The Elko independent. [volume] (Elko, Nev.) 1869-1872, 1869-11-13
A FESTIVE People.

FESTIVE People.
The people OF the Pacific Coast are as restless
the tumbling pillows of the deep, and obey
the mad thirst for sudden fortune rs the ocean
tides follow the tickle changes of the moon.
At stated periods during the last eighteen
years the people have been thrown into COM
motion, and have moved almost in body to
new fields where wealth and fortune were
supposed to lie around loose, only waiting to
be gathered by the early corners. From about
September, 1868, to May, 1869, the periodical
tide of stampeders beat heavily against our
State from California, Oregon, Idaho, Mon
tana, and all parts of the coast. The fact
that the center of our State was then being
rapidly pierced with the national highway lent
additional charms and fresh romance to the
new fields of exhaustless treasure then for
the first time being brought into notice in
Central Nevada. White Pine, and the coun-
try to the southwark were the chief points of
attraction, but in addition to these there was
vague, underlined prevalence of belief, that
with the march of the Central Pacific Rail-
road across our State, new and startling min
eral discoveries would be made all along the
of large bands of hostile Indians had remained
n terra incognitd, sealed from intrusion by adj
venturers, explorers and prospectors. Since
the halcyon days of Washoe and Comstock,
nothing like the excitement which ragged last
Winter and Spring in California had been
known in that State. By mid Summer, how
ever, the spirit of romance dead, and the
fatal thirst for Su6Ian yvaolth b, ,,;l1 o1,a,
ture was extinguished by frozen contact with
the hard realities of prospectors life in all
arid, desolate land. The chilly breath of dis
appointment and blasted hopes had seized the
souls of thousands, who, but few months
before were filled with golden dreams of sud-
den and boundless fortune, and when their
hopes had vanished, were filed with loathing
and bitterness of spirit, and hastened from
| the country with curses and excavations on
their lips. The rush of people to Nevada,
| from September, 'GS, to May, 90, differed in
no material respect from the periodical dis
turbances which have heretofore unsettled'the
| inhabitants of this coast, and history of one
would be history of the whole. The spirit
of adventure and excitement which bears the
variably followed by n season of depression
and gloom, growing ont of disappointed and
blasted hopes; then all the floating popn-
| lation, who have the means to get away, re-
turn to their former homes, wiser if not bet
ter men, and are ready to swear that they
never again will be tempted to plunge into the
rushing flood of excitement, fed by cupidity,
pra1nlitN. hama. Nt.li H.,
the greater number, distribute themselves over
the surrounding country, engaging in such pur-
| suits rs the country affords, or move on to new
| fields of discovery, in search of hidden wealth ;
and, hence, the receding wave never equals
the incoming flood. The result is that our
uninviting mountainous districts become the
homes of thousands and tens of thousands Of
people who otherwise would never penetrate
these inhospitable and forbidding districts
| OF the vast throng who found the Great Ba-
sin last Winter and Spring, lured hither by
the halo of romance in which the White Pine
region was shrouded by visionary and enthu-
'siastic correspondents, not one in three will
| ever return to their former homes; hence our
State will be largely benefited, not only in the
| Vi Ito ItSOuICSS, Out also
by having its valleys filed up with hardy
and enterprising rural population. Treasure
Hill, therefore, with its romance and wealth has
been an "ovdngile' of civilization to the sur
rounding country, inviting to and dispensing
over it vast throng of thrifty population
which twenty years would not have done with
out the aid of mineral attraction. As rule,
however, the reflex wave, following the first
rush of excited adventurous into new dis
trict, when the excitement has subsidized, car
ries off more of the inhabitants than healthy
condition requires, and is usually followed by
a season of returning prosperity. A second
influx, or returning wave, is now setting in
toward White Pine md the region round
about that great mining center, and from this
time forward n steady and healthy advancement
may be looked for in that wonderful section
of the State.
Fearfully given to Lying.
Between Chicago and San Francisco the