c RETROSPECTION POLITICAL AND PERSONAL BY HUBERT HOWE BANCROFT NEW YORK THE BANCROFr COMPANY, PUBLISHERS 1912 "-707 113 Copyright, 1912, by Hubert H. Bancroft Electrotyped and printed May, 1912. Reprinted July, August, 1912 CONTENTS CHAPTER I EXPANSION AND EMPIRE Building of the Republic - - The English Colonies - - Northwest Coast and the Fur Trade Acquisition of Louisiana and California - - The Oregon Question - - Interoceanic Canal Nicaragua or Panama The Spanish War Philippine Islands Imperialism. CHAPTER II UTOPIAN DREAMS Altruistic Ideals -- Precept and Practice -- Economic Conditions Passion for Proselyting The Scotch at Darien Isthmus South Sea Bubble William Penn's Utopia The Franciscans in California Missionaries in Oregon The Mormon Eruption Polygamy and Politics Mormon Exodus to Utah. CHAPTER III THE SILENT MYSTERY OF THE UNTENANTED PLAINS Rise and Trend of Civilization Expeditions of Vaca, Niza, Coro- nado. Parades, and Drake The Northern Mystery Conjec- tural Geography -- Mythical Cities of Cibola and Quivira - California an Island Strait of Anian Interior of Savage Enchantment. CHAPTER IV MIGRATIONS AND DEVELOPMENT Characteristics of the English Colonists Milestones of Progress - The Call Westward - - Application of Steam - - Historic Highways Turnpikes and Canals Pathways of the Plains Opening of the Continental Interior Sutter at Sacramento Sam Brannan and His Saints in California. 268787 vi CONTENTS CHAPTER V SOME OHIO YANKEES Migrations Through the Alleghanies Settlements in the Ohio and Mississippi Valleys The Licking Land Company Granville Old and New Personal Affairs New England Life in Ohio - Religion and Education -- Abolitionism and Underground Railroading Mid-century Politics in the West. CHAPTER VI THE CALL OF GOLD Marshall and Sutter Peculiar Conditions Attending Gold Discov- ery Effect on Commerce and Finance Decadence of His- pano-Californians Ruin of Sutter and Vallejo Men of Em- pire, Not of Money Effect of Gold Shipments during Civil War Loyalty of California. CHAPTER VII AN ARTLESS ADVENTURER California Coast in 1835 Personal Experiences The Voyage in 1852 Isthmus Transit -- Imperial Panama Entrepot of the Pacific Land of Romance and Adventure Expeditions Thence New World Rendezvous California in the Early Fifties A San Francisco Gambling Palace. CHAPTER VIII THE PASSING OF THE FRONTIERS The Atlantic Frontier Receding Westward -- The Pacific Frontier Drifting Eastward The Wilderness Between Human Rights and Human Wrongs Land Purchase and Indian Pacification Penn's Method Meeting of the Frontiers Disappearance of the Natives. CHAPTER IX A NEW LAND AND A NEW PEOPLE Economic and Ethnic Combinations New Americans Intermin- gling of Types Transmigration and Transformation Geo- graphical Provinces and Types - - Migratory Virginians and Yankees -- The North Pacific Anglo-American -- California Miner of the Flush Times. CONTENTS vii CHAPTER X THE MILLS OF THE GODS People and Events at Yerba Buena Cove - - Rise of Justice - Hounds or Regulators Vigilance Committee - - Australia Criminals and Southern Chivalry Outbreak of Crime in Mon- tana San Francisco's Grand Tribunal of 1856 James King of William John Nugent Justice Terry. CHAPTER XI THE INTERREGNUM The Swing of Time A Period of Rest -- Political Parties - Career of Broderick Mexican Land Titles Growth of Manu- factures Favorable Economic Conditions Mining and Agri- culture Gambling in Stocks Secessionists Premium on Gold Specific Contract Law. CHAPTER XII EVOLUTION OF HIGH CRIME Mid-Century Finance The Mexican War -- The Civil War Doctrine of Inequality Before the Law The True Criminal Class - - Modern Business Ethics Increase of Wealth - Tendency to Moral Obliquity - - Influence of Railroads and Subsidies Justice and Journalism Som of Our Presidents. CHAPTER XIII THE DARK AGE OF GRAFT Epoch in History Overland Railway Betrayal of the People Cre*dit Mobilier Introduction of High Criminality Eco- nomic and Political Domination Decline of Industries The Great Afraid - - Debased Legislation Civic Debauchery Rule of Schmitz and Ruef Deliverance. CHAPTER XIV THE INJUSTICE OF LAW Primary Principles English Law Courts The Jury System - Judicial Skill in Technicalities The Hollow Power of Prece- dent Judges as Law-Makers Judges as Law-Breakers - The Law as a Fetish The Judiciary Recall and the People. viii CONTENTS CHAPTER XV AN UNHOLY ALLIANCE Selfishness of Good Men Conspiracy for Bad Government A Pair of Pats Gunpowder and Dynamite in Court Practice Effective Work of Heney and Burns Strictures of the Preda- tory Press Ruef's Career The Sowing of the Dragon's Teeth - Infelicity of the Bribers Effect of the Fire of 1906. CHAPTER XVI COMPARATIVE REPUBLICANISM Porfirio Diaz and Benito Juarez Their Genius and Achievements - A Half -Savage Populace Necessity of Arbitrary Rule - Signal Services of Diaz -- French Intervention -- Defeat of Maximilian Peace and Prosperity Economic Development Treachery Ingratitude Return to Anarchy. CHAPTER XVII EVOLUTION OF A LIBRARY A Fortuitous Undertaking The Routine of Collecting The Ter- ritory Covered Expeditions Abroad Pinart and Petrof in Alaska Historical Dictations -- Archives of the Vigilance Committees The Maximilian Collection Russian Material Archives of Mexico and Spanish America Special Search in Europe. CHAPTER XVIII METHODS OF WRITING HISTORY A Mixed Mass of Material Classifying and Indexing Old Meth- ods Inadequate Drilling Assistants for the Work Extract- ing and Arranging the Material Cooperative Methods Not Feasible Inception of the General Plan Important Inter- views for Filling Gaps Special Work with Diaz in Mexico Collateral Histories and Dictations. CHAPTER XIX ASIA AND AFRICA IN AMERICA First Coming of Chinese Hearty Welcome with Fair Promises * Ill-treatment in the Mines Eruption of the Sand-Lotters - Ireland Sets the Pace Broken Pledges and Demagogism - Imposition and Persecution The Impossible African. CONTENTS ix CHAPTER XX THE THROES OF LABOR Capital as Crystallized Labor -- Militant Attitude of Labor Tyrannies of the Industrial Life Cupidity of Capital Arbi- trary Demands of Labor -- Wages, Trusts, Strikes, and Mo- nopolies of Industry The Labor Leaders. CHAPTER XXI MODERN JOURNALISM Impelling Force Behind the Newspaper Mendacity as Stock in Trade The Great Sunday Edition As a Teacher of Truth, Honesty, Artistic Taste, and Morality Price of Civic Loyalty and Integrity Charms of Vilification and Scandal. CHAPTER XXII VAGARIES OF SOCIETY Neurotic Temperament of the Idle Rich Decadence of the Race Sham and Conventionalities -- Indifference to Vice Inter- national Marriages High Crime and High Society Mental and Moral Sterility -- Slavery of Fashion. CHAPTER XXIII WASTE IN EDUCATION The Imperative and Ever -Recurring Need - - Waste of Men and Spoliation of Women - - Present System Detrimental to the Higher Rural Life Overcrowded Professions Cramped City Life A Little Lesson in Pronunciation Tainted Men and Tainted Money. CHAPTER XXIV METROPOLITAN SAN FRANCISCO Our Seraphic Father and the Good God Plutus Six Great Fires, and the Seventh During the Flush Times Development of a New Society -- Law and Lawlessness Curse of the Labor Monopoly Wanted, Men and Manufactures. x CONTENTS CHAPTER XXV PROGRESSIVE GOVERNMENT Significance of the Movement A Moral Revolution, a New Civiliza- tion Reforms Already Accomplished Patriotism of Preda- tory Wealth Good Government Ideals Administration of Hiram Johnson -- Progressive Movement at Los Angeles - A New Reign of Law and Justice. CHAPTER XXVI GLORIA IN EXCELSIS Decadence of the Republic Base Admixtures of Population - Standards of Citizenship Vital Measures of Reform Prog- ress Made Permanent Untenable Attitude of the Judiciary - Corruption of the Appellate Courts Referendum and Recall - Marvelous Progress. CHAPTER XXVII SIGNIFICANCE OF THE PANAMA CANAL The Isthmus in the Olden Time New Channel of World's Com- merce What the Canal Will Accomplish Early Efforts to Penetrate the Continent - - Mythical Waterways - - Various Routes Considered Explorations and Surveys France and the United States. RETROSPECTION RETROSPECTION POLITICAL AND PERSONAL CHAPTER I EXPANSION AND EMPIRE WERE we as ready as were our forefathers to see the hand of Providence in the affairs of men, some things might be accounted for which now must await further accession of wisdom. In our ignorance we might ask, for example, what possible connection could there be between a Yankee fur-trader on the Northwest Coast of America in the year 1792, the federal congress at Philadel- phia, and a Corsican adventurer seeking advancement in the streets of Paris. Or, again, what could black cannibals in the jungles of Africa, or whilom importations thence in Georgia and Alabama, or the visit of a future president to Florida have to do with the late possessions of the king of Spain, or in establishing the southern limits and frontage on the Pacific of an Anglo-Saxon commonwealth in the wilds of America. And yet, enlightened by wisdom from on high, one might answer, It is the Invisible Archi- tect of the Republic, his finger pointing out where the corner stones shall be laid, corners so wide apart, so utterly at variance, that only the eye of omniscience may trace the lines of their connection. For at the very moment that Robert Gray of Boston 1 '2 RETROSPECTION entered the mouth of the River of the West, giving the name of his good ship Columbia to that stream, on the Atlantic side the soldiers of the Revolution were clearing away the debris after the battle and returning to their farms and merchandise, while statesmen were fashioning forms of government to meet the requirements of a new nation. By virtue of the presence of Jacques C artier in the Saint Lawrence in 1534, and of the Chevalier de la Salle on the Mississippi in 1681, the king of France held Canada and the interior of the continent from the great lakes to the Mexican gulf, and from the Alleghanies to the Rocky mountains. The treaty of Paris in 1763, following the fall of Quebec, transferred to England the midcontinent French possessions east of the Mississippi, and to the thirteen English colonies bordering on the Atlantic was added this newly acquired French domain, the whole constituting the area of the United States in 1787 as won from England by the war of Independence. Claims had been preferred by the several colonies each to a strip beyond the Appalachian range equal in width to its frontage on the ocean, which claims were ceded to the federal government. Turning to the Pacific, we find thus early agencies at work in the Oregon country. Though fortuitous it is none the less gratifying that this unsurveyed angle should have been so accurately placed by these instruments of destiny men all unconscious of the potential significance of their acts that the unimaginary lines should have been so accurately drawn along the same parallels of latitude as to place their possessions on the Pacific exactly opposite their home on the Atlantic. The shipping interests of the colonies had enlarged during the period of dependency until their vessels were seen in all ports of every sea. Many voyages since Drake's visit to California in 1579 had been made to the coast, voyages of discovery and trade, notably by Spanish, EXPANSION AND EMPIRE 3 English, and American navigators, each of whom set up rights of possession. The coastwise fur-trade offered attractions equal to those of the forest, and the Northwest was a prolific field. Routine was in this wise: New England ships exchanged their cargo of Yankee trinkets and more substantial Indian goods for the rich peltries of the natives, then sailed away for China, where the furs were sold, teas and silks taking their place. A successful voyage of two or three years was very profitable, the return cargo selling at three to five times the original cost. Captain Gray was the first New Englander to adven- ture a voyage round the world, and it was on that occasion, while exploiting the coast southward from Juan de Fuca strait, that he came to the great river. A score of times the place had been passed by famous navigators, but the noble stream had withheld its secret until it should be found by an American mariner to be given to his country. Not without controversy, however, for never were there lands so far away or undeveloped that men could not be found to fight over them. After all other claimants had been eliminated by the Nootka convention and other conferences, Russia mean- while having relinquished her rights to all lands below latitude 54 40', and Spain having included whatever pre- tensions she may have had to the Oregon country in her sale of Florida to the United States in 1819, there remained as parties in the dispute England and the United States only. The territory in question lay between latitudes 42, the northern boundary of California, and 54 40', the south- ern limit of Alaska. Each side claimed the whole a truly diplomatic open- ing to a discussion which was to last for half a century and become famous in history as the Oregon question. The United States cited the New England trading 4 RETROSPECTION vessels on the Northwest Coast since 1784; the discovery and naming of the Columbia river by Robert Gray in 1792 ; the government expedition of Lewis and Clarke in 1805; the appearance of the Astor parties and erection of Fort Astoria at the mouth of the Columbia in 1811 ; Williams, Henry, and Winship in the mountains and on the Columbia ; American missionaries on the Willamette, and free trappers and traders elsewhere. England brought forward the navigations of Vancou- ver and others along the coast; the adventures of David Thompson in New Caledonia; the coming of Alexander Mackenzie to Bentinck North Arm, and the doings of John Stuart and Simon Fraser at Stuart lake and on Fraser river. Then throughout the northern interior were the British fur-forts of the English Hudson Bay company and the Scotch Northwest company, with baronial halls at forts Victoria and Vancouver, ruled in state by the chief factors Sir James Douglas and John McLoughlin respectively, who bowed forth to dinner their Indian wives with all the form and circumstance due to princesses of the blood. The British apparently getting the best of it, our pug- nacious patriots sent forth their loudest argument in the war cry of "Fifty-four-forty or fight." Doubtless some who thus shouted understood it, if not the "fifty-four-forty," at least the "fight." The question came up in a cabinet meeting in 1845. President Polk favored the popular demand, insisting upon the entire territory for the United States, but Buchanan, with more regard for the rights of others, was satisfied to divide the land at latitude 49. Had our belligerent progenitors won their way we should now have a continuous coast line on the Pacific side of four thousand miles; as it is the break is but five hundred miles, or thereabout, in length. In 1803 was effected the purchase of Louisiana, by EXPANSION AND EMPIRE 5 which term was then known all that region lying west of the Mississippi to the borders of the Spanish possessions and the Oregon territory. It came fortuitously, like most of the additions to our domain, and nearly doubled the original area of the United States. It happened in this way. The island of New Orleans in foreign hands had proved an obstruction to American commerce, and James Monroe was sent to Paris commis- sioned to buy it. He had no thought of purchasing half a continent, but only a small lot at the mouth of the Mississippi. It appears that the Corsican wanted money. European rulers generally want money. When informed of Mr. Monroe's errand Napoleon saw that so small a transaction, if consummated, would not greatly help him. So he said to his agent, Marbois, "I need money in France more than wild lands in America; get me fifty or a hundred million francs and let it all go." The price finally agreed upon was fifteen million dol- lars. But alas! the pity of it for the Yankee bargain- maker, when it might have been had for ten millions, even though at the price at which stolen lands were then selling it would have been cheap at thirty millions. Two army officers, Lewis and Clarke, were detailed to examine the new purchase and report. They ascended the Missouri to its source, found there- about the head-waters of the Columbia, and followed that stream to its mouth. Andrew Jackson entered Florida at the head of an expedition in 1816. Regardless of instructions he seized Spanish forts, hanged white men without a trial, slew Sem- inoles without quarter, and swore by the Eternal. For which piratical proceedings he was hailed a hero and twice made president, Spain meanwhile being glad to get five millions for the country and throw in Oregon. Texas, after gaining independence from Mexico, joined 6 RETROSPECTION the United States confederacy in 1845, the last to be received into the union as a slave state. After an inglorious war with Mexico in 1848, fifteen million dollars was given for the upper California country, and ten millions in 1853 for the Gadsden strip, which brought the Pacific coast line down to San Diego, and included the region contiguous to California back to the Rio Grande, thus rounding out the Republic proper as it stands to-day. Alaska was purchased from Russia in 1867 for seven millions, or a little more ; the Hawaiian islands applied for and received admission in 1898 ; Wake island was acquired the same year; part of the Samoa islands in 1900; Porto Rico and the Philippines in 1899; and the Panama canal zone in 1904. Thus fell into place as a compact whole the several parts of our commonwealth, from which category we may if we choose exclude our Panama possession which was obtained for a purpose as a place it may be for display- ing before the world a specimen of American art or artifice. It came to pass as the century neared its end that reflective minds at Washington began to consider the exposed position of our Pacific possessions as illustrated by the late civil war; also the ever-increasing arrogance and the ever-decreasing honesty of the railway magnates who usurped the government, and the advantages which would accrue from an interoceanic waterway. Unfortunately Spain was four hundred years before us in securing all the isthmuses. For four hundred years there had been talk of utilizing some one of them as a site for a canal, and but for Theodore Roosevelt and John Hay the talk might have continued for another four hundred years. Some day our successors will clear away where the sources of three great rivers so conveniently placed in juxtaposition straddle the Rocky mountains, the Missouri EXPANSION AND EMPIRE 7 flowing eastward, the Colorado southward, and the Colum- bia westward, thence to dig and canalize the whole country. The first choice of the United States for a canal site after Panama was Nicaragua, the land-cut there being less, and the ocean travel between our eastern and western shores less by a thousand miles. The French were at Panama though they had made overtures to sell. Nicaragua was exceedingly solicitous; so further sur- veys were made and the cost estimated. The men of Managua understood what it signified to their little effer- vescent republic isolation ended, the world brought to their door, employment for all their people, a market for all their products, and perpetual peace assured under the safeguard of a powerful neighbor. So the bargain was struck ; Nicaragua was to receive ten million dollars for such rights and privileges as were necessary for the purpose. The people of the lakes were full of joy. But how now? Why do the men of Nicaragua pause; why do they whisper and look wise? Evidently a thought has struck them. There is yet time, they say. The Wash- ington people are rich. Having gone so far they surely will not withdraw for the matter of another ten millions. Ten for us and ten for the country; that were well. Or stay, twenty for us and the canal for our country; that "were better. A little diplomacy and the coup were ac- complished Spanish diplomacy, Sagasta would say, wit and wisdom, seasoned or stale, whatever it might be Yankeedom had no use for it. Loud were the lamentations of the Nicaraguans when they learned of their loss, and loud the acclaim of Colombia on the approach of the worshipful ten millions. Washing- ton refused Managua's appeal for a reconsideration, and Bogota promised for the ten millions to grant all that was required, while the Frenchmen would be glad to take forty millions for their failure. The negotiators for this right of way were learning 8 RETROSPECTION fast, if indeed they did not know it before, that Spanish- Americans are not conspicuous for truth and reliability in their dealings, whether at Managua or Bogota, for after meeting the offer of Colombia promptly and fairly they found themselves subject to the same backing and filling process which had so disgusted them at Managua. For here were the same race, the same undisciplined cupidity, the same business methods, unstable, unreliable, vapid, vain. As at Managua, so argued among themselves the men of Bogota. Ten millions and the grand canal were good. Twenty millions and the grand canal were better, and that sum divided among the Statesmen of Bogota would be quite a windfall. Turning their back once more upon such ill-advised dealings the Washington authorities approached the people of Panama and said, "You are a sovereign state and no part of a confederacy. You were forced into this Colom- bian association by reason of your exposed position and lack of resisting force. Declare your independence, as is your right; accept this peripatetic ten millions of ours and grant us what we require for our work. We will defend you from the United States of Colombia, and cause your recognition as an independent state by the powers of Europe. ' ' And so it was done. There were futile ravings at Bogota as there had been at Managua, and threats of war and dire destruction, and pleadings withal that the good Washington gentlemen would reconsider, would let Pan- ama alone and give Colombia the ten millions as before contemplated. But all in vain. Colombia was powerless, and the United States was well pleased to be rid of so fickle and untrustworthy a coadjutor in the great enterprise. Not that the Panama people were of different stamp, but they were near at hand and could be better managed. "I hope in all this," said Senator Hoar, "that there is nothing dishonorable." And President Roosevelt replied "There is nothing dishonorable." EXPANSION AND EMPIRE 9 Thereupon our people dug in peace, and with far less sickness than had been anticipated, owing to the superior hygienic conditions established. The French spent $250,000,000 on a sea-level canal 72 feet wide and 29 feet deep, and failed owing to the imprac- ticability of the sea-level plan, their extravagant and waste- ful methods, the Panama fever, and inadequate control of the canal zone. Our canal is 300 feet wide and 41 feet deep ; the cost is about $400,000,000. It is 50 miles long, from a point five miles out in Limon bay on the Atlantic side to a point five miles out on the Pacific side. From the point on the north on the Atlantic side, in the sea, five miles out there is a channel, protected by a breakwater 500 feet wide, that runs eight miles five miles in the sea and three miles in the Gatun dam. The Gatun dam is 7,700 feet long, 115 feet high, its supports half a mile thick at the bottom, 400 feet thick at the water's edge, which is 85 feet above the bottom, and rises to a height of 115 feet, with a width of 100 feet at the top. That incloses a lake 135 square miles in surface, and furnishes a channel 1,000 feet wide for sixteen miles,, 800 feet wide for four miles, 500 feet for four miles and until it reaches the Culebra cut. The Culebra cut is nine miles long and the canal has a depth across the bottom through it of 300 feet. The canal is forty-five feet deep through the lake. The vessel making this passage is raised by three steps of 28% feet each three double sets of locks. It is raised to the level of the lake 85 feet, and continues on that level until it reaches the end of the Culebra cut at Pedro Miguel, where it is lowered again 30 feet to a small lake through which there is a mile and a half of a channel 500 feet wide. Then at Miraflores it is lowered again two steps of 28% feet into a channel 500 feet wide that goes out into the Pacific ocean five miles. It will take three hours for a vessel to go up and down the steps and ten to twelve hours to go through the canal. 10 RETROSPECTION An achievement when completed to be regarded with pride and wonder, pride that we had been enabled so cleverly to assist nature, and wonder if Harriman were alive how long it would be before he had it in his pocket. To the average American mind this rapid expansion of domain, trebling itself in half a century, was somewhat bewildering. In leaving their European homes to escape the tyrannies of despotism or the persecution of fanaticism ; in becoming colonists, strangers in a strange land yet sub- jects of the ancient rule; in breaking oft 1 their fetters only to fetter others, the curse of Adam following them to the New World ; in achieving independence, in spreading themselves out though as yet only theoretically over vast areas, even from the Atlantic to the Pacific, there had been no ambitious thought regarding rulership other than to rule themselves wisely and in a God-fearing manner; no thought of dominion over others, of protectorates, or depen- dencies, or subservient states; no thought of empire or imperialism if indeed such words had any significance with them. The true American people do not and never did covet their neighbors' lands, that is to say further than such as they could take from the natives. Early statesmen on the floor of congress "thanked God for the Rocky mountain barrier which placed a limit to man's ambition. " We do not want Canada or Mexico. As slavery is a thing of the past no more territory is demanded by the south for slave- holding purposes. There are always at hand political filibusters ready for any action that will bring to them personal advantage. There may have been men high in office whose ardent imaginations w r ere fired by thoughts of universal rule, as vast acquisitions were added to an already widely extended domain, but these were not the American people. By yet others, then as now, the cry of imperialism, or its equivalent was raised and reiterated upon every fresh EXPANSION AND EMPIRE 11 acquisition, for opinion has been and is divided as to the wisdom of expansion, though where proper republicanism ends and improper imperialism begins it would be difficult for any one of them to say. An anti-imperialist league was organized in Boston which manifested a lack of confidence in President Taft, and in his Philippine policy. They seemed to suspect the govern- ment of sinister designs in regard to the islands; although acting at present in apparent good faith, and notwith- standing the prompt fulfillment of our promise with regard to Cuba, they feared that politicians and capitalists were so shaping the laws and absorbing the natural wealth of the Philippine country as to render rehabilitation at any time impracticable. And this, although the people of the United States are opposed to what they call imperialism. They claimed that the Filipinos had already demon- strated their capacity for self-government by organizing political parties, legislative assemblies, appointing officials, and employing all the paraphernalia of popular govern- ment. They deprecated the disposal of lands and the introduction, under the Taft policy, of foreign capital, which acts as a menace rather than as a benefit. Their arguments from false premises were otherwise somewhat strained, as the fact remains that in the midst of internal jealousy and external rapacity the native islanders are in no condition to exercise successful self-rule. And there is no reason after our Cuban benefactions for distrusting the American people. What evidence the Filipinos have given of their ca- pacity for self-government it would be difficult to say. By far the greater part of them are but little better than savages, knowing no civilized people, speaking no civil- ized language, and thinking no civilized thoughts. They are far behind the Cubans in intelligence and education, yet the Cubans made a failure of their first attempt at self-government. What would they, these good people of Boston ? Would 12 RETROSPECTION they have had us leave Spain alone, leave alone Weyler, "the wickedest man on earth," to grind the Cubans into the dust, to tear them from their homes, gather them into droves and herd them in city suburbs to die of starvation and disease, all of them whom he had not already shot or imprisoned? Would they see the dogs in their streets thus treated and not put forth a restraining hand? Was it a coterie of sentimentalists who thus felt for the Cubans, or was it a protest from the great heart of humanity that compelled President McKinley to put an end to the iniquity after he had repeatedly begged Congress for a little more time in which if possible to avert war? Compelled at last to act, not by party politicians or any special interests but by the noble impulses of the American people, he played the part of a true soldier and acted with promptness and vigor. And the fateful words once wired to Admiral Dewey, "Capture or destroy the Spanish fleet, " where has there been a stopping-place from that day to this ? When has there been a time that the govern- ment of the United States could honorably say "Here we will rest;" when it could with decency say to the half or wholly savage Filipinos, "Now look out for yourselves," leaving them' to anarchy at home and the prey of designing nations? True, when Dewey had sunk the Spanish fleet in Manila bay he might have sailed away and left them, his orders obeyed, his task accomplished. Would any of us have had it so ? Would not the Spaniards there have pounced upon the defenceless natives with greater cruelties than ever, pluralizing the horrors of Cuba, were it possible, with ten- fold intensity? And for how long would Japan or Ger- many have withheld their rapacious hands ? For how long would the hungry nations have kept a promise had they made one ? Being a man and an American Admiral Dewey could not choose but land and plant there his flag, the flag of his country, which pledged himself and his government to protect this people just let loose from tyranny, to EXPANSION AND EMPIRE 13 protect them from themselves and others. And since then I fail to see any time when this government could have honorably receded from that position. And after the conduct of the United States in thus liberating one downtrodden people and protecting another, in fulfilling to the uttermost all promises of fair treatment and faithful restoration, who shall doubt the integrity of this nation in its future dealings with a weaker race ? Not our own people surely, but perhaps the sage Sagasta may, he who with broad sarcasm remarked, "It will, indeed, be long before the Cubans are capable of self-government if the United States waits for that time before giving them their freedom." The magnanimity displayed by President McKinley and his coadjutors in regard to this and other measures attending the Spanish war was utterly beyond the comprehension of a Spanish minister of state. And this is called imperialism, and lamented as such, this putting forth a hand to stop the savage brutalities committed at our door by the dilapidated monarchy of an effete civilization! The star of empire leading westward ; the star of empire which we have followed from Holland, from England, across the continent, across the Pacific sinks now as we approach the threshold of the ancient East, while we find ourselves still holding fast to our traditions. Many of our people were fearful from the first of the results of territorial expansion ; fearful of shoals and ship- wreck; bewildered by what seemed to them a limitless expanse of land with its responsibilities. Jefferson was roundly rated for the purchase of Louisiana as was Seward for buying Alaska. Said one senator, "If we want to give Russia seven millions why give it, and let her keep her frozen mountains, icebergs, and glaciers which we can neither sell, lose, nor give away." Mr. McKinley was blamed for permitting the Philip- 14 RETROSPECTION pines to fall on his shoulders. But his intentions and policy and promises were sound and will be fulfilled. No fault was found by the recipients when England gave to her seaboard colonies better land beyond the Alle- ghanies. But for expansion, which some say leads to im- perialism, the original area would to-day mark our limits, with Florida and the trans-Mississippi region in the hands of foreign powers, of Spain, France, or England, who were wont to trade in American lands as boys swap jack-knives. But when our presidents and their secretaries began acting upon their own judgment then criticism arose. Dis- cussion upon the floor of Congress became aggressive. ''Large territory is not consistent with the spirit of repub- licanism, ' ' said one. ' ' To advance the west is to retard the east, " broke forth another. "To make states of Louisiana territory would be a curse to us. " " Purchase Alaska ? We shall be buying ice-fields in Greenland next!" Still we will say in the face of so much mistaken wis- dom that the Philippine islands, though for the time a solemn obligation, are an unwelcome encumbrance, fit only as a refuge for broken-down politicians, and now and then a little gun practice. Our position in the Orient is safe enough without them. Porto Rico is no ornament, but an appendage easily dispensed with. With regard to the Hawaiian islands, it is different. They are the natural outpost of our coast, and would be a standing menace in the hands of a foreign power. A German colonel scents imperialistic tendencies in the fortification of the Panama canal, which nevertheless he thinks should be done. Doubtless from a feudalistic view- point he is correct. If it is necessary as under the ancient regime for a nation to fence around with forts every piece of its outlying possessions, then let the canal zone be forti- fied, even though civilization is supposed to have reached the point where a valid compact could be made between the nations that this property, important in its use to all, should remain unmolested in war as in peace, or even though EXPANSION AND EMPIRE 15 a flock of air-ships might in a single hour drop bombs sufficient to blow it all, forts and waterways, to destruc- tion. Farther than this, until the efficiency of these new birds of prey is tested, it seems unwise to build forts or warships at all. Amidst the universal discussion of this subject Mr. Ralph Lane has sent forth a book, which has attracted some attention, on the abolition of war, upon the plea that all war is futile, in that it is unprofitable alike to victor and vanquished. This upon the assumption that money, lands, or dominions are the only things nations fight for. He is correct in regard to some wars, those waged for personal or political aggrandizement, such as have been most com- mon in Europe for example; but wars for principle or for some vital policy have two sides, and it is profitable to the right side if it wins. In every one of its wars, with the possible exception of the war of 1812, the United States has been successful ; all were just and honorable save one, our war with Mexico, but which was nevertheless profitable, giving us the Cali- fornia country, the garden of the world. History has given up repeating itself; change alone is constant. The philosophy of history consists no less in understanding the present and considering the future than in reviewing the past. That which was impracticable yes- terday may be desirable tomorrow. The reasonable expenditures of the rich become extravagance when in- dulged in by others. It is no more for the United States now to control islands in the Pacific, or dig an interoceanic waterway, than it once was to buy Louisiana and Florida, make an Erie canal, or construct a Cumberland turnpike. We can no more be justly charged with imperial republi- canism now than then. Nevertheless should any one find comfort in calling this federal government imperial he may very properly do so. Imperial republicanism ought not to be a bad sort; ought 16 RETROSPECTION to be a little cleaner perhaps than a government by rail- roads for railroads. Rising suddenly to eminence on a breath of wind blown by this petty Spanish war, never having counted our wealth nor considered our strength, we were led by advanced ideas into certain measures over which the timid affect fear, just as it always is in periods of rapid progression. The time has passed when any nation may go prowling about the world conquering or appropriating new lands or old, and establishing dependencies and protectorates. Our people want none of these, but with a voice potential in the affairs of the world, with opportunities and abilities for the betterment of mankind such as were never before vouchsafed to any nation in any age, with the inclination and the power to employ mighty agencies for good, for the moral and intellectual advancement of the world, as illus- trated under the regime of Theodore Roosevelt, we ought not to be frightened from our high privileges by the stale cry of imperialism. In imitation of the ever-struggling powers of Europe, in their vain competition each to outdo the others in the size and efficiency of their war vessels, we spend our millions yearly in the construction of battle-ships which are obsolete almost before they are finished; whereupon we hasten to build one larger, and yet another still larger, which scramblings are idiotic enough in Europe but ten- fold more so in America. Nor should there be, nor is there any necessity for stand- ing armies and competitive war-ship building among civi- lized nations, as though all were fearful of an attack in the dark, as from savages, or of sudden assassination. No unarmed nation is likely to be annihilated before it can get together some means of defense. Or if concentrated force is necessary to maintain the peace of the world, let the Hague form a war trust, each nation contributing as to a police fund. EXPANSION AND EMPIRE 17 The old adage is obsolete, and those who adopt it are obsolete, in time of peace prepare for war. Why prepare for war? Why not prepare for peace? Why should a nation any more than an individual go strutting about the world with scowling mien, upturned mustache, a pistol in each hand and a chip on its shoulder 1 The men of Nippon go forth to die for their country with less bluster than the Germans, and we respect the Germans no more on that account. Far better our government should employ itself in pro- tecting what needs protection. I need not say that without government aid our commercial supremacy on the ocean will be lost; it is already lost. From ignorance or in- difference Congress has stood quiescent while England and Japan have possessed themselves of the world's carrying trade. In our kindness we even cut them a canal across our continent to facilitate their operations against us. For what can we want such a waterway when we have- no ships? How is the canal to benefit our Pacific ports if we have no commerce, and how can we have commerce without either factories or carrying vessels? CHAPTER II UTOPIAN DREAMS IT was an age of altruistic ideals, though it had not yet occurred to the apostles for the betterment of the race the impossible in relation to disinterested benevolence. The disciples of John Knox and Jonathan Edwards were taught to draw satisfaction from the doctrine of election, provided they were of the elect. It was bliss for the believer, the thought of sitting in heaven and complacently regarding the agonies of the doomed below, and so long as her own little ones were safe the New England housewife still might blithely sing as she went about her work, though assured by her spiritual teacher that millions of innocents, born of other mothers, must suffer forever. Here as else- where in those days, in its many diverse and oppugnant forms, -there was an all-pervading spirit of proselyting throughout Christendom, which broke out occasionally into fierce spasms of regeneration. The ethics of Jesus come to us in words, with a subcon- scious influence to the refining of the race; all the same the attendant deeds are diabolical. Some centuries ago had been promulgated the order to go forth into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. Obedience to which mandate led the sanctified into strange ways. Saint Peter went forth to preach, and detecting Ananias in a very little lie he straightway slew him, and poor Sapphira also, forgetting the great falsehood he himself had so lately perpetrated, receiving therefor 110 punishment whatever. Pagan Rome preached the Christians into the cata- 18 UTOPIAN DREAMS 19 combs; the Christians in their turn preached the pagan world into dungeons and torture-chambers. Persecution was quick to become an aid to proselyting; so that when the tidings of peace on earth good will to men reached the New World, the natives found the words of salvation trans- lated into the ethics of hell. By the Spanish convocation these savages were endowed with souls, primarily to give occu- pation to the church, and secondarily to give mistresses to the conquerors, for without a soul no heathen maid might become Christian wife or concubine. Passing the millions slaughtered for Christ's sake be- fore the work of enforcing conversion in America began; passing the autos-da-fe and torture-chambers of Tor- quemada, the treacheries practiced upon her Moors and the burning of Jews by good Queen Isabella in her ardent zeal for her religion; passing also the trail of the Inquisi- tion in Mexico and Peru, and the extermination of idola- trous innocents, and coming to our own country, what sort of altruism do we find here, what way of preaching the gospel to every creature? John Calvin was present, in spirit if not in person, making people happy after the manner of his brother Knox, in the assurance of refuge for himself and followers in the convenient folds of predestination, with the flames of eter- nal fire for all others. England had her way of proselyting, as in India and Africa, as in the American slave shipments and the Chinese opium trade. The Puritans of Massachusetts, themselves having just fled from persecution, found solace in perse- cuting others ; they preached to the witch-women of Salem by burning them, and to the Quakers of Boston by drown- ing them. The planters of the south preached to the Afri- cans by the lash of their slave-drivers, while clearing the natives from fresh lands to take the place of their worn- out tobacco fields. It is a great comfort among the leaders of pure benevo- 20 RETROSPECTION lence to possess the power to compel people to do right and come within the fold whether they will or not. Yet there was a world of kindness in the hearts of our forefathers, in the hearts of the stern old Puritans, who sought only to serve God in the proper way. True, there was the political aspect as well, the ideals of men escaped from iron bars, minds freed from circumscrip- tion and bodies delivered from the stripes, a Utopian de- mocracy based on freedom, free hands, free thought, free lands, an obsession of freedom even though in slavery to the supernatural, a freedom on whose heels followed closely interdictions and prohibitions. What wonder then if Utopian visions fired the imagina- tions of these ardent adventurers? Optimists all, with scattered hundreds of dreamers whose unrevealed impossi- bilities their fervid fancy carried into nebulous extremes. Here was a world unmarred by man basking in pri- meval plenteousness ; a brand-new continent only to be swept of its dusky denizens with their dreamy awakenings, and garnished with some small degree of the divine fire, to be fit for any purpose; a virgin land of limitless extent and surpassing potentialities, fresh from the hand of the Creator; a garden of the Hesperides, a new-world Eden, inhabited only by beings whose dim subconscious intelli- gence might easily be crushed, whose subordination Chris- tianity permitted and whose removal civilization demanded. If only reason might join hands with opportunity what a consummation were here ! The preservation of nature 's lands, the conservation of nature's forces, not for the present alone, but for all time, not to .multiply the debased but to elevate the capable and encourage the worthy, not to enrich the few but to benefit all. Here were natural resources such as would enrich a world, and if properly husbanded give to each inhabitant, now and forever, all the requisites of life, health, and happi- ness. Soil and climate, sunshine air and moving waters, metals in the mountains, forests on the hillsides, valleys UTOPIAN DREAMS 21 prolific of every food, and underneath the surface the coal and the oil and all the vitalizing forces wherewith to forge fresh happiness. Imagine these natural advantages, this boundless wealth, enough for all time and all people, increasing rather than diminishing if guarded and managed by all as a wise and prudent person would manage his individual affairs; imagine such a state of things, no impost duties or taxes, no standing army or criminal class to support, no ever- increasing horde of pensioners, the necessary labor coming in the form of a blessing rather than a curse; imagine this, and behold the reality! Utopian dreams ! Possible and practicable in so far as physical conditions were concerned, but alas! for the lack of human intelligence, of men or generations of men to meet the occasion ; a consummation not to be expected from an undeveloped race, not to be expected until a new flood obliterates the present time and sends forth a new Noah whose circumspection and behavior shall prove better than those of the old Noah. Such was this fair Altrurian land with all its sublime potentialities. Never before had men and conditions so met, and never on this earth can they so meet again. But is this the end? By no means. Life is a running conflict with no prospect of rest, no expectation of the realization of our early dreams of Elysian fields, or even of our old, long-lost home contentment. Yet hope never dies ; or if it does all is dead. All around us always the air is swarming with Utopias, fresh ones coming on as the old ones pass away. Thus it was that instead of the one dreamed-of and all-glorious Utopia there was an epidemic of Utopias run- ning through the early centuries of American occupation, ignes fatui chasing after the everlasting good, hunting for happiness in the wilderness, a straining to achieve the ulti- mate best on this earth, which has yet by no means ceased, 22 RETROSPECTION nor ever will cease, and which we cannot say that under any circumstances should we like to see come to an end. Let us look at some of them. What better place than Florida where might be flowing the fountain of youth which Juan Ponce de Leon failed in 1512 to find in Bimini? And on the Atlantic side of the Darien isthmus, not far from tire entrance to the present Panama canal, no less a personage than William Patterson, founder of the Bank of England, undertook to establish a Scotch Utopia along industrial lines. His intention was to make his settlement the entrepot of the Pacific, the pivotal point of the com- mercial world, where merchandise might be interchanged, and cargoes transferred, and whence Europe and all the Atlantic and Mediterranean seaports might be supplied with the products of North and South America, of Japan, China, and the South sea isles. "The settlers of Darien," he said, "will acquire a nobler empire than Alexander or Caesar, without fatigue, expense, or danger." Nor was Patterson the first to dream this dream. Vasco Nunez thought of it, and Pizarro 's people, as their treasure- laden mule-trains jingled their bells along the trail to Nombre de Dios. The Manila merchants thought of it as their annual galleon filled to the hatchway with gold and silver, the teas and silks and carved ivory of the Far East anchored off Panama. All this is nearer realization to-day, for in Patterson's dream were no American canal-builders to take up the failure of the French; no United States canal zone, with a city at either end, though he called Acla landing New Saint Andrew, and the region thereabout New Caledonia, where, he said, might be profitably grown indigo, sugar, tobacco, and all the tropical plants. They liked Scotch names, those Scotchmen, and besides that the Scotch names caught Scotch investors; indeed, there was later another and much broader New Caledonia UTOPIAN DREAMS 23 in the Oregon country, and beyond, whereof the Scotch fur-traders might dream as inhabited by good Indians with boiled shirts and non-intoxicating whiskey, and innu- merable bands of gentle beasts with long silky fur glad to yield their skins to the grand dames of civilization. Patterson was the son of a Dumfriesshire farmer, and a genius, as Cortes and Columbus were geniuses. Besides achieving the bank of England and attempting the Darien Utopia, he roamed for a time about the West Indies, like Francis Drake's chaplain, Fletcher, as part missionary and part buccaneer. Under royal sanction "The Company of Scotland Trad- ing to Africa and the Indies, and their Colony of Darien" was formed, and in 1698 were landed on the Isthmus 1200 shrewd Caledonians, insanely shrewd, half of them at least young men of good Scottish families; also English gentle- men, retired army officers, and others, all envied at depart- ure by thousands of eager aspirants obliged to remain at home. A capital of 400,000 with 600,000 for expenses of the expedition was quickly subscribed in Edinburgh, London, Hamburg and Amsterdam, one hundred pound shares quickly advancing in price to 1000 and 1500. More vessels were sent out and more money invested, until when the inevitable crash came, the loss from fever, famine, and shipwreck amounted to a score of ships, 2000 lives, and several millions of money. Similar schemes were concocted, one in London and one in Paris, with similar results, narration of which would be but repetition; the former, called the South Sea bubble, being the creation of the South Sea company in 1711 by Lord Harley, earl of Oxford, for trading into South America, and for the extinction of the national debt; the latter called the Company of the West, origina- ting with John Law in 1719 for the easement of French finances. A royal bank with Law as director-general is- sued currency to the amount of 2,700,000,000 livres. The province of Louisiana, which gave it the name of 24 RETROSPECTION Mississippi bubble when it burst, was thrown into the scheme, the strange part of it being that the property represented was worth the money, and is to-day worth a thousand times the money. Sir Thomas More's material rather than spiritual speculation chose for its ideally perfect place an island, which might easily be enlarged to a continent, or if success- ful in a small way why should it not embrace all the world? His ideally perfect conditions referred to social and political systems, whence we might infer that the social and political systems of our present civilizations are not perfect but to be improved, or, being necessary evils, if to be dispensed with altogether, as in Eden or in aboriginal lands, so much the better. Therefore we may not be so sure after all that the naked savages of the two Americas were not nearer Utopia than Sir Thomas More's galvanized civilization. It is so small an affair, a few years of life on this planet as compared with an eternity hereafter, that it seems out of place spending all of our time in perfecting earthly conditions; hence the wisdom of adding to our efforts heavenly benefits. And yet religion seeks an earthly Utopia as well as a heavenly one, and finds comfort in the seeking, as Salem and Boston found comfort in reclaiming humanity, while these and all the rest were easily reconciling themselves to the passing of the Indians. The Puritans colonized religion and adapted it to busi- ness methods, and while they anchored it to the soil a score of ephemeral efforts were made, like that of John Kelpius' Pietists, who established a brotherhood in 1694 at Wissahickon, or like Peter Sluyter 's Labadists, colonized at Chesapeake bay, soon to die out and be forgotten. Most successful of all was William Penn's Utopia, which went well as long as its founder lived, but fell in pieces afterward like all others. Pennsylvania flourished UTOPIAN DREAMS 25 in fanaticism following the decline of Quakerism. A Ger- man, Beissel, established at Ephrata in 1728 a monastic society of celibates, which naturally came to grief. Jemima Wilkinson flourished for a time as a divine emis- sary in central New York. A society of French aristocrats and army officers labored with their hands for the com- mon good on the Susquehanna in 1793. Ann Lee came from Manchester, England, to America in 1774, and established the Shaking Quakers at New Lebanon. Count Zinzendorf's Bohemian brethren, or Moravians, in Georgia, Pennsylvania, and among the Indians, in 1741 numbered 94 colonies with 11,781 members, the chief settlement being at Bethlehem. George Rapp, a persecuted preacher of Wiirttemberg, in 1803 brought to America 750 of his Separatists, and founded the communal settlements of Harmony and Econ- omy in Pennsylvania, and New Harmony, Indiana, after- ward sold to John Owen, a proselyting Scotchman, who before he failed founded eleven other communities. Another society of Separatists was established in 1817 by Joseph Bimelar at Zoar, Ohio. Swiss Inspirationists in 1842 founded the community of Ebenezer, near Buffalo, afterward removing to Iowa. Other apostles of economic religion were the Francis- cans of California, the missionaries in Oregon, and the Mormons in Utah. There are also to this day schools of divine healing, schools of mysticism, and scores of other associations seeking for the unattainable good. Even philosophy and learning come forward with Utopian plans to try, notably the Brook Farm coterie of intellectually refined New Englanders, whose fantasy was the union of learning with farm labor, devoting half a day to each. They carried the matter along in a desul- tory sort of way for four years, when it fell in pieces, their philosophy being no better than their farming. 26 BETROSPECTION The one all-powerful instinct of individuality, the one all-pervading human desire of personal possession, posses- sion of property, of wife, of children, of home, have always stood, and will so stand until man's nature changes, in the way of universal brotherhood and the communal life. The Franciscans in California present somewhat of a unique picture, and so long as they had the country to themselves they came as near as it is possible toward estab- lishing a Utopia among savages. Their one object, a safe seat in heaven for themselves and their converts, appeared under three several phases, self-sacrifice, the sacrifice of others, and absolute rule. Even Junipero Serra, the father president, was not above self-flagellations before the Indians for example's sake, as the medicine-men of native tribes mutilate themselves with sharp stones to impress their fellows. And death, why should they fear it, which was but opening the door to paradise? Very low in the scale of humanity were these whom the priests had come to save. Entirely naked, skin black and coarse matted hair, eaters of snails and grasshoppers, with holes in the ground and huts of brush for houses, were it not better to leave them as God had made them, God who should know why he had made them so, rather than cast reflection upon his work by attempting to improve upon it ? Not so. For where then would be the church, the mis- sionary work, and this preaching the gospel to every creature ? Two years after the expulsion of the Jesuits in 1767, and the occupation of the Peninsula by the Dominicans, the order of Saint Francis built the first of its score of mission establishments in Alta California at San Diego. The father president was personally in charge of explora- tion and construction in this the first invasion of this region by Europeans. The missionaries aimed as nearly as practicable to plant an establishment every fifteen leagues, which should UTOPIAN DREAMS 27 give them about twenty to San Francisco bay, their ultima thule of present endeavor. Each mission claimed pro- prietorship half-way to its neighbor on either side. First they must impress their mastery upon these dull C 1 0( J S w hy should omniscience have given this lowest of intelligences the fairest spot of earth? Surely not for development, not for appreciation; during the thou- sand years more or less of their occupation of this garden they had not advanced an iota; they could not retrograde being born at the bottom. As for subconsciousness and oversoul or other involved psychology of savagism, they had none, save such as they held in common with the jack- rabbits around them ; and when it came to a realization of the blessings they enjoyed, they could appreciate an un- cooked rattle-snake steak but they did not understand the stars. Thus the poor padres found their work of conversion much the same as if their neophytes had been drawn from these same jack-rabbits, into whose patient ears the streams of salvation must be poured. Nevertheless with good heart they went about their work, for he that believeth much loveth much. The mis- sion site was carefully selected at some little distance from the boat-landing and presidio, or fort, so that the influence of the wicked ones might not reach their inno- cents. Then building began, sun-dried mud mixed with dried grass being the principal material. The padres had no difficulty in bribing their neophytes to work a little, their preference being material rather than spiritual rewards. The natives at each mission numbered from two to five thousand, lessening one-half every twenty years. The men and women occupied separate quarters until properly married. In due time they found courage to do a little fighting, but for the most part they were peaceable. Issues frequently arose between the temporal and spiritual powers, but were settled in the main without 28 RETROSPECTION serious controversy. The military was its own master, yet it was there to serve the church, which was all power- ful up to the time of secularization in 1834. Mission prop- erty then fell into the hands of the government, or to those who were able to seize and hold it, the missionaries still retaining sufficient for their purposes, while liberal grants of land were made to whomsoever asked for them. Some of the missions became wealthy in cattle, sheep, and horses, raising besides more than they could sell of fruit, grain, oil, and wine. They had their workshops, some of the natives becoming quite skilful workers in iron, wool, and leather. It was common for the missions to have running at large of cattle 1000 to 5000 ; of sheep 1000 to 12,000 ; of horses 100 to 1000 ; also mules, goats, and swine. They raised from 5000 to 100,000 bushels of wheat per annum; 1000 to 25,000 bushels of barley; 1000 to 20,000 bushels of corn; and 50 to 2500 bushels of beans. Thus under the happiest auspices, and with the fullest enjoyment of their Utopia, did these indigenes of California achieve civilization, or would have achieved it had they lived, and not have died from protection and kind- ness; for when taken in their low estate and placed in contact with civilization the savages are killed as surely, if not as quickly, by kindness as by the sword of their conquerors. The Perfectionists, in an attempt to live a sinless life, were driven from Vermont because of their free-love pro- clivities, and in 1848 settled at Oneida, New York. Mor- monism arose in western New York, became infected with polygamy in Illinois, and in 1848 fled into the deserts of the Great Salt Lake. The origin and exodus of the Mormons, their ethnic evolution and occupation of Utah, if analyzed as a prob- lem and not indulged in as a prejudice forms an interest- ing study. UTOPIAN DREAMS 29 Theirs is one of the few religions of the century which seems to have come to stay. It is remarkable primarily in its indigenous origin and logical development, attended by the usual signs and wonders, miracles and revelations, and, in spite of a crude mystic mechanism, all visible to the naked eye. Springing up in a field fertilized by stupidity and credulity, it has grown to become a great tree, bringing forth fruit after its kind. Although acci- dental and spontaneous in its inception, without premedi- tation or design on the part of any artificer, it was un- folded by palpable means, the work usually occupying five centuries being accomplished in half a century. Even such parts as appear more like modern invention, with mechanical contrivances so gross as to be revolting, dis- play little ability or constructive skill. It is a theocracy singularly devoid of originality. In quality it is second rate as religions run, yet more pro- nounced in its several parts than any of them; Hebrew of the Hebrews, more Christian than Christianity, more ethical than Buddhism, more involved than Mohammed- anism. It is essentially an imitation, and as is common in imitations, inclined to outdo its exemplar. Less than a century old, of tough, coarse fiber, with all its secrets laid bare before an enlightened world, it yet displays unmistak- able signs of endurance, with flame enough in its fanati- cism to warrant its burning for awhile with the best of them. This is how it came about. At Palmyra, in western New York, not far from general intelligence and puritanism, lived a common-place family by the name of Smith, who had floated thither from Vermont. One of the members, Joseph, born in 1805, set himself up as a Messiah, for which he was killed at Carthage, Illinois, in 1844. In common with many of their neighbors, the Smiths were poor and shiftless, with a faculty for believing to be true whatever they were told, and as ready to delude as to be deluded. Wealth without work, and a short and easy 30 RETROSPECTION road to heaven, comprised their philosophy of life. Hid- den treasure, with supernatural means for its discovery, was ever a favorite theme. The boy Joseph, with his magic peep-stone and witch-hazel divining rod, could make the other boys, and even his elders, follow him and dig as he directed. Of a harmlessly dissolute disposition the youth delighted in tricking his companions, and playing upon the credulity of the community by telling fortunes and reeling off yarns as the fantasies arose in his vagrant mind. Into this caldron of malodorous conceit was presently projected an element whose effect might be little dreamed of. It appeared in the form of an unpublished book by a Presbyterian clergyman, the Reverend Spaulding, entitled The Manuscript Found. It had been sent by the author, just before his death, to a printing office in Pittsburg for publication, but was thrown aside, and soon became office rubbish. Later it was unearthed, and after passing about as a thing of no value, it finally fell into the hands of Joseph Smith, and became eventually one of the sacred books of the Latter-day Saints, under the title of The Book of Mormon. Its apotheosis was in this wise. Opening the book and glancing through its contents, Joseph found written, in biblical style, a sort of religious romance, being a hypo- thetical account of the migrations from Babel, and sub- sequent adventures in America, of the ten lost tribes of Israel, whom the author made progenitors of the Indians. Joseph read and pondered. Though cunning, he was not wise, still less learned. Was this book part of the Bible ? No. Why not 1 The Bible is made up of parts, or books, thrown together. Perhaps this is a book of the Bible left out. Or it may be another Bible. If not, might it not stand for another religion? The counterpart or companion, perhaps, of the Hebrew scriptures. Put the two Bibles and the two religions together, there is an idea! What an oppor- tunity for a grand coup ! UTOPIAN DREAMS 31 Here comes in the mystic machinery. This book looks like a Bible, or part of one. To make it so in the eyes of men, and as a guarantee of its inspiration, it must have divine origin and supernatural advent. Moreover, if there is to be a new religion a personage must appear, anything will do, even a Joseph Smith, prophet priest and king of the early and later dispensations, so that he be in direct communication with heaven and able to prove it. The pretended original of the Spaulding manuscript, the manuscript which as was alleged had been found, might serve an important purpose if it could be made miraculous. And so on. It is safe to assume, judging from subsequent develop- ments, that by some such train of reflection Spaulding ? s Manuscript Found was transformed into the Book of Mor- mon, Joseph Smith into a new Messiah, and the church of aboriginal Israel into the church of Jesus Christ of Latter- day Saints, for that such transformations were made is a historical fact. To imagine Mormonism the invention of Joseph Smith, or of any one else, a scheme or premeditated plan wrought out from its inception by a subtle and prolific -brain, or by any number of them, is as far from the probable as to refer its authorship direct to supernatural agency, with the prophets and apostles as media for all the miracles and divine manifestations they claim to have been accom- plished through them. The true disciple solves the problem by uniting the mysteries and making God the author of all, the prophet and his performances included. Nor is it impossible that Joseph at a later period, from deceiving others proceeds unconsciously to deceive himself, thus becoming his latest and most important creation and convert. It is not impossible, as time passed and new and wonderful happenings fell upon him, that the vagrant youth into whose hands thus accidentally fell the Spauld- ing manuscript, and whose only thought at first was to 32 RETROSPECTION amuse himself at the expense of his parents and neigh- bors, for his parents it is said were among the first to receive his words as truth, or to pretend to do so, after many iterations of his fable, and seeing the seriousness with which it was accepted by his elders, forgot the manu- factured part, whose details grew dim with time and re- ligious fervor, forgot Joe Smith and remembered only the prophet of the Lord. An idealist, and essentially vision- ary in both sacred and secular matters, as time passed on toward the later periods of his career he may have fancied himself in truth the recipient of messages direct from heaven. Since so many united in asserting his divinity, was it not possible that he was indeed divine? Though known to him, as to no one else, were all the falsehoods he had told and the fantastic tricks he had played, yet might it not be that these lies and tricks were of the Lord, their proper use thus given to him, Joseph, for a mighty purpose, as a means of grace, and for God's greater glory? Nature had endowed the prophet thus improvised by fate with shrewd wit; and though of somewhat shallow mind he possessed a vivid imagination and magnetic per- sonality. That he was successful shows that he was not without ability, though he was far less capable in certain directions than some of those who succeeded him. That he was unscrupulous did not trouble his conscience, for such had been his training from his youth up, and his con- science, moreover, was from the Lord and for his work. And the thought of his proposed work was not so discom- fiting to his mind as might be imagined. There should be no great difficulty in achieving the supernatural on the part of one who had practiced miracles all his life, still less in making people think they believed in it, for great is the gullibility of mankind ! A plausible account must be given of the coming of this gift from heaven, this book of Mormon. We have it here. UTOPIAN DREAMS 33 And now a vision fell upon Joseph. The angel Moroni appeared and directed him to a cave on the hillside, where he found metal plates, on which were inscribed strange characters, which by the aid of his peep-stone he was able to interpret. From behind a screen, with such interpola- tions as seemed to suit his purpose, the prophet read off from Spaulding's manuscript his Book of Mormon, which was taken down by an amanuensis just outside the sacred precinct, and published by "Joseph Smith, jun., author and proprietor, Palmyra, New York, 1830." The work finished, the angel closed the cave and car- ried away the metal plates. Thus was evolved this latter-day theocracy. Doubtless if the truth were told in relation to the origin of any other religion nothing more wonderful would be found, nothing more worthy of credence. All religions are patch- work, but all religions are not all patchwork; few have been so nearly so as Mormonism, which had been better with some of the patches omitted, parts such as civil- ization had some time since compelled the older religions to eliminate. The tenets of the Mormon faith are derived entirely from the Old and New Testaments of the orthodox scrip- tures, principally from the former, which are accepted literally and followed to their logical conclusions. The Book of Mormon, which is annexed to the Bible as a part of it, is a crude romance, a mere flight of fancy, but to one who had never known aught of either there is nothing more unnatural, or more difficult of belief, in the books of Nephi and Alma, in the book of Moroni, who was the angel, or in the book of Mormon, from which the volume takes its name, than in the books of Genesis and Joshua; nothing more difficult of belief in the revelations of Joseph Smith than in the revelations of Saint John the Divine. Feeling his way, sounding the credulity of his fol- lowers and searching his scriptures for models for his hier- archy, Joseph was able in due time to present his forms 34 RETROSPECTION and rituals, temple tabernacle and holy of holies, priest- hood and tithing, constitution and council, blood atone- ment anointment and twelve apostles, miracles and all sorts of spiritual manifestations and revelations, all drawn from holy writ, all in strict accordance with the sacred scriptures of the orthodox Christian sects. Obviously miracles, the vital requisite of every new faith, must be at hand; also revelation and every celestial telegraphy. For if all this was once wise and beneficent, God being God, it is the same now. The Almighty, immutable and unchangeable, having once established a decree, it must stand forever. Cus- toms once having had divine sanction cannot be obliterated by civilization. They held it unreasonable to accept the scriptures as the word of God, and then explain away such parts of it as from time to time became intolerable to ever-unfolding human intelligence. If polygamy, slavery, or other alleged abomination were once right in his sight, and stand as they do unrebuked upon the pages of scripture, then they are right now; if miracles and revelations once obtained, they obtain now; if the law limits a man to one wife, then it should compel every man to marry, else many women are unjustly deprived of husbands, and the millions of dis- embodied spirits seeking incarnation are defrauded. In which Mormonism makes the not uncommon mis- take of investing religion with the superior force in psychic development, and the dominant influence in ethics. It does not recognize the fact that civilization ever pre- cedes and regulates religion, toning down its asperities and eliminating its barbarities; also that the powers of light and darkness are with law and progress, and not with superstition or fanaticism ; that this power no religion can withstand and being absolute is right and must be obeyed. Nor can it be denied that of all interpretations of