Hamilton 1932

The American Dialect Society
California Gold-Rush English

Author(s): Marian Hamilton
Source: American Speech, Vol. 7, No. 6 (Aug., 1932), pp. 423-433
Published by: Duke University Press
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/452295
Accessed: 26-06-2016 20:22 UTC
Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at
http://about.jstor.org/terms
JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted
digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about
JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.
Duke University Press, The American Dialect Society are collaborating with JSTOR to digitize,
preserve and extend access to American Speech
This content downloaded from 128.42.202.150 on Sun, 26 Jun 2016 20:22:53 UTC
All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms
CALIFORNIA GOLD-RUSH ENGLISH
MARIAN HAMILTON
Eagle Rock, California
44 4 OLD! Gold! Gold! From the American River!" Thus
( T did Franciscans
Sam Brannan, thetruth
of the doughty
of theMormon, apprise
Coloma gold the San
discovery of
1848 as he strode down the city street waving his hat in one hand and
a bottle of the "dust" in the other. An immediate exodus from the
city and neighboring territory followed. People of all classes, respond-
ing to the "gold excitement,"' left their work or closed up shop, leaving
posted on their doors such illuminating statements as "Gone to the
Diggings,"2 "Off for the Yuba,"'3 or simply "Off for the mines."4
Inevitably the news spread to distant places, and from that time
California, "the golden state," has been a mecca for tourists--only
in those days they were called "immigrants" or "emigrants"5 (usually
the latter). From all over the world did the "gold seekers of '49 "8
pour into this " El Dorado,"7 or "New El Dorado,"8 this " gold-gather-
ing region,"9 this "el dorado of the West,"'o "Upper California,""
"Alta California,"'2 "Calaforny,"'' or just plain "California.""4
1 J. Tyrwhitt Brooks, M.D., Four Months Among the Gold-Finders in Alta

California: Being the Diary of an Expedition from San Francisco to the Gold
Districts, 1849, p. 15.
2 Ibid., 20.
1 Rev. Walter Colton, U.S.N., "Late Alcalde of Monterey," Three Years in
California, 1852, p. 248.
4Ibid., 247.
5Thomas Butler King, United States Government Agent, California: Its
Population, Climate, Soil, Products, Public Domain, and Metallic and Mineral
Wealth, 43.
1 Kimball Webster, A New England Forty-niner, The Gold Seekers of '49,
A Personal Narrative of the Overland Trail and Adventures in California and
Oregon from 1849 to 1854, 1917.
1Brooks, op. cit., 48.
8 Webster, op. cit., 124.
9 Brooks, op. cit., 63.
10 Colton, op. cit., 353.
11 Kimball, op. cit., 330.
13 J. D. Borthwick, Three Years in California, 1857, 292.
14 Ibid., 384. (And others.)
423
424 American Speech
Drawn by the "golden legend,"'5 the "Yankees"''6 or "Americans"''

