Union County star and Lewisburg chronicle. [volume] (Lewisburg, Pa.) 1859-1864, 1859-12-02
From Northern California.
The following from private letter W" think
u be- found nteresting TO the reatcrs OF the STAR


Y-IEKA CITY, Oct. 81, 1859.
This is a place of three or four thousand
inhabitants, in about 40 or fl north lati-
tude, 100 feet above the level of the sea,
and is situated among multitude of hills,
600 to 500 feet in height. Some of these
elevations are bare, some covered with
bunch grass, and many with tall pines.
l never tire gazing on the mountain peaks
of California. This is perhaps the most
important mining town in the North, from
which other mining towns farther away Gf
possible) in the mountains receive their
supplies of clothing, provisions, and-5et-
ter yct-their news from home. Uncle
Sam is very sparing Of post offices, but
express wagons run to all parts of the
mines, carrying everything and charging
only "two bits for letter or any other
small package. tits the seat of justice for
Scskiyou county; Court House figures
in the center of our plaza Jail disfgures
one side Of it, and there is a stationary
gallows a little ways out of town, on a
gentle rise towards the Ccme,ery-this
arrangement probably having the best
moral influence on the manners of the
community A Ch;uaman is iu Jail on
the charge of killing two of his country
men-a degraded race, whom nobody here
seems to pity-aud his chance for promo
,iOn" is deemed certain.
Business. There is a Lecompton and
an Anti Lecompton paper published here,
such as they are-and two good schools.
The NJ. D's are as thick as toads after a
shower but the place is very healthy,
some chills and fever, but few lung COM
plants, and no asthma, (why shouldn't air
be pure away up in the clouds! =! however,
the rainy season is approaching, when it
may be different; y but if they do get n
patient, they know how to "charge.' The
LAWYERS are almost as numerous, and more
unmerciful and the undcrtakers' prices
are too high to think Of dying here. We
have perhaps dozan of dry goods stores,
aud 4 number Of grocerie~moge billiard
aud other saloons than you would want to
count, and houses of i'll fame many.
Ptop'e.-There is such conglomeration
of good, bad and Indifferent men aud
women here-Anglo.S .Saxons, Spanish,
Cinnamon, &c-,hat it is pretty difficult
to classify them. Eastern people may
imagine the worst society possible, but the
reality is still worse in many eases wh',G
,uu I6"rt numVri " tnu uetter are as gold
seven times purified The worst class are,
we hope, growing beautifully less, while
the best are increasing and becoming per-
manent residents.
Mrols.-The Method have church
here, with few good members, laboring,
not unsuccessfully, for the improvement
of society. We have also the finest Sab
bath school, it seems to US, in all creation.
But the truth is, as good minister told
usin Sabbath school, the other day, every
body formerly came here after gold the
gold looked SO tempting, We thought We
might dig on Sunday, quiefipg our con-
sciences with the idea that we could sooner
return to our families, and be religious
again and so, the Sabbath violated, we
went on from bad to worse" lie then told
the chidren-somc of whom had never
seen any other country-how pleasant So
cicty was where the religion Of the Bible
ruled, and what quiet Sabbaths they had ;
and little ones looked up with wonder
when told of places where they had no
horse,racing, no saloons open, no auction
sales, no drinking and carousing in the
streets, bu, where all stores, shops and
places of business were closed on that day
D,ceRipys.-We pay only s20per month
for not exactly "cob house, but one Of
boards set up endwise and lined with cloth
aud paper There are about 80 good fire.
proof buildings here. The sever or eight
months we have without rain, makes every.
thing so dry-and then, generally, they
are such light, "slimpsy' buildings, 'put
up in a whew," 1T is wonder everything
don't burn, aud it is nothing uncommon
for whole towns to burn down. We have
just had a fire, here, which burned so
buildings, some of which we're empbati-
cally bad houses, but some good people
also lost all they had.
Ercitement-There is crazy time gen.
orally with people spcculating in mines,
Just now. 1t is stated that one of the
richest quartz lodes in California has just
been discovered, and people who had aban-
doned mining in disgust, years ago, have
gone to prospecting, and putting up great
mills for crushing the golden rocks.
There is no use in demanding "women's
rights" here, for she has her own and
everybody else's rights-she can do busi-
ness of any kind, by adyeriizing in her own
name, and keep property to the amount
of s. 900, whether she has husband or
not. A woman who is worthy Of it can
nowhere receive more kindness: considera-
ton and true gallantry than in this State.
We now have warm days and pleasant,
cool nigh,s-not frosts enough to kill
,oo,to nlants or yinps-iust digging and