Centre Democrat. [volume] (Bellefonte, Pa.) 1848-1989, 1881-04-21
JOHN w. MACKAY.

on the Comstock-"here / used TO
stand and turn for SO day. Seth
Cook was my partner, and he was paid
SO day. Seth Cook is now large
owner in the Standard mine and one
of the rich men of the Pacific coast"
The speaker was John w. Mackay, the
Bonanza King, one of the richest men
in the world. He is Il slender, tallish,
well-knit man of forty.seven, with
clean, well.marked face, showing de-
cision and frankness. His hair and
moustache are brown, tinged with
gray. His eye is keen and penetrat-
ing, his skin is ruddy, wholesome, vas
cular, tanned with Nevada sunshine
and steamed in the Turkish bath tenn
perature of the lower levels of the
Comstock lode. What impresses one
about the man is that there is nothing
wasted in him he is all muscle and
nerve, and shows temperate and care
ful habits. When he walks it is with
the sure, agile tread of the leopard or
the lynx, like one who might spring
Mt any moment. There is a joyous
element in the man, which would be
winning were its owner only n cab
driver instead of the master of mil
lions. He speaks with Il half STAN
mer, which at first impresses one as
being the slowness of n man who de-
liberatcs while he speaks. This is the
Bonanza King as he stands at your
side looking out over the brown Ne
vada hills. The miners come up and
speak to him and call him John, and
there is between them n sense Of com.
mand blended with comradeship which
appears odd to metropolitan eyes.
Forty-seven years ago or there
abouts John w. Mackay was born in
Dublin. He came to New York in
his youth, and gamboled around the
City Hall Park in its pastoral days,
and was not unhappy when a btasc
theatre.goer gave him n check for the
Park Theatre. Among other sights,
he used TO look with wonder upon a
famous man striding up Nassau street
from the old post-otiice with bundle
of newspapers under his arm. This
was James Gordon Bennett, then a
curiosity even to boys, and the work
which he was doing was building up
the New York Herald. California
came in enticing, golden spleudor out
of the sluices Of Swiss Suffers mill,
and young Mackay went with all the
world to Eldorado. About this time
there went two others on the same err
rand. One was an Irishmau named
O'Bricn-"Billy" O'Brien, as all Cal
ifornia came to call him. Billy had n
partner, a strong.headed, resolute New
York lad, who came from the Broder-
ick section Of New York. and had
in him all that immense capacity of
doing and daring which gave Broder-
ick national fame. Billy's partner Is
now known a. james {. Flood, OF the
"Flood IL O'Brien firm" whose phe-
nomenal success was to make all the
world wonder
Mackey went his way, rs everybody
did in those feverish days. lie lived
in mining camps he slept on the
ground he picked and scratched and
washed the gravel in running streams; /;
he had his ups and downs he saw all
that was gay, all that was golden in
Eldorado life, and then he came with
his pick and his blanket to the Nevada
mountains. In the meantime Billy
O'Brien and his partner had tired Of
the sage brush. Giving up mining,
they went to San Francisco and into
business. The young Irishman made
their acquaintance. He had found
some good prospects and they had
some money. A hard.headed, smooth,
discreet engineer became known to
them, by name Fair. He was n man
to be considered, and the result was
that four -Mackay, Flood, O'Brien
aud Fair--made that business com.
pact known rs the Bonanza firm,
which is now a ruling power in our
Pacific empire. In the firm Mackay
owns two-ftth, and, as the head of the
Bonanza firm, is known as the Bonan-
IN King.
His royal honors came to him in
the discovery of the Big Bonanza in
the Comstock lode, about ten years
ago. Mackay himself-to show the
uncertainties of mining-was about to
throw up the lode in despair, when
his workmen struck a vein which
was to yield s1l1,000,000. Other
mines helped to swell the firms reve-
nues, and the Bonanza firm, which
ten years ago would have sold its
Comstock interest for a million, be-
came the masters Of stupendous wealth.
Mackay's income from his mines alone
was was put down for length of time
at 100000 a month. But no one can
tell how much is fiction and how much
is truth in q career so romantic. Ger
L - In