378 RESOURCES OF CALIFORNIA. 



States far more than the N'orth. The wild condition of af- 

 fairs in the early times has been impressed upon our society, 

 and we have not yet been able to reform it altogether ; and 

 in the matter of carrying deadly weapons and in street fights, 

 we have imitated the example of the cotton states. So, too, 

 in the matter of duels, of which there have been many in 

 California, and some of them of a character so remarkable as 

 to attract attention all over the civilized world. Duelling is 

 forbidden by the law of the state, and is made punishable as a 

 felony by imprisonment for not more than two years, and if 

 either party be killed the survivor may be imprisoned not less 

 than one nor more than seven years in the state prison ; and 

 the constitution of the state provides that no person who has 

 been a principal or a second in a duel shall be allowed to vote 

 or hold office in the state ; but a hundred duels have been 

 fought in the state, and about one-third of them have proved 

 fatal to one of the principals, and yet no man has been legally 

 punished for duelling, nor has any one been prevented from 

 voting or holding office for that reason ; on the contrary, many 

 of the duellists have until within a late date held offices among 

 the most honorable and profitable in the state. 



§ 266. Religion. — We have no accurate statistics of the 

 churches and church memberships in California. Of the 

 155,000 white men in the state, I presume that 10,000 are 

 communicants of some Protestant church ; 10,000 of the 

 Catholic church ; 2,000 are Jews, and 1,000 are Mormons, 

 making 23,000 in all, or 14 per cent. Of the other 86 per 

 cent., two-thirds never go near a church, and scarcely claim to 

 be Christians ; while the remaining third go to church occa- 

 sionally, some of them regularly. The principal Protestant 

 churches are the Methodist Church (North), which has about 

 3,000 communicants, 60 churches, and 65 preachers ; the Meth 

 odist Church (South) has about 1,000 communicants, 20 church- 

 es, and 40 preachers ; the Old School Presbyterian Church has 

 1,000 communicants, 15 churches, and 17 clergymen ; the New 

 School Presbyterian Church has 500 communicants, 11 church- 



