CforttcU Httiucraita Htbrarg CHARLES WILLIAM WASON COLLECTION CHINA AND THE CHINESE THE GIFT OF CHARLES WILLIAM WASON CLASS OF 1876 1918 Cornell University Library F 866.D43 Californians and Mormons / 3 1924 023 250 768 PI Cornell University g Library The original of tliis book is in tine Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924023250768 CALIFORNIANS AND MORMONS BY A. E. D. DeRUPERT NEW YORK JOHN WURTELE LOVELL, PUBLISHER 14, 16, 18 & 20 AsTOR Place 1881 COPYHIGHT, 1881, By JOHN W. LOVELL.- PREFACE. The writer is a foreigner who, during the three years past, has travelled in all the Northern and South-western States, crossed the American steppes, visited the abode of the " Saints," and walked the streets of the Golden Gate City. He was not an opulent tourist in search of new pleasures and adventures, but a Bohemian seeking a closer acquaintance with the institutions and charact- eristics of a nation that is playing so prominent a part in the progress of civilization. The present volume is made up of extracts from his diary. New York, March, i88l. CONTENTS. Page. I. How it came to pass that a great city was built. . . 7 II. San Francisco in the sunlight and San Francisco sleeping 11 III. Why American architecture is not what it should be 17 IV. Miscellaneous boastings 23 V. They don't beat the world, but come very near it. 29 VI. A climate that seems to have been made to order. 37 VII. Some things that temperance advocates, capi- talists and all patriotic Americans should look into 45 VIII. A trip around the world in two hours 55 IX. A picture that would not be complete without a pistol in the foreground 61 X. I buy a pistol and meet a man who guessed he wouldn't arrest me 69 XI. Literature, public and private schools 77 XII. A.people with an artistic temperament 87 XIII. How a man gets in with the " Upper Crust.". ... 93 irum yy XV. Will the Chinese cease coming ? If not what then ? 105 XVI. From the mountain 119 XVII. What are they ? Americans. No, anti-Americans and polygamists 123 XVIII. Has Mormonism originated in a falsehood ? 127 XIX. Their Catechism. Two hours in the Tabernacle. Their profession of faith 139 XX. What they say of polygamy and what I have also to say 153 XXI. A tree that must go because it grew in the wrong place 163 I HOW IT CAME TO PASS THAT A GREAT CITY WAS BUILT. Man is a gregarious animal. Were it not so, Babylon and Tyre, Athens and Rome, Paris, London and New York could not have been ; and civilization would be among the impossibilities. Whether they dwell in the Rocky Mountains or in the Russian steppes, the men of the field, isolated from one another, away from populous centres, cut off, as it were, from the world that thinks, are semi-barbarians very little in advance of their ancestors of the primitive days of modern Europe. The reckless rovers of the Western wilds and the gold diggers of the Sierras, though full- blooded Aryans, not unfrequently become worse sav- ages than the aborigines themselves. • Isolation breeds mental aberration, vice and noth- ingness. Alone, man is a shadow ; with men he is a power. Let these illiterate backwoodsmen, these rough miners and freebooters of the plains gather to- (7) g CALIFORNIANS AND MORMON^. gether near the sea-shore, and what do we find? On the bank of a vast and commodious bay, a few miles from the mouth of a river navigable far into the interior; in a land fit for the dwelling-place of the' gods, a modern Hesperia, a snowless land, where orange trees and vines grow, where the fields are golden with wheat and the mountains yellow with gold, where the birds sing in January and shake their wings with delight under the green foliage on the hills, we behold the magnificent city of San Francisco boasting its three hundred thousand inhabitants, its palatial residences, its grand hotels, its educational institutions, its churches, its literature and its art. It came to pass in the year 1848 of the Christian era that gold was discovered in large quantities in the American River, west of the Sierra Nevada, some two hundred miles east of the Golden Gate. The news flew with the rapidity of a hurricane from State to State, it crossed the Atlantic and the Pacific and reached the four corners of the earth. It was a great distance indeed from the Atlantic coast to the Ameri- can River ; and there were no railroads then to carry the CALIFOSNIANS AND MORMONS. g fortune seekers across boundless, uninhabited plains and alkali deserts, and over gigantic snow-covered mountains. It would take four and perhaps five months to reach the place, either by land or by sea. But what matters distance, time and hardships when there is gold to be found in plenty at the end of the journey .'' All difficulties become at once bridged by the certain prospect of riches, which seems to give man wings wherewith to cross thousands of miles of unknown countries and tempestuous seas. In the Spring of 1 849 a great multitude of men coming from all parts of the world, but mainly from the Atlantic and North-western States, began to steer their way westward across the plains, and over the oceans around the Horn. In the Fall of the same year California found nearly one hundred thousand able-bodied, intelligent emigrants of all nations, colors and creeds, added to its previously sparse population. This vast army of peaceful invaders settled at once the fate of San Francisco. From a small trad- ing post, this city became immediately the busy ship- ping and receiving port of the Pacific coast. Miners 10 C^LIFORNIANS AND MORMONS. and gamblers, speculators, tradesmen, professional men, preachers of the " Living word," knights of the press, thieves, murderers and dissolute women flocked thither en masse. The sand hills, which were the only ornaments of the penmsula, were levelled and carted away into the bay. Streets were laid out and houses were built as by magic. The town grew rapidly. " Talk of Leadville," said a red-nosed forty-niner to me, " well t'aint notin to what San Francisco use to look like in them days. 'Twas buildin, and buildin all the time." I beUeved the old man. How couW I help my- self .? I stood in the midst of a great and magnificent city, where only thirty years ago the eyes would have met with a vast field of sand without the least vestige of vegetation, bare, yellow, burning sand that the wind shifted hither and thither. Indeed there must have been " buildin " going on and a restless activity at work to have transformed this hilly, sandy desert into a metropolis of " palaces," and given it such com- mercial importance in a quarter of a century. 11. SAN FRANCISCO IN THE SUNLIGHT AND SAN FRANCISCO SLEEPING. San Francisco is a city of wondrous siglits It is the most picturesque town in America, not even excepting Quebec, and also one of the most beauti- ful. Its streets, whether on the level plain or run- ning up and down hills of various heights, are well laid out, wide and straight. They are well paved and extremely clean in summer, being almost daily or nightly swept by the trade winds — by the way, the most faithful blowers I have ever met — and carefully sprinkled. The leading business thoroughfares, such as Kearny, Montgomery, Market, Pme, California and Sutter streets, are lined with truly imposing build- ings, having from four to six stories, and considerable architectural beauty. The private dwellings are clus- tered on the hill tops. There are palaces on " Nob 12 CALIFORNIANS AND MORMONS. Hill " and less pretentious houses on other hills. These houses are built of wood to avoid a general tumbling down during earthquakes. They are painted lavender color and are built with bay windows to absorb the sun's rays whenever they chance to pierce the clouds during the winter or rainy season. It may be said that San Francisco is a city of bay windows. The little houses and the big houses have their bay win- dows, and so have the hotels and many business blocks. They would doubtless have been placed over the cellar doors had it been found at all practicable. The San Franciscan wants plenty of light ; he is fond of the sun and he is right, for it saves him from many an encounter with the worst of all demons — rheumatism. Very few old, shabby buildings are to be found in San Francisco. The metropolis of the Pacific looks as new as a recently painted picture in the Paris salon. It seems as though it had sprung from the earth in one night, at the bidding of an en- chantress. The mode of transit for street passengers is original to say the least. The street cars dash up and down CALIFORNIANS AND MORMONS. 13 hills, stop and start again with the utmost ease ; and all without any visible means of locomotion. They are drawn by ropes imbedded in the middle of the street, and hence the name " cable roads." This unique process is described by the monosyllabic Mon- golian as " No horsee, no pushee, no pullee, no steamee ; melican man heap smart." A good view of the city and of its splendid sur- roundings can be had from several of the hills ; especi- ally from Telegraph Hill and California Street Hill. From these heights the traveller sees at a glance the whole city : a forest of houses with domes and steeples towering above them ; the busy wharfs and the bay, the largest, the most commodious and the safest har- bor in America. Alcatraz and Goat Islands are near by. The former is not a smiling island. On the contrary it frowns, and a times its thunders awaken the echoes of the surrounding mountains, for it is for- tified and garrisoned by United States troops. Its cannons, old fashioned and smooth bore, might, it is thought, succeed in sinking a wooden craft venturing to slip in through the Golden Gate with warlike intents. 14 CALIFORNIANS AND MORMONS. The latter island represents peace, harmony and com- merce ; it stands, as a kind of hyphen, midway between San Francisco and Oakland. It has a bell and a fog horn, and in foggy weather it rings and it blows ; whilst in a clear day it seemingly watches with pride the passing and repassing of the ferry-boats ply- ing between the two cities every half hour. These boats are heavily laden, morning and evening, with tourists and emigrants, several tons of mail matter and many more tons of baggage, all coming from far away " back East," en route to the metropolis of the Pacific. Ships flying the colors of all nations, crafts of all descriptions, pleasure yachts and row boats are seen either at a stand-still or ploughing the waters in every direction. The beautiful city of Oakland, the Brook- lyn of San Francisco, the villages of Berkely and Alameda are there in full view, east just across the bay, some seven or eight miles distance, smiling under a blue and cloudless heaven ; and almost under the shadows of a range of treeless mountains, green in winter and yellow in summer, that frame the pane- CAUFORNIANS AND MORMONS. 15 rama at whatever points of the compass the eyes may be directed. It is in the night and very dark, but the atmos- phere is cleared of fog. You are standing facing westward, on the upper deck of a ferry-boat coming from Oakland. A delightful sea breeze plays about you. You feel refreshed body and soul. No noise but the throbbing of the engine and the moaning of the water, lashed into foam by the regular motion of the wheels, is to be heard. Your eyes seem riveted on something in the distance ahead. It is a strange, novel, weird, fascinating sight that something. It is a mountain looming out of the water, some three miles in length and all ablaze with lights running upwards in close parallel lines, and losing themselves in the cloudless horizon above, among the twinkling stars. Silvery stars above and golden stars below. Splendid contrast ! This miniature firmament, profusely decked with stars of gold and seemingly floating over the waters of the bay, is San Francisco sleeping. III. WHY AMERICAN ARCHITECTURE IS NOT WHAT IT SHOULD BE. Unlike St. Louis, San Francisco is not a city of parks. It has a few pretty " squares " and strips of verdure shaded with cypress and semi-tropical trees in various quarters ; but these hardly come up to the dignity of parks. Golden Gate Park, however, should have a special mention. San Franciscans feel as proud of it as the Neapolitans do of the Vesuvius. The good people there compare it to Central Park and even to still more famous public grounds in the Old World, and they seem unaware that they are mak- ing themselves ridiculous. That this park will some day become one of the most beautiful and picturesque pleasure-grounds in America, there can be no doubt ; but it is now in a rather crude state, and he who makes bold to place it on the same level with Central 2 (I?) 1 8 CALIFORNIANS AND MORMONS. Park must indeed possess the fanciful imagination of a Moor. Viewed from an architectural stand-point, San Francisco falls under the adverse criticism justly ap- plied to all American cities, especially in regard to public buildings, either of a secular or religious char- acter. Every American is his own architect, which implies, as a matter of course, that he knows all that can be known in architecture. What use is there of consulting this and that fellow. Didn't he make his own money .■' Why, then, not build his own house ? Do you think he is a fool .? I guess not. Attempt to persuade such a self-important in- dividual that such and such a building might have been more majestic in its outlines, more harmonious in its proportions ; that it is not graceful enough in its details ; that it is either surcharged with ornaments, or too rigid in its awkward simplicity ; that it prop- erly belongs to no special style or combination of styles of architecture ; that it plainly shows the stu- pidity of the architect and not unfrequently the un- skilled hand of the workman, and you will have your CALIFORNIANS AND MORMONS. ig labor for your pains. To these observations there will come but one answer. You will be told that the building costs one or more millions, and that it is thought " the finest thing in the State." The stand- ard of architectural beauty or taste in America is, it would seem, the amount of money expended in the erection of a building. It is a curious standard ; but it has its merits : — it is new and it provokes laughter. That an American should boast of his govern- ment, of his laws, of his freedom, well and good. He who is not proud of his American citizenship is an imbecile; for surely it is a title worthy of envy — a title greater than that of Roman citizen in the time of the Scipios. That he should even survey with pride and exhibit with ostentation his self- acquired wealth, I see no objection. It is a very par- donable weakness. Family pride is commendable. Why not be equally proud of a fortune honestly ac- quired .' Wealth is the supreme power in a new State where there are no family histories, no one directing social force or standard, growing out of the experience of many centuries of aesthetic culture, to ao CALIFORNIANS AND MORMONS. fashion public opinion. Wealth foreshadows intel- lectual and social refinement, and the flourishing of the arts. That this American, by reason of his citizenship and especially of his great riches, should believe him- self a clever politician and a powerful personage in his community or State ; it is again well. But when, with little education, less early training, with no taste and less manners, he proclaims himself a standard in social ethics, an artist, an architect, I hastily file in an objection. Yes ; I most earnestly protest in the name of common-sense, in the name of the artistic future of a great nation. Whatever may be the political liberties which are enjoyed in this land of Washing- ' ton, it is none the less a fact here, as elsewhere, that a drayman is a drayman, a saloon-keeper, a saloon- keeper, — occupations, I gladly admit, that are worthily filled by intelligent men; but I hold that these men, however rich they may suddenly be- come in the oil fields or at the stock-board, are not the proper authorities to consult in matters pertaining to the higher arts and the science of architecture, espe- CALIFORNIANS AND MORMONS. 21 cially in the building and ornamentation of public edifices, from the State capitols down to the jails. I grant that there are here, in the States, architects of talent, of genius, it may be ; but they too often be- come abject pupils in the hands of ill-educated, taste- less, self-important parvenus, whose sole purpose is to make a noise, build the " biggest thing out," and reap all the benefit they can out of the "job," which, when completed, turns out to be a " big thing " to laugh at — an absurdity, to put it mild. As a case at hand, I would mention the New City Hall in San Francisco. Here is an awkward pile of red bricks, with a huge tower somewhere, the whole caravansary having some- what the appearance of those gigantic breweries to be found in the great cities of the Northwest. This un- sightly thing will cost, when completed,, several millions, I was told by a patriotic San Franciscan, who put on a broad smile by way of emphasis, " and," added he, twinkling the eye, " by G— , you have noth- ing like it back East." The fellow was right — there is nothing like it East. I am, however, compelled to say that there are hundreds of public buildings in the 22 CALIFORNIANS AND MORMONS. great Eastern cities that are certainly worse in point of architecture than the New City Hall of San Fran- cisco, although every brick and every nail used in their construction may have cost a dollar. To sum up in a few words, the San Francisco architecture belongs to the incongruous American style. It is perhaps inferior to that of the most pre- tentious Atlantic cities in point of solidity, but it takes the lead, strange as it may seem, in beauty of ensemble and pleasing, even if rather excessive, deco- rations. There is evidently more imagination, more originality of conception west of the Sierras than on the Atlantic coast. I am not speaking here of the Sand Lot architecture, and it should be borne in mind that the New City Hall throws its awkward shadow on Kearney's rostrum, which is in its immedi- ate rean, IV. MISCELLANEOUS BOASTINGS. The modern Athenian and the man of Rome boast of their ruins, their ancient lores, and of their history ; the most famous in heathen European civilization. Here the dust that rises about you is historic dust. Tread the ground softly, for you might crush the bones of a Socrates or of a Regulus. Western Eu- rope has given birth to all that is great, ennobling and ethical in a Christian civilization which borrowed its refinement, poesy and arts from the dead people who dwelt by the Piraeus and in ancient Rome ; and it is with pride that Europeans proclaim this fact. This nation is of a too recent origin to boast of things antique — of museums of arts, with an Apollo here and a Dying Gladiator there, with Venuses and Madonas, and priceless paintings with a fame that (23) 24 CALIFORNIANS AND MORMONS. encircles the globe. In short, here the arts are in their infancy as yet ; but there are many indica- tions promising a healthful growth, a future full, of brilliant achievements. In the mean time the people boast, of what they have got, and often of what they have not got. They point at the map and say : Look at our country. What think you of its size .'' Within its boundaries you could put almost the whole of Europe. It is fifteen times larger than France, and sixty times the size of England. See what a parallelogram, here right in the temperate zone, reaching three thousand miles from ocean to ocean, with an average breadth of one thousand miles. It is the cream of the continent ; whatever is left of North America is sour milk. We have the fat of the lamb, or, in other words, what is worth having of the New World. It is nowhere too hot or too cold. We have the climate of Italy and its orange groves and olive trees ; the skies of France and its vine-clad hills ; the foggy atmosphere and rocky cliffs of England, and its coal mines. We have the gloomy horizon of Rus- sia and Germany, and the wheat fields of the former CALIFORNIANS AND MORMONS. 