Newspaper Clippings, San Francisco Herald, 1869

LETTER FROM GOLD HILL.

[SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT OF THE HERALD.]

GOLD HILL (Nev.), May 23, 1869

Wintry.

The months apportioned to the winter season are long since passed, but "now is the winter of our discontent made manifest" by some of about as mean, scandalous weather as any Christian country was afflicted with; snow, rain, sunshine, hail, squalls, big thunder clouds and blue sky, all mixed in the most exasperatingly disagreeable manner imaginable. The "oldest inhabitant," as usual, never saw the like before, although something similar in the weather line always occurs here about this time. The roads everywhere are fearfully muddy, and from Reno to Virginia the road is said to be as bad as at any time last winter, delaying the stages last evening an hour or so.

Strange Freak of Lightning.

The queerest occurrence in the lightning line anybody here ever knew of happened at Lower Gold Hill last Monday afternoon, during the prevalence of a heavy thunder storm. The lightning struck the Empire Boarding house, apparently striking the ground outside first, and then coming up under the house, through the floor, exactly beneath where Mr. Frank Deville was standing. It tore a foot and a half across in the floor, throwing the splinters up to the ceiling of the room. Deville was knocked down, and stunned for a minute or so. The boots were torn violently from his feet, and even the legs of his pantaloons torn to shreds. Both feet were terribly lacerated, portions of the leather of his boots being driven into them. His surgeon has since been obliged to remove a piece of broken bone from one foot, two or three inches in length. It will be a long time before he will be able to walk. A window near him was totally demolished, sash and all, and the other windows in the room were more or less broken; his brother who was within a few feet of him was also knocked down, but not injured. Various theories having been propounded as to how this really odd flash of the lightning could have transpired, I have a right to follow suit. The floor upon which Mr. Deville stood was a double one, and he stood between a stove and a window. He was within three feet of the stove. It is a well established fact that wherever lightning meets with resistance, an explosion or something very demonstrative is the result. Hence it is quite reasonable to suppose that the electric current, attracted by the stove pipe above the roof, passed down it until finding in the body of Deville a preferred conductor, it passed through him to the floor, where meeting with the resistance occasioned by lack of a further conductor, an explosion beneath his feet was the result. In support of this idea, the upper part of the doubt floor was splintered upward while the lower part was splintered downward.

Accidental.

A large number of accidents, both great and small, have occurred during the past week, one resulting fatally and two others perhaps so. The first was that of Jas. Bawden, a miner, who last Friday fell about seventy feet in the shaft of the Justice-Independent mine and was so badly injured that he survived only a few hours; both legs and both arms were broken and he sustained other terrible injuries. About the same time A. J. Praedir, a Portuguese, while assisting to tear down an old reservoir in Gold Canon, just below the Piute mill, had his head badly jammed and fractured by a heavy stick of timber. He was still alive at last accounts, with but small hopes of recovery. Mrs. J. P. Cutler, who was thrown out of a buggy on South C street, Virginia, last Tuesday, while riding with her husband, by the sudden breaking of the king-bolt and consequent uncoupling of the buggy, is still alive, but having sustained a severe concussion of the brain, she was a long time insensible. Being also in a delicate condition, her nervous system sustained a very great shock, and her recovery is considered doubtful.

Theatrical.

The Howsons concluded their very successful engagement at Piper's Opera House on Thursday evening, with a benefit, which was very fully and fashionably attended. They are going to take still another public complimentary benefit next Tuesday evening, at Athletic Hall, after which they leave for a trip overland to the Atlantic States, stopping to perform an engagement at Salt Lake. Young Siegrist, with his aerial velocipede, appeared last evening at the Opera House to the poorest audience of the season. He repeats to-night. Hartz, the Illusionist, opens at that theatre for six nights, commencing on Tuesday evening. Mr. James Stark is still confined to his room at the International, slowly recovering from his severe paralytic stroke. He can speak but little as yet, and suffers now severely from salivation. Whether this salivation will prove his salvation remains to be seen.

Relief Subscriptions.

The subscriptions to the relief fund for the sufferers by the recent terrible calamity in the mines of Gold Hill, thus far received, amount to $10,698, of which $3,225 is from California, and the balance from the citizens of various parts of this State. As no more seems to be coming in, it is fair to presume that the generous flow has ceased. What has been subscribed, however, is fully sufficient to place all the sufferers beyond the reach of want, and even surround them with home comforts.

The Disabled Mines.

The shafts of the Kentuck and Crown Point were reopened last Tuesday; also the drift connecting the Yellow Jacket with these two mines, at the 900-foot level. This gave the Yellow Jacket plenty of good air at the lower levels, as there is a strong draft southward, and also sent clouds of hot, foul, steamy vapor pouring up through the Crown Point and Kentuck shafts. On Thursday the body of Martin Clooney was found in the Crown Point shaft. He was the last of the Kentuck men, and had made his way through from the 800-foot level of that mine to this shaft, where he fell a distance of 200 feet, landing on a scaffolding in the shaft. His remains were a mere mass of bones and clothes, with little or no flesh, and he was identified simply by what he wore, and his watch. The bodies still remaining unrecovered are those of Daniel O'Neil, A. Reinay and Thomas Laity—all Crown Point miners.

