The San Francisco call., 1898-01-25

tennial of 1918, when not these Pioneers, | but the young men and young women who saw them, will occupy the Irons l ranks in the parade; when the mines or oi California Oregon and Washington snail have been more fully developed, and their vacant lands occupied and improved; | when Alaska shall have added her ,!ies vase mineral treasures. her wealth of fisheries and forests to the grand aggregate; when the Nicaragua canal shall have been built, and San Francisco shall have be- come the great distributing point on thi1 Pacific Coast; then will be more tully realized the importance of that great event which we to-day celebrate, the dlS- covery of gold in California on the 24th or After Rhys Thomas had sung Cali fornia," song of the glories or the Western land, Lieutenant- Governor Jeter rose to announce the well come of the State In a humor- ous way the Lieutenant Govern or ex- plained the absence of the executive, who was to have spoken, and then he proceeded to the task assigned him.
 T am of the opinion" he said, that Columbus originally started out to dis cover California, but not knowing the route he landed on Cuba, and if Cuba had been in her present state of mind he would not have been allowed to go back and we would still be waiting for some man who had sense enough to discover us. Had Noah taken course in the State University he could
 
 order and would have landed on Mt. Hamilton instead of Ararat. Think of the Lick Observatory going for 5000 years. discovering golden stars While in the ground there was gold enough to build the golden stairs
 Then he spoke of the native daugh- ters. turning neat compliments and promising for them and their success Ors a brilliant future. A few more words of the commercial situation, upon the Nicaragua canal, upon the gold sufficient to regild the Golden Gate" the climate of the State and her future, and then in the name of Cali fornia he welcomed the visitors and the pleaSure-SeekerS and the celebrants of the great celebrations, and he closed with the assurance that those who had once come within the lure of the golden land would never leave it.
 A patriotic song by the children, Hail California; followed. and the living flag arose on it's many feet an6 swelled the chorus with childish voices.
 The city's welcome, delivered by Mayor James Phelan, came next. Thrice welcome" he said, you pion- eers, builders of the West, as you pass before us to-day-perhaps for the last time. You represent the past and I the present; l the May, if you please, and you the December, but in California there is no incongruity in the compari- son, where the sky is clear at one time
 
 man who came here in Al, General John Bidwell, and I can say that he is as bright and light and as young as I am. There are others to follow me and l will withdraw, as it is fitting for Native Son to do, for we have reaped the harvest they have sown and we are here only to bear testimony of it. All | honor to the piOneerS-the men of '49 | Let them possess the freedom of the city during their lives, for it will stand as their monument forever"
 There was a song by the Knicker- booker quartet. and then the Hon. Niles Searls, orator of the day, was introduced.
 Judge Searls' address was a record | of the scenes and the events around 1 the old Sutter mill which made the year AS an epoch in the worlds his | tory. First he described the country i surrounding the scene of the great dis covery, the American River, it's branches and the site of what is now ! the town of Coloma- Then he told l how Captain John A. Sutter came out l from Germany and decided to erect a sawmill; how Marshall joined him | and how, while digging a race" he | turned up little yellow lump of gold. i The wild rush of people from every land and of every cline was his next theme, and he told how they came across the plains in wagon trains, by the isthmus, around the Horn and in every way and every direction. He told how they lived and how they worked; of their successes and their failures, of their hopes and of their disappointments. Concluding he ad- dressed the Native Sons and Daughters before him and said:
 Before the centennial year of the dis covery of gold at Sutter's mill shall have dawned upon the world these veterans now upon the platform who stood near Marshall when he .plucked from Mother Earth her garnered treasure, and whom we reverence and delight to honor. will have passed away. In 184S they were as waving pines; in 1898 they are gnarled oaks, sturdy to the last; but awaiting the resounding strokes of the aXman, Death.
 The requiem of all the pioneers, from those who came in 1888 up to and includ- ing those of 1S49, will have been sung prior to the centennial day. Upon you will devolve the duty of putting on the armor which we lay aside. Our beloved common wealth will be, fifty years hence, what