esty, it was becoming really unsafe in California to
profess or practice virtue too boldly. It was safe to
display only one's vices. And it is safe to say that
since ante-Csesarian days, for a time three of the
Latin deities at least were nowhere more devoutly
worshipped than liere : Plutus, Venus, and Bacchus,
each one of whom was known to have ])ut to death
thousands of human beings without a license.
Now and then was one as lucky as Barney O'Bier- don, who, when he was lost at sea, got himself paid for piloting the ship that showed him the way home. Others were obliged to live like plovers, that is to say on little else tlian wind, yet all the while as sure of discovering treasure by means of their superior knowl- edge or luck as was William Legrand by his scara- hmis, or gold-bug indicator. Many would have turned schoolmasters like the younger Virginia scions upon the bursthig of the Alabama bubble, but unfor- tunately there were no children to be taught. It takes time and sex to make men, or even youth for discipline.
They had no time for law. Cases were decided by the pistol beforehand and tried afterwards. The most insignificant quarrels were settled by a resort to arms, frequently resulting in the murder of one of the par- ties, the survivor finding it often easier to obtain an ac- quittal for the crime of murder than some simple mat- ter of justice hi the courts. Whenever a murderer chose to come forv/ard and stand trial he was almost sure to be acquitted on the ground of self-defence, though he who touched his neighbor's ]3roperty was hunted and hanged. In politics they were as dispu- tatious as the Athenians.
Rude men formed into a new and crude society, seize the few pleasures that first present themselves, and if these are of a lower order than hitherto have been in accordance with the habits and tastes of -some of them, the more refined soon sink to the level of the rest, and accept with thankfulness a
