National Republican. (Washington City (D.C.)) 1872-1888, 1885-07-22
JOHNNY sKAEs FORTUNE.
HOW HE DOUBLED UP, MADE MILLIONS, AND
LOST THEM-HIs oHFcKEREp LIFE.


Johnny Skae, the man who made big
fortune in the Comstock mines, and then
lost IL, died in San Francisco few days
ago. The history of Mr.. Skae's elevation
to the dignity of q millionaire and his
rapid return to the humility of poverty
is highly interesting. Mr.. Skae was born
in Canada. One Of his parents was Scotch
and the other Irish Like the majority
of men who have acquired great wealth
on the Pacific coast he started in the
race for fame from humble position.
He was telegraph operator of uncom-
mon ability, which was utilized in the |
business of transmitting dispatches be-
tween the Comstock and the San Fran
cisco stock market. The wires were
burdened with the history of the lode
from day to day, and there was no one
who read the story with more interest
than Johnny Skae, the telegraph opera
tor. He was wonderfully shrewd young
man, and the stock spectators of that
day were not the experts in concealing
their intentions that bitter experience
has since made them. The greater por.
ton of the cipher dispatches flashed over
the wires from the Comstock, apprising
the managers in San Francisco of the
promise of each days work in the
mines, was capableof being read by un-
friendly eyes, and tradition has il that
Johnny Skae did not show himself the
incapable one.
II lives in the history of the Comstock
and the anecdotes of the telegraph
office that Mr.. Skae not only read the
secret dispatches, but, unlike the major
ity of his craft, possessed the business
tact to make capital of his knowledge.
The information thrust before him day
by day made him master of the situation
as far as his capital could extend, and he
continued to expand the limits of his OPP
erations until the telegraph office knew
him no more. He abandoned it to as
sumo control of the Virginia and Gold
Hill water works-a piece of engineering
skill which represented vast outlay of
money and labor, and promised pro-
portionate profit on the investment.
The easy pace of prudent bondholder
was not to:.the liking of Mr.. Skae, how
ever, and he embraced all the opportuni-
ties that the stock market offered for
excitement until the fame of the big
bonanza set half the country at its wits
end. He had but small amount of the
stock when it commenced to climb the
scale Of prices, but he dashed at the
market, and, with astounding reckless
ness, followed the securities until Con-
solidated Virginia was close to the thou
sand dollar limit, and the value of Califor-
mia mining stock was set at an equally ex-
horbitant sum. When the deal" ended,
and the tidal of excitement had receded,
leaving the market strewn with thewrecks,
Mr.. Skae was $4,000 ahead. With the
ebb of the bonanza excitement the fame
of the winners grew less, and was finally
eclipsed. One by one the crop of mil
lionaires was gathered into the Nevada
Bank and lost to the outside world With
the others went Mr.. Skae.
Those who watched the stock market
and the figures revolving around it knew
that Mr. Skae was still interested in the
securities; but it took o practiced eye
to detect his presence. His reckless sys
tenn of fighting luck by doubling up"
until his "margins" were too thin to sup
port his air castles, had made sad in
road on his $4,000, 900 "clean up" and
left him to hang his hopes ON a few spec
ulative properties In this uninviting
category was the Sierra Nevada mine, of
which Mr.. Skae was president. The
stock was down to bedrock, but even at
that state Mr.. Skae did not want it. A
sudden desire for travel possessed the
mining men. Mr.. Skae, obeying the
popular impulse, came east. He had not
reached his destination when the entire
aspect of affairs on the Comstock and ON
the San Francisco stock market was
changed by few dispatches. One of
| .,f oil hat
indications of bonanza in Sierra Nevada,
and he went back as fast as a special
train could carry him. An examination
of the mine convinced him that great
bonanza was in prospect, and with all his
characteristic recklessness he dashed into
the market. He had only 5000 shares
of Sierra Nevada, and not great deal of
his 100000 cleanup on Consolidated
Virginia.
All that he had, however, went to his
brokers, and the substantial firm on Pine
street which he patronized was ordered
to "double up" The firm doubled fol
the bold Spectator, and he bought on
his brokers' money until the stock stood
at $278 share. The same tactics and
the same firm had stood him in good
stead in the Consolidated Virginia and
California excitement, and seemed to be
serving him we'll again. He became the
lion of the hour.
Mr.. Skae's trout breakfasts at the Vir
ginia and Gold Hill Water Works viii
, live long in the memory of the Virginil
gourmets. There was no ridiculous eX
clusiveness about the festivities, for hal
! the town participated and the supply o.
fish and wine was ever equal to the de
mand. For weeks the fame of Mr.. Ska,
transcribed that of any millionaire OIL
the Pacific coast, but the wane of hi
) star was soon observed. The cross cut
; in the /, 700 foot level of the promised
, bonanza stubbornly refused to yielt
So, 900 assays, and by rapid stages tn,
public distrust of the property increased
until panic was precipitated.
When the echoes of the crash hat
I. died away Johnny Skae, the temporar.
idol of the Comstock, the "father of thu
new bonanza" the princely poker player
: and the lavish exemplar of Nevada hos
a pitality, was virtually pauper. He hat
s held his stock to the top figure. AM
Q when the crash came his ''margins" wer
0 swept away. After while he was hear
of in Columbus district, and was re
f ported to have made another strike, bu
:, the report WAS evidently based on his oil
Il luck, Tor he soon turned up as an inmat
J. of the smallpox hospital. He served fo
y some time as bookkeeper of that il
}. stitution, and then disappeared frol
public ken until the police found him i
helpless condition on the street an
o locked him up in default of So bal
y Checkered as the typical life in the Yves
l. is, it furnishes few such examples {
C misadventure as that Of a man, who, i
If two years, reached such extremes of n
j. Auence and poverty that he might hay
9. written his check for $lO,OOO,OOO an