The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1886-11-21
FLOOD AND 0'BRIEN.
Origin of a Bunch of Million
aires.
A BONANZA "REMINISCENCES.
How the old Barteuders of Washing
ton Stree. Sent California wild
The Irish Quartette.

James =. flOOu, huA4OnaiIcs anu lis
family are at the Albemarle Hotel. Mr..
Flood is in failing health and confined
to his room. He isan cid man now
and in the course of nature many years
can't elapse until he will rejOin mis- old
partner, William s. O'Brien, in the land
of the hereafter. What recollections
the very name of this Bonanza king
coniure up in the minds of old Califor
mans
Away in the decade from 1850 to 1870
there stood on Washington Street, San
Francisco. between Sansome and Bat
terry Street, ramshackle old building
used as a saloon, much frequented by
tesmsters. longshoremen and miners,
who, having made a strike in the mines
came down to 1.-THE bay" as they called
San francisco, to blow themselves In. !"
This saloon was kept by Jim" Flood
and BILLY" O'Brien, as they were fam
iliarly termed by their patrons.
Among the miners who occasionally
dropped into the little saloon on Wash
=
and James G.. Fair. The four were
Irishmen. Flood and 0'Brien were
countrymen without education, bat with
a vast amount of saving common sense.
Mackay was from the city OF Dublin and
had received a good English education.
Fair was a North Of ireland man, with
al the virtues Of the Scotch settlers
from whom he was descended. His
name as an excellent Judge Of 9 mine
was growing in Neva1a, and ike his
partner, Mackey, he was vel educated
The four men put their heads together
and for years pooled issues. Flood and
O'Brien furnished the capital and Mac
key and Fair the points by which the
four rapidly acquired handsome for
tunes, but nothing equal 70 their
desires. In due time, however, they
gained possession OF the larger portion
OF the stock of Consolidated Virginia
andCalifornialand then they became pub
hcally known as partners. This was
somewhere in 1867. Gradually the con-
troll OF other mines on the Comstock was
obtained and then the first bonanza was
discovered, followed by the big bonanza
in 1874.
The partners were now millionaires,
over and over again. Shares in Con-
solidated Virginia rose in q few days
from $40 TO $500. The whole city went
wild. Fabulous prices were paid for
the merest holes in the ground. Poor
mechanics dined for IS cents at the
miners restaurant and took supper
with champagne frappe at the Poodle
Dog in the evening. Rich men went TO
bed at the Occidental or the Lick, and
utterly ruined jumped into the bay or
blew their brains out the next alter
noon. Everyone speculated. The news
boys bought wildcats at q quarter
share and sold them out at five dollars.
Your servant to-day was your master
Tomorrow. Never since the days Of
Lows South Sea bubble had a people
gone so utterly mad in speculation.
Champagne, not blood, ran in their
veins.
Flood, Fair and Mackey were
the operators. O'Brien did nothing
but look on while his for
tune grew under his eyes. They made
and broke the market and thousands OF
poor devils along with IL. James p.
Walker and his partner, Sandy"
Austin. we're Il e private brokers Of the
firm. Everything around their Office
was on a scale Of Oriental splendor.
The bookkeeper had q salary Of 800 a
month. Every day a magnificent
H..
served in the Office for the clerks, at
the expense Of the firm. Walkers per-
sonal check was good for a million, and
Austin's for half o million. Austin
had been tax collector, and resigned TO
90 IN with Walker. They cleared SO,
600 q month each, and the proverbial
bird whose cackle saved Rome hum
high, when il was discovered that there
was q leak somewhere.
The secrets of the Bonanza firm were
getting out on the street, and outside
brokers were reaplng the benefit.
Flood told Walker that there was q
traitor somewhere in the camp. and
that If he was not found out and fred /.
Walker and Austin could no longer
have the Bonanza business. The traitor
was net found, and a more than usually
important secret having got out. Flood
changed the Bonanza brokers. With
this change the great brokers lost every
thing and went from bad 10 worse
Austin's delinquent taxes had not been
turn ed In for bis term as collector, and
8 criminal prosecution was threatened.
To avoid this he committed suicide.
This wasin the fall of 1878.
Walker tried hard to keep afoat. He
sold his $500 900 house in Oakland, and
threw the money into the firm, but 1t
only delayed the evil day. He is now
not worth q hundred dollars, and
forms q unit in the vast army Of "bas
beens" that haunt Pauper Alley, as the
little street back of the Merchants EX-
change, leading from California TO
Pine, is called by the brokers. The
high-toned bookkeeper, whose name L
forget, was the man who gave away the
secrets of the firm. He IS now working
in small store in Portland, Oregon, at
$50 month.
A rough estimate puts the gains Of
the bonanza firm from the mines alone
al 500. 900 600. Outside Of Mackey and
Fair, not one Of the four had or has
tastes suited to the immense wealth
they control. In his lifetime poor
O'Brien would leave his magnificent
mansion and 90 round to q corner
grocery and play Pedro and seven-up
With Tom, Dick and Harry for the
drinks. IL cost $3.50. coo 70 furnish his
house, and the library sold for 1850.
The man could hardly more than write
his name.
Flood is not companionsble. not 70
saw a clubable man he is silent and