My Adventures with Your Money

ent and the

ullfrog. Bullfrog was born two years after Goldfield. The Goldfield publ

ere he hung out his shingle as a practising lawyer. Immediately the press bureau secured a cabinet photo of the venerable lawmaker and composed a story about his fresh start in life on the deser

rentine cabinets, costly Byzantine vases, and matchless specimens of Sèvres, filled his living-rooms. Silk Persian rugs an inch thick decked the floors. Venetian-framed miniature paintings of former Presidents of the United States and champions of liberty of bygone days graced the walls. Costly bronzes and marble statuettes were strew

o a score of others, was that the only truth contained in it happened to be the fact that the Senator had decided to make Bullfrog his home with a view to working up a law practise. But it was a good story from t

publicity bureau became more ambitious. It made a drive at the n

mpany" appeared in almost every other line. It was forwarded by mail to a great daily newspaper of New York and promptly published as news. The yarn told how the man in charge of the gasoline engine at the mouth of th

et was let down. When the 200-foot point was reached there was a sudden stop. With a rattle and a roar the bucket was jerked back to within 50 feet of the surface. Thereupon it

knocked senseless the man in the engine-house and pinioned him. Then he

the engine, who had now recovered

u do a thing

d, "His name is

f it?" roared

ping the jack!" chu

r's columns as real news. Undoubtedly the reason why the editors allowed it t

eemed to me that the exciting events of every-day occurrence during the progress of the mad rush would furnish the correspondents with enough matt

ept close watch on the character of the news that was being sent out and was pleased in contemplating the fact that very little false coloring, if any, was resorted to. A boisterou

arrowing two-column story about the manner in which Ed. Hoffman, mine superintendent of the Rawhide Coalition, had been waylaid the day b

ffman in Rawhide and h

n who was respons

that yarn that will cost you your job as correspondent fo

I? Here's an order for a two-column f

in your second s

re chasing the robbers and explained that they're

rs and be quick; do it to-night so that you choke

of newspapers that the posse had chased the rob

epest water in that vicinity was less than four feet. This caused some snickering in Reno. Still there was no come-back. The newspapers never learned of the deception. The correspondent had been canny en

ad been press-agented from one end of the land to the other as the owner of a secret Golconda, was about to start a stampe

g a number of empty Wells-Fargo money-chests. Scotty has apparentl

ada. The source of Scotty's wealth being cleared up to the satisfaction of reade

mine manager, I recall that he argued he had made a blunder in one direction only. He said he should have seen

in pure milk. A few weeks later newspaper readers were convulsed by stories of another

a lady newspaper reporter who was sent to cover the stor

ilk costs less than $10 and a tub of champagne less than $200, but you could not have bought this kind of publicity for these performers at anything like such absurdly low figures if you used the display

Y VIA EL

g, reasoned the correspondents, would attract more attention to the camp than having Mrs. Elinor Glyn at Rawhide, pa

Fairmont Hotel in San Francisco. Mrs. Glyn was in San Francisco at the same time. Mr. Newhouse and Ray Baker, a Reno Beau Brummel, clubman, chum of M. H. De Young, owner

t to Mr. Newhouse and Mrs. Glyn the advisability of visiting Rawhide. The lady c

t of Messrs. Newhouse and Baker, arrived in Rawhide after a thi

uggested that they go to a gambling-house and see

ge grimaces. All of them appeared the worse for liquor. Before each man was piled a mound of ivory chips of various hues, and alongside rested a six-shooter. From

ffled and riffled the cards.

" loudly declared

," shouted the second as he pushed a

ed two others, a

ere standing up in their seats in a frenzy of bravado with the muzzles of their guns viciously pointed at one anot

Glyn and Messrs. Newhouse and Ba

uns heavenward and shot at the ceiling, which was of canvas. The sharp report of the revolver-shots rang through the air. This was followed by hollow groans, calcu

e taken to the undertaker's shop. Mrs. Glyn and Mr. Newhouse,

opy. Rawhide suggested itself in every paragraph of the stories as a mining-center that was large enough to attract the attention of a multimillionaire mine magnate of the caliber of Sam Newhouse and

was escorted through Stingaree Gulch. The lane was lined on both sides with dance-hall

w a chance here fo

he gifted English authoress. They carried to Mrs. Glyn an affirmative answer to the question, so often propounded recently, whether it is against public morality to make a heroine in "Three Week

e Gulch that one of the Rawhide correspondents wired to a "yellow," with a

The fire embraced all of the deserted shacks and waste lumber at the foothills of one of the mines. The liberal use of kerosene and a favoring wind caused a fierce blaze. It spouted showers of sparks into the darkness and gleamed like a beacon to desert wayfarers. The fierce yells of the firemen rang far and wide. Of a sudden

uished. Again the newspapers throughout the land contained stories, which were telegraphed from the spot, regarding the remarkable e

