Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1880-07-03
THE OLD TOWN.

Monterey is accustomed to neglect and
it in 1902, it was altogether forgotten for
the greater part of two centuries, and until
Portala found it again, without recogpiz-
ing it. The mission was net established
until the third attempt, in l770. Thus 1t
is evident that the law of the place is pa
tient expectation, and that there is nothing
in its history tc justify US in looking for
such steady or constant progress as merely
commercial entrepots exhibit. But there
are many peculiarities about Monterey.
The Californian affects to regard it with
special reverence and affection, for it con-
stitutes his one little connection with
decent antiquity, and is further memorable
for its relations to the early history of the
State. 1t is the only place to which We
can take our visitors who seek ruins of any
kind, and while we profess to think a good
deal of these relics-the old Cotton House,
where the first Constitution was drafted,
the Quartet, the fort, the mission churches
at Monterey and Carmel, the cross of Por-
tala, and so forth-nobody puts forth
finger to save any of these monumental
buildings from the utter wreck and ruin to
which they are fast Fastening 1t is odd
that with SO many Societies of Pioneers in
the State, none OF these organizations
should have thought it worth while to at
tempt the preservation OF any of these
quaint and interesting places 1t would
seem that the Pioneers exist principally for
the purpose of banqueting one another,
and recounting old stories of somniferous
character, but that they have rooted OBJ
lection to spending their money upon any
thing which may be considered practically
useful. The historic attractions. of Mon
terry are, however, fortunately not all so
perishable. The spot where the austere
fanatic Junipero Sierra landed will be
pointed out for centuries, though the tree
upon which he hung his bells has already
fallen. The ruins of the old fort from
whose battlements Commodore Sloat re-
moved the Mexican flag, when he had won
that sailing match with the English Adj
miral which probably decided whether
California should be British colony
or an American State, will soon be
gone, but the elevation on which
it stood will remain, and shore
and sea and sky and the close
encompassing woods and hills will forever
furnish the material for reconstructing
those pictures of the vanished past, which
in truth require but little material sugges-
ton for their erection on the mental
retina. But all these years, since the
brief glory of Monterey departed from it
with the advent Of the gold era, and it
ceased to be the impossible Capital of
sort of No Mans Land, it has been dream
ing on in comfortable and thoroughly
Indifferent way, as conscious OF the i'm
possibility of any real awakening before
the appointed time, as the people in the
Palace of the Sleeping Beauty. The true
Prince had not come, and so the spell still
held the place, and the soft, sweet, mar
cotic influence OF it stole gently over all
who came within its scope, and set them
wondering why any one should toll and
mol, and why it would not be good thing
to
"Swear an oath, and keep it with an equal
mind
In the hollow Lotosland to live and lie reciined
On the hills like Gods together. careless of man.
kind"
But they did not stay. They went away.
still wondering at the wierd, dreamy place,
and they thought of it ever after as some
how uncanny. And yet the time was
rapidly approaching when the true Prince