University of Nevada - Artemisia Yearbook (Reno, NV)

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During the latter days of the civil war President Lincoln began to urge the creation of a state from the then territory of Nevada. The citizens of the territory did not feel equal to the task of supporting theimselves at that time and the first vote was unfavorable. But Lincoln continued to urge the matter and ,later the constitution was adopted. Sometimes the burden of statehood has pressed rather heavily upon us, but we have never complained. Nevada has borne herself manfully. in times of peace and in times of war doin-g her full share. She has maintained a 'high standard and has taken high ground upon all public questions. Her courts have been well administered by just and upright judges, her laws have been sustained. peace and good order have always been the rule, she has built up a fine University, cared for her unfortunates in an insane asylum and penitentiary, as their cases demanded, and she has the distinction of having erected t'he first public orphan asylum ever built. ' Today the prospects for the future are the 'brightest they have ever been. Nothing necessary to the building of a great state was omitted when Nevada was created and today it offers opportunities tothe deserving man or to the careful investor second to no other country. It has undeveloped mines, vacant land for fruit, stock, and crop farms. irrigation plants under the Carey Act and the Reclamation laws which will increase -our population and wealt-h very rapidly in the next few years. The world needs Nevada and wit-h western America going forward in the march of empire as it is doing and as it will do for centuries to come she is only waitin-g for men and capital to do her full share. If citizens of they older states will send their id-le men and part of t'heir idle money out to the idle lands of the west they will get results that will benefit all concerned. i In conclusion, Nevada has the brightest prospect and the indications are that it will become a very rich state. Now let us make it a good sta-te. Let us have quality in our people if we cannot -have quantity. Let the good name 0 our home state 'be uppermost in our minds. Marcus Aurelius said: Whatever is good for the 'beehive is good for the bee. So what- ever is goo-d for our state is good for every citizen of the state, X dfx.. X53 N .. .. . M J H 5 ,fx ir jx- 26

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to its neighbors to the exclusion of the good points. No thoughtful citizen of the republic can look with unconcern upon the condition of any one of t'he family of states. The whole country is bound together by indissoluble bonds, and it is one of t'he blessed things ab-out this beloved land of ours that one part so supplements all the other parts that no state can prosper without all the ot-hers 'feeling the good effect. The adverse advertising which Nevada has received in such liberal quantities has been largely the result of gross ignorance an-d misavpprehension. Much of it has been carried on by hairbrained writers who attached even less importance to their vaporings than did their readers. Under our system of journalism, any person. no matter how worthless or thoughtless, 'who can gather up a few bushels of type and a few reams of paper, can attack the largest subjects, and if so minded, can a-ssail the character of a state or of an individual, and so far as noise goes, he will fbe on an equal footing -with the wisest men -of the day. Nevada is a ma.n's state. Men roam the ri-dges in prospecting for the precious metals and ride the range with their cattle and sheep. Large regions must forever remain uncultivated and t'he portion that can be devoted to home-making is comparatively small, probably not ten million out of seventy-one million acres. Every little while a new mining district is discovered and men flock to it for location and investment. Many bring everything they possess and undertake new enter- prises of every kind. Such has been the condition of the country from its birth. History records few migrations of men equal to that which followed the discovery of the Comstock Lode. It was found in June, 1859, just when mining in California had reac'hed its lowest ebb. In the spring of 1860 the territory had 7,000 people. They had crossed the 'Sierras on sno-w shoes with loads on their backs or leading pack mules that sank so deep into the snow a.t every step that blankets had to be laid down for them to walk on. Within twelve months twenty quartz mills were hamrmering out the money and as many saw mills were cutting lumber in the hills. All the machinery was hauled in at a cost of from four to ten cents a pound freight charges. In 1861 t-he population increased to 17,000, and the next year it dou'bled. It was a strange and motley crew, but it had blood and nerve and represented a high order of American manhood. It was not t'he sluggard nor the drone, not the coward nor the drunkard, who stood ready to tiing all his enterprises to the breezes and start out over an almost impassable range of mountains for a strange land, where -he knew there were untold difficulties and dangers. The pilgrims were of all classes-the rich man's son who had been through the best schools, the poor boy who had been through none, the sm-all and t'he large, the witty and the dull, but all had self reliance and determination. Fabulous rewards for the miner, the lawyer, the business man drew talent of a high order and money was easily earned and freely spent. Enormous sums went in litigation over mining ground, each foot of which was known to contain a fortune, and the fees were accord- ingly exltravagant. It has been frequently stated that the Wash'oe B-arm was the most brilliant ever assembled on this con- tinent, in proportion to its numbers. It is a fact that a pioneer Baptist preacher was paid twenty thousand dollars a year salary in one of the western towns and such in-stances were by no means rare. 25 1

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