USA > California > A picture of pioneer times in California, illustrated with anecdotes and stores taken from real life > Part 23
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" What you observed in my manner this evening was, that my head is full of the wonderful news from California. Governor Mason and the United States Consul at Monterey have sent home statements that fully corroborate all the strange stories of gold- finding we have been reading of for some weeks past. Alad- din's Lamp is nowhere compared to the wonders of the Sacra- mento and San Joaquin, and other localities in California, where every man can be his own Geni and call up from the earth, at will, boundless wealth."
" And do you really believe all this, Frank ?" said Ellen.
" How can I doubt it ? You shall judge for yourself, for after dinner I will read for you the Mason and Larkin statements."
At dinner the only topic was California, and after dinner Frank, as he had promised, read aloud for us all the accounts of the gold discoveries, as given by Governor Mason and others. Father was indisposed to believe, in full, the accounts, and urged that, though there was gold there, undoubtedly, yet it would require labor and capital to obtain it. Ellen joined warmly in this view, and I could see that she looked pale, troubled and anxious the whole evening. I thought to myself: " Well, all poor Ellen's little castles of a contented home, in which she was to be the happy queen and Frank her idol, are likely to disappear just as she thought she was going to realize them."
That night, when they retired to their room, Ellen said, in an assumed, careless voice :
" Well, old fellow, you have not said a word to me of our new home; the house I selected for us to-day."
" No, dearest, I have not; but to-morrow we will talk it all over. Will not that do ?"
Poor Ellen! She could hardly keep from giving way to her feelings in tears, but, overcoming herself, she said, in a low, half-choked voice:
" Well, leave it until then."
Frank was so full of California he did not observe the tone of her answer, and her feelings remained unknown to him. He soon fell asleep, for, though excited, he was very tired; but in his dreams he was on the Sacramento river. He murmured words in his sleep, but the only one Ellen could distinguish was that now odious one to her, "Gold!" Ellen could not sleep. But yesterday her heart was full of worldly happiness, and life's
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path in the future looked all so bright and full of sunshine that it seemed impossible that a cloud or storm was near; yet, now, a strange, troubled feeling oppressed her -- a fear, as it were, of some approaching calamity, she knew not what, that foreboded to her the utter destruction of her bright visions of married life. She sometimes felt as though some demon was struggling to possess himself of her darling husband, and separate them for time and eternity. She tried to shake off the horrid thoughts and feelings as they crowded on her, but her efforts were vain, and now her poor head ached and her lips became dry and parched. Without awakening Frank, she arose from her bed, and walked in the moonlight to her little oratory. There, drop- ping on her knees, with clasped hands and bowed head, she sought relief in earnest prayer. "Heavenly Father," she mur- mured, " save and guard and guide my husband, and if it be Thy holy will to part us and that Ishall walk the earth alone, be it so; I will not murmur if Thou but lead us both together to Thy throne in Heaven in the end." Then she prayed for cour- age and resolution to bear up, as He would have her do, in the trial she felt to be impending. With the last words of her prayer, the fountain of her heart seemed thrown open, and floods of tears came rushing to her relief. She arose from her knees so perfectly calmed and resigned that her heart was filled with gratitude to Heaven. She stole back to her bed, and, leaning over her almost worshiped husband, she gazed on his face as though she wished once more to imprint every line and feature of his countenance on the inmost recesses of her heart. It was a long, earnest gaze. She smiled as she said, half-aloud:
" He never loved any one but me," and, stooping, she kissed his forehead. Then, nestling more closely into her place, sleep soon came to soothe and calm her excited nerves.
CHAPTER IV.
DEPARTURE FOR CALIFORNIA.
