known as the Betsy chute, and another of Utahs famous properties contains the White Shirt stope. An amusing story is related in connection with the naming of the White Shirt stope. The mine had been making a bad showing for some time and its owner was despondent. When this rich chute was uncovered he brought a couple of carloads to Salt Lake and the ore was so rich that the shipment netted the owner a fabulous sum. He had always worn a flannel shirt at the mine, but when he returned from this trip he was wearing the first white shirt seen in the camp for many months. The new strike was immediately named the White Shirt stope, and is so designated to this day. The American Gold Mining Record and Cripple Creek News is a unique publication issued at Chicago. Two of its four pages are filled with items of mining news stolen from Western mining exchanges and the other two direcpages contain a tory of American mines. As a source of information, this directory is entitled to be called a Full particulars are given peach. concerning some Utah properties that have never been heard of here, while the names of such mines as the Bullion-BecOntario, Horn Silver, Mammoth and Mercur are followed by the words, Information The need of information is wanted. the one conspicuous feature of the entire sheet. so-call- ed Cen-tennial-Eure- ka, k, The Mining Review has expressed its objections to the application to Mercur of the term Johannesburg of America, and the Colorado Springs Gazette remarks that the use of this expression by Utonians illustrates the difference between Utah and Colorado. Over in that State Cripple Creek is never referred to as the Johannesburg of America, but Johannesburg is known as the Cripple Creek of South Africa. subscriber to The Mining I trust that your Review writes: publication has achieved all the success which you anticipated, and more. It is certainly one of the neatest and newsiest mining papers in the field. France has in circulation more silver per capita than the people of this country have of gold, silver and paper. Yet the Wall street gold bugs have nothing to say concerning the dishonest franc. Subscribers are notified that hereafter no inquiries concerning Utah mines or mining stocks will be answered unless A Denver return postage is enclosed. |