the scriptures this is the most logical. To every religion the beliefs of every other religion are a bundle of absurdities, UTOPIAN DREAMS 35 while to the uninfected agnostic they are all equally ab- surd. Orthodoxy has cut loose from the restraint of the written word, so that every Sunday throughout the Chris- tian world ten thousand preachers of the word ascend the pulpit and in half an hour tell God more about himself than he ever knew; tell the people what God sees, how he feels, what he loves and hates, what he wants or does not want, until Deity himself thus recreated stands agape. A church was organized with priests and presidency in 1833, the twelve apostles being added two years later. Miracles were then in order; and it is to be regretted that the angel declined leaving the metal plates with Joseph, but spirited them away as soon as the Book of Mormon was finished, for every one knew well that nothing short of a miracle could have brought so much gold into the Smith family. The mantle of the prophets fell on Joseph, and he prophesied and spake in tongues. Which assumption was a little too much for some of his neighbors, this and the fact that the brethren were always united, politically and industrially, clannish they called it and un-American; more un-American, perhaps, than was the killing of Mormons in the Carthage jail. We fancy that we hate the Mormons because of their polygamy. It is not so. Up to the time of their fiercest persecution in Illinois there had been no polygamy. When they were driven from New York, from Ohio, from Mis- souri, there had been no polygamy. They were hated first as one religion hates another, as Jews hate Christians, and as Christians hate Pagans. Then they became a power in politics, dominated a county, voted together and filled the offices. Like Chinese, they were temperate, kept to them- selves, worked hard, and were thrifty and honest, and so were hated by the lazy and licentious. This was the real cause of their offending, as it was with the Chinese. Politicians fanned the flame, and so 36 RETROSPECTION made votes for themselves; the public press joined in the cry, as on the side of the stronger lay their profit. For I have noticed that it is the lazy and worthless who shout loudest against the Asiatics, and it is often the immoral men and women of so-called respectable society that are the foremost in denouncing the Mormons. In Ohio, in 1832, appeared among the brethren Brig- ham Young, seeking truth, later to be high priest of the people, a Moses in the coming exodus, and in the flowery desert of Utah chief of the hierarchy. He found Joseph chopping wood, and hailed him as prophet of the Lord. He had seen and read the Book of Mormon, and pro- nounced himself converted. He was a native of Vermont, four years older than Joseph, which made him at this time thirty-one years of age. They became warm friends; such was Brigham's policy. Punctilious at all points as before a divine master, he nevertheless made the prophet his protege, several times saving his life in the persecu- tions that followed. Brigham plunged at once into the midst of things, his dominant will carrying all before it, yet with such judi- cious tact as not to cause offence. In his first prayer in public he spoke in tongues, as he expressed it, and on being questioned as to the language, he soberly declared it to be pure Adamic. The prophet consulted with him as to church policy and revelations. They discussed polygamy as a tenet of their faith and resolved on its introduction by divine revelation, which was done in 1843, only a year before the prophet's death. It was practised in secret at first, and only appeared in full bloom after reaching Utah; hence, contrary to popular impression, it had little to do with their expatriation. "Yet what would you, Brother Brigham?" we might have heard Joseph say, when, on the 12th of July, 1843, came the revelation commanding polygamy. "What UTOPIAN DREAMS 37 would you when man comes into existence as a disem- bodied spirit, of which the universe is full, seeking incar- nation? To advance this purpose is to give God and man the greatest glory. Hence the sacred obligation on the part of woman, one of the rewards attending it being plenary indulgence; all sins heretofore committed forgiven. Think of it, Brother Brigham. Unmarried women cannot enter the kingdom of heaven. " The wrath of the Illinois gentiles was somewhat ap- peased on the promise of the Saints to go, but that did not prevent them from taking every advantage of the Mormons while disposing of such property as they were unable to take with them. In June, 1844, a riot occurred from the suppression of an abusive gentile newspaper by the Mormons, and among those arrested were Joseph Smith and his brother Hiram, who were soon after assassinated in Carthage jail. The followers of the prophet were now counted by thousands, though there were many apostates who declined polygamy. In the coming exodus, unless the main body could be kept united the society would break up and prob- ably drop out of existence, as so many others had done. There were several claimants for the leadership, some of them with pretentious superior to Brigham 's, but none with his rugged genius. He established a rule of succession, giving himself the first incumbency, which he felt sure he could make last a lifetime. Thus fell the prophet's mantle on Brigham Young, but for whose deep insight into human nature and shrewd ability Mormonism at this juncture would probably have fallen in pieces. Whether or not he was the original in- stigator of polygamy, he now favored the measure, fore- seeing the results which would accrue in a far away wilderness, whither he hastened to conduct his people. He could not foresee, however, the acquisition of California, the discovery of gold, and the tide of emigra- 38 RETROSPECTION tion destined so soon to break in upon the peace of Utah. Meanwhile he became what Joseph Smith never was, abso- lute master of the Mormons dominator and lord of every man and woman of them, of their lives and fortunes, of their bodies and souls. Marriages and massacres he ordered at pleasure, divine revelation of whatsoever qual- ity desired being ever ready at hand. He could preach and pray and prophesy, interlarding his discourses with maledictions dire and deep, which rumbled through the Rocky mountains to the east and to the west. It was the cardinal error of this rough-hewn theocracy, making all its women wives, and that so openly as to bring down upon its church the censure of the immaculate world. Had each patriarch presented to the public one wife only, and sealed the others as concubines, following scriptural methods, or as mistresses after the manner of orthodox immorality, much trouble might have been saved. The assassination of Joseph strengthened if indeed it did not save the church. As Christ had died so died Joseph for his people. A stronger than Joseph must now guide the multitude and establish the church in the wilder- ness. So Brigham led them forth, resting over winter at Omaha, and reaching Salt Lake valley in 1846. There he possessed himself of that people, ruling with a rod of iron for thirty-three years and filling his harem. Isolated from the world he was his own master, and their prophet priest and king. His absolutism was as complete in financial as in ecclesiastical affairs. Following the announcement of a revelation, never- failing and effective as a means, tithes were brought in to him; he never sent out a collector; the faintest hint was sufficient to bring a delinquent to his knees. Of that which was brought he took what he wanted for himself and devoted the rest to the church and to the people. He rendered no accounting to any one, though after his reign church account books were kept. UTOPIAN DREAMS 39 He cared nothing for personal wealth; why amass for himself when all was his? He cared greatly for the wel- fare of his people. He considered their interests, after considering his own; he was fair to them, after being fair to himself. In the eyes of his many humble subjects, there were united in him divine and temporal power. His word was law even in matters of life and death. A contrast in every way to the prophet Joseph, he was a born master of men, shrewd and bold yet cautious and considerate. He was founder, ordainer, and preserver of the Mor- mon church in Utah. Against the enemies of his church he would rage like a wild beast, filling his tabernacle with loud and vulgar denunciations, to the edification of the brethren. For six years, from 1856 to 1862, he stood in armed opposition to the United States. It is no great praise to say, simply, that he did good work in the transformation of the desert, for to him the country is indebted for the organization and development of one of its finest cities and states. As Collier says, ' ' There is no Rocky mountain community that shows more growth and vigor than Salt Lake city. The streets, laid out by the early Mormons are broad and straight, and the modern buildings that are now going up will help to make the coming city one of the foremost in the entire west. The streets are filled with crowds of busy shoppers and active business men. This city, in the heart of what was, a generation ago, the great American desert, is now the common pride of Mormon and gentile. It is a monu- ment which will be enduring, to the spirit of the far west and the wisdom of the pioneers." In 1882 the government disfranchised polygamists, and in 1890 the church being in organized rebellion, its prop- erty was confiscated. A thousand polygamists were arrested and sent to prison. The church surrendered; the extinction of polygamy was promised. Monogamist laws were accepted by president and conference. Acts of 40 RETROSPECTION amnesty were passed in 1893-4, and Utah was admitted as a state in 1896. The Edmunds law making plural cohabitation a crime, though made in Washington was not for Washington, and it never was applied elsewhere than in Utah. The Mor- mons in a measure disregarded it, as the legislators who made the law disregarded it, as all the people throughout the land disregarded it, each and all practising their pet wickedness in secret while denying it openly. It was surely a crime thus to break their promise and defy the law, but they had learned iniquity of late in the high- school of the nation. Hitherto they had pursued their tranquil way amid their flocks and families, whom they dearly loved, until their eyes were opened by the law- makers in Congress, where they were taught all the latest methods of how to fix things. We all know that religious fanatics, Christian as well as pagan, will break the laws of man rather than the laws of God. But evolution is inexorable, and in giving re- ligion the precedence over progress as refiner of the race our plurality friends reverse the natural order of things, and they must needs be told what more enlightened people know, that all along the ages religion has befogged the minds of men, leading them into fields of Golgotha, and inflicting on humanity every species of cruelty, wrong, and injustice, until seized and forced from its barbarities by civilization, by the unfolding of that saving grace which perforce must prove the redemption of the w r orld. When paganism says, "You can find no word in your scriptures against slavery, polygamy, and other like enor- mities," civilization can only reply, "Then there is some- where in the universe a more refining influence than that derived from the old testament. ' ' This ever-progressing force pronounces slavery and polygamy abominations whose sanction would bring ruin on the race. And if it is an evil in the open, how much more is it in crowded habitations. UTOPIAN DREAMS 41 All this, however, need not prevent a charitable view of the case. The sins of the righteous are many, and need forgiveness; they afford, however, no excuse for the sins of the wicked. But beneath the velvet robes of con- vention which enwrap soul and body who shall tell sheep from goats? Sensualists you say? Not so, my friend; sensualism has small part in Mormon marriages, which are indeed a religious rite. Your true sensualist is not one with many wives, but one with many women and no wife. It is the fashion for women to shriek and men to bluster at mention of the words Mormon, polygamy. It is well. Virtue must have its vindication, and the lack of it still greater vindication. But should we not remem- ber that vice unmentionable has permanent lodgment with us? We know it and know it not. We shut our eyes and there is present no evil. High society sanctions it, lotftily indifferent; respectability harbors it, apparently uncon- scious, while ministering to its high priests within the inner temple. Husband and son smile and frown, the wife and mother look the other way. Over the portal, invisible to all save those who fathom it, is written : There are more unchaste persons in every large city in Christen- dom than there are Mormon wives in Utah. Wherefore good people all, be as charitable as you choose to your lecherous loved ones, at the same time be a trifle fair to the much-married Mormon. CHAPTER III THE SILENT MYSTERY OF THE UNTENANTED PLAINS TO the slowly unfolding intellect of early Mediter- ranean peoples, with their narrow horizon and dim self-consciousness, the world beyond their ken was not a world. In the north was a wall of ice, at the south a belt of fire, while all around and beyond were spirits of evil omen floating in space. There were assigned for departed souls a special place of torment for some and a land of happiness for others, and thus for the archaic ages all was properly arranged. Far advanced from these limited imaginings were the minds of men when ages afterward the Atlantic became the Sea of Darkness with its island of Atlantis, its frozen north and melting south, and over beyond visions of Fair Cathay with the fragrant isles of the Celestial East; later to become a sea of light and pathway to an ocean beyond, the greatest of oceans, but destined for a time longer, like the others, to sit in darkness. And for a century or two after the shores of the Pacific were well defined, and ships could sail about with confidence, and through these waters might even circum- navigate the globe, the interior of America remained as great a mystery as any of the mysteries preceding it. Long after the settlement of Jamestown, or the coming of the Pilgrims from Holland, wild tales were current regarding the lands newly found, brought back to Spain and England by mariners from both oceans, who fre- quently paid no more regard to truth than suited their fancy or convenience. This might the more safely be MYSTERY OF THE UNTENANTED PLAINS 43 done as there was no one present to contradict their report. Thus California was mapped as an island and peopled with Amazons. It was situated "on the right hand side of the Indies, very near the terrestrial paradise. " While journeying overland through Texas in 1535 Cabeza da Vaca heard of large cities toward the north, and when Friar Marcos de Niza was sent to investigate he deemed it best to find something; wherefore he discov- ered the seven cities of Cibola, which he saw from a hill, the smallest of which was as large as the city of Mexico, he said. It may have been an enlargement of the tenements of the Zuni in the good friar's imagination, or it may have been pure invention. Whatever it was, or, rather, what- ever it was not, it so fired the cupidity of Francisco Vas- quez de Coronado as to lead to his famous expeditions to New Mexico in 1540. And although this conquistador could find no opulent cities he saw Niza's Cibola, which were seven Pueblo villages, more or less. The houses were of dried mud and not worth destroying. Then Coronado was told of Quivira, a brilliant city beyond, but on reaching the place he found it of straw. Yet he could not return empty-handed and with silent tongue; so another mythical Quivira was improvised, richer and more beautiful by far than any hitherto thought of, while the country around was a paradise. Alonzo de Parades placed Quivira in Texas, Jefferys in Oregon, Purchas in the northwest, Acosta in Florida, Avity on the California coast below Mendocino; for did not Padre Freytas find the flitting city and write a full and true account of it, telling of all the magnificence he saw there, and of much that he did not see ? This myth was wholly a myth, a beautiful city made out of nothing and belonging nowhere, a living lie if lies live for two and a half centuries, as all that time all geographers charted it and all scholars accredited it. In Hakluyt's edition of Peter Martyr, 1587, the great 44 RETROSPECTION northwest is an unexplored blank, with a mar dulce at latitude 60, about midway of the continent, California is a peninsula, Quivira is on the coast at about latitude 40, while a great lake stands over the name New Mexico. The coast of Cathay is about fifty degrees west of Drake's Nova Albion. So the magic ball of mystery was kept rolling about upon the land as on the sea, and the cosmographers were not up to date who had not on their maps a fine broad channel cut through the continent in its widest part, and an Anian regnum, a Quivira regnum, and a Tolm regnum. If so much was to be made out of the travels through the waste places by land, how much more might those who first sailed along the borders of the two Americas let fly their imagination over the land and write as the spirit dictated. Wherefore many were the apocryphal voyages to the northwest and through the strait of Anian, and many were the bungling falsehoods told, until when the truth began to appear the Northern Mystery was more mysterious than ever. A dozen navigators testified as to the mythical strait ; some had seen it, some had seen those who had seen it, some had sailed through it, and the king of Spain took steps to fortify it. Drake and Cavendish heard of a large inland sea in the north; Pedro Menendez saw not only the strait but a great city beside it; Maldonado sailed on it through the continent and back, both ways. The libraries became filled with such reports, and the most famous cosmographers always threw into their maps a plentiful supply of conjectural geography. The subject again presents itself in the last chapter of this volume. Next to send forth a written report on the coast of California after Cabrillo's survey to San Diego and the islands in 1542 was Francis Drake's chaplain, Fletcher, ready to turn his master's piracies into picnics, or sail his MYSTERY OF THE UNTENANTED PLAINS 45 ships through the Rocky mountains, at the cavalier's good pleasure. It was a day long to be remembered when Drake beached his vessel in the cove above the Golden Gate, and Fletcher seated himself on the shore, fancy free, to write up his notes. As well make a good story, one that will please both Sir Drake and his gracious queen, Elizabeth. So here it goes. While thus engaged "came a man of large body and goodly aspect bearing the Septer or royal mace . . . whereupon hanged two crowns, a bigger and a lesser, with three chaines of a marvellous length. There is no part of earth here wherein there is not gold and silver. Infinite was the Company of very large and fat Deere which there we saw by thousands, besides a multitude of a strange kind of Conies, his tayle like the tayle of a Rat. ' ' The natives received the words of salvation with rap- ture, listening attentively to the reading of the scriptures, and when the strangers took their leave "with sighs and sorrowings, with heavy hearts and grived minds they poured out wofull complaints and moanes with bitter teares and wringing of their hands, tormenting them- selves." So like the California Digger, the lowest in the scale of humanity, eaters of mussels and grasshoppers, neither gold nor ground-squirrels being within many miles of them. Then as to the language, or of such speech as these clods were capable, the Reverend Fletcher forgets to men- tion how he managed it. Some excuse was now wanting for discontinuing the voyage of discovery farther north, for as there were no treasure ships to capture in that vicinity, a change in the ship's course might prove advisable. Something startling to satisfy the queen must be found. To be frozen up would do as they were sailing north, and no one knew that the icebergs of Alaska did not extend south to Cali- fornia in midsummer. And once free, the captain might 46 RETROSPECTION return to England through the strait of Anian, Mr. Fletcher could easily make it read correctly in the narra- tive or take a junketing trip around the world, as he should elect. Whereupon the worthy chaplain continues. They "used to come shivering to us in their warm furres crowding close together body to body, to receive heate one of another. Oh ! how unhandsome and deformed appeared the face of the earth it selfe." Having set sail, the ice so covered the ropes and clung to the rigging that the sailors could not navigate the ship. Hence the captain was actually compelled to turn back and watch the Manila galleon on its way to Acapulco. Other navigators following in Drake's tracks to the coast of California passed on and spoke to the 'Chinooks of the Columbians and the Aleuts of the Hyperboreans, but none of them ventured inland. Therefore two and a half centuries after the coming of Cortes to Mexico the vast northern interior slept on in silence, unknowing and unknown, all without a mystery to those within, all within a mystery to those without. Cardenas, one of Coronado's captains, in 1540 saw the Moqui towns in latitude 36', and the grand canon of the Colorado, while another of his officers found the mouth of the river and ascended the stream nearly to the Gila. Juan de Onate was on the Colorado in 1604, fifty years before the organization of the Hudson Bay com- pany, more than fifty years before either Pere Marquette or La Salle were in the Mississippi valley, and 188 years before Alexander Mackenzie ascended Peace river. All this time the great interior Plains of North Amer- ica, prairie mountains and desert, particularly such parts as are now of the United States, remained if not unknown to at least untenanted by civilization. We call them untenanted; civilization so calls them, because in our arrogance we hold all the works of crea- tion as nothing beside the white man. As nothing this MYSTERY OF THE UNTENANTED PLAINS 47 great continental amphitheatre, and the amphitheatre of ocean beyond, silent, mysterious, the one as the other, yet full to the brim of nature's handiwork, musical with the voices of nature, beings reveling in the joys of life, revel- ing in the jaws of death, yet empty, we say, because the rapacious European man is not there to kill and eat, or to destroy. A waste of land and water, and all that therein is, if peradventure the white man cannot use it all. There they were these few short centuries ago, as nature made them. Nature, who made us all, and who filled the earth and sea with living things to kill and eat each other, and the European to kill and eat all. This we know because it is so, and because the white man, having no master on this earth, must incontinently fall to and master and kill each other. Were it not for this bad habit which men have of domestic destruction, a habit still in vogue among nations of the foremost civilization, such as was practised in the primitive days of savagism, these Plains might thousands of years ago have been stocked with humanity thicker than Europe contains, while if the Europeans, with civil- ization and Christianity, had become what some would consider reasonable, and stopped hacking each other in pieces while inventing machinery for expediting neigh- borly slaughter, many additions would ere this have had to be built out into the sea to give the people standing room, which would have been harder work and not half so pleasant as killing. Strange that man should be the only animal that makes war upon its kind. Had the savages of North America been content to live as the buffaloes live, they might have covered these Plains as the buffaloes covered them; in which case again there would have been too many men in the world, which would have made the task of their ex- termination more difficult, if indeed the Europeans them- selves had not been long since exterminated by the abor- iginal Americans. 48 RETROSPECTION Great was the waste of the buffalo, the grandest animal of the Plains, having been for ages the food and clothing, the providence and protection of millions of humanity, serving God also in feeding the hungry wolf and the lonely catamount. Of the sixty millions of this noble beast which were rollicking over the prairie when the white man came there were scarcely six hundred living at the end of the century. Under new conditions the number is now slowly increasing. Thus the Plains were an enchanted land, a land of mys- tery and romance, full of toil and adventure, full of life and death, the perils of the wilderness only adding to its charm. Untenanted. No one there, no person and no thing that counts. Myriads of wild beasts were on the land, and birds and fishes in the air and water. Many bands of wild men roamed hither and thither, all rejoicing in life, all snarling in death, each striving to escape destruction while destroying the others. The savages are silent in their wars as in other things, no noise of guns or clash of steel, but only the death- rattle and scalp-halloo. Ages upon ages, like the fishes in the sea, they rollicked along, happy in multiplying their kind for others of their kind to destroy. Useless asking whence they came and when; useless asking why they kill; they were made so, as white men are so made. And as for age, they have been there ten hundred or ten million years; they may have been there always, whatever that should signify. Of their death we can predict with some certainty, for civilization blasts savagism ; the two cannot breathe the same air. Your true savage is not a subject for civilization. Once a savage he is always a savage. A veneer of culture does not constitute civilization. Centuries of use may im- prove his skill with the weapons of his ancestors, but he invents no new weapon. He carries the same spear, the MYSTERY OF THE UNTENANTED PLAINS 49 same bow and arrow, the same tomahawk and knife that the ancient warriors of his people carried a thousand years ago, though iron may have taken the place of flint. The invention of a new instrument or agency when it comes must come as the precursor or product of civilization, which springs from another and a different germ dropped into the same or other soil, a germ instinct with the element of self-development. There is a large unoccupied waste of water in the south Pacific where might be placed a continent twice as large as South America and leave around it ample space for nav- igation. Doubtless land stood there once and may do so again. The place is now used to grow little fish for the big fish to eat. Whence it appears that the sea was not made for man but for fishes, of which it keeps fairly full notwithstand- ing the insatiate feedings one upon another. Then were the savages made for naught, and the wild beasts in their devourings, or only to be supplanted by creatures with a will and capacity for still greater devourings? And this civilized creature who has tamed the Plains, will he some time tame the sea, and then on sea and land continue for- ever his self-spoliation and beastly devourings? We cannot clear the ocean of its inhabitants as we have cleared the Plains, else we would; we would clear off and appropriate the sun and moon and stars if we were able; there is no limit to our greed. Very like the ocean were the treeless rolling lands of the fertile prairies, with their coarse grain feeding countless beasts to be served as food to other countless beasts. Then come the mountains, as one goes west, and after them the desert, then other mountains and deserts and valleys. East of the continental axis the low lying prairies roll eastward from its feet a thousand miles to the waters of the Mississippi system, whose fall is less than 1600 feet in their sluggish flow of over 3000 miles, the fertile soil capa- 50 RETROSPECTION ble of feeding all Europe. On the western side the Pacific highlands, swells of table-lands and deserts, rich in miner- als and fertile enough for growing food with the artificial application of water. There were in the southwest the fierce Apaches, who under a famous chief brought formidable forces into the field; hundreds of tribes of nomadic Algonquins, chasing their perpetual enemies the Sioux, Foxes, and Iroquois around the great lakes; the Cheyennes and Blackfeet watching from their retreats in the mountains and along the streams the long line of emigrants in their toilsome journey; many there were like the Missouri, the Iowa, the Kansas, the Omahas, the Dakotas who gave their names to the white man's towns and states; then the Crows, Utes, and Shoshones farther west. Down from the far northeast many thousand moons ago came a great people, perhaps from somewhere, say the tower of Babel, by way of northern Europe to Iceland, Greenland, and Labrador, thence southwest through the valley of the Ohio and on to the New Mexico and to old Mexico, a thousand year pilgrimage, perhaps, leaving on the way mounds of various devices filled with arrow-heads and other implements, and on which great trees are grow- ing; also Casas Grandes, and towns and tenements of sun-dried brick, and other evidences of their former pres- ence. Gradually during the latter part of the seventeenth century the Northern Mystery began to disappear, not by inroads from the sea but from land excursions along the coast, thus making way for the expulsion of the greater Mystery of the Plains. For example, Pere Marquette passing down the Missis- sippi in 1673 noted the mouth of the Missouri, and wrote, 11 Through this I hope to reach the gulf of California, and thence the East Indies." Baron la Hontan, in the account of his famous imaginary journey to the far west in 1688, MYSTERY OF THE UNTENANTED PLAINS 51 was obliged to retain the myth of the Northern Mystery with its Anian strait and flitting Quivira, though he had myths enough of his own at hand for substitution had he so desired. For only twenty -six years prior to the baron's alleged journey Governor Diego de Penalosa had made a trip to New Mexico in which he claimed to have reached the original Quivira somewhere to the northeast of Santa Fe. Padre Kino in his pious labors in Pimeria Alta became deeply interested in the Northern Mystery. With Captain Mange he visited the Gila and Colorado, and two years later, in 1701, stood with Salvatierra on the mainland shore of the upper gulf, in latitude 31 or 32 still discussing the questions whether or not California was an island. So late as 1768 Jefferys riddles his map of the northern part of North America with bays and straits, making of the country more than half water. Fuca strait is a broad waterway extending from the ocean to Hudson bay; another strait lies to the north of it, widened in the middle by the lake de Fonte. Anian and Quivira are given, as well as " Sierras Nevadas, 1542, " "new Albion," and "Mountains of Bright Stones." Entrances to this inland amphitheatre on every side were provided by nature. Nor were the Plains without their pathways. Roads there were, thousands of them thousands of years old, each significant of something, but to be read only by the initiated, roads along the rivers or to and from watering places, through mountain gate- ways and over sandy wastes; roads cut broad and deep into the tough earth or obliterated here and there by action of the elements. These tracks the traveller could find and follow for half his way across the continent. Trappers and fur-hunters were the first of European origin to break the spell; after them at intervals came the emigrant, with his long lines of ox-teams and hooded wagons, passing on to the western beyond, leaving the land 52 RETROSPECTION in the same primeval stillness in which he had found it. Then came the settler, decades after it may be, and broke that stillness forever. When the great fur monopolies of New France fell in pieces private adventurers skirted the great lakes and percolated southward through the mountains. From the Montreal fair every summer many young men, fascinated by forest life, returned with the savages to their distant homes in the mountains or on the plains, and became almost as wild as their native associates, hunting, trapping, paddling canoes and roaming the woods. Thus came to the front the class of voyageurs and coureurs des bois which became a fur-hunting feature of the century. Movements in the fur trade were made in 1762 at New Orleans by Laclede, Maxan and company and at St. Louis by Auguste and Pierre Chouteau. Their operations carried them northward toward Michilimackinac rather than westward beyond the Missouri. The Northwest com- pany ruled in state at Fort William, on Lake Superior; their rivals were the Hudson Bay company in the north and northwest rather than the French in the south. Independence and St. Joseph sent American trappers up the Missouri and into Oregon, comparatively few of them finding their way along the Platte and into Utah and the great desert. The Missouri Fur company operated nearer home, chiefly in the Rocky mountains. As John Jacob Astor failed to carry out his project of a line of forts to the Pacific, the traffic of the intermediate plains was less in consequence, and left more to individual opera- tors, as Ashly, Sublette, James Bridger, and Jedediah Smith, the last named later conspicuous in the Santa Fe trade. Operating in the Colorado basin at one time were James P. Beckworth and Bill Williams, trappers and ex- plorers. Nothing was more significant of the primitive condi- tion of the Plains so late as 1832 than such expeditions, half military and half commercial, as those of Major MYSTERY OF THE UNTENANTED PLAINS 53 Pilcher and Captain Bonneville. Flicker's adventures took him to the upper Colorado ; thence he trapped northward to Fort Colville, and after an absence of two years returned by way of the Athabasca, suffering severely meanwhile from famine and hostile natives. Captain Bonneville with a force of 110 men visited Utah, Nevada, and Oregon, sending his guide, Walker, with a division over the Sierra into California. So strong was the opposition he encountered in the Hudson Bay com- pany and others, and being inexperienced in both hunting and trading, the enterprise ended in failure. Another larger undertaking meeting with a similar result was that of Captain Wyeth. Thus these expeditions by their wide attempts and failures tended to discourage enterprise in that quarter and lock up the interior from development for some time longer. CHAPTER IV MIGRATIONS AND DEVELOPMENT HE New England colonists were a thrifty people. They preferred to labor with their hands rather than keep others to do it for them. The natives were averse to labor; the colonists had no desire to fight them; they wanted only that they should go farther back into the woods and keep out of the way. They did not care to engage them in fur-hunting, as in Canada, nor to employ them on plantations, as in Mexico. There were a few negro slaves at one time scattered among them, but human slavery was an institution that did not appeal to them. They were an agricultural people and preferred farming their lands in a moderate way themselves; when they re- quired help they called in a neighbor, and it was help, not servitude, that rendered the assistance. The hired man sat at the table with them, and it may be married the daughter. Children came to them; they learned to love their New England home; they loved their freedom and enjoyed the exercise on their own behalf of the persecutions from which they had fled. This for a time. Then as they cleared away the trees and laid bare the scanty soil, the stones grew heavier as they gathered them for fencing, and their minds reverted to the rich lands to the westward where their toil should secure better results. In Virginia it was different ; the gentlemen planters were not accustomed to manual labor. Their sons regarded work as beneath them, and it was left to imported African 54 MIGRATIONS AND DEVELOPMENT 55 slaves and the poor white trash who owned no land, which rendered labor still more degrading. Slavery flourished; larger plantations were wanted for cotton, and the tobacco plant soon exhausted the soil ; so the southern colonists also turned their eyes westward, thinking all the while how best to rid the land of the red man. Meanwhile society in the south became quite aristo- cratic; the planters built sumptuous homes, and lived regally, returns from their cotton and tobacco bringing them all the requirements of pomp and luxury. They arrayed themselves in the paraphernalia of wealth, the men in three-cornered hats, velvet waistcoats, and knee breeches, the women in stiff brocades, hoop skirts, feathers, and furbelows. Had the Mayflower pilgrims made their settlement at Jamestown, and had the gentlemen adventurers from Eng- land landed on Plymouth rock, history would have a dif- ferent tale to tell. Independence secured, the birth of a new nation ac- complished, and the active mind of the American people took a look around to see what next should be done. The view was dim from the vastness of its surroundings. New conditions brought new trains of thought. Statesmen and business men were alike perplexed. There was practically no currency in the country, no proper measure of values, and no way of determining what things were worth even if money had been plentiful. On one side of the ocean were the old homes of the colonists, the land of their fore- fathers, overcrowded with people, the poor hustled aside by the rich, the weak preyed upon by the strong. On the other side were lands of limitless vistas, all their own, dropped down upon them as from the sky. A spirit of conservatism fell upon them, not quite natural and by no means enduring. They were timid yet curious. Like a maiden on the verge of matrimony they were fascinated by the unknown and yet repelled by the 56 RETROSPECTION inevitable. They thought of where they might go and what they might do ; they thought of the application of in- dustry to their wild domain, of farms and factories, of un- built cities supplanting transitory wigwams. Small bands of neighbors crossed the Alleghanies and penetrated north and south and west. The great valley of the Ohio, the first New World tribute won from France, was as yet but little known, and the wooded hills and rich valley lands compelled their scrutiny. Beyond the Mississippi the government sent out ex- peditions to see and report what this Louisiana land was like, Lewis and Clarke, and Long, and Pike. The border lines of Mexico were vague; already her hold on Texas was weakening. On the Pacific, the forty-second parallel should be her limit. The government explorers saw much, but there was more which they did not see. These new Americans had their work before them; they had an empire to build and they must be about it. Land was their basis of economic prosperity. In the old country land was limited and difficult for the poor man to obtain, but here it was almost free. Nothing so valu- able and yet nothing so cheap. The old ideals must be readjusted to fit new conditions. The hesitancy, which indeed was nothing more than proper reflection, soon passed away as potential paths of prosperity appeared lead- ing westward. On one side was the old land and the old life, on the other an unexplored world of romance. During the first hundred years of colonial occupation little attention was given to metes and bounds. There was land enough for all. The New Englanders were restless. The Dutch at New Netherland had only to sail up their beautiful Hud- son to a charming country beyond. The Friends were quite content with the allotments of their great chief, while the Virginians, the most migratory of all the colon- ists, could drop down into the Oarolinas should they de- sire a change. MIGRATIONS AND DEVELOPMENT 57 As time passed by many began to consider yet more earnestly their limitations on the coast, and to think more of the rich valley of the Ohio which still served the purpose only of a French and Indian hunting ground, having so remained since the fall of France in America, which gave England the entire country back to the Mississippi. The several colonies were quite ready to take possession of these newly acquired lands, since some one must own them, and parcel them out among themselves, giving to each a strip westward equal in width to its ocean frontage. As Massachusetts then comprised the entire northern end of New England abutting on the province of Quebec, created by the English king for the occupation of his new French subjects, the Saint Lawrence and the lakes still interven- ing, she was obliged to make the Detroit river the initial point of her western possessions, carrying the northern boundary line up to the middle of Lake Michigan. Connecticut came next with a claim covering parts of what are now Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois. Then followed Virginia marking out a large area which included Ken- tucky. In like manner the Carolinas claimed Tennessee jand Georgia, all that was left down to Florida, which was still occupied by the Spaniards. After the organization of the federal union the boundaries of the several states were defined, and all the surplus territories heretofore claimed by them were ceded to the United States, thus becoming federal domain. It was natural enough that in their migrations west- ward the inhabitants of the original states should keep for the most part each along its own lines of latitude, climate and other conditions being more like those of their own homes than were to be found north or south of those lines. Thus it was that the northern part of the Ohio valley was settled largely from New England. Indiana was tinc- tured with driftings upward from the south, which indications were yet more pronounced in Illinois, though 58 RETROSPECTION cotton tobacco and slavery never flourished in the lake states. Westward migration thus made its first halt in the valley of the Ohio, where it rested half a century. Be- yond the Mississippi another half century was occupied in planting settlements and making states in the region ex- tending back to the Rocky mountains, and in looking after California and her gold. With the acquisition and occupation of the Mississippi valley the feeling prevailed that the limit had been reached. The Alleghanies and the great lakes were at first regarded the proper and natural western boundary, between which and the Atlantic was ample room for the expansion of a great nation. Compared with European powers its area was larger than the largest of all save Russia, whose vast holdings were an element of weakness rather than strength. Fortunately the Americans did not realize all that was before them, else they might have shrunk from responsibilities to which they were not yet accustomed. But human progress at best is but a blind stumble forward; we work for the present while building for the future. Every decade of the century has its own period of transition, and it is not easy to say which is the most important. A Yankee schoolmaster, in 1792, invented a machine to pick the seeds from cotton, and Eli Whitney's cotton gin doubled the value and importance twice over of half the nation's greatest industry. Robert Fulton, in 1807, attached to the sides of his Hudson river boat paddle-wheels driven by steam, and soon on all the great rivers and lakes of the United States were steamboats, stirring up traffic and carrying civiliza- tion to remote regions. In 1819 the steamer Savannah crossed the Atlantic, and behold! a hundred years later a hundred king's palaces upon the water, two hundred mighty vessels of war, a thousand transportation ships, all MIGRATIONS AND DEVELOPMENT 59 threading the paths of ocean as if following the streets of a city. In 1831 cars were drawn by a locomotive over fifteen miles of the Baltimore and Ohio railroad. At this time there were in all, horse and steam, thirty-two miles of railroad in the United States; three quarters of a century later, there were of horse, steam, and electric roads more than 250,000 miles. In 1837 Samuel Morse came forward with his tele- graph, which was the beginning, after Benjamin Frank- lin's kite-flying, of applied electricity, which led to those wonderful discoveries under Edison. Then, just where the century hinges, within little more than a brief decade, we capture California, scoop up millions of gold, fight to a finish a war for the Union, giving up thereto a million of the finest young men north and south that ever lived, emancipated and enfranchised four millions of slaves, practically placed their masters in subjection to them, and then ! Then what? A carnival of crime, and which alas! is not yet ended. Looking back over the first half of the century under consideration times may seem dull, methods crude, and progress slow. But in truth, great as were the works of the second half, the works of the first half were relatively greater. For it was then that was conceived and brought forth by the American people certain industrial achieve- ments, to say nothing of politics and society, which ex- erted a powerful influence upon the advancement of the country in peace and prosperity, and which, considering the time and place, and the result of human effort with the resources at command, may be likened to work on the pyramids of Egypt or the great wall of China. These enterprises were the construction during the years 1806 to 1838, of a national turnpike 834 miles in length, from Fort Cumberland on the Potomac through Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois to Jefferson city, Missouri; the Erie canal, in 1817-25, from the Hudson river to Lake Erie with other 60 RETROSPECTION important toll roads and canals, and the opening of rivers and lakes to steam navigation. An important part in the many and widespread mi- grations was played by these and other historic highways, the wagon-roads and canals through and around the Ap- palachian range, as the Braddock road from the Potomac to the Monongahela, which for a time was the only high- way into the upper Ohio country, and the most important thoroughfare into the west. Soon after the revolutionary war the Pennsylvania state wagon-road, known as the old Glade road, was built through the glades of Pennsylvania, changing Fort Duquesne to Fort Pitt, and becoming an important factor in the ex- pansive movement that followed. The widening of the Delaware Nemacoliri's path by Washington in 1754 exercised a marked influence on what followed. Boone's wilderness road to Kentucky from Virginia through Cumberland gap was one of the most difficult to achieve of any, and at the same time the most important, as it opened to the Atlantic seaboard the great west and made possible the settling of Kentucky. The social movement thus accomplished was one of the marvels of the eighteenth century. Though for the most part long since forgotten the military roads of the Mississippi basin after serving their purpose in the conquest of the old northwest proved im- portant in the subsequent settlement of the country. An extraordinary spasm of emigration, brief but power- ful, broke out just prior to the purchase of Louisiana, owing to the brilliant prospects in that region incident to the close of the Indian wars and the possible acquisition of a foothold in that country by the United States. A commerce of the prairies with Mexico set in over the Santa Fe trail while Santa Fe was yet in Mexico. Already at the opening year of the century the water- ways of westward expansion had been sought out and MIGRATIONS AND DEVELOPMENT 61 proved, and the Ohio, the Mississippi, and the Missouri became the great highways of emigration. Then came the great canals, the Chesapeake and the Ohio, the Pennsyl- vania and the Erie. And then the Cumberland turnpike, the first national road, using in its construction whatever was available from the Washington and Braddock roads, and carrying into the west when completed thousands of aspirants for greater things with all their wealth of in- tellect, energy, and material effects. The Cumberland national road was constructed by clearing of trees a space sixty feet wide, in the middle of which thirty feet were leveled, and in the middle of the thirty feet a strip twenty feet wide was overlaid with crushed stone eighteen inches thick in the centre, sloping to twelve inches on either side. The largest pieces of the broken stone were seven inches in diameter for the bottom and three inches at the top. Tolls were collected over the greater part of the road. Ninety and more appropriations, state and congres- sional, were required to raise the requisite ten or twelve millions, as difficult a matter and imposing a greater burden upon the people than any four hundred million Panama canal appropriation of the present day. Over this thoroughfare poured a stream of population, thousands from Europe as well as those from the Atlantic states, which, percolating through the minor channels of intercommunication, multiplied the midcontinent inhabi- tants, and overspreading the plains beyond crossed the mountains and deserts, finally debouching upon the golden shores of the Pacific. All along the length of it, like the paved street of a city cut through the wilds of country, were seen families and associations rolling their great wagons westward with ease and comfort, the men attended by women and chil- dren, mounted and on foot, with cows and sheep and chickens, and all the concomitants of settlement and civili- zation, meeting on the way droves of fat cattle, and wagons 62 RETROSPECTION piled high with food products for the markets of the east. For this highway of happiness, the medium of wealth and progress at a critical juncture in the development of the country, thanks are due in greater part to Henry Clay and Albert Grallatin. The Erie canal, then the largest in the world, and of which Governor Clinton of New York was father, stimu- lated progress at the east and in the lake region by bring- ing the Atlantic into water communication with the great inland seas. The effect on New York city was marvelous, causing it to shoot forward rapidly in population past Philadelphia, doubling the distance in 1830, trebling it by 1840, and having four times the population of the Quaker city in 1850. Meanwhile manufactures developed in New England, and transportation was further facilitated by the construction of other wagon-roads and canals. A thousand flat-boats and barges floated down the Ohio carrying empire to the prairie-lands beyond the Mississip- pi. These were followed by the steamboat, which marked an era in midcontinent progress. Steamboating on the Mississippi, all in the roaring forties, the tales that are told! tales of racing, betting, drinking, a plantation lost and won at a single sitting, tales of love and crime, of broken heads and broken hearts. As an epoch in the evolution of our commonwealth, the pathways of the Plains, their utilization and obliteration, will ever stand unique. A single decade defines the period, from 1846 to 1856, and includes the hegira overland, to which indeed another ten years may be added for exploita- tion and yet further development. The time is somewhat long it is true, to serve as a turning point in our country's short history, were it not that during this period events were introduced which made the difference in the end as between a rather common- place American republic and a great nation potential in the affairs of the world. MIGRATIONS AND DEVELOPMENT 63 A great nation, the greatest of nations, though it was some time before we found it out, some time before the other nations found it out, though the latter may have been first to realize the situation. First there was the war with Mexico. Looking back to that time we were indeed, as it seems to us now, a petty power, with no small bluster of fledgeling generals and captains going to war with what we knew to be a weaker fellow than ourselves, and for the noble purpose of giving to southern chivalry more slave territory, though the great state of Texas had but just been secured to the south for that purpose. The Mexican war. Oh, yes! we fought and bled and died for our country there, at Monterey and Chapultepec, and the rabble that won easy victories over the half-clad, ill-armed, and ill-officered Mexicans have been boasting of it and drawing pensions ever since. However this may be the result brought us California; California brought us gold; gold brought us to the attention of the world, and to our Pacific shores a good class of representatives from all the nations, many of whom remained, and after the first flush of mining fever was over turned their attention to finance, merchandise, and agriculture, lending their aid to the upbuilding of a commonwealth of which they were among the most valued members. Then came the war for the Union, which brought an end to slavery, and citizenship to some millions of an alien servile race. And graft came also, glorious graft! Our country, great in all things, greatest of all in graft; and the monster is still with us. To return to our pathways of the Plains, whose oblitera- tion wipes out the only record coming to us of the ages of darkness, and whose utilization marks the incoming of another race with other life objects in view. Here was a vast amphitheatre lying between the two greatest oceans edged by civilization but wild within. In this wilderness 64 RETROSPECTION was little that was visible of human life or design. In the vicinity of the streams, running mostly east and west, were clearly marked paths, or series of paths, sometimes in single ruts of two or three feet in depth, sometimes in broad roadways a hundred feet in width. These pathways extended at intervals across the conti- nent for a thousand or two thousand miles, over plains, mountains, and deserts, the continuity frequently broken but only to be resumed, and always in the main trending east and west. Lateral lines of lesser mark ran off to north and south, but soon terminating in the hills, or in some woods, or in grassy meadows; there were no main aborigi- nal thoroughfares extending north and south. Plainly these roadways were first made by the wild beasts, notably by buffalo in their daily stampede for water. Then they were used by the Indians, then by the fur-hunters, and finally by the wagon-driving emigrants, the overland stage, the pony express riders, and the railways. Overland motorists are becoming interested in these ancient pathways, which will doubtless exercise an in- fluence in the proposed construction of a national auto- mobile highway across the continent, just as the attention of European motorists was attracted by the Roman roads in England, begun by Julius Ca3sar and afterward ex- tended into a network covering the whole country with a line 2500 miles in length. Scenes of the century pass through the mind with transformations as startling in their rapidity as they are inexorable in their decrees. As something present they are romance ; as something past, a dream. A wide spread of sage-brush desert banked on the east by mountains, wooded or treeless, and on the other sides by more desert, with salty lakes, and sluggish streams, and alkaline water-holes, and yet other far away mountains. Oases here and there, with fresh-water wells, and an opal- esque sky spreading across the cactus plain the seductive MIGRATIONS AND DEVELOPMENT 65 mirage, while beyond are brown hills rolling in the pellu- cid air. A garden of the gods with far away stretches of land and water, of mountain foliage and burning plain under a low-lying sun, with its unclad humanity moving among strangely named beasts and plucking the unforbidden fruit. A hundred different tribes with a hundred different faiths and languages and customs, each with an unwritten history running back into an eternity of darkness for thousands of years, but now to be rudely terminated, nations thrust out over the brink, and all primeval life strangled. This is to make room for the second part, an ethnic miracle here to be wrought, not only the incoming of a new race, but the creation of a new race, the west- Ameri- can man, quite as different from the east- American as from the southerner. Wide over these plains we see nothing to mark the presence of any former people; we see nothing to denote the migrations of any present humanity save these fine interlacing lines denoting the pathways of nature, and the line of earth-work before mentioned slanting down from Labrador to western Mexico. Game of all sorts was there, each kind choosing its own habitat. Elk and deer in the mountains, antelope gliding gracefully over the rolling prairie, horses broken loose from Mexico that freedom had made wild, herds of bellowing buffalo stampeding at evening in a cloud of dust down to the river to drink. With the wild beasts were mingled wild men, while between all crafty fortune- hunters threaded their dangerous way to spy out the land and gather from its hidden treasures. This continental interior, regarded at first as a worthless domain, and called in various parts bad lands, waste lands, great American desert, and the like, was found on exploitation to be full of natural wealth, gold silver and copper, iron and coal, stately forests and succulent grasses. The soil which on the surface appeared like drifted sand 66 RETROSPECTION in the sage-brush, was found upon the application of water to be rich in alluvium, and fertile beyond belief. Even in the denuded mountain region emigrant stock reduced to a skeleton and turned loose in the autumn to die, found under the snow which they learned to scrape away with nose and feet, and also where the wind had laid bare the ground, a dry nutritious grass which brought out the ani- mals in the spring to the eyes of their astonished owners sleek and fat, and opened the way to those great cattle- ranges which brought wealth to so many. Each of these several industries evolved a new order of sovereign men, and the mountains became alive with magnates. After 1830 the paths of the fur-hunters were relegated back into the hills, and the wagons of the emigrants be- gan to mark out roads for wheeled vehicles over the prairie, to be followed forty years later by the railroads. It was not an uncommon occurrence in early railroading experience for trains to stop to let pass a stampeding herd of buffalo, while shooting game from the car window was sometimes permitted. Along the too often waterless wagon-trails to Oregon in the early forties and to California in the early fifties, poured a stream of west-bound emigrants seeking land and gold and adventure. Long lines of creaking prairie schooners behind strings of yoked oxen, or of mixed teams of mules, horses, and cows, with piled-up household para- phernalia, all of their belongings, attended by women and children, men and boys, on foot and horseback, rolled out from Independence and St. Joseph into the wooded border- land, and on into the broad prairies, over the snow-clad mountains through the torrid heat of the desert, with its sage-brush foliage, and on to the shores of the Pacific, where the tide of travel was thrown back upon itself and the hardy adventurers, scattering themselves up and down the coast, were forced to work out their destiny without further cavil. For material progression has ever been toward the west, MIGRATIONS AND DEVELOPMENT 67 the intellectual closely attendant, and the ultimate west attained, there comes the unfolding of a new civilization, a western development. There is no eastern civilization; it is long since dead. Hence on reaching the eastern shore of the Pacific, westward civilization ceased to be migratory. The old East is met by the new West, and comes to it to school; and the new West still has before it the greatest work ever undertaken by man, the intellectual conquest and economic reduction of the half-civilized peoples border- ing this mightiest of oceans. The routes overland are essentially the same to-day as were those marked out first by the natives and the fur- hunters, and later followed by emigrant-wagons, stages, and steam-cars. Fifty years before Lewis and Clarke set out to explore the region purchased from Napoleon, the scientific savage Moncacht Ape had made the same journey, up the Missouri and down the Columbia, an account of which is given by the French savant Le Page du Pratz. Not long after- ward Jonathan Carver made his way into the land of the Dacotahs, and mapped the Shining mountains veined with gold, the River of the West flowing into the Western sea, and New Year's Haven, as he called the bay of San Francisco. In 1745, and again in 1776, England offered a reward of 20,000 for the discovery by a British ship of a strait from Hudson bay to the Pacific, and the land journeys of Hearne and Mackenzie followed. At the same time Lieutenant Pike and Major Long made expeditions to the Rocky mountains for the United States, as before stated. All along down the lines of the great ranges routes were established through the passes, as at Peace river, Kootenai, Cajon, Klamath, South pass, Wahsatch, Mimbres, Tehuantepec, and scores of others. From the Missouri river the Oregon and California emigrants took the same trail to Fort Hall, whence the 68 RETROSPECTION California-bound followed the direction of the Goose creek mountains, and of the Goose creek and Raft river branches of Snake river to the rim of the Great Salt lake basin, and by an easy though desert road to the sources of the Humboldt near Humboldt wells. The rush of emigrants over the Oregon trail in 1845 proved an important factor in securing that region to the United States. After the Mormons had made their way into Salt Lake valley, Weber pass was found, and through it the road went from South pass to Salt Lake by a more direct route than by the old trapper trail via Fort Hall. The Cali- fornia-bound who rested at Salt Lake sought the traverse from the Malade valley along the rim of the basin, strik- ing the old California road from Fort Hall at the source of Raft river, following up that stream and then over the Humboldt divide. There were many roads and passes in the south while yet California was a territory of Mexico. Conspicuous among them the Santa Fe trail, as gay with traffic and equipage as the treasure-train road across the Panama isthmus. Santa Fe was reached by wagon road from In- dependence, the trail thence to Los Angeles bearing north- west by the Calinas and Wahsatch mountains, and through the Cajon pass to San Bernardino. Below this was the Zuni road from Santa Fe to Albuquerque and the Gila road by Apache pass. The influence of natural conditions on routes and settle- ments was paramount. Water and grass were of the first consideration, after these altitude, roughness, and woodi- ness were taken into account. The emigrant road through the Rocky mountains to Oregon was in open country most of the way, with wooded hills in the distance. The desert road to California, rendered less dangerous by the Humboldt river, was marked out by Walker, chief of the notable Bonneville expedition in 1833, an actual path-maker, Fremont who followed in his footsteps being at best but a path-finder, as he has rightly been designated. MIGRATIONS AND DEVELOPMENT 69 The Oregonians who accompanied Marshall to Cali- fornia, and there made the gold-discovery, were not gov- erned by considerations of wagoning, and simply retraced the trail of the California and Oregon herders with pack- animals. Sutter had not long been established in the Sacramento valley before discovering the advantages of the northern and southern routes for a road from the east, as he pointed out to Wilkes on his visit to California in 1841. When the Central Pacific railroad was begun at Sacra- mento the wagon-road which led up to the ridge forming the northern rim of the American river basin was followed instead of that ascending the valley of that river. The wagon-road was completed through Donner pass several years before the railroad was built, and was known at that time as the Dutch Flat and Virginia city wagon-road. In the fifties railroad extension brought new economic conditions and a marked intellectual expansion. In the sixties were moral and financial revolutions, arising notably from the creeping in of political and commercial corrup- tion. For half a century after the Louisiana purchase, and for ten or twenty years after the acquisition of the California country, the Plains were held by their aboriginal inhabi- tants, whose normal attitude was one of hostility, first as among themselves, and always in regard to strangers who entered their domain. Ever watchful, ever alert, like the wild beast that shared their home, they perforce must guard their lives night and day, without cessation, from the beginning to the end. Among the habitants of this region was 'the same physical uniformity, modified by individual environment, to be found throughout the two Americas, the same differ- once from all other peoples with the same likeness to each other. Yet in no other quarter could greater disparity be found than between the Iroquois and Seminoles of the 70 RETROSPECTION east and the western Shoshone of the Nevada desert and the nameless Digger of the California coast. The Chinooks of the Columbia were mild and intelli- gent as compared with the fierce Apaches of Arizona and New Mexico and the roving Comanches of Texas, while the Sioux of the Missouri and the Zuiii of the Colorado differ still further in their ways, yet all with resemblances enough to make of them one people. By far the largest of American migrations in a single body was that of the Mormons to Utah. The movement was not unlike that of the Puritans from England and Holland; the cause, religious and social persecution; the result a new and flourishing commonwealth established in a desert country. It was a stirring eventuality in overland travel, the presence of the Saints in Utah, by whose door the emigrant trails led. Driven from their several abiding places at the east, they had longed for a resting-place in a land beyond the limits of the United States. In pursuance of this desire they had turned their face westward. There were islands in the Pacific ; the California country of which Utah was a part belonged to Mexico, though the war was now tamely raging which was to result in its dismember- ment. It was the spring of 1846, and they set forth to the number of 12,000 in three divisions, their objective point, or rendezvous, being as yet undetermined. One detach- ment sailed in the ship Brooklyn from New York in charge of Elder Samuel Brannan ; another detachment was formed into a Mormon battalion, and took the Santa Fe trail to fight battles for the people who had cast them out; the main body crossed the plains from Omaha in 800 wagons under Brigham Young, who as he entered the valley of the Great Salt lake, said "Here we will rest; God so wills it." And he sent word to all his people to come to him there. MIGRATIONS AND DEVELOPMENT 71 But meanwhile changes had occurred. The Mormon battalion were surprised on reaching San Diego to see the American flag flying there. Elder Brannan after touch- ing at the Hawaiian islands came to San Francisco and set his Saints at raising grain on the San Joaquin. Some of them were digging at the tail-race of Sutter's mill when Marshall found gold. Then broke forth bedlam in- deed among the brethren. They called the place Mormon bar where they could pick it up by the handful, Elder Samuel standing by taking tithes. In vain Brigham called, they would not come. Gold was a stronger magnet than godliness. Some of them later, either filled to repletion or broken on the wheel of misfortune, made their way to the City of the Saints, but most of them turned renegade. Elder Brannan gathered an ample harvest, none of which ever entered the valley of the Saints' Rest. Saint Sam was now a convert to Calif ornianism. Finally one of the innocents picked up the courage to ask a lawyer, ' ' How much longer can brother Brannan collect tithes from us?" "Just as long as you are fools enough to pay them," was the reply. Sam was well satisfied, however, having by this time scraped together a fortune. It was no small thing to have two or three hundred able bodied men, obedient to his call, to reap the first crop from rich placers around Coloma, and Sam blossomed out into San Francisco's first magnate. Everybody called him Sam, and smiled at his late following of polygamous saints. For a time he had more ready money than any other man in California. He sent to China for chiseled stone and set up several four- story granite front structures on Montgomery street, which rose up out of the mud, great pillars of prosperity, the wonder and envy of the home-returning diggers. He went in for banks, for express companies, for gambling emporiums. He learned to out-do in blasphemy Brigham Young, who from his great tabernacle on the 72 RETROSPECTION mountain heights was hurling far-reaching maledictions against the United States and all therein, even while he was honored by said states with an appointment as gov- ernor of the territory. At length Sam took to farms and town-building, and finally came to grief. Sam laid out the springs of Calistoga, when, alas ! absinthe caught and laid out Sam. After the Mormon exodus from Illinois, came to Utah that constant succession of caravans which were enticed westward by California gold. The fierce antagonisms already existing were intensified by the abusive language of the emigrants, and a disposition on the part of the Mormons to take advantage of the travellers' necessities. The valley of the Great Salt lake was well situated as a half-way house between the Missouri river and the Pa- cific coast. The plains and great divide had been traversed by the weary emigrants, the desert and Sierra yet re- mained. The Mormons were on the ground two years be- fore the heaviest travel to Oregon and California had be- gun, time sufficient to plant and harvest enough and to spare. Amicable treatment and fair exchange were to the ad- vantage of both. The emigrants wanted rest and refresh- ments for themselves and cattle; the Mormons, poor and lacking everything, were glad to get whatever the emi- grants could spare. Both people were likewise in the main honest, kind-hearted, and thrifty. But the demons of prejudice and hate had become so fastened on all concerned that they could not meet and part in peace. The emigrants swore loudly and were abusive, the Saints were secretive and retaliatory. And all along the way, at both ends of the line, coming and going, tales of imposition and reprisal kept alive the en- mity, so that theft and murder on both sides were not of uncommon occurrence. The tragic story of Mountain meadow massacre is well known, but there are many unrecorded fatalities charged MIGRATIONS AND DEVELOPMENT 73 to the Indians in which none but white men were engaged. It is safe to say, however, that there never has been a time when peaceable travellers, behaving themselves and attend- ing only to their own affairs, were not safe from outrage in Utah. CHAPTER V SOME OHIO YANKEES AMONG the many settlements beyond the Alleghanies was that of Granville, Ohio, one of the brightest of the New England colonies planted in this western wilder- ness. It was somewhat different from the many similar swarmings from the Atlantic seaboard, straggling along down between the great lakes and the gulf, a class by itself, and a trifle more backward, perhaps, than some of the others to join later in the great amalgamations of the Mississippi valley. While the followers of Daniel Boone were making their way along the wilderness road from the exhausted tobacco fields of Virginia through