State Agricultural Society. 105 



is in fact tlic World's Fair, for California is a world of itself, whether 

 considered from a climatic, or cosmopolitan, or scenic i)oint of view. 

 There is no language that does not find its echo here, no product of 

 the earth that cannot be raised, no animal that cannot be reared. It 

 is a babel of tongues; the frigi<l and the torrid mark our borders; 

 the Alps are surpassed, the Sahara equaled. We have everlasting 

 snows and eternal solitudes. There are whirling pillars of hot sand 

 that keep sentinel guard beside ice-cold streams, and the chill-faced 

 anemone blossoms in the same garden with the palm tree. Our 

 mineral wealth has been and is yet the wonder of the world; and 

 our miners the most scientific, intelligent, and persevering. Neither 

 Switzerland nor Italy have such lakes, Surrey and Kent in merry 

 England cannot exhibit such wheat fields, Sicily is rivaled for olives, 

 Spain equaled for oranges, our figs are approaching those of Barbary, 

 our raisins those of Malaga. From the turnips of Sweden to the 

 spices of Cayenne, from the pines of Norway to the magnolia of the 

 "Sunny South," our list extends. Within her four boundaries, moun- 

 tains on three sides, and the Pacific on the fourth, California pre- 

 sents the world in miniature. To hold the position of Capital of 

 such a State is an honor that should be well sustained, for it is an 

 honor that might satisfy the aml)ition of the proudest city in America. 



Sacramento not only holds this position, but fills it with credit and 

 dignity. I remember the troubles by flood and fire she has experi- 

 enced, and I see her passing through the fire of affliction purified, 

 and raising herself literally out of the waters of tribulation. From 

 Sutter's Fort of eighteen hundred and thirty-nine to now is not a 

 great lapse of time, not forty years, yet between that adobe building 

 and this city there is the ordinary growth of centuries. Wealth, 

 refinement, and natural advantages have made Sacramento one of 

 the handsomest cities in the State. A city of homes, her streets are 

 lined with the perfection of residential taste. Mount to the top of 

 the dome that glitters above us, and Avliat luxuriant avenues stretch 

 away in shadowed perspective, what floral colors meet the eye, what 

 architectural taste everywhere shows bright through the groves of 

 living green! It is a sensuous pleasure to the sight that a nearer 

 investigation only enhances. The sun woos you ardently, it is true, 

 in the summer days, but his last and first touches are temperate and 

 gentle. These September mornings and evenings have in them just 

 the right tone to make them enjoyable. There is, if I may use what 

 sounds like a paradox, a crisj) balmness in the air which excites 

 without electrifying, which pacifies without enervating. 



But not only is Sacramento a worthy Capital, judged resthetically ; 

 it is so from a business outlook. Standing beside the Mississippi of 

 the State, taking toll from the great vallevs of California and their 

 subsidiaries, the terminus of half a dozen lines and the juncture of 

 as many more, the base of supplies for the northern interior, and 

 competing for the southern trade, the great product dei)ot for the 

 agriculturists of the foothills and mountains, what opportunities for 

 trade it has, what a commercial center it is! 



And your business men are your i)ride. Astute, genial, enterpris- 

 ing, sharp, patient, honest, they possess every faculty that makes the 

 successful merchant, (^uick at a bargain, they are as (luick to help 

 the deserving, as the records of that great society, the Howard Benevo- 

 lent Association, abundantly prove; shrewd in balancing the profit 

 14 



