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And =
here is the
embarcadero in December of 1849.
It had become “Sacramento City”. The broad street running down to the river is J
Street. Population estimates
range from 2,000 to 6,000 people, depending on who you count as a residen=
t in
a very transient society. T=
here
was a great flux of people who stopped here temporarily to provision
themselves for their excursions to the mines and—they hoped—g=
reat
riches, and another flux of broken, disillusioned miners on their way bac=
k to
wherever they had come from.
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Earl=
y Sacramento
was a primitive place of tents and flimsy buildings sided in canvas. Stores, warehouses, saloons, gambling de=
ns,
and brothels abounded; but places to live were few and primitive--for who
came here to live? The comm=
on
purpose here was not settlement; it was gaining quick wealth. In fact, most immigrants had to =
(or chose
to) sleep under trees or in tents.
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At S=
utter's Fort,
even attic rooms of the two-story central building were turned into sleep=
ing
quarters. For $1 a night, a miner got floor space, where he could wrap
himself in his blanket, with his boots for a pillow. Sometimes 250 men ja=
mmed
into the confined quarters.
"The men were packed in like sardines," a Forty-Niner
recalled. "They were dead tired, cross and cranky, they swore at each
other and all swore at the late comer for disturbing them. Being sworn at
wasn't so bad. It was the atmosphere that tried the stoutest
stomach—the combined smell of boot leather, tobacco smoke, sweaty
clothes, sweating bodies, garlic breaths. ... If you raised up on your elb=
ow and
looked around, it was just like looking over a rolling ocean of
men—twisting, squirming, turning over, talking in their sleep, some
mumbling prayers, others sobbing, others cussing, some all of these. And good Lord, how they
snored!“ [Continued n=
ext
page]
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