Comstock and Gambling

Observers had commented on Westerners' propensity to invest quickly and recklessly--- since the beginning of the Gold Rush.

After witnessing Americans' behavior in San Francisco in 1849, Patrice Dillon, the French consul, concluded that the 'Yankee is stockjobber by nature; no one understands better the 'puff' better than he.'

James King of William, during his campaign to reform the morals of his adopted city, had also complained about the 'vice' of 'stock gambling', a practice that he ranked far below more patient and virtuous methods of making money.

Yet King and Dillon had seen nothing compared to the 'mania' that broke loose after the discovery of the Comstock Lode in western Nevada.

As large companies organized and capitalized to exploit the new find, Californians dug deep into their pockets and began an intense bout of speculation in mining firms that lasted from the early 1860s through the late 1870s.

People invested in mining stocks with the same fervor and speed, the same outlook and commitment, that they had brought to faro tables, roulette wheels, card games.

Like gambling before it, 'stock jobbing' became 'the business of San Francisco'.

The speculator's paradise of the Far West was centered at the stock exchanges on California and Montgomery streets in downtown San Francisco, just a few blocks away from where El Dorado gambling saloon had prospered at the old Mexican plaza.

Throngs gathered daily on the city streets in front of the trading offices, eagerly awaiting news of developments in the Washoe district.

Californians did not monopolize the excitement, but rather exported it to the Nevada hinterland. Virginia City and other Comstock communities each had their own stock brokers who posted San Francisco prices just as soon as they could be telegraphed over the Sierra Nevada.

The townspeople of Washoe clogged streets and sidewalks, too, by crowding around bulletin boards to learn the latest information.

Like San Franciscans, they thrilled at the roller-coaster ride that mining stocks provided. William Wright, who covered the Comstock as newspaperman Dan De Quille for the Territorial Enterprise, was fascinated by the addictive nature of the speculative excitement.

Those who had lost out on previous occasions always seemed to invest anew, swearing that this time they would sell their shares more quickly. But plungers inevitably held on too long.

Wright noted, forever trying to recoup earlier losses by pushing their luck to achieve a top price. The reporter was just as surprised by the way that speculators in Washoe relied so resolutely on information relayed from California stock exchanges.