The Yellow Jacket is working about half its former force of men taking out ore. The Kentuck is yielding ore enough to supply the Sunderland mill. Nothing has been done at the Crown Point mine, however, in the way of extracting ore, for the air is too bad, and several men, nearly every day, have been asphyxiated by contact with the foul gas in trying to work below. They were busy yesterday laying a long wooden box, or air conductor, from the Yellow Jacket line, through the 900-foot level to the Crown Point shaft, in order to allow the Yellow Jacket a free draft of air, and yet not allow it to circulate upwards among the workings of the Crown Point and Kentuck, for from the increase of gaseous smoke apparent yesterday, It was more than suspected that fire still existed somewhere. I hope in all mercy the fire is extinguished, for it has been, and still is, rough on human flesh and blood. If it still burns, perhaps the best way would be to quit trying to mother it, give it all the fresh air and assistance possible, and let it burn itself out, and make a speedy finish of its infernal work.

New Safety arrangements.

I visited the Belcher, one of the most southerly of our Gold Hill mines, yesterday afternoon, in order to take a look at a new safety cage and a set of safety shaft gates they have just put in use. The cage is not made on any new principle, but the workmanship of it is the best I have yet seen in this section and highly creditable to Mr. William Bray, the head blacksmith at the Belcher hoisting works, whose skilled hand did the work. Similar cages are in use at the Crown Point, Chollar-Potosi and other mines along the Comstock, and they appear to be the most effective of any. Near the top of the iron cage frame, on either side, is a pair of oblong, or rather eccentric wheels, between which pass the heavy wooden guides for the cage, extending from top to bottom of the shaft. On the inner segment of each wheel, next to the guide, is a series of stout, sharp teeth or cogs, about an inch in length, which are kept from coming in contact with the guide by means of stout steel springs attached to the axle of the wheels, which extend across the top of the cage, from one side to the other, and also by the strain of the cable. In case the hoisting cable should break, the springs would act at once, causing the axles with the eccentric wheels to revolve just enough to force them to grip the guides, and dig those stout teeth, or pointed cogs, into the wood each side, and instantly arrest the downward progress of the cage; the heavier the load upon it, the stronger being the grip of the safety wheels. In order to exhibit the complete working of this new cage, Robert Ross, foreman of the mine, and Mr. Bray, the maker of the cage, got upon it as it hung suspended in the mouth of the shaft, and another man cut the cable. The effect was instantaneous, the cage only dropping one inch and a quarter, when it hung firm and perfectly secure. Without the safety arrangement it would have fallen, with its human freight, to swift and sure destruction, 850 feet to the bottom of the shaft.

The Safety Gates.

These were invented by Mr. Daniel Grant, the head carpenter of the works, and he has applied for a patent for the same. They are simply a pair of small gates, or iron doors, hung to posts at each side of the shaft entrance, which always remain closed, except when the cage is up, thus preventing the accidental or inadvertent running of a car into the open shaft when the cage is not there to receive it. A stout spring cam at each side of the shaft keep the gates closed; but the cage, in coming up, presses against the cams, and these, by means of connecting rods, push the gates open. A short time ago a carman happened, by mistake, to run a car into the wrong compartment of this shaft, where the cage was not up, and, of course, down it went, occasioning a damage of over $300. He could not do the thing now. Similar gates can be fitted to every station in the mine, which is not the case with other inventions of the sort now in use at some of the shafts along the Comstock. Honor to Daniel Grand and William Bray for their life and property saving handiwork. I like to record all such instances of practical ingenuity.

ALF.

LETTER FROM GOLD HILL.

[SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT OF THE HERALD.]

GOLD HILL (Nev.), June 3, 1869.

Signs of the Times.

