The spirit of democracy. [volume] (Woodsfield, Ohio) 1844-1994, 1849-09-08
From the St. Clairsrille Gazette.
Letter from Gov. Shannon.
SAN FRANCISCO, California,
Iune Is. 1849.


Ny DEAR SIR: We arrived here on the
18th inst, all in good health l intend
leaving tomorrow for the gold region
We cannot do much at mining for the
next six weeks, owing to the extraordlna-
ry rise in the rivers. The fall and winter
is the best time for mining. The accounts
from the gold region are as favorable as
expected, but it requires the very hardest
kind oflabor to succeed. This is the COM
mencement of the sickly season, and ma
nv of the miners are sick; the Sacramento
Valley, from one end of it to the other, is
unhealthy for three months in the year
more so, from what can learn, than any
of the valleys in our western country.
will take care of the health OF our men,.
This place presents the most extraordi-
nary spectacle in the world. Rents and
living is enormous-board is $3 pei day;
an office as large as mine would bring fit-
teen hundred dollars per month; one pub
lie house, about as large as Mr.. Creigh's
in St. Clairsville, only two stories high,
brings one hundred and tpenty thousand
dollars per year-that is what it is now
renting for; small lot, twenty feet front,
will sell for twenty thousand dollars.
These facts | know to be true Carpen-
ters and other tradesmen get sixteen dol
lars per day. Freight from here to the
mining country is enormous-all my heavy
articles will have to be left here, as it would
REQUIRE a fortune to take them to the mines.
Persons coming out here should bringnoth-
ing but what they can carry on their backs.
! Horses have been selling for six hundred
dollars, but they are now down to one
lumber six hundred dollars per thousand,
it is now down to three hundred and fifty.
Flour is lows ,as well as most kinds offood.
In two months from now most kinds OF
goods can be bought here lower than in
! St. Clairsville. In short, there will be an
extraordinary break down here in short
time. There is no business that will JUST.
fly present prices. One half the men are
! deranged with the fever of speculation.
!; All the companies that have gone to the
J mines, as yet, have broken up in a week
} or ten days | am told that mine will
: lshare the same fate, but this | DO not be-
lieve. gas sf E aisig,'la
: / intend to go to Staninslaus and ex
( plore south of the American Fork. There
is gold found in abundance in all the
= streams putting into the San Joachim. Blu
f have not time to write you at large, a
: present. am much engaged in getting
!, all things ready to leave this place. There
3 is here great crowd of people--say eigh
$ orten thousand--one half the town is com
Y posed Of tents, it presents strange ap
:, pearance. The climate of this place II
! very disagreeable, the mostso OF any tina
n | have ever been in, although tits extreme
IS ly healthy, but the north west wind blow
t. a perfect gale all the time, so that you fin,
<. it inconvenient to stem the current, and
IS is cold, SO muchso that | find my oyercoa
9 and cloak absolutely necessary,sto to be tol
e. cradle comfortable. Butthisiis no sampl
3. of the climate of CALIFORNIA;, and ! have n
X doubt from what ICcano learn, that som
st locations in this country possess as fine