Slike strani
PDF
ePub

Effect of the Volstead Act on California Vineyardists and Agriculturists.

WO years ago agitation over a recently

Tpassed law shook the whole United

States, and especially California, in a degree second only to the World's War.

The decision rendered at that time literally metamorphosed a large portion of the country. This was especially noticeable in Northern California, where, for thousands of miles, over both hill and valley, the verdant green of grapes and hops refreshes the eye.

Driving through the beautiful Sonoma Valley at that time the very air was impregnated with that deadly stillness that comes only after the hum of a great industry ceases.

In particular-a home built on magnificent. proportions, furnished lavishly with rare treasures from the Orient, and from its location, commanding not only a sweeping view of the rich vineyards of the Sonoma Valley, but of the vast hop fields of the owner's little kingdom, apparently was deserted.

Barns, presses, hop kilns were closed. No life showed over the great acreage. As we rested under the shade of age-old magnolia trees, Nature's incense, the fragrance from rose and oleander and sweet, dry clover rising in the warm breeze, we asked the master of these holdings what the outcome of the new law was going to be.

"We don't know; we cannot tell."

"Everything on my place is shut down. I gave employment to hundreds of persons from

the nearby villages and from the cities, to men and to women alike."

That was two years ago. The evolution and effect of a new law was just beginning to be felt hardly felt, as yet-and the world was still uncertain whether it would hold.

No wonder fear and alarm was felt everywhere. The hop ranches of Northern California have the highest yield per acre of any in the world, although this is the most hazardous crop grown. And here, in this greatest of all hopproducing states in the Union-in fact, the greatest in the world in average harvest per acre the vine was threatened with extinction as a commercial commodity, becoming, perhaps, a mere household pet to ramble at leisure over the humble cottage roof.

For decades hops have been one of California's greatest agricultural specialties, so the alarm was not altogether without cause. In spite of that notable law we, last year, produced 21,000,000 pounds of hops, which were sold for approximately $5,000,000.

This, like many other alarms that too often keeps the world in a panicky tremor, was without real foundation.

To be sure, the grapes and hops are not bought for the same purposes they were in the past, and the markets abroad have created a tremendous export business, but a great business instead of becoming a loss has simply been diverted into other channels. A. H. G.

RESIGNATION

By Robert K. Davis

Show me some sacred consecrated spot,

Where I can rest secluded from the throng,

Where low-voiced angels sing their hallowed song,

And misery and woe can be forgot.

-Robert K. Davis.

EDITOR'S NOTE BOOK

Gene Stratton Porter recently said, "I've reached the place where I like to be out in the sunshine in the winter."

And so she turns to California.

Many a care has been lifted, and hours of happier thoughts brought to the readers of Mrs. Porter's books as, in mind, they have followed her little folk of the Limberlost.

Though Mrs. Porter has just published her new book, "Her Father's Daughter," we hope in time to see a story from her pen inspired by the mountains, the hills, the sunshine of California which she has already enjoyed. And, too, that she may become a part of California as have so many of the literati of the world, who have come and gone, taking with them greater development of mind, fired with greater enthusiasm and love for the West, leaving behind them the influence of their genius.

As we go to press we note extensive prepararations for window displays of Harold Bell Wright's new novel, "Helen of the Old House."

Already the demand for this book has been so great that the publishers have been compelled to print it in different cities in order to have it in the hands of the booksellers on the day promised for its appearance.

The idea of printing a book in sections in two parts of the country, and rather widely separated from each other, Chicago and New York, has brought about an interesting controversy. It has resulted in bringing about a keen competition as to what section will gain the greatest number of orders, and the way the latter are coming in the only question seems to be whether the number published will supply the demand.

A book of great interest, both locally and abroad, is "The Life and Personality of Horatio Stebbins," by Charles Murdock, shortly to be issued by the Houghton, Mifflin Press.

That life, in its streuousness, must find its lighter vein is proved in the way that fiction can and does hold its own.

The modern novel does hold its own, in spite of an oft times expressed criticism that the fiction of today can bear but a few months of popularity.

This is proved most recently by the demand for Edith Wharton's "The Age of Innocence." Press reports show that on this publication the ninth edition is twice as large as that of either the seventh or eighth.

Mrs. Wharton, it will be recalled, was awarded the Columbia University prize for having written the best American novel of the year.

Following on this comes the announcement that a second printing of Alice Hegan Rice's novel, "Quin," has been made necessary by the number of advance orders received by the Century Company.

