General Pico related the
festivities at Monterey, on the occasion of the visit of Sir George
Simpson early in the present century, of which he was an
eyewitness, with great precision of detail. Don Juan Estudillo was
comparatively frivolous, with anecdotes of Louis Philippe, whom he
had seen in Paris. Far-seeing Pedro Guitierrez was gloomily
impressed with a Mongolian invasion of California by the Chinese,
in which the prevailing religion would be supplanted by heathen
temples, and polygamy engrafted on the Constitution. Everybody
agreed however, that the vital question of the hour was the
settlement of land titles--Americans who claimed under preemption
and the native holders of Spanish grants were equally of the
opinion.
In the midst of this the musical voice of Maruja was heard saying,
"What is a tramp?"
Raymond, on her right, was ready but not conclusive.
A tramp, if he could sing, would be a troubadour; if he could pray,
would be a pilgrim friar--in either case a natural object of
womanly solicitude. But as he could do neither, he was simply a
curse.
"And you think that is not an object of womanly solicitude? But
that does not tell me WHAT he is."
A dozen gentlemen, swept in the radius of those softly-inquiring
eyes, here started to explain. From them it appeared that there
was no such thing in California as a tramp, and there were also a
dozen varieties of tramp in California.
"But is he always very uncivil?" asked Maruja.
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