USA > California > The California pilgrim: a series of lectures > Part 6
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When Pilgrim asked them how they did, what their business was, and why they were found in such a plight ; An old business they said they had become the proprietors, and in a new coun-
iry. were acting as keepers of the castle up yonder. Their business was to show it to visitors, get as many
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admirers of it as possible, and obtain such aid as they could in hindering its decay and replenishing their pockets. Their plight could be seen ; their business was rather dull ; and their health was pretty miserable, "thank you."
On further inquiry, the travelers were informed that the castle was called Castle Ancient, and was inhabited till recently, and had been from time immemorial, by a giant known through the whole country as giant Old Times. A The gold fever few years ago there was a yellow fever that took all to the mines. broke out here of a very malignant type, which raged like an epidemie through all this region. It carried off all the inhabitants, but a few that were in other ways sickly and feeble, and some lone women. About the same period it was supposed the giant must have fallen into The giant's ske. a decline ; and having neither doctor nor leton. nurse, must finally have died of negleet and starvation. At all events his huge skeleton was found by themselves, lying in one of the caves of the castle, and might there have remained uncared for and unknown, but for their benevolent zeal, and disinterested endeavors. They had resolved to make the castle, and were now trying A shrine for pit- to make it, a shrine for pilgrims, and a place grims. of resort for the lovers of the old and the venerable, and the admirers of the antique ; and they were strongly in hope they might gain a livelihood by the contri- butions of visitors.
Mr. Other Days said he had been an inhabitant of the country for many years. It was not as it used to be. Some called the difference thn march of improvement ; he called it the progress of evil. Once the people were all of The ancient re- one way of thinking about society, religion, gime. and morals. The country was large and there
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was room enough for every body. There was no dispute about land titles, and no troublesome "squatters." The farms were immense. There were plenty of Indians to look after the stock, and raise some acres of wheat and barley. Men and women had nothing else to do than ride as many horses as they pleased and enjoy themselves as they liked. There would be a pic-nic or a grand fandango somewhere every week or two. After mass, Sunday was a fine day for sport. Horse races, bull fights, cock fights, card tables, and aguardiente, were always plenty and never out of order. The Missions were in good condition, and were like the borders of Paradise, open to all who would share their bounties, and there were thousands of Indians to keep them in shape. Keep Faith inquired of him if it were not true that the country had been declining, in almost every respect, from the time he first came to it. Mr. Other Days was not Decline admit- willing to admit that such was the case. Hc
ted. would only allow that the Missions had been all the while running down. But he thought that fact might be accounted for, by attributing their decline to quarrels among the grandees of the country, which of them should be the greatest. This was not strange. Such an event once occurred among the chosen disciples of the Lord.
One Mr. Wide Awake now rode up to the company on a spirited and fleet horse, and he reined in to hear the conver- sation. He had met Mr. Other Days before.
But, said Keep Faith, how was it with manufactures, arts, schools, learning, and science ? Were these in a flourishing state, and were they exerting a healthful and benign influence on the people, and tending all the while to elevate them ?
O. D. They were not very many nor very flourishing,
1
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Primitive socie- sir. But this was a primitive people and did ty. Happy with-
out innovations. not need them. They were happy without them. Such things might have done them as much harm as good.
K. F. That last remark is a mere guess of yours. The main facts were as I supposed. Most of the people lived in rather poor houses ; wrought but little ; ate tortillas and beef ; rode races, and went to fandangos ; and, on the whole, led indolent lives, and were lacking in enterprise.
Mr. Doleful Dumps said he should not try to be wise about the state of things under the old reign ; he came hither at the beginning of the new, and the new was bad enough in all conscience. From what he had read and heard, he once imagined that this must be the picture land of his dreams from his boyhood, and it was thus invested with almost every attraction and beauty. He came hither, and brought a large company of selected men with him, and Outline of paid nearly all the expenses. They were
grand company
scheme. expecting to shovel up a few cart loads of gold dust to put in their vaults, and then they were all going to settle down in some fine valley, and flourish together in one community, with himself at its head; while every thing would go on smoothly and prosperously, and the world would look on their contented lot and rising greatness with admiration.
