The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1886-04-26
TIMES IN NEVADA.
ANOTHER SILVER STRIKE NEEDED
TO BOLSTER UP THE STATE.
the Population Diminishing and Costly
Mining Machinery Standing Idle
Is the Old Comstoek Lode De-
hnitiyeIy Played Out?
Virginia City Cor. New York SUM-


Nevada is a deserted mining camp which
has two United States senators and one con-
gresham. Its ups and downs have coin
cided with the ups and downs of its mines.
When they yielded well its towns have been
full, its business houses prosperous and its
people comparatively numerous. When
they have produced little or nothing it has
gone into the dumps, as it now is, and
everything that has pertained to it has put
on sackcloth and ashes, and awaited the
next strike.
If Nevada is ever called upon to decide
presidential election for this country. the
beauty of the creation Of such states win be
apparent to the dullest observer. In the
last campaign, if Indiana and Connecticut
had voted for Blaine, and if Cleveland had
carried the southern states and New Jersey
and New York, Nevada would have had the
deciding vote. It could have named the
president The people here expect some day
that such a situation will arise, that it will
be discounted before election, and that the
struggle which will take place for the
supremacy here will pay better than a
bonanza There are now only $4,000 voters
in the state, a decrease of 5000 since the
last presidential election. If no more big
silver discoveries are made, 1888 will find it
with a population still further reduced.
The conditions which obtain in Nevada are
such as cannot be found elsewhere in Amer
lea. Everything depends upon the mining
industry. One of the largest states In the
Union in a territorial sense, the few people
who live in it are gathered together IN the
mining camps and save for one or two fer
tile valleys the entire state is a wilderness,
destined to remain such forever. Silver
must be found here or nobody will live here.
AS it is idle to expect that the precious
metal will always be produced in paying
quantities, it is plain that the time must
some time come when Nevada, as a state,
viii be even more Of whited sepulcher than
it now is. 1t maintains its present preten-
sions only because the various mining COM
/ panies are continually prospecting, and there
! is a bare chance that some Of them may
/ make strike of sufficient magnitude to put
things on their feet once again.
This is not the first time that Nevada has
! been in the slough of despond, or that it
has been predicted that the Comstock was
| played out. During the Hale & Norcross
and Gould g. Curry excitements, from 1868
| to 1865, the state filed up with miners and
| adventures to the number Of 10, 900 or more
! As the mines showed signs Of exhaustion
! there was stampede, and not more than
| 1000 people remained. Houses were moved
/ away or burned down, and men sold what
! they could not move for a song. The next
/ great boom occurred when Jones, the pres
emit senator, unearthed the Crown Point
/
! Curry mine, and considering the prospects
! good below that property, toward Gold Hill,
/ he located q claim which he called the
Crown Point. He got capital only with the
greatest difficulty, and from the first he
met and overcame financial obstacles which
seemed almost insuperable Early in
1871 while Jones was drawing q sal
airy of $3.50 a month from the dis
! heRrtened holders Of the "a, 600 shares OF
Crown Point, and the stock was selling at %
to so cents, an assessment of 80 cents a share
was levied. There was a general refusal to
pay on the part of the stockholders, and
when the sixty days went by the great bulk
OF the stock was defaulted on.
In the mean time a rich ledge had been
struck at the mine, and when the announce
ment was made public some days after the
default, the stock jumped to 81, 900 share.
Enormous masses of ore were taken out, and
dividends of $40 were paid This mine finally
/ ran into the Belcher, in which Sharon, Mills,
| and the Bank Of California made great
| fortunes but when that was exhausted
paralysis again seized upon the state and the
depression became universal Towns Of Isl,
! 900 to 20, 900 people died away into mere
hamlets, and as people became convinced
once more that the COmStock was exhausted
they turned toward more promising fields.
In 1878 James G. Fair, who was superin-
tendent of the Gould & Curry, formed an al
lance with Mackey and Flood and secured
control Of some abandoned claims north Of
the Gould & Curry embracing about 900
feet Of ground. Fair conceived the idea Of
running a drift north from the Gould s.
| Curry into these claims at a depth Of !, 500
feet. No companies were organic ID at first,
but eventually they formed the Consolidated
Virginia and. the California. Without max
ing any shafts from the surface they ran
their drift north, as originally intended, and
came upon the big bonanza, deposit of
silver Of unexampled richness, from which
more than 5000, 900 900 was taken.
TEe excitement caused by this discovery
was prodigious. Mining properties of every
kind went ballooning Assessments were
levied and paid with promptness and the
various camps filed up once more with
miners, prospectors, spectators, gamblers
and all manner of tradesmen. Virginia
City became a town of 10000 people,
with many of the advantages of me
tropolis Everyb body had money The Sutro
tunnel was built. Mining machinery Of the
most expensive kind was put in and appear
ances indicated that the state had entered on
a permanent prosperity. Then the bonanZas
died out. For long time hope was kept
alive by reports of brilliant prospects. Tun-
nels, shafts, and drifts were dug. Lower and
lower the miners descended until they had
gone S, 800 below the earth surface, but moth
{
mines had not been yielding much, end an
other siege of hard times began to stare the
people in the face. One by. one they drew
out First the big capitalists, then the gam
blers and sports, and last the workingmen
and women and tradesmen vanished, until
now Virginia City does not boast more than
5000 people, all told, and the entire state has
not more than $4,000 white inhabitants.
Once again the impression is general that
the Comstock is played out There must be
another strike soon, or the suspicion viii be
come a conviction.
Just now the prospecting is going on
! everywhere. on the surface, and deeper and
deeper into the bowels of the earth. or the
forty mines in the state, only few are max
ing any pretence of working. Hundreds Of
thousands of dollars worth OF machinery
is standing idle. The various companies
continue their assessments on stockholders
Of few cents share to keep up some ap-
pearance OF activity and prevent outsiders
from coming III and jumping their claims
, If one mine SHOULD make lucky strike every
other one would Immediately levy a heavy
assessment II would be paid without grunn
bling, and money would once again be fres
, "a water On such slender threa Is as theSe