\VILSON Hi
UNIX
/n
JFORNIA
AT LOS ANGELES
ROBERT ERNEST COWAN
THB
NEW EMPIRE
AND HER
REPRESENTA TIVE MEN;
OR
The Pacikic Coast,
its farims, min-es, vines, wines, orchards, and
interests: its productions, indus-
tries and commerce,
WITH
INTERESTING BIOGRAPHIES
AND
MODES OF TRAVEL.
BY
WILSON HAMILTON.
OAKLAND, CAL.:
Pacific Press Publishing House.
1886.
Entered, aiiordiiif; to Aet of Congress, in the Yeai- jSS6, by
In the office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washingtoti, D. C.
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
TO THE
on l'^eppeser)fefive ii'Jer) of Ir)E ijzvd Ompire,
>-^ THIS BOOK
I^ESPEGirPULiIiY DEDICATED
. BV THE
AUTHOR.
cza
2771 H(>
CONTENTS.
Introductory v
Topography 9
rRODL'CnONS OF THE NEW E.Ml'IRE I4
Vineyards *nd Orchards 28
Money, its Nature and Uses 36
Gold and Silver 39
Curbstone Brokers 41
Discovery of Gold .- 44
Dealing in Stocks 52
Other Minerals 55
Yosemite 60
School, Pulpit and Press 68
Bench and Bar 75
Monterey 77
Modes of Travel 80
World's Fair 83
California 85
Irrigation , 93
Irrigation, Continued 98
Fresno County 106
Tulare County 109
Kern County 113
Los Angeles, San Bernardino, and San Diego 117
Merced County 121
The San Joaquin Valley and its Mountain Rim 125
Around the Sacramento Valley— The Mountain Counties of the
North 1 28
The Sacramento Valley 132
California— A Resumi^: 138
Irrigation and Drainage 140
Biographies : 166
John P. Jones 167
George Hearst 171
Leland Stanford 172
James G. Fair iS?
INTRODUCTORY.
FOR the purposes of this work, all that scope of country
west of the Rocky Mountains is embraced in the domain
designated as the New Empire, but for a more definite
and comprehensive description of its extent, coast line, polit-
ical divisions and population, the following table is submitted:
Political Divisions.
Area
in
Square
Miles.
California
Oregon
Nevada
Washington
Idaho
Utah
Arizona
Pacific Montana
Pacilic Wyoming
Pacific Colorado
Pacific New Mexico. . . .
Alaska
British Columbia
Pacific Mexico
Pacific Central America
185,360
96.030
110,700
69,180
84,800
84,970
113,020
22,000
22,000
40,000
24,000
577,390
310,000
550,000
50,000
Population.
864,686
174.767
62,265
75,120
32,611
143,906
40,441
8,000
4,000
10,000
20,000
30,000
20,000
3,500,000
600,000
Total 2,312,450 5.585.796
n —I
14
'A
/4
7
II
B
rt
.
•£•2 .f.
C 1).—
^S2
s ttsS
■3 H'S.
c
0
655
735
288
300
440
....
245
245
480
.345
. . - .
480
....
310
....
275
....
275
....
345
....
1,190
1,470
396
560
1,260
1.950
560
QIC
6,170
. . .
c
1,097
285
1.738
-0,000
8,181
4,000
1,450
36.751
This gives an area of 2,312,450 square miles, extending
over a territory ranging from per[)etual winter to eternal
spring, so varied in its climate and productions as to yield
almost every article requisite for the use of man, indeed, so
broad and varied in its range, that, were the Pacific Coast
shut off from the rest of the world b)' an impassable gulf or
blockade, the poptilation, enlarged to 100,000,000 or more,
could still live in the enjoyment, by production and manufac-
vi lATNODUCTORY.
tories, of every ncccssai)' and liixur\' of life. Of this area
250,000 square miles may be considered valuable chiefly for
the minerals which are found, of great richness and variety, in
the ri\cr beds, p^ulches and mountain ran^j^es ; an equal
amount is at present regarded as comparatively barren and
valueless; 500,000 square miles is tillable soil, 300,000 ex-
cellent forest, and 1,000,000 good grazing land.
It is the design of the author to make "The New
Empire and Her Representative Men" a popular book, re-
plete with practical information on subjects of general inter-
est relating to the region west of the Rocky Mountains,
showing the rapid progress which has been made since the
discovery of gold in 1848, in the creation and accumulation
of wealth and in advanced civilization, and also the beneficent
opportunities yet waiting to be appropriated by the intelli-
gent and industrious immigrant. Thirty years ago this whole
realm was a comparatively uninhabited wilderness ; to-day
it is a thriving, prosperous commonwealth, peopled by an
enterprising, industrious population, successfully engaged in
all the various avocations of life.
No State or country can be found, from the rising to the
setting of the sun, where local institutions are more diver-
sified, where they have grown up more rapidly and been
established on a firmer or more enduring basis than here.
Mining was the original, and, for a long time, the chief
business of the coast; but, as mining developed, broadened
its area and influence, it created new demands, demands for
the brightest intellects in the professions, in the trades, and
in commerce, for banking, mercantile and shipping houses,
for steamship lines to traverse the ocean in all directions, and
our bays and rivers at home, for transcontinental and local
railroads, for manufacturing establishments, insurance com-
INTRODUCTORY. vii
panics, .'ill the productions of the husbandman, the vine-
yanh'st and kindred industries.
And, whilst the people have been pushinj.^, cro\vdin<^,
grasping and hurrying to get ricli, the}' have steadily culti-
vated the higher qualities of manhood, morally, socially and
politically; they have erected magnificent churches and con-
tributed liberally to their support ; built up and endowed
institutions of learning, of the arts and sciences which are
the pride and ornament of the coast.
As a rule they have learned to accept the ups and downs,
the stern realities of life, philosophically, neither to be over
elated as the toiler in pov^erty suddenly drops into the lap of
luxury, or to be depressed when the tide of fortune turns and
sweeps him down the stream, recognizing the fact that every
man must light the battle of life for himself, and that it is
the part of good citizenship to do it independently and cheer-
fully.
In this regard our representative men have set an ex-
ample worthy of emulation by devoting a share of their
talents, influence and wealth to the good of their fellows.
Bold and determined in business, vigorous and comprehensive
in thought, generous and manly in spirit, they engage in the
most stupendous undertakings, as though they were but every-
day affairs, and then energetically push them to success and
so accumulate colossal fortunes. They do not live for them-
selves alvone, but recognize their duty and responsibility to
the State and society, ready and willing of their own abun-
dance to create new enterprises, if need be, or foster those
of others, whether of a public or private nature, and for the
unselfish purpose of doing good to the community in which
the}^ made their mone\', satisfied with the rewards that good
deeds alwa}-s bring. The Pacific Coast has man}- such men^
viii I y TROD UCTOR Y.
and it is fortunate that she has, because it is to their com-
mendable enterprise, broad-reaching views and business tact>
that we owe the development of our resources and the pros-
perity wc enjoy.
But tlicre are non-representative men, those who rep-
resent nobody and nothing but themselves and tlicir indi-
vidual estates; misers, measly misers, narrow-minded money
gluttons who acknowledge no duty or obligation to the State
or society, who shut themselves up with their gold bags and
turn their backs on every enterprise and every good work
without regard to its merits or necessity. The good they do
is when they die; the joy they bring is when relatives gather
around the executor's table to receive their share of the
hoarded treasure.
The writer was a pioneer ; has seen all the phases, the
bright and shady side, of California life; familiar with historic
facts and events, he will treat all the subjects incident to
"The Xew Empire and Her Representative Men," associ-
ated with living issues, faithfully, from personal knowledge
and observation, properly representing the character of the
country for health, wealth, natural resources, climate and
scener}', and pointing out clearly and concisely the ad-
vantages and inducements offered to those seeking homes
and fortunes on the friendly shores of the Pacific.
THE NEW EMPIRE
AM) )ir.R
RBPRliSHNTATIVE MEN.
C H A P r E R I .
TOPOGRAPHY.
THE topography of the Pacific Coast, and of California
especially, greatly resembles that of Asia. The Sierra
Nevada Range of mountains rises like a rampart, lofty, mys-
terious, snow-crowned, along the eastern line of the State,
furnishing scenery as varied and as grand as the eye of man
lias seen. High up on their crest are the head- waters of
great rivers, and there lakes nestle under the guardianship of
the clouds. In one place, slashed by that God-wrought won-
der, tiic Vosemite V^alley; in others, fissured by profound
canons, their slopes are shaded by forests of pine and cedar,
and their granite frames nurture the great Sequoia, the big,
trees, over which the world has marveled. Out of their
sides burst hot and mineral springs, with high medicinal and
curative properties, and vineyards are creeping up the ter-
raced grade of their foot-hills. Set along them are the
craters of volcanoes extinct, great scars of a fiery ulceration,
tiiat mark the long past period of upheaval. In other places
lone peaks uncover their blear skulls to the storm antl sun-
shine, far above the spurning and conquering foot of the ex-
plorer.
Between this range and the Coast ^Mountains, lie the two
great valleys of California, the San Joaquin and Sacramento,
9
1 0 THE NEW EMPIRE.
traversed b\' the streams of the same names, which receive
many a snow-fed confluent, and are wedded in the waters of
San Francisco Ba\-. These valleys cover 64,000,000 of acres,
and with proper conditions it is all tillable and capable of
hiLjh farminj^. Sheltered by the lofty mountains, they are
the home of the vine and olive, and of all the semi-tropical
fruits. In the spring-time they are closely carpeted with
wild flowers of many colors, which reach beyond the vision in
solid masses of gay tint. Soon human industry will cover
these with vineyards, and wrest from them a harvest of del-
icate and necessary food that will make American markets
independent of the raisins of Valencia, the oranges of Mes-
sina, and the oils of Lucca.
Following the western rim of these valleys, the Coast
Range rises and shelters charming vales and glens highly
cultivated, and sustaining a prosperous population. In this
Coast Range are the dairx- pastures of the State, and, as they
are developed, their herbage will send out cheese that rivals
that made in the vales of Cheddar, equal to the Neufchatel
and fromai^e de Brie.
These valleys were all once the feeding ground of count-
less herds of cattle and droves of horses. The latter would
so increase that long before American occupation they would
be circled in a grand battue and stampeded over the cliffs
into the Pacific. And to this day, along the coast is many a
Golgotha covered with reefs of their bones. In the mountains
on either side of these main vallevs, are the world's richest
mines of precious metals. Here are gold and silver and
quicksilver, and the torrents of ages have washed gold into
the beds of the streams, where it lies, a tempting prize, in
many a natural sluice box, caught in the rocky riffles invented
by nature long before a " long tom " was devised by man.
On the Nevada side of the Sierra Nevada Range, the
baldness of the mountains is compensated by the richness
of the mineral deposits which they hide, while they bound,
also, many a green valley, fairy lake and brawling stream,
and on all sides rise so as to shut in I'lc State by mighty ram-
parts that make it like a great dish; .ywCi all the streams that
THE NE W EMPIRE. 1 1
rise within its borders sink also within them. Nevada kec])s
her waters at home, and gives none to the riparian systems
around her, and none to the full, )'et thirsty sea.
The mountain system of Oregon in general resembles
that of California, and is closely copied by Washington Ter-
ritory.
The most remote of our possessions lies still beyond,
and the mountains which, south of the Rio Grande we name
the Cordilleras, the Andes, and the Sierra Madrc, in Califor-
nia the Sierra Nevada, link Alaska to the tropics; albeit, here
they guard fiords as grand as those of Norway, and down
their canons creep glaciers to which science and curiosity
•will make pilgrimage.
Here we have the climate of Scotland in the latitude of
Scandinavia. The waters are crowded with fish, and the
rocks peopled with seal and sea otter, the noblest of fur-bear-
ing amphibia, while the hills are richer in coal than all En-
gland, Scotland, and Belgium, and even superficial search has
revealed gold mines where the ore is stripped like a limestone
ledge, quarried with a crowbar, and dumped into the mills that
have tide-water on their outer wall. Here, too, are forests as
dense and trees as grand as those in whose shadows human
fancy wrought out the images of Thor and Woden, as chil-
dren see pictures in the fire; and the whole, fish, fur, timber,
coal, and gold, offer virgin resources awaiting to be made pro-
ductive b\* wedding them to human skill and eneri^v.
The geolog}' of all this region of mountains, and foot-
hills, and vallc\-s, belongs, as to its rocks, to the plutcnic,
upper secondary, tertiary, and volcanic formations. Here
nature set up her anvil, and from the fires of her forge welded
the spine and ribs of a structure that rose over against the
sea and put an everlasting bound to its waters. Then, upon
the sublime heights, came snows and floods, and b\' erosion,
corrugated the mountain-sides with gorge and canon, and in
the process, disintegrated granite and the metamorphic rocks
to make the soils and sands of the valley. Volcanic fires and
forces spouted lava to run like rivers searching for the sea,
and as sun and shower comminuted and dissolved it, to pre-
pare food for the vine and olive.
12 THE XEW EMPIRE.
The botany and zoology of all this area are set with feat-
ures not held in common with an)- other part of the Union.
Even the deer differs from its cousin east of the Rocky
iMountains, and the wild goat and mountain shccj) have no
familiar representative elsewhere. Here is the home of the
grizzly, the monarch of bears, and of the mountain lion, that
scourge of the sheep-fold, and wil\- enemy of man. Plven the
robin and jay wear here a different plumage, and the very
lark salutes the checr\' morning with a novel note.
The oak, elrp, and willow are peculiar, and so through the
whole range of deep vegetation. The big trees are the last
of the giant aiitoctluvis that were before the forests of spruce
and pine and cedar had been nurtured in their shade. Here
the bay tree distills its spicy odors, the madrona spreads its
tawny arms, and the manzanita softens the landscape with its
dark red bark and foliage of steely green. The very flow-
ers are diverse in their beauties, from the voluptuous lily of
Mariposa to the golden poppy and blue lupin, which carpet
the plains in fabric of color ever changing, and always beau-
tiful.
The scenery furnished b\' this variety and combination
of mountain, plain and valle}', tree and blossom, has no supe-
rior in the world. No wonder that here the brush of Bierstadt
caught its earliest inspiration, and did its noblest work.
Here the sun shines more hours in the year than elsewhere;
the climate conduces to the highest state of health, is the
most equable, and permits the stnil t(j know the presence of
the encumbering body only through the sensations of pleasure
and peace of which it is the medium.
Though a winterless land, this is not a climate that en-
ervates, but, to the contrary, it seems to spur men to the
keenest quest, to shari)en their faculties for industry, and in
witness of this stand mn- railroad constructions, the most diffi-
cult in the world, our delta land.s, redeemed as Holland con-
quered provinces from the ocean, and our deep mining, which
overcame the most appalling subterranean prf)blems, and
taught a novel pathway to mineral treasures secreted in what
may be termed the most intricate convolutions of the bowels
of the earth.
1-* THE NEW EMPIRE.
C H A V'\ }•: R I 1.
Tin-: rRODLXTio.Ns OF THE nt:\v empire.
THE Pacific slope of the American Continent is a country of
great natural resources and productions. Her mineral de-
posits include every variety in general use. Her forests contain
every useful tree, even those nowhere else found, with wild fruits
in profusion, and a charming variety of shrubs and flowers
to adorn and beautif\\ Her waters abound in food fish
and fur-bearing animals. Her mountains, forests and plains
are alive with a wide range of game, fur and feathered, large
and small. And wheat, oats, barley, rye, corn, peas and beans,
w ith staple vegetables and fruit, grow abundantly all over the
realm, while California excels in semi-tropical productions,
and in certain localities even those indigenous to the tropics.
Her scenery has a broad and interesting range from the pas-
toral and gentle to the wild, imposing and impressive. Her
climate is full, clear, and bracing, invigorating and healthful;
conducive to long life and happiness.
The nature and yield of the crops of any country de-
pend on climate, soil and other conditions. On the Pacific
slope it is the other conditions which strike the new-comer
and even the old settler with astonishment. They are subtle,
peculiar and cannot be explained on any general known law or
principle; and asthis is not an abstruse but rather a practical
work, no theories will be indulged in, or effort made seeking
an explanation, but the facts will be accepted as found and
intelligently applied. The British poet laureate can take a
worthless sheet of paper, and, by writing a poem on it, make
it worth $65,000; that is genius. A millionaire can write a
few words on a sheet of paper and make it worth $5,000,000;
that is capital. The United States can take an ounce and a
quarter of gold and stamp an eagle bird on it, and make it
worth $20.00; that is money. The mechanic can take the
material worth $5.00 and make it worth $100; that is skill.
The merchant can take an article worth 25 cents and sell it
for $1.00; that is business. These things are peculiar to the
parties in interest, but they can all be explained.
THE Xr.W EMPIRE. 15
Indit^cnous animals, trees, fruits and flowers are found here
under conditions nowhere else to be met «ith. The cereals,
fruits and blossoms transplanted here from their native or
other soils excel in abundance, richness and flavor under con-
ditions nowhere else found. This is peculiar to the Pacific
Coast, but it cannot be explained, and hence explorers, trav-
elers and tourists exclaim, " We never savv the like of this be-
fore;" and scientific climatoloj^ists confess themselves balked
b)- things they cannot account for.
CEREALS.
In order to give the reader as clear and perfect an under-
standing as possible of the situation, the yield and value of
the cereal crops, the writer has selected from a vast mass of
matter gathered during the past year, a number of statements
made by settlers residing in different sections of the country,
and will give them in the exact language of the farmers who
made them, because they are reasonably broad in their range,
and are evidently the candid expressions of opinions by well-
disposed men, who, from practical tests and experience, know
of what they speak and can testify of what they have seen.
" I came here," says the first farmer, "on April 3, 1877, and
made a homestead settlement on this land, and have therefore
been here eight years. To say that I am glad that I came
would but mildly express my feelings on the subject. The
first \'ear I put in 1 5 acres of wheat, oats, and barley, and
about I acre of potatoes. My wheat, sown on the sod,
brought 25 bushels to the acre; barley 30. and oats 50 bushels
to the acre. The potatoes, also planted on the sod, yielded
180 bushels to the acre. I think this is the best poor man's
country in the United States, and the healthiest. It is far
ahead of Texas. There is no man who can come into this
country and fail to prosper and get a home, if he can work
and is industrious. When I came I had nothing except an
oUl wagon and four old mustang horses. I came overland.
When I reached here' I had only $75.00 left, and with this I
bought my seed, plow, i 5 harrow teeth, and groceries for 6
months, and I had $1.75 left. The first thing I did was to
16 THE yEW' EMPIRE.
commence plowinj^^. The next year I broke up about I2 acres
more, makiiiij 27 acres in all, and sowed it to wheat, oats and
barley. That \-car the old and new wheat ground averaged
35 bushels per acre. In the following year, I broke up a little
more ground, but had only 3 acres in wheat, which aver-
ageti 57 bushels, and it was the best I- ever raised. I threshed
this out with the horses, and if I had had a threshing machine
it would have averaged a great deal more. In regard to the
general run of the crops here, I have raised about 35 of wheat,
average, and barley 55 to 60. All tlie wheat I have raised
has been spring wheat, sown from the ist of May to as late
as the I 5th, of June. It would not be safe to sow it later tlian
the 15th of June, though it might be put in as late as the 15th
of July and if the season happened to be of unusual length
a crop of grain might be reaped; and, if not, a good crop of
hay could be cut t)ff In subsequent years my crop averaged
just about the same as the first year. In 1883 my wheat
went 33 bushels to the acre; barley went about 60 and oats
about 75. Last year I sold my produce right here on my
place and did not haul a pound away. My wheat brought me
$1.00 a bushel; barley 96 cents; oats G}, cents. Butter will
average 25 to 50 cents per pound; chickens from $3.50 to
$6.00 per dozen, and eggs 25 to 40 cents. This is a superior
country for chickens. Hogs 3 to 5 cents on foot. Dressed
pork 4 to 7 cents per pound; bacon, now selling at 16 to 18
cents, has been selling as high as 20. Stock cows with calves
at their side are worth $12.50 per head; dairy cows with
calves, $25.00 to $40.00 per head. I am well acquainted with
all the country, and have kept posted as to the yield of crops,
and from what I know it would not be far out of the way to
place the average yield of produce, grain, etc., about as fol-
lows: Wheat, 35 bushels; oats, 75; barley, 50; cf)rn, 40; rye,
20; beans, 30; potatoes, 300. To prove what I say, that this
is the best poor man's land in America, I will figure up the
result of my 8 years' labor on this farm: I have here 160 acres
of land, which, in its present imprtncd condition, with
houses, barns, fences, etc., is worth $20.00 per acre, ^nd I
would not sell at that price — land of the same quality as mill-
THE NEW EMPIRE. 17
ions of acres in this ncigliborhood belonging to the Govern-
ment and tlie railroad, I have 1 1 head of horses, worth at
least $50.00 each; I have 16 dairy cows, worth $35.00 each;
16 head of young stock on the range, yearhngs and 2-ycar-
olds, worth $160; a mower and reaper combined, hay rake, a
sulky plow and a new Mitchell wagon; a harrow, cultivator,
and all cilicr tools and implements necessary for m\' work,
which are worth $602. And I realized out of my last year's
crop, clear of all expenses, $635. To sum uj), I have: —
Land worth $3, 200
1 1 head horses 550
16 dairy cows 560
Cattle on rantje 160
P'arnung implemenis, etc 6o2
Net profit on last year's crop ; 635
Total $5. 707
" To this aggregate should be added an allowance for food
and clothing for m\^sclf and family during the eight }-ears
which, at a very low estimate, was not less than $400 per >'car,
making for the whole time, $3,200. When }'ou add this to
the value o\ the land, stock, etc., }-ou ha\e a total of $8,907.
Therefore, b\' a little figuring, you will see that I have earned
about $1,100 per \-ear. Now, in addition to this, I have
bought 320 acres of railroad land at just a little more than
the price of Government land, and in two years my 480 acres
Avill probably be worth $50.00 per acre. To state the case
roughly, ten, or at the most twelve years of healthful occupa-
tion and labor in one of the very best of climates, with only
a couple of hundred dollars in cash and effects to start on,
will have accumulated for me money and property to the
amount of $25,000. And if )'ou can show mc any other
country in which a man can do the like of this, I would just
like to have you point it out to me."
The next farmer, residing in one of the Territories, says:
" I have been on this land four years, and have raised four
crops. The first year I broke up i 5 acres, plowed the last
week in May, sowed wheat, and threshed out by tramping of
horses 45 bushels to the acre. I sowed about the loth of
June. I had also 20 acres of oats, which were as high as a
2
18 THE XEW EMPIRE.
man's liead, .iiid brought iiic 75 bushels to the acre. Another
field of 30 acres was broken up that summer, and in the fol-
lowing season, April i, sowed to wheat; and this time, by the
use of the threshing machine, I saved a yield of 1,650 bush-
els, or 55 bushels per acre. It stood six feet high, and headed
out larger than any wheat I ever saw. In the course of a {q.\w
years there will be no more open stock range left in this re-
gion, for wheat growing will take up all the land. My crops
have been very large every one of the seasons I have been
here. I do not hesitate to say that the average wheat crop for
last year was over 35 bushels to the acre. I know this sounds
big, and people might be tempted to say I was willfully mis-
representing the facts, but a good many things happen in this
world from time to time that are not put down in the books
and that are new to the common experience."
It may be instructive to look for a moment at the profit
that may be realized from a quarter-section, yielding in wheat
the average indicated. The following estimate is made from
data taken from sources of authority: —
EXPENSES.
Fall plowing'l6o acres, at $2 $320
.Seed wheat, I ^ bushels per acre, at 45c 108
Sowing and harrowing, 75c. per acre 120
Cutting, binding, and shocking, $2 per acre 320
Hauling, threshing, etc., $250 per acre 400
Total expenses of crop, $7.92^ per acre $1,268
RECEIPTS.
5,6c» liushels of wheat, being an average yield of 35 l)usli-
els per acre, worth 50c. per bushel $2,800
Deduct e.xpenses of crop, $7.92^ per acre .... 1,268
Receipts over expenses, $9. $7/4 per acre $1,532
Here is a profit per acre of nearly four times the price,
at which the land is offered for sale tf^-day, both by the Gov-
ernment and the railroad.
Another farmer, residing in the North, says: " I came
from New York and settled here about 15 miles from a
railroad station, and have 320 acres of land. All of my farm
except 80 acres is boltom-land, watered by a creek and
spring.s. The 80-acre tract is on the hill-sides, and was
originally bunch grass land. I have rai.sed 100 bushels of
THE i\EW EMPIRE. 19
the best wheat I ever saw, on less than one acre, the field
which )ou see in froni of my liouse. I have sowed 30 acres
of wheat every year since I came here, and the average for
7 yoars past on these 30 acres has iiQ.Q.x\ 45 bushels per
acre. These 30 acres produced from 35 bushels on the poor-
est grounJ to looon the best, averaging as I have told you.
There is plenty of just such land as this, where the soil is
darker and is not made land by washings from the hills, but
is black, rich land. Aluch of the choice Government land in
the country is taken u[) by settlers, but there is plenty of
land remaining which is for sale by the railroad. The best
land is of the high rolling prairies, with clay subsoil, the top
soil being from one to six and more feet deep. The value cf
clay^ subsoil is that it holds the rains and moisture longer.
The deeper the body of clay, the better the wheat land,
but this is owing only to the fact that the clay retains the
moisture, not permitting it to sink out of reach of the surface
soil. I guess that the presence of clay has nothing to do
with the quality of the land, but is only a conservator of
moisture. Hence it is that land having a clay subsoil may be
of a poorer qv.ality than other land not having it, and yet
produce a larger crop. There is sufficient moisture in the at-
mosphere to produce a large yield without the help of rain.
The seasons of 1872-73 and 1874, were the driest seasons
since I came here, during which but a very small quantity
of rain fell. In 1872, from March 15 to December 15, there
was not more than three or four showers, and those very light,
falling in July, and yet the crops those years were the heaviest
I have raised here. It was in one of these dry seasons, 1S73,
that I rai.sed over 100 bushels of wheat to the acre. The
heads were exceedingly Ipng and heavy; and, mind you, this
wheat was not threshed with a machine, but tramped out in
the old-fashioned way. I have a pretty fair idea of the char-
acter of the county.
" Besides wheat, we can raise crops of other kinds that
would surprise people. This land yields 60, 70, and 80 bush-
els of oats to the acre; and I have never seen so poor a crop
here as 30 bushels per acre. Corn does well on high lands
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THE NEW EMPIRE. 21
and on the tops of hills, but not in the bottoms. It would
avera^'C say 40 bushels to tlie acre. The reason why it does
not grow well in the low-lands is that there is too much frost
there at night; but there is none on the hills. Peas are the
largest crop you can put ui the ground. I have raised over
50 bushels to the acre. As to hay, there has not been any
sown to speak of But the wild timothy grows profusely. I
have cut 2)^ tons to the acre of this wild hay from the bot- 1
tom-lands. The temperature in this part of the county is 1
more even than that of any country I have ever lived in. |
The winters here are tropical compared to those of Illinois.
Because of the mildness of the climate and the cheap and good
grazing, this is the best sheep and cattle country that I have
ever been in. Finally, it is not, in my judgment, extravagant
to say that the average yield of wheat raised last year was
fully 35 bushels to the acre. I would not put it below this
figure, and some people -believe it ran above. It is poing to
be very profitable to raise wheat in this country,
" I do not see why a poor farmer, having a quarter-sec-
tion of land here, could not, by ordinary prudence in manage-
ment.^not only be independent, but make good headway in a few
years toward comparative wealth. There is certainly a great
future for this region, and for the men who are lucky enough
to secure farms for themselves before these lands rise much in
value, as they must soon do."
An able and scientific writer sa\s: '■ It is a knin\n fact
that the most productive and enduring wheat lands of our
continent, lie west of the Rocky Mountains. They have the
largest proportions of the po'.ash and phosphates ^hich nc ur-
ish the cereals. It has been stated by a well-known geologist
that, during the six distinctly noted volcanic overflows, the
ashes, which were carried largely by the prevailing winds
eastward into the bays and lakes which formerly occupied the
great interior basin, mingled with other sediment to form the
deep deposits which now constitute the soils of those valleys
and high prairie lands. It is easj'- to infer that the excess of
alkali in spots, results from the drainage of thi.-i substance
from the hills. Every year the crops seem to increase in
22 THE NEW EMPIRE.
value and amount. The hills and dry sa^^e-brush plains have
rewarded the cultivator. It is known that every acre touched
by water becomes luxuriant with cereals and fruits.
"It is known that an ocean of aerial moisture floats over
these ret^.ons from the vast western ocean. It needs only a
cooler to deposit the dews. Every field or blade of grass
or c^rain acts as a cooler.
" The fields of winter grain, started by early rains or
melting snows, provide the vegetation, which in summer de-
])osits enough of this aerial moisture to perfect their growth
until the harvest. The deep plowing loosens the soil so as to
absorb the air loaded with moisture, which grows cool enough
to leave its moisture about the roots of the plant. Thus the
lands that have for ages abounded in the bunch grass, which
is now wasting away before the increase of flocks and herds,
can be restored by the plow, and the choice cereals, wheat,
oats, barley, and corn, with orchards about every farm-house."
Hundreds of other experiences on the Pacific slope
could be given, but these are enough; they reflect the expe-
rience of thousands. Are they not satisfactory? How could
they be better? Compare them with the average yield of
wheat in the principal Atlantic States for 1880. Maine's aver-
age yield, per acre, 14 bushels; New Hampshire, 14; Ver-
mont, 17; ^lassachusetts, 22; Connecticut, 13; New York, 19;
New Jersey, 15; Pennsylvania, 15; Delaware, 13; Maryland,
13; Virginia, 7.2; North Carolina, 6.5; South Carolina, 5.5;
Georgia, 7; Alabama, 7.3; Mississippi, 6.8; Texas, 16; Ar-
kansas, 6; Tennessee, 5; West Virginia, 11.5; Kentucky, 9.3;
Ohio, 18; Michigan, 18.3; Indiana, 16; Illinois, 13.6; Wiscon-
sin, 12.4; Minnesota, 12; Iowa, 9.4; Mis.souri, 11; Kansas
16.3; Nebraska, 13.1.
It will be seen by the.se figures that the yield of wheat in
the most favored of the Atlantic States falls much below the
yield here, and even then it depends on the u.se of costly
manures. As the production depends ( n conditions, so the
value of uheat when garnered ready for market depends on
cnditions, facilities for transportation, etc. In Nebraska,
where the transportation is arbitrary and limited, the average
THE NEW EMPIRE. 23
price {3cr bushel is 42 cents; in Kansas, 45; in Dakota, 46; in
Minnesota, 50; in Iowa, 55; and in Missouri 62. Here it will
average 6^ cents, which is a third more than in Nebraska, and
higher than any of the western Atlantic States.
In the Pacific States and Territories there are 500,000
square miles, or 320,000,000 acres of tillable land. Setting
aside one-half, or i6o,ooopoo acres of this for oats, rye, corn,
barley, and other farm products, and presuming that the
remaining 160,000,000 acres were devoted to raising wheat at
the reasonable average of 20 bushels to the acre, we would
produce 3,200,000,000 bushels, worth, at 63 cents a bushel,
$2,016,000,000; and to move it would require a train of cars
35,058 miles in length, long enough to girdle the earth; or it
would load the entire merchant marine of the world, sailing
and steam vessels, a dozen times over.
In contrast to this we are reminded that the average
acreage given to wheat raising in all England, from 1867 to
1870, was 3,836,890 acres; but there has been a gradual falling
off every year since then, and last year only 2,553,092 acres
were apportioned to wheat, an area about equal to one of
our little valleys skirting the Columbia or nestling among the
foot-hills up in Tulare.
Cattlk. — The live stock business in the United States
has recently increased to enormous proportions. It is esti-
mated that there is now invested in cattle alone, $1,106,715,-
703. When to this is added all the industries and interests
dependent on the cattle trade, these figures would be im-
mensely increased.
In 1880, the estimated value of the meat, hides, and
other proceeds of animals slaughtered in the United States,
is fixed at $800,000,000.
West of the Mississippi there are 22,000,000 head of
cattle, with an estimated value of $533,650,875. The busi-
ness is chiefl}- carried on b)' cattle companies. One asso-
ciation alone owns 1,000,000 head of cattle, 1,000,000 head
of sheep, and 500,000 head of horses, among which are to
be found some of the best-bred animals in the world. The
company also owns and controls 8.500,000 acres of land.
2-4 THE NEW EMPIRE.
The total value of stock and land is set down at $68,250,000.
and the compan}' employs 2,000 men as herders. Another
association has 450,000 head of cattle, 50,000 head of horses,
30,000 sheep, and 4,500,000 acres of land, with a total valu-
ation of $21,500,000. Another company owns 800,000 head
of cattle, 250,000 head of horses, and as many sheep, with a
grazing area covering i 5,000,000 acres of land. And there
are many other companies owning immense herds, and con-
trolling millions of dollars of capital.
On the Pacific slope there are 640,000,000 acres of ex-
cellent grazing land. The area required to pasture a million
head of cattle depends entirely upon the quality of the grass
and water. Here where our indigenous grasses are unusually
nutritious and sweet, and the water surpassingly pure, and where
tiie herds have abundant shade in the summer and shelter
in the winter, a much greater percentage of cattle can be
carried, and the losses much less than in localities where such
advantages are not enjoyed. Utilizing the 640,000,000 acres
of grazing land in the New Empire, allowing 5 acres to the
animal, or even 20 acres, and our herds would number 152,-
000,000 head, and at an all round average of $25.00 per head,
their value would bj $3,800,000,000, an excess of the total
amount now invested within the American domain.
Lumber. — There are 300,000 square miles of forest in
the New Empire, a considerable portion of which is very
superior. The trees not only stand thickly on the ground,
but they are of immense size and height, a single tree fre-
quently making five, ten, and fifteen thousand feet of clear
lumber. By a little calculation the reader will be able to
form some estimate of the amount of lumber and wealth
contained in this 192,000,000 acres of timber.
A number of large saw-mills are at work in various
places convenient to tide water, mortising into the forest and
sending out lumber to the markets of the world. As an
illustration of the magnitude of these milling enterprises,
take the Puget Mill Company. It has a capital of $2,000,000,
and has mills at Port Gamble, Port Ludlow and Ut.saladdy,
whose output in 1884 was 57,000,000 feet of lumber, worth
THE NEW EMPIRE. 25
$741,000; shingles, 2,700,000, valued at $8,000; lal::s, 18,-
000,000, valued at $36,000; pickets, 225,000, valued at '. 2,700 ;
wool slats, 60,000, valued at $360; and 3,000 piles val-ed at
$11,500, making a total value of $800,410. The Hanson
Mill Company has a capital of $1,000,000; output last year,
33,000, value, $426,000; spars, 600, value, $12,500; laths,
6,500,000, value, $16,250; pickets, 350,000, value, $2,800;
wool slats, 150, value, $900; total value, $458,450, with the
addition of $40,000 as the product of the planing mill, sw fil-
ing the total to $498,450. The Hanson Mill has since been
enlarged, so that its output will now about equal the Puget
Mill Company. These illustrations are sufficient. I do not
know the total number of saw-mills on the coast, but there
are a great many.
Lumber, like wheat, is a staple, cash commodity, and all
these large mills, steadily manufacturing to supply foreign
demand, bring back in return millions of money to be dis-
tributed annually among the people of the Pacific Coast.
Tiie Census* Department at Washington, in its forestry
bulletins, announced that in both the upper and lower penin-
sulas of Michigan there remained of standing white pine
timber, suitable for market, but 35,000,000,000 feet, board
measure, and that in the census year of 1880 there had been
cut in the State 4,396,211,000 feet, requiring only 8 years
at this rate to exhaust the supply; that in Wisconsin there
were standing 41,000,000,000 feet, with a cut of about 3,000,-
000,000 feet for that )car, leaving a supply that would last
but 14 years; that in Minnesota there were remaining 8,170,-
000,000 feet, and that 541,000,000 feet were cut in the census
year, leaving a suppl}- f(^r 1 5 years, and that at this rate the
supply of white pine lumber would be exhausted in these
3 States in the brief period of about 12 years, the
question of the future supply of this most valuable timber
became serious to the building world. The late James Little,
of Montreal, in 1882, said of the suj^ply of white pine in
Canada that he had consulted with the best authorities and
was persuaded that, at the rate of cutting then going on, the
whole supply of the provinces of Quebec, Ontario, New
26 THE iV£iF EMFIKE.
Brunswick and Nova Scotia would be used up in about lo
years. According to these estimates, then, the supply of
white pine on the Atlantic slope will soon be exhausted anb
the mechanic arts will have to look to other fields for their
supply of wood and timber, and that supply will be furnisheb
by the forest of the Pacific Coast.
Red and white fir, pine, spruce, cedar, cottonwbod, balm,
oak, alder, ash, and maple are generally found in the principal
coast forests, but California is the home of the redwood.
The total production and sales of redwood in the State for
1885, from the several counties, were as follows: —
Del \ortc County, feet 4,050,000
HiimboKit 82,300,000
Mendocino 74,050,000
Sonoma 4,400,000
Santa Cruz 40,000,000
Total feet 204,800,000
Of the sales in Santa Cruz County, it is estimated that
35,000,000 feet were taken for consumption in that county,
while the other 5,000,000 feet were shipped to points
south. The other counties sent to the Bay of San Francisco
1 1 3,000,000, besides 32,150.000 feet to Southern California,
and 19,650,000 feet were sold for consumption in the counties
where cut. The shipments of California redwood to foreign
ports in 1885 were as follows: —
Me.\ico, Central and South America, feet 950,000
Islands of the Pacific 2,650,000
Australia 5,950,000
Europe 650,000
Total feet 10,200,000
The pine sales from redwood mills for the year aggre-
gate 17,800,000 feet. This makes the total sales for the year
232,800,000 feet. The quantity of redwood on hand January
1, 1886, was 41,350,000 feet, against 34,040,000 feet on the
1st of January, 1885, but the demand is increasing as its uses
multiply, and its value and beauty are demonstrated. It is
beginning to be largely u.sed in the manufacture of the mo.st
elegant patterns of furniture, and the rotjts and buhl of the
redwood tree are now coming into extensive use for veneer-
28 THE A'EJF EMPIRE.
ing purposes, furnishing a more beautiful venerrthan mahog-
any, rosewood or wahnit. A machine has lately been in-
vented and patented for slicing the roots and buhls for
veneering purposes, and a piece of root no larger than a man
ma\' carry on his shoulder brings $20.00 in Europe.