But, what would not human beings do ? No sooner were they here than his men nearly all deserted him, and went this way and that. He had to get along as he could, by paying extra wages to those who even consented to remain at all. He had been to the mines and shoveled many a cart A long and dole- load, but it was far enough from being gold. ful story. He had traded largely ; and then his customers
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ran off without paying their debts. He had tried a rancho, but the drouth pinched some of his crops, and the competi- tion brought the price of what produce he had down to nothing. He had owned a steamboat, and that blew up. He had shipped sand from Gold Bluff, and that did not pay its freight. He had run for office, and got beaten. He had speculated in lands, and the " squatters" took them. He to each whose titles antedated his. He had loaned money, and lost it by failures, fires, and rascalities Now his stocks were all run down to a figure lower than that at which he
. had bought water lots, and found there were three owners
. bought them up. In fact, there was nothing in the country which a respectable man could turn his hand to that promised to reward his pains.
Mr. Wide Awake said he thought a man of perseverance and enterprise, with some grit in his composition, content with reasonable gains, had still a chance of golden success.
D. D. No, sir ! That's the old story. I can contra- dict it. The whole country is a sham. It contradicts itself. You can rely on nothing.
W. A. On nothing but yourself. That ought to do.
D. D. No, it won't do. The climate is never right.
On climate, s-a- There are no two places alike. It is always
sons, produc- tions, and mar- kets. too hot or too cold, too wet or too dry, toº antiseptic or too malarious, too debilitating or too bracing. You don't know what to plant and sow, nor when seed time is, nor when harvest will come. You don't know what you will raise, nor how to take care of what is raised, nor when to sell what you have got, nor if your coin won't depreciate when you chance to get any. The fires will burn you out ; the floods will drown you out ; the Indians will steal you out ; the speculators will rob you out and out ;
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and the State tax will take all that is left. Such a country it is !
W. A. You are getting excited, sir ! Stop and breathe !
D. D. And, besides, you can't really say that eity, county, or state is worth one straw ; for the office holders set the people at defiance, and manage all the funds they ean get hold of as they please ; and they will retire from their posts when their fortunes are made, and it shall please them to do so. If you talk about turning them out, and hint that election is coming, they shake their fists in your face, and threaten to bankrupt you, and ruin the credit of city, county, and state, if you do not let them alone, or llow offices are promise to reelect them. You have to offer held and man- aged. them large salaries to get them to take offiee ; and then they whine to have their salaries raised till you give them all sorts of extras and pickings ; and every little while you have to appropriate largely in money to buy them off from an abuse of trust, or other raseality. A pretty country it is where public men make it their aim to get a private fortune out of any office, and are not thought sharp unless they do, whether they attend to the duties of their stations or not; that being esteemed a very minor consideration
W. A. You are rather severe, my friend ! You must have suffered at somebody's hands. Has any one been bleeding you ?
D. D. They've done nothing else for three years ; the whole posse of them from the Governor down. They're all blood suckers.
K. F. Mr. Dumps, let us change the subject a little. They change the It seems to me that it must be a peculiar subject. satisfaction to one in your condition and frame
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of mind, to have a Sabbath come with its quiet and its serenity, and to be able to go to church, to Sabbath school, to prayer meeting, and to have intercourse with christians, in the midst of christian society.
D. D. It may be a satisfaction to know there are such institutions in existence here; Heaven knows there never was such need of them any wltere on the face of the earth before. Some may like to attend on these, such as they be, but I don't go to them very often. They are not the right stamp for me. There is a deal of modernism about them, The preaching and too much entliusiasm, and wild fire, and does not suit. manology, and preaching every thing, and naturalism, and all that.
K. F. But you would have nothing 'unnatural in churches, would you ? Churches ought to keep up with the times, and preaching should be adapted to circumstances.
D. D. I have been brought up to think that truth and religion are always the same, and I think so, and I don't The old is bet- want to hear new fangled preaching, nor see ter. these new fashioned things. I believe in the good old ways.
