The San Francisco call., 1898-01-30
w HEN MONTEREY HAD
 THE GOLD FEVER.
WHEN

- HE. effective though not the first
 discovery of gold in California,
 the great rush to the diggings,
 the hardships and the wonderful
 fortunes-these are among the things recorded by that observant eye witness. Rev. Walter Cotton. the first American clergyman, judge and editor in California. The following typical paragraphs about the gold rush are selected from his diary of fifty years ago:
 Monday. May 20-Our town (MontereD was startled out of it's dreams to-day by the announcement that gold had been discovered on the American Fork. The men wondered and talked and the women too. but neither believed.
 Monday. June -Another report reached us this morning from the American Fork. The rumor ran that several work men while excavating for a mill race had thrown up little shining scales of yellow ore that proved to be gold that an old SOnOran, who had spent ms Hle in gold mines, pronounced It the genuine thing Still the public incredulty re-
 Tuesday. June 2O-Ny messenger sent to the mines has returned with specl- mems of the gold. He dismounted in sea of upturned faces. As he drew forth the yellow Jumps from his pockets and passed them around among the eager crowd the doubts, which had fingered till now, fled. All admitted they were gold except one old man, who still per sisted they were some Yankee invention, got up to reconcile the people to the change of flag. The excitement produced was intense, and many were soon busy in their hasty preparations for de- parture for the mines. The family who had kent house for me caught the moV- ing infection. Husband and wife were both packing up. The blacksmith dropped his hammer, the carpenter his plane, -the mason his trowel, the farmer his $sckle, the baker his loaf, and the tapster his bottle. All were off for the mines some on horses, some on carts, some on crlIfches and one went in a litter. An American woman who had recently eS- tablished boarding-house here pulled up stakes and was off before her lodg- CTS had even time to pay their bills. Debtors ran of course. I have only a community of women left and gang or prisoners, with here and there a soldier, who Will give his captain the slip at the first chance.
 Saturday, July 15-The gold fever has reached every servant in Monterey. None are to be intrusted in their engagement beyond a week: and as for compulsion, it is like attempting to drive fish into a net with the ocean before them. Gen eral Mason, Lieutenant Lanman and myself form a mess. We have a house and all the culinary apparatus requisite, but our servants have run, one after another, till We are almost in despair: Even SdInDO, WnO we thought WOulu stick by us from laziness if for no other cause, ran last night, and this morning for the fortieth time we had to take to the kitchen and cook our own breakfast. A general of the United States army, the commander of a man-of-war and the Alcalde of Monterey in a smoking kitch- en, grinding coffee, toasting herring and peeling onionsI These gold mines are going to upset all the domestic arrange ments of society, turning the head to the tail and the tail to the head.
 Tuesday, July 1S-Another bag of gold from the mines and another Spasm in the community. It was brought down by a sailor from Yuba River, and contains 136 ounces. It is the most beautiful gold that has appeared in the market; it looks like the yellow scales of a dolphin passing through his rainbow hues at death. My carpenters at work on the schoolhouse, on seeing it, threw down their saws and planes, shouldered their picks and are off for Tuba. Three seamen ran away from the Warren. forfeiting their four years pay, and a whole platoon of soldiers from the fort left only their colors behind - Thursday, August 16-Four citizens of Monterey are just in from the gold mines on Feather River, where they worked in company with three others. They em- ployed about thirty wild Indians, who are attached to the rancho owned by one of the party. They worked precisely seven weeks and three days, and have divided S26,844