A Sportsman 17 



PENNILESS though I was, my heart was most 

 courageous. Was not the world my oyster, 

 as with ancient Pistol, and could I not open it with 

 my sword blade? My three elder brothers had pre- 

 ceded me in 1848 and 1849 to California, and two were 

 engaged in San Francisco in profitable business, and I 

 had pressing invitations to join them, but I had no 

 taste for it. Had I not my gun, and could I not have 

 more fun to my liking in the country? Besides, I 

 had visions of those lumps of gold said to be lying 

 about at the mines, and hearing that near Auburn, 

 in Placer County, over one hundred and fifty miles 

 north of San Francisco, miners were making great pay, 

 I went up there. How I got up to Sacramento 

 which was en route, up the bay one hundred miles 

 distant I cannot remember, but I do vividly re- 

 member that I walked up the distance of forty miles 

 to the mines, and back to Sacramento again. The 

 game I killed gave me welcome for meals and lodg- 

 ings; welcome with the miners was more hearty in 

 those days, when the professional tramp was unknown. 

 Apropos of tramps, no country is more infested with, 

 or more favorable from its mild climate for, those 

 vagabonds than California. Here sleeping out in the 

 open or camping out is a pleasant pastime, where the 

 blanket brigade is in great force, and where, owing to 

 the thoughtless liberality of the people, it can depend 

 upon liberal "handouts." The magnitude of this ele- 

 ment was a legacy from the Civil War of 1860-65, as 

 all can note who remember how rare it was prior 

 to the war. Of late it has been an increasing evil 

 for which no remedy has appeared adequate, but 

 will ultimately be relieved in the grand march of 



