The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1898-05-15

less in volume There went there also
one class of men which did not exist in
1919; men who might be called chronic
prospectors, whose wanderings through
the mining or supposed mining regions
of California had made them restless,
and who were ever ready to pull up
stakes and go off on new hunt Tor
treasure 1t is fortunate for the world
that there have been and are Such
men; it is they who extend the borders
of civilization, and make room for the
worlds increase of population. But men
of capital and energy went there, 100.
The working of silver mines requires
capital. The men who made the mas
seldom reaped the advantage of their
discoveries. Comstock, for whom the
lode was named, lived and died poor.
The site where the discovery OF Sill
yer was made was in the territory OIL
Utah Following the influx OF people
attracted thither by the discovery ana
partly moved thereto by a desire 10
check the spread of Mormondom and
polygamy, the congress OF the Ohlteo
States created the territory of Nevada,
by cutting off a large slice from the
western portion of Utah, comprising
about SO, 900 square miles. The new town
that had sprung up on the eastern slope
of Mount Davidson was named Nlr-
ginia City. At first B street was the
principal business street, and visitors
to the town in 1859 and 1860 might well
have supposed that the selling ana
drinking of whisky was the principal
business. Incidentally, as IL might
seem, there would be exhibited to the
newcomer sundry chunks of silver
bearing quartz, which some red or blue
shirted prospector would bring up from
the side and back pockets of his Jeans,
and show with an air of apparent IN
difference, which might imply, I don't
care much whether you and make a
dicker or not, but this is the biggest
thing out" There was then supposed
to be but one ledge, namely, that found
a little west of where the town was
situated. and extending from a point
about a half mile north of Virginia, in
a southerly direction, past the town or
Gold Hill, and being in all about three
and a half miles in extent. Richer rock
was afterwards found many hundreds
of feet east of the original locations,
and many contentious arose between
the Iocators of new claims and the own
ers of the older locations, the
latter claiming that the rock
found by the newcomers be-
longed to them, being part of the
ledge they and their predecessors had
located. In short, that there was put
one ledge. In the courts the "one-ledge
theory generally prevailed, on the
principle, 1 suppose, that in battle
Providence is usually on the side OF the
heaviest battalions.
OF course, as in all mining towns
drinking saloons were numerous, IN
most of which gambling was openly
conducted; lunch and other eating
houses abounded, and women OF the
demi-monde were fiauntingly in evil
dence. And there were music halIs
which were little, if any better than
brothels-veritable houses of leWdness.
And all except the music halls were run
wide open, day and night. The music
halls commenced business at about
o'clock in the evening, and the per
Torrance" generally lasted till mid
night. after which many of their fire.
uuenters might be found in resorts
where music and vaudeville were per-
petrated, or at the gambling tables, or
engaged in drinking bouts until the
wee small hours"
I don't mean to say that the practices
/ have alluded to were universal On
the contrary. believe that a fair per-
centage of the denizens there actually
went sober to bed at q reasonable hour
of the night Afterward, too, when
families became more numerous, better
influences commenced to work, and
churches and lodges and schools We're
established and well attended Inc
Catholics early planted cnurcn there'
and the kind-hearted, sincere tather
Manogue, who was afterward a blshop,
and who died a couple of years ago IN
Sacramento. widely lamented, was its
officiating priest for many years. An
orphan asylum was also founded there,
in charge of the Sisters of Charity, at
the head of whom as superior was the
gentle and accomplished Sister Fred
erika. An Episcopal church was also
built there at an early day, and Kew.
Mr.. Whitaker (afterward also blshopl
was. for number of years, its able and
well beloved pastor. Other churches FOL
lowed Ard in the flush times, it was
no uncommon thing for the same men
who literally patroniZed the whisky sa-
LIONS 10 contribute bountlfully TO the
support of the churches.
of the buildings first erected in the
town the most pretentiouS were httle
better than shanties, and that cohul-
ton lasted until 1862. AS have sald'
at first B street was the principal busl-
ness street, but soon c street took the
Lad and as capital flowed in there, the
mines having proved productive, bet
ter buildings were erected and the
place began to appear more ike city,
hut a queer looking city wlthal, Ior,
being built upon the steep side of a
mountain. a person directing his vision
eastward from the rear WINDOW Oh
house on the east side of b street could
almost see down the chimney OF a
house situated on the west side of G
street. And so the town sloped from
far west of A street down past b and
c streets as far as the eastern verge or
the town, at about F street. Beyond
that eastward a great, bleak, barren
desert. Behind it, to the west, stern
old Mount Davidson, whose summit is
Z, 1927 feet above the level of the sea
Among the early birds who sought to
catch the silver worm were John w.
Mackay and James G.. Fair. With
them were interested Flood and
O'Brien. John Mackay had done
great deal of hard work as a miner on
the north fork of the Yuba, at Downie-
vile. where many a day he stood in
the muddy stream up to his hips, tend
ing a mining flume. 1t was a lucky
day for him when he quit and went to
Washoe-that was the name by which
all the new silver region of Nevada
was called He worked very hard
there, too. for years before he and Fair
got into the Consolidated Virginia and
fortunes which made them multi
When Mackay was a
young man he suffered painfully in
his speech; but he overcame that af-
Fiction completely. Fair used to be
spoken of in Virginia City (of course,
by those who had no respect for
wealth. as "Old Smoothly" Going down
into the mine one day. he surprised a
workman in the forbidden act of smok-
ing a pipe. Very mildly Fair said to
him. Lend me your pipe. my SON."
The man handed it to him. He took
two or three whiffs of it, and gently
handed it back. saying, just as mildly,
That's a very good pipe, my SON."
The man thought he was let off very
easy. So he was. The next morning
the foreman sent him to the Office of
the company to get his time. He was
let off.
Money was very plentiful. New
..str-ikeSn being made from time to