Old Misery

The foundations of the thirty-first state in the Union consisted of placer gold and were unwittingly laid. The precious metal was a magnet that drew from all portions of the globe. No corner was so remote as not to heed the imperious summons once the news leaped oceans and climbed mountains. Men in the prime of life responded, as the adventure was only for the physically fit and resolute. Never was there a land of promise where nature more generously laid down waterways in pleasant valleys for the convenience of the newcomers, nor where the climate was more beneficially arranged. And the bold and eager swarmed to the lonely shore and turned the vast treasure house topsy-turvy. What had been fair vales and majestic forests were shoveled and sluiced into a chaos of raw earth and mud-choked streams.

Among the thousands who flocked to California were many desperate characters from all climes. Penal colonies in Australia were contributed. England sent her worst from home. France was rid of many villains. A strange mixture of little-understood people, meek and evil, swarmed in from the Orient. South American men were among the first to arrive. No section of the Union that failed to send its good and bad. No laws awaited the in sweeping hordes. In desperation the decent element patched up a system of justice called Vigilance Commit tees whenever conditions in spots became intolerable. San Francisco hanged and terrified and scattered the rogues up and down the great valleys to infect the smaller and more remote communities. The outlying centers imitated the bay, and there were rare hangings.

But crime and gold are ever pals under certain conditions, or so long as a new mining country is without homes, and is not interested in homes. The law-abiding are actuated by the selfish desire to secure plenty of gold and return whence they came. Doctors abandoned their practices, lawyers deserted the court-room, ministers of the gospel ceased from preaching, tradesmen and work men of all classes forgot their helpful vocations in the mad scramble for gold. When the entire mass of migratory males, unleavened at first by the presence of good women, sought only to “strike it rich.” it naturally resulted that the less righteous hunted gold by direct and reprehensible methods.

A woman with an immigrant train, slowly making her way across the plains and throughout the long, dangerous journey caring for two hives of bees, was more prophetic of a majestic state than a gulch full of gold-mad miners. The man who opened a school in San Francisco was a far more valuable citizen than a judge who left the bench to swing a pick. It was the woman with the beehives and the school master, who planted the idea of “Home” in the rich valleys and along the coast, and made possible a stately structure on foundations of placer gold.