In this, as well as all other well regulated communities, there are plenty of people who are always croaking about "dull times." Let things generally be ever so brisk, still they don't seem to "see it" or appreciate true prosperity when they find it. They are always speaking deprecatingly of the present as compared with the lively times of '63, or some other period of the past, never realizing that times are really good enough even now, if they would only bring their mind up to a due appreciation of the fact. How readily would they agree with me in saying that Gold Hill and Virginia never looked so dull as now—that the bottom had dropped out of the Comstock, and another year would see sagebrush growing in the streets; and yet how readily will they all see the point and agree with me now, when I say that Gold Hill and Virginia are more prosperous and possessed of better and more substantial present and future prospects than for five or six years past. The bottom of the old Comstock, so far from dropping out, is just now looking finer than ever, as witness the lower levels of the Yellow Jacket, Hale & Norcross, Savage, Chollar-Potosi and other noted mines. White Pine carried off a large portion of our floating population, which was really no loss; but even those who floated off in that direction have over half floated back again. In fact, our prosperity has, of necessity, to be rather of a regular order, as the monthly yield of our mines is about the same year by year. Just so many men find regular employment, and, consequently, just so much money has to be disbursed on the first of every month in the way of wages, salaries, etc. And all of this money is expended right here among us. The only serious drawback we have met with this season was the terrible calamity in the Crown Point, Kentuck and Yellow Jacket mines; but we have nearly recovered from that. The streets are constantly lively with people, passing teams, etc., and all places of evening amusement are well patronized. The circus, Opera House, and even the hurdy houses, all have full audiences. The merchants all speak of doing a good average business, and as new saloons are being started almost daily, there appears to be but little to complain of in that line, although they surely cannot all be getting rich.

The Mines.

In regard to our disabled mines I have but little news to report. The Yellow Jacket is all right and running a full force of men, tumbling out the ore at a very lively and satisfactory rate. The air is good throughout every part of the mine. The Kentuck is only getting out ore enough from the upper levels to supply the Sunderland mill. The Crown Point is unproductive at present, but they are actively drifting east at the two lower levels for the ledge; when they tap it, good ore will doubtless be found, and far beneath the burning region, which is above the 900 foot level near the line of the Kentuck. From the 900-foot level to the surface, every station is tightly blocked up in order to smother and confine the fire which is considered to be still burning, and may continue for months. No important developments in the way of pay ore are made recently in the other mines of Gold Hill. The Imperial yields about 130 tons of good ore per day from the upper levels, but the two lower levels show no sign of promise. The bottom of the shaft is on porphyry. They are mining a drift south from the Empire, at the 1,000-foot level, to prospect the claims in that direction at a lower depth than yet attained in either of them. The North American and the Overman are both yielding goodly quantities of fair milling ore, but no rich and extensive bodies of it are encountered at present. The Chollar-Potosi, Hale and Norcross, and the Savage are all three turning out huge quantities of high grade ore, and the lower levels are especially promising. The Gould & Curry shaft develops nothing good at the bottom as yet. The drift west, at the 700-foot level of the Ophir, is now in about 330 feet from the shaft, and the face is in hard blasting rock; but judging from its more favorable character and other indications, the front ledge of the mine cannot be far distant. The Virginia Consolidated Company, being a combination of the claims lying on the Comstock, between the Ophir and Gould & Curry, have commenced a large new shaft between E and F streets, and it is now about twenty feet deep. Ross & Co. have the contract for sinking the first 500 feet, and are actively at it.

The Sierra Nevada.

This famous mine is again mildly intruding itself upon the attention of the public, from its remarkably good yield of gold bullion. The clean-up for the last half-month's run yielded eighty pounds of retorted amalgam, being considerably better than any one anticipated, and the yield for the present month will be even better, for richer ore will be worked. The supply of this rich surface ore seems literally inexhaustible, and Mr. Smith, the Superintendent, finds his prospecting labors continually rewarded with the development of extensive and richer additions to what ore is already in sight. Five years' steady run of the mill will hardly make a perceptible decrease in the huge supply. The facility and very light cost with which this surface ore is mined and milled, is unequaled by any other mine on the entire Comstock ledge. The affairs of the company are in a very healthy and prosperous state, and I even hear a dividend hinted at, as to be declared before long—a decided novelty for the Sierra Nevada.

Small Pox.

This loathsome and terrible disease seems to have nearly or quite died out, owing doubtless to the delightful weather we are at present in the enjoyment of. During the prevalence of the recent stormy, cold, disagreeable weather, there were several cases of it, including even your correspondent; but all are recovered, and I have not heard of a fresh case for nearly a week. Good riddance to the foul nuisance. It has been with us just about a year.

Fatal Mining Accident.

Last Saturday afternoon Daniel Miller, a young man working in the Savage mine, accidentally fell about seventy feet down a winze to the track floor of the 300-foot level. He was picked up insensible by some of his fellow miners and brought out. His left arm was broken above the elbow, his head was cut, and from his spitting of blood, he was doubtless injured internally. The worst injury, however, was to his back; the spine was broken a short distance above the small of the back, resulting in complete paralysis of the lower limbs, which still continues. The unfortunate young man cannot recover, but yet may live for several weeks or months. He is free from pain, has made his will—he leaving some property—and is now ready and willing to die. He is only twenty-three years of age, and a native of Lower Canada.

Large Assay.

