1806.
was economy and thrift before, there was now a ten
dency to profligacy and waste. This was natural.
They had suffered so long the oppression of a want
that could not be relieved, and the restraint of desires
that could not be gratified without money, that when
money came, and with such ease, it was like a draught
of brandy upon an empty stomach. There was in
toxication, sometimes delirium. Such was especially
the case with the Canadians, 32 some of whom brought
home thirty or forty thousand dollars, but were unable
to keep it. The same was true of others. The pleasure
of spending, and of buying such articles of luxury
as now began to find their way to Oregon from an
overstocked California market, was too great to be
resisted. If they could not keep their money, how
ever, they put it into circulation, and so contributed
to supply a want in the community, and enable those
who could not go to the mines, through fear of losing
their land claims, or other cause, to share in the golden
harvest. 33
It has been held by some that the discovery of gold at this time seriously retarded the progress of Oregon. 34 This was not the case in general, though it may have been so in particular instances. It took agriculturists temporarily from their farms and mechanics from their shops, thereby checking the steady if slow march of improvement. But it found a market for agricultural products, raising prices several hundred per cent, and enabled the farmer to get gold for his produce, instead of a poor class of goods at exorbitant prices. It checked for two or three years the progress of building. While mill- owners obtained enormous prices for their lumber, the wages of mechanics advanced from a dollar and a half a day to eight dollars, and the day laborer was able to demand and obtain four dollars per day 35
!2 Anderson s Northwest Coast, MS., 37-9; Johnson s Col. and Or., 206-7. 33 Sayward s Pioneer Remin., MS., 7.
- Deady, in Overland Monthly, i. 36; Honolulu Friend, May 3, 1851.
35 Brown s Autobiography, MS., 37; Stroivfs Hist. Or., MS., 15.