Democratic Sentinel, Volume 20, Number 3, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 24 January 1896 — CRIPPLE CREEK A CRIPPLER. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

CRIPPLE CREEK A CRIPPLER.

Its Present Gold Mining; Boom Said to Be a Big Conspiracy. Cripple Creek, Col., has recently sprung into prominence as a groat gold mining center. There are probably 200 mines, very few of which have produced ore in paying quantities. The great majority of the mines are nothing more than green goods speculations with holes in the ground, with nothing in the holes but paid-for press clippings. Mines hitherto unheard of have been stocked and listed, and mines which have never justified any higher rating than they have had for years bare suddenly been boomed to a degree that reflects on the gullibility of the American public. The earnings of the mines which have been worked have not materially increased, and the promises of sudden large dividends are found only in the process of organization for months, and it has not been without its newspaper connections. One New York paper has boomed the craze to the extent of predicting the rise in values of this mining stock, for the obvious purpose of inducing Eastern investments. The chance to swindle the public in the name of the Cripple Creek mining field was foreseen by those baring the true interests of the region most at heart. In a brochure issued by reputable business men of Colorado Springs as long ago as last April the following warning was given: • Incalculable injury i,s inflicted upon mining regions of proven merit by the floating of wildcat companies, and advertising .heir lies on a magnificent scale. ‘•The greater the merit of a district the more widely this sort of thing Is successfully /arvled on. Generally it is wise to leave tiny tpining schemes severely alone that is bobmed in the large metropolitan dailies and other newspapers. •'Cripple Creek affords many favorable and attractive propositions for money making, lint, up to date, not one of these is included among the number that have been given wide notoriety beyond the boundaries of Colorado. '•There is a determination nmong onr prominent mining men to have, ns far as possible, only the facts as they exist in regard to the enmp spread abroad, and to puncture all bogus or Imlloon projects sent kiting, in an alluring fashion, to victimize the credulous. •‘ln a word, and In conelufl'on. do not purchase thr shares of any eon-./any without first investigating, for there Is nothing so good that it will not keep long enough for this to be don-?.’’ Many of the mines of the Cripple Creek country which arc capitalized at from $500,000 to $3,000,001) have never paid 10 cents profit since the first spadeful of earth was turned up where they are located. and there is no reason to suppose they ever will. There is a saying in Colorado that “for every dollar in gold or silver taken out of the ground $1.50 or $2 is pur into it. This does not mean, of

course, that there are no paying mines in that country—there are many of them—but it does mean that more money is spent annually in mining operations than is taken out in ore throughout the State. Ninety-nine out of every 7 hundred men in the East who put money into Western gold or silver mining projects have simply paid the expenses for developing pros-pect-holes. which ultimately proved valueless. These conditions are unchanged at this time, except that the money of tho investors will not go to the development of a mine which may possibly turn out well, but will be diverted, instead, to the pockets «f jinscruiiulous stock manipulators. . One of the best-evidences that this Cripple Creek gold mining business is purely

speculation is the large number of “exchanges” in full blast in that region, wherein large dealings in stocks are daily made. Stocks are generally purchased by brokers for clients living at a distance and these clients for the most part are people who are so anxionis to get rich quick that they invest their little savings in these worthless stocks, upon simply newspaper say. There is a conspiracy to defraud and there are behind this conspiracy some of the shrewdest and sharpest financial experts in this country, and it is an undoubted fact that already some millions of dollars have been taken from the people by them.

“JIM” MARSHALL. [Cripple Creek’s Police Chief.]