Reno - a Book of Short Stories and Information Part 17

Judge Norcross is a member of several brotherhoods and societies, among them the Nevada State Council of the National Civic Federation of which he is chairman, and the Committee of One Hundred of the New York University "Hall of Fame," the business of which it is to decide upon those who are to wake up over night and find themselves famous.

Among the prominent Nevada citizens of the early mining days, are "Lucky Baldwin," C. C. Goodwin, James G. Fair, John W. Mackay, Marcus Daly and Mark Twain. Those who have not already done so would, I am sure, enjoy reading Mark Twain's "Roughing It." In this book he tells many interesting and amusing stories of his experiences in Nevada mining camps. I quote him as follows: "I went to Humboldt District when it was new; I became largely interested in the 'Alba Neuva' and other claims with gorgeous names, and was rich again in prospect. I owned vast mining property there. I would not have sold out for less than $400,000 at that time, but I will now. Finally I walked home--200 miles--partly for exercise, and partly because stage fare was expensive."

Again he says: "Perhaps you remember that celebrated 'North Ophir.' I bought that mine. You could take it out in lumps as large as a filbert, but when it was discovered that those lumps were melted half dollars, and hardly melted at that, a painful case of 'salting' was apparent, and the undersigned journeyed to the poorhouse again."

The following is one of the tragic incidents in the mining game. I think it must have been such an instance that caused the origin of the Western slang phrase-"Out of Luck."

"I paid a.s.sessments on 'Hale and Norcross' until they sold me out, and I had to take in was.h.i.+ng for a living, and the next month the infamous stock went up to $7- a foot.

"I own millions and millions of feet of affluent leads in Nevada, in fact the entire under crust of that country nearly, and if Congress would move that State off my property so that I could get at it, I would be wealthy yet. But no, there she squats--and here am I. Failing health persuades me to sell. If you know of anyone desiring a permanent investment I can furnish one that will have the virtue of being eternal."

I think "Roughing It" was written about 1851.

If you knew Senator Huskey as I do, you would agree with me that the Senator is indeed Huskey by name and "husky" by nature. A more complete parcel of huskiness you never did see, nor a jollier, more cordial and better hearted could you ever wish to meet, for he has never allowed the musty parchment to dry up the finer faculties of his sentiments, and he can appreciate a beautiful sunset, a fine verse, and in fact all Nature's beauties, and yet be the big man and the great lawyer he is.

Then too, the Senator is an enthusiastic sportsman and plays a splendid game of hand-ball. I have known him, for hours on end, to pound at the ball at the Y.M.C.A. as if his very life depended upon whether he had hit it a hundred or a thousand times in an afternoon; as if he would be shot at sunrise if he fell below the mark. But in college days, his strength ran to his feet. He was known as a powerful kicker, and woe betide the man who would try and act as a buffer between his feet and the ball.

And now let me tell you about the Senator's early life. He started his career on the farm, for his father was a school teacher, and you will agree that--a family of fourteen is a rather expensive kind of brood to rear. And so, some of those fourteen chicks had to hustle and fence for themselves as soon as they could. Among the little Huskeys was Walter. It is thus he graphically describes some of his reminiscences:

"I was a cracker jack at cutting corn. Father and brothers could beat me at husking, but somehow or other I was good at cutting. And some days I could cut as high as twenty-six shock in a half day. Finally I had acc.u.mulated a little fund and decided to brace myself for a talk with the college professor in charge. I was the greenest thing you ever saw, and they called me 'Lengthy,' for at that time I weighed only one hundred and thirty pounds."

The t.i.tle of "Senator" has since done its historical duty, for the once "bony laddie" now turns the scales at 250 pounds.....

After that, the college professor paid young Huskey's parents a surprise visit, as a result of which we find the boy at work at a preparatory course in the Wesleyan University, Kansas. Within two years, through a.s.siduous perseverance and keen enthusiasm for his work, he was able to teach in the country districts. For a decade he taught the younger generations how to shoot, and thus eked out a fairly moderate living, for the pay was not staggering by any means, nor was it like Huskey to forget the folks at home.

In La Porte, Texas, whither by this time he had wandered, they offered him the princ.i.p.als.h.i.+p of the High School. "They gave me," I heard him say one day, "one hundred dollars a month, and I thought it was the biggest salary in the world."

[Ill.u.s.tration: Senator H. Walter Huskey]

Then he realized that it was almost impossible to convert a mint of knowledge into a mint of money, even as a princ.i.p.al, so he struck out vigorously for law, took a special course at Stanford University and received second highest honors. Shortly after he landed in the "big little city" of Reno and entered into partners.h.i.+p with Charles R.

Lewers, who had strangely enough been His professor at Stanford University and who evidently held his erstwhile pupil in very high esteem, in thus throwing in his lot with him.