25 and the beer of the latter. We have the snows of Norway and the glaciers of Mont Blanc, and our mountains, lakes and rivers would laugh, if they could, at the insignificance of the Pyrenees, the Comos, the Rhines, the Thames, and the Seines of Europe. And we thrive well, as the records show. We are a brand new nation, only a fraction over five scores of years, and this year's (1880) census gives us about fifty millions of inhabitants, and more miles of railways than can be found in the whole of Europe. The products of our countless factories, our meat and grain find their way to the leading seaports of the Old World, and behold foreign gold flowing to this country in millions. We are respected if not feared abroad, and our power is such on the western side of the Atlantic that our breath shakes the new continent from sea to sea, and awes its nations into fear. Talk of Germany, England or France making war upon us. Well, we would blow them to atoms before they could reach our shores. Our arm is mighty and its blows crush where they fall, do not let the world forget this. 26 CALIFORNIANS AND MORMONS. These are the national boasts ; but there are also sectional boasts. New York stretches its three million legs, yawns and wonders why, in the name of sense, people will persist in living ail their life long in " provincial towns," such as Philadelphia, Boston or Chicago? Why don't they come here and settle about Central Park ? This is the only place for a civilized man to take an airing. Central Park ! Well, my dear fellow, don't you know that it is the largest, the most magnif- icent, the most artistically laid out pleasure-ground in the world. As everybody admits, it is a marvel of landscape architecture. There are to be found here, at all times, specimens of the whole animal and vegetable world ; from the baby in arms to full grown fashionable and unfashionable men and women ; from the microscopic insect to the elephant ; from the thin blade of grass that trembles in the beautiful meadow to the proud oak towering above its leafy neighbors. There are also works of arts of all nations ; from Ward's Indian Hunter eagerly watching for its prey, to Cleo- patra's Needle casting upon you, man of the New CALIFORNIANS AND MORMONS. 27 World, the same shadow that it has cast for three thousand years in the land of the Pharaohs. Sir, you must see Central Park if you have not done so already, indeed you must. Boston puts on her spectacles, sweeps the horizon near and far, and chuckles in the thought that none but she has grown dyspeptic and yellow over the worn out leaves of a Greek lexicon. Chicago wants to know whether you have seen the water works, " the finest in the world, sir." St. Louis "is not so fast as Chicago, but it is surer." It is " not mortgaged to the ears, you know." It " owns its buildings," and then it " has fifty thou- sand more inhabitants than the Garden city," even if the national census of 1880 tells another story. " St. Louis is the city of the future, sir, there can be no doubt." Louisville, charming and gallant city, sings the beauty and grace of her women. Cincinnati resorts to the most ingenious arguments to impress you with the fact that if she deals in pork and lager she also meddles with music. 28 CALIFORNIANS AND MORMONS Lastly, the San Franciscan, who is courteous and hospitable, a man of the world and a bon vivant, invites you to dinner at one of the leading restaurants of his beloved city, and informs you, before you have reached the second course, that San Francisco restaurants " beat the world ; " that California is " the garden of America," and that its " glorious climate is the finest on God's earth." V. THEY DON'T BEAT THE WORLD, BUT COME VERY NEAR IT. That the products of the cuisine of the best class of restaurants in the metropolis of the Pacific are more palatable than those of similar establish- ments the world over, and especially in the great centre of culinary art, Paris, I am not prepared to admit. When the comparison is limited' to Amer- ican, German and English towns, excepting New York, Vienna and London, San Francisco is indeed the chief. It is " way up," far ahead, and there is no ground for controversy. Here the people are of a nomadic turn of mind — Bohemian life has a peculiar fascination. They live in restaurants, and good res- taurants, and they must have them in great numbers. The result is that one or more cafis are to be found in every block in the business quarters. They are (29) 30 CALIFORNIANS AND MORMONS. excellent cafh and extremely moderate in their charges, and why not ? Excellence and cheapness are the natural results of an active and intelligent competition, especially in a country famous for the great abundance and variety of its vegetables, fruits and meats which can be bought on any day in the year at less cost than at the East. There are restaurants for all tastes and within the reach of all purses ; from the one " bit " (lo cts.) house on the cellar and ground floors, carpeted with sawdust and lighted with oil lamps, to the four floors of parlors with gorgeous tapestries, beautiful deco- rations, mysterious alcoves, French glasses, and daz- zling chandeliers ablaze with lights far into the night. Here one lives to eat, that is, to enjoy. From the first glance at the menu ; from the soup, through eight courses, to the cafi noir, cognac, kirsch, nuts anAfromage brie, embracing an interval of more than two hours, the palate is kept in a continual state of delight. A sensation unknown to the man who takes twenty minutes at the most to swallow several pounds of pork and beans, corned beef and cabbage, two or CALIFORNIANS AND MORMONS. 31 three other kinds of meats saturated with grease, mashed potatoes, hot pies, hot cakes, and ice cream, duly sprinkled with four or more glasses of ice water. No wonder that the poor man is dyspeptic, despond- ent, morbid, sour, sleepless, yellow all over, a burden to his family and himself, until, finally, twenty or thirty years before natural dissolution should take place, his sickly soul leaves his diseased body for parts unknown. The service at these restaurants of the first water is as commendable as the cuisine. The gargons are polite, well versed in their mitier, and fully deserving of the frequent "tippings" they receive. The patrons of these establishments belong to the better class of people in the community. Young and old married people who occupy rooms in hotels or private dwellings in some fashionable quarter of the town, as well as bachelors and tourists from the world over come here to breakfast, to dine and to sup. The crowd that gathers in the one " bit " restau- rants, although of quite a different type, is none the 32 CALIFORNIANS AND MORMONS. less interesting to the traveller. It is a heterogeneous and picturesque crowd. It represents all shades of skin known, all the nationalities comprised between the two poles, and all the professions and trades. All the virtues and vices, ambition, hope, despair, hatred, jealousy are manifest in the faces of the ha- bituis. There are well dressed men with thin faces and anxious looks, and men with threadbare coats — buttoned up to the chin over shirtless bodies — worn out shoes and black silk hats that look as though they had been fired out of a cannon. They are graduates of Eastern colleges, young men of " good famihes," who came here with the expectation of taking San Francisco by storm, to gamble themselves million- aires in a week. They, however, fell into the wrong mill on Pine Street, and now, behold ! this is all that remains. There are men with perspiring brows, strong, honest men covered with the noble dust of labor, and men with shabby beards, long uncombed hair, wearing sombreros, long top-boots and blue flannel shirts. Then again there are other men in high hats, broad- CALIFORNIANS AND MORMONS. ,, cloth, white (by courtesy) cravats, and shirt bosoms bespattered with tobacco juice. They are called judge, captain, colonel, general, as the case may be ; but all of them are ward politicians just then out of pocket. There are neatly attired seamstresses, middle aged women with premature wrinkles, telling tales of sor- rows and disappointments, and women with soiled dresses and soiled souls. These people of various tongues, characteristics and callings crowd around the little tables of the one " bit " eating houses, three times a day, emerging one by one when they have completed their meals, smiling and ap- parently pleased. They have been served with a large plateful of wholesome soup, a roll or a piece of pie with cheese, and drank a cup of cafi au lait, — all for ten cents. Higher in the gastronomic scale than the one bit house, and especially deserving of mention, are the two bit and four bit (25 and 50 cts.) restaurants. At the two bit place one gets a dinner of three courses, — soup, entr6es and roasts, and a glass of wine. The 34 CALIFORNIANS AND MORMONS. four bit establishment gives, at the " regular dinner," five courses and a small bottle of vin erdinaire. A most excellent diner d la carte, a dinner that would cost one dollar and fifty cents in New York can be had at the best of these cafis, for six bits, or seventy- five cents. The service is all that a reasonable man could wish. The waiters, however, have a disagreeable practice of calling out their orders in so loud a voice that it makes the dishes rattle. It is a first rate exhibi- tion of lung power, a continuous running up and down all the keys with variations. It is indeed annoying, to say the least. The majority of such restaurants, or the best of them, are to be found down town, in the cross streets below Dupont, from California Street to one or two blocks beyond Clay, and in this latter street especially. A good digestion is indispensable to keep the mental faculties in perfect gear. Napoleon was twice defeated on the battle field, because, it is said, of ill digested meals. The greatest literary light of the eighteenth century, the philosopher of Ferney, asserts that the fate of nations often depends on the manner CALIFORNIANS AND MORMONS. 35 in which dinners have been prepared and served to some of their most potent rulers. Cooking is a science, moreover it is an art. He who prepares a good dinner is a scientist, an artist ; and the man who orders it and takes the time needed for its con- sumption is a diplomatist, a man of good manners, amiable, always at ease, never fretting, sought in good society, and a standard in all things pertaining to the world of ethics. Puritan New England has succeeded, more or less, in saddling her social stiffness and bad cuisine on most of the States. An exception must however be made in favor of the Southern States and California, which speaks well for the South and the Golden State. In short, I congratulate the mercurial San Franciscan on his knowledge of gastronomy, or, in other words, on his knowing so well what, how, when and how long to eat. VI. A CLIMATE THAT SEEMS TO HAVE BEEN MADE TO ORDER. It is, however, of their " glorious climate " that Californians are especially fond of boasting. The first question asked one anywhere in the State is : " How do you like our climate .■" " and one is expected to answer that " it is the finest climate on the face of the earth." The Californian will stand any amount, of chaffing, for he is good-natured ; but he will allow no one to " run down " his climate. This is a sacred topic, and it should be spoken of with due reverence. Yea dwellers in the countries of snows, of frozen lakes and rivers, should you ever be tempted to seek the warm sun of the Golden State, venture not to grumble aloud if the atmosphere happens to be chilly at times in January and foggy in July, for you may render yourself liable to have a " head put on you." '37) 38 CALIFORNIANS AND MORMONS. The truth is that nowhere in the world such a cli- mate as that of California can be found. Here the usual divisions of time are not to be looked for. Summers and winters there are none ; it is always May or June, so far as the temperature is concerned, at least, for it never varies more than ten degrees the year round. It is never too cold nor too warm, and the evenings are just cool enough to drive wakeful- ness away, giving the lucky mortals down there nine hours of undisturbed, refreshing sleep every night in the year. The shopkeeper closes his doors only at night in January as well as in July ; and the coal dealer thrives iriostly on the demands of the cooking- stoves. In the streets of Oakland I have frequently seen men in shirt sleeves taking a sun bath in mid- winter. At the same season, when ice is two feet thick on the Hudson, and the thermometer falls thirty degrees below zero in Milwaukee, little barefooted children, having barely clothes enough to disguise nudity, may be seen running about the streets of Los Angeles, beneath the green foliage of orange trees laden with fruits. CALIFORNIANS AND MORMONS. 39 Oakland, although only seven or eight miles from San Francisco, is more fortunate in its climate than the latter city, owing to its position sheltered by the coast range of mountains from the trade winds that sweep the streets of the metropolis, especially in the early part of the rainy season. It is at this time of the year that San Francisco most frequently loses its ballast. The atmosphere becomes either laden with a dense mist or disturbed by a strong, raw wind that m^kes things rather lively for the pedestrian who goes about hugging the lamg posts or running races with his hat. The people of the Golden Gate City can avoid these atmospheric disturbances and the an- noyances they bring, by taking the ferry-boat and crossing over to Oakland. Here one will find things normal. The sun shines, there is a pleasant breeze and the air is fogless. The transition is wonderful. It reminds one of the shifting of sceneries in a spec- tacular drama, when summer is often made to succeed winter in the twinkling of an eye. I said that it was always May or June in Califor- nia. The rainy season, from November to May, can , 40 CALIFORNIANS AND MORMONS. ,be called the May season ; the other seven months can be said to represent June. The temperature of this latter period is very much like that of June, in the Middle States, minus the thunder storms which occasionally occur here at this time. From May until November no rain is to be seen. Fog gathers sometimes, especially in July, about the , coast ; but twenty-five out of every thirty days during the dry season the atmosphere is clear and pure. The carpet of a rich and mellow green with which the rainy I season has clad the mountains, hills and valleys, fades gradually away, taking on, finally, the color of a dead corn leaf. The grass shrinks and with- ers, seemingly, like the condemned man of the Scrip- ture, imploring heaven for a few drops of water, a few drops of evening dew ; but there are no clouds above and no dew worth mentioning. Nature seems dead. But it is only sleeping ; it has given men the wherewithal to sustain life for the current year, and moreover to fill their pockets with gold. It is now taking a needed rest, awaiting the grand awakening that will cause it to bloom forth anew. This awaken- CAUFORNIANS AND MORMONS. 41 ing comes in the shape of enormous clouds gathering early in November about the crest of the coast range, and then bursting in torrents of water that is quickly absorbed by the thirsting earth. The great event has at last come. The rainy season has been ushered in, and the newspapers devote a column or two in informing their readers, who already know, that it has been raining. The event is talked of from one end of the State to the other. It is the one absorbing topic for the next forty-eight hours ; and from this time until May the fall of the rain is watched and recorded with as much eagerness and care as the fluctuation of stocks in Wall Street. There must fall so many inches to insure a good crop, say ten to fifteen. A little less or much more might ruin a thousand fortunes, fill the poor-houses with paupers, the jails with criminals, the lunatic asylums with dis- appointed speculators and the graveyards with suicides. In short, it would clean out the lighter pockets and depress the industries of the State. A " bad year," however, is not a frequent occurrence, and a following "good year" enables theloosers to more than recover ^2 CALIFORNIANS AND MORMONS. their ground, provided they can hold the fort until harvest time. California during the period of rains is by no means an unpleasant place to live in, as it is generally believed in the East. It should be borne in mind that it does not rain continuously every day, from morn- ing until night and from night till morning ; but only every two, three or six days, and generally during the night. There are times, however, when the rain con- tinues falling for several days. The cataracts of heaven are then let loose in good earnest. A deep, heavy, measureless sheet of water is, without respite, dashed to the earth, turning streets into rivers and fields into lakes ; and forcibly recalling to mind the days when a great cataclysm overwhelmed our an- cestors, compelling them to seek safety in an ark the only seaworthy vessel at the time. Indeed, one begins to doubt whether the sun will ever dissipate the ink-like clouds that have turned days into nights for a week or more. But how clear, how beautiful are the heavens for several days following such a min- iature deluge ! The rain has carried away all the im- purities from the air and watered the earth CALIFORNIANS AND MORMONS. 