The annual expense of B. H. Scheftels & Company was $1,000,000 or more.
Follows a tabulated statement of the expense item. The figures are approximated. The books of the corporation, which are now in the possession of the Department of Justice of the United States Government, will probably show that the annual expense was larger. The books not being readily available, an attempt is made here to be ultra-conservative in setting down figures:
ANNUAL EXPENSE OF B. H. SCHEFTELS & COMPANY
Establishment of main office and six branch offices (furniture, fixtures, etc.) $ 40,000
Private wire system connecting branch offices in six cities with New York 25,000
Daily and Weekly Market Letter (printing and postage) 100,000
Miscellaneous printing and stationery 25,000
Commissions and salaries to Curb brokers 50,000
Mining examinations, engineers' fees, legal fees, etc. 50,000
Interest charges 30,000 ----------- Total $1,000,000
Before the Scheftels corporation was in business a month it became plain that it was "filling a long-felt want." In almost every branch it was performing some function in a manner more satisfactory to mining-stock speculators and investors than were its competitors.
Its Market Letter news service, usually 16 pages, was the prime article. It soon gained a circulation of 34,000 among the highest class and best informed stockholders of mining companies in the country. It was also regularly sent to more than 2,500 stock brokers, including members of the New York Stock Exchange, New York Cotton Exchange, Boston Stock Exchange, New York Produce Exchange, etc.
Before the Scheftels corporation was five months old the work of its Market Letter was supplemented by the _Mining Financial News_, a weekly newspaper which had been published for a long period at Reno as the _Nevada Mining News_, latterly as the _Mining Financial News_, and which removed to New York when the Scheftels company found the mining-stock public was hungry for real live news and the truth regarding the mining propositions of other States as well as those of Nevada. The _Mining Financial News_ and the Scheftels Market Letter, which were published three days apart, were supplied with news from practically the same sources. The newspaper was mailed to all readers of the Market Letter.