Newspaper Clippings - Volume 65

TERRITORIAL ENTERPRISE

Wednesday February 19, 1890

SILVER CITY ITEMS.

About the Snow -- Present and Future Mining Prospects -- Water and Oil -- Sticky Seats.

Before this last snowstorm the snow was all melted off in and about Silver City, and the streets were getting dusty. Luke's fine 'bus sleigh runs from Virginia through to the end of the route in Lower Gold Hill, but from there down the sleighing does not amount to much. Silver City, generally, is below the snow belt.

MINING MATTERS.

Everybody is hopeful and feeling good over the prospect of a good mining season, with plenty of water, and many of the good little gold and silver veins in the vicinity will be made to yield liberal contributions to the wealth of the State and the world, including the Oest and Haywood group, and others, nearer, town. J. Lawson and Thomas Mayne -- who is a worthy and strong candidate for Sheriff of Lyon county -- are working the Cook & Gray mine, above Devil's Gate, and it is making a very good showing of pay ore at the present time, in the tunnel, the wein being about a foot and a half wide. It is gold ore, assaying well, and about two tons of ore per day is being extracted, which is expected to pay well under the stamps. Gold Canyon is booming and there iwll be no lack of water for milling purposes, or for the placer mining operations below town. It is safe to say that there will be more gold washing down between Silver and Dayton during the coming season than for the last ten years or more.

AFTER WATER OR OIL.

Dan Lucy of the old Armory Hall saloon has been engaged for some weeks past in sinking a well on his premises for water, keeping three or four men employed in the digging thereof. It has attained a depth of over fifty feet in a remarkable dry formation. The other evening, when the melting snow had caused an extra flow of water, some of the boys directed a good stream into the well for an hour or so. Then they interrupted Dan at the fine game of pedro he was playing in the saloon with a man from Dayton, telling him that the water had broken in at the bottom of his well. He went joyously out and by the aid of a stone tied to a string directly ascertained that there was fully ten feet of water. He immediately invited everybody to the saloon for a drink, and all the next day set 'em up for the whole town. He felt like he had struck a liquid bonanza, damned the water company and swore he would put up a windmill and supply the town with water independent of that soulless corporation. Then he got in a big pump to test the matter and very soon succeeded in pumping the well dry. About that time he discovered the delusion and was the maddest man in America. The bottom is in extremly hard rock, and the boys tell him that it is a first-class indication for striking oil. He is going for it -- water, oil or liquid brimstone, he don't care which.

STUCK TO THEIR SEATS.

On Christmas Eve, the festive Silverites were having a nice little musical and literary entertainment. The hall was well filled and everybody enjoyed it first-rate for a couple of hours. But when they went to leave, there was trouble. The seats had recently been painted and varnished, and the warmth of their person sitting thereon made everybody stick fast. Somebody profanely exclaimed "hell fire!" and directly there was a fire alarm and panic, all hands tearing loose and getting out lively, leaving the seats covered with fragments of skirts, coat-tails, pants, etc. The janitor cleaned up enough dry goods to last his family a year or two. That sticky paint, like Gallagher's dog, evidently had staying qualities.

ALF DOTEN.

TERRITORIAL ENTERPRISE

Tuesday March 11, 1890

RELIGIOUS INTERFERENCE.

The Blair Sunday Rest Bill Analyzed, Criticised and Pulverised -- Some Strong Talk -- Reviews from Way Back -- Resolutions Adopted -- Etc.

Between 400 and 500 ladies and gentlemen assembled in Piper's Opera House last night to get severe colds and listen to speeches against religious interference. Notwithstanding their great suffering, the audience was very enthusiastic.

Henry Rolfe was elected Chairman of the meeting and E. D. Knight Secretary.

Mr. Rolfe very clearly set forth the objects of the meeting, and read the Blair Sunday rest bill and the "sting" in it.

Colonel Stone was the first speaker. He attacked the bill from a legal standpoint, reviewed the history of religious liberty from the time of William the Silent to the present day, and then showed the pandemonium that would result from the passage of the bill. "Imagine," said the speaker, "the average Congressman wrestling with the question of transubstantiation, total immersion and infant baptism!" The caustic ridicule which the speaker put into this part of his remarks was exquisite.

Professor Bray was the next speaker. He addressed himself particularly to the school question, and said in teaching truth, honor and virtue there was enough religion taught in the schools already. The rest could be safely left to the fireside and the church.

Mr. Cook one of the Vice Presidents of the National Liberty Association, under whose auspices meetings are being held throughout the United States in opposition to the Blair bill, excused himself from speaking.

E. D. Knight was the last speaker. The young man created a very favorable impression in the beginning of his remarks, which sounded like an essay from Huxley, Tyndall or Agassiz. He was roundly applauded. He went way back, starting with the establishment of government in families.

The following resolutions were read and adopted by a unanimous vote:

Resolved, That we, the people of Virginia City, Nevada, in mass meeting assembled, are steadfastly opposed to the adoption by the Congress of the United States of the joint resolution introduced in the Senate by Senator Henry W. Blair, proposing an amendment to the Constitution of the United States respecting establishments of religion and free public schools. That we are opposed to the passage by Congress of the bill introduced by said Senator, known as the "Blair Sunday Rest bill," and to the kindred measure introduced in the House of Representatives by Mr. Breckenridge of Kentucky, and to ail other legislation looking to the recognition or establishment of any system of religion by the Nation or by any State, or restricting the right of any citizen to engage in any legitimate lawful pursuits on any day in the week.

