[Sam Davis, Comstock Croppings, Sunset, February 1906]

Comstock Croppings

            IT was some ten years after the discovery of gold in California that the mineral wealth in Nevada began to attract attention. Reports floated back from Old Washoe, as the country was known at that time, and many a miner who had not met with good luck in the Golden State drifted across the mountains and went into the scramble for wealth on the other side. The men who struck the first trail which led them eventually to the Comstock, encountered gold near the Carson river at the foot of the ravine where Dayton now stands. They followed up the gulch for miles and panned out the "punkin-seed" gold which had been washed down from the mother lode, since known the world over as the Comstock.

            When they bumped up against the massive walls of Mount Davidson they built their camp-fires and erected their rude tents and the word went down the gulch and through the forests of the Sierra and over into California that they had struck something good there on that slope where Virginia City now stands. The rush of fortune hunters soon began, and the California papers, alarmed at the prospect of an exodus from their section, took pains to discourage the strikes. All sorts of derogatory reports were published and men were advised to think several times before going into that wild and desolate section to look for precious metal.

            The silver end of the game was not then in evidence, except as a sort of black refuse which congested the sluice-boxes. Finally, the Grosh brothers, who were skilful assayists and metallurgists, reached the scene of action and made an assay which demonstrated that the ledge was rich in silver. This was made in their tent at midnight and they never gave out "what it went." A comrade heard the noise and saw them examining a solution in a tube by the mellow light of their little furnace, and the next day they began to pack their traps and arrange to leave. They started out to secure capital, but they perished in the snow not far from Placerville. Years later their heirs attempted to induce Benjamin Butler to bring suit for the Comstock lode. Butler examined the case and advised them that the wealth of the possible defendants was so vast that a jury, impaneled on the ground, might lean toward the money end of it. He never gave better advice.

            Melville Atwood claims to have made the first recorded assay of Comstock rock. It went over two thousand dollars in silver. Presently the rush began, and Virginia City soon became the liveliest mining camp the world ever saw. William Sharon was sent up to represent the Bank of California. He loaned money like water on no other security than a few holes in the ground and the words of the men who owned the holes. W. C. Ralston, then president of the bank, heard of his work and wired him to come down. When

392      SUNSET MAGAZINE

PRESIDENT RUTHERFORD R. HAYES AND MRS. HAYES, AND PARTY, DURING THEIR TRIP TO THE COMSTOCK—FROM AN OLD PHOTOGRAPH

he expostulated with Sharon for his "foolishness" he was met by a demand for $5,000,000 more.

            These holes in the hill struck pay ore; the stock board in San Francisco was at once the scene of the wildest excitement, and it was not long before Sharon was crowned the "King of the Comstock." For a long time there was no one to wrest the scepter from his hand. He manipulated the market at will and Ophir, his favorite stock, was the bell-wether that led the market. He ran for the United States senate and gave all the members of the legislature the tip when to buy. They bought at low figures and as they did so they were advised by Sharon not to hold after the three hundred mark had been reached. They passed the tip to their friends and everybody got in and when the stock was booming the liveliest, the legislature elected him to the United States senate. "Don't hold after three hundred, boys," was his caution and they all said they wouldn't and they didn't, for it went down with a run before reaching that mark, and Sharon recouped all his campaign expenses and added six figures to his bank roll. While the Comstock had its hand in, it made some more United States senators. John P. Jones made his millions in Crown Point and was sent to Washington, and James G. Fair, not to be left in the cold, was called upon by his party to bleed for the cause.

            When the excitement was at its height over the silver product of the Bonanza, Phillip Deideshimer wrote a report of the probable extent of the find, which in his estimation seemed to reach to the center of the earth, growing richer with depth. His estimate ran into the billions and it is said that when this report reached Germany it resulted in the demonetization of the white metal by that country. A miner, on whose property Deideshimer offered to make a report, declined; by saying, "Don't do it; after you publish the report silver will be cheaper 'n tin!"

            No mines in the world ever had such conveniences for miners, or such perfect appliances. Hundreds of thousands of visitors have gone down those cages and not one was ever injured. The custom was for notable parties to be photographed. One of the best known shows General U S. Grant and family in the center. There was another man in this group who does not appear in the picture. It was the late Edwin L. Colnon, who was then a reporter on the Virginia Chronicle.  He was a man of great independence, never kow-towed to Fair, who had a mortal dislike for him. It was Fair who ordered it cut out of the negative.

            Once John Mackay telegraphed from London that some friends of his who belonged to the nobility were to arrive in a few days and that they must be entertained regardless of expense when they visited the mines.  A

LITTLE STORIES OF THE WEST               393

RAILWAY MEN AND SCIENTISTS ON THE COMSTOCK

In the group are Prof. Joseph N. Le Conte, University of California; Traffic Director E. O. McCormick, of the Southern Pacific Company; Frank Seaman, of New York; Jas. Horsburgh, Jr., of the Southern Pacific Company.

few days later a number of performers belonging to a stranded negro minstrel troupe showed up and asked to visit the mine. One, by way of jocular introduction, said they had met John Mackay in London, and he had insisted that they visit the mine. They were promptly taken for the party Mackay had wired about, and after their tour through the lower levels, they found a lavish lunch awaiting them, with champagne by the bucketful. They were also given rooms at the office where Mackay made his home in Virginia City. The day after their departure the real noblemen showed up and were treated with such scant courtesy that they left in disgust. When Mackay reached Virginia City a few weeks later the atmosphere about the office was blue for some days.

            Many a great singer has warbled for the miners in the lower levels, and many an actor has been forced to recite for the men. John McCullough, Tom Keene, Edwin Booth, Charles Pope, Frank Mayo, and others have given Shakesperean recitations, and Ilma Di Murska, Mrs. Bowers, Modjeska, Jeffreys Lewis, Ada Menken, Clara Morris, the Worrell sisters, Winetta Montague, and scores of stage celebrities have entertained the miners; a grotesque audience of men stripped to the waist. The miners say that Bob Ingersoll and Henry Ward Beecher made their

GENERAL U. S. GRANT AND MRS. GRANT, JOHN W. MACKAY, SENATOR JAMES G. FAIR, AND OTHERS, AFTER A VISTIT TO THE COMSTOCK LOWER LEVELS

394      SUNSET

trip a very jolly one. They were not together when they started on the tour of the lower levels, but they both entertained the miners with jig-dancing. They say, to this day, that Bob was more finished in the double shuffle than Henry.

            When Mme. Modjeska visited the Consolidated Virginia, Senator Fair acted as the guide. All people look the same in miner's clothes. Modjeska took the trip in company with a Comstock reporter who told her that the guide expected fifty cents for his trip. She went over and laid it down under Fair's nose as she left the office. Turning, she saw an angry expression on Fair's face, and asked the reporter the reason.

            "Guess he wants another half—we've been down two hours," the wag replied.

            She walked over and depositing the other half on the table apologized for her oversight, and left happy in the feeling that the guide had been properly treated.

SAM DAVIS.