Tenderfoot and expert : a true story and experience of a tenderfoot at Goldfield and Tonopah

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TENDERFOOT
AND EXPERT

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A true story and experience of a
Tenderfoot at Goldfield and Tonopah.

COPYRIGHT, 1905

BY JOHN D. HOFF, M. E.

Mutual Publishing Company

Office: Rooms 913-914 Mutual Savings Bank Bldg.

San Francisco, Cal.

9 7GfS-

Office Western Union Telegraph Company,

New York, 1905.
Expert,

San Francisco, Cal.

Meet me at Reno Monday morning.

(Signed) TENDERFOOT.

On receipt of the above telegram from Tenderfoot
to meet him at Reno, Expert took the noted Southern
Pacific Limited for Goldfield. While quietly admiring
the Grand Gorge, the American River had' cut through
the Sierra Nevada Mountains, about two hundred miles
east of San Francisco, who should drop alongside of
Expert and sing out, as they were passing Dutch Flat,
hut a wiry, little old man. well groomed and with a
high-pitched voice: "I never saw these diggm's before,
but I know all about 'em. I also know about Union
Valley, Hangtown, Grizzly Flat, Yuba Hill and Yuba
Dam," as he pointed a long, slender finger beyond
Dutch Flat. "And then I was a forty-niner a-working
on the river bar in old Mariposa County. Mighty
hard work, this mining business, working in the water,
a-scrapin' of the bed rock for those little chunks of
gold, I got stiffer than a poker, yes I did, yes I did."

Expert said : "These diggings in Forty-nine around
Grizzly Flat, Yuba Hill and Yuba Dam were far richer,
so history says, than the placer diggings in old Mari-
posa."

The old man braced up and said: "There was
mighty rich spots in old Mariposa, yes there was, yes
there was."

He warmed up and said in a high key to prove the
wonders of Mariposa County :

"I knew a feller down there on the Merced River
who came from 'Old Mizzoura,' who, by the way, was
a fine young chap, who picked up a dirty rock and
found it was heavy, and when he washed off the dirt,
what do you think? It was a gold nugget worth nigh
onto three thousand dollars, yes he did, yes he did.
What der you think? That feller went right back to

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Missouri, and when the war come on between the
North and the South he went ter bush whacking. His
wife was a Union woman, and she took all the chil-
dren and left him, yes she did, yes she did; and he
never seen sight on her until years afterward, in 1901,
and where do you think the two old people met? It
was by accident on the old Oakland ferry boat, yes
they did, yes they did ; and then and thar those two "old
people made up. Her maiden name was Lee, and now
that thar old man is a-telling everybody that Lee did
not surrender until 1901."

After being entertained a long time in this manner,
Expert said good-bye to this brisk old forty-niner, tell-
ing him he was glad to see that in his old age he was
able to take a trip East in all the comfort and elegance
of the Golden State Flier, which was quite a contrast to
the way he came to California on the "Bull Team
Flier" in forty-nine;

The colored porter of their train was of unusual in-
terest He was large for his age and weighed 240
pounds ; a very polite and humorous negro. As the
train was going at a rapid rate, about fifty miles
an hour, a thin, tall Easterner was seen coming down
the car, and suddenly stopped as he discovered the
aisle was filed with the porter. The porter said "Come
on," and to our surprise and wonder at how it wa$
done the Easterner passed.

They exclaimed to the porter : "How was so won-
derful a feat so easily accomplished without you get-
ting out of the car?"

"Why, massa, that was simple enough. I just blows
all the wind out of me and just let him pass, and then
I fills up again. See?" said he; and the expanding,
exhilarating, exhaling and compressing feat was done
before Expert's eyes, and then he saw how easily the.
tall, thin man could pass the porter.

Expert arrived at Reno. The Eastern Flier with
Tenderfoot on board was flying from the East and
was on time. They soon met with a crash — not the
trains, but Expert and Tenderfoot. When their breath
was recovered —

"How soon will our train start for Goldfield?" ex-
claimed Tenderfoot. It can't start too soon for me.
T must get my trunk re-checked, and there it is."

His face beamed with smiles as he spied his trunk
as it was rolled oflf the Eastern Flier, so down into
his pocket he went for that precious check. That be-
witching smile soon changed to a picture of utter dis-
may as in his trousers no check was found.

"I can't go," he yelled, "until I get. the check,
we will all be in the tail end of the rush in getting to
Goldfield — and there goes the bell."

In desperation at the thought of missing the Gold-
field train, a happy thought struck him as he made
for the baggage man.

"I'll prove it is my trunk by showing the agent
that I have the only key that will open that trunk."

But the agent hesitated and said: "Well, if you
can open that trunk, what is it we will find in it and
what is on top?"

"Well, well," sighed the Tenderfoot "is it not
enough evidence to you that I can open the trunk?"

"No," said the agent, "it is not enough. When I
open it I want you to tell me what is lying on the top."

Tenderfoot excitedly exclaimed : "If any man be-
sides me has a key that will open that trunk, here is
a fifty-dollar bill for him."

But of no avail; the agent would not yield.

"You must describe what is on the top lid of the
trunk before I re-check it to Goldfield."

"Well," ejected Tenderfoot, "it is a dress suit. Is
that enough?"

The agent grinned and ordered the trunk checked
at once. Expert took Tenderfoot aside and said to him :

"Never give it away any more that you have or will
wear a dress suit in the evening at Goldfield,"

"Why?" said Tenderfoot, in all innocence.

