Ocean Park

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.

Foreword:

     [p. xi] "The Comstock Lode is nationally famous for its huge output of gold and silver and its stirring history in the pioneer days of Nevada and the West Coast.

     "The Comstock, with this glorious history as one of the world's greatest mining camps and producers of the precious metals, will always attract mining capital searching for low-grade ores or bonanzas. The Nevada Bureau of Mines and the Mackay School of Mines, jointly, are striving to be a leader in publishing and collecting material dealing with that great Nevada mining district.

     "In mining camps, however old, well-explored and deserted, hope of a revival never dies in the hearts of the old timers; and the new rising generations of mining engineers stand ready to put their increased knowledge of geology, mining, and metallurgy, or of changing economic conditions, against the obstacles that closed the mines down.

     "Much in the way of fiction and semifiction and facts has been published, but there has been lacking a comprehensive, chronological mining history of the Lode, extending over a half century with a progressive record of the development work carrried out, the failures encountered, the bonanzas discovered, and the production records of the mines. This is factual material that both mining investors and engineers first seek when investigating the possibilities of a district or a mine within a district.

     "The late John A. Fulton, as director of the Bureau, over ten years ago, sought an author qualified to write a mining history of the Comstock Lode, who was qualified by both his life experience and his interest in the Lode to write such a history.

     "Such a person was Grant H. Smith, a mining attorney of San Francisco. His youth was spent on the Comstock in the bonanza days as an inquisitive youngster and young miner; then he taught school and studied law and was admitted to practice by the Supreme Court of Nevada in January 1890. His later life has been in close contact with the Comstock as attorney for a number of the mines. Being a man trained in collecting and analyzing facts, along with the strong interest and perception in the historical events that stirred men's beings and brought out both the heroic and base in their characters, he brought also to this work [p. xii] the judgment of mature years and an unflagging search for source material.

     [p. xii] "Ten years of research brought forth a voluminous manuscript covering not only the mining history, but also that of political and social history, and particularly the life history of the Comstock's outstanding character, John W. Mackay.

     "The present director of the Bureau is of the belief that following the present war, there will be, as with the last world war, a great revival of gold and silver mininng with higher prices per ounce than at present. Desiring to accumulate valuable information for that date, he prevailed upon Mr. Smith to take from his manuscript that mining material most suited for a Bureau bulletin, and with the aid and advice of the Director to rewrite it in the form of this bulletin.

     "Enough of the absorbing personal histories of the prominent men of the Lode has been retained along with many rare illustrations to entice the average citizen of Nevada to read and realize the importance of the Comstock and of the mining industry in the life of the State.

     "The University of Nevada and the Bureau have issued the following bulletins dealsing directly with the Comstock:

Vol. 3, No. 4-The Ventilating System at the Comstock Mines, Nevada, by George J. Young, 1909 (out of print).

Vol. 26, No. 5-The Mines and Mills of Silver City, Nevada, by A.M. Smith, 1932.

Vol. 30, No 9-Geology of the Silver City and the Southern Portion of the Comstock Lode, Nevada, by Vincent P. Gianella, 1936.

     "During the last two years the Bureau with the aid of research by the Nevada State Writers Project of W.P.A., has compiled from the files of the old Comstock newspapers and written chronologically, the "Individual Histories of the Mines of the Comstock," fifty-six properties in all. This voluminous material is in typewritten form for consultation at the State Library in Carson City and in the Bureau's office at the Mackay School of Mines.

     "In addition, there will be available at a future date as a gift to the Bureau, a detailed account of the operations of each of the principal mines covering hundreds of pages, compliled by Grant H. Smith in his research work.

     "Within the last decade the United States Geological Survey has made a thorough restudy of the Comstock Lode, Dr. V.P. [p. xiii] Gianella of the Bureau aiding in the work. Due to the all-out war effort of the Survey, this new material remains unpublished.

     "The Mackay School of Mines has in its library a large collection of books concerning the Comstock, in its museums on display an unrivaled collection of Comstock ores and historical relics, and in its files, a great accumultion of maps, company reports, and correspondence files. -Jay A. Carpenter, Director.

     " . . .

[p. 48] Chapter V. The Depression of 1864-Arrival of William Sharon-Civil War Spirit-Nevada Becomes a State-Stewart Elected United States Senator.

". . .

     [p. 48] " . . .The market needed but a push to bring it down and that was furnished by reckless, bloody extravagant Aurora, early in 1864, when its stocks crashed following the failures of . . . its ore . . . bodies . . .

     [p. 49] " . . . the panic of 1865 blasted their hopes . . .

[p. 50] "Alvinza Hayward, who joined Sharon and Mills in the Comstock venture in 1867, had already made a fortune through the ownership of the famous Eureka gold mine at Sutter Creek, California. He was a fine-looking, agreeable man, who remained faithful to his associates and shared in their good fortune until he and Superintendent J.P. Jones conspired to take control of the Crown Point away from them soon after its bonanza was discovered.

     " . . .

     " . . . In June of [1867] Sharon, Ralston, Mills, and Hayward took over the mills and formed the Union Mill and Mining Company. Two years later they controlled all the leading mines and had seventeen mills.

     ". . . "the Bank Crowd," in that . . . depressing year of 1870 . . . ruin threatened them and the bank. They had loaned three-fifths of the bank's capital on the Comstock and attendant industries, in obtaining complete personal control-and the luck discovery of the Crown Point bonanza toward the end of the year was all that saved them.

     " . . .

[p. 52] Stewart Elected United States Senator

[p. 52] "The year 1865 opened with a new State of Nevada fully organized, including the selection of two United States Senators. The dominating personality of William M. Stewart overshadowing all other candidates. He was not only the foremost lawyer, but an all-round dictator, including the leadership of the Republican party. When the first State Legislature met on December 13, 1864, he was promptly elected. Former Governor James W. Nye was chosen as his associate. Thereafter, during bonanza days, those honors were sought by men of great wealth and became bargain-counter affairs.

