2005-03
This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 2/28/2005
Autograph Letter Signed "Peter S Van Wyck", 5 pages and address panel, quarto, January 10, 1850, San Francisco, California to Robert A. Barnes, St. Louis, Missouri. The letter complains of a rough journey, a city gone mad with vice, and escalating inflation. It reads in small part: "...I have anticipated this pleasure since my arrival at this city of mud mire gambling, &c. I arrived here on 21st October last from Sacramento City...Our first difficulty arose from the cholera making its appearance a few days from Independence which numbered as victims some 10 or 12 of the most robust amongst our number...our city is filled with miners from the diggings...the rain has driven them to shelter in this den of iniquity...to this Sodom of Sin and Iniquity...most of them will spend their hard earnings at Gambling Tables...a man from the mines lately raised from a pocket some $6,000 in a day. This if true is few and far between...but it will suffice when once in the papers to induce a thousand emigrants to flock here. While there is now from U States and Europe tens of thousands on their way, all of which will tend to kick up prices and more probably that of rents...". Dark stains on corners, folds. Overall Fine condition.
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