SOCIETY. 23 



"I do not know whether to ascribe it to their varied em- 

 ployments, or to the fact that the State was settled originally 

 by a picked population, the most energetic and resourceful only 

 coming here, and of these again only the ablest achieving suc- 

 cess and remaining here ; but it is a fact, that I was struck with 

 the high character of the population, in all parts of the State 

 I have seen, for intelligence, enterprise, and activity. ' Chicago 

 and San Francisco are the only two cities you can find in the 

 whole country which will remind you of New York,' said a 

 friend to me, whom I met in Chicago. I think he is right. 

 Philadelphia, Boston, Cincinnati, and other large cities, diifer 

 in many ways from New York. All of them seem * slow 7 to 

 one accustomed to the rush and whirl of New York business 

 life. But such a person finds himself at home in either Chi- 

 cago or San Francisco. In both he finds the same activity in 

 the streets ; California Street, in San Francisco, during business 

 hours, is so much like our own Broad and Wall Streets, that 

 when I first saw it I had no need to ask what was done there. 

 The business men of San Francisco move, talk, dress, dine, and 

 carry on affairs like New Yorkers ; some of them drink a little 

 more whisky that is the only apparent difference between 

 them. They are as accessible to strangers, as readily hospitable, 

 and as little formal as New Yorkers ; and what is true of San 

 Francisco is equally true of the whole State. A banker, law- 

 yer, or merchant, anywhere we have traveled in California, 

 might be, for aught you could tell from his appearance or lan- 

 guage, dress or address, just from New York. You would 

 not take him for a Bostonian or a Philadelphian ; and I did 

 not notice on any person that peculiar air or dress which, 

 with us in the East, proclaims a lawyer or business man from 

 the interior. I think it was Donald G. Mitchell who com- 

 plained that no man could live two years out of New York, 

 no matter how well informed he might be, or how excellent, 

 his tailor, without betraying himself to a New Yorker as a 

 countryman. Well, here in California I met dozens of busi- 



