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NEW LIFE IN NEW LANDS

Notes of Travel

GRACE GREENWOOD.

NEW YORK:
J. B. FORD AND COMPANY.

1873-

Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1872,

BY J. li. FORD a:;d company,

in the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington-

University Press: Welch, Bigelow, & Co.,
Cambridge

L^^

DEDICATORY.

I WOULD especially inscribe this book, with my love,
crt to two good women and true, in whose expansive
>^ cottage-homes much of it was written, — Mrs. Mary
g Byers of Denver, and Mrs. Sarah M. Clarke of

;^ San Francisco.

^ GRACE GREENWOOD.

■II

A FEW WORDS BY WAY OF
PREFACE.

THE volume which I have the temerity to bring
as a httle offering to the great American
public is my first offence in the book line for some
years. It is surely not a grave offence, being com-
posed of light letters, contributed during the last eigh-
teen months to the " New York Times." They were
written irregularly and hurriedly, in brief intervals of
travel, visiting, lecturing, and sight - seeing. Unfortu-
nately a severe illness in the late summer and early
autumn prevented me from giving them the careful
revision they greatly needed. They go into print the
second time with all their old sins on their heads, —
the " original sin " of having been a journal of travel
over well-traveled paths ; " sins of omission " in matter
of philosophic thought and valuable statistics ; " sins of
commission " in the way of puns and slang and " fool-
ish jesting which is not convenient."

VI PREFACE.

Still, as a happy record of a period of rare enjoy-
ment, of experiences fresh and bright and sweet to
me ; as an absolutely truthful picture of life as I
saw it in the great Western Territories and the grand
Pacific State, I commend it to the dear and generous
friends here and yonder for whom I kept the record,
whose kindness gave to the picture its best brightness
and beauty. I commend it to them with loving trust,
and with respectful confidence to the rest of man-
kind.

If from some of the richest poetic treasure-fields of
the world I have brought only rock-crystals of fancy
and sentiment, I hope they are good articles of their
kind, and I do not call them diamonds.

G. G.

Chicago, December, 1872.

CONTENTS.

— * —

Page

Chicago as it was "^

. . . • 26

Colorado

Utah '^'

172
Nevada

... 188
California

Homeward Journey 3 4

Colorado in Autumn .401

CHICAGO AS IT WAS

Chicago, July 12, 1871.

IN fast and friendly Chicago, weeks go by like
days, and days like hours, and life is almost
too rapid to be chronicled. The " glorious Fourth "
has already faded into the dim distance. I remem-
ber, however, that it was a perfect day, even in
a pic-nickian sense. We spent it out of town,
some eight miles to the westward, on the prairie,
at a gentleman's pretty country seat, — feasting
and disporting under noble ancestral trees, some
of them as much as four years old ! It was fine
exercise dodging about under them to catch the
flickering shade. But we were quite as jolly as
we could have been under the olives of Albano,
the cedars of Warwick, or the big pines of Cali-
fornia. I have been from Chicago some four years,
and in that time its growth and improvement have
been absolutely marvellous. It grows on Indepen-

CHICAGO AS IT WAS.

dence days and Sabbath days and all days. It
grows o' nights. Its enterprise, daring, and vigi-
lance storm the land and fetter the sea, defy and
override physical laws, and circumvent nature. A
great part of the west side of the city seems to
me to have been heaved up out of the mud by a
benevolent earthquake. I see beautiful and stately
marble buildings where four years ago were the
humble little domiciles of the Germans, or the com-
fortless shanties of the Irish emigrants. What were
then wastes of sand and rubbish and weeds are now
lovely public squares or parks, with hard, smooth
drives, ponds, rocks, hillocks, rustic bridges and
seats, pretty vine-shaded arbors, and the usual park
accompaniments of tame bears and caged eagles.

All this rapid change and progress is as myste-
rious as it is marvellous, till you know a regular, gen-
uine Chicagoan, and see him go about his business
with a drive, a devotion, a matchless economy of
time and means, which stop just short of hurry and
greed, — of the desperate and the sordid. The very
struggle which the men of Chicago have always
waged against adverse natural conditions has been
to a degree ennobling, and has Hfted their lives above

DRAINAGE.

the commonplace. It is essentially heroic ; it is
something titanic ; it is more creation than devel-
opment. Foot by foot, inch by inch, they have
gained on swampy flats, on oozing clay-banks, on
treacherous sand-heaps. Every year has chronicled
new enterprises, new triumphs. The sluggish, mias-
matic waters, once all abroad, have been driven back,
and headed off, and hemmed in, and at last brought
to bay in the horrible little river that now creeps in
a Stygian flood through the city it does its best to
poison and pollute, while sullenly bearing back and
forth rich burdens of commerce. But the hour has
almost come when that ill-famed stream must take
the back track, — double on itself, — - actually run up
its channel, and through the Ilhnois Canal into the
Illinois River, and so down into the Mississippi.
Then Lake Michigan, who does a great deal of
mischief for lack of better employment, will have a
heavier job to perform in the cleansing line than the
rivers Peneus and Alpheus together accomplished
for Augeas ; and Hercules the canal-digger of Elis
will be outdone by one Chesebrough.

I remember the reply of a Washington candidate
for the civil service to the question, " Into what do

I-O CHICAGO AS IT WAS.

the Northern lakes empty ? " It was, " Into the
Gulf of Mexico." We smiled at that answer ; but
the time draws nigh when it shall be vindicated and
verified. The young man was a prophet. He spoke
for posterity and Chicago. We are all waiting the
great experiment with anxiety, as once we hung with
wild expectations on the ditching at Yorktown and
the opening of the canals at Vicksburg and Dutch
Gap. If it succeeds, it will doubtless be a grand
thing for Chicago ; but what will it do for the unfor-
tunate people who live along the line of the canal ?
It is said that a ship canal through the Isthmus
of Darien may turn the course of the Gulf Stream,
and make of England a boreal waste. Is it not pos-
sible that this new enterprise of engineering will
desolate a smiling country by sending off travelling
the fearful smells of this monster sewer, to sicken
the sweetest day and hold high carnival at night ?
Of course, it depends on the present character of the
Illinois Canal, for cleanliness and wholesomeness,
whether the union be a suitable one. If it were our
Washington Canal, I certainly should not forbid the
banns.

But for a pleasanter theme. Lincoln Park, on

THE PARKS. M

the north side, is perhaps the most striking and ap-.
parently magical of all the enterprises and improve-
ments of the city. It is already very beautiful, with
a variety of surface and ornamentation most wonder-
ful, when we remember that scarcely five years ago
the spot was a dreary waste of drifting sand and
unsightly weeds. The manner in which these elusive
sands, full of the restlessness of the waves from
which they have been rescued, are fixed and fettered
is very curious. Boards, stones, sticks, leaves, weeds,
are laid on them, then clay is added, and so soil
enough created to be sown or planted. The modest
elevations called " hills," by courtesy, are also, I
am told, " fearfully and wonderfully made " out of
the most unsightly refuse and rubbish ; so that, if
future savans, taking them for Indian mounds, shall
ever excavate one, they may perhaps come upon
distinct strata of oyster-shells, tin fruit-cans, old
shoes, and broken crockery, with a substratum of
hoop-skirts. No means, however humble, for break-
ing and elevating the surface are despised. I should
not be surprised to hear that moles were protected
by game-laws. To obtain water for ponds and foun-
tains they have made a requisition on the secret res-

12 CHICAGO AS IT WAS.

ervoirs of Nature, — on hidden streams that from
unknown sources, perhaps as far away as the Rocky
Mountains, have been for ages groping their way

" Through caverns measureless to man,
Down to a sunless sea."

They come forth into the light and the sweet, vital
upper air, leaping and shouting, and make haste to
join in the great, busy, restless life around them.
Those artesian wells, with the lake-tunnels, will yet
make Chicago more than the rival of Rome in
fountains and baths, and in that cleanliness which
is next to godliness. The great drive on the lake
shore, from Chicago to Evanston, will be another
wonder, only surpassed by the system of continuous
boulevards and parks, a complete circumvallation
of the city, which at no distant day will furnish one
of the grandest drives in the world. Citizens of
Atlantic cities say they miss their grand rocks and
hills, and the sea, "that symbol of the infinite."
But Lake Michigan is a respectable bit of water;
and the prairie has a beauty and even a grandeur
of its own. If a cornfield of several thousand acres
is not "a symbol of the infinite," I should like to
know what is. The present entrance to Lincoln

ROADS AND BUILDINGS. I3

Park is a little depressing, being through a cemetery,
but those old settlers are fast being unsettled and
re-established elsewhere. Even the dead must
"move on" in Chicago. It were impossible for one
to tell where in this vicinity he could take his last
sleep. Chicago houses are all liable to be moved,
even the "house of worship" and "the house ap-
pointed for all living." A moving building has
ceased to be a moving sight here. Not only do
small frame cottages, that a year or two ago were
in quiet rural localities, take fright at the snort and
the rush of advancing trade, and prance off to
"fresh fields and pastures new," but substantial
brick edifices sometimes migrate. A few years ago
a Baptist church, on Wabash Avenue, saw fit to
change sides, and came over — in several pieces to
be sure — to the corner of Monroe and Morgan
Streets, where it now stands, looking as decorous
and settled and close-communion as ever.

The parks of the west side, patriotically and demo-
cratically named " Union " and "Jefferson," though re-
minding one somewhat, by their modest dimensions,
ingenious contrivances, and artifices of rock and
water and hillock and bridge (with a " real flag-

14 CHICAGO AS IT WAS.

Staff" and "real flag"), of the pious devices of
John Wemmick for the amusement of " the aged,"
are yet sources of incalculable enjoyment and good
for all who live in their pleasant vicinity. Wooden
pavements, splendid macadamized roads, and the
new boulevards are fast bringing the beautiful subur-
ban settlements of Lake View, Kenwood, and Hyde
Park into the municipal fold. The city is bear-
ing down upon them at a tremendous rate, and the
roar of traffic will soon drown for them through the
day the deep sweet monotone of the lake. In the
heart of the town Chicago is making worthy prepar-
ations to entertain the great floating population of
the world setting westward. The work on the new
Pacific Hotel goes bravely on. I do not quite like
the location, and the court-yard seems to me too
small for so immense a caravansery. I am sorry to
hear that it is proposed to change its name in order
to do honor to one of its most munificent proprietors.
No man's name seems to me big enough for such a
hotel, — not Montmorency, nor Metamora, nor Ho-
henzollern, nor Hole-in-the-Day, nor Frelinghuysen,
nor Lippincott. The old court-house has taken to
itself wings to meet the great rush of business in the

ALL ASTIR. 15

murder and divorce line ; and I hear much of Potter
Palmer's new hotel, which is to be a monster affair,
capable of accommodating an old-fashioned German
principality, to say the least.

In short, all is astir here. There is no such thing
as stagnation or rest. Lake-winds and prairie-winds
keep the very air in commotion. You catch the
contagion of activity and enterprise, and have wild
dreams of beginning life again, and settling — no,
circulating, whirling — in Chicago, the rapids and
wild eddies of business have such a powerful fascina-
tion for one. Chicago postmen sometimes go their
rounds on velocipedes. Chicago newsboys are pre-
ternaturally clever and wide-awake. I remember one
of the most diminutive of the guild, coming on to
the train as I was sorrowfully departing from the
city one morning, in war time, and offering to sell
me a copy of a leading daily, and that I said,
speaking after the manner of a dark-complexioned
Republican, " Why, my poor little fellow, where will
you go to when you die, if "you sell that naughty
paper } " He turned his curly red head as he
answered, " O, to the good place, I reckon, for I sell
ratJier more Tribunes than Timcses!'

l6 CHICAGO AS IT WAS.

I suppose I need hardly say that I like Chicago, —
like it in spite of lake-wind sharpness and prairie
flatness, damp tunnels, swinging bridges, hard water,
and easy divorces. With all the distinctive charac-
teristics of a great city, it has preserved in a won-
derful degree the provincial virtues of generous hos-
pitality, cordiality, and neighborly kindness. A lady
from the East lately said of it, very charmingly, " It
is New York with the heart left in." I do not deny
that the genuine Chicagoan has well learned the
prayer of the worthy Scotchman, " Lord, gie us a
guid conceit o' oursels ! " and that the prayer has
been abundantly answered ; but I do not think that
his self-satisfaction often amounts to arrogance, or
inclines him to rest on his laurels or his oars. He
well knows, I think, that there is small profit in
gaining the whole world to lose his own soul, and
beautiful churches and beneficent mission schools,
quiet deeds of mercy and munificent charities, show
that he finds ways of ascent into the higher life,
even from the busy dock, the noisy factory, the grim
foundry, and the tempestuous Exchange.

My memory of the journey from Washington, over
the Northern Central and Pennsylvania Central, is a

THE WEDDING OF THE RIVERS. 17

long panorama of surpassing summer beauty, though,
like Pilgrim, after leaving the " Delectable Moun-
tains," I had to pass through the " Valley of the
Shadow of Death " at Pittsburg, and, unlike him, had
a world of trouble about my baggage. But, dear me,
it is so long ago, — nearly four weeks ! In that time
Chicago, very likely, has opened a tunnel, and stolen
an acre of land from the lake, and drilled an artesian
well or two, and tossed up several good-sized hills
in Lincoln Park.

July 26.

There was a grand celebration by triumphant
Chicagoans in honor of the wedding of the Chi-
cago and Illinois Rivers, — OtJiello and Dcsdcviona. '
There was a canal-boat excursion — which must
have seemed like a dream of other days — of the
city magnates, and all the power of the press, distin-
guished strangers, and a stray major-general or two,
and many hundreds of the common people, — that is,
men not worth over half a million, — all headed by
his Honor the Mayor.

They say the going forth of the Doge of Venice to
wed the Adriatic could never have been a circum-
stance to this excursion. There may have been more

l8 CHICAGO AS IT WAS,

regal pomp and splendor on those old occasions,
but nothing like the bounteous feeding of yesterday.
There may have been a richer display of costumes,
but nothing like the amount of Bourbon and lager
drunk.

I need hardly say that the enterprise of regenerat-
ing the Chicago River is a success, — for of course
they would n't celebrate a failure, — and Chese-
brough, the bold engineer, may take up the brave
iteration of old Galileo, " It moves ! " The great
deeps of mud and slime and unimaginable filth, the
breeding-beds of miasms and death-fogs, are being
slowly broken up, are passing away. One can
actually perceive a current in the river at some
points, and straws, after some moments of indecision,
will show which way it runs. On Monday, washing-
day, Lake Michigan really buckled down to her
work, and did wonders in the cleansing line. We
early drove down to see how far dilution and clarifi-
cation had proceeded in the thick, black, torpid
stream, more interested than though about to witness
the annual miracle of Naples, — the liquefaction of
the blood of San Gennaro. We noticed first that
the color of the water had changed from almost inky

RIVER REGENERATION. I9

blackness to something of the tawny hue of the
Tiber after a storm. Then, looking steadily, we per-
ceived it moving sluggishly, sullenly, as though in
obedience to an unusual and imperative morning call,
— a call from the old Father of Waters himself.

They say there is great rejoicing among the
millers and manufacturers along the river down by
Joliet at the increase of water which, even at this dry
season, sets all their wheels whirling. The change is
not only a blessing to factories, but to olfactories.
There is an immense modification of the peculiar
overpowering odor which was like what a grand com-
bination of the " thirty thousand distinct smells " of
the city of Cologne would be, — an odor that only
last week sickened the air for half a mile on the lee-
ward side, and for as far heavenward, probably, so
that it would seem impossible a bird of delicate con-
stitution could pass through it unharmed.

If I have given a good deal of space to this river-
regeneration theme, it is because it does not seem to
me a matter of mere local interest. With this city's
unprecedented growth and vast increase of com-
merce, this river nuisance was becoming more and
more intolerable and notorious. The fame of it

20 CHICAGO AS IT WAS.

went forth to the ends of the earth. The sailor,
arriving from foreign parts, snuffed it afar off; out-
ward bound, he crowded all sail to escape it.

Last week we took a little trip to the northwest, as
far as Elgin, to make a visit to the family of Hon. S.
Eastman, our late Consul to Bristol. On this trip I
had my first summer prairie-views. All I had seen
before were winter pictures of vast expanses of snow
or dull brown turf, inexpressibly monotonous. The
land between Chicago and Elgin is rolling and con-
siderably varied by wood and water, richly produc-
tive and well cultivated.

To me there is something grand and more than
princely in the long stretch and wide expanse of pas-
ture and grain land, and in the absence of the usual
petty boundaries that make a New England land-
scape look like a child's dissected map by comparison.
But it is a hard country, this prairie country, for
your Helmbolds and Hostetters ; " for miles and
mileses " not a rock, or stone-wall, or board fence, or
a " coign of vantage " of any sort. They must pass
on and leave no sign. But we know well we shall
meet them at the first stopping-place. There is
no " let " to the march of Buchu and Bitters. We

ELGIN. 21

may fondly fancy we have the great medicine-man
of the day, he for whom toil the airily clad Hotten-
tots at the Cape of Good Hope, driving his six
Patchens at Long Branch in a magnificent chariot
with the excellent partner of his fortunes at his side,
resplendent with diamonds and other Buchu-terie ;
but let us go forth in any direction, and we can only
follow Helmbold. Take the wings of the morning,
and flee to the uttermost parts of the earth, and
Helmbold will be there before you. He is a greater
traveller than the German savant whom the fair New
York lady confounded him with, when she came before
the bronze bust in Central Park. The white bear of
Labrador, the kangaroo of Australia, and the seal
of Alaska, know Helmbold. Well, all this fortune
and fame being the simple result of business clever-
ness and dash, and the reward of virtuous advertis-
ing, let them increase and keep on increasing as
long as the Hottentots and the board fences hold out.
The approach to Elgin, on a bright day, is very
pleasant and cheering. The Fox River, with its
clear sparkling water, and lovely green banks, and
several very respectable hills, are rare and pictu-
resque features. The whole town has an airy,

22 CHICAGO AS IT WAS.

cheery, well-to-do look, — something of the aspect of
a New England town with a new life let into it.

Mr. Eastman must have loved the mother coun-
try well, in spite of the ugly mood the old lady
was in during the early part of his consulship,
for he has brought home with him many solid
mementos of his stay, — hosts of pictures, some
of them very valuable, books by the thousand, and
massive mahogany furniture by the ton. It were
annihilation to a sleeper to have the canopy of
the bed in the large guest-chamber come down ;
but it never will come down.

Of course we visited the watch-factory, the chief
lion of Elgin, giving up an entire morning (and
feeling that it was not half enough) to a delighted
inspection of the works of the most beautiful
and wonderful machinery I had ever seen. I am
not going to attempt a description of what has
been so often and so thoroughly described. Still,
I fancy I could do it, unmechanical and unexact
as is the female brain, for never did mortal wo-
man question mortal man for three mortal hours
as I questioned the courteous superintendent whose
hard lot it was to escort me about on that mem-

WATCH-MAKING.

orable day. I reduced him to such a state of ex-
haustion at last, that I am persuaded that, when
all was over, stimulants had to be applied to him.
Through his patient and luminous teaching I know
the watch-making process, from the rough beginning
to the polished ending. I believe I could put a
watch together myself, after a fashion.

But though the curious mechanism of steel and
brass and gold and precious stones interested me,
and the marvellous machines, that worked with
something approaching to the power, the exactness,
and the solemn quietness of the laws of the Creator,
interested me, I was still more interested in the
human mechanism of trained hand and eye, — in
the human machines that mastered and directed
all the others. I most enjoyed looking at the
operatives, — neat, cheerful, earnest, and singularly
intelhgent looking men and women, — and in con-
trasting them with operatives abroad, thanking
God for the difference.

Having always at heart the woman question,
and preaching everywhere the gospel of equal
wages for equal labor, I dealt with my friend, the
superintendent, on the subject while going the

24 CHICAGO AS IT WAS.

rounds ; and finding that the women, though well
paid and apparently contented, were not as well
paid as the men, I felt, as I always do, like stir-
ring up sedition among my sisters. He said — that
patient superintendent — that the trouble was, the
girls would get married and quit work, just per-
haps as they had become well trained and useful,
and so were not as valuable and reliable opera-
tives as men, with whom marriage made no differ-
ence, except to fix them more steadily in their
places and at their work. To this I replied, that if
women had more avenues of labor opened to them,
and were better paid, they would be less likely to
marry, -^ at least in a hurry. There would be an
end among working-women to the marriage of con-
venience,— too often a frantic flop "out of the fry-
ing-pan into the fire." Finding in the engraving-
room a woman of middle age, engaged in doing
the same work precisely as the man beside her, I
came down on the superintendent with all the
thunders of Steinway Hall ; but he only smiled
quietly, — meekly, I thought, — and seemed not to
have the face to defend himself He afterward
informed me, however, that the ill-used lady in

WOMEN S WAGES. 25

question was, by an exception to the general rule,
paid exactly the same wages given to the male
artists with whom she works, rivalling them in
delicate graving.

I absolutely longed to linger in this bright,
cheerful manufactory, — so light that it seemed
like a crystal palace of industry. Or, I wanted
just to eat and sleep, and then go back and ask
a few more questions. I absolutely returned with
reluctance to Chicago, where they take no note
of time.

COLORADO.

Denver, August 6, 1871.

KOSSUTH once said : " Watt, with a steam-
engine, has blotted the word ' distance ' from
the dictionary." This I recalled with a new and
vivid realization yesterday morning, when I woke
from my first sleep in Colorado, in full sight of the
Rocky Mountains, and thought, almost with awe, of
the vast plains and the strange rivers which lay
between me and the familiar city of my last month's
sojourn.

We took the Rock Island route from Chicago,
and went through with great comfort. This runs
through a rich agricultural region, suffering some-
what, however, at this time, from the drought.
There was about our train more of the " Pacific "
than the " Express," as it stopped in a kind and
obliging manner at every little station. At one
of the smallest and loneliest I noticed a solitary

STATION LIFE ON THE PRAIRIES. 27

trunk put off, — a handsome and huge affair, that
seemed oddly out of place there. In a few moments
a group of rough men and boys were gathered about
it, regarding it with singularly curious yet serious
looks, as though they suspected it of containing a
dead body or an infernal machine. The most deso-
late of these stations is enlivened by the presence of
children, not always well behaved, not always cleanly,
but merry and wide-awake. At one, however, I saw
only a woman sitting at the window of her little
unshaded house, with her face supported by her
hands, — a pale, worn, despairing face, though youth-
ful, looking out through long locks of spiritless yel-
low hair at the world going by. " Mariana in the
Moated Grange " is not, to my mind, half so desolate
a picture as was this. At another station two women
stood on the platform looking with a friendly in-
quisitiveness into each car as it slowly moved past.
When ours — the last — had gone by, I heard one
of them exclaim dolorously and wonderingly, " Not
a soul among 'em all what I knowed ! "

This station life on the prairies of Illinois and
Iowa has essentially all the loneliness of pioneer life,
without its dignity, its adventure, and wild freedom.

28 COLORADO.

Rich should be the domestic compensations for those
who endure it.

A perpetual wonder and delight were the vast
grain-fields unrolling their mighty expanses of green
and gold. The bright, fresh, billowy pasture-lands
of Iowa, in the neighborhood of Omaha, so like
the English " downs," were very beautiful, and the
greater part of that afternoon's journey through
Nebraska, along the Platte River, I remember as
a series of charming pictures. Omaha somewhat
disappointed me. It has not so busy and thriving
a look as I expected. They say it has slackened its
wild pace considerably during the past year. It
had grown too fast, — had, in fact, outgrown its
original seven-league boots.

