Tonopah daily bonanza. [volume] (Tonopah, Nev.) 1906-1929, 1911-11-21


wonder. She made her first voyage
in SO days. But she was favored.
When reaching Cape Horn, instead
of meeting the fierce western winds
that held many ship off the Horn
for six weeks, she caught a gale
from the east and her daring COM
mander crowded ON all sail and
made 374 miles in four
hours.
Mrs. Cressy, the commanders
wife, was on board and told a frieno
on reaching San Francisco that on
that day the cabin was dark hall
the time because of the seas pour
ing over the ship, and at times was
dark so long that she thought it
never would be light any more for
those on the ship.
The Trade Wind was another of
those wonderful ships. She struct
something after rounding the Horn
that stopped the ship dead still fol
a moment. A moment later whale,
cut half in two, appeared for a
moment on the surface of the sea
and Redeemed all the water around
with blood.
When the ship was locked in
San Francisco bay, it was found that
all the copper from bow to keel
had been torn off.
The most beautiful of all those
clippers, and one of the fleetest, was
the Flying Fish. But there were
scores of them. 1t requires a good
many ships to carry all the sup
plies needed by 100000 people,
when the voyagers are $4,000 miles
long.
Uncle Billie Lent found plenty o.
excitement, in keeping tabs on the
stocks OF goods on hand, On the
average monthly sales, and on the
cargoes to arrive and he turned
many penny to his own advantage
by being shrewder or more lucky
than his neighbors.
There were plenty of others do
Ing the same. Ordinary California
houses in those days, instead of be-
ing plastered, were lined by canvas
which was held in place by tacks.
One genius saw by looking at the
manifests of ships to arrive that
there would no more lacks reach
San Francisco for five or six months.
He bought all there was on hand
and made little fortune. That he
was being mathematical all over
California wherever a cloth ceiling
Or PARTITION was being tackled up,
did not disturb his rest at all.
W ben the Comstock was discoy-
cred and shares appeared on sale,
Uncle Billie Lent was ready to take
en- some new degrees.
N vas q oolI-NOlCeu, hluuiy HAL,
made friends everywhere and, more
over, in business was dead honest,
and his word was everywhere ac-
cepted as certified check.
He 1ad thousand generous ways.
II he rode on the stage from Placer
vile or Dutch Flat to Virginia City,
Oh getting down from the stage
he would by stealth pass up TWEEN
ty-dollar piece to the driver
He would touch a friend on the
shoulder and say: "Ophir is look
ing pretty well; l put aside so
shares at $40 for you this morning.
When it touches forty l believe you
had better SELL
Result-He always had his choice
of seats on the stage. When the
rush was great and some passen-
gers had to book ahead, Uncle Billie
could always get seat. 1t would
have been a poor agent or driver
who would not have made an aft
daVit If necessary that Uncle Billie
had engaged the seat for that day
a week before. And if any stirring
man who kept his finger on the
pulse of the market and on the
conditions of the lower levels in the
mines got what he thought was a
pointer, he carried it to Uncle Billie.
He Wrestled with the sharp deal
ers on the Comstock and in San
Francisco and was able to say as
the dying Californian did to his
wife: Tell the boys that think
| has bested as many as has bested
me- for despite the soft voice and
the genial, generous ways of Uncle
Billie, he was as shrewd as the very
sharpest of them.
He and George Hearst were as
ISOLATED for a time, but that was
before Hearst made his alliance with
Haggin and Tevis and he had not
money enough to work in the same
team with Uncle Billie.
Mr.. Lent dealt constantly in Com
stock stocks for ten years, and as
hofnpo bo