Chap. X. POINTS OF COMPARISON. 575 
one Mexican kills another with a knife. — An unknown in- 
dividual commits suicide at Bear Valley. 
Such a list of casualties may not be thought an at- 
tractive advertisement to draw Europeans to California ; 
yet, if crime and personal danger were as carefully pub- 
lished in Europe as they are in California, and in the 
United States in general, I think it would appear that 
certain European capitals are not more enticing, under a 
moral point of view. Comparisons of this nature, how- 
ever, are not very gratifying. 
Be this as it may, — at any rate I must say that according 
to my observations, there is as mucli humanity and bene- 
volence to be found in the mixture of Californian popula- 
tion as exists in the most cultivated European communi- 
ties. But, in California, even charity is managed in that 
proud style of American generosity which attributes no 
meekness to the needy and expects no thanks from them. 
In the Californian wilds a man may perish from want, — 
in Californian society not. That society is too proud to 
bear the existence of poverty in the land of superabundance. 
Whatever may be the moral estimate of the social ele- 
ments congregated from all parts of the world to form a 
new society in California — and many of the best and of 
the worst have contributed to the result, from the conscious 
man of business to the most reckless adventurer, from the 
scientific philosopher to the impudent charlatan, from the 
puritan missionary or moral reformer down to the high- 
wayman and the incendiary — however disproportioned may 
be their moral worth, two important traits of character 
were common to them : an extraordinary acuteness of 
practical intellect, and an unusual energy of will and 
action. Men without these qualities could not easily have 
found their way to that distant and adventurous region, 
