USA > California > The California pilgrim: a series of lectures > Part 5
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swindled and been otherwise morally corrupt; four Methodist Episcopal ministers as having sold liquors, gambled, or practised other immoralities; and one Protestant Methodist preacher as having become drunken and profane. These are all that I can be sure about. I have heard many reports of like cases. We all have. But we must not believe one of them unless we can have name, place, date, eye witnesses, and those veracious men. If we believe all the rumors and reports that reach us in this land, in respect to any matter, we shall become credulous fools, and shall soon find ourselves thoroughly stranded on the island of gullibility. There may have been among the clergymen other instances than these of moral defection. There probably have been, but they are not known to me.
I have known several ministers in the country not engaged in preaching, but in other employments. They are not of course included in the above list, because nothing bas ever been alleged and proved against their moral and christian character ; unless it be that they have given up preaching for the sake of entering on some secular pursuit. But one has always a legal, if not an equitable, right to leave the ministry ; and he has a moral right also to do it, when convinced, by his own experience and the advice of his brethren, that he is not fit for the station, and that he can be more truly useful in some other sphero; and also when he is broken down in health, and unable to perform the functions of a clergyman. It may ovon become his duty to leave the ministry and forego all his preferences for remaining in it. One should hesitate long before doing it ; but when he feels compelled to do so; ho ought to be ' allowed to do it, in a regular way, and without any loss of
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character or respect as a man and a christian. We must decide, cach for himself, through lack of any fairer method of determining, whether any in California have forsaken the ministry for reasons that could not justify them.
While we rejoice over the moral goodness that has persisted and now remains, we must allow what our eyes see to modify and correct our views of human nature. In the regions whence we came there has been, for some years, a growing disposition to think too well of our common nature, its innocencies, excellencies, capabilities, and susceptibilities to good. Human nature there is not so free to show its worst features as here. All the influences gendered in a well regulated social state are there thrown around men to repress their worst instinets and cherish their better ones. The atmosphere of society, as it invests them, is that of the temperate and not of the tropical zone. Their native propensities to evil are stinted and dwarfed ; they cannot become such rank and overshadowing growths as in other climes. And hence, few there can ever know what man is on the vicious side ; and into what a monster of villainy he may grow. Here we see our nature free to develop according to its leanings ; laterally, downwardly. Here, where there has been such a weakening of restraints, such a letting down of principles, so general a deterioration, and a vitiosity of public sentiment such, that it has brought down the educated and refined to wallow in filth with brutes, has corrupted the fountains of law and. justice, has entered among those who once professed religion, and perverted them, and has even invaded the ranks of the ministry, and caused some to fall ; here we have learned how terrible in wickedness a man may
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be, and to what depths of meanness, vileness, and baseness our nature is capable of being degraded.
Accordingly, we know human nature, in its leanings and capabilities, as the great mass of our contemporaries do not, and never can, till they are in positions like ours. We have ceased to think too well of human nature. Mankind are not rated high among us. Perhaps we hold men too cheaply. Possibly we are going to the other extreme, and are beginning to think too ill of our humanity. We may be too much depressed and humiliated by what we see. While we can not think too poorly of human nature in its utter and entire depravity, since it is bad enough at best, we should beware lest we think ill of it in such a way as to discourage effort and lead us to abandon hope ; for we have nought to do with melancholy and despair.
LECTURE IV.
Now I saw in my dream, that, when the second morning dawned, and Pilgrim thought of the long journey before him, the delays he should be likely to meet with, and the approach of the inelement season, he began to feel in haste to depart from the noisy metropolis of all Bustledom, and to proceed on his journey.
Howbeit, he had yet some places to visit, and some things to see in San Fastopolis and its vicinity. So he went forth under the guidance of Rev. Mr. Goodwill, Mr. Keep Faith, and Mr. Staunchman, a newly come person, who wished to be with them for better acquaintance ; and the four set out in great cheerfulness, on their tour of observation.
So Pilgrim took leave of Mr. Search, and his excellent lady, thanking them for their hospitality, and wishing them health and peace. From the house of their rest they descended to the bottom of a sandy hollow, through which the surplus runnings of several springs were slowly oozing Washerwoman's their way, underneath clothes lines, and among vale. wash-houses, where people were continually in the suds. Having picked their way across the moist sand- mixture, they came upon a hard topped hill, went down the broad street to a rich man's corner, where the blossoms of
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late summer yet lingered in border and parterre, and, turning to the right, they passed, by a still more steep declivity, into a second hollow deeper even than the first. Nearly over the little stream that trickled down the center was standing high up on posts a long, low building, which Mr. Staunchman, being rather verdant, took for a bowling- alley instead of a female academy. On the hill-side near by, towered aloft an umber colored, gothic structure ; a very A high church. high church in rather a lowly place ; but Keep Faith said it was warranted to him to afford the best music in the city.
Ascending to the very top of a second and higher hill, they came up to a checkered building, where they found a School upon an school, taught by Mr. Propriety and his wife elevation. Prudence, and a lady called Francesca. They were pleased with the bright and happy faces they saw all around them ; but they lingered only a moment, for the bell on the post began to ring, and study hours were at hand.
Having taken a look at the white chapel hard by, which was without either cupola or spire, they proceeded to the task of working down from those lofty regions, overlooking town, harbor, and bay, toward the places of mark and note, and the most frequented streets and lanes. Downward they went, and still downward, along a narrow, uneven, ill-graded street, crossing at right angles a broad and majestic avenue They come in where the " Upper Ten" had begun to build sight of Aristo- cratic row. them splendid mansions, not unlike the famous ones in the row in the great town of Vanity, where dwelt Lord Luxurious, Lord Livewell, and my Lord Millionaire
All at once they came to a halt at the corner of a dusty A place called and uneleanly opening, having very much the Portsmouth
square. appearance of a place in the city of Doomsend
1
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made for impounding stray cattle. This one had been enclosed with a fence of posts and rails which seemed to have served the purpose of keeping everything in and nothing out.
On one side of it they were shown the spot where an A midnight tra. excited populace, at the hour of midnight, had gedy. gibbeted a sorry thief, without the ordinary forms of law. Conflagrations had effaced everything but the memory of the scene. That, neither fires could burn nor waters quench; it would survive the generations of them that witnessed the horrors of the mournful tragedy.
Unsightly as was the square, it was the city's chief place of convocation ; and it was surrounded with some of the most imposing edifices the city could boast. Here were publishing establishments, flash saloons, fashionable drink- ing houses, customs hall, gambling saloons, hotels, exchanges, public offices, and blazing show-windows. In the sunny weather crowds of extravagantly dressed men thronged the side walks, smoking cigars, discussing the city finances, the last duel, the latest intrigue brought to light, the most An out-of-door reeent row, and swearing promiscuously. company. These were loafers by position, pimps, venders of raffle tickets, political hangers on, genteel men of leisure, and gentlemen of honor. Elbowing their way through the mass, and hurrying, went traders and contractors, head down and hat pitched forward; lawyers, with books and papers ; physicians, with pill and plaster, looking mysterious ; and clerks and express men, with letters and bundles ; while some cautious and careful men, to keep whole garments, took the middle of the strect.
Going onward to the street that ran by the lower side of the cattle pound, they found a narrow passage open
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between a line of horses and carriages ranged along one curb, and a row of boot blacks ranged along the other and furnished each with an armed chair and a footstool, in addition to scrapers, brushes and blacking. They did not even go upon the side walk in front of the "Dorado" of brick, believing the less that was known of its business and its fame, the better.
Presently they came in front of an imposing edifice of free stone, of a dun brown color ; a color thought to have significance. From the time it became the "theater The new City of injunctions " it was turned also into a Hall. speculators' elysium, toward the consummation of whose perfect bliss all citizens were forced to contribute their mite and majesty ; and the legitimacy of the doings of the "City Fathers" in procuring this monument to perpetuate their precious memories, in view of a quickly anticipated demise, was a matter of earnest dispute.
