Mexico Missouri message., 1901-02-28
AN OVERLAND TRIP -
" TO CALIFORNIA.
lCNNTINIED.(

to go into the diggingS, except
that we had to go to Coloma, II
distance of about three miles. to
lay in our provisions for the camp.
This we did every Sunday, and
while there we would 90 to the
poStoflcc, in hopes that we might
get letters from home, as to hear
from home seemed like Il message
from another world have thought
| would go Il mile to see one of our
old neighbor's dogs. When we
would get to the postOifice we Oft
en- found strimgOf men quarter
of mile or more long, in waiting
for the mail To- be opened, and the
rush would continue until far into
the night When we were ready
to return to the camp each of us
would take IA fifty ID. sack of flour
or sack of beans, potatoes, onions
or other provisions, and start up
the mountain, and by the time we
got there we were reminded that
JordOn was Il hard road to travel.
Altho we never did any work ON
Sundays, it was about the hardest
labor that we had to perform, to
return late in the evening and
cook our suppcrs, then spread our
blankets on the hunks around the
wall or on the cabin floor and lie
down and dream of home folks
and gold nuggets, and wake i'll the
morning to find it only Il dream.
1t looked very discouraging to us
new beginners at first when we
went out prospecting TO find Il
claim, rs the whole country had
been dug full of prospect holes,
that looked like so many little
wells. But we finally set our Long
Tom on the opposite side of lit
tie creek from where some old
miners were ut work, and, rs green
rs we were at mining, we made
five dollars each the first day. AS
we learned more each day about
saving the fine gold our claim
would sometimes yield aS high as
twenty dollars each per day. You
may think this big money, but
when We paid fifty dollars per hun
dred for flour, and everything else
that we used i'll proportion, it had
to pay big for Us to have anything
left. 1t was a busy scene to see
hundreds of men at ii time at work
shoveling the dirt into the sluiccs
and then washing the dirt on the
screens with a shovel, each one
concerned in no one but himself.
In fact you might work within
forty yards of company all win
ter and net know the name of one
of them. Most men were called
after the State from whence they
came, except the MiSSourians, who
We're all called pike 1t is said
that the reason the MiSsOurianS
were called Pike was that party
of Yankees had some trouble with
Il MiSSOurian over claim and as
there was no civil law, miners
meeting was called and they pro-
cccdcd to try the case, and when a
witness was called on the side of
the MiSSolTian and asked where he
was from, the answer from about
fifty of them was that they We're
'aIl the way from Pike county,
Missouri, " when the Yankees gave
up the case and said that it was
no use to set up claim to any
thing against Il Piker.
As there were very few women
in the country to give that REIN
ing influence so much needed, we
boys got to be pretty rough,
aud many would gamble, tho we.
under the iutiu cncc of odd Dad
voted at the start that no gamb-
ling should be done in our cabin;
but we, even Old Dad, would play
an occasional game of euchcr or
old slcdgc. But the professional
gambler was in his glory, and ov-
cry game known was played for
high stakes, and thousands of dol
lars would change hands in sin.
gle game.
All nationalitics gamblcd, and !
the most expert were the
Chinese. They played game
they called Fan Tan, which they
entered into with as much zcst ms
IN old plantation darkcy would in !
Il gNmc Of crnpS. Thr Chinese |