SOCIETY. 19 



Polynesian Islands, are represented. The long and costly jour- 

 ney demanded either money, an adventurous disposition, or 

 both. The people as a class are unequaled in their general in- 

 telligence and enterprise. The j ourney in pioneer times was suf- 

 ficient in itself to educate a man, and after his arrival here he 

 found himself among a mixed population, who had to make 

 allowance for strange customs, and in new conditions which 

 required new modes of working and new habits of life. The 

 migratory habits of the miners, the large profits of business, 

 and the small proportion of women, have all exercised a strong 

 influence on California society, which, even among the poorest 

 and most ignorant class, has a liberal and cosmopolitan tone. 



24. State Pride. The Californians who have been here 

 from fifteen to twenty-five years are proud of their State, and 

 carry their pride so far that it is observed as something ex- 

 ceptional in the United States. The causes of this feeling are : 

 satisfaction with themselves for their share in building up the 

 State, and with the rapidity with which it has advanced ; the 

 recollection of the wonderful changes that have occurred here 

 within a quarter of a century, and of the impressive events in 

 which they have taken part ; and profound convictions that 

 this is in many respects the best place in the world for 

 the enjoyment of life, that its attractions are not generally 

 understood in the Eastern States and Europe, that it is destined 

 to have a prosperous and glorious future, and that it will be a 

 chief pleasure resort and a center of the highest civilization. 

 To many of the pioneers, existence would lose its zest and ro- 

 mance, and would become a dull drudgery, if they were com- 

 pelled to make their homes east of the Rocky Mountains. A 

 large proportion of those who have left the State, intending to 

 spend the remainder of their lives in their native places, have 

 returned, declaring that they could not accommodate them- 

 selves to the slow, quiet, dull ways of more antiquated States. 



W. F. Rae, in his Westward by Rail, thus exaggerates 

 and caricatures the State pride of the pioneers : 



