Golden Dreams and Leaden Realities 43

Golden Dreams and Leaden Realities 43

To avoid the troublesome task of moving the engine we drained the

second hole, which was quite small, by means of an immense wooden pump

requiring three men to work it. They were relieved every half hour by

a second set, and thus the work went on day and night, till the water

was low enough to admit of a thorough exploration, and we found there

was hardly gold enough to pay us for the expense of pumping.

 

The lowest, and by far the largest, hollow still remained, and to

this we now directed all our energies. As there was no place on the

bank sufficiently level to set up our engine, and as we had already

experienced the inconvenience of a stationary support, we determined

to build a flatboat large enough to contain the engine, pump, and all

its appendages. The boat was christened by Capt. Sampson the Hoosier

or Who za? and was, I believe, the first steamboat ever built on

the American River, if not in California. It answered the purpose

admirably, falling with the water and thus keeping the pump always

level with the surface. We had need of every advantage, for besides

the great extent of the hole, we were obliged, in order to comply with

our agreement, to raise the water some fifteen feet above its average

level; and it was nearly a week before we were able to resume our

mining operations. The untiring engine was kept at work day and night;

but as our engineer, though a very clever fellow, was not made of the

same material, it was necessary to provide him with an assistant.

 

I occupied this responsible situation for a few hours, and must

confess I felt no slight degree of elation at my preferment. I

always had an infinite respect for one of your mammoth steam-engines,

which seem to me to furnish the best instance of magnanimity that can

anywhere be found; and our little spitfire, though it could claim

no such distinction, yet attracted me by its patient indefatigable

industry and honesty of purpose, so that I fairly loved it as if a

man's heart were beating under its closely-buttoned iron jacket.

 

It is the fashion to talk of the present century as in the highest

degree unromantic and prosaic; yet there is more real romance and

poetry in the engines of the Baltic than in all the barbaric pomp of

the middle ages. While I was not occupied in attending to the simple

wants of my humble work-fellow, I amused myself with watching the

dragon-flies riding tandem over the water, or balancing with wonderful

rigidity on the little twigs that rose above the surface. In the

evening the funnel sent forth a swarm of ephemera that returned no

more to the parent hive, but went dancing away over the black water

till they disappeared beneath it. They seemed like a wedding troop of

fairies in torchlight procession, escorting one of their number to

espouse a spirit of the wave. As they approached the water, a second

troop appeared coming to meet then; and each in turn, some with a

sudden plunge, others with a coquettish, sidling motion, rushed into

the arms of their partners, blowing out their torches at the moment of

their embrace to hide their burning blushes.

 

While I indulged in these idle fancies, the homely little engine by

my side still worked on, though wondering perhaps at my long silence;

twelve o'clock soon came, and with it the one who was to relieve me.

I picked my way darkling across the rocky channel--ran rapidly up the

river, and in a few minutes was fast asleep.

 

_Wednesday, Sept. 3._ Our claim being by this time nearly worked out,

St. John sold his share for a few hundred dollars, and the next day

I disposed of mine for the same price. Soon after we struck a rich

streak, and I was extremely vexed at having sold. The purchaser,

on learning that the company was in debt to a trifling amount, felt

equally indisposed to the bargain, and the share returned into my

possession.

 

_Two o'clock_, P. M. St. John sorry he sold--evening cloudy,

night, a slight shower--Friday morning, more rain--very dismal--sorry

I did not sell. The man who bought St. John's share comes to our

tent in positive agony, and offers fifty dollars to be released from

his bargain. Eleven A. M. brighter--ten P. M. water low--shares

high--rich dirt--offered the same for my share as yesterday--refused.

 

It again rained during the night, and I had ample time to repent my

indiscretion, but the next day the sun shone with unusual brilliancy,

and I finally disposed of my share for the same price as before.

 

We had now nothing to keep us any longer in California--we sold our

tent with all its furniture for fifty dollars, and then began the

most successful mining we had yet had any thing to do with. We closed

the door of our tent, still ours until we had left it, and commenced

digging in the floor in places whose position we discovered by certain

marks upon the wooden framework of the walls. I first brought to

light a mustard bottle, now full, however, of a far brighter and more

pungent dust--St. John at the same moment displayed an ancient vinegar

cruet without a neck, so that it gave up all the more readily its

precious contents. I then produced from a third place of deposit a

vial that once contained, as the words blown into its sides declared,

a vegetable elixir of wonderful virtues; but few, I believe, who would

not have found the mineral panacea far more agreeable, unless indeed

administered on homoeopathic principles. In no long time a whole

apothecary's shop was arrayed on our little table, every vial, however

different in shape, containing the same grand catholicon, that if it

cannot cure all, will cure as many of the ills that flesh is heir to

as all others put together.

