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fiiend in Milan a few days later. Relaying this news to Severino's father, the fiiend
wrote:
Da 3 giorni he finalmente avute lettera da Severino, che mi scrive
da Jim Crow Diggins pertande la data del 6 marzo. ~ Mi da i
dettagli del suo viaggio, che in complesso fu felice, essendosi esse e
la famiglia trovati sempre bene.
At Jim Crow, the Guscettis set up a large tent where Severino again expressed
contentment and hope:
Meniamo una vita silvestre, ma siamo in pace senza dipendenza,
senza paura essende qui maggior sicurezza, che altreve. Spero se
nen di raccegliere teste grandi ricchezze, di prewedere senza
difficelta al mantenimente della famiglia e intante mi guardero
sempre piu d'atterne per acquistare una pesizione piii stabile e
cenveniente.*'
Severino, realising his ability to work through the authorities to establish a business
and arrange his personal affairs, is confident of a happy and peaceful future away from
the political pressures of Ticino. This sense of security, despite his recent arrival in a
foreign country, is typical of the more educated and financiaUy secure immigrants —
who, nonetheless, share with their less-educated compatriots an overriding
commitment to the central role of the family.
Two more Italian-speaking doctors who had arrived in the Colony with similar
outiooks were Francesco Rossetti and Giovanni Pagn^menta from Ticino. Unlike
Severino they were not political refugees but professional men hoping to exploit the
opportunities offered by a goldfields community. It has been suggested that some
members of the professional classes, lawyers, doctors and the like, were parasites in
the colony, eaming a living off those finding gold.*"* While it may be tme that some
professionals prospered from the wealthy and sometimes prodigal gold-diggers by
overcharging for their services, Dr Rossetti, who had arrived from Biasca in 1853, did
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