Weekly Trinity journal., 1870-10-01
OUR SAN FRANCISCO LETTER.
SAN FRANcIsco, September "a, 1870


Enron JOURNAL Il have been holding a men,
tai debate for the last few moments while puff
Jog away at an obstinate cigar, whether to give
YOU my Usual resume of the weeks local news,
or jot down few rough notes that made during
my visit to the State Fair at Sacramento and,
reaccing that while the aggregate of robberies,
m murders, dances, dinners, deaths and merry-mak-
ings that make up the batch of San Francisco
correspondents letters always on hand for
material, and that the Fair only comes once
year, | have resolved to devote my column to the
latter subject.
SACRAMENTO.
] know that ought to abuse Sacramento and
write about it's vast extent of arid plains, its un.
sufferable heat, its vicious musquitos and its
muddy, undrinkable water. 1t popular to run
down the Capital-and popularity pays, but
apart from being Indifferent to the latter motive,
| confess to some small liking for the metropoli-
tan city. like its wealth of semi-tropical foli-
age and its shady trees that line each side of its
smaller streets. like its somnolency and gen.
eral appearance of taking things easy. like
! its absence of churches, its unblushing extor-
tions, its hotel brigandism and its guileless sa-
martanism to the moneyed stranger. Sacra-
mento swindles you so openly and above board
that after year or two's experience of San Fran
cscos secret style of doing the thing, it is quite
refreshing to meet with undsgaised imposition,
and there is no resisting the plea of the smiling
Sacramentan, awe must put it on just a leette
during Fair time So for these reasons, have
nothing at all to say against the city, and conse-
quently don't intend to say anything.
THE FAIR
Was held in large brick building called the
Pavilion the ground floor being supposedly set
apart for the exhibition of agricultural machin-
cry, and the upper one for agricultural produce,
but the display of either was so very limited,
that one glance was sufficient to satisfy the Wis
itor that the term agricultural Fair" was a
misnomer.
The principal attraction appeared to be the
great lottery wheel and $4 900 hearse of home
manufacture, about which Chicago editor
lately went into such ecstacies of delight that it
is said he telegraphed alfcolumn description
of it to his paper. continual throng gathered
round these two articles admiring the mechani-
cal ingenuity of the one and the ghastly gor-
geousness of the other, while the tables devoted
to the different varieties of fruit had scarcely a
solitary lounger near them.
JAMES. W. MARSHALL
The discoverer of gold in California had a
stand in portion Of the building on which
was piled up a large edition Of his recently pub
lished " Life and Adventures" He is hale
hearty, looking man of about ffty-Gve, with a
face bearing little impress Of the trials and hard
ships he is said to have gone through.
THRIFTLFss COMMUNITY.
The readers of the JOURNAL will be astonished
to learn that in fair pretending to represent the
agricultural capacities of an essentially agrcult-
ural State, there was not enough cheese shown
to bait a mouse-trap, and that all the butter ex-
hibited could have been demolished by couple
of hearty men to loaf of bread. Is it to be
wondered that the State is poor and unprosper-
Gus when with millions of acres of the richest
grazing land we have still to depend on the East
for a supply of dairy produce.
''BITTERs."
1t is a Californian pecularity for every man
once in his life to commence the manufacture of
patent bitters. Consequently the display of Aus
trinn, Prussian, Russian, Alaskan, Nubian, Tur-
kish and dozen other national varieties of al
coholzed mixtures which would have delighted
the soul of a veteran barkeeper, and as the ven
ders of these decoctions expatiated freely on the
medicinal merits of their respective compounds,
rural visitors were induced to invest freely in
|
the gaudily labelled black bottles.
! MACHINERY.
| 1t is only lately that California has commenced
to make any agricultural implements, and be-
leve that few gang plows is the full extent OF
her efforts. With the exception of the usual
multitude of washing machines and an occa-
sional harrow, seed separator reaper, the
space devoted to these articles nearly empty
FANCY WORK.
If the endless specimens of embroidery, tat.
ting, bed spreads made from thousand joined
rags, distorted dogs worked in worsted on can.
vass, ron-holders, mats, bread baskets and mum
beress other tribes of similar uselessness, repre-
sented the employment of our farmers wives
They have the easiest times and most lady-likt
lives of any women in the State. Perhaps this
industrious exhibit accounts for the absence o.
dairy produce noted above.
THE STATES CAPACITIES.
Most Of the products exhibited were of expert
mental growth, and rather suggested than proved
the varied and wonderful resources of the State
The cocoons and skeins of raw silk, the rice to
bacco, fax, hop, sugar and many other articles
that fail to remember, show what our climate
and soil can grow, and what will be grown
when capital and industry unite to develop ou
agricultural wealth.
THE RACES.
AS the State donates So, 900 for what it puri