Shenandoah herald. [volume] (Woodstock, Va.) 1865-1974, 1884-12-05
California In FOriy-Nine.

were extremely trying and difficult.
The only supply-markets were so
remote that the greatest huctua-
tiOns in The stock Of goods on hand
woro constantly occurring, against
which no human foresight could
guard. New York was 10000
miles distant by sca.route, and
about six months was required 10
send an order from San Francisco,
and have the goods deliyered.-
Oregon's few thousand pioneers
had as yet little to sell; China sent
rice and sugar; Australia and Chill
| furnished some -four. Everything
else came from the Atlantic sea-
ports. Tobacco, one month worth
two dollars n pound, was tossed in
toe streets as worthless few
weeks later. Saleratus huctuated
in price between twenty-five cents
and fifteen dollars per pound. The
entire com munity was dependent
for its food and clothing upon
other communities thousands Of
miles distant. The commercial
annals of the world afford few
more exciting episodes than those
which occurred in San Francisco
under these conditions, when few
days delay in expected cargOes,
or miscalculation Of The amount
required for the market, might
cause a tenfold rise in the price Of
any article, and when the ordinary
rate of interest was ten per cent.
per month. The very bOOt-blacks
have been known to try "cOrners'
on some promising item in the
drug, or grocery, or dry-goods line.
BY the time that goods reached the
mountain camps, their cost was so
enormous that most Of the miners
gains went for the necesearles of
life. Those who had been very
fortunate often INDUCED in curious
and expensive whims and extrava-
gances, feeling sure that their
Claims would continue to yield
handsomely. They bought the
costlest broadcloth, drank the
finest wines, and smoked the best
brands of cigars. 4 "wasteful,
dissipated set of men" is what one
of the Forty-nincrs calls his old
comrades. Men who had been
brought up 10 keep sober, and
earn S1G per mouth, and save half
of it. went 10 California, found rich
claims. earned several hundred
dollars q month, Of which they
might have saved three-fourths,
but spent every cent in riotOus liy-
ing. Men who had been New
York hod-carrers, spent ten dollars
l. day for caunod fruits and pottod
meats. But ouly a few years later,
when thc surface placers we're all
exhausted, these same unkempt
| Sybarites retuned to beaDs and
pork, strapped up their blankets
and made prospect tours to better
regions, taking their reverses more
placidly than one could have
thought possible.
TO many cheerful, imperuous,and
intelligent men the ops and downs
of mining life seemed full of wild
fascination; to he there was to be a
part of scene that each thought
fdl miner knew in his heart was as
evanescent as it was brilliaDt-au
episode whose intensity cores
ponded accurately to It's brieinesS.
Reports filled each camp, almost
every week, telling of "new dig
gings, where from 500 to $1,000
might easily be collected in a day"
Down came the tent-rOpes, the
claims we're abandoned; The eph
demic gold.rush fever had seized
each Argonant in the camp. They
went to Gold Lake, Gold Bluffs,
and a hundred other as loudly
trumpeted regions, till the habit of
following with swift feet each new
excitement became rs much n part
of the Argonaut's nature as the
habit of running after fire Is n
part of the nature of healthy boy.
The Argonaui was well enough
aware that the blaze is very apt to
be only bonfire, or else to be over
lorg before he arrives. but he
could not bear to stand by and see
others run and hurrah, so off he
started. at the best of his speed, to
come bacl. few months later
"dead broke financially, but
wealthy in experience. Kern
River. in 1850, tC>k 5000 miners
to region where most OF them
failed to pay expenses. fraser
River, in 1858, took $4,000 men
from California, and san francisco
real estate lost from % to 20 pei
cent. of its value. Two years later
came the Washoc excitement, thel
White Pine, then Bodie, and others
almost yearly, till last spring ole
California prospcctors were among
, the pilgrims to the much-pralsec
placers of the savage CoGuI
D'Alene region.
, Fortunately, there were some
even from the first, who had "com'
to California to remain and make
s homes, who recognized vast re
? sources other than mineral, and by
+. whose answering fidelity to justice
D the best clements of camp life wer'
| o,,oivad A fine oXamDle of Till