Jeffersonian Republican. [volume] (Stroudsburg, Pa.) 1840-1853, 1850-06-20
Description of San Francisco.
BY WALTER COTTON, U. S. NAVY.

inland lake, communicating by narrow channel
with the ocean, This channel, as the tradition of
the aborigines runs, was opened by an earthquake
which a few centuries since convulsed the conti-
nent The town was built on the south bend of
site is succession of barren sand hills, tumbled
up in every variety Of shape. No levelling pro-
cess on a scale of any magnitude has been at
tempted. The buildings roll up and over these
sand ridges Ikea shoal of porpoises over the swell
of wave, only the fish has much the most order
in the disposal of head and tail. More incongru-
Gus combinations in architecture never danced in
the dreams of men. Brick warehouses, wooden
sh2nies, sheet-iron huts, and shaking tents, are
blended in admirable confusion.
But these grolesque habtatons have as much
uniformity and sobriety as the habits of those who
occupy them. Hazards are made in commercial
transactions and projects of speculation that would
throw Wall street into spasms. have seen mer-
chants purchase cargoes without having even
glanced into the invoice. The conditions of the
sale were hundred per cent. profits to the own
er and cost In one cargo. when tumbed out,
were found twenty thousand dollars in the single
article of red cotton handkerchefs. I'll get rid
of those among the wild Indians, said the pur-
chaser, with shrug of his shoulders. I've a
er-lot which will SELL cries another (which
way does il stretch : inquire half dozen. Right
under the craft there is the reply. And what
do you ask for it = Fifteen thousand dollars. =
| I'll take it, Then down with your dust So
the waterloo, which mortal eyes never yet behed,
cLo ~ 6cb
have two shares in gold nine cries another
| Where are they 3 inquire the crowd. Under
the south branch OF the Yuba river, which we have
almost iurned. is the reply. And what will you
take = Fifteen thousand dollars I'll give ten' ;
Take them, stranger So the two shares OF
possibility of gold under the branch OF the 4uba,
where the water still rolls rapid and deep, are sold
for ten thousand dollars, paid down Is there any
thing in the Arabian Nights that surpasses this !
But glance at that large wooden building, which
looks as il the winds had shinged it, and the pow
ers Of the air pinned lis clap boards in the Storm
Enter, and you find great hall filled with tables,
and motley group gathered around each Some
are laying down hundreds and others thousands
on the turn of card Each has bag Of grain
| gold in his hand, which he must double or lose,
and is only anxious TO reach the table where he
can make the experiment. You would advise him
at least to purchase suit of clothes, repair his
old ones, before he loses his all but what cares
he for his outward garb, when piles Of the yellow
dust swell and glitter in his excited imagination
Down goes his bag of gold and is lost! But does
! he look around for rope or pistol that ne may
end his ruin. No; the river bank, where he gath
| cred that bag has more; So he cheers his momen-
tary despondency with strong glass of brandy.
and is off again for the mines. He found the gold
| by good fortune. and has lost il by bad, and now
considers himself about even with the world
Such is the moral effect of gold hunting on man
whose principles not as fixed and immoyabie
as the rock. 1t begins in a lottery and ends in a
lottery, where the blanks ounumber the prizes ten
10 one.
| But you are hungry-want your breaklasi-turn
| into restaurant-call for ham, eggs and coffee
then your bili--six dollars Your high boots,
which have never seen brush since you first put
! them on, have given out You find a pair that
can replace them--they are tolerable fit; and
now what is the price? Fifty dollars Your
beard has not felt razor since you went to the
mines--it must come off, and your frizzed hair be
clipped. You find a barber his dull shears hang
in knots of your hair like the sheep shears III
fleece matted with burs; his razor he straps on the
leo OF his boot and then hauls away, starting at
every pull some new fountain Of tears. You VOW
YOU will let the beard go ]; but then one side is
partly off, and you try the agony again to get the
other side something like it; and now what Is the
charge for this torturel Four dollars Night is
approaching, and you must have place where
you can sleep to inquire for bed would be as
idle as to hunt pearl in the jungle Of Greenland
bear. You look around for lee OF shanty or
tent. and tumble down for the night; but thou
sand Heas dispute the premises with you the con-
test is hopeless--you tumble out as you tumbled
in. and spend the remainder Of the nightln fnd-
ing place not occupied by these aborigines OF the
SOIL
See you that young man with long whip IN his
hand cracking it over an OK team lie was one
Of the most learned geoogists for his age, in the
United States, and came out here to apply his
science 20 the discovery Of gold deposits but
somehow. his diving rods always dipped wrong,
and now he has taken a rod about which there is
mo mist ake so at least, think his cattle But look
,o,, 80 tta, vouno gentleman with string