The press,[28] which has vastly improved in California, has taken a firm stand in opposition to this evil, and before long I have no doubt that the criminal law will be wholesomely administered there. We must not expect perfection in a self-regulated colony of six years’ growth, particularly when we remember that law reform and integrity of election occupy attention in older countries.
When once the seed of reform is implanted in California, it grows with great rapidity. It may be that the greatest sinners make the greatest saints, but certainly, the most carelessly dissipated community that ever was brought together, have already, in their new position, enacted laws for the complete overthrow of many of those so called “necessary evils� that are borne with in cities of older growth, and more self-assumed wisdom, and infinitely greater professions of sanctity.
It is said that one surfeit of raspberry-tarts will produce, in the pastrycook’s boy, a permanent nausea for these luscious things; thus with Californians, they have seen vice and debauchery in so awful a shape, that in the reaction of feeling more good is being done to the country as regards sweeping reform, than would have happened in twenty times the time had the early colonists been at the first but ordinarily virtuous. The thorn is extracted at once, and there is an end of temporising and preaching, which lead to nothing at times, as any one may see who will visit some of our cathedral cities, and learn something of the statistics of the immorality which exists within them, and the number of divines who are there to raise their voices against it.
One of the Irish convicts who had escaped by breaking his parole, arrived in San Francisco about this time, and was feasted and made much of by a certain class who are to be found in many parts of the United States, and are monomaniacs on the subject of America opening her arms and welcoming to her soil the political exiles of other countries.
The free hospitality which America extends to exiles of all classes, is to be admired; what a pity, then, to detract from its dignity by a vulgar “émeute,� which, after all, is extended as much to a singer or fiddler, as to a (so-called) champion of liberty. But the exiles generally do not seem to improve on acquaintance, and the days of triumphal entry are passed for them, and no wonder; for they are not always grateful.
Take the case of one who, being welcomed to the United States, at once devotes his energies to the production of a journal which will not only arouse political bitterness on the spot, but carefully keeps alive what remnant of bigotted hostility to England yet slumbers in the country. Now, as the man who sows discord between this country and America, is an enemy as much of the latter as of the former, is it not inconsistent that such a one should be be-speeched and be-dinnered on his arrival? However, a man may be bowed obsequiously into a house, only to be kicked on acquaintance ignominiously out of it, and I imagine that more than one political refugee in America will live to experience a similar reverse of fortune.
The “Know Nothings� it would appear have set their faces against foreigners holding office in the United States. If this political sect would exert their influence to prevent rabid runaway rebels, who land among them, from revenging themselves by exciting animosity against the country that has cast them off, they would do a great deal of good to the United States.
And indeed, as regards the exclusion of naturalised subjects from office, the “Know Nothings� are, in my opinion, right to a certain extent; for if we divide those who swear allegiance to the United States into two classes, we have firstly the poor emigrants who leave an over-populated country to spread themselves, in obedience as it were to a law of nature, over the vast unpeopled forests and plains of a new continent, and secondly the educated class who can do well at home but can do better by forsaking one flag to cling (as long as it suits them) to another. This class are known as “Whitewashed Yankees,� a term that may be complimentary, but does not sound like it. It is from this educated class of naturalised subjects that the aspirants for office step forward, and under all the circumstances, I am not surprised that a large sect of Americans now oppose them. For it appears to me, that a man who has felt so little patriotism for his native land as to abjure it formally from interested motives, is not likely to remain faithful to the new country he adopts, any longer than suits his purpose. His motives are at the best, based on self, and he is consequently not the best qualified either to hold office or to conduct the public press.[29]
There is a disproportionate number of jewellers and goldsmiths in San Francisco, yet all drive a flourishing business. Two articles are in great demand, viz., gold watches, and silver speaking-trumpets. Nearly every one in California has a gold watch—every nigger has, I am sure, and very much dignity does a “coloured personâ€� exhibit whenever he draws out his ponderous gold turnip, the chain of which is nearly as large as the cable of a ten-gun brig.
The speaking-trumpets, of which so many may be seen in the jewellers’ shop fronts, are accounted for by the habit the San Franciscans have of presenting a testimonial to the Captain of any ship who may have brought them safely into port. This testimonial is almost invariably a speaking-trumpet, which is tendered to the skipper, with a request that he will blow it, from the undersigned, &c., &c. This mania became so strong at one time, that if the captain of any Oregon schooner with a cargo of lumber arrived in safety with two passengers and a dog, there was no knowing what honours awaited him; at least a letter of thanks from the passengers and dog, but probably a speaking-trumpet; so that soon there was more ridicule than honour attached to these testimonials.