Only a day or two ago Gen. John B. Winters showed me the result of an assay made by the assayer of the Yellow Jacket works. It was a piece of rock from a newly discovered ledge some forty miles east of White Pine, and showed fine gold disseminated all through the specimen. The result of the assay was a showing of over $57,000 per ton. The ledge is about sixty feet wide, but is not all quite so rich as that. I saw an assay from the Empire ledge, over in Excelsior, two or three months ago, which went over $90,000 to the ton. Some of these gold ledges assay stunningly sometimes. They are also promising; very promising considerable more than they perform.

Dream Process.

Speaking of Excelsior reminds me of the wonderful process for desulphurizing the rebellious ores of that district which was dreamed out by a Mrs. Burns about a year and a half ago. Mrs. B. and her husband had been living at Meadow Lake for some time, and like everybody else they were getting pretty badly discouraged. The ores were rich enough, there was no sort of doubt about that, but they were so variously and intimately combined with sulphur in some form or other, that all the ordinary and extraordinary processes adopted totally failed to separate the precious metal to any paying extent. They were talking of leaving, as many had already done, when one night Mrs. Burns dreamed that her brother, an old miner some time deceased, appeared to her and told her not to be at all discouraged; that fortune lay within her grasp, that the chemical materials for the cheap, easy and complete desulphurizing of the rebellious ones of the district she had always had by her in the house. In short he told her to use a little -----, and a little -----, in conjunction with a little -----, and the thing was done. She told her husband about it next day, and they tried it, and, sure enough, there was no nonsense about it; the desulphurization was actually accomplished, just as easy as rolling off a log. Next thing was to get a patent for the process. Burns was a poor man, and he found many obstacles in his way, but at length he has succeeded in getting his patent papers, and now is trying to bring the process into practical use. He claims that by the new process the most rebellious sulphuret ores can be desulphurized for $8 per ton and even less. Only a few days ago I saw fine samples of about a pound each from five of the most prominent mines of Excelsior, which had been subjected to this process. They were each of the rich rebellious sulphuret character which could not be made to pay at all by the ordinary processes, but after treatment their character was materially changed. They looked as though they had been burnt thoroughly, being dark-colored, soft and crumbly, and showing many particles of free gold. Rubbed to a powder and washed in a saucer, a good prospect in free gold was obtained every time. I understand that the Mohawk & Montreal Company in Excelsior are going to give this wonderful process a trial by a working test of a considerable quantity of their rich sulphuret rock. Oftentimes a new process works well enough on a small scale and yet totally fails to come up to practical requirements on a large scale. If the dream process, however, holds out as well as it promises, it is one of the "big things" of the age.

Theatrical

John E. Owens, the eminent comedian, supported by a very excellent stock company, will appear at Piper's Opera House for the first time to-night. "Everybody's Friend" and "Solon Shingle" are the plays to be given. How Owens will take here, of course, remains to be seen.

Hartz concluded his six night's engagement last Sunday evening. He did very well, but did not succeed so well as Heller did when he was here, or could do again. Heller has got more style and variety. The "Great Champion Circus and Zoological Institute," composed of James Cooke, the really excellent jester, Jack Lee, a lady rider, several good tumblers, a monkey, two camels and a buffalo, have drawn immense houses, or rather tents full, the last two nights, at Virginia, and they will have another densely crowded tent to-night, at lower Gold Hill. The horse opera always wins here. Let two horses and a wheelbarrow, accompanied by a base drum and a cornet, come over here performing in a tent, and call itself a circus, and it is sure of big houses for a week. The Piutes, Chinese, miners, merchants, in fact, everybody, high or low toned, will go to the circus.

ALF.

LETTER FROM GOLD HILL.

[SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT OF THE HERALD.]

GOLD HILL, June 6, 1869.

Our Railroad.

The grading for the railroad between Virginia and Carson is one-half completed, and in less than two months from now will be entirely finished, tunnels and all. Unless there is some unexpected delay in procuring the requisite supply of iron the track will be laid and the car running by October. The work thus far has been prosecuted with most effectual energy and ability, very creditable to all concerned. It certainly is a very crooked road, but this could not well be avoided, in view of the great rise to be overcome between the two points. The greatest fault I have to find with the location of it consists in the fact that in crossing Gold Canyon, on Main street, at the upper end of this town, the rails are to be laid on a level with the street, instead of being carried across over the street on a proper trestle bridge, high enough to allow teams of all descriptions to pass beneath it, out of all danger of collision. This might and ought to have been done by all means, and the company will realize the importance of the idea this next winter. There is probably no street in the world which is subjected to harder wear or severer usage than this. The grade being steep, the numerous heavy quartz teams all have to pass down it with locked wheels, especially in winter, when it is slippery. This has the effect to grind and tear the street terribly, particularly when rough locks have to be used. The railroad grade across it will make a very awkward sort of a pitch or offset in it, even if the teams do not tear out the rails in passing over them. It will keep one man there steadily, taking care of the track and keeping it clear of mud and other obstructions. A more eligible place for collisions, too, could hardly be contrived, for even after this railroad is completed, and has to a certain degree done away with quartz teaming, there will still be plenty of teams hauling quartz to the mills in Gold Canon, as well as trains of huge wagons coming in from California loaded with merchandise, same as they do now. Those long teams of twelve and fourteen mules, with two or three wagons attached, do not travel fast, especially up a steep hill, and being hidden from sight at that crossing by the houses on each side of the street, the chances are that the locomotive would come upon them unawares, especially as it approaches in a short curve from either way, and on the north side from a tunnel. An ox team would stand no show at all. In case of a collision the engineer would be blameless, for he could not possibly see a team crossing in time to avoid it, and the railroad proprietors would simply have to foot the bills. Well, time will show how things will operate at that point. We shall see.

