sold for a large
price. In fact, I think, as a rule, the speculators made far more than
the miners themselves.

We had at one time an assayer in our camp, who obtained such rich
results from every specimen of rock brought to him, that he soon had a
virtual monopoly of the business. No matter what specimen might be
brought to him, he would demonstrate that it contained so large a
portion of gold or silver, that the development of the mine could not
fail to be profitable. Some of his rivals in the trade, becoming jealous
of his superior success, conspired together and concocted a plan for his
overthrow. One of them procured somewhere an old lapstone, and breaking
it into small fragments, selected one as the specimen to be subjected to
the intended victim for testing. They let several of the principal
miners into the secret, and as there had been some doubts of the
reliability of the reports of the assayer in question, they readily
assented to assist in proving the truth of the matter. So one of them
brought him the "specimen" and left it for assay. The result was
encouraging in the extreme; for in the course of an hour the assayer
sent in his report, from which it appeared that a ton of rock equal to
the sample, would yield $1,324.80 in silver, and $214.58 in gold. The
whole matter was at once made public, and the discomfited charlatan
immediately found that important business called him elsewhere, and
departed between two days. It was well for him that he did so; for so
great was the popular indignation, that it is probable he would have
found a _permanent_ residence in the vicinity, could the excited miners
have laid hands on him at this time.

The town of "Harding" had now developed into an embryo city. We had
nearly two thousand inhabitants, representing every grade of
civilization and barbarism, principally the latter. At night the place
presented an animated spectacle; for about every third shanty was either
a drinking den or a gambling hell. All were brilliantly lighted and wide
open to the street, from which you could see the excited groups around
the gaming tables, or before the bars. Every man went armed to the
teeth. Fights and affrays were of almost daily--nay, hourly--occurrence.
The crack of the pistol became a very familiar sound in my ears, and so
frequent were the scenes of violence and murder, that I began to think
that the men I was among were worse than the savages with whom my lot
had been cast in f