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Transcriber's Note: Minor typographical errors have been corrected
without note. Dialect spellings, contractions and discrepancies have
been retained.



_The_ Shirley Letters


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CALIFORNIA. _A_ HISTORY _of_ UPPER & LOWER CALIFORNIA _from their_
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_Price_ $10, _net_.


VOYAGE _of the_ SONORA _in the_ SECOND BUCARELI EXPEDITION _to_ EXPLORE
_the_ NORTHWEST COAST, SURVEY _the_ PORT _of_ SAN FRANCISCO, _and_
FOUND FRANCISCAN MISSIONS _and a_ PRESIDIO _and_ PUEBLO _at that_ PORT.
The JOURNAL kept in 1775 on the SONORA by DON FRANCISCO MOURELLE, the
Second Pilot of the Fleet constituting the Sea Division of the
Expedition. Translated by the HON. DAINES BARRINGTON from the original
Spanish manuscript. Reprinted line for line and page for page from
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NOTES showing the Voyages of the Earliest Explorers on the Coast, the
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_These works are printed in limited editions. Copies are numbered and
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details, is the personal work of_ THOMAS C. RUSSELL, _at 1734
Nineteenth Avenue, San Francisco, California. Descriptive circulars
sent free, upon request_.




_This Book_

_is one of an edition of four hundred and fifty (450) numbered and
signed copies, the impressions being taken upon hand-set type, which
was distributed upon completion of the presswork. In two hundred (200)
copies Exeter book-paper is used, leaf-size being 9-1/4 x 6-1/4 inches;
in two hundred (200) copies, buff California bond-paper, 8-3/8 x 5-1/2;
in fifty (50) copies, thin buff California bond-paper, 6 x 9._

THIS COPY _is No._ 26 _California bond-paper_.

(_Signed_)

Thomas C. Russell




                     _The_ SHIRLEY LETTERS _from_
                          CALIFORNIA _Mines_
                             _In_ 1851-52

           _Being a_ SERIES _of_ TWENTY-THREE LETTERS _from_
                            DAME SHIRLEY
               (MRS. LOUISE AMELIA KNAPP SMITH CLAPPE)
                  _To her_ SISTER _in_ MASSACHUSETTS
                    _And now_ REPRINTED _from the_
                           PIONEER MAGAZINE
                             _of_ 1854-55


                                  WITH
          SYNOPSES _of the_ LETTERS, _a_ FOREWORD, _and_ MANY
                 TYPOGRAPHICAL _and other_ CORRECTIONS
                        _and_ EMENDATIONS, _by_
                           THOMAS C. RUSSELL

               _Together with_ "_An_ APPRECIATION" _by_
                        MRS. M. V. T. LAWRENCE


                             ILLUSTRATED


                            SAN FRANCISCO
         PRINTED _by_ THOMAS C. RUSSELL, _at his_ PRIVATE PRESS
                        1734 NINETEENTH AVENUE
                                 1922


                            COPYRIGHT, 1922
                         BY THOMAS C. RUSSELL

                         ALL RIGHTS RESERVED


               PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA




_The_ Printer's Foreword _to this_ Edition

I SPEAK TO THE READER; LET THE WRITER LISTEN

    Oriental Proverb (_adapted_)


CALIFORNIA, by Dr. Josiah Royce, in the handsome as well as handy
American Commonwealths series, is commonly regarded as the best short
history of California ever written, and particularly so as to the early
mining era. Dr. Royce knew his state, and a more competent writer could
hardly have been selected. Reviewing, in his history, almost everything
accessible, worthy of consideration, in connection with mining-camps,
it is noteworthy that the Doctor has much to say concerning the Shirley
Letters. Thus (p. 344),--

    Fortune has preserved to us from the pen of a very intelligent
    woman, who writes under an assumed name, a marvelously skillful and
    undoubtedly truthful history of a mining community during a brief
    period, first of cheerful prosperity, and then of decay and
    disorder. The wife of a physician, and herself a well-educated New
    England woman, "Dame Shirley," as she chooses to call herself, was
    the right kind of witness to describe for us the social life of a
    mining camp from actual experience. This she did in the form of
    letters written on the spot to her own sister, and collected for
    publication some two or three years later. Once for all, allowing
    for the artistic defects inevitable in a disconnected series of
    private letters, these "Shirley" letters form the best account of
    an early mining camp that is known to me. For our real insight into
    the mining life as it was, they are, of course, infinitely more
    helpful to us than the perverse romanticism of a thousand such
    tales as Mr. Bret Harte's, tales that, as the world knows, were not
    the result of any personal experience of really primitive
    conditions.

And in a foot-note on page 345 the Doctor says, in part,--

    She is quite unconscious of the far-reaching moral and social
    significance of much that she describes. Many of the incidents
    introduced are such as imagination could of itself never suggest,
    in such an order and connection. There is no mark of any conscious
    seeking for dramatic effect. The moods that the writer expresses
    indicate no remote purpose, but are the simple embodiment of the
    thoughts of a sensitive mind, interested deeply in the wealth of
    new experiences. The letters are charmingly unsentimental; the
    style is sometimes a little stiff and provincial, but is on the
    whole very readable.

No typographical or other changes are made in printing these extracts
from Dr. Royce's history, and as typographical style is involved in
noticing further the Doctor's review of the Shirley Letters, it is
proper to say here that his volume was printed at the Riverside Press,
Cambridge, Massachusetts,--a press that, in the words of a writer on
matters of typographical style, "maintained the reputation of being one
of the three or four most painstaking establishments in the world."
Such places are few and far between, unlike the "book and job printing
establishments" that, like the poor, are always with us, and where no
_book_ was ever printed.

After having so fittingly introduced Shirley to his readers, it is
unfortunate that the Doctor is not always accurate in his citation of
the facts as printed in the Letters. Thus on page 347 of his history,
he says that the wife of the landlord of the Empire Hotel at Rich Bar
was "yellow-complexioned and care-worn." She does not appear to have
been a care-worn person. Shirley says of her (post, p. 39),--

    Mrs. B. is a gentle and amiable looking woman, about twenty-five
    years of age. She is an example of the terrible wear and tear to
    the complexion in crossing the plains, hers having become, through
    exposure at that time, of a dark and permanent yellow, anything but
    becoming. I will give you a key to her character, which will
    exhibit it better than weeks of description. She took a nursing
    babe, eight months old, from her bosom, and left it with two other
    children, almost infants, to cross the plains in search of gold!

The Doctor says, "The woman cooked for all the boarders herself," and
in the preceding sentence states, "The baby, six months old, kicked and
cried in a champagne-basket cradle." Shirley does not use the word
"boarders." The baby was only two weeks old. With the details of the
birth of this baby omitted, Shirley's account of these matters is (p.
40, post),--

    When I arrived she was cooking supper for some half a dozen people,
    while her really pretty boy, who lay kicking furiously in his
    champagne-basket cradle, and screaming with a six-months-old-baby
    power, had, that day, completed just two weeks of his earthly
    pilgrimage.... He is an astonishingly large and strong child, holds
    his head up like a six-monther, and has but one failing,--a too
    evident and officious desire to inform everybody, far and near, at
    all hours of the night and day, that his lungs are in a perfectly
    sound and healthy condition.

Dr. Royce (p. 347) tells of the funeral of one of the four women
residing at Rich Bar at the time of Shirley's arrival, which was only a
few days prior to the death, and they had not met. The funeral service
was held at the log-cabin residence, which had "one large opening in
the wall to admit light." The "large opening" was not, in the first
intention, to admit light. Shirley says (post, p. 70),--

    It has no window, all the light admitted entering through an
    aperture where there _will_ be a door when it becomes cold enough
    for such a luxury.

Describing the service, the Doctor says, in part,--

    After a long and wandering impromptu prayer by somebody, a prayer
    which "Shirley" found disagreeable (since she herself was a
    churchwoman, and missed the burial service), the procession,
    containing twenty men and three women, set out.

Shirley was not, at that time, a churchwoman, and her account of the
prayer, etc., is,--

    About twenty men, with the three women of the place, had assembled
    at the funeral. An extempore prayer was made, filled with all the
    peculiarities usual to that style of petition. Ah, how different
    from the soothing verses of the glorious burial service of the
    church!

It may not be inappropriate here to note that the baby referred to in
the two immediately preceding pages is none other than the original of
The Luck in Bret Harte's Luck of Roaring Camp. How the funeral scene as
described by Shirley was adapted by this master of short-story writing,
and how skillfully he combined it with the birth of The Luck, may be
perceived in the two paragraphs following.

    [Shirley, post, p. 70.] On a board, supported by two butter-tubs,
    was extended the body of the dead woman, covered with a sheet. By
    its side stood the coffin, of unstained pine, lined with white
    cambric.

    [The Luck of Roaring Camp, Overland, vol. i, p. 184.] Beside the
    low bunk or shelf, on which the figure of the mother was starkly
    outlined below the blankets, stood a pine table. On this a
    candle-box was placed, and within it, swathed in staring red
    flannel, lay the last arrival at Roaring Camp.

Bancroft (History of California, vol. vii, p. 724), speaking of early
California literature, says,--

    Mining life in California furnished inexhaustible material;... and
    almost every book produced in the golden era gave specimens more or
    less entertaining of the wit and humor developed by the struggle
    with homelessness, physical suffering, and mental gloom. And when,
    perchance, a writer had never heard original tales of the kind he
    felt himself expected to relate, he took them at second-hand....
    Even the most powerful of Bret Harte's stories borrowed their
    incidents from the letters of Mrs. Laura A. K. Clapp, who under the
    nom de plume of 'Shirley,' wrote a series of letters published in
    the _Pioneer Magazine_, 1851-2. The 'Luck of Roaring Camp' was
    suggested by incidents related in Letter II., p. 174-6 of vol. i.
    of the _Pioneer_. In Letter XIX., p. 103-10 of vol. iv., is the
    suggestion of the 'Outcasts of Poker Flat.' Mrs. Clapp's simple
    epistolary style narrates the facts, and Harte's exquisite style
    imparts to them the glamour of imagination.

The temptation cannot be resisted, at this point, to pursue the history
of The Luck of Roaring Camp a little further. The reader will kindly
remember that no changes are made in printing extracts. Mr. T. Edgar
Pemberton, in his Bret Harte: A Treatise and a Tribute (London, 1900),
says, in referring to criticism of the story when it was first in
type,--

    Mr. Noah Brooks has recorded this strange incident as follows:--

    'Perhaps I may be pardoned,' he says, 'for a brief reference to an
    odd complication that arose while _The Luck of Roaring Camp_ was
    being put into type in the printing office where _The Overland
    Monthly_ was prepared for publication. A young lady who served as
    proof-reader in the establishment had been somewhat shocked by the
    scant morals of the mother of Luck, and when she came to the scene
    where Kentuck, after reverently fondling the infant, said, "he
    wrastled with my finger, the d----d little cuss," the indignant
    proof-reader was ready to throw up her engagement rather than go
    any further with a story so wicked and immoral. There was
    consternation throughout the establishment, and the head of the
    concern went to the office of the publisher with the virginal
    proof-reader's protest. Unluckily, Mr. Roman was absent from the
    city. Harte, when notified of the obstacle raised in the way of
    _The Luck of Roaring Camp_, manfully insisted that the story must
    be printed as he wrote it, or not at all. Mr. Roman's _locum
    tenens_ in despair brought the objectionable manuscript around to
    my office and asked my advice. When I had read the sentence that
    had caused all this turmoil, having first listened to the tale of
    the much-bothered temporary publisher, I surprised him by a burst
    of laughter. It seemed to me incredible that such a tempest in a
    tea-cup could have been raised by Harte's bit of character
    sketching. But, recovering my gravity, I advised that the whole
    question should await Mr. Roman's return. I was sure that he would
    never consent to any "editing" of Harte's story. This was agreed
    to, and when the publisher came back, a few days later, the embargo
    was removed. _The Luck of Roaring Camp_ was printed as it was
    written, and printing office and vestal proof-reader survived the
    shock.'

    It is amazing to think that, but for the determination and
    self-confidence of quite a young author, a story that has gladdened
    and softened the hearts of thousands,--a story that has drawn
    welcome smiles and purifying tears from all who can appreciate its
    deftly-mingled humour and pathos,--a story that has been a boon to
    humanity--might have been sacrificed to the shallow ruling of a
    prudish 'young-lady' proof-reader, and a narrow-minded, pharisaical
    deacon-printer!

    It is appalling to think what might have happened if through
    nervousness or modesty the writer had been frightened by the
    premature criticisms of this precious pair.

The "deacon-printer" mentioned by Pemberton was Jacob Bacon, a fine
specimen of the printer of the latter half of the last century. He was
the junior partner of the firm of Towne and Bacon, the printers of
Harte's _first_ volume, The Lost Galleon. Mr. Towne (not _Tane_, as
spelled in Merwin's Life of Bret Harte) obtained judgment in Boston for
the printing of that volume. (See further, Mrs. T. B. Aldrich's
Crowding Memories, as to satisfaction of judgment.)

A half-tone portrait of the "prudish 'young-lady' proof-reader" (what a
lacerating taunt!) is printed in the Bret Harte Memorial Number of the
Overland (September, 1902).

The proof-readers have not dealt kindly with The Luck of Roaring Camp;
but the first of that ilk to mutilate the story was also the worst, to
wit, the aforesaid "prudish 'young-lady' proof-reader."

Good usage in typography was utterly unknown to this young
lady,--punctuation, capitalization, the use of the hyphen in dividing
and compounding words. In practice she did not--perhaps could
not--recognize any distinction between a cipher and a lower-case _o_.
As to spelling, one may find "etherial," "azalias," "tessallated."

Noah Brooks, in the Overland Memorial Number, says (p. 203),--

    He [Bret Harte] collected some half-dozen stories and poems and
    they were printed in a volume entitled "The Luck of Roaring Camp
    and Other Sketches," (1870.)

There were no poems printed in that volume. It was published in Boston
by Fields, Osgood, & Co. Printed at the University Press at Cambridge,
then unquestionably the best book-printing house in the United States,
of course many of the typographical errors were weeded out. This volume
was reprinted in London by John Camden Hotten.

It is to be regretted that the University Press was not more
painstaking in the proof-reading, for the Overland typographical
perversions persist in some instances to the present day. The reader is
not misled by the lubbering punctuation of the sentence, "She was a
coarse, and, it is to be feared, a very sinful woman." The usage in
such a construction is, "She was a coarse, and it is to be feared a
very sinful, woman." But note where the sense is affected:--

    Cherokee Sal was sinking fast. Within an hour she had climbed, as
    it were, that rugged road that led to the stars, and so passed out
    of Roaring Camp, its sin and shame forever.

Cherokee Sal could not possibly be the sin and shame of Roaring Camp
forever; hence the sense calls for a comma after "shame," in the
extract. It is gratifying to note that the comma is used in the Hotten
reprint.

Another egregious blunder which has persisted is the printing of the
word "past" for "passed," in the extract below.

    Then he [Kentuck] walked up the gulch, past the cabin, still
    whistling with demonstrative unconcern. At a large redwood tree he
    paused and retraced his steps, and again passed the cabin.

It remained for a proof-reader at the Riverside Press to reconstruct
the sentence by deleting the comma after the word "gulch"; thus, "the
gulch past the cabin." That Kentuck "again passed the cabin" seems not
to have been considered. Hence, in the Houghton Mifflin Company's
printings of The Luck of Roaring Camp, the last error is worse than the
first.

These errors are not venial. Those that are such have not been
mentioned, as they occur in almost every book, and appear to be
unavoidable. Other errors, evincing a lack of knowledge of good usage
in book-typography, must also pass unnoticed.

The Luck of Roaring Camp having been disposed of, consideration of Dr.
Royce's review of the Shirley Letters will be resumed.

The Doctor, on page 350 of his work, says, "In her little library she
had a Bible, a prayer-book, Shakespeare, and Lowell's 'Fable for the
Critics,' with two or three other books." Shirley (p. 100, post) says
she had a--

    Bible and prayer-book, Shakespeare, Spenser, Coleridge, Shelley,
    Keats, Lowell's Fable for Critics, Walton's Complete Angler, and
    some Spanish books.

The poet Spenser's name was spelled with a _c_ in the Pioneer, but the
article "the" was not used before "Critics," as in the extract from
Royce,--an unpardonable error in a book printed in Cambridge, and at
the Riverside Press too.

The Spanish books mentioned by Shirley were evidently not neglected by
her, and her acquaintance with and friendship for the Spanish-speaking
population scattered along the banks of the Río de las Plumas must have
made her very familiar with their tongue. In reading these Letters one
cannot fail to perceive how fittingly Spanish words and phrases are
interwoven with her own English. At the time these Letters were
written, many Spanish words were a part of the California vernacular,
but to Shirley belongs the honor of introducing them into the
literature of California; hence, in printing the Letters, such words
are not italicized, as they usually are, by printers who should know
better.

Dr. Royce also says on page 350, "Prominent in the society of the Bar
was a trapper, of the old Frémont party, who told blood-curdling tales
of Indian fights." (See post, p. 111.) It is singular that the Doctor
has failed to identify this trapper with the well-known James P.
Beckwourth, whose Life and Adventures (Harpers, New York, 1856) was
written from his own dictation by Thomas D. Bonner, a justice of the
peace in Butte County in 1852. His name is preserved in "Beckwourth
Pass." He first entered this pass probably in the spring of the year
1851, although 1850 is the year given in his Life. The Western Pacific
Railroad utilizes the pass for its tracks entering California, and
through it came the pioneers of whom Shirley has much to say in Letter
the Twenty-second.

Among punishments for thefts, the Doctor, on page 351, speaks of a
"decidedly barbarous case of hanging" for that offense. It is referred
to here for the reason that in the sequel of the hanging Bret Harte
found more than a suggestion for his finale of The Outcasts of Poker
Flat. Both are reprinted here for the purpose of comparison. Shirley
says (post, p. 157),--

    The body of the criminal was allowed to hang for some hours after
    the execution. It had commenced storming in the earlier part of the
    evening, and when those whose business it was to inter the remains
    arrived at the spot, they found them enwrapped in a soft white
    shroud of feathery snowflakes, as if pitying nature had tried to
    hide from the offended face of Heaven the cruel deed which her
    mountain-children had committed.

The finale of The Outcasts of Poker Flat follows, in part, with no
other changes than those of punctuation and capitalization.

    They slept all that day and the next, nor did they waken when
    voices and footsteps broke the silence of the camp. And when
    pitying fingers brushed the snow from their wan faces, you could
    scarcely have told, from the equal peace that dwelt upon them,
    which was she that had sinned. Even the law of Poker Flat
    recognized this, and turned away, leaving them still locked in each
    other's arms. But at the head of the gulch, on one of the largest
    pine-trees, they found the deuce of clubs pinned to the bark with a
    bowie-knife.... And pulseless and cold, with a derringer by his
    side and a bullet in his heart, though still calm as in life,
    beneath the snow lay he who was at once the strongest and yet the
    weakest of the outcasts of Poker Flat.

The phrase, "though still calm as in life," in the last sentence of the
extract immediately preceding, is one that would seem to invite the
challenge of a proof-reader. It is passed without further notice.

Dr. Royce is not at his best in reviewing Letter the Nineteenth. The
suggestion for The Outcasts of Poker Flat was found therein by Bret
Harte, as previously noted. On page 354 the Doctor says,--

    A "majestic-looking Spaniard" had quarreled with an Irishman about
    a Mexican girl ("Shirley" for the first time, I think, thus showing
    a knowledge of the presence at Indian Bar of those women who seem,
    in the bright and orderly days of her first arrival, to have been
    actually unknown in the camp). The Mexican, having at last stabbed
    and killed the other, fled to the hills.

It does not appear from the letter that a girl of any kind was involved
in this stabbing and death. Shirley distinguishes between the Spaniard
and the Mexican; the Doctor does not. As to the presence of "those
women," Shirley, without commenting, sheds much light upon that
subject, as will be perceived from the following extracts. Dr. Royce's
review does not coincide with the facts.

    Seven miners from Old Spain, enraged at the cruel treatment which
    their countrymen had received on the Fourth,... had united for the
    purpose of taking revenge on seven Americans. All well armed,...
    intending to challenge each one his man,... on arriving at Indian
    Bar ... they drank a most enormous quantity of champagne and
    claret. Afterwards they proceeded to [a vile resort kept by an
    Englishman], when one of them commenced a playful conversation with
    one of his countrywomen. This enraged the Englishman, who instantly
    struck the Spaniard a violent blow.... Thereupon ensued a spirited
    fight, which ... ended without bloodshed.... Soon after,... Tom
    Somers, who is said always to have been a dangerous person when in
    liquor, without any apparent provocation struck Domingo (one of the
    original seven) a violent blow.... The latter,... mad with wine,
    rage, and revenge, without an instant's pause drew his knife and
    inflicted a fatal wound upon his insulter. [Post, p. 271.]

    In the bakeshop, which stands next door to our cabin, young Tom
    Somers lay straightened for the grave (he lived but fifteen minutes
    after he was wounded), while over his dead body a Spanish woman was
    weeping and moaning in the most piteous and heartrending manner.
    [Post, p. 264.]

    Domingo, with a Mexicana hanging upon his arm, and brandishing
    threateningly the long, bloody knife,... was parading up and down
    the street unmolested.... The [Americans] rallied and made a rush
    at the murderer, who immediately plunged into the river and swam
    across,... and without doubt is now safe in Mexico. [Post, p. 263.]

A disregard of exactness is not peculiar to Dr. Royce. Secondary
authorities are generally open to criticism. Of the authenticity of
Shirley's facts there can be no question. Dr. Royce recognized this,
while subjecting the work of other writers to severe scrutiny. But
Shirley's printer did her much evil. It is not necessary here to say
much concerning trade usages in making an author's manuscript
presentable in type,--the essentially different ways of and differences
between the job, the newspaper, and the book printer. Shirley's
letters, not having been written for publication, required exceptional
care while being put in type, and especially so since the manuscript
was not prepared for the press. It is amusing to read what the printers
of the Pioneer have to say of themselves.

    Our facilities for doing FINE BOOK WORK, are very great, possessing
    as we do, large founts of new type, and an ADAMS POWER PRESS. We
    refer to the Pioneer Magazine, as a specimen. We have in use a
    MAMMOTH PRESS, which gives us a great advantage in the execution of
    the LARGEST SIZE MAMMOTH POSTERS, in colors or plain.

In the estimation of the printers, the matériel was the principal
thing; the personnel, not worthy of mention,--and it so happened that
it wasn't, for, judging from the typographical inaccuracies of the
Pioneer, the compositors were of a very low order of intelligence, and
if a proof-reader was employed, he assuredly stood high in their
estimation, as he evidently caused them but little trouble.

Much has been said by writers on matters typographical as to what is
meet and necessary in the reprinting of a book, and much more on
literary blunders and mistakes. Some printers are rash, and perpetrate
a worse blunder than that attempted to be corrected in reprinting.
Worse than such people are the amateur proof-readers, who generally run
to extremes, that is, they either cannot see a blunder, and hence pass
it unchallenged, or else they manifest a disposition to challenge and
"improve" everything they do not comprehend, and, knowing nothing of
typographical usages or style, they are a decidedly malignant quantity.

Every old printer knows, what is often said, that English is a
grammarless tongue, and that no grammarian ever wrote a sentence worth
reading. No proof-reader, with the experience of a printer behind him,
will change a logically expressed idea so as to make it conform to
grammatical rules, nor will he harass the author thereof with
suggestions looking to that end.

Critical readers of these Letters must ever bear in mind the fact that
Shirley was not writing for publication, and that the printer of this
edition had no desire to and did not alter Shirley's text to suit his
ideas of what was fitting and proper, further than to smooth or round
out in many instances rugged or careless construction. Punctuation,
hyphenization, capitalization, italicizing, spelling, required much,
and of course received much, attention.

In some instances where Shirley does not express her meaning clearly,
and reconstruction seemed necessary, no change was made. Singularly,
this was the case in the first sentence of the first letter.

    I can easily imagine, dear M., the look of large wonder which
    gleams from your astonished eyes when they fall upon the date of
    this letter.

M. could be astonished but once, but the language used conveys the idea
of wonder arising each time the letter is read; then, again, it is the
place-name, and not the date, that is to cause wonder to gleam from
astonished eyes, as the context shows.

Where reconstruction was not needed to make the meaning clear, and this
could be done by the insertion of a word or phrase, or by some other
simple emendation, changes were generally made. The extract (post, p.
11) following is printed just as it appeared in the Pioneer.

    As a frame to the graceful picture, on one side rose the Buttes,
    that group of hills so piquant and saucy; and on the other tossing
    to Heaven the everlasting whiteness of their snow wreathed
    foreheads, stood, sublime in their very monotony, the glorious
    Sierra Nevada.

Besides changes in capitalization and punctuation, the words, "the
summits of," are inserted before "the glorious Sierra." Compare Bret
Harte's lines,--

    Above the pines the moon was slowly drifting,
      The river sang below;
    The dim Sierras, far beyond, uplifting
      Their minarets of snow.

By the word "Sierras" the mountain-range called the Sierra Nevada is
not meant, but merely teeth-like summits thereof, which uplift their
snow-clad peaks, or "minarets." The Spanish word "sierra" means, in
English, a saw, and also a ridge of mountains and craggy rocks.
"Nevada" means here, in connection with "Sierra," snowy. Thus, "the
snowy ridge of mountains and craggy rocks," or, to express the meaning
more clearly in English, the snowy serrated mountain-range. Bret
Harte's capitalization of "Sierras" may be safely challenged. The lines
are from his poem, Dickens in Camp.

The Buttes mentioned by Shirley are the Marysville Buttes. "Butte" is
French, and descriptive, and French trappers bestowed the name.

Shirley sometimes uses an adverb instead of an adjective. Thus on page
332, speaking of a tame frog on the bar at a rancho, she says,--

    You cannot think how comically [comic] it looked hopping about the
    bar, quite as much at home as a tame squirrel would have been.

An old San Francisco printer once heard a newspaperman say that this
little incident furnished the suggestion to Mark Twain for his Jumping
Frog of Calaveras, but, unfortunately, regarded the remark as of no
more importance than much other gossip current among printers and
newspapermen.

Shirley, like many another writer, used marks of quotation improperly,
when the language of the author cited was altered or adapted. Worse
than this are many instances of gross misquotation. In the former case,
the quotation-marks were deleted; in the latter, accuracy was the aim.

On page 79 quotation-marks are deleted, the language used being
adapted, thus, "clothe themselves with curses as with a garment."
Compare Psalms cix, 18, "He clothed himself with cursing like as with
his garment."

On page 101 a correction is made; thus, "As thy day is, so shall thy
strength be" (Deut. xxxiii, 25). In the Letters this read, "As thy
days, so," etc.

On page 268 quotation-marks are deleted, as the language used is
adapted, and in a strict sense is also inaccurate; thus, "The _woman_
tempted me, and I did eat." Compare Genesis iii, 12, 13.

    12. And the man said, The woman whom thou gavest to be with me, she
    gave me of the tree, and _I_ did eat.

    13. And the Lord God said unto the woman, What is this that thou
    hast done? And the woman said, The serpent beguiled me, and I did
    eat.

Blunders and mistakes of all sorts might be set out, but it is not
deemed advisable to pursue this matter any further. It is, however,
necessary to say something further of THE PIONEER itself, and the
paper-cover title of the May, 1855, number is reprinted here, with an
outline drawing of the crude woodcut vignette printed in the original.
It was impossible to secure a satisfactory facsimile of the title. The
names of some of the agents of the magazine are of historical interest.




_The_ PIONEER

_or_

California Monthly Magazine


[Illustration]



_May, 1855_


SAN FRANCISCO
PUBLISHED _by_ LE COUNT & STRONG
Nos. 111 & 113 MONTGOMERY STREET

_For_ SALE _at all the_ BOOKSTORES _in the_ CITY

AGENTS

J. W. JONES, Benicia; CHAS. BINNEY, Sacramento; R. A. EDDY & CO.,
Marysville; GEO. VINCENT & CO., Coloma; LANGTON & BRO., Downieville; A.
ROMAN, Shasta; ROMAN & PARKER, Yreka; NASH & DAVIS, Placerville; ADAMS
& CO., Jackson; ADAMS & CO., Georgetown; ADAMS & CO., Mud Springs; C. O.
BURTON, Stockton; CANNADAY & COOK, Sonora; A. A. HUNNEWELL, Columbia;
J. COFFIN, Mokelumne Hill; MILLER & CO., Chinese Camp; ELLIOTT REED,
San José; ALEXANDER S. TAYLOR, Monterey; R. K. SWEETLAND, Volcano;
LANGTON & BRO., Sierra County; DR. STEINBERGER, agent Adams & Co.,
Oregon; HENRY M. WHITNEY, Honolulu, S.I.

MONSON & VALENTINE, Printers, 124 Sacramento Street


But few copies of the Pioneer are known to be in existence. Odd numbers
are sometimes found, but these are generally in a mutilated condition,
while the bound volumes lack the advertisements.

The first number was issued in January, 1854, and the last in December,
1855. The first letter of the Shirley series appeared in the initial
number, and the last one in the final issue. The magazine seems to have
been well received in the East, and the Eastern magazines reviewed it
very favorably.

Of Shirley herself it is not necessary to say much in this Foreword.
She was a typical Massachusetts girl, although born in New Jersey, the
residence of the family in the latter state being merely temporary, as
is clearly shown by her correspondence. A letter from Miss Katherine
Powell, librarian of the Amherst Town Library, sheds some light on the
early associations of Shirley. In part, she says,--

    In spite of widespread inquiries, I have been able to get ... [but
    little] concerning Louise Amelia Knapp Smith. There are no people
    now living here who knew her even by hearsay. The records of
    Amherst Academy show that she attended that institution in 1839 and
    1840.... Miss Smith's name adds another to the long list of writers
    who have lived here at one time or another, and Amherst Academy has
    added many names to that list. Two of them--Emily Dickinson the
    poet, and Emily Fowler Ford--were schoolmates of Miss Smith. Mrs.
    Ford was the granddaughter of Noah Webster (an Amherst man [one of
    the founders of Amherst College]) and daughter of Professor Fowler
    [the phrenologist], who wrote several books. Eugene Field was, some
    years later, a student of the old Academy, and in his poem, My
    Playmates, he mentioned by their real names a number of his old
    schoolmates. Helen Hunt Jackson was a contemporary of Miss Smith
    here, and, although she did not attend the Academy, must have been
    well known to her.

Amherst, it should be said, was the home-town of Shirley's family, and
to it she often fondly refers in the Letters. It is not cause for
wonder that she is not now remembered in Amherst. Her correspondence
shows that the members of the family, although devotedly attached to
one another, were inclined to disperse.

Mrs. Mary Viola Tingley Lawrence has kindly permitted the printing in
this volume of a paper prepared by her to be read before a literary
society, containing much that is interesting of Shirley's life. Mrs.
Lawrence is well known among the _literati_ of San Francisco. She was a
contributor to the old Overland. What is of more interest here is the
fact that she was a favorite pupil of Shirley, and later her most
intimate friend in California. It was from a selection of poetry
gathered by Mrs. Lawrence that Bret Harte obtained the larger portion
of his selection entitled "Outcroppings" (San Francisco, 1866), a
title, by the way, claimed by Mrs. Lawrence as her own.

Rich Bar and Indian Bar, in Butte County at the time the Shirley
Letters were written, are now in Plumas County, consequent upon a
change of the county boundary lines. There are two Rich Bars on the
Feather River, the minor one being on the Middle Fork, and oftentimes
mistaken for the one made famous by Shirley. James Graham Fair, one of
the earliest multimillionaires of California, and United States Senator
from Nevada, panned out his first sackful of gold at Rich Bar, and
probably at the time Shirley was writing her Letters. Many other men,
whose names are familiar to Californians, also delved into the earth at
this historic spot, which is now, in railroad "literature," called
"Rich." Like many another California clipped place-name, the new name
has not the glamour of the old, which, in the words of Shirley, was "a
most taking name."

In closing this Foreword, the printer desires to emphasize the fact
that the typesetting and presswork of this book are entirely his own
work. No one acquainted with the methods employed in a legitimate
book-printing house will fail to recognize the fact that it is well
nigh impossible to print a _book_ without possession of the minute
technical knowledge essential in each department. Hence the most
skillful book-printer is distrustful of himself, unless supported by
experienced craftsmen, and more especially by time-tried proof-readers.
For many favors extended while the Letters were in press, thanks are
due, and are now acknowledged, to Milton J. Ferguson, the librarian of
the State Library at Sacramento, California, who was never-failing in
either service or patience.




Dame Shirley, _the_ Writer _of these_ Letters

An Appreciation

BEING _a_ PAPER _prepared by_ MRS. MARY VIOLA TINGLEY LAWRENCE _to be
read before a_ SAN FRANCISCO _literary society on_ MRS. LOUISE AMELIA
KNAPP SMITH CLAPPE (DAME SHIRLEY)


The Shirley Letters, written in the pioneer days of 1851 and 1852, were
hailed throughout the country as the first-born of California
literature. Mrs. Clappe, their author, was the one woman who depicted
that era of romantic life, dipping her pen into a rich personal
experience, and writing with a clarity and beauty born of an alert
comprehensive mind and a rare sense of refinement and character.

The Letters had been written to a loved sister in the East, but
Ferdinand C. Ewer, a _littérateur_ of San Francisco, a close friend,
fell upon them by chance, and, realizing their historic value, urged
that they be published in the Pioneer, of which he was editor. These
Shirley Letters, thus published, brought the new West to the wondering
East, and showed to those who had not made the venture, the courage,
the fervor, the beauty, the great-heartedness, that made up life in the
new El Dorado. Shirley's sympathetic Interpretation of their tumultuous
experience cheered the Argonauts by throwing before their eyes the
drama in which they were unconsciously the swash-buckling, the tragic,
or the romantic actors, and helped to crystallize the growing love for
the new land, which love turned fortune and adventure seekers into
home-makers and empire-builders.

This quickly recognized author became the leader of the first _salon_
the Golden West ever knew, and one of the foremost influences in
California's social and intellectual life, by force of a high
intelligence and a heart and soul that were a noble woman's.

Louise Amelia Knapp Smith Clappe came to light in Elizabeth, New
Jersey, in 1819. Her father, Moses Smith, was a man of high scholarly
attainment, and by her mother, Lois Lee, she could claim an equally
gifted ancestry, and a close kinship with Julia Ward Howe. As a young
girl, together with several brothers and sisters, she was left
parentless, but there was a comfortable estate, and a faithful
guardian, the Hon. Osman Baker, a Member of Congress I believe, who saw
to it that they received the very best mental and physical training.
Shirley was educated at Amherst and Charlestown, Massachusetts, and at
Amherst was the family home.

At that day the epistolary art was a finished accomplishment, and in
childhood she evidenced a ready use of the quill pen. Later on, she
maintained correspondence with brilliant minds, who challenged her to
her best. At the same time she was pursuing her English studies, to
which were added French, German, and Italian. She had but little time
for the trivial social amenities, but her frequent missives from her
relatives, the Lees and Wards of New York City and Boston, and her
enjoyable visits to their gay homes, broke the strain of mental grind,
and kept her in touch with the fashionable world. Her communications in
the forties disclose a relation to men and women of culture, whose
letters are colorful of people, places, and events, and through them we
reach an intimate inside of her own self. Those faded, musty-smelling
epistles, with pressed flowers, from an old attic, reveal a rich kind
of distinct and charming personalities.

Shirley, small, fair, and golden-haired, was not physically strong, and
her careful guardian often ordered a change of climate. Sometimes she
sojourned in the South. In her migrations she might employ a carriage,
or venture on a canal-boat, but usually the stage-coach carried her. It
was on one of those bits of travel that she met Mr. A. H. Everett of
Massachusetts, a brother of Edward Everett, a noted author, and popular
throughout the country as a lecturer. He had been chargé d'affaires in
the Netherlands, and minister to Spain. An intimate relationship,
chiefly by correspondence, was established between this gifted girl and
this brilliant gentleman. His long letters from Louisiana sometimes
were written wholly in French. From Washington, D.C., he writes that
the mission of United States minister to a foreign court has been
offered him, but it fails to tempt him away from his life of letters.
However, later on, it comes about that he accepts the mission of United
States commissioner to the more alluring China, and his long letters to
her from there, as they had been from other foreign lands, were most
entertaining. This rare man grows to be very fond of his young and
brilliant correspondent, and signs himself, "Yours faithfully and
affectionately." But he was well on in years, and she looks upon him
more as a father than as a suitor, and he so understands it. He commits
himself enough to say how much it would be to him to have her near him
as an attachée, and when she hints of her engagement to a young
physician, he jealously begs to know every detail concerning the happy
man.

Shirley married Dr. Fayette Clappe, and in 1849, with the spirit of
romance and the fire of enthusiasm, the joyful young Argonauts set sail
for California in the good ship Manilla.

They found the primitive San Francisco enthralling, but a fire swept
away the new city, and tent-life was accepted as one of many
picturesque experiences. Soon, however, the Doctor's shingle was again
hung out.

Quickly buildings went up, and the little lady with golden curls to her
waist went about, jostling the motley crowd of people, and finding
concern in the active city front, in the gaudy shops, and in the open
faro-banks with their exposed piles of nuggets and bags of gold-dust
freshly dug from the earth.

There was the ever-beckoning to the hills of treasure, with their
extravagant stories of adventure, but the professional man was anchored
in the more prosy city, and buckled down to a commonplace existence.
The exhilarating ozone from the ocean, the wind blowing over the vast
area of sand, the red-flannel-shirted miner recklessly dumping out
sacks of gold-dust with which to pay his board-bill or to buy a pair of
boots, with maybe a nugget for Dr. Clappe when he eased a trivial
pain,--all these thrills were calls to the gold-filled Mother Earth.
Finally, Dr. Clappe's ill-health drove him to the Feather River,--a
high altitude, fifty miles from the summit of the Sierra Nevada, and
the highest point of gold-diggings. There he soon recovered, and to her
joy he wrote his wife to join him. And she had varying experiences in
transit to the prospective home, which was at Rich Bar,--rich indeed,
where a miner unearthed thirty-three pounds of gold in eight days, and
others panned out fifteen hundred dollars in one wash of dirt.

The sojourn at the gold-camp in the summers and winters of 1851 and
1852, with its tremendous and varied incidents and experiences, was a
compelling call to Shirley's facile pen. Here was her mine. Out of her
brain, out of her soul, out of her heart of gold, out of her wealth of
understanding of and love for her fellow-men, gratefully sprang those
SHIRLEY LETTERS that have enriched the field of letters, and, reaching
beyond the grasp of worldly gain, have set her enduringly in the hearts
of mankind.

Who can tell how far-reaching and inspiring were those illuminating
pages, those vividly depicted scenes enacted on the crowded stages of
the golden-lined bars of the famous Feather River! Bret Harte reads her
graphic and pathetic account of the fallen woman and the desperate men
being driven out of camp, and lo! we have the gripping tale of The
Outcasts of Poker Flat; and from another of her recitals came the
inspiration that set him to work on that entertaining story, The Luck
of Roaring Camp. And her incidental mention of the pet frog hopping on
the bar of the hotel, in the midst of a group of onlooking miners,--was
it the setting for Mark Twain's Jumping Frog of Calaveras?

During their sojourn at Rich and Indian bars, Shirley and her husband
became rich in experience. They folded their tent and left with
depleted purse, but they had righteously invested their God-bestowed
talents. There they had freely given the best of themselves; they were
leaving the imperishable impress of high ideals.

Upon their return to San Francisco the couple rejoined delightful
friends, and established a home. But reverses of fortune came, and
Shirley found it necessary to put her accomplishments to the practical
purpose of gaining a livelihood. By the advice of her friend Ferdinand
C. Ewer she entered the San Francisco public school department, where
for long years she taught, notably in the high schools.

Shirley was small in build, with a thin face and a finely shaped head.
Her limbs were perfect in symmetry. As a girl, doubtless she had claim
to a delicate beauty. She now showed the wear and tear of her mountain
experience, coupled with an accumulation of heart-breaking trouble. She
gave prodigally of all her gifts. She interpreted life and its arts to
all discerning pupils, and by the magic of her friendly intercourse won
their confidence. Quick to discover any unusual promise in a pupil, she
indefatigably and masterfully stirred up such a one to his or her best,
sometimes with remarks of approval, or by censuring recreancy with
stinging sarcasm, or with expressions of despair over infirmity of
purpose. Some of such scholars, notably among them Charles Warren
Stoddard, panned out gold in the field of letters. Many of her pupils,
including myself, absorbed much of her wonderful help, and it grew into
our subconsciousness and became a part of us. She was the long-time
friend of Bret Harte, and from her he gathered a wealth of knowledge
that served him well.

When Mr. Ewer was ordained in Grace Episcopal Church, San Francisco,
Shirley became a member of his parish, and together with his wife she
assisted him in the ministrations of good. Then this dependable friend,
Dr. Ewer, was discovered, with the result that he was called to a
church in New York at a salary of ten thousand dollars a year.

In addition to her daily teaching, Shirley, by request, established
evening classes in art and literature, for men and women, and once a
week she held her _salon_, drawing the best minds about her. She
appreciated the privilege of having a home in Mr. John Swett's family,
because of its intellectual atmosphere. Here scholarly notabilities
from near and far were entertained, among them Emerson, Agassiz, and
Julia Ward Howe.

Childless, Shirley took her niece, Genevieve Stebbins, and reared her
from babyhood to a splendid womanhood. She contributed freely to
entertainments for charity, by her Shakespearean readings and other
recitations, and happily prepared whole parties for private
theatricals. With such mental strain, she kept herself fit by Saturday
outings, in which were graciously included some of her pupils. At times
we went across the bay, in various directions, but oftenest we strove
through the sand to the ocean beach, stopping here and there to
botanize, and gather the sweet yellow and purple lupin, and to rest on
the limbs of the scrub-oaks. On the beach we roasted potatoes and made
coffee, and then ate ravenously. A happy gipsying it was, and she, the
queen, forgot her cares. Not a pebble at our feet, nor a floating
seaweed, nor a shell, nor a seal on the rock, but opened up an
instructive talk from our teacher, or started Charley Stoddard reciting
a poem, or set a girl singing. Before starting homeward, the whole
party, including Shirley, shoes and stockings off, waded into the surf,
and afterwards rested on the warm beds of sand. A fine comradeship,
that, and one that never died.

Shirley, I should also mention, wrote some respectable poetry. I have
fondly preserved, treasured, and cherished the original manuscript of a
poem written by her at the time Margaret Fuller Ossoli was lost by
shipwreck in 1850. This poem was included in my collection of
California poetry, but was not printed in Outcroppings. I append it to
this paper, of which it can hardly be considered an essential part.

I married and went to the mines, and our home was on the Mariposa
Grant. We lived on a bed of gold. Once, upon a visit to the city, I
found Shirley nervous and worn. Her vacation was about to begin. She
went home with me, and stayed in bed the first three days. Then she was
daily swung in a hammock under an oak. Soon we had horseback-rides, and
up the creek she again panned out gold. Later we set out in the
stage-coach for the hotel at the big Mariposa Grove. Mr. Lawrence put
us in charge of Mr. Galen Clark, a rare scholar, and the guardian of
the Big Tree Grove and of the Yosemite Valley. This charming man was
much interested in Shirley. From the hotel we took daily rides with him
through the great forest, and then made the twenty-five-mile
horseback-ride and found Mr. James M. Hutchings, of the Illustrated
California Magazine, awaiting us at the entrance to the valley. He
escorted us to his picturesque hotel, where he and his interesting wife
made our three weeks' stay most delightful. Down in the meadows we came
upon John Muir sawing logs. He dropped his work, and we three went
botanizing, and soon were learning all about the valley's formation as
he entrancingly talked. We met many tourists of distinction, and
Shirley forgot that she ever had a care, and on our way back she
galloped along recklessly.

At our home in Mariposa we invited friends to come and enjoy Shirley's
Shakespearean readings, chiefly comedy. In these Mr. Lawrence had a
happy part.

In time Shirley went to New York, to her niece, Genevieve Stebbins, who
was successful in a delightful line of art-work. Before leaving San
Francisco, her faithful pupils and other friends gave a musicale and
realized about two thousand dollars, which was presented her as a
loving gift. In the great metropolis her genius was recognized soon
after her arrival, and she was importuned to give lectures on art and
literature. The Field family, who delightedly discovered her, took her
to Europe, where she visited all the art-galleries, a treat that had
been a lifelong heart's desire. In New York she had at once made her
home with Dr. Ewer's widow and children, but, in the end, she went to
Morristown, New Jersey, where, it was said, she again happily met and
renewed her friendship with Bret Harte's accomplished and delightful
wife and her attractive children, while Bret Harte himself was
sojourning in Europe, a successful author. Mrs. John F. Swift, her
long-time appreciative friend, Charley Stoddard, myself, and others,
contributed to her pleasure by letters till the close of her perfect
life at Morristown, New Jersey, on February 9, 1906. No other woman has
left a more lasting impress on the California community. But back to
Rich Bar! Back to the gold-fields! DAME SHIRLEY is abroad, and again
she is weaving her wizard spell!




    "ALONE"

    A REMINISCENCE OF MARGARET FULLER OSSOLI

    _By_ SHIRLEY LEE


    Beneath thy spirit-eyes I stand alone,
        Nor deem thee of the dead
    As mournfully I gaze, sad-hearted one,
        On that calm brow and head.

    The starry crown of genius could not save
        From woman's gift of grief;
    The moaning billows o'er thy breast that have
        Emblem thy life too brief.

    O Margaret! my weak heart-pulses shiver
        In wordless woe for thee,
    Thy wasted tenderness, thy love that never
        Might its fruition see.

    Thou hadst no youth, O wondrous child! no youth
        Haloed thy later life;
    Sternly thy girl heart sought its solemn truth
        In battle and in strife.

    In thine own Northern home didst thou not live
        "Alone," always "alone"?
    What heart to thine uplifted heart could give
        Ever an answering tone?

    In suffering, labor, strife, we saw thee stand
        With lips that would not moan,
    While shone thy regal brow and eyes with grand
        Aspirings all thine own.

    At last among thy Romans thou didst find
        A shrine for that large heart;
    It understood thee not, the Northern mind,
        But coldly shrunk apart,

    When those pale lips--from whence, an hour agone,
        Flew out, like rifted light,
    Winged words of wit--murmured their wailed "Alone"
        To the pitying midnight.

    And I have read thy life, its mournful story
        Of loneliness and blight;
    But o'er its close there shines a solemn glory,
        A setting star's trailed light.

    Margaret! white-robed, thy hair unbound, thy veil,
        Most like a bride wert thou
    When Ocean clasped thee, and, with lips all pale
        And icy, kissed thy brow.

    And lovely as a white unfolded blossom
        Lay the child Angelo,
    Hushed to his dreamless flower-sleep on that bosom
        Which would not let him go.

    Husband, and wife, and child together flutter
        Up to the great white throne,
    Where nevermore may Margaret Fuller utter
        That piteous "Alone!"




_The_ Contents


_The_ PRINTER'S FOREWORD _to this_ EDITION                     PAGE v


DAME SHIRLEY                                               PAGE xxvii

BEING _a_ PAPER _prepared by_ MRS. MARY VIOLA TINGLEY LAWRENCE _to be
read before a_ SAN FRANCISCO _literary society_.


