There were
usually two or three combined hotels, saloons, and gambling-houses,
built of logs, of slabs, of canvas, or of a combination of the three.
There was one store that dispensed whiskey as well as dryer goods, and
one or two large places of amusement. On Sunday everything went full
blast. The streets were crowded with men; the saloons were well
patronized; the gambling games ran all day and late into the night.
Wrestling-matches, jumping-matches, other athletic tests, horse-races,
lotteries, fortune-telling, singing, anything to get a pinch or two of
the dust out of the good-natured miners--all these were going strong.
The American, English, and other continentals mingled freely, with the
exception of the French, who kept to themselves. Successful Germans or
Hollanders of the more stupid class ran so true to type and were so
numerous that they earned the generic name of "Dutch Charley." They have
been described as moon-faced, bland, bullet-headed men, with walrus
moustaches, and fatuous, placid smiles. Value meant nothing to them.
They only knew the difference between having money and having no money.
They carried two or three gold watches at the end of long home-made
chains of gold nuggets fastened together with links of copper wire. The
chains were sometimes looped about their necks, their shoulders, and
waists, and even hung down in long festoons.
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