and soul.
Never since the days of Cortez has there been gathered together such a hardy and brave body of men as these first men of the Pacific. When it took six months voyaging round the Horn, and imminent perils, with like dangers and delays, to cross the isthmus or the continent, then the weak of heart did not attempt it and the weak of body died on the way. The result was a race of men worthy of the land. The world s great men were thus drawn out, separated and set apart to themselves out here on the Pacific. There was another segregation and sifting out after the Pacific was reached. There lay the mines open to all who would work ; no capital but a pick and pan required. The most manly and inde pendent life on earth. At night you had your pay in your hand, your reward weighed out in virgin gold. If you made five, ten, fifty, or a thousand dollars that day, you made it from the fall of no man ; no decline of stocks or turn in trade which carried some man to the bottom brought you to the top ; no specu lation, no office, no favour, only your own two hands and your strong, true heart, without favour from any man. You had contributed that much to the com merce of the world. If there is any good in gold, you had done that much good to the world, besides the good to yourself. What men took this line of life ! But some preferred to trade, build towns, hang about them, and practise their wits on their fellow-men.
You see at once that the miners were the cream of the milk in this second separation.
