Weekly Calaveras chronicle., 1867-05-25
Domestic Manufactures

domestic Manufactures
The slow but sure decadence of our noun.
tain towns has been observed by those resid-
ing in the interior counties. Built, as they
were, wherever good digsings were struck.
they were entirely dependant upon the mines
around them for their prosperity. A few
cloth tents or wooden shanties were all they
could boast in earlier days. but as families
were introduced. neat suburban cottages,
surrounded with flowers and fruit trees, gave
them charming appearance, and an air of
domestic comfort. which made them as at
tractive and home-hke as more pretentsous
villages in the Atlantic States. As the mines
were gradually worked out, those who had
no other attachments than the gold which
could be got out of the soil, gradually left
for richer diggings, and as a necessary con-
sequence. the mining camps began to decay.
The only exceptions to the rule are those
villages located at or near some of the best
quartz lodges in the State. There is the
same permanency about quartz mining that
there Is about manufacturing in the East
Working the mines and crushing the ore
gives employment to large mber of hands
while the busy hum of machinery gives the
place business-like appearance. which at
tracts mechanics. merchants and laborers.
But every mining town has not a good ledge
in its neighborhood. and it behooves its in
habitants TO look about them and see how
they can keep up the prosperity of their viii
lage. New England could not to-day boast
of its thriving manufacturing towns had not
the attention of capitalists been diverted
them were engaged, by the passage of the
Tariff Act, which. while it paralyzed COM
merce. stimulated manufacturing. The nat
ural enterprise and energy of her people
would not allow them to long remain quiet,
and when they were driven from one field of
operations, they turned their attention to an
other. The rapid streams that had flowed
uninterrupted from their mountain sources
to the ocean were damned, and the water
made to perform the labor of propelling ma
chinery. The result was, that in few years
the fabrics of New England were supplying
the place of foreign imr ortations, and en-
ploymeht given to her own hardy popula-
ton. The genius of the Yankee was more
than match for the greater wealth of Eu-
rope, and improvements in machinery soon
enabled them to compete successfully with
the slower and more methodical people of
ern States would never have sustained the
population which now thrives withi, its bor-
ders. had ii not been for the manufacturing
establishments which everywhere sprang up.
Have we not as many facilities in California
Tor manufacturing as they have in the old
States? Have we not even superior advanta-
ges. in the salubrity of our climate and the
productiveness of the soil Here, there are
no long Winters, with their snow and ice, to
obstruct navigation and interrupt communi-
cations. While on our mountains. covered
with perpetual verdure. we can raise millions
of sheep, whose wool would supply thou
sand looms with the raw material, which
could soon be converted into the finest cloths.
Contrast our facilities for raising sheep, with
those of New England and the advantages
are all with US. Our mountain streams af-
ford an unlimited supply of water power,
which WHEN it is once turned upon the wheels
costs nothing to keep them constantly in
motion. We have. here. in Mokelumne Hill
one of the finest water privileges in the State.
The Flume Company conveys the Mokelumne
river some nineteen miles through a ditch,
and enters it into a reservoir back of the
town there is sufficient quantity to move
all the machinery necessary for manufactur-
ing purposes. II those of our citizens who
have made fortunes in this place would ex-
pend portion of their veal IN encouraging
manufacturers here, instead of taking itaway
to invest elsewhere, it would not be many
months before we could hear the clatrer Of
machinery, and see an industrious popula-
ton on our streets. This mountain district
is well calculated for the raising of sheep,
and already there are several thousands
feeding upon our hill sides. The wool could
be clipped in the very shadow of the factory,
ard thus avoid the expense and loss of tran
spcrtation. The Flume Company would
charge little or nothing for water, and all it
would require 70 commence operation, would
be the building of factory. Here is fine
for
capitalists at home or abroad to secure the
water privilege at once, and proceed to erect
the machinery required before others step in
and secure the prize.
PARTY DIssENsIoNs IN SAcRAMENTo-We
are sorry to see that the IIninn marty at the