Nevada Mining Tales by William Daugherty

Nevada Mining Tales - Page 6

Old Tom – A Typical Mining Camp Character - "Old Tom" was a character that lived in Eastern Nevada . He had drifted from one camp to another and located finally on the line of the Overland Railroad. It doesn't matter where, for every camp has a character of similar kind, hence his identity is a matter of no moment, and, in fact, as Hank Knight would say, it is entirely "immaculate." It was about sunrise when Tom sat up in his bunk in the cabin he had occupied alone for many months, long enough to be registered several times and known as a voter and resident of the second ward. Tom yawned and rubbed his rheumy eyes and blinked at the sunlight coming through the cracks between the boards of his cabin, ran his fingers through his hair and wound up the yawn with a "y-a-u-g-h" and a grimace that indicated a bad stomach. He had sat around a card game the night before in a back room of the Fashion Saloon, and was rewarded for being a general nuisance by frequent drinks mixed with design to put him to sleep and thus get rid of him. Tom had wakened early because he felt badly.

Miner drinking, Marion Post Wolcott.

It was a sort of yearning after the unattainable; but in Tom's vernacular his "coppers were hot;" and in his philosophy, "the hair of the dog was good for the bite," and hence he wasn't long in deciding that he wanted a drink. So, he threw aside the blanket, ran his fingers through his hair again, picked his slouch hat from the floor, placed it on his head askew, gave another yawn, and his toilet was complete, for he hadn't lost any clothes when he went to bed. He stepped out of the cabin and looked wistfully down the street. The doors of the Pony Saloon were open and Tom knew that Ned was on deck cleaning up the bar. Tom's credit there was nil, and he knew it, and hence he moved slowly toward it. Reaching the door, he stepped in with the confidence of a cattle baron, but turned at once and looked up the street as if waiting for a friend. Then sauntering to the front end of the bar, he leaned over on one elbow and watched Ned breaking the ice into bits for convenient use.

"Mornin' Ned," said Tom, with a hopeless look of apology for disturbing the leader of ward politics, for Ned had the reputation of carrying the sack at important elections. Ned gave a muffled grunt, that indicated ill-humor, and kept on breaking ice. Tom watched wistfully awhile, and then changing position and leaning on the other elbow ventured to speak and said, "There's lots of them Grand Army fellers goin' by every day now to the Bay." Ned said nothing. Tom was encouraged by his silence and continued, "They ain't no better 'n eny body. They tell about fightin, but sho; they didn't do eny more I'd a done. I didn't git to fight eny, but it was jest the same."

"Oh! what are you giving me? You wasn't in the war," said Ned, as he began filling a bottle from a demijohn tipped over his shoulder. "Well, I tell you." said Tom, drawing closer to catch a sniff of the liquor gurgling from the demijohn; "well, it was all the same. I went out to camp when Colonel Connor was recruitin' his regimen' at Stockton. He warn't no Ginral then. He was the boss of the water works there, an' folks jist called him Pat Connor; everybody know'd him; he was jist ez common ez an old shoe then; but a military lookin feller en walked straight like he did when he wuz made Ginral."

Ned was wiping off the bottle and didn't seem quite so cross, and Tom moved along the bar to keep near him, and continued: "Well, I went out to camp to see my ole chum, wot listed about a month before; en he wuz on guard en hed me stay 'long with him, and ordered 'em to serve me with some rations, en I et supper with him, en had jist same az he hed; corn pork, little fat it wuz-yis, purty fat, en I didn't keer much fur it; en good strong coffee-wish I hed some now-in a tin cup, en plenty of sugar, but no milk; no sir, not a durn bit, not even eny condinsed milk, en some hard tack; that wuz all. En then he put me in the guard house fur all nite, coz sum o' them green soljers wuz likely as not to shoot ef a feller got over the line. Well, in the mornin I asked my chum afore breakfus ef I could go in to town about a mile away, en he sed ves en kind o' smiled, en I started, en I went purty quick. En so I didn't do eny fitin; but I wus in the war all the same, en--"

Drinking in a saloon, John Vachon.

"Oh! here, " said Ned, "take a drink," and he pushed a glass out with about three fingers of straight whisky. Tom grasped it and raised it to his lips, when he noticed Ned's smirk of incredulity, and he said: "Fact, Ned; en thers an agent writin to me from Washington, en he sez he kin git me a pension ef I'll swear to the papers. Here's luck, Ned," and Tom swallowed it and made way for two cash customers, while Ned said: "Well, I'll be blowed."

