The daily morning journal and courier., 1897-11-03
THE FORTUNE TdEY HOST.


 Taken From the Ophir-How the
 Original Owners Were Tricked Out of
 Millions--The Search for the Mother
 Lode.
 Pomona, Cal, Oct. 19.--I remember as if it were yesterday when the ophir
 mine was found," said Colonel James Dixon as he sat in a circle of mining men from Randsburg at the Palomares the other evening. The conversation had turned on the possibility of finding in Alaska the golden ledge from which the marveously rich placers along the Klondil5e creeks have been fed. Dixon is known all over this region as one of the half dozen persons now alive who were on the scene at the discovery of
 the richest body of gold ore yet found in a single locality in the United States. It was in the vicinity of Gold Hill and
 Virginia City, New, where the bonanza gold miners Flood, Fair Maclay, O'Brien and sharon got their immense fortunes few years later. +
 T was young man, just out from
 England when the Ohir was found,' continued Colonel Dixon, "and had
 been working as day laborer for a
 mining company in Placerville, Cal. I AAetN cb SOptSlll WI WuS d loon at Forest City, in Nevada, near the California state line. In June, 1859, I went over to see my cousin and get
 job in the new diggings in Nevada. It was a long, hard journey across the
 mountains past Donner Lake, and for two days I lay hid in canon on the east slope of the sierras for fear of death at the hands of the Piute Indi- ot, ,1n ,,xIn o.e any savages we knew in the west in those days. I got my job and went to work for a company in which William sharon, afterward millionaire Uni ted States senator, was president. I knew intimately old Comstock, after whom the wonderful Comstock lode was named, and was a witness to the | first diggings that led to finds of gold and silver which have added some one hundred and seventy-ei eight million dol lars to the wealth of the United States. I remember Jim Comstock as pecu- | liar, rough, painsman and miner of about fifty years of age. He was known as old Comstock. I never knew a man who could swear with the facili- l ty of Comstock. He was a genius at | inventing strings of picturesque paths, and the ease with which he could roll I them off his tongue at the least provo 1 cation was surprising, even among the proficient borderland swearers.
 "Comstock and six semi-partners, Joe l Winters, John E. Clark, Patrick Me 1 Loughlin, Peter Reilly, Emanuel Pen | rod and 'Kentuck' Osborne were wash 1 ing gold dust along with about forty | other men, from dry wash known as l Mansanita Creek, four miles from For est City, when l went over to Nevada. l They were making good money, and i felt like kings. Every one enyied them when they would each get an ounce or l two of dust in day. At the time I went to Forest City it was reported that Comstock and his three associates l had taken out of their claim a two-gal- l lon can of gold dust in month, and we sat up nights discussing the mine, which we thought was about the rich est sort of dig'gings to be had since the Forty-nine days in Eldorado county. Old Comstock was immensely tickled at his rapid fortune making, little dreaming that that very locality would | in decade more yield the greatest in- dividual fortunes in gold and silver mining known in the history of the world. I remember hearing Joe Win ters say in my brothers saloon one night:
 Boys, we cleaned up ten pounds of gold in our camp in the last two days | It won't be long before we can buy all I the mines in America at that rate "On his way back from the saloon to his camp that night he walked over ore | that five years later was worth seven teen thousand dollars a ton, and in
 which he made his fortune.
 "I remember well the day in that | summer of 1859 when old Comstock felt so rich that he bought George Carter's | wife. I happened to be taking a lay- off from work that day and was over at Comstocks camp. Among his work l men was young George Carter, who had just come across the plains from | Missouri with his wife in an OK team. Carter was blue and discouraged at the hard life he had had to lead away from his old home. He had been married
 only two years, and his-wife was a
 buxom brunette of about twenty-five years. She was the only white woman | in all that region, and lots of men used to come over to the camp on Sundays to have look at white woman. "Well, the day I was loafing about the Comstock camp old Comstock and Carter had had a row about the wages that were paid Carter. Comstock sat smoking by his tent looking idly over across the gulch at Carter's prairie schooner, where Carter and his wife lived. Suddenly he looked up and said:
 "'George, you're blankety-blanked hard up. Now, what will you take for your wife, cash down?'
 CT don't know; what'l you give?' answered Carter.
 CT don't know, I've never had deal- ings with no woman for years and you have replied Comstock, pulling thoughtfu1ly at his pipe.
 "'Well, how about one thousand dol 1ars?'
 "'Oh, that's too blanket blank much for any woman,' said Comstock.
 You're rich, and you tell me what you'll give said Carter.
 "Ive been thinking it over, and I'll give you five hundred dollars spot gold
 "'All right said Carter getting up,
 but you've got to throw in that mule harness and your shotgun
 'The agreement was made then and there. Comstock went over to see Mrs Carter, and she. knowing that old Comstock had a good twenty thousand