A little further on, at the head of a narrow street, there was a crowd of people, pale faced and thin, a great many of them. They were following a man, as a phenomenon, A sort of curios- who pretended to say that he was cured of ity. disease at one of the city hospitals; when, in the opinion of his fellow sufferers, he had been frightened out of his maladies by the cry of "fire ;" and it would not be strange if it were found that the man was a little beside himself, or that he was assuming to be in better condition than he really was, that he might avoid the careful charities of those who would be disposed to send him back.
Having got clear of this strange throng of men, they went East and South, turning from ono handsomely and compactly built street into another, and going in front of splendid blocks of buildings used for stores, banks and
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offices ; the history of the erection of many of which was singular, and the money to pay for them was gotten, no one could tell how. Some of the fine structures they examined were such as belonged to those reputed saints in former days, and some to reputed " latter day saints."
They had but just finished the survey of the rooms and buildings where the committee of seven hundred did their last job of human suspension, on the afternoon of a certain Sabbath, in the presence of gathered multitudes, and in a manner not to be talked of coolly, when Pilgrim had the rare fortune to accost another old acquaintance of his, as that personage was picking his way delicately through the sand, not far from a fashionable hotel highly colored An old acquain- with cream. The gentleman thus encountered
tance in a new dress. was very tall when taken at the full length. His lower limbs were extremely long and spindling, but never came straight at the knees. The garments that covered them appeared to have been marked with chalk . lines and charcoal, in huge squares, and they came down to gaiters of a very light color. His waistcoat was of a bright buff hue, and almost interminable. His breast pin was a daguerreotype, set in a huge rim of gold, of a lady on horse- back. What little coat he had on, in addition to the collar and sleeves, was of a sky blue tint. Embroidered 'kerchiefs hung out of the breast pockets, and the buttons were refined gilt. His thin hair fell down long, lank, and unctuous below a huge white beaver with a broad brim, which was set on the back projection of his head. In front, the face ran from the roots of the hair, at an angle of forty-five A glance at his degrees, to the end of the nose, where there features. was a peculiar motion of that feature, and thenee it retreated, at the same angle down to the throat.
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The under and retreating portion was covered all the way, more or less, by a cultivated crop of hair, in the middle of which somewhere it was supposed there might be a mouth. He wore pea green kid gloves, and in one hand sported an elegant, but rather frail, walking stick.
Recognising him at once by the shape of his face, Pilgrim ventured to speak to him, and to say, Is this you, sir ? How you are grown! How do you do, sir ?
NEW MAN. What fellow has the effrontewy and pwe- He opens his sumption to addwess a gentleman in the stweet solemn visage. without a pwoper intwoduction ? It is vewy strange, vewy vulgah, vewy indeed.
PIL. A fellow, if so it please you, my good sir, that knew you when a lad, and is happy to meet any one, formerly known to him, in this far land, where persons from the same province seem almost like one's kindred.
NEW MAN. Well sah, you perceive, sah, I am some- Ile shows that - thing exclusive, sah, in mie tastes and me he is exclusive. habits, sah ; and I can not, therefore, be on terms, sah, with evewy wustic and upstawt who chooses to couwt me presence, sah. I have not the honow to know you, sah.
PIL. Your speech has nonplused me, sir. You seem aristocratic in your breeding. Is it possible that I am mistaken ? Is not your name Corymandel Swell ?
C. S. That is me appellation, sah, and I flattew meself, sah, it is held in high esteem by othews besides meself. I move in the fust cercles, sah, and lay claim to all the pwewogatives of me buth and me position.
PIL. I made no doubt, sir, there were first circles, and families somewhat aristocratic in San Fastopolis, but I was not before aware that many of them got their pretensions 6
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out of books of genealogies. Would it not be well, sir, for all to observe a discreet silence in that matter ?
C. S. Pewhaps in some cercles they do, but in our cercle we requiwe fwee genewations of high blood and gentle bweeding. We are vewy exclusive, sah, vewy.