With Ellen the great struggle was over, and it did not take her by surprise the next day when Frank, seating himself by her, told her that he thought of going to California. He ex- plained to her all the advantages it was sure, as he said, to bring. In the first place, he could not think of remaining in the firm as full partner after the great losses the house had sustained. It would be ungenerous to his uncle to do so, and then he would. only be one year away. He would not only make a fortune for himself, but also be enabled to help Philips & Moncks to make up their losses dy selling goods for them in the California market. It would be an advantage, too, to Cousin Henry, he urged. " And then, my darling, angel wife," he went on, "I wish to make this sacrifice for you. I long to see you mistress of a magnificent establishment, which I will build on my return on the banks of the Delaware, or, perhaps, if you prefer it, the Hudson, for you to preside over as queen, and there shall be none in all the land who will not covet the acquaintance of my wife. Then her wealth and position will be in keeping with her beauty and accomplishments. I do not say this to flatter, dar- ling. If I did, I would despise myself; but you do not know how I yearn to see you in the position nature intended you for; ac- knowledged by all to be the first among the first."
While he spoke, Ellen kept his hand in hers, and calmly gazed on his face.
" I would not be a wife worth having," she said, " if I doubted the sincerity of a word you have spoken; but, my darling hus- band, do you know that I would rather live my life in the plainest cottage in Philadelphia, and be totally unknown to all the world, if you were there, contented and happy, than live in a mansion of Eastern magnificence with a thousand slaves at my feet, if this worldly grandeur was to cost me one year's absence from
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you? Oh, Frank, we have sworn 'until death never to part.' Let us be careful how we trifle with that solemn vow."
Then, laying both her hands on his shoulders, while her bosom heaved and expanded, her eyes beaming with the light of sud- denly-awakened hope that she could solve the difficulty and ward off the terrible blow, she continued with wild animation:
" Why, cannot I go with you ? Oh, yes, Frank; do say I can go; you know that aunt is proud of my knowledge of every de- scription of housewifery. There is no dish, she says, so plain or homely that my skill cannot do something to make it sweet and savory. There is none so rare and uncommon as to be en- tirely unknown to me. She boasts, too, of my needle, and says it would be as much at home in the miner's shirt or overalls as you have seen it in the embroidery you so much admired. Oh, yes, dearest; do say you will have me go. I will keep our little miner's cottage so neat, so bright, that it will be the envy of all. I will train wild roses to embower and shade it from the hot sun. Those beautiful California wild flowers shall decorate our table more charmingly than do costly ornaments the tables of the proud and wealthy. I will gather the wild mosses they tell us of there, and fashion for you to rest upon, when tired and weary, a lounge that luxury itself might envy; and then I will read to you or sing you some favorite song, which will take us back, in our thoughts, to our old home and to the happy days when we were children together."
She went on, while her eyes swam with struggling tears:
" Oh, Frank, do not speak of difficulties or dangers in the way, for there is no mountain that I would think rugged or steep if you were but there to lead the way. There is no river or stream that to me would look dark or dangerous if you were but there to guard me. There is no desert plain or valley that to me would seem lonesome if you were but there to cheer me. There is no southern sun that to me would be unendurable, nor snow, nor north wind that I would not freely face, if you, my darling husband, were but there to love me. Here, here," she continued, laying her hand on his heart, while her lips quivered with cmo- tion, " is my home, my world, all the world I care or ask for." With the last words her voice grew soft and lower until it was lost in his bosom, where she nestled her head.
Frank clasped her close to his heart, while his frame trembled as if in agony; his head leaned forward until their cheeks met.
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For a few minutes neither spoke, but wept together the first sor- rowing tears California had cost them. Then Frank murmured: " I will not go, darling, if you cannot endure the trial."
In that short sentence Frank had struck a chord that ever lies near the hearts of the unselfish, generous and brave. Ellen quickly raised her head, wiped all traces of her grief away; then, summoning to her aid all the strength or her great character, said in a calm, steady voice:
" My husband, I have made you unhappy; those tears on your cheeks frighten me." While speaking she gently wiped them away with her own soft handkerchief. " Do not do your wife the injustice of supposing that she is so weak or childish that she cannot, with perfect contentment, do anything you may think right and proper for her to do, even if it involves a tem- porary separation. I would rather, as I have said, face deserts, snows and burning suns and be with you, than have all the wealth and grandeur on earth, and you away. Yet, my husband, depend on it I will feel happy, so happy, in doing whatever you think best for us both to do in this matter. What you say about the advantage it will be to our dear uncle, who has been more than a father to me and to Cousin Henry, who is as dear to me as ever brother was to sister, will make the sacrifice sweet and light; so cheer up, my darling, my consent is given, and given freely. One short year, and we will be again together, never, oh never, to part."
