Arizona citizen., 1876-02-05
THE CITIZEN.
FEBRUARY 5, 1876
The CoEnsIOck Lode.

As much as has been said about tht
 Comstock lode those most intimat'
 with 1t do not comprehend IL, while
 people abroad have no conception of 1t its daily yield IS two thousand tons That Is, from this ore channel ther, Is every day extracted ore enough tC load ten trains of twenty cars each and those carloads would averag,
 S7OQ in value each. This is dug ou of q space of ground less than three
 miles in length and less than four hundred feet ill width. Indeed, when we centiue the estimate to the part oi
 the ledge which at this time Is yield inc ore. we find that half-mile in length will cover the whole ground.
 When we compare that stream ofgold
 and silver to anything ever heard of
 or read of before in history or romance
 we discover that everything else ever
 talked about begins to seem small and
 mean. Dumas pictured a man who
 was able through his wealth to almost
 sabvert empires and to make late his
 servant. And yet in the next eigh-
 teen months the Comstock will sup
 ply money enough to balance the tre- mendous account which Dumas placed to the credit of the imprisoned sailor
 We see the figures piled up in the newspapers which in dollars represent the national debt. That debt is so tremendous that though the fortunes of forty million of people, an empire of three millions of square miles with its cities, townships, mines and fertile soil are all mortgaged for its faithful payment, still the promise of the gov ernment lwhlch Is the people) to pay is at a discount of fifteen per cent. And yet as the Comstock Is yielding this year and as it promises to yield for many yelrS to come, 1t will take 1t but 3j years to add to the treasure of the earth as much as that debt to-day amounts to. For more than a quarter of a century San Francisco has been the shipping port of the Pacific. In the country back of 1t thousands of
 men have been toiling in the richest land in the world, and San Francisco has gathered almost all the net profits of their work. Lured by the mar velous opportunities offered there, rich men have gathered there and built up a city, untli to-day 1t Is ample in size to accommodated its two hundred thous- ! and inhabitants. And yet the ac- wealth of all these thous- ands is but equal to five years product of the Comstock. Indeed, a single quarter of mile in length of the mighty vein holds in sight to-day treasure enough to almost buy that city. The Ottoman Empire, peo- pied by mere than thirty-fve millions of people, and covering the seat of the earliest civilization and the loveliest land on earth is about to be declared i. , bankrupt because she owes about IS much money as the Comstock will yield in the next twenty years. But 1t Is idle to extend these It IS simply marvellous, md the indications now are that the coming sixteen years will add to the wonder which the last sixteen years las created. We heard shrewd man ay a few days since: "The wonder
 f the second centennial of American independence is to be the destroying
 f the value of gold and silver. It is .oing to be cheap as iron before an- ther century comes around" We do ot think the remark was quite iust;- led by present appearances, but there , no telling what will happen when , mother thousand feet Tn depth is cached on the mother vein.