VII

THE PEOPLE OF CALIFORNIA

CALIFORNIA, politically, is one of the states of the Federation of the United States, and was admitted to the union in 1850. But the first we hear of California, as already described in the historical sketch, is after the time of Cortes: the exploration of the indefatigable Jesuits, who founded their missions there and laid the basis of European civilization there under the ægis of Spain. Elsewhere I have given a brief description of the missions remaining to-day. The state is governed by a state governor and state legislature, after the manner of all the political divisions of the United States; and all the machinery of government and law-making-as regards those laws which are of a local nature-exists, and operates from the handsome state capital of Sacramento, upon the river of the same name (reached both by rail and steamer from San Francisco). All the political and legislative officials are nominated by direct elections, which are carried out at the time of the general presidential election of the United States. The state entirely controls its own internal affairs, except as to matters which come under ordinary United States law; but all international conditions are under the control of the Federal Government at Washington. It is not often that any clash occurs between the individual state and the supreme Government; but an instance was furnished recently in the matter of anti-Japanese legislation, when the federal authority had to be asserted.

California is divided for purposes of government into fifty-seven counties, with a total area for the state of 158,360 square miles, and a total population of 1 million inhabitants. The state is bounded on the north by the state of Oregon; on the east by the Sierra Nevada and the state of Nevada; on the south by the republic of Mexico (Baja or Lower

California); and on the west by the Pacific Ocean. "From Siskiyou to San Diego; from the sierra to the sea," is the Californian poet's definition of the state environment—those being the names of the northernmost and southernmost counties respectively. California is divided topographically into two main regions: Northern California and Southern California, as elsewhere described. Of the fifty-seven counties more than forty bear Spanish names, such as Los Angeles, Contra Costa, Alameda, San Bernardino, Santa Cruz, Mariposa, etc. (at least ten have the designation of saints, whether male or female). Each county has its county seat or capital town, and the principal have already been named. The population of San Francisco is 350,000; that of Los Angeles 300,000; Oakland 200,000; whilst there are some eight or more county towns with 10,000 to 25,000 inhabitants. The foreign-born element is about twenty-five per cent. of the population, for California is a very cosmopolitan state. The Chinese account for about three per cent., but negroes are few. "The Chinese must go!" has long been the cry in California. I once witnessed a procession of unemployed in San Francisco streets, and a banner carried displayed the sarcastic legend, "Melican man must go!" The "Melican," it must be explained, is the Chinese word for "American." The English and Spanish-speaking people have both combined to a certain extent to produce the Californian; but the Anglo-Saxon predominates, and a type and individuality has become evolved to a certain extent. The indigenous tribes, the Indian people of California, have not blended with the Anglo-American race, except in a few instances via the Mexicans, who were the former owners of the lands, and who remained after the American occupation. There is, indeed, a great difference between the Anglo-American and the Spanish-American. The first forms no mixed race with the Indian, whilst the second forms it so strongly as to constitute it the basis of their population and a new nationality, as in Mexico or Peru.

There is another marked difference between the Californian and the Spanish-speaking peoples who inhabit the Great Pacific Coast for eight thousand miles southwardly-they are not divided by class distinctions. In this they are much more

truly "republican" than their southern neighbours. There is no aristocracy as in Mexico, Colombia, Peru or Chile, and no half-breed, or mestizo, class at all, except the remaining Mexican element. It would be impossible that such could arise or have arisen in a community such as California, whose elements of population are subject to constant interchange with the rest of the United States; for, notwithstanding the barrier interposed by the great Sierra Nevada, men come and go between east and west on the great trans-continental railways; so that ideas are always in a state of flux and habits general. The Americans are a remarkable people for travelling. They are ever running across their continent and up and down it with the activity of ants, with one underlying motive -business. The powers of modern usury are eloquently depicted in American railroads and hotels, and the ceaseless restless life of barter which is the soul-at present-of these remarkable people. This constant flux and movement naturally prevents the crystallization of the Californian into the distinct nationality which their geographical environment and history might otherwise have induced; although, as mentioned before, there is somewhat of a Californian type in being.

In addition to the profuse Spanish nomenclature in California, it is interesting to note the place-names given by the Anglo-American (of course all the Spanish names are not necessarily of early Spanish origin) and other settlers and "boomers." No doubt where it was possible some local and topographical designation was selected; but in a great many cases nothing of the kind existed, and the baptism of any particular spot resulted from the imagination of its particular sponsor. Thus taking at random the names of small stations on the Californian railways, we find such places as Snowdon, Grenada, Dunsmuir, Red Bluff, Durham, Germantown, Palermo, Ely, Newcastle, Dutch Flat, Gold Run, Blue Cañon, Crystal Lake, Cicero, Poverty Flat, Chinese, Yarmouth, Emerald, Delhi, Ceres, Livingston, Arundel, Geneva, Athlone, Firebaugh, Wheatville, Exeter, Tipton, Basalt, Bengal, Siam, and a host of others. Whilst upon the railway that reaches out upon the great Mojave Desert we find such suggestive names as Pisgah and Bagdad! Truly these