Cumberland gap into the blue grass region of Kentucky, where a Virginia court with courthouse jury-rooms and jail had been established since 1776, restless New Englanders were turning attention to their possessions in the valley of the Ohio and along the lakes. Characteristic of the time and place a story is told of a little Massachusetts boy who was out on a rocky hillside one day helping with the planting. Presently he was ob- served quietly crying, as if with vexation. "What is the matter, my son?" asked the father. "I can't get dirt enough to cover the corn ! ' ' was the reply. Thereupon that father resolved to go to some country where there was more dirt to the acre. All along the Atlantic seaboard, in all the states north and south, emigrating companies were formed, and soon the entire country east of the Mississippi was dotted with 74 SOME OHIO YANKEES 75 settlements. In 1787 was organized at Ipswich, Massa- chusetts, the Ohio Association, and the colony of Marietta was established on the Ohio at the Muskingum. For the nominal price of seventy cents an acre the associates secured from the United States north of the Ohio a million acres, with a bill of rights guaranteeing freedom of re- ligion ; rights of person and property ; fair treatment of the Indians ; no slavery, but fugitive slaves to be returned, which last stipulation the people of Ohio gave themselves little concern about. The price per acre was several times lessened by the acceptation in payment of government bounty land certificates, which fell at times as low in price as twenty-three cents on the dollar ; so that in reality large blocks of land passed into the possession of the settlers at as low a rate as ten cents an acre. Three million acres were secured for the Society of the Scioto, and emigrants brought from France to serve as colonists. Some of this land was sold to Massachusetts people, notably to a company from Granville of that state, $1.67 an acre being the price paid. But notwithstanding these several settlements, and many others from New Eng- land, more than half of the Ohio valley was finally occu- pied by people from Pennsylvania and Virginia. In 1803 Ohio was created a state, with one section of land free in each township for schools, and land hitherto bought from the United States for settlement to be exempt from taxation for four years At Granville, Massachusetts, in 1804, was organized the Licking Land company. Being neighbors living in a small village the members and their families were well known to each other, and being of like faith customs and traditions, harmony and happiness resulted. It was a thoughtful and thrifty community, with an intelligent understanding of all questions of the day, firm convic- tions and fixed principles, and rather high ideals, though tinctured with the fanaticism of the time. Although it was now nearly two hundred years since 76 RETROSPECTION the Mayflower came, the incidents of that coming, as well as subsequent events, stood as clearly denned in their minds as if they were of yesterday. The business of the Licking Land company began with the payment by each member of eight dollars for expenses of viewing and selection. Meetings were held and details discussed from time to time during the year, until a thor- ough understanding existed as to life and occupation in their new home. In all this the men 's faces wore an aspect of serious concern, the wives and grown up children giv- ing intelligent sympathy and assistance. At length they were ready to start. All were neatly but plainly clad, and the household effects were carefully bestowed in large covered wagons to be drawn by six or eight stout horses or twice that number of oxen. All their belongings were useful and of good quality; wagons, har- ness, and horses of the best. The caravan presented quite an imposing appearance as it swept down through darkest Pennsylvania, bringing to the doors of their dwellings the mild-eyed Quaker and the stout German housewife, the urchins shouting "The Yankees are coming! The Yankees are coming!" It was essentially a Massachusetts association, named for the Granville of that state, though it welcomed as one with itself a fair contingent from Vermont. The site chosen was charming, as in common with their cousins of Boston they had an eye for the beautiful a tract of choice hill and valley land, "the hills for health and the valleys for cultivation " as they expressed it; malaria in the form of fever and ague to be specially guarded against. Though hitherto unknown to the aborigines, like most of the white man's ailments, it was common to all new settlements, and especially virulent among the sand eruptions and sunken forests along the Mississippi river. The Granville people took possession of their Scioto purchase in 1805. Two years later Granville township SOME OHIO YANKEES 77 was formed, and in 1808 Licking county was proclaimed, so called from the deer licks in the vicinity. The township tract was five miles square; in the middle of it was laid out the town with 100-acre farms around it. In this Ohio Granville met and married Ashley Ban- croft and Lucy Howe, the former from Massachusetts the latter from Vermont, and there was born from this union on the 5th of May, 1832, Hubert Howe Bancroft, the writer of these annals, sensitive and shy as a boy, without sufficient assurance for any thing very good or very bad; as a man much the same and that is all. They called the land new, and so it was new to them, though in truth a thousand years older than Columbus, as shown by the year-marks of trees standing on the fantastic earth-mounds in the forms of eagles, alligators, squares, half-moons, intermingled with fragments of aboriginal weapons, cooking utensils, and stone walls, which adorned the hill-tops of this township, marking the sometime pres- ence of a departed people unknown by and apparently un- related to the native Shawnees that the Europeans found there. A wild, hilly, thickly wooded section adjoining the New Englanders was secured for a trifle by a Welshman, who planted there some of his people, an honest, thrifty race, the region being known thereafter as the Welsh hills. An early experience of the writer was a visit to these people, invited thither by one of their number who worked as hired man to my father. It was Sunday, and I was per- mitted to go only on the ground of attending church. As I was so small that I had to be carried part of the way, and as the services were wholly in Welsh, I was not greatly edified, and could hardly have repeated the text had I been asked to do so. Nor so far as I could judge was my soul greatly imperiled. The town was laid out after the manner common to NVw England villages, a broad street running from end to end and connecting with the county roads to the towns 78 RETROSPECTION on either side. On this main street were the stores, churches, public offices, and best dwellings, those of lesser importance occupying side streets. At an early day com- munication with the world at large was secured, notably with Cleveland on Lake Erie and Portsmouth on the Ohio river, by a series of canals cut in different directions to the extent of eight hundred miles of artificial navi- gation. It was a picturesque spot ; on one side a range of well rounded hills, and on the other, running through low rich meadow land, a small river, navigable as a canal in places, elsewhere bright and rippling, turning here and there a grist mill and in later times a factory or two. At one end of the village near where the country road passed out of it was a steep conical hill, sugar-loaf it was called every well-regulated hamlet had its sugar-loaf in those days, the name being common from the only form in which white sugar was then served to families. An atmosphere of serious austerity pervaded the place. Well away from the influence either of commerce or manu- factures, yet possessed with an aggressive economic un- rest, their industrial pursuits at this early date could find expression only in agriculture and home-building, which with a lively interest in the political questions of the day, and their township affairs, tended to foster thought and independence. Values were rated according to supply and the cur- rency measure of the time. Wages fifty cents a day ; board at the hotel a dollar a week ; chickens ten cents each ; but- ter fifteen cents, salt six cents, beef four cents, and venison three cents a pound. While peaches, quickly grown, sold at twenty-five cents a bushel, apples were three dollars; while wheat was a dollar a bushel, corn was twenty-five cents, and a bushel of it was exchangeable at the distillery for a gallon of whiskey. For whiskey was friendly in those days, not the devil incarnate of to-day. It stood in a pitcher on the table, and SOME OHIO YANKEES 79 old and young might help themselves. And there was like- wise a patriotic rum called New England. Playing cards and dancing were anathema; novels, tobacco, slavery, and fiddles were Satan and his angels. When change was scarce the silver dollar was cut with an axe into halves and quarters; in the absence of silver, skins were the currency, and whiskey an article of ex- change. Wolves, bears, and panthers yielded their skins, the buffalo, wild turkey, and opossum their flesh ; the rattle- snake was an unmitigated nuisance. My father's youngest brother received as his inherit- ance a chest of carpenter tools. And he said, "With these I will carve my fortune. I shall marry me a good wife; I shall build me a good house, and for ten years I shall save up one hundred dollars each year/' This he did; then became merchant, then banker, and was finally gathered to his fathers. Did Rothschild or Rockefeller more? Recollections of my Granville life began with a pet lamb, grown impudent by indulgence, butting me down from a pile of sand, later sacrificed for his sins, and eaten by the younger sort all unconscious of cannibalistic devour- ings. Among my several youthful accomplishments was read- ing the Bible at the age of three years, which saved much reading of the book later; stealing bright new rake-teeth from a factory near by and then lying about it. In answer to the question "Where did you get them?" two lies, one, "I found them," the other, "A man gave them to me" bad even for an infant grafter, two lies where one were better, one worse than wasted, not to be winked at by the high-crime court, but to be promptly dealt with by the rod, three several applications, one for each of the two lies, and one for the stealing, all attended by prayer and supplication, and all because of so much early Bible reading. The discipline though drastic was effective. The boy pondered; he could hold only three of those rake-teeth in 80 RETROSPECTION his little hand. One whipping a tooth, and prayer and exhortation thrown in. More than that, he must return the rake-teeth and say he was sorry. He concluded that wickedness did not pay, at least on so small a scale, and thereupon he gave up the business. Another curative method for lying, milder, modern, perhaps as effective. At the family farm in California happily lived four youngsters, three boys and a girl, ages seven to twelve. The father discovered one day on the porch floor ? puddle of ink with a mat thrown over it. The parents were at no time terrific in their expostulations, and but for the secretiveness attending what was no doubt an accident the father would have thought nothing of it. Calling the children to him he mildly asked who had been spilling ink, and instead of washing it away had covered it up. All disclaimed any knowledge of it. As the mother was absent and no one but the children about the house, it required no great reflection on the father's part to see that a fib was hidden away somewhere in the little fold. "Well," said he, "let us draw up our chairs around this black blot upon our family escutcheon and talk it over. "Of ancient origin, this dismal fluid, one of grand achievements as well as dastardly deeds a page of ado- lescent poetry, for example, a conspiracy discovered, a marriage contract, a death warrant. Many strange revela- tions it has made, many a man it has hanged, and many a woman undone." Signs of unrest broke out in the little audience during this highly instructive and lucid discourse, manifested by shiftings of position, stabbing mosquitoes with a pin, and contortions of features while watching the interesting con- vulsions of spider and fly. "What's it all about any way?" pipes a little one; and another, the reckless, devil-may-care sort of fellow, of all SOME OHIO YANKEES 81 the four always the suspect, "I say, Papa, how long are you going to keep us here ? I want He bluffs well, the little cuss, the father thought. "Only until the ink or something speaks," he said. Then, continuing, "Queer stuff, ink! Compound of lamp- 'black and glue, logwood and potassium, acid or oxide or what you will. Pliny employed nutgalls and iron sulphate, Cicero squeezed cuttle-fish; but howsoever engendered, always the messenger of life and scavenger of death, always breathing love and hate, always evolving comedy and tragedy, healing hearts and breaking them, helping some to their Nirvana and others to their Styx crossing; a won- derful thing this black liquid that writes itself on the porch floor to tell some little innocent that it was a sort of mistake to throw a mat over it. For like Gehazi's ad- venture, you cannot hide it; like Banquo's ghost, it will not down; a good friend in the Lamb's book of life, a terrible enemy midst the thunderings of Sinai." A sob, a burst of grief, a flood of tears from a source the least expected. And it struck full upon that father's breast. Was there aught of petition or of punishment in the parental heart? There was not. Chastisement in- flicted at this most critical moment of the. child's life would seem like striking down a soul hovering on the verge of the infinite. ' ' There, there, ' ' said the father, throwing his arm over the child's shoulder, "its all right, only a little mistake, it was the dirty door-mat that somehow got over the ink, wasn't it? Now come away and think no more about it." But the little one did think about it. It was the first and last lie the child was ever known to tell. On another occasion, another of the young philosophers, hearing some remark on the obedience of children, ex- claimed, "Mind my father! Why shouldn't II Papa makes us want to do what he wants us to. ' ' To return to our Ohio affairs, 82 RETROSPECTION At the age of five years the farm demanded my services to the exclusion of school in summer. I remember one day riding the horse to plow between the rows of corn under the hot sun, my bare legs chafed by the harness and smarting from the animal's sweat. I burst out crying, for I was but a baby. My father kindly inquired the cause, for he was by no means a harsh man. ' ' I think it is pretty hard work for a little boy here all day," I said. "I think so, too, my son," was the reply, and straightway I was released. Memories more or less tender or tough come to me of orchard and meadow and deep tangled wildwood that were there, and the veritable old oaken bucket itself that hung in the well. How I hated milking the cow, hoeing in the garden or field, raking hay in the scorching sun, and going to school though there were many compensations, cracking nuts and popping corn by the fireside winter nights ; camping in the snow under the maple-trees sugaring time; sleighing, skating, or fishing; bathing, shooting squirrels, or for further excitement catching and mounting an unbroken colt only to be thrown as fast as repeated. Our farm was but half a mile from the village, a hill intervening, from one side of which my father took stone and built him a fine house, while on the summit stood later the baptist college which gave Mr. Rockefeller a good pres- ident for his Chicago university. Indeed, this little New England oasis was from the first quite educational in its way, when not too absorbed by fads and fanaticism. Besides district school and academy there were two large female seminaries, baptist learning not at all fitting Boston Congregationalism. Evidences of the intellectual life and its aspirations were elsewhere visible beyond the Alleghanies. With the Ohio company of 1787 from Ipswich had come the Ohio uni- versity, whose personnel consisted largely of Yale and Harvard men. Then not far distant were the Miami uni- = err < SOME OHIO YANKEES 83 versity, the Western Reserve college, the Oberlin ultra abolition institution, and others. As in New England re- ligion and education went hand in hand; a town without its church and school was a barbarism. Here indeed were both heredity and environment, even if not under the most favorable conditions, eugenics and eutherics, not in opposition but working in harmony. And the doctrine thence emerging was current there, though the people did not so express themselves. They knew themselves to be well born, these sturdy New Englanders, of pious and thrifty ancestry, thinkers of their own thoughts, and right thinkers according to the enlightenment of their understanding; and yet with all their necessity, free-will entire, the will to do, to improve, accept the best and profit by the good things God had given them. They knew it to be a favorable atmosphere for the making of men, as were also conditions of their kind along the Mississippi, but different. Ohio has fur- nished her full quota of scholars and statesmen, not to mention fighting men and money-makers. For a long time after railroads and steamboats came into vogue my grandfather Howe refused to trust himself on any of them, using only his one-horse springless wagon 'or his limited travelling. He was told every Sunday, and often repeated the precept to others, that God's arm was not shortened that it could not save, yet he did not feel quite as safe trusting to it where steam was concerned. It was not until he lacked two years of being a hundred years old that he was persuaded to make the journey by way of the Isthmus to California, where were many of his descendants whom he greatly desired to see. He enjoyed his trip thoroughly, and after his visit returned in safety to his home in Kansas, where he then lived with his youngest daughter. He was one of the best and purest men that ever lived, even if California did seem to him a little beyond the pale of providence. Even the debtors' prison at St. Albans, 84 RETROSPECTION Vermont, did not affright him when lodged there for a thousand dollar obligation incurred as surety for a friend. And as for faith, where were the mountains it would not remove? Novels were his special detestation; the black man an ebony idol. "But grandfather reads Uncle Tom's Cabin, that is a novel. ' ' ' ' A novel ! What do you mean ? It is true, every word of it." I do not pretend to any remembrance of it, but I may state the facts as history, that when I was four years old, while yet Abraham Lincoln was playing seven-up with slave-holders in his back office, and William Lloyd Garri- son was being mobbed by the good people of Boston, since then evolutionizing themselves into a state of sympathy and sentiment regarding the poor people of color, there came to our town certain zealous men to hold an anti- slavery convention, the first in central Ohio. The use of the church in which town meetings were held being refused for the purpose, my father offered his barn, a nice new one, and as yet unfilled with hay, which was gladly ac- cepted. All went well until the meetings were over. Then as the chief speakers on their horses were slowly wending their way out of town, a one-horse wagon filled with bad men and bad eggs was seen following them. Notwithstand- ing the vile odors which filled the air, and the slimy sub- stance dripping from men and horses, not the faintest shade of annoyance was seen on the faces of the strangers ; not the slightest increase of pace was discernible. They went their way, these early Ohio martyrs, none the less true though tamer perhaps than the fiery Wen- dell Phillips, who shouted to his Boston audience that tried to stop his speaking, ' ' Howl on ! Howl on ! you con- tumacious curs; I speak to forty millions of freemen"- pointing to the reporters. He might almost make it a round hundred millions to-day. SOME OHIO YANKEES 85 And that from Boston's solid men in Faneuil hall assembled; too much like the solid men of San Francisco of to-day, our most worshipful apostles of high crime ; they, Boston's apostles of high crime, loath to offend the white men of the south, later eager to place over them these same black men to grind them into the dust. Some six years after this black baptism of the barn, a small boy might have been seen, had it not been midnight and rather dark, driving a big two-horse wagon filled with straw on the way to Fredonia, distant six miles toward Canada. It was his first all-night out of bed, and the bumps of the wagon as the old plow horses followed the road sadly interfered with the snatches of sleep taken at his peril on the slippery seat. Why the enthusiasts should send forth this babe as director-general of a wagon of human estrays fresh from Kentucky for the straw was alive with them instead of one of the grown-ups going himself, may not be surmised unless it arose from the well-known modesty of the Yankee in matters of charity and good deeds; or should the slave-hunters catch on such an errand a little fellow like that, all they could do would be to send him home and to bed. It will be remembered that at the time of the discon- tinuance of the slave-trade in 1807 negro slaves numbered nearly one-fifth of the population of the United States, and were fast increasing, to the peril of the Republic. The Anti-slavery society was formed in 1833, under the auspices of Arthur Tappan, William Lloyd Garrison, and Wendell Phillips. Public sentiment, carrying with it the churches, was against the movement. "It hurts business," said the thrifty New Englander, the Quaker silent but assenting, "thus to stir up the enmity of our customers in the south," forgetting that the American revolution hurt business, likewise the war of 1812. It was the same cry which we hear to-day in the streets of our cities over the prosecution of rich criminals. 4 86 RETROSPECTION After mobbing those reformers the friends of the slave-holders felt better, and later we find New Eng- landers in the front rank, fighting slave-holders, eman- cipating the slave, giving him the franchise, and taking him, with all his evil odors, to their sensitive hearts meta- phorically, though pausing in consternation before the reality. As for the churches, they could be conducted on any required principle, for slavery or against it, according to the demand. Pew-holders can always have any kind of religion they want and are willing to pay for. It was a straight-laced community, but by no means saturnine. On the contrary, meeting as neighbors they were rather disposed to be jovial, old people particularly, often making sport of their ailments when they were in reality anything but a joke. Puritan ancestry was still insistent where conduct and belief were concerned. To the ever unfolding subconsciousness of the younger members of this society the atmosphere was perhaps a little stifling, but upon the elders, whose women were positive and argumentative while the men were deliberate and judicial, the effect was exhilarating. In an atmosphere of serious concern, slowly and rever- ently along the rough streets on the Sabbath-day walked the towns-people to the village church; from the distant farms came worshipers in springless wagon, or mounted on a pillion behind the saddle for the matron or maid. Always present were men and women well along in years, meeting at the meeting-house being part of the last drama of their declining years. It was scarcely a day of rest, this New England Sab- bath, whether in Massachusetts or Ohio, what with physical and psychological purifications, head-scrubbing and heart- cleaning, private prayers morning and night, family prayers morning and night, two sermons, a Sunday school and some sort of evening meeting. Yet the Ohio pilgrims were long since emancipated from the blue-laws of Con- an SOME OHIO YANKEES 87 necticut, which forbid that any one on the Sabbath-day should travel, cook, kiss, shave, walk or ride, except to meeting, buy or sell, dine out, or wink, except rev- erently. They were a century away from those halcyon days of enforced religion and the fiercer forms of persecution. Yet without stocks and the whipping-post there were still ways enough left by which unbelievers and back- sliders could be made to suffer. From the more repulsive forms of their ancient beliefs, as predestination, election, and infant damnation they were slowly emancipating themselves; they had much left to learn and unlearn, and one or two centuries were scarcely sufficient to wear away e stern rectitude inherited from their ancestors. Other infamies, or shall I say infirmities, were absent, as the debtors' prison, the witch-ducking pond, though Luther's personal devil sometimes displayed himself; while yet to arrive were applied steam and electricity, the telegraph, telephone, railroad, sewing-machine, automobile, arm machinery, gas and water systems, and graft. Later quite liberal views obtained; the bass-viol was allowed in church, a young man bowing it during singing and read- ing dime novels behind it during service. Though as a whole full of the cool illogical antis and isms of the day, and faithful to doctrinal religion as ex- pounded by their good pastor, they were delightfully in- dividual and independent of thought at times. More than one mother as she gazed at her infant was heard to ex- claim, "You can say what you like, but I cannot believe that my babe will be forever punished for sins it never committed." It was an intensely political and patriotic community, the men often riding twenty-five miles to Columbus to ear campaign speeches. And when the presidential elec- tion came around, a Roman carnival was a tame affair beside it. I well remember the campaign of 1840; with one of our own Ohio men as the whig candidate, Granville, 88 RETROSPECTION with all her many other graces and virtues being intensely whig. On the day appointed for a grand celebration an elab- orate procession marched to Newark, the county seat, dis- tant six miles, with ceaseless blare and oratory, with barbecue, hard cider and fist fights, and songs. "Hurrah for Tom Corwin the wagoner's boy," and then for Harrison, who lived in a log cabin and drank hard cider, "And Tippecanoe and Tyler, too, And with 'em we'll beat little Van, Van, Van, He's a used up man, And with 'em we'll beat little Van. " At an early hour the procession formed in the village square under a jointed liberty-pole 270 feet high. There were log-cabins on wheels, some of them drawn by twenty yoke of oxen, crowned with wreaths and decorated with ribbons; Indian camp-fires and skulking warriors; canoes thirty to fifty feet long, each out of a single tree; barrels of hard cider, that wickedest of tipples, on tap, with cup attached ; ginger-bread and lemonade, pie and cheese, roast fowl, boiled ham, nutcakes, coffee, and endless like things to eat and drink lasting for the festival all day and far into the night. With bands of music, banners unfolded, and shout and song, men and boys, mounted and on foot, marked with the pilgrimage a day long to be remembered. Another day came also, a year later, when funeral obsequies were held for the dead president with similar intensity. A common-school education at public expense in those days did not include modern languages, Greek or San- scrit, piano-lessons, dancing or sword exercises, but was rather confined to those studies of which some practical use could afterward be made. I aspired first to go through college, and then to Con- gress, my father giving his consent, even to my achieving SOME OHIO YANKEES 89 the presidency. But we were not rich; there were no rich men in those days, all being honest. And long years of study would impose a burden upon my parents for my maintenance to which I could not subject them. I soon saw that to accomplish much in any direction I must put money in my purse. A little would suffice, but that little was necessary. At this juncture fate interposed in the form of a young red-headed Buffalo bookseller, fine of form and feature, good-hearted, ambitious in his calling, and free of speech. Visiting our town, where lived his parents, he fell in love with my charming eldest sister, and some time after their marriage he offered me a place in his store as clerk, which I accepted, thus terminating my studies at the academy, and my life in Ohio. CHAPTER VI THE CALL OF GOLD looks like goi^" said Sutler. He poked his finger through it, took up a lump and bit it, laid it on the anvil and hammered it. He dropped acid on it; it stood all the tests. "It is gold, very sure," quietly observed the Swiss; and there was no smile upon his face, no gleam of triumph in his eye. "My Gord!" cried Marshall, "and I can fetch you a hatful of it." It was in the morning of the 27th of January, 1848, three days after the specks of yellow in the tail-race had attracted the attention of the mill-builders. Marshall had ridden in from Coloma, some forty-six miles distant, during the night, sleeping part of the time in the chaparral. The two men were radically different in form and con- struction, physically and psychologically. Marshall was a big, burly, coarse-grained west- American jack-of -all- trades, a mixture of Methodist and Mormon, spiritualistic tendencies mingling with his many minor superstitions. Among his assistants in setting up a saw-mill for Captain Sutter were some of Sam Brannan's disciples, and certain deflections from the missionaries in Oregon. John A. Sutter was a German Swiss, small in stature, educated and refined, of a retiring disposition, but filled with ambition in which visions of empire faintly mingled. He left home in 1834. He never told me why, but per- mitted me to infer that the doses of Calvinism, as admin- istered by parental authority, were a little too strong 90 THE CALL OF GOLD 91 for him, especially when interfering with unorthodox love. He studied America for four years in the Santa Fe country. He realized the significance of the frontier, both sides of it, as it drifted slowly westward from the Atlantic seaboard ; he saw the potentialities of the Plains. Crossing to the Pacific he took a look at the Sandwich islands, as the Hawaiian group was then called; whence, proceeding to Alaska, he dropped down the coast to San Francisco bay, and paddled up the Sacramento to the head of tidewater, where he rested content. He found there all that he wanted, more than he had expected ever to see combined in one spot, absolute primevalism with soil and climate un- surpassed, bright sunshine under the snowy Sierra, and the grassy plain alive with nature's best creations ani- mals, wild fowl, and fishes for food, and a native humanity of just the consistency for his purpose, mild, tractable, and with proper handling, useful. Obtaining from Mexico a grant of ten leagues of land as a gift, with another possible ten leagues, he built a fort, and set in motion his dusky retainers toward the achieve- ment of a personal principality in this charming lotus- land, where he might be near the white men yet remaining apart from all complex organizations and systems. He knew what he wanted, and it was not gold. Some men are made that way, howsoever difficult for Wall street to understand. The call of gold, yes, blind and beastly as a god, some it calls up and others it calls down. We should scarcely expect in the history of the world to see emphasized as a great event the finding of gold in the tail-race of Sutter 's saw-mill. We should hardly . classify it with such happenings as the Crusades, the discovery of America, or the battle of Waterloo. Yet when we can clearly see in this gold discovery, with the developments in Australia, in British Columbia, and in all northwestern 92 RETROSPECTION America which followed, an intellectual awakening, a new departure in the world's advancement, we cannot look upon the affair as one devoid of special significance. Three events, pregnant with future unfoldings, came simultaneously, no one of them known to or dependent upon either of the others. The war with Mexico was not brought on, nor the acquisition of California secured be- cause of gold in the Sierra foothills, as the fact was not known at the treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. The line of steamships from the Atlantic seaboard across the famous Isthmus to San Francisco and our northwest coast posses- sions was not established because of the acquisition of new domain on the Pacific, though it may have been done anticipatory thereof. The first steamer for Oregon was arrested in her course at San Francisco by the startling intelligence of the acquisition of California and the discov- ery of gold, and she proceeded north no farther. The three events coming together exercised a powerful impulse on industrial development, but without the discovery of gold the other two would have made but a slight impres- sion upon the affairs of the world. The inrush of miners gave California the opportunity of adopting a constitution and applying at once for admis- sion as a state, without undergoing the usual probationary territorial period, but the question of slavery arose caus- ing delay. It was for more slave territory that southern politicians had brought on the war with Mexico, and not for gold to be gathered by world-wide adventurers. It is not safe to say that but for the gold California would have been admitted in time as a slave state, for I can scarcely believe it to be true ; but there is no question that with the strong southern influence in Congress, and the plot carefully prearranged on the Pacific coast, mat- ters might have been delayed and manipulated so as to bring about the most serious consequences but for the large mixed population that suddenly appeared in California who were opposed to slavery. THE CALL OF GOLD 93 As it was, the state of California started off promptly with a good constitution and a good law-making body, which soon earned the cognomen of ''the legislature of a thousand drinks." Whether this number was regarded as large or small, and whether it was a thousand a day or a thousand for the entire term, the record does not state. A thousand would give only five or ten drinks to each person, which for some would be scant allowance for even half a day. It is safe to say that the gold event gave rise to many political and economic developments ; that its effect on industrialism was as great as the effect of the Crusades on feudalism. It revolutionized values throughout the world, and infected every civilized nation with an aggressive economic unrest. It rendered obsolete ancient usages and established new methods. Great in war as in peace, if it did not actually save to the United States the union, the steady inflow into New York of five millions of dollars a month during the entire period of hostilities, and before as well as after, saved the country from dire distress if not from financial ruin. The effect of the gold discovery on the Pacific coast, though mild at first, in the end was magical, bringing to- gether at San Francisco bay representatives from all nations, and huddling humanity in promiscuous heaps along five hundred miles of Sierra foothills. It opened to all mankind a new field of romance, with endless economic potentialities, establishing on the ocean lines of steamships, and on the rivers inland traffic, overspread- ing the land with agriculture, with irrigations and re- clamations, weaving a network of railways throughout western North America, and hastening forward slow civil- ization a hundred years with its blessed ages of gold and grain and graft. The time was ripe for something new to appear in the world's work. The timidity of an earlier day was for- gotten ; adventure was in the blood. The advantages of 94 RETROSPECTION industrial specialization were beginning to be seen; suc- cess in this new field of untried issues came rather by con- centration of mind and energies on some one thing, and becoming expert in that, than by dissipating energy and enthusiasm in dipping into many things. Skilled labor came to the front and with it fresh adventure and wider speculation. The first to feel this impulse as in the olden days was transportation. Whatever else there was to be done men must be moving about. Hence on all the lines of over- land travel emigrant trains were to be seen, hundreds of whitehooded wagons and creaking prairie schooners, and thousands of cattle and horses the Oregon movement repeated but with greater intensity than ever. Over the central and southern routes to California soon appeared lines of stages, in which passengers rode for twenty-five or thirty consecutive days and nights, the fare being at the rate of about ten dollars a day. The Butterfield and Salt Lake stages reduced the time from the Missouri to Sacramento to twenty days. When the pony express was established, letters were brought from New York in ten days, an accomplished marvel of speed. Numberless sails appeared upon the ocean and craft of every sort on inland waters. Shipbuilding felt the im- pulse in a manner never before dreamed of, resulting in the beautiful Baltimore clipper, a work of art as of ocean architecture never surpassed before or since. Every line a line of beauty; every curve a curve for speed. They used frequently to make the passage via Cape Horn in sixty days, turning out the cargo without a stain. The moneyed men of New York came out of their back offices and took a look around. They did not stop to build new steamers, but took whatever was available, giving to the old craft fresh paint and new names. For the Pacific side several new steamships were built of a pattern more spacious and pleasant for tropical travel than any which THE CALL OF GOLD 95 has yet been seen ; vessels of the Golden Gate type, two or three decks above water, made thus high owing to the early reputation of this ocean for quiet waters, which, however, may lash themselves into fury upon occasion. Thus it was that when the traveller from New York had reached and crossed the Isthmus and was seated in his steamer chair under the awning of the well-polished upper deck of one of these new ocean palaces, awaiting the trans- ference of mails and baggage, the soft air from aromatic isles lulling to rest and reflection, little wonder that he fancied the worst of the voyage was over, and that the remaining two weeks' sail under such charming conditions would be nothing but a pleasure trip. He had endured enough on the Atlantic side from the avarice and rascality of the New York magnates, who had hastened to throw into the traffic all the old craft avail- able, sail and steam, ill-fitted and ill-provisioned, and were selling tickets for the Isthmus, and even for San Francisco, often without a sleeping berth on the Atlantic side and no means of continuing their journey on the Pacific. Most of these travellers were inexperienced, many of them fresh from their country homes, and the boats put upon the Panama and Nicaragua routes by Howland and Aspinwall, and others of that stamp, were supposed to be safe, when the owners well knew they were not. Many thousand passengers were thus thrown into the pest-hole of Panama, there to contract lingering disease or merci- fully to die quickly, by the shipping men of New York, in- different alike to the miseries of the voyage or the inter- vening deaths laid at their door. One instance out of many was the Central America, an old condemned steamer whose name had been several times changed, which sank on her way up in September, 1857, with 579 returning Calif ornians and about four millions in treasure. Over 400 of the finest specimens of American manhood were sent on this occasion alone to their deaths; $100,000 96 RETROSPECTION profits on the voyage went into the pockets of the ship owners. A Havre liner was lost from collision about the same time, and it was remarked the difference in the behavior of the respective passengers and crews. On the French ves- sel pandemonium reigned. Officers and sailors, and such of the passengers as were able to fight their way through, rushed for the boats, leaving the weaker ones to perish. On the American vessel calm courage and order pre- vailed. The orders of the officers were promptly obeyed. Rough bearded men quietly drew their revolvers and formed lines between which the women and children were conducted to the boats, and not until the last of them were thus bestowed did the men consider themselves. The boats being already filled they had only to go bravely down to their deaths, while a thousand loved ones at home awaited their coming. Captain and officers were also sacrificed to the cupidity of those whose names are at this day sometimes mentioned in honor. How they felt, these same rich men, while passing the plate in church the next Sunday no one knows, but prob- ably they were reconciled to the dispensation of provi- dence, provided the ship was properly insured. And the late heart-rending disaster of the Titanic shows that Anglo-Saxon courage and chivalry has in no wise diminished in half a century when America's fore- most and wealthiest men could calmly take their place among those doomed to die that the frivolous French maid and Sicilian fish-wife might live. It was a tame enough affair, so it seemed at the time, this finding of gold by the Oregon interlopers and Mor- mon renegades. All around was the quiet of the wilder- ness, all save the voices of nature. The secret of the Sierra had been kept long and faithfully, and it came quietly before the world, not with the rush of wings or blare of trumpets so important a discovery might have justified, THE CALL OF GOLD 97 the knowledge of gold in California. A score of times sim- ilar reports had been heard of places elsewhere in Amer- ica, some of them even in the United States, and little having come of them little attention was given to new announcements. Coolly and critically Captain Sutter reviewed the situa- tion. He knew that he was ruined in so far as the pur- pose for which he came was concerned. Should the mines prove permanent, opportunities for vast wealth lay before him, but not the peace isolation brings. Ardent for empire he had wandered west, had entered the unknown, had touched here and there, and passed on. He had found what he wanted ; he did not know this until some time after he had found it. An island would not have sufficed, nor yet lands torrid or frigid, nor yet a country of half civilized heathen. From such places voices of the mountain, voices of the desert warned him away. The land of his adoption must be a plain, a valley of good air, good soil, and properly watered. It must be abso- lutely primitive, inhabited if at all only by an aboriginal race of a low vitality with a disposition not too fierce. He had found the spot here on the left bank of the Sacramento blessed name this that was given to the stream by the friars though they had seen it only at its mouth. The land was free, and yet he could secure with it titles, valid titles if he possessed sufficient strength to make them so, all to be had for the asking. The second ten leagues he seemed to want more than he had coveted the first. Strange how this Teutonic land- hunger increases with possession, limitless lands within his grasp and his hands could hold so little ! And he so little ! Why would he have more land? Did he want the world? Yes, if he could carry it away and keep it. But he could not keep it. Though he later laid out and established on this river bank a great city, the capital of a great state, every foot of it originally his own, yet he could not keep it. 98 RETROSPECTION He was doomed, he and his life's dream, doomed by the infernal power of this gold, doomed to die in poverty, the last of his Sacramento leagues lost to him; to die in a dreary Pennsylvania hamlet, where the writer of these pages found him, and talked with him, listening to his last lament during these his last days, and offering such poor consolation as he was able. He saw, this shrewd Swiss, shrewd though so weak, as in a vision, as he gazed upon this gold and thought of its transmuting properties he saw vanish his dream of em- pire, his kingship over some thousands of naked, mild- mannered red men ; he saw his lands usurped, bands of lawless in-rushing gold-hunters, squatting here and there and everywhere, killing and scattering his great droves of cattle, killing and demoralizing his people. "Ah, yes!" he complained pathetically to a stranger who later came down out of the mountains soliciting relief for snow-bound emigrants, ' ' those poor fellows, I send them beef, I send them venison, then they kill and eat all my good Indians !" Great is gold, the god of gods, who visiteth with ven- geance his votaries; great above all gods, who destroy eth all those that faithfully serve him! So was stricken down this greatest of Sacramento mag- nates, although no votary; stricken down and ruined by the tidings shouted out by these flakes of gold picked up one afternoon in January, 1848, by Mormons creeping over toward the Saints rest at Salt Lake, and those fellows who had drifted in from Oregon, stricken down, this broad- minded constructionist, by the overwhelming weight of his economic environment. Yet the ruin of Sutter came slowly, slowly for those swift days of transformation. At first he expanded, be- came great, Sutter 's fort famous the world over as the fortress defending illimitable wealth, leagues of land with vast droves of cattle tended by dusky servitors; miles of metal in the mountains; a great city standing by a broad THE CALL OF G.OLI) ;.' .-99 stream bearing up alike inland crafts and ocean vessels, all his yet not his, for he could not hold it ; the gods of the Sierra, the demons of its gold, shouting in their glee at the confusion they had wrought, at the first grand coup thus early made upon this nearby Swiss adventurer. Then for a moment silence fell on Coloma and the Foot- hills around; after that a great noise; and the saw-mill site remained a site while Mormon and Oregonian gathered gold, Mormon hallooed to Mormon, the brethren taking their stand at and around a little island in the river, call- ing it Mormon island. Through them next to be stricken, and for the moment palsied by this gold discovery, was the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints, whose banner of Holiness to the Lord was here on the American river struck, and the flag of fealty to the devil hoisted in its stead. Ere long the news was carried down the river to Sonoma, where General Vallejo held sway, and to sleepy San Fran- cisco, a hamlet of mixed white men and Mexicans, store- keepers, cattle-men, priests, politicians, and loafers, the alleged gold discovery awakening little interest. It was only when plethoric bags of the yellow stuff, coarse and fine, with some great chunks of it picked up in the placers were displayed in the towns about, that the somnolent Pacific awoke to some faint realization of what had come to pass. Although always the friend of Americans and Ameri- can progress, Vallejo like Sutter, and in common with most of the Spanish Calif ornians, suffered from the in- rush following the finding of gold. Their wealth was in land and cattle, and they were loosely served by the mild- est of Indians. They occupied the fertile coast valleys which had formerly been held by the missions, now some fifteen years secularized. The gold mines were far away ; they had no desire to participate in the harvesting at the Foothills; they felt the adverse influence of the gold in the pressure of strangers on their privacy, the inroads on 100 RETROSPECTION their lands, the scattering of their stock, and the demorali- zation of their Indians. Accustomed to half-tropical airs, they and their pro- genitors, they were not strong enough successfully to cope with northern peoples. Gradually came upon them the evil days, and they were practically ruined before they knew it. Beyond the precincts of California, slowly during the winter of 1848-9, filtered the news through the mountains, the winds carrying it over the seas with specimen bags of gold-dust and gold nuggets, until by the early spring, the revelation came with full force upon the minds of men that this new region of gold was above the common, or mythical, and a veritable land bearing substantial metal. With time and distance the movement increased; men of commerce and finance, those of the cities and the in- dustrial centres, saw more clearly than the less experienced people near at hand the economic revolution that must ensue should this accession to the world's currency prove to be as great as it now promised. Ships came in from every considerable port on the globe, until five hundred of them lay at anchor in San Francisco bay, more than ever were there at one time be- fore or since, most of them quickly deserted on arrival, officers and crew being off for the mines. In the mines ; what shall I say of the complex conditions there? Out of ethnic combinations never before so much as dreamed of was quickly evolved a new society, nay, more, a new race, for the developments of that day remain, and will never pass away. Every conceivable thing in the shape of humanity was present, good and bad, white black and yellow, hearts of heaven and hearts of hell, all mixed up and stirred together in a great cauldron of so- cial unrest, without law, without restraint, all cut loose from home, from civilizing, humanizing influences, all here at liberty to let loose the deities or demons that possessed THE CALL OF GOLD 101 them without question and without restraint. And the ipression thus imprinted on the soul of humanity still >mains; go to the uttermost end of the earth and you will id it there. Australia came forward with a great yield of gold a Hew years later, when there was another upheaval, and an- )ther at South Africa, and others all over western North Linerica. These were in due time followed by other lemons and demonstrations of cupidity and human greed, displayed at this day in a mighty menagerie of oil-men, iron-men, labor-lords, railway-kings, and money gods. Many companies or economic associations were formed before leaving the east, mostly for mining, but some few [or commercial or manufacturing purposes. They some- times chartered a vessel to carry them with their ma- chinery or other effects to their destination, or took pas- ige in sailing-vessel or steamer in a body. It was a trying ordeal, men of various minds and moods, sertive and independent, and finding conditions so strange ind interests so diverse it was no wonder that the com- >anies broke up on arrival, not necessarily in enmity, yet ich preferring to go his own way. New economic developments and new industrial re- itionships sprang up on every side, while all commercial ind financial arrangements must be adjusted anew. Extensive shipments of goods were made on a venture from nearly every port the world over to San Francisco bay, consigned to some merchant or commission house or to master. It was a precarious business, very like gambling. If the goods were wanted and there was a scarcity they brought fabulous prices; if not wanted they could not be sold or scarcely given away, as this would involve drayage and storage, and might amount to more than the goods would ever fetch. It was easy to corner the market, especially in small things. Some capital might be required to purchase all 1 ( -2 RETROSPECTION the house-lining, and the speculation would be attended by risk, but a little money would buy all the tacks, without which the cloth would be of no use. So with regard to oil and lamps, the wicks alone controlled the situation. Enterprising San Francisco brokers would often go out in a pilot boat beyond the Golden Gate to meet and board an incoming ship with a much desired cargo and purchase the whole of it before the ship came to anchor. So many desirable and undesirable articles being thus constantly thrown upon the market led to the establish- ment of numerous auction houses where large and small invoices were disposed of daily. Thrilling romances might be sent spinning out of this classic epoch, of which I can give here only the background. The native Calif ornians reveled in this plethora of gold. General Vallejo's house at Sonoma was the frontier post in those days. It was always open to strangers, whether immigrants or returning miners. A considerable business in cattle, horses, and farm products was trans- acted there. A cavalier of the old school, handsome and debonair, it pleased his very soul to fling to the man who held his horse a Mexican ounce, or a like coin to the barber and tell him to keep the change. On the hall floor of his house, at one time, stood a row of pickle- jars filled with gold-dust un- protected night and day. At another time, and not so very long afterward, this same Sonoma dwelling housed a bankrupt, a prince among bankrupts, who once controlled every foot of the dunes on which San Francisco now stands, and all the vast region beyond up to the Oregon line, and who after dispensing an empire to impecunious strangers for nothing, lived out his time and died happily without a dollar in the world he could call his own. A real or affected indifference to money matters in detail pervaded all classes. Miners would leave their gold- dust on the shelves of their vacant cabin in tin cups, or in THE CALL OF GOLD 103 : dishes, without any attempt to conceal it. Merchants would sweep into the till a pile of mixed large and small coin without counting it. For a while amounts less than a dollar were not recog- nized in writing up accounts, or in buying and selling. Then drinks at the bar could be obtained at fifty cents ch, and later at twenty-five cents. It was a long time fore anything could be bought for a "bit" or a "pica- yune," terms brought in from the south, especially from e New Orleans country, a bit signifying twelve and a alf cents and a picayune half that amount. None the less potential for being proximate was the ievement of gold in founding new institutions and or- nizing societies to meet the various conditions. The first impulse toward a fusion of the better elements early California life arose from the kind-hearted benevo- nce exercised one toward another among these strangers us strangely thrown together, and practised alike in the wns and in the mines. In 1846 there were in the state 2000 Americans and Mexicans; in 1848, population 6000; in July, 1849, 5,000, in December 92,597; in 1852, according to census ken, 269,000, including 30,000 Indians, 20,000 Chinese, d 2000 negroes. With the movement to the west coast Id mines the United States centre of population shifted 1 miles westward before 1860. Few were satisfied without a trial at gold-mining; in- eed, such was the sole object of all those who came during at year, though by many the mines with their trials and uncertainties were soon abandoned for agriculture or busi- ness in the towns. Family expenses in San Francisco in 1849 were house rent $200 to $300 a month ; servants, housemaid $100, cook $150; water $150; milk $150; wood $40 a cord; flour $50 a barrel. Wild game meat was plentiful and cheap; potatoes $1 a pound ; for the rest almost everything was a dollar a pound, except some things which were two 104 RETROSPECTION dollars a pound. Interest on money five to fifteen per cent, a month. It was an uncomfortable California, this winter of 1849-50. It rained almost every day, and all day, and all night, so it seemed to those caught in the mountains, who had to sleep on the bare soggy earth. Some of them had a blanket, or half a one ; some found a thicket to crawl into, some a log to crawl under, some had food to eat. Toward the last the snow melted in the mountains, and through the swollen streams the water made its way down into the valleys, overspreading the plains, drowning the cattle, ob- literating the incipient town sites, and washing away the emigrant camps which lined the roadways. How did they live ? They did not live, not all of them. Many died, parents and children, and for the first time since they were born there were some thousands in the city and country who had all the gold they wanted. All who were able came down to the Bay, for the interior towns were wiped out, even Sacramento was navigable only in boats. San Francisco streets were bogs swallowing vehicles and breeding fever. The inhabitants gathered firewood in the chaparral, brought water in boats from Sausalito, and ate bear and deer meat, with rabbits and salt pork. Potatoes were scarce at a dollar a pound. Tobacco had been five dollars a pound; it was cheap enough before the winter was over, however, as cargo after J cargo arrived, sent out by speculators who seemed to imagine tobacco-chewing a special aid to gold-digging. The ships must be unloaded, and there were no longer warehouses in which to store the surplus; whereupon wagon-loads or boat-loads of fancy plug in boxes were dumped at the street crossings for the benefit of pedes- trians, thus serving a good turn for the citizens. The little town was full of good citizens that winter. The well cared for the sick, those who had food gave to the hungry ; they improvised a city hospital, and organized THE CALL OF GOLD 105 a Stranger's Friend society. All were strangers that winter, or nearly so, and all were friends ; whether a stranger or not benevolence showed no distinction. The April of 1906 saw suffering, but at least the ground was firm enough for the people to sleep on without its giving way under them, and they generally had something to chew for breakfast besides plug tobacco. The years of I ? 49 and '50 could boast their conflagrations as well. Cholera and intermittent fever also came, brought in by ships as well as by overland immigrants, and there were burial places on the hillsides and in the valleys of the dunes. An officiating clergyman speaks incidentally of a . burial on Russian hill, where he walked in the rain sinking to his knees in the mud at every step, and returning home with the fever. All through this strange time, as I have said, in the midst of cupidity and crime, underlying all was a sub- stratum of deep human sympathy and kindness. One rule, one faith, one principle pervaded all, finding ex- pression in these words: whatever the emergency it must be met, whether shipwreck, flood, or famine. There were always present the strong to care for the weak. Or if a wave of wickedness, an episode of high crime, there were always enough just men present to overcome the vicious. The cholera reached its height in the autumn of 1850, anxiety and exposure supplying many victims in the mines as well as in the towns. Sacramento and San Francisco both suffered severely. Religion was respected, so was three-card monte; in the towns the Sabbath was observed more religiously than now, though by many made a day of sport. Fashion, dominant everywhere, ruled in the mines with sterner sway than in the cities, even. A slouched hat, woolen shirt, and breeches tucked into high top cowhide boots were safer in the city than top hat, white shirt, and patent leather boots in the mines. To the economic disciple of Confucius boots were boots when he learned to wear them; 106 RETROSPECTION he used to take the largest pair in the case, the price of all sizes being the same, so as to get the most for his money. If the flush times presented a seamy side in loud royster- ings, free pistoling, and easy hangings; if also a pathetic side appeared, and there was at hand plenty of pathos, there was always on the surface jollity and good fellow- ship. An eastern gentleman in shiny top hat and black coat landed from the steamer one soft hazy morning, and seeing a rough though honest looking fellow, red-bearded, with long tangled hair, sang out pleasantly but plainly, "Here, you! here's a half dollar," pitching him a coin, "take this bag up to the hotel, will you ? ' ' Quick as a flash came the response, ' ' Here, you ! here 's a dollar, take it up yourself. ' ' Before houses were built, or the sand anchored in place by the grass roots, the winds from the ocean, which set in every summer morning about ten o'clock, had a clear sweep over the northern end of the Peninsula, and took advantage of it by stinging the face with the flying sand and playing havoc with things movable. A witness in the Limantour land suit when asked what he was doing at Yerba Buena at that early day said, "I thought I would buy some lots there." "Well, did you buy them?" "Who, me? No." "Why not?" "I'll tell you why. I wouldn't have 'em. I was walk- ing along down by the water and the wind blew my hat off, and I couldn't catch it in less than half a mile, and I said I wouldn't live in the damned place." In one of my visits to Coloma, I asked: * ' Who is the lord-aboriginal of this domain ? ' ' "George Washington." "Tell George Washington to come to me and get five dollars." Next morning a prostrate form was seen sleeping in THE CALL OF GOLD 107 the hotel yard face downward in the grass. Stirred gently with the foot, his Excellency sat up, with a grunt, rolled some cut plug tobacco in the form of a cigarette, and strik- ing a match on the sole of his bare foot, began to smoke. "You high muck-a-muck here George?" "Yas, gotambread?" "Ah, your Excellency has not breakfasted. Kindly go to the kitchen and tell them I sent you." He had trotted in from his camp twenty miles away during the night. He spent the day entertained and entertaining. Among the questions asked: "Your people burn their dead, do they not, George?" "No, no burn 'em now. One time burn 'em. Mlis'- nary man, he say, burn 'em, no come up, no burn 'em, come up; we no burn 'em now." th After the first year of flush times, while yet the popu- lation was rapidly increasing and before reaction set in, >e laying out of town-sites was of frequent occurrence. Places which for a time were of some pretensions were New York-of-the-Pacific, at the junction of the San Joaquin river and Suisun bay ; Boston, at the junction of the Ameri- can and Sacramento rivers; Vernon on Feather river, and Sutter on the Sacramento. A hundred mining camps prang into life; a few of them remained and became wns, but the most of them soon disappeared, leaving ither name nor mark of any kind to denote their brief existence. Three soon became conspicuous as points of departure for the northern, central, and southern mines pectively; that is to say Sutter 's Sacramento; Marys- ville, so named from an early Mary on Yuba river; and Charles Weber's Stockton. Quite an epidemic of speculation sprang up at near and distant points. The instincts of the town-site hunters which led them to and beyond Carquinez strait were by no means mislead- dei res 108 RETROSPECTION ing, for there is no spot on earth more favorable for an imperial city than that. Thus commerce and industries in California displayed their vagaries in common with all else. The presence of gold did not permanently enhance the value of the land, but it hastened its occupation and development. Nations are made as forests grow, a perpetual dying down and rising up. All along the Foothills, in the vestiges of the mining camps and in the towns below are remnants of the old days, human debris, broken on the wheel of adventure, failures they are commonly called, and are in so far as they themselves are concerned, but not failures in the building of the commonwealth, for the commonwealth is established by those who fail. Shall we call the life of a Napoleon one of success or failure? If the former, then we may ask what is success and what is it worth, ministering as it does to personal greed and public debauchery; if the latter, then failure is more successful than success. The Pacific Mail Steamship company was an influen- tial factor in the early affairs of the Pacific coast. At first a benefit to the people who supported it, later a curse to the country when the railway took possession and used it to assist in defrauding the people. Land titles were a source of endless litigation, as well in relation to Mexican grants as to pueblo lands and the mines. As soon as anything became conspicuous in value it was not difficult to find disputants. So much was ac- quired by simple seizure that squatter rights became an influential element of possession, yet there was but little disturbance in regard to these titles in San Francisco until after the district assembly had been dissolved by Governor Riley. Titles to property, or the lack of titles, were early and for a time continuously a source of trouble to many, and proved a fruitful field for the lawyers. Chief among these in land cases was Gregory Yale, a ripe scholar and THE CALL OF GOLD 109 able lawyer, and a gentleman in any one of his ever-vary- ing moods ; short, thick set, and demonstrative ; drank like a fish but was never drunk; face fat and red as a lobster, mind alert and sharp as steel, and tongue as eloquent as any that ever charmed a court. In the country were the Mexican allotments, and in the town alcalde grants, all disturbed by claimants of many sorts, as settler, squatter, purchaser, and thief. Lacking valid titles were city slips, water lots, pueblo grants, and a score of others. Another incident upon which turned the destinies of the nation, the writer of this Retrospection cannot pass by without mention. For one may truthfully claim, as I have already done, that but for the loyalty of California as well as her gold during the civil war it would have gone hard with the federal government. But why California more than some one of the other states ? Because, first, San Francisco was the headquarters of the army of the Pacific. Secondly, because of the iso- lation of the western coast, with no available communica- tion save the coaches from Independence. Thirdly, be- cause of the ease with which California could have thrown off allegiance to the federal union, so many of secession proclivities being present who would gladly have declared for independence and slavery. How well the two words sound together! General Johnston, at the head of the army in California at the time, was himself chief of rebels. Fourthly, as some think of the great hearts then throbbing in California for freedom and a united country, so others will remember the gold we gave and place it to our credit on congressional records, and the pages of presidential messages, even though the proverbial ingratitude of re- publics should not fail when asked for a temporary re- mission of duties on lumber, as a deliverance from the unjust exactions of material-men combined against the rebuilders of the city after the catastrophe of 1906. 110 RETROSPECTION Missionaries of ardent imaginations thought they saw in a journey to Washington by Marcus Whitman the sav- ing to the United States of Oregon, a land never lost or saved by any one, least of all by Mr. Whitman. E. R. Kennedy has written a book to show how "E. D. Baker saved the Pacific States to the Union/ ' a pre- tence somewhat startling to those who knew Mr. Baker as a seedy politician who sometimes paid a bill, a man of little weight or standing in the community, though a good talker, and as a soldier reckless enough to get himself quickly killed. Foremost in every good work was Thomas Starr King, who probably did more than any other one man to make sure of the loyalty of California. Night after night he thrilled the hearts of the multitude that thronged his lecture-room with eloquent appeals for a free and united country. At the first Sanitary Commission meeting held in San Francisco, in September, 1862, at Platt's hall, after stirring speeches by Eugene Casserly, Frederick Billings, Edward Tompkins, and others, Starr King arose and said: " After what you have heard, words of mine were superfluous. Deeds, however, are in order, though no one will be asked for a subscription here to-night. But when the time comes turning to Mayor Teschemacher who presided, "the president will give one thousand dollars, the Pacific Mail Steamship company will give one thousand dollars, the Ophir Mining company will give one thousand dollars, and every vice president on the platform there are about seventy will give five hundred dollars each." Thus was set the pace of this philanthropy. The sev- eral persons and properties gave about as Mr. King had suggested, and these contributions considering the men and the times, were equivalent to ten times the same amounts to-day. Thus did California, while the rebel southern state whose brutal senator treated with insult our request for protection from avaricious material-men at the time THE CALL OF GOLD 111 )f the fire of 1906 was playing the part of renegade and traitor. Our lawmakers had sold themselves to the spoilers, and our state had no redress. The reaction of California on the eastern states was in some respects not unlike the reaction of the New World on Spain. There was a general awakening to the importance of the present and the probabilities of the future. In Spain, manufactures which at first were stimulated by the influx of gold went over to France and England when idleness and luxury came. In the United States com- merce and industries everywhere started up afresh, and although cotton manufactures drifted southward and westward, the civil war came on to give a still further impetus to business before it had time greatly to languish, though over-trading began to be felt in the early fifties. As the gold-seekers began to return, some with well- lied pouches but more with lame excuses for failure, a everish desire for speculation overspread the country and 3d to all sorts of industrial ventures. Queer conceptions at home home always meant the eastern states were formed from various reports of the conditions of things in California, often without much discernment between life in the towns and in the mines. For example, the impression formed of life in the mines from the earliest pictures and reports were hatless bearded men, in woolen shirt and cowhide boots, standing in the water and washing out gold from a tin pan. Or it might be cooking in the open, before a brush hut, or wash- ing dishes though for that matter the dishes were often left unwashed or at a stag dance in the saloon, or in a hanging affair or a shooting scrape ; so that at the New Eng- land homestead, some day when a fine groomed figure rushed in clasping mother and sisters in his arms, the father with uplifted hands might well exclaim, "Well, I swan, if you don't look jest like other folks!" He could not avoid a little swagger, this returned Cali- 112 RETROSPECTION fornian, as he "chucked" his metal money about, regard- ing "shinplasters" with contempt and refusing to handle copper cents. No wonder that visions of opulence arose in the minds of those hitherto content with moderate aspira- tions as this lordly individual, fresh from the gold-fields, affected to hold their poor riches in such light esteem, though he himself might not have ten dollars left in his pocket. As a rule the master minds of the fifties and sixties first served a shorter or longer apprenticeship in the mines. But whether for a shorter or longer period, the head soon got the better of the hands, the latter refusing to dig, the former demanding to do all the work. D. 0. Mills and Lloyd Tevis met there and talked about the future, building air castles in the river bed, and lay- ing out plans over the sluice-box, speculating as to what they would do in the city when they had gathered some gold. Meeting later they compared notes, and remarked how nearly their lives had been squared to their earlier ambi- tion, and how much more satisfactory the gold-fleecing of men in town was to the argonaut business in the moun- tains. Collis P. Huntington was there and soon claimed every- thing in sight as his own, and by the mere force of his dominant will and shrewd tongue was able to hold a sufficient share of it. Stanford was there, only to look wise while others did the work. Flood and O'Brien, also Mackay and Fair, came forward later, but were none the less in evidence. Sharon and Ralston manipulated banks and mines in unison, yet were at arms length apart; one went up and the other down, the latter, by playing deity at large, was caught at last in the toils of his former drink- sellers. Lucky Baldwin, not so lucky in love as in lucre, made and lost many fortunes, yet leaving enough for claimants to quarrel over. Mike Reese, grub-staker, put up money against the other fellow's life and sent him forth to find gold. Mike's title-deeds were the bulkiest, u , : . nr THE CALL OF GOLD 113 is features were the most brutal, and his raiment the Ithiest of any in the city. Another, bankrupt banker, wherefore a rich man; a ladies man, wherefore a book printed and published by one of his ladies, entitled Love Life of an Ancient Charmer, brought shame to him, and the gay though gray deceiver sought to repress it, but with indifferent success. Strange a an so conspicuous in high society and so iron-bound in low, could frame such silly stuff as this that in his Love Life he pours forth to his dilapidated divinity. When the civil war broke out he disappeared for a short time, and on his return he called himself general; why, he did not say. Samuel Brannan did not himself work in the mines; working his Saints was pleasanter and more profitable. Many of the best business men of the cities had their fling in the Foothills, as Peter Naylor, D. J. Oliver, W. E. Rowland, A. A. Austin, G. B. Post, W. H. Davis, J. B. Bidleman, Thomas H. Selby, George B. Gibbs, H. F. Will- ms, A. R. Flint, G. E. Tyler, J. W. Tucker, E. H. Parker, W. H. Mosher, John C. Fall, of Marysville, H. A. Roberts, of Sacramento, and hundreds of others. Such were the real representative men of the mines, greater or less degree, with greater or less force and purpose a gathering most remarkable in quality and variety, and one such as had never before been seen. These, graded up to the United States supreme court, and down into the ditch, and out into the eternal darkness, were the true men of the mines, and not the dilettante gamblers and gunners of argonaut story. CHAPTER VII AN ARTLESS ADVENTURER TWO Years Before the Mast' and because the boy was of Harvard and the Mast of Boston the book lived, and still lives, immortal upon Doctor Eliot's five-foot shelf. There was nothing remarkable about the boy, or the mast, or the voyage. Scores of vessels had traded along the coast of California before the year 1835 for hides and tallow, dry, crackling, bad-smelling cattle-hides and greasy tallow, and found nothing romantic or specially instructive in the traffic. The missions were still in their glory, be- fore the despoiling of secularization had come to them, while the bright-eyed dusky senoritas might still be seen peeping out from arbors of luscious grapes, ardent grapes and ardent senoritas, all too dusky maidens with maidenly yearnings for something white of skin to marry. It was some time in March, 1852, that I first landed in San Francisco. I was not yet twenty years of age, and too absolutely fresh and inexperienced to be anything but honest. Why my late employer, supposed to be possessed of ordinary bookselling sanity, should have sent me at such an age, to such a place, and for such a purpose as to sell and publish books, I could never imagine. That he had married my sister was scarcely a sufficient reason, for during the entire four years I was with him in the Buffalo bookstore, or until his younger brother came to relieve me of the infliction, he put in train and kept in motion a most extraordinary nagging and petty persecu- tion such as set my sensitive soul on fire, and kept it ablaze during all these tormenting days and years. 