HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA. 



89 



whole at a glance, was singularly interesting and 

 curious. A crowd of individuals, in motley garb, and 

 of every variety of race, might be seen pressing eagerly 

 upward towards the town, jostling and pushing one 

 another, in their anxiety to be first, yet looking eagerly 

 about them, as If to familiarize themselves at once 

 with the country of their adoption. Here were dandies 

 from the United States and from France, picking their 

 steps mincingly, as they strove to keep pace with the 

 sturdy fellows who carried their luggage ; their beaver 

 hats, fashionable frock-coats, irreproachable and well- 

 strapped pantaloons, exciting the derisive remarks of 

 the spectators, the majority of them ' old Californians,' 

 whose rough labor at the * diggins' had taught them 

 to estimate such niaiseries at their proper value. By 

 their side stalked the stately and dignified Spaniard, 

 covered with his broad-brimmed, low-crowned sombrero, 

 and gracefully enveloped in his ample serapa, set off 

 by a bright scarlet sash. He turns neither to the 

 right nor to the left, nor heeds the crowd about him, 

 but keeps on the even tenor of his way though even 

 he has occasionally to jump for it presenting, in his 

 demeanor and costume, a striking contrast to the 

 more bustling activity of the Yankees, who are elbow 

 ing every one, in their anxiety to go a-head. A lot 

 of shopboys, too mere lads, as spruce and neatly 

 attired as though they had just stepped out of some 

 fashionable emporium, mingle with the rest, and, as 

 they enter the town, strike up the popular parody 



1 Oh, California. That's the land for me ! 

 I'm bound for the Sacramento, with 

 The wash-bowl on my knee.' 



And presently, their brother-adventurers, excited 