LETTER _the_ FIRST    PART ONE                                 PAGE 1

THE JOURNEY TO RICH BAR

A thousand people and but one physician. The author's husband seeks
health and business. Journey through deep snow, in midsummer, to reach
Rich Bar. The revivifying effect of mountain atmosphere. Arrival of
twenty-nine physicians in less than three weeks. The author's purpose
to leave San Francisco and join her husband at the mines. Direful
predictions and disapprobation of friends. Indelicacy of her position
among an almost exclusively male population. Indians, ennui, cold.
Leaves for Marysville. Scanty fare on way. Meets husband. Falls from
mule. An exhausting ride. A midnight _petit souper_ at Marysville.
Dr. C. leaves on muleback for Bidwell's Bar. The author follows in
springless wagon. Beautiful scenery. Marysville Buttes. Sierra Nevada.
Indian women, their near-nudity, beautiful limbs and lithe forms,
picturesqueness. Flower-seed gathering. Indian bread. Marvelous
handiwork of basketry. A dangerous precipice. A disclaimer of bravery.
Table Mountain. Arrival at Bidwell's Bar. Rejoins husband. Uninviting
quarters. Proceed to Berry Creek.


LETTER _the_ FIRST    PART TWO                                PAGE 15

THE JOURNEY TO RICH BAR

A moonlit midsummer-night's ride on muleback. Joyous beginning. The
Indian trail lost. Camping out for the night. Attempts in morning to
find the trail. A trying ride in the fierce heat of midday. The trail
found. A digression of thirty miles. Lack of food, and seven more miles
to ride. To rest impossible. Mad joy when within sight of Berry Creek
Rancho. Congratulations upon escape from Indians on the trail.
Frenchman and wife murdered. The journey resumed. Arrival at the "Wild
Yankee's". A breakfast with fresh butter and cream. Indian bucks,
squaws, and papooses. Their curiosity. Pride of an Indian on his
ability to repeat one line of a song. Indian women. Extreme beauty of
their limbs; slender ankles and statuesque feet; haggardness of
expression and ugliness of features. Girl of sixteen, a "wildwood
Cleopatra," an exception to the general hideousness. The California
Indian not the Indian of the Leatherstocking tales. A stop at the
Buckeye Rancho. Start for Pleasant Valley Rancho. The trail again lost.
Camping out for the night. Growling bears. Arrive at Pleasant Valley
Rancho. Flea-haunted shanty. Beauty of the wilderness. Quail and deer.
The chaparrals, and their difficulty of penetration by the mules.
Escape from a rattlesnake. Descending precipitous hill on muleback.
Saddle-girth breaks. Harmless fall from the saddle. Triumphant entry
into Rich Bar. Tribute to mulekind. The Empire Hotel. "A huge shingle
palace."


LETTER _the_ SECOND                                           PAGE 33

RICH BAR--ITS HOTELS AND PIONEER FAMILIES

The Empire Hotel, _the_ hotel of Rich Bar. The author safely
ensconced therein. California might be called the "Hotel State," from
the plenitude of its taverns, etc. The Empire the only two-story
building in Rich Bar, and the only one there having glass windows.
Built by gamblers for immoral purposes. The speculation a failure, its
occupants being treated with contempt or pity. Building sold for a few
hundred dollars. The new landlord of the Empire. The landlady, an
example of the wear and tear of crossing the plains. Left behind her
two children and an eight-months-old baby. Cooking for six people, her
two-weeks-old baby kicking and screaming in champagne-basket cradle.
"The sublime martyrdom of maternity". Left alone immediately after
infant's birth. Husband dangerously ill, and cannot help. A kindly
miner. Three other women at the Bar. The "Indiana girl". "Girl" a
misnomer. "A gigantic piece of humanity". "Dainty" habits and herculean
feats. A log-cabin family. Pretty and interesting children. "The
Miners' Home". Its petite landlady tends bar. "Splendid material for
social parties this winter."


LETTER _the_ THIRD                                            PAGE 43

LIFE AND FORTUNE AT THE BAR-DIGGINGS

Flashy shops and showy houses of San Francisco. Rich Bar charmingly
fresh and original. A diminutive valley. Río de las Plumas, or Feather
River. Rich Bar, the Barra Rica of the Spaniards. An acknowledgment of
"a most humiliating consciousness of geological deficiencies". Palatial
splendor of the Empire Hotel. Round tents, square tents, plank hovels,
log cabins, etc. "Local habitations" formed of pine boughs, and
covered with old calico shirts. The "office" of Dr. C. excites the
risibilities of the author. One of the "finders" of Rich Bar. Had not
spoken to a woman for two years. Honors the occasion by an "investment"
in champagne. The author assists in drinking to the honor of her
arrival at the Bar. Nothing done in California without the sanctifying
influence of the "spirit". History of the discovery of gold at Rich
Bar. Thirty-three pounds of gold in eight hours. Fifteen hundred
dollars from a panful of "dirt". Five hundred miners arrive at Rich Bar
in about a week. Smith Bar, Indian Bar, Missouri Bar, and other bars.
Miners extremely fortunate. Absolute wealth in a few weeks. Drunken
gamblers in less than a year. Suffering for necessaries of life. A mild
winter. A stormy spring. Impassable trails. No pack-mule trains arrive.
Miners pack flour on their backs for over forty miles. Flour sells at
over three dollars a pound. Subsistence on feed-barley. A voracious
miner. An abundance placed in storage.


LETTER _the_ FOURTH                                           PAGE 55

ACCIDENTS--SURGERY--DEATH--FESTIVITY

Frightful accidents to which the gold-seeker is constantly liable.
Futile attempts of physician to save crushed leg of young miner.
Universal outcry against amputation. Dr. C, however, uses the knife.
Professional reputation at stake. Success attends the operation. Death
of another young miner, who fell into mining-shaft. His funeral.
Picturesque appearance of the miners thereat. Of what the miner's
costume consists. Horror of the author aroused in contemplation of the
lonely mountain-top graveyard. Jostling of life and death. Celebration
of the anniversary of Chilian independence. Participation of a certain
class of Yankees therein. The procession. A Falstaffian leader. The
feast. A twenty-gallon keg of brandy on the table, gracefully encircled
by quart dippers. The Chileños reel with a better grace, the Americans
more naturally.



LETTER _the_ FIFTH                                            PAGE 67

DEATH OF A MOTHER--LIFE OF PIONEER WOMEN

Death of one of the four pioneer women of Rich Bar. The funeral from
the log-cabin residence. Sickly ten-months-old baby moans piteously for
its mother. A handsome girl of six years, unconscious of her
bereavement, shocks the author by her actions. A monte-table cover as a
funeral pall. Painful feelings when nails are driven into coffin. The
extempore prayer. Every observance possible surrounded the funeral.
Visit to a canvas house of three "apartments". Barroom, dining-room,
kitchen with bed-closet. A sixty-eight-pound woman. "A magnificent
woman, a wife of the right sort". "Earnt her 'old man' nine hundred
dollars in nine weeks, by washing". The "manglers" and the "mangled".
Fortitude of refined California women pioneers. The orphaned girl a
"cold-blooded little wretch". Remorse of the author. "Baby decanters".
The gayety and fearlessness of the orphaned girl.


LETTER _the_ SIXTH                                            PAGE 77

USE OF PROFANITY--UNCERTAINTY OF MINING

Prevalence of profanity in California. Excuses for its use. A mere slip
of the tongue, etc. Grotesqueness of some blasphemous expressions.
Sleep-killing mining machinery. What a flume is. Project to flume the
river for many miles. The California mining system a gambling or
lottery transaction. Miner who works his own claim the more successful.
Dr. C. a loser in his mining ventures. Another sleep-killer.
Bowling-alleys. Bizarre cant phrases and slang used by the miners.
"Honest Indian?" "Talk enough when horses fight". "Talk enough between
gentlemen". "I've got the dead-wood on him". "I'm going nary cent" (on
person mistrusted). All carry the freshness of originality to the ear
of the author.


LETTER _the_ SEVENTH                                          PAGE 87

THE NEW LOG-CABIN HOME AT INDIAN BAR

Change of residence to Indian Bar. Whether to go to the new camp on
muleback over the hill, or on foot by crossing the river. The
water-passage decided upon. An escort of Indian Barians. Magnificence
of scenery on the way. Gold-miners at work. Their implements. "The
color". The Stars and Stripes on a lofty treetop. A camp of tents and
cabins. Some of calico shirts and pine boughs. Indian Bar described.
Mountains shut out the sun. The "Humbolt" (spelled without the _d_ on
the sign) the only hotel in the camp. A barroom with a dancing-floor. A
cook who plays the violin. A popular place. Clinking glasses and
swaggering drinkers. "No place for a lady". The log-cabin residence.
Its primitive, makeshift furnishings. The library. No churches,
society, etc. "No vegetables but potatoes and onions, no milk, no eggs,
no _nothing_."


LETTER _the_ EIGHTH                                          PAGE 103

LIFE AND CHARACTERS AT INDIAN BAR

Ned, the mulatto cook and the Paganini of the Humboldt Hotel. A naval
character. His ecstasy upon hearing of the coming of the author to the
Bar. Suggestion of a strait-jacket for him. "The only petticoated
astonishment on this Bar". First dinner at the log cabin. Ned's
pretentious setting of the pine dining-table. The Bar ransacked for
viands. The bill of fare. Ned an accomplished violinist. "Chock," his
white accompanist. The author serenaded. An unappreciated "artistic"
gift. A guide of the Frémont expedition camps at Indian Bar. A
linguist, and former chief of the Crow Indians. Cold-blooded recitals
of Indian fights. The Indians near the Bar expected to make a murderous
attack upon the miners. The guide's council with them. Flowery reply of
the Indians. A studious Quaker. His merciless frankness and regard for
truth. "The Squire," and how he was elected justice of the peace. The
miners prefer to rule themselves.


LETTER _the_ NINTH                                           PAGE 117

THEFT OF GOLD-DUST--TRIAL AND PUNISHMENT

The "Squire's" first opportunity to exercise his judicial power.
Holding court in a barroom. The jury "treated" by the Squire. Theft of
gold-dust, and arrest of suspect. A miners' meeting. Fears that they
would hang the prisoner. A regular trial decided upon, at the Empire,
Rich Bar, where the gold-dust was stolen. Suggestion of thrift.
Landlords to profit by trial, wherever held. Mock respect of the miners
for the Squire. Elect a president at the trial. The Squire allowed to
play at judge. Lay counsel for prosecution and defense. Ingenious
defense of the accused. Verdict of guilty. Light sentence, on account
of previous popularity and inoffensive conduct. Thirty-nine lashes, and
to leave the river. Owner of gold-dust indemnified by transfer of
thief's interest in a mine. A visit to Smith's Bar. Crossing the river
on log bridges Missouri Bar. Smith's a sunny camp, unlike Indian.
Frenchman's Bar, another sunny spot. "Yank," the owner of a log-cabin
store. Shrewdness and simplicity. Hopeless ambition to be "cute and
smart". The "Indiana girl" impossible to Yank. "A superior and splendid
woman, but no polish". Yank's "olla podrida of heterogeneous
merchandise". The author meets the banished gold-dust thief.
Subscription by the miners on his banishment. A fool's errand to
establish his innocence. An oyster-supper bet. The thief's statements
totally incompatible with innocence.


LETTER _the_ TENTH                                           PAGE 133

AMATEUR MINING--HAIRBREADTH 'SCAPES, &C.

Three dollars and twenty-five cents in gold-dust. Sorry she learned the
trade. The resulting losses and suffering. Secret of the brilliant
successes of former gold-washeresses. Salting the ground by miners in
order to deceive their fair visitors. Erroneous ideas of the richness
of auriferous dirt resulting therefrom. Rarity of lucky strikes. Claim
yielding ten dollars a day considered valuable. Consternation and
near-disaster in the author's cabin. Trunk of forest giant rolls down
hill. Force broken by rock near cabin. Terror of careless woodman.
Another narrow escape at Smith's Bar. Pursuit and escape of woodman.
Two sudden deaths at Indian Bar. Inquest in the open. Cosmopolitan
gathering thereat. Wife of one of the deceased an advanced bloomer.
Animadversions on strong-minded bloomers seeking their rights.
California pheasant, the gallina del campo of the Spaniards. Pines and
dies in captivity. Smart, harmless earthquake-shocks.


LETTER _the_ ELEVENTH                                        PAGE 149

ROBBERY, TRIAL, EXECUTION--MORE TRAGEDY

Theft of gold-dust. Arrest of two suspected miners. Trial and acquittal
at miners' meeting. Robbed persons still believe the accused guilty.
Suspects leave mountains. One returns, and plan for his detection
proves successful. Confronted with evidence of guilt, discloses, on
promise of immunity from prosecution, hiding-place of gold-dust.
Miners, however, try him, and on conviction he is sentenced to be
hanged one hour thereafter. Miners' mode of trial. Respite of three
hours. Bungling execution. Drunken miner's proposal for sign of guilt
or innocence. Corpse "enwrapped in white shroud of feathery
snowflakes". Execution the work of the more reckless. Not generally
approved. The Squire, disregarded, protested. Miners' procedure
compared with the moderation of the first Vigilance Committee of San
Francisco. Singular disappearance of body of miner. Returning to the
States with his savings, his two companions report their leaving him in
dying condition. Arrest and fruitless investigation. An unlikely
bequest of money. Trial and acquittal of the miner's companions. Their
story improbable, their actions like actual murder.


LETTER _the_ TWELFTH                                         PAGE 163

A STORMY WINTER--HOLIDAY SATURNALIAS

Saturnalia in camp. Temptations of riches. Tribute to the miners.
Dreariness of camp-life during stormy winter weather. Christmas and
change of proprietors at the Humboldt. Preparations for a double
celebration. Muleback loads of brandy-casks and champagne-baskets.
Noisy procession of revelers. Oyster-and-champagne supper. Three days
of revelry. Trial by mock vigilance committee. Judgment to "treat the
crowd". Revels resumed on larger scale at New Year's. Boat-loads of
drunken miners fall into river. Saved by being drunk. Boat-load of
bread falls into river and floats down-stream. Pulley-and-rope device
for hauling boat across river. Fiddlers "nearly fiddled themselves into
the grave". Liquors "beginning to look scarce". Subdued and
sheepish-looking bacchanals. Nothing extenuated, nor aught set down in
malice. Boating on river. Aquatic plants. Bridge swept away in torrent.
Loss of canoe. Branch from moss-grown fir-tree "a cornice wreathed with
purple-starred tapestry". A New Year's present from the river. A
two-inch spotted trout. No fresh meat for a month. "Dark and ominous
rumors". Dark hams, rusty pork, etc., stored.


LETTER _the_ THIRTEENTH                                      PAGE 177

SOCIABILITY AND EXCITEMENTS OF MINING-LIFE

Departure from Indian Bar of the mulatto Ned. His birthday-celebration
dinner, at which the New Year's piscatory phenomenon figures in the
bill of fare. A total disregard of dry laws at the dinner. Excitement
over reported discovery of quartz-mines. A complete humbug. Charges of
salting. Excitement renewed upon report of other new quartz-mines. Even
if rich, lack of proper machinery would render the working thereof
impossible. Prediction that quartz-mining eventually will be the most
profitable. Miners leave the river without paying their debts. Pursued
and captured. Miners' court orders settlement in full. Celebration, by
French miners on the river, of the Revolution of 1848. Invitation to
dine at best-built log cabin on the river. The habitation of five or
six young miners. A perfect marvel of a fireplace. Huge unsplit logs as
firewood. Window of glass jars. Possibilities in the use of empty glass
containers. Unthrift of some miners. The cabin, its furniture, store of
staple provisions, chinaware, cutlery. The dinner in the cabin. A cow
kept. Wonderful variety of makeshift candlesticks in use among the
miners. Dearth of butter, potatoes, onions, fresh meat, in camp.
Indian-summer weather at Indian Bar. A cozy retreat in the hills. A
present of feathered denizens of the mountains. Roasted for dinner.


LETTER _the_ FOURTEENTH                                      PAGE 191

SPRINGTIDE--LINGUISTICS--STORMS--ACCIDENTS

The splendor of a March morning in the mountains of California. The
first bird of the season. Blue and red shirted miners a feature of the
landscape. "Wanderers from the whole broad earth". The languages of
many nations heard. How the Americans attempt to converse with the
Spanish-speaking population. "Sabe," "vamos," "poco tiempo," "si," and
"bueno," a complete lexicon of la lengua castellana, in the minds of
the Americans. An "ugly disposition" manifested when the speaker is not
understood. The Spaniards "ain't kinder like our folks," nor "folksy".
Mistakes not all on one side. Spanish proverb regarding certain
languages. Not complimentary to English. Stormy weather. Storm king a
perfect Proteus. River on a rampage. Sawmill carried away. Pastimes of
the miners during the storm. MS. account of storm sent in keg via river
to Marysville newspaper. Silversmith makes gold rings during storm.
Raffling and reraffling of same as pastime. Some natural gold rings.
Nugget in shape of eagle's head presented to author. Miners buried up
to neck in cave-in. Escape with but slight injury. Miner stabbed
without provocation in drunken frolic. Life despaired of at first. No
notice taken of affair.


LETTER _the_ FIFTEENTH                                       PAGE 205

MINING METHODS--MINERS, GAMBLERS, &C.

Difficulty experienced in writing amid the charms of California
mountain scenery. Science the blindest guide on a gold-hunting
expedition. Irreverent contempt of the beautiful mineral to the
dictates of science. Nothing better to be expected from the root of all
evil. Foreigners more successful than Americans in its pursuit.
Americans always longing for big strikes. Success lies in staying and
persevering. How a camp springs into existence. Prospecting, panning
out, and discovery that it pays. The claim. Building the shanty.
Spreading of news of the new diggings. Arrival of the monte-dealers.
Industrious begin digging for gold. The claiming system. How claims
worked. Working difficult amidst huge mountain rocks. Partnerships then
compulsory. Naming the mine or company. The long-tom. Panning out the
gold. Sinking shaft to reach bed-rock. Drifting coyote-holes in search
of crevices. Water-ditches and water companies. Washing out in
long-tom. Waste-ditches. Tailings. Fluming companies. Rockers.
Gold-mining is nature's great lottery scheme. Thousands taken out in a
few hours. Six ounces in six months. "Almost all seem to have lost".
Jumped claims. Caving in of excavations. Abandonment of expensive
paying shafts. Miner making "big strike" almost sure prey of
professional gamblers. As spring opens, gamblers flock in like birds of
prey. After stay of only four days, gambler leaves Bar with over a
thousand dollars of miners' gold. As many foreigners as Americans on
the river. Foreigners generally extremely ignorant and degraded. Some
Spaniards of the highest education and accomplishment. Majority of
Americans mechanics of better class. Sailors and farmers next in
number. A few merchants and steamboat-clerks. A few physicians. One
lawyer. Ranchero of distinguished appearance an accomplished
monte-dealer and horse-jockey. Is said to have been a preacher in the
States. Such not uncommon for California.


LETTER _the_ SIXTEENTH                                       PAGE 223

BIRTH--STABBING--FOREIGNERS OUSTED--REVELS

California mountain flora. A youthful Kanaka mother. Her feat of
pedestrianism. Stabbing of a Spaniard by an American. The result of a
request to pay a debt. Nothing done and but little said about the
atrocity. Foreigners barred from working at Rich Bar. Spaniards
thereupon move to Indian Bar. They erect places for the sale of
intoxicants. Many new houses for public entertainment at Indian Bar.
Sunday "swearing, drinking, gambling, and fighting". Salubrity of the
climate. No death for months, except by accidental drowning in
flood-water. Capture of two grizzly cubs. "The oddest possible pets".
"An echo from the outside world once a month."


LETTER _the_ SEVENTEENTH                                     PAGE 231

SUPPLIES BY PACK-MULES--KANAKAS AND INDIANS

Belated arrival of pack-mule train with much-needed supplies.
Picturesque appearance of the dainty-footed mules descending the steep
hills. Of every possible color. Gay trappings. Tinkling bells. Peculiar
urging cry of the Spanish muleteers. Lavish expenditure of gold-dust
for vegetables and butter. Potatoes forty cents a pound. Incense of the
pungent member of the lily family. Arrival of other storm-bound trains,
and sudden collapse in prices. A horseback-ride on dangerous
mule-trail. Fall of oxen over precipice. The mountain flowers, oaks,
and rivulets. Visit to Kanaka mother. A beauty from the isles. Hawaiian
superstition. An unfortunate request for the baby as a present.
Consolatory promise to give the next one. Indian visitors.
Head-dresses. "Very tight and very short shirts". Indian mode of life.
Their huts, food, cooking, utensils, manner of eating. Sabine-like
invasion leaves to tribe but a few old squaws. "Startlingly
unsophisticated state of almost entire nudity". Their filthy habits.
Papooses fastened in framework of light wood. Indian modes of fishing.
A handsome but shy young buck. Classic gracefulness of folds of
white-sheet robe of Indian. Light and airy step of the Indians
something superhuman. Miserably brutish and degraded. Their vocabulary
of about twenty words. Their love of gambling, and its frightful
consequences. Arrival of hundreds of people at Indian Bar. Saloons
springing up in every direction. Fluming operations rapidly
progressing. A busy, prosperous summer looked for.


LETTER _the_ EIGHTEENTH                                      PAGE 247

FOURTH OF JULY FESTIVAL--SPANISH ATTACKED

Fourth of July celebration at Rich Bar. The author makes the flag. Its
materials. How California was represented therein. Floated from the top
of a lofty pine-tree. The decorations at the Empire Hotel. An
"officious Goth" mars the floral piece designed for the orator of the
day. Only two ladies in the audience. Two others are expected, but do
not arrive. No copy of the Declaration of Independence. Some
preliminary speeches by political aspirants. Orator of the day reads
anonymous poem. Oration "exceedingly fresh and new". Belated arrival of
the expected ladies, new-comers from the East. With new fashions, they
extinguish the author and her companion. Dinner at the Empire. Mexican
War captain as president. "Toasts quite spicy and original". Fight in
the barroom. Eastern lady "chose to go faint" at sight of blood. Cabin
full of "infant phenomena". A rarity in the mountains. Miners, on way
home from celebration, give nine cheers for mother and children. Outcry
at Indian Bar against Spaniards. Several severely wounded. Whisky and
patriotism. Prejudices and arrogant assurance accounted for.
Misinterpretation by the foreigner. Injustices by the lower classes
against Spaniards pass unnoticed. Innumerable drunken fights. Broken
heads and collarbones, stabbings. "Sabbaths almost always enlivened by
such merry events". Body of Frenchman found in river. Murder evident.
Suspicion falls on nobody.


LETTER _the_ NINETEENTH                                      PAGE 259

MURDER, THEFT, RIOT, HANGING, WHIPPING, &C.

Three weeks of excitement at Indian Bar. Murders, fearful accidents,
bloody deaths, whippings, hanging, an attempted suicide, etc.
Sabbath-morning walk in the hills. Miners' ditch rivaling in beauty the
work of nature. Fatal stabbing by a Spaniard. He afterwards parades
street with a Mexicana, brandishing along bloody knife. His pursuit by
and escape from the infuriated Americans. Unfounded rumor of conspiracy
of the Spaniards to murder the Americans. Spaniards barricade
themselves. Grief of Spanish woman over corpse of murdered man. Miners
arrive from Rich Bar. Wild cry for vengeance, and for expulsion of
Spaniards. The author prevailed upon to retire to place of safety.
Accidental discharge of gun when drunken owner of vile resort attempts
to force way through armed guard. Two seriously wounded. Sobering
effect of the accident. Vigilance committee organized. Suspected
Spaniards arrested. Trial of the Mexicana. Always wore male attire, was
foremost in fray, and, armed with brace of pistols, fought like a fury.
Sentenced to leave by daylight. Indirect cause of fight. Woman always
to blame. Trial of ringleaders. Sentences of whipping, and to leave.
Confiscation of property for benefit of wounded. Anguish of the author
when Spaniards were whipped. Young Spaniard movingly but vainly pleads
for death instead of whipping. His oath to murder every American he
should afterwards meet alone. Doubtless will keep his word. Murder of
Mr. Bacon, a ranchero, for his money, by his negro cook. Murderer
caught at Sacramento with part of money. His trial at Rich Bar by the
vigilantes. Sentence of death by hanging. Another negro attempts
suicide. Accuses the mulatto Ned of attempt to murder him. Dr. C. in
trouble for binding up negro's self-inflicted wounds. Formation of
"Moguls," who make night hideous. Vigilantes do not interfere. Duel at
Missouri Bar. Fatal results. A large crowd present. Vigilance committee
also present. "But you must remember that this is California."


LETTER _the_ TWENTIETH                                       PAGE 281

MURDER--MINING SCENES--SPANISH BREAKFAST

Ramada, unoccupied, wrecked by log rolling down hill. Was place of
residence of wounded Spaniard, who had died but a few days previously.
Murder near Indian Bar. Innocent and harmless person arrested, said to
answer description of murderer. A humorous situation. A "guard of
honor" from the vigilantes while in custody. Upon release his expenses
all paid. Enjoyed a holiday from hard work. Tendered a present and a
handsome apology. Public opinion in the mines a cruel but fortunately a
fickle thing. Invitation to author to breakfast at Spanish garden. The
journey thereto, along river, with its busy mining scenes. The
wing-dam, and how it differs from the ordinary dam. An involuntary
bath. Drifts, shafts, coyote-holes. How claims are worked. Flumes.
Unskilled workmen. Their former professions or occupations. The best
water in California, but the author is unappreciative. Flavorless, but,
since the Flood, always tastes of sinners. Don Juan's country-seat. The
Spanish breakfast. The eatables and the drinkables. Stronger spirits
for the stronger spirits. Ice, through oversight, the only thing
lacking. Yank's tame cub. Parodic doggerel by the author on her loss of
pets. A miners' dinner-party with but one teaspoon, and that one
borrowed. An unlearned and wearisome blacksmith.


LETTER _the_ TWENTY-FIRST                                    PAGE 297

DISCOMFORTS OF TRIP TO POLITICAL CONVENTION

Visit to the American Valley. Journey thither. Scenes by the way.
Political convention. Delegates from Indian Bar. Arrival at Greenwood's
Rancho, headquarters of Democrats. Overcrowded. Party proceed to the
American Rancho, headquarters of Whigs. Also overcrowded. Tiresome ride
of ladies on horseback. Proceed to house of friend of lady in party. An
inhospitable reception. The author entertains herself. Men of party
return to the American Rancho. Fearful inroad upon the eatables.
Landlord aghast, but pacified by generous orders for drinkables.
California houses not proof against eavesdroppers. Misunderstandings
and explanations overheard by the author. Illness of hostess.
Uncomfortable and miserable night, and worse quarters. Handsome
riding-habit, etc., of the hostess. Table-service, carpeting, chests of
tea, casks of sugar, bags of coffee, etc., "the good people possessed
everything but a house". "The most beautiful spot I ever saw in
California". Owner building house of huge hewn logs. The author returns
to the American Rancho. Its primitive furniture, etc. Political
visitors. The convention. Horse-racing and gambling. The author goes to
Greenwood's Rancho. More primitive furniture and lack of accommodations.
Misplaced benevolence of Bostonians. Should transfer their activities
to California.


LETTER _the_ TWENTY-SECOND                                   PAGE 317

THE OVERLAND TIDE OF IMMIGRATION

Exoneration of landlords for conditions at Greenwood's Rancho. The
American Valley. Prospective summer resort. Prodigious vegetables. New
England scenery compared with that of California. Greenwood's Rancho.
Place of origin of quartz hoax. Beautiful stones. Recruiting-place of
overland immigrants. Haggard immigrant women. Death and speedy burial
on the plains. Handsome young widow immigrant. Aspirants to matrimony
candidates for her hand. Interesting stories of adventures on the
plains. Four women, sisters or sisters-in-law, and their thirty-six
children. Accomplished men. Infant prodigies. A widow with eight sons
and one daughter. Primitive laundering, but generous patrons. The
bloomer costume appropriate for overland journey. Dances in barroom.
Unwilling female partners. Some illiterate immigrants. Many intelligent
and well-bred women. The journey back to Indian Bar. The tame frog in
the rancho barroom. The dining-table a bed at night. Elation of the
author on arriving at her own log cabin.


LETTER _the_ TWENTY-THIRD                                    PAGE 335

MINING FAILURES--DEPARTURE FROM INDIAN BAR

Dread of spending another winter at Indian Bar. Failure of nearly all
the fluming companies. Official report of one company. Incidental
failure of business people. The author's preparations to depart.
Prediction of early rains. High prices cause of dealers' failure to lay
in supply of provisions. Probable fatal results to families unable to
leave Bar. Rain and snow alternately. The Squire a poor weather
prophet. Pack-mule trains with provisions fail to arrive. Amusement
found in petty litigation. Legal acumen of the Squire. He wins golden
opinions. The judgment all the prevailing party gets. What the
constable got in effort to collect judgment. Why Dr. C.'s fee was not
paid. A prescription of "calumny and other pizen doctor's stuff". A
wonderful gold specimen in the form of a basket. "Weighs about two
dollars and a half". How little it takes to make people comfortable. A
log-cabin meal and its table-service. The author departs on horseback
from Indian Bar. Her regrets upon leaving the mountains. "Feeble,
half-dying invalid not recognizable in your now perfectly healthy
sister."




_The_ Illustrations


1. GOLD-WASHING IN WICKER BASKETS--AMERICANS AND HISPANO-CALIFORNIANS
WITH INDIANS                                           _Frontispiece_

This is a composite engraving, a very interesting feature of which is
the Indians and their wicker baskets, the latter going out of use when
metal pans were obtainable, which also displaced wooden bowls and
homely makeshifts. This feature is resketched from a rare old print in
the possession of the Van Ness family of San Francisco. The huts are
specimens of ramadas, popular with the Spanish-speaking miners, and
frequently mentioned by Shirley.

2. SUTTER'S MILL, COLOMA, WHERE GOLD WAS ACCIDENTALLY DISCOVERED
IN JANUARY, 1848                                        FACES PAGE 42

This fine engraving follows closely, in all essential details, that in
the Voyages en Californie et dans l'Orégon, par M. de Saint-Amant,
Envoyé du Gouvernement Français, en 1851-1852 (Paris, 1854). The
engravings in that volume, although poorly printed on a cheap grade of
book-paper, are noted for their accuracy, and are interesting as
showing the methods etc. of the miners while Shirley was writing her
Letters. The tail-race, in the foreground, is where James Wilson
Marshall and Peter L. Wimmer first saw the nuggets, but Marshall was
the first to pick up a specimen. Much has been written of Marshall; the
Wimmers were of the Western pioneer type.

3. GROUND-SLUICING                                      FACES PAGE 86

This spirited engraving is resketched, in essentials, from a woodcut in
Henry De Groot's Recollections of California Mining Life (1884), also
in his Gold Mines and Mining in California (1885). Ground-sluicing is
done in winter, when water is abundant and the ground soft, the
pay-dirt being thrown into a channel made for the purpose, and down
which the water rushes. The gold settles on the bed-rock, and is
collected later, when the water-run has subsided.

4. PAN, CRADLE OR ROCKER, LONG-TOM, SLUICE-WASHING--DRIFTING, WINDLASS
AND SHAFT                                              FACES PAGE 132

The varied and animated scene depicted in this plate is resketched from
De Groot's Gold Mines and Mining in California. (See note to plate 3.)
In the foreground, on the left, a miner washes dirt in a pan. Above,
and to the left, a miner washes in a rocker or cradle, the pay-dirt
coming in a tram-car from the tunnel, in which are drift-diggings. The
men at the windlass are sinking a shaft, prospecting for drift-deposits.
To the right, in the foreground, three men are working a long-tom,
which, in point of time, followed the rocker. One of the miners is
keeping the dirt stirred up in the tom, under which is set a riffle-box
with quicksilver to catch the gold. In the background miners are hand
or shovel sluicing, in which the riffle-box of the long-tom is
dispensed with.

5. INTERIOR OF MINERS' LOG CABIN--ONE PARTNER COOKING FOR NIGHT-FARING
VISITORS                                               FACES PAGE 176

This interesting engraving also follows, in all essentials, that in de
Saint-Amant's Voyages. (See note to plate 2, supra.) The owners of the
cabin had evidently retired for the night, and were awakened by their
visitors. The upper bunk, or berth, has been vacated by the miner
cooking. We will say two of the visitors have been prospecting, and are
reasoning with the third, who appears to have come from that state of
the Union "where one must demonstrate." The rifle close to the bunk of
the sleeping miner, the mining implements littered over the floor, the
bottles etc. on the shelf-table, are features that require no
explanation.

6. SALOON IN A MINING-CAMP--MONTE-DEALER, MINERS, ESPAÑOLA AND
MEXICANA                                               FACES PAGE 258

This is a composite engraving, the artist having combined several old
prints. The Spanish woman is shown in a national costume, and her air
and attitude indicate her ability to take care of herself. The Mexican
girl at the bar, and armed, is a type of the Mexicana mentioned by
Shirley.

7. WASHING IN ROCKERS ON RIVER'S BRINK--MINERS PACKING PAY-GRAVEL
IN BUCKETS                                             FACES PAGE 280

This realistic plate follows closely, in essentials, that in de
Saint-Amant's Voyages. (See note to plate 2, ante.) The bare declivity
has evidently been worked, and the auriferous gravel must now be packed
from the heights. A barrow with shafts at only one end may be seen
beside one of the rockers, and it is conjectured that not all the
gravel is picked in buckets. The miner seen in the background of
brushwood digs the pay-gravel.

8. WASHING IN LONG-TOM WITH WATER FROM FLUME--CHEAPER THAN PUMPING
FROM RIVER                                             FACES PAGE 334

This beautiful engraving follows closely that in de Saint-Amant's
Voyages. (See note to plate 2, ante.) Here the miners found it more
economical to purchase water from a fluming company than to pump it
from the river. The belt and pulley is used to drive a Chinese pump
which keeps dry the pit now being worked.




_The_ Shirley Letters




Letter _the_ First

Part One

_The_ JOURNEY _to_ RICH BAR

RICH BAR, EAST BRANCH _of the_ NORTH FORK _of_ FEATHER RIVER,

_September_ 13, 1851.


I can easily imagine, dear M., the look of large wonder which gleams
from your astonished eyes when they fall upon the date of this letter.
I can figure to myself your whole surprised attitude as you exclaim,
"What, in the name of all that is restless, has sent 'Dame Shirley' to
Rich Bar? How did such a shivering, frail, home-loving little thistle
ever float safely to that far-away spot, and take root so kindly, as it
evidently has, in that barbarous soil? Where, in this living, breathing
world of ours, lieth that same Rich Bar, which, sooth to say, hath a
most taking name? And, for pity's sake, how does the poor little fool
expect to amuse herself there?"

Patience, sister of mine. Your curiosity is truly laudable, and I trust
that before you read the postscript of this epistle it will be fully
and completely relieved. And, first, I will merely observe, _en
passant_, reserving a full description of its discovery for a future
letter, that said Bar forms a part of a mining settlement situated on
the East Branch of the North Fork of Feather River, "away off up in the
mountains," as our "little Faresoul" would say, at almost the highest
point where, as yet, gold has been discovered, and indeed within fifty
miles of the summit of the Sierra Nevada itself. So much, at present,
for our _local_, while I proceed to tell you of the propitious--or
unpropitious, as the result will prove--winds which blew us hitherward.

You already know that F., after suffering for an entire year with fever
and ague, and bilious, remittent, and intermittent fevers,--this
delightful list varied by an occasional attack of jaundice,--was
advised, as a _dernier ressort_, to go into the mountains. A friend,
who had just returned from the place, suggested Rich Bar as the
terminus of his health-seeking journey, not only on account of the
extreme purity of the atmosphere, but because there were more than a
thousand people there already, and but one physician, and as his
strength increased, he might find in that vicinity a favorable opening
for the practice of his profession, which, as the health of his purse
was almost as feeble as that of his body, was not a bad idea.

F. was just recovering from a brain-fever when he concluded to go to
the mines; but, in spite of his excessive debility, which rendered him
liable to chills at any hour of the day or night, he started on the
seventh day of June--mounted on a mule, and accompanied by a jackass to
carry his baggage, and a friend who kindly volunteered to assist him in
spending his money--for this wildly beautiful spot. F. was compelled by
sickness to stop several days on the road. He suffered intensely, the
trail for many miles being covered to the depth of twelve feet with
snow, although it was almost midsummer when he passed over it. He
arrived at Rich Bar the latter part of June, and found the revivifying
effect of its bracing atmosphere far surpassing his most sanguine
hopes. He soon built himself an office, which was a perfect marvel to
the miners, from its superior elegance. It is the only one on the Bar,
and I intend to visit it in a day or two, when I will give you a
description of its architectural splendors. It will perhaps enlighten
you as to one peculiarity of a newly discovered mining district, when I
inform you that although there were but two or three physicians at Rich
Bar when my husband arrived, in less than three weeks there were
_twenty-nine_ who had chosen this place for the express purpose of
practicing their profession.

Finding his health so almost miraculously improved, F. concluded,
should I approve the plan, to spend the winter in the mountains. I had
teased him to let me accompany him when he left in June, but he had at
that time refused, not daring to subject me to inconveniences, of the
extent of which he was himself ignorant. When the letter disclosing his
plans for the winter reached me at San Francisco, I was perfectly
enchanted. You know that I am a regular nomad in my passion for
wandering. Of course my numerous acquaintances in San Francisco raised
one universal shout of disapprobation. Some said that I ought to be put
into a straitjacket, for I was undoubtedly mad to think of such a
thing. Some said that I should never get there alive, and if I _did_,
would not stay a month; that it was ever my lot to be victimized in,
and commenced my journey in earnest. I was the only passenger. For
thirty miles the road passed through as beautiful a country as I had
ever seen. Dotted here and there with the California oak, it reminded
me of the peaceful apple-orchards and smiling river-meadows of dear old
New England. As a frame to the graceful picture, on one side rose the
Buttes, that group of hills so piquant and saucy, and on the other,
tossing to heaven the everlasting whiteness of their snow-wreathed
foreheads, stood, sublime in their very monotony, the summits of the
glorious Sierra Nevada.

We passed one place where a number of Indian women were gathering
flower-seeds, which, mixed with pounded acorns and grasshoppers, form
the bread of these miserable people. The idea, and the really ingenious
mode of carrying it out, struck me as so singular, that I cannot
forbear attempting a description. These poor creatures were entirely
naked, with the exception of a quantity of grass bound round the waist,
and covering the thighs midway to the knees, perhaps. Each one carried
two brown baskets, which, I have since been told, are made of a species
of osier, woven with a neatness which is absolutely marvelous, when one
considers that they are the handiwork of such degraded wretches. Shaped
like a cone, they are about six feet in circumference at the opening,
and I should judge them to be nearly three feet in depth. It is
evident, by the grace and care with which they handle them, that they
are exceedingly light. It is possible that my description may be
inaccurate, for I have never read any account of them, and merely give
my own impressions as they were received while the wagon rolled rapidly
by the spot at which the women were at work. One of these queer baskets
is suspended from the back, and is kept in place by a thong of leather
passing across the forehead. The other they carry in the right hand and
wave over the flower-seeds, first to the right, and back again to the
left, alternately, as they walk slowly along, with a motion as regular
and monotonous as that of a mower. When they have collected a handful
of the seeds, they pour them into the basket behind, and continue this
work until they have filled the latter with their strange harvest. The
seeds thus gathered are carried to their rancherías, and stowed away
with great care for winter use. It was, to me, very interesting to
watch their regular motion, they seemed so exactly to keep time with
one another; and with their dark shining skins, beautiful limbs, and
lithe forms, they were by no means the least picturesque feature of the
landscape.

Ten miles this side of Bidwell's Bar, the road, hitherto so smooth and
level, became stony and hilly. For more than a mile we drove along the
edge of a precipice, and so near, that it seemed to me, should the
horses deviate a hairbreadth from their usual track, we must be dashed
into eternity. Wonderful to relate, I did not "Oh!" nor "Ah!" nor
shriek _once_, but remained crouched in the back of the wagon, as
silent as death. When we were again in safety, the driver exclaimed, in
the classic patois of New England, "Wall, I guess yer the fust woman
that ever rode over that are hill without hollering." He evidently did
not know that it was the intensity of my _fear_ that kept me so still.

Soon Table Mountain became visible, extended like an immense
dining-board for the giants, its summit a perfectly straight line
penciled for more than a league against the glowing sky. And now we
found ourselves among the Red Hills, which look like an ascending sea
of crimson waves, each crest foaming higher and higher as we creep
among them, until we drop down suddenly into the pretty little valley
called Bidwell's Bar.

I arrived there at three o'clock in the evening, when I found F. in
much better health than when he left Marysville. As there was nothing
to sleep _in_ but a tent, and nothing to sleep _on_ but the ground, and
the air was black with the fleas hopping about in every direction, we
concluded to ride forward to the Berry Creek House, a ranch ten miles
farther on our way, where we proposed to pass the night.




LETTER _the_ FIRST

Part Two

[_The_ PIONEER, _February_, 1854]

_The_ JOURNEY _to_ RICH BAR

SYNOPSIS


A moonlit midsummer-night's ride on muleback. Joyous beginning. The
Indian trail lost. Camping out for the night-Attempts in the morning to
find the trail. A trying ride in the fierce heat of midday. The trail
found. A digression of thirty miles. Lack of food, and seven miles more
to ride. To rest is impossible. Mad joy when within sight of Berry
Creek Rancho. Congratulations on escape from Indians on trail.
Frenchman and wife murdered. The journey resumed. Arrival at the "Wild
Yankee's". Breakfast with fresh butter and cream. Indian bucks, squaws,
and papooses. Their curiosity. Pride of an Indian in ability to repeat
one line of a song. Indian women: extreme beauty of their limbs;
slender ankles and statuesque feet; haggardness of expression and
ugliness of features. Girl of sixteen, a "wildwood Cleopatra," an
exception to the general hideousness. The California Indian not the
Indian of the Leatherstocking tales. A stop at the Buckeye Rancho.
Start for Pleasant Valley Rancho. The trail again lost. Camping out for
the night. Growling bears. Arrive at Pleasant Valley Rancho. A
flea-haunted shanty. The beauty of the wilderness. Quail and deer. The
chaparrals, and their difficulty of penetration by the mules. Escape
from a rattlesnake. Descending precipitous hill on muleback.
Saddle-girth breaks. Harmless fall from the saddle. Triumphant entry
into Rich Bar. A tribute to mulekind. The Empire Hotel. "A huge shingle
palace."




Letter _the_ First

Part Two

_The_ JOURNEY _to_ RICH BAR

RICH BAR, EAST BRANCH _of the_ NORTH FORK _of_ FEATHER RIVER,

_September_ 13, 1851.


The moon was just rising as we started. The air made one think of
fairy-festivals, of living in the woods _always_, with the green-coated
people for playmates, it was so wonderfully soft and cool, without the
least particle of dampness. A midsummer's night in the leafy month of
June, amid the dreamiest haunts of "Old Crownest," could not be more
enchantingly lovely.

We sped merrily onward until nine o'clock, making the old woods echo
with song and story and laughter, for F. was unusually gay, and I was
in tip-top spirits. It seemed to me so _funny_ that we two people
should be riding on mules, all by ourselves, in these glorious
latitudes, night smiling down so kindly upon us, and, funniest of
_all_, that we were going to live in the Mines! In spite of my gayety,
however, I now began to wonder why we did not arrive at our intended
lodgings. F. reassured me by saying that when we had _de_scended this
hill or _as_cended that, we should certainly be there. But ten o'clock
came; eleven, twelve, one, _two_! but no Berry Creek House! I began to
be frightened, and besides that, was very sick with a nervous headache.
At every step we were getting higher and higher into the mountains, and
even F. was at last compelled to acknowledge that we were _lost!_ We
were on an Indian trail, and the bushes grew so low that at almost
every step I was obliged to bend my forehead to my mule's neck. This
increased the pain in my head to an almost insupportable degree. At
last I told F. that I could not remain in the saddle a moment longer.
Of course there was nothing to do but to camp. Totally unprepared for
such a catastrophe, we had nothing but the blankets of our mules, and a
thin quilt in which I had rolled some articles necessary for the
journey, because it was easier to pack than a traveling-bag. F. told me
to sit on the mule while he prepared my woodland couch, but I was too
nervous for that, and so jumped off and dropped onto the ground, worn
out with fatigue and pain. The night was still dreamily beautiful, and
I should have been enchanted with the adventure (for I had fretted and
complained a good deal, because we had no _excuse_ for camping out) had
it not been for that impertinent headache, which, you remember, always
_would_ visit me at the most inconvenient seasons.

About daylight, somewhat refreshed, we again mounted our mules,
confidently believing that an hour's ride would bring us to the Berry
Creek House, as we supposed, of course, that we had camped in its
immediate vicinity. We tried more than a dozen paths, which, as they
led _nowhere_, we would retrace to the principal trail. At last F.
determined to keep upon one, as it _must_, he thought, in _time_, lead
us out of the mountains, even if we landed on the other side of
California. Well, we rode on, and on, and on, up hill and down hill,
down hill and up, through fir-groves and oak-clumps, and along the edge
of dark ravines, until I thought that I should go _mad_, for all this
time the sun was pouring down its hottest rays most pitilessly, and I
had an excruciating pain in my head and in all my limbs.

About two o'clock we struck the main trail, and, meeting a man,--the
first human being that we had seen since we left Bidwell's,--were told
that we were seven miles from the Berry Creek House, and that we had
been down to the North Fork of the American River, more than thirty
miles out of our way! This joyful news gave us fresh strength, and we
rode on as fast as our worn-out mules could go.

Although we had eaten nothing since noon the day before, I bore up
bravely until we arrived within two miles of the rancho, when courage
and strength both gave way, and I _implored_ F. to let me lie down
under a tree and rest for a few hours. He very wisely refused, knowing
that if I dismounted it would be impossible to get me onto my mule
again, and we should be obliged to spend another night under the stars,
which, in this enchanting climate, would have been delightful, had we
possessed any food; but, knowing that I needed refreshment even more
than I did rest, he was compelled to insist upon my proceeding.

My poor husband! He must have had a trying time with me, for I sobbed
and cried like the veriest child, and repeatedly declared that I should
never live to get to the rancho. F. said afterwards that he began to
think I intended to keep my word, for I certainly _looked_ like a
dying person.

O Mary! it makes me _shudder_ when I think of the mad joy with which I
saw that rancho! Remember that, with the exception of three or four
hours the night before, we had been in the saddle for nearly twenty-four
hours without refreshment. When we stopped, F. carried me into the
house and laid me onto a bunk, though I have no remembrance of it, and
he said that when he offered me some food, I turned from it with
disgust, exclaiming, "Oh, take it away! give me some cold water and let
me _sleep_, and be sure you don't wake me for the next three weeks."
And I _did_ sleep, with a forty slumber-power; and when F. came to me
late in the evening with some tea and toast, I awoke, oh! _so_
refreshed, and perfectly well, for, after all the great fuss which I
had made, there was nothing the matter with me but a little fatigue.

Every one that we met congratulated us upon not having encountered any
Indians, for the paths which we followed were Indian trails, and it is
said they would have killed us for our mules and clothes. A few weeks
ago a Frenchman and his wife were murdered by them. I had thought of
the circumstances when we camped, but was too sick to care what
happened. They generally take women captive, however; and who knows how
narrowly I escaped becoming an Indian chieftainess, and feeding for the
rest of my life upon roasted grasshoppers, acorns, and flower-seeds? By
the way, the last-mentioned article of food strikes me as rather
poetical than otherwise.

After a good night's rest we are perfectly well, and as happy as the
day itself,--which was one of Heaven's own choosing,--and rode to the
"Wild Yankee's," where we breakfasted, and had, among other dainties,
fresh butter and cream.

Soon after we alighted, a _herd_ of Indians, consisting of about a
dozen men and squaws, with an unknown quantity of papooses,--the last
naked as the day they were born,--crowded into the room to stare at us.
It was the most amusing thing in the world to see them finger my
gloves, whip, and hat, in their intense curiosity. One of them had
caught the following line of a song, "O, carry me back to old
Martinez," with which he continued to stun our ears all the time we
remained, repeating it over and over with as much pride and joy as a
mocking-bird exhibits when he has learned a new sound.

