The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1898-05-15
WHEN THE COMSTOCK BOOr1ED.
Recolections of the Flush Times On the Great Silver Lode

the rivalry became very interesting to
the Virginia people, but / have an idea
that it was an expensive rivalry as far
as the express companies were con-
| cerned, for both of them started and
! kept up for a long time pony express.
by which each company sought to out
run the other in the prompt delivery
of mail matter from San Francisco.
Great crowds used to assemble on G
street at about the time the ponies were
expected, and when they would come
in sight there would be immense
cheering, no matter which was ahead.
Wells, Fargo & Co.'S pony, however,
was generally in advance of its COM
petitor, which finally gave up business,
leaving the field clear for the old con-
Germ OF course, these things took
place before the building of the over
land railway and the Virginia & True
kee railroad. which obviated the ne
cessity of ponies.
There was a fever of excitement on
the ComstOck, beginning in 1861, and
reaching its height in 1868. Everybody
seemed to think that he either was
then or shortly would be just as rich
as he wanted to be. Speculation was
rife. Comstock mines were booming in
the San Francisco Stock Exchange.
Virginia City had its local stock board,
the Washoe Stock Exchange. When
the morning sessions of the board were
closed the members would rush out of
their meeting room with flushed faces
and sparkling eyes. They met in the
Medin building, which was on the east
side of C street, between Union street
and Sutton avenue. Many of them
would make a bee line for Cooley &
Buffers saloon (almost directly oppo-
site the Medin) and there fortify the
inner man, talking of Gould & Curry,
Ophir, Consolidated Virginia, Mexican,
81, n
cited manner, in the meanwhile;i and
generally inviting the crowd to join
them in a drink, which same the crowd
never refused to do. One of the most
nervous and nervy brokers among
them was Jack McKenty, who
stood about five feet in his
boots, and moved as if he were
strung on wires. He was very
quick in speech. He always had plenty
of money. He was standing in front
of Jack Perrys saloon one day trying
to make d trade with a person, and
couldn't get him to terms. There hap
pened to be two pigeons in the street
in front of them. All at once Jack said
to the other, at the same time running
his hand down into his side pocket, I'll
bet you $500 the blue pigeon will fly be-
fore the other one doesi" His friend
wouldn't bet Said Jack: well, I'll bet
you $500 the white one flies first And
he would have done it, either way, so
long as he could be doing something.
That was the kind of stuff he was made
of. And there were more like him.
There were outside brokers, too, who
might have been called "cuTbStone"
brokers, only there were no curbstones
there at that time. The sidewalks were
of board, and the streets were unpaved;
dusty in the summer and muddy in the
winter.
That was a grand time for the printer
and photographer. New mining corpo-
rations were being formed almost daily,
each with capital stock ranging any
where from S1OO, 900 to s1,OOO.OOO, divided
into so many shares at so much each.
You could get let in on bedrock prices.
A better mine than the Ophir or Gould
and Curry or any of en- And then,
such beautiful, such alluring stock GER
tificateS were turned out by the SAID
printers and photographers! And the
tenderfoot was almost sure to meet with
the holder of some of this magnificent
stock who was willing to sell few
shares-didn't want to dispose of too
many. To make sure that it was all
right the would-be seller of the few
shares would produce specimens of the !
rock taken from the claims; just picked
up at random, you know. The picture
may. seem overdrawn, but it isn't. And |
exist for the period of 90 years. Inc |
time hasn't elapsed, but where are !
they? -
But though there were many Wild
cat claims which came to naught ex-
cept some ill-gotten gain to their pro-
iectors and some veXation and loss 10 (
their dupes. there were others which |
produced wonderful results, among
which. perhaps. the vexed silver ques-
ton" is sought by some politicians to
be made most prominent. The question
will doubtless settle itself.
In the principal mines what marvel
Gus machinery, invented only TO meet
the very eXigency which there pre-
scented itself. And how many large |
fortunes were MADE, some irouh tne
production of the mines, others from |
The wild speculations in the stock, IN
duced by the lurid reports concerning
their production, such reports being |
one of the causes of the flush times we |
are considering.
The ground underneath a large por-
tion of the town was honeycOmbed by |
the workings of the mines. One night, /
in 1854 a large stone store situated on |
the divide" between Virginia and Gold
Hill. together with a heavy stock OF
merchandise, sunk into the earth, COM J
pletely hidden from view, leaving no
trace of even the foundation OF the
building Fortunately, the subsistence
occurred after the store had been
closed for the day, and all the occu- |
pants had left it for their homes. The
store and contents were swallowed up
in the space left by the underground
workings of the BajaZot and Golden
Era mine.
The flush times and the many con-
fiicting mining locations incident to the
mad rush for bonanzas, attracted nu-
Iox VIRGINIA MANY OF
whom were men of great ability. Now
there are but three or four attorneys
at-Iaw there In March, 1863, there
were 215 resident lawyers there, and
others would occasionally go there
from Carson City and even from San
Francisco, the latter generally repre-
senting corporations formed in Cali
fornia for the purpose of mining on
the Comstock-a course probably
adopted to facilitate the listing of
their stock in the San Francisco Stock
Exchange. The Nevada bank, insti-
tuted by Mackay, Fair, Flood and
O'Brien, was the outgrowth of the stock
transactions, and its building. on the
northwest corner of Montgomery and
Pine streets, in San Francisco, is the
most tangible monument of the flush
times on the Comstock; but the colos-
sal fortunes of its projectors and of
some few others are most substantial,
If not visible, tokens of that era.
In 1863 John Piper, a progressive and
public spirited citizen crest his souD,
built a theatre on the east side of ID
street, just south of Union, and named
it Pipers' Opera House. 1t was a wood
en- building, not very ornamental in
outward appearance, capable of hold
ing in it's parQuette and dress circle
about 700 persons. The scenery was
painted by William t. Porter, the noted