Again Frank clasped her to his heart, while he exclaimed : " Noble, noble girl! Generous, heroic wife! Priceless treasure of my inmost heart! Can I ever love and admire you half as much as you deserve to be admired and loved ? But you shall see, my wife, I will strive to be worthy of you, and, my darling, you shall be the object of all the struggles and efforts I will make for success, not only in this California enterprise, but in everything I undertake, and do not allow yourself to imagine that this temporary separation is any trifling with the sacred vow we made to each other at the altar, never to part, for I but place you, as it were, in the background for a moment to shield you from a danger that, unavoidably, crosses my path. No, my wife, believe me, I would rather die than even seem to trifle with that holy vow."
" Be it so, be it so, my husband; and yet," said Ellen, drop- ping her voice almost to a whisper, "something seems to tell me
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that I could save you from a danger, if I were with you; but it is, I suppose, an idle thought, and I will try and not think of it."
" There is no danger to me, my angel, be sure, that I cannot ward off; but there might be for us both if I were so rash as to expose you where common prudence forbids it."
"I am satisfied, dear husband, and may God grant that we have decided right this day, and in the way most pleasing to Him."
That and the next day all was arranged with our firm. Frank withdrew from it, and was to have twenty thousand dollars in goods consigned to him, for sale on joint account, in the Califor- nia market. The goods were to be shipped by the Greyhound and Grey Eagle, one of which was about to sail from Baltimore, and the other from Philadelphia, for San Francisco. They were two of the first three clipper-built ships that entered the '49 Cali- fornia trade. The third was the Architect, which sailed a few days later from New Orleans. They were splendid ships, and made fine voyages; but they did not compare with that fleet of clippers the California trade so soon afterwards spread on the ocean, and which so astonished the marine world, not only for their matchless sailing qualities and freight capacity, but for the beauty of their structure and magnificence of their finish. Frank also bought goods and shipped them on his own account, and then took his passage by the first steamship that sailed for Panama. He arrived safely on the Pacific side of the Isthmus, but there he had some weary days to wait, as the steamer that was to take him to San Francisco had not yet arrived from her trip round Cape Horn. It came at last, however, and in due time Frank arrived in San Francisco in the first steamer that ever entered the Golden Gate. His judgment led him to be- lieve that it would be best to locate himself as near the mines as possible, as they were, of course, the source of all trade in Cali- fornia at that time. He therefore established himself in business in S -.
From the day Ellen had given her entire consent until the day Frank left us, she was cheerful, and, to a casual observer, ap- peared happy. Frank's mother and uncle, John Grant, came to Philadelphia to see Frank off, and the arrangement was that Ellen was to go home with him and remain with Aunt Mary until Frank returned.
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The sad morning of parting came. We sat down to a very early breakfast-the last we were ever all to eat together. This, of course, we did not know; yet we felt that it might be so. Frank sat between Ellen and his mother. I followed father's example in an effort to be cheerful myself and to make the rest so; without much success, however. Breakfast over, Frank arose to bid us all farewell. I will not attempt to describe that parting scene. It was so terribly sad that its memory haunts me to this day. Frank was no sooner out of sight than poor Ellen, who had held up all through with such heroic courage, now gave way and dropped into a death-like faint, from which she recovered only to relapse into another and another. Then came prostration, and in the afternoon of that day a burning fever, in which she lay for three long days between life and death. Aunt Mary and mother watched and nursed her day and night, by turns, and at length life, health and spirits all came back, slowly but surely, until Ellen was herself once more, cheerful and hopeful, if not wholly happy.
CHAPTER V.
SICKNESS-SUSAN MARSH, THE NURSE.
