USA > California > California gold book : first nugget, its discovery and discoverers, and some of the results proceeding therefrom > Part 22
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" Because that has not been the case in Europe for want of education, there was no progress made there up to the present century. They were cutting grain with a hand sickle ' when the genius of McCormick enabled us to cut, bind, thresh and sack grain by machinery at a cost of one cent per 100 pounds.
" It will be our aim in the College to give practical education; to cultivate manual dexterity; to open the range of inquiry and make the scholar rely on his own resources. I have already fitted up some machine shops, and hope that the College will in some measure fill the gap opened in our system of industry by the difficulty that besets a boy who wishes to learn a mechanical art. Still that is not, by any means, the extent of our aims. I want to teach the benefits and resources of labor, to show him who has to work how to toil,that he may easiest earn his needed rest and recrea-
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tion. I want to unfold the possibilities of enjoyment and show every industrious and provident man how he may secure them without the expenditure of more physical effort than is necessary for his health. There will always be some inequality; some men will be indolent, and to that extent will the burdens of the provident and industrious be increased, but even the added burden of the idle and vicious should not demand from the industrious more labor than is compatible with the highest intellectual enjoyment.
"With the increase of facilities for controlling the forces of nature, the bitter competition for wealth will be lessened. Poverty and want having been the rule instead of the exception in the past, men struggle and hoard ; if all were assured of a comfortable living, and a sure competence for old age, they would spend more freely, taking more enjoyment and fight less fiercely for wealth. Not that I deprecate industry and providence, for it is the duty of man to earn and save for his family and himself ; but I hope for the day when labor and thrift will no longer interfere with intellectual development and the enjoyment of social pleasures. Man's actual needs are slight ; his intellect- ual boundless. Professor Agassiz would be satisfied with twenty-five cents' worth of food a day, but he needs steamboats to help him read the story told by the bed of the ocean, instruments to solve the riddle of the stars and glaciers, and unnumbered hands to delve amid the buried learning of the past. When he has mastered his study it belongs to the whole world, and with a proper system of education is at the command of every one.
" Co-operation is the chief hand-maid of civilization,
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One man may develop a love of works of art beyond the greatest wealth of men to satisfy, but a community can spare the money to purchase the things that will give pleasure to all. San Francisco ought to have magnificent libraries, lovely parks, fine collections of pictures, splendid works of art and the means for every intellectual pleasure paid for from the public purse, and open for the enjoyment of everyone. Co-operation will bring about such social equality that no industrious man will feel himself one whit the social inferior of any man that lives, and will have no feeling but pity for the parvenu who, doubtful of his own position, fears to weaken it by association with those who have less wealth than himself."
At the opening of the University, Senator Stanford reiterated and emphasized the wishes of himself and Mrs. Stanford, as follows: " It is through education that the possible future of man is to be ascertained and attained. The Creator has not given man rational wants without the means of supplying them. He has given us an all-bountiful earth that yields inexhaustible sup- plies for our use. Men have only to supply their labor intelligently, and learn to control the natural forces that surround them, to have at their command all the com- forts and elegances of life. Man's true happiness is to be attained, not merely by satisfying his physical wants, but in the development of his intellectual, moral and religious nature. It is through the expansion and development of these that the high standard which the Creator has made possible is to be reached, and when this standard is attained the result will be the establish- ment and general practice of the golden rule and the realization of the greatest happiness. I hope, therefore,
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that you will ever keep before you the highest possible standard, that you will strive to attain it, and fully realize that its attainment is the object of educa- tion.
" The high condition of civilization to which man may attain in the future it is almost impossible for us to now appreciate. We can best obtain an idea of it by a comparison of our present condition with that of pre- ceding generations. Nor have we to look very far back. A few years ago, within the memory of a major- ity of the adults here present-in these United States, whose very existence as a nation was justified by an inspired declaration of human inalienable rights-over four millions of human beings were held in slavery by mere might. A majority of the people of our country were at the time fully persuaded that the right to ownership of human beings existed by a law which it was bound to sustain by force if necessary.
" We believe that a wise system of education will develope a future civilization as much in advance of that of the present as ours is in advance of the condi- tion of the savage. We may always advance toward the infinite.
"The wonderful improvements in inventions and machinery within the last fifty years, by multiplying the powers of production, have assisted greatly in the advancement of civilization. But for the invention that had done the most for education we must look back 450 years to the gigantic and ever increasing force put in motion by Guttenberg-the printing press. It has made all later inventions possible and practical. It has done more for the dissemination of education than the endowments of Harvard, Johns Hopkins
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or Girard, and but for its existence I do not think I should have occasion to address you to-day.