Expert said : "The first time a dress suit appeared
on the streets of Goldfield one evening, the blue-shirted
and khaki-suited miners exclaimed, as they saw it
coming up the main street:

"What is it? Look at it! Rubber! Let's put it
on the stage in the Mint Saloon and have it talk and
make it sing!"

"No sooner said than done, and 'at the point of half
a dozen automatic revolvers he was put upon the Mint
Saloon stage and made to dance and sing between the
drinks and the hurrahs of the men." This narration of
exploits at Goldfield was chilling to Tenderfoot.

A ring 6i the bell, a whistle, a puflf, and the Gold-
field train was off. The crowd on this train were all
an interesting study. All kinds of little men and big
men, with plug hats, derby hats and broad-brim-
med cowboy hats. The khaki suit and big-booted ex-
perts were an interesting sight. The women were there,
too. All were a joJly and hopeful lot to behold. One
big, good-natured fellow said to Expert, as he got into
his seat :

"They tell me you have been to Goldfield. Tell us
all you know of that 'ar country, for we can hardly
wait till we get there; and say, mister, are those tales
of gold we hear so much about really and honestly all
true? — for I have been a-dreaming every night for one
solid month of this yer wonderful Goldfield. One
morning, mister, I braced up and said to my dear
little wife away up in Oregon : 'I cannot stand it any
more, little girl, and I will have to leave you and our
little baby girl, Nell, and try to get some of that 'ar
gold away down thar in the desert, and then we can
build a little home for you and Baby Nell. I'll take
you to father's, whose big, warm heart and house are
always open for you and our baby girl. I'll soon be
back,' I assured her, 'and then we'll build that little
home by the Oregon lake.' Mister, it's nigh killin' me
to leave that darling lot, but I am strong and healthy
and will make the dirt fly, and I 'low I can bury my-
self in the ground out of sight with pick, shovel and
drill quicker than any man in that 'ar camp, and I
am sure I am going to get some of that 'ar precious
stuff if there is any thar to be got. I am bound to
stay there and get some of it before I can see my little
wife and Nell."

"Yes," said Expert, as the hopeful crowd pressed
round him to hear the words that he might drop. "The
gold is there for forty miles long and one mile wide.
The belt is running northwesterly and southeasterly
through the western portion of Nevada, and is now
demonstrated to be the greatest gold and silver belt
ever discovered in the world."

A beaming smile spread over the features of the big
fellow, for he had seemed to doubt all that he had heard
away up in Oregon about Goldfield. The crowd pressed
closer around Expert and seemed to be anxious to hear
more of the promised land for which they were bound.
Expert continuing, gave them a description of the
country topographically. He said : "The country is ele-
vated into ridges running northerly and southerly,
which have been elevated by the contraction of the
north and south poles, the granite core which underlies
the country, the sedimentary formations being friable
and easily decomposed, it soon eroded away, and ex-
poses the apex of the core, exposing the mineral-bearing
blue porphyry which lies over the granite and in which
are the valuable mineral veins of Tonopah and Gold-
field. Occasionally, every fifteen or twenty miles, the
granite is seen cropping out for a short distance
through the porphyritic layers called ryolite and ande-
site. These peaks are a guide to the direction in which
the mineral belt trends. The mineral ore-bearing veins
are principally contacts between the diflFerent layers of
porphyry and between the granite and the porphyry.
There is also a system of veins that cut across these
porphyry reefs, strata and contacts at right angles.
These elevated, exposed, mineralized porphyry reefs,
which lie on the apex of the core, are all taken up
and located, but there is a chance for all of you who
are not able to purchase claims to develop, by apply-
mg for leases on this kind of mineral-bearing ground.
A company of three of you can sink a shaft and
may strike it rich, as others have done One carload
of ore would make a fortune for you. Of course some
will lease, work and dig, get nothing and be a disap-
pointed lot, and a knocker you may become; but this

great mineral district will be yielding millions of gold
and silver when the knockers are all gone."

As . the train went southerly through the beautiful
Carson Valley, which supplies the mining camps with
produce, potatoes and hay, we passed Virginia
City as we emerged from the valley a little east of
the railroad, which we could see nestled on the side of
Mount Davidson. Expert pointed it out to them as
the richest spot on earth, which had yielded $400,000,-
000 in gold and silver for the benefit of commerce and
mankind, and where Mark Twain was made famous
by his story, "Roughing It."

In one of these stories (and all of them were taken
from facts) he describes painting this spot with a few
friends one night a crimson red, and by so doing ad-
mits that they had driven a few nails in their own
coffins. When this crov^d gets to Goldfield, Expert ad-
vised them not to try to paint the town red.

At this juncture Tenderfoot started out on a tour
to explore the train. He went into a forward car,
where the tough element had gradually congre-
gated and were drinking and carousing, which
was a circus for Tenderfoot. After he had been gone
about thirty, minutes unearthly yells were heard com-
ing from the forward car. Our car door was thrown
violently open, with a big, fat woman jammed in the
door and Tenderfoot close behind. She screamed:
"The men are shooting each other in the other car !"
She kept on through the car and did not even stop,
banged the door and disappeared in the rear car.
Close after Tenderfoot came all kinds of little men and
big men from out of the forward car. Expert said :

"What's the matter with you fellows?"

