Pasadena City College - Pageant Yearbook (Pasadena, CA)

Page 10 text:

Balconies and balustrades complemented the decor of Wells, Fargo and Company Express OfFices, the bankmg-transportation company of the Old West. No western town was without its express office, built of thick brick walls, with sand-covered roofs ond usu- ally two storied. This structure pictured above is typical of the western architecture wtiich flourished in frontier towns. Wells, Fargo and Company was originally founded to provide banking and shipping facilities for western settlers and a transportation route for miners. Their ofFices kept western communities in contact with the East through their delivery service, often earned across the plains by mule teams. The express was rega rded as o means of communication safer than the regular mails, and the express office was an essential port of every frontier town.

Page 9 text:

Typical of the western, but lavish buildings of the 1870 ' s is this limestone and brick hotel which was the overnight residence for many illustrious travelers of the late nineteenth century. Old registers still bear the signatures of Mark Twain, J. P. Morgan, Ulysses S. Grant and even the notorious robber Black Bart, although he was registered under his legal name. Today, some of these early hote past seventy or eighty years. are still in operation and have changed little in the

Page 11 text:

ProloguG Our heritage from the West includes not only the gun- slinging marshall of the early western town but also the settlers who brought democracy, neighborliness, hardihood, self-re- liance, optimism and humor to the towns of the frontier. After winning victory over the wilderness, these early settlers developd a democracy in which every man was judged upon his own merit. Through their participation in group ef- forts and through their cooperative facing of the problems of the frontier, the westerners became neighborly. By surviving the difficulties and dangers of the frontier town, they developed a hardihood, a self-reliance and a love of the great outdoors. Their faith in limitless opportunities and their independent sense of freedom helped to create the optimistic philosophy found in western American culture. Frontier people found an outlet from their strenuous work through the boisterous fun that was known as western wit. Gifted, humorous writers were a boon to the frontier news- papers through their crackerbox philosophy, mocking affec- tation and shrewd common sense. Humor is evidenced in many familiar folklore tales, first told around the pot-bellied stove of the general store by these pleasure-loving folk. Tender western ballads keep alive today the legendary deeds and manly qualities of the frontier heroes of yesterday. Because these qualities and characteristics are still part of the composition of the modern westerner, the staff has chosen Our Heritage from the Western Town as the theme for the 1958 Pageant.