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THE GILPIN OBSERVER. VOLUME XXIII THE PUBLIC SCHOOL Chas. Augur entered high school on j Monday. c The Central City high school has a j daily attendance of seventy-two stu- dents, the enrollment this year pass- . . ing all previous records. For the first time probably in th'* i iiistory of the two schools, the Cen- i : ral City high school has a larger en- c rollment and a larger graduating j - lass than the Idaho Springs high i school. A great many visitors attended the f Christmas exercises in the grade < schools and the literary program in i the high school on the day the ' schools closed for the holidays. The ‘ pupils in the Clark building always * make a great day of the Friday be- i fore Christmas. The rooms were nice- « ly decorated, Christmas trees were 1 set up, programs were given, and ' each student was remembered with ! / little school-made gift. In the high •liool the Alpha Zeta literary society ' .five an excellent program. The Girls’I * horus appeared for the first time iiid was given an ova'tion. We trust!' they will soon appear again. The first half o: the school year will close on Friday, January 21. On Monday, January 24th, several new studies will be introduced in the eighth grade and in the high school. Four new studies will be begun in the high school, making it an op portune time for the entrance of new students. A student can enter the high school on January 24th, be-, ginning all his work with new lasses, and should be able to secure a credit of a half year on the high ■hool course. A post card addressed to Mr. Momyer will bring full infor mation concerning the new studies, 1 and such other information as may be desired by students contemplating enrollment in the high school at this time. The normal course will be con-j finued during the second term. Phy siology and American history have, been offered during the first half of the year. These will be succeeded by courses in physiology, conmu r ial arithmetic, and English grammar,] beginning January 24th. A special class in Colorado school law will bo ( organized out of school hours for the two w’eeks preceding the March ex-, ainination. The basket ball teams will play. the Arvada high school teams at Bcr-; kely Armory in West Denver on FH- j day evening of this week. A return game will be played in Central at a later date. The line-up for Friday's game follows: Boys* Team Position James Reynolds *. It. F. Walter Keleher L. F. Theodore Barbee Center Roy Campbell R. Cl. Frank Carbis L. G. Girls’ Team Position Bessie Clark R. F. Beatrice Richards L. F. Iverne Roberts Center Ora Allebaugh R. Center Hermina Peeck R. G. Ruth Williams L. G. Arvada has a strong team this year and on their own floor will probably erpect to defeat Central as badly as they did last year, the score last year being 79 to 10 for the boys and 30 to 0 for the girls. The school prophet has an entire ly different scoro arranged for this game, but refuses to give it out be fore Saturday. Suffice it to say he; expects the Central boys to win and tho girls to play a close game. The Observer has been congratu lated on all sides for its masterly treatment of the mining affairs of the county in the New Year’s edi tion of the paper. A number made it a point to personally call that they might express themselves more em phatically. One enthusiastic admirer went so far as to say it was actual ly what was needed and would cer tainly create a wide-spread impres sion, fully confirming the anticipat ed Influx of miners in aid of more extensive production frem the mines. These bouquets are very refreshing and it is the hope that with the aid of the merchants and others the Ob server may continue to boom things In Gilpin. Mining had been settling to an easy-going but secure feeling that the production of ores would continue indefinitely; but something more is needed, and that is more ex tensive development of the best known ore deposits that the tonnage may be such as to astonish all by their unprcccdcnt productiveness. The ore is here and only waits the potion of the ambitious to take it out and reap the rich reward. The Columbia Company. The Columbia Tunnel & Mines Co., comprising seven claims located in Lincoln Mining district, have just had! published a fine prospectus which | treats very minutely of the company's inerests. In developing the property 1 of the company, which is composed principally of Central City people,, it will confine itself pretty much to adit tunnels driven on the veins which will open up the ore bodies in in the shortest possible time, such a system is directly in line with the ere bodies. Several bodies of ore are I already opened. The Ruby’s adit tun-j nel, the objective point being the j Mary B. vein, which crosses the line of the Ruby Trust tunnel a distance of 800 feet from the portal. The tun nel is in 400 feet. At the point of intersection with the Mary 8.,a depth of 5,000 feet will have been gained affording a fine opportunity for prof itable production at the conjunction of veins. The vein is from two and a half to four fret wide with well-defin ed wjills enclosing the quartz