Year: 1859

|


creasng taste in thsState for the productions
of literary genius. Formerly, the number OF
those who seemed to appreciate anything Of
the kind, was comparatively small. Master
poets-Pollock and others-sang, but their
voices died, for the time being in feeble
echo. Historians and annalists, of no mean
ability, wrote, but few needed. Publishers
of literary magazines found a seanty harvest
The great mass Of the people were rushing
too madly forward in the great race fol
wealth, to pause by the wayside and refresl
their fevered minds at the founts of art ant
learning. 1t was natural that it should bC
SO. But, now, the madness and fury of the
race are over; men are settling down into
permanent occupations. The merchant is
pursuing a steady and uniform business, not
grasping at magical achievements, as before
The miner builds his quartz mill by the rich
lead which years cannot exhaust, brings his
family to the spot, and makes it their home
or he lives by his tunnel in the mountain or
his dam on the river or his shaft in the deep
earth. The temporary furnisher OF the vege-
table markets of the mining towns has become
a large farmer, with his fields of grain, his
tloeks of herds, and, above all, his wife and
children around him. There is permanency
about everything What centuries have ac-
comphshed in older countries, Il few short
years have done here, and we have now the
basis Of all that is necessary to make US
very great people. Secure in home and prop
erty, with certain future before them, th'
better class of our population have ample
time and inclination to pay attention to The
amenities and refnements Of civilized life
to read, tn nix and mentally digest; to culti-
vate the arts and to improve the mind in al
respects, as civilized and christian people
should do. The result is, that not only for
eign, but native genius is appreciated. Not
/ only are the newest works of Tennyson anC
other great poets, whether of the old or new
world, sought for and eagerly devoured, but
every product Of the California Muse, which
bears the impress Of genius is duly honored
and appreciated by that best of honor and
appreciation-th inward homage of the SOU
and heart SO with whatever of literary ef-
fort may float to our shores or spring W
within our limits. 1t begins to meet witt
its reward and the gloomier days of a colo
and selfish disregard for all that did no
smack of gain, immediate and immense, ar,
past.


Under this improved state of things, oui
literary periodicals. the weeklies and tn,
magazines-put on new energy and spring
forward in the appointed path before them
The older enterprises still proceed with
abounding strength and new ones enter the
field. These latter, such as the Home Jour
nal and the Hesperan-both most ably con-
ducted-have already such a foothold as
would seem to imply long years of toll and
struggle. Their rapid growth and success
are among the very best illustrations Of
the increasing taste for literature of which
we are speaking.


One cannot help but be struck by the con-
trast between former times and the present
when going into any Of the houses of our be-;
ter informed citizens Upon their tables til,
very first Object the eye of the observer meets
is the last California Monthly or Weekly
lIutehings Magazine, or the Hesperian, oil
the Golden Era or the Home journal. 1t i.
well thus to give our California enterprise:
the preference. At any rate, let them have
equal encouragement with those publications
which are not Californian and which need
no encouragement We should have a litera-
ture Of our own in California We have all
the mental resources which are needed to
build it up; and, as for the inspiration of ma
ture or the suggestive materials of crcum-
stances or events, where can we find a nobler
inspiration or more stirring suggestions than
in this most beautiful of all lands under the
sun and in history which is romance and
poetry in itself?