CHAPTER VI.

The mines, continued.—Exciting reports from a distant mountain. —Outfit
one of a party to go.— What he wrote me. —‘‘Ho! for White Pine !"—
The richest silver mine ever discovered.—The pure stuff.—I go, too.
—Visit another camp on the way.—My horse and saddle ‘‘ borrowed.”
—A big camp abluze with excitement.—Belief that the stuff could be
found anywhere by digging.-—The many thousand ‘‘ mines,’’—*‘ Bril-
liant schemes,”’—Blubbering investors from the states. —Life: gamb-
ling, drinking, business and damnation.—M aking big sales, etc.; the
outcome.—Another year and a half of lively practical experience in
the mines.—The many smaller camps in the surrounding region.—
Virginia City and Gold Hill.—The great Comstock lode.—The
Bonaaza and other great stock gambling mines that we read of.

WHEN stories, that the since famous Eberhardt mine (then,
and yet declared, and perhaps truly, to be, and to have been
the richest in silver ever discovered in the world) had been
struck at White Pine, I outfitted one of a party to go and
prospect the mountain in its vicinity.

It succeeded in locating a claim as near as one hundred
feet of the Eberhardt itself, besides others, as enticing ; and
with glowing prospects or faith, forthwith blasted a hole forty
feet deep into the former. Somehow it was believe |, that the
stuff could be struck, as lead is often found, with little or no
surface indications, most anywhere in that vicinity.

My partner embraced an opportunity to send me a letter;
he wrote, “We have one first-rate lead and continue to work
on our shaft. Shall know this week whether we are in or out
of luck. They are striking it all around us. If we do raise the
color it will be rich, swre.”

On my way to White Pine—150 or 200 miles distant—I
stopped a few days in “Grant district,” with a prospecting
party, with whom I was likewise interested. They had formed
this district. Hud discovered and were prospecting some
quartz ledges, and the prospects and outlook were such, as te
induce parties owning a ten-stamp quartz mill to contract to
move it there, set it up, and give and take a half interest in
each. The mill was then on tie way, one of our party having
gone out on the trackless desert to meet the train and pilot

(89)

2 antl At ORE no iawn ecto

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90 Tue Mines or NEVADA.

them into the mines. The rock, however, was refractory to
work and not rich enough to pay at that time—or so it was
made to appear. But some years afterwards 1 read that these
mines were being worked. I was riding a horse and saddle,
for which I had paid $150, (having other animals with pros-
pecting parties) and on approaching White Pine left them in
the care of an old friendly acquaintance, who was then keeping
a horse ranch, —that is, herding horses for the miners and others
who were stopping up in the mountains, where there was no
grass or water—where the winds beat against the bleak and
barren cliffs, and the birds never sing. I told him, as a friend,
to use my outfit as his own, on any needful occasion. He after-
wards did so; having sold out, he rode it out of the country—not
even calling around or sending word to thank me, or say
good-bye.

Found White Pine ablaze with excitement. The hills and
mountains (9000 feet high), quite thronged with men, eagerly
and confidently at work with pick and drill, hunting for the
precious ore.

The Eberhardt mine was at its best, turning out, with
common rock, nearly pure virgin and horn silver by the ton.
Bowlders of which one could bore an auger through. <A guard
of several men, armed with rifles, guarded the mine at ten
dollars a night each, to keep it out of the courts.

A Governor of Colorado was killed by mistake, by his own
men, who were thus guarding a mine of his. And Uncle Sam
likewise guards his silver at the treasury, and with grape and
canister, wherein he decides not to be robbed—having no con-
fidence in his own courts. I note these only as prominent
examples of a common custom and necessity, to stand ready
to kill men in defence of mere property. Why should not
other classes of robbers, those who pillage by secret intrigue
and treason, be likewise killed in the act?

Deposits or bodies of ore, more or less rich in silver, were
found in various places, some of which lay flat like coal.
This, with the magnified flaming stories and rich strikes, that
were continually flying in the air, increased the excitement to
such a pitch, and as the Eberhardt itself was but an irregular
body of ore at or near the surface, that it was the general im-

pect

of t]
blast
this

twent
r

and ¢
to sp
As “é
packi
miner
and ax
spreac
thoug!
exami:
truth)
in effe
in Eur
As
legisla
mine fc
ed to b
Su
hopefu
mining
about t
as not 1
ah occa
to visit

—_———

- to
was
1ese
dle,
ros-
n in
ping
hers
s no
and
iend,
ifter-
—not
- say

s and
igerly
Yr the

with
. ton.
guard
t ten

s own
Sam
e and
con-
inent
ready
d not
trigue

, were
coal.
By that
bnt to
pgular

1 im-

THRILLING EXPERIENCE IN THE MINEs. 91

pression that this district was nature’s freak, so that silver
could be found for a mile or two of the Eberhardt, as readily
as lead is found in galena districts; and that it was ‘rich, sure.”

