with a constantly increasing stream direct to Oregon. Hon. W. Lair Hill.
THE GOLD FEVER.
The seething mass of anxious adventurers was a multitude that no man could number. This burning, insatiable desire to reach California assumed the form of an epidemic. It was not bounded by the Atlantic and western border. This yellow fever prevailed wherever humanity existed. But between them and the gold a great gulf was fixed. The frowning winter, the desolate plains, the utter want of transportation across the unknown, untried wilderness, were all that prevented men, women and children from a stampede that would have depopulated and left vacant and tenantless, the happy homes of America. The ties of home and sweet domestic bliss were now engaged in fierce and deadly conflict with the lion powers of Avarice. The old and the young, the rich and the poor, all were victims of the prevailing malady.
HISTORIANS AND HISTORY MAKERS.
The acts of those who preceded us, have doubtless contributed to our edification. Historians, philosophers and antiquarians have devoted ages
