INDUSTRIOUS 
 
 UNION OFFICE 
 
 SACRAMENTO 
 
THE 
 
 bu- AUniO 
 
 SACRAMENT O. 
 JAMES ANTHONY & CO., PUBLISHERS, 21 J STREET. ^ 
 
 1854. 
 
2, 
 
 : 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 THE pretensions of the little book thus given to the public, are 
 humble. The designer of the pictures (Mr. Nahl) has succeeded in a 
 life-like portrayal of scenes in the mines ; the engraver (Mr. Armstrong) 
 has brought his drawings out in masterly relief ; while the highest boon 
 \ claimed by the author, is to have contributed a few descriptive verses 
 with a moral the only recommendation, perhaps, which they contain. 
 
 Of similar publications issued from the press of California, it is 
 
 I questionable whether any have come so near to the portrayal of actual 
 
 mining life as this. There are but two courses for the miner to pursue 
 
 one of industry and sobriety ; the other of indolence and vice. These 
 
 | are generally shunned or indulged according to the early education, 
 
 natural tastes, or degrees of temptation by which the miner is surrounded. 
 
 Fortunate is he whose better judgment leads him to an emulation of the 
 
 honesty and sedulous devotion which are represented as characterising 
 
 the triumphant hero of this little poem. 
 
THE IDLE AND INDUSTRIOUS MINER. 
 
 r< r - 
 
 WO school-boy friends, with buoyant hearts, 
 
 And grown to man's estate, 
 Repaired to California's shores, 
 
 To fill their cup of fate : 
 Endowed with noble gifts of mind, 
 
 And vigorous in health, 
 Their future seemed a harvest-field, 
 
 Abundant in its wealth. 
 Lured by a hope of rapid gain, 
 
 The mines at once they sought, 
 Contented with a cabin home, 
 
 In a secluded spot ; 
 Their start in life was equal, and 
 
 At first the race was fair. 
 But soon resembled that between 
 The TORTOISE AND THE HARE. 
 
6 
 
 THE IDLE AND INDUSTRIOUS MINER. 
 
 1N do not always realize 
 
 Their cherished dreams of youth, 
 For often wormwood lies concealed 
 
 Within the bud of truth. 
 While one the glittering prize plucks down, 
 
 Another's reach is vain 
 Ambition dies within him, and 
 
 He never tries again. 
 J Tis thus our story takes its rise, 
 
 To trace the different ends 
 The efforts, triumphs and mishaps 
 Of these respective friends ; 
 How nobly one achieved the goal 
 
 Of fortune and renown, 
 And how the other's sun of life 
 In clouds of shame went down, 
 
THE IDLE AND INDUSTRIOUS MINEH. 
 
 ND now, behold ! at early dawn, 
 || Before the mists have- fled, 
 Our zealous hero seeks his claim, 
 
 Beside a river's bed ; 
 As yet unused to toil, his hands 
 
 Are cramped and numbed with pain, 
 But in his heart an honest pride 
 
 Forbids him to complain. 
 The future is a promised world, 
 
 In which his fortune lies, 
 And industry, alone, he feels, 
 
 Can win its golden prize. 
 Already, in the vale below, 
 
 He hears the pick and spade, 
 And hastes to greet the busy throng, 
 And join their delving trade. 
 
THE IDLE AND INDUSTRIOUS MINER. 
 
 ', there should be a converse side 
 To such a pleasant view, 
 But history demands the pen 
 To frame its record true. 
 The early morn had come and gone, 
 
 And in the amber sky 
 The sun had slowly climbed his course 
 
 And stood at noonday high. 
 Nor sun, nor moon, nor thoughts of fame 
 
 Disturb the sluggard's rest, 
 Last night's debauch has left its sting, 
 
 And borne away their zest. 
 This, then, is how the idler friend 
 
 Commenced a bad career, 
 So fatally and madly run 
 Within his mining year. 
 
IQUITEDtoil! Eureka! Look! 
 
 And read within those eyes 
 Their speaking luster, as they dwell 
 
 Upon the glittering prize ! 
 The vein is struck ! ah, noble heart ! 
 
 A thrill of joy is thine ! 
 A purer and a better thrill 
 
 Than that produced by wine. 
 A thousand thoughts of home, and bliss 
 
 Reserved for coming years 
 Have swiftly flashed across thy soul 
 
 And melted thee to tears 
 Tears not of grief, or vain regrets, 
 
 For thou art still a man 
 But, thinking of thy poverty 
 And gazing in the pan ! 
 
THE IDLE AND INDUSTRIOUS MINER. 
 
