A few days later the sobering sense which impelled me to resolve that I
must absent myself from gaming tables evolved into a stern ambition to
accomplish big things for the trust company. I went about my business
like a man who sees dazzling before him a golden scepter and who is
imbued with the idea that if he exerts the power he can grasp the
prize. It had been agreed that the trust company would specialize in
the promotion of mining companies, and I determined that the trust
company should conduct its business as a trust company ought.
John Douglas Campbell, known on the desert as plain "Jack" Campbell,
was engaged by the trust company as its mining adviser and mine
manager. We agreed to pay him a salary of $20,000 a year, with a bonus
of stock in every new mining company we promoted, a stipend which was
later found to be equivalent to $50,000 a year.
Mr. Campbell had been identified with Tonopah and Goldfield mining
interests for three years, and was favorably known. For eight years
before coming to Tonopah he was employed as a mining superintendent in
Colorado by Sam Newhouse, the multi-millionaire mine operator of Utah.
In Colorado Mr. Campbell's reputation had been good. On coming to
Tonopah he was employed by John McKane, then associated with Charles M.
Schwab. Later he was placed in charge of the Kernick and
Fuller-McDonald leases on the Jumbo mine of Goldfield from which,
during a year's time, $1,000,000 in gold was taken out. After that Mr.
Campbell took hold of the Quartzite lease at Diamondfield, near
Goldfield, and he produced $200,000 in a few months from that holding.
He followed this up by a record production from the famous Reilly lease
on the Florence mine of Goldfield, amounting to $650,000 in two months.
It was within thirty days of the date of expiry of the Reilly lease
that Mr. Campbell was induced to take charge of the mining department
of the trust company.
Mr. Campbell's advent as our mine manager was immediately reflected in
the stock market by the advance of Jumping Jack Manhattan Mining
Company shares, which were now regularly listed on the San Francisco
Stock & Exchange Board, to 40 cents per share, up 15 points from the
promotion price. The sharp rise wrought an undoubted sensation in
stock-market circles. Brokers in the cities who had sold Jumping Jack
to their customers clamored for a new Sullivan promotion. Any new
mining venture for which the trust company would stand sponsor was
assured of heavy subscription and a broad public market.
TRYING IT ON THE STRAY DOG
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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