The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1892-12-01
HOW WE STRUCK IT.

t'If I had only come here away back
in the early ffties!' sighed 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 along!'
First let me once for all disabuse the
popular mind about the flush times and
big strikes Of the early ffties. 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. Tbs
thousands aad hundreds of thousands
that perishea 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 these
days.
It has been estimated, and I thiuk
about correctly, that if each miner had
received twenty-five cents day and
board for his labor-and such lahorf
sixteen hours q day generally-we
would have hal 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 I doubt it, 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, COOS food, books, papers, the
presence Of women and all the healthful
retinements that attend her, than sit
signing for the days of old. You can at
least get your board and twenty-five
cents day, and that, be assured, ia
more than we got on an average to the
mau, Notwithstanding all our priva-
tons.
An old forty-niner from New Bed
ford, Mass, Mr.. Haskins, who has writ
ten very readable book about his fell
low argonauts-and very important
book it is, as it contains the names Of
more than 49, 900 of them-told me that
of the 5000 who came from his town,
first and last. it was hard to find more
than a very few who were much ahead
in the world. He told me that Oh re-
turning horas after forty years he and
his old friends took 800 of their select
young men who came and compared
their fortunes with 800 similar youag
men who remained at home, and they
found that thu proportion of those VINO
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 pet1ls
and hardships the proportion of argo-
nauts still living was ten to three against
those who remained In New Bedford.
Some day, Wy dreamful friends. who
lament your late coming and are con-
tiaually taking the FREQ local trains of
Oakland in ordsr 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 tall
you how we struck it in the middle fosk
Of Humbug creek.
had ''pardnes" for about a week,
winter of 1855. He was not yet twenty,
small for his age, and I was not yet
thirteen. ga fool for LUCK" and SO Pat
Flanagan, the banker at Coos Bay,
etaked hin-so he said-and Fraak
Campbell, of tho Howlin' Wilderness
saloon, started me. Neither of us, Let
it be frankly told, had enough practical
sense to come in when it rained. Surely
we would strike it, if there was bit Of
truth in the old adage.
His name was Hi Williams Miller, 40
he said, and he claimed to be kin of
mine, but afterward learned that his
name was Miller Williams. He was
fearful liar, and had about as much con.
science as a rubber band.
Boots and pick and pan and shovel,
bacon, -four, frying pan, beans and
blankets, and so, half hidden under our
huge loads, we clept out of camp OF
midnight up the narrow trail Of the
middle fork between high walls of snow.
For he had g pointer" he lisped, from
old Alv% Boles, killed two years later in
The Pitt river massacre.
How in tbs world Hi Miller Williams
managed to keep all this name don't
Bee. Names we're rare luxuries in those
lays, especially long ones like this, and
S4aay 8 good id man may be found il
nose mountains to this day with nan
I'D date AMI nationality all worn AVA
ard gone ~ from an old quarter. b.
the tlus silvaF, trnst God, is still there.
THREE zsaiiss ap the c>eek, q milo abo7'
h vary last cabin; the last mile or tw