i86 ELDORADO 



eers of 49-50 reached this coast. But we Hve in an age 

 of progression and development. During the past fifty 

 years, since CaUfornia became a State, inventions and 

 new discoveries have been multiplied more than in all 

 the preceding years since the beginning of the Chris- 

 tian era. The lightning that Franklin attempted to 

 bottle up at the end of a kite string, has been brought 

 to do duty in nearly all industrial avocations among 

 men. Every important item of news is now flashed 

 by that subtile power to the most distant parts of the 

 globe. Instead of the whale oil lamp and tallow candle 

 in use fifty years ago, gas, kerosene oil, and elec- 

 tricity illuminate every home, all public buildings, and 

 the streets, highways and byways of every town and 

 city in all civilized lands. The hand loom, spinning 

 wheel, and distafif of our mothers are superseded by 

 millions of spindles and the most wonderful machinery 

 for manufacturing the coarsest as well as the most 

 delicate fabric. From the old lumbering stage coach 

 of our early days, we have the palace car, with a 

 speed of sixty miles an hour, crossing the continent 

 in three days, instead of five months with the pack 

 mule and "prairie schooner." During the boyhood of 

 us pioneers very few stoves were in use. Instead of 

 the fireplace with the forestick and the back log, and 

 irons, the crane and hooks, whereon our mothers hung 

 the pot for puddings and bean porridge, we have today 

 stoves, constructed in the highest style of art to be used 

 not only with coal and wood, but also with gas, coal 

 oil and electricity. In our youth there were no en- 

 velopes, steel or gold pens ; the goose quill alone was 

 used for writing purposes. There were no matches. 

 Coals of fire sometimes had to be obtained from a near 



