l,--every man with
a vote and the right to sell it; the right to nominate fellows of his
own kidney to swamp out better men,--you'll be what we are now--rotten,
rotten, rotten!"

The voice ceased, and no man rose up to contradict.

"We'll worry through it somehow," said the man from Louisiana. "What
would do us a world of good now would be a big European war. We're
getting slack and sprawly. Now a war outside our borders would make us
all pull together. But that's a luxury we shan't get."

"Can't you raise one within your own borders?" I said flippantly, to get
rid of the thought of the great blind nation in her unrest putting out
her hand to the Sword. Mine was a most unfortunate remark.

"I hope not," said an American, very seriously. "We have paid a good
deal to keep ourselves together before this, and it is not likely that
we shall split up without protest. Yet some say we are too large, and
some say that Washington and the Eastern States are running the whole
country. If ever we do divide,--God help us when we do,--it will be East
and West this time."

"We built the old hooker too long in the run. We put the engine room
aft. Break her back," said an American who had not yet spoken. "'Wonder
if our forbears knew how she was going to grow."

"A very large country." The speaker sighed as though the weight of it
from New York to 'Frisco lay upon his shoulders. "If ever we do divide,
it means that we are done for. There is no room for four first-class
empires in the States. One split will lead to another if the first is
successful. What's the use of talking?"

What was the use? Here's our conversation as it ran, the night of the
Queen's Birthday. What do _you_ think?

No. XXIII

HOW I GOT TO SAN FRANCISCO AND TOOK TEA WITH THE NATIVES THERE.

"Serene, indifferent to fate,
Thou sittest at the western gate,
Thou seest the white seas fold their tents,
Oh warder of two Continents.
Thou drawest all things small and great
To thee beside the Western Gate."

This is what Bret Harte has written of the great city of San Francisco,
and for the past fortnight I have been wondering what made him do it.
There is neither serenity nor indifference to be found in these parts;
and evil would it be for the Continent whose wardship were intrusted to
so reckless a guardian. Behold me pitched neck-and-crop from twenty days
of the High Seas, into the whirl of California, deprived of any
guidance