Moreover, there were many small lead deposits in the
“base mettle range,” in the district close by, which always
carried silver. There were also many well defined ledges of
quartz (but which were prospected in vain). So tunnels and
square holes were being blasted by the hundred. In many
cases without any surface indications whatever, or other pros-
pects, except that had by some other claim in the vicinity.

Shafts were so thick on “Chloride Flat,” and in the vicinity
of the Eberhardt, that the flying rock, from the numerous
blasts in the lime-stone, made it dangerous to be about them;
this with labor at five dollars coin a day, or by contract at
twenty dollars per foot.

Thousands of such claims were located by private parties
and companies such as ours, who would largely bond and sell
to speculating mining sharps, who are expert business men.
As “great successful lawyers” win with their secret power in
packing juries and buying judges, so the expert business
miner effects his sales by selling stock and buying other experts
and agents. They making the most of the far reaching, wide
spread excitement; newspaper articles. (often in editorials, as
though the editor was a practical man, had made a personal
exanvination, had written the thing himself and was telling the
truth) and in various devices of the profession, often succeeded
in effecting fabulous sales to the good people in the states and
in Europe.

As it is easier to get a big swindle through Congress or a
legislature than a little one, so it is easier to sell a worthless
mine for a big sum, than a small sum, as enough is thus afford-
ed to buy the thing through, and leave a surplus.

Such were the “mines,” in which so many, at a distance,
hopefully invested (and so did we who were there). Sometimes
mining companies, forming at a distance, would not bother
about the little matter of any claim at all, except in the mind,
as not needing them in their business; to the great surprise of
un occasional troublesome investor, who happened to come out
to visit the famed (at a distance) “ silver king,” ete., the idol of

92 Tue Mines or NEvaDA.

his heart and purse, and could not find or even hear of it in the
district.

These men made a great deal of trouble now, since they
could travel mostly by rail; when in former times they were
just as useful in “developing the country ” and were not in the
way. I was told of such imaginary claims, and others of mere
bowlders or holes in the limestone, that were stocked for from
$500,000 to $2,500,000, and that by working famed and
titled gentlemen’s names as directors, etc., and have them and
editors puff up the scheme, the stock would sell at a “ discount”
so as to leave a large surplus,

If the expert business men in Nevada and their brethren
in the big cities had had their way, these meddlesome, wailing
lambs would have been snatched up and buried in prison, a
censorship placed over their correspondence, and the railroad
ripped up.

But they were somewhat off-set and put down by other
visitors, such as a famous “select party of Chicago merchants.”
They travelled in a special train and stage coaches, were met
with a brazen band; made enticing, flaming reporis as to the
general richness of the mines, predicted that “the world would
be amazed at the wonderful and immense streams of silver that
would flow from White Pine to enrich the people of the earth,”
and, no doubt, made money in the business.

Of course, the entire press in the U.S. would gladly publish,
unquestioned, the reports from such “good authority” and
attend them with flattering editorials; when they would spurn
to notice, except to kick and condemn, the stories of the bank-
rupt, “blubbering, revengeful investors, who would make
trouble and injure gentlemen in their business.” Yet some-
how they would get in their work, so that foreign capital had
to be invited, and even it sot too shy and expensive to leave
any profit.

Besides quartz-mills, furnaces, etc., that were building,
there was Shermantown, Treasure City and Hamilton, populous
mining towns, that were springing up rapidly, with lumber $400
or $500 per 1000 feet, etc., carpenter wages eight dollars a day,
(board fourteen dollars a week), and lots selling for four, five
and six thousand dollars, and often with titles badly clouded.

Me
Evd
joy
me
Sp
tici
and
sale
and

flam

alwal
keep
little
14
15,00
went
or to
paper
City ¢
being
miles
up so

Th
and su
disgus
to get
now b.
was ru
the cai

Nc
had be
any co}
tales, r
now Vi}

and age
Sh
7000, bb

———$_—

1 the

they
were
n the
mere
from

and
1 and
punt”

thren
ailing
son, a
ilroad

other
ants.”
re met
to the
would
er that
arth,”

rblish,
” and
spurn
bank-
make
some-
1 had

h leave

ilding,
pulous
r $400
a day,
ar, five
ouded.

