Thus a body of precedent was slowly
built up. A new case before the _alcalde_ of Hangtown was often decided
on the basis of the procedure at Grub Gulch. The decisions were
characterized by direct common sense. It would be most interesting to
give adequate examples here, but space forbids. Suffice it to say that a
Mexican horse-thief was convicted and severely flogged; and then a
collection was taken up for him on the ground that he was on the whole
unfortunate. A thief apprehended on a steamboat was punished by a heavy
fine for the benefit of a sick man on board.
Sunday evening usually ended by a dance. As women were entirely lacking
at first, a proportion of the men was told off to represent the fair
sex. At one camp the invariable rule was to consider as ladies those who
possessed patches on the seats of their trousers. This was the
distinguishing mark. Take it all around, the day was one of noisy,
good-humored fun. There was very little sodden drunkenness, and the
miners went back to their work on Monday morning with freshened spirits.
Probably just this sort of irresponsible ebullition was necessary to
balance the hardness of the life.
In each mining-town was at least one Yankee storekeeper. He made the
real profits of the mines. His buying ability was considerable; his
buying power was often limited by what he could get hold of at the coast
and what he could transport to the camps.
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