And one little fellow said: "We just come out to
let them fight it out."

Quiet was finally restored, the big fat woman and
Tenderfoot brought back from the rear of the train
where they had fled, and the gun players put into dif-
ferent parts of the train. The train now reached
Wabuska for dinner. Here they saw the Indians in
from the reservation. The little, narrow guage train

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was soon off for Sodaville, where the train starts for
Tonopah. To their dismay they were notified that the
railroad had washed away, but to Tonopah and Gold-
field they must go. Expert having a few pointers in
regard to who might have teams in this section of
the country, finally secured from a well known char-
acter, you might say a child of the desert, whose name
was Tom Piper, who had lived in this part of the coun-
try for years. He was a temperate, honest and indus-
trious man who had accumulated a few cattle, and also
owned a mine.

When he knew of their predicament and anxiety to
push ahead on their trip, he came to them and said :

''Mister, I'll take youse to Tonopah in a rig
such as I have. I want you to look at it as it may not
suit you. There is no style about it, but it will sure
get you there."

He insisted on them seeing it, so they went to look
at Tom's rig. Behold ! two handsome, large horses
whom he called Pacer and Punch, and a stout little
wagon, which would be a prospector's delight.

"Why, Tom," said they, "what a fine outfit."

"Yes, Mister, but you city chaps has style in your
ridin' and I want to be sure you're plum satisfied with
the team, I'll take yer to Tonopah."

A bargain was struck, and Tom said : "I'll get
something to eat and you fellows get ready and we
will be off in a jiff."

A great crowd from the blockaded train was delayed
at Sodaville on account of the washout and they were
roaming around in small lots. Tenderfoot was out
circulating among the different lots of men while we
were packing up. He soon came back and said he
had run across a man who was broke and he had a
piece of rock which was plum full of gold which was
a beautiful specimen, and had at least as much gold in
it as was in a $5 gold piece, and it was surely worth a
good deal more for its beauty and he had offered it to
Tenderfoot at $2.50.

Expert said : "I will go over with you and see "

10

He found the fellow, who was just from Colorado,
with a long tale of misfortune and woe. The specimen
of ore he said came from a noted mine in Colorado,
but now he was broke.

Tenderfoot reached into his boot for the money,
but Expert, who had examined the ore, said : "No, we
will see -him later." Then taking Tenderfoot aside he
said: "This, is only a piece of quartz bored into with
a dentist's drill and filled up with gold leaf. There is
only about 'five cents worth of gold in the whole piece.

Off to Tonopah they soon started with Tom Piper
pulling the reins over Pacer and Punch's backs. What
a fine team and outfit, they all said. Tom looked up,
seemed very much pleased and said :

"I am mighty glad you think that, for. Mister, it
is a fact that some of those fellers that come out here
seems to kick at everything all the way to Tonopah and
all the way back, and its' mighty pleasin' to me to
hear you fellers talk in that way, for I know you will
not kick on the way. That horse Pacer, he's a mighty
good horse ; yes he is, Mister, he and I have been in
heaps of mighty tight places, but he always brings me
through and he is a lucky horse, too ; he has hauled
lots of poor chaps to Tonopah that struck it mighty rich
up there, including Billy D , Jimmy B. and Shorty K.
I'll introduce you to them all over there. They all
know Pacer, too."

"Why, Tom, why did you not stay with lucky Pacer
too at Tonopah?"

Tom straightened up, pointing back over the
town and beyond Sodaville. "I have a little home over
thar, a dear wife and four little ones, all in a nice
cozy spot. There's lots of young calves and cattle
a roamin' about ; Pve got a mine there, too. Mister,
and what more do I want? I am afraid if I leave it
ril never find such another warm spot. 'I know all
about the rest of the boys hereabout who went to
Tonopah and Goldfield and are now a mighty rich lot,
but their money could not buy that thar place over be-
hind that thar hill, where wy babies and cattle are
a roamin' about."

11

They were all very quiet for a time after this speech
with their own thoughts. As they drove along through
the beautifully colored, treeless hills, stained by the
mineral oxides and carbonates of red, yellow and
green, which colors and tints no painters could repro-
duce, and having a view for miles of the contour of
the country with the Sierra Navada at the back as a
background covered with snow was an inspiration to
all lovers of nature When suddenly Tom from his
quietude exclaimed, as they were rolling along :

"Say, Mister, do you see all that level country be-
yond there? That's no desert, that soil is mighty rich,
and if it just had water on it you would be surprised to
see the way vegetables and fruit would grow, and I
believe water can be got there by drilling a hole ;
yes, I do, Mister. I have lived in this country thirty
years and it just suits me and when we have good
rains here that country is all covered with grass and
flowers, and only in the center of the valley, at the
low places, is it bare and nothing will grow, for only
there the alkali and the borax is found, and this is the
country where the Borax King lived when he was a
poor man and had teams hauling wood to the silver
mills, before he found the borax mine, and he is a
mighty fine man. I think lots of him. He is mighty
shrewd and smart. See the way he handles his coin
at Frisco and the big things he builds and runs. When
I took a trip one time to Frisco and got down to his
big offices in one of those big head framed buildings.
I guess you know he is a mighty busy man, and I
thought I would not take his time to see him, but
when he heard that I was out there he threw the doors
wide open and said : 'Come right in, Tom ; I have
lots of time to see and visit my old friends,' and he
brushed all others aside to chat with me a while."

