historical mention of rolls of halves

[Robert]

I found this article on the net. It's hard to read, so you might want to copy and paste to Word. It's from an autobiographical book by W. T. Ellis, who was raised in northern California (Marysville) in the days after the Gold Rush. It's apparently about his 72 years in Marysville, ending in 1938.

What a different world it was.

This excerpt mentions $20 rolls of half dollars and what they bought. Imagine having a bunch of those S-mint Seated Halves!

"It was always a mystery to our bookkeeper Charles Sawtell and myself where father spent his "loose change." All the supplies for the kitchen at home were always purchased by our old Chinese cook Jack; at the end of each month he would bring all his bills to the office and either the bookkeeper or myself would give him the money to pay them. All the other bills for the house or family, for clothes, etc., would be mailed to us and checked up and be paid by check, so father really paid no bills himself; nevertheless, about every other day, he would go to the safe, take out a $20 roll of 50¢ pieces and put it in his pocket and charge himself with the amount. The fact of the matter was that this spending money went partially for a certain number of whiskey punches each day, which in those days cost ten cents, and, as he always had the habit of buying his drink and walking out, never loitering about saloons, this did not cost much; he smoked about fifteen cigars each day of the "3 for a half" variety, and almost every afternoon he would indulge in a game of pinochle for an hour or so; the balance of the money he gave away to various old timers who were "down and out" and were constantly asking for money "for a meal." One day he passed out some money to several of these old fellows at the same time for meals and shortly afterwards he went in a saloon and found them all lined up before the bar, enjoying drinks at his expense in place of meals; he got peeved and had a large number of tickets printed "Good for a 25¢ meal at any restaurant, W. T. Ellis," and commenced to pass them out in place of money. This appeared to work fairly well for a few months until one month there were several hundred of these tickets brought to the office to be cashed; an investigation disclosed that some unknown person had had printed a copy of his tickets, had disposed of them."

[Robert]

Any fishermen here?

"In later years, I formed a "fishing partnership" with L. L. Green, cashier for many years of the Rideout Bank at Oroville, and with E. E. Biggs, also a cashier for many years with the Rideout Bank at Gridley. We took our vacations at Rocky Point on the west shore of Klamath Lake where we had a small cabin. It was a small resort where we could obtain our meals. We had our own motor boat and the three of us made daily excursions to different points as that lake is some forty miles long with many small streams, fed by ice cold large springs where we could catch the "big fellows." When we first commenced to go up there, the legal limit was fifty pounds of trout per day to the person; on one trip, six of us in two boats, on an excursion to the Williamson River, caught the total limit of three hundred pounds of trout, varying in size from four pounds up to fifteen pounds to the fish; they were all "Rainbow Trout," great fighters and great sport. The largest one I ever caught weighed fifteen pounds but the largest one I ever saw caught was a rainbow trout, weighing twenty-three and a half pounds. This was on July 23, 1921; the fish was hooked by Dr. A. E. Sykes, a dentist of Oakland, California; the length of this fish was thirty-seven inches, its girth twenty-four and a half inches and was caught with a six-ounce rod and braided silk line of 30-pound test, the bait being a basireno. Mr. Green and myself were fishing nearby at the time and stopped fishing to watch the contest which Sykes was having with his fish; it took Sykes about an hour to wear his fish out and gradually work him close to his boat so he could land him with a gaff hook. As soon as he had the fish safely in his boat, we all started back to camp post haste; Sykes immediately packed up his belongings and, accompanied by several of us, struck out for Klamath Falls, had the fish photographed and we made affidavits before a Notary Public, and Sykes and his fish took the train for Oakland, the fish being packed on ice in the dining car. The following year, Sykes again showed up at the Camp and he told us that when he reached Oakland he had the fish frozen in a large cake of ice, which was renewed from time to time and for several weeks it was exhibited in show windows of sporting goods houses in Oakland and San Francisco where it attracted a great deal of attention. The story was written up in sporting magazines of national circulation and resulted in presents being sent him by sporting goods houses from various sections of the country consisting of fishing rods, tents, fishing tackle, etc., which he said more than filled a large store room which he had at his home."

[Robert]

"When it comes to telling fish stories, I know that, while a man may have a first class reputation for truth and veracity, still, when it comes to his telling about his fishing, it is permissible to be a first class liar; notwithstanding this fact, I am going to tell a fish story. One day, Green, Biggs, A. L. Brownlee and myself were out fishing on the lake; we were having our usual good luck; Green got about a ten pounder hooked and the rest of us drew in our lines. This fish was a good fighter and it took some time to gradually draw him close to the boat; when he was about five feet from the boat, he suddenly made another leap in the air, in an effort to shake off the hook, then drove down under 36
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the boat, coming up again in the air on the other side and, when doing so, the line got tangled in the boat's keel, so when the fish was about three feet in the air, the line suddenly went taut, which caused the fish to land in the boat at Green's feet. I never saw a man as astonished as Green was, in fact we were all so. Green maintained that he had established a "record" by having a fish like him so much that he had jumped in the boat to be caught. When we reached camp, Green immediately told all those present of his experience and asked three of us to corroborate his statement; we all three declined to do so, saying that it was just one of Green's fish stories; he was very peeved as we "stood pat" in our denials, but, later on, when Green showed signs of getting considerably peeved at us, we admitted to the facts. Both my two old friends, Green and Biggs, have passed to other happy hunting grounds, but I still have my friend A. L. Brownlee left to okay this story, unless any possible reader of this may also decide that when it comes to fishing, he also is in the first class liar class."

