History of the big bonanza

by Dan De Quille

In order to keep himself well informed in regard to the mines in this way, the speculator must not only have a man in each mine but must have a man on nearly every level of each mine, as the miners are not allowed to ramble about at will in the lower levels of any of the leading mines. To fee a man on each level of half a dozen mines, even, would be a very expensive means of obtaining early information.

As the miner who is merely receiving a fee occasionally for such “points” as he may be able to furnish is desirous of receiving a “price” as frequently as possible, he is somewhat addicted to the manufacture in a dull time.

Men working in a large and strictly-regulated mine have little opportunity of knowing when a development has been made at a particular point in a mine, or anything about the value of any body of ore that may be encountered.

When a cross-cut is being run at a point where it is thought that ore will be found, the work is carried on by what is called a “secret shift.” This shift is composed of the oldest and most trustworthy men in the mine—men who will work for weeks in a drift that sparkles with native silver and yet remain as mute as the same number of oysters, when above, circulating among those of the surface-world. These secret-shift men generally find their silence profitable. They are helped to a few shares of the stock at the low figure at which it is probably selling when the ore is found, and pocket whatever advance there may be in the stock when the nature and extent of the new development have been made known.

The men working on a secret shift are not sworn to secrecy, and it is seldom that they are even pledged—they know why they are selected, and what is expected of them. When a secret has been divulged and the guilty person cannot be discovered, every man on that shift is discharged, and not one of them will again be employed on a secret shift in any mine until the real culprit has been found. Men working in any kind of place in the mines are very cautious about telling what is going on underground, as any valuable information given on the surface is soon sown broadcast, and is not long in reaching the ear of the superintendent, foreman, or some other officer of the mine, when it is quickly traced to the man who brought it up from the lower levels. This being the case, many of the men, when “pumped” for “points,” invent some story of a rich development at some point in the mine where all is country rock or mere barren porphyry. These stories circulate as rapidly as the others, but a quiet smile is all the attention they receive from the officers of the mine—they, at such times, remain mute and neutral.

During the great stock excitement in 1872, a gentleman who had several thousand dollars that he desired to invest in stocks, cultivated the acquaintance of a man who had the appearance of being a miner, and soon gave him to understand that in case he could give him any points in regard to what was going on in certain mines, they would invest and divide the profits. The man thus “approached” was a miner, but was out of employment, was at work in no mine on the lead. However, he was willing to do something. He saw that the gentleman in search of points was a stranger in the town, and felt that a good thing to do would be to take him in. Therefore points were promised. In a day or two the alert miner made his appearance at the hotel of the stranger, and beckoning him out, furnished him a big point in regard to a grand development in a certain Gold Hill mine, and a large number of shares were at once purchased.

This was just at the beginning of the excitement, and the next day there was a considerable advance in the price of the stock. The man of points said the newly-discovered ore-body was improving. Day after day the stock continued to rise, and the pseudo-miner swore it was the richest thing he ever saw in any mine on the Comstock. He seemed greatly excited, and was not made easy in mind until he had sworn the gentleman to secrecy, saying that if even a whisper in regard to the strike got abroad he would lose his place—would almost be kicked out of the mine.

What the fellow said about the strike seemed to be gospel truth, as the next day after he had described the appearance of the silver-caverns in which he was daily delving, the stock went up like a rocket in the San Francisco Stock Board.

“Aha!” cried the gentleman, “they have found it out already down at the Bay!”

For two or three days the stock “boomed”—for every stock was just then booming—then it began to go down a little and “see-sawed” for a day or two. As soon as the latter symptom became manifest, the well-informed miner came to his stranger friend wearing a long face and told him to sell at once. The gentleman was inclined to think that by holding on a day or two the stock would go to a higher figure than it had yet reached, but on hearing this the miner came out with another great secret, and the stranger was again sworn. The ore-body had pinched out in porphyry, and in cross-cutting through what at first appeared to be a vast body of immensely rich ore, it had been found a mere shell, all the rest was barren quartz. Hearing this, the gentleman sold at once, and the pair of speculators divided over §6,000 profit. The joke of the whole affair was that no work was being done in the mine whose stock they had been dealing in, nor had a pick been struck in any part of it for over two years.