double-barrel shot gun. The weapon was worth fifty
dollars, but no one would buy it ; the traders had
stacks of old guns, which they could not dispose of,
and no one just then happened to want such an arti-
cle. Their case was becoming desperate ; night was
coming on, and the empty stomachs called loudly for
food. Taking the gun in his hand, one of them stepped
up before a store and called out, "Who'll give me five
dollars for this gun?" One smiled, another shook his
head, no one wanted it. At length the store-keeper
reached out his hand and said, "Let me look at it."
After examining it, said he, " I'll play you five dollars
worth of pork against the gun." "Agreed," replied
the impecunious miner. The miner won. "Now I'll
play you five dollars worth of flour against the gun."
The miner agreed, played, and won again. This was
too much for the speculative proclivities of the crowd,
and one of the lookers-on immediately bantered the
lucky owner of the gun to play him five dollars in
money against it, which was promptly accepted and
won. "Now boys," said the miner, again holding up
the gun, "I've made a raise ; that let's me out ; any
of you can have the gun that wants it." Of course
no one took it, and the miner then rising and picking
up his pork, flour, money, and the gun he could not
sell, but which had, nevertheless, served him a most
fortunate turn, joined his comrade, when the two
hastened to satisfy their hunger.
Some appeared blindly to stumble from one piece of good fortune upon another. A nasal-voiced New Englander in 1849, thought he would try California in a small way for a short time. So buying a ticket for $395, he sailed lazily down into the tropics and crossed the Isthmus. That, however, was a dull busi- ness ; besides he was making nothing. Arrived at Panamd, he scratched his head, went to bed, and rose in the morning and rubbed his eyes. Then he went out and sold the remainder of his ticket which was to