     "Stewart was as able and diligent a United States Senator as he had been as an attorney and was reelected in 1869. One of his early accomplishments was to secure the passage of the first Federal Mining Act, known as "The Law of 1866." He was also the father of the later and more comprehensive mining law known as "The Law of 1872." He ceased to be the ruler of the Comstock after his first election to the Senate. His mining and milling enterprises had not been profitable, there was no longer any mining litigation of importance, and his interests lay in Washington. When his second term expired in 1874 he did not contest with [p. 53] Sharon for reelection, but turned to mining-in Bodie, in the Panamint Range, and elsewhere-always without a success . . . About the year 1884 he formed a law partnership in San Francisco with William F. Herrin, counsel for the Southern Pacific Railroad. Although Stewart had not lived in Nevada for many years, he returned in 1886 and was again elected to the United States Senate (succeeding James G. Fair), and for two additional terms, with the assistance of the Southern Pacific Railroad. Nevada was ably represented in the United States Senate during those years, where Jones [1873-1903] and Stewart [1865-1874; 1886-1904] served as the spearhead in the contest for the remonetization of silver."

     " . . .

[p. 58] Chapter VII The Panic of 1865-Comstock Production and Profits from 1859 to 1866-Stock Devilment.

     " . . .

     [p. 62] "Owing to those unfortunate conditions, and to the vast amount of development work done below the 1,000-foot levels, only five companies, the Con. Virginia,the California, the Kentuck, the Crown Point, and the Belcher eventually paid more in dividends than they collected in assessments. Not less than $50,000,000 was spent in deep mining from 1872 to 1886, when the last pumping shaft, the Combination, closed down.

     " . . .

     [p. 63] "Editor Fred MacCrellish of the Alta California, the leading journal of San Francisco in the '50s and '60s, sought to lead a crusade against stock gambling in 1870 and 1871. In one issue, he said: "This stock jobbing business is simply gambling, and of the most demoralizing kind; for, unlike card playing it is pursued openly and has been regarded as respectable, just as lotteries once were. It is worse than card gambling, because the players are not upon an equal footing; its demoralizing influence more widely permeates all classes of society without regard to sex or age, and it breeds an increasing crop of professional liars whose business it is to entrap honest but credulous people." He endeavored to enlist the aid of the press and the pulpit and was making some headway when the discovery of the Crown Point bonanza created another wild market. (Alta California, July 16, 1871)

     " . . .

[p. 64] Chapter VIII The Law Governing Mines-Litigation

     " . . .

     [p. 65] "The Comstock mines were located under district mining rules similar to those of California. . . . When an ore body pitched through an end line into an adjoining claim (as when the Gould & Curry bonanza passed into the Savage, and the Crown Point bonanza into the Belcher) that portion of it became the property of the mine into which it extended . . .

     " . . .

     [p. 66] "It was largely upon the basis of the regularity of the strike and dip of the Comstock Lode that Senator Stewart was enabled-with the support of other western Senators and Congressmen-to pass the congressional mining laws of 1866 and 1872, which perpetuated the extralateral right and provided for the patenting of mining claims. Until 1866 the miners were without any legal rights upon the public domain throughout the West.

     " . . .

[p. 71] Chapter IX The Comstock Lode-The One-Ledge Theory Prevails-The Ore Bodies

     " . . .

[p. 75]The Ore Bodies

     [p. 75] ". . . The only great ore body lying on the normal footwall was the Crown Point-Belcher bonanza, which extended on the dip of the Lode from the 1,000 to the 1,600-foot levels. . . .

     " . . . Von Richthofen . . . was in error in assuming the ore would be of lower grade and that the recurrence of rich bonanzas like the Ophir and the Gould and Curry must not be expected. The Crown Point and Con. Virginia bonanzas were giants by comparison. They produced one half of the total production of the Lode and paid four fifths of all the dividends.

     " . . .

[p. 80] Chapter X The Early Bonanzas-The Ophir, The Gould & Curry, The Savage, The Chollar-Potosi, The Yellow Jacket, and The Original Gold Hill Bonanzas

     " . . .

     [p. 82] "The Ophir bonanza was rich but comparatively small . . .

     [p. 82] "The control of the Ophir passed into the hands of successive groups of speculators and the stock was one of the most active on the market for many years. In all its history the mine did not create a single millionaire. E.J. Baldwin, who was already rich, was wise as well as "Lucky" when he sold 20,000 shares to Sharon for $2,700,000 in November 1874 during the Con. Virginia boom.

     " . . .

[p. 84] The Gould & Curry Bonanza

     [p. 84] "The mine was a consolidation of the Gould claims , , , and the Curry claim . . . Both claims . . . passed into the hands of twelve men, chiefly San Franciscans, who organized the Gould & Curry Silver Mining Company on June 25, 1860, with 4,800 shares, four to each of the 1,200 feet of the Lode which they claimed at the time. Among the incorporators and trustee were George Hearst, Lloyd Tevis, John O. Earl, Alpheus Bull, Thomas Bell, A.E. Heard, B.F, Sherwood and William Blanding, all of whom became California millionaires after making a good beginning in the Gould & Curry . . .

     " . . . It was not until the end of 1861, when the "D" Street tunnel penetrated 40 feet of rich solid ore that the mine began to overshadow the Ophir and arouse hopes of future greatness that turned to ashes in the course of a few years. Instead of continuing downward the ore body pitched southward into the Savage where it was equally productive. Neither the Gould & Curry nor the Savage found another ore body in all its history, the exception of those which the Savage shared with the Hale and Norcross from 1866 to 1869.

     [p. 85] " . . .

     [p. 85] " . . .The ore body was mined over a length of 500 feet and a width of 100 feet, at its best, including parallel sheet and stringers, and at the depth of 500 feet passed entirely into [p. 86] the Savage.

[p. 86] The Savage

     [p. 86] The Savage was a child of fortune. Its first great ore body was found for it by the Gould & Curry, and the next, four years later by the Hale & Norcross, its neighbor on the other side.

     " . . .

