MINERS FREAKS. 371 



dispose of, and walking up to a large mirror, worth 

 several hundred dollars, which adorned one end of 

 the room, dashed a shower of heavy coins against 

 it, and shivered it to pieces. The hero of this story 

 returned to the mines in the following spring without 

 a cent, and was working as a common labourer at 

 the time of our visit. A freak of one of the most 

 successful Californians may be appended as a com- 

 panion to the story just related. When in the height 

 of his glory he was in the habit of substituting 

 champagne bottles — full ones, too — for the wooden 

 pins in the bowling alley, smashing batch after batch 

 with infinite satisfaction to himself, amid the ap- 

 plause of his companions and the '' bar-keep." 



Our quarters at Cusheon's Hotel were vile. A 

 blanket spread on the floor of a loft was our 

 bedroom, but the swarms of lice which infested the 

 place rendered sleep almost impossible, and made us 

 think with regret on the soft turf of the prairie, or 

 a mossy couch in the woods. The fare, limited to 

 beefsteaks, bread, and dried apples, was wretchedly 

 cooked and frightfully expensive. Beef was worth 

 fifty cents or two shillings a pound, flour the same, 

 a " drink" of anything except water was half a 

 dollar, nor could the smallest article, even a box of 

 matches, be bought for less than a " quarter" — one 

 shilling. Before we reached AYilliam's Creek we 

 paid a dollar and a quarter, or five shillings, for a 

 single bottle of stout. 



Coin of any kind is rarely seen, gold-dust being 

 the circulating medium, and each person carries a 



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