USA > California > The California pilgrim: a series of lectures > Part 9
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As he was about leaving, he told Miss. Wiseacre, and the others, that he was sorry he could not excuse them from his censure, but he hoped they would reconsider the matter, and take a new course.
Miss. Wiseacre did wish he had met the three ladies just gone, who sometimes appeared upon the boards; it would
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mollify him ; it would give him new notions of things, as he Three ladies and was, perhaps, unskilled in the ways and their names. pleasures of the higher classes, and the circles of fashion. These ladies were the pleasantest of companions, and their names were Mrs. Syllable, Mrs. Breath, and Mrs. Screech, and they might be known by the splendor of their attire, their condescension, and easy and familiar address.
Now I saw that Keep Faith looked at his watch, and Mr. Longtravel grew uneasy. So they got the hint to Pilgrim, Things to be and he rose to depart ; thinking much of the
thought of. strange overturns in life, in habits, and con- duct, produced by the entrance of many, of both sexes, into the golden country ; and all through causes so insignificant.
The travelers were now anxious to set out on their journey. So, Mr. Longtravel took them by the shortest route to the north eastern suburb. As they were turning a corner, they heard loud conversation ; and, looking round, they saw the three ladies before mentioned, in debate with a pale faced shopwoman about the price of dresses and professional costume. When they were come to the border of the plain, Things prospec- Mr. Longtravel showed them the route of a
tivo.
great railway to be built, told them of a wire suspension bridge over a slough, and of many schemes of internal improvement, that were to expand and enrich their city for generations to come. Then he told them to keep as much to the left as they could, without getting into the Directions. tulares ; as much to the right as they could without following any river up stream ; to keep to the bridges and mind nothing about sloughs, and, when they had gone far enough, over a country that was neither green nor hilly, nor like any other they ever saw, they would reach the City Sacramento. of Embankment, on the margin of the river of
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the Sacred Oath ; a river so named before the advent of such ungodly crews as made its shores resound with oaths profane, while borne along upon its tides.
After giving Pilgrim and Keep Faith a set of instructions so lucid, Mr. Longtravel took leave of them affectionately ; They set out and they thanked him for his kindness, and again. left Sloughport behind the trees, as they went on their way, singing a tune to revive their spirits, and invigorate their frames, which were flagging a little.
They had crossed one small river, and found their feet growing heavy, ere they came to any other ; or to any spot that seemed to invito their stay for the night. But, at length, when the sun had set, they came suddenly down a bank upon a dry channel, beyond which was a house, under The house they some trees. There was no barn, nor other came to. ont building. Only a corral and a hay stack were to be seen across the way. In the front room there was a board pen in one corner, and some dirty bottles and boxes on the shelves behind it. In another corner was a rickety stove, that had been kept standing in its place over the season. A bench and two remnants of wooden chairs made up the furniture. A bag of barley and a water bucket occupied the corner nearest the bar. Two men they saw, dusty men, in shirts that once were red, with hair of no certain color, and no ascertained length, and beards to match. One of them was taken in, as to his nether extremities, by boots, which Goliah might have found Interesting men, roomy and clumsy. The other, when moving, went about on his toes, and dragged after him iron enough in his spurs to gain him admission into any chain gang, And both wore tiles,
" Contrived a double debt to pay,"
Caps by night. and peerless hats by day.
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They were ostensibly engaged in looking at the handbills about the room ; particularly the landlord's own, wherein Making sureyof the building, they had entered, was graphically
a name. described, and termed variously, the Ro- mance Rancho, the Farmer's Retreat, the Miner's Rest, and the Traveler's Home.
During the evening, when several neighbors gathered in, and cach man treated all the rest twice round before they went away, the travelers thought there might be an inkling What the signs of propriety in calling the place the Farmer's
might signify. Retreat. The Miner's Rest seemed sig- nificant of the fact, at least, in one instance, that the land- lord get pretty much all the money the poor miner had left. As to the " home" part of the advertisement, Keep Faith thought if the house were such to any travelers, it should be to weary pilgrims, although the prospect was, that it would only serve to set them to thinking diligently of home as it was, or home as it might be.
By and by, after the tallow candle, in the tall bottle,. had been lighted at the bar, they were called to supper, by some raps on the other side of the partition. So [the man with the boots, and the man with the spurs, and ;Pilgrim and Keep Faith, went to tea, through a hole in the wall, hung Supper in the over with a blanket, and, down a long step, to
dining room.
the face of mother earth. There was a rough board table, and rough benches were beside it. On the boards were beef, potatoes, and hard bread, and plenty of that savory vegetable which gives the Mexican his delicious o lor.
Great was the surprise of Pilgrim, when a woman, from the dark side of some strips of canvass, came out to wait on the guests. She had a " power" of feet, and was taller
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than her "old man," and she poured out tea that was " mighty," but not in the same way as venerable cheese. She had on a cap of coarse cotton ; and the shape of it was that peculiar one, known as " calves head ;" and her face wore the meckness of certain domestic kine. When Pilgrim inquired of her if they were pioneers : she said they allors was, but they had never lived in " Pike."
The supper was soon over. The evening liked to have been a tedious evening ; for Pilgrim and Keep Faith had no room to retire to, and it was in vain they tried to get those present into any talk on matters, other than those of a common place sort. Finally, the miner, with the spurs, got to showing his specimens. After easing himself of belt, pistol, and knife, he produced a bag with several pounds of " oro" in it. Pilgrim and Keep Faith had never seen so Specimens and much gold, in its native state, before. The
claims. miner told them where his claim was, in how few weeks, he had dug out of it what they saw, and said he was going to Embankment to make a deposit, and then return. But he told them if they would like to buy his claim for a thousand dollars, he would sell out, as he was " anxious to return to the East." The man with the huge boots confirmed the story, on being awaked from the nap he was taking in the corner.
The vendor finally came down in his price to five hun- dred dollars, cash in hand, for the claim ; and was very Chance for a for- urgent in entreating Pilgrim and Keep Faith tune. to take advantage of so splendid an opportunity for realizing a fortune ; telling them it was very rare that new comers were so favored. He said it would not hinder them a week just to stop and get a thousand dollars out, and then they could sell it again for cost. But Pilgrim
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replied that they wished no claim, that they possessed no money, and could pay for nothing of the sort ; and besides they must go to see for themselves before purchasing claims.
When the two miners (?) had gone out to sleep in the hay stack, for the safety of their mule and money, the Explanation. landlord said, them war two on 'em, he'd saw 'em round sellin that ar claim, and showing that ar gold ever sen he'd ben thar, a heap o' times. Them as buy'd the claim was slighteously bit, and got shet of it, or clar'd out and left it, mighty quick ; and, then, them same hombres would go and sell her agin ; twar a heap easier getting money that way, than diggin on it.
Pilgrim and Keep Faith having slept on a buffalo skin, of a small pattern, with the bag of barley for a pillow, were Early rising. awakened carly by the abstraction of their pillow to feed the mule, and concluded to travel on at once ; thinking they should lose but little of anything, if they broke no fast that day. However, they came, in a short time, upon dwellings and homes that wore a more inviting and cheerful aspect, and were refreshed with food and drink.
They had crossed two rivers, and passed in sight of a brick mansion in process of building, and over miles of plains without trees, and had paused at the first belt of timber, to rest beneath some verdant oaks, when, on rising up and looking about them, from the top of a knoll, they dis- Sutter's Fort. covered, not far away, the grey walls of some ancient structure, which they saw at once must be the old home of the far famed Swiss-American pioneer. They hurried on, and soon found themselves in front of the early citadel of young freedom on the Pacific shore. They lingered half mournfully around the falling battlements, and in the spacious court, where many a stirring and exciting
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scene had been, and life hadl bounded vigorously, and all hopes had spread their wings, and young ambitions were nourished up to age.
They found scarce a token of living human presence remaining. Decay sat queen in the once proud castle.
