Anti-slavery bugle. [volume] (New-Lisbon, Ohio) 1845-1861, 1849-11-17
From the Massachusetts Spy.
Letter from California.

We are permitted to make the following
extracts from a letter received by a gentle
man of this city.
SAN FRANcIsco, Aug. %, 1919.
To give you some idea of what is going
on, | must give you a description of this
worst of all places in the known world
Eight weeks since there did not exceed
twenty buildings in the place, now there are
at the least calculation 500, some of which
have been made of lumber brought from
Oregon and the British dominions. Many
have brought lumber from the States, from
Chill, from the Sandwich Islands, and not a
few from Canton and on an avarage, are
the cheapest and meanest lot of buildings |
ever saw i'll any part of the world | have
ever visited. One-third of the buildings are
slender frames, made of scantling, covered,
top, sides and ends, with drilling, and an
swer a very good purpose as long as the dry
season continues. When the rainy season
comes these cloth buildings will be of no ac-
Rents are enormously high, and a
person must do a large business, at Il large
profit, to pay expenses.
BY reference TO advertisements in the Cal
ifornia papers which | send you, YOU can
form some idea of the quantities of goods
i'll the market, and they are sold at auction,
In large lots, and generally at great sacrifices.
Men at the East who have sent out Provi-
sions OH speculation, will lose money. |
give you n list of prices, that | nave seen
goods sold for within a few days. Flour
l-2 to & dollars per bag of 200 pounds, and
a good article mess pork, 10 to $50, prime
pork 10 to Sl2; mess beef, 3 to 81; mack
eral, 8 TO $40; Salmon $l4 n. f.. Ram, 30
to 40 cents a gal. molasscs, 20 to 30 cents,
and | heard of one lot selling for 4 CENTS
Liquors of all kinds are selling at a loss, that
is, poor stuff, and there is very little good Ii
quor i'll the place. Butter is selling at whole
sale for 75 cents, at retail for l.50 and $l.25;
lard 30 cents, cheese 70 to 81, and many OF
the ~luXuries exceedingly high. Vegetables
are worth almost their weight in gold dust,
for instance, potatoes are % cents per pound,
onions 80 cents each, cabbage heads, and We
ry small, 81, cucumbers 81, wdtcrmelons 81
TO S3, tomatoes % cents, and very few | as
sure You at this price even. An old English
gardner in the mining country, | am told, has
sold this season $4,000 worth of vegetables,
the product of his own labor. lie hired no
hands but a cashie, whom he paid $1,000
All of these things must look mighty strange
To you, and | say they do to me. When
hear so much that is discouraging in relation
To digging gold, and realizing fortunes | can
tell you nothing from experience, and | can
Judge little from reports, they are so conflict
ing. Many do exceedingly well, and get
large quantities in Il short time, but | am led
TO believe that the large mass do not realize
over So Il day on All average, and that is set
ting it high. That there are large quantities
of the ore i'll the mountains there is 10 dis
putting, but TO dig it is the hardest kind OF
work being obliged to undergo filtigues and
hardships, with none OF the comforts Of liv-
ing. There is "A great deal of humbug in it.
Thousands will realize fortunes, and Tens OF
thousands will go home no richer than they
came.
The climate at San Francisco is the most
disagreeable in the world, and if what | have
Witnessed be an average specimen, the man
who lives here three years. earns a fortune
The mornings are very toggy, and cold
enough for ar overcoat, Al nine or ten