Page:California Inter Pocula.djvu/404



but no  sooner  was  he  fairly  at  work  when  he  was greeted with  :

"Get out  of  there,  you  infernal  nigger,  or  I'll  blow your  head  off!"

" Good  Lord,  massa,  is  dis  yore  hole  ?  Where,  then, shall  I  dig?"

"Go up  on  top  of  the  hill  and  dig,  and  be  damned,," was the  reply.

The negro  went,  not  dreaming  that  he  had  been directed thither  as  the  most  unlikely  place  to  find gold in  the  whole  district. Nevertheless, he  sunk  a shaft,  at  the  bottom  of  which  he  found  gold,  which  he took  out  to  the  value  of  $4,000. The place  was  named Negro hill,  and  proved  to  be  the  richest  diggmgs  in all  that  reoion.

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Labor was  the  only  honorable  occupation,  and  labor was essential  to  manhood. He who  did  not  work  was a social  bastard,  and  a  shirk. Lodging-houses in early  times  consisted  of  a  shanty,  with  walls  lined with standing  berths,  having  coarse  beds  always  ready made, so  that  the  proprietor  had  little  else  to  do  than to sit  on  a  stool  and  take  the  money. A miner  once having occasion  to  occupy  such  a  bed  in  San  Francisco seemed troubled  in  mind  as  he  weighed  out  the  dust, and finally  broke  out  with :

"Say, stranger,  do  you  just  sit  thar  and  take  a  dol- lar from  every  man  that  sleeps  on  them  beds?"

"Yes, that's  my  business,"  replied  the  keeper.

"Then," said  the  troubled  miner,  slowly,  as  if  talk- ing to himself,  "its  a  damned  mean  way  to  make  a living,  that's  all  I've  got  to  say  about  it."

See that  fortnightly  steamer,  proudly  furrowing  her way through  the  great  deep  from  Panama  to  San Francisco 1  To  the  scattered  inhabitants  of  this  vast Pacific slope  she  brings  intelligence  from  the  old  busy east. Here is  money  and  merchandise ;  here  profit and losses ;  here  germs  of  fortune  and  seeds  of  bank- ruptcy. This,   however,    is   not   all. This   oce