A PAGE OF THE PAST. BY ALICE. "The whispering air Sends inspiration from the mountain heights." Could I but feel the same degree of inspiration now that stirred my soul on the eventful day that first brought Laramie Peak to my view, the highest point of land LARAMIE PEAK. disturbances, especially among themselves. As an instance, I suggested the idea, one morning, of throwing away a number of useless traps, such as wash-tubs, smoothing irons, stone jars, etc., as the roads were very rocky, and in many places the sand so deep that the cattle could scarcely haul the wagons. But another lady in the company raised a voice of remonstrance to my proposition, objecting to the sacrifice, saying she wanted the above named articles to keep hotel with in the mines, when she should have reached her place of destination. At that time everything in the line of household goods, was reported to be very high at San Francisco, and could rarely be purchased at any price. A vote was unanimously carried by the crowd in favor of lightening the load, and Mrs. Humphrey's household idols, with among the Black Hills, I could hope to do many of my own, were given to the road better justice to my subject. But well do I remember a frightful thunder storm that overtook us while camping in full view of this mountain of rock. I could see the lightnings dance along the craggy points, and gleaming over and around its summit, while the deep rumbling of the thunder struck home to the weary traveler's heart, as it died away along the defiles and dells of the mountain. It was after dark when we reached our encampment, and we were drenched to the skin with the rain which poured in torrents, and the poor fellows who guarded the cattle that night, went forth in the darkness and gloom, "to bide the pitiless pelting of the angry storm," with countenances looking as woe-begone, sad, and dejected as the bottom crust of a cherry pie. But the following morn was beautiful, and so were nearly all our mornings upon the plains, and we rolled on among the Black Hills (so called on account of the dark verdured pines that grow upon them) as gaily as though the night storm had been sent upon us merely as a pastime. Not only men but women, upon the plains, in many instances, create broils and side, and she, the capricious beauty, reluct antly acquiesced to the better judgment of the party, with pouting lips and swollen eyes. She could not bear such treatment, as she called it, without giving her liege lord a lecture in the tent before breakfast. After emerging from the Black Hills, our course again lay along the banks of the Platte till we reached the upper crossing, or Mormon Ferry, as it was called. Here we leave the Platte for the last time; and passing over a country nearly destitute of all vegetation but sage brush, and here and there dotted with small lakes of alkaline waters, at length we strike the Sweet Water, a tributary of the Platte, a clear and beautiful stream. One mile before reaching the Sweet Water river, and directly upon the emigrant road, is Independence Rock-deriving its name from the fact that some of the first emigrants who crossed the plains reached this rock on the 4th of July, and celebrated the day there, leaving their names upon the rock, and to which thousands have since been added. This rock stands out isolated and alone, rising abruptly from the plain, to the height of one hundred and twenty five feet, presenting a truly magnificent appearance. Fording the Sweet Water, and leaving it for five or six miles, passing to the east and south of a spur of the Sweet Water range of mountains, we arrive at Devil's Gate, considered by many a great curi DEVIL'S GATE. osity. As we turn the bluffs, we see the river to the right, apparently terminating against the base of the rocks; but, as we proceed, a gap or opening appears through which the river runs. The width of the chasm is about seventy-five feet at bottom and one hundred at top, and four hundred feet high. It is evident that a portion of the valley of the Sweet Water above Devil's Gate, was once a lake, but drawn out through this great chasm, evidently rent asunder by volcanic or other natural agencies. The mountains are isolated peaks or spurs of the great main range-the Rocky Mountains-whose tops, covered with everlasting snows, have been visible for several days. Ten miles before reaching the South Pass, we leave the waters that flow into the Atlantic Ocean. The Pass, instead of being a narrow defile, or gorge between two mountains, is a broad, open plain, thirty miles in width. On the north, the Wind River range, distant fifteen miles, rises abruptly, quite into the clouds, by which it is almost always enveloped; while on the south, at about the same distance from the road, hills rise upon hills, till at length they assume the appearance and elevation of mountains. But, for at least twenty miles in width, the Pass can easily be traversed with wagons. OUR COMMERCIAL AND MERCAN- Were we to base an opinion of the actual present condition and prosperity of California and her probable future upon impressions derived from the general tenor of the casual every day remarks of the mercantile portion of our cities, an erroneous