[Dan De Quille, Memories of Washoe, Daily Alta California, 2 February 1887]

 

2          DAILY ALTA CALIFORNIA.  WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 2, 1887.

========================================================================

MEMORIES OF WASHOE.

__________

Fighting For Mining Claims in the Days of the Comstock.

__________

SOME FUNNY CLAIM FIGHTS.

__________

A Gunpowder Plot in the Bullion—An Aurora Injunction, and How It Was Enforced— The Power of Shotgun Law.

__________

Dan de Quille in Salt Lake Tribune.

            At various times since the discovery of silver in Nevada there have been very serious claim fights along the Comstock and in numerous other localities, men being sent, first and last, to their final account— to " get their time" at the great head office on the "golden shore.'' However, all the troubles were not attended with fatal results.  

            In the early days there occurred an " unpleasantness" between the Bullion and "420 " companies, at Gold Hill, that proved more comical than bloody. The " 420 " folks were sinking a shaft on what was claimed to be Bullion ground. J. M. Walker, then Superintendent of the Bullion, told his men he would make each of them a handsome present in case they would cut the "420" fellows off. The Bullion miners accordingly pushed a drift of nights, when the "420" men were not at work, and at last tapped their shaft near the bottom. They then set to work and placed a floor of timbers across the shaft. Next morning the "420 interlopers came to work on their shaft, which was about 400 feet deep, and in the bottom of which three or four feet of water usually accumulated over night.

            They did their hoisting by means of a horse whim. Not having the remotest idea of what had been going on at the bottom of their shaft the previous night, the men of the " 420 " let down their bucket for the purpose of bailing out the water preparatory to sending down the miners.

            The bucket came down and rested on the timber floor. When it had been down long enough to fill, as the fellows above calculated, it slowly began to ascend. The lightness of his load must have greatly astonished the old horse at the whim. The Bullion boys laughed heartily as they saw the empty bucket crawling up the shaft and pictured to themselves the astonishment of the parties above at seeing it come up dry.

            Presently the old bucket came poking down again in search of water. This time in order to make sure of reaching the bottom of their shaft, the " 420 "' folks let down about twenty feet of slack cable. Seeing this, Johnny Cranney, (afterwards underground foreman of the Hale & Norcross mine for a long time), dodged out into the shaft and unhooking the cable from the bucket, hooked it around the heavy timbers. In a short time the cable began to crawl up the shaft and soon became taut.

            If the old horse was before astonished at the lightness of his load, he must now have been astonished at its great weight. Several ineffectual pulls were taken at the cable. It was better than a circus for the Bullion boys down in the mine, and they laughed till the tears ran down their cheeks as they imagined the old horse above scratching gravel as he got down to his work, with the utterly dumbfounded " 420 " fellows whipping and whooping at him. It was all of no use, the timber was firm and the hempen cable strong. The men were obliged to unhitch the horse [and] give up work, as they were unable to get down their shaft. 

            In a day or two the " 420 " folks got a hint from come one as to what was the matter, or in some way dropped on the situation, as the superintendent of that claim came to Walker and told him if he would let them have their cable they would abandon the shaft and start in another place. The cable, therefore, was unfastened and the " 420 " men hauled it up. However, fearing treachery, the Bullion men, under the instructions of Captain Sam Owens, their foreman, timbered up — bulkheaded — the drift leading into the disputed shaft.

            Their suspicions of bad faith proved to be well founded, for no sooner had the " 420 " folks regained their cable then down came two of their men with axes and began chopping at the timbers in the bottom of the shaft. They were ordered to desist, when one of them said : "We were sent down to clear the shaft, and be jabbers we'll clear it!"

            " If you strike another lick,", said Sam Owens, we'll blow you out at the top of the shaft ! We've got a keg of powder under the timbers and all ready to light the fuse and send you straight to Heaven ! "

            " Fire away, and be —— to you ! " sung out one of the choppers evidently not believing the story, about the keg of powder — " we have been sent down to cut out the timbers and by the holy poker we'll cut them."

            The Bullion men had provided themselves with about twenty-five pounds of sulphur — in expectation of war — and this they had ready at hand in the drift.

            "Fair warning!" cried Captain Sam Owens, "we are going to touch her off. If you will go out by the bucket say so ! if not, we'll blow you out !"  