43 that now exhibits with, seeming pride, its growing verdure in the warm light of the sun, while a thousand birds fly and sing about the leafy arms of the trees, gently swayed to and fro by a stiff breeze from the sea. An exhilarating atmosphere stimulates the circulation of the blood ; the heart throbs with more regularity and force, the nerves are strengthened ; and the mind is made brighter. The nights that follow such days, if they can be called nights, are indescribable. At full moon they are almost as light as day. They are truly splendid these moonlight nights, and how strangely weird also. It is midnight, yet look at that landscape, all its de- tails come out in bold reliefs as though they were lighted by electric lamps. I have seen the moon hung in the poetic sky of Sorrento and over the land of the Ptolemies ; I have watched its magic effects upon the crumbling walls of the Coliseum ; but nowhere has this mysterious planet appeared to me so overwhelm- ingly magnificent as in California, when slowly as- cending a heaven that was as pure as the eye of a child. Indeed, California can truthfully boast of its climate. VII. SOME THINGS THAT TEMPERANCE ADVO- CATES, CAPITALISTS AND ALL PATRI- OTIC AMERICANS SHOULD LOOK INTO. Everyone, every American at least, has heard of the marvellous agricultural resources of California. Here all things grow in abundance and larger than elsewhere. You are shown pumpkins weighing two hundred pounds, cabbages two feet in diameter, six pounder potatoes, and peaches, pears and oranges in proportion. But I beg leave to refer the reader who would wish to obtain an accurate knowledge of Cali- fornia's agricultural productions, to encyclopaedias or other books dealing with statistics, dry facts and com- monplace things generally. I cannot, however, refrain from giving a passing notice to the vine culture in that State. My motive is not of a selfish nature al- though I am a Frenchman, and especially so when the (45) 46 CALIFORNIANS AND MORMONS. question as to what should be drank, and how much, when and where it is best to drink comes in as the prominent topic in a friendly talk. It is a puzzle to me why so little attention should have been paid to the culture of the vine in America ; even after it had been practically demonstrated that it could be grown here as well as in France or other vine growing countries, and that it would pay well in ready cash. It is well to look at the financial side, but the moral side should not be overlooked, and in the case at hand it is an especially bright side, or it should appear so, at least, to intelligent, unprejudiced advocates of temperance. I take the ground that the most effective way to promote temperate habits among a people addicted to the use of powerful intoxicants, is to introduce a mild and wholesome wine that helps digestion, strengthens the constitution, does not inebriate, and creates none of that craving for " something strong to warm up" that a too copious and frequent indulgence in whisky and the like must eventually produce. I am not di- vulging a secret in saying that Americans are rather CALIFORNIANS AND MORMONS. ^>j partial to the fiery cup, heedless of the mental and physical sufferings and all manners of miseries which it brings. It should, however, be said in justice to the dwellers of the New World, that they are no more intemperate than the people who live in the northern zone where the luscious grape is unknown and the wine cup is a luxury that the rich only can afford. In such countries the masses are left with no alter- native but to seize upon what they can get for their money ; for men will drink, they need stimulants to recuperate their lost energy in this age of almost painful mental and physical activity. This fact can- not be disputed, it is irrefutable. Temperance lec- tures and appeals from the pulpit, however earnest and eloquent they may be, will ever fail to check the flowing bowl. The pledge, bah ! it is a farce. Dur- ing the temperance revival that swept over the coun- try, a few years ago, I personally knew scores of men who signed the pledge, and none of those whose wel- fare depended on total abstinence from strong drinks ever kept it. The signers who " held the fort " had always been water drinkers, which fact goes to show 48 CAUFORNIANS AND MORMONS. that the fortress was in no imminent danger of being captured. It is a noble crusade that against intem- perance, and all earnest men and women engaged in it are worthy encouragement and respect ; but they must act rationally, that is, they should possess them- selves of the proper weapons to insure victory. No permanent success can be obtained in trusting to the enthusiasm of the moment. Entreaties, prayers, prom- ises, threats, effect but a temporary good. When the excitement incident to a revival is over the re- lapse conies and orgies succeed orgies. The wine cup, in my opinion, will eventually win the battle of tem- perance, if it can be made to drive the whisky jug from the market. The most intemperate nations — such as England, for instance — are not wine-drinking nations. The French, who are conceded to be the most temperate people in Europe, consume an average of 1,300,000,- 000 gallons of wine annually, or thirty-four gallons per capita. French statistics show most conclusively that intemperance is unknown in departments that yield the most wine, and that it is most marked in CALIFORNIANS AND MORMONS. ^q localities where the crops fail to meet the demands of the consumers, the people being compelled, in this case, to resort to distilled liquors. A stranger can live a year in Paris, a city of two million inhabitants, travel about every day and not meet with a drunken Frenchman. It is not so in London, where one sees intoxicated men and women at every turn. The same thing may be said of New York, Chicago and other cities east of the Rocky Mountains. There is, however, on the Pacific coast a very perceptible improvement for the better. I have seen less intoxication in California than in any other State in the Union, making no exception in favor of Maine, where prohibitory laws are enforced. And . the Golden State consumes three million gallons of wine, which is about one-sixth of the whole amount consumed in the United States with a population fifty times greater. The grapes did much towards making the French what they are ; the most prosper- ous and most thoroughly contented people in Europe ; a people witb clear heads and sound digestion. In short, the Frenchman manages to keep sober, healthy CO CALIFORNIANS AND MORMONS. and well on forty gallons of wine a year, and his re- publican brother, under the Stars and Stripes, gets tipsy, dyspeptic and sour-tempered on one-third of a gallon ; for such is the annual amount consumed in the States per capita. The reasons for this contrast are obvious. The French drink their wine at meals, and Americans swallow their whisky by the pint in bar-rooms. One is an article of diet, the other well — is a passport to the jails and burying* grounds. The American people will not likely be led into wine drinking through the importation from France of the much coveted beverage. That country ex- ported an annual average of only 70,ooo,ocx) gallons of wine during the last two decades, three millions of which came to the United States. Excellent reason, then, why Americans should interest themselves in the culture of the vine in their own country. They need not look a long time for appropriate soil. Cali- fornia is already the land of wines as well as that of gold and of wheat. It is to the Golden State that this country must look for her wines, for wines that are light, pure and unadulterated, more wholesome and CALIFORNIANS AND MORMONS. 51 cheaper than the cargo wine shipped to American ports from France. The French, it should be borne i» mind, can afford to send but a very small quantity of their best wines abroad, for the simple reason that they have hardly more than enough for their own consumption. Americans should manufacture their own wines and stimulate their consumption. It is, however, rational to assume that consumers would increase in proportion to the production. I am of the opinion that, in case the vinicultural interests of California were backed by the requisite amount of capital, not less than two hundred million gallons of wine could be manufactured annually after the expiration of the coming fifteen years ; and that half a century hence the yield would perhaps equal that of France. As it is now it falls short of five million gallons "The latest official sources," writes M. Arpad Harasztky, President of the California State Vinicul- tural Society, "put the number of vines now (1879) in the State at forty-five millions, or about 60,000 acres. These are owned by over four thousand pro- 52 CALIFORNIANS AND MORMONS. prietors, and it is computed that ten thousand people in the State, and all of them adults and voters, earn their livelihood and support their families through this one pursuit. The capital invested in vines, lands, animals, tools, appliances, casks, dwellings, cellars and their contents, amount to thirty million dollars. When our present vineyards are in full bearing, which will be in three years hence, our possible production could reach twenty million gallons of wine, not allow- ing for grapes locally consumed or made into raisins and brandy. " There are over thirty million acres of land suitable for the cultivation of the vine in our State. It is often asked by travellers to what use we will put our millions of acres of hillside land, covered with sage- brush and chapparal, with hardly a blade of grass here and there 1 They will all be planted with vines, capable of producing an abundance of the very best wines. A number of our vineyards are situated in just such soil, and the planting of the vine in our State will never interfere with or diminish the average of wheat growing lands. It will only take up land that CALIFORmANS AND MORMONS. ^3 would Otherwise prove valueless even for pasturage. And this more than any other reason should recom- mend this pursuit to the fostering care of the United States government." If 60,000 acres can yield 20,000,000 gallons of wine, how much will 30,000,000 acres yield } I give it up. The prodigious total would make my head swim. Let us suppose, however, that six million acres, which is about the area now under vine cul- ture in France, could be planted with vines within the next fifty years, and granting that the average yield per acre would equal that of France, the produc- tion of California wine would reach 2,000,000,000 gal- lons in 1930 (in 1875 the crop in France amounted to 2,190,000,000 gallons). This yield, however enor- mous, would hardly meet the demands of consumers in the States ; for at the present rate of increase the pop- ulation could not fall short of 100,000,000 at the date above mentioned. These wines could be sold at thirty cents per gallon (the average price of vin ordinaire or cargo wine in France) in California, and retailed by city and country dealers throughout the States at 54 CALIFORNIANS AND MORMONS. fifty cents per gallon, or ten cents per bottle, which is ten times less than the sum for which a bottle of the same brand of wine can now be bought from retailers east of the Rocky Mountains. I dare say that the workingman would rather buy a bottle of wholesome wine for ten or fifteen cents than a glass of whisky for the same amount of money ; and that when he has begun the use of wine at the family table he would drink wine only, and cease his daily visit to the corner grogshop. In a word, this wine question deserves the immediate attention of capitalists, political economists, temperance reformers, of the pulpit, the press and of every American who wishes to advance the material and moral growth of his country. VIII. A TRIP AROUND THE WORLD IN TWO HOURS. The traveller who has taken a two hours' stroll down town in San Francisco can boast of a trip around the world. He will have seen the representa- tives of all the nations and tribes comprised between Tokio and Lisbon in the Old World, and between the extremities of the Western Hemisphere. The " men from the East," or the representatives of all the States east of the Rocky Mountains, are at the top of the heap. Then come the fiery but ever faith- ful Celts, the phlegmatic Germans and Scandinavians, the proud and sentimental Spaniards, the poetic Italians and mercurial Frenchmen ; the over patriotic Englishmen, the cunning compatriots of ancient Solomon the wise, and the half-breeds or " greasers." The progressive Japanese, the Russians, the Swiss. <55) eg CALIFORNIANS AND MORMONS. the Belgians, the Greeks and the natives of Malaysia Islands can be found scattered here and there, like leaves of various kinds torn from their stems by tempests and carried into distant fields. The monosyllabic world is also represented. San Francisco has within its limits a miniature city of Pekin. Yonder the Dragon Banner floats, and thirty thousand queues wriggle on thirty thousand Chinese backs. San Franciscans proper, that is, the people of Anglo-Teutonic, Italic or Celtic stock who are either born on the Coast or have been for a long time resi- dents there, are perhaps the most clever of Amer- icans, and as little understood by Eastern people as arethese latter by Europeans who have never crossed the frontiers of their respective country. They are of an original turn of mind, yet not eccentric. The character is Anglo-Latin. The dash is purely Amer- ican and so is the extravagance. They indulge in oc- casional " splurges," in other words, they like to " make a show," to shine as it were, even if bankruptcy is at the door ; a foible that, I believe, a goodly number of CALIFORNIANS AND MORMONS. 57 Eastern people of fashion would hardly venture to crit- icise. They are generous to a fault and their hos- pitality knows no bounds. True to their American principles, the mighty dollar is uppermost in their minds ; but if they love money they are not its slaves; they know well, perhaps too well, how to spend it, trusting that the to-morrow will bring in fresh sup- plies, which it generally does. The manners are of the " go as you please " type, which may be called the national type. They, however, differ in some things with Eastern people : for instance, a man out there never sits down with his feet on a level with his nose. Faithful to the Union and proud of its greatness, they however seem to care little or nothing for what is being done " back East," except on ques- tions that may affect their pecuniary or political interests. The Eastern emigrant is received very much as a new-comer from Ireland or Germany. They are fond of celebrities, whether national or foreign, and they give them a hearty, enthusiastic welcome. When it was announced that the City of Tokio, bearing General Grant homeward, was nearing 5$ CAUFORNIANS AND MORMONS- the Gelden Gate, the whole city was thrown into a frenzy of excit&ment ; enthusiasm became extreme and every nerve was strung to its utmost tension. It was a never-to-be-forgotten reception that the hero of twenty battles received in the metropolis of the Pacific. San Franciscans are beginning to have aristo- cratic notions, which is as natural as it is for the sun to rise in the east. They hint at pedigree, "old stock," and talk exclusiveness. They have literary and artistic ambition, which is most commendable, and call their charming suburb Oakland, or rather Oakland calls itself, " Athens," which is foolish. They are able politicians and their forensic skill is not to be questioned. They are upright and court- eous in their dealings with strangers ; but stock gam- bling and politics have made them restless, irritable, suspicious. The temper is high, and it rises often to the burning point, when the pistol is liable to be called into requisition. The men have a magnificent physique, indicative of great strength. And the women — ah ! young men of the East in search of a CALIFORNIANS AJ^B MORMONS^ 5^ "maiden fair," go west of the Sierras and behold the fairest daughters in the land. Although a child of the sun, she is of the blonde type. The eye, which is large and well opened, flashes like newly broken steel under the sun's rays. The well filled and rosy face beams with intelligence. The mouth is well curved, coquettish, and of a rich carmine. The head, showing a luxuriant growth of golden hair, is well set on beautifully rounded shoulders. The stature is erect and the outlines are well moulded, firm and graceful. The hand is small and the pedal extremities would shame the slipper of Cinderella. She loves ease and luxury and is as nonchalant as a Creole or a Kentucky belle. As a flirt she is not a success. Whenever she attempts to imitate her artful, cold- blooded Eastern sister in the art of flirting she gen- erally ends by falling in love, with an elopement or a suicide. Flirting may be a harmless pastime in the cold climate of the North-west and on the Atlantic seaboard where the blood is kept, for six months in the year, just above freezing point, but it will not do in a semi-tropical country. Here passions are stronger 6o CALIPORNIANS AND MORMONS. and the heart is more susceptible of love. Southern women, such as Spanish and Italian women, are not addicted to flirtation. They love or do not love ; the lips never belie the heart, and San Francisco or California women are equally truthful. IX. A PICTURE THAT WOULD NOT BE COM- PLETE WITHOUT A PISTOL IN THE FOREGROUND. In speaking of San Franciscans I mentioned the pistol as the favorite weapon used in the settlement of their quarrels. Now I wish the sketch could have been completed with the pistol left out ; but without this important accessory the picture would have been incomplete and the subject of the sketch himself could not have recognized it. Yes, the murderous weapon must be brought in ; and to the everlasting shame of one of the most enlightened, prosperous and original people on this vast continent. It is not the desperado, the ex-convict, the thug, the thief and the shoulder- striker who do the most shooting. No, not by any means. They are men and even women of social position ; leaders of public opinion, preachers of the Gospel, students, clerks, and even boys. (61) 62 CALIFORNIANS AND MORMONS. An eloquent and popular preacher, to vary the monotony of Gospel teachings, calls an editor bad names, and the editor, under cover of a coupd, shoots the preacher in the back ; and he is himself afterwards shot dead by another preacher. A German tobac- conist ventures to tell a young student at law that he is a son of a — gun ; and the disciple of Blackstone sends the cigar man across the Styx with a pistol shot. A young woman finding that her Adonis had another girl, manages to send a ball through his brain. A clerk kills a prominent citizen, his wife's supposed lover. Poor imbecile, he ought to have known that a faithless wife was not worth the powder expended in shooting her partner in crime, at the risk of his own neck. Another clerk on the Oakland ferry-boat draws his revolver on an old man who had the misfortune to tread on hiscoms;heishoweverprevented from doing any harm by the writer, upon whom he then insists on trying his skill at short range ; but unsuccessfully. These murders and attempts at murder, with many others for similar trifling offenses, occurred within a year. CALIFORNJANS AND MORMONS. 