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 Hast- 
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 inexpli- 
cable, at first, toa man who comes here without understanding 
the peculiar condition of our society ; and the same man, going 
