St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1878-01-11

Tins.
Perhaps these remarks are open to
the criticism that ''they seem rather
forced )" but residence in country
where the operations of "blue ruin" are
seen in their normal condition and full
extent, very soon settles the question
of Temperance" for one who is in SYM
pathy with the good work of ameliorat-
ing the condition of the human family.
However, let us pass to a more
wholesome subject. The dairy business
is very profitable occupation of por-
tion of this community. Some time
ago we visited the Baldwin dairy which
consists of three hundred COWS and
every convenience (save the Jewett
pans,) for taking care of the milk and
producing the butter. Most of the but
ter made at this dairy is shipped to San
Francisco, where its reputation for ex-
cellence secures for it ready sale at
the highest market price. Butter-mak-
ing on this coast is free from many of
the annoyances which affect butter
makers in the East. The atmosphere
is so pure and equable, and the nights
so cool that the dairyman is never COM
PEELED to vary his wonted process on
account of the weather. No frosts to
freeze the milk no heat to spoil the
cream and butter, and no thunder
storms to hasten the "turning" of the
lactile fluid. 1t is the paradise of the
buttermaker; and, some day, when
the cities and towns of California shall
have largely increased, these coast re-
gions will be valued for the dairy busi
ness, as many roll of something as
yellow as butter and far more essential
to the existence of the veteran Cali
fornian.
The purity of the atmosphere i'll this
county is quite remarkable. When we
first came to this country and while
riding up the coast we noticed il tall
pole erected at nearly every house, with
hag-statfs or liberty poles. WequeIied
to ourselves, whether it was possible
that this remote end of our republic
could be SO excessively patriotic as to
haunt the national banner at nearly
every farmhouse, and that too from a
liberal elevation of genuine American
liberty pole. But, we had not long to
question. We soon approached one of
these poles from which the banner was
flung to the breeze. We gazed intently
with view of ascertaining the senti-
meuts of the ranchers. We soon had
them Freedom The blessings of
pure air, good appetites and fresh beef
| proclaim to the world" Beef-nOth-
ing else; therefore what else could we
gather? The rancher ties quarter of
beef to the end of the rope and hoists it
fifty feet i'll the air. There it is free
from insects; gunny sack protects it
from carnivorous birds; the cats heart
fails her ere she is half way up; and
the faithful Watchdog restraints the
thief in the night. The cook lowers
the beef as occasion demands, cuts off
a steak, and rehoists the remainder to
its aerial safe. A quarter of beef will
"keep" in this way as long as a lancher's
family of ordinary rancher's capacity
for meat will permit it to keep. We
saw no occasion for calling the poles by
any other name than liberty poles, after
all, for the banner was one of the most
emphatic symbols of liberty that we
ever observed in connection with mat
ters purely physical. There seemed to
be only one condition upon which the
poles could express, more clearly, the
idea of freedom, and that was when
they were free of meat. The stOmachs,
little and big, in the rancherie all COM
prehend the significance of this kind of
freedom and, in many instances, we
ought not to begrudge them this taste
of freedom, for it is all that thev will
ever realize in its full significance, al
though their land is ''the land of the
free and the home of the brave"
1t might be inferred that we have
alluded to the native Californian. He
is cOnundrum par excellence. When
you first come to this country, you ask
your friend, an old Californian, what
that object is which ambles along by
you, in fgure-after the fashion of
man. ''Ihat? That is native Califor-
MAN." "Well, what is native Califor-
nian 9'' ''Why, he is greaser." "Well,
what is greaser ?" "Oh, he is a kind
of compound in which the mixture is
no improvement upon the ingredients"
"Well, what are the ingredients of this
compound ?" ''Now, look here" (he is
driven to the last resort,) "you'T get
over some of your Yankee inquisitive-
ness by the time you've lived in Cali
fornia quarter OF a century" 1 sup
pose that you know there are certain
works of creation that are rather non
descript-in which the purpose of the
Creator is not quite pronounced. At
any rate, it's no use to push the matter
of origin back too far.
If you undertake to trace the geneal-
ogy of these "greasers" too minutely,
you might meet with the same difficulty
that arises in looking for the ancestors
of Gains wife, OF even worse There
were Indians in Mexico; the Spanish
came to Mexico. Whether the ''greaser'
is mixture of any or all of these races