334 RESOURCES OF CALIFORNIA. 
make money rapidly. Slow and sure plans are unsuited 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 un- 
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 puy 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: 
Yxrar. No. Suits. DEzTs. ASSETS. Dericrr. 
1855 ...,...197 $8,377,827 $1,519,175 $6,858,652 
TBS Giese cae 2d 146 3,401,042 657,908 2,743,134 
L8G lane senne 125 2,375,899 812,417 1,563,482 
L808 ee sna ad 96 1,940,662 658,782 1,281,880 
T8892 6602802 60 706,219 208,044 498,175 
VECO snccoig sr xigs 63 1,019,416 16,787 942,629 
Total 6 years, 692 «$17,821,065 «$3,933,113 $13,887,952 
