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Weird and hobgoblin were the uses and purposes, as well as the name and naming of the enchanted spot. From the ocean the rough breezes come tempered by warm airs rising from sunny meadows, while the fog- banks, filtered by the wooded slopes, wrap the tnirsty earth in gentle moisture. Glorious indeed the view toward the east ; the pliant sparkling water, the smooth billowy hills, and the shoaled and isleted shore winding between; while beyond, old Diablo, winks and blinks and nods as in uncouth wooing of the gorgeous wealth of beauty at its feet.
A rare retreat, truly, for those whose lives are de- voted to the laborious occupation of unjustly appro- priating to their own use the property of others. Alas! that man should be obliged to shackle his fellow-man ; that society after feeding and clothing from bo3diood scoundrels who never in all their lives did one blow of honest or beneficial work, after pro-
nouncino- a formal condemnation should be obliijed to
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lodge and feed and clothe them, in lots of hundreds
and thousands for years and often for the remainder of their lives. Yet they would say how hard the devil drives his servants!
Before San Quentin was, there were villains ; but never have they been so well housed on these Pacific shores; that is to say, those who have been publicly housed at all. Time was when this charmed shore of California played its role as a sort of penal settle- ment for a society rich in rascality. Mexico sent hither her criminals with the double intent, as her authorities had the assurance to say, of improving their morals and increasing the population of Califor- nia ; and to the petition for a lessening of the evil, to send only useful convicts, since California had no jails, no heed was paid for several years. Then, and be- fore, and since, were presidios for prisons, and mission- ary buildings for guard-houses. In those days class, and caste, and character entered largely into prison etiquette. Some convicts enjoyed the liberty