ILLER'

teresting that newspaper readers of the United States were privil

rict, he hit upon the Hooligan Hill section of the Rawhide Coalition property as a likely-looking spot to develop pay ore. Mr. Miller had been mining for a great many years and had been identified

other mining men. A syndicate was formed. Each of these six took an equal interes

he Miller lease was regarded as one of the big "comers" of the camp. In fact, a good grade of ore was e

. Miller was given full charge and allowed a salary for his services. Day after day you could see him on the job, sharpening steel, turning a windlass to hoi

e. They threatened death to any one who approached. We had, for a day or two, been hungering and thirsting for some live news of the camp. My journalistic instinct got busy. I queried our Rawhide correspondent. He advised that the sit

ed at points of vantage along the crest of Hooligan Hill and surrounding uplifts. Every one was expectantly awaiting interesting developments. To the casual onlooker i

ory containing the facts and sent it over to the Reno correspondent of th

degrees from vertical. It was from this approach that Mr. Miller was forced to guard constantly against attack. He found it necessary, according to our dispatches, to keep a constant vigil in order to preclude the possibility of a surprise. He and his Swede companion alternated in keep

on, would have resisted any attempt to take "Fort Miller," as we styled it, even to sacrificing his life, for he was known as a man of action who had been in numerous critical situations without showing the slightest exercise of the primal instinct. The fact that Rawhide was saved from an episode that might have m

he original story. For three days we kept the yarn alive and the wires burdened with

ion-loving following, never surpassed in this particular the stories that were scattered broadcast

ad supplied only one gallon of whisky and when this ran low, on the second or third day, he attempted, single-handed, a foraging expedition in search of a further supply of Joh

cting the numerous mine workings, of which there were not less than seventy-five in full blast. At night he was a frequent wi

tizens she divulged the fact that she had run away from her home in Utah to seek single-handed her fortune on the desert. In roguish manner she expressed the opinion that if allowed to go her own way she would soon succeed

uty to be in a class by itself. There was no law in the camp which would warrant the girl's deportation, yet action appeared warranted. Within a few moments $500 was subscribed as a purse to furnish the girl a passage o

s sent without her knowledge to the judges of a famous beauty contest in a Far Western State. The judges were on the point of voting

s to a man played a good knife and fork. The spirit of camaraderie permeated the feast. There was much libation, much postprandial speechifying, much unbridled joyousness. Bon mots flew from lip to lip. Song and jest were exchanged. The air rang with hilarity. Nat. C.

ospector no scene like this had ever been enacted in a desert mining camp when it was so young and at a tim

ORATION FOR

f a candle. When all the gold in Rawhide's towering hills shall have been reduced to bullion and not even a post is left to guide the desert-wayfarer to the spot where was witnessed the greatest sta

th of his sentences and without using so much as a pencil memorandum, Mr. Knickerbocker with a delicacy of expression pure as poetry urged upon his auditors that the deceased "dead game sport" had not lived

gent's standpoint. Mr. Grannan had been a world-famous plunger on the turf, and th

re contained in the following dispatch, which appeared in

inion that within a year that camp will be the largest gold-producer in the State. "When a man is broke in Rawhide," said Mr. Scott, "he can al

r sent this one to

bosom. No dimpling streams kiss her soil into verdure, to flash in laminated silver 'neath the sunbeam's touch. No flowers nor food, no beauty nor utility on the surface; but from her desert-covered heart Rawhide is pouring a stream of ye

mining editor, filed this dispatch to th

reaching the gold which was their lure, and thousands that went through the hills of Rawhide never reached their goal. They were massacred by the Indians, or fell victims to the thirst and heat

rnalist of Far Western mining

s encircle the pan; to peer over the shoulder of the assayer while he takes the precious button from the crucible-these are the convincing things about this newest and greatest o

phenomenal growth, that ninety per cent. of the correspondence, including the special dispatches sent from the camp and from Reno, which was published in newspap

in times when such work on the part of press-agents is the rule and not the exception. The publicity-agent who can successfully perform this way is generally able to command an annual stipend as big as that of the President of the United States. There was nothing

of "faking" which no press-

le work which De Quincey's description would exactly fit. There was a basis for nearly everything they wrote about, even the alleged discovery of Death Valley Scotty's secret storehouse of wealth, that story having been in circulation in Nevada, although not theretofore published

