The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1888-11-01
Fifty Millions Dying.

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second, and if one were to work at money.
counting ten hours day without inter.
mission, it would take more than four and
:a half years simply. to count the posses.
sions OF James, g: Flood : - -
Mr. Flood is,dying at Heidelberg, Ger
many, of fatty degeneration of the kid
1neys, tie disease which was discovered
(not inyented) fifty years ago By. DR..
Richard: Bright and still bears his name,
and which has in the last score of years
become epidemic among rich champaign
drinking Americans. He may be dead
before these lines;re reach 5thesreader. Not
all his millions sscan buy "a moments
delay. Let every healty poor man who
reads give thanks that he enjoys the one
thing without which life has no pleasure
and which money cannot buy.
Mr.. Flood is one of the four original
"bonanza kings" Nowadays the name is
given to every western man who has
/ gathered much money but it belongs of
right only tosFlood, Mackey, Fair and
o OlBrien, because they. discovered and
owned the "bonanza," or enormous vein
of silver ore in the Comstock lode at
Virginia City, Nevada! from which more
than two hundred million dollars worth
of fiue silver has been. taken-the largest
deposit ever discovered.
The whole four were 1rish.A mericans.
Flood was; born in New York city in
1926. What he did from that time till
1849, when; he was tWenty.three years
old, Isl not known. In as, he went to
California, and returned a year later with
$4,000. Within few months he struck
up a partnership with W. s. O'Brien who
had come from Ireland child and was
f.thenl about Floods ege. They went to
California, and hi the spring of 1851
opened q drinking bar in the city of San
Francisco. Ofcourse, they made money |;
anybody who had whiskey to sell in San
Francisc in those days could make money.
They also made the acquaintance OF
Mackey and Fair, who we're practical
miners, having one week their pockets
full of gold dust and the next not the
price Of a. meal. A partnership was en-:
tered into in 1877, by which Flcod and
O 'Brien, the prosperous saloon Keepers,
furnished the money to keep Mackey and
Fair, the adventurous miners, .inis the
field. This arrangement resulted i'm the
|,aSquisitioh of the Comstock lode. which
had been discovered inf1 1859, and yielded
fairly well from the start. It was not,
however, till 1876 that tho bonanza, the
richest find that mortal miners ever made
was struck: From that day these four
sunedIcated Irish Americans have been
numbered among the worlds greatest
capitalists. And it ia to be said of them
and for them that they all had capacity
enough to, keep. their money and handle
|:its ;:wel & Theys became greats bankers,
established fthas Bank ofsNkyada with
|s$10 100000 capital, and wrecked the
Bank of California, though they after
ward relented and restored it. Fair
bought him q Nevada senatorship.
Mackey laid an ocean cable, translated
his wife from the landladyship of log
boarding house in mining camp to the
leadership OF fashion in Paris, and mar.
ried his daughter to the prince Of
Colonna, who has one of the, longest ped
l:igreesiinsEurope Flood never. got into
politics, nor much into the newspapers,
but he built himself q palace on Mob
Hill, San Francisco, and another at
Menlo park, "a fashionable seaside resort r
on the Pacific coast, and be made his
money felt in: the mining stock exchange.
20 'Brien died ten years ago. Fair and
Mackey, who are several years younger,
|. and who mined while FLOOD and. O'Brien
sold whisky, are still hale and hearty.