Article first appeared in the Reno Evening Gazette, May 6, 1891.

Placing a Mine - While employed in the office of the County Recorder in Austin in 1865, it fell to my duty to copy a prospectus of a proposed mining company that was to be "placed" on the eastern market, and as it was remarkable in its way and illustrates the methods pursued in early days, I have endeavored to reproduce it.

As near as I can recall the words now, the prospectus stated that, "in offering this remarkable silver mine to the public as a rare opportunity for legitimate investment, the high standing and well known character of the present owner is a guarantee of good faith; and coupled with his rare knowledge of, and skill in silver mining, is an assurance of fair and honest dealing to any who may desire to invest. It is with no desire to mislead the public, that the owner is frank enough to admit that, were it not for the vast amount of capital which he has now tied up in other mines, which are now in process of development, and therefore, at present unproductive, he would not present this very promising mine to the public for investment. The circumstances are such that this magnificent opportunity will probably not remain open longer than thirty days, and those who are contemplating an investment of this character should not hesitate, as the guarantees accompanying this offer are not only protection against any possible loss, but also warrant a greater profit than can be obtained in any other similar investment."

Without attempting to recall the legal verbiage of the prospectus, it will be sufficient to explain briefly that the guarantee against loss, consisted in the promise that as soon as the stock was fully subscribed and the company formed, the present owner would convey all his interests to the trustees to be selected by a majority of the stockholders. That seemed to be considered as good a guarantee as could be given by the Bank of England. A description of the mine then followed, commencing with its discovery on what was set forth to be thorough scientific principles. The discoverer, Senor Alvarez, it is said, had followed silver mining ever since boyhood in the mines of old Mexico, where he had made vast fortunes, but lost his great wealth in the frequent revolutions of that unhappy country. He then removed to California and shortly afterwards, in 1859, hearing of the discoveries at Gold Hill, Nevada, went there and while others were looking for gold, he, with his intimate knowledge of silver mining, located the celebrated Spanish Mine, from which he had amassed great wealth. When, three years later, new discoveries were reported in a mighty range of mountains, in the Reese River section, he immediately organized a party of prospectors and leading them himself, proceeded to the new region, and selecting the highest peak in the great Toiyabe Range, which experience taught him was the home of the mother lode, he began a systematic and scientific search for silver. He was rewarded in finding, after laborious search in tracing the float up the sides of a precipitous canyon argentiferous croppings of great richness, and by a system of cross-cuts and excavations, he had discovered the great mother lode. The evidence of this fact was the character of the ore, which, instead of consisting of light chlorides that easily washed away and were lost in the amalgamation, was mingled in solid cubes of argentiferous galena, which required only to be melted down to yield virgin silver. The superior character of this class of mines was the rapidly increasing richness that followed as depth was obtained, and in the slight explorations already made on this, the St. Helena Mine, and the increased value of the ore, it was reasonably fair to presume that at a depth of 500 feet from the surface the great vein would become a solid body of silver.

My heart almost stood still when I penned the last sentence, for I had been the deputy mining recorder in Washington District, where the St. Helena Mine was situated, and in the performance of my duty I had duly measured the claim, fixed the boundary monuments, and actually recorded in Book "A" of the records this wonderful mine. I wanted to throw down my pen and start off afoot, in the shades of the evening then approaching, and go there and locate a claim anywhere in sight of it. But it was 40 miles away, and, as I hesitated, I recalled the fact that Alvarez had about 50 Mexicans on the ground at work for him, and they, knowing a good thing in silver mines, must have located the whole country around about, "with all the dips, spurs, angles and variations," which last sentence in every mining location notice left nothing out in the cold.

I therefore finished the document in nervous haste, thinking what a fool I was not to secure an interest when I might have done so. In due time, the agent started east to place this valuable property on the market. From some cause he got stranded at Salt Lake City, and during the vexatious delays that followed, Alvarez became involved, the property was levied upon, the camp broken up, the Mexicans scattered to the four winds, and now, after 28 years, the St. Helena Mine remains nearly as it was then, and the funny part is, that no one has ever yet disproved the assertion set forth in the prospectus, that at a depth of 500 feet the ledge would be found a solid mass of silver.

Article first appeared in the Reno Evening Gazette, August 13, 1891.

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