3^4 RESOURCES OF CALIFORNIA. 



make money rapidly. Slow and sure plans are nnsuited. to us, 

 and besides, from the unsettled nature of our trade, there is not 

 the same sureness about slow modes of doing business as in 

 older states. In any little random gathering of a dozen men in 

 San Francisco, you will probably find some among them who 

 have worked in the mines, and this amongst the wealthiest and 

 most intelligent, as well as among the poorest. It is no im- 

 common thing to see men who have been wealthy on three or 

 four different occasions and then poor again. " A fire," " an 

 unfortunate speculation in merchandise," " a revulsion in real 

 estate," " a crash among the banks," " an unlucky investment 

 in a flume," these are phrases used every day to explain the 

 fact, that this or that man of your familiar acquaintance, though 

 once rich, is now poor. When men fail they do not despair — 

 and least of all those who have been rich and have failed by 

 some sudden turn in business — they hope to be rich again. A 

 number of the prominent business men in San Francisco have 

 been insolvent within the last five years. 



§ 239. Insolvencies. — Insolvencies, legally declared and can- 

 celled by the courts, are more frequent in San Francisco, in pro- 

 portion to its population, than in any other part of the world. 

 Our laws provide that any man who declares himself unable 

 to pay his debts, and petitions to be released from them, may 

 obtain a judicial discharge, unless he has been guilty of fraud; 

 and as the fraud must be distinctly proved upon him before the 

 discharge will be denied, the release is almost invariably ob- 

 tained. The number of suits brought (with their debts and 

 assets) in 1860, as compared with each of the five preceding 

 years, has been as follows : 



Teak. No. Suits. Debts. Assets. Deficit. 



18^5 197 $8,377,827 $1,519,175 $6,858,652 



1S56 146 3,401,042 657,908 2,743,134 



1S57 125 2.375,899 812,417 1.563,482 



l«yS 96 1.940,662 658,782 1,281,880 



1859 GO 700,219 208,044 498,175 



I860 ^-i 1,019,416 76,787 942,629 



Total 6 years, 692 $17,821,065 $3,93.3,113 $13,887,952 



