Chapter VI: San Francisco

GENERAL ESTIMATE OF GAINS--RETURN TO PHILADELPHIA.

San Francisco, which has already been several times burned down, and as often, Phœnix-like, arisen from its ashes, seems to be improved by each conflagration. A new edition, revised and improved, has just been issued. I should not have known the city. Indeed, there was little there--excepting the land, and that cut down and changed--which had been there when I left. The city of tents and sheds was changed to one of substantial edifices, while some blocks of very respectable brick houses had been built. One could not pass through the city without being impressed with the sentiment which seems to describe the whole thing, “_Enterprise run mad._”[B] Each one of the vast throng hastens on, busy in his own plans and pursuits. Nothing can so well give the idea, by a single image, of San Francisco, as naming it a moral whirlpool. A mysterious, but all-pervading and powerful attraction, emanating from this wonderful point, has been felt in the remotest parts of the earth. Civilized, semi-barbarous, and savage--American, European, Asiatic, and African--feel it. The missionary and the gambler, the praying and the profane man, have all felt it. Drawn from the pulpit, the farm, the forum, the bench, they all rush--giddy, mazed--into this one vortex. Happy the few who escape unharmed!

To give such a sketch of society in San Francisco as could be understood and appreciated--

“To force it sit, till he has pencil’d off
A faithful image of the form he views”--

would indeed be a difficult task. Every thing is in such a state of transition and change, from month to month, that a truthful description now would not be such one short year hence. When I first visited the city, the gamblers generally set their tables under large tents, which answered the purpose, also, of eating-rooms. In my second visit, these tents had given place to magnificent saloons. In these vast and splendid establishments, the mind was bewildered, the senses were fascinated. Appeals--almost irresistible to the young, often to the aged, and even to those who had ministered at the altar--were made, calculated to arouse the deepest and strongest passions of our nature. There was wine, and the more intoxicating eye of beauty, to kindle and to madden. There was music, by the most accomplished and able professors of the art, to captivate. There were paintings, such as my pen may not describe; and there were treasures of silver and gold, which _might_ be theirs on the turn of a card.

In my third visit to the city, these saloons had been burned down, and replaced with others more splendid and attractive. The wine, the music, the tables of gold, coined and uncoined, are all there; but no longer do such excited and eager crowds throng around the tables. There are still some who are risking and losing their all; but, comparatively, they are few.

While at San Francisco, an unusual case of success in mining has been made public, and created much excitement even in this city of wonders--so much so as to show that such instances are very rare. Three miners had worked a claim, from which, in the course of a few weeks, they took $84,000. Their expenses for labor, provisions, &c., were about $24,000; But they had with them each about $20,000. I was informed that several hundred miners had been attracted to the same bar by the success of these men, but that no other rich deposits had been found, and, in general, the others were not making a living. Notwithstanding the overgrown fortunes which have been, in some few cases, so rapidly accumulated, I hazard the assertion that in no other part of the United States can there be found so many persons abjectly poor, in proportion to the population, as among those who have resorted to California for purposes of mining. Much is now said, and considerable excitement felt, on the subject of the quartz mining. When two exceptions are made, I know of no locations where the quartz-crushing operations can be at present successfully prosecuted. Two reasons may be given for this opinion. One is, the high price of labor; the second is, the difficulty of replacing parts of the machinery in case of a break. Many individuals and many companies will be losers by entering into the quartz mining speculations.

The mode of conducting business in the cities is anomalous. No skill in business transactions; no far-sighted, clear judgment; no long experience in matters of commerce, insure success here. It is much as it is at the mines. A happy hit, if made by the novice--and it is as likely to be made by him as by any--makes the poor man to-day a rich man to-morrow. In the spring of 1849, the single article of saleratus sold for $12 a lb.; it could be purchased in New York at 4 cents. One hundred dollars invested in this single article, deducting all expenses, would yield at the least $25,000. At that same time, building lots in Sacramento City were held at $500; in six weeks they brought $25,000. Let any one calculate for himself what would be the amount made from fifty lots at this rate. In the space of six months, the owner of $100 _might_ be worth a million!

