Cooper's Clarksburg register. [volume] (Clarksburg, Va. [W. Va.]) 1851-1861, 1852-04-28
THE MODERN Ell. DORADO-DARK
SIDE

THE MODERN Ell DORADO-DARK
SIDE.
A friend, says the Boston Journal, has
handed us letter which he received from
brother in California, by the last steam
er, and which was written in reply to one
asking advice in regard to another broth
ers' going out to the gold regions. The
letter before us was written, not for pub
lication, but aS brothers advice to a
brother Its statements may therefore be
relied upon, and the extracts which we
have made ought to be we'll considered
by the hundreds of young men who are
now rushing to California, with lopes
which to all human probability must be
sadly disappointed, The letter is dated
Bear River, Jan. 81. The writer says:
"Thc principal object of your letter
was to ask my advice about AS coming
to California. Now l beseech you, do
not think of such thing for moment.
l will tell you why, In the first place A.
is a married man, and has a family of chill
,dred to watch over and take care of, and
what could he do for them here? Ano-
thcr reason is, if A. comes out here it will
cost him nearly $500, and he will be Ian
ded without dime in a land where every
thing is ten times as costly as at home,
with the only exception of labor, which at
the nrcsent moment is below par, will
tell YOU a few facts which you may rely
unon AS truth. The last trip up of the
Golden Gate, she had on board thirteen
6,,u,yyeI and ,ffty pdSsengerS-mostly me-
cLanics from New York and the State Of
Maine, A good portion of them immodi-
.atcly started for the mines.
When they had got some hundred miles
from Sacramento they found themsol olves
without dime in the world The land
was full Of them. They could not so to
mining, and if they should they would
not make enough to pay for what they
eat, putting aside tools to work with.
have had at least hundred men offer to
work for me for their bread, and you can
hire as many as you want for from $50 to
$50 dollars per month, and on that sum
no man can live out here, when provisions
are as high as they now are. Every one
l have spoken to about AS coming here,
says-"say to him, stay at home by all
means. Do not let him make fool of
himself by coming out here, as thousands
of others have done He is ten thousand
times better off at home with rs cents a
day than with So or So out here
You must not believe all the stories
that are written about California. Most
ofthem are lies and base forgsrios. They
are manufactured by a few men engaged
in steamboats, and other conveyances, to
keep up this excitement so that their
boats and coaches may go full, l will
give YOU an instance which actually oc-
CURED. Just aftcr the arrival of large
number of newcomers at Sacramento,
the proprietor of line of stages running
into the mountains, gave large specimen
OF gold which he had purchased from
rambler to q person, and told him to raise
an excitement with it. The lump was
worth $1575.
The man took it and went down to the
lower part of the city, where he exhibited
it on the sidewalk, telling at the same time
a good story, how, when and where it
was obtained. According to his story it
was found at large creek near Auburn
where there are plenty OF chahceS loF
thousands of miners. These newcomers
eagerly bite at this bait. Some OF them
perhaps, have but few dimes Or At the
most, but few dollars, and these they
readily give to ride IN the stage to TINS gol-
den place, where all they have to do is to
stoop down and pick up the rich Jumps
The poor fellows soon find that they have
been culled-that they are penniless, and
have got to beg for something to cat
This is solemn truth, There is not
day that passes but let pass over my
bridge free, from ten to twenty persons
because they have not dime to pay for it.
Think over the list of those you know
who come to California, and see how ma
ny Of them have made anything "A great
many Of them get Just enough to get home
and thousands and thousands die and rot
here, because they cannot get money
enough to take them home. am told
by persons that have Just arrived out
here, that the enchantment is greater
now than ever before in all the Eastern
States, and that one-half the population
will come out here this Spring. How
much suffering there will be, God only
knows. Now let me tell you how live
out here. -. =,
Since last July I have slept on the
ground with merely blanket over mo
and when it was raining in torrents
piece of board kept me from the Wet' ant
an old tent to keep the thickest OF my
head: | have lived like a niger ane
worked like a slave, and you know how
much of the stuff-gold-I have SEN
home. If it had not been for my pride
should have been home long ago. Nc
one knows what have Suffered-some-
times even for food, and with nothing but
the blue canopy OF heaven to cover me at
night. Is it at all strange, then, that !