It
can well be imagined that a man physically unfit must soon succumb. But
those who survived seemed to thrive on these hardships.
California camps by their very quaint and whimsical names bear testimony
to the overflowing good humor and high spirits of the early miners. No
one took anything too seriously, not even his own success or failure.
The very hardness of the life cultivated an ability to snatch joy from
the smallest incident. Some of the joking was a little rough, as when
some merry jester poured alcohol over a bully's head, touched a match to
it, and chased him out of camp yelling, "Man on fire--put him out!" It
is evident that the time was not one for men of very refined or
sensitive nature, unless they possessed at bottom the strong iron of
character. The ill-balanced were swept away by the current of
excitement, and fell readily into dissipation. The pleasures were rude;
the life was hearty; vices unknown to their possessors came to the
surface. The most significant tendency, and one that had much to do with
later social and political life in California, was the leveling effect
of just this hard physical labor. The man with a strong back and the
most persistent spirit was the superior of the man with education but
with weaker muscles.
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