K. F. So you should. You are right in part. Abso- lute truth can not change. Religion in spirit and essence is the same always. But, in the view of men, truth will undergo many modifications ; and religion will develop in various forms, during ages of time. Abraham held to truth and believed, in his day ; but Peter believed much more truth than did Abraham, and was a good deal modernized as compared with Abraham, because he sat at Christ's feet, and had his views enlarged and new truths revealed to him. It is possible that in our day there may be those whose views of some truths are clearer than were those of Peter.
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In the elucidation of principles and doctrines, in the manner of applying them, in modes of illustration and In what there argument, and in many similar things, the may be progress . churches may and must progress with the
advancing ages. And while truth can not be altered, it may be adapted, and our views of it may be very much enlightened and improved. Calvin was wiser than Chrysostom. Bunyan's Pilgrim, and my friend, here, the Pilgrim, are the same in spirit, and bound to the same country, but they are not in all particulars alike. That were impossible, in such different times and countries.
D. D. I have only now . got sight of this Pilgrim. I wish him well, I am sure. It is a strange country he sojourns in, I am certified. Speaking of ministers, there Dr. Bookdust. was my old pastor Dr. Bookdust, as up and down a man as ever walked an aisle, and sound as a roach, he always preached a regular doctrinal sermon every Sunday forenoon, and only varied that by lectures on the catechism. He was a remarkably sound preacher. But when did I ever Comparisons. hear a doctrinal sermon, or an exposition of the catechism in this bad land ? In fact nobody preaches like Dr. Bookdust, nor prays like him, nor dresses so properly, nor looks so divinely. No choir sings like his choir, no Sabbath school is so large, and so interesting as his ; and then every congregation here looks so out of sorts; and what churches they have to meet in. They are all poor affairs.
K. F. But, you forget, sir, what country you are in, and how -
D. D. No, I don't ! That is just what I'm thinking of all the while.
K. F. Well, you forget what obstacles and hindrances
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there are in the way of the ministers anl churches here ; Not to be rash in and such considerations as surely ought to censure. make you slow to censure and condemn them. The evils of the times and the state of society are such as to compel the clergymen to preach almost solely, for the present, against publie misdoings and social vices. And hence, in part, arises the apparent neglect of that sort of preaching you admire. Perhaps, after all, these preachers have some perceptions of things, and observe keenly, and they may be wiser in their choice of subjects, and in the modes of presenting them, than you imagine.
D. D. But don't they " secularize" the pulpit by preaching about Journalism and Japan, Shade trees and The pulpit in Cemeteries, Common Councils and Chinese, danger. Legislators and Public measures ? I don't want to hear anything but the pure gospel.
K. F. Can the principles of the gospel have too broad an application ? Ought not ministers to enforce them upon men in every calling, and desire to have them govern the conduct in every possible sphere of action ? 'There is nothing unfit to be preached about which the gospel ought to modify, though too much prominence may be given to matters of small importance. This fear of secularizing the pulpit is an Secularizing the old bugbear. The Roman Catholics thought pulpit in early times. Luther and his eompeers did it in their day ; and that they secularized the Bible, too, by putting it into the hands of the common people. In England the established church thought the Puritans were lowering the pulpit and degrading religion. In the time of our Revolution the tories and others thought the pulpit was secularized by sermons on liberty, equality, and human rights, and such fiery eloquence as would inflame a congregation with zeal
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for Congress and the army, and set the whole town on a blaze. But the pulpit had survived all such "secularizing," and could hardly be injured by any similar endeavor to apply the gospel to the times, and to men as they are, in this late day. Men must be preached to where they are to be found, as well as where they ought to be.
Pilgrim said he thought Paul was orthodox and sound, though he did write and preach about going to law, duties to government, industry, thrift, enterprise, keeping house, wearing the hair and dress, and taking meals, and making
Pilgrim closes tents, and sending newsmen, and taking care the discussion.
of books and parchments, and other secular affairs. Paul's method of preaching was right at men ; while his methods of approach differed widely. He thought if the ministers here would do the same, the doctrines and the seculars need not give them anxiety. They would come in for their proper shares of attention, and at proper times. He believed men needed urging to do right, just now, rather than instruction in matters of doctrine. They were rather perverse than ignorant. He liked a free use of motives with men so inclined to depart from the ways of wisdom.
