Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1885-09-04
JOHNNY SKAE.
How the Father OF the Bonanza
Fell From Fortune.
A Man Once worth Ten Millions Dies .
Last In Cttef Poverty-The vlcIssis
tudes Of q Pacific Coast
Speculator.
[ssn Francisco plspatch.l

loan EdnciSCO OlSpaVCl.I
Johnny Skae, who was known to min.
ing men in this city aud on the Comstock
six years ago as 'the father Of the Sierra
Nevada bon1nza," and at one period oi
bis checkered career could sign his CHECK
for 500 0,o0O, died here yesterday in
poverty. The history OF Skae is one
which sets out in broad relief the vicissi.
tudes OF mining, speculation and one
which could hav5 been prepared nowhert
else but on tn Pacific coast, at the time
when speculation ran Ii)s here ard in.
volved in its meshes everybod who could
command double eagle to deposit with
the brokers as q margin. Skae came tC
California when a boy and learned the
bus ness OF telegraph operator. He wal
working for the California Telegraph
Company when the four bonanza kings
Food, O'Brien, Mackay and Fair-were
developing the resources OF the Consol.
idated Virginia and CalifornIa mines on
the Comstock. Mackay and Fair, who
superintended tho operations at Virs sinia
City, were in constant communication
with Flood and O'Briea in this city By
means of the telegraph, and, as it was
desirable to keep from outsiders" the
real condition of affairs In the mines un-
til the proper time for booming them ar
rived, the managers used what they con
sidered a 81 fe cipher in their dispatches.
This cipher Johnny Skae. who was the
receiver on the Virginia City wire, sue.
ceeded in interpreting, so that he knew
Of every movement in the mines and was
apI'rised of the great bonanzl in sight for
aeveral days before the general public
knew of it.
Acting on his knowledge thus acquired
Johnny invested all the cash he could
raise in the stock OF tie two mines,
and he found no difficulty In securing
brokers to advance him the money to car.
ry large blocks on margin in exchange
the secret information which he gave
them. He bought thousands of shares
at from $40 to $30 and when the Pacific
coast awoke to the fact that the big
bonanza had really been unearthed
Johnny S1ae was ole OF the 'lnsiders"
in the tremendous deal which followed.
When the deal ended and the tidal wave
of excitement had receded, leaving the
market strewn with the wrecks, Johnny
Skae was 400, 600 ahead. He now went
10 Virginia City and assumed control of
the Virginia and Gold Hill Water Works.
During all this time Johnny continued
to speculate in the bonanzas, aud he had
himself made President OF the Sierra Ne
vada, in which Senator John p. Jones
was a heavy stockholder. Sierra Nevada,
however, was away down in ths market.
and nothing in sight warranted any v.ry
strong belief in its fu ure as a produc-
tive property. Skle had not the means
Of knowing tn inside working of the Con-
solidated and California mines that hs
possessed whel a telegraph operator,
and, like hundreds of others who male
fortunes in the big deal, he was not Ipru-
dent enough to unload in time. The re.
suit was that most of thu So 0O.0O) was
steadily gathered In by the bozansl kings
aud found ITS way to the vaults OF
the Nevad Bank Then came the sudden
depression all al 'ng the Comstock lole,
which characterized the year 1878, and
Johnny Skae, like many other dis.
tinguished spectators, started for Nv
Yrk to fad new fields for enter.
Prise On his way he was intercepted
by a dispatch telling him that h,re were
indications OF a bonanzI in Sierra Neva.
da. He hurried back to Virginia in a
special train, examined the min,, and was
He had but 600 shares of Sierra Nevada
and not much of his 81. O,O0) cleal-u up on
Consolidated Virginia, but all that he had
went to his brokers on margins, and they
were ordered, as Of old, to "doube up. d
They doubled up for the bold specula tor,
and he bought on his brokers money nm.
Ill the stock, which two months before
had been selling at fifty cents, had reach.
ed $2aS. John p. Jones was then in Virgini 4
conducting his canvass for Unitel States
Senator. Skae t,ok him into the mine and
the Senator invested nearly all he could
raise in the stock When the $yTS limi,
had been reached. Skae was estimated to
be worth $1O,O0O,0J0, and ho became the
lion OF the hour
But the crash soon came. The prom
ised bonanza di not appear, and johnny
Skae went down with the crash. The
'father of the new bonanza" and the
princely poker player becam, in ons week
virtually pauper. He had held his stock
at the top figures, and VIII ,n the crash
came his margins and those of his friends
were swept away. Johnny then became a
bookkeeper in a small pox hospital In the
Columbus district After this he disap-
peared from public view until about a year
ago, when Sacramento policeman found
him helplessly drunk. He was taken tc
the station house, where is was found that
the man who seven years before could
give his check for $40, 900, 900 hal not five
dollars to secure his release on bail. That
was the last heard of Johnny Skae until
his death yesterday.