’49, is said to have been a very lucky miner, as the saying goes, and had about $60,000 which he had put into empty oyster cans and hidden around in various places, to which fact hangs a tale.
Several instances had occurred where persons had come into the mines and by a streak of good fortune been successful, or in other words had “struck it rich,” and returned home again in a very short time. Among this number of very lucky ones, were two young men who had just arrived from their homes in the East. On the second day of their arrival in Hangtown, they were directed by an aquaintance to the big cañon a short distance north of town as being a good place to commence their operations, they dug a ditch down the side hill from the main ditch, in order to run the water into their sluices; and while at work a tin can was found in their sluices, which had been washed out from the loose soil above near the roots of an old oak tree, and had by the force of the water rolled down into the sluice. Upon examination, they found it full of gold dust and their work was done in California. They had found what they had come for, and the next morning were aboard the stage bound for San Francisco, with $15,000 worth of gold dust to divide between them. Australian Mike lived very near the spot, and the next day discovered his loss. An officer in pursuit of the young chaps arrived in San Francisco about two hours only, which however was enough, after the steamer had left the wharf for Panama, on which they had taken passage. Old Mike did’nt seem to care much for the loss, and all he said was: “Be jabers, thin, I hev a plinty more handy, do ye moind?”
People at the East often asked the question, and wondered why it was that so many returned again to their homes without having succeeded in making but very little in the gold mines, while others returned with fortunes. This seemed strange, and was often attributed to bad habits, intemperance or laziness, which, of course, was true in many cases but not in all, by any means. It is very true that the industrious man who worked early and late would, from the nature of things, be more successful than those who did the reverse or worked but seldom; and although this rule will apply to all human affairs in general, yet the mining industry in early days was, to some extent, at least, an exception to the accepted rule, for, as observation shows us, it was not the hardest-working man, or the most industrious, who succeeded best in striking the richest placers,
but in very many instances fortune favored those who did the least work. In the ordinary affairs of life those only will prosper or succeed in the business in which they are engaged, who are well qualified, and who possess the qualities and habits necessary for its success—that is to say, possessing a reasonable amount of intelligence, economy, industry, and proper caution; but in mining, these qualities are, so far as the finding and extraction of the gold is concerned, of very little value, as was often illustrated in early mining days.
I do not include, however, in this class those who were too lazy to make an effort to find a paying mine, for the country was full of this class of men, and they could be seen tramping about among the numerous hills and gulches with their tools, hunting for some pleasant spot to work, and they would generally find it under the shade of a tree. It was this class of men who depended upon their more industrious friends for a living, and who were always ready to maintain that mining in early days was a mere question of luck.
Very often the most ignorant, idle and shiftless lout, would stumble by accident upon a very rich gold deposit. The colored individual, and the sailor too, who had run away from his ship, as well as many others of like ilk, had just as good an opportunity, and were as competent to find a valuable gold deposit, as the most highly educated college student or scientific geologist. In mining, but little judgment was required, and a little experience, which was soon acquired, brought all upon an equal footing. If gold had been scattered equally and uniformly throughout the land, then only those would be the most successful who were the most industrious; but this was not the case, however, for ’twas scattered all over only in spots, and it was the dropping upon these spots by accident that determined the success of the individual. It was often the case that persons were hard at work realizing daily but a few dollars, whilst a few feet away others were making perhaps hundreds of dollars per diem, and many again who to my knowledge were quite industrious barely made a living. That a few made large sums, whilst others again made but little, must therefore be attributed to their good fortune, or to their having, from chance conditions, located their claim and worked upon the right spot. In my opinion no other explanation can be given, or why a few were enabled to make large sums while others, equally industrious, realized but little.