Thirty miles out from Sodaville they stopped at a
beautiful spring of water where they met teams going
and coming from Tonopah. Tom was much worried
about getting hay in Tonopah for his horses as the
railroad was unable to haml any hay into Tonopah, and
he kept talking about not being able to get any hay

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when he got to Tonopah. Finally he said :

"I know all them livery men over there, and if they
have any hay hid away they will divide with me."
so Tom quit talking hay from that time on, when he
realized what he could do.

As they rode down from the Summit into Lone Moun-
tain Valley, which lies west of Tonopah, they were sur-
prised to find it a rich broad expanse of rich soil and
indications of water at different points in it. They re-
marked to Tom if anyone had ever dug for water in it.

"Oh, yes," he said. "See yonder ahead of us is the
old stage station and it is only forty feet to lots of
pure, good water."

Driving up at a brisk trot to the station,
they saw a man sitting down smoking a pipe
near the well The water was lifted out of the
well with horse power belted to a force pump, which
filled the tank and trough. He sold the water to the
travelers for their horses at 25 cents per head Ex-
pert said to the man with the pipe, the owner of the
well:

"Why don't you irrigate a patch of this ground and
raise alfalfa, which would now sell for $100 per ton at
Tonopah? This is very rich ground."

He straightened himself up and with one long pull
at the pipe, exclaimed: "Me work? Not much. I am
a native Californian."

Tom whipped up his horses and drove on in silence.
Expert exclaimed: "Tom, at what price do you sup-
pose we could buy that man out? If a gasoline engine
was put on there to raise the water a beautiful ranch
could be made of this spot and a very profitable one,
too."

"I believe, Mister." said Tom. "if you would just
show that fellow $200 in gold twenties he will com-
mence thinking, that he could take that $200 and go up
to Tonopah and beat the big games a running there,
yes, he would, mister, and when he had come to that
conclusion you would get that thar place sure for that
little wad o' gold."

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Tenderfoot said : "Why not buy this place as it is
so near the Tonopah Railroad, and you told us. Ex-
pert, just before we got here, that over yonder to the
right on Lone Mountain are mines of lead and silver,
and the valleys, you say, are underlaid with coal and
limestone cropping out on yonder treeless peak for flux
to treat the Tonopah ores. We could form a company
and build a smelter to treat these ores, and a townsite
we could start and soon a city would he built "

"True," said Expert, "and some day this will all
come true, but, Tenderfoot, when you see the great
mines of Tonopah and Goldfield this 'pipe dream' will
fade away and nothing but a mine of gold will satisfy
you — not a ranch to raise hay."

They drove on and soon saw Tonopah nestled high
up between two buttes called Mt. Oddie and Mt. Brower
with the tall, steel head frames of the mines looming
up into the sky. It was a sight in this treeless coun-
try and beautiful to behold. The rumbling of the big
stamn mills, the noise echoing through the hills was
music, said Expert, to his ears, for every drop of the
stamps unloosed a dollar from nature's grip to land in
Uncle Sam's mint, there to be coined and then scat-
tered broadcast over Uncle Sam's domain, with which
to build battleships, which in turn will influence for
the peace of the world and augment and protect lib-
erty for all men. We are now able to see how far-
reaching are the researches, energy, privation and labor
of the prospector, but no one can accurately tell.

They are now on the outskirts of Tononah, they pass
by the graveyards, which, by the way, was not started
by having to kill a man with a ^ix shooter, as was done
in '59 at Virvinia City, Nev , according to Mark Twain,
brt it was bad whiskv that started the Tonopah grave-
yard. They asked Tom to tell what he knew about
this graveyard and the fellows in it. He said :

"I knowed most all of those poor fellows that are
buried over there. Some of them have been in this
country prospecting for thirty years, and when silver
went down this part of the country and over by Cin-
derella went flat, and everybody went broke, and all

14

we had left to show for our hard work in this country
was beautiful bunches of paper, all printed with pic-
tures of mills and mines and a great gold star in the
corner, and printed on some of them was 'Continental
Consolidated Combination Gold and Silver Mining
& Milling Company,' and a lot of other stuff, and the
hull lot would not buy a railroad ticket to get out of
this place so we all had to stay here, and when Ton-
opah was struck about three years ago all of those
fellows that are buried over thar flocked to Tonopah,
where whiskey was galore, and these chaps had not
smelt whiskey for a long time, Mister, sure and all
the other boys who struck it rich treated all these old
fellows from morning till night and when the cold
weather came on their headquarters was in the warm
barroom so comfortably kept, oyt into the cold they
staggeringly went, into the dark dreary night to find
their dugouts or camps and finally reached the same
and would crawl into their hard, rough and chilly beds,
to awake the next day with a pain in their sides, their
poor lungs being diseased with bad whiskey and also
their liver by cold storage meat, and in twenty-four
hours the poor fellows would be found stone dead.
They called it the black plague, but no, Mister, it's that
thar bad whisky that killed off my old friends that lie
over thar in that lonely spot with a stone uncut or
marked at their heads."

They soon passed by the graveyards and were in the
city of Tonopah, Pacer holding his head aloft. Tom
declared he was smelling for hay and he would get it
too if there was any in that thar town. The horses trot-
ted down the busy, hurrying, bustling street, with strains
of music from pianos, fiddles and harps floating out
from the glaring wide open saloons Glancing in them
as_ they drove by could be seen the long row of gam-
bling tables, roulette wheel and faro banks around
which were groups of men who often won or lost from
one dollar to fifty thousand dollars in a few hours, as
men in this camp were numerous who could afford and
did lose thousands which showed how rapidly wealth
is accumulated here. One gambling firm is reported

16

to have made half a million dollars in a short while.