Iron. — Iron, coal and petroleum are among the most
useful of minerals. The Pacific Coast deposits are large, and
are simply waiting the key of industry to unlock the granite
doors and send them out into the commerce of the world.
They, with kindred topics, shall be noted further along.
CHAPTER III.
VINEYARDS ANI» ORCHARDS.
IT is a law of nature that fruits reach their greatest perfec-
tion in a region having the most sunshine. Equable, or
even monotonously mild temperature, like that of England,
will not produce fruits in perfection, unless it is supple-
mented by clear skies and the fervent kisses of the sun, these,
with the absence of severe cold in the winter, complete the
conditions that make a fruit country; and it is a wonderful test
and testimony of the wisdom which stocked the earth with
capacities for man's use and benefit, that where these solar
and other conditions appear in partnership, there the volcanoes
have enriched the soil u ith the very marrow of the earth, and
crumbling granite has added the strength needed to make it
fitted for all fruit production.
In no part of the United States, and in no greater degree
elsewhere over the globe, do we find so evenly poised these
forces as in the New Empire, aixl hence it is that the whole
coast, from the southern line of California to the slopes that
guard Puget Sound, is of proved capacity for orchards or vine-
yards.
In Oregon and the North the apple is produced in the
greatest perfection, and there the pear in all its luscious charms
reaches a size and beauty s"kiom equaled.
In the East the only fruit to be relied on for crops is the
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'^^^ THE A£JF EMPJRE.
apple, and it has centers of the best production. The New
York and Michigan apples will be the favorites in the niar-
ket ahva\ s, over the fr it of Ohio or Pennsylvania, though
the apple grows from Maine to Minnesota, and the line of
trees planted in the wilderness, from the Mohawk to the
Ohio, by Apple Seed Joh.n, has expanded into thousands of
orchards; yet the two States named hold to first excellence
and their production is the favorite. This Pacific fruit region
has the same peculiarity of premium locations, and Oregon
has first place in the excellence of her apples. Though the
Territories and Nevada and California have and will always
crown many a feast with the wholesome fruit, the label, " Ore-
gon Apples " will attract the consumer and bring the top of
the market.
But it must be confessed that we might have apples and
pears and plums in perfection elsewhere unknown and yet
fail to attract any attention to the resources of our horticult-
ure. Those fruits grow in every State in the Union, and
while we might claim primacy in their production, we share it
with all the rest. The unique value of our fruit region is,
that it produces what grows nowhere else on the continent
in any form or any degree in commercial volume.
In California is the center of the only genuine wine-
producing area on the continent. Here and here alone are
faithfully reproduced the conditions for viticulture which have
made the wealth of Southern Europe. There five centuries
have been devoted to the refinement of wine production.
Here the origin of the industry and its rivalry of Europe are
only twenty years apart. In that time we have developed
hocks and clarets of defined character and as favorite with
consumers as the Rhines of Germany and the Chateau Reds
of PVance. In this wine-raising region there are choice spots,
some of them already discovered and many yet to be. Here
some thrill of sunshine, some subtle chemistry in the propLT-
ties of the soil, or, may be, some balm in the breath of the
winds imparts to the grape a subtle excellence. Who can tell
what it is ''. V/hcn the quality <^)^ water used in tempering
the steel of edged tools is proved to be the cause of excels
THE NEW EMPIRE. -W
lencc that no fire, nor forging, nor polish, nor skill can impart
or take away, by what sensitive scale shall we measure the
ineffable inspiration that gives varying excellence to the juice
of the grape? This "spotted" tendency is one of the high
evidences of excellence in a wine country. We drink the
Johannisbcrger of commerce and call it good, and so it i->,
but the rc.il Johannisbcrger is hardly known in trade, for its
production is limited to a vinej'ard of only forty acres on the
Metternich Estate in Nassau. Old Metternich, whose diplo-
macy set the European fashion after the downfall of Napo-
leon, knew nothing of wine-making, and one day ordered the
stones gathered up and taken off the ground of the vineyard.
That year his grapes made no wine, the juice sulked in
the must. His superintendent told him that the wine had
gone with the stones, and on restoring them the wine cam:
back as excellent as before. Who shall tell why { .n.ii.
around, the same sort of stones are in other vinevards, but
the wine is inferior. Who can tell why a few acres at Dijon
should produce a still wine as mild as a dew-drop to the taste,
yet with a subtlety of spirit that gives it almost the action
of absinthe ? And why do vines at Rheims, so few that they
are numbered and counted, produce a cream wine, for which
the gods of Olympus would have quit their nectar and the
Wassailers of Valhalla their mighty meid {
Already it is noted that the same grape, planted in dif-
ferent localities, varies in its qualities, and, finally, California
will offer as great variety in the individuality and excellence
of its wines as Europe. Over three hundred varieties of
grapes are grown here, and careful experiment is transplant-
ing new sorts continually, for which the whole world, froni
Peru to Algiers, is put under tribute.
All this region of fruit tree and vine is dotted with or-
chard and vineyard. The statistics of horticulture are diffi-
cult of collection, because while you are reducing vine and
tree to a census, enterprise is pushing the frontier o{ the area
they occupy, and the counting is never done. In Egypt
where the date palm furnishes fuel, food and timber is not
of rapid growth, and is cherished by its owner, as the Bedouin
32 THE .\E\V EMPIRE.
guards his horse, every tree is tagged and taxed, and its age
officially preserved.
The apple trees in California number about 2,500,000;
in Oregon, 1,500,000; peach trees in California, 2,000,000; in
Oregon, 50,000; California has 50,000 fig-trees, 2,000,000
orange, 250.OOO lemon. By the census of 1880 the total fruit
product of Oregon reached a value of $547,000; of California,
$3,000,000. In the latter the value has, since then, doubled,
and the capital invested in the fruit interest of California is
$50,000,000.
For the apricot of California the demand constantly
presses the supply. In its fresh state it is admired amongst
the early fruits shipped East, and as it resembles the pear in
ripening after it is picked, it is a valuable shipping fruit.
Canned or dried, it has the world for a market, so it is not
surprising that orchardists in this State have realized as high
as $1,500 per acre for this crop. The nectarine is a luscious
hybrid, which joins the best qualities of peach and plum, and
is here more perfect in quality, and bears greater crops than
elsewhere on the continent.
The dried fruits of this region have long been famous for
their flavor and quality, and every year adds to the range of
their market, and the refinement of the processes by which
they are prcjjared.
The raisin industry of California was founded in 1872,
when about a thousand boxes found their way to market.
In 1881 the production had risen' to 160,000 boxes, and in
1885 to about a half million. Our sunny and rainless climate,
the tendency of our grapes to develop sugar, all join to
make this industry one of our standard activities. Here an
area of 20,000 square miles is specially adapted to producing
raisins. It is a common experience of vineyardists to secure
a net profit on their raisin crop of $250 per acre, and 20
acres of raisin grapes bring an income that cannot be wrung
from a half .section in .some of the Atlantic States.
The wine yield of California varies with the seasons, but
now .seldom falls below io,000,000 gallons, for which there is
a ready and appreciative market.
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34 THE J\E W EMPIRE.
Our brandy product is increasing, and some brands
distilled here have beaten the world in a competition hotly
contested. But why dwell longer upon the horticultural
superiorit}- of a region which tells its own story; where the
currants are as large as cherries elsewhere grown, and the
cherries arc as large as the plums of the East; where all the
stone fruits, and the pomegranate, the melon, and the Jap-
anese persimmon, which grows to the size of an apple, and is
called "The fruit of the gods," the custard apple of Burmah,
will grow side b\' side, — a land where the orange, lemon and
lime ripen their fruit clear up to the 41st degree of latitude;
where the olive is gracing the hills and throwing its oil in
commercial quantities from San Diego to Sonoma, — such a
land wears its certificate of excellence as an outer garm-ent to
be seen of all men, and not as a hidden grace to inflame the
fancy by a chance disclosure.
In all this area the English walnut and the almond, the
leading nuts of commerce, grow as if indigenous, and our wal-
nuts and our wines are kissed into perfection by the same
kind sunshine.
Difficulties arc besetting the centuries-old orchards, vine-
yards and olive groves of Europe. The world must more and
more resort to the produce of our virgin lands for its supply of
these articles, which fill so formidable a place in the diet
and trade of the worLI. Our own country calls for such sup-
plies for 60,000,000 of people, and did they all resort to us
now the demand would doubly overgo our own capacity to
su[)pl>-. In these briefly narrated facts we see the solidity of
the horticultural interests (jf the New Empire. Was there
ever such a land since Mo^es looked upon virgin Palestine
and found his fancy enchanted by its spreading meadows^
its dewy vineyards, the yellow wheat that gilt its plains, the
beauty of its flowers, and the plenty that its generous soil
gave up to its people?
Here we have all this, and flocks and herds, with gold
and silver mounted mountains standing guard over the won-
ders of the land; while the fish-filled waters babble their
boast of rivalry in the task of feeding millions without calling
for a miraculous draught of the nets.
HnMl > (jl uiL ^Lli 1 IiW 1.1.1. l.K,-
ac. THE XEW EMPIRE.
CHAPTER IV.
MONEY, ITS NATURE A.\D USES.
" Put money in thy purse." — Shakespeare.
"The love of money is the root of all evil." — The Lible.
NO people have a greater practical or sentimental interest
in money than those of California. The discovery of
precious metals in this State wrought a financial revolu-
tion in the world. It prevented the demonetizing of gold by
our own Congress; and by greatly adding to the coinage of
that metal, affected values to a greater stability, and wove
the brilliant dream of Jackson and Benton into realization by
making possible the payment of Government debts in " * *
gold, yellow and molten, hammered and rolled." The silver
store, long dependent on uncertain Mexico, got a like impulse
from the discovery of the Nevada and Arizona deposits, and
together the two metals have made California to drive out of
fanc)' and even from fiction, the figure of Golconda and of
Ormus and of Ind. Ophir, that ga\e up the gold that gilt
the temple, is a tradition. California is an enduring fact, and
from her mother lode and its ribs for generations to come,
hardy miners will be digging and milling gold to make money
for others to spend. By use of this store, generously poured
into the world's lap, wars will be fought, soldiers paid, states-
men bribed. It will enable States to broaden their phylactery
by extending their boundaries. It will arm and man navies
to test the dominion of the sea. It will be the motive that
sends men into the wilderness to redeem and plant the glebe
lands, that for the crops grown, they may get money. As
the bride blushes at the altar, not the least pleasant antici-
pation of the delights of her new estate is the jingle of the
coin her husband will throw into her lap. So, too, amongst
the sorrows of the son as he buries his sire, there will creep
in enough mental arithmetic to figure up the value in chinking
coin of his share of the family estate. Every cradle, robe and
shroud represents money, and dollars and dimes are woven
into the suit of canvas spread by the .ship to propel her
THE NEW EMPIRE. ^7
through the waters, and they arc in the anchor that shall
hold her fast when the voyage is ended. Without money,
commerce would be a rude barter, life would be without
elegance, industry without variety, man without a motive.
Where was the genesis of money, of a medium of exchange
and a standard of value? David A. Wells has fancied it in
his " Robinson Crusoe's Money;" but without refining upon
definitions, money is anything into which you can convert
your surplus labor and with which you can procure the surplus
labor of another. A season's toil has produced wheat enough
to feed you and .some to spare. Another man has produced
enough wool to make his own clothes and some to spare.
The overplus in each case is the surplus labor. So A sells
his wheat, that is, converts it into something that will buy
B's wool after it has been transmuted by manufacture-, and
that something which enables this exchange of surplus labor
is called money. No matter when it originated, if the world
were swept b)' a besom to-day, and repeopled by a primitive
race to-morrow to whom we would be as dim, distant and
mysterious as the mound-builders are to us, that race would
follow our foot-steps in commerce and the evolution of
finance, because it would have the same wants and appetites
as we have, and instinctively seek their gratification by the
same means that we have used. In the cuneiform writings
left by the stylus of many a Babylonian scribbler, we find
the history of the Babylonian Rothschilds " Egibi & Son "
who discounted notes, drove bargains and loaned money to
the king, long before Abraham lost faith in the wooden gods
he had whittled out with his jack-knife, and while Greece
was a blank, Rome was a resort of coney-hunting savages,
and what is now Europe was less known than wc know the
planets which are our goodly compan\- whirling around the
sun in inferior and superior circles.
As one after another the wheat-raising regions of the
world have been subdued to tillage and have poured their
crops into commerce, the result has furnished ground for
speculation by political and social economists and financiers.
So the corn and cotton belts of the world, as they contract
38 THE yEW EMPIRE.
by exhaustion or expand b\* discovery and experiment, are
the objects of enduring attention.
But the products of these regions and the industries they
support, differ widely from the precious metals, because they
fluctuate and their value ebbs and flows, while gold and silver
are the measure of that value. The moment they are freed
from impingcm.ent with the baser substances in which they
grow, they are value. They don't shrink and swell with
plenty of famine in any part of the world. They are always
in good demand, equalh' prized, equally desirable and equally
capable of benefitin ^ mankind.
After his Italian campaign, the great Napoleon was
accused of sacrilege because in looting churches, his soldiers
had despoiled shrine and altar of the images of the saints
cast in silver and gold. Taxed with this, the Corsic^^n
answered that he had melted the saints into money in order
that they might go up and down the world doing good as was
the duty of saints.
As the precious metals have their inalienable qualities
and functions, how much more should their production attract
the attention of economists and financiers than do the perish-
ing crops whose value they measure? So fixed has the public
heart become in favor of gold and silver money, that we
tear the sounds and sense and orthograph}- of our language
for terms to distinguish paper currency that is not redeemable
in coin; " Shin-plaster" and " Red dog" are some of the names
by \\ hich such currency has been known. Paper money, to
be of genuine utility, mu.st be of representative value and
convertible into coin of one or the other of the.se metals
produced b> awx mines. The precious metal product of
this coast has given to our region its pre-eminent position.
When an ex-premier of England stood before the Dons and
Proctors of Edinburgh University for inauguration as Lord
Rector, he opened his address witli a figure in which Cali-
fornia was u.scd as a .synonym for wealth. The non-exhaus-
tion of our mines, the discovery of new processes which,
by hitching chemistry and mechanism together, attack and
reduce refractory ores or so cheapen the reduction of low
THE NE \V EMPIRE. 39
grades as to make their working profitable, has ha 1 the effect
of steadily maintaining our bullion output and convincing the
world of the practical inexhaustibility of our deposits.
What eye has penetrated the depths yet under the feet of
the deep miner? The earth is yet to be bored to greater
depths before we go as far as men have gone for coal, and
when we have sunk the shafts there is every assurance that
the result will prove the region to be like a good watch, full
jeweled in every hole.
In gold and silver we still lead the world, as official esti-
mates in another column will show.
Russia regards her gold fields as the apple of her eye.
The resources of imperial science and of imperial tyranny com-
bine to urge them to the highest production, and yet, with an
almost languid attention to our mines, we lead both her and
Eng and. In the thirty-five years preceding 1874, which
includes the greatest output of the California and Australian
mines, the world's yield of gold averaged $96,000,000 per year;
so that with the comparative inattention to our mines here
and the measurable withdrawal of interest in those of Aus-
tralia, the yield fell only $14,000,000 short of the average of
that period in which the placers were yielding their nuggets
and dust to the rocker.
CHAPTER V.
GOLD AXD SILVER.
THE romance of gold and silver mining is one of the most
alluring chapters of the world's history. Gold and silver
have stood in all literature as the synonyms for desira-
bility. The Spaniards encouraged Columbus, the Genoese
sailor, to embark in the experiment of seeking a new route
to the Indies, because their fanc\' was inflamed by the vision
of great spoil in the precious metals With him, the incen-
tive was scientific, he was hungry for geography. They
wanted gold. When his voyage to India, sailing west to
40 THEXEW E.Uf'IRE.
reach the ca>t, ums interrupted by an ufiknown continent,
his followers and the Government, under whose patronage lie
was protected, began the hunt for gold in the new country.
To find gold was the hope of De Soto, of Balboa, of
Cortez and Pizarro, and gold and silver soon lo ided the
Spanish galleons and they, in turn, were hunted on the high
seas by British war ships in what amounted to actual piracy,
though dignified by the name of war.
The desire for gold was soon planted amongst the fore-
most motives of our English-speaking people. It enlisted
the pens and tongues of statesmen and economists. It
affected profoundly the financial policy of this Republic, and
to-day the issues that arise in gold and silver, their relative
volume, the extent of their coinage, their intrinsic ratio,
swallow up all other public questions.
The discovery of gold in California populated the coast
more rapidly than would have been possible by any other
means. If men had been promised immortality as a reward
for the pains and perils of the journey here, they would have
risked a refusal. But the temporalities promised by gold
were an irresistible temptation. All of our other means of
prosperity, our fields, orchards and vineyards, our wine and
oil would now be the unproved elements in the clods of our
valleys, had not gold brought to us a population in whose
needs and industrial evolution were the germs of these great
cognate productions. The consumption of the precious metals
has kept pace with their discovery and production. There are
placers yet unworked; there are quartz veins yet undevel-
oped; there are billions of gold yet to be mined from the
Rio Grande to the Yukon.
The gold and silver we have already produced has
reclaimed the Pacific side of this continent. It has been
the cause of all other foundations, of agriculture, horticulture
and manufactories. It has built cities, dug canals for irriga-
tion, dredged rivers for navigation and constructed the lines
of transcontinental railroads. It has established steamship
lines, created commerce, wrested islands from barbarism and
redeemed hundreds of thousands from poverty, and estab-
THE NE W EMPIRE. 41
lished them in comfort within easy reach of affluence. Nearly
four billions of these metals have been taken from the mines,
but the work is hardly begun. Using the experience
alrcaily gained and applying it to ground untouched, to
ledges un worked, there are billions yet to sparkle in the sun-
light and jingle in the pockets of the people, to fill national
treasuries, to turn the wheels of manufactories and spread the
sails of commerce. The next thirty years will more than
triplicate on this coast and in this country, the results of
mineral wealth taken from our mines. This wealth is not to
be shrunk by tariffs; it is not corroded by rust; it defies the
gnawing tooth of time; even when the robber steals it there
is only a diversion in its direction, for, through him, it again
reaches circulation and fulfills its mission. For this coast
the production of the precious metals means everything. It
invests an idle population in an enchanting and profitable
pursuit; it diverts labor from the production to the con-
sumption of food, and makes better prices for the yield of
the husbandman.
CHAPTER VI.
CURBSTONE BROKERS.
N'O good thing can exist without drawbacks. The sun and
warmth which generate the luscious flavors of fruits, give
life also to the insect which preys upon the tree. Health
and strength tempt to those excesses which bring both to
untimely shipwreck. Even love walks lightly through the
bowers in whose shadows jealousy, the counter-passion,
gnaws its heart. The rich mineral resources of this coast
which it would seem should always have brought wealth to
those hardy and adventurous men who search them out, have
proved the ruin of thousands tiirough those parasites called
"Curbstone Brokers." The prospector, developer or owner
of a mining property appears in San Francisco and falls into
the hands of a broker to whom the worth or worthlessness of
the propert)' is a secondary' consideration. His method is
42 THE NEW EMPIRE.
as fixed as pocket-picking. By manipulation and coaxing,
pla\-ing upon avarice and cupidit)', he schemes for the control
of the "mine." Getting a bond to cover it, he organizes a
company and proceeds to capitalize the property, issue stock,
and squeeze margins out of it by means foul or fair. One
of these leeches went to a lithographer for a book of blank
certificates of stock. ''Where is your property located?"
asked the artist. " ' Damfino' — it's no difference anyway,"
replied the teredo of the street. " What is its name? " " Oh
call it anything you like, but hurry up; I want to get the stock
off." On the banks of Newfoundland to which the cod-fishers
resort, no bait is wasted on the hook; a few scraps of white-
fleshed clams are cast overboard and the fish rise to the feast,
when the hooks, rai^ged out with strips of white cotton cloth,
are ca.st in and taken by the fish,whichare soon flopping on deck.
So do these fishers of men who wring .sorrow out of mines
that should yield only satisfaction, profit, and an access of
life's pleasures. Into the waters of speculation were cast the
profitable Comstocks and consolidated properties which, by
temporary investment, raised thousands to. affluence; but they
were followed by the rag stock certificates that represented a
partnership of cupidity and scoundrelism, but were snapped
up by the crowd that made no discrimination between reality
and unreality. Your broker of the curb usually represents
himself as with money, position and influence, or he has a
circle of old-timers who are his rich friends, whom he inspires
with confidence. He knows Jones, Flood, Mackay and Fair,
who look to him for avenues in which to invest their money.
Under the.se and kindred representations, a bond for a term of
months is obtained, and then the time pa.sscs, weeks melt
away. They are seeking the right men for directors; their
wealthy clients are very particular; anc',so the smooth lie runs,
while the owner of the property, buoyed for a while on expec-
tation and fed on falsehood, finds his expenses eating into his
pockets and delay eating into his heart. Finally lying fails to
explain the delay. The victim breaks the meshes of his n'et
and investigates his way to the di.scovery that the broker is a
penniless adventurer, as poor in morals as in pocket, whose
THE XEW EMPIRE. 43
only capital is falsehood, and his only merit the master)- of
the art of persuasion. The owner came to the city to sell a
mine. He discovers that he is sold insteatl. Now begins a
struggle to recover what has been practically stolen from him.
The broker insists that he has put mone}' into searching for a
market for the property. He has claims, liens and offsets
against his undischarged trust under the bond. Put to legal
proof he at last threatens to pre\cnt the profitable capitali-
zation of the propert}' b\' any one else, using to that end his
"influence on the street." If the owner quits him finally, the
pest does not quit the owner, but spies upon his movements
dogs his daily walk, and by every art known to criminal fin-
anciering, works to prevent the legitimate placing of the prop-
erty where it would return solid dividends upon the hope
invested in it. So the mining interest is hampered, the bull-
ion output is limited, and the reputation of the stock and the
fair name of the city's financial standing is tarnished by these
illicit and immoral brokers. Many of them are broken-down
politicians who began at an honorable elevation and fell from
one treachery and broken trust to another, tiU they were
dumped on the streets to li\e by their wits. They are the
companions in declension to the women who begin in the roses
and raptures of vice, the illicit pets of lascivious luxury, but
who fall step by step to depend upon the occasional spoliation
of the stranger picked up on the street.
True, amongst the brokers are men of untarnished honor,
forced by circumstances to a repulsive association; but this
inconsiderable leaven cannot make the whole lump wholesome,
nor minister a cure of the damage inflicted upon our mineral
interests by the vicious members of their guild.
There are unworthy men in all callings, and even the
learned professions are not free from them. Law and ph}'sic
shelter pretenders, and even in the house of God, the well-
disguised hypocrite may break the bread of life for a time
undetected. The criminal!}' inclined seek the compan}- of the
virtuous as ambush for their designs, and so it has passed
into a habit when a banker defaults or a fiduciar\- a^ent dis-
appears with trust funds, we ask involuntariU', "What Sun-
44 THE NEW EMPIRE.
day-school did he superintend ? " Emancipated from the bad
name given it b\' operations of the ballooning broker, quartz
and placer mining has a great part }ct to play in th*; perma-
nent prosperity of this coast. By refinement of processes,
thousands of acres of placer ground will gi\e up their treasures,
and refractory ores that have defied reduction will yield at
last, and man\- a block of stocks now hidden in forgotten
places and thought to be worthless will enrich the owner who
has damned and forgotten his investment.
It is not only personal thrift, but is the sign of good
citizenship, to foster the legitimate rewards of our mines;
while it is only good morals to chase the sinister and lying
broker off the .street.
CHAPTER VII
DISCOVERY OF GOLD.
FROM the date of the discovery of gold in California,
mining has been steadily and for many years rapidly
gaining public confidence, and now it is justly regarded as a
legitimate, safe business — one of the most important indus-
tries of civilization. When that discovery was made, the great
mass of the people were incredulous, regarded the announce-
ment as a sort of "Arabian Nights" or the tale of "Aladdin's
Lamp " revamped and published under a new title. It is a
historical fact, however, that since that day California has
yielded $1,000,000,000 in gold. Astounding as this statement
may be, it is strictly true. The same incredulity was mani-
fested about the discovery of gold in Australia, but, notwith-
standing that, the island continent has produced i^200,ooo,-
000 in gold, and the grand total productions of bullion from
all sources since 1848 amount to $5,862,165,000.
When the silver mines cjf Nevada were discovered, no
one believed, not even Comstock, the discoverer, nor even
contemplated the vast treasures stored away in those inhos-
pitable mountains; but Nevada has .sent out $350,000,000 in
silver, and the production of the United States since 1858 has
sill. I'l iHi: i'i>(.ovt;K\ L>i- i.ni.n.
46 THE XEW EMPIRE.
been $776,780,670. Then came Colorado, ^Montana, Idaho,
Utah. Arizona, and Dakota, each having to stem the tide of
popular distrust, to prove by actual demonstration the exist-
ence of precious metals in their river beds and mountain
langes; but they have given their millions to the commerce of
the world. The total bullion yield of the new empire since
1S4S reaches the enormous sum of $2,607,006,786.
The early pioneers, the brave, the intelligent, the indus-
trious pioneers of those mineral regions, were invariably
looked upon by the incredulous as voluntary e.xiles, sacrific-
ing home, friends and the comforts of civilization for the wild
life of a frontiersman. But the results, the magnificent re-
sults which these pioneers have achieved, the victories they
have won, and the long list of those who now count their coin
by the million, gathered from these newly-found mines, is a
proof which the world is compelled to accept of the wisdom
of their course.
In the face of this enormous yield of precious metals
and all that has been achieved through this yield, much is
said by a certain class about the money that has been ex-
pended and the losses sustained in mining enterprises. True,
mines have been purchased at almost fabulous prices, but, in
nearly every instance, when the purchasers exercised the same
judgment that careful business men would use in other trans-
actions of equal magnitude, they have received rich returns
for their investments.
During the year 1884 there were 5,582 failures by those
engaged in other callings in the United States alone, with
total liabilities amounting to $81,155,932. This sum, the
liabilities for one year in the United States alone, is greater
than that of all the failures in mining enterprises from the
landing of Xoah's Ark to the present day, whilst the losses,
through the failure of banking and other business houses in
Europe and America, have been simply appalling. But this
appears to be regarded by the anti-mining class as the legiti-
mate effects of natural causes. Millions may be lost through
corrupt bank officiaLs, .scheming railroad magnaties, or those
engaged in commercial pursuits, without apparently shaking
THE NEW EMPIRE. 47
their confidence or provoking a feeling of distrust; but, if a
few thousand dollars arc absorbed in a mining enterprise
without returning at least double the amount invested during
the first three months, the investor proceeds to get up a gen-
eral howl, ami whines and sniffles about it as though an
irreparable calamity had befallen him.
But losses are not only sustained through the failure of
banking and commercial houses and bankrupt railroads, but
bankrupt States and municipalities. From a statement in a
recent number of the Money Market Reviezv it was shown
that English financiers had advanced b}- loans to the several
bankrupt States of Europe and South America upwards of
;^6oo,ooo,ooo or $3,000,000,000 in twenty-five years, and at
that time the market quotations of the stock gave it a value
of a little over i^6o,000,ooo, so that in a quarter of a century
there had been a depreciation or loss of over ;^500,000,000 or
$2,500,000,000. These loans had been to Turkey, Spain,
Greece, P2gypt, Mexico, Grenada, Venezuela, Iquique, Hon-
duras, Peru, Chili, Paraguay, Uruguay, and other places.
Lord Derby, in a public speech some time back, stated that
the loss to British capital advanced to defaulting States alone
had been over ;!^300,ooo,ooo or $1,500,000,000. Although a
considerable amount of the money loaned "to those countries
might have been re-invested in English goods, there can be
little doubt that by far the greater portion of the bullion sent
to these countries has become absorbed amongst the popula-
tion, and the Governments, in most cases, are unable to pay
the interest or principal. Nearly one-half of the new work-
ing capital of gold now furnished to and distributed through-
out the world by the gold-mining population has been unfortu-
nately sunk in these bankrupt States of Europe and South
America. The same authority goes on to say, " Had the
financiers and capitalists of England devoted a tithe of that
vast sum so irretrievably lost in foreign bankrupt States, to
the practical developments of gold-mining resources of the
Australian Colonies, they would not only have materially
aided the legitimate developments of mining, increased the
supply of gold or purchasing power, and fostered other indus-
48
THE yEW EMPIRE.
tries and forms of wealth incidental thereto, but would, in all
probability, have been ampl\- rewarded for their outlay."
Not only has mining produced this $5,862,165,000 of
bullion, but it has wrested the Pacific half of America and
the island continent of Australia from a wilderness. It has
created a demand for new industries, has created these new
industries and hundreds of millions of wealth in permanent
improvements, furnishing employment for the labor of the
COXDUCTING WATER TO 1 HE MINES.
poor, and the capital of the rich. Thomas Cornish, in an
article published in the London Minijig Journal, says: " The
value of our gold supply has occasionally received attention
at the hands of some writers on finance and political economy,
but it is somewhat surprising that a subject of such vast
importance to the general jjrogrcss <){ the world has not been
more fully dealt with." And continues: " There can be little
doubt but that ihc unparalleled production of new wealth by^
the gold and silver mines, has been the primary cause of the
THE yEW EMPIRE.
49
rapid progress of events, the enormous increased wea.cn and
prosp'jrit)' of many civilized nations, and in consequence of
this general advancement of wealth, intelligence, trade, com-
merce and finance, it has become an absolute necessity that
the annual production of gold should not maintain its present
standard, but that the supply of new gold should increase
annually in the same ratio as trade, commerce, and popula-
tion." Mining must, therefore, be considered one of the
most important industries of the world, and one to which
there should be more intelligent consideration given than has
heretofore been done.
And,adding anothertestimony,"It will not be questioned,"
says Mr. Stephen Williamson, a conservative English writer,
"that the large increase of the world's money, due to the
Australian and Californian mineral discovery^ led to a great
extention of the world's commerce. The interchange of
commodities was marvelously stimulated. Labor had for
many years a greatly augmented recompense; the material
comfort and welfare of mankind were greatly promoted.
Real and personal property increased enormous!}- in value all
over the civilized world. The foreign commerce of England
alone rose from ;^250,000,ooo in 1852 to ^650,000,000 in
1S75, and it has been gradually increasing to the present
time. The foreign commerce of many other nations rose in
like proportion."
Production of the precious metals throughout the world
in 18S4:—
AMERICA.
(IoIlI. Silver. 'Vo^aX.
British Columbia $ 3,000,000 $ 3,000,000
United ^^tates 40,000,000 $47,000,000 87,000,000
Me.vcico 1,000,000 15.000.000 16,000.000
Guatemala 2.000,000 40 '.ooo 2,400,000
Honiluras 750,000 150,000 900.000
San -Salvador 1,125000 225,000 1,350,000
Nicaragua 875,000 175-00° 1,050,000
Co-ta kica 250,000 50,000 300,000
Columbia 3,000,000 i, 000,000 4,000,000
Peru 1,000.000 5,000,000 6,000,000
Chili 1,000,000 3,000000 4,000,000
Buenos Avres i, ooo, 000 1,000.000 2,000.000
Argentina Republic 1,000.000 i.ooo.ooo 2.000.000
Hnizil 2,000.000 1,000.000 3,000,000
Other C'ountrie.s 1,000,000 1,000.000 2.000,000
Total $59,000,000 $76,000,000 $ 1 35,000,000
■i
50
THE NEW EMPIRE.
EUROPE.
Gold. Silver. Tot.il.
Kussi.1 $i3,ooo,ocx) $1,000,000 $14,000,000
Austria 2,000,000 1,000,000 3,000,000
I'russia 1.000,000 1,000,000 2,000,000
France 1,500,000 2,000,000 3,500,000
Spain 1,000,000 1,000,000 2,000,000
Other Countries 1,000,000 1,000,000 2,000,000
'I'otal $19,500,000 $7,000,000 $26,500,000
ASIA.
Gold. Silver. Total.
Japan .... $1,500,000 $2,000,000 $3,500,000
Borneo 3,000,000 3,000,000
China 2,000,000 2,000,000
Archipelago 3,000,000 5,000,000 8,000,000
Total $9,500,000 $7,000,000 $16,500,000
.Vustralia $iS,ooo,ooo $1,000,000 $19,000,000
New Zealand 7,000,000 1,000,000 8,000,000
Africa 4,000,000 1,000,000 5,000,000
Oceanica 1,000,000 1,000,000 2,000,000
Grand Total $118,000,000 $94,000,000 $212,000,000
Now we have found by this investitjation that the pro-
duction of bullion since 1848 amounts to $5,862,165,000.
That mining during the last thirty years has created
more wealth, stimulated greater enterprise and industry, and
jjroduced more beneficial results to the commercial world
than all the other industries combined.
That mining is a safe, legitimate business when con-
ducted on sound business princip'es.
That the hazard and loss to capitalists are less than in
most other enterprises in which men engage and invest their
money.
That the profits derived from mining are larger and more
regular than in most avocations in life.
That the demands for the precious metals are increasing
year by year, and that their continued production is a para-
mount necessity.
That mining is deserving of and shouh! receive the at-
tention of scientists, financiers, and the enterprising men ol
the world
.-.J
52 THE XEW EMPIRE.
CHAP T K R \^ I I I .
DEALING IN STOCKS.
There are three ways in which property can l)e rightfully acquired:
By labor, which includes legitimate speculative investment.
By discovery,
And by voluntary gift, which includes inheritance.
THERE arc but few, if indeed there is a single question
of any magnitude of a public nature on which all agree^
and it i.s riijht ; it is natural that thinkers as well as the
unthinking should differ, because from such difference much
good issues. Mining, for instance, in all its phases, is repre-
sented by some as purely a business of chance or speculation ;
thus conveying, or attempting to convey, the impression that
this branch of industry is more hazardous than most other
undertakings where industry and capital are necessary to
abundant success. But the doctrine is absurdly erroneous.
In point of fact, when reduced to its proper standard it will
be found that all monetary success may be summed up in
that one word, speculation. Look at it, turn it, analyze it as
you will, the speculative element is blended with all our
secular affairs, pervades every business avenue of life. Vast
fortunes have been aniassed in every quarter of the civilized
glcjbe, but by whom — from what particular business? Not
necessarily the high born nor those of scholarly attainments
or accomplishments, but to the speculator in speculative vent-
ures, to those who grasp the present, forecast the future, and
discount results ; the men who resolutely embark in large
mining ventures, who invest judiciously in real estate, who
connect thcinselves with and manage great railroads and
railroad enterprises, or who engage as wholesale merchants
in goods of universal necessity, — these arc the men who
ama s colossal fortunes. To accumulate wealth as the miser
does, is a slow process indeed, and will not compare in its
results with the grand operations of bold, \ ct prudent men.
The man who determines to invest in real estate, selects his
location in or near .some prosperous and growing city; for
THE NEW EMPIRE. 5£
}'cars his iiucstineiit ma}' not seem to pa)', may indeed be a
burden to him, but when, by t'nc natural growth of the city
antl surrouiulin;^^ country, his hinds arc enhanced, he finds
himself rich as b\' ma;j;ic. Tlie })rojcctors and managers ol
raih'oads move with greater celerity, if with less certainty.
Their success depends less upon the efforts of outside parties,
and more upon the vigor and persistence with which they
pusli their own enterprise. Again, the control of large sums
enables them to exercise their financial abilities in many
channels at the same time. Their connection, moreover, with
a certain clique, makes them possessed of everything worth
knowing regarding the market position of stocks, and here
is really where great fortunes are made, and made quickly.
Vandcrbilt, Gould, Sage, and their compeers, spent years
of early life in accumulating what in late years they would
realize in a single day. Stanford, Crocker, and their asso-
ciates, are exponents of the same doctrine. The merchant's
gains come more slowly. Great competitions circumscribe
the profits of all small dealers. It is only the wholesale
dealer, the man who ventures largely in staple articles, that
can hope to rise speedil)' in the scale of fortune. The pork
packers of Cincinnati and the grain merchants of Chicago
present examples of the speedy acquisition of wealtli by
large and quick transaction.s. But John P. Jones, James C.
Flood, John \V. Macka\-, James G. Fair, and George Hearst
afford still more brilliant examples by the princely fortunes
extending into the millions which they have amassed in the
mines of the Pacific Coast. A few years ago they were poor
men. They examined the situation; they forecast the future
and operated boldly for grand results. They stepped out of
what is known to the slow plodder as the rut of legitimate
business, and entered upon the domain of speculation, hon-
orable speculation, and all true speculation is honorable.
The same opportunities, the same line of action pursued
by them, is open to others who ha\e the dash and the moral
courage to emulate their example.
But it may be urged that all do not make money who
eno;a<re in mininij; neither do all succeed who engage in
54 THE NEW EMPIRE.
banking, in mercantile pursuits or any other profession cr
calling to which men direct their ability and energy. Pros-
perity and adversity are to be met in all the diversified walks
of life. The prompt business man with judgment and nerve
may fairly expect as large and rapid returns from the invest-
ment of capital and the employment of his time in sound
mining transactions, as in the most promising, in fact as in
any other avenue now open. But it -may be said that mining
leads to stock-gambling; so do canals; so do railroads; so do
Government securities; so do all enterprises too large for
private undertaking and doing business necessarily in the
form of stock companies. But shall we therefore have no
more canals, no more railroads, no more great undertakmgs
of any kind, because, as it is urged, unprincipled men seize
upon mining stocks as a favorite means of gambling? Shall
we, therefore, abandon sound mining and mining transac-
tions? As well abandon money itself, because in what
j>rofcssion, trade, or calling are there not gamblers, schemers
and workers of iniquity? Do not journalists prostitute their
journals for gain ? Do not lawyers sell their abilities to any
man who has the money and chooses to pay them ? And do
not clergymen have the loudest call to parishes which pay
the largest salaries ? Do not some merchants give short weight
and adulterate their wares? Do not some milkmen extend
their fluid at the town pump, and whisky men enlarge their
supplies from the kerosene can ? Do not some cloth and pa-
per merchants know the value of shoddy and sizing, and so
on to the end of the list? It is idle and mischievous to select
the members of any particular class or profession, of gener-
ally respectable people, and attempt to make them out worse
than their neighbors. Human nature is human nature all
the world round, in all grades of society. " Cast out the
beam out of thine own eye, and then shalt thou see
clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother's eye" is a
short and pungent exhortation that all will do well to
remember.
