288 Beyond the Sierras. 



the capital of the State. One attractive feature of the evening's entertain- 

 ment \va^ the tine music on the piano-forte ami zithern, by Professors Ollort 

 antl Lennet. A|)i)ropriate addresses were also delivered by Hon. .\. L. Hart 

 and Hon. L. W. Maslin; and then came the presentation to each member 

 of the Society and visiting guest of an impression of the great seal of Cali- 

 fornia, tlie s.ime being made by Hon. W. C. Hendricks, Secretary of State. 

 The addresses in response were made by President Parker Earle, who, on 

 such occasions, always did honor to the Society and himself; also, by Vice- 

 President T. V. Munson ; J. M. Smith, of Wisconsin; Hon. M. M. Estee, of 

 Napa: Hon. Nelson Bogue, of New York, and the writer of this sketch. It 

 shouUl be said in this connection that by the time of our arrival in Upper 

 California our abilities as post-prandial rhetoricians had been much im- 

 proved by practice. It is an old saw of Dr. Johnson that repetition brings 

 facility. After the speech-making of our banquets our hosts always roundly 

 applauded us, and we applauded them. Since we were generally in the 

 majority, our applause prevailed. It is a great thing to be Americans. 



Let this also be recorded, that we did not at our Sacramento banquet 

 simply sit down and eat and eat. Many of the most distinguished ladies of 

 the city did us the honor of their company to the tables, where the conver- 

 sation and merriment were more pleasing to us, who still had a memory of 

 Napa and St. Helena within us, than the good things which were disposed 

 in the vases around us. 



It was part of the magnificent accommodations furnished us by the 

 Southern Pacific Railway that we should have the^. benefit of our sleeping- 

 coaches everywhere and at all times. It required but a few minutes for us, 

 at any time, to have the rest of our Pullman cushions by day and the privacy 

 of our berths by night. After the Sacramento banquet we bade our hosts 

 farewell and were soon asleep in our coaches. With the coming of morn- 

 ing we rolled away from the capital, not without regret. .\t the middle of 

 the forenoon we passed the town of Marysville, where, at a later time of day,, 

 we were to have — what do you think, O reader ?— a banquet. 



For the present we whirled on to the north, and a little before noon 

 reached our present destination, at Oroville — that is, in the tongue of our 

 fathers. Gold Town. Senator Jones, of this county of Butte, and a delega- 

 tions of citizen with carriages, met us at the station. Oroville is another of the 

 newer towns of Upper California, though the piace has been known and in- 

 habited .since the time of the first excitement following the discovery of gold^ 

 Indeed, it is only a short distance from this place to where the great dis- 

 covery was made; that is, the alleged discovery. The Spaniards had for a 

 long time known of the existence of gold dust in paying quantities in this 

 region ; but it remained for Captain Sutter's mill-race and the spring of '48 to 

 set the news a booming round the world. 



Our hosts at Oroville were anxious for us to see and admire the 

 horticultural resources of their country; and we saw and admired. The 

 reader will be surprised to know that away up here on the banks of 