     [p. 86] "The Savage . . . did not commence to produce until April 1863. For the next two years it was in bonanza . . . [p. 87] At the height of the "Boom of 1863" the leading stockholders sold out and wisely invested in San Francisco real estate . . . At the end of 1865 the mine was in decline . . . Further development work, however, soon disclosed the extension of the ore body and the discovery of the rich little "Potosi strike," . . . Another stroke of fortune was the discovery by the Hale & Norcross of a fine ore body on the 600-foot level in December 1865, one half of which proved to be in Savage ground.

     "Then followed three years of large production, during which the Savage was the great mine of the Comstock . . . the last [dividends] in 1869 . . .

     [p. 87] "In 1871, after the discovery of the Crown Point bonanza, John P. Jones and Alvinza Hayward took over the control of the Savage and ran the mine for the benefit of their mills. In the annual report of July 1, 1872, the superintendent, genial A.C. "Lon" Hamilton, stated that 47,505 tons of ore had been mined and milled at a loss of $3.25 per ton. The next year 33,414 tons were milled at a loss of $13.29 per ton, and assessments amounting to $640,000 were levied.

     "Hayward began to boom Savage stock early in 1872 by giving out mysterious reports of a rich strike, and by confining the miners underground-an old Comstock trick. The miners did no [p. 88] work and lived on the fat of the land. Great excitement followed. The price of the stock rose rapidly from $62 a share on February 1 to $725 on April 25. In May the Crown Point boom collapsed and Savage with it. There had been no rich strike; it was a cold-blooded stock deal that hurt many people. [Footnote:The San Francisco Chronicle of May 19 charges Jones and Hayward with unloading Savage on their friends.)

     " . . .

[p. 107] Chapter XII The Sutro Tunnel

     " . . .

     [p. 111] " . . . The [Sutro] tunnel was all but closed down toward the end of 1870; . . . The Crown Point discovery at the end of that year saved the tunnel as well as the Comstock; now there was no denying that great ore bodies were to be found below the 1000-foot level.

     " . . .

     "In 1873, after the Crown-Point-Belcher bonanza was yielding millions and the Con. Virginia bonanza had been discovered, Sutro went to London and persuaded McCalmont Brothers & Co. to float a bond issue of $7,500,00 to complete the tunnel.

     " . . .

     [p. 112] "Sutro became a candidate for the United States Senate from Nevada in every election for that office from 1872 to 1880 and did not receive a vote before any of the legislatures, although the money bags of the various candidates were untied. Tom Fitch was recalled by Sharon to make speeches in his behalf in the campaign of 1874. Fitch abused and ridiculed Sutro as only he could. His closing address, delivered in the Opera House on Octover 23, 1874, was a great oration, interlarded with poetry, historical references and flights into the blue. It fills six closely printed columns of the Enterprise of October 24, under the heading "Sutro Annihilated-His Contracts All Violated-His Robberies Exposed."

     " . . .

     "[Footnote: Fitch was irrepressible. When a Republican convention failed to nominate him for Congress, he rose and said: "Gentlemen: from the bottom of my heart I can now sympathize with Lazarus-I too have been licked by dogs."]

     " . . .

[p. 116] Chapter XIII The Hale & Norcross Venture of Mackay, Fair, Flood, and O'Brien in 1869-They Join the Water Company Which Brings Water from the Sierras

     " . . .

     [p. 120] ". . . The recent discovery of the Crown Point bonanza led men to believe that other great ore bodies would be found below, and Mackay and his associates decided to try to find one in the Con. Virginia, which had been a failure. That story will be told after the Crown Point bonanza.

[p. 120] The Virginia and Gold Hill Water Company

     [p. 120] ". . . in the fall of 1869, the new firm bought Sharon's interest in the Virginia and Gold Hill Water Company . . . the [Comstock] camp . . . was then in the midst of a depression. Fortunately, the Lode took on new life following the discovery of the Crown Point-Belcher bonanza at the end of 1870, and the energetic owners of the Water Company dared attack the great problem of bringing a new supply from the tops of the Sierras. . . [p. 121] the water was turned into the pipe, July 29, 1873 . . . August 8, the (water) flow came on again uninterrupted.

     " . . .

[p. 122] Chapter XIV 1869 A Discouraging Year-The Yellow Jacket Fire-Sharon Builds the V. and T. Railroad

     [p. 122] "The year 1869 . . . many of the lesser mines had closed down, and the leaders, with the exception of the few that had ore, were operating with reduced forces. Only the Savage, Chollar-Potosi, Yellow Jacket, Crown Point, and the Kentuck were paying dividends, and the limits of their ore bodies were known. The Sierra Nevada also was paying a trifling sum from very low grade ore. It was a memorable year for Sutro, for he was enabled after four years of disappointments to start work on his tunnel. The great hope of the year was the construction of the Virginia & Truckee Railroad from Gold Hill to the Carson River mills and to Carson City, which would reduce the cost of hauling ore and lumber and firewood by wagons and encourage the extraction of low-grade ores.

     [p. 122] ". . . April . . . the Yellow Jacket fire, in which thirty-seven men were trapped underground and lost their lives. [Another fire in the Yellow Jacket on September 30, 1873, on the 1,200-foot level, took the lives of six men.] Three adjoining mines (the Crown Point, the Kentuck, and the Yellow Jacket) were working on the same east ore bodies from the 600- to the 900-foot level and their extensive stopes were a maze of large resinous pine timbers. The fire, of unknown origin, started on the 800-foot level of the Yellow Jacket and had been burning for several hours without knowledge owing to heavy doors in the drifts . . . when the men on the morning shift were lowered down the shafts a mass of charred timbers in the stopes broke under the weight of the roof, sending a blast of deadly gas and smoke through the workings of the three mines. A few were hoisted back, many were suffocated, and others burned . . . three days . . . heroic efforts were made to reach the remaining men. When it became clear that all below were dead and that not even their bodies could be recovered at that time, the shafts were sealed . . .      

