content and permanence which now began to appear
in well-tilled lands, with fences and drains in hand-
some dwellings with cultivated gardens and commo-
dious outhouses. Culture and improvement began to
be seriously considered; institutions were organized
devoted to morals, religion, temperance, and the im-
provement of the mental and physical condition of the
young. Plank roads were made, and substantial
bridges built across the principal streams.
Some eastern men made money in California, but more lost heavily. If from sickness, fire, flood, or any other cause, the extravagant ideas of eastern speculators failed to be realized, agents were accused of fraud, and the reputation of the whole country called in question. A loss is mourned in louder tones than tell a profit, and as, owing to the chaotic state of affairs, venture after venture was lost, and men who had been known and trusted from boyhood slipped from the fingers of rectitude, the world was filled with complaints of California, and it was thought that gold and its corrupting influences had so undermined the principles of its votaries that the atmosphere of the Pacific slope was tainted with moral contagion. How many of those men labored true to their trust amidst the most disheartening reverses, their friends at home never knew. Rushing hither, blind to all before them, they found a condition of aftairs very difterent from what they had anticipated. The mart was crowded with articles un suited to the requirements of the country, and lacking what it needed most. The mines did not yield inevitable and immediate wealth, but severe labor was there rewarded by fluctuating suc- cess, so that the most faithful to their trust were sometimes forced to annul contracts and disappoint expectation.
