The Mississippi Creole. [volume] (Canton, Miss.) 1841-1851, 1849-02-23
social Life in C~alffOrnia.-A City OF
Women. = How Mining affects social
Life-.A Matrimonial Chance.

WOmen.- How Mining affects social
Life-.A Matrimonial Chance.
The following letter is said to have been
written by a lady, resident in California, to a
friend in Massachusetts.
SAN Francisco, July 20. T848.
Our passage was attended with some storm,
and difficulties while passing around the Cape
but we must expect California, like other val
uabl'things, only to be attained by great
labor and. privation. But this country, in sa-
lubrity Of climate, fertility Of soil, and rich
ness VI mineral resources, when once reached
by the weary and sea-sick voyager, serves to
amply compensate for all hardships when can
be endured by a long and tedious voyage upon
a boisterous ocean.
Soon after our arrival at this place, We en-
gagged an interior house, in one portion Of
which my husband put his stock Of goods, and
commenced trade, but his business was mod
crate until the discovery of the placers of gold
last spring, since VIII CHI lime he has sold out
all Of his goods at an enormous profit; but he
has spent most Of his lime since May at the
gold mines, near Capt. Suffers, where goods
of The most inferior quality sell at about seven
hundred per cent profit. Since my husband
went to the gold region, houses have ber0me
vacant in all parts Of the village, and the en-
tire male population has left US. | have been
unable Of late TO hire a common maid servant
at any price, but the common rates are about
seven dollars a day. The women have been
obliged, in the absence Of the males, TO con-
gtegate togctherin large houses and live to-
geIher and do their cooking, &c. ! am
now living, or as we call it, messing, with a
company Of fourteen. The experience Of the
world, men have SAID, showed that women
could not live together withour g~uarrels and
turnloila, but our sisterhood at this time gives
a plain contradiction to this slaAder Upon our
sex. When not interlered with by men, and
when permitted to drink our cup of tea I'M
der our own vine and fig tree, we are as quiet
and peaceable as lambs.
can give you no adequate idea Of the
changes in society which have been wrought
here by the discovery of the gold, Naked
Indians, that could have been hired a few
months ago at few cents per day, now receive
$40, and are extravagant in the purchase of
the most costly goods which our merchants
have atthe gold region. The demand for mar
riageble women seems to be as great as for
goods. This is the only country IN the world
where woman Is properly appreciated. The
proportion Of males in the territory is five to
one oil tho females, and the labor Of females
is as much needed, in cooking, &c. at the gold
region, as the males. There have been more
marriages in the last few months than in ten
years previous in the country. The squaws
before they will go to the gold region, make
efforts to get white husbands which they soon
obtain in the present state Of affairs. Father
Manaques, the Catholic priest. has informed
me that he married, in the last month, ITO
white men to squaws. The consequences iS
that the poor Indians'will be soon left without
any class Of females from which they can
choose, as certainly n white woman Of what-
ever condition in society will marry an Indian
when she can marry a white man Of some
wealth and prominence. Some Of the most
ugly and s%lOvenly servants here, married ira
ders, who have accumulated fortunes in a few
weeks. A woman who comes here with one
tooth in her head, has great capital to begin
in the matrimonial line, and l have thought
if a cargo Of girls were shipped from Lowell
here, it would turn Outa great speculation to
some enterprising Yankee. BY all means in
duce Peggy to come here by the first vessel
Ugly as she looks, she would be readily taken
by some en,erprising trader in present brisk
state Of the market.
We copy the following fro m he Vicksbnro