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Show FINDING THE C0MST0CK LODE Far Reaching Results of the Rich Strike of Sliver Made In June, 1859. "You've i ruck It, boys'." Thua said Henry Paige Coinsioc k to Peter O'RIley and Patrick McLaughlin, who were his fellow prospectors In a search for gold In Six Mile canyon, now the present Virginia City, the capital of Nevada. The date was June 10, 1859. In that remote spot In the American wilder-nen8, wilder-nen8, by thrBe three obscure men, wan made on that day a discovery detained to affect the current of American politics pol-itics for a icore of years, says a writer in the Atlantic Monthly, and to have for long a disturbing influence on the world's finances. The thing which was "struck" on that June day of 1859 was the vein covering cov-ering what came to be known as the Comstock lode, In which were hidden the richest deposits of silver ever found anywhere on the globe. Their development, years afterward, sltnul-tancously sltnul-tancously with that of the sliver mines of Colorado, started the downward flood In the price of silver, which broke the old ratio between the money metals, changed the monetary system of the leading nation from the double to the single gold standard; Incited the movement beginning In 1877, under un-der the leadership of Richard P. Bland, for the reopening of the mints In silver sil-ver on the same terms an to gold; led hence to the parsing of the Wand-Allison Wand-Allison limited silver-coinage law of 1878, and to that of the Sherman silver-bullion deposit act of 1890; and was the Issue which spilt the two great parties and made havoc among the smaller one in 1S9G, resulting In the act of 1900, which gave statutory recognition to the gold standard In the United States. ' |