HE "BIG

wobbling in price on the New York Curb and the market needed support, just prior to the smash in the market price of the stock from $7 to around $3.50, the New York Times printed in a conspicuous position on its financial

is an

B. Thompson, head of the firm, he of Nipissing market manipulation fame, is interested to the extent of millions in Inspiration, Utah Copper, Nevada Consolidated, Mason Valley and other copper-mining companies. On January 25,

en examined and it is not known whe

in this country and that, because of this and other conditions which it mentioned, the supply of

one can look for new properties-well, if the whole population of North America agreed in a body to accept the job

uct of this country in the next two decades, and who shall say what the flying-machine will accomplish in this regard? Further, new smelting processes and improved redu

ral resources have not yet been "skimmed" and that the mining g

the interests of investors, that it need not be expected that more copper

y crude fake, employed by some promoters in Wall Street of the

ck fake. On March 7, 1911, the New York Sun printed in th

as struck it rich again; this time it's a fo

inze is "inside the big money." He has bought the Foster group of claims, adjoining the celebrated Dome mine, from which it

has stripped the vein for a distance of fifty feet and polished it in places, so that gold is

m $50,000 a shot for all the ore that could be blo

more than likely to separate the

evised tricks that fool the wisest and which landed you" that I promised, at the

ed by the highest powers that they deceive you completely? Could you imagine it to be a fact that in nearly all cases where you find y

The truth is, no engineer has ever appraised the ore in sight in the entire mine, according to any statements yet issued

west estimated cost of mining and milling is $6. A fair estimate of profits would, therefore, be $5 per ton, not allowing for any expenses of mine-exploration in other directions on the property or other incidental outlay, which will undoubtedly amount to $1 per ton on the production.

cost of mining, milling and new development is $7, the gross value of the tonnage in the mine that is milled during the one year must be at least $53,571,000. Further, to reduce such a quantity of that

"allowed" to subscribe for the shares or buy them on the New York Curb at a figure ag

laced in one shot with two sticks of dynamite would not exceed four tons. In order to repay the investor it would be necessary, therefore, that this ore average better than $12,500 per ton. The New York Sun's story says that notwithstanding this offer the owner was willing to sell the whole property for $200,000. Imagine this: There are four tons of rock on the property wort

VERSE

t as scientific in their insidiousness have been used upon you to poison your mind against the value of mining

nformation that Ely Central, which I had advised the purchase of at from 50 cents per share up to $4 and down again, was actually under option to me and my associates in large blocks at 5 cents. As a matter of fact, the average price paid over for this option stock in real hard money by my people was in excess of 90 cents per share, without adding a penny to the cost for expenses of mining engineers, publicity or anything else. My people had also partl

s. As a matter of fact, I and my associates had impoverished ourselves trying to support the stock in the open market against the concerted atta

ll of the requests were turned down. No application was ever made for membership because, first, the rules of the Curb forbade corporation membe

o the Boston Curb for membership and that their application

to circulars sent out by B. H. Scheftels & Company. This is an average of over 5,000 letters for e

imes article to be "practically worthless." This was utter rubbish and so misleading

en on the ground, and not less than five miles of underground development work had been done on the property. Development work and production had never ceased for a day. Besides,

on was a famous producer of Goldfield. Subsequent to the raid one-twentieth of its acreage was sold to the Goldfield Consolidated for $195,000. On July 15th of the current year the company disbursed to stockholders $95,000 in dividends, being 10 per cent. on the par of the issued capital

six millions in cash and made a profit of $3,000,000 on the transactions. The books of the Scheftels co

e to find out to whom this carload of ore was consigned. The truth was that the consignment had been made to the best-known smelter company in the United States, that the

pany. The facts were that, after receiving $30,000 in subscriptions and returning every subscription on demand because of the slump in metallic copper, the

a consequence of conduct objectionable to the Government, the New York Times stated that the punishment was five years in prison,

this kind regarding myself and associates that have been made in the past year

financial brigandage as has ever been recorded. Chronologically an introduction of the subject is out of place here. The effect

that had been sponsored by the Scheftels company were robbed of an aggregate sum amoun

of the men who sicked the Government on to me. The final destruction of public confidence in the secur

eached out righteously for the suppression of a dangerous band of criminals. The story in the N

for a moment. I had a youthful past and, therefore, the newspapers took little chance in publishing anything without investigation and proof that might be offered. And they went th