THRILLING EXPERIENCE IN THE MINES. 93
Men were pouring in from every camp, section, state and clime.
Every store included a bar, to graciously assisi men in their
joy at selling a claim or town lot, and in their many disappoint-
ments and sorrows—for two bits (twenty-five cents) a drink.
Spacious gambling houses, etc., with all sorts of games and en-
ticing coin stacked high on the tables, to accommodate the lucky
and the luckless in breaking them both. Rich strikes and big
sales were daily reported, most everybody was in high spirits
and expectations, many being wild and some crazed with the
flaming excitement with which the very air seemed charged.

Many who had sold claims were wildly spending the money,
always expecting to sell others for a stake to go away with and
keep. One who was a card-sharp, gambled off $30,000 in a
little while.

The mine recorder and assistants were kept busy filing the
15,000 or more claims that were recorded, and business generally
went on the jump. Yet hundreds were hunting for employment
or to borrow a few dollars. Two or three daily and weekly
papers were soon being published. All the water at Treasure
City and the mines cost ten cents a gallon, while works were
being constructed to bring it up from a small stream three
miles away, at a cost of $250,000, only to be abandoned or torn
up soon after its completion.

In about a year and a half all this faith, bustle, business
and surging wave of eager men had changed to disappointment,
disgust and desertion. The prevailing question was now, how
to get out of the country and where to go to, as this state was
now blistered by the light of the outside world, and a railroad
was running as near as 120 miles, and wires were stretched into
the camp.

Not a single extensive paying mine or fissure vein of ore
had been discovered, and but a few small paying deposits, not
any containing a fortune, except the cause of all the flattering
tales, rush and conflict of men,—the Eberhardt. And it was
now virtually worked out, sold, and incorporated to sell again
and again to Englishmen, by its fame. j

Shermantown, from a population of 4000, Treasure City of
7000, besides the many hundreds of outside cabins and small

Sh PRAT i hee

9-4 Tue Mixes or NEvabaA.

camps for many miles around, were now, in a few months, al-
most entirely deserted. But Hamilton with its 5000 inhabitants,
being the county seat and capital of a region extensive enough
for a state, held on toa fewhundred. This district and the sur-
rounding regions are strangely marked with numerous deserted
quartz mills, roasting and smelting furnaces, shafts, tunnels
and habitations,—lasting monuments of ill-spent time and
wealth.

Still there is a great deal of mineral-bearing rock in the
mountains of Nevada, that will be worked in the future.

Having acquired interests in different claims at White Pine,
some of which appeared quite promising, which were bonded
to sell for various large sums (the poorest one—near the Eber-
hardt—for enough to make us each a fortune) and being still
at work in prospecting others, I felt, like so many others,
greatly encouraged as to the outcome.

Once a telegram came from San Francisco that a big sale
had been accomplished, and our money would be deposited
that day. But it transpired that in a succession of agents, ex-
perts, etc, sent by different members of the company formed
to buy, there was one, and only one, and the last one to report,
that was not convinced by those in charge of the business at the
mine. His unexpected adverse telegram meanwhile, was a fatal
blister on the mine and sale.

If he had given them any warning, they could have cut the
wire and secured the coin. And as the reaction and collapse
of the camp came almost as sudden as the blaze was kindled,
none of our big sales were effected. I therefore shared with
the thousands of others in the general disappointment. Way
back in the wild, cannibal infested, fever-stricken jungles of
South America or Africa, is the best place to locate gold and
silver mines.

However, I made some money by small sales, by sinking
shafts and running tunnels at twenty dollars a foot. In one
claim we had a body of ore that appeared to be quite extensive,
it being solid ore fifteen feet deep, as far as we sunk in it. But
on having a few tons of it milled, it produced but about thirty
dollars a ton, which would not pay at that time. Some of it

min
pect
feet

silve
paye
pend
pay ]

bulli

“REC

F
in as
$735,0
compa
These
Of th
with $
Hale
$2,988,
$2,428,
teen 1
assessn

Of
levied |

3, al-
ants,
ough
)sur-
erted
nnels
and

n the

Pine,
onded
Eber-
¢ still
others,

ig sale
vosited
nts, ex-
formed
report,
5 at the
a fatal

ut the
ollapse
indled,
1 with

Way
gles of
ld and

Binking
In one
ensive,
t. But
thirty
eg of it

THRILLING ExperteNcE IN THE MINEs, 95

assayed at the rate of one hundred dollars a ton. As it had not
the appearance of a regular vein we abandoned it. Doubtless
it was afterwards worked out by others. This was the “Union
Standard,” at the base of a high rock bluff, about three-quarters
of a mile north of the Eberhardt.