The annual yield of our mines is a proof positive of their
excellence. The enormous fortunes made during the past
riJE NEW EMPIRE. 55
tweiUy-five years by successful dealers in mining stocks, are
witnesses, the power and force of whose testimony neither
sophistry can weaken nor argument overthrow. They are
realities to be measured and counted by all. Reduced to a
business basis, whether in stocks, gravel beds, or quartz
ledges, mining is precisely like any other business, with its
bright and shady sides, in the main just what those engaged
in it make it, nothing more, nothing less. " From quack
lawyers, and quack doctors, and quack preachers, good Lord
deliver us," was the prayer of the pious old farmer, and he
might, with propriety, have embraced a few other quacks in
his petition, in order, as Mrs. Whittlesey would say, "to make
the platform broad enough to kiver the /tz^// ground."
When it becomes necessary to transact business, whether
in stocks or otherwise, through the medium of an agent, it is
wisdom, it is safe only to select a responsible, reliable man,
one who is conscious of the fact that his business success de-
pends on his doing right.
CHAPTER IX.
OTHER MINERALS.
ACCORDING to the report of the United States Geolog-
ical Survey for 1884, the enormous sum of $800,000,-
000 is invested in American mining enterprises, all branches
included, as productive capital; nearly half a million people
are employed, and the annual production for the period over
which the report runs was $413,104,620, or over fifty per cent,
on the capital invested. Just drive a peg there.
At the first blush these figures may be regarded with
astonishment by a large number of generally well-informed
people. As the figures are official, however, they must be
accepted as correct.
But we arc particularly examining the mining interests of
the Pacific slope of the continent, all acquired territor}-, and
most of it long after the nation's independence. California,
the key-stone of the industry, practically came into the Union
X
O
iz;
<5
•J
THE A £11' EMPIRE. 57
on the 7th of July, 1846, when the emblem of liberty and
progress was hoisted at Monterey, and gold and silver, the
most valuable of all metals, are chiefly being considered.
The gold is found in two general divisions — placer and
quartz — and a large number of men are engaged in both
divisions. The pan, rocker, flume, sluice and other methods,
including hydraulic power, are common on placer fields; but
in quartz mining expensive machinery is necessary, and also
a higher grade material. Although a few placer fields have
been discovered in different sections of the coast, those of
California are b}- far the largest, richest and most enduring;
they are thousands of acres in extent, and their product is
counted by the billion.
SILVER.
Nevada may fairly be styled the alma mater of silver-
mining in America, and, indeed, the world, for she excels all
other regions of equal radius, in production, and has been the
educator of the world in the silver-mining business. Up to
the discovery of the Comstock lode, the methods in vogue
for taking out ore and extracting the silver were crude in the
extreme. All the valuable new processes discovered and
applied, through science, ingenuity and skill in this art, date
from Nevada; and she has graduated a long list of brilliant
men, gi\cn them fortune and fame, and set them as lights on
the mountain-top, to guide others of equal courage, industry
and frugality, to equal fortune and equal fame.
A great deal of fault has been found with the manage-
ment of these mines. Well, the men who had control of
them doubtless managed them to suit themselves, just as
those engaged in other avocations managed their business,
and the privilege is open to these fault-finders to manage
mines for themselves; they can either bu\' or go out into the
mountains and discover. But the\' have neither the money
to do the first nor the courage nor industry for the latter;
their cry is, ''Divide.'' The world is full of tramps, socialists,
renegades from good families, honorable professions and excel-
lent opportunities, who find fault with everybody but them-
selves; whereas, the}- alone are to blame for unappreciated,
58 THE yEW EMPIRE.
wasted talent and unappropriated opportunities. But this is
no reflection on the mines, or the business of mining, nor does
it detract from the value of the $350,000,000 given up by
Nevada's mineral lodes, nor the millions annually produced
by the mines of other Pacific States and Territories.
QUICKSILVER.
Quicksilver, next in value and importance, is also found
in the Pacific empire; but, to more particularly localize the
deposits, they are found in California, and within a hundred
miles of San Francisco. In gold and silver mining it is an
indispensable requisite; without it neither could be carried
forward successfully. There are in all about fifty so-. ailed
quicksilver mines in the State, but only a dozen that have
developed sufficient merit to deserve the name, with a total
production of 5,500 tons. The yield for 1885 was 32,073
flasks of 76y2 pounds each. During the past twenty-five
years the price has ranged from 35 cents to $1.55 a pound.
COAL.
The production and consumption of coal on the Pacific
Coast are increasing. In 1883, the amount brought to San
Francisco alone was 899,301 tons; in 1885, it was 1,223,339
tons. Of coke the importation in 1884 was 10,695 tons; in
1885 it was 20,61 1 tons.
Coal mines are found in California, Oregon, Utah, New
Mexico, Arizona, Colorado, Sonora, Washington and Alaska,
and in British Columbia, the last-named place furnishing the
best quality. But the importations are from Europe and
Australia as well as from British Columbia, brought here by
vessels in ballast, a better article, with cheaper transportation,
than from our own collieries.
Our coal deposits arc numerous and extensive, brt so far
as discovered are of the bituminous quality. They are incon-
veniently situated, and arc burdened ^\•ith heavy transporta-
tion. Three wealthy corporations are struggling for the
control of the rharkct; they have the money, business expe-
rience and appliance, hence it is unli,scly that any new mines
will be opened for a loner time to come, as it would be enter-
THE NEW EMJ'IRE. 59
ing a hazardous field already monopolized, against dangerous
competitors.
PETROLEUM.
Pennsylvania was long regarded as the coal and iron
State of America; then she led off in the production of coal
oil, and still continues to rank the world in this commodity
As in quicksilver, so in petroleum, California is the only State
on the Pacific slope where oil is known to exist in paying
quantities, or where any considerable money has been invested
in the business. In Montana, Idaho and Washin:;ton, what
are called surface indications have been found, but no dis-
covery of consequence has been made, while the general
formation and the broken nature of the country are thought
to be adverse to profitable oil wells in those regions. As far
back as 1865 capitalists became interested in the oil regions
of California, and since that time they have spent a million
dollars or more in machinery and in boring wells. The oil
production of the State for 1885 was about 5,000,000 gallons,
being an increase of 25 per cent, over the preceding )'ear;
and it has been demonstrated that this output can be enor-
mously increased. But the oil, like the coal business of the
coast, is practically controlled by powerful monopoly.
Iron, copper, antimou)', lead, asphaltum, sulphur, scjap-
stone, graphite, gypsum and diamonds are also found on the
coast, and some of them in large quantities and of excel-
lent quality; but capital, courage and industry are requisite to
develop and gather their great wealth.
Beginning with the first gold excitement caused b)' the
placer discoveries in California in 1S48, between that year and
1865 we had: The California quartz discoveries in 1851; the
Australian gold find in 1852; the Oregon gold excitement in
the same year; that of Washington Territory in 1854; the
Peru gold rush in the same year; the great copper discover-
ies on Lake Superior in 1855; the Arizona discovery in 1856;
same in Nevada in 1857; the Frazer River rush in 1858; Cali-
fornia copper in i860; Pennsylvania petroleum in 1863 he
Reese River boom in 1864; California petroleum and Colorado
gold excitement in 1865 — and the end is not )-et. System
60 ' THE XEW EMPIRE.
and organization may prevail more largel}^ tlian before, but
let it be remembered that only a tithe of the precious metals
has yet seen the light on the Pacific Coast. Many a bonanza
is waiting for the lucky man, and many a ledge abandoned
for a rush elsewhere, is biding its time for exposure of fabu-
lous wealth.
CHAPTER X.
YOSEMITE.
THE Pacific Coast is rich in natural wonders. Even as
\-ou approach it fcom the East, the way is thick set with
deserts over which the mirage shimmers with its disembodied
forests, flowers and fountains, and the mountain gateways
are pillared with grand forms of many colored rocks. The
exalteci fancy is fed upon these scenes w ich lie in front of
the curtain which is finally lifted as the traveler passes the
summit of the Sierras and slips down their hither slopes. He
ma)' have left winter behind in the Mississippi Valley, but here
he is in the midst of spring. The forest around is vocal with
the song of birds; the vineyards and orchards are offering
their promise of fruit and wine; and with h.'s glance resting
on green turf and fl(jwer-spattered fields, high above them
all, he sees the white line of snow resting on the Sierra's ser-
ried spine. The impression is never forgotten. That chain
of mountains is the Himalaya of California, and on the plains
below flow the counterpart of the holy rivers of India, and
only the lowly Sudra and the lofty Brahmin and the great
gulf between them are lacking to make a Hindostan in mini-
ature. Once within the mountain walls there are problems
in botany, geology, zoology and mineralogy which excite the
wonder of scientific men; but aside from these which invoke
skill in chemistry, knowledge of vegetable physiology and
comparative anatomy, we have in the wild scenery of our
mountains, in our hot springs and geysers, a series of related
phenomena furnished by no other part of the world. But
after an industrious curiosity .shall have seen them all, when,
if possible, the senses are jaded by the unfolding marvels,
then let Yosemite be seen.
GENERAL VIEW OF YOSEMITE VALLEY.
62 THE NEW EMPIRE.
The route to it lies down the Southern Pacific railway to
Berenda, where tiie just constructed Yosemite road leaves
the main line and shortens the statue ride to the Valley by
one day, and the onl\' day on the original route that was list-
less with lack of interest. By the Berenda road the lirst
da}-'s dinner is at Grant's White Sulphur Springs, where
Judge Grant, formerK' chief justice of Iowa, founder of the
smelting industry of Colorado, president of the National
Trotting Association, and millionaire, has founded the most
elegant of resorts upon waters that by contrast leave the
fainous White Sulphur of Virginia without virtue. From
Grant's, on the splendid road, spurned by the flying heels of
the six horses which pull your coach at an unceasing gallop,
the charms and marvels of the mountain region multiply
every moment. Springs fed by the snows that are still far
above your head, burst from the rocks by the way-side. You
drink the crystal water. It is nectar. Around and above
3'ou tower the sugar pines, on whose sides the crystallized
sugar stands in pine-apple-like masses.
The elevation, the air clarified of impurities, the lilies that
embroider the carpet of turf and pine needles, the frequent
lofty outlook across the great San Joaquin Valley, across the
dwarfed Coast Range and to the Pacific Ocean, whose surf
roars and rolls the sand a hundred and sixty miles away, all
join to transfigure the beholder and make him seem to step
out of his former self, as he has in fact gone out of, and above
that world in which he felt like a worm, while here he feels
like a god.
At Clark's Mountain House there is rest for the night,
and for breakfast apt to be mountain trout just delivered
from stream so cold that the scaly beauty just out of it, pains
your hand if you hold it. Such waters Izaak Walton never
whipped with a fly, and such fish crisped over a broiling fire
of cedar coals, no king ever ate. Near this Mountain House
arc the big trees of Mariposa, nearly 500 in the group, prone
and erect. The)- stand, the survivors of the earliest vege-
tat'on that came upon these mountains when nature had done
retching, and her upheavals were finished. Here they have
1 111
•5 [ THE XE \V EMPIRE.
stood in solemnity and majesty all their own, and the years
counted back to their germination melt into a perspective so
remote that it easily embraces the earliest recorded history,
and includes the rise and fall of empires that were dissolved
by old a£^e when they had reached a thousand years. But to
the monarchy of these kings of the forest there has been no
end. They are not a dynast}', for nature has confessed her
incapacity to repeat the effort which brought them forth.
Without ancestry and without posterity, requiring the frame-
work of a continent for their throne, they are the type of that
eternity with which their sapling growth began and with
which they endure, matchless, majestic, inscrutable !
Around their giant trunks and in their shadow-s, in his
childhood, played the Indian Sequoia, and in his manhood
he noted their difference in size, in foliage, bark and seed cone,
from the neighbors which grew in their shadow; and as he
was the first to guide to them German botanists, the trees that
had sheltered his infancy, and had awed his dawning con-
sciousness, were called by his name," Sequoia."
Loth to leave the trees and the mountain house the trav-
eler, whose roused interest has risen superior to fatigue, looks
forward to the second and last day's stage, which is to end at
the valley. He has a conception of it. A valley suggests
to him browsing herds whose bells tinkle while they nip the
herbage or chew the cud. Just how such a valley shall rest
amongst these lofty mountains, grows into the speculation of
the traveler as the coach maintains its skyward flight, and at
last he seems abreast of the bald ridge, in all months snow-
crowned. If his entry of the Yosemite be by Glacier Point,
he finds himself looking out over mighty corrugations high
above timber line, and with but little to encourage his cher-
ished vision of a pastoral valley. Where can be the cas-
cades and water-falls, the limpid river making a silvered
line down flowery meadows? Around are rocks, massive^
pitiles.s, ponderous, and immutable, who.se crevices offer no
home to grass, blade, or shrub, and which grudge the uncanny
lichen its scanty living and home inhospitable.
Where is the valley ? All at once, from Glacier Point, in-
THE NEW EMPIRE. (5')
stead of lookin<,^ ahead, you look down, and, straight as a
bullet would drop from your hand, 3,500 feet beneath, lies the
valley. You are standing 7,201 feet above the sea, and the
verdant floor of Yosemite has dropped half that distance
back. Here are no gentle slopes, for the granite walls that
shut the valley in rise mostly as straight as the plumb-line
can drop. No description can do justice to this greatest
natural marvel in the world.
At Niagara you have the world of water droning an
eternal doxology, then the gorge, the whirlpool, and, well, the
hickmen. But here are the grand steps that lead up to the
king of natural glories, and tell as much as pen may and tire.
After it is seen, you realize that the half has not been told, for
trees, mountain peaks, canons, forests, and naked rocks piled
in that confusion in which nature cast them as her work was
finished, had made you expect to see something all unlike
this focus of all natural wonders.
It is as if the topmost ridge of the Sierras, which here
preserves a main direction of north and south, had been
parted right across, been pulled apart when it was sto plastic
that the general shape of the wound it left is that of a birch
canoe, wider in the middle and tapering at the ends. Upon
the floor of this space, disintegrated granite has sifted from
the walls, and the inflowing streams have brought the elements
of soil until its general surface is a meadow, charmingly
dotted with trees, and from the height at which you are look-
ing, if the sun be streaming through the western cleft in the
rocks, it looks like a bijou curving, like a cameo setting to a
ring or brooch. But yoli are looking down upon a tract 14
miles in length by 3 broad at its widest part, and into it there
pour water-falls that leap, unchecked, from heights varying
from 500 to 3,270 feet. Here is Po-ho-no, the Bridal Veil,
860 feet, and looking like a white plume swayed by the wind;
Yosemite, 2,548 feet, a great web of fluffy white satin, it seems,
hung over the cliff; Pi-wy-ack, Vernal Falls, 336 feet, called
the Cataract of Diamonds, because of the lights that play upon
it; Yo-wi-ye, the Nevada Falls, full of splendors as the sunset
strikes its snowy surface; ^u-lu-la-wi-ack. South Fork, 500
5 -
VERNAL FALLS, YOSEMITE.
THE NEW EMPIRE. G7
feet, and Loy-a, the Sentinel Falls, 3,270 feet. Where else
in the world has nature so used her fountains for grand effect?
Standing at Glacier Point, you sec the mountain peaks, whose
feet are planted in the green turf of the valley far below.
You are told their height, but you are dumb to all concep-
tion of its immensity. Here is Tis-sa-ack, the Half Dome, by
the original Indian occupants fondly called the Goddess of
the Valley, 8,823 ^'^^t high; Cloud's Rest, 9,912 feet; To-coy-
ae, North Dome, 7,526 feet; Glacier Point, from which you
took your first look, 7,201 feet; Cathedral Rock, 6,631 feet;
Mah-tah, the Cap of Liberty, 7,062 feet; Mount Starr King,
9.080 feet; Union Point, 6,290 feet; Pom-pom-pa-sus, the
Falling Rocks, or Three Brothers, 7,751 feet; Poo-see-nah
Chuck-ka, the Cathedral Spires, 5,934 feet; Sentinel Dome, 8, 1 22
feet; the Sentinel, 7,065 feet; Inspiration Point, 5,248 feet ; and
grand old Tu-tock-ah-nu-lah, chief of the valley, El Capitan, not
so lofty as some, but with a certain broadness of shouldci' and
solidity justifying his headship of this mountain clan of
mountains, rising 7,012 feet. Where again in the world has
nature planted mountain peaks so thickly, and so distinguished
for features that draw pilgrims from every country ?
You are at Glacier Point; you descend by a trail that
zigzags down the wall. You may do it on foot, or on horse-
back. When \-ou are down in the valley, turn and look back
along the way you have traveled ; it is like looking against
the straight white wall of your room. High above }'OU ap-
pear other parties coming down the path you have just trod,
and they look like specks stuck against a perfectly perpen-
dicular wall.
On and into the walls on both sides of the valley these
trails are cut, and men and women, mounted on sure-footed
horses, go up and down like flics walking on the window-
pane. If your head and hand are' steady, there is no end to
the exhilarating adventure furnished by the cliffs and mount-
ains that girt and guard the placid green of the valley. A
Scotch bird-catcher, of St. Kilda, has scaled one of the lof-
tiest peaks and planted an iron mast in its summit, to which
a rope is fastened. B>- taking hold of this, with feet against
G8 THE XEW EMPIRE.
the rock, and going hand over hand, you can pull }-ourseif
to a height of nearlv 9,000 feet. ]\Ianv trv it, and several
ladies have succeeded. But one can admire Niagara without
shooting the falls in a canoe; and one can get an experience
without which a life-time seems barren, by staying on the
charming walks and drives of the valley's floor, or, at most,
trying the safe trails.
When the moon is at the full and rises over the eastern end
of the valley, so in line with the Nevada Fall that her silver
seems to be pouring out of her face and down the cliff, sights are
seen of such majesty and so full of inspiration that descrip-
tive language is as idle as dumb show. As the moon climbs
the sky, one side of the valley is in solemn shadow, while the
white walls, peaks and water-falls on the other side take on a
softness and tone that easily persuade the fancy that the eye
is beholding something that is not of this world.
If you are not so lucky as to catch a full moon, it en-
tails earlier rising that you may see the da\- born and pillowed
in this cradle made on purpose for the young god. For quiet
pleasures there are buggy rides, and then down through the
valley's midst flows the crystalline Merced. Its waters are
liquid diamonds, and floating over the pure white sand are rain-
bow trout that drive you wild. But after all this is said, and
were it even said by the inspired tongue of an archangel, there
comes the same despairing admission that no painting, pho-
tograph nor phrase that can be framed in words, can describe
the beauty, purit)', majesty and awe-inspiring grandeur of
Vosemite. Hence all is focused in this advice: Take the
train to Berenda, see for \-ourself and bring away an impres-
sion that will endure like the memory of your first kiss.
CHAPTER XI.
SCHOOL, rULl'IT AND rRE.SS.
IT was a statesman who declared that, compelled to choose,
he would rather have newspapers without Government, than
a Government without newspapers.
r
C
z
2
70 THE yEW EMPIRE.
The press, pulpit and school are the unofficial, volunteer,
spontaneous institutions of civilization Its merits are meas-
ured by their excellence. They are the barometer, thermom-
eter and wind gauge by which our moral meteorology is regis-
tered.
The schools of California were founded in the first con-
stitution under which the State was admitted to the Union.
The foundation was ample and it became , the model for the
other States and Territories of the New Empire. The oppor-
tunities for common school culture are as accessible and their
scope as satisfactory here as in any part of the Union. The
country school is up to the severe standard of New England
excellence, and the city systems offer facilities for liberal cult-
ure unexcelled-
To illustrate, Oakland, the second city of California, has
attached to her city school system an astronomical observa-
tory, with telescope equal to that of Albany or Chicago, and
a complete set of instruments for the study of physical and
mathematical astronomy. No other common school system
in the Union has such an adjunct. This splendid equipment
entire, is the gift of a public-spirited citizen. The tendency
of our people to encourage science and culture has many sig-
nificant illustrations, as the Lick Observatory, the library and
art gallery of the Berkeley University and the foundation of
the Stanford University at Menlo Park.
The thoughtful parents planning a migration and the
foundation of a new home, always ask first, " What are the
school facilities?" Here under the gifts and endowments re-
lating to higher education,. is the ample foundation for the
common school, the origin and source of that fundamental
knowledge which is absolutely necessary to a contented and
prosperous life, and which in all cases is the thread to be fol-
lowed forward into ampler learning and upward to the high-
est attainable culture.
The tinkle of the school bell follows the 9 o'clock sun
across the New Empire from the eastern line in the mountains
to its western border that slopes into the sea, and all along
rise the chaste walls of seminaries, colleges, convents, schools
THE NEW EMPIRE.
l\
and other institutions existing by private enterprise or the
patronage of different churches; and as the sun slopes to the
west, the future rulers of the New Empire troop from the
OAKLAND HIGH SCHOOL BUILDING.
school-house door homeward, and as 4 o'clock rings along,
leaping the meridians of longitude like a race-horse taking the
hurdles, this army marches, shod or shoeless, still in its disci-
pline and brain and brawn girt with the hopes, the happiness
and the greatness of all the future. Beardless soldiers, brave
72 TJIE SEW EMPIRE.
ill their innocence, strong in obedience and discipline, the
common scliool trains them for the evolutions of life's battle,
and its work is nobler than the tactics taught at Woolwich or
St, C\T
The banner of the cross was first borne to this coast,
more than one hundred \-ears ago, by the devoted padres who
came as missionaries to the Indian tribes. The story is full of fas-
cination. Its points are glowing with the national warmth of
the Spanish character, suffused with a religious zeal that counted
itself happy in the discovery of obstacles and the presence of
danger. The story of the Spanish missions has been told
niiin}' times, but its interest is not exhausted by repetition-
All along the coast from San Diego to San Francisco stand
the mission churches, man\^ of them more than a century old,
their adobe walls def\'ing the abrading blows of time, to which
many newer and more pretentious structures have yielded.
The mission fathers brought with them wheat, the olive and
vine; for bread and wine and oil are the elements in sacrament
and ceremony dear to the believer's heart. So it came to pass
that the three leading products of our soil, upon which now
tens of thousands depend for support, were planted first by
holy hands and consecrated to use in the mysteries which are
around the lintel of that low door b)' which we enter immor-
tality.
Following this venerable establishment, as other peoples
and other creeds were lured to the new land, came all tlie
communions, and with tlicm to the different pulpits such
strong men as are alwax's in the front. llii: I'i'esbyterian,
Baptist, Methodist, Christian, Episcopalian, Congregational,
Advent, Unitarian, Univcrsalist and all others, soon floated
their standards, and go where you will it is not possible to get
beyond the influence, or far from convenient resort to the
temple of God that shall best accord with your tastes and
convictions. Here the Israelite has built noble synagogues
and in them cultured rabbis unrcjll the scroll of the Pentateuch;
and here cathedrals and churches of fine antl noble architect-
ure attest at once the jiiety and liberality of a people who
THE .VI:: I r emj'ire. 73
look through nature up to nature's God, with a vision clarified
by daily observation of the beauties and the blessings created
here and planted in their place by an Almight}- Hand.
It was a prudent mother who objected to Ben. Franklin
as a husband for her daughter because he was a printer and
a newspaper man, and there were already two newspapers in
America and she thought the business was so overdone that
the cup would never be found in Benjamin's sack.
Since her day the press has wonderfully multiplied, not
only in America, but all over the world. A very patient stat-
istician has compiled some interesting figures as to the total
number of newspapers and other periodicals published in every
part of the world, and brings the total number up to 35,000,
thus giving one to every 28,000 inhabitants. Europe, accord-
ing to these calculations, has 20,000 newspapers, Germany
coming first with 5,500, of which 800 are published daily;
the oldest being the Po&t Zeitiing, published in Frankfort in
1616, while the one with the largest circulation is the Berliner
Tageblatt, which prints 55,000 copies. Great Britain comes
ne.xt with 4,000 newspapers, of which 800 are published daily;
while France has 4,092, of which 360 onl)' arc daily. Italy
comes fourth, with 1,400 newspapers, of which 200 are pub-
lished at Rome, 140 at Milan, 120 at Naples, 94 at Turin, and
70 at Florence, the oldest being the Gazetta di Geneva, first
published in 1797. Twelve hundred newspapers are published
in Austro-Hungary, of which 150 arc daily, the most remark-
able of the Austrian journals being one called Acta Coinpar-
ationis Literaruin Ufiiversaruni, which is a review of compar-
ative literative literature, with contributors in e\er)- part of the
world, each of whose articles is printed in its native tongue.
Spain has about 50 journals, of which a third are political; and
Russia has only 800, of which 200 are printed at St. Petersburg
and 75 at Moscow. Several of these journals are printed in
3 different languages, and there are also 4 published in
French, 3 in German, 2 in Latin and 2 in Hebrew, besides
several others in Polish, Finnish, Tartar and Georgian.
Greece has upward of 600 newspapers, of which 54 appear at
7-1- THE XE W EMPIRE.
Athens, while Switzerland has 450 and Holland and Belgium
about 300 each. There are 3,000 journals published in Asia,
of which no fewer than 2,000 appear in Japan; but in China
the only newspapers not published by residents at the treaty
ports are the Ning-Pao, din official journal published at Pekin;
the Clicn-Pao and the Hu-Pao, published at Shanghai, and
the Government journal, which was brought out in Corea last
year. There are 3 newspapers published in French, Cochin,
China, and i in Tonquin (i'Avenir du Tonkifi),the rest of the
newspapers credited to Asia appearing in India, with the ex-
ception of 6, which arc published in Persia. Africa can
boast of only 300 papers, of which 30 appear in Egypt and
the remainder in the colonies of England.. France, etc. The
United States possess about 12,500 periodicals, of which
1,000 are published daily, the oldest being the Boston A'ezus,
which was first published in 1794. Among the United States
journals there are no fewer than 120 edited and published by
negroes, the oldest of these being the E/eva^or,' which was
brought out of San Francisco 18 years ago. Canada has 700
newspapers, a considerable proportion of which are published
in French; and in South America, the Argentine Republic
comes first with 60 newspapers. Australia has 700 journals,
nearly all published in English, and the Sandwich Islands
8, of which 5 arc in English and 3 in the native tongue.
Out of the 35,000 periodicals enumerated above, 16,500 are
in English, 7,800 in German, 6,580 in French, 1,600 in Span-
ish, and 1,450 in Italian.
The oldest newspaper in the New Empire is the A/^a Cal-
ifornia, San Francisco. It pioneered the way for a numer-
ous succession. Throughout the States and Territories of
the Pacific slope newspapers arc thickly planted. In Ari-
zona they plan campaigns again.st the Apaches. In Utah
they skirmish over the Mormon question, and its pros and
cons are served out with great heat. In Nevada the old
glories of the bonanza time occupy them with ancient his-
tory, while the State's growing agriculture, horticulture and
live stock interest.s, as well as the new mines which keep up its
mineral reputation, give the press material themes. In Cali-
THE NE \V EMPIRE. 75
fornia is a country press of peculiar power and intelligence.
It is a faithful reflex of the interests and conditions attract-
ive of immigration, and its unstudied notes of rural matters
are a treasury of valuable information.
The metropolitan press is enterprising, as becomes the
news medium that hangs upon the edge of a continent, in the
Anglo-Saxon commonwealth most remote from the center of
that race, London. In a world by itself, an empire within
an empire, the press of such a community has functions novel
and unknown to journalism in the midst of millions of peo-
ple, and in vital contact with the dense populations which
generate the myriad events we call news. The metropolitan
journals of the New Empire get their news over vast spaces
of land and sea, and its arrangement, assortment, adaptation,
and condensation, call for a tireless industry, and a cosmo-
politan intelligence, — knowledge of men and events, and an
insight, foresight, and hindsight, that are not required in any
other position in the world.
Judged, then, by its schools, its pulpits, and its press, the
New Empire may boast that civilization is planted here, and
that the temples of learning, and religion and the press, join
in guarding the progress of the people in prosperity, and the
gentle arts that make up the intellectual pleasures of life, and
so add to its enjo)'ments.
CHAPTER XII,
HEN'CH A\D BAR.
PEOPLE are careful about permanent investment in any
country until they know that life, liberty and property are
made secure, and have their rights intrenched in an organized
judiciary which brings virtue and intelligence to the guard-
ianship of those institutions which mark the difference be-
tween civilization and savagery. All of the New Empire had
to be wrested from an original proprietorship by methods in-
volving a show of force that does not belong to the judicial
arm. For a time after this transfer it was believed through-
out the world that there was little security here for what a
76 THE NEW EMPIRE.
man earned beyond his own capacity to protect it. But within
thiit}- }-ears of a beginning that was in legal chaos, a sway
of law has been established, and in the Territories the Fed-
eral Government has planted courts to which men resort for a
determination of their rights; and in the States the people
ha\c supplied an electi\e judiciar\- not inferior to that of the
older commonwealths. As business adventure brought here
the flower of }'outhful activit}-, and here it ripened into business
careers the most successful and remarkable that the Republic
has seen, so here the best culture of the law schools, and the
finest capacities in the legal profession, came. A more brilliant,
learned and upright bar has scarcely been seen in America than
was the result. The men composing it found here great legal
questions, in bold outline, and dealing with them, our law\-ers,
to a degree, escaped that species of professional controversy
.vhich, while it ma\' sharpen, tends to narrow the mind.
Ben. Franklin desired that judges should be chosen by
vote of the lawyers, because the\' would alwa)'s choose the
best lawyer, in order to distribute his practice. By natural
choice the people of these States have done this good office
for the profession, for almost without exception the judges of
all the courts have been selected amongst the ablest and, of
course, the most successful practitioners.
The effect of this process has been the rapid spread of
the institutions of civilization. Sheep do not feed where llic
wolves frequent, and propert}- is not accumulated where the
laws and the courts deny to it adequate protection. Here
the New Empire is happ\' in courts that stand sternly in de-
fen.se of all rights, that do not huckster justice, and that form,
therefore, no inconsiderable agency in the attraction of cap-
ital and the luring of immigration to take advantage of the
splendid resources which here await development.
To these courts a president of the United States has
come to get a recruit to the ablest side of the Supreme Court
of the United States, and for men to fill responsible posts in
the Territorial judiciary, where their training fits them admi-
rably for planting and maintaining the forces of society, and
Ja)'ing the judicial foundation of States.
THE XEW EMPIRE ' 77
chapti:r XIII.
MOXTEKEV.
TI I IC pleasant resorts of the Pacific Coast are outj^rowths
of tiic wealth and social taste of the people of the New
Empire. There are fine beaches at Santa Monica, San
Pedro, Montere)-, and Santa Cruz. "Bull Run " Russell, who
visited them a few years ago, accompanied by the Duke of
Sutherlaiul, declared them to be amongst the finest bathing
beaches in the world. They nearly all have passed through
the camping stage. Their sands were found to be mellow,
and their waters temperate, and camping parties took their
tents and leisure there. All that has grown up on shore is
simply evolution from the tent and camp-fire. But the air
and water are pure as when their advantages were enjoyed
al fresco. The greatest developmjnt has been made at Mon-
terey, on the ba\' of the same name. Sir Francis Drake, all
hero and part corsair, missed Monterey Bay as he sailed up
the coast, wliich he named New Albion, and that placid
crescent was not discovered until 1602, b\' \'iscanio. It is
noteworthy as having been the scene of the first attempt to
take California for the United States, and as the theater of
the final affirmation of our title to the soil.
.So Monterey is a sort of Plymouth Rock for our Pacific
possessions, and therefore the blarney-stone of the New
Empire. In 1842 Commodore Jones, of the American navy,
sailed into this bay, assaulted and captured Fort Monterej'*
antl ran up the stars and stripes; but soon ran them
down again, and apologized. His apology seems to have
been accepted, probabl)' because the garrison was short of
powder. The incident suggests the former enterprise of
our navy, which let no good-looking coast languish for an
owner. The Commodore was onl}' four years ahead of time,
for July 7, 1846, an American frigate sailed up to Monterey.
Her marines did a bit of scuffling with the natives, and the
stars and stripes went up to stay. A few days later a British
admiral, who was also out hunting land, sailed up to Mon-
w
H
z;
o
S5
o
CO
■J
THE NE W EMPIRE. 79
tcrey, to find himself ;i little too late. The own remained
the ca[)ital of California for some time, and there met the
first Constitutional Convention. To this day it retains man)-
of the quaint S()anish features; and adobe houses, tile roofed,
with their ample vjrantlas and high-walled gardens, rouse
visions of secluded ladies and sighing swain.s.
Here, where the sands of the beach are silkiest, the
water pure as a maiden's' heart, and its embrace warm and
wifely, is the Motel del Monte — "thou most beauteous inn."
Around it is a park of hundreds of acres, shaded by the
original live-oak trees, re-enforced by magnolias and every
kind of great ;.nd lesser tree and shrub that the most tasteful
landscape gardening requires. Lighting this verdant park, as
the constellations do the serene heavens, are acres of flowers;
and through it, sinuous and graceful, wind drives and paths,
tempting to lovers.
In the midst of this bloom and perfume stands the
hotel, the perfection of adaptation to the conditions of a sea-
side resort Fire-places cheer the evening, for remember that
the waters of Del Monte tempt the surf bathers in what the
East knows as th^ winter months, and night-fall makes the
■)pcn fire a feature amongst the comforts of life But here
^o winter; the flow.:;rs bloom, the trees flaunt their green
ta.-;ers, and in the open waters of the great bay the whales
Sj .. in all months, in the Del Monte are spacious billiard
room rnd there you may play ancient " shuffle board," w'lich
was the diversion of Shakespeare and Sir Walter Raleigh,
before caroms and cues had been invented. "We have had
pastimes here, and pleasant games."
It is impossible to refer to the material resources and
latent wealth of the Ne\\ Empire without at least this much
reference to a resort created b^ its fashion and good taste,
since civilization points to these refinements as proof of its
existence, and life is softened by occasional indulgence in the
recreations to which they tempt. It is well that Del Mqnte
is planted to face the waters that firs^ fell under our dominion,
sheltered by the mountains that ga\e back a replication of
broadsides, whose iron voices proclaimed conquest and decreed
80 THE XEW EMPIRE.
libert\- to this land. In it are compact the graces and gifts
of Saratoga, Long Branch, and Cape May, and, in the judg-
ment of men and women of the best taste, it is one of the
most ple.isure-provoking resorts on either coast of the conti-
nent. Like the growth of our cities, it is a sign of the enter-
prise of our people.
CHAPTER XIV.
MODES or TRAVEI..
Till-' Xcw Empire has become the highway of the world.
It has realized Benton's dream of a new path to India,
reaching the East by going west. Columbus had that plan in
view when he sailed west, and ran his prow into a continent
that lay across his track, stretched almost from pole to pole.
At first this continent was an obstruction to travel, but it has
been turned into a facility. In Benton's speech to the Sen-
ate he proposed to build a monument on the summit of a
Rock}' Mountain pass, with a hand pointing to sunset, and
inscribed upon it, " It is the East! It is India! " So across
this continent travel was at right angles to the meridians of
longitude, while its great rivers paralleled them. Inland navi-
gation was mainly north and south, fcjjlowing the rivers.
Travel, following the instinct which led our race out of west-
ern Asia, and set its face westward, and has brought it to the
edge of this continent, facing its birthplace, could not use the
rivers, so it crossed them. i
No people ever came through greater difficulties than
those met by the early Californians. Tiiey had choice of
three routes, around Cape Horn, overland by wagons and pack
trains, and across the Isthmus. Around the Horn required
six months, and exposure to every extreme of climate; for
on the Atlantic it was a i^iunge from the north temperate
zone clear through the tropics, across the south temperate,,
into the south frigid, and a repetition of the same experience
in the Pacific with the order reversed. Many a man fall
under the perils of the long voyage, and many a ship laid her
THE NEW EMPIRE. 81
bones around the stormy cape or in the Straits of Magellan.
The necessities of so long a voyage put the passenger upon
rations of salt food and bad water, and often scurvy rotted
the flesh on his bones before he reached a diet that could
arrest its ravages. That voyage of a half }'ear, through tropi-
cal storms and polar snows, with hardship and disease hover-
ing every knot made by the ship, was so full of discomfort
and so often fatal to those unaccustomed to going down to the
sea in ships, that its alternative by the Isthmus came into
favor, and the tide of tra\cl turned toward Panama. Any
hull that would hold an engine became a steamship, and the
recking Isthmus was traversed in canoes and flat boats and
rafts as far as its rivers were open to such transit, and then
mules and horses were substituted. Cholera and yellow fever
lurked by the way-side, and struck down man}' a strong man
with the suddenness of a thunderbolt, and man\' a youth
there gave up his life and with it the golden hcjpe that had
lured him into this lair of death's twin furies. At last the
Panama railroad was built by an outlay of life that made every
tie represent the bones of a laborer, and over this highwa}',
digged by death and bordered by an unbroken line of rat-
tling skeletons, poured the tide of life. The third method
was overland. Under favorable circumstances the journey
could be made in six months, from the Missouri River, along
whose banks were the outfitting points, the Irak, Damascus,
and Cairo of those more earnest than Meccan pilgrims. The
line of civilization, held by the advance guard, then lay east
of that river; west of it the geography and geology were as
nebulous as to-day they are in the interior of Africa. Across
the map was stretched a blank space, usually colored yellow
to make a meaner impression, and named the Great Ameri-
can Desert. The desert began within fift}' miles of the west
bank of the Missouri, and its Nile was the Platte, which came
boiling down, roily and treacherous, useless for navigation,
and hard to ford, for its quicksands were always hungry and had
their fill on man\- a stout ox-team and band of horses. The
forty-niners had to face the imaginary and real terrors of a
trip which, alas! is no more a neccssit}'. It la}' through the
0
82 THE yEW EMPIRE,
territorj' of wild Indians, who levied tribute on the wagon
trains; who stood at fords and ferries and exacted a toll that
now pays a fare across the continent from ocean to ocean,
with six da}'s instead of six months required for the trip. It
sometimes seems a pity that the terrors and toils of these
three primitive routes to this coast should be no longer, for
they were a magnificent test of the endurance and courage of
men; but they made martyrs, and each of the early grand
highw«iys has its tale of death and suffering. The fancy will
never tire o{ the stor)' of Hcrndon preferring to sink with his
ship, nor of the tragedy of Mountain Meadows so tardily
avenged, nor of the snow and famine that closed around the
Donner party and imprisoned them to starvation. Along
that overland way gentle women were brought to the agonies
of maternity by the camp-fire, and to young and old came
the final summons which must be obeyed equally in the
desert or the city.
