The Argonauts of California: being the reminiscenses of scenes and incidents that occurred in California in the early mining days

by Charles Warren Haskins

the margin of which was the regular emigrant road, following the course of the creek for nearly two miles.

It was late in the afternoon of one pleasant day that the news was passed along down the creek, from the miners above to others below, that a train was coming in which a very pretty young lady was the chief attraction. A dust cloud was soon seen away above, showing that the train was near at hand, and the miners left their work and arranged themselves near the road. As the train approached, the young lady was seen in advance riding the old family gray mare, and apparently unconscious of the sensation which she was the innocent cause of producing among that crowd of unwashed, uncombed and unshaven miners.

She was, as all would swear to, a very pretty girl from the State of Kentucky; the daughter of a colonel who was a veteran of the Mexican war. Of course, it would never answer for ladies who had been traveling over mountains and sandy deserts for three or four months, to appear again in a civilized community in traveling costume, so a halt had been made previous to their entry, a few miles above, and toilets properly arranged. The young lady was dressed plainly but neatly in a common blue calico dress, with a yoke attachment at the top, heavy flounces around the bottom cut bias style, but no paniers to speak of. She wore a broad-brimmed Leghorn, milk-maid style of a straw hat, and a broad, black velvet ribbon around her neck.

The other members of the family had not been so particular and looked just like all other emigrants. The wagon contained, of course, the aged parents, with the usual complement of tow-heads found among all emigrant trains.

The remarks made by the various miners as the young lady passed along upon the old gray mare were very amusing. One youth remarked that, “Them eyes of her’n are jest exactly like my Mary Jane’s,” and another one says, “Now that nose and chin and her hair, too, is exactly like my Marthy’s down in Kennebunk.” “But ain’t she lovely, though?” asked another, and so on, each one remarking how much she resembled and reminded him of some one often thought of away across the continent.

One young man had the audacity to remark, in the hearing of them all, that “That young Kentucky gal wern’t half so good looking as his Matilda Jane down in Jersey,” and they gave the youth to understand that they would have a settlement with him for expressing such an opinion. But the next morning, on coming out to work, they found two stakes driven upon this young man’s claim, and on one was an old sun-bonnet, while on the other was fastened a young lady’s slipper. He had evidently purloined these from the wagon during the silent watches of the night, knowing them to be the property of the young lady from Kentucky. Under such circumstances it was evident that he had repented of his rashness, and he was freely forgiven upon the condition that he would make a division of the plunder, which he did.

The train went into camp near town, and after the day’s work was done, many of the younger boys lounged around in the vicinity of the strangers’ camp to get a sight of the pretty Kentucky girl.

While she was engaged in frying pancakes for the evening meal, a young, sandy-haired miner proposed to purchase one of them from her. She said that they were not for sale, but that she would give him one with pleasure, which she did by dropping it hot from the pan into his hand, and he returned the compliment by dropping into her hand a very pretty gold specimen, which she refused to accept. Upon a little persuasion from the modest youth she changed her mind, however, and slipped it into her pocket.

The emigrants continued straggling in, some on foot and alone, and others in trains drawn by horses, mules or oxen. The variety of vehicles was legion, as some had two wheels and others four; while one man, a tall, sandy-haired Scotchman, rolled along over the dusty road, over mountains, through rocky cañons and across the barren desert from St. Jo, in a carriage with but one wheel, to wit, only a common wheel-barrow.

The emigrants of this year suffered terribly in consequence of the scarcity of grass for animals, for which reason many cattle died, and the emigrants were compelled to finish their journey for hundreds of miles on foot. There were numerous deaths from exhaustion, starvation and disease. After their arrival in town, however, many died from over-eating, and in some cases it was necessary to restrain them by main force from gorging themselves while at the dinner table.