Virginia City and Gold Hill were built up during a similar
excitement ten years before White Pine. But there proved to
be there one mammoth, true fissure vein—400 or 500 feet thick
and more than two miles long—the Comstock lode.

In this are the “Bonanza” and other famous stock gambling
mines of Nevada, some of which are being or have been pros-
pected to a depth of 3,500 feet, and to drain it to about 1900
feet down, the Sutro tunnel was run 20,178 feet.

But even in this great fissure lode—the greatest gold and
silver vein in the world—there are many mines that have never
payed to work as a legitimate business. One of these has ex-
pended millions of dollars in prospecting, without finding any
pay rock. I believe it has never produced a dollars worth of
bullion, though “Bullion” is its name.

“RECORD OF ASSESSMENTS AND DIVIDENDS OF THE COMSTOCK
MINEs.

Fifty mines have each collected [1881] more than $100,000
in assessments, and eighteen more together have collected
$735,000. In this estimate is not included the assessment by
companies which have been dissolved or incorporated in others.
These fifty mines -have levied $58,723,000 in assessments.
Of these Yellow Jacket leads off with $4,878,000; Savage
with $4,809,000 ; Sierra Nevada, $4,200,000; Bullion, $3,850,000 ;
Hale and Norcross, $3,409,000; Belcher, $2,268,000; Ophir,
$2,988,000; Gould and Curry, $8,206,000; Crown Point,
$2,423,000; and so on through the list, there being seven-
teen mines which have gathered in over $1,000,000 in
assessments.

Of the seventy-one mines on the Comstock, seventy have
levied assessments, amounting in all to $59,458,000, and only

96 Tue Mines or NEVADA.

fourteen have paid any dividends. These fourteen are as follows,

with their dividends:

Con. Virginia, oo occcccvecis sevens $42,930,000
OAMIOVIEG, 6 ssi ied cede eeues tiennes . 80,950,000
DGIGNOE 0s bsceeereenes Hike nemnreies 15,307,200
Crown Point,...... ..sseee berhents 11,688,000
AVAL, .recccccccercuce Eaeraits ati 4,460,000
Gould and Curry,..........+5. .+++ 8,825,000
Yellow Jacket,....... seeeees cooeee 2,184,000
Hale and Norecross,.......eeeee+++++ 1,598,000
OpRily c cveveervacnecwies cocceeceee 1,594,000
BOntUG tether eccey neenane eoeees 1,252,000
Jon. Imperial, ....6.ccescenesen ..e. 1,125,000
Sierra Nevada,.........+.006. viewed 102,200
Confidence, ........ beveeeehencher 78,000
DaArney, ...cccvcesvececenvocvetionns 57,000
BUGIOR 66s a acbenseean teen me eae 22,800

Total, $117,173,200

An examination of this list will show, that only six mines have
paid their stockholders more than they have taken from them.
These are Belcher, California, Consolidated Virginia, Crown Point,
Gould and Curry, and Kentuck. One who is familiar with the
Comstock, will see at a glance that all these mines have been
largely owned and controlled by the Bonanza firm. So, when
you say Consolidated Virginia, California and Belcher have
paid $89,277,200 in dividends, you may also add, that three-
quarters of this amount has gone @‘rectly into the pockets of
Flood, Mackay and Fair. The outsic - investors have always come
in just as the dividends ceased, and have invariably been on hand
to pay assessments. California never levied an assessment. Con-
solidated Virginia only $411,000. The bulk of this stock has
always been held by the Bonanza firm, and its $74,000,000
of dividends represent a good part of their colossal wealth,
gained in the last ten years.

The army of small speculators have put their money into
other mines, and have been allowed the privilege of paying for
working ore, whose chief value lay in the elaborate analysis of
well-paid experts.

An illustration of the methods employed on the Stock Ex-
change is furnished in the recent rise and decline of Alta. It was

—

sell
dea
dian
wer
priv
lay |
Alta
wee]
cent:
hinte
who,
‘salt
Was §
from
there
lower
an ex
A
and it
had al
T.
deman
those
would
suicide
T3 ]
Bullior
regard
Belche)
from M
of whic
Such ey
to forty
cents pr
allowed
the sur
March, ]
ditions, ,
These m
terms ag
with a te

r

OWS,

s have
. them.
Point,
th the
e been
when
r have
three-
<ets of
s come
\ hand
Con-
+k has
00,000
ealth,

