USA > California > San Francisco County > San Francisco > San Francisco, a history of the Pacific coast metropolis, Volume I > Part 9
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The amusement was by no means confined to the younger members of the com- munity. It was no uncommon thing for a mother who could boast a half score of children to display her agility and grace of movement. Nothing was more cal- culated to arouse the enthusiasm of all present than when a grandmother took the floor and revived the memory of her youthful days by showing how they danced when she was a girl. Perhaps she executed a double shuffle bearing on her head a tumbler filled with water, not a drop of which was spilled while she danced; and when she had finished, for a while she was the heroine of the room, and over her head were broken more cascarones filled with bright colored confetti than were expended on her vivacious granddaughters.
Not infrequently the head of the family, though his life may have been filled with years and wisdom, cut a pigeon wing to demonstrate that he was still to be reckoned with, and he too, like his dame received his round of applause. But as a rule the people of mature age surrendered the floor, which oftener than otherwise was well tamped adobe, to the youngsters whose favorite dance, until it was super- seded by the waltz, was the fandango which they executed with a degree of skill which called for frequent rounds of applause from their elders, who reposed in the seats of honor against the wall of the room; and from the servants and de- pendents of all kinds who crowded every opening that commanded a view of the dancers.
The music on these occasions would scarcely command the admiration of mod- ern devotees of the waltz or other dances. Sometimes a violin was available, but not often. The instrument most used was the guitar upon which many performed with a skill more suggestive of a natural talent than an acquired art. Some of the early visitors make mention of the use of the mandolin, but there could not have been many in the province for long after the gringo came it was still an unfamiliar instrument. It is possible that there were performers who could ex- tract from the guitar sweet sounds, but the semi-professionals who gave their serv- ices at dances without scorning a consideration only succeeded in producing a monotonous twang which, however, had the merit of being good time and that is all the dancers asked.
There was one other feature of the fiesta which deserves mention. It afforded the members of both sexes an opportunity to display their finery. Dana says tbe women were excessively fond of dress, and intimates that the sex had a monopoly of the vanity which finds outward expression in rich and beautiful garments, but the Californian caballero attached as much importance to dress as his sister. When arrayed in all his glory with slashed pantaloons of velveteen or broadcloth, profusely trimmed with gold or silver lace and buttons of those metals, a black silk
Dancing a Favorite Recreation
Old and Young Dance
Music at the Fiestas
Displays of Finery
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handkerchief about his neck, a vest of brilliant scarlet and a silk sash and a gaily decorated broad sombrero, he was a very gorgeous affair and was fully conscious of the fact.
The dress of the native Californian of both sexes had distinctive features but they can hardly be regarded as a peculiar product of the taste of the people for nearly all that appeared characteristic was borrowed from the outside. The calzonera or slashed pantaloons were derived from Mexico and so was the stiff brimmed hat which was sometimes loaded with ornaments of silver, and in the case of the more opulent occasionally with braid fashioned from the more precious metal. The serape which the men wore over their shoulders, and the rebosa which the women threw over their heads were also of Mexican or New Mexican origin. Indeed everything in the way of finery worn by the people of the province came from foreign lands, and for the most of the articles of every day wear they were likewise indebted to the outside world.
Social Gradations
The gradations of society were not many and the line of demarcation between classes was so faint as to be almost indistinguishable. The only sharp division was that which separated Indians from all others who were called gente de razon, or people of reason. The latter embraced negroes, mulattoes, Sandwich islanders, in fact all except aborigines. The admixture of blood was very obvious, and all who could establish the slightest claim to being white traced their origin to Castile.
It cannot be said that the commingling of blood had the effect witnessed in some countries where the admixture resulted in a decided improvement as in the case of the blend which produced what we call the Anglo-Saxon. There is a con- sensus of opinion that with the exception of a few favored by fortune, and who by courtesy were designated as the upper classes by visiting foreigners, the great majority of the California colonists were lazy, ignorant and addicted to the con- sumption of aguardiente.
Indolenee of the Natives
The indolence of the people so conspicuously exhibited has been attributed to various causes. The fact that most of the Californians who found their way into the province after the establishment of the missions were of the military class is held responsible for the general aversion for work. It is assumed that the chil- dren of these colonists inherited the disdain for useful occupation from their mili- tary ancestors, but this view disregards the undoubted fact that it did not take long for those settlers who found their way into the country from various lands, and whose occupations were usually of a peaceful nature, to fall into the easy going ways of the natives.
Early Immigrants
It is not in evidence that the adventurous few who made their homes in Cali- fornia, and took unto themselves wives of the country, ever developed the idea that work is degrading, but they soon adapted their lives to the plan of moving along the line of least resistance, and at the time of the occupation there was a not inconsiderable number who regarded that event as the passing of the golden age.
The Simple Life
It is not difficult to account for this condition of mind. It was an outcome of what may be regarded as a modified form of the simple life. The latter very often was involuntary, and had some features which sharply differentiated it from voluntary asceticism but the result was nearly alike in both instances. When the number of things used by man is limited the necessity for exertion to reach his wants is diminished. If he chooses to roam about with no other covering than a
Dress of the Natives
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breech clout he has no occasion to bother himself about the manufacture of tex- tiles, and secures immunity from a multitude of troubles, big and little, which con- stitute the penalty that man pays for the satisfaction of achieving a higher civil- ization.
Californians did not strive consciously or unconsciously to achieve this latter condition. Even those in whom a certain degree of prosperity had engendered longings which were perhaps fostered by tradition never succeeded in attaining to that restlessness of desire for more which is the mainspring of progress. The conception of wealth and its uses was of the narrowest. Even the possession ,of land failed to carry with it the same importance that attached to it in older coun- tries. The chief value of a ranch was in the stock that roamed over it, and a man was rich in proportion to the number of cattle, horses and sheep owned by him.
This primitive concept of wealth produced incongruous results. It was no uncommon, thing, we are informed, "to see a man of fine figure and courtly manner, dressed in broadcloth and velvet, and seated on a horse, covered with trappings, without a real in his pocket and absolutely suffering for the want of something to eat." If that was , true of men whose outward appearance suggested comfort, what must have been the condition of those who in the struggle for existence were not able to secure enough clothes to cover their nakedness?
But it is unwise to base a judgment on the exceptional. In spite of the records which show that at various times the people who inhabited California between 1776 and 1846 were in severe straits there is good reason for believing that ex- treme want was by no means a continuous experience. There were doubtless times when the people generally were on short commons, and it may even be true that there were occasions when the scourge of famine afflicted them; but so far as mere meat and bread were concerned, it is not likely that the deficiency ever extended over a long period, or that it was so great that it carried with it the menace of starvation.
Man, however, does not live by bread alone, and if we are to judge the lives of a people correctly we must not confine our observations to the mere matter of subsistence. Whether properly or improperly we base our estimates of those who have gone before us upon their achievements of a material sort. We may blunder in doing so. Our inferences drawn from a beautiful Gothic cathedral may be all wrong; or we might be accused of overrating the accomplishments of the ancient Greeks and Romans if we tried to read the story of their lives in the ruins of their buildings, but we cannot go far astray if we study the self-imposed limitations of a population. ,
We lack no evidence on that score. The native Californians placed in a region where flowers grow spontaneously never exhibited any fondness for them. Father Serra, it is related, was filled with joyous enthusiasm when he found wild roses which reminded him of Castile, but his admiration for them did not communicate itself to his flock. The Californians did not have gardens nor did they .plant trees. With the example continuously before them of the padres, who with the aid of the Indians succeeded in growing . fruit of good quality, they never thought of securing like results. When the American came the only garden and orchards were those under the care of the missionaries which were not always well kept. Vancouver records that the vineyards were not properly cultivated and consequently were not in good condition. At Santa Clara apple, peach, pear and fig trees were growing, but none were seen about the ranches.
