The San Francisco call., 1898-01-01
DEADLY. DUEI.." ;. ;. ;. FOR. 4 MINE Tale. of :. a ;: Night Attack
 :. - on a Miners :. :. :. : = :..:.,.. Cabin. :-': :. .:... s.' ------. .;..'.- Q one Man Killed and Another
 :: Badly Wounded in the Struggle.
 s-
A Bitter Legal Tangle Further Com
 .- plicated by a Decision by Judge .-''. Slack; .'s. 's.

A motion to dissolve an injunction in the case of J. T. M.s Kelly and others against Henry Sylvester and others has been denied by Judge Slack. and the case will come to trial on the in- junction. It will be an interesting trial, for the whole lurid history of the Gold Ridge mine, the murders 1t has caused, and the blood that has been spilled over it's hidden treasure, will all be brought into the light of day.
 The injunction was originally issued to prevent the levying of an assess rnent on the stock of the mine, on the ground that the officers who had levied the assessment had voted themselves salaries that, if applied to the develop ment of the mine, would have rendered the levying of an assessment unneces- sary.. Sylvester, the president of the company, moved to dissolve the tenn porary injunction issued, but that was denied, and the injunction must re- main until it is made permanent or is dissolved forever.
 The trouble is the outgrowth of the changing owners and officers which has made the history of the mine one OI CIll1lR anu IL was d GcI dSO New Years eve that the first murder was committed. The mine was then in the hands of officers elected as the re- suit of a pool of the stock of three of the largest stockholders in the concern. These were Henry Sylvester, w. H. Lillie and Richard Phelan. The pool was the result of an attempt to sell the mine to an Eastern syndicate for $100, GOO, which was opposed by the men who formed the pool.
 Originally the mine was in the hands of w. C. Ralston. It was located in 1862 in one of the widest sections of Nevada county. Ralston sunk a shaft in one of the claims with view to a sale should the result meet expecta- tions, but after going down thirty feet the gravel was found to be so rich as to lead to the suspicion that the mine had been salted, and this delayed pro- ceedings until the death of Ralston put an end to the deal.
 The mine lay idle until in 1891 the Gold Ridge Company was formed, with Lillie as president. During his admin istration an attempt was made to bond the mine for S100,000 to an Eastern sym dicate, but Lillie, Sylvester and Phe- Ian refused to go in. After they had formed their pool and blocked the bonding of the mine they elected Syl- vester president, and soon after levied an assessment to start developing the property. This assessment was op- posed by Mark Strauss, one of the stockholders, and an injunction re- straining the directors from assessing the stock was granted by Judge Troutt in 1898. This case is now on appeal to the Supreme Court.
 Then another assessment was levied, and this time 1t was opposed by Kelly.
 In the meantime the directors had been supplying the money for the as- sessment work which had to be done to hold the mine, and over this work there came a conspiracy to seize the mine on the ground that the necessary work had not been done and hold it under the name of new company.
 Paul Muller was then the superin- tendent of the mine, and he got wind of the fact that an attempt would be made to relocate the property He ex- pected trouble, and prepared himself by barricading the cabin where he and his men lived.
 It was New Years eve when Rich ard Phelan, Dan O'Connor and Owen White came to the claims. The night was stormy, and the snow lay so thick on the ground that the men had to ! ifavel on snowshoes. They tried to eater the cabin, but the men inside re- ssted and held their place. Tn the cabin with Muller was Jim O'Connor, brother of Dan, and through him Iarley was agreed upon and the in- vadrs were allowed to enter. They got 7p farther than the door, however, for when the door was opened their weapens were ready and at once the duel legan. Several shots were fired in rapd succession, and when it was over Paul Muller was dying and Jim O'ConnG, who had fought manfully in defense hof the cabin, was badly wounded&
 Phelan and his men waited until 12 o'clock thtt night and when New Year came in le promptly relocated the claims folt the Marguerite Mining (ax,,nopu Ia mac foLan fo Tr,toLoa