Hinton Rowan Helper

“ Plunder was of course to be had, and the swindlers and desperadoes, who live by their wits, were quite as eager to visit the new country as were the honest miners who had come to wrench fortune from the flinty bowels of the earth by their brawny arms.
Villains from all parts of the world swarmed upon the new soil. Cunning sharpers from New England, desperate vagabonds from Texas, bogus men from the north-west, and reckless plunderers from the prairies hastened to California like crows to a corn-field. Mexico sent thither her sly robbers, Chili and Peru furnished their secret assassins. ”

“ An intelligent and patriotic curiosity will find the history of few countries more interesting than that of California—which has at length realized those dreams of El Dorado that beguiled so many an early adventurer from the comforts and bliss of his fireside, to delude and destroy him. The marshes of the Orinoco, the Keys of Florida, and the hills of Mexico cover the bones of many of these original speculators in the minerals of the Western World. They sought wealth, and found graves. ”

“ No one here can be successful unless he assimilates himself to the people; he must carouse with villains, attend Sunday horse-races and bull-fights, and adapt himself to every species of depravity and dissipation.
Thus must a man discipline himself before he can receive the support and patronage of the public. It matters not what his occupation may be, whether merchant, mechanic, lawyer or doctor, he is sure to be ostracized, if he stands aloof from the vices and follies of the populace. ”

“ That millions of dollars worth of gold have been taken from the mines, and that there is a vast amount still remaining, no one pretends to deny; but then it does not exist in the quantity that is generally supposed. There is nothing more uncertain, as a business, than gold mining in California. It is, indeed, like a lottery—more blanks than prizes; and as every man has to take his chances, he must not feel too much disappointed if his luck leaves him with the majority. A few make themselves independently rich, and go home with flying colors ”

“ Among the auditory, I noticed many Spanish maids and matrons, who manifested as much enthusiasm and delight in anticipation of what was to follow as the most enthusiastic sportsman on the ground. Crying children, too, in the arms of self-satisfied and admiring mothers, were there, full of noise and mischief, and a nuisance, as they always are, in theatres and churches, to all sober-minded people. Of men, there were all sizes, colors and classes, such as California, and California alone, can bring together. ”

“ Law is a nullity, or at best a mere nominal thing; order does not exist except where the dread of the bowie-knife or the revolver enforces it. Men of notoriously bad character are intrusted with the management of affairs, and are easily accessible to bribery. Justice is proverbially venal, legislation is utterly corrupt. Such a loose administration of public affairs would be productive of bad results any where, but its influence is especially malign in California, where so many desperate men are to be found, determined, at every hazard, to better their fortunes. ”

“ There is no common interest; every man is for himself, and himself alone. Society is composed of elements too varied and dissimilar;—it is a heterogeneous assemblage of rivals and competitors, who know no sympathy, and recognize no principle, save that of personal profit and individual emolument. Nearly all colors and qualities of mankind are congregated here. The great human family is, as it were, sampled and its specimens formed into one society, each communicating to the other his own peculiar habits, and each contending for the same object—the acquisition of gold. ”

“ None of them engage in any sort of manual labor, except, perhaps, that which is of the most trivial and unmanly nature, such, for instance, as the manufacturing of jewelry and haberdashery. Mining, the cultivation of the soil, in a word, any occupation that requires exposure to the weather, is too fatiguing and intolerable for them. The law requiring man to get bread by the sweat of his brow, is an injunction with which they refuse to comply. It is a tax they are unwilling to pay—an enigma beyond their comprehension—they will not sweat. ”

“ California has features as distinct and peculiar as the Alps or the Andes. It cannot be mistaken for any other country; it is like no other region on the face of the earth. Being new, and in some respects untried, the most various conjectures, and the most opposite opinions have been expressed as to its future fortunes and ultimate destiny. A few who have been successful in their schemes and undertakings, and whose interests and existence are now blended with it, flatter themselves that it is destined to become a great and flourishing state ”

“ All things being ready, the great bull, Behemoth, was freed from restraint, and sprang with frantic bounds into the midst of the arena. He bore a suitable appellation, for he was a monster in size and formidable in courage. Two picadors, Joaquin Vatreto and Jesus Alvarez, mounted on fiery steeds, with swords in hand, now entered and confronted him. Behemoth looked upon this sudden invasion as an intolerable insult. His territory was already too limited for so powerful a monarch as he considered himself, and he could not think of dividing it with others. ”

“ Many new immigrants, who are ignorant of the freaks of California seasons, arriving here in the summer, settle in this valley, and thank their stars that they were guided to an unclaimed plat of so much promise. But when winter comes and the windows of heaven are opened, and the river rises, and the cattle are drowned and the houses swept off, and they themselves compelled to fly to the upland to save their lives, they begin to discover the gloomy fact that they have been caught in a snare. ”

“ All the guests, owners and employees are men. The dishes are washed, the blankets straightened in the berths; and while the cook is preparing dinner, some of the tavern-loungers seat themselves around the table, to take a friendly game of euchre, whist, seven-up, laugh-and-lay-down, old-maid, commerce or matrimony, while others saunter off to the gambling houses, of which there are about half a dozen in the place, to play at roulette, monte, faro, poker, twenty-one, all-fours or lansquenet. Such is hotel life in California, especially in the country towns and throughout the mining region. ”

“ We will now pay our respects to the occidental metropolis of the United States, sometimes honored with the title of the Queen City of the Pacific.
It has not been more truthfully remarked that Paris is France, than that San Francisco is California. This is the grand mart in which all the travel, news, capital, business, and, in fact, every species of interest or employment that belongs to the State is concentrated—the nucleus around which every plan and project must first be developed before it can receive life, vigor, system and order. ”

“ Starting early in the morning, we travel as last as a dare-devil driver can make four horses convey us—frequently meeting and overtaking numerous pack trains, pedestrians and ox-teams, passing to and fro between the mines and Stockton. A part of the country over which our road leads us, is a somewhat elevated plain, which, being entirely destitute of trees and other vegetable products, presents a most dreary and uninviting prospect. We see nothing around us but the naked earth. There is no accommodation for either bird or beast—no resting-place for the one, nor food for the other. ”

“ Our efforts have unsealed Japan, and before long we shall be reaping the fruits of our enterprise in that quarter. Australia, too, is now ready to add her gold to a commerce already immensely valuable. China must open her doors still wider, for the world will knock loudly at them. Nor is this all. The whole trade of the western coast of South America must change its course. A Pacific capital is destined to absorb it. The whaling fleets of the Pacific will not have the stormy passage around Cape Horn to dread, but another New Bedford will look greasily upon the western ocean. ”

“ Will a panther from America, a bear from Europe, a tiger from Asia, and a lion from Africa, organize in peace and good feeling around the body of a fresh slain deer? If not, will the Americans, English, French, Germans, Chinese, Indians, Negroes, and half-breeds, greet each other cordially over a gold mine? These are problems which those who have leisure may solve as their reason dictates. ”

“ They have been duped in listening to the delusive whispers of mischievous sirens, whose flattering suggestions and plausible stories have had such a magical influence upon their excited minds, that they have become accustomed to consider every thought of wealth that occurs to them a veritable mountain of gold;—that is to say, they have, by some strange hallucination, been converted to the belief that whatever California ought to be for their own particular ends and interests, it really is. ”

“ Nicaragua can never fulfil its destiny until it introduces negro slavery. Nothing but slave labor can ever subdue its forests or cultivate its untimbered lands. White men may live upon its soil with an umbrella in one hand and a fan in the other; but they can never unfold or develop its resources. May we not safely conclude that negro slavery will be introduced into this country before the lapse of many years? We think so. The tendency of events fully warrants this inference.
The time may come when negro slavery will no longer be profitable in the United States ”

“ We must not, however, commit the mistake of supposing that all the depravity of California is attributable to the nature of its industrial pursuits. This is but one of the elements which assist in producing the deplorable state of affairs under consideration. There are others which spring from the character of the people, and the circumstances which have brought them together.
It must be borne in mind that all the adventurers to this country have come for the express purpose of making money, and that to this end every other consideration is sacrificed. ”

“ Having looked into the financial condition of California, let us now briefly consider the moral and religious state of its society, We know that we are undertaking an ungrateful and painful task—that we shall awaken the animosity of those who have an interest in enticing settlers to this golden region—that we shall provoke contradiction, and probably excite controversy; but we beseech Heaven to pardon us for speaking the truth, and challenge our antagonists to disprove our statements. ”

“ An editorial friend, writing to me from San Francisco, says:—“Business all over California remains in the same stagnant condition, and every sign prognosticates a time of hardship and suffering. A crisis, in my opinion, is approaching, which will drag down nine-tenths of the business houses in the country. Money gets more stringent every day, and every body seems to be at a loss to know what to do. I must confess I see nothing promising in the future. It is truly a dark day for California.” ”

“ The mud, which is often knee-deep, keeps them imprisoned all the winter; while, in summer, the dust, as fine as flour and as abundant as earth itself, stifles the inhabitants, fills the houses, penetrates into every nook and corner, finds its way even into the inner drawers and chests, soils the wardrobe, spoils the furniture, and sullies every thing. Besides, California is especially infested with vermin. ”

“ This result is partly brought about by the great diversity of occupations which spring up in such a state of society, and give employment to all classes of the community: whereas, in a mining region, rich only in the precious metals, the resources of labor are fewer, and its tasks less diversified. The moral effect of sudden riches must also be taken into consideration. Few men can gaze undazzled at the splendor of a large fortune: and the more rapidly they acquire it, the more likely are they to grow dizzy in its contemplation. ”

“ There is a destiny in commerce, as well as in other things, and fate seems determined to pour the riches of the world into our lap. If, in former times, the slow caravans which conveyed the treasures of the east to western ports, left wealth behind them, wherever their footprints were seen, though vexed by Tartar and by Arab plunderers, how much more benefit is likely to be derived from a rapid and safe transit through a civilized nation, ready, eager and able to add their quota to the stream of wealth? ”

“ In presenting the foregoing calculations, it has been my aim to show that California is a country of unparalleled casualties and catastrophes, and to direct attention to the immense losses which have been sustained in opening its mines of wealth. A large number of people, it seems, have got into the habit of estimating the gains without taking into consideration the cost or losses at all; and there are those, no doubt, who will attempt to find fault with the account which I have drawn up between California and the United States. ”