Keep Faith said it was time for them to go forward. Mr. Other Days, Mr. Dumps, and Mr. Stoppes urged them to They decline go- go up and see the castle. But Pilgrim said ing up to the castle. they would probably meet with relics of the past, and find mementoes of the giant Old Times, elsewhere, and so they had no need to go up to Castle Ancient to see his skeleton.
Wide Awake said, in an undertone, that the toe nails they sold up there were rather too much like the scales of fishes ; and where they got all the bones he did not know, but he had seen big whale ribs down the coast.
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The fog was coming on thick. Keep Faith buttoned his coat, said good day, and Pilgrim also, and they turned down a sandy path through a sequestered valley, whose sides were covered with a growth of stinted, gnarled, and crooked trees. As they went they sang a song of the olden time, but its close was with a refrain of
" The good, the beautiful, the true, E'er fresh, e'er young, and ever new."
They now came out upon an ill assorted collection of Another relic of houses in the vicinity of an old, tumble down, the past. adobe church, standing at one corner of a sort of hollow square of low, adobe sheds and compartments, while at the opposite corner there was a hotel kept, or rather, a bar room, and not much else. They inquired of one standing near the tavern, who wore a very small hat- there were others about that carried something heavy in their hats-what place this was.
He said it had various names, but Spreequarter was the right one ; and this quarter was connected by a plank road with San Fastopolis. If any of the city people A quarter much in vogue. wanted to have a private knock down, a Sunday drunk, a spus out, a horse race, a bull bait, 'a general smash up, or set to, of any sort, they would come out there to avoid scandal. It was nothing accounted of to be wild like, and caperish, and get blowed in Spreequarter ; in fact the b'hoys made it very respectable ; but, if you were'nt used to it, you would be dumfoundered to sec what city gentlemen and officers of government could do, in the way of a spree, in this quarter.
Keep Faith now inquired if the field of honor were out here, where gentlemen came to settle their difficulties by 7
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duels. Yes, said a by stander, the very place. But late' they've come so hoften and made such ninnies hof then. selves, they've run the thing hinto the ground Just so they 'ave in Hingland. Sir, I'm a Hinglishman. A snob hin my country is one who tries to be ha haristocrat and can't, for want hof breeding. Now the Lunnun Times says duelling is snobbish ; and what the Times says the haris- Englishmen on tocracy say, and what the nobility say his law duelling. for Hinglish society ; therefore, sir, duelling his snobbish there, and I think hit looks habout the same 'ere, only worse.
At that moment Mr. Wide Awake's horse was seen approaching at a rapid gait. He came to a stand on being spoken to by the company. And then they saw who it was that had been crying, whoa, whoa ! It was Mr. Dumps, who had dropped the reins and was clinging to the pummel of the saddle. He had borrowed the horse in order to come on and tell Pilgrim that it was no matter about his not going up to the castle, and that he had better not A description venture further than that precinct till to- and a warning.
morrow; for beyond, the road was narrow, houseless, hilly, lonely, long, mean, sandy, and tiresome, and the country bordering it was hard, grassless, treeless, comfortless, and infested ; and so, pretty much of a piece with all the rest of the country and everybody in it. He was sorry for Pilgrim, but thought it fair to give him this warning. Pilgrim thanked him, but told him he had not been so improvident as to set out without some chart of the road in his pocket.
However, as there was truth in what Mr. Dumps said, and as it was toward night, the travelers concluded to pass the night in that quarter. After they had gone about,
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talking with various persons and seeing what they could, they sought a place of rest, and were shown into one of the apartments in the low range of adobes. Their blankets were spread upon the floor. The room in all its appoint- Lowly couches. ments was cheerless enough. The dogs and pigs rattled the door. Cold footed animals drew long appendages across their faces. Vermin, that have an odor of universality about them, made their offense rank, and smelled, as they quarrelled about taking their turns. Others of a nimbler sort, said to resemble the elephant in form, played "hop, skip, and jump" over them, and danced pirouettes, stopping quite often for refreshments. The Noche de do- wind whistled, and the fog drove through lores. where the windows should have been. So they slept but little.
