The Centre reporter. [volume] (Centre Hall, Pa.) 1871-1940, 1878-04-25
THE SILVER KING.


moment who, il ho were 80 minded.
could give his daughter marriage por-
tiun ~ one hundred and fifty million
dollars. He would then have about
tifty millions left for himself. He lives
half way up a mountain-slde IN Nevada,
and his daughter lives with him. Seven
years ago he was a poor man; to-day he
is the silver king Of America He has
dug two hundred million dollars worth
Of silver out of the hill he is
living on, and has about two
hundred millions more yet 10 dig.
II he lives three years longer he will be
the richest man IN the world His name
is James Fair, aud he is the manager,
/ superintendent, chiet partner, and
/ principal shareholder in the consolidated
! Virginia and California Silver Mines,
/ known 10 men as the "big bOnanZas.
/ He has an army of men toiling for him
day and night, down in the very depths
of the earth. digging. picking, blasting
and crushing Thousand tons Of rock
every twenty-four hours. He works as
hard as any man Of them. The man
/ who, 10y his own unaided e1ertions, can
/ rise 10 such marvellous wealth in SO
short time is worth knowing something
about. Ii is worth while 10 hear how
/ such fabulous fortune can be accumu-
I lated
/ Seven years ago there were two little
I Irishmen IN the city of San Francisco,
keeping a drinking-bar of very modest
/ pretensions, close 10 one of the principal
J business thoroughfares. Their custom
ers were Of all kinds, but chiefly COM
mercial men and clerks. Among them
was an unusually large proportion Of
stock and shareholders, mining brokers
and the like, and there WAS no place in
1 San Francisco where SO much mining
| talk went on AS in the saloon Of Messrs.
! Flood 4 O'Brien, which were the names
Of the two little Irishmen. Keeping
their ears wide open, and sitting the
mass of gossip that they listened 10 every
day. these two men picked up good
many crumbs of information, beside
getting now and then a direct cOufiden-
tial tip and they turned some % them
10 such good account in few quiet
little speculations, that they shortly had
"A comfortable sum Of money lying at
their bankers. Instead OF throwing il
away headlong in wild ertrnvAgant ven
lures, which was the joyous custom Of
the average Californian in those days,
they let il lie where il WAS, waiting till
they knew Of something good 10 put il
into. They soon heard Of something
good enough. On Fairs advice they
bought shares in a niue called tho Hale
and NorcruSs, and were speedily taking
ont Of il fifteen thousand pounds ster-
ling a month in dividends. This mine
was the property Of company, and
though it had at one time paid large and
continuous dividends, il WAS now sup
posed 10 be worked out and worthless.
Mr.. Fair, however, held a different
opinion and when he came 10 examine
il carefully, he found just what he e1-
pected 20 tind-a large deposit ot silver
ore. Thereupon he and Flood and
O'Brien together bought up all the
shares they could lay their hands upon.
and obtained complete control Of the
mine Ii was Immediately put under
Fairs management, aud il prospered,
and the three partners waxed very rich.
Mr.. Fair, being au experienced and
clever practical miner, spent most of his
time down in the nine laying ont and
directing the work for his men. /. was
necessary that he should know all there
was 10 be known, and see all there was
to been, about the property :. and he
made such constant and thorough ex-
plorations Of II, that he very soon got Il
by heart. In a little time there was not
an inch with which he was not thor
oughly acquainted, not trace Of mineral
in shaft or tunnel of which he was not
personally aware. BY and by, being a
reflective kind OF man, who noticed
everything and forgot nothing, he took
10 thinking over things, and putting odds
and ends OF observation together, and
comparing notes, and rummaging in old
out-of-the-way corners of the mine, and
making all sorts Of examinations in all
sorts of abandoned places, and generally
carrying on III IA curious way. until he
finally persuaded himself that some
where, close by the Hale and Norcross,
there ran gigantic Tein Of silver-bear-
ing ore, whose value he could only cal
culate in figures that frighter ed him TO
look at. Week after week he hunted
for this vein without success, and under
difficulties that would have disheartened
an ordinary man but he stuck 20 the
followed it up for ten days, and then
struck the Bonanza, n huge sheet Of
glIttering stephanite, one hundred feet
wide, OF unknown length and depth, and
of the estimated value Of six hundred
millions of dollars-the mightiest for.
tune that ever dazzled the eyes Of man.
In week he and his partners were the
absolute owners OF three-fourths OF it,
the prospective possessors Of four hun
dred and fifty million dollars Figures
like these stun the imagination.
In the excitement caused by this as
founding discovery il ia scarcely more
than the hard truth 10 say that San
Francisco went raving mad. The vein
in which the bonanza was found was
known to run straight through the con-
solidated Virginia and California mines,
dipping down as it went, and could not
be traced any further. But that fact
was nothing 10 people who were bent on
having mining stock; and, vein or no
vein, the stock they would have. Con-
sequently they bonght into every mine
in the neighborhood, good and bad alike,
sending prices up 10 unheard-of limits,
and investing millions in worthless pro-
perties that have never yielded a shil-
ling in dividends, and never will. When
Flood had bought a large quantity of
the bonanza stock, and had assured 20
himself and his partners the controlling
interest in the mines, he recommended
all his friends to buy little, and O 'Brien
did the same. Those who took the adj
vice are now drawing their proportion
ate shares OF dividends, amounting TO
about two million five hundred thousand
dollars a month. The majority of those
who bought into other mines are, in Cali
fornia parlance, "busted." What these
three merf aud their latestPartner, Mac
1 kay, are going to do with their money IL
a curious problem, the solution OF which
will be watched with great interest in a
1 year or two to come. The money they
hold now is yielding them returns 80
/ enormous that their maddest extrava-
/ gances could make no impression on the
amount. Every year they are earning
more, saving more, and investing more.
They have organized bank with n capi-
/ tai Of ten millions Of dollars; they con-
/ troll nearly all the mining interests OF
Nevada and California; they have n
strong grip Of the commercial, financial,
and farming interests all along the Paci
/ fic slope; and by n single word they can
/ at any moment raise disastrous panic,
| and plunge thousands OF men into hope
less ruin. It will he an interesting thing
10 wait aud watch how this terrible
power for good or evil Is TO be welded.