The morning call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1878-1895, 1890-09-06
THE HOLIDAY BEGINS.

a few hours after these lines are read, the
first Of the country delegations to the great
holiday will begin TO arrive in the city. In
dividual visitors, determined to make sure
of convenient quarters. have been arriving
for a day or two, as the condition of the
hotels and the throngs in the streets plainly
demonstrate All the leading hotels are full;
in one # them thousand cots have been
placed in the passages, and wherever else
they would stand. Before the holiday Is
over more than one visitor may be thankful
for the Hospitality OF mattress on a billiard
trblr. People who have attended an inauE-
uration ceremony at Washington know what
stats a crowd will endure without repining.
Tonight the celebration will begin with
torchgAt parade, an open-air con, ert in
Union Square, and display of fireworks
This is intended to be merely preface to
the exhibition. and TO effort will be made to
render it specially imposing. 1t will be sim
ply a welcome to our guests. The grand
show VIII not begin till Monday, and the
elimination of the festival will not occur till
the regular anniversary on Tuesday. But
tile streets are already a sea of color, and
the stores are pictures of brightness. Our
visitors will find plenty TO interest and please
in a walk through the leading thOTOughfares,
in the bright radiance of electric lights.
OF tie men who were n the full Yigor Of
manhood when California became State of
the Union, forty years ago, but few remain.
The pioneers are fast dWiudling away. Very
few indeed of those who shouted when the
steamer brought the glad tidings Of admis-
sion will join in the celebration on Tuesday.
Most Of them were long ago laid under the
sod, and what fortune was theirs-whether
their lot was happy one or the reyerse-feW
now remember. When they fell others
took their place, and most of their names are
now forgotten There was in those days a
great mercantile firm with three partners.
1t acquired a speedy and large fortune.
Two OF the partners retired and returned to
the East 10 enjoy tier riches. The third
remained here, was oyertaken in one of the
periodical crises OF our early history, was
runld lost his grip and is now in his old age
an applicant for admission 10 that noble
charity which the city owes 10 Mrs. Croker
the Old Peoples Home. Curiously enough
one Of the lenefactors Of the institution is
a citizen of means, who. thirty or forty wears
ago. was the drayman of the firm to which
the aged applicant belonged.
In contrast with the slender ranks of the
pioneers the festival will exhibit an army Of
young men who were unborn when the
State was admitted, and who, now, under
the name of Native Sons, constitute the fu-
ture hope of California. 1t is on their viz
tue ard en- their grit that the question
whether this is to be one Of the great COM
monw ealths Of the world, or a mere third
rate State in a mighty Union, will depend.
Tie Saying Of the wise Athenian-that it is
not sticks and stones which make city, but
men-apples as well to States as to cities
1t is lot fertile soil, nor genial climate, nor
even a limitless diversity of resources,
which can make country great and pow
erful ana respected These excellent quail
ties can only be acquired when the people
Of the country are an oXemplar Of public
and private virtue; when they lead orderly
lives and bow to the law when their legs-
lation is guided by wise and humane princi-
PIES; when they stand by what they believe
to be right, and concede nothing to Specious
error or narrow-mind6d delusiOn. 1t is the
happy lot of the Native Sons that every one
OF them has had an opportunity Of acquir-
ing tie rudiments OF good education, ana
that large proportion of them have COM
pleted that education by technical studies.
and hy an apprenticeship to the art of self
government 1t is their right, as it is their
duty, 10 assume the direction OF their pubic
affairs, denying TO no fellow-citizen, wher-
ever born. his full right to cooperate, but
exac.ing for themselves the predominant
place to which their birthright entities
them.
1t was once the fate of California to be
wholly controlled by persons not born in
the State. That was an unavoidable neces-
sty. But it has passed away. The State
has NV sons Of her own who are as capable
Of directing her destinies as the citizens who
have "iosen it as their home They will do
SO. And they viii probably be too enlight-
ened to forget that while this section of the
world Is theirs to furnish them with an OPP
poftunty to build up model Christian
CONN onWealth, they are likewise citizens of
great nation, and that their first allegi-
ance is due to the United Statas