Seattle daily post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, W.T. [Wash.]) 1881-1888, 1882-07-11
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The discovery Of gold in Cali
ifornia in 1848 gave rise to the
greatest excitement in the United
States of any event since the dec
laration Of Independence. The
FIRST news of the great discovery
reached Oregon By the arrival in
Portland of the captain of a ship
from San Francisco, bringing
With him. and exhibiting to the
eager gaze Of the astonished cit
izens, a sample Of the shining
dust with the assurance that
there was an abundance for all
that would go and dig it out. In
"A hours men lad saddled their
cayuses and taken the trail to Cal.
ifornia, 600 miles distant. Two
days later as the writer of this
was at work building stone
chimney for q man on the Rick.
real in Polk County, a party of s
men with IL horses packed with
provisions, 6 of them carving
each a pick and shovel on top OF
their pack, came up the road on q
gallop. This was q strange APP
partition to the quiet people of
the valley. Men ran out Of their
houses and from the fields swings
ing their hats to attract their at
ten.ion and demanding the news;
one of the party would slow up,
while the rest dashed on without
a halt, answered gold discovered
on American river in California
and no mistake; plenty for every.
body The effect was electrical,
probably not a man who heard it
could continue his work through
the day. Teams were unhitched
from the plough, wagons were
left standing in the road, school
masters dismissed schools on the |
instant, leaving the little urchins |
wondering if they were crazy. |
Men were riding all night to find |
their Lorses. some patching up
old pack-saddles, others shoeing |
a saddle horse, every old cast off |
horse shoe in the neighborhood
was in requisition in an instant. |
1t was Of no use to take a horse
to blacksmith, he was getting |
ready to 60, or was already gone.
The doctor on the way to visit
a sick patient, hearing the news
turned round and rode home
quicker than he came. Next |
morning a board leaning against
the door, or the fence, with mot
at home in chalk or coal told the |
story there was no physician |
there. The lawyer left his case in |
court to take care of itself and |
the court left for California.
The minister on his way to his |
met the news and
the next night found him in camp |
on the trail 40 miles nearer the |
mines. The effect on prices was
instantaneous. A shovel and
pick worth 50, went up to $40 and
sig, and even SIS, at a single
jump, even a garden hoe sold as
high as 81. Horses went up 100
per cent and tin pans to two and
q half. Bed cords were stripped
from bed steads and twisted into
ropes and a strip of rawhide 2
inches wide and 6 feet long was
worth Soc and before the next
harvest -four was up to SIC per
hundred lbs. Some men unable
to outfit themselves obtained one
by pledging half the proceeds of
their labor for year. Ship mas
ters charged double passage to
San Franscisco. The Old Bark
Henry left the Columbia with q
full cargo of lumber in her hold
and layer of men on top of the
lumber. The passengers declared
they would go if they had to swim
all the way. The ship lost her |
bulwarks, water casks, deck load
and all her boats, but the passen-
gers got there all the same, though |
Just a little wet. The Oldest
men, with the youngest boys, and
the women and girls comprised
the sum total of the resident pop
ulatiOn of Oregan till the next
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