Page images
PDF
EPUB
[merged small][graphic][subsumed]

After great exertion the fragments have been put together by Dr. H—————, and the Muggins family have retired to their home, each bearing a copy of the "Pictorial," in triumph before them. Old Muggins has presented us with the tooth, and it may be seen at our office.

THE

SAN FRANCISCO ANTIQUARIAN SOCIETY,

AND

CALIFORNIA ACADEMY OF ARTS AND SCIENCES.

PURSUANT to notice, a large and respectable number of those of our citizens interested in the advancement of the arts and sciences in California, assembled in the large hall over the Union Hotel, at 8 o'clock on Thursday evening, the 31st of June ult.

The meeting having come to order, was organized by our distinguished fellow-citizen, Dr. Keensarvey, being called to the chair, and the appointment of A. Cove, Esq. as Secretary

The chairman then rose, and in that lucid style which ever characterizes his public Addresses, briefly explained the object of the meeting:-It had been urged, he said, and he feared with too much justice, by our scientific friends in the Eastern States, that the inhabitants of California, residing in a country which opens to the Geologist, the Ethnologist, the Mineralogist, the Botanist, the Taxidermist, the Antiquarian,

the Historian, the Philosopher and, in short, the Savant, the richest and most unexampled field on the face of the globe, or elsewhere, for their labors, were entirely regardless of their privileges in this respect, utterly absorbed in the pursuit of gain; and while excavating from the bowels of the earth its auriferous deposits in sufficient quantity, they cared not, to use a forcible illustration, the execration of a tinker, for those sciences in the pursuit of which they could alone find a rational manner of expending their accumulated wealth.

[ocr errors]

Was it possible that this could be the case? Had we not among us men of science, of liberality, of intelligence? (Cries of "Yes, Yes!" from the meeting, and "Si Señor" from a Castilian Savant in a glazed hat and judicious state of spiritual elevation.) Had we not in our midst many who, having acquired a sufficiency of worldly wealth, now wished to find among the treasures of science, that calm satisfaction which the possession of no amount of "dinero can possibly afford? (Tumultuous shouts of "Yes, yes! Seguro ! Si Señor," and a voice," Whar is he?")-Yes, gentlemen, it was the pride and pleasure of the Chairman to believe that such was the case; and it was in the hope of being able to hurl back the aspersions of the Savants of the east, that this meeting was called together; it was with the hope of forming a permanent, scientific, California Association, composed of such material as cannot be found elsewhere, and whose researches and transactions should be read with mingled emotions of astonishment, delight and envy, by every enlightened lover of

[ocr errors]

science, from the eastern end of the North Farraleone Island, proceeding easterly, to the western end of the same. (Loud applause cries of "Good! bon! bueno!" broke from the meeting, and a deep moan of acquiescence from the Castilian Savant, who, with the glazed hat partially shrouding his massive intellectual developments, had become slightly somnolent.)

The applause consequent upon this beautiful effort of the Chairman having subsided, Mr. B. S. Bags rose toad dress the Chair:

He had not the advantage of an early education-not much, he hadn't; but he read a good deal, and liked it; and he dare say now, that if the truth had been found out, he knowed a great deal more than some of those filosifers at the east. He wanted to see science go on in California. He had a considerable interest in the place, and expected to spend his days thar. He was now fifty-three years old; he come out here twenty-three years ago as Steward of a Whale ship, and he run away and turned Doctor. (Laughter; cries of "Hush, hush!") But he married a Californy widder, with a large ranch; and he had, when the gold mines broke out, made his "pile"-he had over three hundred thousand dollars, and he didn't care who knowed it. He meant to devote the interest of the same to learning science. (Uproarious applause -cries of "Go it! that's the pint!" and "Carrambas !") He had three daughters, and he meant each on em should be a scientific man (loud applause); one of em wore green specs now, (immense applause accompanied by a cry of " Hep-ah!"

from a person in a white hat and blue blanket coat, who having evidently mistaken his place, was requested by the Chair to leave at once-but he didn't do it). Order being restored, Mr. Bags went on to say, that he had money enough, and had gin up trading stock, and began to study science for itself. He had bought a "Mahomedon," and could tell how hot it was any time; he had examined the "Ah teasing" well in the square, and knew something about Hydrocianics from a contemplation of scientific structures. By reading the papers daily, particularly the "Alta California," he found all sorts of new matters which he supposed give him considerable idea of "New Mattix;" but above all, having seen in the papers from the States an account of the "Bosilist pendulum " and its application to the Bunker Hill Monument, by which it showed how the earth turned round from east to west, he had ever since for three hours each day, watched the Flagstaff on the Plaza, and he could assure the meeting that when the flag was trailed it always flew out to the West, and when it was histed the rope always bent out to the East-("Hear! Hear!)-Gentlemen might say it was the wind that did it, but what made the wind? If any gentleman here had ever rid out to the Mission on a calm day ("Hear!" from a Savant who kept a Livery Stable in Kearney Street), he must have felt a breeze blowing in his face. Well! he made that wind, he did, agoing! and it was the earth that made the wind by turning around in just the same way. (Deep impression produced: low remarks, "we must examine this! Bags is a trump, &c.")

« PreviousContinue »