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Show I A Mining Camp in 49. ! The mines put all men for once upon a level. Clothes, money, manners, family connections, letters of introduction, never before counted for so little. The whole community was given substantially an even start in the . race. Gold was so abundant, and its sources seemed for a time so inexhaustible that the aggrandiz-j aggrandiz-j ing power of wealth was momentarily J annihilated. Social and financial iri- equalities between man and man were together swept out of sight. Each strang-j strang-j er was welcomed and told to take a pan and pick, and go to work for himself. The richest miner in the camp was seldom ! able to hire a servant ; those who had j been glad to serve others were digging in their own claims. The veriest greenhorn green-horn wa3 as likely to uncover the richest mine in the gulch as the wisest of ex-prof essors of geology; and, on the other hand, the claim on the river might suddenly "give ! out" and never again yield a dollar. The i poorest man in the camp could have a ' handful of gold-dust for the asking.from a more successful neighbor to give him another start and help him "hunt for better bet-ter luck." No one was over allowed to suffer; the tieasuro vaults of the Sierra were too near and seemingly too exhaust-less. exhaust-less. "To a little camp of 1848" so an old miner writes me- "a lad of sixteen came one day. footsore, 'weary, hungry 1 and penniless. There were thirty robust and cheerful miners at work in the ravine, and the lad sat on the bank watching them awhile in silence, his face telling ; the sad Story of his fortunes. At last one stalwart miner spoke to his fellows, saying: say-ing: "Boys, I'll work for an hour for that chap if you will." At the end of the hour $100 worth of gold-dust was laid in the j'outh's handkerchief. The "miners made out a Ibt of tools and necessaries. "You go," they said, "and buy these and come back. We'll have a good claim staked out for you. Then you've got to paddle for yourself." Thus genuine and unconventional was the. hospitality of the miners' camp. Mining Camp. i |