The Portland daily press., 1869-12-24


their own house, the home of ehilhood, the
paradise of memory Henry Ward Beecher.
Around the World.
LETTER NUMBER 4.
| [rhese letters written jointly by Professor ID.
| X. Ford and Mark Twain. The former does the ac-
tn II travelling and such iac escapes his notice
are supplied by the LITTER, who remai0s at iome.l
THE "EARLY DAYS" OF CALIFORNIA.
| But they were rough in those times. They
fairly reveled in gold, whiskey, fights and fan
| dangoes, and were unspeakably happy. The
| honest miner raked a hundred to thousand
| dollars out of his claim n day. and what with
| the gambling dues and the other entertain
ments, he hadn't cent the next morning, if
he had any sort of luck. They cooked their
own bacon and beans, sewed on their own
buttons, washed their own shirts-blue wool
| len ones-and if a man wanted fight on his
hands without any annoying delay, all he had
to do was to appear in public in white shirt
| or stove-ppe hat, and he would be accom-
modated. For those people hated aristocrats.
They had particular and malignant animos-
| ity toward what they called 'biled shirt"
| In his sketch entitled "The Luck of Roar
ing Camp" Mr.. Bret Harte has deity pictur-
| ed the roughness and lawlessness of Cali
| fornia mining camp of the early days and al
| so its large hearted charity and compassion
for these traits are found in all true pioneers.
Roaring Camp becomes blessed by the pres
ence of wandering, sickly woman and her
little child-rare and coveted treasures among
rude men still yearning in secret for the moth
ers and sisters and children they loved and
| cherished in other days. This wanderer-the
only woman in Roaring Camp-ded, and the
| honest miners took charge of the orphan little
| one in body. They washed it and dressed
| it and fed it-gettIng its garments on wrong
| end first as often as any other way, and pin
| ming the garments to the child occasionally
and wondering why the baby wasn't comfort
| able-and the food these inexperienced
| nurses lovingly concocted for it was often
rather beyond its capabilities, since it was
neither an alligator nor an ostrich.
But they meant well, and the baby thrived
in spite of the perilous kindnesses of the
miners. But it was manifest that all could
not nurse the baby at once, and so they pass
ed a law that the best behaved man shoull
have it for one day, and the man whose cabin
was in the neatest order the next, and so on.
And the result was, that handsome cradle
was bought, and carted from cabin to cabin.
according to who won the privilege of nursing
each day-and the handsome cradle made
such a contrast to the unhandsome furniture,
that gradually the unhandsome furniture dis
appeared and gave way for neater sort-and
| then ambitious male nursts got to washing
up and putting on clean garments every day.
and some of them twice day,-and rough,
boisterous characters became gentle and soft
spoken, since only the welLbehaved could
nurse the baby. And, in fine, the lawless
Roaring Camp became insensiby transformed
into a neat, well-dressed, orderly and law
abiding community, the wonder and admira-
ton OF all the mining world. All this,
| through the dumb teaching the humanizing
| influence, the uninspred ministering of lit
| tie child.
THE SKY ON EXHIBITION.
| In those days men would flock in crowds to
| catch a glimpse of that rare and blessed spec
| tacle, woman! Old inhabitants tell how, in
| a certain camp, the news went abroad early
| in the morning that woman was come!
| They had seen calico dress hanging out OF
wagon down at the camping ground-sign OF
emigrants from over the great plains. Every
body went down there, and shout went up
when an actual, bonafide dress was discover
ed fluttering in the wind! The male emigrant
was visible. The miners said:
"Fetch her outn
He said "It is my wife, gentlemen-she is
| sick-we have been robbed Of money, provis-
| ions everything, by the Indians-we want to
rest"
'Fetch her out We've got to see herl
That was the only reply.
He "ietched her out" and they swung their
hats and sent up three rousing cheers and
| tiger; and tley crowded around and gazed at
her, and touched her dress, and listened to her
| voice with the look Of men who listened to
memory rather than a present reality-and
then they collected twenty-five hundred dol
| lars in gold and gave it to the man, and
swung their hats again and gave three more
cheers, and went home satisfied.
ExHoRBITANT RATES.
A year or two ago dined in San Francis
| co with the family of pioneer, and talked
| with his daughter, young lady whose first
experience in San Francisco was an adven-
| ture, though she herself did not remember it
| as she was only two or three years old at the
| time. Her father said that after landing from
| the ship, they were walking up the street, a
| servant leading the party with little girl in
her arms. And presently a huge miner,
bearded, belted, spurred, and bristling with
deadly weapons-just down from long min
| ing campaign in the mountains, evidently
barred the way, stopped the servant, and
stood gazing, with face all alive with graft
fcs@on aud astonishment. Then he said,
reverently:
"Well, if it amt child" And then he
| snatched a little leather sack out of his pock
| ct and said to the servant:
"There's hundred and fifty dollars in dust,
there, and I'll give it to you to let me kiss the
| child"
That anecdote is true.
But see how things change. Sitting at that
| dinner table, listening to that adecdote, if l
| had offered double the money for the privi-
| lege of kissing the same child, 1 would have
| been refused. Seventeen added years had far
more than doubled the price.
| TOUCHING SPECTACLE.
| And while upon this subject l will remark
| that once in Star city, in the Humboldt
Mountains, took my place in sort of long
| post-office single-file OF miners, to patiently
| await my chance to peep through crack in a
cabin and get a sight of the splendid new
sensation-a genuine, live Woman! And at
the end of three-quarters of an hour my turn
came, and l put my eye to the crack, and
there she was, with one arm akimbo, and
| tossing flap jacks in a frying pan with the 9th
er. And she was 165 years old, and hadn't a
tooth in her head. However, she was wo-
man and therefore we were glad to see her
and to make her welcome.
THE FAMOUS "cEMENr" MINE.
1t was somewhere in the neighborhood of
| Mono Lake that the wonderful Whiteman
| cement mine was supposed to lie. Every
now and then it would be reported that this
| mysterious Mr.. w. had passed stealthily
| through Esmereda at dead OF night, and then
| we would have wild excitement-because
he must be steering for his secret mine, and
now was the time to follow him. In less
than three hours after daylight all the horses
and mules and donkeys in the vicinity would
be bought, hired or stolen, and half the COM
munity would be off for the mountains, fol-
lowing in the wake of Whiteman. But w.
would drift about through the mountain
| gorges for days together, in a purposeless sort
| of way until the provisions OF the miners
ran out and then they would have to go back
home. l have known it reported at eleven at
night, in a large mining camp, that w. had
| just passed through, and in two hours, the
streets, so quiet before, would be swarming
with men and animals. Every individual
would be trying to be very secret, but yet ven
turing to whisper to just one neghbor tha'
| w. had just passed through. And lons oe-
| fore daaylight-this in the dead OF Wlhter-
| camp deserted and the whole population
gone chasing after W. ought to know, be-
cause I was one of those fools myself.