Oakland Tribune from Oakland, California • Page 92

ELEVEN OAKLAND TRIBUNE MAGAZINE, MAY 31, 1S25 L'lnoots Invade Mother Lode Bit Harm I I im m-wirim-tii 1 I i tih Ak I'll I 'A fuIiV f.f ii rsUw, ain w. It- I Li rr? Main street, Mokelumne Hill, facing two of the earliest buildings constructed in the town, the one at the left of three stories, Odd Fellows hall, having bOen put up in )8S1, and tlte one next to it, originally the Lamphear hotel, built in 1849. A large gambling establishment on the ground floor of the hotel was raided by Joaquin Murielta and two of hi followers the early days and the faro and oilier tables were cleaned of their cash and dust. Old settlers recall a 200-foot flag pole tlmt at one time stood back of the hotel with i human skull at its peak. The small building at the extreme right is not as old as it looks, for it was erected in comparatively recent times and used as a blacksmith diop.

Just beyond it is the site of what was the J. D. Hadlock gambling house, destroyed so long ago that a tree in growing where it stood has almost entirely surrounded one of the iron door. The road turning to the left at Odd Fellows hall leads to Jackton, eight miles sluiced out their throats with whisky an' sobered up enough to tumble that he bad made a new strike. Then they made on Story Revamped by Mother Lode Settler of Hundred Pound Nugget Shipped to France in Early Days and Consequences That Followed "IIun grunted Eli, the forty-niner, 1 1 as he pushed aside the tin plate and cup that he might better see the illustrations on his table-cloth.

"Huh! I see the Sacramento Chamber of Commerce is goin' to have a bathin' girl contest to advertise itself with. Makes me laff, mister. Tickles my funny bone right in the center. The ideas they use these days to attract attention. "Mister, there ain't a publicity idee in the world that beats just plain everyday solid gold for attractin' attention an' holdin' it; makin' people go crazy just a lookin' at it.

Let me tell you about the big idee they pulled in '51. San Francisco was behind it, far's I can remember, an' they wanted to advertise to the world that there was just gobs o' gold all over this glorious California, especially when you come in by the way of the Golden Gate an' outfitted in their town. This is what they done "They took 100 pounds of nuggets an' melted them all into one solid ingot an' a coupla fellows took it to Paris with 'em, an' they put it on exhibition there; an' them Frenchmen actually paid good money just to see that lump sent out to advertise California gold diggin's. "All them vive-la fellows wanted to come, but it took too much spondulics, so they wears their shoulder blades out explainin' to each other why they wasn't goin' to California just then. But there was a young fellow workin' for the French government who also got a great idee in his noodle, an' he springs it on 'em.

says he, 'let us buy that gold nugget an' make a big lottery of it so's we can clean up $100,000 clear on it. to use as a revolvin' fund to send as many worthy Frenchmen as possible, who are poor in purse, to "They say there was a lot o' government officials what resigned immediately afterwards so's to be ready to be put on the 'worthy but poor list. Anyhow, the first crowd of them that comes was extra nice fellows, an' we all liked 'em, an' 'cause they got here through an ingot somebody names 'em the L'Ingots. Be sure you get the French spellin' to that word, for I am mighty proud of them L'Ingot boys. Lots of 'em become some of the most prominent citizens of San Francisco afterwards.

When they got to the mountains they split up into bunches an' went to the different diggin's in the southern mines. "I was i still workin' on Woods Creek when four of them come along, not look-in' much liks when they left Paree, let me tell you. "Just abont that time the Australian grand stampede for the spot, Porpus promisin' everybody a good claim, but couldn't mnko good, an' he was in disgrace for not tippin' thcra off afore he started treatin'. But Porpus soon got back his good standin' in the camp, fo he took out over $70,000 worth in the next 'three weeks, which furnished him with pink snakes a plenty. "Them L'Ingots worked like beavers until they'd took out over a full ton of gold, then they decided they'd go bak to gay Paree an' celebrate.

Now, up at Mokelumne Hill a Frenchman named Leger had a hotel an' he gives the boya a grand send-off party. He orders up a special load of wine from Stockton for them. "Monsoor Leger hired all the Indians round here for a week to ketch bull frogs for the feast. All around the hotel they hung paper lanterns which they 'made by tyin' barrel hoops together an' spread-in' them apart an' pastin' paper over 'em. "There was only just one stage, but there was a lot of L'Ingottors, so thej had to pile their ton o' gold in the bottom of the stage first, which they did, then they waited around awhile till tbey found a carpenter to fix up the hole that the gold broke through the stage floor, after which they put some heavy boards down first, an' put a coupla their boys inside to watch it.