Railroad Accident

About six o'clock last evening, on the aforesaid railroad, at American Flat, by the premature explosion of a heavy blast, one workman was blown forty feet into the air, and, falling among some rock, was almost instantly killed. He was literally torn to pieces, his bowels strewn upon the ground, and most of his bones broken. Another man working with him, was terribly cut and bruised, but not seriously injured.

Died.

David Miller, the young man of whom I made mention in my last, as being fatally injured in falling seventy feet down a winze in the Savage mine, last Saturday, died yesterday morning, having lived just a week with his back broken. The lower part of his body continued perfectly paralyzed from the first, never recovering the least degree of sensation. He was buried this afternoon by the Canadian Relief Society, of which he was a member.

Theatrical

John E. Owens takes well with our theatre goers of Virginia and Gold Hill, and Piper's Opera House is filled nightly to witness his serio-comic and decidedly popular delineations. I think he can twist his physiognomy into more whimsical shapes than anybody else on the coast. He is well supported by an excellent dramatic company. James Stark is still at the International, Virginia, slowly recovering from his terrible stroke of paralysis. He is able to walk about a little, but cannot talk much. The Champion Circus performs at Empire to-night, at Silver City to-morrow night, and Thursday evening at Gold Hill, for the benefit of Liberty Engine Company, No. 1.

The Yellow Jacket.

This famous mine is being worked at present with far greater energy and double the force of hands than before the fire—some 400 miners being employed. The pay roll for the last month amounted to $20,000, and this month it will be considerably larger. One reason of this extraordinary number of men is that the drift connections formerly existing between that mine and the Kentuck, furnishing a free circulation of air, being now closed on account of the fire, the air is very hot and impure; consequently eight hour shifts are adopted. The fire still burns in the Kentuck and Crown Point, but is blockaded on all sides. A large number of men, recently employed on the Pacific Railroad, are now working in the Yellow Jacket, and they, as well as the old hands in the mine, as might be expected, have a strong impression of the dangers attendant upon working in those subterranean regions, since the recent terrible calamity. All are ready to rush out at the slightest alarm.

A Powerful Scare.

Considerable trepidation was created among some of the miners yesterday, by a back current of air driving some gaseous smoke through from the Kentuck into the Yellow Jacket, and some of the men came to the surface, but the gas subsiding, all soon were at work as before. In order to counteract the effects of the bad air, the miners have bottles of hartshorn and bay rum with them down in the mine, to take a smell at occasionally. About ten o'clock this forenoon, there was a powerful alarm created at the800-foot level, and a general rush was made for the cages; one or two men being said to have been already overpowered by the dreaded gas and left for dead in the drift. Up they come to the surface, and directly fresh hands ventured down to rescue the victims, if possible. They were found alive and kicking, and able to tell their own story, which was thusly: One of them, feeling like taking a sniff of something reviving, picked up his hartshorn bottle, which in the extreme hot atmosphere had become considerably heated, and on giving it a bit of a shake the thing bursted, sending forth such a powerful smell that it knocked him down. A companion near by, seeing him fall, thought of the fatal gas, and instead of stopping to assist him, started like a race horse for the cage in the shaft. He did not run a dozen yards, however, before he hit his head against a low cap timber and knocked himself over backward. He was the only one hurt. When all was explained work went on as before.

Sierra Nevada Mine.

