Asbury Harpending

“ A veil of profound mystery and romance shut out a view of the vast interior. Only, we knew that it was immensely rich in precious metals, but so utterly lawless and overrun with bandits that nothing short of a standing army could protect an investment.
Thus none of the adventurous pioneers attempted to explore and prospect the west coast of Mexico, which later poured its hundreds of millions into California. I may be mistaken, but I have a strong impression that I was the first of a long line of miners who went from San Francisco to Mexico and laid the foundation there for mighty fortunes. ”

“ If by any chance it had succeeded, if the diamond company’s stock had been exploited on the stock market, there was not a place upon the earth so desolate and remote but that the vengeance of mankind would have found him out. ”

“ The most difficult problems of finance were as simple to him as the alphabet and his mind cut through all perplexities and obstructions straight to the truth. Had he possessed a few less red corpuscles in his blood—been a plain, downright financier, I am certain that he would have grown beyond the narrow environment of the Pacific Coast and become one of the world’s money125 kings. But he had an odd supplement to the cold-blooded faculty of making money, a sort of richly Oriental imagination that looked far beyond the mere acquisition of a pile of cash. ”

“ All day long the wires around the world were telling of the great Chapman piracy project, happily nipped in the bud by the efficiency of Uncle Sam’s government. One of the facts that gave it a peculiar interest was because John Bright’s nephew was a participant. The story did not lose anything by age or travel. I had once a book of newspaper clippings relating to the Chapman affair and a dispassionate reading of the more lurid descriptions would have satisfied anyone that Greathouse, Rubery and myself were the most bloodthirsty pirates who ever cut a throat or scuttled a ship. ”

“ It saw the foothills crowned with thrifty vineyards, saw the sure foundations laid of a great fruit industry, saw the beginning of systematic irrigation. It saw the port of San Francisco crowded with masts of vessels to carry its new-found wealth to distant lands, saw a mighty foreign commerce develop, saw the treasures of the Comstock Lode unlocked, saw a railroad stretch from the Atlantic to the Pacific. And men arose to meet the new conditions. A splendid line of merchants seized the opportunities of trade. ”

“ Nevertheless, no matter how plain a case may seem, no matter how free from doubt or complication, if it be only big enough the world loves to build around it a fairy structure of mystery or romance. Nothing could be more evident than that Arnold and Slack were the architects of their own work. Yet the public saw fit to cast grave suspicion on those who were clearly victims and heavy losers—the only ones who lost a cent. Even Ralston, although he paid over $300,000 to make good the losses of the stockholders, was more or less under a cloud. ”

“ The Great Battle of Shiloh and the South’s Irreparable Loss in the Death of General Johnston.
War, fifty years ago, was bad enough, but it wasn’t the plain, cold-blooded deviltry that it is to-day. When men met face to face and leaders led, in fact as well as theory, I can understand the inspiration, the enthusiasm, the wild love of glory, that invited the best blood to a military life. ”

“ He said, doubtless in good faith, that no English manager was capable of handling a California hydraulic mine. But this so offended some of the principal English investors that they quietly withdrew.
In the meanwhile, the Emma mine promotion was brought out with a grand blare of trumpets. Immense sums were spent in wholesale advertising. The most dazzling and seductive literature was scattered broadcast through the length and breadth of the United Kingdom. Its fabulous wealth was described in the vivid language that fires the speculative spirit latent in every man and in most women. ”

“ He knew that Greathouse was powerful enough to be at large on bail. He knew that Rubery and I had influential connections. He was himself a poor fellow from Canada, adrift on the Pacific Coast, without a cent or a friend. He saw himself made what we moderns call the “goat” for the whole Chapman incident and concluded that the wisest thing was to look out for his own hide. Somehow I have never had it in my heart to blame Libby overmuch for whatever happened. ”

“ But, of course, in those days of mad excitement and crazy speculation, such an incident was bound to leak. George D. Roberts located, in his old prospector Arnold, one of the fortunates, and introduced him to Ralston and Lent. Arnold was always the spokesman, the negotiator, in these early transactions. Slack merely was present and acquiesced. At first the men were exceedingly coy and cautious, had all the manner of a couple of simple-minded fellows who had stumbled on something great and, bewildered with their good fortune, were simply afraid to trust anyone with the momentous secret. ”

“ General Dodge, who thought meanly of human nature, said in a printed interview that he would stake his life on Arnold’s integrity. Not only that, but Arnold and Slack were willing, even eager, to submit the diamonds to any test and to lead a party of experts to the fields, under proper guaranty that their rights would be protected. They seemed almost exultant when they understood that Tiffany would value the diamonds. That, of course, would settle everything, they said. They were equally delighted at the choice of Janin as an expert. ”

“ Such was the Emma mine, famous, or rather infamous, in history. Just a little later this barren hole in the ground figured in one of the biggest swindles of modern times, in which great names were involved, a minister of the United States to England disgraced and ruined, British investors robbed out of ten million dollars,172 and the business world filled with such suspicion that for many years the doors of foreign credit were barred against American mining enterprise of every sort. ”

“ The role of a Kentucky country gentleman was not to my liking. As I have said, I sold out everything and retired from California after the bursting of the diamond bubble. I resolved that nothing should tempt me again into an active career. But the lure of the busy world was more potent than I realized. After a few years of the simple life I made my headquarters in New York, studied and grasped the investment and speculative markets, and became one of the recognized figures of Wall Street. ”

“ I was young, only 32, had a family of which I was proud, had the best possible standing with business men, both in San Francisco and abroad. Honor bright, does it not seem incredible that a man situated like myself, full of ambition and with everything to live for, would have engaged in an ignoble plot to fleece his friends and the public, a plot absolutely certain to drag him and all belonging to him through the dust? ”

