The Emporia news. [volume] (Emporia, Kan.) 1859-1881, 1870-07-08
THE FIRST CALIFORNIA BABY.


After a while, two or three wives were
sent for by their husbands, and new for
the first time, the sight and voice of a
woman greeted the gold diggers. Her
advent was hailed with wonder and de-
light. No English princess of the blood
could have attracted or inspired more
admiration, in her walks through an
English village, than did the first wo-
man who walked the log huts and cabins
of San Francisco. After a year or two
several of these rude homes had wives
or sisters in them, and society began to
take shape and form under their infiu-
ence. The unkempt, rough, sunburnt
miners began to wash their faces, and
tidy their dress and department in a
more respectable semblance in this new
female presence. Home thoughts and
memories of far off mothers and sisters
were set into softening exercise by it.
Perhaps the thought even of an infant
school was suggested as an institution
in their little wooden town.
The little wooden town grew rapidly,
and it began to assume some of the
small appurtenances of civilization.
They built rude playhouse, and called
it a theatre, and extemporiZed an orches-
ira numbering several fddles, a bass
VOL, trombone, and two or three other
instruments. These entertainments were
enjoyed with great relish by the hard
working men. and ssthe house" was sure
to be well filled whenever opened.
More wives and sisters were brought on
from the n orthern States, and by-and-by
q little voice was heard in one of the
rude houses of the village. After a
while some of these new Corners graced
the theatre with their presence, and
were greeted with expressive looks of
admiration and delight. One evening
the first infant born in the settlement,
of American parents, was brought by its
mother to the theatre. just as the Or
chestra was in the midst of a crashing
braUura, the little thing put forth sud-
den cry, that pierced the music of all
the wind and stringed instruments with
a treble that none of them could make.
1t was the first note of human infancy
that had been heard for years by the
great majority of the audience.
Not soul of them fell to interpret
ing it's political significance. Not one
heard in that quivering cry the bubbling
utterances of an infant State hailing the
world from its cradle, or the cry of the
first-born of a young nation. No such
speculation filled that minute of COM
mon devotion. That infant cry was to
them all the self-voiced memory of their
childhood, and its life on the other side
of the wide continent. A stalwart gold
digger, with locks like grizzly bears
and face 'like the TAM" put the senti.
ment of the whole house in its true ex.
preston when he shouted, s'stop those
fiddles and let the baby cry! l haven't
heard such a sound for ten years!" The
whole audience applauded the senti
ment. The fiddlers stopped playing
the orchestra listened with eager and
delighted ears. The Baby's Overture
was the only music of the moment
AS it rose and fell on the gamut of its
treble, pit, box and gallery burst fortl
into cheer after cheer of delight ant
enthusiasm.
Such was the Baby's Overture at thu
birth of new State, that ere long will
count its millions, and lead the Pacific
empire of the English speaking race
| Eliza B,t2T6tt, an Packaa'ops Monthly