Such glittering and gilded castles as these, floating through the imaginations of thousands, led to those wild speculations in lumber, provisions, and other things, which, in the end, have come tumbling down upon the heads of the builders.

While at San Francisco I had opportunity of obtaining information respecting the companies which had been formed in the States. Not one of these, so far as I could learn, continued together; they were often dissolved before they reached the mines. And even if they held a charter, and were bound to each other under heavy liabilities, they soon fell to pieces on reaching the gold placers. One intelligent gentleman, who had enjoyed every opportunity for observation, related to me the history of the company with which he left New York. They numbered one hundred and forty-one members. One of this company made $15,000 by trading; another made $7000 in the same way. Two had made $6000; one as a tin manufacturer, the other by mining. Three had made $2000; two by mining and trading, and one by teaming. One had made $1500, and another $1000. Half the remainder made a living by mining, gambling, or trading, and the remainder have died.

Before I left the mines, I applied to the secretaries or other officers of mining companies upon the Tuolumne for statements respecting their operations during the past season. These were companies extending along the river a few miles both above and below Hart’s Bar. Their operations were generally more successful than those of other damming companies, excepting, perhaps, some upon the Yuba River. I speak within bounds when I say that four out of five of the river damming operations, through the whole mines, were failures. The averages of the fourteen companies given below were generally obtained from their books. In some instances, their mining operations were continued after I left, but only in a limited degree, and, in general, were entirely suspended, and the members were scattering among the various winter diggings, or, in a few cases, seeking their distant homes.

No. 1.

_Sigñorita Bar Company._

Worked by Green T. Martin, of Rodney, Miss., and R. N. Wood, of Shreveport, La.

Total number of days, 1354.

Highest number of hands one day, 96.

Commenced on the 3d of September, and left on the 25th of October.

Total amount taken from bar, $9700.

Highest amount in one day, 7 lbs. 4 oz.

Length of dam, 290 feet.

Loss by rise of river in repairs, $1400.

$1000 taken out since we left. Our force was too large to be longer profitably employed. The upper part of the bar was poor, and on the west side the bed was black slate, with a deposit of three or four feet, and on the slate was found pieces of pine and other timber; and the whole had the appearance of ashes or ash-bed, the water upon it resembling soap-suds. All the specimens found contained greater or less quantities of quartz.

R. N. WOOD.

No. 2.

_Stephens’s Bar Damming and Mining Company._

Gross amount of gold taken out this year from Stephens’s Bar Damming and Mining Company, $12,000.

October 26th, took out $1224.

Length of canal, 1200 yards.

Number of men in the company, 38.

Number of days’ work put on by each member, 120.

Name of treasurer, Wm. Canfield, New York.

Name of secretary, John F. Sullivan, Baltimore.

No. 3.

_Items of the Third Bar Company, Tuolumne River._

Organized 25th July, 1850.

Number of members, private, 6.

J. W. Morrel, president.

C. Powell, secretary and treasurer.

Number of members, aggregate, 8.

Number of Mexicans employed, average, 60.

Number of days’ labor, 4260.

Length of canal, 730 yards.

Length of dam, 88 yards.

Cost of labor for day, $5 each Mexican.

Cost of labor, and other expenses, to complete the job, $239 48.

Amount of gold and other valuables obtained from the above labor, 00.

No. 4.

_Philadelphia Company._

5 members; 210 days; amount of gold, 00.

No. 5.

_Extension Company._

12 members; 1100 days.

Amount, $2250.

Average for day, $2 04.

No. 6.

_Hawkins’s Bar Company._

N. Kingsley, president; John Richardson, secretary; Geo. Goodhart, treasurer.

108 members.

Time of labor, 7776 days.

Amount of gold, $35,500.

Average for day, $4 56.

No. 7.

_Ficket Company._

Robert Armstrong, treasurer.

14 members; 434 days.

Amount made, $4368.

Average for day, $10 06.

No. 8.

_Payne’s Bar Company._

20 members; 1820 days; amount, $6792.

Average for day, $3 73.

No. 9.

_Grisly Company._

Geo. Buttress, president; D. F. Smyers, secretary and treasurer.

10 members; largest day’s work, $2600.