opinion of her true condition might easily be formed. Our route now lay along the valley of This assertion may be deemed equivthe Sweet Water, a distance of nearly nine-alent to saying that the opinions of a ty miles. It would be a totally barren highly intelligent and influential class country but for the wild sage and small alluvials of excellent grass along the wind- of our citizens are not reliable; or are ings of the river. Game is abundant, calculated to mislead the judgment in and wild flowers of great beauty and vari- reference to the true condition and proety border the river's banks. gress of California; and to a certain extent in this connection, we mean just so much. Our pathway along the valley of the Sweet Water was diversified by every variety of hill and dale, majestic heights and broad-reaching sage plains. Sometimes, threading along an extended and beautiful valley; at others, ascending the topmost peaks of hills so perfectly conical, it seemed as though art, and not nature alone, had put the finishing touch to their formation. It is well known that by far the larger portion is continually giving currency to a mere supposition; but which to a considerable extent, both at home and abroad, has ripened into a belief, of a positive decline in business; a want or absence of present prosperity through- ment for "more population," to give out the State; when nothing can be renewed vigor and prosperity to Caliwider from the truth. If the assertion fornia. so oft reiterated, that business and consequent prosperity are greatly depressed-be true, then is it applicable to the mercantile and commercial classes only, and not to California. True, it would increase the aggregate wealth of the State, to add to its population; but it is doubtful whether it would add one iota to our individual prosperity, except to the holders of large grants of lands, or such as have much of other property on hand, which they greatly desire to sell. We insist that California is prosperous now-at least this can be said of all out of the cities, if not in them,prosperous beyond any other people on the face of the globe. We look upon this continued tendency to speak disparagingly of business prospects, as highly reprehensible, working a constant injury to California. With one breath we are told of a positive decline of business, and with the next, that we want population." The commercial and mercantile classes are clamorous for "more population." That to make her present prosperous, and her future glorious," California only needs population." These, and like declara-est auxiliaries that can attach to housetions, have become patent in all our cities; and with nearly every business man of the metropolis. But is population alone sure to give us that prosperity? Will a large, immediate increase of the mercantile, commercial or mechanical population of the cities, or the State, be likely to add to the prosperity of those now engaged in these and kindred pursuits? Her agriculturists are prospering everywhere, and yet to a great extent almost totally lacking one of the great hold independence and convenience; we mean orchards and fruit-trees-a deficiency now happily being supplied. But would an immediate and rapid increase of the agriculturists of our State, to double or quadruple their present number, tend to the prosperity of the present tillers of California soil? Is it not already made a question, in view of the greatly increased breadth of lands this year devoted to the cereals throughout the State. What is to be done with our probable agricultural sur Or would those, now so clamorous for "more population," desire an influx only of such as are consumers? If this be the immigration so much cov-plus? eted, and nothing but this is to insure Can it then in any way add to the us a continuance of prosperity, then prosperity of our present agricultural may we well doubt the present, and fear producers, that their numbers be speedthe future; for where in the whole ily and largely increased? With their range of civilization can there be found present numbers, they are prospering a country that has a larger proportion even to the acquisition of wealth, and of non-agricultural and non-manufac- why? Because in no country except turing population than California? Yet California can there be found a poputhe voice of the mercantile and com-lation so large a proportion of whom mercial interests of the cities, is vehe- although laborers, are not produce but immense consumers of agricultural | expedient that can once more give to products. This has given prosperity to, and will continue to enrich, the farmers of California. the State its wonted prosperity? We want population; but no more than other new States want it. California has never retrograded ; but on the contrary, has made such rapid strides toward greatness, as to distance all competitors; nor is she even checked in her career. More population would add to the wealth and pow population, together with the present, would doubtless prosper. No other country on earth offers more or greater inducements to immigrants, because no country presents a wider field for enterprise. Then the clamor for " more population " as a means of increasing