Gold

  CHAPTER X

  THE GOLDEN CITY

  We stood in between the hills that guarded the bay of San Franciscoabout ten o'clock of an early spring day. A fresh cold wind pursued us;and the sky above us was bluer than I had ever seen it before, even onthe Isthmus. To our right some great rocks were covered with seals andsea lions, and back of them were hills of yellow sand. A beautiful greatmountain rose green to our left, and the water beneath us swirled andeddied in numerous whirlpools made by the tide.

  Everybody was on deck and close to the rail. We strained our eyes ahead;and saw two islands, and beyond a shore of green hills. None of us knewwhere San Francisco was located, nor could we find out. The ship'scompany were much too busy to pay attention to our questions. The greatopening out of the bay beyond the long narrows was therefore a surpriseto us; it seemed as vast as an inland sea. We hauled to the wind,turning sharp to the south, glided past the bold point of rocks.

  Then we saw the city concealed in a bend of the cove. It was mainly ofcanvas; hundreds, perhaps thousands of tents and canvas houses scatteredabout the sides of hills. The flat was covered with them, too, and theyextended for some distance along the shore of the cove. A great dust,borne by the wind that had brought us in, swept across the city like acloud of smoke. Hundreds and hundreds of vessels lay at anchor in theharbour, a vast fleet.

  We were immediately surrounded by small boats, and our decks filled withmen. We had our first sight of the genuine miners. They proved to be asvarious as the points of the compass. Big men, little men, clean men,dirty men, shaggy men, shaven men, but all instinct with an eager lifeand energy I have never seen equalled. Most wore the regulation dress--ared shirt, pantaloons tucked into the tops of boots, broad belts withsometimes silver buckles, silk Chinese sashes of vivid raw colours, arevolver, a bowie knife, a floppy old hat. Occasionally one, moredignified than the rest, sported a shiny top hat; but always with thered shirt. These were merchants, and men permanently established in thetown.

  They addressed us eagerly, asking a thousand questions concerning thenews of the outside world. We could hardly answer them in our desire toquestion in return. Were the gold stories really true? Were the diggingsvery far away? Were the diggings holding out? What were the chances fornewcomers? And so on without end; and the burden always of gold! gold!gold!

  We were answered with the enthusiasm of an old-timer welcoming anewcomer to any country. Gold! Plenty of it! They told us, in breathlesssnatches, the most marvellous tales--one sailor had dug $17,000 in aweek; another man, a farmer from New England, was taking out $5,000 to$6,000 daily. They mentioned names and places. They pointed to theharbour full of shipping. "Four hundred ships," said they, "and hardly adozen men aboard the lot! All gone to the mines!" And one man snatchinga long narrow buckskin bag from his pocket, shook out of its mouth tothe palm of his hand a tiny cascade of glittering yellow particles--theDust! We shoved and pushed, crowding around him to see this marvelloussight. He laughed in a sort of excited triumph, and tossed the stuffinto the air. The breeze caught it and scattered it wide. A number ofthe little glittering particles clung to my rough coat, where theyflashed like spangles.

  "Plenty more where that came from!" cried the man; and turned away witha reckless laugh.

  Filled with the wine of this new excitement we finally succeeded ingetting ashore in one of the ship's boats.

  We landed on a flat beach of deep black sand. It was strewn from one endto the other by the most extraordinary wreckage. There were levers,cogwheels, cranks, fans, twisted bar, and angle iron, in all stages ofrust and disintegration. Some of these machines were half buried in thesand; others were tidily laid up on stones as though just landed. Theywere of copper, iron, zinc, brass, tin, wood. We recognized the genus ata glance. They were, one and all, patent labour-saving gold washingmachines, of which we had seen so many samples aboard ship. At thissight vanished the last remains of the envy I had ever felt for theowners of similar contraptions.

  We looked about for some sort of conveyance into which to dump ourbelongings. Apparently none existed. Therefore we piled most of oureffects neatly above high tide, shouldered our bundles, and started offup the single street.

  On either side this thoroughfare stood hundreds of open sheds andbuildings in the course of construction. Goods of all sorts, and ingreat quantity, lay beneath them, wholly or partially exposed to thedust and weather. Many unopened bales had been left in the open air. Onelow brick building of a single story seemed to be the only substantialstructure in sight. We saw quantities of calicos, silks, rich furniture,stacks of the pieces of knock-down houses, tierces of tobacco, piles ofall sorts of fancy clothing. The most unexpected and incongruous itemsof luxury seemed to have been dumped down here from the corners of theearth, by the four hundred ships swinging idly at anchor in the bay.

