Dodge City times. [volume] (Dodge City, Kan.) 1876-1892, 1877-06-30
CALIFORNIA; FOUR KINGS.
Their Hundred Million Dollars and How
they Got All that Wealth.

nv 1ODu fortune 10 meet sOciitily Wuiit
in San Francisco four Of the most con-
spicuous. the wealthiest and the most
influential men on the Pacific coast
These men are Senator Sharon, owner of
the Palace Hotel and Belmont, and who
also owns the Water-works which sup
ply San Francisco; ex-Gov. Leland
Stanford, President of the Central Pa
eitic Railroad: j. C. Flood, chief owner
of the mines on the ComstOck lode
and the Warwick behind the Bank of
Nevada; and Charles Croker, Presi-
dent of the Southern Pacific Railroad.
These four gentlemen are worth, sup
pose. one hundred millions of dollars,
and, as they are all young, fresh, vigor-
Gus, and ambitious, they will, no doubt,
one day have more wealth than all the
rest of the inhabitants of the Pacific
coast combined.
Mr. Flood is strong man-about
forty-iive years old. | first met him in
his little Office in the Bank of Nevada,
and afterward received an invitation
10 spend an evening a his house.
Mr.. Flood looks like retired gymnast.
He has bullet head, covered with
close-cut hair. and supported by 4
tremendous neck Naturally fair, his
face and hands are tanned to that scar
let red which appears on a young lady's
face after riding all day in Il stage and
eating a bic dinner of beefsteak and on
ions. His hands are large, like q
miners, and, if compelled to 90 into the
mines again, they could shovel and pick
as much as any miner in the camp. The
artists, who like to see every muscle Of
a man developed, would call Mr.. Flood
handsome: not handsome like the
Apollo Belyedere, but sinewy and grand.
like Hercules. His speech is slow and
careful; and, unlike Ralston, who was
all outside show. he courts retirement.
Indeed, there are many people in San
Francisco who read and talk about
Flood every day who have never seen
him. In this particular he is like jaw
Gould. Mr.. Floods partner is MIR.
O'Brien, a practical miner, who lives at
Virginia City, and attends personally
to the mines. while Flood manipulates
them in his little room in the Bank of
Nevada, during the day, and retires
quietly to his family at night. His tastes
are modest, and would do for man
worth SlO0, 900, instead of S20,OOO,OOO.
Mrs. Flood is modest and retiring, de-
voting her whole time to her husbands
and children's happiness.
Mr. Flood gave me long account OF
how he first came TO California, but rs
made no notes at the time | can not
recall the dates He came originally as
a miner, and worked in the mines with
VARYING fortune until he accumulated
$1,000.
s.Then,'' said Mr. Flood, :. thought
Twas rich, and haven't thought so
since. l was happy, tOo-happier than
I am now. | went back to Illinois to
buy farm. 1 thought this $4,000
would keep me all my life"
But it seems that Mr. Flood soon used
ND his $1,000; soon sold his farm, and
was back to California again, where six
wears ago he and O'Brien kept small
saloon in San Francisco, and mixed
ten-cent drinks for any body able to pay
for them. Among Flood and O'Brien's
acauaintances were two miners, John
Mackey and James Fair. In their
meanderingS around the COmstock lode
"a mountain twenty-five miles long
above Virginia City, in which are To-
Gated about thirty of the richest silver
mines in Nevada), Fair and Mackey
saw some outcroppings Of silver quartz
The claim was then owned by . Mr.,
Mckinney and others of Kentucky
Fair and Mackey bought the claim for a
tride, took in Flood and O'Brien a
partners, and commenced prospecting.
"What was the resultP" asked Mr..
Flood.
"why, we soon found we had two Of
the best silver mines ever found on the
Comstock, and by far the richest mines
in the world. We soon formed stock