carry ing the mineral. The Mary H. has a shaft 60 feet deep with good ore in a distance of 225 f -t. Tin* surface openings show | I a strong vein with four feet of vein | matter. | The Columbia Extension has a vein ' four feet wide, and the Columbia | ,’ross has three shallow shafts show- j * ing the vein to be fully three feet j | wide. Further development w ill be by j a drift from the level of the Colum i bia tunnel. The Bunney has one of the strong est veins in that section, showing, 'four fe?t between well-defined walls, i The Annie has opened the same | ■ vein as that contained in the Ruby j Trust of whl 'h it is the southern ex-j tension. This vein will be cut by the ' Columbia tunnel a; con.sidearble depth' Each of the properties can be read- J ily developed by tunnels, the contour , of the surface being such as to pre ; sent favorable conditions for indivi dual development. The good ore on ! the surface and in the openings gives | premise of larg • quantities of ship -1 ping ore with depth. There is an eight-inch pay streak |in the Ruby Trust that assays S6O ■ per ton in gold, silver and copper. I : TVsld .. tin smelting ore there is j from one and one-half to two feet of* 1 milling or*' of good quality. Two hun- 1 | dred and fifty feet further on the line <-f this tunnel there is another ore I shoot un overod for a distance cf I forty-seven feet with four inches of I smelting and from three to four feet ! of milling ore of a good grade. The i other properties show equally as well las to ore bodies and their values. Considering the comparatively small amount of development the company certainly has a good showing. Empha sis is laid on the fact as to the econ omy of developing the property by j tunnel, as compared with the co3t of. mining by shaft. t It is part of the plan of the com pany to build a mill for the treatment of its low-grade ores at the earliest tK)ssible moment. Enough ore being **xpos< d to warrant such an enter prise. The promoters are practical miners who have embarked in this through their faith in the mines which are controlled by the company. The directors of the company are: Dr. E. F. Warren, president; Wm. C. Grams, vice-president; R. E. Lad wig, treasurer; H. O. Brubaker, secretary; R. L. Hedden, manager, all of Central , except Mr. Grams, whose residence is Denver. Methodist Church Notes. Sunday morning Rev. E. E. Mc- Laughlin, state superintendent of the • Anti-Saloon League will preach. The pastor is expected home from Gree-: ley, where he is assisting in a series of meetings, and will preach at night., A very cordial invitation is given to' nil citizens to be present at all our 1 serviced. Tho Milton, about a inlle and a half below Black Hawk, which | made such a sensational silver strike a few weeks ago, still has the old j force occupied In development work. The spring will see a larger force employed in taking out ore. Tho Stratton dump of the Indepen dence mine, Cripple Creek, yielded $61,000 from the treatment of $4 gold ore. Gilpin dumps of old mines ought to make better returns than that. Many of the dumps hereabouts of old mines should return $5 or better. And there are so many of them. Veritable fortunes lie at the very feet of those who pass them every day. A concen trator at tho mine could solve the problem of saving practically all the values contained in the ores. Oranges and bananas at Hawley’s. CENTRAL CITY, GILPIN COUNTY, COLORADO, THURSDAY, JANUARY^, H9lO. DECISION RENDERED IN WAR DANCE CASE Judge Cavender Reviews the Case and Finds for the Lessees as Against Elliott and Others. Decision Gives General Satisfaction. District Judge Charles Cavender of Leadville, sitting for Judge Charles McCall of thi3 district, rendered a decision in the case of the War Dance, Monday, in the court house in this city. The case had been be fore the court for nearly a year. A final hearing wa3 had in November last when the case was held pending a decision by the court, which was rendered, as stated, cn the above date. It Is a most equitable decision, giving general satisfaction and relief to those most justly entitled for their efforts and expenditure in developing! the War Dance into auc-h a sensation ally rich mine. The decision is of, such wide-spread import, the Obser-[ ver cannot refrain from giving its! space to the document in its entire-[ ty: “This is an action brought by Mr. 1 ' Elliott to set aside tho lease and I * option on the War Dance and War, < ■ Dance Extension lodes, or, rather, * for the possession of the property as against the defendants who claim to j hold the same under lease and option the defendants having fil ’d a croos- J I bill asking that their lease and option , ■ be declared valid, and that the stock-, •holders of the company be brought in and made parties, and that all rights be settled in this suit; and * two sets of stockholders having come jin, some, holding substantially. twenty-three thousand shares out of the total of eighty thousand shares. a3kir.g that the lease and option be ratified, and some, holding for;y-nin*j thousand shares, by answer and ross complaint, asking that the lease and option be set aside, and that tho . rights of all the stockholders be ad justed iu this suit, and Mr. Elliott, of course, as owner, I believe, of ‘six thousand nine “hundred shares,. to any action in th< prem-j | i3es except that his legal rights, if ,'any ho has, as the sole surviving! trustee, be declared. “The situation is an anomelous ' one so far a3 my experience goes. ; The stockholders and directors did everything they pcssibly could that was wrong, and nothing that was right. To decide the case it was, I necessary to go into the facts, which i are, substantially, as follows: "In 1880 Mr. Elliott, the plaintiff in [ this suit, was the owner, individually, of some seven or eight claims, in 'cludins the War Dance and War I Dance Extension. At that time he j met the promoters of the Russell Dis ; trict Gold & Silver Mining company,' and entered into a contract with ; them whereby he agreed to sell them this property, his seven or eight, claims, for the sum of $35,000, there , being an agreement that in case cer tain of the properties were purchas-. ed and this company formed, that then, in addition to the $35,000 he was to receive $5,000 in cash, or, at the option of the promoters, one-tenth of the capital stock of the company. I This option was taken up, the money l paid to Mr. Elliott, by the promoters, and in March, 1880, The Russell Dis trict Gold & Silver Mining company was formed and incorporated under the laws of the State of Colorado,and the property conveyed to it. The ! articles of incorporation provided, among other things, that the affairs [ of the company should bo under the control of five directors, and that J the main office of the company should be in Gilpin county, hut that a branch ofPice might be located at Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. “Later, and I think in about May, ISBO, the company elected to carry | out the promoters’ agreement with 1 Mr. Elliott, with reference to his j $5,000 or liis stock, and notified Mr. Elliott that, in accordance with the terms of the original contract, ho was entitled to 1-10 of the capital stock of tho company, and was the owner of tho same, to wit: Eight thousand shares, subject to debts, expenses, and assessments to be made by tho company. "At tlie time of tho sale of the property by Mr. Elliott, the War j Dance was developed to some extent.! and there was some few thousand ! dollars’ worth of ore iu sight, Tin* company started operating the prop erty, and soon this ore worked out.' and they found no other bodies, so far as appears from the testimony. I In September, 1880, Mr. Elliott had; some idea of taking a lease and option upon the property, and went on to Wilkes-Barre, and the five director, met and came to the con clusion I suppose, that as Mr. El liott owned this interest in the com pany! h*> ought to have a representa tion, so hey agreed among them selves t hey would have six directors, instead of five, and were advised by their‘attorney that it would make no differei •. that they might amend their by-laws and make it all right, and thereupon the by-laws were amend !. and Mr. Elliott was elected ! a dire- tor. He sat with the board ! and acted at that meeting in Septem- ber. Nothing further was done until ] January. 1881, when Mr. Elliott again , went east in reference to getting a , lease and bond for the property and | offered the company, as I recall, $25,- 000 for all the property, of the com- , pany, and a ten-per cent royalty. On objection being made that this was ( l**ss than the property was sold for, his statement was that the property was ail worked out, no ore was in ' sight, as there had been when he had ' sold it,and it was not known whether ! the property was of any value or not, j and $o: property which had. apparent-J ly, • . Fficiei 1 price. I may say, in passing, that this was the only testimony as to 1 the value of the property at thi3 or j any subsequent period. ‘ “The company at that time decid-! cd not to accept this offer. Mr. El liott stayed there, and on the fifth ( cf February, 1881, they held another ' meeting and decided it was about • time to have a stockholders’ meeting, j which they proceeded to call for the ! 16th day of February, 1881. The rec ords do not show that any notice! was given. As a matter of fact, no j ’ meeting was'held bn the 16 th day of I February, 1881, no meeting was held ; in pursuance of the notice, if any I was given; but on February 22nd, ij i think it was. four or five men had a 1 stockholders’ meeting, and thereupon! they elected the sai : six directors, all of them being unanimously elect j ed. The meeting then adjourned. Jan. 1 [2lst, 1891, was the next meeting 1 of the board—a called meeting. There j i were present at that meeting but two) i directors, the two Hutchlnsons. Mr. Reynolds, one of the other directors j had died, and his son, who was one of the heirs, apparently, appeared. ! Mr. Brown, who was one of the. | directors, had died, and Mr. Chaco J appeared as the attorney in fact of ’ one of the Brown heirs. Thereupon I the two Hutchlnsons, believing that' the board should be filled, elected MrJ Reynolds, Jr., and Mr. Chase as two J directors, neither of them being