PROF. T. S. C. LOWE.

by engineers and government officials that a Santa Monica was impossible. It was considered a foolhardy, worse than ridiculous undertaking, and yet it has been accomplished so easily and quietly that the government does not seem to know that it is a fact and is still debating and spending money on commissions to report on the best point on the California coast to construct a deep sea harbor.

As we reached the end of the wharf, where steamers were loading and unloading, trains were backing and switching, and the regular rhythmical toll of the great fog bell was keeping time to the waves, some of the problems that this work had solved came to our minds. Shoreward a light fog hung about the perpendicular sea walls of gray clay. Sea gulls circled and called about our heads,

water that would give this vast reach of country at least one deep sea harbor.

It is one of those remarkable works that two thousand years ago would have ranked as one of the wonders of the world. Not that it is so very remarkable as an engineering triumph at this day, but it proves over again what can be done when a company of men believes a thing can be done and makes up its mind to do it. The building of this great wharf, which is 4,720 feet long, 28 feet wide, and cost over a million dollars, is the story of the Suez Canal repeated. It had been said time and again

THE GRAPES OF ESHCOL

with eyes alert for every crumb that fell from the cook's galley on the Corona.

When the government builds its four million dollar stone wall out into the sea, so as to make it possible for any and all ships to unload at this wharf in all kinds of weather, then will a city spring up at Santa Monica that will soon reach out to Los Angeles, which is only twelve miles away, and make it the great central distributing point for the entire country, including Nevada, Utah, and Arizona.

The Hawaiian Islands, China, Japan,

and Australia, will send all cargoes destined for the Gulf and Atlantic seaboards here, and thereby save the five hundred miles from San Francisco and the necessary surmounting of a summit of over 7,000 feet, and continuous grades of from one hundred to 116 feet per mile for a distance of nearly one hundred miles.

It is passing strange to a sightseer who stands on the pier-head in the midst. of all this anthill of activity, out here a mile in the sea, why the government does

IS human nature to enjoy skirmishing on the verge of adventure, if the prospects of a casualty are not very alarming; and though Miss Maud Eastlake had no predilection for danger, she was conscious

of a sense of agreeable excitement as she encased her person in a bullet-proof ulster, preparatory to a drive over the Cuesta grade.

This was the fall before the Southern Pacific bridged the gap between Santa Margarita and San Luis Obispo, and the highway over the mountain was still a

lonesome coach road where the California bandit plied his aggressive trade.

Miss Eastlake was a fin du siècle maiden with up-to-date ideas, so when she had occasion to travel over the haunted thoroughfare, she took the precaution to protect herself with the latest armor of the period.

On the way to the depot she met her nephew, Dick Selwyn.

"Hello, Aunt! Been taking a course of fattening substance, to increase your avoirdupois?"

Miss Eastlake flushed at the insinuation, for she was proud of her superbly

developed figure, and by no means relished having people think that she had ruined it by over-eating, or lack of exercise; so she explained the situation with an air which plainly indicated that her foresight was considerably in advance of that of her Western nephew. To her surprise he said,

"An act of supererogation, Aunt, California brigandage is conducted on refined principles, and females are never fined."

"Why are they not 'fined,' as you call it?" inquired Miss Eastlake with

"held up" on the particular occasion when she made the journey. She had purposely worn her diamonds, and had laughed to herself, as she pictured the consternation of the bandit when he found his shots, powerless. Consequently, she was by no means pleased to learn that females were exempt from highway taxation. highway taxation. But when Dick assured her that she looked like a petticoated Don Quixote arrayed for a windmill tournament, she concluded to avail herself of his obliging offer to leave the superfluous garment at her boarding-house.

confidence in her own sagacity a trifle shaken.

"A relic of the chivalric code which dominated the Golden State in the early days, when there was paucity of women."

Miss Eastlake was going over the road for the express purpose of writing up a vigorous descriptive article for an Eastern periodical; therefore it was natural that she should be dominated by a spirit of adventure. And the prospect of being able to merit kind recognition at the hands of the editor led her to entertain a sneaking hope that the stage might be

"I shall pass right by the place on my way to the polls," said the boy as nonchalantly as if he were not elated at the prospect of casting his first vote.

The casual information caused Miss Eastlake to feel a rising respect, not unmixed with envy; for the coveted privilege was one that she had an intense desire to enjoy. Indeed, it was this hankering after the function of power that had created à coolness between her and Ralph Greyburn. Mr. Greyburn was impregnated with the idea that any thing savoring of "women's rights"