San Jose, California

“ On the south of the town runs a small stream, and the place is surrounded by plains, affording fine pasturage. Being situated on the direct route from the southern ports to the gold mines, San José received a considerable stimulus from their discovery. A profitable trade was soon established, and the town improved very rapidly. It is now a town of about four thousand inhabitants, and the increase still continues rapid. In a greater degree than any of the older towns of California, it has all the evidence of a thriving and progressive place. ”

“ His leisure he employed scouring the country or shooting deer and quail in the company of his younger hosts. The literal mind of Don Jose accepted him as an actual son and embryonic California, and, his conscience at peace, revelled in his society as a sign from propitiated heaven; rejoicing in the virtue of his years. The Governor, testily remarking that as California was so well governed for the present he would retire to Monterey and take a siesta, rode off one morning, but not without an affectionate: "God preserve the life of your excellency many years." ”

“ They entered the large plaza around which were many of the important buildings of the capital. Here ran in full stream the life of early California. Indian women, gay in colored shawl and gown, edged their way among the fiery steeds drawing the carreta of the grandee's family. The Mexican smoking his corn-paper cigarito touched elbows with the hidalgo's son who was clad in velvet and fine linen, with inlaid gold on his hat-band and gold spur on his heels.
Skins brown, skins red, skins white intermingled. Wealth and lack of it walked side by side. ”

“ The town grew steadily until by 1851 the population numbered over five hundred. An act of the first California legislature incorporated San Jose as a city on March 27, 1850. Included in the population were such diverse nationalities as Mexicans, Peruvians, Chileans, Californians, Indians and some Americans. As in most California towns of the day, the homicide rate was high, although a genuine effort to remedy this condition was made by the various mayors and city councils. Population growth was steady. ”

“ Among these are the scales, of which there are many species, but of which the most widely known and dreaded is the San Jose scale, so called because San Jose, California, was its starting place in America. It is the only one of the scales which, if not checked, will, in two or three years, completely destroy the tree on which it feeds. ”

“ A white linen shirt, elaborately fluted and sparkling with diamonds, completed their evening dress. Men and women were lavish in their display of jewels.
Glorious, splendid California was worthily represented by her sons and daughters the night of Señor Mendoza's fiesta.
In the garden a young man in the uniform of an army officer was speaking with a girl.
"Señorita Doña Carmelita, a dance with you on the ballroom floor; another sit I with you in the open. Is it not so?"
"Señor, the Captain Morando, I promised you a mazurka, nothing more." ”

“ Pueblo de San Jose is another old settlement, and has more than a thousand inhabitants within its jurisdiction, and is growing rapidly. By its position, in a magnificent valley, seventy miles in length at the head of the Bay of San Francisco, approachable by water to vessels as large as brigs, being a thoroughfare between the North and South of the country, possessing a rich soil, a mild and salubrious climate, beautiful landscape, and every facility for cheap and comfortable living, it cannot but grow rapidly ”

“ The hot north wind, which for days had been scorching the valley of Santa Clara, rolled into the room.
"It is little avail, dear father, to seek or avoid draughts when the San Joaquin fever possesses one. Its nature is to burn till the body seems a crisp, then to freeze till the flesh is like damp clay."
"Juan Antonio, you are right. Still, it is a satisfaction to feel the living air whether it touches one's ailment or not." ”

“ Mendoza resumed his seat, since no one spoke further. For a moment he silently regarded his neighbors. At last: "Friends and brothers mine, Señor Peralta has spoken of the north country as a possible solution for our imminent difficulties. Señor Zelaya is right. The Russian bear, as well as the California grizzly, would divide our property by piecemeal there. There are yet the river beds of the Sacramento and the San Joaquin."
"But Yoscolo and Stanislaus and their thousand renegades!" objected one. "We go to the mouth of the tiger. More than ever are these men active now." ”

“ The Doña Carmelita cordially seconded her father's invitation. The Barcelos accepted; the Señora Valentino likewise.
"Mission San José—Mission San José—" mused the latter. "Is there not living there a Franciscan friar, one Lusciano Osuna?"
"It is so," assented Mendoza.
"I heard he was in California, and as you mentioned the Mission San José it came to me that was given as his present home."
"A man of some importance, probably, in Spain," volunteered Señor Hernandez. ”

“ Though situated a short distance inland, and thus deprived of the facilities which contributed to the rapid growth of San Francisco, the fertile plain surrounding it, and the increase of the inland trade and travel will draw to the town and its neighborhood a thriving, business population. The old mission of San José is situated about ten miles from the town. The establishment and the grounds belonging to it are in a state of decay. The population there is about three hundred in number, most of whom are Indians, and all of them in a degraded condition. ”

“ A glow-worm’s light beneath a star that shall never set!
Monday, Sept. 25. San José is sixty-five miles from Monterey, and stands in the centre of a spacious valley which opens on the great bay of San Francisco. It is cultivated only in spots, but the immense yield in these is sufficient evidence of what the valley is capable. A plough and harrow, at which a New England crow would laugh, are followed by fields of waving grain. Within this valley lie the rich lands of Com. Stockton, and they will yet feel the force of his vivifying enterprise. ”

“ Never by word or act shall I acknowledge your authority in this valley of Santa Clara."
Señor Mendoza smiled. His equanimity was not easily upset.
"Good reverend padre, hear me. Your fathers did, indeed, redeem this country and its savage tribes. A mighty work surely has been done. But, because of freeing the natives from paganism, should you hold this vast province in fee simple? Is it right that a score of monks should own the land from San Diego to Yerba Buena? ”

