The Port Gibson herald, and correspondent., 1850-05-31

are laying down hundreds and others thou
sands on the turn of a card. Each has
bag of grain gold in his hand, which ne
must double or lose, and is only anxious to
reach the table where he can make the ex-
pertinent. You would advise him at least
to purchase suit of clothes, or 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 he may
end his ruin! No; the river bank, where
he gathered that bag, has more; so he
cheers his momentary dependency with
strong glass of Brandy, and is off again
for the mines. He found the gold by good
fortune, and has lost it by bad; and now
considers @himself even with the world.
Such is the moral effect of gold hunting on
a man, whose principles are not as fixed
and immovable as the rock. 1t begins in
a lottery and ends in lottery, where the
blanks outnumber the prizes ten to one.
But you are hungry-want breakfast
turn into a restaurant-call for ham
eggs and cofee-then your bill-six dol
lars. 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 a 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 frizzled hair be clipped. You find
barber; his dull shears hang in the knots
of your hair, like sheepshearer's in fleece
matted with burs; his razor he straps on
the leg 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 t. And now what is
the charge for this torture! Far dollars,
Night is approaching, and you must have
place where you can sleep. To inquire
for a bed would be as idle as to hunt .
pearl in the Jungle of Greenland bear
You look around for lee of shanty or TEN
and tumble down for the night; but &
thousand feas dispute the premises witt
you; the contest is hopeless-you tumble
out as you tumbled in, and spend the re
mainder Of the night in finding place
not occupied by these aborigines of tht
soil.
See you that young man with lon9
whip in his hand, cracking it over an O
team! He was one of the most Learned
geologists, for his age, in the United States
and came out here to apply his sclenc'
to the discovery Of gold deposits; but some
how his diving rods always dipped wrong
and now he has ,alsen rod, about whlcl
there is no mistake; so, at least, think hi
cattle. But looll-do you see that youn'
gentleman with a string of fish, which h
offers for sale? He was the best Gree
and Latin scholar of his class in Yale Co
lege, and subsequently one of the mos
promising members of the bar. But h
exchanged his Blackstone for a pick; an
instead of picking fees out of his clients
pockets, he came here to pick gold out
the mines; but the deuce was in 1t, te
whenever his pick struck close upon
deposit, it was no longer there! So he e.
changed his pick for hook and line. an
now angles for pike, piclkeral, and percl
and can describe each fish by some al
line from Catullus. He would do well I
his new piscatory profession, but for II
gilded hook of the gambler. He laugh
at the trout for darting at fictitious fl,
and then chases bait himself, equal
fanciful and false.
But look again-do you see that pu
: guerra, with its gathered groups Of soldie
and sailors. poets and politicians. merchant
, and mendicants, doctors and drayme
clerks and cobblers, trappers and tinker
That little man who stands behind the ba
and deals to each his dram Of fire, W
{ once a preacher, and deemed almost
: prophet, as he depicted the pangs Of tn
worm which dieth not, but now he has e
: changed that worm for another, but pr
. served his consistency; for this worm, tc
:. distilleth delirium and death. And tn
: thick-set man who stands in the midst
r the crowd, with ruby countenance a
revelling eye, whose repartee sets
! whole pulqueria in roar, and who is nc
: watching the liquor in his glass TO see
: I, it stireth itself Alright, once lectured IN
West on the temptations of those who t;
ry late at the wine; but now his teetotall:
: covers all liquors as goodly gifts gracior:
!. ! bestowed. But one brief year, and sol
i Dame Quickly may describe his pale e
! i as that of his delirium prototype-:'l s.
!, = him tumble with the sheets, and play W
y y flowers, and smile upon his fingers end
: And yet with all these drawbacks-w
y all these gambling-tables, grog-shops, sh'
= ties, shavers and feas-San Francisco
= e swelling into town of the highest &C
70 70 mercial importance. She commands
IL IL Sacramento and San Joaquin, with th
~ numerous tributaries she gathers
;, her bosom the products and manfactu
= of the United States, Of England, Chi
IL ~ the shores and islands of the Pacific.
H. The GAME OF CHEss.-Oh! it's a d
nd gerous game, by the way, that game