63 He who shoots and kills a defenseless man is a miserable wretch, a brigand, a coward and a villain ; and by the eternal justice he should be strangled on the gallows in a public square, or sent to die in solitary confinement, haunted day and night in his tomb-like cell by the ghastly vision of his victim. It is not, however, likely that such punishment will often be inflicted on the California murderer, especially if he wears kid gloves and has a respectable bank account. Two or three years in San Quentin will satisfy the courts if not the people. The courts have been told this same thing before ; but as no per- ceptible change seems to have taken place in their administration of justice ; it may not be inopportune to remind them that a further continuance of their disgraceful doings is liable to bring upon the Golden State the contempt of the civilized world. The San Francisco Morning Call should be con- gratulated for speaking boldly and truthfully against these judicial infamies. It says : " If there is one element of civilization in which we are preeminently deficient, it is in the administra- 64 CALIFORNIANS AND MORMONS. tion of justice. The law has not compelled the vicious - and turbulent classes to respect the lives, reputation or property of law-abiding citizens. We have been tolerably prompt in punishing petty larceny, but we permit much more dangerous men than petty thieves to play the part of assassin of life or character with comparative impunity. The machinery of the law is constantly being worked before our eyes to shield criminals who have money or influence. The com- munity maintain courts, including sheriffs, prosecuting attorneys and judges, to the end that a citizen who is wronged may have redress without cost to himself. But the courts, as a rule, have not served the purpose for which they were created. Instead of being a terror to evil-doers, they have been too often their shield and protection. Sometimes judges have worked the law to protect wealthy criminals, and sometimes prosecuting attorneys have stood in the way of suc- cessful prosecution. Again, the sheriff's office has been used to manipulate juries in the interest of in- fluential offenders. The result is, that men have little or no confidence in the action of the courts. CALIFORNIANS AND MORMONS 65 " We have seen men deliberately plan assassina- tion, and as deliberately plan their methods of escape through the courts. The impression is very general that a criminal who has money to spend can fight his way through the courts without incurring any other penalty than loss of money. The very men whom people employ to see that justice is done, often join with the influential offenders to defeat the ends of justice. This improper use of money, and the lack of official energy, or from some other causes, neces- sitates the use of money on the other side. The in- dividual who has been assailed in life or character finds that he cannot get justice without trying it and paying for it. If the man who has assailed him has the heavier purse, or the more influential position, the chances are that he will go free." The Evening Bulletin of the same place, a journal by no means given to sensational writing, asserts that "hardly more than seven per cent, of all the murders committed in this State (California) are ever followed by adequate punishment." The New Constitution, it is claimed, has created a judicial system which will 66 CAUFORNIANS AND MORMONS. greatly strengthen the administration of justice. It is earnestly hoped that it will, and that ere long assas- sins, whether in broadcloth or in rags, will one and all walk from the tribunal of justice to the gallows. The reader should not be led to infer from the above that San Francisco is a lawless, disorderly town. It would be a very erroneous inference in- deed. A more orderly community, in most respects, cannot be found between the two oceans. Moneyed criminals often go unpunished it is sadly true ; but what of the judicial records of New York, of Chicago, of Cincinnati ! San Francisco has been and is now often mis- represented, nay, vilified by Associated Press dis- patches. A mass meeting of the workingmen party takes place at the Sand Lot. Something like the fol- lowing is immediately wired eastward : " At the meet- ing of the Sand Lot'.ers to-day inflammatory speeches were made by Kalloch and Kearney. Threats of burning the city were heard among the drunken crowd. There are talks of organizing Vigilance Com- mittees. Great excitement prevails." Now the truth CALIFORNIANS AND MORMONS 67 is, that the^J had been no inflammatory speeches made, no incendiary threats, no talk of Vigilance Committees; and all was quiet in the city. X. I BUY A PISTOL AND MEET A MAN WHO UESSED HE WOULDN'T ARREST ME. I REACHED San Francisco two days after the shoot- ing of Mayor Kalloch seriously thinking my life in danger, having read in the papers at Ogden that the city was in the hands of the Sand Letters, who were burning and killing right and left. I therefore pro- ceeded 'at once to a gunsmith, invested in a powerful six-shooter, and held on to it all the way to my hotel, momentarily expecting an attack from behind or on either my right or left wing. I reached my room unmolested, laid my pistol on a table within easy reach, cocked and ready for the fray, and waited for the Sand Lotter. He did not come. I ventured out to see what damage had been done to the buildings and watch the efforts of the firemen to check the devouring flames. Seeing no smoke anywhere, I asked of a man what part of the town was burning. (69) 70 CALIFORNIANS AND MORMONS. " Burning," he replied, " I didn't know that any- thing was burning at all." The flames must have been fought down, I thought as I moved on, bent upon finding how many had been killed and wounded by the furious mob. A gentle- man was standing in the door of a store on Kearny. Street near Market, evidently eyeing the pretty blondes who daily throng that part of the thorough- fare. He looked like the right kind of a man to go to with a question. " Will you be good enough to tell me the name of this street, sir .' " said I. " This is Kearny street, sir. A stranger here .' " " Yes, sir." " A foreigner I see by your accent. Been long from Germany } " " I am not a German." " I thought you didn't look like a Dutchman, but we Americans think that all foreigners are Dutch- men, see ? — Kalloch is out of danger I am told." " I am glad to hear it. By the way, has it been ascertained how many had been killed ? " CALIFORNIANS AND MORMONS. 71 " Killed ! who ? By whom ? When ? Another rail- road accident ? Have not heard of it. Just got the news ? " " No, I mean the people who were murdered dur- ing the riot. " " A riot ! Has there been a riot .■• " " The gentleman evidently does not live here." " Was born in this city, and have lived here ever since." " And you have not heard of the riot } " " Of course I haven't, because there hasn't been any, and nobody was killed that I know of. Kalloch was shot and wounded. A personal quarrel, that is all." Here the man laughed in my face and left. The fellow is evidently a joker, I muttered, and forthwith made my way up Market Street to the Sand Lot, where I had been told the workingmen were as- sembling en masse, preparatory to making an assault on the jail to get possession of Mr. Charles De Young who had shot their candidate for mayor, and hang him to one or more lamp posts until death ensued. I 72 CALIFORNIANS AND MORMONS. came upon a vast multitude of human beings, closely packed in an open square adjacent to the New City all. There must have been ten thousand of them. Men in shirt sleeves and men in broadcloth. Some wore sombreros, others were bare-headed and bare- foot. Various nationalities were represented, the Irish predominating. Their faces exhibited signs of suppressed anger. Here and there a man flourished his clinched fists and swore. Otherwise perfect order prevailed in that immense throng. All eyes were di- rected on a man who spoke from a covered platform made of rough boards. This man was short, thick-set. He had a bull-like neck and broad shoulders. His uncovered head showed a thick crop of short black hair, and a low forehead. Beneath a frowning brow there flashed a pair of cunning eyes, and the facial features betrayed a kind and emotional nature. He spoke in that loud, slow, dragging tone of voice so often heard on the stumps, from Maine to California, during a political campaign ; and if his language at times savored of the bar-room, he nevertheless held CALIFORNIANS AND MORMONS. 73 his audience to his lips. He called upon his hearers to behave like dignified citizens in that most trying hour in the history of their political party, in order to show the country that they were the protectors rather than the violators of law and order. He said that no good and much harm could be done by losing one's temper, and finally advised the people to disperse quietly to their homes. It was the blood-thirsty dem- agogue Denis Kearney who gave such advice, and the people who followed his counsel were the danger- ous Sand Lotters. I could hardly believe my own eyes ; but it was true, there could be no doubt. How- ever, the worst of them all, I thought, might be laying siege to the jail, and thither I went. I saw a Gattling gun, some soldiers and a good-natured crowd laughing at this warlike display. I had been looking for a city in flames and no one had heard of a fire for six months. Moved by a hu- man desire to help my fellow-creatures, I hastened to the scene of the riot for the purpose of helping res- cue the wounded, and save murdered citizens from any further mutilation by the savage mob; and I 74 CALIFORNIANS AND MORMONS. found a city busily engaged in its pursuits, full of smiles and laughter; and a drowned sailor at the morgue was the only dead man in town. I went to the Sand Lot, pistol in hand, fully re- solved to defend myself against the pick-axe and the spade, and I saw a great crowd of well-behaved men and women with no arms but their tongues, which were used only in uttering words of approval for the remarks of their leader who was preaching peace in- stead of war. Lastly the assault upon the jail was nothing more than an exhibition of Gattling guns by the city authorities, to amuse the curious. I thought no more of my six-shooter. Being now convinced that I could go about the streets of San Francisco unmolested, I started homeward in a light and easy gait which was soon accelerated by a strong wind, a furious wind, that greatly disturbed the equi- librium of my coat tail, sending it flying over my head at times. I was in a cheerful state of mind, and in- dulged in self-congratulations on the happy ending of my Quixotic errantry, when I felt that my hip-pocket was being relieved of something. Turning about like CALIFORNIANS AND MORMONS. yj a flash I confronted a policeman with my pistol in his hands. " Have you a license, sir ? " said he. " A license for what, pray ? " " To carry this weapon." " No, sir." " Then follow me." " Follow you where and why ? " " To the station house." " But, my dear sir, I am a stranger here. Have just come to the city. How am I to know about your law requiring a license to carry fire-arms." " There is some sense in this," said the man, who appeared intelligent and good-natured ; " but are you a stranger, sure .-• " " Here is a letter of introduction for a prominent citizen of this city whom you doubtless know." " Well, I guess I won't arrest you," he said, after reading the letter; "but you'd better put that pistol away." The knight of the baton resumed his beat and I wrote what follows in my note-book : A license to 76 CALIFORNIANS AND MORMdNS. carry fire-arms ! Nonsense. „ Men need no revolvers about them in a civilized community, and should not, except in time of war or for the purpose of hunting wild beasts, be permitted to carry such weapons. Six months or a year at hard labor in the penitentiary ought to be inflicted upon any one found with a pis- tol. This barbarous custom, so prevalent in this country, and which I thought myself compelled to imitate in order to protect my life in San Francisco, should be done away with at once ; and I know of no better plan to accomplish that end than the one just suggested. XI. LITERATURE, PUBLIC AND PRIVATE SCHOOLS. So far as the taste, manners, habits and pursuits of its people are concerned, San Francisco is unlike Eastern cities. A fact doubtless due to the prosper- ous and intelligent foreign element which constitutes a large percentage of its population ; and to climatic influences. Yet the predominating characteristics are purely American. Its position, isolated from the great Eastern centres and from Europe, leads the people into new groves of thoughts. In short, the thinking in that far-off metropolis is home-made and productive of most excellent results. It is to San Francisco that the world should look for litterateurs who are essentially American. Who has not heard of Mark Twain .' Bret Harte and Joaquin Miller are as widely read by English-speak- (77), yS CALIFORNIAN'S AND MORMONS. ing people as the great and venerable bard of Cam- bridge, Longfellow. Ask a French or Italian literati whether he knows anything of American literature. He will tell you that he has read Longfellow, and that he is also acquainted with some of the works of Mark Twain, Bret Harte and Joaquin Miller. He may have heard of other great American litterateurs, but here ends his knowledge. Joaquin Miller is far better known in England than Oliver Wendell Holmes. Europeans care little for imitations, however clever, of their own authors' works when in search of American literary food. They expect the freshness of youth, enthusiasm, originality of conception and of thought. Hence the popularity abroad of the humor- ous works of Mark Twain, and of the weird, terse and vigorous literary productions of Bret Harte and Miller. These are what Carlyle would call original ind not imitative Americans ; and they are repre- sentatives of the California school of literature. The literary world has lately welcomed the appearance of 1 book entitled Progress and Poverty (Appleton & CALIFORNIANS AND MORMONS. 70 Company). It was criticised at length by American and European reviews and newspapers, and its author, Mr. Henry George, a citizen of San Francisco, was justly given an honorable place amongst leading polit- ical economists. From the contributors of the monthly reviews to the penny-a-liners of the metropolitan press, California abounds with writers of power, brilliant imagination and technical skill. The Bohemians who fill the first page of the Chronicle s Sunday edition, and the clever editor of the Argonaut would become famous on the Parisian press. The Golden State is proud of its mines, of its ex- haustless agricultural resources, but not more than of its educational institutions, whether public or private. MiUions are annually expended for the education of youths who joyfully make the best of their oppor- tunity. There is a State University situated at Berkely, on the slope of the Contra Costa hills, some five miles from Oakland and twelve miles from San Francisco. Here young men and young women get their minds well stocked with knowledge, practical 8o CALIFORNIANS AND MORMONS. and otherwise, from the science of agriculture to the mysteries of comparative philology. " Our Univer- sity," writes the former State Superintendent, Mr. Ezra S. Carr, a gentleman of two-score years' ex- perience in educational matters, "has reached the ideal standard of its original projector, with full de- partments of Law and Medicine, courses of colleges of Agriculture, Mechanics and Engineering, and afifiliated colleges of Dentistry and Pharmacy." And all this knowledge is imparted gratis to residents of the State. Students from other States are charged, however, twenty-five dollars as a matriculation fee, and fifty dollars per year for tuition, " payable in ad- vance, twenty-five dollars at the beginning of each half-year," The State Normal School, located in San Jos4 is an institution deserving of praise. It has an annual appropriation of thirty-three thousand dollars, which is duly expended in providing intellectual food for five or six hundred pupils. There are also several colleges and seminaries, denominational and secular, such as St. Ignatius CALIFORNIANS AND MORMONS. 8 1 College in San Francisco (Catholic), Santa Clara Col- lege, and the University of the Pacific in Santa Clara, the latter a Methodist Episcopal institution ; the Col- lege of St. Augustine, at Benicia, under the control of the Protestant Episcopal Bishop of Northern Cali- fornia, Right Rev. J. H. D. Wingfield ; the Benicia Seminary for young ladies ; Mill's Seminary at Brooklyn, the Vassar of the Pacific coasts ; Madame Zeitska's Institute at San Francisco; Mrs. Poston's Seminary at Oakland; the Sacramento Female Sem- inary, and a hundred more "colleges," "seminaries," preparatory schools and kindergartens of more or less celebrity. San Francisco paid in 1879 nearly nine hundred thousand dollars for the maintenance of its schools, of which there are sixty. Among these the Girls' High School under the management of Mr. John Swett, principal, is most worthy of note. T was frequently told that political interference with the management of the schools, in San Fran- cisco, tends to lower their standard ; that the sisters, the cousins, the aunts and the friends of school direc- tors are given positions as teachers, which they are 6 82 CALIFORNIANS AND MORMONS. not competent to fill. This is a serious reflection on the school board, but I fear it is not altogether unde- served. The competent teachers, however, who are given a back seat or no seat at all in the schools of the Golden Gate City, to make way for the daughter of Jones who worked for the election of director Smith, may console themselves in the thought that they have many a sympathizing companion in their misery. It is the same story throughout the country, wherever teachers are subject to the caprices and prejudices of school directors who seek the office as a stepping-stone to political advancement, and who are generally more competent to sell groceries or beer, or to twist iron, than to judge of the standard of school qualification. This state of things is not likely to improve while educational affairs in great common- wealths are intrusted to unsalaried men elected by the people. Mr. A. L. Mann, i'ormerly city superintendent of public schools in San Francisco, proposed a new plan for organizing the School Department in that city, which is worthy the careful consideration of thought- CAUFORNIANS AND MORMONS. Zz ful educators east as well as west of the Rocky Mountains. This is what he says in his school report for 1879: " My study of the organization of the School De- partment has convinced me that an entirely new plan of school examination should be adopted, which would place all purely educational matters in the hands of a salaried Board of Overseers. . . . At present there is a mingling of matters that can be and ought to be kept distinct. The same body of men ought not to elect teachers and let contracts for erecting buildings and furnishing supplies. The carpenter-shop is too near the school-house. All matters relating to the building of school-houses or the expenditure of money for any other purpose than the payment of salaries of teachers and janitors should be under the control of the two Boards of Supervisors. As they will be busi- ness men of experience and judgment in such things, the building and repairl ig of school-houses are duties entirely congruous with the other duties assigned to them. But there should be appointed four men of ability and experience in educational affairs to act 84 CALIFORNIANS AND MORMONS with the county superintendent in the discharge of all the duties now performed by the superintendent and his deputy, and the committees on classification, cre- dentials, rules and janitors, and the Board of Exami- ners. . . . The overseers should be appointed for four years (one going out of office every year) by the College of Superior Judges." The school directors of Oakland have been more careful in their selection of teachers than their breth- ren of the metropolis across the bay, especially for the primary and grammar grades. The progress made in the various branches taught in these grades exceeds expectation. Pupils are taught good manners as well as arithmetic, geography and history. They are also taught to keep clean, tidy and to be respectful, and these instructions are followed. There is an atmosphere of good breeding pervading the school-room that is not always found in public schools. Although the same thing can be said of a goodly number of schools in San Francisco, San Jos^ and Sacramento, the schools of Oakland hold, in my opinion, the front rank in California. CALIFORNIANS AND MORMONS. 