Two cousins, teamsters, did some hauling for a man and had to take a small segregated1 portion of a silver mine in lieu of $300 cash. They gave an outsider a third to open the mine, and they went on teaming. But not long. Ten months afterward2 the mine was out of debt and paying each owner $8,000 to $10,000 a month—say $100,000 a year.
One of the earliest nabobs that Nevada was delivered of wore $6,000 worth of diamonds in his bosom3, and swore he was unhappy because he could not spend his money as fast as he made it.
Another Nevada nabob boasted an income that often reached $16,000 a month; and he used to love to tell how he had worked in the very mine that yielded it, for five dollars a day, when he first came to the country.
The silver and sage-brush State has knowledge of another of these pets of fortune—lifted from actual poverty to affluence4 almost in a single night—who was able to offer $100,000 for a position of high official distinction, shortly afterward, and did offer it—but failed to get it, his politics not being as sound as his bank account.
Then there was John Smith. He was a good, honest, kind-hearted soul, born and reared in the lower ranks of life, and miraculously5 ignorant. He drove a team, and owned a small ranch6—a ranch that paid him a comfortable living, for although it yielded but little hay, what little it did yield was worth from $250 to $300 in gold per ton in the market. Presently Smith traded a few acres of the ranch for a small undeveloped silver mine in Gold Hill. He opened the mine and built a little unpretending ten-stamp mill. Eighteen months afterward he retired7 from the hay business, for his mining income had reached a most comfortable figure. Some people said it was $30,000 a month, and others said it was $60,000. Smith was very rich at any rate.
And then he went to Europe and traveled. And when he came back he was never tired of telling about the fine hogs8 he had seen in England, and the gorgeous sheep he had seen in Spain, and the fine cattle he had noticed in the vicinity of Rome. He was full of wonders of the old world, and advised everybody to travel. He said a man never imagined what surprising things there were in the world till he had traveled.
One day, on board ship, the passengers made up a pool of $500, which was to be the property of the man who should come nearest to guessing the run of the vessel9 for the next twenty-four hours. Next day, toward noon, the figures were all in the purser’s hands in sealed envelopes. Smith was serene10 and happy, for he had been bribing11 the engineer. But another party won the prize! Smith said:
“Here, that won’t do! He guessed two miles wider of the mark than I did.”
The purser said, “Mr. Smith, you missed it further than any man on board. We traveled two hundred and eight miles yesterday.”
“Well, sir,” said Smith, “that’s just where I’ve got you, for I guessed two hundred and nine. If you’ll look at my figgers again you’ll find a 2 and two 0's, which stands for 200, don’t it?—and after ’em you’ll find a 9 (2009), which stands for two hundred and nine. I reckon I’ll take that money, if you please.”
The Gould & Curry12 claim comprised twelve hundred feet, and it all belonged originally to the two men whose names it bears. Mr. Curry owned two thirds of it—and he said that he sold it out for twenty-five hundred dollars in cash, and an old plug horse that ate up his market value in hay and barley13 in seventeen days by the watch. And he said that Gould sold out for a pair of second-hand14 government blankets and a bottle of whisky that killed nine men in three hours, and that an unoffending stranger that smelt15 the cork16 was disabled for life. Four years afterward the mine thus disposed of was worth in the San Francisco market seven millions six hundred thousand dollars in gold coin.
In the early days a poverty-stricken Mexican who lived in a canyon17 directly back of Virginia City, had a stream of water as large as a man’s wrist trickling18 from the hill-side on his premises19. The Ophir Company segregated a hundred feet of their mine and traded it to him for the stream of water. The hundred feet proved to be the richest part of the entire mine; four years after the swap20, its market value (including its mill) was $1,500,000.
An individual who owned twenty feet in the Ophir mine before its great riches were revealed to men, traded it for a horse, and a very sorry looking brute21 he was, too. A year or so afterward, when Ophir stock went up to $3,000 a foot, this man, who had not a cent, used to say he was the most startling example of magnificence and misery22 the world had ever seen—because he was able to ride a sixty-thousand-dollar horse—yet could not scrape up cash enough to buy a saddle, and was obliged to borrow one or ride bareback. He said if fortune were to give him another sixty-thousand-dollar horse it would ruin him.
A youth of nineteen, who was a telegraph operator in Virginia on a salary of a hundred dollars a month, and who, when he could not make out German names in the list of San Francisco steamer arrivals, used to ingeniously select and supply substitutes for them out of an old Berlin city directory, made himself rich by watching the mining telegrams that passed through his hands and buying and selling stocks accordingly, through a friend in San Francisco. Once when a private dispatch was sent from Virginia announcing a rich strike in a prominent mine and advising that the matter be kept secret till a large amount of the stock could be secured, he bought forty “feet” of the stock at twenty dollars a foot, and afterward sold half of it at eight hundred dollars a foot and the rest at double that figure. Within three months he was worth $150,000, and had resigned his telegraphic position.