In my last I spoke of the excellent prospects and bullion products of this valuable mine; also, of it being rumored that a dividend would soon be declared. This idea was based upon the great amount of rich ore developed in the upper workings of the mine, the great yield of gold bullion during the past month—more than ever before—and the still better class of ore being milled for the present month. Last month the yield was over $23,000, upwards of $13,000. This month the yield will doubtless run up to over $30,000. Day before yesterday a dividend of $2.50 per share was declared payable on the 10th instant. This is quite a novelty in its way, being the first dividend ever declared on that mine, which for the last eight or nine years has been steadily worked and assessments regularly levied upon it. This change in finances is due entirely to the present Board of Trustees, and T. F. Smith, the Superintendent, who brought his mining knowledge pretty effectually to bear in the case and soon nosed out the present developed rich and extensive deposit of ore. When Smith took charge of the mine and mill there was an assessment of $12.50 per share already levied, but he soon got to producing so much bullion that it was deemed expedient to rescind that assessment, greatly to the joy of the anxious stockholders. There has been no assessment thought of since, but such an accumulation of funds in the treasury, that not only this little dividend can be easily spared, but it will be followed up monthly hereafter, and most probably increased. Day before yesterday a decidedly novel style of a blast was let off at the mine. An inch and a half hole was drilled to the depth of fifteen feet in a bank of soft ore, and a couple of cartridges of giant powder being shoved down to the bottom, it was exploded. It did not crack the earth, but merely made a good sized cavity in the immediate vicinity. Into this was then poured two kegs of common blasting powder, which, on being exploded, lifted the bank, throwing out tons upon tons of very rich ore, in much of which plenty of free gold was visible. It is better ore than yet found in the mine, and the mill is now hard at work crushing it at the rate of forty-five tons per day.

ALF.

LETTER FROM GOLD HILL.

[SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT TO THE HERALD.]

GOLD HILL, Nev., June 13, 1869.

Weather.

Unlike the White Piners, we have no particular occasion to grumble at our weather; it does very well, and now that the small-pox has about disappeared, there is very little sickness either in Gold Hill or Virginia. Old Keyes, the Virginia undertaker, is beginning to look a little blue over it, as even fatal mining accidents are scarce now. When the small-pox was doing its worst last year, he looked jolly, and had lots to do; in fact he was of the opinion that if he could have another good season like that, he would be out of debt and all right financially.

Getting Fast.

Until that great railroad got across the Sierra Nevada the people of this section were contented with ordinary rates of travelling, but now they are not. The cars demoralized and revolutionized everybody's ideas in that respect, and ever since nothing less than pony expresses, velocipedes, and more railroad will do. The pony racing by the rival express companies from Reno to Virginia each evening on the arrival of the cars, was a very lively and attractive feature. Crowds of people lined the sidewalks to see the ponies come in, and pretty soon some sportive and excitable gents got to waiting just outside of town, on good horses, and would come trooping in like flying dragoons along with the ponies. The whole fun, however, was spoiled one evening by the city police arresting all hands, pony riders and all, for fast riding. The Pacific Union Express pony still comes in every evening with letters, but Wells, Fargo & Co. have taken off their pony and substituted a fast stage instead, which runs on a little less than pony time, bring in the mails, express and a few fast passengers, about an hour ahead of their regular coaches.

The velocipede mania came with the small-pox and is likely to leave with it, as it has very materially subsided. Some persistent chap is occasionally seen on the streets of Virginia, of an evening, industriously working his two-wheeled treadmill, sweating in his shirt sleeves as he cranks along on his wobbling way. There don't seem to be any particular use for velocipedes here, unless they would come in fashion for funerals. They would be cheap for that, much cheaper than hiring livery horses to ride out to the graveyard and back on, same as at present. Livery horses, too, always run away or get to racing on the road home, especially if they happen to stop at a brewery by the way. Gold Hill is a poor velocipede ranch, there being no level ground, therefore we can't indulge extensively.

We are getting along splendidly with that new railroad to Carson, and as I said in my last, it will be completed much sooner than at first anticipated. Money can do almost anything. "Money makes the mare go." I think velocipedes and mares differ some in that respect, however. Balloons are not in vogue here just yet.

The Mines.

Nothing of a very sensational nature has transpired since my last writing, in the history and condition of the mines along the Comstock, or anywhere in this section. Generally speaking, they are looking healthy and promise well.

The Overman mine still continues to yield considerable bullion, although no extraordinarily rich bodies of high grade ore are encountered at the present time

The Belcher, and the Segregated Belcher, are not yielding much ore of either high or low grade. Both are known to contain good bodies of ore, but for reasons best known to the powers controlling them, prospecting for more ore is what is principally being done at present,

The Crown Point yields no ore, but the drifts east, at the 1,000 and 1,100-foot levels, are being driven towards the ledge as energetically as possible, and in the full confidence that when the ledge is reached, rich and extensive bodies of ore will be developed. Above those levels there is plenty of pay ore in the mine, but that is where the fire is still burning, therefore, all the levels are carefully and tightly closed, in order to confine the obstinately smouldering element where it is, and keep it from doing harm outside of its limits.

The Kentuck yields ore enough from the upper levels to keep the Sunderland mill running. The lower levels are blocked up like the Crown Point, and for the same reasons.

The Yellow Jacket is being most vigorously worked, but rather at a disadvantage, owing to lack of the requisite free circulation of air, the consequent oppressive heat compelling the resort to eight-hour shifts. The ore is extracted at a high expense, therefore stockholders need not look for any more dividends for a while (unless it be an "Irish" one.

The small mines to the northward of it, in Gold Hill proper, are all yielding more or less good ore from their upper levels, but at the lower levels they have nothing developed.

