He knows that there will be here yet,
"Scattered cities crowning these, Whose far white walls along them
shine, With fields which promise corn and wine."
He realizes that transient California must yield to stable conditions.
Some civilized society will succeed the masses as lacking in fibre
as a rope of sand. Already the days of roving adventure are over.
There are wanderers, gamblers, fugitives, ex-criminals, and outcasts
enough within the limits of the new land. Siren and adventuress,
women of nameless history and gloomy future, yet abound. They
throng the shabby temporary camps or tent cities. He knows there
is no self-perpetuation in the mass of men roving in the river
valleys. Better men must yet rule.
A visit to San Francisco and other large places proves that the
social and commercial element is supplied from the Northern, Eastern,
and Middle States. Their professional men will be predominant also.
In the interior, the farmers of the West and the sagacious planters
of the South control.
As May-day approaches, Valois, at San Francisco in 1853, sees a
procession of growing children. There, thousands of happy young
faces of school-children, appear bearing roses in innocent hands.
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