Morning appeal. [volume] (Carson City, Nev.) 1877-1906, 1898-08-10
r s LIFE WORK
His Early Struggles and Tri.
umphs Graphically Described

Miriam Mlchel>On, a young lady who
was raised in Virginia City, and is now
writing tor the San Francisco Bulletin.
thus tells of the struggles and triumphs
of SItro in Nevada:
For nine years the young German
worked on the water 'front.'. Buying sell
inc, and dealing in cigars and tobacco,
making money in any way that preSen-
ted itself, living in poverty, laboring
increasingly and accomplishing little.
until the ComStock was born, and with
it Sutro's opportunity.
To construct six miles of TUNE at a
depth of about half a mile below the
mountains of silver that made up the
C0mStock lode; to do this without money
without credit, against the bitter oppoSi-
ton of the many headed Car of the
COmstOck. the Bank OF California Syndi-
cate; to meet rebuffs innumerahle. to be
batfied by unexpected DELAYS and disHp-
pOlntmentS, to have nature againt him
in the stubborn ande>ite and a temperate
ure of ia degrees; to have even fate
against you, for the Frauco-Prus~iau
war broke out Just when France had
promised SutrO We millions; and yet to
conquer. This is Sutr0's achievement.
When the silver ~millionaires laughed
at him, when their all powerful influence
checked him in San Francisco and in
Washington, as it had in Virginia City.
SutrO turned to the people. He asked
their help and he got it, in this first great
fight of his, just as many years later he
was made Mayor of San Francisco bv
them, in opposition to all the recognized
political authorities.
No one who has not lived in Virginia
City can imagine the sensation Sutro
caused when he hired that big barn of
an opera house on the side of Mt. David
son, and from the stage proceeded to de-
nounce the very men upon whom ninety
nine of every hundred men on the Com
stock depended for their Iivings. The
mines and the mills and the banks
every man of wealth or influence or
power was on one side. Sutro was on
the other.
will the people Of Nevada see me
crushed ont now" he cried to the crowd
of miners that filled the theatre. "NNill
you not see fair play when one man has
the pluck to stand up against a crowd?
Come in together: let 5000 laboring men
pay in an average of $40 a month and in
sure the construction of the tunnel.
carrying with 1t a control of the mines.
j. s. The enemy who has spun his
web around you until You are almost
helpless, has bribed your Judges, hired
false witnesses. bought legislatures,
elected representatives to defend their
iniquity, imposed taxes upon YOU tor
their private benefit, and now dares vuu
to expose OF oppose them. : - do
not mean to lncite you to any violence :
8 y but | do mean to say that YOU can
destroy your enemy by simple concert OF
action. Let all of you join together to
build the Sutro Tunnel: thai is the way
to reach them. : y They know that
the first pick truck into the tunnel will
be the first pick into their graves.
This in Nevada, where the privilege of
work could be bought only by the utmost
subServiency! But it has a familiar
sound, this rude, ~straight-Out el~ouuence.
It's the way SutrO learned to talk abOut
the "Ortapns,' years later. And it was
successful. The Miners Union raised
$4,000 and gave it to him to put into the
tunnel. That was the beginning. It
wasn't the end of the chain of defeats
which eliminated in victory. but it was
the first effective one of the strokes which
ended. after twenty years of fighting.
with tongue and pen and fists, in Sutro'S
crawling h~alf-naked through the Jagged
hole of r ok which he and his miners
had burst through into one Of the cool
dark drifts in the Savage mine.
The COnIstock companies refused to
use the tunnel after it was completed.
And then. after the awful fire in the Vel
low Jacket mine had demonstrated its ne
ceSSity, one by one they yielded, TIL the
great mines were all ventilated and
drained and even worked through the
coyote hole they had fought against.