28 RESOURCES OF CALIFORNIA. 



the most favor in California is billiard-playing. Billiard- 

 tables are found everywhere. In many little villages where 

 there is but one inn a fine billiard-table will be found. In 

 San Francisco there are numerous large billiard-saloons, con- 

 taining each from eight to twelve of the largest and most 

 elegant billiard-tables, at which men are constantly playing. 



30. Education. California has an excellent system of 

 State schools, open without charge to all children between 

 five and fifteen years of age ; and the system of instruction 

 and the general management of the departments are reported 

 to be little, if in any manner, inferior to those in Massachu- 

 setts. The teachers are mostly natives of the Eastern States, 

 and are highly capable. The intelligence of the people who 

 settled the State will be transmitted to their offspring, and 

 there is no probability that the Californians of 1900 will be 

 less intellectual than those of 1870. 



Out of 135,361 children of school age, 72,972 go to school, 

 and the average daily attendance is 65,700. There are 1,612 

 schools, and 2,301 teachers, of whom 1,420 are ladies. The 

 total expense to the public treasury is $2,131,783 annually. 

 There are 88 school libraries, with 200,000 volumes. 



The public libraries of the State, in addition to those 

 belonging to the schools, number thirty, with 300,000 volumes, 

 including the Mercantile of 30,000, Mechanics' of 20,000, and 

 the Odd Fellows' of 18,000, in San Francisco. 



A State University has been liberally endowed by the State 

 and has been organized, but as yet it deserves to be called a 

 college. It has a small library, no laboratory, and few pro- 

 fessors and students ; but it has a magnificent site, and means 

 which, if properly managed, would enable it to become a 

 great institution. Much of its money has been squandered, 

 however, and the result for the future is doubtful. Secta- 

 rian colleges are scattered along the coast from Santa Rosa 

 to Santa Barbara, most of them small affairs. Those of 

 the Jesuits have the best buildings and apparatus and the 



