The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1906-12-23

N'NbAS V 49,
mountain for il.
Presently you near the sound Of picks
and shovels and you come upon a little
group 81 men digging in the side wall.
Here, says your guide, the ore gets pretty
fair-say slIO "a ton. You look at II as closely
as you can and you can't see any difference
in Il.
You go along a little further and you
find two or three men boring into the rock
with diamond drills run by compressed air.
Here, you are told, is ore mounting TO 81 200
a ton. Your guide calls your attention to
il and picks at IL with a chisel.
You stare at il dutifully and here and there
you see a shiny dot which, you hear. is
almost free gold. But it isn't free to you ,
and for all you can tell it might be mica or
tin. Your heart doesn't beat a single stroke
faster.
Dodging a man pushing a handcar full Of
steam yachts and Fifth avenue houses
over a narrow trolley road, you turn another
corner and slip and slide down a dimly
lighted gorge between stacks Of hea Wy
timber cribs built up to retain the roof.
Presently you emerge into another level
tunnel.
Your guide lifts his candle and traces a
narrow triangular vein that somebody has
gagged out for twenty-five or thirty feet.
You are tlld what the stuff Is worth that
filled that vein. 1t is a s~tupendous sum.
You wonder why it doesn't excite YOU.
But it doesn't. All you see is a gouge in a
dirty gray rock.
On You go, slipping and stumbling, your
conductor talking the while OF slopes and
winges and tellurides and things i'll you
come to a foreman who says That they're
going to shoot pretty soon.
You ask what that is and you find out it's
blasting. Then You remember about a man
on whom the roof fell last week when they
fred q blast in that very mine You dis
cover that YOU are very tired. Moreover.
YOU have 70 see a man at some place in
Goldfeld within the next half hour.
As you reach the loot OF the shaft once
more and gaze anxiously up the 2S0 foot
hole to see II the bucket isn't coming down
You hear half a dozen muffied booms that
shake the ground under your feet and the
walls and the roof above your head, and
you try to guess how many thousand dollars
each blast meant.
Once on the surface again You find that
your low shoes are full OF tiny fragments
of rock. You start to take them OF and
empty them. But you don do it. You
reflect that they are full Of money and you
craftily resolve to wait till you get home.
just outside the shaft il a big heap OF
broken stone.
How much gold is there in that pile Of
ore2' you ask.
"About $3.50 1900 WORTH says your guide.
W. haven't been able TO get cars enough
10 aul it away" .
All" YOU say politely. That's a nuisance.
But il doesn't excite you a bit. II you
saw a trainload of il on the railroad some
where you'd probably wonder where the
macadam road was going to be built.
Yet that's the sort of stuff, taken from
that black, damp, smelly hole you've just
left and that you're so mighty glad 20 be
out Of, that has already made at least four
millionaires. Probably the most remark
able Of them is George Wingfield, and mas
much as America is in all probability going
TO hear a good deal Of this young man and
his wealth. it may be as well TO tell what
| manner az paraon he il.
George Wingfield is to-day the most
powerful and notable figure at Goldtield
His present wealth is variously estimated
at from tl2 ,OOO, COO TO SIS, 900, eco, with infinite
possibilities of increase.
He has made nearly all of it in the last
eight months. Less than a year age he
was vainly trying TO sell a big block OF
Mohawk shares at Is cents. They are
worth nearly 200 times that to-day.
n day a'.out eight years ago a young
man walked into the little bank that George
s. Nixon, nov United States Senator from
Nevada, was running in the town Of Win
New. Taking from his finger a
diamond ring, he threw 1t on the counter,
Say, pardner, I'm broke and I'd like
TO get SIS on that ring"
You've got into the wrong shop, replied
the teller. This lent a pawnshop. We
don't do that kind Of business
IL happened that Mr.. Nixon himself was
behind the counter. Something in the
Young mans manner took his fancy.
Turning to the teller, he instructed him
! TO give the pennil ess one the SIS he asked
and charge it to his account. Moreover,
he declined to TAX the ring.
How do YOU 10Y I'll ever pay your
! said Wingfeld, for it was he.
Senator Nixon smiled.
"Oh. l guess Ill take the chance" he
said.
They say in Goldfeld that George Wing
field never forgets a friend or forgiyes
an injury. Certain it ia that his liking for
Nixon began at that time n when he
made his big strike in the Mohawk the
Senator was the first man he let N on II,
To-day the firm of Nixon h Wmgfield
controls not only the Mohawk. but also
the $50, OOO, 600 merger OF that and four
other Goldfeld mines. They are in addi-
ton the most powerful factors in all the
Nevada mining fields.
cattle man, he has in his few years seen
a good deal OF the seaIny side Of life. He
has herded sheep, ridden cattle ranges,
prospected and tended bar. Practically
all OF his life has been spent in the wilds
OF the West, in cattle towns and mining
camps.
When things began to boom in Tonopah
a few years ago Wingfeld Grifted in and
got a Job as faro dealer. He had acquired
a little cash and soon bought an interest
in the place.
The game prospered and he put in a
rou lette wheel. Other gambling devices
followed, and it wasn't long before Wing
field was 500 600 ahead Of the game.
Then he vent in prospecting and after
Harry Stimler, the Indian, had located the
now famous Sandstone claim, first OF the
Goldheld strikes, it wasn't long before
Wingfeld located the Mohawk.
Not for three years later did he know
whether he had a mine or a heap Of worth
less rock. But, though he no longer deals
the faro game at Tonopah, he still owns an
interest in the place.
OF medium height and build, this young
mining king is a singular mixture Of at
traction and repulsicn. Any bcdy's first
guess would be hat he was shrewd, and
he has the quiet deadly readiness, the cold,
half ~furtive, almost fshy, eye Of the pro-
fessional gambler He looks like @ bad man
TO pick up carelessly. And 50 he Is. Gold
field has had evidence Of both his shrewd-
ness and his courage.
Last September there was a abo fight
on against the Goldfeld Sun. People who
entered its office we're photographed and
| their pictures posted outside the miners
union hall In fact, tho most active kind
OF boycott was declared.
One night a crowd of miners was annoy
ing two newsboys. who were selling the