our prosperity, can have no reference to the present agriculturists of the State, for they are even now largely prosperous. But there is another and a very important class of our citizens-the min-er of the State, and a vastly increased ers-and which, with the agriculturists, go far toward making up the population of California. But suppose the present number to be at once doubled. Would this serve to increase the chances of those now struggling to dig out their fortunes with the pick and shovel? True, as we have said of the agriculturists, such augmentation would doubtless greatly increase the aggregate wealth of the State; but we seriously doubt its effecting favorably, present individual prosperity among that class of our population, now prosperous be-effect upon them as highly problematiyond all former precedent we are speaking of the aggregate of our mining population. If then, neither the agriculturists or miners of the State are lacking their wonted prosperity, to whom or to what class of our citizens will the oft reiterated assumption and declaration of "hard times"—" dull times "—and "a fearful stagnation of business" apply? Surely the mere mercantile portion of our cities does not constitute a sufficiency of our population to make up the whole voice of California. And as we have shown that all outside the cities are prospering beyond precedent, can it be deemed conducive and to our interests, to be continually reiterating the more population," as the only cry of " But the opinion entertained by some that an immediate and numerous immigration would add very materially to the welfare of any other class of our citizens than those engaged in commercial and mercantile pursuits, we believe to be erroneous; and even the good cal; for the reason, that it is among these that we see the business of California overdone, or find too many to do it; and any great increase of population, would be sure to bring its proportionate surplus of these classes. To wait for, and depend upon, a large increase of our population, as the only means of promoting materially our present prosperity, is waiting for, and trusting to, a mere phantom. We must provide for the present; the future always has, and always will, take care of itself. The time has been when almost the entire consumption of the State, passed through the single port of San Francisco, while California produced nothing, or next to nothing. This created a necessity for a commerce con centrating at one point; exceeding beyond all comparison what the world ever witnessed before. But with the developement of her agricultural as well as mineral resources, California became, in part, an exporting State. The millions of dollars exported for breadstuffs from abroad, were now retained at home, the very best and surest means of enriching any people. But this home production and consequent diminished importation, produced a corresponding decline or stagnation of the commercial interest, because it was in too many hands to be profitable to all; where it still remains. And it is this excess of numbers only, constituting the commercial and mercantile interests, that conduces so greatly to their own inconvenience. TO E. I. H. N What echo calls forth that electrical start, What tone so awakens my slumbering heart? name. It comes o'er my soul like the soft southern away. It brings to remembrance life long, long ago, When the heart was suffused with a wild over- It recalls the sad day when the fathomless deep sweep, And drifted me here-on an ocean of gloom. Oh! the long rayless years which have since intervened, And darkened my path with their desolate shades, Leave me languishing still over love yet unweaned, It might be deemed an unwarranted assumption, were we to attribute to purely sinister motives, the earnestness with which the subject of an increased immigration is urged, as the only alter-I native of a return of the palmy days of 1850, '51 and '52. And yet it must be fresh in the recollection of all, that the commercial or mercantile prosperity of those days to a great extent, was at THE REALIZATION OF MY CONCEP the expense of the immigrant masses. Much of hardship, privation, and suffering, inevitably follow as the result of a sudden redundancy of population in a new country, and particularly in one so isolated as California. A steady, natural immigration to any country, is the surest guaranty of a healthy and continuous This progress. we shall have; and the general effect will be, to unfold the resources of the State, augment its wealth, and increase the happiness and general prosperity of its people. Still clasping each phantom of hope as it fades. TIONS. NUMBER FIVE. When I pointed out the road for Joe to go, in getting him to write for the Magazine, I little thought I was directing a way which I should have to travel myself. But it is now plain that I was. No common thing could have induced me to travel it ; but when Joe came, his eyes so heavy with constant watching, and asked me to write, only just this once, and Ben asked the same, I would have complied with their request if it had been to charge and take a twentyfour pounder well defended; and there would have been but little more temerity in the |