CHARLES GUYON. 175 



source of fish supply which seemed only to invite the 

 slayer by appearing next year in undiminished numbers. 

 This is the only excuse 1 have to offer for our destruction 

 of life in those days of its plenty, and an excuse seems 

 necessary to-day. If it is sufficient,, well and good; it is 

 all I have, and I throw myself on the mercy of the court. 

 We all needed education in the matter of fish and game 

 preservation in those days, and I hope that I have atoned 

 for the misdeeds of my youth by both precept and ex- 

 ample in later years. 



In sketching Charles Guyon, who was an honest, 

 sturdy fellow, not averse to a fight if it was forced upon 

 him, but not a quarrelsome man, it is only fair to him to 

 say that, having been reared in a mining town, gambling 

 came as a natural thing, just as luck in mining did, and 

 if his week had been successful Saturday night found 

 him at the keno table staking the last sovereign that he 

 had earned. The smelters sent wagons to weigh and 

 gather the mineral every Saturday afternoon, and the pay 

 was in British sovereigns, which passed for $5, for no 

 miner would accept paper money for his mineral, al- 

 though he sometimes did in exchange for his gold. 



Saturday nights the gambling places and the drunk- 

 eries kept open until morning, and the Cornish miners 

 from British Hollow rested from their labors by drink- 

 ing, gambling and fighting. These were the highest 

 forms of sport known to them, and in fact to the majority 

 of men who work underground all the week in all parts 

 of the world. One night I dropped into Sam Coons' to 

 look on. Here I want to say that I have never won or 

 lost one dollar in any form of gambling except at the 

 house of a gentleman in Germany, where a small stake 

 was the custom, and there was no escape. I don't claim 

 any special credit for this because I never had a desire to 



