I have told of the old-fashioned, comfortable adobes, broad and liberal, whose halls, rooms, verandas and _patios_ bespoke at least comfort if not elaborateness. Among the old California families dwelling within these houses, there was much visiting and entertainment, and I often partook of this proverbial and princely hospitality. There was also much merry-making, the firing of crackers, bell-ringing and dancing the _fandango_, _jota_ and _cachucha_ marking their jolly and whole-souled _fiestas_. Only for the first few years after I came was the real _fandango_--so popular when Dana visited Los Angeles and first saw Don Juan Bandini execute the dance--witnessed here; little by little it went out of fashion, perhaps in part because of the skill required for its performance. Balls and hops, however, for a long time were carelessly called by that name. When the _fandango_ really was in vogue, Bandini, António Coronel, Andrés Pico, the Lugos and other native Californians were among its most noted exponents; they often hired a hall, gave a _fandango_ in which they did not hesitate to take the leading parts, and turned the whole proceeds over to some church or charity. On such occasions not merely the plain people (always so responsive to music and its accompanying pleasures) were the _fandangueros_, but the flower of our local society turned out _en masse_, adding to the affair a high degree of _éclat_. There was no end, too, of good things to eat and drink, which people managed somehow to pass around; and the enjoyment was not lessened by the fact that every such dance hall was crowded to the walls, and that the atmosphere, relieved by but a narrow door and window or two, was literally thick with both dust and smoke. Still living are some who have memories of these old _fandango_ days and the journeys taken from suburb to town in order to participate in them. Doña Petra Pilar Lanfranco used to tell me how, as a young girl, she came up from the old Palos Verdes ranch house in a _carreta_ and was always chaperoned by a lady relative. On such occasions, the _carreta_ would be provided with mattresses, pillows and covers, while at the end, well strapped, was the trunk containing the finery to be worn at the ball. To reach town even from a point that would now be regarded as near, a start was generally made by four o'clock in the morning; and it often took until late the same evening to arrive at the Bella Union, where final preparations were made.