THE BIG BOWIE KNIFE DIARIES

After his a few-yr stay in California for the duration of the peak of the gold rush, author Hinton R. Helper wrote, “I have observed purer liquors, much better segars [sic], finer tobacco, truer guns and pistols, larger dirk and Bowie knives, and prettier courtesans here in San Francisco than in almost every other put I've at any time frequented,