The Davenport gazette., 1852-04-29
4 WARNING VOICE FROM CALIFORNIA

A WARNING VOICE FROM CALIFORNIA A
|. We copy from the Boston Journal ths
subjoined extracts from a private letter
written by brother ia California, in repl.
10 letter asking his advice as to the pro
lpriety Of saoiher brothers going out to the
gold regions. It was not designed for pub
iication and the Journal says that its stale
nents may be relied upon. Il is dated at
Bear River on the 9Th Of January.
"rhe principal object Of .our letter was
to ask nv advice about brother AS coming
10 California. Now, | beseech you, do nh
think Of such thing for moment. viii
tell you why. In the frs, place, A. is !,
married man, and has a family Of children
TO watch over and take care Of; aud what
could he do for them here? Another rea-
son is, if A. comes cut here il will cost hin
nearly 800, and he will be landed with
on, dime in a land where every thing il
item times rs costly as Ut home, WITH the
only exception of labor, which at this time
lis below par. ! will give you a few facts
which you can RELY upon as truth. The
last trip up Of the Golden Ga,e che had on
board thirteen hundred and tiy passengers
mostly mechanics from New York and
The S,nie Of Maine. A good portion O!
them immediately started for the mines
When they had got some hundred. miles
from Sacramento they found themselves
without dime in the world. The land y a.
full ofthem. They could not 60 TO mining
and if they should they would not make o
nough to pay for what they eat, putting
,side tools to work with. have bad ai
least hundred men to offer to work for
me for their board, and you can hire as
many as you want for from 5000 $50 per
month, and on that sum no man can live
gu, here when provisions are as high as
they now are. Every one have spoken
to about As comiog out beresssys SAY t.
him. stay nj homo BY al mems. Do not
| let him make fool Of himself by coming
out here, as thousan nds of o hers have done.
He 10 ten thousand times better off at home
with seventy.fye cents day than with S3
or S4 out here.
"You must not believe all the stories
that are written about California. Think
over the list Of those YOU know who came
10 California, and see how MANY Of the m
have made anything. A great MANY of
them get just money enough TO get home,
and thnnsands and thousands die here, be-
cause they cannot get money to take them
home.
"Let me tell YOU how live out here
Since last July have slept on the ground.
with merely blanket over me, and, when
it was raining ia torrents, piece OF boarf
Ito keep me from the wet, and a old tent to
keep the thickest off my head; have liv-
ed like nigger and worked like a slave.
and YOU know how much OF the stuff called
gold have been able 10 send home. If il
had moi been for my pride, | should have
heen home long ago. No one knows wha,
have sometimes even for food.
and with nothing but the blue canopy of
heaven to cover me al. t.night. Is il at ail
strange, then, that feel so shout brother
AS coming outhcre? for if he does, he has
got 10 go through with the s,me, Tel!
him he is better off with seyentv-fve cents
a dav at home than he could be out here.
..You viii see in the papers accounts Of
rich discoveries made out here. Some Of
them are true. but bv testing nine out Of
ten would not paw man dollar dav.-
At the present time there arc some seven
" miners round nv bridge, and they do No,
average 81 per day, and it is so all over
the mines. There nre some exceptions.
but they ere taken up MS soon as found,
and il would be as impossible for an sout-
I,;Iars "a cot .. cb,pco et IN, 20 for tho
gun to shine at night"