Chapter 495: A Pure Land
In August 1856, Illinois Senator Lincoln came to California.觮
California dignitaries warmly received the tall, energetic Illinois senator.
Lincoln did not regret missing this year's election. He successfully ran for the Illinois Senate, served as a member of the Illinois House of Representatives, and took control of the Illinois Legislative Assembly, which showed that American voters, especially those in Illinois, had accepted the fact that Lincoln was the leader of an emerging party.
His political career took another big step forward.
After the dinner came to an end, Lincoln formally submitted his resignation to Liang Yao, resigning from his position as chief counsel of the Atlantic Railroad Company. He also expressed his gratitude to Liang Yao for taking care of him when he was at a low point in his life.
"No need to thank you. You earned this job by yourself." Liang Yao agreed to Lincoln's request to resign.
"Mr. Liang, in addition to thanking you for your resignation in person this time, I came to California with a mission." Lincoln said.
"Are you the commissioner responsible for investigating the corruption case at the California Customs Branch?" Liang Yao guessed.觮
Congress and Fillmore had earlier sent him telegrams saying that they would soon send a commissioner to California to investigate corruption in the Customs Service. Liang Yao guessed that Lincoln might be the commissioner in charge of the investigation.
"Exactly, so I want to trouble you one last time." Lincoln nodded and said, "I came to California alone. Without the assistance of my colleagues in California, it would be difficult for me to start my work."
"Chief Flagg!" Liang Yao called Police Chief Flagg. Flagg was the Sheriff of California during the gold rush period and was a veteran of the California police.
"Your Excellency, are you looking for me?" Flagg came to Liang Yao after hearing the news.
"Commissioner Lincoln wants to investigate a case, and it is your responsibility to assist Mr. Lincoln in investigating this case." Liang Yao said to Flagg.
When he learned that Lincoln was going to investigate the case in California, Flagg was somewhat resistant. He was about to refuse, but Fremont said to Flagg seriously when he saw this.
"Mr. Lincoln was ordered by Congress and entrusted by the President to come to California to investigate corruption in the California Customs Service."
"It turns out that the Customs Bureau is investigating. You must cooperate! You must cooperate! The Customs Bureau should indeed investigate."
When he learned that Lincoln wanted to investigate the Customs Bureau in California, Flagg immediately changed his face and said that he would cooperate as much as possible.
"Then it's up to Director Flagg." Lincoln shook hands with Flagg and expressed his gratitude to Flagg.
After the dinner was over and the guests dispersed, Lincoln took out three tickets for the Jardine Theater from his pocket and invited Liang Yao and Fremont to watch the show at the theater.
“I heard from opera critics that there are dramas from China in California. Chinese dramas are very unique and more sophisticated than Western dramas. I have long wanted to see them, but unfortunately I am busy with work and have never had the chance to come to California.
I have no other friends in California except you two, and I would like to invite you two to watch the show with me. "
Lincoln was an avid opera fan, and Liang Yao knew this.觮
Liang Yao and Fremont smiled at each other and accepted the invitation of the rising Republican political star to go to the Jardine Theater in San Francisco to watch a play.
After 1853, in order to meet the spiritual entertainment needs of the rising middle class and wealthy class, a number of theaters appeared in large cities in California.
But the most famous theater is undoubtedly the Jardine Theater established by the Jardine Matheson Group.
Jardine Theater has two major theaters, one of which is located in Sacramento. This theater is mainly for the upper class. The ticket price of an ordinary theater ticket is as high as 3 to 5 US dollars, and formal attire is required to watch the theater. It is jokingly called the "Aristocratic Theater".
Another theater is the Jardine Theater in San Francisco. This theater mainly caters to the working class and middle class. You can buy a seat in a good location for only 20 cents to 50 cents. It is commonly known as the "popular theater".
Lincoln, who had just arrived, did not know the difference. He only knew that the Jardine Theater was the most famous theater in California, and the tickets he bought were tickets for the Jardine Theater in San Francisco.
