The record-union., 1899-08-23
WORK AND FUN ON A RANCH.
DANCES AND BEER. PICNICS
AND GAMBLING.
Touches Of High Life and the Sound
of Revelry Among the
Hop Vines.

Inc Rooney hop ranch, conducted by
Horst Bros. of San Francisco, is one of
the novelties of Sacramento County in
the way of a ranch. 1t is eight and
half miles from the city, cyclometer
measurement, being along the Ameri-
can River front, where the sand is a
foot deep. 1t is a busy place by day,
a sort of Midway Plaisance by night.
Four hundred men and women -
chiefly men are doing the hop pick
ing, and they pick about 100000 pounds
a day. 1t is hard work, and even the
Japs and Chinese sometimes like a
glass of beer to revive their spirits.
There are sixty of the former, forty
Chinese and $50 whites. The conven-
fences of civilization surround them, for
the ranch saloon is open and their cred
it is good for a week.
Now the proprietors are nothing if
not original so they have devised q
scheme to make the ranch place of
amusement, when it is not a place of
hard work. A Record Union" reporter
who went there yesterday found a
number of workmen engaged in per-
fecting dance platform, which is to
be used nightly, but particularly on
Saturday and Sunday nights. This
platform stands midway between a
store where groceries, ETC., are sold
at Sacramento prices, and a saloon,
where all sorts of drinks are served.
I'VE had big dance here on Satur-
day night" said one of the pickers,
"and we expect to have another next
Saturday, but Sunday will be the big
day"
%
derstood when it is stated that the
hands are paid every Sunday at 10 a.
IN. OF course each Sunday finds many
charges against the hands, as they buy
provisions on credit. Even those who
sleep in tents are accommodated by the
firm, which charges 10 cents a week
for tent and cots. The expenses of
conducting the ranch operating ex-
penses = are about 1,200 a day, but
the payroll in cash and checks does
not exceed $4,000 a week, eA,balance
being paid for during the week in pro-
visions and creature comforts.
The principal ranch hands, of whom
there are about fifty, are paid in
checks, but the pickers who come and
go are paid in cash. Thereby hangs .
tale-the story of the vigilant slot ma
chine.
When they enter the saloon to get
their beer they are confronted by two
nickel-in- -the-slot machines, one on
either side of the entrance. Men who
have been working hard all week feel
a little like taking a chance" when
they find their pockets lined with ex-
ira cash, especially if they have had a
few drinks. The result is that the ma
chimes form a part of an endless chain,
helping to keep the workmen's nickels
in the Golfers of the management. or
course there are slot machines else
where. and the men might wander away
and play out their money, and get
drunk as we'll.
There are some advantages in having
a saloon keeper who can watch the
men and see that they do not get too
drunk to go to work at the end of their
weekly vacation.
A singular and rather unexpected
feature of the great hop farm was the
presence of nearly a hundred people
from San Francisco, many of them
transitory hop pickers who do only
enough work to pay for their board
Others do no work at all, save for fun,
but these have selected the ranch as a
good place for an outing. There are a
number of women among the visitors,
and they seem to enjoy the novelty of
the thing They live in tents, and
there is a merry ring Of laughter as one
passes the groves that are alive with
picnic parties. Several barrels of
monkeys couldn't make as much fun
as these people have.
The saloon, store, dancing PLATFORM
and like accommodations We're complet-
ed temporarily on Sunday, but they will
all be in much better shape next Sun
day, and it is probable that the ranch
viii by that time be one of the liveliest
places on the road.