(occasionally), came from "the States,"'8 the "Keskydees" or "Parley-
voos"'19 from France, the "Dutchmen'"20 from Germany, Holland, or
Scandinavia, the "Eyetalians"21 from Italy, "greasers"22 or "lubri-
cators"'23 from Mexico, "Sonoranians "24 from Sonora, "Chilinos "25
from "Chili,"Y26 "Kanakas"27 from the "Sandwich Islands,"28 the
"Pukes,"29 "Pikes,"30 or "Pike Counties,"31 from Missouri; "Cali-
fornians "32 (the native Californians, or Spanish inhabitants of Cali-
fornia) from California. Even a mystic "Oceanica "33 gave up its
residents to the "diggins."34 For the "gold fever"35 had seized one
and all, and "around the Horn," "across the Isthmus," and "over-
land" they came-doctors, lawyers, farmers, merchants, "green-
horn,"36 and "tenderfoot,"37-bound for the "placers"88 of the "mining
district,"39 where they hoped to make their "pile."40
16 Ibid., 384.
1z Stewart Edward White, The Forty-Niners, 1921, 106 (and others).
17 Ibid., 382 (and others).
18 C. L. Canfield, ed., Diary of a Forty-Niner, 1920, 5.
19 Borthwick, op. cit., 252. ("Keskydee" by Hobson-Jobson from the French
"Qu'est-ce qu'il dit?")
20 Ibid., 242.
21 Ibid., 252.
22 Canfield, Diary, op. cit., 142.
23 Hubert H. Bancroft, Popular Tribunals, 1887, vol. I, 151.
2a King, op. cit., 83. (He spells it "Chilenos" on p. 98. Others write of the
"Chileans" (A Frenchman in the Gold Rush), and "Chilians" (Kelly, A Stroll
Through the Diggings of California, 25).
26 Ibid., 83.
27 Wm. Kelly, A Stroll Through the Diggings of California, 1852, 34.
30 Borthwick, 147.
31 Ibid., 147.
32 Ibid., 278.
3" Daniel B. Woods, Sixteen Months at the Gold Diggings, 1852, 65.
3r Borthwick, op. cit., 112.
"6 White, op. cit., 121.
7 General usage.
38 General usage. In all accounts.
39 Borthwick, op. cit., 284.
40 D. A. Shaw, Eldorado, 1900, 118.
Gold-rush English 425
The mines were located on or near rivers known by the follow-
ing names: Rio de los Mercedes, abbreviated into "Mercey" by the
miners,4' the "Marepoosa,"42 the "Cosumes,"43 the "Americanos,""44
the "Uba,"45 the "Mokelome"46 (Mokelumne), the "Touleme"47
(Tuolumne), the Feather, or "Rio de las Plumas,"48 the Moquelumne,
or "Mo-kel-um-ne,"49 the "Aux-um-nes,"60 the San Joaquin or "San
Joachin,"S or "San Joaquim."62 Most of these had north and south
forks and creeks, all of which were frequently mentioned and used in
naming locations.
Arrived in the "gold region,"53 the "gold-hunters"54 either started
or found already in operation such settlements as "Dutch Flat, "Red
Dog," "Walloupa," "You Bet," "Gouge Eye," "Greenhorn Creek,"
"God's Country," "Emigrants' Camp," "Washington Ridge,"
"Harmony Ridge," "Sugar Loaf," "Town Talk," "Grass Valley,"
"Pleasant Valley," "Mooney's Flat," "Lousy Level," "Gomorrah,"
"Hell's Half Acre," "Live Yankee," "City of Six," "Rough and
Ready,"66 "Shirt Tail Canon," "Whisky Gulch," "Port Wine Dig-
gins," "Humbug Flat," "Murderer's Bar," "Flapjack Canon,"
"Yankee Jim's," "Jackass Gulch,""6 and "Hangtown."67
41 Woods, op. cit., 11, 12.

42 Ibid., 12. (Colton spells it "Maraposa." Now Mariposa.)
4 Brooks, op. cit., 49. Also variously called the Rio de los Americanos, the
"American" one of its branches the "American Fork," the Americans' River,
and the "Americano" (Colton 351).
45 King, op. cit., 87. Spelled Yuba and Juba by others.
47 Ibid., 16.
41 Kelly, op. cit., 18.
49 Ibid., 18.
50 Ibid., 18.
61 William R. Ryan, Personal Adventures in Upper and Lower California in
1848-9, 1850, 296.
53 Colton, op. cit.. 351.
54 Ibid., 302.
55 All the names preceding are from a map accompanying Canfield's Diary-
frontispiece.
56 Borthwick, 170.
5 The town where Borthwick spent much of his time while in California.
Bancroft states the first name of the place had been Dry Diggings. This was
succeeded by Hangtown after a triple hanging there of three men who "had
exhausted the patience of the miners." (144.) Later the more respectable name
426 American Speech
Certain ranches, boarding houses and saloons were known as

