Page:California Inter Pocula.djvu/185



teeth, and  well  laden  with  gold-dust,  two  or  more friends uniting;:  their  accumulations,  and  each  in  turn guarding their  treasure  night  and  day,  never  leavhig it for  an  instant  during  the  entire  trip. This was  in order  to  save  the  freight,  which  was  then  high. They argued if  they  got  through,  their  money  should  ;  if  it was  lost,  all  would  go  down  together.

Narrowly they  eyed  one  another,  the  going  and  the returning, one  with  interest  not  unmingled  with  ad- miring envy, and  the  other  with  an  air  of  superiority, perhaps with  contemptuous  pity. Ah! the mighty power of  gold,  in  which  is  condensed  all  that  is  bright and beautiful  of  earth,  all  that  is  holy  of  heaven  and hateful of  hell,  in  whose  yellow  molecules  are  wrapped all human  virtue  and  passion,  that  could  thus  consum- mate this meeting-,  brincrino;  together  from  the  remotest ends of  earth  brave  men  of  thought  and  deed,  meeting here in  the  heart  of  a  tropical  wilderness,  in  the  middle of this  narrow  Isthmus  which  so  provokingly  obstructs the world's  commerce,  on  the  topmost  point,  round which revolves  the  two  Americas  and  the  two  great oceans, meeting  in  a  pestilential  clime,  some  hurrying one way  and  some  another,  some  sick  to  death  of  gold- seeking, others  burning  for  it ! It was  not  a  little curious, the  sight,  as  we  stood  and  watched  them there, the  outward  bound  and  homeward  bound,  some with the  confident  swagger  of  greenness  yet  upon them, rude  and  unaccommodating  in  their  grumbling selfishness, stupid  in  their  perverse  independence,  and surly in  their  unreasonable  opposition  to  order  and regulations ; the  others,  men  of  like  origin  and  caste, but licked  into  some  degree  of  form  and  congruity  by their  rough  experiences,  rude  and  ragged  they  may  be, but quieter,  more  subdued,  more  easily  adapting themselves to  circumstances,  more  ready  to  yield  some fancied right  for  the  common  good,  more  humanized and harmonious,  whether  more  polished  or  not. Light like  that  of  revelation  seems  to  have  broken in  upon  them    during  their   wanderings,   enlighten-