The Brookhaven leader. [volume] (Brookhaven, Miss.) 1883-1891, 1885-08-27
MINING oeoAosNcE OUT WEST.
rhe Comstock. Eureks. and Other Mines
Speculation In 'Frisco-Operators
tCor Chlca0o Herald

Speculation In 'Frisco-OperatOrsL
lCor. Chicago Herald.l
No Official report of the silver yield OF
the country for 1885 has yet been made
public, but it does not need statistics TO
show that, so far as the region west of
the Rocky mountains is concerned, the
production of silver has fallen to but q
fraction of former years. The great
silver state Of Nevada, for instance, has
fallen ron $4s, 900, 900 in 1876 TO less
than $1,000, 900 in 1889, and now has to
be rated second to several of the terri
tories. The great Comstock lode alone,
which has produced 1871 200, 900 in
gold and silver, DOES not now tlrn out
enough to pay for oil TO run the ma
chinery of the mines The Eureka,
" hite Pine, Pioche, Austin, Tuscarora,
and other districts which once turned
out their millions, are now almost
wholly unproductive.
The whole state of Nevada. indeed, Is
marked by abandoned shafts aud tun-
nels, and strewn with idle and rusting
machinery, while the population Of the
state has dwindled from IS, 900 in 1880
to less than 20. 900 in lS i5. There were
but $4,000 votes cast in the whole state
in 1884. Utah and Arizona, the only
other silver producing regions of the
Pacific coast, are not so unproductive
as Nevada, yet their glory has, in a
great degree, departed. The mines o.
Tombstone, Pinal, Bisbee, prescott, and
avapai, in Ari ona, have all fallen
off, and dividends now are like the Wis
itations of angels, few and far between.
Nowhere is this wreckage Of the min
ing interests of the west more apparent
than in San rancisco. speculation IL
mines and mining stocks is as dead here
as literature on the ongo. The streets
formerly devoted to the business OF
speculation, and which were the head
quarters of hundreds of mining com
panies, are deserted and quiet. The
thousands of feverish operators who
made the air ring with their shouts aud
the excited hum of business have scat
tered to the four winds. Some are in
ew ork; some who saw in time the
coming of the end retired with fortunes;
some are in Washington begging Offices
from the new admin stratiOn; many
have gone to farming, Others wander
listlessly about the streets, seedy and
poverty stricken, and a few, alas! ill
suicides graves.
The massive stone stock exchange,
erected at cost of 1000, 600, stands
desolate, its windows dotted with pla-
cards 10 ct and its great toawood"
doors yawning for victims Its portals
are thrown open once day-a little
knot of gray and haggard brokers, each
grasping for the fraction of commits
sion which he would have scorned i'll
tie days gone by, gather in the middle
of the floor, make their little transac-
tons involving a few hundred dollars,
and the business Of the day is over. TO
those who remember the excitement and
uproar and swirl o ten years ago the
sight is almost ludicrous, for it seems
like children playing at speculation in
the back yard.
The old operators, OF the Ralston.
eene, Mills and lood type, long since
vanished from the scene. ent, Fob
crts, Latham, Hall, Sherwood, Grayson,
Dodge, Budd, eckham and scores of
others of later period, have not been
seen on the iCOr of the exchange for
years some of them are dead, others
scattered. The wealth which poured
into their laps often in night has for
the II ost part gone with them. In some
cases it has been dissipatcd and its
for er owners reduced to penury.
With the decadence of speculation
there has come, too, an end TO sensa-
,i0nal mining. There are no longer dis
crveries which set the public wild. In
deed, there has been nothing of great
7alue found by any OF the vast army of
prospectors since 1879 Now and then
a gold pocket is found in the quartz re-
g on of California which yields for
tune to a few lucky individuals, but it
has no effect upon the public. The
nd is not extensive enough to arouse
mole than a passing interest.