Supplement to the New-York Daily Tribune. No. 2626. Tribune Supplement… “Highly Interesting From the Gold Region…”
New York: Greeley & McElrath, 14 September 1849. Broadsheet, 21.75” x 17”. 2 full pp. CONDITION: Good, one small pen mark on recto, dampstains and foxing, a few minor chips to edges; no losses to the text. 11. A scarce newspaper supplement brimming with California gold rush news, mixing grim reports of sickness, death, and discouragement with accounts of success in the gold fields, as well as a host of other matters. The first page of this two-page supplement is devoted almost entirely to the gold rush. It opens with the announcement of the recent arrival in New York of the steamship Empire City from California: “nearly all the American passengers by the Empire City are returning from the mines disgusted with the life of extreme toil and hardship which must be endured there.” Reporting from Panama, Tribune correspondent “E. S.” tells of many who have sickened and/or died crossing the isthmus, and observes “I believe not one in ten who leave the States for California, would undertake the journey did they have the remotest idea of the hardships, exposure and consequent imminent risk they incur by the undertaking.” On the brighter side, the steamer California is said to have recently brought down to Panama $700,000 worth of gold dust from San Francisco, and $20,000 in coin from Mazatlan, and an excerpt from the Alta California describes “the largest specimen of gold we have yet seen…an irregular shaped boulder, composed of gold and quartz…its value is $2130.” San Francisco is described as being “healthy as usual. Dysentery prevailed to some extent…The number of women in San Francisco was increasing, but there was still a great lack of the ‘last, best gift.’ Gambling is carried on to an enormous extent in San Francisco.” Other articles include “Emigration to San Francisco” (featuring a list of arrivals from 1 July–24 July 1849, naming the various vessels, and numbers of passengers); “Morality in the Mines” (“we will venture to affirm that the standard of moral among the miners is much higher than in any town in the States south of Boston”); “Turning Rivers” (“large companies of miners are engaged in turning the course of streams in which gold may be found”); “The Science of Mining”; “Gold on Trinity River”; “Sacramento City” (“our little city is growing with a rapidity unequaled by any modern town save San Francisco”); “San Francisco Prices Current for July 1849” (flour, liquors, tobacco, teas, China goods, etc.); “A Riot in San Francisco” (“Chilenos attacked by a party of armed Americans…Public Meeting of Citizens…Formation of a Citizen Armed Police…Arrest, Trial and Sentence of the Rioters”); “Land Speculation— Mushroom Cities” (“the annals of ‘49, in California, will so eclipse the records of the ‘36 land speculation in the States, as to render the latter hardly worthy of note as an epoch”); “The Overland Emigration” (“pioneer companies arrived”); “Election at San Francisco”; “Placer Intelligence” (“Very rich deposits have been found on the north fork of the American River…); “A Duel” (“The quarrel is said to have grown out of some misunderstanding at a faro table”); “Found Dead” (“A man was found dead about four miles north of Pueblo de San Jose, on the 4th. He was about 30 years of age, in soldiers’ clothes with ‘W. Young’ written on his shirt”); “Emigration to San Francisco” (3,614 persons during July 1849); and “Gold-Digging—Weather—Prices—Advice” (a report from “Tuwallamy Diggins”). A small portion of the recto covers New York news, while the verso is devoted exclusively to international news.
Item #7326
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