Book excerpt: "California Sketches, New Series" by O. P. Fitzgerald Oscar Penn Fitzgerald was a Methodist clergyman, journalist and educator. He served as California Superintendent of Public Instruction and was elected a Bishop of the Methodist Episcopal Church. This book is a series of comments and vignettes that have the romance and prestige of fiction; the thrill of incident and adventure; the wonderful phases of society in a new country, and under the pressure of strong and peculiar excitements; human character loose from the restraints of an old civilization—a settled order of things; individuality unwarped by imitation—free, varied, independent. The materials are rich, and they are embodied in a glowing narrative based on the author's life in the state.