San Francisco, Cal. April 11 1875.
Monsieur—By zee advice of one goot friend who informed me zat he be on zee inside, and who make for me zee negoziazione, I have procure some time past on what you call “on zee time,” many share of zee Bobtaile. Zee prix zat time be fortee dollaire on monnie d’or des Etats-Unis; bote I buy on zee time and not pay zee prix. My friend on zee insides tell me Bobtaile one ver fine bargain for fortee dollaire. Ah ha! Bobtaile one ver fine compagnie! plenty mashine pour work; grand nombre d’employés; Superintendent un salaire plus grand, je suppose! all ting ver fine. Me buy? Vraiment, oui. He—mine friend who repose on zee insides—express himself of zee mine wis moche enthousiasme. “Zee[“Zee] mine be one merveille de la nature; zee works, un chef-d’œuvre de l’art!” Je suppose to purchase be une chance rare. I purchase, but now, pretty soon—le diable! Zee brokaire man use zee expression to me, as follows: “More mud.” At zee first I not ver well comprehend. Sans doubte it be une expression, ver mysterieuse—zis exclamation: “More mud.” So many five, seex time have he, zee brokaire, desire of me some leetle more mud, zat now I mus make one grand sacrifice pecuniaire. It be now become scandaleuse! Parbleu, c’est horrible, cette “mud!” For me to communicate wis my brokaire—bah! it was one grand plaiser, Of de mine, des minerals I be plenty sick. Under de circonstances I read no more wis enthousiasme of—“Les compagnie’s certificat d’incorporation;” “la Pussy Cat Wilde, objet: Operations dans l’Etat de Nevada, etc.”—“Les directeurs sont: Bill Tubb, Sam Hobb, Jack Dobb, etc.” Capital[Capital] social, $45,800,000,002; divise en 56,000,000,000,000,000 actions. Vraiment oui!—“More mud!” Pretty soon you hear one crash financial,—I gone bust—me! No more do I eat me my dennaire a de la restaurant du Poodle Dog, rue Duponte, but wis circomspection admirable I betake me to la cote de Barbarie, to zee Hell Kitchen—zee cuisine de l’enfer. Parole d’honneur monsieur, I be ver moche perplex wis zee stoke prices, He viggle up, he viggle down all zee time. Vill you have zee complaisance to inform me how soon he vill viggle high up and remain to pass some time up dare? “Mud!” le diable!—zee word have for me un signification sardonique!
Your tres-humble and tres-obeissant servant,
Pierre Edouard Oudin.
In the winter of 1874-75, owing to the wonderful developments made in the Consolidated Virginia and California mines, there was a grand stock excitement throughout the towns of the Pacific Coast. San Francisco and Virginia City, however, were the two great centres of this excitement. As the vast and astonishingly rich deposits of ore in the California mine began to be drifted into and opened to view, the stock of the company rapidly and steadily advanced from about fifty dollars per share to nearly one thousand dollars. Consolidated Virginia stock advanced in about the same ratio, as in the mine of that company the width and richness of the ore was far beyond anything that had ever before been seen on the Comstock lode. In the Ophir mine, the next north of the California, large and rich bodies of ore were being opened, and the stock of that company advanced with almost bewildering rapidity. Persons who happened to have twenty, fifty, or one hundred shares in either of these mines suddenly found themselves rich. The investment of a few hundreds of dollars had brought them thousands, and the investments of thousands brought them tens of thousands of dollars.
The great strike in the “bonanza” mines started up the stocks of all the adjoining mines, and, indeed, of all the mines along the Comstock range. The stock of mines that were rich in “great expectations” only were as eagerly sought for and as briskly dealt in, as were those in which ore was already being extracted, for many said: “It is just as well for us to double our money in a stock that costs but one or two dollars per share as in stocks that cost from one to five hundred dollars.” And many did double and more than double their money in such stocks; indeed, in some instances they sold for five or ten times what their stocks cost them.
SCANNING THE BULLETIN.
Every day there is a morning and an afternoon session of the San Francisco Stock Board, and the reports of the sales are telegraphed to Virginia City, Gold Hill and other Nevada towns as fast as the stocks are called. Thus, as soon as the Stock Board is in session and business begins, reports of sales begin to arrive in Virginia City and are placed in the windows or on the bulletin-boards of the various stock-brokers of the town, where all interested may see them. Therefore during a big stock excitement the bulletin-boards are the centres about which are seen large crowds of anxious dealers—and nearly everybody in the city dabbles more or less in stocks, women as well as men.
On very critical occasions, either when stocks are rapidly rushing or when they are rapidly “tumbling,” then is a grand charge made upon all the bulletin-boards as soon as it is known that the reports have arrived. Dry-goods clerks—yardstick in hand and scissors peeping from vest-pocket—come running out bare-headed and bald-headed to catch a glimpse of the bulletin; bar-keepers in their white aprons come; bare-headed, bare-armed, and white-aproned butchers smelling of blood, come; blacksmiths, in leather aprons and hammer in hand, flour-dusted bakers, cooks in paper caps cobblers, tinkers, and tailors all come to learn the best and the worst. The miner on his way to or from work, carrying his dinner-pail and candlestick, halts for a moment to see how fares his favorite stock, the teamster stops his long string of mules opposite one of the centres of attraction and, thrusting his “black snake” under the housing of his saddle-mule, marches to the board to read his fate. Ladies linger as they pass the groups at the bulletin-boards and try to catch some word of hope, or ensconce themselves in the nearest shops, and hence send messenger-lads to bring tidings of their favorite gamble.