conquest; but whilst hospitality survives, and the Pacheco name is perpetuated, along with numerous others of the first nobility, it were but a leap of happy fancy to reinstate the glorious past, and clothe the prosaic present with a semblance of the grandeur of California's pastoral days.

In the olden time the Pacheco herds numbered by thousands. Peace and plenty abounded. During the long afternoons the proud senors and bronzefaced muchachos loitered on the cool verandas or in the arbors' shade, jesting, talking love in sequestered nooks, thrumming the quaint guitar, or telling tales of war or of La Fiesta.

To this revelry, or dolce far niente phase of the old aristocracy regime, the Senora scarcely alludes. Her nature is of the sterner fibre. She is not striving for effect; she has no patronizing tone; no apologies to offer. She knows full well that those blissful, uneventful days were destined to oblivion; that the primitive institutions could not withstand the force of greater movements ushered in by the conquer

ing, commercial race. She even characterizes the new era as a dispensation "of dollars and cents, discord, disease and strife”—and comments with the wisdom of irony: "It is well!”

"The women gambled in those days," the Senora avers. Then observing the crucifix being regarded with special interest, thus she hurls forth a bit of its tragic history: "It was stolen from me once, but I recovered it-gracias, Madre de Dios!"

There is one sombre shadow on the old Senora's life, the anti-climax of her heroic career-her later marriage to an American. In one fell sentence, rife with sarcasm and contempt, she explodes the dire secret: "He was bad! Stole all I had and threw it away; then I sent him on a journey." The gesture accompanying the Senora's word picture of the summary disposal of her Gringo consort had done credit to a Medici.

After exchanging felicitations, and receiving pressing invitations to call again, we take leave of the hospitable Senora and her friends.

KATE L. WHITTEN.

N the romantic evolution of Western American character, the California argonaut has long since been accorded a unique and secure place. The poet has vied with the historian and the essayist in seeking to pay just tribute to the men of '49.

"Those brave old bricks of forty-nine. What lives they lived!"

"The bearded, sunbrowned men who bore

The burden of that frightful year, Who toiled, but did not gather store, They shall not be forgotten."

"Full were they

Or great endeavor."

The '49er was a most real person and individual, and not simply the name for a composite figure or an impersonal name. Indeed, it was the stamp of individuality that made him what he was. It may not be without value, therefore, to single out here and there one from the group of California argonauts and endeavor to record the individual activities and personal traits which, after all, are the specific elements that contribute to form the complete picture.

Long since have all but the merest vanishing remnant of those sinewy men passed over the great divide. Twothirds of a century has passed since the heroic age of the days of gold. But yonder in his beautiful Colegrove home in Los Angeles, surrounded by children and grandchildren, his teemed and devoted life companion. still at his side, stands Cornelius Cole, surviving '49er, pioneer prince, American patriot. At the age of ninety-four

es

years his tread is still firm, his body erect, his memory unimpaired. There is a living presence, great bridge that spans the stretch of years and gives vital access to every changing phase of the development of a great State.

To have been a member of that chosen band of California argonauts and to have lived on through the decades till now is a rare and exceptional experience: to have added to this the luster of later deeds in State and nation, and to have had a worthy and useful career in public and private life, and still be blessed with length of days -this is still rarer; it is indeed memorable. It commonly happens, when the shadows lengthen in the late afternoon of a pioneer's life, that some one event or superlative experience stands out pre-eminent in memory's fond vision, and that later day deeds receive their diminishing importance when measured against this crowning experience-even as a great mountain peak rises sheer above its neighbors. Not so does the life of Cornelius Cole appear to him in retrospect.

His memorable trip across the great plains in the vanguard of the hosts of '49, the arrival at Sutter's fort on the 24th of July, his varied experiences at the diggings, his career as a young lawyer in San Francisco during the days of her "social insanity"-being twice burned out by the disastrous conflagrations-his participation in the organization of the Pacific Railroad, his extensive travels in two hemispheres, his public life and activities. at the Federal Capital at an epochal period of human history-these are factors in the explanation why no single event or superlative experience

now wins a commanding importance in the twilight hour of reverie.

Cornelius Cole was born September 17, 1822, on his father's farm in the Lake country of western New York. His parents were of thrifty habit and devout character, devoted to the correct rearing of the family of eleven children. Unlike most California pioneers, he had a classical college education, begun at Geneva College and completed at Weslyan University; but like a great many who pushed their way to the Pacific and to places of renown, he had a brief experience at teaching school.