114 k : 5 ai : AN ARTLESS ADVENTURER 115 Also I felt it all to be so unjust, for I was on my metal to do my best. I was ambitious and conscientious, not too amiable or respectful; yet in my efforts to get forward I found him always in the way, a snarling post of obstruction. I threw up the situation and went home, but I was not to escape so easily. He took too much pleasure in my misery to lose it in that way. So when he called me back, knowing as I did that at heart he was a good fellow, kind nd liberal, and that he applied to me his erosive methods only because he thought them the right way in which to bring up boys, I returned. And I met my reward. It was in the form of the aforesaid younger brother of his seated at the table and receiving on his devoted head, with an air of impudent in- ifference, the caustic criticisms hitherto so liberally be- stowed upon me; for it was in the family circle that the master was pleased to shower upon us his business bene- dictions. The brother was quite lame, with hair of a rustier red an his brother's; hearty, heartless, immoral, and by na- ure bad throughout. Older than I, much older in sin, I did not greatly care for his society, but I felt always grate- ful for the peace I found through his vicarious sufferings t the dinner-table. The evolution of population, the blending of races following the discovery of gold in California began with the journey thither, which exercised as marked an influ- ence upon the young and inexperienced adventurer as anything that followed. The world was larger then than now, and the mind of man was smaller. To the verdant youth fresh from in- land pastures ocean life was a revelation; to an unen- lightened inhabitant of the wintry north tropical life was a garden of the Hesperides. No one ever left New York by any route and arrived at San Francisco the same per- son, but the changes wrought in mind or imagination by the strange sights along Panama way and across the 116 RETROSPECTION Isthmus were more sudden and overwhelming than those experienced in the long monotonous voyage round South America, or even in the vivifying scenes of overland phenomena, with its return to primitive life, and the ever varying displays of shifting frontiers and a dissolving wilderness. Life on the steamer, generally overcrowded with its three grades of passengers, cabin, second cabin, and steer- age, with stifling tropical heat and sickly smells, poor food badly served and the jarring thud of the never-resting machinery; always every day to see the same tired and tiresome faces of the passengers and the coarse ill-natured features of officers and crew was productive of many original reflections. I sailed from New York in February, and was about six weeks on the way, spending two of them on the Isthmus. Three or four days brought our steamer, the Ohio, to Havana. Shedding there the outer skin of rusticity, our passengers were transferred to the steamer George Law, which came from New Orleans to meet us there and carry us to the Isthmus, stopping at Jamaica for coal, so that on this my first voyage I saw more of the West Indies than in any one of my several subsequent voyages made in the capacity of San Francisco merchant. The observant eye of the youthful traveller was quickly taken by the dark lowering features and light summery dress of the Spanish men, and the bright features and sombre robes of the women. Attention was also attracted by the all-compelling voiture, with its large wheels and small mule at the end of the long shafts, which gave the little beast all the room it required for kicking when prodded by its large heavy driver, sometimes astride its back, sometimes perched upon the whiffletree. With a dusty tramp to the bishop's garden and a frugal repast the day came to a close, and with it my first insight into Spanish colonial life. I was quite ready for a continuance of the voyage. AN ARTLESS ADVENTURER 117 As I sat on a coil of rope watching our passengers coming up the gang-plank of the George Law prior to sail- ing, I was unwittingly a witness to certain kindergarten lessons in graft, the first, but I am sorry to say not the last similar experience of many of the young Americans of that day. Cigars were the chief temptation then. For twenty dollars a thousand better cigars could be purchased in Cuba than fifty dollars would buy in California, or than could now be elsewhere obtained for a hundred and fifty dol- lars a thousand. Naturally, therefore, the California bound bought cigars, one, or two, or three thousand each, and when they inquired of the affable seller as to the export duty, "Oh," he said, "just give the customs officer on board half a dollar and you will not be troubled." What I saw as I sat there was this officer, jabbering and wildly gesticulating with outstretched arms as he pocketed the half dollars thrust upon him, one after another, by the passengers, each with his load of cigars. Afterward I learned that this petty bribery was but a part of a system extending throughout Spanish America, and indeed throughout the Spanish world, it being the custom of masters of vessels on entering a port to pay, in the form of a bribe, one half or one quarter of what the duties would amount to, or pay the whole of the duties in the legitimate way, as his honesty or cupidity dictated. Afterward I learned further that in American ports there was not so much Spanish jabbering and gesticulating over much larger amounts than half a dollar, which were promptly pocketed all the same. At Jamaica, where we stopped for coal, which was carried on in sacks or baskets poised on the head of half- naked females of ebony hue, we saw the African at his best, or worst, laziness and licentiousness being the chief characteristics. But they were happy. The women enjoyed their im- morality and the men their laziness, especially the laziness 118 RETROSPECTION of officeholding, where there was little work and much au- thority. Here was the result of an experiment which had given the race an opportunity to vindicate the claims set up for it by the benevolent, but which they had employed to little purpose. But is it not expecting too much of human de- velopment that it should produce in the unfolding what is not to be found in the germ? Arrived at the Isthmus, preparations were made to disembark at the mouth of the Chagres river as usual; whereupon we were informed that the Panama railway was in operation for a distance of five miles, and that instead of taking boat at the mouth of the Chagres we were to be landed at Colon, and carried over this five miles of rails for a fare of five dollars each, paying the same for boat hire from the terminus of the railway as we would have paid from the mouth of the river. The latter-day policy of corporate honor was not yet known in railway manage- ment. Upon the completion of this the most remarkable road in America the fare was reduced from a dollar a mile to twenty-five dollars for forty-eight miles. Were it possible to write the romance of the Isthmus, to tell the tales of brave adventure and give the experiences of priests, traders, and conquerors, President Eliot might omit from his list the Arabian Nights, and fill his entire five feet from what here might be gathered. It was along these shores that Columbus sailed seeking a waterway to India. Here Rodrigo de Bastidas traded and Juan de la Cosa made explorations; here Alonso de Ojeda and Diego de Nicuesa indulged in their memorable quarrel, Vasco Nunez de Balboa gaining the supremacy. It was from this narrow neck of land, on the 25th day of September, 1513, that Balboa first saw the Pacific ocean, into which he waded, and with drawn sword, and the bombastic declamation of the day took possession for the king of Spain of all those waters, shores and islands. Building e, AN ARTLESS ADVENTURER 119 boats he fished for pearls at the islands off Panama, and made discoveries up and down the coast, affianced the daughter of Pedrarias, the governor, who became jealous of the dashing young cavalier and finally wrought his ruin. It was from here that Francisco Pizarro sailed for the conquest of Peru, Gil Gonzales for Nicaragua, and Andres Nino for the Spice islands. It was from Darien that the several expeditions in search of the golden temple of Dabaiba were made; it was at Darien that the Scots colony of well-born Scotch and English adventurers came to grief, as we have seen. It was from Nombre de Dios that Gonzalo de Badajoz set out on his expedition for the South sea. The mule trail from Nombre de Dios to Panama was eared of obstruction, widened and erected into the first official interoceanic roadway over which passed the product of the American mines and the rich cargoes of the galleons from Manila and China. Then came the long period of piracy, fostered by the exposed wealth on land and the richly laden ships at sea. There were Morgan and his men, and Francis Drake, and xenham, with endless thrilling accounts of sacked cities and captured treasure trains. When Vasco Nunez descended from the hill of Quare- qua to gather in his arms the great South sea, he came upon a collection of huts by the water's edge which the natives called panamg, afterward seized and held by Tello de Guzman. This was the site of old Panama, which in 1517 the governor, Pedrarias Davilla, determined to make the seat of government, and entrepot for the gold and merchandise of the Pacific destined for Spain, with a chain of posts to Nombre de Dios. Mention is made of this road and this city by the chronicler Benzoni, who travelled in Darien about 1541. He says that the Panama hamlet consisted of about 120 120 RETROSPECTION houses built of reeds and boards and roofed with shingles, in and around which lived 4000 people. During the first day's journey to Nombre de Dios, the road, about 50 miles in length, was fairly smooth, the re- mainder being rugged and the streams almost impassable during the rainy seasons. The forests were dense and for- bidding, and of the Benzoni party were twenty negro slaves to clear the path of under-brush and fallen trees. Though doomed ere long to die, this ancient Panama was destined first to become the richest and mightiest metropolis in all the two Americas. Before the end of the century the isthmus of Darien had become the gateway between the two seas, and Panama the most important place in connection with the economic development of the New World. Situated upon the world's highway, in the centre of the Spanish colonial possessions, through its portals must pass the treasures of the northern and southern coasts, the islands of the South sea and of the Indies beyond. It was the half-way house and the toll- gate between eastern Asia and Europe, the mart of the western world where men of all nationalities and colors met and made their exchanges, the merchant princes of the east and the west, the raw adventurer outward bound and the returned fortune-seeker, elated with success or broken-spirited through failure. The key to commerce, Panama was likewise the key to political supremacy. By holding the Isthmus, the king of Spain held the Pacific. Expeditions for conquest were here fitted out where they might fall back for support and supplies. Without Panama Francisco Pizarro never could have conquered Peru, still less have held the country in the face of the brave Manco Capac. The central position and the command of both oceans which gave to Panama her wealth and power also exposed her to political convulsions and attack from foreign foes. An insurrection in Guatemala, a rebellion in Peru, a change of restrictions in Asiatic trade were immediately felt at 1 AN ARTLESS ADVENTURER 121 Panama, and upon her fell the heaviest blows aimed by the English, French, and Dutch in the West Indies against Spain. The city was several times captured by pirates and held for ransom or burned. Such was the ancient original Panama of three hun- dred years ago; will the Panama of the canal be able to make proportionately as brilliant a showing three hun- dred years hence? Let us hope that it may. A morass on either side with deadly malaria its native air, there had long been talk of moving the city of Panama to a better locality; or rather of obliterating the old and building anew, for cities are not among things movable, unless under absolute or imperial rule, as in the case of Nombre de Dios, where the surveyor reported, * ' If it might please your Majesty, it were good that the city of Nombre de Dios be brought and builded in this harbor," and the ing was done. Andagoya was not in favor of the change. "God him- self selected this site, ' ' he says, though he does not give the source of his information. And further, "There is no other port in all the South sea where vessels can anchor alongside the streets." Nevertheless, upon the capture and burning of the city by the pirate Morgan, who also carried away for sale or ransom six hundred prisoners, it was ordered by the Span- ish court that the city should be rebuilt on a new site which had been selected some two leagues away. The new Panama was laid out in 1671 in the form of a square, with moat and walls so costly that the council in Spain wrote asking if the fortifications of Panama were of silver or of gold. There were many schemes afloat for an interoceanic waterway prior to the French failure, of which an account is given in a subsequent chapter. Among the passengers for California were many thought- less and careless young fellows giving little heed to health, tk 122 RETROSPECTION and adopting no measures for its preservation. The Isthmus malaria, in its effects then called Panama fever, found easy victims. Embarking at night on the river we had the full benefit of its deadly vapors before morning. Nevertheless we lived some of us. These boys of sixty years ago, now for the first time from home, young men or men of middle age, knew little of the dangers from disease to which they were exposed. The general hygiene of the later canal builders who lived as safely here as in the northern latitudes would have been beyond their comprehension. It is said of the Chinese who worked on the Panama railway that they died of malarial fever and other diseases incident to the climate in such numbers that their bodies laid at length would have extended along the whole forty- eight miles of track, and that hundreds hanged themselves for fear they should die. The natives of the island in the days of Columbus, driven by the Spaniards, hanged them- selves to trees rather than work. The feeling in both in- stances was similar yet not the same: they were all alike victims of discouragement. During the time of this my first Isthmus transit, as well as in the years that followed, all who fell sick were treated by their fellow-travellers, though strangers to them, with unselfish kindness. Only the transportation com- pany's officials and servants were indifferent or brutal. This insidious disease, thus picked up at Panama, remained in the system dormant often for months, and then broke out in virulent form in the mines, or elsewhere. Some- times it remained with its victims through life. Forced to part with their baggage, many of the travel- lers never saw it again, piles of it going to swell the profits of the native transportation contractors. Disembarking at Gorgona the passengers took the trail, on foot or mule-back, twelve miles to Panama. There they must remain for days or weeks or months perhaps, until they could find passage by steamer or sail, for there were AN ARTLESS ADVENTURER 123 always those who came ill-provided with through transpor- tation. Gross impositions were practised on the passengers by the New York owners of the steamship lines, who some- times sold transportation to twice the capacity of the ship, and sent thousands to their death from delay on the Isthmus. The steamers on the Pacific side were cleaner and more commodious, and once safe on board with berth secured, some comfort might be found if the vessel were not overcrowded. When the traffic became settled the steamers from New York made the whole distance without stopping, and managed to arrive at the Isthmus during the night or in the early morning. The passengers, mails, and fast freight were at once disembarked and sent to the steamer at Panama, which left the same night. The slow freight, the through rate for which was twenty dollars a ton, fast freight being double, was transferred between steamers, thus remaining over one steamer on the Isthmus. If the journey to California was a transmigration of the soul the landing at San Francisco in the early fifties was a dump into Dante's inferno. The streets were slush knee- deep in winter, and in summer the strong unobstructed ocean wind laden with fine particles of sand brought regu- larly every day at ten o'clock stinging to the face and bad words to the tongue. But at intervals when the wind ceased, and the slush subsided, the aromatic air tinctured with the salt of ocean came down from the dunes through the scraggly oaks and chaparral like the soft wind of heaven. But if God reigned sometimes by day Satan ruled the night. While all else to the innocent adventurers far from home was cold and dark and dreary the great gambling houses, at a rental of from two hundred to five hundred dollars a day, blazed with light and warmth and luxury; for the whiskey at fifty cents a drink was not so bad as 124 RETROSPECTION some these same fellows found later in the mines, and now being unaccustomed to its free use a little of it went farther. A San Francisco gambling palace of '49 and '50, a long, wide room, with deep vistas of tables covered with green cloth and piles of gold and clattering gambling ma- chinery, thronged with a silent humanity of mixed rough bearded men in woolen shirts and slouched hats, mount- ing upward in various grades, until the gentlemen in white shirt and silk stovepipe are reached. On one side stands a gorgeous bar, a long counter behind which mirrored walls reflect cut glass, bright fluids, and fantastic orna- ments, a dozen white-coated ministering spirits attending; on the other side a braying band of music. The floor is covered with chairs and the walls with large lascivious paintings, the ceiling thickly studded with blazing chande- liers. Here may the weary one, safe from the cold out- side drizzle, sit snug and dream of home, or empty his pockets at the tables, drinking at the bar for courage and luck. Here may he rise from his reverie of home re- turning, of the ocean voyage back, the railway journey following it, the lumbering omnibus ride to his door, the shout of greeting, the joyous inrush, the outstretched arms, and the clasping heart to heart of wife and children, of sweetheart and sisters, the bringing out of presents, the excited talk late into the night of things nearest to them, how they had fared, how he had fared, and the quiet peace of the morrow when for the first time in months or years he feels that he can indeed rest. Then the other picture, a hut in the chaparral or among the pines, by day shoveling in the water, hammer- ing on the flume, prying among the boulders, digging in the shaft or tunnel ; at night frying meat and baking bread in the ashes, a turn among the roysterers of the saloons, drinks of fiery whiskey and chats with the harlots of the hall ; on Sunday washing of clothes, more whiskey and perchance some shooting, all the while the heart sore AN ARTLESS ADVENTURER 125 within by reason of departed manhood and moral degra- dation. What a contrast in this reverie of returns! See him now as rising from his seat he draws from his pocket a little leather bag of gold-dust, and approaching the table he lays it on a card. "By God I'll chance it; home or the mines ! ' ' Before starting from home or soon after his arrival in California, the gold-smitten adventurer has named the time of his return, and that time is daily looked forward to with a longing such as few others have ever experienced. And safely bestowed at home again, after a brief period of enjoyment, he longs for California once more. California with all her sins upon her, with all the trials and temptations, the successes and failures, to him who has once tasted of her fascinations, who has breathed the electrical air and felt the stimulating sun strike into his veins, there is no other place in which to live or die. Many a good man has fought out the battle of life in the Sierra foothills, or on the dunes of San Francisco, and gone his way leaving no mark other than the impress of soul upon human progress. Yet that should suffice; if we search intelligently and follow faithfully our own interests, we may be very sure that we are at the same time living to the interests of our fellow men. The typical returning Californian of the early days, fresh from his baptism in a new economic environment, was a fine specimen of American manhood, as elsewhere I have intimated. Tall, strong, and self-contained, some- times coarse but always courteous and with a chivalrous consideration for women and children, he formed a strik- ing contrast to the awkward and somewhat verdant youth that had left his home some years ago. Montgomery street was the Wall street of the city then, and remained so for twenty years thereafter. The water of the Cove at first came up to it at Jackson street, extend- 126 RETROSPECTION ing in a lagoon up Jackson street half way to Kearny. California street, supported by one house only, that of Alsop and company, marked the southern business limit, and Front street the eastern. Steamer days had become an institution ; twice or three times a month there was an arrival and a departure, oftener than that when the Nicaragua line was in operation. Busi- ness transactions dated from one steamer day to another, the day before departure being collection day. As for the day of arrival, as the time approached, wistful eyes were cast upon the long-armed post surmounting Tele- graph hill for the expected signal, for besides business and merchandise, were there not blessed letters from home, and friends perhaps expected? Telegraph hill became historic. The worst element of the town camped at its foot, and the dead were buried on its sides. Outgoing sailing-vessels sliced it off for ballast at the time when ships came to California laden with mer- chandise and went empty away. Later when the age of grain arrived vessels came empty and went away loaded. All of which was emblematic of the doing and undoing of things in California. Of late sentimentalists would cleanse the inhabitants, teach the use of the fork instead of the fingers, and restore and beautify the hill. Why? On the northern side at the base, when the signaling began, there were pig-sties; in the proposed restoration, with the lumbering signal machine on top, should we restore the graves of the dead Italians, and the pig-sties, and the ghastly scar left by the ballast-shippers, while the remainder of this very dirty dirt could be advantageously used in filling back of much needed bulkheads for commercial purposes, and while so near at hand is Russian hill, which with winding roads and villa sites on its bluff sides facing the Golden Gate and bay could be beautified to one's heart's content, and made one of the most picturesque places in the world? From the plaza, or Portsmouth square, a path led along AN ARTLESS ADVENTURER 127 where is now Kearny street, round the Sutter street hill into St. Ann valley, where a covering of scraggy oaks sup- plied fire-wood to be delivered at forty dollars a cord, and so on to the Mission through Hayes valley where grew an abundance of wild strawberries. The trail from the Presidio entered Kearny street north of the plaza, deflecting west at Pine. Mr. Neall, a prominent citizen of the time and place, informs me that he and other business men of San Fran- cisco in the spring of 1849 would often on a quiet Sunday tie their tent strings and go gunning over the dunes leav- ing twenty-five or fifty thousand dollars in gold-dust locked in a little iron box that a blow of the hammer would break in pieces. Words dropped by an experienced traveller and close observer like Bayard Taylor, who was in California in 1849, bring into high relief the salient features in a pic- ture of the times. At San Diego "before the hide-houses at the landing- place" his steamer, upward bound from the Isthmus, came to anchor. It was the same steamer, the Panama, upon which the writer of this Retrospection made his first voyage on the Pacific three years later, his vessel anchoring in the same place for fire-wood, driven thither by a storm outside which had exhausted her coal; the same landing-place where the boy Dana, fourteen years before Taylor, had scooted his dried cattle-hides down the bluff. It was on the south side of Point Loma, where was afterward Rose- ville. "The old hide-houses," Taylor goes on to say, "are built at the foot of the hills just inside the bay, and a fine road along the shore leads to the town of San Diego, which is situated on a plain three miles distant and barely visible from the anchorage. Above the houses on a little eminence several tents were planted, and a short distance further were several recent graves surrounded by paling. A num- 128 RETROSPECTION ber of people were clustered on the beach, and boats laden with passengers and freight instantly put off to us. In a few minutes after our gun was fired we could see horse- men coming down from San Diego at full gallop, one of whom carried behind him a lady in graceful riding cos- tume. In the first boat were Colonel Weller, U. S. Boun- dary Commissioner, and Major Hill, of the army. Then followed a number of men, lank and brown 'as is the ribbed sea-sand,' men with long hair and beards, and faces from which the rigid expression of suffering was scarcely re- laxed. They were the first of the overland emigrants by the Gila route, who had reached San Diego a few days be- fore. Their clothes were in tatters, their boots, in many cases, replaced by moccasins, and, except their rifles and some small packages rolled in deerskin, they had noth- ing left of the abundant stores with which they left home. ' ' Passing on to Monterey, "a handsome fort, on an emi- nence near the sea, returned our salute. Four vessels, shattered, weather-beaten, and apparently deserted, lay at anchor not far from shore. The town is larger than I ex- pected to find it, and from the water has the air of a large New England village, barring the adobe houses. " Dropping anchor in San Francisco bay opposite the main landing outside of a forest of masts as the gun of the Panama announces her arrival, a glimpse of the town is caught. ' ' Around the curving .shore of the Bay and upon the sides of three hills which rise steeply from the water, the middle one receding so as to form a bold amphitheatre, the town is planted and seems scarcely yet to have taken root, for tents, canvas, plank, mud, and adobe houses are mingled together with the least apparent attempt at order and durability. The boat put us ashore at the northern point of the anchorage, at the foot of a steep bank, from which a high pier had been built into the bay. A large vessel lay at the end discharging her cargo. We scrambled up through piles of luggage. A furious wind was blowing AN ARTLESS ADVENTURER 129 down through a gap in the hills filling the streets with clouds of dust. Great quantities of goods were piled up in the open air for want of a place to store them. Many of the passengers began speculation at the moment of land- ing. The most ingenious and successful operation was made by a gentleman of New York, who took out fifteen hundred copies of The Tribune and other papers, which he disposed of in two hours at one dollar a-piece ! Hearing of this I bethought me of about a dozen papers which I had used to fill up crevices in packing my valise. There was a newspaper merchant at the corner of the City hotel, and to him I proposed the sale of them, asking him to name a price. "I shall want to make a good profit on the retail price," said he, ''and can't give more than ten dollars for the lot." I was satisfied with the wholesale price, which was a gain of just four thousand per cent ! I set out for a walk before dark and climbed a hill back of the town, passing a number of tents pitched in the hollows. The scattered houses spread out below me, and the crowded shipping in the harbor, backed by a lofty line of moun- tains made an imposing picture. The restless, feverish tide of life in that little spot, and the thought that what I then saw and was yet to see will hereafter fill one of the most marvelous pages of all history rendered it singularly impressive. Every new-comer in San Francisco is over- taken with a sense of complete bewilderment. A gentle- man who arrived in April told me he then found but thirty or forty houses ; the population was then so scant that not more than twenty-five persons would be seen in the streets at any one time. Now, there were probably five hundred houses, tents and sheds, with a population fixed and float- ing of six thousand. "Pueblo San Jose, situated about five miles from the southern extremity of the bay of San Francisco in the mouth of the beautiful valley of San Jose, is one of the most flourishing inland tow r ns in California. On my first visit it was mainly a collection of adobe houses, with tents 130 RETROSPECTION and a few clapboard dwellings, of the season's growth, scattered over a square half-mile. "A view of Stockton was something to be remembered. There, in the heart of California, where the last winter stood a solitary rancho in the midst of tule marshes, I found a canvas town of a thousand inhabitants, and a port with twenty-five vessels at anchor. The mingled noises of labor around, the click of hammers and the grating of saws, the shouts of mule drivers, the jingling of spurs, the jar and jostle of wares in the tents, almost cheated me into the belief that it was some old commercial mart fa- miliar with such sounds for years past. Four months only had sufficed to make the place what it was ; and in that time a wholesale firm established there, one out of a dozen, had done business to the amount of $100,000. In the early morning the elk might be seen in bands of forty or .fifty, grazing on the edge of the marshes, where they were some- times lassoed by the native vaqueros and taken into Stock- ton. " At Sacramento "The forest of masts along the embar- cadero more than rivalled the splendid growth of the soil. Boughs and spars were mingled together in striking con- trast; the cables were fastened to the trunks and sinewy roots of the trees; sign-boards and figure-heads were set up on shore, facing the levee, and galleys and deck-cabins were turned out to grass, leased as shops, or occupied as dwellings. The aspect of the place on landing was de- cidedly more novel and picturesque than that of any other town in the country. The original forest-trees, standing in all parts of the town, give it a very picturesque appear- ance. Many of the streets are lined with oaks and syca- mores six feet in diameter and spreading ample boughs on every side. The city was peopled principally by New- Yorkers, Jerseymen, and people from the western states. The road to Sutter's fort, the main streets and the levee fronting on the embarcadero, were constantly thronged with the teams of emigrants coming in from the moun- AN ARTLESS ADVENTURER 131 tains. Such worn, weather-beaten individuals I never be- fore imagined. Their tents were pitched by hundreds in the thickets around the town, where they rested a few days before starting to winter in the mines or elsewhere. At times the levee was filled throughout its whole length by their teams, three or four yoke of oxen to every wagon. The amount of gambling in Sacramento city was very great, and the enticement of music was employed even to a greater extent than in San Francisco. The horse-market .was one of the principal sights in the place, and as pic- turesque a thing as could be seen anywhere. The trees were here thicker and of larger growth than in other parts of the city; the market-ground in the middle of the street was shaded by an immense evergreen oak, and surrounded by tents of blue and white canvas. One side was flanked by a livery-stable an open frame of poles, roofed with dry tule, in which stood a few shivering mules and raw- boned horses, while the stacks of hay and wheat straw on the open lots in the vicinity offered feed to the buyers of animals at the rate of $3 daily for each head. When the market was in full blast the scene it presented was gro- tesque enough. There were no regulations other than the fancy of those who had animals to sell ; every man was his own auctioneer and showed off the points of his horses or mules. The ground was usually occupied by several per- sons at once." Witnessing the San Francisco December fire from the bay he says, "I went on deck in the misty daybreak to take a parting look at the town and its amphitheatric hills. As I turned my face shoreward a little spark appeared through the fog. Suddenly it shot up into a spiry flame, and at the same instant I heard the sound of gongs, bells, and trumpets, and the shouting of human voices. The calam- ity, predicted and dreaded so long in advance that men ceased to think of it, had come at last. San Francisco was on fire! The blaze increased with fearful rapidity. In fifteen minutes it had risen into a broad, flickering column, 132 RETROSPECTION making all the shore the misty air and the water ruddy as with another sunrise. The sides of new frame houses scattered through the town, tents high up on the hills, and the hulls and listless sails of vessels in the bay gleamed and sparkled in the thick atmosphere. Meanwhile the roar and tumult swelled, and above the clang of gongs and the cries of the populace I could hear the crackling of blazing timbers and the smothered sound of falling roofs. I climbed into the rigging and watched the progress of the conflagration. As the flames leaped upon a new dwelling there was a sudden whirl of their waving volumes, an em- bracing of the frail walls in their relentless clasp, and a second afterwards from roof and rafter and foundation- beam shot upward a jet of fire, steady and intense at first, but surging off into spiral folds and streamers as the timbers parted and fell. For more than an hour, while we were tacking in the channel between Yerba Buena island and the anchorage, there was no apparent check to the flames. Be- fore passing Fort Montgomery, however, we heard several explosions in quick succession, and conjectured that vigor- ous measures had been taken to prevent further destruc- tion. When at last with a fair breeze and bright sky we were dashing past the rock of Alcatraz, the red column had sunk away to a smouldering blaze, and nothing but a heavy canopy of smoke remained to tell the extent of the conflagration. ' ' It was a community of young men; women, children and old men together being less than ten per cent, of the population. Of females in the cities the proportion was less than eight per cent, and in the mines less than two per cent. Not every nation would have been as free with its five hundred miles of rich placer mines, as to invite all the world to come and help themselves. True it had come easy and might go without conditions. To conquer terms from Mexico had not been a difficult task, and to pay a AN ARTLESS ADVENTURER 133 pour-boire of fifteen millions for what was worth fifteen thousand millions, and all so soon following the Louisiana bargain, buying it or stealing it at that rate per thousand leagues was a get-rich-quick achievement concerning which we could well afford to be liberal. What a possible Utopia was here if only man had been free from his own inventions! Managed as a thrifty New Englander manages his farm here was sufficient to feed and clothe the world forever, or at least until standing room should become scarce. Here was opportunity in its broadest conception. A practical Eden had humanity been ready for it, a substantial Eden with reasonable possibilities superior indeed to the fantastical garden and its occupants on the Tigris and Euphrates. But men are little more capable of exercising wisdom in their affairs now than in the days of Adam and Lot. There was no good reason why all foreigners should not have been taxed who came to gather gold, no good reason why an export duty should not have been placed on gold, or a fifth taken by the government as in the flush times of Spanish America, no good reason why after killing the Indians and taking their lands we should invite the scum of the world to come and occupy them, no reason why we should then turn over the government to these ignorant aliens, who knew not our pilgrim fathers nor yet the fourth of July except as a day to get drunk in. True, we could get rick quicker by filling up the waste places of the Re- public with any kind of rubbish, and we did get rich quick, six of us at least, who represent the six great interests, oil, steel, telephones, railroads, banks, and robbery pure and simple. But how about the ninety and nine millions who get none of these good things? England kept order in her Cariboo mines and made the interlopers pay for it. Murderers were caught and promptly hanged, and no harangue of the well-paid lawyer or mumbled excuse from be-wigged and be-gowned high- priests of law might ever avail to set him free. In the 134 RETROSPECTION Sierra foothills also there was an absence of technicalities, justice was free and hanging easy. Next to the Anglo-Americans who though out-num- bered were still dominant, were the Spanish- Americans ; then the self-complacent Briton, the reflective German, the versatile Latin. From Africa, besides the orthodox man- eater was the swarthy Moor and sombre Abyssinian. From Asia, Australia, and the South sea isles, the turbaned In- dian, the Mongol, the Malay, the Chinaman, the man of Nippon, the Kanaka, and the rest. As compared with the class the Teuton peoples here presented, the restless Celt and the Latin representatives appeared to less ad- vantage for building a high-class commonwealth, while least desirable of all the Europeans was the slothful Slav. In 1853 business opened with a rush, only to collapse the following year from over-trading and over-building. Placer mining had also reached its culminating point, and those driven in consequence to agriculture and stock-rais- ing had as yet only begun. Mason, Persifer Smith, and Riley each in turn had been appointed governor, but they were only military men and did little governing. Over the mind of General Persifer Smith came a dim conscious- ness of the fitness of things when he wrote the secretary of war, "I am partly inclined to think it would be right for me to prevent foreigners from taking the gold unless they intend to become citizens." And again, "I shall consider every one not a citizen of the United States who enters on public land and digs for gold as a trespasser." But the preemption and other loose or liberal ways of administra- tion had become so interwoven in the politics of the nation as to prevent decisive action under these new conditions, and the matter was allowed to lapse. We must not credit ourselves with pure benevolence and good will to man as the whole reason for giving away our gold. The yellow metal attracted people, many of whom remained from choice while others could not get AN ARTLESS ADVENTURER 135 away, and so became settlers; not to mention further the thousands of millions in agricultural products taken from the soil coming from the Louisiana purchase and the Cali- fornia country; and not to mention, finally, the coal and iron, the silver and copper, or the gold previously taken. Within the last ten years alone the gold product of the United States was some eight hundred millions of dollars, most of it taken from regions west of the Rocky mountains. So around the entire seaboard of the Pacific lies uncovered natural wealth such as never yet has been revealed to the avaricious eyes of man. I have said that no young man ever left home for the California mines and reached San Francisco the same per- son. If therefore the transformation on the voyage was so great, how much greater was that which followed. Latent in every individual are traits and characteristics the existence of which are unknown to the possessor until brought to light by circumstances. The new and varied experiences of the outward journey could not account altogether for the sudden transforma- tion attending the arrival. In the new environment new issues arose which must be determined on the spot, and the trend of such determination marked the man, marked his inherited qualities, and the effect on them of the new con- ditions. Actual or fancied necessity might drive the mis- sionary to dealing monte, or the college professor to cook- ing in a restaurant, while the old identity of thousands of educated and refined men was quickly lost in the rusty habiliments of the unkempt miner. Old habits, old beliefs, old principles fell from the hitherto pattern of propriety like a garment on touching the wharf at San Francisco, their naked souls to be garbed anew in the unaccustomed activities of the town or the coarse uniform of the Foothills. Not only were these men thus so strangely and unex- pectedly thrown together in a new atmosphere of human 136 RETROSPECTION intercourse destined to work out for themselves a new system of salvation, but new systems of government of business, of society, and morals, with the crude amenities of a new manhood. The change was sudden and decisive. The sometime lazy person was seized with energy, the prudent became reckless as he laid his money on the gambling table, or en- gaged in wild commercial speculation. Faiths and doc- trines, the result of a lifetime of pious instruction and training, were often laid aside to be taken up at some future time in a more congenial atmosphere. The complex con- dition of life in the mines turned out many a strange creature, a wonder most of all to himself. All sense of moral or social obligation was too often atrophied by selfish interests, and yet there pervaded the entire community a wonderful kindness of heart and good- fellowship, with instances of self-denial and devotion ris- ing into the heroic. CHAPTER VIII THE PASSING OP THE FRONTIERS . THE American frontier, which for two and a half centuries entered so largely into the destinies of the nation, began its course at tidewater on the shore of the Atlantic. At first a thin line along the seaboard which marked the limit of European occupation, it slowly fell back ten miles, a hundred miles, a thousand miles, until two hundred years and more had passed away, when at the call of gold representatives from all the world congre- gated on the shores of the Pacific, only to see another frontier arise before them, destined to move slowly east- ward to a meeting at the continental divide, both frontiers there to vanish as phantoms of departed peoples. When the Puritans from Holland landed at Plymouth they landed on the frontier, the ever-moving line which marked the separation of civilization from savagism. Over this line were for the newcomers romance heightened by peril, the gathering of wealth with adventure; on the hither side was the work accomplished, wild lands subdued and farms and settlements secured. There at the initial line of these frontiers the Puritans on landing set up for themselves for defense only a platform on a hill with mounted guns, but sufficiently significant of coming conquest and subjugation. Pestilence among the natives won for the settlers a quiet winter, thus giving time for some slight preparation for the long forthcoming struggle for the supremacy. For a time the frontier hovered about the Appalachian range, then swept westward over the valley of the Ohio, resting again at the Mississippi. 137 138 RETROSPECTION In preparing the primitive lands for the use of civili- zation, before the forests are leveled or the prairies plowed, the country must be cleared to some extent of its former occupants, the aboriginal owners of the domain. Conscience the pilgrims had brought with them in liberal supply, and of an accommodating sort, applicable alike for expelling unorthodox believers or slaying savages. It was not difficult for them to persuade themselves that heathen nations have no rights before Christians, that savages have no rights in the presence of civilization, that is to say if Christians and their civilization happen to be the stronger. They would not shock the ears of .a sensitive world by proclaiming aloud the rectitude of power, but they acted out the principle, all the same, as fully as ever did Caesar or Napoleon. Preachers in the pulpit preached it from holy writ; judges wove it into their most righteous de- cisions. Thus it was, that while our pilgrims were not at heart more wicked than Turks nor more cruel than Spaniards, never was the treatment of Turk or Spaniard more fatal to a conquered people than was our treatment of the Indians. William Penn was a just and upright man. At least he thought himself such, which is half the battle; others thought him so, which went far toward making up the other half. When he set out to people his state, he did not go to the ghettos of London and St. Petersburg, nor visit the purlieus of Naples and Vienna, but he printed pamphlets and gave them to his Quaker friends in Eng- land and the Lutherans in Germany. He promised that with free lands the incomers should be allowed free religion, both of which they knew how to value and to use. Thus his lands became occupied by the best and not by the worst element of Europe. Penn possessed a conscience, a seventeenth century con- science. Charles II had no conscience whether of time or THE PASSING OF THE FRONTIERS 139 place. A seventeenth century conscience demanded pay- ment for Indian lands, but the amount need not be large nor the value excessive. Payment once made, minor cheat- ings were in order. The attitude of Penn in his dealings for his domain with the natives has been regarded as a model of fairness. Doubtless this is true from the viewpoint of that day, however illogical his position may seem to us. We may I not speak of the rights of savages who have not the power to maintain them. We may not speak too freely of the rights of might or of the might of right. William Penn, who earnestly desired to do right, may not question too closely the actual ownership of this land. It is not the province of history to cavil at the decrees of fate. We may recognize inexorable necessity when we meet it. We may know how certain eventualities stand, how they have been and are likely to be, though we are unable to weigh or measure them, or tell why they are so. What seems to us wrong in the abstract, may when inter- woven in the scheme of the universe be right; we do not know; we do not like to think of so superb a structure as the American federation standing on a rotten founda- tion. We see the titles to all civilized lands running back to their acquisition by bloodshed and fraud; ownerships changing on the approach of superior strength; various names being given to various sorts of robbery, as right of conquest, right of discovery, the word right here not sig- nifying so much that which is just and proper as that which is strong. What is right? The dictionary makes sad work of it trying to tell. To whom does this land belong, to the king of England or to the aboriginal occupants? Scarcely would William Penn reply, "To whomsoever possesses the power to hold it. ' ' Yet such is the reply of history, or civilization. And Penn himself acts half way upon that theory. As a mat- ter of fact he buys from both the native owner and the 140 RETROSPECTION European possessor, but gives an equivalent in value to neither. Civilization is stronger than savagism in every way, intellectually, physically, and experimentally; hence the simple savage, this child of nature, inured only to nature's frowns, must go by the board. Such is the rule. Penn did not stop to consider the logical bearing of his acts so long as they were humane. The king of England was willing to rid himself of a debt which he never expected to pay by giving up what had cost him nothing and did not belong to him. But with the royal title to the lands of Pennsylvania in his pocket, the Quaker was at peace, al- though he knew that title to be spurious. The rightful owners were in possession, rightful if strong enough to maintain their rights. Still breathing peace, Penn appeared without weapons before the weaponless natives, and promises were made which were kept on both sides for sixty years. Then the old Adam appeared in the congregation of the Friends. Penn knew that he was not paying the Indians a fair price for their land, but he did not resort to the gross trickery of the time. He at least pretended that the price was fair, and the measurement likewise. It was the custom among those Indians, according to the long-familiar story, to define lengths and breadths of lands by the distance a man ordinarily walked in a day. The length of Penn's tract was three days' walk. Penn himself walked a day and a half, not too slowly, and stopped, tired out, leaving the remaining distance to be walked at another time. After Penn's death the wisdom of the ser- pent creeping into the camp of the Friends, an expert was brought forward to finish the walking. He covered eighty- six miles, or about four days' walk, in the given day and a half, and died. Thereupon peace took to itself wings; the white and red brothers, Quaker and savage, returned to the ultimate appeal, and bloodshed followed. In the heart of Friend William was no guile. If he THE PASSING OF THE FRONTIERS 141 had cheated the Indians it was not as he would have it. Perhaps he was the misused one; perhaps in exchanging trinkets for square leagues the Indians had got the better of him. Glass beads are valuable and highly prized by great chiefs, as valuable and highly prized as diamonds by him who knows not the difference. A beautiful bright bead ; is it not worth more than acres of land ? And surely it is not as wicked to cheat the Indians over-walking as by under-paying. But Friend William's friends, those who succeeded him in his noble efforts to establish a common- wealth on the broad principles of truth, honor, and in- tegrity, of peace and good will to men, they knew they were cheating, and they were made to suffer for it. But the ways of Penn himself were ways of pleasant- ness, and his paths were of peace, to such a degree at all events as should enable him to secure the most and best land for the least money, and establish a permanent com- monwealth on the broad principles of liberty and humanity, such as to emphasize an achievement without a parallel in the history of the race. Lands in limitless regions which had cost them nothing were cheap enough favors even for European monarchs to bestow liberally upon their subjects. Under whatsoever name sovereignty was claimed, whether by right of dis- covery as it was called, or by right of conquest, or by pur- chase from some power which had fairly or fraudulently acquired it made no difference. Possession was the point, and the power to hold possession. In any event, to the last purchaser the continent came cheap enough, even though the seller could give but a poor title. After all has been said it is plain that the acquisition of title, the claims to ownership of lands aboriginal or ancient must not be tested too closely by any code of ethics, other than the ethics of superior strength, if we would not have brought home to us the fact that every foot of this earth has been many times stolen from its possessors. 142 RETROSPECTION The irony of it all comes upon us when we consider how quickly following the teachings of our good Puritan parents came the national promulgation of the doctrine of the rights of all men to life, liberty, property, and the rest. Before the white man came the red man was in possession, whereupon the white man's pursuit of happi- ness was in clearing the land of the red man, and the red man's pursuit of happiness was in killing the white man. Europeans did not take the trouble to bring forward that stale absurdity, the right of conquest; of course lands, especially savage lands, belonged to any one strong enough to capture and hold them. Then came a new pursuit of happiness, voiced by de- lectable debaters at Washington, more especially concern- ing the church of England people in the lands of Mary, and Caroline, and George, and Elizabeth, the happy pur- suit of holding black Africans in slavery, and fighting over the consequences one of the saddest and bloodiest civil wars in history. As regards the relative cruelty of nations or peoples in their treatment of the Indians there was less difference than is generally admitted. It was more a matter of human interests than of human kindness. The intentions of the Spanish government and of the American govern- ment were alike kind and just. Spaniards killed the Indians when they would not submit, especially when they would not accept the Spaniard's religion. As I have said, in the eyes of Christianity heathenism had no rights; in the eyes of civilization savagism had no rights. Wild lands when wanted by civilization had only to be taken, and wild men like wild beasts must give way before the stronger arm. They had souls, yes, convoked wisdom had so decided, but the swarthy natives of America were not human as the white Europeans were human. If surely they had souls they were heathen souls, unregener- ate, unredeemed. THE PASSING OF THE FRONTIERS 143 The people of the United States were more pronounced in their treatment of the natives than the Spaniards at the south or the Scotchmen in the north, not because the Puri- tans of New England and the planters of Virginia and their successors were by nature more inhuman, but be- cause the Indians were not wanted. Their presence was a menace and a nuisance. The Americans from first to last would have the coun- try clear of them, New Englanders preferring to do their own work, while the southerners found African slave labor more adaptable. The Spaniards in the meantime found the natives profitable for the purposes of conversion, of amalgamation, and of labor, while the Scotch and English in Canada wished to hold the country as long as possible in a wild state, with the savages to hunt for them. "The Hudson Bay company," its officers used to say, "thanks no one, least of all its servants, for cheating or mistreat- ing the Indians/' while Queen Isabella, on hearing of the cruelties of one of her captains, exclaimed, "How dare he so treat my subjects!" While the people of the states, south and north, were as rapidly as possible clearing the country of its aboriginal population as they cleared it of its wild beasts, by killing them, burning their towns, and driving them farther back into the wilderness, the government, that abstract irre- sponsible thing at Washington where its thieving agents are concerned, was fathering and flattering these children of nature, herding them in reservations and giving them for their comfort trinkets, blankets, missionaries, surrep- titious whiskey, and the white man's diseases. But if we are to carry upon our shoulders this sin of our fathers to the third or fourth generation, and for many more, we may take this for our consolation, that it is fate under whose inexorable decree we suffer, that the mere contact with civilization is too often fatal to the Indian, that along the lower levels of savagism kindness kills as surely if not as quickly as cruelty, if indeed the rifle is 144 RETROSPECTION not more merciful than measles, small-pox, syphilis, tu- berculosis, and the rest. The English in Australia have no interest in clearing the bush of its occupants, but it is all the same, contact kills. Nor were the white man's ethics of occupation much more logical than his ethics of extirpation. The world was made for man, that is to say for civilized man. Naked wild men and wild beasts must not occupy land wanted by mounted men in clothes, that is if the latter are strong enough to take it. True, all were once savage, or sylvan, but then the fittest survived, you know. Well might the Indian say to the white man, ' * Take our land if you must, kill us if you enjoy slaughter, but spare us your cant, hypocrisy, and lies." It is idle to talk of the rights of civilization. Civili- zation has no rights not held in common with savagism. Let us rather be honest with ourselves and others, and say openly to the natives, "You have that which we want and are going to take; be quiet and submissive and we will give you something ; make us trouble and we will kill you. ' ' For this civilization has itself proclaimed, if not in words at least in deeds. And this our colonists thought at first to do respectably, to- remove the natives and lift the frontier without re- sorting to the usual barbarities of frontier warfare, as scalping and torturing their captives; but after the lesson taught by Braddock's defeat they were obliged to some extent to let their Indian allies have their way. There was no thought thus far on the part of white men of conquering the Plains. They had enough nearer home to conquer, in the valley of the Ohio and on the hither side of the Mississippi. Yet the passing of the frontiers was assured from the beginning. Judging from the na- ture and condition of the native occupants when first seen by stronger peoples they were created only to be destroyed. At all events they were created and they were destroyed. This destruction was accelerated by the pass- THE PASSING OF THE FRONTIERS 145 ing of the frontiers; indeed, the passing of the frontiers was their destruction. It was a simple but effectual process. The colonists on the Atlantic began at once to shove back the dividing wall, but it was some time before they had it placed well out of the way lined along the crest of the Rocky moun- tains. The gold-hunters on the Pacific, with scarcely any opposition, quickly found the country clear back to the Sierra Nevada. They and the settlers who came after them could have had the intervening desert space at any moment, had they so desired it, but they deemed it not worth the taking. The closing lines of the unwritten past, the dissolu- tion of a world of non-progressive humanity risen who shall say how or when ? back in the twilight of primordial ages, came softly and simply as destiny had decreed. The dominant race walked into its questionable inheri- tance as by divine right. They walked about over it as fur-hunters; they marched through it as emigrants; they digged for metal as miners; the fertile patches they culti- vated as agriculturalists. Finally, becoming tired of the long journey round it by way of Nicaragua, of Panama, of Cape Horn, they laid lines of railway across it, factories and cities arose and the achievement was complete. Thus the fateful day arrived when the inevitable must come to pass. It was during the civil war and the recon- struction period following it that marked the disappear- ance of the American frontiers. Early came into American life, to life on the Atlantic seaboard, this western frontier, the ever-shifting barrier between matter of fact and mystery. Two centuries later appeared to those on the Pacific coast their eastern fron- tier, less now a mystery than a matter of fact, something to be met and overcome. For though here and there the silence of nature had been broken, the miracle of turning oceans of sand into fructifying soil had not yet been revealed. 146 RETROSPECTION Meeting thus upon the mountain-top the two frontiers vanished. Throughout the century each change in attitude or progress of these frontiers, their uprising, their every movement, and their passing had marked an era in the nation's history. In front of each, and between them, was nature undisturbed, a wilderness tenanted only by denizens of the wilderness. Now all around was subjugation, nature enslaved; in place of rude wilderness, the calm of culture and the reign of mind, specimens of superiority sufficient for themselves at least to justify the dominant race in its spoliations. Overspreading the republic was a oneness, which however thin the coating, helped to unite the diverse interests. On the eastern side transportation became a vital force. Wagon roads and canals were quickly followed by steam navigation on rivers and lakes, and lines of railways work- ing ever westward and stretching finally across the conti- nent. On the western side similar energies were in opera- tion, all working eastward; and in the meeting of the two sides was sent forth the last sigh of savagism. Our two neighbors at the north and in the south, each exercised its own peculiar and individual influence. The great trails of pioneer times, and later the trunk lines of railways in Canada ran east and west, while those of Mexico came to us out of the south, as the Santa Fe trail, and the Mexican National and Mexican Central railways. Our own roads extend east and west. The significance in the character and direction of the pathways of the three nations was felt and recognized from the first. Our attitude toward Canada has been reserved, our intercourse all along the line has been limited, our interchangeable interests few. When Canada was held by people of the Latin race, it mingled freely with the aborigines. The adaptiveness of the Frenchman, his light, gay spirits captivated them, throwing the Anglo-Saxon into the shade. On the south was another family of Latin blood, who THE PASSING OF THE FRONTIERS 147 although we did take from them California might entertain some gratitude for our help in defeating the plan of the French emperor to set up in Mexico an empire under Maxi- milian. We have seen how railways forced the barriers and dispelled the frontiers. They penetrated the prairies and punctured the desert. The seventies saw in operation the first trans-continental through line, the Union Pacific and Central Pacific being joined with imposing ceremony at Promontory, May 10, 1869. The event was celebrated in oil by Mr. Hill, the artist, at the instigation of Leland Stanford, who held the position in front with hammer and golden spike. Stanford took a great interest in the artist's work during its progress, coming often for pose and consultation as the life-size figures developed under the brush, it being understood that the honored president of the road was to take it, paying a fair price for it on its completion, and that others should have copies of it. But in the meantime the associate magnates had grown cold and jealous over the matter, feeling that Stanford, who in the construction of the road, and in aiding by his impos- ing presence the manipulation of contracts and securities, and the bridging of financial irregularities in the courts, had served as little more than figure-head, now assumed a prominence as builder to which he was not entitled. So in order to show indifference to fame, and smooth the ruffled plumage of the others, he repudiated his obligation to Mr. Hill, and left the huge painting, the work of several years, on the artist's hands. To forestall competition, the Central Pacific men out of their lootings built the Southern Pacific, and with the two, the roads to Oregon and elsewhere, their returns be- came larger than ever. The intention originally was not to operate the first road, but to get out of it as much as possible on the score of building, and then throw it with a huge indebtedness on to the hands of the government, they themselves standing from under. 