 RN to the other loitering friend 
 
 Yet on a drunken spree 
 His tools neglected, and his face 
 
 The type of idiocy. 
 The bottle is his chief delight, 
 
 No care disturbs his brain, 
 He smokes, and chews, and yawns, and drinks, 
 
 And wakes and drinks again ; 
 Or when he leaves his cabin walls 
 
 To dig an hour or so, 
 111 luck attends him, so he thinks, 
 
 Wherever he may go. 
 Forever armed with some excuse 
 
 He deems his cause is good, 
 Till want assails him at his door 
 And drives him forth for food. 
 
THE IDLE AND INDUSTRIOUS MINER. 
 
 11 
 
 MBITTERED at his low estate- 
 Unmindful of its cause 
 The sluggard mopes away his hours 
 
 Indifferent to applause. 
 His noble friend appeals to him 
 
 To stimulate his pride, 
 By representing wealth to flow 
 
 On fortune's courted tide ; 
 He dilates on his own success, 
 
 Then offers half his claim 
 To share his fellow's wretchedness 
 
 And rescue him from shame. 
 Alas ! when emulation dies 
 
 There's no Promethean coal 
 To kindle up its wasted fires 
 And re-illume the soul ! 
 
12 
 
 THE IDLE AND INDUSTRIOUS MINER. 
 
 E DEUM ! the banking-house is sought ! 
 
 For, see, the well filled sack 
 Our zealous hero proudly bears 
 
 Upon his sturdy back ; 
 A hundred envious eyes behold 
 
 The nature of his gains 
 A hundred envious hearts desire 
 
 The gold his sack contains ; 
 But once secure within the vault 
 
 Where Adams holds the key 
 Andf little danger's to be feared 
 
 From theft or treachery. 
 A draft "at three per cent, relieves 
 
 The mind of every care. 
 And when remitted safely home 
 The drawer knows 'tis there ! 
 
THE IDLE AND INDUSTRIOUS MINER. 
 
 1C 
 t 
 
 HAT other heart could feel a thrill 
 
 Of pleasure more sincere 
 On hearing of his great success 
 
 Than that of " mother dear ; " 
 So down the thoughtful miner sits 
 
 Elate with joy to write, 
 His tools about him, and his u stew " 
 
 Before him, full in sight. 
 There's not a hope his breast contains 
 
 An anguish or a fear, 
 But memory retains to break 
 
 Unto that mother's ear ; 
 He told her all, and asked her prayers 
 
 To keep his heart from guile : 
 And when he sweetly slept that night 
 His face revealed a smile. 
 
14 
 
 THE IDLE AND INDUSTRIOUS MINER. 
 
 ! woful picture of distress ! 
 
 The idler takes his pen, 
 His ragged coat and shaggy beard 
 
 Denote him worst of men ; 
 But there is still within his soul 
 
 A principle of truth, 
 Which he has borne unspotted through 
 
 His days of well-trained youth. 
 " Dear mother /" this is what he writes, 
 HBRK And saddened by the word, 
 He feels a gush of tenderness 
 Within his bosom stirred ; 
 With too~much power it racks his mind. 
 
 And from the bottle's store 
 He turns the liquor out, and drinks 
 Till he can write no more. 
 
THE IDLE AND INDUSTRIOUS MINER. 
 
 ORN Sabbath morning ! at his door 
 
 The thoughtful miner sits, 
 His sister's Bible to peruse 
 
 As such a morn befits ; 
 The birds are sporting near his feet, 
 
 Rich flowers are by his side, 
 And as he reads, his heart resolves 
 
 That God shall be his guide. 
 He goes not where the noisy throng 
 
 Resort at games to play, 
 But profits by a goodly work 
 
 On this, a goodly day. 
 As twilight falls, his evening meal 
 
 In silence he partakes, 
 And soundly sleeping through the night 
 Again at sunrise wakes. 
 
THE IDLE AND INDUSTRIOUS MINER, 
 
 EAR MOTHER! " it were well to pause 
 
 And leave the page unfilled 
 Nor tell how deep in vice the hand 
 That traced the line was skilled ! 
 Amid a throng of curious men 
 That Sabbath night it tossed 
 j The only coin the idler owned 
 
 Upon a card, which lost. 
 u Make way ! " a dealer sternly cries, 
 
 Who hauls the money down ; 
 " Make way ! " the second one repeats, 
 
 And hurls an angry frown. 
 A dozen hands lent willing aid, 
 
 And backward through the crowd 
 They drew their humbled victim, whom 
 They left subbed and cowed. 
 
