THREE FAMOUS MINES.
It frequently happens that when a company have been a long time in search of ore it is at last found at a time when the officers and leading men have but a small amount of stock in their possession. They then not only keep their strike a secret, but in case of anything leaking out through their men they bear their stock in the market, throwing in all the shares they dare venture for the purpose of breaking down the price in order that they may buy in a great amount at a low figure. Sometimes they succeed in this, but it often happens that the “outsiders” are too well informed in regard to what is in the mine, when there is a general scramble for the stock and it at once goes up with a rush. Not a few persons nearly always make money in stocks by observing the simple rule of buying them when they are down so low that nobody appears to care to touch them, paying for them in full and then holding them for developments in the mines, and it seldom happens that there is not a time within two years when they can sell for twice or three times the price originally paid. If there should be no strike in the mines in which they hold stock there may be valuable developments in adjoining mines, which sends up the price of the stocks of all the mines in the neighborhood.[neighborhood.]
While work is being done in a mine there is always a probability of something being found, sooner or later. When a company whose claim is well situated on the lead has been a longtime out of luck not a few will buy stock in their mine, because they consider that it is about time for the luck of the company to change.
The Mexican silver-miners have an aphorism, in the infallibility of which they have unbounded faith. It is as follows: “As many days as you are in borrasca (barren rock), so many days shall you be in bonanza”—rich ore. Such faith have they in this maxim, that in Mexico they frequently go to work in a mine that has ceased to be productive with no other contract or understanding than the simple one that they are to be allowed to work as many days in the “bonanza” as they spend days in finding it. Such a contract as this was once made on the Comstock lode. It was at the time when the upper or first line of bonanzas was opened in the Ophir, Mexican, Gould & Curry, and other leading mines.
Otto H. Frank was at that time superintendent of the old Central mine. He was anxious to find a bonanza in his mine, but found only barren quartz in all of his drifts and cross-cuts.
Some Mexican miners were very desirous of getting into the mine. They “felt it in their bones” that they could find a bonanza. The terms they proposed to Superintendent Frank were simply these: “As many days as we are drifting in search of the bonanza, so many days shall we be allowed to extract ore from the bonanza.”
Mr.[Mr.] Frank thought it all over. He had failed in his search for a bonanza; what was proposed by the Mexicans seemed fair enough; he would let them try their luck, anyhow, to get a bonanza.
So the bargain was struck:—“So many days in borrasca, so many days in bonanza.”
The Mexicans went to work in high spirits. Mr.[Mr.] Frank also was quite cheerful, as he thought those “knowing cusses” from the mines of Mexico would drift into a big body of ore the first week, when he would step in the week after and turn them all out before they had done more than get a taste of the bonanza. But they didn’t strike it the first week, nor the second, nor the third. The fact is they didn’t strike it the first month, nor the second, nor the third. Indeed, at the end of six months they had found no bonanza.