Shirley Letters from California Mines in 1851-52 — Letter 21

Letter _the_ Twenty-first DISCOMFORTS _of_ TRIP _to_ POLITICAL CONVENTION _From our Log Cabin_, INDIAN BAR, _October_ 16, 1852. Since I last wrote you, dear M. , I have spent three weeks in the American Valley, and I returned therefrom humbled to the very dust when thinking of my former vainglorious boast of having "seen the elephant."

To be sure, if having fathomed to its very depths the power of mere existence, without any reference to those conventional aids which civilization has the folly to think necessary to the performance of that agreeable duty, was any criterion, I certainly fancied that I had a right to brag of having taken a full view of that most piquant specimen of the brute creation, the California "elephant."

But it seems that I was mistaken, and that we miners have been dwelling in perfect palaces, surrounded by furniture of the most gorgeous description, and reveling in every possible luxury.

Well, one lives and learns, even on the borders of civilization.

But to begin at the beginning, let me tell you the history of my dreadful pleasure-tour to the American Valley.

You must know that a convention had been appointed to meet at that place for the purpose of nominating representatives for the coming election.

As F. had the misfortune to be one of the delegates, nothing would do but I must accompany him; for, as my health had really suffered through the excitements of the summer, he fancied that change of air might do me good.

Mrs. ----, one of our new ladies, had been invited to spend a few weeks in the same place, at the residence of a friend of her husband, who was living there with his family.

As Mr. ---- was also one of the delegates, we made up a party together, and, being joined by two or three other gentlemen, formed quite a gay cavalcade.

The day was beautiful.

But when is it ever otherwise in the mountains of California?

We left the Bar by another ascent than the one from which I entered the Bar, and it was so infinitely less steep than the latter, that it seemed a mere nothing.

You, however, would have fancied it quite a respectably hill, and Mr. ---- said that so fearful did it seem to him the first time he went down it, that he vowed never to cross it but once more,--a vow, by the way, which has been broken many times.

The whole road was a succession of charming tableaux, in which sparkling streamlets, tiny waterfalls, frisky squirrels gleaming amid the foliage like a flash of red light, quails with their pretty gray plumage flecked with ivory, dandy jays, great awkward black crows, pert little lizards, innumerable butterflies, and a hundred other Plumed insects, winged and free, Like golden boats on a sunny sea, were the characters, grouped in a frame of living green, curtained with the blue folds of our inimitable sky.

We had intended to start very early in the morning, but, as usual on such excursions, did not get off until about ten o'clock.

Somebody's horse came up missing, or somebody's saddle needed repairing, or somebody's shirt did not come home in season from the washer-Chinaman (for if we _do_ wear flannel shirts, we choose to have them clean when we ride out with the ladies), or something else equally important detained us.

It was about nine o'clock in the evening when we reached the valley and rode up to Greenwood's Rancho, which, by the way, was the headquarters of the Democratic party.

It was crowded to overflowing, as our ears told us long before we came in sight of it, and we found it utterly impossible to obtain lodgings there.

This building has no windows, but a strip of crimson calico, placed half-way from the roof and running all round the house, lets in the _red_ light and supplies their place.

However, we did not stop long to enjoy the pictorial effect of the scarlet windows,--which really look very prettily in the night,--but rode straight to the American Rancho, a quarter of a mile beyond.

This was the headquarters of the Whigs, to which party our entire company, excepting myself, belonged.

Indeed, the gentlemen had only consented to call at the other house through compassion for the ladies, who were suffering from extreme fatigue, and they were rejoiced at the prospect of getting among birds of the same feather.

There, however, we were informed that it was equally impossible to procure accommodations.

In this dilemma we could do nothing but accept Mrs. ----'s kind invitation and accompany her to the rancho of her friend, although she herself had intended, as it was so late, to stop at one of the hotels for the night.

We were so lucky as to procure a guide at this place, and with this desirable addition to the party, we started on.

I had been very sick for the last two hours, and had only kept up with the thought that we should soon arrive at our journey's end; but when I found that we were compelled to ride three miles farther, my heart sank within me.

I gave up all attempts to guide my horse, which one of the party led, leaned my head on the horn of my saddle, and resigned myself to my fate.

We were obliged to walk our horses the entire distance, as I was too sick to endure any other motion.

We lost our way once or twice, were exhausted with fatigue and faint with hunger, chilled through with the cold, and our feet wet with the damp night-air.

I forgot to tell you that Mrs. ----, being very fleshy, was compelled to ride astride, as it would have been utterly impossible for her to have kept her seat if she had attempted to cross those steep hills in the usual feminine mode of sitting a horse.