Spirit of Contentment
Queer Contrasts
Exceptional Dearth
Neglect of Graces of Life
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Very often, if not invariably, the ranch buildings of the Californians were placed in positions which seemed to have been selected with regard to availability for defense, and without any consideration for the possibility of making them attractive. More frequently than otherwise the site chosen was barren and incapable of cultivation had the desire to cultivate been present. No trees or gardens sur- rounded them, and the practice of having the corral convenient was productive of discomforts in the shape of dust when the weather was dry, and of mud in the vicinity of the home when it rained. The condition sometimes was suggestive of that met with in Ireland and some other countries where poverty compels the inhabitants to live more intimately with the lower order of animals than is the case in regions where space is abundant and the inclination to use it more general.
Soap not Freely Used
One observer, Wilkes, noted that there was little good soap to be had in Cali- fornia and set,down the fact as an indication of a general disinclination to use it; but it is not impossible that the indifference he spoke of was due to the feeling that its use involved an expenditure of energy which could not accomplish the ob- ject that caused it to be put forth, as the dirt floors of the houses and the general untidiness , of the surroundings of the home must have demanded an incessant ap- plication to secure results.
The limited use of soap is more interesting viewed from the standpoint of the economist than from that of the sanitarian , because it calls attention to the fact that the Californians were in the habit of shipping out of the country great quan- tities of raw material which with the expenditure of a little energy could have been converted into the best of cleansing agents. That it was not so employed can only be attributed to the operation of,a system which stifled ambition by nar- rowing the field of human desire.
Habit of Dependence
This contradiction was witnessed on every hand. It exhibited itself in the case with which the relation of dependent was accepted, and in the cheerful acquiescence of those who with a little exertion might have provided themselves with many luxuries of which they deprived themselves. It would be a mistake, however, to attribute this deprivation to the spirit of voluntary self denial. The ascetic ten- dency was by no means prevalent. It did not even have as a basis the philosophic thought that the most things (men use are superfluities and can be dispensed with. Californians were contented because their training, and that of their ancestors had been along lines which permitted them to think leniently of the shiftless and incompetent members of society.
Simple Diet of the People
There is no contradiction involved in this assumption. It exhibited itself in the fact that the most of the Californians were almost childlike in their eagerness to se- cure and enjoy things which they were incapable of making themselves. Although their habitual diet was as plain as that of a Kentucky frontiersman in the days of Daniel Boone they craved luxuries and were always ready to purchase them when the adventurous trader brought them to their doors. Even in the best households, where as a rule there was plenty to eat the bill of fare was of the shortest and was scarcely ever varied. Fresh beef and frijoles with tortillas appeared on the table day after day. The beef was usually roasted on the coals, but sometimes boiled. Vegetables were scarce and fruit was almost unknown outside the missions. There was a little chocolate and sugar brought from Mexico consumed by the very well to do, but no other beverages such as other people take at their meals were common.
The cooking was as wretched as the bill of fare was limited. The tortillas
Unkempt and Un- lovely Sur- roundings
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which served as bread were thin cakes of maize flour which was ground on metates. They were baked before the fire or like griddle cakes on sheets of heated iron. An inordinate fondness for hogs' lard was a trait not suggestive of epicurianism. A favorite dish was boiled beans afterwards fried in hogs' fat which was used without stint when it could be commanded. The use of olive oil appears to have been very limited. Outside of the mission at San Diego which contained a grove there were few olive trees planted, a singular circumstance considering the marked predilection for this vegetable oil in Spain, and all the more remarkable as the olive once it begins to produce continues to bear indefinitely. The trees in the mis- sion orchard in the oldest mission, which were set out nearly a century and a half ago are still producing.
