236 ELDORADO 



blessings of peace and plenty minister to the comforts 

 of age? Are there other countries in which honest in- 

 dustry achieves higher respect or in which labor earns 

 a higher meed of profit and honor? Under our sum- 

 mer suns the fruits of the tropics ripen, unaccompan- 

 ied by the discomforts of the torrid zone. Here the 

 brown of our summer hills and the golden stubble of 

 the after-harvest are the only winters that we know. 

 Here a spring-like verdure is the harbinger of the 

 coming autumn, and the autumn is attended by no 

 forewarning of the bleak rigors of winter. Here win- 

 ter is the season when the warm, brown earth is turned 

 by the plow for seed time, and spring with its flowers 

 and ripening grain is opulent with the prophecy of 

 hopeful industry. Nor are these all the features which 

 challenge our love of country. Here nature has 

 wrought her best enchantments in the sublimity of 

 mountain heights, the bold grandeur of cliffs, the pen- 

 sive peacefulness of lovely valleys and the expansive 

 splendor of fertile hills. Looking backward we see a 

 history founded on the romance of adventure. In the 

 present we are laying the foundations of a noble com- 

 monwealth by the establishment of permanent indus- 

 tries. If, therefore, the manifestation of love for our 

 State may sometimes appear boastful or provincial, 

 let it find apology in the consideration that provin- 

 cialism is an expression of local patriotism, and that 

 with the people of California it is the inspiration of 

 high endeavor, which, when duly chastened, will ripen 

 for our beloved State its growing harvest of hope." 