148 RETROSPECTION Then followed the organization of other roads, the At- lantic and Pacific, the Northern Pacific, the Denver and Rio Grande, and others. The failure of Thomas Scott, president of the Pennsylvania road, to build the Texas Pacific, chartered in 1871, from Texas to San Diego, rid the Southern Pacific of a serious competitor, and prevented San Diego from then becoming the metropolitan city of southern California. CHAPTER IX A NEW LAND AND A NEW PEOPLE courses of history are like the scattering of birds at the noise of the fowler, and the blending of races in the creation of new nations is as the coming together of flocks of a kind from different quarters to merge into a homogeneous whole. A new land makes a new people; various race combi- nations give sectional variety. A good food-producing soil in a warm or temperate climate gives the best ethnical results. This is the rule; that the conditions so favorable to development as those in Alta California, where the very atmosphere is a vitalizing force, should have engendered in all the ages past only the lowest order of humanity must be referred to intervening causes of which we can know nothing. With regard to the development of peoples already civilized, united under new conditions, it is different. In that case the adaptiveness of the several parts to their en- vironment becomes the chief factor in progress, for it is obviously impossible wholly to fit old ways to new con- ditions. The problem was never more distinctively presented than when, at the call of gold, a new people first came to- gether in a new land on the shores of the Pacific. And when they came did they enter in and possess the land, or did the land close in and possess them? For there were few among those who came early to America whose minds had not dwelt to a greater or less extent upon the new nations which should be made to fit 6 149 150 RETROSPECTION the new lands that had been discovered; or should we say the new nation, for it was scarcely to be expected that more than one would appear, or more than one form of government be devised of such superior excellence as to throw into the shade every other people and government of whatsoever time or place. That people, of course, were our people, and that government our government, and in the new found lands we should assist at the birth as well as at the coming of age, and we should be the envy of some and the pattern of others, and gather to ourselves glory and reward. So ran visions through the mind of many who made their abode in Philadelphia or Boston, in New Netherlands or Virginia; and when with much thought and vigorous action under the clear sky and in the pellucid air of a new environment such men as Alexander Hamilton, Benjamin Franklin, and George Washington began to appear, it seemed indeed that a new and better age had come upon the world. And this new land and this new government, God-given to his best people, to a later chosen Israel, should be de- voted in his name to the betterment of his world, of his wicked world shall we say, at least of all the people in it of whatsoever country, color, or creed. But with distinctions of course. Nearest us, directly under our noses in fact, and with none too fragrant an odor, were the aborigines of the two Americas, having mind and heart and soul like our own, likewise God-given with the new lands, and to be properly accounted for in the final reckoning. We made them to appear as bad as possible, with our broadest vulgarity giving them beastly names, as buck, squaw, papoose, their success in battle a massacre, ours a glorious victory, yet they were not worse than others. We made treaties and broke them at our pleasure, and placed over them as superintendents broken down politicians who cheated them in many ways. A NEW LAND AND A NEW PEOPLE 151 It is a pity ; they are so far astray ; they surely are not worth reclaiming. They will not work, and is it not written that such shall not eat? It is cheaper to kill the Indians and enslave the Africans. Are not they also cursed of the Almighty, these black men ; is it not written of the children of Ham that they shall serve? Two of the assumed obligations, the red and the black, being thus summarily disposed of to the satisfaction of the Puritan conscience, the remainder, the yellow and the white, should receive their due consideration at the proper time. These early comers from Holland and England were different from the others, and the commonwealth of which they began the construction must be different. They were something more than religious fanatics seeking a Utopia in the wilderness. There was the pride of life as well as the purity of faith. It was only excess of zeal that caused them to err as others had erred in relation to them. They had given freedom to their bodies but their souls they could not so easily emancipate. That there were present many strong men of tender conscience and high sense of moral obligation did not pre- vent the indulgence of iniquitous superstitions character- istic of the age. Americans all, but of different stock, brought from the colonial coast to assimilate in the hills. Daniel Boone's adventurers in Kentucky were of one stock ; the strapping corn-fed fellows of Tennessee were of another stock; and when cities arose yet other strains were found there. And in the race development which followed, this system in western migrations was not without its compensation. Kindred in birth and breeding yet of different families, forming new communities in new lands; inherited faiths and forms of thought meeting other inherited faiths and prejudices; new arrivals being met by new economic con- ditions and new social and religious ideals, toleration be- 152 RETROSPECTION came a necessity, and the several members of these so- cieties learned in time to give and take the best and eliminate the less desirable. Thus were brought face to face the New Englander and the Virginian, the New York Dutchman and the Pennsyl- vania German, and the many mixtures in the south, every family having its history, which with early environment and characteristic differences might, if known, explain as well the race antagonisms as the tolerance and kindly feel- ing attending the creation of new communities. Crossing the Mississippi and still moving westward yet other types appeared. At every halting place the problem had to be wrought out anew. Finally these restless builders of empire, overleaping plains, mountains, and deserts, met and mingled, these many types with many other types on the California shores of the Pacific. All along the route they left their impress on the soil, the impress of mind and manners, of speech and numberless idiosyncrasies brought with them from their late American or European homes, they or their children, then or later, destined to be again disrupted and recast perhaps in broader forms with fresh infiltrations from every quarter of the globe. For thus America was made, the American people, a dis- tillation from one alembic of all the nations. The economic forces gathered from every quarter of the earth and planted on new and fertile soil in their coalescence produced remarkable effects. Opportunities were eagerly seized and followed up with an intensity never before displayed on such a scale or with similar re- sults. The colonists, even those who founded the federation, were not of one class alone, and their subsequent sur- roundings and occupations caused them to drift still farther apart. The proprietary governments in Mary- land and Virginia were composed of men of aristocratic tendencies, loyal to the king and to the church of England, who had left their country for political reasons. A NEW LAND AND A NEW PEOPLE 153 The refugees who landed at Plymouth rock had fled from religious persecution; they held with Cromwell, and to their own forms of worship, and were essentially demo- cratic. They cleared the country as rapidly as possible of wild beasts and wild men, with their own hands scraping off the snow from the ground in the winter, cutting out the underbrush in summer, and building and planting as best they were able. The southern planter lived in regal state with servants and equipages, cultivating with slaves the tobacco plant which passed as mone}'. The impecunious whites of the south were proportionately abased, while in the north all being poor all were equal, all worked and work was hon- orable. It was perhaps fortunate that the French in Canada had refused to join the revolutionary movement while it was fermenting in the British colonies, and so saved the United States from an unprofitable alien element. The Quakers in Pennsylvania formed a class by them- selves; they might not fight, nor cheat, nor swear, nor en- slave, they might work and live simply and friendlily. At the same time the century belonged to the English; the Atlantic colonies were English, the states when organ- ized were essentially Anglo-Saxon, and though immigra- tion and increase were more alien than English, yet Anglo-American customs, laws, and literature have thus far predominated. How long this state of things will continue, with ten millions of citizen negroes rapidly increasing toward a hundred millions, and a million a year of low-grade European immigrants soon to be citizen aliens, who can tell ? For two centuries New England stock maintained its purity to a fair degree; after that it strayed away and mixed with baser blood, while those who remained at home deteriorated, partly from stagnation and partly from amal- gamation with a low European element which drifted in from Halifax and New York. The United States at the end of the eighteenth century 154 RETROSPECTION was quite a different nation from the United States at the end of the nineteenth century. And never before in our complex life were there such radical and rapid changes as we are undergoing at the present moment. The entire population for that matter is of foreign origin, but we are at liberty to distinguish between the early English and Dutch stock, the founders of the Re- public, who endured revolution and achieved independence, and under the inspirations of freedom of thought and action have made this country what it is, we are at liberty to distinguish between the descendants of these, whether living at present east or west, but who may still be seen as in their original American homes, the Virginia gentle- men, the solid men of Boston, and the money rulers of New York, Celtic, Teutonic, Slav, and the Latin inter- mixtures who came in for adoption afterward, however worthy and loyal they may prove to be. These later arrivals, numbering twenty to thirty millions, exercised their due influence on the mass of which they formed part of the amalgam, being the lower strata of so- ciety, poor, ignorant, many of them debased, while the early arrivals were of the middle class of a people foremost in individualism, of independent thought and high aspira- tions. We have pretty well drained northern Europe, but we have still Austria, Italy, and Russia to draw from. With these we may still swell the slums of our large cities, breed more American citizens who cannot speak the Eng- lish language, and extend the usefulness of our sentimental shimmers, howsoever little agriculture and manufactures are benefited by them. "New varieties of the American " Bayard Taylor called the long loosely jointed specimens that came aboard his steamer at New Orleans while en route for California in 1849. They presented the appearance of what might have been a cross between poor white trash and the impecunious owner of a few worthless slaves. And if slave labor was A NEW LAND AND A NEW PEOPLE 155 degrading in Virginia it was more so in Tennessee and Missouri, where society was yet crude and the conditions of domestic life were less refined. Quite a contrast between these mid-continent men and the rather diminutive inhabitants of some of the more refined eastern states. Race intermixtures in a warm and fertile soil evolved in the southern middle-west a crop of young giants revel- ing in "hog and hominy," driving negro slaves and help- ing to propagate them. "Pike county" was the generic term applied to them in the California mines, where they were a distinct type. Awkward in their movements, with their massive bony frame, large hands and feet, sallow melancholy unintellectual faces, fateful eyes and the cor- ners of the mouth drawn downward, they were quite a contrast to the New England Yankee, yet of good use enough in empire-building. These however are not fair specimens of the product of this section. Though the Puritan race in New England is diminishing, in the mid-continent and Pacific states it is increasing, though not as rapidly as the general increase of population. Thus it is plainly to be seen that these United States are no longer the America of England and Holland, of the Puritans and pilgrims, of Hancock and Washington and Jefferson. We have sold ourselves for a mess of pot- tage, for inordinate wealth, which we have secured, and which is even now taking revenge on us by breeding rot- tenness in our bones. So rapid are the transformations through which we have passed and are still passing that every two or three decades seem to bring us out into another world. To realize this more clearly, eliminate from the mind for a moment the new forces that revolutionized society dur- ing the first half of the last century, the application of steam and electricity, resulting in the steamboat, rail- 156 RETROSPECTION road, and telegraph; and during the last half, the funda- mental forces of steel and oil, with numberless new in- ventions and discoveries, evolving such miracles as the floating palaces of ocean, battleships and liners, wireless telegraphy, the telephone, the automobile, and the flying ships. And the romance of wealth; a million a hundred years ago was more than a hundred millions now. And rapid as have been these economic evolutions, territorial expansion has ever been in advance of them. The original area along the Atlantic was doubled twice over, and its utilization multiplied tenfold. And over the wilderness of the west, metamorphosed, the valleys became gardens, the grassy plains cornfields, the metal- liferous mountains pasture lands, the vast deserts fruit- ful fields, the forests and the gold-veined sierra deposi- tories of inexhaustible wealth, and on the parched slopes of sunny California homes of paradise, while spread out on either side were the world's two greatest oceans, with their watery pathways direct to the seaports of all nations. These marvelous developments came not in a steady stream, but in surges, each movement marking an epoch. And ever as long as time rolls, and men continue to come and go on this planet, these ceaseless transformations will continue, to the affiliation and elevation of mankind. And ever the momentous question will be, what next? To the prophet who can rede this riddle belongs the future. The population of the colonies in 1750 was estimated at one million. The first census of the United States in 1790 showed a population of 3,929,214 of whom 700,000 were negro slaves, 60,000 free negroes and 80,000 Indians. John Carroll of Carrollton, with an income of 14,000 a year, was regarded as the wealthiest man of his time, and George Washington with less than 75,000 acres of land stood next. Then there was Gouverneur Morris of Morris- ania, who could order from London at one time a whole box of richly bound books without stopping to count the cost. The disintegration attending the distention of a com- A NEW LAND AND A NEW PEOPLE 157 munity over a wide area of wilderness was met toy new concentrations under new environments, by which knead- ing process the whole mass was undergoing continual change. Not only is this formative process always pres- ent, but the results are something new, better or worse than the old it may be, but always different; so that in the earlier migrations when single individuals or some part of a sectional community from the Atlantic seaboard had reached the Pacific they might not always be easily recognizable. In the final overspreading with settlements of the en- tire country from ocean to ocean it was found that each centre of population held its type, which was the germ of development in each of the new settlements, new blend- ings ever productive of new results. Thus among the original coast colonies there were the several societies widely distinct in form, feature, thought, and speech, and whose character was influenced also by their religion. Cutting up our country into geographical provinces, each with its own peculiar physical conditions differing from those of every other, we find in each the meeting of many types whose intermingling and new environment developed new types. Hence as a nation, whatever we may become ethically or politically, we can never physit cally coalesce into a homogeneous whole. The New Eng- lander will always be a Yankee; the black man of the southern plantations will always be black. The Russian Jew of the northern sweatshops will always be a Russian Jew; while the Virginian gentleman so long as he remains at home will be a gentleman, however much of a bully he may perhaps become in transplanting. It explains much and exonerates much as to the conduct of southerners during their migratory days, the fact that in their own country, from the earliest times, affairs of personal honor were settled out of court ; the law was asked to intervene in property rights only. 158 RETROSPECTION Wherever the Virginian went he carried with him the chivalrous ways and courteous manner, until per adven- ture he dropped them on the road, yet always impressing upon the language of the west his charming accent. His influence for good and evil was later felt in a marked degree in California. Quite different, though none the less impressive, were the characteristics of the New Eng- lander, with his chronic directness, his persistent applica- tion, and his thrifty ways. Any point in the progress of this nation, if we allow the mind to dwell upon it, may appear to us as a special period of transition; but so impetuous has been the rush forward that during the last half century at least any special periods of progress are scarcely discernible. Americanized by California gold, by the passing of the frontiers, by war and railroad and government graft, by the greed of special interests, it is no longer America for the Americans, but America for the Irish, for the African, for the Nipponese. The light-hearted French and Italians love pleasure, which their Teutonic mixture, however it may modify makes more durable. San Francisco is shaping her course and evolving her people to make her the gayest city in America. The city and its environs invite to open air, which the Latin race loves. Portland, Oregon, presents a fine class of business men, merchants, and bankers. The real agricultural people of Oregon also are rather superior, made up of American, rather than a conglomeration of Latin, Teuton, and Nip- pon. The early settlers of Oregon were nearer the New England type than the early settlers of California. They were likewise pioneers in the true sense of the word, men and women who went before to remove obstacles and pre- pare the way for others, a class of people that never ap- peared in California at any time. Oregon to-day is more American than any state west of the Mississippi, one half of the original population be- A NEW LAND AND A NEW PEOPLE 159 ing from the middle west, though formerly of the eastern seaboard, one third from the southern west, and although six per cent, only came direct from New England they were sufficiently pronounced in character and intelligence to implant their institutions on the virgin soil of this farthest west. A few Canadian fur-hunters dropped down from British Columbia, while Germany and England con- tributed the rest. Seattle with its more modern development has ac- complished wonders, with its transpacific and Alaska trade, its flourishing manufactures, owing to its self-de- liverance from the tyranny of labor leaders, for which su- perb achievement we must overlook the fungus growth of a politician sent to Washington for its sins, to be white- washed at public expense to the discomfiture of Congress and the undignified display of presidential prejudice and sentimentalism. San Diego is a pronounced example of civic individual- ism as displayed in the Anglo-American occupation of the Pacific coast. The first point in Alta California for the planting of a Franciscan mission, it was also the site of the first Mexican town, and one of the first to accept United States ownership. It was perhaps as interesting a place as any visited by Mr. Dana during his interesting voyage, though consisting commercially only of hides and tallow, and ethnically of Indians, Mexicans, and a white man or two. It remained much the same, with the addition of a few more white men and an imitation Mexican pueblo government, until some time in the sixties, when there came along a man with Yankee proclivities and mid-conti- nent manners, who bought all the pueblo land thereabout for thirty cents an acre, selling it up to a thousand dol- lars a lot and dying without a dollar he could rightly call his own. Father Horton, he was called, founder of the Horton addition to the new town addition to the old town, which last addition bloomed effulgently before them all. Four miles south on the bay the Kimball brothers be- 160 RETROSPECTION came possessors of a Mexican grant, on the edge of which they laid out a town, calling it National city. The two brothers possessed one common characteristic which made it unnecessary for any one to inquire who they were or whence they came; each could out-talk any one except his brother. The deck of the steamer which plied between the ports of San Diego and San Francisco was the favorite debat- ing ground for these champions of the rival cities. Mr. Horton himself was facile of speech, and allowed the same liberal margin for exaggeration for himself that he granted to the brothers Kimball ; hence on these memorable voyages the winds and the waves had little chance of being heard. As the Horton eloquence took effect, and the hamlet began to grow, Los Angeles became alarmed, fearing a rivalry detrimental to her interests. Every fact or falsity that could be employed, every subterfuge that could be in- vented, the most outlandish and bitter lies were brought forward to cast odium on San Diego and prevent people from going there. The coast was not clear, they said, the harbor was not safe, a vessel was just wrecked on the rocks, a boat was capsized and all on board were drowned, the bay was full of sharks, the land was barren, nothing doing, nothing ever would be done. Don't go there. Then came along the Southern Pacific, passing San Diego by for some wicked offending, and so the embryo city rested from its labors for many days. Meanwhile Los Angeles was reveling in a triumph of misrepresentation and vituperation. And made it profit- able. Dishonesty was the best policy. How they feel about it now is difficult to say, as most of those particular liars are dead. On the streets of San Francisco among scattering At- lantic Americans we see many persons of Teutonic caste, but there is no predominating type. Business men of the first rank are mostly Americans from the eastern states, A NEW LAND AND A NEW PEOPLE 161 while the lower class of politicians are of alien origin. The Oregonian lacks the full face and form of the Cali- fornian, has a more refined expression though somewhat awkward in bearing, but on the whole more American than Calif ornian, owing to pure origin, isolation and re- tirement, and less alien intermixtures, particularly of the lower sort. The early Anglo-Californian was known as such the world over; large, alert, frank, good-natured features, but easily hardening under pressure; manners and dress alike worn loosely; a real or affected indifference in handling money, of which he would spend lavishly up to the last dollar. We have seen how like the shadow of a cloud, under the sombre influences of our worshipful pilgrim fathers and their successors, the American frontier had slowly crept westward from the Atlantic, leaving uncovered the wealth of industry, cities towns and factories, smiling fields and happy homes. We have seen how for half a cen- tury this frontier exercised a magical influence on Ameri- can thought and action, ever serving as a dividing line between reality and romance. Then presently out of the west came another frontier, approaching more rapidly, and meeting the first century after Independence at the great continental divide. Be- tween these two frontiers had long remained a vast area of mountain plain and desert, the Netherland of American development, the last of United States territory to be reclaimed from savagism. By it the two sides of the na- tion were held apart, until there had developed on the Pa- cific side a new type, but with essentially the same interests and ideals, the farthest west being now more eastern than the eastern west. All through the period of greatest expansion in the region between the settled communities of the Atlantic seaboard and the ever elusive frontier, social disorganiza- 162 RETROSPECTION tion prevailed. It was not until two hundred years after they had been claimed and bought and sold in Europe, that the lands now constituting the larger part of the United States, fell under the influence of civilization, and it was not until after 1846 that the region beyond the Mississippi came to any great extent into American life. Then the industrial energy of the east swept over the west, and the work of empire building began anew. Up to this time the population of the United States was practically American; that is to say, foreigners hitherto had come in so slowly, and were of such a quality as to become assimilated with no serious race deterioration. Never was displayed a deeper love of country, never was shown greater devotion by both men and women, a willingness to give all they had and life itself for the ac- complishment of their purpose than by people of both the north and the south during the civil war. As in the early days of Rome, citizenship was a precious thing; to be one with the Republic was a sacred privilege. Fifty years ago the average American was patriotic. There is no average American now, and he is not patriotic. Faith in the future is not patriotism, it is not even religion when unattended by any formative effort. During the war with its brutalizing influence this passionate idealization of nationality declined to a sullen hatred of the enemy, and disgust over the growing cupidity and selfishness manifest on all sides. In like emergency some of the old feeling might return, but with the large addition of low-grade foreigners the old patriotism will scarcely be revived, for from that day to this we have been constantly assimilating the nationalities of Europe and absorbing them in our foody politic, each draft being from a yet lower depth until the lowest has long since been reached, and still we draw. This policy grew with the growth of the country; wealth and power must increase with the increase of population. This was true up to a certain point, which A NEW LAND AND A NEW PEOPLE 163 point we seem to have attained, for increase of wealth and numbers no longer add to our well-being. While the extent of our riches and resources was questioned, we asserted and insisted ; travelling, we bragged up to the limit through every capital in Europe. Now that wealth and power and greatness stand undisputed, we no longer boast. During the three decades from 1870 to 1900 there was added to the agricultural domain of the United States an area equal to the half of Europe, and every new tract wrested from savagism and thrown open to occupation was followed by a mad rush of mixed aliens and Ameri- cans, all eager for spoils. It was not avaricious speculators alone who fancied they saw in present development a permanent prosperity, but astute statesmen encouraged increase of numbers as enlargement of national advantages. The disorder spread southward and broke out in virulent form in Georgia, where a league was formed to aid in the begetting of chil- dren. Never was set going a foolishness so absurd, whether in the natural or the supernatural line, but that it found followers. What sayeth the preacher who thus preaches propagation with so loud a voice, patting the woolly head of a shambling negro and presenting him with a douceur because his wife gave to American citizenship four at a litter ? Does he not say quantity before quality ; anything of any shape, or color, or degree of intelligence may qualify as a member of this very free republic? And as for bringing into the world innocents, not know- ing or caring if any provision has been made for their upbringing, not knowing or caring if they are cursed from the beginning with the poverty and diseases of their par- ents, cannot any one see the crime of it? Of the behavior of men, civilized or half civilized, when thrown together in a new land without a govern- ment we have a fair example in early California, a new 164 RETROSPECTION land, not yet cleared of its low-grade root-and-grass- hopper eating humanity, yet the mildest mannered of American savages. In the ethnic evolution of Anglo- California the in- gredients of population were essentially mixed, and a re- construction of ideals must necessarily follow the coming together of many different peoples strangers to each other in a strange land. In the mines was one new phase of social development, and in the cities another. Among those that came were some from every nation under heaven, from all parts of Europe, Asia, Africa, America, and the islands of the sea. From the northern and middle United States came the greatest number, these to this day are the dominant element on the Pacific coast. Next were the people of the southern states, then Spanish Americans, Irish, Germans, Italians, French, and English; Scotch and Scandinavians, East Indians, Poles, and Rus- sians ; Arabs and Portuguese, Kanakas, South Sea islanders, and Australians; Chinese, Japanese, and Koreans. There were more negroes at first than later; they were not wanted here at any time, being lazy, lying, inefficient, and variable. Oregon passed a law at an early date that even free negroes should not be allowed to live within the limits of the territory. Professor Farrabee says that a perfect human develop- ment in the United States has been arrested, if not ruined, by the admission and absorption of low grade Europeans; that the people are suffering from the unfit and degener- ate, both native and foreign born, but that the error may yet be rectified. ' ' We have had an unexampled oppor- tunity, " the learned professor goes on to say, "to produce a perfect race of men and women. If we had been more careful as to the immigrants we admitted we could have insured an addition of nearly perfect people. Those im- migrants of a couple of generations ago who were not fully fit have left a progeny of still less fit persons. " That is to say, though the third generation is worse A NEW LAND AND A NEW PEOPLE 165 than the second we may recover and become as the first if we do not further debase our blood. If the professor will consider for a moment he will see that this can never be. Eace perfection is not a goal to be reached by human effort; race betterment, an eternal improvement, is all that we can accomplish, and whatever is lost cannot be regained. Further, the low alien element abroad will never be excluded so long as the low alien element at home possesses the power to admit them. No doubt the United States will in due time settle upon some kind of race, notwithstanding present ethnic dis- abilities, but it is scarcely to be expected that with two- thirds of the population the scum of Europe, .with probable future African and Asiatic intermixtures, the race will be equal to what it would have been had it remained largely Anglo-Saxon with only the best Teutonic affiliations. Though the substance has departed, we still apply the word American to the shadow, but only as a generic term. The Georgia piccaninny, or the New York son of a Russian Jew and Italian mother are no more Americans than if born in an African jungle or a St. Petersburg ghetto, though for our sins made politically our equal. As for line development in our new lands on the Pa- cific there were half a hundred types, or rather one might say every man was his own type, thought his own thoughts, spoke his own words, acted upon his own instincts, follow- ing his own inclinations, fearless of God or the devil, or of any other influence above or below save that mightiest of all powers the opinion of his fellow-men. The kind or quality of this opinion, so ardently desired, so imperiously demanded marked the man, determined his status in the scale of humanity, and gave him his place among his fellows. No questions need be asked him as to who or what he was ; his name and birthplace were matters of indifference. How he wished himself to be regarded by others; that was the man. And that is the man and the woman, here and elsewhere, to this day. 166 RETROSPECTION The typical hero of current tales of the Sierra foothills was the creation of a morbid fancy having little founda- tion in fact. False impressions were early abroad as to the character and quality of the men searching for gold during the flush times of California, owing to a disposition on the part of early romancers to caricature them. The author of this Retrospection spent some time in both the northern and southern mines, as well as in the cities. Al- though too inexperienced to make much of a study of the people, he was present at an impressionable age, and many of the striking and ever- vary ing scenes of those days re- main as vivid in his mind to-day as they were sixty years ago. Though, there was present enough of crude origi- nality to justify some of the story teller's flights of fancy, the quality of humanity as presented by them never ex- isted. The California miner of '49 and '50 was a plain, prac- tical man, of good common-sense, honest and industrious. It was a long and expensive journey to these mines, and the wholly worthless fellow seldom found his way thither. Yet he is presented to us as a new type, unique and pro- nounced, not in process of transformation but finished. Were it true, such an appearing could have been only as the result of a miracle, for in the autumn and winter of 1849 the mines were practically abandoned, owing to the heavy rains which flooded the valleys and impeded trans- portation. There were deviations, of course, so different had been the origin and development even from the same or contigu- ous quarters in the United States, we had not yet become accustomed to speak of California as in the United States. Take, for example, the individual and type christened in the mines "Pike County," before mentioned, from Pike county, Missouri, whence the earliest specimens came, though the name was applied to all of that quality, whether from Missouri, Tennessee, or Kentucky. What prolific qaulities of earth and air may here be A NEW LAND AND A NEW PEOPLE 167 found for breeding big brawny men of sluggish brain and strong sinews has never been explained, but the fact re- mains that in the California specimens, seven feet high with breadth and weight in proportion were not uncom- mon. Compare the tales of the romancers with the reports of Governor Riley to the secretary of war, August 30th, 1849. "Before leaving Monterey," he writes, "I heard numer- ous rumors of irregularities and crimes among those work- ing in the placers; but on visiting the mining regions, I was agreeably surprised to learn everything was quite the reverse from what had been represented, and that order and regularity were preserved throughout the entire extent of the mineral district. In each little settlement, or tented town, the miners have elected their alcaldes and constables, whose judicial decisions and efficient acts are sustained by the people, and enforced with much regularity and energy." And of San Francisco, Albert Williams remarks, "Valuable property exposed in frail structures or lying unprotected on the street was undisturbed. It was dangerous, it was also accounted mean to steal." The typical American miner presented a fair physique, above medium height, clean of limb, with an honest eye and decided opinions. He had common education, based upon good principles, and thought well of himself, with a conscience pliable enough to suit his purposes, yet with little disposition to downright wrong doing. Religious scruples brought from home melted under the compelling sun of his new environment. He was the best specimen of manhood ever seen in these parts, far better than can be found in proportionate numbers in California to-day. He was fearless and independent, with a pride above pride of dress; indifferent as to conven- tions, yet considerate of the rights and feelings of others. At bay he would do a wickedness quicker than a meanness. There were present professional gamblers, quiet and well-behaved, reticent always but especially so while en- 168 RETROSPECTION gaged at their occupation; not disposed to quarrel, not quick to shoot. The barkeeper conducted himself along similar lines ; any other course was bad business. As a rule the miners at large were temperate and frugal; loosed from all restraint they let themselves go upon occasions, certain of the riotous sort in dancing, drinking, shooting, with now and then a hanging meeting, or a Sunday raid on a Chinese camp or an Indian rancheria. It is remarkable how quickly outward bearing fitted itself to new conditions, how quickly the economics of the mines evolved a new and unique order of society which led to such erroneous estimates of individual character. Those men down among the boulders, who and what are they? Mostly of the middle class, I should say, were there any middle class in America, the middle class being the best class, well born, being American born, of re- spectable antecedents, educated, brought up to work, and neither rich nor poor. University men, not a few of them, club men some of them, though club men were not so common nor so shiftless then as now, embryonic lawyer, doctor, clergyman, though the young parson usually preferred dealing monte to digging for gold. And that slightly built, pale, boyish looking young fellow, quiet features, cadaverous skin, and mild eyes, but with a glint of steel in them I have seen him more than once; no one knew until the thing was tried, he least of all suspecting it, until accident brought it home to him, the lust for blood, for human butchery, harbored in his heart, in the heart the kindest and best of mothers gave him. What folly to talk! As well attempt to analyze the never existent angels as to sound the depths of human nature. The Englishman in the mines was staid and sober; he soon tired of the occupation and dropped out of line. So with the volatile Franchman, who fraternized and worked A NEW LAND AND A NEW PEOPLE 169 in companies. There were Mexicans, Kanakas, and some of every people under the sun, and of all grades of dirt and disposition. Some there were who had broken away from early as- sociations and habits to experiment in unknown fields under unimaginable conditions. They were of strong individualism with self-centred natures. Here were dis- played forces generated in distant homes and liberated in a community unrestrained by law or social convention. The spirit of these gold-devouring days was the spirit of individualized absolutism. Each was for himself and no other. He carried his life in his pocket, his hip pocket as he fancied; to those about him his life was of no con- sequence; if he lost it that was his affair. Touch his property, his comrades were quite ready to help hang the thief, as in the sacredness of property rights all had a common interest. There was nothing sacred in human life, all must die sooner or- later; a little time more or less made no difference. Entertaining such sentiments, the greatest of crimes being theft, the least of crimes murder, gold became king and ruled royally. On the hut floor or cabin shelf were loose nuggets and tin cans of gold-dust, unguarded alike, whether the owner was off at work during the day or carousing at night, none dare touch it. Few desired to touch it ; it was better to go out among the boulders and gather it. Besides, during the first year of the Inferno, which for the first year was not an inferno, but simply a gathering of neighbors and friends, all was quiet, a summery picnic, sleeping in the chaparral, eating meat and gathering gold ; the advent of crime was during the second year of this new civilization. If life was of little consequence, the veneer of life was still less regarded. The first look of the initiated at a new-comer was to penetrate appearances; color, creed, clothes, all on the instant became transparent as the qualities of the man were laid bare for inspection, If 170 RETROSPECTION he took kindly to the use of his stove-pipe hat for a foot- ball, and his baptism in bad whiskey, that were a good be- ginning, but there must be present honesty as well as amiability to make a good devil. It was a bad place for the vendor of hypocrisy and fraud. A prominent feature of the flush times was the swift succession of startling events, making a day seem like a year and a year a life-time. Up and down, rich to-day and poor to-morrow, alive to-day and dead to-morrow; here a town at midnight, in the morning ashes ; a fine farm yesterday, now a flood ; a start for home ah ! what thrills of delight ! thrust back among the boulders by the failure of a bank; news from loved ones, oh hell! disease and death. In the colonization of the earth the several European nationalities were distinctly marked one from another, while in each nationality the members were much alike. Thus in New England one person or town or city would be similar to all other New England persons or towns or cities. So with regard to the Quakers and Germans o.f Pennsylvania, the Dutch of New York, the English of Virginia and the Carolinas, while each colony differed from all the others, the members of each were all like one another. So with mid-continent occupation; while the migra- tions to the Ohio and Mississippi valleys brought with them the individualisms of their several Atlantic homes, amal- gamations set in and soon the many several settlements were to a certain extent one people. In the settlement of the Pacific coast it was quite dif- ferent. However diverse may have been the component parts the towns and cities assumed an individualism which they retain to this day. The Hispano-Californian element, like the Indian, soon faded into nothingness, leaving no mark. The early north Atlantic people assumed the supremacy, and still main- tain it, while from the south Atlantic and the middle A NEW LAND AND A NEW PEOPLE 171 west, and from all the foreign world were aliens without number, peoples with many various ideals destined here to enforced assimilation. Those who came gold-hunting to California were not pioneers in the ordinary sense of the word, as I have said. They did not come to explore, or to remove obstacles, or to prepare the way for others, like the first settlers in the valleys of the Ohio and the Mississippi. There were never any pioneers, properly so called, to California, though there is a pioneer society in San Fran- cisco, the distinguishing characteristic of whose members is not merit, achievement, or intellect, but simply existence, they or their progenitors came to California before a certain date, if as horse-thieves the membership require- ment would be met all the same. The gold-seekers came for gold and nothing else, and their time having expired they took their departure leav- ing no mark. Agriculture and commerce came later, when the pioneering had all been done, not by pioneers, but by trappers, miners, and adventurers. The men whom fate flung into the Foothills in 1849, what did they? They dug a hole and left it there. Their achievement was a hole; they did not even stop to fill it up when they hurried away to make another hole else- where. Such was pioneering on this gold-bitten coast, achieving holes in the Sierra or saloons in the city. Upon the change of government from Mexican to American, political relations remained undisturbed. Cali- fornians of the Latin race at first fell gracefully into place, accepting as truth and sincerity whatever the agents of Uncle Sam chose to tell them. At the convention to form a constitution Sepulveda, Bandini, Alvarado, and others spoke eloquently and to the point, gaining the re- spect and good will of their coadjutors. But when they found the words of the Yankee hollow, and their promises vain, their indignation was aroused; they felt themselves betrayed, as indeed many of them were. CHAPTER X THE MILLS OP THE GODS WHEN the treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo was signed in that suburb of Mexico city on the 2d of February, 1848, the first knowledge of which reached California the following August, there stood upon the border of the little cove on the inner side of the peninsula forming San Francisco bay, and opposite Yerba Buena island, a hamlet of 850 people living in 200 houses, built some of them of adobe, a few at the base of Telegraph hill and scattered up Clay and Sacramento streets being of cloth. The inhabitants were a mixture of Mexicans, Calif orni- ans, Americans, and a few aliens who had been living there under military rule since 1847, at which time Washington A. Bartlett was made alcalde, to be succeeded by Bryant, Hyde, and Leavenworth. It was a community of men mostly, men of a somewhat restless disposition and speculative turn of mind, yet with sufficient staying qualities to remain in place when properly anchored amidst suitable surroundings. There were the mission of Dolores well away on one side and the presidio of San Francisco off on the other, each attending to its own affairs, which were the affairs of heaven and of the Mexican republic, the saving with remnants of mission property the few remaining souls of a castaway humanity. Open portal from the great Pacific to these realms was the Golden Gate, so called and so mapped long before Kit Carson had shown Benton's son-in-law the way to Cali- fornia, or Sutter had paddled his boat up the Sacramento, or Marshall had seen the color of gold in the tail-race. 172 THE MILLS OF THE GODS 173 Away back in 1835, long enough ago when considered in relation to the awakening of these shores, the English- man Richardson had moved over from Sausalito, and clear- ing away the chaparral and yerba buena, or sweet smelling herb, which gave its name to the little cove where it grew, had set up a trading-tent, as a place better suited to his hide and tallow business and more accessible to his female customers from the ranches south and across the Bay. The next inhabitant was an American, Jacob P. Leese, who came up the following year from Los Angeles, and with his friends, William Hinckley and Nathan Spear from Monterey, put up a substantial frame building, in which they conducted their business. Others came straggling along, the Hudson Bay company establishing a branch there in 1841. Now and then a famous navigator like Vancouver Kotzebue or La Perouse, Roquefeuil or Beechey would anchor before the Cove, and landing pay his compliments to the sleepy village. Then after visiting the Mission and Presidio, perhaps, or mounting a bronco and rolling off sailor fashion in a ride to San Jose, calling in on the patriarchal rancheros, they would finally take their depar- ture amidst many cheap compliments, of which the Cali- fornians kept always on hand a good supply. Thus the embryo metropolis of the Pacific was set upon its feet and given a push into the future, several pushes, in fact, and most remarkable ones. First, the name. General Vallejo in 1846 had given five square miles of land on the strait of Carquinez for the capital city of California, and promised to build the nec- essary legislative halls provided the seat of government should be placed there, and should bear the name of his wife Francisca. It was, and is, in every respect the most suitable spot around the Bay for an imperial city, and none better in all the world, and it was making rapid progress in that direction when Alcalde Bartlett and 114: RETROSPECTION Colonel Folsom, the latter United States quartermaster, put their heads together and contrived a little Yankee trick, which decided the destinies of the two cities forever, and filled the Hispano-Californians with disgust. This was no less than to change the name of Yerba Buena to San Francisco, which was done, and the place pointed out to arriving vessels as the city of the Bay. Further still, our Seraphic Father, pleased by the compli- ment, and willing to ignore the mercenary part of it, sounded the call of gold throughout the world, and brought within the year to this his distant port a fleet of six hun- dred sail, crowded with adventurers hungry for the bait. All along the dreams of the sleepers at the Cove had been troubled with visions of the future, visions some of them too brilliant to be comfortable. Since the appearance on the coast of United States government officials, and the representatives of European powers, with the hide and tallow traders at the Cove, some thoughts of a future metropolis at this point had been entertained, though opinion was divided as to the relative importance of Yerba Buena, Monterey, and Francisca, the city of the strait. "It is a good country," they used to argue in their dreams, "better than the Mayflower people had, and a harbor far superior to that of which the New York Dutchmen boast. "Well, they were nothing once, had not even hides and tallow behind them, and that was only two hundred years ago; we should be as great as New York in two hundred years. Why not? We will sleep further on it." But the days of dreams and nights of sleep were over. Here was a consummation! Each day was two hundred years, each night a century. Every people must have a history, if only wherewith to embellish school-books. And every history must have in it some fighting and bloodshed, else it is unworthy to be regarded as history, though it might not improperly be called butchery. It is a little difficult however to make THE MILLS OF THE GODS 175 anything heroic out of the deeds of the American fili- busters known as the Bear Flag party, or even of the doings of the military men in California at that time. James A. Forbes was British consul, and J. S. Moer- enhaut French consul. Thomas 0. Larkin's functions as United States consul at Monterey ceased, of course, with the treaty. It was the transition period from the old to the new, the years 1846 to 1848. Mission and military rule both must give way to a government by the people, at first a rabble, flotsam blown in from the ocean, with trappers percolating through the mountains to fill up afresh with whiskey and dance with the senoritas, in whose eyes a man with a white skin was as an angel from heaven. There was present no pretence of law except in the towns, where a sprinkling of Americans were already contending for office. Stockton, Kearny, and Fremont, after their several military and diplomatic antics with the generals and admirals of the army and navy, had taken their departure. Already in full swing were two newspapers, the Cali- fornian Star by Samuel Brannan, and the Californian brought up from Monterey by Robert Semple. Brannan had brought out in the ship Brooklyn the type and outfit of a Mormon paper, the Prophet, which he had previously published in New York. The two journals were after- ward united as the Star and Californian, but from the be- ginning of 1849 became known as the Alta California. In the east and north, beyond the line of missions ex- tending from San Diego to San Francisco bay, it was all open unclaimed country, save a few scattering settlers and the occupants of certain Mexican grants. Vallejo at Sonoma, Sutter at Sacramento, Doctor Marsh at Livermore, Gilroy on his rancho south of San Jose, Yount in Napa valley, Stone and Kelsey at Clear Lake, Sheldon on the Cosumnes, and Wolf skill at Putah creek, represented interior California at that day. 176 RETROSPECTION The most important towns outside of San Francisco were the pueblos of San Jose and Los Angeles, where lots were sold at first as in San Francisco at twenty-five cents per front vara. In Napa valley a town site was laid out, and when two shacks were set up it was hailed in the Yerba Buena press as Napa city. Ignacio Pacheco ruled at San Rafael as juez de paz, followed later by Timothy Murphy as alcalde, the latter being also in charge of the ex-mission property. Water and vegetables were brought from Sausalito, where stood Reed's cabin, and where whalers used to winter. Later a boat-tank was built and water piped into it and served on the hither side of the Bay from water- carts. A ludicrous feature in the municipal development of San Francisco was the early appearance of sectional rivalry, reminding one of chicks just out of the shell as- suming a belligerent attitude toward each other. The rival sections were only four blocks apart, one being at the foot of Clay street, one at the foot of Broad- way, and one at the foot of California street. The Jackson street lagoon at Montgomery street was filled up at public expense. At the foot of Clay street, which was in the centre of the Cove half a block from Montgomery street, was a little wooden wharf extending out into the shallow water. The foot of Broadway, near the base of Telegraph hill, extended below Battery, where the water was deeper, and where also a little wharf was constructed. California street at that time terminated at Sansome street, where also was the pretence of a wharf. The relative advantages were the central locality with a bad landing at Clay street, as against the better but more distant landings at California street and at Broadway. Later as the Cove was filled up, the Clay street wharf was extended to nearly half a mile from Montgomery street. Prominent in the Clay street faction were Nathan THE MILLS OF THE GODS 177 Spear, William S. Hinckley, J. P. Leese, Jean Vioget, Mellus id Howard, Ward and Smith, Cross and Hobson, and r illiam G. Rae. Champions of Broadway landing were J. Hensley, J. K. Ackerman, DeWitt and Harrison, 'eter Wimmer, Ira T. Steffins, B. R. Buckelew, and Jasper O'Farrell; while interested in California street were John Robbins, William Pettet, William Foster, Brannan, ^arkin, Doctor Townsend, Clark, Hastings, and others. It be noticed that these are nearly all English or Ameri- m names. Other rivalries were at hand, contentions among the alcaldes, two ayuntamientos, and duplicate maps on which names of the streets were in some instances changed. Later there were land-titles, the slavery question, the Chi- nese question, craft and graft; but we have sufficient to claim our present attention without referring to the more modern events. A survey was made by Vioget in 1839; Jasper O'Far- rell also made a survey and lots were placed on sale. 50 varas at $12 and 100 varas at $25 each, after 1200 had been granted or sold for municipal expenses for the first three years. A map signed by Alcalde Bartlett calls Battery street Battery place; Sansome is Sloat street, Pacific is Bartlett street, Sacramento street is called Howard, and the names of Dupont and Stockton streets are reversed. Thus Du- pont street has had three namings, and worse might be done than to change it again. In a spasm of political enthusiasm incident to the re- turn of General Grant from his trip around the world, the flag of Admiral Dupont was hauled down and that of the later-made great man raised in its stead. In our latter-day rejoicing the names of two others of our immaculate mayors appealing to our gratitude sug- gest another change for this much named avenue of Du- pont and Grant. Consider how the patriotic hearts would swell within us as the car conductor called out " Eugene 178 RETROSPECTION Schmitz street," or "P. H. McCarthy street," and how could we better honor lower Market street than by giving it the illustrious name of one who has loved it long and dearly, that we might ever hear amidst the rattle of the horse- cars adorning it the reminiscent sound of " Patrick Cal- houn street." He who later was General Sherman was there but ob- tained no street. Nor did Clark Leidesdorff or Stevenson, Gillespie Ward or Halleck fare much better, some of them having only a back alley to do them honor. Hyde street might have been given a name of better repute ; one whom everybody is trying to cheat is pretty sure to be trying to cheat everybody. There is no reason why the names of Montgomery, Kearny, Stockton, Grant, Fremont, or Folsom should have been given to the most prominent streets, none of these men ever having rendered important service or become identified in any way with the interests of the city or state, as was the case of Larkin, Sutter, Vallejo, Howard, Brannan, Broderick, and Leavenworth. Still less have we any cause to honor Polk, Fillmore, Gough, Steiner, or O'Farrell, and others similar both alien and American, while Van Ness is scarcely the name to apply to the finest boulevard in the city. It is small honor for a great man but great honor for a small man thus to have his name given to a street. Pending a treaty of peace between Mexico and the United States, alcaldes who had been elected or appointed continued to administer justice according to their ideas of Mexican law and the old usages, appealing in difficult cases to the governor, whose policy it was to interfere as little as possible. Then began to appear something more imposing and effective in the form of special courts for special service organized under the fragmentary laws lying around, left over from alcalde's courts and military orders, as the ap- THE MILLS OF THE GODS 179 inting of Sutter and Vallejo to supervise in the trial of rtain members of the Mormon battalion for passing unterfeit gold coin, Stephen C. Foster and Abel Stearns ting as judges. So at Santa Barbara, Benjamin Foxen was tried before specially appointed judges for killing Augustin Davila whom he caught stealing his chickens near Santa Inez. The jury consisted of six Californians and six Americans, and the verdict was four years imprisonment. While confidential agent of the United States at Los Angeles, Abel Stearns was made sub-prefect, with Gallardo and Sepulveda as alcaldes. Later the city was under mili- Ey rule, with Salazar and Avila as alcaldes. Such was the condition of affairs when the gold-seekers ived, the dominant element among them being free white lerican citizens, as they sometimes styled themselves, flushed with a sense of their own importance, the impor- tance of this new acquisition of territory, and impressed most of all with the fact that here were bushels of gold to be picked up by those who should prove to be the best scramblers after it. We should not expect to find in such a class so con- ditioned any waste of patience over bars of justice which a strong arm might remove at pleasure, least of all the tolerance of the pettifogging system so common in courts of law throughout Christendom. The temper of the town quickly changed. The alcaldes ceased their bickerings, the Mormons their street preachings, and the chronic loafers were galvanized into some show of activity. The reign of justice was early inaugurated by men who later became prominent as good citizens. Although ar- rivals by land and by water up to the autumn of 1849 were constant, yet for a time in midsummer there was an air of quiet about the place while the people were away at the mines. Portsmouth square, or the Plaza, was the civic centre, where were enacted the dramas of the day, tragic and comic. 180 RETROSPECTION On Sunday, the 15th of July, of this memorable year, a singular spectacle presented itself upon the streets. Up to this time little thought had been given to crimes or criminals, as there were present none to speak of, either in the cities or in the mines. Good men, for the most part, had come from neighboring places to gather gold, not to prey upon each other. They had no desire to steal. But from some Australian vessels which had arrived of late had crept in criminals from the penal settlements of Great Britain, notably from Sydney, who were just now be- ginning to make their presence felt in San Francisco. This Sunday had been appointed by the wicked ones for the opening of their carnival of crime. The Hounds they at first called themselves, but upon reconsideration they fancied that Regulators sounded better ; their headquarters was a tent on Kearny street which they called Tammany hall. In fantastic array, with banners flying, and armed with clubs, knives, pistols, or whatever they could lay hands on as weapons of war, they sallied forth. Skirting the busi- ness quarter, then bounded by Kearny and Washington streets, they passed on by the Plaza and down Jackson to Montgomery street, and then to Telegraph hill, where was a suburb settlement of Chileans and Mexicans. Upon these, most of the men being absent, they charged right valiantly, putting the women and children to flight without the loss of a single man. Taking whatever they chose from the spoils of the conquered, and flushed with victory, they returned, march- ing through Montgomery street, and dropping in on their way at the stores, which were always open on Sunday, helped themselves to whatever they fancied with the curt explanation, "Charge it to Tammany hall." Thereupon they returned in triumph to headquarters. Instigated to this bold act by the air of quietude which pervaded the place on this peaceful Sabbath morning, the gentlemen from abroad soon learned that there were THE MILLS OF THE GODS 181 still men enough at hand, and of the proper quality, to take care of themselves and of the town. Officially, California was as yet neither a territory nor a state, only a country stolen from Mexico and held by superior force, the light military rule being next to nothing, the treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo still permitting the shadow of Mexican jurisprudence to hover over the primal region so newly gilded with gold. Hence there were pres- ent in the usual form neither law nor government; but there was justice, which is better than law or government when the law is used to defeat the efforts of justice and the government is administered by ignorant and unprin- cipled aliens for their own benefit. However this may be, early next morning Justice stood boldly forth at the street corner in young San Francisco; and there came along Frank Turk, F. J. Lippitt, Hall Mc- Allister, grim old Horace Hawes, afterward author of the Consolidation act, which saved to the city so much money and law waste ; P. Barry, who sold the best of whiskey over the bar; Myron Norton, later one of San Francisco's best and purest judges, and Sam Brannan, ubiquitous Sam, still king of the Mormons, and not at all bashful. Sam could declaim equally well on saints or sinners. These and others met, and talked, and went their way to meet again at noon. Law is a good thing when held in its proper place by justice ; so justice stood by and fully acquiesced, indulging itself in no tricks of law to overthrow the law, while 230 men enrolled themselves as a police force, arrested nine- teen of the gay Regulators, including Roberts, leader of the gang, and confined them on board the United States ship General Warren, then lying at anchor in the harbor. A grand jury was impaneled, indictments found, and trial held, justice still smiling on law, which was present mainly in theory. Among others there were Gillespie and Howard, Simmons and Spofford. William M. Gwin, later 182 RETROSPECTION United States senator from California, and James C. Ward were chosen associate judges to assist T. M. Leavenworth, alcalde and shadow of the law. F. J. Lippitt, Hall Mc- Allister, Horace Hawes, and Frank Turk were appointed prosecuting attorneys, and P. Barry and Myron Norton assigned for the defence. A verdict of guilty was ren- dered by the jury, and the penalties of imprisonment for various terms pronounced. About the same time five mutineers who had attempted the life of an officer, were caught and tried, Commodore Jones and Hall McAllister officiating. As there was pres- ent no high court of interference to grant a new trial, on conviction they were punished, two shot and three im- prisoned, the affair being concluded within four days. Thus was lawfully executed justice without law, some- thing our latter-day jurists seem to find it difficult to arrive at. Other arrests were made with similar results, and the incident was closed rather a tame affair as introductory to a reign of right, and one which even law could find little fault with. A beneficial influence on court proceedings as well as on society in general came with the arrival during the sum- mer of W. B. Almond, from Missouri, who was at once in- stalled judge of the First Instance, a court superior to that of the alcalde's. Judge Almond was a man of ability and honesty, and not afraid to act upon his convictions. Verbiage in court proceedings he detested, and an appeal to judicial inbecility in the way of hair-splitting was not allowed. To represent the law prior to admission as a state there was the military governor at Monterey, an alcalde or jus- tice of the peace at each of the towns, and an ayuntamiento or town council at the larger places. A dismantled brig, the Euphemia, lying in the Cove at Front street was pur- chased and used as a jail. The treaty with Mexico continued Mexican forms of THE MILLS OF THE GODS 183 government in force when not in conflict with the constitu- tion of the United States. The law as administered by an alcalde's court, and the superior court of First Instance, were relics of old Mexican methods, which American law- yers and judges treated with little consideration, but took the law into their own hands and ruled in defiance of law as occasion required. In 1851 it was the counsel for the burglars only that spoke for law and order, but in 1856 lawyers, judges, murderers, thieves, ballot-box stuffers, newspaper men, gamblers, harlots, officials of all sorts and assassins of the Cora and Casey stripe, all cried lustily for the law to throw its aegis over them and protect them from just punishment for their sins. Please make a note of it, that since the quietus put upon public immorality by the uprising of 1851, yet to be de- scribed, the law had remained undemonstrative, and good order prevailed. But no sooner had law began to stir itself than evil doings appeared again, for law was the safest protection of crime ; Cora, Casey, and all the notori- ous criminals of the later time immediately on their arrest sought the jail, the judges, and the courts as a sanctuary, a harbor of rest where they knew themselves to be safe. Far be it from me to exalt the rule of lawless mobs, something San Francisco has never yet seen. I merely state the fact, and further remark that lawless mobs are not made of law abiding citizens. Before these self-asser- tive men evil doers slunk away. There were no more rob- beries or murders after the incipient attempt just men- tioned until the advent of law. No sooner had law become firmly established, with all its old-time forms and furbe- lows, than hydraheaded crime crept forth and smiled. ' ' Hah ! this is something like old times, ' ' said the men of Sydney ; and they of the fire-eating south responded "It is like old times." For a year after the Hounds episode, peace reigned in the effervescent hamlet, and strangers walked the dark 184 RETROSPECTION streets unafraid. Then more English convicts came in from Sydney and began to fire the inflammable houses, and to steal, and to kill. Whereupon up rose the same level-minded citizens, still following forms of law but without seeking from New York or Missouri twist or tech- nicality which should free the scoundrels and enable them to burn what was left of the town, they straighway hanged some and sent the others back to their old Australia home. This ever-shifting society, however, was not sufficiently sterilized long to hold in check new forces for evil, whether in the form of estrays from the convict colonies of Eng- land, or deflections from the paths of rectitude in proxi- mate quarters. During the winter of 1849-50 heavy rains in the moun- tains and floods in the valleys drove the inhabitants to the towns, and before spring depredations were in full blast. Incendiary fires were frequent, and there were robberies or murders nearly every day. Six times within three years San Francisco, or the greater part of it, was burned, as we have seen. In the summer of 1851 crime broke out afresh, the source being further arrivals af aliens from every quarter. Here was the beginning on the Pacific of the bad policy of admitting every sort of humanity to the free participa- tion in all benefits of our commonwealth, of our land, our gold, our institutions, to the general demoralization of the people. Making their nest in a place called Sydney valley, they drank and slept by day, issuing forth at night to fire, pil- lage, and murder. They were probably not the vilest human element in the world, though their advent at this time was a curse and their presence a moral pestilence. As their numbers increased, the gang divided, some going to Sacramento and others to the mines. With our present courts and criminal practice, they could have continued their depredations indefinitely. THE MILLS OF THE GODS 185 vv ommittee of Vigilance, or Board of Public Safety, as organized by 700 of the best citizens, with constitu- ion, by-laws, executive officers, and a bank account. It as somewhat different from any organization ever before ffected on a similar scale and by such a class of men. Again a period of tranquillity, until in 1856 the young bay city suddenly found itself in the toils of another onster of iniquity, not this time men from England's nvict colony, but from our own dear native land, from hiladelphia, the traditional city of peace and purity; rom Virginia, the home of gentle chivalry; from Texas, e land of bowie-knife bravery. These, translated by the ethnic influence of the unac- customed air, and by the somewhat too free association with exhilarating women and wine, had by some strange gic of their own come to regard themselves as the proper rulers of the people gathered here, and henceforth they proposed to exercise their rights in this respect. They were of a different order of humanity they aimed, from the damned pork-sellers of Front street, as their classic phraseology they alluded to the merchants d business men of the city, though of that same pork, southern chivalry would have no hesitation to purchase and never pay for, if the gentlemen might obtain it on credit. Were they not of the first families of Virginia, F. V.'s for short? Neither they nor their ancestors ad been accustomed to work, and as for trade, it was Igar. Politics they took to naturally; office was theirs and he spoils of office, the latter to be measured by their free ill and necessities. To rule was their native air; it was e province of others to work and support them, as men worked for Queen Victoria and her thousand of sisters and sons, to work and pay the proper tax, that there should always be something in the public coffers for them steal. Time passed while the new nationalism unfolded from 186 RETROSPECTION Portsmouth square. On the upper side rose the engine- house of the Monumental fire company, whose bell rang the citizens to arms and felons to their death. The win- dows of the St. Francis hotel, on the upper Clay street corner of the Plaza, blinked in the morning sun after a night of revels, the noise from which rolled up from the great gambling houses below. Slowly tolled the engine bells at this fresh offering of the people at the shrine of justice, the California com- pany's bell striking first and then the Monumental bell. It was John Jenkins they were hanging to a high beam of the veranda at the south end of the old adobe custom- house building, for incendiarism, robbery, and murder. Next was James Stuart, murderer, thief, and so forth, with Frank Pixley as his attorney, arrested, tried, con- demned, and hanged by the citizens. Two others, Whit- taker and McKenzie, hanged at the Committee rooms on Battery street, and some thirty imprisoned or sent away concluded the work of the Committee of 1851. In 1856 the work of the Committee was about the same, four hanged, Cora and Casey at one time, Hetherington and Brace at another time, and a number of others im- prisoned or expatriated. As compared with the offenses the punishment was light. As compared with the crimes and punishments in other places, murders and robberies by the thousand, the achievement was small. But it was sufficient; the effect was pronounced. Justification? They would indeed have needed justi- fication had they stood inanely by trembling before the bogy law, or fearful of their own shadow as did their successors at a later day. Throughout California, in the mines and on the plains, in Oregon and British Columbia, as well as in and around the great desert, during all this period of non-rule, arbi- trary justice held in check crime, which otherwise would THE MILLS OF THE GODS 187 have rendered the country uninhabitable. In every place were certain good citizens, who organized as a moral force, and after a brief but fair and effective trial of those caught in criminal acts, some were hanged and others driven away. Everywhere like prompt and efficient work was done and crime was intimidated. After Idaho was dismembered and Montana given a territorial organization in 1864, and the yield of gold became large, Henry Plummer, chief of a band of eighty robbers was made sheriff. All went swimmingly for a time; the stages and pack-trains carried large quantities of treasure and Plummer found the game easy and inter- esting. When the trick was discovered a vigilance com- mittee of a thousand members was organized and arrests were made. Certain lawyers who offered their services for the defense were driven from the country, and in due time Plummer and fifty others were hanging from trees in different parts of the territory. Such wholesale opera- tions in the mountains made the achievements at the [olden Gate look small. The characteristics of crime and criminals in Sari Francisco in 1851 refer to a common class of felons, thieves, burglars, and murderers, nearly all of them for- eigners. The criminal class of 1856 moved in the higher walks of life, and its members regarded themselves as constituting the best society. There were the governor, three supreme court judges, and nearly all of the smaller judges and justices of the peace, city and county officials, newspaper proprietors, and a large following of high-class loafers. Their crimes were as a rule political, but they were free with bowie-knife and pistol whenever any one stood in their way. They were mostly Americans, and southern- ers, slave-holders of Virginia and fire-eaters from Texas and the Carolinas, like the big Indians and the big Eng- lishmen, too proud or too lazy to work, yet not above liv- ing on the work of others. 