gnificant tendency, and one that had much to do with
later social and political life in California, was the leveling effect
of just this hard physical labor. The man with a strong back and the
most persistent spirit was the superior of the man with education but
with weaker muscles. Each man, finding every other man compelled to
labor, was on a social equality with the best. The usual superiority of
head-workers over hand-workers disappeared. The low-grade man thus felt
himself the equal, if not the superior, of any one else on earth,
especially as he was generally able to put his hand on what were to him
comparative riches. The pride of employment disappeared completely. It
was just as honorable to be a cook or a waiter in a restaurant as to
dispense the law,--where there was any. The period was brief, but while
it lasted, it produced a true social democracy. Nor was there any
pretense about it. The rudest miner was on a plane of perfect equality
with lawyers, merchants, or professional men. Some men dressed in the
very height of style, decking themselves out with all the minute care of
a dandy; others were not ashamed of, nor did they object to being seen
in, ragged garments. No man could be told by his dress.

The great day of days in a mining-camp was Sunday. Some
over-enthusiastic fortune-seekers worked the diggings also on that day;
but by general consent--uninfluenced, it may be remarked, by religious
considerations--the miners repaired to their little town for amusement
and relaxation. These little towns were almost all alike. There were
usually two or three combined hotels, saloons, and gambling-houses,
built of logs, of slabs, of canvas, or of a combination of the three.
There was one store that dispensed whiskey as well as dryer goods, and
one or two large places of amusement. On Sunday everything went full
blast. The streets were crowded with men; the saloons were well
patronized; the gambling games ran all day and late into the night.
Wrestling-matches, jumping-matches, other athletic tests, horse-races,
lotteries, fortune-telling, singing, anything to get a pinch or two of
the dust out of the good-natured miners--all these were going strong.
The American, English, and other continentals mingled freely, with the
exception of the French, who kept to themselves. Successful Germans or
Hollanders of the more stupid class ran so true to type and were so
numerous that they earned the generic name of "Dutch Charley