Then Monsoor Leger had to hire a lot a mules for the 1ln-gotters to ride on to Stockton. They was turribly wobbly once we got em on, so we got one on each side of 'em an' steadied them down the hill cut through Chili Gulch, by which time they'd got kind o' acclimated like, so we give them a bik cheer an' lots o' happy wishes for a pleasant trip to Paree, a knowin all the time that after they got aboard the boat in San Francisco they'd be sleepin' on their stummicks for a week ain't used to it makes a man wish nature'a put more fat some place than she did. "An' the barkeeps of Mokelumne Hill, all 'cept Monsoor Leger, didn't smile fot a week, for they'd always thought thej had a monopoly in a sendin' out the gold from that district, but as I was sayin', them L'Ingotters was different I wish there was more of 'em around now." (This Is the same Leger who, a short time later, built one of the finest hotel on the Mother Lode, the Leger Hotel la Mokelumne Hill, still In a good state oC preservation, still in use, and still preserving all the atmosphere of the old. days, minus the liquids). (Copyright.) gold fever was gettin' over this way, an' one of the first to get it was a man with a claim on Yankee Hill, who wasn't havin' a bit o' luck there, but he knew if he eould only get to Australia he'd make a plenty, so when them Frenchmen showed up he began dickering with them.

He wasn't takin' out an ounce a week, but that wasn't hurting his conscience any when he asked $250 for his minin' rights. Now them lottery tickets read, 'for the transportation of the poor, but worthy of dear old France', an' they neglected completely to allow for buyin' any mines after the 'poor an' worthies' arrived here, 'cause 'poor an's' were supposed to find their own gold mines; so the fellow with the Australian dreams had to sell out for less'n $100, for argu-in' with a lot of excited Frenchies is no picnic. "But he needn't a worried, for a coupla days later while they was diggin' into the upper side of the bank a pick got stuck an' in pullin' it out it didn't come, nothin' but the broken handle. There was a lot of them sacred blues a blisterin' the atmosphere until another pick got in its work an' brought out the other one. 'T other one had a big rock stuck too it, an' they pried it loose, an' as soon as they got sane enough they weighed it, just twenty pounds an' a half, an' two days afterwards they dug out another, bringin' them $1600 more.

"Some of them L'Ingots went over Mokelumne River way, an' it looked so good to them there that they built the first French" hSspitat' of San Francisco -down the hill aways from the town, a great big hospital, fine stone buildin's, they were, lots o' ro3es an' flowers in the front yard, an' fountains, an' everything art like. Long's the mines held out they did pretty well, but when the pet-erin' out started there wasn't any patients but poor ones, which are the hardest kind to please, so they moved all the insides of the hospital down to San Francisco "an' started it up there all over again, while the old buildin's near Mokelumne Hill town's all gone to pieces now, nothing but the fireplace standin', an' a few feet o' walls here an' there, Too bad. Them French societies down there oughta put a bronze tablet down on that old chimney. "I remember Porpus Clarke, the sailor boy who was a workin' Sandy Bar over on the Mokelumne River. Porpus was a gettin' pretty pussy from minin' an' drinkin', mostly drinkin'.

up the hill to town was tough on him, even without any load to carry, but comin' back Sunday night was easy for him, even with a load, an' Porpus always carried one Sunday nights. One night his load was turribly topheavy an' it toppled him right down the side of the gulch amungst the bushes, which scratched his hide up an' made him ori-eyed, mister, so he just slashed out in all directions, a pullin' an' a yankin' up the weeds an' bushes, then he slumps down an' goes to sleep. When he wakes up in the mornin' the sun was a shinin' an' Porpus thought he had 'era again, for all around him he sees little suns, a dancin' round instead of the pink frogs an' violet snakes, like he usually did. Porpus reaches out quick an' grabs one o' them little twinklers, an' he knew he wasn't goin' to be bit the minute his fingers closed over it, for even a drunken miner knows the feel o' virgin gold, an' Porpus finds all them little dancin' suns was nothin' but shiny nuggets he'd uncovered when be yanked them bushes up. "Sober? You betcha he was sober, for gold can sober up a man just as fast as it cart make him drunk.

He got out his knife an' begun diggin' around an' before night he'd picked up a whole quart ean, full. Some. was nearly four pounds apiece. He stakes out his claim an' starts up for camp for another dust-cleanin' bee, an' on the way up invites a bunch of L'Ingots to come along, but they was busy. They was smart, an' they admired his nice little can full o' nuggets, but thank you, they wasn't drinkin' on Mondays.

So while Porpus was a cleanin' the dust out o' his throat, an' the barkeep was a cleanin' the dust out o' Porpussee' can, the Frenchies were lookin' for the place where he'd collected that can full, an' they fonnd it, an' they had all the best claims in Steep Gulch staked out by the time Porpus an' the bunch had.