In six months after Frank left, I also went to California and established myself in business in San Francisco. Frank's suc- cess in California was all that any one could desire. In fact, every speculation he touched seemed to turn into gold in his hands. He made money for Philips & Moncks by tens of thousands. Every week he wrote to Ellen long, loving and al- ways interesting letters. Her credit at our house in Philadelphia was, by his orders, unlimited, and so the year wore away; but, at its close, Frank found it almost impossible to wind up his business and return to Philadelphia as he had intended, so he sought and obtained Ellen's consent to remain one year more. In the following March he was taken most dangerously sick. He occupied the upper part of his store as a dwelling, as was so common with us all in California to do at that time. His book- keeper and clerks also lived with him, but slept in a room back of the office on the first floor. They had a Chinese boy for cook, so they lived comfortably, for Californians. When Frank fell sick the clerks and Mr. Neil, the bookkeeper, took turns in nursing him, and, though kind in their dispositions, they made very indifferent nurses; besides, they had not the time to spare from the business that it was necessary to give to Frank's sick- room. He grew worse and worse every day, until all became alarmed for his life. He wandered in his mind, and became un- conscious of all around him. Mr. Neil now undertook to find a nurse, but for love or money none could be had. The attending physician then undertook to procure one, and did so. He intro- duced a young woman, Susan Marsh, as nurse. She was hand- some, bright, neat and kind in her manner, and proved a most excellent nurse. There was nothing in her way of acting that gave the bookkeeper the least right to suppose that she was one of the unfortunates in character who were then, as now, numer-
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ous in California. In those days it was often, as in the present instance, found impossible to procure nurses for the sick, and unthinking physicians sought, and frequently found, them in houses frequented only by the reckless and abandoned of both sexes. To such a house had Doctor Taylor resorted and found Susan Marsh, who now nursed Frank with the kindest care. Three long weeks Frank lay unconscious of all around him, or of those who cared for him.
On Monday morning, three weeks from the day on which she had undertaken her task, Susan Marsh arose from her sofa-bed in the little room adjoining Frank's. She had watched late the previous night, and as a consequence slept late. The morning sun was beaming into both rooms full and bright. After a mo- ment spent at her toilet, she walked with quick, noiseless step through the half-open door leading into Frank's room. Then she looked anxiously towards his bed. There was something, it ap- peared to her, unusual in the way Frank lay. She advanced with the same cautious, soft step to the bedside; then, bending over him, a smile of triumph played on her lips as she recognized a most happy change in her patient. Frank was evidently in a sweet, calm sleep. Thanks to her handiwork, everything on and about him was as neat and white as the driven snow. He was half on his side and half on his back, the bed-clothes partly thrown off. His arms extended so as to give perfect freedom to his great chest as it rose and sank just perceptibly, indicating a sleep that was surely restoring health and strength. Then a smile, just such as we see on the face of a dreaming infant, passed over his countenance. It told as plainly of returning life as the first ray of the morning sun assures us that another day has come and is ours. As Susan Marsh continued to bend over him, she ex_ claimed, half to herself : "Oh, how handsome ! What a splendid looking man ! And it is I who have saved his life !"
Then, softly removing his clustering brown hair from his white forehead, she imprinted on it a passionate kiss. The sleeper started, and, half awakened, raised one arm as if in search of something; then murmured in an indescribably tender tone:
" Yes, my darling Nellie; I am better."
In an instant Susan was at her full height; she flushed scarlet to her forehead, then as quickly became deadly pale. Her lips quivered and her frame shook as if a pang of bitter agony had pierced her through. Frank had again sunk into his life restor-
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ing sleep, and Susan hastily returned to her room. She closed the door as she entered, threw herself into the cane-bottom rock- ing chair that stood near the nursery fire, and, letting her head fall backwards to find rest, she clasped both her hands tightly over her eyes. For five minutes she remained motionless, seem- ing scarcely to breathe. Then, without removing her hands, with a half-suppressed moan, she dropped her head forward so as to rest it on her knees. Then, suddenly she started to her feet, and drew from her bosom three unopened letters. She read the ad- dress over slowly, " Frank Harvey, Esq., Merchant, S-, California." While she did so, there was a bitter, contemptu- ous smile on her face that gave her dark eyes a wild, fierce look.