It is falling into The massive gates were broken and gone. decay. The roofs were breaking and falling through. The few cannon and shells, the place could ever boast, were rusting beneath the tumbling walls, harmless forever. There were none to raise the "flag of the free" over the fast coming ruin, where so long it waved in triumph, ere the blight of ruin fell. Even the flag staff itself had fallen at the feet of all conquering Time. The weeds grew unsightly in the untrod courts and yards, and the papaver blossomed by the wall. Gone was all mirth, ccased the sound of revelry, ended were all social reunions. Whispered loves were heard no more. The cheerful signs of industry were all withdrawn, and the din of business hushed. Moles and bats worked undisturbed. The rats and lizards A sound of mel- ranged the wide domain ; and everywhere the ancholy. tooth of time was gnawing relentlessly. Well might the winds, that swept through the overhanging boughs of the trees, go sighing, for they waved over departed grandeur, and waning glory; and their increasing shadows symboled the growing decay. No visitor, turning away, could fail to think, how,
" The harp that once in Tara's halls , The soul of music shed, Now hangs as mute on Tara's walls, As if its soul were fled !"
When they had sufficiently gratified their curiosity, and
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impressed their hearts, by an examination of this striking and peculiar monument of decay, on the very border of a young and flourishing city ; they passed out of the castern gate. And there, coming towards them, they saw dashing The trotting vehicles, and fast horses numerous, besides course. some whose spavins outlasted their wind, and whose riders and drivers scemed anxious to get them through, as speedily as possible, to the end of their usefulness ; especially the riders of the amazonian sort, whose oaths at the reeking brutes were shocking.
Mr. Ribbon Puller drew up close beside thenr to let his horses blow. IIe was in a gig with two horses "a-tandem," of which the name of the leader was Xerxes, and that of the other, Artaxerxes. . Soon came along Mr. Willington, with a fast animal and buggy, but all perfectly cool. A short ride. Seeing how tired the travelers looked, he took them in, to give them a turn about the plain, and help them along. So he took them by the grounds and cottage of " Enthusiasm & Co.,"' nursery and seedsmen, of fair fame and notoriety in the various "cultures." And then he drove them over and around that famous strip of upland, known as the Ridge, and by other cognomens in the vulgate, where their friend seemed not unfamiliar.
When he had driven them the length of it, and around it, A spot to be ad_ and showed the whole to them, in its very mired. picturesqueness, like an island of bliss in the waste of life, he started for the city. But soon he thought of an errand forgotten, and was compelled to return. So the travelers thanked him, and took to their feet again. Scarcely were they on the ground, when those nondescripts known as "runners," sent, or voluntary, attacked them, recommending the Increase City, the Regina City, the Tri-
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mountain, the Busy Bee, the various Sectional houses, several At the city limits. U. S. Hotels, and those bearing the names of birds, such as Phoenix, Eagle, Hawk, Jim Crow, etc. They were hardly rid of these annoyances, with swallow tailed coats on, when they were met by a long visaged, cadaverous faced man, knock kneed, and wearing a seedy hat.
He got before them both, and took them by the button, and, very oracularly and very solemnly, told them not to Advice gratis, remain in the city of Embankment a day ; but to go right on to the capital of all the grape streams, in the very earliest stage, for which he had tickets, that he would sell them cheap. That was just the place for them to invest, to speculate, to live, to be great in. As for this Embankment, it was the miserablest hole this side of Tartarus. Only hogs could thrive in it. The cholera was absolutely frightful ; people were rotten with small pox ; the place was hot enough for tophet, and yet the folks were
Waxing elo. all shaking with ague; the city wa's full quent. of filth and vermin; every man dumped liis dirt eart in his neighbor's back yard. The water covered the town half the year, and the dust, the other; the houses were mean, little, and rough, stuck among bushes, or on stumps. Doctors and quacks, in hosts, got everbody's money, and the lawyers took his luggage. There was no public spirit ; the merchants had no capital of their own ; they did nothing but pick at, and run on each other ; the gamblers ruled the city, and guarded the Governor ; the trade was falling off; the people were dying off; and Je is hard upon the town would sink, and go to nothing, in the city. less than two years, in spite of banks and bubbles, and railways, and plank roads, which nobody would ever see. It's doomed, sirs, doomed ! !
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Go, gentlemen, to the capital of the grape streams, head of navigation, central city, near the mines, future capital of the state, railway emporium, best of society, schools, churches, ministers, merchants, newspapers, water, A gentle puff. and buildings, and destined to be the greatest city in Bustledom ; no question of it. ("Gas !" "Enough !" "Dry up!" chimed in voices from the crowd near by )
Well, said Pilgrim, we are obliged, as much as we can be, for your dissertation. You said you thought swine might thrive even here, and, as we are not Jews, and can live on pork, awhile, we will not go your way yet; and, besides, if we go, it must be on foot, for pilgrims can not pay fares. Ah ! then, said he, of the capital of the grape streams, you can stop as long as it suits you ; people that patronize our line are the people to live there, and to thrive. We don't know anything about any other people; or any other towns, than such as come to us, and bring their money, their money, sirs.
