Bedford Gold Mining Co.
5024. (Springfield, Mass.) Will you kindly give me what information you can regarding the Bedford Gold Mining Co., of Cripple Creek, Colo., office 7 Exchange place, Boston, Mass. I want to know just what showing this property has at this time. The company claim they will be able to pay dividends this summer.

Ans.: The property owned by this company is on Cow mountain, well outside the present recognized ore bearing area of Cripple Creek. Just what showing the property has at this time could only be ascertained by a personal examination. The capitalization of $1,250,000 for three claims in such a locality seems much too high and the price, 25 cents, asked for treasury shares, is relatively higher still.
To talk of dividends from such a property during the coming summer is extremely optimistic.

Bedford Gold Mining Co.
The report published in our issue of June 2, 1900, in answer to an inquiry received respecting the Bedford Gold Mining Company appears to have aroused the anger of one of our Springfield, Mass. subscribers, who has written us the following letter:

"I am not pleased with the report you gave me on the Bedford Gold Mining Co., of Cripple Creek, for I know that you did not get information as I requested. The fact is, I know that this property is making a very good showing, having a tunnel in 261 feet, and that work is being pushed right along, and that their showing to-day is as good as any property in Cripple Creek had at the same stage of development.
Your paper has the reputation of being reliable here, and if you care to keep the same impression you must be more careful in your reports. Now, if you care to give a correct report on this property, I would like to have you do so. Don't send a "kid" to Boston office and get a prospectus and then write up from that, but get your information from the camp and I think you will find you did not do this property justice. Yours very truly.
H. L. COE."

It may interest Mr. Coe to learn that we are not in the habit of answering inquiries without making proper investigations. The "kid" referred to above simply obtained a prospectus of the company from the Boston headquarters, which we forwarded to our Colorado correspondent, from whom we obtained the information given in our June 2d issue.
To further substantiate the opinion expressed by our Colorado correspondent, he sends us a clipping from the "Mining Investor," of Colorado Springs, Colo., which we gladly print:

"Bedford G. M. Co.
"In answer to correspondent at Wichita, Kan.: this company is capitalized for $1,250,000. It has no debt, and its present treasury fund consists of 500,000 shares of stock and $2,000 in cash. It owns three claims, the Minnie No. 1 and No 2 and the Maggie, comprising 29 acres, all patented, and situated on the southwest side of Cow mountain, in the Cripple Creek district.
The development on the property consists of a shaft of 50 or 60 feet on each claim and a tunnel 190 feet in length. Present operations are confined to the extension of the tunnel, four men being employed. The present price of the stock is given as 25 cents.

"A quarter of a dollar per share is at the rate of $312,500 for the company's property, a sum which appears to us to be entirely out of proportion to its apparent value. The claims are situated in a part of the district which is at present far outside the limits of what is generally recognised as the producing area; there has been no shipment of ore from either of them as far as we are aware: the development is small; and though the prospectus speaks of 14-foot veins which have produced ore worth $17 and $54, it does not say what proportion of the veins carries these values.

"It is expected that the tunnel now in process of construction will cut the veins at considerable depth and enable the company to prosecute their development work economically, an expectation that is reasonable enough, but that the present development indicates that the amount of ore above the tunnel will produce $5,000,000,' as stated in the prospectus, appears to us to need further demonstration.

"We are far from saying that Cow mountain may not some day be the scene of profitable mining activity, but at present $100,000 per claim in that prospective section seems to us an extravagant figure."

Well-posted mining men are of the opinion that the stock, if listed in Colorado, would fetch about $4 per 1,000 shares. We do not desire to use harsh terms in connection with this company, but from its location would consider it an ill-advised and optimistic enterprise, over-capitalized, while to sell treasury stock at 25 cents is out of all reason.
No one in Colorado at all familiar with Cripple Creek, would dream of paying 25 cents for such treasury stock.