a* stockholder. They acted and held one* meeting, in 1891. There was some question as to providing for the taxes ' and the directors there present 1 agreed to raise the money and re- * deem 'the property, which had been; i sold for taxes, which they did, and! it was redeemed for the benefit of the company, as all their acts had 1 been honestly done, apparently. No ! further meeting was held until Feb ruary, 1900, when Mr. Chase, one of these directors, elected by the two Hutchlnsons, suggested that as the corporation was about to expire, and he was not familiar with the laws of Colorado, they ought to do something to save the property, and thereupon it was resolved that the property be conveyed to James C. Hutchinson, and Chase, as trustees, for the use j and benefit of the stockholders of the company. Thereupon they executed a deed to these two trustees, which was recorded in March. 1900. By this time Mr. Bonnell had died. Mr El.-* liott had notice >f this deed in 1902. j “From 1902 to 1908 Mr. Hutchinson was quite active, individually, in try-1 lug tc sell, lease and dispose of this property. He came out hero and made 'several leases upon different por-. ‘ tions of the property, which were, ap parently, unproductive; anyway, all jof them were abandoned. In 1907 lie was out here, and met Mr. Charles O. Richards, one of the defendants in | this ease. He had met him before,but at that time lie told him that he j wanted to get rid of this property, or -dispose of it in some way; that he could not get any price for it; that' Richards was working on the Chase mine, which was very close to this! property, and could probably get some one to work it, and do souio-j thing to develop it so it would be sold, and asked Mr. Ri -hards to get some one to work the property. Ju3t before this time, in 1906, Mr. Charles 'Hutchinson died, so that Mr. James C. Hutchinson was the sole remaining one of the original five directors, who were till* only legal directors during the whole history of the com pany. In March, 1908 Mr. Richards succeeded in getting five defendants other than himself interested in ex amining this property for the purpose of leasing it, or bonding it. They went up and examined it. found the shaft, found a piece of ore upon the dump. The rock had a fragment of ore attached to it. They went down the mine and found some indications of ore, and reported to Mr. Richards, and he reported to Mr. Hutchinson, and Mr. Hutchinson replied that it was all right—to go ahead and get some one to work it; that he (Rich ards) had some forms of lease he had made out before, and to send it down for his signature. Before this answer was returned, the defendant, Klais, came to Mr. Richards, and said it looked pretty good, but they needed more partners, to get money to put up a shaft house, and so on, ' and wanted him to go in, and he said ! he would, with Mr. Hutchinson’s con sent. He wrote to Mr. Hutchinson, and he sent back word it was all right to go on in. The lease was exe cuted and the parties continued work ing without any change, from the time they made their first investiga tion, by the 20th of March, at least, if not before, they had discovered some gcod ore, so that they made a j shipment. j “On the first of April, or there- I abouts, Mr. Elliott was at the mine, ( and asked what they were doing. , They said they had a lease and i option and had struck some ore, and j I he expressed pleasure, and said they* might find some in tho same locality : where he had found ore, and told j I them where he had found it. The les- , sees remitted royalty on the first of j ! April, the first of May, the first of ' June and the first of July, 1908,which royalties were received by Mr. Hut i vhinsen. and which he acknowledged j and expressed gratitude that at last somebody had beqn able to find some thing on the property of some value, i He returned the' royalties of August and September, and died on the 23rd | of October, and his widow sent the October royalties back after his death. The lease is not exactly in the usual printed form, but in the ordin ary form of a lease and option, and* provides for the payment of fifteen per cent royalty and $25,000 for the War Dance and War Dance Extension claims, to be paid at any time with j in three years from the date of the ’ I lease, the money to be paid to the! | credit of, or to James C, Hutchinson, I as trustee. | “As I have said, with the death of I James C.Hutchinson in October, 190 S, ■ the last of the original directors died. “This suit was instituted by Mr. [ Elliott upon the theory that he is the I sole surviving director, and as such 1 j is entitled to maintain this action. Under cur statute, it is provided upon the dissolution of a corporation 1 j by limitation or otherwise, that the 1 ' property shall vest in the last acting ( trustees, directors or managers of the I corporation, however they may be j named. Mr. Elliott was at no time a I legal director of the company. He '[was. from September, 1880, to Feb ruary, 1881, a do facto director. He 1 was elected as a director whereby j , vacancy existed, and. of course, could! ’i not be a de jure director. The election in 