Wood River times. [volume] (Hailey, Idaho) 1882-1915, 1892-01-18
JUDGE GOODWIN,S BOOK.

In the extreme southwestern corner
of Nevada there lies a region of
country which is probably better
known than any other on earth. That
region contains the Comstock lode,
which has already yielded s75,000,-
coo worth of the precious metals.
which enabled the United States to
resume specie payments shortly after
the close of the War Of Secession, and
which made it possible for this Repub.
lie to do that which no other nation
has ever been able to do, namely, to
pay off a gigantic national d. BIT.
That region has not yet had his.
torian. True Baron Reichthofen and
other scientific men described its
geological features as asccrtained
or OWNED in their day. Mark Twain,
in "Roughing It," touched upon
the humorous side of it; Dan de guile
in his "Big Bonanza" made few of
its leading financiers famous; but no
one has heretofore even attempted to
portray the characteristics of the men
who delved in tho bosom OF the earth
between the wall rocks where Law
hidden the treasures the extraction
OF which has made all that we have
Just related, and much more, posi-
BILE.
II royalty of character consists Of
good traits, of all that constitutes the
nearly perfect man, physically, morally
and mentally, the Comstocktrs were
tfuely royal race. With death star
ing them 10 the face in thousand OF
its most horrible forms, the most APP
pailing accidents being Of daily occur
renee, they never flinched in instant
execution OF the highest ideals OF
duty. Their life was Il succession Of
heroic fcats worthy of perpe,uation in
choicest measures, and affording mat.
e'ial for hundreds Of volumes.
This wealth of material has at last
been tapped by master hand, ane
the result is before US in "The Com
stock Club" written by Hon. G. C.
Goodwin, editor and principal owner
Of the Salt Lake Tribune, and issued
by the Leonard Publishing Company
Of Salt Lake City. Being one ofthe
pioneers of the Pacific Coast, having
lived amid the scenes which he depicts,
and as prospector, miner, millman,
merchant, lawyer, judge and news
paper writer, been Of and with them,
no one is better equipped than no to
place the old Comstockers before the
public in their proper light.
The club which gives the book its
title may have existed and it may not.
There were certainly many of them on
the Comstock at the time at which the
story opens, and either Of them would
do for model. The one referred to
was originally composed of seven
miners and WAS enlarged to 10. These
men firing of clearinghouse, set up
for themselves and got to "baching."
They meet every evening, after the
supper table is cleared, and relate some
of their experiences. These make up
the bulk of the book.
The club membership was not much
different from the mass Of men there.
Any 10 men selected at random might
have included all the characters de.
scribed. Yet in thus one, under the
thin disguise of Professor Stoneman,
are recognized the features of w.
Frank Stewart, a veteran of the Mex
lean War who after living on the
Coms,ock for over 20 years, haste ned
to the scene OF the gold excitement iu
Maine, where he died; SO is Colonel
II. ("Bob'0 II. Taylor, who was after
ward and still is, if alive, one of the
ornaments Of the San Francisco bar.
at once recalled to mind by the fol.
lowing pen-poitrat:
Colonel Savage was another genius.
lie was young lawyer in New York
when the first news of the gold dis
coveries in California was CARR, d 10
that city. Is He was the
most versatile of the argonauts. Ever,
mood of poor human nature found a
response in him. At a funeral he
sham.d the mourners bv the sadness
OF his face; at u festival he adGed a
sparkle to the wines; he could con-
vulse a saloon with a story: he could