The Warner sun. (Warner, Brown Co., Dakota [S.D.]) 1885-1???, 1885-10-16
BONANZA KINGS.
Where Fortunes Change Hands-The
Stock Exchange and the Banks of Cali
fornia and Nevada.


said: ''There is more money lost and
made in California in one week than
would pay the debt of England
This may seem an exaggerated esti-
mate OF the vast sums that have
changed hands in San Francisco, for
that is the central point for all mon
ey-making schemes on the Pacific
coast, but it is the truth. The Bank of
Nevada the great foothold of the BIO
nanza kings, and unquestionabiy the
lever for all the greatest influences in
mining stocks, both elevating and de-
pressing them, is to be found in
Frisco. This bank was once
owned by Mackay, Flood and Fair, but
Mackay was bought out, and now the
ruling power is Flood and Fair. The
Bank of California, the Oldest of the
two banks, from which the great rail-
road kings, Stanford, Huntington,
Hopkins, Croker and others started,
and from which poor Ralston rushed
one day to the seaside to end his
troubles in the sea, stands there grim,
silent and strong. mistaken by the
failures of thousands, but as firm and
sure as the Bank of England. Right
near it stands the Merchants Ex-
change, a very meagre looking affair,
excited about 1867, from which many
have gone forth bankrupt, ruined and
without a penny, who put their faith
In stocks. The Safe Deposit Company
has a building next to the Merchants
Exchange, which is a very modern
structure. 1t is asserted that at one
timethere was over $28, 600, 600 worth
OF jewelry, plate and bonds in two
vaults, belonging to Mrs Hopkins and
Mrs. Mackay, under the care of this
company. The Stock Exchange on
Pine street is a noticeably handsome
room, nothing but mining stocks being
handled there. In 1875, the year of
highest prices, the aggregate value of
the mining stocks which were handled
in this exchange was $282,00O, 600.
In 1881 the aggregate value of the
same stock was but $17,O00,0 600.
There had occurred a shrinkage of
$265,000 900, or more than fifteen
~ IIlC cbliiOAtllU VI III DOGdi tCbIOC
surviving. Why was this? you natur-
ally ask. Because the Comstock, a
most famous mine, had been found to
be overvalued, and flooded, as the
market was with itspaper, the bottom
had dropped out of it. Again, Con-
solidated Virginia, which had a fancy
value of SIS, 900, 600 was then worth
less than one. Sierra Nevada, estima-
ted on the street as worth at least
$2S, 100000, was considered enor-
nous then at 1926, 600, but of all the
shrinkages or tumble-downs of mines
the California ''tooktheca cake" From
$S4, 1000, 600 it had shrunk to about
100000. That was heyear for anx-
iety and depression of all classes, be-
cause to be q thorough Californian
you must have fioated through the
mining market.
Flood and O'Brien many years ago
were the owners Of the tAuction
LUNCH" a saloon on Washington
street, near the postoffice. Their ac-
eession to wealth reads like the story
of Arabian Nights. They were always
shrewd, sharp, honestaaealing men, and
as such commanded the trade of the
miners, who in the snowy and wetsea-
sons oflate fall, winter and early spring
came infrom the mountains with their
gold dust, preparedto make San Fran
cisco their resting place until they
could return to their labors again.
Flood and O'Brien were in the habit of
receiving from the miners their gold
dust and lockingit up forthem, at the
same time plyingthem with questions
as to the paying qualities, of such
and such a. mine; or if any new mine
had been pre-empted they founditout.
Little by little they worked until one
fine morning all San Francisco was
startled by the knowledge that Flood
and O'Brien were proprietors of the
"IIale and Narcross," a very rich
mine. Next they soldout the Auction
Lunch" and doomed out as posses
sors of a rich share Of the Comstock
lode, holding it until it deprecated In
value and shifting their burden upon
some poor unfortunates, who bought
it when it was valueless and utterly
useless as a paying Investment. Flood
talked very little of his elevation in
the world, but O'Brien s'cashed in"
before he had a chance to use his
wealth, leaving to a host of nieces and
nephews a fabulous fortune.
Harry Meig's wharf still stands as a.
relic of his great propensity to gain
wealth, although now it is used as q
dumping pier for the city refuse, and
swarms ofrag-pickers gather aroundit
every day to pick out such scraps as
they may before the tide carries the
refuse away. In the days of Meigs,
away back in the fifties, it was the
wharf at which the ships landed.
Meigs, with his millions of South
American money, longed toreturn and
die in California. He offered and par
TALLY paid back all he had obtained be-
fore he SO suddenly decamped, but he