[Robert]

"This chapter is supposed to have to do with "vacations" and brings to mind that the longest vacation and the longest time I ever was away from Marysville at one time was in 1886 for three months. I got some stomach disorder and was advised a vacation with a sea voyage and a trip to the "Sandwich Islands," as they were generally termed those days, was recommended. I left shortly after the first of April and was supposed to return about the latter part of May but, for a fact, I did not leave there until the fifth of July; too many attractions and distractions simply prevented my return.

I left for the Islands on the steamer Zelandia
, armed with many letters of introduction to various people, signed by Mr. Claus Spreckels, then "the Sugar King" and from whose sugar factory our store was a good customer for many carloads of sugar. Claus Spreckels, those days, was referred to as the "uncrowned king" of the Islands where he controlled almost all the sugar cane plantations. The Islands those days were a kingdom, King Kalakaua being on the throne. When I registered at the Royal Hawaiian Hotel, the head clerk looked at my signature and asked if I was a member of an Ellis family who used to stop at the old Occidental Hotel in San Francisco; when I assured him that I was, he asked if I remembered him, which I did not. He then said, "I am W. S. Bartlett, I used to be head clerk at the Occidental Hotel and when you were a young boy, about fifteen years old, I used to take you out to North Beach with me and you learned to swim there." He then said, "I am not going to put you in the room I have assigned you to, I am going to give you a small cottage in the palm garden in the rear of the hotel where a lot of young fellows are stopping and you will enjoy it more out there." He introduced me to these young men, each of whom had a small one room cottage and bath; a number of young Kanaka girls acted as house maids, when they were not singing and playing on guitars, etc.; the arrangement was very satisfactory. The day I landed there were rumors of a revolution and one of the first men I met and happened to have a letter of introduction to, was a man by the name of Ashford; when he found I was from Marysville he asked me if I knew his two uncles, Joe Ashford, an old time lawyer of Marysville, and his brother, Ben Ashford, who had a large ranch and warehouse for grain storage on the Feather River at Ashford's landing near Plumas Bend. When I told him I knew them both very well, he took me in charge and confided that they were going to have a revolution in a day or two, that he occupied the position of Attorney General and that his brother was Commander in Chief of the Army (which consisted of about 300 soldiers, most all Americans) and said that a large part of the population was ready to revolt when he gave the word, and advised that I join the revolution. I joined up. About two days following, a mass meeting was held, 38
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attended mostly by Americans, a new constitution was read and unanimously approved and a large committee was appointed to wait on the King and present same and give him 24 hours to accept or refuse. When the 24 hour time limit expired, the King signified his approval and every one was apparently satisfied. During the agitation, the saloons were ordered closed but I found that while the front doors were locked, the back doors were all open, so no one suffered from thirst. I was staying at the Royal Hawaiian Hotel as were many of the ringleaders of the revolution, and a few evenings after, to show that there were no hard feelings by the King, he came over to the Hotel at the head of his very wonderful band and gave a concert in front of the Hotel.

To still further show his good feelings, the King gave a large banquet (called a luah); it was a stag affair, and there were many invitations to the local political powers as well as many officers from some American, French and English warships at anchor in the harbor; I was "among those present." The Palace had a very large banquet hall and every one sat on the floor in rows, "tailor fashion" and just as an appetizer, every one had a quart of imported French champagne, set in front of him; well, the reader can guess the finish. When the "going was good," the King called in about fifteen of his private hula dancers to entertain us; they were professionals, trained from childhood up and danced only for the King and his guests and were dressed mainly in wreaths and smiles. Two days later, when I awakened, I thought I had been dreaming but my head told me otherwise.

On May 24th was the Queen's Birthday, so the English warship officers decided to hold a celebration and many were invited; this also was a stag affair and again I was "among those present." There was much music from Hawaiian men and women entertainers and early in the morning, after about ten thousand toasts to "THE Queen, God Bless Her," the affair became so very boisterous and noisy that a squad of Hawaiian police were called to stop the disturbance; this was resented by the English and resulted in many being arrested and taken to police headquarters, but when it was ascertained that among those arrested were the Ambassadors of England, France, United States, Spain and other foreign countries, they were profuse in their apologies for the "mistake."

Shortly after, the 4th of July rolled around and the Americans concluded to reciprocate and also have a celebration and invite many guests. I was a member of the Committee of Arrangements and we decided that ours would not be a stag affair but that we would have ladies present. Well, my memory is still a little hazy of just what happened but I know it was a wonderful success, so much so, that I decided that Honolulu was no place for the cure of any stomach ailments and the following day I took ship for home, with a number of young men with whom I had become acquainted.

I have since then seen many hula dancers, both on the stage and on the screen, but never haxe I ever seen dancers who performed like the King's private dancers. The dancers wore different costumes for different dances, such as grass skirts or tapa gowns, other 39
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dances, well, largely garlands of flowers and winning smiles. Some dances were seated, the dancer sitting cross-legged on the floor, the body swaying from the waist up, the arms wiggled sinuously, while in the hands there would be a pair of pebbles called ili ili and clicked with the rhythm of the body and the music, the latter being furnished by native musicians who used gourds, cocoanut shells, rattles and guitars. Each dance was symbolic of some certain thing, in fact, they were really religious dances, being representative of the pleasures they expected to enjoy in after life.

Like Mark Twain, the Islands were found very "appealing" and I would like again to make a visit, but this time no doubt would find them "spoiled" by civilization and the "Huapalas" would not be what they used to be."

[Robert]

The book is from 1879 so the account is politically incorrect.

Interesting read, however, about how the native California Indians lived and what they ate (starting about halfway down).

http://www.cagenweb.com/yuba/hycch-iii.htm

[Robert]

And the story behind the Gold Rush.

http://www.cagenweb.com/yuba/hycch-vii.htm

[Robert]

This is the last one I'll post here. It's about mining operations and yields. Fascinating stuff, to me anyway.

http://www.cagenweb.com/yuba/hycch-xlviii.htm