 

We emptied the contents of these vials into The New York Tribune,

and having transferred the shining heap into sundry leathern bags

and belts, we carried our well-filled trunk, containing a variety of

curiosities, out on to the bank before the tent,--came back to look

once more at the table, the beds, the stove, that had so wrought

themselves into our being--then softly closing the door for the last

time, walked swiftly down the well known path, not daring to look

behind us, and with a feeling of melancholy it was impossible to

resist.

 

We slept that night at Number Four's, and the next morning started in

a wagon for Sacramento, not without a sensation of regret at our final

abandonment of a life that with all its hardships had yet yielded

us so much enjoyment. We arrived at Sacramento only a few minutes

before the boat started, and at 2 P. M. bid that city a final

farewell, precisely two years to a day, and almost to an hour, since

I first landed from the Patuxent. The contrast between the diminutive

schooner and the spacious decks of the Senator was hardly greater

than that between the squalid miners huddled together like a flock of

sheep in the one, and the well dressed crowd of comfortable tradesmen

in the other; and but for a single incident I might have supposed

myself in one of the floating palaces of the Hudson. A handsome

young man, who came out of the saloon while we were sitting on the

quarter deck, attracted my attention by what I set down as the most

ridiculous affectation. He was drest in the height of the fashion,

with a superabundance of jewelry, and a pair of the very smallest

boots, which I thought partially accounted for his peculiar mincing

gait. I had begun to regard him with even painful aversion, when some

one whispered to me that it was a woman, and my feelings underwent a

sudden change. Whatever I might think of her moral character, I could

no longer accuse her of inconsistency or affectation--her mincing gait

became a swimming walk--her love of ornament, her little simpering

ways, her downcast lids, were her hereditary, inalienable right, with

which I had no more reason nor inclination to find fault than with

her slight figure and delicate complexion. She promenaded the deck for

hours in all the independence of her masculine assumed attire; but

when the bell rang for supper, she slunk down with the petticoats,

thus adroitly, like other apostles of woman's rights, reserving her

own peculiar privileges while insisting upon her claim to ours.

 

On arriving at San Francisco we took lodgings at a hotel, where we

remained until the sailing of the next steamer, in which we hastened

to secure a passage. We spent the time pleasantly enough in walking

about the city, visiting the various places of public amusement,

and the magnificent clippers lying at the wharves, among which the

Flying Cloud, lately arrived from the quickest passage on record, most

attracted our attention.

 

Being now about to leave the shores of California, I wished to

signalize the event by some deed of high emprise, or, in the words

of the great captain, finish the campaign by a clap of thunder. My

acquaintance in the city were constantly making fortunes by lucky

speculations, and I saw no reason why I should not follow their

example. Opportunities were not wanting--nearly every other building

in San Francisco was occupied as a commission and auction store, where

the most incredible bargains were offered every day and every hour.

 

I entered one of the largest of these establishments just as the

auctioneer was bidding off some kind of under garment; and as he

whirled them dexterously around, I observed that they had sleeves,

and asked to know no more. Here was the opportunity for which I had

panted. I pressed forward among the bidders, and the next moment, such

was the rapidity of my conclusion and the prompt energy of my action,

I found myself the happy owner of eight dozen ladies' undershirts.

"What name?" says the auctioneer. "Mr. Cash." "Please step into the

back part of the store, Mr. Cash, and receive your goods." While

I stood, like Atlas or Teneriffe, unremoved, and the whole crowd

of wondering bidders stared at me as who should say, "What under

the canopy do _you_ want of eight dozen ladies' undershirts?" St.

John, who had hitherto stood a silent and bewildered spectator of

the scene, the suddenness of the whole proceeding having given him

no time to interfere, now recovered from his torpor, and taking me

all unresisting by the arm he quietly led me to the back of the

shop, and then, making a skilful detour round a counter, out into

the street, where we never once stopped to look behind us till we

had left the danger far behind, and I was able to thank St. John for

my deliverance. When in answer to his very natural inquiries I gave

him an explanation of what he had just witnessed, though he highly

approved of my design, that is of making a fortune, he thought the

manner in which I set about the execution of it hardly justified any

very sanguine notions of success, and discouraged me to that degree

that I had no heart for any farther experiment; and thus ended my

first and last speculation. I have been since inclined to regret

this result when I have considered that Wellington was defeated in

his first battle, and that Frederick the Great even fled from the

field; and in the same manner I, though my first essay terminated so

disastrously, might have come in time to be the greatest merchant

since Jacob Astor. But whatever business talent I possessed was then

and there crushed in the bud--I have ever since shrunk from the

sight of an auctioneer as a thief from the sight of an officer, and

the merest glimpse of a lady's undershirt is enough to disturb my equanimity for a whole day--while I regard the mention of such an article in my hearing as an offence beyond the reach of forgiveness.