Evening star., 1899-04-04
Claims His Bride.

For three years the miners in Nevada
had been coming across the Sierras to Cali
fornia with tales of the incalcuable wealth
there was In the mines of Comstock lode.
Fair had long had the miners restlessness
to go and try his luck in the field. A
week after he had been paid for his Nevada
county mine he went over the mountain
range into CalaveraS county on visit. He
had known there a family named Rooney,
from the north of Ireland and they had
been his friends in his struggles upward.
There was a jolly, ambitious girl in the
family, and she and Jim had become great
friends while she waited on the miners in
her fathers little merchandise store at
Douglas Flat. She had promised Jim to
marry him when he struck rich. Now Jim
claimed his bride
They were married by Father Casey. A
fortnight later the bride and groom started
for Comstock at Virginia City They made
their bridal tour with a mule team and IA
big lumber wagon over the Placersvile and
Red Deg trail. 200 miles across the noun
tails to Nevada. All their household ef-
fects were in the back of the wagon, and
their capital was in .Jim's'' leathern belt
and his skill in miEing. Years later, when
James G. Fair was the richest miner on
earth, he used to say the days of that jour-
ney were his happiest
jim Fairs rise in the mining opera tions
in the great mining camp of Virginia City
was fast He was for time boss in the
underground tunnels of the Hale and Nor
cross mines. He worked like Trojan. His
closest friend was John w. Mackay who
had been born in Dublin, Ireland three
weeks prior to Fairs birth. The two
men became mining superintendents, and
they were at last getting up in the world
pretty fast. They kept their eyes open when
they were in drifts and lateraIs under
ground. and never spoke except to each
other about mining down there. At this
time the two Irishmen had two common
friends of Irish descent in a little saloon on
Washington street, San Francisco. They
were James G. Flood and William S.
O'Brien. They had profited by the secrets
that the drunken mining laborers from the
Comstock had spoken in the Washington
street saloon, and were quietly investing all
their earnings in mining stocks. Secretly
the mining firm of Mackay, Fair, Flood and
O'Brien was formed in the rear Of the sa-
loon, to accomplish certain things when the
time came.
In the fall of 1868 rumors got afoat that
the lodges of pay ore in the Comstock were
petering out In 1869 the four miners vir-
tually became bankrupt. The Great Ophir
paid no dividend for seven months. The
stock in the Virginia and California mines
went down enormously in one year. Two
panics in the San Francisco mining ex-
change were narrowly averted. Virginia
City's population melted away. and those
who remained were disconsolate.
Some Adroit Maneuvers.
Mackay, Fair, Flood and O'Brien kept
their own counsels for months. Flood and
O'Brien were In San Francisco adroitly
buying the deprecated shares In the Cali
fornia and Consolidated Virginia proper
ties. The mining public In the city thought
the ex-saloon keepers were crazy. The
firm was not known in those days. For
something like $4,000 Flood and O'Brien
houghf for themselves and their two mart.