" Once the great struggle of labor was to supply the necessities of life, now but a small portion of our people are so engaged. Food, clothing and shelter are common in our country to every provident person, excepting, of course, in occasional accidental cases. The great demand for labor is to supply what may be termed intellectual wants to which there is no limit, except that of intelligence to conceive. If all the relations and obligations of men were properly under- stood it would not be necessary for people to make a burden of labor. The great masses of the toilers now are compelled to perform such an amount of labor as makes life often wearisome. An intelligent system of education would correct this inequality. It would make the humblest laborer's work more valuable; it would increase both the demand and supply for skilled labor, and reduce the number of the non-producing class. It would dignify labor, and ultimately would go far to wipe out the mere distinctions of wealth and ancestry. It would achieve a bloodless revolution, and establish republican industry, merit and learning.
"We have provided in the articles of endowment that the education of the sexes shall be equal, deeming it of special importance that those who are to be the mothers of a future generation shall be fitted to mold and direct the infantile mind at its most critical period. A celebrated philosopher has said that the education received by a child in the first five years of its life was more important than all the rest ; another states that in its first seven years the child received more ideas than in all its after life. How important, therefore, is
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it to have mothers capable of rightly directing the young intelligence.
" We have also provided that the benefits resulting from co-operation shall be freely taught. It is through co-operation that modern progress has been mostly achieved. Co-operation societies bring forth the best capacities, the best influences of the individual for the benefit of the whole, while the good influences of the many aid the individual.
" The intelligent development of the human faculties is necessary to man's happiness, and if this be true each individual should, if possible, have such a liberal educa- tion as to enable him to understand, appreciate and enjoy the knowledge of others. We trust that the education in this institution will be of such a liberal and broad character that all connected with it will have none but the best of feelings toward other educational institu- tions, and particularly toward those of this State. We are all working to the same end. Let us therefore cordially co-operate. The immediate object of this institution is the personal benefit and advancement of the students, but we look beyond to the influence it will exert on the general welfare of humanity."
In his remarks at the laying of the corner-stone of the Leland Stanford Junior University at Palo Alto, the late distinguished Judge Lorenzo Sawyer, who was then President of the Board of Trustees, said in part : "The little grove in the suburbs of Athens, which Academus presented to the Athenians, constituted the academy in which Socrates, and Plato, and their disciples, taught their pupils philosophy, rhetoric, logic, poetry, oratory, mathematics, the fine arts, and all the sciences so far as then developed. The influence
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emanating from these schools, notwithstanding their limited resources, has been largely felt through all succeeding ages ; and it has to this day given direction to thought, and contributed largely to mold the characters and the civil institutions of all the peoples of Europe, and their descendants in America, and wheresoever else they may be found on the face of the earth. The people of that little republic of Attica- the whole area of whose territory was only about two-thirds as large as that of the county of Santa Clara, in which our coming University is located-exercised a greater influence over the civilization, institutions, and destinies of modern nations than any other people, however great.
"The groves of Palo Alto, the tall trees, are much larger than Academus' sacred shade. These sturdy, umbrageous oaks, with Briarean arms, these stalwart, spreading laurels, and these tall eucalypti, are much grander and more imposing than the arbor-tenants of the grove at Athens. The soil of Palo Alto is far richer and more productive than that of Attica; it yields as fine wheat, as delicious figs, grapes, olives and other fruits. Its scenery is almost as grand and awe- inspiring, and quite as picturesque. Its climate is as dry, equable and delightful. The orroya de San Francisquito is as flush and turbulent in winter, if- although abundantly supplied for all purposes of the University above-as waterless in its lower reaches in summer as the two rivulets Ciphissus and Ilissus. The transparent clearness and coloring of our sky is as matchless as that of Attica, and the azure dome above our heads by day or night is as pure and as brilliant as the violet crown of Athens. All our conditions are
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equally favorable to health, to physical and mental development, and to physical and mental enjoyment. Not an hour in the year is so cold as to interfere with mental or physical labor, nor an hour so hot as to render one languid, indisposed to physical or mental exertion, or as to dull the edge of thought. There is not a place in our broad land outside our own beloved State, where one can perform so much continuous physical or mental labor without weariness or irksome- ness. Should the plans of the founders of the Leland Stanford Junior University be carried out in accordance with their grand conceptions, with such advantages as the location and climate afford, why should not students be attracted to its portals, not only from California, but from all the other States of our vast country, now containing 60,000,000 of people, and even from foreign lands? What should prevent this University becoming in the great future, the first in this, or any other' land ? When fully developed, who can estimate its influence for good upon the destinies of the human race ?
