CHAPTER XIX
A CONTENTED ARCADIA
A remote Mexican province became a great American commonwealth. With characteristic American haste and expedition, a state constitution was adopted, members of Congress chosen, a state legislature
elected
and
convened,
a
code
of
state laws enacted, and United States Senators selected and their credentials presented at Washington, all before our national Congress had admitted California into the Union, or even provided a territorial form of government. Indeed, so urgent and insistent were California’s impetuous pioneers that on September 9, 1850, without territorial probation, the new Eldorado was en-
dowed by Congressional authority with all the powers and privileges of a sovereign state. The Argonauts of *49 found some twenty thousand contented Californians enjoying the delightful tranquil182 Page:Dawn and the Dons.pdf/205 Page:Dawn and the Dons.pdf/206 Page:Dawn and the Dons.pdf/207 Page:Dawn and the Dons.pdf/208 Page:Dawn and the Dons.pdf/209 Page:Dawn and the Dons.pdf/210 Page:Dawn and the Dons.pdf/211 Page:Dawn and the Dons.pdf/212 Page:Dawn and the Dons.pdf/213 Page:Dawn and the Dons.pdf/214 cupation, and still retained much of the flavor of the pastoral days of Spanish California.” ‘Then remembering the girlhood days spent there in the time of Stevenson and Stoddard, she adds, “Those were dolce far niente days at Monterey, dreamy romantic days, spent beneath the bluest sky, beside the bluest sea, and in the
best company on earth, and all glorified by the rainbow hues of youth.”
And the spell that caught and held Vizcaino three hundred years ago, and which is so feelingly expressed by Mrs. Sanchez, still lives at Monterey. The Monterey peninsula has ever been, and probably will ever be a playground. Stock raising has been driven into the near-by mountains, whence radiates something of the old pastoral charm of equestrian days. The numerous fishing fleet of small boats that daily rides at anchor in the Monterey harbor adds a peculiar and pleasing picturesqueness to the town. There is no other industry on the peninsula of sufficient importance to merit special attention. The call of the Monterey peninsula was never industrial.
Its lure has ever been a genial sky, a delightful
playground and pleasure loving companions. Its dwellers have increased in number; outdoor pleasures have multiplied; and this perennial playground of the Don has taken on new life and color. But the spirit of the Don still abides, and old Spain lingers on.