The Building of a State: VII. The College of California [pp. 26-39]

The College of California.
ah! not as I had left there. I was broken in
health, and a strange thing had happened
to me - my hair had turned white as
snow. When I rose from my bed in the
freight office, it was as if with the hoary
locks of age. Would my best friend know
me?
I reached the great metropolis almost in
want. Should I seek my former employer?
I shrank from such a course with the greatest abhorrence. I hardly dared meet Alice,
my heart's love, in my present broken condition. I sought for employment, but in vain;
finally, wasted and worn with the pangs of
hunger-yes, if I must confess it, by starvation-I crawled to the servants' door of the
handsome mansion on Fifth avenue, and
asked for a piece of bread. That house, the
steps of which I had run up so lightly and
happily so many, many times! I knew
they would hardly know me. I drew my tattered over-coat up about my ears, and waited patiently, for it was snowing heavily.
A strange house-servant opened the door,
but when he saw me shivering in the merciless storm,he bade me come in, and brought
to me, standing in the vestibule, a sandwich
and a cup of hot coffee. I heard the bell
ring violently-the drawing-room bell. My
heart beat as if it would suffocate me; my
hand trembled so, I could scarcely hold my
cup. The man at the basement door was to
be shown upstairs; that was the order.
I could barely stagger up the flight and
into the library, full, oh! so full, with such
happy memories. How rich, how sumptuous
everything looked; how exquisitethe statuary,
how superb the portieres. All this flashed
through my mind in a moment of time. Who
was this, who swept from behind the curtains
and the palms, in mourning robes, with her
exquisite face pale and thin, but oh! so beautiful in its sorrow and trial?
"Grey, Grey," she cried in a passion of
tears, "you couldn't deceive me, my poor
boy. Oh! my love, my love, how could you
leave me so long?"
I forgot my hunger, my poverty, everything except my love, my passionate love for
this girl. I drew her to my heart, and laid
my white head beside her brown braids.
"Providence has given you back to me;
how can I be grateful enough!"
She cried for joy on my breast, and I, in
this moment of supreme happiness drew
the veil over "my terrible experience," only
to lift it once to reveal it to you, although
my beautiful wife, my Alice, shudders as I
do so, and fain would blot it forever from
my memory.
Bun Le Roy.
THE BUILDING OF A STATE.-VII. THE COLLEGE OF CALIFORNIA.
I AM asked to give as one of the papers in
the "Building of a State" series, the history
of the College of California. That history
properly begins with the preliminary work in
the year i849.
Among the crowds of young men that
were then coming to California for gold,
there were some who came to stay and make
homes, and help "build a State" here. They
did not at first know each other. All were
strangers then. But gradually they got into
correspondence. As soon as there were
mails and post-offices, they began to get acquainted.
One of the first subjects written about
and talked of by those who had faith in a
State to come, was that of education. To
be sure, there were very few English-speaking
children here at that time, and most people
thought it was too soon to plan for schools..
But some thought otherwise. They thkight
that there would be children here to be
taught, quite as soon as schools could be
made ready to teach them. They thought
that schools would bring children here, doing
away with one of the greatest objections to
the removing of families to this country.
There were some that went so far as to in
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