We reached Sacramento City September 7…
source date: 1891
availability: public-domain

n’s store near Feather river. We had been living for four days exclusively on sugar and snow water. There we saw Indians exchanging gold dust for beads, pound for pound, gold worth $200, beads $1 a pound. That beats reciprocity, free silver or McKinley’s tariff all “holler.” We reached Sacramento City September 7. There was not a house in town, all tents and half the number devoted to gambling. Table board, without extras was $21 a week; ordinary labor, $10 a day; miners $16; carpenters, $20 a day. A preacher I had known on the plains had rebuked me for swearing at a vicious mule, that rebuke terminated our friendship but the first gambling tent I passed I met my preacher friend bucking the tiger — he changed color as suddenly as if he had been miscegenated.” Old Scroggs was most fortunate In everything he undertook ; He met a man importunate. Who talked insurance like a book. He got five thousand on his life — And broke his leg. That made him cry ; Then he reversed to accident — And broke his neck. That made him die. Now, as before, he hit it wrong — No doubt his shade is full of ire — For what he needed now he knows — A heavy policy on fire. Dealing In Futures A traveler on a prairie road strewed acorns on the lea; The hungry pigs they followed him and laughed with joy to see The tenderfoot throw pocketsful of acorns on the ground.