San Andreas independent., 1858-09-11
The Interior Press and the San Francisco
PAPERS.


hor fiattery and believe that excellence re-
quires no praise from us to advance its
claims upon the public However pleas
ant it may be to the feelings of vain
man to be told that he is great, Or plain
man that he is handsome, it is the bust
ness of rogue or fool to tell them so;
and, for one who is really great to be re-
minded of the fact by his intellectual in
feriors, is merely waste of breath. If,
therefore, during our management of the
Independent, we have appeared to be
sparlng of compliments to our many ex-
cellent contemporaries, let it not be "set
down in malice" but rather as the natu-
raj course of one who has no motive in
hattering Ignorance, insignifcance and
medlocrity, nor yet the forwardness to
lavish praise where it was not needed. 1t
Is not our purpose now to alter this line
OF conduct; but to answer the ungenerous
reflections which have, from time to time
been cast upon the Press of the interior
by certain newspapers of San Francisco.
For the revival and extension of the
commerce of San Francisco, it has been
deemed necessary by the newspapers of
that city to. herald to the world the most
exaggerated accounts of gold discoveries
and big strikes on Fraser river and its
tributaries. No cost has been spared on
the part of publishers to spread their false
and garbled intelligence. They have en-
ployed regular correspondents from all
points in the north, whose business, in
the main, seems to be to gather all the
items OF good news, and carefully conceal
all the bad. Their statements are POM
pously introduced to public notice by edi-
torial comment, inviting full faith in their
truthfulness. This infammable matter
has been copiously scattered through the
interior and eagerly caught at and de-
voured by the discontented, restless thous
ands In the mines. For time, the utter
depopulation of the laboring men of the
State was threatened; and as it is, near
one-fourth of our working men have left.
Left for what TO starve, or freeze. or
perish by the hand of cruel savages on a
foreign soil! The boasted mines are
humbug. All rational men here have
known that fact since the goth of july.
Of the $4,000 who have gone up to Bel
lingham Bay, full 10000 have remained
in almost continual idleness; the rest have
been averaging too dollars per day
The river is still up; and terrible winter
approaches, with all its horrors of scurvy
and disease and wretchedness, which must
operate upon the softened constitutions of
our Californians like a Russian winter
upon the army of Moscow. The press of
the interior, with great unanimity, fore
saw these past and approaching disasters,
and warned the miners of the false state
ments which were driving them to ruin.
The result has justified their course. EN-
igration has stopped. The letters which
are now received, and those persons who
return, advise precisely the same thing
which we advised three months ago.
Enraged at the defeat of their infamous
plans, the San Francisco papers are now
berating the interior press for the honest
opinions they published. This is the
whole cause of their testy, low-toned abuse
Let the people judge which of the two have
acted more honorably and intelligently.
With a good share of experience in
newspaper business, we can truthfully say
that in no State of this Union, will the
interior papers compare with those of Cal
ifornia-either in editorial management
or mechanical neatness. In other States
the interior press is too often the creature
of faction or party, and under the control
of men who use it as a stepping-stone to
what they deem more honorable posi-
tion. Here, there is no profession supe-
rior to ours, for the reason that the most
talented and honorable men in the State
engage in it permanently. The names of
Upson, Ridge, Mcdonald, Wright, Allen,
Dosh, OSullivan, Holmes and Springer,
are as familiar to the people of California
as household words, and could derive no
distinction from any office, State or Fed
eral. These men have engaged In edito-
rial pursuits not because they were con-
genial to their tastes, or with view of
passing an easy, indolent life, or as STEP
ping stone to something higher; but for
the reason that no profession opens so vast
field for the exercise of noble industry
talent, genius. The youth of Athens con-
suited once in lifetime the oracle of
Delnhos- tha trua haliavar IN Al D,