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Tracks of a Rolling Stone-Part33_Henry J.Coke(1827-1916)_English Literature(文学名著)-第2页

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return no more, to any home that was not Arakeeta's.

This sort of feeling is not very uncommon in early life. And



'out of sight, out of mind,' is also a known experience.

Long before we reached San Fr'isco I was again eager for



adventure.

How magnificent is the bay! One cannot see across it. How



impatient we were to land! Everything new. Bearded dirty

heterogeneous crowds busy in all directions, - some running



up wooden and zinc houses, some paving the streets with

planks, some housing over ships beached for temporary



dwellings. The sandy hills behind the infant town are being

levelled and the foreshore filled up. A 'water surface' of



forty feet square is worth 5,000 dollars. So that here and

there the shop-fronts are ships' broadsides. Already there



is a theatre. But the chief feature is the gambling saloons,

open night and day. These large rooms are always filled with



from 300 to 400 people of every description - from 'judges'

and 'colonels' (every man is one or the other, who is nothing



else) to Parisian cocottes, and escaped convicts of all

nationalities. At one end of the saloon is a bar, at the



other a band. Dozens of tables are ranged around. Monte,

faro, rouge-et-noir, are the games. A large portion" target="_blank" title="n.比率 vt.使成比例">proportion of



the players are diggers in shirt-sleeves and butcher-boots,

belts round their waists for bowie knife and 'five shooters,'



which have to be surrendered on admittance. They come with

their bags of nuggets or 'dust,' which is duly weighed,



stamped, and sealed by officials for the purpose.

1 have still several specimens of the precious metal which I



captured, varying in size from a grain of wheat to a mustard

seed.



The tables win enormously, and so do the ladies of pleasure;

but the winnings of these go back again to the tables. Four



times, while we were here, differences of opinion arose

concerning points of 'honour,' and were summarily decided by



revolvers. Two of the four were subsequently referred to

Judge 'Lynch.'



Wishing to see the 'diggings,' Fred and I went to Sacramento

- about 150 miles up the river of that name. This was but a



pocket edition of San Francisco, or scarcely that. We

therefore moved to Marysville, which, from its vicinity to



the various branches of the Sacramento river, was the chief

depot for the miners of the 'wet diggin's' in Northern



California. Here we were received by a Mr. Massett - a

curious specimen of the waifs and strays that turn up all



over the world in odd places, and whom one would be sure to

find in the moon if ever one went there. He owned a little



one-roomed cabin, over the door of which was painted 'Offices

of the Marysville Herald.' He was his own contributor and



'correspondent,' editor and printer, (the press was in a

corner of the room). Amongst other avocations he was a



concert-giver, a comic reader, a tragic actor, and an

auctioneer. He had the good temper and sanguine disposition



of a Mark Tapley. After the golden days of California he

spent his life wandering about the globe; giving



'entertainments' in China, Japan, India, Australia. Wherever

the English language is spoken, Stephen Massett had many



friends and no enemies.

Fred slept on the table, I under it, and next morning we



hired horses and started for the 'Forks of the Yuba.' A few

hours' ride brought us to the gold-hunters. Two or three



hundred men were at work upon what had formerly been the bed

of the river. By unwritten law, each miner was entitled to a



certain portion of the 'bar,' as it was called, in which the

gold is found. And, as the precious metal has to be obtained



by washing, the allotments were measured by thirty feet on

the banks of the river and into the dry bed as far as this



extends; thus giving each man his allowance of water.

Generally three or four combined to possess a 'claim.' Each



would then attend to his own department: one loosened the

soil, another filled the barrow or cart, a third carried it






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