Just out of the town we saw a freight train par-
tially loaded with a hideous cargo, — a lot of dirty,
lazy, greasy-looking Indians and squaws, — and at
one of the stations where we stopped for water we
encountered a tall Pawnee, in a flaming red shirt and
a peculiarly airy fashion of " breeks," that garment
being slashed, with nothing inserted in the slashes,
and with several pendent portions fluttering in the
evening breeze. His hair was arranged in three long

THE VALLEY OF THE SHADOW OF DEATH. 29

chatelaine braids, hanging gracefully down his back.
He was a " Pashaw of Three Tails," not counting the
before-mentioned tags of drapery. He announced
himself as a physician, and, with savage ingenuous-
ness and love of symbols, he carried a bow and
arrows. His patients knew what they might expect.
These native gentlemen give a wild flavor to the
scene, but on the whole I think I prefer the ante-
lopes and the prairie-dog.

I suppose these lands of the Platte Valley can
hardly be called " plains " ; but though not arid and
desolate, they are sufficiently lonely and sombre. We
learn that this was the very " Valley of the Shadow
of Death" to thousands of poor emigrants in the
early days of California emigration, and in the fearful
cholera times. It may be that before the locomotive
came to invade with irreverent noise and hurry this
haunted ground, to mock at poor perturbed spirits,
and whistle them down the wind, a seer might have
beheld, any dreary, starlit night, ghostly trains, moving
silently, slowly along by this low, dark river ; might
have seen white, still faces looking out of ghostly
wagons, drawn by ghostly horses and oxen, noiseless-
ly treading over the old track, — over the level graves.

30 COLORADO.

Some of the new settlements seem wondrously thriv-
ing, drawing much of their sustenance from an agri-
cultural district, small and apparently most unprom-
ising. In one town I noticed, beside the inevitable
church and school-house and hotel, a bakery, a black-
smith's shop, a lager-beer saloon, a billiard-hall, and
a circus-ring. Thus gradually do the blessings of
civilization creep over this vast, barbarous region !

After so long a dry season I was agreeably
surprised by the very moderate amount of dust we
raised as we dashed along, I have been far more
annoyed by it in a single journey from Washington
to Philadelphia than I was on all this Union Pacific
Road. And what dust we encountered was des-
tined to be speedily laid, beaten down, annihilated.
The day had been fiercely hot, and toward night
there were welcome indications of a thunder-shower.
I watched through every stage of the slow and
majestic preparation for what proved to be the
grandest storm I ever witnessed. At sunset the
clouds in the west and southwest assumed singular
shapes, fantastic, yet threatening, — grand, yet gro-
tesque,— some fitfully radiant, with half-imprisoned
splendors ; some black, as though crammed with

STORM ON THE PRAIRIE. 3I

tempests. Low down in the horizon began the
first glancing and quivering of the lightning, —
the prelude to the great display. It was like light
skirmishing before a general engagement. Some
two hours, I think it was, before tJiat came on in
its full sublimity and awfulness. A storm in the
Alps, when

" From peak to peak
Leaps the live thunder,"

is a mere guerilla fight to it. There were those
on the train that night who had seen many a
fierce storm on sea and prairie, but never a one
like this, they said. Never, surely, was there so
stupendous a stage for the display of Nature's fire-
works as this vast open heaven or this immense
level plain, lonely and bare and desolate. What
to this was the " blasted heath " of " Macbeth," or
that on which Lear and Edgar wandered, in " night
and storm and darkness." One could have read
Shakespeare "by flashes of lightning," without the
aid of a Kean's fiery acting. And O, such light-
ning ! Sometimes the whole western sky was one
vast wall of flame : then again all was deep, dense
blackness, till suddenly, in one solitary spot, the

32 COLORADO.

"inky cloak" of night was ripped open, showing
its lining of fire. Sometimes, almost from the
zenith, the lightning was let down in a zigzag
chain, like a burning ladder, on which one could
fancy fallen angels descending. Sometimes it fell
in a river, a cascade of blinding light. Then,
again, it seemed to come up from the earth, like
an eruption, — an infernal fountain. It seemed as
though .all the red demons of the plains had
mustered there in the West to bar our way over
their old hunting-grounds, with fire, and tumult,
and tempest ; yet all the while our train went boldly
plunging into the very heart of the storm. During
the first hour the thunder was not very heavy, —
was scarcely heard, indeed, above the rumble of
the train ; but at last it came, clap after clap,
peal on peal, till many were terrified, and one poor
English lady, used only to moderate insular thunder,
utterly prostrated and appalled, was thrown into
violent nervous spasms. Here was a bit of trage-
dy, — the awful storm on the wide prairie ; the
crash and dash, the rush and roar, without, and
within, that poor sufferer writhing and moaning in
half-conscious agony. There were to care for her

TRAGEDY AND COMEDY. 33

two anxious, well-disposed women, but the most
calm and effective, and not the least pitiful of her
helpers were men, — two gentlemen up to that hour
perfect strangers to her. How beautiful this noble,
helpful, human kindness seemed to me I cannot
tell ! But the inevitable touch of comedy came in
duly. A young person of color — a child's nurse,
of the sort to whom the whole establishment is
wont to give way — came dashing up to the front,
with a most awe-inspiring air of professional impor-
tance, calling out, " Jest you let me get to her, mis-
sus ! I knows what to do. It 's conwulsions. I 've
seen ladies in 'em a heap o' times, and a heap wuss
dan dis yer lady. I nussed a lady what took 'em
reg'lar, and used to flop around awful. I couldn't
only keep her down by gittin' on her chist, with my
two knees. Laws, honey ! dis yer is nuthin to her
fits. But don't let her git her hands and jaws
sqninchcd! Slap 'em hard, and lay her on her back,
and keep her thar ! "

In spite of some rash experiments and mistakes,
in spite of the ministrations of "Virginia's dark-eyed
daua;hter," and in reward for much faithful nursing,
the lady at last came out of her spasms and slept.

34 COLORADO.

When the storm had somewhat abated, we all re-
tired to our luxurious Pullman berths, where no
anxieties kept us from sleeping the sleep of the
just. A droll friend of ours used to say, "I like to
go to a church run by a good old-fashioned ortho-
dox minister, for then I can go to sleep and know
that all will go on right." Such a comfortable
faith one enjoys, such a quiet sense of security,
on any railroad presided over by the masterly,
watchful, untiring mind of Thomas A. Scott.

In the morning we rose wonderfully refreshed,
and emerged under a smiling sky, at Sidney, the
breakfasting-station. I see that I here jotted down
in my note-book, "At this altitude napkins, butter-
knives, and Christian cooking disappear." But I
afterward learned that this meal was hurriedly pre-
pared, as it was supposed we should be greatly
behind time on account of the storm, and that
Sidney is, ordinarily, an excellent eating-place.
Still, the bread I ate that morning sets hard on
my memory.

At Cheyenne I left the Union Pacific Railroad
with real regret. I had been treated with singu-
lar kindness by the officers of the road, for which

CHEYENNE, 35

I wish to make my most grateful acknowledg-
ments. There is more than one way of doing
even a signal kindness. In this instance, the most
considerate, delicate, generous way was adopted.
Cheyenne is not an attractive place, but a brave
effort is being made to render it less unattractive.
Some pretty houses are going up, and some few
trees are making a good fight for life with a hard
soil and a fierce sun. As the capital of the Ter-
ritory that has taken the first bold practical step
in the matter of woman's civil rights, the place
commends itself to my heart, certainly. I should re-
joice to find it a very Eden, a vale of Cashmere, —
which it isn't. But it has a long day to work in,
and with the energy, the courage and intelligence
that concentrate at Cheyenne, miracles of improve-
ment may be wrought till beauty shall take the
place of dreariness, and shade of glare, and fruit-
fulness of sterility, and the " wilderness shall blossom
as the rose."

It was a matter of surprise to me, the amount
of feeling with which I parted with some of my
fellow-travellers at Cheyenne. The same number
of hours in a palace-car on any one of the old

36 COLORADO.

routes in the Eastern States would never have given
people anything like that sense of friendly com-
panionship. If journeying into new realms of this
world causes us to draw nearer to our fellow-crea-
tures, may we not hope that on going into an
utterly new world, alien nations and peoples, and
even rival Christian denominations, may come to-
gether and fraternize tolerably well >

August 10.

The journey from Cheyenne to Denver occupies
about five hours. The Colorado plains, through
which this Denver Pacific road passes, would be
dreary enough were it not for the distant view of the
mountains vouchsafed to us most of the way. These
plains are for the most part arid, producing little
but prickly -pear cactus, thistles, white poppies, and
wormwood, and supporting nothing but antelopes,
prairie-dogs, and their reputed fellow-lodgers, owls
and rattlesnakes. The railroad passes directly
through a large old dog-town, an object of particular
interest to me. I was immensely amused by watch-
ing the smaller canines, the mothers and children,
scamper away and hide at our approach, while the
grave old fellows sat up on the mounds over their

PRAIRIE ABORIGINES. 37

holes, quietly gazing at the train as it passed. About
one large mound some half-dozen citizens were
gathered, seeming to be in solemn council, perhaps
discussing the Darwinian theory, perhaps holding
an indignation meeting, and denouncing railroad
monopolies and outrages ; for I understand that the
right of way through their ancient borough and
their fair hunting-ground was not honorably pur-
chased by the D. P. R. R. Company. But a time of
reckoning may yet come : "the dog will have his day."
When our wise and goodly men of the Indian Com-
mission have settled our little border difficulties, —
have made the amende honorable to the Ogalialla
Sioux, and restitution to the Arapahoes for all their
robberies, and soothed the lacerated feelings of the
Apache, they will perhaps turn their philanthropic
efforts toward righting the wrongs of these canine
colonists of the prairies.

The next animated object of interest that I saw
was an antelope, standing at a respectful distance,
and watching with mild curiosity the passing of the
engine, — that strange, snorting, long-tailed monster,
that had thrown antelope speed and endurance into
the shade. A young Nimrod, fresh from New Eng-

27v'2S2

38 COLORADO.

land, deceived by the rare purity of the atmosphere,
lamented that he had not his rifle handy, as he was
sure he could have brought her down. But an old
hunter smiled, and said she was far enough beyond
rifle-range. These pretty creatures, since the great
irruption of sporting barbarians, have grown very
wise and wary. Yet nature did them an ill-turn
originally, in affixing to them a mark by which they
can be seen, and " a bead drawn " on them at a great
distance. It renders them especially liable to at-
tacks in the rear ; which reminds me of a little story.
A small Colorado boy, who had been out playing,
ran into the house in a state of great excitement,
saying he had seen some antelopes in a gulch near
by. At his entreaty, his mother went out to look at
them, but nothing of the kind was found. She be-
came incredulous, and said at last, " I don't believe
you saw any antelopes ; it must have been your
imagination, my child ! " To this the little moun-
taineer indignantly responded, " I don't care, ma, I
guess my imagination is n't white behind."

The settlement of most interest to me after Dog-
town on this road was Greeley. This is a really
wonderful place. Established on a purely agricul-

THE TOWN OF GREELEY. 39

tural basis, with an inexhaustible capital of intelli-
gence, energy, economy, and industry, it has thriven
steadily, constantly, with no wild leaps of specula-
tion, or fever-heats of ambition and greed. With an
orderly and virtuous population, it has had to pass
through none of the dark and dire and tempestuous
scenes of pioneer life, such as are found in mountain
mining towns. Though it has had its hardships and
discouragements, on the whole its experience has
been exceptionably happy. The site of the town
is a delta formed by the South Platte and Cache-
la-Poudre Rivers, affording the amplest means for
that beautiful system of irrigation which is rapidly
transforming a barren region into a vast garden of
verdure and bloom and fruitfulness. New as the
town is, and with its share of the inevitable glare
and unsightliness of newness, it has a peculiarly
cheerful and spirited look. The irrigating ditches
about Greeley and throughout the Union Colony are
really very pretty, fringed as they are with verdure,
carrying currents of clear, cool water on blessed
errands to the generous, responsive soil. I saw one
of the ditching-ploughs drawn by eight yoke of noble
oxen. Trees are being extensively planted, and grow,

40 COLORADO.

like the crops, astonishingly. Were I a man, I
would rather give my name to a town like this, and
teach such a brave colony what I knew of farming,
than be President of the United States.

This young city of the plains publishes a spunky
little weekly paper called the "Greeley Tribune."
The title is an exact facsimile of the philosopher's
own handwriting, and is a triumph of illegibility cal-
culated to witch this new world with noble penman-
ship. The first citizen of Greeley I saw was a mule
standing on a bank, looking down on the train and
over the town with a patronizing and benignant
air, — a white-faced, wise-looking animal. I think
this must be the very mule I hear of as the great
advertising medium of the place. Being of vagrant
habits and a friendly disposition, he perambulates
a good deal, overlooking the affairs of the borough,
and so they have taken to affixing to his sides bills
and notices of public meetings. He is a sort of
travelling bulletin-board. When Mr. Greeley comes
to lecture, he has a hard day of it.

From Greeley to Denver the country grows more
interesting, and the mountain and river views more
beautiful. We come upon richer pasture and grain

THE MOUNTAINS. 4I

lands, and finer flocks and herds. Ah, such im-
mense stretches of grassy plain and upland ! When
Mary goes to " call the cattle home," she goes on
horseback, and has a long gallop of it. We could
trace the water-courses by the vivid green of their
banks, and we saw trees of size and in tolerable
abundance. The air was singularly clear that after-
noon, and the whole grand mountain picture above
Denver unveiled. I was reminded of views of the
Alps from Lombardy, only these mighty snow-
capped heights seemed much nearer. Almost con-
stantly since then, envious mists or the smoke of
burning tracts have hid from us both the wooded
and rocky sides, and the snowy summits of the great
elevations. Even the foot-hills are often invisible.
It is very warm, and I am resting and making the
most of Denver, as I see it, in afternoon drives with
my kind and hospitable host and hostess, and through
its pleasant and great-hearted citizens. I can truly
say that I never enjoyed drives as I enjoy them
here, on the boulevards and plateaus beyond the
town, in sight always of scenery as beautiful as it is
stupendous. There comes to me, with a sense of the
vastness of my surroundings, a feeling of freedom

42 COLORADO.

of exultation, and exaltation utterly indescribable.
And then the air, — it throbs with the pulses of a
new life ! The air of the morning of creation could
not have been purer or richer. The winds of
evening, though sweet and balmy, are strong and
cool, with never the faintest treacherous sting in
them. And the heat, though great according to the
thermometer, is more endurable here, indoors at
least, than in any city I have ever been in. It is
never sultry ; the air is kept constantly fresh and
vital by beneficent breezes.

On Saturday night, for a "lark," we all went to
the circus. It was a California circus in incep-
tion and development, and, like most things belong-
ing to that great country, stupendous. I am sure I
never saw such magnificent performances, equestrian
and acrobatic, and I have always had a Dickensy
weakness for the ring, — for the sawdust and the
tinsel, and the hoops and the hurdles ; for the
piebald horses, and the riders, so bold and dashing,
yet so serenely grave ; and the clown, with his
ancient jokes ; and the ring-master, with his eternal
circular tramp, and his whip of infinite crackiness.
In London I sought Astley's before Covent Garden.

A CALIFORNIA CIRCUS. 43

By far the most accomplished performers that
night were women, in especial two blondes, who
did the most daring and astonishing things on
the trapeze, and on the tapis, as acrobats, and,

0 heavens, as tumblers ! It was, to me, very
dreadful, — a revolting, almost ghastly exhibition
of woman's rights. An old-fashioned conservative
could not have been more shocked when Elizabeth
Blackwell went into medicine, and Antoinette
Brown into divinity, than I was at seeing these
women, in horrible undress, swinging, and tumbling,
and plunging heels over head out of their sphere.
Still, it was something to see that women could
be so courageous, so skillful, and so strong, — could
attain such steadiness of nerve and firmness of
muscle, — and still retain, with all their tremendous
physical exertions, the beauty and grace of their
forms and all the fullness and soft curves of youth !

1 had unmixed delight in the wonderful riding,
skill and daring, quiet confidence and matchless
physical strength, of a young California girl, called
Polly Lee. She managed, with the utmost ease
and grace, four horses, having four younger brothers
and sisters swarming all over her. She supports, in
more ways than one, the whole family.

44 COLORADO.

But the sight of sights was the crowd of spec-
tators,— between two and three thousand people,
of all classes and races, — rougher, freer, noisier
than any pleasure-seeking crowd I had ever before
looked upon, yet good-humored and merry, and
sufficiently orderly for jolHty. When in the early
part of the evening there came up a sudden thun-
der-shower, and the rain beating in on the upper
tier of benches drove hundreds down to the circle,
just outside the ring, though there was a wild
scene for a time, and some confusion, there was no
strife, no accident of any kind. After the per-
formance the fun was most uproarious over the
drawing of the prizes, — fifty in number, mostly
worthless. I held all the evening a delusive bit of
paper in my hand, received at the door, and rep-
resenting alternately, to my fond fancy, " a valuable
watch " and " a fine calf." But my star was not
in the ascendant in this strange sky. The watch
went ticking off in the pocket of a modest young
miner, who made good time out of the ring before
a whirlwind of yells. The calf alone remained. It
was iveal or woe for me. Some ten minutes of
mingled hope and fear, and I saw a Denverite lead

DENVER ON THE WING. 45

the prize off in triumph, " amid the shouting mul-
titude." I don't beUeve that lottery was managed
fairly !

Denver has been much written about, but it
always keeps ahead of its chroniclers. To attempt
to describe it now were almost like shooting at a
deer running or a partridge on the wing. Improve-
ments are constantly advancing ; grading is being
done, and buildings are going up in all directions.
As I sit at my writing this blazing morning, be-
fore an open window, I hear the sound of the
hammer, the trowel, and the saw, north, south,
east, and west. The town, five years ago, was quite
treeless ; now it is well planted, some houses being
quite embowered in foliage. Larimer Street, the great
business centre of the city, is a marvellous, inspir-
ing sight to see any morning or evening, a mighty
river of traffic surging through it continually.

There has just been published in Denver a large
Gazetteer of Colorado, a useful book for visitors and
settlers, but hardly needed by a tourist who is fortu-
nate enough to be under the same roof with Mr.
Byers of the " Rocky Mountain News," an old, young
pioneer, — "a '59-er." What he does not know

46 COLORADO.

about Colorado is not worth knowing ; and he is
most patient and gracious in imparting knowledge.
Bayard Taylor and all the famous tourists that fol-
lowed him drank of the Byers fountain, and still it
flows.

The town is crowded with tourists and invalids,
and I sometimes wonder that the overtaxed hospi-
tality of the people here does not give out. But no ;
these men and women are suited to their noble sur-
roundings. Hearts expand on these grand uplands,
and even rough natures, like the mountain rocks, are
richly veined with gold.

August 13,
Early on Thursday morning of last week I left
town, with my kind host and hostess and their
" one fair daughter," for a modest little excursion to
Platte Canon and the famous Red Rocks in its
vicinity. This canon, which shows like a great
notch in the mountains from here, and is a most
picturesque feature in the landscape, might well be
addressed in the words of the song, which commemo-
rates somebody's "beloved eye," which is also a
" star," " thou art so near and yet so far." From
the breezy plateau above the city, on a clear day.

HARVESTS AND STOCK GRAZING. 47

it seems scarcely more than half a dozen miles
away.

The trip was one of great interest to me, and even
more in an agricultural than a picturesque point of
view. It was harvest time, though the grain was, for
the most part, cut and bound in great bounteous
sheaves ; they were gathering it into barns, or stack-
ing it in mighty piles, — mountains of gold. The
beautiful farms along the Platte and Plumb Creek
have produced this year thirty and forty bushels of
wheat to the acre, and the fairest, plumpest, sweetest
grain I have ever seen. On the vast wild pasture
lands above, stock was looking very finely, to my great
surprise, as the grass looks utterly scorched up, and
as short as though, like the hair of poor Box or Cox
in the farce, it had been cut at " the other end."
Yet Colorado farmers tell me that in its driest and
shortest estate, this wild grass is wonderfully sweet
and nutritious, and I know it must be from the con-
dition of the flocks and -herds this remarkably dry
season.

All nature thirsts and pants for rain, and I sup-
pose it must come before long, after a thousand feints
and make-believes ; but the pure dryness of the

48 COLORADO.

atmosphere, through which flow the constant cur-
rents of fresh air from the mountains, is a wonderful
and beneficent thing for me, and thousands of other
invalids. It is a marvellous change to be delivered
from the fear of " the night air," — that invisible beie
noir of the East, — to feel no dampness, no chill, no
subtle, malarious taint, to be able to be out in a gar-
den or porch, or a city balcony or mountain rock,
through the long, grand spectacle of the sunset, to
watch the magnificent cloud pageantry through all
the changes of purple and crimson and gold and
deepening violet, to watch the first faint gleaming
and the slow spreading of the starr}'- encampment till
all the bivouac fires of heaven are lit.

But to come down from cloud-land to farm life, I
was surprised at the ambitious aspect of some of the
new farm-houses. Ornamental cottages were not
infrequent, and green blinds and balconies and gar-
den arbors made their appearance now and then.
One of the oldest and richest farmers of the Platte
Valley, however, still lives in a little octagonal stone
house, half under ground, which seems as though
especially built to defy Indian attacks. This farmer
is a Norwegian. He came here eleven years ago

WAR-CHIEF OF THE PLAINS. 49

with nothing : he is now worth, in land and stock,
at least seventy -five thousand dollars. All these
farms are well irrigated from the Platte. All present
a singularly smiling appearance in their rich garb of
green and gold, and in contrast with the brown, bare
uplands. Not much fruit is yet produced in Colo-
rado, but I am told that nearly all the varieties raised
in California can be raised here. Little attention is
paid to horticulture, but horsiculture is not neglected.
I have seen many fine-blooded animals in harness
and under the saddle. The roads are admirable for
driving, — so hard and even that both horses and
carriages are easily kept in good condition. But
driving is not pleasant here, except in the early
morning or evening, not only on account of the heat
and dust, but because of the excess of light, the
dazzling brilliance of the atmosphere. It behooves
one to look out for one's eyes. Colored glasses are
almost as much needed here as in the Alps.

On our way we passed the little old cabin, or
" shebang," of Jim Beckworth, the famous moun-
taineer, hunter, scout, guide and Indian interpreter.
Beckworth was a mulatto, born a slave somewhere
in the classic region about Alexandria. He may
3

go COLORADO.

have had some F. F. V. blood in his dusky veins.
He ran away from the old plantation in his youth
to sow his wild oats in a richer soil. He sought
the wildest part of the wild West. He fell in with
the Crow Indians, who, it seems, had no prejudice
against color, for they made much of him, adopted
him. In this case the old saying, " Every crow thinks
her own young the blackest," did not hold true.
He became their great war-chief, and fought along
the Missouri, as his fathers had fought along the
Niger. He was as savage as though he had not
enjoyed Gospel privileges in the Old Dominion, or
felt the chastening-rod of a Christian master. But,
at last, satiated with military renown, he took again
to roving ; went to California, Arizona, Mexico, —
everywhere that siren dangers called and hardships
allured, seeking fresh bear-fields and buffalo-pas-
tures new. It was in his old age that he lived
here, as grim and grisly as any old monster of
the mountains he had ever hunted down. It was
from here, I believe, that he went on a last visit
to his old friends and followers, the Crows. They
received him joyfully. They entreated him not to
leave them. But he had other matters on hand,

PRAIRIE FARMS AND MOUNTAIN GORGES. 51

and insisted on going. They then made for him a
farewell feast, and killed the fatted buffalo calf, but,
feeling that parting was more bitter than death,
put deadly poison in his particular dish. " They
keep his dust in Crowland, where he died."