Admitted to the bar in the spring of 1848, Cole spent some time in the office of Seward, Morgan and Blatchford at Auburn. Seward subsequently became New York's Governor, a United States Senator, and Lincoln's great Secretary of State; Blatchford became a justice of the United States Supreme Court; Morgan went to Congress, and also served as Secretary of State at Albany. It cannot be doubted that the young attorney's political ambition was kindled and his imagination aroused while associated with these great characters.

Of Seward, with whom Cole was brought into intimate contact in subsequent years, an especially high regard was formed, as indicated by a recent remark: "He deserved to be, as he really was. for many years, the most prominent character of his time, and the world will not in many years look upon his like again." (Memoirs, 3-4.) During the early '50's he corresponded with Seward, who, as a natural leader in Washington, evidently looked to him for much of his information concerning conditions then existing in California.

Senator Cole has earned the gratitude of posterity by writing a volume of personal memoirs, in which we have the modest recital of the events in the career of a pioneer prince and national figure.

Cole was a typical California pioneer of the best class. His mining experience at Oregon Gulch was not

without profit, as is illustrated by the fact that the last day's work in the year 1849 (December 11th) yielded gold valued at $1,849, to be divided between himself and two partners. On November 13th he walked a dozen miles to Coloma to vote for California's first Constitution and for Peter H. Burnett, California's first State gov

ernor.

After a brief but costly experience as a lawyer in San Francisco, he made his way back to Sacramento, where in a short time he became engrossed in legal practice which continued throughout the decade, and until, as he informs us, "I was driven out by flood, as I had been from San Francisco by fire." (Memoirs, 66.) He numbered among his clients Huntington and Hopkins, the Stanfords, E. H. Miller, James Bailey and others with whom he was later associated in organizing the Pacific Railroad Company.

Naturally the young lawyer's acquaintances among leading pioneers were very numerous. Among these he characterizes Sam Brannan as a thrifty and very lively man. William T. Coleman he knew well, and endorsed heartily as head of the great Vigilance Committees in San Francisco. William T. Sherman, who was employed in the bank of Lucas Turner & Company, told Cole in great detail of the vascillating and pusillanimous-although well intentioned-attitude of Governor J. Neely Johnson toward the Vigilance Committee. He had the satisfaction, in 1870, of introducing into the United States Senate a bill for the relief of General John A. Sutter, a bill which eventually became a law.

Mr. Cole, for some years a Free Soil Democrat, identified himself with the Republican party in California from its inception. In Sacramento the party was for a time extremely limited in numbers. "There were," he tells us, "C. P. Huntington, Mark Hopkins, Leland Stanford, Edwin B. and Charles Crocker, all personal as well as political friends of mine. There were not, for some time, besides these, as many as could be counted on one's fingers."

In the meantime, Cole's political career had begun in 1854 with his nomination for City Attorney of Sacramento on the Democratic ticket. His nomination proved to be distasteful to the pro-Slavery Democrats, who supported an indepenednt candidate for the same office.

With the advent of the Republican organization in Sacramento in 1855, Cole consented to the nomination for Clerk of the Supreme Court, and Stanford consented to run for State Treasurer.

In 1856 he served the cause of Republicanism by becoming a member of the National Republican Committee for California, as well as of the State Executive Committee and the County and City Committees. (Memoirs, 115.) He was elected a delegate to the national convention that nominated Fremont for President, though he was not in actual attendance. (Ib, 119.)

Upon the nomination of Fremont for the presidency in 1856, Mr. Cole became editor and publisher of the Daily and Weekly Sacramento Times, a leading Republican newspaper. Associ

ated with the editor was James McClatchy, who afterwards founded the Sacramento Daily Bee, a paper of well known Unionist sentiment.

In the course of his practice in Sacramento, Cole won a considerable reputation as a criminal lawyer, to which was largely due his nomination for District Attorney of Sacramento County. During his incumbency of about two and a half years as District Attorney he was called upon to prosecute many prominent criminal cases. As prosecuting attorney he frequently found himself opposed to no less distinguished criminal lawyers than N. Green Curtis and Humphrey Griffeth: here his own experience and his intimate knowledge of the qualifications. of jurors served him well.

So satisfactory was his service in public office that his nomination for Congress in 1863 followed quite nat

consistent record on the dominant national issue, he made a vigorous campaign in company with his colleague, Thomas B. Shannon, and was rewarded with the largest vote of any man on the ticket. So complete had been the revulsion of feeling against the slavery institution, and so honored the name "Black Republican," that the entire ticket was elected.