188 RETROSPECTION They usurped the offices of town, county, and state, and as a class were as distinct as are the high-crime anti- prosecution people of to-day. They were largely hibitues of gambling saloons and familiar with prostitutes. The people were their prey, the merchants and business men they regarded as mercenaries, while mechanics and other laborers were poor white trash. I cannot honor the names and deeds of all this high society set of the olden time on these pages, suffice it to say that among their number were governors and chief justices, the Honorable Judge Edward McGowan, thief and cutthroat like the others, who though not all of them criminals of the common order were most of them high-class men-killers ; Billy Mulligan, court official and tout; Casey, editor; Cora, pimp; Nugent, editor; Jack Hays, sheriff; Palmer Cook and company, cutthroat bank- ers and manipulators of the public funds; I. C. Woods, manager of Adams and company, insolvent express men and bankers; J. Y. McDuffie, United States marshal and gambler; honest Harry Meiggs, absconder; Yankee Sul- livan, ballot-box stuffer, and a prosecuting attorney who would never prosecute one of those who had helped to elect him. The difference of high society criminality then and now was that southern chivalry loved manslaughter while the northern pork-sellers love money. Such were the limbs of the law during this reign of law, the fundamental principle of which was that never one of the fraternity however guilty should be punished. Here are some of the doings that led to the greatest of popular demonstrations, in the cause of civic righteous- ness, without subversion of the law or of the government, that the world has ever seen, namely, the San Francisco Vigilance Committee of 1856. James King of William, native of the District of Columbia, and former banker of San Francisco, issued on jai s pr THE MILLS OF THE GODS 189 the 8th of October, 1855, the first number of the Evening Bulletin, in which prominent offenders were attacked with a virulent pen. Warned by his friends that his life was in danger he scourged offenders more severely than ever. Charles Duane, Casey, Cora, Woolly Kearny, Billy Mulligan, Yankee Sullivan, Martin Gallagher, Tom Cun- ningham, and all that class of shoulder-striking ballot- box stuffing politicians, high-crime judges, and all ruffians who made themselves conspicuous in public affairs, like the notorious politico-banking firms of Palmer Cook and mpany, and Adams and company, he tore in pieces with Imost savage ferocity. Charles Cora brutally shot to death United States Marshal Richardson; then he nestled safely in the bosom of the law until the long arm of vigilance dragged him forth. Billy Mulligan, his keeper, was Cora's friend. Burst forth the Bulletin, "Hang Billy Mulligan. That's the word! If Mr. Sheriff Scannell does not remove Billy Mulligan from his present post as keeper of the county jail, and Mulligan lets Cora escape, and if necessary to t rid of the sheriff, hang him, hang the sheriff ! ' ' The fact that Casey has been an inmate of Sing Sing rison, in New York, is no offense against the laws of this state; nor is the fact of his having stuffed himself through the ballot-box as elected to the board of super- visors from a district where it is said he was not even a candidate, any justification for Mr. Bagley to shoot Casey, however richly the latter may deserve to have his neck stretched for such fraud on the people. " On the 12th of December the editorial of the Bulletin says: "The people of this city are not in favor of taking the law into their own hands if justice can be done in the courts; and no class of men can be found in this com- munity more in favor of law and order than the members of the vigilance committee. But if the courts were to re- lapse into the former farcial apologies we had, it would 190 RETROSPECTION require but a few hours to again call into action the same body of men, as before, the best business men of the city as members and co-workers." "Bets are offered," King writes on the 22d of Novem- ber, "that the editor of the Bulletin will not be in exist- ence twenty days longer." On the 14th of May, 1856, James King of William was shot by James P. Casey, who was hanged by the vigilance committee on the 22d, just as the undertakers were thrust- ing the coffined martyr into the plumed hearse, which led the procession, two miles in length, away to the lone moun- tain. The day after the assassination the editorial column of the Bulletin was a blank, speaking louder in its whita empty silence than even when filled with the flaming words of its director. The vigilance committee of 1851 had never been for- mally disbanded, yet a new organization was at once effected with William T. Coleman at its head, which at the comple- tion of its work numbered ten thousand of the best citizens of San Francisco. The governor, with Captain Sherman and Mr. Garri- son, went about among the citizens to see what could be done. Coming upon the president of the committee, Mr. Coleman, they asked him what was the trouble. "Outrages are of a constant occurrence," he said. '* ' Our suffrages are profaned, our fellow-citizens are shot down in the street, while the courts afford us no redress." "The courts are the proper remedy; there is no neces- sity to raise a mob," replied the governor. "Sir," said Coleman, "this is not a mob, but a delib- erate body of law-abiding citizens pledged to do their duty. It is a government within a government, the very heart of government pulsating under the poisonous effects of unrebuked villainy. You know as well as I that it is idle to look for justice at the hand of these courts of law." THE MILLS OF THE GODS 191 On the south side of Sacramento street, below Front, rooms were secured, and a fortress of bags filled with sand was constructed and called Fort Gunnybags. John Nugent, Irish duelist and friend of southern chivalry, was the able editor of the most influential news- paper of the city, the source of whose greatest profit was the advertisements of the auctioneers, which filled every morning a page. This journal, the Herald, during the earlier part of the crusade was stanch on the side of the stranglers, as the men of vigilance were sometimes called. In their previous efforts the Herald was loud in its com- mendation of latter-day vigilance, but when crime became aristocratic the Herald grew quite rabid in denouncing those who opposed it. The merchants met and took away their auction adver- tisements, and gave them to the Alta California. Next morning a blank white page was seen where the auction advertisements were wont to be. Whereupon this bluff: "We assure those gentlemen who have joined in this un- wanton, and despicable crusade against us that we will make them hide their heads for very shame before we are done with them." Poor little foxy, mettlesome, Johnny Nugent ! Small, of light complexion and delicate features, soft and slow of speech, modest and sensitive, yet lion-hearted and intel- lectually great; he made his one mistake, only one, and then with his great journal, which truly had been a bright light for half a decade, flickered and went out. Justice Terry was a hard nut for vigilance to crack. The smell of blood made him furious. Unable to resist the temptation, he stepped from the supreme bench at Sacramento and came to San Francisco to mingle in the fray. He stabbed in the neck Hopkins, a vigilance cap- tain, sent to arrest one of Terry's friends. Terry was arrested, confined for several weeks in the vigilance rooms, underwent a long trial, was convicted, condemned, and set at liberty. just, 192 RETROSPECTION The city at first was indignant at his discharge, but soon sober reason returned. To hold long incarcerated so high a criminal, if not impossible was contrary to the policy or purpose of the Committee, whose object was to stifle crime and not to usurp the government. This su- preme judge would have been taken from their hands by state or federal forces, turned over to the law and sent back to his seat of justice. After a lingering illness Hopkins recovered, else Terry would have hanged. Never had any civilized city witnessed a more impres- sive spectacle than the final parade and retirement of this band of citizens. Brave men and true, self-sacrificing and determined, they saw their city foul with immorality and crime and rose up and purged it. Soberly, dispassionately, they had performed their unwelcome task, not one mis- take, not a single discordant note of passion; then they laid down their power, the almighty power of the people whenever the people choose to exercise it, and returned to their personal affairs, good citizens all, respecters of the law, still obedient to the law in the face of the jeering law- mongers who employ the law lonly to serve their own purposes. It is doubtful if San Francisco will ever see another uprising like this. The population is less American and more alien, more mercenary now than then; there is less manhood in the mixture, less courage, less patriotism. Conflicts will come, capital against labor and high crime against the people; the battle has yet to be fought out, but it will be more brutal and bloody, and ruled less by reason, than was the case in the quiet citizen-revolution of 1856. Pray the gods that their mills may be kept running until the superstition and chicane which govern our courts of law shall be ground out, when justice and judges shall be something more than mechanisms chained to the Jug- gernaut of form, when right shall precede precedent THE MILLS OF THE GODS 193 when lawyers shall not be allowed to insult men and tor- ture women on the witness stand, when competent and responsible judges shall do the work of ignorant and stupid jurymen, when accusers shall be required to act promptly and make good their accusation or drop it, when court routine shall be conducted more upon the principles of common-sense and common honesty, more work and less delay being required of judges who should dispose of their cases in one-fifth of the time now taken, when justice shall be considered before law and the spirit of the law before the letter of the law, when rich and poor shall treated alike, and insanity, informality, or other like rivial pretense shall not shield a convicted criminal. The world moves. We may be sure that a change will me, that our courts of law will not always be courts of charlatanry, and that administrators of the law will be something else than images cast in bronze set up for the mbarrassment of the people. "Though the mills of God grind slowly. Yet they grind exceeding small ; Though with patience he stands waiting, With exactness grinds he all." CHAPTER XI THE INTERREGNUM LIKE the swing of the pendulum which regulates the running of the clock the progress of civilization sways to the right and to the left, thus preserving the happy mean which alone endures with time. For there is no period in progress, whether for a year or for a day, of which we can say all has been well, or all has been ill; wherefore we must differentiate political periods and strike a balance in order to determine of any epoch if wickedness was then in the ascendent or if righteousness reigned. When there are mainly honest men in office and a moral tone pervading the community, although vagrant rascality may be hovering about the purlieus, we feel justified in saying that here we have an Interregnum of crime, particularly when the beginning and end of the term are both marked by a preponderance of evil. Thus in the brief residence of Americans upon the shores of the Pacific we find in all not more than two score years of a government by the people for the people. These notable years, which were they? Following the purification by the vigilance committee of 1851, and before the advent of southern chivalry, and their expatriation by the grand tribunal of 1856 there were three years. From 1856 to the coming of the railroad men in 1870 were four- teen years. Then forty years in the valley of humilia- tion. A bright morning of promise, a black cloud of crime, deliverance of the people by the people, then crime 194 THE INTERREGNUM 195 and deliverance again, the latter deliverance not the work of the people, but of one man of the people. There, then, were the epochs of republican history reckoned by periods of wrong doing seven years of criminal sway from 1849 ; fourteen years interregnum of crime from the vigilance deliverance of 1856; forty years of disgraceful subserviency to corporate crime until the final delivery by Hiram Johnson. How delightful to walk the clean streets newly swept of vice ! How exquisite to breathe the pure air from the ocean and the dunes unmixed with immorality! Wives and daughters may now go forth unattended, fearing no insult or wanton leer from male or female passer by. Cleanliness is good; virtue is better than vice; purity is preferable to filth. Sons and subordinates can walk about with uplifted mien and thoughts less sordid and eyes less sensuous, while the windows of voluptuous halls are boarded over, and the lights in the great gambling saloons are ex- tinguished never to be renewed. As with the advent of law crime broke out afresh in the new communities, so with the subordination of law and the rise of justice crime disappeared. Then, again, we endeavor to fit the machinery of law to our necessities, and become once more that delectable entity law-abiding citizens, in which effort, however, we are only partially successful. Even in our modern Republic, as in days of old, the few rule the many. Humanity is so timid, so fearful amidst the thunderings of Sinai, the rattling of the heavens and the quakings of earth, that we are never content with- out some despotic heel upon our necks, whether of govern- ment, law, or religion. At the elections following the disbandment of the vigil- ance committee of 1856 the vcte was larger than ever before, and the best and purest men were placed in office. For a brief period citizens throughout the state, mindful 196 RETROSPECTION of their duty, attended the polls and took an interest in public affairs, though in time growing lax again, as it always has been and always will be. The new government was wholly without means, the slippery ones when they were swept away taking care first to sweep the public tills. Judge of the police court was Henry P. Coon, deacon of Calvary Presbyterian church, and a very good deacon, too; likewise a good judge, not much of a lawyer, but all the better for that; he was a physician in good practice, serving rich and poor alike. The doctor, unanimously elected, seated himself on the judicial bench prepared to make short work of the cases brought before him every morning. He was kind to the culprits; he was kindness itself; yet he well knew that kindness alike to the just and to the unjust consisted in putting a stop at once to wickedness of every sort; where- fore the justice he dealt out with swift decision was of the brightest quality, undimmed by the pleas of pettifoggers. Well, when this late hotbed of unsavory law was opened to the light and fumigated by the presence of honesty, it was discovered that there was no court record- book, the rascals having stolen that too. Which fact be- coming known to the elect outside, as the ravens fed Elijah so this court was served, though by a crow of an- other color, in the tall gaunt form of a wholesale liquor- dealer, James Dows by name, who on the opening of the new court was seen striding through the crowd with a huge blank book under his arm, which he laid on the clerk's table with the remark, " Contribution to the court," and turning on his heel walked away. For a period of fifteen years at this juncture San Francisco enjoyed the best of governments. The country at large, following the flush times, was distinguished by the diversity of its characters and accomplishments. There were in 1851, as we have seen, convicts from Australia and criminals from Mexico whose specialties were burglary and murder. These were quickly disposed of by the THE INTERREGNUM 197 citizens, and there was peace again. Then presently there came from the south, from the first families of Virginia, those who assumed the offices of government as by divine right, providence assisting with bowie-knives and false- bottomed ballot-boxes, the pork-sellers aforesaid defray- ing the cost of government. There were Texas fire-eaters, Louisiana gamblers, and some quite bright election jugglers from, Philadelphia, the judges sharing in the loot and looters assisting in the halls of justice. Some were hanged and some were shipped away, as we have seen, and the air was pure again. The work of the grand tribunal had been well and thoroughly done. Intimidated crime, its throne vacated, slunk away into obscurity. Alien usurpers and southern chivalry were relegated to the haunts of indolence and vice. Ras- cality was no longer in vogue ; immorality ceased to flaunt in gay colors on the public streets; the people declared their preference for honesty and decency in high places. Good men came forward and accepted office, regardless of any sacrifice of personal interests. Those who had given their time and pledged their worldly goods to the purga- tion of the city would not leave it to be quickly overrun again by the rank weeds of misrule. Among the leading spirits of the Interregnum were Charles Doane, sheriff, late commander of the vigilant military forces; Thomas H. Selby, hardware and lead works; William T. Coleman, merchant and guardian of the public weal, late president of the vigilance committee; MacCrellish, politic proprietor of the Alia California, one well paid for his loyalty; Judge McKinstry, Judge Shat- tuck; Smiley, auctioneer; Newhall, auctioneer, Billings, lawyer and founder of the First Presbyterian church; Roberts, merchant and founder of Calvary church; all the city offices were filled by honest and efficient men. Stephen J. Field took his seat on the state supreme bench, later of the United States Supreme court, an able and for the most part an upright man. 198 RETROSPECTION The Interregnum secured a sound basis of government in the consolidation act, the work of Horace Hawes, before mentioned, the chief aim of which was municipal retrench- ment by merging the double city and county government into one, and reducing the number of officials with their large pay or fees. There are other towns still paying two men to do the work of one which might well follow this example. Taxes were limited to one dollar and sixty-five cents, of which thirty-five cents was for schools. The con- traction of debt by the municipality was prohibited. Burnett, California's first governor, was a plain man of common honesty; McDougal, the second governor, was a gentleman addicted to deep potations and of no honesty at all. Honest and easy the squatters called John Bigler, the third governor. About Neely Johnson, Weller, and Latham there is little to be said; they were each the usual every-day politician of the time, neither more nor less. It was during the last days of whiggism, and several new political parties were being invented and tried, as the people's party, the independent party, the union party, know-nothing, American, and other parties finally settling down into the republican party. In the legislature of 1855 a fierce struggle arose over the election of a United States senator, in which Gwin and Broderick played prominent parts. David C. Broderick was a peculiar political figure, a product of the time and place, yet not a type; he was an Irishman, born in Kilkenny in 1820. His father, a stone- cutter, worked on the Capitol at Washington; the son's trade was that of American politician. Opening a saloon and joining a fire company in New York, he became a true blue Bowery boy, and started out for Congress. A very proper though modest beginning for one so lately from Kilkenny. Strange to say he failed in New York, and came to California in 1849, ready to try again and profit by past THE INTEB&EGNUM 199 experience. Out of cheap gold he coined so-called five and ten dollar pieces worth $4 and $8 respectively, and made money. There was no cheating about it, no pretense that the coins were of full value ; they passed about freely enough for a time and that is all people cared about it. So with the octagonal fifty dollar slug, worth forty-five dol- lars. Then Mr. Broderick studied law and aspired to the United States senate. We may yet see a Kilkenny president. As time passed on and the young Irishman gathered strength with experience in his ebullient environment, he displayed marked ability. Politics were easy then, so many of the competent men were just gold-smitten ad- venturers and nothing else. Elected to the state senate, he became speaker and presided with wisdom and decorum. Strong in body and mind, instinctively honest and direct in all his moods, he naturally was assertive and im- patient under restraint, which made him enemies as well as friends. Opposed to the extension of slavery, he came in con- flict with southern chivalry, and certain gentlemen of that school determined on his death. It was arranged that one after another should challenge him to mortal combat until he should fall. Indeed the risk of the fire-eaters was slight, as all were expert with the pistol, and familiar with the tricks of the trade, while Broderick was a novice and no murderer. He had fought duels before in a big boyish way, not wishing to kill or to be killed. Terry played with blood, not with boys. Nor had the time ar- rived when a California politician could decline a duel and retain his influence. The southerners most prominent during the earlier days of the Interregnum were the able and prominent lawyer, A. P. Crittenden; John C. Hays, Texas ranger; David S. Terry, state supreme judge; Charles S. Fairfax, speaker of the state assembly; Calhoun Benham, Philip T. Herbert, who shot a colored waiter in Washington; Edmund Randolph, and others of like character. 200 RETROSPECTION A. P. Crittenden, one of the most genial and courteous of gentlemen, was shot to death by Laura D. Fair, on the Oakland ferry boat, while seated in the midst of his family, whom he was escorting home from a visit to the east. Of the cruel and unprovoked crime there were hundreds of witnesses, yet the trial ran through two or three years, the farcial proceedings filling a thousand pages of print. The citizens pay the cost and the woman is set free. Upon the death of D. D. Colton, lawyer and railroad sharp, it was whispered that he was stabbed by a woman, though his physicians swore so vehemently that he was killed by a fall from a bucking bronco that people felt confident that the alleged assassination was true. How proud we should be of law, and the illustrious limbs of the law, when two of its shining lights could be thus quietly snuffed out, as was alleged, and no penalty exacted. In the Broderick-Gwin imbroglio, Terry was the first to challenge, and indeed no other challenge was necessary. Broderick, nervous and awkward, fired before his weapon was fairly raised; Terry, cool and deliberate, sent his ball an inch below the heart. "Ah, I fired too low!" he said, and went away to breakfast. "They killed me because I was opposed to the exten- sion of slavery and a corrupt administration," were Brod- erick 's last words. Land titles came in for serious controversy, the public domain and mineral lands and Mexican pueblo rights all claiming attention. Squatter riots were not infrequent, sometimes ending in bloodshed. A navyyard and branch mint were established; also a system of coast surveys, and a land commission for the settlement of private claims and the survey of the pub- lic lands. It was thought that the Mexican titles in California might be adjudicated in two or three years by creating THE INTERREGNUM 201 a commission of registration to sit in the northern and southern districts, to receive from claimants such written evidence of title and right of possession as they might have received or chose to present, together with whatever other evidence they had to offer in support of their claim, all of which should be furnished to the state surveyor- general, who should proceed to segregate those claims as fast as their examinations were completed; and where disputes as to boundaries occurred which could not be adjusted by the claimants, arbitrators should be called in, and their decision should be final, the United States issu- ing a patent for the land as thus bounded. Had this been done in good faith, most of the lands in California covered by Mexican grants would have been cut up and disposed of to settlers at low prices, whereas by keeping claims in court for from eight to twelve years to feed the hungry cormorants of the law, not only were the holders ruined but the occupation and improvement of the lands by those who wished to purchase them were prevented. Another example of the justice and efficiency of our laws and law manipulators. During the Interregnum the economic as well as the political interests of the city and country advanced as never before, for the beneficial influence of the San Fran- cisco vigilance committee of 1856 had extended over the entire state, opening broad avenues of industry, both agricultural and manufacturing. Woolen mills were set up at the Mission and their product became famous the world over. Large factories of boots and shoes, hats, clothing, grain and fruit bags, were established; wine-cellars were filled; the ship-yards rang with the noise of the hammer, the steel industry developed largely, and famous battle-ships were built in competition with the best yards at the east. A do/en foundries cast improvised machinery, some of huge dimensions, for the Nevada mines and for Cali- fornia irrigation works ; the cable-car clutch was invented by 202 RETROSPECTION Mr. Hallidie, of the Mechanics' Institute, and put in operation over Clay street hill. The lumber interests assumed large proportions; lead and leather wojrks and planing and paper mills were established. Then besides shipbuilding there were cooper- age, box-making, with furniture, piano, billiard-table, to- bacco, sugar, and other factories; also chemical works, powder works, and breweries. Agriculture and horticulture assumed larger propor- tions. Gain and gold increased in production ; canneries and creameries were established; and for the extensive sugar refineries a large acreage was devoted to sugar beets. Labor was free; laborers were here in plenty; they were satisfied with a reasonable wage, and a thousand new industries was the result. All was life and activity, public cleanliness and decency prevailed, and with good government and economic expenditures, wealth and prog- ress appeared on every side. With the large acreage devoted to grain, clipper ships bringing goods from the east now no longer returned in ballast, but, on the contrary, many came out empty to load with wheat for Liverpool. The fruit industry arose with flattering prospects, led by Mr. Hatch of Solano, pros- pects too flattering when joined with inexperience. The decline which followed from ignorance and the dishonesty of agents was but temporary, after which the industry rose to higher proportions than ever. Mr. Hatch was a fine specimen of a California fruit- grower, intelligent, genial, honest and direct in his deal- ings; sanguine yet sincere, and an enthusiast in his occu- pation. His methods were peculiar; under conditions then existing they were sound, and but for the temporary decline in the industry he would have made himself rich. His way was in this wise. Seeing a tract of land suited to his purpose he would address the owner. "How much for your farm?" "Forty thousand dollars," THE INTERREGNUM 203 "I will give you forty-five thousand, with interest at eight per cent., payable in five years, no payment down, but with the agreement to plant it in fruit trees, and keep them in proper state of cultivation, which will at once be ample security, and double the value of the land for the benefit of to whomsoever it may revert, at the expiration of the five years." On these terms, which seemed safe for all concerned, for prices of fruit then were high, Mr Hatch borrowed from the banks and planted extensively, but was finally caught in the financial distress which followed the advent of the railroad and came to grief. Water and gas were introduced in the larger towns, and fire companies organized. Schools and churches every- where abounded, while the masons, oddfellows, and other benevolent societies were well in evidence. California pro- ceeded to array herself in all the frills and furbelows of civilization. Wages were fair, and in a cool, equable climate, with cheap food and house-rent, and free schools, the severe drudgery being relegated to Asiatics while skilled labor was reserved for Europeans, the social and domestic conditions of the laborer were better than ever before in any country. The birth and booming of towns continued, and ex- tended over a wide area. Like rushes for new gold dig- gings in the mountains, so with regard to town-making; excitements arose, declined, and broke out again, lots being surveyed and mapped sometimes for ten miles around the centre of the town. With the rest, on the other side of the shield we may see pictured another of those wild excitements attending the occupation of the west. Companies were organized and stock certificates issued to represent the gold-quartz crushers of Grass Valley and the silver mines of Nevada, some of them good, many of them worthless. With a fine rage which kept roaring in San Francisco 204 RETROSPECTION two boards of brokers brought to their ruin thousands, all classes falling to the fascination. As in the time of the Mississippi bubble, or of the Scots Darien colony, rich men and poor alike, banker and hod-carrier, women and clergy- men, all were seized with the infatuation to become sud- denly rich. Along the crest of the Comstock lode the land was measured off in feet, and the front foot became the finan- cial unit. A foot was valued at ten dollars or ten thou- sand. The owner of a few feet, where the dividend was for a few months large and regular, was as appeared to him at the time rich for life, or as appeared in the end rich until the collapse came. Of the wild speculative days of the Comstock mines which made wealthy a few sharp operators, as Lucky Baldwin, Keene, J. D. Fry, Flood and O'Brien, Mackay and Fair, while reducing thousands to poverty, was Will- iam C. Ralston, who came to California in the service of the Garrison line of steamers via Nicaragua. As one of the banking firm of Garrison Morgan Fretz and Ralston he became acquainted with D. 0. Mills, then a modest banker of Sacramento. With Mills he founded the Bank of California, of which he was at first cashier while Mills was president, later becoming president and dominator. Ralston ad- vanced rapidly; he was essentially a product of California and of the time. A young man with the bluff hearty man- ners and assurance of middle age, he became popular. On assuming the presidency of the bank he set up a spacious residence at Belmont, and drove daily to and from the bank, some twenty miles or more. He entertained lavishly, inviting almost every distinguished visitor to San Fran- cisco to spend a day or more at Belmont, until his name became known in all the great centres of finance for his business resources and ability no less than for his hos- pitality. Many persons, young and old, by his counsel or assistance were saved from ruin. THE INTERREGNUM 205 For a time he was the most conspicuous personage on the Pacific coast. Rapidly unfolding under the shining heaps of gold and silver in his vaults, in due time he came to regard himself the king of commerce, supreme in busi- ness, invincible in financial affairs. His power and pride made jealous the gods, and with all his broad experience and keen penetration he could not see into the bowels of the Sierra, could not see the silver bonanza the saloon men, Flood and O'Brien, kept hidden from public view in the Consolidated Virginia mine, of which they then held control. So when Ralston sold short he was allowed to pledge himself to deliver more stock than was ever issued. In the bank at a meeting of his directors he was asked to retire, which he did, seating himself at his desk in the president's office. Presently Mr. Mills appeared and asked him to resign. Without a word Ralston took up a pen and wrote his resignation as president of the bank. Mills withdrew. Ralston arose, and taking his hat walked over to North beach, where he was accustomed to bathe in the Bay. He was an expert swimmer, and his long vigorous strokes soon carried him well away from the shore. Presently two boatmen on the beach noticing a strange struggle going on in the water some distance away put out in their boat. Ralston was past recovery when they reached him. His life insurance of $100,000 was paid, the companies not caring to bring up the question of suicide under the existing excitement. Ralston 's defalcation amounted to several millions; the bank was completely wrecked, as Mr. Mills informed me, and had to be capitalized anew, the business and con- nections being too valuable to be sacrificed. Mr. Mills' loss was $700,000; Mr. Baldwin's, including stock and de- posits, was twice that amount. Lesson to young men and old ones : When you have all the world can give, don't stake it for something more. The civil war which fell so heavily upon the patriots 206 RETROSPECTION of the east proved a pecuniary advantage to the gold-bear- ing states of the Pacific. It was a period of enforced pros- perity, so far as the war was concerned, for the people of the west coast were loyal to the union, and would have touched no money made at the expense of the cause. As it happened, that which brought profit to California was not only of the greatest advantage, but was of vital consequence to the union cause. For as the financial affairs of the government declined, and the life or death struggle grew fiercer, the monarchies of Europe meanwhile watch- ing for some excuse to interfere, watching with .unholy desire to recognize the rebellion and break into fragments the American republic, the steady arrival at New York from San Francisco of two or three millions in gold two or three times a month, as elsewhere in this Retrospection explained, held in check the inflated greenback currency and saved the credit of the nation ; for while the premium on gold at one time in New York approached 300, at Rich- mond confederate currency fluttered toward 3000, that is to say, it became worthless, and the confederation bank- rupt. So that if with this regular inflow of gold the prob- able success of the union cause fell so low in the sensitive minds of the financiers of New York and London as in- dicated by the value they placed upon United States' promises to pay, w r here would have been the cause, the credit of the nation, and its power to raise money for carrying on the war without this California gold? The loyalty of California to the union cause, from first to last, was manifested in various ways. Companies were enlisted for the war, but greatly to the disappointment of the men they were held in reserve on the Pacific side, some in California and some in Arizona, owing to threat- ened outbreak among the Indians, and the appearance in Pacific waters of the confederate cruiser Alabama, playing havoc with defenseless shipping. Nevertheless some union men, and many more secessionists, found their way east and joined their respective armies. Patriotic meetings THE INTERREGNUM 207 were held throughout the state and large sums raised for the sanitary commission. Doctor Scott, pastor of Calvary church, was from New Orleans, and a secessionist. He displayed his sentiments cautiously at first, merely changing the form in his usual Sunday morning prayer from a blessing on "the president of the United States" to a blessing on "the presidents of these American states." San Francisco was in no humor to hear prayers put up in the pulpit for Lincoln and Davis jointly; so the next Sunday found the pews filled with strangers, some of whom were rather rough in ap- pearance. The revised formula did not appear in the morning invocation, and no word was spoken relative to the war in the sermon. After service the doctor was somewhat severely hustled into his carriage by a crowd collected about the door, but no other violence was offered. The next departing steamer had on board Doctor Scott and his family bound for Europe. When the news of Lincoln's death reached San Fran- cisco, a man on the street was heard to mutter, ' ' I am glad cf it." Instantly he doubled himself up and dropped; such was the temper of the time. The good fortune growing out of the war which befell California without will or effort of her own laid the foundation of many moderate fortunes, some of which remain to this day. In the California legislature was passed what was called the specific contract law; that is to say, contracts might be made wherein the consideration or kind of pay- ment was specified, it might be in lumber, or wheat, or gold. Commercial paper, notes, bonds, all obligations not upon a greenback basis were specified payable in gold coin of the United States. For this no question was raised as to any intention of repudiating the lawful currency of the government, for the loyalty of California to the union was already established. The people of California, and of the whole Pacific sea- 208 RETROSPECTION board for that matter, never fancied the handling of paper money, and to some extent the prejudice exists to this day. Before the war there were afloat at the east loads of bills of countless banks fluctuating daily in value from one hundred per cent, down to nothing, and our people would have none of them. Gold was a product of the country; merchants sold their goods for gold, and bankers kept their accounts upon a gold basis. For each of the thousand minor transac- tions of the day there were of course no written specific contracts, but in everything bought and sold on a gold basis there was an implied contract as to terms of pay- ment. Thus the business of this entire country for a num- ber of years amounting to half of the period of this Inter- regnum was done upon honor. The debtor could at any moment liquidate his obligation, whether of five dollars or of fifty thousand, in legal tender notes, that is to say, lawful currency of the United States, whose validity none could dispute ; but to do so brought dishonor, disgrace, and loss of credit, considerations often more powerful than any embodied in the written law. Thus lay transformed this city of San Francisco, from an expanse of rolling dunes between sea and bay, from a tented encampment and edifices of brush and boards, to a city of streets and houses unapproached by any of similar age for size and substantial construction; from a com- munity of revelling adventurers to one of high average respectability and intelligence. A choice selection of man- hood from all parts of the globe was here congregated, with ability and enterprise both well and ill directed. As devastating fires had weeded the architectural parts of the frail and unseemly, so vigilance movements, assisted by gold-rushes and filibuster schemes, had purified society of its worst elements, and were now raising the city to a model for order and municipal administration. The whilom effervescent hamlet now stood the ac- THE INTERREGNUM 209 knowledged metropolis of the Pacific, after a brief struggle with threatening vicissitudes, while the tributary country had developed from the mining field with flitting camps to a substantial state, with a steady mining industry, and fast unfolding agricultural and manufacturing interests, which promised to rival if not to eclipse the foremost sections of the union. Thus had been surpassed the wildest dreams which had incited the coming of the gold-seekers, and the founding of empire out of the manifold resources which one after an- other unfolded before the unexpectant eyes of these builders of a new commonwealth. A series of surprises, marked the advance of the state as well as of the city, the one a wilderness bursting with bloom, the other a mart of >rogress purified by many fiery ordeals. CHAPTER XII EVOLUTION OF HIGH CRIME EVERAL causes united, about the middle of the cen- tury, to lower the standard of public morality in the United States. Hitherto business had pursued its even way along lines accredited in the great marts of commerce throughout the world, wilful deviation from which, for illicit ends, was sure to result in disgrace and ruin. Moderation was a virtue; excess in any direction was re- garded as a deflection from the right path. Ships made their voyages about the world, trading, and as a rule securing a fair return, with now and then a more fortunate venture, but all in a legitimate way. Un- fair dealings were regarded as piratical. So on shore, the lines of commercial and political rectitude were clearly marked, and there were likewise but few land pirates in those days. Some fortunes were made in furs, or what were deemed fortunes, fifty or a hundred thousand dollars; American millionaires, rare enough specimens in those days, were gods of finance, like the Rothschilds, and could be counted on one's fingers. There were some large deals in land, but where government had so much to give away there was little chance for excessive profits. Certain bankers made fortunes, and a few mercantile houses rose to distinction ; but the progress of the nation toward wealth was so gradual, and its distribution among the people so uniform, that it all came as expected bless- ings not to be specially regarded. The merchants and bankers of the earlier epoch were 210 EVOLUTION OF HIGH CRIME 211 uprightness of character and with a keen sense of moral cleanliness and business honor, a lively interest in the welfare of the community, ever recognizing their neighbors' rights while themselves setting an example of good citizenship. Such men were Stephen Girard, George Peabody, and others of that class, who would no more think of wrongfully crushing a competitor or bribing an official than they would think of committing murder. Capital in the hands of such is sterilized to evil ways. Gradually and imperceptibly speculation crept in, that insidious foe to commercial rectitude and personal in- tegrity. Opportunities for various indulgencies came with the Mexican war, an event which sent waves of disgust throughout the land. It was well known at the time, and fully proved later, that the larger part of the demands made by citizens of the United States upon Mexico were fraudulent, trumped up against a people weakened by internal strife, and with whom we had no quarrel or cause I of quarrel. It is well known that these claims were invented by southern fire-eaters and slaveholders, with the president of the United States at their head, for the predetermined pur- pose of inciting war and acquiring more slave territory. James K. Polk and his Mexican war, the man inhumane and void of integrity, the measure an injustice practised upon a weaker neighbor. The man, this president of 1845, was a champion of African enslavement, and slavery is debasing. War is demoralizing; an unjust war with a veneer of enthusiasm is a prostitution of patriotism. Already Texas had been brought forward with soil and area sufficient for breeding and working ten millions of black men; the California country, if it could be secured for slavery, might serve for another ten millions. Heads of government occupied in such issues, and holding them ever before the people as vital to their interests exercised a baneful influence upon the conscience of the nation. 212 RETROSPECTION Then came on that other war, the war for the union. If ever there was a cause demanding a cardinal sacrifice, even to the mutual butchering of a million noble young men of kindred race and aspirations, this was one, the issue meaning life or death to the Republic. Yet human hyenas came forward from the sinks of iniquity to prey upon the struggling nation, renegade northerners entering into con- spiracy with renegade southerners to cheat the soldiers that stood forth doomed to die for their country, to cheat them out of the poor remnants of comfort which might be left to them for their few remaining days. The presidents following Mr. Polk were not inspiring factors as leaders of the nation, and the civil war brought with it a multitude of evils. Politicians turned their at- tention to business and became experts in rascality. It was then that Big Business learned to swear off its taxes, beat the customs, bamboozle society, and properly handle weights and measures in dealing with the government. In the marts of commerce the hearts of the great money- makers hardened, and merchants became lax in their deal- ings. An army made barefoot by shoddy shoes, or ill from infected food; a thousand men sent to their death at sea from a rotten hulk made small impression upon their moral sense or sympathies. Thus the old-time kindred feeling, which in the heart of the earlier Americans was an obsession, became cold like the metal for which every one was now reaching out avaricious hands. It is not therefore without reason that we place in the midst of these mid-century wars and their attendant issues the advent of high crime, by which term is meant that sort of wrong doing for which persons of wealth and in- fluence hold themselves immune, not expecting or deserv- ing punishment for crimes for which the poor should justly suffer for example's sake. Such assumption, which is claimed on the ground that the prosecution and punishment of this class of citizens EVOLUTION OF HIGH CRIME 213 disturbs capital and interferes with business, is to say the least the height of egotism and impudence, an insult to common-sense and an outrage on common decency too pal- pable to discuss. It is a strange thing, strange that man, made upright, endowed as he supposed with immortality, given every- thing, given all that Satan offered to Christ, it is strange that he should go on forever seeking out so many inven- tions. Let us pause and consider for a moment who and what we are, as we stand here to-day with high crime still raging around us, threatening destruction. Consider the position of the United States in the world of humanity. We are a part of the foremost civilization, one with the greatest of nations. We have at our disposal all the blessings of life and liberty ; there is not and never has been a people more highly favored by nature and develop- ment. We owe allegiance to neither prince nor potentate; the shams and hallucinations of kingship do not reach us; our minds are free from any doctrine of divine rulership. We are subject to no religious tyranny; we are over- whelmed by no great superstition; we are not forced to bow down to Baal or kneel with our master in the house of Rimmon. Blessed with all the benefits and privileges of self-government, we are an absolutely free people, free to think and speak and act according to the dictates of our own will and conscience, restraining ourselves only from injury to others; rendering account only to ourselves, to our better selves, the divine force in the hearts and minds of all the people. We are held by no dictatorship for enforced military service in time of peace, while war is rapidly approaching the impossible ; we are taxed to support neither church nor clergy, neither a great standing army nor an inoperative navy, neither an idle aristocracy nor a family of royal drones swarming with a worthless progeny. 8 214 RETROSPECTION What civilization and human progress have stood for, what men for these thousands of years have been fighting for, they have freely given us and fully assured to our children. Free schools, colleges, universities, and all sorts of educational institutions are established in every city and at the cross-roads, while public and private moneys are poured out like water for the further enlightenment of the race. We have become a mighty nation. With lands un- limited we have thrown open our doors and welcomed all to enter and participate in the choicest gifts of nature. We have subdued the wilderness, cleared away the forests, reclaimed the waste places, planted corn on the plains, covered the prairies with waving grain and the hills with cattle; we have watered the deserts and turned them into beautiful gardens and fruitful fields; we have planted vineyards and made wine, planted olives and made food, grown cotton for garments, tobacco for comfort, and plants to feed the little weavers of silk. We have opened the veins of the mountains and brought forth precious treasure, gold and silver and iron, copper and coal; we have tapped the lower depths and set flowing into our cisterns oil for a thousand industries. Miracles have been wrought by human agency or divine interposition for the well-being and progress of man. We extract mysterious energies from the forces of nature and attach them to the car of progress. We harness the lightning to the plow and make steam to serve factories and railways. We skim the earth with swift-running vehicles, and put forth wings to fly in the air. We have cut the continent with a canal and have opened land- ways and waterways for many thousands of miles. We have placed upon the ocean floating palaces for travel, and craft of every kind for commerce. We have taught elec- tricity to speak; we wire the lightning, send waves of in- telligence through the air and throw the human voice into dead matter there to remain for intercourse with generations EVOLUTION OF HIGH CRIME 215 yet unborn. Even sickness and suffering have been made to yield to some extent to hygiene and other branches of medical science. Consider these things and compare our condition with that of humanity a thousand years ago, a hundred years ago. In many of the paths of science, invention, and the solu- tion of world problems, in penetrating the mysteries of the universe and of man, more progress has been made during the past century than in all the eternity of time preceding it. And what payment have we to make for these gifts of the gods? None. What return is demanded of us for all these inestimable blessings? None whatever. We are asked only to be true to ourselves and honest with our neighbor, only to be true and honest with our goddess Na- ture who has so liberally bestrewn our path with benefac- tions. Also to be content. The cravings of dissatisfaction, of avarice or other unholy desire is a poor return for loving- kindness. Were there under heaven such a state as human contentment, one would think that this itching for advan- tage, this craze for power should find an end; that we should be satisfied. When we have all that earth can give, what fools to sigh for more! Nevertheless we are so made, fashioned in foolishness. And as we sigh here for the unattainable so sighed Lucifer in heaven; archangel was not enough, he would be as God. Yet to be content of achievement were to arrest progress, to stop the wheels of civilization. Work was given us for our recreation, and death for our repose. Well, then if we cannot be content, let us at all events try to be decent. Among the good men and pure women that constitute the greater part of our people are some whose moral sense has been perverted, whose ideals of honor have been low- ered, and whose consciences have become seared by strenu- ous effort and prosperity. Unmindful of what they owe 216 RETROSPECTION to God and their country, indifferent as to the effect of their evil ways upon others, they devote their lives and sacrifice their souls to the acquisition of wealth. They establish a code of ethics for themselves, set up their own standards of right and wrong, one standard for private morality and another for public morality, one for good business and another for good government. They pride themselves in the fancied possession of a good private character while indulging in crimes against the public. They spend money as freely to promote business as to bleed the public treasury. To lie in business is business, to lie in private is indecent ; to cheat the government is finance, to cheat at cards is infamous. They set up their own standards of crimes and punish- ment. They unblushingly promulgate the principle of in- equality before the law, punishment for the poor but none for the rich. Great crimes for the promotion of prosperity are lauded; small thefts to avert starvation are sinful and must be punished. To buy a stolen watch, knowing it to have been stolen, is vulgar as well as wicked ; to buy a franchise stolen from the city is to cheat the city while debauching a public official, yet the bribed alone should be punished, as the briber was only removing an obstacle standing in the way of his business. It is the buying of stolen goods, this bribery of officials, the buyer being the real thief meriting the severer punish- ment. Worse than the thief himself, for he makes the thief; worse than the murderer himself for he hands him the dynamite and sets him on to kill. Stolen goods, stolen from your city or your state, which as a respectable citizen you should faithfully serve ; stolen from your fellow citizens whose patronage adds to your wealth ; stolen from the men who make you, who support you ; stolen from your friends who trust you, the act of a dastard indeed ! Yet more, you poison the fountains of civic purity and corrupt public sentiment until it stinks with dishonesty. With your money and influence you elect base men to office, EVOLUTION OF HIGH CRIME 217 men who are a disgrace and a degradation to the munici- pality and to the commonwealth, men whom you know you can buy, whom you have bought beforehand, district at- torneys who promise not to prosecute your criminals, a supreme judge who is sure to find for you and your friends a convenient technicality to set you free. Time was when the American father's words to his son were words of wisdom; be honest, be diligent, be pure. Now what does he say 1 "Be alert, watch the other fellow, beat him down; watch your chance with the government, easy old cow to milk ; watch your chance for doubling your money, never mind old-woman talk." Thus dishonored himself he brings up his sons to dis- honor; all the young men about him while feeling his evil influence are taught to emulate him in gaining wealth, even to emulate his tricky ways and receive praise therefor. Thus are young men taught chicane and young women made to look leniently on fraudulent processes, lightly questioning with quiet conscience ways which bring wealth. And fathers and sons and servitors walk the street but they walk not in honor. They swell with apparent pride, for their presence means money, but they are not proud. They throw up their heads among clean men, but they do not feel clean. With brazen face and craven heart they move among their fellows knowing that all men know them for what they are. Sad it is to see the gifts of providence so perverted ; sad to see young men of generous impulse taught the abhorrent doctrine that the ways to success are by devious paths; saddest of all, when a youth of honorable instincts first feels a father's baseness. For the truth stands blazing there, plain as the path- way to hell, that young men are brought up by their fathers to a course of infamy ; that they have provided for them an unwritten code in which crimes are graded, re- turns to be in proportion to the amount involved and risk of detection; that they are instructed as sound business 218 RETROSPECTION doctrine that to steal from the people is not stealing, that to swindle the government is not so bad as to swindle a corporation, that to swindle a corporation is not so bad as to swindle a private individual, and that to swindle an in- dividual who is a stranger, or a poor man, is not so bad as to swindle a partner, or brother, or father. Whence comes it all, this terrible American defection, nay this world wide wickedness? These men were not so made in the be- ginning ; they were not so marred in a day. In the earlier years of the Republic the scantier bless- ings of providence were more fully appreciated than by the inflow through the opened flood-gates later ; we were not so far removed from slavery then as now ; we held in more abhorrent remembrance the grasping King John, the prurient Charles, the imbecile George, while Valley Forge and Germantown were affairs of yesterday. The people thanked God every day; most of them meant it. Most of their descendants lived virtuous lives. Gradually there came a change. With the expansion of territory came an expansion of pride. We strode about Europe boasting of what we had done and were going to do. We took from Mexico the California country; we gathered gold and scattered it abroad; we invited all the world to come and participate in our good fortune; we would lift them up, surely they would not pull us down. But they did pull us down. They pulled us down, they and our own native greed, until our foremost men became high-priests of criminality, until their families and friends became inoculated of evil. Wealth brings power, which all covet. Power implies distinction, which all love; hence the longing for riches even though accompanied with dis- honor. It was then that competitive individualism merged into monopoly and aggregated capital seized and appropriated for the further extension of its power all the natural re- sources within its reach. EVOLUTION OF HIGH CRIME 219 Development of crime came with the development of wealth; from increased hunger for wealth came laxity of principles and recklessness as to the methods of obtaining it. As cupidity increased rectitude became strained, and personal dishonesty followed public corruption. Senti- ments of sinister import were freely discussed and openly avowed, and social ethics tolerated such as a short time before would have been deemed little less than diabolical. Equality before the law, for which principle our fore- fathers had so lately fought, was openly repudiated. Aliens of still lower grade kept coming in greater num- bers with each succeeding decade, and standards of morality continued to fall. Avarice increased as integrity di- minished. Still all through the first century of re- publican life by far the greater part of the people of the United States were honest, conscientious, and patriotic. It was not so much an increase of crime among Americans, aside from aliens, as a shifting of the criminal class, a parting of the ways, some sinking into the depths, others rising to the surface. Hence high crime and low crime, the most powerful criminal class by far being at the top. One of the most remarkable phases attending human development during the last half century has been this evolution of high crime. Not that crime in high places has hitherto been uncommon, or that it has not too often escaped punishment, but that now for the first time we find a considerable part of the men of wealth and intelli- gence of the community openly advocating the punishment of the poor for crime, but not the punishment of the rich. Search the sacred books of all nations and no such reversal of the commands of the decalogue can be found. Nowhere do we hear in the recitation even of the crudest tenets, the poor shall not kill or steal, but only the rich. And of a surety we know that no government, no religion, no so- ciety could for a moment stand secure upon such a founda- tion. It is incredible that sane members of a latter-day 220 RETROSPECTION community should be found to uphold such a doctrine. Yet we know that such a doctrine exists, and that thousands give it their assent, tacitly if not openly. Why? Why should men of average intelligence and some modicum of morality submit to such a monstrous sentiment? The world was young a hundred years ago, our republi- can world, and comparatively pure. The words which stood for patriotism, integrity, and civic purity held some significance with many, while for that which we now call graft no word had yet been coined. Village life was held to be better than life in the city where centred all wickedness. But now in this present year of our glorious development we find in almost every town and county masters of evil forces, promoters of evil schemes, with hearts as black as Burr's, and hands as foul as Arnold 's, who every day murder morality and sell them- selves and the finer sense of their sons and daughters, sell themselves and their country for gold. When the civil war came there was yet an unsubdued space intervening between the two frontiers, which was thought to be worthless, but was later found to be exceed- ingly fertile in bringing forth crops of millionaires, cattle kings, railroad dictators, forest despots, mining lords, and even agricultural barons. The vast wealth stored up by nature under bleak and barren coverings hungry capital- ists seized with avidity. Here was a new and fertile field in which to swindle the government. More especially the profession of high crime proper, as it exists to-day, began with this war, with the horde of swindlers who sprang forward to supply the army with shoddy clothes and rotten food, with the horde of con- tractors, lately honest dealers, but too quickly turned ras- cals with the turn of the times. So tKat it became fash- ionable to cheat, even to giving the army worthless arms on entering battle if the profit were enough. Building railroads with government subsidies and pri- vate subscriptions afforded too fine an opportunity to rob EVOLUTION OF HIGH CRIME 221 both government and people to be slighted. Then there were land frauds and water frauds, timber oil and iron frauds, and a hundred others where the wealthy sought to become more wealthy by illegally combining and crush- ing the poor. In the matter of road-making, school-houses, court-houses, and other public work the grossest frauds are even at this day perpetrated by eliminating certain parts of the work or substituting poorer material than that specified in the contract, all under the eyes of the stupid or indifferent public. As sings the poet in his psalm of the slums, Lives of rich men oft remind us We can make our lives like swine. Since high crime has assumed such large proportions among a class of wealthy and influential men hitherto deemed honorable, the science of criminology becomes an interesting study. Thus we find the criminal class transferred from the lower to the upper regions, from the nethermost to the most exalted social strata, from the crowded tenements of the filthiest quarters to the homes of the wealthy in the atmosphere of the parks and along the spacious boulevards. For if we weigh and measure fairly this criminal class, estimating it as well by the magnitude of the transactions as by the numbers engaged and the demoralizing effects upon the nation, it is plain that the honor of the name be- longs not to the poor and lowly who steal a pittance to escape starvation, nor to the pickpockets and burglars of the city's purlieus, who presently find their way to the state prison, but to the rich and prosperous who steal their millions, beggar whole communities, appropriate the na- tion's resources, illegally combine to crush competition, and all that vast horde of respectable rapscallions who never see prison-wall or feel the hangman's halter. New York's Bowery and Chinatown have their crime school; what have New York's Wall street and Fifth avenue? Is 222 RETROSPECTION it because high crime in the United States does not need a university that Mr. Carnegie has founded no such in- stitution at Washington? In this fin de siecle epidemic of high crime a sort of insanity seized the money-makers. The high-crime de- fender of high crime does not regard with favor crimes committed against himself; he does not like it if the clerk he has taught to steal from others steals from him; he raves if the government which he robs with impunity will not protect him from robbery by others. In aggressive business circles the civic conscience in re- lation to industrial life is for the most part a thing of the past. When we ask why men still steal from the govern- ment who will not steal from each other what sort of answer do we get? 11 Can't you see the difference?" "No." "Well I can." It is natural for some men to take whatever they want that is within their reach, either openly by strategy or secretly by stealth. One way may be as criminal as the other, but the punishment is not the same. One operator may be called a great financier, the other a miserable thief. Hence the wise men will avoid the way to small results with large penalties, and cling to the way to great results with no penalties. The system has been many times tried, to punish the poor and let the rich go free, but it never would work for any length of time. Feudalism practised it but feudalism faded away. Phoenicia, Greece, and Rome tried it and failed; the Spanish and French nobility and the English Georges attempted it but had to give it up. Singular that men of such ability should imagine that they can usurp the prerogatives of the American people, thrust aside the sons of those who fought at Bunker hill and Gettysburg, and while running their railroads run the government as well. Strange that they cannot better EVOLUTION OF HIGH CRIME 223 read the signs of the times and know that such a state of things can no longer exist. High crime justice like high crime journalism is made to fit the occasion. Even the family adopts it, serving it up for breakfast, associating the lessons with bible readings and family prayers. Yet every such precept of that father brings upon him the contempt of the son and the humilia- tion of the daughter. High crime carries with it high society, and both carry wealth. Without wealth the high criminal and the high social personage would be low indeed; hence the constant struggle for riches, at any cost. Woman plays her part in the evolution of high crime. There is no one woman in particular, no one type of woman that appears conspicuous. But all women, or any woman who smiles on rascality, who receives in her house persons of tainted reputation, looks with lenient eyes on ill-gotten gains, or aids and abets crooked ways, in so far as she thus lends her influence to criminality is criminal. It is a test of feminine fibre that few of the gentler sex will meet, for wrong is uncertain and women are indulgent, which only intensifies the situation and makes it worse. Before great wealth became so common and standards of living were simpler the disadvantages attending wealth were less, and the attitude of woman less fictitious. She did right because it was right, not because the opposite course would be disreputable. Under the present relations she must do the same, that is if she would retain her former high standard of purity. The development of our country may be distinctly marked by three transformations following the revolution- ary war, the civil war, and the dark age of graft. For a period after independence uprightness grew apace. Good men ruled, for the most part wisely and well. The people were intensely patriotic, and fairly philanthropic. A moderate immigration of a somewhat decent class increased rather than retarded progress. 224 RETROSPECTION Even in the maelstrom set in motion by the evil in- fluences of the civil war, intensified by economic develop- ment incident to the application of steam and electricity and the mad rush for wealth which followed, appears the spirit of purification, apart from which the social structure of a people cannot long exist. Yet for a time vice grew faster than virtue, the bloom unfolding from the caverns of iniquity. From yet another point of view we may watch the growth of the monster. Up to the middle of the last cen- tury corporate capital was largely in life insurance, in- creasing from one million in 1843 to one hundred and twenty-five millions in 1867. Wall street was commercial rather than financial, the importation of dry goods occupy- ing the more substantial firms. Losing the profitable trade of the south through the civil war the Wall street merchants took to exporting United States bonds, of which were put out in six years over two billions of dollars worth. Thus these merchants became private bankers and Wall street the financial centre of the nation. The advent of trusts and corporate securi- ties date from 1879, and the Juggernaut car of Standard Oil wheeled into course with its new business methods and morals to the debasement of commercial honor and in- tegrity. Hitherto railroad bonds were in bad odor, but as some portions of trunk lines were taken up, double tracked, and improved, values increased, trusts were formed, com- peting lines were made one by exchange of securities, and the railways of the country fell into the hands of monop- olists. Then followed the steel trust, corporate mergers, and the life insurance frauds. After the war a period of unexampled prosperity set in. Population spread out over the rich valley of the Mississippi, and beyond. New states were organized, and new business methods devised. And here we may consider a little further who and EVOLUTION OF HIGH CRIME 225 what we are. A system of government good enough for good men but too weak for the vicious, administered by practised politicians, self-seeking aliens easily bribed by money or influence and always hungry for office, and whose chief concern when in office is to keep themselves there rather than attend to matters affecting the welfare of the people, the rule being party before the people, the people before principle, and self before all. Behold our courts of law, where justice may sometimes be hammered out at no small cost of time and money from iron rule and stale precedent though too largely courts of injustice where only the poor are punished, rich crim- inals escaping through endless webs of quirks and quibbles, all manipulated by professionals of small conscience skilled in legal legerdemain; judges steeped in forms and conven- tionalities listening to evidence with one ear open to their own interests or prejudices; juries of stupid mien and wooden personalities, whose sluggish intellect works in grooves, and each of whom finds it "always his luck to get on a jury with eleven damned fools." Since this sys- tem of court procedure and miscarriage of justice has con- tinued from the days of King John and his charter, might we not now, with some of our referendums and things secure a befitting change? Judging from the signs of the times it is a question how long the influence of the better class of the community will continue to predominate. There is a marked tendency on the part of the lovers of evil to degrade society and bring the community down to their level while the aspirants for something better strive as hard to improve and elevate. Many of the leading newspapers joined the confederacy of crime because of the profit. In a burst of eloquent blackguardism, one of these refined leaders of public opin- ion exclaims "Damn morality, give us prosperity!" which quite plainly shows the quality of public opinion he leads, or is led by. 226 RETROSPECTION As to the attitude and influence of the clergy in the repression of crime in high places too much cannot be said in their praise. It requires nerve, as well as faith and holiness, to say to one who liberally supports the church and devoutly attends its sacred ministrations, as Nathan said to David, * ' Thou art the man ! ' ' Wherefore we are in- clined to regard pityingly a weak-kneed brother so wretchedly circumstanced. Like so many others, such a clergyman fears for him- self. His predatory flock is strong; he must consider his wife and little ones, for he is human. Willingly he de- nounces sin, but not the sinner. It is -not a pleasant thing to say, but the truth asserts it, that in the great conflict now being waged between public righteousness and the sins of the rich the church is not always on the side of purity and good morals. Religion is not taken seriously by the twentieth cen- tury ; its votaries profess with their lips but deny by their actions. The timid preacher of the word too often shirks his responsibilities. 