In 1906 Huskey was elected by the a.s.sembly of Nevada, and in 1914 by a very flattering majority was sent up as State Senator for Washoe County. As a law maker, he had proven his worth on more than one occasion, for not only is he a Senator with a brain, but also a man with a heart. The pa.s.sing of the Employers' Liability Act was due directly to the Senator's spirited persistence. He lost the Southern Pacific contracts through it, but he did not care.

One of the real romances of the divorce world is the Senator's second marriage, and the present Mrs. Huskey is exceedingly charming and interesting, and a splendid horse woman.

An amusing incident is told of a little political difference of opinion between the Senator and the suffragettes about a remark which this worthy gentleman let forth in an unguarded moment. You should have seen the sparks fly and the fire flame up! In fact, it gave me considerable pleasure to be able to announce at the moment of writing that Senator Huskey's golden crop of curls was not singed beyond recognition and that his eyes were still steel blue and not black.

This is how the conflagration started:

At a conference in Carson City between the City Council and the Washoe delegation, the Senator, who put in a rather tardy appearance, is reported to have said to the other members: "All the ladies who came to Carson on The Cat Special' are waiting for you upstairs. I'm going to a show. Anything you do is all right for me."

Miss Anne Martin, the president of the Women's League, did her best to put a favorable interpretation upon this very questionable term of endearment by saying that probably the Senator meant that they were as undrownable as cats, who are reputed to have nine lives, and that this persistence was getting what they wanted. That was all very well for the "mild" cats, but the spit-fiery ones were not so easily satisfied.

One of them sent him a letter addressed, "Mr. H. W. Meow Huskey, Senate Chamber, Carson City." Others still more vindictive pasted a picture of a large tomcat, hunched of back and bristling of hair, right next to the Senator's campaign picture which already decorated the middle of the Truckee. Under it was written as large as life, "THE HUSKEY TOMCAT." Needless to say the whole town of Reno turned out the next day to enjoy the joke, and among them was the Senator, who enjoyed it as much as anyone.

There is a strong rumor abroad that the Senator is to be a likely candidate for Governor: I certainly wish him every success. If a comprehensive knowledge of the law, a vigorous prosecution of the principles of Justice and a big heart are attributes that count, then the Senator stands the greatest chance to win the fight.

Maurice Joseph Sullivan, Lieut.-Governor: No mining, no teaching, no law! This sketch is of a thoroughbred business man, who after graduating from the Polytechnic High School in San Francisco, joined a large wholesale hardware firm as a start in his career. Here he got some pretty "hard wear": those preliminary knocks that rub off all the rough edges and take with them some of the glamour of life.....

However, Maurice Sullivan didn't have as many rough edges as most young fellows. He was good looking, popular and unspoilt--a phenomenon rarely come upon--and being ambitious it was not long before he had set up in Goldfield under the style of the Wood-Sullivan Hardware Co., selling hardware with lightning rapidity, just as if it were the easiest ware in the world to dispose of.

Then one fine day Sullivan developed into a full-blown philanthropist.

Each little baby visitor born into the camp of Goldfield was donated a big silver dollar, by way of encouragement to stay. And they surely did stay, those "Dollar Babies."

In 1914 he was elected to the Lieutenant-Governors.h.i.+p, and an amusing anecdote is told of how he became "peeved" when he discovered that several of the house members were playing "hookey" in order to avoid voting on a bill, and sent the State police after them. How many of the culprits were collared and brought back I was not told, but I am inclined to think that it was the good round figure "nought," for the bill was scratched and the Lieut.-Governor fumed in vain.

Mr. Sullivan was Lieut.-Governor during my stay in Nevada.

Senator Morehouse.... One does not often in a lifetime meet a person born on April Fool's Day, and, usually when one happens to come across such a b.u.t.t for mirth he will probably try to pa.s.s it off by telling you that the day of his birth is the last day of March, or something similar. I have known scores of people born on the 28th or even the 29th of February, but Senator Morehouse is the first one I have met who has the courage to face the world, and boldly announce the fact that he is an April Fool's child. But then, the joke is on the original April Fool, for the Senator has fooled him by being one of the brightest men of the State, and certainly its most gifted orator-- the Demosthenes of Nevada, in fact. Surely a true son of April Fool should stutter and stumble, and stammer and shy in the most pitiful manner. Well, anyway, the Senator can always have the consolation that he has "put one over" on Father April Fool.

Way back, in the days of "Mobile Bay", young Harry Morehouse, then only a lad of seventeen, fought for his side until he could fight no more. Then the Sisters of Mercy had to mend the ravages of that unnatural fight, and for seven months Harry had a little holiday lying on his back. No sooner recovered, the rover spirit seized his feet and round he came to California, by way of the Isthmus, where he acted as "a sort of reporter," until he had eked out enough knowledge to teach in the grade school. Thence he started on the law path, from which he emerged most triumphantly, and after practicing in California struck out Renowards in 1913, where he was a.s.sociated with the late Judge James G. Sweeney, who but recently pa.s.sed away.

