“‘Pa, what is an old forty-niner, anyhow? The school-teacher gave the conundrum to-day, for us to guess.’”
“The father referring to Mark Twain; ‘Phœnix,’ the Argonauts of California,’ and numerous other ancient records will answer, that many long years ago, a few adventurers from the Eastern States hearing that here upon the Western Slope the discovery of the ancient site of Paradise had been made, and that remnants of the richly paved streets of the New Jerusalem had also been found scattered over the country, ventured forth in quest of this earthly Eden. They brought with them in their ships all the various tools, implements, and devices for collecting together the scattered remnants of the holy pavement, and tradition states also, as well as from the fact that amidst the debris and ruins of an old edifice of some description in San Francisco was found many years since a huge bear carved in stone, confirming the tradition that this was the site of an edifice erected by this race of people (the Forty-niners) and used as a place of resort for social gatherings, and as a means of keeping in remembrance those early days and perpetuating the names of the most prominent of those who took a part. And the inquisitive boy would probably ask:
“‘Are the names of any of these yet remembered, Pa?’
“‘Yes, but only one that I now remember of,’ the father would answer; for it was the tradition that at that early period of time, a mule was often seen wandering among the hills and cañons, going in various directions, but without any apparent desire on the part of the frank and energetic looking Argonaut upon its back to go anywhere in particular, only so he got there on time. ‘Tradition, my son, further tells us that this rider’s name was Pixley, and that he was probably hunting for some office.’”
“‘Well,’ the boy asks, ‘did he find it, Pa?’
“‘Tradition tells us that he did later—a printing office.’
“‘Well, Pa,’ the boy will again ask; ‘the name of the man who first found the gold was known, wasn’t it?’
“‘Yes, so it was supposed for many long years, and they even erected a monument in Colomo to perpetuate his memory; but alas for the uncertainty of all human knowledge, an eccentric and ingenious individual who made cyphers and oughts his study, made the discovery by a peculiar combination of them, that the first person who discovered gold here in California was not a man, but a woman, who was engaged as chief cook for one of the Indian chiefs, and that she found it in the dinner pot. While cooking for her royal master a Shanghai chicken, the old chief noticed that it had a very yellow, sickly appearance, and remarked: