The Wheeling daily register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1864-1878, 1865-08-10
Story OF California Mining.


A correspondents lof the st. Paul Press
narrates the following sad story illustra-
ting the uncertainties of gold mining in
California
A history of the trials, hopes, fears, pri.
vations and reckless tenacity OF some OF
the men engaged in prospecting" would
| make one of the most thrilling works
ever published
AS, for example, few years ago, q man
1--WE have lost his name but think 1t was
Breslin) commenced prospecting on one
of the hills of Grass Valley, and by his
earnestness, tenacity and eloquence soon
satisfied the inhabitants that gold in
large quantities could be found in that
particular hill, if capital was secured for
digging and blasting. 4.
A large company with a cash capital OF
many thousand dolla.s was organized,
Breslin appointed as superintendent,
and the work commenced with hope and
energy. , d. sU.
Breslin sent East for his little family
of wife and two children, and for about a
year the work progressed with satisfac
tion to all parties concerned. Shafts
were sunk from the surface, and drifts
run into the quartz veins, on the most gi-
gantic scale. Thousands of tons of quartz
were blasted and brought to the surface,
with the hope that it would prove rich
enough for crushing; but good fortune
was shy of being caught. -
At length, stockholders began to grum-
BILE at the frequent assessments, and
finally sent scientific men up from San
Francisco to examine the quartz and To-
cation. and decide whether there was suf-
ficient encouragement for further eXpen-
ditnres.
This report was as smoky as one of old
Buchanan's messages it could not be un-
derstood to mean peace, war, hope, fear
or doubt, according to the feelings of the
reader
Shares began to be sold for assessments;
stockholders sold ont for pound of to-
bacco or bottle of rum, and the work
soon ceased for the want of funds.
In vain Breslin used his eloquence to
induce new stockholders to come in and
continue the work, and he was hooted at
as an unsuccessful, dreamy, visionary
prospector, who had more hope than
brains
The company disbanded, sold all ma
chinery at auction to pay pressing debts,
and cursed their bad luck in general, and
their unpopular superintendent in partic-
ular
After the mine was abandoned, Breslin
donned the coarse garments of the com
mon miner, and dug and blasted, day af-
ter day. and week after week, with tho
full belief that he wonld soon strike the
rich vein which he believed to be in that
hill.
Merchants, however, who were proud
to give credit to the superintendent OF
wealthy, mining company thought II
was now about time to make collections
from the penniless minor who was fool
ish enough to confne his labor in vein
that was known to be worthless.
Creditors became annOyingly polite,
but they had all made changes in their
regulations, and didn't give credit to
anybody any more
Breslin was only safe from the duns
when he was in the fated shaft and the
ladder removed. Hunger, pinching,
gnawing hunger--that most torturiug Of
all fiends on earth-day by day, dwelt in
his home, and wasted away the kind, pa
tient, loving wife and two little children
to mere living skeletons.
Returning to his mystic cabin on one
occasion, and finding his little children
crying for bread, and his poor starving
wife suffering with burning fever,
brought on by her ambitious attempts
to earn few shillings by washing, Bres
lin procured poison from Nevada, admin
istered it to his wife and children. wrote
the cause of his so doing to "fair wealth.
er friend" and then threw himself down
the shaft to perish on the quartz that had
wrecked his fortune, hope, happi-
ness and life.
Months after the remains of poor Bres-
lin, his wife and children had rotted in
the ground, auother company organized
and commenced work in the same mine,
and after blasting into the vein two feet
from where Breslin performed his last
days labor, they struck the coveted
prZe
From this same mine the company is
now taking out $4,000 week-over
half million year. What pity that
the Industrious, sensitive loving hus-
band could not have lived, and with his
peecous family enjoyed the fruits Of his
faith and tenacious perseverance,.