The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1889-01-22
MODERN MONTE CRIST0
ov,, SENATOR JONES HAS MADE
" I'M LOST a DOz en- FORTUNES.

When a Mere Boy He Made Voyage
e.,r, the Great Lakes around the
~, TO Conference.-The Comstock
1,,re-An Adventurous Career Sci
ION, Paraueled Except in Fiction.
F,.ou, the Yeto York World.
,,,,orn Monte Cristos frequently fall
r;ctims to the fancies OF romance writer's,
w.. ,bare are few men in any station Of life
Ol 49, ovantful career, if truthfully told,
Ill sDnroximate the fanciful sketches Of
s,-oIis+s or dramatists. And yet in the
T-a;+od states Senate is man many times
-nf,lionaire, the story of whose adveutur-
60 lie EQUALS almost anything in fiction.
%.is Ioba Percival Jones, the senator from
vevada He hit the Comstock bonanza be-
f,ro Nackay and Fair struck the lode, and
las ,von and lost fortunes again and again.
1ohn Percival Jones is q Welshman who
nc horn in January, 1880, on the banks of
49, WE beautiful little tro ut stream
L I separates Wales from England.
Wan he was Is months old, before he had
avan had a chance to catch Wye
.ro,t the boys parents brought him to
Inland O.. and to the fact that he thus
lame m Ohio man at as early period as
.ossible after his advent into the world
20 he ascribed the fact that he has in his
i NV Years of hfe-and what life it is
Hoo1 elected sheriff, California state
conotor, and United States senator three
times. e.,. TO-. ,--u 81 a.
,,oirbbors bore witness to their sterling
yIrth They went to the public schools,
and the senator's former instructor, An
J-ocv Freese. has averred since the eleva-
ton Of bis distinguished pupil to senatorial
Lonors. that John Percival was "a rare
snacirnen of boy, finely developed physic-
a1lv and intellectually" trump at 1.-The
biG or mathematics" and scholar of un-
usually keen moral sensibiities In the
oninion of Mr. Freese, who is still living,
John was a rarely developed and preco-
cious how In this age of self-made men
from the west who scrawl their skeleton
snaeches on their shirt cuffs and print their
Wills on a barn door, it is pleasant to know
that there is one mining millionaire, risen
from a grub-stake TO a seat in the Senate,
who was a gentleman and scholar before
he ever saw the Sierras.
One fine hot aftern on in the summer of
1S49. John Percival Jones and his younger
brother, Henry A. Jones, concluded they
had got enough of Cleveland, o., and took
MASSAGE on the stout schooner Maria An
drews from Cleveland to San Francisco.
Of all the Argonauts and Of all the wild
and wonderful land and water journeys
made to the land Of the Golden Fleece, the
Jones boys alone chose this route. And for
nine months they stuck to that 800 ton
schooner, and, before they reached the
Mecca of the Adventures of three CONT
nents, had adventures enough to fill three
NOTEBOOKS, most of which might have been
lost to pOsterity were it not for the curious
coincidence that a stout old salt named
Peter Francisco, and resident on West
street. in this city, has preserved his mem
CRY Of some of them.
There amt no line of steamers running
from Cleveland to Frisco now? l believe
YOU my boy! Why, we had to shave down
the sides of the Maria Andrews to get her
TO go through the canal and into the St.
Lawrence. We only touched at two ports
in the whole blessed voyage, and they were
Rio on the east and Valparaiso on the west
coast Of South America. Rounding the
Horn, We saw all the marine wonders, from
the devil in the deep sea- to the We liable
old orlgi al sea serpent himself. OFF the
coast of Patagonia we saw the serpent, and
| said to John Perciva taat he might live a
thousand yea ard never see the like again.
AT Rio and Valparaiso the Jones boys, who
had letters of introduction from their
uncle, Gov. Todd Of Ohio, stopped on shore
several weeks and had good time. When
We got to Frisco, early in 1850. John Perci-
val mad a letter of Introduction 20 the col
lector Of the port but didn't present it.
Instead, he went to him and asked for
job. He went to work the very next day
after he landed, too, roughing it with the
best # them.
The Jones bows soon branched out and
went prospecting up into the mountains,
along the Feather, Y uba and Stanislaus
rivers Sc atOr Jones is running a gold
quartz mine now at the same A gels Camp,
i've miles from the Stanslaus, that Bret
Harte writes Of when the chunk of old
red sandstone hit some fellow in the abdo-
men and he subsequent proceedings inter
ested him no more But the Jones BOYS
were interested in mining all the time
They placermiued all over California and
Kept 1t up until the placers began to peter
ouC and folks got into quartz m ming, which
is such risky busine that the operator is
ha6le to make a fortune or go broke as easy
Us d WINK The boys prospected from place
70 place until in 1867, when quartz mining
nsu superseded placers entirely, the owner
Of large mines in the ComstOck region Il
OeheVe his name was Hayward AlvinzD
asking John Percival to go up on the Com
sUcE as superintendent of the Crown Point
a hentuck. From that time he has been
q Navadiann
=. senator Jones knew Mackay and Fair,
Inc mining half Of the famous bonanza
gla1te' whose business operations in San
rIiiaSAcsco were attended to 10y Flood and
UDren, Mackay and Fair we're perse-
aeIng miners and prospectors, sometimes
Sung hold of a good thing after laboring
. .aru 70 no purpose. They bought said
sle senator, III conversation a day or two
g. Ior small sum several little mines on
s sno Constock, which nobody thought of
tsaj particular value. When they struck
,L ,L famous, the world-famous bonanza,
o o-s e naa already struck bonanza Of nv
wv" VIII, III tae Crown Point, and soon became
Every rich man. Nv political career had
o't Tly Degun. | had been elected sheriff
Tow. unity county, and while serving nv
sn5 s was elected state senator from Trinity
boG- 2uasta counties. IN those DAYS no.
ws-y uau permanent business, unless the
csnoI Ins pursuit Of a prospector be 80
! 80 ana after residing a few months, or
,yo,,' "a VI SOL one camp OF town, a miner
NJ ~ pun up stakes and become a citizen
M ar Instant camp and juaty.
and D o nave always continued to mine.
rnil.i 41 M'Hing at the present day-ouartz
Cr,D,ts IN California, and in Nevada on the
ssad' and gold mining on Douglas
'1i fS.u iH Alaska"
mlf. men have been mlllionaires as often
tuna5 'oues. Tho mutations Of his for
that bo ore astonishing. 1t is said Of him
Tbe las las made at 10 st dozen fortunes.
copld S . u'e 10y common report that he
he va s aW ms checi for s., 900, 900 When
from 'i Is elected t. the senate in 1878
whore bo qua where his official residence