Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1875-09-04


the bank, 10 accompany me. In the room
at the time were ID. o. Mills, the presi
dent, aud Seiby, the mayor. who wa
suspected OF being the banks candidate
for governor against Newton Booth. A
Seibey's works Ralston wRs drowned
Selby is dead. Booth is one OF the par
ties 10 the fight against the bank, which
cas- been one Of the causes OF this catas
trOphe. Mills was a clericRl-lOekinE
gentleman, Of no great magnetic ol
business force, whom Ralston's opera
tons had made rather than Rslston
The latter kept the cashiers place be-
cause IL involved the personal admins,
Tation OF the bank, the rough-and-Tesdy
work, while Mills was mace president
At that moment, as il seemed to me
California was the seat OF power built
lUp by RalstOn. and of hate Of that
lp)wer naturally engendered by it's saga
city, threatening the general comfort and
= charity OF society. Latham had just
come to opulence with rival bank built
on English capital, the London and Ssn
Francisco. Latham was an Ohio boy,
Z who had reached the gOvernoTship OF
: the State, q colder and more cultured
man than Ralston. The course Of La
7 tham's life was toward domestic ele-
! gsnce, paintings and refined society
RslstOn's eDjOyments were wholly phys
ical and masculine, a rapid team, q
yacht, the development of the earth,
and the wrestling Of wealth from It's re-
cesses for the sake OF more development
, and still more wealth. Latham was a
money.lender mainly, a Shylock; Raj
stOn was an Antonio as well, with ven-
lures on the sea and a bench on the Ri
alto also. AS banker solely, Latham g
policy was the wise, conservative one; +;
he worked very little in combination
, with other enterprises; Rslston covered
the coast with his faith and intimidated
the pOpulaCs by his courage. The puff
and speed of the steamboat on which he
was bred attended the man; there he
obtained both his cORrsenesS and his
method.
At two o'clock was st the Occidental
hotel, RalstOn was already on the box,
and l ciimb bed up beside him. On the
seat behind were two English engineers,
+ esh from India and yet tanned with its
suns, who had been brought to the coast
by Ralston to lay out plan for irrigat-
ing the San Joaquin valley. We started
at once, the horses on trOt and run
as they liked, RalstOn driving. Half
the year he drove this fifty-two miles a
day into San Francisco and back. 1t
was his Tecreation; he had no driver.
The wagon was one OF the "Cn spring,
Kimball teams, in whose manufacture
he wSs largely interested, and it had run
every competitive style Of wagon Of the
cosst of the Pacific. We gslloped over
a long csussway, took broad dirt road
within sight Of the bay, passed Mills's
new house, and at the Thirteen-mile
house man came out to sponge the
! horses. AT seventeen miles we stopped; !;
RslstOn mixed drinks at the bar, where
he may formerly have operated, and the
hOrse5 were changed with the wagon
tongue. at twenty-siX miles we turned
from the high road into the green valley
o! Belmont, and stopped at the bankers
door at one hour and thirty minutes,
| from San Francisco twenty-six miles,
! partly over cobble-stones and causewsys.
Belmont was the weakness of RalstOn; !;
huge wooden house with bays and
versDdahs, with thirty or forty bed
chambers, and all the lower floor series
of saloons, with wsXed floors and open
sasnes. The stables were museum Of
wagons, new or disabled; q meadow
close by was full Of disabled horses, sick
OF sprung from such driving as we have
seen; tropical and native plants sur
| rounded the mansion, which looked
like sort of fantastic summer hotel.
| Here, il was understood, the bank al
! lowed RastOn sum of money, twenty
five or fifty thousand dollars, to enter
tain novelties and distinguished visit
Urs. A servant took eSch OF US and
showed US to bedrooms complete in the
comforts of our period; water, gas,
spring- beds, etc., yet nothing was
loud" or snowy. The extent OF the
| hospitality rather than its intensity filled
the imagination. Our host disappeared
until the banquet began. The occasion
Of this banquet was the retirement from
business, as the head of the great Alma
den mine, Of Samuel Butterworth, ESQ
This vas the friend of Daniel Sickles on
the day he shot Philip Barton Key; a
miltary-lOokiDg man of great pride, Sc
verify and enterprise of character. He
anticipated RslstOn's death by dying OF
! two attempts to dissect his liver and
! seek the origin Of his disease there. The
| stomach is what ails the successful Cali
| t0rnian; he lives too high. There were
| seventy-siE guests present, all men, and
| among them were bis neighbOrs, Bell,
the Barrons, both MiIlses, Duke"
| Gwin, the brother-in-lsw of the
MsrchiOness of Lorne, Victoria's daugh-
ter, Lord Clifford, and all that was dis
| tinguished on the coast. Nick Riddle,
in his greatest days, never had such hos
pitality to give, nor gave it with more
quiet bounce. There was a blessing
| asked by bishop, who drank his wine
like man, but no speeches broke the
variety Of the service with their dull
monotcny. 1 caught glimpse Of MIS-
RalstOn at q balcony window opening
on the stairway. AT midnight special
| train took the company hack to San
| Francisco, but l remained, and the next
| day RalstOn drove me over the country
| to his neighboTs, the HsyWards, Bar
rous, Howards, Bells, Mills, etc. We
were gone all day, except at the dining
hour. He was a gentleman in mis- bear
ing, humorous, enjoying the air-the
prospect aud the vision of the future OF
California he presented with such terse,
manly, practical strength.
l omit any conclusion to this part Of
my visit, as l may take it up at another
time. Let me speak of some of the cir
Cumstances of his fall. The Bank Of
Nevada, which is TO rise On the ruins OF
the Bauk Of California, is to be the prop
eTty OF Flood d O'Brien and Fair &
M4ckey. They are all Irish, and Flood
aud o. 'BTien were few years ago a sort
DuTar and down. town Delmonico to the
operators on California street, keeping
the liquor and lunch place there. They
caught the air and secrets of the patrons
Of their house, ald tried mining specu-
lstive stocks little. As they increased
they got an engineer to look about the
CONS Ock lode for them and picked up
mine suppOs ed to be worn out called the
Hale and Norcr5ss." This mine they
soon developed into new source of ac-
tusl wealth. They paid for it seventy
cents per share when the whole amount
OF shares was only five thousand. AS
they brought out the bullion they We
tered the sock, and it went up hundreds
per cent. Then they built crushing
mills, and began to feel under their
shafts to the west mine. There they
discovered a real bonanza, for 10 these
mining ventures there is a reality as well
as a romance, and while the propTietors
Of the mine were asleep OF ignorant,
these Irish miners picked up their stock
and began TO take one million six hun
dred thousand dollars month OF bull
lion cut of this new acquisition. The
stock, Of course, was wRtered and went
skywsrd. Only four men owned
ali this wealth, Msckey possess
ing tWO.fifths Of sll. Thus,
mining bullion at the rate OF twenty
million dollars per annum, genuine
mining, thss0 psryenues became q
power beside or against the Bank Of
Cglifornia. But RslstOn and Sharon
owned half the crushing mills and the
railroad at Virginia City. The Flood
and O'Brien crowd Logan to build other
mills and to compete for the greatest
mines and the banks monOpOlies ss
well. A struggle ensued over the Vel