(gbitorioi (Comment.
Now that there i a marked movement of cap
ital toward our mine, a word of advice tolhe
owner of " prosjwla " will not be out of place.
The time ha gone by when claim can be sold
ujion the strcnglh of away from surface crop
ping. A mine can I sold, but mere proHtect
are not In demand, Sensible business men
and they arc the one who arc now making
thew investment, want to ace what they are
baying. They w ill pay fifty or a hundred thou
sand dollar for a mine no developed a to actu
ally show the qtuntity and quality of the ore it
contain, when they would not invent a thou
oand in a prospect, no matter how rich the sur
face rock may be. Capital i going into our
mining district in abundance, but the careful
observer will see that it in being invented in
mine, and not In prospect hole. In every
quartx district In the Went, are to be found
aeon of men who have made location, and are
only doing enough work on their claim to ful
fill legal requirement. Their assay show fig
ure far greater than those of neighboring mine,
which are Wing worked on a large scale and
are paying dividend; and they are waiting fur
the " coming man " to buy them out. All they
have to exhibit I a location, a act of assaycr'a
certificate, and the fad that their neighbor
are doing well ujxm oorcr prospect. IWti
cal men are too wise to place their money upon
such an uncertainty, when there arc other good
claim for sale, In which the ore ha been ex
)mv1 to luch an extent a to demonstrate its
value and nnanence. Occasionally, to le
sure, a prosjvt of this kind I sold, yet it bring
but a trifle, rutnparcd with price paid for de
velop! mine, and the locator receive $1 ,000.00
for hi claim, when a little development work
would have made it worth ten or twenty time
aa much. There are, of course, many who are
not able todothl development work, but that
it their misfortune, for which Intending pur
chaser are not responsible. They have no
more just cause for complaint than ha the own
er of a peanut stand because hi sale are not a
large a the grocery store on the corner. What
they ought to do, I to stop complaining, and
devote to their claim some of the time and
money expend! at the saloon. In this way,
they may be able, gradually, to place their
projterty in a condition for sale. One thing is
certain, and the sooner it is realized the better
it will be for claim owners, that there is a large
amount of capital looking for mines, and but
little in search of propped holes.
If the prosperity of a section can be judged
by the amount of railroad building in progress
and excrience proves that they are closely
allied-then must the Northwest be entering
u jwn a neason of great prosperity. A brief enu
meration of the various railroad enterprises up
on which actual work of construction is pro
gressing, will suffice to show the condition of
affair. The greatest activity is exhibited in
Montana, where the Northern Pacific and the
Manitoba systems are building rival lines. The
latter, in its westward march, has just reached
the Montana line, and is pushing construction
night and day, at a rate previously unequaled
in railroad building. It will reach Fort Benton
by September, and Great Falls by December.
By that time, work on the Montana Central
will be completed from Helena to Great Falls,
giving the Manitoba an entrance to the chief
city of the territory. Work is also progressing
on the line of the same road from Helena to
Butte. Two branches of the Northern Pacific,
one from Prummond to Phillipsburg, and one
up the Bitter Root valley from Missoula, are
under construction. The gauge of the Utah &
Northern i being changed from narrow to stand
ard width. Engineering parties are in the field
for half a dozen other lines, but actual construc
tion ha not yet begun. In Idaho, the branch
line from Nampa to Boise City is now in pro
gress. In Washington, the southern extension
of the Spokane A Palouse, the final work in the
Cascade on the line of the Northern Pacific,
the work on eighty miles of the Seattle, Lake
Shore Eastern, thirty miles of the Seattle &
West Coast, and on the Puget Sound & Gray's
Harbor road are progressing rapidly. Railroad
construction in Oregon is represented by the
line being built from Pendleton to Wallula, by
the eastward extension of the Oregon Pacific
from Albany, by the completion of the narrow
gauge line from Elk Rock to Portland, and by