Evening star., 1899-04-04
900, and they controlled the California and

COngbl blidafed Vlrginta mines.
January /, 1872, 0ackay, Fair, Flood &
O Br! \. look charge of their property.
Wklle Fivod and O'Brien raised money by
all sorts of financial operations in San
Francisco, Mackay and Fair prosecuted
the work in the mines. For four months
the costly work was done in extending
laterals and sinking shafts in the once
practically abandoned California and Con-
solidated Virginia. Outside mining opera
tors waited to see the firm become bank
rupt Not one person in ten in Virginia
City believed that Mackay and Fair knew
what they were about. Suddenly ore which
paid from $50 to Sl0O a ton was reached.
Doubters began.to3 diminish Three months
sayed over $50 to the ton. The big four
mining firm was now out of debt and was
fast making money. In May, 1873, ledge
! 200 feet down was reached, and for
months that alone gave the firm a net
profit of over $18, 600 a day.
But the bonanza ledge-the richest body
of ever known-was reached on the
1,so0-foot level in May. 1874. 1t was vast
natural treasury of gold and silver, in COM
bination, in the bowels of Mount Davidson.
Miners who saw the extraordinary deposits
of precious metals, while the ledge was be-
ing developed, cannot yet find language to
express the bewildering wealth they saw in
the rocks all about them. So fabulous did
the early reports of the richness of the
newly-found ledge seem to be that for
few weeks no one outside of the men who
saw LOT themselves put mucn 1dlth IN the
stories of the miners. When, however, the
mine began paying Mackay, Fair Flood &
o Brien about three and one-half million
dollars a month the mining world on the
Pacific coast went wild with excitement.
Shares in the California and Consolidated
Virginia rose in one month from $4S to
$40. In another month the shares were
snapped up at $3.50 each.
The Famous Output.
For seventeen months the bonanza lodges
We're worked day and night. Blocks of ore
from the ledge yard square assayed at
$3.50, and even $500 Many a day, in 1874,
the big four mining company had a net in
come of S25oOa. In November, 1874, the
firms net income was over $4,000 900
week. Mackay and Fair never lost their
heads. In their overalIs and Jumpers they
worked early and late in and about the
mines. They were down in the shafts 500
and 2,0OO feet below the surface Of the
earth every day.
A string of stories are told in Virginia
City of the mistakes people from abroad
used to make in taking Mackay and Fair
for mining labOrers. Once, when Fair was
having an income of thousands of dollars
every day, he escorted a man from New
York about the California mine. and with
out smile, received as a reward a silver
half dollar for his services Mrs. Fair with
her children, came down from the wooden
house on Washoe street every few days to
From May, 1874, to January, 1876,
the California and Consolidated Vir-
ginia paid over s72.0oo0o0. AT one
time Mackay, Fair, Flood and O'Bren
had a deposit in four San Francisco banks
of 100000. The San Francisco Mining
journal in January, 1915, sent experts to
see the vast treasure bed the bonanza
miners had opened and they reported over
$60G00,00O in sight. without spending $4,000
to get it worked into coin.
Wreck of FOrfunes
The thousands of mining stock specula-
tors, comprising every class of people and
every human pursuit and vocation in San
Francisco and California, had been await
ing the least indication from the bonanza
ledges in order to unload their shares on
some less suspecting spectators. In June,
1879, there came rumors that tonanzas were
petering out. In July the rumors became
common report One day in August a re-
port wired from Virginia City to San
Francisco that no more pay remained on
the ComStOck. A nightfui panic ensued.
The San Francisco mining exchange was
scene of surSins. yelling, frantic men.
The depreciation in Comstock stocks in two
days was over s90,eO0,00O. Several banks
closed their doers. among them the great
and powerful Bank of California. Many
men who were rich in July, 1875, became
paupers a few days later, and never after
recovered their wealth. 1t was the blackest
of black Fridays forsCalifornia.
tunes, Mackay, Fair. Flood and O'Brien stood
serene. In the anguish of the day they
were accused of having manipulated the
stock market so that they made fortunes
by speculation, but Mackay and Fair at
least, always denied it. The collapse of
the stock had no effect upon the work
ing of the mines. But In April, 1876, the
pay ore had so diminished that the Cali
fornia and Consolidated Virginia went
lower. In 1880 the great firm was dissolved
John w. Mackay moved to New York, JAS
G. Fair and his family went to San Fran
cisco in 1884
Il Social Features.
An interesting chapter in the history of
the bonanza mining kings is that concerning
the influence of the Comstock millions in the
social and political worlds in the last twen-
ty years. Mrs. Mackay has been a So
ciety queen in Paris for two decades. Miss
Eva Mackay, born in Placerville, Cal. mar
rled the Prince Colonna of Italy. Clarence
Mackay. born at Virginia City, married
Miss Duer, of one of the most select
knickerbocker families of New York. JAS
G. Fair spent fortune and became an
United States senator in 1881. While he
was senator an estrangement grew up be-
tween him and his wife. legal separa-
ton by special dispensation of the pope)
was had in 1886, and Mrs. Fair and her
daughters, Theresa and Virginia, went to
San Francisco. Senator Fair and his sons
Charles and James G., jr., made their home
at the Lick Hotel in the same city.
All the Fair children were born in lit
tie two-story house in the mining town of
Virginia City. Charles is the eldest child
The daughters inherited their fathers dark,
bright eyes and his pink and white COM
plexion. When little children they were
like other children of poor mining laborers
all about them. The elder Fairs were never
different after they became enormously
rich from what they were when they were
poor. The Fair girls were always popular
with their associates. Today every one
| who remains in the decayed old mining
camp has anecdotes to tell of how Mrs.
Herman Oelrfchs and the prospective Mrs.
William K. Vanderbilt, jr, used to play
out in the street with the girls of poor
Cornshmen, and found fun in making mud
pies out In the roadway with children
reared in poverty.
Miss Theresa Fair married Herman Oel-
rfchs in royal style in San Francisco seven
years ago. The father participated in the
ceremonies, and then retired to his room at
the hotel. Mrs. Fair died at her home in
October 1893. and Miss Virginia Fair went
to live with Mrs Oelrfchs in New York
Closing Days FUN of Sorrow.
Senator Fair was an invalid with asthma
in his last years. His closing days were