The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1906-12-16


so on q single number. II IL wins this
means that the house pays him tl,0S0.
Two years and a half q the desert wind
rioted among a group of half a dozen miser-
able shaoks on the sits where now stands
Goldheld. To-day there are probably
5000 persons here and heaven only knows
how many more miserable shacks.
Nine-tenths Of them cost less than $500.
almost all have paper thin partitions, some
of them have canvas roofs and a cellar Is
the mark Of aristocracy. Yet Goldfeld is
to-day, though not yet three years old, the
largest town in the State OF Nevada, which,
while you could lose a good part OF Now
England in it, had less than $1,000 inhabi-
tants when the last censu was taken.
The other day the Thermometer stood
at 10 degrees above zero, a blizzard was
bowling in from the desert and there wasn't
q pound Of GOA TO be bought in all Gold
field. So it had been for a week.
The last oal sold here was disposed Of
in small lots at 81 a pound, or at the
rate OF $50 a ton: 81 600 a ton wouldn't
bay it later. A business firm in Gold
field n day offered to pay the Wells
Fargo Express Company 81 900 in express
charges II the company would send a car
load Of coal here from San Francisco. The
offer was declined. Scarcity Of freight
cars is blamed for the fuel famine.
just o a man drove a team down the
street. On the wagon was a load Of wood
that In the East would sell for ~. A hotel
nan ran out through the snow. held up
the team and tried to buy the wood.
Its sold for $780," said the driver.
Bring me a load at the same price, said
the hotel man.
Couldn't do it il you was to offer mo
$780, said the driver. Cit upi"
Unless something is done before long
people will be pulling down their houses
for fuel.
The only way you can get here is to cone
over the Tonopah and Coldfeld Railroad,
and they charge you 3 cents a mile, reduced
just now from l0c. This road runs only
one train q day each way and brings all
the way from $50 to 400 passengers.
It's filthy, stove warmed cars are packed
to the doors, yet it refuses to put on an
extra train each day. The first six months
Of this year this outrage Of a railroad earned
80 per cent. on its capital stock. 1t is owned
by a Philadelphia crowd, in which Brock
and Carstairs are the controlling powers.
Senator Clark's road has now reached
Bullfrog on the south, and It Is expected
that it will be running trains into Gold
field by January /.
The tremendous boom in the Goldfield
mines il reflected in the local post Office.
Goldfield does a postal business nearly
four times as large as is required for a
first class Office. Yet it can't get one,
because IL has no charter.
The difficulty will be bviat as soon
as a charter can be rushed through the
next Legislature. Also the county seat
is 20 be moved from stage reached Haw-
thorne to Goldheld.
Civil service rules provide that post
Office clerks shall start in on a $3.50 salary.
But they can't be had for that in Goldfeld,
when telegraph messenger boys get si0O
a month and typewriters get $50 or more
a week. The Postmaster-Genera has
therefore made a special dispensation in
favor OF this mining camp, as a result OF
which the poorest paid postal clerk receives
a 81 $50 salary.
The business done by the Office is enor-
nous. Its lobby is packed ell day long,
lines of twenty or thirty waiting at every
window.
One day a single firm bought $4,000
worth OF stamped envelopes, while three
mining brokers here do so much postal
business that they handle their own daily
mail between their Offices and the post office
by means of wagons. Another firm has
an advertising bill Of anywhere from
$3.50 to 100000 a month.
Last week the local stock exchange
was so swamped with orders that it had
to declare a holiday in order to catch up
with its business. Brokers and their clerks
nave been working until 8 O'Clock In the
morning trying vainly to keep the paoe set
by spectators and investors.
Ten days ago one of the biggest Of the
Goldfield brokers got up from his desk at
8 o'clock in the afternoon and addressed
bis worn and tired clerks.
Boys" said he, "it amt worth while.
Life is too short. We've been hitting up
this pace for six weeks and I'm doggone
sick of it. Lock up your desks and go
home and don't show up here again till
I send for you. Your salaries will be paid
Just the same"
He shut his own desk and went ut. He
hasn't opened up again yet.
No coal, no wood, little water of any kind
and no good water whatever; yet Goldfeld
has electric lights. They are furnished by
a Denver company which built a plant at
Bishops Creek and strung its wires sixty
FIVE miles across desert to Goldfeld.
1t was bonded for $500 900. In six months
it has paid OF its bonds and has declared