The morning call., 1894-09-11
PAST AND FUTURE.
California a Theme of
Discussion.
UNITARIAN CLUB PAPERS
Read at the Banquet at the
California.
DAVIDSON ION SPANISH VOYAGES
DR.. Wendte and DR.. Stebbins, w. ii.
Mills and DIR. Eliot Deliver Some
Interesting Addresses.

Early Spanish voyages along the Cali
fornia coast the quest for the bay of Mon
terey and the subsequent discovery of the
harbor of San Francisco formed an interest
ing historic topic upon which Professor
George Davidson discoursed to the Uni
tartan Club following the banquet at the
California last evening.
John z. Irish presided and between the
speeches on the programme kept up run
ming, witty commentary on what had gone
before and what was TO come afterward.
Professor Davidson was the first speaker
of the evening He told of Sir Francis
Drake and bis huccaneeIing, piratical
voyages. and identified brakes Bay as the
harboF which the early English navigator
visited on this coast. San Augustine and
the Spanish navigators, their voyages and
their chronicles were set forth at length.
The expedition sent out by the padres,
W which failed to find the bay of Monterey
aud returned reporting that no such harbor
existed, was the theme of lengthy eXposi.
ton, in which Professor Davidson, from
the chronicles which these early voyagers
had Left mapped out their journey and
took them north beyond Point Sur. The
voyage of Captain Juan Fernando Ribelra
was described at some length.
Then the speaker told of a second expe-
dition which LETT San Diego, sailed north
till it reached Monterey Bay. and. continu-
ing it's journey, took the first vessel
through Golden Gate and entered the mar
Dor of San Francisco.
John F. Irish in commenting stated that
his earliest knowledge of San Francisco
was learned from his father, Yankee of
Nantucket stock. who was something of a
navigator and visited San Francisco Bay
in 1920. He called upon S. c. Bigelow as
a representative Of the New England ele-
ment, which was so prominent in the trad
ing voyages to the Pacific Coast when it
was under Mexican domination, to tell of
early California.
Mr.. Bigelow told how in 1861 as he came
out Of Unitarian church he was ap-
preached by some friends who declared
that they were going to nominate him for
the Legislature. - declined the prOffered
honor" said he, but the next time | met
them they said they had nominated me-"
Mr.. BIgelow gave some graphic pictures
of early legislative days. One morning
while walking down the main street OF
Sacramento he saw that it was flushed
with a heavy stream of water and was
wishing that San Francisco streets could
be cleaned in that way. This was the big
flood of '61. When he reached his hotel
the water in the streets had become a tor
rent and he was obliged to seek the upper
floor of the building for safety. Wash
tubs and other strange substitutes
for boats were being used to navi-
gate the flooded town, The city desired
this Legislature to continue in session,
offering to furnish the Senators and the
Assemblymen with boats in which to
reach the capitol. In advocatiog the ad-
iournment of the session 10 San Francisco,
O1n innI nv
SAID, used this argument: Julius Caesar
moved the capital from Rome 10 COnstan-
tinople, and l should like TO know why we
haven't just as much right TO remove our
capital from Sacramento to San Fran
ciso."
MIR. Bigelow's talk was enlivened with
anecdotes. He declared that after the
session was over he found that his vote
unDeknown 10 himself, had been sold
forty times, and that the lobbyist who had
pretended 10 control it after the session
was over wanted to buy him suit Of
-clothes on the strength of having done
so. He was asked to serve q second time,
but gave his friends, as he related, this
reason for refusing: 81 am a Unitarian
and do not believe in total depraVity. If
l should go back to Sacramento ! am
afraid l might have to change my reli-
gion."
Rev. DR.. c. w. Wendte told Of coming
to California in 1861 by way of Panama.
Professor Frank SOule. now of Berkeley,
was a passenger on the same steamer.
Anecdotes of the early sixties in San
Francisco were given by DR.. Nendte.
City and State were prosperous. The war
had developed an ardent spirit of patriot
ism. The earlier days, the speaker
thought, seemed brighter and happier than
those of the present epoch.
The present California was the theme
upon which Rev. DR.. HoratiO Stebbins
spoke. All the great questions OF society,
DIR. Stebbins declared, could not be solved
by theory. The only method was by liv-
Ing forward into them.
''As to the present." said he. "some Of
us are disposed 20 grum bic, but my ex-
perience has taught me to take things
philosophically so long as they are decent"
He thought present society was better
than it was forty years ago. All pioneer
society was rude. II it had a law it was
one which had no historic continuity. 1t
was ''a law of honor among thieves" Dr.
Stebbns disclaimed this as reflection
upon the pioneers, going on to eX lain
that it had a most peculiar foundation.
The weakness financially and morally was
no violation of the fundamental relations
between character, industry and property.
Here it had been chance, but no American
society presented such dignity and power
as was to be found in California in the
presence of the gold fields.
"YOu may laugh and rldicule the asser-
ton if you will" said he, "but California
will never be commercially great until it
uses the cent in change"
As to California's development he
thought it would be low and bound up
with the progress of the Orient. 1t would
not be the progress of Europe nor the side
of America which faces Europe, but the
progress Of land facing China. He de-
cIared it not more presumptueus TO think
now that 100 years hence Chinese COM
monwsalth should form one of the States
of the Union than it would have been
seventy-five years ago to have prophesied
that tho negroes would now be citizens of
the republic.
w. II. Mills was the prophet who told
of California's future. As England's
maritime greatness grew out Of the deeds
of piracy of her old sea-captains. so out
OF the speculative evils would come
Calfornis's triumph. This was already
being shown by the way in which men
had devoted themselves to the agricul-
tural interests of the State. As the result
of recent trip to Denver, Chicago, Phila-
delphia anu New York he declared thar
San Francisco did not know what hard
times meant. Intensive farming would
make the future of the State. The
Nicaragua canal would make San Fran
csco's commercial greatness.
Speaking upon the railroad question he
said it might be good thing If the Gov
ernment would operate the road between