Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1882-09-06
OLD CALIFORg MANS.
THE ANNUAL DINNER OF The GOLDEN
STATE PIONEERS.
Wall street-Making Ten Millions
in Two Yaars-Bohemfan Life.

New YORK, August &c, 1882.
Hardly any nameabIe Californian is more
intimately associated with the Pacific slope
than General John c. Fremont, and no man
OF his time has passed more completely
into eclipse. His name is still widely
known, and his movements are thought to
be OF sufficens Importance to be chron.
icled; but this sort Of prominence is re-
Elected from his past. It might be said of
Fremont as Heinrich Heine said of another,
that he has great future behind him.
Few experiences can be more distressing to
a mans sesf-love than the consciousness of
greatly
DIMINISHED REPUTATION;
OF bearing preterit fame, of walking,
so to speak, in the cemetery of his expec.
tations. What e prodigious difference be.
tween John c. Fremont in 1882 and John
c. Fremont in 1856, when his stirring and
romantic career eliminated in his unani-
nous nomination by the Republican Ma.
tional Convention for President of the
United States. Since then his name has
steadily dwindled. Neither in council nor
in field has he answered the anticipations
of his admirers. Those who had been most
confident that he was the coming man
have been forced to give him up. He is
now sixty -nine-his last birthday was Jam
uary 2lst-and at that age men have passed
their climacteric Aeir chief work has been
done; they are not to be thrown up by the
refuent wave of success. As respects
power and prestige, Fremont is only wan
dering ghost of his former self, wait.
ing for the summons when the ghost
shall be laid where the mortal remains
were deposited years ago. His health is
| good, his port is lofty, his mind is unim.
paired, but the careful observer may see
that the fire of his ambition, the soul of
his life, has become extinct. In the army
of achievement he is on the retired list
he belongs, while yet alive, to the host of
the Have Beens.
Fremont, having resigned the Governor
ship of Arizona, is living quietly here again
| He is, and long has been poor, SO very
poor that he accepted his latest office sim
ply for the meagre salary-S2, 500-attached
to it. Once thought immensely rich, he
surely lived for many years az if he were
SO. Extravsgant and ostentatious by dis.
| position, he has never, unless compelled,
| tried to practice economy. He has been
charged with giving prodigal entertain
ments on the Pacific slope, while paying
three per cent. month for money, and the
charge may have been true. Such finan-
cial recklessness is not unlike him. At
| present he is reported to have some schemes
in Mexico that promise to yield fortunes
| to all concerned. He has from the first
been possessed of or by schemes, and his
ardent, sanguine temperament always
couples them with prosperity. His imagi.
nation is prone to dominate his Judgment.
He has in the crisis of his fate lacked
practicality He is President of the Asso-
ciated Pioneers OF California, mary men,
bers being estimable and excellent citizens,
while others are, am told, of uncertain
position and
QUESTIONABLE ANTECEDENTS.
The latter are pretty sure to attend the
annual dinner of the Pioneers, with the
hope Of borrowing money from their we'll
TODD associates on the memory of and
association with other and better DAYS.
Consequently, very prudent Californians
stay away. They do not want to be asked
to make loans on no sounder basis than the
promise of half tipsy man, grown elusive
over "reminiscences of Chinese Camp, Pow
erty Hill and Humbug Diggings. heard
an Argonaut say once, 81 can't afford to
attend those dinners. They are very ex-
pensive when you are expected to lend
500 or $500 to fellows who make bust.
ness of borrowing, I've tried it. It's hard
fp rafrsa E,.-Try
ton, after you've grown mellow with him,
and been listening to his extraordinary ad-
ventures and Universities which have never
| occurred" Fremont is very appropriate
head for the Pioneers. He antedates them
all, being really a pre.Argonaut 1t is
more than thirty-eight years since he
| crossed the snow. clad mountains without a
| guide, and reached Suffers Fort, on the
| Sacramento, after forty days OF terrible
! hardship, his followers reduced to skele-
tons, and half his horses and mules lost on
the way. In his flush period, he would
have scattered his money among all appli-
cants in his present strait, he has none to
| scatter. But ne believes that he vet will
| have, no doubt. Men of his constitution
are ever, especially if in the midst of pov.
erty, on the eve of " striking it rich"
| 1t has grown to be the fashion since TIE
civil war to speak of Fremont as vastly
overrated, as a very ordinary man, in truth,
supported and pushed forward by an ex-
| tremely ambitious wife, to undertake what
I he had not the ability to perform. While
this may be partially correct, there can be
no question bat that Fremont has fine tai
ents, rare energy and romantic daring. He
is deficient, however, in sustained force
and will, and Lis mind is by no means of
the first order. He has exceeding vanity,
| too, and certain weaknesses that unsettle
| him at the supreme moments of life. As
an explorer and military officer he was sig.
nally efficient as statesman, as a great
captain, as leader, he has been necessa.
| rily failure. He can feel and sympathize
with grand things, to whose execution he
is unequal. Having attempted too much,
| he has not received credit for what he has
accomplished. Henceforth his name will
be confined to circulars, parades, decora-
tions the fervor and fiber of the man have
forever relaxed. He rendered himself
of fifty thousand On the Atlantic coast
| There are
NO MORE STROKES TO HIS CLOCK.
Prentice Mulford, an ex. Californian, has
for years continued here what was his
writing trade there. He is clever, in
dustrious, modest-modesty is not too com.
mon among the inky tribe-and seems to
be getting on quite as well as most men,
bers of his craft. He has been on various
| journals at different times; but he has
not now, think, any secular position,
preferring probably the freer, though far
more laborious life of a miscellaneous
scribe. Milford writes paragraphs, squibs,
letters to the out. of town papers pre-
psres, in short, any kind of manuscript he
can turn to account he also lectures,
makes special reports, contributes accounts
of travel and observation to the weeklies,
OF which New York boasts more than 200,
and expends sufficient brain and nervous
force to entitle him to g, 900 month.
But this is not the wage of tie pen-liner,
whose doom it is to work very hard for
very slender compensation. The most
capable and experienced journalists or
literary men in the city cannot generally
earn $1,000 year at most; and he who
J earns so nuch ia evcppt;np alIu 1,oky