     [p. 123] "The last descent into the Crown Point prior to the second sealing of the shaft was made on April 12 (the fire occurred on the 7th) by Superintendent Jones and a young man who tried to connect a pipe with the blower tube. Foul air drove them out after fifteen minutes without making the connection. After the shafts were sealed large volumes of steam were forced into the workings to check the fire. Those mines, which had been among the most productive on the Lode, were practically ruined. The caved stopes smouldered for months and yielded but little good ore afterward. Instead of paying dividends all three mines began to levy assessments.

     " . . .

[p. 126] Chapter XV The Gloomy Year of 1870-The Crown Point Revival in 1871-The Boom of 1872-Sharon-Jones Contest for Senate

     " . . .

     [p. 126] "Stockholders were becoming discouraged and allowing their shares to be sold for assessments . . . Stocks had fallen so low that the market value of the mine was less than the cost of the machinery. This was especially true of the Crown Point and the Belcher . . . [p. 127] . . . the Crown Point was about to be closed down when the discovery was made [Footnote: "A year ago the Crown Point Company had concluded to shut down their mine in January, as it could only be kept workig by levying assessments and the prospects ahead were decidedly gloomy." Gold Hill News, September 16, 1871] . . . By a freak of fortune three of the most discredited mines on the Comstock-the Belcher, the Crown Point, and the Con. Virginia-were to be its saviors. While the stock market and [p. 128] the assessment system have much to answer for, it should be remembered that neither the Crown Point nor the Con. Virginia bonanza would have been discovered without their aid. . . .

     " . . .

[p. 128] The Crown Point Revival in 1871

     "When the black year of 1870 had all but expired, J.P. Jones, superintendent of the Crown Point, reported a discovery on the 1100-foot level. It was neither large nor rich but gave promise of greater things. Raymond, in his 1873 report, says the management "stumbled upon it" south and east of the point where [p. 129] the earlier east ore bodies had died out on the 860-foot level. [Footnote: It was said that credit for the discovery was due W.H. "Hank" Smith, the able and popular foreman of the Crown Point. Smith followed Sharon, became superintendent of the Belcher and other Gold Hill mines, and had a distinguished career on the Comstock and later in Utah.] Sharon and his associates, including Hayward, had been in control of both Crown Point and Belcher for years, although without holding a majority of the stock of either mine after assessments began to be levied. Crown Point stock rose quietly from $3 a share on November 19 to $16 on December 10. The market price of Belcher, meantimes, had increased to $7.50 a share. Development work proceeded slowly for a time and the reports were not very encouraging, due no doubt to the plans of Hayward and Jones who were aiming to secure control.

     "Jones' sick baby" was given as one of the excuses, which later became a byword on "The Street" in San Francisco. Jones, who was without means, induced some San Francisco speculators to buy stock for him "upon his agreement to bear all the losses in consideration of one half of the possible profits." Later, he advised these men to sell, "although assuring them of his firm belief in the mine . . . They regarded his story as a lame pretense," and began to sell short, which later cost them dear.

     [p.129] "The ore had been found only 200 feet north of the Belcher line, and, as it lay on the footwall of the Lode, there was every probability that it would extend into the Belcher. That stock also began to rise. Crown Point stock advanced slowly, with wide variations, during the first half of 1871, evidently manipulated up and down, reaching $300 in June. Belcher went through the same performance, and reached $240 by the end of that month.

     "Hayward, representing himself and Jones in San Francisco, began to buy Crown Point stock from the time of the discovery. Lord says: "His purchases were made so rapidly and shrewdly that he obtained 5,000 shares, nearly half of the entire stock in the company, at prices averaging less than $5 per share." That statement is questionable. It is highly improbable that he acquired that amount of stock at such low prices. The brokers on the San Francisco Exchange were quick to note a demand and boost the price. The stock rose beyond $5 immediately after the discovery and was selling at $18 within three weeks. A few months later Hayward bought 1,000 shares from Charles B. Low at prices ranging from $90 to $180, which assured control of the mine."

     [p. 130] "Sharon appears to have been slow to learn what was going on. It is probable that he could not conceive that his associate, Hayward, and his superintendent, Jones, would play him false. Instances of that kind were rare. While warring groups of speculators fought each other with all of the means at their command-deceit being the chief weapon-they played fair among themselves. It is quite probable that both Hayward and Jones had become rebellious over little Sharon's autocratic manners and methods.

     "Meanwhile Sharon had been manipulating Belcher and gathering in all available stock at comparatively small prices. His biography states that he and Ralston secured almost all of the stock in the Belcher at $1 a share. They must have bought it from the treasury, to which it had returned for nonpayment of assessments, a favorite trick of those in control when a boom started.

     "Sharon was bitter when he learned that Jones and Hayward had the control of the Crown Point, but made the best of the situation: "He proposed to sell to Hayward and his friends all the shares of himself and friends in the Crown Point mine, at the market price, on condition that Hayward and his friends would sell to them all of their interests in the Belcher." The offer was accepted and the transaction closed. Lord states on the authority of Sharon that Sharon sold his 4,100 shares of Crown Point to Hayward on June 7, 1871, for $1,400,000, which would be at the rate of $341 a share. This was by far the largest single transaction in Comstock stocks up to that time.

     "The boundary line between the two mines passed downward through the middle of the bonanza, dividing it into two nearly equal parts. The Belcher's portion proved richer and more productive so that the trade eventually favored Sharon and his associates, Ralston and Mills. In addition to the lion's share of the dividends, each group made private milling profits running into the millions, [Footnote: "A considerable number of Crown Point stockholders organized in May, 1877, and protested vigorously against the practice of the management in milling ore in their private mills instead of the company's mill." Mining and Scientific Press, May 19, 1877.]

