Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1882-06-10
A REJoInDER.
a Valley Resident Replies to MIR. Mcclure's
Claim for Hydraulic Mining.

OF tue hydraulic COMPANIES Ciaihi uPoh
public consideration, and asks; "Shall
they be reproached" for their achieve
ments. They are not reproached for THEN
enterprise. But energy and enterprise
must not be directed to the destruction OF
other msn's homes and property. Were
the hydraulic companies now conducting
their operations as are the drift and quartz
mines, and taking out the golden grains for
their emolument without deluging and de-
stroying with their residual products large
areas, the people of the valleys would be
proud of the unique greatness of their
fumes and giants. But the integrity of
property no individuals and no corpora
tions should be allowed to override. 1t is
running against the intelligence of our peo-
pie to assert that it is consistent with the
principles of our Government that any in
diyidual or individuals should cover up the
wheat fields and bury the orchards OF whole
strips of country with barren sand IN order
to acquire their wealth.
THE WRITER ASKS,
s Do we want the miner to take out but a
load a day, getting for his labor only
enough for mere existence, when it is
possible not only to exist but to become
wealthy - SIS not the right to mine as
well established as the right TO farm ?"
Does the acquisition of wealth justify the
destruction of the property of others
What mockery is it to claim at the hands
of the citizens along the 4uba, Feather,
Bear and Sacramento rivers, in the name of
equal rights, that because otherwise these
mining companies will have to take out
their gravel by cart-loads, realizing but a
moderate profit, they are therefore entitled
In fairness to attain wealth at all hazards,
and if necessary to work the destruction
of the strips of countries on those rivers
and the running of their inhabitants. The
right to mine is well established ; but the
right existing in those inhabitants that
those enjoying the right to mine shall en-
ploy it within the bounds which will ena-
BILE the former to enjoy their respective
rights of property, is as well established.
Objection is made to the method of n.y.
draulic mining because of its consequences.
a view of the country where the Bear river
pours its floods with their huge burden Of
debris into the Feather. We stand on
heated sand, glaring at our feet with the
reflected rays of perpendicular sun. To
the north, above wilderness of willows,
we see line of higher oaks scraggy and
decayed. They once marked the course of
the river bed in 40. Once that was q
winding channel in the rich bottom. Its
steep banks were overshadowed by oaks
and cottonwoods, and the messy benches
of its banks were shaded by elders and
wild rose and grape vines. The fallen tree
that hung its dank and dusky trunk into
the stream hid crevice of the river be-
meath where the sportive trout, lying
low upon the pebbles OF the bottom,
famed the curling waters. Now that
channel leaves not even the faintest rifle
upon the level of sand thirty feet above.
THE OLD OAKS
Still stand sentinels to the winding grave
of their old companions. From our stand
ing ground we look south, and as far as
the eye can reach all is wilderness. The
monotonous level of sand is scarcely broken
or relieved by the scattered trees that were
left by the farmer in his hottom-land field
for shade at his MONDAY luncheon. Here,
formerly, were glades between green oaks
on whose spongy turf sprang up carpets of
heavy green. From them the antelope
whisked into the trees as the earlier miner
reached their GOODNESS on his dreary ride
across the plains to the placer gravels of
~ 90 .al =
sandy level. Moving on through the
heavy sand we pass houses abandoned.
The sand has buried them, their vine.
hung porches and their well curbs, until
now but the tops of the windows of the
lower story are visible. The inmates were
prosperous farmers. They are ruined now.
It matters not to them that in fifty OF
one hundred years this land may through
the labor and care of another generation
regain 1.-THE Of its former rich
ness. They have to have present
bread for their children. Their or
chards and clover fields are buried.
Their lands are offered for sale
for taxes, but no buyers offer. Here,
breaking above the surface of the desert
covering, appear the tops of fence posts,
stretching away in long file, seeming to
run to no destination and for no purpose,
and at last to disappear, like the rivers of
Nevada, in their sinks in the alkali deserts.
Finally we come upon marble shaft. Its
MINER portion alone is visible. It's surface
has become discolored from the waters
that each winter have eddied about it. until
now its column is dingy beside the white.
ness of the sand that makes slight wind.
blown mound about it. It marks the site
of an old graveyard upon an ancient
mound near the tree. shaded border of the
river. Headstones and footstones are
hur;ed nv the covering. hundred yards
awav stone higher than the rest is still
v;s;b,e-a dark spot upon the white snr-
face The burial grounds have disanneared
with the fields and fences and barnvards
The n;ctnre is NOT oyerdrawn. II NAV he
realized in Greater desolation nv a ride down
tbe farmer bottom OF the Bear or down
the sandy waste that now occun;es the
former valley Of the Yuba ~