fecundity of California and partly of a geographical remoteness and
sequestration which turned the Californians in on themselves for
everything. To it is due much of the extraordinary development of
California. For to the average Californian, the best is not only none
too good for California, but she can have nothing else. Californians
even those not suffering from an offensive case of Californoia - speak
of their State in reverential terms. To hear Maud Younger - known
everywhere as the "millionaire waitress" and the most devoted labor-fan
in the country - pronounce the word California, should be a lesson to
any actor in emotional sound values. The thing that struck me most on my
first visit to California was that boosting instinct. In store windows
everywhere, I saw signs begging the passer-by to root for this
development project or that. Several years ago, passing down Market
street, I ran into a huge crowd gathered at the Lotta Fountain. I
stopped to investigate. Moving steadily from a top to a lower window of
one of the newspaper offices, as though unwound from a reel, ran a long
strip of paper covered with a list of figures. To this list, new figures
were constantly added. They were the sums of money being subscribed at
that very moment for the Exposition. Applause and cheers greeted each
additional sum. That was the financial germ from which grew the
wonderful Arabian Nights city by the bay. It was typically Californian -
that scene - and typically Californian the spirit back of it. And four
years later, when the outbreak of the war brought temporary panic, there
was no diminution in that spirit. Whether it was a "Buying-Day," a
"Beach Day," an "Automomobile Parade," a "Prosperity Dinner," San
Francisco was always ready to insist that everything was going well. It
was the same spirit which inspired a whole city, the day the Exposition
opened, to rise early to walk to the grounds, and to stand, an avalanche
of humanity, waiting for the gates to part. It was the same spirit which
inspired the whole city, the night the Exposition ended, to stay for the