The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1880-06-03
TERMS $500 PER ANNUM, IN ADVANCE.

of the mine, was talking to knot of men
about investing in q certain neighboring mine
Imperial, think. Mackay overheard the
conversation. He had always been a sober and
industrious man, and he had some money He
took Walkers advice and invested in the stock
and eventually made 100000 which he b ad on
deposit on the bank of California for several
weeks before again entering the field. Time
ran along. Fair and Mackay made two or
three joint investments and always made
money. Then it happened one day they were
down in Flood & O'Brien's 'Auction Lunch"
saloon on Washington street. Flood & O'Bri-
EN- were doing a modest business, but not
enough to choke them with pride. Flood
had made a few thousand dollars in
stocks and was eager for points. 1t was near
ing the time for the annual election of Hale &
Norcross Fair said if they could get lot of
the stocks and proxies for a lot more they
could get the control of the mine away from
the bank of California. They resolved to do.
it. They put all their money in a pool, Flood
acting as broker, and bought all the stock pos
sble They secured proxies for enough more
to control the election, but would have been
not proved his integrity in the presence of the
most glittering temptation Ralston could offer.
Fair had proxies that represented the balance
of power, and he threw them as he had PROM
ised, in favor of Mackay, Flood & Co. They
never forgot it, as he retired from business two
years ago with S2,50O,0O6 This was the be-
ginning of the reign. Having got control Of
Hale & Norcross they opened it up for what it
was worth. The stock shot up into the thous-
ands, and they became millionaires in a few
weeks. But this merely whetted their appe-
ttes. The Central No. 2 and White & Muir
ply claim, just south of the Ophir, had al.
ways been considered wildcats. Mackay and
Fair, who resided in Virginia, thought differ
emily. They quietly gathered in all the stock
at 50 and started in to develop the claims
first remaining them Consolidated Virginia
and California. Everybody knows what these
unparalleled mines have done. Mackay, Fair,
Flood and O'Brion formed partnership,
Mackay retaining two-ffths and the others
each one-ffth interest in the partnership.
Mackay and Fair attended to matters in Vir-
ginia, Flood manipulated the market, and
O'Brien, broth of a boy if ever there was
one, kept things moving among the saloons
and out at the Cliff house. When he died in
1877 he left $9,Oc0,000.
Senator Jones got his star t, made and lost
his fortune ON the Comstock. He was the
daddy of Crown Point, and here he made his
bonanza. How the twenties used to fly in
those days! Wine. two-bit cigars, anything
everything free. But no one knows what man
is capable of under certain conditions until he
is seen with unlimited wealth in flush min-
ing camp. But Jones went through like
man in the deal last fall, and is now inter-
ested in Colorado enterprises, believe.
Johnny Skae is another who was for time
one of fortunes favorites He was telegraph
operator when he got hold of the key to some
big stock operators cipher which he used to
such good advantage that he got the nucleus
of fortune. He finally got control OF the Vir-
ginia and Gold Hill water company, and that,
together with fortunate investments in stocks,
made him S2,O0O.OOO. To-day he is $25O,OOO
worse off than nothing.
Lucky" Baldwin is another who owes his
fortune to the Comstock. A man of anything
but elevated instincts, yet possessed of native
tune through fortunate investments in Com
stock securities. 1t is related of him that he
gave his counsel, r. HI. Lloyd, who secured
him divorce from one of his wives, 1000
shares of Ophir as fee. The stock was worth
at the time $3.50 share. How cheaply wives
are gotten, and how dear they sometimes
prove in the end!
The moral history of the Comstock for the
past 20 years, if truthfully written would COM
prise dramatic tale indeed. / have never
heard of any one being morally elevated by its
influence, but the lives that have been wrecked
here, their name is legion. Even to-day the
crack of a suicides pistol or scenes behind
grated bars in the two lunatic asylums of this
State tell their own tale. Honor, fortune and
life have been sacrificed time and again to the
god mammon. Men Of moderate fortunes en-
We'd Flood & Co., and played against their
game and drew disaster, ruin, insanity, death,
while the masters OF the situation counted
their increasing gains in the Nevada bank
vaults and pitied the fools who dared woo for
tune without proptiating her latest votaries.
In the palmy days of the Comstock, Virginia
City enjoyed flush times. In the city proper
there was population of about 5000 souls, con-
ssting of miners, saloon keepers, merchants,
teamsters, gamblers and courtesans Is faro
banks and 200 courtesans lent their attractions
to the place in 1876, and / remember the Law
ishness with which money was thrown to the
dogs. Everyone had money, and everyone
seemed to be on a glorious SPREE But the
scene changed in 1877. Darkness and despair
camped under the shadow of Mount Davidson,
and the glory of the Comstock seemed to have
departed. But in 1878 Sierra Nevada gave ev-
licences of bonanza. Money was plenty,
stocks booming for q few weeks, and then, the
deal being ended, the town relapsed into
state of semi-bankruptcy. A joint effort was
made to revive the lode last fall, and Union
and Sierra Nevada were pushed up the scale.
But the experts who saw the drifts coppered
the deal, and it now looks as if the dog was f.
nally and irrevocably dead.
The Comstock has had an unprecedented
history. In 20 years it has given to the world
more than 300 millions of money and employ
ment to thousands of workingmen. 1t has de-
veloped some of the finest machinery in the
world, and made quartet Of millionaires who
never hoped for more than 100000 between
them. Its future for many days will be that
of most mining-camps that have had their
day There is some low grade ore that may
be worked by the Sutro Tunnel mills, to be
constructed soon, but the day Of bonanzas has
passed.