Yet He Alone Of That Little Band, Unless You Except Mark Twain,
Possessed The Divine Spark We Call "Genius." Centuries After The Names
Of All The Rest Are Buried In Oblivion, Bret Harte's Stories Of The
Argonauts In The Mining Towns Of California Will Remain The Classics
They Have Already Become.
Yet as before stated, when once I got fairly started on the road, the
pioneers themselves and their worthy
Descendants absorbed my interest
and assumed the center of the stage to the exclusion, for the time
being, of the romancers; who, after all, each in his own fashion,
depicted only what most appealed to him in the characters of these same
men and their contemporaries. Bayard Taylor in his interesting work "El
Dorado," the first edition of which appeared in 1850, thus states his
opinion of the men of '49:
"Abundance of gold does not always beget, as moralists tell us, a
grasping and avaricious spirit. The principles of hospitality were as
faithfully observed in the rude tents of the diggers, as they could be
by the thrifty farmers of the North and West. The cosmopolitan cast of
character in California, resulting in the commingling of so many races,
and the primitive mode of life, gave a character of good-fellowship to
all its members; and in no part of the world have I ever seen help more
freely given to the needy, or more ready co-operation in any human
proposition. Personally, I can safely say that I never met with such
unvarying kindness from comparative strangers."
That last sentence also spelt the literal truth in my experience. Even
the dogs were kindly disposed and though I carried, a "big stick,"
except by way of companionship and as an aid in climbing, I might safely
have left it at home. And while at times I walked through a wild,
mountainous and almost deserted country, the idea of possible danger
never occurred to me. When finally one encountered a human being, he
invariably proved a courteous, obliging and companionable personage to
meet.
Bayard Taylor attended in September and the beginning of October, 1849,
the convention at Monterey, which gave to California its first, and in
the opinion of many, its best constitution. He closes his review of the
proceedings with these forceful and prophetic words:
"Thus we have another splendid example of the ease and security with
which people can be educated to govern themselves. From that chaos
whence under, a despotism like the Austrian, would spring the most
frightful excesses of anarchy and crime, a population of freemen
peacefully and quietly develops the highest form of civil order - the
broadest extent of liberty and security. Governments, bad and corrupt
as many of them are, and imperfect as they all must necessarily be,
nevertheless at times exhibit scenes of true moral sublimity. What I
have today witnessed has so, impressed me; and were I a believer in
omens, I would augur from the tranquil beauty of the evening - from the
clear sky and the lovely sunset hues on the waters of the bay - more
than all, from the joyous expression of every face I see, a glorious and
prosperous career for the State of California."
Southern California, by which is understood all of the State south of
the Tehachapi Mountains, was mostly settled by and is still to a great
extent the objective point of people from the East and Middle West.
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