85 I, however, may be permitted to doubt whether the public schools of the " Athens of the Pacific " would have reached .their present high standard had it not been for the wise management of their superintendent, Mr. Fred. M. Campbell (recently elected State Su- perintendent),a gentleman well skilled in educational matters. XII. A PEOPLE WITH AN ARTISTIC TEMPERA- MENT. The most populous centres throughout the United ' States abound with institutions called schools or academies of fine arts, — a fact which leads the traveller to infer that America must have her full share of Meissoniers and Beethovens. This first impression is, however, dispelled by a single visit to these art schools, where, in truth, anything but fine arts is taught. There are first-class exceptions to the gen- eral rule, but they are few and far between. The San Francisco art schools (so-called par poHtesse) have this advantage over similar institutions in the East : that pupils and masters are enthusiastic, earnest, am- bitious to succeed — to distinguish themselves with the brush or in the plastic art. In a word, the people of California have an artistic temperament, without (87) 88 CALIFORNIANS AND MORMONS. which a nation cannot successfully cultivate the arts, — a fact which would warrant the inference that the Golden State is destined to become the breeding-place of American artists. Indeed that strange land, with its fields of flowers that seem to never wither away, its orange groves and vine-clad hills and valleys bathed the year round in a most magnificent sunshine, its grand and weird scenery, its cloudless, thunderless skies always so pure and blue, its bracing atmosphere and its moon- light nights filled with mysterious whisperings, calls forth the most sublime inspirations, fills the soul with beautiful imageries and creates a longing for the ideal. Esthetic culture in its highest forms is not pos- sible under the sombre skies of the northern zone. Here the rigor of the climate compels man to seek warmth and comfort in a house, where, for six months in the year, the ceiling and the four walls of his room take the place of skies, mountains, forests, green fields, majestic rivers, roaring torrents, rippling brooks and all the marvels of a boundless nature. It is not so in the South. CALIFORNIANS AND MORMONS. 89 Italy has been the fountain of all arts because Italy lives in the sunshine, with the endless pano- rama of God's works spread before her watchful and appreciative eyes. In the North the bird has a sombre plumage and it sings not ; but in the sunny zone its colors are brilliant, and the woods resound with its wondrous songs. Artists are human birds ; they are most famous in lands that are decked with all the charms the hand of the Infinite knows so well how to lavish. That there is a taste for art culture in California is evident from the fact that large sums of money have been expended for private and public galleries of carefully selected and, in many instances, famous paintings, bearing the names of eminent European and American artists. The Crocker Art Gallery at Sacramento contains nearly one thousand paintings and miniatures, representing the Flemish, Dutch, Italian, French, Spanish and German schools. There are also paintings of unquestionable merit by San Francisco artists. This gallery is open to the public, and tourists go CALIFORNIANS AND MORMONS who visit the capital of California are invariably asked to go and see the " great paintings." " Have you been to the Crocker Gallery ? " said a hackman to me, "there are mighty nice paintings there, sir." This was the first hackman in America who had talked paintings to me. In a city of the same size of Sacramento (20,000 inhabitants) in the East, the traveller is requested to visit the iron foundry, the Insane asylum or the water-works ; " the biggest things in the world." Californians are also fond of music and bid fair to excel, at no distant day, in this most bewitching of all arts. Every town of any respectable size in that State furnishes its contingent of musical organizations and "prima donnas." In San Josd, a city of fifteen thousand inhabitants, sixty miles south of San Fran- cisco, — the most charming town on the Coast, by the way, a perfect bird's nest, full of sunlight and flowers, a little paradise for invalids and tourists, — I have at- tended vocal and instrumental concerts by home talent that would have been creditable to Eastern pro- fessional artists of more than local reputation. CALIFORNIANS AND MORMONS. gi Histrionic art also is by no means neglected. At the Baldwin Theatre in San Francisco one almost fancies himself at " Wallack's " or the " Union Square." The mise en seine and the acting are in many instances commendable. At popular places of amusement, such as the " Tivoli," one is not made to blush by lewd representations and vulgar colloquies. Here popular operas, bouffe and comic, are cleverly put on the stage, sung with entrain, and enjoyed by large audiences of well appearing men, women and children. During the progress of the play, as well as between the acts, men smoke, children chat, and everybody drinks claret punch- XIII. HOW A MAN GETS IN WITH THE "UPPER CRUST." There are in San Francisco, as in other populous centres in the Union, people who combine culture with wealth, refined artistic feeling and delicate intui- tion with sound sense and technical skill ; who un- derstand life, know its limitations and possibilities, and strive to realize their ideal by a critical compari- son of all things with a long recognized standard. They seek neither social fame by displays nor power through politics ; for they very well know that they are the silent rulers of men. These people, I take it, constitute the standard society in San Francisco as well as in the whole country. There is, however, another element in the metrop- olis of the Pacific that plays a leading part in the world of fashion, the bemi monde, or rather the rich monde. The constituent parts of this element have (93) 94 CALIFORNI ANS AND MORMONS. c heavier bank accounts than others. They own the biggest houses, and can display the largest and most costly amount of dry goods. Their furniture, of the rarest and most artistic patterns to be found at home or abroad, are richly upholstered ; and their rooms are adorned with gorgeous tapestries, French mirrors, and paintings, sculptures and other works of art of more or less merit. In the most important Eastern cities the " upper crust," as this element is generally called, is unques- tionably quite clever. It may be said to have an un- disputed right to the title of " leaders " in a society many members of which would have been welcomed in the salon of the French venus R^camier. Careful education, European travel and experience have taught them to draw within their circle men and women of refined social and artistic culture, men and women who rule with the pen over a vast multitude of voluntary subjects ; who are at home in the world of thought and in the world of pleasure ; who can quote Ferdusi and Milton, Voltaire and Humboldt, enliven a good dinner with a flow of bans mots, enjoy the CALIFORNIANS AND ORMUNS. gj ever fascinating sight of a dashing little fairy clasped in the arms of an Adonis whirling in a waltz ; and teach, by their exquisite manners, the nouveau riche how to use his tongue, hands and feet. As the traveller advances westward he finds that the " crust " has a fondness for ostentatious disr plays ; that its notions of social ethics are let us say queer. It is, however, in San Fran- cisco that the " crust " flourishes in all its prim-i itive splendor. The sight is a curious one ; it pro- vokes smiles among the knowing and envy among the uninitiated. It shines and glitters like the bogus knight of a travelling circus in the introductory per- formance in the ring. There is but a step between the skilful rider of the " arena " and a member of the San Francisco " crust." Both can perform the most surprising antics, and both are chiefly noticeable for their gold trimmings. In either case scratch the out- ward garments and you will find a saloon keeper, a hotel porter or the like. You are an ignoramus, an adventurer, or possibly a villain. What matters all that ? If you have money 96 CALIFORNIANS AND MORMONS. go to the Golden Gate City. Take an expensive — ^be careful that it is expensive — suite of rooms at the " Palace ; " manage in such a way that the landlord, his clerks and the permanent guests may soon be cognizant of your great wealth. Dress well, regard- less of cost, make heavy deposits at some of the lead- ing banks, buy a few thousand dollars worth of stocks, just to become acquainted with the lions of Pine Street whom it would be well for you to dine often. But beware ! Keep within a few thousands, or your deposits, stock and all may be swallowed up before you have an opportunity to shine in the salons of the " crust." Show yourself frequently about the fashionable streets, in a gorgeous equipage drawn by blooded horses richly caparisoned.and await the result. Your wealth has already become the subject of comments among several matrons on the " Hills." Mrs. Shodd, the wife of the millionaire, remarked confi- dentially to her daughter Sallie, the other day, that you were " worth over a million, they said ; " and that you " looked kind o" dashing too ; " that they ought to invite you to their next reception. CALIFORNIANS AND MORMONS. gy Sallie thinks it is just the thing to do, and the father being consulted, and duly informed of the amount of your bank notes, sees no objection. An invitation is at once forwarded to you, requesting " the pleasure of your company on Wednesday evening, at 9 o'clock." The reception is all that money can make it, and nothing more. It is an exhibition of a magnificent home all ablaze with lights. There are young and beautiful women expensively attired, dazzling with diamonds and radiant with smiles. There are young and middle-aged men who seem to have considerable muscle, and awkward matrons with powdered red faces and uncomfortable avoirdupois. The table is bountifully supplied, the wine is old, of the first brand ; and the buffooneries witnessed at times are worthy of Falstaff. However, the influence of this element in the social doings of San Francisco appears to be on the wane ; its blazing days are nearing their end. The present "crust" will disappear in the obscurity from which it sprung, and a generation (now growing) of greater esthetic culture will take its place. XIV. A GENTLEMAN FROM OREGON SPEAKS AND TELLS THE TRUTH. It was the morning following my departure from Omaha, by the Union Pacific Railroad, — by the way, a most excellent road — en route for the Golden State.' The sun had just left the horizon and its rays swept over the dreary waste of the American steppes. I left my berth for the car platform, where several passengers had already preceded me, appar- ently taking, like myself, their first look at the great plains. We had reached an altitude of some six thousand feet above the sea level. Although in mid-July, the air was so keen and chilly, at this early hour of the day, that overcoats were called into requisition. The sight that met the eyes on all sides was by no means cheerful. It was a seemingly endless expanse of treeless, rolling land, covered with a sparse crop of short withered grass and sage brush. Not a living 100 CALIFORNIANS AND MORMONS. creature could be seen near or far except an occasional hawk, either hovering about the train like a lost soul, and uttering at intervals a piercing, distressed cry, or, ominous like the bird of Poe, perched upon the bleached skull of a long dead bison. The train, however, moved rapidly on, and pres- ently there came in sight a long, dark, moving line that seemed, in the distance, like an army drawn in line of battle with cavaliers galloping in its rear. This supposed army proved to be an immense herd of catties, and the men on horseback, with the regulation sombrero, were its faithful guardians called by the unpoetic name of " cow boys." Catties and cow boys were fast disappearing from view when a gentleman called attention to a newcomer, a beautiful animal with a tremendous head gear. It stood motionless, some two or three hundred yards away, looking at the pass- ing cars. We were of the unanimous opinion that it was a deer, and all my companions of the platform rushed at once in the coach to convey to the ladies the startling news that there was " a deer near by." Pres- CALIFORNIANS AND MORMONS. loi ently a fat and good-natured looking man came out laughing himself almost into hysterics. " Well, I'll be dog gone," said he, putting his hand on my shoulder, " if that aint the freshest set of fel- lows I ever came across. They are a tellin' the women that this here thing is a deer." " Is it not a deer ? " " Well, I guess not." " What is it, then } " An antelope, of course. You've never been in these parts, I reckon, for you would have known what the thing was at once. Where are you bound for ? " " For California, and this is my first trip across the continent." " Ah ! no wonder you thought that there antelope a deer. What is your line .'' " " I don't know that I have any special line." " Travelling for pleasure ? " " Not exactly, I am studying the country." " Intend buying land in California ? " " No, sir ; I have not had, as yet, any such inten- tion." 102 CALIFORNJANS AND MORMONS. " Well, you better not, either. California is no place to buy land. If you ever make up your mind to get a ranch, go to Oregon, that's the place for yoa" " Why not to California .' " " In that State the most valuable land is owned by monopolies, such as railroad corporations, or by in- dividuals who secured it by treaty in the acquisition of California from Mexico. These immense tracts of land are practically withheld from settlers by high prices. It would take a fortune to buy a respectable farm, and when a man has got a fortune he'd better stay East to enjoy it in his old home, among his early associates. When I came West with my family, five years ago, I intended to settle in Calfornia. I liked the State, it is rich with mines, and its soil is the most productive on the Coast, and its climate just suited me ; but there was no use of trying to stay there, my purse was too small for California. I went to Oregon, bought a hundred and sixty acre ranch, cind I am now worth twenty thousand dollars." " If such is the case, emigration must be greater to your State than to California." CALIFORNIANS AND MORMONS. 103 " I aint got the statistics, but I venture to say that of all the emigrants who come to the Pacific coast for the purpose of buying farms, two-thirds at least go to Oregon. Out of the sixty emigrants there in the cars, I found that more than forty are going to Oregon. I'll go with you if you wish to ask them." I declined, assuring the gentleman from Oregon that his word was sufficient. This was the first inti- mation I had of the existence of land monopolies in California. I had not been long on the Coast ere I found that the gentleman had told the truth. I found that millions of acres of the richest soil in the State, were, in fact, held beyond the reach of purchase by greedy monopolists ; that this land, upon which hun- dreds of thousands of families would thrive, grow rich, build villages, and even flourishing cities, lay idle, a desert; and that, consequently, the tide of emigration had turned towards the younger Pacific State in the north. I found all this in a State the future great- ness of which wholly depends on the full develop- ment of its marvellous agricultural resources. I was, however, told that there being no law of primogen- 104 CALIFORNIANS AND MORMONS. iture in California, the evil could only be temporary ; that the "thing must eventually right itself," since the New Constitution requires that all agricultural land of the same quality, whether under culture or not, shall be assessed at the same value, and equally taxed. This new system of land assessment and tax- ation is undoubtedly as wise as it is timely, and if judiciously and faithfully applied may result in the complete breaking up of a monopoly that might ulti- mately end in the establishment of something like the feudal system, a landed aristocracy, which means riots, bloodshed, a revolution, and the final downfall of republican institutions. Then let us most earn- estly hope that the new system of taxaticyi will reduce the price of land, now held by railroad corporations and speculators, so as to bring it within the reach of the humblest purse ; and that these hundreds of thousands of uncultivated leagues, will, at an early date, bring forth incalculable wealth under the hands of millions of independent and prosperous settlers. XV. WILL THE CHINESE CEASE COMING? IF NOT, WHAT THEN? They are seventy five thousand strong in Califor- nia, — the Chinese. Of these, thirty thousand live in San Francisco. They have taken possession of seven or eight blocks in the very heart of the city, and hoist- ed the dragon banner thereon. Here they are packed from cellar to attic like bees in a hive, and here they seem disposed to stay. More industrious people have never trodden the wide earth. They are ever busy with their hands and brains, and one by one the silver dollar and the gold piece find their way to the pockets of their trousers. From the most delicate handiwork to the shovelling of dirt there is nothing they cannot do, and their readiness to work for any wages, how- ever low, has already driven the white laborer to the verge of starvation. <105) io6 CALIFORNIANS AND MORMONS. The Celestials are cunning as well as industrious, and their jesuidical diplomacy serves them well with the people ,who either employ them or buy their wares. They are courteous, quiet, unobtrusive, good- natured and obedient even to servility. They stoop very low, knowing well that they will some day stand erect and high upon a bag of gold. They have ac- complished in California that which European emi- grants would not have dared to undertake in any part of the Union, even had they felt the inclination — they have, by systematically underselling white labor, gained the monopoly of nearly all the industries u. the State. Chinatown in San Francisco does the washing and the sewing of the metropolis ; it monopolizes the cigar trade, furnishes the factories, the railroads and the farmers in and even beyond the State with work- men, and hotels and housekeepers with servants. It buys lots and builds houses, rents or buys agricul tural land and supplies the State with every variety of vegetables. This diminutive American Pekin has also a government of its own, a code of laws CALIFORNIANS AND MUKMONS. joj which are strictly enforced. It has its theatres and heathen temples, and worships its idols under the very shadows of Christian cnurches. In short, the ubiquitous, patient, ever plodding Celestial sees no reason why he should not make himself perfectly at home in California, now that he has routed his white competitor in the industrial field. Is this a case of the " survival of the fittest .'" It would seem so. At all events the unprejudiced and disinterested observer is not prepared to admit that the Chinaman, since he has been invited to come to the United States, should be taken to task because he happens to grow fat on ten cents worth of rice per day, and manages on wages not exceeding twenty dollars per month, to make frequent deposits at the bank. It would be absurd to assume that the right of employers to have their work done at the lowest rate can be questioned. To employ Chinese cheap labor may not be Christian-like or patriotic ; but it has the advantage of being business-like. The average monthly wages paid to Chinamen in California I found, if correctly informed, does not ex- I08 CALIFORNIANS AND MORMONS. ceed twenty dollars. A white man could not be induced to do the same amount of labor for less than forty dollars per month. Granting that two Ameri- cans can do the work of three Chinamen, it will be seen that the employer is still twenty dollars the richer. The main object of manufacturers is to realize the most profit on the capital invested, and as the price of labor constitutes the prominent item in the daily expenditure, they should not be expected to hire Pat- rick at ten dollars per week when John can be got for half that amount. It would seem then that the white laborer in California is chiefly responsible for his present impoverished condition, through his unwilling- ness to accept the rate of wages paid to the Chinese. But Patrick reasons in this way : If I can't provide myself and family with the necessary amount of food to keep alive on five dollars per week, I may as well starve doing nothing. The question is a complicated one. Employers are not disposed to yield to the demand for reason ably high wages. Chinamen thrive on their small earnings, and the proud Aryan laborers are com- CALIFORNIANS AND MORMONS. 