The
madrone, richly leaved like the laurel, reflects the sunlight from a
bole glistening as though freshly carved from wet gold.
Cheer up! We're getting out of scenery and climate into
The race - a blend of many rich bloods - that California has evolved
with the help of this scenery and climate is a rare brew. The physical
background is Anglo-Saxon of course; and it still breaks through in the
prevailing Anglo-Saxon type. To this, the Celt has brought his poetry
and mysticism. To it, the Latin has contributed his art instinct; and
not art instinct alone but in an infinity of combinations, the dignity
of the Spaniard, the spirit of the French, the passion of the Italian.
- into -
All the foregoing is put in, not to make it harder, but because - as a
Californiac - I couldn't help it, and to show you what, in the way of a
State, the Native Son is accustomed to. You will have to admit that it
is some State. The emblem on the California flag is singularly apposite
- it's a bear.
- oh boy! - San Francisco!
And if, in addition to being a Californian, this Native Son visiting the
East for the first time, is also a San Franciscan, he has come from a
city which is, with the exception of peacetime Paris, the gayest and
with the exception of none, the happiest city in the world; a city of
extraordinary picturesqueness of situation and an equally notable
cosmopolitanism of atmosphere; a city which is, above all cities, a
paradise for men.
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