The daily morning journal and courier., 1895-10-04

learned, that the ore Walsh took with
 him assayed over thirteen thousand
 dollars to the ton, and the twenty-five
 huhafea pounds produced a total of
 over $l6,25O' The men in Frisco who
 heard about It were so astonished that
 they could scarcely believe the report.
 A scheme was conceded to depreciate
 the find and get control of 1t. I never
 could discover all of the details. but
 Judge Walsh was to report to us that
 our mine was of no account, and the | others Tn the plot were to quietly buy | up the claim The ore was stored In
 DaVldsons bank, and suit in repley-
 m had afterward to be brought to get | it.
 While we all had no reason to doubt
 the truth of Walsh's report, the fact
 lhat ne brought no certificate of the as-
 say With him caused some talk, but in
 those days we were careless. In few
 days two mud wagon loads of men came, and they quietly began trying to buy out our interests. Joe Winters
 and l had sixth between us. In
 short time Mclaughlin sold his one sixth for five thousand dollars, and Comstock, Penrod and Osborne for apout the same amount. They offered
 Rellly ten thousand dollars for his one- sixth, and when he, after consideration, refused, they increased the offer to twenty thousand dollars. He didn't take that, either and I think he after ward got something like forty thou- sand dollars in all.
 Winters got rather nervous and wanted to sell, but I told him it looked very suspicious for those men to be so anxious to buy the mine so soon after
 Judge Walsh had come back. We re- fused to sell. When they found they could not get our sixth they began de- velopments. Some one called it the Ophir and the mine ever after has gone by that name. It paid dividends from the very start. The vein was about six feet wide, and for three hun dred feet the ore continued to main- tain its almost unexampled richness. l notice by the last report that total of $4,514,240 in dividends has been paid.
 "Of the seven original discoverers of the Comstock only Joe Winters and myself are living. so far as know. It is possible Nanny Penrod still lives He had ranch on Clear Creek and was once member of the Nevada leg islature. Theodore Winters, Joe's brother, acquired an interest in the Ophir, and now is well known for among other things, his race horses. Joe had great times while his money lasted. As rule, he was soon broke after he received his dividend, which, | or course, was large sum every month, as he had a twelfth interest. I l have seen him sitting in saloon play l ing seven-up for one hundred dollars a game, when he had no more chance of | winning than have of flying.
 "The discoveries afterward made re- | suited in determining the exact limits of the Comstock lode. Only one claim was located on it north of the Ophir. That was the Sierra Nevada. On the south the famous bonanza mines-the consolidated Virginia, Bullion, Belcher. and Crown Point-were developed, to- gether with a number of others. Then the lode, broke right square off. Many have been made to relocate it. but without success. Pete Reilly spent F great deal of time trying to find it after he had sold out A man named Michael Reese filled him up with the dea that spirits had told him where it vas, and Reilly dug a tunnel eight hum fred feet long near Clear Creek. The tunnel was like mole hole, only a few 'eet under the surface, and at a uni 'orm depth"