As Tom did not drink, gamble or smoke, of course
he did not haul up at any of these places of resort, but
trok them to the Palace Hotel, where they were soon in
comfortable, modern quarters dreaming of the hidden
wealth they had come to get.

The barroom, rotunda and offices of the hotels
in Nevada are all one so they were continually being
called to the bar to be introduced to the jolly, good-
hearted representative men of the town. They were
invariably all young men of the best mettle and qual-
ity, for only those who have the nerve and grit to
penetrate the desert came to this country first. Fully
fifty per cent have made a stake here. The crowds
tha^- came later, in comfort and ease and a'l the way
by rail, are not of the- same kind of stock that com-
posed the camp. The vim and the wonderful develop-
ment of the camp and the unprecedented growth of
the same into a city of electric lights, automobile
routes, electric power plant and great reduction works
and one large hotel with well furnished rooms, electric
bells and lights, toilet, bath and telephone for each
room, so that each mining operator can reach each of
his camps by 'phone, is entirely due to the stalwart,
vigorous, enterprising young Americans, and such is
the kind of crowd they were called to the bar to meet.

The neyt mornirjy Expert was aroused by Tenderfoot
saying: "I have been out taking in the town and
have met a mining man who is a big gun in this town,
knows all about the mines, all the prospects and the
way the gold and silver belt runs. He told me on the
side he had a pointer about a certain mine striking the
big Macdonald ledge, but he had a bigger thing, further
north on the string. He would like to take me out,
and my friends, to show us the big ledge. If we liked
it he could get hold of it for a few hundred in coin
and a block of stock in the concern, but the parties
would not part with it all as they knew it would be a
bonanza in time, so get up and get dressed for I will
have Tom, Pacer and Punch all ready to go." So off
he went with Tenderfoot and his new found friend,
with Tom and Pacer all eager for the bout.

17

They went several miles out from Tonopah and
climbed a big hill, and right on the top we came to a
shaft and cut.

"Look," said the miner, "at that big ledge of quartz.
See how. it is stained with mineral and a little more
digging will soon be in rich §tufif."

Expert's mouth flew open and he steadily gazed at
this strange phenomena, that a ledge of white quartz
could be running in this Malipi bluff (a recent forma-
tion), so he stooped down to examine the supposed big
ledge of white quartz and took out his knife, and be-
hold, said he, as he whittled up the white stuff :

"This is not quartz, my friend, or you could not
scratch or whittle it in this way. This is only a deposit
of sulphate of lime that is used to make plaster and
plaster of paris, and to get genuine quartz that carries
values on this ground you would have to sink a shaft
through this Malipi. Under it you would find the shale,
sandstone and lime and then you would strike the blue
porphyry in time, I should judge at a total of about
500 feet, and then by drifting and crosscutting you may
and you may not strike a mineralized quartz vein.
Look back there at Mt. Oddie and Mt. Brower. Don't
you see how the Malipi, shale, sandstone and lime are
all tilted up by the granite, or alaskite, core, and be-
tween these two points all of this friable material has
been eroded and washed away leaving the porphyry
exposed, with its rich silver and gold quartz veins crop-
ping, which enabled Jim Butler to find it, so we have got
to find a washed off place or sink a deep shaft before
we can do anything more. Do you see over there the
great Mizpah mine which has $60,000,000 of ore blocked
out? It has built a railroad sixty-five miles long and
equipped itself, and paid two dividends of a quarter of a
million."

"Yes," said Tom, "that is so, and when Jim Butler
sold this mine he asked the expert $350,000 cash down.
The expert sent a telegram to Philadelphia that cost
$500, giving a report on the mine and asking the Phila-
delphia parties to allow him to draw $50,000. A tele-
gram came back authorizing the expert to draw $50,000,

18

which was paid to Jim Butler, and before the balance,
$300,000, was due the royalty of the leasers had paid for
the mine in full."

Tom said when Jim Butler made out the papers for
the Mizpah claim and had signed them and delivered
the contract to their agent that the Eastern crowd gave
orders for the leasers to stop getting out any more ore
and as none of them had any written contract, but had
all taken Jim Butler's word for a lease of twelve
months, so they all threw down their tools and thought
they were done up. Jim. hearing of the orrler, went to
the Easterners and asked to see the contract he had
signed again. They handed it over to him for his per-
usal. He no sooner got the contract in his hands than
he immediately tore it up and remarked :

"Now I guess the leasers can work out their full
time, as my word was given to them in good faith, and
I would use the price of the mine to make my word
good," so the Easterners, to get another contract for
the mine, promised Jim Butler to let the leasers work
fhfir time otit. with the result that the royalty from
the leases paid for the mine.

About this time a crowd of Colorado bullies arrived
in camp with six shooters strapped around themselves.
They called themselves "the dirty dozen" and undertook
to run the town Soon one of them was given a leaden
pill and the rest were soon afterward marched out of
town. The rough, bulldozing, law-defying, claim- jump-
in.of element has had to take a back seat in this camp for
all time to come.