She wore dark-gray bloomers, and, with a Kossuth hat and feather, looked like a handsome chubby boy.

Now, riding astride, to one unaccustomed to it, is, as you can easily imagine, more safe than comfortable, and poor Mrs. ---- was utterly exhausted.

When we arrived at our destined haven, which we did at last, the gentleman of the house came forward and invited Mr. and Mrs. ---- to alight.

Not a word was said to the rest of us, not even "Good evening."

But I was too far gone to stand upon ceremony.

So I dismounted and made a rush for the cooking-stove, which, in company with an immense dining-table on which lay (enchanting sight!

) a quarter of beef, stood under a roof, the four sides open to the winds of heaven.

As for the remainder of the party, they saw how the land lay, and vamosed to parts unknown, namely, the American Rancho, where they arrived at four o'clock in the morning, some tired, I _guess_, and made such a fearful inroad upon the eatables that the proprietor stood aghast, and was only pacified by the ordering in from the bar of a most generous supply of the drinkable, which, as he sells it by the glass, somewhat reconciled him to the terrific onslaught upon the larder.

In the mean time behold me, with much more truth than poetry literally alone in my glory, seated upon a wooden stool, with both feet perched upon the stove, and crouching over the fire in a vain attempt to coax some warmth into my thoroughly chilled frame.

The gentleman and lady of the house, with Mr. and Mrs. ----, are assembled in grand conclave, in one room, of which the building consists, and as California houses are _not_ planned with a view to eavesdroppers, I have the pleasure of hearing the following spirited and highly interesting conversation.

There is a touching simplicity about it truly dramatic.

I must premise that Mrs. ---- had written the day before to know if the visit, which her husband's friend had so earnestly solicited, would be conveniently received at this time, and was answered by the arrival, the next morning, for the use of herself and husband, of two horses, one of which I myself had the pleasure of riding, and found it a most excellent steed.

Moreover, when Mr. ---- gave her the invitation, he said he would be pleased to have one of her lady friends accompany her.

So you see she was "armed and equipped as the law directed."

Thus defended, she was ushered into the presence of her hostess, whom she found reclining gracefully upon a very nice bed hung with snow-white muslin curtains, looking--for she is extremely pretty, though now somewhat pale--like a handsome wax doll.

"I am extremely sorry to find you unwell.

Pray, when were you taken?

and are you suffering much at present?"

commenced Mrs. ----, supposing that her illness was merely an attack of headache, or some other temporary sickness.

"Ah," groaned my lady, in a faint voice, "I have had a fever, and am just beginning to get a little better.

I have not been able to sit up any yet, but hope to do so in a few days.

As we have no servants, my husband is obliged to nurse me, as well as to cook for several men, and I am really afraid that, under the circumstances, you will not be as comfortable here as I could wish."

"But, good heavens, my dear madam, why did you not send me word that you were sick?

Surely you must have known that it would be more agreeable to me to visit you when you are in health," replied Mrs. ----.

"Oh," returned our fair invalid, "I thought that you had set your heart upon coming, and would be disappointed if I postponed the visit."

Now, this was adding insult to injury.

Poor Mrs. ----!

Worn out with hunger, shivering with cold, herself far from well, a new-comer, unused to the makeshift ways which some people fancy essential to California life, expecting from the husband's representations--and knowing that he was very rich--so different a reception, and withal frank perhaps to a fault, she must be pardoned if she was not as grateful as she ought to have been, and answered a little crossly,-- "Well, I must say that I have not been treated well.

Did you really think that I was so childishly crazy to get away from home that I would leave my nice plank house,"--it rose into palatial splendor when compared with the floorless shanty, less comfortable than a Yankee farmer's barn, in which she was standing,--"with its noble fireplace, nice board floor, two pleasant windows, and comfortable bed, for this wretched place?

Upon my word, I am very much disappointed.

However, I do not care so much for myself as for poor Mrs. ----, whom I persuaded to come with me."

"What!

is there _another_ lady?"

almost shrieked (and well she might, under the circumstances) the horror-stricken hostess.

"You can sleep with me, but I am sure I do not know what we can do with another one."

"Certainly," was the bold reply of Mrs. ----, for she was too much provoked to be embarrassed in the least.

"Availing myself of your husband's kind permission, I invited Mrs. ----, who could not procure lodgings at either of the hotels, to accompany me.

But even if I were alone I should decidedly object to sleep with a sick person, and should infinitely prefer wrapping myself in my shawl and lying on the ground to being guilty of such a piece of selfishness."

