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

CALIFORNIA. GOSSIP.

The San Francisco correspondent of the Nov York Times
writes :—" Our Ophir mine is now paying about 48do1 per
foot per month, being a little over 3 per cent. per month
dividend. The Gould and Curry works at Waehoe 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 1,600,000d0l 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 20,000d0l per month
from their interests in mines, and in most cases they are
goennetye. el They
when know how to drink
carried to excess,
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
aknndowsnahookwe,tobustpetrat isth not
romt
and very few of them 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
lager bier dayssaloons by hand -
ind T
as money rise in the outside social scale. They get to be
directors of insurance companies, trustees, and are called on
of extravagance,
oftenfu whenls,atmroeosnguoebyns
gone.
subscribe
se
tattor
ocpwhraanrniactriioesso is probably the only city in
the world where money does not give a man the entrée 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 signifying about
the s
a'
me; an
d' is
yet herot
h ekrne o
isw n
manyas ' w aas
good,hoe, '
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 a quartz mine of 12,000 dole.
a month. I say ' misfortune,' because when he 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. Ile made his confession to me, and asked what he
cgoouolddldiboratoryp,agsestha yacht, go fishing, shooting, get 17 dogsis time more agreeably. I said, buy a
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
Idogs bad fleas. 1 could only advise him to go and drown
himself,”_,