Page:History of California (Bancroft) volume 6.djvu/76



merchandise not  used  in  the  mines  declined,  while labor rose  tenfold  in  price. ^^ .     Spreading  their  valedictions  on  fly-sheets,  the  only
 * '  Real  estate  had  dropped  one  half  or  more,  and  all

^ two  journals  now  faint  dead  away,  the  Californian  on the  29th  of  May,  and  the  Star  on  the  14th  of  June. " The  whole  country  from  San  Francisco  to  Los  An- geles," exclaimed  the  former,  "  and  from  the  seashore to  the  base  of  the  Sierra  Nevada,  resounds  to  the  sor- did cry  of  gold!  gold  I !  GOLDl ! !  while  the  field  is left  half  planted,  the  house  half  built,  and  everything neglected  but  the  manufacture  of  shovels  and  pick- axes, and  the  means  of  transportation  to  the  spot where  one  man  obtained  $128  worth  of  the  real  stuff  in one  day's  washing,  and  the  average  for  all  concerned is  $20  per  diem." Sadly spoke  Kemble,  he  who  vis- ited the gold  mines  and  saw  nothing,  he  to  whom within four  weeks  the  whole  thing  was  a  sham,  a superlatively  silly  sham,  groaning  within  and  without, but always  in  very  bad  English,  informing  the  world that his  paper  '*  could  not  be  made  by  magic,  and  the labor of  mechanism  was  as  essential  to  its  existence as to  all  other  arts;"  and  as  neither  men  nor  devils

please, all  you  in  arrears.'  See  also  Findld's  StcU.f  MS.,  4-6. After quite  a busy  life,  duriu^  which  he  gained  some  prominence  as  editor  of  the  Star  and Californian and  the  Altn  Cal\fomia,  and  later  as  government  official  and newspaper correspondent,  Kemble  died  at  the  east  the  10th  of  Feb. 188(5. He was  a  man  highly  esteemed  in  certain  circles.

^^ Pay  the  cost  oi  the  house,  and  the  lot  would  be  thrown  in. On tlie fifty-yara corner  Pine  and  Kearny  streets  was  a  house  which  had  cost  $400  to build;  both  house  and  lot  were  offered  for  $3o0. Boss* Ex.y  MS.,  12;  Larkin'a Doc.t  MS.,  vi.,  144. On the  door  of  a  score  of  houses  was  posted  the  notice, in Larkin^a  Doe,  Hint. Cal.^ MS.,  vi. 74. Even  yet  the  name  San  Francisco has not  become  familiar  to  those  accustomed  to  that  of  Yerba  Buena. See also Brooks' Four  Months^  in  which  is  written,  under  date  of  May  17th:  *  Work- people have struck. Walking through  the  town  to-day  1  observed  that laborers were  employed  only  upon  half  a  dozen  of  the  fifty  new  buildings which were  in  the  course  of  being  run  up.'  May  20th:  'Sweating  tells  me that  his  negro  waiter  has  demanded  and  receives  ten  dollars  a  day.'  Larkin, writing from  S.  F.  to  Secretary  Buchanan,  June  Ist,  remarks  that  *8ome  par- ties of from  five  to  fifteen  men  have  sent  to  this  town  and  offered  cooks  $10 to %\6  a  day  for  a  few  weeks. Mechanics and  teamsters,  caming  the  year past $5  to  $8  per  day,  have  struck  and  gone. . .A  merchant  lately  from  C&ina has even  lost  his  Chinese  servant. '
 * Gone to  the  Diggings!'  From  San  Jos^  Larkin  writes  to  the  governor,
 * The improvement  of  x  erba  Buena  for  the  present  is  done.*  Letter,  May  26th,