"Well," groaned the poor woman, "Jonathan" (or Ichabod, or David, or whatever was the domestic name of her better half), "I suppose that you must make up some kind of a bed for them on the ground."

Now, M. , only fancy my hearing all this!

_Wasn't_ it a fix for a sensitive person to be in?

But, instead of bursting into tears and making myself miserable, as once I should have done, I enjoyed the contretemps immensely.

It almost cured my headache, and when Mrs. ---- came to me and tried to soften matters, I told her to spare her pretty speeches, as I had heard the whole and would not have missed it for anything.

In the mean time the useful little man, combining in his small person the four functions of husband, cook, nurse, and gentleman, made us a cup of tea and some saleratus biscuit, and though I detest saleratus biscuit, and was longing for some of the beef, yet, by killing the taste of the alkali with onions, we contrived to satisfy our hunger, and the tea warmed us a little.

Our host, in his capacity of chambermaid, had prepared us a couch.

I was ushered into the presence of the fair invalid, to whom I made a polite apology for my intrusion.

My feet sank nearly to the ankles in the dirt and small stones as I walked across her room.

But how shall I describe to you the sufferings of that dreadful night?

I have slept on tables, on doors, and on trunks.

I have reclined on couches, on chairs, and on the floor.

I have lain on beds of straw, of corn-husks, of palm-leaf, and of ox-hide.

I remember one awful night spent in a bedbuggy berth, on board of a packet-boat on one of the lakes.

In my younger days I used to allow myself to be stretched upon the Procrustes bed of other people's opinion, though I have got bravely over such folly, and now I generally act, think, and speak as best pleases myself.

I slept two glorious nights on the bare turf, with my saddle for a pillow and God's kindly sky for a quilt.

I had _heard_ of a bed of thorns, of the soft side of a plank, and of the bed-rock.

But all my _bodily_ experience, theoretical or practical, sinks into insignificance before a bed of cobblestones.

Nothing in ancient or modern history can compare with it, unless it be the Irishman's famous down couch, which consisted of a single feather laid upon a rock, and, like him, if it had not been for the name of it, I should have preferred the bare rock.

They _said_ that there was straw in the ticking upon which we lay, but I should never have imagined so from the feeling.

We had neither pillows nor sheets, but the coarsest blue blankets, and not enough of them, for bedclothes; so that we suffered with cold, to add to our other miseries.

And then the fleas!

Well, like the Grecian artist who veiled the face whose anguish he dared not attempt to depict, I will leave to your imagination that blackest portion of our strange experiences on that awful occasion.

What became of Mr. ----, our host, etc. , on this dreadful night, was never known.

Mrs. ---- and I held council together, and concluded that he was spirited away to some friendly haystack, but as he himself maintained a profound silence on the subject, it remains to this hour an impenetrable mystery, and will be handed down to posterity on the page of history with that of the man in the iron mask, and the more modern but equally insolvable riddle of "Who struck Billy Patterson?"

As soon as it was light we awoke and glanced around the room.

On one side hung a large quantity of handsome dresses, with a riding-habit, hat, gauntlets, whip, saddle and bridle, all of the most elegant description.

On the other side, a row of shelves contained a number of pans of milk.

There was also a very pretty table-service of white crockery, a roll of white carpeting, boxes of soap, chests of tea, casks of sugar, bags of coffee, etc. , etc. , in the greatest profusion.

We went out into the air.

The place, owned by our host, is the most beautiful spot that I ever saw in California.

We stood in the midst of a noble grove of the loftiest and largest trees, through which ran two or three carriage-roads, with not a particle of undergrowth to be seen in any direction.

Somewhere near the center of this lovely place he is building a house of hewn logs.

It will be two stories high, and very large.

He intends finishing it with the piazza all around, the first-floor windows to the ground, green blinds, etc. He informed us that he thought it would be finished in three weeks.

You can see that it would have been much pleasanter for Mrs. ---- to have had the privilege of deferring her visit for a month.

We had a most excellent breakfast.

As Mrs. ---- said, the good people possessed everything but a house.

Soon after breakfast, my friends, who suspected from appearances the night before that I should not prove a very welcome visitor, came for me, the wife of the proprietor of the American Rancho having good-naturedly retired to the privacy of a covered wagon (she had just crossed the plains) and placed her own room at my disposal.

Mrs. ---- insisted upon accompanying me until her friend was better.

As she truly said, she was too unwell herself to either assist or amuse another invalid.

My apartment, which was built of logs, was vexatiously small, with no way of letting in light, except by the door.

It was as innocent of a floor, and almost as thickly strewn with cobblestones, as the one which I had just left; but then, there _were_ some frames built against the side of it, which served for a bedstead, and we had sheets, which, though coarse, were clean.

Here, with petticoats, stockings, shoes, and shirts hanging against the logs in picturesque confusion, we received calls from senators, representatives, judges, attorney-generals, doctors, lawyers, officers, editors, and ministers.

The convention came off the day after our arrival in the valley, and as both of the nominees were from our settlement, we began to think that we were quite a people.

Horse-racing and gambling, in all their detestable varieties, were the order of the day.

There was faro and poker for the Americans, monte for the Spaniards, lansquenet for the Frenchmen, and smaller games for the outsiders.

At the close of the convention the rancho passed into new hands, and as there was much consequent confusion, I went over to Greenwood's, and Mrs. ---- returned to the house of her friend, where, having ordered two or three hundred armfuls of hay to be strewn on the ground, she made a temporary arrangement with some boards for a bedstead, and fell to making sheets from one of the innumerable rolls of cloth which lay about in every direction, for, as I said before, these good people had everything but a house.

My new room, with the exception of its red-calico window, was exactly like the old one.

Although it was very small, a man and his wife (the latter was the housekeeper of the establishment) slept there also.

With the aid of those everlasting blue blankets I curtained off our part, so as to obtain some small degree of privacy.

I had _one_ large pocket-handkerchief (it was meant for a young sheet) on my bed, which was filled with good, sweet, fresh hay, and plenty of the azure coverings, so short and narrow that, when once we had lain down, it behooved us to remain perfectly still until morning, as the least movement disarranged the bed-furniture and insured us a shivering night.

On the other side of the partition, against which our bedstead was _built_, stood the cooking-stove, in which they burnt nothing but pitch-pine wood.

As the room was not lined, and the boards very loosely put together, the soot sifted through in large quantities and covered us from head to foot, and though I bathed so often that my hands were dreadfully chapped, and bled profusely from having them so much in the water, yet, in spite of my efforts, I looked like a chimney-sweep masquerading in women's clothes.

As it was very cold at this time, the damp ground upon which we were living gave me a severe cough, and I suffered so much from chillness that at last I betook myself to Rob Roy shawls and india-rubbers, and for the rest of the time walked about, a mere bundle of gum elastic and Scotch plaid.

My first move in the morning was to go out and sit upon an old traveling wagon which stood in front of my room, in order, like an old beggar-woman, to gather a little warmth from the sun.

Mrs. ---- said, "The Bostonians were horror-stricken because the poor Irish, who had never known any other mode of living, had no floors in their cabins, and were getting up all sorts of Howard benevolent societies to supply unfortunate Pat with what is to him an unwished-for luxury."

She thought that they would be much better employed in organizing associations for ameliorating the condition of those wretched women in California who were so mad as to leave their comfortable homes in the mines to go a-pleasuring in the valleys.

My poor husband suffered even more than I did, for though he had a nominal share in my luxurious bed with its accompanying pocket-handkerchief, yet, as Mrs. ---- took it into her head to pay me a visit, he was obliged to resign it to her and betake himself to the barroom, and as every bunk and all the blankets were engaged, he was compelled to lie on the bar-floor (thank Heaven, there was a civilized floor there, of real boards), with his boots for a pillow.

But I am sure you must be tired of this long letter, for I am, and I reserve the rest of my adventures in the American Valley until another time.

LETTER _the_ TWENTY-SECOND [_The_ PIONEER, _November_, 1855] _The_ OVERLAND TIDE _of_ IMMIGRATION SYNOPSIS

Exoneration of landlords for conditions at Greenwood's Rancho.

The American Valley.

Prospective summer resort.

Prodigious vegetables.

New England scenery compared with that of California.

Greenwood's Rancho.

Place of origin of quartz hoax.

Beautiful stones.

Recruiting-place of overland immigrants.

Haggard immigrant women.

Death and speedy burial on the plains.

Handsome young widow immigrant.

Aspirants to matrimony candidates for her hand.

Interesting stories of adventures on the plains.

Four women, sisters or sisters-in-law, and their thirty-six children.

Accomplished men.

Infant prodigies.

A widow with eight sons and one daughter.

Primitive laundering, but generous patrons.

The bloomer costume appropriate for overland journey.

Dances in barroom.

Unwilling female partners.

Some illiterate immigrants.

Many intelligent and well-bred women.

The journey back to Indian Bar.

The tame frog in the rancho barroom.

The dining-table a bed at night.

Elation of the author on arriving at her own log cabin.