On this occasion I was more than ever struck with what I have often
remarked before,--the extreme beauty of the _limbs_ of the Indian
women of California. Though for haggardness of expression and ugliness
of feature they might have been taken for a band of Macbethian witches,
a bronze statue of Cleopatra herself never folded more beautifully
rounded arms above its dusky bosom, or poised upon its pedestal a
slenderer ankle or a more statuesque foot, than those which gleamed
from beneath the dirty blankets of these wretched creatures. There was
one exception, however, to the general hideousness of their faces. A
girl of sixteen, perhaps, with those large, magnificently lustrous, yet
at the same time soft, eyes, so common in novels, so rare in real life,
had shyly glided like a dark, beautiful spirit into the corner of the
room. A fringe of silken jet swept heavily upward from her dusky cheek,
athwart which the richest color came and went like flashes of
lightning. Her flexible lips curved slightly away from teeth like
strips of cocoanut meat, with a mocking grace infinitely bewitching.
She wore a cotton chemise,--disgustingly dirty, I must confess,--girt
about her slender waist with a crimson handkerchief, while over her
night-black hair, carelessly knotted beneath the rounded chin, was a
purple scarf of knotted silk. Her whole appearance was picturesque in
the extreme. She sat upon the ground with her pretty brown fingers
languidly interlaced above her knee, "round as a _period_," (as a
certain American poet has so funnily said of a similar limb in his
Diana,) and smiled up into my face as if we were the dearest friends.

I was perfectly enraptured with this wildwood Cleopatra, and bored F.
almost beyond endurance with exclamations about her starry eyes, her
chiseled limbs, and her beautiful nut-brown cheeks.

I happened to take out of my pocket a paper of pins, when all the women
begged for some of them. This lovely child still remained silent in the
posture of exquisite grace which she had so unconsciously assumed, but,
nevertheless, she looked as pleased as any of them when I gave her,
also, a row of the much-coveted treasures. But I found I had got myself
into business, for all the men wanted pins too, and I distributed the
entire contents of the papers which I happened to have in my pocket,
before they were satisfied, much to the amusement of F., who only
laughs at what he is pleased to call my absurd interest in these poor
creatures; but you know, M., I always _did_ "take" to Indians, though
it must be said that those who bear that name here have little resemblance
to the glorious forest heroes that live in the Leatherstocking tales,
and in spite of my desire to find in them something poetical and
interesting, a stern regard for truth compels me to acknowledge that
the dusky beauty above described is the only even moderately _pretty_
squaw that I have ever seen.

At noon we stopped at the Buckeye Rancho for about an hour, and then
pushed merrily on for the Pleasant Valley Rancho, which we expected to
reach about sundown. Will you, _can_ you, believe that we got lost
again? Should you travel over this road, you would not be at all
surprised at the repetition of this misfortune. Two miles this side of
Pleasant Valley, which is very large, there is a wide, bare plain of
red stones which one is compelled to cross in order to reach it, and I
should not think that even in the daytime any one but an Indian could
keep the trail in this place. It was here that, just at dark, we
probably missed the path, and entered, about the center of the valley,
at the opposite side of an extensive grove from that on which the
rancho is situated. When I first began to suspect that we might
possibly have to camp out another night, I Caudleized at a great rate,
but when it became a fixed fact that such was our fate, I was instantly
as mute and patient as the Widow Prettyman when she succeeded to the
throne of the venerated woman referred to above. Indeed, feeling
perfectly well, and not being much fatigued, I should rather have
enjoyed it, had not F., poor fellow, been so grieved at the idea of my
going supperless to a moss-stuffed couch. It was a long time before I
could coax him to give up searching for the rancho, and, in truth, I
should think that we rode round that part of the valley in which we
found ourselves, for more than two hours, trying to find it.

About eleven o'clock we went back into the woods and camped for the
night. Our bed was quite comfortable, and my saddle made an excellent
pillow. Being so much higher in the mountains, we were a little chilly,
and I was disturbed two or three times by a distant noise, which I have
since been told was the growling of grizzly bears, that abounded in
that vicinity. On the whole, we passed a comfortable night, and rose at
sunrise feeling perfectly refreshed and well. In less than an hour we
were eating breakfast at the Pleasant Valley Rancho, which we easily
discovered by daylight.

Here they informed us that "we had escaped a great marcy," as old Jim
used to say in relating his successful run from a wolf, inasmuch as the
grizzlies had not devoured us during the night! But, seriously, dear
M., my heart thrills with gratitude to the Father for his tender care
of us during that journey, which, view it as lightly as we may, was
certainly attended with _some_ danger.

Notwithstanding we had endured so much fatigue, I felt as well as ever
I did, and after breakfast insisted upon pursuing our journey, although
F. anxiously advised me to defer it until next day. But imagine the
horror, the _crème de la crème_ of borosity, of remaining for twelve
mortal hours of wakefulness in a filthy, uncomfortable, flea-haunted
shanty, without books or papers, when Rich Bar--easily attainable
before night, through the loveliest scenery, shining in the yellow
splendor of an autumnal morn--lay before us! _I_ had no idea of any
such absurd self-immolation. So we again started on our strange,
eventful journey.

I wish I could give you some faint idea of the majestic solitudes
through which we passed,--where the pine-trees rise so grandly in their
awful height, that they seem to look into heaven itself. Hardly a
living thing disturbed this solemnly beautiful wilderness. Now and then
a tiny lizard glanced in and out among the mossy roots of the old
trees, or a golden butterfly flitted languidly from blossom to blossom.
Sometimes a saucy little squirrel would gleam along the somber trunk of
some ancient oak, or a bevy of quail, with their pretty tufted heads
and short, quick tread, would trip athwart our path. Two or three
times, in the radiant distance, we descried a stately deer, which,
framed in by embowering leaves, and motionless as a tableau, gazed at
us for a moment with its large, limpid eyes, and then bounded away with
the speed of light into the evergreen depths of those glorious old
woods.

Sometimes we were compelled to cross broad plains, acres in extent,
called chaparrals, covered with low shrubs, which, leafless and
barkless, stand like vegetable skeletons along the dreary waste. You
cannot imagine what a weird effect these eldrich bushes had upon my
mind. Of a ghastly whiteness, they at first reminded me of a plantation
of antlers, and I amused myself by fancying them a herd of crouching
deer; but they grew so wan and ghastly, that I began to look forward to
the creeping across a chaparral (it is no easy task for the mules to
wind through them) with almost a feeling of dread.

But what a lovely sight greeted our enchanted eyes as we stopped for a
few moments on the summit of the hill leading into Rich Bar! Deep in
the shadowy nooks of the far-down valleys, like wasted jewels dropped
from the radiant sky above, lay half a dozen blue-bosomed lagoons,
glittering and gleaming and sparkling in the sunlight as though each
tiny wavelet were formed of rifted diamonds. It was worth the whole
wearisome journey--danger from Indians, grizzly bears, sleeping under
the stars, and all--to behold this beautiful vision. While I stood
breathless with admiration, a singular sound, and an exclamation of "A
rattlesnake!" from F., startled me into common sense again. I gave one
look at the reptile, horribly beautiful, like a chain of living opals,
as it corkscrewed itself into that peculiar spiral which it is
compelled to assume in order to make an attack, and then, fear
overcoming curiosity, although I had never seen one of them before, I
galloped out of its vicinity as fast as my little mule could carry me.

The hill leading into Rich Bar is five miles long, and as steep as you
can imagine. Fancy yourself riding for this distance along the edge of
a frightful precipice, where, should your mule make a misstep, you
would be dashed hundreds of feet into the awful ravine below. Every one
we met tried to discourage us, and said that it would be impossible for
me to ride down it. They would take F. aside, much to my amusement, and
tell him that he was assuming a great responsibility in allowing me to
undertake such a journey. I, however, insisted upon going on. About
halfway down we came to a level spot, a few feet in extent, covered
with sharp slate-stones. Here the girth of my saddle, which we
afterwards found to be fastened only by four _tacks_, gave way, and I
fell over the right side, striking on my left elbow. Strange to say, I
was not in the least hurt, and again my heart wept tearful thanks to
God, for, had the accident happened at any other part of the hill, I
must have been dashed, a piece of shapeless nothingness, into the dim
valleys beneath.

F. soon mended the saddle-girth. I mounted my darling little mule, and
rode triumphantly into Rich Bar at five o'clock in the evening. The
Rich Barians are astonished at my courage in daring to ride down the
hill. Many of the miners have told me that they dismounted several
times while descending it. I, of course, feel very vain of my exploit,
and glorify myself accordingly, being particularly careful, all the
time, not to inform my admirers that my courage was the result of the
know-nothing, fear-nothing principle; for I was certainly ignorant,
until I had passed them, of the dangers of the passage. Another thing
that prevented my dismounting was the apparently utter impossibility,
on such a steep and narrow path, of mounting again. Then, I had much
more confidence in my mule's power of picking the way and keeping his
footing, than in my own. It is the prettiest sight in the world to see
these cunning creatures stepping so daintily and cautiously among the
rocks. Their pretty little feet, which absolutely do not look larger
than a silver dollar, seem made on purpose for the task. They are often
perfect little vixens with their masters, but an old mountaineer, who
has ridden them for twenty years, told me that he never knew one to be
skittish with a woman. The intelligent darlings seem to know what a
bundle of helplessness they are carrying, and scorn to take advantage
of it.

We are boarding, at present, at the "Empire," a huge shingle palace in
the center of Rich Bar, which I will describe in my next letter.
Pardon, dear M., the excessive egotism of this letter; but you have
often flattered me by saying that my epistles were only interesting
when profusely illuminated by that manuscriptal decoration represented
by a great _I_. A most intense love of the ornament myself makes it
easy for me to believe you, and doubt not that my future communications
will be as profusely stained with it as even you could desire.




LETTER _the_ SECOND

[_The_ PIONEER, _March_, 1854]

RICH BAR--ITS HOTELS _and_ PIONEER FAMILIES

SYNOPSIS


The Empire Hotel, _the_ hotel of Rich Bar. The author safely ensconced
therein. California might be called the "Hotel State," from the
plenitude of its taverns, etc. The Empire the only two-story building
in Rich Bar, and the only one there having glass windows. Built by
gamblers for immoral purposes. The speculation a failure, its occupants
being treated with contempt or pity. Building sold for a few hundred
dollars. The new landlord of the Empire. The landlady, an example of
the terrible wear and tear to the complexion in crossing the plains. A
resolute woman. Left behind her two children and an eight-months-old
baby. Cooking for six people, her two-weeks-old baby kicking and
screaming in champagne-basket cradle. "The sublime martyrdom of
maternity". Left alone immediately after infant's birth. Husband
dangerously ill, and cannot help. A kindly miner. Three other women at
the Bar. The "Indiana girl". "Girl" a misnomer. "A gigantic piece of
humanity". "Dainty" habits and herculean feats. A log-cabin family.
Pretty and interesting children. "The Miners' Home". Its petite
landlady tends bar. "Splendid material for social parties this winter."




Letter _the_ Second

RICH BAR--ITS HOTELS _and_ PIONEER FAMILIES

RICH BAR, EAST BRANCH _of the_ NORTH FORK _of_ FEATHER RIVER,

_September_ 15, 1851.


I believe that I closed my last letter by informing you that I was
safely ensconced--after all the hair-breadth escapes of my wearisome,
though at the same time delightful, journey--under the magnificent roof
of the "Empire," which, by the way, is _the_ hotel of the place, not
but that nearly ever other shanty on the Bar claims the same
grandiloquent title. Indeed, for that matter, California herself might
be called the Hotel State, so completely is she inundated with taverns,
boarding-houses, etc. The Empire is the only two-story building in
town, and absolutely has a live "upstairs." Here you will find two or
three glass windows, an unknown luxury in all the other dwellings. It
is built of planks of the roughest possible description. The roof, of
course, is covered with canvas, which also forms the entire front of
the house, on which is painted, in immense capitals, the following
imposing letters: "THE EMPIRE!" I will describe, as exactly as
possible, this grand establishment. You first enter a large apartment,
level with the street, part of which is fitted up as a barroom, with
that eternal crimson calico which flushes the whole social life of the
Golden State with its everlasting red, in the center of a fluted mass
of which gleams a really elegant mirror, set off by a background of
decanters, cigar-vases, and jars of brandied fruit; the whole forming a
_tout ensemble_ of dazzling splendor. A table covered with a green
cloth,--upon which lies a pack of monte-cards, a back-gammon-board, and
a sickening pile of "yallow-kivered" literature,--with several
uncomfortable-looking benches, complete the furniture of this most
important portion of such a place as "The Empire." The remainder of the
room does duty as a shop, where velveteen and leather, flannel shirts
and calico ditto,--the latter starched to an appalling state of
stiffness,--lie cheek by jowl with hams, preserved meats, oysters, and
other groceries, in hopeless confusion. From the barroom you ascend by
four steps into the parlor, the floor of which is covered by a straw
carpet. This room contains quite a decent looking-glass, a sofa
fourteen feet long and a foot and a half wide, painfully suggestive of
an aching back,--of course covered with red calico (the sofa, _not_ the
back),--a round table with a green cloth, six cane-bottom chars,
red-calico curtains, a cooking-stove, a rocking-chair, _and_ a woman
and a baby, (of whom more anon,) the latter wearing a scarlet frock, to
match the sofa and curtains. A flight of four steps leads from the
parlor to the upper story, where, on each side of a narrow entry, are
four eight-feet-by-ten bedrooms, the floors of which are covered by
straw matting. Here your eyes are again refreshed with a glittering
vision of red-calico curtains gracefully festooned above wooden windows
picturesquely lattice-like. These tiny chambers are furnished with
little tables covered with oilcloth, and bedsteads so heavy that
nothing short of a giant's strength could move them. Indeed, I am
convinced that they were built, piece by piece, on the spot where they
now stand. The entire building is lined with purple calico, alternating
with a delicate blue, and the effect is really quite pretty. The floors
are so very uneven that you are always ascending a hill or descending
into a valley. The doors consist of a slight frame covered with
dark-blue drilling, and are hung on hinges of leather. As to the
kitchen and dining-room, I leave to your vivid imagination to picture
their primitiveness, merely observing that nothing was ever more
awkward and unworkmanlike than the whole tenement. It is just such a
piece of carpentering as a child two years old, gifted with the
strength of a man, would produce, if it wanted to play at making
grown-up houses. And yet this impertinent apology for a house cost its
original owners more than eight thousand dollars. This will not be
quite so surprising when I inform you that, at the time it was built,
everything had to be packed from Marysville at a cost of forty cents a
pound. Compare this with the price of freight on the railroads at home,
and you will easily make an estimate of the immense outlay of money
necessary to collect the materials for such an undertaking at Rich Bar.
It was built by a company of gamblers as a residence for two of those
unfortunates who make a trade--a thing of barter--of the holiest
passion, when sanctified by _love_, that ever thrills the wayward heart
of poor humanity. To the lasting honor of _miners_ be it written, the
_speculation_ proved a decided failure. Yes! these thousand men, many
of whom had been for years absent from the softening amenities of
female society, and the sweet restraining influences of pure
womanhood,--these husbands of fair young wives kneeling daily at the
altars of their holy homes to pray for their far-off ones,--these sons
of gray-haired mothers, majestic in their sanctified old age,--these
brothers of virginal sisters, white and saintlike as the lilies of
their own gardens,--looked only with contempt or pity on these, oh! so
earnestly to be compassionated creatures. These unhappy members of a
class, to one of which the tenderest words that Jesus ever spake were
uttered, left in a few weeks, absolutely driven away by public opinion.
The disappointed gamblers sold the house to its present proprietor for
a few hundred dollars.

Mr. B., the landlord of the Empire, was a Western farmer who with his
wife crossed the plains about two years ago. Immediately on his arrival
he settled at a mining station, where he remained until last spring,
when he removed to Rich Bar. Mrs. B. is a gentle and amiable looking
woman, about twenty-five years of age. She is an example of the
terrible wear and tear to the complexion in crossing the plains, hers
having become, through exposure at that time, of a dark and permanent
yellow, anything but becoming. I will give you a key to her character,
which will exhibit it better than weeks of description. She took a
nursing babe, eight months old, from her bosom, and left it with two
other children, almost infants, to cross the plains in search of gold!
When I arrived she was cooking supper for some half a dozen people,
while her really pretty boy, who lay kicking furiously in his
champagne-basket cradle, and screaming with a six-months-old-baby
power, had, that day, completed just two weeks of his earthly
pilgrimage. The inconvenience which she suffered during what George
Sand calls "the sublime martyrdom of maternity" would appal the wife of
the humblest pauper of a New England village. Another woman, also from
the West, was with her at the time of her infant's birth, but scarcely
had the "latest-found" given the first characteristic shriek of its
debut upon the stage of life, when this person herself was taken
seriously ill, and was obliged to return to her own cabin, leaving the
poor exhausted mother entirely alone! Her husband lay seriously sick
himself at the time, and of course could offer her no assistance. A
miner, who lived in the house, and hoarded himself, carried her some
bread and tea in the morning and evening, and that was all the care she
had. Two days after its birth, she made a desperate effort, and, by
easy stages of ten minutes at a time, contrived to get poor baby washed
and dressed, after a fashion. He is an astonishingly large and strong
child, holds his head up like a six-monther, and has but one
failing,--a too evident and officious desire to inform everybody, far
and near, at all hours of the night and day, that his lungs are in a
perfectly sound and healthy condition,--a piece of intelligence which,
though very gratifying, is rather inconvenient if one happens to be
particularly sleepy.

Besides Mrs. B., there are three other women on the Bar. One is called
"the Indiana girl," from the name of her pa's hotel, though it must be
confessed that the sweet name of _girl_ seems sadly incongruous when
applied to such a gigantic piece of humanity. I have a great desire to
see her, which will probably not be gratified, as she leaves in a few
days for the valley. But, at any rate, I can say that I have _heard_
her. The far-off roll of her mighty voice, booming through two closed
doors and a long entry, added greatly to the severe attack of nervous
headache under which I was suffering when she called. This gentle
creature wears the thickest kind of miner's boots, and has the dainty
habit of wiping the dishes on her apron! Last spring she _walked_ to
this place, and packed fifty pounds of flour on her back down that
awful hill, the snow being five feet deep at the time.

Mr. and Mrs. B., who have three pretty children, reside in a log cabin
at the entrance of the village. One of the little girls was in the
barroom to-day, and her sweet and birdlike voice brought tearfully, and
yet joyfully, to my memory "Tearsoul," "Leilie," and "Lile Katie."

Mrs. B., who is as small as "the Indiana girl" is large (indeed, I have
been confidently informed that she weighs but sixty-eight pounds),
keeps, with her husband, the "Miners' Home." (Mem.--The lady tends
bar.) _Voilà_, my dear, the female population of my new home. Splendid
material for social parties this winter, are they not?




LETTER _the_ THIRD

[_The_ PIONEER, _April_, 1854]

LIFE _and_ FORTUNE _at the_ BAR-DIGGINGS

SYNOPSIS


Flashy shops and showy houses of San Francisco. Rich Bar charmingly
fresh and original. A diminutive valley. Río de las Plumas, or Feather
River. Rich Bar, the Barra Rica of the Spaniards. An acknowledgment of
"a most humiliating consciousness of geological deficiencies". Palatial
splendor of the Empire Hotel. Round tents, square tents, plank hovels,
log cabins, etc. "Local habitations" formed of pine boughs, and
covered with old calico shirts. The "office" of Dr. C. excites the
risibilities of the author. One of the "finders" of Rich Bar. Had not
spoken to a woman for two years. Honors the occasion by an "investment"
in champagne. The author assists in drinking to the honor of her
arrival at the Bar. Nothing done in California without the sanctifying
influence of the "spirit". History of the discovery of gold at Rich
Bar. Thirty-three pounds of gold in eight hours. Fifteen hundred
dollars from a panful of "dirt". Five hundred miners arrive at Rich Bar
in about a week. Smith Bar, Indian Bar, Missouri Bar, and other bars.
Miners extremely fortunate. Absolute wealth in a few weeks. Drunken
gamblers in less than a year. Suffering for necessaries of life. A mild
winter. A stormy spring. Impassable trails. No pack-mule trains arrive.
Miners pack flour on their backs for over forty miles. Flour at over
three dollars a pound. Subsistence on feed-barley. A voracious miner.
An abundance stored.




Letter _the_ Third

LIFE _and_ FORTUNE _at the_ BAR-DIGGINGS

RICH BAR, EAST BRANCH _of the_ NORTH FORK _of_ FEATHER RIVER,

_September_ 20, 1851.


I intend, to-day, dear M., to be as disagreeably statistical and as
praiseworthily matter-of-factish as the most dogged utilitarian could
desire. I shall give you a full, true, and particular account of the
discovery, rise, and progress of this place, with a religious adherence
to _dates_ which will rather astonish your unmathematical mind. But let
me first describe the spot as it looked to my wondering and
unaccustomed eyes. Remember, I had never seen a mining district before,
and had just left San Francisco, amid whose flashy-looking shops and
showy houses the most of my time had been spent since my arrival in the
Golden State. Of course, to me, the _coup d'oeil_ of Rich Bar was
charmingly fresh and original. Imagine a tiny valley about eight
hundred yards in length, and perhaps thirty in width, (it was measured
for my especial information,) apparently hemmed in by lofty hills,
almost perpendicular, draperied to their very summits with beautiful
fir-trees, the blue-bosomed Plumas (or Feather River, I suppose I must
call it) undulating along their base,--and you have as good an idea as
I can give you of the _local_ of Barra Rica, as the Spaniards so
prettily term it.

In almost any of the numerous books written upon California, no doubt
you will be able to find a most scientific description of the origin of
these bars. I must acknowledge with shame that my ideas on the subject
are distressingly vague. I could never appreciate the poetry or the
humor of making one's wrists ache by knocking to pieces gloomy-looking
stones, or in dirtying one's fingers by analyzing soils, in a vain
attempt to fathom the osteology or anatomy of our beloved earth, though
my heart is thrillingly alive to the faintest shade of color and the
infinite variety of styles in which she delights to robe her
ever-changeful and ever-beautiful _surface_. In my unscientific mind,
the _formations_ are without form, and void; and you might as well talk
Chinese to me, as to embroider your conversation with the terms
"hornblende," "mica," "limestone," "slate," "granite," and "quartz" in
a hopeless attempt to enlighten me as to their merits. The dutiful
diligence with which I attended course after course of lectures on
geology, by America's greatest illustrator of that subject, arose
rather from my affectionate reverence for our beloved Dr. H., and the
fascinating charm which his glorious mind throws round every subject
which it condescends to illuminate, than to any interest in the dry
science itself. It is therefore with a most humiliating consciousness
of my geological deficiencies that I offer you the only explanation
which I have been able to obtain from those most learned in such
matters here. I gather from their remarks, that these bars are formed
by deposits of earth rolling down from the mountains, crowding the
river aside and occupying a portion of its deserted bed. If my
definition is unsatisfactory, I can but refer you to some of the
aforesaid works upon California.

Through the middle of Rich Bar runs the street, thickly planted with
about forty tenements, among which figure round tents, square tents,
plank hovels, log cabins, etc., the residences varying in elegance and
convenience from the palatial splendor of "The Empire" down to a "local
habitation" formed of pine boughs and covered with old calico shirts.

To-day I visited the "office," the only one on the river. I had heard
so much about it from others, as well as from F., that I really _did_
expect something extra. When I entered this imposing place the shock to
my optic nerves was so great that I sank helplessly upon one of the
benches, which ran, divan-like, the whole length (ten feet!) of the
building, and laughed till I cried. There was, of course, no floor. A
rude nondescript, in one corner, on which was ranged the medical
library, consisting of half a dozen volumes, did duty as a table. The
shelves, which looked like sticks snatched hastily from the woodpile,
and nailed up without the least alteration, contained quite a
respectable array of medicines. The white-canvas window stared
everybody in the face, with the interesting information painted on it,
in perfect grenadiers of capitals, that this was Dr. ----'s office.

At my loud laugh (which, it must be confessed, was noisy enough to give
the whole street assurance of the presence of a woman) F. looked
shocked, and his partner looked prussic acid. To him (the partner, I
mean; he hadn't been out of the mines for years) the "office" was a
thing sacred, and set apart for an almost admiring worship. It was a
beautiful architectural ideal embodied in pine shingles and cotton
cloth. Here he literally "lived, and moved, and had his being," his bed
and his board. With an admiration of the fine arts truly praiseworthy,
he had fondly decorated the walls thereof with sundry pictures from
Godey's, Graham's, and Sartain's magazines, among which, fashion-plates
with imaginary monsters sporting miraculous waists, impossible wrists,
and fabulous feet, largely predominated.

During my call at the office I was introduced to one of the _finders_
of Rich Bar,--a young Georgian,--who afterwards gave me a full
description of all the facts connected with its discovery. This
unfortunate had not spoken to a woman for two years, and, in the
elation of his heart at the joyful event, he rushed out and invested
capital in some excellent champagne, which I, on Willie's principle of
"doing in Turkey as the Turkeys do," assisted the company in drinking,
to the honor of my own arrival. I mention this as an instance that
nothing can be done in California without the sanctifying influence of
the _spirit_, and it generally appears in a much more "questionable
shape" than that of sparkling wine. Mr. H. informed me that on the 20th
of July, 1850, it was rumored at Nelson's Creek--a mining station
situated at the Middle Fork of the Feather River, about eighty miles
from Marysville--that one of those vague "Somebodies," a near relation
of the "They-Says," had discovered mines of a remarkable richness in a
northeasterly direction, and about forty miles from the first-mentioned
place. Anxious and immediate search was made for "Somebody," but, as
our Western brethren say, he "wasn't thar'." But his absence could not
deter the miners when once the golden rumor had been set afloat. A
large company packed up their goods and chattels, generally consisting
of a pair of blankets, a frying-pan, some flour, salt pork, brandy,
pickax and shovel, and started for the new Dorado. They "traveled, and
traveled, and traveled," as we used to say in the fairy-stories, for
nearly a week, in every possible direction, when, one evening, weary
and discouraged, about one hundred of the party found themselves at the
top of that famous hill which figures so largely in my letters, whence
the river can be distinctly seen. Half of the number concluded to
descend the mountain that night, the remainder stopping on the summit
until the next morning. On arriving at Rich Bar, part of the
adventurers camped there, but many went a few miles farther down the
river. The next morning, two men turned over a large stone, beneath
which they found quite a sizable piece of gold. They washed a small
panful of the dirt, and obtained from it two hundred and fifty-six
dollars. Encouraged by this success, they commenced staking off the
legal amount of ground allowed to each person for mining purposes, and,
the remainder of the party having descended the hill, before night the
entire bar was "claimed." In a fortnight from that time, the two men
who found the first bit of gold had each taken out six thousand
dollars. Two others took out thirty-three pounds of gold in eight
hours, which is the best day's work that has been done on this branch
of the river. The largest amount ever taken from one panful of dirt was
fifteen hundred dollars. In a little more than a week after its
discovery, five hundred men had settled upon the Bar for the summer.
Such is the wonderful alacrity with which a mining town is built. Soon
after was discovered, on the same side of the river, about half a mile
apart, and at nearly the same distance from this place, the two bars,
Smith and Indian, both very rich, also another, lying across the river,
just opposite Indian, called Missouri Bar. There are several more, all
within a few miles of here, called Frenchman's, Taylor's, Brown's, The
Junction, Wyandott, and Muggin's; but they are, at present, of little
importance as mining stations.

Those who worked in these mines during the fall of 1850 were extremely
fortunate, but, alas! the monte fiend ruined hundreds. Shall I tell you
the fate of two of the most successful of these gold-hunters? From poor
men, they found themselves, at the end of a few weeks, absolutely rich.
Elated with their good fortune, seized with a mania for monte, in less
than a year these unfortunates, so lately respectable and intelligent,
became a pair of drunken gamblers. One of them, at this present
writing, works for five dollars a day, and boards himself out of that;
the other actually suffers for the necessaries of life,--a too common
result of scenes in the mines.

There were but few that dared to remain in the mountains during the
winter, for fear of being buried in the snow, of which, at that time,
they had a most vague idea. I have been told that in these sheltered
valleys it seldom falls to the depth of more than a foot, and
disappears almost invariably within a day or two. Perhaps there were
three hundred that concluded to stay, of which number two thirds
stopped on Smith's Bar, as the labor of mining there is much easier
than it is here. Contrary to the general expectation, the weather was
delightful until about the middle of March. It then commenced storming,
and continued to snow and rain incessantly for nearly three weeks.
Supposing that the rainy season had passed, hundreds had arrived on the
river during the previous month. The snow, which fell several feet in
depth on the mountains, rendered the trail impassable, and entirely
stopped the pack trains. Provisions soon became scarce, and the
sufferings of these unhappy men were indeed extreme. Some adventurous
spirits, with true Yankee hardihood, forced their way through the snow
to the Frenchman's rancho, and packed flour _on their backs_ for more
than forty miles! The first meal that arrived sold for three dollars a
pound. Many subsisted for days on nothing but barley, which is kept
here to feed the pack-mules on. One unhappy individual, who could not
obtain even a little barley for love or money, and had eaten nothing
for three days, forced his way out to the Spanish Rancho, fourteen
miles distant, and in less than an hour after his arrival had devoured
_twenty-seven_ biscuit and a corresponding: quantity of other eatables,
and, of course, drinkables to match. Don't let this account alarm you.
There is no danger of another famine here. They tell me that there is
hardly a building in the place that has not food enough in it to last
its occupants for the next two years; besides, there are two or three
well-filled groceries in town.




LETTER _the_ FOURTH

[_The_ PIONEER, _May_, 1854]

ACCIDENTS--SURGERY--DEATH--FESTIVITY

SYNOPSIS


Frightful accidents to which the gold-seeker is constantly liable.
Futile attempts of physician to save crushed leg of young miner.
Universal outcry against amputation. Dr. C., however, uses the knife.
Professional reputation at stake. Success attends the operation. Death
of another young miner, who fell into mining-shaft. His funeral.
Picturesque appearance of the miners thereat. Of what the miner's
costume consists. Horror of the author aroused in contemplation of the
lonely mountain-top graveyard. Jostling of life and death. Celebration
of the anniversary of Chilian independence. Participation of a certain
class of Yankees therein. The procession. A Falstaffian leader. The
feast. A twenty-gallon keg of brandy on the table, gracefully encircled
by quart dippers. The Chileños reel with a better grace, the Americans
more naturally.




Letter _the_ Fourth

ACCIDENTS--SURGERY--DEATH--FESTIVITY

RICH BAR, EAST BRANCH _of the_ NORTH FORK _of_ FEATHER RIVER,

_September_ 22, 1851.


There has been quite an excitement here for the last week, on account
of a successful amputation having been performed upon the person of a
young man by the name of W. As I happen to know all the circumstances
of the case, I will relate them to you as illustrative of the frightful
accidents to which the gold-seekers are constantly liable, and I can
assure you that similar ones happen very often. W. was one of the first
who settled on this river, and suffered extremely from the scarcity of
provisions during the last winter. By steady industry in his laborious
vocation, he had accumulated about four thousand dollars. He was
thinking seriously of returning to Massachusetts with what he had
already gained, when, in the early part of last May, a stone,
unexpectedly rolling from the top of Smith's Hill, on the side of which
he was mining, crushed his leg in the most shocking manner. Naturally
enough, the poor fellow shrank with horror from the idea of an
amputation here in the mountains. It seemed absolutely worse than
death. His physician, appreciating his feelings on the subject, made
every effort to save his shattered limb, but, truly, the Fates seemed
against him. An attack of typhoid fever reduced him to a state of great
weakness, which was still further increased by erysipelas--a common
complaint in the mountains--in its most virulent form. The latter
disease, settling in the fractured leg, rendered a cure utterly
hopeless. His sufferings have been of the most intense description.
Through all the blossoming spring, and a summer as golden as its own
golden self, of our beautiful California he has languished away
existence in a miserable cabin, his only nurses men, some of them, it
is true, kind and good, others neglectful and careless. A few weeks
since, F. was called in to see him. He decided immediately that nothing
but an amputation would save him. A universal outcry against it was
raised by nearly all the other physicians on the Bar.

They agreed, _en masse_, that he could live but a few weeks unless the
leg--now a mere lump of disease--was taken off. At the same time, they
declared that he would certainly expire under the knife, and that it
was cruel to subject him to any further suffering. You can perhaps
imagine F.'s anxiety. It was a great responsibility for a young
physician to take. Should the patient die during the operation, F.'s
professional reputation would, of course, die with him; but he felt it
his duty to waive all selfish considerations, and give W. that one
chance, feeble as it seemed, for his life. Thank God, the result was
most triumphant. For several days existence hung upon a mere thread. He
was not allowed to speak or move, and was fed from a teaspoon, his only
diet being milk, which we obtained from the Spanish Rancho, sending
twice a week for it. I should have mentioned that F. decidedly refused
to risk an operation in the small and miserable tent in which W. had
languished away nearly half a year, and he was removed to the Empire
the day previous to the amputation. It is almost needless to tell you
that the little fortune, to accumulate which he suffered so much, is
now nearly exhausted. Poor fellow! the philosophy and cheerful
resignation with which he has endured his terrible martyrdom is
beautiful to behold. My heart aches as I look upon his young face and
think of "his gentle dark-eyed mother weeping lonely at the North" for
her far-away and suffering son.

As I sat by the bedside of our poor invalid, yielding myself up to a
world of dreamy visionings suggested by the musical sweep of the pine
branch which I waved above his head, and the rosy sunset flushing the
western casement with its soft glory, he suddenly opened his languid
eyes and whispered, "The Chileño procession is returning. Do you not
hear it?" I did not tell him--

    That the weary sound, and the heavy breath,
    And the silent motions of passing death,
    And the smell, cold, oppressive, and dank,
    Sent through the pores of the coffin-plank,

had already informed me that a far other band than that of the noisy
South Americans was solemnly marching by. It was the funeral train of a
young man who was instantly killed, the evening before, by falling into
one of those deep pits, sunk for mining purposes, which are scattered
over the Bar in almost every direction. I rose quietly and looked from
the window. About a dozen persons were carrying an unpainted coffin,
without pall or bier (the place of the latter being supplied by ropes),
up the steep hill which rises behind the Empire, on the top of which is
situated the burial-ground of Rich Bar. The bearers were all neatly and
cleanly dressed in their miner's costume, which, consisting of a
flannel shirt (almost always of a dark-blue color), pantaloons with the
boots drawn up over them, and a low-crowned broad-brimmed black felt
hat (though the fashion of the latter is not invariable), is not,
simple as it seems, so unpicturesque as you might perhaps imagine. A
strange horror of that lonely mountain graveyard came over me as I
watched the little company wending wearily up to the solitary spot. The
"sweet habitude of being"--not that I fear _death_, but that I love
_life_ as, for instance, Charles Lamb loved it--makes me particularly
affect a cheerful burial-place. I know that it is dreadfully
unsentimental, but I should like to make my last home in the heart of a
crowded city, or, better still, in one of those social homes of the
dead, which the Turks, with a philosophy so beautiful and so poetical,
make their most cheerful resort. Singularly enough, Christians seem to
delight in rendering death particularly hideous, and graveyards
decidedly disagreeable. I, on the contrary, would "plant the latter
with laurels, and sprinkle it with lilies." I would wreathe "sleep's
pale brother" so thickly with roses that even those rabid moralists who
think that it makes us better to paint him as a dreadful fiend, instead
of a loving friend, could see nothing but their blushing radiance. I
would alter the whole paraphernalia of the coffin, the shroud, and the
bier, particularly the first, which, as Dickens says, "looks like a
high-shouldered ghost with its hands in its breeches-pockets." Why
should we endeavor to make our entrance into a glorious immortality so
unutterably ghastly? Let us glide into the "fair shadowland" through a
"gate of flowers," if we may no longer, as in the majestic olden time,
aspire heavenward on the wings of perfumed flame.

How oddly do life and death jostle each other in this strange world of
ours! How nearly allied are smiles and tears! My eyes were yet moist
from the egotistical _pitié de moi-même_ in which I had been indulging
at the thought of sleeping forever amid these lonely hills, which in a
few years must return to their primeval solitude, perchance never again
to be awakened by the voice of humanity, when the Chileño procession,
every member of it most intensely drunk, really _did_ appear. I never
saw anything more diverting than the whole affair. Of course, _selon
les règles_, I ought to have been shocked and horrified, to have shed
salt tears, and have uttered melancholy jeremiads over their miserable
degradation; but the world is so full of platitudes, my dear, that I
think you will easily forgive me for not boring you with a temperance
lecture, and will good-naturedly let me have my laugh, and not think me
_very_ wicked, after all.

You must know that to-day is the anniversary of the independence of
Chile. The procession got up in honor of it consisted, perhaps, of
twenty men, nearly a third of whom were of that class of Yankees who
are particularly noisy and particularly conspicuous in all celebrations
where it is each man's most onerous duty to get what is technically
called "tight." The man who headed the procession was a complete comic
poem in his own individual self. He was a person of Falstaffian
proportions and coloring, and if a brandy-barrel ever _does_ "come
alive," and, donning a red shirt and buckskin trousers, betake itself
to pedestrianism, it will look more like my hero than anything else
that I can at present think of. With that affectionateness so peculiar
to people when they arrive at the sentimental stage of intoxication,
although it was with the greatest difficulty that he could sustain his
own corporosity, he was tenderly trying to direct the zigzag footsteps
of his companion, a little withered-up, weird-looking Chileño. Alas for
the wickedness of human nature! The latter, whose drunkenness had taken
a Byronic and misanthropical turn, rejected with the basest ingratitude
these delicate attentions. Do not think that my incarnated brandy-cask
was the only one of the party who did unto others as he would they
should do unto him, for the entire band were officiously tendering to
one another the same good-Samaritan-like assistance. I was not
astonished at the Virginia-fence-like style of their marching when I
heard a description of the feast of which they had partaken a few hours
before. A friend of mine, who stepped into the tent where they were
dining, said that the board--really, _board_--was arranged with a
bottle of claret at each plate, and, after the cloth (metaphorically
speaking, I mean, for table-linen is a mere myth in the mines) was
removed, a twenty-gallon keg of brandy was placed in the center, with
quart dippers gracefully encircling it, that each one might help
himself as he pleased. Can you wonder, after that, that every man vied
with his neighbor in illustrating Hogarth's line of beauty? It was
impossible to tell which nation was the more gloriously drunk; but this
I _will_ say, even at the risk of being thought partial to my own
beloved countrymen, That, though the Chileños reeled with a better
grace, the Americans did it more _naturally_!




LETTER _the_ FIFTH

[_The_ PIONEER, _June_, 1854]

DEATH _of a_ MOTHER--LIFE _of_ PIONEER WOMEN

SYNOPSIS


Death of one of the four pioneer women of Rich Bar. The funeral from
the log-cabin residence. Sickly ten-months-old baby moans piteously for
its mother. A handsome girl of sick years, unconscious of her
bereavement, shocks the author by her actions. A monte-table cover as a
funeral pall. Painful feelings when nails are driven into coffin. The
extempore prayer. Every observance possible surrounded the funeral.
Visit to a canvas house of three "apartments". Barroom, dining-room,
kitchen with bed-closet. A sixty-eight-pound woman. "A magnificent
woman, a wife of the right sort". "Earnt her 'old man' nine hundred
dollars in nine weeks, by washing". The "manglers" and the "mangled".
Fortitude of refined California women pioneers. The orphaned girl a
"cold-blooded little wretch". Remorse of the author. "Baby decanters".
The gayety and fearlessness of the orphaned girl.




Letter _the_ Fifth

DEATH _of a_ MOTHER--LIFE _of_ PIONEER WOMEN

RICH BAR, EAST BRANCH _of the_ NORTH FORK _of_ FEATHER RIVER,

_September_ 22, 1851.


It seems indeed awful, dear M., to be compelled to announce to you the
death of one of the four women forming the female population of this
Bar. I have just returned from the funeral of poor Mrs. B., who died of
peritonitis (a common disease in this place), after an illness of four
days only. Our hostess herself heard of her sickness but two days
since. On her return from a visit which she had paid to the invalid,
she told me that although Mrs. B.'s family did not seem alarmed about
her, in her opinion she would survive but a few hours. Last night we
were startled by the frightful news of her decease. I confess that,
without being very egotistical, the death of one, out of a community of
four women, might well alarm the remainder.

Her funeral took place at ten this morning. The family reside in a log
cabin at the head of the Bar, and although it has no window, all the
light admitted entering through an aperture where there _will_ be a
door when it becomes cold enough for such a luxury, yet I am told, and
can easily believe, that it is one of the most _comfortable_ residences
in the place. I observed it particularly, for it was the first log
cabin that I had ever seen. Everything in the room, though of the
humblest description, was exceedingly clean and neat.

On a board, supported by two butter-tubs, was extended the body of the
dead woman, covered with a sheet. By its side stood the coffin, of
unstained pine, lined with white cambric. You, who have alternately
laughed and scolded at my provoking and inconvenient deficiency in the
power of observing, will perhaps wonder at the minuteness of my
descriptions; but I know how deeply you are interested in everything
relating to California, and therefore I take pains to describe things
exactly as I _see_ them, hoping that thus you will obtain an idea of
life in the mines _as it is_.

The bereaved husband held in his arms a sickly babe ten months old,
which was moaning piteously for its mother. The other child, a
handsome, bold-looking little girl six years of age, was running gayly
around the room, perfectly unconscious of her great bereavement. A
sickening horror came over me, to see her, every few moments, run up to
her dead mother and peep laughingly under the handkerchief that covered
her moveless face. Poor little thing! It was evident that her
baby-toilet had been made by men. She had on a new calico dress, which,
having no tucks in it, trailed to the floor, and gave her a most
singular and dwarf-womanly appearance.

About twenty men, with the three women of the place, had assembled at
the funeral. An extempore prayer was made, filled with all the
peculiarities usual to that style of petition. Ah, how different from
the soothing verses of the glorious burial service of the church!

As the procession started for the hillside graveyard, a dark cloth
cover, borrowed from a neighboring monte-table, was flung over the
coffin. Do not think that I mention any of these circumstances in a
spirit of mockery. Far from it. Every observance usual on such
occasions, that was _procurable_, surrounded this funeral. All the gold
on Rich Bar could do no more; and should I die to-morrow, I should be
marshaled to my mountain-grave beneath the same monte-table-cover pall
which shrouded the coffin of poor Mrs. B.

I almost forgot to tell you how painfully the feelings of the assembly
were shocked by the sound of the nails (there being no screws at any of
the shops) driven with a hammer into the coffin while closing it. It
seemed as if it _must_ disturb the pale sleeper within.

To-day I called at the residence of Mrs. R. It is a canvas house
containing a suite of three "apartments," as Dick Swiveller would say,
which, considering that they were all on the ground-floor, are kept
surprisingly neat. There is a barroom blushing all over with red
calico, a dining-room, kitchen, and a small bed-closet. The little
sixty-eight-pounder woman is queen of the establishment. By the way, a
man who walked home with us was enthusiastic in her praise.
"Magnificent woman, that, sir," he said, addressing my husband; "a wife
of the right sort, _she_ is. Why," he added, absolutely rising into
eloquence as he spoke, "she earnt her _old man_" (said individual
twenty-one years of age, perhaps) "nine hundred dollars in nine weeks,
clear of all expenses, by washing! Such women ain't common, I tell
_you_. If they were, a man might marry, and make money by the
operation." I looked at this person with somewhat the same kind of
_inverted_ admiration wherewith Leigh Hunt was wont to gaze upon that
friend of his "who used to elevate the commonplace to a pitch of the
sublime," and he looked at _me_ as if to say, that, though by no means
gloriously arrayed, I was a mere cumberer of the ground, inasmuch as I
toiled not, neither did I wash. Alas! I hung my diminished head,
particularly when I remembered the eight dollars a dozen which I had
been in the habit of paying for the washing of linen-cambric
pocket-handkerchiefs while in San Francisco. But a lucky thought came
into my mind. As all men cannot be Napoleon Bonapartes, so all women
cannot be _manglers_. The majority of the sex must be satisfied with
simply being _mangled_. Reassured by this idea, I determined to meekly
and humbly pay the amount per dozen required to enable this really
worthy and agreeable little woman "to lay up her hundred dollars a
week, clear of expenses." But is it not wonderful what femininity is
capable of? To look at the tiny hands of Mrs. R., you would not think
it possible that they could wring out anything larger than a doll's
nightcap; but, as is often said, nothing is strange in California. I
have known of sacrifices requiring, it would seem, superhuman efforts,
made by women in this country, who, at home, were nurtured in the
extreme of elegance and delicacy.

Mr. B. called on us to-day with little Mary. I tried to make her, at
least, look sad as I talked about her mother; but although she had seen
the grave closed over her coffin (for a friend of her father's had
carried her in his arms to the burial), she seemed laughingly
indifferent to her loss. Being myself an orphan, my heart contracted
painfully at her careless gayety when speaking of her dead parent, and
I said to our hostess, "What a cold-blooded little wretch it is!" But
immediately my conscience struck me with remorse. Poor orphaned one!
Poor bereaved darling! Why should I so cruelly wish to darken her young
life with that knowledge which a few years' experience will so
painfully teach her? "All _my_ mother came into my eyes" as I bent down
and kissed the white lids which shrouded her beautiful dark orbs, and,
taking her fat little hand in mine, I led her to my room, where, in the
penitence of my heart, I gave her everything that she desired. The
little chatterer was enchanted, not having had any new playthings for a
long while. It was beautiful to hear her pretty exclamations of ecstasy
at the sight of some tiny scent-bottles, about an inch in length, which
she called baby decanters.

Mr. B. intends, in a day or two, to take his children to their
grandmother, who resides somewhere near Marysville, I believe. This is
an awful place for children, and nervous mothers would "die daily" if
they could see little Mary running fearlessly to the very edge of, and
looking down into, these holes (many of them sixty feet in depth),
which have been excavated in the hope of finding gold, and of course
left open.




LETTER _the_ SIXTH

[_The_ PIONEER, _July_, 1854]

USE _of_ PROFANITY--UNCERTAINTY _of_ MINING

SYNOPSIS


Prevalence of profanity in California. Excuses for its use. A mere slip
of the tongue, etc. Grotesqueness of some blasphemous expressions.
Sleep-killing mining machinery. What a flume is. Project to flume the
river for many miles. The California mining system a gambling or
lottery transaction. Miner who works his own claim the more successful.
Dr. C. a loser in his mining ventures. Another sleep-killer.
Bowling-alleys. Bizarre cant phrases and slang used by the miners
"Honest Indian?" "Talk enough when horses fight". "Talk enough between
gentlemen". "I've got the dead-wood on him". "I'm going nary cent" (on
person mistrusted). All carry the freshness of originality to the
author's ear.




Letter _the_ Sixth

USE _of_ PROFANITY--UNCERTAINTY _of_ MINING

RICH BAR, EAST BRANCH _of the_ NORTH FORK _of_ FEATHER RIVER,

_September_ 30, 1851.


I think that I have never spoken to you of the mournful extent to which
profanity prevails in California. You know that at home it is
considered _vulgar_ for a gentleman to swear; but I am told that here
it is absolutely the fashion, and that people who never uttered an oath
in their lives while in the "States," now clothe themselves with curses
as with a garment. Some try to excuse themselves by saying that it is a
careless habit, into which they have glided imperceptibly from having
been compelled to associate so long with the vulgar and the profane;
that it is a mere slip of the tongue, which means absolutely nothing;
etc. I am willing to believe this, and to think as charitably as
possible of many persons here, who have unconsciously adopted a custom
which I know they abhor. Whether there is more profanity in the mines
than elsewhere, I know not; but, during the short time that I have been
at Rich Bar, I have _heard_ more of it than in all my life before. Of
course the most vulgar blackguard will abstain from swearing in the
_presence_ of a lady, but in this rag-and-cardboard house one is
_compelled_ to hear the most sacred of names constantly profaned by the
drinkers and gamblers, who haunt the barroom at all hours. And this is
a custom which the gentlemanly and quiet proprietor, much as he
evidently dislikes it, cannot possibly prevent. Some of these
expressions, were they not so fearfully blasphemous, would be
grotesquely sublime. For instance, not five minutes ago I heard two men
quarreling in the street, and one said to the other, "Only let me get
hold of your beggarly carcass once, and I will use you up so small that
God Almighty himself cannot see your _ghost!_"

To live thus, in constant danger of being hushed to one's rosy rest by
a ghastly lullaby of oaths, is revolting in the extreme. For that
reason, and because it is infinitely more comfortable during the winter
season than a plank house, F. has concluded to build a log cabin,
where, at least, I shall not be _obliged_ to hear the solemn names of
the Father and the dear Master so mockingly profaned.

