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Collection: Books and Periodicals
Three Years in California by John D. Borthwick (1857)(LoC) (423 pages)
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Page: of 423
2 ee
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——— en FT nt = a as
78 JEWELLERS’ SHOPS.
just as one does for his cane or umbrella at the door
of a picture-gallery. Most men drew a pistol from
behind their back, and very often a knife along with
it; some carried their bowie-knife down the back of
their neck, or in their breast ; demure, pious-looking
men, in white neckcloths, lifted up the bottom of
their waistcoat, and revealed the butt of a revolver ;
others, after having already disgorged a pistol, pulled
up the leg of their trousers, and abstracted a huge
bowie-knife from their beot ; and there were men,
terrible fellows, no doubt, but who were more likely
to frighten themselves than any one else, who produced a revolver from each trouser-pocket, and a
bowie-knife from their belt. If any man declared
that he had no weapon, the statement was so incredible that he had to submit to be searched ; an
operation which was performed by the doorkeepers,
who, I observed, were occasionally rewarded for their
diligence by the discovery of a pistol secreted in some
unusual part of the dress.
Some of the shops were very magnificently got up,
and would not have been amiss in Regent Street.
The watchmakers’ and jewellers’ shops especially were
very numerous, and made a great display of immense
gold watches, enormous gold rings and chains, with
gold-headed canes, and diamond pins and brooches of
a most formidable size. With numbers of men, who
found themselves possessed of an amount of money
which they had never before dreamed of, and which
they had no idea what to do with, the purchase of