supposed to be agricultural only, but here
was a new Missouri, whose wheat and corn and fruit wealth was found to
be supplemented by a mineral wealth of mammoth greatness. Settlers who
wanted to mine began to come in, towns to spring up, and capital to be
invested. The country was developed with lightning-like speed. From the
Joplin stretch as a nucleus, lines of development have been steadily
projected since 1874 to this day. There are not a great many undeveloped
big acreages of land left in any of the southern Missouri counties. Of
the few that remain by far the largest and most promising is the country
known as the Tigmore Stretch. A remarkable feature of this region,
besides its great agricultural possibilities, is that the surface
exposure in the hillsides shows distinct mineral-bearing horizons, beds
of zinc carbonates, whose promise of zinc sulphide at a greater depth is
absolutely reliable. That it needs only deep shafting and drilling to
unearth more remarkable riches than even Missouri herself has as yet
yielded up, is evident from the outcrops'--by the way, gentleman,"
Madeira here interrupted himself to say, still in his quiet,
dispassionate tone, "Salver has spent a good many days in the hills
lately, and he has decided that the deeper-seated sulphides are just as
surely in the hills as are the carbonates. He has done a lot of
verifying. Aint that right, Salver?"

Salver shuffled his feet and said yes, that was right, and Madeira read
again from his notes, picking out bits here and there, and beginning
each time, "Now take this. See what you think of this," his voice
staying monotonously even.

"'But, besides the zinc and lead and iron and coal, Missouri's
well-improved farms invite the intending settler.'" (Steering thought of
the lean hill farms as he listened.) "'There is an abundance of timber,
in itself a great saving to the house-builder, and there are innumerable
streams and water-courses and lakes. The altitude is over one thousand
feet above the sea-level, and the climate is the healthiest in the
United States. Both mining and farming can be carried on the year
round.' ... And now, lastly, about this form letter that I have drafted
for intending investors--it runs like this: 'Dear Mr. So-and-So,' (I
mean to have the name filled in in each one, I want it to be a personal
letter) 'May I ask you to examine the status of our Canaan Mining and
Development Company, as set forth briefly in the enclosed