But it is not the swearing alone which disturbs my slumber. There is a
dreadful flume, the machinery of which keeps up the most dismal moaning
and shrieking all the livelong night, painfully suggestive of a
suffering child. But, O dear! you don't know what that is, do you? Now,
if I were scientific, I should give you such a vivid description of it
that you would see a pen-and-ink flume staring at you from this very
letter. But, alas! my own ideas on the subject are in a state of
melancholy vagueness. I will do the best possible, however, in the way
of explanation. A flume, then, is an immense trough which takes up a
portion of the river, and with the aid of a dam compels it to run in
another channel, leaving the vacated bed of the stream ready for mining
purposes.

There is a gigantic project now on the tapis, of fluming the entire
river for many miles, commencing a little above Rich Bar. Sometimes
these fluming companies are eminently successful; at others, their
operations are a dead failure.

But, in truth, the whole mining system in California is one great
gambling or, better perhaps, lottery transaction. It is impossible to
tell whether a claim will prove valuable or not. F. has invariably sunk
money in every one that he has bought. Of course a man who works a
claim himself is more likely, even should it turn out poor, to get his
money back, as they say, than one who, like F., hires it done.

A few weeks since, F. paid a thousand dollars for a claim which has
proved utterly worthless. He might better have thrown his money into
the river than to have bought it, and yet some of the most experienced
miners on the Bar thought that it would pay.

But I began to tell you about the different noises which disturb my
peace of mind by day and my repose of body by night, and have gone,
instead, into a financial disquisition upon mining prospects. Pray
forgive me, even though I confess that I intend, some day, when I feel
statistically inclined, to bore you with some profound remarks upon the
claiming, drifting, sluicing, ditching, fluming, and coyoting politics
of the "diggins."

But to return to my sleep-murderers. The rolling on the bowling-alley
never leaves off for ten consecutive minutes at any time during the
entire twenty-four hours. It is a favorite amusement at the mines, and
the only difference that Sunday makes is, that then it never leaves off
for _one_ minute.

Besides the flume and the bowling-alley, there is an inconsiderate dog
which _will_ bark from starry eve till dewy morn. I fancy that he has a
wager on the subject, as all the other _puppies_ seem bitten by the
betting mania.

Apropos of dogs, I found dear old Dake, the noble Newfoundland which H.
gave us, look as intensely black and as grandly aristocratical as ever.
He is the only high-bred dog on the river. There is another animal, by
the plebeian name of John (what a name for a _dog!_), really a handsome
creature, which looks as if he might have a faint sprinkling of good
blood in his veins. Indeed, I have thought it possible that his
great-grandfather was a bulldog. But he always barks at _me_, which I
consider as proof positive that he is nothing but a low-born mongrel.
To be sure, his master says, to excuse him, that he never saw a woman
before; but a dog of any chivalry would have recognized the gentler
sex, even if it _was_ the first time that he had been blessed with the
sight.

In the first part of my letter I alluded to the swearing propensities
of the Rich Barians. Those, of course, would shock you; but, though you
hate slang, I know that you could not help smiling at some of their
bizarre cant phrases.

For instance, if you tell a Rich Barian anything which he doubts,
instead of simply asking you if it is true, he will _invariably_ cock
his head interrogatively, and almost pathetically address you with the
solemn adjuration, "Honest Indian?" Whether this phrase is a slur or a
compliment to the aborigines of this country, I do not know.

Again, they will agree to a proposal with the appropriate words, "Talk
enough when horses fight!" which sentence they will sometimes slightly
vary to "Talk enough between gentlemen."

If they wish to borrow anything of you, they will mildly inquire if you
have it "about your clothes." As an illustration: a man asked F., the
other day, if he had a spare pickax about his clothes. And F. himself
gravely inquired of me this evening, at the dinner-table, if I had a
_pickle_ about my clothes.

If they ask a man an embarrassing question, or in any way have placed
him in an equivocal position, they will triumphantly declare that they
have "got the dead-wood on him." And they are everlastingly "going nary
cent" on those of whose credit they are doubtful. There are many
others, which may be common enough everywhere, but as I never happened
to hear them before, they have for me all the freshness of originality.
You know that it has always been one of my pet rages to trace cant
phrases to their origin; but most of those in vogue here would, I
verily believe, puzzle Horne Tooke himself.




LETTER _the_ SEVENTH

[_The_ PIONEER, _August_, 1854]

_The_ NEW LOG-CABIN HOME _at_ INDIAN BAR

SYNOPSIS


Change of residence to Indian Bar. Whether to go to the new camp on
muleback over the hill, or on foot by crossing the river. The
water-passage decided upon. An escort of Indian Barians. Magnificence
of scenery on the way. Gold-miners at work. Their implements. "The
color". The Stars and Stripes on a lofty treetop. A camp of tents and
cabins. Some of calico shirts and pine boughs. Indian Bar described.
Mountains shut out the sun. The "Humbolt" (spelled without the _d_ on
the sign) the only hotel in the camp. A barroom with a dancing-floor. A
cook who plays the violin. A popular place. Clinking glasses and
swaggering drinkers. "No place for a lady". The log-cabin residence.
Its primitive and makeshift furnishings-The library. No churches,
society, etc. "No vegetables but potatoes and onions, no milk, no eggs,
no _nothing_."




Letter _the_ Seventh

_The_ NEW LOG-CABIN HOME _at_ INDIAN BAR

_From our Log Cabin_, INDIAN BAR,

_October_ 7, 1851.


You will perchance be surprised, dear M., to receive a letter from me
dated Indian instead of Rich Bar, but, as many of F.'s most intimate
friends reside at this settlement, he concluded to build his log cabin
here.

Solemn council was held upon the ways and means of getting "Dame
Shirley" to her new home. The general opinion was, that she had better
mount her fat mule and ride over the hill, as all agreed that it was
very doubtful whether she would be able to cross the logs and jump the
rocks which would bar her way by the water-passage. But that obstinate
little personage, who has always been haunted with a passionate desire
to do everything which people said she could _not_ do, made up her
willful mind immediately to go by the river. Behold, then, the "Dame"
on her winding way, escorted by a deputation of Indian Barians, which
had come up for that important purpose.

It is impossible, my sister, for any power of language, over which _I_
have command, to convey to you an idea of the wild grandeur and the
awful magnificence of the scenery in this vicinity. This fork of the
Feather River comes down very much as the water does at Lodore, now
gliding along with a liquid measure like a river in a dream, and anon
bursting into a thousand glittering foam-beads over the huge rocks,
which rise dark, solemn, and weird-like in its midst. The crossings are
formed of logs, often moss-grown. Only think how charmingly picturesque
to eyes wearied with the costly masonry or carpentry of the bridges at
home! At every step gold-diggers, or their operations, greet your
vision, sometimes in the form of a dam, sometimes in that of a river
turned slightly from its channel to aid the indefatigable gold-hunters
in their mining projects. Now, on the side of a hill, you will see a
long-tom, a huge machine invented to facilitate the separation of the
ore from its native element; or a man busily engaged in working a
rocker, a much smaller and simpler machine used for the same object;
or, more primitive still, some solitary prospector with a pan of dirt
in his hands, which he is carefully washing at the water's edge to see
if he can "get the color," as it is technically phrased, which means,
literally, the smallest particle of gold.

As we approached Indian Bar the path led several times fearfully near
deep holes, from which the laborers were gathering their yellow
harvest, and Dame Shirley's small head swam dizzily as she crept
shudderingly by.

The first thing which attracted my attention as my new home came in
view, was the blended blue, red, and white of the American banner
undulating like a many-colored snake amid the lofty verdure of the
cedars which garland the brown brow of the hill behind our cabin. This
flag was suspended on the Fourth of July last by a patriotic sailor,
who climbed to the top of the tree to which he attached it, cutting
away the branches as he descended, until it stood among its stately
brethren a beautiful moss-wreathed liberty-pole, flinging to the face
of heaven the glad colors of the Free.

When I attempt, dear M., to describe one of these spots to you, I
regret more than ever the ill health of my childhood, which prevented
my attaining any degree of excellence in sketching from nature. Had it
not been for that interruption to my artistic education, I might, with
a few touches of the pencil or the brush, give you the place and its
surroundings. But, alas! my feeble pen will convey to you a very faint
idea of its savage beauty.

This Bar is so small that it seems impossible that the tents and cabins
scattered over it can amount to a dozen. There are, however, twenty in
all, including those formed of calico shirts and pine boughs. With the
exception of the paths leading to the different tenements, the entire
level is covered with mining-holes, on the edges of which lie the
immense piles of dirt and stones which have been removed from the
excavations. There is a deep pit in front of our cabin, and another at
the side of it, though they are not worked, as, when "prospected," they
did not "yield the color."

Not a spot of verdure is to be seen on this place, but the glorious
hills rising on every side, vested in foliage of living green, make
ample amends for the sterility of the tiny level upon which we camp.
The surrounding scenery is infinitely more charming than that of Rich
Bar. The river, in hue of a vivid emerald, as if it reflected the hue
of the fir-trees above, bordered with a band of dark red, caused by the
streams flowing into it from the different sluices, ditches, long-toms,
etc., which meander from the hill just back of the Bar, wanders
musically along. Across the river, and in front of us, rises nearly
perpendicularly a group of mountains, the summits of which are broken
into many beautifully cut conical and pyramidal peaks. At the foot and
left of these eminences, and a little below our Bar, lies Missouri Bar,
which is reached from this spot by a log bridge. Around the latter the
river curves in the shape of a crescent, and, singularly enough, the
mountain rising behind this bend in the stream outlines itself against
the lustrous heaven in a shape as exact and perfect as the moon herself
in her first quarter. Within one horn of this crescent the water is a
mass of foam-sparkles, and it plays upon the rocks which line its bed
an everlasting dirge suggestive of the "grand forever" of the ocean.

At present the sun does not condescend to shine upon Indian Bar at all,
and the old settlers tell me that he will not smile upon us for the
next three months, but he nestles lovingly in patches of golden glory
all along the brows of the different hills around us, and now and then
stoops to kiss the topmost wave on the opposite shore of the Río de las
Plumas.

The first artificial elegance which attracts your vision is a large rag
shanty, roofed, however, with a rude kind of shingles, over the
entrance of which is painted, in red capitals, ("to what base uses do
we come at last,") the name of the great Humboldt spelt without the
_d_. This is the only hotel in this vicinity, and as there is a really
excellent bowling-alley attached to it, and the barroom has a floor
upon which the miners can dance, and, above all, a cook who can play
the violin, it is very popular. But the clinking of glasses, and the
swaggering air of some of the drinkers, remind us that it is no place
for a lady, so we will pass through the dining-room, and, emerging at
the kitchen, in a step or two reach our log cabin. Enter, my dear; you
are perfectly welcome. Besides, we could not keep you out if we would,
as there is not even a latch on the canvas door, though we really
intend, in a day or two, to have a hook put onto it.

The room into which we have just entered is about twenty feet square.
It is lined over the top with white cotton cloth, the breadths of
which, being sewed together only in spots, stretch gracefully apart in
many places, giving one a bird's-eye view of the shingles above. The
sides are hung with a gaudy chintz, which I consider a perfect marvel
of calico-printing. The artist seems to have exhausted himself on
_roses_. From the largest cabbage down to the tiniest Burgundy, he has
arranged them in every possible variety of wreath, garland, bouquet,
and single flower. They are of all stages of growth, from earliest
budhood up to the ravishing beauty of the "last rose of summer." Nor
has he confined himself to the colors usually worn by this lovely
plant, but, with the daring of a great genius soaring above nature,
worshiping the ideal rather than the real, he has painted them brown,
purple, green, black, and blue. It would need a floral catalogue to
give you the names of _all_ the varieties which bloom upon the calico,
but, judging by the shapes, which really are much like the originals, I
can swear to moss-roses, Burgundies, York and Lancaster, tea-roses, and
multifloras.

A curtain of the above-described chintz (I shall hem it at the first
opportunity) divides off a portion of the room, behind which stands a
bedstead that in ponderosity leaves the Empire couches far behind. But
before I attempt the furniture let me finish describing the cabin
itself.

The fireplace is built of stones and mud, the chimney finished off with
alternate layers of rough sticks and this same rude mortar. Contrary to
the usual custom, it is built inside, as it was thought that
arrangement would make the room more comfortable, and you may imagine
the queer appearance of this unfinished pile of stones, mud, and
sticks. The mantelpiece (remember that on this portion of a great
building some artists, by their exquisite workmanship, have become
world-renowned) is formed of a beam of wood covered with strips of tin
procured from cans, upon which still remain, in black hieroglyphics,
the names of the different eatables which they formerly contained. Two
smooth stones (how delightfully primitive!) do duty as fire-dogs. I
suppose that it would be no more than civil to call a hole two feet
square, in one side of the room, a window, although it is as yet
guiltless of glass. F. tried to coax the proprietor of the Empire to
let him have a window from that pine-and-canvas palace, but he, of
course, declined, as to part with it would really inconvenience
himself. So F. has sent to Marysville for some glass, though it is the
general opinion that the snow will render the trail impassible for
mules before we can get it. In this case we shall tack up a piece of
cotton cloth, and should it chance at any time to be very cold, hang a
blanket before the opening. At present the weather is so mild that it
is pleasanter as it is, though we have a fire in the mornings and
evenings, more, however, for luxury than because we really need it. For
my part, I almost hope that we shall not be able to get any glass, for
you will perhaps remember that it was a pet habit of mine, in my own
room, to sit by a great fire, in the depth of winter, with my window
open.

One of our friends had nailed up an immense quantity of unhemmed cotton
cloth--very coarse--in front of this opening, and as he evidently
prided himself upon the elegant style in which he had arranged the
drapery, it went to my heart to take it down and suspend in its place
some pretty blue linen curtains which I had brought from the valley. My
toilet-table is formed of a trunk elevated upon two claret-cases, and
by draping it with some more of the blue linen neatly fringed, it
really will look quite handsome, and when I have placed upon it my
rosewood workbox, a large cushion of crimson brocade, some Chinese
ornaments of exquisitely carved ivory, and two or three Bohemian-glass
cologne-stands, it would not disgrace a lady's chamber at home.

The looking-glass is one of those which come in paper cases for dolls'
houses. How different from the full-length psyches so almost
indispensable to a dressing-room in the States!

The wash-stand is another trunk, covered with a towel, upon which you
will see, for bowl, a large vegetable-dish, for ewer, a common-sized
dining-pitcher. Near this, upon a small cask, is placed a pail, which
is daily filled with water from the river. I brought with me from
Marysville a handsome carpet, a hair mattress, pillows, a profusion of
bed-linen, quilts, blankets, towels, etc., so that, in spite of the
oddity of most of my furniture, I am, in reality, as thoroughly
comfortable here as I could be in the most elegant palace.

We have four chairs, which were brought from the Empire. I seriously
proposed having three-legged stools. With my usual desire for symmetry,
I thought that they would be more in keeping; but as I was told that it
would be a great deal of trouble to get them made, I was fain to put up
with mere chairs. So you see that even in the land of gold itself one
cannot have everything that she desires. An ingenious individual in the
neighborhood, blessed with a large bump for mechanics, and good nature,
made me a sort of wide bench, which, covered with a neat plaid, looks
quite sofa-like. A little pine table, with oilcloth tacked over the top
of it, stands in one corner of the room, upon which are arranged the
chess and cribbage boards. There is a larger one for dining purposes,
and as unpainted pine has always a most dreary look, F. went everywhere
in search of oilcloth for it, but there was none at any of the bars. At
last, "Ned," the Humboldt Paganini, remembered two old monte-table
covers which had been thrown aside as useless. I received them
thankfully, and, with my planning and Ned's mechanical genius, we
patched up quite a respectable covering. To be sure, the ragged
condition of the primitive material compelled us to have at one end an
extra border, but that only agreeably relieved the monotony. I must
mention that the floor is so uneven that no article of furniture gifted
with four legs pretends to stand upon but three at once, so that the
chairs, tables, etc., remind you constantly of a dog with a sore foot.

At each end of the mantelpiece is arranged a candlestick, not, much to
my regret, a block of wood with a hole in the center of it, but a real
britanniaware candlestick. The space between is gayly ornamented with
F.'s meerschaum, several styles of clay pipes, cigars, cigarritos, and
every procurable variety of tobacco, for, you know, the aforesaid
individual is a perfect devotee of the Indian weed. If I should give
you a month of Sundays, you would never guess what we use in lieu of a
bookcase, so I will put you out of your misery by informing you
instantly that it is nothing more nor less than a candle-box which
contains the library, consisting of a Bible and prayer-book,
Shakespeare, Spenser, Coleridge, Shelley, Keats, Lowell's Fable for
Critics, Walton's Complete Angler, and some Spanish books,--spiritual
instead of material lights, you see.

There, my dainty Lady Molly, I have given you, I fear, a wearisomely
minute description of my new home. How would you like to winter in such
an abode? in a place where there are no newspapers, no churches,
lectures, concerts, or theaters; no fresh books; no shopping, calling,
nor gossiping little tea-drinkings; no parties, no balls, no picnics,
no tableaus, no charades, no latest fashions, no daily mail (we have an
express once a month), no promenades, no rides or drives; no vegetables
but potatoes and onions, no milk, no eggs, no _nothing_? Now, I expect
to be very happy here. This strange, odd life fascinates me. As for
churches, "the groves were God's first temples," "and for the strength
of the hills, the Swiss mountains bless him"; and as to books, I read
Shakespeare, David, Spenser, Paul, Coleridge, Burns, and Shelley, which
are never old. In good sooth, I fancy that nature intended me for an
Arab or some other nomadic barbarian, and by mistake my soul got packed
up in a Christianized set of bones and muscles. How I shall ever be
able to content myself to live in a decent, proper, well-behaved house,
where toilet-tables are toilet-tables, and not an ingenious combination
of trunk and claret-cases, where lanterns are not broken bottles,
bookcases not candle-boxes, and trunks not wash-stands, but every
article of furniture, instead of being a makeshift, is its own useful
and elegantly finished self, I am sure I do not know. However, when too
much appalled at the humdrummish prospect, I console myself with the
beautiful promises, that "sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof,"
and "as thy days, so shall thy strength be," and trust that when it is
again my lot to live amid the refinements and luxuries of civilization,
I shall endure them with becoming philosophy and fortitude.




LETTER _the_ EIGHTH

[_The_ PIONEER, _September_, 1854]

LIFE _and_ CHARACTERS _at_ INDIAN BAR

SYNOPSIS


Ned, the mulatto cook and the Paganini of the Humboldt Hotel. A naval
character. His ecstasy upon hearing of the coming of the author to the
Bar. Suggestion of a strait-jacket for him. "The only petticoated
astonishment on this Bar". First dinner at the log cabin. Ned's
pretentious setting of the pine dining-table. The Bar ransacked for
viands. The bill of fare. Ned an accomplished violinist. "Chock," his
white accompanist. The author serenaded. An unappreciated "artistic"
gift. A guide of the Frémont expedition camps at Indian Bar. A
linguist, and former chief of the Crow Indians. Cold-blooded recitals
of Indian fights. Indians near the Bar expected to make a murderous
attack upon the miners. The guide's council with them. Flowery reply of
the Indians. A studious Quaker. His merciless frankness and regard for
truth. "The Squire," and how he was elected justice of the peace. Miners
prefer to rule themselves.




Letter _the_ Eighth

LIFE _and_ CHARACTERS _at_ INDIAN BAR

_From our Log Cabin_, INDIAN BAR,

_October_ 20, 1851.


Having seen me, dear M., safely enthroned in my beautiful log palace
with its outer walls all tapestried with moss, perhaps you would like a
description of the coronation-dinner!

You must know that "Ned," the Paganini of the Humboldt, (who, by the
way, is almost an historic, or, better perhaps, naval, character,
inasmuch as he was _cook_ on board of the Somers when her captain
performed his little tragedy, to the horror of an entire nation,) had
been in such a state of ecstasy ever since he had heard of the promised
advent of Mrs. ----, that his _proprietors_, as Ned grandly calls them,
had serious fears of being compelled to strait-jacket him.

"You see, sir," said Ned, "when the queen" (with Ned, as with the rest
of the world, "a substitute shines brightly as a queen until a queen be
by,"--and I am the only petticoated astonishment on this Bar) "arrives,
_she_ will appreciate my culinary efforts. It is really discouraging,
sir, after I have exhausted my skill in preparing a dish, to see the
gentlemen devour it with as much unconcern as though it had been cooked
by a mere bungler in our art"!

When we entered our new home, we found the cloth--it was a piece left
of that which lined the room overhead--already laid. As it was unhemmed
and somewhat tattered at the ends, an imaginative mind might fancy it
fringed on purpose, though, like the poor little Marchioness with her
orange-peel and water, one would have to _make believe_ very hard.
Unfortunately, it was not wide enough for the table, and a dashing
border of white pine banded each side of it. Ned had invested an
unknown quantity of gold-dust in a yard of diaper,--awfully
coarse,--which, divided into four pieces, and fringed to match the
tablecloth, he had placed napkin-wise in the tumblers. He had evidently
ransacked the whole bar to get viands wherewith to decorate the various
dishes, which were as follows.

    _First Course_
    OYSTER SOUP

    _Second Course_
    FRIED SALMON CAUGHT FROM THE RIVER

    _Third Course_
    ROAST BEEF & BOILED HAM

    _Fourth Course_
    FRIED OYSTERS

    _Vegetables_
    POTATOES & ONIONS

    _Pastry_
    MINCE PIE, & PUDDING MADE WITHOUT EGGS OR MILK

    _Dessert_
    MADEIRA NUTS & RAISINS

    _Wines_
    CLARET & CHAMPAGNE

    _Coffee_

I found that Ned had not overrated his powers. The dinner, when one
considers the materials of which it was composed, was really excellent.
The soup was truly a great work of art; the fried oysters dreamily
delicious; and as to the coffee, Ned must have got the receipt for
making it from the very angel who gave the beverage to Mahomet to
restore that individual's decayed moisture.

Ned himself waited, dressed in a brand-new flannel shirt and calico
ditto, his hair--he is a light mulatto--frizzled to the most intense
degree of corkscrewity, and a benign and self-satisfied smile
irradiating his face, such as _should_ illumine the features of a great
artist when he knows that he has achieved something, the memory of
which the world will not willingly let die. In truth, he needed but
white kid gloves to have been worthy of standing behind the chair of
Count d'Orsay himself. So grand was his air, so ceremonious his every
motion, that we forgot we were living in the heart of the Sierra
Nevada; forgot that our home was a log cabin of mere primitive
rudeness; forgot that we were sitting at a rough pine table covered
with a ragged piece of four-cent cotton cloth, eating soup with iron
spoons!

I wish, my funny little Molly, that you could have been here
clairvoyantly. It was one of those scenes, just touched with that fine
and almost imperceptible _perfume_ of the ludicrous, in which you
especially delight. There are a thousand minute shreds of the absurd
which my duller sense overlooks, but which never can hope to escape
your mirth-loving vision.

Ned really plays beautifully on the violin. There is a white man, by
the name of "Chock," who generally accompanies him. Of course, true
daughter of Eve that you are, you will wish to know "right off" what
Chock's _other_ name is. Young woman, I am ashamed of you! Who ever
asks for the _other_ name of Alexander, of Hannibal, of Homer? Suffice
it that he is Chock by himself,--Chock, and assistant violinist to
Paganini Vattal Ned.

Ned and one of his musical cronies--a white man--gave me a serenade the
other evening. As it was quite cold, F. made them come inside the
cabin. It was the richest thing possible, to see the patronizing and
yet serene manner with which Ned directed his companion what marches,
preludes, etc., to play for the amusement of that profound culinary and
musical critic, Dame Shirley.

It must be confessed that Ned's love of the beautiful is not quite so
correct as his taste in cooking and violin-playing. This morning a
gentle knock at my door was followed by that polite person, bearing in
triumph a small waiter, purloined from the Humboldt, on which stood in
state, festooned with tumblers, a gaudy pitcher, which would have
thrown Tearsoul and Lelie into ecstasies of delight. It was almost as
wonderful a specimen of art as my chintz hanging. The groundwork is
pure white, upon which, in bas-relief, are _executed_ two
diabolical-looking bandits, appallingly bewhiskered and mustached,
dressed in red coats, yellow pantaloons, green boots, orange-colored
caps with brown feathers in them, and sky-blue bows and arrows. Each of
the fascinating vagabonds is attended by a bird-of-paradise-colored
dog, with a crimson tail waggingly depicted. They are embowered beneath
a morning-glory vine, evidently a species of the Convolvulus unknown in
America, as each one of its pink leaves, springing from purple stems,
is three times the size of the bandit's head.

Ned could not have admired it more if it had been a jar of richest
porcelain or a rare Etruscan vase, and when I gently suggested that it
was a pity to rob the barroom of so elegant an ornament, he answered,
"Miners can't appreciate a handsome pitcher, any more than they can
good cooking, and Mrs. ---- will please to keep it."

Alas! I would infinitely have preferred the humblest brown jug, for
that really _has_ a certain beauty of its own, and, besides, it would
have been in keeping with my cabin. However, that good creature looked
upon the miraculous vegetable, the fabulous quadrupeds, and the
impossible bipeds, with so much pride that I had not the heart to tell
him that the pitcher was a fright, but, graciously accepting it, I hid
it out of sight as quickly as possible, on the trunk wash-stand behind
the curtain.

We breakfast at nine and dine at six, with a dish of soup at noon for
luncheon. Do not think we fare as sumptuously _every_ day as we did at
the coronation-dinner. By no means; and it is said that there will
probably be many weeks, during the season, when we shall have neither
onions, potatoes, nor fresh meat. It is feared that the former will not
keep through the whole winter, and the rancheros cannot at all times
drive in cattle for butchering, on account of the expected snow.

Ned is not the only distinguished person residing on this Bar. There is
a man camping here who was one of Colonel Frémont's guides during his
travels through California. He is fifty years of age perhaps, and
speaks several languages to perfection. As he has been a wanderer for
many years, and for a long time was the principal chief of the Crow
Indians, his adventures are extremely interesting. He chills the blood
of the green young miners, who, unacquainted with the arts of war and
subjugation, congregate around him by the cold-blooded manner in which
he relates the Indian fights that he has been engaged in.

There is quite a band of this wild people herding a few miles below us,
and soon after my arrival it was confidently affirmed and believed by
many that they were about to make a murderous attack upon the miners.
This man, who can make himself understood in almost any language, and
has a great deal of influence over all Indians, went to see them, and
told them that such an attempt would result in their own certain
destruction. They said that they had never thought of such a thing;
that the Americans were like the grass in the valleys, and the Indians
fewer than the flowers of the Sierra Nevada.

Among other oddities, there is a person here who is a rabid admirer of
Lippard. I have heard him gravely affirm that Lippard was the greatest
author the world ever saw, and that if one of his novels and the most
fascinating work of ancient or modern times lay side by side, he would
choose the former, even though he had already repeatedly perused it. He
_studies_ Lippard just as other folks do Shakespeare, and yet the man
has read and _admires_ the majestic prose of Chilton, and is quite
familiar with the best English classics! He is a Quaker, and his
merciless and unmitigated regard for truth is comically grand, and
nothing amuses me more than to draw out that peculiar characteristic.
For instance, after talking _at_ him the most beautiful and eloquent
things that I can think of, I will pitilessly nail him in this wise:--

"Now, I know that _you_ agree with me, Mr. ----?"

It is the richest and broadest farce in this flattering and deceitful
world to see him look right into my eyes while he answers smilingly,
without the least evasion or reserve, the astounding _truth_,--

"I have not heard a word that you have been saying for the last
half-hour; I have been thinking of something else!"

His dreamland reveries on these occasions are supposed to be a profound
meditation upon the character and writings of his pet author. I am
always glad to have him visit us, as some one of us is sure to be most
unflatteringly electrified by his uncompromising veracity. I am,
myself, generally the victim, as I make it a point to give him every
opportunity for the display of this unusual peculiarity. Not but that I
have had disagreeable truth told me often enough, but heretofore people
have done it out of spitefulness; but Mr. ----, who is the
kindest-hearted of mortals, never dreams that his merciless frankness
can possibly wound one's self-love.

But _the_ great man--officially considered--of the entire river is the
"Squire," as he is jestingly called. It had been rumored for some time
that we were about to become a law-and-order-loving community, and when
I requested an explanation, I was informed that a man had gone all the
way to Hamilton, the county seat, to get himself made into a justice of
the peace. Many shook their wise heads, and doubted, even if suited to
the situation, which they say he is not, whether he would _take_ here;
and certain rebel spirits affirmed that he would be invited to _walk
over the hill_ before he had been in the community twenty-four hours,
which is a polite way these free-and-easy young people have of turning
out of town an obnoxious individual. Not that the Squire is
particularly objectionable _per se_, but in virtue of his office, and
his supposed ineligibility to fill the same. Besides, the people here
wish to have the fun of ruling themselves. Miners are as fond of
playing at law making and dispensing as French novelists are of
"playing at Providence." They say, also, that he was not elected by the
voice of the people, but that his personal friends nominated and voted
for him unknown to the rest of the community. This is perhaps true. At
least, I have heard some of the most respectable men here observe that
had they been aware of the Squire's name being up as candidate for an
office which, though insignificant elsewhere, is one of great
responsibility in a mining community, they should certainly have gone
against his election.

Last night I had the honor of an introduction to "_His_ Honor." Imagine
a middle-sized man, quite stout, with a head disproportionately large,
crowned with one of those immense foreheads eked out with a slight
baldness (wonder if, according to the flattering popular superstition,
he has _thought_ his hair off) which enchant phrenologists, but which
one _never_ sees brooding above the soulful orbs of the great ones of
the earth; a smooth, fat face, gray eyes, and prominent chin, the _tout
ensemble_ characterized by an expression of the utmost meekness and
gentleness, which expression contrasts rather funnily with a satanic
goatee,--and you have our good Squire.

You know, M., that it takes the same _kind_ of power--differing, of
course, in degree--to govern twenty men that it does to rule a million;
and although the Squire is sufficiently intelligent, and the
kindest-hearted creature in the world, he evidently does _not_ possess
that peculiar tact, talent, gift, or whatever it is called, which makes
Napoleons, Mahomets, and Cromwells, and which is absolutely necessary
to keep in order such a strangely amalgamated community, representing
as it does the four quarters of the globe, as congregates upon this
river.

However, I suppose that we must take the goods the gods provide,
satisfied that if our King Log does no good, he is too sincerely
desirous of fulfilling his duty to do any harm. But I really feel sorry
for this mere young Daniel come to judgment when I think of the
gauntlet which the wicked wits will make him run when he tries his
first cause.

However, the Squire may, after all, succeed. As yet he has had no
opportunity of making use of his credentials in putting down miners'
law, which is, of course, the famous code of Judge Lynch. In the mean
time we all sincerely pray that he may be successful in his laudable
undertaking, for justice in the hands of a mob, however respectable,
is, at best, a fearful thing.




LETTER _the_ NINTH

[_The_ PIONEER, _October_, 1854]

THEFT _of_ GOLD-DUST--TRIAL _and_ PUNISHMENT

SYNOPSIS


The "Squire's" first opportunity to exercise his judicial power.
Holding court in a barroom. The jury "treated" by the Squire. Theft of
gold-dust, and arrest of suspect. A miners' meeting. Fear that they
would hang the prisoner. Regular trial decided upon, at the Empire,
Rich Bar, where the gold-dust was stolen. A suggestion of thrift.
Landlords to profit by trial, wherever held. Mock respect of the miners
for the Squire. Elect a president at the trial. The Squire allowed to
play at judge. Lay counsel for prosecution and defense. Ingenious
defense of the accused. Verdict of guilty. Light sentence, on account
of previous popularity and inoffensive conduct. Thirty-nine lashes, and
to leave the river. Owner of gold-dust indemnified by transfer of
thief's interest in a mine. A visit to Smith's Bar. Crossing the river
on log bridges. Missouri Bar. Smith's a sunny camp, unlike Indian.
Frenchman's Bar, another sunny spot. "Yank," the owner of a log-cabin
store. Shrewdness and simplicity. Hopeless ambition to be "cute and
smart". The "Indiana girl" impossible to Yank. "A superior and splendid
woman, but no polish". Yank's "olla podrida of heterogeneous
merchandise". The author meets the banished gold-dust thief.
Subscription by the miners on his banishment. A fool's errand to
establish his innocence. An oyster-supper bet. The thief's statements
totally incompatible with innocence.




Letter _the_ Ninth

THEFT _of_ GOLD-DUST--TRIAL _and_ PUNISHMENT

_From our Log Cabin_, INDIAN BAR,

_October_ 29, 1851.


Well, my dear M., our grand Squire, whom I sketched for you in my last
letter, has at length had an opportunity to exercise (or rather to
_try_ to do so) his judicial power upon a criminal case. His first
appearance as justice of the peace took place a week ago, and was
caused, I think, by a prosecution for debt. On that momentous occasion,
the proceeding having been carried on in the barroom of the Empire, it
is said that our young Daniel stopped the court twice in order to treat
the jury!

But let me tell you about the trial which has just taken place. On
Sunday evening last, Ned Paganini, rushing wildly up to our cabin, and
with eyes so enormously dilated that they absolutely looked _all_
white, exclaimed that "Little John" had been arrested for stealing four
hundred dollars from the proprietor of the Empire, and that he was at
that very moment undergoing an examination before the Squire in the
barroom of the Humboldt, where he was apprehended while betting at
monte. "And," added Ned, with a most awe-inspiring shake of his
corkscrews, "there is no doubt but that he will be hung!"

Of course I was inexpressibly shocked at Ned's news, for Little John,
as he is always called (who, by the way, is about the last person, as
every one remarked, that would have been suspected), seemed quite like
an acquaintance, as he was waiter at the Empire when I boarded there. I
hurried F. off as quickly as possible to inquire into the truth of the
report. He soon returned with the following particulars.

It seems that Mr. B., who on Sunday morning wished to pay a bill, on
taking his purse from between the two mattresses of the bed whereon he
was accustomed to sleep, which stood in the common sitting-room of the
family, found that four hundred dollars in gold-dust was missing. He
did not for one moment suspect Little John, in whom himself and wife
had always placed the utmost confidence, until a man, who happened to
be in the barroom towards evening, mentioned casually that Little John
was then at the Humboldt betting, or, to speak technically, "bucking"
away large sums at monte. Mr. B., who knew that he had no money of his
own, immediately came over to Indian Bar and had him arrested on
suspicion. Although he had lost several ounces, he had still about a
hundred dollars remaining. But as it is impossible to identify
gold-dust, Mr. B. could not swear that the money was his.

Of course the prisoner loudly protested his innocence, and as he was
very drunk, the Squire adjourned all further proceedings until the next
day, placing him under keepers for the night.

On the following morning I was awakened very early by a tremendous
"Aye," so deep and mighty that it almost seemed to shake the cabin with
its thrilling emphasis. I sprang up and ran to the window, but could
_see_ nothing, of course, as our house stands behind the Humboldt, but
I could easily understand, from the confused murmur of many voices and
the rapidly succeeding "ayes" and "noes," that a large crowd had
collected in front of the latter. My first apprehension was expressed
by my bursting into tears and exclaiming,--

"Oh! F., for God's sake, rise; the mob are going to hang Little John!"

And my fear was not so absurd as you might at first imagine, for men
have often been executed in the mines for stealing a much smaller sum
than four hundred dollars.

F. went to the Humboldt, and returned in a few minutes to tell me that
I might stop weeping, for John was going to have a regular trial. The
crowd was merely a miners' meeting, called by Mr. B. for the purpose of
having the trial held at the Empire for the convenience of his wife,
who could not walk over to Indian Bar to give her evidence in the case.
However, as her deposition could easily have been taken, malicious
people _will_ say that it was for the convenience of her husband's
_pockets_, as it was well known that at whichever house the trial took
place the owner thereof would make a handsome profit from the sale of
dinners, drinks, etc., to the large number of people who would
congregate to witness the proceedings. Miners are proverbial for their
reverence for the sex. Of course everything ought to yield where a lady
is concerned, and they all very properly agreed, _nem. con._, to Mr.
B.'s request.

The Squire consented to hold the court at Rich Bar, although many think
that thereby he compromised his judicial dignity, as his office is on
Indian Bar. I must confess I see not how he could have done otherwise.
The miners were only too ready, so much do they object to a justice of
the peace, to take the case _entirely_ out of his hands if their wishes
were not complied with, which, to confess the truth, they _did_, even
after all his concessions, though they _pretended_ to keep up a sort of
mock respect for his office.

Everybody went to Rich Bar. No one remained to protect the calico
shanties, the rag huts, and the log cabins, from the much talked of
Indian attack--but your humble servant and Paganini Ned.

When the people, the mighty people, had assembled at the Empire, they
commenced proceedings by voting in a president and jury of their own,
though they kindly consented (how _very_ condescending!) that the
Squire might _play at judge_ by sitting at the side of _their_ elected
magistrate! This honor the Squire seemed to take as a sort of salve to
his wounded dignity, and with unprecedented meekness _accepted_ it. A
young Irishman from St. Louis was appointed counsel for John, and a Dr.
C. acted for the prosecution. Neither of them, however, was a lawyer.

The evidence against the prisoner was, that he had no money previously,
that he had slept at the Empire a night or two before, and that he knew
where Mr. B. was in the habit of keeping his gold-dust, with a few
other circumstances equally unimportant. His only defense was, of
course, to account for the money, which he tried to do by the following
ingenious story.

He said that his father, who resides at Stockholm,--he is a Swede,--had
sent him, two months previously, five hundred dollars through the
express, which had been brought to him from San Francisco by a young
man whose name is Miller; that he told no one of the circumstance, but
buried the money (a common habit with the miner) on the summit of a
hill about half a mile from Indian Bar; that, being intoxicated on
Sunday morning, he had dug it up for the purpose of gambling with it;
and that Mr. M., who had gone to Marysville a week before, and would
return in a fortnight, could confirm his story. When asked if he had
received a letter with the money, he replied that he did, but, having
placed it between the lining and the top of his cap, he had
unfortunately lost it. He earnestly affirmed his innocence, and,
through his counsel, entreated the court, should he be condemned, to
defer the execution of his sentence until the arrival of Miller, by
whom he could prove all that he had stated. Notwithstanding the florid
eloquence of W., the jury brought in a verdict of guilty, and condemned
him to receive thirty-nine lashes at nine o'clock the following
morning, and to leave the river, never to return to it, within
twenty-four hours; a claim, of which he owned a part, to be made over
to Mr. B. to indemnify him for his loss. His punishment was very light,
on account of his previous popularity and inoffensive conduct. In spite
of his really ingenious defense, no one has the least doubt of his
guilt but his lawyer and the Squire. They as firmly believe him an
innocent and much-injured man.

Yesterday morning I made my visit to Smith's Bar. In order to reach it,
it was necessary to cross the river, on a bridge formed of two logs, to
Missouri Bar. This flat, which has been worked but very little, has a
path leading across it, a quarter of a mile in length. It contains but
two or three huts, no very extensive diggings having as yet been
discovered upon it. About in the middle of it, and close to the side of
the trail, is situated a burial-spot, where not only its dead repose,
but those who die on Indian Bar are also brought for interment. On
arriving at the termination of the level, another log bridge leads to
Smith's Bar, which, although it lies upon the same side of the river as
our settlement, is seldom approached, as I before observed, except by
crossing to Missouri Bar and back again from that to Smith's. The hills
rise so perpendicularly between this latter and Indian Bar that it is
utterly impossible for a woman to follow on the trail along their side,
and it is no child's-play for even the most hardy mountaineer to do it.

This level (Smith's Bar) is large and quite thickly settled. More gold
has been taken from it than from any other settlement on the river.
Although the scenery here is not so strikingly picturesque as that
surrounding my new home, it is perhaps infinitely more lovely, and
certainly more desirable as a place of residence, than the latter,
because the sun shines upon it all winter, and we can take long walks
about it in many directions. Now, Indian Bar is so completely covered
with excavations and tenements that it is utterly impossible to
promenade upon it at all. Whenever I wish for exercise, I am
_compelled_ to cross the river, which, of course, I cannot do without
company, and as the latter is not always procurable (F.'s profession
calling him much from home), I am obliged to stay indoors more than I
like, or is conducive to my health.

A short but steep ascent from Smith's Bar leads you to another bench,
as miners call it, almost as large as itself, which is covered with
trees and grass, and is a most lovely place. From here one has a
charming view of a tiny bar called Frenchman's. It is a most sunny
little spot, covered with the freshest greensward, and nestling
lovingly, like a petted darling, in the embracing curve of a
crescent-shaped hill opposite. It looks more like some sheltered nook
amid the blue mountains of New England than anything I have ever yet
seen in California. Formerly there was a deer-lick upon it, and I am
told that on every dewy morning or starlit evening you might see a herd
of pretty creatures gathering in antlered beauty about its margin. Now,
however, they are seldom met with, the advent of gold-hunting humanity
having driven them far up into the hills.

The man who keeps the store at which we stopped (a log cabin without
any floor) goes by the sobriquet of "Yank," and is quite a character in
his way. He used to be a peddler in the States, and is remarkable for
an intense ambition to be thought what the Yankees call "cute and
smart,"--an ambition which his true and good heart will never permit
him to achieve. He is a great friend of mine (I am always interested in
that bizarre mixture of shrewdness and simplicity of which he is a
distinguished specimen), and takes me largely into his confidence as to
the various ways he has of _doing_ green miners,--all the merest
delusion on his part, you understand, for he is the most honest of
God's creatures, and would not, I verily believe, cheat a man out of a
grain of golden sand to save his own harmless and inoffensive life. He
is popularly supposed to be smitten with the charms of the "Indiana
girl," but I confess I doubt it, for Yank himself informed me,
confidentially, that, "though a very superior and splendid woman, she
had no _polish_"!

He is an indefatigable "snapper-up of unconsidered trifles," and his
store is the most comical olla podrida of heterogeneous merchandise
that I ever saw. There is nothing you can ask for but what he
has,--from crowbars down to cambric-needles; from velveteen trousers up
to broadcloth coats of the jauntiest description. The _quality_ of his
goods, it must be confessed, is sometimes rather equivocal. His
collection of novels is by far the largest, the greasiest, and the
"yellowest-kivered" of any to be found on the river. I will give you an
instance of the variety of his possessions.

I wanted some sealing-wax to mend a broken chess-piece, having by some
strange carelessness left the box containing mine in Marysville. I
inquired everywhere for it, but always got laughed at for supposing
that any one would be so absurd as to bring such an article into the
mountains. As a forlorn hope, I applied to Yank. Of course he had
plenty! The best of it is, that, whenever he produces any of these
out-of-the-way things, he always says that he brought them from the
States, which proves that he had a remarkable degree of foresight when
he left his home three years ago.

While I sat chatting with Yank I heard some one singing loudly, and
apparently very gayly, a negro melody, and, the next moment, who should
enter but Little John, who had been whipped, according to sentence,
three hours previously. As soon as he saw me he burst into tears, and
exclaimed,--

"Oh! Mrs. ----, a heartless mob has beaten me cruelly, has taken all my
money from me, and has decreed that I, who am an innocent man, should
leave the mountains without a cent of money to assist me on my way!"

The latter part of his speech, as I afterwards discovered, was
_certainly_ a lie, for he knew that a sum amply sufficient to pay his
expenses to Marysville had been subscribed by the very people who
believed him guilty. Of course his complaints were extremely painful to
me. You know how weakly pitiful I always am towards wicked people; for
it seems to me that they are so much more to be compassionated than the
good.

But what _could_ I say to poor John? I did not for one moment doubt his
entire guilt, and so, as people often do on such occasions, I took
refuge in a platitude.

"Well, John," I sagely remarked, "I hope that you did not take the
money. And only think how much happier you are in that case, than if
you had been beaten and abused as you say you have, and at the same
time were a criminal!"

I must confess, much as it tells against my eloquence, that John did
not receive my well-meant attempt at consolation with that pious
gratitude which such an injured innocent ought to have exhibited, but,
F. luckily calling me at that moment, I was spared any more of his
tearful complaints.

Soon after our return to the cabin, John's lawyer and the Squire called
upon us. They declared their perfect conviction of his innocence, and
the latter remarked that if any one would accompany him he would walk
up to the spot and examine the hole from whence the culprit affirmed
that he had taken his money only three days ago, as he very naturally
supposed that it would still exhibit signs of having been recently
opened. It was finally agreed that the victim, who had never described
the place to the Squire, should give a minute description of it,
unheard by His Honor, to F., and afterwards should lead the former,
accompanied by his counsel, (no one else could be persuaded to make
such martyrs of themselves,) to the much-talked-of spot. And, will you
believe it, M.? those two obstinate men actually persevered, although
it was nearly dark, and a very cold, raw, windy night, in walking half
a mile up one of the steepest hills on what the rest thought a perfect
fool's errand! To be sure, they have triumphed for the moment, for the
Squire's description, on their return, tallied exactly with that
previously given to F. But, alas! the infidels remained infidels still.

Then W. bet an oyster-supper for the whole party, which F. took up,
that Miller, on his return, would confirm his client's statement. For
fear of accidents, we had the oysters that night, and very nice they
were, I assure you. This morning the hero of the last three days
vanished to parts unknown. And thus endeth the Squire's first attempt
to sit in judgment in a criminal case. I regret his failure very much,
as do many others. Whether any one else could have succeeded better, I
cannot say. But I am sure that no person could more sincerely _desire_
and _try_ to act for the best good of the community than the Squire.

I suppose that I should be as firm a believer in John's innocence as
any one, had he not said to F. and others that if he had taken the
money they could not _prove_ it against him, and many other similar
things, which seem to me totally incompatible with innocence.




LETTER _the_ TENTH

[_The_ PIONEER, _November_, 1854]

AMATEUR MINING--HAIRBREADTH 'SCAPES, &C.

SYNOPSIS


Three dollars and twenty-five cents in gold-dust. Sorry she learned the
trade. The resulting losses and suffering. Secret of the brilliant
successes of former gold-washeresses. Salting the ground by miners in
order to deceive their fair visitors. Erroneous ideas of richness of
auriferous dirt resulting therefrom. Rarity of lucky strikes. Claim
yielding ten dollars a day considered valuable. Consternation and
near-disaster in the author's cabin. Trunk of forest giant rolls down
hill. Force broken by rock near cabin. Terror of careless woodman.
Another narrow escape at Smith's Bar. Pursuit and escape of woodman.
Two sudden deaths at Indian Bar. Inquest in the open. Cosmopolitan
gathering thereat. Wife of one of the deceased an advanced bloomer.
Animadversions on strong-minded bloomers seeking their rights.
California pheasant, gallina del campo of the Spaniards. Pines and dies
in captivity. Smart, harmless earthquake-shocks.




Letter _the_ Tenth

AMATEUR MINING-HAIRBREADTH 'SCAPES, &C.

_From our Log Cabin_, INDIAN BAR,

_November_ 25, 1851.


