Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1850-1854, 1850-07-19
CALIFORNIA LETTER.
CALIFORNIA, April Al, 1856


CALIFORNIA, April Al, 1850.
DEAR BRoTHER,-I am very glad to embrace
this opportunity to write to you and inform you
that we are well, and hope you also are in good
health. am afraid through the excitement and
impulses at work among the people, you may be
induced to come to this God-forsaken spot.
think | shall be happy if can play sort of
Abrahamic part, and warn my brethren and
friends lest they also "come to this place of tor
ment." If there was no other spot on Gods
green earth where man can live but California,
should advise him to build an ark, and take to
the a1ater. OF all the miserable climates that
ever froze an Esguimeaux, or crisped the hair of
negro, this takes the palm. From the first of
November to the last of March, there is nothing
but rain and mud, and mud and rain, in endless
variety and ceaseless succession; and from
March to November there is nothing but dust
and sun, and shine and dust and blow; and if a
| green thing can be found fit to eat in any patch
! of ground, (there is not decent garden as is
garden, in all California, from the snow top of
been coaxed out of the earth by some one (who
was lunatc enough to leave decent home)
standing over it with an umbrella all day, and
emptying water upon it at night that has been
brought miles from the river This country
is more fit for family to live in, than the
ter of Etna is for an ice-house. No schools, no
churches, no morals, TO Christianity, and no
God, but the Trinity of whores, whiskey, and
gold. We get nothing to eat but what has come
round the Horn, Every thing has been twice
melted or baked at the equator, and once frozen
at the poles. Our very necessaries are the
miseries Of life. Could you know when we are
| frying our lean, rusty, sinking pork, and the
wind was fair. have no doubt you could smell
/ it in Illinois. If you could not, we could throw
in little butter, and you would soon turn your
head TO leeward.
Talk of farming on this miserable Geology /!
! | should as soon think of raising wheat in our
old garnet. All this land was ever piled up here
for, was to keep the Pacific from Washing away
the rich lands of the Western States. If you
were located to-day in California and worth $780,
600, you would be beggar compared with what
you are now. If you had seen what | have
seen and experienced, you would be happy and
contented where you are now. say, 60 on with
your farm; in ten years you will be much
richer, and all the time far happier man you
will live longer, and enjoy more. You can have
no idea of the sufferings we had to endure. We
had to suffer every thing but death, and we came
journey. For ten days did not expect him to
live from hour to hour; and this was while we
were scaling those ramparts of Tophet-the
snowy mountains.
! 1t is no use for me to undertake to tell what |
have seen, and what | have experienced. have
seen too much, have experienced too much, for
any mortal who writes only with one hand to be
able to describe. Wait patiently till return,
and | will sit down week or two, and begin the
story of unutterabe wo. Stay at home, broth
ers. or you will wofully rue the day.
l am making from SIS to 500 day when |
make any thing. But 50 cts. and board at home
|
food once in while. There is not one in 800
who have come here, that have improved their
condition in pecuniary point of view. send
you specimen of the filthy ucre." Every
ounce which is procured will cost the United
States seventy-five dollars. My cabin is about
one-fourth mile from Charles A. Calhoon and
several other N. Y. men. Here are LAWYERS
and doctors, editors and preachers, all engaged
with their noses to the earth, like so many swine,
roofing for gold hope the swine will excuse
me--they won't dig unless for something to eat.
I They mutter and grumble and swear some, bat
conclude it is best to grin and bear it till they
can get enough to go home with Ever since
the rainy season set in, we have had to pack all
our provisions on Our back so miles; the roads
are so soft cattle cannot travel it. 1t takes a
man with more understanding than a horse to
get his s'oeet % pork, which he has paid dol
lar pound for, to Lis home.
We thought we endured something on the
plains when we were IA hours without water
travelling on foot all day-tinkering the wagons
two h'urs after dark then stand sentinel the
rest of the night, and crawl off sleepy in the
morning, envious of the cattle's rest, and be-
grudging them their comparatively brainless
heads. But on we must go, or perish on the
plains. Saleratus and Moses what choking
dust! All IS striving, cursing, or swearing !;
nothing goes right Some are almost crazy
with deirium, and mad at their own folly in
leaving comfortable homes. The everlasting
hankering for this corrupting and unsatsfying
gold, has exhausted the civil principles that we
had when we started Every emotion of kind
ness has died out in the breast; nothing remains
now where we expected there were human
nearts, but the bowels Of she tigers. Oh God
What changei what curse California will he
to humanity at large-future years must tell
1t is no time now to begin to reckon on widows
and orphans. Thousands upon thousands of
those who are now dreaming of the wealth thew