Dusty Books, Frontier Librarian

Part Two. More adventures.

Chapter 10

A ten year gap in the story... catching us up... Virginia City... pesky mud... Facts about Dusty's new home town... Old Blue... Women and Miners... A frontier dance described... Plans to replenish my stock...

Part One was 1849, the fabled tall-story-laden 49er era. It was a time of wishes and dreams of avarice and wealth beyond measure for some, for other lucky folks and not for me. I had the good luck to have a lot of bad luck, and got it all out of my system quickly. I never found even an ounce of the stuff. The only gold I ever held in my hand was bought. I gave it a month and was so blamed disgusted with myself that I didn't know what to think. Now I'm glad it worked out that way, but I did not abandon the West as so many did.

I preferred the rough and ready west in style and outlook. What was bust one day was boom the next, almost without a pause. This end of the continent just has a more robust nature, and I like it thoroughly.

This next section starts roughly 10 years later. California has been a state since 1850. In the early years it was still rough and ready, but then developed pretensions and all the equipment and excess baggage that goes with it. I am remembering a few facts that suddenly come to mind. That fellow Norton who lost all his money in the rice game, went mad and parades around San Francisco in a military uniform. He now calls himself Emperor Norton I. He's totally apart from reality, and thus fits in to San Francisco admirably.

I was of course at the outposts, a far distance from all this civilization. The Brothers Werte had fixed me up with what looked like a standard tradesman's vehicle. It was not obvious that it had been made of spare parts. It had lots of capacity for both barrels and fold out shelves for display. My first location was parked in a tent, or at least used sidewalls around my wagon. I did not procure a permanent building at first, until the profits stated rolling in to my little library.

I had done brisk business in several mining camps, some of which were so small that they didn't even have a name. They are very active little burghs for a short time, then they fold and are left abandoned, all at the mercy of the next 'strike'. I moved with them, as fickle as the wind, only I had more baggage.

Just a few months ago I heard of 'Virginny Town' and I felt this had a good deal of merit as a possible location. It was in Nevada. O'Reilly and McLaughlin discovered gold in a place called 'Six Mile Canyon'. This was to be called the 'Comstock Lode'. These two gentle Irish souls were forced to share their treasure with the owner of the land, a fellow named Comstock. Miner's rushed and tried their luck at every available piece of land.

Miner name of James Finney christened what was to become Virginia City, naming it after his birthplace. It was already a tent and dugout town on the slopes of Mt. Davidson, literally carved out of the hills, thoroughfares cut into the dirt with steep grades between streets. Any water present caused a very sticky almost blue mud to form. It clung everywhere to any implement or boot. Some intelligent soul decided to have it assayed and found it proved out as Silver worth $2000 a ton! So it was a gold and silver bonanza.

Big mines started to be created by buying out the prospectors. The money hauled out did a great deal for that neighboring state to the west, since investments by certain folks were used to build San Francisco. The mine owners installed large pumps to keep the deepening mines open. There was literally enough to go around for most. Miner's wages were very good, manpower being needed in 3 shifts daily.

My little operation was not the only sign of civilization, though there were many things that were not morally aggressive, such as opium dens, a red light district and saloons galore. We do have a newspaper "The Territorial Enterprise", a Shakespearean Theatre Company, and there were plans later realized that would create a 6 story hotel, the "International". Right now the population is 30,000 and the town in open wide 24 hours a day with all the choices of amenity available in any city in the world that is filled with gold and silver. Often near the end of one shift and the beginning of another I have no inventory left, every available book being read by someone.

I soon saw this schedule as a road to an early death, if I was to keep at it very long. I hired a few fellows who did a shift in the mines and then a shift for me, in exchange for a place to sleep and very little money. It took a few tries, but I found some very good men, stout fellows all, and very steady. They all shared a common desperation for passage home, or a stake at another try.

The Wertes took care of a good number of my charges on their way back to civilization, at least for the first few years. Alvin up and moved back to Lousiana and Albert had elected to stay, since he had lots of roots in Sacramento, including a new son!

About a year after I left Sacramento, Molly, my wonderful canine friend, had ran off with a wolf for a short while, but came back to have her pups. Molly always had a taste for the wilder males of her species. She is now in her twilight years and all her pups full grown. But her tail still wags, and she always remembers me.

Alvin as a going away present presented me with one of the pups that he had named 'Blue'. After too short a time Blue abandoned me and in complete disloyalty had taken up with the Widow White over in Paradise, and became her dog. She doted on the beast as he on her with never a trace of wildness except in appearance. Had he remained with me in the camps he probably would have been shot for a wolf by a drunken miner, so it was smart of the beast to become a house dog. The irony of this is that the Widow White set her cap out for me, and all she got was the dog. I don't honestly know if she got the better of the deal to tell the truth, but I know I did.

Except for certain older widow ladies, and those of a baser nature, those daughters of Sodom and Gamorrah (sic) who were plying their oldest profession in Saloons, women were scarce. Thusly men treated them well. The women who came to the gold fields were a hearty group of lasses, and proving it at nearly every juncture. At a dance the few women would literally be run in to the ground, dancing every dance. A square dance done my several hundred men with one woman was a regular occurrence. This sort of thing gave everyone the idea that they were dancing, while minimizing the damage to the lady in question.

Most events were very innocent affairs, no alcohol served, everyone polite and on best behavior, the woman often happily married and on loan from her spouse. When one of these ladies happened to be widowed, they became the object of willing suitors ready to plunk down gold for their time. Some married quite well, others reveled in the situation and were wined and dined at every turn pampered by a string of suitors with no strings attached. It was a game I did not play, not being cut for the marriage cloth. So I set my mind to stay in Virginia City, at minimum until Nevada was made a state, which had not happened as yet. In fact that would hold off until 1864, when Abe Lincoln needed us to re-elect him. After not quite a year I had a real problem. My inventory was all but worn out. Leaving my three employees in charge I decided to go to San Francisco the way I had come initially, going over to Sacramento, a bustling state capitol, and down the river to the city by the bay. I resolved to see if I could obtain more stock. I was gone for over three weeks and much to my amusement and I admit it was with equal disappointment, the operation did not suffer with my absence.

My trip was not successful. Books were being bought in large lots to fill the new millionaire's libraries, bought for foot length, colorful binding, and most assuredly not for reading at all. I was told I could buy about a foot of books for $40.00, and with no choice of subject. I did have 2 color choices. This was not acceptable. I decided to head east to replenish my stock. This was to be a great adventure for me and will be my next tale in my memoir.

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