  The street was, I think, the worst I have ever seen anywhere. It was amorass of mud, sticky greasy mud, of some consistency, but full ofwater-holes and rivulets. It looked ten feet deep; and I shouldcertainly have ventured out on it with misgivings. And yet,incongruously enough, the surface ridges of it had dried, and werelifting into the air in the form of dust! This was of course my firstexperience with that common California phenomenon, and I was greatlyastonished.

  An attempt had been made to supply footing for pedestrians. Bags of sandhad been thrown down, some rocks, a very few boxes and boards. Then ourfeet struck something soft and yielding, and we found we were walkingover hundred pound sacks of flour marked as from Chili. There must havebeen many hundred of them. A man going in the opposite direction sidledpast us.

  "Cheaper than lumber," said he briefly, seeing our astonishment.

  "I'd hate to ask the price of lumber," remarked one of our ship'scompanions, with whom--and a number of others--we were penetrating thetown. This man carried only a very neat black morocco satchel and a netbag containing a half dozen pineapples, the last of a number he hadbrought from the Isthmus. The contrast of that morocco bag with the restof him was quite as amusing as any we saw about us; though, of course,he did not appreciate that.

  We walked on flour for a hundred feet or so, and then came to cookstoves. I mean it. A battalion of heavy iron cook stoves had been laidside by side to form a causeway. Their weight combined with the trafficover them had gradually pressed them down into the mud until their topswere nearly level with the surface. Naturally the first merry anddrunken joker had shied the lids into space. The pedestrian had noweither to step in and out of fire boxes or try his skill on narrowledges! Next we came to a double row of boxes of tobacco; then to somebaled goods, and so off onto solid ground.

  We passed many people, all very intent on getting along safely. From thesecurity of the shed stores the proprietors and an assorted lot ofloafers watched proceedings with interest. The task of crossing thestreet from one side to the other, especially, was one not lightly to beundertaken! A man had to balance, to leap, to poise; and at lastprobably, to teeter back and forth trying to keep his balance like asmall boy on a fence rail, until, with an oath of disgust, he steppedoff into the slime.

  When we had gained the dry ground near the head of the street we threwdown our burdens for a rest.

  "I'll give you ten dollars for those pineapples!" offered a passerby,stopping short.

  Our companion quickly closed the bargain.

  "What do you think of that?" he demanded of us wide-eyed, and in thehearing of the purchaser.

  The latter grinned a little, and hailed a man across the street.

  "Charley!" he yelled. "Come over here!"

  The individual addressed offered some demur, but finally picked his wayacross to us.

  "How do you like these?" demanded the pineapple purchaser, showing hisfruit.

  "Jerusalem!" cried Charley admiringly, "where did you get them? Want tosell 'em?"

  "I want some myself, but I'll sell you three of them."

  "How much?"

  "Fifteen dollars."

  "Give 'em to me."

&n
bsp; The first purchaser grinned openly at our companion.

  The latter followed into the nearest store to get his share of the dustweighed out. His face wore a very thoughtful expression.

  We came shortly to the Plaza, since called Portsmouth Square. At thattime it was a wind-swept, grass-grown, scrubby enough plot of ground. Onall sides were permanent buildings. The most important of these were alow picturesque house of the sun-dried bricks known as adobes, in which,as it proved, the customs were levied; a frame two-story structure knownas the Parker House, and a similar building labelled "City Hotel." Thespaces between these larger edifices was occupied by a dozen or so ofsmaller shacks. Next door to the Parker House stood a huge flappingtent. The words _El Dorado_ were painted on its side.