This prairie farming country is a singularly silent
land. We heard no whetting of scythes, no tink-
ling of bells, little lowing of cattle even, or crow-
ing and cackling of barn-yard fowls that day.
There being so few trees along our way, we heard
no birds ; indeed, we missed nearly all the usual
pleasant rural sounds, though occasionally we
heard a mule bray, a teamster swear at his oxen,
and at noon farm-hands and railroad -men called
to their dinner by a joyful shout of " Grub-pile ! "
We dined with some hospitable farmers from
Pennsylvania, and then pushed on eight or ten
miles to another farm-house, in the neighborhood
of the cafion. After taking a brief rest, and re-
ceiving a cordial invitation to spend the night, we
started on our exploration. We could drive but a
short distance up the cafion, and we bravely pro-
posed to do the grand gorge on foot for several
miles. But our resolution melted away in the fierce

52 COLORADO.

sun ; briers, prickly -pears, pebbles, and sharp rocks
were too much for our enthusiasm and shoe-leather.
In short, we ingloriously abandoned our explora-
tions, and made up our minds that there was
nothmg worth seeing in the canon ahead of us.
After sitting for an hour or two on the rocks, in
a shady spot, alternately fishing and shying stones
into the river, we returned to the ranch, — to rest
and shade and a royal supper.

Mr. Lehow, our host, is a Pennsylvania farmer
of the most intelligent sort, and higher praise
could not be bestowed on a husbandman. He is
not weaned from the old Keystone State, even by
good health and good fortune in Colorado, and, I
fear, believes that good Pennsylvanians will go to
Philadelphia when they die, even from Golden City
or The Garden of the Gods.

Mr. Lehow's pleasant little farm-house, wherein
many a weary pilgrim has found welcome, lies in
a green, fruitful nook with a glorious lookout up
the dark caiion, on the mountains and picturesque
Red Rocks, and over the rolling prairie. So much
taste is evident in the selection of this homestead,
and in the planting of trees about it, that one is

A FORESHADOWING OF CRIME. 53

not surprised to find within the cottage comforts
and even elegances, with a family circle of rare
intelligence, — good Republicans all, and readers
of good books.

The sunset was magnificent, and the twilight
long and delicious as anything in the Italian line.
We sat on the porch till nearly ten o'clock, pre-
paring ourselves for sweet sleep and pleasant
dreams by talk about the Westfield disaster, the
great New York riot, and the iniquities of the
Tammany Ring, wild stories of frontier life, of
Indian massacres, of murders and robberies and
lynchings. It was so comfortable to remember
that all these dreadful things were a great way
off, or a great while ago, — that we and the fine
horses and cattle we could dimly see, sauntering
about in the starlight or lying at rest, were safe,
utterly safe. Yet but a few miles away from that
quiet pastoral scene, at that very hour, in a farm-
yard, on the high road, a fearful crime was being
committed. A German farm-hand, after killing his
employer, shooting his head almost away, called
out that employer's sister, the only other person
about the ranche, and treacherously shot her down.

54 COLORADO.

All night long the wretched woman remained in
the house, into which she had crept, alone, with
a handful of buckshot in her breast, afraid to move
or cry, lest the murderer should find she was not
dead, and return to finish his work. In the
morning she dragged herself to the nearest neigh-
bor's house, a mile away, and was brought to the
city, where she still lies slowly dying. It was not
till the afternoon that her brother was found, in
a grain-stack, quite dead. It is a most mysterious
crime, as no robbery, except the theft of a horse,
was attempted, and the murderer himself, who was
arrested- on Sunday, can assign no adequate mo-
tive. There was, or had been, a good deal of
domestic infelicity in that farm-house, for its size ;
and a husband abused and dispossessed, driven out
into the cold by wife and brother-in-law, is sup-
posed to be at the bottom of the tragedy.

In the morning, which was, like all its immediate
predecessors, glorious, we set out early, forded the
Platte, and made for the park of the Red Rocks,
where we spent an hour or two of rare enjoyment.
These rocks are grand, picturesque, and peculiar
masses of old red sandstone, and lie in an almost

RED ROCK PARK. 55

regular line, and in every variety of shape, at the foot
of the mountains for nearly twenty miles, and appear
in their greatest grandeur and profusion in the Gar-
den of the Gods. They sometimes assume immense
massive forms, like Cyclopean structures ; then lighter
forms, like those of half-ruined Gothic architecture, —
towers, and turrets, and keeps, and pinnacles, — some
of them three, four, and five hundred feet high.
What, to these, were old Rhine castles or the ruins
of Kenilworth and Melrose ?

The views from this wild park of the Red Rocks
are indescribably beautiful. A spot more quiet and
lovely for a summer retreat could hardly be found,
even in this wonderful mountain-land. I predict that
within twenty years there will be a score of elegant
cottages here. Perhaps the princes of Tammany will
retire from the world to this peaceful spot. But I
will not anticipate evil for this region. Secluded as
it is, the park will soon be easily accessible from
Denver, as the new narrow-gauge Denver and Rio
Grande Railroad will pass within sight.

A short distance down, on our homeward way, we
passed a low, marshy hollow, containing a little water,
in an almost black pond, which reminded me of the

56 COLORADO.

pool in which Eugene Aram told of hiding the mur-
dered man, "in a dream." Mr. Byers, who knows
this country as Sir Walter Scott knew the Highlands,
and can point out the scene of every dark legend of
the early days, told me that only a year or two ago a
young sportsman, w^hile duck-shooting here, was shot
and scalped by a roving Cheyenne, or Arapahoe, a
savage knight-errant, who knew not Vincent Colyer
and had not " come in."

A few miles farther on, as we were crossing a bridge
over the Platte, I was told that some two years ago
a lady, who was riding over it alone one morning
early, chanced to look over the railing, and saw a man
hanging by the neck, the dead and ghastly face up-
turned.. It was the body of a notorious horse-thief,
who had been caught by his neighbors and summa-
rily dealt with. We shuddered, and thanked God
that such days of violence were over ; and yet, a
little way farther on, in the farm-yard we passed un-
consciously, there lay a dead face blackening in the
sun, — the face of the murdered young farmer, dis-
covered under the sheaves, and waiting for the cor-
oner.

Yesterday's event and sensation was an excursion

AN EXCURSION. 57

by a party of agricultural editors from the East, on
the narrow-gauge road, from the city, over the entire
distance the rails have been laid, — some three miles.
I hear that the excursionists — a brave set of fellows
— went off quite cheerfully, taking a calm leave of
their friends, — indeed, rather hurrying matters to
have the thing over. They were wonderfully sus-
tained, considering that " no wines or spirituous liq-
uors" were allowed on the train. Their agricultural
report of the region through which they passed on
that memorable excursion will be looked for with
much interest.

August 29.

Soon after my last writing, feeling in need of a
little dissipation, I ran up to Greeley for a three days'
visit. The morning of my journey was the hottest I
have known since I came into the Territory, and the
dust was something fearful. I was as gray as a
gopher before we had made the first station. The
great circus company was on the train, travelling
like common mortals, and looking strangely quiet
and subdued. The wonderful Lee Sisters, the daring
Polly, the dashing Rosa, who had seemed such bewil-
dering, flying visions of the night, in blue tarleton lit

58 COLORADO.

with starry spangles, had an air of weariness and
dejection. Such vain and hollow and unsatisfactory
things are fame and the applause of the multitude !
Even the trapeze performers seemed oppressed, per-
haps by too much costume; and the clown was
pensive and sad, as though haunted by his old dead
jokes that "will not down." The "infant gladi-
ators " presented anything but a classic appear-
ance ; and the smallest performer of all, who had
seemed such a cherub in tights, showed as a very
ordinary child of earth in a dilapidated blue-check
pinafore. In short, all was disillusion and dreari-
ness. So do these splendid creatures who, like the
fairies, dazzle and disport at night, essentially disap-
pear at morn, leaving only a magic ring to prove that
they 've " been yar." The only unchanged counte-
nance in the party was that of the stern father of
many acrobats and equestriennes, who trains up sons
to " make both ends meet," like poor government
clerks, and throw somersaults like model politicians ;
and daughters to ride a two-horse act with equine-
imity and intrepidity, and move in the difficult and
exalted sphere of a hoop set with knives. To that
Spartan father the quiet little girl at his side was but

A PRAIRIE RIDE. 59

a small female centaur, the lively baby in arms but a
nursing athlete of infinite acrobatic possibilities. In
the worn faces of all these unchildlike children there
was no look of relaxation and relief All seemed to
say, " From sawdust we came, to sawdust we must
return."

The entire morning after my arrival in Greeley I
spent in driving about with some kind friends, and
seeing everything of interest. We drove up to the
head of the great irrigating canal in the Cache-la-
Poudre River. The drive over the rolling prairie
that breezy morning, with the green track of the
beautiful stream, and the grand mountain ranges in
sight, was very charming ; and not the least of my
enjoyment came from observing the fine condition of
the flocks and herds all along our way. The terrible
prickly-pear cactus was so thick that I could not see
how, without iron-clad noses, the poor creatures could
graze amid it ; but they manage somehow to pick up
a good living. Wonderful are the compensations
Nature grants us, even in her most harsh and nig-
gardly moods. This ugly, bristling, ubiquitous cac-
tus of the plains when in flower makes the wild
waste one vast deep blush of bloom. Then its nutri-

6o COLORADO.

tious fruit, much like the mandrake in taste, and
even the pulpy inside of the plant itself, has saved
many a lost or belated emigrant's life. They tell me,
too, that the antelope uses a thicket of cacti as a sort
of chevatix de /rise when pursued by prairie wolves.
With cactus on every side, she and her young ones
are safe from their soft-footed, howling besiegers.
So the ugly, bristling patch wherein they stand
intrenched is to the antelope family pleasanter than
a garden of roses, — is a prickly pear-adise.

The principal irrigating canal of Greeley is said to
be twenty-six miles long. Branching out from this
are countless ditches, each of which calls bloom
and verdure, fruit and grain, from the brown, hard
soil that has lain fallow for uncounted centuries.
Every tiniest shout or gurgle of the swift, clear water
is like a trump of resurrection to the dead earth.
They have almost too much of a good thing here.
They are intemperate in the use of water. They
revel and riot in irrigation, and some points of the
town, where the element seems to " wander at its
own sweet will," bid fair to produce an unparalleled
crop of mosquitoes.

The growth of foliage here is something marvel-

A TEE-TOTAL TOWN. 6l

loLis. Trees which in June last were bare as tele-
graph-poles, now wear great crowns of leafy-
branches. It seems like the miracle of the Monk of
Innisfallen, who planted his old staff in the sand, and
it leaved out, budded, and blossomed on the instant.
And yet they call Greeley "a slow place." Said one
traveller to another on the cars the other day :
" Don't stop in that town ; you '11 die of the dulness in
less than five hours. There is nothing there but irri-
gation. Your host will invite you out to see him
irrigate his potato-patch ; your hostess will excuse
herself to go and irrigate her pinks and dahlias.
Every young one has a ditch of his own to manage ;
there is not a billiard-saloon in the whole camp, nor a
drink of whiskey to be had for love or money. The
place is a humbug. Its morality and Greeleyisms
will bust it up some day."

It is a fact that Greeley is a model temperance
town. In every deed given for land is inserted this
clause : " That it is expressly agreed between the
parties hereto, that intoxicating liquors shall never
be manufactured, sold, or given away in any place of
public resort as a beverage on said premises ; and
that in case any one of these shall be broken or vio-

62 COLORADO.

lated, this conveyance, and everything herein con-
tained, shall be null and void."

Bad Tammany politicians will go to Greeley when
they die. Yet I heard a curious story the other day.
A traveller about starting for Long's Peak, from
Greeley, wished to procure some whiskey as an anti-
dote for the bite of the rattlesnake. Of course it
was not to be had there, but he was advised to pro-
cure instead spirits of ammonia at the drug-store.
Thinking, perhaps, that rattlesnakes at this season
might be uncommonly thick and venomous, he had
his quart flask filled, and he afterward said : " Really,
if I had n't known better, I should have taken that
ammonia for whiskey, and as good whiskey as ever
I drank."

The women of Greeley seem to me to have great
spirit and cheerfulness. Yet I felt that with their new,
strange, wild surroundings, — the illimitable vast-
ness of earth and sky, — with new labors and hard-
ships and deprivations and discomforts, — with the
care of all the ditchers that cometh upon them daily,
— they must be discontented, unhappy, rebellious ;
and I tried to win from them the sorrowful secret.
I gave them to understand that I was a friend to the

COLORADO WOMEN. 63

sex, ready at any time, on the shortest notice, to lift
up my voice against the wrongs and disabihties of
women ; that I deeply felt for wives and daughters
whom tyrant man had dragged away from comfort-
able Eastern homes, neighborly cronies, and choice
Gospel and shopping privileges. But the perverse
creatures actually declared that they were never so
happy and so healthy as they are here, right on the
edge of the great American Desert ; that they live
in the sure hope of soon having more than the old
comforts and luxuries around them ; that, in short,
the smell of the " flesh-pots of Egypt " has gone clean
out of their nostrils.

In fact, I find Colorado women everywhere, on
mountain or plain, in town or ranch, singularly cour-
ageous and cheery, and I think that the cause in
great part lies in their excellent health. The pioneer
women of Michigan, Indiana, and IlHnois had in
their time to endure similar hardships and privations,
with ague and fevers thrown in. The spirit shook
with the body ; when the liver gave out, the heart
soon failed.

If I was astonished at the buildings, fields, and
gardens of this year-and-a-half-old colony, I was more

64 COLORADO.

astonished at the sight of the colonists, as I beheld
them one night gathered in the Town Hall. There
were so many of them, and they formed so gay and
smiling a crowd, that I almost looked for the trap-
doors, up which it seemed they must have come
like the fairy folk in a Christmas spectacle ; yet they
looked like anything but fairies, — good, solid, ear-
nest men and women, and stalwart lads and bloom-
ing girls. The faces of the men showed that they
took the great New York journals, and were alive
to all the issues of the day ; and the fashions of
the ladies showed that " Harper's Bazar " had found
its way to their new homes.

Greeley is supposed to be essentially a " Tribune "
community, or, for short, a Tribunity ; but, though
doubtless honoring their illustrious godfather, that
their days may be long in the land they have irrigat-
ed, these colonists are people of independent thought
and action, having their own ideas on morals, rehgion,
and politics, and even on questions of amnesty, suf-
frage, and farming ; very few of the colonists are
agriculturists " to the manner born " ; most are pro-
fessional men. One whom I had seen last in college,
I found moulding adobe brick with his own hands.

COLONIES. 65

I don't believe that he turned out a poorer adobe
article for knowing Latin and Greek. His fair wife,
from a four-months-old garden, had produced fifty
varieties of pink, besides hosts of other flowers. She
says Nature, in this regenerated and baptized soil,
seems resolved to make up for lost time by pi'oducing
flowers in matchless profusion and brilliance of color-
ing. But it seems to me that she sends them out in
such haste, that she forgets to scent them. They
rather lack fragrance.

I have said a good deal about Greeley, not because
I am particularly interested in it, but because I be-
lieve in the colony system out here, and this is the
only one I have yet visited. I am told that the Chi-
cago Colorado Colony at Longmont has a situation
of unrivaUed beauty, is in the best of hands, and
" flourishes like a green-bay tree," or a young cotton-
wood. The St. Louis Colony, whose head-quarters
are at Evans, a few miles this side of Greeley, is also
full of promise, agriculturally and morally. It is
young, but after the success of Greeley and Long-
mont it has no doubtful experiment to try. I am
sorry it has not followed a good example in adopting
a temperance constitution,

66 COLORADO.

If you question Colorado settlers anywhere
about those pests of the plains, alkali and rattle-
snakes, they will answer like Michigan people about
fever and ague, and Mississippi River people about
mosquitoes, " None here, but a little farther on
look out."

I always inquire about the rattlesnake, for the
subject, like the reptile, has for me a fearful fas-
cination. I came out to this Territory with almost
a foreknowledge that I should encounter one on
his native heath. I never see a prairie-dog, sit-
ting at the door of his little house, without think-
ing of the horrible parlor-boarder below.

I started on our excursion to Platte Canon the
other day with a presentiment which amounted to
a moral certainty that I should see a rattlesnake.
I believe in presentiments,

" Believing that they are
In mercy sent, to warn, restrain, prepare."

This hung about me all day. I knew it must
come, — a sight, at least of the deadly creature.
At last, while following a narrow trail up the
canon, by a mysterious sort of mental illumination

NARROW GAUGE, 67

I saw, just around a point, a large flat rock, and
on that rock, coiled and ready to strike, the snake !
Yet I did not turn back ; I only went forward
more slowly and cautiously, all sense resolved
into sight and hearing. I rounded the point, and
there, just as I had foreseen it, I found the flat
rock, but not the snake.

September 4.
I should have chronicled some time ago an ex-
cursion on the Denver and Rio Grande Narrow-
gauge Railway. We went out about fifteen miles, —
as far as the rails were then laid. It was a charm-
ing day. We had a pleasant company of citizens
and tourists, and all went " merry as a marriage-
bell," in the old days, when marriages were of
some account. On this railway you are struck
at once with the reduced proportions of every-
thing,— from the locomotive, which seems like a
small variety of " the iron-horse," a fiery little
Mustang, to the windows and lamps in the cars.
The cars themselves are bright, pretty, diminutive
affairs, cosey and comfortable. It seems like playing
at railroading, especially as there is marvellously
little noise or motion. Never have I known a train

68 COLORADO.

glide along so smoothly and quietly. The little
engine " buckled right down to her work," like
Chiquita, and made no ado about it for several
miles, when, I grieve to say, she suddenly balked
and had to be " switched." We took another horse,
and went on merrily to the end of the road. Here
we all alighted, and watched the men laying rails
and driving spikes. The remorseless officers of the
road insisted on my paying my way by driving a
spike. It was a cruel tax on my " muscular Chris-
tianity." The newspaper report said that I "drove
that spike home triumphantly." But I really thought
it " would n't go home till morning."

This narrow-gauge road, when finished to El Paso,
will be a wonderful route, for pleasure as well as
commerce, as it will be almost unrivalled for vari-
ety and grandeur of scenery. The mountain views,
the pictures of river and park and plain, between
Denver and Colorado City, are especially magnifi-
cent.

On the 24th ultimo I started for a four days' tour
among the mountains, with some kind and hos-
pitable friends. We went first, by rail, some fif-
teen miles to Golden City, — " Golden," for short,

GOLDEN CITY. 69

— which I found very picturesquely situated, backed
by mountains, and barricaded, except at a grand
natural gateway, by high rocks, some like palisades,
some of a peculiar castellated form. Though Gol-
den is a mining town, its mines are not of gold
or silver or copper, but of coal. These lie in the
immediate vicinity of the town, and are said to be
of excellent quality. Golden is also a manufactur-
ing town. It has fine water-power, running flour-
mills, a paper-mill, a tannery, foundry, pottery, and
several brick-yards. At present, the town has, not-
withstanding its grand and picturesque surroundings,
a bare and desolate aspect, owing to the lack of
foliage. They have but lately had water enough to
make the growth of even the cottonwood possible.
Now that they have built aqueducts, and dug ditches,
and made a requisition on Clear Creek to supply their
deficiencies, there is a fair prospect of gardens and
boulevards that will utterly transform this brown
and arid spot, and make it worthy its enticing name.
Clear Creek is a misnomer. Its once translucent
current has of late years been roiled and spoiled by
gulch-mining and crushing-mills in the mountains.
There is a wild Golden legend that tells how that

70 COLORADO.

venerated friend of Colorado, Hon. Horace Greeley,
once came near losing his valuable life in Clear Creek.
A vicious mule flung him off, right into the muddy-
torrent. He recovered himself, and calmly waded
ashore ; but he lost his hat. That also was finally
recovered ; but, alas ! it was white no more.

The first college of the Territory, Jarvis Hall, a
fine, picturesque edifice, with a grand, airy situation
(it was blown down one night), is at Golden. It is
under the especial patronage of Bishop Randall, and
is an excellent institution.

Here is the present terminus of the Colorado Cen-
tral Railroad, and from this point they are now work-
ing on the new narrow gauge up Clear Creek Caiion,
to Black Hawk and Central. This road is to be fin-
ished next summer, and will be an incalculable benefit
to both the mining and agricultural interests of the
Territory. Captain Fred. Grant, son of the Presi-
dent, is doing engineer duty on this road, and is just
now stationed at Golden, where he is very popular ;
winning, in fact, "golden opinions from all sorts of
people."

Doubtless this is going to be a great place in the
course of time, busy and noisy ; but at present it is a

GOLDEN TO CENTRAL. 7I

nice, quiet retreat for invalids. It boasts a fine hotel,
well kept. By the way, the landlady, Mrs. Abbott,
was once a passenger in a stage-coach which was
attacked on the plains by a band of chivalrous Chey-
ennes. She escaped, with several arrows sticking in
her arms and shoulders. These romantic mementos,
these primitive relics, should doubtless have prompted
her and her friends to deal gently with the erring red
man, but I don't think they did.

The head of our party, Mr. E. M. Ashley, of the
Surveyor-General's ofBce, had preceded us with his
carriage, which we took here, and travelled the rest
of our way with the utmost independence and com-
fort.

A little way out of Golden, where the road led up
the bare, bleak, immense foot-hills, a bright vision
flashed by us. It was a beautiful young lady on
horseback, elegantly dressed and mounted, and riding
superbly. In that wild and lonely spot, the effect was
absolutely startling. The road from Golden to Central
formerly led up Clear Creek Canon, a grand route ;
but floods rendering that impassable, the present
mountain road was constructed, which, though less
picturesque, is far more safe and easy. Still it has

72 COLORADO.

its grand points. From the summit of Guy's Hill you
have enchanting views onward to the snowy range,
and back over the plains ; and the descent, a marvel-
lous winding way, is a magnificent piece of engineer-
ing. Indeed, our whole drive till we struck Clear
Creek, in the neighborhood of Black Hawk, was a
succession of vast and beautiful pictures. The moun-
tain roads have astonished me by their excellence.
The ascents and descents are admirably managed
everywhere. I was agreeably surprised by the beauty
and profusion of flowers and foliage on our way,
though in too many places the mountain-sides had
been ruthlessly denuded of all large timber, and there
were here and there dark, desolate tracts, where fire
had done its terrible work. We saw, as we ascended,
few signs of animal life. All was stillness and quiet ;
not a mountain-sheep or young lion cheered our
sight, not a wildcat or a bear enlivened the soli-
tude. Now and then flocks of crows flung swift,
black shadows on our way, and along the roadside,
from rock to rock, " leaped the live lightning " of the
ground-squirrel, and the shy gray gopher darted in
and out of its hole in the bank.

By and by the holes in the hillside grew larger, and

GULCH-MINING. 73

I was told they belonged to human gophers, — were
the marks of prospecting or the mouths of tunnels, —
and I knew we were nearing the great mining region.

At the point where the road enters Clear Creek
Canon all beauty ends, for gulch-mining begins. It
were, I fear, impossible to give one who has seen
nothins: of the kind an idea of the fearful transfer-
mation which this process works in a clear, beautiful
mountain stream ; of the violence and cruelty and
remorselessness of its course ; how it heads it off,
and backs it up, and commits highway robbery upon
it, — " Your gold or your life ! " — how it twists it and
tortures it, and dams it (no profanity intended), and
ruffles and roils it by panning and sluicing and shaft-
sinking, till its own pure mother-fountain up among
the eternal snows would n't know it !

The sluices which abound in this gulch are narrow
wooden channels with riffles in the bottom, up against
which lurks the detective quicksilver, to arrest and
hold the runaway particles of gold in the swift water.
About once a week the water is turned off, and the
gold collected. Men are kept at work carting gravel,
or wheeling it in barrows, for these sluices. In some
places they stood knee-deep in water, dipping up the

74 COLORADO.

precious mud. A more slavish business could not
well be imagined. All the way up this deep gorge,
on each mountain-side, are pits and tunnels of gold-
seekers, most of them abandoned, and every few rods
you come upon an idle shaft or crushing-mill, going
to ruin. Many of these are but proofs of individual
failure, lack of means, courage, or capacity, not of
the absence of ore at those points. More are the
monuments of stock-jobbing and all sorts of swin-
dling enterprises. Many idle crushing-mills belong
to companies owning rich mines, but at present par-
alyzed by the " freezing " operation ; some few mem-
bers, or one member owning a controlling amount of
stock, having decided to stop work under pretence
that the lead has given out, or does not pay. Of
course, when the stock becomes satisfactorily depre-
ciated, these clever managers buy it all up, and after
a decent interval recommence work. They can
afford to wait, the gold will not run away. Trans-
actions of this kind, not taking into account " wild-
cat" speculations, have done immense injury to the
reputation and the interests of Colorado. But there
is gold here, plenty of it, in spite of all these failures
and disasters and monstrous swindles and mountain-

A SULPHUROUS LOCALITY. 75

ous lies, — gold, virgin pure, and waiting only for
honest enterprise and manly energy and constancy.
She waits for miners, not gamblers.