CHAPTER IX
LIFE IN CALIFORNIA BEFORE THE AMERICAN OCCUPATION
SOME SQUALID FEATURES-DRINKING AND GAMBLING-VICES ADOPTED BY NEW COMERS -THE CALIFORNIA BULL RING-EXTRAVAGANT HABITS EASILY ACQUIRED-TRADING INSTINCT NOT HIGHLY DEVELOPED-EXCESSIVE FEAR OF LUXURIOUS HABITS-THE TROUBLESOME RUSSIANS-CAUSES OF CALIFORNIAN BACKWARDNESS-YANKEE TRAD- ERS ON THE COAST-SMUGGLING A FINE ART-CELEBRATIONS AT THE MISSION ST. FRANCIS-AN UNCONVENTIONAL PEOPLE-SEXUAL MORALITY.
C N AMERICAN writer reviewing the conditions existing in California before the occupation declares that the nearest TY H A approach to Arcadian life was that reached by the people during its pastoral age. His assumption is somewhat at variance with the facts as he presents them, and hardly SEAL OF OF SAN F CO accords with the ideas of simplicity which permeate the sixteenth century romances. The lives of the Californians were by no means idyllic. The military taint, and imported urban vices, divested them of the characteristics pertaining to purely rural communities.
Not an Arcadia
The rural side of life in mission days was the most pronounced, and in many parts the pastoral was most in evidence, but there is less suggestion of Arcadia than of Homeric days. While not deserving the appellation of , quarrelsome, the Californians were by no means Quakers. Their padres may have taught them that peace was desirable, but they often were at outs with each other and their brief history is filled with tales of conflicts which might have made their story a tragic one if it were not for the disposition to act very much as the modern French duelist is charged with doing when he enters upon an affair of "honor."
It is not of these idiosyncrasies, however, that we are thinking when we reject the Arcadian assumption to accept which we must believe that a spirit of real con- tentment existed and accounted for a condition approximating primitiveness. There is nothing admirable in the "simple life" of the early Californians, because on oc- casion they displayed that it was not voluntarily assumed, and as a rule they ex- hibited a readiness to accept urban vices without offering the excuses which are tendered by the dwellers in cities when charged with , laxity.
The domestic merry makings and their brighter side were dwelt on in another chapter, but no reference was made to the well established fact that they were oftener than otherwise attended by exhibitions of drunkenness, the result of an indulgence in the fiery spirituous liquor known as aguardiente. This was a vice to which the Mexicans were addicted and was imported into the province by the colo- nists, many of whom were not of irreproachable character.
Natives were not Quakers
Primitive Conditions
Drunkenness and Gam- bling
57
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Another vice freely indulged in was that of gambling, which likewise formed a leading attraction of all gatherings, the purely domestic as well as the public. Weddings, christenings, and occasions unconnected with religious ceremonies were alike enlivened by the presence of the gamester, who not infrequently was a "pro- fessional" if that word may be properly applied to a practice like gambling.
It is not in a spirit of pharisaism that an American writer should approach this subject, as many have done, but rather as an investigator seeking an explanation of phenomena whose outward manifestations are calculated to deceive; and it may as well be said at the outset, in order to divest the assertions here made of unfairness, that after the occupation the gringo who dispossessed the native Californian out- Heroded Herod, and that he furnished a more striking example of the lengths to which man may go in his endeavor to secure something without working for it than any other people on the globe.
An Excuse for the Pioneer
It may be justly claimed as a mild sort of extenuation for the excesses of the first few years after the American occupation that they were to some extent the result of an existing condition. Had the gold hunters found their way into an environment , of another kind, one in which gambling was vigorously deprecated, even when practiced, there would have been no such flagrant exhibitions of disre- gard for morality and the conventions of an advanced civilization as were witnessed in pioneer days in this City.
Gambling Unchecked
It cannot be urged that the vice of gambling was inherited, but it is true that the propensity to do as Romans do when in Rome had a liberal exemplification in the closing years of the "Forties" of the last century and in the first years of the ensuing decade. Before our flag floated over Monterey gambling was interdicted nowhere in California. Professional gamesters were on hand wherever the people were gathered together for any purpose and they plied their vocation openly, and all classes risked,their money in the hope of winning.
