patiently these last had toiled and suffered, hope and
fear alternating: between fortune and disease, unwillino-
to give themselves the needed rest and care with
wealth and happiness just within their grasp ; and so,
with their thin pale faces, and sunken eyes, and hollow
cheeks, they feebly drag themselves about with hope
crushed, and this world forever lost to them. God
grant that they may find some soft hand and sym-
pathizing heart to smooth their dying days I
The periodicit}^ of this business phenomena contrib- uted largely toward a fitful and spasmodic progress. On these occasions the past and future seemed to mingle with the present, and hope, regret, and dogged determination filled the heart with lono;ina;s indescrib- able. Likewise the custom of merchants, and indeed of all classes, of making frequent or occasional trips to the east, for the purpose of seeing their friends, at- tending to business, marrying, or bringing out a family, exercised a strong influence upon the development of character in California. Even miners, in some in- stances, would make their periodical migrations, spend- ing a season, as they called it, in the mines, and then a period of rest and pleasure at home.
Torn suddenly from the daily monotonous struggle, confined for twenty or thirty consecutive days within the narrow limits of a steamship, there was nothing to be done but to sit down and think, or read, or talk; and this meditation, or series of meditations, changed the whole course of many a life. Thoughts and aspirations then arose, which, but for this isolation from business, never would have been conceived; looking out upon the sea, time and eternity seemed to meet on the distant horizon, the windows of the soul were opened, and God and nature admitted to a closer communion; the ideal of manhood was elevated, a taste for travel and improvement was engendered, fancy was set free, the mind broadened, and the whole nature of the man enlarged under these beneficent
