Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1880-10-15
TIE GoLD-BEARING SPRINGS OF CA
LISTOGA

In a recent letter to the New York
Ecening Post Mark Twain tells what he
knows about the Caistoga Springs
other matters
l have Just seen your dispatch from San
francisco, in Saturdays Epeaing Post,
about "Gold in Solution" in the Calistoga
Springs, Cal, and about the proprietor's
having Extracted Sl,060 in gold OF the
utmost fineness from ten barrels of the
water" during the past fortnight by pro-
cess only known to himself This Will
surprise many of your readers, but it does
not surprise me, for | once owned those
springs myself What does surprise me,
however, is the falling off in the richness
of the water. In my time the yield was
81 dipperful. / am not saying this to
iniure the property in case sale is con
templated / am only saying it in the in
terest OF history. 1t may be that this
hotel proprietors process is an inferior
one-yes, that may be the fault. Mine
was to take my uncle-I had an extra
uncle at that time, ON account of his pa
rents dying and leaving him on my hands
and fill him up, and let him stand fifteen
minutes to give the water chance to set
tie well, then insert him in an exhausted
receiver, which had the effect of sucking
ont the gold through his pores. l have
taken more than 81 200 out of that old
man in day and half. l should have
held ON to those springs but for the bad
ness of the roads and the difficulty of get
ting the gold to market. consider that
gold bearing water in many respects re-
markable, and yet not more remarkable
than the gold-bearing air of Catgut Can
yon, up there toward the head of the au-
riferous range. This air-or this wind, for
it is kind of trade wind which blows
steadily down through 600 miles of rich
quartz groupings during an hour and a
quarter every day, except Sundays
heavily charged with exquisitely fine and
impalpable gold Nothing precipitates and
soldifes this gold so readily as contact
with human flesh heated by passion. The
time that William Abrahams was disap-
pointed in love he used to step out doors
when that wind was blowing and come in
again and begin to sigh. and his brother
Andover j. would extract over a dollar and
a half out of every sigh he sighed Hight
along. Aud the time that HARRISON and
Aleck Norton quarreled about Harbi
sons dog, they stood there swearing al
each other all they knew how-and what
they didn't know about swearing they
coul1L't learn from you and me not by
good deal-and at the end of every three
or four minutes they had to stop and make
dividend; if they didn't their jaws would
clog up SO that they couldn't get the big
nine-syllabled ones out at all /; and when
the wind was done blowing they cleaned
up just little over $1,000 piece. l
know these facts to be absolutely true, be-
cause got them from man whose mother
knew personally. l do not suppose
person could buy water privilege at Cal
istoga now at any price but several good
locations along the course of the Catgut
Canyon Collaborating Trade-wind are for
sale. They are going to be stocked for the
New York market. They will sell, too:
the people will swarm for them as thick
as Hancock veterans-iu the South.
:, =,