_ Arriving back at Tonopah. Tom said : "Mister, I
will now have to leave you sure, as I find that my
livery friend has only one bale of hay, and I must start
back to Sodaville right away. I am sorry. Mister, yes
I am. that I can't take you on to Goldfield." So they
reluctantly had to part with Tom and Pacer and take
the stage to Goldfield. The road was strung out with
teams loaded with ore coming from Goldfield, and
teams going there with freight.

At Ramsey's well, about half way between Tonopah
and Goldfield, a well was sunk 240 feet, where abund-

19

ance of pure, clear water was struck. They stopped here
for lunch and changed- horses. A colored man was on
our stage, who had just arrived from the Southern
states. As he lined up to the lunch counter he said :

"I'll just take a piece of that pie; what is the price
of it, Mister?"

"It is ten cents a slice," said the vendor behind the
counter.

The colored man took the piece of pie and soon de-
voured it. He threw down a twenty-five cent piece on
the counter, the vendor dropped it into the till and
went on with ^his work. The stage was just ready to
start.

The colored man said : "See here, Mister, you
forgot to give me my change."

"Your change?" said the vendor. What do you
mean? We never in this country take anything less
than twenty-five cents."

The darkv turned pale and gasped. Presently they
noticed a broad grin and a pair of white teeth showing
as he reached his long arm across the counter and
said, as he took the rest of the pie : "Say, Mister,
I never does take less than a whole pie," and jumped
on the stage, and the crack of the whip and the stage
rolled away with the pie vender looking after him in
dismay.

The stage driver, Shorty Harris, was a curio, rare,
young and bold, for he did not gamble, drink or smoke
and was a native Nevada boy. As they got well ac-
quainted with him he commenced telling them of his
plans.

He said : "I am saving up my money to see your
blooming California and that Portland show. Say,
Mister, tell me the best way to get there, and what
would be the fare? I would like to go by the steam-
boat as I have rode every beast and thing but a boat
that goes. They say that thar boat does rock and pitch
about and rock more than my old Concord coach. I
would just like to see if she can turn over on her top
and right herself ^about, for I have done that thar feat
with this very coach and with six on the line."

20

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Tenderfoot remarked : "That was certainly a feat,
but please do not try to do it while we are on this trip.
Were you ever held up on your trips?"

"Yes, only once," he said, "when I drove the Bodie
stage which every trip brought big bricks of gold down
to Hawthorne to be shipped away to Frisco. A lone
highwayman "rose up all at once from behind a lone
Joshua tree, with a Winchester level dead on me and
his finger was on the trigger. I tell you what. Mister,
the bore in that gun looked mighty big to me because
I saw his finger twitching around that trigger. He
ordered me to tell the passengers to get out and line
up and I quickly ordered them out and told them to be
quick about it too, for this fellow meant business. He
is in charge now. He sent me to the leaders and made
the passengers drop their money on a pile. One fel-
low, who lived at the town beyond, said: 'Give me
back that $5 for it's all I have to pay my hotel bill.'
Xook here. Mister.' said the robber, 'that won't go.
If you did not live out in these parts you would have
more than $5 on you to pay your hotel bill ' "

Just at this moment of the graphic description of
the hold-up out rang a voice clear and strong on the
desert air : "Hold up, there." They all gasped for
breath, their hands went to their pockets and the wom-
en's hands went to their breasts to hide away what
money they had left. With the sudden stoppage of the
coach the passengers all had blank and terror stricken
faces, but they were all at once all in smiles as they
saw a camera fiend line up to take a shot at the over-
loaded Concord coach out on the plain bound for Gold-
field.

22

They were now in sight of Goldfield. Tenderfoot was
peering with wide open eyes and mouth at the spot
of spots now noted as the richest spot on this globe.
Expert said: "Look at the tilted tabk hills on the
right' and left of Goldfield, see how the stratas pitch
to the west toward the. mountains, then look toward
Diamond field and notice how they dip east toward
Ralston desert, and notice a little to the west of Co-
lumbia mountain that small, sharp peak just in line
with us and Goldfield; that is the granite, or Alaskite,
core, that lifted up those flat topped, tilted table hills,
which are sedimentary stratas under the capping consist-
ing of sandstone, shale and lime, which are all washed
away, exposing the mineral poryphry which carried the
veins of gold. Don't that old red hill beyond the Com-
bination and the Jumbo look fine? What artist could
paint it a more lovely hue and how precious is that old
hill with its stores and stores of gold. It is painted
though by nature's chemical actions red, blue, gray
and green Some think it is a volcanic heat that
burnt them, but such is not the case. That red is the
simple result of a chemical change in the original sul-
phide of iron to a red oxide of iron.

They are now at last in Goldfield, with piles and piles
of sacks, which makes you think of the California
wheat houses with their piles and pileS of sacks of
wheat; but there is quite a difference in the value of
a sack of wheat and a sack of this ore, which makes
one stand in awe, for wheat is worth $2.00 a sack,
while this ore you see is worth as high as $100.00 a
sack. Of course, all the men here are in high spirits,
and they congregate around the bars telling of the new
and rich strikes of ore, and how Bill and Jim and

23

John had a big offer for their finds, and how Dick,
Shorty and Jack sold their claims for a good big sum,
were now treating the whole town with every thing on
tap, and it was a day galore for all the old bums.

