Discovery of the Comstook.

Thames Star, Volume XIII, Issue 4299, 11 October 1882, Page 3

Discovery of the Comstook.

Beirajtllftday is a feature and fixture' . of Washington. He lives in a beasrtiful '■- residence on X street, where he entertains ■ a coterie of friends in right royal fashion. His fortune is estimated at from 2,000,000 to* 6,000,000 dollars, so that it may be fairly presumed that if he should prove . "bnsuccessfuV in th^ prosecution of his t- claim for 860,Q00d018. he will not be in -' immediate want- for the necessaries of life. He likes to tell of his experience as a pioneer of advancing civilization on the Pacific coast, among the Argonauts of '49. His story of bow the famous Comstock lode was discovered is interesting. As he

. tells it, one of his. stage drivers bad a prospector's passion for broken rocks, WitcroppinßS, float, and other indications of mineral treasures. On a certain day he came .to Mr Holladay full of a dis covery lie-bad made, and showed a sample hating a won^erfally large proportion of silver in ifs composition. He made a proposition to sell one-half of his mine to Mr Holtadar for for; money with which to operate upon it. Tbe offer was .refused; §md: the driver resigned and disappeared. In a month or so a company waiT^Tormed and operations were begun. •the mint- yielded the richest ore ever taken rut of any mine tip

to that lime.' , Comstock, for that was the —fttagi-driver's name', became Buddenly one Si*h« < wealthiest men iff the country. t i?,Tbe stock roae rapidly from hundreds to thousands of dollars, and finally §100,000

- was paid for a .claim twenty feet across s. the face of tbe lode. Next to the Bonanza :t :ifc';w»« probably the richest mine ever Vdii'coiM'rediß the earth. Mr Comstock followed the rule, and from Being one of . tbe richest men toon became one of tbe poorest, and finally died penniless.