The Imperial yields about fifty tons of ore per day from its upper levels. The receipts for May amounted to $43,000. Annual meeting of stockholders, June 29th. No ore whatever developed at the two lowest levels. The new shaft is 1,140 feet deep, and the bottom is in barren vein matter. Sinking deeper is being actively prosecuted, with strong hope of soon passing through the barren belt into good pay ore. They are running a drift south now, at the 1,080-foot level from the shaft, through the Empire, Eclipse, and other small claims, to the old "Holmes ground," owned by the Imperial Company, and where they will doubtless intersect the rich and extensive body of ore dipping towards it for the Yellow Jacket. The drift has already penetrated over 100 feet, and two months more will tell the story. But little water is found at the bottom of the shaft, less than above, and decreasing as depth is attained.

The Bullion Company are drifting east at their 1,400-foot level, and expect soon to strike good quartz. At that depth it is found to be very dry, with no water whatever. A plentiful supply of fresh air is furnished by the blower, from the surface.

The Chollar-Potosi yields about 175 tons of ore per day, averaging nearly $50 per ton, according to assay. The drift north, at the 1,100-foot level develops no new and rich bodies of ore, and lacks only about twenty feet of connecting with the Hale & Norcross. When this connection is made it will give a new and valuable draft of air to both mines.

The Hale & Norcross mine keeps up its lick pretty well, yielding about 150 tons per day—principally from the two lowest levels. There the pay streak is so wide that it is difficult to timber sufficiently strong to prevent caving as it is worked out. Another level, 100 feet beneath the present level, will soon be opened.

The Savage is looking exceedingly well throughout, although the receipts for May amounted to $155,100, being $18,000 less than the yield for April. This, however, was, of course, owing entirely to the grade of ore worked.

The Gould & Curry shaft, over 1,200 feet deep, has got through the vein into the west country rock. A drift east is commenced near that point, to go through to the east wall of the ledge. They ought to find some good ore in this drift if they are ever going to.

The Virginia Consolidated Company are actively sinking their new shaft between E and F streets, Virginia, but it will be many months before it will be deep enough to develop anything in the bullion-producing line at that point.

At the new shaft of the Ophir, the drift west for the ledge is now over 350 feet. The face is still in hard blasting rock, with no particularly encouraging signs developing.

The Sierra Nevada mine looks better and better every day, the continual developments of rich ore in the surface workings being far in excess of what is daily required. They are milling about forty-five tons per day now—all of it rich in free gold. A clean up will be made in a day or two, and present indications confirm me in my former prediction that the yield for the present month will be the best ever obtained from that mine.

Incipient Midshipman.

In accordance with the advisement of Congressman Fitch, to the effect that we could send a boy from this State to be educated and trained to be a midshipman, at the United States Naval Academy, a committee of four, consisting of A. N. Fisher, C. J. Hillyer, J. C. Lewis and Wm. Haydon, have been holding an examination for the last three days in order to make the proper selection. There were ten applicants from various parts of the State, and the result was that the committee became completely nonplussed with the wonderful smartness of the boys, and simply succeeded in reducing the number down to three; and unable to decide which possesses the true qualifications for the position, they refer these three to Congressman Fitch for final decision. The following are their names, ages, etc.: Albert A. Michelson, aged sixteen years six months; residence Virginia City; educated at Boys High School, San Francisco; James Willson Blakely, fourteen years eleven months; Treasure City; student Austin Academy, Nevada; William Gifford Cutler; fourteen years, six months; Dayton, Nevada; educated at Oakland College School, California.

Theatrical.

Fanny Morgan Phelps succeeded John E. Owens as the star attraction at Piper's Opera House, Virginia, commencing last Thursday evening. She has not succeeded very well, playing to indifferent houses and at a loss to both herself and management. Her engagement closes with a benefit next Wednesday evening, when she will have a good house, probably. James Stark and wife are still at the International, Virginia. Stark can walk about the house a little, but he has not by any means recovered from his recent severe paralytic stroke. He was paralyzed in both body and mind, and is a mere wreck, both physically and mentally. I do not believe he will ever appear as an actor on the dramatic stage again. His numerous friends in this section propose giving him a benefit at Piper's Opera House, next Thursday night. He will most undoubtedly have a very full house and a substantial benefit. After that the Opera House will close for the season, and the company so long playing there will be turned adrift on the great dramatic sea. It would be a good time for Heller, the Martinettis, or even a first-class melodeon company to come over here. No scrub attractions, however, will do at all. The best, and none other, can draw paying houses.

ALF.

LETTER FROM VIRGINIA.

[SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT OF THE HERALD.]

VIRGINIA, Nev., June 20, 1869.

Local Items.

