Study Guide
Study Guide Contents
GENERAL INFORMATION
- Beginner's Guide to Opera
- Who's Who At the Opera
- The Lyric Opera House
- BOC Education Programs
- A Bibliography of Selected Readings
- Education Resources
2008-2009 SEASON
2007-2008 SEASON
2006-2007 SEASON
2005-2006 SEASON
2004-2005 SEASON
2003-2004 SEASON
2002-2003 SEASON
PREVIOUS OPERAS
La Fanciulla del West
The Girl of the Golden West
The Miner's Ten Commandments
James J. Rawls
James Mason Hutchings, an English-born author and editor, published in 1853 a gold-rush letter sheet called "The Miner's Ten Commandments." A letter sheet is a type of illustrated stationery that can be folded to form a self-made envelope. Hutchings sold more than one hundred thousand copies of his "Commandments" in just one year.
The First Commandment was simple and direct. It reflected a stipulation found in many actual mining codes: "Thou shalt have no other claim than one."
The Sixth Commandment was a bit more complex but just as important: "Thou shalt not kill thy body by working in the rain… Neither shalt thou kill thy neighbor's body in a duel…Neither shalt thou suck through a straw…nor gurgle from a bottle…"
The Eighth Commandment was the toughest: "Thou shall not steal a pick, or a pan, or a shovel, from thy fellow miner, nor take away his tools without his leave…for he will be sure to discover what thou hast done, and will straightaway call his fellow miners together, and if the law hinder them not they will hang thee, or give thee fifty lashes, or shave thy head and brand thee like a horse thief with 'R' upon thy cheek."
Reprinted courtesy of the California Historical Society.