1 1 The pulpit is no place for politics, ' ' saith such an one. Where then is the place for politics? Is religion so unap- proachable a thing that it can take no part in the most im- portant affairs relating to mankind that you, my dear man of God, should relegate the question of government to the saloons and the haunts of the demagogues? Surely to dis- cuss the vital issues of life were better than forever to drone over Moses and the prophets and repeat prayers stereotyped by superstition hundreds of years ago. But talk is idle. Such a man in the pulpit feels that he must preach to please the pews. He still holds his place among the so-called servants of Christ who should be found in the temple casting out the money changers. Not a word of warning or rebuke, not a word which might offend the ear of the pious grafter who passes the contribution plate and serves at the holy communion. How, then, should the EVOLUTION OF HIGH CRIME 227 people be expected to take seriously such a church since its own minister does not? Thus we see how some clergymen as well as some of the men who are in trade, the facile merchant and the bloodless banker, whose customers are money even though they be not men, all alike swell the number that live and flourish by high crime. Let us be thankful that so few of our spiritual guides are of this stamp. Monopolists of such a sort and character there are as the franchise manipulating and public-utilities men who take the people's money from them, forced by threats of discrimination, and employ it to grind them under the heel of a commercial despotism hitherto unknown in the annals of trade; or of one who says "All the oil is mine, the oil gathered by beneficent nature through countless ages in the reservoirs of the earth for the use of all born upon the earth so long as the earth shall stand, all, all is mine, by my sharpened faculties I swear it, I swear I will get it, and with what I get I and my cohorts shall get and control yet more, even the very souls of men." Another says practically the same of iron, as do others of coal, of timber, of the falling water, of food-yielding products, and there is one clique who would even be content with the whole of Alaska. But though finance, philosophy, and religion all fail to give us concrete assurance of the future, yet we must not lose heart, for the skies are at this moment bright with promise in the form of redeemed cities and regenerated states. Even the country towns, once innocent of evil but later grown rank in corruption, and boastful of their big bad men, their bosses and their rings, like any of the larger cities of Sodom, even these are becoming purged of their wickedness and their evil ones made afraid. In so far as a system of legal reform is perfected and carried forward Utopia indeed has come, and American 228 RETROSPECTION cities from cesspools of corruption may become the clean dwelling-places of a redeemed race. Under it there is no reason why the people should not have the sort of govern- men they want. If they prefer cleanliness and decency, if they abhor the curse of labor leaders, if they revolt at the discrimination of judges and prosecuting attorneys be- tween high and low crime, they must choose their leaders accordingly. If the people rule they will get exactly what they want and deserve, be it good or bad. The evolution of high crime is arrested. In a thousand municipalities we see alight the lamps of transformation disclosing new birth and new being. The fundamental forces of honesty and morality which alone can save from anarchy are again appearing in forms attractive to the eye and hopeful to the heart. The exploitation of national re- sources for individual benefit is also a thing of the past, and the time will come when individual holdings of any sort of wealth will be limited, not upon socialistic prin- ciples, but from the evolution of common-sense. Meanwhile let us use a little more discrimination in choosing our chief magistrate. The rulers of nations have not always been men of de- cency. From the days of those divinely appointed over a chosen people, who mostly did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord, all through the lives of ancient Asia and modern Europe, whether Pharaohs of Egypt or Caesars of Rome, or of later times called William or Henry, Charles Louis or Edward, comparatively few decent persons can be found among them. Strange that men who are so many should permit rulers who are so few to degrade them, to grind them into the dust; strange that we, citizens of this high-grade republic, with all our learning and refinement, with all our wealth and opportunity, ever seeking the best, that we should rest supinely under the misrule of demagogues and the spawn of low aliens. Even for our president we rarely choose the best man, EVOLUTION OF HIGH CRIME 229 but rather the fittest. Fittest for what? For reconcilia- tion and compromise. And yet so strong within us is love of home and country that we would prefer our worst president to the best European monarch. Better than to return to the super- stitions and mummeries of kingcraft, that tax labor and pile up a never-to-be-paid national debt to support an idle aristocracy and the ever increasing relatives of royalty, we would return to the realm of apedom and cease calling ourselves men. The new nationalism promulgated by Theodore Roose- velt carries with it a new code of commercial ethics, a new standard for civic decency. First citizen of the world, though not a professional reformer, no one ever equalled him in reforms; though not a professional states crafts- man, few ever excelled him in the management of public affairs. Three great revolutions were achieved by the person- ality of three of our presidents: by George Washington a political revolution, by Abraham Lincoln a social revolu- tion, by Theodore Roosevelt a moral revolution. Though our country still remains steeped in political and financial pollution, the work of Roosevelt, the reformer, in its in- fluence encircles the earth, and is as lasting as time. Do not the people of California feel the effects every day, notably in late victories for the right in the state reforms by Hiram Johnson ? Roosevelt made possible the work of Heney, Heney made possible the work of Johnson. Roosevelt made possible a grand career for Taft, but Taft lacked the penetration to see or take advantage of it. Probably never so many of the American people suf- fered so great a disappointment in the administration of any one of our presidents as in the case of Mr. Taft. Coming immediately after Roosevelt, with all his promises to his predecessor and to the people who elected him fresh in their minds and hearts, they waited, watching for a 230 RETROSPECTION sign, until hope died within them as they saw him with his ponderous flesh and sickly smile sink into a quagmire of broken promises and incompetency. His narrowness of mind was seen in his many petty prejudices, and his lack of judgment in his illogical atti- tude in regard to leading questions, and the persistent in- fliction upon the government of persons of damaged repu- tation which cost the nation much time and money to keep fairly whitewashed. In all of which he displayed the wil- fulness and petulance of a child, as also in his vetoes like that of the Arizona statehood bill, in which he displayed a brutal indifference to the rights and wishes of a free and independent people acting wholly within their rights. One might expect, as the higher circles of office-seeking are approached, to see less of that insatiable greed for office witnessed on lower levels; but in the desire to rule selfish- ness has no limit. Somewhat significant as showing the ever shifting centre of political and intellectual development is the fact that not until Virginia had given to the republic seven presidents, all of them before 1850, did Ohio come for- ward with her six presidents, all attaining office after 1868. North Carolina began with Andrew Jackson, who was followed from his state by James K. Polk and Andrew Johnson, of none of whom are we particularly proud, the last rather than the first being physically and mentally a typical citizen of the state. In politics likewise are marked distinctions. Low officialism in the south is liable to be always dark, while the policemen and pot-house politicians of the northern cities smell strongly Celtic. Jackson's instincts were forceful, his ethics brutal, the moral sense was lacking; as we should expect, he was among the first to set up Mexican claims and urge reprisals. Massachusetts gave only the two Adamses, and New York but three men, the last alone worth counting; and he is still young enough, and prophet priest and king EVOLUTION OF HIGH CRIME 231 enough to accomplish the purposes for which he was created. As to the relative merits of our presidents, that is a question upon which no two persons will agree. We all know that George Washington was a good and a great man, though by diligently digging some few peccadillos may be found not mentioned by the admiring biographer. The Adamses were well up to the Boston standard, which surely is high enough, the first and greatest merit being that they were of Boston. Though not as much talked about as Jefferson, Madison and Monroe made good presidents. The list is filled in with a pretty poor lot down to Lincoln, whose name none can mention except with reverence. Worst of all next to Taft was Andrew Johnson. Grant was a good fighter when he had the largest army and the most money; but the greatest soldier and the most pathetic figure of either army was Robert E. Lee, whose efficiency and sublime courage held him up a hero in the face of a superior force and under the most trying disadvantages. As a man, naturally, being a suc- cessful general, Grant had been greatly overrated, as his career both before and after the war fully shows. He has yet further to be several times magnified before he can properly fill the empty space in his monument. New Yorkers themselves admit that his tomb on Riverside drive is somewhat overwhelming when compared with like trib- utes to the memory of Lincoln. As to the rest there is little to be said, least of all as to Hayes, Arthur, and Taft, but the time will come if in- deed it is not already here, when Theodore Roosevelt will be named the greatest and best of all our chief magis- trates next after Washington and Lincoln. The south and east have given forth their presidents, Carolina, Virginia, and New York; also the mid-continent. Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois; would it not be well some- time to try the Pacific coast from the new crop of patriots that is coming on? CHAPTER XIII THE DARK AGE OP GRAFT THE period of our west-American history from 1870 to 1910, that is to say, from the advent of Collis P. Huntington to the advent of Hiram W. Johnson, will ever remain memorable as marking a thraldom and a deliver- ance. For the first time in our brief career we behold the dethronement of American manhood, the debauchery of American morals. For the first time we find Americans afraid, unnerved, not by the presence of a foreign foe, but because of betrayal by their own people, by their friends and neighbors, from whom they expected aid and good- fellowship in the development of a new commonwealth along the old lines of fidelity and integrity. All was hope and joy in anticipation of the benefits to accrue from the completed railway, the railway which had been built by the people, for the people, which had been built with the people's money and credit, with money given by the people of the west and credit obtained from the government through their representatives at Washing- ton. The work had been entrusted to ostensibly reputable men doing business in Sacramento, and the work accom- plished, the railway was now to bring them good fortune and nearer relationship with all the world. When these Sacramento men, hitherto in very moderate circumstances, suddenly became rich, the people knew they were betrayed. Had the railway men simply pocketed the people's money, and secured to themselves individually all the profits and peculations to accrue from hasty construction as a war measure, it would have been bad enough. No wonder 232 THE DARK AGE OF GRAFT 233 then that when they saw their old associates turn traitors, and found themselves tricked, the promised advantages turned to ways and means for further extortions, they be- came despondent. Iron rules were made by the now exultant railroad men ; the merchants ' books should always be open to them ; freight rates were graded, and the most favored shippers must not only give up the clipper-ship and the steamer by the Isthmus routes, but must not order for or sell goods to any who did not give their entire transportation busi- ness to the railroad. Credits at the east were curtailed, owing partly to the shortened time for getting goods to the western coast, and partly to the return of government to specie payment. Intimidation was the spirit of the new regime. Those who had proved obdurate during the abject efforts of the railroad men to secure favors were now remembered, and the delinquent towns and individuals well punished. Con- temptuous treatment became a mark of merit, and a civil answer w r as scarcely to be expected from a servant of the monopoly. The public press was bribed or subsidized so far as practicable; such journals as declined to sell themselves were if possible destroyed. The Sacramento Union, the ablest and most influential newspaper on the coast, was for- bidden the use of the Central Pacific trains, and so was ruined, later to be bought for a song by an agent of the octopus. The whole country was under a cloud. Business fell off; manufactures declined; merchants failed, many giv- ing up further effort and taking their departure. Want came to the working-man, who could find no employment, even at a low wage, his family often lacking food. Posses- sion was taken by the railroad men of the courts and of the government; subservient tools were placed in office, the ablest lawyers were employed to demonstrate the law- lessness of law before facile courts of law, and so the rail- 234 RETROSPECTION road soon had the country under its heel. Values fell; sales of real-estate, inflated in anticipation of an advance, could not be effected; financial distress overspread the land, and California lapsed into a state of humiliation and despair. It would not have been so with the men of '56; they would have found some way out of it ; it was their custom to find a way out of dilemmas. The men who made Chicago would have found a way out of it. It would have been wrong, of course, to tear up the track and hang the big four, however great the temptation. There were other ways for those that had the intelligence and nerve to em- ploy them. Thus came to California the Dark Age of Graft, over the Plains, over the Great Divide, over the Desert and the Sierra, by the Union Pacific, by the Central Pacific, before ever the word of accursed distinction was invented, or lessons in the art had become common elsewhere. To the immaculate four, Huntington, Hopkins, Stanford, and Crocker belong the honor of its introduction. Where these adepts studied, they and Satanus only know. A rare text-book of the time was the Credit Mobilier of Paris. Fremont and his alleged Mariposa mine became entangled there, and the man would have been sent to the Bastile as a royal fraud if peradventure that edifice had not been closed for repairs. Such of the Credit Mobilier as was not required by M. de Lesseps for his Panama canal scheme the Union Pacific brought to America, where it served its manager the same scurvy trick it always plays upon its votaries, only he was first disgraced and then killed by it, whereas Fremont could not be killed by disgrace, nor yet the immaculate four. It is difficult to disgrace a man with forty millions in his pocket, even though the millions were stolen, and the people enslaved, bound in fetters forged out of their own THE DARK AGE OF GRAFT 235 money; even though the millions were employed in elect- ing governors, buying legislatures, bribing senators, and insulting and humiliating citizens; or perhaps in erecting churches and hospitals not for the glory of God, but for their own glory, and as a. sop to Cerberus; in founding a college wherein young people may forever be taught to honor infamy ; in building for vulgar display a Nob hill palace, which brings neither honor nor comfort, and soon to be licked up by charitable flames; in buying a foreign title for an adopted daughter; in supplying an old wife the money wherewith to buy a young husband; in suits at law, employing the law to defeat the law, electing to office men pledged to defy the law while swearing to execute it, all interlarded with their own lives and per- juries such as would put Ananias to blush; in spiteful revenges and personal brawls, as when one of the wives raised high her spiritualistic nose at another of the wives, thereby infuriating the husband to such an extent that he drives out the man who said he would rather be president of the Central Pacific than president of the United States ; now no longer should he be president of this band of rob- bers, whereupon the husband of the plain wife with the ethereal sub-soul is retired, and the husband of the beauti- ful snubbed one reigns in his stead. Nor does the feud end there. In the flaming pages of the Argonaut, under the virulent pen- of Frank Pixley, with classic vituperation Leland Stanford is excoriated for a year or two, until there is little of him left but his saintly visage and Palo Alto horses excoriations evidently pleasing to Mr. Pixley, though done for a consideration, for such a consideration as to make the Pixley pockets bulge with the money of Huntington, who sat happily upon his prostrate foe forever after. It was truly considerate in Plutus to raise up a man like Harriman to succeed Huntington. Harriman was a genius of another order. Huntington 's genius was a de- velopment, Harriman 's was an inspiration. Both were 236 INTROSPECTION of the Napoleonic order, the latter especially. These two railroad men three out of the big four counting for nothing one following the other, ran side by side the rail- road and the government, the people meanwhile being held in a state of cowed subserviency. This for the western country. At the east arose oil men, who greased the railroads and strangled the other oil men; iron men gathered up the other iron men, reg- ulated the tariff, multiplied their former values by ten, and posted their names everywhere as the great givers. The others pecuniarily interested in these operations as owners of property or participators in the profits were members of high society, of churches and charities, with every pretense to respectability. Never of themselves would the astute four, or any one of them, have thought of a railroad over the high Sierra had not an engineer, one T. D. Judah, called their atten- tion to it, and assured them of its practicability. He had been over the ground, and would make a further survey for a share in the enterprise, the promise of which being readily given and as promptly repudiated when the work was done. Nor would the opportunities for wholesale robbery have been given them but for the stress of the civil war. This war with its attendant evil influences, as we have seen, was the beginning of the reign of high crime in the United States. It came in with army contracts and the overland railroad, and has been growing in intensity ever since. The same infamous tactics which yielded such rich plunder in manipulating the Central Pacific were em- ployed by others, as imperfect construction, fraudulent contract and finance companies, attended by the burning of such account books and papers as would give evidence in court against them, with easy forgetfulness and facile perjury. And these evil examples were passed on to posterity. THE DARK AGE OF GRAFT 237 There are in every state in the union, in California not more than elsewhere, sons and successors of the original grafters made by the war, who never in their lives have drawn an honest breath, whose thoughts are ever on cheating and overreaching, in which accomplishments those of their subordinates who become most efficient are ac- credited the highest honors and rewards. Instead of obedience to the law young men were taught to subvert the law, to control legislation, and wrest from the people the management of their own economic life. Selfishness is encouraged, alliance with special interests and privilege sought, greed fostered, patriotism ridiculed, and the rights of others lightly regarded. There were other railroad builders over the Mississippi way besides the Union Pacific from whom the illustrious four might learn the tricks of the trade, and there were the good men who represented us at Washington, wearing themselves out studying the welfare of the people, and in securing their own reelection these knew a thing or two, for it was now a full decade since the opening of the war when the high grafters began in earnest to ply their pro- fession. And the rule of these gentlemen, our good neigh- bors the patriotic four, who stole, and lied, and tricked, and perjured themselves so skilfully, or had always some one at hand to do it for them, extended throughout all the California country and lasted four decades, until Hiram Johnson came and brought to a close, let us hope forever, our Dark Age of Graft. Forty years! It is a long time. Anglo-California at this writing is not yet sixty-three years old, and forty of those years given over to the tyranny of bad men, leaving only the fifteen years interregnum following the dethrone- ment of crime by the grand tribunal of 1856. Truly we are a pusillanimous lot ! Worse than the children of Israel with their forty years wandering in the desert, their quails and manna, their whinings and bickerings and golden calf and ten commandments, and never a spark of man- 238 RETROSPECTION hood; yet they had their Lord God and Moses, while we had only these four foul fish. Forty years! It was a long time for a free and en- lightened people to remain subservient under a disgrace- ful despotism. Merchants and manufacturers were cowed into submission while the economic interests of the entire country were paralyzed. We have seen in the evolution of high crime something of when and where and how this abominable state of things originated and was thrust upon us. Going back fifty years we find on our hands a great civil war, which breeds swindlers as cesspools breed gnats. Then w r e prostitute the privileges of our high citizenship by admitting to the franchise four or five millions of lately emancipated African slaves and a horde of riffraff from Europe. Then we give into the hands of a few grasping men a large share of the natural wealth and resources of the country, the forests, the mines, the coal and iron and oil, robbing the people at large to enrich the few. Frightened by the depredations in Pacific waters of the Confederate steamer Alabama, the first overland railroad was hurried forward at any cost, while the builders were buried under a deluge of government bonds, land grants, and contributions from the people. It was the work of our pet octopus, the four-armed cuttle-fish, who built for us the Central Pacific, and while acknowledging its benefits and inflictions we must mark the advent of dishonor attending it. Dating from 1861, the influence of these four men for evil, with that of their successors, increased as the years passed by. One of them, unscrupulous, bold, fearing neither God nor man, dominated the others, who were not too stupid to learn rascality. Huntington commanded a respect which could not be accorded to Leland Stanford, a man of bodily presence, made up of pose and piety, with Asiatic eyes placed near together, and which rolled heaven- ward in hypocritical ecstasy whenever he wished to be THE DARK AGE OF GRAFT 239 impressive he was of the spiritualistic persuasion, and he now dwells among the stars. In default of an heir he gave his money to found a university, which was to make high crime respectable, and which act was used in his defense at Washington, whereupon a senator arose and made reply, ''We do not want our children educated with stolen money. " But from the large attendance at the institution, and the pains taken by the faculty upon all occasions to preach political purity, it would seem that the gentleman from California was mistaken. Thus became formulated in the minds of men as a principle of business ethics evasion of the law and outwit- ting a competitor, quickly to become breaking of the law and the crushing of competition; the term good business becoming significant of criminality, a manufacturer as merciless as his machinery, a citizen studying the law under whose protection he lived to see how best he could break it and save his own precious skin. Good business, not as of old the result of application, thrift, and fair dealing, but rather of false-swearing, theft, cheating, and overreaching. God save us! If this is good business what then is bad business? Well, good or bad, it is the sort of business we find to- day closely allied to crime, such crime as sends a poor man to prison. We find it closely allied to wealth, few of the great fortunes that are made being free from it. We find it closely allied to high society, closely intimate with high living, luxury, and extravagance. In the eastern United States, I am sorry to say, it had already come to pass that somewhat of the former prestige of the business men was lost, and it would seem that they have not now, all of them, the best reputation in the world for honesty in their dealings. Our foreign competitors say that we adulterate, give short weights and poor quality. If this is true it is very wrong; besides it does not pay. 240 RETROSPECTION Is it wise, in promulgating a course of action to turn aside and mark out for ourselves a winding way worse than the winding way of those whose ethics are governed wholly by expediency? Benedict Arnold doubtless thought he was making a good bargain when he sold his country, and Aaron Burr regarded his reputation enhanced by his duel with Alex- ander Hamilton. Major Andre's captors may have been tempted by his offer of money, though history does not say so. I am sure Abraham Ruef would have regarded the offer with disdain as not large enough. Lincoln's assassin thought to avenge the south while bringing upon the south dire destruction in thus killing its best friend. We can but notice how little good bad money does to the cormorants who gather it, or to their progeny if they leave any. To us it may appear that those who thus sold their souls for pay, though receiving therefor all that they were worth, made a poor bargain of it. We can readily understand why the Southern Pacific railway entered politics so early and fought so long and vigorously for the supremacy, and why the Santa Fe and Western Pacific railways did not. These two doubtless have sins enough to answer for, but not of the kind that re- quires a subversion of the government to save them from the penitentiary. The beneficiary of no unlawful policies, the Western Pacific comes to California and attends to its own business, with no attempt at debauching the govern- ment, having no rascalities to cover in this quarter. During this period, pregnant of evil, the character of the population underwent a change. While retaining a dominant influence in public affairs the Anglo-American element declined in numbers, the loss being more than replaced by lower grades of humanity from Europe who cared nothing for Americans or American institutions. A new Christianity was preached from the pulpits, a new doctrine of human rights was practised in the courts, a new code of commercial ethics was installed in business THE DARK AGE OF GRAFT 241 circles, if not in words direct then in words and actions indirect. Newspapers scurrilized good men for doing good. And of the church, it may with some show of reason be said that it has scarcely proved itself in all cases that vital force for good which is claimed for it by its patrons. We might hope to see American character reformed, and the earlier influences reestablished in the coming genera- tion, but not while parents are teaching their children the tricks of trade, how to circumvent the right and over- throw the efforts of good men. What did they teach, these new instructors of the credit mobilier school, so lately of us, grocer, hardware merchant, governor; what new codes of industrial ethics did they bring over the mountains, they and their con- freres ? They taught us how to falsify accounts, how to falsify weights and measures, how to adulterate and deceive, how to water stocks and get up sham dividends, how to sell a worthless mine and build a $200,000 court house for $400,000; how to bribe without being detected and swear falsely without being arrested, how to apply road-money to electioneering purposes, how to beguile or pacify courts and judges so as to make the practice of the law defeat the purposes of the law. Later in this school were taught theft, perjury, and murder pure and simple. And the result a few brief days of fatuous swelling among their fellows like the fabled frog; then themselves to earth, their names to infamy, their wealth to others, and to the state a heritage of dishonor. The big four! And their epitaph. They gorged themselves with ill-gotten wealth, betrayed their trust, set an example of successful swindling, leaving to posterity the air foul with their memories. The Fraser river mining excitement in 1858 carried away 15,000 of California's best working men, while the flood of 1862 drove many farmers to the city; changes to 242 RETROSPECTION the injury alike of the agricultural interests and civic loyalty. Droughts in 1877 and the spread of Kearneyism with the persecution of the Chinese lowered still further the morale of the community. A working-man's party was organized, and a new constitution framed, the primary purposes of which was to equalize rights and responsibil- ities, control corporations, and make the rich pay their share of the taxes, in almost all of which efforts it was unsuccessful. In 1885 Mr. Stanford made himself United States senator to succeed James T. Farley, democrat, chosen by the legislature of 1877-8. He gave as an excuse for thus placing himself where he could hunt his game at close range that Mrs. Stanford had expressed a wish to spend a winter in Washington. Long before this, however, it became evident that throughout the entire United States intimate relations existed between corporate capital and the office-holders. The banner cries of the railway politicians were mainly dead issues, the only vital point being the nursing into greater efficiency the infant monster graft. Aristocracy and democracy had ceased to oppose each other, as in the earlier days of the commonwealth, while the new republicanism had already degenerated to a con- dition bordering on anarchy. The people became slack in their duties of citizenship. What was the use ? The wicked reigned, and there was at hand no deliverance; the coun- try was going to the dogs, had already gone to the dogs, therefore let it go. They suffered to be made mayor a baptist preacher, I. S. Kalloch, whose son, another baptist preacher, killed Charles de Young for printing offensive articles in the Chronicle, young Kalloch receiving no pun- ishment therefor. So short a time ago these from whom all were now begging, themselves were begging money from the people wherewith to build for the people a public utility to be THE DARK AGE OF GRAFT 243 run for the benefit of the people. Little faith the people had in them, then or at any time thereafter; San Fran- cisco gave them money, but would not accept their stock even as a gift. Another phase of civic infelicity which came in with the railroad, the later somewhat perturbed nest of high crime being the logical outcome, appeared first in the form of mild paralysis, moral and industrial. Three successive dry seasons, with general collapse in values, disarrange- ment in business by the new railway, with financial de- pression throughout the world, prepared the soil for the seeds of unrest. Bossism and bribery put forth their re- pulsive fronts, timidly at first, then with bolder mien. Under these inflictions, attended by labor strikes and the officiousness of labor leaders, those bandits of industry, enemies alike to the workingman and of the public, and the arrogance of the railway monopolists, who levied their tribute on transportation, there is little wonder that busi- ness men should still fail to rally, but continued to present themselves in marked contrast to their bold and chivalrous predecessors of the gold-digging days. Great but silent at that time was the taxation tyranny, now happily at an end, and, let us hope, forever. At a meeting of bankers upon a certain occasion, said one to tfie other: "How is it that your big bank is assessed so low and my small bank so high?" "Give the assessor a thousand dollars and you will know," was the reply. Railroad men, cogs in the wheels of the great machine, have no code of morals down in their time-tables; but in mercantile communities bankers, whose occupation is the handling of other people's money, and who impose their personality upon the public in somewhat undue degree from the glitter of gold by which they are surrounded, the lesser industrial lights come to regard in a measure as mentors in business matters. Therefore, when the largest, 244 RETROSPECTION the most influential, the most enterprising and popular of Pacific coast financiers set the example of bold-faced bribery, is it any wonder that a single family dynasty should hold the assessor's office for a whole decade, harvesting meanwhile hundreds of thousands, or that this same banker, not long afterward, should turn defaulter, wreck his bank, and kill himself. Great financial lights, as in other forms of greatness, are invested with a halo, which, when dimmed by indirection, casts a gloom over honorable traffic. In 1891 the San Francisco grand jury began work in earnest to discover frauds and send criminals up for pun- ishment. Stephen T. Gage, of the Southern Pacific board of directors and later railway governor of the state, re- fused to appear as a witness. As the result of their efforts they found that bribery was a constant and important element in legislation, with little attempt at concealment. Leland Stanford was called upon to testify, whereupon the supreme court declared that the grand jury was im- properly constituted by reason of some trifling irregularity. A thousand such instances might be cited as showing the contempt in which was held courts, justice, and considera- tion for the public. A committee of one hundred citizens was appointed by Mayor Phelan to draft a new charter, which was adopted at the next election, but failed to accomplish any consider- able reform. Hope arose now and then for a brief period in the hearts of the people, as when a truly honest and conscien- tious man was chosen governor or perhaps sent to the United States senate. But in all the forty years of our dark age there was scarcely one of that category elected governor or sent to Washington, as there was scarcely one attained office who was not infected in greater or less degree with the railroad virus. George C. Perkins started in well as governor, but lapsed into subserviency rather than lose his seat in the senate, thus lessening the respect of his fellow citizens. James D. Phelan, always one of San THE DARK AGE OF GRAFT 245 Francisco's best men, made a noble stand as mayor against the wealthy ring that stood ever ready to ruin the city. A blind man named Buckley got control of the re- publican party and levied contributions for a time on a liberal scale. Late in the century the citizens came to- gether and put an end to his rule, and blind Boss Buckley was driven from the state, which work so tested their strength as to show the unafraid with what ease they might secure good government if they only adopted the proper measures. And may we not drop a tear or two over the poor afflicted one, touched with the anger of the Almighty, when for a while before his departure a strange hand laid upon his shoulder brought pale fear to his face and filled his darkened soul with terror. During the administration of Mr. Phelan occurred a teamsters' strike in which cruelty and brutality on the part of the strikers as against non-union men caused a wider breach than ever between capital and labor. Between the domination of the railroad men and the demands of labor business men began to feel that American rights and citizenship were something of a farce when one could no longer control one's own affairs. Up to this time the octopus had spent its bad breath upon the state rather than on the city, but now labor comes forward in the form of walking delegates to foul its own nest. The choice of the walking delegates for mayor fell on Eugene Schmitz, himself a labor leader and orchestra musician, a dull, phlegmatic infloat from the German bor- der ; for supervisors mixed breed Italian-German and Irish- French, a type of alien-American citizens in most of our large cities; for master and manipulator a little curly- headed Jew, Abraham Ruef, attorney he called himself, educated at the expense of the state at Berkeley, later to serve the state in return at San Quentin. Several of the Phelan supervisors retained their places during the earlier part of the Schmitz administration, so 246 RETROSPECTION that it was not until after the second election of Schmitz in 1903 that Mr. Ruef was enabled to marshal his forces in full array. Ready now to reach out for business his active mind ran over several schemes which seemed simple enough to work. One was a proposed car strike which should de- moralize business and send down values so that city bonds might be bought in by the bankers at a low price. Approaching Rudolph Spreckels with this proposition, the banker's eyes were opened to the rottenness of things around him, and he resolved to take active measures for reform. Meanwhile Ruef himself was approached, Schmitz re- ferring to him all applications for franchises or favors. "Would he sell us some of the city's good things?" Oh, yes, he would sell them all, sell them twice, if need be, sell the buyers, sell to both sides, peradventure, and deliver the goods to neither. Catch them at it? Who was to catch, and what? Might not a lawyer practise his profession? And was he not entitled to his fee, say two thousand dol- lars for properly policing a disreputable house up to two hundred thousand retainer from a rich corporation? And who was to talk about it? No one who was not him- self seeking the retirement of a prison cell. Schmitz' elevation to office was strictly a class issue, and his elections and administrations were so skilfully managed by Ruef that the question was frequently dis- cussed as to when if ever the chains thus fastened upon the municipality would be broken. But wide-spread as was his sway, Ruef could not control the district attorney's office, to which William H. Langdon had been elected on the union labor ticket, a man who always proved true to his trust. That infamy remained to be accomplished at a later date by the high bribers by placing in the office one of their many tools for the purpose of stopping prosecu- tions. Such was the situation. The city had sold herself and THE DARK AGE OF GRAFT 247 the buyers were now selling the city. No way seemed possible to prevent the robbery of millions by this unholy crew. The fire of April, 1906, arrested their work but for a moment. A spasm of contrition passed over them, as they beheld the destruction of the city, pity for the suffer- ing, the starving, whose distress they helped to relieve by the distribution of the charities which came pouring in on them, but most of all pity for themselves lest their occupa- tion should be gone. But all other considerations quickly passed from them when once assured that the city would be rebuilt, and their field for plunder vastly enriched by the catastrophe. The campaign of the reflected officials opened auspi- ciously. Almost every rich man wanted something, and that made business. Schmitz and the supervisors took what was given them, often in silence, and no questions asked, and voted as they were told. It was a happy family ; the members not wise, however, in displaying their new riches so ostentatiously. One answer fitted all complaints brought to Schmitz, "See Ruef," as in the palmy days at the assessor's office the refrain was, "See my brother." And to all appearances the beautiful game, all winning, all secure, the police such gentle creatures, might continue for two score years longer, in which case the fate of the city it is fearful to contemplate. It was well enough known to outsiders what was going on, but how to reach the wrong, to grasp and eradicate it under existing condi- tions, that was the question. About this time, at the suggestion of President Roose- velt, Francis J. Heney, who had been successfully engaged in the prosecution for the United States of certain high offenders in Oregon and elsewhere, spent some months in San Francisco in quiet observation. When satisfied as to the state of things, he made it known that Schmitz and Ruef should be sent to prison, and, with proper coopera- tion, he was sure he could send them there. He should re- 248 RETROSPECTION quire with him the district attorney and be able to act as his deputy. He should need the assistance of William J. Burns, chief active detective in the United States service, who had proved so efficient in the Oregon land fraud cases and elsewhere. For himself he would accept no fee, but funds would be necessary for the expense of litigation. For these funds the district attorney must not be under obli- gations to the general public, nor be held accountable to any committee of citizens as to expenditures. Against the money of the bribers and the elusiveness of the bribed there was small hope of conviction under the ordinary processes of the law. It must be a still hunt. The curly boss was very cunning, and to go after him with blare of trumpets would only excite his derision. Thus was freely discussed from time to time the ques- tion of the deliverance of the city by the four men whose hearts were now warming to their work. The wisdom of these stipulations appeared later. The people at large, and the working-men, at first favored the prosecution, as was shown by returning Langdon as dis- trict attorney by a large majority. But the corporations, and the bankers at their instigation, raised the cry of injury to business and brought about a change of sentiment, which resulted later in the defeat of good government at the polls. After several consultations with Phelan and Heney, Spreckels agreed to finance the prosecution, stipulating only that the work should be continued to a finish, that there should be no outside interference, that rich and poor should be treated alike, and that no honor or emolument arising from this work should be sought or accepted. It was clear that crime could be reached only through the criminal; so Mr. Burns opened the ball by catching a supervisor in a trap and making him confess. Under promise of whole or partial immunity all the supervisors then confessed, and finally the tricky Ruef himself. It was so much a part of his oily nature to save his skin at the cost of his friends and confederates that he could not THE DARK AOE OF GRAFT 249 withstand the temptation, and so brought on the unex- pected. Later, unable to keep faith even with the prosecu- tion, and influenced no doubt by the gold of the rich men, Ruef doubled on himself, as he is likely to do again should occasion offer. How by Ruef's testimony Schmitz was convicted and sent to prison; how Ruef by his own confession was pro- nounced guilty and placed in charge of an elisor for further utilization I have not room for details here. The super- visors were directed to keep their seats, obedient to their masters of the prosecution, which they were only too glad to do. They were told to declare the office of mayor vacant, and put one of their number in his place; he in turn to nominate and place in the mayor's chair, Edward R. Taylor, a well known citizen, retained in his seat by a large majority at the next election. The supervisors were then permitted to resign and scatter, Taylor choosing for himself a new board. All this was done under the direc- tion of Mr. Spreckels, who, as dictator held the govern- ment of San Francisco in his hand, and might have shaped it to selfish ends had he been so disposed. Selecting with care men of ability and integrity to be installed in the various offices he made up a good government ticket which was elected by a sweeping plurality. Heney was made deputy district attorney under Lang- don and began his prosecutions in 1906 with 129 indict- ments against Ruef, besides those against Schmitz, Calhoun, and others. Implicated directly or indirectly in charges of a more or less criminal nature were the Telephone, the Gas and Electric, and the Parkside companies, and the United railroads, together with certain bankers and busi- ness and professional men, and a number of gambling houses, prostitution palaces, and French restaurant estab- lishments. CHAPTER XIV THE INJUSTICE OP LAW IN the nomenclature of American politics the terms law and justice are loosely used and often misapplied. For example, we often hear it said that " justice is based on law and order, and without law and order there can be no justice," yet the phrase is meaningless. Justice is an attribute; law, an entity. Justice is a vital principle of progressive humanity; law is an article, manufactured to fit the occasion. Justice is infinite and eternal; law is finite and transient. However we may weld together the terms in statutes and tribunals, however we may sound them from the ros- trum there is no relativity between them. There are many courts of law in the United States; there are some courts of justice. And although it seems at times that justice comes high, the overthrow of justice comes still higher. To secure justice in a fair tribunal of justice simple words properly proved should be all that is necessary, whereas to defeat justice subtle ways and ex- pensive tricks are required. What is the price of justice in this Republic? Is it so costly an article or so difficult to obtain as to make it necessary for every large trust, corporation, and special interest to retain in its service a corps of expensive attorneys and judges? Is it to secure or defeat the ends of justice that these men are employed ? Is it to secure or defeat the ends of justice that smart lawyers with no conscience are able to sell their services at thirty or fifty thousand dollars a year? 250 THE INJUSTICE OF LAW 251 Are laws made to secure the ends of justice, or is justice made to secure the ends of law ? How is it that on opening court justice is caged and set aside, while all tongues go clamoring about law? "Your Honor, this is the law. Your Honor is herein bound by the law. Your Honor will instruct the jury as to the law." Never a word about justice or right or wrong, but paramount in every tribunal, great or small, it is from first to last law, law, law. The best paid lawyer is not he who secures justice, but he who most successfully bamboozles facts and manipulates the statutes. But laws are the fundamental element of civilized so- ciety, the sign manual of progress. As the laws are heard and obeyed the people prosper, the powers of mind taking the place of brute force. By law the universe regulates itself; nebula revolves to substance and substance clashes to nebula ; the cosmos is law. So we are taught. Wherefore, although it is a nuisance, at times cruel, merciless, unjust, iniquitous, it is a necessary evil, and we will not try to get away from it. However inexorable law may be in regard to the uni- verse, in the affairs of men law is the creature, not the creator. As we have long made our gods without knowing it, so now we make our laws, and knowing it or not, in- continently turn them into gods and fall down and worship them. Law is essential to continued progress; there can be no real or continued progress without justice; therefore in a certain sense it may be said that law is essential to the com- plete and proper development of justice. If men were more skilful in the manufacture of law, if the laws that were made to accomplish certain purposes did accomplish them, then those who go to court to get justice might be willing to take law instead. But as law is so generally served up in our courts in place of justice, would it not be well to have more courts of justice and fewer courts of law? 252 RETROSPECTION If in America we do not as a rule keep up that clown- ish barbarism of wig and gown in court, in making of the judge a Santa Glaus to frighten litigants and overawe the people, and of the officiating attorneys in like robes mounte- banks giving to the court-room a burlesque air, we still re- tain in our minds enough of the ancient superstition regarding law as to cause us to forget that law and govern- ment are made by the people for the people and not the people for law and government, in a word that the people are law and government, that judges are the servants of the people, and that the court-room with its clap-trap is simply machinery to aid the people in giving expression to their will. "Ah! in England, don't you know," says my cockney friend, "we wouldn't think we could get justice if the judge and solicitors did not appear in wig and gown." All the same the English courts are superior to ours, the wigs and gowns, like King George and his aristocracy of imitation men and women with their ancient antics, being innocent mummery which does not greatly interfere with the course of business. Compared with those of England our courts of law are a fraud and a farce; a fraud, because five times as much money and time are spent over them as is necessary, and a farce, because when this is done three-fourths of these strained efforts bring no adequate results. On the invitation of Lord Chief Justice Alverton, Judge Hunt, of San Francisco, sat through a day's session of the criminal court of appeals in London. In two and a half hours of that session five cases on appeal were heard and decided, oral decisions being rendered from the bench as soon as the cases were submitted. Another amazing thing noted by Judge Hunt was that in England the im- panelment of a jury takes but little time, frequently being completed in a few minutes. In answer to this one might say that a competent jury of disinterested men in an important case cannot be picked THE INJUSTICE OF LAW 253 up off hand in half an hour. No? Well, then can a competent jury of disinterested men in an important case be secured in three days, or in three months ? Is ever such a jury secured? Is it ever the aim or desire of the at- torneys on either side to get such a jury ; is it not rather their aim to get jurymen prejudiced in their client's favor? Is it not as fair for one side as for the other to allow the judge to impanel his twelve men in the jury box and go on with the trial, after having asked each one a few pertinent questions? And, finally, would it not be as well to have honest and capable judges to try cases, without being hampered by the useless presence of twelve ignorant or idiotic men, judges subject to recall, that when a bad man gets him- self upon the bench he may be replaced? Attorneys in England are prohibited from asking un- necessary questions, which explains why the jury in the famous Crippen case was obtained in two hours. Crippen was defended by masters of technical law, and yet he was tried and convicted in three days, and hanged on schedule time. Speaking of the attitude of English courts toward gentlemen of the bar, Judge Hunt says: "Courtesy is the watchword. Not a question is permitted to be answered or a word spoken which will tend to prolong an action. An appeal taken on a technicality is an unknown quantity. The great masses of court records which we in this country associate with an appeal are unknown in England. De- cisions on appeal are given orally and immediately after the conclusion of the argument." I thank Judge Hunt for his signal service, as it enables me to ask why we cannot have courts more like those of England, and judges who will execute justice in one quarter of the time and cost now employed, and put a stop to hair- splitting and hunting for technicalities? How different from our high priests of jurisprudence who are so buried beneath the weight of superfluous learn- 254 RETROSPECTION ing as to require often a year or two to work their way out of it with a decision which even then may be nearer wrong than right. The truth is they are obsessed by technical- ities; nicety in quibbling is practised as a fine art. Laws in opposition to public weal and popular opinion are and should be inoperative. Laws made to secure the ends of justice but which de- feat justice are absurd, and if continued they hold up to scorn the intelligence of the people who permit them to exist. The United States Supreme judge who delights more in exhibiting his skill in splitting hairs and finding techni- calities than in exacting justice disgusts even Mr. Taft, who does not take the trouble to split his hairs but carries his complaints to Congress. The judge who sits upon the bench incapable of doing, or unwilling or failing to do that for which he was created is a worthless machine which should be thrown away. But the judge was not created to do justice, we are told. Then let the proper laws be made by the proper law-making power, and not go on century after century, learned counsel beating the air before solemn judges in deep meditation over the absurd conglomeration called a code. The time spent in wrangling over a single case by our so learned ju- rists should be sufficient to frame the simple rules which would secure justice. But were the laws plain and the road to justice easy where would be the occupation of our so learned jurists with their long talks and large fees. It is well enough to say that the judge is sworn to ad- minister the laws and not to make them, and that it would be dangerous to allow him to unreel out of his own brain in the name of justice whatever his fancy or feelings should at the moment dictate. Is this more dangerous than to depute twelve men with little brains to spare thus to unreel, not the law but the evidence which they hold is or should be one with the law ? Further than this, what code of laws was ever made that THE INJUSTICE OF LAW 255 an astute judge could not find flaws enough in it to defeat the purpose of the law? Far better is an honest judge with a few laws than an unintelligent jury with many laws. Or if the laws are so ineffective and judges so unre- liable why do not men learned in the law make the laws what they should be without spending so much time in idle talk, and then let the people install men as judges to administer these laws and execute justice 1 Here in these United States, in the fiftieth century of our civilization, for men of learning and intelligence to stand around like images of wood or stone realizing the miserable condition of things, the imperfections of the law and the inefficiency of the courts, with little or no attempt to remedy matters is not praiseworthy on the part of the profession. It is ridiculous that laws should be allowed to stand whose operation divides the minds of the ablest men, when they should be so direct in securing justice that a school-boy might construe them. Here is an assembly called a court of justice with in- terpreters of the law and ministers of learning. With due solemnity the judge takes' his seat amidst calls for order. Then begins the battle between law and justice and when justice is duly overthrown the conqueror steps proudly forth, once more a victor in many battles. Is not the mens legis, the spirit of the law, to be con- sidered at all, but only the letter of the law ? Let us have law and order by all means, and statutes and constitutions, and fighting men and hangmen, and battle-ships and penitentiaries, all to serve the fetish law, but let the law meanwhile feed its fetish. Law is a neces- sary evil, and judges must confine their decisions within the limits of it, but as long as law is so faulty is it wise to so blindly serve it ? Might we not have a law that courts should first of all secure justice and that a law which de- feats justice should be inoperative? Indeed steps have already been taken in certain quarters in that direction, as an amendment to the constitution for- 256 RETROSPECTION bidding the reversal of a judgment by the supreme court on technical grounds, which is a step toward giving justice the supremacy before the law that it deserves. When the wise mechanician sees that his machine is imperfect, that instead of accomplishing his purpose it de- feats it, will he endow it with inexorable necessity and stand by in a state of imbecility, and declare that though he made the machine he must not alter its running? As laws are made to secure the ends of justice, if they fail in this they are not laws, or should not be so con- sidered, and it should not be permissible for the judge to construe them to the obstruction of justice. An illegitimate child may not claim a share in the parental estate. Is this right? No, but it is the law. That is to say, a law is made and placed upon the statute books to perpetuate injustice ? It seems so. Then let the law be changed, and until it is changed the people it appears must submit to legalized injustice. Before the American bar association, in New York, G. "W. Kirchwey, dean of the Columbia law school, declared that ' * Our courts must realize once for all that the power to do justice, greater than the power to administer law, is the power that is really committed to them; that a prece- dent is only a signpost pointing out the direction in which the feet of justice must go, not a rule binding upon the mind and conscience of the judge; that our courts are set in their high places as interpreters of the popular sense of morality and right and the popular sense of justice, not as interpreters of obscure oracles handed down from a remote antiquity. They will receive and they will de- serve respect so long as the law which they lay down is the expression of the public will, and no longer. " There is no excuse whatever for the miserable machinery we have for grinding out justice. A stranger from Al- truria sitting in one of our court-rooms for half an hour would set us down for a nation of imbeciles. What is it they are trying to do? he would ask. Or what is it they THE INJUSTICE OF LAW 257 are trying not to do ? Not one murderer in ten is punished at all ; not one in a hundred is hanged ; for killing twenty- one men, working-men, in a bunch, and confessing to it, the murderer, a labor leader, is sentenced to imprisonment for life, but will probably be set free in a few years to go forth and kill twenty-one more, if he chooses to do so. A somewhat hollow appendage of law is precedent. What is precedent? Previous usage; something similar and antecedent, which because of having been used must be used again. Sound or unsound, right or wrong, just or unjust, having once taken part in a judicial decision it becomes a rule. The absurdity of which appears in the excuse of the California supreme court when brought up against an admitted violation of the constitution in the Ruef case, which was that it was only following its own custom ! A law once broken, or an illogical or absurd ruling made by a high tribunal, it is a precedent, and may be used indefinitely to legally break laws and enforce unjust de- cisions. It made it right because a supreme judge had broken the law these many times for him to go on breaking it at all times, so he said. And he was right, if there is so much in precedent. Whether or not precedent is sensible and sound, whether or not it is right and proper to follow precedent depends altogether on what the precedent is, which reduces the proposition to an absurdity. The great obstacle standing in the way of the reforma- tion of court practice is the fetish that men of the law make of their profession. Learned in the law, learned in the scriptures, are expressions which to the vulgar mind imply something akin to the supernatural, and lawyers and judges seem tinctured a trifle with like superstition. Nowhere was this ever more clearly exemplified than in the wide- spread discussions relative to the recall of the judiciary, 258 RETROSPECTION in which was displayed a rather unusual lack of logic. Nowhere have our lawyers and judges, guardians of juris- prudence and ministers of justice, ever appeared at greater disadvantage than while speaking on this measure, which has been adopted by so many of the states. The attitude assumed and the arguments advanced were the outcome of various motives or idiosyncracies. The ablest attorneys, who should and did know better, were governed by their relations, actual or desired, with the judges. To advo- cate their recall would antagonize the court and lessen the influence of the pleader. Another class believes it bad for judges to be placed in a position so closely subservient to public vagaries. A third class holds to the superstition that law and limbs of the law belong to the category of things sacred, and not to be lightly handled by the layman. Some of the judges favored recall, and some were against it. Mr. Taft, usually found on the wrong side of any question, and if ever again made a judge would himself soon be a fit subject for recall, strongly opposed the measure. It was for lawyers and judges an unfortunate break in the long age of their adoration this abrupt revolution in ideas and sentiment concerning law and justice, concerning the rulership of men by men, the rulership of the people by the people; it was unfortunate for the judiciary that their sanctity should be thus imperiled and their prestige thus lost to them forever. To a layman the arguments advanced by the judges showed a fundamental error of judgment, a warped intellect not unlike that displayed by Mr. Gladstone in his discus- sions with Robert Ingersoll. The former assumed that the scriptures were the inspired word of God and attempted to prove their validity by the writings themselves. The judges assumed that they were different from others, that the judge and his office were sacred. The people do not so see it. They see nothing in the judge or in his office, THE INJUSTICE OF LAW 259 or in courts of law all articles manufactured by the people that need protection from the will of the people that are not found in governors, legislators, sheriffs, or other officials. The question arises, are those judges with minds so warped by so simple a subject as the recall of the judiciary, are they competent to hold court at all, or attempt to de- termine other simple subjects? Such judges as still hold to these ancient hallucinations would do well to give them up, for the people will have the recall whether the judges like it or not, and if any do not wish to serve on these terms they are not obliged to do so. To the reflective mind of average penetration all the arguments opposing the recall of judges while favoring the recall of other officials are equally fallacious. Those of the first class, where the argument is made simply to curry favor with the court, are not worthy of consideration, being hypocritical throughout. Those emanating from the second and third categories are equally unsound. The first usually advanced is the effect of popular pressure upon the decision of the court. This implies three equally absurd conditions. First, the fear of recall is or should be no greater than the fear of non-election for another term, and poor indeed must be our opinion of one we imagined so weak and culpable as to speak falsely through fear of losing office. Second, no judge was ever yet recalled for rendering a righteous judgment, nor is he ever likely to be. Third, no righteous judge ever yet feared recall. No nation accords its judiciary a higher position than the United States, and for the most part our judges are able and honest. They are the bulwark of society and ex- ercise a powerful influence for good. How can we say, then, that such men are so weak and timid as to allow their decisions to be influenced by fear of the people who elected them, by fear of any consideration, least of all that of losing office! To discourage judicial legislation, as is the 260 RETROSPECTION tendency of the profession, is to reduce the supreme court to a piece of machinery, to serve as a balance-wheel for the regulation of the law. Admit as they tell us, those learned in the law, that judges are not lawmakers, that they are not administrators, that they are not to determine what the law should be but what it is, and that their independence, their sense of dig- nity and of freedom is of the first consequence to the stabil- ity of the state. "We should answer that man establishes the law, while a power superior to that of man establishes justice. Men make a law which until abrogated must be blindly followed, though it leads down to destruction. This makes a fool of one and a fetish of the other. They might argue that as the laws are conflicting and justice erratic they would reserve to themselves the right of interpretation and like the judges follow their own shades of opinion. One is as logical as the other; the law impedes justice for the judge and business for the grafter. What is a government without a constitution, they ask ; what is a court of justice without law ; what is a judiciary without hidebound books to keep the judges straight ? Do we want to invest courts of law with arbitrary power, and give them legislative as well as judicial functions, and per- mit the judge to determine cases according to his fancy? If the law is faulty change it, but do not ask the judge to forswear himself. By no means. First let the law be just, then let the law say to the judge, in cases where law and justice con- flict, let justice govern. If the incumbent is not competent to do this, remove him, and put in his place a man who is competent. Idle talk, impracticable, will not work, they would say. Then adopt some course that will work, any course but the present one, which works too well for the devotees of high crime. To say that courts of law, as at present existing, are not THE INJUSTICE OF LAW 261 swayed more by corporate money and elective legerdemain than by the interests of the commonwealth is to say what every one knows to be untrue. Judges as well as senators and presidents are very human, and few decisions are rendered that are not first submitted to the subconscious lime-light of future elections. The eyes of the judge resting on a wealthy litigant are not the same eyes that regard the ragged offender. The people are the law and the government. The people, not the judges, are the Almighty. The people think more of right and wrong than of the law, the judges care nothing for right or wrong, the law is their deity. Judges should not be influenced by popular feeling, they say. Why ? Judges are not infallible ; they are mere men like ourselves. The people are sometimes right when the judges are wrong. Or if judges should not be swayed by the people, should they then be swayed by the eloquence of an attorney? The Almighty who listens alike to the prayers of his people and the howlings of the mob judges all. May not earthly judges, therefore, hear without preju- dice the voice of the people, which we have been told is the voice of God as well as the words of a paid pleader? The one is spontaneous, the other partisan; the one is void of special interests, the other is for thus much moneys per diem. It appears then in the matter of recall that the people may be trusted to elect a judge, but not to discharge him. At election, it is the sovereign people; at a recall it is the mob. To recall a state judge in most of the states requires the names of 50,000 or more voters to a petition, and after that a majority of the voters at the polls, quite a con- siderable mob. When there can be no recall except by a majority of all the voters in the state, and that is mob rule, then the state is a mob. In an elective judiciary the judge is re- sponsible to the people. He may call the people a mob if 262 RETROSPECTION he likes, he may say of those who elected him to office that they are a rabble and under the rule of passion, it makes no difference; these are they who placed him on the bench, and to them alone must he answer for his acts, that is to say if he still wishes to serve a mob in the capacity of judge. Will the recall lessen the independence of the judges more than it is already lessened by the desire for reelection ? Will fear of recall be greater than present fear of defeat at the polls? It would make judges subservient to the people and compel the bench to assume an attitude of defense, we are told. And why not? The judge is one of the people, chosen by the people, and if charged with error or misde- meanor why should he not defend himself ? Prominent members of the legal profession who regard the law, or pretend so to regard it, as something sacred, and the machinery of law not to be tampered with, who invest the presiding officer with more than ordinary powers and dignities, with worshipful forms of approach and address, disrespect not to say intimidation being sacrilegious, do not so without a purpose. Hence the arguments of the greatest lawyers are of the least value in determining this question. Fear of the effects of the recall shows lack of confidence in both the people and the judiciary. Voters sufficiently intelligent to elect good officials are not likely to undo their work without cause. No judge with clean hands and a pure conscience need ever be afraid of the people who placed him in office. When the district court of the District of Columbia proved disloyal, in the absence of any provision for the recall of judges Mr. Lincoln had Congress abolish that court and establish a new one, leaving the unjust judges to their own devices. Comparing this incident with Taft's presumptuous veto of the Arizona statehood bill Senator Clapp said, "There is absolutely no logical distinction be- THE INJUSTICE OF LAW 263 tween the recall as applied to bad judges and the recall for other bad officers. ' ' A judge of the United States supreme court, Stephen J. Field, sitting in San Francisco and Los Angeles, feared assault from a former judge of the supreme court of Cali- fornia, David S. Terry, employed, not the law, but an attache of the court to attend and protect him. Travelling up from the south on one occasion it happened that the two judges found themselves on the same train. Stopping to dine, Terry finished, and was passing out by where Field was seated with his man when Terry flipped his glove in Field's face. Whereupon Field's man rose in his seat and shot Terry dead. The slayer, some would say murderer, was arrested, and after a form of trial was of course ac- quitted. Here is a striking example of the law's logic, a proof of how much or how little faith the man of law places in his profession. Was it not an unjustifiable assault? Yes, but there is the law. Was not the dignity of the court assailed? Yes, but there is the law. Or should the court keep a gun in its desk wherewith to maintain its dignity? Is then the law a fitting instrument for every thing ex- cept itself? Is it fair and proper for me to kill a man for flipping his glove in my face? Is it right for a United States supreme judge to do so? Field knew his life was not in danger, that Terry sought only to insult him. Behold the majesty of the law! Here was a judge in good standing and in the possession of all his faculties, sitting on the bench of the highest tribunal in all the two Americas, backed by all the enginery of power in the United States; when his person is threatened by violence, instead of invoking for protection the law which he so liberally dis- penses to others, he orders an assassination in the old ven- detta form, and sees it carried out in his own presence. And never a word of inquiry or reproach from any of the limbs of the law. When the mayor-preacher's son shot to death a news- 264 RETROSPECTION paper man for alleged defamation, a prominent lawyer, on hearing of it, exclaimed, "I'm glad of it." "Yes," said his informer, "now hang the young lord of the mayoralty and two of them will be disposed of. ' ' "He shan't be hanged; he shan't be hanged!" broke forth the lawyer violently. "Why, judge, I thought you were a law and order man. A force outside of the law slew the man, now let the law slay the slayer." "He shan't be hanged, he shan't be hanged," was the only argument this able jurist could find in extenuation of an illegal act. William T. Sherman, at one time army captain and banker in San Francisco, a vehement though illogical de- fender of impotent law, took offence at something James Casey said of him in a newspaper Casey published. "I went up stairs to Casey's room," Sherman says, "and told him if he ever attempted to levy blackmail on me or my brother bankers again, I would pitch him and his press out of the third story window. ' ' Oh! my dear General, why this violence, why this dis- graceful display of mobocracy, why not employ the law or call out the military? Indeed, it would be difficult to find an officer or servant of the law, a professional or military man of ordinary spirit, who has not many times in the course of an active life taken the law, in a greater or less degree, into his own hands despite his ceaseless shoutings of law and order. Even the saintliest divine, in his dealings with the devil, does not always follow the law of the Lord. It is really amusing as we look back upon it, the ab- surdity of it all, the actual supporters of law and order arrayed ostensibly against law while securing the purposes of the law ; the limbs of the law, and its loud-mouthed advo- cates, flourishing their pistols and bowie-knives in defense of lawbreakers, and shouting defiance to law-respecting citizens. THE INJUSTICE OF LAW 265 Limbs of the law, as quickly as laymen, will become a mob to quell a mob. Geary, the mayor, calls vigilance "an unlawful and dis- graceful business/' and then joins it. J. Neely Johnson, governor, denounces vigilance and incontinently assaults Lawrence, editor of the Times and Transcript, the governor getting the worst of the fight. Murray, chief justice of the supreme court of California, and Terry, one of the as- sociate judges, delighted in deeds of chivalry beyond the pale of the law. Were a business man to manage his business as the judges manage theirs, he would soon find himself standing alone. Were a business man, in the management of his affairs, soberly to consider such chicane as judges claim to be nec- essary he would be called a trickster. Were a business man to take the time and employ the methods of judges in reaching conclusions and deciding issues he would not long be a business man. There is no more necessity for judges to act outside the pale of common sense than there is for business or mili- tary men to do so. A general taking two years in which to plan a campaign would cut no more ridiculous figure than a judge who put off a decision for two years which should be rendered in two days, and which an English judge would determine in two minutes. The rule of a clique or a cabal is but little better than the rule of a mob. The judge who decides for law against justice is a more dangerous instrument in public affairs than the judge who decides for justice against law. The central idea, or frenzy if you like, of the mob is on the side of justice, and where justice is quickly and surely meted out there is no mob rule. A slavish following of ill-constructed laws is the cause of half the crime and of all the mobocracy. If sometimes might seems to make right, we may be sure that at the end 266 RETROSPECTION right makes might. No law, leaving the mob to have its way, is better than bad or imperfect law which compels the conscientious judge to an act of injustice. Man being man coercion is one with his nature. He not only loves to coerce others but he feels the necessity himself of being coerced, not by others but by himself. So he makes laws for himself and others. He subscribes to them. He reveres them. They are Moloch, more than Diana of the Ephesians, more than the golden calf at Mount Sinai. Created as an aid to righteousness, they are more than righteousness; created to secure the ends of justice they are more than justice. Moloch, Diana, and the Calf are greater than their makers. Were it not better to make justice the Moloch, the Diana, and the Calf, and let law serve the end for which it was created? The law is set upon a pedestal of Moloch and approached with bowed head and bended knee. Its high priests are the holy ones of a reincarnation, the justice of heaven brought to earth. Though they be rank-smelling with iniquity, they have a skeleton robe of righteousness which must protect them. Justice herself must stand aside and bow in humility before the law. The Asiatics have 30,000 deities good and bad. The bad ones they propitiate by prayer. The good ones, being good, need no supplicating. The modern high jurist has 30,000 technicalities, each one a god, and all bad, and so requiring endless adoration and praise. As you pass a person on the street unconsciously you take his measure. As you speak with him you feel it still more. His voice rings true or false; he cannot disguise it ; he is what he is. I have seen sitting on the bench men so fixed in constitutional integrity that no power on earth could commit them to a dishonest course. Measure up properly the man you make judge and neither you nor he need ever fear recall. Such a man would recall himself long before those who voted him into office would have THE INJUSTICE OF LAW 267 an opportunity of doing so when once he found his honor or his manhood placed in circumscription. San Francisco has always had some good superior court judges, able and conscientious men, with minds more in- tent on present duty than on future reelection, and not afraid to send a rebuke to the judges of a higher court whenever they deemed it necessary. With regard to the higher courts it has been from the first entirely different. No greater scoundrels ever disgraced a judicial bench than some of the supreme judges of gold-digging days, southerners, mostly, fire-eaters, murderers, pimps, and prostitute keepers, more criminal than any criminal class the country has ever seen. And they have had some worthy successors, and yet always enough others of high integrity sufficient to save the state. The railway men paid little attention to judges of the lower courts, but took care always to own and control the appellate tribunals. When Hiram Johnson overthrew railway rule, however, he drew the sting from these wasps also, and with the scare from late publicity, and its effect upon the pend- ing bill for the recall of judges, these high officials deemed it about time to attend to their own reformation. Too much is made of the law; there are too many lawyers, too many judges and courts of law. An increase of judges is asked for when the number should be reduced, instead, and every judge in office should be required to do twice the work in half the time. At the same time the country needs a better judiciary, able judges of high integrity ; state attorneys who spare no pains to punish the guilty but will not convict the innocent of crime for reputation's sake; honest lawyers with an open mind and clean tongue; jury-box void of wooden images; and over the judicial bench the inscription, Law always, but Justice First. CHAPTER XV AN UNHOLY ALLIANCE ONE would think that a single experience like the Schmitz and Ruef episode would prove sufficient for any community for a lifetime, but it seems that further humiliation must be endured before accomplishing the com- plete regeneration of the city, now near at hand. And we must always remember that it was not the people of San Francisco, or of California, who thus chose the lower life, but cliques and classes of society banding in various forms and degrees for the furtherance of their personal interests and evil instincts, without regard to their own good name or to the prosperity of the commonwealth. During the Taylor administration, which stood for good government and the punishment of criminals, rich and poor alike, there were four several classes that chafed under the restraint. First, the high bribers, who found themselves in danger of prison bars. Prosecution to them was exceedingly dis- tasteful. With these were their friends and sympathizers, men of financial standing and easy morals, having business relations with the criminals. Secondly, corporations, special interests, and the many lawyers and politicians who live by guiding corporate capi- tal through the mazes of the law, escaping the law while breaking it, as the Southern Pacific railway, its governors and satellites, who besides running their trains had for so long a time been running the government. Convenient for these, as well as for the bribers themselves, was a prosecu- ting attorney who would not prosecute whenever an imple- ment so vile could be found. 