1881 was absolutely void, for the reason that it was not held at the time specified, it does not appear that any notice wa3 ever given, it does not appear that they had a right to elect, and it was held without the state. “Any acts which affect third per sons done or performed by Mr. El liott while a de facto director, would be binding upon the company, for the reason that he was held out by the company to be a director; but as I conceive the law to be, a de facto director has no legal right to assert, as against the company, or against the stockholders, or any one else, that he is a director. In other words —the term ‘de facto director’ means exactly what it says—one who is. in fact, acting as a director. Mr. Elliott, in 1909, was not acting as a director. From February, 1881. never a single act was performed by him until the institution of this suit in 1909, or for a period of twenty-eight years. That being true, it could not bo claimed that he wan a de facto director, and so far as the suit of Mr. Elliott in concerned, the Judgment must no* es sarily be for the defendants. “Tlie other proposition is a much (Continued on sth page) THE DISTRICT COURT District court convened for the January term Monday afternoon, with Judge Chas. Cavender, of Leadville, sitting for Judge Chas. McCall. An opinion was rendered ori a motion made in the Fostoria mine case; also the decision in the War Dance action. Then the cases to be tried this term were set. Peter Donati, who was bound over from the justice court on a charge of assault with intent to kill, was arraigned. The prisoner refused to talk, even though an interpreter was furnished. His trial was set for Jan uary 13th, at 1:30 p. m. Brooks Ful lerton was appointed by the court to defend Donati. The suit of John C. Jenkins V 3. the Colorado & Southern railway was set for the 14<th at 9:30 a. m. Mr. Jen kins is suing the railroad company for $5,000 damages for injuries he re ceived two years ago when a coach in which he was riding overturned. Although Mr. Jenkins has been ex amined by physicians two or three times, counsel for the C. & S. want ed another examination, and the court ordered that an examination be made before the hearing of the case by Drs. W. W. Grant and H. T. Per shing in Denver. The ejectment case of Jacob Tas cher vs. T. C. Hurley was set for the 15th, at 9:30 a. m. Motions in the suit of Geo. W. Forman vs. the City of Central for alleged false arrest and imprisonment the plaintiff asking for damages in the sum of $45,000, were heard. At torney W. E. Withrow, for the city, : moved that the plaintiff ipake hi& | complaint more Specific and certain. I Motion was granted. Attorney For j man introduced a motion to strike the ! motion of the city from the files, j which w'as denied. Forman took 10 ! days to decide if he would comply with the order of the court or not. This suit annot come up for hearing at this session. H. E. Hazard was appoir, <1 bailiff by the court. The jury will come in ort f&r-nr*!*. try whreh date adjourn ment was taken yesterday. Judge Cavender left yesterday afternoon for his home in Leadville. John Smo:k, manager of the Ready Cash mine, in Prosser gulch, has let a contract to Milovwich & Company 1 to sink the shaft on the property a distance of 100 feet. Work on the con tract was started Monday. A fine specimen of the free-gold ’ quartz taken from the Topeka strike 1 last week, is on exhibition at the First National bank. The specimen weighs a ccuple of pounds and the gold contents should run into several hundred dollars. The big 400-pound chunk of ore from the Eureka, which wa3 literally plastered with gold, will be broken up and the gold values placed in bul lion form to swell the dividends of the stockholders of that bonanza property in Prosser gulch. Considerable has been hinted of late concerning something new and simple in concentration, and the hope is that it may materialize. It is re ferred to here again because of Its importance to the mining industry. A ■ mining man, who expects soon to 1 have a new mill in operation, claims the new process contains elements, simply in its discretion, he had not seen it In operation, that should bring great results. In the matter of establishing a bureau of mines at the seat of gov ernment, some are for it and others are opposed and it is supposed all have their reason for their opinion. The geological department is doing very well at pr sent, which cannot be said of its past actions. It never un dertook to investigate the opening of new districts until they were past the formativ*» p. iioii. th* n it was too late for the miner had worked out hi 3 own solution eon. ruing the pormnn atice of th* 1 district discovered and developed If a mining bureau will send Its «i* partment agents into a field reporte l t » be on the eve of a boom and ully investigate the condi [ tions so as to in a measure protect the miner from too much zeal or en thusiasm in sinking hob s all over the landscape; if th* "expertV* can do this, tho bureau would instantly fill a long-dosired want iri tho mining field. J Milica meat like mother need to make and father enjoyed, at Haw ley's. NUMBER 40*