ce from the handsome, active
settlement of the Anglo-Saxon into the stupidity of Mexico, or the
heathenism of China.

[Illustration: PLAZA AND ADOBE CHURCH, LOS ANGELES.]

[Illustration: BROADWAY, LOS ANGELES.]

"How can I distinguish here a native Californian from an eastern
man?" I asked a resident.

"There are no native Californians," was the somewhat exaggerated
reply; "this is not only a modern, but an eastern city. Nine-tenths
of our inhabitants came here from the East less than fifteen years
ago, many of them less than five. We are an old people with a new
home."

Ostrich rearing is now a profitable industry of California, and farms
have been established for this purpose at half a dozen points in the
southern section of the State. Two of them are in the vicinity of Los
Angeles, and well repay a visit; for, if one is unacquainted with the
habits of these graceful birds, there is instruction as well as
amusement in studying their appearance, character, and mode of life.
My first view of the feathered bipeds was strikingly spectacular. As
every one knows, the ostrich is decidedly _decollete_ as well as
utterly indifferent to the covering of its legs. Accordingly a troop
of them, as they came balancing and tiptoeing toward me, reminded me
of a company of ballet dancers tripping down the stage. While the
head of the ostrich is unusually small, its eyes are large and have
an expression of mischief which gives warning of danger. During a
visit to one of the farms, I saw a male bird pluck two hats from
unwary men, and it looked wicked enough to have taken their heads as
well, had they not been more securely fastened. It is sometimes
sarcastically asserted that the ostrich digests with satisfaction to
itself such articles as gimlets, nails, and penknives; but this is a
slander. It needs gravel, like all creatures of its class which have
to grind their food in an interior grist-mill; but though it will
usually bite at any bright object, it will not always swallow it. I
saw one peck at a ribbon on a lady's hat, and, also, at a pair of
shears in its keeper's hands, but this was no proof that it intended
to devour either. On another occasion, an ostrich snatched a purse
from a lady's hand and instantly dropped it; but when a gold piece
fell from it, the bird immediately swallowed that, showing how easily
even animals fall under the influence of Californian lust for gold.

[Illustration: AN OSTRICH FARM.]

[Illustrat