8 



Wilmerding school, which is about to be built, to supply Cali- 

 fornia with skillful artisans enough to make this a great 

 manufacturing State. 



One last word. One morning this summer, before sunrise, I 

 stood on the summit of a spur of the Sierras. Before me 

 stretched the rich valleys of the Sacramento and the San 

 Joaquin, with their thousands of happy homes, and along their 

 Eastern border, the lofty snow-topped giants of the Sierra. A 

 beam of pale light shot across the Eastern sky, then the peaks 

 of the snow-tipped mountains glowed with roseate fire, and 

 gradually the welcome sun poured its golden rays down the 

 slopes, along the rippling streams, to the valley below. In the 

 rivulets silvery trout leaped in joyful greeting to meet him; the 

 loaded grain bowed its heavy head in thankful recognition; the 

 apricot, the apple and the peach turned their blushing cheeks 

 his way for their morning kiss; and the rose, the magnolia and 

 the morning glory unfolded their bursting buds to receive his 

 eager embrace. All this passed before my fancy as I, too, felt 

 the comforting warmth of the great planet's first rays. Over- 

 powered by so much blessing, I would have thrown myself 

 upon my face to relieve an overflowing heart in grateful tears, 

 but, as I moved, I heard a whirring, hateful noise, and there 

 before me lay in mottled coil, its ugly head raised, about to 

 strike, a rattlesnake. Bounding backward, I caught up a heavy 

 boulder, and crushed the reptile. Then, winding my steps 

 downward, I thought how our fair daughters and struggling 

 sons were also threatened and robbed of the full enjoyment of 

 their life by a nasty reptile in human form — I mean the polit- 

 ical "boss," who is poisoning our civic life. We, t(X), must find 

 a boulder to crush him, and it is at hand. One hundred men, 

 good and true, are working night and day to find it. When 

 they have it, it will rest with you to use it — for the boulder I 

 mean is the Neiv Charter. 