     "It has been estimated that the Comstock profits of Ralston, Sharon and Mills amounted in all to about $20,000,000, although [p. 131] Ralston's speculations and widespread business enterprises broke him at the very summit of success. Sharon's biography says that "before the year 1875, the Union Mill and Mining Company had netted Mills over $2,000,000, and Ralston and Sharon over $4,000,000 each." Their other dividends and profits could not have been less than $10,000,000. Sharon said to George T. Marye, Sr., about 1874, that he, Sharon was the second richest man in California; his associate D.O. Mills being the first. [Footnote: The San FranciscoChronicle of January 4, 1875, boasting of the city's rich men, credits the following with fortunes of $5,000,000: "Lick, Latham, Sharon, Hayward, Reese, Mills, Baldwin, Lux, Miller, Jones, Ralston and Stanford." The wealth of some of these men is understated.] When Sarah Althea Hill sued Sharon for divorce, based on a marriage contract, in January 1884, after he had brought suit to have the alleged contract invalidated, she stated his fortune to be $15,000,000. His sworn answer denied that he was worth to exceed $5,000,000, which may be accepted as a coventional denial.]

     "The Comstock knew only Sharon and hated him for his ruthless methods and dictatorial manner; yet he was cock-of-the-walk only on the Comstock. During all of the early years he was subordinate to Ralston and never made an important move without consulting him. After the Crown Point-Belcher bonanza had made them all rich beyond their dreams, Sharon became more independent and, when the Bank of California suspended on August 26, 1875, followed immediately by Ralston's tragic death, he took the lead, and, with the aid of sixty-three loyal citizens, restored the Bank's capital and reopened its doors within six weeks.

[p. 131] The Boom of 1872

     "It is a feature of stock market operations that a leader carries the market up or down. That was the invariable rule with Comstocks. Speculators, rich and poor, were always eager to buy on a rising market. If their means were small they bought the cheaper stocks, which were certain to advance. A discovery in one mine raised the prices of all of the stocks on the board, often higher proportionately than that of the mine in which ore had been found. This was largely due to manipulation. When stocks were low and mines perhaps closed down, more of the stock reverted to the treasury for nonpayment of assessments. Then, on the first indication of a boom, those in control would purchase [p. 132] the treasury stock at the market price and proceed to boost the stock by wash sales and otherwise.

     [p.132] "The so-called "Boom of 1872," when 150 stocks on the board made such remarkable advances from January to May 1872, was a man-made affair, manipulated by Alvinza Hayward, who deliberately and openly boosted Savage stock from $62 to $725 a share on the pretense that a rich discovery had been made in the mine. The market followed as a matter of course.

     "The stocks of the Crown Point and the Belcher had hung around $300 a share during the latter half of 1871, and were worth it. All of the others on the exchange had advanced with them, but there was no boom until after the first of January 1872. the developments in Crown Point and Belcher by that time were so favorable that all of the other stocks began to increase rapidly in price.

     "It was then that Hayward launched his spectacular boom in Savage, partly for the purpose of furthering the senatorial aspirations of his partner Jones. They had taken control of the Savage from Sharon at the annual meeting in July 1871, in order to get its ore for their mills and to display their newly acquired power.

     "Toward the end of January 1872, Hayward gave an unlimited order to buy Savage stock, which was then $62 a share. Next the miners were confined, and the public denied entrance to the mine. No one was permitted to see or tell of a rich strike-which had not been made.

     "The whole market went up with a rush. Savage rose from $62 on February 1 to $310 on the 8th, fell to $230 the middle of March, rose to $460 on April 17, and to $725 on April 25. At that price the mine was selling on a basis of $12,400,000, which was almost as much as Crown Point and Belcher were worth.

     "Crown Point rose to $800 on February 1, then hung around $770 until the middle of March, rose to $1,250 by April 17, to $1,700 on the 25th, and to $1,825 on May 5. Belcher followed along with Crown Point, and reached the top, $1,525, on April 25. The San Francisco Bulletin of May 7, 1872, reported:

The excitement in mining stocks and mining claims during the past few months had been without a precedent in the history of our mines. Mining incorporations have been multiplied like the leaves of autumn. The capital of existing incorporations has been increased in the most lavish manner. Prices has gone up like a rocket, and in some cases have reached altitudes never [p. 133] dreamed of even by the most enthusiastic. Yet it is noteworthy that out of the 150 claims offered to the public through the stock boards, only four are paying dividends. These are the Belcher, Crown Point, and two companies at Pioche, Nevada.

     [p. 133] "The stocks in the 150 mines listed on the exchange (which included many scattered all over the West), had increased in value from $17,000,000 in January to $81,000,000 on the 5th of May. A crash was inevitable and was hastened by the moves of Sharon who was a rival candidate against Jones for a seat in the United States Senate. On May 8, Sharon let it be known that he had information that J.P. Jones had been instrumental in setting the Yellow Jacket fire in April 1869, in order to break the market at that time. The charge was baseless and almost absurd, although Sharon had the affidavits of several irresponsible men. The market had reached tottering heights and the sensation brought it down. Stocks dropped 30 to 40 percent. The panic that followed shook San Francisco like an earthquake; speculators saw their fortunes crumble . Crown Point fell from $1,825 on May 5 to $1,659 on the 8th, and to $1,000 a few days later. The Jones crowd raided Belcher, which fell from $1,400 to $750, but recovered shortly to $1,000.

     "One of Lord's best stories is spoiled by a little fact. He says that because of Sharon's charge against Jones, Crown Point shares fell to one eighteenth of their former price and hurried on a general fall in mining stocks, overlooking the fact that on May 15 the capital stock of Crown Point was increased from 12,000 to 100,000 shares (8 1/3 for 1), which left the price $100 a share. A few weeks later it rose to $135. Belcher was increased from 10,400 to 104,000 on August 1, 1872, and fell to $108 a share, which led innocent writers to comment on the extraordinary decline in prices.

     "The San Francisco Chronicle on May 19 says the financial wreck of the city is complete, and that "to Savage more than any other mine the wild furors can be traced, which, like a whirlpool, drew almost everybody in the vortex of speculation."

     "About the first of September 1872, a drift in the Con. Virginia crossed a fissure containing low grade ore., giving strength to the market, which continued to advance for over two years as developments in the Con. Virginia became more and more favorable and the Crown Point and the Belcher were declaring millions in dividends.

