Eureka daily sentinel. [volume] (Eureka, Nev.) 1871-1887, 1879-03-19

bread. a Quarter OF n Dollar n Loaf
and Two Thousand Men I'm Idle.
ness.
[From the Indianapolis News.l
A"News" reporter met Mahlon b. ORA
per, who, a short time ago, was seized with
the gold fever and e to Leadville, Colo
RADIO.
Back already r. the reporter inquired.
"Well, yes l know when I've got
enough. l was in Leadville n week
only"
"Why did you come back so soon from
that place of surprising prosperity ?"
II went there with a view Of locating,
but soon saw there was no show. Mer-
~chandisihg was what I intended, groceries
and everything OF that sort, . general
stock, bat soon saw that nothing OF that
kind would pay-alrcady overdone. Dry
goods business in The same fix, in fact there
seems TO be nothing in anything but the
vices. In the first place, rents, even il
you are lucky enough 70 get . room, are
too high. There are II. 900 people in Lead
vile to-day, nearly all men. and. at least,
1000 men are without work and without .
dollar in their pockets. 1 never saw 80
many beggars in my life. miserable devils,
begging for a quarter to buy . iosf OF
DICaus xOu G1u Btb AittiC Aooi, obOut
mouthful, for ten cents, but Q decent
sized loaf sells for a quarter"
But the other 10000 ARE they making
money 2"
s.Some Of them are. But there's no room
for new men. and yet they are constantly
coming. The mines, smelters, and saw
mills are running all the men now that they
can handle. And just think This little
city, the liveliest, wickedest city in the
world, has nearly all grown within the
past year. In 1861 it was called Shutdown,
and there were q few houses there, but it's
present population has all come within the
past year. A lot in the business part OF
the tow that twelve months ago sold for
S100 to-day sells for 81.
Rents are viciously high. A business
room, eighteen feet wide by forty feet deep,
rents at $500 a month. The Theater Conn
ique building, q rough frame box, seating
and standing about seven hundred people,
though they crowd in a thousand q night,
seven nights in the week, at 81 a head
we'll, sardines in a box are comparatively
comfortable compared with them-rents
for 81 400 o month. Well, the i~niquity
can afford to pay it, for the wine-room
alone takes in 5000 a night for liquors.
There are two other theaters, paying the
same heavy rents as the Comique. Gam
bling houses and saloons? / dom know;
there are over one hundred Of them, /
should think. Every saloon is a gambling
house. There are numerous dance halls,
which pay an average rental of 5000 per
month.
"The first mines are not over q quarter
of a mile from the main street, and they
extend over several miles Of territory,
though the paying mines are, l am told,
all near Leadville. The big run of metal
is silver, though there is some gold. Most
Of the mineral is low-grade ore. There is
no room thare for men unacquainted with
mining. The foreman of the Little Pitts
burg mine exclaimed to me the other day
"'What do people mean by coming here;
green men, to work in these mine? We
don't want 'em. 1t takes the best bridging
to keep these mines from tumbling in now
when worked with experienced hands-old
miners-as the mineral is chiefly in the
form OF carbonate, and crumbles like rot
ten cheese"
1.-THE paying mining interests are mon
opolized by capital. 1t take capital to run
these mines, and a great deal Of it to
get any profit out of them. They are al
ready filled with old miners, who have
poured in from Deadwocd, Georgetown,
and q hundred other points; SO you see
there is no show whatever for amateur
talent"