Here We Were Received By A Mr. Massett - A
Curious Specimen Of The Waifs And Strays That Turn Up All
Over The World In Odd Places, And Whom One Would Be Sure To
Find In The Moon If Ever One Went There.
He owned a little
one-roomed cabin, over the door of which was painted 'Offices
of the Marysville Herald.' He was his own contributor and
'correspondent,' editor and printer, (the press was in a
corner of the room).
Amongst other avocations he was a
concert-giver, a comic reader, a tragic actor, and an
auctioneer. He had the good temper and sanguine disposition
of a Mark Tapley. After the golden days of California he
spent his life wandering about the globe; giving
'entertainments' in China, Japan, India, Australia. Wherever
the English language is spoken, Stephen Massett had many
friends and no enemies.
Fred slept on the table, I under it, and next morning we
hired horses and started for the 'Forks of the Yuba.' A few
hours' ride brought us to the gold-hunters. Two or three
hundred men were at work upon what had formerly been the bed
of the river. By unwritten law, each miner was entitled to a
certain portion of the 'bar,' as it was called, in which the
gold is found. And, as the precious metal has to be obtained
by washing, the allotments were measured by thirty feet on
the banks of the river and into the dry bed as far as this
extends; thus giving each man his allowance of water.
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