Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1901-05-27

! lOuS % pr1ceS were PAID; aU U1meS S1U 10
S25 per ay was cheerfully paid, flour
was S1.OO per pound, it cost a man
LOO to get his shirt washed and a
new one was simply an impossibility,
shovels and picks sold from $40 to $50
apiece, and it cost young man fifty
cents to send a letter back to his
mother or his best girl. AS it was
said, cit rained gold, it poured gold,
nothing was talked of, nothing was
thought of, but goldi gold! gold!"
But in the midst of all this wealth,
there were some who never shared in
it; i'll luck seemed to cling to them
despite their rich surroundings.
Some abandoned the search for gold
and became saloon keepers, others
sought employment on farms or work
ed by the day in the various mines.
It was in one of these mines that
John w. Mackay first offered his SER
vices by the day; he was bright,
energetic young Irish lad, and soon
Won the confidence of his employers.
In one of his trips to the city he be-
came intimate with Flood and O'Brien
who kept an eating saloon on Market
st. in San Francisco; this saloon was
much frequented by miners in those
days. Flood and O'Brien had little
cash and Mackay's friend Fair had
little interest in the mine where
Mackay worked. At this time, things
at the mines were looking bad, and
the stock was selling at fearful dis
count, but it was finally agreed to
accomplish certain things when the
right time should come. In the fall
of 1868 rumors were afoat that the
pay ore in the "Comstock" was
petering out, the great Ophir had
paid no dividends for seven months
and the st ock in Virginia went down
800 per cent. All this time Mackay,
Fair, Flood and O'Brien kept their
own counsel; Mackay being at the
head of toe gang of miners, Fair,
Flood and C'Brien, who were in the
city, were to await advices and if at
any time the mine looked favorable,
they were to buy up the stock and
give Mackay quarter interest in the
mine. One afternoon Mackay dis
covered a sudden change in the rock
where he was at work, the drill
seemed to sink into soft substance,
he mediately ordered his men to
quit work, while he made his own
tests and surveys; he pierced the
rock on several sides and each fryer
came out with a coil of gold at the
end of his drill: he did not know him
self the extent Of the find, but stopped
further work and telegraphed Flood
and O'Brien, and in a single day the
balance of the stock was bought up
and the famous firm known as the
"Bonanza King" came into existence,
took over three million a month for
about six years, with scarcely any
labor. The ore lay in almost one
solid mass, in fact it was so rich that
rock had to be mixed with it to pre-
vent clOgging the wheels while pass
ing through the crusher. When the
news of this first find reached San
Francisco, no one outside of the men
who saw for themselves put much
faith in the stories of this wonderful
discovery.
When the Mint began to pay this
company over three million dollars
per month the mining world went
wild with excitement; shares rose in
one month from $4S to $3.50 each, the
mine was worked night and day for
seventeen months. All this time
Mackay and Fair never lost their
heads, in their overalls and"jumpers"
they worked early and late in and
about the mines and in six years John
W. Mackay sold out his interest and
went to New York with forty seven
million dollars; Fair in eight years
sold out his interest for fifty million
and went to San Francisco where he
lived in superb mansion near Knob
Hill. He afterward spent fortune in
the Nevada legislature and in 1881 was
elected U. s. Senator. This was the
same James Fair that shipped from
New York as deck hand on a Pana-
ma vessel, thence to the gold fields in
1849, and for fourteen years fought |
adversely in every form in the mining
camps of the Pacific coast. He
worked in several mines, but it was
one constant round of privations, ex-
posure, hard work and poverty, and
today when the veteran miners talk |
over those days when "Jim" Fair |
washed his own shirt and overalls and |
cooked his own meals of fried pork |