" Yes," she said, speaking to herself. "They are from her-he shall never see them. Let me see," she continued, " what the loving wife, who is too careful of herself to come to such a place as California, has to say to her far-off husband. I suppose she pretends to love him ever so much. Oh, you ' California widows,' as they call you back in the States, you are so fond of your ease and your own comfort that you forget what the meaning of the word wife is. You poor, miserable, creatures! you have no claim now to the husbands you refused to stand by in this their great struggle for fortune and for fame. No! you are a con- temptible set. You are not true American women. You are not true wives! even if it is I, an outcast, who tell you so, and all of you, who remained at home by your own desire, deserve all the miseries and woe that is in store for hundreds and hundreds of you."
As she was speaking, she tore open the letters and read them all through. While she did so, she changed her position from standing to sitting, and again from sitting to standing; some- times walking the floor with hurried steps. As she concluded the last letter, she walked directly to the fireplace, stirred up the red coals, and with a sort of impatience pitched the letters on them. As they blazed up high, she shook her clenched hand at them, saying fiercely :
"Yes; burn, you letters of a -- California widow; the meanest thing living on earth. You talk beautifully of your love for him. Why were you not here to do what I have done ? Watch by his sick-bed all through those dark, lonesome nights, without one to relieve or help me. Yes! and the lonely days,
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too; for I have not seen the outside of this house for three long weeks."
As she ran on, a maniac frenzy seemed rising in her face :
" Oh!" she cried, with an imploring voice, as she clasped both her hands above her head as high as she could reach, " why am I not some good, honest man's wife ? I care not what his calling or occupation might be. I would love and honor him; I would go to the ends of the earth with him; I would never leave him for a week, but work, work and struggle and struggle for our mutual happiness as no woman ever did before. Oh! how happy that would make me. But now, but now," she repeated, throwing herself into the rocking-chair, while she covered her eyes again with both hands with a grasp so tight that it appeared as if she was trying, by main force, to forever shut out the sight of some terribly hideous object. "Oh!" she half groaned the words aloud, " do what I will, I cannot shut out the vision of my dark life, and I am compelled to go on, on; for society," here her voice was filled with bitter sarcasm, "Christian society, they call it, allows the erring woman no returning path; but they are liars," she said, with energy, " when they say Christian society, for did not the Savior of the world forgive Magdalen? Yet there is none who will reach out a hand and show me a returning road; so on, on I must go." Suddenly removing her hands from her eyes, she sprang wildly to her feet, exclaiming, as she looked all around her: " Who spoke ? Whose voice was that I heard ?" Then, seeming to recollect herself, she sank back into the chair and continued, in a subdued voice, while she broke into sobs and weeping: "Oh, I know who it was that called me, his voice is ever coming back to me; it was my poor brother Thomas, who came all the way from Boston to find me, and persuade me to return with him, and who was shot dead by that ruffian, Red Dick, at ' Hang Town,' just because he saw him seated near me and supposed him to be his rival. Well, the miners hung Dick before my face while my brother's body was yet warm. The whole thing cost me a terrible fit of sickness, and now whenever I get one of those fits I hear Tom, oh, so plainly, calling, calling me to come home. Home!" said she, again growing wild, and springing to her feet. "Who talks of home ? I have no home! I say I have no home!" she repeated, stamping her foot and shaking her clenched hand as if in fierce contradiction to some one.
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Just as she made this exclamation, the door leading to the stairway opened, and a colored man, with a bundle of clothes carefully held in his hands, appeared. This was " Black Bob," a man well known at that time in S-, whose wife was the best washerwoman in all that town. Bob was remarkably in- telligent, industrious and well liked by all who had occasion for his services. He had been acquainted with Susan Marsh, and knew her history, and was now bringing the washed clothes nec- essary for Frank's room, and also Susan's own. As he entered, she sprang toward him, holding her hand up as if she would strike him, almost screaming out :
" I say, did you say I had a home, when you knew it was false ?"
" Oh, Missa Susan, do not take on so, for the Lord's love," said Bob, in a coaxing tone; but, not heeding him, she ran on, hissing the words through her half-closed teeth into his face : " You know I have no home. You know that I am a miserable outcast-despised, insulted and hooted at by the very men that made me what I am."
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