a share to an entire stranger? These circulars
are very speciously worded, and there is an air
of candour about them likely to allure. Anyone
foolish enough to subscribe would probably,
after an interval, be informed that owing to un-
foreseen circumstances the adventure had turned
out a failure, and that all the money had gone
in expenses. Successful gold mines have
yielded large fortunes to their proprietors, but it
must be remembered that mines have but a
limited existence, and once they are worked out
the money invested in them is lost; for when
they cease to yield ore there is nothing more to
be obtained from them. Promiscuous dealing
in mine shares is nothing more or less than
gambling, or taking part in a lottery in which
the blanks are overwhelming and the prizes
next to nothing. If an enterprise has in it any
degree of soundness or promise, there are plenty
of the knowing ones ready to step in and take
all the advantages to be gained; it is the des-
perate ventures and unscrupulous swindles that
the public are mostly pressed to support -- only
to lose their money. It is to be hoped that the
dupes are at length awake to the pit-falls dug
for them by the mining company promoter and
speculator, whose seductive paragraphs are
everywhere in evidence in the advertising sheets
of the day.