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Show 88 PERSONAL ADVENTURES CIIAPTER V. L'£ . Monterey-A Californian cafe and its incidents -Ya1 nek mee sh arpn ess, , versus tropical blood-The Indians of 1\f d Mount Carmel-A o·r{mens of a promenade, J.l' onterey an o . W.l t h a canm. e accompaniment-Trade and agncultu.r e- Education-Equestrian skill and equipmcnts of a Cahfor~ m·a n cava 1l' er-Mode of taming the wild horses and mules of the country-Feeling of the population .to~var~s the Am en· cans-Gener""" l Castro-Aristocratic dlstmct. wns- An old campaigning dodge-Arrival at San J os(~-SJege of the old quartel-Dcparture for La Paz. In the evening I strolled into Abrigo's, tl1e principal, indeed, I believe, the on~y cq(e restau1·ant in the town. Its pretensions m point of acco1nrnodation \vere of a very humble order, being litnited to one tolerable sized, and two very sn1all roorns, the latter of \vhich were exclusively devoted to gam· blin cr. There were two billiard-tables, but, 0 althou o·h 'vell skilled in the European game, 0 IN CALIFORNIA. 89 and possessing a profound knowledge of all the angles of the table, the Californians seem in general to prefer a peculiar game of their own, which is played somewhat after the following fashion : ten wooden pins are set upright in the centre of the table, and with three balls, the spot, the \vhite, and the red, the player takes his chance of either upsetting a pin or holing a ball, either of which adds two to his score. If at one stroke he can manage to knock down the ten pins, he counts fifty; but such a coup de main as this is not of very frequent occurrence. Shortly after I entered, an An1erican gentleman, who had just arrived from Mazatlan, challenged one of the signors to play him for I twenty-five dollars. The bet was accepted, and the money lost by the challenger. Upon this the latter appeared greatly chagrined, and said, as he was putting by his queue- " If I had the money with me, I shouldn't mind playing you for five hundred dollars.'' '' Don't let that be any obstacle," said an old gentleman, who, it was subsequently |