GOLDEN AGE. 67 



drop of laudanum four shillings, etc., etc. In consequence of 

 bad and salted food, scurvy and dysentery prevailed in the 

 miners' encampment, and many died from these diseases. 



In 1 85 1, all this was altered. There were hotels every- 

 where, and a miner could lodge and board for about twelve 

 shillings a day. Strong boots, for which he paid ;£io before, 

 could be had at about the same price as in New York. So 

 many were the goods exported from all countries to California, 

 that sometimes the price of some of them was even lower 

 than the cost price, and many were the speculators who ruined 

 themselves. Others became rich in a short time. 



Immigrants from all countries were arriving every day, 

 and I do not think that in the history of the world, such an 

 immigration has ever taken place before. Every nation, every 

 creed, every class were represented more or less, and for once 

 harmonized together. Ignorance and education, nobles and 

 plebeians, all mingled and worked together, and the lower 

 classes accustomed to work and privations, succeeded better 

 than the upper ones. At that time carmen were paid £2 per 

 day, cooks £30 weekly, w^asherwomen were thought much of 

 and gentlemen were anxious to marry them and so forth. It 

 was the golden age for many. 



One year after the discovery of gold, there were over 

 50,000 artisans in the mines. In 1851, they reached 150,000. 

 Such an affluence of people in a few months made a large 

 town of San Francisco. The lots of land which had been sold 

 in the beginning at £.2 los., soon reached from ;£5oo to 

 /^i,ooo. Houses were rapidly built and let at high prices. 

 Parker House , the hotel situated in the Square was let at 

 ^40,000 yearly. The same rise in the value of land took 

 place in Sacramento also. 



The principal mines wxre soon transformed into towns, 

 and Nevada City, Grass-valley, Rough and Ready, Coloma, 

 Sonora, Mariposa, had, in 1851, between three and five 

 thousand inhabitants each. Now^ that the o-old dust and 

 nuggets are getting more scarce, mines of auriferous quartz 

 are worked with machines, mills, etc., galleries and wells are 

 dug, and everything is done on scientific principles, canals for 

 the washing of gravels containing gold are constructed, 

 activity reigns supreme, and the works will soon reach the 

 bowels of the earth and extract from it a large quantity of the 

 precious metal. Many are the companies which have been 

 formed for that purpose. The mines are divided in two 

 categories, the w^et-diggings and the dry-diggings. In the 



