led for the purpose
of having funeral obsequies there in his honor. A man was named for
president of the day. Then it was proposed to name a vice-president for
each State and Territory, which was done. There were persons in the
crowd from every one of them. A day was set apart for the ceremonies,
and all business was to be suspended. There was a long procession on
that day, and the masons and all societies and the people in general
turned out in full force, including the Chinese, who were smart enough
to think it would make a favorable impression in their favor. After the
parade was dismissed in the plaza, the Chinese were requested to remain,
and a missionary addressed them, and a Chinaman interpreted to them in
their own language. I noticed that their language was much more
condensed than ours. It took about a third of the time for him to
translate what the missionary said. When the missionary closed, he said
he hoped that we would all meet together in another and a better world.
It seemed to them so absurd that they looked at each other and smiled as
if it was a good joke. In those early days there were no particular
prejudices against them. Pagans, as we call them, practised the
Christian virtues toward their own countrymen. When the ship arrived
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