1875 Smith 1943

Grant H. Smith The History of the Comstock Lode 1850-1920, Geology and Mining Series No. 37, University of Nevada Bulletin: Reno, Nevada, vol. XXXVII. 1 July 1943, no. 3, (revised 1966), Ninth printing, 1980. 305 pp., 1875,

p. 162] Chapter XVIII Sharon Starts the Boom-A Wild Market-The Consolidated Virginia Boom-The Chronicle Boosts the Bonanza-The Market Reaches the Top-Extravagant Forecasts

[p. 171] The Market Reaches the Top-Extravagant Forecasts

     " . . .

     [p. 172] "The following editorial from the [San Francisco] Chronicle of January 4, 1875, illustrates the exuberance of its enthusiasm. Under the [p. 173] caption "Millionaires of San Francisco," the editor quotes the following paragraph from the Chicago Inter-Ocean: "No city upon this continent can show more men of solid wealth than San Francisco. Mines of fabulous possibilities pour their dividends into the pockets of the Licks, the Sharons, and the Haywards. Many of her citizens could sell out at a month's notice for $5,000,000 each. Palaces have risen from silver bricks, and the proudest buildings in the City owe their origin to ores and bullion."

     [p. 173] "Following which the editor of the Chronicle proudly comments: "This was true enough three months ago, but the Inter-Ocean is one of those fogy journals who do not keep pace with the times. Lick, Latham, Sharon, and Hayward are all poor men. Worth $5,000,000? Well, yes, they may be worth that paltry sum. So are Reese, Mills, Baldwin, Lux, Miller, Jones, Ralston, and Stanford. These are only our well-to-do citizens, men of comfortable incomes-our middle class. Our rich men the Inter-Ocean has not named. They are Mackay, Flood, O'Brien, and Fair. Twenty or thirty million each is but a moderate estimate of their wealth. Mackay is worth from sixty to a hundred millions.

     "They have not heard of our new bonanza in Chicago-a lump of silver ore as big as their Grand Pacific Hotel, worth from $100 to $20,000 per ton, so far as ascertained, while its depth, breadth, and thickness have not yet been reached."

     [p. 173] "Nothing like this ore body had ever been seen in the world, so most of them thought. [Footnote: Although there had been greater and richer deposits of silver ore at Potosi and in Mexico.] . . .

     " . . .

     [p. 174] "The stock brokers were almost exhausted by the rush of business, and on December 24 the Exchange declared a recess until January 2. But there was no holding back the flood. Stocks continued to mount in street trading, and on January 7, 1875, the market value of 31 of the leading mines was $262,669,940. [Lord's Comstock Mining and Miners, p. 409 (1883).] A tabulation of the 65 others would increase the amount to $300,000,000. The market value of Con. Virginia was $76,680,000, of California $85,380,000 and of Ophir $31,748,000. What that sum meant at the time may be illustrated by the fact that the total assessment value of the real estate in San Francisco was only $190,000,000.

     " . . .

     [p. 174] "Thousands of men and women of all classes had rushed into the market to purchase stocks in Comstock mines. Few of them could afford high-priced stocks and so bought the cheaper ones which were being manipulated by the "insiders."

     ". . .

     [p. 175] "[Footnote: King's History of San Francisco Stock Exchange, p. 153 (1910): The only stocks that had not materially advanced in price were the Crown Point and the Belcher, and they were the only mines on the Lode that were paying dividends with the exception of the Con. Virginia. Evidently they had not been manipulated.]

[p. 176] Chapter XIX The fateful Year of 1875-The Market Crashes in January-Mackay Thought the Panic Was Temporary-The Chronicle Attacks "The Bank Crowd"-Partial Recovery in the Spring-The New York Tribune Correspondent Visits the Comstock-Prof. Rogers and the Director of the U.S, Mint Overestimate the Bonanza-The Firm Organizes the Nevada Bank-The Bank of California Suspends in August 1875-Ralston's Death Stuns the Coast-Virginia City Destroyed by Fire October 26, 1875-Fair's Misleading Reports

     [p. 176] "Suddenly the speculators came to their senses. Practically all stocks had been bought on margin account and there was not enough money in the West to finance more than a fraction of the purchases. [Footnote: . . . all stocks on the Pacific exchange . . . footed up to . . . $350,000,000.]

     " . . .

[p. 182] The New York Tribune Correspondent

     " . . .

     [p. 183] "His visit to the Con. Virginia was the highlight of his experience. At the assaying and melting department he saw bars of silver and gold stacked up like cordwood and 'thrown about as if they were so many pigs of iron;" their weight ranging from 90 to 110 pounds and the value from $3,000 to $4,000 each. The trip through the steaming underground workings filled him with wonder-the hive of industry. The perfection of the arrangements and the masses of ore everywhere were beyond anything he had imagined.

     [p. 183] "The correspondent was unrestrained when he came to describe Virginia City:

"Here is a city of about 25,000 inhabitants, about 7,000 (6,200) feet above the level of the sea, with inhabitants in the garb of laborers, but with the habits of Parisians. Here are restaurants as fine as any in the world, though not so extensive as some, nor as elaborate in appointments; here are drinking saloons more gorgeous in appointment than any in San Francisco, Philadelphia, or New York; and here are shops and stores which are dazzling in splendor. The peope here seem to run to jewelry. I have never seen finer shops than are here, and the number of diamonds displayed in the windows quite overwhelms one's senses. The Washoe Club is nearly as well furnished as any in New York, except in pictures, books, and bronzes, and the manner of living of the inhabitants generally is upon a high scale . . . I have never been in a place where money is so plentiful nor where it is spent with so much extravagance and recklessness . . .

     [p. 183] "The houses are mostly brick on the business streets, and the sidewalks swarm with people. It is as difficult to get along C street in the evening as it is to go along Broadway in the neighborhood of Fulton in the middle [p. 185] of the afternoon. Every young blood in the city, and every old one too, for that matter, has his fast horse or his pair . . . I doubt if there is a city of 200,000 people in the United States which has as much wealth as Virginia City. "

     [p. 185] "The famous Washoe Club, of which the correspondent speaks, was formed by sixty promient citizens on February 20, 1875. The Club's first luxurious quarters on "B" Street were burned in the fire of that fall, after which it was permanently located in the Douglass Building on "C" Street There the members, most of them were mine superintendents, bankers, brokers, lawyers, and leading business men, gathered of nights in good fellowship-drinking, playing cards, and swapping yarns. Stories were current of poker games for high stakes. The register of the Club, upon which all of the noted men and women who visited the Comstock during the succeeding twenty years inscribed their names, is still on exhibition at Virginia City.

     " . . .

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 Kelyn Roberts 2017