At one of the big saloons an attractive woman of
striking apearance, with diamonds as big as peanuts
flashing from her ears, alighted from a large auto-
mobile, came up to the bar, and said, "Come on, boys,
and have a drink with me; come on you fellows that
are hanging around the stove line up here, and order
just what you want."

The glasses soon cracked to the health of this boom-
ing camp, and the thing is done. A twenty-dollar
gold piece is flung to the counter. She did not stop
for change. She and the auto car were soon
gone. "Who is she?" was asked. "Why, she is a
Jewess, and her fellow makes money by the barrel;
she spends it as she wants to and makes things
bum when she is hereabout," said one of the crowd.

Tenderfoot said, "This is a mighty swift place. I
hope we will soon get into the swim and be able to
keep up with the pace." "All right," said Expert, "for
here is Max Kunsey, a good mining man and a hail
fellow well met, who knows the country, mines and
♦claims, and stands in solid with the supers at the
mines. He took them first to the January mine, where
he introduced them to the genial and popular Super Sol
Camp. Max whispered something into his ear. Sol
looked around and picked up a pestle and mortar and
a chunk of ore from the dump. He crushed it in the
mortar, and when he had panned out the gold in the
ore showed up fully a teaspoonful of the yellow stuff."

"My," said Tenderfoot, "how could such a small
piece of rock contain so much gold?"

24

Mr. Camp said, with a smile, "This is poor stuff be-
side that which is in those white sacks."

Tenderfoot looked in amazement, and turned to a
miner who had just come up the shaft from the depths
below, who stopped as he passed to look at the gold
that was just panned out in the little black pan. Tender-
foot looked up and said to him, "You have a wonderful
camp here."

"That's what we have, mister; and it will be a hell
of a camp if the Government does not demonetize gold."

Expert turned to Max Kunsey, and asked at what
price could a claim be bought close in near the January,
Jumbo or Florence mines.

"Look over there just north of the January claim.
I can get you that group of claims for $125,000," said
Max.

"What!" said Expert, "is not that a big price for a
claim with no out-cropping ledges and without develop-
ment work done?"

"Well," said Max, "you will find you will have to
pay for possibilities in this camp, if you get any ground
close in on the mineral belt."

Expert, turning to Tenderfoot, said : "We will have
to trace the direction this belt runs, then secure some
cheap claims on the line of same ; I cannot recommend
you to buy that ground at such a price."

Expert turned to Max as he stood on the January
ore dump, sizing up the general trend, strike and pitch
of the outcropping reefs. "I have in my mind the trend
of the mineral belt; can we get some claims right over
that grani.te peak that sticks up to the left of Columbia
mountain?"

26

"Yes, you can get claims over there at your
own price ; it is over a mile and a half to the
point you designate from here. I will recommend you
a man to show you that place over there."

A man came who had just got over a bum, and said,
"You go on in your carriage, and I will go on my
horse."

So off they went. Their carriage rolled on though the
camp just north of Goldfield, called Columbia, and they
drove up the slope of the little granite peak beside
Columbia Mountain, and drove over to what was then
called the Grandpa mines. Everything was quiet and
not a soul in sight; nor could they hear a hammer, pick
or drill, and no horseman was in sight.

They climbed up to the top of the ridge to see if he
was coming (on which ridge is now located and being
developed the celebrated Sandstorm and Kendall mines),
and waited and watched for the lone horseman to
appear to show them the claims they had come to see.

"What do you think of this ground?" said Tender-
foot.

"It is my opinion," said Expert, "we are right on
line with the mineral belt, although we are a mile and
a half beyond the edge of the demonstrated mines. See
here, how the porphyry reefs are running a litttle west
of north, and heading directly for Tonopah. They dip
in the valley just over there and probably lie horizontal,
as the core probably did not pitch them up very much;
then rise up again beyond, don't you see, at Gold
Mountain and Gold Reef, where there is another little
peak of granite that does the elevating process there.

They waited in vain for the horseman to appear.
Their patience was exhausted, as nobody came in
sight, so they drove on to Diamondfield, and there met

27

Diamondfield Jack, who only a few months before had
come into this country on a borrowed bronco. He
staked a claim for the loan of a bronco, which claim
afterward sold for a big sum, and now Diamondfield
Jack, the noted cowboy, is now breaking in autos, and
the only gun plays he now makes are when some foreign
devil jumps one of his claims, and there are two jumps
in the play, one on and one off, to the crack of Jack's
gun.

They proceeded to Goldfield, where they met the
celebrated Dr. White Wolf, an educated Indian from
the Carlisle School, noted for his cleverness in times
past in protecting and defending his tribe. At one
time, it is said, he and a few others were selected to
to go to Washington and confer with President Cleve-
land. All went there in their native dress. It seems
that the interpreter had a card up his sleeve to beat
this Indian tribe in the deal that was to be made, and
he falsely interpreted the conversations held by the
representative men on each side. After the council
was over White Wolf insisted on seeing the President
alone His request was finally granted, and as he was
ushered into the presence of the President he said, in
perfect English : "Good morning, President Cleveland,
I sought to see you to denounce the great fraud that
the interpreter has made your representative believe,
and save my people from a gang of thieves." The
matter was sifted, and the tribe was protected, and Dr.
White Wolf was presented with a present from the
President for the service he had done his people and
Uncle Sam.

