In the 1870's, almost all capital for major mines in California and other western states or territories was centered in San Francisco, where William Ralston, chief officer of the Bank of California, pursued investments. When his associates were persuaded that a diamond lode of secret location had been discovered, he incorporated with them the Golconda Diamond Mine. The Exhilarated Suckers represents the course of their investment.

F.L. Light is the author of the Gouldium, a series of twenty-four dramas (all framed to his peculiar form of Athenian tragic poetry), on the life and times of Jay Gould. This play is no less framed.