Another telegraph operator who had been discharged by the company for divulging23 the secrets of the office, agreed with a moneyed man in San Francisco to furnish him the result of a great Virginia mining lawsuit24 within an hour after its private reception by the parties to it in San Francisco. For this he was to have a large percentage of the profits on purchases and sales made on it by his fellow-conspirator. So he went, disguised as a teamster, to a little wayside telegraph office in the mountains, got acquainted with the operator, and sat in the office day after day, smoking his pipe, complaining that his team was fagged out and unable to travel—and meantime listening to the dispatches as they passed clicking through the machine from Virginia. Finally the private dispatch announcing the result of the lawsuit sped over the wires, and as soon as he heard it he telegraphed his friend in San Francisco:
“Am tired waiting. Shall sell the team and go home.”
It was the signal agreed upon. The word “waiting” left out, would have signified that the suit had gone the other way.
The mock teamster’s friend picked up a deal of the mining stock, at low figures, before the news became public, and a fortune was the result.
For a long time after one of the great Virginia mines had been incorporated, about fifty feet of the original location were still in the hands of a man who had never signed the incorporation25 papers. The stock became very valuable, and every effort was made to find this man, but he had disappeared. Once it was heard that he was in New York, and one or two speculators went east but failed to find him. Once the news came that he was in the Bermudas, and straightway a speculator or two hurried east and sailed for Bermuda—but he was not there. Finally he was heard of in Mexico, and a friend of his, a bar-keeper on a salary, scraped together a little money and sought him out, bought his “feet” for a hundred dollars, returned and sold the property for $75,000.
But why go on? The traditions of Silverland are filled with instances like these, and I would never get through enumerating26 them were I to attempt do it. I only desired to give, the reader an idea of a peculiarity27 of the “flush times” which I could not present so strikingly in any other way, and which some mention of was necessary to a realizing comprehension of the time and the country.
I was personally acquainted with the majority of the nabobs I have referred to, and so, for old acquaintance sake, I have shifted their occupations and experiences around in such a way as to keep the Pacific public from recognizing these once notorious men. No longer notorious, for the majority of them have drifted back into poverty and obscurity again.
In Nevada there used to be current the story of an adventure of two of her nabobs, which may or may not have occurred. I give it for what it is worth:
Col. Jim had seen somewhat of the world, and knew more or less of its ways; but Col. Jack28 was from the back settlements of the States, had led a life of arduous29 toil30, and had never seen a city. These two, blessed with sudden wealth, projected a visit to New York,—Col. Jack to see the sights, and Col. Jim to guard his unsophistication from misfortune. They reached San Francisco in the night, and sailed in the morning. Arrived in New York, Col. Jack said:
“I’ve heard tell of carriages all my life, and now I mean to have a ride in one; I don’t care what it costs. Come along.”
“No, sir! None of your cheap-John turn-outs for me. I’m here to have a good time, and money ain’t any object. I mean to have the nobbiest rig that’s going. Now here comes the very trick. Stop that yaller one with the pictures on it—don’t you fret—I’ll stand all the expenses myself.”
So Col. Jim stopped an empty omnibus, and they got in. Said Col. Jack:
“Ain’t it gay, though? Oh, no, I reckon not! Cushions, and windows, and pictures, till you can’t rest. What would the boys say if they could see us cutting a swell32 like this in New York? By George, I wish they could see us.”
Then he put his head out of the window, and shouted to the driver:
“Say, Johnny, this suits me!—suits yours truly, you bet, you! I want this shebang all day. I’m on it, old man! Let ’em out! Make ’em go! We’ll make it all right with you, sonny!”
The driver passed his hand through the strap-hole, and tapped for his fare—it was before the gongs came into common use. Col. Jack took the hand, and shook it cordially. He said:
And he put a twenty-dollar gold piece in the driver’s hand. After a moment the driver said he could not make change.
“Bother the change! Ride it out. Put it in your pocket.”
“Ain’t it style, though? Hanged if I don’t hire this thing every day for a week.”
The omnibus stopped, and a young lady got in. Col. Jack stared a moment, then nudged Col. Jim with his elbow:
“Don’t say a word,” he whispered. “Let her ride, if she wants to. Gracious, there’s room enough.”
The young lady got out her porte-monnaie, and handed her fare to Col. Jack.
“What’s this for?” said he.
“Give it to the driver, please.”
“Take back your money, madam. We can’t allow it. You’re welcome to ride here as long as you please, but this shebang’s chartered, and we can’t let you pay a cent.”
The girl shrunk into a corner, bewildered. An old lady with a basket climbed in, and proffered35 her fare.
“Excuse me,” said Col. Jack. “You’re perfectly36 welcome here, madam, but we can’t allow you to pay. Set right down there, mum, and don’t you be the least uneasy. Make yourself just as free as if you was in your own turn-out.”
Within two minutes, three gentlemen, two fat women, and a couple of children, entered.
