DAWN AND THE DONS 112
Viewed in the light of the situation in which these early Californians found themselves, their philosophy of life is not easily condemned. If not thrifty, they were, nevertheless, a happy and contented people, and the gaunt specter of want never cast its shadow across their land. If they lacked the strictness and severity of puritan virtue, they abounded in neighborly friendliness and kindly hospitality. If they paid scant heed to the commercial and industrial opportunities that lay so abundantly about them, who shall say that advancement of their material wealth would have added to their — happiness? They were happy as they were. They were honest and peaceful. Their tastes were in harmony with their available pleasures. In their Arcadia they knew not, and therefore desired not, those costly pleasures which wealth alone can supply. To quote Colton, “There are no people that I have ever been among who enjoy life
so thoroughly as the Californians.
Their habits are
simple; their wants few; nature rolls everything almost spontaneously into their lap. Their cattle, horses and sheep roam at large; not a blade of grass is cut, and none required.” They married young, and took no thought of birth control. Large families were the rule. Richman says, “Children were numerous—thirteen to twenty to a wedded pair—and the deference paid to parents was profound.” And Colton, “The fecundity of the Californian is remarkable, and must be attributed in no
