THE NEWS OF ALL NATIONS.
Story of “Scotty” Hero of Zinc Fields.
Picture a man who has been badly bent at times—aye, even broke unto the last jitney—one who has tasted the bitter things of life along with the sweet, one who has seen a fortune swept away in a twinkling, only to be regained after a long, persistent struggle. Picture a good loser, who has lost more than most men will ever earn, and who pins his faith in the mining industry to such an extent that he laughs at failure and hangs on like a bulldog until he succeeds, and you have a mind’s-eye view of J. M. Short, the best known operator in the mining district near Joplin, Mo.—the “Scotty” of the zinc fields.
Thirty-two years ago Short was working for $1.25 a per day at Galena, Kan., and a few years later moved to Joplin, landing here with the price of one ham sandwich. He worked for low wages until he had saved enough to buy a prospect drill, and decided to look for ore on his own responsibility.
His first few holes were blanks; the cost of sinking them was heavy, considering Short’s limited finances. For a time it looked as though he was destined to go back to wages. However, he hung on until almost his last penny was gone; then luck smiled on him, and he made his first strike. He had been watching the drill clippings for so long and finding only barren pieces of rock that he could hardly believe the truth when at last the sand bucket brought up a quantity of yellow-looking dirt, rich in zinc ore.
Short sold this “prospect” for $5,000 cash, and immediately invested the whole amount in what was known as the Bunker Hill Mine, which netted him $65,000 in eighteen months, part of which—$3,000—he reinvested in the Sacagawea Zinc Company, from which he profited, inside of three months, to the tune of $17,000 more. A year later Short again became “dead broke” on another mining venture, and again went to work for wages.
Depriving himself of all luxuries and many necessities, he continued to work for wages until he had saved up $1,800, when he determined to again “try his hand.” One day, during an extremely dry summer, he was driving by a piece of land where the Sitting Bull Mine was later developed. He noticed a man sinking a hole to get water at a point where a spring had once been. The land was low and boggy and the digger was taking out shale and soapstone. The formation looked good to Short, and he at once procured a forty-acre lease from the owner. With $1,800, his sole capital, Short drilled the ground, discovered a rich run of ore, and put down a shaft to the 185-foot level. The owner of the land put up the capital for building a $15,000 mill. Ninety days later Short had paid for the mill, had $10,000 in the bank to his credit, and had a vast body of ore blocked out which netted him more than $100,000 in profits in the next few months.
Almost immediately he secured another lease and opened up what is known as the Pocahontas Mine, from which he cleared another $100,000. Then followed in quick succession the Geronimo and the Waneta-Pearl. Short is now interested in, if not the entire owner of, more than a dozen valuable properties, so that, with the sudden jump in price of zinc concentrates from thirty-five to seventy-five dollars per ton, this Scotty of the zinc mines has but faint idea of what he is really worth.
Talk is Cheap.
A retired United States army officer says the European war is “a horrible slaughter, which should be halted by some neutral power.” The neutral power that attempted to halt it forcibly would simply increase the slaughter and add its own blood to the crimson tide.