Weekly North Carolina standard. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1850-1858, 1854-04-05
: Ees we are indebted to q friend for the following
highly Interesting letter from California:

of my inner man, the seat of the sensations and per-
ccptions, it would be very much like those blurred
pict:res of babies who can never hold themselves
still long enough for the sun to write them down.
Like those uneasy cherubs, such often
pinned to the bosoms, worn at the wrists of hap
py parents my thoughts have been all double head.
ed-half given to an admiration of this active life
half fearing for the results of its tremendous vtali
ty-haf delighted, Too, with the whir of this busy
street.-The of man-half tempted away to an idle
dreamy enjoyment of the beautiful nature that is
around it all for San Francisco and its life full
of all sorts of contradictions Nature seems never
to have intended this beautiful spot where the set
ting daily paints landscape such as only the
man of leisure quiet occupation can thoroughly
enjoy for field of the "batte of life" The beau
ty of this Pacific coast to me in strange
trast with the fierce Atlantic spirit that has taken
hold of it. / wonder whether meditative Indians
meditativc smoking Ranchcros eyer curse the en-
ergy OF these barbarousA Atlantic men as they so
ursc.ing down their soft Pacific slopes into level
streets and filling up their shining waters with brick
and granite buildings. l wonder whether this out
rgeous of Atlantic energy upon the gcntcr
genius of the Pacific, is not the beginning of
which will bring all the spirit of the Fast and
harness it to service. What a momcntous
thing it will be to put the two parts of America
aSunder by lsthmus railroad ship canal, and
let full tide of Atlantcism in upon the Pacific! No
Chnaman will feel his pigs'tail secure and no river
or mountNin side will be Safc-thc one from taxing
its that have flowed so long in luxurious
in the service of odious mills, and the other from the
energetic sitting of pans and washers. Already the
Pacific influence has been driven away from San
Francisco, fingers about it only in charming eli
mate and atmosphere of beauty that nothing
cheat frghten away from its coast and hill sides.
All else. though is thoroughly Atlantic-Wall st.
intensified. You may imagine the contrasts, the
phases of chrysais life the hourly anachroEisms :hat
are thus presented when Wall st. and the Sandwich
Islands blend together. TO il is still only Chaos.
| sec it, however, in epiomc in that native of the
Celestial empire, who is buying a pair of Yankee
boots opposite to my window now; he wears an
American sack and felt hat; but these envelopes
vainy seek to hide his celestial nature, which is gro
tesque, through its wrappings; Oh! for new Saata
Rrsastus!
To do Justice to San Francisco, in moro orderly
spirit of description, should have to invoke
patience than feel authorised in demanding, besides
taxing your crcdulity very largely and gaining the
reputation of enthusiast, which you and those of
your longitude doubtless regard the worst term
of reproach you could bestow upon one Of my sober
years. So enough of dcscriptions-San Francisco
bcggars description. If | were to send you picture
of her now, it would be false before it reached you.
What is water fourteen feet deep now will be store
house or drinking-house when you readtls. In
derstand mc-ourteen feet 81 water will not be fro
pctriticd filled up in month; that would be
somewhat utra-Cafornian, but house will stand
+ up there on stills and pay $500 mouth rent busy
life going above and the water still flowing quiet.
" below 1t is very interesting thing to live in the
. midst of such rapid development. The brick and
mortcr and granite that every day shaping them
selves into proper and permanent forms are only one
expression of what is going on i'll every department
here. Opinion, and law and society are AL settling
themselves down in the way, going through
many strange phases, bringing forth sometimes many
abortions; but always bravely going on, bringing
forth light. Every day is suggesting questions which
have had solution heretofore solution Tor these
circumstances; and to see life v;sbiy shap-
ing itself into definite form; improving, in many
things, upon old prccedcuts, and rising above old
standards. And through, and over all, an energy,
restless activity that makes the life OF man kindred
to the life Of those insects that crowd SO many hopes,
and joys. and passions into an instant Of time.
No one can cyaggeratc what has been done in
California. This whole gold emigration and its at.
tcndant enterprises is epoch i'll history not unlike
that which stirred the blood of Cortcs and Pizarro
and DE Soto and the wild hosts of Spain and Portu-
gal who built up Spanish America. The difference
between the two stages is the difference between
child and Il giant with steani-cnslne sInews The
secret history the moving spring, always the same
time and distance give grandeur to enterprises ana
they doubtless are great all of thcm for energy and
strength of will and pcrscvering eNerton but they
all reSolvable into the private spirit OF gain which
makes revolutions to give credit to bonds and over'
turns empires private speculation.
Tnid men (lor there few such here theil
blood being slow to changc,) croak about inflated
prices iu San Francisco, unnatural stimulus, over
stocked markets, &C., &c. There is doubtless much
reason to think that slight corrective pinch Is now
and then necessary to regulate trade i'll all new and
isolated places. Such one we are going to feel We
! ry soon. San Francisco has been overwhelmed will
goods from all parts of the word-cach distant Mer
chant thinking to get ahead of his neighbour in tn.
Samaritan charity of feeding and clothing U.S. Ant
the consequence is that we arc cursed with ood ant
clothing to such extent that our Merchants art
all in dcspair-lamcntng over lost occupations and
high rents and our landed men arc trembling ics
those high rents should be infected by the times ane
fall to better colnpanionshp with the price of mer
chantlise But there is confidence everywhere-aI
abiding confidence in the supply of gold, in the stca
dy flow of emigration, in the capacity OF consump
ton Of an adult population, and the wastefulncss Q
an entcrpris;ng one in the influx of foreign capita
and in the spirit of people who have brought civil
ization out here. And so we shall weather the storm
and when we have trimmed our sails again we sha
be all the better for the force of the breeze.
! We hope soon to hear a confirmation of the news
now current in the streets, that Col. Gadsden ha
given $23, 900, 900 for Sonora and Lower Californi
and the Mesla Valley and the whole bunch of Mex
ican difficulties. Such an acquisition would give
great impulse to Pacific emigration. A new Por
upon the Pacific (Guaynas,) and new confidence !
this Western trade, the chances of Southern Ran
road to the Pacihc-thesc things will bring the LAS
and the West together, and open the way for tn
great social commerce of nations to which look as
what Young America would call, :" the mission {
California" Meantime this future, which seems
hold the solution of all chronological questions Is tn
play thing of Capt Walker and few hundred me
encamped at Ensanada in Lower California. IL
q hard to speak with seriousness of an expedtio
which undertook, with 90 men, to conquer two States
Nothing anywhere, from Shakespeare to Cervante
!, l., oo,,lod tb, b,,rlosoue of Walkers conquest