Nothing of importance has happened since I last wrote you, except that
I have become a _mineress_, that is, if the having washed a pan of dirt
with my own hands, and procured therefrom three dollars and twenty-five
cents in gold-dust, which I shall inclose in this letter, will entitle
me to the name. I can truly say, with the blacksmith's apprentice at
the close of his first day's work at the anvil, that I am sorry I
learned the trade, for I wet my feet, tore my dress, spoilt a pair of
new gloves, nearly froze my fingers, got an awful headache, took cold,
and lost a valuable breastpin, in this my labor of love. After such
melancholy self-sacrifice on my part, I trust you will duly prize my
gift. I can assure you that it is the last golden handiwork you will
ever receive from Dame Shirley.

Apropos of lady gold-washers in general, it is a common habit with
people residing in towns in the vicinity of the diggings to make up
pleasure-parties to those places. Each woman of the company will
exhibit, on her return, at least twenty dollars of the oro, which she
will gravely inform you she has just panned out from a single basinful
of the soil. This, of course, gives strangers a very erroneous idea of
the average richness of auriferous dirt. I myself thought (now, don't
laugh) that one had but to saunter gracefully along romantic streamlets
on sunny afternoons, with a parasol and white kid gloves perhaps, and
to stop now and then to admire the scenery, and carelessly rinse out a
small panful of yellow sand (without detriment to the white kids,
however, so easy did I fancy the whole process to be), in order to fill
one's work-bag with the most beautiful and rare specimens of the
precious mineral. Since I have been here I have discovered my mistake,
and also the secret of the brilliant success of former gold-washeresses.

The miners are in the habit of flattering the vanity of their fair
visitors by scattering a handful of "salt" (which, strange to say, is
_exactly_ the color of gold-dust, and has the remarkable property of
often bringing to light very curious lumps of the ore) through the dirt
before the dainty fingers touch it, and the dear creatures go home with
their treasures, firmly believing that mining is the prettiest pastime
in the world.

I had no idea of permitting such a costly joke to be played upon me; so
I said but little of my desire to "go through the motions" of
gold-washing, until one day, when, as I passed a deep hole in which
several men were at work, my companion requested the owner to fill a
small pan, which I had in my hand, with dirt from the bed-rock. This
request was, of course, granted, and the treasure having been conveyed
to the edge of the river, I succeeded, after much awkward maneuvering
on my own part, and considerable assistance from friend H., an
experienced miner, in gathering together the above-specified sum. All
the diggers of our acquaintance say that it is an excellent "prospect,"
even to come from the bed-rock, where, naturally, the richest dirt is
found. To be sure, there are, now and then, "lucky strikes," such, for
instance, as that mentioned in a former letter, where a person took out
of a single basinful of soil two hundred and fifty-six dollars. But
such luck is as rare as the winning of a hundred-thousand-dollar prize
in a lottery. We are acquainted with many here whose gains have _never_
amounted to much more than wages, that is, from six to eight dollars a
day. And a claim which yields a man a steady income of ten dollars _per
diem_ is considered as very valuable.

I received an immense fright the other morning. I was sitting by the
fire, quietly reading "Lewis Arundel," which had just fallen into my
hands, when a great shout and trampling of feet outside attracted my
attention. Naturally enough, my first impulse was to run to the door,
but scarcely had I risen to my feet for that purpose, when a mighty
crash against the side of the cabin, shaking it to the foundation,
threw me suddenly upon my knees. So violent was the shock that for a
moment I thought the staunch old logs, mossed with the pale verdure of
ages, were falling in confusion around me. As soon as I could collect
my scattered senses, I looked about to see what had happened. Several
stones had fallen from the back of the chimney, mortar from the latter
covered the hearth, the cloth over­head was twisted into the funniest
possible wrinkles, the couch had jumped two feet from the side of the
house, the little table lay on its back, holding up _four_ legs instead
of _one_, the chessmen were rolling merrily about in every direction,
the dishes had all left their usual places, the door, which, ever
since, has obstinately refused to let itself be shut, was thrown
violently open, while an odd-looking pile of articles lay in the middle
of the room, which, upon investigation, was found to consist of a pail,
a broom, a bell, some candlesticks, a pack of cards, a loaf of bread, a
pair of boots, a bunch of cigars, and some clay pipes (the only things,
by the way, rendered utterly _hors de combat_ in the assault). But one
piece of furniture retained its attitude, and that was the elephantine
bedstead, which nothing short of an earthquake could move. Almost at
the same moment several acquaintances rushed in, begging me not to be
alarmed, as the danger was past.

"But what has happened?" I eagerly inquired.

"O, a large tree, which was felled this morning, has rolled down from
the brow of the hill." And its having struck a rock a few feet from the
house, losing thereby the most of its force, had alone saved us from
utter destruction.

I grew sick with terror when I understood the awful fate from which
Providence had preserved me, and even now my heart leaps painfully with
mingled fear and gratitude when I think how closely that pale
death-shadow glided by me, and of the loving care which forbade it to
linger upon our threshold.

Every one who saw the forest giant descending the hill with the force
of a mighty torrent expected to see the cabin instantly prostrated to
the earth. As it was, they all say that it swayed from the
perpendicular more than six inches.

Poor W., whom you may remember my having mentioned in a former letter
as having had a leg amputated a few weeks ago, and who was visiting us
at the time, (he had been brought from the Empire in a rocking-chair,)
looked like a marble statue of resignation. He possesses a face of
uncommon beauty, and his large, dark eyes have always, I fancy, a
sorrowful expression. Although he knew from the first shout what was
about to happen, and was sitting on the couch which stood at that side
of the cabin where the log must necessarily strike, and in his
mutilated condition had, as he has since said, not the faintest hope of
escape, yet the rich color for which he is remarkable paled not a shade
during the whole affair.

The woodman who came so near causing a catastrophe was, I believe,
infinitely more frightened than his might-have-been victims. He is a
good-natured, stupid creature, and did not dare to descend the hill
until some time after the excitement had subsided. The ludicrous
expression of terror which his countenance wore when he came in to see
what damage had been done, and to ask pardon for his carelessness, made
us all laugh heartily.

W. related the almost miraculous escape of two persons from a similar
danger last winter. The cabin, which was on Smith's Bar, was crushed
into a mass of ruins almost in an instant, while an old man and his
daughter, who were at dinner within its walls, remained sitting in the
midst of the fallen logs, entirely unhurt. The father immediately
seized a gun and ran after the careless woodman, swearing that he would
shoot him. Fortunately for the latter (for there is no doubt that in
the first moments of his rage the old man would have slain him), his
younger legs enabled him to make his escape, and he did not dare to
return to the settlement for some days.

It has heretofore been a source of great interest to me to listen to
the ringing sound of the ax, and the solemn crash of those majestic
sentinels of the hills as they bow their green foreheads to the dust,
but now I fear that I shall always hear them with a feeling of
apprehension mingling with my former awe, although every one tells us
that there is no danger of a repetition of the accident.

Last week there was a post-mortem examination of two men who died very
suddenly in the neighborhood. Perhaps it will sound rather barbarous
when I tell you that as there was no building upon the Bar which
admitted light enough for the purpose, it was found necessary to
conduct the examination in the open air, to the intense interest of the
Kanakas, Indians, French, Spanish, English, Irish, and Yankees, who had
gathered eagerly about the spot. Paganini Ned, with an anxious desire
that Mrs. ---- should be _amused_ as much as possible in her
mountain-home, rushed up from the kitchen, his dusky face radiant with
excitement, to inform me that I could see both the bodies by just
looking out of the window! I really frightened the poor fellow by the
abrupt and vehement manner in which I declined taking advantage of his
kindly hint.

One of the deceased was the husband of an American lady lecturess of
the most intense description; and a strong-minded bloomer on the
broadest principles.

Apropos, how _can_ women, many of whom, I am told, are _really_
interesting and intelligent,--how _can_ they spoil their pretty mouths
and ruin their beautiful complexions by demanding with Xanthippian
_fervor_, in the presence, often, of a vulgar, irreverent mob, what the
gentle creatures are pleased to call their "rights"? How _can_ they
wish to soil the delicate texture of their airy fancies by pondering
over the wearying stupidities of Presidential elections, or the
bewildering mystifications of rabid metaphysicians? And, above all, how
_can_ they so far forget the sweet, shy coquetries of shrinking
womanhood as to don those horrid bloomers? As for me, although a
_wife_, I never wear the--well, you know what they call them when they
wish to quiz henpecked husbands--even in the strictest privacy of life.
I confess to an almost religious veneration for trailing drapery, and I
pin my vestural faith with unflinching obstinacy to sweeping
petticoats.

I knew a strong-minded bloomer at home, of some talent, and who was
possessed, in a certain sense, of an excellent education. One day,
after having flatteringly informed me that I really _had_ a "soul above
buttons" and the nursery, she gravely proposed that I should improve my
_mind_ by poring six hours a day over the metaphysical subtleties of
Kant, Cousin, etc., and I remember that she called me a "piece of
fashionable insipidity," and taunted me with not daring to go out of
the beaten track, because I _truly_ thought (for in those days I was an
humble little thing enough, and sincerely desirous of walking in the
right path as straitly as my feeble judgment would permit) that there
were other authors more congenial to the flowerlike delicacy of the
feminine intellect than her pet writers.

When will our sex appreciate the exquisite philosophy and truth of
Lowell's remark upon the habits of Lady Redbreast and her esposo Robin,
as illustrating the beautifully varied spheres of man and woman?--

    He sings to the wide world, she to her nest;
    In the nice ear of Nature, which song is the best?

Speaking of birds reminds me of a misfortune that I have lately
experienced, which, in a life where there is so little to amuse and
interest one, has been to me a subject of real grief. About three weeks
ago, F. saw on the hill a California pheasant, which he chased into a
coyote-hole and captured. Knowing how fond I am of pets, he brought it
home and proposed that I should try to tame it. Now, from earliest
childhood I have resolutely refused to keep _wild_ birds, and when I
have had them given to me (which has happened several times in this
country,--young bluebirds, etc.), I have invariably set them free, and
I proposed doing the same with the pretty pheasant, but as they are the
most delicately exquisite in flavor of all game, F. said that if I did
not wish to keep it he would wring its neck and have it served up for
dinner. With the cruelty of kindness--often more disastrous than that
of real malice--I shrank from having it killed, and consented to let it
run about the cabin.

It was a beautiful bird, a little larger than the domestic hen. Its
slender neck, which it curved with haughty elegance, was tinted with
various shades of a shining steel color. The large, bright eye glanced
with the prettiest shyness at its captors, and the cluster of feathers
forming its tail drooped with the rare grace of an ostrich-plume. The
colors of the body were of a subdued brilliancy, reminding one of a
rich but somber mosaic.

As it seemed very quiet, I really believed that in time we should be
able to tame it. Still, it _would_ remain constantly under the sofa or
bedstead. So F. concluded to place it in a cage for a few hours of each
day, in order that it might become gradually accustomed to our
presence. This was done, the bird appearing as well as ever, and after
closing the door of its temporary prison one day I left it and returned
to my seat by the fire. In less than two minutes afterwards, a slight
struggle in the cage attracted my attention. I ran hastily back, and
you may imagine my distress when I found the beautiful pheasant lying
lifeless upon the ground. It never breathed or showed the faintest sign
of life afterwards.

You may laugh at me if you please, but I firmly believe that it died of
homesickness. What wonder that the free, beautiful, happy creature of
God, torn from the sight of the broad blue sky, the smiling river, and
the fresh, fragrant fir-trees of its mountain-home, and shut up in a
dark, gloomy cabin, should have broken in twain its haughty little
heart? Yes, you may laugh, call me sentimental, etc., but I shall never
forgive myself for having killed, by inches, in my selfish and cruel
kindness, that pretty creature.

Many people here call this bird a grouse, and those who have crossed
the plains say that it is very much like the prairie-hen. The Spanish
name is gallina del campo, literally, hen of the field. Since the death
of my poor little victim, I have been told that it is utterly
impossible to tame one of these birds, and it is said that if you put
their eggs under a domestic fowl, the young, almost as soon as hatched,
will instinctively run away to the beloved solitudes of their congenial
homes, so passionately beats for liberty each pulse of their free and
wild natures.

Among the noteworthy events which have occurred since my last, I don't
know how I came to forget until the close of my letter two smart shocks
of an earthquake to which we were treated a week ago. They were
awe-inspiring, but, after all, were nothing in comparison to the
timber-quake, an account of which I have given you above. But as F. is
about to leave for the top of the Butte Mountains with a party of Rich
Barians, and as I have much to do to prepare him for the journey, I
must close.




LETTER _the_ ELEVENTH

[_The_ PIONEER, _December_, 1854]

ROBBERY, TRIAL, EXECUTION--MORE TRAGEDY

SYNOPSIS


Theft of gold-dust. Arrest of two suspected miners. Trial and acquittal
at miners' meeting. Robbed persons still believe accused guilty.
Suspects leave mountains. One returns, and plan for his detection is
successful. Confronted with evidence of guilt, discloses, on promise of
immunity from prosecution, hiding-place of gold-dust. Miners, however,
try him, and on conviction he is sentenced to be hanged one hour
thereafter. Miners' mode of trial. Respite of three hours. Bungling
execution. Drunken miner's proposal for sign of guilt or innocence.
Corpse "enwrapped in white shroud of feathery snowflakes". Execution
the work of the more reckless. Not generally approved. The Squire,
disregarded, protested. Miners' procedure compared with the moderation
of the first Vigilance Committee of San Francisco. Singular disappearance
of body of miner. Returning to the States with his savings, his two
companions report their leaving him in dying condition. Arrest and
fruitless investigation. An unlikely bequest of money. Trial and
acquittal of the miner's companions. Their story improbable, their
actions like actual murder.




Letter _the_ Eleventh

ROBBERY, TRIAL, EXECUTION--MORE TRAGEDY

_From our Log Cabin_, INDIAN BAR,

_December_ 15, 1851.


I little thought, dear M., that here, with the "green watching hills"
as witnesses, amid a solitude so grand and lofty that it seems as if
the faintest whisper of passion must be hushed by its holy stillness, I
should have to relate the perpetration of one of those fearful deeds
which, were it for no other peculiarity than its startling suddenness,
so utterly at variance with all _civilized_ law, must make our
beautiful California appear to strangers rather as a hideous phantom
than the flower-wreathed reality which she is.

Whether the life which a few men, in the impertinent intoxication of
power, have dared to crush out was worth that of a fly, I do not
know,--perhaps not,--though God alone, methinks, can judge of the value
of the soul upon which he has breathed. But certainly the effect upon
the hearts of those who played the principal parts in the revolting
scene referred to--a tragedy, in my simple judgment, so utterly
useless--must be demoralizing in the extreme.

The facts in this sad case are as follows. Last fall, two men were
arrested by their partners on suspicion of having stolen from them
eighteen hundred dollars in gold-dust. The evidence was not sufficient
to convict them, and they were acquitted. They were tried before a
meeting of the miners, as at that time the law did not even _pretend_
to wave its scepter over this place.

The prosecutors still believed them guilty, and fancied that the gold
was hidden in a coyote-hole near the camp from which it had been taken.
They therefore watched the place narrowly while the suspected men
remained on the Bar. They made no discoveries, however, and soon after
the trial the acquitted persons left the mountains for Marysville.

A few weeks ago, one of these men returned, and has spent most of the
time since his arrival in loafing about the different barrooms upon the
river. He is said to have been constantly intoxicated. As soon as the
losers of the gold heard of his return, they bethought themselves of
the coyote-hole, and placed about its entrance some brushwood and
stones in such a manner that no one could go into it without disturbing
the arrangement of them. In the mean while the thief settled at Rich
Bar, and pretended that he was in search of some gravel-ground for
mining purposes.

A few mornings ago he returned to his boarding-place, which he had left
some hour earlier, with a spade in his hand, and, as he laid it down,
carelessly observed that he had been out prospecting. The losers of the
gold went, immediately after breakfast, as they had been in the habit
of doing, to see if all was right at the coyote-hole. On this fatal day
they saw that the entrance had been disturbed, and going in, they found
upon the ground a money-belt which had apparently just been cut open.
Armed with this evidence of guilt, they confronted the suspected person
and sternly accused him of having the gold in his possession.
Singularly enough, he did not attempt a denial, but said that if they
would not bring him to a trial (which of course they promised) he would
give it up immediately. He then informed them that they would find it
beneath the blankets of his bunk, as those queer shelves on which
miners sleep, ranged one above another somewhat like the berths of a
ship, are generally called. There, sure enough, were six hundred
dollars of the missing money, and the unfortunate wretch declared that
his partner had taken the remainder to the States.

By this time the exciting news had spread all over the Bar. A meeting
of the miners was immediately convened, the unhappy man taken into
custody, a jury chosen, and a judge, lawyer, etc., appointed. Whether
the men who had just regained a portion of their missing property made
any objections to the proceedings which followed, I know not. If they
had done so, however, it would have made no difference, as the _people_
had taken the matter entirely out of their hands.

At one o'clock, so rapidly was the trial conducted, the judge charged
the jury, and gently insinuated that they could do no less than to
bring in with their verdict of guilty a sentence of _death!_ Perhaps
you know that when a trial is conducted without the majesty of the law,
the jury are compelled to decide not only upon the guilt of the
prisoner, but the mode of his punishment also. After a few minutes'
absence, the twelve men, who had consented to burden their souls with a
responsibility so fearful, returned, and the foreman handed to the
judge a paper, from which he read the will of the _people_, as follows:
That William Brown, convicted of stealing, etc., should, in _one hour_
from that time, be hung by the neck until he was dead.

By the persuasions of some men more mildly disposed, they granted him a
respite of _three hours_ to prepare for his sudden entrance into
eternity. He employed the time in writing, in his native language (he
is a Swede), to some friends in Stockholm. God help them when that
fatal post shall arrive, for, no doubt, _he_ also, although a criminal,
was fondly garnered in many a loving heart.

He had exhibited, during the trial, the utmost recklessness and
nonchalance, had drank many times in the course of the day, and when
the rope was placed about his neck, was evidently much intoxicated. All
at once, however, he seemed startled into a consciousness of the awful
reality of his position, and requested a few moments for prayer.

The execution was conducted by the jury, and was performed by throwing
the cord, one end of which was attached to the neck of the prisoner,
across the limb of a tree standing outside of the Rich Bar graveyard,
when all who felt disposed to engage in so revolting a task lifted the
poor wretch from the ground in the most awkward manner possible. The
whole affair, indeed, was a piece of cruel butchery, though _that_ was
not intentional, but arose from the ignorance of those who made the
preparations. In truth, life was only crushed out of him by hauling the
writhing body up and down, several times in succession, by the rope,
which was wound round a large bough of his green-leaved gallows. Almost
everybody was surprised at the severity of the sentence, and many, with
their hands on the cord, did not believe even _then_ that it would be
carried into effect, but thought that at the last moment the jury would
release the prisoner and substitute a milder punishment.

It is said that the crowd generally seemed to feel the solemnity of the
occasion, but many of the drunkards, who form a large part of the
community on these bars, laughed and shouted as if it were a spectacle
got up for their particular amusement. A disgusting specimen of
intoxicated humanity, struck with one of those luminous ideas peculiar
to his class, staggered up to the victim, who was praying at the
moment, and, crowding a dirty rag into his almost unconscious hand, in
a voice broken by a drunken hiccough, tearfully implored him to take
his "hankercher," and if he were _innocent_ (the man had not denied his
guilt since first accused), to drop it as soon as he was drawn up into
the air, but if _guilty_, not to let it fall on any account.

The body of the criminal was allowed to hang for some hours after the
execution. It had commenced storming in the earlier part of the
evening, and when those whose business it was to inter the remains
arrived at the spot, they found them enwrapped in a soft white shroud
of feathery snowflakes, as if pitying nature had tried to hide from the
offended face of Heaven the cruel deed which her mountain-children had
committed.

I have heard no one approve of this affair. It seems to have been
carried on entirely by the more reckless part of the community. There
is no doubt, however, that they seriously _thought_ they were doing
right, for many of them are kind and sensible men. They firmly believed
that such an example was absolutely necessary for the protection of
this community. Probably the recent case of Little John rendered this
last sentence more severe than it otherwise would have been. The
Squire, of course, could do nothing (as in criminal cases the _people_
utterly refuse to acknowledge his authority) but protest against the
whole of the proceedings, which he did in the usual legal manner.

If William Brown had committed a murder, or had even attacked a man for
his money; if he had been a quarrelsome, fighting character,
endangering lives in his excitement,--it would have been a very
different affair. But, with the exception of the crime for which he
perished (he _said_ it was his first, and there is no reason to doubt
the truth of his assertion), he was a harmless, quiet, inoffensive
person.

You must not confound this miners' judgment with the doings of the
noble Vigilance Committee of San Francisco. They are almost totally
different in their organization and manner of proceeding. The Vigilance
Committee had become absolutely necessary for the protection of
society. It was composed of the best and wisest men in the city. They
used their power with a moderation unexampled in history, and they laid
it down with a calm and quiet readiness which was absolutely sublime,
when they found that legal justice had again resumed that course of
stern, unflinching duty which should always be its characteristic. They
took ample time for a thorough investigation of all the circumstances
relating to the criminals who fell into their hands, and in _no_ case
have they hung a man who had not been proved beyond the shadow of a
doubt to have committed at least _one_ robbery in which life had been
endangered, if not absolutely taken.

But by this time, dear M., you must be tired of the melancholy subject,
and yet if I keep my promise of relating to you all that interests _us_
in our new and strange life, I shall have to finish my letter with a
catastrophe in many respects more sad than that which I have just
recounted.

At the commencement of our first storm, a hard-working, industrious
laborer, who had accumulated about eight hundred dollars, concluded to
return to the States. As the snow had been falling but a few hours when
he, with two acquaintances, started from Rich Bar, no one doubted that
they would not reach Marysville in perfect safety. They went on foot
themselves, taking with them one mule to carry their blankets. For some
unexplained reason, they took an unfrequented route. When the
expressman came in, he said that he met the two companions of R. eight
miles beyond Buck's Rancho, which is the first house one finds after
leaving Rich Bar, and is only fourteen miles distant from here.

These men had camped at an uninhabited cabin called the "Frenchman's,"
where they had built a fire and were making themselves both merry and
comfortable. They informed the expressman that they had left their
_friend_ (?) three miles back, in a dying state; that the cold had been
too much for him, and that no doubt he was already dead. They had
brought away the money, and even the _blankets_, of the expiring
wretch! They said that if they had stopped with him they would have
been frozen themselves. But even if their story is true, they must be
the most brutal of creatures not to have made him as comfortable as
possible, with _all_ the blankets, and, after they had built their fire
and got warm, to have returned and ascertained if he were really dead.

On hearing the expressman's report, several men who had been acquainted
with the deceased started out to try and discover his remains. They
found his violin, broken into several pieces, but all traces of the
poor fellow himself had disappeared, probably forever.

In the mean while some travelers had carried the same news to Burke's
Rancho, when several of the residents of that place followed the two
men, and overtook them, to Bidwell's Bar, where they had them arrested
on suspicion of murder. They protested their innocence, of course, and
one of them said that he would lead a party to the spot where they had
left the dying man. On arriving in the vicinity of the place, he at
first stated that it was under one tree, then another, and another, and
at last ended by declaring that it was utterly impossible for him to
remember where they were camped at the time of R.'s death.

In this state of things, nothing was to be done but to return to B.'s,
when, the excitement having somewhat subsided, they were allowed to
proceed on their journey, the money, which they both swore R. had
willed in his dying moments to a near relation of one of these very
men, having been taken from them, in order to be sent by express to the
friends of the deceased in the States.

Although they have been acquitted, many shake their heads doubtfully at
the whole transaction. It seems very improbable that a man, accustomed
all his life to hard labor and exposure, even although slightly unwell,
as it is said he was, at the time, should have sunk under the cold
during a walk of less than twenty miles, amid a gentle fall of snow and
rain, when, as it is well known, the air is comparatively mild. It is
to be hoped, however, that the companions of R. were brutal rather than
criminal, though the desertion of a dying friend under such
circumstances, even to the last unfeeling and selfish act of removing
from the expiring creature his blankets, is, in truth, almost as bad as
actual murder.

I hope, in my next, that I shall have something more cheerful than the
above chapter of horrors to relate. In the mean while, adios, and think
as kindly as you can of the dear California, even though her lustrous
skies gaze upon such barbarous deeds.




LETTER _the_ TWELFTH

[_The_ PIONEER, _February_, 1855]

A STORMY WINTER--HOLIDAY SATURNALIAS

SYNOPSIS


Saturnalia in camp. Temptations of riches. Tribute to the miners.
Dreariness of camp-life during stormy winter weather. Christmas and
change of proprietors at the Humboldt. Preparations for a double
celebration. Mule-back loads of brandy-casks and champagne-baskets.
Noisy procession of revelers. Oyster-and-champagne supper. Three days
of revelry. Trial by mock vigilance committee. Judgment to "treat the
crowd". Revels resumed on larger scale at New Year's. Boat-loads of
drunken miners fall into river. Saved by being drunk. Boat-load of
bread falls into river and floats down-stream. Pulley-and-rope device
for hauling boat across river. Fiddlers "nearly fiddled themselves
into the grave". Liquors "beginning to look scarce". Subdued and
sheepish-looking bacchanals. Nothing extenuated, nor aught set down in
malice. Boating on the river. Aquatic plants. Bridge swept away in
torrent. Loss of canoe. Branch from moss-grown fir-tree "a cornice
wreathed with purple-starred tapestry". A New Year's present from the
river. A two-inch spotted trout. No fresh meat for a month. "Dark and
ominous rumors". Dark hams, rusty pork, etc., stored.




Letter _the_ Twelfth

A STORMY WINTER--HOLIDAY SATURNALIAS

_From our Log Cabin,_ INDIAN BAR,

_January_ 27, 1852.


I wish that it were possible, dear M., to give you an idea of the
perfect saturnalia which has been held upon the river for the last
three weeks, without at the same time causing you to think _too_
severely of our good mountains. In truth, it requires not only a large
intellect, but a large heart, to judge with becoming charity of the
peculiar temptations of riches. A more generous, hospitable,
intelligent, and industrious people than the inhabitants of the
half-dozen bars, of which Rich Bar is the nucleus, never existed; for
you know how proverbially wearing it is to the nerves of manhood to be
entirely without either occupation or amusement, and that has been
preeminently the case during the present month.

Imagine a company of enterprising and excitable young men, settled upon
a sandy level about as large as a poor widow's potato-patch, walled in
by sky-kissing hills, absolutely _compelled_ to remain on account of
the weather, which has vetoed indefinitely their exodus, with no place
to ride or drive even if they had the necessary vehicles and quadrupeds;
with no newspapers nor politics to interest them; deprived of all books
but a few dog-eared novels of the poorest class,--churches, lectures,
lyceums, theaters, and (most unkindest cut of all!) pretty girls,
having become to these unhappy men mere myths; without _one_ of the
thousand ways of passing time peculiar to civilization, most of them
living in damp, gloomy cabins, where heaven's dear light can enter only
by the door; and when you add to all these disagreeables the fact that,
during the never-to-be-forgotten month, the most remorseless,
persevering rain which ever set itself to work to drive humanity mad
has been pouring doggedly down, sweeping away bridges, lying in
uncomfortable puddles about nearly all of the habitations, wickedly
insinuating itself beneath un-umbrella-protected shirt-collars,
generously treating to a shower-bath _and_ the rheumatism sleeping
bipeds who did not happen to have an india-rubber blanket, and, to
crown all, rendering mining utterly impossible,--you cannot wonder that
even the most moral should have become somewhat reckless.

The saturnalia commenced on Christmas evening, at the Humboldt, which,
on that very day, had passed into the hands of new proprietors. The
most gorgeous preparations were made for celebrating the _two_ events.
The bar was retrimmed with red calico, the bowling-alley had a new
lining of the coarsest and whitest cotton cloth, and the broken
lamp-shades were replaced by whole ones. All day long, patient mules
could be seen descending the hill, bending beneath casks of brandy and
baskets of champagne, and, for the first time in the history of that
celebrated building, the floor (wonderful to relate, it _has_ a floor)
was _washed_, at a lavish expenditure of some fifty pails of water, the
using up of one entire broom, and the melting away of sundry bars of
the best yellow soap, after which I am told that the enterprising and
benevolent individuals who had undertaken the herculean task succeeded
in washing the boards through the hopeless load of dirt which had
accumulated upon them during the summer and autumn. All these
interesting particulars were communicated to me by Ned when he brought
up dinner. That distinguished individual himself was in his element,
and in a most intense state of perspiration and excitement at the same
time.

About dark we were startled by the loudest hurrahs, which arose at the
sight of an army of india-rubber coats (the rain was falling in
riverfuls), each one enshrouding a Rich Barian, which was rapidly
descending the hill. This troop was headed by the "General," who, lucky
man that he is, waved on high, instead of a banner, a _live_ lantern,
actually composed of tin and window-glass, and evidently intended by
its maker to act in no capacity but that _of_ a lantern. The General is
the largest and tallest, and with one exception I think the oldest, man
upon the river. He is about fifty, I should fancy, and wears a
snow-white beard of such immense dimensions, in both length and
thickness, that any elderly Turk would expire with envy at the mere
sight of it. Don't imagine that _he_ is a reveler. By no means. The gay
crowd followed _him_, for the same reason that the king followed Madam
Blaize,--because she went before.

At nine o'clock in the evening they had an oyster-and-champagne supper
in the Humboldt, which was very gay with toasts, songs, speeches, etc.
I believe that the company danced all night. At any rate, they were
dancing when I went to sleep, and they were dancing when I woke the
next morning. The revel was kept up in this mad way for three days,
growing wilder every hour. Some never slept at all during that time. On
the fourth day they got past dancing, and, lying in drunken heaps about
the barroom, commenced a most unearthly howling. Some barked like dogs,
some roared like bulls, and others hissed like serpents and geese. Many
were too far gone to imitate anything but their own animalized selves.
The scene, from the description I have had of it, must have been a
complete illustration of the fable of Circe and her fearful
transformations. Some of these bacchanals were among the most
respectable and respected men upon the river. Many of them had resided
here for more than a year, and had never been seen intoxicated before.
It seemed as if they were seized with a reckless mania for pouring down
liquor, which, as I said above, everything conspired to foster and
increase.

Of course there were some who kept themselves aloof from these
excesses, but they were few, and were not allowed to enjoy their
sobriety in peace. The revelers formed themselves into a mock vigilance
committee, and when one of these unfortunates appeared outside, a
constable, followed by those who were able to keep their legs, brought
him before the court, where he was tried on some amusing charge, and
_invariably_ sentenced to "treat the crowd." The prisoners had
generally the good sense to submit cheerfully to their fate.

Towards the latter part of the week, people were compelled to be a
little more quiet, from sheer exhaustion, but on New Year's Day, when
there was a grand dinner at Rich Bar, the excitement broke out, if
possible, worse than ever. The same scenes, in a more or less
aggravated form, in proportion as the strength of the actors held out,
were repeated at Smith's Bar and The Junction.

Nearly every day I was dreadfully frightened by seeing a boat-load of
intoxicated men fall into the river, where nothing but the fact of
their _being_ intoxicated saved many of them from drowning. One morning
about thirty dollars' worth of bread (it must have been tipsy-cake),
which the baker was conveying to Smith's Bar, fell overboard, and
sailed merrily away towards Marysville. People passed the river in a
boat, which was managed by a pulley and a rope that was strained across
it from Indian Bar to the opposite shore.

Of the many acquaintances who had been in the habit of calling nearly
evening, three, only, appeared in the cabin during as many weeks. Now,
however, the saturnalia is about over. Ned and Chock have nearly
fiddled themselves into their respective graves, the claret (a favorite
wine with miners) and oysters are exhausted, brandied fruits are rarely
seen, and even port-wine is beginning to look scarce. Old callers
occasionally drop in, looking dreadfully sheepish and subdued, and _so
sorry_, and people are evidently arousing themselves from the bacchanal
madness into which they were so suddenly and so strangely drawn.

With the exception of my last, this is the most unpleasant letter which
I have ever felt it my duty to write to you. Perhaps you will wonder
that I should touch upon such a disagreeable subject at all. But I am
bound, Molly, by my promise to give you a _true_ picture (as much as in
me lies) of mining-life and its peculiar temptations, nothing
extenuating, nor setting down aught in malice. But, with all their
failings, believe me, the miners, as a class, possess many truly
admirable characteristics.

I have had rather a stupid time during the storm. We have been in the
habit of taking frequent rows upon the river, in a funny little
toppling canoe carved out of a log. The bridge at one end of our
boating-ground, and the rapids at the other, made quite a pretty lake.
To be sure, it was so small that we generally passed and repassed its
beautiful surface at least thirty times in an hour. But we did not mind
_that_, I can assure you. We were only _too_ glad to be able to go onto
the water at all. I used to return loaded down with the magnificent
large leaves of some aquatic plant which the gentle frosts had painted
with the most gorgeous colors, lots of fragrant mint, and a few wan
white flowers which had lingered past their autumnal glory. The richest
hothouse bouquet could never give me half the pleasure which I took in
arranging, in a pretty vase of purple and white, those gorgeous leaves.
They made me think of Moorish arabesques, so quaint and bizarre, and at
the same time dazzlingly brilliant, were the varied tints. They were in
their glory at evening, for, like an oriental beauty, they lighted up
splendidly. Alas! where, one little month ago, my little lake lay
laughing up at the stars, a turbid torrent rushes noisily by. The poor
little canoe was swept away with the bridge, and splendid leaves hide
their bright heads forever beneath the dark waters.

But I am not entirely bereft of the beautiful. From my last walk I
brought home a tiny bit of outdoors, which, through all the long, rainy
months that are to come, will sing to me silently, yet eloquently, of
the blue and gold of the vanished summer, and the crimson and purple of
its autumn. It is a branch, gathered from that prettiest feature of
mountain scenery,--a moss-grown fir-tree. You will see them at every
step, standing all-lovely in this graceful robe. It is, in color, a
vivid pea-green, with little hard flowers which look more like dots
than anything else, and contrast beautifully with the deeper verdure of
the fir. The branch which I brought home I have placed above my window.
It is three feet in length, and as large round as a person's arm; and
there it remains, a cornice wreathed with purple-starred tapestry,
whose wondrous beauty no upholsterer can ever match.

I have got the prettiest New Year's present. You will never guess what
it is, so I shall have to tell you. On the eve of the year, as the
"General" was lifting a glass of water, which had just been brought
from the river, to his lips, he was startled at the sight of a tiny
fish. He immediately put it into a glass jar and gave it to me. It is
that most lovely of all the creatures of Thetis, a spotted trout, a
little more than two inches in length. Its back, of mingled green and
gold, is splashed with dots of the richest sable. A mark of a dark-ruby
color, in shape like an anchor, crowns its elegant little head. Nothing
can be prettier than the delicate wings of pale purple with which its
snowy belly is faintly penciled. Its jet-black eyes, rimmed with silver
within a circlet of rare sea-blue, gleam like diamonds, and its whole
graceful shape is gilded with a shimmering sheen infinitely lovely.
When I watch it from across the room as it glides slowly round its
crystal palace, it reminds me of a beam of many-colored light, but when
it glides up and down in its gay playfulness, it gleams through the
liquid atmosphere like a box of shining silver. "A thing of beauty is a
joy forever," and truly I never weary watching the perfected loveliness
of my graceful little captive.

In the list of my deprivations above written, I forgot to mention a
fact which I know will gain me the sympathy of all carnivorously
disposed people. It is, that we have had no fresh meat for nearly a
month! Dark and ominous rumors are also floating through the moist air,
to the effect that the potatoes and onions are about to give out! But
don't be alarmed, dear Molly. There is no danger of a famine. For have
we not got wagon-loads of hard, dark hams, whose indurated hearts
nothing but the sharpest knife and the stoutest arm can penetrate? Have
we not got quintals of dreadful mackerel, fearfully crystallized in
black salt? Have we not barrels upon barrels of rusty pork, and flour
enough to victual a large army for the next two years? Yea, verily,
have we, and more also. For we have oysters in cans, preserved meats,
and sardines (apropos, I _detest_ them), by the hundred-boxful.

So, hush the trembling of that tender little heart, and shut those
tearful and alarmed eyes while I press a good-night kiss On their
drooping lids.




LETTER _the_ THIRTEENTH

[_The_ PIONEER, _March_, 1855]

SOCIABILITY _and_ EXCITEMENTS _of_ MINING-LIFE

SYNOPSIS


Departure Indian Bar of the mulatto Ned. His birthday-celebration
dinner, at which the New Year's piscatory phenomenon figures in the
bill of fare. A total disregard of dry laws at the dinner. Excitement
over reported discovery of quartz-mines. A complete humbug. Charges of
salting. Excitement renewed upon report of other new quartz-mines. Even
if rich, lack of proper machinery would render working thereof
impossible. Prediction that quartz-mines eventually will be the most
profitable. Miners decamp without paying their debts. Pursuit and
capture. Miners' court orders settlement in full. Celebration, by
French miners, of the Revolution of 1848. Invitation to dine at
best-built log cabin on the river. The habitation of five or six young
miners. A perfect marvel of a fireplace. Huge unsplit logs as firewood.
Window of glass jars. Possibilities in the use of empty glass
containers. Unthrift of some miners. The cabin, its furniture, store of
staple provisions, chinaware, cutlery. The dinner in the cabin. A cow
kept. Wonderful variety of makeshift candlesticks in use among the
miners. Dearth of butter, potatoes, onions, fresh meat, in camp.
Indian-summer weather at Indian Bar. A cozy retreat in the hills. A
present of feathered denizens of the mountains. Roasted for dinner.




Letter _the_ Thirteenth

SOCIABILITY _and_ EXCITEMENTS _of_ MINING-LIFE

_From our Log Cabin_, INDIAN BAR,

_February_ 27, 1852.


You will find this missive, dear M., a journal, rather than a letter;
for the few insignificant events which have taken place since I last
wrote to you will require but three lines apiece for their recital. But
stop; when I say "insignificant" I forget one all-important misfortune
which, for our sins I suppose, has befallen us, in the sudden departure
of our sable Paganini.

    Yes; Vattal Ned to the valley hath gone,
      In a Marysville kitchen you'll find him;
    Two rusty pistols he girded on,
      And his violin hung behind him.

His fiddle is heard no more on all the Bar, and silence reigns through
the calico halls of the Humboldt. His bland smile and his dainty plats,
his inimitably choice language and his pet tambourine, his woolly
corkscrew and his really beautiful music, have, I fear, vanished
forever from the mountains.

Just before he left he found a birthday which belonged to himself, and
was observed all the morning thereof standing about in spots, a perfect
picture of perplexity painted in burnt umber. Inquiry being made by
sympathizing friends as to the cause of his distress, he answered,
that, having no fresh meat, he could not prepare a dinner for the log
cabin, worthy of the occasion!

But no circumstance can put a man of genius entirely _hors de combat_.
Confine him in a dungeon, banish him to an uninhabited island, place
him, solitary and alone, in a boundless desert, deprive him of all but
life, and he will still achieve wonders. With the iron hams, the
piscatory phenomenon referred to in my last, and a can of really
excellent oysters, Ned's birthday dinner was a _chef-d'oeuvre_. He
accompanied it with a present of a bottle of very good champagne,
requesting us to drink it (which we _did_, not having the fear of
temperance societies or Maine-law liquor bills before our eyes) in
honor of his having dropped another year into the returnless past.

There has been a great excitement here on account of the fancied
discovery of valuable quartz-mines in the vicinity of the American
Rancho, which is situated about twenty miles from this place. Half the
people upon the river went out there for the purpose of prospecting and
staking claims. The quartz apparently paid admirably. Several companies
were speedily formed, and men sent to Hamilton, the county seat, to
record the various claims. F. himself went out there, and remained
several days. Now, however, the whole excitement has turned out to be a
complete humbug. The quicksilver which was procured at the rancho for
the testing of the quartz, the victims declare, was salted, and they
accuse the rancheros of conniving at the fraud for the purpose of
making money out of those who were compelled to lodge and board with
them while prospecting. The accused affirm that if there was any
deception (which, however, is beyond the shadow of a doubt), they also
were deceived; and as they appear like honest men enough, I am inclined
to believe them.

Just now there is a new quartz-mine excitement. A man has engaged to
lead a company to the golden and crystallized spot. Probably this also
will prove, like the other, a mere yellow bubble. But, even if as rich
as he says, it will be of little value at present, on account of the
want of suitable machinery, that now in use being so expensive and
wasting so much of the precious metal that it leaves the miner but
little profit. It is thought, however, by men of judgment that in a few
years, when the proper way of working them to advantage has been
discovered, the quartz-mines will be more profitable than any others in
California.

A few days ago we had another specimen of illegal, but in this case at
least extremely equitable, justice. Five men left the river without
paying their debts. A meeting of the miners was convened, and "Yank,"
who possesses an iron frame, the perseverance of a bulldog, and a
constitution which never knew fatigue, was appointed, with another
person, to go in search of the culprits and bring them back to Indian
Bar. He found them a few miles from this place, and returned with them
in triumph, and alone, his friend having been compelled to remain
behind on account of excessive fatigue. The self-constituted court,
after a fair trial, obliged the five men to settle all liabilities
before they again left the river.

Last week the Frenchmen on the river celebrated the Revolution of
February, 1848. What kind of a time they had during the day, I know
not, but in the evening (apropos, part of them reside at Missouri Bar)
they formed a torchlight procession and marched to Rich Bar, which, by
the way, takes airs upon itself, and considers itself a _town_. They
made quite a picturesque appearance as they wound up the hill, each one
carrying a tiny pine-tree, the top of which was encircled with a diadem
of flame, beautifully lighting up the darker verdure beneath, and
gleaming like a spectral crown through the moonless, misty evening. We
could not help laughing at their watchwords. They ran in this wise:
Shorge Washingtone, James K. Polk, Napoleon Bonaparte! Liberté,
égalité, fraternité! Andrew Jacksone, President Fillmore, and
Lafayette! I give them to you word for word, as I took them down at the
time.

Since the bridges have been swept away, I have been to Rich Bar but
once. It is necessary to go over the hill now, and the walk is a very
wearisome one. It is much more pleasant to live on the hills than on
the Bar, and during our walk we passed two or three cozy little cabins,
nestling in broad patches of sunlight, and surrounded with ample space
for a promenade, which made me quite envious. Unfortunately, F.'s
profession renders it desirable that he should reside where the largest
number of people congregate, and then the ascent to the habitable
portion of the hill is as steep as any part of that leading into Rich
Bar, and it would be impossible for him to walk up and down it several
times a day,--a task which he would be compelled to perform if we
resided there. For that reason I make myself as happy as possible where
I am.

I have been invited to dine at the best-built log cabin on the river.
It is situated on the hill of which I have just been writing, and is
owned by five or six intelligent, hard-working, sturdy young men. Of
course it has no floor, but it boasts a perfect marvel of a fireplace.
They never pretend to split the wood for it, but merely fall a giant
fir-tree, strip it of its branches, and cut it into pieces the length
of the aforesaid wonder. This cabin is lighted in a manner truly
ingenious. Three feet in length of a log on one side of the room is
removed and glass jars inserted in its place, the space around the
necks of said jars being filled in with clay. This novel idea is really
an excellent substitute for window-glass. You will perhaps wonder where
they procure enough of the material for such a purpose. They are
brought here in enormous quantities, containing brandied fruits, for
there is no possible luxury connected with drinking, which is
procurable in California, that cannot be found in the mines, and the
very men who fancy it a piece of wicked extravagance to _buy_ bread,
because they can save a few dimes by _making_ it themselves, are often
those who think nothing of spending from fifteen to twenty dollars a
night in the bar-rooms. There is at this moment a perfect
Pelion-upon-Ossa-like pile of beautiful glass jars, porter, ale,
champagne, and claret bottles, lying in front of my window. The latter
are a very convenient article for the manufacture of the most
enchantingly primitive lanterns. Any one in want of a utensil of this
kind has but to step to his cabin-door, take up a claret or champagne
bottle, knock off the bottom, and dropping into the neck thereof,
through the opening thus made, a candle, to have a most excellent
lantern. And the beauty of it is, that, every time you wish to use such
a thing, you can have a _new_ one.

But to return to my description of the cabin. It consists of one very
large room, in the back part of which are neatly stored several hundred
sacks of flour, a large quantity of potatoes, sundry kegs of butter,
and plenty of hams and mackerel. The furniture consists of substantial
wooden stools, and in these I observed that our friends followed the
fashion, no two of them being made alike. Some stood proudly forth in
all the grandeur of four legs, others affected the classic grace of the
ancient tripod, while a few shrank bashfully into corners on one
stubbed stump. Some round, some square, and some triangular in form.
Several were so high that, when enthroned upon them, the ends of my
toes just touched the ground, and others were so low that, on rising, I
carried away a large portion of the soil upon my unfortunate skirts.
Their bunks, as they call them, were arranged in two rows along one
side of the cabin, each neatly covered with a dark-blue or red blanket.
A handsome oilcloth was spread upon the table, and the service
consisted of tin plates, a pretty set of stone-china cups and saucers,
and some good knives and forks, which looked almost as bright as if
they had just come from the cutler's. For dinner we had boiled beef and
ham, broiled mackerel, potatoes, splendid new bread made by one of the
gentlemen of the house, coffee, milk (Mr. B. has bought a cow, and now
and then we get a wee drop of milk), and the most delicious Indian
meal, parched, that I ever tasted. I have been very particular in
describing this cabin, for it is the best-built and by far the
best-appointed one upon the river.

I have said nothing about candlesticks as yet. I must confess that in
_them_ the spice of life is carried almost too far. One gets satiated
with their wonderful variety. I will mention but two or three of these
makeshifts. Bottles, _without_ the bottoms knocked off, are general
favorites. Many, however, exhibit an insane admiration for match-boxes,
which, considering that they _will_ keep falling _all_ the time, and
leaving the entire house in darkness, and scattering spermaceti in
every direction, is rather an inconvenient taste. Some fancy blocks of
wood with an ornamental balustrade of three nails, and I _have_ seen
praiseworthy candles making desperate efforts to stand straight in
tumblers! Many of our friends, with a beautiful and sublime faith in
spermaceti and good luck, eschew everything of the kind, and you will
often find their tables picturesquely covered with splashes of the
former article, elegantly ornamented with little strips of black wick.

The sad forebodings mentioned in a former letter have come to pass. For
some weeks, with the exception of two or three families, every one upon
the river has been out of butter, onions, and potatoes. Our kind
friends upon the hill, who have a little remaining, sent me a few
pounds of the former the other day. Ham, mackerel, and bread, with
occasionally a treat of the precious butter, have been literally our
only food for a long time. The rancheros have not driven in any beef
for several weeks, and although it is so pleasant on the bars, the cold
on the mountains still continues so intense that the trail remained
impassable to mules.

The weather here for the past five weeks has been like the Indian
summer at home. Nearly every day I take a walk up onto the hill back of
our cabin. Nobody lives there, it is so very steep. I have a cozy
little seat in the fragrant bosom of some evergreen shrubs, where often
I remain for hours. It is almost like death to mount to my favorite
spot, the path is so steep and stony; but it is new life, when I arrive
there, to sit in the shadow of the pines and listen to the plaintive
wail of the wind as it surges through their musical leaves, and to gaze
down upon the tented Bar lying in somber gloom (for as yet the sun does
not shine upon it) and the foam-flaked river, and around at the awful
mountain splashed here and there with broad patches of snow, or
reverently upward into the stainless blue of our unmatchable sky.

This letter is much longer than I thought it would be when I commenced
it, and I believe that I have been as minutely particular as even you
can desire. I have mentioned everything that has happened since I last
wrote. Oh! I was very near forgetting a present of two ring-doves
(alas! they had been shot) and a blue jay which I received yesterday.
We had them roasted for dinner last evening. The former were very
beautiful, approaching in hue more nearly to a French gray than what is
generally called a dun color, with a perfect ring of ivory encircling
each pretty neck. The blue jay was exactly like its namesake in the
States.

Good by, my dear M., and remember that the _same_ sky, though not quite
so beautiful a portion of it, which smiles upon _me_ in sunny
California bends lovingly over _you_ in cold, dreary, but, in spite of
its harsh airs, beloved New England.




LETTER _the_ FOURTEENTH

[_The_ PIONEER, _April_, 1855]

SPRINGTIDE--LINGUISTICS--STORMS--ACCIDENTS

SYNOPSIS


The splendor of a March morning in the mountains of California. First
bird of the season. Blue and red shirted miners a feature of the
landscape. "Wanderers from the whole broad earth". The languages of
many nations heard. How the Americans attempt to converse with the
Spanish-speaking population. "Sabe," "vamos," "poco tiempo," "si," and
"bueno," a complete lexicon of la lengua castellana, in mind of
Americans. An "ugly disposition" manifested when the speaker is not
understood. Spaniards "ain't kinder like our folks," nor "folksy".
Mistakes not all on one side. Spanish proverb regarding certain
languages. Not complimentary to English. Stormy weather. Storm king a
perfect Proteus. River on a rampage. Sawmill carried away. Pastimes of
the miners during the storm. MS. account of storm sent in keg via river
to Marysville newspaper. Silversmith makes gold rings during storm.
Raffling and reraffling of same as pastime. Some natural gold rings.
Nugget in shape of eagle's head presented to author. Miners buried up
to neck in cave-in. Escape with but slight injury. Miner stabbed
without provocation in drunken frolic. Life despaired of at first. No
notice taken of affair.




Letter _the_ Fourteenth

SPRINGTIDE--LINGUISTICS--STORMS--ACCIDENTS

_From our Log Cabin_, INDIAN BAR,

_March_ 15, 1852.


This fifteenth day of March has risen upon us with all the primeval
splendor of the birth-morn of creation. The lovely river, having
resumed its crimson border (the so long idle miners being again busily
at work), glides by, laughing gayly, leaping and clapping its glad
waves joyfully in the golden sunlight. The feathery fringe of the
fir-trees glitters like emerald in the luster-bathing air. A hundred
tiny rivulets flash down from the brow of the mountains, as if some
mighty Titan, standing on the other side, had flung athwart their
greenness a chaplet of radiant pearls. Of the large quantities of snow
which have fallen within the past fortnight, a few patches of shining
whiteness, high up among the hills, alone remain, while, to finish the
picture, the lustrous heaven of California, looking farther off than
ever through the wonderfully transparent atmosphere, and for that very
reason infinitely more beautiful, bends over all the matchless blue of
its resplendent arch. Ah, the heaven of the Golden Land! To you, living
beneath the murky skies of New England, how unimaginably lovely it is.
A small poetess has said that _she_ could not love a scene where the
blue sky was _always_ blue. I think it is not so with me. I am sure I
never weary of the succession of rainless months, nor of the azure
dome, day after day so mistless, which bends above this favored
country.

Between each stroke of the pen I stop to glance at that splendor, whose
sameness never fails, but now a flock of ring-doves break for a moment
with dots of purple its monotonous beauty, and the carol of a tiny bird
(the first of the season), though I cannot see the darling, fills the
joyful air with its matin song.

All along the side of the hill behind the Bar, and on the latter also,
glance spots of azure and crimson, in the forms of blue and red shirted
miners bending steadily over pickax and shovel, reminding one
involuntarily of the muck-gatherer in The Pilgrim's Progress. But no;
that is an unjust association of ideas, for many of these men are
toiling thus wearily for laughing-lipped children, calm-browed wives,
or saintly mothers, gathering around the household hearth in some
far-away country. Even among the few now remaining on the river there
are wanderers from the whole broad earth, and, oh, what a world of
poetic recollection is suggested by their living presence! From
happiest homes and such luxuriant lands has the golden magnet drawn its
victims. From those palm-girdled isles of the Pacific, which Melville's
gifted pen has consecrated to such beautiful romance; from Indies,
blazing through the dim past with funeral pyres, upon whose perfumed
flame ascended to God the chaste souls of her devoted wives; from the
grand old woods of classic Greece, haunted by nymph and satyr, Naiad
and Grace, grape-crowned Bacchus and beauty-zoned Venus; from the
polished heart of artificial Europe; from the breezy backwoods of young
America; from the tropical languor of Asian savannah; from _every_ spot
shining through the rosy light of beloved old fables, or consecrated by
lofty deeds of heroism or devotion, or shrined in our heart of hearts
as the sacred home of some great or gifted one,--they gather to the
golden harvest.

You will hear in the same day, almost at the same time, the lofty
melody of the Spanish language, the piquant polish of the French
(which, though not a _musical_ tongue, is the most _useful_ of them
all), the silver, changing clearness of the Italian, the harsh gangle
of the German, the hissing precision of the English, the liquid
sweetness of the Kanaka, and the sleep-inspiring languor of the East
Indian. To complete the catalogue, there is the _native_ Indian, with
his guttural vocabulary of twenty words! When I hear these sounds, so
strangely different, and look at the speakers, I fancy them a living
polyglot of the languages, a perambulating picture-gallery illustrative
of national variety in form and feature.

By the way, speaking of languages, nothing is more amusing than to
observe the different styles in which the generality of Americans talk
_at_ the unfortunate Spaniard. In the first place, many of them really
believe that when they have learned _sabe_ and _vamos_ (two words which
they seldom use in the right place), _poco tiempo_, _si_, and _bueno_
(the last they _will_ persist in pronouncing _whayno_), they have the
whole of the glorious Castilian at their tongue's end. Some, however,
eschew the above words entirely, and innocently fancy that by splitting
the tympanum of an unhappy foreigner in screaming forth their sentences
in good solid English they can be surely understood; others, at the
imminent risk of dislocating their own limbs, and the jaws of their
listeners by the laughs which their efforts elicit, make the most
excruciatingly grotesque gestures, and think that _that_ is speaking
Spanish. The majority, however, place a most beautiful and touching
faith in _broken English_, and when they murder it with the few words
of Castilian quoted above, are firmly convinced that it is nothing but
their "ugly dispositions" which make the Spaniards pretend not to
understand them.

One of those dear, stupid Yankees who _will_ now and then venture out
of sight of the smoke of their own chimneys as far as California, was
relating _his_ experience in this particular the other day. It seems he
had lost a horse somewhere among the hills, and during his search for
it met a gentlemanly Chileño, who with national suavity made the most
desperate efforts to understand the questions put to him. Of course
Chileño was so stupid that he did not succeed, for it is not possible
one of the Great American People could fail to express himself clearly
even in Hebrew if he takes it into his cute head to speak that ancient
but highly respectable language. Our Yankee friend, however, would not
allow the poor fellow even the excuse of stupidity, but declared that
he only "played possum from sheer _ugliness_." "Why," he added, in
relating the circumstance, "the cross old rascal pretended not to
understand his own language, though I said as plainly as possible,
'Señor, sabe mi horso vamos poco tiempo?' which, perhaps you don't
know," he proceeded to say, in a benevolent desire to enlighten our
ignorance and teach us a little Castilian, "means, 'Sir, I have lost my
horse; have you seen it?'" I am ashamed to acknowledge that we did
_not_ know the above-written Anglo-Spanish meant _that_! The honest
fellow concluded his story by declaring (and it is a common remark with
uneducated Americans) with a most self-glorifying air of _pity_ for the
poor Spaniards, "They ain't kinder like _eour_ folks," or, as that
universal Aunt Somebody used so expressively to observe, "Somehow, they
ain't _folksy_!"

The mistakes made on the other side are often quite as amusing. Dr.
Cañas related to us a laughable anecdote of a countryman of his, with
whom he happened to camp on his first arrival in San Francisco. None of
the party could speak a word of English, and the person referred to, as
ignorant as the rest, went out to purchase bread, which he procured by
laying down some money and pointing to a loaf of that necessary edible.
He probably heard a person use the words "some bread," for he rushed
home, Cañas said, in a perfect burst of newly acquired wisdom, and
informed his friends that he had found out the English for "pan," and
that when they wished any of that article they need but enter a
bakeshop and utter the word "sombrero" in order to obtain it! His
hearers were delighted to know _that_ much of the _infernal lengua_,
greatly marveling, however, that the same word which meant "hat" in
Castilian should mean "bread" in English. The Spaniards have a saying
to the following effect: "Children speak in Italian, ladies speak in
French, God speaks in Spanish, and the Devil speaks in English."

I commenced this letter with the intention of telling you about the
weary, weary storm, which has not only thrown a damp over our spirits,
but has saturated them, as it has everything else, with a deluge of
moisture. The storm king commenced his reign (or rain) on the 28th of
February, and proved himself a perfect Proteus during his residence
with us. For one entire week he descended daily and nightly, without an
hour's cessation, in a forty Niagara-power of water, and just as we
were getting reconciled to this wet state of affairs, and were thinking
seriously of learning to swim, one gloomy evening, when we least
expected such a change, he stole softly down and garlanded us in a
wreath of shiny snowflakes, and lo! the next morning you would have
thought that some great white bird had shed its glittering feathers all
over rock, tree, hill, and bar. He finished his vagaries by loosening,
rattling, and crashing upon this devoted spot a small skyful of
hailstones, which, aided by a terrific wind, waged terrible warfare
against the frail tents and the calico-shirt huts, and made even the
shingles on the roofs of the log cabins tremble amid their nails.

The river, usually so bland and smiling, looked really terrific. It
rose to an unexampled height, and tore along its way, a perfect mass of
dark-foamed turbid waves. At one time we had serious fears that the
water would cover the whole Bar, for it approached within two or three
feet of the Humboldt. A sawmill, which had been built at a great
expense by two gentlemen of Rich Bar in order to be ready for the
sawing of lumber for the extensive fluming operations which are in
contemplation this season, was entirely swept away, nearly ruining, it
is said, the owners. I heard a great shout early one morning, and,
running to the window, had the sorrow to see wheels, planks, etc.,
sailing merrily down the river. All along the banks of the stream, men
were trying to save the more valuable portions of the mill, but the
torrent was so furious that it was utterly impossible to rescue a
plank. How the haughty river seemed to laugh to scorn the feeble
efforts of man! How its mad waves tossed in wild derision the costly
workmanship of his skillful hands! But know, proud Río de las Plumas,
that these very men whose futile efforts you fancy that you have for
once so gloriously defeated will gather from beneath your lowest depths
the beautiful ore which you thought you had hidden forever and forever
beneath your azure beauty!

It is certainly most amusing to hear of the different plans which the
poor miners invented to pass the time during the trying season of
rains. Of course, poker and euchre, whist and ninepins, to say nothing
of monte and faro, are now in constant requisition. But as a person
would starve to death on _toujours des perdrix_, so a man cannot
_always_ be playing cards. Some _literary_ bipeds, I have been told,
reduced to the last degree of intellectual destitution, in a beautiful
spirit of self-martyrdom betook themselves to blue blankets, bunks, and
Ned Buntline's novels. And one day an unhappy youth went pen-mad, and
in a melancholy fit of authorship wrote a thrilling account of our
dreadful situation, which, directed to the editor of a Marysville
paper, was sealed up in a keg and set adrift, and is at this moment, no
doubt, stranded, high and dry, in the streets of Sacramento, for it is
generally believed that the cities of the plain have been under water
during the storm. The chief amusement, however, has been the raffling
of gold rings. There is a silversmith here, who, like the rest of the
miserable inhabitants, having nothing to do, discovered that he could
make gold rings. Of course every person must have a specimen of his
workmanship, and the next thing was to raffle it off, the winner
generally repeating the operation. Nothing was done or talked of for
some days but this important business.

I have one of these rings, which is really very beautifully finished,
and although perhaps at home it would look vulgar, there is a sort of
massive and barbaric grandeur about it which seems well suited to our
wild life of the hills. I shall send you one of these, which will be to
you a curiosity, and will doubtless look strangely enough amid the
graceful and airy politeness of French jewelry. But I think that it
will be interesting to you, as having been manufactured in the mines by
an inexperienced workman, and without the necessary tools. If it is too
hideous to be worn upon your slender little finger, you can have it
engraved for a seal, and attach it as a charm to your watch-chain.

Last evening Mr. C. showed us a specimen ring which he had just
finished. It is the handsomest _natural_ specimen that I ever saw. Pure
gold is generally dull in hue, but this is of a most beautiful shade of
yellow, and extremely brilliant. It is, in shape and size, exactly like
the flower of the jonquil. In the center is inserted, with all the nice
finish of art (or rather of nature, for it is her work), a polished
piece of quartz, of the purest shade of pink, and between each radiant
petal is set a tiny crystal of colorless quartz, every one of which
flashes like a real diamond. It is known beyond doubt to be a real live
specimen, as many saw it when it was first taken from the earth, and
the owner has carried it carelessly in his pocket for months. We would
gladly have given fifty dollars for it, though its nominal value is
only about an ounce, but it is already promised as a present to a
gentleman in Marysville. Although rather a clumsy ring, it would make
a most unique brooch, and indeed is almost the _only_ piece of
unmanufactured ore which I have ever seen that I would be willing to
wear. I have a piece of gold which, without any alteration, except, of
course, engraving, will make a beautiful seal. It is in the shape of an
eagle's head, and is wonderfully perfect. It was picked up from the
surface of the ground by a gentleman on his first arrival here, and he
said that he would give it to the next lady to whom he should be
introduced. He carried it in his purse for more than a year, when, in
obedience to the promise made when he found it, it became the property
of your humble servant, Shirley.

The other day a hole caved in, burying up to the neck two unfortunates
who were in it at the time. Luckily, they were but slightly injured. F.
is at present attending a man at The Junction, who was stabbed very
severely in the back during a drunken frolic. The people have not taken
the slightest notice of this affair, although for some days the life of
the wounded man was despaired of. The perpetrator of the deed had not
the slightest provocation from his unfortunate victim.




LETTER _the_ FIFTEENTH

[_The_ PIONEER, _May_, 1855]

MINING METHODS--MINERS, GAMBLERS, ETC.

SYNOPSIS


Difficulty experienced in writing amid the charms of California
mountain scenery. Science the blindest guide on a gold-hunting
expedition. Irreverent contempt of the beautiful mineral to the
dictates of science. Nothing better to be expected from the root of all
evil. Foreigners more successful than Americans in its pursuit.
Americans always longing for big strikes. Success lies in staying and
persevering. How a camp springs into existence. Prospecting, panning
out, and discovery that it pays. The claim. Building the shanty.
Spreading of news of new diggings. Arrival of the monte-dealers.
Industrious begin digging for gold. The claiming system. How claims
worked. Working difficult amidst huge mountain rocks. Partnerships then
compulsory. Naming the mine or company. The long-tom. Panning out the
gold. Sinking shaft to reach bed-rock. Drifting coyote-holes in search
of crevices. Water-ditches and water companies. Washing out in
long-tom. Waste-ditches. Tailings. Fluming companies. Rockers.
Gold-mining is nature's great lottery scheme. Thousands taken out in a
few hours. Six ounces in six months. "Almost all seem to have lost".
Jumped claims. Caving in of excavations. Abandonment of expensive
paying shafts. Miner making "big strike" almost sure prey of
professional gamblers. As spring opens, gamblers flock in like birds of
prey. After stay of only four days, gambler leaves Bar with over a
thousand dollars of miners' gold. As many foreigners as Americans on
the river. Foreigners generally extremely ignorant and degraded. Some
Spaniards of the highest eduction and accomplishment. Majority of
Americans mechanics of better class. Sailors and farmers next in
number. A few merchants and steamboat-clerks. A few physicians. One
lawyer. Ranchero of distinguished appearance an accomplished
monte-dealer and horse-jockey. Said to have been a preacher in the
States. Such not uncommon for California.




Letter _the_ Fifteenth

MINING METHODS--MINERS, GAMBLERS, ETC.

_From our Log Cabin_, INDIAN BAR,

_April_ 10, 1852.


I have been haunted all day, my dear M., with an intense ambition to
write you a letter which shall be dreadfully commonplace and severely
utilitarian in its style and contents. Not but that my epistles are
_always_ commonplace enough (spirits of Montague and Sévigné, forgive
me!), but hitherto I have not really _tried_ to make them so. Now,
however, I _intend_ to be stupidly prosy, with malice aforethought, and
without one mitigating circumstance, except, perchance, it be the
temptations of that above-mentioned ambitious little devil to palliate
my crime.

You would certainly wonder, were you seated where I now am, how any one
with a quarter of a soul _could_ manufacture herself into a bore amid
such surroundings as these. The air is as balmy as that of a
midsummer's day in the sunniest valleys of New England. It is four
o'clock in the evening, and I am sitting on a cigar-box outside of our
cabin. From this spot not a person is to be seen, except a man who is
building a new wing to the Humboldt. Not a human sound, but a slight
noise made by the aforesaid individual in tacking on a roof of blue
drilling to the room which he is finishing, disturbs the stillness
which fills this purest air. I confess that it is difficult to fix my
eyes upon the dull paper, and my fingers upon the duller pen with which
I am soiling it. Almost every other minute I find myself stopping to
listen to the ceaseless river-psalm, or to gaze up into the wondrous
depths of the California heaven; to watch the graceful movements of the
pretty brown lizards jerking up their impudent little heads above a
moss-wrought log which lies before me, or to mark the dancing
water-shadow on the canvas door of the bakeshop opposite; to follow
with childish eyes the flight of a golden butterfly, curious to know if
it will crown with a capital of winged beauty that column of nature's
carving, the pine stump rising at my feet, or whether it will flutter
down (for it is dallying coquettishly around them both) upon that
slate-rock beyond, shining so darkly lustrous through a flood of yellow
sunlight; or I lazily turn my head, wondering if I know the blue or red
shirted miner who is descending the precipitous hill behind me. In
sooth, Molly, it is easy to be commonplace at all times, but I confess
that, just at present, I find it difficult to be utilitarian; the saucy
lizards, the great orange-dotted butterflies, the still, solemn cedars,
the sailing smoke-wreath, and the vaulted splendor above, are wooing me
so winningly to higher things.

But, as I said before, I have an ambition that way, and I _will_
succeed. You are such a good-natured little thing, dear, that I know
you will meekly allow yourself to be victimized into reading the
profound and prosy remarks which I shall make in my efforts to initiate
you into the mining polity of this place. Now, you may rest assured
that I shall assert nothing upon the subject which is not perfectly
correct; for have I not earned a character for inquisitiveness (and you
know that does _not_ happen to be one of my failings) which I fear will
cling to me through life, by my persevering questions to all the
unhappy miners from whom I thought I could gain any information? Did I
not martyrize myself into a human mule by descending to the bottom of a
dreadful pit (suffering mortal terror all the time, lest it should cave
in upon me), actuated by a virtuous desire to see with my own two eyes
the process of underground mining, thus enabling myself to be stupidly
correct in all my statements thereupon? Did I not ruin a pair of
silk-velvet slippers, lame my ankles for a week, and draw a "browner
horror" over my already sunburnt face, in a wearisome walk, miles away,
to the head of the ditch, as they call the prettiest little rivulet
(though the work of men) that I ever saw? Yea, verily, this have I done
for the express edification of yourself and the rest of your curious
tribe, to be rewarded, probably, by the impertinent remark, "What!
_does_ that little goose Dame Shirley think that _I_ care about such
things?" But, madam, in spite of your sneer, I shall proceed in my
allotted task.

In the first place, then, as to the discovery of gold. In California,
at least, it must be confessed that, in this particular, science
appears to be completely at fault, or as an intelligent and
well-educated miner remarked to us the other day, "I maintain that
science is the blindest guide that one could have on a gold-finding
expedition. Those men who judge by the appearance of the soil, and
depend upon geological calculations, are invariably disappointed, while
the ignorant adventurer, who digs just for the sake of digging, is
almost sure to be successful." I suppose that the above observation is
quite correct, as all whom we have questioned upon the subject repeat,
in substance, the same thing. Wherever geology has said that gold
_must_ be, there, perversely enough, it lies not; and wherever her
ladyship has declared that it could _not_ be, there has it oftenest
garnered up in miraculous profusion the yellow splendor of its virgin
beauty. It is certainly very painful to a well-regulated mind to see
the irreverent contempt shown by this beautiful mineral to the dictates
of science. But what better can one expect from the root of all evil?
As well as can be ascertained, the most lucky of the mining Columbuses
have been ignorant sailors, and foreigners, I fancy, are more
successful than Americans.

Our countrymen are the most discontented of mortals. They are always
longing for big strikes. If a claim is paying them a steady income, by
which, if they pleased, they could lay up more in a month than they
could in a year at home, still they are dissatisfied, and in most cases
will wander off in search of better diggings. There are hundreds now
pursuing this foolish course, who, if they had stopped where they first
camped, would now have been rich men. Sometimes a company of these
wanderers will find itself upon a bar where a few pieces of the
precious metal lie scattered upon the surface of the ground. Of course
they immediately prospect it, which is accomplished by panning out a
few basinfuls of the soil. If it pays, they claim the spot and build
their shanties. The news spreads that wonderful diggings have been
discovered at such a place. The monte-dealers--those worse than
fiends--rush, vulture-like, upon the scene and erect a round tent,
where, in gambling, drinking, swearing, and fighting, the _many_
reproduce pandemonium in more than its original horror, while a _few_
honestly and industriously commence digging for gold, and lo! as if a
fairy's wand had been waved above the bar, a full-grown mining town
hath sprung into existence.

But, first, let me explain to you the claiming system. As there are no
state laws upon the subject, each mining community is permitted to make
its own. Here they have decided that no man may claim an area of more
than forty feet square. This he stakes off, and puts a notice upon it,
to the effect that he holds it for mining purposes. If he does not
choose to work it immediately, he is obliged to renew the notice every
ten days, for, without this precaution, any other person has a right to
"jump" it, that is, to take it from him. There are many ways of evading
the above law. For instance, an individual can hold as many claims as
he pleases if he keeps a man at work in each, for this workman
represents the original owner. I am told, however, that the laborer
himself can jump the claim of the very man who employs him, if he
pleases so to do. This is seldom, if ever, done. The person who is
willing to be hired generally prefers to receive the six dollars per
diem, of which he is _sure_ in any case, to running the risk of a claim
not proving valuable. After all, the holding of claims by proxy is
considered rather as a carrying out of the spirit of the law than as an
evasion of it. But there are many ways of _really_ outwitting this
rule, though I cannot stop now to relate them, which give rise to
innumerable arbitrations, and nearly every Sunday there is a miners'
meeting connected with this subject.

Having got our gold-mines discovered and claimed, I will try to give
you a faint idea of how they work them. Here, in the mountains, the
labor of excavation is extremely difficult, on account of the immense
rocks which form a large portion of the soil. Of course no man can work
out a claim alone. For that reason, and also for the same that makes
partnerships desirable, they congregate in companies of four or six,
generally designating themselves by the name of the place from whence
the majority of the members have emigrated; as, for example, the
Illinois, Bunker Hill, Bay State, etc., companies. In many places the
surface soil, or in mining phrase, the top dirt, pays when worked in a
long-tom. This machine (I have never been able to discover the
derivation of its name) is a trough, generally about twenty feet in
length and eight inches in depth, formed of wood, with the exception of
six feet at one end, called the "riddle" (query, why "riddle"?), which
is made of sheet-iron perforated with holes about the size of a large
marble. Underneath this colander-like portion of the long-tom is placed
another trough, about ten feet long, the sides six inches, perhaps, in
height, which, divided through the middle by a slender slat, is called
the riffle-box. It takes several persons to manage properly a long-tom.
Three or four men station themselves with spades at the head of the
machine, while at the foot of it stands an individual armed "wid de
shovel an' de hoe." The spadesmen throw in large quantities of the
precious dirt, which is washed down to the riddle by a stream of water
leading into the long-tom through wooden gutters or sluices. When the
soil reaches the riddle, it is kept constantly in motion by the man
with the hoe. Of course, by this means, all the dirt and gold escapes
through the perforations into the riffle-box below, one compartment of
which is placed just beyond the riddle. Most of the dirt washes over
the sides of the riffle-box, but the gold, being so astonishingly
heavy, remains safely at the bottom of it. When the machine gets too
full of stones to be worked easily, the man whose business it is to
attend to them throws them out with his shovel, looking carefully among
them as he does so for any pieces of gold which may have been too large
to pass through the holes of the riddle. I am sorry to say that he
generally loses his labor. At night they pan out the gold which has
been collected in the riffle-box during the day. 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 river is supposed to have formerly flowed over this bed-rock, in
the crevices of which it left, as it passed away, the largest portions
of the so eagerly sought for ore. The group of mountains amidst which
we are living is a spur of the Sierra Nevada, and the bed-rock, which
in this vicinity is of slate, is said to run through the entire range,
lying, in distance varying from a few feet to eighty or ninety, beneath
the surface of the soil. On Indian Bar the bed-rock falls in almost
perpendicular benches, while at Rich Bar the friction of the river has
formed it into large, deep basins, in which the gold, instead of being
found, as you would naturally suppose, in the bottom of it, lies, for
the most part, just below the rim. A good-natured individual bored
_me_, and tired _himself_, in a hopeless attempt to make me comprehend
that this was only a necessary consequence of the undercurrent of the
water, but with my usual stupidity upon such matters I got but a vague
idea from his scientific explanation, and certainly shall not mystify
_you_ with my confused notions thereupon.

When a company wish to reach the bed-rock as quickly as possible, they
sink a shaft (which is nothing more nor less than digging a well) until
they "strike it." They then commence drifting coyote-holes, as they
call them, in search of crevices, which, as I told you before, often
pay immensely. These coyote-holes sometimes extend hundreds of feet
into the side of the hill. Of course they are obliged to use lights in
working them. They generally proceed until the air is so impure as to
extinguish the lights, when they return to the entrance of the
excavation and commence another, perhaps close to it. When they think
that a coyote-hole has been faithfully worked, they clean it up, which
is done by scraping the surface of the bed-rock with a knife, lest by
chance they have overlooked a crevice, and they are often richly
rewarded for this precaution.

Now I must tell you how those having claims on the hills procure the
water for washing them. The expense of raising it in any way from the
river is too enormous to be thought of for a moment. In most cases it
is brought from ravines in the mountains. A company, to which a friend
of ours belongs, has dug a ditch about a foot in width and depth, and
more than three miles in length, which is fed in this way. I wish that
you could see this ditch. I never beheld a _natural_ streamlet more
exquisitely beautiful. It undulates over the mossy roots and the gray
old rocks like a capricious snake, singing all the time a low song with
the "liquidest murmur," and one might almost fancy it the airy and
coquettish Undine herself. When it reaches the top of the hill, the
sparkling thing is divided into five or six branches, each one of which
supplies one, two, or three long-toms. There is an extra one, called
the waste-ditch, leading to the river, into which the water is shut off
at night and on Sundays. This race (another and peculiar name for it)
has already cost the company more than five thousand dollars. They sell
the water to others at the following rates. Those that have the first
use of it pay ten per cent upon all the gold that they take out. As the
water runs off from their machine (it now goes by the elegant name of
"tailings"), it is taken by a company lower down, and as it is not
worth so much as when it was clear, the latter pay but seven per cent.
If any others wish the tailings, now still less valuable than at first,
they pay four per cent on all the gold which they take out, be it much
or little. The water companies are constantly in trouble, and the
arbitrations on that subject are very frequent.

I think that I gave you a vague idea of fluming in a former letter. I
will not, therefore, repeat it here, but will merely mention that the
numerous fluming companies have already commenced their extensive
operations upon the river.

As to the rockers, so often mentioned in story and in song, I have not
spoken of them since I commenced this letter. The truth is, that I have
seldom seen them used, though hundreds are lying ownerless along the
banks of the river. I suppose that other machines are better adapted to
mining operations in the mountains.

Gold-mining is nature's great lottery scheme. A man may work in a claim
for many months, and be poorer at the end of the time than when he
commenced, or he may take out thousands in a few hours. It is a mere
matter of chance. A friend of ours, a young Spanish surgeon from
Guatemala, a person of intelligence and education, told us that after
working a claim for six months he had taken out but six ounces.

It must be acknowledged, however, that if a person work his claim
himself, is economical and industrious, keeps his health, and is
satisfied with small gains, he is bound to make money. And yet I cannot
help remarking that almost all with whom we are acquainted seem to have
_lost_. Some have had their claims jumped. Many holes, which had been
excavated and prepared for working at a great expense, caved in during
the heavy rains of the fall and winter. Often, after a company has
spent an immense deal of time and money in sinking a shaft, the water
from the springs (the greatest obstacle which the miner has to contend
with in this vicinity) rushes in so fast that it is impossible to work
in them, or to contrive any machinery to keep it out, and for that
reason, only, men have been compelled to abandon places where they were
at the very time taking out hundreds of dollars a day. If a fortunate
or an unfortunate (which shall I call him?) _does_ happen to make a big
strike, he is almost sure to fall into the hands of the professed
gamblers, who soon relieve him of all care of it. They have not
troubled the Bar much during the winter, but as the spring opens they
flock in like ominous birds of prey. Last week one left here, after a
stay of four days, with over a thousand dollars of the hard-earned gold
of the miners. But enough of these best-beloved of Beelzebub, so
infinitely worse than the robber or murderer; for surely, it would be
kinder to take a man's life than to poison him with the fatal passion
for gambling.

Perhaps you would like to know what class of men is most numerous in
the mines. As well as I can judge, there are upon this river as many
foreigners as Americans. The former, with a few exceptions, are
extremely ignorant and degraded, though we have the pleasure of being
acquainted with three or four Spaniards of the highest education and
accomplishments. Of the Americans, the majority are of the better class
of mechanics. Next to these, in number, are the sailors and the
farmers. There are a few merchants and steamboat-clerks, three or four
physicians, and one lawyer. We have no ministers, though fourteen miles
from here there is a rancho kept by a man of distinguished appearance,
an accomplished monte-dealer and horse-jockey, who is _said_ to have
been, in the States, a preacher of the Gospel. I know not if this be
true, but, at any rate, such things are not uncommon in California.

I have spun this letter out until my head aches dreadfully. How
tiresome it is to write _sensible_(?) things! But I have one comfort:
though my epistle may not be interesting, you will not deny, my dear
M., that I have achieved my ambition of making it both commonplace and
utilitarian.




LETTER _the_ SIXTEENTH

[_The_ PIONEER, _June_, 1855]

BIRTH--STABBING--FOREIGNERS OUSTED--REVELS

SYNOPSIS


California mountain flora. A youthful Kanaka mother. Her feat of
pedestrianism. Stabbing of a Spaniard by an American. The result of a
request to pay a debt. Nothing done and but little said about the
atrocity. Foreigners barred from working at Rich Bar. Spaniards
thereupon move to Indian Bar. They erect places for the sale of
intoxicants. Many new houses for public entertainment at Indian Bar.
Sunday "swearing, drinking, gambling, and fighting". Salubrity of the
climate. No death for months, except by accidental drowning in
floodwater. Capture of grizzly cubs. "The oddest possible pets". "An
echo from the outside world once a month."




Letter _the_ Sixteenth

BIRTH--STABBING--FOREIGNERS OUSTED--REVELS

_From our Log Cabin_, INDIAN BAR,

_May_ 1, 1852.


You have no idea, my good little M., how reluctantly I have seated
myself to write to you. The truth is, that my last tedious letter about
mining and other tiresome things has completely exhausted my scribbling
powers, and from that hour to this the epistolary spirit has never
moved me forward. Whether on that important occasion my small brain
received a shock from which it will never recover, or whether it is
pure physical laziness which influenced me, I know not; but this is
certain, that no whipped schoolboy ever crept to his hated task more
unwillingly than I to my writing-desk on this beautiful morning.
Perhaps my indisposition to soil paper in your behalf is caused by the
bewildering scent of that great, glorious bouquet of flowers which,
gathered in the crisp mountain air, is throwing off cloud after cloud
("each cloud _faint_ with the fragrance it bears") of languid
sweetness, filling the dark old room with incense and making of it a
temple of beauty, like those pure angelic souls which, irradiating a
plain countenance, often render it more lovely than the chiseled finish
of the most perfect features.

O Molly! how I wish that I could send you this jar of flowers,
containing, as it does, many which, in New England, are rare exotics.
Here you will find in richest profusion the fine-lady elegance of the
syringa; there, glorious white lilies, so pure and stately; the
delicate yet robust beauty of the exquisite privet; irises of every hue
and size; and, prettiest of all, a sweet snow-tinted flower, looking
like immense clusters of seed-pearl, which the Spaniards call "libla."
But the marvel of the group is an orange-colored blossom, of a most
rare and singular fragrance, growing somewhat in the style of the flox.
This, with some branches of pink bloom of incomparable sweetness, is
entirely new to me. Since I have commenced writing, one of the Doctor's
patients has brought me a bunch of wild roses. Oh, how vividly, at the
sight of them, started up before me those wooded valleys of the
Connecticut, with their wondrous depths of foliage, which, for a few
weeks in midsummer, are perhaps unsurpassed in beauty by any in the
world. I have arranged the dear _home_ blossoms with a handful of
flowers which were given to me this morning by an unknown Spaniard.
They are shaped like an anemone, of the opaque whiteness of the
magnolia, with a large spot of glittering blackness at the bottom of
each petal. But enough of our mountain earth-stars. It would take me
all day to describe their infinite variety.

Nothing of importance has happened since I last wrote, except that the
Kanaka wife of a man living at The Junction has made him the happy
father of a son and heir. They say that she is quite a pretty little
woman, only fifteen years old, and walked all the way from Sacramento
to this place.

A few evenings ago a Spaniard was stabbed by an American. It seems that
the presumptuous foreigner had the impertinence to ask very humbly and
meekly that most noble representative of the Stars and Stripes if the
latter would pay him a few dollars which he had owed him for some time.
His high mightiness the Yankee was not going to put up with any such
impertinence, and the poor Spaniard received for answer several inches
of cold steel in his breast, which inflicted a very dangerous wound.
Nothing was done and very little was said about this atrocious affair.

At Rich Bar they have passed a set of resolutions for the guidance of
the inhabitants during the summer, one of which is to the effect that
no foreigner shall work in the mines on that bar. This has caused
nearly all the Spaniards to immigrate upon Indian Bar, and several new
houses for the sale of liquor, etc., are building by these people. It
seems to me that the above law is selfish, cruel, and narrow-minded in
the extreme.

When I came here the Humboldt was the only public house on the Bar. Now
there are the Oriental, Golden Gate, Don Juan, and four or five others,
the names of which I do not know. On Sundays the swearing, drinking,
gambling, and fighting which are carried on in some of these houses are
truly horrible.

It is extremely healthy here. With the exception of two or three men
who were drowned when the river was so high, I have not heard of a
death for months.

Nothing worth wasting ink upon has occurred for some time, except the
capture of two grizzly-bear cubs by the immortal Yank. He shot the
mother, but she fell over the side of a steep hill and he lost her.
Yank intends to tame one of the cubs. The other he sold, I believe for
fifty dollars. They are certainly the funniest-looking things that I
ever saw, and the oddest possible pets. By the way, we receive an echo
from the outer world once a month, and the expressman never fails to
bring three letters from my dear M. wherewith to gladden the heart of
her sister, Dame Shirley.




LETTER _the_ SEVENTEENTH

[_The_ PIONEER, _June_, 1855]

SUPPLIES _by_ PACK-MULES--KANAKAS _and_ INDIANS

SYNOPSIS


Belated arrival of pack-mule train with much-needed supplies.
Picturesque appearance of the dainty-footed mules descending the hills.
Of every possible color. Gay trappings. Tinkling bells. Peculiar urging
cry of the Spanish muleteers. Lavish expenditure of gold-dust for
vegetables and butter. Potatoes forty cents a pound. Incense of the
pungent member of the lily family. Arrival of other storm-bound trains,
and sudden collapse in prices. Horseback ride on dangerous trail. Fall
of oxen over precipice. Mountain flowers, oaks, and rivulets. Visit to
Kanaka mother. A beauty from the isles. Hawaiian superstition. An
unfortunate request for the baby as a present. Consolatory promise to
give the next one. Indian visitors. Head-dresses. "Very tight and very
short shirts". Indian mode of life. Their huts, food, cooking,
utensils, manner of eating. Sabine-like invasion leaves to tribe but a
few old squaws. "Startlingly unsophisticated state of almost entire
nudity". Their filthy habits. Papooses fastened in framework of light
wood. Indian modes of fishing. A handsome but shy young buck. Classic
gracefulness of folds of white-sheet robe of Indian. Light and airy
step of the Indians something superhuman. Miserably brutish and
degraded. Their vocabulary Of about twenty words. Their love of
gambling, and its frightful consequences. Arrival of hundreds of people
at Indian Bar. Saloons springing up in every direction. Fluming
operations rapidly progressing. A busy, prosperous summer looked for.




Letter _the_ Seventeenth

SUPPLIES _by_ PACK-MULES--KANAKAS _and_ INDIANS

_From our Log Cabin_, INDIAN BAR,

_May_ 25, 1852.


The very day after I last wrote you, dear M., a troop of mules came
onto the Bar, bringing us almost-forgotten luxuries, in the form of
potatoes, onions, and butter. A band of these animals is always a
pretty sight, and you can imagine that the solemn fact of our having
been destitute of the above-mentioned edibles since the middle of
February did not detract from the pleasure with which we saw them
winding cautiously down the hill, stepping daintily here and there with
those absurd little feet of theirs, and appearing so extremely anxious
for the safe conveyance of their loads. They belonged to a Spanish
packer, were in excellent condition, sleek and fat as so many kittens,
and of every possible color,--black, white, gray, sorrel, cream, brown,
etc. Almost all of them had some bit of red or blue or yellow about
their trappings, which added not a little to the brilliancy of their
appearance; while the gay tinkle of the leader's bell, mingling with
those shrill and peculiar exclamations with which Spanish muleteers are
in the habit of urging on their animals, made a not unpleasing medley
of sounds. But the creamiest part of the whole affair was--I must
confess it, unromantic as it may seem--when the twenty-five or thirty
pretty creatures were collected into the small space between our cabin
and the Humboldt. Such a gathering together of ham-and-mackerel-fed
bipeds, such a lavish display of gold-dust, such troops of
happy-looking men bending beneath the delicious weight of butter and
potatoes, and, above all, _such_ a smell of fried onions as
instantaneously rose upon the fragrant California air and ascended
gratefully into the blue California heaven was, I think, never
experienced before.

On the 1st of May a train had arrived at Rich Bar, and on the morning
of the day which I have been describing to you one of our friends arose
some three hours earlier than usual, went over to the aforesaid bar,
bought twenty-five pounds of potatoes at forty cents a pound, and
packed them home on his back. In less than two days afterwards half a
dozen cargoes had arrived, and the same vegetable was selling at a
shilling a pound. The trains had been on the road several weeks, but
the heavy showers, which had continued almost daily through the month
of April, had retarded their arrival.

Last week I rode on horseback to a beautiful bar called The Junction,
so named from the fact that at that point the East Branch of the North
Fork of Feather River unites itself with the main North Fork. The
mule-trail, which lies along the verge of a dreadful precipice, is
three or four miles long, while the footpath leading by the river is
not more than two miles in length. The latter is impassable, on account
of the log bridges having been swept away by the recent freshets. The
other day two oxen lost their footing and fell over the precipice, and
it is the general opinion that they were killed long before they
reached the golden palace of the Plumerian Thetis. I was a little
alarmed at first, for fear my horse would stumble, in which case I
should have shared the fate of the unhappy beeves, but soon forgot all
fear in the enchanting display of flowers which each opening in the
shrubs displayed to me. Earth's firmament was starred with daphnes,
irises, and violets of every hue and size; pale wood-anemones, with but
one faint sigh of fragrance as they expired, died by hundreds beneath
my horse's tread; and spotted tiger-lilies, with their stately heads
all bedizened in orange and black, marshaled along the path like an
army of gayly clad warriors. But the flowers are not all of an oriental
character. Do you remember, Molly dear, how you and I once quarreled
when we were, oh, such mites of children, about a sprig of syringa? The
dear mother was obliged to interfere, and to make all right she gave
you a small brown bud, of most penetrating fragrance, which she told
you was much more valuable than the contested flower. I remember
perfectly that she failed entirely in convincing _me_ that the dark,
somber flower was half as beautiful as my pretty cream-tinted blossom,
and, if I mistake not, you were but poutingly satisfied with the
substitute. Here, even if we retained, which I do not, our childish
fascination for syringas, we should not need to quarrel about them, for
they are as common as dandelions in a New England meadow, and dispense
their peculiar perfume--which, by the way, always reminds me of Lubin's
choicest scents--in almost sickening profusion. Besides the
above-mentioned flowers, we saw wild roses and buttercups and flox and
privet, and whole acres of the wand-like lily. I have often heard it
said, though I cannot vouch for the truth of the assertion, that it is
only during the month of January that you cannot gather a bouquet in
the mountains.

Just before one reaches The Junction there is a beautiful grove of
oaks, through which there leaps a gay little rivulet celebrated for the
grateful coolness of its waters. Of course one is expected to
propitiate this pretty Undine by drinking a draft of her glittering
waters from a dirty tin cup which some benevolent cold-water man has
suspended from a tree near the spring. The bank leading down into the
stream is so steep that people generally dismount and lead their
animals across it, but F. declared that I was so light that the horse
could easily carry me, and insisted upon my keeping the saddle. Of
course, like a dutiful wife, I had nothing to do but to obey. So I
grasped firmly the reins, shut my eyes, and committed myself to the
Fates that take care of thistle-seeds, and lo! the next moment I found
myself safely on the other side of the brook, my pretty steed--six
weeks ago he was an Indian pony running wild on the prairie--curveting
about and arching his elegant neck, evidently immensely proud of the
grace and ease with which he had conveyed his burden across the brook.
In a few moments we alighted at the store, which is owned by some
friends of F., whom we found looking like so many great daisies in
their new shirts of pink calico, which had been donned in honor of our
expected arrival.

The Junction is the most beautiful of all the bars. From the store one
can walk nearly a mile down the river quite easily. The path is
bordered by a row of mingled oaks and firs, the former garlanded with
mistletoe, and the latter embroidered with that exquisitely beautiful
moss which I tried to describe in one of my first letters.

The little Kanaka woman lives here. I went to see her. She is quite
pretty, with large lustrous eyes, and two great braids of hair which
made me think of black satin cables, they were so heavy and massive.
She has good teeth, a sweet smile, and a skin not much darker than that
of a French brunette. I never saw any creature so proud as she, almost
a child herself, was of her baby. In jest, I asked her to give it to
me, and really was almost alarmed at the vehement burst of tears with
which she responded to my request. Her husband explained the cause of
her distress. It is a superstition among her people that he who refuses
to give another anything, no matter what,--there are no exceptions
which that other may ask for,--will be overwhelmed with the most
dreadful misfortunes. Her own parents had parted with her for the same
reason. Her pretty girlish face soon resumed its smiles when I told her
that I was in jest, and, to console me for the disappointment which she
thought I must feel at not obtaining her little brown treasure, she
promised to give me the _next_ one! It is a Kanaka custom to make a
present to the person calling upon them for the first time, in
accordance with which habit I received a pair of dove-colored boots
three sizes too large for me.

I should have liked to visit the Indian encampment which lies a few
miles from The Junction, but was too much fatigued to attempt it. The
Indians often visit us, and as they seldom wear anything but a _very_
tight and _very_ short shirt, they have an appearance of being, as
Charles Dickens would say, all legs. They usually sport some kind of a
head-dress, if it is nothing more than a leather string, which they
bind across their dusky brows in the style of the wreaths in Norma, or
the gay ribbons garlanding the hair of the Roman youth in the play of
Brutus. A friend of ours, who has visited their camp several times, has
just given me a description of their mode of life. Their huts, ten or
twelve in number, are formed of the bark of the pine, conically shaped,
plastered with mud, and with a hole in the top, whence emerges the
smoke, which rises from a fire built in the center of the apartment.
These places are so low that it is quite impossible to stand upright in
them, and are entered from a small hole in one side, on all fours. A
large stone, sunk to its surface in the ground, which contains three or
four pan-like hollows for the purpose of grinding acorns and nuts, is
the only furniture which these huts contain. The women, with another
stone, about a foot and a half in length and a little larger than a
man's wrist, pulverize the acorns to the finest possible powder, which
they prepare for the table(?) in the following manner. Their cooking
utensils consist of a kind of basket, woven of some particular species
of reed, I should fancy, from the descriptions which I have had of
them, and are so plaited as to be impervious to fluids. These they fill
half full of water, which is made to boil by placing in it hot stones.
The latter they drag from the fire with two sticks. When the water
boils, they stir into it, until it is about as thick as hasty-pudding,
the powdered acorns, delicately flavored with dried grasshoppers, and
lo! dinner is ready. Would you like to know how they eat? They place
the thumb and little finger together across the palm of the hand, and
make of the other three fingers a spoon, with which they shovel into
their capacious mouths this delicious compound.

There are about eighty Indians in all at this encampment, a very small
portion of which number are women. A hostile tribe in the valley made a
Sabine-like invasion upon the settlement a few months since, and stole
away all the young and fair muchachas, leaving them but a few old
squaws. These poor withered creatures, who are seldom seen far from the
encampment, do all the drudgery. Their entire wardrobe consists of a
fringe about two feet in length, which is formed of the branch or
root--I cannot ascertain exactly which--of a peculiar species of shrub
shredded into threads. This scanty costume they festoon several times
about the person, fastening it just above the hips, and they generally
appear in a startlingly unsophisticated state of almost entire nudity.
They are very filthy in their habits, and my informant said that if one
of them should venture out into the rain, grass would grow on her neck
and arms. The men, unhappy martyrs! are compelled to be a little more
cleanly, from their custom of hunting and fishing, for the wind _will_
blow off _some_ of the dirt, and the water washes off more.

Their infants are fastened to a framework of light wood, in the same
manner as those of the North American Indians. When a squaw has
anything to do, she very composedly sets this frame up against the side
of the house as a civilized housewife would an umbrella or broom.

Some of their modes of fishing are very curious. One is as follows.
These primitive anglers will seek a quiet deep spot in the river, where
they know fish most do congregate, and throw therein a large quantity
of stones. This, of course, frightens the fish, which dive to the
bottom of the stream, and Mr. Indian, plunging head foremost into the
water, beneath which he sometimes remains several minutes, will
presently reappear, holding triumphantly in each hand one of the finny
tribe, which he kills by giving it a single bite in the head or neck
with his sharp, knife-like teeth.

Hardly a day passes during which there are not three or four of them on
this Bar. They often come into the cabin, and I never order them away,
as most others do, for their childish curiosity amuses me, and as yet
they have not been troublesome. There is one beautiful little boy,
about eight years old, who generally accompanies them. We call him Wild
Bird, for he is as shy as a partridge, and we have never yet been able
to coax him into the cabin. He always wears a large red shirt, which,
trailing to his little bronzed feet, and the sleeves every other minute
dropping down over his dusky models of hands, gives him a very odd
appearance. One day Mrs. B., whom I was visiting at the time, coaxed
Wild Bird into the house to see Charley, the hero of the
champagne-basket cradle. The little fellow gazed at us with his large,
startled eyes without showing the least shadow of fear in his
countenance, but his heart beat so violently that we could actually see
the rise and fall of the old red shirt which covered its tremblings.
Mrs. B. made our copper-colored Cupidon a pretty suit of crimson
calico. His protectors--half a dozen grim old Indians (it was
impossible to tell which was his father, they all made such a petted
darling of him)--were compelled to array him in his new suit by main
strength, he screaming dreadfully all the time. Indeed, so exhausted
was he by his shrieks that by the time he was fairly buttoned up in his
crimson trappings he sank on the ground in a deep sleep. The next day
the barbarous little villain appeared trailing, as usual, his pet shirt
after him at every step, while the dandy jacket and the trim
baby-trousers had vanished we never knew whither.

