Daily national Democrat., 1860-12-13
1allp 9atlOnal 4rmutrat
For the National Democrat.
Pioneer "Reminiscences.
BY OLD BLOCK.

my Pioneer life in California.
Indeed have often, but from the stern ne
cessity of earning money to pay for the wash
ing Of my shirts, and strckings, and other
little and big matters, which make up the sun
of human happiness, 1 have been slave to
business, and never had time to 60. The fact
is, Maggie, it has been question of dollars
and cents, and the struggle for victory has
absorbed my attention, and my energies, and
weeks, months and years have rolled by
suscessivey in the busy harness of every day
life, till habit, at last, has made it seem inn
possible to dismiss weary care and take a
little recreation.
AT length however, sudden Inspiration
seized me to look once more upon the famil-
lar stamping ground of ten years ago; so with
the ponies harness'd, and Mate by my side,
made stampede from Grass Valley, outward
bound, as far and as long as the doubtful
weather of this season of the year would per-
nit. Our drive to Marysville under the
bright sun of a cloudless sky was q most
cheerful one, and in that beautiful city begin
my "reminiscences
On, or about (as the lawyers say) the 23d
of September in the year of our Lord (I like
to be concise) one thousand, eight hundred,
and forty-nine-a little over eleven years
ago, a man might have been seen, like James
company with several other men, travelling
on foot and not on horseback, beside a couple
of weary OK teams, on the plain approaching
Nye's Ranch, situated on the Yuba near its
junction with Feather river.
Their smutty faces, their rimless hats, their
torn pants, their peeping toes. and their long
unshaven boards, and elfn locks, Il should
like to see James or Cooper beat that de-
scription) indicated too plainly that they be-
longed that grand army of poor and weary
devils, who, described in Wirts speech on
Blennahasset, left the storms of their own
country (was'nt it stormy on the Platt p
think Mr. Shakespeare visited the Platt when
he wrote Macbeth thunder, rain and hail.
ho)-to seek an eternal big fortune in
California-and there was not one of them
who doubted he'd make a pile Well Maggie
l was one of that ragged, rimless crew.
We had been living on hard pilot bread,
and nothing else, for a month; our teeth
were fast giving away under the hard infiic-
ton, for teeth can't stand files long, and
when the single adobe house, standing on the
north bank of the Yuba appeared to view,
you might have heard the shouts of that dirt
begrmed band as their hosanahs rose above
the oaks, "There's q house-beef steaks and
tallow gravy-O glory Hard bread and
water be id !" Poetical, wasn't it Mag
gle.
There was no Marysville then No St.
Nicholas with its splendid parlors and luxuri-
Gus tables twas simply very plain adobe,
with one or two outhouses corresponding
with the usual Califoriaicum Digger o style
of architecture. AS we drove up, we observ'
cd biped who claimed to be white, but like
a nice side of bacon rather sallow, and vel
smoked and four or FIVE dusky ladies of pure
Digger descent, sitting on the ground floor
engaged in the lady like employment Of
scratching their heads, and who took no more
notice of our distinguished arrival, than if We
hadn't arrived at all. This then was the en-
bryo Marysyile with its primitive popula-
ton. Our first scientific enquiry was fol
beef, the laconic reply was, we could have
some if we had any money. Humph that
was a startling consideration. However, af-
ter a thorough inspection of our pockets, DIR
Hall brought into day light about six dollars
and cornered four and half, so we invest
ed in yard or two of the defunct quadruped
at the moderate rate of four bits a pound
We forded the river a little above the adobe
and halting under wide spreading oak OIL
the opposite side, where now is big corn.
field, we kindled a fire, put yard of th,
granivirerous on the Goals and-well we
didn't all die of repletion for am alive tC
tell the tale
The Yuba was then a beautiful stream, it
waters cool and of a chrystal clearness, uset
by man and beast for drinking. Think o
that ye Mstidious Marysvillans-drinking
stream which would fill your throat will
mortar, and in a short time choak up al
communication with your gastronomic brea(
baskets, so that you could neither cry "bee
nor butter gravy" Lord girls were you tC
wash your faces now in it, you'd never nee(
paint to heighten your complexion naturaul
for it would make mark that patent soaI
wouldn't remove. If you ever want to go
prospecting a Ia miner, just stick your foo
into the Yuba-you'll raise the color the frs
attempt.
Doctor Hall, said l "this is fine site fo
town, and some day there will be one here,
but little dreamed that my random prophe
cy would be realized before six months had
rolled along, that this dry plain would b.
covered in few short years with stately
buildings, and become one of the most impor'
tant cities in the golden land, with a cultiva
ted and refined population living amid luXu-
ries and refinement, surrounded with or
chards and gardens rivalling in and variety
those in the old Atlantic States, and with al
the concomitants which make desirable anC
happy homes.
0, Maggie could you have seen the site O
Marysville as saw it-had you waded bare
legged across the Yuba as l did-had you
like half-starYed soldier of Fallstaff's rag
ged regiment, swallowed a quarter of yard
of half cooked week old steak, with whoa