CALIFORNIA 



1056 



CALIFORNIA 



Before the days of rotary presses calico was 

 printed by hand work. The design was carved 

 in relief on a wooden block. Anyone who has 

 worked with a rubber stamp knows how hard 

 it is to make an even impression and to set 

 the stamp in exactly the right place each time. 

 Imagine, then, the difficulties of a calico printer 

 of the eighteenth century, with a wooden 

 stamp ten inches long and six inches wide. Yet 

 many very beautiful prints were made) some 

 of them in several colors. It was this process 

 of hand stamping which gave calico its name, 

 for it was originally introduced into Europe 

 from Calicut, in India, where such stamping 

 originated. 



Dyed Calico. The pretty blue and white 

 calicoes so often seen in Dutch patterns, and 

 some more expensive cloths of white and one 

 color, are prepared in several ways. Sometimes 

 the fabric is printed with a mordant (see DYE- 

 ING AND DYESTUFFS) and then dyed, the dye 



taking effect only where the mordant is lo- 

 cated. In another process the cloth is first 

 dipped in a mordant, then printed with a 

 chemical which takes away the mordant in 

 the spots which are to remain white, then 

 dyed. Still another method prints the cloth 

 with wax or clay or a chemical through which 

 the dye cannot penetrate. All of these ways 

 of marking the pattern give it a color which 

 will not fade. 



The ancient Egyptians were familiar with 

 some of the cloth-printing processes which 

 employ mordants, and the Chinese have from 

 the earliest times known how to print with 

 wood blocks. The Japanese used to form 

 charming patterns by dipping the leaves of 

 trees in dye and pressing them on cotton cloth; 

 they also had a method of painting designs 

 through stencils. Even the Incas, the Indians 

 of Peru, knew how to print cloth before Euro- 

 peans learned the art from India. K.A.G. 



THE STORY OF CALIFORNIA 



ALIFORNIA, called the GOLDEN STATE 

 because of the epoch-making discovery of gold 

 in 1848, is one of the Pacific coast states and 

 the second largest in the American Union. Its 

 name, according to most authorities, is taken 

 from that of a fabled island near the equator 

 in the far western seas. Some scholars, how- 

 ever, believe that it is a contraction of the 

 Spanish words caliente forno, meaning hot fur- 

 nace, which early travelers used to describe 

 the arid, hot regions of the south. Exceeded 

 only by Texas in area, California has 158,297 

 square miles, of which 2,645 are water surface; 

 and its 2,377,549 inhabitants (1910) place it 

 twelfth in rank according to population (see 

 subhead, Population, below). In this great 

 state Illinois, Iowa and Ohio might be placed, 

 and there would be room to spare, but the 

 population of those three well-settled states is 

 more than five times that of California. Ex- 

 cept Texas, it has the greatest north-and-south 

 length of any of the states 750 miles; and its 

 width is about 200 miles. 



To the north lies Oregon, to the east are 

 Nevada and 1 Arizona, the latter separated from 

 it by the Colorado River; to the south is that 



part of Mexico known as Lower California, and 

 to the west stretches the Pacific Ocean. 

 Though there is in the shore line a very 

 decided bend, the eastern boundary line bends, 

 also, so the state is approximately the same 

 width throughout all its great length. The 

 coast line of California is over 1,000 miles in 

 length, and only Florida has a greater stretch of 

 coast. Indeed, there is so little difference 

 between the two in this respect that some 

 authorities are inclined to give the preference 

 to California. 



To many who have never visited it California 

 stands as the romance state of the West the 

 land "flowing with milk and honey" toward 

 which their desires tend; while to those who 

 live there, its "native sons," it is indeed the 

 El Dorado, or golden land, by reason of its 

 climate, its wonderful scenery, its unrivaled 

 fertility and its mineral wealth. The popular 

 name of the state; the term Golden Gate, ap- 

 plied to its finest harbor; the golden poppy, 

 which is its state flower; the name El Dorado, 

 given to one of its counties, all point to the 

 position which it holds in the eyes of its 

 admirers. 



