The San Francisco call., 1898-01-23

of gold visible He told of his vision the world, and California dreamed she heard the tramp of oncoming armies of
 Yet still her mighty energies lay sIumber-bo Still the shining gold lay untouched
 But now the day of deliverance at hand. An Indian shot Yerba Buena because would the source of the treasure he had brought to the sandy little hamlet on San Francisco Bay. A trader touched the secret and postponed till ether day more thorough search. But he his life in battle with the Indians. And California lost heart.
 The messenger was on his way He was hover ing about the spot where lay the golden mystery. Twice he and twice he away. The third time, all unknowng, he stumbled upon that for which men had searched from the beginning of mans his tory He stretched out a hand, ignorant, careless, but curious, and took from the golden heap one pre- cious grain.
 It was the signal California awoke
 It was time. A territory as large as France Ger many and Great Britain combined lay idle. uncut- vated unexplored, practically uninha abited In all of what know California, Nevada, Utah, Arizona nearly all of New Mexico half of Colorado and parts of Kansas and Wyoming, there were half a dozen Catholic mssions-embryo San Francisco, San Jose San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara, Los An geles and Monterey and far far off beyond the Sier ras, the high desert plateau the border of the salty inland sea- there was baby settlement of Mormons, that had been intended for Yerba Buena, had not Uncle Sam anticipated their desire and raised the stars and stripes.
 A great empire of snow-capped mountains. beauti- full valleys, alkaline deserts mountain lakes crys- tai that they might have diamonds glisten- ing the great knuc1es of Natures clenched hand, nrd busy. chatterlng brooks growing they nway from the gulches and ravines till they became mighty rivers that discharged their waters into the
 And all this for savages of so low. so degraded. a type that the name Digger has become synony- nous with the of aboriginal uncouth squalor.
 The white who had come west the traders, the trappers the officials the small companies of sol ders considered themselves eXiles. Home far away Between it and them lay thousands of miles of unknown territory. It to be lcnged for, but hardly hoped for The pioneer who had come hTG far-n roeSSpG iOp Of ico looked back regretfuly the five months journey he had made. The man who had made his way gradually the Rockies to Fort Van couver and down through the Columbia and Villa mette valleys asked himself what he had suffered much privaton, for what he had tempted death in
 1S44 and 1S45 there were not 10000 people in all scattered through the infant empire Yet tho reve- nue amounted to $20O .00O The public debt nearly as much again. The tariff such necessaries coffee, sugar flour and cotton made them IuXuries out of reach of the average Californian There was almost complete cessation of emigration Cali fornia's merchants were deep in debt. Down Mon terey the Versailles of the western empire, few families lived in comparative comfort in luxurious
 idIeness enjoying the dolce far niente of the
 effcrtless, sensuously beautiful life; while to the
 north, restless, eager prospectors and pioneers.
 too thoroughly Ango-Saxon to be infected by the
 Spaniard's love of ease roamed through the
 canyons and the sharp ridges of the high mountains seeking, never finding, till the ,sl fateful moment
 T Monterey was disposed in those old days, to l patronize Yerba Buena- She looked upon the feverish restessness of the northern city with Il the good-natured contempt that the indolent pa trcian has for the bustng plebean.
 When gold discovered, the dean of Cali fcrnian papers, The Californian, of Monterey, | plained that there had been misunderstanding
 in the north to Montereys desires in the mat j ter. The capital had only the kndliest feelings nl for the sandy little upstart Yerba Buena had sl her naughty elder sisters best wishes. Should Fl northern city prosper and increase it could j in way dsagreeably affect Monterey's stand el ing
 So the hidalgo of towns down in the dreamy south dozed en- too good natured and too lazy, E truth to tell, to permit the activity of the north M to disturb it's repose-a repose that would have l been characteristic of all of Alta California, had Y fate and that hoard of hidden gold worked z together to and startle out of her senses i lovely old Monterey-and the world.