interest, offered to the public as part of the regular business of the paper, but it is only an ingenious form of advertisement and has to be paid for as such, but that is of no consequence if the effect is produced, of a rise in the price of the shares. There are some companies whose shares are quoted at such enormous premiums, and which pay such high dividends, that the investor is sorely tempted to embark in similar undertakings, apparently, that are brought be- fore the public. But these prosperous concerns are in most cases first taken up by a syndicate -- that is, a certain limited number of persons behind the scenes -- who finance and float the company, and when success has been attained, the public are granted the privilege of purchas- ing shares -- but at such a price as the syndicate choses to put upon them, and, not seldom, that is the highest they ever attain. This is particu- larly the case with mining companies, the successful ones having certainly only benefited the few. This syndicate system has given rise to a bogus imitation, which, however, appears to have met with but limited success. Circulars in lithographed writing, marked "private and con- fidential," and implying a friendly interest in those addressed, are sent to persons whose names are obtained in the manner already indi- cated. An invitation is given them to join a syndicate about to be formed to float a certain company, the profits arising from the operation being certain and enormous. Again, if it be such an excellent and certain venture, why offer 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.