"To the founders of the Leland Stanford Junior University : It is fit that the corner stone of this edifice should be laid on the anniversary of the birth of him who, while yet a mere youth, suggested the founding of a University, a suggestion upon which you have nobly acted, and to the establishment of which you have devoted so large a portion of the accumula- tions of a most energetic, active, and trying life. It is eminently fit that an institution founded and endowed on that suggestion should bear his name. The ways of Providence are inscrutible. Under Divine guidance his special mission on earth may have
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been to wake and set in motion those slumbering sentiments and moral forces which have so grandly responded to the impetus given, by devoting so large a portion of your acquisitions, and the remainder of your lives to the realization of the object thus sug- gested. Yes, his mission has been nobly performed, and it is fit that both his name and the names of those who have executed his behests should be enrolled high upon the scroll of fame, and of the benefactors of the human race. You have wisely determined, during your lives, to manage and control for your- selves the funds of the foundation ; to supervise and direct the arrangement and construction of the build- ings, and the required adjuncts, and to superintend and give direction to the early development and workings of the New University. This is well. He who conceives is the one to manage and control this great work, until you shall see the institution founded by your bounty firmly established on an immovable basis, enjoying a full measure of prosperity, affording the citizens of your adopted State the educational advantages contemplated, and dispensing to all the bless- ings and benign influences that ought to flow from such institutions. Long may you enjoy the satisfac- tion afforded by hopes fully realized, seri in coelum redeatis.
"Fellow-members of the Board of Trustees of the Leland Stanford Junior University : In accepting this grand trust you have assumed the most weighty responsibilities, not only to the founders of the Uni- versity, but to the children and youth of the common- wealth, and to their posterity in all time to come. You have assumed the guardianship of the vast inherit-
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· ance to which they have fallen heirs. In the near future, and thenceforward till time shall be no more, the duty will devolve upon us and our successors to administer this inheritance in such manner as to accomplish its great ends.
"Should we succeed in establishing and fully devel- oping the New University in accordance with the conception and purposes of its founders- as succeed we must with proper efforts, and proper management, and with the aid and blessing of the Omnipotent and All-wise Being, who created all things, and without whose approval we can accomplish nothing -its power for good will go on from age to age to the end of time, increasing and expanding until no corner of the earth will be beyond its humanizing, elevating, and benign influences. Invoking the Divine blessing on our work, let all put forth a united continued effort to secure a consummation so devoutly to be wished. When this shall have been done, and the Leland Stanford Junior University shall have been once securely established upon a firm and stable basis, we may exclaim with unhesitating confidence that the idea will be fully realized, esto perpetua!"
ENATOR GEORGE HEARST .- Among all the men who have engaged in legitimate scientific mining on the Pacific coast and, by their thoroughness and skill, added gradually to the store of knowledge on geological, chemical and metallurgical subjects, not one attained the prominence or received the universal recog- nition as an expert miner that was freely accorded to the late United States Senator George Hearst. His
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valuable services deserve more extended mention than the limits of this history will permit. The daily acts of such men, including temporary failures, constant and courageous effort, and final success, are the lessons which are valuable to others, and the study and emu- lation of which are rendering Americans the envied of ambitious people the world over.
The ancestors of George Hearst were from Scotland, and settled in South Carolina anterior to the Revolu- tionary war. From thence his father emigrated to Missouri about the beginning of the present century, and settled in what is now Franklin county. The elder Hearst was a man possessing sterling qualities, among which were energy, industry and economy. To his first farm were added two others, until his landed possessions aggregated about eight hundred acres. Here George Hearst was born in 1820, and almost exactly when Missouri became the twenty-fourth mem- ber of the sisterhood of States. He inherited grand characteristics from both father and mother. His father was typically equipped for the requirements of pioneer life. · Strong, brave and active, with a mechan- ical bent, he could make or mend, and was thus inde- pendent of the sources of supply and repair, which members of old communities consider necessary to exist- ence. He was in advance of the rest of the people in his locality, and being specially progressive, continued in the front rank up to the time of his death. He was singularly largehearted, and gave much away to his neighbors, and not infrequently to his own detriment. George's mother, whose leading traits of character were largely reproduced in him, was a remarkable woman. In person she was tall and slight, and digni-
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fied in manner and carriage .. She was educated beyond the culture usual to her time and neighborhood, and was a thorough student, thoughtful and observant at all times. Her religious sentiments were earnest and pronounced, but utterly wanting in intolerance; for she possessed admirable self-control, and was kind, wise and deliberate and remarkably clear in judgment. She possessed unusual executive ability. It is not difficult, having this pen-picture of George's mother before us, to see her reproduced in him. His devotion to her was phenomenal, and was plainly due to the remarkable similarity of traits and characteristics shared by them.
