Virginia City: To Dance with the Devil

Where else but in Virginia City could a penniless Irish miner in a few short years amass a fortune greater than any of America's robber barons, simply by dint of hard work and intuition, and remain a humble, caring human being? Here as well Mark Twain discovered and honed his comic voice, and notorious badman Sam Brown was lined with lead, with a coroner's jury concluding, - It served him right. - Here also Julia Bulette, a kindly harlot beloved of the city's firemen, was the toast of a rowdy Fourth of July parade. In Virginia City mines, men plunged into the scalding, hazardous heart of the earth, tantamount to partnering with hell's dread demon, so that they could enjoy five Shakespeare companies performing at once, food rivaling Delmonico's in New York, and frocks ordered directly from Paris that could be worn in this barren, windswept middle of nowhere. Virginia City's twenty turbulent bonanza years - what a time it was!