The three of them rode to the theater. Since it was night, Liang Yao and Fremont were wearing top hats. Therefore, after arriving at the theater, the audience did not notice that the state speaker and governor had also come to the "Public Theater" to watch the play.觮
Having found his place, Lincoln waited expectantly for the drama to begin.
The opening play was a new play "La Traviata" that had just arrived in California from France. However, the purpose of Lincoln's trip was to see Chinese dramas, so Lincoln didn't have much interest in this opening play, which he had already seen at the Chicago Theater. Great enthusiasm.
The next dramas are six sets of Cantonese operas from Guangzhou. They are said to be Guangdong operas, but in fact they are dramas modified to cater to the tastes of the local people. However, the performance form of the dramas is still presented in the form of Guangdong operas.
Liang Yao looked through the repertoire of Guangdong opera today. In addition to some traditional plays, there was also "The Gold Rush of Southern Cantonese Scholars" adapted based on his experience, which made him dumbfounded.
When the Chinese opera started, Lincoln became very energetic and stared at the stage intently.
The first Guangdong opera to be performed was "Tang Minghuang". It resembles an opera-like coloratura soprano, and a long narration in Cantonese. Not to mention Lincoln, even Liang Yao, a Cantonese, may not be able to fully understand it.
However, with the costumes and superb acting skills of the actors, Lincoln, an old drama fan, still understood the play, and followed the audience to cheer for the performers' wonderful performances. 觮
When the play ended, when the actors walked off the stage with the gong and asked for tips from the audience, Lincoln was also very generous. He took out two $1 gold coins and put them into the gong, and looked at the actors' costumes and makeup curiously.
This kind of peculiar costumes and makeup was something he had never seen before.
"This play alone is worth today's ticket price. They are the most superb actors I have ever seen." Lincoln said excitedly.
"Chinese drama is very much like Italian opera combined with circus acrobatics, Chinese Kung Fu, peculiar costumes, and unique music and singing. It is very interesting. Unfortunately, I don't know Chinese and cannot fully appreciate the charm of drama."
Western theaters have complex stage facilities and scenery, which can show better stunts and performance effects, while Chinese theaters mainly rely on the performances of actors and props to present the plot, which tests the performance skills of actors.
Therefore, Chinese drama actors in the 19th century were slightly better in acting.
In order to accommodate more audiences and collect more ticket money, the Jardine Theatre uses Western-style theater architecture, not traditional Chinese theater architecture.
However, although the Jardine Theatre is a Western-style theater building, these actors are basically famous actors dug from Guangdong, and their performance quality is definitely not bad.
"Knowing Chinese may not be useful." Fremont laughed, "These opera singers speak in dialect. Although I know Chinese, I can't understand them just like you."
"If you want to see juggling and kung fu, you will be able to feast your eyes on the next play." Liang Yao pointed to "The True and False Monkey King" on the playlist.
"Looking forward to it." Lincoln was looking forward to the start of the next play.
It was already one o'clock in the morning when the play ended.
San Francisco has no curfew system, so even though it was one o'clock in the morning, the streets of San Francisco were still very lively.
As the origin of kerosene, California's kerosene is relatively cheap and the supply is relatively sufficient. The street lights on the main roads of major cities in California are generally on until dawn, which is quite a bit like a city that never sleeps.
"I have only seen this kind of scene in New York. I didn't expect that there would be such a prosperous city that never sleeps in the border area." Lincoln sighed.
"Mr. Lincoln, you invited us to watch the play, and we will treat you to a midnight snack." Liang Yao pointed to the stalls outside the theater and said.
At 1 a.m., considering the operating costs, most restaurants and even pubs have closed.
Only the street outside the Yihe Theater, which has a stable customer base of the theater, is still open until late at night.
After accompanying Lincoln to watch the drama for several hours, Liang Yao was a little hungry and planned to have some supper here before returning to Tingtao Garden.
