The New West or California in 1867-1868
Charles Loring Brace 373 pages 1869

The book is available on the internet, as an antique, as a reprint, or as a free downloadable PDF.

According to the author California in 1869 was “terra incognita” to Americans.

He said California had “a different climate, a changed flora and fauna, a strange scenery, and new outline of landscape, novel productions, and conditions utterly unknown to our branch of the Anglo-Saxon race. Here, under circumstances, in many respects more favorable than the Anglo-American has ever enjoyed, a new and powerful community is springing up, and possibly a new race forming.”

The book presumes to inform Americans of this “New West” and to do that Brace, the author, goes into a lot of detail about every subject imaginable and which will fit in almost 400 pages. As just one example of innumerable details, this quote will give you a good example. I had no idea California even had a silk industry, or ever did, but it is one of the many industries Brace reports on. Regarding the silk worm industry he says,

Each female is expected to lay about 300 eggs, though here she often produces 450. An ounce of eggs can produce 165 pounds of cocoons. It is estimated that an acre of trees will produce any-where from 40 to 500 pounds of silk, at a cost not exceeding $2.25 a pound. One hundred pounds of leaves are calculated to produce one pound of reeled silk. An acre of trees ought in four years to yield from 50,000 to 60,000 pounds of leaves, which would be 500 pounds of silk, worth some $3,500 a good profit if it ever be realized.

The descriptions of all the other industries in California have just as much detail which can make the reader nod off, but there is a preventative: skim over the details. Then you can read about what California looked like in 1867-68 and you can read some of Brace’s interesting observations.

The author came to California by ship via the Isthmus of Panama. The trip was so enjoyable especially compared to the Atlantic with its storms, cold, fog, and “reeling state-rooms.” The Atlantic’s ship smells and incessant gales, mist, and chills are a “bore and a burden.” Here we learn about “eructated dinners” which were part of Atlantic crossings. By comparison the trip to the Isthmus was by “blue sea with ‘the innumerable smiles,’” “the sparkle of spring sunlight by day and the trail of molten silver by night.” He goes on describing various aspects of the sea voyage with flowery words but you get the idea. He was equally descriptive about the Isthmus crossing, “truly a jaunt through a conservatory” and then the Pacific. This is supposed to be about California in 1869 so we’ll skip over the further natural descriptions, ship board life, and the economic and business details (here too there’s a lot of detail such as the amount of coal used by steam ships and the numbers of ships).

From there the author summarizes his visits to many parts of the state starting in San Francisco. He focuses on flora, fauna, the weather, and lots of economic information (e.g. mint statistics, the numbers of employees in various businesses, schools, etc.). His “visit” becomes more of an investigation. The climate is so good that people only die suddenly in California; there being no lingering illnesses in such a salubrious climate. For some reason there is also a large proportion of insanity in the population. There is good governance though and “high civilization” with lots of well attended churches. There are lots of social clubs, libraries and charities which are the mark of civilization. This of course belies the reputation of San Francisco in those days of the lawlessness and vigilante justice.

As Brace moves out from San Francisco he covers all kinds of subjects:

•The analysis of a bill establishing a college and establishing a university
•Details of mining
•The transcontinental railroad under construction, its wonder and its difficulties
•The Comstock
•Professional robbers and how polite they are while robbing stage coaches
•The Chinese and China Town
•The Geysers and grizzly bears
•Farming
•Wine
•Los Angeles and orange groves and vineyards
•The Sierras [sic] and Foothills
•Oil wells
•Climate
•California for the emigrant

While reading the various subjects there are lots of observations: “The best vine districts of this State will hereafter be the borders and the sides of the Sierras.”

About Los Angeles: Beneath the wide verandas the people sit, and two-thirds of the population seem to spend the day smoking in front of the hotel, and going in for “drinks."

About the state of California in 1868: Many earlier emigrants to California returned back to their homes in the east after their search for gold. By 1868 that was still a rule because mining had developed a bad name and California was so far from populated areas. But a “new and better” era was opening for California. “She has be-come an agricultural State – a country of farmers”. That is the basis of prosperity as opposed to large grazing ranches or mining properties which apparently are not a virtuous as farms. The proof of that was that the wheat crop of the state in 1869 would equal the value of gold and silver produced. The state was improving due to the “labors of self-sacrificing men…” The supports for civilization were springing up: schools, academies, charities, and churches. A new generation was coming of age that did not see the east as “home” and believed that “this State to be the center and perfection of all good.” Law was becoming supreme. Civilization was exerting her power. The state was becoming more attractive to the immigrant. There were amazing natural resources and a “wonderful richness and bounty of its climate and soil.” With the coming of the Pacific Railroad it would be even more attractive to immigrants. Then, about the people, “Everyone works hard in California. Its climate is the very air of labor…”

There are interesting details in the descriptions too:
The future of San Francisco was bright since so much wealth was coming to it from the mines and because so much trade had to go through it. Interestingly, in 1869 there were 500,000 people in the state with 125,000 living in San Francisco. Imagine what the state looked like. “But the citizens are right. Such is the wonderful quality of nature here, and the selected energy of the Americans, that the five hundred thousand are equal to millions elsewhere.”