My letters heretofore have been principally dated from Gold Hill, but the two towns being so near together as to be almost one, it makes no difference particularly which place I write from; therefore, being in Virginia, I write you this letter from that lop-sided city, and will give you the principal local items of interest transpiring in both towns.

Suicidal Jerker.

Lizzie Williams, one of the fair ones, who is in the habit of loving not wisely but too well, tried to massacre herself with a bottle of chloroform last evening, at her room on south C street. Her man, a tall, good-looking artist, saw fit to give her a jealous thrashing night before last, and the lacerations to both body and mind were too much for the sensitive Lizzie; so, after brooding over her smarting wrongs for twenty-four hours, she concluded to shuffle off this mortal coil, and in order to soothe and ease it off agreeably she went to Dan Virgil Gates' drug-store and invested in a two-ounce vial of chloroform. Then she went home to her room, and calling her land-lady, she spoke her last dying piece to her, and then tipped down the chloroform, or at least the greater part of it. It went down worse and tasted worse than third-class rot-gut whiskey, and great was the commotion created. A doctor was at once summoned, and after a severe turn at vomiting, etc., she lay panting and partly exhausted on her bed. She is better to-day, and an iced cocktail or so soothes the soreness of her throat. This is not Lizzie's first sensation in the suicide line. She tried to shoot herself a year or so ago, with a horse-pistol, but missed the mark and slaughtered a big trunk which stood near by. Then she lay down and spoke a lot of very impressive dying words to a couple of weeping friends, but suddenly thinking of her recent lover (not the present one), she sprang up, loaded a Derringer to the muzzle with grape and canister, and away she went down street to hunt him up and blow him into smithereens. He heard about her raid, and judiciously kept out of her way. Whether she will succeed in rubbing herself off the great slate of human existence next time is a matter for future items, perhaps.

Found Dead.

In all instances the above are sad sounding, sad looking words. They signify relief, however, in some shape, and in that light were never more significant than in the case of the poor, miserable prostitute, well known in this city as Liz Hayes, who was found dead about ten o'clock A. M. to-day. She has been keeping a little, low crib on South C street, adjoining where the above-mentioned suicidal attempt took place, for the last year or two, and has been a resident of Virginia for six or seven years. Latterly she had sunk to the very lowest depths of degradation, and the effects of her career of vice, dissipation and disease was plainly apparent. During the last two weeks she has had a physician doctoring her for congestion of the brain, and for three or four days she has scarcely been able to drag her failing limbs about the house. Another woman of her class, Maria King, has been stopping wither, and says that last night, about two o'clock, as she was sleeping on a sofa in the bar-room, Liz came in from her bedroom and took a drink at the bar. That was the last that she observed of her, as she went to sleep again. A man sleeping next door says he heard the poor thing about six o'clock this morning, breathing with a rattling noise in her throat, as though suffocating, but thought nothing unusual of it, as he knew she was sick. About ten o'clock Maria King awoke and saw her lying on the floor of the bar-room, flat on her breast, with her face turned to the left, cold and dead. She at once summoned, on examination said she evidently had been dead three or four hours. A Coroner's inquest was held this afternoon. She leaves only about property enough to pay her burial expenses. I should judge her to be about thirty-five years of age. She leaves a son, twelve years old, who resides in San Francisco. Thus ends a very ill-spent life, but let us hope that the account closes forever with her death.

The Mines.

Nothing worthy of special note has occurred in the way of mining developments since my last writing, in either the mines of Gold Hill or this part of the Comstock. In consequence of the difficulty of securing proper ventilation, the Yellow Jacket mine is working less than 100 men, on eight-hour shifts. Human nature, even the best and rugged constitutions, cannot stand everything. The principal working is now in and about the north mine, with a view of starting up the old works, sink the north shaft deeper, and connect it with the drifts being run from the south shaft at the 800 and 900-foot levels. When this is done, the ventilation will be good, besides opening up a vast amount of good ore. The works will start up about the first of next month. The Crown Point Company are still drifting at their two lower levels, and at the 1,000-foot they are approaching near the ledge. A great increase of water is encountered, and the old hands are discharged and their places supplied by total strangers. The Kentuck is getting along slow, and a less quantity of ore is coming out. The fire is still considered to be burning in that and the Crown Point but remains hemmed in by the closing of the drifts. The Sierra Nevada Company made their first clean up for the month on the 15th instant; it yielded over $10,000. The next clean up, on the last of the month, will be far better, as much richer ore is developed and being milled.

Theatrical.

The engagement of Fanny Morgan Phelps, at Piper's Opera House, closed last Wednesday evening. It was not a lucrative engagement either to herself or the management. Stark is still sick at the International. A grand complimentary benefit was given him at the Opera House, last evening, and entertainment being vocal music by the Choral Society, and recitations, etc., by volunteers. The net proceeds were over $1,000. Wilson's Great World Circus opens here Tuesday evening for three evenings. It will be well patronized. The circus always is.

ALF.