Betting at Horse Races
Betting was carried to excess at horse racing, and no Californian ever thought of urging that the sport he was so fond of had for its purpose the improvement of the breed of horses. He was not temperamentally truthful, but he would have scorned to make believe that he had any other object in view in attending a race than securing the pleasure he derived from witnessing the contest, and the oppor- tunity it afforded him to bet his money on the result, which he did with an amazing disregard of the consequences to himself and family. There were few Califor- nians who wholly escaped the vice, and there were many who did not hesitate to stake their last peso, or the saddle on the back of their horse, and even the clothes on their own backs, when other money or property were unavailable for the purpose.
The Bull Ring
The taste for the bull ring was not indigenous; it came into the country througlı Mexico, but the sport as displayed in California had modifications which were the outcome of the general proficiency in horsemanship which asserted itself rather in showing skill in handling the beast to be attacked than in efforts to elude its fury, or to show superiority by slaying it for the gratification of the onlookers. The strict rules of the game as it was played in Spain were sometimes adhered to but oftener than otherwise the effort of the bull baiter was confined to dexterously throwing down the animal by a peculiar twist of the tail, and to keeping out of its way until this feat was achieved. On great occasions, however, such as the Mexi- can national holiday of September 16th, the baited brute would be stuck full of skewers adorned with ribbons and a real feast of blood would be afforded. Most
Herod Outheroded
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amusement was derived from turning a bull and bear into an enclosure to fight for the mastery. It was less hazardous watching them than encountering an enraged bull even when the latter had its horns sawed off as a measure of safety for the bold matador.
It would be hard to establish a theory of Arcadian simplicity out of the mate- rial which the annals of early California furnish, or indeed of simplicity of any sort excepting that of a dense general ignorance. The "simple life" of the Cali- fornians did not stand for self abnegation, as we shall see later on when we examine the records and find disclosed the fact that there was an eager desire to share in luxuries, an echo of the enjoyment of which came to them from the outside world when a traveler penetrated their country, or which were hinted at in the stocks carried in the trading vessels visiting the coast for the purpose of obtaining cargoes of hides and tallow.
When such opportunities presented themselves they were eagerly seized by all classes able to buy; and it was to this propensity that many of them owed their undoing. Long after American was substituted for Mexican rule the Californians continued to bewail the facility with which the outsider was able to strip them of their possessions in a perfectly legitimate manner. Their plaint amounted to a virtual admission that they were as incompetent as children to take care of them- selves, and that like children they were ready to pay the price for anything that caught their fancy.
It was to this shortcoming that many of the foreigners who entered the province and engaged in business owed their prosperity. In the arena of trade the native Californian exhibited no more skill than he did in the workshop or in the field. The Spaniard and his descendants stood idly by wbile Frenchmen, Englishmen and Americans conducted thriving businesses. They did not hold aloof because they despised trade; the Spanish grandee in his home might have had a genuine con- tempt for such dealings, but his new world offshoots did not refrain from trading on that account. Their lack of energy and incapacity for initiative of any kind were the real obstacles to their engaging in commerce and not Castillian pride.
If the native Californians had possessed any of those qualities which make great trading peoples they would have soon disposed of the restraints placed upon them by Spain and later by Mexico. The American colonists when the mother country sought to bring them into harmony with her commercial system by taxing tea with- out previously obtaining their consent, boarded the ships bringing it and threw their cargoes overboard. The Spanish settlers in California, from the beginning, quietly acquiesced in a system which made them dependent upon the Crown for supplies of foreign things, and they were only heard in feeble protest when through neglect the galleons which were supposed to put in an appearance at stated inter- vals failed to do so, and threw them wholly on their own resources, or compelled them to resort to illicit trade to eke out their wants which, under such circum- stances necessarily were limited.
In describing the long quest for a passage to India mention was made of the trade with the Philippines and the efforts made to retain it exclusively in Span- ish hands. The transports engaged in this business were not permitted to pursue it after the fashion of men bent upon securing all the profit which the traffic might bring. In the beginning they were placed under restrictions which indicated a paternal solicitude for the consumer, and also some of that spirit which signalizes
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