When it was just day light a man with a snuffy face, a smutty gown, and a skull cap, came in, and said he was collecting bills, and they must pay a dollar each for lodging. Keep Faith said it was a round price for so pointed an experience. They had had a doleful night without Mr. Dumps, and it was some satisfaction that no night was so long it was not morning at sun rise.
MORAL.
Mr. Dumps is a type man. He represents a certain class among us. He never had much hope ; he has now lost all courage. He once thought to realize a fancy picture from dream life. Failing in that, he has become morose and cynical. He has not thought there might be happiness in something short of the accomplishment of his plans. He has deemed his life a failure, and his efforts useless, because they were not crowned with immediate success. He has
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forgotten that there is design in the discipline of life; and that Providence so orders it, that the noblest energies and finest schemes often miscarry ; or rather, that they succeed by failure. He has not been willing to accept any good short of the fancied one. Ile placed the whole good of living in the attainment of wealth, case, and comfort ; whereas the ends of life are not thus compassed. There is a joy in action, in enterprise, in aggression, in minor achievient, in subduing nature, in self conquest, though the special object striven for be not gained. Good may be done, the world blessed by our endeavors, though our personal aims be not reached. Thoughi our powers be unequal to our purposes, while we exert them right earnestly we do not live and labor in vain.
It pains us to see a man of fine genius, noble talents, and vast knowledge, dwelling secluded in some wooded rale, passing his time in indolence, and letting his powers run to waste, because the rough atmosphere of active life chills him, and the noise and stir of the busy world jar his sensibilities, and toil and strife irk him. He is out of place. The world has need of him. Providence calls him. But lie flies from cares and struggles, and shirks responsibility. He is faithless to his destiny.
Be it ours not to imitate him, even in our little measure. Let duty nerve us. Let hope animate us. Let courage strengthen us. Our resolute will and our earnest endeavor will achieve, though we fall short of our aim. A fancied happiness striven for, as an end, we may miss ; but as incidental to our noble exertions and our proper state of mind, we may have joy enough. Heaven will approve.
LECTURE V.
Then I saw in my dream, that very carly in the morning, Pilgrim and Keep Faith set out on their journey from Spreequarter, and the Dolorous Mission, toward divers places more sainted than saintly.
They passed along among bare and lonely hills, between which, in sheltered nooks, grew some stinted shrubbery. A region with- Now and then there was a spot in sight where out a neighbor- hood. civilized man had tried to make a habitation and a home, but in most instances without much success, it seemed, from the total absence of any sign of life. And as Pilgrim drew his eloak around his neck and face, he thought there might be some penetrating force of dissuasion in the raw, chill winds, and dense fogs, that went by in banks and drifts, now concealing the morning sun, and now half showing his pale and melancholy face.
They had gone some miles without saying much to each other, for their teeth almost chattered, and their eyes kept them in mind of the sleep they did not have at the Dolorous Mission. But now they encountered a human being. He was half reclining on the sunny side, when there was any A temporary sun, of the hill, under the lec of three planks, shelter.
laid up against a pole on crotches, and open
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toward the road. He had on a huge brown overcoat, a grey cap, and woolen mittens. His hair was grizzly, and he had been shaved some time within the memory of man.
He hailed Pilgrim and Keep Faith, but without getting Pursuit ofknow- up himself, and asked where they were going, ledge. if they were not tired, and if they did'nt want a chance of speculationizing. They halted, and told him they were mere pilgrims, and were only anxious to get on as ast as their strength and aims would allow.
He said he was'nt a stationer himself, only a temporal. This was not his house, only his look out. He was lying
Autobiography off for customers. His name was Fortunatus
of Mr. F. Wait. Wait. He was a science man, eddycated in Smatterboro Institute, and was made for doing headwork. He never had done anything else he was so good at. He had always been very poor, as inventionists and science men were, mostly, except in the stove line. He had come to California to turn his extraordinary powers and attainments Into that very base, but very useful article, money. He Scientific attain- understood conchology, geology, minerology, ments. botanics, comicals, etc, uncommon well-also smelting, tractors, and divining rods. Though he said it, there was'nt a scientificker man in these parts, and he persumed it would come out so some day, not fur off.
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