But what a change was wrought within nineteen years
of the beginning of immigration to this coast! From being
the least accessible, the hardest to reach, and most difficult to
leave of any. part of the Union, by the completion of the
Union and Central Pacific Railways it becatne easily ac-
cessible. The terrors of Cape Horn, the fevers of the Isthmus,
the perils of death by thirst and famine overland, all passed
like the morning gloaming. Now, four routes by rail, the
Central Pacific, Southern Pacific, Northern Pacific, and At-
lantic and Pacific, connect the New P^mpire with the East;
and that land so lately reached through perils that would have
appalled a Crusader, is brought within six days of the Atlantic
Coast, and the citizen of London who has business in Mel-
bourne or Calcutta takes his through ticket via San Francisco,
finds his berth in the sleeper waiting him at New York,
Omaha, and Ogden, and in fourteen days from Liverpool sees
the tide come through the Golden Gate. And the fare for
the trip costs less than the price of a single team to be used
in the long overland journey of thirty years ago.
We take the goods the gods send us, as a matter of course
due to our deserts. Hut who shall estimate the business toil.
THE NE W EMPIRE. 83
the readiness, antl adventure which led railways up mount-
ains and down, through wastes where no dewdrop catches the
sun rise, overcoming snows and shifting sands, and so made
the whole world that goes from the Occident to the Orient,
pass by the Golden Gate! What a change this enterprise
wrought! No more double transit of the equator, no more
deathly wrestle with yellow fever, no more whoa-hawing of
the patient ox overland, but, instead, six days of luxurious
travel, on quintuplex springs and paper wheels, with a bed at
night full length, and a companionship pleasant, because sure
to be a miniature congress of the nations.
CHAPTER XV
THE WORLD'S FAIR.
GRAND expositions of the industries and productions of
the earth, its inventions, machiner)' and art, illustrations
of the state and progress of science, have been held in Lon-
don, New York, Paris, Philadelphia, Vienna, and New Orleans.
None has been so located as to collect the res(|urces and
immediately interest the peoples of the great countries bor-
dering the Pacific. The next exposition should be located in-
San P'rancisco. It is in the center of the territory of the:
United States, and is the greatest seaport on the Pacific:
Ocean. It has ample railroad connections with Mexico, will
soon have with British Columbia, far {Manitoba and the Hud-
son's Bay country, so that its railroad facilities will outreach
from the tropics far toward the polar circle, while w ith interior
and Eastern and Southern States they are ample. Since the
New Orleans Exposition it has been said that another can-
not be undertaken for a very long time, because of the dis-
couragement its failure has caused. There is nothing in this.
The great cities of the world are located in a belt that lies
between 38 and 51 degrees north latitude. Within that zone
are located the great activities of the human race. Within it
are the industr)-, thrift, economy, and enterprise which have
generated the capital that controls the productions of the
Si THE yEW EMPIRE.
globe. The commerce and travel that are in ceaseless mo-
tion are confined to that circle clear around the earth, for
within it are London, Paris, Berlin, \'ienna, Madrid, Rome,
Constantinople, Pckin, Tokio, San Francisco, Chicago, St.
Louis, Baltimore, riiiladelphia. New York, and* Boston, with
a city population aggregating nearly twent\' millions of peo-
ple. It is the world's commercial zone, and temporary con-
centration of its activities and their results has alwa^-s been
easy within its borders, but never a success outside.
San Francisco is one of the jewels set in this ring around
theearth, and here are a'.l the natural advantages and features
which tend to make a successful world's fair. The great bay,
the mountains that border it completely around, the natural
objects of interest within easy reach, the geysers, petrified
forests, mineral springs, forests of great trees, the mountain
peaks that are easily climbed above the clouds, the valleys
covered with vine\'ards and orchards, the hills clad with bright
olive groves, the orange orchards flecked with golden fruit
and aromatic with bloom, Yosemite \'allcy, Lake Tahoe, and
the sunny sea beaches, make up a combination that cannot
be equaled! b\' any other localit)- in the world. The cities of
the ba\', San Francisco, Oakland, Alair.eda, Berkeley, San
Jose, San Rafael, Saucclito, \"allcjo, Bcnicia, and Napa, all
within a short reach of each other either by rail or steamer,
offer ample accommodations to a congress of the nations.
The cosmopolitan nature of our population is an attraction
that no other city in the world can offer. Here are settled
Greeks, who can welcome their countr)-men from the /Egean;
the Bombay merchant will find here his Parsee brethren; the
Japanese will hail his friends, and the Chinaman will find
here the many buttoned mandarin of the Flowery Kingdom.
Our German, French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, and Rus-
sian fellow-citizens are in such numbers as to be appreciable
in the social life and business of the New Fmpire, and to
materially influence the favor of their countrx-men towards a
world's fair in San Francisco. The hotels here are on a scale
of amplitude found nowhere el.se, and they stand at the head
of the hotels of the world, unexcelled by any in architectural
effects, capacity, and administration.
THE NEW E.\fril<E. 85
On what better or more accessible ground can tlie world's
captains of intlustr)' summon a general muster than this?
It is w itlnn the commercial and industrial belt, and ri;^ht in
the path of circum-tcrrestrial tra\cl. New Orleans was at
one side, inconvenient of access, and unfitted for such an en-
terprise. Asia, Africa, Australia, and the islands of tiie sea
will \ic with Europe and America in showing here the highest
results of the toil, genius, and art of their people, and so there
will come to hundreds of tlnmsanels an opportunit\' to seethe
New Em}:)ire and at the same time show what the old em-
pires ha\e done and arc doing for the advancement of
mankind.
The world has never tested full)- the hospitality of the
people of the New Empire. Here are scores of the grandest
and roomiest private houses on the continent, with owners
whose keenest pleasure lies in the generosities of entertain-
ment, and to which even \-isitors with crowned heads may
resort, to confess that the\' have never enjoyed more the
pleasure of being guests.
But aside from this, here is the cheapest living in Amer-
ica, and the best, with a market that nc\cr fails in the choicest
meats, fish, poultr\-, vegetables, and fruits an\-where grown.
Here is asso.iated the greatest economic skill in its prepa-
ration for food, so that the restaurant fare cf San Erancisco
has come to be notetl all over the world for its excellence and
cheapness. The atlxanced guard of visitors to a world's fair
here will have no tales of bad ser\'ice and extortion to send
back to deter others, as was the case at New Orleans; but,
rattier, the skirmish line will ask the main body to come on,
for here they can enjo}- all tl-.e comforts and luxuries of life
as cheaply as at home.
CII.M'Tl-R WI.
LALIl'ORM.V.
THE population of California is given at i,CXX),0OO. which
is being increased b\' births and immigration at the rate
of 60,000 per annum. California, with her resources properly
86 THE XE]V EMPIRE.
developed, is capable of sustaining a population of 20,000,000.
The assessed value of her real estate foots up $500,000,000;
personal propertj- $200,000,000; 7,000,000 acres of land are
under cultivation, and 9,000,000 acres are fenced. The value
of annual products is $180,000,000. As a State, she is prac-
tically out of debt. In her savings banks arc deposited
$60,000,000. The banking capital of the State is $50,000,000,
and the annual product of bullion is $18,000,000. The aver-
age value of the wheat crop is $45,000,000; barle\-, $10,000,000;
dair_\- products, $8,000,000; fruit crop, $7,500,000; wool clip,
$8,000,000; wine products, $5,000,000; value of lumber man-
ufactured in the State, $5,500,000; hay crop, $13,000,000;
domestic animals of all kinds, value, $60,000,000; value of
animals, poultry, etc., slaughtered every year, $23,000,000;
increased value imparted to manufactures, etc., by labor,
$40,000,000; number of grape vines set out, 1 30,000,000; fruit
and nut trees, 800,000; with five times as man}' forest, shade,
and ornamental trees. The State contains 3,500 miles of
telegraph lines, 3,300 miles of railroad, 5,000 miles of mining
with an equal extent of irrigating ditches; 400 quartz mills,
300 saw-mills, and 185 flouring mills; $250,000,000 have been
invested in mining improvements in the State, cost of quartz
mills, tunnels, and ditches included.
The annual reports of the Agricultural Department at
Washington, running over a period of three years, with a
general average, show the following interesting facts wi h
regard to some of the productions of California, as compared
with all the other States and Territories in the Union, and
more particularly with regard to some of the leading agri-
cultural States: —
B.\RLEV.
Entire profliiction of the United .States and Territories, inchiding rushkls.
California 42, 564,692
California 14,723,915
HAY.
Average value per acre, United States $12 34
California 21 65
OATS.
Average value per acre, United States $ 8 84
California 20 55
THE NE IV EMPIRE. 87
POTATO CROP.
Average value per acre, Uniteil Slates and Territories $42 74
California 97 29
" " Oregon 6257
" «' Kansas 5« 99
«' " Michigan 45 42
•' '• Minnc!<ota 36 54
" " Nebraska 33 33
' " " Illinois 3618
" " Iowa 2956
" _ " Wisconsin 32 74
AVERAGE CASH VALUE PER ACRE OF CHIET AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTS.
United States and Territories, including California $12 68
California 18 36
Texas 1 5 68
Wisconsin 12 34
Illinois 1059
Minnesota 9 86
Iowa 891
Florida 8 64
Kansas 8 22
Nebraska 7 34
CORN CROP.
VALUE YIELD
PER ACRE. PER ACRE.
United States and Territories, including California. . .$10 13 27.90 bu'ls.
Cal.fornia 22 38 31.50 *'
Colorado 19 75 26.20 '
Iowa 833 37S0 "
Illinois 880 29.80 "
Kansas 7 95 32- 10 "
Florida 7 15 8.09 "
Nebraska 760 38.00 "
Georgia 652 9.80 "
And also in the value of her wheat crop California leads all
the States and Territories in the Union. Ohio stands next,
Indiana third, with Michigan, Minnesota, and Illinois follow-
ing in succession.
The following table of wheat and barley acreage for 1886
has been carefully compiled from reports just received from
corre.spondents in the principal grain-growing counties of the
State. It is of significant importance, as showing not only
the acreage in wheat and barley for the present year and the
average yield of each per acre, but also that the wheat crop
of California for 1886 will be much larger than the greatest
wheat yield during any year of any State in the Union : —
88
THE XE ir EMPIRE.
COINIY.
Alameda ,
Calaveras
Colusa
Contra Costa
Fresno
Kern ; . . .
Los Angeles
Mariposa
Mendocino . . . .
Merced
Napa
Sacramento
San Benito
San Bernardinu. .
San Joaquin
San Luis Obisjjo ,
San Mateo
Santa Barbara. .
Santa Clara. . . .
Santa Cruz .
Siskiyou
Solano
Stanislaus
Sutter
Tulare
Tuolumne
Ventura
Volo
Yuba
^Vheat
Acreage.
75,062
30,000
400,000
153.56^
300,000
15,000
250,000
1,500
12,000
185,000
25.593
S7,ooo
47,000
3.500
250,000
IOI,OCO
S,ooo
60,000
101,355
25,000
10, coo
61,536
341,000
95,000
415,000
7,035
20,000
340,000
30,000
Totals 3,450,131
Avr ge V'ld
per Acre.
Centals.
10
^%
II
II
9
II
II
1 1
II
SK !
io>^
lo 1-5
ny2
II
I'
'' 1
13 1
'3
14
14
10
9%
9
13
10
10
9
10
10
1
Barley
Acreage.
32,373
12,000
45,000
29,040
40,000
8,000
100,000
6,700
4,000
27,000
3.2:1
22,000
9,000
80,000
40,0c o
125,000
7,000
20,000
168,935
II.OCO
6,100
16,770
45,000
18,000
45,000
2,580
80,000
65,000
13,000
1,081,729
Avrge V'ld
per Acre.
Centals.
15
12
16
15
15-
18
20
12
17
22)4
1370
13 1-5
24
19K
21
IS
20
20
22
20
14
13.24
10
17
15
15
13
15
20
All the counties of the State are not here enumerated,
because the assessors had not received enough sufficiently ac-
curate returns on which to base reliable statements, but gen-
eral reports received from these counties show that both the
average and yield of them will be in excess of last year.
The total acreage sown to barley as shown iri the above
table is 1,081,729 acres. The total yield of barley from these
counties as calculated out is 18,633,130 centals, equal to 38,-
819,020 bushels. The barley crop might have shown a still
larger return, but in many counties large quantities were cut
for hay, which, had it been allowed to mature, would have
made good marketable grain.
The total acreage of wheat as shown in the counties
mentioned in the above table is 3,450,131 acres. The total
THE NE IF EMPIRE. 89
)-iclv.l as fii^urcd out is 35,862,518 centals, equal to 59,770,863
bushels.
There are, as above indicated, still a few counties to hear
from which, it is fair to assume, will enlarge the production
so that the wheat crop (jf California for this present }'car will
reach the enormous quantity of 60,000,000 bushels.
Asbestos is foi.nd in many counties of the State, and is
mainly utilized as a coating for steam boilers and pipes.
Ores of nickel occur here also, but not in quantities suffi-
cient to be profitable to work.
The only extensive deposits of chrome ore in the United
States are found in this State. They are mainly found in
Placer, San Luis Obispo, Del Norte, and Alameda Counties.
About 3,000 tons per annum are shipped to Baltimore and
Philadelphia.
The joint production of borax of California and Nevada
has increased from 5,i8o,8iopounds in 1876 to over 8,000,000
pounds in 1885. The Pacific Coast exports in 1885 amounted
to 9,000,000 pounds. The borax fields are in the boundaries
of the two States, and are the onl\- ones in the United
States.
California produces about 200 tons of carbonate of soda
per annum. It costs $45 per ton delivered in San Francisco.
The Inyo County marble deposit is a very large one, and
is now being worked.
California is proline in limestone, there being several
extensive belts. Some 220,000 barrels of lime were manu-
factured in the State in 18S5.
Several deposits of manganes6 exist in California, but
onl}- one or two are being worked.
\'cry little cement is made in the State, although there
are deposits of hydraulic limestone, and ther.e are two cement
factories, one at Benicia, and one at Santa Cruz.
The manufacture of plaster tVom the California gypsum
deposits has increased of late years. Some 2,500 tons of
g)-psum were ground by the mills in San Francisco in 1S85.
Petroleum is found in Humboldt, Colusa, Contra Costa,
Alameda, Santa Clara, San Mateo, San Benito, \'entura and
90 THE XE]V EMPIRE.
Los Angeles Counties in California. The product of the
State has increased from 15,000 barrels in 1878 to 325,000
barrels in 1885.
Antimony occurs in several places in California, San
Benito and Kern Counties each possessing producing mines.
There are several quarries of building stones, some of
which are being worked.
Large quantities of salt are consumed on the Pacific
Coast, much being needed by reduction works. In 1885
31,000 tons of salt were made in California, mainl\- in Ala-
meda County, on the shores of San Francisco Bay.
A great deal of asphaltum is mined in the State, and is
utilized at home.
The cla\'s are utilized by the potteries in various parts
of the State, mainl}' in making the lower grades of pottery.
The State produces about 1,200 tons of metallic copper
pcr annum.
Graphite occurs in many localities, and some few of the
deposits are utilized.
There is only one iron mine in the State that has been
worked, in Placer County, but low prices in 1886 have caused
the furnaces to be closed down.
Among other mineral products of the State are alum,
bismuth, iridium, platinum, lithographic stone, mica, and
sulphur.
SCHEDULE OK KATES OK WAGES PAID.
rr:R n.w.
Carpenters $ 3 50
Machinists 325
Sign-painters . . , 4 00
Boiler-maker' '. 3 50
Tin-smiths 3 50
Longshoremen 3 5°
.Stone and marble cutters 4 00
riasterets 4 5°
Gun and lock.smiths. ^ 3 5°
Roustabouts 2 50
Coal miners (shift work) 2 50
Coal miners (by the yard) 3 GO to 4 50
Mechanical Engineers 3 00 to 4 00
Bricklayers 5 00
House painters 325
Pattern-makers 3 50
.Shoemakers 3 00
Blacksmiths 3 50
I )ay laborers 2 00
Gas-fitters 3 50
THE NEM' EMPIRE.
91
Upholsterers $ 3 50
lioat builders 3 50
Plumbers 4 (X)
PER MONTH.
Tailors $54 00
Mill hands 60 00
Bakers 60 00
Farm laborers (with board) 30 00 to 40 00
Loggers: —
Teamsters 40 00 to
Choppers 65 00 to
Skidders and hook-tenders 55 00 to
Swampers. . ..; 50 cx)
Sawyers 50 00 to
Common laborers 40 00 to
Boys 30 00
Cooks 50 00
THE TRESENT CHINESE POPLT.ATION OF THE STATE AS SHOWN BY THE
ANNEXED TABLE: —
(^L'ompiled from Returns made by the County Assessors and County Clerks.)
65
00
70
60
00
00
55
45
00
00
COUNTV.
Alameda S
Alpine
Amador
Butte
Calaveras . . .
Colusa
Contra Costa
Del Norte. . .
El Dorado . .
Fresno
Humboldt. . .
Inyo
Kern
Lake
Lassen
Los Angeles.
Marin
Mariposa. . . .
Mendocino. .
Merced
Modoc
Mono
Monte: ey. . .
Napa
Nevada ....
Placer
Plumas. .. .
Sacramento 1 3
San Benito
Population.
County.
,000
125
,000
.000
,037
.500
500
300
400
753
250
50
702
469
50
,000
350
600
.000
550
60
363
500
650
,Soo
,190
500
,QOO
87
San Bernanlino. .
San Diego
San Francisco. . .
-San Joaquin. . . .
San Luis Obispo.
San Mateo
Santa Barbara. . .
Santa Clara
Santa Cruz
Shasta
Sierra
-Siskiyou
Solano
Sonoma
Stanislaus
Sutter
Tehama
Trinity
Tulare
Tuolumne
\'entura
Volo
Vuba
Total
Total from tfenth census,
Population.
275
43,000
2,500
196
250
500
2,950
450
i'335
400
1,458
995
1,500
700
550
774
400
I,cOO
500
300
400
2,000
Grand total
90,022
S,6iS
98,640
l-5ut the Chinamen are rapidl\- lea\ing the State, and so
not only making room but creat'ng a demand for good white
labor. There is no countrv in the world wiierc honest toil is
92 THE yEW EMPIRE.
more handsomely rewarded in proportion to the cost of living
than in California.
Society here is as we'.l organized, and devoted to the
gord works which are the merit of a great people, as any-
where in the Union.
The climate is so full of blandishments that it tends to
attract the best population from all parts of this country and
Europe; and its guarantee of good health, and the enjoy-
ment of life which it permits, its tendency to 'development,
activity, and refinement, its decided effect upon the literary
and artistic character, which it develops to a wonderful de-
gree, will focus here the growth of art and science.
The mineral and thermal springs of California, with
established curative pcrwers, and in stuations unequaled in
the romantic interest of their scenery, will one day outrival
the great spas of Europe, to which so many sick make long
pilgrimages.
All of the financial, insurance, manufacturing, com-
mercial, and rural interests and industries are here in the
hands of the country's best enterprise and intelligence.
San Francisco is the center of a greater whaling industry
than New Bedford. It has the largest trade in peltries of
fur-bearing animals and amphibia in the world.
Ostrich farming is being rapidly transferred from South
Africa to Southern California, where it is demonstrated to be
a most profitable success.
We will soon rival France and the Mediterranean slopes
in our wine and oil trade, and our mineral interests in gold
and silver will long lead the world, as now. W'e ship thou-
sands of car loa s of oranges, lemons, and limes, and the
citrus orchards are every year extended.
In fine, no matter what a man's tastes and fancy as
to occupation, here he will find a country of opportunities,
amongst which he is sure to make an agreeable choice; and
his selection made, he will find in it full and happy scope
for his most wholesome energies, with the certainty of more
adequate reward for the efforts he invests, than any other
country can offer. So it is that thousands have looked down
THE NE ]V EMPIRE. 93
U[)on tills promised land, as thc\' approached it, poor in all
thini^s but hope and industry, who arc now affluent, and the
stewards of a heritage of comfort for their children.
CHAPTER W'll.
IRRIGATION.
SINCE the prospectus of this book was issued and sent
East to those centers of population resorted to for informa-
tion by intending immigrants, many inquiries have come back
in relation to the certainties of irrigation; and since the recent
adverse decision of the Supreme Court of California, these
inquiries have taken a discouraged tone, which we desire to
correct by a statement of facts.
The wonderful growth and prosperity of Southern Cali-
fornia are associated in the Eastern mind with irrigation, and
properly so. The visitor who now revels in the luxury that
is found at Pasadena, in the San Gabriel Valle\% at Riverside,
Santa Ana, Anaheim, and scores of places in that section of
the State, has only to note the parts of plain and mesa yet
in their natural state to sec the magic wrought by water used
for irrigation. Witness, too, the marvelous results conjured
out of the deserts in Kern County, where irrigation has spread
green fields of alfalfa and yellow fields of grain; where
orchards, vineyards, fields of cotton, and the cattle fat as
those that ran on a thousand hills, lia\c taken the place of
desolation, once the home of the serpent, the centipede, and
tarantula.
Here is the same sharp contrast so often noticed in Los
Angeles, San Bernardino, and San Diego Counties. The
Kern irrigating system has hundreds of miles of canals and
ditches, and the zones they irrigate are perfect pictures of
plenty and prosperit}', scented with the perfume of flowers, —
an Arcadia, where labor is light as the leisure of life elsewhere.
On the higher zone, above the ditch or canal, is the desert,
thirsty, gaping, unpeopled. It is the rough diamond, with its
beauties undeveloped; while, where the water has worked its
ministry of regeneration, it is the diamond fresh from the lapi-
dary's wheel, a thing of beaut}' and a joy forever.
7
91 THE yEW EMPIRE.
There be those wlio have explored these wonders of
Kern, who have noted how, by seeking still higher levels for
tapping the streams, zone after zone may be reached by the
waters of life, who call it the foremost county in California
in natural resources and capacity to support a dense popula-
tion. Tiie Eastern visitor should resort to it as an extreme
illustration of what irrigation can do, and then should con-
sider that if water can produce the charms, the profits, prog-
ress, and prosperit)' spread abroad there, where even a cony
could not live before, what may irrigation not do extended to
the whole arid area of the San Joaquin and Sacramento Val-
leys?
In this projected inquiry the investigator is not left with-
out illustrations. He will find them in the Fresno colonies.
These are oases created b\- irrigation. As a rule thcv are
divided at right angles into twenty-acre tracts, with main
avenues lined by palm, shade, and nut trees.
These twenty-acre holdings are visions of the beauty of
high farming. They have not been settled by the rich, but
by the poor in purse. It is one of California's most promis-
ing raisin-producing areas. The climate is warm, dry, and
bracing; and the soil, when coaxed by water to surrender its
treasures, proves the most generous in the world. We have
before us the history of the Fresno colonies. After the vines
planted on them reach three years of age, the minimum re-
turn, net per acre, is $ioo per year, and the tillage and care of
the crop is within reach of the members of the family. Re-
sult: Those colonists who settled there poor, are now in com-
fortable circumstances. To illustrate: Nine years ago a
Swede immigrant named Anderson landed there with a wife
and seven children, and $75.00 in cash. He took one of these
small tracts on credit; worked for wages while he improved
it, and, at the end of nine years, sold his land for $12,000,
having meantime got out of debt and supported his family
comfortably. Talk about no chance for anybody in Califor-
nia! Irrigation offers not chances, but certainties to a
denser population than any of the older States can boast.
Another Fresno ^ase: Miss Au.stin, an Oakland school-
THE NE IV EMPIRE. 95
teacher, with health weakened by her arduous profession,
and only $1,000 in her pocket, went to a Fresno colony eight
years ago and bought twenty acres. She had it planted in
vines, and while waiting for them to bear, bought grapes of
her neighbors, dried and packed them in neat packages, which
gave them a special character in the market. To-day she
owns forty acres, all improved; is out of debt, and it is safe
to rate her worth $50,000. So I might cite case after case.
Can they be equaled in the rural records of any of the great
agricultural States?
Now what has done it ? As we have explained in our
chapter on topography, these plains and deserts have had
washed down to them the richness of the mountains. The
mountains are the mighty bones of the continent, and, cracked
by past volcanoes and present beating storms, their marrow
has run out for enrichment of the plains. All the streams
have their final source in the mountains, and their waters
continue to bring down this marrow, so that when irrigation
puts them on the land, and it begins producing crops, it is
not exhausted, for every irrigation is a process of re-fertili-
zation of the soil. Here is no need to buy phosphates and
guano. The dung fork is an unknown farm tool. Instead
of. buying a cart to haul a manure heap onto the land, the
Fresno farmer can put his cash into a phaeton for his wife.
Here, then, invoked by irrigation, is the ideal rural life. No
prayer goes up for rain, and an overruling Providence, un-
annoyed by being continually asked for a drink of water,
showers unasked a thousand gifts and graces upon a people
who make their own rain, and measure its fall upon the
ground. Irrigation was inherited from the Spanish and
Mexican owners of the soil. It was recognized by Federal
law when the United States owned the streams and the land.
When by Government patent they passed to private owner-
ship and State jurisdiction, the right to useful appropriation
passed too, and was for years undisputed. During those
years there sprang into being all these impressive results
which we have hastily sketched. No man believed otherwise
than that his use of water for irrigation, being in line with
9G . THE yE W EMPIRE.
Federal policy, was in line with local law. Occasionally the
right of riparian owners to prevent dixcrsion from the bed of
the stream was mooted, and the shadow of the Ennrh'sh com-
mon law was conjured for a temporary scare. But the irri-
gators knew that the English common law of riparian mo-
nopoly of the waters had been especially and specifically nulli-
fied in ever}- English colony and country controlled by that
empire, whose plnsical features and necessities are like those
of California. In Australia, and all her Australasian pos-
sessions, in India and in our neighbor, British Columbia, an
assertion of this moist countr\- law of riparian rights would
lose its standing in the courts in a moment. Knowing this,
the people of California were fearless in their appropriation
of water until, in a legal contest between men who, by costly
and beneficent h\-draulic sj-stems, had made an Eden where
had been a desert; and other men who claimed the right, be-
cause their lands abut the stream, to compel its waters to go
and waste themselves in the sea, the Supreme Court of Cali-
fornia went into the rusty locked closet of "precedent,"
brought out the fleshless skeleton of English riparian law, fit
emblem of famine, and have tried to wave its bony hand over
the orchards and gardens and vineyards, to wither vine and
olive tree, and blight the grain and fruit, The result has been
the most powerful, spontaneous, popular movement ever seen
in this Union. It is more general than that rush to arms
when civil war was upon the land. In all the great cities and
in every rural communit}' the people arc banded in organi-
zations.
A powerfully representative State Convention held in
San Francisco has crystallized these aroused energies, and
guided them to aim a solid blow, whose impact no Court
can withstand. The grievpus decision of this bench was
reached by a majority of only one vote, and in the coming
election, without any break in the ordinary i)rocession of
events, this majority will sink to a minority. But the forces
that are abroad are stronger than they need be to do only
this. It is different from an}' other judicial issue. It is be-
lieved by the ablest publicists in the State, and those most
THE NE \V EMPIRE. 97
respectful to the Courts and their authority (and this belief has
found a positive voice in the unanimous press) that the Court
should hand its commissions back to the people from whom
they were derived, in order that a full bench may come fresh
from the masses to reflect the mightiest interests of the State,
and entrench them in the law. Before the power now in-
voked and active in every county in the State, no law imported
from abroad, to curse our people with blight and famine, can
stand. The measures proposed involve amendments to the
Constitution which will grind the grinning skeleton of En-
glish common law to powder between the upper and nether
millstone of the public will; and they also include statutes
which will protect, regulate, and affirm permanently the
appropriation of water for irrigation. In all this there is to
be no delay. The political party that stands in the way will
get run over. The public man who opposes will wonder
what hurt him. So we say, to those Eastern readers who
have talked of going to Colorado or Utah because there irri-
gation is a settled policy, and offers a chance for capital to be
safely invested in hydraulic works, and assures to land owners
the certainty of water for their fields, " Don't be hasty; just
bide a wee and witness the speedy and complete adjustment
of. this California issue in line with the needs of our common-
wealth and people, and then come here."
Following will be results which stagger prophecy. The
water and the land will go together, and, as the limits of the
present volume of water are reached, there will appear a
system of storage of flood waters. The contributing canons
in the mountains will be dammed, as is done now on all the
rivers of New England to store water for manufacturing
power, and as the Federal Government has done at the heads
of the Mississippi to impound water in the spring, that the
country below may be saved from floods, and that the river
may be replenished at midsummer to hold it up to navigable
stage. The field opened out here is illimitable.
In this work hydraulic engineers will find employment,
and in the construction of canals and ditches and dams, thou-
sands of laborers will find remunerative work. All the industrial
98 THE AEJf EMPIRE.
energies of the State will feel the impulse of this mitjhty
policy, and the cities will derive from its effects a commerce
that will spread their borders and stimulate their business to
a prosperity unknown b\' the cities of the East. Here, for
generations, will be the progressive expansion in real estate
values and in the margins of business. The trade that will be
inspired from this source will add value to our mines and
timber, to our manufactures, our fisheries, and to every activ-
ity and investment which go to make up the complex in-
dustries of a great people. The history of mankind is that
the highest primitive civilization was in rainless countries ca-
pable of irrigation. This is because men there were relieved
from the eccentricities of the seasons, and the produce of the
soil, which is the foundation of everything, was made certain.
We speak of our present civilization. Its remote source was
Egypt, irrigated by the Nile. Greece took her culture from
the Egyptians and passed it on to the Romans, and they gave
it to all Southern Europe, and its line of march was continu-
ally along the zones where the soil yielded its best gifts only
when subjected to irrigation. With that civilization so de-
scended art and science have pitched their moving tents;
literature and history have told its story as they moved in
its van, and poetry has strung its harp and sung of love and
war, from the time Miriam chanted he'r hymn of adoration
upon the entry of Israel into the irrigated valleys of the
Promised Land, and David wrote in stately measure: " The
Lord is my Shepherd; I shall not want. He maketh me to
lie down in green i)astures; he leadeth me beside the still
waters. He restoreth my soul."
CH A P T ER XV I I I.
IRRIGATION— CONTINUED.
E have devoted so much attention to the mechanics of
irrigation, because useful appropriation of water in Cal-
ifornia and, to an important degree, throughout the New
Empire, is at the foundation of the two great industries which
W
THE NEW EMPIRE. 99
germinate the wealth of all this rc;^ion. It is difficult to im-
a<;ine a commerce not derived from our mines or our agricult-
ure, and unless water can be appropriated for the use of both,
their profitable pursuit will be confined within limits so nar-
row that it is idle to talk of them as the foundation of a great
commonwealth.
Without the profit of these occupations, the timber of
our forests and the fish of our waters, which are the sole re-
maining means of production, will not be worth the effort it
costs to put them into commerce, and it requires no argument
to demonstrate that with production, limited or suspended,
transmutation and exchang:; either cease or shrink below a
return tempting to the enterprise of men, and so our manu-
factures, which are now greatening to the demands of a dense
population, and have enlisted capital more upon hope and
future promise than present profit, will decay, and their ma-
chinery will cease its pulsation, and their fires their glow,
while the capital that has created the manufacturing plant
will be as completely lost as if it were in a grist mill on a
water-power which the channel has deserted and left with no
water to turn its turbine and buhrs. These reflections go to the
philosophical radix of a country's prosperity. A community
thrives by making the best and wisest use of its natural facil-
ities and advantages. Amongst the people of Europe the
Swiss stand as a type of cheerfulness and patriotism. We
seldom hear of extreme poverty amongst them, and they
maintain in their simple forms of government the primordial
principles which are the ultimate base of our own laws and in-
stitutions, as they are in some respects the model of all free so-
cieties. The Swiss are not an accident, nor are their manners
and customs those of a people by chance light-hearted and
prosperous. They have for centuries made the most of the
natural advantages furnished by their country, though these
are few in number and parsimonious in degree. They have
carved their Alpine woods into toys of cunning form, and
their handicraftsmen, inheriting generations of skill, have
worked wonders in metals. The bits of grass that spring
under the drip of glaciers have been treasured to pasture
100 THE NEW EMPIRE.
cows and goats, and the chalets of that land are the shelter
of happy thrift, and her people illustrate the pleasures o{ con-
tentment.
We have endeavored faithfully to describe the natural re-
sources and abounding advantages of the New Empire, and
while cold t}-pe must fail to adequately portray them all, we
have shown them to a degree which throws in high relief the
generosity of nature. Parsimonious to other lands, here she
has lavished her gifts with a prodigal hand.
Of those to whom much has been given, much is re-
quired, and the decree cannot be escaped by our people.
As a measure of their duty in the great question which
concerns the availability of all these natural benefac-
tions, we come now to consider briefly the legal aspects of
the question of irrigation. We have shown the richness of
the land and the abundance of water within the banks of
streams. Our California'people are now summoned seriously
to decide whether this State shall be a thirsty Tantalus, sunk
to the chin in waters she is forbidden to drink, or whether law
and nature shall be in harmony, and of the abundance she
shall slake to her full satisfaction. We hear a deal of the
common law. What is the common law.'' It is the law of
custom. What determines custom } It is shaped out of the
physical surroundings and natural necessities of a people.
Reduced to its simples, custom, the natural common law, dic-
tated by physical necessity, makes an Esquimau dress in furs,
sleep in a bag of eider duck skin, live on walrus blubber, and
build a house as far as possible impervious to the nip and
gnawing of an Arctic winter; while custom, the common law
of physical necessity, makes the native of the tropics swing
in a hnmmock, eat bananas, and compromise with decency in
the lightness of his dress. Impose upon the Esquimau the
habits of the tropics and he would be a frozen monument of
folly or despotism in a half hour. Force the diet and dress
of the intra-polar circle upon the native of the tropics and he
would die loathsomely of surfeit and fever in less than a
week. If this make plain the common law of custom, and
that is the only common law of any country, let us suppose
THE NEW EMPIRE. 101
California to be a Crusoe's Island, the real terra caliente which
the old Spaniards supposed it to be when, in default of incon-
venient exploration, they called it an island; suppose this
land to be settled by people who have upon them the duty
of founding institutions, devising a polity and developing a
jurisprudence in harmony with the physical conditions which
set the bounds to those activities b\' whose practice they
must support life; what would they do ? Does any one who
knows the chemistry of our soils, the topography and cli-
matology of this region, believe that any one would dare pro-
pose that the riparian owner at the mouth of a stream should
dominate its waters clear to the mountain rills whose fila-
ments join to make the volume of its flood, and should have
the ri'^ht to forbid that its quantity should be diminished or
its quality deteriorated, to the least degree, but that it must
all flow wastefully past the borders of his holding ? In the
primitive society which we have supposed to exist, there
would be instant revolt at such a proposition, and the prin-
ciple behind it would be held a petty treason to the inchoate
commonwealth, and why? Obviously because the concensus
of horse sense in the community would instantly discern the
inharmony between such a rule of riparian regulation and the
law of natural necessity, the voluntary custom, compelled b}'
the physical conditions under which these people must live,
and from which there is no escape until the god of bounds
grows weary of watchfulness, and natural law is lost in a con-
vulsion which issues in chaos. To force such a rule upon a
people, situated as those of California are, is like the ex-
change of customs between the tropics and the Arctic circle.
Supposing this people to be free agents, we would find them
devising just regulations by which water and land should be
brought together, to secure that certaint}' in returns of rural
industry which is the strongest incentive to labor, since it is
true that the arm of the sower is strengthened by the cer-
tainty that he is to reap; and a tree is planted, watched, and
tended with more refined care, when the laborer who does it
knows that its fruits are for the pleasure of his own palate,
and not so remote in their coming that they are to be enjoyed
102 THE NEW EMPIRE.
by another. So this people would write first in their statutes
that the use of water should fix the ri<;ht to it, and that each
user should have no rii^ht to a drop beyond what he needed,
and that with cessation of use his right ceased, and became
subject to appropriation by another for devotion to a useful
purpose. Out of this customary law, this evolution from
natural necessities, would spring a system of rules and regu-
lations framed in regard to the rights of all, and so
shaped as to make every drop of water useful upon every
acre of land upon which hydraulic engineering could
carr}' it, and this whole system of rules and regulations
would be the common law of California upon the mat-
ter of useful appropriation of water. We are sure that the
reason and reasonableness of this need no further demonstra-
tion. Having shown how the customary law would have
naturally developed straightly along the line of the right of
useful appropriation of water, let us exchange hypothesis
for history, and see what was done by the people who first
assumed the duty of founding this commonwealth. The
pioneer laborer hfere, after the conquest, was the miner. He
at once became an appropriator of water, without which the
pursuit of his calling was impossible. Mining in gulches and
canons, at the mouths and far up the course of streams, below
the level of lakes, and under the spill of mountain s;)rings, each
camp made its own law of the distribution of water, the mod-
ifications of prior right necessary to full development of the
diggings, and such other matters as were necessary to the
common use of this requisite agent in that industry. As a
result there grew up the customary law of useful appropria-
tion of water to the primary industry of the State. The
Legislature of California, called to the duty of drawing
around mining the circle of statute law, decreed that in all
actions at law, concerning mines and miners' rights, the local
regulations, the customary law of the mining district, should
be the rule of decision for the guidance of the court. Here
was the germ of the common law of California. Custom
had laid down the law of location of mining claims, and
custom had appropriated the water necessary to their opera-
THE NEW EMPIRE. 103
tion, and the Legislature directed the courts to consider this
customary law as their rule of decision. Now bear in mind
that the Legislature had also, following the custom of senior
States, enacted that the common law of England, where con-
sistent with the constitution and laws of this State, should be
the rule of decision in all the courts of this State, but the law
of mining locations and water rights thereon, as declared
by the same Legislature, was not consistent with the English
common law of riparian rights, and therefore the customary
law of the miners took precedence of the English common
law, and was made the rule of decision for the courts.
