[Anonymous, Geological Reminiscences, San Francisco Call, October 27, 1895]

 

GEOLOGICAL REMINISCENCES.

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SENATOR JONES TELLS HOW THE WOLVES OF THE MINING LODES PLAYED ROUGH GAMES.

            A few evenings since a group of well-known mining men were seated in the barroom of the Palace Hotel when one of them remarked that he would wager the drinks for the crowd that no one present could tell of the first mining swindle perpetrated on the Comstock.

            Senator Jones would never allow a betting bluff of any kind to float past him, and said immediately that he would accept the offer, and told the following:

            "The first instance of a square-toed swindle in connection with mining on the Comstock was where Jim O'Riley let a contract to three miners to sink a shaft 100 feet in depth. After he had paid 20 per cent of the contract money to bind the bargain he brought a 100-foot tapeline to the miners, and stipulated that when the tapeline fell from the windlass and hung clear in the bottom of the shaft without touching he would pay the balance of the money, amounting to several thousand dollars. Shaft-sinking was pretty expensive in those days. Well, in course of time the miners called upon him for the balance of the money, and took him to the shaft where they pointed to the 100-foot tapeline hanging from the windlass to the bottom, with an inch or two of free space under the end of it. O'Riley, after complimenting them upon their work, gave them the balance of their money, and in a few hours they had disappeared.

            "The next day, when O'Riley took a more careful inventory of the work, he discovered that the miners had cut twenty feet out of the tapeline, thereby making the shaft twenty feet less in depth than they had contracted for. He buckled on his six-shooter, and started out in quest of a rebate on the job; but when the story got around the ledge it raised such a laugh at his expense that he dropped the subject and re-let the contract to other parties. He said that the splice where the twenty feet was cut out was made so neatly that it took him nearly an hour to locate it. A few days afterward he got a package from Sacramento containing that portion of the tapeline that was missing. They wrote to him saying that they had taken it away through an oversight, and they returned it that he might put it back where it belonged, in order to complete the sinking of the shaft with mathematical accuracy. The twenty feet of tapeline was exhibited for many years in the Delta saloon.''

            When Jones had finished the story Billy Foote, who had offered to bet, ordered a round of irrigation goods for the entire party, and Jones, after moistening his throat, remarked: "If anybody wants to make another wager for the same amount I can tell the second operation there of the same nature." No one interrupting him he continued:

            "Some of the boys had a claim up on the side of Mount Davidson when the stock excitement was pretty lively. Their claim did not prove to be of much account, and they accordingly introduced the salting process for the first time. Quite a rich strike was made in the Ophir on rock that ran into the thousands. One night they extracted several sacks of ore from the Ophir shaft, and dumped it into their own prospect hole. They spread the report that they had just got into a rich formation, and quite a number of people were on the ground when the first bucket came up next morning. Of course, they pounced on the specimens and in a few minutes the rich chunks of ore were finding their way into the nearest assay offices. The result was that a forty-eight hour excitement ensued and a wild scramble for the stock, during which time the owners cleared up $15,000 or $20,000."

            "Speaking of salting mines," said Lon Hamilton, "I never shall forget the time when some stock operators sent some mining experts to spy out the prospects in the Gould & Curry. A diamond drill was being run, and they wanted to know what it struck. The experts reached the Comstock looking like ordinary miners, and very readily secured a job in the mine. They considered themselves very fortunate when they were put on a level within easy reach of the diamond drill. The joke of the thing was that the insiders who were working the mine got the tip from below. They were all prepared for their visitors. They systematically salted the drill, and left the key where the other fellows could find it. The natural result was that in a few days certain brokers from California were loading up with Gould & Curry in the expectation that when the drift reached the ore body they would reap a fortune. But no drift ever followed that drill-hole, as it was barren rock, and in a few months the California street sharpers who had engineered the job found themselves very beautifully dumped, and the biters proved to be the bitten."

            "Do you mind the time when Captain John Kelley of the Lady Bryan had the Holy Bible salted on him?" There seemed to be a general desire to hear the anecdote, and Ben Fitch, after emptying a tumbler of red fluid, proceeded: "You see, John Kelley was working the Lady Bryan mine, down in Six-mile Canyon, and sent the drill ahead to prospect for an ore body. Meanwhile, the miners, who had a large quantity of the stock at low figures, salted the drill-hole, and as a result one morning Captain Kelley was in a very excited state of mind. He believed that he was about to make the strike of his life, and that Lady Bryan would prove to be a second Consolidated Virginia. In his enthusiasm over the prospect he gave a number of his friends the tip, after which the miners had no trouble in disposing of their stock at handsome valuations. The drift was pushed to the end of the drill-hole with all possible dispatch, but no ore was found.

            "During the next week the air was blue with the blasphemy that circulated around the head of John Kelley, and he feared for his life. In order to demonstrate his innocence of the charge of swindling his friends he held a sort of inquest on the defunct ore body. He made all the miners come into a room and submit to an examination. He had put a large Bible, weighing about twelve pounds, on the table in the dining-room of the company's cookhouse. Each miner when questioned was required to advance to the table and kiss the book. The scene was a very solemn one—the victims of the deal being at one end of the room and the miners at the other. Kelley meanwhile was seated at the head of the table acting as a sort of a judge. Each miner swore by the book that he had no hand whatever in the salting of the drill-holes and did not know any one else who had.

