Gambling is
a universal vice in California. All classes and both sexes participate
in its excitements to some extent. The games, however, while I was
present, were conducted with great propriety and decorum so far as the
native Californians were concerned. The loud swearing and other
turbulent demonstrations generally proceeded from the unsuccessful
foreigners. I could not but observe the contrast between the two races
in this respect. The one bore their losses with stoical composure and
indifference; the other announced each unsuccessful bet with profane
imprecations and maledictions. Excitement prompted the hazards of the
former, avarice the latter.
_September 20_.--The morning was cloudy and cool; but the clouds broke
away about nine o'clock, and the sun shone from a vapourless sky, as
usual. We met, at the Pueblo, Mr. Grove Cook, a native of Gerrard
county, Ky., but for many years a resident of California. He is the
proprietor of a rancho in the vicinity. We determined to leave our
mules in charge of Mr. Cook's vaquero, and proceed to San Francisco on
hired horses. The distance from the Pueblo de San Jose to San Francisco
is called sixty miles.
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