The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1906-12-09
ROUGH ROAD TO GOLDFELD.
AND THEY ARE SLEEPING THREE
IN A BED THERE.


set out for 0oldfield leave your finer SEN
sibiities, il you have any, at home with
your good clothes. There Is no demand
for either in a mining camp.
II you come from the East you may travel
In comparative comfort as far as Reno, at
least. But II you come from San Francisco
you rough IL from the very start.
1t makes no difference that you travel In
a car on whose side IL stamped the word
Pullman You rough il just the same.
The Pullman Company has a reserve Of
$50, 0OO, 900 upon which it is in deadly fear
it will be taxed. Yet travellers from San
Francisco TO Goldield must put upswith
cars not At for cattle Of the vintage OF 1889,
for a berth In which they pay $3.50.
There is only one train a day into Gold
field from anywhere, and only one train q
day from Goldfeld anywhither. Though
you spend anywhere from twenty-seven to
t~hirty-six hours making a ASS mile journey,
there is no dining car attached, and either
you pay uinous prices for villainous meals
served by an insolent waiter out OF a three
by four buffet kitchen or you make wild
dashes for fifteen minute bites at a water
tank station every hundred miles or so.
From a point just east OF Reno you strike
straight up into southern Nevada at thedizzy
rate of perhaps twenty miles an hour over
the very worst railroad in the very worst
of all possible worlds. Most Of IL is owned
and mismanaged by the Tonopah and
Goldfeld.
1t is the easiest country in the world
through which to build "A railroad, and the
railroad over which you travel has been
built In the easiest of all ways The road
has been piled up perhaps a foot In height,
ties have been laid. rails spiked on the ties
and that is absolutely oil.
And they charge you something like ten
cents a milel
Well, treasure seekers do not appear TO
mind any Of these little things. There is
only one thing about Goldfield that is worse
thar the railroad service and that Is the
service Of the Western Union Telegraph
Company. THE SUN correspondent sent a
wire from San Francisco to a Goldfield
hotel inc il was a dead heat between him
and his telegram.
The fact that he got a clean, warm cot
in a cold room full of other cots is due neither
to any merits of his own nor TO the telegraph
company but TO the fact that a United States
Senator lnterceded for him with the hotel
proprietor.
SNOh AuAh ia w "a - IoNhNA
TO the roof. Ours was no exception. The
gers there are.
There was a Salvation Army lassie coming
down TO join the army's Goldfeld branch.
In the section next to her was a professional
faro dealer from Nome, who thought he
could make bigger money here and get a
chance to pike along with his wages In
nNlJQal1 .eAol aVNaatNIaNtNn Thnxr bod
luncheon together yesterday and the last
l saw Of them az we pulled out OF the starlit
desert into the ambitious electric lights Of
Goldheld the lassie vas shaking the gambler
by the hand and urging him 10 come around
TO headquarters and get the grace"
At Reno ex-Gov. Thomas Of Colorado
got aboard. He was coming down TO super
wise the final legal formalities for the Nixon
Wingfeld $50, 900, 900 merger Of the Mohawk,
Red Top, Jumbo, Loguna and Combination
mines. Gov. Thomas's arrival filed Gold
field pretty nearly full of Governors. Gov.
Sparks Of Nevada, ex-Gov, Mitchell of the
same State and ex-Gov. Hunt of Idaho
were here when he came in.
Not far from ex-Gov. Monroe's stateroom
was a section occupied by a group of three
promoters, a hacker and an inventor.
They had pinned their hopes on a gold
divining machine.
The promoter, of course, was the middle
man. He had persuaded the hacker to
put up 81 900, which was to be refunded if
the machine didn't find gold. The inventor
explained his device TO me. 1t is a varia-
ton of the oft exploited divining wands
which are so sure to locate millions that
their proprietors are willing to sell them for
a o n OF two.
Only this chap, who says he is a metal
lurgist, claims a scientific basis for his in
~vention. IL employs, he says, a combina-
tiun OF metals which are sure 10 be attracted
by gold. What this combination is, of
course, is his secret. He drew a picture of
his machine for me on the margin Of a
newspaper. Ii looked most formidable.
The North Pole attracts the magnetic.
needle" said he; why shouldn't gold at
tract my metallic disCs?'
Obviously, there was nothing TO be said
to this arg SO | said il.
This remark IN my part met with the
u~ndisguised approval OF the promoter, a
middle aged, narrow shouldered, kindly
chap, plainly an unsuccessful soldier OF
fortune. As for this hacker, a huge, bull
necked, red faced fellow OF IS or so, with
the ~fiercest. BLACKLIST mustache ever seen
in a melodrama, he merely pulled that
mustache and said nothing.
He Ia to get his 81 900 back II the machine
doesn't locate gold. But there is gold
almost anywhere hereabouts. Thu thing
is to find ore that it will pay to work.
Eagerness sat upon every brow and
spoke from every mouth. Scarcely a
person on the train but expected to make
bis fortune at Goldfeld, and many Of the
passengers wore the costumes OF the mining
camp. some OF them were gentlemen and
some we're thugs, and all Of them thought
and talked exclusively Of gold.
There were two extraordinarily offensive
rufians who talked more loudly than any
body else Of deeds OF violence in all the
mining camps Of history. They wore
cOrduroys. fanne shirts, sombreros, canvas
leggings and hobnailed boots, and their
conversation was incredible. Also, they
spat frequently and cheerfully upon the
carpet.
There was a little young fiat chested chap
who sat next TO me who took much offence
-. III. -. n wzRn, - GnIIGnlA a.,