Dr. White Wolf was on the ground early when
Goldfield was discovered, and secured some very valu-

28

able claims. He said : "I had quite a time to hold that
White Rack claim adjoining the January, as some
jumpers claimed part of it. I took my Winchester and
camped on that spot, and never slept a minute for three
days and nights watching for those jumpers, and I got
so desperate and nervous that if a man, woman or
child had put a foot on that ground during that dreadful
time, I believe I would surely have shot them down.
Just a week or two after I went through this ordeal
I caught a jumper building a monument and digging
a hole within a stone's throw of my door. I just
reached up for my gun, and said to him : 'Say, mister,
what are you doing on this property of mine?' and
he haughtily replied, 'It's none of your damn business;
this ground is mine.' I just got a drop on him, and
said, 'Now, fill up that hole you dug, you dog,' and
then I made him pull down the monument and carry
all the rocks off the claim, and as he sulked off, he
cried back, 'I'll fix you for this.' One Monday morning
early a fellow rapped at my door, and when I opened
it there stood a poor old drunk whom I had tried to
help and doctor him up. 'Come in, Tom, what can I
do for you now?' He said, excitedly, as he looked
around, *Doc, I just came from the Mint Saloon, and
early this morning, as I was waking up out of a booze
which I was on last night, I heard some fellows talking
near the stove, and I heard the word White Wolf. I
immediately closed my eyes and opened my ears, and
I heard those fellows planning to kill you, and this is
the plan, Doc: One of them is to come and ask you
to show him one of your claims south of town, as he
had a tenderfoot in hand who would buy it. When they
get you out into the canyon the other two fellows are

29

to lie in ambush and are to kill you ; so, Doc, watch
out and keep your eye peeled for them. I know if you
get half a chance you can take care of yourself.'

"I put Tom to bed, and gave him -some Bromo to
sober him up, and then 1 sat down and waited for
my visitor, who soon came along. He gave me a talk
and wanted a price and terms on one of my claims.
He proposed to me that I should go out and show him
the claim 'All right,' said I, as I reached up on the

wall for my gun. 'Now, you ,

march out of that door, and stay straight ahead of me;
don't you go to the right or the left. At the first
rustle or sight of another man up in that canyon you
are a dead man.' I marched him right up to that
canyon, and then back again. These jumpers, I guess,
will now let me alone."

Tenderfoot said : "Well, Doc, I see now that you
have got to fight as well as work for what you get
here, and I am not made of that kind of stuff, so I
am afraid I will not prosper here."

As they bade Dr. White Wolf adieu and
started down the streets of Goldfield they saw
a small crowd of miners in a bunch, examining a piece
of ore which was covered with gold, just brought in
from a new district just discovered south of Goldfield,
and plans were being made by the crowd for a rush
to the new field. All were mentally scheming to get
there first and locate the vacant ground.

A prospector out on the edge of the crowd said to
Tenderfoot: "Grubstake me, and I will go and locate
claims at this new find"

"I will do it," said Tenderfoot.

There was a rush to the livery stables to hire the
best teams. Expert turned to look for Tenderfoot, and

30

lo ! and behold, we saw his big form leading the flying
gang. The stable was reached in a moment of time,
and through the door they went in a rush, all clamor-
ing for the best team.

He managed to catch up and pull Tenderfoot aside.
He had already bargained for the best team to be had.

Expert said : "This is nothing new, as a rush is
made every thirty days to some new find, and only
one stampede in a thousand ever amounts to anything,
and if we would follow up every reported new find we
would be continually stampeding all the time ; and
if we did, we would no sooner be well settled in
camp at the new find, when some day in would rush
some fellows from another new section of country
still further on, and announce a new strike richer than
anything yet that had ever been found. If we would
follow this excitement up we would in time be exhausted
in flesh, health, money and wind, and have nothing
but claims staked out from one end of the State to
the other. We would soon be in the same condition
that Mark Twain vividly describes of when he was
a tenderfoot, prospector, mining and newspaper man,
in the early days on the Comstock, which he fully and
truthfully describes in his noted book 'Roughing it '
So don't you see now. Tenderfoot, that we must stick
close to Tonopah and Goldfield, arid be like the boy
going blackberry hunting who stuck to the first black-
berry bush and got his pail full of berries while the
other boys kept hunting for biger patches of berries,
and all their time was consumed in hunting for same,
and they returned home with only partly filled pails."

"I see your philosophy and think, also, we ought
to carry the plan out and stay with Tonopah and Gold-
31

field, no matter what thunder may be raised about
new districts far and near," said Tenderfoot.

Just then, as they w.ere walking down the main street
toward the north end of the town, they saw another
crowd running to what turned out to be a woman with
a six-shooter cowhiding a man, who had the nerve
to jump her lot, which she had bought when she first
came to town and which now was worth a good deal
of coin. V Of course, the jumper was put to flight by
such a startling onslaught, and she was left in peaceable
possession of that portion of the townsite.

Tenderfoot excitedly exclaimed : "I see there is no
rest now for the owner of mines or lands, so one
is bound to be in trouble whether he has much or
little, and it appears to me now that he has the least
trouble who has nothing to defend or lose. I could
never see until now the philosophy of that text, 'Blessed
is he who is poor.' "

If we should continue to narrate all that befell
Tenderfoot and Expert, and all that they saw and did
in this wonderful golden land, it would fill so many
pages you would be reading from daylight to dawn;
so we believe we have found a place to leave Tender-
foot for a while, at least until he has bought a mine,
made a stake and his pile.

32