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Flat-pan fever / Historian traces Gold Rush's far-reaching effects 

THE AGE OF GOLD: The California Gold Rush and the New American Dream. . . Some traveled by ship around Cape Horn or across the isthmus of Panama to the Pacific. . .

The book is full of tidbits the author can't seem to resist. For example, he quotes J.D. Borthwick's report on an odd habit of Panamanian women: They stowed their partly smoked stogies in their hair. "[I]t is not unusual to see the ends of three or four half-smoked cigars sticking out from the folds of their hair at the back of the head," Borthwick wrote, "for though they smoke a great deal, they never seem to finish a cigar at one smoking." One wishes for a picture.

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