Clinch Valley news. [volume] (Jeffersonville, Va.) 18??-2019, 1889-06-07
THE RUSH FOR GOLD.
A WILD RACE FOR CALIFORNIA
IN FORTY-NINE.
Tho Adventurous From All Parts O,
the World Participated In the
Scramble = High Prices
Queer Use for Tobacco.

Old Forty miners laugh at the attempt
to compare high prices ut the Lower
California placer mines with those which
prevailed in the first flush of gold dis.
covcry in the Caloma mill-racc, and they
are right. for there is no parallel between
the cases. The California gold discovery
OF iorty years ago was literally u world.
disturbing event. 1t occurred ut time
when no great wars or enterprises of any
kind serving as outlets to surplus energy
were i'll progress, and the announcement
stirred up the adventurous in every part
OF the globe. 1t acted with equally
electric elect upon the spirit of COM
mcrcc race began for San Francisco.
hundreds of vessels were put on the route
with every imaginable kind of caruo.
Immense losses were incurred by mcr.
chants and shippers, first, because thew
had to guess at the market and often dis
patched unstable goods; secondly, be-
cause the arrival of all ships mt Yerba
Buena was the signal for indiscriminatc
and hcltcrskcltcr assertions. Often
every soul on board, from the loblolly.
boy to the Captain, set off for the mines.
1t was scarcely possible to find ship
Keepers, no matter what wages were
offered. Ten dollars day was refused
for stcvcdoring, and 'longshoremen would
hardly accept the cargo for the labor
OF unloading it. Ten dollars for an hours
work was frequently demanded in those
times, and rs promptly paid
Scores of ships rottcd at their anchors
Snmn a1..f
being left where they stranded, were in
time buried under the constantly grow
ing city. Some which lay at wharves
were served in the same way. They
were not always completely unloadcd.
Several years ago, for example, while
some street repairs were being made in
the ''madc ground" Ohc lower part of
San Francisco) the hull of one of these
buried vessels was uncovered, and in it
were found several cases of champapnc
which had been lying there since 10 or
'o- IL is curious fact that even when
prices generally were highest liquors and
wines remained comparatively cheap.
The books kept nj Suffers Fort show
that in ~, when IL pair of gum boots
cost S73, II pound Of tallow candlcs So. 80.
n box OF German matches 81, nails 81 a
pound, pickles from SO to So bottle,
and so on in like proportion, there was
plenty OF champagne to he had at s25 The
basket The explanation of this is that
all the shippers naturally dispatched
wines and liquors MS miners staples sure
of IL market. The result was to glut the
market with "wct goods But many
other things which were needed at the
mines never got there because of the lack
OF transportation, and the famine in the San
Francisco labor market caused the loss of
incalcuablc quantities of valuable MGR
chandlsc. Al one time the greater part
OF cargo of plug tobacco was used to
mend the streets, hundreds of boxes
being dumped into mud holes and en-
ploycd to build crossings with.
The waste i'll these ways must have
been enormous from first to last, but
nobody has ever so much MS tried TO conf
plltc 1t, and any such attempt would be
idle III the circumstances. In that
mighty CONFUSION (for it was nothing
less) men never stopped to estimate losses
of any kind. The four great fires of San
Francisco swept away scores of millions,
but the heaviest losers knew that recovery
was only II question of pluck and persist
cncc. and they did not wait for the en-
bers to cool before they began to build
again. All that this country could
furnish of energy. grit, enterprise and
staying qualities gathered in California
then, and presently all the world sent of
its best and its worst to the great new
Tom Tiddlcrs ground Nothing is i'm
possible, and so it will not do to say that
such scenes will ever be seen again; but
ut least it is improbable that the over
whelming excitement the fierce fever of
that time, will rccur-Mc,o io,I, 1ribvnc