Daily globe., 1878-05-19
Romance of William S. O,Brien.

Born in New York in 1886, poor as a
church mouse; living here for thirteen
years as the poorest of the poor do live
stealing as a stowaway or shipping as a
cabin boy on board the ship Fara!into,
and arriving in San Francisco on the 9th
Of July, 1949, a lad in his fourteenth
year, destitute alike OF education, of
money and of friends; beginning life as a
bar-keeper in an eating house in the base
ment of one of the San Francisco stock
exchanges; and dying the other day,
leaving no wife or child behind him, but
a fortune of certainly not less than $15,
100000, and perhaps of 100000, 0,000-this
is the outline Of the romance Of William
S. OBrien, one OF the great Bonanza
kings; and stranger story has seldom
been told. Was it luck or natural sagac-
lty and prudent daring that won for him
and his three millionaire associates their
immense fortunes?
It is hard to saw. The capricious Dame
Fortune had, no doubt, much to do with
it; but her favors would not have yielded
this bountiful increase had they been be-
slowed on men devoid Of some excellent
business qualities, 1t appears that
O'Brien must have been thrifty and saw
ing in his youth; for at time of the first
mining excitement he was keeping a
saloon of his own and acting as his own
barkeeper. He was seized with the few
er, went to the mines and made some
money, with which he went into business
with the late Col. W G. Hoff This con-
nection was dissolved in two years, and
O'Brlen then formed a copa1tnership
with w. ]. Rosner, in the ship-chandlery
business. Meanwhile, however, he was spec
ulating in mining stocks ,and here fortune
smiled upon him. His investments were
cautious and in small lots, but they al
most always turned out profitable, aud he
began to grow moderately wcll-off. He
now| formed a partnership with Mr. Flood
another successful stock operator, and
Mrssrs. Mackey and Fair subsequently
joined the firm. And now dazzling and
unexamp,ed piece Of good fortune await
ed them. The Consolidated Virginia and
California mines were opened, and their
shares were in the market. By shrewd
questioning of miners and oilers, OF by
other means, O'Brien and his partners sat
isfed themselves that the lodes were val
although there is no reason to
suppose even they dreamed how valuable
they were and as quickly as possible
they bought up the shares until they
possessed nearly the whole Of them. The
| Big Bonanza was discovered; the unexam-
pied richness Of the lodes was disclosed
million after million of the finest silver
and gold ore ever found came to the sur
face: the shares went up to fabulous
| figures, and OBrien and his partners
found themselves almost incredibly rich
They established the great Bank OF
Nevada, and from that time on they have
been the money kings Of the Pacific coast
Neither O'Brien. Flood nor Mackey
had been born rich nor had received a
good education, but they conducted theil
vast business with wisdom and were sue
cessful in all their greatoperations. The
combined capital of the California and
consolidated Virginia mines is $1O8,OOO,-
600, divided into 1,OSO,00O shares. The
amount paid up on these is $474,6O0, and
the product OF the gold and silver bull
lion extracted from the mines has been
$91,721, 1886. This is dazzling, and it il
all the more remarkable from the fact
that these immense profits have been
realized within three years. Mr.. OBrien
was personally very popular: he was
liberal, genial and cheerful, and kind tc