104 Transactions of the 



Counties, sending their stock and crops by rail to market; whilst to 

 the east El Dorado is reached by the Placerville and Sacramento 

 Valley Road. Folsom City is visited, and the i)eo])le of Placer and 

 El Dorado are brought within a few hours' ride. Down there at the 

 bay they have made the face of the country look like a checker board. 

 The products of Marin, from point to ])oint. are brought over Eatham 

 and Shaffer's venture, the North Pacific Coast Railroad. Peter Don- 

 ahue, one of the pioneer princes, has joined the sea breezes of San 

 Francisco to the hay scent of Cloverdale and the aromatic perfume 

 of Guerneville's woods; whilst from Martinez to San Pablo, San Pablo 

 to Oakland, Oakland to San Jose, San Jose to Redwood City, Red- 

 wood City to San Mateo, San Alateo to San Bruno, stretches an 

 unbroken circle of communication. Then looking south until the 

 eyes are almost dazzled in the glare of a hot, sun-scorched, strange 

 country, and keeping away from where the train thunders along by 

 Monterey and Santa Cruz, its thunder answered by that of the suri- 

 crested sea, we see dimly stretching away in the distance that wonder- 

 ful Southern Pacific. It passes the wheat fields that ripen in the 

 level lands of the San Joaquin, makes a city of Fresno, creates a 

 town at Visalia, puts life into Bakersfield, almost puts life into the 

 dead valleys of Kern, climbs over and crosses through Tehachipa, 

 looks in upon Ventura, stirs up Solcdad, infuses something like 

 sprightliness into sleepy San Fernando, and makes Los Angeles ring 

 to the tune of " The World Moves," played march time. 



Santa Monica and Wilmington and Anaheim are heard from ; and 

 then away by the Temescal Mountains to red-tiled San Bernardino, 

 through the Yucape Valley, scaling San Jacinto Peak, and tlien 

 plunging into the dismal depths of the Coahuilla Desert, and halting 

 only on the further banks of the million-canoned Colorado. To see 

 the future of this line would need the donning of the j)roidiet's man- 

 tle indeed. It is a future bright with a silver lining from the 

 unwrought bonanzas of Arizona — a future laden with the riches and 

 fruits of Mexico itself, odorous from spice groves and coffee planta- 

 tions — a future that shall wake echoes in " bancjuet halls deserted" 

 since the liigh-browed Aztecs died out — a future that "bears with it 

 the promise of Texas and Arkansas made neighborly, of joining us 

 with a new undivided South, of being the second strong arms to reach 

 across the continent in an embrace that is inter-oceanic. 



Railroads are one of the four synonyms for progress, for the pro- 

 gre.ss of the world is due to four great powers — muscle, mind, money, 

 and machinery — and all of them have their fitting representatives 

 here to-day. 



This State Fair means a little more than the display of agricult- 

 ural products; it means the gathering together of every avaihible 

 evidence of California's advancement. The breeding and improve- 

 ment of .stock are, of course, i)laced prominently on the premium 

 list, as, too, are the imi)rovements that have been eflccti'd in agricult- 

 ural machinery; but every hoe and household imi)lenient, every 

 specimen of textile fabrics, every proof of mechanical skill, are also 

 given attention to, whilst the fine arts, philosojdiy, music, vinicult- 

 ure, chemistry, mineralogy, field sports, military tactics, trials of 

 speed and endurance, are not forgotten. On the grounds and at the 

 ])avilion is to be found everything, from a cheese to a trotting race, 

 from an oil i)ainting to a header, from a la crosse match to a collection 

 of metals, and from a i)latoon drill to a plate of figs. The State Fair 



