USA > California > A picture of pioneer times in California, illustrated with anecdotes and stores taken from real life > Part 16
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great cordiality by that gentleman, and, after a sort of an embar- rassed pause, he asks Mr. L. for a private interview. It was granted with cheerful politeness. The moment they were alone, Leidesdorff began to beg for pardon for an indiscretion he said he had been guilty of, in allowing himself to so far forget the rules of society as to have spoken to Miss L. of marriage, with- out first obtaining her father's consent to do so. He explained that it was not a premeditated fault, but one he had been sur- prised into by an accidental circumstance.
The father here interrupted him, and in an off-hand manner assured him that he had the utmost confidence in his honor, and was fully satisfied with his explanation, and that no disrespect was meant, and concluded by saying that if Mrs. Leidesdorff and his daughter both favored his suit, it should also have his hearty concurrence.
In the joy of hearing these words, Leidesdorff forgot his se- cret, and, grasping Mr. L.'s hand, he poured out the warm- est thanks for the kind manner in which he had been received. Now his secret came back to him, but all courage to reveal it was gone. Before parting with Hortense's father, it was settled that he should call the next day at Mr. L.'s residence for his final answer. Yes; to-morrow, when he called, he would confess his secret, and so he planned and so he believed he would do, as he turned his head from side to side all that night on a pillow where he found no sleep. He did call at the appointed hour, and found himself received without formality by the whole household as the accepted lover of the darling of the house. Again the good resolution failed, and, yielding to the enchant- ing sweets of the moment, he revealed nothing. Now he tried to drive the voice of honor, ever whispering reproaches, out of hearing, and to give up thoughts of ever telling his secret. He placed a beautiful diamond ring on the finger of his betrothed. Nearly every evening found him by her side. The marriage day was fixed, and with charming blushes Hortense asked him to as- sist in some of the preparations. When with her he was happy to intoxication; when away, his secret would come and sink him to the depths of misery. Day by day the voice of honor grew louder and louder. He became pale and haggard, and now Hor- tense began to see the change, for sometimes his manner, even to her, became excited and incoherent. Then she summoned courage to speak to him about it. At first he avoided her ques-
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tions. Then, in a moment of anguish, he acknowledged he had a secret that he dare not tell her. Then her gentle words of en- treaty, to be allowed to share it, fell upon his feverish ear, one day. He answered by exclaiming: "Oh, yes, Hortense; I must tell it to you some day, or it will kill me, so prepare yourself to hear it."
"I am prepared now, William," she said.
" Well, but I have not the courage to-day, Hortense; to- morrow you shall know it, if I live."
That night Leidesdorff dreamed that his benefactor appeared to him and reproached him with the dishonor of withholding the secret from Hortense and her family. He awoke with a cold perspiration streaming from every pore. Now a firm determina- tion to reveal all came to his mind, such as he had never before felt. That evening found him alone with Hortense. He was remarkably calm in his manner, but the keen eyes of Hortense detected the true state of his mind, hidden beneath this unusual calmness. Her heart sank from an undefined apprehension. This she tried to shake off, and walked to the piano, saying, with an effort to smile pleasantly: " Here, Willie, I have been practicing a new song; let me sing it for you."
Without waiting for an answer, she let her fingers fall on the keys of the instrument, and, after a brilliant prelude, raised her voice in a song with more power and sweetness than he had ever thought could come from human voice. The song told a sad story of disappointed love, and was mournful beyond concep- tion, and as she sang Hortense's whole soul seemed poured out in sympathy with the theme of the song. Leidesdorff always said, when telling of this circumstance, that, when in any sort of difficulty in after life, he could plainly hear Hortense singing that song, and that it never wholly left his ears. As she finished singing, she turned to look on her lover. He sat as pale as death, with his eyes fixed on hers, in admiration in which there was a mixture of terror.
" Oh, I have frightened you with that sad song, I see; but never mind, William, I but followed a foolish inclination in sing- ing it, for do you know," and here she dropped her voice al- most to a whisper, " I dreamed last night that I sang that song for you, and that you then told me your secret, and that it was the last song I ever sang in my life. How strange, was it not ? Now, tell me the secret. That song, you know, is the spell that
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is to extort it from you." And again she tried to smile, but it faded away in an instant, and a visible tremor passed over her frame.
