Omaha daily bee., 1910-03-20
CITY OF COLD AND SILVER
Days that Can Never Come Back to
Virginia City.
HEYDAY OF THE COMsTocK MINES
CITY BuiIt In the saEebrush ON n
Mountain where People Lived I'm
Luxury and Gaming Went On
Twenty-FOur Hours n Day.


our ears-Con Virginia, Ophlr Crown Point
yellow Jacket Bolcher. Savage, Gould g.
Curry and the other big producers OF the
good old days. ! can remember the time
back IN San Francisco when the name OF
any one OF those stocks called in the big
exchange IN Pine street, or the little ex-
change in Leidesdorff strcet-we all knew
tfat as Pauper Alley-would create riot
on the floor when men were bidding for
shares at a price that would have been
too high II the 15OO feet OF the lode the
shares covered had been solid gold"
For IT was a wonder city, provided by
nature with no inducement whatever Tor
the settlement Of men. Yet It had in its
days a population OF about 5000 people
and from It's mines there was shipped bull
lion of gold and silver Of the value Of
500 900 600. The city was located there for
tho one reason that It was there by acci-
dent that the great lode was discovered,
and the first few cabins having been built
around the first shaft that was sunk; those
who followed in quest OF other mines set
tied there also, thinking they wore but
making a temporary home and therefore
not seeking a better town location which
could have been found within reasonable
distance at the foot Of the canyons east
OF the lode.
Wages I'm the Banana Days.
So the city grew by thousands, the com
monest unskilled labor being paid A
day In gold for every day in the year.
skilled labor of all kinds receiving from IS
TO 81 a day, and those engaged in superin-
tendence, that is the shift BOSSES level
bosses, engineers, foremen, machlnists, as
sayers, mill bosses and superintendents
being paid from $40 a day up to $1,000 a
month. with the precious metals coming
out Of the ground to pay these wages and
salaries and there seemed TO be no end of
the ore from which these metals were ex-
tracted, a city Of luxury and extravaganza
grew up.
Tho site Of the city was the rather steep
sagebruUh covered side of a mountain
without water wood or any modern
means Of transportation. But with the
gold mines supplied wooden fumes soon
brought streams of water from mountain
lakes, railroad was built from the Central
Pacific at Reno which, winding in and out
of canons, climbed in and over the lobe
itself to the heart OF the mining camp,
and then the golden age indeed Of Virginia
City had its beginning.
There soon grew class of men who
were accustomed to comfortable If not
luxurious living-minlng engineers grad
udleS Ol tdbltIn anu european SCHOOLS or
mining, assayers, superintendents-and soon
these organized themselves into a social
club the famous Washoe club of the Com
stock. Following the completion of the
railroad hundreds OF visitors came to town,
mining experts, spectators. statesmen. and
for their accommodation there was built
hotel which even today In a much larger
city could Justly be rated as first class, and
across street from the hotel a San Fran
cisco French restaurant keeper opened a
restaurant where he seved what he had
been accustomed to serve in San Francisco;
that is to say, the best meals to be found
In America.
Life Up to the Limit.
The necessities of this shifting population
Of well to do people prompted the railroad
TO run fast express daily between the
Comstock and San Francisco, and each
day that express in leaving San Francisco
carried from It's wonderful markets the best
Of the fresh meats, game, poultry fish,
fruits and vegetables.
When the population in this saEebrush
desert town found that it could done there
as it was accustomed to dine at the Madi-
son Doree or the Poodle Dog in San Fran
cisco, then it wanted the theater after
dinner. The demand created the supply.
There was built on the corner OF b street
and Union street Pipers Opera house.
The land lay SO steep there that while
you entered at b street on the sidewalk
level the sidewalk level of street at
the back ran along at about the height of
the paint bridge. That is, the back wall
on the stage was build up for thirty feet
or so against rocky cut. The stage it.
self was laid over a foundation OF this
Wa
Everyone had money and plenty of it, and
the theater was crowded from the night
of its opening.
News OF this reaching the San Francisco
managers, they got into the habit of
switching off New York companies at
Reno and running them up TO this new
and wonderful mining camp for u weeks
profitable business. Thus Edwin Booths
company was dated for Virginia City.
The stage manager was informed that
Booth would play one night at least Ham
let" so he directed the stage carpenters
TO cut through the stage for space the
size OF a grave and then hired some miners
who dug what is perhaps the first and
only real grave ever used by a Hamlet.
When Booth arrived and the situation was
explained to him he was delighted, and
before Hamlet jumped into Ophelia's
grave he had seen the gravediggers throw
out some shovefuls OF loose natural rock
the miners had left when they quit work,
King FRrO'a Rule.
Before the French restaurant started, c
street, the Broadway Of that mining camp,
as pretty well lined on both sides with
saloons and gambling resorts, 1t was not
until the fortunes of Virginia City began
to wane that a state law was passed re-
quiring faro tables and other gambling out
fits to be placed one floor above the street
level.
For many years in nearly all OF the sa-
looms at least one faro table was run. In
one famous saloon. Orndorff & McGees
nearly every known gambling device was
run twenty-four hours a day to crowded
tables. There We're half dozen faro lay
outs, roulette, chuck-a-luck. keno three
card monte, Something OF the hours Of
labor must be told to explain why these
gambling establishments were patronized
every one OF the twenty-four hours.
The army of 5000 miners was divided
into three shifts. one shift went to work
at Z o'clock in the morning and knocked
off at o'clock in the afternoon when the
second shift went on, and that second shift
knocked Off at II o'clock at night, when the
third SHIFT Of OOO MAJ, or -, ,,,.,. -,