This principle has subsisted, undisputed and undisturbed,
from 1850 until the recent decision of the Supreme Court of
the State. Perhaps it is not fair to say that it was undis-
puted and undisturbed, since its validity and autkority were
practically affirmed by that adverse pos.session which is a
vital point in the law of tital by occupancy. Whenever the
right of useful appropriation was assailed, it was maintained
by our local courts, and it was affirmed and acquiesced in by
the Federal and State Governments. In 1866, Congress for
the first time legislated upon the subject. Sixteen years be-
fore, the State of California had made customary law the
rule of decision for the State courts, and now her example
was adopted as the Federal law, and made the rule of decis-
ion for the Federal courts, by this statute: "Whenever by
priority of possession, rights to the use of water for mining,
agricultural, manufacturing, or other purposes, have vested
or accrued, and the same are recognized and acknowledged
by the local customs, laws, and decisions of the courts, the
possessors and owners of such vested rights shall be main-
tained and protected in the same." The first case that went
to the bar of the P^ederal Supreme Court under that statute
was Atchison vs. Peterson. Opinion by Mr. Justice Field,
who was the author of the original law of California, making
the customary law of mining districts the rule of decision of
our State Courts. Li this case he wrote this judgment of the
Supreme Court: "By the custom which has obtained amongst
miners in the Pacific States and Territories, where mining for
1U4 THE NEW EMPIRE.
the precious metals is had upon the public lands of the United
States, the first appropriator of mines or of waters in the
streams upon such lands for mining purposes, is held to have
a better right than others to work the mines or use the waters.
As respects the use of water for mining purposes, the doc-
trines of the English common law, declaratory of the rights of
riparian owners, .were, at an early day after the discovery of
gold, found to be inapplicable, or applicable only in a very
limited extent, to the necessities of miners and inadequate to
their protection." The learned Justice then projects his argu-
ment into a demonstration that the appropriation of water for
beneficial use had always " been heartily encouraged by the
legislative policy of the State." Again, in the case of Basey
vs. Gallagher, the Supreme Court of the United States, by
Justice Field, referring to its prior decision in Atchison vs.
Peterson ?,a.\d: "The views then expressed and the rulings
made are equally applicable to the use of water on the pub-
lic lands for the purposes of irrigation. No distinction is
made in the Pacific States and Territories by the custom of
miners or settlers, or by the courts, in the rights of the first
appropriator, from the use made of water, if the use be a
beneficial one. In the case of Tartar vs. Spring Creek Water
and Minijig Company, decided in 1855, the Supreme Court of
California says: 'The current of decisions of this Court go
to establish that the policy of this State, as derived from her
legislation, is to permit settlers in all capacities to occupy the
public lands, and by such occupation to acquire the right of
undisturbed enjoyment against all the world but the true
owner. In evidence of this, acts have been passed to protect
the possession of agricultural lands acquired by mere occu-
pancy; to license miners; to provide for the recovery of min-
ing claims; recognizing canals and ditches which were known
to divert the water of streams from their natural channels
for mining purposes; and others of like character. This policy
has been extended equally to all pursuits, and no partiality
for one over the other has been evinced, except in the single
case where the rights of the agriculturist have been made to
yield to the miner where gold is discovered in his land.
THE NEW EMPIRE. 105
Aside from this, the legislation and decisions have been uni-
form in awarding the right of peaceable enjoyment of the
first occupant, either of the land or of anything incident to
the land.' Ever since that decision it has been held generally
throughout the Pacific States and Territories that tiic right
to water by prior appropriation for any beneficial purpose is
entitled to protection. Water is diverted to propel machinery
in flour-mills and saw-mills, and to irrigate land for cultiva-
tion, as well to enable miners to work their mining claims,
and in all such cases the right of the first appropriator exer-
cised within reasonable limit is respected and enforced."
Here, then, wc have unmistakable recognition of the right of
useful appropriation of water, asserted by and confirmed to
the miners of this State, and as unmistakably we have the
judicial metastasis of that right to the irrigator of agricultural
lands, by an ascription as plain as legal reasoning can make
it. The reports are crammed beyond the space at our dis-
posal to digest, with decisions following the unvaried line of'
customary law as originated by the p»ople of California in
the necessities of those physical conditions peculiar to the
State. This custom made the common law which the Legis-
lature ordered the courts to make the rule of decision, instead
of the conflicting common law of' England, and under that
custom appropriators' rights held adverse possession against
riparian rights for thirty-six years of the legislative and judi-
cial history of the State. It has become as much a part of
popular rights and as entrenched in the public thought, and
habit and custom as the right of trial by jury, the habeas
corpus, or the elective franchise, and the recent decision,
secured by a majority of one of the State Supreme Court, is
as rude a blow in the face of public opinion as the court could
have struck if it had swept trial hy ]\\ry, habeas corpus, ^nd
the elective franchise into the abyss of a common ruin.
It is such a decision that has shaken the foundation of
parties; that has engulfed all other public issues; that has
painfully shadowed thousands of homes in the Sacramento
and San Joaquin Vallex'S and Southern California; that has
warned wholesale merchants in the city of the uncertainty of
106 THE NEW EMPIRE.
outstanding country credits and the instability of future
tratlc; that has admonished railroads of a decreasing tonnage.
their stockholders of diminishing dividends, their bondhold-
ers of defaulted interest, and that has notified city bankers
that country loan accounts on real estate security are to
be worth less than the paper spoiled in writing out the mort-
gage which did cover productive lands of marvelous fertility,
transformed, by this judicial evil genius of the State, into a
desert. No people ever permitted such a decision to stand,
nor let the customary law, of thirty-six years' beneficial
existence, perisli by judicial assassination. No means known
to the law and its processes, provided to reduce the judiciary
to a condition of harmony with the physical necessities of
the people, will be omitted during the pendency of this con-
test, and when it is over, the customary law of California will
sit on the seat of authority, crowned and sceptered with
supreme power, while the English common law of riparian
rights will be returned to its own country as we send back
pauper and criminal immigrants, who are not the material
for good citizens.
CHAPTER XIX.
FRESNO COUNTY.
ONE needs to take a physic of figures to realize that Cali-
fornia ranks next to Texas in size. Within its bor-
ders is room for three and one-half States rhe size of Iowa;
England and Wales could be spread here and only cover one-
fourth of the State, and whole States could be hidden inside
some of its counties. Fresno County is an example, not only
of area, elbow-room galore, but of a variety in soil and sur-
face, mountain and plain, field and forest, vale and intervale
and foot-hill, which equip it with all the physical characteristics
and resources needed to make an independent political com-
munity. On the continent of Europe are independent na-
tionalities that would not make one of its townships.
Fresno has an area of 5,600,000 acres; Rhode Island
has 835,840 acres; so that Fresno could make six States as
THE NEW EMPIRE. Iu7
large as Rhode Island and leave a strip of 584,960 acres over
for "cabbage." Delaware has 1,356,800 acres, so that Fresno
County would hold four States like Delaware, with a margin
of 172,800 acres left over for a nest-egg. Rhode Island
and Delaware combined, have 2,192,640 acres, and both of
them could be dumped into Fresno County twice and leave
1,214,720 acres over.
Switzerland is less than twice as large as Fresno, and
twice Fresno would make another Denm.ark, with a respecta-
ble lap over. It is two-thirds the size of Holland and more
than two-thirds that of Belgium. This lesson in size is need-
ful, not merely to stimulate the territorial pride of Fresno's
people, but to show them, and those who are to be of them,
the great future that may be wrought out of such an area of
such land as this county has. It is part of the San Joaquin
Valley, and is traversed by the San Joaquin and King's Rivers,
\vhicl"^rise in the Sierra Nevada Mountains, on the east side,
and are fed to a perpetual flow by the rains of the wet season
and the melting mountain snows of the dr)'. These streams
furnish abundant water, and their delta especially offers un-
surpassed facilities for irrigation ; while the whole plain surface
of the county is so situated that it may nearly all be reached
by h\-draulic works. On the west the Coast Range rises
against the Pacific and shuts out the fogs from the sea. On
the east, within the county line, is much of the most interest-
ing of the high Sierra chain. Here are Mt. Whitney, Mt.
Goddard and Mt. Lyell, amongst the loftiest peaks on the
continent; Whitney rising to over 17,000 feet, and rearing his
cloud-defying crest to the storms far above Mt. Washington
and the noted peaks of the White Mountains and the Apa-
lachian chain. Cradled between the Sierras and the coast
range lies Fresno Felix, once tramped by bands of wild horses
and cattle and bleating flocks, but rapidly changing under the
magic of emigration and enterprise into a densely populated
and rich region.
Out of its two rivers the clear mountain water, that
sparkles with the sunshine it caught glinting through the
pines and lofty cedars that flaunt their foliage far up the
lOS THE yEW EMPIRE.
mountain, is taken in canal and ditch; and wherever it goes,
g^rass and grain, grapes and oHves, fruits and flowers, happy-
homes and wholesome people, are in its train. The sun of
Fresno sought long the lucky sign. Around and round the
zodiac it went in quest of the spell that should give to this
great county a vision of the destiny it seemed to merit, and
at last it stood still in the sign of Aquarius, the water-bearer.
True, the Supreme Court of California has put its legal hand-
spike into the spokes of the zodiac, to turn it back so that
Fresno shall b^ again under the sign of Taurus, or Capicor-
nus or Aries; but this will never be. Bull and ram have had
their day on the dry plains, and Fresno will continue to con-
quer in the sign of the water-bearer.
Fresno copied the colony system of Southern California,
and it has now, in productive operation, the Walters Colony,
and the Scandinavian, Nevada, Fresno, Malaga, Central, Wash-
ington,New England, Belfast, Norris, Sierra Park, and Witham
Colonies. It boasts also the celebrated Barton, Risen, Eggers>
Goodman, Forsyth, and Wood worth, Easterby, Mather and
Fresno and Butler Vineyards, and the McNeil, Creek and
other well-known commercial orchards. The capital, Fresno
City, is about 200 miles by railroad from San Francisco, and
has suddenly sprung into a well-built city of 4,000 people, and
is growing with the rapid growth of the country around it.
Now, when we tell how this county has so suddenly
supplemented its large size by great development, we tell the
story of many other counties in California, as it is written
alread)', or is to be writ in a speedy future. People re-
sorted to the twenty-acre tracts of irrigable lands in Fresno,
bought them ©n credit largely, put up a house, planted some
alfalfa, kept a cow or two, built an adobe milk house, got some
chickens, planted some vegetables and berric ;, and having
begun by these means the process of self-support, devoted
themselves to putting the rest of their twenty acres into vine-
yard and orchard. The vines, at three years from planting,
began to yield, and thence on they yielded an income of from
$100 to $300 per acre. That is all there is of it. The owner
of twenty acres support- his family and puts in bank, every
THE NEW EMPIRE. 109
year. $1,500 to $2,000. In the agricultural States of the East
he would not do that on a half-section of land. Here he is
in a vvinterless country, with two seasons, the wet and dry.
The first is spring, the second is summer. It is the ideal
raisin climate. The air is dry, the sunshine converts the
sweet juices of the grape into that spicy jelly which is the
test of this king of dried fruits, and though the days are hot,
at night the cool winds come down from the snow-capped
mountains, and the farmer is called from labor to the refresh-
ment of sleep in blankets.
We treat Fresno at length, as a typical valley county,
illustrating the results of industry and irrigation. For field
crops it produces wheat, corn, Egyptian corn, potatoes, sweet
potatoes, peanuts, sorghum cane, and its orchards are made
up of pears, peaches, apricots, nectarines, prunes, plums, or-
anges, lemons, and the olive. The wines of the county have
already established a high character. Now what more do
you want ? Immortality? it must be in the impression your
stout hand writes upon this enduring page which Nature has
opened to record the exploits of thrifty men.
CHAPTER XX.
TULARE COUNTY.
THIS is the fourth county in California in size. It lies
midway down the San Joaquin Valley, in the middle of
that great pocket which is turned upside down to empty its
contents into San Francisco. South of it, in the bottom of the
pocket, is Kern County, and north of it is Fresno, which it
resembles in its mountain boundaries and topography. Its
hydrography, however, is peculiar to itself The waters of
King's, Kaweah, Tule, and Kern Rivers flow in Tulare.
These rivers and streams head in the Sierras, and during
the dry season are fed to flood height by the melting snows.
There seems to be some providential interposition in this fact,
some law older than the common law of England, for the
flood of mountain water fills the streams at the seasons agri-
liO THE NEW EMPIRE.
culture and horticulture most need irrigation. As the riparian
rule is finally relaxed, and we have law fitted to our natural
conditions, the flood waters of the rainy season and the melt-
ing season will all be impounded behind dams at their
mountain source at proper intervals along all these streams,
and then its volume will be found ample for perfect irrigation
of ever}'- part of thi;? noble principality upon which a home
can be founded. There is nothing stronger than man's
attachment to old ideas. The farmer who carried his grist
in one end of the sack, balanced by a stone in the other,
is not a mere figure of speech. The history of various
useful inventions proves this farmer to be no myth. Wit-
ness the model of the first reaping machine, which was a
srreat disk with scvthes set in its rim, to which it was intended
should be given the motion which the hand cradler gave his
scythe through its snath. The inventor could not give up the
idea of reproducing the manual motion, but he was followed
by one who thought out the sickle bar, with its teclhcd
guards and reciprocal motion, and the problem was solved.
So the m.odel of the first threshing machine is an affair run
by oxen in a tread-mill and arranged to fling flails, in imita-
tion of the manual motion given that primitive implement on
the threshing-floor. When this clumsy machine was set go-
ing, by some twist in a belt or squint in a cog-wheel the flails
turned upon the oxen and beat their horns off. It was a fail-
ure, but soon a man who could put old ideas behind him, in-
vented the toothed cylinder with its complementary concave,
and the flail went to join the scythe in disuse. So it was the
old idea that we brought from England, that the soil must be
moistened by rain, and that rivers are for navigation, fish,
v.-ater-power, and drainage purposes. To use the water for
irrigation has even been held by many good people to be sac-
rilegious, and in one New En dand church the digging of
a canal was opposed, because it was said that where God in-
tended water to be there he had put rivers and springs, and
only a man of sin would defy Divinity by moving to amend
in any way the arrangements of Providence. One brother,
who had ?in interest in the canal, carried it by quoting script-
ure, " And Jacob digged a well."
THE NEW EMPIRE. Ill
So the pioneer irrigators of California had to fight the
tradition that the plains where Providence withheld its water-
ing pot had upon them the primal curse of barrenness. It
was the same as if man's dominion iiad ceased at the sea-
shore, and he had never built a ship for discovery of what lay-
below the ocean horizon. The irrigator remembered that rain
fell on his father's fields, and when it failed then crops were
gnawed by the drought, and had this memopy dominated
him he would never have digged a canal nor brought land and
water together, subject to his will.
Tulare has 4,100,000 acres of land. The quality on the
east side, near the Sierra foot-hills, is gravelly and adapted
by irrigation to fruit culture. Within a few miles, upon
the plain, it changes to a dark, sandy loam, a " quick " soil
which gains in richness continually as the river bottom and
deltas are approached. Scattered over the county are alkali
lands, once thought to be worthless, but proved by cultiva-
tion to be strong and excellent soils. Tulare used to be a
"cow county," given up to bands of live stock, and supposed
to be worthless for agriculture. The late Col. John C. Hays,
the Texan ranger and one of the most charming characters
in all our frontier history, was one of the earliest believers in
the capacity of this county, and he did much to encourage
the prosperity which is now coming to its hardy people. Its
productions are the same range as those of Fresno, and it has
the same capacity for supporting a dense population on small
holdings under the colony system; but it will i)robabl}- remain
the seat of a vast grain production much longer than its
neighbors, Kern and Fresno; and its live stock interests, sup-
ported by j.lfalfa, will always be among the permanencies of
the county.
Now, how can we impress a home-seeker with the oppor-
tunities which await him in Tulare? The prevalent Eastern
idea is that there is no new countrv in California. This State
began to be talked of during the war with Mexico, while
Iowa was a Territor\', and before Minnesota, Kansas, and
Nebraska were organized as Territories. To the Eastern
fancy, unenlightened by exploration, the process of occupying
112 THE NEW EMPIRE.
our lands has been concurrent with the occupation of those
of Iowa, Minnesota, Kansas, and Nebraska, and if so, they
are all taken, and no virgin soil offers fresh opportunity to the
new settler. But these Eastern people forget that so far as
occupying the soil for tillage is concerned, California is now,
in 1 886, about where Iowa and all that region was in 1856
Why, it is only within five years that the large land-holders
of Fresno began to divide their estates and part with their
principalities to make a chance for colonial settlement; and
these lands, which in their raw state five years ago were to be
had for $2.50 per acre, are to-day paying their tillers interest
on a \aluation of $200 per acre and upwards. Now this pro-
cess is just beginning in Tulare, with the same climate, a soil
of equal character, and, as we have said, a hydrography
that is ample for perfect irrigation; and men who have
witnessed the mighty things wrought in Fresno are rapidly
seeking locations in Tulare, for twenty-acre tracts can be
had there now for $250, of which $50 is paid down, and
the balance in monthly installments of $10. A laboring man
ought to soon save up $50, and he ought to earn a surplus of
%\o per month for twenty months to secure a home in Tulare.
After that, with the land under his feet for a basis of credit,
he ought to be able to plant some alfalfa, get a hog, a cow,
some chickens, and a shanty to begin on, and he ought in a
few years to be independent. They have done it m Fresno on
an original cost twice as great, and many a twenty-acre tract
there begun just this way, is now worth anywhere from $4,000
to $8,000. The pioneer in the upper Mississippi Valley, who
faced hail and lightning and cyclone and rain all summer,
and an arctic temperature all winter, met more obstacles and
endured more hardships in any one month of his novitiate
than a new settler will find in five whole years in Tulare, and
by that time he should be in the way, off the produce of 20
acres, of putting $1,000 a year in bank, over and above all
the expenses of his family. If a settler on a quarter-section
in the prairie region east of the Rocky Mountains, is able to do
this much after twenty years of hard toil, he is in luck. That
it is done on four years' developmentsin California we can prove
THE NEW EMPIRE. 113
by cases so numerous that tlic citaticjn would fill this book
from lid to lid; but this is nut a real estate circular, and we
give only outline facts that can be certificated over and over
atrain.
By this time the reader wants to know how the name
Tulare is pronounced, for " he wants to go there too,"
To try Tulare,
Bright and airy,
Where the fairy
Might lierself find a home.
Where no frost nor snow.
Nor icicles grow,
And gentle winds blow.
For cyclones never come.
Visalia is the county seat, but Tulare City and Hanford
are thriving towns, and reached through the Southern Pacific
Railroad system.
CHATTER XXI.
KERN COUNTY.
«
THE San Joaquin Valley is the valley of the Nile in min-
iature. Its lower portion, approaching the Bay of San
Francisco, was originally susceptible of grain production, in
most seasons without irrigation; but as you ascend the valley
it gKOws more arid until in Kern County, at the extreme tip
of the pocket, you have reached the Soudan of this little
Eg}'pt. ^It was, for the most part, originally desert, much
like that hopeless stretch between Wady Haifa and Uganda,
down which Chinese Gordon rode camel-back to Khartoum,
and out of which, disembodied, he took a mount behind
Death, on the pale horse. True, Kern has valleys, and they
were early occupied, but this occupation gave the county
but little importance. Between Kern River Slough and the
old channel of that river is a great delta, that had been an
impediment to the development of the' county. It was arid,
desert-like, hard to traverse, a little Sahara, dry, thirsty, and
as unprofitable a part of the footstool as could be found. This
unpromising delta was occupied by J. B. Haggin & W. B. Carr,
the first men to extensively and comprehensivel)- appl\' irriga-
114
THE XE //' EMPIRE.
tion to redemption of lands so extremely lost in the original
sin o{ unfruitfulness as to require more faith than would move
mountains to back up an effort for their redemption. Anv
man \\\\o wishes to indulge in the most fascinating study of
iszrrr
HEAD OF KERN RIVER.
this question that can be made in the world, should go to the
results in Kern County, and the means by which they were
accomplished. Poetry has exhausted its metaphors on the
sculptor whose voluptuous fancy sees a Venus in the rough
THE NEW EMPIRE. llTj
block of marble, and whose hand delivers her from its im-
prisonment, but a far finer subject is offered in the men who
saw in this gleaming desert, farms, vineyards, orchards, and
homes, shade and shelter, flowers and fruits, as the concrete
of those visions with which the glimmering mirage had lured
the traveler to disappointment. The canals and ditches of
this system have carried water far out upon the plains, and
wherever they go green fields and prosperity have followed.
We have spoken of the San Joaquin Valley as a pocket. If
is, and so is the Sacramento Valley. They lie in each groin
of the State and are open toward San Francisco. Kern is at
the bottom of one pocket, and as the coin is always found at
the bottom of the purse, here it is. The county is a most
interesting region. Dairies and stock farms lie green and
cozy under its ditches. Its productions run from cotton
through all the cereals, fruits and grasses, to root crops. Its
irrigation facilities already in operation supply 677,000 acres.
Some of its canals are 150 feet wide, and so this Soudan of
the San Joaquin Valley has been conquested, and the peace-
ful conquerors have occupied it. and the commerce of San
Francisco rattles the consequent coin in the bottom of this
right-hand pocket ot the State.
Mountains are on three sides of Kern. The Sierra
Nevadas meet the Coast Range at an obtuse angle,, and their
spurs push far out upon the plain, great buttresses and pilas-
ters holding up the granite wall, which rises from 2,ooo to
5,000 feet on all sides but the north. Kern is the nltivia
TJiule of the San Joaquin. Passing its mountain sentinels,
you go into another region, with its own mountain and river
system and its physical peculiarities; but Nature dictated that
from Kern the flow of wealth which the industry of man
shall generate, should run to the Golden Gate.
The area of the county is 5,137,920 acres. Its capital,
the Khartoum of this regenerated Soudan, is Eakersfield.
Within its great borders the colony system is fast making
its way. Mr. B. Marks, of San Francisco, has brought to
bear, upon the problem of colony location, his great ex-
perience acquired in other parts of the San Joaquin \''alley;
110 THE NEW EMPIRE.
and from this time the resources of this distant contributor
to the common wealth will be rapidly developed, as its merits
are made known to those who seek such a happy combina-
tion of climate and soil, and love the wedding garlands which
festoon the marriage bed of land and water.
FRESNO, TULARE AND KERN.
We have dealt with the three great counties, Fresno,
Tulare and Kern, in a group because their characteris-
tics are harmonious, and the people who are and who are to
be in possession of their soil and in enjoyment of their climate,
will find themselves so affected by common interests as to
keep step with each other in nearly all matters material to their
welfare.
Together this group oi irrigable counties presents an ag-
gregate area of 14,837,920 acres. It has within its limits the
climate of Italy, the scenery of Switzerland and it throws
the products of Southern Europe, while its homes arebcwered
in the surroundings of semi-tropical Asia, Measured in
square miles, the area of this trinity of counties is 23,184.
Belgium is only half as large, and has a populatioij of 5,800,-
000. Denmark is only two-thirds as large, and has 2,038,000
people. Greece, with the islands and Thcssaly, has the same
area, with 2,120,000. Holland is only half as large, and has
4,280,000.- Switzerland is only two-thirds as large, and has
2,930,000. These counties are half as large as England, with
27,500,000 population, and they lack but little of being as
large as Scotland, with 3,900,000 people, or Ireland, with
4,950,000. So it will be seen that these counties are not
crowded, for they do not yet contain 75,000 people; but as
almost their entire irritable area can comfortably support a
family on each twenty acres, it will be seen that this is
destined to be the most densely populated, as it is naturally
the most fruitful, part of the continent.
Why should not a proper circulation of the tidings of
promise rapidly fill such a region with a prosperous people?
Ten years ago there had been no appreciable beginning
made in Fresno, Tulare and Kern. Now they are dotted
with settlements which demonstrate their capacities. Ten
THE NE W EMPIRE. 1 1 7
years hence they will be known for their progress and thrift.
Threading them runs the Southern Pacific Railroad, and it will
soon bristle with side lines and feeders.
Why should people snub such a country to go to Aus-
tralia, toward which so many colonists longingly look ? The
London Standard in a late issue says that South Australia
has just raised another large loan, which makes her the peer
of Queensland and New Zealand in the burden of public debt,
which now averages in the three colonies from $250 to $300
per head of population ! On top of this comes the news
from Sydney that the deficiency in the exchequer for the past
year is $8,500,000, which is to be met by the imposition of a
larger land taxation, an income tax and an additional tariff
of 5 per cent ad valorem upon imports !
California is the rival of British Australasia as a field for
colonization. Here is no crushing debt, no increasing land
and income tax, no progressive deficiency in public finances
to be made good by wringing the withers of labor and robbing
production of its profits. Our public debts are decreasing,
our taxes growing less per capita. The contrast blows its
own trumpet.
CHAPTER XXII.
SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA.
LOS ANGELES, S.\N BERN.\RDIN0, AND SAN DIEGO.
SOUTHERN California! Books and poems have been
written and lies have been told about it. In the Eastern
fancy it is of dreamy outline, and all manner of tales go
touching its crops, its climate, and its people.
We have grouped the three great counties of the San
Joaquin Valley together, for Kern, Tulare, and Fresno are
joined in the same destiny, thrive or shrink together; and the
wealth that is in them waiting for thrift and enterprise to de-
velop it, goes directly to San Francisco. In one respect these
counties and all those of the San Joaquin and others in all
parts of the State have common cause with Southern Cali-
118 THE XEW EMPIRE.
fornia, with that part of the State below the pocket of which
Kern is the bottom. Irrigation is the tie between the three
great counties of the south, Los Angeles, San Bernardino,
and- San Diego; and the rest of California, albeit their
wealth is not poured primarily into the lap of San Francisco,
but is going into the building up of a new Baltimore and
Philadelphia. We would call Los Angeles a Pacific Chicago,
except that its name might be at odds with the designation,
if we take into consideration the reputation for other things
than enterprise which distant people ascribe to the City of the
Lake. But it must be remembered that a city resembles a
man, in this, that success is supposed, by the ignorant, to im-
ply a knowledge of magic and the black arts, when, in fact,
success comes of knowing and minding your own business.
Los Angeles County has been a marvel of progress and
enterprise. In some of her older wineries are wines from
vines that were planted, cultivated, and had their grapes
picked and pressed by Indian labor, employed by the early
settlers. From such a beginning she now possesses the great-
est winery in the world, which, under the management of its
executive head, Mr. J. De Barth Shorb, turns out annually
the largest number of gallons made in one establishment
under one head. In the Nadeau Vineyard she now has also
the largest vineyard in one body, under one ownership, in the
world. The territory which now makes this county was set-
tled in 1 77 1, at San Gabriel, by the mission fathers. At the
conquest, the pueblo of Los Angeles was the Mexican capital,
and there the last Mexican Governor, Don Pio Pico, still lives,
verging upon a hundred years old. He is the Petrus Stuy-
vesant of his people, for old Peter, when compelled to give
up New Amsterdam to the English, took his revenge by
chopping down the English cherry trees in front of his house
and refusing to learn the English language. Don Pio is a
monument to the pride and steadfastness of the Mexican
character, and is an interesting and suggestive figure of the
past, in the midst of the surging life and vital enterprise of
the present. Los Angeles County is withm a third as large
as the State of Massachusetts, having 3,600,000 acres. Its
THE NEW EMPIRE 119
southern boundary i.s San Diego County and tlic Pacific
Ocean, on the north is Kern; on the east, San Bernardino,
on the west, the Pacific again and Ventura County The
bounds fixed for it by nature, which determine its cHmate
and enrich it with great capacities, are the mountains and tlie
ocean. You leave the bottom of the San Joaquin pocket,
cross the Tchachepi Mountains, which connect the Sierra
Nevadas and Coast Range, and after passing such marvelous
triumphs of civil engineeri-ng as the Loop, where the railroad
crosses itself to climb the difficulties of grade, you slip down
into the verdant, blooming, and teeming meadows of a coun-
try that has upon one side the Sierra Madre Mountains, and on
the other the sea. This is Los Angeles County. Here were
laid the foundations of the New California. Here the prob-
lems of irrigation were worked out for the benefit of the
whole State, and here was developed an orange belt which
is to supply 60,000,000 of people with citrus fruits in the in-
terval between the Florida and Ital)^ crops. Here the grasses
flourish, from those which herds graze or pasture, to wheat,
rye, barley, and the noblest grass of all, Lidian corn lieans
and potatoes, the sugar beet and all root crops, clover, hemp,
flax, melons, pumpkins, and berries reach a perfection pos-
sible only to such a soil and sun, joined to useful irrigation.
But a few years ago this was a cow county, where the hold-
ers of old Spanish grants lived the ideal ranche life, with
their haciendas, the home of all their people and dependents,
as was the castle of a Scottish chief the home of his clan
two hundred years ago. Here the major domosaw to it that
none who belonged below the salt should sit above it at table,
and in the dreams which whiled away each siesta the then
lords of the soil saw no vision of what was to be. Into this
land of the lotus eaters came the enterprise of the immigrant
and capitalist. The dry plains and viesas which had grudged
a lean pasture to sheep and cattle were '.ransformed, as by
magic, into orange groves and vineyards. The waters of the
Rivers San Gabriel, Santa Ana, and Los Angeles were har-
nessed to the plow, and the attractions of climate were soon
supplemented by the verdure and fruit of our enlivened land-
120 THE . YEW EMPIRE.
scape; and the result is a delicious^eries of rural settlements,
than which nothing- can be more attractive The shores of
the Mediterranean have nothing to offer that can surpass the
blandishments here, except historical associations, and wlKit
does the dreamer in a Los Angeles hammock care if he can-
not look out upon the scene of the Sabine rape; and does the
vineyardist of San Gabriel, or the orange farmer of Pasadena,
enjoy less the profits that come out of the soil because it was
not fattened by the dust and bones of noble Romans ?
Around the Mediterranean such scenery and its historical as-
sociations are partners with age and industrial decay. Com-
merce left those shores and sailed out between the Pillars of
Hercules long ago. Here in Los Angeles is the thriving,
bustling capital of that name, a marvel of trade and activity,
with its markets dealing in the fruits, wines and oils, nuts
and raisins, figs and pomegranates, which we associate
with our ideas of the trade of Palermo and Nice. Around
it, as mountain snuggeries, or seaside resorts, or jewels set in
plain or foot-hill, are San. Fernando, Pasadena, Sierra Madre
Villa, San Gabriel, El Monte, Duarte, Azusa, San Pedro,
Santa Monica, Santa Ana, Spadra, Downey, Cerritos, and
other suburbs and rural places and colonies, each with its own
attractions, as in a family of sisters each may have graces of
her own that detract nothing from the rest, but give her zest
in the eyes and arms of her lover.
The first impress made by civilization here, as we have
said, was at San Gabriel Mission, from which all that is now
Los Angeles County was ruled. Referring to the ancient
mission census, we find that under the padres the county had
105,000 head of cattle, 20,000 horses and mules, 40,000 sheep
and goats, and produced 20,000 bushels of grain in a year.
It was truly a cow county, but how surprised the pious
fathers would be at the change that has come over their graz-
ing grounds. By the as.sessment of 18S5 it had 27,070 head
of cattle, 15,568 horses and mules, but it had ostriches on the
plume-raising farm at Anaheim; it produced wine to the value
of $5,400,000; it exported 139,000 boxes of superb raisins; it
filled about half of the 1,000 car loads of Southern California
THE NE]V EMPIRE. 1 2 1
oranges that went cast to be sucked by our countrymen; it
exported to Europe 20,042,397 centals of wheat; and its pop-
ulation of about 100,000 is increasing so rapidl)-, through the
channels provided by nature and immigration, that it is haz-
ardous to venture figures.
San Bernardino has man)- characteristics in common
with Los Angeles, and San Diego, with its imperial area of
fifteen millions of acres it is capable of the happiest trans-
figuration by irrigation and enterprise. These three make up
that Southern California — that landof theorangeand the vine —
which has a magnetic fame that reaches around the world.
In London we have heard a noble lady say, " I imist see
Southern California again," and in Paris a blase vazn of the
world cried out in its praise, " Ah ! how like France ! "
This part of California is what all the State is to be. Be
sure of it, the results that have been conjured by enterprise
in this fair\- land are, like faith, the substance of things
hoped for all over California, and, with harmony between
natural necessity and statute law, the hope will prove to have
been not in vain.
CHAPTER XXI II.
MERCED COUNTY.
CONSIDERING the richly-lined pocket of the San Joa-
quin \^alley, the counties that lie above Fresno have
peculiarities that are notable. The first is Merced, with an
area of 1,155,336 acres, of which three-fourths is susceptible
of profitable cultivation. The capacity of Merced has been
shown in those seasons of abundant rain-fall which have giv-en
the soil all that it needs of water to show its fertility. In
seasons of low rain-fall, production recedes, and the margin
between shows the value of permanent irrigation applied to
the acreage already under tillage. Take this margin of dif-
ference upon the produce of one acre and multiply it b\' the
irrigable acreage of the county, and you get the annual mone}'
value of irrigation to this one county. In a season of full
122 THE XEW EMPIRE
rain-fall the average yield of wheat is 30 bushels to the acre.
In the years of low rain-fall it is nothing. Suppose that the
total tillable area of the county were under the plow, what is
the loss represented by this lack of irrigation, if the land
were all in wheat? The tillable area being 866,451 acres, at
30 bushel-i per acre the loss in bushels is 25,993,530, and at
only 60 cents a bushel, the loss to the county in money, in
one year, for lack of irrigation, would be $15,596,118. But
wheat is far from being the most valuable crop that Merced
would produce if its climate and soil were permitted to do
their best by adequate use of the abundant waters which
might be taken from her streams or impounded in the mount-
ain canons for the benefit ofher fields in the dry season. The
Supreme Court of California, by its recent decision, says to
Merced County: " Vou shall not have the settlers to plow
your glebe and produce this wealth. You shall go on los-
ing fifteen millions a year that might be earned by the own-
ers of homes and farms and vineyards and orchards on your
soil, because English law, which is our rule of decision, is
not favorable to your prosperity." It will be seen that the
people of ^lerc^d will show scant mercy to such a law and
to such a court, when they can in any way influence a re-
versal of the one and a change in the other.
The San Joaquin and Merced Rivers flow through the
county. The latter has its rise far up in the snow above the
Yosemite, and it winds through that valley on its way down
to the plains below. The Merced is rich in water-powers as
it comes down through the foot-hills on the east, and as the
county develops, the water, which is finally to irrigate the
prosperous farms, will first have turned the wheels of many a
mill and factory, and out of this double duty will come a
duplicate profit to happy Merced. The surface of the county
is picturesque. There are many groves of live oaks, and the
vines and fruits planted there thrive in all parts. The county
seat is Merced City, on the Southern Pacific Railroad, 151
miles south of San Francisco; and its fine hotels and dry and
bracing climate have already made it a resort favored by
many who seek health or pleasure in the vacations from
THE NEW EMPIRE. 123
business. The same mountain ran^^es that line each side of
the whole valley make the boundaries of Merced.
Capital has just been attracted by the county's latent re-
sources. Mr. Chas. Crocker and Mr. C. H. Huffman have tapped
the Merced River at Snclling, at a level so high that by cut-
ting a costly tunnel the water is carried out above the plains
for a distance of 35 miles in a canal 80 feet wide at the bot-
tom and 100 feet wide at the top. It will irrigate perhaps
half of the irrigable area of the county and some land in
Fresno. It is an enterprise of wonderful magnitude, and its
possibilities were discussed for )'ears by the pioneers of Mer-
ced, who despaired of its accomplishment. Now it is a fixed
fact, and the owners of the great tracts of land to which it
will bring water are preparing to subdivide, and to invite the
colony system, which has done so much in Fresno, Tulare,
Kern, and Southern California. Besides this grand canal
and the streams mentioned, there are, in the county, the Chow-
chilla, Deadman's, Mariposa, and Bear Creeks, and their trib-
utaries, all considerable streams and of value in consider-
ing the comprehensive irrigation of such a vast and valuable
body of land. There are other irrigating systems on both
sides of the San Joaquin, and they are the means of showing,
in flattering and favorable light, the capacity of the county.
Let it not be imagined, however, that Merced is all in
the future. The institutions of civilization and societv have
long been founded there. Forty district schools show an at-
tendance of 89 per cent of the little folks of s:hool age in
the county. The assessed valuation of property in Merced,
real and personal, is $12,322,224, which for a population of
about 6,000 is an evidence of wealth-producing capacity that
tells its own story to the 'intending settler; and when it is re-
membered that only recently all this land was ranged by
sheep, and that still later wheat and wool were the sole factors
in its commerce, the diversity of crops produced by irrigation
ma)- well surprise the old-timer. Soon the wines and raisins
and fruits of Merced will take a distinct standing in the mar-
ket, and the county will be covered with thrifty colonies.
124 THE XEW EMPIRE.
STANISLAUS COUNTY.
Next below Merced lies Stanislaus, which runs from the
Sierra Nevada foot-hills on the east to the summit of the
Coast Range on the west, completely spanning the valley.
