The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1897-03-04
NEVADA FOR LUCK
Fortunes Made and Lost
Through Specu1ations.
N. c. Prater Tells of Life Among
and Some Get Rich.

Nevada is essentially a gambling
State" said n. G. Prater, OF Virginia
City, yesterday, so that the world at
large should not find fault with the
fact that the Governor has signed q
bill, giving the promoters of the Cor
bett-Fitzsimmons fight the right to car
ry on their business in that State l
can see no reason why scientific men
should not do battle with their fists
when college men are permitted to
knock out each other with their feet
on the gridiron. However, that is a
matter of taste. Nevada is essentially
gambling State, so that there is no
reason for the public to make kick.
Personally, 1 am opposed to having
anything take place which savors of
gambling nature. 1 am rather in favor
of uplifting humanity.
$50 far as Nevada is concerned, let
me tell you that whatever surplus is
left from a mans wages is invested
in stocks. Some people would call it
gambling, but that is not genteel. Ten
years ago there were % stock boards in
Virginia City, and you would find there
every morning $500 women, wives of
the miners, investing their money in
stocks Some of them lost, others won.
1t was gambling proposition from be-
ginning to end. Every man; that is,
miner, in Nevada draws 81 per day. At
the end of the month his wife, who is
cook and cashier of the home, pays the
bills. Whatever is left goes to the
stock board, and the home is richer or
poorer, as the luck goes. Let me give
you a bit of my own experience.
Il came out from Cornwall, England,
a poor boy-was born without shoe or
stocking on my feet and lived and
worked that way until l was almost old
enough to vote. America offered in
ducements that Cornwall did not.
journeyed to Nevada and took a posi-
ton in the mines with pick and shovel
at wage of "a per day. In July, 1885,
Crown Point, the mine in which I
was working, was on the stock market
at $3.50 per share. All the money 1
had earned, besides my expenses, 1 gave
Senator Jones to keep for me. On the
5th of July that year 1 bought 1000
shares, and on the 1st of August follow
| ing it sold at $500 a share. l went
with it and sold out.
! But Virginia City does not offer the
same inducements to the speculator to-
day that it did then; where 1000 people
speculated in 1885 not 100 do SO today.
The city has dwindled from 10000 to
900 or 5000, and men hold on to what
they have-as rule. Children of the
State have specializing proclivities, and
! they stick TO it as one brother sticks to
another As for me, l have made my
portion, and 1 am satisfied to go it easy
and see the world. In 1895 with my wife
and family took trip to Europe, visit
ed my old home and had a good time.
This year / came down here, and / like
the people, the place and the scenery,
come here, invest my money and spend
and if you will only become part of
the United States I will be satisfied to
come here, invest my money and spends
six months in the year.
I'm Nevada we have snow at this sea-
son of the year. Here you have almost
perpetual summer, and that is what L
like.
81 can name hundred people, in and
around Virginia City and Carson, who,
10 or 10 years ago, were worth a mil
| lion or so each. Today they have moth
ing-gone through their speculative
prOclivities. Take Senator Jones, too.
| knew him when he could count his
millions on the fingers of both hands.
l knew him, too, when, in 1880, he
Il i +, o,,1
owed money. But today, thanks to good
management, he is worth four or five
millions. He is the best friend / ever
| had, next to my mother, and man
for whom 1 have the greatest respect.
have worked under him as miner
and as a foreman; today, we are close
| friends l have seen him and Mackey
Flood and O'BTien grow from poor to
rich men. and there has been no change
| in the relations between myself and
those who are living. I like Hawaii
and l believe you have a great future
before you, but you must have a great
! government behind you to give you
stable government Considering your
geographical position, | would say the
| United States should be your country"
! Mr. Prater is a merchant of Virginia
City and has amasSed a fortune there
in the last 20 years. For five years past
he has travelled on the continent OF
Europe with his wife and two sons. He
will return to his home in Nevada by
the first steamer, but will probably visit
here again before the end of the year
! He is satisfied with openings here for
| Investment of capital, and will prob
badly become interested in one HO-
nolulu enterprise.