109 pelled to subsist on crumbs accidentally left on the yellow man's table ; the factory and the farm-house being practically closed against them. There seems to be but one way out of the diffi- culty. In order to compete successfully with the Celestials the white man must undergo a radical change : — metamorphose himself into a Chinaman. He must live in a room four feet square with a ceiling ■ touching the crown of his head, eat rice or decayed meat, and little at that; stop his newspaper, and periodical contributions for the support of churches, missionaries and all philanthropic institutions. He must waive the payment of school taxes and of all other taxes, wear a fifty cent blouse and a five cent hat ; close his eyes to all those little comforts that brighten the life of a Christian artisan ; and, if he be the father of a family, hand over his wife and children to the cheapest undertaker. It will be readily under- stood that such metamorphosis lies among the impos- sibilities. A free, intelligent American, whether native or naturalized, could not, and would not if he could, remodel his life after that of the yellow man, no CALIFORNIANS AND MORMONS. who, on the other hand, is no more likely to become Christianized or Americanized than to be turned into a pillar of salt. It is now more than a quarter of a century since the Mongolians fixed their abode in a great English- speaking Christian commonwealth, yet not the least perceptible change has taken place in their mode of life- thought, or style of dress ; and not three out of every thousand can speak English intelligibly. Their chil- dren born and brought up on American soil are also like their parents, Chinese in every particular. They live for themselves and laugh at American civilization with impunity. From humble laborers under the direction of Americans, they are gradually rising to the position of employers and proprietors. There are now thousands of such successful Chinamen in all parts of the State. They control and direct labor with as much skill as any experienced white man, and compete with American producers, who find themselves com- pelled to resort to the employment of Chinese labor or meet disaster and bankruptcy. In a word, not content with the monopoly of labor, the yellow men CALIFORNIANS AND MORMONS. 1 1 1 are beginning, by a skilfully managed and persistent competition, to absorb the manufacturing and agri- cultural interests of California. That competition, too, promises to grow more effectual as their number and capital increase. The question is not whether the Chinese must go, but whether they can be made to stop coming. If they cease their migration to the Pacific coast, it is most likely that they have had their best days in California. They will decrease rather than increase, for they are already coming East in large numbers. They can thrive as well in the frozen zone as in the sunny South ; and it makes no difference where they happen to land provided there is money in prospect. But should the Pacific mail steamers continue to un- load cargo after cargo of Celestials on the San Fran- cisco wharfs, there is, indeed, a gloomy prospect in store for the Golden State. If seventy five thousand Chinamen, and perhaps less, have captured the industries of a State containing nearly a million inhabitants, driving the white men from their employment, it is not difficult to foresee 112 CA UFbRNIANS AND MORMONS. what five hundred thousand of these impassive, feel-^ ingless creatures could do, were they present in such numbers. The figure could even be raised to millions. And why not .' Is there not an exhaustless base of supply beyond the Pacific ? It is rational to assume that the yellow men will continue to land in Califor- nia so long as the ports remain open. The United States Government bids him come, and he comes. Are these the avant garde of millions who are to follow .' Is this country threatened with Asiatic civilization .' I do not pretend to know. It appears, however, certain that the Chinese Empire is about to be stirred up from its lethargic sleep of 40 centuries. European powers, armed to the teeth, are crowding upon its frontiers, seeking a new market for their wares. The Russians are thundering in the North and North-west. The English and the Burmese await a favorable opportunity to cross its southern and south-western borders. The unfriendly Japanese are ready to assail it in the east, and, if need be, the French fleet can move on from Pondicherry to its south-eastern ports, in order to get a piece of the loaf. CALIFORNIANS AND MORMONS. 113 There are, furthermore, within its own territory, chronic famines, pestilences, and threats of popular uprisings. Let there be but a spark, which may come at any moment from Russia, and a tremendous con- flagration would ensue. There could follow but one result: — the triumph of Western arms and the dis- memberment of the empire of Fohi ; the victory of Christian civilization over Confucian philosophy. The next act in the drama would consist in the speedy emigration of innumerable Celestials westward to the Malaysia Islands, Australia and South America ; but especially to the shores of the Golden State. From thence they would move eastward, invading every State, city and village in the land, bringing misery to the household of every American engaged in manual labor. It will be said in answer to the above that the dismemberment of the Chinese Empire, through European invasion, is by no means probable. To this I will answer that I am nevertheless of the opinion that Chinese emigration, if not prevented, will continue. If not for the possible reason suggested, S 114 CALIFORNIANS AND MORMONS. it will continue because of the urgent necessity of relieving the great empire of the East of a surplus, starving population. Steamers owned by Chinese capitalists are now making fortnightly trips to San Francisco from Chinese ports. In these steamers a part, at least, of that surplus population will find its way to American shores. It is obvious that the Chinese must emigrate, and as they cannot effect a lodgment in Europe they will cross the Pacific and come west to this country, a country in which they are so very cordially received by its Government if not by the people of California. Writes General John F. Miller, in " The Califor- nian," for March, 1880: "If we continue to admit this immigration until the Chinese form a considera- ble part of our population, what impression will they make upon the American people 1 and what will be the effect upoii Anglo-Saxon civilization .' Can the two civilizations endure side by side as two separate forces .'' If not, which will predominate .' When the end comes for one or the other, which will be found to have survived } All these queries presuppose that CALIFORNIANS AND MORMONS. uj the present unique experiment will be permitted to proceed. But it is not probable that the American will abandon his civilization and adopt that of the Chinese. It is quite as impossible for him to become such a man as the Chinaman is, as it is improbable that the Chinaman will become such as the American is. Nor is it probable that the American will abandon his country and give it up to the Chinaman. Can these two meet half-way 1 Can a race half Chinese and half American be imagined 1 A civilization half Anglo-Saxon and half Chinese 1 It is possible that the experiment now going on will be brought to a halt before it comes to that point. This attempt to take in China by absorption is likely to result in an epidemic of ' black vomit.' Is it not manifest that at some time in the future — should Chinese immigra- tion continue — a policy of exclusion toward these people must and will be adopted in the fulfilment of the law of self-preservation .? Why not adopt it now? " Those who affect to believe the territory of the' United States sufi&cient in extent and fertility to af- Il6 CALIFORNIANS AND MORMONS. ford a home for all mankind, and stretch forth their arms in generous invitation and welcome to all sorts of people, have probably never thought much of the future of their country, nor considered well the inter- est of posterity. Suppose all immigration to be now stopped, how long a time would elapse until the United States should be, by natural increase alone, as densely populated as any European State ? Malthus cited the United States as an example in which the natural increase of the human race is in a geometrical ratio, fixing twenty-five years as the term in which the population doubles itself. Macaulay approves this estimate. Adam Smith wrote that ' in North America it has been found that the population doubles in twenty or twenty-five years.' The general esti- mate, by those who have given the subject attention, is, that a healthy, vigorous population will, under fa- vorable conditions as to food, climate and space, double itself by natural increase every twenty-five years. Our census returns do not probably prove the exact correctness of this statement, if applied to the United States, but the estimate is not far out of the CALTFORNIANS AND MORMONS. 117 way. Taking, then, thirty years as the term in which the population of this country would double, without the aid of immigration, we should have in sixty years one hundred and eighty millions of people. Permit- ting immigration, but limiting it to European peoples alone, we should unquestionably have that number within sixty years — perhaps within fifty years. Sup- posing the territorial area of the United States to re- main the same it now is, long before the second cen- tennial year the question of subsistence will have be- come the ' burning question ' of the time. The grandchildren of many who now so benevolently in- vite Chinese immigration may find it difficult to ob- tain a homestead, even upon the bleak, gravelly plains of the great ' American Desert.' " Since it is clear that the country is not large enough, and cannot be so extended (without making republican government impossible) as to accommodate a moiety of the human race who desire to come, is it not time to begin a rational discrimination among the varieties of men who are crowding in upon us .' Or is it to be said that there is no choice among the Il8 CALIPORNIANS AND MORMONS. races of men, and that all immigrants are equally de- sirable ? Or, if it be admitted that some sorts are more desirable than others, has the nation no power of discrimination ? After what may be considered a patient trial, the Americans of the Pacific States are of the opinion, that there is a vast difference between the varieties of men who come to the western shore, and that of all the bad sorts who have come and con- tinue to come, the Chinese are the worst. They be- lieve also that the nation has the power to discrimi- nate against these, and that the time has come to exert that power." In conclusion, I am strong in the belief that Chinese emigration to California foreshadows a fu- ture of anarchy, of blood for that State. It remains to be seen whether or no the United States Govern- ment will persist in paving the way to such a future. I will now take leave of the Golden State, cross the proud Sierras, the alkali desert of Nevada, and enter the land of the " saints." XVI. FROM THE MOUNTAIN. "What time is it?" I asked of a companion tourist. " Four o'clock. Too early yet to get a good view of the city and its surroundings. Suppose we light a cigar and take a rest." "Agreed, sir, agreed. We are now in a com- manding position, let us wait for the sun to light up the scene." The city alluded to by my fellow-traveller was Salt Lake City, and the conversation took place on a moun- tain overlooking the north part of the town. Slowly but surely the rose-colored wings of dawn chased away the lingering shadows, until the valley before us became flooded with light. At the foot of the mountain upon which we stood, and which forms (119) 120 CALIFORNJANS AND MORMONS. a broken semi-circle extending from north to south, lay the American Jerusalem, the queen city ot tne desert, the home of a people cradled in delusions. Fine business blocks, beautiful private dwellings and the huge Mormon temples crowded upon our vision. Wide streets planted with trees, and with streams of clear water flowing swiftly on either side, ran to the four points of the compass. There were large gar- dens with flower beds, fruit trees and shrubbery ; and at the southern outskirt of the town a row of poplar trees stood upon a slight elevation, like so many sen- tinels watching over the city of the " saints." Far- ther in the south, west and north the eyes rested with pleasure upon vast fields green with vegetation, or followed the course of the Jordan slowly winding its way to the bitter lake beyond ; the home of count- less flocks of gulls, of cranes and of pelicans. — Melan- choly dwellers on the sea waves. — Again we saw, near at hand, in the distance, all around us, the blue or snowy — and fantastically shaped — summits of endless mountains. I looked and enjoyed, and then my mind wandered CALIFORNIANS AND MORMONS. 121 back over a period of thirty years, and I said to my- selt : " There was an unknown, barren plain here tlien, instead of fields covered with a rich harvest ; and this beautiful, flourishing city was among the things to be and " Here I was interrupted by my companion, who, by the way, was a faithful subject of her majesty the good Queen Victoria. " Is it true," said he, " that this blarsted country hereabouts was settled by a band of religious fanatics ?" " Precisely as true as that the first settlers of New England were fugitives — religious fugitives — from your own country." At the conclusion of this colloquy we came down from the mountain. XVII. WHAT ARE THEY? AMERICANS, NO; ANTI-AMERICANS AND POLYGAMISTS. Salt Lake City, or Utah, naturally suggests Mormonism, and Mormonism of recent date implies polygamy. These are the questions the writer pro- poses to investigate. The people who dwell in this famous city, and in the Territory containing it, may be said to constitute the strangest phenomenon to be found in American history. Here we find a nation within a nation. One hundred thousand people defy the laws and abhor the whole social system of a nation of which they should form an obedient and sympathetic part. They are willing strangers in their home ; for the common country is home. They are protected by the Stars and Stripes, yet they know not the flag. They take little or no interest in the, working of national affairs. They do not vote, or, when they do vote, the ticket (123J 124 LIFORNIANS AND MORMONS. supposed to favor their church policy is certain of their support. Mormon and anti-Mormon, such are their political parties. John Taylor is their Chief Ex- ecutive. The Twelve Apostles constitute their senate ; the Elders, their congress ; and the Tabernacle may be called their capitol. They voluntarily obey no com- mands but those emanating from the Church. Coerce them into obedience of the law, they instantly cry out, " persecution ! " These people are not, however, bad people. They are not the monsters that political mountebanks, demagogues and religious fanatics would have us believe. On the contrary, they are thrifty, honest, peaceable, kind to their families and fond of their homes. Many men among them are distinguished for their learning, others for their business ability ; and the women of the better class are quite clever, or, as the good American would say, accomplished. They are, however, shy, suspicious, uncommunicative, easily swayed by their leaders, and can be wrought to the highest pitch of anger by anything said derogatory to Mormon orthodoxy. CALIFORNIANS AND MORMONS. 