The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1896-11-26

The industry of mines and mining,
says the Call, is so bound up with the
history of California and of the states
bordering upon it. that any literature
bearing uDon the two can always be
sure of a welcome at our hands. Mr..
Charles Howard Shinn of the Univer-
sity of California has contributed to
ADDleton's Story of the West a work
entitled, The Story of the Mine. as
Illustrated by the Great Comstock
Lode of Nevada
1t is interesting to learn that no less
p parsonage than the late Horace
Greeley made a remarkable prophecy
regarding the then neglected region,
afterward covered with prosperous
mining cam-s. in a speech delivered
on the plaza of Placerville in the sum-
mer of 1859. He said: Lastly 1 have
come across a desolate and terrible
country, = land seemingly worthless
fOreVer-the great American desert.
But ! believe that the Almighty has
created nothing in vain. and as l have
passed over this awful region the
thought has fixed itself in my mind
that since it is certainly useless for
every other purpose it NAV be a land
of vast mineral wealth. If that be so,
it viii take 100000 Californian miners
100000 years even to prospect it." Ger
tainly a remarkable prediction viewed
in the li<ht of after events.
The first quartz prOSpectOrS spoken
of b. Mr.. Shinn were the unfortunate
Grosh brothers. They had no capital
and few friends. Notwithstanding the
fact that they were the virtual discov-
erers of the rich Comstock lode they
seem to have been pursued by ill
and 6ia6 inc he.
benefit of their vast mineral discover
les
"Old Pancake Comstock was work
ing in the mining district which after
ward took his name at about the time
the Grosh brothers were engaged in
prospecting. Mr.. Shinn describes Com
stock as "a curious combination of
shrewdness, vanity, ignorance and
sDasmodic energy. A Canadian bv
birth, he had been successfully trapper,
trader and miner" ComstOck appears
to have possessed a characteristic ira
ditionally attributed to Americans, of
claiming everything in sight. No sooner
was a strike made than Mr.. Constock
appeared and informed the lucky pros
pectors that thev had been working
his claim. This seems to have been
the sole reason why the rich mining
region in the southern part of Nevada
bears even today the name of the Com
stock lode.
The days of the Great Bonanza are
admirably described by Mr.. Shinn- He
has written some really good character
sketches of Stewart, Sharon, Mackay,
Fair and Flood. A striking instance
of SharOns way of doing business is
furnished in conversation held be-
tween superintendent James of the
Sierra Nevada company and Sharon,
who than in Of fe,i,,
mines at Virginia City.
Sharply and without a word of ex-
PLANTATION Sharon said:
James, can you run railroad from
Virginia City 70 the Carson river?'
Yes
DO it at once" Inside of 70
months the road was completed.
Some of the figures quoted by Mr.
Shinn will be found interesting. Take
the discovery of the Consolidated Vir-
ginia mine, for instance. At first the
stock consisted of 10S, 900 shares Two
hundred tons of ore per day were being
taken out and $250.000 of bullion per
month was marketed. In September,
1874, the shares were worth $37. So
carefully was the discovery guarded
that nobody knew the value of these
stocks excepting those who were work
ing in the mine. The greatness of the
discovery was not appreciated. In De-
cember, 1874. Consolidated Virginia
was worth 500 a share, and one month
later $500. Then the western papers
gave the news and ii was stated that
in one mine there was $116,0 600 900 in
sight, and by some it was set down at
$500, 900 600,
This is. of course, the bright side of
the Great Bonanza, but Mr.. Shinn is
quick to see and appreciate the reverse
of the picture. Here is a clever piece
of description of q scene once only too
familiar, now happily far less frequent:
There, in Pauper alley. one can walk
any time in business hours and see
creatures that once were milliOnaireS
and leading operators. Now they live
by free lunches in the beer cellars and
on stray dimes tossed to them for luck
Women, too, form part of the
wretched crowd that haunt the end Of
the alley where it joins its more pros
porous neighbor streets and beg every
specuiator to give them a pointer or
to carry a share of stock for them.
These are the dead 'mudhens' as the
men are dead ducks of the stock
share gamblers Horrible things one
sees and hears of here. Old friends
you thought were prosperous, but had
not heard of for years, shove them
selves out of the huddle and beg for
the price of a glass of whisky. There
stands a once prosperous printer in
rags. He took flyers on the streets too
many times. Yonder beggar lost $780,
600 in a single summer. all good gold.
The ghost of many a murdered hap
piness walks unseen among these half
insane paupers as they chatter like
apes of lost fortunes and of the pros
poets for their favOrite stocks. Really
it is a frightful thing 10 walk there
and look at the seamy side of the silky
garment of fortune"
A solid chapter is devoted to the
building of the SutTo tunnel-that mar
velous enterprise which was contempt
uously referred to by The contemptuOus
opposition to it's builder as a coyote
hole" One cannot but admire the man
who, deserted by powerful syndicates
and financial hackers, stood alone and
finally succeeded in saving his property
from destruction. Even his enemies
says Mr.. Shinn, began to yield IN
willing admiration to his bulldog ten
acity. That little German Jew will
undermine the Comstock became a
saying among the capitalists
There is Nothing So Good.
There is nothing just as good as DR.
Kings New Discovery for Consunp-
ton, Coughs and Colds, so demand r.
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