The San Francisco call., 1898-11-21
.ROTHSCH|LDS
 BUY MAR|POSA
 MINERAL LANDS Biggest Mining Deal of Past Decade. A MILLION IS THE FIGURE 44,ooo ACRES OF MINERAL LANDS TRANSFERRED. A Deal That Will Mean the Deliver ance of County From Cor
 porate Greed and In-
 fuence.
IA MILLION IS THE FIGURE
44,ooO ACRES OF MINERAL
 LANDS TRANSFERRED.

With the coming of the miners yester-
 day came news of what is said to be the ! biggest deal in mining properties con surnmated in California in the last de- | cade By it the Rothschilds may become the largest owners of mining property ln | the State and the State become richer Dy
 upward of a million dollars paid by the agents of the London capitalists Tor complete title to the 4,00O and odd acres of mineral lands that comprise the old Mariposa grant.
 The agents and experts of the Roths- chflds have been for the past year pros pecting the mother lode from Frencn Camp to Fresno County, and have paid particular attention to the Mariposa sec +ion with the result that about ten months ago they secured an option upon one-sixth of the big grant, and since that time have been negotiating with the Mackay and Hobart agents for the bal ance of the property. A bond has been issued during the past week, and It IS expected that work on a large scale will
 be soon begun on the many valuable mining claims that the sale covers. If the Rothschilds finally decide to
 abide by their bond and pay the pur-
 chase price 1t will mean the dellverance of Mariposa County. Ever since history began in California the Mariposa grant has been a millstone round the neck or that sections prosperity. Taking up, as
 
 was for years non-productiVe in taxes Tor the reason that no improvements Of value
 were ever erected upon it. Later, when its value as mineral proposition was dis covered and the large interests that have just released it to the London bankers | took hold of it and developed twenty or
 more of its prospects, it was found an inn possibility for the citizens Of the county l to elect an Assessor that would fix a val uation on the Improvements in any wise commensurate with their cost. This state 1 of affairs continued for years. Road Work 1 was stopped for want Of funds, and the 1 county was at a standstill until the voters l rose in their wrath and put in an official 1 of their own choosing.
 The new official worked like charm.
 values, and in anticipation of the harvest men were put to building roads and mepding fences. A new era dawned, and it continued until 1t came time for the property ty-owners to appear before the Board of Supervisors, sitting as Board of EqualiZers, and make representatlons
 that their assessments were eXorDltant
 and prohibitive.
 For the same reasons that had actuated
 Sa oespfte thf eogPfy f and valuable machinery, they scaled the
 taxes back to the good old figures and the county went back into it's trance.
 Enough is known of the plans of the Rothschilds to warrant the hope that the new era has actually dawned. Electric power plants are talked of, and mining operations on generous and business like basis, and the good news or the past fortnight has set the picks ringing and pumps working on old shafts all over the county.
 The Mariposa grant is as rich in his torical incident as in good red nuggets. It's original owner was Don Juan AlVara- do who received it as a grant of pasture land from Manuel MicheltOrena, last of the Mexican Governors. Alvarado went broke" before his cows came home, and he turned the property over to General Fremont for a consideration Of $3000- The United States allowed Fremont to so change the lines of the original grant that instead of lying on the fertile plains of the San Joaquin it was broken to pieces over the points of the high Sierras. and under the resurvey the Government con- firmed his title.
 It took Fremont something like year and a hundred men armed with shotguns to drive the miners from the property. who had discovered rich diggings there and reared themselves homes. When he had succeeded in this he found himself penniless and with thousand or so bitter enemies as assets, and his creditors took the property.
 They made better time down the finan- cial toboggan than Fremont, and the l grant finally passed into the hands of the 1 Floods Mackays and Hobarts who hung 1 1t as a heavy decoration around the neck | of Mariposa County, and just now the good people of that section are doing l everything but holding torchlight process | sions at being finally rid of 1t, all save its history.