y into
ng for
sis of

k Ex-
It was

THRILLING EXPERIENCE IN THE MINES, 07
selling at one dollar and sixty cents, and was a comparatively
dead stock. Suddenly mysterious rumors spread around, that the
diamond drillings had shown a rich ore body. Soon these rumors
were confirmed by the superintendent and others in control, and they
privately advised their friends to buy up all the Alta they could
lay hands on, Of course, this reached the street in a few hours.
Alta bounded up to five dollars, then on to ten, and, within a
week, twenty dollars, and afterwards to twenty dollars and fifty
cents. A vast amount of stock was bought. Suddenly it was
hinted, that a gigantic ‘deal’ had been made by the management
who, in turn, tried to make it appear that the superintendent had
‘sulted’ the drillings and thus got good indications. Confidence
was shattered; there was a wild rout, and the stock fell rapidly
from twenty dollars to three dollars and fifteen cents. When
there was talk of an official investigation of tue mine, the
lower levels were conveniently flooded with water. This is but
an example of iiany other swindles.

A short time before a very bad ‘deal’ -vas made in Belcher,
and it was found necessary to flood the mine, when the outsiders
had all been fleeced.

There is a growing sentiment among the people, which
demands that some check be placed upon the lawless schemes of
those who, for years, have fleeced the credulous by swindles that
would make a faro-dealer blush, and have driven thousands to
suicide and crime.

“1882. — We [committee] consider the management [of
Bullion] recklessly extravagant and characterized by a total dis-
regard of the rights of stockholders. With reference to the
Belcher and Crown Point mines, the Belcher mine has produced
from May, 1881, to December, 1882, 28,154 tons of ore, the value
of which we are unable to determine [it being a ring secret].
Such evidence as we could obtain placing the value at from thirty
to forty dollars per ton. This ore was sold in the mine for fifty
cents per ton, and the parties [brethren] buying said ore were
allowed to use the company’s shaft and works to raise the ore to
the surface. We find, the Crown Point mine produced from
March, 1881, to December, 1882, 68,457 tons under similar con-
ditions, and it was also sold for fifty cents per ton [to brethren].
These mines are still producing about 5000 tons per month on the
terms as before stated. These two mines are managed badly and
with a total disregard of the rights of stockholders.

7

~ Hk 5 Ao tanspaene

‘ean ena iinet AIP BERENS

Pb
i
i
ie

98 Tae Mines or NEvaDa.

The proxy system enables people who do not own any stock,
to control mines and run them in their own interest.

“Tis sad, but ’tis well,—1883.—There is something peculiarly
sad about the decline of Virginia City. The story of its rise and
its character in prosperous days, reads like a brilliant flight of
imagination. No other city in the world was ever like it. Its
business, its wealth, its prodigality, its wickedness— each, in its
way, was peculiar. And the desolation which now so contrasts
with the rush and glitter of the palmy time, is a desolation the like
of which has never before been seen on the American continent.
Right years ago Virginia City and Gold Hill, adjoining each other,
had 35,000 population. It was the largest community between
Denver and San Francisco. There were merchants doing business
with a million capital. There were private houses that cost
$100,000. There were stamp mills and mining structures that cost
$500,000 each. There were three daily newspapers, and a
hotel that cost $300,000. Among the people were a score or
more men, worth from $300,000 to $30,000,000. Mackay and
Fair both lived there. There were three banks, a gas company,
a water company, a splendid theatre and a costly court house.
Eight years have passed and the town is a wreck. The 35,000
people have dwindled to 5000. The banks have retired. The
merchants have closed up and left; the hotel is abandoned; the
gas company is bankrupt, and scores of costly residences have
either been taken to pieces and moved away, or given over to bats.
Real estate cannot be given away for taxes. Nothing can be sold
that will cost its worth to move away. The rich men have all
gone. Those who remain are the miners, their superintendents,
and the saloon men and gamblers. The latter are usually the first
to come to a mining town and the last to leave. The cause of
this decadence, which has swallowed up millions of capital and
wrecked the worldly ambition of thousands of persons, is the
failure of the Comstock mines to turn out additional wealth.

Since its discovery, in 1860, there have been taken from that
single vein, in a space of less than 3,000 lineal feet, no less than
$285,000,000 of gold and silver, and of this about $110,000,000
came from the Bonanza mines alone. Exclude Flood, Mackay,
Fair and Sharon from the list, and those who have preserved
the fortunes, made on the Comstock, may be counted on
one’s fingers. But the millions upon millions that have been sunk
in the whirlpool of speculation are almost incalculable. San Fran-

THRILLING EXPERIENCES IN THE MINEs. 99

cisco is to-day full of financial, physical and moral wrecks, by the
treachery of the great Comstock and the illusive hopes of the
gambling multitude.”

And the Comstock was the great gold and silver lode of the

known world, having yielded, it is said, about $500,000,000
to date.

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