The Goldfield news. [volume] (Goldfield, Nev.) 1904-1911, 1907-05-18
GREAT MINES
FOUND BY CHANCE

Nowhere else does the Dame Fortune
revealed her false and tickle nature SO
brazenly as in the mems. To the pros
pector and miner her smile means all
that the heart of man can desire: her
frown means disappointment. despair.
perhaps death Yet she scatters smiles
and frowns with frivolous disregard Of
the deserts of those who woo her. Some
times she seems a grim. sardonic joker,
making quips and jests of the lives and
hopes of men; some times the tragedies
she inspires are unrelieved by even
graveyard humor; and some times,
though not often, she plays the leading
woman in a comedy so bright and cheer
fun that the whole world joins In the
laugh. Yet. strumpet though she Is.
she never lacks ardent s~uitors. willing
to fawn and sue for her favor yer
though she leads them through fire,
flood, famine and dishonor into the very
jaws of death.
With the possible exception of Mar
shalrs lucky find in the race Of SUIT
ter's mill, which started the rush Of
the forty-niners to California. the most
famous Of American gold discoveries
was that of the Comstock lode. Yet
years before the Comstock ever saw
Nevada the pan. the cradle, the long
tom and the luice box had extracted
tens Of millions from the sands Of the
washoe placers, composed Of crumbs
that had dropped from the table of
Dives spread at the foot of Mount Dav-
idson. Every miner in the Washoe dis
trict experienced the same difficulty. due
to a heavy, ~bluish-black substance that
refused to be washed away with the
lighter sand and gravel. NO one knew
what it was, but they felt sure 1t
wasn't gold. and gold was the only
thing they wanted. Probably 1t caused
more profanity than anything else ever
found in a mining camp. Yet 1t was sui
phuret of silver, worth more than $4,000
to the ton, one-third in gold and the
rest in silver, and every miner in the
washoe diggings ignorantly threw
away four times the wealth that his
misdirected labor yielded.
Then the Grosh brothers came upon
the scene. They hailed from Maine,
where people are born asking questions.
they didn't know what the black stun
was, either. but they took the trouble
to find out; and of all the tens of thou
sands of seasoned s~ourdoughs n UNI
seasoned tenderfeet, these two young
men from Maine were the only ones
who really knew what they were doing.
They did not proclaim their knowledge
in every saloon and dance hall in the
district, but set to work to find out
where the s%ulphuret of silver came
from. Their quest was successful. They
located the great mother lode that was
destined to set the financial world agog,
disorganize the worlds monetary sys-
tenn, create scores of multi-millionaires
and instigate the crime of TO- One
of them started for California to enlist
the aid of capitalists. The other stayed
to watch the mine. Then the jade For
tune played them a scurvy trick. The
first froze to death in the icy passes of
the Sierras. The other drove a rusty
pick into his foot and died Of blood
poisoning.
Next came Pat Mclaughlin and Pete
O'Reiley. With the proverbial luck of
fools and tenderfeet they struck a phe-
nomenal streak of pay dirt that lay like
a golden blanket over the spot in which
the main shaft of the Virginia mine was
destined to be driven. AS they busted
themselves washing out the precious
particles, blink luck drove Henry Com
-A-~r~ 49, rr1x- IIn mo n lnnk nadaV-
erous, untutored and unwashed Cana
dian. Possessed of neither honor,
brains nor industry. he was yet gifted
with nerve so monumental that 1t over
topped the highest peak of the Sierras.
Seeing the CLINT of color in the rocker.
he dismounted from his pony and coolly
informed the workers that they were
t~resspassing upon his farm and using
water from his stream, because, for
sooth. he owned all the Ian Whereabouts
by right Of agricultural location. OF
course, this was pure fiction, but the
bluff was not called. The o~ver-anxious
discoveries promptly donated him a
two-thirds interest in the greatest min
eral discovery ever made in America.
Comstock's incompatible nerve thus
gave his name to the famous mother
lode of Nevada; James Finney. a harm
less but worthless ~drunkard, known in
the camp as Old Virginia, bestowed his
s%obriquet upon one of the famous big
bonanza mines. as well as upon the city
that sprang into existence. These two
and the pair whom Comstock had hood
winked Jared little better than the
Grosh brothers. Finney drank himself
into the grave; Comstock went away
crazy and committed suicide; O'Riley
died in an insane asylum, and McLaugh-
did ID jobs in the camp for a while
and then drifted out to California, where
he died in a poorhouse.
Less gruesome has been the fate OF
later Nevada gold seekes, of whom one
of the most renowned is George Hum
phrey. the locator of the discovery claim
at Manhattan. He was a c~owpuncher
and later a rancher at Reno. Two years
e ne was seized by a bad attack Of
gold fever, and FASTENED to Tonopah
for treatment. During the last week OF
March, 1905. he INDUCED in the not un-
accustomed luxury of a glorious spree
en- the first day of April he recovered
consciousness n sanity and started
for Belmont. some sixty miles to the
north, to visit his father and brother
taking a quart bottle of miners joy
for companionship on the way. The day
was hot, the road dusty. and his throat
dry. Naturally he toyed with the bottle
and when noon came 1t was empty, anc
he was sleepy. So he dismounted
picketed his broncho. and lay down liz