al doom.
Very hard were the times in the mountains now and then ; times when no one could pay his butcher bill, when the miner had not money enough to roll tenpins; yet, there was little complaining. The merchant considered it useless to sue for his account, for even if he could collect it, he knew he would incur enough of unpopularity to make the loss many times greater, and perhaps get a sound thrashing some night when the boys were deep in their cups and with plenty of money. Society at this time was far too unselfish for its own good, or for the good of the world.
An aristocracy, in the common acceptation of the term, never has found place in California. Vain and silly women have attempted cliques, have drawn round themselves lines of exclusiveness, and essayed the leadership of fashion; but all such efforts have had little mterest to any except the aspirants themselves, usually involving them in contempt and ridicule. Likewise there have not been wanting those, wht), jealous of the pretensions of the ambitious in this direction, have by their envious scoffings betrayed a desire for the position which they pretended to despise. With no provincial court, with the officers of government not the most admirable characters in the community, with no fixed military or naval system, with agents of the general government too poorly paid to make much display, with but a small literary class, with the entire community in- tent chiefly on money-getting, and holding in con- tempt all forms save the forms of debit and credit, there was here not the first element on which to base an aristocracy, either of money or mind. Wealth was worshipped, and success, and that keen- ness of intellect which could acquire wealth ; but the possessor was as frequently despised, and his quondam washer- woman wife snubbed by her less pretentious sisters. Early society here was an aggregation of strangers in which lucky strokes of fortune dazzled