“Come right along, friends,” said Col. Jack; “don’t mind us. This is a free blow-out.” Then he whispered to Col. Jim,
He resisted every effort to pass fares to the driver, and made everybody cordially welcome. The situation dawned on the people, and they pocketed their money, and delivered themselves up to covert38 enjoyment39 of the episode. Half a dozen more passengers entered.
“Oh, there’s plenty of room,” said Col. Jack. “Walk right in, and make yourselves at home. A blow-out ain’t worth anything as a blow-out, unless a body has company.” Then in a whisper to Col. Jim: “But ain’t these New Yorkers friendly? And ain’t they cool about it, too? Icebergs40 ain’t anywhere. I reckon they’d tackle a hearse, if it was going their way.”
More passengers got in; more yet, and still more. Both seats were filled, and a file of men were standing41 up, holding on to the cleats overhead. Parties with baskets and bundles were climbing up on the roof. Half-suppressed laughter rippled42 up from all sides.
“Well, for clean, cool, out-and-out cheek, if this don’t bang anything that ever I saw, I’m an Injun!” whispered Col. Jack.
A Chinaman crowded his way in.
“I weaken!” said Col. Jack. “Hold on, driver! Keep your seats, ladies, and gents. Just make yourselves free—everything’s paid for. Driver, rustle43 these folks around as long as they’re a mind to go—friends of ours, you know. Take them everywheres—and if you want more money, come to the St. Nicholas, and we’ll make it all right. Pleasant journey to you, ladies and gents—go it just as long as you please—it shan’t cost you a cent!”
The two comrades got out, and Col. Jack said:
“Jimmy, it’s the sociablest place I ever saw. The Chinaman waltzed in as comfortable as anybody. If we’d staid awhile, I reckon we’d had some niggers. B’ George, we’ll have to barricade44 our doors to-night, or some of these ducks will be trying to sleep with us.”
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1
segregated
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| 分开的； 被隔离的 | |
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afterward
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| adv.后来；以后 | |
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bosom
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| n.胸，胸部；胸怀；内心；adj.亲密的 | |
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affluence
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| n.充裕，富足 | |
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miraculously
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| ad.奇迹般地 | |
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ranch
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| n.大牧场，大农场 | |
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retired
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| adj.隐退的，退休的，退役的 | |
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hogs
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| n.（尤指喂肥供食用的）猪( hog的名词复数 )；（供食用的）阉公猪；彻底地做某事；自私的或贪婪的人 | |
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vessel
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| n.船舶；容器，器皿；管，导管，血管 | |
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serene
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| adj. 安详的，宁静的，平静的 | |
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bribing
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| 贿赂 | |
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curry
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| n.咖哩粉，咖哩饭菜；v.用咖哩粉调味，用马栉梳，制革 | |
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barley
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| n.大麦，大麦粒 | |
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second-hand
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| adj.用过的，旧的，二手的 | |
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smelt
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| v.熔解，熔炼；n.银白鱼，胡瓜鱼 | |
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cork
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| n.软木，软木塞 | |
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canyon
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| n.峡谷，溪谷 | |
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trickling
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| n.油画底色含油太多而成泡沫状突起v.滴( trickle的现在分词 )；淌；使)慢慢走；缓慢移动 | |
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premises
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| n.建筑物，房屋 | |
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swap
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| n.交换；vt.交换，用...作交易 | |
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brute
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| n.野兽，兽性 | |
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misery
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| n.痛苦，苦恼，苦难；悲惨的境遇，贫苦 | |
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divulging
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| v.吐露，泄露( divulge的现在分词 ) | |
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lawsuit
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| n.诉讼，控诉 | |
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incorporation
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| n.设立，合并，法人组织 | |
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enumerating
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| v.列举，枚举，数( enumerate的现在分词 ) | |
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peculiarity
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| n.独特性，特色；特殊的东西；怪癖 | |
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jack
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| n.插座，千斤顶，男人；v.抬起，提醒，扛举；n.（Jake）杰克 | |
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29
arduous
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| adj.艰苦的，费力的，陡峭的 | |
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toil
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| vi.辛劳工作，艰难地行动；n.苦工，难事 | |
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stylish
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| adj.流行的，时髦的；漂亮的，气派的 | |
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swell
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| vi.膨胀，肿胀；增长，增强 | |
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twig
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| n.小树枝，嫩枝；v.理解 | |
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thigh
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| n.大腿；股骨 | |
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proffered
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| v.提供，贡献，提出( proffer的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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perfectly
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| adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地 | |
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sociable
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| adj.好交际的，友好的，合群的 | |
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covert
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| adj.隐藏的；暗地里的 | |
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enjoyment
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| n.乐趣；享有；享用 | |
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icebergs
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| n.冰山，流冰( iceberg的名词复数 ) | |
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standing
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| n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的 | |
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rippled
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| 使泛起涟漪（ripple的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
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rustle
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| v.沙沙作响；偷盗(牛、马等)；n.沙沙声声 | |
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barricade
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| n.路障，栅栏，障碍；vt.设路障挡住 | |
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