Tonopah bonanza. [volume] (Butler City [i.e. Butler], Nev.) 1901-1909, 1904-08-20
THE ~COMSTOCK,
RECOLLECTION of Early Days in
the Nevada Camp.

was IN Virginia City, New, at the
time the bonanza lodges on the Com.
stock were being developed. That
was along in 1872 and 1873. There
are a multitude Of gamblers nowadays
who are incredulous of the truthful
stories OF the games played every
night in the week for about a year
from June, 1872, to July, 1873. |
confess that | sometimes wonder
whether was really a participant
in this golden days in gambling, or
whether | have dreamed all that 7
recollect about them.
you remember that for months
the output from seven mines on the
Comstock yielded together $50, 900
clear profit every day. John w.
Mackay, James G. Fair and James
Flood became ulti-millionaires in
fourteen months, while Sharon. Ho.
bart, Ralston, Cobb, O'Brien and a
dozen other men leaped from poverty
to millions in the same time. Com.
mon laborers and camp cooks of a
few years before had Incomes from
mining stocks Of $3.50 to $500 a day
for two years. Lots of mining labor
ers who could not read or write had
bank deposits in Virginia City in
those wonderful days of 5000 to
$4,000. | have seen hundreds Of
men in cheap red shirts and grimv
oyeralls haul out a buckskin bag of
$4,000 or so with no more heed to its
value than when one produced 90
nowadays. So you see what an ex.
t%raordinary field there was in the
town for gambling. There were
forty or fifty gambling games run
nlng there day and night. Roulette
and faro were most popular.
"The most superbly appointed
gambling place have ever e G out
side OF France and Austria was there.
1t was owned by Hiram Gentry and
Dan E. Critteuden. They were both
men OF education, and they planned
to establish a Monte Carlo there.
Crlttenden vas a nephew of United
States Senator C~rittenden Of Ken.
lucky. They were backed by Sen
ators Sharon and Nye, William G.
Ralston and n or two more million
aires. They had credit at the Cali
fornia bank in San Francisco for
$500, 600. For about a year their
daily deposits averaged So, 900. The
building was frame-like an others in
Virginia City. Downstairs there
we're four large rooms and upstairs
there were three. One room was
especially devoted to Nevada and
California state officials, senator's
and congressman. Another room
was for miners and cattlemen. Still
another and larger room was a gen.
eral gambling room for men Of small
stakes, who played to a $50 limit
every night. There were poker,
roulette and faro rooms, and connect
ing all these was a most elaborate
barroom. The tables and chairs were
mahogany; the carpets we're the
hnest that money could buy in New
York. | have seer COWBOYS and
miners in great rough, muddy boot,
pistols Tapping at their hirs
and spurs at their heels, come stalk
across velvet carpets there tina I
'ost $40 a yard in those days, ard !
throw their feet on polished tables :
worth 800 each. The windows were !
the finest French stained glass I
md represented Baccanalian and j
Genes. The bar was of solid :
'nyx, and the floor Of Italian colored
marble, The lamps were solid silver,
of by gold. Mirrors of heavy
glass reached from floor to cell
ng, and they were held in place by
looks Of solid silver. There were
of solid silver and delicate
thinking vessels of glass and gold.
pyramids of cut-glass decanters
nd bottles at the back of the bar
ost $4,000 in Paris. Then the ex-
'ensive manner OF running the house \
vas probably never equaled. In the OF
1 N