Leidesdorff seemed transfixed and speechless, and Hortense continued: "William, keep your promise, and let me share the secret with you. It will be as safe with your Hortense, you know, as with yourself."
Leidesdorff said, in describing this scene, that he felt then as if in fact under a spell that he could not resist. That song, it appeared to him, came from a heart he was condemned to break. He could endure the crowding sensations oppressing him no longer. He arose to his feet, and clasping his hands on his face, groaned as if in bodily pain. Then, suddenly turning to Hor- tense, he dropped on his knees before her, exclaiming, as he un- covered his haggard ,white face, now showing plainly the dark blue shade around his handsome forehead: " Oh, hear me, Hortense ; and, if you can, forgive and pity me." Hortense sat as motionless as a statue-the picture of terror, her dark, burn- ing bright eyes alone showing life as they rested on the kneeling figure before her. " I have never," he continued, " been guilty of one dishonorable or dishonest act in my whole life; my father was the good Englishman who sent me here to my great bene- factor, who was in fact my uncle. I was born in wedlock, as I have the proofs to show in my possession, though my father never openly acknowledged the marriage with my mother, for my poor mother, though virtuous, pure and good "-here he stopped, and hesitated, then in a low, husky voice continued- " was of negro blood-was a mulatto; and this is my secret, and my only crime is not having revealed it to you long ago. Oh, speak, Hortense, speak and say you do not despise and spurn me for this accident of my birth. No other woman did I ever love. No other woman can I ever love." Pale and trembling, Hortense struggled for utterance, but seemed at first unable to command it. She clasped her hands on her forehead as if to steady her brain, and then with a start she sprang to her feet, and, leaning down over her yet kneeling lover, she whispered close to his ear: " William, all is lost; my dream is out. I have sung my last song, just as I dreamed. There is a chasm between us; father will never yield, and, though my heart will break, I will never sully the honor of his house by a child's disobed- ience. No; our dream of happiness is all over! Fly, William,
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Fly, for hark ! I hear father's step approaching, and you must not meet him now, or anger might make him forget what is due to us both. " Fly, fly, fly!" she continued, in wild excitement. " We part forever!" Here she stopped, and, grasping his hand pressing it close over her heart, continued: "Feel how my heart beats; every pulsation is for you, and will be for you, William, until death comes to still it. Yes; I once pledged it to you, and it is yours in defiance of the scorn of my whole proud race. Go; fly, William, fly!"
The next day Leidesdorff received a package from Hortense's father, enclosing all the presents he had ever made Hortense, including, of course, the magnificent diamond engagement ring poor Hortense had received with such joy. With the package came a formal note dissolving all acquaintance between Leides- dorff and the family of the proud man. This freezing note aroused Leidesdorff from the moping lethargy into which the parting scene with Hortense had sunk him. Stung to the quick, he felt himself insulted and dishonored, and knowing, full well, that from this day forward he would be classed in New Orleans with the degraded race to which his mother in part be- longed, he at once determined to leave that city forever. He sold out all his property, bought a fine ship, and freighted her with goods, intending to find a new home on the shores or islands of the far-off, lonesome Pacific Ocean. A day or two before his ship was ready for sea, he was hurrying down Canal street, on his way to the river where his ship lay, when suddenly a funeral came in sight. To avoid passing it, he stepped into a dry goods store just at hand. The white, waving plumes on the hearse, indi- cating that it was some one in the pride of youth that had been cut down, caught his eye and caused him to heave a sigh and to look closer at the carriage in mourning that followed. Great Heavens! what did it mean ? The foremost carriage was that of the family of L. Turning quickly to the owner of the store, he exclaimed, " My God! whose funeral is that ?" " Oh, the funeral of the young lady, Miss L., who came so near being married to a mulatto young man. She died yesterday, they say, from the shock." Leidesdorff dropped into a chair near him, and covered his face with his hands in an agony of grief. " Ah, a friend of yours, sir," said the man, in a soft, pitying voice. Then he poured out a glass of brandy and urged him to take it. Trem- bling in every limb, Leidesdorff swallowed the drink, and, utter-
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ing a few hurried words of thanks to the kind shopkeeper, he rushed down the street to his ship. For all that and the next day he was completely unmanned. Towards the evening of the second day, the priest who had administered the last rites of the Church to poor Hortense called on him. The priest came, he said, to fulfill a promise he had made Hortense a few hours be- fore her death. That promise was, to bring Leidesdorff a little gold crucifix she had always worn from childhood, and repeat to him sweet consoling messages in proof of her love and truth to the last. These messages seemed to arouse young Leidesdorff once more to new life, and with a brave, if not cheerful heart, he threw out to the breeze the snowy canvas of his fine ship, and was soon out on the dark blue sea, where Hortense's spirit seemed ever near him, and the spread-out white sails of his ship were to him like angels' wings wafting him to a western home, where the prejudices dividing races, he hoped, should be un- known.
