Arizona republican., 1892-09-21
HOW WE STRUCK 1T.

IF had only come here away back
in the early fifties" sighed a dreamy
man to me as we waited for the train at
Fruitvale last week. And another man
Clipped in and sighed also as he said.
"Flush times then, you bet, and big
strikes; but | only got here in the seven
ties-got here without cent and have
held my own right alongw
First let me once for all disabuse the
popular mind about the flush times and
big strikes of the early fifties. Yes,
there were big strikes, but they were,
like the big generals of our great war,
not the rule. You hear of the big strikes
and you hear of the big generals. The
thousands and hundreds of thousands
that persisted in the ranks you never
hear about.
For the benefit of the dreamy man
who sits waiting and lamenting, let me
say that the openings and opportunities
are better today than they were in the
seventies, and they were better in the
seventies than they were in the ffties
The wear and tear of life was so terri
BILE then too. Every dollar cost about
two dollars and half to get in those
days.
1t has been estimated, and | think
about correctly, that if each miner had
received twenty-five cents a day and
board for his labor-and such labor!
sixteen hours day generally-we
would have had more golddust than we
got in those famous early fifties."
So cease this deploring that you came
so late TO California, my dreamful
friend. OF course we would all like to
live over the impetuous old days again.
but l doubt if you who don't get on to-
day would have got on then. Better,
far better for you, for all, to settle
down content by some sweet village in
this fair land, where you can have clean
clothes, good food, books, papers, the
presence of women and all the healthful
refinements that attend her, than sit
signing for the days of old. You can at
least get your board and twenty-five
cents a day, and that, be assured, is
more than we got on an average to the
man, Notwithstanding all our priva-
lions.
An old forty-niner from New Bed
ford, Mass, Mr.. Haskins, who has writ
ten very readable book about his fel-
low argonauts-ard a very important
book it is, as it contains the names of
more than $4,000 of them-told me that
of the 5000 who came from his town.
frat nd To- or ri 10 End
than a very few who were much ahead
in the world. He told me that on re-
turning home after forty years he and
his old-friends took SEQ of their select
young men who came and compared
their fortunes with 800 similar young
men who remained at home, and they
found that the proportion Of those who
had prospered at home was as ten TO
four against those who had come in
forty-nine. On the other hand, they
found that notwithstanding the perils
and hardships the proportion of argo-
nauts still living was ten TO three against
those who remained in New Bedford.
Some day, my dreamful friends who
lament your late coming and are con.
tinually taking the free local trains of
Oakland in order to fly from toll as from
a contagion, ! will sit down and tell you
how to make fortunes right here by the
Bay of San Francisco far easier than
they were made in the early fifties."
But for the present the contract is to tell
you how we struck it in the middle fork
of Humbug creek.
had "pardner" for about a week
winter of 1855. He was not yet twenty
small for his age, and l was not yet
thirteen. "A fool for luck" and so Pat
Flanagan, the banker at Coos Bay,
staked him-so he said-and Frank
Campbell, of the Howlin' Wilderness
saloon, started Inc. Neither of us, let
it be frankly told, had enough practical
sense to come i'll when it rained. Surely
we would strike it, if there was bit OF
truth in the old adage.
His name was Hi Williams Miller, so
he said, and he claimed to be kin Of
mine, but afterward learned that his
name was Miller Williams. He was q
fearful liar, and had about as much con
science as a rubber band.
Boots and pick and pan and shovel,
bacon, flour, frying pan, beans and
blankets, and so, half hidden under our
huge loads, we crept out of camp az
midnight up the narrow trail Of the
middle fork between high walls Of snow.
For he had pointer" Ec lispcd from
old Alva Coles, killed two years later in
the Pitt river maeaacrC,
How in the world III liii!cr Williams