Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1848-09-29
Gold Fever in California.

The last accounts from California represent
the raging OF Il gold fever to such IN exlaOrdi-
nary degree rs TO cause all other interests to be
entirely neglected. The epidemic cannot fail
to prove disastrous to the prosperity Of the toun
try and people. The only true gold mine !. the
steady industrious pursuit Of the common occu.
patons of life and the Caliiornians who are
now carried away with the prospect Of acquir
ing wealth by momentary labor, will ere long
find that they are on the high road to poverty.
The poorest country and the poorest people are
those who place their dependence upon the
product of gold and silver mines. So it has al.
WAYS been, and so we feel sure it will be with
the Californians.
A letter from Rev. Walter Cotton, dated at
Monterey, July 2, says;
at has been discovered that the sands which
border the American Fork and the Feather
River branches of the Sacramento, are full Of
particles of gold resembling in shape squirrel
shot flattened out. 1t is got by washing in any
vessel, from tca-saucer TO warmingpan. A
single person will gather by this process from
one to two ounces day-and some have gone
as high as hundred dollars worth. Two thou.
sand whites and as many Indians are now en-
gagged in washing the sand. All labor of every
other kind has stopped except little farming.
Mechanics, doctors, lawyers, merchants, sailors,
and soldiers, have all gone in mass to the gold
it is expected, start soon. Their cradles will an
swer admirably to wash out gold in, and the lit
tie fellows in the mean time must amuse them
selves with the ingots which their mothers dig.
The excitement which this gold discovery has
produced, is most intense. People stop each
other in the streets to feel the pulse and see how
the gold fever, as it is called, BEATS Talk to
laborcr about hiring him for fifty dollars month,
and he will turn up his nose at you Offer him
ten dollars day and he will tell you he is bound
TO Feather river. One man, who resides next
door to me, gathered five hundred dollars worth
in six days. He has one lump which weighs
over an ounce. A trough such as you feed pigs
in will bring in the gold region fifty dollars. Put
piece Of sheet iron punched with holes on il,
and it will bring over hundred. My friend j.
Il paid sixteen dollars for little basket, and
his companion gave twenty for a chamber pot
all to wash out the gold in 1t beats all the
dreams of romance, and all the golden marvels
Of the wand of Midas. And yet it is true, it
there be truth in man where gold is concerned.
Sailors all run from our ships, and soldiers
from our camps, TO search the gold region. One
Yankee Captain here found that all his sailors
were about to desert, and so he told them he
would join them, and they would give the mate
the ship-and sure enough, when the mate wax
ed up in the morning he found the captain, crew,
and ships launch, all gone and he himself sole
monarch OF all lie surveyed. The last vessel
that left the coast was obliged to pay her crew
fifty dollars per month each. There is no use
in chasing sailor here, you might us well hunt
hare in an nterminable forest
Another letter furnishes some more particu-
lars:
"Thc gold is found ON the surface, near the
bank of the rivers tributary to the Sacramento
More than $4,000 have been collected within
the few weeks since 1t was discovered. The
amounts are wonderful. Steady workmon aver
age $40 per day, though many times hundred
dollars has been collected in a day by one man.
Hundreds of people arc there, Monterey, Santa
Cruz, San Jose and San Francisco are deserted
1t is about five days good travel from here to the
District. There flour is worth $50 per barrel !;
Is lbs. Of Boston crackers in tin boxes, SO a
box; cotton shirt $40; boards $500 per 1000
feet. A carpenter can get 500 per day. Mr.
l.. paid for a common cradle trough, IL feet by
wide, to wash gold earth in, $3.50. Less than
n days work to make it. So things were there
ten days since. How long the bubble will last,
it is impossible to say. All that L. says about it
is wonderful Gov. Mason and Aid have gone
to the District On their return we shall have
facts, and perhaps the other side of the picture.
August, September and October are unhealthy
months on that side of the river where the gold
is. Several cargoes that have lately arrived at
San Francisco have sold we'll for the gold mine I"