Its neighbors on the east are Tuolumne and Calaveras; on
the west it is bounded b)' Santa, Clara. Its area is 924,800
acres. The San Joaquin flows through it, and receives as
confluents the Stanislaus and Tuolumne Rivers. Bret Harte
has immortalized the Stanislaus as the scene of an adventure
of " Brown of Calaveras."
Stanislaus County has been a great wheat producer.
The crops raised on the east side of the San Joaquin have
been marvelous in years of average rain-fall, and they seldom
fail entirely. On the west side of the river, however, owing
to the influence of the Coast Range, which sends the rain-laden
clouds sailing too high for precipitation, the crops are far be-
tween; but so rich is the black soil that land owners there say
that a crop one year in five pays them. This being true, fancy
the production that will be fostered by irrigation. Already
the San Joaquin Canal serves about 20,000 acres of this land,
where the soil is a black loam, from 10 to 100 feet deep. This
canal will finally be extended along the west side, carrying
water to about 90,000 acres of these lands which are shunned
by the rains, but have all the other conditions of fabulous
production.
The farmers of this county have observed the good re-
sults of diversifying rural industry, though it is hard to
change from the habit of wheat farming, and resort to irriga-
tion and seems a change which dismays the conservative. Tra-
dition will not hold back the new-comers who have seen the
mighty things that have been doi>e in Southern California
and the three lower counties of the San Joaquin Valley. Six
times since 1850 the whole county has been parched by stub-
born droughts. The loss of stock was enormou.s, and the
crops totally failed. These experiences admonish to diligence
in introducing more extensive irrigation from the waters
which abound in the streams, and in this necessity the people
of Stanislaus have a community' of interest with their neigh-
bors above.
THE NEW EMPIRE. 125
The county can, under easily controlled circumstances,
produce as great a variety of fruits, grains, roots, and nuts as
any part of the world, and its red lands in the eastern foot-
hills, now producing two crops of wheat in three years, have
the finest adaptability to the grape, and will produce sound
and standard wines.
The county seat is Modesto, a thriving town already,
and destined to greater growth, as manifest destiny has its
sway in the country thn:t will pay tribute within its gates.
W
CHAPTER XXI V.
THE SAN JOAQUIN VALLEY AND ITS MOUNTAIN RIM.
E began our examination of the San Joaquin Valley in
the colonies of Fresno, and thence have gone up the
valley to Kern County. We now reach the limit in the other
direction. We are at the mouth of the pocket. San Joaquin
County is at the beginning of the valley. Its plains stretch
to the valley of the Sacramento. This county has an area
of 928,000 acres, of which only 51,813 are waste land in the
rivers or too broken for tillage. The San Joaquin River di-
vides into three channels in this county, and so makes some
of the largest islands in the State. The Mokelumne and
Stanislaus Rivers are confluent with the San Joaquin in this
county, and the three streams supply abundant water for irri-
gation. This is one of the most important counties in the
State, producing fruits, grains, and root crops, and devoted
greatly to fine stock breeding and the dairy. Its products
reach a final market by water or rail, and its farmers have
prospered and list high in financial institutions. Stockton is
the capital town, a great grain market, and the second city
in the State in its manufactures. Being in the center of so
great a grain country, Stockton is naturally the scat of a
great trade in field and harvest machinery. Here is made
the Shippee harvest machine, which cuts, threshes, sacks, and
delivers the grain as it goes through the field. There are also
foundries, tanneries, wagon and carriage factories, and the
126 THE XEW EMPIRE.
germs of a general manufacture fitted to the needs of a large
population. Stockton is at the mouth of the valley; it is the
Cairo, as Bakersfield is the Khartoum, of this New Egypt and
Soudan. When the San Joaquin Valley shall feel throughout
the impulse of enterprise, and be brought into productiveness
by the skillful use of the waters that now waste in its streams, or
evaporate in its lakes and ponds, or breed fever in its marshes,
Stockton will be a great cit\'. Its manufactures will multiply
and the wines, brandies, raisins, figs, nuts, olives,oil, and grain of
all the valley will contribute to its trade. Trains will load for
Stockton far up the valley, and as the draft or bill of ex-
change follows the bill of lading, Stockton banks and moneyed
institutions will keep pace with the addition of e\ery acre to
the producing surface of the valley.
The land-holders of San Joaquin County are fired by
the example of Fresno, and, conquering their pride in vast
possessions, are dividing their estates and inviting the settle-
ment of colonies. They are also encouraging comprehensive
irrigation, which will greatly increase the productive capacity
of their lands. Considering the position of this county and
of its chief town, its people have a present interest in putting
irrigation amongst the permanent policies of ithe State, that
should rouse them to powerful exertions in that behalf While
San Francisco is the New York of the New Empire, towns
h"ke Los Angeles, San Diego, Sacramento, and Stockton are,
or are to be, its Bostons, Philadelphias, and Chicagos. As
the rivers flow from far Kern with ever-increasing volume
until they carry the commerce of Stockton out to the bay, so
the commercial results of productive enterprise, fostered by
the beneficial appropriation of water, will accumulate as they
come down the valley, each colony and each city taking and
contributing a share, until, when Stockton is reached, the
produce of the valley will turn the wheels and gild the spires
of a great city.
The four riparian judges of the Supreme Court propose
to hinder, perhaps prohibit entirely, all this rural and com-
mercial development. They fling the pall of English law, not
only over all this valley, but their decision profoundly con-
THE NEW EMPIRE. 127
cerns the outlying counties; for on each side of the San Joa-
quin Valley are foot-hill and mountain counties whose future
is to be greatly affected. It concerns them whether they
are to be upon the borders of a desert again, or are to look-
down on the fairest and most fruitful valley in the world, and
to share its prosperity. Next to the ocean or the bay are Ven-
tura, Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo, Monterey, San Benito^
Santa Cruz, Santa Clara, and Contra Costa, each with some
internal need of irrigation, each to be benefited in its own
production by the use of water, and each with a great stake
in the prosperous future that is now condemned to float out
to sea, by these judges. On the east side of the valley are
Inyo, Mono, Mariposa, Tuolumne, Calaveras, Amador, and El
Dorado, mountain counties, the reservoirs of the State, within
whose limits the rivers take their rise, and whose canons and
gulches offer the cheapest facilities for impounding storm
waters to be found in the world.
These counties are rich in resources that the useful appro-
priation of their own waters will develop. The volcanic soils of
their foot-hills will rival the steep hills of Bingen in their wine;
and on these first steps of that mountain stairway by which we
climb out of California, for 700 miles there will one da\' be
an unbroken line of vineyards, orchards, and' gardens, un-
equaled in the world for the variety and character of their
productions. Think of the San Joaquin Valley set in such a
frame ! with mills and manufactures founded on the fine water-
powers furnished in all these mountain counties, and with a
reciprocal prosperity which makes the desert to blossom as a
rose, and sets the mighty feet of the mountains in the midst
of vines and orchards ! The people who foresee all this, who
have seen other States grow from nothing to millions by mak-
ing wise use o^ their natural advantages, will have but little
patience with four riparian judges who decide and declare
that California shall not make any use at all of* her most ob-
vious, plentiful, and valuable natural capacities. It is as if
this court should order that every merchant in this State
shall do business with one eye closed and the other darkened
by a colored eyeglass; that every blacksmith, painter, car-
128 THE NE J J ' EMPIRE.
penter. mason, tailor, harness maker, and handicraftsman
shall work with his left hand only, while his right is strapped
helpless to his side; and that every farmer shall hold the plow
with one hand and follow it on one foot. Such a decision, as
the reader will see, would be equivalent to depriving the peo-
ple who toil and produce, of one-half their natural capacity.
This riparian decision does just this for the State, and the
public welfare and respect for law demand the success of the
mighty movement now in progress for a legislative reorganiza-
tion of the court that shall bring new and unpledged judges
fresh from the people and reflective of the public will and the
popular welfare.
CHAPTER XXV.
AROUND .SACRAMENTO VALLEY— THE MOUNTALN COUNTIES
OF THE NORTH,
WE have considered the line of irrigable counties from Mt
Diablo to the Mexican line, and the mountain counties
which border them, and have an interwoven destiny. We
w-ill now look at some of the counties whose rural industries
do not absolutely and primarily depend upon irrigation,
though all their commercial interests, manufacturing activities,
and financial institutions are touched at all points by the de-
velopment of the State, which is amongst the certainties to
follow the beneficial appropriation of water. Marin County is
the mountain gateway to a region rich in interest to the capital-
ist and settler. Marin itself is all mountain, with the high val-
leys found in such a region. Lofty Tamalpais rears his frown-
ing front in the center of this county, and is at once the scenic
attraction and the water reservoir for the slope .that faces the
bay and that which looks out upon the sea. It is a dairy
county, and the Italian and Swiss people have found congenial
opportunity for that industry which they learned in their
native Alps and Appenines. The county seat, San Rafael,
is the ideal suburban home, and here live hundreds of busi-
ness men from San Francisco, attracted by the charming
THE NEW EMPIRE. • 129
scenery and clement climate. Here the fig and grape reach
perfection, and the orange ripens its fruit and scents the air
with its bloom.
Going through Marin by the Donahue railway, you enter
Sonoma County. The Russians made a lodgment up here
about the time they were capturing Alaska; but they left no
trace behind, except in the name of Russian River, which
brawls down this charming valley. Sonoma has about one
million acres, with a frontage of sixty miles on the Pacific
Ocean, and eighteen miles on San Francisco Bay. Here was
the seat of Mexico's military power before the conquest, and
in old Sonoma City still lives, in an honored old age, the Com-
mandant-General Vallejo, who has been foremost amongst
the progressive citizens of that State once ruled by his sword.
The Russian River Valley is rich in every resource of
agriculture and horticulture. It is a land of corn and wine,
and its charming foot-hills are flaunting the silvery green of
great orchards of olive trees. In this county are medicinal
springs that have done much to make people acquainted with
its beauties and its bounties. Its apple orchards are the finest
inCalifornia,and its grapes and wines are long celebrated. The
county seat, Santa Rosa, is gemmed withall thecharmspossible
to such a glorious climate; and Healdsburg in Sotoyomc Val-
ley, the vale of flowers, is surrounded by rich farms. The rail-
road terminates at Cloverdale, a lovely village worthy a rhap-
sody of its own, and a branch goes to Guerneville, in the
heart of the Sonoma redwood region. Sonoma is always
visited with delight and left with regret. The railroad which
pierces its great valley has been a prime factor in its develop-
ment, and the builder of that highway of its commerce, the
late Peter Donahue, will hold a first place always in the esteem
of its citizens.
Sonoma's neighbor on the north is Mendocino, made up
entirely of two ranges of the coast system of mountains.
Its wild grasses have made a favorite sheep and cattle range,
and in its cultivated valleys the production of hops has been
a profitable industry. Many a bold Briton has slaked his thirst
with ale and stout that got its tonic bitter from the hops of
9
130 THE NEW EMPIRE.
Mendocino. The Russian River rises in this county, and its
valley shows some rich land, while the universal growth of wild
oats and clover shows that when the lumbermen have stripped
off the redwood, pine, fir, oak, and madrona, here will be the
home and breeding ground of fine stock and the seat of a
fine dair)' industry. The value of the forests may be seen
in the fact that the redwood timber covers 745 square miles
and redwood., take it all around, is the noblest and best tree
that grows.
Next north is Humboldt, still in the same tier and on
the coast. It is believed that when Sir Francis Drake sailed
this wa\-, he anchored in Humboldt Bay, out of which now
eroes and comes a commerce which would have been a richer
prize than the silver- laden Spanish galleons of which that
grim .sea-king was so fond.
Humboldt County has an area of 2,400,000 acres, of
which 640,000 are covered with the majestic redwood forest.
The whole surface is mountainous and rugged, watered by
Trinity, Mad, Eel, and Mattole Rivers and their confluents
The Coast Range rises here to lofty peaks and throws its
spurs out toward the sea. To see the standing timber is alone
worth a pilgrimage across the continent; for it is one of the
wonders of the coast, and one of the most reliable sources of
wealth and profit that the New Empire can boast. Enter-
prising lumbermen have here overcome the difficulties of log-
ging offered by the climate, or, rather, they have converted
those difficulties into facilities. In the pine forests of Mich-
igan and Wisconsin the deep snows permit the sledding of
logs to the stream which is to float them to the river, where
they are to be compacted into rafts. The same snows melted
supply the water that is to carry the log on its journey to the
saw. In Humboldt there arc no snows to sled on, so enter-
prising lumbermen have built a logging railway, which runs
into the timber belt. As the forest ison the mountain slopes,
the great logs, when cut, are easily rolled to the specially made
cars of this railway, and on them hauled to the mill. The
Humboldt mills have a direct trade in lumber with the Pacific
islands, and look forward to the penetration of the county
THE NEW EMPIRE. 131
by a railroad, that they may have direct shipment to the East.
Redwood is rapidly taking the place of walnut and mahog-
any and rosewood in fine finishing and furniture, and its rich
tints make it unnecessary for it to sail under any colors but
its own. It furnishes the most beautiful veneers from the
whorls of its stumps and roots; and as the roots do not decay,
the loggers are leaving behind them in the ground a source of
wealth that will soon be sought after by gangs of stump
pullers. Although mountainous, the lands of Humboldt are
surpassingl}' rich, and where tHe loggers have made clearings,
it has an agriculturaF future. Around the county seat, Eu-
reka, there is level land, and in the river valleys the land is so
black and rich that it is called " niggerhead." Here the
grasses, tame and wild, flourish, and it will be one day the
" blue grass " region of California.
We are now in the most unbrokenly mountainous coun-
try on the continent. The counties of Del Norte, Trinity,
and Siskiyou present noble mountainous boundaries, rich in
mines, with gentle valleys that are prized by their fortunate
occupants. Here is a hardy and honest people, as devoted
to their mountain homes as the Swiss and the Tyrolean.
Modoc County has only recently been wrested from the pest
of Indian occupancy, and, like its neighbor Lassen, on the
south, waits for railroads to fully develop resources that are
important to the future of the State. Lake County, lying east
of Sonoma and Mendocino, is but recently settled, and is still
isolated by lack of railroads.
It is the opinion of Judge S. C. Hastings that this county
offers excellent inducements to people who cannot reconcile
themselves to artificial irrigation, for here grass grows and
water runs. It is rich in thermal and mineral springs, and
one of them, the Bartlett, is believed to be a specific for
Bright's disease of the kidneys. If tests prove this. Lake
County will be sought by many pilgrims. This completes
the list of counties which lie in and on the mountain rim of
the Sacramento Valley, the other pocket in which the State
feels for its money. The counties of that great vallej' will
be considered in a group.
132 THE NEW EMPIRE.
CHAPTER XXVl/
THE SACRAMENTO VALLEY.
THE Sacramento Valley is the State's other pocket,
Shasta County holds the same relation to this valley
that Kern does to the San Joaquih, though it is more mount-
ainous, and its champagne lands are very thoroughly wa-
tered. The area of the county is 2,560,000 acres. The Si-
erra Nevada Mountains and the Coast Range meet in Shasta,
as they do in Kern, completing the pocket. This connecting
range is lofty, rugged, and well-nigh impassable. Its loftiest
peak is grand old Mt. Shasta, bald, snow-crowned, majestic.
From Mt. Diablo, which stands at the junction of the two
valleys, Mt. Shasta is visible, 265 miles away. Down from
its summit, out of the clouds, flows Cloud River, persistently,
because mistakenly, called " McCloud " by the California
press, and perhaps by the map-makers. Let us do what we
can to rescue the name from common-place and restore it
to its meaning, expressive of its high descent. Within the
county are Lassen Peaks, one of which rises to a height of
10,577 ^'^et. The general elevation of the connection between
the two ranges is 5,000 feet, and across this formidable bar-
rier the California and Oregon railway is slowly making its
way, in the face of the greatest topographical obstructions
that have opposed themselves to railway construction in any
part of the continent. When this road has fought its way
through tunnels, and by climbing cliffs and clinging to the
sides of canons, it will connect San Francisco with Oregon, and
the travel will pass through Shasta and the other Sacramento
Valley counties on its way north, toward Alaska, as now, by
the Southern Pacific, it goes the length of the San Joaquin,
south, toward New Orleans. This Northern route finally
connects with a system of railway which is being extended
to Hudson's Bay; and there is .something suggestive of a
great commercial future in the thought that San PVancisco
will then have railway communication with the Gulf of Mex-
ico on one hand, and Hudson's Bay on the other.
\
THE NEW EMPIRE. 133
When travel comes from the North over this line, it will,
in Shasta, look out upon the first valley land of Califor-
nia, and, fresh from the snowy mountains, it will see here,
growing, the orange and lemon tree, untouched by frost,
though the latitude is 41° north. Shasta's tillable lands are
rich, her climate inviting, the scenery inspiring, and settlers
there send out the news of contentment. Next south of
Shasta lies Tehama, with an area of 1,958,400 acres, and,
spanning the valley from its eastern border, neighbors Plumas
and Butte, which lie in the Sierra Nevadas, to the Coast
Range on the west. Tehama abounds in streams, and about
one-third her soil is that volcanic sort which offers permanent
nourishment for the vine. Tehama has obvious natural ad-
vantages and beauties, and was the seat of American settle-
ment as early as 1844. Indeed, it attracted the first white
settlement north of Sutter's P^ort. There is much suggestive-
ness in the first location made by pioneers when the whole coun-
try is open to them, and they can choose at will. Tehama's
modern history is vindicating the judgment of her first settlers.
The soil is divided between the v'olcanic and richly alluvial,
and there is not much waste in the wide span between the
foot-hills of the two rang-es.
Irrigation would greatly swell the already fine produc-
tions of this county. The facilities for it are so ample that a
hydraulic survey demonstrates that one canal taken from the
Sacramento River, above Red Bluff, will irrigate 780,000 acres.
This, added to the usually good rainfall, would subject every
arable acre in the county to high farming and the most per-
fect productiveness. The crops embrace the full California
variety, and there is none greater anywhere in the world.
We have spoken of the Nadeau vineyard as the larg-
est in the world. At Vina, in Tehama County, Governor
Stanford has a vineyard which, when extended and com-
pleted according to his plans, will take precedence. The old
part of this vineyard has produced the phenomenal yield of
eleven tons per acre, which, we believe, has never been
equaled by vines anywhere else in the world. It is the pur-
pose of V^ina vineyard to demonstrate, on a large scale, the
134 THE NEW EMPIRE.
ultimate capacit}- of California vines and vineyard soils, and
so far the result is greatly complimentary to the resources of
Tehama County. The climate here is clement, as it is
throughout the valley, and the scenery varied and agreeable.
Next, down the valley, is Colusa, acreage 1,600,000, with
the Sacramento River for its east line and its western border
on the top of the Coast Range. Colusa has the honor of
having been the scene of the first demonstration of the pos-
sibilities of wheat raising; for once it was thought that Cali-
fornia would never raise its own bread, and we had to depend
on Chili flour. The late Doctor Glenn opened in Colusa the
largest wheat farm in the world, 60,000 acres, in one body,
and here it was proved that California could bread herself
and load fleets with her surplus wheat. So the fame of
Colusa went out on the marvelous stories of wheat produc-
tion, and the county became known throughout the bread- .
eating world. This county is adapted to, and needs, irriga-
tion joined with drainage. Much of its lands have, at times,
too much water, and others have too little. A system of irri-.
gation which necessarily implies the impounding of storm
waters will contribute greatly to the needs of each variety
of lands. When Colusa County talks of irrigation in the
dry season, timid people in Sacramento City feel symptoms
of panic at the idea of taking water out of the river. The
one real peril which threatens that city is from floods. Her
commerce can stand a few weeks of low water; but her foun-
dations cannot stand even a small access to the annual flood
which puts her in the center of a great sheet of rather unin-
teresting water. If Colusa were permitted to impound all the
water needed to enrich her arid plains, and make her a prin-
cipality in productions and wealth, the people of the valley
below would not be ague-smitten by the yearly floods,
and Sacramento would be delivered from an overflow which
has had a sinister effect upon her prosperity and advancement.
The county scat is the town of Colusa, and here lives
Mr. Will S. Green, editor of the Stin, and the most tireless,
intelligent, enterprising agitator of irrigation in the State.
Pressed by the local interests of his county in the question, he
THE NE IF EMPIRE. ' 135
has never ceased to admonish, instruct, implore and beseech
the people to be wise in time on this great question.
Sutter and Yuba Counties lie on the east side of the Sac-
ramento River, opposite and below Colusa, and have the gen-
eral characteristics of their neighbors, while Nevada, Sierra
and Placer overlook the valle)- from the Sierra Nevada
Mountains, and have interests bindred to those of its people.
Placer is the most noted mountain and foot-hill fruit county
in the State, and serves as an example of what can be done
in that culture all along the seven hundred miles of foot-hills
tiiat lie under the Sierra Nevadas.
Solano, Yolo, and Sacramento lie mostly in the far-gap-
ing mouth of the Sacramento Valle)-. Solano, once a great
wheat county, has come rapidly to the front with her early,
medium, and late fruits. Vaca Valley, out of which wheat
fields chaseci the cattle, the harvester replacing the vaquero,
has witnessed another transformation, and now is a solid or-
chard from Vacaville to Putah Creek. Here the cherry,
apricot, peach, plum, and grape often ripen earliest, and her
lands, that a few years ago were keeping their wheat-raising
owners miserable, now bring $i,ooo an acre, and the crops
taken from them bring a profit that justifies the price. In
this region is the Orleans vineyard, in which grow vines from
Orleans, France, that were originally from Metternich's Johan-
nisberger vineyard, at Nassau. Here, too, are vines of the
" thumb grape," from Italy, and other choice shipping and
wine varieties. If a visitor wishes to see fruit farming in its
perfection, let him visit Solano County and Vaca Valley. In
this county the date palm ripens its fruit unsheltered, and
trees grown from the seeds planted thirty years ago may be
seen. Yolo County is undergoing the common transforma-
tion of her industries, less wheat and more fruit. At Da-
visville, on the line of the Central Pacific, in this count}-, is
one of the largest raisin vineyards in the State, where may
be seen a very fine and successful e.vample of sub-irrigation,
the water being discharged from pipes below the surface,
thus escaping the loss of evaporation, and always leaving the
surface in a condition to w6rk.
136 THE NEW EMPIRE.
, Sacramento is the capital county. Its area of 640,00c
acres is almost entirely within the great valle}-, to which it
holds the same relative position that Stockton does to the San
Joaquin. It is watered by the Sacramento, American, Co-
sumnes, andMokelumneRivers.andhasasoiland surface agree-
ably diversified and very rich. Here Sutter's Fort stood, toward
which all immigrants traveled in 1849. Sacramento was
first a mass of wagons around the fort, then a city of tents,
later of shanties, and now a growing city, with large com-
merce and manufactures, and destined to have a great com-
mercial future, as the valley above it is developed. The hor-
ticulture of this county is well developed, and its agriculture
is in the front rank. The city is full of semi-tropical bland-
ishments. On hundreds of private lawns fine orange trees
ripen their fruit; the palm, of many varieties, gives an oriental
tone to the scene, and flowers in prodigal profusion give the
city a Persian air. In this county, on Senator Routier's
place, is the most celebrated almond orchard in the State, and
so rich, and so varied, and so valuable are the products of
the different soils, that if this capital city were limited to the
trade, profits, and productions of this one county, it would
find in them material for the growtli of a metropolis; for Sac-
ramento County alone is capable of producing more wealth
from the soil than the whole State of Massachusetts, and
yet see the many cities which thrive in Massachusetts !
THE BAY COUNTIES.
Considering the counties that border San Francisco Ba}^,
Napa is the most noted for vineyards. Napa Valley is the
modern Eschol, and in the vintage season there, the visitor
can hardly believe that he is in America. The scenes and the
activities of the season belong to Southern Europe. Here,
Krug, Schramm, and many other vintners have developed a
wine interest which is of enormous proportions. Napa
County is rich in mineral springs and resorts for recreation,
and will always be a charming place for the tourist and so-
journer, and a place of perfect contentment for the happy
people who dwell there.
THE NEW EMPIRE. 137
Alameda, the second county in the State, has for
its capital Oakland, the second city of the State, and in
many important respects the most strikinj^ly beautiful
city on the continent. With one hundred miles of smooth
streets, with the bay on one side, and a semi-lune
of charming mountains on the other, a system of sur-
passingly rich valleys behind, and an increasing commerce
and manufacturing industry, Oakland offers advantages that
are as patent as her charms are irresistible. The agriculture
of Alameda is of the first order. The bay climate makes irri-
gation but moderately necessar}', and here are gardens and
orchards as fine as the world can boast. In Livermore Val-
ley lire thousands of acres of vineyard just coming into
bearing, and soon Alameda wines will take their place among
the standard varieties of the State.
Below Alameda is Santa Clara County, at the southern
arm of the bay, with San Jose, its capital, at the mouth of
Santa Clara Valley. This region is unsurpassed in fertility.
We would not ask a stranger to believe the truth concern-
ing it, until he sees with his own eyes. It is the opinion of
many connoisseurs that the wines of Santa Clara County
have reached perfection. Here are made the Naglee brandies
which, in a wide competition at Paris, carried away the first
premium in a sweepstakes against the world. To the west
of the southern arm of the bay lies San Mateo County,
which has all the charms, capacities, and resources of the
other bay counties. ?Iere, at Menlo Park, are located the
homes of millionaires, Senator Stanford, Mr. J. C. Flood,
and many others, and here will be that Oxford of the
"^ Pacific, the Leland Stanford, Jr., University.
San Francisco City and County are coterminous; and
under homogeneous government. A city of 400,000 people,
with 200 millionaires, with all the vices and the \-irt-
ues of a cosmopolitan population drawn from ever)' coun-
try under the sun, it is the western Paris, and more nearly
resembles ancient Rome, in the possible reach of its influence,
derivation of its trade, and diversity of people attracted to it,
than does any other modern city. Here meet the Esquimaux
138 THE NEW EMPIRE.
from beyond the Arctic Circle, the Klickitat, from Sitka, the
Fox Indian, from the Aleutian Archipelago, the Fiji, Samoan,
and Maori, the Hawaiian, Malay, Japanese, Chinese, Corean,
Hindoo, Parsee, and Arab, the Mexican, Colombian, Greek
and Cossack, and people of every nation in Europe. If
assimilation of diverse elements makes a strong people, here
should be born the future Samson of the nations.
San Francisco is the third commercial city in the Union,
and when the means, which we have so often preached in these
pages, are found to attract people and make their stay profit-
able, she will, on this side of the continent, precisely balance
New York on the other. i
CHAPTER XXVII.
CALIFORNIA — A RESUM6.
W fF have given this cursory glance at California in detail
V V because it is the oldest State in the New Empire, and
in many respects retains the primacy which it so easily gained.
Its metropolis is the commercial and financial center of the
New Empire, as indeed it is also of the Pacific Islands and
coasts. Its products are peculiar to itself It is the oriental
part of America. The seeker will in vain push his quest in
Central and South America for a climate and other physical
features like those of California. The only climate in the
world that approximates it in salubrity, is that of Bermuda,
but in its climatology California enjoys the singular distinc-
tion of possessing a variety of climates, with subtle dis-
tinctions and shades of difference that are perceptible to
the invalid in search of health which has been lost in the
elemental warfare of the East, and these distinctions and
shades of difference are as fixed and reliable as the sca.sons.
From this is derived the advantage of being able to select
a location that is curative of a disease, or preventive of an
abnormal tendency, in the certainty that its climate is not to
change, and force the patient into another exile.
THE NEW EMPIRE. 139
We have specially made plain the value to the com-
merce of the State that lies in the Sacramento and San Joa-
quin Valleys. Those valleys throui^^h which the San Joaquin
River flows north, and the Sacramento south, to<:jcthcr, are
400 miles ioni^-, by an average of 50 miles wide, and their till-
able area of nearly 13,000,000 acres is about one-ninth the
total area of the State. If the 20,000 square miles which
they cover were as thickly inhabited as New York, the State
would have three times its present population. California is
larger than Japan, and, permitted to use all needed means to
bring its soil into productiveness, it is capable of an annual
harvest of fruits, grains, nuts, roots, and berries, as great as
the harvest of Japan. Yet CaHfornia has less than a million
of people, and Japan has thirty-five millions, amongst whom
poverty is the rare exception. We do not pretend that under
our civilization it is possible to crowd a population as densely
as it may be done in Asia; but we do say that the natural
resources of California are adequate to the task of furnishing
a commerce more varied and as great, and to the supplying
of food and raiment to a population as large as Japan.
Let us repeat that our references to the counties of
California have been kept far within the line of facts, and
that in the case of each one referred to there is enough more
to be said to make a volume for each individual county.
This book is to give to intending immigrants, and the press,
a fair idea of the present state of the New Empire, and to
stimulate further inquiry on the part of those who may wish
to see for themselves the most desirable part of America
and the choicest spot on earth.
We have frankly declared the law and the facts upon the
irrigation issue. Its importance is under-drawn rather than
otherwise, and the frankly declared intentions of the people
respecting changes in the law, and, if need be, changes in the
courts, have been given as part of current hiftory, and as an
admonition to judgesand for the information of those who have
been deterred from considering a location in California by
a judicial blow at the condition of happy and prosperous
life in this State. Surely the great rural and business interests
140 THE NEW EMPIRE.
of the State arc best served b}- a combination of all agencies,
literary and political, to do God's work in forcing even judges
to admit that human law is merely a handmaiden to the cus-
tomary law of Nature, and that the Creator never yet per-
mitted man to mar the pattern, nor destroy the beauty of
His footstool.
CHAPTER XXVIII.
IRRIGATION AND DRALVAGE.
HON. A. A. SARGENT, who represented California in the
Federal Senate during those years in which the material
development of the State required the most congressional
help, and got it through his influence, and who later repre-
sented his country at Berlin, has, since our chapters on irri-
gation were written, published in the Overland Monthly the
followMug article on this subject. Inasmuch as our say was
said without consultation with any legal authorities, we are
pleased to find all that we have said indorsed by an author-
ity so great and so trustworthy. V>y the kind permission of
the editor of the Overland, we transfer Mr. Sargent's article
to these pages, as a conclusive statement of the case: —
"The physical features of California are such that if the
law governing the State does not sanction the appropriation
of water by diversion to beneficial uses, as opposed to what
are called riparian rights, it is a matter of serious regret. It
is more. It is a pressing question whether there be not apt
and judicious means by which the law niay be brought into
harmony with public interests.
" The waters of this State are irregularly and scantily
supplied by precipitation. Aside from the bays and principal
rivers, not available for irrigation, these waters, in their nat-
ural state, run flirough steep, crooked, and rocky canons to
the plains, where they become broad, shifting, shallow
streams, often dry, and spread out into swamps, or shallow
lakes, the surfaces of which are ordinarily so far below the
surrounding country as to be unavailable for reservoirs. The
THE NEW EMPIRE. 141
water in these lakes and swamps becomes fetid, fever-breed-
ing, generating swarms of noxious insects, and their neigh-
borhood uninhabitable. These depositories of slimy water
can only be drained by intercepting the water which flows
toward them in the shallow, scanty streams, which the Cali-
fornia vocabulary, for want of a better term, names rivers.
These lakes and swamps, to be found in our great plains, are
the mere overflow of the streams in the high water of spring,
when the snows on the mountains melt with the increasing
heat of the sun. At other seasons, they shrink in their beds
under excessive evaporation and from absorption, uncovering
their dish-like approaches for miles, on which rank tules grow
and rot. The air is poisoned by the exhalations, during the
hot season, for miles around; the water turns a light coffee
color, and the neighborhood becomes frightfully unwholesome
for man and beast.
"If the supply of water from precipitation were greater,
and regular, lasting through the year, as in England, the inlets
to these lakes would be strong, navigable rivers; the lakes
would be deep, clear, and unvarying in size; the swamp would
cut out into deep outlets, carrying sparkling waters to the
ocean, and freighted with inland commerce. The present
nuisances would disappear; for the region about the lakes and
swamps would be changed from its natural pestilential condi-
tion to salubriousness.
" But we cannot have this greater and regular supply of
water from rain and snow. Our climatic conditions forbid it,
and will do so for all time. We depend for the little precipi-
tation we get upon the trade winds, which, when conditions,
uncertain as the winds, are favorable, send to us in grudging
quantities the moisture which tends to make the State habit-
able. Whatever the direction of the wind in England, it
traverses high seas ordinarily in commotion from storms.
The isle is" drenched at all seasons, except occasionally in
some of the spring months, and it is liable during those
months to rain enough to make a feature in a California ' wet
season.'
" In consequence of this feature of our climate (so
142 THE NEW EMPIRE.
strongly in contrast with that of England, whence comes the
doctrine of riparian rights), when our people began to settle
the valleys of this State, they found these swamps and
swampy lakes, which Nature had already fashioned. In the
progress of settlement, the question has arisen, Is it necessary
or right to keep forever these polluting areas, or can engineer-
ing science and public necessity obviate them ? The soil
under the thin layer of water in the lakes is rich; may it be
made cultivable ? Homes may be made in the region now
too unhealth)' for any population; shall the State be allowed
to improve ? Enterprise stands ready to create taxable prop-
erty there; is there a law which forbids it?
"The method of redemption is plain, if there is not some-
thing in the law to prevent its use. We repeat, that the
problem is to get the water out of depressions in the valleys
too low for ordinary drainage. Thus, Tulare Lake is the
overflow from King's River. It has no outlet, unless the
overflow from King's River becomes so great that the sur-
face of the lake rises high enough to send the water back
through the same river to an outlet in the San Joaquin.
Kern and Buena Vista Lakes are the overflow from Kern
River, a sumpage ground in spring. The water, when there
is enough of it, flows into Buena Vista Slough, and thence
south into the lakes. If the lakes get full enough, the water
flows back through Buena Vista Slough to Buena Vista
Swamp, where it is spread out and lost. Under such con-
ditions, it is obvious that there can be no drainage of Tulare
Lake through King's River, or of Kern or Buena Vista Lakes
through the Buena Vista Slough or Swamp. The great body
of the water is condemned to fester and dry up in the hot
sun of that region, with the effects described. But the wa-
ters of King's River, on their way to Tulare Lake, and those
of Kern River, on their way to Kern and Buena Vista Lakes,
may be intercepted and the water be u.sed for irrigation on the
parched plains; and then the lakes and swamps will perma-
nently dry up, their beds be given to fertility and man, their
noxious insects disappear, their fevers vanish, and prosperity
take the place of desolation.
THE NEW EMPIRE. 143
" This is one side of the problem ; but there is another and
more important one. The great valley of California lies be-
tween latitude 34° 50' near Fort Tcjon, and 40" 40' near
Shasta, giving an extreme length of 450 miles, and an aver-
age width of 40 miles, including the foot-hills. It lies be-
tween the Coast Range and the Sierra Nevadas, and within
the cup of the mountains lies an area of 52,200 square miles,
equal to half of all the Middle States. In this great valley
are millions of acres of land, possessing all the elements of
fertility except moisture, a climate agreeable in winter, hot and
desiccating in summer, and yet not enervating nor unfavor-
able to industry. Under the stimulus of water, from 50 to
80 bushels of wheat per acre have been produced, and 45
bushels of barley as a volunteer crop. Five crops of alfalfa
have been grown in one 3'ear, yielding an average of 15 tons
per acre. From the farthest bound of the Colorado desert
to the headwaters of the Sacramento, is a region to be bene-
fited by irrigation; and one-half of it, approximating in fer-
tility to that above described, is absolutely sterile without it.
This part lies, year after year, as it has done since the mount-
ains took their present form, dreary, dead, and forbidding,
except in comparatively limited areas, where a system of irri-
gation has been adopted, changing sightless deserts into
scenes of perennial loveliness. The traveler through Tulare,
Fi'esno, Kern, Stanislaus, Merced, Los Angeles, and other
south6rn counties, ma}' see, l}'ing side by side, desert tracts
parched and burnt like the Sahara, and oases of wondrous
beauty, whereon tropical fruits flourish in the vicinity of grain
crops; where rich meadows feed innumerable herds of cattle,
horses, and sheep. A few }'ears ago the oasis was desert.
What magician has changed this so much for the better?
Redemption was effected by bringing the fugitive and scanty
water of these streams to these lands, and thus quickening
them into life. As the area of irrigated land has extended,
all branches of business have become enlarcred.
" A great wool clip, raisins, wine, and brandy, oranges
and other tropical fruits, countless herds of cattle fattened for
home and foreign markets, growing villages and cities, pleas-
lU THE NE W EMPIRE.
ant and numerous homes, all attest the benefits accruing from
irrigation. A great trade has sprung up, to the advantage of
Los Angeles, San Francisco, and the whole State. This is
the result from the irrigation of a few hundred thousand acres
of land, to water which ditches and canals thousands of miles
in length have been constructed and maintained at a cost of
some $100,000,000. It is calculated by engineers that the
water of our rivers, available for the purpose, will be sufficient
to extend irrigation to many millions of acres which now are
absolutely useless, but which will then be as fertile as the Nile
Valley after a swelling of the sacred river.
" These facts show the relation of irrigation, or the ap-
propriation of water to useful purposes, to the problem of
draining the pestilential lakes and marshes of the State. By
constructing reservoirs in the mountains to catch the surplus
water, and by intercepting the water on its way to the stag-
nant pools which naturally receive it, and where it is wasted
by evaporation, and by spreading it out over desert lands, the
swampy lakes and morasses are dried up, and become the
scenes of agricultural prosperity, while thriving farms are
created on the deserts to embellish and enrich the State.
Works of irrigation and for reclaiming marsh lands go to-
gether in all old countries where either are needful.
" If it be true that the Legislature has been so improvi-
dent in its laws that the people of the State are powerless to
dry up their swamps and fertilize their deserts, then the" popu-
lation of the State is too large, and its prosperity is built on so
insecure a basis that a collapse is impending. If this be true,
the colonies of Fresno, Anaheim, Riverside, etc., have chosen
the wrong State for their settlements. The farmers who have
created cultivable land in Tulare Lake must soon see their
«
possessions engulfed in the returning waters. The prosperous
farms in the deserts must return to their original sand heaps;
the verdant crops that beautify a broad region must die, and
the herds that feed there must die with them, or be driven
away. Towns must dwindle to villages, and villages and
homesteads disappear. All industries built upon irrigation
must perish when irrigation ceases, and future improvements
THE NEW EMPIRE. 145
conditioned upon irrif^ation be denied. These propositions
are so simple that they are axiomatic. They are founded in
the experience of all arid countries. All our libraries contain
shelves full of books illustrating them.