After years spent in roving from port to port and island to island in the Pacific ocean, circumstances led Leidesdorff to make San Francisco his final resting-place. Here he died in the Summer of 1849, leaving a great deal of valuable real estate in his name, which, on his death, was taken charge of by the Al- calde, as was the custom in such cases, under Mexican law, un- til the legal heirs should make their appearance. When Cap- tain Folsom soon afterwards went East he visited the islands of Leidesdorff's nativity, and asserted that he had found the Leides- dorff heirs and purchased their right to the San Francisco prop- erty for some trifling amount. Many doubted the genuineness of this transaction, and Colonel Geary, then Alcalde of San Fran- cisco, at first refused to give Folsom possession of the property. This point was, however, soon arranged to Colonel Geary's en- tire satisfaction, and in a most liberal manner on the part of Captain Folsom. He paid Geary ten thousand dollars as a com- promise for his commissions and fees, and the property was given up to Folsom without further objections on the part of Geary. While Captain Folsom lived he was never entirely quiet in the possession of this vast estate. Many opened attacks on his title, and after making some points in the contest suddenly let the matter drop, to the surprise of lookers-on. After the death of Captain Folsom the property all fell into the hands of hungry thieves, who devoured it all, with the other property he had ac-
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cumulated, so that I believe the estate was finally declared in- solvent.
The next memoir is that of Thomas O. Larkin. It is interest- ing and so truthful and modest in its tone that it appears en- tirely out of place in the " Annals." The history of California could not be correctly written and omit the name of Thomas O. Larkin from its pages. His whole career as a California pioneer and American citizen is without spot or blemish, so far as I ever heard.
Then comes the memoir of General Sutter, whose connection with California pioneer history makes him famous. The me- moir of him found in the "Annals" amounts to nothing, though he was deserving of much.
Then comes the memoir of General Vallejo. It is short, and in that respect is all the better for this old fox.
Then comes the memoir of Edward Gilbert, whose early death we all so mourned. First, because by his death we lost as true a California pioneer as ever stepped on our shores. Secondly, because that life was lost through an act of folly. In giving this memoir of Mr. Gilbert, the authors of the "Annals" make one curious remark which is worthy of quoting:
" The war had then been terminated, and it became necessary to select a civilian to act as Collector of the Port. * *
*
"The late General Mason, U. S. Army, then acting as Governor of the territory, appointed Mr. Gilbert to that office. This he declined. By doing so he voluntarily lost an opportunity of amassing a large fortune in a very short time. Mr. Harrison, who was subsequently appointed, having been the recipient of enormous revenues, through the opportunities given him by virtue of the the office of getting possession of property, was soon made al- most, if not quite, a millionaire."
Nothing we ever knew of Edward Gilbert would lead us to suppose that, had he accepted the Collectorship, he would have appropriated funds belonging to the Government to his own use, yet from that above quotation it would seem as though the "An- nals" men thought he would have done so as a matter of course. In this they did that brave, honorable young man a great in- justice.
Then comes the memoirs of several very nice gentlemen, in all respects good citizens and full as well deserving of being pa- raded as notables in the "Annals of San Francisco" as were at least three thousand other gentlemen whose names could have been taken from the city directory of those days, but who would not pay to have themselves thus advertised.
