Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1885-08-11

| life. Above all, II appealed to the
| strongest passion of humanity-the love Of
gain - with bountiful promise for its
! full qualification. These considerations,
| addressed to individual minds, ex-
| erted a powerful influence. The
| first emotions of amazed surprise
| had scarcely subsidized before movement
was in progress that is hardly less remark
| able than was the exodus of the Israelites
! from the land of Egypt. The rock-ribbed
| hills Of California had been touched by the
wand of Marshall and the gold poured
| forth. This was quite enough. There was
| 10 question as to the hardship. danger,
| deprivations, sulierings, and, peradventure,
| death, that must be encountered. Gold to
be had Tor the mere trouble of picking up
WAS THE REWARD MEN PROPOSED
tons and inquiries were irrele-
want and foreign. California was
country interesting to naturalists from its
earliest history and had been explored and
! reeXplored by men of science. Biologists
had examined its surface with minute
care and fixed the character of its forma-
| ton Religious communities had been
established here, which possessed a con-
| trolling influence over the Indians. Men
of learning and observation, of enterprise
| and sagacity, studious and industrious, of
adventurous habits and of courage. had
sought the shores of California, and made
| its plaCerS, and mountains, and rivers their
| familiar home The Indians frequently
brought to these strangers specimens found
in the ravines and curosities from the
mountains. Animals, birds, plants, young
trees, wild flowers, pipe clay, specimens of
stone and minerals in great variety, but
never piece of gold. And so the land lay
with
I-SCOVNTED MILLIONS N IT'S UpSOM
While those who walked above it were
| unconscious happily unconscious, it may
| be, of the golden treasures that rested be-
meath their feet. This seems all the more
| singular too, since biologists and other in
| telligent observers had seen and noted
| years before all the signs and indications
| which accompany auriferouS deposits and
| had made these indications the subject Of
| special comment.
James w. Marshall was sent by Captain
Suffer in the latter part of December, 1917.
| to erect a sawmill on the South Fork of the
| American river at the present site of Co
! Iona, in III Dorado county. The mill was
| completed in January. 1913, and they had
| just commenced saving lumber, when. on
| the night Of February ,, 1S4S Marshall APP
| peared at Suffers Fort, his horse in foam
| and himself presenting singular appear
| ance-all despatched with mud, and labor
| ing under
AN EXTRAORDINARY DEGREE OF EXCITEMENT.
| He Immediately requested Captain Suffer
| to 90 with him into a room where they
! could be alone. This request was granted,
| and after the door was closed Marshall asked
| Captain Suffer if he was sure they would
not be disturbed, and desired the door
| locked. Captain Suffer did not know what
| to make of his actions, and he began to
| think 1t hazardous to lock himself in
room with an individual who acted so
strangely.
| Marshall being satisfied at last that they
| would not be interrupted, took from his
| pocket a pouch, from which he poured
upon the table about an ounce of yellow
grains of metal which he thought would
| prove to be gold. The Captain asked where
1t came from. Marshall stated that in the
morning, the water being shut off from
| the mill race, he had discovered here
and there in the bottom the shiny parti-
cles. On examination he found them
to be of metallic substance, and
THE THOUGHT FLASHED THROUGH HIS MIND
That it might be gold. He stated that the
laborers-white and Indians-had picked
up some of the particles, and he thought a
! larger quantity could be collected.
| Captain Suffer was at first quite incredu-
/ lous as to the particles being gold. but hap
| pening to have bottle ofnttric acid among
his stores, he applied the test, and true
enough, the yellow grains proved to be
pure gold. The great discovery was made.
View these men as they sat at the
| hour of midnight, in the dimly-lighted
room OF that adobe fort, the site
of which is within our present city
| limits, but at that time the other side of the
world to everybody but themselves, isolated,
all 1nknOwing and unknown one an edu-
Gated, polished gentleman, the other a
| plain, honest mechanic. Regard them as
they examine those little yellow grains and
| learn that they are gold. The action of no
| king on his throne no warrior at the head
! of his army, no statesman or legislative
| body that ever existed, was more conducive
| to events of the highest import to the hui
man race than was that of those two humble
private individuals when they sat at the
midnight hour, secluded and lonely, in this
then remote land, and
DISCOVERED THAT THEY WERE HANDLING
GOLD.
| 1t must not be forgotten that another
scene in this omnipotent drama was being
enacted in the Mexican Capital. On the
very day. perhaps the very moment, that
Marshall discovered gold at Coloma the
| treaty that closed the Mexican war and
gave to the United States California was
| signed in the City of Mexico This acuuisi-
| ton of California and the discovery of gold
| within her borders are events far beyond
| man 5 calculation in their influence on the
destiny of the great American Republic
Suffer visited Coloma, and he and Mar
| shall became satisfied that gold in consider
| able quantities could be found in the
neighborhood. The laborers were all sworn
to secrecy, and each expected in few short
months to be able to leave California with
chests full of the precious metal.
But the great secret comic moi lOuu he re-
tanned.
| A BOTTLE OF WHISKY MADE IT KNOWN
A teamster, whom Captain Suffer had
dispatched to the sawmill with supplies
heard OF the discovery of gold, and man
aged to obtain some of the precious grains
On returning to the fort he Immediately
went to the neighboring store, kent by a
Mormon, and demandeda bottle of whisky.
| Whisky then, as now, was q cash article
and, as the teamster was poor pay, the
Mormon refused him. The man became
indignant, declared he had plenty of
money, and placed a quantity of gold on
the counter. The Mormon trader was con-
| WINGED, and gave the man bottle of rye.
The teamster refused to make known his
secret till he had imbibed considerable of
the liquor. when his tongue was loosened,
and he then told all about Marshalrs dis
covery at Cnloma
The wonderful tale spread like wild-fire
! throughout the then sparsely-inhabited
territory of California 1t ran up and
down the Pacific coast, traversed the CONT
nent, reached the Atlantic shores, and in a
few months the story of CALIFORNIA; golden
treasures had startled the civilized world
| When the story of Marshall's discovery
re- ehed San Francisco, there was
A REGULAR STAMPEDE FOR THE MINES
All hands-the schoolmaster butcher,
baker, lawyer, doctor and merchant