FLUCTUATIONS OF FORTUNE.
What are now known as the “bonanza mines” are in great part made up of
small mines that were located to the southward of the Ophir soon after
the discovery of silver. The big bonanza lies in the Consolidated
Virginia and California mines, and its northern extremity extends into
the Ophir, as is supposed; it is also thought that it will be found to
extend into the Best and Belcher, which is the first mine south of the
Consolidated Virginia.
The north end of the vein is divided into claims at this point, as is
shown in the accompanying diagram.
The California mine contains 600 feet on the length of the ledge, and is
of whatever width the vein shall prove to be, as the owners have a right
to follow it, wherever it may go. It consists of the original California
of 300 feet to which has been added by purchase the Central mine No. 1,
containing 150 feet; the Central No. 2, 100 feet, and the Kinney ground
50 feet. There are 900 shares to the foot, or 540,000 shares in the
whole mine.
The Consolidated Virginia mine contains 710 feet of ground along the
lode, and is made up of the Dick Sides ground, 500 feet, and the White &
Murphy ground, 210 feet. There are 108,000 shares in the mine. The
Ophir, which lies next north of the California mine, contains 675 feet
and is divided into 100,800 shares. In 1874, 600 feet were taken off the
north end of the Ophir and incorporated as a separate mine, which was
called the Mexican. The Mexican contains 108,000 shares.
_Longitudinal Section of the North End of the Comstock Lode._
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| NORTH. |
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| Sierra Nevada. 2657 ft.|
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| Union Consolidated. 600 ft.|
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| Mexican. 600 ft.|
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| Ophir. 675 ft.|
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| California. 600 ft.|
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| Consolidated Virginia. 710 ft.|
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| Best & Belcher. 224 ft.|
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| Gould & Curry. 921 ft.|
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| Savage. 768 ft.|
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| SOUTH. |
The bonanza mines are situated in the northeast part of Virginia City,
and many buildings stand on the ground under which they lie. Small
bodies of paying ore were found in some of the mines composing the
California mine in the early days, but they were soon worked out, and
for a number of years the ground lay idle. In the Dick Sides and White &
Murphy, the two mines from which was formed the Consolidated Virginia,
very little ore of any kind was found on the surface or even at the
depth of three or four hundred feet, and these claims had also lain idle
several years before they were purchased by Messrs Mackey & Fair and
their associates Messrs Flood & O’Brien, of San Francisco. However, on
what is now the Consolidated Virginia ground, a shaft had been sunk to
the depth of six or seven hundred feet from the bottom of which had been
run a drift of considerable length.
Ore was first found in the Consolidated Virginia, in March, 1873 at the
time when Captain S. T. Curtis (in 1875 superintendent of the Ophir) was
in charge. The ore then found was a body about twelve feet in width,
which was encountered at the depth of 1,167 feet below the surface in a
drift run from the corresponding level of the Gould & Curry mine. At the
same time two other bodies of ore—the largest seven feet in width—were
found, which yielded assays averaging $60 per ton. At this time their
present main shaft was down 710 feet, and was being sunk at the rate of
three feet per day.
In October, 1873, the main shaft had reached the 1,167-foot level and in
drifting southeasterly a distance of 250 feet a very rich deposit of ore
was reached—the top of the big bonanza, in fact. The work of breasting
out and regularly extracting ore from this body was commenced October
16, and by the 29th a chamber had been opened in it from six to nine
sets of timbers in width (the sets are five feet apart each way) and
four floors or sets in height, with solid masses of ore in sight on all
sides. A drift had then been run lengthwise through the ore a distance
of one hundred and forty feet, while the nine sets of timbers showed it
to be fifty-four feet in width. Although all this wealth was in sight in
the mine, the people of the town, walking over and around the mine knew
nothing of it. What was in the mine was only known to those at work
there, and to the officers of the company. I had the satisfaction of
being the first “outsider” to descend into the mine and inspect the
deposit in regard to which—the mine being closed to visitors—there had
been a thousand surmises, favorable and unfavorable. I took samples from
all parts of the ore-body and had them assayed. The highest assay
obtained was $632,63 per ton, and the lowest, $93,67,—seven samples
being tested. Thus it will be seen that even the top of the bonanza was
wonderfully rich.