"Saleratus Ranch," "Nigger Tent," "Mountain House," and "Rose's
Bar." In the vicinity of these was also an "Indian Campoody"
(Indian encampment?).58
"Roughing it"59 was the order of the day, for life was indeed rude
and largely in the open. Shelters of the flimsiest kind-tents, "brush
shanties,"60 and often merely a "camping-tree"61 under which one
rolled up in his " ground-blanket"62 at night-were the vogue. Fortu-
nate was the "gold-washer'"63 who had a log cabin or other rough hut.
Borthwick mentions a "canvass hotel"64 and "canvas towns,"66
and even "Sacramento City'"66 itself was called the "cloth city,"67
and the "Rag City."68 Food consisted of such dainties (?) as "rusty
pork,"69 "a piece of stewed jerky,"70 "hard bread,"7' or "a junk of
bread,"' "bull beef,"73 "hog meat,"'74 "jerked beef,"''7 "stinkenest salt
junk,"76 "flour cakes and bacon scraps,"77 "pancakes,"78 "slapjacks,
a fried batter,""79 "flippers,"80 coffee, and brown sugar. Very few
fresh vegetables were to be had, especially during the early period
of Placerville (pronounced with "flat" a, as though spelled "Plasserville") was

given, no doubt by patriotic and ambitious town fathers.
" All these names from the map in Canfield, op. cit.
59 Ernest de Massey, journal, A Frenchman in the Gold Rush, Translated by
Marguerite Eyer Wilbur, 1927.
" Kimball, op. cit., 111.
62 lbid., 262.
63 Ibid., 298.
65 Ibid., 318.
67 Ibid., 122.
8 Ibid., 123.
0 Ibid., 10.
71 Woods, op. cit., 58; and others.
3 Canfield, op. cit., 5.
7 Ibid., 5.
" Brooks, op. cit., 117.
78 White, op. cit., 115.
1 Woods, op. cit., 61.
of the rush. Baking soda is mentioned by several writers as "salera-
tus."81 Colton calls a match a "lucifer."82 Sometimes the "drinks"
were "rot-gut whiskey,"83 "forty-two caliber whiskey,""84 "strong
water,""85 "Jamaica ginger,"" 'or " the famous pisco"87 (a Spanish drink
of juice pressed from grapes). The naive keeper of the Diary of a
Forty-Niner, one Jackson, after having had two "square meals" in
town writes that they quite "put him out of face with his regular
grub."88
A location or "claim"89 having been decided upon, the miner began
the arduous "prospecting"9o and "gold-washing""9 process. Only
a few simple tools were needed. Among those most popular with the
"diggers"92 were the "pick," or "pickaxe," "spade," "mattock,"
"bowl," or "pan," "cradle," or "rocker," the "Long Tom," "flume,"
"sluice," "dam," or "wing dam," and "sluice boxes."93 The cradles,
which were used for rocking the water and sand through sieves, were
called "gold canoes" by the Indians.94 No doubt the miners often
referred humorously to "rocking the cradle," as does Colton.95 Borth-
wick describes the long Tom and other operations as follows:
The apparatus generally used for washing was a "long tom," which was nothing
more than a wooden trough from twelve to twenty-five feet long, and about a foot
wide. At the lower end it widens considerably, and on the floor of it there is a
sheet of iron pierced with holes half an inch in diameter, under which is placed a
flat box a couple of inches deep. The long tom is set at a slight inclination over
the place which is to be worked, and a stream of water is kept running through it
by means of a hose, the mouth of which is inserted in a dam built for the purpose
high enough up the stream to gain the requisite elevation; and while some of the
party shovel the dirt into the tomrn as fast as they can dig it up, one man stands at

