442 RESOURCES OF CALIFORNIA. 



ilies from the state, and prevented thousands of others from 

 coming. 



These various social evils chafe and foment one another, and 

 the consequence is, that the miners who have come to the state 

 intending only to remain a few years are not likely to change 

 their intention. It is of course the ambition of most men in 

 the country to have homes of their own ; to have wives and 

 families, to be with them and to enjoy their society. Since they 

 do not propose to become permanent citizens here, if married, 

 they do not bring their families with them ; if unmarried, they 

 do not marry while here. The necessary effect of this state of 

 affairs is, that there is an exceeding anxiety to get away from 

 the country as soon as possible. A feverish excitement pre- 

 vails through the whole people. Speculation has risen to an 

 unexampled height. The game is, to make a fortune in a few 

 months or to be bankrupt ; and there are tens of thousands to 

 play at it. Men complain that they cannot enjoy life in the 

 mines ; that life there is a mere brutal existence ; and they be- 

 come desperate in their anxiety to leave it, to go elsewhere, 

 where peace and comfort, permanent homes and social order 

 prevail ; where numerous well-regulated families furnish agree- 

 able company for the married, and where numerous accom- 

 plished young ladies furnish not less agreeable company to the 

 unmarried. Most men in California do not live here to enjoy 

 life, but to make money, so that they may enjoy life in some 

 other country. Not that the people are parsimonious — far 

 from it ; but they are puffed up with extravagant expecta- 

 tions, or rather determinations. Unless they can earn very 

 large wages, they will not work at all. The merchant will 

 not be content with a regular business, paying ten times as 

 much profit as he could make with a like capital in the East- 

 ern states ; he must go into wild speculations, and risk every 

 thing upon a remote chance of making a sudden fortune. The 

 frequency of insolvencies, particularly in the towns, is inex:pli- 

 cable, at first, to a man who comes here without understanding 

 the peculiar condition of our society ; and the same man, going 



