The Wheeling daily register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1864-1878, 1870-10-17

sad ending, to follow the adventurous
career Of a gold hunter in the almost
unknown regions Of Idaho and Mon
tana.
In a previous letter l mentioned that
Marshall, the discoverer Of gold in Cali
fornia, had been compelled, in conse-
quence of his poverty, to make an in
direct appeal for public aid. The coin
cident distress Of two men to whom
the world owes the discovery of its
greatest gold and silver deposits, and it
is perhaps not saying too much if it
added to whom the States owes the
birth of two members OF the Union
California and Nevada-is one Of the
latest and strangest instances of the
mutability of fortune.
COMING CLOUDS.
From present appearances the rainy
season will be upon us in a few days
and the weatherwise predict that we are
to have a long and wet winter. 1t is
very probable that such will be the
case for last years rainfall was several
inches below the average and all expe-
rience proves that the amount deficient
one season is made up in succeeding
ones.
The winter season is always a hard
time for the California laborer and the
prospects are that the coming one will
be more than unusually gloomy. The
laborer has had difficulty in procuring
employment during the summer, his
wages have been reduced, the harvest
has been gathered to a great extent by
Chinese labor and he has had no oppor-
tunity to save the S75 or 500 which.
heretofore has carried him through I'M
til the spring. Unless the city author
tiles commence some much needed pub
lie improvements and thus furnish work
to the unemployed, poverty and want
words that once had little significance
to California ears-are likely to become
familiar terms, and the cry for bread
which sounded with such appalling
novelty last January-to he repeated
with fearful intensity.
A CoNsUMPTIyE STATE.
The census returns come in very
slowly from the interior Of the State
and it is yet impossible to more than
approximate the figures. From infor-
nation already in the hands of the
Marshal, he believes that the popula-
ton OF California does not exceed half
a million, though if the enumer-
alton has been as lax elsewhere as in
this city, thousands OF names must
have been omitted. ! meet numbers
of people every day. who have not been
troubled with visit from the enumer-
ator and similar complaints come from
all over the coast. California is nm
doubtedly the only Western State that
will fail to show an increase Of popula-
ton during the past decade. Oregon
has more than doubled in numbers.
Nevada, which, in 1859 was regarded
as an irredeemable wilderness-a land
of deserts and death-has now a popu-
lation of over one hundred thousand. !
Washington Territory has been Peo-
pied with eighteen or twenty thousand
pioneers and even Arizona with all the
disadvantages Of constant Indian war
fare has made an appreciable progress
Ofall the Pacific Ssterhood, California.
alone has been at stand still. 1t is
true that to limited extent she been
the reservoir from which the others
have drawn some Of their population,
but it is not sufficient to explain why a
great State like this, that should be
in every artery with vigorous
life, should suddenly stop in her growth |
and languish like consumptive girl
That we have a disease is certain.
What it is no one seems to know. SO
until we find out, it is impossible to ap-
ply q remedy.
FOREST KING.
One Of our big trees has been cut
down and is to be forwarded east for en-
hibition. Barnum, l believe. is the pro-
iector of the scheme, the difficulties Of
which would certainly deter less enter
prisiug man. The one selected is in
Fremo county, and, although by no
means a giant amongst giants, it will
give those who cit good idea Of the
mammoth proportions sometimes at
tanned by our forest kings. After being
felled it took three saws fastened to-
gether (making in length "a feet, with
two men to each handle, four days to
saw off the butt cut. The diameter Of
the stump is % feet 6 inches, without
bark, and the annual rings indicate an
age of 1900 years. Three men accom-
plished the telling in five and a half
DAYS, by cutting at the roots, which
were interlaced like the muscles in the
human system. One Of its neig hbors
measured l22 feet 6 inches in circum-
ference, and was nearly 400 feet high.
END OF A CHARLATAN.
Thomas Morney, the self-nominated
anti Chinese candidate for Governor
the man who was going to sweep the
Asiatic. race out of California within
three months of his election-disap-
peared a couple Of weeks ago with
100000 belonging to the depositors OF
an Irish Bank Of which he was man
ager. Because he hobnobbed with
Savage, clustered with Train, talked
fiuently about grinding capitalists and
the wrongs of labor, the credulous Celts
elevated the man to position little
short of Deity and would heed none
of the warnings given them by sensible
people and the press. He was the most
perfect specimen Of Pecksnitf that
ever whined a PRAYER. While encour-
aging Fenianism he wrote: 1.-THE Irish
as people are totally incapable of self
government" While inveighing against