Page:California Inter Pocula.djvu/339



Senator, the  finest  and  fastest  boat  that  ever  turned  a wheel  from  Long  Wharf,  sound  and  strong,  with  mir- rors, mahogany doors  and  silver  hinges — one  dollar  to- night— feather pillows  and  curled  hair-mattresses, eight young-lady  passengers  and  not  a  nigger  from stem to  stern  of  her. All the  dead  languages  spoken, and all  for  one  dollar!"  "Low  fares  and  no  monop- oly," yells another,  "no  more  rotten  bottoms  and bursting boilers,  and  beds  with  bushels  of  bed-bugs and fleas  1 "

In August  1853  the  fare  to  Sacramento  by  boat was one  dollar  in  the  cabin  and  twenty -five  cents  on deck. Opposition steamers  flaunted  their  banners,  and 'Long Wharf  presented  a  stirring  scene. He was  a luckless  fellow  who  fell  unprepared  into  the  hands  of the  runners. Amidst cries  of  "no  imposition  prac- tised by  this  line,"  and  cursings  on  all  sides  of  combi- nations, monopolies, and  oppositions,  he  is  fenced  in by  the  philistines,  and  nolens  volens  he  is  hurried  to the  boat,  whose  representatives  are  for  the  moment  in the  ascendant

At the  various  landings  along  the  rivers,  stages take up  the  passengers  and  whirl  them  on  toward  the mines, and  when  wheeled  vehicles  are  stopped  by  the rugged barriers  of  the  Sierra  foothills,  saddle  mules stand ready  to  hurry  them  on  to  their  destination.

Out of  every  necessity  is  born  a  new  phase  of character ;  and  the  Californian  stage-driver — the whip par  excellence  of  early  times,  now  unhappily  no more — is  not  the  least  orioinal  and  fantastic — of  the great conglomeration. Culled from  the  scum,  with  a swaggering  air,  a  rough  manner,  and  uncleanly  mouth, lie is  not  without  heart,  conscience,  and  deportment. He is  a  lord  in  his  w^ay,  the  captain  of  his  craft,  the fear of  timid  passengers,  the  admiration  of  stable- boys, and  the  trusty  agent  of  his  employer. He prides himself  in  being  an  expert  in  his  profession, to which  all  other  occupations  and  professions  are subordinate; all  must  sooner   or  later  fall  into   his