NEVADA SILVER. 749 



hands of the Bank of California through foreclosure and through 

 manipulations of stock. It also aimed at securing control of 

 others, and ultimately at directing the output of the entire lode. 



There are, let me explain, two systems of handling ores. A 

 mine can own its mills, or it can send to a custom mill. On the 

 Comstock the mine-owners' experiments in building mills had 

 proved disastrous. The independent millman was a more efficient 

 ore-worker than a salaried superintendent. But the Comstock 

 system did not secure the permanent welfare of the outsiders. 

 What Prof. Raymond calls " the piratical policy of gutting the 

 mines " was carried on in bonanza times at such a shocking rate 

 of speed that it unduly stimulated the building of more mills, 

 and then left the mines totally unable to sustain any of them. It 

 is not surprising that the Union Mill and Mining syndicate were 

 soon able to gather in seventeen of the leading mills and to keep 

 them running on ore, while outside mills could not make a living. 

 It became evident that the substitution of Sharon for Stewart as 

 the leading personal force on the Comstock was in reality the 

 most complete revolution the sagebrush land had yet known. 



Nevada had long " talked railroad." Legislatures, Territorial 

 and State, had granted many charters, but after a few abortive 

 efforts the last of these haphazard schemes was dead. Sharon, 

 the man of affairs, sent for James, of the Sierra Nevada Mine. 

 The following conversation is said to have occurred : 



" Can you run a railroad from Virginia City to the Carson 

 River ?" 



"Yes/' 



" Do it at once." 



Within thirty days the winding course, twenty-one miles long, 

 was surveyed ; graders were at work ; rails were on the way ; 

 men were hewing ties in the Sierras; an obedient Legislature had 

 passed a new charter and had authorized $500,000 in bonds as a 

 bonus to the road ; lastly, the mines had subscribed $700,000. It 

 was a busy month, even on the Comstock. Extended to a junc- 

 tion of the Southern Pacific at Reno, the Virginia and Truckee 

 Railroad cost about $3,500,000. The maximum grade is 116 feet to 

 the mile ; the curves of the track in the thirteen miles and a half 

 of mountain distance make seventeen full circles, and the rise is 

 1,000 feet. 



Sharon had put Chinese graders at work, but the miners' 

 unions of Gold Hill and Virginia City marched out a thousand 

 strong. The sheriff halted them, and they sat down on the rocks 

 to hear him read the riot act. That ended, they rose with shouts 

 of Homeric laughter, gave three cheers for the sheriff, and moved 

 resistlessly on the graders' camps. The Chinese " ran like rab- 

 bits " up the gulches. The miners told the boss to quit work, and, 



