The Emporia news. [volume] (Emporia, Kan.) 1859-1881, 1877-08-24
FROsn CALnFOkNIA.
A ATethodIst Camp Meeting.

San Jose traverses this year q dry,
country. During the
last eighteen months we haYe had
less than six inches of rain. There
is little grain or grass; a diminish
ed fruit-crop; many dead cattle and
men. It Is CALIFORNIA;
year, for crops and mines
have failed together.
Nevertheless, there seems to be
little actual suffering. Northern
California has q good crop, and the
enormous surplus of last year gives
us bread enough. Trade is dull,
many houses are empty, the State
seems TO have gone to sleep, but few
are really hungry.
The train traverses forty miles of
orchards, vineyards, and dried-up
grain-feIds, and shooting under the
Coast Range through q tunnel,
energies upon the fertile coast-lands
with their evergreen verdure. at
Salinas we take our seats in the
merest subterfuge of q rail-csr, on
the narrowest of gauges. The sim
gle passenger car has seats in front
and q little baggage-room In the
rear. An old-time neighbor in Ar
kansas City, Mr.. Austin, acts as con-
ductOr and station-keeper. We have
q swift, enjoyable ride over plains
swept by the sea-breeze, and amid
great sand-dunee, and at last pause
on the wharf of Monterey.
This is the strangest of old sea-
side cities. 1t was settled by the
Catholic fathers ITO years ago. 1t
was for more than so years the capt.
tai of California. Seven governors
of the State lie buried on the floor
of its old mission church. 1t is at
present little more than a whaling
and fishing port, and summer re-
sort. The ancient capitol is now a
school-house. The vast adobe quad
rangle of Its mission is empty and
ruinous. The old "Presidio" or fort
lie the property OF the United States,
but has only one gun on its parApet,
and no garrison. The rest of the
cannon are set up as hitching-posts
at the corners of the streets. The
sidewalks are mainly made of the
vertebre of whales. The streets are
narrow, intricate, shapeless lanes,
meeting at the strangest angles, and
lined by the ruinous buildings OF
the old Mexican days. The people
are largely of that swarthy stock.
A ship is seldom seen in the harbor,
over which the sea-fogs seem forever
brooding.
elm the mantle OF old traditions,
In the rhine of a vanished day,
The shrouded and silent city
Sits by her crescent bay.
''The ruined fort on the hillside,
Where never II bunting streams,
Looks down, q cannonless fortress,
On the silent city of Dreams"
1t is q strange, weird, lonely little
town, but full of attractions TO the
lover of the antique and picturesque.
A hack carries us two miles along
the coast, and we emerge at once
from the dim, religious twilight OF
old Spanish Catholicism into the
broad daylight of modern Yankee
Methodism. We are in a camp
meeting, surrounded by such won
ders and luxnries as Peter Cart
wright never dreamed of. 1t is q
beautiful pine grove, standing on
the rocky shore of the Pacific. Great
basaltic dykes project out into the
sea, worn into deep caverns by the
incessant wash of the waves.
In the grove there is a village OF
neat cottages, church, an elegant
stand for open-air speaking, store,
and first-class restaurant. Water
Is distributed over the ground in
pipes. There are many tents eccu-
pied by families. There is no ma
laria, never a summer rain, and not
q chigre or musquitO, or hot day. Il
is the very perfection of seaside and
camp life. Down under the cliffs
are caverns and natural aquariums
full OF wonderful sea-anemones, sta
fish, sea-mosses, and innumerabl'
forms of ocean life. Beautiful COZ
and other fish abound in the bay
The rocks at low tide are covered
with shell-fish. 1 do not know of
place on this coast so full of tn
forces that tend to mental cultur
and bodily refreshment.
But how about the spiritual part
you ask. Well, it is far more of
camp than q meeting. There ar
religious services upon the Sabbath
and brief prayer-meeting ever
evening. 1t is rather a place TO
rest than for active Christian worl
So far as could see, people of a
sects equally claim its comforts an
share in it's services. 1t is the mos
delightful place on the coast fo
quiet people, who wish to rest for
season, away from dust, summe
heat, and whisky.
Two whales, one of them an In
mense "sulphur-bottom," eighty feG
long, were towed in during the wee
of my stay. They are caught off til
coast by men going out in boats.
/ went to Pacific Grove sick, wit
my left arm in hospital, and q sma
bone broken, the result of railroa
h. accident. / have come back to m
work full of health and vigor.
My third year in the Californi
Normal school has begun. Althoug
the standard of examinations WI
, high, so that many were rejectet
VIC open with over 400 young me
: and women.
With kindest remembrance,
II. B. NORTON.