[p. 134] Sharon-Jones Contest For Senate

     [p. 134] "Sharon suffered his first defeat when Mackay and his associates took control of the Hale & Norcross in 1869, His supremacy was first challenged in 1871, when Hayward and Jones covertly secured control of the Crown Point soon after the bonanza was discovered. Five years later, the "Bonanza Firm" or the "Bonanza Crowd," as it was sometines called, completed his dethronement. The "Boom of 1872" made Sharon a millionaire several times over, but he was not content. He was a vain little man, not seeking popularity but fond of show and coveting power. A seat in the United States Senate would gratify both. The only man in his way was John P. Jones, who less than two years earlier had been one of his compliant superintendents.

     "Jones, a genial man and a born politician, had a meteoric rise in Nevada. He was a large full-bodied man with a long chin beard and a benevolent countenance. A Welshman, born on the English border, he arrived in California in 1850; mined in several camps until 1852 when he settled in Weaverville, Trinity County. There he followed public life, serving successively as Justice of the Peace, Deputy Sheriff, Sheriff, and State Senator. [Footnote: Gold Hill News, August 29, 1873-facts evidently supplied by Jones.] In the fall of 1867 he was a candidate for the office of Lieutenant Governor of California. That year the Democratic ticket prevailed, and Jones was left high and dry-defeated, broke, and discouraged, and about to depart for the East, as he himself said. At this juncture, in November 1867, at the behest of his friend Alvinza Hayward, he was sent to the Comstock to become superintendent of the Kentuck, which Sharon, Hayward, and associates had just acquired. Jones was evidently appointed for his diplomatic qualities, for he had never mined in Nevada and had followed political life in the main. It was not uncommon for such appointments to be made. Capable mine foremen attended to the details. When the editor of the Gold Hill News heard of the appointment, he was indignant: "There is no better man in the Comstock than John D. Winters, the present superintendent." In 1868 Jones was made superintendent of the Crown Point, also controlled by Sharon and associates. The two succeeding years brought little comfort to Jones. The ore continued to fail and the mine was about to close down when the discovery was made. Then, almost overnight, he became a millionaire.

     [p. 135] "Sharon was now to swallow another bitter pill. Jones, a seasoned politician, had himself called "The Commoner," spent his newly won wealth regally, and was triumphantly elected in January 1873-an office which he filled with credit to himself and his State for thirty years. Senator Jones was chiefly distinguished for his eloquent advocacy of silver and as the best story teller and poker player in the Senate.

     "Ex-Governor James W. Nye, the incumbent Senator, who had served Nevada long and well, had no chance in that race.

     "Harry M. Gorham, nephew to Jones, says in his interesting little volume My Memories of the Comstock (1939): "When Jones went to the Senate he took off a balance sheet, and he was worth $8,000,000."

     "The aftermath of the Hayward-Jones friendship, according to the Virginia Evening Chronicle of December 12, 1874, was a quarrel over the Crown Point, in which Jones prevailed. "Now Jones and Hayward are at swords' points. They are even more bitter in their hatred of each other than Sharon and Jones ever were."

     "Newly created Comstock millionaires, with the notable exception of Mackay, almost invariably aspired to a seat in the U.S. Senate, and the campaign of Jones in 1872, Sharon in 1874, and that of James G. Fair in 1880, were said to be characterized by "a saturnalia of corruption." [Footnote: Davis' History of Nevada, pp. 421-423 (1913). "The Battle of the Money Bags for Senatorial Honors," it is termed in Thompson & West History of Nevada, p. 92 (1881). Nevada was often characterized as "The Rotten Borough." Sutro was also a candidate, as he was in every senatorial election thereafter up to and including 1880; and each time he failed to receive a single vote in the Legislature.]

[p. 137] Chapter XVI The Crown Point-Belcher Bonanza-The Gold to Silver Ratio-The Silver Question.

     "The Crown Point-Belcher bonanza was an ideal ore body. It was fairly uniform in value, easily mined, remarkably free from base metals, and, unlike the other major ore bodies, it lay upon the footwall of the Lode, which at that poiint had a dip of about forty degrees. The ore extended from the 900- to the 1500-foot levels in both mines, and was widest and richest on the 1300 level where it had a length of 775 feet, and, in the Belcher, a width of 120 feet measured on the horizontal. At the 1300-foot level the ore split horizontally into two bodies, like a fish, with two flat tails, one branch continuing down the footwall, the other descending at a slighter dip. In the Crown Point a narrow parallel body was found lying about 40 feet east of the main body. This extended from the 1200- to the 1400-foot levels and produced considerable ore.

     [p. 137] "Superintendent J.P. Jones, in his report for the year ending May 1, 1873 (the first since 1870), [Footnote: He prefaces his report for 1873 with the statement: "The last general report submitted by the superintendent was dated May 1, 1870. At that time the Crown Point mine was yielding nothing." He does not make any explanation for the failure to report to his stockholders in 1871 and 1872. The report of 1873 covers all three years. (It is printed in U.S. Mineral Resources for 1873, pp. 177-186.)], told of the ore on the different levels of the Crown Point (exclusive of an equal portion in the Belcher), and continued: "It thus appears that the ore body has steadily increased in length, width, and richness as we have descended upon it, and there is every indication of its continuing to do so . . . It is fair to presume that we have passed below the range of surface disturbance, and that the vein will penetrate the earth in its present shape to an indefinite depth." But his hopes were soon to be shattered, for the ore body [p. 138] contracted somewhat on the 1400-foot level, where the values were lower, and practically terminated on the 1500-foot level.

