t66 MY LIFE 



and flower-beds, the whole kept in the most perfect order by 



Chine trdeners, with water laid on everywhere to keep up 



the perpetual verdure during the six or seven months of con- 

 tinuous heat and drought 



In the house, as in the garden, all the servants are China- 

 men and boys, and both Mr. and Mrs. Stanford spoke of 

 them in the highest terms. One of these boys had charge of 

 her private rooms, and as they continually moved backward 

 and forward between this house and their mansion at San 

 Francisco, going and coming without notice, on her return 

 she always found everything in the most perfect order, and 

 has never missed the smallest article though jewellery was 

 often left on her dressing-table. Mr. Stanford declared that 

 the Chinese had been the making of California, doing all kinds 

 of domestic work, gardening, and shop-keeping when every 

 European was rushing after gold. He had incurred much 

 obloquy on account of his opposition to the anti-immigration 

 laws and through his employing Chinese servants, but had 

 now, to a large extent, lived it down. 



After dinner we drove out to see some of the other mil- 

 lionaires' residences. The most remarkable of these was Mr. 

 Flood's — a kind of fairy palace built entirely of wood, highly 

 decorated with towers and pinnacles, and painted pure white 

 throughout. There were also fine grounds and gardens, but 

 none we saw were so exquisitely kept up as Mr. Stanford's by 

 his thirty Chinese gardeners. 



Next morning I was taken to see the site of the great univer- 

 sity he was going to build to the memory of his son. He had 

 here about eight thousand acres of land, in the midst of which 

 the buildings and residences were to stand. There were large 

 wooden offices close by, occupied by the architect and draughts- 

 men preparing the plans and working drawings ; and the 

 surrounding land was already planted with shade-trees and 

 avenues. The plans showed a central chapel in a Norman, or 

 rather Moorish, style of architecture, surrounded by low, one- 

 storey buildings arranged around spacious courts, about five 

 hundred feet by two hundred and fifty feet, to be laid out in 

 grass, trees, and flower-beds. These buildings were to com- 



