The record-union., 1893-04-15
IN LIGHTER VEIN.

A San Jose contemporary declares that
Sacramento is setting a pace for that city.
and proceeds to attempt. but vainly, to
throw what cold water it can upon the
factories scheme and other progressive
ideas. VIII it ever enter into the compre-
hension of those without her bounds that
Sacramento is now. as she always has
been, energetic and progressive, and that
she will now as she always has, succeed
in all she sets out to do?
Let old Californians turn back the
pages of memory. Will they find in the
whole history ofthe State record ofsuch
heroic achievements as have been accom-
plished by Sacramentans This city was
few years ago in the mouths of all Cali
fornians with lofty pride that she had
risen superior tofloods and confagra-
tons, and wrested from threat the guar
antee of security. She was burned again
and again only to rise stronger than ever
from ashes. What pride fired all Califor-
mans when the triumphs of this city were
trumpeted abroad?
When it became necessary to raise her
grades, she set the pace for Chicago, and
about the same time the two cities went
upward to higher levels and by precisely
the same methods. When pestilence as
sailed the State and Sacramento's doors
swung wide open outward to the suffer-
ing of all the region, she met the prompt
ings Of her charity with the activity of
achievement, and then patiently took up
the burden of a consequent debt heavier
Than any people of like number ever I'M
dertook to carry in the history of civiliza-
ton; and she has borne it uncomplain-
ingly, and so pared it down that it is nc
more burden.
When the Nation was in peril she fur
nished the gigantic intellects and cour-
ageous men who spanned the continent
with iron rails and linked the East to the
West past all recall. When the State
wanted Capitol she wen. down into
her privy purse and furnished the build
ing, and when a second Capitol was
wanted she gave grounds in wide extent,
and thereafter poured other thou
sands into the treasury to enable
the State to enlarge its parks.
Another time the State wanted a special
building and Sacramento furnished it out
of hand, tho entire large structure being
1,tnil in oh 2
which there is any record. Still again,
the State wanted another building and
Sacramento called on her people between
two days for half the cost and the golden
thousands were poured out The State
needed a stock park and Sacramento fur
nished it. The State wanted brainy men
for bench and forum; Sacramento filed
the demand and gave to California some
of the most illustrious men who have
graced her bench, her bar, her pulpits
and her professions and her trades.
Here the foremost journals of the day
in this State were born; here fortunes
were made upon which San Francisco
builded her pre-eminence, and here artists
and songsters who have won the worlds
plaudits were born. When local needs
pressed upon her, though burdened with
the debts incurred for others than her
own, Sacramento proceeded to spend
some millions in streets, drains and har-
Dor improvements, and withal found
time to raise monuments to her heroes
and celebrate the triumphs of California in
the fields of art, song, commerce and
war.
She was first with coin when the
wounded soldiers on bloody battle-fields
called for help; first to send her gold in
generous thousands to the. sufferers at
Johnstown; first TO load steamers to the
gunwales with supplies for Marysville,
when cruel waters were drowning her
out. She broke the ground for the first
transcontinental railway; she gave to
California her first war Governor; she
enshrined herself in the hearts of the
people by her loyalty to the Nation when
nearby people were held to the Union
only by Federal guns trained upon them.