By nature the Senator is mild and gentle, and always ready to lend a helping hand to a fellow traveller. I have had the pleasure of meeting him in private life, and have always felt impressed with those perfect manners, that pleasant voice and those kindly words. Although one of the newer Sons of the Sagebrush, he is surely one of the most acceptable.

Governor Emmet D. Boyle has the distinction of being the youngest governor into whose hands Nevada ever thought it safe to entrust her well-being. He is none of your gray-beards, stolid of thought and sluggish of action, but a young politician (his real profession is mining engineering) with a wealth of experience, and plenty of good common "horse sense."

His mother was a literary woman, and from her he learned to find a friend in books. As for his father, he was one of the most prominent mining men of the Comstock, and as a lad the governor-to-be had already acquired an extensive knowledge of mining, surveying, a.s.saying and milling.

At sixteen he joined the University and became a member of that most select of fraternities, with that weird-sounding name, Phi Kappa Kappa. He had specialized in mining at college, and upon graduation left the State, and engaged in several mining enterprises in British Columbia and Mexico. Then when his father pa.s.sed away, he returned to Nevada and was offered a position as State Engineer.

In 1915 he was made Nevada's Tax Commissioner and he traveled the State far and wide, gaining both fame and popularity.

At college the Governor had distinguished himself considerably in the sporting arena, and he was known to be a particularly strong man when it came to kicking the ball.

"Once a sport, always a sport!" If this spirit does not have the opportunity to show itself in active practice on the field of sport, it will nevertheless make itself felt in one's relations with men on the field of life, and so we have in Emmet D. Boyle a practical man with a vast knowledge about Nevada's foremost sources of success, with a true appreciation of the booklore of our ancestors, a keen eye and the love of fair play of the true sportsman.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Governor Emmett D. Boyle Of Nevada]

That he has a kind and humane heart can be judged from the fact that it was he who was responsible for the re-introducing of the six months residence law. Why should two people be forced to live together in distrust and misery any longer than was absolutely necessary? And so he worked as best he could to shorten that time, as much as the statute would permit. He succeeded, and thanks to him, several people have had their happiness given back to them.....

I had the honor to meet the Governor on a number of occasions and always found him so simple and una.s.suming that I could hardly realize I was conversing with the man holding the highest position in the State, as if I had known him for years.

The leading man of the State should have a charming wife! The Capitol would indeed be a desolate place without a hostess to entertain the Governor's colleagues, and apparently Governor Boyle has made a remarkably good choice in Miss Veda McClure, for she is extremely popular and takes a great interest in the Red Cross work, which is making such splendid strides all over the State.

Let me here relate to you a most amusing incident which occurred to the Governor some little time ago.

It was a State function and the dinner was scheduled for eight o'clock sharp; but it was not on time, and you shall hear why. At a quarter to eight, when his dress suit had not yet put in an appearance from the tailor's, the Governor sent a search party after it and waited, as patiently as circ.u.mstances would permit, for the delinquent "fine feathers" to blow in. By eight, he was a little more than uneasy, but it didn't help any. Suddenly, on the domestic horizon appeared a weird-looking creature! A human being, apparently in a state of frenzy over some terrible catastrophe. It was the tailor! "Here," he whispered, almost in tears, as he handed something to the outraged head of the State, "these ain't yours, but you'll have to wear 'em; yours someone else is wearing."

[Ill.u.s.tration: Governor's at Carson City]

And he wore them.... But, the tale runs, the Governor looked----He certainly did establish a precedent at that dinner. Mockers say that Judge Pat McCarran ran a close second, because his Excellency is lean and lank, while Judge McCarran would make two of him one way, and almost half of him the other, and because what happened to Governor Boyle had also happened to Judge McCarran that very night.

Fred, de Longchamps... As a youngster, when playing amongst the rabbits and brush on the south side of the river Truckee, Fred, de Longchamps, like most youngsters, built many a castle in the air.

Later, those castles descended literally from the air to the earth, for little Fred became a great architect, and now I am not surprised when I think how often I have admired those beautiful villas, which are strewn in such profusion all over Reno.

When at Reno University, de Longchamps did the pen and ink work and other ill.u.s.trating for the "Artemesai," the University publication.

Mining, too, seemed to have a certain fascination for him, and in addition to his course in building, he gained considerable experience in mining operations. Then came the toss-up. Mining won, but wasn't strong enough to hold out, and thereupon, behold him returned to his old love.

Do you see that fine modern looking structure over yonder? It is the Court House, without which Reno would not be Reno, and it was Mr.

Fred, de Longchamps who conceived and built it. The Y. M. C. A.