As they went on by the hay yards, stables, wagon stands, stacks, and barns, they began to think it was a queer city, and that the worthy mayor must have many constituents, Horses & mules that were not bipeds, nor wanting in cars ;
are numerous. there were so many habitations fitted up expressly for such. There seemed to be, in truth, quite a strife among the rival establishments, to see which could keep the most animals on the smallest space, for the longest period, without taking any litter away.
Just then, Keep Faith met an old acquaintance, who had weathered Cape Horn with him. He introduced him to Pilgrim as Dr. Moneymake, a native of the town of Gone- sinners, a hard district, lying between the provinces of Delusion and Awaydown, in the state of Nature.
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Pilgrim inquired of Dr. Moneymake, if he could direct a couple of weary travelers to some quiet resting place. Temperance Ilo- Temperance House, Keep Faith suggested.
tels. The Doctor said he scarcely knew of such a house ; though there the Fountain House was, and they could see it for themselves. Its fountain did not seem to be copious enough to flow over and sprinkle the earth, for the dust was plenty all about it. However, Keep Faith went in ; but they had a rush of company, and could give them only beds on the floor. So they kept on, Dr. Moneymake saying there was a hotel, opposite one of the churches, where they had no bar in sight ; and if they kept one at all, he did not know why they should try to hide it in such a city.
They came now to an open square, andl som" hay scales ; and Keep Faith heard a stranger say it might be known how heavy the city was, as it was half hay stacks, apparently, A public square. and the stacks might be weighed. There was a very tall pole of Liberty in the center of the square, with a good cap on ; and from its top waved a starry banner. The whole surface of the square was bare of grass, trodden, and sandy. The air, just above it, was loaded with dust ; and, higher up, dust went floating on the wings of zephyrs ; higher still, even above the top of the Liberty cap, or whatever it might be, there were those who could discern Castles in the huge castles in the air, and visions numerous.
air and visiony. One vision was thought to be that of a Common Council, digging among the slanting sunbeams to make a fence ; another Council seemed to be setting out shade trees, that fluttered leaves of silver and gold. And still a third vision, was that of a Council, busy in erecting a beautiful structure of granite, free stone, and marble, for the home of the city, and the use of the whole community.
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Hlow refreshing the sight ! how splendid the prospect ! said one and another that had eyes to see. One venerable man, with grey hair, sighed out : When shall the time arrive ; and for how long shall the visions be ? Case of " Quien sabe," said Dr. Moneymake.
Beginning at the Noyes House, Pilgrim now under- took to read the signs and reckon over the hotels in sight. . There was the Washington, the Lafayette, the Kosciusko, the Kossuth, the Wm. Tell, and the Bruin. Dr. Money- make said it was proposed to run the row down into the New celebrities. corner, by putting up the Barnum, the Louis Napoleon, the Flibustier, and the Uncle Tom ; but the money was not yet in hand.
Now I saw that they passed out of the plaza, and went along till they came to some trees, withering and half dead. Bad rum. These trees have been nearly killed ; said the Doctor, and, very likely, by too much bad rum, put around the roots. In this connection, said Keep Faith, allow me to inquire how you get on in the Temperance cause ?
DR. Well, really, I'm not in the way of getting infor- mation at present, but I hear nothing.
K. F. But, sir, were you not once W. P. in the S. of T., and great Grand Pa, or what it may be, in various other societies ; and where are you now ?
DR .. To be plain, sir, I took my card from the Division, The temperance came out in good standing, and then went into cause and its
friends. the general trade, and sold liquor. And then I am copartner in an establishment further down street. It is a restaurant ; and the sort of folks that way know scarce any other meaning of the word, than the one indicated by hot brandy, and iced punch.
K. F. But what becomes of your consistency ?
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DR. Well, sir, I'm sure, I don't know.
K. F. And your Temperance principles, too; if they were right, you are now doing wrong.
DR. Yes, only " circumstances alter cases."
