East is East, and West is San Francisco, according to Californians. Californians are a race of people; they are not merely inhabitants of a State.

O. Henry’s quip plays on the familiar “East is East, and West is West” formula to capture California’s self-mythologizing at the turn of the twentieth century. By making “West” culminate not in a direction but in San Francisco, the line suggests that Californians imagine their cultural center as the true terminus of American possibility—more destination than periphery. The second sentence sharpens the satire: California is portrayed as producing a distinct collective temperament, marked by boosterism, confidence, and a sense of exceptional identity that exceeds ordinary state citizenship. The humor is affectionate but edged, implying both pride and parochialism in the Californian worldview.