My life : a record of events and opinions - Wallace-online.org

36oMY LIFEand copper mining all his life, and he had the mostunbounded confidence in good English mines as aninvestment. He had shares in some of the leadminesof Shropshire and Montgomeryshire, and wewent for a walking tour in that beautiful country,visited the mines, went down the shafts by endlessperpendicular ladders, and examined the veins andworkings with the manager, who had great confidencein its value, and was a large shareholder. " Here,"said Geach, " you can see the vein of lead ore.It isvery valuable, and extends to an unknown depth.This is not a probability, it is a certainty." And soI was persuaded to buy shares in lead-mines, andgradually had a large portion of my capital investedin them. About 1870 the price of lead began to fall,and has continued to fall ever since. The result ofall this was that by 1880 a large part of the moneyI had earned at the risk of health and life wasirrecoverably lost.While these continued misfortunes were in progressI was involved in two other annoyances,causing anxiety and worry for years, as well as a verylarge money loss. The first was with a dishonestbuilder, who contracted to build my house at Grays,and who was paid every month according to theproportion of the work done. One day, when thehouse was little more than half finished, he did notappear to pay his men, and as they would not continueto work without their money I paid them. Hedid not appear the next week, and sent no excuse, soshould completethe architect gave him notice that Ithe building myself, and that, according to the agreement,he would be responsible for any cost beyondthe contract price. After a few weeks he appeared,and wanted to go on, but that we declined. The