            " Blow and be damned to ye's ! " cried one of the men. "

            Lighting a small bunch of shavings near the bulkhead, Mr. Owens sprinkled into the flame two or three pinches of sulphur. A moment later such a yelling as there was from the two men in the bottom of the " 420 " shaft has seldom been heard. First the men yelled to their friends at the top of the shaft to hoist — "Hist! hist! Hist the bucket, for God's sake!"

            As the smell of the burning sulphur became stronger, and as the bucket did not at once "hist" the two men became wild. They got out of the bucket and began calling to and begging the Bullion men to spare them. The Bullion men made no answer and, believing they had retired to a safer distance to be out of the way of the explosion, the two men rushed to the bulkhead and yelled louder than ever.

            No sooner had they left the bucket than up the shaft it went. All hope was now gone and while one of the men began praying the other frantically yelled for the Bullion men to " cut the fuse." " For the love of God," cried he, " cut the fuse. "

            The Bullion boys now relented and announced to the poor, calf-crazed fellows in the shaft that they had " cut the fuse" and there would be no explosion.

            Heartily did the two " 420 " fellows thank the Bullion men. Never again did any of the " 420 " folks venture down that shaft after the pair of Hibernians had got out of it and related their experience ; all had a wholesome dread of the keg of blasting powder supposed to be planted under the platform at the bottom.

            The foregoing is a reminder of a very effective injunction that was served on some jumping miners near the town of Aurora, Esmeralda county, Nevada, in the early "bloody days", of that place. The miners at Aurora in those times did not have a very exalted opinion of law such as was dealt out in that region, and never allowed its "delays" to interfere with their undertakings. An ordinary writ of ejectment or an injunction seemed to them much too slow and very inadequate in its operations ; besides, it brought in the lawyers, those middlemen who, like a two-edged sword, cut and bring blood on both sides. '

            One day come miners who had run a long open cut as an approach to a tunnel they were about to start, having at last gained proper depth and face, were greatly astonished on going to work in the morning to find that a stranger party, had taken possession of their claim and were at work on the face of the cut. The owners remonstrated with the jumpers, telling them the claim was not jumpable and that it was "a clean steal."

            That "might gives right" was the only answer the jumpers deigned to make.

            The owners then said they would serve an injunction on the new-comers.

            " Serve it and be blowed," said the fellows— "fifty injunctions will not move as from the ground."  

            The owners were obliged to leave for home. They felt that any injunction they could obtain in court would be expensive, a source of trouble, and perhaps ineffectual after all. They therefore set to work and manufactured an " injunction" more in accord with their own advanced ideas in regard to what the powers of such an instrument should be. This consisted of a quicksilver flask filled with powder, revolver balls, iron spikes, and all manner of missiles. A short piece of fuse was thrust into the neck of the flask and plugged fast.

            Armed with this terrible torpedo the men returned to their claim, where the jumpers were still at work.  Stealing quietly to the bank above them, the owners looked down into the cut and then hailed these below, saying : " We have come with the injunction, and you'd better get out of that cut."

            " To h— l with your injunction," was the reply, "what do we care for it?"

            " We'll serve it on you, then," said the owners.

            " Serve and be —— !" said the men below.

            Lighting the fuse of their torpedo, which had thus far been kept out of sight behind the bank, the men brought it into view and crying: " Look out, here she comes!" rolled the quicksilver tank down into the midst of the jumpers.

            A single glance showed the latter the nature of the injunction that had been served on them, and they were in full retreat before it had fairly touched the ground.

            They had not bolted any too soon, for, before they were fairly out of the cut the explosion came and a terrific one it was. A shower of spikes, ballets and strips of wrought iron filled the air and whistled about their ears. Several rents were made in their clothing and a few in the hides of some of the men.

            In their hasty flight, the jumpers had left behind their shotguns and other weapons. These the legitimate owners of the claim seized upon, and sallying forth upon their now affrighted and demoralized enemies brought to bear upon them their own arms, and in about three minutes had received assurances of an immediate evacuation of the premises and of a lasting peace for the future.

            The jumpers—who were from Kern county, California—said the injunctions of Aurora were the most "powerful" they had ever encountered and the most prompt in their operation.