CHAPTER XIX.
SOME INDIAN EPISODES.
Believe me, it is not necessary to a man's respectability that he should commit a murder. Many a man has passed through life most respectably, without attempting any species of homicide. A man came to me as the candidate for the place of my servant, just then vacant. He had the reputation of having dabbled a little in our art, some said, not without merit. What startled me, however, was, that he supposed this art to be part of the regular duties in my service. Now that was a thing I would not allow. So I said at once, 'if once a man indulges himself in murder, very soon he comes to think little of robbing'; and from robbing he comes next to drinking and Sabbath-breaking, and from that to incivility and procrastination. Once begin upon this downward path you never know where you are to stop. Many a man has dated his ruin from some murder or other that perhaps he thought little of at the time.
The natives of California were quick to learn the purchasing power of gold, but they did not thereby become greedy of it like their white brethren. When they wanted a sack of flour, or a few pounds of tobacco, or a bottle of brandy, some of them went to the river and washed out the gold necessary for their purchases. They were badly cheated at first, having no knowledge of the value white men put upon the metal, and they would as readily give a handful of it as a smaller quantity, if they had it, for whatever struck their fancy, something to eat, or to drink, a gaudy handkerchief, or a garment.
Time and intercourse with the more cunning race sharpened their wits a little. Then they adopted a method of their own in making purchases. In parties of five or ten they would first stroll through the store, carefully observe several articles, and settle in their own mind what they would buy, but saying nothing to the shop-keeper. Then they would retire to a little
