Gold Hill daily news. [volume] (Gold Hill, N.T. [Nev.]) 1863-1882, 1869-12-14
NAMES IN. CALIFORNIA.

4lC SuuAI2GS VI oHA - |
many, but not beautiful externally. In
one Sunday l have not learned the ar
worth of all the interiors, but l do
know that one is perfectly ventilated,
and so 6t for the fair humanities Of new
religions. l fsucied, too, that we heard
chimes, but they were OF 80
airy and remote a sweetness that
swung them in the belfry Of some old
Spanish church out toward the sea, and
could not detect 10 their soft throbbing
the murmur OF the prayers OF n forgot
ten multitude. Since the distant seems
the romantic, one looks with interest Tor
the traces of the Spanish possession,
expecting to see such delicious gloom
ana Inqui,itorial cruelty, such wild ad-
venture in plumed ha. and sabre, such
liquid black eyes and Andalusian ankles,
such stolid and sandaled faith, such
dazzling Jewels aud Castilisn ceremony,
somehow preserved in this Yankee occu-
patton like fies in amber, that it 10 q
blow to the sentimental spirit to find
little trace Of the Spanish succession,
except dirt. There is q Plaza, to be
sure, in town, and two miles south is the
long, low building, warm and pic
turesqus With red-tiled roef and narrow
window, aud walls Of sun-burned brick,
which was the Mission Dolores i won.
der what lovely legend is in tho name),
With its Chapel ever so old. But there
is a lager beer shop, or some practical
industry of that sort, in actual possess
sion, | think, and the open ground there
about is fast covering with right.angle
blocks, and arsnk growth of that square,
t~vo-storied Maussrd.rooted ugliness
called the suburban villa.
But one treasur Of the past California
has kept as the apple Of her eye, and
that is the soft, lisping Spanish geo
graphical names. I do not believe
there is a county in the State which has
not the dowry Of a gracious name.
know only two Of thom-San Francisco
is one, and | have forgotten the otner-
but that knowledge encourages me to
this cheerful faith. Think Of hNvin.
such streets in ones town as Sac
ramsnto and Vallejo pronounced with
lingering yowels, V~al-lne-yo), aud Santa
Clara and Calavsras and Yerba Buena.
To be sure one is confronted with Davis
and Bush aud Folsom, also, but ono is
upborne by tho remembrance M hope
OF happier things, and even they are
made tolerabls by the thought Of the
TO6S,hs street, or tho l,00lst street lin
memory of the gentle Scheherezade) to
which we shall undoubtedly come, in
the poverty and practically Of our sys-
TEN Of nomenclature, as population
increases on the island Of Manhattan.
Aud though We did not encounter in
the country Roberts's and HARDNESS
and Gomsrs's, they wero SO much less
appalling than RobertsriHc or Gome's-
riHe to him who has faith in the finer
instincts Of this kind, beside that they
were made up to US by Tuolumne and
Msriposa and Hornitos.
1t is more unchristian 70 call q town
L%arkinsvillo than to call q child Zuris-
haddai. There are not six men in a
generation for whom a town may be
named. Unless Larkin is many-sided,
hospitable, capable Of infinite growth,
J Of unnumbersd activities, unless he de-
velops evermore beautiful resul.s, unless
there are broad venues leading to tenn
| Piles in his soul, aud straight W%aystolibra-
ries, museums, schools and gymnasiums
in his brain, he has no business to i'm
press his image and superscription on
an embryo which should possess the
| germs of all this completeness. And If
he has these gifts he will have modesty
besides, and never dream of doing it.
| Alexandria and Rome arc well enough
now, because they are stately and
grand, and have history in their hne
sound. But il I had been a cotempo-
| rary philosopher ] would have fought
upon tho thcme until roy eyelids mo
longer waggsd, before the names OF
two flibus,srs had been bSqueathed to
po,tsri,y, with my consent, as the best
legacy Of the ,imo. THE complete and
irremediable balofulness Of the trans
erosion can be understood, however,
only when it is known that there aro 10
" thriving post villages" in the United
States called Rome, and IL heights OF
Alexandria, And alas! not Larkin,
nor Brown, nor Hicks, uor Corners will
ever dream of going to antamsd Nature
for the hard nurture that makes men ft
to be founders Of q strong race or
mighty city, nor even sigh for nav
worlds to conquer, nor indeed prove
title TO the one he was born in by any
deed Of yalor or sublime using Of the
common To-day. While have breath
to speak will | declaim against this
villc.ifying OF places which is losing US
nil the poetry u Of our great to-
biography. And, if q grateful nation
| wishe, to build me a monument when /
am no longer its egis and palladium,
and adorns the capital Of its youngest
State with my ~name-why, what would
DO more ft and proper? Yes, my
coun;ry, thou hast wruug. from me my
slow leave.