In the meantime, California, by the election of Leland Stanford on September 4, 1861, to be "War Governor," was making political history scarcely less memorable than was the nation in the election of Abraham Lincoln to the Presidency in 1860. Stanford's election was an unequivocal announcement to the world that California had refused to yield to the temptations to leave the Union: along with the services of the "War Governor" in maintaining California's attitude of loyalty to the Union cause should be mentioned the contributions of such men as John Bidwell, Thomas Starr King, Edwin D. Baker, Myron C. Briggs, Jas. McClatchy and Cornelius Cole.

On his arrival at Washington to take his seat in the 38th Congress, Mr. Cole found that war was practically the sole topic of conversation, and even of thought. His California colleagues were Thomas B. Shannon and William Higby. His career as a Congressman is not marked with brilliancy or flights of oratory or sensational achievement: it is rather characterized by inconspicuous but dignified and effective service, animated by unswerving devotion to the cause of the Union and the interests of his local constituency. The important place to which he was assigned in committee work is in part explained by the fact that he was the only straight Lincoln Republican from California, as well as a member of the National Republican Committee.

Doubtless his work as a member of the Select Committee on the Pacific Railroad was the most influential among his special activities in the House of Representatives. He recognized the necessity of completing the

railroad project, and was disposed to give the projectors every reasonable concession. The chairman of the committee, Thaddeus Stevens, deferred largely to him, and his opinion on various points was freely sought by other members, who were quite inclined to ask: "What does Mr. Cole think?"

While the Pacific Railroad matters were pending, C. P. Huntington spent much time in Washington, and was a not infrequent visitor at the home of Mr. Cole, who had himself been one of the small group of men to meet early in 1861 in a small room over the store of Huntington and Hopkins in Sacramento to organize the Central Pacific Railroad Company of California. (Memoirs, 148.)

Mr. Cole concedes that "a good share of the responsibility" rests upon him for the legislation that resulted in the anomalous conditions of fabulous private wealth and political influence of the builders of the Pacific Railroad (Ib., 269), but he charges that the administrators of the law are not less reprehensible, and that the builders, "trustees of the Government as they were, have utterly ignored their trusteeship. They have repudiated their agency, and wholly neglected their obligation to their principal, not having even recognized a divided ownership with the public." (Ib.) The real object of granting government aid to the Railroad, which nearly everybody wanted, was, as declared in the charter, "for the purpose of promoting the general welfare of the country." (Cong. Globe, 38th Cong., 1st Session, Pt. IV, 3180. Cole's remark of June 22, 1864, seems to be a faithful reflection of his true sentiment: "as a citizen of the Pacific Coast, I want to see a road built, and am therefore against anything that will retard the accomplishment of that object." Ib., 3181.)

When the public interested dictated subsequently that he should oppose the railroads, as in the instance of its desire for Goat Island, Cole's generous services to it were apparently forgotten

and his political career finally brought to an untimely end.

Mr. Cole well knows the meaning of war. Three of his brothers were in service during the Rebellion, remaining in the army until the end of the war. These were Elijah (his oldest brother, who had accompanied him to California in 1849), a major and paymaster whose duties lay in the Pacific States and territories; David, a captain, who was eye-witness of the magical effects of "Sheridan's Ride," and George W., a general, who organized several regiments of colored cavalry and showed much skill in handling them. A fourth brother, Gilbert, was United States Consul at Acapulco at the time of Maximilian's invasion of Mexico, and he was instrumental in rendering valuable service to the republic against the invaders. Mr. Cole was in Washington when tidings came of Lee's final surrender, and he participated in the demonstration of general rejoicing. With Speaker Colfax he called on President Lincoln on the afternoon of April 14, 1865, on the eve of his departure for California. Touching this incident he remarks, with feeling: "On leaving his room at the White House, after a most agreeable conversation about the ending of the war and about California, in which he was always interested, I bade the great and tender-hearted man good-bye, little anticipating the sad ending of that day." (Memoirs, 229.)

In December, 1865, Cornelius Cole was elected to succeed James McDougall in the United States Senate. Other members of the Republican party who had been named for the office were Governor Frederic F. Low, Frederick Billings, John F. Felton and Aaron Sargent. Cole received 92 votes out of the total of 119 in the joint convention of the legislature, his personal friend and political opponent, William T. Coleman, receiving the entire Democratic vote. "It was the easiest election for senator that had ever occurred in California," said Cole. (Memoirs, 232. Bancroft remarks: "This was the first senatorial election in California