Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1883-02-09
THE CALIFORNIA NABORS,


Perhaps the Pacific coast nabob
most talked and written about dur
ing his six years term in the United
States Senate was William Sharon.
Mr.. Sharon is a singular compound
of intellectual feebleness. personal
vanity, business sagacity and luck.
" hen. twenty years ago, L., went
from Ohio to California. he had
neither money. business training,
nor influence. In less than decade
thereafter he had an income Of half a
million dollars month, and when
elected to the Senate in 1874, from
Nevada, was reputed to be worth
Sl0.0OO,0U0.
Another very rich man-and the
very aDtithesis of Sharon-is Gen.
Thomas II. Williams. Williams is
the son of the Hon. Sherrod Will
liams. a former Kentucky Congress
man, and is lawyer, and brilliant
one; but since he CLEANED up' S.
100000 in the Big Bonanza he has
abandoned practice. The founda-
ton of his fortune was laid in sing
ular way. Some five years before the
discovery of the Big Bonanza, he
was attorney for man in a lawsuit
in Virginia City. The General lost
the suit, and the man didn't want to
pay his fee. Williams sued, and
finally it was compromised by the
man giving him 100 feet of mining
ground, called the Central No. %
claim on the Comstock The Gen
eral took it rather than carry the
thing further, but lie considered it of
littleior any value. He tried to give half
of it away once if the donee would
guarantee to do the assessment work,
but the person to whom he offered it
declined. When the Consolidated
Virginia Company was organized,
Central No. g adjoined their ground
on the north. When the California
Company was formed it took in
Central No. s." and Williams was
given 5000 shares of stock for his
claim. When the great bonanza was
found it was discovered that the very
heart OF 1.-THE bulge so to speak
was located in that 100 feet of
ground. The great rise in the stock
and the enormous dividends it
yielded gave General Williams his
present fortune. So much for q re-
luctantly accepted and half despised
lawyers fee! Williams gets his title
of General" from the fact that he
was once Attorney General of Cali
fornia-
The California millonaires with
least romance attached to the ac-
quirement of their fortunes are Mich
olas Luning and d. o. Mills. The
former began in the early days as
money-loaner at 5 and 10 per cent
per month, saved money, bought
land in the then suburbs of San
Francisco, and so got rich because he
couldn't help it. He began his ca
reer in California as the keeper of a
kind of thread and needle store in
Sacramento, but he soon bloomed out
as a money-lender and gold-dust
dealer. He made money fast and
finally started bank and by the
most cautious business methods
added to his store. He never spscu-
lated knowingly; never engaged ac-
lively in anything; he simply sat in
the Presidents chair of the bank
and signed his name In a perfume
tory way to everything brought to
him.
There was less mystery about the
the methods by which Jim" Keene
accumulated the millions with which
he went to New York and startled
Wall street. He got them by cool
eifrontery, brazen courage and an
energy and dash that were marvel.
Gus. He got them by an up-and-up,
stand-up, single-handed fight with
James &. Flood and his bonanza as
sociates. When Keene went to San
Francisco he was bright fellow, and
1t didn't take him long to select his
way of making a living. He had
been teaching school and editing a
weekly newspaper at Shasta, Cal,
and the life didn't suit him. He be-
gan his San Francisco career as
curbstope- broker and used to execute
orders on the street for bigger
brokers IN the board His advance
was rapid aad his luck prodigious.
Tie soon had a membership and in
the great excitement of 1872 became
known as the boleest and most dash
ing operator in the market.
James B. Haggin L. a California
millionaire, who furnishes an ex-
ample of what can be done;n mining
without the aid of excitemsuts and
deals, and stock boards and snecn-
lation. He mines for what is in the
ground solely, and has been til.
most fortunate man in that respect
the Pacific coast has ever produced.
When MIR. Haggin hears of pros
pect" he sends trusty agent to look
at it. If approved, he buys it; and
the most marvellous thing of all is he
so rarely makes mistake that it is
exceptional. 1t was he that de-
veloped the Black Hills mines, which
have yielded millions and seem mex
haustible. The Ontario of Utah, a
property which has paid millionslin
dividends. is his. The Jocuatista
mine, of Mexico, is yielding 100000
month. 1T is Mr.. Haggin's. He
conducts a mine as he would every
other business enterprise-on strictly
business principles. He never buys
stock and never sells any. If it were
not made necessary by certain laws,
he would not incorporate mine and
issue stock.
"My father" said Gilhooly, SOL