Page:The Tourist's California by Wood, Ruth Kedzie.djvu/98

74 THE TOURIST'S CALIFORNIA County; Ventura's Bean Day; the Apple Show at Watsonville and the Placerville Pear Show; the San Rafael and Santa Rosa Flower Carnivals; the Citrus Fair at Cloverdale; the Vintage Fair at St. Helena; the Fiesta Arborea of Chico; Escondido's Grape Day; the Raisin Festival at Fresno; the October Land Show at San Francisco; the Sacramento State Fair, held in September. The Harvest Festival of Bishop, Inyo County, has a great central pavilion built of alfalfa bales.

Of California's Flower Tournaments, those at Santa Barbara and Pasadena are the most elaborate. The streets of the Channel City bloom in April; Pasadena, spread on a mesa below the snowy crests of the Sierra Madre, laughs with rose-delight on the New Year's first day, flaunts her petalled banners against the slopes of wintry hills.

In the morning the flower-carriages defile, in the afternoon follow the Chariot Races at Tournament Park. The best blooded horses of California are entered for these events. Driven by horsemen in Roman costume who stand in Roman two-wheeled carts, the plunging quadrigas go flashing by, wheels grazing, foam flying, charioteers calling hoarsely, leaning far out over the taut ribbons. . . . Each entrant has his partisans, the horses are known by name. The fleet thud of hoofs is lost in the shouts of those