At night, deprived of regular homes, the whole
city wanders in the streets, or crowds flashy places of amusement.
Cramped on the hilly peninsula, there are no social lines drawn
between good and bad. Each human being is at sea in a maelstrom
of wild license.
The delegated representatives of the Federal Government soon arrive.
Power is given largely to the Southern element. While many of the
national officials are distinguished and able, they soon feel the
inspiring madness of unrebuked personal enjoyment.
Money in rough-made octagonal fifty-dollar slugs flows freely. Every
counter has its gold-dust scales. Dust is current by the ounce,
half ounce, and quarter ounce. The varied coins of the whole
world pass here freely. The months roll away to see, at the end of
1850, a wider activity; there is even a greater excitement, a more
pronounced madness of dissipation. Speculation, enterprise, and
abandonment of old creeds, scruples, and codes, mark the hour.
The flying year has brought the ablest and most daring moral refugees
of the world to these shores, as well as steady reinforcements of
worthy settlers. Pouring over the Sierras, and dragging across
the deserts, the home builders are spreading in the interior.
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