the industrial resources of California, and has stimulated enterprise and the investment of capital in all legitimate industries. But most of all it is distinguished for fearless and uncompromising devotion to what it believes to be right, in political, social and all other matters that receive editorial attention. It has fought many a good fight for its principles, and often sacrificed what, for the time being at least, appeared to be its own business welfare. But the reputation it has gained for honesty, public spirit and unflinching devotion to its standards has built up for it a great clientage, and the relatively great circulation and business patronage it enjoys are the direct results of its bold and straightforward policy, joined to superior business enterprise and ability in every department of the paper. The prosperity and prominence attained by the Bee show that, despite all said to the contrary, it pays to be honest and public spirited in the publication of a public journal.

The Bee was first brought out by a partnership of printers as a morning paper, but since April 6, 1857, it has been an evening journal Its original editor and real founder was the late James McClatchy, a man whose rugged force of character, ability and stalwart patriotism have left a strong impress on the history of the state, and may be traced in much of its earlier legislation for the public good. He always stood up manfully for the rights of the people, and in opposition to special privileges for favored classes. No one was ever at a loss to know his position, as reflected in the Bee, upon any public question. During the dark days of the Civil war he was a tower of strength for the Union cause, and early in 1861 he gave timely personal warning to the government at Washington of the existence of treachery in the command of the Federal troops in California. That information has been declared by competent authority to have saved the state from falling into the hands of the Confederacy. And throughout the great conflict the Bee dealt sturdy blows for the preservation of the nation.

James McClatchy was a native of Ireland, coming to America in 1842. Having experienced the curse of Irish landlordism he soon became identified with land reform in this country, and was the first public man in California. to take up the cudgels against land monopoly He came to this state with the early gold seekers, and had poor luck in the mines before he took up his life work as an editor in Sacramento. One of his friends was the late Henry George, whom he encouraged to write the famous "Progress and Poverty,"

after first starting him upon his newspaper career in San Francisco, where for a short time Mr. McClatchy edited the Times of that city.

In its first number the Bee struck the keynote of the policy it has since pursued by a declaration of independence. It has never been the organ of any party, clique or individual, supporting men and measures upon their merits and opposing what it believes to be bad, regardless of party considerations. It is unceasing in its fight for good government, local, state and national, and denounces every form of corruption.

At an early period, when agriculture was comparatively in its infancy in this state and the cattle interests were powerful, the Bee, under the conduct of its late veteran editor, began an agitation for the "no-fence law" that was eventually passed by the legislature, for the protection of the farms against injury from stock, making the owners of animals responsible for trespass. This law was a great help to the development of agriculture.

The Bee also led the great struggle of the people of the Sacramento Valley against the threatened ruin of farming lands, towns and cities by hydraulic mining debris. The mine owners were rich and powerful, and claimed Prescriptive rights to discharge tailings into the streams. But while at first the fight for defense of the valley lands and homes seemed almost hopeless, Public sentiment was educated to the need of battling for their preservation. Suits were brought, organization of valley interests was effected, and eventually victory was gained in the courts, so that the farms and homes were saved.

In many other vital matters the Bee has fought boldly for its constituency, but the mere mention of them would occupy much space.

Since the death of its founder, in 1883. this journal has been owned and Conducted by his two sons who have followed closely in the footsteps of their father and adhered to his policy of independence-C. K. McClatchy being the editor of the paper and V. S. McClatchy the publisher. Under their management the paper has kept pace with the latest improvements in every branch of publishing and journalism. Its plant is one of the most complete and up-to-date to be found on the Pacific coast. The Bee is printed on a three-deck, Scott, color, perfecting press with a speed capacity of 26,000 copies an hour, which contrasts strikingly with the old Washington hand. press on which the first issues of the paper were struck off.

The Bee building is one of the most pleasing and substantial in Sacramento. It is of steel, brick, terra cotta and stone, three stories high and completely equipped for its purposes. It stands as a fitting monument to the founder of the paper, and in its vestibule the visitor reads the inscription:

"And The Sons Builded a House to Their Father's Name."

CHAPTER XI.

THE BUILDING OF THE CENTRAL PACIFIC RAILROAD.
By A. J. Wells.

The last spike in the great pioneer road across the continent was driven May 10, 1869. The first Mission in California was founded at San Diego July 16, 1769. In the century that rolled between these two dates, the Old California began and disappeared, and the new was born. One of the youngest of the states of the Union, California's history is marked by three distinct epochs. The Spanish occupation gave us a pastoral age, in which the silence of the great sunny empire was broken only by the sound of Mission bells, and the quiet stirred only by the unheralded and infrequent arrival of a sailing vessel trading in hides and tallow. It was a slumberous land, "where it seemed always afternoon." Then Marshall's discovery in 1848 gave us the Days of Gold, and the world broke into the meditations of the padres with the rush and roar of a mountain torrent. But after ten years, there was no promise of a permanent community based on the hazards of mining, while the exhaustion of the placers, the more abiding character of the quartz lodes and the deep gravel beds, and the growth of business and population necessitated the cultivation of the soil and the development of herds and flocks.

The era of agriculture came silently, with no flourish of trumpets, but it quickly took possession of the land, and presently the farms of California were telling of the richness of the soil and the beneficence of the climate.

The mines contributed $600,000,000 in a few years to the world's wealth, but not until farms were mapped out and business began to build on other foundations than that of adventurous industries, were the necessities of an organized society seriously considered.

The bottom industry of society is agriculture. It abides, and in all countries civilization is built upon the farm. The pastoral days would never have created a railroad; it did not want one. The mining industry in time would

have organized to secure local transportation, but would hardly have undertaken a railroad across the continent. But it was inevitable that the very dawn of the abiding and permanent life of California should be signalized by the demand for just such a line, providing at once for rapid communication with the homes left behind, and with the industries in the east, which for a time must supply the necessities of the west. Men were now here to stay; business must expand; the resources of a region rich in everything that tends to make a prosperous and independent community must be developed, and rapid and adequate transportation was a matter of necessity. This was the foundation.

THE GROWTH OF THE IDEA.

The evolution of a great enterprise is slow. It may start into being suddenly; but back of it are long years of preparation. There are dreams. All the temples and the statues in them; all the galleries of art and the paintings hanging there, all the dramas and lyric poems, all the great reforms and material triumphs of the blossoming ages were first dreams.

"We figure to ourselves

The thing we like, and then we build it up

As chance may have it, on the rock or sand."

There is a wide interval often between the dream and the task. Many never get beyond the conception. Over and over again visionaries planned the great road in airy projection. There are always pioneers, forerunners, voices in the wilderness, the crying of men who want to be heard; who are full of ideas, convictions-men in advance of their times, the prophets of a new day, eager spirits who outrun Progress itself.

Dr. Samuel Barton was one of these in 1834, and Hartley Carver in 1835, and John Plumbe in 1836, and Asa Whitney in 1845. John C. Fremont, building paths in the western wilderness, meditated a road to California, a land he loved, and, dying, called his home. Thomas H. Benton, the father of Jessie Benton Fremont, in 1849 became the advocate of Fremont's This proviso was in the plan: the road was to be a railway "wherever practicable." Until now the difficulties of the adventure had hardly been dreamed of. Fremont's road was to be driven as far as possible, and horses and carriages were to bridge the gaps a giant highway one hundred feet

route.