Year: 1873

vi Lne L 1keS, ne says


As sat among these men after supper,
began to think should have to take some
care not to be spit on but the accuracy,
neatness, and precision of their aim present
ly re-assured me. One fellow, lounging on
the counter behind me, spat over my hat; a
vigorous cross-fire was kept up by two
others across the toes of my shoes a
scattered but unremitting rain fell upon the
centre of the floor; and occasionally the
fire received douche; but l believe
may safely say that no accident occurred
in the whole course of the evening.


1t happened that Mr.. Miller himself
was present that evening. He is a Ger
man by birth, short, alert in his move
ments, neatly dressed, and with a good
nose, low forehead, and a remarkably
expressive countenance. He busted him
self with instructions to his foremen,
smoking meanwhile, and l was amused to
see that when once he got up from his
chair, vaquero slipped into it-and as
there were more people than chairs, after
wandering about the room for while, ex-
posed to battery of tobacco.juice, the
owner of half million acres finally squat
ted down in the wood-box at the side of
the fire, and prudently took care not to
get up again until he went off to bed.


Again:


There are Pixies with property, and
Pixies without. When he has a farm.
you may know it by house with a room
on each side, and broad, open passage
in the middle; carpets there are none
and If you 60 in, you will find that they
cook by an open fire, and that bacon, and
stringy beans, and corn pone are the fare.
He may be worth $4,000 or $4,000, but
his door yard is in litter, and his FIRST Of
fer of hospitality is whisky. He is not a
bad creature profane he is, and rough, till
rough seems too mild word but he is
hospitable after his way; and if you are
not "pre-emptor of one hundred and six
ty acres" he will treat you well.


Then there is the Pike who owns no
land. Sometimes he is rich, too, for he
has cattle, and they feed by hundreds on
Congress land, with the rest. But oftenest
he is poor saw a man who had been
living in his wagon for twenty years, and
had raised family in it. After the wag-
on tolls harmless old cow, with three or
our calves following it. "It's wonderful
how prolific the cattle of these fellows are,
even in dry season, said man to me in
Visalia; why I've seen one of them come
into town with on old steer that had at
least four calves following it, all born in
the same year"


This poor John Pike has the knack of
approprlating other peoples calves, and
turning them, as necessity demands, into
sugar, coffee, bacon, and -four.


Well, the Pixies, poor and rich are panic
struck. They are getting ready to leave
the country, before the railroad shall utterly
ruin it. And they are wise. Their empire
is gone. The small farmers are not follow
ing the railroad, for they precede it; and
all over the great plain south of Nisalia,
and in the foothills, and even down near
the shores of the great Tulare Lake, you
I see little boxes of houses standing far
here chosen each his one hundred and six
ty acres, and will no longer be worried and
bullied by the cattle-owners.


1t was not at all expensive to travel in
the early days when the Spaniards ruled the
land


Men used to travel from San Diego to
Monterey and never spend cent of money.
When night came, you stopped at the near
est house. After supper, you were shown
to your room. In the morning, a clean
shirt was at your bedside; and if you were
known 10 the family, it was customary to
place near the bed, on the table, also sum
of money, hundred or two hundred dollars
from which the visitor if he needed it, was
expected to help himself. Lest my readers
might think this incredible, l will add that
General Vallejo has fully confirmed to ME
these and ether particulars.


But we might go on making quotations
indefinitely. In conclusion, we will only
say that when we took up Charles Nord-
hoff s California" we did not expect
after sixteen years residence in the State
to be told much that was new; but we
have heen pleasantly disappointed, and
hereby tender our thanks to the author
for writing so attractive a book on our
adopted home. INcoGNrrA.