Los Angeles herald., 1907-03-17

4 The stories Of the WOnderIui Wealth
! of Nevada have gone east and beer
4 thrown hack as the vaporlngs of q
4 desert Munchausen, but they have re-
n turned again and again, backed by let
j ters from westerners with relatives IN
4 the east, from easterners VINO hao
I. come west to see for themselves, from
4 prospectors seeking capital for develop
4 ment, from engineers sent to- inVesti-
4 gate and report, from capitalists hur-
j ried to Nevada at the secret instance
4 of trusted agents, until acting ana re-
!. acting, repeated over and over again,
they have pried loose the equilibrium
4 of eastern investors and started down
the slope of 1907 the most gigantic
4 mining boom seen in the United states
, since the year 1881.
:. Oddities Of Camp Life
4 More than any one state and city IN
Z the Union, Nevada and Goldheld rep-
4 resent every type of humanity. Forty
Z eight ex-convfcts are decent and law
\ abiding citizens within this busiest OF
i mining camps Twelve graduates OF
leading. colleges of the land are acting
4 as barkeepers or walters or common
miners; while many anotner colete
\ man, more fortunate, mas Decome y
j mining expert, or is the legal ADVISE
i of some of the tangled disputes th;lt
; arise within the camp. Bunko-steeret
I abound The most artistic care
sharks in the world have been a.
j nent and by the greed for the nm
; mense sums of ready money which ac-
4 company prosperitJ based upon mines
Il Mingled with these men are Lhe
4 rougher and simpler type of prospectors
Il and nlai1smen who have been bred into
i honesty and the singleness OF purpose
; that go with an isolated life where
Z the sight of a fellow creature looming
; nm on the horizon is q blessing undis-
guised.
Nevada is the stronghold Of the union
/, miner The hordes of men VINO We're
!, driven from Colorado in the Sherman
I Rell episode of several years ago nave
! taken up their homes in the new camps
and have SO Joined themselves togetn-
) er as to render themselves a power 70
I he considered and dealt with In every
; thing pertaining to the true interest
. of the new districts. They have not
q until lately shown the disposition OF
. the old Cripple Creek days, and II Is
: to be hope1 that they never Will take
! an attitude such as made 1T necessary
70 drive their companions from Colo
, RADIO.
Stock brokers abound. Their oftices
I are as thick as saloons, and the iaJtel
number twenty-five to block Tner
immense mail matter floods the OUT
going trains and overwhelms the rail-
yav mail clerks with the enornity OF
: their business. No city of similar size
in the world is today sending out one
half the mail matter that passes
through the lands of the Goldfield post
! Office clerks every thirty days. Tnese
employees of the government are tns
hardest worked men and poorest peio
of any who live in the camp on the
Z desert. They obtain merely the usual
scale of wages which is prevalent III
j other cities and the bitterness OF 1t all
came to the surface somewhat over 2
Z year ago in strike which stopped the
United States mail and crowded tne
Z room of the postmaster with throng
of excited brokers. Much credit is due
! the original postmaster of Goldheld,
: Who by the way, was woman, MIS-
I Ella Collins, and who paid for much
additional help out of her own pocket
. in those early days when there We're
! no private boxes in the postoftce ana
. when a line of impatient seekers OF
mail trailed through the front end OF
the office building and circled in
snake-like file half around the block.
Investments in Stocks
; over $SO,OOO, 900 vas invested in Me-
vada stocks during 1906. The fall OF
THAT year saw one of the most
J sensational rises in market value OF
; stocks which has been known to the
mining world. Led by the Monawk
. mine, shares in which sold upon the
, streets for 25 and 80 cents only as far
back as last April, and which climbed
! higher and higher until they attained
the price of $40, stocks advanced rapid
1v until many which had been originally
offered at 25 cents or less passed the
. dollar mark. A bootblack, whose
! mother had entrusted certain wealthy
mine operator with $500 of her sons
savings, was made rich by investment
. in Mohawk stock. Men and many
! women were raised from proverty to
wealth through long-forgotten pur-
chases of stock to which many OF them
had long since ceased to attach any
, Importance until recalled to their MIND
as a hazy memory of something tnar
had occurred in the past.
On the strength of the great boom
. many wildcat companies were born
: and flourished for a time. Much stock
was sold that possessed little value.
. Much money was obtained that was
never invested in the ground, yet with
; 1t all, the tremendous richness of the
. district forbade anyone to disparage
any property, for it is mining -camp
axiom that no one is able to see be-
) meath the ground and the most unlikely
looking territory in this wonderful
state is apt to prove veritable treas
4 ure box of ore. The effects of eastern
, and California capital are plainly APP
: parent in the camps of today. Where
formerly a narrow w-gauge road, crammed
with passengers, puffed its dusty way
i toward Tonapah, and stage swung
n and swayed through the hummocked
: plain toward Goldfeld, today Pull
man car is brought directly into camp
+ from the Oakland pier or is switched
!. from the through eastern train at
: Hazen and attached to the Golddeld
n sleeper. Contracts for railroads have
6 been given to those who seemed the
e most capable of carrying through the
a work in the least possible time. Steel
EIesa desert and lAQGnn1nR
t the hardships of travel and Fastening
II the arrival Of supplies and freight. The
n railroad south from Goldfleld has near
q Iy reached Rhyolite, while the railroad
, north from Searchlight connecting
I with the Salt Lake road, has already
y reached the southern metropolis.
For the past years the Tonopah road.
connecting with the Southern Pacific at
(, Nina Junction, has paid Mr.. Brock of
philadelphia and his associates a big