125 The Mormon preachers, it is said, are in the habit of using vulgar, prurient language in their sermons. The assertion is not altogether untrue. The sermons I have heard in the Tabernacle and in the ward meet- ing-houses were, I must say, more remarkable for their violent denunciations of the "gentiles" than for their choice of language. Furthermore I have before me several sermons, preached by the highest dignitaries of the Church, before large assemblies of men, women and children, that would cause an abnormal flow of blood to the cheeks of a courtesan. But, again, the better class of the " saints " show much better breed- ing in speech and manners, in their daily intercourse with one another, than can be found among many of the gentiles in Salt Lake City. I venture to say that if these troublesome Mor- mons were living on an isolated island, alone and independent, they would be called the modern Spar- tans, and people would flock thither from all parts of the world to study their laws. Unfortunately, how- ever, for them and for the Government of the United States, they do not live on an isolated island, but in 126 CALIFORNIANS AND MORMONS. the midst of a utilitarian, yet active and progressive people not given to sentimentality. To cap the cli- max, too, they seem to take no little pride in making themselves obnoxious to this Very people amongst whom they have voluntarily cast their lot. In short, they are anti-Americans as well as polygamists. XVIII. HAS MORMONISM ORIGINATED IN A FALSEHOOD ? It is claimed that on the twenty-first day of Sep- tember, 1823, an American farmer, Joseph Smith by name, then living in Manchester, N. Y., beheld be- fore him an angel whose presence filled the whole atmosphere with a halo of glory ; that the unexpected visitor was a messenger whom God had dispatched to Mr. Smith for the express purpose of informing him "that the covenant which God made with ancient Israel was at hand to be fulfilled ; that the preparatory work for the second coming of the Messiah was speedily to commence; that the time was at hand for the Gospel, in all its fulness, to be preached in power unto all nations ; that a people might be prepared for the millennial reign ; " that he, Joseph Smith, Esq., of Manchester, N. Y., " was chosen to be an instru- (127) 128 CALIPORNIANS AND MORMONS. ment in the hands of God to bring about some of his purposes in this glorious dispensation ; " that he " was also informed concerning the aboriginal inhabi- tants of this country, and shown who they were, and from whence they came, a brief sketch of their origin, progress, civilization, laws, governments, of their righteousness and iniquity, and the blessing of God being finally withdrawn from them as a people was made known unto him." Joseph Smith was again " told where there were deposited some plates, on which were engraven an abridgment of the records of the people that had existed on this continent ; ' that after the angel had appeared to him several times and unfolded the "majesty and glory of the events that should transpire in the last days," he, on the twenty-second day of September, 1827, four years after their first interview, allowed him to take from under a heavy stone, on the top of the Hill of Como- rah, a few miles from Palmyra, N. Y., the famous records which are now called the Book of Mormon, the Bible of the Latter-day Saints. " The records," Joseph Smith goes on to say, CALIFORNIANS AND MORMONS. 129 " were engraven on plates which had the appearance of gold, each plate was six inches wide and eight inches long, and not quite so thick as common tin. They were filled with engravings, in Egyptian charac- ters, and bound together in a volume, as the leaves of a book, with three rings running through the whole. The volume was something near six inches in thick- ness, a part of which was sealed. The characters on the unsealed part were small and beautifully engraved. The whole book exhibited many marks of antiquity in its construction, and much skill in the art of engrav- ing. With the records was found a curious instru- ment which the ancients called Urim and Thummim, which consisted of two transparent stones set in the rim of a bow fastened to a breastplate." Joseph Smith translated this book, or the half of it, with the aid of these "stones " and his friend the angel. I will again have occasion to speak of those plates. No sooner had the famous book been translated than Joseph Smith set about proselyting, making many converts and many more enemies, it is alleged. I30 CALIFORNIANS AND MORMONS. building churches, and forming colonies of " saints." These converts, however, were driven from place to place by the gentiles, who took a dislike to them at the outset, which dislike was duly reciprocated by the newly sainted community. " Prophet " Smith and his followers attempted to make a New Jerusa- lem of Kirkland, Ohio, but did not succeed; for the merciless gentiles chased them away into Missouri, and from there to Nauvoo, Illinois. Here again, as it is well known, they got themselves into trouble with the authorities. A riot ensued, resulting in the im- prisonment of Smith, who was shortly after murdered by a cowardly mob. Two years after this occurrence, in 1846, the saints resolved to migrate westward, be- yond the great plains, in the mountains, where they could live undisturbed; and the fall of 1847 found them worshiping at the foot of the Rocky Mountains, in Salt Lake Valley, on the present site of Salt Lake City. Now the Utah saints, mostly English and Scandi- navians, number over one hundred thousand. They have a beautiful capital boasting of twenty thousand CALIFORNUNS AND MORMONS. 131 inhabitants — some five thousand being gentiles — and several other important towns. They have trans- formed the desert into a garden. They have their Tabernacle, Temple, ward meeting-houses to the number of twenty-one ; their public schools, one "University," and a theatre. They have factories and banks, and wholesale and retail stores. They have their Territorial Legislature, their City Council, their police, newspapers and printing houses. They buy nothing from the gentiles, neither do they ask favors. They are prosperous, and the power of their church is absolute in Utah. But their religious fabric has been reared upon a lie, and like a lie it will run its time and pass away. I mean no disrespect to the Mormons. Further- more, I shall at once withdraw my assertion if ainy of the saints can show me the plates, or a part of the plates, from which the Book of Mormon is said to have been translated. I would very much like to see those plates. Where are they .' Can they be found in the Taberna- cle, where they should very naturally have been placed 132 CALIFORNIANS AND MORMONS. amongst other relics ? They are not there. Perhaps President Taylor has them in his house ? No. Have they been buried in a secluded spot, consecrated by the church, and known only to its dignitaries } No. Were they destroyed at the burning of the Taber- nacle at Nauvoo ? No. They might have been lost by some of the elders, intrusted with their care, in their frequent and precipitated flight ? No ; for they would have been found. Such valuable records could not have been lost or burned or voluntarily destroyed. The Mormons must have kept them as a living proof of the authenticity of their Book of Mormon. No, they have not been preserved. They are nowhere to be found, and the saints don't seem to care anything about the matter. Nineteen centuries have passed since the cruci- fixion of Jesus, yet pieces of the cross upon which he suffered death can be seen in the principal Catholic churches all over Christendom, and they are shown and looked at on bended knees. The time of the discov- ery of the plates is not obscured by the shadows of cen- turies ; it is contemporaneous ; it is but fifty-seven CALIFORNIANS AND MORMONS. 133 years since, and not a piece as large as a pin's head of the famous plates has been preserved ! ■ Joseph Smith settles the mystery in the eyes of his deceived followers by saying that he gave the plates back to the angel after he had translated them- But this way of disposing of so important a question is not at all satisfactory to the gentiles. An angel gives a book to Joseph Smith, half of which is unsealed and the other half sealed, for the purpose of having the unsealed part translated, and that only. Now why in the name of sense did the angel give that sealed part of the book to Smith if he did not wish to have it translated ? Smith could do nothing with it unless it was to carry it about for three years, and keep a constant watch over it ; for the mob wanted to steal it we are informed. An angel came down from heaven and said he unto Joseph Smith: Here are a few hundred 'plates, 6yi?> inches ; they are covered with Egyptian char- acters. I wish you to translate half of them. You know nothing of Egyptian, but I will tell you what it ail means, so proceed. Smith did proceed, and it 134 CALIFORNIANS AND MORMONS. took him three years to write, under the dictation oi his heavenly tutor, some eight hundred pages of common-sized note paper. This delay was caused, Smith says, by the want of trustworthy persons to do his writing. Then he did not do his own writing.' and why not, if he could write .' He tells us that he copied the characters from the plates, and then trans- lated from this copy to some one who faithfully wrote down the version. Why did he not translate from the plates and write his own translation .' This was the proper and only way to save time and much useless trouble ; for the " prophet " informs the reader that a man named Harris, who had volun- teered to write for him, stole a part of his copy which was " never recovered or obtained back ; '' and that in consequence of this, the translation was for " a long time stopped." Why Smith should have stopped translating because his copy was stolen, when he had the plates from which the copy was made, does not appear quite clear to my mind. An angel leaves the blue vault above for the CALIFORNIANS AND MORMONS. 135 earth below, and he brings with him some plates covered with mysterious characters which he wants Smith to translate, and enjoins him in the meantime not to let any one see the precious plates. Yet while the plates are in the possession of Smith the angel himself shows them to three men who solemnly tes- tify " that an angel of God came down from heaven and brought the plates " with him, which he laid before their eyes. Let us see. The angel gives the plates to Joseph Smith, and while they are still in the hands of Smith he brings them down from heaven and exhibits them " before the eyes " of Brother Cowdery & Co. There must have been two editions of the plates! The singularly good-natured angel again allowed Smith to show the plates to eight more men. These eleven men are the only persons who are said to have seen the plates, and they were co-workers of Smith. The wife of the " prophet " never saw them either. A package of plates 6x8 inches, and some seven inches in thickness, weighing perhaps fifty pounds, and which everybody was anxious to see, remained 136 CALIFORNIANS AND MORMONS. over three years in Smith's house, which must have been small and scantily furnished for he " was very poor," and his wife never saw these plates ! ! Truly she was a model woman, that wife of Smith, she, instead of Eve, ought to have been Adam's wife. Joseph Smith, like all religious reformers, was an enthusiast, a sentimentalist, a dreamer, endowed with great intellectual power and firmness of purpose. He must have read and re-read the Bible when quite young. He was fond of solitude and " given to medi- tation and deep study " we are informed. He said one day to his mother who wanted him to attend a religious meeting : " I can take my Bible and go into the woods and learn more in two hours than you can learn at meeting in two years, if you should go all the time." It was doubtless during these frequent visits to the woods that he first conceived the idea of founding a religion and planned and perfected the religious code which subsequently appeared under the title of the Book of Mormon. It was also during his walks in the solitude that he skilfully devised the story of the plates and that of apparitions of angels, CALIFOKNIANS AND MORMONS. 137 Smith had a sagacious mind and he was a man of system. He very well knew that his Book of Mor- mon would make but few proselytes unless it was implicitly believed to have originated in the mystic regions above, beyond the pale of this common world ; that religions must be born of mysteries to find adherents among the great mass of unthinking humanity. But the New York "prophet" reckoned without the nineteenth century. The Latter-day Saints came too late. This is an era of mathematical exactness. The spirit of inquiry stands out uppermost in modern minds ; it looks into and investigates all things. It brings light from darkness and order from confusion. It sifts ideas, men and creeds. It gathers from the various products of the human brain that which is good and useful, and all that which is false, abject, prurient, debasing it holds up to the contempt of the world. The story of the plates could not bear its test, for it is found to be a falsehood plainly visible with the naked eye. And we find one hundred thousand American citizens, or rather men who 138 CALIFORNIANS AND MORMONS. should be American citizens, worshiping at the shrine of this .Ue. A strange phenomenon it seems. Yet it is not strange if one considers that the religion of the Mor- mons, leaving out polygamy and present revelations, is in the main very much the same as the religion of the Christians, especially the Protestant Christians. Their Book of Mormon is an adaptation from the Old and the New Testaments, with modifications to suit the ai\thor's policy, and their form of worship differs but little from that of non-ritualistic Protestant churches. XIX. THEIR CATECHISM.— TWO HOURS IN THE TABERNACLE.— THEIR PROFESSION OF FAITH. Sunday forenoon among the Mormons is devoted to the religious instruction of youths in the ward meeting-houses. Here children are taught the cate- chism. This catechism contains seventy-four pages and is divided into eighteen chapters. In the first chapter occur the following questions and answers : Q. What is your duty to God ? A. To love him with all my heart, and keep his commandments. Q. Why should you love God and keep his com- mandments ? A. Because it is by His power and goodness that I exist, and am sustained day by day. Q. What is your duty towards your parents ? A. To love and obey them. Q. Why should you love and obey your parents ? 140 CALIFORNIANS AND MORMONS. A. Because it is a command of God, and because they were the means of bringing me into the world ; they nursed and fed me when I was a little babe, and now continually love me and provide food, clothing and lodging for me. They watch over me in sickness, direct me in health, and teach me to be clean, neat, industrious, and orderly, so that when I have grown up I may be useful. Chapters V. and VI. contain a curious mixture of orthodox teachings and modern speculations in meta- physics. In Chapter V. we find what follows : Q. What kind of being is God.' A. He is in the form of a man. Q. How do you learn this .' A. The Scriptures declare that man was made in the image of God. Q. Have you any further proof of God's being in the form of man .' A. Yes ; Jesus Christ was in the form of man, and was at the same time in the image of God's person. Q. Is it not said that God is a spirit ? CALIFORNIANS AND MORMONS. 141 A. Yes ; the Scriptures say so. Q. How, then, can God be like a man ? A. Man has a spirit, though-clothed with a body, and God is similarly constituted. Q. Has God a body, then ? A. Yes ; like unto a man's body in figure. Q. Is God everywhere present ? A. Yes. . . . Q. If God is a person, how can he be everywhere present ? A. His person cannot be in more than one place at the same time, but he is everywhere present by his Holy Spirit. Q. Is God a being of truth, justice and righteous- ness .' A. Yes ; for he cannot lie or sin. I now quote from Chapter VI. : Q. How can God be the Father of all men, when every man has a natural father upon the earth .' A. God is the Father of the spirits of all men. Q. Did the spirits of all men exist, then, before they took bodies upon the earth .' 142 CALIFORNIANS AND MORMONS. A. Yes ; they existed in the spirit world. Q. For what purpose are the spirits of men sent to take bodies upon the earth ? A. That they may be educated, developed and perfected ; that they may enjoy a fulness of knowl- edge, power and glory, and thus increase the dominion and glory of God. Q. How many states of existence do intelligent beings, who become gods, experience ? A. Three grand states. Q. What is the first state of existence ? A. Intelligences are begotten spirits, sons and daughters to God, in the spirit world, the spirits being in the form of man's natural body. Q. What is the second state of existence .' A. The spirits are sent to dwell upon some world, and take upon themselves mortal bodies, and become more fully acquainted with the nature of good and evil, joy and sorrow, that their perception of pleasure and happiness may be perfected, and they thereby be enabled to appreciate and enjoy a fulness of bliss throughout eternity. CALIFORNIANS AND MORMONS. 143 Q. What is the third state of existence ? A. After having laid down their mortal bodies, through corruption and death, the spirits receive bodies not subject to death ; and- those spirits who have been faithful to their Father in heaven during their first and second estates, are exalted as kings and priests, and they receive power, dominion, honor and glory similar to what God possesses, in celestial worlds, forever and ever. In Chapters VII. and VIII. is given the story of the creation of the world, of the fall of Adam and Eve and the punishment that followed ; the whole being the same in substance, if not in words, with that of Protestant and Catholic catechisms. Chapter XIV. speaks of the " Church of Christ," and this is what it has to say about it : Q. What are those who believe and obey the truth called ? A. Saints. Q. What are they called as an organized body of people ? 144 CALIFORNIANS AND MORMONS. A. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Q. Are there more Churches of Christ on earth than one ? A. No. There can be but one, and though that one may have many branches, they must all be united, and be subject to one head. Q. Is it right that any branch of the Church of Christ should call itself the Church of England, or the Wesleyan Methodist Church, or the New Connection Methodist Church, or ,the Reformed Methodist Church, or the General Baptist Church, or the Par- ticular Baptist Church 1 A. No. God highly disapproves of such names being applied to his church or any portion thereof. Q. Are these societies which use such names branches of the Church of Christ ? A. No ; for they are founded in the wisdom of this world, by men who have not received authority from God. Q. How can the Church of Christ be known from other religious societies ? californiamVS and mormons. 1^,5 A. By various characteristics, among which may be named its priesthood and organization ; its being led by a prophet having direct revelation from God ; its enjoying the gifts and blessings of the Holy Ghost and promising the same to all believers ; its purity and consistency of doctrine ; its unity and oneness of spirit ; its gathering its members from among the wicked; its building of temples dedicated to the Lord, instead of building churches and chapels dedi- cated to men and women ; its being persecuted and evil-spoken of by every other society, and by every other people under heaven ; and lastly, men may know the Church of Christ by obeying its doctrine, and obtaining a testimony for themselves by revelation from God. Chapter XV. contains the commandments, includ- ing the seventh. Chapter XVI. is entitled " Word of Wisdom," and it teaches among other things " that it is not good to drink wine or strong drinks, excepting in the sacra- ment of the Lord's Supper, and then it should be home-made wine; that it is not good to drink hot 146 CALIFORNIANS AND MORMONS. drinks, or chew or smoke tobacco ; that strong drinks are for the washing of the body ; and that tobacco is an herb for bruises and sick cattle." In the eighteenth and last chapter is found the story of the plates and of the several apparitions of the Lord, of angels, and even of John the Baptist to Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery in the woods. It is a noticeable fact that not a single allusion to polygamy is found in the whole book. Let us now enter the Mormon Tabernacle and see what is being done here on Sunday afternoon. The Tabernacle, viewed from the outside, resem- bles the " round houses " seen at the principal railroad stations throughout the country. It is " 1 50 X 250 feet, eighty feet high, oval in form, without a column, built on stone pillars twenty feet high, the roof being a lattice-work of red pine timber, and, with gallery, will contain twelve thousand people." The acoustic properties are such that I could hear a whis- per from the guide at a distance of two hundred and fifty feet as distinctly as though he had been only at the distance of a single foot. CALIFORNIANS AND MORMONS. 