     [p. 138] "That wise mining engineer, Rossiter W. Raymond, in [1872]

[Footnote: A year earlier Raymond wrote: "Both companies [Crown Point and Belcher] are digging pell-mell to see which can produce the most in the shortest time. Belcher now produces nearly 500 tons of ore daily, and is making preparations to produce between 500 and 600 tons. Furthermore, workings of this style on the Comstock have taught us what result to expect." (U.S. Mines and Mining for 1872, p. 118). Raymond was critical of the Comstock practice of "gutting the mines."] hisU.S. Mines and Mining Report for 1873, written before the ore body was fully developed, warns the Comstock operators not to expect the ore to continue in depth:

"I do not doubt that the present year, while it cannot exhaust the great ore body from which the Crown Point and Belcher have obtained so much profit, and the proprietors of other mines so much hope, will nevertheless reveal more clearly than they are now known the limits of that body or of its richest mass. Whoever believes that these mines have now at last entered upon a solid and continuous body, extending indefinitely in depth, and precluding for the future the necessity of explorations, will find himself mistaken."

     [p. 138] "The stopes were so large on the 1300-foot level that square-set timbering alone would not hold up the ground without reinforcement, and both mines were required to use millions of feet of heavy timbers to fill in their square sets and build bulkheads as the ore was removed, just as the Con. Virginia and the California were compelled to do a few years later and on a larger scale.

     "From 1870 to 1878, when production practically ceased, the Belcher produced 684,000 tons, yielding $32,118,000, or $47 a ton, and paid $14,876,000 in dividends. Its greatest year was in 1873, when 154,664 tons yielded $10,525,000, or $69 a ton. The dividends that year totaled $6,760,000.

     "During the same period, 1870-1878 the Crown Point produced 725,000 tons, yielding $25,877,000, or $35.70 a ton, and paid $10,740,000 in dividends. The mine was at its best during the year ending May 1, 1874, when 145,129 tons yielded $7,307,258, or $51.11 a ton, from which $5,300,000 was paid in dividends.

     [p. 138] "That great ore body lasted only four years. By 1877 Belcher ore had fallen to $25 a ton; Crown Point to $18.44. There was [p. 139] no profit to the stockholders from such ore, as mining costs averaged $9.50 a ton and milling $11, in addition to a heavy burden of general expense, including that of deep mining.

     [p. 139] "The Crown Point paid its last dividend in 1875 and the Belcher in 1876, and both began to levy assessments in excess of $400,000 a year in order to sink their shafts as rapidly as possible in the expectation of finding other ore bodies at greater depths. Again and again floods of hot water all but overcame them, and the difficulty of ventilating the steaming workings was almost as great. The huge pine pump rods broke repeatedly.

     "No payable ore was ever found in either mine below the 1600-foot level . . .

     " . . .

     [p. 142] [Footnote:"Comstock Mining and Miners, p. 418 (1893) . . . The Crown Point-Belcher bonanzas, with its great yield and potential future, doubtless influenced the demonetization of silver. The Con. Virginia bonanza was not discovered until March 1, 1873, two weeks after the Act was passed.

     "A party of European capitalists, mostly French, arrived yesterday from Lake Tahoe. Today they spent several hours exploring the Belcher mine. (Gold Hill News, July 7, 1873) That great body of ore, of unknown possibilities, may have influened France to suspend free coinage in 1874.

     "A special train from California arrived at Gold Hill on July 4, 1873, bearing W.C. Ralston, William Sharon and family, Michael Reese, Mr. Gensi (special agent of the Rothschilds), Mr. Newlands, Daniel C. Gilman (President of the University of California), Stephen Franklin (Secretary of the Bank of California), ex-Mayor Thomas H. Selby, Mr. Seward (U.S. Consul at China). The party visited the Crown Point and Belcher mines and departed for Lake Tahoe. (Gold Hill News, July 5, 1873.)]

[p. 142] The Silver Question

     [p. 142] "The great flow of gold from California in 1849 and 1850 alarmed the bankers of Europe. Holland and Belgium, in 1850, began to sell their gold and stock up with silver. Other nations followed, especially after the great gold discoveries in Australia, beginning in 1851, and silver rose in price throughout the world. The countries of Europe, with the exception of Great Britain and France, were practically on a silver basis until 1871 when [p. 143] Germany adopted the gold standard after receiving a large amount of gold from France in payment of the war indemnity. Japan and the United States demonetized silver in 1873, and Denmark, Sweden, Norway, France and Holland soon followed. All of those countries threw quantities of silver upon the market, with a resultant decline in price.

     [p. 143] "Silver sold at a premium from 1859 until demonetization in 1873, when it would no longer be coined free at $1.29 an ounce, 1/16 the value of gold. The market price was $1.36 an ounce in 1859, from which it declined slowly to $1.32 early in 1873, although the coinage value was $1.2929 an ounce. During 1873, when silver was demonitized, the average market price continued to decline until it reached $1 in 1886. After that the decline was rapid.

     "The long and bitter struggle of the silverites to undo "The Crime of '73" and restore the white metal to its old-time parity of 16 to 1 with gold, was begun in 1876 and became a national issue with the defeat of Bryan for president on that platform twenty years later. Meantime, the Democrats, aided by western Senators, succeeded in passing the Bland-Allison bill in 1878, providing for the purchase in the open market and coinage of not less than 2,000,000 nor more than 4,000,000 ounces of silver per month. This was repealed by the Sherman Act of 1890, which authorized the purchase, but not the coinage, of 4,500,000 ounces of silver per month. In 1893, after the panic had set in, a Republican Congress, aided by gold Democrats, passed a bill repealing the Sherman Act, which was signed by President Cleveland, thereby leaving silver without Government support.

[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. 162] "It takes a leader to start a boom. Con. Virginia was expected to do that but the members of the Firm were content to watch their stocks increase in value and collect their regular monthly dividend of $3 a share.

     "It fell to William Sharon, an avowed candidate for the United States Senate, to start the boom. He had lived in San Francisco after Jones defeated him for the Senate in 1872, meanwhile growing richer month by month from the Belcher and the Union Milling Company, and nursing his senatorial ambition. When Stewart announced that he would not seek reelection Sharon again entered the lists, this time with full determination to win, whatever the cost. He first bought the Enterprise from editor Goodman who had flayed him in 1872, thereby acquiring a champion, then set out to obtain control of the Ophir in order to use the stock to further his campaign. Besides, the mine itself was promising to develop an extension of the Con. Virginia bonanza which would add to Sharon's prestige and furnish ore for his mills.

