The Financial World CONDUCTED BY DOWNING, HOPKINS & CO. The great argument in favor of holding a presidential election once in six years instead of four-viz., the disturbance in financial and commercial circles -is likely to be emphasized by the coming election. While the money question has been practically removed from political consideration by the enactment of the financial bill, politicians will make the most of the money question, and doubtless there will be some flurries of more or less importance. "Wall Street is less enthusiastic regarding the walk-over which McKinley will have for re-election. Doubts of the renomination of Bryan are coming to the surface, and Admiral Dewey's candidacy will receive more serious consideration. Uncertainty is the bugbear of stock speculation, and political uncertainty we shall have with us until after the Democratic candidate is nominated on July 4. Shrewd observers confidently predict a sharp rally in the stock market prior to the Republican Convention in June, but it is likely to be of a "soda water" character. Trusts and combinations will be the fighting plank in both platforms, and the industrial properties will be under fire from the beginning to the end of the, campaign. There is no good reason, therefore, to look for any improvement in this class of securities other than what may result from covering operataions on the part of an unwieldly short interest." Gold exports are beginning to attract attention again, and it is estimated that the amount to go out in this movement will range from $20,000,000 to $40,000,000. The movement is accounted for by the higher rates in London." An advance in money rates will prove the one preventive check to gold exports, and the sugestion is made that the Treasury draw on its deposits in National banks to an extent that would force an advance in rates. This is improbable, and I understand that Secretary Gage is practically committed to the redemption of the outstanding $25,000,000 of old 2 per cent bonds in the event of any stringency in the money market. The governing factor of gold exports and the money market will be the war in South Africa. At the rate of progress now made by Field-Marshal Lord Roberts the war will be brought to an end by July 1, and resumption of operations at the Rand mines would then follow. This is the great bull card in the speculative situation, and its development will stand close watching. Railroad earning have gone on piling increase on increase for the past two years, but I believe we have reached the turning point and that earnings will now begin to fall off. Industrial inactivity means reduced freight tonnage, and consequently smaller earnings. The railroads have been preparing for this by making large expenditures for improvements and additions to equipment, in order to reduce cost by increasing freight density, and earnings should reflect this by showing proportionately better than gross." The output of gold from Cape Nome, the Klondike and the Eastern Oregon. gold fields will doubtless considerably increase the world's supply, and may be the means of equalizing conditions that were created by the shutting down of the mines in South Africa. If reports are to be believed, Cape Nome will far surpass the Klondike, both in the extent of its diggings and the output, and Eastern Oregon is rapidly coming to the front as a mining region of considerable impor tance. Mining Never in the history of the Northwest has the subject of mining been more, eagerly discussed and more earnestly studied than at present. Mining, in all its phases, has taken on renewed energy. and vigor, and interest in this industry will doubtless continue to grow until it will be acknowledged the leading industry of this part of the country. The rush to the Cape Nome gold fields today is paralleled only by the exodus to California in the 40's, and great as the discoveries in Alaska have been in the last few years, I may say that the great mineral wealth of that country is as yet undiscovered. New sections of the country are yet to be opened up as camp after camp is established, and the real wealth, both in minerals and commerce, is better understood, and the hardships that have hitherto stood in the way of the explorer are overcome. There is today a great demand for skilled and professional experts in mining in its various departments, and employment is furnished for thousands of our people. This demand will be still greater as new discoveries are made and new fields are opened up. The wealth already brought out from these gold fields is but a drop as compared with that yet to come. Some five years ago, in a letter to the Oregonian, I predicted that Baker, Grant and Union counties would be where the greater mining operations of the future would be conducted, but at that time I little expected in so brief a period to find such a wonderful transformation of a primitive mountain forest. into a mining district of such thriving energy, with millions of dollars of capital invested and millions more ready to be invested as soon as a favorable showing is made. Railroads are projected, mining towns and villages are springing up in almost every gulch and canyon, and yet Oregon. is only on the threshold of more and greater developments of these mining industries which will be sure to come, when she shall take on the proportions of a greater and more opulent commonwealth. Oregon has already passed the transition period of her existence as a gold-producing state, and her mining is taking new forms and methods for the future which will be as staple and the results that follow as sure as are her mountain chains which hold her vast mineral wealth. W.P.FULLER & CO.'S Rubber-Cement Floor Paint WEARS LIKE IRON DRIES HARD OVER NIGHT The old methods of extracting gold have become obsolete, and are now giving way to new modes and new processes for the treatment of ores which cannot fail to save the gold which was once lost by crude methods. The history of the world's mining demonstrates the fact that all the great fissure veins and most profitable mining districts that have been discovered and worked are in close proximity to, or within a few miles of the junction of the primitive with the secondary formation; sometimes in the former, and sometimes in the latter, and frequently in both strata at the same time and place. This principle applies more palpably to the older and less distributed regular formation. This is especially the case in Baker, Grant and Union counties. What developments so far that have been made in this district establish the fact that the mines carry their value as depth is attained equal to those of Grass Valley in California, which have been large and steady producers of the precious metals for the last thirty-five years. It is advantageous and characteristic of a mineralized district when reefs of various compound rocks interlace and distort the primitive transition and sec ondary formation curvatures, "heaves" and "slides," and more so when they give evidence of different ages. A moderate amount of stain of the oxide of iron generally diseminated throughout the stratum and mixed with the sulphurets of iron, is an excellent guarantee of the presence of nearly all the metals and minerals, especially gold and silver. These things, together with the fact that extensive beds of copper ore have been known to exist in the Seven Devils Country for the last thirty years, make it future of the Eastern Oregon mining a conservative statement to say that the district is unusually bright. J. H. Fisk. SEEDS..... FOR THE FARMER THE GARDNER Seeds of all kinds but only the best kinds ...AT... The Portland Seed Co. 135 FRONT ST., COR. ALDER, Portland, Oregon.. GET OUR CATALOGUE. Chess CONDUCTED BY E. C. PROTZMAN. Antiquity of Chess. The latest excavations on the pyramid field of Sakkara have led to an extraordinary discovery as to the origin of chess. Hitherto it was asumed that the ancient Indians had invented the game. That it was introduced from India to Persia in the sixth century, and that by the Arabs, in consequence of the Crusades it spread from east to west. This theory was substantiated by the fact that an Indian, Persian and Arabic influence is traceable in the character of the figures at present used, and in some of the words connected with the game, such as "shah" (check) and "matt" (mate). Now, north of the pyramid of King Tetu or Teti, two grave chambers have been discovered, which were erected by two high officials of that ruler. Their rames were Kabin and Mernker, called Mera. The grave-chamber ("mastaba") of the form er consisted of five rooms, built up with limestone. Its walls are covered with exceedingly well-preserved bas-reliefs and pictures representing various scenes. The other grave-chamber, that of Mera, is the most valuable. Up to now no fewer than twentyseven halls and corridors have been uncovered. There are beautiful grave-columns; in the chief room there is in a niche a tinted statute of the departed, about seven feet high, with a sacrificial table of alabaster before it. Among the many wall-paintings in this and other rooms, hunting and fishing scenes, a group of female mourners, the three seasons, Mera and his sons, holding each other by the hand, and Mera playing chess, are to be seen. King Tetu belonged to the sixth dynasty, and his reign was assigned by Professor Lepsius to about the year 2700 B. C. Professor Brugsch, correcting this chronology, puts it back to still greater antiquity, namely, the year 3300 B. C., so that chess would have been known in the once mysterious land of Mizraim something like 5,200 years ago.-British Chess Magazine. The Blue Mountain Company COLD STORAGE COAL, ICE, COKE. 247 STARK STREET |