Educational privileges were few and far between in Missouri at that time. Young Hearst had the benefit of a very common school, held in a log-cabin, for two to four months in the winter seasons. This was shared by the boys and girls of the neighborhood in a circuit of three or four miles. He made the best use of these meager advantages, and later attended a higher school, called the American Academy, for about eighteen months. With him, work and study had to go hand in hand. While he had no great purpose in life to become eminent in book learning, he yet lost no opportunity for obtaining all the information possible from that source. However, his tuition was so irregular that he never got beyond the rudiments of an English educa- tion. This deficiency threw him upon his natural resources, which were ample. All through life what he purposed to do was accomplished after his own peculiar fashion. Nothing was more difficult for him than an effort to imitate. He could not act a part. He had to be himself or nothing. His thoughts and expressions had to be his own by origin or modification,
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else he was unable to utilize them. His individuality was great, and his egotism nil. He was thirty years of age before he could convince himself that he knew as much as the generality of those with whom he asso- ciated. Even then he was utterly unobtrusive, and if there was a place of prominence to be filled he preferred to push others into the lead, selecting the modest and more laborious place for himself.
During his sixteenth year George was assigned to the management of one of the three farms owned and cul- tivated by his father. At twenty-three the death of his father threw upon him the entire care of the estate, which was considered large at that time, but was encumbered to the extent of its value by debts assumed by the father in behalf of neighbors who had appealed to him. The family then consisted of the mother, his sister and himself. He accepted the responsibility and in a brief time, by strict economy, had saved enough to free the estate from the encumbrance.
In Washington county, Missouri, some fifteen miles from the Hearst homestead, were located galena mines long worked by the early French settlers. When young Hearst was fifteen years old, the Virginia mine, one of the most valuable properties of its kind in the world, was opened within a mile of his father's house. By frequent trips to the mines and to the smelter run by the Frenchmen, George early became proficient in the crude but effective methods pursued by these miners. When twenty years of age he operated a copper mine for himself, and with such remarkable care and economy that he was able to accumulate between five and six thousand dollars, which was greater wealth than the most prosperous farmer in the section could
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realize in the same length of time. The experience gained here stood Mr. Hearst in good stead in later years; for the mining rules and methods adopted in California were generally originated and proved in the mining sections of Missouri, and not only facilitated in the formation of preliminary regulations touching the size of claims, the manner of acquiring. title to them, priority of discovery, and subdivisions of deposits, etc., but helped to avoid contentions and disputes which would have resulted in delay and loss to all concerned.
When news of the discovery of gold in California reached young Hearst, it seemed to him that this was specially his El Dorado, and to it he must go or lose the opportunity of his life. He was the mainstay of the household, and the ties binding him to the society of his mother and sister were vastly stronger than usual. The separation would be only temporary, but it was very hard to bear. Mrs. Hearst had the utmost confidence in the ability of her son to succeed where any others could, and that in a pecuniary sense the venture would be greatly to his advantage. But the reason which had most influence with her was the almost positive assurance that his health, which had been greatly impaired by malaria, would be completely restored in the mountains of California. So, in the spring of 1850, he departed for California.
A detailed account of his long and wearisome journey across the plains with patient but slow going oxen would furnish material for an interesting chapter. The route taken was that which had been invaded by cholera and a virulent type of measles, and almost every mile was a shallow grave, and every rod bore evidences of helpless distress. Courage, and determination to live
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for the sake of his mother enabled him to recover from an attack of cholera which would have proved fatal to one less powerfully sustained. In the Sink of the Carson some of his oxen died, but when water was finally reached, he felt that the greatest dangers and privations were behind him. He had borne up bravely and well, but at Carson river he was prostrated with a slow fever. The same undeviating will which had carried him thus far secured his recovery, and after spending his last hundred dollars for one hundred pounds of flour, he proceeded on his way over the Sierra.
The first place at which young Hearst stopped was Pleasant valley in California, about eight miles from Hangtown, a name changed many years ago for that of Placerville, which, if less suggestive, is not offensive to the ear. From Diamond springs an elevation was pointed out to him where miners were at work, and there he had his first view of mining in the new country. As a placer miner he had the experience of those who sought for gold-to-day a full purse and to-morrow poor, or vice versa.
Mr. Hearst divided his time until 1865 between placer mining and operating a quartz mill. He and his associates discovered a mine near where others had built and abandoned a mill. The one carried free gold and assayed high in value. In anticipation of making a fortune at once, they bought the mill. The lead soon gave out, however, and they were little better off than before they had made the strike. When Washoe attracted the first attention, Mr. Hearst had obtained nothing of great value from the gold fields but experience. He had obtained some gold from pla-
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