82 Ibid., 259.
86 General usage.
89 Ibid., 177 (and others).
91 White, op. cit., 121 (from Ryan).
93 These terms generally used in all accounts of the period.
*9 Op. cit., 297.
428 American Speech
the lower end stirring up the dirt as it is washed down, separating the stones and
throwing them out, while the earth and small gravel falls with the water through
the sieve into the "ripple-box." This box is about five feet long, and is crossed
by two partitions. It is also placed at an inclination, so that the water falling
into it keeps the dirt loose, allowing the gold and heavy particles to settle to the
bottom, while all the lighter stuff washes over the end of the box along with the
water. When the day's work is over, the dirt is taken from the "ripple-box"
and is "washed out" in a "wash-pan," a round tin dish, eighteen inches in diameter,
with shelving sides three or four inches deep. In washing out a panful of dirt, it
has to be placed in water deep enough to cover it over; the dirt is stirred up with
the hands, and the gravel thrown out; the pan is then taken in both hands, and by
an indescribable series of manoeuvres all the dirt is gradually washed out of it,
leaving nothing but the gold and a small quantity of black sand. This black sand
is mineral (some oxide or other salt of iron), and is so heavy that it is not possible
to wash it all out; it has to be blown out of the gold afterwards when dry.96
The long Tom was also spoken of as the "Tom"79 by the diarist,
Jackson, and he used the verb, "tomming,"9' as well.
A sluice was an artificial channel for conducting water. This
term also, was used as a verb. A flume had similar usage as a narrow
passage for water, and as a verb.
A "wing dam," * * * is one which first runs half-way across the river, then
down the river, and back again to the same side, thus damming off a portion of its
bed without the necessity of the more expensive operation of lifting up the whole
river bodily in a " flume."99
The location "worked" might be in or near a river "bar" or

"bank," "ravine," a "gulch," a "gully"; it might be a "wet dig-
gings," a "dry diggings," "river diggings," "deep diggings," "coyote
diggings," "surface diggings"; and it might also be "good diggings,"
or "bad diggings."'00 Sometimes a miner "rocked sixty buckets in
a day,"'"' and had "good luck," "bad luck," "struck it rich,"102
got a "rich pan,"'03 or "worked out the claim" (obtained all the gold
to be had at that spot)."?4 Other operations which he might perform
96 Op. cit., 121-2.

98 Ibid., 184.
0oo All common terms among the miners and found in most of the contemporary
accounts.
102 Ibid., 60.
103 Ibid., 60.
104 Ibid., 18.
were "stripping off the top dirt,"''5 "gouging and crevicing," "scratch-
ing,"'06 (inconsequential mining), "washing out the ground,"'07
"wash the dirt,"'08 "work a claim,"''09 spend his noon hour resting
under a tree, or "nooning,""'o "pan out dirt,""' "take" or "draw out
gold,"112 "abandon a claim,""3 "jump a claim" (occupy some one
else's without just claim),"4 "form a river company,"11" "clean up"
(make a fortune),"'1 engage in "coyoting" (mining by sinking shafts
into the hills),"' or "river mining."118
The soil worked was called by such terms as "the gold-bearing
dirt,'119 "auriferous dirt, gravel, earth, or sand," "gold-dirt," "golden
sands" "yellow ore," "rich dirt," "poor dirt," "pay dirt," "top dirt,"
"pay" ("the pay seems to be in a streak about four feet wide up the
center"120), and "gold-bearing quartz."1''21 "Tailings" (1) referred
to the washed dirt left in the rocker; "slumgullion" (2) to the mud
washed downstream.
The gold itself was designated by many terms: "dust," "gold dust,"
"the precious metal," "the beautiful gold," "the glittering treasure,"
"the gold heap," "the yellow heap," "the yellow pile," "the proceeds
of the mattock and bowl," "the gold-drop," "the jewel," "yellow
dust," "nuget," "precious treasures (of the streams).122 And it was
described as "chunky," "flaky," "coarse," "fine," and "grain"
gold.'23
105 Borthwick, op. cit., 121. a Canfield, 13.

