34 RESOURCES OF CALIFORNIA. 



der have been made with impunity in any part of the State. 



Bret Harte's representations of the manners of the miners 

 of California are very entertaining, and they do not claim to 

 be anything save romance. He and Clarence King have both 

 undertaken to write about pioneer life in the mines of Cali- 

 fornia, without personal knowledge or careful investigation, 

 which was not required of the novelist, but would not have 

 been out of place in a work recording observations taken dur- 

 ing an official geological survey. 



Previous to 1856, street fights were among the institutions 

 of San Francisco. It would frequently be announced by con- 

 versation, or even by the newspapers in the morning, that a 

 street fight might be expected that day, between two men 

 whose names were mentioned ; and the curious would collect 

 on the main business street, to see the fun. The belligerents 

 would walk along the street, and on coming near each other 

 would draw their revolvers, and, with or without speaking, 

 commence firing. The fight would be one of self-defense on 

 both sides. In the use of deadly weapons, California resem- 

 bles the Gulf States far more than the North. The wild con- 

 dition of affairs in the early times was impressed upon our 

 society, and we have not yet been able to reform it altogether ; 

 and in the matter of carrying deadly weapons, and in street 

 fights, we have imitated the example of the Cotton States. 

 So, too, in the matter of duels, of which there have been 

 many in California, and some of them of a character so re- 

 markable as to attract attention all over the civilized world. 

 Dueling is punishable as a felony by severe penalties ; but a 

 hundred duels have been fought in the State, and about one- 

 third of them have proved fatal to one of the principals, and 

 yet no man has been legally punished for dueling, nor has 

 any one been prevented from voting or holding office for that 

 reason ; on the contrary, many of the duelists have held offices 

 among the most honorable and profitable in the State. Pub- 

 lic opinion, which is more potent than the law, has con- 

 demned duels, and we have not had one for years. 