Followers of Joseph C. Lincoln are glad to find another one of his cheerful and sunny books at hand. In "Galusha the Magnificent" Mr. Lincoln gives us a chance for a good laugh in his inimitable Yankee spirit of fun.

The mystery and romance in the story keeps one deeply interested and the humaneness of the characters is most appealing.

ARE PEOPLE BUYING BOOKS?

At a recent smart wedding the most talked of gift was a collection of books which stood out among the magnificent silver and glass and real old mahogany like the Koh-i-noor among the crown jewels of England. There they were -piles of red and brown and green and blue books, biography, poetry, travel, fiction—and every guest envied the luck of the young people who would start life with a library as well as an electric toaster, a vacuum cleaner and a complete silver service.

"That's the stuff!" exclaimed a bald-headed man. "The interior decorator can talk about color and harmony and atmosphere, but in my opinion a shelf of books will make a room more liveable than a whole bolt of English chintz.'

"You're dead right!" fervently agreed a pink-cheeked debutante, "and books make such grand, inexpensive gifts! You couldn't buy anything but a book for two dollars that you would have the nerve to send to a bride!"

And she told the truth. Books are inexpensive, although we have been trained to think of them as luxuries. It is funny, isn't it? that we will spend twice the cost of a book on a show which only lasts two hours, or will eat double the amount in a quarter of the time, or buy a couple of jazz records which will make cur neighbors wish we had started a savings account. We never think twice about such expenditures but a book. And yet a book can be re-read. It can be used as a bridge prize, or sent to Aunt Mary for a birthday gift, or given to Cousin Fred when he does to San Diego, or loaned to Mary Jones to read to her sick husband. You see a book is far more useful to have about the home than a pack of cards or a motor lunch basket.

It is funny, too, that every woman buys magazines to spread over the table until her living room resembles the reception room of a dentist or a doctor. If she would put the same money in books she would have the effect she wants and make people realize they are in a real home. The young people seem to under

stand that books have a big part in the making of a home, for among the "showers" which are given for a bride, there is now always a book shower. Just listen how excited and important the pretty bride is as she names the volumes in her new library.

So people really are buying books. Praise be, it is the thing to do now. Only the other day, with my own two eyes, I saw a woman buy six new books at once. Yes; books, not records. Books by Edith Wharton and Harry Leon Wilson and Frederick O'Brien and Wallace Irwin and Dorothy Canfield and, of course, Frances R. Sterrett. It was as pretty a sight as I have ever seen.

The delicatessen has invaded the kitchen, the cafeteria has attacked the dining room, but, thank heaven, the library, the soul of the house, is not being threatened! Its shelves are being filled!

An innovation in the manner of presenting a book of poetry is claiming the attention of lovers of good books.

The Cornhill Publishing Company of Boston is issuing a most attractive volume of verse for which special drawings have been made for their extensive photogravure illustrations.

Mr. More is the author of "Songs of a Red Cross Nurse" and "The Lover's Rosary."

The Brooks More prize for 1920 was won by Sara Teasdale.

We have had so many books published on the League of Nations and from writers of such varied interest-politicians to diplomats, financiers and officials of the Army and Navy-that a really live interest has been manifested in a book from the pen of William H. Blymyer, an international lawyer, on the peace question.

His ideas are most practical and have caused a good deal of discussion among our diplomatic

corps.

Published by The Cornhill Publishing Com

pany.

W

THE UTOPIAS OF THE PAST

(Continued from Page 12.)

government was the only one possible. An absolute monarchial head was imperatively demanded, under which were hundreds of other monarchs fully as absolute, and with equal power over life and limb of their retainers. The injustice of feudalism was only made anparent after the commons grew in wealth, intelligence, and power, and were able to enforce their demands for an appropriate share in the affairs of state. It died hard, and slowly dwindled before increasing civilization, but its funeral was finally celebrated in the fires of the French Revolution. Under it, a republican form of government would have been an impossibility.

The monarchs of Europe are but relics of the past, and exist only as a lasting example of the power of custom. Their utility departed when feudalism became historical, and they exist as an anachronism in present civilization. The large constabulary and military forces maintained by each are a marked proof of their antagonism to the body politics. Ostensibly they are maintained to resist foreign aggression, but domestic restlessness is the main cause of their existence. The more absolute the state. the larger the domestic army employed. Could any of their supporters affirm that any absolute monarch of today could safely dismiss his military forces. and depend for the security of the state upon the voluntary consent of the governed, which is the only safeguard of the United States? The experiment would be refused by any absolute monarch or even constitutional sovereign. What stronger proof could be demanded as to their glaring inconsistency in the civilization of today, or what stronger proof that the social relations of the present age have outgrown the need for absolute or even hereditary power that feudalism imperatively demanded? The divine rights of kings perished with the vows of feudalism, and became obsolete when chivalry passed into history. Nor is it necessary to invoke the spirit of prophecy to predict that before many years a crowned head will be unknown to civilization. The present form of government of the United States, the best known to give freedom to the individual in the pursuit of happiness, is the direct outcome of the social system of today, in contradistinction to the feudalism of the past. Nor is the change from the individual competition to universal co-operation a greater one than the change accomplished in the destruction of

feudalism; although it would, perhaps, have a more direct and radical bearing on the affairs. of state.

The disciples of co-operation are willing to labor and to wait for the Social Reform, confident that the future state will work out its own salvation. To criticize the coming state, judging and reasoning from the social relations of today, is as absurd as it would have been for the critic of the past to have called such a form of government as the United States impossible, judging only from the social relations of his day.

History teaches that every social cataclysm finds a master mind: whatever storm threatens the ship with wreck, some strong hand from the multitude grasps the helm. Moses came in response to the groans of the Israelites; Caesar to appease the spirit of Roman concuest; Cromwell to answer the demands of the British Commonwealth; Robespierre to glut the vengeance of the French peasantry; Washington to fulfill the demands of American Independence: and Bellamy may have come to answer the cries of oppressed humanity. The occasion calls the individual. Touch forcibly the keynote of justice that lies hidden in the heart of humanity, and musicians will arise to harmonize the discords, and arrange the tones into one glorious

tune.

Bellamy is the Moses of today. He has shown us that a promise land exists; he has answered, disconcerted, and put to shame the wise men of the modern Pharoah, and has beckoned to us from the house of bondage and the land of slavery. Will the modern Pharoah harden his heart, only to receive the punishment of the old? And now that the Moses has appeared, let us labor and wait for the coming Joshua, to lead us into the promised land.

Sacramento Northern
Railroad

QUICKEST DESPATCH TO
FREIGHT and PASSENGERS

TO AND FROM

Sacramento, Woodland, Marysville, Yuba
City, Colusa, Chico, Oroville and
all Northern California Points
IDEAL INDUSTRIAL SITES

[graphic]

THE BRIDGE OF EPIRUS

(Continued from Page 24.)

Adams stumbled out to tell the transitman. Later he wandered down the track.

"This accursed road," he cried. "It takes the farmer's land, whether or not he wants to sell; it takes the lives of the woodmen in the lumber camps who cut the ties; the lives of the men who make the steel rails; and the lives of the workmen on the road itself and now-now, it's taken him."

He tramped along angrily. "It's a monster!" he shouted aloud; "demanding its yearly toll of lives, of human sacrifice. Jones was right: each foot of track demands a life."

Suddenly he stopped. "It's his track!" said young Adams solemnly; and into his mind there crept the memory of a legend of old Greeceof a bridge built in the first century with infinite cost of labor, yet all that the head-master and his men built in a day was swept away at night by the angry river, so that each day they started all over again. Finally, the river god sent word that without human sacrifice the bridge could never be completed-and the sacrifice demanded was the one most belovedthe beautiful wife of the head-master. And thus was the Bridge of Epirus build

"Of course," commented Adams, bitterly, "river gods are more scientific nowadays-they send typhoid!"

But as he stood there, anger permeating his whole being, his eyes unconsciously fell upon the double line of track, reaching back, across the state toward the East, spreading wide close up and narrowing and running together in the distance. The ties were still new and yellow. Golden rod and sunflowers grew beside the track and in the fields the golden corn waved softly. The sun caught the tall yellow poles, the golden ties, and every yellow sunflower's head turned westward, toward the sun.

It suddenly came to Adams that perhaps Nat had been right; as he looked at the road-this effect of sunshine and gold-he held his head high, for it came to him suddenly that it was all something greater than it seemed, greater than clay and cinders and sand, than ties and rails -than dead men. It was a new Bridge of Epirus, linking the East with the West.

THE CONVERSION OF AH LEW SING (Continued from Page 35.)

sion, although Miss Kane visited him as soon as she heard of the wedding and exhorted him to hold fast to the faith that he had. His wife

[blocks in formation]
[graphic]

FOR
CONSTIPATION

BEECHAM'S
PILLS

Please Mention Overland Monthly When Writing Advertisers

« PrejšnjaNaprej »