106 Ibid., 143.
108 Ibid., 18.
109 Ibid., 18.
1"' Canfield, op. cit., 60.
112 Ibid., 61, 83.
113 Ibid., 102.
114 Ibid., 102.
116 Ibid., 93.
116 Ibid., 53.
117 Ibid., 43.
118 Ibid., 43.
120 All these are common terms found in the journals of the period.
121 Canfield, op. cit., 44. (1) A word in general use. (2) Canfield, 30.
122 All common terms of the day.
123 Ibid.
430 American Speech
The miners were called "Forty-niners," "gold hunters," "gold-
finders," "gold diggers," "diggers," "washers," or "gold-washers,"
"gold-seekers," or, if they "jumped a claim," "jumpers";'24 and their
desire to go to the gold fields, "gold fever," "gold-cholic,"'125 "mine
fever,"'126 "mineral yellow fever," 27 "gold mania,"128 and the "golden
itch."'29 They talked much of the "luck," "a streak of luck," and
mining being a "lottery,"3so As to lotteries, White, in his volume,
The Forty-Niners, tells of the "Lotteries of the Golden Ingot " in France
which awarded trips to the "placers" to the lucky ticket-holders.
Partly due to the fact that there were very few women at the
"diggings," and often those who were, were of questionable character,
the amusements of the miners were masculine, not to say "rough."
"Gambling houses" and "saloons" held forth daily and nightly to
excellent patronage. In fact, Borthwick says the "d. t.'s is a very
common disease in California,"'131 and Jackson, the diarist, mentions
a neighbor who suffered from the "jim-jams."132 A "gambler" in
California, according to Borthwick, meant only a professional gambler,
who went about "dressed up," rather than the lay patrons of the
gaming table.133 A deck of cards was called a "Californian prayer-
book."'34 Many card games and games of chance are recorded by
the writers of the time: French and Spanish monte, faro, roulette,
eucre, seven-up, or "all-fours,"'s "Twenty-one,"''36 "chuck-a-luck,"''137
poker, "thirty and forty,"s38 "Red and Black,"139 "Rondo,"'14
"Fortune Wheels,"'41 "Brag,"142 and the "dead open and shut"
or "thimble and strap game."'4s
124 Ibid.
126 Ibid., 269.
128 Ibid., 16.
129 Ibid., (in heading to Chapter VIII).
s32 Canfield, op. cit., 157.
134 Ibid., 309.
136 Ibid., 159.
~37 de Massey, op. cit., 135.
138-42 Canfield, op. cit., 159.
143 Shaw, op. cit., 131.
The man in charge of the gambling was called "the dealer,"
"the banker," "the croupier,"144 "monte professor."'14
Other amusements were bull fighting, cock fights, and dances or
"fandangos" where the Lancers, waltz, and polka were enjoyed, with
the men who had patches on their trousers acting as the fairer sex.146
On one occasion a Scotch youth executed a spirited Highland Fling for
the entertainment of those present.'14 At another, a bandit "shot up a
fandango house.""48 "General Scott, the great bull-killing bear," one
time engaged in battle with said bull for the edification of a large
crowd, but proved not so ferocious, in fact, quite a fake, so that the
promotors of the "General" were forced to leave the vicinity in a
hurry.'49 On a Fourth of July, several miners calling themselves
"The Rag, Tag and Bobtail Rangers," gave a performance at one of the
settlements.'50 Woods writes of taking part in the "celebrated farce,
the 'California Gold Diggings,' " in Central America while on his way
to California. No doubt this play was also shown in the diggings at
some time or other.
But all the activities of the miners during their leisure was not
of an amusing nature. Not infrequently "miners' meeting"'51 were
held in order to decide on some criminal case, usually robbery or
murder. Civil government and courts could hardly be said to be
established in this comparatively new country at this time, hence the
"law of the diggings"'52 was more or less felt and recognized by all.
Punishments meted out were floggings (so many "lashes"), banish-
ment, and hanging. "Judge Lynch" is several times referred to by
chroniclers of the day. Borthwick, for example, one time went over
to town during the excitement about a criminal, as he had a desire to
see "Judge Lynch in action."153 This evidently was a mythical
personage, or represented the miners who decided on lynchings.
Naturally, in a territory so lately belonging to Mexico and settled
largely by Mexicans and Spaniards, a good many Spanish words were
14" de Massey, op. cit., 16.

