Gambling and Early Califronia
The traits of acquisitiveness and risk taking that had long been pronounced among westering people prevailed in early American California--- and continued to permeate society in the Far West long after the Golden State was settled.
However, these were not exclusively western characteristics, but typified much of American culture.
California put the singular nature of nineteenth-century citizens of the United States into bold perspective.
It was to Gold Rush California that Josiah Royce looked in his effort to study 'the American character', for on the Pacific Coast, the distinguishing features of the national type could be seen clearly amidst migrants arriving from all sections of the country.
The average person that those features defined capsulized the American as enterprising man.
Life on the pacific Coast elicited in clear form the 'speculating, enterprising, and go-ahead mentality that so many foreigners regarded as a common denominator in nineteenth-century society.
California was the product of an extended generation of entrepreneurs that stretched from the adventurous businessmen of the Jacksonian period to the captains of industry ascendant during the Gilded Age.
On the pacific slope, this era ranged from the first mountain men who set foot in coastal territories to the domineering railroad and land monopolists in the second half of the century.
California society developed in an economic age that cherished above all else the chance to get something for nothing, the very same prospect that lay at the heart of the urge to gamble.
The gold seeking of the 1840s and 1850s not only helped to define California society for years to come, but also summarized the nation's style of risk taking.
Argonauts came seeking prosperity and, as in matters of gambling, they remained open to innovations in the matter of making money.
Never a people to do things on a limited scale or in a dated fashion, Californians took to modern economic ways, including industrial and scientific advances, more quickly than most other Americans.
Between 1848 and 1970, they pioneered new forms of gambling; between 1870 and 1970, the state led the rest of the nation in adopting new technologies an organizations for large-scale production.
Having endured hardship and migration in the hope of bettering their lots, Californians eagerly embraced any novelty that promised to make them more prosperous more quickly.
Californians hoped to distill only the best of eastern culture, and intended to keep out of their state the disruptions and constraints that afflicted the East.
In their devotion to acquisitive pursuits, however, they lost the opportunity to improve on nationwide standards of culture, and ended up imitating eastern styles for the most part.