The other morning an Indian appeared on the Bar robed from neck to
heels in a large white sheet, and you have no idea of the classic grace
with which he had arranged the folds about his fine person. We at first
thought him a woman, and he himself was in an ecstasy of glee at our
mistake.

It is impossible to conceive of anything more light and airy than the
step of these people. I shall never forget with what enchanted eyes I
gazed upon one of them gliding along the side of the hill opposite
Missouri Bar. One would fancy that nothing but a fly or a spirit could
keep its footing on the rocks along which he stepped so stately, for
they looked as perpendicular as a wall. My friend observed that no
white man could have done it. This wild creature seemed to move as a
cloud moves on a quiet day in summer, and as still and silently. It
really made me solemn to gaze upon him, and the sight almost impressed
me as something superhuman.

Viewed in the most favorable manner, these poor creatures are miserably
brutish and degraded, having very little in common with the lofty and
eloquent aborigines of the United States. It is said that their entire
language contains but about twenty words. Like all Indians, they are
passionately fond of gambling, and will exhibit as much anxiety at the
losing or winning of a handful of beans as do their paler brothers when
thousands are at stake. Methinks, from what I have seen of that most
hateful vice, the _amount_ lost or won has very little to do with the
matter. But let me not speak of this most detestable of crimes. I have
known such frightful consequences to ensue from its indulgence, that I
dare not speak of it, lest I use language, as perhaps I have already
done, unbecoming a woman's lips.

Hundreds of people have arrived upon our Bar within the last few days;
drinking-saloons are springing up in every direction; the fluming
operations are rapidly progressing; and all looks favorably for a busy
and prosperous summer to our industrious miners.




LETTER _the_ EIGHTEENTH

[_The_ PIONEER, _July_, 1852]

FOURTH _of_ JULY FESTIVAL--SPANISH ATTACKED

SYNOPSIS


Fourth of July celebration at Rich Bar. The author makes the flag. Its
materials. How California was represented therein. Floated from the top
of a lofty pine. The decorations at the Empire Hotel. An "officious
Goth" mars the floral piece designed for the orator of the day. Only
two ladies in the audience. Two others expected, but do not arrive. No
copy of the Declaration of Independence. Preliminary speeches by
political aspirants. Orator of the day reads anonymous poem. Oration
"exceedingly fresh and new". Belated arrival of the expected ladies,
new-comers from the East. With new fashions, they extinguish the author
and her companion. Dinner at the Empire. Mexican War captain as
president. "Toasts quite spicy and original". Fight in the barroom.
Eastern lady "chose to go faint" at sight of blood. Cabin full of
"infant phenomena". A rarity in the mountains. Miners, on way home from
celebration, give nine cheers for mother and children. Outcry at Indian
Bar against Spaniards. Several severely wounded. Whisky and patriotism.
Prejudices and arrogant assurance accounted for. Misinterpretation by
the foreigner. Injustices by the lower classes against Spaniards pass
unnoticed. Innumerable drunken fights. Broken heads and collarbones,
stabbings. "Sabbaths almost always enlivened by such merry events".
Body of Frenchman found in river. Murder evident. Suspicion falls on
nobody.




Letter _the_ Eighteenth

FOURTH _of_ JULY FESTIVAL--SPANISH ATTACKED

_From our Log Cabin_, INDIAN BAR,

_July_ 5, 1852.


Our Fourth of July celebration, dear M., which came off at Rich Bar,
was quite a respectable affair. I had the honor of making a flag for
the occasion. The stripes were formed of cotton cloth and red calico,
of which last gorgeous material no possible place in California is ever
destitute. A piece of drilling, taken from the roof of the Humboldt,
which the rain and the sun had faded from its original somber hue to
just that particular shade of blue which you and I admire so much,
served for a union. A large star in the center, covered with gold-leaf,
represented California. Humble as were the materials of which it was
composed, this banner made quite a gay appearance floating from the top
of a lofty pine in front of the Empire, to which it was suspended.

I went over to Rich Bar at six in the morning, not wishing to take so
fatiguing a walk in the heat of the day. After breakfast I assisted
Mrs. B. and one of the gentlemen in decorating the dining-room, the
walls of which we completely covered with grape-vines, relieved here
and there with bunches of elder-blow. We made several handsome
bouquets, and arranged one of syringas, white lilies, and the feathery
green of the cedar, to be presented, in the name of the ladies, to the
orator of the day. You can imagine my disgust, when the ceremony was
performed, to observe that some officious Goth had marred the perfect
keeping of the gift by thrusting into the vase several ugly purple
blossoms.

The exercises were appointed to commence at ten o'clock, but they were
deferred for half an hour, in expectation of the arrival of two ladies
who had taken up their abode in the place within the last six weeks,
and were living on Indian Bar hill. As they did not come, however, it
was thought necessary to proceed without them. So Mrs. B. and myself
were obliged to sit upon the piazza of the Empire, comprising, in our
two persons, the entire female audience.

The scene was indeed striking. The green-garlanded hills girdling Rich
Bar looked wonderfully beautiful, rising with their grand abrupt
outlines into the radiant summer sky. A platform reared in front of the
Empire, beneath the banner-tasseled pine, and arched with fragrant fir
boughs, made the prettiest possible rustic rostrum. The audience,
grouped beneath the awnings of the different shops, dressed in their
colored shirts,--though here and there one might observe a dandy miner
who had relieved the usual vestment by placing beneath it one of calico
or white muslin,--added much to the picturesqueness of the scene.
Unfortunately, the committee of arrangements had not been able to
procure a copy of the Declaration of Independence. Its place was
supplied by an apologetic speech from a Mr. J., who will, without
doubt, be the Democratic candidate for state representative at the
coming election. This gentleman finished his performance by introducing
Mr. B., the orator of the day, who is the Whig nominee for the
above-mentioned office. Before pronouncing his address, Mr. B. read
some verses which he said had been handed to him anonymously the
evening before. I have copied them for your amusement. They are as
follows, and are entitled--

    _A_ FOURTH _of_ JULY WELCOME _to the_ MINERS

    Ye are welcome, merry miners, in your blue and red shirts all;
    Ye are welcome, 'mid these golden hills, to your nation's festival;
    Though ye've not shaved your savage lips nor cut your barb'rous
        hair,
    Ye are welcome, merry miners, all bearded as ye are.

    What though your brows are blushing at the kisses of the sun,
    And your once white and well-kept hands are stained a sober dun;
    What though your backs are bent with toil, and ye have lost the air
    With which ye bowed your stately heads amid the young and fair,

    I fain would in my slender palm your horny fingers clasp,
    For I love the hand of honest toil, its firm and heartfelt grasp;
    And I know, O miners brave and true, that not alone for self
    Have ye heaped, through many wearying months, your glittering pile
        of pelf.

    Ye of the dark and thoughtful eyes beneath the bronzèd brow,
    Ye on whose smooth and rounded cheeks still gleams youth's purple
        glow,
    Ye of the reckless, daring life, ye of the timid glance;
    Ho! young and old; ho! grave and gay,--to our nation's fête advance.

    Ho! sun-kissed brother from the South, where radiant skies are
        glowing;
    Ho! toiler from the stormy North, where snowy winds are blowing;
    Ho! Buckeye, Hoosier, from the West, sons of the river great,--
    Come, shout Columbia's birthday song in the new Golden State.

    Ho! children of imperial France; ho! Erin's brave and true;
    Ho! England's golden-bearded race,--we fain would welcome you,
    And dark-eyed friends from those glad climes where Spain's proud
        blood is seen;
    To join in Freedom's holy psalm ye'll not refuse, I ween.

    For now the banner of the free's in _very deed_ our own,
    And, 'mid the brotherhood of states, not ours the feeblest one.
    Then proudly shout, ye bushy men with throats all brown and bare,
    For, lo! from 'midst our flag's brave blue, leaps out a
        _golden_ star.

After reading the above lines, Mr. B. pronounced beautifully a very
splendid oration. Unlike such efforts in general, it was exceedingly
fresh and new, so that, instead of its being that infliction that
Fourth of July orations commonly are, it was a high pleasure to listen
to him. Perhaps, where nature herself is so original, it is impossible
for even thought to be hackneyed. It is too long for a letter, but as
the miners have requested a copy for publication, I will send it to you
in print.

About half an hour after the close of the oration the ladies from the
hill arrived. They made a pretty picture descending the steep,--the one
with her wealth of floating curls turbaned in a snowy nubia, and her
white dress set off by a crimson scarf; the other with a little Pamela
hat placed coquettishly upon her brown braided tresses, and a
magnificent Chinese shawl enveloping her slender figure. So lately
arrived from the States, with everything fresh and new, they quite
extinguished poor Mrs. B. and myself, trying our best to look
fashionable in our antique mode of four years ago.

The dinner was excellent. We had a real live captain, a very
gentlemanly person, who had actually been in action during the Mexican
War, for president. Many of the toasts were quite spicy and original;
one of the new ladies sang three or four beautiful songs; and
everything passed off at Rich Bar quite respectably. To be sure, there
was a small fight in the barroom, which is situated just below the
dining-room, during which much speech and a little blood were spouted.
Whether the latter catastrophe was caused by a blow received, or the
large talking of the victim, is not known. Two peacefully inclined
citizens, who at the first battle-shout had rushed manfully to the
rescue, returned at the subsiding of hostilities with blood-bespattered
shirt-bosoms, at which fearful sight the pretty wearer of the Pamela
hat--one of the delinquents being her husband--chose to go faint, and
would not finish her dinner, which, as we saw that her distress was
real, somewhat marred our enjoyment.

On our way home, half a dozen gentlemen who preceded us stepped in
front of a cabin full of infant phenomena and gave nine cheers for the
mother and her children; which will show what a rarity those
embodiments of noise and disquiet are in the mountains. This group of
pretty darlings consists of three sweet little girls, slender,
straight, and white as ivory wands, moving with an incessant and
staccato (do you remember our old music lessons?) activity which always
makes me think of my hummingbirds.

About five o'clock we arrived at home, just in time to hear some noisy
shouts of "Down with the Spaniards," "The great American people
forever," and other similar cries, evident signs of quite a spirited
fight between the two parties, which was, in reality, taking place at
the moment. Seven or eight of the élite of Rich Bar, drunk with whisky
and patriotism, were the principal actors in this unhappy affair, which
resulted in serious injury to two or three Spaniards. For some time
past there has been a gradually increasing state of bad feeling
exhibited by our countrymen (increased, we fancy, by the ill-treatment
which our consul received the other day at Acapulco) towards
foreigners. In this affair our own countrymen were principally to
blame, or, rather, I should say, Sir Barleycorn was to blame, for many
of the ringleaders are fine young men who, when sober, are decidedly
friendly to the Spaniards. It is feared that this will not be the end
of the fracas, though the more intelligent foreigners, as well as the
judicious Americans, are making every effort to promote kindly feeling
between the two nations. This will be very difficult, on account of the
ignorant prejudices of the low-bred, which class are a large proportion
of both parties.

It is very common to hear vulgar Yankees say of the Spaniards, "O, they
are half-civilized black men!" These unjust expressions naturally
irritate the latter, many of whom are highly educated gentlemen of the
most refined and cultivated manners. We labor under great
disadvantages, in the judgment of foreigners. Our peculiar political
institutions, and the prevalence of common schools, give to _all_ our
people an arrogant assurance which is mistaken for the American
beau-ideal of a gentleman.

They are unable to distinguish those nice _shades_ of manner which as
effectually separate the gentleman from the clown with _us_ as do these
broader lines which mark these two classes among all other nations.
They think that it is the grand characteristic of Columbia's children
to be prejudiced, opinionated, selfish, avaricious, and unjust. It is
vain to tell them that such are not specimens of American gentlemen.
They will answer, "They call themselves gentlemen, and you receive them
in your houses as such." It is utterly impossible for foreigners to
thoroughly comprehend and make due allowance for that want of delicacy,
and that vulgar "I'm as good as you are" spirit, which is, it must be
confessed, peculiar to the lower classes of our people, and which would
lead the majority of them to--

    Enter a palace with their old felt hat on;
    To address the King with the title of Mister,
    And ask him the price of the throne he sat on.

The class of men who rule society(?) in the mines are the gamblers,
who, for the most part, are reckless, bad men, although, no doubt,
there are many among them whose only vice is that fatal love of play.
The rest of the people are afraid of these daring, unprincipled
persons, and when they commit the most glaring injustice against the
Spaniards, it is generally passed unnoticed.

We have had innumerable drunken fights during the summer, with the
usual amount of broken heads, collar-bones, stabs, etc. Indeed, the
sabbaths are almost always enlivened by some such merry event. Were it
not for these affairs, I might sometimes forget that the sweet day of
rest was shining down upon us.

Last week the dead body of a Frenchman was found in the river, near
Missouri Bar. On examination of the body it was the general opinion
that he had been murdered. Suspicion has, as yet, fallen upon no person.




LETTER _the_ NINETEENTH

[_The_ PIONEER, _August_, 1855]

MURDER, THEFT, RIOT, HANGING, WHIPPING, ETC.

SYNOPSIS


Three weeks of excitement at Indian Bar. Murders, fearful accidents,
bloody deaths, whippings, hanging, attempted suicide, etc. A
sabbath-morning walk in the hills. Miners' ditch rivaling in beauty the
work of nature. Fatal stabbing by a Spaniard. Afterwards parades street
with a Mexicana, brandishing a long bloody knife. His pursuit by and
escape from the infuriated Americans. Unfounded rumor of conspiracy of
Spaniards to murder Americans. Spaniards barricade themselves. Grief of
Spanish woman over corpse of murdered man. Miners arrive from Rich Bar.
Wild cry for vengeance, and for expulsion of Spaniards. The author
prevailed upon to retire to place of safety. Accidental discharge of
gun when drunken owner of vile resort attempts to force way through
armed guard. Two seriously wounded. Sobering effect of the accident.
Vigilance committee organized. Suspected Spaniards arrested. Trial of
the Mexicana. Always wore male attire, was foremost in fray, and, armed
with brace of pistols, fought like a fury. Sentenced to leave by
daylight. Indirect cause of fight. Woman always to blame. Trial of
ringleaders. Sentences of whipping, and to leave. Confiscation of
property for benefit of wounded. Anguish of the author when Spaniards
were whipped. Young Spaniard movingly but vainly pleads for death
instead of whipping. His oath to murder every American he should
afterwards meet alone. Doubtless will keep his word. Murder of Mr.
Bacon, a ranchero, for his money, by his negro cook. Murderer caught at
Sacramento with part of money. His trial at Rich Bar by the vigilantes.
Sentence of death by hanging. Another negro attempts suicide. Accuses
mulatto Ned of attempt to murder him. Dr. C. in trouble for binding up
negro's self-inflicted wounds. Formation of "Moguls," who make night
hideous. Vigilantes do not interfere. Duel at Missouri Bar. Fatal
results. A large crowd present. Vigilance committee also present. "But
you must remember that this is California."




Letter _the_ Nineteenth

MURDER, THEFT, RIOT, HANGING, WHIPPING, &C.

_From our Log Cabin_, INDIAN BAR,

_August_ 4, 1852.


We have lived through so much of excitement for the last three weeks,
dear M., that I almost shrink from relating the gloomy events that have
marked their flight. But if I leave out the darker shades of our
mountain life, the picture will be very incomplete. In the short space
of twenty-four days we have had murders, fearful accidents, bloody
deaths, a mob, whippings, a hanging, an attempt at suicide, and a fatal
duel. But to begin at the beginning, as, according to rule, one ought
to do.

I think that, even among these beautiful hills, I never saw a more
perfect bridal of the earth and sky than that of Sunday, the 11th of
July. On that morning I went with a party of friends to the head of the
ditch, a walk of about three miles in length. I do not believe that
nature herself ever made anything so lovely as this artificial
brooklet. It glides like a living thing through the very heart of the
forest, sometimes creeping softly on, as though with muffled feet,
through a wilderness of aquatic plants, sometimes dancing gayly over a
white-pebbled bottom, now making a sunshine in a shady place, across
the mossy roots of the majestic old trees, and anon leaping with a
grand anthem adown the great solemn rocks which lie along its beautiful
pathway. A sunny opening at the head of the ditch is a garden of
perfumed shrubbery and many-tinted flowers, all garlanded with the
prettiest vines imaginable, and peopled with an infinite variety of
magnificent butterflies. These last were of every possible color, pink,
blue and yellow, shining black splashed with orange, purple flashed
with gold, white, and even green. We returned about three in the
evening, loaded with fragrant bundles, which, arranged in jars,
tumblers, pitchers, bottles, and pails, (we are not particular as to
the quality of our vases in the mountains, and love our flowers as well
in their humble chalices as if their beautiful heads lay against a
background of marble or porcelain,) made the dark old cabin a bower of
beauty for us.

Shortly after our arrival, a perfectly deafening volley of shouts and
yells elicited from my companion the careless remark that the customary
sabbath-day's fight was apparently more serious than usual. Almost as
he spoke there succeeded a deathlike silence, broken in a minute after
by a deep groan at the corner of the cabin, followed by the words,
"Why, Tom, poor fellow, are you really wounded?" Before we could reach
the door, it was burst violently open by a person who inquired
hurriedly for the Doctor, who, luckily, happened at that very moment to
be approaching. The man who called him then gave us the following
excited account of what had happened. He said that in a mêlée between
the Americans and the foreigners, Domingo, a tall, majestic-looking
Spaniard, a perfect type of the novelistic bandit of Old Spain, had
stabbed Tom Somers, a young Irishman, but a naturalized citizen of the
United States, and that, at the very moment, said Domingo, with a
Mexicana hanging upon his arm, and brandishing threateningly the long,
bloody knife with which he had inflicted the wound upon his victim, was
parading up and down the street unmolested. It seems that when Tom
Somers fell the Americans, being unarmed, were seized with a sudden
panic and fled. There was a rumor (unfounded, as it afterwards proved)
to the effect that the Spaniards had on this day conspired to kill all
the Americans on the river. In a few moments, however, the latter
rallied and made a rush at the murderer, who immediately plunged into
the river and swam across to Missouri Bar. Eight or ten shots were
fired at him while in the water, not one of which hit him. He ran like
an antelope across the flat, swam thence to Smith's Bar, and escaped by
the road leading out of the mountains from The Junction. Several men
went in pursuit of him, but he was not taken, and without doubt is now
safe in Mexico.

In the mean while the consternation was terrific. The Spaniards, who,
with the exception of six or eight, knew no more of the affair than I
did, thought that the Americans had arisen against them, and our own
countrymen, equally ignorant, fancied the same of the foreigners. About
twenty of the latter, who were either sleeping or reading in their
cabins at the time of the _émeute_, aroused by the cry of "Down with
the Spaniards!" barricaded themselves in a drinking-saloon, determined
to defend themselves as long as possible against the massacre which was
fully expected would follow this appalling shout. In the bakeshop,
which stands next door to our cabin, young Tom Somers lay straightened
for the grave (he lived but fifteen minutes after he was wounded),
while over his dead body a Spanish woman was weeping and moaning in the
most piteous and heartrending manner. The Rich Barians, who had heard a
most exaggerated account of the rising of the Spaniards against the
Americans, armed with rifles, pistols, clubs, dirks, etc., were rushing
down the hill by hundreds. Each one added fuel to his rage by crowding
into the little bakery to gaze upon the blood-bathed bosom of the
victim, yet warm with the life which but an hour before it had so
triumphantly worn. Then arose the most fearful shouts of "Down with the
Spaniards!" "Drive every foreigner off the river!" "Don't let one of
the murderous devils remain!" "Oh, if you have a drop of American blood
in your veins, it must cry out for vengeance upon the cowardly
assassins of poor Tom!" All this, mingled with the most horrible oaths
and execrations, yelled up as if in mockery into that smiling heaven,
which, in its fair sabbath calm, bent unmoved over the hell which was
raging below.

After a time the more sensible and sober part of the community
succeeded in quieting, in a partial degree, the enraged and excited
multitude. During the whole affair I had remained perfectly calm,--in
truth, much more so than I am now, when recalling it. The entire
catastrophe had been so unexpected, and so sudden in its consummation,
that I fancy I was stupefied into the most exemplary good behavior. F.
and several of his friends, taking advantage of the lull in the storm,
came into the cabin and entreated me to join the two women who were
living on the hill. At this time it seemed to be the general opinion
that there would be a serious fight, and they said I might be wounded
accidentally if I remained on the Bar. As I had no fear of anything of
the kind, I pleaded hard to be allowed to stop, but when told that my
presence would increase the anxiety of our friends, of course, like a
dutiful wife, I went on to the hill.

We three women, left entirely alone, seated ourselves upon a log
overlooking the strange scene below. The Bar was a sea of heads,
bristling with guns, rifles, and clubs. We could see nothing, but
fancied from the apparent quiet of the crowd that the miners were
taking measures to investigate the sad event of the day. All at once we
were startled by the firing of a gun, and the next moment, the crowd
dispersing, we saw a man led into the log cabin, while another was
carried, apparently lifeless, into a Spanish drinking-saloon, from one
end of which were burst off instantly several boards, evidently to give
air to the wounded person. Of course we were utterly unable to imagine
what had happened, and, to all our perplexity and anxiety, one of the
ladies insisted upon believing that it was her own husband who had been
shot, and as she is a very nervous woman, you can fancy our distress.
It was in vain to tell her--which we did over and over again--that that
worthy individual wore a _blue_ shirt, and the wounded person a _red_
one. She doggedly insisted that her dear M. had been shot, and, having
informed us confidentially, and rather inconsistently, that she should
never see him again, never, never, plumped herself down upon the log in
an attitude of calm and ladylike despair, which would have been
infinitely amusing had not the occasion been so truly a fearful one.
Luckily for our nerves, a benevolent individual, taking pity upon our
loneliness, came and told us what had happened.

It seems that an Englishman, the owner of a house of the vilest
description, a person who is said to have been the primary cause of all
the troubles of the day, attempted to force his way through the line of
armed men which had been formed at each side of the street. The guard
very properly refused to let him pass. In his drunken fury he tried to
wrest a gun from one of them, which, being accidentally discharged in
the struggle, inflicted a severe wound upon a Mr. Oxley, and shattered
in the most dreadful manner the thigh of Señor Pizarro, a man of high
birth and breeding, a porteño of Buenos Aires. This frightful accident
recalled the people to their senses, and they began to act a little
less like madmen than they had previously done. They elected a
vigilance committee, and authorized persons to go to The Junction and
arrest the suspected Spaniards.

The first act of the committee was to try a Mexicana who had been
foremost in the fray. She has always worn male attire, and upon this
occasion, armed with a pair of pistols, she fought like a very fury.
Luckily, inexperienced in the use of firearms, she wounded no one. She
was sentenced to leave the Bar by daylight,--a perfectly just decision,
for there is no doubt that she is a regular little demon. Some went so
far as to say she ought to be hanged, for she was the _indirect_ cause
of the fight. You see, always it is the old cowardly excuse of Adam in
Paradise,--the _woman_ tempted me, and I did eat,--as if the poor frail
head, once so pure and beautiful, had not sin enough of its own,
dragging it forever downward, without being made to answer for the
wrong-doing of a whole community of men.

The next day the committee tried five or six Spaniards, who were proven
to have been the ringleaders in the sabbath-day riot. Two of them were
sentenced to be whipped, the remainder to leave the Bar that evening,
the property of all to be confiscated to the use of the wounded
persons. O Mary! imagine my anguish when I heard the first blow fall
upon those wretched men. I had never thought that I should be compelled
to hear such fearful sounds, and, although I immediately buried my head
in a shawl, nothing can efface from memory the disgust and horror of
that moment. I had heard of such things, but heretofore had not
realized that in the nineteenth century men could be beaten like dogs,
much less that other men not only could sentence such barbarism, but
could actually stand by and see their own manhood degraded in such
disgraceful manner. One of these unhappy persons was a very gentlemanly
young Spaniard, who implored for death in the most moving terms. He
appealed to his judges in the most eloquent manner, as gentlemen, as
men of honor, representing to them that to be deprived of life was
nothing in comparison with the never-to-be-effaced stain of the vilest
convict's punishment to which they had sentenced him. Finding all his
entreaties disregarded, he swore a most solemn oath, that he would
murder every American that he should chance to meet alone, and as he is
a man of the most dauntless courage, and rendered desperate by a
burning sense of disgrace which will cease only with his life, he will
doubtless keep his word.

Although, in my very humble opinion, and in that of others more
competent to judge of such matters than myself, these sentences were
unnecessarily severe, yet so great was the rage and excitement of the
crowd that the vigilance committee could do no less. The mass of the
mob demanded fiercely the death of the prisoners, and it was evident
that many of the committee took side with the people. I shall never
forget how horror-struck I was (bombastic as it _now_ sounds) at
hearing no less a personage than the Whig candidate for representative
say that the condemned had better fly for their lives, for the "Avenger
of Blood" was on their tracks! I am happy to say that said very worthy
but sanguinary individual, the Avenger of Blood, represented in this
case by some half-dozen gambling rowdies, either changed his mind or
lost scent of his prey, for the intended victims slept about two miles
up the hill quite peacefully until morning.

The following facts, elicited upon the trial, throw light upon this
unhappy affair. Seven miners from Old Spain, enraged at the cruel
treatment which their countrymen had received on the Fourth, and at the
illiberal cry of "Down with the Spaniards," had united for the purpose
of taking revenge on seven Americans, whom they believed to be the
originators of their insults. All well armed, they came from The
Junction, where they were residing at the time, intending to challenge
each one his man, and in fair fight compel their insolent aggressors to
answer for the arrogance which they had exhibited more than once
towards the Spanish race. Their first move, on arriving at Indian Bar,
was to go and dine at the Humboldt, where they drank a most enormous
quantity of champagne and claret. Afterwards they proceeded to the
house of the Englishman whose brutal carelessness caused the accident
which wounded Pizarro and Oxley, when one of them commenced a playful
conversation with one of his countrywomen. This enraged the Englishman,
who instantly struck the Spaniard a violent blow and ejected him from
the shanty. Thereupon ensued a spirited fight, which, through the
exertion of a gentleman from Chile, a favorite with both nations, ended
without bloodshed. This person knew nothing of the intended duel, or he
might have prevented, by his wise counsels, what followed. Not
suspecting for a moment anything of the kind, he went to Rich Bar. Soon
after he left, Tom Somers, who is said always to have been a dangerous
person when in liquor, without any apparent provocation struck Domingo
(one of the original seven) a violent blow, which nearly felled him to
the earth. The latter, a man of "dark antecedents" and the most
reckless character, mad with wine, rage, and revenge, without an
instant's pause drew his knife and inflicted a fatal wound upon his
insulter. Thereupon followed the chapter of accidents which I have
related.

On Tuesday following the fatal sabbath, a man brought news of the
murder of a Mr. Bacon, a person well known on the river, who kept a
ranch about twelve miles from Rich Bar. He was killed for his money by
his servant, a negro, who, not three months ago, was our own cook. He
was the last one anybody would have suspected capable of such an act.

A party of men, appointed by the vigilance committee, left the Bar
immediately in search of him. The miserable wretch was apprehended in
Sacramento, and part of the gold found upon his person. On the
following Sunday he was brought in chains to Rich Bar. After a trial by
the miners, he was sentenced to be hanged at four o' clock in the
evening. All efforts to make him confess proved futile. He said very
truly that whether innocent or guilty they would hang him, and so he
"died and made no sign" with a calm indifference, as the novelists say,
worthy of a better cause. The dreadful crime and death of Josh, who,
having been an excellent cook, and very neat and respectful, was a
favorite servant with us, added to the unhappiness which you can easily
imagine that I was suffering under all these horrors.

On Saturday evening, about eight o'clock, as we sat quietly conversing
with the two ladies from the hill,--whom, by the way, we found very
agreeable additions to our society, hitherto composed entirely of
gentlemen,--we were startled by the loud shouting, and the rushing
close by the door of the cabin, which stood open, of three or four
hundred men. Of course we feminines, with nerves somewhat shattered
from the events of the past week, were greatly alarmed.

We were soon informed that Henry Cook, vice Josh, had, in a fit of
delirium tremens, cut his throat from ear to ear. The poor wretch was
alone when he committed the desperate deed, and in his madness,
throwing the bloody razor upon the ground, ran part of the way up the
hill. Here he was found almost senseless, and brought back to the
Humboldt, where he was very nearly the cause of hanging poor Paganini
Ned, who returned a few weeks since from the valley; for his first act
on recovering himself was to accuse that culinary individual of having
attempted to murder him. The mob were for hanging one poor Vattel
without judge or jury, and it was only through the most strenuous
exertions of his friends that the life of this illustrious person was
saved. Poor Ned! It was forty-eight hours before his corkscrews
returned to their original graceful curl. He threatens to leave us to
our barbarism, and no longer to waste his culinary talents upon an
ungrateful and inappreciative people. He has sworn war to the knife
against Henry, who was formerly his most intimate friend, as nothing
can persuade him that the accusation did not proceed from the purest
malice on the part of the would-be suicide.

Their majesties the mob, with that beautiful consistency which usually
distinguishes those august individuals, insisted upon shooting poor
Harry, for, said they,--and the reasoning is remarkably conclusive and
clear,--a man so hardened as to raise his hand against his _own_ life
will never hesitate to murder another! They almost mobbed F. for
binding up the wounds of the unfortunate wretch, and for saying that it
was possible he might live. At last, however, they compromised the
matter by determining that if Henry should recover he should leave the
Bar immediately. Neither contingency will probably take place, as it
will be almost a miracle if he survives.

On the day following the attempted suicide, which was Sunday, nothing
more exciting happened than a fight and the half-drowning of a drunken
individual in the river, just in front of the Humboldt.

On Sunday last the thigh of Señor Pizarro was amputated, but, alas!
without success. He had been sick for many months with chronic
dysentery, which, after the operation, returned with great violence,
and he died at two o'clock on Monday morning, with the same calm and
lofty resignation which had distinguished him during his illness. When
first wounded, believing his case hopeless, he had decidedly refused to
submit to amputation, but as time wore on he was persuaded to take this
one chance for his life for the sake of his daughter, a young girl of
fifteen, at present at school in a convent in Chile, whom his death
leaves without any near relative. I saw him several times during his
illness, and it was melancholy indeed to hear him talk of his
motherless girl, who, I have been told, is extremely beautiful,
talented, and accomplished.

The state of society here has never been so bad as since the
appointment of a committee of vigilance. The rowdies have formed
themselves into a company called the "Moguls," and they parade the
streets all night, howling, shouting, breaking into houses, taking
wearied miners out of their beds and throwing them into the river, and,
in short, "murdering sleep" in the most remorseless manner. Nearly
every night they build bonfires fearfully near some rag shanty, thus
endangering the lives (or, I should rather say, the property, for, as
it is impossible to sleep, lives are emphatically safe) of the whole
community. They retire about five o'clock in the morning, previously to
this blessed event posting notices to that effect, and that they will
throw any one who may disturb them into the river. I am nearly worn out
for want of rest, for, truly, they "make night hideous" with their
fearful uproar. Mr. Oxley, who still lies dangerously ill from the
wound received on what we call the "fatal Sunday," complains bitterly
of the disturbances; and when poor Pizarro was dying, and one of his
friends gently requested that they be quiet for half an hour and permit
the soul of the sufferer to pass in peace, they only laughed and yelled
and hooted louder than ever in the presence of the departing spirit,
for the tenement in which he lay, being composed of green boughs only,
could, of course, shut out no sounds. Without doubt, if the Moguls had
been sober, they would never have been guilty of such horrible
barbarity as to compel the thoughts of a dying man to mingle with
curses and blasphemies, but, alas! they were intoxicated, and may God
forgive them, unhappy ones, for they knew not what they did. The poor,
exhausted miners--for even well people cannot sleep in such a
pandemonium--grumble and complain, but they, although far outnumbering
the rioters, are too timid to resist. All say, "It is shameful,"
"Something ought to be done," "Something _must_ be done," etc., and in
the mean time the rioters triumph; You will wonder that the committee
of vigilance does not interfere. It is said that some of that very
committee are the ringleaders among the Moguls.

I believe I have related to you everything but the duel, and I will
make the recital of this as short as possible, for I am sick of these
sad subjects, and doubt not but you are the same. It took place on
Tuesday morning, at eight o'clock, on Missouri Bar, when and where that
same Englishman who has figured so largely in my letter shot his best
friend. The duelists were surrounded by a large crowd, I have been
told, foremost among which stood the committee of vigilance! The man
who received his dear friend's fatal shot was one of the most quiet and
peaceable citizens on the Bar. He lived about ten minutes after he was
wounded. He was from Ipswich, England, and only twenty-five years old
when his own high passions snatched him from life. In justice to his
opponent it must be said that he would willingly have retired after the
first shots had been exchanged, but poor Billy Leggett, as he was
familiarly called, insisted upon having the distance between them
shortened, and continuing the duel until one of them had fallen.

There, my dear M., have I not fulfilled my promise of giving you a dish
of horrors? And only think of such a shrinking, timid, frail thing as I
_used_ to be "long time ago" not only living right in the midst of
them, but almost compelled to hear, if not see, the whole. I think I
may without vanity affirm that I have "seen the elephant." "Did you see
his tail?" asks innocent Ada J., in her mother's letter. Yes, sweet
Ada; the entire animal has been exhibited to my view. "But you must
remember that this is California," as the new-comers are so fond of
informing _us!_ who consider ourselves "one of the oldest inhabitants"
of the Golden State.

And now, dear M., adios. Be thankful that you are living in the
beautiful quiet of beautiful A., and give up "hankering arter" (as you
know what dear creature says) California, for, believe me, this coarse,
barbarous life would suit you even less than it does your sister.




LETTER _the_ TWENTIETH

[_The_ PIONEER, _September_, 1855]

MURDER--MINING SCENES--SPANISH BREAKFAST

SYNOPSIS


Ramada, unoccupied, wrecked by log rolling down hill. Was place of
residence of wounded Spaniard, who died but a few days previously.
Murder near Indian Bar. Innocent and harmless person arrested, said to
answer description of murderer. A humorous situation. A "guard of
honor" from the vigilantes while in custody. Upon release his expenses
paid. Had a rest from hard work. Tendered a present and a handsome
apology. Public opinion in the mines a cruel but fortunately a fickle
thing. Invitation to author to breakfast at Spanish garden. The journey
thereto, along river, with its busy mining scenes. The wing-dam, and
how it differs from the ordinary dam. An involuntary bath. Drifts,
shafts, coyote-holes. How claims are worked. Flumes. Unskilled workmen.
Their former professions or occupations. The best water in California,
but the author is unappreciative. Flavorless, but, since the Flood,
always tastes of sinners. Don Juan's country-seat. The Spanish
breakfast. The eatables and the drinkables. Stronger spirits for the
stronger spirits. Ice, through oversight, the only thing lacking.
Yank's tame cub. Parodic doggerel by the author on her loss of pets. A
miners' dinner-party with but one teaspoon, and that one borrowed. An
unlearned and wearisome blacksmith.




Letter _the_ Twentieth

MURDER--MINING SCENES--SPANISH BREAKFAST

_From our Log Cabin_, INDIAN BAR,

_September_ 4, 1852.


If I could coax some good-natured fairy or some mischievous Puck to
borrow for me the pen of Grace Greenwood, Fanny Forester, or Nathaniel
P. Willis, I might be able to weave my stupid nothings into one of
those airy fabrics the value of which depends entirely upon the
skillful work, or rather penmanship, which distinguishes it. I have
even fancied that if I could steal a feather from the living opal
swinging like a jeweled pendulum from the heart of the great tiger-lily
which nods its turbaned head so stately within the mosquito-net cage
standing upon the little table, my poor lines would gather a certain
beauty from the rainbow-tinted quill with which I might trace them. But
as there is nobody magician enough to go out and shoot a fairy or a
brownie and bind it by sign and spell to do my bidding, and as I have
strong doubts whether my coarse fingers would be able to manage the
delicate pen of a humming-bird even if I could have the heart to rob my
only remaining pet of its brilliant feathers, I am fain to be content
with one of "Gillott's Best,"--no, of "C. R. Sheton's Extra Fine,"
although I am certain that the sentences following its hard stroke will
be as stiff as itself. If they were only as bright, one might put up
with the want of grace, but to be stiff and stupid both, is _too_
provoking, is it not, dear M.? However, what must be, must be; and as I
have nothing to write about, and do not possess the skill to make that
nothing graceful, and as you will fret yourself into a scold if you do
not receive the usual amount of inked pages at the usual time, why, of
course I am bound to act (my first appearance on _any_ stage, I flatter
myself in _that_ character) the very original part of the _bore_, and
you must prepare to be bored with what philosophy you may.

But, without further preface, I will begin with one of the nothings. A
few days after the death of the unfortunate Spaniard, related in my
last letter, a large log, felled by some wickedly careless woodman,
rolled down from one of the hills, and so completely extinguished the
little ramada in which our poor friend lay at the time of his death
that you would never have imagined from the heap of broken branches
that remain that it had once been a local habitation with such a pretty
name. Providentially, at the time of the accident, none of those who
had been in the habit of staying there were within. If Señor Pizarro
had survived the amputation of his leg, it would only have been to
suffer a still more terrible death,--an accident which would have
deepened, if possible, the gloom which we have suffered during the
melancholy summer.

There has been another murder committed within a few miles of this
place, which has given us something to gossip about, for the committee
of vigilance had the good nature, purely for our amusement I conclude,
to apprehend a lucky individual (I call him _lucky_ advisedly, for he
had all his expenses paid at the Humboldt, was remunerated for his lost
time, enjoyed a holiday from hard work, had a sort of guard of honor
composed of the most respectable men on the river, and was of more
consequence for four days than ever he had been in the whole of his
insignificant little life before) whom somebody fancied bore a faint
resemblance to the description of the murderer. This interesting
lion--I was so fortunate as to catch a glimpse of him one morning, and
am convinced that he would "roar you as gently as any sucking
dove"--was fully cleared from the suspected crime; and if, before his
acquittal, one might have fancied from the descriptions of his
countenance that none but that of Mephistopheles in the celebrated
picture of the Game of Life could equal its terrific malignity,
after-accounts drew it a very Saint John's for sweet serenity of
expression. What was then called sullenness now took the name of
resignation, and stupidity was quiet contempt. Indeed, I began to fear
that they would give him a public triumph, and invite me to make the
flag with which to grace it. I confess that I would almost have voted
him a procession myself, in gratitude for the amusement which he had
given us. However, the committee were content with making him a
handsome apology and present, and paying his expenses at the Humboldt.
O public opinion in the mines, thou art in truth a _cruel_ thing, but,
thank God, most _fickle_!

The other day we were invited by a Spanish friend to breakfast at a
garden situated half a mile from The Junction, and owned by another
Spaniard. It was a lovely morning in the latter part of August, and as
we started about six o'clock, the walk was a most delightful one. The
river, filled with flumes, dams, etc., and crowded with busy miners,
was as much altered from its old appearance as if an earthquake had
frightened it from its propriety.

I suppose that you are quite worn out with descriptions of walks, and I
will spare you this once. I will not tell you how sometimes we were
stepping lightly over immense rocks which a few months since lay
fathoms deep beneath the foaming Plumas; nor how sometimes we were
walking high above the bed of the river, from flume to flume, across a
board connecting the two; nor how now we were scrambling over the roots
of the upturned trees, and now jumping tiny rivulets; nor shall I say a
single word about the dizziness we felt as we crept by the deep
excavations lying along the road, nor of the beautiful walk at the side
of the wing-dam (it differs from a common dam, in dividing the river
lengthways instead of across), the glittering water rising bluely
almost to a level with the path. I do not think that I will ever tell
you about the impromptu bath which one of the party took by tumbling
accidentally into the river as he was walking gallantly behind us,
which said bath made him decidedly disagree in our enthusiastic opinion
of the loveliness of the promenade.

No; I shall not say a single word upon any of these subjects, but leave
them all to your vivid imagination. Corkscrews could not draw a
solitary sentence from me, now that I have made up my mind to silence.
But I _will_ tell you about the driftings in the side of the hill,
which we visited on our way,--not so much from a precious desire of
enlightening your pitiable ignorance upon such subjects, you poor,
little, untraveled Yankee woman! but to prove to you that, having
fathomed the depths of shafts, and threaded the mazes of coyote-holes,
I intend to astonish the weak nerves of stay-at-homes, if I ever return
to New England, by talking learnedly upon such subjects, as one having
authority.

These particular "claims" consist of three galleries lying about eighty
feet beneath the summit of the hill, and have already been drifted from
one hundred and fifty to two hundred feet into its side. They are about
five feet in height, slightly arched, the sides and roof, formed of
rugged rocks, dripping with moisture, as if sweating beneath the great
weight above. Lights are placed at regular distances along these
galleries to assist the miners in their work, and boards laid on the
wet ground to make a convenient path for the wheelbarrows which convey
the dirt and sand to the river for the purpose of washing it. Wooden
beams are placed here and there to lessen the danger of caving in, but
I must confess that in spite of this precaution I was at first haunted
with a horrible feeling of insecurity. As I became reassured I repeated
loudly those glorious lines of Mrs. Hemans commencing with--

    For the strength of the hills we bless thee,
    O God, our fathers' God!

And a strange echo the gray rocks sent back, as if the mine-demons,
those ugly gnomes which German legends tell us work forever in the
bowels of the earth, were shouting my words in mockery from the dim
depths beyond.

These claims have paid remarkably well, and if they hold out as they
have commenced, the owners will gather a small fortune from their
summer's work.

There is nothing which impresses me more strangely than the fluming
operations. The idea of a mighty river being taken up in a wooden
trough, turned from the old channel along which it has foamed for
centuries perhaps, its bed excavated many feet in depth, and itself
restored to its old home in the fall,--these things strike me as almost
a blasphemy against nature, And then the idea of men succeeding in such
a work here in the mountains, with machinery and tools of the poorest
description, to say nothing of the unskilled workmen,--doctors,
lawyers, ministers, scholars, gentlemen, farmers, etc.

When we arrived at the little oak-opening described in a former letter,
we were, of course, in duty bound to take a draft from the spring,
which its admirers declare is the best water in all California. When it
came to my turn, I complacently touched the rusty tin cup, though I
never _did_ care much for water, in the abstract, _as_ water. Though I
think it very useful to make coffee, tea, chocolate, and other good
drinks, I could never detect any other flavor in it than that of
_cold_, and have often wondered whether there was any truth in the
remark of a character in some play, that, ever since the world was
drowned in it, it had tasted of sinners!

When we arrived at what may be called, in reference to the Bar, the
country-seat of Don Juan, we were ushered into the parlor, two sides of
which opened upon the garden and the grand old mountains which rise
behind it, while the other two sides and the roof were woven with fresh
willow boughs, crisply green, and looking as if the dew had scarcely
yet dried from the polished leaves.

After opening some cans of peaches, and cutting up some watermelons
gathered from the garden, our friends went in to, or rather _out_ to,
the kitchen fire (two or three stones are generally the extent of this
useful apartment in the mines) to assist in preparing the
breakfast--and _such_ a breakfast! If "Tadger could do it when it
chose," so can we miners. We had--but what did we _not_ have? There
were oysters which, I am sure, could not have been nicer had they just
slid from their shells on the shore at Amboy; salmon, in color like the
red, red gold; venison with a fragrant spicy gusto, as if it had been
fed on cedar-buds; beef cooked in the Spanish fashion,--that is, strung
onto a skewer and roasted on the coals,--than which I never tasted
better; preserved chicken; and almost every possible vegetable bringing
up the rear. Then, for drinkables, we had tea, coffee, and chocolate;
champagne, claret, and porter, with stronger spirits _for_ the stronger
spirits. We lacked but one thing. That was ice; which we forgot to
bring from the Bar. As, only four miles from our cabin, the snow never
melts, that is a luxury we are never without, and, indeed, so
excessively warm has been the season, that without it, and the milk
which has been brought us daily from a rancho five miles from here, we
should have suffered. I must say that even though we had no ice, our
mountain picnic, with its attendant dandies in their blue and red
flannel shirts, was the most charming affair of the kind that I ever
attended.

On our return we called to see Yank's cub, which is fast rising into
young grizzly-bearhood. It is about the size of a calf, very
good-natured, and quite tame. Its acquirements, as yet, are few, being
limited to climbing a pole. Its education has not been conducted with
that care and attention which so intelligent a beast merits, but it is
soon, I hear, to be removed to the valley and placed under teachers
capable of developing its wonderful talents to the utmost.

We also stopped at a shanty to get a large gray squirrel which had been
promised to me some days before; but I certainly am the most
unfortunate wretch in the world with pets. This spiteful thing, on
purpose to annoy me I do believe, went and got itself drowned the very
night before I was to take it home. It is always so.

    I never had two humming-birds,
      With plumage like a sunset sky,
    But one was sure to fly away,
      And the other one was sure to die.

    I never nursed a flying-squirrel,
      To glad me with its soft black eye,
    But it always ran into somebody's tent,
      Got mistaken for a rat and killed!

There, M.; there is poetry for you. "Oh, the second verse doesn't
rhyme."--"Doesn't?"--"And it ain't original, is it?" Well, _I_ never
heard that rhyme was necessary to make a poet, any more than colors to
make a painter. And what if Moore _did_ say the same thing twenty years
ago? I am sure any writer would consider himself lucky to have an idea
which has been anticipated but _once_. I am tired of being a "mute
inglorious Milton," and, like that grand old master of English song,
would gladly write something which the world would not willingly let
die; and having made that first step, as witness the above verses, who
knows what will follow?

Last night one of our neighbors had a dinner-party. He came in to
borrow a teaspoon. "Had you not better take them all?" I said. "Oh,
no," was the answer; "that would be too much luxury. My guests are not
used to it, and they would think that I was getting aristocratic, and
putting on airs. One is enough; they can pass it round from one to the
other."

A blacksmith--not the learned one--has just entered, inquiring for the
Doctor, who is not in, and he is obliged to wait. Shall I write down
the conversation with which he is at this moment entertaining me? "Who
writ this 'ere?" is his first remark, taking up one of my most precious
books, and leaving the marks of his irreverent fingers upon the clean
pages. "Shakespeare," I answer, as politely as possible. "Did
Spokeshave write it? He was an almighty smart fellow, that Spokeshave,
I've hear'n tell," replies my visitor. "I must write hum and tell our
folks that this 'ere is the first carpet I've seen sin' I came to
Californy, four year come next month," is his next remark. For the last
half-hour he has been entertaining me with a wearisome account of the
murder of his brother by an Irishman in Boston, and the chief feeling
which he exhibits is a fear that the jury should only bring in a
verdict of manslaughter. But I hear F.'s step, and his entrance
relieves me from the bore.

I am too tired to write more. Alas, dear M. this letter is indeed a
stupid one--a poor return for your pregnant epistles. It is too late to
better it. The express goes at eight in the morning. The midnight moon
is looking wonderingly in at the cabin window, and the river has a
sleepy murmur that impels me irresistibly bedward.




LETTER _the_ TWENTY-FIRST

[_The_ PIONEER, _October_, 1855]

DISCOMFORTS _of_ TRIP _to_ POLITICAL CONVENTION

SYNOPSIS


Visit to the American Valley. Journey thither. Scenes by the way.
Political convention. Delegates from Indian Bar. Arrival at Greenwood's
Rancho, headquarters of Democrats. Overcrowded. Party proceed to the
American Rancho, headquarters of Whigs. Also overcrowded. Tiresome ride
of ladies on horseback. Proceed to house of friend of lady in party. An
inhospitable reception, but the author entertains herself. Men of party
return to American Rancho. Inroad upon the eatables. Landlord aghast,
but pacified by generous orders for drinkables. California houses not
proof against eavesdroppers. Misunderstandings and explanations
overheard by the author. Illness of hostess. Uncomfortable and
miserable night, and worse quarters. Handsome riding-habit, etc., of
the hostess. Table-service, carpeting, chests of tea, casks of sugar,
bags of coffee, etc., "the good people possessed everything but a
house". "The most beautiful spot I ever saw in California". Owner
building house of huge hewn logs. The author returns to the American
Rancho. Its primitive furniture, etc. Political visitors. The
convention. Horse-racing and gambling. The author goes to Greenwood's
Rancho. More primitive furniture and lack of accommodations. Misplaced
benevolence of Bostonians. Should transfer their activities to
California.