147 The visitor who finds himself within this building on Sunday afternoon, at three o'clock, can witness the opening of the service. There are seated in the auditorium some three thousand worshipers facing the east end of the building, where the organ is placed and the church dignitaries are assembled. On either • side of the organ is the choir, numbering one hundred singers — fifty ladies and fifty gentlemen. There are three pulpits directly in front of the organ. The first and nearest the organ is occupied by the President of the Church and his counsellors. In the second, which is in front of the first and about two feet lower, are seated the Twelve Apostles. The third and last pulpit is still lower than the second, and is filled with bishops and elders. Below this last pulpit, some three feet above the audience floor, is the Sacramental Table. The service opens with a hymn by the choir. The singing is good. Then a prayer by one of the elders follows. Then a hymn again, during the singing of which the sacramental bread is being broken into small fragments by several of the elders. After the 148 CALIFORNIANS AND MORMONS. hymn is through one of the bishops blesses the bread which is then passed, in silver baskets, among the audience by ten or twelve men. During the passing around of the bread the sermon is being preached by some one from the assemblage of apostles, bishops, and elders. After the distribution of the bread, the water (water is used instead of wine) is prepared, and when ready, the chief or presiding bishop, who has been preparing it, with the help of several assistants, turns around to the speaker and by a sign signifies to the latter that the water is ready to bless, which the said bishop proceeds to do as soon as the preacher has stopped speaking. When the blessing is over the speaker resumes his discourse, the water, in the mean time, being passed among the worshipers. An anthem by the choir follows the sermon and then comes the benediction. The reader has been given an opportunity to form a general idea of the doctrine taught in the catechism of the Mormons, and also of their mode of worship. Let us now acquaint him with their profession of faith. Here it is : CALIFORNIANS AND MORMONS. 149 " We believe in God, the Eternal Father, and in His Son, Jesus Christ, and in the Holy Ghost. We believe that men will be punished for their own sins, and not for Adam's transgression. " We believe that through the atonement of Christ all mankind may be saved by obedience to the laws and ordinances of the Gospel. " We believe that these ordinances are : First, . Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ ; second, Repentance ; third, Baptism by immersion for the remission of sins ; fourth. Laying on of hands for the Gift of the Holy Ghost. " We believe that a man must be called of God, by prophecy, and by laying on of hands by those who are in authority, to preach the Gospel and administer in the ordinances thereof. " We believe in the same organization that existed in the primitive church, viz.: apostles, prophets, pastors, teachers, evangelists. " We believe in the gift of tongues, prophecy, revelation, visions, healing, interpretation of tongues; "We believe the Bible to be the word of God, as ISO CALIFORNIANS AND MORMONS. far as it is translated correctly. We also believe the Book of Mormon to be the word of God. " We believe all that God has revealed, all that He does now reveal, and we believe that He will yet reveal many great and important things pertaining to the Kingdom of God. " We believe in the literal gathering of Israel and in the restoration of the Ten Tribes. That Zion will be built upon this continent ; that Christ will reign personally upon the earth, and that the earth will be renewed and receive its paradisaic glory. "We claim the privilege of worsh p'ng Almighty God according to the dictates of our conscience, and allow all men the same privilege ; let them worship how, where, or what they may. "We believe in being subject to kings, presidents, rulers and magistrates ; in obeying, honoring and sus- taining the law. " We believe in being honest, true, chaste, benevo- lent, virtuous, and in doing good to all men ; indeed we may say that we follow the admonition of Paul, •we believe all things, we hope all things,' we have en- CALIFORNIANS AND MORMONS. 151 dured many things, and hope to be able to enoure all things. If there is anything virtuous, lovely or of good report, or praiseworthy, we seek after these things." XX. WHAT THEY SAY OF POLYGAMY, AND WHAT I HAVE ALSO TO SAY. Polygamy did not originally form a part of the Mormon creed ; it was sewed on to it, so to speak, some fourteen years after the Book of Mormon had appeared in print. This book condemns the plurality of wives as a " thing abominable before the Lord," who furthermore gives his " chosen people " the fol- lowing injunction : " There shall not any man among you have save it be one wife, and concubines he shall have none." This is the law which Joseph Smith tells us was revealed unto him by the Lord in 1829 or there- abouts ; and this same Smith informs his people in 1843 that it is a bad law ; that he had a lengthy in- terview with the Lord who told him that, after a care- ful consideration of the subject of polygamy, he was (163) 154 CAUFORmANS AND MORMONS. now convinced that he had made a mistake in con- demning it ; that the Mormons should hereafter be allowed to have as many wives as they could support. Polygamy dates from this famous interview in 1843; and, although comparatively few of the Mormons practise it, the vile doctrine is deeply rooted in their hearts. They have been taught to believe that it is the only reliable vehicle for a safe transportation to the world beyond. _ The Mormons teach in their catechism that adul- tery is a crime, and then countenance and even com- mand its practice ; for we read in Joseph Smith's assumed revelation that the law relating to complex marriages " must be obeyed ; for behold I reveal unto you a new and an everlasting covenant ; and if ye abide not that covenant, then are ye damned." Adultery is a crime and not a crime at the same time. Such is the logic of the saints, They argue, I know, that polygamy with them is not adultery ; that the " Church of Jesus Christ " has the power to give unto a man several wives. But how can the Mormon church claim such preroga- CALIFORNIANS AND MORMONS 155 tives, when the book upon which it is founded posi- tively says : " Concubines he shall have none ; for the Lord delighteth in the chastity of women." The additional wife of a brother Mormon is a concubine, an Unclean woman in the eyes of the Lord, who speaks through their " bible," they claim, and in the eyes of the followers of the doctrine taught in the same " bible," the identical woman is as pure as a diamond of the first water, and the man who main- tains illicit relations with her is a saint. Why did Joseph Smith depart from the " Gospel " which he was chosen to " preach in all its fulness unto all nations," in his famous article " On celestial marriage," which he palmed off on his people as a revelation } Why did he take so fatal a step } Why inaugurate a doctrine that could be productive of no material, spiritual or moral good } Was it to gratify evil passions, or was it for the purpose of replenish- ing the Mormon camp 1 It is more charitable to believe that he was actuated by the desire to increase, in the shortest possible time, the number of his fol- lowers. Let it suffice to say, however, that the J 56 CALIFORNIANS AND MORMONS. American people are cognizant of the existence of polygamy among the Mormons ; and that the latter now countenance its practice for the following reasons : 1. That it is the natural state of wedded life. 2. That prostitution, foeticide and infanticide, which are now " running riot in the land," are the natural results of monogamy ; that these crimes being unknown among them, polygamy is therefore produc- tive of a purer state of morals, and of a stronger and healthier race of men and women ; and that further- more two-thirds of the human race are polygamists.* ' I open the Bible and, behold ! I read that God on the sixth day created a man ; that he gave unto this man a woman, and seeing that this was well he added no supplementary creation. If the Lord had intended that man should have many wives, he would doubtless have given a hundred, at least, to Adam, who had ample room for their accommodation, and it would" not have cost him more to feed and clothe them. * These are the main arguments used by Mr. John Taylor, Pres- ident of the Mormon church, in a conversation I had with him on the subject of polygamy. CALTFORNlANS AND MORMONS. 15 j But the Creator in his wisdom did nothing of the ' kind. This giving of only one wife to the first man was equivalent to saying : " Man, thou shalt have but one wife." It seems to have been so understood in the Scriptures at least; for they countenance no- where, as a principle, polygamous relations. They would undoubtedly have done so had it been thought that such relations could be " productive of a purer state of morals." The second statement is thought irrefutable by the Mormons. It is their strong point, their heavy piece of artillery, always loaded to the muzzle and ready to be discharged in the face of the impudent gentile who ventures to question the propriety of their having concubines. Taking the statistics giving the number of pros- titutes in the leading cities of the Union as a basis for computation, I find that there must be at least three hundred thousand of these women in the coun- try ; and that abortionists are doing a thriving bus- iness throughout the land is also susceptible of proof. This is indeed a most deplorable state of things, but ic8 CALIFORNIANS AND MORMONS. it is no evidence against monogamy or in favor of polygamy. Women who murder their unborn infants and women of dissolute character can be found any- where and everywhere from pole to pole, from the extreme east to the extreme west, among all nations whether they uphold the doctrine of monogamy or sanction that of polygamy. The very striking dif- ference, however, is that among the former, such as in the United States for instance, prostitution is looked upon and treated as the vilest of crimes by the immense majority of the people, while among the lat- ter, taking the Mormons as an illustration, this pestif- erous sin is legalized by the church. Furthermore, there can be found on any day in the year in the capital of Utah, twenty and more women of the town belonging to polygamic families ; and the Mormon population in the city does not exceed fifteen thou- sand. Yet Salt Lake City, as it is well known, is a relig- ious centre /ar excellence. The same number of women given to prostitution cannot be found in any other city of the Union having the same population, unless it may be in some of the CALIFVRNIANS AND MORMONS. ijg mining or frontier towns where congregate large bodies of men and women more or less given to license and lawlessness. "These women are no longer members of our Church," said a prominent Mormon in speaking upon the subject. Most certainly not ; but neither are the prostitutes among the gen- tiles any longer communicants of the respective churches wherein they received their religious educa- tion. Prostitutes have always existed, and they will con- tinue to exist. Poor women ! they are weak rather than wicked specimens of their sex. Like the strag- glers of a great army in a difficult march, they have neither the strength nor the courage to keep in line with the vast multitude in the perilous journey of life. They are not lost sight of, however ; they appear in the atmosphere of our civilization like a deep, dark cloud in a serene sky. They cast a very unwholesome shadow upon the moral world ; but are not shadow natural appendages of all organic and inorganic bodies under the sun .' At no time in the history of the world have women l6o CALIFORNIANS AND MORMONS. Stood SO high in the estimation of men as they stand to-day. They have been raised to that position through monogamy. With us, they are no longer objects of traffic — slaves. We recognize them as our equals. They are often our superiors in many respects. We respect, adore and obey them. They hold the power behind the throne, and that! power is wielded for praiseworthy purposes. It is to their refining influences that our rapid social progress is chiefly due. Polygamy means their degra- dation and slavery Polygamy is synonymous with effeminucy. Turkey is crushed by monogamic Russia, and two hundred million polygamous Hindostan^se are conquered by as many thousand monogamic Englishmen. Aryan, nations of Western Europe are as famous for their great intellectual achievements as for their skill, cour- age and wonderful power of endurance in the field. They are the powers that lead the world in the domain of thought and dictate their laws to hundreds of millions of Asiatics, who constitute the " two-thirds of the human race," said by the Mormons to practise polygamy. CALIFOliNIANS AND MORMONS. i6i The saints must either prefer quantity to quality, or entertain the idea that Turkey can be put on the same intellectual level with England, France or Ger- many, and Salt Lake City with Boston. Mormon children by the first wife are well-formed, strong and healthy ; but the offspring of wives num- ber two, three and four is generally feeble in body as well as in mind. "Are you married.''" I inquired of a young Mormon. " Yes, sir." " Have you more than one wife," may I ask ? " Oh ! no ; I am too young, you see. When I I am older I will take another one, if our persecutors leave us alone." Here is a young man, apsong thousands who follow the same line of thought, full of vigor and strength, who is perfectly satisfied with one wife ; but when his hair turns white and his physical powers begin to . weaken he wants another wife ! It is quite evident that lust is the power that rules here. This conclusion being reached, I have no hes- 1 62 CALIFORNIANS AND MORMONS. itation -n saying that polygamy is nothing less than adultery ; that it is filthy, a direct violation of natural laws, which are the laws of infinite wisdom ; that it is an insult to American wives and daughters, and to our civilization ; and that, it being prohibited by the laws of the States, there is not to be found even the shadow of a reason jilstifying its past, present, or, much less, its future practise in this country. xxr. A TREE THAT MUST GO BECAUSE IT GREW IN THE WRONG PLACE. There is a tree in the middle of a crowded busi- ness thoroughfare. It grew there before the street extended to that point, and it was left growing partly out of sympathy for a few pioneers who love to linger under its shade, and partly as a curiosity. But the town is increasing so rapidly that the tree is now looked upon as a nuisance ; it interferes with the free transit of vehicles, and business cannot be checked without a general loss to the community. And then it has become an unsightly, disagreeable object to the citizens who are constantly thronging the street ; it obstructs the view, and the modern eye wants to see as far as possible. The townspeople, in their restless activity, need plenty of room ; yet they are ready to be crowded at (163) 164 CALIFORNIANS AND MORMONS. times, provided good results can be secured through such an interference with their freedom of action. But in the case in point they have, naturally enough, come to the conclusion that no good and much harm can result from allowing their movements to be fur- ther obstructed by a tree that could, with proper care, be uprooted and planted by the curbstone on the same line with other trees, where it properly belongs. The conclusion is a just one. The reasoning is ex- actly to the point, mathematical, conclusive. The tree must cease to be in the way ; there is room by the sidewalk, and there it must be made to thrive, to unite its foliage with other foliage, and to protect from the burning sun the sweltering pedestrians below. The Mormons of Utah bear the same relation to the people of the United States that the tree does to the thoroughfare. So long as they were entirely iso- lated from the rest of the nation, they could dwell in peace and insult the American people and their in- stitutions with impunity. But the population of the country is increasing. Emigrants from the North- west, from the East and South are crowding upon the CALIFORNIANS AND MORMONS. 165 dominion of the saints ; and behold, the primitive settlers of the Salt Lake Valley have again become, as in the days of Nauvoo, a thing insufferable, not because they are Mormons, but because they are anti- Americans and polygamists. They are a nuisance to the nation, and a continued source of annoyance to the Government. Here the question naturally arises : What is to be done with them ? Like the tree in the thorough- fare they must be removed, that is, they must be made to join the same line of march with the nation, and all that it implies. In other words, they must be thoroughly Americanized. In order to accomplish this end the Government should punish promptly, without mercy or discrimination, parties contracting polygamic marriages and also parties now in poly- gamous relations. The latter are among the most in- fluential Mormons throughout the Territory, and their example naturally becomes the most pernicious. Such a sudden, irresistible onslaught upon the Mormon camp would, for the time being, arouse the passions to a fever heat. Many a lip would quiver 1 66 CALIFORNIANS AND MORMONS. and grow pale with anger. There would be threats, curses and cries of " persecution ; " but no riot would ensue, no blood would flow. The Mormons have too much good sense, they think too much of this world's goods to attempt resistance against fifty millions of people. Their passions, their violence of speech would gradually give place to a peaceful obedience to the law, when once driven to the wall with no means of escape. Let polygamy be struck dead, and let it be struck now. Let the Government facilitate emigration to Utah, and when the population of gentile.v exceeds that of the saints in the famous Territory, the Mor- mon question will be found sinking fast, out of sight and forever among the things that were. THE END.