The fever of the frontier is in them. Once,
to Pamela Moffett, he wrote:
"Orion and I have enough confidence in this country to think that, if
the war lets us alone, we can make Mr. Moffett rich without its ever
costing him a cent or a particle of trouble."
From the same letter we gather that the brothers are now somewhat
interested in mining claims:
"We have about 1,650 feet of mining-ground, and, if it proves good,
Mr. Moffett's name will go in; and if not, I can get 'feet' for him
in the spring."
This was written about the end of October. Two months later, in
midwinter, the mining fever came upon him with full force.
XX.
THE MINER
The wonder is that Samuel Clemens, always speculative and visionary, had
not fallen an earlier victim. Everywhere one heard stories of sudden
fortune--of men who had gone to bed paupers and awakened millionaires.
New and fabulous finds were reported daily. Cart-loads of bricks--silver
and gold bricks--drove through the Carson streets.
Then suddenly from the newly opened Humboldt region came the wildest
reports. The mountains there were said to be stuffed with gold. A
correspondent of the "Territorial Enterprise" was unable to find words to
picture the riches of the Humboldt mines.
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