California Scenes.
May, 1853. California in early times offered innumerable scenes partaking of the ludicrous and the horrible, and a person in search of either, might have his taste and his curiosity gratified at almost any moment. The Horse Market in Sacramento was the great resort of every imaginable description of characters, and such a scene of uproar and confusion as it presented at a public sale is utterly indescribable. There were some fine sycamores standing there before the Great Fire which destroyed the greater portion of the city. They had been found very useful for suspending thieves and robbers in the days of lynch law. After the fire, the trees were felled, and the stumps afforded excellent stands for the auctioneers. At one of the public sales of horses I saw four auctioneers stationed upon these stumps. The full strength of their lungs was called into exercise, and they were vociferating in their loudest tones, each one striving to outdo the others in noise, and all extolling the various merits of their respective animals with an eloquence peculiar to horse-jockeys, while their assistants, mounted on the horses, were riding around with a speed and a carelessness that threatened death to half the multitude that thronged the streets.
While this scene was enacting, a fight was taking place in a neighboring gambling-house between two combatants who were seen rushing from the house followed by an excited multitude. One of the duelists, bruised and bloody, was retreating from the other, who followed close upon him, dealing repeated blows, which the poor fellow sometimes turned to parry, while hastening to make his escape. The crowd followed on, shouting like demons, and increasing in numbers at every step. "Oh, that is dreadful!" exclaimed a horror-struck young man, who had but recently arrived in California, and had not been initiated in its manners and customs. The throng of excited brutes at length came to a stand; the chase and the battle were ended; the victory was won, and the defeated combatant was taken to a surgeon who seemed to be the only one benefitted by the affray, and who exclaimed in a tone of charming sensibility: "Let them fight to their hearts' content, if they will only employ me to repair their broken heads!"
Scarcely was this affair ended, when a loud shout was heard down the street, and we beheld a stampede of Spanish cattle followed by several herdsmen on horseback, who rushed along with furious speed, swinging their coiled lassos as they went, now striving to turn the drove of wild cattle, and now retreating before them as they pressed forward unchecked by horses or riders; now dashing along side by side with a single ox, whose speed nearly equalled the fleetness of the horse; and now in the midst of the drove, which seemed scarcely to make room for them. However, after much shouting, hallooing, and racing, the cattle were turned back, and the exciting scene was over.
But again another shout, and a team of oxen was seen running away with a wagon in which was seated the teamster. After running a considerable distance, the teamster, watching a favorable opportunity, leaped nimbly from his wagon, and headed his oxen, who, stopping suddenly, broke the rigging attached to the yoke, and letting the tongue of the wagon fall to the ground, brought oxen and wagon together in a heap.