The company continued to explore this body of ore in all directions,
running drifts and cross-cuts through it, sinking winzes upon it and
making upraises. They followed it down to the 1200, the 1300, 1400 and
to the 1500-foot levels, with the same rich ore everywhere. Although
people knew in a general way that there was an abundance of rich ore in
the mine, they did not get excited about it, nor did they trouble
themselves much about it in any way, further, perhaps, than to say:
“Well, I am glad to hear that the Consolidated folks have a big body of
ore; it will be a good thing for the town.” The mine did not attract
more attention than many others, until in October 1874, when the work of
opening out on the 1500-foot level was begun. The ore then found was of
such extraordinary richness, and the ore-body appeared to be of such
unprecedented extent that people began to talk about it, and then some
few began to visit and examine it, all coming to the surface greatly
astonished at what they had seen. The reports in regard to the great
wealth in sight in the mine, brought to the people of the upper world by
scores of reliable men and capable mining experts, soon caused not a
little excitement, and everywhere in the streets persons were to be
heard talking of the wonderful wealth that was being developed in the
Consolidated Virginia mine. Day after day the excitement grew as the
reports came from the visitors to the mine that the cross-cuts had been
advanced fifty feet, seventy-five, then one hundred feet into the big
bonanza and still no signs of getting through it were seen. The
cross-cuts still contained in a solid mass of ore of the richest
description and each day found them advancing in the same, even after
they had gone one hundred and fifty and two hundred feet.
At this time no cross-cuts had been made into the California ground, but
the most northerly cross-cut in the Consolidated Virginia was but a few
feet from the California south line, therefore this would serve very
well to test that portion of both mines. All who comprehended the
situation being now confident that the great body of ore which was
slowly being explored in the Consolidated Virginia must extend far
northward into the ground of the California Company, the stock of said
company was soon in brisk demand. As drifts extended southward from the
Ophir mine into the California and they encountered rich ore in two or
three places, it was considered certain that a mass of ore extended all
the way from the Consolidated Virginia to the mine first named, a
distance of six hundred feet. Although the stock of the California was
but $30 or $40 per share in the beginning, it finally reached $750, for
the old shares—afterwards increased five for one.
At this time, although there were no cross-cuts in the California
section of the bonanza, there was a main north and south drift extending
from the Consolidated Virginia mine to the Ophir, through the
west-country rock, and, from this, cross-cuts had been started, and at
no distant day reached the ore.
As the progress of these cross-cuts in the rich ore of the bonanza was
made known from time to time the excitement gradually increased until it
reached fever heat, both in Virginia City and San Francisco. Never were
the people more fairly treated on the occasion of any big strike on the
Comstock lode than they were by the Consolidated Virginia and California
Companies during the time the big bonanza was being opened and explored.
All who desired to do so were allowed to descend into the mines and see
for themselves what was being done. Often there were such crowds of
visitors as to very seriously interfere with all underground operations.
There were times when for days together the miners did not do more than
two or three hours work on a shift, so frequent were the interruptions
caused by persons visiting the drifts and cross-cuts that had penetrated
the ore-body. One party had no sooner been shown through the two mines
than another arrived. All were allowed to dig into and examine the ore,
to carry away samples for assays, and, in short, to try whatever
experiments they chose in order to satisfy themselves in regard to the
value of the deposit.
The men who visited the lower levels and made themselves most familiar
with the developments thereon, were the men who purchased more freely,
and those who were experts in mining matters were those who were most
astounded at the great richness and vast extent of the body of ore
opened into. These men bought on their judgement while the mercurial
masses bought at random, and under the influence of contact with persons
as much and as blindly excited as they themselves were.
It was the coming in of the multitude, as, indeed, it always is, that
sent not only the stock of the bonanza mines, but also all other stocks
rushing sky-ward with rocket-like celerity. When the people start in _en
masse_ to buy stocks they—to use a very elegant illustration—shut their
eyes and rush in like a hog going into battle. They exhibit startling
vigor, activity, and enthusiasm, for a short time, but the moment they
stop to “get their wind,” that moment they are in a fit condition for a
panic. The least thing now startles them, and they take wing and are off
like a flock of pigeons; or, to carry out the simile, turn tail with a
snort, and make for the canebrakes. As many of these unusual dealers in
stocks have bought at the highest figures, and on margins to a ruinous
extent taking all manner of desperate chances, a panic among them
speedily demoralizes the money-markets, and persons who have made their
purchases with the best of judgement lose, as all stocks are driven as
much below as they were before forced above their real value.
In the time of a grand panic the coolest of persons and men of best
judgment are forced to sell their stocks in self-defence, or because it
is, as they say, “business” to sell when it is plainly to be seen that
the tendency of prices is irresistibly downward; and in this way the
crash is made still more complete and sweeping. Men no more take into
consideration the real value of a stock at a time when there is a crash
in the market than they do when the market is unduly excited and
everything is going up with a “rush.” The condition of the mines is not
taken into consideration on the occasion of a panic. Rich developments
in the mines undoubtedly are the prime cause of an advance, and this
advance is generally such as is justified by the mineral wealth brought
to light until the people “rise up in their might” and take a hand in
the business, after which time no man can say what will happen.
As the masses purchase without knowing anything of the mines except what
they have heard, so they sell in spite of all that may be told them.
Having never seen or examined the mines into which they have bought,
when a panic occurs they are more ready to believe that there are no
mines at all than to believe that they still exist and remain the same
as when they made their purchases. Thus at the time of the panic, in
1875, there was actually a vast deal more ore in sight and the mines
were looking better than at the time that the highest figures were
reached—that was daily being brought to light the existence of which had
formerly only been surmised. Men, however, were not dealing in the big
bonanza as it existed in Nevada, but as it appeared on California
street, San Francisco. They had lost their interest in the mines and
were thinking only of their money.
At the time of the panic men who had seen and examined the great bodies
of ore developed in the Consolidated Virginia and California mines, not
only held on to their stock but continued to purchase as long as they
had money—buying more and more as the stock receded, and in this way
some of even the best-informed “came to grief,” as, looking only at the
mines and not at California street, they bought on margins, and the call
of the brokers for “mud” soon distressed them and forced them to make
ruinous sacrifices. In speaking with Mr. John Mackey, the mining
millionaire and one of the principal owners in the bonanza mines, about
this time (February, 1875), he said to me: “We have not yet fairly
started in upon the California. It will require steady work for at least
six months to show what that mine really is.”
In regard to the Consolidated Virginia (then yielding at the rate of
$1,000,000 per month), he said: “Some persons think that the stock has
already sold for more than it is worth. The truth is that it has never
yet sold for one-half of its value; but all this will be seen in good
time. People will see it after a while.”
Speaking of the crash in stocks, Mr. Mackey said; “It is no affair of
mine. I am not speculating in stocks. My business is mining—legitimate
mining. I see that my men do their work properly in the mines, and that
all goes on as it should in the mills. I make my money here out of the
ore. Had I desired to do so, I could have gone down to San Francisco
with ten thousand shares of stock in my pocket, and, by throwing it on
the market at the critical moment, I could have brought about a panic
and a crash, just as has been done. Suppose I had done so, and had made
$500,000 by the job—what is that to me? By attending to my legitimate
business here at home I take out $500,000 in one week.”
Mr. Mackey, indeed, troubles himself very little with the ups and downs
of the stock-market or with the chicanery and wire-pulling of the stock
manipulators. As he says, he is content to see that all goes well in his
mines and mills, and, as it were, scoops his coin directly from the
lower levels into his pockets. He wants to make no money by engineering
crashes in stocks which ruin thousands on thousands of industrious and
worthy persons. During a short conversation with him, Mr. Mackey
repeatedly said: “My business is square, legitimate mining, I make my
money here from the mines—from the ore itself. Both here and in San
Francisco,” continued he, “persons are constantly coming to me, or
writing to me, to ask—‘What shall I buy?' I say to all that come to
me—‘Go and put your money in a savings bank.’”
Indulging in a quiet laugh, at this point, Mr. Mackey said: “You should
see some of them stare at me when they hear this advice. They evidently
consider me a strange kind of mining-man. But in speaking so I mean just
what I say, and my advice is good. I never advise people to buy
mining-stocks of any kind.”
In this Mr. Mackey is right. He can never know what jobs may be put up
by the “stock-sharps” to break the price of almost any stock on the
list, merit or no merit. By giving no advice he escapes all reproach,
and pursues the even tenor of his way, digging his dollars out of his
mines, regardless of the fluctuations in stocks and the machinations of
the “manipulators.”
[Illustration: SURROUNDINGS.]