from China they were down to greet the newcomers, whom they had never
seen before, and invite them to their homes. The present laws of
restriction against them, I think, are all right. We cannot afford to
run the risk of having the institutions of our country injured by an
emigration that is uncongenial to it. We have gone too far in that line
already, not from selfishness, but to perpetuate the institutions
founded by our revolutionary ancestors, in their purity, for the
interests of mankind.

I received a letter from my blanket friend. He informed me that he could
not sell the blankets, and had traded them off for flour, and would
start the next day for the Yuba, which was the most remote gold river.
That was all a lie. He did that so that I would not follow him up. He
had not a dollar invested in them. They were my property. I knew at once
I had been dealing with a rascal, but I was powerless to do any thing
about it, so I wrote him back that it was all right; that I had bought a
brig; and that I had it running to Stockton, and he could take ventures
up on that and make up what we had lost on the blankets, and much more.
(More of him later on.)


THE GAMBLING OF THAT DAY.

It was public most everywhere. Faro tables, the great American gambling
game, Monte, the Mexican and Roulette. The Eldorado, on the corner of
the plaza, was the most celebrated gambling house of that time. There
had been a great deal of money expended in fitting it up. It had an
orchestra of fifteen persons. It was run all night and day, with two
sets of hands. It was gorgeously fitted up. What they used to stir up
the sugar in the drinks cost $300. It was solid gold. Numerous gambling