  The square itself was crowded with people moving to and fro. The solidmajority of the crowd consisted of red or blue shirted miners; but agreat many nations and frames of minds seemed to be represented. Chinesemerchants, with red coral buttons atop their stiff little skullcaps,wandered slowly, their hands tucked in capacious sleeves of the richestbrocade. We had seen few of this race; and we looked at them with thegreatest interest, examining closely their broad bland faces, thedelicate lilacs and purples and blues of their rich costumes, theswaying silk braided queues down their backs. Other Chinese, of thelower castes, clad in blue canvas with broad bowl-shaped hats of strawon their heads, wormed their way through the crowd balancing baskets atthe ends of poles. Rivalling the great Chinese merchants in theirleisure, strolled the representatives of the native race, the SpanishCalifornians. They were darkly handsome men, dressed gloriously in shortvelvet jackets, snowy ruffles, plush trousers flaring at the bottom, andslit up the side of the leg, soft leather boots, and huge spursornamented with silver. They sauntered to and fro smoking brown-papercigarettos. Beside these two, the Chinese and the Californians, but oneother class seemed to be moving with any deliberation. These were menseen generally alone, or at most in pairs. They were quiet, waxy pale,dressed always neatly in soft black hat, white shirt, long black coat,and varnished boots. In the face of a general gabble they seemed toremain indifferently silent, self-contained and aloof. To occasionalsalutations they responded briefly and with gravity.

  "Professional gamblers," said Talbot.

  All the rest of the crowd rushed here and there at a great speed. We sawthe wildest incongruities of demeanour and costume beside which thesilk-hat-red-shirted combination was nothing. They struck usopen-mouthed and gasping; but seemed to attract not the slightestattention from anybody else. We encountered a number of men dressedalike in suits of the finest broadcloth, the coats of which were linedwith red silk, and the vests of embroidered white. These men walked witha sort of arrogant importance. We later found that they were members ofthat dreaded organization known as _The Hounds_, whose ostensiblepurpose was to perform volunteer police duty, but whose real effort wastoward the increase of their own power. These people all surged back andforth good-naturedly, and shouted at each other, and disappeared withgreat importance up the side streets, or darted out with equal busynessfrom all points of the compass. Every few minutes a cry of warning wouldgo up on one side of the square or another. The crowd would scatter toright and left, and down through the opening would thunder a horsemandistributing clouds of dust and showers of earth.

  "Why doesn't somebody kill a few of those crazy fools!" muttered Talbotimpatiently, after a particularly close shave.

  "Why, you see, they's mostly drunk," stated a bystander with an air ofexplaining all.

  We tacked across to the doors of the Parker House. There after somesearch was made we found the proprietor. He, too, seemed very busy, buthe spared time to trudge ahead of us up two rickety flights of rawwooden stairs to a loft where he indicated four canvas bunks on whichlay as many coarse blue blankets.

  Perhaps a hundred similar bunks occupied every available inch in thelittle loft.

  "How long you going to stay?" he asked us.

  "Don't know; a few days."

  "Well, six dollars apiece, please."

  "For how long?"

  "For to-night."

  "Hold on!" expostulated Talbot. "We can't stand that especially forthese accommodations. At that price we ought to have something better.Haven't you anything in the second story?"

  The proprietor's busy air fell from him; and he sat down on the edge ofone of the canvas bunks.

  "I thought you boys were from the mines," said he. "Your friend, here,fooled me." He pointed his thumb at Yank. "He looks like an old-timer.But now I look at you, I see you're greenhorns. Just get here to-day?Have a smoke?"

  He produced a handful of cigars, of which he lit one.

  "We just arrived," said Talbot, somewhat amused at this change. "Howabout that second story?"

  "I want to tell you boys a few things," said the proprietor, "I getsixty thousand dollars a year rent for that second story just as shestands. That tent next door belongs to my brother-in-law. It is justfifteen by twenty-five feet, and he rents it for forty thousand."

  "Gamblers?" inquired Talbot.

  "You've guessed it. So you see I ain't got any beds to speak of downthere. In fact, here's the whole layout."

  "But we can't stand six dollars a night for these things," expostulatedJohnny. "Let's try over at the other place."

  "Try ahead, boys," said the proprietor quite good-naturedly. "You'llfind her the same over there; and everywhere else." He arose. "Bestleave your plunder here until you find out. Come down and have a drink?"

  We found the City Hotel offered exactly the same conditions as did theParker House; except that the proprietor was curt and had no time for usat all. From that point, still dissatisfied, we extended ourinvestigations beyond the Plaza. We found ourselves ankle deep insandhills on which grew coarse grass and a sort of sage. Crazy,ramshackle huts made of all sorts of material were perched in all sortsof places. Hundreds of tents had been pitched, beneath which and infront of which an extremely simple housekeeping was going on. Hunt as wemight we could find no place that looked as though it would takelodgers. Most of even the better looking houses were simply tinyskeletons covered with paper, cloth or paint. By painstaking persistencewe kept at it until we had enquired of every building of anypretensions. Then, somewhat discouraged, we picked our way back to theshore after our heavier goods.