            "After the entire force of the mine had made their solemn declarations to this effect and kissed the book, it began to look pretty black for John Kelley. He had expected confessions from the miners under the circumstances, and after they had testified and filed out of the room, Kelly sat at the table in a dazed condition. He then said that he was ready to swear on the same Bible that he had not salted the drill and that he had induced the boys to go in the deal in perfect good faith. As he pulled the book toward him, however, the cover came off and revealed to the astonished crowd not a Bible, but a big pile of leaves from a patent office report. The miners had taken the Bible out of the covers and substituted the Government literature unknown to Kelley. It became apparent to the crowd at once that men who would salt the word of God with such matter were capable of almost any atrocity in the salting line, and Kelley was absolved from further blame in the matter.

            "In spite of that," said Billy Sharon, "Kelley was a pretty smooth operator, and you could always copper anything he did. Whenever he was losing money hand over fist in the stock market and bleeding inwardly he would put a big diamond-pin on his shirt front, drink nothing out champagne and wear a perpetual grin upon his face, but whenever he made a hundred or two thousand on a turn he would walk up and down the street looking like a man who had been driven to desperation by bad luck, wearing an old woolen shirt and pretending to his friends that he was searching for employment. He soon got the name of the Ursa Major, and every time a pump-rod broke, a shaft caved in or a fire occurred in the mines it was a good day for Kelley's stock accounts, but beyond this he was a very shrewd miner, as was pretty well demonstrated at the time Jim Fair invited the experts to inspect a drift in one of his mines. The face of the drift seemed to be all in good ore, but Kelley figured out if it was such a good thing Fair wouldn't be inviting in the outsiders. He went to the surface dilating on the future prospects of the mine, but he was the only one who had sense enough to short the stock, and as he wore an old shirt and didn't indulge in a shave for several weeks afterward I figured that he must have cleared up about $200,000. The stock went down with a rush when the drift struck porphyry and the boys always said Kelley smelled it. He certainly had a great nose for porphyry.

            "There were no flies on Warren Sheridan as a mining operator," said Billy Wood. "At the time when the Comstock was booming and they had a man for breakfast every morning Sherry was regarded as one of the smartest and smoothest quick-turn operators on the ledge. In order to be sure of inside information he accepted a situation as a miner in the Savage mine. It used to be the custom in those days to keep news of the big ore strikes from the public, and when one was made, the mining superintendent used to send down provisions and mattresses and keep the miners imprisoned for twenty-four hours so that they could not get to the surface and give their friends the tip. When the boys dropped on this proposition they used to give orders for stock as soon as they saw the mattresses and the grub going down the shaft, but after a few of them had got badly bitten a time or two they made up their mind that this system of playing with stocks lacked the essential features of reliability, as the superintendents would occasionally send down the grub and mattresses when they struck porphyry; but Warren Sheridan, who always kept his eye peeled for the main chance, was 'laying' for something that was positive.

            "He carried a little bottle of emetic in his pocket, and one night he saw a blast disclose some ore that was fairly fat with wealth. He knew that inside of five minutes, the order for mattresses would go to the surface. He accordingly took his emetic, and in a few minutes was writhing in pain and showing all the symptoms of a severe case of nausea. He begged to be taken to the surface that he might die in the bosom of his family. They sent him up on the 'quick hoist,' and the man's groans of pain would have melted the stoutest heart. He was put in an express wagon and when he got home and was carried into the house and put to bed, his wife, who was dead onto the scheme, filled the place with lamentations, and said it was another one of his heart attacks, and begged of them to get a doctor as soon as possible. She cleared the house in short order, sending each man for a different doctor. As soon as the door was shut Sherry hustled on his store clothes and struck out for his broker by way of the back window, where he lined up the situation in short order. By the time the doctors got around Sherry was back in bed and calling for a lawyer to come and make his will. The order to buy reached San Francisco early in the morning and Sherry caught a few thousand shares at bedrock rates in the morning board. Sherry and his broker cleaned up about $160,000 on the deal, and when the Savage manipulators found out the big order that got in ahead of them, they recognized the fine Spencerian hand of Sheridan. They laid for him to get even, and after he went back to work they jobbed some information on him and broke both him and his broker.

            "One morning when he came down to his mine with his dinner bucket they advised him to go on the stage and work his death scene tor the benefit of the public. Sherry smole a faint smile and walked off. He was never allowed to swing a pick again in the Savage. He got so that he never could speak of the most common occurrence without using mining lingo, and once when he was at a coroner's inquest he described seeing a man fall down the Con. Virginia shaft, winding up his testimony with the remark 'As soon as I saw him fall through the opening I knew he was a good short.' He is now down at Yuma City, Arizona, experting some new mines for Jim Brazil and H. M. Levy, and thinks he has struck another Comstock."

            "Speaking of slick work in stock," said General Roberts, addressing Senator Jones, "do you remember the time I charged you $2000 for your Senatorial banquet in the Arlington House, Carson City?"

            "I think I do," replied the Senator, with a slight smile.

            "Did you think it was an overcharge?" continued Roberts, with a broad grin.

            "I never dispute bills of that kind," said the Senator, "but my local agent informed me that he thought you got about $1500 the best of me."

            "Maybe I did, temporarily," said Roberts, "but I plunked the whole wad into one of your Crown Point deals, and inside of thirty days I lost every cent of it."

            "Guess the champagne is on you," said Lon Hamilton, and after the great silver advocate had divided a couple of quart bottles among the crowd somebody said

that it was half-past 1 and they dispersed.