Page:California Inter Pocula.djvu/282

 the an-

ticipated profits  of  his  paper,  cried  out,  "Side-wheel steamer  1 "  The  house,  and  the  actor's  arms,  came down simultaneously. A story  is  like-wise  told  of  a newly  arrived  emigrant  across  the  plains,  who,  in  ap- plying this chart  to  the  interpretation  of  the  signals, niisto(jk a  windmill  which  stood  near  by  for  the  arms of  the  telegraph,  and  counthig  up  the  fans  concluded that  a  fleet  of  clippers  was  coming  in.

Twice or  thrice  a  month  the  mail  steamers,  connect- ing San Francisco  with  New  York  by  way  of  Panama, departed and  arrived. Both were  peculiar  and  nota- ble occasions. It is  difficult  for  one  who  has  not  lived it through  to  realize  with  what  nervous  pulsations these vessels  were  watched  as  they  came  and  went. California was  then  well-nigh  out  of  the  world,  be- yond the pale  of  civilization,  of  sabbath  and  home  in- fluence, of all  the  sweet  memories  and  amenities  that make life  endurable. Her people  were  voluntary exiles, cut  oft'  from  friends  and  all  congenial  society, doomed for  a  period  to  a  life  of  self-abnegation  and hard labor,  and  these  days  of  steamer  arrivals  and departures were  as  links  in  the  life-chain  that  was  to bind  the  future  to  the  past. The present  went  for nothing, or  worse  than  nothing,  perhaps ;  for  it  might be a  nightmare,  a  horrible  dream,  a  something^  to  be blotted  from  the  memory  as  soon  as  ended. When the steamer  came  in  with  passengers  from  home — the wliole eastern  seaboard,  and  west  to  the  Missouri  river, was then  home  to  the  expatriated  of  California — with perhaps friends  on  board,  but  above  all  with  letters, what a  flood  of  tender  recollection  rushed  in  upon  the soul !

Therefore when  the  signal  flag  was  unfurled,  and the wind-mill  looking  indicator  on  telegraph  hill stretched forth  its  long  ungainly  wooden  arms  and  told the town  of  a  steamer  outside,  a  thrill  went  through the heart  like  that  which  Gabriel's  trumpet  sends into the  fleshless  bones  of  the  dead. Some