The Sun.
London, England, 1864-02-13 00:00:00

CALIFORNIA GOSSIP.

The San Francisco correspondent of the New York Times
writes :—" Our Ophir mine is now paying about 43d01 per
foot per month, being a little over 3 per cent. per month
dividend. The Gould and Curry works at Washoe are per-
fect; they have cost nearly a million; a lady can pass
through their immense mill, where tons of quartz are con-
verted into powder every hour, and not soil her dress.
4,000,000d01 in bullion, have been taken out of this mine in
the last 12 months, and 1,600,000d01 paid in dividends to
the stockholders. Many of them purchased early at about
400do1s per foot, and received about 400 per cent. in divi-
dends last year. The dividend is generally 150dol per foot
per month. The stock sells readily at 4,900d01 per foot.
Of course many people have become rich from the increased
value of not only this stock, but many other good mines.
There are probably 200 well-bred men leaning against lamp-
posts, door-posts, smoking and idling about town, who are
receiving all the way from I,ooodol to 20,000d01 per month
from their interests in mines, and in most cases they are
men who have been brought up to hard work, and have
swung the heavy pick and shovel for weeks and months—
men who moved in the humbler walks of life, and conse-
quently are often miserable and wretched. They don't
know how to spend their money, They know how to drink
and smoke, but that is not genteel when carried to excess,
and very few of thew do it. The first indulgence is in good
clothes. and they run astonishingly to long-tailed coats, soft
hats, and immense cigars. Those who have talent as well
as money rise in the outside social scale. They get to be
directors of insurance companies, trustees, and are called on
often to subscribe to charities. The days of extravagance,
when money was thrown around i lager bier saloons by hand-
fuls, are gone, San Francisco s probably the only city in
the world where money does not give a man the entree into
good society, and by the same token where poverty is no dis:
grace ; in fact, it is rather genteel to be poor here. What you
term ' shoddy 'is here known as washoe,' signifying about
the same; and yet there
is m
any a good, honest, worthy
fellow here whose only crime is an income of 10,000 dole. a
month. I know one of the sort who has had the misfortune
to fall heir to an income from
j a quartz wino of 12,000 dols.
a month. I say misfortune, because when ho earnt a pre-
carious subsistence he was jolly and happy. Now he is
wretched, don't know what to do with his money or him-
self. He made his confession to me, and asked what he
could do to pass his time more. agreeably. I said, buy a
good library, get a yacht, go fishing, shooting, get 17 dogs
and a bully pair of trotters, and enjoy every moment;
travel, see the world, get a meershaum, buy nice paintings,
build a nice house, furnish it handsomely, get a farm. raise
your own turnips, lay your own eggs, &c. He only yawned,
said he didn't shoot, didn't fish; smoking made his head
swim, sailing made him sick, didn't like reading, couldn't
tell an oil painting
from an engraving, hated a farm, and
dogs had fleas. 1 could only advise him to go and drown
himself,"