“ First we were to send a large sample of the diamonds to Tiffany, of New York, then, as now, the greatest American authority on precious stones, and have them thoroughly examined and appraised. If their value were proved beyond peradventure, then Messrs. Ralston, Lent, Roberts, Dodge and myself were to choose a mining expert to whom Arnold and Slack agreed to exhibit the diamond fields and permit a full examination of the same.
Nothing could possibly be fairer to all, and Arnold and Slack easily consented to these conditions, without a moment’s hesitation. ”

“ Rude Awakening Follows Dreams of Boundless Wealth; While Promoters Wait for Spring Word Suddenly Comes That They Were Victims of Clever Swindle.
Diamond Already Cut Reveals Fraud; Gems Had Been Carried to Scene of “Find” and Planted Like Seeds.
Just what might have happened in a single month of wild speculation had the stock of the San Francisco and New York Mining and Commercial Company been placed in any considerable quantity on the market, is hard to tell. But one thing is very certain—it would have caused a catastrophe almost without parallel in the civilized world. ”

“ He visited the various gem-cutting establishments, bought many coarse stones, but not enough from any one firm to make the transaction look unusual. No one seemed to know his name, but his photograph was at once identified by many diamond dealers of Amsterdam as the eccentric person who seemed to have an unusual penchant for inferior stones. He was regarded as a newly-rich American with a vulgar taste for ostentation, who wished to overburden his family and dazzle his fellow-countrymen with a wealth of cheap, almost worthless gems. ”

“ The evil a man does lives after him. The good is buried with his bones. The city went about its business, forgot its sorrow, which is necessary and proper, unless the world is to be draped with perpetual mourning weeds, forgot much of the great services Ralston rendered California ”

“ The region around the Bay of San Francisco is destined, beyond a doubt, to become one of the greatest world centers of population, commerce, business and production. The possibilities have barely been touched. Take it as the judgment of a close observer, with wide experience, that now is the time to get on board—using, of course, sound common sense and intelligent foresight. If I were 25 instead of 76, I would like to give the public an object lesson of how to make money.
But I was a long time securing the Market street frontage necessary to carry out my plans. ”

“ General Johnston had freed all his slaves before he came to California. One of them, called “Rand,” brief for “Randolph”—he had no other name—followed him as a body-servant to the Pacific. When Johnston left for the South he ordered “Rand” to stay behind. He was a famous cook and could have commanded big wages in a high-class restaurant. But the faithful body-servant would not be denied. He fought his way with his former master through the Apaches of Arizona and was with him at Shiloh when he died. He hung over the dead body of the fallen leader in a wild passion of primitive grief. ”

“ While the tension was at its height I called at the Bank of California one afternoon and was ushered into the private office of Mr. Ralston. To tell the truth, I was feeling the pinch myself, and wanted to know something of the outlook.
The banker said I was just the man he wanted to see. “If things go on as they are,” he said, “every bank will be closed by tomorrow afternoon. Not one of us can stand a half day’s run, and all will go down in a heap. Then look out for hell in general to break loose. This will happen if I don’t get a million dollars in coin in the vaults tonight. ”

“ In launching a concern of such tremendous importance, probably destined to affect profoundly a vast industry, it is always deemed vital to have the support of the largest financial center possible. New York was then, as now, the great haunt of capital in the United States. Many of its leading men were only too anxious to identify themselves with the new exploitation. I did not think that the question of headquarters was one deserving mature consideration, especially inasmuch as San Francisco, controlling the stock issues, would necessarily be the great beneficiary in the long run. ”

“ For myself, I felt crushed beneath the burden of vague suspicion, became disgusted with life in general and with business in particular, and formed a determination to retire permanently from active affairs at once. With this end in view, I offered my extensive California holdings on a dead market and accepted bargain prices. My controlling interest in the Montgomery Street Land Company I sold to Messrs. Ralston and Sharon, so that they owned share and share alike. ”

“ Where so many are cognizant of a secret, it very soon becomes public property, and in a brief space of time all New York and, for the matter of that, all the civilized world, knew that vast diamond fields had been discovered on the North American continent, had been inspected by a mining engineer of great reputation and pronounced genuine. ”

“ There is something about gold—just the metal—that makes people forget everything else in life. A little prospecting showed us that we were in the heart of a great gold-bearing district, with surface croppings of such value that all a man needed for working capital was a pick, a pan, a couple of hammers and a mule to carry the rock to water, where it could be hand-crushed and washed. Even the mule could be dispensed with if one did not mind the labor of shouldering an ore sack for a short distance every day. ”

“ Rubery, for his part, returned to Lieutenant Tompkins his letter of retraction, which the latter seemed very glad to receive, for in those days no man of honor cared to have documents of that kind floating around loose. Such incidents of goodwill between men engaged on opposing sides in the Civil War prove to my mind that there was no fundamental line of cleavage, no real antagonism, in fact, between the North and South, and if there had been some power to steady the masses, instead of lashing them to fury, there never would have been a war. ”

“ But when it became apparent that the surface had been barely scratched and that secession might mean the casting aside of wealth beyond the dreams of avarice, then patriotism and self-interest surely had a lively tussle. If Nevada could have been carried out of the Union along with California, I am almost certain that the story of those times would have been widely different. We certainly had the organized forces to carry out our plans. ”

“ Ralston’s statements, then everything else in the world in the way of business or enterprise seemed commonplace and cheap.
I laid the matter before Alfred Rubery, who usually had a level head. He was surprised at my reluctance. “You have your men safely trapped here,” he said. “There is no possibility of escape, and whether they enjoy for a brief time a sense of fancied freedom, matters not in the least. Make up your mind to go to California and find out what all this cable correspondence means. Personally, I am bored to death, just pining for a little bit of excitement. ”