However clever the stories of the romancers — of whom Bret Harte preeminently stands first — after all, their characters were intrinsically but creatures of the imagination; the pioneers were the real thing!  Yet such is the nature of this topsy-turvy world, the copies will remain, whilst the originals will fade away and be forgotten!  The writer will always hold it a privilege that he had the pleasure of meeting in the flesh a remnant of the men who laid the foundation of the institutions by means of which this great Commonwealth has grown and prospered; big, broad-minded, strong men who, whatever their failings — for they were very human — were generous to a fault, ever ready to listen to the cry of distress or help a fallen brother to his feet, scornful of pettiness, ignorant of snobbery, fair and square in their dealings with their fellows.  Alas, that it should have come to “Hail and Farewell” to such a type of manhood!

At my request, Mr. Maslin, at one time a practicing attorney, dictated the following succinct account of the origin of the mining laws of California.  The discovery at Gold Hill, now within the corporate limits of Grass Valley, of a gold-bearing quartz ledge, subsequently the property of Englishmen who formed an organization known as “The Gold Hill Quartz Mining Company,” led to the founding of the mining laws of California.  On December 30, 1850, the miners passed regulations which had with them the force of laws, defining the location and ownership of mines.  It was provided that claims should be forty feet by thirty feet; a recorder was to be elected by the miners and all difficulties arising out of trespass on claims were to be tried before the recorder and two miners, an appeal to be taken to the justice of the peace.

When quartz lodes began to be discovered and worked, it was found that the location of claims by square feet did not protect the miner or afford sufficient territory upon which to expend his labor.  Accordingly a miners’ meeting was held in Nevada City on December 20, 1852, and a body of laws prescribed, governing all quartz mines within the county of Nevada.  The following were the salient features:  “Each proprietor of a quartz claim shall be entitled to one hundred feet on a quartz ledge or vein; the discoverer shall be allowed one hundred feet additional.  Each claim shall include all the dips, angles, and variations of the same.”  The remaining articles related to the working, holding and recording of claims.  This law was incorporated in the raining legislation of the State of Nevada and has formed the basis of the mining laws of each territory of the United States.  Thus we have a proof not only of the intelligence of the early miner, but also of his capacity for self-government.  It must be remembered that the miners came from all over the United States, but principally from the West and the South.  Probably none had seen a quartz ledge before coming to California, yet the necessity for extending a claim as far as the ledge dipped was soon perceived, as also the taking into consideration a change in the direction or course of the lode.  Commenting on these laws and the causes leading to their adoption, Mr. Muslin became emphatic.  He said: