Page:The Tourist's California by Wood, Ruth Kedzie.djvu/93

 THEATRES, FESTIVALS, SPORTS 69 California has become within a few years the chief arena of the country for the creation of " celluloid drama." Motion-picture managers find here not only winter sunlight but every scenic aspect as a background for their productions. Festivals. That California comes naturally by her fondness for fiestas, floral and historical, on water and land, one may confirm by perusing the chronicles of early travellers who make mention that the days of the Spaniards and Mexicans seemed, re- versing the old saw, to consist of no work and all play, that the men appeared to be always deck- ing their half-wild alazans for a barbecue, the women plucking roses for a baile, or draping their gallery railings with gaudy reposteros for a Saint's Day desfile. Santa Barbara was espe- cially famous for its fandangos. " It was always easy," writes a gallant, a lieutenant of New York Volunteers, "to get up a ball in five minutes by calling in a guitar or harp player." And easier still, no doubt, to enlist in horsy Santa Barbara riders and guests for the festival attending the horse-market. Easy, too, to enlist merry hands and feet for a sheep-shearing or vintage revel, and banner-bearers for the church procession which was sure to be sealed with a dance. " All classes danced upon the same mud floor. ... At