The Idaho recorder. [volume] (Salmon City, Idaho) 1886-1927, 1905-07-20
The Comstock Lode.

Inere never was such time or
wild deeds and frenzied folly and In
spired wisdom as there was In the
days OF the big bonanza on the CON-
stock, says the Denver Post.
And no wonder.
Think one minute OF what the
Comstock lode has done for the
world, John Mackay went to Nevada
a poor miner with his pick on his
broad shoulders and nothing but the
sweet brogue on the tip OF his tongue
and pair OF stout arms, between
him and hunger.
A man named Fair, Scotchman
be was, with a pair Of shrewd blue
eyes and mat of black hair that
made him look like an outlaw, came
to the camp without a dollar and
boarded with the widow Rooney up
the gnlcb, and very good board he
found there, too, they say, while be
was waiting to make strike, so as
TO pay his little debts.
Two stout young lrishmen, one
called Flood and one named O'Brien,
had little claim up the gulch which
they used to talk about sometimes
when they could get any one TO listen,
and George Hearst. good-natured
giant with a CLEAN Of sharp humor
in his gray-blue eyes worked in the
hills with the rest Of them and said
very little to anybody.
And John Mackay 1t is who took
his Comstock gold and tied the con-
tinents together with strand OF
talking wire, and the daughters of
James Fair and the widow Rooney,
whom he married, are the leaders Of
fashion In the gay resorts Of the
world, and who would think to look
at Mrs. Willie Vanderbilt or at Mrs.
Herman Oelrichs, that every dollar
that has strewn the paths under
their feet with roses and showered
them with golden fortune, was dug
out Of the gray ground OF old Nevada:
Little Jennie Flood, who used to
hang over the back gate OF her faith.
er's humble cottage up there In Vir.
ginia City, could sign her check foI
s5, 900, 900 today and never miss tho
money when the check had been
cashed.
The son Of George. Hearst took the
money his father found in the ground
up there in the Cactus State and
built him chain Of papers that
stretch from ocean to ocean and are
quoted and copied In every civilized
country on the globe.
1t was the Comstock lode that drove
the buffalo back from the plains
herded the gray wolves and set then
snariing to the bills for shelter. ACC
it was the Comstock lode that brok'
the pride and the stern enmity of tn,
red men and turned them into Amer
lean citizens, Just as ii was the Com
stock lode that built the Mackay
Bennett cable, for did not the Com
stock build the railroad?
Who could have spun the gigantic
spider web we call the overland acros.
the continent II 1t had not been TO
the Comstock lode?
Have you never climbed the swee
rise OF smiling ground that leads from
the silver edge OF the Pacific up I,
the Sutro Heights In San Francisco?
Have you ever stood there in tha
garden, one OF the most beautiful
pleasure grounds In the world, ant
watched the white dancers OF tn,
surf throwing up their arms In thei
strange, melodic measures down Their
below the cliffsy
The Comstock has done something
for you, too; for Sutro Heights woul,
never have been II Adolph Sutro,
poor Jew, with nothing but his brai
and his indonitable will, had no
built the Sutro tunnel up there o.
the Comstock and snatched the gol
out OF the penurious earth befor
the greedy waters could get at 1t.
The Comstock lode built cities. an
states and subdued the savage hear
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