hubert howe bancroft - Central Pacific Railroad Photographic History ...

676 MINING AND MINING STOCKS.
mining twenty-four years, or most of my lifetime. I
am very careful about my statements." It is probable
that while thus so vastly overestimating the extent
and richness of the bonanza, the expert stated only
what he believed to be the truth. Superintendent Fair
reported at the close of 1874: "The quality of the ore
is of very high grade, and far exceeds in value any ever
removed from the Comstock. The quantity now exposed
to view is almost fabulous. . . . The quality
and quantity of ore developed in the mine the past
year far exceeds in value that of any mine which has
ever come under my knowledge or observation."
Seeing endless dividends in prospect, all classes
were eager to possess shares in the great bonanza,
which rose in value $10, $20, and $30 a day, and on
one occasion as much as $100 at a single session of the
board. 52 The oldest operators were deceived, because
the amount of bullion so far produced had really exceeded
that of any of the Comstocks, and no one
doubted the integrity of the men who controlled it.
As the event proved, they were themselves greatly
deceived as to the value of the mine. The scenes
at the stock exchanges at this period and for
the first weeks of 1875 were weird m their excitement,
the brokers crying one to another, like the unseemly
harpies of Dante's hell, every cry carrying the
Comstock higher. Not only at the exchanges, but
on the street," the wild bidding for fortune's favors
62 The Consolidated Virginia mine was divided into 10,700 shares, its
length being 1,310 feet. The firm of Flood & O'Brien, Mackay, and Fair
bought up a majority of the shares at $4 to $9. (For a history of the relations
of these men, see my Hist. Nevada.) The property was divided into
two mines, Consolidated Virginia and California, with 108,000 shares each.
Subsequently the mines were divided into 540,000 shares each. Nobody
cared now about the ground conveyed—it was the object to share in the
division of what the mine contained.
63 One of the means of stock gambling pursued in S. F. in 1876 was by
puts and calls. A ' put' is a contract with a firm of brokers whereby the
purchaser of the privilege agrees to pay a dollar a share for all that the stock
may fall in the market during the next 15 days, the price started from being
from one to ten per cent below the market price on the day of purchase. A
*call* is the reverse of this; it ia the privilege of a rise that is given. But
as the price fixed in either case is BO much above or below the market rate
that the buyer has little hope of reaching a higher or lower point, he gener-