"I feel honored." Lincoln said contentedly after watching the drama.
The three of them came to a relatively clean stall. Liang Yao ordered a fresh shrimp dumpling, a roast meat, a stack of peanuts, and a bowl of wonton. Fremont ordered half a roast goose, a roasted pigeon, and a bowl of abalone soup.
Lincoln didn't know what to order, so he ordered everything Liang Yao and Fremont ordered.
Fremont was a little surprised to see Lincoln order so much, but Liang Yao was not surprised at all.
Lincoln was born in the bottom of the poor and had done rough work, so it was nothing strange that he had a big appetite.
They were surrounded by audiences who had just come out of the Jardine Theatre. These audiences also found a suitable place on the commercial street in groups of three or five, eating supper and chatting.
Unlike the East, the most popular issue discussed by Californians was not the abolition of slavery, but more about economic issues, such as where to go in California for development at the moment.
Go to adult vocational school to learn a skill and enter the factory as a senior technician, or go to Los Angeles to be an oil worker, or take your savings to Nevada to open a mine. 觮
These are the issues that immigrants in California are more interested in talking about.
Of course, there are also a few people who talk about the North-South issue, but after all, this is the extreme west of the United States, and the North-South issue is too far away from ordinary people, so there are relatively few people discussing these issues.
"After watching a wonderful play and eating delicious snacks, life in California is really comfortable." Lincoln feasted on the meal in front of him.
"People live a rich life, without the disturbance of war. This place can be regarded as a pure land in America. In the East, people are either talking about the issue of blacks or whether to vote for Buchanan or Scott.
I heard that the Civic Party wants to vote for Buchanan of the Democratic Party. Does your party support Mr. Buchanan's campaign more?"
Lincoln seemed to have a good appetite. Fremont, who was sitting next to Lincoln, had a surprised expression on his face: You call this a snack? I can't eat so much for a meal.
After Liang Yao swallowed a few bites of fresh shrimp dumplings, he asked the stall owner for a small jar of wine and three wine glasses.
The stall owner saw that Liang Yao and others were dressed in luxurious clothes and had extraordinary temperament. He knew that the identities of the three people were not ordinary. He took out a jar of his own collection of red lees wine and poured it for the three people: "It is my honor that the three distinguished guests can visit a small stall like mine, but I only have some inferior wines that peddlers drink here. If you are not used to it, I will go somewhere else to buy some good wine for you?"
"No need, it's him."
Fremont took a sip of the wine in the glass. He still liked this kind of wine with a strong taste, a bit sweet and sour taste, and a strange color.
After drinking too much high-end wine, Fremont also wanted to try something new. Fremont took out a $5 gold coin and handed it to the stall owner as payment for the wine.
The stall owner said that the jar of wine was not worth $5, and Fremont said that the extra money was a tip for him.
"Not entirely. To be honest, the Civic Party is not satisfied with these two candidates. I don't know where you heard these rumors. Whether the Civic Party votes for Buchanan or Scott will be decided in the end by the voters in California and after the party convention." Fremont asked Lincoln.
"Mr. Lincoln, I wonder which candidate the Republican Party is more inclined to support in this election?"
"Like your party, there is no final conclusion yet." Lincoln said, "To be honest, the Republican Party wants to nominate a candidate to represent the Republican Party in the election this time, but as you know, the Republican Party is just a new creation and weak, and there are many members from the Whig Party and the Democratic Party in the party. The Republican Party needs time to integrate its members.
But one thing is certain, our party insists on maintaining the unity of the United States and opposes slavery, which is inhumane, damages the image of the country, and hinders social progress."
"But the Constitution of the United States does not stipulate that the United States must be a unified political entity. The states have the right to join the federation and the right to withdraw from the federation.
The Declaration of Independence has never said that all people are equal regardless of skin color, body shape, intelligence level, moral level and social ability." Liang Yao said incisively.