New-York tribune., 1920-10-24
John Halliday, Leading
Man for Margaret Anglin,
Once Was a Gold Miner

1t was the gold fever of 1908 which
drew John Halliday, now the leading
man in Margaret Anglin's play "The
Woman of Bronze" from featured
role at the Alcazar Theater in San
francisco to a little mining town in
Nevada which had expanded over night
from an insignificant village to full
grown and important city.
1T was January day, cold and brisk
and exhilarating. The sand and sage,
the rough miners shacks, the dusty
town with it's crowds of people, lack of
accommodations, it's canned food ana
alkali water did not deter the young
actor for minute. Like the thousands
Of other young men who had rush ed
to Goldfeld when the news first broke,
he was filled with wild enthusiasm
for everything pertaining to mining
The risks, the hardships, the uncer-
tainty Of it all were simply part Of
the game. He was there to take a
chance and he gloried in the gamble
Of the venture.
In the days that followed everything
from hewing out quartz with a pick
to driving a mule team fell to his lot
One weeks tribulations especially Mr..
Halliday recounts with quiet amuse-
ment
ut was one of those mule team ex-
perlences," he said, describing the ad-
venture, chat sound more like fiction
than real life. | was driving a team
loaded with S260,000 worth of quartz,
quartz that was so rich that we didn't
dare put it in sacks, but had to pack
it in coal oil cans to prevent any loss
Of gold dust in transit. 1t was my
job to get the stuff from Goldfeld to
Reno, which meant five days and five
nights in the open desert-a revolver
in my pocket. some grub under the
seat and some feed for the team. That
was all.
For any one who is used to the
desert the loneliness at night, the howl
ing coyotes and all the thousand crawl
ing things that come around when you
make camp at dark it might be a pleas
toned to associating with rattlesnakes
and side dewinders-t those stealthy rep
tiles that creep up on you without a
neutrality-suspicious. tarantulas and
centipedes, and there was not one Of
them missed a visit to my fire when
night came round. But before the trip
was over l found out how to sneak up
on them before they got on friendly
terms with me. Besides all this there
was the nervous strain of taking charge
of all that quartz. When it began to
get dark l always saw faces peering
out at me from the mesquite trees,
highwaymen who were lying in wait,
ready to take a pop at me and drive
off with the whole works. Believe me,
[ was glad when the fifth day was over
and saw the mile posts to Reno thin
ming out to fractions."
In Halliday's. gamble the Fates were
kind, and after plugging away at the
mining. game for year, the Sisters
dealt the cards his way to the extent
Of 100000. With this capital the
actor and a friend organized and
started the Reno Stock Exchange,
which in four weeks from the time
they put it in operation was doing a
business Of S1,000,000 a week But in
1916 the deal was reversed and the
exchange they had established went
TO smash and Hallidays overnight for
tune with it. Back to the stage he
came again to seek a livelihood.
"Still there's nothing in the theatel
to compare with the excitement of gold
mining. An experience of life tmel'
says the actorminer, and certainly he
should know.