This story may be divided into periods, of which, in respect to California, there are manifestly three. First, there is the old time of the Missions, part of the scheme of Spanish conquest, imparting a certain coloring which nothing more practical and modern will ever entirely wash out. Second, the American romance of the Argonauts. It is only forty years old. Men are living who took part in it. The third period must of necessity be described by a word which culture condemns and refinement refuses to recognize. It comprises the time at which the American re-discovered the climatic secret of the Spaniard. It is the period of the "Boom." [Excerpt]