, may accept offices with salaries of
3000 or 4000 dollars per annum; but how they are to obtain their petty
officers, at half these sums, remains to be seen. The pay of a member
of Congress will be accepted here by those alone who do not know enough
to better themselves. Mechanics can now get 10 to 16 dollars per day;
labourers on the wharfs or elsewhere, 5 to 10 dollars; clerks and
storekeepers, 1000 to 3000 dollars per annum--some engage to keep store
during their pleasure at 8 dollars per day, or 1 lb. or 1-1/2 lb. of
gold per month; cooks and stewards, 60 to 100 dollars per month. In
fact, labour of every description commands exorbitant prices.
"The Sandwich Islands, Oregon, and Lower California are fast parting
with their inhabitants, all bound for this coast, and thence to the
great 'placer' of the Sacramento Valley, where the digging and washing
of one man that does not produce 100 troy ounces of gold, 23 carats,
from the size of a half spangle to one pound in a month, sets the
digger to 'prospecting,' that is, looking for better grounds. Your
'Paisano' can point out many a man who has, for fifteen to twenty days
in succession, bagged up five to ten ounces of gold a-day.
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