Gordon Young

“ In Panama—"Once seized with sickness and without a faithful comrade, a man's chance for recovery was small; for already a coating of callous indifference to the suffering of others seemed to be enclosing the hearts of many of these adventurers, and a pale fever-stricken stranger was too often shunned like a leper."—Bancroft's California Inter Pocula. ”

“ It was strange to see so much apparent confidence in the honesty of human nature, and in a city where violence and robberies were so rife, that, when out at night in unfrequented quarters, one walked pistol in hand in the middle of the street—to see money exposed in such a way as would be thought madness in any other part of the world."—The Gold Hunters. By J. D. Borthwick. Edinburgh. 1857. Chapter III.
Duels. ”

“ The exigencies of the work of mining-claims required two or three persons to labor together if they would utilize their strength to the best advantage. The legal contract of partnerships, common in settled communities, became, under these circumstances, the brother-like tie of 'pard'-nership, sacred by camp custom, protected by camp-law ”

“ Mob Law. "The typical lynching occurred, indeed, in a community of Americans, where everybody was by habit disposed to joke in public and seem cheerful as he could, and to listen to all sorts of eloquence; but the affair itself was no expression of this formal joviality, nor yet of this submissiveness to oratorical leadership. It proceeded from a mood of utter revulsion against the accustomed good-humor of the camp. ”

“ Edwin Bryant, who took part in the military operations in California before the discovery of gold, and who was one of the early Alcaldes of San Francisco, wrote in What I Saw in California, London, 1849, Chapter XV: "The men (Spanish Californians) are almost constantly on horseback, and as horsemen excel any I have seen in other parts of the world. From the nature of their pursuits and amusements, they have brought horsemanship to a perfection challenging admiration and exciting astonishment." ”

“ It is difficult to understand why gold remained so long undiscovered in California, considering that so much of it was on the surface, even in those parts of the country already inhabited by whites.... Some of the best diggings have been discovered by market gardeners, who have chosen some apparently valueless tract for the purpose of cabbage growing. ”

“ The State courts of early California decided that "all persons who settle for agricultural purposes upon any mining land in California so settle at their own risk." Many early farms were literally washed away by miners.
Dances in Camp. "It was a strange sight to see a party of long-bearded men, in heavy boots and flannel shirts, going through all the steps and figures of the dance with so much spirit, and often with a great deal of grace, hearty enjoyment depicted on their dried up, sunburned faces, and revolvers and bowie knives glancing in their belts ”

“ All gradations, we have said, can be found in the popular justice of the mines, from the most orderly and wisely conducted expression of outraged popular sentiment which is in any way possible outside of the forms of law, down to the most brutal and disgraceful outbursts of mob fury. ”

“ Women in the Camps. "Society was masculine, and most of the men were under forty. In the spring of 1849 there were but fifteen women in San Francisco.... Bearded and weather-bronzed miners stood for hours in the streets to get a glimpse of a child at play. At a little later period, there were plenty of women who were 'vile libels on their sex'; but the reverence that Californians of the gold era paid to respectable women has received a tribute of admiring praise from all observers. Men often traveled miles to welcome 'the first real lady into camp.'"—Shinn's Mining Camps, p. ”

“ A Spaniard who understood no English was abusively sentenced to be hanged by a judge at San Jose in 1850, who demanded of the prisoner in broken Spanish if he understood. "... evidently he did understand, for with the characteristic nonchalance of his race, he replied, illustrating by signs and gurglings the hanging and choking process: 'Yes, sir, I am to be hanged at a rope's end; strangled, so; it is nothing; thank you.'"—California Inter Pocula, p. 656.
The Shirley Letters tell of a young Spaniard who begged for the rope to escape the whip. ”

“ Men who had been brought up to keep sober, and earn sixteen dollars a month and save half of it, went to California, found rich claims, earned several hundred dollars a month—of which they might have saved three-fourths—but spent every cent in riotous living. Men who had been New York hod-carriers paid out ten dollars a day for canned fruits and potted meats. ”

“ There was a reported scarcity of flour, and it rose in one day at San Francisco, from $16 to $40 per barrel, and in the mines from 30 cents to $1.50 per pound.... Many kinds of goods had become extremely scarce, and were selling at exorbitant prices.... The interior, or mining region, were entirely destitute, and merchants were in town from every point, trying to contract for the transportation of goods. Teamsters knew the country to be impassable, and although as high as $50 and even $100 per 100 pounds was offered for a distance of fifty miles, no one would make the attempt. ”

“ They attacked the tents of inoffensive people, chiefly foreigners, and if they could not extort money from the owners or inmates by threats, tore them to the ground, and stole or destroyed money, jewels, and everything valuable on the premises. These outrages, perpetrated usually at night, when the more peaceable citizens had retired to rest, were so frequent that the 'Hounds' became a terror to all well-disposed people of the town. ”

“ He is never known to steal except at cards; and if caught cheating he either fights or blandly smiles his sin away, suffers the stakes to be raked down without a murmur, treats good-humoredly, and resumes the game unruffled. ”

“ He cites the instance of the city's leading gambler giving $10 as a donation to one preacher, but $20 to another because, as the gambler put it, "he so fearlessly dealt out the truth against gamblers."
"A prominent characteristic of Californians generally, however wicked," says Father Taylor, "is that they want a man, especially a minister of the gospel, to speak out the whole truth fearlessly, boldly, and to make thorough work of whatever he undertakes."—California Life Illustrated. By William Taylor. ”

“ Many of the miners decline washing the top dirt at all, but try to reach as quickly as possible the bed-rock, where are found the richest deposits of gold. The bed-rock, which in this vicinity is of slate, is said to run through the entire range, lying in distances varying from a few feet to eighty or ninety below the surface of the soil. ”

“ Bancroft's History of California, vol. vi, p. 167.
"The morning of our arrival, eighteen of her (U. S. Ohio) men had contrived to escape, carrying with them one of the boats, under fire of all the government vessels in the harbor."—El Dorado. By Bayard Taylor. New York. 1850.
"The harbor presents for miles an unbroken forest of masts; ships from every country and nation lie here idle and worthless, with no prospect of ever leaving; many must go down at their anchor, for there are not enough men unemployed to work a twentieth part of them."—Personal Adventures in Upper and Lower California. ”

“ San Francisco, N. D. Vol. i, p. 201.
"Bad as were physical conditions in 1849, the social conditions were even worse. The town was full of gamblers, thieves, and cutthroats from every quarter of the globe. Society there was none. Every man was a law to himself and by midsummer disorder reigned. An organization, formed from the riffraff of the disbanded regiment of New York volunteers, joined by Australian convicts and the scum of the town, paraded the streets with drum and fife and streaming banners. ”

“ The character of the typical gambler of the flush times is one of the queerest mixtures in human nature. His temperament is mercurial but non-volatized.... Supreme self-command is his cardinal quality ”

“ His continuous conflicts with military and civil authorities, and armed populace, would in any other country in America have been dignified with the term revolution. It is easy to see that he regarded himself rather as a champion of his country than as an outlaw. ”

“ Men thought as little of their blood and lives as of their money, and to gratify high swelling passions would readily waste them all alike."—Annals of San Francisco, p. 356.
"Now and then the games were momentarily interrupted by the crack of a pistol, and the loungers became a little demoralized as the ball whistled past their ears and lodged in the wall. If a man was killed or wounded, he was taken out, but the nature of the affray was left to be learned from the morning papers, and in a few minutes all was as before. "California Inter Pocula, p. ”

“ The absence of ladies was a difficulty which was very easily overcome, by a simple arrangement whereby it was understood that every gentleman who had a patch on a certain part of his inexpressibles should be considered a lady for the time being. ”

“ It was a mad, furious race for wealth, in which men lost their identity almost, and toiled and wrestled, and lived a fierce, riotous, wearing, fearfully excited life; forgetting home and kindred,; abandoning old steady habits ”

“ One of the miners died, and having been much respected, it was determined to give give him a regular funeral. A digger in the vicinity, who, report said had once been a powerful preacher in the United States, was called upon to officiate; and after 'drinks all round,' the party proceeded with becoming gravity, to to the grave, which had been dug at a distance of a hundred yards from the camp. ”

“ Those who were very fortunate often indulged in curious and expensive whims and 'extravaganzas,' feeling sure that their claims would continue to yield treasure. They bought the costliest broadcloth, drank the finest wines, and smoked the best brands of cigars.... ”

“ One week a staple article would soar 200 per cent. above its original selling price. The following week perhaps the same article could not be sold at any price because of a glutted market."—California: Men and Events. By George H. Tinkham. Stockton. 1915. p. 116.
"Great quantities of goods were piled up in the open air, for want of a place to store them ."—Taylor's El Dorado, p. 55.
"Men dart hither and thither, as if possessed of a never resting spirit. You speak to an acquaintance—a merchant perhaps. ”

“ They proposed to live. They would assist at any time the impotent authorities, if the authorities wished their aid and would pay them; and they would just as readily break the law, and defy the authorities, if such a course best suited their purpose. With the coolest impudence they asserted their determination to protect American citizens against Spanish-speaking foreigners, and sometimes claimed to have instructions from the Alcalde to extirpate the Mexicans and Chileans."—Bancroft in Popular Tribunals, vol. ”

“ Gold. Captain Sutter made the statement that scientific men, trappers and Indians had blindly trampled over the gold fields for many years, to Dr. J. Tyrwhitt Brooks, who was in San Francisco at the time of the discovery. Dr. Brooks' diary was published in London, 1849, under the title of "Four Months Among the Gold-Finders."
The date of the gold discovery is unknown: "Marshall himself was uncertain about the exact date. ”

“ Dancing parties such as these were very common, especially in smaller camps where there was no such general resort as the gambling saloons of the larger towns. Whenever a fiddler could be found to play, a dance was got up. ”

“ Until 1860 the validity of such verbal sales was fully sustained by the State courts."—Mining Camps: A Study in American Frontier Government. By Charles Howard Shinn. New York. 1885. p. 274.
"The Californians punished theft more than murder, because men carried their lives about with them, and might defend them, but property left to itself was defenceless. Moreover, where every man was obliged to defend himself, and in a measure to right his own wrongs, greater license was allowed in the employment of deadly weapons."—Popular Tribunals. Vol. i, p. 119.
Lawyers in Camp. ”

“ No Lynching in San Francisco. The statement that no man was ever hanged in San Francisco without at least the semblance of a trial is confirmed by the Reference Department of the San Francisco Public Library, in so far as the library records show.
Rights of Foreigners. "Under the existing laws of the United States, foreigners had the same rights in California as American citizens."—Popular Tribunals. Vol. ”

“ Hence preachers of the Gospel in California's worst days, were permitted to preach in bar-rooms, gambling saloons, public thoroughfares, or wherever they wished, without hindrance or disturbance."
"Father" Taylor in the summer of 249 obtained the lumber for his house by going into the forest across the bay, felling trees, splitting them into lumber, rafting the lumber across the bay, and, practically unaided, built his home. ”

“ Seeing him so much interested in minerals, and so unwearied in his researches thereabout, Sutter said to him one day, 'Doctor, can you not find me a gold mine?' Placing his hand upon the shoulder of his host, the Doctor replied, "Captain Sutter, your best mine is in the soil. Leave to governments to provide the currency.' This was in 1843." p. 51—California Inter Pocula. By Hubert Howe Bancroft. San Francisco. 1888. p. 44 seq.
"Chemists, geologists, mineralogists, and old miners, have not done better than ignorant men and newcomers. ”

“ The very air is pregnant with the magnetism of bold, spirited, unweary action."—Taylor's El Dorado, p. 114.
"When tobacco was down, a man desirous of building a house on made ground tumbled in boxes of it, enough to form a foundation. Before the house was built tobacco was $1 a pound, worth more than a dozen such houses. Wanting a cross walk, one threw in a sack of beans, which shortly after were worth thirty cents a pound."—California Inter Pocula, p. 349.
Bancroft in his History History California, vol. ”