The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1869-04-08
DAILY PRESS.
PORTLAND.
Thursday Morning, April 8, 1862
silver-ssinips i'm Nevada.

siiver-Gzining i'm Nevada.
LIFE IN THE "wHITE PINE REGION.
lively account OF the scenes and incl
dents in the new mining region OF White
Pine, in Nevada, is given by correspondent
OF the Chicago Tribune, who writes from
Treasure City under date of March 13. We
copy few passages:
AMONG THE CLOUDS.
l am up among the clouds, more than nine
thousand feet above the sea, and in the cen.
tire of the White Pine Silver Mines, OF whose
wonders the half has hardly yet been told.-
All day long the storm has been driving
through the town, and have stood hour al
ter hour at the only window in our little cab
in and watched the shifting scenes OF the
wonderful panorama before NE.
Our cabin home stauds back block from
the man street, overlooking the main por-
tion OF the town ana the series of flats" on
which the main portion of the mining Is be-
ing done. There are mining claims all
around us, the entire hillside being dotted
with the rock thrown out from shafts sunk
on the various claims; and, in tact, our house
stands on ledge which is claimed for MN
ing purposes, and they are blasting out shaft
in the street right alongside us. The cabin
10 uulb VI AOuSu hHOtby ptIc UOdEuS, WHICH
cost tour hundred dollars in gold per thou
sand feet, battened on the sides, with cloth
rooI, covered over with rough boards, not bat
tened. The snow is sitting down as | write,
and the wind taring the candles so that can
scarcely see. The little cabin has one door
and one window, and Is twelve ieet wide by
sixteen in length.
PRICES.
Six of us, all married men, whose families
l. IN-t IA. L am
gold per month. We paid $50 tor a small
stove, IS cents apiece tor common plates, IS
Tor a dry goods box, out of which We made a
rude table, and similar prices tor few more
articles OF table and dining loom iurnitue-
the only regular chair, common caue-seat
dining room chair, cost $l2 here-and COM
menced housekeeping. Flour costs us $40
and SIT per hundred pounds; sugar 50 cents
per pound; coffee rs cents; tea 81 25; butter,
by the keg, Is cents; pickles 50 for five-gal
lon keg; heel 81 cents per pound; pork do;
potatoes % to 81 cents per pound; and so on
through the list; wood-cedar, nut-pine and
mountain mahogany, cut only few hundred
rods away-is $40 per cord, and short cords
at that: water, melted from snow, 25 to 81 2
cents per pailiul, and bread 25 to 80 cents for
loaf OF one and two pounds. For beds we
have hunks in one end OF the room, in which
we have straw mattrasses-mine cost So IS,
and it is made of coarse gnnnv sacks filed
with wild oats hay-and three or four pairs
each OF the soft, warm blankets. We need
them all!
SUNDAY IN WHITE PINE.
Most of the miners were paid off last night,
and hall of them are drinking and gambIinG
away their money to-day. There are 5000 g |
600 people in the White Pine district Al
this time, and fifty per day being adde! 70
the population. OF this number protbly
1900 or $500 are at work ON the. three
thousand Locations" and one hundra real
mines situated within a couple ofniies OF
this point, and at least two-thirds otthe mum
Der are In town to-day. There igno 'sounc
of the cuurch-going bell" no thong OF wor-
shippers hurrying through the ong, crooked,
rocky, uneven street, but evey saloon-and
every other building is ones shror ged with
people. II
The bar-tenders fairly wear themselves out
with their incessant labsr in waiting on the
thirsty customers who demand their services.
~ hat do you take gentlemen?" says the
bar-keeper to each group OF customers In sue |
cession .Whisksy goesp respond all the |
rest with solemn alacrity, and they I'LL their
glasses, how all round and swallow the fiery
liquor in concert. The next and the next
group go through the same routine and then
all repeat the performance. At the back of
each bar-room is door having the sign
Club Room" and In and out OF this room a
crowd is passing continuously.
We enter with The rest and work our way
slowly through the jam around the tables
where the dealels OF monte and faro are
holding forth. Nearly every man Who comes
in lays down something, from a dollar-the
lowest stake-to thousand. before gong out
and not one in ten ever carries away dime
OF it; few If them ever expect to do so, but
&ol-a ha af< <I,o
as much from the sheer force of habit and
from the want of other occupation as from
any actual thirst or greed OF gain. We no.
tice one man, a San Francisco pioneer, who
has gone through a dozen mining excite
ments in as many different localities, from
Mexico to Carib0O, and made and lost Tor
tunes in all, betting piles OF checks, each rep
resenting two dollars and fifty cents, as high
as they will stand without falling over oil their
weight, or half dozen cards at once. Some
times he wins hundreds of dollars two or
three times in succession, and the banker
lays with the most impertul bable gravity,
the expression of his face never changing for
an instant. He knows very well that it will
all come back to him and bring him more
with 1t.
AT some of the tables the dealers are wo
men-French or Spanish-and it is notice
abe fact that the betters are fewer than the
that the fair sex do not give the roueher so
good chance for getting his money back as
do the male dealers.
The Indians were the first to discover the
wonderful silver deposits en- the mountain,
and guide the white man to it, but they can
not fully understand the sudden and marvel
Gus influx OF population, nor cease to admire
the long rows OF cloth and lumber buildings,
which are shanties to us, but palaces to
them, springng up as II by magic daily on
every side. Men mounted on fine horses,
with Mexican saddles glittering with silver,
brilliant blankets and Gncari OF black bear or
llama skin, contrasting with Oriental rich
ness with the other trappings. dash past on
the gallop, their long silver spurs makipg mu
sic, like lesser sleigh bells, as they 60. These
are the lucky mine owners or speed ators who
have sold Claims tor big prices; they are get
ting all the enjoyment they can Tor their
money in this accursed country. Mi sour
"bushwhackers," With long whips which tbes
flourish and crack increasingly over their
tired Oxen's heads, abound; so do painted
prostitutes from all parts OF Europe and
America.
There are o few decent married women
here but the majority is against them, and
they ior the most part keep close at home.
Everybody you meet has a pocket full oil
specimens, and feet as numerous at least as
centipede. Chloride, bromide, horn silver,
ruby silver, and base range metal, is heard GU
every side.
A shot is fred in a saloon; there is a sud
den stampede for the street; one combatant
is disarmed and borne strueglIngly away by
his friends, while the other beats mastery
retreat In the opposite direction, his face and
pistol kept alwa s to the foe, and in an in
slant all is excitement and confusion.
This is Sunday at White Pine; how do you
like the picture?
American Lumbermen in Canada.
The facts contained in the following ex-
tract from the Annual Trade Review, or cir
cular OF the Quebec lumber dealers, win be a
new revelation to most people and of great
interest to all. The circular calls attention
to the TACT that the lumber trade of Quebec
with Great Britain is gong rapidly down to
the vanishing point, and that last year for
the first time the manufacturer had the ship
per at advantage and adds:
If we seek for the causes which have oper-
ated so materially to the advantage OF the
manufacturer and against the shipper this
year, we must look beyond the mere TACT that
4bo hos faliou 90 IND hot