PIL. I had previously supposed, sir, that such distinc- tions were forgotten here; and, that, leaving intellect and character out of view, the lines of social distinction were drawn rather from a financial basis and related to a sort of market value.
C. S. Bless me ! How vulgah !
PIL. Your remarks still perplex me, sir, for I was not aware hitherto that your family held rank with the nobility. I remember that your father was once a client of Mr. Mr. Swell's ear- Freelove Gaine, my father. Was not your
ly history. father, sir, Mr. Hardigger Swell, who, in the suburb of Shabbytown, kept an entrepot for all the rag- pickers of Doomsend, and purchased their commodities at divers rates ? Are you not that son of his whom I used to see in cap and apron engaged in assorting stock ? If you are, sir, let us speak intelligibly. It would ill become me to disparage any one on account of his descent who bore a good character, and had pursued an honest calling, however humble his occupation.
C. S. To you, sah, I may be the same pusson, but not the same, sah, to San Fastopolis and our cercle, sah. I must be going, sah. Mawning, salı !
PIL. Your humble servant, Mr. Swell ! Good day !
Now I saw that Pilgrim hastened to overtake his companions, and found them watching the operations of a steam paddy, that, with voracious appetite, was gorging itself among the sand hills. He told them of his conversa-
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tion, and explained to them the relation that had subsisted between Mr. Swell and himself in other days, and said that he could not help wondering at the singular affectations and fancies of the man.
Keep Faith in turn explained that their city now boasted a most select cirele of exquisites, whose aristocratie reserve was based on descent from great orators, old heroes, and Oll heroes, first first families. Whether there were many whose line of birth was so well settled and
families, and other antece- dents.
clear as that of Mr. Swell, he could not affirm. But he was sure that few people eared to ask whether a man was born in a hovel, a log cabin, or a costly mansion ; and therefore it was possible for one to lay elaim to any parentage he pleased, since no one would take the trouble to examine his pretensions. However, he believed it somewhat difficult for a man, on the score of his ancestors, to pass himself off very long for much more than he was. People in general did not regard a "first family" man's son as superior to any other man's son, unless he truly was so; and no one would lose easte by treating this circle with indifference, or avowing an humble birth, and a life of many struggles with want and depression. He said the foppishness and pretense of the circle to which Mr. Swell belonged were becoming the laughing stock of the whole eity. They were enamored in no slight degree with Paris fashions and French habits; and carried their affection quite beyond the extent and style of the garments they wore. Not a few of them would write most loving letters to the East to sweethearts or wives, while here in A heart of dou- the West they were known as gay fellows and ble capacity. devoted gallants. And thus they were able to show how very large their hearts were, in having the
.
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capacity to love two persons to distraction at the same time, one of them near at hand, the other far over mountain and wave. In respect to the proper behavior, social position, and faultless sincerity of the adored one far away they were often painfully solicitous, and constantly on the watch for the least shadow of suspicion, while they seemed rarely to concern themselves, for a moment, about the moral character and social standing of the admired one here. It was a gentlemanly circle indeed, and their conduct who composed it threw a becoming luster over their high breeding, and guileless conduct.
Pilgrim said he had learned that things began to go vogue are old in
Fashions in in very much the same sort of way in Doomsend Doomsend. a few years before its destruction. These fashions were said to have been fostered, if not introduced, by means of rolkas, waltzes, masquerades, private theatricals, curtained boxes, and other such mischievous contrivances as were a delight to the voluptuous.
Now, by this time, I saw that they were come into the famous Vale of Charms, which was in truth a vale no longer ; the levelers having removed the hills that once formed its northern border, and left the whole scene Happy Valley, exposed to the rough winds and the rude gaze of the town. Here they passed by long rows of cottages, some of them neat, with grass plats and flower beds in front, huddled together in the sand along very narrow streets, as if there were no room to spare for a breathing place out of doors, and every man must be content to snuff sand on his own square rod.
Emerging at length into a more open region, they came presently in sight of Rev. Mr. Good Will's house, standing full up against a huge sand bank, on the southern border.
