The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1903-09-27


such a sanctified sport as never really
existed, and he Numbered the garments
of his scarlet women to a pale pink
color. Yet the probabilities are that
John Oakhurst cheated at cards, and
that the fair Deliiahs of the foothill
mining camps never suffered their
spasmodic acts of kindness to interfere
with their regular business. Some of
the millionaires of the Comstock were
shameless in their debauchery. One
of these had one home in which the ex-
terror decencies of civilized life were
preserved and where he raised his fam
lily, and another residence in which
| there was no attempt at concealment
| of constant debauchery and where he
raised the devil. Another took the air
every afternoon in an open carriage
accompanied by some public woman
land many instances might be related of
orgies as public and as eXtravagant as
| those which Tacitus ascribes to Nero.
| The breaches of trust by which mill
lions were accumulated We're often as
| braZen as the designations of the mil
/ lionaires. To this day men relate as
an exhibition of financial and business
acumen, the act Of California min
| ing boss and county politician, who at
| a low ebb in his fortunes was sent by
! relative to take charge of a quartz
! mine in Nevada. The mine was own
ed by corporation and it's shares were
| selling at eight dollars each in the San
Francisco mining stock board, for no
| considerable body of ore had been
| found. One afternoon the superin-
tendent was present when the miners
broke into an ore deposit which two
hours work with the picks disclosed
to be enormously rich and extensive.
! Obviously the plain duty of the man
| ager was to make public the news, or
at least to communicate it to the stock
holders whose trustee he was. Instead
of doing this he assembled to the sur
face, hastily collected bedding, blank
cts, cooked food, wines liquors and
cigars and lowered these down the
! shaft, some eight hundred feet in
depth, accompanied by a note to the
| shift boss stating that the men might
cease work and make themselves COM
Portable; that they would be kept there
for few days, during which time their
| pay would go on; and that each man
would receive in addition one hundred
dollars as a gratuity, and that the fam
| lilies of those thus imprisoned would be
told that an accident to the machinery
| was the cause of the detention.
This being accomplished the super
| intendent hauled up and detached the
wire cable, took out some necessary
pieces of machinery, closed and locked
the hosting house and placed trusted
ally on guard. That night he rode on
horseback to the railroad station forty
miles away, caught the train and the
next day at noon was in San Fran
cisco. His relative was man of large
resources, and within three days they
had quietly bought up two-thirds of
the stock in the mine. Work was then
resumed, the bonanza was developed
and within one month the stock had
advanced from eight dollars to six
hundred dollars per share, and the
trust betraying scoundrel-for he was
nothing else-was worth seven millions
of dollars, and was at once admitted
to social and commercial equality with
the other graduates of the Comstock.
Another operator in charge of
bank, loaned the money of its stock
holders to mining corporations to en-
able them to continue development in
advance of the collection of assess
ments If the company struck it
rich" something always happened to
the pumping machinery and the shaft
filled with water. The operator and
his friends then bought in the stock,
the mine was pumped out. the bonanza
uncovered and more millions created.
Still another plan was to form
milling company consisting of the
trustees of the mining companies who
thereupon contracted with themselves
to crush the ore at a high price per
ton The rich ore was mixed with
poor ore, and the poor ore with bed
rock, and the stock of the milling
company paid dividends, while the
stock of the mining companies was
subjected to assessments.
AAA
Two humble adventures in the lar
ceny line resorted to more primitive
methods of appropriating other peoples
money. They We're employed in the
assaying and melting room of one of
the big mills, and they practiced
'tpinching" and pocketing gold and Sill
yer amalgam few pounds at time,
until in the course of a year they had
stolen and carried away over one hun
dred thousand dollars worth. HOW TO
market their goods was a problem.
Comstock bullion had an identity of its
own. and any offered for sale outside
of the regular channels would arouse
suspicion and might result in detection.
In this dilemma they took rascal num-
Der three into partnership. Rascal
number three had few thousand dol
lars capital. There was a bankrt pit
corporation known as the Hornet own
ing an abandoned mine and dis
mantled five stamp mill in a decayed
mining district about forty miles from
where the stolen bullion wa hidden.
Rascal number three was a shilful as
sayer, amalgamator, and all around
miner. He bought all the Hornet stock
for a trifle and took possess.)1 of The
property. With a few night journeys
he transported the bullion on a spring
wagon to the old mill. Then with Il e
aid of the two thieves he refitted the
mill, and reopened the mine, and began
crushing the ore. There was some
silver in the Hornet ore, and 10 the