SOCIETY. 365 
population is excitable; all take the newspapers, and all are 
interested in the events of the day; and the history of the 
country is full of eventful incidents, which always present 
fruitful topics for discussion. Money is abundant, and is easily 
earned, and of course it is spent freely; and the favorite 
method of spending is in public festivities and attending places 
of amusement. Inno part of the United States is so much of 
life public, and so little of it private. 
§ 256. Amusements—San Francisco is a city of public shows 
and processions. Dancing is almost universal. The children 
of every public school in our chief city must have picnics and 
dances in May and at Christmas. Some of the Sunday schools 
do without the dance; others have as many as the common 
schools. One has four dances every year. The regular dances, 
picnics, and festivals of various schools and associations in San 
Francisco, will average several for every week in the year. 
Theatres and operas are most liberally patronized, in propor- 
tion to the population. But perhaps the amusement which has 
found 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 filliard-saloons, containing 
each from eight to twelve of the largest and most elegant bil- 
liard-tables, at which men are constantly playing. The climate 
along the coast is peculiarly favorable to dancing, for, as the 
evenings and nights are always cold, it is as pleasant to dance 
in the summer as in the winter. Among the other regular 
amusements of Californians is that of “going east.” About 
ten thousand of them go to the Eastern states every year, to 
make visits and see their relatives. Among the fashionable 
places of resort in the state are the Yosemite Falls, the Mam- 
moth Groves of Calaveras and Mariposa counties, the Alabas- 
ter Cave in El Dorado county, the Geysers in Sonoma county, 
the Sulphur Springs in Napa county, the Warm Springs in 
Alameda county; and in September and October, when the 
grapes are ripe, the towns of Sonoma and Los Angeles. Gam- 
