Morning appeal. [volume] (Carson City, Nev.) 1877-1906, 1897-09-05
F<cO
His Nevada Journalistic Career
How he Stirred up John
Mackay and Others.

nothing in the literary OF Journalistic
line, therefore was not "conteinporan-
eous with Mark Twain" as the Sacra
mento Bee had it.
In the summer IF 1864, at the time
of the noted "Excclsiur' or MAa.iow
Lake mining ~eXcitenent, after Mark
Twain bad departed from Nevada,
Fred Hart Joined in the grand rush to
the new dist: let. and was there and
in that section Of California for sew
eral months, finally straying back to
Nevada and out into the Eastern part
OF the State. His first ap .reriabIe ep-
pearauce in public Journalism, was in
the early seventies as cntrespondent
of the Daily Reese River Reveille,
published at Austin, writing from
White Pine, Belmont and other cOu-
tiguOus localities under the nom de
plume Of Van J~acquelin." His let
ters were spicy and interesting and
lei 70 regular employment as reporter
on that paper in 1874, ano finally into
phhAbNAoIiP IL II WIN oOhb b'''tI,
Hart editorially and Booth doing ali
the rest.
During this period it was that Fred
instituted and published in the
ReveillA his farDous series OF 5 etches
OF proceedings Of the 'Sazarac Lying
Club And that Interesting club was
not altogether imaginary by any
means as present residents Of Austin
will attest. The characters we're real,
original and tasteful]y utilized in the
sketches. After he dissolved partner
ship with the Reveille he compiled all
these jolly. we'll written sketches into
d neal and popular book entitled "Ihe
SaZerac Lying Club. 1t was not
much of a success financially to him,
but numerous copies are yet to be
found as an enduring monument to
the literary geuius Of !opr little Fred
Hart. As Legislative reporter and
outside correspondent Of the GOli Hill
Daily News at one time he mai" a
lively, interesting and satisfactory
mark.
After leaving Austin he was about
Eureka for some time and finally
through strong friendly Influence he
got 10 as editor of the Territorial En-
terprise at Virginia. There his career
was remarkably brilliant as we'll as
b~rief-about three months. II was in
1890 I,-iny tho nap,po~0 nf
&. Fair for Unit d States SeCator.
He got along very we'll for a few
weeks, or till he felt settled and at
home in his responsible position
wheD, me evening, inspiration got
into him to distinguish himself. And
he then and there audaciously pro-
ceeded to do 50 in about two columns
of editorial headed slippery Jim"
consisting Of twenty one pungent r
agraphs all on one subject, Jim Fair,
ridiculing and decrying his ability
as a prospective statesman and relat-
ing numerous current stories Of his
eh characteristic sayings and dOings
among miners and mankind above
aud below ground, writing II the
last dregs Of his inspiration before he
could quit.
When John Mackay read the En-
terpriSe ext morning he wratuf lily
arose and struck a vigorous bee line
for the Enterprise office.
Look herei' he roared shaking the
paper f~iercely in the face of Cohen. the
bookkeever: What dam son-of-a a
gun wrote ali this Internal trash
about my partner? l own half Of this
cussed paper myself and won't have
Fair abused and belled in it by any
body. I am a d good mind to take
a sledge and smash b out Of the
bloody prese."
1t took Il good deal Of explanation
and influential talk 10 pacify JChn
Mackay, and allow Fred'5 scalp 70 re-
main OF his head, and Fred himself,
~aWakeGGd 20 realization Of what t8
mad done, very judiciously kept out OF
Mackay's way. He got along quietly
and pretty well for the next few weeks,
until extra inspiration got into him
again one night and he wrote it all
out into another two columns of pun
gent paragraphs headed The Alta
Steal" being a very bold aud elabor-
ate arraignment of the official man
agement of the Alta Mining Company
for robbing the Justice Mining Co and
even their own stockholders and all
concerned, out of hundreds OF thous-
ands of dollars, emitting them to de-
served Judgement in State Prison for
ever.