The herald and mail. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 1873-188?, 1875-07-23
Californian Life and Landscape.

All through the state, uutii you pcnC-
trate TO the remote and lonely cattle
ranches and tue habitations OF the
| Pixies, there is a suggestion of city life,
! of city atmosphere, about "a California
ranch. which readers It, thoroughly IN.
like an eastern farm. There is little rus
ticity IN the dress, for the ruraIs are so
| often IN the village that they keep
/ abreast of the fashions do not re-
memb ever 20 huvc seen patched
! garment Oh a farmer, au,. the "old clO''
man is only found occasionally IN tie
| vicinity of the largest cities. Daily or
semi weekly the butcher wagon, the
fruit and wine wagon, and the vegetable
wagon make their appearance, far out
| from the village and they will execute
small commissions on the grocery ten
miles distant. DAILY papers from San
Francisco travel hundre Is of miles by
rail, then are carried twelve or fifteen
farther by the rancher, arriving out
forty-eght hours old. Four hundred
miles from the metropolis / have
stopped the mail-carrier, riding on a
mule in a bridiepath, and bought the
daily journals. On that same bride
path you shall see scores OF letter boxes
nailed to trees, though the ranchers'
houses are not IN sight. TIE young
men drive spanking teams 10 spick. and
span new sulkics or buggIes, with
elegant cashmere or wolf skin afghanB.
Their talk is the talk of the town, il has
gold in it, and stocks, and horse races.
A ranch has two or three great, high
seated California wagons, with splendid
four finland to each the corral (speak,
cOrreD is so full Of trig and painted
gimcracks that it looks like magazine
OF agricultural machinery. There are
few cozy, comfortable, middle class
homes. The house S either mnRnif-
cent country residence, or a mean, un-
painted redwood shanty, though either
may be occupied by man immensely
wealthy. Everything seems put there,
adventltiOus nothing grew out OF the
soil. There are no ancient trees no
strawberries, no grass. Instead OF
hOmely farmer messes, You cat urban
fare of beefsteak aud hot biscuit made
with Boston yeast powder. You hope
for pumpkin DIe, ami get can Of Bal1-
more oysters. There are Oregon APP
pies, Cincinnati hams, and stewed
prunes from Germany. a nan may be
worth one hundred thou sand dollars
and have no milk to whiten his coffee.
The COW runs on the range aud comes
home when she lists. 4 boy NAV be
dispatched for her on his tough little
shaggy COW horse, and a man must be
sent to bring the boy home. The yard
fences all look imported, az they are
all things have a contractOr-IIke look, n
little tawdry, a little cheap. Every
thing is so naked and so new, that no
one can hang tradition on it. There
is no moss on the fences the newly
sawed boards and posts and the houses
stand ont painfully ugly and prominent
beneath the lovely sky. Yet you never
hear the wind whistle or Indignantly
veil around them, as IN the east IN
winter it always gurgles softly around
those hideOus corners. Fortunate 1t IS
So Nowhere else could the tilmslness
and cheapness of our American material
civil zation stand revealed with more
appalling ugliness. 1t would require
the finest and subtlest art to bear the
searching test of this pellucid atmns-
phere. In the east the fog and humid
Ity conceal something; they lend gar
ments of moss they blind your eyes to
deformities. When one goes abroad IN
California, he shuddeTs and shrugs hls
shoulders and wishes 10 draw a mantle
around him. Especially does he wish
to draw a mantle around those stark
and rigid fences and naked houses. -
atlantic MOnthiy.