" It may well be supposed that this people will not sub-
mit to such consequences without an earnest attempt to avert
them. It can hardly be anticipated that they will accept the
destruction of such solid interests upon the fiat of four Su-
preme Judges, when three other members of the same respect-
able tribunal dissent, and say the majority is mistaken in its
law. By our form of government, there is an appeal to the
people from all executive or judicial action. By making the
judiciary elective, the Constitution devolves the duty upon
the people of determining as to the fitness df judges, and
makes these directly responsible to the people. Many old-
school thinkers have objected to this feature of modern con-
stitutions; but it has survived all attacks, and is now firmly
rooted in public policy. By that policy the people have op-
portunity to confirm or reverse the decisions of their judges,
and may reasonably be expected to exercise this power in a
case where public interests are put at hazard, and the decision
of the court meets with general popular non-concurrence.
" The effects of the decision in question are not localized
to the great valleys of the State. The mountains are seamed
with water ditches, constructed at immense cost for mining
purposes, in defiance of riparian rights. Some of these canals
are already utilized for irrigation, and more will be in the
future, if it is permissible. For this purpose they need to be
greatly extended, and new ditches to be taken out below the
present points of diversion. Is the miner, driven from his
occupation by the action of courts, to be prevented b\' the
courts from maintaining his means of diversion, or creating
new ones, to fertilize the vineyards and orchards he is plant-
ing in the foot-hills? The few dwellers along the rocky
canons are the riparian proprietors, and they are the ones
who can compel the appropriators to turn the water back
into the streams, that it may run unused by their solitary
cabins.
10
146 THE XEW EMPIRE.
" The question, therefore, whether what has been hereto-
fore held as the common law of California — viz: the right of
the first appropriator of water for beneficial use, to enjoy it to
the extent of his appropriation — or whether recognition as
conclusive of the inapplicable common law of England (which
gives to the proprietor on the banks of a water course the
right to have all wat.M- naturally flowing b)- or through his
land, continue so to flow, unused, undisturbed and undimin-
ished) shall prevail, becomes a vital one to all the people of
this State to consider, both in economic and legal aspects.
"By the act of April 13, 1850, the California Legislature
enacted that ' The common law of England, so far as it is not
repugnant to, or inconsistent with, the Constitution or laws of
the State of California, shall be the rule of decision in the
courts of this State.' Upon this enactment, the structure of
' riparian rights ' rests, and the right of appropriation is de-
nied, however destructive the consequences. The State then
signed the bond, giving the pound of flesh; it enacted away
all control, ownership, and beneficial use of its waters, and
improvidently wrote ruin upon most of its territory. So runs
the argument. It is necessar}- to its conclusiveness to insist
that the common law is inflexible in its provisions, unbending
to circumstances, uninfluenced b}' the necessities of the peo-
ple, which its provisions govern. The laws of legislatures
may be changed, constitutions be modified by amendment
or explained away by courts; but the common law of En-
gland is fastened on the State, and may throttle it, and there
is no relief, unless judges in England vary its tendencies.
New conditions may arise here; but they must yield to it.
New discoveries may be made in art, science, and political
economy, of all of which the originators of the common law
had no conception; }ct they must wait upon its teachings
and abide by its slightest indications. No people ever as-
sumed meekly a more intolerable yoke, or submitted to a
more absurd bondage, if this be true. But it is not true.
One of the leading principles of the English common law is,
that it is flexible, and may be modified to suit the varying
wants of the community. Were this otherwise, it would
THE NEW EMPIRE. 147
never have been taken by English colonists to their new
homes. The declaration of rights made by the first Conti-
nental Congress in 1774, declared that 'the respective col-
onies are entitled to the common law of England, and to the
benefit of such English statutes as existed at the time of their
colonization, and which they have by experience found to be
applicable to their" social, local, and other circumstances,'
Unless so applicable, the common law was repudiated by the
Continental Congress, as England would have repudiated it
if it had ceased to be applicable to her necessities.
" The United States Supreme Court has declared that
the common law of America is not to be taken in all respects
to be that of England, but that the settlers adopted only that
portion which was applicable to their situation. The consti-
tutions of many States contain language similar to the stat-
ute of 1850, and contain no words of exemption of such por-
tions of the common law as are inapplicable to the condition
or necessities of the particular community; notably in New
York, New Hampshire, and Massachusetts; and yet the
courts in those States have held that the common law is not
a rule of decision where opposed to the wants of the people,
" As an illustration of the modification of the English
common law in the United States may be instanced the case
of ancient lights. Blackstone says: 'If one obstructs an-
other's ancient windows, the law will animadvert hereon as
an injury, and protect the injured party in his possession.'
This doctrine is as well seated in the English common law as
is that of riparian rights. Any one passing Cheapside and
other busy traffic streets in East London, will see where, in
the march of modern improvements, old buildings have been
pulled down to erect finer structures. On the squatty neigh-
boring buildings, at little windows looking out on old courts
or alleys, are put numerous signs bearing the inscription,
'Ancient Lights,' as a warning to the neighbor not to build
his new building so high or in such shape as to obstruct the
light through these old peep-holes. The same author defines
the common law to be general customs which are the uni-
versal rule of the whole kingdom, and are ascertained and
us THE NEW EMPIRE.
their validity determined by the judges of the several courts
of justice. This common law, he says, protects these ancient
lights. The lead in repudiating the common law doctrine of
ancient lights in the United States, was taken by the courts
of New York, the Constitution of which State makes the com-
mon law the rule of decision to the extent to which it is so
made by our statute. Upon a case calling for a decision as
to the right to obstruct an ancient light, the learned judge
repudiated the English common law doctrine, upon the
ground that ' it cannot be applied in the growing cities and
villages of this country, without working the most mischiev-
ous consequences. It has never, we think, been deemed a
part of our law.' The same ruling has been made by every
court in the United States, save one, which has passed on the
question. Yet this doctrine is incrusted in the common law,
as every lawyer knows. Even so the doctrine of riparian
rights cannot be applied to our arid State without the most
mischievous consequences. Why, then, apply it ?
"The same great jurist said: ' I think no doctrine better
settled than that such portions of the law of England as are
not adapted to our own condition, form no part of the law of
this State. The exception includes not only such laws as are
inconsistent with the spirit of our institutions, but such as
were framed with special reference to the physical condition
of a country differing widely from our own. It is contrary
to the spirit of the common law, to apply a rule founded on
a particular reason, to a case where that reason utterly fails.'
" The doctrine of riparian rights grew up in a small
country, continually drenched with water, where the necessity
for irrigation was unknown, and the only use of water was
for navigation by shallow boats, or to propel water mills. In
England the annual rainfall reaches eighty inches; in some
parts of California it does not exceed six inches. The prob-
lem in England has always been to get rid of water, not to
divert it, for there was no beneficial use for the diverted wa-
ters. But the doctrine of riparianism grew up anciently,
when the owners of grain mills along the streams desired
the water to flow steadily to the rude mill wheels, and the
THE NEW EMPIRE. 149
movers of country products, before railroad transportation,
desired to prevent obstructions being put in their way in the
streams. The judges moulded their decisions upon these
narrow necessities, and on kindred ones in the course of time.
Their doctrines fitted the times and the necessities of the
communities to which they applied. They are out qf place
in an arid region, where navigation of streams available for
irrigation is impossible, and the fluctuating supply of water
precludes its use for power. As the common law was devised
to minister to the wants of the community governed by it,
and enable them to make the most of their surroundings, it
is obvious that the judges would have sanctioned appropri-
ation for irrigation, had irrigation been a great necessity for
England. To doubt this is to misunderstand the mode of
growth of the common law. The rule of riparianism was
founded upon particular reasons. If the reasons had been
different, the rule would have been different also. It is there-
fore a violence to good judgment to import into our law a
rule founded on reasons which have no existence with us; in-
deed, where the reasons are exactly opposite. To do so is to
violate the common law, not to enforce it. The writer enter-
tains the highest respect for Hon. Allen Thurman as a states-
man and jurist, and such is generally conceded to him. Judge
Thurman, when upon the Supreme bench of Ohio, laid down
this principle in plain language. He said: 'The English
common law, so far as it is reasonable in itself, suitable to
the condition and business of our people, and consistent,
with the letter and spirit of our Eederal and State constitu-
tions and statutes, has been and is followed by our courts,
and may be said to constitute a part of the common law of
Ohio. But whenever it has been found wanting in an\- of
these requisites, our courts have not hesitated to modify it to
suit our circumstances; or, if necessary, to wholly depart
from it.' Would space permit, it might be shown by a wide
range of quotations from eminent judges and law writers,
that the common law of England is not enforced in Ameri-
can courts where such application is not consonant with our
condition and necessities. Our Supreme Court had abundant
150 THE NEW EMPIRE.
precedents and the highest authority to decide, if it so willed
to decide, that the doctrine of riparian rights, originating
under circumstances and for reas'ons so different from those
existing here, is not the law of this State, and never has been-
"An illustration is furnished by the courts of setting
aside the English common law, because the physical condi-
tions of this country are different from those of England, as
regards admiralty jurisdiction. The early decisions of the
United States Supreme Court assumed that the expression
' cases of admiralty and maritime jurisdiction ' was used in the
Constitution in the same sense as in England at the time the
Constitution was framed; and therefore, following the restric-
tion which the common law had imposed on admiralty in En-
gland, held that the jurisdiction was limited to matters on
the high seas or tide waters, and not within the body of a
country. The earlier cases adopted the language of the
law of England, where the navigable waters are tidal; but
the same court afterwards held, and still holds, the rule in-
applicable in this country, which has great inland seas and
long public rivers, navigable to long distances beyond the set
of the tide. It recognized ' the necessities of commerce,' as
requiring the application of the jurisdiction to all public navi-
gable waters on which commerce is carried between diff"erent
States or nations. Yet the same great tribunal has always
held that the English common law, where our conditions per-
mit its useful application, is the heritage of the people of this
country; that is, that it is a minister to our prosperity, and
not a drag upon it. The Act of 1850 did not, therefore, upon
the principles of construction applied by other jurists, import
the doctrine of riparian rights into this State. Had it been
intended so to do, surely no legislature ever so little under-
stood, or was so careless of, the heritage of its constituents
and that of their children's children.
"That legislature met six months before the State itself
had a legal existence. It was made up partly of natives who
knew nothing of irrigation, who only valued land for pastur-
age, and watered their herds at any convenient spring. If
they understood Mexican laws with regard to water, which is
THE NEW EMPIRE. 151
doubtful, the)' knew that this was subject to common use, and
could be ke[)t in the natural channel, or diverted by individu-
als or corporations, as the Government permitted. Riparian-
ism was unknown to them. The remainder of those le^^isla-
tors were gold-seekers or office-hunters, who necessarily had
ittle knowledge of the physical geography of the State, and
hence were poorly qualified to pass an intelligent judgment
on this question, even if they gave it a thought, which there
is no evidence that they did, and which they undoubtedly did
not. They resorted to the mines from the halls of legisla-
tion, and aided to establish a custom of appropriation for
mining purposes, which was illegal under the modern con-
struction of their innocently adopted statute. But it is im-
portant that under the decisions of the Supreme Court in its
early years, this system of appropriation of water for min-
ing purposes grew up, and was recognized as legal. The
judges who made those decisions were near the period of en-
actment, and their views have the value of contemporar}- con-
struction. The policy which they sanctioned was afterwards
reviewed by the United States Supreme Court, and that court
said: 'As respects the u^e of water for mining purposes, the
doctrines of the common law declaratory of the rights of
riparian owners were, at an early day after the discovery of
gold, found to be inapplicable, or applicable only in a very
limited extent, to the necessity of miners, and inadequate
to their protection;' and in another case the same court said
that the views expressed, and the rulings made, in regard to
the appropriation of water for mining purposes 'are equally
applicable to the use of water on the public lands for pur-
poses of irrigation. Xo distinction is made in those States
and Territories by the customs of miners and settlevs, or by
the courts, in the rights of the first appropriator from the use
made of water, if the use be a beneficial one.'
" That tribunal recognized that the customs and necessi-
ties of the people of this coast had moulded a common law
for them in this particular, and that the common law of En-
gland was inapplicable and mischievous, in that it was, as
they said, 'incompatible with an)- extended diversion of wa-
152 THE NEW EMPIRE.
ter, and its conveyance to points from which it could not be
restored to the stream.'
" Colorado has put into its Constitution a provision recog-
nizing the priority of right to water by priority of appropria-
tion. Like California, it is arid, and needs irrigation to fer-
tilize its fields. It has already solved this question, as it was
proposed by the recent State Irrigator's Convention to solve
it, by organic law. But the Supreme (Jourt of that State
had decided that the doctrine of riparian rights had no appli-
cability to Colorado even before the adoption of the consti-
tutional provision; because imperative necessity, unknown to
the countries in which the common law originated, compelled
Colorado to recognize appropriation. The reasoning of that
court is so just, its recognition of the great necessities of the
State so clear, and the parallel of circumstances with those
of California so exact, that it is well to cite the decision at
some length: —
"' It is contended that the common law principles of ripa-
rian proprietorship prevailed in Colorado until 1876, and that
the doctrine of priority of right to water by priority of ap-
propriation thereof was first recognized and adopted in the
Constitution. But we think the latter doctrine has existed
since the date of the earliest appropriations of water within
the boundaries of the State. The climate is dry, and the soil,
when moistened only by the usual rainfall, is arid and unproduc-
tive; except in a few favored sections, artificial irrigation for
agriculture is an absolute necessity. Water in the various
streams thus acquires a value unknown in moister climates.
Instead of being a mere incident to the soil, it rises, when ap-
propriated, to the dignity of a distinct usufructuary estate, or
right of property. It has always been the policy of the Na-
tional, as well as the Territorial and State Governments^ to
encourage the diversion and use of water for agriculture; and
vast expenditures of time and money have been made in re-
claiming and fertilizing by irrigation portions of our unproduc-
tive territory. Houses have been built, permanent improve-
ments made, the soil has been cultivated, and thousands of
acres have been rendered immensely valuable, with the under-
standing that appropriations of water would be protected.
Deny the doctrine of priority, or superiority of right by pri-
ority of appropriation, and a great part of the value of all
this property is at once destroyed. . . . We conclude,
THE NEW EMPIRE. 153
then, that the common-law doctrine, giving the riparian owner
a right to the flow of water in its natural channel upon and
over his lands, even though he makes no beneficial use
thereof, is inapplicable to Colorado. Imperative necessity,
unknown to the countries which gave it birth, compels the
recognition of another doctrine in conflict therewith.'
" It is a matter of extreme regret that a few more of the
members of our own Supreme Court could not see judicially,
or give due weight to, what the Supreme Court in Colorado
so clearly sees and applies; viz., that it has been the policy
of the National and State governments to encourage the di-
version and use of water for agriculture; that vast expendi-
tures of time and money have been made in reclaiming and
fertilizing by irrigation, portions of our unproductive territory;
that houses and villages have been built, costly, permanent
improvements made, and hundreds of thousands of acres ren-
dered immensely valuable, which else would have remained
desert, with the understanding that appropriations of water
would be protected, and that the denial of the right of ap-
propriation destroys this vast property.
" The Supreme Court of Nevada, in an early case, sanc-
tioned the doctrine of riparian rights. But it has since re-
treated from that ground, and approved the doctrine of appro-
priation, holding that priority of appropriation is a test of
superiority of right. Its views as to the great system of anti-
riparianism, built up in the early days in this State, and the
sanction it received from the courts, are expressed as follows:
' In all the Pacific Coast States and Territories . . . the doc-
trines of the common law, declaratory of the rights of ripa-
rian proprietors respecting the use of running waters, were
held to be inapplicable, or applicable to only a very limited
extent, to the wants and necessities of the people, whether
engaged in mining, agricultural, or other pursuits; and it was
decided that prior appropriation gave the better right to the
use of the running waters to the extent, in quantity and qual-
ity, necessary for the use to which the waters were applied.
This was the universal custom of the Coast, sanctioned by
the laws and decisions of the courts in the respective States
and Territories, and approved and followed by the Supreme
154 THE XEW EMPIRE.
Court of the United States.' It may therefore be said, on
the testimony of this Supreme Court of Nevada, and the
Supreme Court of the United States, that there is a universal
custom or common law established in this State by the con-
currence of miners, farmers, and courts, by which appropria-
tion was established and riparianism rejected as the law of
this State.
" In the view of our high court, there is no public policy
which can empower it to disregard or modify the common
law of England because of a benefit to many persons; and
it holds it doubtful, if it is to the common benefit, or the ben-
efit of many persons, to promote the appropriation of water for
agricultural purposes. Upon the latter proposition, the peo-
ple need no decision; they are as nearly unanimous as pos-
sible that the court is all wrong.. As to the first proposition,
if the principle of it had been adopted by the Supreme Courts
of New York, Massachusetts, Maine, Pennsylvania, Ohio,
Texas, Illinois, etc., the common-law doctrine of easement in
ancient lights would be the law of this country, and such
structures as the Nevada Block or Safe Deposit building, and
the many palaces of trade in our growing cities, could not
have been built without the payment of enormous sums of
smart money; or, as the court puts it, 'on payment of due
compen.salion.' But these courts, and others, recognized the
argument ab inconvenienti, and enforced it. Did they not ' leg-
islate in such manner as to deny citizens their vested rights' }
Our Supreme Court would so characterize this action, and it
refrains from imitating the example of most of the Supreme
Courts of the Union in a parallel case. It is held more
strictly by the tether of the common law than the other
courts arc. It cites authorities from those courts to justify
its adherence to the common law upon riparian rights, but
underrates the example of the same courts where they depart
from the common law because the reason for the law fails in
their communities. But there arc wide climatic differences
between California and the States in question. West of the
one-hundredth meridian, the country is arid; cast of it, the
climate approximates to that of England, and irrigation
THE NEW EMPIRE. lof.
ditches are almost unknown. Regular rains, distributed
through the season, obviate costly works for diversion and
distribution of water, and leave no room for dissent from the
English doctrine of riparian rights. Hence the courts follow
the common law in that regard. They have no reason to do
otherwise. What they will do where they find the common
law ' not adapted to the necessities of our growing commu-
nities,' they have shown. Those illustrious judges would have
undoubtedly as freely decided that the common-law doctrine
of riparian rights is on a level with the common-law doctrine
of ancient lights, if they had lived in a country whose pros-
perity depended upon diversion and irrigation; and that it
could as little stand in the way of progress and civilization.
We must have a common law for the region west of the one-
hundredth meridian, and courts which can see its necessity,
and enforce it. An eminent law writer (W'harton) has dis-
cussed the proposition whether judges can or should legislate:
' Judges are not legislators for the purpose of revolutionizing
the law, but they are legislators for the purpose of evolving
from it rules which should properly govern present issues, and
winnowing from it limitations which are withered and dead.
And when this duty — a duty which is a necessary incident of
judicial office — is frankly recognized by the judiciary, the
process of legal development and of suppression will be
carried on more effectively and wisely than it can be done
by those who shut their eyes to ths duty. For no disclaimer
can relieve the judiciary from the function of gradually mod-
ifying the law, by adoption and rejection.'
" It may be respectfully suggested that our Supreme
Court fails to carry its premises to their logical conclusion.
It holds that the common law of England was adopted in this
State, and that in that law riparian rights are entrenched.
The common law upon riparian rights is substantial!)- as
follows: —
" ' Every proprietor of lands on the bank of a stream has
an equal right to use the waters which flow in the stream, and
consequently no proprietor can have the right to use the water
to the prejudice of any other proprieti^r. Without the con-
sent of the other proprietors, no proprietor can either diniin-
156 THE NEW EMPIRE.
ish the quantity of water which would otherwise descend to
the proprietors below, or throw the water back upon the pro-
prietors above.'
"The Supreme Court dispense with this rule of the
common law, in favor of a suprariparian proprietor, by holding
that he may use on the land at the head of his ditch, any
reasonable quantit}- of water for irrigation, if he return the
surplus to the stream. Suppose there is no surplus? But
this scanty privilege is a modification of the common law,
and not the original doctrine. It was not the common law
in 1850. Since that date, certain judges of England have ex-
pressed some hesitating assent to 'the American doctrine of
appropriation, 'inthecase of suprariparian proprietors; and hence
a California court ventures also to give it a qualified assent.
Are we, then, governed by the House of Lords in England,
not by our own legislature and courts } The English courts
are daily making laws adapted to their country, and thus
our judges wait to apply them to ours. There should be law
quotations telegraphed, like stock quotations, or the price
of wheat. It would be strange if, in all the dictum and
rubbish spoken by innumerable courts, there could not be
found some warrant for this subservience to foreign tribunals;
nevertheless, the better, safer, and more dignified rule would
seem to be that laid down by an eminent law writer (Sedg-
wick), who says: —
" ' It has been uniformly adjudged in this country, that
the common law, however adopted, is in force here only so
far as it is adapted to our situation, zuants, and institutions. '
"To refuse to apply it where it is opposed to our situ-
ation, wants, and institutions, is not to legislate; it is only to
discriminate.
" The common law was not adcjptcd in this State, or
any other, as a code, but as a ' rule of decision.' It is not
compulsory, but advisory. It is useful only where it is reason-
able. It depends for its applicability upon the soundness of
the reasons supjjorting it, and tlic similarity of tlie condi-
tions in given cases. It certainly stands upon no firmer
footing with us than in England, and there judges daily en-
large, contract, or explain it away.
THE NEW EMPIRE. 157
"The recent advance in the' English courts towards ap-
propriation of water is an illustration of the flexibility of the
common law, and their mode of treating it. As long as the
only use for water was to float craft, or drive machinery,
they adhered to the stricter doctrine. IJut of late years the
use of flooding has become partially understood in the west
and south of England, to increase the produce of grass by
converting the land into water meadows. Poor heaths have
been converted into luxuriant pastures by the use of irriga-
tion alone. Quick to detect changes in public wants, the
courts have recognized this additional use of water; but, as
every water course has an owner, and only the owners seek
to divert its water, the decisions have not advanced farther
than to favor, in some degree, the claims of riparian appfo-
priators to beneficial use. Upon the strength of such inti-
mations we also advance a short step, not venturing to go
alone, or to do what the same English courts would do in a
proper case — set aside all previous adjudications to serve the
public interests, as did the United States Supreme Court in
the matter of admiralty jurisdiction, and our courts generally
in the case of ancient lights.
" A disheartening portion of the opinion of the majority
of our court, is that wherein they undervalue the benefits
that have been gained under the appropriation system, and
discredit those of the future. With such impressions upon
that vital subject, it was easier to decree practically that irri-
gation in this State shall be confined to narrow margins
along water courses, and that the great plains beyond .shall
rest in perpetual barrenness. If an outlet of escape from
this condition was left open, by condemning upon compen-
sation all the available waters of the State, it is through a
course of expense so frightfully great that no sane man can
expect to see it realized. The day that decision was ren-
dered, running water, to which there had hardly been a claim-
ant except the industrious appropriators, became worthless to
them, and worth hundcds of millions of blackmail to loiter-
ers. Such counties as Fresno, Merced, Stanislaus, Kern,
Tulare, Los Angeles, and San Bernardino, such towns as
158 THE NEW EMPIRE.
Fresno, Bakersfield, Riverside, Pasadena, etc., received a stag-
gering blow, from which they can recover only by a return
to what was before believed to be the policy of the law. The
curse of disputed land title is not worse than that of disputed
water rights; and where water is a condition of existence, as
in the region named, the curse is fearfully aggravated. On
that day a hundred million dollars invested in irrigation
ditches, and thrice that amount of improved farms, orchards,
and vineyards, became the sport of litigation, with the disad-
vantage of prejudgment.
" The decision was made in a case not necessarily call-
ing for it. The plaintiffs claimed under a grant of swamp
lands from the State, the condition of the grant being that
they should free the land from water by draining it; or by
turning the water away from it. But the plaintiffs claimed
the right to have all the water flow to these lands that would,
in the course of nature, flow there; in other words, they
held the land on condition of making it dry, and they claimed
the water to keep it wet. Again, the decision deals with,
and virtually denies, the right of the defendants to divert the
waters of Kern River for irrigation purposes, because, say the
court, the plaintiffs are riparian proprietors^ not on Kern
River, but in a swamp that is made by the chance overflow
of certain lakes, which are not a part of that river. The
question has been asked why, in a matter of so much mo-
ment as that of laying down a rule of property affecting so
seriously all the business interests of the State, the court did
not \fait, as requested, until a case arose where the facts de-
manded it.
"As the water that reaches the plaintiff's swamp lands
is that only which overflows during the brief period of melt-
ing snows from Buena Vista and Kern Lakes, it necessarily
follows that these lakes must be maintained to keep the
swamp lands so supplied. Professor George Davidson, in
his report upon irrigation in California, speaks of these lakes
as he found them as early in the year as May, as lying in a
temperature of 130°, and being ' very green, warm, and unfit
for domestic use.' This enormous heat, and the cessation, so
THE NEW EMPIRE. 159
early in the spring, of water supply from the mountains,
' causes a large area of land,' says another observer, ' to be-
come alternately wet and dry, producing a great mass of
vegetation, the decay of which causes a good deal of mala-
ria, carrying sickness over a wide region, and as far as
Bakersfield. Enormous swarms of mosquitoes are generated,
which infest the swamp and lakes, stinging cattle and horses
to madness, not only around the lake, but at long distances
from it. Cattle drinking the water, or feeding at the lake,
are sickened by fevers, and the lake becomes a most annoy-
ing and deadly nuisance. It is a sheet of ever-varying,
stagnant water, good for nothing but producing malaria and
mosquitoes. Even the fish propagated in its waters are not
fit to eat.'
" The direct effect of the decision is to perpetuate this,
great nuisance, which the police power of the State should be
employed to abate. But this is of less consequence, as, if the
great system of reclamation by irrigation inaugurated in the
southern vallc\' is to be stopped, it matters not whether the
air in the solitudes so enforced is poisonous or not. They
will necessarily relapse to their desolate condition of twenty
years ago, when the traveler passed over fifty miles at a
stretch without finding a human habitation. Under the sys-
tem of riparianism, as expounded by our judges, the great
plains will again become, as they were for the first twenty years
of the State's existence, habitable only by wild hogs and go-
phers. The lakes and morasses may therefore be allowed to
remain, to yield their fragrant tribute to the English common
law.
"The artificial and fragmentary way in which great ques-
tions are sometimes tried in courts prevents a lar^e consid-
eration of them. It may be insisted that in this case, under
the issues, all these considerations were not, and could not be,
urged. Yet, under all disadvantages, it could not be over-
looked, even if underrated, that one side of the question rep-
resented the reclamation of our broad deserts and of these
swamps, the health of the community, its prosperity in the
largest sense, and the creation of productive propert\-. On
160 THE NEW EMPIRE.
the other was a policy that would keep these lakes full of
stagnant water, compel the overflow of Kern River to find a
perpetual deposit there, destroy the health of the region, in-
fest it with intolerable pests, condemn the uplands to sterility,
and break up inestimable industries. Every farmer in the
great valleys was interested in the decision of the question,
for all live by irrigation. Every dweller in farm houses near
these and other such lakes, and in the surrounding villages,
had a vital interest to know if miasmatic air should steal,
under the protection of the law, into his home at night. The
merchants and manufacturers of the State had an interest in
its decision; for if the farmer was ruined, he could not buy
or pay. All who desired the State to be' developed, its vast
arid plains to yield the abundance of which, under conditions,
they are capable, were interested in it. It is in the view of
this wide and absorbing interest of the whole State that this
discussion of the facts and principles involved is attempted.
The personal aspects of this cause celebre, however important
to the litigants, sink into insignificance compared with the
great interest of the State in the ultimate determination of
the question whether the means which, as we shall see, all
countries physically conditioned like ours have employed to
promote their growth and happiness can be permitted in this
State, or shall be denied because countries differently cir-
cumstanced have never felt the need of, or employed them.
The system of appropriation is not hostile to the real inter-
ests of the riparian proprietor, provided he will avail himself
of its advantages. It is inconsistent with the practice of
wasting the waters of the State by letting them run idly
into the unthankful ocean; but it is not inconsistent with the
use of water by any one, riparian proprietor or not, who will
take the necessary steps to appropriate and put the water to
some beneficial use. Nearly all riparian proprietors are ap-
propriators in the sense here intended. They have put up
their notices claiming water, and dug their ditches leading to
their irrigated fields, or to tanks for stock. The decision of
the Supreme Court is hurtful to such proprietors in most
cases; for they need to irrigate over wider spaces more liber-
THE NEW EMPIRE. IGl
ally than the limiting words of the court permit. Such ri-
parian appropriators are injured by the new departure in
law, as much as any other. Water is so precious in this State
that every means must be used to husband it. Every drop
that falls into the sea has failed of its mi.ssion. In the Coast
Range, where thin threads of water run, and are apt to dry
up, or sink away in the hot summers, it would be well to im-
itate the example of the old padres, who concreted the beds
of the little streams, or made concrete ditches along their
banks. This preserves the water, and it is appropriation as
well.
'• The doctrine of riparian ownership will be very diffi-
cult of application in this State, for other physical reasons
than those existing in its climate. All the streams of South-
ern California, after they leave their rocky canon beds, run
through shifting sands. In many cases they have no defined
banks, or steady course, but shift their direction under the
effect of storms. These shifting streams break away, during
high water, from their temporary beds, and take new courses,
often widely diverging from previous ones. The river affected
by this suit will illustrate. In 1862 it ran below where Ba-
kersfield now s,tands, southeasterly, and discharged into the
east end of Kern Lake, when there was water enough to get
through the sands so far. In 1S67 it changed, during a
storm, to what is now called Old River, and discharged
through one fork at the west end of the lake, and through
another still farther west into the slough connecting that lake
with Buena Vista Lake. It now runs still farther west in
New River, and discharges northwest of Buena Vista Lake
into Buena Vista Slough, whence it drops back, southerly,
to the lake, in an opposite direction from Buena Vista Swamp.
The point of discharge, in each case, is about ten miles from
the previous one. The original United States surveys, made
in 1855, show a still wider divergence of this shifting chan-
nel. Such rivers refuse to be governed by the decrees of
courts that ' inseparably annex them to the soil, not as an
easement or appurtenance, but as part and parcel of it.' An
appropriator easily adapts his means of diversion to such
11
162 THE NEW EMPIRE.
streams; but a riparian proprietor finds his inseparable annex
nearlv as fleeting as the clouds that sail over his land. In
whatever light the matter is viewed, the conclusion comes ir-
resistibly back, that the laws made for a country so different
in all physical aspects as England is from California, cannot,
and ought not to be enforced here.
"In the foreign possessions of England, the practice of
appropriation prevails over the doctrine of riparian rights,
wherever irrigation is a necessity. It is so in India and in
Australia. India has gigantic works for systematic irrigation.
Three hundred and seventy millions of British money are be-
ino- expended in that country to supplement a system older
than our era. Professor George Davidson reports that the
whole breadth of the base of the peninsula of India, sweep-
ing in a great curve from the delta of the Ganges to the
delta of the Indus, is the field of a vast system of irrigation.
The supply of water is in the Himalayas, where snows en-
sure an unceasing supply. The Rocky and Sierra Nevada
Mountains are the Himalayas of the arid region of the
United States, while the broad areas of irrigable lands which
adjoin them are, perhaps, equal in extent to the great plains
of India. For over two thousand years the people of India
have cultivated by means of canals and reservoirs, and En-
glish capital has projected and commenced great works, with
better engineering science and wider reach. The effects are
already seen in the world's markets by the competition of the
wheat and cotton of India. The rains of India are usually
confined to a single month. Though copious for that period,
they do not give the continued moisture necessary for crops.
In the densely populated parts of the country, two crops an-
nually arc necessary to fpcd the people, and these can be
had only by utilizing, by irrigation, the water caused by the
melting snows stored in the mountains. The alternative of
less production is .starvation, with the attendant fevers. The
director of the Ganges Canal Water Works states, as a strik-
ing advantage of irrigation in that country, the substitution
of a constant for a fluctuating return of produce. Alterna-
tions of production and failure consequent upon non-irrigable
THE NEW EMPIRE. 103
agriculture, are significant of enormous misery among the
laboring classes. These have disappeared as the great works
inaugurated by English capitalists have become operative.
In a community dependent for its means of subsistence on
the soil, the importance of having thus excluded the disturb-
ing influence of variable seasons need not be insisted on.
All the benefits of security for capital invested in cultivation
are obtained; the revenue fluctuates only with the price of
produce, and the working classes have cheap food, and a con-
stant demand for their labor. The horrible famines of India,
the sickening details of which have, from time to time, reached
our distant ears, cease where irrigation gives steady returns
to the labors of the husbandman. In India the Government
possesses the right of property in all running waters whatso-
ever. It may dispose of them forever, if it thinks fit, and the
doctrine of riparian rights has no part in the economy of that
country.
" Irrigration is resorted to in all countries where much of
the land must otherwise remain barren from drought. In
Egypt it was practiced two thousand year before Christ, by
means of great canals and artificial lakes. Extensive works,
intended for the irrigation of large districts, existed in times
of remote antiquity, in Persia, China, and other parts of the
East, and such works still exist, and provide food for the
teeming millions who would else perish. Irrigation is a pow-
erful agent in the plains of northern Italy, and the Govern-
ment recognizes its economic importance, encourages it by
every means, and is especially careful in the education of civil
engineers, the highest grade among whom is the hydraulic
engineer. The length of canals in Lombardy alone, is over
five thousand miles, and there is scarcely an acre of the Mi-
lanese that is without several intersecting canals. In round
numbers there are a million acres irrigated in Lombardy. The
system has been perfecting for seven hundred years, and has
gone on under all changes of dynasty and all civil commo-
tions. It has converted a barren waste into a garden. The
right of property in all running waters, whether of rivers,
steams, or torrents, appertains to the Government. While the
164 THE NEW EMPIRE.
Government disposes of the waters of all rivers and canals,
it recognizes the claims of towns, or associations of proprie-
tors, to the supplies which they have enjoyed by prescriptive
title for long periods of time. Private rights to divert water
have grown up to such extent that the right asserted by the
State, is nearly a barren one, and its enforcement has reference
rather to administration and police duties than to direct
financial considerations. In exercising its right of property
in waters available for irrigation, the Government of Lom-
bardy follows one of three courses. First, it disposes of the
water in absolute property, to parties paying certain estab-
lished sums for the right to divert it. Second, it grants
perpetual leases of the water on payment of a certain an-
nual amount. Third, it grants a temporary lease for a vari-
able time at a certain annual rate, the water reverting to the
State on the termination of the lease. By far the most com-
mon of these courses is the first, and it operates the most ben-
eficially. The origin of the system of irrigation was with
the great landed proprietors upon their properties. With
the revival of knowledge in Italy, the art of hydraulic engi-
neering was called into existence, and the extensive demand
for skill in its detail^ created, early, a supply of men familiar
with all of these. Hence the remarkable number and great tal-
ent of executive engineers, by whose exertions a vast net-work
of irrigation channels was spread over the face of the entire
country. All this has operated powerfully in producing the
social prosperity for which the irrigated districts are remark-
able. In Spain and the .south of France, and considerably
in Belgium, irrigation is extensively practiced, so that it may
be said that the great valleys of the Po, Adige, Tagus, and
Douro arc subjected to systematic irrigation, enormously add-
ing to their productiveness. Such a system is entirely im-
possible where the right of the land-owner on a stream to
own and control the water is admitted. The water is con-
ducted for miles away from the stream, and from the land of
the riparian proprietor. He may have his share on the terms
of other users of the vital fluid; but he cannot claim a supe-
rior right because his land is nearer, or better situated than
another's. And he has no power to determine that the water
THE NEW EMPIRE. 105
shall run idly by him to the sea, and lose nothing b\' non-
user. Such doctrines may do for humid countries, where
water is an obstacle; not for arid countries, where it is the
supreme blessing — the essential of the community's preser-
vation.
" The climate, productions, and general characteristics of
these countries resemble strongly those of California, espe-
cially of the southern part of the State. A system that has
made possible their dense populations must be favorable, it
must be indispensable, to our prosperity. Our population is
thin, compared with that of our sister States. We have a cul-
tivable area equal to New England, New York, and Penn-
sylvania, with a population of a million, while theirs is four-
teen millions. Compared to the populations of other coun-
tries of the world, which resort to irrigation, ours is insig-
nificant. If we are to observe the law of growth, we must
have its conditions. We caimot maintain a population be-
yond our means to feed. We cannot feed a large popula-
tion without irrigation, or with irrigation only on narrow rib-
bons along the river beds, which the Supreme Court permits
to riparianists only. Imagination cannot depict the horrors
of famine, misery, and death that would follow this rule,
sternly applied to the plain of the Indus or of the Ganges.
It would produce a revolution if enforced in the basin of the
Po. With similar climatic conditions, our present interests
and future necessities run parallel with those of other arid
countries, not with those of humid regions, like England and
the Atlantic States. In the maxims and practice of coun-
tries resembling our own in this particular, we may find use-
ful guidance. Our great plains and valleys must be utilized;
our foot-hills must be clothed with cultivated verdure; our
streams must be taken from their useless and shifting beds
and given the widest scope. Then we may create an em-
pire here, of health, prosperity, and development, while the
alternative is a dwindled population and wasted resources.
The better work had made <;ood progress before the halt
called by this decision. It may not be doubted that it will
be resumed, and any obstacle will be legally swept away by
imperious public necessity, like chaff from the threshing floor."
166 THE NEW EMPIRE.
CHAPTER XXIX.
BIOGRAPHIES.
