CHAPTER 57Ⓐemendation
It was in this Sacramento Valley, just referred to,Ⓐemendation that a deal of the most lucrative of the early gold mining was done, and you may still see, in places, its grassy slopes and levels torn and guttered and disfigured by the avaricious spoilers of fifteen and twenty years ago. You may see such disfigurements far and wide over California—and in some such places, where only meadows and forests are visible—not a living creature, not a house, no stick or stone or remnant of a ruin, and not a sound, not even a whisper to disturb the Sabbath stillness—you will find it hard to believe that there stood at one time a fiercely-flourishingⒶemendation little city, of two thousand or three thousand souls, with its newspaper, fire company, brass band, volunteer militia, bank, hotels, noisy Fourth of July processions and speeches, gambling hells crammed with tobacco smoke, profanity, and rough-bearded men of all nations and colors, with tables heaped with goldⒶemendation dust sufficient for the revenues of a German principality—streets crowded and rife with business—town lots worth four hundred dollarsⒶemendation a front foot—labor, laughter, music, dancing, swearing, fighting, shooting, stabbing—a bloody inquest and a man for breakfast every morning— everything Ⓐemendation that delights and adorns existenceⒶemendation—all the appointments and appurtenances of a thriving and prosperous and promising young city,—and now nothing is left of it allⒶemendation but a lifeless, homeless solitude. The men are gone, the houses have vanished, even the name of the place is forgotten. In no other land, in modern times, haveⒶemendation towns so absolutely died and disappearedⒶemendation, as in the old mining regions of California.
ItⒶemendation was a driving, vigorous, restless population in those days. It was a curious population. It was the only population of the kind that the world has ever seen gathered together, and it is not likely that the world will ever see its like again. For, observeⒶemendation, it was an [begin page 392] assemblage of two hundred thousandⒶemendation young men—not simpering, dainty, kid-gloved weaklings, but stalwart, muscular, dauntless young braves, brim fullⒶemendation of push and energy, and royally endowed with every attribute that goes to make up a peerless and magnificent manhood—the very pick and choice of the world’s glorious ones. No women, no children, no gray and stooping veterans,—none but erect, bright-eyed, quick-moving, strong-handed young giants—the strangest population, the finest population, the most gallant host that ever trooped down the startled solitudes of an un-peopled land. And where are they now? Scattered to the ends of the earth—or prematurely aged and decrepit—or shot or stabbed in street affrays—or dead of disappointed hopes and broken hearts—all gone, or nearly all—victims devoted upon the altar of the golden calf—the noblest holocaust that ever wafted its sacrificial incense heavenward. It is pitiful to think uponⒶemendation.
It was a splendid population—for all the slow, sleepy, sluggish-brained sloths staid at home—you never find that sort of people among pioneers—you cannotⒶemendation build pioneers out of that sort of material. It was that population that gave to California a name for getting up astounding enterprisesⒶemendation and rushing them through with a magnificent dash and daring, and a recklessnessⒶemendation of cost or consequences, which she bears unto this day—and when she projects a new surpriseⒶemendation, the grave world smilesⒶemendation as usual, and says “well, that is California all over.”Ⓔexplanatory note
ButⒶemendation they were rough in those times! They fairly reveled in gold, whisky, fights and fandangoes, and were unspeakably happy. The honest miner raked fromⒶemendation a hundred to a thousand dollars out of his claim a day, and what with the gambling densⒶemendation and the other entertainments, he hadn’t a cent the next morning, if he had any sort of luck. They cooked their own bacon and beans, sewed on their own buttons, washed their own shirts—blue woolenⒶemendation ones—and if a man wanted a fight on his hands without any annoying delay, all he had to do was to appear in public in a white shirt or a stove-pipe hat, and he would be accommodated. For those people hated aristocrats. They had a particular and malignant animosity toward what they called a “biled shirt.”
It was a wild, free, disorderly, grotesque society! Men—only swarming hosts of stalwart men—nothing juvenile, nothing feminine, visible anywhere!Ⓐemendation
[begin page 393] InⒶemendation those days minersⒶemendation would flock in crowds to catch a glimpse of that rare and blessed spectacle, a woman! Old inhabitants tell how, in a certain camp, the news went abroad early in the morning that a woman was come! They had seen a calico dress hanging out of a wagon down at the camping ground—sign of emigrants from over the great plains. Everybody went down there, and a shout went up when an actual, bona-fideⒶemendation dress was discovered fluttering in the wind! The male emigrant was visible. The miners said:
“Fetch her out!”
He said: “It is my wife, gentlemen—she is sick—we have been robbed of money, provisions, everything, by the Indians—we want to rest.”
“Fetch her out! We’ve got to see her!”Ⓐemendation
“But, gentlemen, the poor thing, she—”
“Fetch her out!”Ⓐemendation
He “fetched her out,” and they swung their hats and sent up three rousing cheers and a tiger; and they crowded around and gazed at her, and touched her dress, and listened to her voice with the look of men who listened to a memory rather than a present reality—and then they collected twenty-five hundred dollars in [begin page 394] gold and gave it to the man, and swung their hats again and gave three more cheers, and went home satisfied.
OnceⒶemendation I dined in San Francisco with the family of a pioneer, and talked with his daughter, a young lady whose first experience in San Francisco was an adventure, though she herself did not remember it, as she was only two or three years old at the time. Her father said that, after landing from the ship, they were walking up the street, a servant leading the party with the little girl in her arms. And presently a huge miner, bearded, belted, spurred, and bristling with deadly weapons—just down from a long campaignⒶemendation in the mountains, evidently—Ⓐemendation barred the way, stopped the servant, and stood gazing, with a face all alive with gratification and astonishment. Then he said, reverently:
“Well, if it ain’t a child!” And then he snatched a little leather sack out of his pocket and said to the servant:
“There’s a hundred and fifty dollars in dust, there, and I’ll give it to you to let me kiss the child!”
That anecdote is true.
But see how things change. Sitting at that dinner table, listening to that anecdote, if I had offered double the money for the privilege [begin page 395] of kissing the same child, I would have been refused. Seventeen added years haveⒶemendation far more than doubled the price.
AndⒶemendation while upon this subject I will remark that once in Star CityⒺexplanatory note, in the Humboldt Mountains, I took my place in a sort of long, post-office single fileⒶemendation of miners, to patiently await my chance to peep through a crack in theⒶemendation cabin and get a sight of theⒶemendation splendid new sensation—a genuine, live Woman! And at the end of halfⒶemendation an hourⒶtextual note my turn came, and I put my eye to the crack, and there she was, with one arm akimbo, and tossing flap-jacks in a frying pan with the other. And she was one hundred and sixty-five* yearsⒶemendation old, and hadn’t a tooth in her head.Ⓔexplanatory note Ⓐemendation
*Being in calmer mood, now, I voluntarily knock off a hundred from that.—M. T.