Letter _the_ Twenty-first

DISCOMFORTS _of_ TRIP _to_ POLITICAL CONVENTION

_From our Log Cabin_, INDIAN BAR,

_October_ 16, 1852.


Since I last wrote you, dear M., I have spent three weeks in the
American Valley, and I returned therefrom humbled to the very dust when
thinking of my former vainglorious boast of having "seen the elephant."
To be sure, if having fathomed to its very depths the power of mere
existence, without any reference to those conventional aids which
civilization has the folly to think necessary to the performance of
that agreeable duty, was any criterion, I certainly fancied that I had
a right to brag of having taken a full view of that most piquant
specimen of the brute creation, the California "elephant." But it seems
that I was mistaken, and that we miners have been dwelling in perfect
palaces, surrounded by furniture of the most gorgeous description, and
reveling in every possible luxury. Well, one lives and learns, even on
the borders of civilization. But to begin at the beginning, let me tell
you the history of my dreadful pleasure-tour to the American Valley.

You must know that a convention had been appointed to meet at that
place for the purpose of nominating representatives for the coming
election. As F. had the misfortune to be one of the delegates, nothing
would do but I must accompany him; for, as my health had really
suffered through the excitements of the summer, he fancied that change
of air might do me good. Mrs. ----, one of our new ladies, had been
invited to spend a few weeks in the same place, at the residence of a
friend of her husband, who was living there with his family. As Mr.
---- was also one of the delegates, we made up a party together, and,
being joined by two or three other gentlemen, formed quite a gay
cavalcade.

The day was beautiful. But when is it ever otherwise in the mountains
of California? We left the Bar by another ascent than the one from
which I entered the Bar, and it was so infinitely less steep than the
latter, that it seemed a mere nothing. You, however, would have fancied
it quite a respectably hill, and Mr. ---- said that so fearful did it
seem to him the first time he went down it, that he vowed never to
cross it but once more,--a vow, by the way, which has been broken many
times. The whole road was a succession of charming tableaux, in which
sparkling streamlets, tiny waterfalls, frisky squirrels gleaming amid
the foliage like a flash of red light, quails with their pretty gray
plumage flecked with ivory, dandy jays, great awkward black crows, pert
little lizards, innumerable butterflies, and a hundred other

    Plumèd insects, winged and free,
    Like golden boats on a sunny sea,

were the characters, grouped in a frame of living green, curtained with
the blue folds of our inimitable sky.

We had intended to start very early in the morning, but, as usual on
such excursions, did not get off until about ten o'clock. Somebody's
horse came up missing, or somebody's saddle needed repairing, or
somebody's shirt did not come home in season from the washer-Chinaman
(for if we _do_ wear flannel shirts, we choose to have them clean when
we ride out with the ladies), or something else equally important
detained us. It was about nine o'clock in the evening when we reached
the valley and rode up to Greenwood's Rancho, which, by the way, was
the headquarters of the Democratic party. It was crowded to
overflowing, as our ears told us long before we came in sight of it,
and we found it utterly impossible to obtain lodgings there. This
building has no windows, but a strip of crimson calico, placed half-way
from the roof and running all round the house, lets in the _red_ light
and supplies their place. However, we did not stop long to enjoy the
pictorial effect of the scarlet windows,--which really look very
prettily in the night,--but rode straight to the American Rancho, a
quarter of a mile beyond. This was the headquarters of the Whigs, to
which party our entire company, excepting myself, belonged. Indeed, the
gentlemen had only consented to call at the other house through
compassion for the ladies, who were suffering from extreme fatigue, and
they were rejoiced at the prospect of getting among birds of the same
feather. There, however, we were informed that it was equally
impossible to procure accommodations. In this dilemma we could do
nothing but accept Mrs. ----'s kind invitation and accompany her to the
rancho of her friend, although she herself had intended, as it was so
late, to stop at one of the hotels for the night. We were so lucky as
to procure a guide at this place, and with this desirable addition to
the party, we started on.

I had been very sick for the last two hours, and had only kept up with
the thought that we should soon arrive at our journey's end; but when I
found that we were compelled to ride three miles farther, my heart sank
within me. I gave up all attempts to guide my horse, which one of the
party led, leaned my head on the horn of my saddle, and resigned myself
to my fate. We were obliged to walk our horses the entire distance, as
I was too sick to endure any other motion. We lost our way once or
twice, were exhausted with fatigue and faint with hunger, chilled
through with the cold, and our feet wet with the damp night-air.

I forgot to tell you that Mrs. ----, being very fleshy, was compelled
to ride astride, as it would have been utterly impossible for her to
have kept her seat if she had attempted to cross those steep hills in
the usual feminine mode of sitting a horse. She wore dark-gray
bloomers, and, with a Kossuth hat and feather, looked like a handsome
chubby boy. Now, riding astride, to one unaccustomed to it, is, as you
can easily imagine, more safe than comfortable, and poor Mrs. ---- was
utterly exhausted.

When we arrived at our destined haven, which we did at last, the
gentleman of the house came forward and invited Mr. and Mrs. ---- to
alight. Not a word was said to the rest of us, not even "Good evening."
But I was too far gone to stand upon ceremony. So I dismounted and made
a rush for the cooking-stove, which, in company with an immense
dining-table on which lay (enchanting sight!) a quarter of beef, stood
under a roof, the four sides open to the winds of heaven. As for the
remainder of the party, they saw how the land lay, and vamosed to parts
unknown, namely, the American Rancho, where they arrived at four
o'clock in the morning, some tired, I _guess_, and made such a fearful
inroad upon the eatables that the proprietor stood aghast, and was only
pacified by the ordering in from the bar of a most generous supply of
the drinkable, which, as he sells it by the glass, somewhat reconciled
him to the terrific onslaught upon the larder.

In the mean time behold me, with much more truth than poetry literally
alone in my glory, seated upon a wooden stool, with both feet perched
upon the stove, and crouching over the fire in a vain attempt to coax
some warmth into my thoroughly chilled frame. The gentleman and lady of
the house, with Mr. and Mrs. ----, are assembled in grand conclave, in
one room, of which the building consists, and as California houses are
_not_ planned with a view to eavesdroppers, I have the pleasure of
hearing the following spirited and highly interesting conversation.
There is a touching simplicity about it truly dramatic.

I must premise that Mrs. ---- had written the day before to know if the
visit, which her husband's friend had so earnestly solicited, would be
conveniently received at this time, and was answered by the arrival,
the next morning, for the use of herself and husband, of two horses,
one of which I myself had the pleasure of riding, and found it a most
excellent steed. Moreover, when Mr. ---- gave her the invitation, he
said he would be pleased to have one of her lady friends accompany her.
So you see she was "armed and equipped as the law directed."

Thus defended, she was ushered into the presence of her hostess, whom
she found reclining gracefully upon a very nice bed hung with
snow-white muslin curtains, looking--for she is extremely pretty,
though now somewhat pale--like a handsome wax doll.

"I am extremely sorry to find you unwell. Pray, when were you taken?
and are you suffering much at present?" commenced Mrs. ----, supposing
that her illness was merely an attack of headache, or some other
temporary sickness.

"Ah," groaned my lady, in a faint voice, "I have had a fever, and am
just beginning to get a little better. I have not been able to sit up
any yet, but hope to do so in a few days. As we have no servants, my
husband is obliged to nurse me, as well as to cook for several men, and
I am really afraid that, under the circumstances, you will not be as
comfortable here as I could wish."

"But, good heavens, my dear madam, why did you not send me word that
you were sick? Surely you must have known that it would be more
agreeable to me to visit you when you are in health," replied Mrs.
----.

"Oh," returned our fair invalid, "I thought that you had set your heart
upon coming, and would be disappointed if I postponed the visit."

Now, this was adding insult to injury. Poor Mrs. ----! Worn out with
hunger, shivering with cold, herself far from well, a new-comer, unused
to the makeshift ways which some people fancy essential to California
life, expecting from the husband's representations--and knowing that he
was very rich--so different a reception, and withal frank perhaps to a
fault, she must be pardoned if she was not as grateful as she ought to
have been, and answered a little crossly,--

"Well, I must say that I have not been treated well. Did you really
think that I was so childishly crazy to get away from home that I would
leave my nice plank house,"--it rose into palatial splendor when
compared with the floorless shanty, less comfortable than a Yankee
farmer's barn, in which she was standing,--"with its noble fireplace,
nice board floor, two pleasant windows, and comfortable bed, for this
wretched place? Upon my word, I am very much disappointed. However, I
do not care so much for myself as for poor Mrs. ----, whom I persuaded
to come with me."

"What! is there _another_ lady?" almost shrieked (and well she might,
under the circumstances) the horror-stricken hostess. "You can sleep
with me, but I am sure I do not know what we can do with another one."

"Certainly," was the bold reply of Mrs. ----, for she was too much
provoked to be embarrassed in the least. "Availing myself of your
husband's kind permission, I invited Mrs. ----, who could not procure
lodgings at either of the hotels, to accompany me. But even if I were
alone I should decidedly object to sleep with a sick person, and should
infinitely prefer wrapping myself in my shawl and lying on the ground
to being guilty of such a piece of selfishness."

"Well," groaned the poor woman, "Jonathan" (or Ichabod, or David, or
whatever was the domestic name of her better half), "I suppose that you
must make up some kind of a bed for them on the ground."

Now, M., only fancy my hearing all this! _Wasn't_ it a fix for a
sensitive person to be in? But, instead of bursting into tears and
making myself miserable, as once I should have done, I enjoyed the
contretemps immensely. It almost cured my headache, and when Mrs. ----
came to me and tried to soften matters, I told her to spare her pretty
speeches, as I had heard the whole and would not have missed it for
anything.

In the mean time the useful little man, combining in his small person
the four functions of husband, cook, nurse, and gentleman, made us a
cup of tea and some saleratus biscuit, and though I detest saleratus
biscuit, and was longing for some of the beef, yet, by killing the
taste of the alkali with onions, we contrived to satisfy our hunger,
and the tea warmed us a little. Our host, in his capacity of
chambermaid, had prepared us a couch. I was ushered into the presence
of the fair invalid, to whom I made a polite apology for my intrusion.
My feet sank nearly to the ankles in the dirt and small stones as I
walked across her room.

But how shall I describe to you the sufferings of that dreadful night?
I have slept on tables, on doors, and on trunks. I have reclined on
couches, on chairs, and on the floor. I have lain on beds of straw, of
corn-husks, of palm-leaf, and of ox-hide. I remember one awful night
spent in a bedbuggy berth, on board of a packet-boat on one of the
lakes. In my younger days I used to allow myself to be stretched upon
the Procrustes bed of other people's opinion, though I have got bravely
over such folly, and now I generally act, think, and speak as best
pleases myself. I slept two glorious nights on the bare turf, with my
saddle for a pillow and God's kindly sky for a quilt. I had _heard_ of
a bed of thorns, of the soft side of a plank, and of the bed-rock. But
all my _bodily_ experience, theoretical or practical, sinks into
insignificance before a bed of cobblestones. Nothing in ancient or
modern history can compare with it, unless it be the Irishman's famous
down couch, which consisted of a single feather laid upon a rock, and,
like him, if it had not been for the name of it, I should have
preferred the bare rock. They _said_ that there was straw in the
ticking upon which we lay, but I should never have imagined so from the
feeling. We had neither pillows nor sheets, but the coarsest blue
blankets, and not enough of them, for bedclothes; so that we suffered
with cold, to add to our other miseries. And then the fleas! Well, like
the Grecian artist who veiled the face whose anguish he dared not
attempt to depict, I will leave to your imagination that blackest
portion of our strange experiences on that awful occasion.

What became of Mr. ----, our host, etc., on this dreadful night, was
never known. Mrs. ---- and I held council together, and concluded that
he was spirited away to some friendly haystack, but as he himself
maintained a profound silence on the subject, it remains to this hour
an impenetrable mystery, and will be handed down to posterity on the
page of history with that of the man in the iron mask, and the more
modern but equally insolvable riddle of "Who struck Billy Patterson?"

As soon as it was light we awoke and glanced around the room. On one
side hung a large quantity of handsome dresses, with a riding-habit,
hat, gauntlets, whip, saddle and bridle, all of the most elegant
description. On the other side, a row of shelves contained a number of
pans of milk. There was also a very pretty table-service of white
crockery, a roll of white carpeting, boxes of soap, chests of tea,
casks of sugar, bags of coffee, etc., etc., in the greatest profusion.

We went out into the air. The place, owned by our host, is the most
beautiful spot that I ever saw in California. We stood in the midst of
a noble grove of the loftiest and largest trees, through which ran two
or three carriage-roads, with not a particle of undergrowth to be seen
in any direction. Somewhere near the center of this lovely place he is
building a house of hewn logs. It will be two stories high, and very
large. He intends finishing it with the piazza all around, the
first-floor windows to the ground, green blinds, etc. He informed us
that he thought it would be finished in three weeks. You can see that
it would have been much pleasanter for Mrs. ---- to have had the
privilege of deferring her visit for a month.

We had a most excellent breakfast. As Mrs. ---- said, the good people
possessed everything but a house.

Soon after breakfast, my friends, who suspected from appearances the
night before that I should not prove a very welcome visitor, came for
me, the wife of the proprietor of the American Rancho having
good-naturedly retired to the privacy of a covered wagon (she had just
crossed the plains) and placed her own room at my disposal. Mrs. ----
insisted upon accompanying me until her friend was better. As she truly
said, she was too unwell herself to either assist or amuse another
invalid.

My apartment, which was built of logs, was vexatiously small, with no
way of letting in light, except by the door. It was as innocent of a
floor, and almost as thickly strewn with cobblestones, as the one which
I had just left; but then, there _were_ some frames built against the
side of it, which served for a bedstead, and we had sheets, which,
though coarse, were clean. Here, with petticoats, stockings, shoes, and
shirts hanging against the logs in picturesque confusion, we received
calls from senators, representatives, judges, attorney-generals,
doctors, lawyers, officers, editors, and ministers.

The convention came off the day after our arrival in the valley, and as
both of the nominees were from our settlement, we began to think that
we were quite a people.

Horse-racing and gambling, in all their detestable varieties, were the
order of the day. There was faro and poker for the Americans, monte for
the Spaniards, lansquenet for the Frenchmen, and smaller games for the
outsiders.

At the close of the convention the rancho passed into new hands, and as
there was much consequent confusion, I went over to Greenwood's, and
Mrs. ---- returned to the house of her friend, where, having ordered
two or three hundred armfuls of hay to be strewn on the ground, she
made a temporary arrangement with some boards for a bedstead, and fell
to making sheets from one of the innumerable rolls of cloth which lay
about in every direction, for, as I said before, these good people had
everything but a house.

My new room, with the exception of its red-calico window, was exactly
like the old one. Although it was very small, a man and his wife (the
latter was the housekeeper of the establishment) slept there also. With
the aid of those everlasting blue blankets I curtained off our part, so
as to obtain some small degree of privacy. I had _one_ large
pocket-handkerchief (it was meant for a young sheet) on my bed, which
was filled with good, sweet, fresh hay, and plenty of the azure
coverings, so short and narrow that, when once we had lain down, it
behooved us to remain perfectly still until morning, as the least
movement disarranged the bed-furniture and insured us a shivering
night.

On the other side of the partition, against which our bedstead was
_built_, stood the cooking-stove, in which they burnt nothing but
pitch-pine wood. As the room was not lined, and the boards very loosely
put together, the soot sifted through in large quantities and covered
us from head to foot, and though I bathed so often that my hands were
dreadfully chapped, and bled profusely from having them so much in the
water, yet, in spite of my efforts, I looked like a chimney-sweep
masquerading in women's clothes.

As it was very cold at this time, the damp ground upon which we were
living gave me a severe cough, and I suffered so much from chillness
that at last I betook myself to Rob Roy shawls and india-rubbers, and
for the rest of the time walked about, a mere bundle of gum elastic and
Scotch plaid. My first move in the morning was to go out and sit upon
an old traveling wagon which stood in front of my room, in order, like
an old beggar-woman, to gather a little warmth from the sun.

Mrs. ---- said, "The Bostonians were horror-stricken because the poor
Irish, who had never known any other mode of living, had no floors in
their cabins, and were getting up all sorts of Howard benevolent
societies to supply unfortunate Pat with what is to him an unwished-for
luxury." She thought that they would be much better employed in
organizing associations for ameliorating the condition of those
wretched women in California who were so mad as to leave their
comfortable homes in the mines to go a-pleasuring in the valleys.

My poor husband suffered even more than I did, for though he had a
nominal share in my luxurious bed with its accompanying
pocket-handkerchief, yet, as Mrs. ---- took it into her head to pay me
a visit, he was obliged to resign it to her and betake himself to the
barroom, and as every bunk and all the blankets were engaged, he was
compelled to lie on the bar-floor (thank Heaven, there was a civilized
floor there, of real boards), with his boots for a pillow.

But I am sure you must be tired of this long letter, for I am, and I
reserve the rest of my adventures in the American Valley until another
time.




LETTER _the_ TWENTY-SECOND

[_The_ PIONEER, _November_, 1855]

_The_ OVERLAND TIDE _of_ IMMIGRATION

SYNOPSIS


Exoneration of landlords for conditions at Greenwood's Rancho. The
American Valley. Prospective summer resort. Prodigious vegetables. New
England scenery compared with that of California. Greenwood's Rancho.
Place of origin of quartz hoax. Beautiful stones. Recruiting-place of
overland immigrants. Haggard immigrant women. Death and speedy burial
on the plains. Handsome young widow immigrant. Aspirants to matrimony
candidates for her hand. Interesting stories of adventures on the
plains. Four women, sisters or sisters-in-law, and their thirty-six
children. Accomplished men. Infant prodigies. A widow with eight sons
and one daughter. Primitive laundering, but generous patrons. The
bloomer costume appropriate for overland journey. Dances in barroom.
Unwilling female partners. Some illiterate immigrants. Many intelligent
and well-bred women. The journey back to Indian Bar. The tame frog in
the rancho barroom. The dining-table a bed at night. Elation of the
author on arriving at her own log cabin.




Letter _the_ Twenty-second

_The_ OVERLAND TIDE _of_ IMMIGRATION

_From our Log Cabin_, INDIAN BAR,

_October_ 27, 1852.


In my last epistle, my dear M., I left myself safely ensconced at
Greenwood's Rancho, in about as uncomfortable a position as a person
could well be, where board was fourteen dollars a week. Now, you must
not think that the proprietors were at all to blame for our miserable
condition. They were, I assure you, very gentlemanly and intelligent
men, and I owe them a thousand thanks for the many acts of kindness and
the friendly efforts which they made to amuse and interest me while I
was in their house. They said from the first that they were utterly
unprepared to receive ladies, and it was only after some persuasion,
and as a favor to me, that they consented to let me come. They intend
soon to build a handsome house, for it is thought that this valley will
be a favorite summer resort for people from the cities below.

The American Valley is one of the most beautiful in all California. It
is seven miles long and three or four wide, with the Feather River
wending its quiet way through it, unmolested by flumes and undisturbed
by wing-dams. It is a superb farming country, everything growing in the
greatest luxuriance. I saw turnips there which measured larger round
than my waist, and all other vegetables in the same proportion. There
are beautiful rides in every direction, though I was too unwell during
my stay there to explore them as I wished. There is one drawback upon
the beauty of these valleys, and it is one peculiar to all the scenery
in this part of California, and that is, the monotonous tone of the
foliage, nearly all the trees being firs. One misses that infinite
variety of waving forms, and those endless shades of verdure, which
make New England forest scenery so exquisitely lovely. And then that
gorgeous autumnal phenomenon, witnessed, I believe, nowhere but in the
Northern States of the Union, one never sees here. How often, in my
far-away Yankee home, have I laid me down at eve, with the whole earth
looking so freshly green, to rise in the morning and behold the
wilderness blossoming, not only like the rose, but like all other
flowers besides, and glittering as if a shower of butterflies had
fallen upon it during the silent watches of the night. I have a vague
idea that I "hooked" that butterfly comparison from somebody. If so, I
beg the injured person's pardon, and he or she may have a hundred of
_mine_ to pay for it.

It was at Greenwood's Rancho that the famous quartz hoax originated
last winter, which so completely gulled our good miners on the river. I
visited the spot, which has been excavated to some extent. The stone is
very beautiful, being lined and streaked and splashed with crimson,
purple, green, orange, and black. There was one large white block,
veined with stripes of a magnificent blood-red color, and partly
covered with a dark mass, which was the handsomest thing of the kind I
ever saw. Some of the crystallizations were wonderfully perfect. I had
a piece of the bed-rock given me, completely covered with natural
prisms varying in size from an inch down to those not larger than the
head of a pin.

Much of the immigration from across the plains, on its way to the
cities below, stops here for a while to recruit. I always had a strange
fancy for that nomadic way of coming to California. To lie down under
starry skies, hundreds of miles from any human habitation, and to rise
up on dewy mornings to pursue our way through a strange country, so
wildly beautiful, seeing each day something new and wonderful, seemed
to me truly enchanting. But cruel reality strips _everything_ of its
rose tints. The poor women arrive looking as haggard as so many
Endorian witches, burnt to the color of a hazelnut, with their hair cut
short, and its gloss entirely destroyed by the alkali, whole plains of
which they are compelled to cross on the way. You will hardly find a
family that has not left some beloved one buried upon the plains. And
they are fearful funerals, those. A person dies, and they stop just
long enough to dig his grave and lay him in it as decently as
circumstances will permit, and the long train hurries onward, leaving
its healthy companion of yesterday, perhaps, in this boundless city of
the dead. On this hazardous journey they dare not linger.

I was acquainted with a young widow of twenty, whose husband died of
cholera when they were but five weeks on their journey. He was a judge
in one of the Western States, and a man of some eminence in his
profession. She is a pretty little creature, and all the aspirants to
matrimony are candidates for her hand.

One day a party of immigrant women came into my room, which was also
the parlor of the establishment. Some observation was made, which led
me to inquire of one of them if her husband was with her.

"She hain't got no husband," fairly _chuckled_ one of her companions.
"She came with _me_, and her feller died of cholera on the plains."

At this startling and brutal announcement the poor girl herself gave a
hysteric giggle, which I at first thought proceeded from heartlessness,
but I was told afterwards, by the person under whose immediate
protection she came out, and who was a sister of her betrothed, that
the tender woman's heart received such a fearful shock at the sudden
death of her lover, that for several weeks her life was despaired of.

I spent a great deal of time calling at the different encampments, for
nothing enchanted me half so much as to hear about this strange exodus
from the States. I never weary of listening to stories of adventures on
the plains, and some of the family histories are deeply interesting.

I was acquainted with four women, all sisters or sisters-in-law, who
had among them thirty-six children, the entire number of which had
arrived thus far in perfect health. They could, of themselves, form
quite a respectable village.

The immigration this year contained many intelligent and truly elegant
persons, who, having caught the fashionable epidemic, had left
luxurious homes in the States to come to California. Among others,
there was a young gentleman of nineteen, the son of a United States
Senator, who, having just graduated, felt adventurous, and determined
to cross the plains. Like the rest, he arrived in a somewhat
dilapidated condition, with elbows out, and a hat the very counterpart
of Sam Weller' s "gossamer ventilation," which, if you remember,
"though _not_ a very handsome 'un to look at, was an astonishin' good
'un to wear!" I must confess that he became ragged clothes the best of
any one I ever saw, and made me think of the picturesque beggar boys in
Murillo's paintings of Spanish life.

Then there was a person who used to sing in public with Ossian Dodge.
He had a voice of remarkable purity and sweetness, which he was kind
enough to permit us to hear now and then. I hardly know of what nation
he claimed to be. His father was an Englishman, his mother an Italian.
He was born in Poland, and had lived nearly all his life in the United
States. He was not the only musical genius that we had among us. There
was a little girl at one of the tents who had taught herself to play on
the accordion on the way out. She was really quite a prodigy, singing
very sweetly, and accompanying herself with much skill upon the
instrument.

There was another child, whom I used to go to look at as I would go to
examine a picture. She had, without exception, the most beautiful face
I ever saw. Even the alkali had not been able to mar the golden glory
of the curls which clustered around that splendid little head. She had
soft brown eyes, which shone from beneath their silken lashes like "a
tremulous evening star"; a mouth which made you think of a string of
pearls threaded on scarlet; and a complexion of the waxen purity of the
japonica, with the exception of a band of brownest freckles, which,
extending from the tip of each cheek straight across the prettiest
possible nose, added, I used to fancy, a new beauty to her enchanting
face. She was very fond of me, and used to bring me wild cherries which
her brothers had gathered for her. Many a morning I have raised my eyes
from my book, startled by that vision of infant loveliness--for her
step had the still grace of a snow-flake--standing in beautiful silence
by my side.

But the most interesting of all my pets was a widow whom we used to
call the "long woman." When but a few weeks on the journey, she had
buried her husband, who died of cholera after about six hours' illness.
She had come on; for what else could she do? No one was willing to
guide her back to her old home in the States, and when I knew her she
was living under a large tree a few rods from the rancho, and sleeping
at night, with all her family, in her one covered wagon. God only knows
where they all stowed themselves away, for she was a modern Mrs.
Rogers, with "nine small children and one at the breast." Indeed, of
this catechismal number the oldest was but fifteen years of age, and
the youngest a nursing babe of six months. She had eight sons and one
daughter. Just fancy how dreadful! Only one girl to all that boy!
People used to wonder what took me so often to her encampment, and at
the interest with which I listened to what they called her stupid talk.
Certainly there was nothing poetical about the woman. Leigh Hunt's
friend could not have elevated _her_ commonplace into the sublime. She
was immensely tall, and had a hard, weather-beaten face, surmounted by
a dreadful horn comb and a heavy twist of hay-colored hair, which,
before it was cut, and its gloss all destroyed by the alkali, must,
from its luxuriance, have been very handsome. But what really
interested me so much in her was the dogged and determined way in which
she had set that stern, wrinkled face of hers against poverty. She
owned nothing in the world but her team, and yet she planned all sorts
of successful ways to get food for her small, or rather large, family.
She used to wash shirts, and iron them on a chair, in the open air of
course, and you can fancy with what success. But the gentlemen were too
generous to be critical, and as they paid her three or four times as
much as she asked, she accumulated quite a handsome sum in a few days.
She made me think of a long-legged very thin hen scratching for dear
life to feed her never-to-be-satisfied brood. Poor woman! She told me
that she was compelled to allowance _her_ young ones, and that she
seldom gave them as much as they could eat at any one meal. She was
worse off than the

                      old woman who lived in a shoe,
    And had so many children she didn't know what to do.
    To some she gave butter, to some she gave bread,
    And to some she gave whippings, and sent them to bed.

Now, _my_ old woman had no butter, and very little bread; and she was
so naturally economical that even whippings were sparingly
administered. But, after all their privations, they were, with the
exception of the eldest hope, as healthy-looking a set of ragged little
wretches as ever I saw. The aforesaid "hope" was the longest, the
leanest, and the bob-sidedest specimen of a Yankee that it is possible
to imagine. He wore a white face, whiter eyes, and whitest hair, and
walked about looking as if existence was the merest burden and he
wished somebody would have the goodness to take it off his hands. He
seemed always to be in the act of yoking up a pair of oxen, and ringing
every change of which the English alphabet is capable upon the one
single Yankee execration, "Darnation!" which he scattered, in all its
comical varieties, upon the tow head of his young brother, a piece of
chubby giggle, who was forever trying to hold up a dreadful yoke, which
_wouldn't_ "stay put," in spite of all the efforts of those fat dirty
little hands of his. The "long woman," mother-like, excused him by
saying that he had been sick, though once, when the "Darned fools" flew
thicker than usual, she gently observed that he had forgotten that he
was a child himself once. He certainly retained no trace of having
enjoyed that delightful state of existence, and though one would not be
so rude as to call him an old boy, yet, being always clad in a
middle-aged habit, an elderly coat, and adult pantaloons, one would as
little fancy him a _young_ man. Perhaps the fact of his wearing his
father's wardrobe in all its unaltered amplitude might help to confuse
one's ideas on the subject.

There was another dear old lady to whom I took the largest kind of a
liking, she was so exquisitely neat. Although she too had no floor, her
babe always had on a clean white dress, and face to match. She was
about four feet high, and had a perfect passion for wearing those
frightful frontpieces of false hair with which the young women of L.
were once in the habit of covering their abundant tresses. She used to
send me little pots of fresh butter,--the first that I had tasted since
I left the States,--beautifully stamped, and looking like ingots of
virgin gold. I, of course, made a dead-set at the frontpiece, though I
do believe that to this distorted taste, and its accompanying horror of
a cap, she owed the preservation of her own beautiful hair. To please
me she laid it aside, but I am convinced that it was restored to its
proud eminence as soon as I left the valley, for she evidently had a
"sneaking kindness" for it that nothing could destroy. I have sometimes
thought that she wore it from religious principle, thinking it her duty
to look as old as possible, for she appeared fifteen years younger when
she took it off. She told me that in crossing the plains she used to
stop on Saturdays, and taking everything out of the wagons, wash them
in strong lye, to which precaution she attributed the perfect health
which they all enjoyed (the _family_, not the wagons) during the whole
journey.

There is one thing for which the immigrants deserve high praise, and
that is, for having adopted the bloomer dress (frightful as it is on
all other occasions) in crossing the plains. For such an excursion it
is just the thing.

I ought to say a word about the dances which we used to have in the
barroom, a place so low that a _very_ tall man could not have stood
upright in it. One side was fitted up as a store, and another side with
bunks for lodgers. These bunks were elegantly draperied with red
calico, through which we caught dim glimpses of blue blankets. If they
could only have had sheets, they would have fairly been enveloped in
the American colors. By the way, I wonder if there is anything
_national_ in this eternal passion for blue blankets and red calico. On
ball-nights the bar was closed, and everything was very quiet and
respectable. To be sure, there was some danger of being swept away in a
flood of tobacco-juice, but luckily the floor was uneven, and it lay
around in puddles, which with care one could avoid, merely running the
minor risk of falling prostrate upon the wet boards in the midst of a
galopade.

Of course the company was made up principally of the immigrants. Such
dancing, such dressing, and such conversation, surely was never heard
or seen before. The gentlemen generally were compelled to have a
regular fight with their fair partners before they could drag them onto
the floor. I am happy to say that almost always the stronger vessel won
the day, or rather night, except in the case of certain timid youths,
who, after one or two attacks, gave up the battle in despair.

I thought that I had had some experience in bad grammar since I came to
California, but these good people were the first that I had ever heard
use right royal _we_ instead of _us_. Do not imagine that all, or even
the larger part, of the company were of this description. There were
many intelligent and well-bred women, whose acquaintance I made with
extreme pleasure.

After reading the description of the inconveniences and discomforts
which we suffered in the American Valley,--and I can assure you that I
have not at all exaggerated them,--you may imagine my joy when two of
our friends arrived from Indian Bar for the purpose of accompanying us
home. We took two days for our return, and thus I was not at all
fatigued. The weather was beautiful, our friends amusing, and F. well
and happy. We stopped at night at a rancho where they had a tame frog.
You cannot think how comic it looked hopping about the bar, quite as
much at home as a tame squirrel would have been. I had a bed made up
for me at this place, on one end of a long dining-table. It was very
comfortable, with the trifling drawback that I had to rise earlier than
I wished, in order that what had been a bed at night might become a
table by day.

We stopped at the top of the hill and set fire to some fir-trees. Oh,
how splendidly they looked, with the flames leaping and curling amid
the dark green foliage like a golden snake fiercely beautiful. The
shriek which the fire gave as it sprang upon its verdant prey made me
think of the hiss of some furious reptile about to wrap in its burning
folds its helpless victim.

With what perfect delight did I re-enter my beloved log cabin. One of
our good neighbors had swept and put it in order before my arrival, and
everything was as clean and neat as possible. How grateful to my feet
felt the thick warm carpet; how perfect appeared the floor, which I had
once reviled (I begged its pardon on the spot) because it was not
exactly even; how cozy the old faded-calico couch; how thoroughly
comfortable the four chairs (two of them had been thoroughly rebottomed
with brown sail-cloth, tastefully put on, with a border of
carpet-tacks); how truly elegant the closet-case toilet-table, with the
doll's looking-glass hanging above, which showed my face (the first
time that I had seen it since I left home) some six shades darker than
usual; how convenient the trunk, which did duty as a wash-stand, with
its vegetable-dish instead of a bowl (at the rancho I had a pint tin
pan when it was not in use in the kitchen); but, above and beyond all,
how superbly luxurious the magnificent bedstead, with its splendid hair
mattress, its clean, wide linen sheets, its nice square pillows, and
its large, generous blankets and quilts. And then the cozy little
supper, arrayed on a table-cloth, and the long, delightful evening
afterwards, by a fragrant fire of beech and pine, when we talked over
our past sufferings. Oh, it was delicious as a dream, and almost made
amends for the three dreadful weeks of pleasuring in the American
Valley.




LETTER _the_ TWENTY-THIRD

[_The_ PIONEER, _December_, 1855]

MINING FAILURES--DEPARTURE _from_ INDIAN BAR

SYNOPSIS


Dread of spending another winter at Indian Bar. Failure of nearly all
the fluming companies. Official report of one company. Incidental
failure of business people. The author's preparations to depart.
Prediction of early rains. High prices cause of dealers' failure to lay
in supply of provisions. Probable fatal results to families unable to
leave Bar. Rain and snow. The Squire a poor weather prophet. Pack-mule
trains with provisions fail to arrive. Amusement found in petty
litigation. Legal acumen of the Squire. He wins golden opinions. The
judgment all the prevailing party gets. What the constable got in
effort to collect judgment. Why Dr. C.'s fee was not paid. A
prescription of "calumny and other pizen doctor's stuff". A wonderful
gold specimen in the form of a basket. "Weighs about two dollars and a
half". How little it takes to make people comfortable. A log-cabin meal
and its table-service. The author departs on horseback from Indian Bar.
Her regrets upon leaving the mountains. "Feeble, half-dying invalid not
recognizable in your now perfectly healthy sister."




Letter _the_ Twenty-third

MINING FAILURES--DEPARTURE _from_ INDIAN BAR

_From our Log Cabin_, INDIAN BAR,

_November_ 21, 1852.


I suppose, Molly dear,--at least, I flatter myself,--that you have been
wondering and fretting a good deal for the last few weeks at not
hearing from Dame Shirley. The truth is, that I have been wondering and
fretting _myself_ almost into a fever at the dreadful prospect of being
compelled to spend the winter here, which, on every account, is
undesirable.

To our unbounded surprise, we found, on our return from the American
Valley, that nearly all the fluming companies had failed. Contrary to
every expectation, on arriving at the bed-rock no gold made its
appearance. But a short history of the rise, progress, and final fate
of one of these associations, given me in writing by its own secretary,
conveys a pretty correct idea of the result of the majority of the
remainder.

    "The thirteen men, of which the American Fluming Company consisted,
    commenced getting out timber in February. On the 5th of July they
    began to lay the flume. A thousand dollars were paid for lumber
    which they were compelled to buy. They built a dam six feet high
    and three hundred feet in length, upon which thirty men labored
    nine days and a half. The cost of said dam was estimated at two
    thousand dollars. This company left off working on the
    twenty-fourth day of September, having taken out, in _all_,
    gold-dust to the amount of forty-one dollars and seventy cents!
    Their lumber and tools, sold at auction, brought about two hundred
    dollars."

A very small amount of arithmetical knowledge will enable one to figure
up what the American Fluming Company made by _their_ summer's work.
This result was by no means a singular one. Nearly every person on the
river received the same stepmother's treatment from Dame Nature in this
her mountain workshop.

Of course the whole world (_our_ world) was, to use a phrase much in
vogue here, "dead broke." The shopkeepers, restaurants, and
gambling-houses, with an amiable confidingness peculiar to such people,
had trusted the miners to that degree that they themselves were in the
same moneyless condition. Such a batch of woeful faces was never seen
before, not the least elongated of which was F.'s, to whom nearly all
the companies owed large sums.

Of course with the failure of the golden harvest Othello's occupation
was gone. The mass of the unfortunates laid down the shovel and the
hoe, and left the river in crowds. It is said that there are not twenty
men remaining on Indian Bar, although two months ago you could count
them up by hundreds.

We were to have departed on the 5th of November, and my toilet-table
and wash-hand-stand, duly packed for that occasion, their occupation
_also_ gone, have remained ever since in the humble position of mere
trunks. To be sure, the expressman called for us at the appointed time,
but, unfortunately, F. had not returned from the American Valley, where
he had gone to visit a sick friend, and Mr. Jones was not willing to
wait even one day, so much did he fear being caught in a snowstorm with
his mules. It was the general opinion, from unmistakable signs, that
the rainy season would set in a month earlier than common, and with
unusual severity. Our friends urged me to start on with Mr. Jones and
some other acquaintances, and leave F. to follow on foot, as he could
easily overtake us in a few hours. This I decidedly refused to do,
preferring to run the fearful risk of being compelled to spend the
winter in the mountains, which, as there is not enough flour to last
six weeks, and we personally have not laid in a pound of provisions, is
not so indifferent a matter as it may at first appear to you. The
traders have delayed getting in their winter stock, on account of the
high price of flour, and God only knows how fatal may be the result of
this selfish delay to the unhappy mountaineers, many of whom, having
families here, are unable to escape into the valley.

It is the twenty-first day of November, and for the last three weeks it
has rained and snowed alternately, with now and then a fair day
sandwiched between, for the express purpose, as it has seemed, of
aggravating our misery, for, after twelve hours of such sunshine as
only our own California can show, we were sure to be gratified by an
exceedingly well got up tableau of the deluge, _without_ that ark of
safety, a mule team, which, sister-Anna-like, we were ever straining
our eyes to see descending the hill. "There! I hear a mule-bell," would
be the cry at least a dozen times a day, when away we would all troop
to the door, to behold nothing but great brown raindrops rushing
merrily downward, as if in mockery of our sufferings. Five times did
the Squire, who has lived for some two or three years in the mountains,
and is quite weather-wise, solemnly affirm that the rain was over for
the present, and five times did the storm-torrent of the next morning
give our prophet the lie. In the mean while we have been expecting,
each day, the advent of a mule train. Now the rumor goes that Clark's
mules have arrived at Pleasant Valley, and now that Bob Lewis's train
has reached the Wild Yankee's, or that Jones, with any quantity of
animals and provisions, has been seen on the brow of the hill, and will
probably get in by evening. Thus constantly is alternating light and
gloom in a way that nearly drives me mad.

The few men that have remained on the Bar have amused themselves by
prosecuting one another right and left. The Squire, bless his honest,
lazy, Leigh Huntish face, comes out strong on these occasions. He has
pronounced decisions which, for legal acumen, brilliancy, and
acuteness, would make Daniel Webster, could he hear them, tear his hair
to that extent--from sheer envy--that he would be compelled to have a
wig ever after. But, jesting apart, the Squire's course has been so
fair, candid, and sensible, that he has won golden opinions from all;
and were it not for his insufferable laziness and good nature, he would
have made a most excellent justice of the peace. The prosecuting party
generally "gets judgment," which is about all he _does_ get, though
sometimes the constable is more fortunate, as happened to-day to our
friend W., who, having been detained on the Bar by the rain, got
himself sworn into the above office for the fun of the thing. He
performs his duties with great delight, and is always accompanied by a
guard of honor, consisting of the majority of the men remaining in the
place. He entered the cabin about one hour ago, when the following
spicy conversation took place between him and F., who happened to be
the prosecutor in this day's proceedings.

"Well, old fellow, did you see Big Bill?" eagerly inquired F.

"Yes," is the short and sullen reply.

"And what did you _get_?" continued his questioner.

"I got THIS!" savagely shouts the amateur constable, at the same time
pointing with a grin of rage to a huge swelling on his upper lip,
gleaming with all the colors of the rainbow.

"What did you do then?" was the next meek inquiry.

"Oh, I came away," says our brave young officer of justice. And indeed
it would have been madness to have resisted this delightful Big Bill,
who stands six feet four inches in his stockings, with a corresponding
amount of bone and muscle, and is a star of the first magnitude in
boxing circles. F. saved the creature's life last winter, having
watched with him three nights in succession. He refuses to pay his bill
"'cos he gin him _calumny_ and other pizen doctor's stuff." Of course
poor W. got dreadfully laughed at, though I looked as solemn as
possible while I stayed him with cups of coffee, comforted him with
beefsteaks and onions, and coaxed the wounded upper lip with an
infinite succession of little bits of brown paper drowned in brandy.

I wish that you could see _me_ about these times. I am generally found
seated on a cigar-box in the chimney-corner, my chin in my hand,
rocking backwards and forwards (weaving, you used to call it) in a
despairing way, and now and then casting a picturesquely hopeless
glance about our dilapidated cabin. Such a looking place as it is! Not
having been repaired, the rain, pouring down the outside of the
chimney, which is inside of the house, has liquefied the mud, which now
lies in spots all over the splendid tin mantelpiece, and festoons
itself in graceful arabesques along the sides thereof. The lining
overhead is dreadfully stained, the rose-garlanded hangings are faded
and torn, the sofa-covering displays picturesque glimpses of hay, and
the poor, old, worn-out carpet is not enough to make india-rubbers
desirable.

Sometimes I lounge forlornly to the window and try to take a bird's-eye
view of outdoors. First, now a large pile of gravel prevents my seeing
anything else, but by dint of standing on tiptoe I catch sight of a
hundred other large piles of gravel, Pelion-upon-Ossa-like heaps of
gigantic stones, excavations of fearful deepness, innumerable tents,
calico hovels, shingle palaces, ramadas (pretty arbor-like places,
composed of green boughs, and baptized with that sweet name), half a
dozen blue and red shirted miners, and one hatless hombre, in garments
of the airiest description, reclining gracefully at the entrance of the
Humboldt in that transcendental state of intoxication when a man is
compelled to hold on to the earth for fear of falling off. The whole
Bar is thickly peppered with empty bottles, oyster-cans, sardine-boxes,
and brandied-fruit jars, the harsher outlines of which are softened off
by the thinnest possible coating of radiant snow. The river, freed from
its wooden-flume prison, rolls gracefully by. The green and purple
beauty of these majestic old mountains looks lovelier than ever,
through its pearl-like network of foaming streamlets, while, like an
immense concave of pure sapphire without spot or speck, the wonderful
and never-enough-to-be-talked-about sky of California drops down upon
the whole its fathomless splendor. The day happens to be the inner fold
of one of the atmospheric sandwiches alluded to above. Had it been
otherwise, I doubt whether I should have had spirit enough to write to
you.

I have just been called from my letter to look at a wonderfully curious
gold specimen. I will try to describe it to you; and to convince you
that I do not exaggerate its rare beauty, I must inform you that two
friends of ours have each offered a hundred dollars for it, and a
blacksmith in the place--a man utterly unimaginative, who would not
throw away a red cent on a _mere_ fancy--has tried to purchase it for
fifty dollars. I wish most earnestly that you could see it. It is of
unmixed gold, weighing about two dollars and a half. Your first idea on
looking at it is of an exquisite little basket. There is the graceful
cover with its rounded nub at the top, the three finely carved sides
(it is triformed), the little stand upon which it sets, and the tiny
clasp which fastens it. In detail it is still more beautiful. On one
side you see a perfect W, each finely shaded bar of which is fashioned
with the nicest exactness. The second surface presents to view a
Grecian profile, whose delicately cut features remind you of the serene
beauty of an antique gem. It is surprising how much expression this
face contains, which is enriched by an oval setting of delicate
beading. A plain triangular space of burnished gold, surrounded with
bead-work similar to that which outlines the profile, seems left on
purpose for a name. The owner, who is a Frenchman, decidedly refuses to
sell this gem, and you will probably never have an opportunity to see
that the same Being who has commanded the violet to be beautiful can
fashion the gold, crucibled into metallic purity within the earth's
dark heart, into shapes as lovely and curious.

To my extreme vexation, Ned, that jewel of cooks and fiddlers, departed
at the first approach of rain, since when I have been obliged to take
up the former delightful employment myself. Really, everybody ought to
go to the mines, just to see how little it takes to make people
comfortable in the world. My ordinary utensils consist of,--item, one
iron dipper, which holds exactly three pints; item, one brass kettle of
the same size; and item, the gridiron, made out of an old shovel, which
I described in a former letter. With these three assistants I perform
absolute wonders in the culinary way. Unfortunately, I am generally
compelled to get three breakfasts, for sometimes the front-stick _will_
break, and then down comes the brass kettle of potatoes and the dipper
of coffee, extinguishing the fire, spilling the breakfast, wetting the
carpet, scalding the dog, waking up F. from an eleven-o'clock-in-the-day
dream, and compelling poor me to get up a second edition of my morning's
work on safer and more scientific principles.

At dinner-time some good-natured friend carves the beef at a stove
outside, on condition that he may have a plate and knife and fork at
our table. So when that meal is ready I spread on the said table, which
at other times does duty as a china-closet, a quarter of a sheet,
which, with its three companion quarters, was sanctified and set apart,
when I first arrived here, for that sacred purpose. As our guests
generally amount to six or eight, we dispense the three teaspoons at
the rate of one to every two or three persons. All sorts of outlandish
dishes serve as teacups. Among others, wine-glasses and tumblers--there
are always plenty of these in the mines--figure largely. Last night,
our company being larger than usual, one of our friends was compelled
to take his tea out of a soup-plate. The same individual, not being
able to find a seat, went outside and brought in an empty gin-cask,
upon which he sat, sipping iron tablespoonfuls of his tea, in great
apparent glory and contentment.

F. has just entered, with the joyful news that the expressman has
arrived. He says that it will be impossible for mule trains to get in
for some time to come, even if the storm is really over, which he does
not believe. In many places on the mountains the snow is already five
feet in depth, although he thinks that, so many people are constantly
leaving for the valley, the path will be kept open, so that I can make
the journey with comparative ease on his horse, which he has kindly
offered to lend me, volunteering to accompany F., and some others who
will make their exodus at the same time, on foot. Of course I shall be
obliged to leave my trunks, merely taking a change of linen in a carpet
bag. We shall leave to-morrow, whether it rain or snow, for it would be
madness to linger any longer.

My heart is heavy at the thought of departing forever from this place.
I _like_ this wild and barbarous life. I leave it with regret. The
solemn fir-trees, whose "slender tops _are_ close against the sky"
here, the watching hills, and the calmly beautiful river, seem to gaze
sorrowfully at me as I stand in the moonlighted midnight to bid them
farewell. Beloved, unconventional wood-life; divine Nature, into whose
benign eyes I never looked, whose many voices, gay and glad, I never
heard, in the artificial heart of the busy world,--I quit your serene
teachings for a restless and troubled future. Yes, Molly, smile if you
will at my folly, but I go from the mountains with a deep heart-sorrow.
I took kindly to this existence, which to you seems so sordid and mean.
Here, at least, I have been contented. The "thistle-seed," as you call
me, sent abroad its roots right lovingly into this barren soil, and
gained an unwonted strength in what seemed to you such unfavorable
surroundings. You would hardly recognize the feeble and half-dying
invalid, who drooped languidly out of sight as night shut down between
your straining gaze and the good ship Manilla as she wafted her far
away from her Atlantic home, in the person of your _now_ perfectly
healthy sister.


                    PRINTED BY THOMAS C. RUSSELL
                        AT HIS PRIVATE PRESS,
               SEVENTEEN THIRTY-FOUR NINETEENTH AVENUE
                      SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA