The Somerset herald. [volume] (Somerset, Pa.) 1870-1936, 1899-04-05

Comstock, was uncovered In May, 1874.
The Big Four mining firm had been
having for months net daily income
Of over $1,000, aad the bonanza ledge
jumped their net profits to $4,000 ev-
cry day in the week. Once on the wit
ness stand James G. Fair said his in
come in 1874 was over 81, SOC, 600 from
the California and Consolidated Vir-
ginia mines alone. But besides, the
firm Of Mackay, Fair, Flood & o. Brien
had enormous deals in the shares In
other neighboring Comstock properties.
They knew things about the deeper
lodges that no one else did. Often they
doubled the money they invested in
shares in other mines. One deal in
0phir stock yielded over 500, 600 profit
in week. At another time the frm
engineered big deal In Belcher stock,
which rose from 800 to S2l5 share in
ten days, and they made hundreds of
thousands of dollars.
Shares in the California and COnsol-
idated Virginia mines which Mackay
and Fair were developing rose from S47
in February, 1872, to 81 ,260 in May,
1875. The mining firm bought and
sold aud rebought and resold the shares
aud always made great profits. All
the other twenty-five Comstock mines
doomed also. The deep-mining devel-
opment prospered everywhere. San
Francisco, indeed, all California, be-
came vast hive Of speculation in
mining shares. People abandoned 9TH
er pursuits and became plungers at the
Mining Exchange. Everybody watch
ed for the first warning that the bubble
might burst, so as to hastily unload
mining stocks on other and less sus-
pecting people. In June, 1915, the fe-
verish speculators began to hear rumors
as TO the petering out of the Bonanza
ledge. a panic was narrowly averted.
In July reports came that the Comstock
would earn no more dividends. Early
in August the people believed the re-
ports and the crash came like the fall
of house of cards. Stocks went down
TO mere shadow Of their former val
ues. Literally thousands of California
men and women, who were rich on
August 4, were poor on August ), and
have never since recovered their wealth.
The panic of 1875 in the San Francisco
Stock Exchange did not affect the Bo-
nanza mines. The Big Four mining
firm disclaimed responsibility for the
stock gambling of the Toms, Dicks and
Harrys of the Pacific coast. There was
a slight reaction in the value of Com
stock shares, but never again was there
anything like theenormous prices paid
for them.
For four years longer the California
and Consolidated virginia properties
were worked day and night But the
bonanza ledge was worked out by the
fall of 1875. Exploratory work was
vainly conducted in every part of the
mine for further bonanzas The mines
yielded good profits every month until
the latter part of 1878. Then the lode
had been dug so deep that it was too
expensive to mine there. The mining
firm had sold all their shares bit by bit
for several years, and when 1851 came
it had left only handfal of stock in
the California and Consolidated Vir-
ginia. John w. Macksy moved to New
York that year and invested his $685.
000, 900 in Atlantic cable and telegraph
lines. James G.. Fair had drawn out
about S4S, 900, 900. James c. Flood took
out over $50, ,O00, ,OC0 more, and William
S. O'Brien, who was an invalid during
the last years of his life and had with
drawn early from the firm, about sIl, >
100000.
James G. Fair made his home before
and after he became multi-million-
aire at little wooden house on Washoe
street, in the mining camp of Virginia
City. He was elected United States
Senator from Nevada in 1881, and
when his term expired he went to San
Francisco to live. All his four chill
dren were born in the Washoe street
house, and they were brought up like
any other children in the camp. Mrs.
Fairs head was never turned by the
Aladdin wealth that poured in upon
her While her husband was adding
$500, 900 or more to his wealth, and
while his bank deposits in San Fran
cisco often ranged from Sl4, coo, ,O00O to
SIS, 900. 900, she and her little girls went
to visit among the miners cabins about
the camp, dressed in calico dresses and
straw hats.
The future Mrs. William X. Wander
bilt, Jr.-Miss Virginia Fair-was
named after the mining camp in which
she was born and reared 20 girlhood.
She is the youngest Of the Fair chill
dren. Along with the children of the
poor Cornish and Irish laborers of the
camp she went to red schoOlhouse on
Gold Hill street. The Old-time miners
in Virginia City remember her as a
dark-eyed and jolly little girl, who
played in the street and in the open
sand lots near her home with other
and less favored children of fortune.
She inherits her fathers clear pink
and-white Celtic complexion.
In 1884 she, with her mother and
sister (nOw Mrs. Herman Oelrichs of
New York and two brothers, went to
live in a superb mansion on Pine street
in San Francisco. Four years sgo
Miss Virginia Fair spent several days
in the decayed old mining tcwn of
Virginia City, where her father dug
his enormous fortune. She called upon
host Of her girlhood friends and left
many pleasing remembrance there Of
her visit
The possession Of millions Of dollars
brought unhappiness for the last ten
years of James G.. Fairs life. Mrs.
Fair obtained dispensation from the
Pope and divorced her husband in
1886. Vile scandals went abroad about
the Senator in California. He gave
Mrs. Fair 5000, 900 In bonds and
! stocks and he lived with his sons,
i