The great diamond hoax

When Ralston and I opened New Montgomery street we never doubted that its manifest importance would compel an immediate and voluntary extension to the natural terminus of the wa...

I stayed overnight at San Jose at the house of a friend, a stanch Southern sympathizer, who had been advised by wire that he might expect a guest by the late train. The next mor...

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...

Many times I had learned to have a deep respect for printer’s ink. I had seen it make history, change fortune, influence the thought of great bodies of people, prove a mighty in...

All the early gold seekers of California had some knowledge of Mexico. The great argosies of the Pacific Mail Steamship Company stopped at various points, such as Acapulco, Manz...

Among the common traditions of William C. Ralston’s death is the story that he committed suicide to escape exposure. Notwithstanding the fact that a coroner’s jury found on ampl...

Way back in 1868, the Legislature passed a bill giving a franchise to a corporation organized under the name of the San Francisco & Humboldt Bay Railroad Company, to construct a...

Ralston had two business associates--I might almost call them familiars--William Sharon and D. O. Mills. D. O. Mills was a man of some fortune, worth perhaps half a million doll...

I had barely reached San Francisco when the election of 1860 took place, resulting in the choice of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States. All through the South this...

In the early 60’s no one thought of Market street except as a disfigurement to the city and a broad impediment to its progress. It began almost nowhere, at an unfrequented secti...

I was broken-hearted at the turn of affairs in California. Needless to say, I was one of those who voted “yes” on the memorable night when the committee disbanded. The actions o...

When I reached Salt Lake City after examining the Emma mine, I found awaiting me a telegram from Mr. Ralston to the effect that the president of the Bank of England, a Mr. Green...

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 c...

I had early been familiar with Utah and its mines, through an acquaintance with “Sam” Brannan. Brannan had a history of thrills and adventures which if gathered into book form w...

Long before the events narrated in the last chapter a most important person became a character in this narrative. In one way or another, I had become quite a figure in the busin...

My father was one of the largest landed proprietors of Kentucky, in the southwestern section of the State. That was still on the frontier of the Far West. Beyond stretched the l...

As I said, Rubery, Libby and myself were brought from Alcatraz to the Broadway jail, while Greathouse was enlarged on bail. We remained there over six months, while the Governme...

On July 30, 1872, the articles of incorporation of the San Francisco and New York Mining and Commercial Company were formally filed and the report of Expert Janin was made publi...

I think it was the next day or the day following that a display of diamonds was made in the office of William Willis that filled San Francisco with astonishment. The precious st...

I returned to London as soon as my business was arranged in San Francisco. The boom times were still on. Speculation was running mad. I was a trifle chagrined at losing the best...

I was busy with other things besides real estate investments, financing railroads, and politics, during the five years between 1865 and 1870. In 1869 I built the first fine busi...

I did not return to California after my visit to the seat of war until late in the month of July, 1862. Everything seemed in regular shape for outfitting a privateer. But again...

General Albert Sidney Johnston was in command of the military department of the Pacific. He had graduated from West Point in 1826 and saw seven years of active service on the fr...

Somebody else slumbered on board the Chapman that night besides the men below. Morpheus evidently got a strangle-hold on our vigilant sentinel, from what followed. I was wakened...

Our friends in San Francisco had, of course, been advised by wire of our transactions and movements, including the date of our departure. We had not journeyed far before we rece...

When I arrived in San Francisco I lost no time in getting in touch with the principals of the diamond deal. Three prominent men only were concerned in it at that time, W. C. Ral...

Greathouse was released after a brief confinement under a general amnesty act and upon taking the oath of allegiance. Rubery, a foreigner, could not take advantage of the amnest...

We returned direct to New York; that is to say, all of the original party except Rubery and Slack. Of course, Mr. Ralston was advised by wire of the substantial results of our e...

How so many of the shrewdest men in the world could have been absolutely duped by the great diamond fraud may well be asked. The truth is it succeeded not because of the baleful...

Those who are familiar with the staid, conservative, even-paced London of to-day can hardly realize what that same London was in 1871, the period of my first visit there. It was...

Late in the summer of 1865, I took up my residence in San Francisco. The war was over, the country settling down after the intoxication of a terrific struggle. But one fever was...

After Arnold received his final payment of $300,000 he retired to his old home at Elizabethtown in Hardin county, Kentucky, bought a fine piece of land and also a safe, which he...

The three of us--Greathouse, Rubery and myself--now worked in unison. My first intention was to outfit in British Columbia, but an agent stationed at Vancouver was unable to fin...

I could not close this phase of the story without further reference to Edmond Randolph, for I sincerely want to set him right. I said he went mad. Everything later proved it. He...

All the various people of the story have been accounted for and decently retired. Before the curtain falls I have just a word to say about myself to those who have followed the...

The losses growing out of the diamond fraud fell on the shoulders of the original dupes--W. C. Ralston, William M. Lent, George Dodge and myself. My impression is that the money...

Ralston succeeded D. O. Mills as president of the Bank of California, in 1872. While conceding the titular supremacy to another, and contenting himself with the station of cashi...

In the charges made by the London Times, it was not difficult to recognize the handiwork of my old enemies, Baron Grant and the financial editor, Samson. The accusation seemed t...

To my friend, unassuming John A. Finch, of Spokane, Washington, a man of great ability, possessing, according to my ideals, all the attributes of greatness, as a token of my dee...