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Show .. 524 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF thing has given out, and they have nothing to pacify them with. But the poor girls have suffered the most. Their glossy, luxuriant locks, that won so much adn1iration, are now frizzled and discolored by the sun ; their elegant riding-habit is replaced with an improvised Bloomer, and their neat little feet are exposed in sad disarray; their fingers are white no longer, and in place of rings we see sundry bits of rag wound round, to keep the dirt from entering their sore cuts. The young men of gold, who looked so attractive in the distance are now too often found to be worthless and of no in-' ~rinsic value; their time employed in haunting gammg- tables or dram-shops, and their habits corrupted by unthrift and dissipation. I do not wish to speak disparagingly of my adopted state, and by no means to intimate the slightest disrespect to the many worthy citizens who have crossed the Plains. I appeal to the many who have witnessed the picture for the accuracy of my portraiture. So much go~d material constantly infused into society ought to Improve the character of the compound, but the demoralizing effects of transplantation greatly neutralize the benefits. . Take a faU:ily from their peaceful and happy homes Ill a community where good morals are observed, and the tone of society exercises a salutary influence over the thoughts of ~oth old and young, and put them in such a place as this, where all is chaotic, and the principles that regulate the social intercourse of men are not yet r~~ognized as law, and their dignity of thought and prestzge of position is bereft from them. They have to struggle a~o~g a greedy, unscrupulous populace for the means ofhving; their homes have yet acquired no comfort, and they feel isolated and abandoned; and it JAME~ P. BECKWOURTH. is even worse upon the children; all corrective influence is removed from them, and the examples that surround them are often of the n1ost vicious and worst .P?ssible description. All wholesome obj~cts of ambition being removed, and money alone subs~Ituted_as there~ ward of their greed, they grow up _unhke _theu fathers, d "t · s only those in whom there IS a sohd substratum an I I d · · d of correct feelin~g that mature into goo citizens an proper men. Th The girls, too, little darlings, suffer sev~rely. ey have left their worthy sweethearts behind, and can not get back to them ; and those who now offer themselves here are not fit to bestow a thoug~t upon: ~very thing is strange to them. ~hey m~ss ~hmr httle social reunions, their quilting-parties, their. Winter quadrilles, the gossip of the village, their. dehghtful summer haunts, and their dear paternal fireside. They ha~e no pu1·suits except of the grosser kinds, _a?d all theu refinements are roughed over by the prevmhng struggle after gold. . Much stock is lost in crossing the Plains, through their drinking the alkali water which ~ows fro~ the Sierra Nevada, becoming impregnated With the pOisonous Inineral either in its source or in its passage ~m~ng the rocks. There are also poisonous herbs spnugtng up in the region of the mineral water, which the poor, famishing animals devour without stint. Those who survive until they reach the Valley are _generally to_o far gone for recovery, and die while resti~g to recruit their strength. Their infec_ted fles~ furnis~es food. to thousands of wolves, which Infest this place I~ the_ winter and its effect upon them is singular. It depilates th:ir warm coats of fur, and renders their pelts as bare as the palm of a man's hand. My faithful dogs have • |