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Ile invited them to enter and refresh themselves. This They regale they were in no wise loth to do, for they were themselves. weary, and their interest had also been some- what awakened by outside compliments. So they all went in and rested, while Martha, the mistress of the house, and her sister, set before them food and drink, which they partook of with much relish and good cheer ; Keep Faith and Staunchman all the while particularly admiring the conversation of the ladies, and the propriety and grace of their manners.
They soon took leave, reluctantly, of their entertainers, Another church. and went around a hill to a church, standing against a sand bank, well built and well looking, except that the bell was swung under the open sky, on the deck of a half finished tower, awaiting the day when it might ring out a still more joyful note than ever before. Proceeding thence they made their way among hills, and shrubs, and thickets, down into the Vale of Pleasure. This they crossed without stopping, and mounted as quickly as they could a Orphan Asylum, steep hill ; and only paused when they reached a lone house on the eminence, which had a sign upon it indicating that it was an institution of benevolence and charity. They were admitted and showny about the establishment by the matrons, Patience and Economy. When they were told what sum these ladies received for their care and pains taking, and on how little the whole was supported, they were quite amazed, and began to think there must be some new economies practiced, and in proper forms too, for the wards of the establishment were not shabbily dressed, nor had they the thin and starved look sometimes so painful to the visitor at similar places.
After they were through with their visit, and had paid
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their tribute of regard to this institution and i's managers, they turned to look at the scene below. There were some Pleasant valley. of the loveliest spots found in the vicinity of San Fastopolis. There were large enclosures, surrounded by very high and close fences, within which were groves, shady walks, shrubbery, vegetables, fruits, and flowers, and much to please the eye and gratify the taste. In the midst of these enclosures were secluded cottages, looking from the height like homes of beauty and goodness, to some of which it was said strangers were never admitted ; though Mr. Staunchman, who had traveled in the Levant, repelled the notion that any of them resembled a Turkish harem.
Now I saw in my dream, when they had gone to some ¿other localities, and had completed the tour of the city, and Pilgrim had noted all matters that were of interest to him, as a pilgrim, that he set about an immediate departure for the rural districts, and the provincial towns ; such as he might be able to visit.
So all his friends went with him to Signal Height, for bearings, distances, and directions. Thence they proceeded down by the northern beach to the garrison road, and the .They part com- Vale of Fountains. Here they took affectionate
pany, and Pil-
grim sets out. leave of their friend, no longer a stranger, and bade him God speed. Keep Faith, however, had resolved to go with Pilgrim, and they wished him a pleasant journey, and a profitable one.
. Thus these two went up from the Vale of Fountains together, and winding over the hill lost sight of their friends. They had not proceeded far when they came to the decaying Presidio. remnants and mementoes of early times, the old barracks of the soldiery, fast tumbling into ruins. As they were looking about the spot, for a few moments, much to
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their surprise, they found a man lying asleep on some blankets in one corner. . When aroused, he said that his name was Mark Stoppes ; that he had set out some weeks Mr. Stoppes and ago on a sort of prospecting tour or pilgrimage, his abode. but coming to this spot, and thinking it a pity that so good a place for living should remain empty, and at the instance of some friends living near, he had stopped there to wait on Providence, and see what might turn up. It was possible he might yet conclude it was not the best practicable thing for him to go out on a pilgrimage. Pilgrim was about to solicit his company and urge him to go right on, but Keep Faith whispered to him that it would never do, he knew something of the man's history, he would certainly delay their journey, and it was doubtful, if doing their utmost, they could ever get him through. The best thing to be done for such men was to stir them up, and then set them a good example. Howbeit, as they went onward Mark Stoppes kept pretty close to them for some time, and The old fort. till they came to a road that led, by many a winding, up to a famous old castle, built on the summit of a pile of bleak rocks hanging over the sea. At the mouth of this road, under some scrubby trees, lounged two long faced, lugubrious looking men, who seemed engaged in lamenta- tions over the sins and miseries of the times in general, and of later days and all Bustledom, in particular. Mr. Mark Stoppes introduced these persons as Mr. Other Days, and Mr. Doleful Dumps.
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