A Hundred Years of Rip and Roarin Rough and Ready By Andy Rogers (1952)(Hathitrust) (117 pages)

oR ar “ROUGH an’ READY” Dan Totheroh’s presentation of “Rough an’ Ready” marks his third appearance as the Mountain Play's favor-. ite playwright, having already contributed ‘’Tamalpa” and “Flamenca.” Celeb i ifornia'’s Gentennial, he brings to the wutdoor audience a rollicking story ‘of the Gold Rush days of ’49 and is personally staging the entire production. Rough an’ Ready was the scene of violent and tumultuous events in 49 and ’50, but our play presents a lighter side of the “Days of Gold!” As Bret Harte, who appears as narrator during the show, informs us, “things were mighty different in those days.” . Harte tells us the story is “one which I might have written if I ever had the time.” It depicts the startling events which all started when Morton Carter, the little Mormon, reached the gold country with his prettiest and youngest wife Sairy, in search of the dust with which to deck her out in diamonds and pearls. Women were scatce in the Mother Lode country, and Sairy caught the eye of the rich H. P. T. Comstock. When Carter’s six other wives reached Rough an’ Ready, it seemed like he had too much of a “corner” on feminine pulchritude. It wasn’t long before Comstock acquired Sairy and left for the big city of Sacramento, only to return to the mining camp just in time to greet the Chapman Repertory Players and to learn that plenty had happened in his absence. Well, the leading man was glamorous, it was spring and the wildflowers were in bloom; and . . . but the rest of the story is too good to reveal in advance. You'll have to see it! e “Dail y 7) 000 MIre When Geneva Rogers, postmi at Rough and Ready, hoisted Old Glory to the top of the flagpole above. the Nevada County town’s new postoffice last Wednesday, she was reviving one of California’s most interesting traditions. The occasion was the anniversary of the birth of General Zachary Taylor, old “Rough and Ready” himself, who was President of the United States at the time of the gold rush and who fostered the admission of California into the Union. ; Wisconsin emigrants who came here in 1849 established the town and gave it the nickname of the Mexican War hero. An effort to change the name when the postoffice was re-opened there last June was successfully resisted. Despite its affirmation of patriotism and admiration for the Mexican War hero, Rough and Ready seceded from the United States in April, 1850, and established itself as an independent republic. The legend is that some low-life from Massachusetts had bilked a miner and claimed the protection of the United States Government. So Rough and Ready seceded, set aside Federal laws, and dealt with him as he deserved. A full-fledged independent government was set up, but it existed only a couple of months. The Stars and Stripes had an important role in causing the town to come back into the U.S.A. In the first place, no one had courage enough to notify President Taylor that the town named for him had deserted his country. But the flag was the deciding factor. They just had to have Old Glory for a Fourth of July celebra( tion. OLD ROUGH AND READY STRONG IN THE NEWS Our long slumberous Rough and Ready is very much in the news these days and strange to relate, people who have lived in those precincts all of their lives are discovering things about the old camp they never knew before. ‘It has all come about through a casual petition of present day residents that the postoffice which yielded to Star Route delivery a few years ago be restored. The unimaginative Postoffice Department agreed, but would have much preferred shortening the name to “Rough” or “Ready” or perhaps “Roughready,” and probably would have done so but for the showing that the original name honored a great general and a former President of the United States, Gen. Zachary Taylor. Thus it has turned.out that on next Wednesday the mail carrier will ride again, either by stage or horseback and the clatter of the oldtime postmark will resound irom the unique country store and postoffice building that has been completed. The people of the delivery district are minded to make something of the occasion—to write another chapter to the century-long history of Rough and Ready. At various times, suagestionshave been ‘heard to the effect that Rotigh and Béady shoula be to the North what Columbia is ta thé South —a restored and preserved landmark. -Perhaps the present activity is a start in that direction. lao Hema Ren YEARS AFFER 23 a Goog

oR ar “ROUGH an’ READY” Dan Totheroh’s presentation of “Rough an’ Ready” marks his third appearance as the Mountain Play's favor-. ite playwright, having already contributed ‘’Tamalpa” and “Flamenca.” Celeb i ifornia'’s Gentennial, he brings to the wutdoor audience a rollicking story ‘of the Gold Rush days of ’49 and is personally staging the entire production. Rough an’ Ready was the scene of violent and tumultuous events in 49 and ’50, but our play presents a lighter side of the “Days of Gold!” As Bret Harte, who appears as narrator during the show, informs us, “things were mighty different in those days.” . Harte tells us the story is “one which I might have written if I ever had the time.” It depicts the startling events which all started when Morton Carter, the little Mormon, reached the gold country with his prettiest and youngest wife Sairy, in search of the dust with which to deck her out in diamonds and pearls. Women were scatce in the Mother Lode country, and Sairy caught the eye of the rich H. P. T. Comstock. When Carter’s six other wives reached Rough an’ Ready, it seemed like he had too much of a “corner” on feminine pulchritude. It wasn’t long before Comstock acquired Sairy and left for the big city of Sacramento, only to return to the mining camp just in time to greet the Chapman Repertory Players and to learn that plenty had happened in his absence. Well, the leading man was glamorous, it was spring and the wildflowers were in bloom; and . . . but the rest of the story is too good to reveal in advance. You'll have to see it! e “Dail y 7) 000 MIre When Geneva Rogers, postmi at Rough and Ready, hoisted Old Glory to the top of the flagpole above. the Nevada County town’s new postoffice last Wednesday, she was reviving one of California’s most interesting traditions. The occasion was the anniversary of the birth of General Zachary Taylor, old “Rough and Ready” himself, who was President of the United States at the time of the gold rush and who fostered the admission of California into the Union. ; Wisconsin emigrants who came here in 1849 established the town and gave it the nickname of the Mexican War hero. An effort to change the name when the postoffice was re-opened there last June was successfully resisted. Despite its affirmation of patriotism and admiration for the Mexican War hero, Rough and Ready

seceded from the United States in April, 1850, and established itself as an independent republic. The legend is that some low-life from Massachusetts had bilked a miner and claimed the protection of the United States Government. So Rough and Ready seceded, set aside Federal laws, and dealt with him as he deserved. A full-fledged independent government was set up, but it existed only a couple of months. The Stars and Stripes had an important role in causing the town to come back into the U.S.A. In the first place, no one had courage enough to notify President Taylor that the town named for him had deserted his country. But the flag was the deciding factor. They just had to have Old Glory for a Fourth of July celebra( tion. OLD ROUGH AND READY STRONG IN THE NEWS Our long slumberous Rough and Ready is very much in the news these days and strange to relate, people who have lived in those precincts all of their lives are discovering things about the old camp they never knew before. ‘It has all come about through a casual petition of present day residents that the postoffice which yielded to Star Route delivery a few years ago be restored. The unimaginative Postoffice Department agreed, but would have much preferred shortening the name to “Rough” or “Ready” or perhaps “Roughready,” and probably would have done so but for the showing that the original name honored a great general and a former President of the United States, Gen. Zachary Taylor. Thus it has turned.out that on next Wednesday the mail carrier will ride again, either by stage or horseback and the clatter of the oldtime postmark will resound irom the unique country store and postoffice building that has been completed. The people of the delivery district are minded to make something of the occasion—to write another chapter to the century-long history of Rough and Ready. At various times, suagestionshave been ‘heard to the effect that Rotigh and Béady shoula be to the North what Columbia is ta thé South —a restored and preserved landmark. -Perhaps the present activity is a start in that direction. lao Hema Ren YEARS AFFER 23 a Goog