     "Unfortunately for his plans the control of Ophir was in the hands of E.J. "Lucky" Baldwin, one of the shrewdest men on the Coast, who had been content to let the stock ride along quietly. Sharon found him a hard trader. As the annual meeting of stockholders was to be held on the 13th of December, it became necessary to acquire over one half of the 100,000 shares before that day in order to elect the new board of trustees.

     "Sharon began to buy quietly. On August 11, 1874, Ophir stood at $20 a share, Con. Virginia at $80, and California at $40. A month later Ophir reached $52, while the two bonanza stocks had advanced but a few dollars. The sharp rise began toward the end of October, after Sharon bought James R. Keene's block of Ophir stocks and employed him to manipuate the market. "Jim" Keene [p. 163] was a genius but he could not pry Baldwin loose. Sharon not only began to buy but to sell "short" at the same time . . .

     [p. 163] "Throughout November the market was in a ferment. Ophir reached $100 a share, Con. Viirginia, $160, California $90, and all of the other stocks rose with them. . . . The wild market that followed was caused not only by Sharon's manipulations, but by the amazing developments on the 1500- and 1550-foot levels of the Con. Virginia.

     [p. 163] "Baldwin withstood all of Keene's blandishments, and Sharon was forced to pay his price for the stock, $135 a share for 20,000 shares. Sharon took over control at the Ophir election, but kept boosting the stock until he was elected Senator on January 12, 1875. Meantime the speculators had gone mad: Ophir sold for $315 a share on January 7, Con. Virginia for $710, and California for $780. The inevitable panic started on January 8, and the bottom fell out of the market.

     "It was charged that Sharon had "unloaded" at high prices and then "shorted" the stock, thereby recouping all of his expenditures.

     " . . .

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

     " . . .

     [p. 172] "The following editorial from the [San Francisco] Chronicle of January 4, 1875, illustrates the exuberance of its ethusiasm. 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] "Followig 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 theInter-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'sComstock 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.

     " . . .

[p. 197] Chapter XX 1876: High-Water Mark on the Comstock-A Troublous Year for The Bonanza Firm-The Market Revives and the Bears Threaten-Fair Claims Mackay Gutted the Con. Virginia-Keene Leads a Smashing Bear Attack on Bonanza Stocks-Mackay, Fair, and Flood in 1876-A Lively Con. Virginia Meeting-The Bullion Tax Fought by the Bonanza Firm.

     [p. 197] "The year 1876 was high-water mark in the history of the Comstock. Virginia City was rebuilding feverishly after the fire; more mines were in operation and more men employed than ever before; . . .

     ". . . Most of the mills in the region were busy. The Bonanza Firm had twelve in operation; the largest being [p. 198] the new Con. Virginia and California mills, which reduced 630 tons every 24 hours.

     [p. 198] "The control of the leading mines was no longer held by individuals or by a few men as in earlier days, but had passed into the hands of three groups: The Bonanza Crowd, the Bank Crowd, and J.P. Jones.

     ". . .

[p. 207] Chapter XXI 1877: The Bonanza Terminates on the 1550 Level-Warring Brokers and Speculators-Hard Times in 1877-The Decline Begins

     " . . .

[p. 208] Warring Brokers and Speculators

     [p. 208] "There were three active stock exchanges in San Francisco during the flush '70s, each with a large membership. Able and daring men gravitated to them by instinct. They were the liveliest places on the Coast and the focus of public attention.

     "The big speculators, like Sharon, Flood, Hayward, Jones and Skae had their favorite brokers, who in turn usually employed other brokers to buy and sell on the exchanges. These groups were almost constantly at war with one another. Other large dealers, "Lucky" Baldwin for example, played a lone hand against everybody.

     " . . .

[p. 232] Chapter XXIII Life on the Comstock in the '70s-Comstock Millionaires-Notable Comstock Mine Superintendents.

     [p. 232] "Life on the Comstock had always been full of interest and enjoyment, but the '70s overtopped all that had gone before. People were not only comfortably housed, a bountiful supply of water had been brought in from the tops of the Sierras, the streets were macadamized with refuse from the old mine dumps and lighted with gas, the city had railroad connections both east and west, people traveled far more than in earlier years, social life took on wider aspects, the Opera House presented a constant stream of dramatic productions . . .

     " . . .

     [p. 233] "The Comstock, far removed from the great outer world, was a little world to itself, composed of two almost distinct elements: The one, made up of the business and saloon life on "C" Street, the popular red-light district on "D" Street, and the gambling opium-smoking Chinese settlement below; the other, and by far the larger part of the community, consisting of the thousand families living chiefly above "C" Street, of whom nothing is said by the chroniclers.

    "The majority lived simple lives compared with the present hurried, fretful existence, and were more content. Artificial wants have multiplied and happiness is farther off than ever . . . The attractions of the theater ranged from Shakespeare to minstrel shows and melodrama, but there were no dirty sex plays and no naked women on the stage, which modern taste appears to demand.

     "Footnote 2 The Black Crook, which arrived in 1867, was the first leg show to appear on the Comstock and took the town by storm, although a tame affair compared with present-day disclosures. The respectable element was shocked. In the late '70s there was an irruption of British Blondes and Red Stocking Blondes, whose abundant fleshly charms, encased in tights, were displayed on flaming posters. See Wolf Drury An Editor on the Comstock Lode (1936).

     " . . .

     [p. 234] "The Comstock continued to be Mid-Victorian in dress and manners. To be a gentleman or a lady was the ideal. The good women were held in highest esteem, although more prominently in the life of the community than in earlier years. They even took a hand in politics when striving to bring about social reforms. Upon their insistence State laws were enacted prohibiiting minors in saloons, and requiring gambling to be carried on behind closed doors. They labored for years to make gambling unlawful, withou success.

     "The men foregathered in the clubs and in the halls of the many fraternal and other organizations. Every military and volunteer fire company had its headquarters, the German their Turn Verein , and the Miners' Union its own hall and library. The various races had their gathering places.