"7 Ibid., 322.
'~ Canfield, op. cit., 160.
149 Ibid., 290.
151 Ibid., 126.
432 American Speech
used by the newcomers. Among the most common were "pueblo,"
"vaquero," ''cation," "corral," "alcalde," (a sort of combination of
mayor and justice of the peace), "barbecue," "adios," "caballeros,"
"lasso," "manzanita" (a bush), "arroyos," "fandango," "adobe" (a
house or building built of a sort of clay, or the clay itself), "sombrero,"
"senorita," "cigarettos," "ranchos," "ranchero," "riatta," "botas,"
(boots), and "oro" (gold). One Jacksonville encampment drew up a
sort of articles of incroporation in which two town officers were
named-an alcalde and a sheriff. The fee of the latter, incidentally,
was to be one ounce of gold dust for certain services.154 Brooks and
Woods mention respectively, a "Temaschal,"'55 and a "Tamascal,"156
and describe it as a sort of "air bath," and a favorite remedy of the
natives for disease. Reverting to English, the Blessed Virgin was
called "the Big Woman" by a native of Brooks's acquaintance."'5
I cannot leave this compilation without some word of San Fran-
cisco, "the future Queen of the Pacific," as it was so aptly called by
De Massey, a French "Forty-niner." With its "babel of foreign
tongues," people in many "strange costumes" (including the miner
in the oft-.mentioned "red flannel shirt," "sombrero," and "bowie
knife"), flashing swords and revolvers, pick-pockets, orchestras,
cabarets, and lurid songs,1'8 its flimsy hotels, business houses, and
"magnificent saloons,"-surely it must have been "pandemonium
let loose,"'59 "a moral whirlpool,"'0 "enterprise run mad,"Y16i "transi-
tion and change,"'e2 a "wonderful point"'63 drawing thousands into
its "vortex" with the magic word "gold." Its crime history alone,
with its stories of "Sydney Ducks" ("ruffians of the worst class,
escaped convicts from Sydney"),164 "Sydney Town"'65 (a rendezvous
of thieves), "Hounds," or "Boys"'66 (disbanded New York volunteers

15' Brooks, op. cit., 82.
118 De Massey, op. cit., 29.
159 De Massey, op. cit., 29.
161 Ibid., 167.
162 Ibid., 168.
183 Ibid., 167.
164 Shaw, op. cit., 133.
165 Bancroft, op. cit., 74.
1s-e87 Ibid., 18 ff.
and a bad element about town), "Tent of Tammany,"167 "San Fran-
cisco Society of Regulators"'68 (an outgrowth of the Hounds associa-
tion; its "Law and Order Party,"'69 its criminals such as "Jimmy-
from-Town,"'0o Blue Peter,"'7' "Dungaree Jack,"'72 "Arkansaw
Pike,"'173 "Woolly Mike,"174 and "Dutch Charley," "Knight of the
Bloody fist"75---all winding up in the famous "San Francisco Vigilance
Committee"'176-constitutes a most interesting study in words. But
on the other hand, it had its "Mission Dolores," its "Presidio," its
"alcalde," 177 and "ayuntamiento,"'17 and its private social life of
which we hear little; and who shall say but what these, after all,
formed the more dominant side of its existence? At any rate, from a
"city of tents and sheds,""'9 "Phoenixlike,"s' time after time San

Francisco rose gloriously from the ashes of its old existence to carry
out its destiny as "Queen of the Pacific."
168 Ibid., 88.

170 Bancroft, op. cit., 220.
171-74 Ibid., 145, 146.
176 Ibid., 339, 40.
176 Ibid., 207.
177-78 Ibid., 107.
180 Ibid., 167.

Hamilton 1932

Uploaded by

Document Information

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

Hamilton 1932

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

The American Dialect Society

California Gold-Rush English

Eagle Rock, California

44 4 OLD! Gold! Gold! From the American River!" Thus

1 J. Tyrwhitt Brooks, M.D., Four Months Among the Gold-Finders in Alta

Drawn by the "golden legend,"'5 the "Yankees"''6 or "Americans"''

41 Woods, op. cit., 11, 12.

Certain ranches, boarding houses and saloons were known as

of Placerville (pronounced with "flat" a, as though spelled "Plasserville") was

81 Colton, op. cit., 298.

The location "worked" might be in or near a river "bar" or

96 Op. cit., 121-2.

105 Borthwick, op. cit., 121. a Canfield, 13.

14" de Massey, op. cit., 16.

164 Woods, op. cit., 129.

"city of tents and sheds,""'9 "Phoenixlike,"s' time after time San

168 Ibid., 88.

You might also like