Time of labor, 540 days.

Amount, $11,000.

Average for day, $20 37.

No. 10.

_Wild Yankee Company._

15 members; time, 450 days; amount, $4000.

Average for day, $8 88.

No. 11.

_Jacksonville Company._

Thos. Sayre, president; G. N. Harris, secretary; Geo. Somers, treasurer.

50 members; time of labor, 10,000 days.

Amount taken out, $10,900.

Average for day, $1 09.

No. 12.

_Extension Company._

20 members; time, 720 days; avails, 00.

No. 13.

_York Bar Company._

20 members; 714 days; avails, 00.

No. 14.

_Hart’s Bar Company._

Thos. S. Hotchkiss, president; Daniel B. Woods, secretary and treasurer.

Number of members, 21.

Largest day’s work, $4198.

Number of days’ labor, 1938.

Total amount, $17,123.

Average per day, $8 83.

* * * * *

Number of members in these fourteen companies, 344.

Total number of days’ labor, 35,876, or 114 years of 313 working days each.

Total amount taken out, $113,633.

Average for each day’s labor, $3 16.

* * * * *

My efforts to obtain averages of the winter mines were attended with much greater difficulty. But few of the miners kept any account of the results of their labors, and those who did were often unwilling that their names should appear in connection with such inconsiderable profits. In my journal I have the names of _fifty-six_ miners, generally of my acquaintance, who were laboring in the richest portions of the mines, and who have given me information respecting their operations. All whose names and averages I took were industrious, persevering, and, in some cases, skillful miners, so that the result given must be regarded as one which presents the most favorable view. It is probable, if an average could by any means be obtained of all the operations of all the miners, day by day, it would be much less than that at which I arrive.

My estimate commences at the time I reached the Marepoosa diggings, which was the 12th day of November, 1849, and a few days after the rainy season commenced, and ends at the time I went to Jacksonville, April 3d, 1850, and covers a period of one hundred and twenty-one working days to each of fifty-six miners, or six thousand seven hundred and seventy-six days in the aggregate.

Number of miners, 56.

Length of time, 121 working days.

Total number of days’ work, 6776.

Whole amount made, $22,089 76.

The aggregate amount each day, averaged, $182 56.

Average to each of 56 miners, each day, $3 26.

It would exhibit curious results were I prepared to present a statement of the mining operations of one hundred and twenty-nine miners with whom I have been connected since I came to California. Most of these left the mines before I did, some of them to return home, and many to engage in other pursuits. Some remained only a few days. One of these, though I was not connected with him otherwise than as being with him on a prospecting tour for a day, was a novelty among us. He seemed to have just turned out of Broadway, or to have been turned out of a band-box. He was an exquisite, even to the white kid gloves, eye-glass, and Cologne water, with dancing pumps, and a small gold box suspended about his neck by a gold chain, in which to put his gold. With his dirk-knife, elegantly chased, he would go into a hole already dug, and spend an hour in scraping the dirt from the rocks, which he washed with great care, putting the few scales in the gold box around his neck. He had been transplanted from some greenhouse to these rough mountains, and soon faded away and died.

Nov. 26th, 1850. We set sail in the French ship Chateaubriand, “homeward bound.” On January 8th, 1851, reached Panama. After spending twenty days upon the Isthmus, on January 28th weighed anchor; had a rapid run, the Georgia putting into Havana for coal, and to part with a portion of her six hundred and fifty passengers; and on Saturday, February 8th, arrived at New York, and the same night at Philadelphia, after an absence of two years and eight days.

And now, as I take leave of my reader, he will find me seated again at my old writing-desk--the Christmas present of my dear pupils, some of whom have already called in to see me. How familiar it looks! And how light and cheerful every thing is, as if I had been shut up in a dark, close room _so long_! And how familiar and dear are all the scenes and faces of home, only grown older and larger! I imagine myself, only one moment, back at the top of the hill from which I last saw my companions. I think they were then looking miserable in the distance, and I think they still look and feel so now. If they could hear me, I would wish them soon that happiness which can make them forget that they have not come home with their weight in gold, though they may find that which is more than worth it, for there _are_ treasures more valuable than gold.