Gold Hill daily news. [volume] (Gold Hill, N.T. [Nev.]) 1863-1882, 1867-07-15
DECAY N

most doleful accounts Of the decline OF
business and general want of prosperity
lin the State. Many Of the mining towns
are represented as becoming depopula-
ted, costly buildings standing vacant
and going to decay, farms and orcnarus
abandoned, bitches becoming useless
and roads out Of repair, giving evidence
generally of retrogression throughout
at least the mining portions OF tue
| State. It is singular that the au'"nT-
inr tide Of prosperity in a State OF such
lovely climate, varied and illimitaoie
resources should ever meet a returning
ebb. II is singular too that those
| who have ouce abandoned their homes
in the severe climates of the east,
where constant toll was required lot
a rude subsistence, and had found a
new one in the genial and healthy
climate of the Pacific Coast "nere
a productive soil beautifully rewards
slight labor, and where MANHOOD
springs to a higher rank, should ever
| abandon this new home aud with great
toll and expense return again to the
East or its western frontier. In former
years a steady emigration annually
rolled westward, but dnring Il few years
past the current is reversed, and during
the preseut we have witnessed large
trains of emigrants making their way
eastward with their families and herds
of stock. These e%migrants are usually
from the agricultural sections, wnile IL
is in the mining region where decay is
most TO be observed. The mountain
region has experienced decline in con-
sequence of the prevalent custom OF
successful placer miners investing their
wealth 10 the agricultural sections about
the Bay or at San Francisco, or taking
il out of the country altogether. The
papers and citizens noticing the decay
and the instability Of the mining popu-
latiou, are advocating the survey
and sale OF the placer mines, oil
the mountain lands in general, with
the reservation Of the quartz veins
which may be taken Ms permitted by
Il late law of Congress, or purchased
under the same Act. II is difficult to
understand how selling u placer instead
of giving it free, or the privilege Of
working them, should retain n popula-
ton \ gold placer furnishes but one
crop, and when that is gathered, but
the barren rock or loose piles of gravel
stones are left. and there is nothing TO
make the ground valuable, or TO attach
one TO it. Many thousands of dollars
have been paid for clairnS'aud the pos
| session was rs protected in law as If the
| purchase had been made of government
vet when the gold was taken out, the
| property was perfectly valueiess, and
under any circumstances would have
been abandoned. II would undoubt-
edly be an advantage 10 California or
| 70 any state TO sell the lands TO the &C.
cupants, upon the most liberal terms,
but not for the resons usually Civ
en-, There has been too much fear
Of monopoly, and that some person
| might get too rich by making a luckp
purchase of Government for the same
| price that another paid who only got
the worth Of his money. Had the lands
| been surveyed and sold in lots as chosen
hy the occupants, il would have added
greatly 10 the wealth Of California, and
in part, have prevented the decay now
So mourufully complained of. But this
progress upon the downward road can
not long continue in the Incompatible
Golden State. Soon communication,
rapid and cheap, will be established,
the States Of the Pacific will be more
intimately connected with those east of
the Rocky Mountains, and the great ad-
vautages which they offer in climate.
productiyeness and every other attrac-
tive quality will fill them with an APP
preciative population, developing their
resources and raising them to the first
rank in prosperity.-Reese River RsUeille.