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Show 314 PERSONAL ADVENTURES as to realize those pictures of misery and despair that often turn the heart sick within the precincts of the crowded cities of the Old World. Yes, strange as it may seem, such scenes were far frorn being unfamiliar to us; the hand of the suicide often terminating an existence which had hoped to find long denied success in the n1ultiplied chances of this new field of speculation; while hundreds have n1et with the characteristic fate of the miser, gaunt starvation oyertaking them in the midst of piles of gold -a death amidst abundance-an end, of all others, the most horrible-their bones being found rot tin{)' in the mountain ravines of a 0 wild and desolate region, thousands of leagues distant from the home and country which they had probably only learned to prize, ,vben the wealth they had succeeded in amassing had become in1potent to prolong their lives, even for one short hour. As I sat smoking a cigar in one of the hotels of the to\vn, shortly before my departure, I happened to overhear the following rather amusing conversation amongst a group of IN CALIFORNIA. 315 boisterous young fello\vs, who were quizzing the notorious Twitcher on the subject of a letter which be had just received from horne. "I say, Jemmy," said a tall, rakish-looking fellow, with his hat set jauntily on one side of his head, " you must let us hear that letter from your respectable parent ; it's capital." '' I'm hanged if I do!" replied Twitcher, with an air of affected reluctance, belied by a smile that played round the corners of his mouth. " You are always pestering me about that letter; this is the tenth time you've asked me to read it." " Well, give it to me, and l'Jl read it. It does one's heart good to find such simplicity in this wicked world. Oh, Jemmy! the old man little knows what an infernal scoundrel you are." Twitcher, little affected by the compliment, ~ produced a dirty and crumpled piece of paper, which the other read aloud, amidst the laughter of the company. It ran, as nearly as I can remember, in the following terms :- P2 |