Though several large stamp-mills are at work in
Black Hawk, I believe the smelting process is thought
to be the best, as saving the largest percentage of
gold. Hill's smelting works are the most extensive.
In a large yard the ore is first subjected to a desul-
phurizing process. Wood is piled up as for charcoal
burning, the ore laid on it, and covered with earth ;
then the wood is fired, and the precious mass above
compelled to render up its unpleasant ghost. The
smoke of its torment ascendeth up, and chokes the
traveller on the high road. There is something fear-
fully suggestive in that dark hollow, with its never-
quenched fires, and those columns of yellow, suffo-
cating smoke ; and I did not doubt the story I was
told of a drunken man, who, having wandered in here
and fallen asleep, awoke in the sulphurous atmos-
phere to gasp out, " In at last ! "

Black Hawk is built on the little space of Clear
Creek valley that mining could spare, and on the
sides of two gulches, — Gregory and Chase, — all torn
and tunnelled and riddled, almost tumbled into chaos

76 COLORADO.

by miners and panners and crushers and smelters ;
yet still the place had for me, as had Central, a pro-
found, almost a tragic interest, — an impressiveness
far beyond beauty of scenery or pomp of architecture.
Here heroes have grappled with the hardest and
dreariest conditions of life ; have wrestled with nature
for the possession of the secret so cunningly hidden
for uncounted centuries ; splendid minds have bur-
rowed in these tunnels ; great, loving, homesick
hearts have toiled for love's and home's sake, down in
these dark shafts, — have toiled till they broke. Rich
as is all this wonderful region in silver and gold, it is
yet richer in the heroic and pathetic elements of
human life ; in the strength and tenderness, cour-
age and self-sacrifice, whose history can never be
written. These are the best treasures of this rude
mountain land ; no human assayer can value them,
no scales are fine enough to weigh them : impon-
derable, yet imperishable are they.

Narrow and dingy as is this mining town, its
people are making a brave effort to give it a look
of comfort, in pleasant private dwellings, neat
churches and fine school-buildings, perched up
against the mountain-side, where it would seem no

A MINING TOWN. 77

building larger than a miner's hut could find lodge-
ment. Scarcely a tree or shrub is to be seen, or
even a flower, except it be in some parlor window ;
but, as we drove up into Central, we came upon
a very pretty conservatory, attached to a neat cot-
tage. It was something strangely cheering, yet
touching, in the universal dreariness. It was like
a stray leaf out of " Paradise Lost,"

As we drove up the principal street of Central,
which seemed to me narrower and steeper than
almost any street in Edinburgh, Old Town, Mr.
Ashley pointed out to me the sites of the famous
Gregory and Bobtail lodes. The latter was named
in memory of a certain unfortunate ox used by
the original miner in drawing surface earth, in
which he had discovered gold, down to the creek
for washing. Would it have comforted the poor
animal in summer-time to know that his abbreviated
tail would be thus prolonged in history ?

Central is a wonderfully busy and interesting place.
Through its steep, rugged, and narrow streets pour
swift, ceaseless currents of travel and traffic, —
carriages, stages, loaded carts and wagons, trains
of packed mules, miners in their rough, but pic-

78 COLORADO.

turesque garb ; mounted drovers, eager-eyed specu-
lators, sleepy-eyed Mexicans, sullen Indians, curious
squaws, sunburned, lounging tourists. But the pic-
ture were somewhat somber, but for the pleasant
lights given it by groups of merry children and
bright-faced, handsomely dressed ladies. It is evi-
dent that there are happy homes in Central, and
churches and school-houses, and that people think
of something beside mines, though the town is
built on Pactolean gulches, seven times washed ;
though the hills above it look like the walls of
gigantic fortresses, thickly pierced as they are with
tunnels, like monstrous portholes ; though hundreds
of men in it lie down to prospect in dreams, and
rise up to pan or dig ; though for many the gold
fever dries up the very juices of youth, tinges all
life with a fearful moral jaundice. People here,
they say, mine in their cellars and wells and back
yards, and a careful housekeeper examines her tea-
kettle for gold deposits once a week. Gold is " i'
the air " in dusty weather ; and if you live long
enough here, you may " eat your peck " of gold,
instead of dirt of the common sort.

Colonel Frank Hall, the secretary of the Territory,

"specimens." 79

to whom I fortunately had letters, did the honors
of the town for us, — took us to the Miners and
Mechanics' Institute, where we saw rare and beau-
tiful mineral specimens ; to shops, where elegant
jewelry and silver-ware of native ore and home
manufacture are sold ; to the banks, where we
saw both silver and gold, in bewildering quantities
and in all forms, — nuggets and bars and dust,
and in the ponderous shape in which it comes
from the crucible. All this kindness, and much
beside, was done with a charm of finished courtesy
which, though it did not "gild refined gold," made
us realize that there was something in Central
better than gold.

We left Central about midday, and reached the
new mining town of Caribou before sunset, —
driving leisurely up and down, mostly up, excellent
roads, and feasting our eyes all the way on beauty
and sublimity. After rounding mountain point after
mountain point, and passing several thriving mining
settlements, we came, almost unaware, upon Caribou.
This wild young city is the utter opposite to Cen-
tral. Though nine thousand feet above the level
of the sea, it is in a broad, deep, bowl-like valley,

8o COLORADO.

green and beautiful. Young as it is, — scarcely a
year old, — there are evidences here of prevailing
ideas of comfort and taste. It is compact, neat,
and homelike. The stately evergreens with which
this region abounds have not all been ruthlessly sac-
rificed. Beside almost every miner's cabin stands
a tall pine, like a sentinel ; and all the way up the
valley, on the ground not built over, are lovely
clumps of those steadfast comforters of a wintry
climate and a " weary land." The whole place
looked to me marvellously cheerful, as, embowered
in unchanging green, it smiled back a brave an-
swer to the threatening glare of the eternal snows,
a little way above.

Still, to me, personally, there was a dreary sense
of wildness and strangeness here. I knew not one
of those brave miners, of those heroic women, who
had set up their tabernacles here in the wilderness,
just under the clouds and the snow. I could not
think that a soul in all that busy community would
have any interest in me. But when we stopped at
the pleasant Planters' House, and the landlady, a
bright, cheery, cordial-looking woman, came out to
meet us, and said, "I am glad to see you," and

THE VANGUARD. S^

spoke of having long ago read things which I sup-
posed were long ago forgotten by all the world, and
which I had tried to forget, I was strangely touched
and cheered.

That evening we sat down to supper with a good-
ly company of " honest miners," — men in rough
clothes and heavy boots, with hard hands and
with faces well bronzed, but strong, earnest, intelli-
gent. It was to me a communion with the bravest
humanity of the age, — the vanguard of civilization
and honorable enterprise. I believe that Caribou
is remarkable, even in this wonderful country and
time, for the orderly, moral, and intelligent character
of its people. Born after the evil reign of excite-
ment and reckless speculation was past, mining life
here is sober and laborious and law-abiding ; we,
at least, saw no gambling, no drunkenness, no rude-
ness, no idleness. A New England village, resting
under the beneficent shadows of the school-house,
an Orthodox church, and the county jail could not
present a more quiet and decorous aspect. At
night we fell asleep amid utter stillness and peace,
and should have slept on till morning, but for the
welcome disturbance of sweet music, — a really de-
4* F

82 COLORADO.

lightful serenade. We were almost as much charmed
and bewildered by those exquisite strains of the
violin and guitar, which seemed to us to come out
of the moonlight and the soft night-winds, as was
Prince Ferdinand by Ariel's music, in the wild air
of the enchanted island. And yet it was in per-
fect harmony with the scene. It seemed like the
shine of mountain-streams, the solemn shadows of
pines, the glimmer of floating mists, and the purity
of snows " sparkling to the moon," all translated
into sound. In the morning, escorted by a gallant
young miner, who won all our hearts by perfect
courtesy, we set out for a toilsome climb up the
mountain, to visit the great Caribou Mine. The
ore of this now famous lode is exceedingly rich
and practically inexhaustible. It was proposed that
I should descend into this mine by the shaft, which
is now sunk more than 200 feet, but my enthusiasm
was soon damped by observing the moist and muddy
condition of the ore as it came up. So I went
farther up the mountain, to a moderately deep and
dry mine, which I bravely descended in a bucket,
and with my own hand chipped off a bit of silver
ore, which I expect my posterity will piously pre-

A MOUNTAIN STORY-TELLER. 83

serve. It is all of that sort of thing they are
likely to receive from me.

We then ascended the highest point in that im-
mediate region, which was thereupon named after the
one of the party least deserving of an honor, which
should, I think, be conferred only on an actual settler.
Nevertheless, I hereby warn all miners against pros-
pecting or otherwise trespassing on my knob.

On this last ascent we were piloted by Ulysses
Pugh, an old pioneer, bear and elk hunter, and
miner of course, and he said we must see Samuel
Conger, the hero of Conger Mountain, one of the
discoverers of the Caribou lode, practical miner,
and ex-Indian fighter. So we went to the shaft
in which he is now working, and Samuel was evoked,
and came up, like Samuel of old, — only by a rope,
hand over hand. Then we all sat down on the
timbers by the mine, and the boys quit the wind-
lass and stood by, and — but how can I describe
the scene .'' The sunny slope of the mountain, all
grassy and flowery, the murmuring pines and whis-
pering aspens about us, the lovely valley below,
the grand heights above, the deep canon of the
North Boulder at our right, glistening snows to our

84 COLORADO.

left, and underneath us silver enough to furnish
tea-sets for every family in New England, and pap-
bowls for all the babies. And the day, — just warm
enough, just cool enough, balmy, beautiful, benig-
nant, perfect, — one of God's own days. So, to sit
there idling on that aromatic log, and listen to
hunting and mining adventures and Indian stories
which were the real thing, and no make-believes,
from Samuel and Ulysses, ah ! that was " richness."
We parted from these two at last as from old
friends, and they went back into their mines, from
which may they come up some day rich as Eastern
nabobs, and twice as jolly !

Our twenty miles' drive to Boulder City, over
grand heights, through lovely little parks, and wild
pine forests, and by the newly opened route down
the North Boulder Canon, then thrilled me with
wonder and delight, and now fills me with despair.
I know it is utterly indescribable. I have seen
nothing in America that has so impressed and
enchanted me. All the way, height and depth,
and the immensity of mountain and gorge, — sheer
granite walls, and massive, castle-like rocks, — are
softened and shaded and glorified by beauty incom-

INDIAN FIGHTERS. 85

parable ; by swift, bright, gurgling waters and silver
cascades, and by luxuriant foliage of every imagin-
able shade of green, touched here and there by
scarlet and gold and tints of ruddy brown, while
every shadowy place is illuminated with flowers.

Boulder is a remarkably pretty town, exquisitely
situated, just under the foot-hills, looking out on
the prairie. It is well watered, and is in the midst
of an agricultural region of great capabilities. The
Buttes — sharp, bare, rocky elevations, a mile or so
to the left of the town — make a striking and pic-
turesque feature of the town landscape. On the
sharpest of these, I was told, the Arapahoes once
" corralled " a band of Utes, and kept them there
several days. When the besiegers undertook to
storm the heights, which their arrows would not
reach, the Utes rolled down rocks, and so kept
them at bay till relief came.

By the way, I met at Boulder, and freely con-
versed with, several old Indian fighters, — men to
whose hardy valor and more than Roman firmness
hundreds of the citizens of Colorado to-day owe
their safety and the safety of their property. These
frankly acknowledge that they were in the terrible

86 COLORADO.

battle known to us as the " Sand Creek Massacre " ;
and after hearing their several simple, straightforward
statements, agreeing in every essential point, I should,
had I been doubtful before, have been convinced
that there were two sides to that dark and dread-
ful story.

I fully believe that these men felt driven by an
awful, imperative necessity, when, after having been
almost starved in their mountain camps by Indian
depredations, and the cutting off of supplies, after
coming upon the bodies of whole families of their
friends and neighbors literally chopped to pieces,
after having bodies of murdered women and chil-
dren shown in the market-places of their towns,
with wounds more eloquent than those of Caesar,
after despairing of efficient government aid, they
undertook that long winter march, surprised that
treacherous Indian camp, and made short, sharp
work in dealing with its inmates. If the slaughter
was indiscriminate, still I doubt not they were ac-
tuated by as stern a sense of duty as ever impelled
to deeds of vengeance and extermination our pious
Puritan sires, whose valiant deeds we glorify every
Forefathers' day.

THE SAND CREEK MASSACRE. 87

Still, I will add that these Sand Creek men, so
frank, so manly, and withal so gentle now, were guilty
of some excesses on that occasion. They fired alike
on the squaws, who stood and fought, and the braves,
who ran away ; and they pillaged as well as slaugh-
tered : for it has not been denied that they took
from the wigwams of these "friendly Indians,"
peacefully camped "under the protection of Fort
Lyon," stores of coffee and sugar, goods and bills
of lading just captured with trouble and peril from
trains on the Platte, and took also greenbacks and
boxes of boots and shoes, and clothing of all sorts,
only a little the worse for wear and blood, and pre-
cious relics, scalps of white women and children not
yet dry. One soldier confessed that he brought
away a delicate pair of shoes, a woman's shoes,
which looked, he said, as though they had been
filled with blood. Another soldier has ever since
preserved as a memento, but has now given to me,
a gayly painted shield, which he took from a slain
brave, and which should have been tenderly buried
with him, for it was doubtless a precious possession
to the young man, being tufted with many eagle
feathers, and especially decorated with a large scalp of

88 COLORADO.

fine, soft, brown hair, evidently that of a young
white girl. But really now, my dear friend, if those
gory shoes had belonged to your mother or mine,
and if that beautiful hair had been torn from the
head of your dear daughter or mine, and we had not
been prejudiced in favor of the Indians, we should,
perhaps, have thought that measures of retaliation
and protection, somewhat severe, were about that
time justifiable. In our human weakness, we might
have said, The swifter, the sterner, the more ter-
rible and thorough the punishment for such deeds
the better. We might at this day be less hard in
our judgment on the desperate men pointed out as
" the savage leaders " in that massacre, and less in-
clined to pen savage " leaders " against the poor
harassed settlers of Texas and Arizona. All through
our beautiful drive back to Denver, over those soft
rising swells of the prairie which merge into the
billowy foot-hills, out of which tower the mighty
granite waves of the great range, — through all
those smiling, peaceful scenes, I carried that bar-
baric shield, a hideous memento of a time of terror
and bloodshed only a little way back in the past.
Every now and then those soft, girlish locks were

BOULDER TALK. 89

blown against my hand, and always the touch sent
to my heart a thrill of wondering pity. Poor child !
" Who was her father ? Who was her mother ? "

That night the strange trophy was in my chamber,
and I could not sleep. I seemed to be alternately
haunted by the murdered girl, who was the original
owner of the scalp, and by the bereaved brave to
whom it had belonged by right of conquest.

Captain Aikens of Boulder, a hardy, handsome old
pioneer, told me some interesting Indian stories,
which I regret that I have not room for here. One
of his peculiar expressions amused me. Describing
the astonishment of an Arapahoe chief who came
to warn him away from his mine, and whom he
in turn threatened and defied, he said, " Why, you
could have lariated his eyes ! "

Another miner, while gazing on a friend whom he
found after an Indian raid, lying by his cabin dead,
scalped, and stuck as full of arrows as a St. Sebas-
tian, said, mournfully, " Poor fellow ! he has gone
over the range."

Another, on seeing a bald-headed stranger ap-
proaching the camp, exclaimed, " Hello, boys ! here
comes a man with his head above timber line."

9° COLORADO.

Idaho Springs, Col., September 9, 1871.
I left Denver on the morning of the 7th by stage
for this celebrated mountain watering-place. I was
an outside passenger, — indeed, had the place of
honor by the side of the driver, a famous Jehu,
known only to me as " Hi," which is probably
"short" for Hiram. Along the wildest, and steepest
parts of the route he drove six fiery steeds in a
delightfully reckless style, spinning along by quite
satisfactory precipices. Over one of these, he told
me, his leaders once fell and dangled and "screamed,"
and he alone held up the others and saved the
coach ! How is that for Hiram > And we had a
"thunder-storm in the Rocky Mountains," which
approached as near the real thing as nature can get
to Bierstadt, and saw real Indians lurking under
the aspens by the roadside. It is true the storm
was soon over, and the savages consisted of a small
brave of some twelve summers, two squaws, and a
pappoose ; but such little incidents give a dash of
adventure and romance to travel in this dull country,
where there are no railroad disasters and no brigand-
age. The Indians about here are mountain vagrants,
belonging to the "friendly Ute " tribe. These are

AN INDIAN GHOST STORY. 9I

they who rallied to the protection of our beloved
Vice-President and his party against a threatened
attack from the Arapahoes in the Middle Park, some
three years ago, and who afterward gave their dis-
tinguished proteges rather more of their society than
was quite agreeable ; there being at the best more
of the Utele than the diilcc about it.

By the way, a pleasant fellow-outsider entertained
me that morning with some accounts of Indian fights
and scares, and one quite singular Indian ghost-story.
An officer of the commissary, he said, related that
once, while on a business expedition to one of these
mountain tribes, he was sitting at night in a wigwam
with several chiefs, smoking and conversing amica-
bly, when suddenly the Indians sprung up with looks
of terror and ran out. He followed and inquired the
meaning of the stampede, and was told that the
ghost of a lately deceased brave had appeared in
their midst. He looked back into the wigwam and
saw only the favorite dog of the departed chief,
which was behaving very strangely, leaping up and
fawning on the air, with every sign of canine delight
and affection. The awe-struck Indians said, '* He
sees his master."

COLORADO.

How they saw him, when the white man could
not, I did not learn, nor how long for the dog the
vision lingered, but it is pleasant to think that the
poor animal's loving demonstrations could not have
been cut short by a brutal blow or kick. I think,
if I were the dog or the squaw of a noble savage,
I should prefer him in such an unsubstantial shape.

This animal seership is not a new idea. I re-
member a beautiful old picture of the " Nativity
of the Virgin," by Murillo, I think, in which no
one of a large group of elderly gossips and pretty
maidens, come to see the baby, perceives an angel
also looking on with mild interest, but a dog evi-
dently sees the celestial visitor, and is sniffing in
an awe-struck manner at his cerulean robes.

The fellow-passenger I have referred to I found
a refined and cultivated gentleman. He came to
Colorado several years ago, fresh from Harvard,
and has been ever since engaged in mining or
superintending a mine. Though all his golden
dreams have not been realized, he loves this grand
mountain-land too much to leave it. Another gen-
tleman tells me that in some localities three out
of five of the practical miners are college-bred

IDAHO ijPRINGS.

men. Two ex-professors of Yale are said to be
mining at Caribou.

Idaho is cosily ensconced in a most picturesque
valley, on the south branch of ubiquitous Clear
Creek. It is still a modest little place, but it has
two excellent hotels, and the sulphur springs and
soda-baths are making it a most attractive point
for invalids. The warm swimming-baths are es-
pecially delightful, and are said to be most efficacious
in cases of skin disease and rheumatism. The water
is singularly buoyant ; one would find it difficult to
commit suicide in it, without, like Merdle, calling
in the aid of a penknife.

I have not been able to make any excursions, or to
visit any of the mines in this vicinity, as the " big
rains are in," and after such an unprecedented dry
season, we can hardly count on fair weather very soon.
I found here Mr. and Mrs. S. S. Cox, old Columbus
and Washington acquaintances, genial companions
always, but now, with their sympathies quickened
and their pleasant wit stimulated by deep draughts
of the new wine of life from the wild vintages of
California and Colorado, they overflow with kindly
feeling and joyous spirits. There is also at this nice

Q4 COLORADO.

hotel — the Beebee House — a delightful family from
my native State, who, having spent a whole sum-
mer here, are yet unwilling to depart. Everybody
seems friendly here. Very slight, sometimes, are
the grounds of special sympathy and acquaintance.
Mr. Cox says it reminds him of a friendly inn-
keeper at Alcantara, who, on hearing he was from
New York, said, with generous effusion, " Ah, Senor,
I feel acquainted with you! I have a friend in
Brazil."

Idaho is thought a better point for consumptives
than Georgetown ; but I think, from all I can learn,
that such invalids should not come into the moun-
tains at all, but stop at Greeley, Denver, Golden,
or Boulder, or at a lovely place among the pines
called " Wilson's," about half-way between here and
Denver. The very quality of this upper mountain
air, which renders, it almost a certain cure for
asthma, its extreme rarity, makes it hurtful to
lungs badly diseased. There have been several sad
cases this year of sudden deaths from hemorrhages.
Invalids, intoxicated by the ethereal purity of the
air, stimulated by scenery so new and grand, led
on and up by the enticing mysteries of mountain

A LAND FOR INVALIDS. 95

gorge and torrent and lake, and by the splendors
of snowy heights, that mock and yet allure, ex-
haust themselves before they are aware, and sink
with fearful rapidity.

I have no doubt, however, that with proper care
and comfortable and quiet living, decided consump-
tive tendencies can be overcome, and firm health
estabHshed in Colorado. • Bronchitis and sore-throat
are usually cured, but catarrh is likely to be aggra-
vated, on the plains and foot-hills at least, proba-
bly by the dust and wind-storms.

As for confirmed asthmatics, — unhappy men and
women who, like shipwrecked mariners perishing
of thirst, with " water, water everywhere," gasp and
fight for their scanty breath in a world of air, —
they who find it not difficult to realize the suffer-
ings of men suffocated in mines, or the horrors
of the "Black Hole" of Calcutta, — they who once
a year at least must rehearse the death-agony,
yet cannot die, — for them, brothers and sisters in
affliction, I have to say that I do not beheve there
is out of Heaven such a place as the mountain
land of Colorado. The higher I have gone thus
far, the better it has seemed for me. Even the

96 COLORADO.

brief dampness which here follows a storm seems
not to be hurtful, so unlike is it to the harsh, raw
dampness of the East and North. But when the
air is perfectly dry it is to me the most buoyant
and delicious. It has all the ethereal properties of
champagne. I drink it in long, deep draughts.
The worst of it is, it goes to my head, and I do
not sleep well. I have here a peculiar lightness
of the brain, as well as of the spirits. This may
be a temporary effect, due in great part to mental
excitement. Real mountaineers are famous sleep-
ers, I believe.

This Idaho valley, now so bare of all verdure and
foliage, was once grassy and thickly wooded. It has
been wasted and despoiled of all such beauty by
the gold-seekers, principally gulch-miners. In one
place the golden stream had been so severely
dealt with, — its very bed taken out from under it,
pits dug beside it, rocks tumbled about, — that I
exclaimed, " Surely, mining did not do all this ; it
looks like a convulsion of nature ! "

" A convulsion of human nature, madam," said a
fellow-traveller.

Towering above Idaho, in full sight from the hotel,

SUNSET IN A STORM. 97

is that interesting family group of mountains called
the Chief, the Squaw, and the Pappoose, — the only
dignified noble savages and really friendly Indians I
have yet seen, and the only ones not likely to move
on. The poor Chief has lost his scalp-lock ; that is,
his head is above timber line, being over eleven
thousand feet high.

It is so rainy that we cannot make the acquaint-
ance of this aboriginal first family. Mr. Cox, with
an adventurous friend, did make the ascent day
before yesterday to Chicago Lakes, to seek the scene
of Bierstadt's " Storm," and got it, — the storm.
The grand scene kept up its reputation, hailed the
distinguished gentlemen, gave them a thunderous
greeting, and illuminated for them with sharp light-
nings. Old Congressmen as they were, and accus-
tomed to public appearances, they were quite over-
whelmed with their reception ; and when they retired
to rest in an abandoned log-cabin, lacking the little
luxury of a roof, and the demonstration was kept up,
they confessed that it was possible to have too much
of the sublime and beautiful — of the Bierstadtic
order. During that night of grand storm " effects "
and unusual length, our poetic Democratic friend was
5-

g8 COLORADO.

never once heard to quote appropriate passages from
"Childe Harold," but, strangely enough, as he lay
there cowering under his blanket, and clinging close
to his companion, an old schoolfellow, his lips every
now and then gave forth a well-remembered cry of
his childhood, desolate and wondrous pitiful, " O
Mark, I want to go home ! "

The great painter of twenty-tnousand-dollar pic-
tures should have been there again, to have painted
" Sunset " on the Rocky Mountains.

Georgetown, September 20.
On a fair but fickle morning succeeding a night of
storm, I drove up from Idaho with my genial friends,
Mr. and Mrs. Cox. The valley of South Clear
Creek is, between the Springs and Georgetown,
peculiarly picturesque and lovely. Every now and
then it opens out into miniature parks, green and
flowery ; and the stream itself — now sweeping
along in the shadow of grand mountains, now flash-
ing in the sunlight — is not only beautiful, but has
a charm of its own, of mystery and destiny, is sug-
gestive, with its alluring shine and silvery tattle, of
vast treasures hid away in the wilds from which it

THE DEVIL S GATE.

comes. This Clear Creek, in all its course, in all its
branches, is a marvellous, enticing stream.

Georgetown nestles like a darling close up against
these great mountains, that tower protectingly above
her some two thousand feet. It lies most of the day
in shadow. Old Summit heads off the morninor hght :
Republican anticipates the evening shades. Here
we see neither sunrise nor sunset. I miss the latter ;
the former is not of much account.

At the Barton House, the fashionable hotel of the
town, we met some friends who had previously invited
us to a "miners' dinner," at a mountain ranch about
two miles above the town. We followed up the
canon by a steep, wild, winding road, amid gather-
ing mists and under heavy threatening clouds. On
the way, the gentlemen left the carriage to follow out
a rocky point, from which to look down on a peculiar,
narrow passage in the creek, called the Devil's Gate.
This I have since seen, and found really grand. A
lady tourist visited it awhile ago, leaving her little
daughter in the care of a friend in Georgetown. On
her return, the child ran up to her in great excite-
ment, exclaiming, " O mamma ! was the Devil at
home ? "

lOO COLORADO.

The ranch to which we had been invited belongs
to the rich Silver Plume Mine, and is perched up
among the pines on a grand rocky ledge, command-
ing one of the most wild and striking, yet lovely
views of this region. The house, neat, commodious,
and even picturesque, is Bachelors' Hall, where no
feminine housekeeper intrudes, where no Dinah mo-
lests, and no Biddy maketh afraid. Two of the man-
agers of the mine, Mr. S and Colonel G , are

the proprietors of the establishment, though their

friend, Judge B , has all the privileges of the

house, — to eat, and sleep, and cook, and wash dishes.
There our hosts, courteous and cultivated gentlemen,
set us down to a well-appointed table, and served us
to course after course of meats admirably cooked and
vegetables in bewildering variety. For dessert we
had pudding, fruits, and three kinds of pie. I have
always had a misgiving that our monopoly of the
kitchen department is a usurpation, and this experi-
ment convinced me that we have carried things with
too high a hand. After that most remarkable and
jolly dinner — a revolutionary banquet — was over,
Mrs. Cox and I meekly proposed to assist in the
" clearing up," and were finally permitted to wipe the

BACHELOR S HALL. lOl

dishes. We did our best, perceiving that our per-
formance was watched very critically. Such neat-
ness, such order in kitchen and pantry, filled us with
envious despair. Yet I would not have men display-
ing such domestic faculties disfranchised. I would
rather, if I could, encourage such rare virtues by
frequent visits to the Silver Plume House.

By the way, gentlemen visitors before accepting
the hospitalities of our brave mountaineers, bachelors
for the nonce, are required to subscribe to the fol-
lowing

RULES AND REGULATIONS.

1. Guests, upon arrival, will divest themselves of their
hats and coats, and proceed to make themselves useful.

2. Meals served when they are ready.

3. No lights allowed in the rooms after the candles have
burned out.

4. No gambling allowed in the house unless the landlord
is in the game.

5. If you wish any water, the creek is seventy yards
south of the house, and the pail in the kitchen.

6. No complaints of the servants will be tolerated.

7. If your boots require shining, the blacking and brushes
are behind the door, — shine away.

I02 COLORADO.

8. If the cooking does not please you, the larder, stove,
and wood are at your disposal.

9. The only brand of spirits or wines allowed to be
drunk in the house is the O. P. (other people's) brand,

10. Any guest not liking these rules is at liberty to help
himself to mustard.

The "Silver Plume" is one of the prettiest and
most suggestive names yet given to a mine. Some
are very striking, like the " Terrible," and some odd
and ludicrous, like the " Bobtail," the " Big Thunder,"
the " Spondulics," the " Poor Woman," and the
" Spotted Jack." The legend of the latter is, that as
a prospector reached a certain point on a mountain
trail, his pack animal, a piebald Jack, stopped short,
braced himself, and utterly refused to budge an-
other step. Neither blows nor blandishments had
any effect. Could he have spoken, as spake one of
his kind when belabored by the Prophet Balaam,
he might have said : " Why beatest thou thy servant ?
Beholdest thou not the angel of fortune standing
in the trail before us, with a drawn silver sword ?
Seest thou not the ' blossom rock ' at thy feet .'' "

At last the miner chanced to perceive in the soil

BRAINS FOR CONGRESS. 103

on which he stood the sure indication of ore, and in
his gratitude, and as an amende honorable for the
beating, bestowed upon the lode then discovered the
name of " Spotted Jack." Here may have been a
donkey diviner, an inspired ass. Such things have
been.

The next day's event was a horseback excur-
sion to Green Lake, a beautiful and unique sheet
of water, lying High up among the mountains in
a deep, dark privacy of rock and pine. Just be-
yond it is a wonderful wild spot, known _ as the
Battle-Ground of the Gods, where the valley is
covered many feet deep with rocks, immense
boulders, which have been hurled down, in some
awful tumult of the elements, from the mountains
on both sides.

Green Lake is a pleasure resort, with nice build-
ings and boats, at present in charge of three young
miners resting from severer labors. We found them
remarkably cultivated and courteous young gentle-
men. They rowed us to the upper end of the
lake, where there is a singular natural curiosity.
Far down under the clear, green water are to be
seen large round rocks, covered with a peculiar

I04 COLORADO.

kind of moss, which gives them a remarkable re-
semblance to the lobes of the human brain. I re-
marked to the honorable gentleman from New York,
that it was a pity this great natural deposit of brains
was not more contiguous to the capital of our coun-
try, — there might be a chance for a contract to
supply Congress. Came the withering reply, "Yes,
madam, and the newspaper people ; I 'm opposed to
monopolies."

We made very good time down the mountain,
hurried by low, muttered threats of thunder, and
gentle hints of lightning, with a mild suggestion
of drizzle, and, finally, unequivocal expressions in
the shape of big, dancing drops of rain. Just
as we reached the sheltering porch of the hotel,
a silvery sheet of hail shut down upon us like a
portcullis.

That afternoon my pleasant companions left me,
left with Colorado not half seen, — he at the call
of his country and the Ku-Klux committee, she at his
call, though Snake River Pass beguiled and Gray's
Peak allured. All that dreary night it stormed, and
in the morning the mountains on three sides of us
were white with snow. O strange, wild scene !

ELECTION DAY AT THE MINES. I05

O marvellous leap, from midsummer into De-
cember !

But the next day was mild and bright, and elec-
tion day. I watched the gathering of the clans,
the passing of processions and brass bands, with
unusual interest. These manly men, brave pioneers
and miners, seem to make much of the privilege
of electing their county officers, are thankful for
small favors in the way of the franchise. I never
looked upon an election crowd more earnest and
orderly, or so intelligent looking. The mire of
politics, the corruption of the polls, did not seem
to have hurt them much. The Judge of Probate,
elected by an unprecedented majority, is a young
man of twenty-four. Colorado is the paradise of
young men ; but they must be young men of tal-
ent, energy, tact, pluck, and of a fiery yet chiv-
alrous spirit.

I was that night present at a sumptuous supper
given by the Judge elect, in his elegant house, to
the band, — all young Englishmen, and all miners
on the great " Terrible " lode. They were accom-
panied by the foreman of the mine, a very intelli-
gent Cornishman, and by their superintendent, Mr.
5*

Io6 COLORADO.

Olds, a gentleman of remarkable talent and culti-
vation, and the pleasantest of companions. It was,
I confess, something of a surprise to me to find
all these Terrible fellows so intelligent, so well
dressed, so agreeable- Transformed from gnomes
into very agreeable fellow-creatures, they passed with
ease and dignity from the "shaft" to the stairway,
and from the " drift " to the drawing-room.

The candidate they honored did not treat them,
had not treated any man that day to anything
stronger than coffee and cigars. " O wise young
Judge ! "

A day or two later I rode up the creek to the
Terrible, kindly escorted by Mr. Olds. Here I
first entered a great tunnel, lighting my own way
by a flickering candle. Twice we had to stand
aside, — cower close up against the wall, out of the
way of a loaded car, — and once we were arrested
by miners running out of a drift, with the warn-
ing cry of " Fire ! " followed almost immediately by
the dull thunder of a blast. After the suffocating
smoke had somewhat cleared away, we followed up
the drift, and clambered over the fresh heap of
rock torn down by the blast. That and the great

UNDERGROUND. I07

timbers at the entrance of the drift, and the steep
iron ladder reaching to the level above, gave me
my first full realization of the stupendous, titanic
labor necessary to the mere opening of a mine ; for
though the Terrible has turned out a great deal
of excellent ore, its superintendent considers that
they have only yet made "a small beginning." The
great Burleigh Tunnel, a little way down the valley,
has gone in nearly twelve thousand feet, and has
not yet reached " paying ore." This great work is
being executed by monstrous drills, driven by at-
mospheric pressure. Of course, just before those
mighty engines shines the great lead.

After leaving the tunnel we visited the other
works, and I became tolerably familiar with all the
laborious processes of sorting, dressing, and washing
the ore. Everything of the kind is strangely inter-
esting to me, and the faith, the energy, the con-
stancy, the hard, heroic industry of these men excite
in my heart the most respectful admiration.

In the cabin of one of the miners I saw an en-
gaging pair of pets, — a pretty black-and-tan terrier
and a peaceful tiger-marked cat, — who are the most
gentle and jolly comrades, frolicking together by the

Io8 COLORADO.

hour, and going off together to hunt the ground-
squirrel. Together, they follow the miner -when he
goes sporting or prospecting, trotting after him all
day, and creeping under his blanket at night. The
terrier is called " the dog of the mine," ready to
be caressed by every hand ; but the cat is exclusive
in her devotion, and it is scarcely safe for a stranger
to touch her. She seems to take the caninity from
her playfellow, and to have bestowed her felinity
upon him.

On our way down the mountain we met the Green
Lake boys, out on a prospecting tour, probably.
When they first came to the Territory they invested
all they possessed in a mine, which proved a failure ;
but not daunted or discouraged, they are as ready as
ever to hurl all their energies and resolve at the
stony heart of the mountain. I wish them good
luck, yet all I see here convinces me that mining
without capital is a phantom. Only large means
can insure large results. It is only when the greedy
earth is gorged with a great deal of money, that it
will disgorge a little gold and silver. Capital bears
as hard on labor here as elsewhere. I am told the
law requires that the poor miner, before he can even

MINING NEEDS MONEY. lOQ

get out a patent to secure his claim, must put upon
it ^i,ooo in labor and machinery. This and his
surveys necessitate an outlay of $ 1,200 to begin
with. Then there is his support, and often that of
a family, with the cost of living fearfully high. So
it is that we find the ground in some mining regions
honeycombed with abandoned claims. Boarded-up
tunnels and idle windlasses are far oftener indication^
of the failure of means in the miner than of ore
in the mine. The running of railroads into this
region, and the consequent reduction in the cost of
transportation, labor, and living, will work a great
revolution. Colonel Thomas A. Scott is the coming
man for Colorado. His name, if he carries out the
grand enterprises ascribed to him, will be lettered in
silver and gold on the granite of the Rocky Moun-
tains. But for the present let the poor man come
here, if come he must, with no wild dreams of sure
and speedy success. Fortune must here be wooed,
not only with heart and a strong hand, but a full

purse.

September 22.

There is in Georgetown a certain old pioneer,
prospector, soldier, journalist, philosopher, and friend.

no COLORADO.

by name Stephen Decatur, but accosted everywhere
in the Territory, where every man must have a title
or a sobriquet, as " Commodore," — a man known of
all tourists, and well beloved of miners and little
children. To this pleasant and well-informed ac-
quaintance I am indebted for the crowning pleasure
of my visit to the mountains, — an excursion to the
Divide and Snake River Pass.

We set forth early this morning under a glorious
assurance of sunshine and clear skies, which held out
to the end. The drive of ten miles through a lonely
valley, along a winding road continually ascending,
was to me a succession of delicious surprises. The
aspens, which grow profusely along this creek and
for some distance up the mountain-sides, and the low
shrubs and plants, were touched by late frosts into
exquisite shades of gold and scarlet and crimson and
brown, lighting up the grand gloom of the pine and
spruce ; then the mountains, towering above us in
majestic beauty, marred here and there though their
stern faces were by tunnel-wounds and boom-ditch
gashes. It makes one dizzy to look to some of the
points at which the miners are at work. They
have tapped the mountain at elevations one would

DIVIDE AND SNAKE RIVER. Ill

say only a wild bird could reach. At last gleamed
before us, above the gloom and the green and
the gold, the distant, defiant peaks, where eternal
snow and silence and mystery brood over the
secrets of nature, which as yet men can only
guess at.

As we drew nearer to the snow-crowned moun-
tains, and wound up toward the pass, it was cu-
rious to mark the gradations by which the foliage
of the valley disappeared. The aspen, trembling
and shrinking more and more, gave out first ; the
sturdy pine kept on bravely for a while, but seemed
to cower toward the earth, became cramped and
distorted, peaked and pined, straggled in the
march, and at last fell back. We had passed
"timber line ;" and there remained only a few scant
grasses and brave little flowers and small lichen-
like plants, which kept along with us to the very
summit of the pass.

Fortunately, the air was soft and almost perfect-
ly clear, so that it was pleasant for us to linger
on the very highest point of the pass, and possi-
ble for us to see a great distance on both the At-
lantic and Pacific sides of that wonderful mountain

112 COLORADO.

world. Six miles to our right was Grey's Peak,
fifteen thousand feet above the level of the sea. It
scarcely seemed more than two miles away. We
could easily see a party of tourists toiling up to the
dazzling summit. When we marked through what
heavy snows they were obliged to make their way,
we were quite content with our 12,500 feet. There
were a few patches of snow on the point we occu-
pied, quite enough for the indispensable snow-balls,
and not too much for comfort. I sat there on
that bare, desolate peak long enough to let the
vast, grand scene sink deeply and ineradicably into
my memory. It was more solemnly grand to me
than any Alpine scene I remember. The Alps, I
think, are more wild and broken and jagged ;
they lack the awful repose of these stupendous
shapes ; they dazzle more with their glaciers and
astonish with their white, sharp heights : these
overwhelm one with their vastness, their solidity,
their mighty, dome-like swells. They seem to be
taking a continent to themselves ; you can scarcely
imagine any land beyond them. It strikes me
it is like the difference between a sea tossed by a
sudden tempest, broken, tumultuous, and foaming,

THE LITTLE BROWN PIONEER. II3

and a sea subsiding after a great storm, rolling, dark
and sullen, in mighty swells, with only the mighti-
est capped with the white froth of its fury.

The road leading down into the valley of the
Snake River seems one of most enticing perilous-
ness and beauty. It was hard for me to turn back
without exploring it and the lovely parks and wild
canons beyond. But the time is almost come when
I must turn my steps from Colorado altogether.

We ate our lunch, seated among the rocks by
the roadside, sharing our " grub-pile " with the
road-master and toll-gatherer, — a Colorado soldier,
a man of much intelligence and genial feeling,
whom it would be pleasant to meet anywhere ;
and before we left the range there came along a
young prospector and hunter, who told me how he
had been " corralled " up a tree by a she-grizzly,
which also was a pleasant and piquant incident.

I must not forget to record still another little
incident of this day of days.

Just as we passed " timber line," in our ascent,
a little brown bird started out from a bush by the
roadside, and flew along before us, evidently lead-
ing the way, giving out now and then a cheery

114 COLORADO.

chirp of welcome and encouragement From rock
to rock, up all the dreary way, past steep declivi-
ties, over banks of snow, it flitted ; pausing, when
we paused to give our panting horses breath, and
looking back at us, always with that patronizing
chirp and a pretty sidelong bob of the head. Dear
little friendly creature ! Blithe spirit of the soli-
tude! A palpitating joy, — vocal, yet unconscious
love and courage and thanksgiving, — unawed by
those awful white heights, by those dark depths,
by the vastness and loneliness and solemn silence
of that upper world, it bathed in the soft air and
radiant sunshine, and so nestled in the bosom of
Nature and of God.

I shall leave Georgetown, and particularly the
house in which I have been most tenderly enter-
tained, with keen regret. The town itself, though
charmingly situated, is not attractive to Eastern
eyes. It sadly lacks foliage ; it is rocky and stumpy;
and some of its streets are needlessly rough and
steep. But the people are singularly cordial and
agreeable. They are truly democratic in their greet-
ing to strangers. The rich capitalist is received as
handsomely as the honest miner come to seek his

COMING OF THE FEEBLE AND FASHIONABLE. II5

fortune. The elegant tourist or sportsman, even
if he be an English lord, is treated kindly, if he
shows a disposition to rise to the conditions of the
new life around him, and rough off his rank.

The new narrow-gauge railroad from Golden to
Central is to be continued to Georgetown. This
will not only be an immense help toward the
development of the mines, but will make the town
more than ever the resort of tourists and invalids.
New hotels will be built, and rustic cottages ; and
the suffering and the sensible, and, alas ! the fash-
ionable and the pretentious, will set in upon it
in crowds. Saratoga trunks, if they can get on
the narrow-gauge, will come in. Hitherto, the
immense charges for extra baggage have almost
laid an embargo on them. Actresses coming to
Colorado have been compelled, at a painful sacri-
fice of their modesty, to " shed the light frivolity
of dress " in a great measure. But by another
season or two, belles in distracting French toilets
will invade tunnels and crushing -mills, and de-
scend into shafts, and plunge into drifts, and storm
the Devil's Gate.

Il6 COLORADO.

Denver, September 27.

A week ago I came down from the mountains,
and somehow have not felt much like finishing
my letter since. An outside stage-coach drive of
fifty miles, beginning at 6 a. m. in a shadowed
mountain valley and a mild November temperature,
and ending at 2 p. m. in the unmitigated sun-
glare of the plains, in the dust and fierce heat
of midsummer, was not altogether an agreeable
or healthful Httle trip ; but I lived through it, —
just. If I were not in Colorado, I should think
myself ill.

Our coach was heavily loaded with passengers
and mineral specimens bound for the great State
Fair at Denver, and our driver remorselessly bent
on making the best time possible ; and yet no
accident happened, except at the very start, when
the renowned Hiram's whiskey-flask, lying on the
seat behind him, became uncorked, and the pre-
cious contents ran all abroad. Rather more than
was quite agreeable came on to my side. Some
vile punster in the company remarked that it was
" a good thing to start on a journey in a fine flow
of spirits." We laid the dust with " mountain

THE CITY OF THE PLAINS. II7

dew," — we made the very air drunk as we dashed
along. Hiram's last name is the same as that
borne by a family somewhat eminent in American
pohtics, and of which four brothers were once in
Congress together. I ventured to ask him if he
also was of that family. The honest fellow drew
himself up haughtily, touched up his leaders, and
replied, " No : there are four brothers of us, but
we are all stage-drivers."

The first distant view of the plains stretching
out beyond Table Mountain, as you descend
the foot-hills, is surpassingly grand. To me it
was even grander than the mountains in the back-
ground, — so vast, so illimitable it seemed. And
the sight was strangely touching, as more sugges-
tive of human life and death, of enterprise, of
struggle, of suffering. And how inspiring was
the first view of Denver ! Young Empress of the
Plains, to whom the old kingly mountains pay
tribute from their hidden treasure - chests, — fair
desert child of this wondrous golden age, with her
stirring yet pathetic legend, strange and wild and
tragic, — a city founded in peril, isolation, hard-
ship, and heroism.

Il8 COLORADO.

October 4.

On coming down from the mountains I found
the great fair in full blast. On the second day-
there were some very exciting trotting - matches
between Colorado Chief and Richard the Third.
If the horses were not quite equal to Dexter and
Goldsmith Maid, our crowd was quite as enthu-
siastic as a Long Island crowd could be, and
bets were lively. I observed one venerable man
betting with a small boy, in an instructive moral
way ; and when his horse won, he pocketed the
Httle fellow's three cents " with a smile that was
childlike and bland." There was some good run-
ning of handsome horses ; and how restive and
fiery they were, and how many men it took to
hold them ! They were ridden by gayly costumed
young jockeys, quite in the style of our pious
ancestors. There were mule-races wild and laugh-
able, and on the last two days " the ancient tour-
nament," and racing by friendly Utes. In the
tournament appeared gay young knights, gor-
geously apparelled, of all known and unknown
orders, who, with gleaming lances tilted gallantly,
not at one another, but at rings suspended over

FAIR-DAY. TOURNAMENTS AND RACES. II9

the track before the judges' stand ; and a Scotch
knight, a modest youth of seventeen summers,
havhig borne off the most rings, was at last de-
clared victor, and crowned with ' a resplendent
wreath which he afterward, under the direction of
the herald or marshal, placed on the fair head
of his chosen queen of love and beauty, — all of
which was very fine and feudal, and suggested
Ivanhoe and Eglinton and Astley's.

The Indians were to race for two dazzling
prizes, — a saddle and a bridle, manufactured es-
pecially to suit their sumptuous taste. They were
a rather melancholy band of Utes, mounted on
sorry ponies ; and some came on the ground ac-
companied by their squaws and pappooses, wearing
like them an appearance the reverse of festive.
The Ute is of a squat figure and of a broad,
blank countenance. It is difficult to tell the
mounted braves from the wild belles who gallop
through the streets with them ; for alike they wear
rouge and ear-rings, part their back-hair, and ride
astride. With my advanced ideas on the woman
question, I have been gratified at this indication
of natural equality, — gratified to see that the no-

I20 COLORADO.

ble red woman so nearly resembles the stern lord
whose burdens and blows she bears ; that her
countenance is marked, equally with his, by that
lofty stoicism and quick sensibility, that princely
pride and native modesty, that keen-eyed sagacity
and childlike trustfulness, that matchless subtlety
and fearless honesty, that iron resolve and plastic
gentleness, which we read of in the pleasing ro-
mances of Cooper and the Peace Commissioners.
The first preparation made for the race by the
Indian competitors was the stripping off of sad-
dles and all unnecessary ornaments from their po-
nies, and the discarding of a large portion of their
own classic drapery. It was an audacious undress
parade. The ponies, thus lightened, ran astonish-
ingly well, and the prizes were borne off by the
victors in stoHd triumph. All the Indians, to my
surprise, rode in solemn silence. I was afterward
told that the usual savage yell had been prohib-
ited by the marshal. It was one of the reserved
rights of the civilized Caucasian crowd, and you
would not have known theirs from the native
article.

