Delaware gazette. [volume] (Delaware, Ohio) 1855-1886, 1871-03-31
FEBRUARY IN oA1rEoRN1A.

The following is an extract from a
letter dated at Oakland, California, last
week of February, 1871, to the Cleve-
land Herald, fram Miss Emma James, a
graduate of the Ohio Wesleyan Female
College, atDelaware, and lady who
has many friends and acquaintance in
his -icinity.-EdS. Gazette.
Looking out from my window this
morning, a charming window on hill
top, full fronting the Golden Gate, my
eyes are. greeted with the unaccustomed
sight of snow on the mountain SUBMITS
beyond the Bay Thoughts of far Ohio
come crowding over me-snow- bound
Ohio with its wealth of warm hearts
and feel keen for an hours pen-talk
with any indulgent friends who will read
these way-side jottings kindly for the
old times sake.
This is my second years experience
on the Pacific coast, to which I came a
student of nature, hungering, most of
all, for Gods mountains and his sea /;
and if in some faint measure their glory
has entered and satisfied my soul, am
humbly thankful in the thought, and
count myself ever-more a debtor to
Providence for this new discipline OF
life.
You remember that the dear Jean
Paul-he who loved God and lit
tie children says we should never
speak of the Supreme One TO a child,
save in sublime and memorable mo
ments. There are two little nieces, dear
to my heart, who l wish could nestle
down on the broad window-seat before
me as 1 stand and look atsthis landscape
glowing with the Iustre of the early
spring, that I might show them our Faith
er's hand in the waving outline of these
encircling mountains, the Bays bright
azurei the messeDge geT-clOuds borne on
by the morning breeze, and the green,
level fields that stretch from the foot of
our hill to the waters. edge, dotted with
suburban homes. "A carriage drive of
iI5o rods, shaded with cedars, whose
sombre green is relieved blythe feathery
bloom of the acacia and the smord-like
foliage of the Australian gum-ree, Euca-
lyptus winds down to Telegraph Avenue,
the longest street in Oakland "A mile
to the north-ward lies the Temescal, an
old Spanish settlement, near which
stands Galifornia's noble institution for
the Deaf, Dumb and Blind. From
that point, a line of horse-cars leads
down the avenue and past our College
hill, to the depot of the ferry train on
Broadway, a mile south of us thus link
ing this classic city of II 900 souls, the
Athens of the sunset coast, with San
Francisco four miles away To show
you the healthy growth of Oakland,
there were in 1870, more than a thous-
and buildings erected, more by actual
count, than in its metropolitan neighbor;
and since the opening of the new year
there have been upwards of a hundred
begun, a large proportion of them being
tasteful and elegant residences.
You will already infer that it is also
quite an educational centre, indeed, if
should try but to enumerate the schools
in hourishing activity here your patience
would be exhausted before the list was
closed and they are all styles and
grades, from the State University down
to a fine Kindergarten, under the man
agement of Miss Emma Smith who,
two years ago, taught gymnastics in
your East High School. The "Female
College of the Pacific IS owned by Rev.
Dr. Walsworth, a native of Cleveland
lion the site where your American
House now stands). We have the I'm
est educational building as yet complet-
ed On this coast, and quite a cosmopoli-
tan corps of teachers. Our list for this
year embraces a French gentleman who
lost an arm skirnishing with the Ma
rooms, in the English service, at New
Zealand an Italian and German as mu-
sic-masters an American lady, born
and reared in the Sandwich Islands 1--WE
are very neighborly with that fine vol
canic group, and are wont to speak of
them familiarly as "The Islands" J, be
sides lady graduates Of Oberlin, Albany,
Troy, Pittsburgh and Delaware resPec-
lively Yale sends. US new Principal,
now on his way, Mr.. D. P. Sackett, son
of a well know citizen of Tallmadge,
Ohio. Our lady teacher. from the Sem
mary at Pittsburgh. is a niece of Messrs.
James and Jabez Fitch, of your city. l
have never seen schools better disciplin-
ed, or. scholars more loyal and ambitious
than ours, and other neighboring insti-
tutions that ] could name.
On the hill south of as, fine military
academy is located. BY accident, per-
haps, or perhaps because the young
men are prone to go where the maidens
most do congregate, the cadets often
march over this way on dress parade,
and their agony of drum beating, and
unimPeachable uniforms recall year
passed at the old Humiston Institute, on
the Heights. - where my life was meas
ured off by drum-beats. 7ia- ol