There are other interesting facts too, like the wages of various occupations. Here the author argues against the need for unions because labor has it so good in California. Many workers even had the eight hour day and they were paid more than elsewhere in the country.

For example the author describes the character of Californians. Servants are of much higher quality than in New York. If not treated well they leave their positions easily. Not being treated well may be a mistress commenting negatively on a beau.

The social commentary can be interesting. “Venture is on a grand scale, it is true - and speculation, and throwing for [like dice] great chances, will always characterize them [Californians]. Plodding, patient industry will never stand in as high esteem on the Pacific coast, as with us. The same peculiarities reach every department of life. People have a passion for achieving great results at once, and are too often indifferent as to the means.” Brace also says that, “every one lies so!”

Because California began its growth in mining, there is a get rich quick philosophy,

Here are some further examples of commentary. “There is a certain clique of the suddenly-rich, mining speculators, successful stock-gamblers, and others, who indulge in the most unbounded extravagance of living-giving parties costing many thousands of dollars, and displaying all that is possible in equipage and jewelry.’ Connected with these, are various women of a more or less doubtful position, whose previous history is uncertain, and whose present means of living and display are unknown.

“The general tone estimates [evaluates] each man by money, and I think there is a profound but concealed contempt for any one living mainly for ideas or principles, the results of whose work are not shown by pecuniary rewards.
The curse of Californian society is its evil-speaking. It is rare to hear any one well spoken of.
There seems to be hardly a name so honored as not to have a shade of scandal on it.”

“Then, no doubt, many men and some women, when they first came here, felt themselves somewhat beyond the restraints of morality and civilization, and gave way to actions of which they would be ashamed now. No American community ever had so many energetic and educated men in proportion to its numbers, and none so many adventurers.”

“It must be remembered that there was never & place of such temptation as California. The prizes for ‘sharp-practice’ are enormous, and public opinion is not strict."

Brace visited the Big Trees and Yosemite provided interesting details about taking such a journey in 1868. The main point was how to visit and not just “do” as quickly as possible.

Because of the wonders of California:
California and its wonders are actually changing the people. “It is especially the land of handsome men. One sees great numbers of fine manly profiles, with full, ruddy cheeks, and tall, vigorous forms. The spare, dry, nervous type of the eastern American is not common in the interior. City residents, of course, are always inferior physically to the rural population;” It’s not just the men. " The young girls of the city show a great deal of beauty, and such rich bloom of complexion as we seldom see in the Atlantic border."

In the Sierras, especially at Virginia City, there seems no doubt that the rarefied atmosphere has expanded the chests of the people, even in these few years.

There are a few 19th Century prejudices: Digger Indians are The lowest tribe of the human race
and “greasers” is “a name given to Spanish-American settlers.”

One would expect then prejudice against the Chinese, especially considering that in just a bit more than a decade the Chinese Exclusionary Act would be passed banning Chinese immigration to the United States. Brace says that about ten percent of the population in California was Chinese. Without it [Chinese labor], it was evident that manufactures and a large part of Californian agriculture and horticulture would cease to exist; railroads could not be constructed, and a vast deal of business must be contracted or given up. The result, both of conscience and of interest, in California, has been a great change of opinion and action toward the Chinese.

People everywhere speak well of them, and agree that they are the most industrious and steady of laborers, not as efficient, perhaps, as the Irish, but more regular and sober, and with a great talent at imitation. In person they are the neatest of creatures. … They are always neatly and nicely dressed, and are far more agreeable coach-company than the Mexicans or Spaniards here, who are exceedingly odorous.

The most interesting thing about California, to an American. is to observe what results the scheming Yankee brain can bring about in the finest climate which the Anglo Saxon race has ever enjoyed, and with soil which is unequaled in the world for variety and wealth of products - the "NEW WEST, " settled by a new race.

About Mining:About mining – on the land
If any of my readers have any lingering romance about the mining country, or the golden sands of California, they should travel through the "Southern Mining Counties." Mining, at the best, is a sort of devil's or ghoul's work, on a landscape. The curse of nature seems to follow it. Even fresh battle-fields are soon covered with grass, and flowers, and grain; but no green thing grows where the miner hath been. The shining meadows, with the gay wild flowers of California, are dug up as if with fresh-made graves ; the rounded outline of the hill is broken with heaps of dirt; green slopes are disfigured with unsightly piles of gravel and stones; fields are covered with sand and pebbles, as if from an inundation; the clear mountain streams are muddy with dirt; trees are overthrown, and vineyards and farm-houses undermined; the whole landscape is a picture of roughness, waste, and desolation.

Then of the people resulting from mining:
The saddest relics of the past were, here and there, the young men who had failed in mining and were broken down by drink, and now haunting the old diggings and the taverns for a chance job. They seemed, sometimes, men of education, and perhaps, of former wealth.
What histories of tragic struggle with fortune and of defeat there are unwritten in California ! How many young men, for whom still fond hearts of sisters or mothers beat lovingly in vain, have fought the battle of life here unsuccessfully, and have died, as men know how to die, in solitude and desertion, without a murmur or a groan. For in California, men who fail,