268 AN UNHOLY ALLIANCE 269 Third, the predatory press that sold itself to infamy for a small price at the first offer. And finally the low element, so-called but in reality no lower than the highest of this unholy category, the denizens of the Tenderloin, thieves of low degree after the manner of the olden time, procurers, gamblers, and the keepers of French restaurant assignation houses, all who delighted in the thought of a promised free open town, a Paris in America. All these, together with the herds of voters their money and influence could drive up to the polls, were fewer in number than the adherents of good government, which were and are the real San Francisco. So anxious, however, were the bankers, street railway officials, and all the other classes above mentioned to defeat Heney and stop the prosecutions of the rich criminals that they agreed to debauch their city and turn her over to the so-called labor union party in return for that party's agreement to support and help elect to the office of district attorney a man who would have all the indictments dismissed. This then was the unholy alliance, by means of which was elected mayor of San Francisco another labor leader, even more objectionable if possible than Schmitz, one P. H. McCarthy, a blatant Irishman, coarse, vulgar, brazen- faced, and wofully incompetent a man whom these same bankers and capitalists would not have had connected with their own business in any capacity. A pair of Pats, and a thousand other Pats; Pat of the southern chivalry, Pat of the Emerald isle ; in the enforced embrace each feels himself degraded. And justly so. Not that Pat scorned Pat the less, but that Pat loved his liberty more. Wherefore a new shuffle and a new deal. High low Pat and the game. And over the dunes is heard the battle cries, Stand Pat Calhoun! Stand Pat McCarthy! For Pat joins Pat and the country goes to Pat. St. Pat- rick save us ! Why drave he all his snakes to America ? 270 RETROSPECTION In an unholy alliance capital joins hands with labor, and not a blush upon the face of either. Decency must be defeated at any cost as it hurts business. High crime and low crime fraternize better than graft and good government. Before the world Pat and Pat were not friendly, but in private Pat played into Pat's hands with distinction. If Pat would help Pat elect to office certain men bad enough for his purposes, notably a lawyer, a lonely lawyer, and such a little one, you know, Pat would help make a mayor of Pat. For Pat did not like to think of himself in short hair and striped clothes behind prison bars, even though the intervening supreme court should smile upon him re- assuringly. And as for his company, whose twenty-five millions of money had been transmuted by some magic process into ninety millions of stock, on which the munici- pality was kindly requested to allow a fair interest to be made, this company would like the Geary street or other city railroads discouraged. Union labor alone as I have said never elected any one to office in San Francisco. It was only when the labor leaders joined hands with high crime to defeat good govern- ment that they found themselves successful at the polls. And it is worthy of remark that whenever a labor leader was elected to office, the working-men were always the first to sicken of him. So with regard to the chivalrous sup- porters of high crime, whenever they placed one of their tools in office they were quick to become disgusted with him and drive him out. They wanted only virtuous women to enjoy, and men of high integrity to do their dirty work. Let all the world be good, else there is no relish for them in their crooked ways. The suzerainty of Mr. Patrick Calhoun in San Fran- cisco was not attended by flattering success. A strong man of determined purpose, as his ample jaw and thick neck indicated, he carried about him too much the air of a bully to please people inclining rather to the intellectual. That he possessed courage no one doubted, particularly AN UNHOLY ALLIANCE 271 after he had stricken down with his huge fist, in open court, a little fellow who had spoken irreverently of some of the not too charming qualities of the Carolinian. Calhoun had driven the union strikers off his cars, for which act the people praised him. Had he appeared before them in the guise of the Southern gentleman he professed to be, he could have had anything in reason at the hands of the municipality. When tempted to fall, had he exposed the tempter and vindicated his own integrity, he would have saved himself and the city much trouble, and have got his wire-poles planted without debauching the town. As it is he will scarcely be able to reinstate himself in the good opinion of good men. San Franciscans are the easiest people in the world to get along with, affable, liberal, and tolerant, but the lower- ing eye and set jaw of the bully or bulldozer does not ap- peal to them. They are not afraid that is to say since Hiram Johnson delivered them from the Philistines. They never were quick to take offense where none was intended. Too long a lesson they had in sufferance under the railway infliction, but they are regaining their manhood, and South Carolina gentlemen should have a care, especially in ob- structing their utilities while seeking interest on ninety millions of stocks and bonds which cost twenty-five mil- lions or less in coin. It was in January, 1906, that Mr. Spreckels and Mr. Phelan matured plans for a crusade against crime, which with the aid of Mr. Heney and Mr. Burns was inaugurated the following June, shortly after the great fire, which in- terrupted their operations for a short time. In April, 1908, the house of James L. Gallagher, chair- man of the boodling supervisors and chief witness against Calhoun, was dynamited, the family narrowly escaping death. Notwithstanding which Gallagher was afterward in- duced to leave the state and reside abroad until the bribery cases were dismissed. 272 RETROSPECTION It is not strange that indicted criminals undergoing trial should resort to further crime to facilitate escape. It is difficult to prove, but not difficult to imagine by whom was instigated the dynamiting of Gallagher's house, the bribing of jurors, the shooting of Heney, the theft of gov- ernment papers, and other crimes committed to defeat justice. The prosecution of the distinguished criminals dragged its slow course along, every possible impediment being thrown in the way of justice that the mind could invent or money procure. Mr. Heney was shot down in the court room, narrowly escaping with his life. His assassin was shot in jail, some think by those who set him on to kill Heney. There are few examples in history of baser ingratitude than that bestowed by San Francisco on Francis J. Heney for his signal service in delivering the city from the hands of evil-minded men. All along through these years of laborious effort, his most efficient services given without recompense or reward, bought-up newspapers barked at him ; bankers and their friends snarled at him because of a fancied injury to their beloved business which a cleansing of the city would entail; the prosecuted ones cursed him low and deep, as they were having no good time of it. Nor did the lesser villains of low degree like him, the sort of fellows that a little money would hire to shoot him down in court or dynamite the dwelling of one of his wit- nesses. And during these almost superhuman efforts the lower courts supporting him nobly while the upper courts on some trumped-up technicality hurled back upon him one convicted criminal after another, all these rich and poor supporters of high crime while throwing every possible impediment in his way jeered at him. "Why don't you do something?" they cried. "Why don't you send the crimi- nals you talked about to prison ? ' ' And all the while came pouring in upon him from the anti-prosecution press a black stream of vulgar vituperation. AN UNHOLY ALLIANCE 273 So they defeated him at the polls for the petty office of district attorney, these patriotic business men, assisted by the Southern Pacific coterie, the gentleman from South Carolina, and the choice society of the Tenderloin. Although there were comparatively few convictions the legal prosecutions brought dire distress upon the bribers. The disgrace attending the ordeal seemed to affect them less than the cost in time and money and the possibility of prison bars. Influential newspapers were hired to blackguard good men and denounce the best measures, and when accused of thus selling themselves made answer, "That's what we are in" business for." New journals also were established, so that morning and evening the high grafters heard recited in sympathetic tones their Iliad of woes, while issues of vital importance to the community were denounced with vulgar vehemence refreshing to their souls. High society opened its arms to high crime, and consolatory feasts were held at the eating-palaces where much wine made glad the heart. Under the infliction a few of the more sensitive boodlers fell away in health and spirits; some languished in prison; some were set at liberty because of ill health, for the superior judges were generous as well as just. It was not in sending criminals to prison, in greater or less numbers, that constituted Mr. Heney's great work. The men of whom he had the handling in court were made to suffer pretty severely as it was. But it was in rescuing the city from the power of selfish and evil-minded men, and in establishing a reign of honesty in place of this reign of avarice, and which resulted shortly afterward in the complete purgation of the city at the polls. Said Governor Folk of Missouri, "We hear it said that your crusade here was a failure because only one or two men have been put behind prison bars. You cannot measure the effect of a fight such as you have been making by the number of men in stripes. It can only be gauged by the awakening of the conscience of the people/' 274 RETROSPECTION All through these years of good report and evil report, while kind souls who knew nothing about it were lamenting the superlative wickedness of San Francisco, underneath it all was another influence, the influence of good men working for good government, working without self-seek- ing, without purpose of reward, willing to accept office if necessary, but not hungry for place. These both corpor- ate capital and the labor leaders opposed, for both were willing to use means for the accomplishment of their pur- pose of which good government could not approve. Capital claimed the right to bribe, to buy stolen goods, to buy franchises, the property of the city, from the thieves who stole them from the city. The labor leaders claimed the right to coerce, unlawfully to dictate to cap- ital, to the people, and interfere with the welfare of the state, with prosperity and the growth of cities, and all economic development. They claimed the right to burn and destroy, the right to murder and maim, the right to boycott and dynamite. Of such practices, whether of capital or labor, no right- thinking man, no man of honorable instincts, of common sense or common decency can approve. Such practices no community can tolerate and live. The result until Hiram Johnson came was intermittent politics, a string of senators and governors, in greater or less degree subservient to graft and bribery and misrule, creatures cringing to the Southern Pacific railway; and as for the city, with now and then an exception, here a mayor thief, there a mayor mountebank, with beefy supervisors and cheaply bought satellites, both capital and labor sat by in shame gazing upon the results of their combined handiwork. Ruef's career ran a successful course for a period of ten years, and but for Heney and Burns would in all prob- ability be running now. Though the brightness of the latter part of it may have been dimmed by the shadow of potential prison bars, yet he had safely secured the fruits of his industry, which were so large that even the heavy AN UNHOLY ALLIANCE 275 drain attending his struggle for freedom could not de- prive him of the whole of them. When he first attracted attention he was in the adminis- trator 's office as assistant. At the time of Schmitz 's reelec- tion he was in the full blaze of glory, yet soon to be ex- tinguished. Intoxicated with success, and with what he believed to be political omnipotence, he defied those who were laboring for civic honesty, and even attempted to obtain the office of district attorney when it became ap- parent that through that office there were to be prosecu- tions. Upon Ruef 's conviction of bribery he was sentenced by Superior Judge Lawlor to fourteen years' imprisonment. Lawlor was approached with considerable sums of money, his life was threatened, and leniency begged in person by a Jewish rabbi and a Catholic priest, but he remained firm. The supreme court granted a rehearing, but re- pented under threats of impeachment by the legislature then in session, and Ruef was finally landed in the state prison in March, 1911. Five years in which to imprison a notorious felon, whose guilt was self-confessed and abundantly proved, and which would have taken perhaps five days in England, is a commentary on our system of jurisprudence, on the prac- tice in our courts, and on the efficiency of our supreme judges needless to discuss. Because among the grafters were certain depositors whose interests were inimical to the interests of the city, the bankers made no offer for the bonds of the municipal railroad on Geary street when they were placed upon the market, nor would they purchase any of them until they saw that if they did not the citizens would withdraw their deposits and finance the public works themselves. Thus may be seen the quality of banking-house patriotism. When the Hetch-Hetchy municipal water bonds were first offered there were no bids. Not a single bank or c^p- italist would buy, not from any question of validity, but 276 RETROSPECTION because of the influence of corporations against the measure, and because of the indifference of moneyed men to the wel- fare of the city. ' ' I get six per cent, for my money in New York, and you ask me to take four and a half," was the final argument of a banker who had made his every dollar out of California. "Why all this hubbub about a little bribing?" quoth the railway governor. ' ' Are you not all of you bribers and bribed ? Do you not bribe your assessor, bribe officials for patronage and rulers for place? Do you not even make a poor girl pay for the privilege of teaching in your schools, and can any laborer get employment on public works who will not vote for the reelection of his master, of all his masters 1 ' ' "Pat is a good fellow," says his honor from the sunny south who often sits at meat with sinners. "What's the matter with Pat?" So Patrick felt safe' that the bars were up between him and San Quentin so long as his friend sat upon the judicial bench. It was annoying nevertheless; there was always the risk, however slight, and the expense, which could not have been less than one or two millions. All the same, poor Pat toiled on, for he was grit to the back-bone, even if he was not always happy in the perform- ance of hollow social functions. The hair silvered and the features wrinkled. Pat was punished, yet the battle was not altogether lustreless, for still were his, the stars with- out the stripes. Success is the sine qua non. There are various forms and phases of bribery, but iniquitous all. Buying votes with money is one way ; giving employment on public works in return for votes is another way. Buying a legislature is one way; a promise of patronage is another way. It is the weakest spot in our republican government that from president to postman, from the moment he gets himself into place his wits are set at work, his resources conned, AN UNHOLY ALLIANCE 277 and his forces marshaled to secure reelection. Our worthy presidents will not take money from the federal treasury to buy for themselves another four years of blissful power, but they will employ any and all others of the many fed- eral resources at their command as bribes for future favors. "With the new tyranny, the tyranny of combined labor following the tyranny of combined capital, comes a new economic force into American life, assuming the mastery over all the other economic forces. With this arrogant as- sumption appear the elements of hatred and revenge, and so crime becomes king. All men are criminal at heart, in greater or less degree, and all women, some as dark as Erebus, others as light as the seven thousand angels standing on the point of a needle. Crime is king ; but when a wicked ruler is deposed peace smiles again. Crime is king ; as a dog returns to his vomit so returns the evil-minded to his evil ways. Kich and poor alike lean toward wickedness; hunger for money draws the one, hunger for bread the other. Other influences than those which nature and the devil furnish must be employed to change this innate love of wrong into a love of right for the sake of righteousness, into a desire to be clean for the love of cleanliness, a desire to be decent from a preference for decency. Crime is king. An interregnum of crime marks an epoch in history. An interregnum of crime signifies placid days and increase of virtue; signifies progress in all that is best and noblest in man. Crime is king, the king of evil, yet one of the mainsprings of human activity. It pro- motes inventions, aids industries, and gives occupation to idle hands. It sharpens the intellect and achieves wealth and distinction. Palaces are reared to its votaries, and armed attendants given them ; temples of justice arise and lawyers and judges come forward to meet that but for which they themselves never would have been created. Then why should not our high priests of the golden temple wor- ship crime? 10 278 RETROSPECTION Crime is lord and overlord. By it the poor are op- pressed, capital coerced, labor suborned, and strikes sus- tained. By it state favors are secured, special interests promoted, and trusts protected. By it senators are made, municipalities managed, and a thousand sparkling events thrown round our daily lives. By it the land is filled with churches, theological seminaries, Sunday-schools, library buildings, and free universities. Then why should not all mankind worship crime? With the advent of high crime incident upon the civil war came rapid changes in religious thought, eliminating the abstract forms of faith and the cruder conceptions of eternal punishment. The consequence was that many hitherto of conscientious morality gave themselves up to cupidity and the fascinations of fast living. We construe our deities from their works and their agents. Every man is partly of God and partly of Satan. The devil incarnate seldom shows himself; occasionally we see Faust at the tail of Mephistopheles. Thus crime increases in the congregations of the right- eous, and from a thousand pulpits in the United States occupied by clergymen in good standing not a word of con- crete censure is heard, for concrete wrong-doing pays the pew rent. There is but little religion in the churches, and that little graft is strangling. Yet the good clergyman should not be too severely cen- sured. Like the rest of us he is under the spell, a loyal subject of King Crime whose surname is Graft. He has a family and cannot risk the welfare of wife and children for a little matter of conscience. Nature cries louder than the wounds of Christ, and is nearer, withal, and nature is inexorable and cruel. Her laws are a Juggernaut car rolling on indifferent to what it crushes, indifferent to happiness, or misery, and which may not be evaded by any howsoever supreme technicality. The crop that springs up from the dragon's teeth thus AN UNHOLY ALLIANCE 279 sown, what of that? It is the burden of this chapter, and I am weak and sick in the telling of it. It is a fine thing to be rich, even though it be stolen riches, even though it is known to be predatory wealth, so that punishment does not ensue. Men bow to the thief, just the same, and smile on him, though beneath his cover- ing of cloth he feels himself filthy. Women ogle him, his pastor purrs upon him, his wife and daughters mingle in the delights of high society. It is his reward for being a moral leper. This as to the first sowing of the teeth. With the second comes emulation, imitation in large and small ways. The strong enough man sees how he can gain some millions by illegal combinations of capital, known as mergers, trusts, and seizure of public domain, or other unlawful appropria- tion of public property. Others less capable or less con- fident with humbler efforts must satisfy themselves with spoils from building contracts, road-making, bribing for a franchise, or over-selling at double price to a speculative incumbent, not to mention the more plebeian practices of embezzlement and modest pilferings. Thus crime in a thousand > ways becomes as the air we breathe, impregna- ting the blood and undermining the integrity of the com- monwealth. In common with other centres of population San Fran- cisco responded easily to the general criminal impulse. We were common humanity like the others, neither better nor worse, though our ever-increasing alien additions tended to our grading downward rather than upward. All the same, there is good stuff in the city yet. This was at the beginning of our dark age which came upon us gradually. We were ashamed of our wickedness at first, but gradually the new men of graft grew bolder, working meanwhile upon the hitherto respectable men of money until there appeared a considerable number who openly advocated immunity for wealthy offenders for busi- ness' sake while punishing poor criminals for example's 280 RETROSPECTION sake; men who love too well to pose upon a pedestal of their own construction as protectors of finance and indus- try, and oracles as to what should be and not be, who love money dearly and have a high regard for business that begets money, who uphold crime and call it good for busi- ness, who would for personal gain sell the city and their own souls and call it prosperity, who set up a bastard moral- ity, teaching circumvention of the law, holding that pros- perity is better than purity and crime less criminal than plain honesty. Likewise with a logic peculiarly their own, which says that capital will not come to a city so perturbed, but pre- fers a place of treacherous repose, one of easy moral tone, where immunity for any indirection may always be pur- chased, where disreputable houses may flourish under special protection of the police, where before any profit- able investment can be made, or franchise secured, or enter- prise begun, or excessive taxation avoided, toll to the mu- nicipal vampire must be paid. "Oh, no!" finally exclaims the bewildered capitalist, "if they punish criminals in San Francisco it is no place for me!" A new doctrine out of economics this, which teaches of that supersensitive thing called capital, which values first of all security and stability, that it shuns good gov- ernment and respectability, preferring an atmosphere of vice and crime, that it likes better association with trick- sters and swindlers than with men of conscience and right doing. And for our bankers and wealthy citizens of honor and good repute, let us ask, is it not playing with dynamite upholding as too many are doing the attainted methods of flagrant malefactors? Then corruption crept into the counties. Hitherto in the country some degree of purity was found. Simple and single-hearted, genial, neighborly, wishing well to all and evil to none, the men of bucolic minds and direct manners, to whom such terms as graft, interests, and the economics AN UNHOLY ALLIANCE 281 of predatory wealth were as Sanscrit, they could not choose but be honest. But now a more ambitious outcropping appeared in the fields and farmyards. Young men, perhaps, who, with some smattering of knowledge gained at free universities, knowledge gained at the expense of the state to be em- ployed in making more criminals for the state to support, had absorbed the trickeries of the city men in their modern ways of making money, and returning home had applied those methods to get rich quick among their unsophisticated friends, until not a courthouse or a schoolhouse could be built, not a patch of road repaired without some portion of the appropriation going into their pockets. Thus was the cleanliness of the commonwealth befouled at the foun tain, the homes of purity polluted, for during the past hundred years the best elements of intellectual and material development in the city had been drawn from the country. In the present atmosphere of official environment it is almost impossible to escape the subtle influence of private advantage, which may be called bribery if you will, the bribery of self-interest, bribery for political influence, bribery for securing or holding office. Senators who buy their way to Congress are themselves to be bought when they get there, and instead of a govern- ment by the people we have a government by the purse. Are we then, like poor Mexico, a republic in name only ? He laughs best who laughs last. Terry of Texas killed his men but got himself killed. Casey killed King, but the king of killers was hard upon his heels. Ned McGowan achieved wonders, but an ungrateful country sent him away for his country 's good. Honest Harry Meiggs dropped his honesty but for a moment while he could gather in two hundred thousand dollars of other people's money and sail away to South America and make a few millions ; but when he wished to return to dear California, pay up and be honest again, he was flatly refused by the legislature. There are many yet in California who like to live de- 282 RETROSPECTION cently and among decent people, who believe in every man working for what he gets and in getting what he works for. Those who would get the world did not make it, or work for it. They are simply appropriators of the works of the Almighty, or of their fellow men of low astuteness. And we wisest of living peoples, with the power thus ac- quired by conscienceless capitalists inherent in us, permit them thus to defy the law* and join issue with the govern- ment to the corruption of legislators and the demoraliza- tion of business standards. Ever since the civil war, where the seeds of the in- iquity were sown, the controllers of capital have become more and more open and unblushing in their criminal ways, until they now boldly assert that good business is better than good morals, and that punishment for crime is for the poor and not for the rich. Several causes united to impede progress after the fire of 1906. The insurance money, amounting to $164,- 000,000, did not all come in for five years, though most of it was paid the first year. The panic of 1907, owing to financial conditions in New York, checked investments from that quarter, while certain unpatriotic bankers who sympathized with the bribers openly approved of high crime while professing good faith toward the city, thus holding themselves up to the scorn of all good men. With the rest came labor troubles, the teamsters' strike making possible the election of Eugene Schmitz, who, was three times chosen mayor. The high crime bankers and the bribing capitalists assisted Schmitz, and later McCarthy in their elections, but opposed Taylor, who was not a man to be bought. McCarthy was beaten by Taylor in 1907, but was made mayor at the next election. The corporate in- terests assisted the bankers, breaking the ranks of good government. Many of the owners of real estate found themselves with a vacant lot and an insurance policy, and nothing else, unless it were a mortgage. As the insurance companies AN UNHOLY ALLIANCE 283 were slow to pay, rebuilding could proceed but slowly. On the whole, the insurance companies did well, they did their best. They were severely stricken. Against the total destruction of a city no provision is made. Huge aggregations of wealth have become a despotism. Huge monopolies of labor have become a despotism. And if both are not controlled by the people they together will grind the people into dust. When the modern Moloch rears his grim force in the market place, the people stare ; when the god of intimidation appears in arms against the god of our fathers, the people shout. It was a triumph second only to Governor Johnson's election the defeat by Mr. Rolph of P. H. McCarthy as mayor of San Francisco. A labor leader of the most unde- sirable type, the city would have presented a singular spec- tacle at the coming fair, with a chief magistrate the em- bodiment of vulgarity and a gang of labor manipulators to act as hold-ups to the nations invited hither. His former election, like that of the chief of city spoilers, Eugene Schmitz, was due to the moneyed men and corporations, who in the Schmitz election preferred an accomplice in office to an honest man, and in electing McCarthy and his minions, among whom was an accommodating district at- torney, enjoyed a sweet triumph over those whose prosecu- tion of high crime, as they claimed, hurt business and im- peded progress. They sickened of their success, however, even though they succeeded in setting bribers free, and they were glad enough to join the good government forces in cleaning them out when they had no further use for them. The newspapers, also, came slowly around when they saw the certainty of Rolph 's election and wiped their lips, ready once more to sell themselves to the highest bidder. It was due, the deliverance of the city, to the long and patient efforts of the best citizens who preferred honesty and clean living to crime and immorality. CHAPTER XVI COMPARATIVE REPUBLICANISM PORFIRIO DIAZ, president of Mexico, was driven forth by the populace. Ask one of them why, and you will get no answer ; he does not know. Investigate, and you will learn that the deposed president had ruled for thirty years, that he had continued himself in office at first by the help of the army, and later by his inherent will and power. At the expiration of each term, directly or in- directly, he had himself nominated president, at the same time naming members of congress, governors of states, jefes politicos, and all the chief officials of the nation, whose election following was a form or a farce, his alleged crime being running a republic which was a republic only in name, and preventing another from taking his place and doing worse. In a word, the government was autocratic, and while conducted as a republic it was not a republic; the sovereignty of the nation was not in the people but in Porfirio Diaz; the administration was not given to officers elected by the people and representing the people, but to Porfirio Diaz, elected by and representing Porfirio Diaz. A mestizo of Oajaca, Diaz became early the coadjutor of Benito Juarez, also of the state of Oajaca. Side by side, one as head of the civil service and the other as chief of the army, they fought first, after the deliverance of their own souls from ignorance and superstition, for the intel- lectual emancipation of their country, and finally for the liberation of Mexico from material foes, within and with- out, from the imperialism of Lerdo and from their own in- sidious clergy, whose inordinate love of wealth and power 284 COMPARATIVE REPUBLICANISM 285 nothing short of secularization could control the two patriots triumphing in the end by the overthrow of Maxi- milian and driving Louis Napoleon's soldiers back to France. Who was Benito Juarez? He was one of the most re- markable men of any age or nation. A full-blooded Ameri- ican Indian, of the Aztec strain, he came down out of the mountains of Oajaca with a drover while escaping the ill- treatment of an uncle. He could not speak a word of Spanish, but only his native Aztec tongue. He was a wild waif, less than half clad, having a bronze skin and matted hair, eleven years old, with a face brightly illuminated with genius implanted by divine favor. A priest picked him up, washed him, and had him edu- cated for the church. Later, preferring the law, he be- came chief justice, then governor of Oajaca, then pres- ident of the Republic. That within him was the genius, the inspiration to deliver himself from the thraldom of his environment and discern the relative attitudes of church and state to the progress of mankind, is one of the most remarkable examples in history. For at that time the church in Mexico was omniscient as well as omnipotent, embodying most of the learning and controlling most of the wealth of the nation; and here was a wild Indian, caught and reclaimed while young, though carrying always the imprint of his race in the dusky skin, the high cheek bone, the lank hair and piercing black eye, a savage instilled in all the civilized superstition of the time at the feet of an Oajaca Gamaliel, his intellectual transformation resulting in the profound statesmanship which founded the Republic and saved it from internal strife and foreign invasion his deliverance, I say, seems a miracle akin to the conversion of St. Paul without the attendant light and directing voice. When we see that Mexico owes its late happy condi- tion equally to the two men, Benito Juarez and Porfirio Diaz, and that one receives his reward in honors, his statue 286 KETKOSPECTION standing in many market places, while the other is driven forth in ignominy at the hands of those who envied him his honors and his place, we do not feel our respect in- creased either for the mestizos of Mexico or for the aliens who now delight in censure of that which they so lately praised. What, then, was Benito Juarez, and what was Diaz? The one a wild Indian and yet a Washington, one who loved his country, giving to it the fruits of his immortal mind, and died, taking no toll; the other equally a patriot yet doomed to martyrdom. Should we deem it worth while to institute comparisons between neighboring republics it is but fair to consider at the outset the quality of humanity involved, relatively, their origin and environment or other engendering con- ditions. It is generally understood that republicanism as it stands to-day is not a definite quantity but rather a pro- gression. The problem is not yet worked out in how far this form of government is applicable to masses of man- kind of greater or lesser intelligence. It seems to us, citizens of the greatest of republics, that the system works well where the people are honest and intelligent. But if the people are sufficiently honest and intelligent no govern- ment of any kind is necessary; and that is the whole sub- stance of republicanism, the nearest to no government of any yet invented. Masses of mankind, however, are not all intelligent and honest, and the more wild and unruly they are the stronger must be the reins that control them. If under long dis- cipline, as in England, the people become tame and tract- able, the reins of rulership may become as silken threads and yet be all sufficient, though in empty royalty and use- less aristocracy there still remain the hollow forms and senseless mummeries of an obsolete barbarism which one who has tasted freedom could never adopt. COMPARATIVE REPUBLICANISM 287 Here in the two Americas we have the several phases of republicanism thus far evolved, most of them not yet a century old, each working itself out along lines of its own, independent of the others, but all modelled upon the matchless system, adopted by Hamilton and Jefferson. This, or any other system is and must be modified to meet the quality and condition of the people for whom it is employed, and to speak of this or that one as a republic only in name is to say the least speaking vaguely. What is a republic only in name, and what a true re- public, a republic not a republic only in name? Notwithstanding the proximity of our sister republic, and the long reign of its late president in the name of re- publicanism, Porfirio Diaz and his Mexican suzerainty have been understood but by few. The man has been usually portrayed as a despot, his rule autocratic, his will absolute, his reelections a farce, his congress a fraud, and his republic no republic at all. This is very near the truth, but it is not the truth. In the sense in which one generally hears it spoken and received, that is to say, in an evil sense, it is very far from the truth. During the progress of my historical work I made sev- eral visits to the city of Mexico and saw much of President Diaz and his ministers. I used to meet them frequently in their respective offices at the palace, but I saw them oftener at their private residences, particularly at the house of the president, and at the home of Romero Rubio, father of Mrs. Diaz. During these visits from time to time I went with General Diaz over his entire career, touching the strings which sounded his inner nature, until I came to know him well, and to understand his idiosyncrasies and aspirations at the beginning, and his hopes and endeavors toward the end. I had every opportunity of studying the man at close range. And this is what I came to know, in his mind and heart, in public and in private, that he was 288 RETROSPECTION direct and sincere in all his ways, and that he was void of avarice and cared little for personal aggrandizement. Therefore when I heard of his treatment at the hands of his people I was shocked, and grieved beyond measure over the mistake the poor deluded mestizos were making. His predecessor in the presidency, Benito Juarez, had served four terms successively and had died in office. Diaz not only took up the work of Juarez and continued his reforms, but adding modern progressiveness and economic develop- ment to political regeneration carried forward the country to a high tide of prosperity. Juarez had laid broad the foundation for popular government following the best models, Diaz proceeded to erect the superstructure but found the material inadequate. A popular government presupposes people; there were no people. There was an aristocracy who would not work but were willing to gov- ern. Then there was the mozo or servile class; between these classes there was little or nothing in the way of re- sponsible population. The whole country from mountains to seaboard was still infested with highwaymen ; the clergy were disaffected, preferring imperialism and Maximilian, and no secular- ization. The Mexicans, these wild mestizos, must be held in check and driven with a tight rein. Call it despotism or tyranny if you like, that is what was wanted; and it was the only kind of government that would save the country from anarchy and endless revolutions. Even though Juarez had held office through four terms, Diaz started out with the idea that the president should not succeed himself. He framed a law to that effect and at the end of his term gave his seat to General Gonzalez, a fellow-soldier of the intervention war, coarse, illiterate, self-seeking, whose libertinism debased morals, and whose cupidity kept the government exchequer empty. He was always getting into scrapes and calling on Diaz to help him out. So frequent were these demands that at one time General Diaz kept a coach and horses standing night and COMPARATIVE REPUBLICANISM 289 day at his door ready to dash off to the palace or elsewhere to quell a riot or quiet the army and so keep Gonzalez on his feet a little longer. Long before the time was up Diaz determined that there should be no more of that sort of government if he could prevent it. Meanwhile, though not in office he spent his time work- ing for the people. He promoted education, established schools, attended examinations, and gave out prizes. When he assumed the presidency the country was in a state of anarchy. Revolution was in the cities, while the country roads were infested with highwaymen. With a strong hand he cleared the country of robbers and revolu- tions and held it for thirty years in a state of peace and prosperity. He caught some of the chief bandits, dressed them up in bright new soldiers' clothes, and sent them forth well armed and proud as peacocks to hunt down their old comrades and clear the country of them. In a word Porfirio Diaz has been from first to last his country's benefactor.' He employed every means at his command to elevate the people and develop the resources of the country. Rising from humble origin, he found his country pov- erty-stricken, priest-ridden, struggling in the grasp of a foreign foe; he left it prosperous, progressive, and happy; a good government, an efficient army, and thousands of in- dustries flourishing all over the land. Where shall we find another such instance? Surely any form of government, any economic policy which produces such results cannot be called bad. Under no form of government save ab- solutism or a republic in name only could this have been accomplished. Every people will have the sort of government suitable to them. An anarchic or revolutionary condition seems best to suit Mexicans; before Diaz' time they had it and will now have it again. We love to interfere in the affairs of a weaker neighbor, to play providence, perhaps to play the bully a little, and 290 RETROSPECTION watch for some advantage to fall to us, like California, for example, only legitimately, of course. So we mobilize troops along the border when they are in trouble, and when our boys who cross over to take a hand in the fight are caught, the cry is raised protesting over the just punish- ment of those who thus leave their country to stir up strife, aid revolution, or otherwise unjustly intermeddle in the affairs of another. In all filibustering expeditions it is the same, whether William Walker's band of tatterdemalion cutthroats in Nicaragua, or the mild and courteous Austrian prince with the French army and Mexican clergy at his back, or ad- venturers from the United States assisting rebels in their attempt to overthrow the existing government, no sooner are they caught and a just punishment threatened than protests and a cry for mercy are raised. In the case of Maximilian, Secretary Seward had warned Louis Napoleon that French intervention in Mexico would not be permitted; that his too palpable game of statecraft in having at hand an army of intervention for the United States as well as for Mexico, as soon as the south should show sufficient strength, would not work; and that as soon as our little misunderstanding at home was settled we would look into the matter of French and Austrian imperialism in Mexico. And the French emperor, reading the signs of the times aright, withdrew his army and so saved himself trouble. He urged Maximilian also to withdraw, but the chivalrous Austrian said no, he would not desert his friends. Unfortunately for the captive Maximilian, the edict had been for some time promulgated on both sides of "No quar- ter; death to all prisoners. " Under this edict the migratory republic, held together by Juarez as president, had been driven from the city of Mexico with its ministerial supporters, and a few papers and blank books standing for the archives of the nation. Juarez fled first to San Luis Potosi, thence after a brief COMPARATIVE REPUBLICANISM 291 respite, he retired slowly toward the United States bor- der at El Paso, to the spot which to-day bears his name, whence he might cross the boundary at a moment's notice should it become necessary, for capture he knew was death for himself and all his associates. Why then did Secretary Seward, probably the best and brightest man that ever filled the chair of state, why did he, knowing that Louis Napoleon was pledged to destroy the American union if once he could get an entering wedge, knowing that Maximilian was pledged to kill Juarez if he could catch him, why did he raise his voice with the others for mercy on this poor innocent interloper? Oh, diplomatic courtesy. Our government must not ap- pear brutal, even to fiends or their victim ; besides, he knew very well that Maximilian must die, and deservedly so. In reviewing affairs in Mexico, past and present, we should not fail to consider Diaz the man apart from the Diaz government. We should not fail to consider, like- wise, the quality of the people to be governed, and their condition, and the condition of the country at the time Diaz the dictator took matters in hand. If then we choose to compare the republicanism of the United States of Mexico with the republicanism of the United States of America, and slightly to sneer at the former as a republic only in name, though modelled after the perfection of all republics, we may do so intelligently, and derive such satisfaction therefrom as we may. We shall see more clearly the quality of humanity with which George Washington and Alexander Hamilton had to deal, their inherited social forms and institutions, their democratic instincts and idiosyncrasies, their dominant ideals and aspirations, and realize more fully how different, how much more difficult the problem which confronted Porfirio Diaz in his attempt to achieve similar high results along similar lines but with base material. And as we understand, the sneer will turn to lines of admiration. 292 RETROSPECTION The ancient antagonisms of English and Spanish speak- ing peoples followed their respective colonists to the New World. The Spanish American cannot tell you why he hates the Yankee; the Yankee thinks he knows why he despises Spanish intermixtures of whatsoever degree of duskiness. The former thinks mainly of what he fears and envies, superior strength of mind and accomplishment; the latter regards with disfavor a union of weakness and arrogance. Were they weak like the wholly black, or shrewd like the wholly white, they might be more endurable; but from a proper understanding of the respective colonial develop- ments, and of the later republican experiments, one was as far away as the other. What we have chiefly to consider is the present emergency, and the further unhappy involu- tions which are destined to follow in the further attempts at republicanism, or dictatorship, in respect to ourselves and others. Three centuries of viceregal rule in America, following ten centuries of despotism in Europe; this for heredity and environment as applied to the Spanish portion of the Mexican make-up, which with the endless native American intermixtures, gave Diaz the material with which to estab- lish a government by the people, a wild, turbulent, human- ity characterized by ignorance and fanaticism. The Anglo-Americans of Washington's day, they and their forebears, had spent their centuries in efforts for democratic institutions and political and religious liberty. They knew and were prepared to determine truth from error, and to establish a government upon the broad prin- ciples of equal rights to all. There was no field in the world better prepared for the planning of pure republi- canism than the English colonies; there w%re few worse places for the experiment than Latin America. There was no middle course possible for Diaz in Mexico ; his rule must be absolutism pure and simple, a despotism of brute force, or republicanism only in name. He could COMPARATIVE REPUBLICANISM 293 not choose the former, as he had just fought against any sort of imperialism, foreign or domestic; besides, he did not believe in arbitrary rule, even in arbitrary republi- canism, any further than the necessities of the case de- manded. This is clearly proved by the law he formulated at the beginning of his reign, to the effect that no president should succeed himself, which law he was forced to rescind after giving it a trial. There had always been a lack of confidence between the executive and legislative departments, both before and after the rule of Herrera, which rendered the strictly re- publican form of government impracticable. It must be arbitrary government or anarchy, and obviously absolute rule, without the means of its enforcement, was not to be found among the law-makers; hence the army must be utilized. Look at the two republics as they stand to-day, Amer- ican and Mexican, their institutions, their new inheritance, their present environment. Both have changed won- derfully, both have wonderfully increased in wealth, in- telligence, and industrialism. The American people have greatly increased in number and have deteriorated in civic morality and honesty. The Mexican people have not in- creased as much in numbers, but have improved more in morals. The Americans have lost in patriotism; they have lost in their respect for the past and their pride in the future. The Mexicans have gained in knowledge, in economic and military efficiency, and in accomplishments, both practical and ornamental. I have no sneer for Mexico, nor for the government of Porfirio Diaz, howsoever called, so long as the cardinal fact stands, that Mexico has been making great strides forward while the United States, save for the time and influence of Theodore Roosevelt, has been changing for the worse, changing from Anglo-Saxon to alien, changing morally from honesty to high crime. 294 RETROSPECTION That it was the more difficult task, the one undertaken by Diaz few will deny ; that he carried it forward success- fully for a period of thirty years the republic itself bears witness to-day; that it was as base as it was unprofitable driving him forth in ignominy the present condition of things amply testify. And times will be worse there before they are better. That Mexico, tamed by prosperity, and restless under a long peace, now seeks the excitement that leads to anarchy all who know the people are forced to admit. Furthermore, as Washington was the father of British freedom as well as American independence, so Diaz estab- lished the Monroe doctrine for Spanish America as well as the deliverance of his own country according to its declara- tion. It is not the part of a noble nature to prey upon the adversities of a great man. It is not the part of a noble nation so readily to forget in his declining years the work of Porfirio Diaz for civilization and the welfare of the human race. Has our republicanism reached such a state of perfec- tion that we can reasonably cast opprobrium upon any gov- ernment that best accomplishes what is best for the people ? It is intended that republicanism should be a govern- ment by the people. Is this the case with us? If the people rule, then we might ask, what people? Not the better element in our commonwealth. It may be dem- agogues and politicians at one time, and at another special interests and the money power, the labor leaders putting in an unwholesome appearance at all times, but never has the government been made up by the best men fairly chosen by the people. Will any one who knows pretend to say that republi- canism such as we imagine our own to be would have secured better results in Mexico during the past thirty years than that secured by the rule of Porfirio Diaz? The only question I should like here to ask is not how COMPARATIVE REPUBLICANISM 295 far we are from a happy state of true republicanism, but how much better administered, if at all, has been the United States of America under Taft than the United States of Mexico under Diaz; and how can we justly assail our neighbor, as so many of us like so well to do, with all our imperfections upon us. What single act of Diaz is more open to ridicule and just censure than that of a president abandoning his official duties and making junketing trips about the country at the expense of the people to secure his own reelection and defeat his former benefactor? How have we the face to slur a sister re- public as a republic only in name, to impute it to her as a crime, and half sanction the inroads of malodorous Amer- icans who cross the border to fight against the very prin- ciples that lie at the foundation of their own government, namely, the right to rule rightly? In our settlement with the south, after the civil war, barbarous Mexico would hardly have been as barbarous as were we, nor so impolitic as to give the franchise to four millions of manumitted African slaves. Nor would the republic only in name have permitted in its midst an oligarchy of industrialism, the rise of special interests to seize and appropriate to their own use the natural wealth of the nation, to buy and sell legislatures and debauch the government. At no time during the late dictatorial rule in Mexico would have been possible the ultra charitable proceedings in Congress and the presiden- tial amiability in relation to prominent politicians, called statesmen sometimes, under indictment for high crim- inality. The dictator president of the republic only in name would never have submitted to the trifling with justice which is becoming so common throughout the United States. The dictatorship of Diaz in Mexico was a good govern- ment, the best possible for that people, and one of the best in the two Americas. The cloak of republicanism thrown 296 RETROSPECTION over it exerted little influence for good or ill, other than to reconcile the people to what sometimes might otherwise be deemed arbitrary measures. If in its democratic incipiency the rulers of Mexico did not realize the impossibility of a republic without a people, of true republicanism or a government by the people in the absence of a people capable of self-government, they did not hesitate twice to decline imperialism, once in the per- son of Iturbide, and again when Maximilian came. If they could not at once achieve perfect republicanism they would at least hold to the form while laboring to accomplish the fact. Are we prepared to say that our government is the best in the world, that republicanism is the best form of government for any people save those who want no govern- ing and therefore no government? Are we prepared to say that our government as at present administered tends to develop the highest moral and political ideals? Are we prepared to say that the associates of Taft were better men, more high-minded, patriotic, honest, or decent than the associates of Diaz? Are we not prepared to say that in some respects our government is rotten to the core, and will fall in pieces if decay is not arrested ? Is boss rule better republicanism than the republi- canism of Diaz? Is a government by railroads for railroads better republicanism than the republicanism of Diaz? Is a government by high crime for high crime bet- ter republicanism than the republicanism of Diaz? Is the domination of the industrial interests of the country by self-seeking demagogues to the subversion of law and lib- erty better than the arbitrary rule of one good man? Is Madero and anarchy preferable to Diaz with peace and prosperity? Then wherein consists the superiority of a republic not a republic in name only over a republic which is a republic in name only? Had Porfirio Diaz committed as many blunders as have been perpetrated by our pure republican presidents and COMPARATIVE REPUBLICANISM 297 legislators since the civil war, as the cruelties and injustice of the reconstruction period, the enfranchisement of the negroes, the prostitution of American politics and citizen- ship by the admission without limit of low incendiary Europeans while excluding harmless and useful Asiatics, of permitting corporate capital to usurp the government and intimidate the people, of allowing special interests and personal greed to appropriate and destroy the nation's wealth and resources, of tamely submitting to the tyran- nies of labor leaders, their boycotting, strikes, dynamiting, maiming, and murdering, spending long sessions white- washing into place bribing senators and incompetent or peccable ministers, and a score of other like infamies, we might with more reason disparage a nation of half civil- ized mestizos as a republic in name only. Diaz controlled Mexico; no one can truthfully say that he ruled in the interest of Diaz and not in the interest f Mexico? Six interests controlled by five men own the United States; can any one truthfully say that these in- terests were worked for the benefit of the United States rather than for the benefit of the five men? Can it be true then that the United States of America is a republic only in name? We do not realize how great a part of us is sham. Con- sider, for example, the presidential pose, as he mounts the presidential car on his homeward journey to vote, a jour- ney the cost to the people of which would buy the suffrages of one thousand of our worthy African citizens. We must not think that our politics embrace all the wisdom of the ages and all the virtues of the cults; China and England have some good in them, though their pageants are much of a piece. Where on this earth shall we look for a good govern- ment, for a government better than our own, better than that of Diaz in Mexico ? Not in Germany, with her young men doomed before birth to military servitude, to a life of human butcheries; not in England, whose nominal ruler 298 RETROSPECTION is but a figure-head of society and the national street shows, and where respectability may be found only among an aristocracy of worthless drones ; not in Spain or Italy, and possibly not in the new republic of China. Less than two years before his fall the foremost states- men of other nations were crying up Porfirio Diaz as the greatest statesman of any nation, having accomplished the greatest work of any living man. Now all are mute save only those who seem not to recognize the difference between statesman and revolutionist. A nice mess they have made of it, Madero and his crew, as any one knowing Mexico could and did foretell. Shallow- brained Americans with the others howled upon Diaz as he was hustled out of the country for the great crime of running a republic which was a republic in name only. Now they may try once more the other kind, which means internal strife and anarchy perhaps for another half cen- tury. When too late to serve the nation only by way of ex- ample, the character, the strict and true hearted integrity, and the earnest patriotism of Porfirio Diaz will be seen and understood, and the man valued at his true worth. He could not boast like Juarez of pure native blood, un- contaminated by any European intermixture, yet he rose from his low estate to the highest in the nation, and won the respect and confidence of all the nations of Christen- dom. Prosperity sometimes presents difficult problems. It is with nations as with individuals, inordinate wealth be- gets luxury and laziness, from which come disease and death. Caught in the throes of overweening prosperity the United States of Mexico fell on evil times; the United States of America is heading in the same direction though along different lines. At the present moment the best people of the best com- munities are working as for their lives for what? For COMPARATIVE REPUBLICANISM 299 honest and fair republicanism. They are fighting graft, high crime, financial and industrial despotism, fighting evils which threaten to strangle all that is best in our other- wise happy land. They will be known in coming politics as the Progressive party. tn< F( >i Porfirio Diaz, in his enforced resignation from office and flight from his native land presents one of the most pathetic figures in history. As it is written, "Many good works have I shewed you from my Father; for which of these works do ye stone me?" We have been told before that republics as well as princes are ungrateful. All Mexico kicks the carcass of the dead lion whose gentle roar so lately sent them shiver- g, while among the baser sort of our own republic are bund those to yap them on. Call it despotism if you like. It is a high and holy despotism, a despotism for the well-being of the people, a despotism which might beneficially be served in moderate doses even to our own model republic, a live impulse, a factor for good which should put to shame the senseless mummeries of effete monarchies such as Europe delights in. The simple mandate of this good despot filled the ffices of states and federation with good men, while in our own less favored land millions of money must be spent in electing legislators to invent laws riveting still tighter the bonds of a despotism of licentiousness. The success of the Madero insurrection incites other urrections, and political and industrial revolutions is now as it was before the time of Juarez and Diaz, the nor- al condition of things. On the day that Diaz was driven forth there was no better befitting government in the world than his, none more honest or patriotic. Why? Because it best met the necessities of the situation; be- 300 RETROSPECTION cause it was the only sort of government that could rule an unruly people; because Diaz was absolutely honest and patriotic. Revolutionists took up the sword, drove out Diaz and took his place; now therefore it will be many days before the sword shall depart from the house of Madero, or an- archy from the republic of Mexico. Under the thirty years of the so-called despotic rule of Porfirio Diaz, Mexico emerged from a state of mediaeval anarchy, advanced along lines of highest development and prospered, intellectually and economically, as few nations have ever prospered. Anarchy is again at hand, the prod- uct of a selfish and brutalizing despotism such as never soiled the garments of Porfirio Diaz. . CHAPTER XVII EVOLUTION OF A LIBRARY PROVIDENCE, free-will, and necessity were the phrases a hundred years ago; we now say evolution, which sounds if less orthodox more progressive. What we mean by them does not so much matter, as it makes little difference what one believes as long as one can never know anything about it. Spencer and Browning, after Savon- arola and Kant, dive deep below the surface workings of Shakespeare and Goethe, and revel in subconscious under- uls until lost to themselves and others. Which means that I hardly know what started me off collecting books trash, my clerks used to call them, as ey were the sort that never would sell me, a west-coast 'afficker in books, handling them as one handles bricks, ot for the knowledge but for the profit in them. Stuff such as one might expect to find in a waste- basket, or on the scuttle of coal with the wood to kindle the fire; this at the beginning; later this refuse would fetch its weight in gold. I did not think of that, however, at the time, but only that it might be worth something sometime, vaguely, or idiotically, as my aforesaid clerks would have expressed it, had they dared, surmising a possible intrinsic value in any event like Toodles' coffin, 'andy to 'ave in the 'ouse. I suppose I was a crank, if indeed I am not one still, do not know what a crank is, though I should prefer hav- ing to tell what it is than what it is not, because as we are ured everybody is a little queer. As the work of gathering the Bancroft Library was 301 JLUg . 302 RETROSPECTION long, I will make this account of it short, though the in- volving thereof continues, and let us hope, like Bryan in search of a presidency, that this collecting may run on forever. * Well, then, I began in 1858 by bringing together all the books I could find in my stock on California, extending my territory later to the north-west coast, finally taking in the western half of North America from Alaska to Panama, including the whole of Mexico and Central Amer- ica. I searched both continents several times over for his- torical material.