IT has been said that the reading of " Plutarch's Lives "
effected the social and political revolution of France. If
the proper study of mankind is man, it is a study to which
the biography of every one who has gained fame or fortune
is the contribution of a text-book. In the New Empire are
scores of men who have attained both, by their genius and
their industry. Many of them were pioneers to the Pacific
Coast, and others were early occupants of new mines, or the
first to perceive the promise of investments which others had
passed by, and so in one way or another, and notably byways
honorable and upright, these men have reaped the rewards
which crown the genius of industry.
Nations are made up of individuals, and nations that are
ruled by constitutional forms have governments that are the
result of accepting successful experiments as their model. If
all exploits in the science of government that were proved
to be failures, had been accepted as precedents to be copied
and imitated, statecraft would have been an aggregation of
mistakes, a hump-backed and reel-footed science, and human
government would be now a case of chronic rickets, instead
of a system growing yearly to a more refined adjustment to
the manifold necessities and useful diversities of the race.
Applying this use of the example of success to the indi-
vidual, there is a well-defined utility in studying the lives of
successful men, and in each of such lives there must be some
noble elements which teach and exhort. The study of
" Plutarch's Lives " was a stimulus to the intellect of France,
not because it made of any Frenchman an Alexander or a
Caesar, a Cicero or a Publicola, but because it mcved French-
men to make the best use of the opportunities within their
field of action. So the few examples for which we have
space here, it is believed, will move the growing generation
on this coast to sustained effort, to hope under adverse cir-
'cumstances, to courage in the face of difficulties, to the en-
THE NEW EMPIRE. 167
durance of defeat with patience, and to the celebration of
success with moderation.
We deal, in this list of worthies, with four men who have
reached and now occupy seats in the Senate of the United
States. We select them because of the intrinsic worth of
their lives, as examples of the value of readiness, address,
and application to the conquest of difficulties which others
avoided, and also to correct a prevalent Eastern impression
that these gentlemen are in the Senate only because they are
rich. They are there because they represent the business
classes of the New Empire. In them are the qualities which
have conquered, and will continue to win, successes in our
commercial and financial activities. In the East the lawyer
is universally the recipient of public honors. The successful
lawyer is selected. The presence of lawyers in the Senate
has made it necessary to propose a law that they shall not
practice in cases which maybe affected by legislation. Surely
it is to the credit of the New Empire that it puts its business
men into the Senate, and that they have great fortunes proves
only that they are great business men. The East is welcome
to its senatorial lawyers; we make no issue against the prac-
tice of sending them there, but we refuse to admit the pro-
priety of an issue made upon the representatives of that keen
and unconquerable business genius which has developed on
this coast, within less than forty years, the institutions of a
great and refined civilization.
ts
JOHN P. JONES.
Senator Jones is peculiar amongst the coast senators by
reason of his long, continuous service, being now in his third
term. It is believed that except for the constitutional pro-
vision which bars him out, his public career would have car-
ried him to the Presidency. But he was born abroad, in Here-
fordshire, England, and although his parents brought him to
this country the following year, and he is in all things an
American, his alien nativity closes against him the two public
offices which are higher than the Federal Senate.
His father was a marble cutter, and on landing in this
168 THE NEW EMPIRE.
country in 1830, pushed westward to Cleveland, where he es-
tablished his trade and reared a family of thirteen children.
The future Senator was educated in the public schools of
Cle\"^land, and that he made tlie best use of their opportu-
nities is proved by the keenness and culture of his intellect.
His education was carried on at the same time he was master-
ing his father's trade; for in those days the owner of a manu-
facturing business or handicraft was not forbidden to teach it
to his sons. After leaving school, he worked for his fathen
and also got some practical insight into finance by employ-
ment in the counting-room of a bank. In 1850 he and his
brother Henry decided to come to California, and the way
they chose to make the journey sounds like a fable. The bark
Eureka, which had been in the Lake Erie trade, was fitted out at
Cleveland, and with the Jones boys as passengers, went out
through the Welland Canal into and down the St Lawrence
into the North Atlantic, and then around Cape Horn to San
Franci.sco Bay. They left Ohio in the early spring, but the
summer, autumn, and winter of 1850 were long spent before
their voyage ended. They went at once to the mines, and on
Feather River, and in Yuba, Calaveras, and Tuolumne Coun-
ties got that practical experience which later on was to serve
the Senator at the turning point of his fortunes. Wherever he
was, he was noted for his studious habits. In this respect he
greatly resembled Col. E. D. Baker, who in camp and cabin
was always using the best means at hand to increase and en-
rich his store of knowledge. In this trait they both were ot
intellectual kin to Daniel Webster, whose retentive mind de-
manded constant additions to its full treasury. Young Jones,
though scarcely more than a boy in years, was shortly elected
to the magistracy; a little later he was chosen sheriff. Then
came trouble with the Indians, and he volunteered, and did
some good fighting. He now began to be known as a public
speaker of quite unusual power, a well-equipped debater, a
lover of fair play, and tolerant of the views of others while
able to maintain his own with a vigor that made him a for-
midable antagonist. His legislative experience began in the
California State Senate in 1863, and he served until 1867,
THE NEW EMPIRE. 109
when he ran for Lieutenant-Governor, and went down, leading
his ticket. This reverse, for the time, arrested his public
career and threw him back upon business. In 1868 he was
made superintendent of the Crown Point Mine, the oldest of
the Gold Hill Comstocks. It was a property that had not paid
for years, and its abandonment had been seriously considered.
The mine communicated with the Kentuck and Yellow Jacket,
and in the first year of Mr. Jones' control, the firing of the
Yellow Jacket caused the greatest catastrophe in all the
history of mining on the Pacific Coast. The fire was in the
800 feet level. The day shift had nearly all gone below, and
forty-five men perished. In this emergency the superintend-
ent showed himself entirely a hero, and to-day throughout
Nevada and in every mining camp on the coast, the story
of his courage and humanity is told over and over again. It
was the foundation and beginning of his popular hold upon
Nevada, that has given him longer continuous service in the
Federal Senate than any man from the West has ever been
permitted to enjoy, x^fter rescuing a great many cage loads
of miners, on the second day of the fire, it became necessary
to send some one to the bottom of the 800 feet level to cut
the air pipes. Mr. Jones went himself, accompanied by a boy
who volunteered to hold the candles. Stepping on the
cage, they were lowered into that pit of smoke and flame. In
twenty minutes the return signal was given, and they reached
the top barely alive.
He had faith in deep mining, and pushed Crown Point
down to 1,300 feet, where, lying in a solid body 200 feet long,
he struck the first bonanza, and that instant became a million-
aire. This bonanza yielded $30,000,000.
Mr. Jones was active in developing Nevada properties.
His ore mills soon yielded him an income of $30,000 a month,
and his money was not sequestered, but was put into produc-
tive enterprises that employed labor and stimulated com-
merce. He did not get money to play the miser, but his gen-
erosity increased with his riches, against the rule which yokes
wealth and parsimony too often together. In 1873 he was
first elected to the Federal Senate, and in that body his worth
170 THE NEW EMPIRE.
was soon recognized, and his influence on more than one oc-
casion has determined the course of important legislation.
Had it not been for him, the restoration of the silver dollar to
our coinage would not have been accomplished. He opened
that great discussion in a speech delivered April 24, 1876,
and he closed it February 14, 1878, in a speech that will live
as long as the precious metals preserve their universal de-
sirability and are sought by man. In this speech were many
gems, but his vindication of the miners of this coast will be
cherished the world over as the miner's best certificate of
character. Senator Jones opened this debate to one Senate,
he closed it to another; but in the two years' debate that lay
between not a single salient point escaped him, nor did he
lose sight of a single feature in the procession of events
throughout the world which during that time would illustrate
or enrich his argument. The position he gained in that dis-
cussion fortified him in the respect of his supporters and his
antagonists. His frankness of nature revolts against the
lines of party when they seem to him limits to truth. His
declaration on the race question was the keenest analysis of
the relations of whites and blacks in the South that has ever
been made, though it was against a tenet of his party.
His official duties have never been neglected, though
his private affairs have drawn upon his energies. Helpful-
ness to friends, and a desire to stimulate the industrial activ-
ities of the coast, have somewhat impaired the wealth won
by his boldness as a practical miner; but patience and pru-
dence and a courage unfaltering, have relaid the foundations
of a fortune for him that promises to be the largest yet
amassed in the New Empire.
The Senator's wife is worthy to share his honors and his
fortune. His own social attractions are very endearing, and
Mrs. Jones, accomplished and charming, presents the quite
uncommon spectacle of a brilliant as well as amiable wife to
a brilliant and amiable man, and this must be the reason why
to their friends their life seems a court.ship and their home
graced with contentment.
THE NEW EMPIRE. 171
GEORGE HEARST.
Senator Hearst is a fine example of clear grit. There
are some men whom fortune downs, and they stay down-
There are others whom the fickle jade may trip, but they
will not stay tripped. She has tried more than once, in
finance and politics, a catch-as-catch-can with George Hearst,
but he never stayed thrown, and now is beyond risk of mis-
fortune in any encounter of that kind. In descent he is of
parallel lineage with Andrew Jackson and John C. Calhoun;
for his and their Scotch ancestors settled together in South
Carolina at about the same time, and their careers ran to-
gether. Mr. Hearst's father was a native of South Carolina,
who settled in Missouri while it was a Territory, and there
George was born September 3, 1820, making him eleven
months and eighteen days older than the State of Missouri.
He got the sturdy experiences and hardy lessons of frontier
life, and made good use of the primitive school facilities of
the new country. In 1856 became to* California overland,
made money in placer mines, and went broke in quartz. Get-
ting a stake in the placers, he went back to quartz, and was
mining in Nevada County when the Washoe excitement broke
out in 1859. He had seen the black ore from Mt. Davidson,
and an assay proved to him that it had in it silver at the rate
of a dollar a pound. He got an outfit, and crossed the ridge
into what was then Utah. He found only a score of men on
the ground, and the prospecting had gone as far as only a
few pits in the ground, not more than four feet deep. Hearst
was almost the onh' one who knew the value of the ore for
silver. They were all after gold. He remained six weeks,
and decided that the discovery was of immense importance,
took an interest in the Ophir, and went back to Nevada City
to get the money to pay for it. Returning, he began work
on his claim, getting out the free gold with a Mexican ar-
rastra, and sacking the pulp for shipment to San Francisco.
After sending down forty-five tons at a freight cost of $500 a
ton, they found it could not be sold at any price. This reads
like a fable at this end of the output of the bonanzas, but it
172 THE NEW EMPIRE.
is the sober truth. At last a bold metallurgist agreed to work
it for $450 a ton. It yielded $3,800 a ton, and when this was
coined into silver dollars at the mint, it settled the destiny of
the Washoe country. Mr. Hearst sold half of his claim and
bought more, and in i860 revisited Missouri to support the
declining years of his mother, and during this dutiful sojourn
married the ver}' accomplished lady who has since cheered
and greatly guided his career. Returning to California in
1862, he resumed mining on the Comstock, and by 1865 was
a millionaire. In 1866 he was for the third time downed by
financial reverses, but going into San Francisco real estate, he
soon got ahead a few hundred thousand, and went back to
mining, in which he has since made a matter of $20,000,000.
He owns mines or mining interests from Dakota to Mexico,
and his income is put at $2,000 a day. His public career
began in 1865 as a member of the California Senate. In
1882 he was a candidate for the gubernatorial nomination,
but was defeated by General Stoneman, who in turn appointed
him to the United States Senate to fill the vacancy caused
by the death of Gen. John F. Miller. He was in the City of
Mexico when informed of his appointment, and went directly
from the capital of one Republic to that of the other. His
service in the Senate has made him popular in that body and
strengthened him at home, so that he is already prominently
spoken of in the East as a candidate for the vice-presidency.
His friends are confident that if he wants it he will get it, for
that is Uncle George's way.
LELAND STANFORD.
Senator Leland Stanford is of English and New English
ancestry. His family was on this continent as early as 1644.
His father, Josiah Stanford, was a native of Massachusetts;
but when he was four years old the march westward began,
and the family halted in New York, which was then frontier,
and there Josiah grew to manhood, and was a successful
farmer. Leland was born on his father's farm, March 9, 1824,
and in that morally and physically excellent rural life his
youth was passed. He was well educated and approached
THE NEW EMPIRE. 173
manhood in that even balance of wholesome mind and person
which certify to the fidelity of parents and the tractability of
children. In 1845 he chose the legal profession and began
its study with VVheaton, Doolittle & Hadley, in Albany. It
was to be his destiny not to practice law, and perhaps it is
because he did not that his country has in him an intel-
lect as broad as it is vigorous; for it has been well said of law
practice that, while it sharpens, it also narrows the mind.
However, his legal study and admission to the bar was the
perhaps unconscious preliminary survey of a path since held
to be necessary to the feet of successful business men; for our
best educators defend law schools maintained by the State
upon the distinct ground that a law course is the most im-
portant part of a business man's education, and that inas-
much as the business men of the country are those whose
activities generate its revenues, hold it equal in rivalry with
other nations, promote its schools, sustain the different es-
tablishments of religion, foster art and equip science for con-
quest, therefore the State, in its scheme of public education,
should consider the best means of their complete preparation
for a career which affects interests so thoroughly compacted
with the national life. When this argument needs an illus-
tration, it may be found in Leland Stanford.
After admission to the bar, he set his face westward, as
his grandsire had done before him, and in 1848 settled in his
profession in Port Washington, Wisconsin. Two years later
he returned to Albany and married Miss Jane Lathrop.
This happy and well-assorted union seems to have put him in
the path of destiny. He found the practice of law so differ-
ent from the elevating study of its principles, and so felt
within him capacities for a different career, that he gave up
for good a profession which forced him into the disputes of
others, and in 1852 furnished that evidence of fitness for
great things which every man displayed who came to this
coast, remote and little known, under novel conditions of life
and commerce, to seek a fortune.
Here he went at once into the trying labors of the State's
great industry, and at Michigan Bluff, on the American River,
174 THE NEW EMPIRE.
for four years took manfully his share of the toils and hard-
ships of a mining camp. In 1856, with the avails of his
mining and in association with his brothers, he began mer-
chandising at Sacramento, and there laid the real foundation
of a career which has attracted and charmed the attention of
the whole business world. In 1857 he was a candidate for
State Treasurer, but was defeated by Hon. Thomas Finley,
of El Dorado.
In 1859 he ran for Governor, but was again defeated.
In 1 86 1 he ran for the same office again; was elected by a
large majority, running 6,000 votes ahead of his ticket, and
served with distinguished credit in a time that tried the intel-
lectual and tactical resources to a degree that broke weak
men down. This service for the time closed his political
career. Incident to the stirring events of 1861, when for a
time California had seemed to hesitate in deciding whether
her allegiance lay with the old Union, into which her path
had been hewn by patriots, or with the new Confederacy,
which genius and ambition had just baptized with independ-
ence, and committed to the arbitrament of battle, there had
developed the need of a closer contact between this State and
the East. The military operations of the Government re-
quired it, and the time had gone by when the whole region
subject to national jurisdiction, lying between the Rocky
Mountains and the sea, could be subjected to the means of
communication furnished by the control of San Francisco
Bay. In this necessity for a more perfect union was the germ
of the transcontinental railway. Of this wonderful achieve-
ment of human energy and genius and courage, we have else-
where treated. Let it be said here that without the calm and
inflexible spirit of Leland Stanford, the Sacramento mer-
chant, no part of the transcontinental system of railways
would have been built or controlled by California capital.
But for him this national convenience and coast necessity
would have been created and owned by Boston or New York,
to serve as a siphon that should drain our profits and avails to
the East, and make no return. The story is too long to tell.
In the beginning Governor Stanford and his associates were
THE NEW EMPIRE. 175
sneered at, guyed, and traduced as visionaries. The Sierra
Nevadas were believed to be impenetrable and impassable,
and if they were passed, beyond lay the weary, dreary desert,
which the Forty-niner remembered with aversion as the
scene of his sufferings and perhaps the grave of his compan-
ions. Nearly everybody said that it was against common
sense, this attempt to build such a railroad, for did not the
snow sometimes lie on the Sierras forty feet deep ! Did not
the Donner party die, or live in worse than death, right where
this line would run! But those things disapproved or undis-
cerned by common sense are favored and clearly seen by the
keener vision of that sense which is not common. And so
through appalling difficulties, financial and topographical, the
road was pressed to a finish. Wearied by the burden, the
story goes that the completed enterprise was put on the mar-
ket by its authors and finishers, but it found no buyers, nor
did its stocks when men in San. Francisco were implored to
take them. So that which he had builded Governor Stanford
was compelled to hold and administer, and in later }-ears
many a jealous man has gnawed his heart at the success in
which he was offered, but spurned, participation.
Through this successfully managed enterprise, great
wealth has come, and Leland Stanford ranks foremost
amongst the world's capitalists. . In his different operations
on the coast he employs and pays wages to between twelve
and fifteen thousand men. His wealth has gone into all
kinds of constructive and productive enterprises. If he saw
a manufacturing or other business languishing for lack of
energy or capital, he bought it without haggling, equipped it
for success, and made it succeed.
In 1883 he visited Europe, and there, in old Florence,
came the unspeakable sorrow of his life, in the death of his
son and only child, Leland, a youth of parts most promising,
in whom were centered hopes the loftiest and affections the
tenderest.
Throughout their life together Mr. and Mrs. Stanford
have been known for wisely generous support of the good
works of charity and education. In them pit)"'s sweet fount-
170 THE XEW EMPIRE.
ain never ran dry, and its affluence took substantial forms.
The kindergarten system of San Francisco, a rich benefac-
tion, grew up under Mrs. Stanford's wise endowments. In
their retreats and as\'lums hundreds of orphaned children
have blessed the spirit of motherhood incarnate in her. At
her old home in Albany she is building and endowing a
home for aged women, at a cost of hundreds of thousands.
On their return from Europe they perfected together a
plan long entertained for the endowment of a university.*
In 1885, the California Legislature elected Governor
Stanford to* the Federal Senate. It was done as a voluntary
recognition of his benefactions to the State, his knowledge of
its needs, his interest in its development, and his primacy as a
business man. The East has talked about our rich Senators.
She has men of great wealth in that body, and can it be said
of them as of Senat^ r Stanford, that this honor came without
the indication of a wish to add it to the laurels of a busy and
beneficent life ?
In 1884 his nomination to the presidency was mooted,
and since his senatorial service has shown the profundity of
his experience, his ripe learning, his judicial temper and his
executive force, the proposition is renewed to give the
country the benefit of his qualities in that great office which
is now so ably filled that the succession next chosen must be
of superior merit.
The mere politicians will not agree to such a selection.
They will conjure objections as countless as the phantasies
that come in the dreams of drunkenness or surfeit. But the
people may conclude that the man whose genius has wrought
out business enterprises which adorn and dignify the century,
and whose benevolence has spanned the continent in quest of
God's poor, forgotten by the priest and the Levite, and whose
culture and conception of its need in others has prompted the
gift of ten's of millions to found what America has not, a
complete university, may also as president represent the re-
finements of our civilization and the energies of our people.
He represents, too, the right use of wealth, which, if gathered
in unwise ways and spent in ostentation, affects the masses to
THE NEW EMPIRE. 177
a sinister temper; but gained by him in adventure and by
making no man poorer, for it was added by his creative
energies to the commonwealth before it became his personal
possession, and spent in the spirit of a Christian stewardship,
his wealth was won in ways that benefited others and is de-
voted to the good of mankind.
• We cannot more completely describe the extent and intent of this university
endowment, than by reproducing this editorial from a San Francisco paper,
printed a few days after the gift was passed to the Trustees, in November, 1685.
"On the 14th instant this city was the scene of an edu-
cational foundation that is destined to be the initiative of the
most richly endowed institution of learning in the world.
"There haa been talk of some public recognition of this
benefaction that shall take the form of a permanent memorial
to the two founders of Leland Stanford, Junior, University;
but it occurs to us that their memorial is already provided in
the institution itself John Harvard, two hundred and forty-
seven years ago, gave $3,500 to the college that bears his
name, and by that gift purchased an immortality that no
monument of granite nor tablet of brass could have preserved
to him. So, a hundred and seventy-one years ago, Elihu
Yale, by a gift of $2,500 to endow a college, perpetuated his
name to generations yet unborn, while the world has already
forgotten him as ruler of Madras and Governor of the great
East India Company, out of whose monopoly of trade
emerged a new empire for England.
" The Stanford University begins its career with greater
secured and permanent financial resources than are possessed
by any of the established universities or colleges of this
country, and as accretions of the capital must continually
outrun demands upon it, its treasury will soon be the richest
in the world.
" Standing at the hither of this event, its farther conse-
quences are not plainly seen. The prospect is bewildering in
its possibilities; for so many growths, so many institutions,
and such a varietx^ of virtuous and profitable activities im-
pinge upon that which the great capital is to conjure into
form, that the mind is embarrassed in the effort to reduce it
to a generalization.
"The university, if it realize its mission, will be not
merely the resort of those who seek ihstruction in letters, the
arts, and the technical knowledge which takes within its
sweep physics and the manual occupations. It will also be
12
ITS THE NEW EMPIRE.
the seat of original investigation, and this, President McCosh,
of Princeton, declares to be one of the distinguishing char-
acteristics which marks the university and sets it apart from
schools of lesser grade. The university must not only
transmit the gathered wisdom of the ages, but it must add to
the store. Hence, in this junior of the world's universities,
most remote from the center of the Anglo-Saxon race, in the
youngest of the great cities of the continent, but b essed
above all its fellows in the generosity that lavishes its endow-
ment, we may expect a wonderful impulse to be given to
original research in philology, philosophy, physics, and
throughout the circle of arts and sciences. Its scheme is
precisel)' adapted to the line along which the distinctive in-
tellect of this side of the continent is developing; for here the
artistic sense is as indigenous as in Southern Europe, and the
genius of practical work is as defined as in New England.
The latter toils patiently to provide the condition of society
in which the former may display its results, and it is the high
purpose of this endowment to cheer and encourage each. It
may be said that such a vast institution must not expect to
serve only the population nearest to it, and hence it should
be different in some features of its scheme. The answer to
this is, that no curriculum can offer a more symmetrical cul-
ture than one in which fancy and fact are so combined. The
purpose of all labor is the production of wealth, and technical
instruction is intended to multiply the working and earning,
and hence the wealth-making, power of human hands. But
the whole process would be robbed of half its motive if aes-
thetic culture did not point out the refinements to which that
wealth may be applied.
"The universities of France and Germany were adapted,
primarily, to their more immediate contacts; and they have
continued in that state, at one with the genius of the people
in the midst of whom they have withstood the vicissitudes of
centuries. It is because they have reflected the best thought
of these tributary people, and by the fruits of original re-
search have fed to greater growth and trained to constant
absorption the intellect that is subjected to their influence,
that they arc sought by students from all over the world.
To provide here for culture in art, letters, and polytechny is
to breathe into the ribs of this project the atmosphere that
must sustain its growth, and the same results may fairlybe
expected here that have el.sewhcre followed like efforts.
" If judged only by the buildings and laboratories and
workshops and professional chairs, the scholastic plant, and
THE NEW EMPIRE. 179
the number of students it is to nurse into knowledge, or, if
measured by the hard problems that shall yield their long-
secreted solution to the patience of its original investigators,
the Stanford University is seen on one side only, and on that
imperfectly, for the present perspective is insufficient. There
are certain practical effects which will reach innumerable
masses of men who will never see its class rooms nor stand
in the shade of its walls, who may, indeed, live and die in ig-
norance of its existence, while they are its direct beneficiaries.
Commerce follows intellectural cultut"e and loves to breathe
the same air. When the Italian universities were eminent,
commerce sought that l.md. The East, the cradle of the
human race and the source of wealth easiest won, saw the
Attic beacon on the Calabrian Peninsula, as the Magi saw
the star of Bethlehem, and gave its spoil to freight the argo-
sies that made Venice the proudest commercial city of her
day. When trade abandoned the Adriatic, leaving behind
colossal fortunes that are not yet exhausted, and monuments
of architectural taste and fairy interiors that are yet un-
matched, it was loth to leave learned Italy. True, in its
wake had been Shylocks and Antonios, but there were also
the learned doctors of Padua and Parma. Passing into the
Mediterranean, commerce furled her sails at Genoa, and
rested there so long that both sides of Italy had been gilt
with the profits that followed the excellence of her schools
before it took flight and passed the pillars of Hercules, to
thrive in the superior luster of Leyden and Utrecht. As at
Venice culture and commerce joined hands in building a city
on the bosom of the sea, they were in Holland partners
around the Zuyder Zee in creating wealth which advanced
dyke and dam against the ocean, and reclaimed from the sea
whole provinces of land, and built cities where fleets had
floated.
" F"inally, Oxford and Cambridge drew commerce to the
Thames, and made London the world's commercial capital.
" The trade of coasts and continents follows the same
law, and on this Pacific side of the two Americas has waited
for some such supreme manifestations as this foundation to
be attracted to a common center.
"So, when Senator and Mrs. Stanford, acting upon a
long-formed plan, at last perfected in a noble sorrow, gave
millions in trust for higher culture, they were not only build-
ing the walls of a university and endowing its chairs, but the
pens that signed away a great fortune were kej's actuating a
web of wires unseen, running to myriad consequences that
180 THE NEW EMPIRE.
were not named in the passage of this mighty gift. In that
act they were turning the glebe, they were planting virgin
acres with seed, and were enlarging upon this round globe
the gilding of the harvest. They were opening new mines,
and were stripping fresh quarries to flux noble ores. They
were heating the cupola and giving impulse to the currents of
molten iron and steel that flow into cunning moulds, to be
shaped to many a profitable purpose. They were inspiring
with motive the brawny arm that makes the anvil ring, and
rewarding the cunning hand that shoves the plane and guides
the chisel. They were rousing the shipyard's activity and
preparing the launch that weds to the water many a stately
ship. The\' were throwing the shuttle of countless looms
through warp and woof of cotton and of wool, and giving
distant shepherds dreams of plenty, and cheering with right
reward the dark-skinned toiler between the snowy rows of
cotton. They were planting vine and olive, and corn and
wine and oil w'ill join in sacramental sanction of an act that
in its incidents shall build many a home, with fire on its
hearth and bloom on its lintel and its threshold pressed by
happy feet.
" Their own generation may not have a full conception
of the import of what they did as it is shut out from witness-
ing or sharing all the crowding consequences that are to come;
but in their act is latent the luxury of thousands, the comfort
of coming millions, because natural laws are irrepealable,
and cultivated intellect is to-day the founder of States and
the promoter of commerce, as it was when Moses led Israelto
the promised land because he was learned in all the knowl-
edge of the Egyptians."
JAMES G. FAIR.
The youngest of our four Senators from California and
Nevada, is James G. Fair, born in far Clougher, County Ty-
rone, Ireland, in the last month of 1831. So vigorous and
alert is he that he seems hardly to have yet passed his youth
He came to America young, and was located in Geneva,
Illinois. When Chicago began to be regarded as a business
place, to that embryo city he resorted to get into busi-
ness. He did gain there experience and training which filled
him with aspirations which they also fitted him to attain, and
at the age of seventeen he joined the long procession over-
land to California. Starting in 1849, the long journey ended
THE NEW EMPIRE. 181
in 1850, and he was soon swinging a miner's pick in Plumas
County, at Long Bar. He followed his mining instincts from
prospect to prospect, and acquired that varied experience in
all kinds of mining and all forms of gold and quartz, which
was his preparatory school for the grand opportunities of the
Comstock. By i860 he reached Virginia City, with some
money, more experience, and the most faith of any man who
had early contact with those strange and defiant ores. With
this equipment he had confidence when others lost it, and
he bought the claims of the doubting and the thriftless, be-
lieving firmly in the outcome. So he owned interests in, and
became superintendent of, the Ophir, and Hale, and Norcross,
and later on around the properties he had believed in, and
hung to, the Bonanza firm was formed and he was a partner.
In his Hale and Norcross was made the first half million of
the multiplied millions which that firm took out of the Com-
stocks. Under Mr. Fair's advice, more claims were now ac-
quired to consolidate and extend their properties. Then
this shrewd miner, drawing upon his knowledge and expert
faculty and upon the faith of his partners in him, began that
profound search which uncovered the first bonanza and gave
the firm one hundred millions ! This partnership is now dis-
solved. It stands alone in ancient history and modern in the
magnitude of its operations, the absolutely fabulous wealth it
found in minerals, and in the private fortune which fell to
each of its individual members. Senator Fair's capital has
gone into eligible real estate, and since he became a member
of the Senate he has quietly pushed into new fields of activ-
ity, which promise to yield greater results, even, than he
gained in the Bonanzas. He has one by one bought all the
interests in the South Pacific Coast Railroad, which is already
the most extensive narrow gauge system on the continent.
It has adequate terminal facilities on San Francisco Bay, and
its passage through Oakland has stimulated improvement in
that city to an extent unknown for years. Cable roads col-
lateral to it are being built, and the population of Oakland is
getting large accessions in the prospect of that prosperity
which many railroads bring to a commercial center. But
1S2 THE NEW EMPIRE.
Senator Fair is not building a railroad merely to enhance the
interests of Oakland. His own State, Nevada, is the ulti-
mate beneficiary of his enterprise, and when he has given her
a narrow gauge line to San Francisco, and furnished the
trunk line of a system so well adapted to the penetration of
her valleys and the scaling of her mountains, Nevada will be
covered with a network of narrow gauge feeders to this main
line, which will help the development of her mines and en-
courage her growing agriculture. Such a road and its collat-
erals are the present vital need of that State. The East never
tires of girding at Nevada. It is denounced as a " rotten
borough," and Rhode Island and Delaware turn up their little
noses at it. Its disestablishment has been agitated, and its
brave and hardy people have been taunted with decreasing
population and receding prosperity. The best friend Nevada
can have just now is the capitalist, who will put all the re-
sources of her soil, grazing, glebe, and mineral, within reach
of those who want to develop them, by just such a transpor-
tation system as Senator Fair has in hand. But let no man
fancy that this narrow gauge road will stop in Nevada. A
narrow gauge line is building from the Missouri River toward
Denver. From Denver to Salt Lake is already in operation
the Denver and Rio Grande narrow gauge, and grading for
a narrow gauge from Salt Lake already reaches far westward.
So it is manifest destiny that Senator Fair should be at the
head of a transcontinental narrow gauge railroad, than which
no business venture can be of greater interest to the com-
mercial community, while its saving grace to Nevada is in-
disputable.
In the Senate Mr. Fair has influence ranking with men
of the first class. Suave and thoughtful of others, he is a
great social favorite, while the Senate consults his views upon
a business question and adopts them with confidence. Affa-
ble, approachable, and zealous, the New Empire counts him
amongst the major forces in commerce and public life,
upon which she relies to push forward the frontiers of pros-
perity.
THE NEW EMPIRE. 183
FINALE.
Wc have now passed in review the characteristic features
of the New Empire. In area it is so large that all of Eu-
rope would be hidden in it. Its mountains are noble in their
aspect, and are necessary and useful features in its climatolgy.
Its railway system is being rapidly approximated to the
full measure of present needs, with facilities for ready exten-
sion to accommodate the future, while its river traffic, its coast
and trans-Pacific steamers, its noble argosies of sailing craft,
complete a system for the convenience of travel and traffic
that is unsurpassed.
Of all this, and all that is to be, San Francisco is the com-
mercial center. Here the Central and South Americas, the
Islands of the Sea, and Asia, will bring their trade, and the
Golden Gate will receive the commerce of the world.
Here a high civilization will always have its seat, and
there is room for millions of people to plant and sustain its
institutions. The fact will be demonstrated that the Pacific
side of this continent can sustain a denser population than
the Atlantic Coast, or the interior, because our Asiatic climate
and fertility imply an Asiatic approximation in the density
of population. The East is the analogy of Northern Europe,
and resembles it in the characteristics of its people.
If the first settlement had been on this side of the con-
tinent, the East would be now far less known, because far less
desirable than is the New Empire.
We have here great men and excellent, cultured women,
and the material resources which call out the talents of State
makers and home builders.
We have outlined the advantages which here await the
settler and the inventor, and have aimed to wisely guide the
inquiries we hope to have stimulated. We have as frankly
pointed out the obstructions to the future as the remedies
which we believe will overcome them, and have dealt in
thorough candor with our readers. But, after all, the half has
not been told, and the New Empire has to be seen to be ap-
preciated in all its merits.
184 THE NEW EMPIRE.
If we have persuaded our countrymen that Nature here
spreads beauties of scenery which should be enjoyed in pref-
erence to the lesser graces of Europe, and if we have con-
vinced any of the comforts and pleasures of life in this win-
terless land, our work has in accomplishment fulfilled the
benevolence of its intention.
®mc B^usincss floiises.
TTTIIE tending of flocks and herds was the earli.st industry
1 of California, being followed by the Spanish and Mexi-
can settlers, who did not suspect the greater means of
wealth in the precious metals, above whose hiding places
their sheep and cattle nibbled the mountain herbage.
The State has retained its position as a producer of wools of
very excellent staple, and their manufacture has of recent
years engaged the attention of imanufacturing capital.
The Golden Gate Woolen Company was comprehen-
sively organized in 1881, with a capital of $400,000. The
Mills occupy a whole block of land in San P'rancisco, near
the Mission. The building is 408x120 feet, two stories high.
It is equipped with the most improved machinery, and its
product is very widely celebrated. Its capacity is 1,000
pounds, per day, of finished woolens. Its blankets are the
perfection of that class of goods. They were supplied to
the Marquis of Lome and the Princess Louise, and to the
Imperial household of Japan, as the very best in the market.
The blankets and flannels of this mill are sought by
Eastern merchants, and hold primacy in the American market.
THE RISDON IRON WORKS.
TTTHESE iron works, located in San Francisco, were incor-
1 porated in' 1868. Mining on the coast had then
passed into the period of scientific methods, and deep min-
ing depended upon what iron founders and machinists could
do in the way of pumps, lifts, and ventilation. So com-
pletely did the Ri.sdon works meet the demand, that when
downward progress in the combination shaft of the Chollar,
Norcross, Savage, and Comstocks was checked, at twenty-two
hundred feet, by water which no pump then known could drain,
these works devised and manufactured the pumping machin-
ery which has drained these mines to a depth of 3,100 feet,
and kept them in perfect condition for working. The hy-
draulic machinery which has performed this work, raising 3,000
gallons per minute from that depth, has run continuously,
and is but little the worse? for the wear of its long and hard
service. The motive power is water. The Risdon Works
188 THE NEW EMPIRE.
also provided the system of powerful pumps for the Eureka
Consolidated Mine, in Nevada. These pumps are run by-
water under a pressure of .i,ooo pounds to the square? inch,
which, after doing its work, is raised by a steam engine to the
surface, where it is gathered into an accumulator and dropped
again to the bottom of the 6oo-feet level, doing its work over
and over again. We know of no other instance in which a
h}'draulic power is secured by such continuous use of the
same water. All the great mines of the coast and the Terri-
tories are fitted out with machinery made at the Risdon w orks.
Their mill for the Alaska Mine, 120 stamps, is the largest
ore mill in the world. These works have the facilities to adapt
themselves to all the changes and progress possible in the
mining and methods of reduction to which our mineral in-
dustry is subject, and they *are certainly beyond Eastern
competition in the production of mining machinery as a
specialty.
THE SPRECKELS SUGAR REFINERY.
nr FEW years ago the successful founding of a sugar re-
f\_ fining industry in San Francisco would have been jeered
as unnatural, because of its remoteness from cane fields.
The keen mercantile genius of Claus Spreckels has, however,
answered their jeers by a demonstrated success. His sugar
refinery is one of the most extensive on the continent, and
the commerce collateral to it runs into the millions every year
New comers to the Coast, who have grown accustomed
to the Eastern sugars, adulterated with glucose, are sure to
over-sweeten when they begin using the pure sugars from the
Spreckels works. The raw sugars for this refinery come from
the Sandwich Islands, where thousands of acres of planta-
tions are devoted to raising cane for these works alone.
Mr. Spreckels is the master of all the processes used in
his refinery, and in many respects they are peculiar to these
works because they are his own devices. He should be re-
membered as som thing more than a great merchant; for he
is a geat benefactor, because he has always supplied the mar-
ket with sugar, the luxury of the poor, and a dietetic neces-
sity, that is perfectly wholesome and pure.
SPERRY'S STOCKTON MILLS.
IX Europe, and in the older commercial centers of this coun-
try, it is part of the value of a business that it has been
for more than one generation in the same family. The
same evidence of solidity is beginning to be appreciated in this
THE NEW EMPIRE. 189
newer land, and that is why the present generation of Cah"-
fornians, remembering the preferences of their sires, ask for
SPERRY'S STOCKTON FLOUR,
Because Sperry started those mills thirty years ago, and his
family is still concerned in their management. All of the
reductions on their mills are accomplished by the new, or
Hungarian roller process, which is making the eating of bread
possible after all the buhrs are taken from the quarry, for it
■ does away with stones entirely. California flour won its first
fame abroad under Sperry 's brand, and the product of these
miljs is a^ great a favorite in Liverpool as in San Francisco.
Stockton stands at the mouth of the San Joaquin Val-
ley wheat region, and there stands the new, rebuilt, reorgan-
ized, and re-equippcd Sperry's Mill, which is not only the
completest in its interior furnishing and mechanism, but in its
exterior is an architectural ornament to the city. Its capacity
is 1,400 barrels of flour per day, and the demand is so great
that the fires are never banked.
People eat bread made by the roller process; they find
that the flour goes farther, but they don't stop to think why
-they are getting more and better for their money. It is be-
cause exceedingly hard and dry wheats of California when
ground bv mill stones are wet to such an extent that the
' buyer is paying for water instead of flour. This watered
flour is not reliable in its keeping qualities, nor does it
produce as good bread. Their new Hungarian roller process
does its most perfect work on the dry, hard wheat, so their
customers are not buying water, and the bread made from
their flour is the best.
They prepare, also, the delicacies of the grist mill, Ger-
mea, the new and wholesome breakfast meal, and all the other
foods that are furnished by grain.
Remember that Sperry's Mill and the wheat fields of
California grew up together, and each of these California in-
stitutions has depended upon the other for its reputation.
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY
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sentative men,
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