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Show MINING AND FINANCIAL Within the last week the Tintic boom on the local mining exchange has entered on a new phase. Prices have settled to a stable level much higher than the average of last summer and fall, and the fluctuations that give zeal to the game affect individual shares instead of the whole market. The change is not altogether to be deplored. When everything was moving in the same direction the merest tyro had an equal chance with the keenest trader, but general movements cannot go far without becoming irrational. ir-rational. The weight of inferior shares soon becomes too great for the better issues to carry, and one of two things takes place: The poor stocks drag the good ones down, or the sheep are separated from the goats and the general price movement becomes a selective movement. Our market is following the latter course. Each share is going under the microscope and receiving receiv-ing a special examination, the results of which appear on the blackboard of the exchange at the next call. , . Even the best of the Tintic issues have been scaled down a bit since the public took an inquisitive in-quisitive and thoughtful attitude. It is no reflection reflec-tion on the merits of Victoria's new strike that the price has been cut twenty or thirty cents, but a sign that the investors do not see an immediate return in the form of dividends and consider it worth that amount of money to carry the stock until the mine i in shape to realize on its raw material. Theh .lew is a practical application, of the axiom that a bird in hand is worth two in the bush. The regular dividend-payers dividend-payers are standing the analysis better, especially especial-ly as there is no immediate prospect of a cessation ces-sation of their payments. Buyers of Grand Central Cen-tral insist on making allowance for the time required re-quired to build a concentrating plant and the uncertainty as to its performance. No better illustration of the effective influences influ-ences behind the market can be given than, the inside history of the recent flurry in Yankee Consolidated when that share jumped almost overnight from 12 to 20 cents. The ground in the bottom of the Yankee's 1700-foot working shaft had been looking good for some time. A formation forma-tion was entered which in Tintic Is highly favorable fav-orable to the occurrence of ore. Although there was no pay matter in sight, the working miners, always optimistic, decided that the stock was a good speculation. They and their friends put in a few buying orders at Eureka. News of these orders was wired to Salt Lake and the local brokers, thinking hat the miners knew of a suppressed sup-pressed strike, made a simultaneous rush for Yankee shares. Inquiry at the headquarters of. the Yankee company in this city brought the r statement that there was no material change in the condition of the property. This answer only confirmed the suspicions of the talent. According Accord-ing to market logic, no one ever denies a strike except from ulterior motives. The bull movement move-ment was scarcely checked by the declaration of the manager. Presently the tipsters in Eureka admitted that it was impossible to confirm the strike rumor, other isues took the center of the stage and the Yankee incident was closed. Of course, no one took the trouble to apologize to the innocent manager. "If he had had a strike, he would have denied it," was the excuse of the dealers which, also, is market logic. After Yankee came May Day. May Day is a good thinga wonder in the way of quick development de-velopment from a decadent property to a new mine. But the boosters could not resist the t ill? obIk HH3 I HlHSi HBnEHHHEldSHMEMfi!b -M&tr , XKijPsL tt if jyvcRHIMfiiH H Cofjrlght b) Undcrwttd 6f Undtrwttd, N, J". THE AL.AMO, SAN ANTONIO, TEXAS Some of the mosl allunt and glorious military traditions of the United Statoa aro associated with the Alamo, a fact that will be recognbed by the soldiers who are now mobilized in that city. 1 ' This photograph shows a crowd that recently gathered outside the historic building to witness the arrival of troops. temptation to paint the lily and gild gold. Time H and again it was reported on 'change that the I H May Day's raise from the 500 level was in yards ! H and yards of rich smelting ore. The cold facts, H as given out officially, were that the raise has H gone through 60 feet of good milling rock and H is just getting into values that can be shipped , H with profit. The unwarranted claims of unoffi- H cial boosters did not cause any extravagant spec- H ulation in May Day as in Yankee, but did ere- H ate unwarranted expectations in the minds of H stockholders. H fl With so many instances before us of the ir- responsible gossip of stock exchange operators, H ample allowance will bo made for a margin of H error in the report that the Lower Mammoth will increase its capital stock from 250,000 to one H million shares and distiibute the new stock H among shareholders in the form of a stock divi- H dend. The increase in stock might be justified H by the need of the company for a development H fund, but what on earth would be gained by giv- ing the new stock away? Quadrupling the issue H would reduce the value of the shares to three or M four cents, the recipients of the stock dividend JM would have four shares to pay assessments upon H instead of one, and the earnings of the mine M would havo to be four times as large to produce H an equal dividend. Surely someone has blund- H ered! Probably the report is a distorted vei- H sion of a proposal to give shareholders subscrip- H tion rights to new stock at a figure below the H market price. The Lower Mammoth manage- H ment is too conservative to entertain the idea H that a person can lift himself over financial diffi- M culties by pulling on his boot straps. H |