Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1888-11-24
LETTER FROM A ,4esa.
His Fret View OF California and the Inn
preston 1t Made.


His First View OF California and the Inn
preston 1t Made.
EDS. REcoRD-U UNION: 1t was just at sun
set on beautiful evening in the month of
August, 1S49. that / stood on solitary
rock on the crest of the Sierras and looked
of across that broad expanse of meadows
and plain that stretched out between those
mountains and the sea. What a scene was
before me. Within the range of my vision
the broad and fertile valley of the Sacra-
mento lay slumbering in It's first deep sleep.
Nature, pure and unaltered by the hand of
man, sat robed in her primeval beauty. 1t
seemed as il were gazing on world just
from the hand of God. No spiral columns
of blue smoke curled up from mans hab-
itation. Nc glittering spire from town or
hamlet pointed its finger TO the sky. The
purple rays of the setting sun, as they
beamed frcm the western sea, shone with a
spiendor that called TO mind the wonderful
scenes in tabled Aladdin Waterfalls of
Undesirable grandeur dashed and tumbled
from snowcapped mountains of unpar-
alleled heights. Mammoth trees, waving
their lofty branches 800 feet above the
ground were dotted along the mount
ain sides, while seas of waving
flowers of every tint and hue bedecked and
adorned the lower plains. Gay plumaged
birds warbled and sang from trees that
fringed the streams, and heavens purest
atmosphere encircled them ALL Imagine
my feelings then, as I stood there on the
crest OF the mountain and gazed in wonder
and admiration on the marvellous works of
God. Beauty ard brightness seemed radi-
ated from every rock and tree and flower,
and, but fol the want of an Adam and Eve,
one would have taken il for veritable
Eden. However this may be, while stand
ing on that grand old mountain-top, l at
least wondered to myself, if all the beauty
and splendor then presented to my gaze
could possibly be the result of accident
this outgrowth of haphazard development
in nature, or was it the especial handiwork
of God.
1t is said that there are not wanting men
in the world who believe that the universe
was fashioned by chance and eventually will
dissolve again into chaos. But not so with
all, for there are many who never look on
the grand or beautiful without being in
spired with feelings dwell, never mind.
Such, at least, was the beauty that eyerv-
where met nay boyish gaze, as / entered
California in 1919, that ] sometimes stood
in mingled wonder and awe as from time
to time L looked upon its lofty mountains,
its grand waterfalls, its towering pines,
deep gorges fertile plains, and above all,
the deep blue of its sky and the purity of
its atmosphere. Under such an influence,
and naturally loving the grand and beauti-
full, how could help falling in love with
California.
would like to tell you something of the
people who came to this coast in '49-their
wild excitement their rush for wealth.
their follies and frailties and the reckless
lmpetuosity that governed their acts,
coupled with a hospitality unparalleled in
the history of the world-but time and
space will not permit it. Besides, whoever
undertakes the uncertain task of writing
the early history of California will most
likely place on record a riddle that will re-
main unsolved by posterity, as it would re-
quire the pen Of a genius, with full knowl-
edge of its primary conditions and an
experience known only 10 the pioneer.
But now. in '68, how changed, or rather
how transposei, are all those elements of
which ! have spoken? Where stood the
shauty or tent, now stands the palace or
villa. To-day we gather the golden grain
where fourished once the larkspur and
the poppy. The transposition NAV be
ikened to youth and age. The picturesque
beauty and physical grandeur that won our
youthful fancy for the State in those early
days now finds admiration in its splendid
ciHes, beautiful churches, well-tilled farms
and tome-like cottages.
Well do | remember the strange glow of
pleasure experienced when first l stood in
the Valley of the Sacramento. Then life
was buoyant with hope and expectation.
Young aspiration pictured thousand joys
in store. while the heart looked forward
with eager gaze to their realization. But,
alas for all such castles built in the air.
The curtain fell upon our hopes and the
pl4asurable emotions experienced on be-
holding the valley faded away as we looked
back, in despair, over the seemingly inter
minable desert and plain that lay between
our solitary tent and the desr old home we
left in the East. A return trip across the
plains or around the Horn" was no easy
task in those early days. The necessary
means 10 make the trip, even when oppor-
tuniiy presented itself, was not at the dis
possl of all. Hence many a responding
man. with loving wife and prattling babe
IN his far Eastern home, went down into
the dark river under the weight of a fore
l0rn hope. Thousands dropped, and were
buried by the wayside, with nothing but
the moaning winds 10 chant their funeral
dirge. Some of these. doubtless to-day lie
uncoffined beneath our streets or out in
our great fields, where plowmen pass I'M
consciously over them. Thus many a cher
ished hope was blasted many q far-away
mothers heart doomed to pine for the boy
she knew not of. And thus the shadows
fell on many castle built in the air. by
the pioneers. JAMES McCAULEY.
lone City, Cal, November 20, 1883.