In the next day's race, one of the two best

INDIAN JOCKEY COURTESY. 121

ponies balked, when about half round the course,
and the singular sight was presented of the rider of
the other horse pulling up, and waiting till his rival
should be able to go on. Here is a fact for the
philanthropists and a lesson to the Christian jockey.

Just before the Indians started on the first race,
it was perceived that the iron tournament-rings
hanging over the track had not been removed.
They were hastily taken down, and perhaps a
sad accident averted. Ah ! had the danger been
overlooked, — had the poor Indian, ever the victim
of " rings," dashed out his brains against one of
these, — what a sensation it would have created in
exalted Eastern circles! what a story would have
gone forth of the unsuspecting Ute, decoyed into
the fair-grounds, and "butchered to make a Den-
ver holiday ! "

There was the usual display of lady equestrian-
ism ; a good deal of solemn cantering around
the track, and up and down before those awful
judges ; and all was very proper and common-
place, except the performances of a certain young
lady, who rode a bare-back act on a spirited
white horse which she sat with the utmost ease

122 COLORADO.

and dignity, and managed admirably. Unlearned
in the mysterious ways of fair committees, I
supposed that here was, of course, the " elect
lady," who would take the first prize by acclama-
tion. But she did not take it, nor the second,
nor the third. I should have liked to set those
inscrutable judges, and that gay young man, the
marshal, each on a bare-backed, high-mettled steed,
and I would have compelled them to ride side-
wise and encumbered with a long, heavy skirt.
After galloping and caracolling about that course
for a few times, I think their respect for such
performances would have increased. But perhaps
they thought bare-back riding something unfemi-
nine and reformatory, and were of the opinion
that the side-saddle was one of the sacred em-
blems of a model woman's lop-sided sphere.
But, for all that, I hold the lady displayed rare
horsewomanship.

I have dwelt much on the equine character of
this great occasion, because, like most State and
county fairs nowadays, it was little more than a
grand horse-show, with an agricultural attachment,
and some original and ab-original features.

FOOD FOR THE GIANTS. I23

Still, the buildings devoted to farm products
and mineral specimens were always crowded, and
were to me by far the most interesting depart-
ments. I had seen elsewhere as grand-looking
stock ; but nowhere on earth had I ever beheld
such immense, such Brobdingnagian vegetables.
Think of early potatoes, sound and sweet to the
core, weighing six pounds apiece ! Consider a tur-
nip weighing twenty-two pounds ! Bring your
mind up to a cabbage of fifty pounds ! Shudder
before an awful blood-beet of sixteen pounds, and
make obeisance before a pumpkin actually weigh-
ing a hundred and thirty pounds ! I really rever-
ence that pumpkin, that mountain avalanche of
summer sunshine. I would make a pulpit of it, or
the platform of a woman's rights convention, or put
it to some other sacred and dignified use. Think
of Spanish cucumbers by the yard, and wheat, oats,
and barley more than six feet tall. You need not
be surprised to have a Colorado friend write to
you from his ranch in this wise : " Sitting in
the cool shade of a stalk of barley growing by
my door."

In examining some beautiful specimens of grains,

124 COLORADO.

I fell into conversation with the exhibitor and
producer, a fine-looking ranchman named Everett,
an intelligent, thoughtful, independent farmer from
Ohio, where " they make 'em ; " and the story of
his first enterprises and struggles on a Colorado
ranch was more interesting to me than the most
thrilling novel.

The display of gold and silver ores was aston-
ishing, and must have been very tempting to one
who would make haste to be rich, knowing not
through what weary, painful days, with what wast-
ing fever-dreams, what sickness of hope deferred,
the shy vein is followed to its deep, dark, secret
lair, and by what fierce toil its precious prey is
torn from its granite jaws.

After all, the finest part of the show, afford-
ing the most interesting studies to me, was the
crowd of people. Such an immense gathering,
and augmenting on each of the five days of
rural revelry, and such infinite variety. There
were the rich and fashionable, in elegant turn-
outs ; there were well-dressed ranchmen, with their
families, in heavy wagons ; miners on horseback ;
tourists, journalists, and mine superintendents look-

A DENVER CROWD. I25

ing at ores ; Mexicans, with wild but sleepy dark
faces, costumed roughly yet picturesquely in prevail-
ing tints of brown, — very much such figures as I
once saw at the Italian Fair of Grotta Ferrata ; Chi-
namen, gliding about in their silent, deprecating way,
with their mild, melancholy faces ; Indians, with
their broad faces painted out of their natural resem-
blance to humanity ; colored citizens, escorting their
families with a glad sense of undisputed owner-
ship, lifting up their heads in the yet fresh air of
the Fifteenth Amendment ; brave, healthy-looking
young housewives, inspecting the fruits and flowers
and sewing-machines ; nice elderly ladies, examining
the prize quilts and dairy products ; pretty, smiling
girls, with their gallant rustic attendants ; and, best
of all, rosy, chubby, happy children everywhere.
Once, in making our way into the dining-hall, we
got into a fearful crowd of hungry people, which
faintly reminded me of scenes at the great Inaugu-
ration Ball ; and I shuddered to think to what depths
of metropolitan and Federal rudeness and barbarity
even this virtuous and courteous people might come,
under similar circumstances. But at all other times
this great assembly seemed to me wonderfully pleas-

126 COLORADO.

ant, orderly, and kindly. It was made up, in great
part, of strong, hardy, earnest, and intelligent-look-
ing men, — excellent representative men of this
noblest of the Territories. As I regarded them, I
could but think it hard that they should be cut off
from any of the political privileges and dignities of
American freemen ; that, after adding so much to
the wealth of the Republic, after having rallied so
bravely for her defence, they should see their be-
loved Territory barred year after year out of her
bright company of sovereign States.

In fact, I hear dissatisfaction expressed on all
sides with the existing political condition ; and
this sort of semi- vassal age of a people, strong
enough in character, wealth, and intelligence to
govern themselves, does seem, at the best, an
anomaly under a republic, a form of government
whose very name implies that it is "a thing of
the people." It is hard that a splendid young
province, with, as Mickey Free says of Charley
O'Malley, " as much divilment in him as thim that
is twice his age," is compelled to thus " tarry at
Jericho till his beard be grown." I understand
now why suffrage was first granted to woman

AN INDIAN POLITICIAN. I27

in a Territory. " A fellow feeling makes us won-
drous kind."

I doubt not that political critics here are harder
in their judgments on governors, and other officers
appointed by the President, than they would be on
men of their own selection and election. Even the
Indians are critical. Their favorite was that gen-
eral favorite in Colorado, Governor Hunt. Of him
a shrewd Ute chieftain once said, " Heap ' how ' ! —
heap swap, heap biscuit, — good ! " When asked his
opinion of Governor McCook, his dark brow low-
ered as he replied, " He .-' No ' how ' ! no swap,
no biscuit." At the name of another Governor, his
haughty lip curled, his eye flashed scorn : " Ugh !
heap ' how,' no swap, no biscuit, d — n ! "

It seems to me that this " satrap system," as
I hear it called here, can best be defended on the
principle of Guizot, that " the best government for
the people is that which the people like least."

I sincerely hope that, when Colorado comes into
her appointed place among the sovereign States,
she will not be beguiled by demagogues and polit-
ical tricksters, but will choose for her rulers and
representatives true representative men, actual set-

128 COLORADO.

tiers and pioneers, — men who, in the early,
tumultuous, critical times, established and defended
law and order, often at the risk of their lives and
property. There are among these same old pio-
neers men, yet in the prime of life, who know
these mountains as Tell knew the Alps, and Bruce
knew the Highlands, who love Colorado with a
proud, manly devotion, who understand her re-
sources, her interests, and her needs as no new-
comer can, and whom she should honor, as they
have honored her.

I shall be obliged to leave Colorado without
seeing Pike's Peak and the Garden of the Gods.
The cold I took in coming down from the moun-
tains resulted in quite a serious illness, which
almost laid me aside altogether. Colorado catarrhs,
like Colorado cabbages, are monsters of their kind.
1 hope I shall live through mine, — that it is
giving way at last. It may have saved me from
something worse, — asthma, for instance. But it
has not exactly rejuvenated me, made me stronger
than I was before on platforms and constitu-
tional amendments ; in short, has not done all
for me that a stroke of paralysis does for a great
statesman.

THE OTHER SIDE. I29

It may be that heretofore my descriptions of life
here have been colored too much by my own
pleasant personal experiences. Other tourists, less
fortunate or enthusiastic than I, might tell a slight-
ly different story. A friend now living in George-
town told me the other day that he was once so
unlucky as to travel from Cheyenne to that place
just behind Vice-President Colfax, Mr. Bowles,
Governor Bross, and others, — a large party of
gentlemen and ladies, — and that he actually suf-
fered for lack of food. Now, it is easy to under-
stand how Colorado, a land fruitful in delight to
those distinguished locusts, should wear quite an-
other and a more prosaic aspect to the poor fellow
who followed and starved in their track.

But well fed, well cared for in sickness and in
health, I can only paint the Territory as I see
it, — full of beauty and grandeur and promise ; and
the people, as they have shown themselves to me,
full of kindly and generous sympathies. If this
be exaggeration, citizens of other Territories must
make the most of it.

I must not omit to mention an imposing and
important ceremony which lately took place in this
6* I

130 COLORADO.

vicinity. A party of clergymen assembled on the
very summit of a certain lofty eminence, and just
at sunrise solemnly dedicated the Rocky Moun-
tains to the Lord. It was no light undertaking
to forsake a comfortable bed, and make that steep
ascent on a donkey and an empty stomach in the
dreary morning twilight and chill mountain air ;
and none but a body of pious, devoted men, bent
on a great work of practical benevolence, a whole-
sale missionary enterprise, could have been equal
to it. But now it is done; and we may hope
that stock-gambling and all other forms of gam-
bling, all "wildcat" operations, all unbrotherly
jumping of claims, all whiskey - drinking, sab-
bath-breaking, and profane swearing, will speedily
cease throughout that vast consecrated region.
We may expect the heathen Utes to "come in,"
and look for larger Republican majorities than
ever. In short, I shall leave the Rocky Moun-
tains feeling tolerably easy in my mind.

UTAH.

Salt Lake City, October 13, 1871.

WE left Denver, my brother and I, on the
9th. Th^ morning was clear and brilliant,
but very cold ; the great range was white with
snow, and shone in the fair sunlight with sur-
passing splendor ; while beautiful beyond all im-
agination were the purple and violet tints of the
lower range and the foot-hills. I really grieved at
parting with these grand shapes, so majestic,
yet so lovely, so stupendous and awful, yet so gra-
cious and benignant, uplifting the soul, and filling
it with thoughts of divine affluence and power and

eternal repose.

At Cheyenne we found the ground white with
snow, and the air that of December. But we soon
forgot all these things — the winter chill, the leaden
sky — in the sorrowful news which here met us
of the terrible fire in Chicago. We felt that it

132 UTAH.

was almost cruel and cowardly in us to pursue
our way westward ; to go farther from dear friends,
suffering, or in peril. At every station, till we
reached Salt Lake City, the reports grew more
sad and appalling. It almost seemed that the
fierce flames followed us on the telegraph-wire,
and burned the cruel tidings into our hearts.
The sadness and anxiety would have been almost
intolerable but for the sympathy and pleasant
companionship of friends whom we were fortunate
enough to meet at Cheyenne, — Senator and Mrs.
Morton, their young son, and a party of ladies
and gentlemen from Indianapolis. We were kindly
invited into their special car, and owe to them
much of the pleasure and comfort of the journey.
Laramie, where we took supper, seems to me
a town of considerable promise. It is situated
in a beautiful valley, and has a spirited, cheerful
air. We reached Sherman, the summit station,
in a driving snow-storm, with heavy darkness in
the southern horizon, — a drear, wild scene. But,
even while we paused there, the sun broke forth
radiantly; and we hailed it as a happy omen as
we took our first plunge down toward the Pa-

SHERMAN, THE SUMMIT STATION. 133

cific. I was amused while at Sherman by watch-
ing a little five-year-old vender of quartz crystals,
who stood behind a rude counter near the rail-
road track, carrying on a brisk trade with the
passengers. It was a very small girl, with a very
large bonnet, — a quaint, droll little figure, which
Leech would have delighted to sketch. The wind
was high, and had a way of snatching off her
bonnet just as she was engaged in making change,
or putting her little porteiJionnaie into her little
pocket. She alternated" her commercial transac-
tions with struggles to retain or regain her prepos-
terous head-covering. To increase her embarass-
ment, I flung her some fruit ; and the last I saw
of her she had just succeeded in capturing a
pear, which had rolled down an embankment,
and was again in wild pursuit of her bonnet.
Along here we found snow-walls and snow-sheds,
and sharp, bristling rocks, which, with the wild
wind and the black, stunted pines, made a pe-
culiar and somewhat gloomy landscape. Yet, thus
far on this journey across the continent, I have
failed to be oppressed by the weary sense of des-
olation and monotony I have heard so many com-

134 UTAH.

plain of. Even when, after rising in the morning,
I looked out to see only " sage-brush, rock, and
alkali, — alkali, rock, and sage," this strange, wild,
forsaken region, this fierce, untamable, outlaw land,
had not lost for me its grand novelty, its sombre
interest. The widest, wildest level plain has to
me, not only grandeur, but absolute beauty, — a
sort of savagely peaceful and sullenly sublime
beauty, marvellously suggestive of immensity, of in-
finity. What divine affluence, what magnificent
abandonment, is here ! How rich must Nature be
to afford to throw away so much ! Once I saw
from the bluffs above Denver a mirage, — the de-
lusive shining of waters away out on the arid
plain. It seemed to me it was the phantom, the
troubled ghost, of the sea that once sounded and
surged over that silent, motionless waste of sand.
Our way through Echo Canon was one long
panorama of grand and lovely views. The rocks
on the right are peculiarly bold in form and of
indescribable beauty and variety of coloring.
Through this canon ran the old stage-route :
through it passed also the great tide of Mormon
emigration. Several strong positions among the

THE MORMON PILGRIMAGE. I35

rocks are pointed out as having been fortified by
Brigham Young when he anticipated an attack
from government forces under General Joe John-
ston. A little way beyond towers Pulpit Rock,
from which the prophet, priest, and king of this
strange, devoted people is said to have preached
his first sermon on this side the Rocky Moun-
tains. To one who even whirls over in less than
four days' time the route which this poor people
toiled over through weeks and months, there must
come a new and wondering realization of the hero-
ism of that emigration, — an exodus into a land
of dim promise, but of sure peril and privation,
of mystery, of isolation. They fought with savage
foes, they suffered, they starved : their graves
yet mark the long, long way ; but they never
murmured, nor rebelled, nor entreated to be led
back to Egypt or Iowa. No cloud by day and
no' fire by night led them on, as they toiled
over the mountain and crept across the plain ;
but instead, there shone before them, perhaps, a
prophetic vision of this pleasant city of refuge,
and of the great white tabernacle of the Saints.
Anomalous and anachronistic as is the faith of

136 UTAH.

this people, there is an antique fervor, a rugged
sincerity, a stern persistency, an unconquerable
constancy, about it which we must respect,
even now, when fast on their hard-earned peace
and prosperity comes the troublous time, the tem-
pest of "judgment and fiery indignation," so long
looming in the horizon.

Weber Canon is scarcely so grand as Echo, but
is very lovely and picturesque. It has some pe-
culiar rocky formations and striking points well
known to us through photographs, such as the
Devil's Gate and the Devil's Slide. Wesley, I be-
lieve, objects to the Devil having all the best tunes ;
and it seems to me a pity that some of the best
scenery in the grand New World should be ded-
icated to him.

Just at sunset we took the Utah Central at
Ogden, for this city. The views of the Wasatch
Mountains and of the Great Salt Lake, all down
this wonderful valley, are indescribably beautiful.
We stood out on the platform, and gazed till the
purple twilight deepened and darkened, and that
strange, lifeless inland sea glimmered and faded
away into the night.

THE MORMON CAPITAL. I37

On arriving at Salt Lake City, Senator Morton
and party were received by a deputation of prom-
inent citizens, Mormon and Gentile. Among the
latter gentlemen was our brilliant friend and rel-
ative, Honorable Thomas Fitch, at whose charming
house we are now staying. Senator Morton was,
I think, welcomed by both parties, at this critical
time, with much respect and confidence : his
logical mind and clear, fearless judgment peculiarly
fit him to look into this grave and complicated
matter that is now drawing the attention of the
world upon them.

The morning after our arrival we drove about
town with our kind friend Mr. Hooper, and were
(may I confess it ?) quite delighted with the gen-
eral appearance of the city which had so often
been held up to our righteous horror as a con-
gregation of " whited sepulchres." One is first
struck by the generous width of the streets and
the vast number of trees. Few of the dwelling-
houses are elegant or tasteful, but they all look
comfortable and sufficiently homelike. Embowered
by foliage, they have a singularly secluded air.
Some of them might have more tidy surround-

138 UTAH.

ings, and a brighter, livelier, more hospitable look ;
but I remarked nothing particularly sombre, pa-
gan, or polygamous about them. The poorest and
smallest houses seemed to me an infinite advance
on the homes of the English and Welsh laborers
I had seen abroad. The little streams of clear
mountain water running through all the streets
are a bright, peculiar feature ; but pleasanter even
than running water is the appearance everywhere
of quiet industry and brave enterprise, order, and
sobriety. Let us confess that this strange people,
under their remarkable leader, have done a great
work in rescuing this region from the desolation
and sterility of uncounted ages ; in causing beau-
ty and plenty to smile under the shadow of the
dark mountains and along the shore of the slug-
gish salt sea.

The only odd — that is, monstrously odd —
building here is the new Tabernacle. That looks
like no other edifice on the face of the earth.
So might have looked Noah's ark had it been
capsized, and left high and dry on Ararat, keel
upward.

In the old Tabernacle we yesterday attended

BRIGHAM YOUNG. 139

a mass meeting', called by the Mayor to raise
money for the relief of the Chicago sufferers.
Here we saw Brigham Young ; and I must confess
to a great surprise. I had heard many descrip-
tions of his personal appearance ; but I could not
recognize the picture so often and elaborately
painted. I did not see a common, gross-looking
person, with rude manners, and a sinister, sensual
countenance, but a well-dressed, dignified old gen-
tleman, with a pale face, a clear gray eye, a
pleasant smile, a courteous address, and withal a
patriarchal, paternal air, which, of course, he comes
rightly by. In short, I could see in his face or
manner none of the profligate propensities and
the dark crimes charged against this mysterious,
masterly, many-sided, and many-wived man. The
majority of the citizens of Salt Lake present on
this occasion were Mormons, — some of them the
very polygamists arraigned for trial ; and it was a
strange thing to see these men, standing at bay,
with " the people of the United States " against
them, giving generously to their enemies. It either
shows that they have, underlying their fanatical
faith and their Mohammedan practices, a better

14° UTAH.

religion of humanity, or that they understand the
wisdom of a return of good for evil just at this
time. It is either rare Christian charity or masterly
worldly policy ; or, perhaps, it is about half and
half Human nature is a good deal mixed out
here. But I do not suppose it will matter to the
people of dear, desolate Chicago what the motive
was that prompted the generous offerings from
this fair city among the mountains. The hands
stretched out in help, whether polygamic or mo-
nogamic, are to them the hands of friends and broth-
ers. Certain it is that the Saints seemed to give
gladly and promptly, according to their means. Presi-
dent Young gave in his thousand, and the elders
their five hundred each, as quietly as the poor breth-
ren and sisters their modest tribute of fractional
currency. It is thought that Utah will raise at
least twenty thousand dollars.

There is to me, I must acknowledge, in this
prompt and liberal action of the Mormon people,
something strange and touching. It is Hagar
ministering to Sarah : it is Ishmael giving a
brotherly lift to Isaac.

GENERAL VIEWS. I41

October 17, 1S71.

The more I see of this place the more I am
impressed by the wonderful, wild beauty of its sur-
roundings. Each of two windows out of which I
can look as I write is the frame of an enchanting
picture, — the green and fruitful valley, dotted with
pleasant homes ; the distant shining of water ; brown
plateau ; dark canons ; mountains, bold and jagged
and snow-crowned, with their bleak slojoes softened
here and there with lovely autumn tints. The
mountains are far less grand than those seen from
Denver, but they are much nearer, and are seldom
obscured by mists. The cold season was inaugu-
rated here by a furious wind, rain, and snow storm.
The nights are almost wintry, but the mornings
are brilliant, the days dazzling with keen, continuous
sunlight, and the sunsets gorgeous beyond descrip-
tion. On Saturday we drove up the valley, finding
charming new views at every rise or turn. The
whole region has a singularly foreign aspect, strange
and ancient and solemn. In its strong contrasts
of gardens and waste places, of busy life and silent
desolation, of hoary mount and arid plain, it cer-
tainly, independent of Scripture nomenclature, re-
minds one of Palestine.

142 UTAH.

In coming in, we drove past the residence of
President Young, the Lion House. In that
house there are many mansions ; that is, the vari-
ous dwelhngs required for that vast extension ar-
rangement, the imperial polygamic family, are most-
ly within one enclosure. The wall is high and
broad, and gives a look of seclusion and dignity
to the place. Within these walls are also the
" tithing-houses," to which the Mormon farmers,
gardeners, and fruit-raisers bring yearly a tenth part
of their produce. Merchants, manufacturers, me-
chanics, miners, etc., bring a tenth part of their
income. This seems hard in some cases ; but I
doubt not that in most cases this contribution to
the mother church that brooded them so well in
their callow days is cheerfully made ; and I am
assured that, under the direction and superintend-
ence of their wise old leader, workingmen of the
classes which here " most do congregate " do far
better with their remaining nine tenths than they
could do elsewhere without such direction and su-
perintendence. Adjoining the Lion House grounds
is Temple Block. Here are, in addition to the
foundation of the great Temple, the Tabernacle

MORMON OFFICIAL BUILDINGS. I43

and the Endowment House. The Temple is to be
built of native granite (which, by the way, is of
a very fine quality), and is expected to cost several
millions. The plan was given to Brigham Young
in a vision : let us hope by the spirit of Michael
Angelo or Sir Christopher Wren, if agreeable to
them. Architecturally the new Tabernacle is scarce-
ly an improvement on the old, except in size. It
is the plainest possible structure ; but there is about
it a sort of grotesque grandeur of originality and
immensity. Acoustically it is thought a great suc-
cess ; but when not filled, there is an unpleasant
reverberation, giving the effect of two distinct ser-
vices in full blast. The other day, when one of
the Mormon preachers was defending " the insti-
tution," and waxed bold and passionate, a clear,
emphatic echo to each word seemed to come from
somewhere away down below. The Endowment
House is where the " plural marriages " all take
place, with various forms and ceremonies. I am
told by a gentleman who has access to the records,
that within the past year or two there has been
a great and significant falling off in the business
of this establishment. The numerical majority of

144 UTAH.

women in the Territory is not so great as it once
was : railroads and telegraphs, and discoveries of
mines, travel and traffic, bring new men, new
ideas, new light.

The theatre is a large and handsome building,
a really wonderful structure, considering the time
when it was built, — before the prosperous days,
when everything had to be done by the hardest,
— when all materials for building were fearfully
expensive, and difficult to obtain at any price, —
when, to use the strong language of a poetic friend,
" the very stones cost blood." A Mormon gen-
tleman tells me that the theatre was built, more
as a necessity than a luxury, to relieve the wea-
risome monotony and isolation of life out here.
The leaders, sagacious as indulgent, saw that the
people must have some relaxation and recreation.
In those early days, there was little money in the
town, and people were allowed to pay at the door
in grain, potatoes, — almost any marketable com-
modity.

