Bisbee daily review., 1907-04-28
lBy John lA Cowan.)

nrospector and miner her smile means all that the heart of man can desire 1; her frovn means disappointment. de spair, perhaps death Yet she scat sers smiles and frowns with frivolous disregard of the deserts of those who woo her. Sometimes she seems a grim, sardonic joker. making quips and Sests of the lives and hopes of men; sometimes the tragedies she in spires are unreleiyed by even grave yard humor: and sometimes. though not often, she plays the leading woman in a comedy so bright and cheerful that the whole world joins in the laugh. Yet, strumpet though she is, she never lacks ardent suitors, willing 10 frown and sue for her favor, even though she leads them through fire, blood, famine, and dishonor into the very jaws of death.
 The comstoek Discovery.
 With the possible exception of Mar shalTs lucky find in the race Of Sut- ter's mill. which started the rush of the Forty-niners to California, the most famous of American gold discoY- cries was that of the Comstock lode. Yet years before Comstock ever saw Nevada, the pan, the cradle, the long tom and the sluice box had extracted tens of millions IIOm the sands Of the Washoe placers, composed Of crumbs that had dropped nom the table of Dives spread at the foot of Mount Davidson. Every miner in the Was hoe district experienced the same dii- ficulty, due to a heavy, bluish black away with the lighter sand and gravel. No one knew what it was; but they felt sure it wasn't gold, and gold was the only thing they wanted. Probably ii caused more profanity than any thing else ever found in mining camp. Yet it was sulphuret of sil- yer. worth more than six thousand dollars to the ton, one-third in gold and the rest in silver; and every mn CT in the Washoe diggings ignorantly threw away four times the wealth that his misdirected labor yielded.
 Then Grosh brothers came upon the scene. They hailed from Maine, where people are born asking ques- lions. They didn't know what the black stuff was, either, but they took the trouble to find out; and of all the tens of thousands of seasoned sour. doughs and unseasoned tenderfeet, these two young men from Maine were the only ones who knew what they were doing. They did not pro clain, their knowledge in every saloon and dance hall iu the district; but set to work to find out where the sulphu- ret of silver came from. Their quest was successful. They located the great mother lode, that was destined to set the financial world agog, dis organize the worlds monetary sys- tenn. creates scores of multimillion- aires, and instigate the crime of '76." One of them started for California to enlist the aid of capitalists. The other stayed to watch the mine. Then the jade Fortune played them scur- w trick. The first froze to death in the icy passes Of the Sierras. The ofher drove a rusty pick into his :oot and died of blood poisoning.
 Next came Pat Mclaughlin and Pete o'Riley. With the prover5idl luck of fools and tenderfeet, they struck a phenomenal streak of pay dirt that lay like a golden blanket over the spot in which the main shalt of the Virginia mine was destined to be driven. As they busiei themselves washing out the precious particles, blind luck drove Henry Comstock that way. He was a llnk. cadavcrous, un- tutored and unwashed Canadian. Pos seesed of neither honor, brains, nor industry, he was yet gifted with nerve so monumental that it over topped the highest peak of the Sierras. Seeing the glint of color in the rocker, he dismounted frcsn his pony and cool ly informed the workers that they were trespassing upon his farm and using water from his stream, because, forsooth, be owned all the land there abouts by right of agricultural loca- ton. Of course. this was pure fc- Hon. but the bluff was not called. The ever-anxious discoyererS promptly do- mated him a two-thirds interest in the greatest mineral discovery ever made fn America.
 Reward for His Nerve.
 Comstock's incomparable nerve thus gave his name to the famous nothe. lode of Nevada; and James Binney, a harmless but worthless drnnkard, known in the camp as Old Virginia, bestowed his sobriquet upon enc of the famous Big Bonanza mines, as well as upon the city that sprung into existence. These two and the FdaF WHOIu SOuuSlOCH ndu noDuNlHhtu fared little better than the Grosh brothers. Finney drank himself into the grave Comstock went crazy and committed suicide; O'Riley died in an asylum; and Mclaughlin did odd jobs in the camp for awhile, and then drift cd out to California, where he died in tho poorhouse-
 Less gruesome has been the fate of later Nevada gold seekers, of whom one of the most renowned is George Humphrey, the locator of the discoy- cry claim at Manhattan. He was a COW Puncher and later d rancher of Reno. Two years ago he was seized by bad attack of the gold fever, and hastened to Tonopah for treatment During the last week of March, 1905, he indulged in the not unaccustomed luxury of a glorious spree. On the first of April he recovered conscious ness and sanity, and started for Bel mont, some sixty miles to the north, to visit his father and brothers, taking a quart bottle of miners joy" for com panionshfp on the way. The day was hot, the road dusty, and his throat dry. Naturally he toyed with the bot tie; and when noon came it was emp ty: and he was sleepy. So he dis mounted, picketed his broncho, and lay down in the shade of a scrub oak on the wavside to rest. The rays of the sun fell slant across the srsnmits of the Pareptnts when he awoke, and he made haste to resume his journey.