THE IDLE AND INDUSTRIOUS MINER. 
 
 
 ill 
 
 J ANDS OFF ! " a drunkard grown to be, 
 
 It were a bootless task 
 To drag the idler from the bar 
 
 While it contains a flask. 
 His truest friend exhorts in vain-^- 
 
 In vain the landlord's threat, 
 He struggles for another glass 
 
 On which his heart is set : 
 In pity fill a bumper up, 
 
 To quench his burning thirst ! 
 He has no greater joy in life, 
 And fate may do its worst. 
 The moon shone softly down that night 
 
 Where stupefied and pale, 
 A senseless man deserted lay 
 Within a quiet vale ! 
 
18 
 
 THE IDLE AND INDUSTRIOUS MINER. 
 
 L Y, thou guilty culprit, fly \ 
 The fatal weapon aimed 
 Would doom thee to a felon's death, 
 
 For thou art thief proclaimed \ 
 Fly to some cavern, where with wolves 
 
 Thy home may haply be 
 Not one amid the mob bestows 
 
 A kindly thought on thec I 
 A gallows to thy maddened brain 
 
 Appears in frightful view, 
 And to avoid its frowning form 
 
 Seems more than thou canst do. 
 This is remorse alas \ too late, 
 
 For months of wasted time ; 
 Before thy better nature changed 
 And thou wert steeped in crime I 
 
THE IDLE AND INDUSTRIOUS MINER. 
 
 19 
 
 HROUGH forest and on road pursued 
 
 The guilty man at last 
 Escapes unhurt, and lays him down 
 
 To think upon the past ; 
 Oh, God ! how sorrowful his groans 
 
 How bitter flow his tears 3 
 When recollection paints the hues 
 
 Of boyhood's brighter years ! 
 Concealed within a worn-out claim, 
 
 He deems himself secure. 
 And finds his guilt the only thing 
 
 His thoughts cannot endure. 
 He gazes on the rattlesnake 
 
 With neither dread nor care ; 
 But yields himself completely up 
 A victim to despair. 
 
r 20 
 
 I 
 
 THE IDLE AND INDUSTRIOUS MINER. 
 
 ONG hours past thrice had the day 
 
 Its course of glory sped, 
 Yet, on that wretched man, the sun 
 
 No ray of comfort shed. 
 By hunger driven forth at last, 
 He begged a crust of bread, 
 But found the hearts of those he asked 
 
 To all his pleadings dead. 
 " My God ! " he cried, " and must I starve 
 
 Where Plenty yields her store ! " 
 And seizing on a tray of food 
 Rushed wildly for the door. 
 The landlord struck him with a knife 
 
 Before he could depart ; 
 At which the frenzied culprit turned 
 And stabbed him to the heart ! 
 
THE IDLE A1TD INDUSTRIOUS MINER. 
 
 21 
 
 CLOSED within a prison's walls 
 
 Through all the dreary night 
 A madman's frantic cries resound 
 To curd the blood with fright ; 
 A pack of prowling wolves have caught 
 
 The rattling of his chains, 
 And pause to mingle with the sound 
 
 Their own unearthly strains ! 
 Not long that noble frame shall writhe ; 
 
 Not long that strength be shown ; 
 For death is smiling through the bars, 
 
 And claims them for his own. 
 E'en while those startled eye-balls glare, 
 
 The heart grows icy cold ; 
 He falls what else concerns his fate 
 Is easy to be told. 
 
THE IDLE AND INDUSTRIOUS MINER* 
 
 OUND the felon's corpse there stand 
 
 Three men of gentle mem, 
 By whom such sights as these, perhaps, 
 
 Had many times been seen. 
 The earliest and fondest friend 
 
 Bends o'er it, filled with grief: 
 The man of God has named the cross 
 
 And its repentant thief. 
 To die from home, alas ! is sad ; 
 
 But oh, far sadder yet, 
 To feel our crimes are what the world 
 
 Refuses to forget. 
 Then let a tear of pity fall, 
 
 Nor curse the idler's doom. 
 He was a miner may his faults 
 Lie buried in his tomb ! 
 
THE IDLE AND 1NDUSTHIOUS MINER. 
 
 lu 
 
 :H ! holy spectacle of love ! 
 
 A sister's gentle hand 
 A pious mother's fond embrace 
 Are what its joys command ! 
 The long lost son is back again 
 
 From California's shore 
 The brother's ample purse is filled 
 
 With pounds of shining ore ! 
 He brings them home his winning smile 
 
 A form robust and strong 
 And soul unspotted by the crimes 
 
 Of those he fell among. 
 He tells his friends, that wish to know 
 
 The cause of his success 3 
 That those who seek the mines must work, 
 
 AND DRINK AND GAMBLE LESS I