CALIFORNIA
INTER POCULA.
CHAPTER I
THE VALLEY OF CALIFORNIA.
Hortensio peace, thou knowest not gold's effect.
— Taming of the Shrew.
Drunk! aye, drunk with avarice! Behold the picture ; CaK\liforiiia in her cups!
Once long ago sailors thought to hold in their embrace 'the god Bacchus, whom they carried to sea in the form of a beautiful boy while sleeping; but when the god awoke he caused vines to twine themselves about the ship, and tigers to appear amongst the branches, while the sailors went mad and drowned themselves. So it was with thousands who came early to California, thinking to ensnare her, and rob her of her treasures, but were themselves taken cap- tive, falling on destruction.
Yet swiftly as this chaff of immigration was swept away, mercilessly as California frowned on many, she was not so much to blame, although for a brief space she played the bacchante, for she was badly treated, worse than Pentheus, who from making open war on Dionysius became the devotee and laughing-stock of
