The weekly Butte record., 1858-11-27
Some of our Doings.

its existence has appeared dull, and trouble
borrowing people have been led 10 predict its
fast approaching dooms-day These fears
we're not entirely unreasonable, but, as We think
is demonstrated in various ways, they were un-
founded. When the South Feather and Ophir
Water Company's Ditch was in process of
construction, those who were engaged in build-
ing up the town, anticipated rich harvest of
gold from our then extensive fields Of surface
diggings, extending for miles aronnd. Those
who held out until the ditch was completed
and the diggings were fairly opened realized a
fuflment of their calculations others of the
pioneers were compelled to abandon their
places of business, before the Substance of
things hoped for" had been placed within their
reach. The summer after the ditch was CON-
pleted saw our streets filled with miners and
every branch of trade in full tide OF prosper-
ty. Those were our days of opulencc, and of
extraragance. At least one-third of the places
Of business opened, were opened for the season
of excessive wealth, and with its expenditure,
they were closed and their conductors went
elsewhere, fortune seeking. The sudden dull
ness following that brilliant season was made
more painfully apparent by comparison, and
the dolefully predicted fate of the town. had
many sad believers. Let US take glance at
what has been done and what is now doing
since the dull times" commenced, aud see how
we stand, relatively.
Now and then, since the town received
favorable reputation from its early days of
prosperity, men of enterprise and capital have
come here, and after quiet, careful inspection
Of our resources and channels of trade, have
concluded to establish themselves here, and so
quietly have they done so, that the fact Of their
presence has hardly impressed itself upon our
minds; and who they are or what they are
driving at are questions nobody has thought Of
asking. 1t is to the business OF these compari-
lively new comers we have thought to draw
the attention of our readers.
Where, in our days of plenty and prohgacy
we saw hurrying, busy crowds of money spend
ers, is now heard, in place of fascinating strains
OF music, tie ceaseless banging of the tinman's s
hammer. Upon lot of land which in the
good days of sc" would have commanded
price four times greater than its present real
value, we see erected an iron workers shop, in
which are made what in the "good times" we
neither needed nor cared for-iron doors and
shutters. On Montgomery street, and in a
portion thereof where the rush of business was
the greatest in early times, but which was sub
seqently thought abandoned by the supporters
of trade has lately been erected foundry for
casting iron and brass. A machine shop is
attached thereto. Near the foundry, grist
mill is going up, and before many weeks it will
be finding our market in home made -four.
Where a whiskey shop flourished in "better
times" a wholesale and retail dry goods store
has been opened and the fine brick block in
which it is located, has taken the place of hur-
riedly erected wooden shanties. Where scores
of mechanics made liberal wages in erecting
and finishing houses and stores, fewer num-
Der of their class have established permanent
shops or settled residences.
What do all these facts lead us to conclude !?
Certainly not that there is more money in the
market now than there was in our earlier days,
but just as certainly that so far as the means
for saving what we make is concerned, we are
Infinitely better conditioned than then. In
many particulars, we are now, as community,
self-dependent. What were furnished US by
the manufactures of San Francisco, Sacra-
mento and Marysville, We now can have made
in the shops of our neighbors, and those who
were compelled to make their purchases of
merchandise in the markets below, now find
their wants supplied at home.
With the exhaustion or abandonment of our
surface diggings vanished much Of our surface
prosperity, but that which was worthy to re-
main stands yet. founded on the lasting bed
rock of real, substantial permanency.