The San Francisco call., 1898-01-25
SONG AND STORY AND A LIVING
 LAUGHING FLAG.
Literary and Musical Exercises Held at Woodward'S Pa-
 ViIiOn.

Fair as it was in its yellows and golds, it's streamers of white and it's garlands of flowers, cid Woodward's Pavilion took it's greatest charm from the "children's flag" which spread its brilliant colors before the speakers platform. The stripes were rows of girls and boys whose colored capes of red and white scarce kept up in inter est with the brightness of eyes and smiles and faces, and the field was formed of boys with capes of blue and on the breast of each there shone a silver star. The flag stretched it's Iiv- ing, laughing folds across a broad bank of seats sloping gently from the floor to the bower of ferns and brakes that marked the stage, and the movements of the children seemed to lend life to its coiors, and it rippled and flashed as gay as any banner ever flung to west ern breeze.
 The children were all from the city schools, and they did more than merely sit in the gorgeous shades of the na- tional emblem and look the part they were playing, for they sang songs of patriotism and joined in the choruses and seemed as happy as if they them selves had discovered the yellow metal instead of only celebrating the event fifty years after it had all happened.
 The pavilion itself looked prettier than it had on any event in it's life before, for the decorations were not too gaudy nor were they piled on until be- yond the point of endurance; there was just enough and not too much, and the effect was most appropriate.
 The time for the exercises to begin was long past before the parade was oVer and so the crowd that gathered was not so large as it might have been There was a number large enough, however, to stamp and applaud and cheer whenever the occasion allowed, and even the cold wind which whiStled in and around the rich draperieS and among the rafterS could not break the enthusiasm nor stay the proceedings.
 It was nearly half-past before the band arrived, and then the exercises began at once. Forty minutes of music brought the programme up to the speakers point, and then it was that the Rev. S. H. Wiley stepped forward and asked a blessing, not only on the assembly itself, but on all 1t meant and all it promised.
 J. H. Jewett, president of the day and president of the Pioneers, opened the programme with a few remarks on the day of celebration and the events which had made it possible to cele- brate. The Golden Jubilee. he said. commemorated one of the most strik- ing events in the history of the State. and an epoch in the nineteenth cen tury The discovery of gold, he de- clared, had changed the destinies of individuals. and who could say but that it had changed the destinies of nations? Then he referred back to the time when the State was a pastoral laEd-"a virgin soil. unvexed by the hand of man, it's treasures unknown and hidden from view" Then he told of the building of the old sawmill and the discovery of a little bit of yellow metal, of the tremendous excitement which it caused, of the wild rush of men to dig and delve in the creek beds and the water courses, and then he took up the organization of the Pio- neers and the significance to them of the day on which Marshall made his strike: Amid great applause he men tioned the names of some of the more prominent of the builders of the State and told of their lives and their strug- gles and the fame they had gained. Continuing on, he said:
 Fellow Pioneers: Living links in the cham which connects the past with the present. you have lived in the most event. full period of the worlds history Your romantic lives have been filled with thrill ing experiences. You have witnessed great and marvellous changes. Fifty years is a short time in the life of q State. a long time in the life of an individual. And yet. the face of nature has changed as much as the face of man. Look around you. and what do you behold familiar to you when first you arrived on these shores.
 The same snow-capped mountains, the same benignant skies, the same broad ex- panse of waters meet your gaze. All else is changed. I join with you in thankful ness that a kind Providence has pro- longed our lives and enabled us to particl- pate in this Golden Jubilee.
 And now, as we cast the horoscope of the future, and look forward to the cen
 The Cubau Scare