We attended service in the new Tabernacle on
Sunday morning. The building was not filled, —
it takes fifteen thousand people to do that, — but

SERVICE IN THE GREAT TABERNACLE. 14$

we had a tolerably good opportunity to observe
the character and appearance of a Mormon assem-
bly. Brigham Young was in his usual place of
honor, but did not preach, because of some ail-
ment of the chest from which he is suffering. He
is habitually pale of late ; but nothing of anxiety or
even nervousness is betrayed in his proud, set face.
Neither is there anything of bluster or bravado in
his manner and conversation. He has rather the
look and air of a man who has met and overcome
so much opposition, so many difficulties, that a cool
and quiet confidence in his own particular star has
become the habit of his mind. He would call it reli-
ance upon God ; but I believe there is in the man
less fanaticism than fatalism, — that magnificent con-
ceit of imperial and magnetic natures, of all mould-
ers of systems, and masters and leaders of men.

The services in that prodigious and portentous
temple of this new, old faith — this strange con-
glomerate of Christianity, Judaism, and Mohamme-
danism — were quite simple, orderly, and orthodox
in character. There was prayer, choir-singing, music
of the great organ, and a sermon from a text, fol-
lowed by two volunteer discourses. The last was by
7

146 UTAH.

Brother Cannon, editor of the Deseret News, one
of the ablest speakers, debaters, and writers among
this pecuHar people, and a very pleasant gentleman.
It was noticeable that all the speakers on this oc-
casion were on the defensive in regard to both the
civil and religious character of their theocratic gov-
ernment, and especially in regard to the institution
of polygamy. There was a large attendance of Gen-
tiles ; and the present critical situation of the Mor-
mon Church and its "beloved and venerable head"
was touched upon with considerable spirit and feel-
ing, but with, on the whole, caution and moderation.
It is true they spoke of possible martyrdom, of
holding themselves ready to die for the faith deliv-
ered to the Saints ; but nothing was said or inti-
mated of actual rebellion against the authority of
the United States. Indeed, there were strong pro-
fessions of loyalty and a law-abiding spirit. Mr.
Cannon eulogized very eloquently the general char-
acter of the Mormons, claimed that before the influx
of the Gentiles they were the most peaceful, con-
tented, industrious, thrifty people on the continent ;
that they were still the most temperate, virtuous,
and inoffensive. He claimed that women were more

SENTIMENTS OF THE LEADERS. 147

respected and safer from insult among the Mormons
than in any other community ; that any woman
could travel alone through Utah as securely and
honorably as the fair lady of legend and song, who,
though "rich and rare were the gems she wore,"
made a pilgrimage through Ireland in its palmy
and pious days. I am inclined to think the
speaker in that last assertion spoke only truth. I
believe, also, that Mormon husbands are generally
kind in their treatment of their several wives.
Otherwise, the condition would be too utterly in-
tolerable for human woman-nature, however much
sanctified and " sealed."

Though Mr. Cannon handled polygamy boldly
and fully, he did not defend it on philosophical
or physiological principles, or on grounds of po-
litical or domestic economy, but simply on a " thus-
saith-the-Lord " presumption, as a religious doctrine
and duty imposed by direct Divine command.
Here they stand entrenched. No arguments can
move them, no logic or sentiment can touch them.
Granted the divine authority and inspiration of
Joseph Smith and Brigham Young, the acceptance
of polygamy follows as a matter of course. The

148 UTAH.

speaker declared that the carrying out of this
command was a cross to both the brethren and
sisters, opposed as it was to the old tastes and
prejudices, and especially repugnant to the un-
chastened impulses of woman's nature. I should
think so.

You hear a good deal about that " cross " from
both Mormon husbands and wives, but you only
see the shadow of it in the faces of the women.
I do not mean to intimate that they all look de-
cidedly unhappy. There is rather in their faces
a quiet, baffling, negative, and abnegative expres-
sion, which certainly is as far from happy con-
tent as it is from desperate rebellion. Naturally,
they are more alive to the outside pressure of
public opinion, more sensitive to the obloquy
and ostracism which their position provokes, than
men. Patient and passive as they seem, they
feel these things keenly, — the more intelligent
among them, at least ; and, though upheld by a
sincere faith in this strange delusion, they have
toward strangers a peculiar air of reticence and
mistrust, almost of repulsion. I do not wonder
at it : their hospitality and confidence have often

MORMON WIVES. 149

been abused ; they have been intruded upon by
impertinent interviewers, and their reluctant an-
swers to persistent questioning published abroad,
with startling additions and dramatic embellish-
ments. Those I have met appear to me, I must
say, like good and gentle Christian women. They
are singularly simple in dress and modest in de-
meanor. What saddens me is their air of extreme
quietude, retirement, and repression. But for the
children around them, you would think some of
them were women who had done with this world.
I am told that the wives of even the highest
Mormon dignitaries show little pride in their lords.
It were, perhaps, difficult to feel much pride in the
sixteenth part of a man, as men go. Even the
first wife of a wealthy saint betrays in her hus-
band and household, they say, no exultant joy of
possession. An investment in a Mormon heart
and home must be rather uncertain stock for a
woman. I am assured, though, that the second
wife is seldom taken without the consent of the
first. Not only are the poor woman's religious
faith and zeal appealed to, but her magnanimity
toward her sister-woman out in the cold. It must

150 UTAH.

be through great suffering that such heights of
self-abnegation are reached. The crucifixion of the
divine weakness of a loving vi^oman's heart must be
a severe process. But there is some sorry comfort
in the thought that for these poor polygamous
wives there is no wearing uncertainty, no feverish
anxiety ; that they are spared the bitterest pain of
jealousy, the vague nightmare torture of suspicion,
the grief and horror of the final discovery, the
fierce sense of treachery and deception. They know
the worst. Perhaps it is this dead certainty that
gives them the peculiar, cold, still look I have re-
ferred to. As to the Mormon men whom I have
met, mostly leaders in the church, and prominent,
well-to-do citizens, I must say that they look re-
markably care-free, and even jolly, under the cross.
Virgil, I believe, has somewhere the expression,
" O three times and four times happy ! " Well,
that is the way they look.

It was easy to see by the discourses on Sun-
day that there is in the church something of
solicitude, if not consternation, in regard to the
situation of its President, arraigned for high crimes
and misdemeanors before a hostile local tribunal,

A MORMON CONGREGATION. 151

from which there is no appeal. But each speaker
professed perfect reliance on that God who had
once delivered them out of the hands of their ene-
mies, and led them across the desert, and blessed
them with peace and abundance in this pleasant
land. As they spoke thus, strangely as it seemed
to me, mingling faith with fatalism, and submis-
sion with resistance, and humility with arrogance,
like the specious reasoners, practised debaters, and
clever and confident managers of men that they
are, the faces of their Mormon hearers glowed with
a quiet satisfaction and a revival of the old fa-
natical fervor which, I am told, had begun to die
out of these people, perhaps with the incoming of
new social influences, and the increase of worldly
prosperity and ease. It only needed a blast of
persecution to fan the dying flame.

I marked in this audience many a rugged, manly
head, and now and then a fine, strong face, hon-
estly earnest and hungry for truth ; but little in-
dication of refinement or culture, or, except among
the leaders, of decided characteristic worldly shrewd-
ness. It was a great congregation of common peo-
ple, rising slowly from an uncommonly low con-

152 UTAH.

dition of life and intelligence. Utah is the poor
man's paradise, and that is the best of it. The
worst of it is, that the trail of the polygamous
serpent is over it all. Till a laborer gets rich
enough to support two wives, he can live as de-
cently and virtuously here as in any tenement -
house in New York. None of the religious forms
and observances short of those of the Endowment
House harm him much. Were it not for this
one reproach, the Mayor and Common Council of
Salt Lake City could stand up before the chiefs
of Tammany and be bold, boasting that they
rule over a city where among their own people
there are no riots, no rings, no burglaries, no
drinking -saloons, no gambling- hells, no disorderly
and infamous houses of any kind, no street -
beggars, no incendiaries, no prize-fighters, — a city
in which wages are high and taxes are low.

Yesterday we drove out into the country to take
a look at some of the farms. They have a neat,
thriving appearance, with good buildings, and show
evidences of having produced fine crops. The irri-
gating ditches are everywhere beautifying, having
more the look of natural streams than those in

MORMON FARMS. 153

Colorado. All the farm-houses are surrounded
with /oliage. Brigham Young is a great lover of
tre©6, and seems to make their culture a tenet
of his religion. As the old lady said of total
depravity, " It 's a good doctrine if well lived up
to." Utah fruit is not of the finest quahty, as
little attention has yet been paid to its cultivation,
but it is grown in great abundance and consider-
able variety. It is a consolation, while looking at
these pleasant, homelike places, to remember that
not more than one tenth part of the people of
Utah are polygamists. It is also something to
know that even amongst the poorest the different
wives do not live actually together. Each has a
house, or half a house, or a set of rooms, to her-
self Mr. Godbe, the able leader of the leading
sect called after him, professes to base his oppo-
sition to polygamy on the fact of its being "at
variance with the principle of woman's equality
with man, and therefore inimical to her happi-
ness." That is the true ground to stand upon.

October 20.

A few days ago we drove out to Camp Doug-
las, which has a grand position, close up against
7»

154 UTAH.

the mountains, and commanding the town. The
late reinforcements, sent on in view of the situa-
tion, give to this fine miUtary position a very busy
and belligerent air. The barracks seem full, and
there are several companies encamped on the first
plateau. What a magnificent mark for artillery
would the great Tabernacle be from here ! It seems
to me that a good, moral, monogamous mortar
would almost open upon it of itself. But I don't be-
lieve that any of these mighty engines of a Christian
civilization will be brought into play on the strong-
holds of the survivor of the famous " twin bar-
barisms " very soon. I don't believe these brave
fellows are to have an early opportunity to mow
down saints militant by the score, and make wid-
ows by the fourscore. It is true, this people
are roused, rallied, and consolidated by legal pro-
ceedings, which they consider religious persecu-
tions and blasphemous indignities offered to their
divinely inspired leader, and doubtless would break
out in open rebellion if he should say the word.
But he will not say the word. Age has not only
frosted his head, but sprinkled cool patience on
his bold and fiery spirit. However it was at first,

POLYGAMOUS PROBLEMS. 155

I am convinced that he has grown to believe in
himself and his mission. He says, " If my work
is a good work, it will stand. If our religion is
of God, it cannot be put down." The world he
went out of thirty years ago has followed him, and
surrounded him in his rocky fastnesses, and he is
facing the situation with a good deal of dignity.
When arraigned the other day he showed no re-
sentment or dismay, but quietly and firmly plead-
ed " not guilty " to the charge or charges.

I cannot but think it a matter to be regretted
that there could not have been a fair open fight
against that most monstrous anomaly of our age
and country, that most unnatural and audacious
alliance of civilization with barbarism, — the insti-
tution of polygamy itself If that cannot be at-
tacked directly and effectually through present
laws, would it not have been better to have wait-
ed till laws could be framed to grapple with it
and overthrow it utterly ? Or could we not have
depended on moral means, — brought against a
system born of delusion and a spirit of desperate
propagandism, and nourished by ignorance and iso-
lation, the power of a higher civilization, a purer

156 UTAH.

religion ? Already it is being weakened and under-
mined by the subtle, restless, perpetually augment-
ing forces of commerce and social intercourse, —
education, literature, free thought, — by the railroad,
the telegraph, the printing-press. It is girdled with
a fire of intelligence. Light, love, death, are allied
against it. As it is, a sort of legal trap has
been sprung upon the polygamists. They are ar-
raigned, and are to be tried under an old statute
passed by a Mormon Legislature against " adultery,"
as they understood that crime. Of course, the
law must be twisted from the original spirit and
intention to be made to bear upon plural mar-
riages. Brigham Young, as governor, signed this
statute, the most severe upon record, against that
particular crime. He must now regard that sig-
nature as the slain eagle regarded the familiar
feather " that winged the shaft that pierced him
to the heart."

I know that there are at this time many, not
only politicians and speculators, but good, honest.
Christian people, who look on these prosecutions
in Utah with joy and full approval. They see,
under the iron grip of the law, polygamy, not

THE MORMON LEADER. 157

only struck with death, but already in articiilo
mortis ; but I must confess that, whichever way
I regard the probable issue, I feel some anxiety
and misgiving. Unless the principal prosecution
be carried through sternly and triumphantly, and
this powerful, defiant representative of a polyga-
mic theocracy, this New World Mohammed, be hum-
bled," rebuked, dispossessed of his dominion and
his harem ; unless he is punished as any poor
man would be punished for the same crime, under
the same law ; if there is any giving way, any
retreat, any failure on the part of the govern-
ment, it seems to me that the result can but
be a disaster for us, and a triumph for Mormon-
ism. On the other hand, if the law be inexorably
executed, and its utmost penalties inflicted, there
will almost inevitably follow trouble, confusion,
strife, even bloodshed. Whatever evil can be said
of Brigham Young, however dark and blood-
stained pages of his record may be, the man
loves his fellow-men, in his way, and is loved by
them.' The poorest and humblest of his followers
love him the most devotedly and blindly. The
little they have and are they owe to him. He

158 UTAH.

took them from the black mines and crowded
factories, from the garrets and cellars and slums
of Europe ; brought them to a land of promise ;
taught them how to work, to live ; expounded
to them a religion simple, perhaps gross enough
for their comprehension, yet having about it
something that appeals strongly to their undisci-
ciplined imaginations. Arbitrary, ambitious, av-
aricious though he be, he has been to them
prince, priest, prophet, and father. I believe they
will never quietly look on, and see him impris-
oned or any way harshly dealt with. Resistance
against the whole power of the United States
may be rash and hopeless, — even to them it must
look so ; but nothing is so rash, so mad, as fa-
naticism. I believe that in the last extremity
they will fight for him, even against his will ; and
there are a hundred thousand of them. As no
Mormon can be expected to render a "just ver-
dict, according to the law and the testimony," in
this case, as no polygamist can possibly be
qualified, the jury must, of course, be packed.
What it was thought not a good or a safe thing
to do in Richmond, in the case of the chief

RESULTS OF A CRASH. 159

of the Confederacy, may, perhaps, be righteously
and safely done in Salt Lake City, in the case
of the despised leader of an outcast people ; but
in establishing so perilous a precedent, may we
not pay too dearly for even the great good of
the destruction of polygamy and Mormonism to-
gether, the breaking up of this wicked, thriving
community ; the scattering of this deluded peo-
ple as mendicants and missionaries over the
world, and the restoration of all this perverted
region to its primitive innocence and desolation ?
The hardest consequences of the sudden and
forcible breaking up of the system of polygamy
would be visited on the ones who suffer most
everywhere, in social convulsions and overturn-
ings, and are everywhere the least guilty, — the
women and children. It would take from hun-
dreds of Mormon wives the little title to the
world's tolerance they now possess, destroy their
self-respect, and drive them from their — from
the places they call home. They have mostly
entered on the relation in good faith, in a blind
belief that it was of Divine appointment. Even
when convinced of their error, dishonor and want

l6o UTAH.

have barred their way of escape, and children's
arms have held them back. Aside from their
own interests or belief, they oppose a measure
which would scatter and bastardize their chil-
dren. For these reasons the women of Utah,
though in full possession of the ballot, have failed
to fulfil the prophecy of Miss Dickinson, to
"vote themselves free and virtuous."

You are struck by the great number of chil-
dren everywhere here. Some houses absolutely
overflow with them, some tables are embowered
in " olive branches." The different sets get along
very well together generally ; but that is little
wonder, after the miracle of agreement between
the mothers. Polygamy does not seem to spare
women the cares of maternity. I know a Mor-
mon household in which two middle-aged wives
count about two dozen children between them.
I took two little fair-haired girls for twins ; and
they were a sort of polygamic twins, born almost
at the same time, in the same house, of dif-
ferent mothers. It seems to me that the children
here do not look as happy and bright as in
our towns ; I fancy that the little girls, at least,

MORMON WIVES AND CHILDREN. l6l

have something of the subdued, repressed look
of their mothers. But some few of them are
pretty, and nearly all neatly and comfortably
dressed. I hear that they have very good schools,
and are under good discipline at home, answering
to the roll-call at night, and duly honoring their
father and their mothers.

Many Mormon wives are sisters, and it is said
they get along quite harmoniously. The very na-
ture of women seems to be changed here, and
turned upside down and inside out. An intelli-
gent " first wife " told a Gentile neighbor that the
only wicked feeling she had about her husband
taking a second wife was that he did not take
her sister, who wanted him, or, rather, a share in
him. She would have liked to have the property
kept in the family. I saw, the other day, a
pair of young wives, sisters, walking hand in hand,
dressed alike in every particular, of the same
height and complexion, and of the same apparent
age ; indeed, looking so exactly alike that it was
almost a case of mitigated bigamy. It must
seem queer, even to them, to say " our husband,"
as they used to say " our piano " or " our pony."

l62 UTAH.

The most singular and unnatural marriages
here are those of men with their wives' mothers.
These are not unfrequent. It strikes me this is
a seditious plot against immemorial domestic au-
thority, the most ancient court of feminine ap-
peal,— that it is an attempt to do away with
mothers-in-law. When young wives are taken,
the three or four or five do not always become
one flesh ; there is sometimes rebellion and even
hostility on the part of the old wife. Occasion-
ally a husband objects to having even a second
wife imposed on him. I heard of one the other
day who, though he finally submitted to the com-
mand of the imperial Brigham that he should
take and provide for a certain poor woman, —
" a lone, lorn cretur," — declared that he couldn't
" abear her," and at once put her away on a
ranch forty miles from town — pensioned and
pastured her out. This system has its serious
and perplexing aspect ; it is a fearful problem,
which, like the riddle of the sphynx, may prove
the destruction of those who attempt rashly to
solve it and fail ; but it has also its ludicrous,
its grotesque aspects, and they always strike me

A LEGAL NOVELTY. 163

first, though the laugh they provoke is quickly
succeeded by a sad realization, sweeping over
me like a great, bitter wave, of all there is in
it of error, of suffering, and of peril.

October 24.

This is a strange place, full of all sorts of
social, religious, and political anomalies and con-
tradictions, where things generally are curiously
mixed up and reversed. And now we have a
new thing in the legal way, a startling novelty
in the long, dull history of jurisprudence. In
the trial of Hawkins, the polygamist, last week,
a wife appeared in court to testify against her
husband in a criminal prosecution, and, by her
testimony, convicted him. To be sure, it was a
Mormon wife, and Mormon wives are not sup-
posed to be much married ; but the fact seems
to be significant of something more, perhaps,
than extraordinary and extra-judicial proceedings
here in Utah. The legal, poetic, and time-honored
fiction of the " sacred oneness " of husband and
wife has received its first stupefying blow, not
in a convention of free-lovers nor from a Mor-

164 UTAH.

mon high-priest, but in a Federal court and
from an orthodox judge.

Hawkins, the man just tried, is an Englishman
of the lowest order, and a very disreputable
specimen of a saint. There are bad saints as
well as good sinners. He had brutally abused
this his first wife, the love of his youth, who
had borne him many children, and at last he
insisted on bringing into the same house two
younger spouses. The society of these ladies
was not agreeable to her, but he stood on his
" Gospel privileges," and compelled her by threats
and blows to put up with it. A man who will
beat his wife under Victoria, will not always have
the grace to spare her under Brigham. Ill-used
wives frequently appeal to that power which is
absolute and ubiquitous in the Territory, and
whose action is usually prompt and decisive.
They carry all their intolerable burdens to the
Lion House. So these Mormon wives declare
that at the worst they are better off here than
in the old country, where there was no division
in the beatings, and no Brigham to appeal to.

I am told that this wronged wife gave in her

A REBELLIOUS WIFE, 165

testimony against her brutal husband readily,
eagerly, as though glad that her day had come'
at last. Usually with the acceptance of the
Mormon faith, the most high-spirited women
seem to "suffer a sad change, into something
meek and strange," but there seems to be a
good deal of human nature left in this particu-
lar woman. I am glad of it, though she has
shocked the Mormon community by dragging the
sanctities of a polygamic household into a Gen-
tile court. This is the first of these most im-
portant trials, and it is a very ugly case for the
Saints. I am thankful that I am not a Deb-
orah, set to judge this Israel. But if I. were, I
should pray God for grace to render a just and
impartial judgment, for wisdom and courage and
charity. It is hard, perhaps, for a zealous mon-
ogamic magistrate to remember that these strange
people are our fellow-beings, that the most per-
verse polygamist of them all is entitled to the
benefit of the Golden Rule. Even I, with no
political, sectarian, or mercenary interests to bias
me, find it difficult to speak temperately of an
institution which is for woman a back-set into

l66 UTAH.

barbarism, systematized degradation, and torture.
'I find it almost impossible to believe that Mor-
mon law-makers may be as conscientious in re-
ligionizing polygamy as are our Christian legisla-
tors in legalizing prostitution. "Plural marriage"
is to me, of course, only vice, sanctioned and
protected, and must be simply revolting to all
who come here from favored and refined com-
munities in the States, where there is nothing
of the sort, — under that name at least. It is
impossible for me to pass by the prettiest Mor-
mon home without shuddering at the thought of
the tragedies in women's lives that may be pass-
ing under its roof; of course one never has
such thoughts in passing elegant houses in East-
ern cities, where wives are free and happy and
husbands are loving and loyal. I even find it
hard when reading the Scriptural texts on
street-signs to refrain from laughing, out of re-
spect to our Puritan fathers and the early Meth-
odists and Quakers, who were also given to cant.
I can only have patience with the most ignorant
of these people, when they tell of miracles and
angelic appearances, by remembering the miraculous

MORMON HOTELS. 167

things told and believed of the Wesleys and
George Fox and countless Catholic saints.

But why should I expect to always " abound in
charity," when even ministers of the Gospel some-
times get quite out of the article .-' Some of them
have lately written of the Mormons as being uni-
versally, not only as polygamous, but as murderous,
as the old fighting patriarchs, as so many Ishma-
els and outlaws, vicious, depraved, disorderly, sen-
sual, devilish.

I noticed in a late New York journal the report
of a discourse by a distinguished clergyman who
has lately crossed the continent, and who complained
that, when in this new City of the Plain, he was
compelled to stop at a Mormon hotel, and that
he was annoyed by Mormon card-players in the
next room, whose conversation was neither edify-
ing nor proper. There are Gentile hotels in the
town : the reverend gentleman should not be so
bent on going to the most fashionable hostelry.
His experience reminds me of one of my own, at
a hotel in a certain town in the State of Indiana.
It was court time, and the next room to mine
was occupied till a late hour by a card party of

l68 UTAH.

lawyers and judges ; the partition was thin, and
I was horrified and disgusted by the profanity, and
worse than profanity, that made "night hideous."
These legal gentlemen were not given to much
marrying, but they did a great business in the
divorce line. People who have lived here a long
time say that such a thing as a card-playing Mor-
mon is almost unknown. Gambling in all its forms
is an offence subjecting one to church discipline.
The reverend doctor was probably mistaken ; the
profane midnight revellers at the Townsend House
(a hotel which we found remarkably quiet and
orderly) may not have been these rude, hard-
working Mormons at all ; they may have been
gentlemen, or Gentile-men.