's press-agenting, the raw work of the newspapers just described is as differe

OF THE P

Pirates and Merchantmen of Commerce Set Sail. By Edward Hungerford," from which I quote, without the omission or change

ft: a prospect located not far from one of the bonanza mines of the West was capitalized by a number of men who, after t

ive dollars a share. They were told that a wealthy young man was willing to take a four-thousand-dollar flier on the property, on the outside chance that it

of a name that is known had been used to exploit a c

vanced to sixty cents. Soon a "market"-so called-was made and the stock found a ready sale. Point by point it was advanced

ral, as I believe it does. The chief owners and organizers attempted to promote it through a New York Stock Exchange house on the New York Curb at above $7 per share, or at a valuation of more than $8,000,

eceived through a lawyer AN OFFER OF $4,000

of capitalization, as already mentioned, was above 90 cents, or considerably more than one million dollars in all. An additional $600,000 or more was used to protect the marke

he one point. My excuse for mentioning the item is to give a striking example of the startling force and power which attaches to insidious newspaper publicity of the kind quoted from the New

wspapers and other publications, but I have been able to convey to the reader only the barest kind of suggestion as to the depths to which

boosting" that is calculated to help their advertisers. But little attention is paid to that other evil namely, the use of the news columns fo

ired puffery. I believe the public is going to hear much more of this feature of newspaper abuse in the future than

IDE

h magnitude that it stands unparalleled in Western mining history. Not less than 60,000 people journeyed across the desolate, wind-swept reac

it had taken more than three years and the discovery of the world's highest grade gold mine to attract this number of people. C

ent for plots 25×100 feet commanded $300 a month. During the day as well as at night the gaming-tables of the pleasure-palaces were banked with players, and the adventuresome were compelled literally to fight their way through the serried ranks

ickard $25,000 on the first day. Champagne was the common beverage. Day was merged into night and night into day. Rouged courtesans of Stingaree Gulch provided the dash of ˉ On the densely crowded streets fashionably tailored Easterners,

clank of the chain, and the buzz and chug of the gasoline hoist, punct

g the camp with near-by points of ingress. Coming from the opposite direction, heavily laden wagons carr

ever, results were mixed. Nat. C. Goodwin & Company were enabled to make more than a financial stand-off of their promotion

of Rawhide been delayed for a period or until the country could catch its financial breath again. Crowds came to Rawhide, but few with money. Flattering as was the extent of the inrush, it was easy to see that if the publicity campaign had been suppressed for a while, the resul

at mining enterprise at so great a distance from Eastern financial centers as Reno. We were hardly a match for the Eastern p

a milling plant of 500 or 600 tons a day capacity. It was decided that I should come East and attempt to finance the company for deep mine development, mill and railroad construction, and also to go through with t

Boston and New York, who have since successfully financed the Ray Consolidated and Chino copper companies, undertook to send their engineer to Rawhide to make an examination of the property with a view to financing the company for railroad and mil

been done, but it was accomplished under the leasing system. The leasers, who, because of lack of milling facilities, were unable to dispose of a profit of ore that assayed less than $40 per ton, had bent all of their efforts toward bringing to the surface high-grade shipping ore and had made no

efficiently managed. The president, from the day of incorporation to this hour, has been E. W. King, formerly president of the Montana Society of Mining Engineers, a director of a number of Montana banks, and recognized as one of

n by any manner of means. Nor is it within the pale of possibility that such latent product

. It was done by appealing to the speculative instinct of that class of investors who habitually gamble in mining shares. The effort to financ

2

l delay installation

3

very competent mining men that are as low as $4. Some engineers say justification is lacking for even a $4 estimate. The Dome is by no mean

4

d by the July fire a

5

date of this writing. The first battery of forty stamps in the first stamp mill was not in operation til