, 1876-12-09
RALSTON !!
SOME RECOLLECTIONS OF
~ THE DEAD BANKER.

II THE DEAD BANKER
THE ROMANCE OF STERN REALITY.
In the Spring of 1854. the writer was
clerk for the firm of Haight & Wake
man in San Francisco. Their Office was
in the upper story of the S. w. corner
of Battery and Washington streets. Mr..
Haight was brother of Henry Haight,
of the great banking firm of Page, 'Ba-
con & Co., while Wakeman was for
mer confidential clerk of G. X. Garri-
son, then agent of the Nicaragua Steam
ship Co. This firm was really sham,
got up by Garrison to aid him in milk
ing" the Company, which was already
paying him a salary Of of $4,000 a
month! 1t was the progeni or of Stan"
ford's Western Development Company
and supplied the steamers with coal,
Garrison being really the backbone OF
the concern. In those days, large por-
tions of the ships cargo were masters
ventures, hence hardly vessel came
but had hundred or two tons of coal
in her hold. As anthracite coal was
worth $2S to $40 per ton. while btu
minous English coal brought from $l8 to
$24. it cost money to run steamers.
The fare to New York was $3.50 in gold
| in the cabin. $3.50 in second cabin and
$175 in the steerage.
THE WRIrER'S DUTY
Was to board vessels Immediately on
their arriv al in the harbor and buy what
coal they had. This coal was sold by
Haight G Wakeman to c. X. Garrison,
agent for Vanderbilt's steamers at an
advance of never less than SIS per ton,
and higher, as the market would admit
One day, while seated at high desk IN
the front Office, man came in and in-
quired for Mr.. Wakeman. How vivid
ly now his face comes mp before US.
| The broad white brow, surmounting an
eye of such clear gray that it looked
| like the broken end Of a steel bar; tine
pursed-up under lip and strong jaw. de-
noting the courage of bulldog; and
last of all. the deep chest and powerful
shoulders, all marked the man of great
energy, fit to cope with the most for
midable obstacles. You never knew a
man of great energy and fine busine IS
ability to be narrow in the chest. Your
courage Gus business man, like the en-
during thoroughbred horse that can run
after he is tired, must be
''BIG THROUGH THE HEART"
This plain looking young man. for he
was not over % then. was the man at
whose name'in the future bold men
trembled, for there were those feared
him who feared not God. He was quiet
ly and modestly dressed and gave US q
very strong grasp as Mr.. Wakeman in.
troduced us to the John Law of the Pa
cific- William c. Ralston. We nevel
met again for years later, but while We
had plodded along in the varied occu-
patton of steamboatmsn and newspaper
writer, the big little man had become
a power in the land. He was bred 6
merchant and had it not been for the
merchants of San Francisco, he would
have been as obscure as the writer. Sc
long as he stood by the merchants an6
was content to become rich by degrees
he was happy man. But the specu
lations in mining stocks that began tC
pervade all classes in 1862, when the
Board of Brokers first organized seemed
to have
CHANGED RALsToN's NATURE.
From being cautious and plodding f.
nancier, as one might expect from {
pupil Of old man Garrison, he sudden.
ly became the widest of all spectators
His operations in stocks began to at
tract everybody's attention. 1t was
about this time that the firm of Dona-
hoe, Ralston & Co. began to divide, the
former gentleman being dissatisfied witt
the way that Mr.. Rals:on was leaving
the merchants for the stock-sharpers
new firm was formed with Eugene Kel'
ly and Joseph Donahoe as partners, and
Ralston was obliged to cast about hin
for new opening. With sagacity
only equalled by the celerity with which
he carried it into effect, he organized 8
bank upon the surplus funds of the
California Steam Navigation Co., (theI
a powerful corporation but since swal-
lowed up by The Central Pacific Rail-
road) amounting to $350,000. His mex
move was to get D. o. Mills. then 8
small banker of Sacramento, into the
pool with 500, 900 and make him Pre-
sident of the new corporation which
was called the
BANK OF CALIFORNIA.
Ralston was elected cashier and by put
ting Mills at the head of the concern
he was enabled to get 5000, 900 more oi
the stock taken by Alviniza Hayward
who had just got his great Amador mine
to paying basis. Ralston was not con.
tent with the slow-going style of bank
ing upon real estate and merchandise
loans. He wanted a mining bank, and
he got it. This he accomplished by
sending William Sharon as a factor to
Virginia City to open branch bank
there. At the expiration of eight mouths
the branch had sunk 100000 and Mr.
Sharon was recalled to San Francisco to
explain matters to the Board of Direc-
tors. The cautious and plodding por
ton of the Board led on by Nicholas
Luning, who is really fnancier. not
gold-gambler, we're for Ousting Shar-
on at once; but Ralston won Mills and
Hayward over to his side and sharon
returned to Virginia City with heavier
backing than ever. In less than ten
months from that time, he had secured