Early California Schools [pp. 553-559]

EARLY CALIFORNIA SCHOOLS.
None of us had ever seen a church, and
during the years that I lived there we
heard but two sermons. Sunday, most
of the miners came into the little town to
sell their gold dust, buy supplies of all
kinds, gamble, and get drunk. Footracing, jumping, and all kinds of sports,
took place on Sunday. Miners were liberal with their money and I recall on one occasion when a company gave a theatrical performance that the spectators threw
half-dollars on the stage where a girl was
dancing until the stage was nearly covered.
To gather fruit we had to climb a
mountain six or seven thousand feet high,
where wild plums were found. One of
the cruel sights of those days was the
driving of beef cattle from the mountain
valleys and shutting them up in strong corrals for several days without a mouthful
of food ere they were slaughtered. I
have known the last animal to be kept
five days without anything to eat.
Illustrating early schools and the use
of firearms, I remember that one of the
parents came to the teacher, Mr. Gates,
with some complaint, and in the dispute
threatened to whip him. Mr. Gates
promptly drew a large revolver when the
man prudently retreated.
From Rich Bar I moved in I859 to Ind ian Valley. The mines here were quartz
and none in the valley itself. Here our
games again partook of the occupations
of the people. We each had a pair of
spurs and leggins, and each owned a
lariat or rawhide. Every boy was an
expert rider, and we helped drive cattle,
brand colts and calves, and practised
upon pigs, chickens, and each other, with
the lariats until we were proficient. We
rode on the saw logs that floated in the mill race, fished, swam, and in winter coasted
down the hills on sleds or on the long
Norwegian snowshoes. No one who
has not lived in the high Sierra can form
an idea to what extent these shoes are
used in winter. About La Porte, How
land Flat, Port Wine, Gibsonville, Morristown, and other localities in Plumas
and Sierra counties, from five to seven
thousand feet in altitude the snow falls
from ten to twenty-five feet deep, and if
the schools are open in winter the teachers and pupils must all travel on these
snowshoes. It is an odd sight to see
near the schoolhouse twenty or thirty
pairs of these shoes stuck on end in the
snow until the pupils are dismissed.
The games in these localities often consist of snowshoe racing, and so great is
the speed attained on a good track and
with the most expert runners that a mile
a minute is made. In the mountain valleys sleighing and skating are among
the sports, but in the high mountains
there is too much snow, for roads cannot
be kept open. Even the horses attached
to the mail sleighs must go on snowshoes,
round ones of rubber and iron, larger
than a dinner plate, and the animals can
only go in a walk with these on their
feet.
At Prattville, where I taught, fishing
was one of the most common sports, but
the manner was rather novel. One boy
used a long sharp spear as he knelt in
the bows of a huge Indian dug-out, a
second kept the fire of fat pine faggots
replenished, while a third would paddle
the boat to the best fishing grounds. 1
have seen hundreds of fish caught in this
way during a single night. Professor
Joel Snell says this plan of fishing was
quite common in Modoc County, at the
head of Fall River, and occasionally
nearly the whole school would go to Big
Springs, at the head of the stream, and
spend almost the entire night in spearing
fish from boats.
Mr. Snell says the first school he at tended was in the Sacramento Valley,
and he and a playmate named Louisa
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