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Volume 062-3 - July 2008 (6 pages)
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Page: of 6
NCHS Bulletin July 2008
keeping the small insignificant samples, but that
I would buy whatever had true value. He was
filled with wonder and told me that ladies often
ame to visit the mine and that they paid for
their trip with the gifts that were given to them;
that they would never have refused a gift like
the one he was offering me.
After we had examined the entire underground area and watched at the work being
done, we went to see the well which fed the mill,
and thereafter went back quite pleased with our
excursion. After this, I went to take again a
view of this mill. Then we went to look at a second mill, not by far as beautiful as the first. Its
owners had found some days before a piece of
gold bearing quartz worth ten thousand piasters
or fifty thousand francs. After we examined it
carefully, we left for Boston Ravin [sic] where
we had gone that morning.
When we arrived, the two young Irishmen
were no longer working their slons. Since this
was Saturday and night was approaching, they were removing
their weekly production, which was about sixty piasters. I
watched with great curiosity as they purposely performed this
work in front of us. They removed the amalgam from the slons
after rerouting the direction of the stream. They set aside the
mercury which had not amalgamated so it could be used again
he following week. Without any further preparations, they
put the amalgam in one of these tin dishes which are generally
used for washing gold in the rivers; a brisk fire was lit and they
put the pan over it in order to evaporate the mercury, which
was done rather promptly.
A woman who had rather sadly left her mark in Europe,
Lola Montez, an Andalusian, was presently in Grass Valley.
After being the appointed mistress of the old king of Bavaria,
she had come here, driven by her thirst for gold which women
cannot shake when they are affected by it. We had hesitated to
go see her despite her many pressing invitations to come and
pay her a visit. And yet, even though she was not a pearl, she
was a noteworthy curiosity for us to add to the memories of
our travels.
Good-looking or pleasant women were a premium item on
the marketplace of the placers, so this one who was clever as a
fox, dulled by vice, decided to take advantage of whatever
good looks she had left. We reached her little house, neat and
attractive, surrounded with pickets planted into the ground
with a small garden. We rang the bell at the garden’s gate, and
someone came to open it.
What was not our surprise to see a large bear come to sniff
us and show off a jaw full of superb white teeth. Finding his
«attentions uncomfortable, we asked the maid to take the animal away. This Lola Montés stood in her doorway, waiting for
us as if we were the Messiah. She showed us such kindness
that we were uncomfortable.
Lola Montez and a male dancer in a San Francisco theater.
She had prepared Brandy, Sherry, and other such American
beverages. She showed us some nuggets each more curious
than the other. She must have had a collection worth around
fifty thousand francs. She offered to give us a few but we each
took only a small one of little value.
She dismissed her American guests who withdrew to their
apartments, and started to tell us the story of her life with nauseating cynicism. One of these men was worth a hundred thousand dollars, another a hundred and twenty thousand, the third
ninety thousand and she hoped to get this money from them
within a few months. This sounded so disgusting that we felt
very ill at ease around this woman.
She gave us each a small note for one of her friends in San
Francisco, who no doubt had to be a lowly woman. We kept
these little pieces of paper as mementos, but did not use them.
She signed them Lola Montés, Countess of Lanfeld [sic]. This
woman must have been extraordinarily charming when in her
twenties, and I could understand why the old king of Bavaria
had felt his heart beat so hard.
On the morning of our departure, we did something extra.
We invited all the good people who had given us such a great
welcome to have a glass of Champagne with us (the bottle cost
us twenty-five francs). We drank four bottles. We felt that,
given our official status, we had to do things well. These good
people thanked us for having come to see them.
When we went back to see them again, they all insisted to
give us nuggets.
Several miners who had earned a small fortune of between
twenty and twenty-five thousand francs, had left their work to
go hunt for five or six months until they had consumed everything they had earned, and started over. Full of attentions and
of the desire to please us, they organized a picnic among them-