K. F. Yes, but we were talking of principles. Do you, or do you not, give up your old principles and views; and how is it that you get along ?
DR. Why, we're here to make money. Somebody must make something in trade. I could not make so much without liquor. If I did'nt sell, some one would. I might as well have the money as he; and so I do the business. That's the whole of it.
K. F. I am not sure it is the whole of it, taken in another light, and so far as it respects your feelings, and principles, and your influence in the world, and your standing among the truly virtuous in society.
Pr'aps you'll 'form and play Washintonian by'n by, when A promising you're rich 'nuff, said a maudlin faced man, candidate for re- form. holding by the post, just behind them. So sh'll I ; I'm your man. Don't we go in for a rich 'sperence to, to, t-tell 'em.
The Doctor shied away from his new friend, and seemed in a hurry to get out of his reach. So he told Pilgrim and Keep Faith to go two blocks farther, and turn to the right into a street, and thence into an alley at the left, and in the rear of a church, there was a man who had to do with pilgrims ; and he might be able to care for them. They followed directions, and were soon housed and lodged. And they were locked in the arms of sleep, long before the host was done with his notes, and had written up his journal.
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MORAL.
The wheels of time seem to go backward. On questions of practical morals our motion is retrograde. Like Dr. Moneymake, we are not where we were. Nine tenths of our population, male and female, sip, drink, or guzzle. The learned and the stolid, old men and mere boys, the rich men, the penniless, and even the prisoners, all drink, drink, from morning till night,, and from night till morning. Such quantities of fluid, taken daily into the system, were it nought but milk and water, would destroy the constitution in a few years ; how much sooner, then, when that fluid consists of the vilest liquors that ever inflamed a man's throat, or rotted his intestines !
It is alleged, indeed, that men need more stimulus, and will endure it better, in our climate, than elsewhere, and that to drink is not pernicious here. So it has seemed. Yet it has been only seeming. In no country is drunken- ness so deadly, and so rapid in its destruction as here. We see few habitual drunkards, because they plunge into their graves so quickly. No confirmed drunkard has a life lease of six months. There are those in their graves whom we knew, two or three years ago, as sober and wealthy citizens. Men are dying every day of delirium tremens, whose known inebrieties go back but a few months No where is intemperance so terrible a destroyer. It invades all classes and ranks, and unmans those in stations, to whose duties none but sober men are competent. It is our bane and our eurse, as nothing else is.
Do you say : Get up societies ? The Sons of Temperance are doing what they can. Other organizations have been had ; but they embraced only such as were staunch
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temperance men all the while. The mass would not go near them. Do you say : Lecture on the subject? That I am doing now. But how many would come to a formal lecture ? We might gather an audience, now and then, of a Sunday ; but for that day we have enough work already.
Hard as it is, we must " wait a little longer." The evil makes head. It will soon be terrible. Our greatest and most honored men are killing themselves. They begin to see it, to feel it. There must be some reaction soon. When that begins, our time will have come. We hope the reaction will be as terrible and overwhelming, as is now the scourge. Men smile increduously, when spoken to about anything like the Maine law in California. But the day may come, and that soon, when they will hail it as the star of hope, and the harbinger of blessings, and will accept it as their sole means of deliverance from personal thraldom, and as the salvation of the state.
Look well to your ways, ye that love the maddening cup. Beware of the curse, ye that put the bottle to your neighbor's mouth. Cease from a traffic you can not praise, ye men of the mart and the saloon. It can not be long ere the condition of society, in respect to this vice, shall be much worse or much better. You must go into universal drunkenness, or reform. Which will you do ?
10
LECTURE VII.
Now I saw in my dream, when the morning glow chased away the dewy slumbers from their eyes, that Pilgrim and Keep Faith rose refreshed. A sweet awe was upon their spirits, and they felt a delightful calm. "The pearl of The first day of days" had dawned. It was the Lord's day ; the week. the day kept through long centuries-oh, of what change, and turmoil, and strife, and weary march of benignant power !- as the ever fresh and bright memorial of the scene in the vale of Arimathea, when the scaled stone was rolled from the sepulcher of Jesus, and the angel, with raiment white as the light, sat upon it, and the resurrection was accomplished, the pledge and assurance, that they that sleep in dust shall awake again.
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