Los Angeles herald., 1892-10-02
HOW WE STRUCK IT.

HOW WE STRUCK 1T.
eff had only come here away back
in the early fifties!' 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 tifties. 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 perished 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 fifties.
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.
It has been estimated, and think
about correctly, that if each miner had
received twenty-five cents 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 'searly fifties."
So cease this deploring that you came
30 late to California, my dreamful
friend. Of course we would all like to
live over the impetuous old days again;
but 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
Gghing for the days of old. You can at
hast get your board and twenty five
GENTS day, and that, be assured, is
more than we got on an average to the
man, Notwithstanding all our priva-
ti0ns.
An old forty-niner from New Bed
ford, Mass, Mr.. Haskins, who has writ
ten very readable book about his fell
low argonauts- very important
book it is, as it contains the names Of
more than 81, 900 of them-told me that
of the 5000 who came from his town,
first and last, it was hard to find more
than 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 300 of their select
young men who came and compared
their fortunes with 300 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 mine. On the other hand, they
found that notwithstanding the perils
end hardships the proportion of argo-
nauts still living was ten to three against
those who remained in New Bedford.
Some day, my dreanful 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
. 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 ffties."
But for the present the contract is to tell
you how we struck it in the middle fork
of Humbug creek.
I had ''pardner" for about week,
winter Of 1866. He was not yet twenty,
small for his age, and 1 was not yet
thirteen. ga fool for LUCK" and SO Pat
Flannigan, the banker at Coos Bay,
staked him-so he said-and Frank
Campbell, of the 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, so
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 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 crept out of camp at
midnight up the narrow trail of the
middle fork between high walls of snow.
For he had a pointer" he lisped, from
old Alva Boles, killed two years later in
the Pitt river massacre.
How in the world Hi Miller Williams
managed to keep all this name don't
zee. Names were rare luxuries in those
days, especially long ones like this, and
many good old man may be found in
those mountains to this day with name
and date and nationality all worn away
and gone as from an. old quarter. But
the true silver, trust God, is still there.
Three miles up the creek, a mile above
kae very last cabin; the last mile or two
solid snow, soft and impossible by day
because of the sun, but hard as steel by
night, and here we laid down our loads
nf daylight and took shelter in brush
shed built by Alva Boles. We fried our
bacon and fapjacks and ate like wolves.
On the third day, discouraged and
aisgusted, for not q color as yet had we
found, we took the tools and climbed up
cut Of the canyon to q warm mountain
-,as