Your Guide Book to the Pacific Railroad, 1879
Virginia City
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Street Scene in Virginia City, Nevada |
VIRGINIA
CITY
One of the most interesting towns on the coast. Expecting
streets of gold and silver, one finds dust or mud. On October 26, 1875, it was
almost wholly destroyed by fire, but the burnt district has been rebuilt more
handsomely than ever. It's population now exceeds 20,000. A first class hotel, The
International, has been erected.
It appears small, but is the most densely packed of all
American cities. One-third of its people are underground, where lighted candles
glimmer faintly in subterranean passages, by day and by night.
Bedrooms do double duty for hundreds or thousands, whose work
never ceases. Miners are shifted every eight hours and the men of two shifts may
occupy the same couch.
LIFE
IN VIRGINIA CITY
The streets present a busy appearance with men of all
classes, and occasionally women, watching the indicator of the San Francisco
stock market as anxiously as a gambler.
Saloons are numerous and crowded, and profanity fearfully
prevalent.
It is a city of extremes in prices, speculations character,
activity, enterprise, debauchery, and home life. The rich and the penniless are
side by side. Every notion and ism is advocated, every nation represented
by the worst and the best.
One says, "The gods here worshiped are heathen deities,
Mammon, Bacchus and Venus. The temples are brokers' offices, whisky shops,
gambling hells and brothels.
There is wonderful enterprise, much intelligence, some
refinement, not a little courtesy, and a sea of sin."
At this point in your trip, you have two choices.
1. Continue your trip from Truckee to San Francisco
2. Take a thrilling ride down a Sierra flume with James C. Flood and James G. Fair.