CHAPTER XII.
SOCIETY.
mens mutatione recreabitur: sicut in cibis, quorum diversitate reficitur stomachus, et pluribus minore fastidio alitur.
— Quintilian.
The California year of 1849; what was it? An exclamation point in the history of civilization ; a dash In the annals of time. This twelve-month was not so much a year as an age, not so much an episode as an era. Heart throbs, they say, rather than time tell the age of man ; here then was a century of heart throbs; we could as well drop out of history a hundred of other years, as this one most notable year. Other years have been repeated, and will be many times; this one, never. Throughout the records of the race, from first to last, there will never be reproduced on this planet the California flush-times drama. It stands out in the experiences of men unique and indi- vidual, each swift day of it equal to many another year.
How vain, then, the attempt to portray this fleet- ing hour ! Dreaming will not achieve it, nor romanc- ing; it is neither caricature, nor burlesque, nor extravaganza. These lead the mind further from the truth. Neither will the bald facts, though plainly and fairly stated, give a perfect idea of the time ; there was present much besides plain facts ; there were facts running riot, and the wildest fancy turned into facts — a pandemonium of romance and reality. There were here fifty thousand active and intelligent young work- ers, whose experiences fully written for that year
