The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1850-10-08 00:00:00

THE DARK SIDE OF CALIFORNIA.

Just one week after the Times is in an ecstacy of admi-
ration at its discovery that " California seems to be in
earnest at last," and can scarcely find words with which
to paint its conceptions of the glories which are to follow,
there appears in the same journal the dreariest of all dis-
mal descriptions of what is called " The Dark Side of
California," as if there were a fatality of inconsistency
about the paper which no command of intelligence can
avert. This pitch-black side of what seven days since
was all shining in golden light is supplied by " English
correspondents," in contradistinction we suppose to the
Yankee scribes who furnished the Times with its previous
accounts. At all events the last picture offers a melan-
choly contrast to that which preceded it, and if the source
be genuine, it should De nearer the mark.
The writers set out with the pleasant intelligence that
we are not to believe all " we read in the papers," (Ame-
rican of course !) for " the fact is the different papers
have different interests in the different mines, the pro-
prietors of each are more or less speculators in the differ-
ent new cities and townships, and their different puffs
have deceived many thousands of emigrants and caused
much distress among them." What a blow does not this
give to those marvels about the gold lumps as big as
giants' heads and camels' humps, of which we heard such
very authentic histories only a week ago ! But this is
nothing to what follows. " Lately,"—this is written as
a matter of only a line and a half importance,—" Lately
twenty-seven people have been murdered at the Stockton
mines by the Mexicans and Sonorians."

The a English correspondents" proceed, full of blank
despair,—" It is generally believed that next year the
diggings will greatly fall off in their produce of gold," and
for the sufficient reason that " the whole of the gold
digging country is taken up by upwards of 100,000 gold
diggers, who will find all there is to find before November
next !"—when the wet season sets in. What a prospect
for those who rushed off last Tuesday on the strength of
the assertion in Monday's Times that—" In the last week
in July six men took out of the same diggings forty-two
pounds of dust !" It is true our contemporary did not
say " gold" dust, but he meant it, and the delusion was
complete. But there is another " prospect" even worse
than that. The reader will recollect the glowing descrip-
tion of San Francisco city which we gave in our last from
the " leading journal,"—what fine gardens, delicious fruit,
and " fashionable marriages" occurred there; and all
that. Behold what the "English correspondents.'' altacy,s,
—" This place, lately has increased greatly in size, in
a great part of-the town is built on the water upon piles.
Think of the fine manure views the mud must o
ek assured us
,
s about to that
the tide runs downs No wonder " San Fratnheiisscoisn
now
as well supplied with fruit and vegetables as
metropo-
lis" of London as the Times of Monday we
—" For six hours in the day the sand blow
it is far worse than driving to Ascot or Epsom
lot of omnibuses, (charming
on a dusty day just behind a
San Francisco is
" place !") Nearly the whole city of
not the diggings of gold that
built upon loose sand.
degree that you could not observe a friend across
totthheesrtarceeest!
of British, French, ni
never to be accounted for.
tschec.m:
merchantsthousands
who
have sent their goods herelace hundreds take advantage of
has made this place, but
Whenever a fire takes Pas whether they are burnt out
it, and close consignments
the place is almost as "fashionable"
or not." It is clear
first told us. The " English
" The city may fairly be called
correspondents'from parts of
earth. The worst characters all
hell upon ittteidhsaSs beena
t ea,
globe are here, and all the known vices are carried out
the
to the greatest extent." " There is plenty of law here,
" " Great distress and disturbances are
but no justice.
ted bore bi the wet season,—a day's work may be
eXpec
asour
'eenteal
grr on .