Hubert Howe Bancroft

“ It was a dry business listening to dry cases, and spurting tobacco-juice at a mark across the room by the hour, and the judge was not the man to sit and suffer through the day. He was now a great man; but great men grow thirsty. All great men in California at that time were thirsty men. Indeed thirst was a mark of greatness, and the more thirsty a judge the more was he esteemed fit for the position. There was nothing at all strange then that Judge Almond should pause occasionally in his proceedings to quench his thirst. ”

“ His crimes are his profession's rather than his own. Confident with women, he is audacious with men. Prompt in action, expert, he is as ready to attack a dozen as one. 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. United with the coolest cunning is the coolest courage. He is as ready with his pistol as with his toothpick, but he never uses it unless he is right ”

“ From the time of the gold discovery, which made all around of the roseate hue, there was an openness in all kinds of wickedness, a dash and abandon quite refreshing. Perhaps they play as heavily at the London gaming houses, and at the German springs, but the charm and freshness of unhackneyed nature is not there. In London, or even at the German springs, one would not often see a Sydney convict, a clergyman not three months from his preaching, a Harvard graduate, a Pennsylvania farmer, and a New York newsboy all betting at the same table at the same time. ”

“ And now, after this cold-blooded exhibition of inhumanity and wanton insult of the law, comes the prostitution of the law, for the shielding of its august offender. Throughout life Terry's actions, if they speak at all, imply simply this : laws are made for the masses, who must be taught to respect them, to regard it as impious to break, or even so much as violently to touch them. We who make and construe the law, while outwardly showing it the greatest deference for ourselves and our ermine's sake, may indulge in a little license; at all events we will so indulge and break it when we please. ”

“ He savs the very fact of a chance being even makes it impossible to beat it, otherwise it wouldn't be even. It is a great pity. It would be such an easy way of making a fortune if one could sit down for a few hours a day, and, without risk or labor, make a certain sum. I don't see why there should be such a prejudice against gambling in itself. Every undertaking in life is a venture more or less doubtful. All these merchants here are liable to fail. Every profession, marriage itself, is a lottery, in which the future happiness of a life depends on an experiment that cannot be undone. ”

“ With pride I point to our judiciary and to the better class of attorneys who practice in our courts. True, a judge may be bribed sometimes, not knowing it; or he may be swayed by public opinion, not knowing it; he may be feasted by bonanza men, or given a free ride across the continent by the wholesale corruptionists of the railroads, and so warp his decision in their favor—not knowing it. Unfortunately as much cannot truthfully be said of our legislators and political officeholders who, during the usually short term of their occupancy, seek rather to serve themselves than the public. ”

“ About the time this, one of the last rehcs of gambling saloons, fell forever out of sight, a new iron fence enclosed the plaza, fresh grass covered its hitherto unsightly face, and the citizens of San Francisco looked hopefully forward to the good time which had been so long in coming.
The gambler is almost always well dressed. No class in California are so scrupulously neat in all their belongings. Nor is he always an idler, knave, or fool. He knows that his profession is not ranked among the most honorable, but he does not intend always to follow it. ”

“ Then there is the institution of slavery, which within these few centuries had half the world for its supporters, that most anomalous of social anomalies, which under the laws of man enable man to hold man as merchandise, to own him, order him, bind him, beat him, kill him—no one to-day openly upholds human slavery as in the abstract right but would blush for his opinion did he but know the depth of his own ignorance and error. ”

“ We do not know in what happy clime the great game of poker was first introduced; the name of the man out of whose fathomless intellect it soared into the world of created things and began to fascinate the hearts of the people is shrouded in oblivion; but we do know that California is the land where the game has been most favorably received and hidustriously cultivated as a science. ”

“ Any system may win for a time, but all must lose eventually. In a game of pure chance, luck is everything; and in the long run that must equalize itself. In the meantime the bank is gaining a certain steady profit, and the maximum stake is placed so low as to prevent any extraordinary event from inflicting a serious loss upon it. I have discovered that I am no gambler, since I do not care to play unless I think I have a certainty of winning. I can quite understand any one being interested in constructing various systems to play by until the discovery comes that none are infallible. ”

“ Like everything else, drinking took on its own form in California. From a drinking-shop arose, outside Sebastopol, the fortified town and famous tower of Malakoff, which in the Crimean war was the cause of so much annoyance to the allied army, from a drinking-shop arose in San Francisco a race of bonanza kings.
Men steeped their souls in drink. Anything was made a pretext—the arrival of news, the 4th of July, the Sunday festivities, the death of a comrade, a hanging scrape, or simply being seized with thirst, and the whole camp would be taken suddenly drunk. ”

“ Frost dispels a portion of the summer haze, and the air of whiter is clear and cold. The granite walls glisten in a net-work of ice, and the frozen vapor whirls through the canon, smit- ing the cliffs, and overspreading the domes in layers of white, which, as they thicken, loosen their hold, slide off in huge masses, and striking upon the debris piles, break into powder, and fill the gorge to the brim with fine particles of frozen mist, which sparkle like diamond dust. ”

“ No one was more surprised than they, after they had been in the mines a short time to catch themselves drinking at a bar, betting at monte, or frequenting a house of ill-fame.
Of all plants, probably a youthful clergyman in a stormy climate is the most tender. Educated into the belief that belief is everything, while actually not knowing what belief is; taught to think himself by reason of his profession alone whiter than others in his purity, stronger in his strength, when bereft of these stays he often falls deeper than any.
It was so in flush California. ”

“ Among the rest I found the alcalde of San Francisco, a gentleman of education and refinement, who never plays himself, but who, on this occasion, had come to witness the excitement. I gathered them all, some fifty in number, into the large saloon, and told them the only speech I had to make was in the shape of a fine of twenty dollars each. The more astute began to demur on the plea of not guilty, as no cards and no money had been discovered; and as for the beds, a man had as good a right to sleep under one as in it. ”

“ When every one says times are good and acts accordingly, investing, improving, circulating his money, that alone will make business and prosperity. But as a rule it is safe to say of stock-boards, buildings, and the mass of wealth heaped up by bonanza men and stock-jobbers, that they all are but the crystallizations of crime. To their dearest friends who inquired of them as to their fortune, they were false oracles, ready to sacrifice heaven, if they ever had any chance there, in order to fill their pockets. ”

“ Between two mountain systems stretches the valley of California, an elliptical, trough-like plain, five hundred miles in length by seventy-five in width; a vast amphitheatre, from whose arena circling terraces rise up to the lofty canopy of a pearl and beryl sky—colossal benches, whereon the gods might sit and watch the strange doings of men below.
Although not gods we some day may be; all gods were once men, or something worse. ”

“ The court and all present adjourned to the bar of the saloon to drink and joke at the criminal's expense. Ridicule is often a severer scourge than stripes. Regardless of the reckoning, and of the convict's ability to pay, drink after drink was called on and poured down the throats of the jovial assemblage until all, including judge, jury, and executioner became more engrossed in the pleasing pastime than in watching the prisoner, who, taking advantage of the opportunity, slipped out, packed his little property and was soon over the hills and out of sight. ”

“ The professional gambler seeks the best mines and the largest crowds. When gold begins to fail he migrates with the miners, following the diggers as the sea gull follows the pelican. Should the occupants of one camp become impecunious or disgusted and decline further play, he quietly packs up his tools, mounts his mule, and is off for another. Thus he may have to go for many days before he gets a game. In mountain towns his quarters may be a log cabin, with open broad fireplace, larger than the other cabins, but always occupying a central position. ”

“ Next comes the gentleman gambler, who cultivates the hazard of dice or cards as a recreation, openly and unblushingly. He may deal occasionally as an amateur, not as a legitimate or professional; but usually he exhausts the time in midnight poker or faro. Tinctured with politics, and he is welcomed at political clubs; if pleasing in manner and free with his money, women of a certain quality cultivate him. If a business man, it is necessary for him to be guarded and sly in his gambling operations; and if a churchgoer or salaried clerk, the vice proclaimed is absolute ruin. ”

“ Knowledge, either in law or elsewhere, is not alone a looking back, but an eternity of inquiry concerning not only what has been but what is and shall be. When we can no more conceive of a boundary to knowledge than we can conceive of a boundary to space, it is not wise in us to revivify by all our powers dead or dying formulas; for if such a course does not lead to the nihilism of Georgius of Leontini, there is at all events but little progress in it. ”

“ The gambler, when play grew slack, would stroll away, sometimes leaving his table unguarded in the midst of a heterogeneous crew of cut-throats, temptingly loaded with the stuff all men covet, apparently repfarding: it as safe as if locked in the vaults of the bank of England. Few possessed the temerity to rob a gambler, and least of all in a place where summary justice would be quickly meted out by the bystanders. ”