362 RESOURCES OF CALIFOKNIA. 



land, 13 born at sea, and others from Poland, Tahiti, Nova 

 Scotia, New Brunswick, Cuba, Spain, West Indies, Russia, 

 Holland, Hawaiian Islands, Norway, Italy, Tasmania, Belgium, 

 Panama, SAveden, Switzerland, and Peru. The children from 

 Ireland, France, and Spanish America are few, because most 

 of them are sent to the Catholic schools. Otherwise the table 

 presents a pretty fair indication of the mixed character of the 

 population, and the brief period of its residence in this state. 

 The proportions are, however, not the same in all the counties. 

 The proportion of people from the maritime states of New 

 York and New England is larger in San Francisco than in any 

 other county ; whereas Missouri is the leading state in Sonoma, 

 Napa, Yolo and Santa Clara counties, which are agricultural. 

 Texas has probably furnished more citizens to Tulare county 

 than any other state of the Union ; and Illinois and Iowa have 

 furnished a considerable proportion of the residents of Siskiyou 

 and Shasta counties. 



§ 254. Liberal Tone of Society. — As a body, the people of 

 California are intelligent. It is very rare to find a white man 

 who cannot read. They have travelled far to reach this coast, 

 and the journey required from most of them a considerable ex- 

 penditure of money and an enterprising spirit. Many of them 

 had seen much of the w^orld before coming to California, and 

 have travelled considerably since their arrival. They are in- 

 dustrious, energetic, brave, quick in speaking, ready to avenge 

 an insult, accustomed to carry pistols and knives, quick to use 

 them in quarrel, aifable, unceremonious, and unreserved in their 

 intercourse with acquaintances or strangers. These remarks 

 will not apply to all individuals, but to the people generally, 

 as compared with the people of other states and countries. 

 The state has not yet had time to build up a national character 

 among natives, but the people are different from all other 

 people. They have much of the general traits of Americanism, 

 but the traits are more striking because so many of the popu- 

 lation are men, and men in the most vigorous period of man- 

 hood, and bold, adventurous men, who have seen strange ups 



