Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1888-05-25

contained the following interesting letter,
written from Coloma on May Day, by Miss
Minnie Caroline Smith
CoLoMA, Cal, May Day, 1888.
When California gold was discovered it
was here, to the placers of the south fork
of American river, that the adventurous
and the ambitious from Maine and Mis-
souri, turned their eyes and their ox-teams.
The Argonauts came by sea- of course, by
Panama and around Cape Horn. An Ar
gonaut in an 'ox-team would have been a
classical confusion, indeed. Yet YOU
couldn't have told one of them from one
of the crowd that crossed the plains
when they reached Coloma and went TO
work in the mines. 1t remained for this
latter day to discover any superiority in the
men who came by sea over the Hen who
came by land, and-take note of this =
only the Argonauts themselves believe in
their own superiority to this very day
Then, too the men who came by the slow
ox-teams usually went home by steamer
in such=a hurry were they to get away from
this country when once they had made, or
failed TO make their fortunes.
How does Ell Dorado look now? ask
some good forty-niner living in Illinois or
Iowa or Michigan. Well, to begin with,
Placerville has a railroad at last, and the
old historic
HANGTowN
Is as poplar as hen with one choking"
now she has really attained the distinction
of footing engines and rafting wheels,
and crowd of corners and goers, in
excess of anything that was possible
when people must toll up from Single
Springs in a stage wagon. The completion
of the railroad a month or more ago, and
the excursion train which brought up 500
valley people to see the Queen CITY of the
Mountains" have been duly celebrated in
the newspapers, but the subsequent effect
upon Placerviiie is something remarkable.
Ii seems as though the town is actually as
tonished at its own good fortune, and
doesn't believe it deserves it. There is talk
of putting the railroad on through the
mountains to Carson, Nevada. there to con-
meet with the main overland line. 1t is
talk which must result in wonderful
wave of prosperity for Ell Dorado when it is
realized in action for this is, without
doubt the choicest fruit country in Central
California. With an open outlet eastward
for the peaches and raiSins, the figs and
pears and apricots and plums OF this region,
it will renew even more rapidly than at
present the fame of its early days. Only
the gold will be chiefly taken out of peaches
instead of placers, out of the pockets of
Eastern invalids instead of pockets" on
the mountain sides. The roundabout rail-
way connection with Chicago, now man
aged by means of Single Springs and Sac
rsmento, is however, of great benefit to the
county, which has begun to take pride in
the fact that its cars of mountain fruit rank
| first in 1.-The East" as both Chicago and
New York are called indifferently here.
The first carload of Coloma fruit that was
sent to New York appeared there last sum-
mer, and the peaches, most carefully
packed, brought highest prices.
An added advantage of the Plaeerville-
Carson Railroad will be the avoidance of
the long and often dangerous snowsheds of
the AubuTn-Truckee route. And Eastern
invalids, of whom have often spoken as a
source of income TO FL Dorado may come
directly into the heart of