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Poor Theodore Payne, one of these " Annals" heroes, de- serves a passing remark, as he was on the ill-fated Central America when she foundered at sea, and had the distinction of being one of the two beings calling themselves men who begged of the captain to let them leave with the women and children, by which they saved their valuable lives. The " Annals " gives a woodcut of Payne's auction house, in San Francisco, where he and his friend Michael Reese put many a poor fellow's city lot through by a wink and a nod, in those days of fast and loose in California.
Then comes a memoir of Colonel J. D. Stevenson. All old Californians will, I am sure, indorse every word of praise be- stowed on him. The Colonel was truly a bold, dashing, patriotic officer, and as such can alone be mentioned in the history of pioneer times in California.
Then comes the memoir of William M. Gwin, which is but a modest historic summary of his life up to the time of his coming to California, and is presumed to be correct in every respect. It might be added that it was related of Dr. Gwin that, in the latter part of the year 1848, he was seated, one evening, in his own family circle, in Nashville, Tennessee, engaged in a game of whist, when the discovery of gold in California came up for discussion, and that Mrs. Gwin, his very accomplished wife, ex- claimed: " Doctor, I have just thought of it; you must be off to California at once and organize a State government there, and get yourself elected United States Senator from the new State." Be this as it may, it is undoubtedly true that the Doctor did come, and that from the date of his arrival among us he devoted his whole time to the organizing of a State government, and that he was elected United States Senator. He made a most valuable representative; always attentive, prompt, and kind to all Cali- fornians who needed his services at the National Capital, making no distinction between Republicans and Democrats in this re- spect. True and loyal to California in all things, her interest has never been watched with more jealous care than it was while Dr. Gwin was our Senator. His career as a California politician, in connection with that of David C. Broderick, will be a most inter- esting chapter in the political history of our State, should it ever be written.
On the breaking out of the rebellion, Senator Gwin made, as we all thought, the great mistake of his life, in going South,
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which he did in company with many other Southern-born men. The will of California, his adopted State that had so honored him, we felt should have controlled his action. He was identi- fied with every line of her American history, and this step of his looked to us like desertion. At the close of the rebellion he went to Mexico, giving his enemies another opportunity to per- sonally attack him and make it appear that he had thrown him- self into the wake of that donkey, Maximilian, who met what will always be regarded as a just fate at the hands of an outraged people, hundreds of whom he had put to death in cold blood while prisoners in his hands, on the pretence that they were rebels or traitors to his government. Thus it is that our old Senator has brought upon a career, otherwise brilliant, a sort of shadow or cloud that it seems hard to clear away; though none of us can ever forget his fidelity to our State and his untarnished reputation as an honest and honorable man, who left office as poor in pocket as he was the day he was elected Senator by the California Legislature, in San Jose, in 1849. Senator Gwin is now residing in San Francisco with his charming family, quietly enjoying the ample income of one of the best mining properties in our State, developed by the perseverance and untiring energy of his son William.
The " Annals" write up as a notable Jacob P. Leese, and in doing so they try to give the impression that to write the history of San Francisco and California correctly and omit J. P. Leese was impossible. According to the " Annals," Leese was the hero of the first settlement in San Francisco, the master of the first American feast given there, and the father of the first child born there. All this is humbug. Leese's career in California was entirely selfish, and in no particular was it worth noticing in connection with the early history of our State. This first baby business the authors of the " Annals" are fond of record- ing. They tell us that Mrs. Larkin was the mother of the first American child in California, that Mrs. Leese was the mother of the first child in San Francisco, that Mrs. Geary was the mother of the first American child in San Francisco. All this would be interesting if its untruth was not so plain as to make it absurd. The close of Leese's career in California illustrates the old adage, " Praise no man until he is dead"-but of this, out of respect to a large and worthy family left by Leese in Monterey county, I will say nothing. 11
CHAPTER XIV.
