San Francisco, 1848

The gold that was dug in the counties along the Mother Lode had an astonishing effect upon the whole United States, in fact, the entire world. As fast as ships arrived with adventurers--ships that were overladen with seething humanity--these vessels were deserted, and it was no uncommon sight to stand on Long Wharf, now the end of Commercial Street, or to climb the rocky sides of Telegraph Hill, and see in the San Francisco harbor as many as seven hundred or possibly one thousand deserted seacraft riding at anchor, like a moving forest of pines. As early as May 29, 1848, even before the great Gold Rush was fairly on, the Californian published a fly sheet, apologizing for the future nonissuance of the paper until better days. "Subs" and "devils" due turned up their noses at a mere salary when gold lay in abundance along the Mother Lode. "The whole Country," said the last editorial of this paper, "from San Francisco to Los Angeles, from the sea shore to the base of the Sierra Nevada, resounds with the sordid cry of gold! Gold! GOLD!-while the field is left half planted, the house half built, and everything neglected but the manufacture of shovels and pickaxes, and the means of transportation to the spot where one man obtained one hundred and twenty-eight dollars worth of the real stuff in one day's washing, and the average for all concerned is twenty dollars per diem!" It is recorded that a commander stationed at the Presidio, looking down over San Francisco, complained that as fast as the ships arrived the newcomers deserted the town, leaving only the rats as inhabitants, and the next thing he knew even the rats had disappeared!

(From "Banking in San Francisco, " California Gold Rush Days, Stories from the Radio Series, broadcast by Louise Taber, Volume I, Number 2.)

Part I, Resource 10-7

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