SOCIETY 365 



population is excitable; all take the newspapers, and all are 

 interested in the events of the day ; and the history of the 

 country is full of eventful incidents, which always present 

 fruitful topics for discussion. Money is abundant, and is easily 

 earned, and of course it is spent freely; and the favorite 

 method of spending is in public festivities and attending places 

 of amusement. In "no part of the United States is so much of 

 life public, and so little of it private. 



§ 256. Amiise'me7it8. — San Francisco is a city of public shows 

 and processions. Dancing is almost universal. The children 

 of every public school in our chief city must have picnics and 

 dances in May and at Christmas. Some of the Sunday schools 

 do without the dance ; others have as many as the common 

 schools. One has four dances every year. The regular dances, 

 picnics, and festivals of various schools and associations in San 

 Francisco, will average several for every w^eek in the year. 

 Theatres and operas are most liberally patronized, in propor- 

 tion to the population. But perhaps the amusement which has 

 found the most favor in California is billiard-playing. Billiard- 

 tables are found everywhere. In many little villages where 

 there is but one inn a fine billiard-table will be found. In San 

 Francisco there are numerous large billiard-saloons, containing 

 each from eight to twelve of the largest and most elegant bil- 

 liard-tables, at which men are constantly playing. The climate 

 along the coast is peculiarly fiivorable to dancing, for, as the 

 evenings and nights are always cold, it is as pleasant to dance 

 in the summer as in the winter. Amono^ the other rescular 

 amusements o^ Californians is that of "going east." About 

 ten thousand of them go to the Eastern states every year, to 

 make visits and see their relatives. Among the fashionable 

 places of resort in the state are the Yosemite Falls, the Mam- 

 moth Groves of Calaveras and Mariposa counties, the Alabas- 

 ter Cave in El Dorado county, the Geysers in Sonoma county, 

 the Sulphur Springs in Napa county, the Warm Springs in 

 Alameda county; and in September and October, when the 

 grapes are ripe, the towns of Sonoma and Los Angeles. G^m- 



