History of the big bonanza

by Dan De Quille

The trick was not discovered until a “doubting Thomas,” a member of the company—some days after the money had been paid—called for a measurement of the tunnel from its mouth back to its face. The whole tunnel was then found to be exactly the same length, to an inch, as before the last contract was let. The language of the members of the company who were present when this last measurement was made, as they groped their way out of the tunnel, was such as would be discountenanced in any Sabbath School in the land.

“Doctoring the tape-line” is a trick that strolling miners have sometimes been known to perform, when the opportunity was found. This operation is simple enough. All that is to be done is to get hold of the foreman, superintendent, or whoever is likely to measure the work; and cut out a few feet. The line is then neatly sewed together again. In order to succeed in this game it is necessary for those playing it, to “doctor” the line a few hours before their work is to be measured—at night, for instance, when they know their work is to be measured the first thing in the morning.

A mining superintendent, on the Comstock range, one day said to me: “I had my tape-line ‘doctored’ the other day, and, confound the fellows! they got away with their trick nicely.”

“How was that?” I asked.

“Well, I had let a contract to some boys who came along to sink a small shaft to the depth of 50 feet. One morning they told me the shaft was finished, and asked me to go out and measure the work.

“One[“One] of the men got into the bucket and was lowered into the shaft, holding the end of the line, which was reeled off as he descended. When he got down he held his end of the line on the bottom of the shaft, and, looking at my end, I found the shaft exactly 50 feet in depth. I paid the men their money, and they left. In a day or two I had occasion to measure something—a stick of timber—and was astonished to find it much longer than it looked. Overhauling my tape-line, I found that just six feet had been cut out of it and the two parts neatly sewed together again. I knew then that my shaft was exactly 44 feet deep, and, I tell you, I never was more ashamed of anything in all my life!”

In 1861, a miner who had been out on a prospecting expedition, upon his return to Silver City, the place whence he started, showed several business men of the town some very fine specimens of ore taken, as he said, from a lead he had discovered in the foothills of the Sierras, a few miles below Carson City. He proposed to put the names of the business men down in his notice of location, informing them that all he asked of them was a trifle monthly to be used in the purchase of provisions, powder, fuse, and other supplies. He was ready to do all the work, provided these things were furnished him. As the specimens shown contained a considerable percentage of gold and silver, a number of men allowed their names to be used, and agreed to be assessed for the amount that would be required in pushing the proposed mining enterprise. This was in the fall of the year. From the time of perfecting the arrangement for working his claim, and all through the winter, the miner was punctually[punctually] at hand every month for his assessments. He reported the work progressing favorably, and brought specimens of ore that showed steady improvement; each month the ore was just a little better than the last.

The men who had been taken into the company by the honest miner, paid the assessments willingly and smilingly; each man expecting at no distant day he would be able to sell for several thousand dollars that which cost him but a few dollars per month.

About the middle of the winter the assessment was more than doubled, but none of the stockholders found fault with this, as the miner informed them that his tunnel had attained such a length that he had found it necessary to hire two assistants, to help about the blasting and wheeling out of the earth. As it would have looked a little mean to have found fault with the miner about the manner in which he was doing the work, after he had as good as given them their shares in the mine, all spoke well of the plan of rushing along the work by hiring assistance.

All went on swimmingly until late in the spring, the honest miner appearing punctually on the first day of each month for his regular assessment. As it was no unusual thing at that day to locate as many as fifteen or twenty men in one claim, each man being set down in the notice for 200 feet of ground, the assessments, when they were all gathered in, amounted to quite a snug little sum. Finally, when the snow was all gone from the hills, and wild-flowers began to bloom in the little valleys on the side of the mountains, the honest miner came no more for his assessment. The stockholders wondered, yea, marvelled greatly at this—the man had heretofore been as true to his time as the planets in their course. They began to think some accident had befallen their honest friend—feared he might have been hurt by a cave in the tunnel.[tunnel.] There were some, however, who held other views. “If this man was hurt by a cave,” said these, “his assistants would most assuredly have come up to Silver City and made known the fact.” Their idea was that their man had suddenly drifted into a bonanza of immense richness and that he was going to manage in some way to cheat them out of their share.