The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1934-01-19

cook at $40 month and died pauper. ORiley
lost his entire $4,000 in stock speculation and
died in an insane asylum. Penrod and Osborne
died poor. "Old Virginia." while on a long 81 ee
was thrown from his horse and killed. Com
stock squandered all of his $1,000 in a short
time, drifted to Montana and there, penniless
and almost starving committed suicide in Boze-
man on September 81, 1870.
But to return to the genesis of Virginia City,
Casual placer mining in Nevada gave way to
something far greater upon the day when word
reached the Washoe district that the black stuff
which the ignorant miners had been throwing
away for weeks, VAS in reality silver ore which
assayed as high as $4,79l in silver to the ton.
With that word came the vanguard of such q
motley army Of rich men, poor men, beggar men.
thieves, merchants miners and barroom chiefs
as the world has seldom SEEN"
To it came young Sam Clemens to work as a
reporter on the Territorial Enterprise, the lead
ing newspaper Of the region, and out of his ex-
perience there to write "Roughing It" as one
of the books which have made the name of
Mark Twain famous. To 1t came two sturdy
young Irishmen, John W. Mackay and James &.
Fair and from the fortunes which they made
there were financed great telegraph and cable
lines. Other names which link Virginia City's
historic past with the present and with several
Ogden Mills, James R. Keene James G. Flood,
and John I. Bradley. Nor should there be neg
lected that ''lnost spectacular figure In all the
bizarre scramble for riches, the Hoosier who
never shoveled pound of ore yet made millions
from the Comstock I4ode"-"Lucky' Baldwin.
AS the great mines which tapped the riches
of the Comstock Lode-the Ophr. the Crown
Point, the Belcher. the Yellow Jacket, the I'M
peria the Kentucky, the Empire the Gould and
Curry. the California and the Consolidated
virginia-came into being, Virginia City grew
and fourished.
More substantial houses replaced the rude
shacks that were thrown up at first. theater
was built and on It's stage appeared such world
known figures as Modjeska, Booth. Barrett and
Mccullough There was era of extravagant
living and extravagant spending, for the citizens
of Virginia City believed that the wealth of the
Comstock Lode was inexhaustible
They were confirmed in that belief by the
repeated discoveries of 'bonanzas," great peck
cts of rich ore, 16 in number the last and great
est of which provides the title for the latest
Glasscock book--"The Big Bonanza" 1t was dis
covered in the Consolidated Virginia in 1873,
a mighty treasure vault containing the greatest
mass of precious ore ever uncovered In single
spot From It was taken more than $1NO00000O.
worth of gold and silver during the six years
that the Rig Ronanza lasted No wonder there
was a wild orgy of speculation in mining stocks.
but like all such orgies it came to an end at
last.
BY 1879 the treasure chest of the Big bonanza
had been cleaned out. There had been a panic
in San Francisco where nine ont of ten people
had invested in Comstock securities and thous-
ands who we're rich one week were poor the
next Stock that had been selling for $500 a
share dropped to 1.25 and thousands of specu-
lators we're ruined.
In the years that followed Virginia City's
fortunes steadily waned Occasionally there have
been fareups of hope that the "ghost town"
which It had become might be resuscitated but
few Of these hopes ever materialized to any ex-
tent Under the New Deal" it may have re-
turn to measure of prosperity but it will prob
ably never again see return to those dazzling
DAYS of threequarters of century ago when
the discovery Of the Comstock Lode made min
ing history for all time to come
w.. <auve Int