The New Orleans bulletin. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1874-1876, 1875-09-12

Senate of the United States. The railroad
company, aroused at last, bought the Sacra
mento Union, when its circulation was nearly
gone from natural causes, and it barely paic
| expenses.
This act only made the remaining newspa
pers which supported Booth more Jealous in
attacking Stanford, and they also proceeded
to impugn the credit of the Bank of Califor-
mia, and to couple Ralstons name for the frs
time in prints with Stanford, as a jobber and
an oppressor of the people. railroad can be
attacked in that way for a long time without
giving it discredit, but bank is as sensitive
as woman's fame.
Meantime Sharon, who was the agent of the
Bank of California in Nevada, had acquired a
great fortune, larger than Ralston's, and he
wanted to run for the Senate and sit beside
Jones. He was elected, using money as Jones
had done, but before he had taken his seat a
series of mining movements occurred in
Nevada which revolutionizsd the wealth of the
Pacific coast. -Four men, named Mackey,
Fair, Flood, and O'Brien, had secretly insti-
tuted an examination of the mines on the
Comstock lode, and by running in greater
depth than their competitors, they uncovered
an immense amount Of ore, which enabled
them to speculate in the mining stocks of the
com panies above them, and one by one bring
the richest mines of the world into their con-
troll Up to this time Sharon, acting tor the
bank and himself, had maintained the advsn-
tage, but the immense amounts of money
which streamed from the ground to the new
corners gave them the superstition, prestige,
and power of the coast And all this hap
pened, unfortunately, at a moment when
Messrs Sharon and Ralston. had laid out mil
lions OF their available capital in real estate
speculation.
1t is now the proper time to relate Just
what interests Mr.. Ralston and his friends
had in Nevada.
They had first the only railroad leading into
the mines, and this gave than profit of
about one million year, while its cost was
betrayed by the mining companies, who af-
terward released their stock and bonds, and
then repented the act.
Next, Ralston & Co. owned about one half
of all the machinery which crushed the rocky
product of the mines, so that the quicksilver
could find and retain the particles OF gold and
silver as they are washed past it. The origi-
nal expenditure for "the Union Mining and
Milling Company" which was the name of
this concern, was not more than one million
of dollars, but its profits were immense, and
only to be measured by the yield of the mines
on which it took percentage Of course.
such an establishment provoked the wrath of
the delivers in the mines and Flood & O'Brien
set up opposition works, which became very
successful on account of the richness and
patronage of their own mines 1t has been an
object of this latter fraternity for months past
to break the Bank of California, that they may
come into possession of its milling property
and piece of railroad, and in turn monopo-
lie the field.
g. The quicksilver, which is a universal ne
cessity in mining was practically monopolized
ntu r. n 81
Bank of California by the name of Bell, into
whose hands the quicksilver of the two mines
on that coost was ''pooled;" that is, he was
the sole agent and fixed the price.
Mills, of the Bank of California, was one of
the few owners of the New Idria mine, and
Ralston had contract with the New Alma
den, the other mine, to receive all their quick
silver for period of years, at SO much
flask. Ralston made this contract when the
was in tight place for money to
pay jeremiah s. Black al exorbitant law fee |
The effect was to put up quicksilver hundreds
per cent, and the prices of the quicksilver in
Europe were regulated by the general man
agement.
Having thus "cornered" the transporta-
ion, the machinery, and the medium for get
ing the metals, Ralston & Co. next bought |
,ut the principal assaying establishment on |
he Pacific coast, and got final commission |
or regulating the quality of the bullion. |
Here were four things on which the same |
general monopoly was drawing revenue from !
he mines.
The bank besides had foolishly made an
4greement with a German Hebrew, by the
lame of Sutro to give him two dollars ton
oyalty on all the ores extracted from the
Jomstock lode if he would run an experiment
al tunnel under the mountain and draw off
rrryb; nh Had %l,ne hof%. C,,Aro 1>~~
owed money in Europe. and ran his tunnel
long until Sharon notified him that the tun-
lei was a failure, and the agreement was
withdrawn. Sutro then got an immense
and went about Nevada MAX
ng political speeches against the bank mo-
opoly.
One by one these burdens the ingenuity of
he people has thrown off. Last year there
7ere thousand little pockets of quicksilver
mined by individuals in out-of- the-way Places
timulated thereto by the high price under
he monopoly rates. A richer opposition at
be mines was taking from Ralston & Co.,
heir milling profits. A great bank was
ormed against them, and began to stand out
apital. Ralston withdrew to other fields of
peculation and construction, but it was too
tie. His capital was low; his income reduced;
1e great field was occupied, and lesser fields {
ere not remunerative. His credit was at
Icked; the East drew off the gold coin under
1e stimulus of rise in gold. The crash
anne near the hour of closing the bank;
alton was ruined, and he leaped into the
acific.
He had been for twenty three years great
anker, and tor eleven years the greatest on {
le Pacific shores. He was surrounded by
len of many nations, the Barrons, Bell, Liv-
lgstone, Parrot, Howard, who believed in
is sagacity,. and had been enormously re-
arded for their confidence. They had finally
1T everything to him; his decision, dispatch !
i'd success made him not incautious, but too
srsatile and confident Every thing fell away c
once from hundred reinforcements to the
oposition; it was the forces of nature and q
'cety rushing in to overwhelm one too con-
derable for the equality and liberty of the
sriod. AS Bonaparte met his day on the
sld of Leipsic, with Europe aroused against
m, Ralston met his reverse in Bonaparte's :
ords: 81 can die but not surrender"
An English journal complains of the deca- :
Of hat 90. o;o Al