California Quotes: Cast off the Bow, Fast

"SALEM, MASS, March 17th, '49--Saturday, 3:30PM, we cast off from the wharf, and in the good barque "La Grange", Captain Joseph Dewing, made sail and started for San Francisco. Since noon, the crowd on the wharf had been continually increasing, until it numbered thousands, who had assembled to take leave of friends who were about to embark on a long and somewhat novel and perilous enterprise. Many now leave their homes for the first time, and none can say it may not be the last.

"Cast off the bow fast; leave the ship, all who are not going to California", sings out the pilot, and spreading the canvas to the northwestern breeze, her bow recedes from the wharf, the last grasp of the hand is given, friends hurry ashore, and excepting the pilot, none remain on board but those who are to be in intimate companionship for many long months."

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From: The Overland Monthly, Volume VIII. San Francisco, 1886. Page 93

California Quotes: The Meat of the Cub

"The grizzly did so much damage to the farms, and besides, he furnished so much meat, he was industriously hunted for years, until his numbers are greatly reduced. His food is largely vegetable, though he is fond of fresh meat of nearly every sort, and especially of fresh pork. The cub is easily tamed, and is most playful and amusing; he can be taught many clever tricks. The meat of the cub is tender, and like young pork, but that of an old bear is very strong, so much so as to be scarcely palatable."

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From: Pacific Bank Handbook of California. San Francisco: Pacific Bank, 1888. Page 203.

California Quotes: The Graves of the Forty-Niners

"GRAVES OF THE FORTY-NINERS

I have always had a strange love for visiting the graves of the dead forty-niners. I love to read their names and learn their history. Near where I reside are the resting-places of three that have long attracted my attention, perhaps from the seeming mystery that enshrouded them. One is that of young man with whom I was acquainted before coming to California. He sleeps on a beautiful ridge on the northern bank of Dry Creek-a rough board marks his lonely bed, and the following words are marked thereon:

Sacred to the Memory
of
Julius Bulkley.
Died
December 27th,
1849

This was a young man from Illinois. The hardships he endured crossing the plains, together with the privations he met with here, was too much for his delicate frame to bear. He was taken with a lingering fever, and never recovered. His relatives, if he have any still living, will be glad to learn that kind friends were near to administer to his wants until called upon to perform the last sad office--the burial of the dead.

Near the grave of this young man was that of another forty-niner. No mark or inscription tells his name--no block or stone is at his head. Nought but the narrow ridge of earth informs us that it is the resting place of one who in life shared the dangers and hardships of a pioneer. The oldest inhabitants can tell nothing of its name or history. All they know is that he was buried there in '49. The rest must remain a mystery, perhaps, forever...

The third grave is beneath an old oak tree, upon whose trunk is carved, with much care, the following:

Here Lies
Nicholas Downing,
Of Missouri.
Died
Oct. 29th, 1849."

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From: Hutchings' Illustrated California Magazine, Vol. 3. San Francisco: Hutchings & Rosenfield, 1859. Page 133

California Quotes: From the Maelstrom of Insanity

"During the calendar year ended December 31st, 1877, the following suicides, with their supposed causes, were reported in the San Francisco Chronicle:

Assigned or Supposed Causes of Suicide	Males	Females	Total
Losses in mining stocks, etc.	20	2	22
Insanity (Cause not stated)	5	0	5
Intemperance (Cause Not Stated)	12	0	12
Incurable disease	7	0	7
Love	4	3	7
Ill Treatment	0	2	2
Religion	1	0	1
Remorse for Murder	1	0	1
Unknown (or not stated)	24	3	27
Total	74	10	84

LOVE AND RELIGION

(Viz: Love 9, and religion 1), appear to have kept up their normal ratio as opposed to whisky and stock in California; religion emerging from the maelstrom of insanity as almost perfectly sane, having only aberration to cite."

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From: Transactions of the California Medical Society, Volumes 8-11. Sacramento: H. S. Crocker & Co., 1878. Page 153

California Quotes: California in Her Cups

Drunk! aye, drunk with avarice! Behold the picture; California in her cups!

Once long ago sailors thought to hold in their embrace the god Bacchus, whom they carried to sea in the form of a beautiful boy while sleeping; but when the god awoke, he caused vines to twine themselves about the ship, and tigers to appear amongst the branches, while the sailors went mad and drowned themselves. So it was with thousands who came early to California, thinking to ensnare her, and rob her of her treasures, but were themselves taken captive, falling on destruction.

From: The Works of Hubert Howe Bancroft, Vol. XXXV; San Francisco: The History Company, 1888. Page 1.

California Quotes: Principal Cause of Death in California

The principal cause of death in California is tuberculosis, which caused 15.5 per cent of the total deaths. ...

Next to tuberculosis come diseases of the circulatory, respiratory, and nervous systems... The proportions are next highest for diseases of the digestive system (diarrhea and enteritis, etc.), violence other than suicide or public calamity, cancer, Bright's disease, and early infancy.

From: The California State Board of Health Monthly Bulletin, September 1906, p. 32.

California Quotes: A Pair of Musty Blankets

In the cities and towns there was a noticeable absence of homes. Stores, saloons, restaurants, boarding houses, and hotels made a metropolis, and to this day the habits of herding then contracted hang upon the people. In 1849 almost every house and tent, public and private, received lodgers for pay. A regular lodging-house consisted of one room with shelf-like bunks ranged round the sides, each of which held a straw mattress reeking with filth and vermin, and a pair of musty blankets. Cots occupied the centre of the room, and sleeping-places were chalked out on the floor, where, after the beds were filled, others might stretch themselves in their own blankets at a dollar a night. 

From: The Works of Hubert Howe Bancroft, Vol. XXXV; San Francisco: The History Company, 1888. Page 666.

California Quotes: Flush in San Francisco

Everybody that worked had plenty of money. Some men would start back to their homes, getting as far as San Francisco with as much as $30,000. Reaching San Francisco,in having a good time, would spend all their money, get broke, and return to the mountains and work in the same old place. I have seen them return and it amused me to hear them tell how they spent their money.

From: Recollections of a '49er, by EW McIlhany. 1908, Kansas City: Hailman Printing Company. Page 71.