THE SOCIETY OF CALIFORNIA PIONEERS-THEIR INDORSEMENT OF THE "ANNALS."-"WOMAN'S RIGHTS. "-TRUE SPHERE OF A WOMAN- RESOURCES OF CALIFORNIA-NEWSPAPERS, BANKS AND MANUFAC- TORIES-THE JUDICIARY- THE RAILROADS AND THE NEW CONSTI- TUTION-CALIFORNIANS WHO HAVE WON LAURELS IN THE EAST- LOSS OF THE CENTRAL AMERICA-RESCUE OF THE WOMEN AND CHILDREN BY THE BRIG "MARINE."-TERRIBLE PARTINGS-COW- ARDICE OF TWO MEN-OTHERS SAVED-GENERAL SHERMAN'S AC- COUNT-A PASSENGER'S STORY.
I think I have said enough to show the true character of this " Annals " book, and to satisfy all that its picture of the first immigrants to California after the discovery of gold, is a false and slanderous one in the extreme. You, my young readers, who are the children of those immigrants, owe it to yourselves to vindi- cate your parents.
Let every one of you boys who can do so, enroll your names as members of the " Society of California Pioneers," and then de- mand the adoption of a formal resolution by the Society, repudi- ating this book and its dedication to them. Do more. Demand that an amendment be made to the constitution of the Society which will admit as members your mothers, the brave women of the pioneer days, and their female children as well as their male. There is no reason why they should be excluded. Did they not face and share every danger and privation with the men, and was it not more heroic in them to do so than it was in the men ? Was not the advent of one good, virtuous woman in those days of more value to the State than the coming of any twenty men that ever appeared among us ? What is the object of this Society of California Pioneers ? Its constitution says:
" To cultivate the social virtues of its members, to collect and preserve in- formation connected with the early settlement and conquest of the country, and to perpetuate the memory of those whose sagacity, enterprise and love of independence induced them to settle in the wilderness and become the germ of a new State."
What is there in the objects as here laid down that should ex- clude the women of '49 from membership? Nothing, surely; but everything to point to its entire propriety and fitness.
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They and their daughters should not only be admitted members, but, in their case, no entrance fee or yearly subscription should be charged. This Society is regarded with great favor and almost affection by all old Californians, even by those who are not members. The Legislature of California has favored it in legislation when required, and many citizens have made it valua- ble donations. It should be the peculiar guardian of the charac- ter and standing of the first immigrants to California. Let it be true to its mission then, and spurn the dedication of a book that is sought to be made attractive only by wholesale slander and misrepresentation of the pioneers. If the men of those times had alone been attacked in this book, perhaps I never would have taken up my pen to write these pages. I would most likely, in that case, have been content to let it pass with con- tempt; but that our female population should be attacked, and those attacks dedicated to the Society of California Pioneers, was a little more than human patience could be expected to endure. For the first ten or fifteen years after the publication of this book, it was let pass unnoticed, for its vagaries and mis- representations were too well known to us all to make a contra- diction seem worth while; and then the flattering memoirs it gave of the inany would-be prominent men in San Francisco secured the influence of those gentlemen to prevent criticism; then the old adage of " What is every one's business is no one's business," came in to help to save it; besides, in these fast, busy years, we all have had our hands full of private busi- ness, requiring our whole attention from sunrise to sunset. But now, in this year of our Lord, 1881, the scene is fast changing; our sons and our daughters, born to us in California, are begin- ning to take our places in the active duties of life, leaving us time to talk to them and to write to them. The pioneers are fast passing away, so that after a while not a man will be left to con- tradict the terrible statements of this book, dedicated to the men who should have been the guardians of the honor of the pioneers. A very little while ago, a woman, lecturing in San Francisco, spoke in the most disrespectful manner of the women of '49, quoting from " The Annals of San Francisco " in support of her disrespectful language. Surely, then, it is time for some one to expose this book, and I only regret that an abler pen has not undertaken to do so. But the object is accomplished, in my plain way, when once attention is drawn to the subject. I
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understand the book is often quoted by lecturers, both in the Eastern States and in England, to show our wholesale moral de- pravity. The man who would defraud a woman of one right that is justly hers, is a creature without one particle of true manhood; but the man who slanders the character of a woman, or a community of women, is a wretch of the lowest grade of humanity, and should be dealt with accordingly.
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