Resolved, That while we believe in and approve of the teaching of the principles of virtue and morality in the public schools, that it is not and never should be within the province of the National Congress, or the Legislature of any State in the Union to prescribe for the free public schools what are and what are not the "fundamental and nonsectarian principles of Christianity."

Resolved, That religion is beyond the purview of human government, and from it is essentially distinct and exempt from its cognizance. That any connection between them is not only injurious to both, but is destructive of personal liberty, freedom of conscience and the public welfare, and with the patriot soldier, Grant, we affirm that all religions should for all time be left to the family altar, the church, and the private school, supported entirely by private contribution, and that the State and the Church should remain forever separate.

Resolved, That we most earnestly request the Senators and Representatives of this State in Congress to oppose the adoption of the joint resolution and measures referred to. That the Chairman and Secretary of this meeting transmit copies of these resolutions to said Representatives at Washington for presentation to the Senate and House of Representatives, and that the TERRITORIAL ENTERPRISE, Virginia Evening Chronicle, Carson Appeal, Reno Gazette, Nevada State Journal, the Silver State, Eureka Sentinel and all other newspapers published in the State be, and they are hereby, respectfully requsted to publish the same with the proceedings of this meeting.

Resolved, That the earnest and effective work now being performed by the National Religious Liberty Association in opposition to such legislation and to said proposed amendment to the Constitution meets with our unqualified approval, and that Mr. J. H. Cook, the Vice President, and Mr. L. A. Scott, Press Agent of said Association, present at this meeting, deserve the thanks of the people for their untiring zeal manifested in advancing the cause of the Association.

HENRY ROLFE, Chairman. E. D. KNIGHT, Secretary.

RENO'S LAST FIRE.

Individual Losses of Reduction Works Shareholders.

The Reno Journal places the loss at $50,000 incurred through the recent destruction by fire of the reduction works in that town. The fire originated from sparks from roasted ore that was being hoisted through an elevator. The insurance amounts to $10,000, and will cover the company's overdraft at the First National Bank, leaving nothing for the stockholders. An extra $10,000 insurance was placed about two months ago, but Mr. Farrington thought it too expensive and the policies were cancelled. Archie Farrington is the principal stockholder. D. A. Bender, C. T. Bender, R. L. Fulton, A. H. Manning and H. H. Beck are stockholders and losers from $500 to $3,000.

True Bill for Manslaughter.

The United States Grand Jury has found a true bill for manslaughter against the Indian Joe Buck, who killed the squaw known as Mrs. Jack Blossom, recently in Elko county. The evidence before the jury was to the effect that after the death of the Indian doctor several Indians met in council, and concluded that the squaw was a witch and should be punished. Witnesses said no instructions were given to any person to kill her. Soon after the meeting, how ever Joe Buck went to her tent and struck her near the temple with a stone about the size of his fist. She fell under the blow, and Buck then stabbed her in the throat with a small knife, from the effect of which would she soon died.

TERRITORIAL ENTERPRISE

Wednesday April 9, 18909

OUTSIDE ITEMS.

Gold Hill Sproutings -- Arbor Day Amenities -- Flora Finlayson at Reno -- Frog Eradication.

Although C street, in the heart of the city, is under a cloud of mud, snow, slush and general filth, the remnant results of wintry dispensation, all is dry and dusty southward over the Divide and down the canyon. Gold Hill already howls for the sprinkling cart.

A SNOW BONANZA.

Huge snow banks yet remain unmelted in all the ravines and even among the houses. Between the old Vesey House and the Episcopal Church in Gold Hill a huge lot of snow piled itself into a space of a dozen feet, to a depth of a fathom or two. Joe Bawden of the Vesey, having a practical eye to business utility, located that big pile of snow, buried it beneath 178 sacks of sawdust, and thus secured it for the coming hot season to cool off drinks and other things with, and keep the Sabbath congregations also cool on that side of the house.

SPRING SPROUTINGS.

Schweiss, James, Gorham, Harris and many others along down the canyon have trees and shrubbery leaving out, and promising piles of fruit as well as agreeable ornamentation during the coming season, and Silver City, as well as Dayton, are still further advanced and promising in that respect. Violets and other wild flowers are also beginning to deck the hillsides, and the popular old sagebrush is coming out finely in new sproutings and verdant rejuvenation.

ARBOR DAY.

Governor Stevenson's proclamation as to Arbor Day -- last Thursday -- was not very heavily responded to, very few new trees of any kind being planted anywhere along the Comstock range. Carson did much better, and Reno stood to the front very respectably, as usual. At the State University appropriate exercises were held in honor of the day, and trees were planted by the various classes. And each tree was dedicated in due form to some favored professor or newly arrived baby of a professor (a good juvenille crop being now harvested).

One of the trees was thus dedicated to ex-President Brown, somewhat to the dissatisfaction of many of the students, who insisted that it should have been "to the memory of," etc. One witty Carson lady standing near and hearing Brown thus honored, remarked that she "hoped it wouldn't prove a bad omen for the tree, and result in it getting its head cut off a la Brown."

A NEVADA ARTISTE.

Sunday evening the Opera House in Reno was densely crowded, the occasion being a combined Easter service. The principal attraction, however, was the presence of Miss Flora Finlayson, a well known former resident, who stopped over to spend the day with friends, the "Bostonians," the troupe of which she a member continuing on to San Francisco. Opinion as to the high quality and improved merits of her singing were somewhat divided, but all agreed in saying that her pure contralto voice came forth with wonderful ease and richness.

A NATURAL REMEDY.

Yesterday a Carson vocalist was complaining that through a bad cold he had a "frog in his throat," therefore was not able to sing. A friend told him: "Just you swallow a Frenchman, and he'll get away with the frog."

ALF DOTEN.