The Port Gibson herald, and correspondent., 1850-11-01
Foreign Tmnorts.

When California was first "opened up," as
the scholars OF the counting-house say, to Amer~
ican enterprise it became the receptacle for all
"things lost upon earth" 10 be found in our great
cities. Every dealer in the "shoe line" and ev-
cry vender of ready made clothing, searched
their cellars and garrets for articles which fash-
ion had condemned or worms and moths had in
vaded, to supply the new demand opened up in
California. And every dealer in dry goods who
could sellno more stale trumpery by "letting on
the Croton" and advertising them as ''goods by
the Garrick, put on new marks, numbers and
| labels and sent them to California. Boston, New
York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, New Orleans,
were "quite cleaned out" Of entiquated rubbish,
and rejoced in stocks entirely new. And Cali
fornia became like the hither bank of the Styx,
where the ghosts divested themselves of every
thing which they ever had in the old world be-
fore they enter the ferry boat for crossing to the
new. The accounts of enormous bargains, in
which the round-toed boots and swaow-tailed
coats Of the last age sold Tor their weight in gold
dust, reached Old England in due time, and ex-
cited the same spirit of enterprise in John Bull
With that keen perception of profit which shows
the common origin of John and Jonathan, the
first resolved to walk in the footsteps of his Illus
trinus predecessor in this new market, and send
his last clothes to California John knew that
Jonathan had preceded him, and SKINNED The
cream Of the market But John thought that
the skinned milk was better than none; and
experience had told him that he might cut into
portion of any market where Jonathan was pre-
ferred, by counterfeiting Jonathan's marks and
numbers. Accordingly John swept this shops from
large quantity of antiquated and condemned
wares, secured them into new face, said his
old shoes were from Lynn, his old shirts from
Lowell, his old hats from Philadelphia, his old
coal hods from New York, his old iack>knwes
from Harper's Ferry, sent them to California,
and like his brother Jonathan, turned an honest
penny by selling them to the diggers for twenty
times their cost and hundred times their value.
The success of Jonathan first, and John af-
forwards, in shipping old clothes and damaged
wares to California, has reached the ears Of
Mons. Jean Crapaud; and Mons. Jean, though
always behind the Saxons in finding market
for necessaries, socn follows them and reaps
good harvest for luxur;es. Mons. Jeans best
goods are better than Johns or Jonathan's, for
in first qualities, he relies upon quality and cares
little for cost, and is sure Of purchasers among
those who insist on the genuine. In the A num-
ber ones. john has strength without beauty, JON
athan has less strength and more beauty, Mons.
Jean has both in greater degree than either.
But in the cheap goods, while Mons. Jean quite
equals the Brummagen worthlessness OF John
and the wooden nutmeg fraud Of Jonathan, he
far surpasses both in elegance of form, color and
finish. When cheated in French, the buyer
may console himself with having got something
pretty, however worthless. He has very little
of such consolation when done by Jonathan, and
none at all when done bro1ca by John. Well
then, Mons. Jean has resolved TO try his luck in
California with his second-handed articles OF in
ferior quality, especially articles of luxury. His
taste in such things is universally acknowledged
Accordingly we are told BY French journal
publishedin III Rouen, Normandy, that a shipoWner
is preparing to send to California, ssabout $50
women. belonging, II the truth must be told, 10
that unfortunate class of creatures who live in
our great cities by the wages of infamy. Some
will be taken from Rouen, some from Rennes,.
and some from. Orleans, but mostly from Paris
They are, however, still so young, that, upon be-
ing reformed. they may yet be useful 10 an in
fant coIony.'' How eminently French. In
what cool and bhsnesssIike mannerdoes Mons
Jean take for granted that, In the matter Of mat
rimony, the Americans in California will, Ia
mode de Paris, and like genuine Frenchmen,
be quite alive to convenience, and Indifferent to
every thing else To be sure these damaged
goods of France are pretty 'showy,' stasty," as
the shopkeepers say, and much superior to the
English articles OF the same kind. But Jona-
than will probably remember his mother and
sisters and cousins, and look for something more
than fine finish. In matrimony, Jonathan is
more fastidious In taste, g. particularly socitous
about quality. AS California contains large
assortment Of English convicts from Australia,
cut.throats from Mexico and South America,
andrascals sromthe rest Of m ankind, Mons. Jean
may be able to trade off a lew choice specimens.
But as great majority oi the Californians are
Yankees, we believe that this CaiifornicatiDg
speculation viii fail, and therefore advise Mons.
Jean to try his own ssinfanf colony Of Algiers,
where they are all French and renegade Arabs.
Philadslphig Ledger.