  The proprietor of the Parker House greeted us with unabated good nature.

  "I know how you boys feel," said he. "There's lots in your fix. You'dbetter stick here to-night and then get organized to camp out, if you'regoing to be here long. I suppose, though, you're going to the mines?Well, it'll take you several days to make your plans and get ready. Whenyou get back from the mines you won't have to think about these things."

  "There's plenty of gold?" ventured Johnny.

  "Bushels."

  "I should think you'd be up there."

  "I don't want any better gold mine than the old Parker House," said hecomfortably.

  We paid him twenty-four dollars.

  By now it was late in the afternoon. The wind had dropped, but over thehills to seaward rolled a soft beautiful bank of fog. The sun wasblotted out behind it and a chill fell. The crowds about the Plazathinned.

  We economized our best at supper, but had to pay some eight dollars forthe four of us. The bill was a la carte and contained such items asgrizzly steak, antelope, elk, and wild duck and goose. Grizzly steak, Iremember, cost a dollar and a quarter. By the time we had finished, ithad grown dark. The lamps were alight, and the crowds were beginning togather. All the buildings and the big tent next door were a blaze ofillumination. The sounds of music and singing came from every side. Aholiday spirit was in the air.

  Johnny and I were crazy to be up and doing, but Talbot sternly repressedus, and Yank agreed with his decision by an unusually emphatic nod.

  "It is all a lot of fun, I'll admit," said he; "but this is business.And we've got to face it. Sit down here on the edge of this veranda, andlet's talk things over. How much mone
y have you got, Yank?"

  "Two hundred and twenty dollars," replied Yank promptly.

  "You're partners with me, Frank, so I know our assets," said Talbot withtact. "Johnny?"

  "Hanged if I know," replied that youth. "I've got quite a lot. I keep itin my pack."

  "Well, go find out," advised Talbot.

  Johnny was gone for some time. We smoked and listened to the ratherblatantly mingled strains of music, and watched the figures of menhurrying by in the spangled darkness.

  Johnny returned very much excited.

  "I've been robbed!" he cried.

  "Robbed? Is your money all gone?"

  "No, there's a little left, but----"

  Talbot laughed quietly.

  "Sit down, Johnny, and cool off," he advised. "If anybody had robbedyou, they'd have taken the whole kit and kaboodle. Did you come outahead on those _monte_ games?"

  Johnny blushed, and laughed a little.

  "I see what you're at, but you're away off there. I just played forsmall stakes."

  "And lost a lot of them. I sort of look-out your game. But that's allright. How much did the 'robbers' leave you?"

  "Twelve dollars, besides what I have in my clothes--twenty-one dollarsin all," said Johnny.

  "Well, that's pretty good. You beat Frank and me to death. There's ourtotal assets," said Talbot, and laid a ten-dollar gold piece and a dimeon his knee.

  "We'll call that dime a curiosity," said he, "for I notice a quarter isthe smallest coin they use out here. Now you see that we've got to talkbusiness. Frank and I haven't got enough to live on for one more day."

  "There's enough among us----" began Yank.

  "You mean you already have your share of the partnership finances,"corrected Talbot, quickly. "If we're going to be partners--and that'sdesired and understood, I suppose?" We all nodded emphatic agreement. "Wemust all put in the same amount. I move that said amount be two hundredand twenty dollars apiece. Yank, you can loaf to-morrow; you've got yourshare all made up. You can put in the day finding out all about gettingto the mines, and how much it costs, and what we will need."

  "All right; I'll do it," said Yank.

  "As for the rest of us," cried Talbot, "we've got to rustle up twohundred and twenty dollars each before to-morrow evening!"

  "How?" I asked blankly

  "How should I know? Out there" he waved his hand abroad at theflickering lights. "There is the Golden City, challenging every man ashe enters her gates. She offers opportunity and fortune. All a man hasto do is go and take them! Accept the challenge!"

  "The only way I could take them would be to lift them off some otherfellow at the point of a gun," said Johnny gloomily.