“ The company departed, the soldiery to the San José pueblo, the land barons to their hacienda houses.
The hundreds of white adobe cots which swarmed around each grandee's mansion, as well as around the Mission buildings, sheltered that evening the retainer occupants who for days had forgotten service to their feudal lords and the ways civilization had taught them. Once more hill and valley were dotted with the blaze of camp fires before the Indian doorposts. ”

“ Filipo, the porter, looked in surprise at them from his high seat in the lodge. Usually he was the only person awake on the hacienda at this hour. His little beady eyes followed them up and down, up and down the avenue.
"My daughter," the father finally said, "we have in California, in a small way, an example of the game of statecraft. Europe plays on a larger scale, but it is the same. There, as here, the charm and brain of woman supply the leverage for overturning states."
"I would not have thought Señora Valentino gifted in that way." ”

“ New York is surrounded on all sides by the most fertile agricultural districts of Northern California. The Sacramento, San Joaquin, and San Jose valleys being tributary to this point which is as the centre of so many radii, while the entire land travel from San Jose and the Contra Costa, and indeed of all southern California, flows through this channel. ”

“ San José (18) , a city of California, and capital of Santa Clara county, on the Guadalupe River, 50 m. SE. of San Francisco; has a couple of Catholic colleges, a Methodist university, pretty orchards, &c.; fruit-canning and the manufacture of flour and woollen goods are the chief industries. ”

“ The floor was earthen. A half dozen children tumbled about. The Indian woman sat on a rude settee and looked interestedly at the two occupying a similar piece of furniture.
"My man is absent in San Joaquin," she said. "He is a vaquero for Señor Higuera. We expect the cattle soon to return, and again I will have my husband."
The señora was charmed with the naïveté of the native.
"I'm sure you will be happy then," she said. Color had returned to her cheeks and brightness to her eyes.
"Great people need never be separated," the peona went on. ”

“ Not until 1797 was the mission of San José founded, on a spot some fourteen miles distant from the pueblo. The padres had no keen desire to place the missions in close proximity to the pueblos, fearing the evil influence on the Indians [172] of a bad class of white men, besides other inevitable complications, such as the mixing up of cattle. Father Engelhardt, in his History of the California Missions, tells the story of the founding of the Mission San José thus: “Here, on Trinity Sunday, June 11, 1797, Father Lasuén raised and blessed the cross. ”

“ In middle life the wish had come to found a family to succeed him in his possessions. He married the daughter of a neighbor, a maiden of Castilian blood, but of California birth. A child was born to them, a daughter, and in that hour his wife died. Never was parent kinder or gentler than Señor Mendoza to the Doña Carmelita, his pride and joy.
The authorities in Mexico City thought it right to deprive the Franciscan friars of a part of the lands they held in Alta California, this act of the secularization of the missions causing comment of both approval and disapproval. ”

“ The bay of San José, near Cape San Lucas, is ordinarily frequented by coasters, and is sometimes visited by whalers and men-of-war, being the outlet of a valley, unusually fertile for Lower California, which extends upwards of forty miles inland, and affords probably the best watering and provisioning place on the peninsula, though it is a mere roadstead, yielding no protection in the season of south-easters. ”

“ The Santa Clara Valley has many vegetable and flower-seed farms; it is one of the most fertile of the fruit regions of California, prunes, grapes, peaches and apricots being produced in especial abundance. More than half the prune crop of California comes from Santa Clara county. In 1905 the total value of the factory product of San José was $6,388,445 (94.1% more than in 1900) ”

“ In the Administrator's sitting room were gathered Billings, Hamilton, O'Donnell, and a score of land barons of the valley.
The American's mouth shut in a straight line. "You Spaniards, save a handful, are clamoring for English rule. Still, Señor Mendoza, you ask me to invest the capital of this province with my ships. To what end?"
"To afford our California opportunity to appeal from her inconsiderate self to her wiser self."
"Mendoza, I represent the United States. My office is to conserve, or advance, her interests." ”

“ Anchoring at San José, we learned that trouble was brewing on the Peninsula, and that some hundreds of men in arms were assembled at Todos Santos, a place on the seaside of Lower California, fifty miles distant. Nothing, certainly, was more preposterous than the forgetful policy of our Government, in expecting to hold two thousand miles of coast with a handful of men. ”

“ Across the Coast Range of mountains, eastward from San José, is the extensive San Joaquin Valley, noted as the "granary of California," two hundred miles long and thirty to seventy miles wide between the mountain ranges. It produces almost limitless crops of grain, fruits and wines. Through this great valley the San Joaquin River flows northward, and the Sacramento River southward in another valley as spacious, and uniting, they go out westward to San Francisco Bay. ”

“ This plaza was the center of the fashionable as well as of the political life of the province.
He stopped before one of the most imposing residences. Within the porte-cochere a man sat on a bench. He was the outside guardian of the dwelling, a position of importance at the time.
"I wish to speak with one of the house," the Captain announced.
The other arose and bowed ceremoniously.
"Whom have I the honor of addressing?"
"Will you carry the Señora Doña Valentino word that a man is here to see her on the king's business?" ”

“ Did I but dream the comandante of the pueblo of San José was to be here to-night, he would have been invited to sit with our council meeting but now concluded. Spring advances, and the rains fall not. Never has Alta California seen such drought. Our live stock sadly need grazing and water. ”

“ San Jose, which was the prettiest city in California, is the worst-looking wreck I ever saw. When I left there nineteen dead bodies had been recovered and there was a possibility that others would be found. I reached Agnews Asylum a few hours later in an automobile and was one of the first on the spot. There I helped to carry out sixty corpses. At noon, when I arrived at San Jose, it was believed that fully 100 bodies were still in the ruins.
“The shock came to San Jose exactly at 5:12:45, according to the clock in the St. James Hotel, which was stopped. ”