538 OCEAN TO OCEAN ON HORSEBACK. 



and bushy tufts, which rather harmonized with the 

 slouched and dingy hat. * * The gamblers affected 

 the Mexican style of dress, white shirt with diamond 

 studs, chain of native golden specimens, broad-brimmed 

 hat, with sometimes a feather or squirrel's tail tucked ^ 

 under the brim, top-boots, and a rich scarlet sash or 

 silk handkerchief thrown over the shoulder, or wound 

 around the waist." 



They were a buoyant race, brave, intrepid, light- 

 hearted — above all things free from restraint. 



They had braved all hardships and dangers to reach 

 the land of their desire. They had reached there 

 safely, however, and they exulted. They overflowed 

 with activity; they worked jubilantly and untiringly. 



They shouted, they fought, they gambled, in their 

 moments of recreation, intoxicated with the bracing 

 climate, with their excitement of success, and with that 

 rollicking freedom which threw off all shackles of cus- 

 tom or self-restraint. 



They worshipped success, and greatness with them 

 meant '^ fitness to grasp opportunity ! " 



In their eyes the unpardonable sin was meanness. 



Fifty cents was the smallest sum which could be 

 offered for the most trivial of services. 



Laborers obtained a dollar an hour, artisans twenty 

 dollars per day. Laundry expenses exceeded the 

 price of new underwear. 



They loved grandeur. Bootblacks carried on business 

 in prettily fitted up recesses furnished with cushioned 

 chairs, and containing a liberal supply of newspapers. 



It was over such a San Francisco that the frightful 

 plague of cholera swept in 1850, carrying with it a 

 lesser plague of suicide. 



