The people of Johntown, though not numerous, were jovial. They were fond of amusements of all kinds. Nearly every Saturday night a “grand ball” was given at “Dutch Nick’s” saloon. As there were but three white women in the town, it was necessary, in order to “make up the set,” to take in Miss Sarah Winnemucca, the “Piute Princess” (daughter of Winnemucca, chief of all the Piutes). When the orchestra—a “yaller-backed fiddle”—struck up and the ‘French four’ was in order, the enthusiastic Johntowners went forth in the dance with ardor and filled the air with splinters from the puncheon floor. When a Johntown “hoss” balanced in front of the “Princess” he made no effort to economise shoe-leather.
THE PRINCESS SARAH WINNEMUCCA.
Even in those early days and in that primitive community, the “beast of the jungle” was known in the land. The “boys” were not allowed to languish for want of amusement. When their sacks of gold-dust became painfully plethoric, and too heavy to be conveniently packed around, Jacob Job, the leading merchant of the place used to deal faro for them “out of hand;” that is, he took the cards from his hand and laid them out on the table, instead of drawing them from a box such as is used in the game by regular “sports.”
Billy Williams, a man who had a ranche up in Carson Valley, occasionally came down to Johntown in seasons of great auriferous affluence, and dealt for the boys a little game called “Twenty-one.” Faro, out of hand, and Twenty-one, with Williams at the helm, usually sent all the male Johntowners back to their toms and rockers, each man financially a total wreck.
About 1857-58 the diggings along Gold Cañon showed signs of failing, all the best bars and banks being pretty well worked out. It was only occasionally that a rich spot could be found, and most of the miners were only making small wages. That this was the case is evident from the fact that about this time the Johntowners, the mining men of the land, began to scatter out through the country and make prospecting raids in all directions among the hills.
JACOB JOB’S LITTLE GAME.
In 1857, several men from Johntown, struck gold-diggings on Six-mile Cañon. This cañon heads on the north side of Mount Davidson, while Gold Cañon, in which gold was first found, heads on the south side of the same mountain. The heads of the two cañons are about a mile apart, and through the eastern face of Mount Davidson, across a sort of plateau, runs the Comstock Silver lode. The lode (or lead), extends across the heads of both cañons, and the gold that was being mined in both came from the decomposed rock of the croppings of the vein.
Thus, it will be seen, these early miners were approaching the great silver lode from two points—on Gold Cañon towards the south, and on Six-mile Cañon toward the north side of Mount Davidson. But not a man among them knew anything of what was ahead. They were only working for gold and were looking for that nowhere but in the gravel of the ravines; none of them having thought of looking for gold-bearing quartz veins.