When No More Houses
Were Needed, No More Houses Were Built.
This compactness of form,
cleanliness, and the elimination to a great extent of the rectangular
block, contribute in no small measure to that indefinable suggestion of
the Old World - a charm that haunts the memory and finally becomes
permanent acquisition.
However clever the stories of the romancers - of whom Bret Harte
preeminently stands first - after all, their characters were
intrinsically but creatures of the imagination; the pioneers were the
real thing! Yet such is the nature of this topsy-turvy world, the copies
will remain, whilst the originals will fade away and be forgotten! The
writer will always hold it a privilege that he had the pleasure of
meeting in the flesh a remnant of the men who laid the foundation of the
institutions by means of which this great Commonwealth has grown and
prospered; big, broad-minded, strong men who, whatever their failings -
for they were very human - were generous to a fault, ever ready to
listen to the cry of distress or help a fallen brother to his feet,
scornful of pettiness, ignorant of snobbery, fair and square in their
dealings with their fellows. Alas, that it should have come to "Hail and
Farewell" to such a type of manhood!
At my request, Mr. Maslin, at one time a practicing attorney, dictated
the following succinct account of the origin of the mining laws of
California. The discovery at Gold Hill, now within the corporate limits
of Grass Valley, of a gold-bearing quartz ledge, subsequently the
property of Englishmen who formed an organization known as "The Gold
Hill Quartz Mining Company," led to the founding of the mining laws of
California. On December 30, 1850, the miners passed regulations which
had with them the force of laws, defining the location and ownership of
mines. It was provided that claims should be forty feet by thirty feet;
a recorder was to be elected by the miners and all difficulties arising
out of trespass on claims were to be tried before the recorder and two
miners, an appeal to be taken to the justice of the peace.
When quartz lodes began to be discovered and worked, it was found that
the location of claims by square feet did not protect the miner or
afford sufficient territory upon which to expend his labor. Accordingly
a miners' meeting was held in Nevada City on December 20, 1852, and a
body of laws prescribed, governing all quartz mines within the county of
Nevada. The following were the salient features: "Each proprietor of a
quartz claim shall be entitled to one hundred feet on a quartz ledge or
vein; the discoverer shall be allowed one hundred feet additional. Each
claim shall include all the dips, angles, and variations of the same."
The remaining articles related to the working, holding and recording of
claims. This law was incorporated in the raining legislation of the
State of Nevada and has formed the basis of the mining laws of each
territory of the United States. Thus we have a proof not only of the
intelligence of the early miner, but also of his capacity for
self-government. It must be remembered that the miners came from all
over the United States, but principally from the West and the South.
Probably none had seen a quartz ledge before coming to California, yet
the necessity for extending a claim as far as the ledge dipped was soon
perceived, as also the taking into consideration a change in the
direction or course of the lode. Commenting on these laws and the causes
leading to their adoption, Mr. Muslin became emphatic. He said:
"No body of rough, uncouth, pistolled ruffians, such as Bret Harte
depicts the miners, would have formed such a group of benevolent,
far-reaching and comprehensive laws. The early miner represented the
best type of American character. He was brave, undeterred by obstacles,
enduring with patient fortitude the perils and privations of the long
journey of half a year by land, or a tempestuous voyage by sea;
undaunted alike by the terrors of Cape Horn or the insidious diseases of
the Isthmus of Panama. He met the, to him, hitherto unknown problem of
the extraction of gold and solved it with the wisdom and vigor which
distinguish the American. Observe that the provision against throwing
dirt on another man's claim anticipated by many years the famous
hydraulic decision of Judge Sawyer. It is another way of stating the
maxim of law and equity: 'so use your own property, as not to injure
that of another.'"
Mr. Maslin agrees with Ben Taylor that the hangings and shootings of the
period following the discovery of gold have been grossly exaggerated. On
this point he said: "I will venture to assert that in certain of the
Mississippi Valley States, in their early settlement, more men were
killed in one year than in ten of the early mining years in California."
Of lynching, he said: "There were few lynchings in California, and those
mostly in the southern tier of counties, of persons convicted of
cattle-stealing." In connection with lynching he related a serio-comic
incident that occurred in Grass Valley in the early days.
Several fires had taken place in the town and the inhabitants were in
consequence much excited. A watchman on his rounds espied a light in a
vacant log cabin, and entering, caught a man in the act of striking a
match. He arrested him and the populace were for taking summary
vengeance. A man known as "Blue Coat Osborne" cried out, "Let's hang
him! Nevada City once hanged a man and Grass Valley never did!" This was
an effective appeal, for the rivalry that has lasted ever since already
existed. Fortunately, wiser counsels prevailed; the man was subsequently
tried and acquitted, it appearing that he was a traveling prospector who
had merely entered the cabin in order to light his pipe! In this
connection, I may state that Mr. Maslin confirmed the story of the three
friends in Nevada City, who attempted to withstand "the ordeal by fire."
Mr. Maslin is justly jealous for the reputation of the Argonauts.
Perhaps Bret Harte's miner, with his ready pistol, was as far from the
mark as Rudyard Kipling's picture of Tommy Atkins as "an absentminded
beggar" - an imputation the real "Tommy" hotly resented.
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