fornia coast that night. When the fog finally lifted we were alarmingly near the Cliff House rocks. A pilot soon came sailing out to our rescue and once within the Golden Gate we were met by the Customs boat which contained, besides the officers, my brotherin-law, Col. Whiting, and my promised husband, Cornelius Cole, both pale with anxiety as their eyes searched our deck for familiar faces.

And Oh! the joys and sorrows of the meeting of that day! Upon asking for my sister I was told, much to my chagrin, she could not be present at our wedding which had been arranged for the evening of our arrival. She resided at Santa Cruz and the recent heavy storms had wrecked the only steamer running between that port and San Francisco, and the mountain passes via San Jose were dangerously obstructed.

Col. Whiting had ridden at the risk of his life across the Santa Cruz range to welcome me and act as master of ceremonies at the proposed nuptials. With remarkable celerity flew the news about the city that a wedding was to be celebrated at the fashionable. boarding house of Mrs. Gates, and friends of the groom to the number of fifty or sixty were invited to attend. Only one woman outside the boarding house was able to be present, for the night was stormy, and the streets almost impassable. The officiating clergyman in rain coat and top boots had waded six blocks in the mud to reach our house. He was profuse in his apologies for his besmeared condition and we conscience-stricken that we should have called him out on such a night. But after the ceremony a mutual gratitude put us quite at ease, he for his generous fee and we for the religious service he had performed. As for the guests, I was struck by the number of titled men present, ranging all the way from Governor to Pard. Such was the fashion of the times, for if a man had not already reached distinction, he expected to in the near future. With a fortune in gold what could he not acquire? Then as now and through all time, place, power, fame!

I learned soon after that not a few of the early settlers of California were inspired with political ambition along with the desire. to acquire wealth. Defeated candidates for office in other states had taken their Salt River route to California hoping that here their peculiar fitness for official position would be better appreciated. But to return to the wedding. Brave-looking, heavily-bearded men those were who offered to kiss the bride, and as the bridegroom so generously encouraged that after part of the ceremony, how could the bride, just pledged to obedience, object?

There was kindness in the faces of all and tears in the eyes of many as they thought of their own unkissed wives or sweethearts in far-away homes. California was not "home" to the emigrant in

those days. He expected to go back to the old home, sooner or later, perhaps to return again to this, but more likely to remain in his native place and enjoy his wealth.

Time has shown that of all who came here in those early days, a large majority never saw their old homes again. They were either contented to remain in this beautiful land, else never accumulated enough money to enable them to make the expensive trip eastward. Many died here and thousands, shamed by their failure to gain the wealth they came for, had assumed new names and so lost themselves to their families. To me this is the most pathetic side of our history.

Coming from a part of the world where women were not in the minority, to say the least, I was struck by the preponderance of men in San Francisco. At the theatre of an evening I found myself one of the twenty ladies present. It is needless to say we were noticeable and had all the attention our vanity could desire. San Francisco was a new world to me. In topography, climate, population it was quite unlike anything I had ever seen. The wind-swept sand hills rose terrace-like one above the other and so much of the city as was then built seemed more likely to slide into the bay than to creep up over the sand dunes as it since has done. As for the climate, was there ever such another? The morning opens bright and gentle as the smile of an infant. By noon dark banks of fog creep up the western sky, bring in their train the breath and tears of a fury. By night-fall, her rage spent, she sinks exhausted into temporary slumber. But with all her freaks of sunshine, fog. wind and earthquakes, San Francisco has a very bracing climate and the sensation of fatigue is rarely felt there. As for the inhabitants, almost every nation of the earth seemed represented; I saw here for the first time Chinese, Russians and Portuguese. The enterprising Chinese had already opened fine shops for the sale of their peculiar wares and the open doors of their gambling houses and other dens of infamy, filled my Puritan soul with a new horror.

In the course of ten days after our marriage, we started for Sacramento, our intended home. American enterprise had already established a line of good steamers between the two cities, the trip being made inside of sixteen hours.

Reaching Sacramento early of a damp morning, the question of how I was to get ashore became a serious one, for though the waters of the recent flood had about subsided, the streets were one mortar-bed of thick, yellowish mud. The only vehicles possible were mud boats drawn by ox-teams. I was too large to be carried and not ethereal enough to fly. Dubiously I looked from the deck of the steamer to the uninviting shore. Finally I concluded that if some one would provide me with a pair of long rubber boots,

such as were worn by the men, I could wade the streets as well as they, and if not with much grace, with more safety to my pride and life, than riding in one of those mud boats.

So a call was made for three pairs of rubber boots-one for a lady. In good time they were brought aboard and with my own I retired to my cabin. With the greatest difficulty I got into them. It was evident the purchaser thought all ladies had small feet and the possible compliment was not so satisfactory to me. For the first time in my life I found where the boot pinched. Awkwardly striding to the deck, I was marshalled ashore between two booted gallants and up the river's levee to I street to our new boarding house. Smiles of encouragement greeted us all along the route. Nor did we escape the bland one of the "Heathen Chinee," as he cooly surveyed the situation of things, evidently trying to reconcile the style of my foot-gear with that of my gown. As some of you older ladies may recollect, the skirts of dresses in those days were decidedly ample, often containing twelve and fourteen widths of cloth. Imagine me trying to hold up one of these and along with it my equally generous petticoats. This fully occupied both my hands so my escorts had each to take one of my akimbo arms in order to render the assistance necessary to my progress. The curiosity of such as we met seemed decidedly impertinent and when someone suggested "Puss in Boots," she felt very much like scratching. Occasionally we had to stop for breath and for laughter and I am sure it took us quite an hour to cover the half mile of wading to our destination.

"Our boarding house" was about six feet below the levee, set on skantling stilts in the midst of a pool of muddy water. It had been metamorphosed from a pre-deluge store-house into a "genteel hotel” by one Mme. Warner. She was a kind, industrious soul with a worthless husband who ate and slept plentifully during the day. evidently content with Madame's management of the house, then quarrelled with her about it the greater part of the night. The rooms having only cloth and paper partitions, family secrets were out of the question. Our room was a "ten by eight" in size and we considered ourselves lucky even to get this, for between fires and floods there were not a dozen good houses in Sacramento.

Shortly after my arrival I was prostrated by Panama fever. During my delirium I was particularly distressed by the unceasing music of a Spanish Dance House just in the rear of our hotel. To this day the melodies I heard then often recur to me, especially when ill. Such is the lasting effect of an entirely novel impression. It was during this illness I learned to appreciate the kind hearts. of my new friends. It was there I met with many noble characters and formed friendships that have lasted through life. Our fellow

guests comprised many who afterwards became famous in the history of our state, or who contributed to its honor and glory.

Mrs. B. F. Washington was the first southern woman I had ever known. We used to have warm discussions on the subject of human slavery and the merits of such abolition books as Uncle Tom's Cabin, a copy of the first edition having been smuggled into my luggage. But we always "made up"afterwards, being for years the best of friends.

During these trying times I learned that selfishness was a stranger to the heart of the Pioneer.

Annie Dickinson once said before a San Francisco audience that it would have been better for California had a majority of the women who came here in early days been sunk in the bottom of the sea en route. This was spoken in the bitterness of her disappointment at not being so well received as she had hoped when she came here late in the sixties to lecture on Woman's Rights. Meeting her not long after at the house of Mr. Blaine in Washington I took occasion to defend my sister Californians, pleading that they had always been so completely occupied with the duties peculiar to women alone, that the demands upon them had been so persistent, that men had been so gallant and just towards us there had really been no necessity for our clamoring for other rights and privileges than those already accorded us.

But alas for the days of California knight errantry. Times and things have changed and with the increased settlement of the state, the development of our resources, the progress in the arts and sciences, has come the evolution of many things, not the least of which is the Woman's Club.

This paper was first read by Mrs. Cole before the Friday Morning Club, and later by Mrs. Williamson before the Historical Society of Southern California.

HOW THE AREA OF LOS ANGELES CITY WAS

ENLARGED

BY J. M. GUINN.

Throughout the four decades that the pueblo of Los Angeles remained under the domination of Spain, there was no change in its boundaries, nor was there any attempt made to fix boundary lines. The pobladores, or founders of the pueblo, held an undefined ownership over four square leagues of land, or, reduced to our measurement, 27.7 square miles; but beoynd the pueblo limits, loosely defined as "one league to each of the four winds; from the plaza center," there were myriads of varas of unclaimed lands upon which the pobladores' herds could feed without trespass on their neighbors' domains.

With the passing of Spanish rule in California and the downfall of the missions, a desire for municipal expansion possessed the paisanos (townsmen) of the pueblo. At the intercession of some of the leading men of the town, the Departmental Assembly or Diputation enlarged the area of Los Angeles to sixteen square leagues or "two leagues measured in the direction of each of the four winds from the plaza.

While its judicial jurisdiction might extend over this expanded area, its judicial possession met with obstacles. On the north, the pueblo limits enlarged collided with the Rancho San Rafael and the Los Feliz, and on the northeast with Rosa de Castilla, a rancho claimed by the padres of the Mission San Gabriel.

Two leagues toward the west wind brought within the pueblo's expanded area the Rancho La Brea-that graveyard of those monsters of the Pre-Glacial Age, whose resurrected bones in the Museum of History and Science astonish both the native and the tourist and delight the scientist. When the rancho was granted to Antonio Rocha in 1828, the municipality retained a possessory claim on its brea pits, which supplied roofing material (crude asphaltum) for the adobe houses of the town.

Nothwithstanding the slices taken out of the sixteen square leagues by contiguous ranchos, there still remained to the pueblo a magnificent domain of public lands. At the time of the conquest of California, the ciudad, for it had become a city, was holding on to this magnificent domain. Where its possession was undisputed