Another clergyman, one of a zealous missionary
band who came out here last summer to hold a
great camp-meeting, reported that they only held
their sessions in safety and escaped out of the val-
ley alive, through the presence and protection of
a volunteer guard of armed miners, five hundred
strong. Doubtless the worthy man believes his
own astonishing statement, being well exercised in
faith ; but all sorts of people here, who know the

RELIGIOUS FREEDOM. 169

men, laugh at the idea of five hundred busy miners
turning out to a camp-meeting, even with the
prospect of a fight, as something hugely funny and
preposterous. If no converts were made at that
camp-meeting from the Mormon Church, it was not
because of any special counter - effort or active
opposition. The truth is, Brigham Young, with his
usual quiet cunning and knowledge of such human
nature as he has had to deal with, took the matter
very coolly, advised his people to go to the meet-
ings, to calmly listen to all their opponents had to
say, and to learn all they could. He sent his
bishops to keep order among the younger and more
turbulent Mormons ; he even went himself, and at
one time, while a preacher was bitterly denouncing
polygamy and other doctrines of the Latter-Day
Saints, and some of those badly hit began to mur-
mur and threaten, and an outbreak seemed inev-
itable, the mere raising of his hand in a quiet,
repressing. gesture stayed all violence, hushed every
angry voice. His people rest quiet under his
strong, supreme will, and actually fancy, because
there is no bluster about it, that they have perfect
religious freedom. There is little squirming under
the velvet paw.

170 UTAH.

When Christian charity gives out, " Give the
Devil his due," is a sajfe principle to fall back on.
This is doubtless a wicked place, but it does not
monopolize the wickedness of the great Republic.
The Tabernacle has left something to Tammany.
Brigham Young may be chief among the left-hand
"goats," but he did not carry all the sins of the
people into the wilderness.

Now, from all I have been able to observe and
from all I hear from intelligent Gentiles long resi-
dent here, I am convinced that the Mormon people
generally are remarkably quiet, orderly, sober, and
industrious, strongly and especially addicted to
minding their own business. However much the
leaders may be given to proselyting, the common
people never intrude their peculiar tenets and
ideas upon you ; but if you inquire concerning
them, they will plainly and seriously answer your
questions, and, in most cases, while struck by the
absurdity or revolted by the moral obliquity of
those ideas, you are convinced of the absolute
sincerity of the simple-hearted expounders.

As to Brigham Young, we must all admit, even
in this his time of trouble and threatened over-

A SAGACIOUS RULER. 171

throw, that, considering the elements he has had
to deal with, — the rudest, the poorest, the most
ignorant classes of men, for the greater part a con-
glomerate of the lowest strata of civilized socie-
ties, — " the offscouring of the earth," as he him-
self once called them, — considering the hard con-
ditions of early emigration and settlement, he has
formed a wonderful working colony, unparalleled
for vigor, constancy, and cohesion ; has created a
State, almost a nation, in this wild, desert land ;
and, on the whole, has governed it surpassingly
well. But for his one fatal mistake, the man
might have left to other times a noble fame, if
not for inspired leadership, for masterly sagacity ;
if not as a prophet of the Lord, as a benefac-
tor of the Lord's poor ; if not as the priest of a
new religion, as the founder of a new common-
wealth.

NEVADA.

Virginia City, October 24.

I LEFT the quaint capital of Mormondom on
the loveUest of a long succession of lovely-
autumn days. The beautiful valley of the Great
Salt Lake was brimmed with golden sunshine,
and rich purple hghts were on all the hills.

Ogden is all alive nowadays with excitement
over a great tin-mine, said to be immensely valu-
able. Experienced Cornish miners report the ore
unusually fine, and there are vast deposits.

We had a moonlight night of surpassing beauty,
which bewitched me out of half my sleep, and
yet I waked in time to see a sunrise painting
sky and mountain with wonderful, gorgeous colors.
I found nothing tiresome or disagreeable in all
that day's travel. I did not rebel against the
eternal dull sage-brush below, when the sky was
full of ever -varying clouds, and the sunlight

THE HEATHEN CHINEE APPEARS. 173

touched every object with tender, impartial rays.
Even the alkah dust annoyed me Httle, as it was
cold enough to have all the windows closed. Still,
it was pleasant to come upon grazing valleys and
rocks and canons again. The palisades in Twelve-
Mile Caiion are very grand and beautiful, and
the Devil's Peak is a highly satisfactory diaboli-
cal feature in the wild landscape ; and all along
the valley of the Humboldt there are pictures
of savage grandeur and quiet beauty which al-
ternately rouse and rest one. On that day we
were first waited upon at table by soft -footed,
white -robed, moon -faced Orientals. I find the
Chinese very agreeable as waiters. They put on
no superior Littimer airs, yet are so utterly re-
moved from all interest in you and your affairs,
beyond the business in hand, that, with half a
dozen about you, you have a delightful sense of
privacy, and should no more think of dismissing
Chinese servants for better after-dinner freedom
in conversation, than of sending away the tea-
tray, lest its painted mandarins should listen and
gossip. There is " no speculation " in their eyes.
The sleeping and the dead and the Chinese are but
as pictures.

174 NEVADA.

At Reno I left the train for Virginia City.
It was after midnight, but the weather was mild
and the moonlight resplendent ; so a mountain
stage-ride of twenty miles had no terrors for me.
We had six good horses that sturdily toiled up
the long grade, and gallantly dashed down the
declivities, and whirled us around rocky points in
magnificent style. But gradually the stifling dust,
the rising wind, and ever -increasing cold, clouds,
and mists prophesying storm, and the vice -like
jam of an overcrowded coach changed what
had seemed to me a pleasant adventure into a
most fatiguing and uncomfortable journey. In the
gray, uncertain light of a dawn that grew slowly
and sullenly into the only dreary, dreadful day I
have seen on this coast, I reached Virginia,
famous as the home of " Tom Flynn " and Laura
Fair, and somewhat celebrated as the city set
on the hill, whose foundations are of silver and
gold, and whose gates open downward into the
more wonderful underground city of the Com-
stock Lode.

There was no room for me at the inn. I did
not quite lodge in the manger, but in an apartment

A DRY STORM. 175

scarcely more desirable. It was an awful day ; the
wind rose to the dignity of a tornado, dry at first,
swirling about old Mount Davidson, and whelming
the town -in thick gray clouds of dust; then came
the rain, swift and furious as hail. Between the
gusts I caught glimpses of the wild and desolate
scenery about me. The great brown hills seemed
to me, not only utterly denuded, but flayed, stripped
of all the outer covering of nature, and gashed and
scarred and marred and maltreated in every way.
But in happier days succeeding, these same bleak
hills grew to have for me a sort of grim grandeur
and savage attractiveness. Moonlight, from some
atmospheric peculiarity of the region, perhaps, gives
to them a strange, mystical, unreal beauty, and a
sunset glorifies them wonderfully, but it takes a
great sunset to do it.

My sole amusement during that first dreary day
was in gazing out upon the street. Here I saw
more Chinese than I had before beheld, and more
Indians. The latter, I am happy to say, are to a
considerable degree accepting the situation, and
becoming civilized and Christianized. When sorely
pinched the noble red man will bow his proud neck

176 NEVADA.

over the saw-horse to earn his daily tobacco and
whiskey, and allow his squaw to earn their bread
and potatoes by washing. When night came, " I
was darkly, deeply, desperately blue." I had as yet
no reply to my letters of introduction, I had seen
no friendly, familiar face. My sole society had been
a fellow-traveller in reduced circumstances and de-
pressed spirits, — an Hungarian lady of rank. It is
a singular circumstance that all the Hungarians I
have ever known have been people of rank. A
pretty nurse-girl and an elderly colored waiter, see-
ing my low state of spirits, essayed to comfort me.
She first advised me to go " to see the cannibals,"
some Fiji-Islanders, exhibiting in the town. "They
say," she said, "that the old chief will bring out
the leg of a man and eat it before the audience ;
and that the princess will eat a whole baby, all
by herself"

When I expressed incredulity, her ingenuous coun-
tenance fell. " I thought, if they would do all that,
they would be worth seeing," she coolly said, though
giving at the same moment a loving hug to the
fair, fat baby she held in her arms.

Jem, the waiter, asked if I contemplated a long
visit to Virginia,

TRANQUILITY AGAIN. ^']^

" No," I growled out, " I shall start to-morrow
for a civilized country, — shaking the dust of Ne-
vada from my feet, if that be possible."

He looked hurt, and eagerly answered, " Why,
we are civilized, madam ; we 've got a good vigi-
lance committee here now. The time was when
you could n't go out of a morning without stumb-
ling over a dead man or two."

Tranquillized in spirit, I reposed that night under
the protecting wing of the vigilance committee,
which is supposed never to slumber or sleep. Joy
came in the morning in the handsome and hearty
shape of the superintendent of the Chollar-Potosi
Mine, who took me home to his beautiful house
and his lovely wife. The storm was over, and
thenceforth all was brightness and pleasantness for
me in Nevada. So pleasant was it, so hospitable
and social were the people, so much was there to
see, that I absolutely found no time during my too
brief stay to chronicle incidents and impressions,
and I am now almost ashamed to dismiss so de-
lightful an episode of travel in a few brief, dry
paragraphs, as I find I must do.

My kind host, Mr. Rigua, did the honors of the
8* L

178 NEVADA.

Chollar-Potosi. We descended into those myste-
rious argentiferous deeps, by means of the " cage,"
a sort of iron elevator, very safe and comfortable.
The like of this admirable machine I did not see
in Colorado. There you have to go down in a
bucket, with the chance of kicking it on the way.
This is cleanly and swift and silent. If you want
to visit the fourteen-hundred-feet level, you step
on a little platform, settle, and are there. We went
down several miles, and walked several hundred
feet under ground, or went down several hun-
dred feet and walked several miles, I am not clear
which ; but I know it was a very interesting, easy,
and instructive expedition, pleasanter than a walk
through the musty and mortuary old catacombs,
which always seemed to me to smell stiflingly of
dead Christians. We visited several levels, explored
tunnels and drifts, and saw all the various pro-
cesses of mining, most of which were already fa-
miliar to me. The ground I found mostly very
dry, and the tunnels and drifts no more difficult
to explore than the galleries of those same old cata-
combs, which they more than once reminded me
of. Some very rich deposits of ore have lately

THE C HOLLAR-POTOSI. 179

been discovered in this mine, lying solitary and
alone in the form of monstrous eggs (roc's eggs),
which are very cunningly hid away, and only come
upon by accident. The miners get as excited as
boys in egg-hunting, and have as little scruple
about robbing the nest.

The Chollar is not now worked at its lowest
level, some eleven hundred feet down. The lode
is not generally found to increase in richness as
it descends, though the Belcher and the Crown
Point have produced very rich ore at a very low
depth. The mines on the Comstock Lode alone
have produced an astonishing amount of bullion
during the past year, and the talk is constantly of
new discoveries. The old mountain is not yet half
disembowelled.

To the superintendent of the Sutro Tunnel I
was indebted for a visit to that famous work, and
a most charming day. We drove down Six-Mile
Canon, a most interesting drive, as it takes you
past many of the great crushing-mills and the
sluices, reservoirs, and buildings for the saving and
working over of the tailings, — fine, clay-colored
dust, formerly thrown away as mere refuse, but

l8o NEVADA.

now found to contain enough gold and silver to
pay handsomely. It is the last gleaning of the
golden crops up above. Millions of dollars have
drifted down these gulches in " tailings."

The valley of the Carson, from which the Sutro
Tunnel leads into the mountain, is very lovely, but
lonely and bare. If the great tunnel be ever com-
pleted, and prove the success its projectors hope it
to be, Virginia City, already wearing an ancient
and permanent aspect, must be virtually trans-
ported thither, the tunnel becoming the principal
outlet of the mines. But it will be a great under-
taking, even for the energetic and enthusiastic
Teutonic engineer, to bring a mountain town like
that to the plain without the aid of an avalanche.
I have always had a strong interest in the Sutro
Tunnel enterprise. I liked the boldness and the
daring of it. I was impressed by the splendid pos-
sibilities. It would be stealing a march on old
Mercury, — storming his great treasure-house by
sapping and mining from below. It was some-
thing stupendous, yet practicable and feasible, — on
the chart at least. On the spot, I more fully real-
ized the stupendousness of the undertaking. So

THE SUTRO TUNNEL. l8l

little has yet been done, such an immensity re-
mains to be undone ! We went in, about half a
mile, to where the men were slowly blasting their
way through the hardest sort of granite.

Though Mr. Sutro is a man of wonderful ener-
gy and perseverance and persuasiveness, — though
he has faith that almost may remove mountains, —
I cannot believe that the remaining seven and a
half miles of tunnelling will ever be accomplished
without strong aid and comfort from govern-
ment. Sutro proposes, — Congress disposes. I
suppose the Commission will report during the
coming session, and the momentous question of
subsidy or no subsidy will be decided. Prepos-
sessed in favor of the enterprise though I was, on
going to Nevada, candor compels me to state that
I found almost everywhere, among mine and mill
owners, superintendents and business men gener-
ally, a strong and bitter opposition to the work. It
is claimed by its able advocates that it will be a
blessing to all eventually. But "all" decline to be
blessed. They rebel against the grants, against the
royalty, against the tolls, — against the whole " big
job." They see, or will acknowledge, no advantages

l82 NEVADA.

in it, direct or incidental. They say that the pros-
pects held out of rich discoveries along the route
of the tunnel are "such stuff as dreams are made
of"

Of course, this is a question which only actual
exploration can decide ; they may be all mistaken,
— blinded by prejudice; and I confess that, if it
could be done without injustice or loss to the men
who have done so much to develop the resources
of Nevada, who have labored so heroically against
adverse conditions, through long years of doubtful
fortunes, I should like to see the work carried
through. Let the innermost mystery in the heart
of the old mountain be got at, the long dispute be
ended, and the greatest mining problem of the age
be solved. Then, when the sullen old mountain,
thoroughly brought to bay, is compelled to dis-
gorge his treasure by thousands of tons, and to
bleed gold and silver through countless newly dis-
covered veins and arteries, I doubt not that the
faithless and unbelieving will give in, and consent
to be made rich ; that even the Bank of Califor-
nia will gracefully accept the situation and the
bullion. My day at the tunnel and at Dayton, a

CARSON. 183

pretty little valley town, was full of enjoyment,
owing in great part to the cordial hospitality of
my host and his pleasant family. We drove home
through Gold Canon and by Silver City and Gold
■Hill, — all wonderful scenes of bold enterprise and
busy industry, full of interest for me. On the fol-
lowing day we went to Carson by probably the
crookedest railroad in the world, — a marvellous,
almost inconceivable, piece of engineering.

Carson is the home of our genial and eloquent
friend, Senator Nye. I was most graciously and
charmingly entertained by his friends and neigh-
bors, whom I found, without an exception, admirers
and lovers of the man.

Carson has some wonderful hot springs, which
supply baths said to be excellent for rheumatism.
Hot springs abound in Nevada. I heard of a
family who do all their cooking by means of a do-
mesticated geyser in their kitchen. The water of
a hot spring near Elko has a decided taste of
chicken-broth. What a pity it is not located in
Chicago !

Of course, I visited the penitentiary to see the
scene of the late terrible fight between the escap-

184 NEVADA.

ing convicts and the officers. The marks of the
conflict are yet to be seen on walls and doors.
Most of the men have been caught, and after their
fearful hardships seem glad to get back. Many of
them will not go out again, except for a little
walk to the scaffold. While talking over the
affair with the warden in one of the corridors,
I was startled by hearing fearful groans almost
under my feet. Looking down, I saw a small
grating in the flag-stones, and was told that be-
neath us were two dungeons, in which the worst
recaptured convicts — murderers — were confined.

Carson must be in the spring and summer a
very pretty place ; for it has foliage and flowers
and water, and grand hills behind it not yet
stripped of all their trees. The society here is cul-
tivated and agreeable, and the grace of a noble
hospitality adds to it the last best charm. The
Mint and the State Capitol are noble buildings,
and there are several elegant private residences in
the town.

I have left myself no space fitly to describe the
crowning pleasure of my little tour in Nevada, —
the visit to Lake Tahoe. With a merry party of

LAKE TAHOE. 185

friends, in a large barouche drawn by four hand-
some grays, I made the excursion with great com-
fort, with unalloyed enjoyment, notwithstanding
the lateness of the season, for the day was one of
rare mildness and stillness, of perfect beauty.
The road up the mountains, past Eagle and Car-
son valleys, is a magnificent one, and commands
magnificent views. It was comforting to see wood-
ed hillsides again. All along our way the pines
grow grand and tall, and there was something
most " melancholy sweet " in the sound of the low
winds among their dark branches. It took me
back to the Alleghanies, the Green Mountains,
the White Mountains, even the Alps, — so is that
sombre music of the pines passed, from mountain-
top to mountain-top, around the world.

Tahoe is the most beautiful lake I have ever
beheld. It is an emerald on the brow of the
mountain. Marvellously clear and sparkling, it is
surrounded by the most enchanting scenery, and is
altogether a surprise, a wonder, a delight. Some
time I hope to be able to describe it. I am vain
enough to think I could do it ; for I have only to
close my eyes, and the whole exquisite picture of

l86 NEVADA.

radiant skies and autumnal banks and purple moun-
tains and soft green water glows and melts and
shimmers before me. Ah, Nature was in a happy,
tender, divine mood when she formed Lake Tahoe
and its exquisite surroundings ! And yet that
sweet mood succeeded a passionate, fiery outburst,
lasting nobody knows how many centuries ; for it
is said by scientists that a volcano once seethed
and rumbled where Tahoe now ripples and smiles.
This lovely sheet of water was once named Lake
Bigler, after a Democratic governor ; but a trium-
phant Republicanism rechristened it Tahoe, — an
improvement, perhaps, poetically, but politically a
very small piece of business. There is an admirable
hotel at the lake, and a small steamer for pleasure-
excursions, a charming drive along its shores, and
prime fishing in its cool, translucent waters. On
the face of a high rock, in full view from the road
and the lake, there is a singular natural curiosity.
It is a profile, formed apparently by certain depres-
sions in the stone, — a colossal intaglio, — and is a
striking and a very noble likeness of Shakespeare.
It is strange to think that Nature had chiselled his
face in the eternal rock, high among the clifis

THE SHAKESPEARE PROFILE. 187

where the eagles nested, in this savage mountain-
land, at a time when the New World itself seemed
but a monstrous mirage, or fata Morgana, afar
down the watery slope of the world, — when not
even the magic seas and the spacious heaven of
his imagination took it in.

I think Lake Tahoe must yet become a great
pleasure resort. I have seen no more charming
spot in all my tours for a summer's rest and ram-
bling.

CALIFORNIA.

San Francisco, November lo.

I LEFT Nevada, even for California, with re-
luctance. I parted from the kind Nevada
people with grateful regret. Even Virginia City
looked not unlovely as I gazed my last upon it,
trying to make out the dear home of the best
friends a poor strolling Bohemienne ever had.
The recumbent old mountain lay still and long and
grand, like dead Caesar, his gaping, unsightly
wounds decently covered by a light toga of snow.

My journey of the next day, the last of my
long pilgrimage from ocean to ocean, was a suc-
cession of delightful sights and sensations. After
crossing the Sierras, where the envious snow-
sheds shut out from us many grand pictures,
how wonderful it was to see the world brighten-
ing and greening and blooming before us, as we
slid down from that dark mountain - land and a

SAN FRANCISCO FROM THE BAY. 189

wintry atmosphere, into lovely, fruitful valleys, into
soft, balmy, golden airs, past vineyards and or-
chards and flowery gardens ! It was almost like
witnessing a creation. ^

I thought the scenery of the Sierras far behind
that of the Rocky Mountains in grandeur till we
came to Cape Horn, which is equal to the Ar-
gentine Pass of Colorado, but no grander, I think.

California all the way that day reminded me
of Italy, as I once travelled through it at pre-
cisely the same season ; and San Francisco, as
seen from the bay (for we took the steamboat
at Vallejo), reminded me of Genoa, which long ago
I entered from the sea, at the same time of the
year, and at the same time of night. The twink-
ling, throbbing lights of the streets, and of thou-
sands on thousands of dwellings, rising tier above
tier, gave to the town a marvellous, magical ap-
pearance. It seemed like a mighty flight of
illuminated steps, leading up to the clouds, or
like a city being let down from heaven. The
air of enchantment, the aerial, unreal effects of
that wondrous night-picture, I despair of convey-
ing by any words I can command. It was a

igo CALIFORNIA.

clear, starlit night ; but the bold, rocky eminences
to our right — Angel Island and Alcatras —
lay wrapped in mysterious shadows ; and dimly
through the Golden Gate shone the silver wa-
ters of the vast, unknown sea, the ocean of my
dream. I thought of old Balboa, beholding for
the first time the gleam of those waters, — the
solemn fulfilment of his prophecy, the fruition of
his heroic faith. I thought of how

*' Silent on a peak in Darien,
He stared at the Pacific,"

and concluded that he did the correct thing in
refraining from wrenching himself in attempts to
express the inexpressible.

December i.
Three weeks and more in San Francisco and
vicinity ; and they have gone by like three days
and less. I have been a very bad correspondent
during this time of times. All things without
and within seem to have been in league against
my virtuous plans for work, — the strange scenes,
the bright sky and sea, sunshine and soft airs,
novel street sights, charming drives and walks,

FAIR WEATHER. I9I

brilliant shops, theatres, libraries, churches, and,
above all, the great hearts of these people, —
hearts that keep open house for all visitors, and
take us in, and wrap us around and hold us
fast by the kindest, warmest, cheeriest hospitali-
ty^— a hospitahty which, like the mercy of the
Lord, is " new every morning." Who could sit
tamely down to write in such incomparably and
intoxicatingly lovely weather as we had for the
first two weeks of my stay ? And when the rains
came on, — the first since May, — and it was really
chilly and dismal for three whole days, who would
write then 1 What sensible Christian woman
would n't curl up on a sofa and read novels ?
Now all is bright and balmy again ; the waters
of the bay sparkle with almost intolerable bright-
ness, and the gardens and grounds have put on
new greenness and glory. The garden under my
window (my window which stands open) sends up
the fragrance of heliotropes, mignonettes, gerani-
ums, carnations, verbenas, and magnificent roses
of many sorts. Fuchsias are in full bloom, and
oleanders, and the bounteous laurustinas, and a
sort of honeysuckle, and sweet-peas, and tube-

192 CALIFORNIA.

roses. So much for my dear flower-loving friends
on the other side, by way of aggravation.

The house at which I am now perched, the
home of a lovely " friend of my better days," —
if I ever had any, — is on the heights ; and the
windows command wide views of the city, of the
purple-misted foot-hills of the Coast Range, and
of the bay and its islands. What with the near
garden and the distant hills and waters, I have
too much to look at, altogether. Indolence is no
name for the feeling that takes possession of me
here. There is nothing of the Italian dolce far
nietite about it. On the contrary, it is perpetual
excitement, and prompts to supernatural bodily
activity. There is " a spirit in my feet " that
will not let me rest. I cannot see enough of
this picturesque land. I cannot drink in enough
of the quickening sunshine, and the balmy, heal-
ing air of this strange new summer, of this
vast new sea. The very springs of life seem re-
newed here. Old enthusiasms, old pleasures, come
back ; old follies put off their sackcloth and
shake off their ashes, and wear somewhat of
their first perilous attractiveness. Seeing " wild

CLIMATIC INTOXICATION. I93

oats" on every side, even I might be in danger
of going into the culture of that most unprofit-
able cereal in a small way, — might, in fact, be-
lieve myself young again, to all intents and pur-
poses, — were it not with me as with the worthy
old Yankee who was inclined to consider himself
a handsome man : " Unfortunately," he said, " pub-
lic opinion is agin me on that pint."

This bright, balmy weather gives one from the
other side a strange, bewildered feehng, — an im-
pression of something unnatural and almost in-
credible ; of a small Rip Van Winkle experience ;
of having slept through the proper season of
storms and snows, and bitter, biting winds, and
of coming out on the world on a radiant May
morning ; for, look at the skies, so soft and
blue, and innocent looking, and you half suspect
some trick of celestial magic, and ask, ' Where
have you hidden away the winter ? " It is a
country which one must get used to by degrees.
It does n't go by the almanac ; its storms of
wind and rain are done by big contracts ; its
" hired girls " are Chinamen ; its theatres run on
Sunday ; and it knows not pennies and greenbacks.
9

194 CALIFORNIA.

It is odd, by the way, to see with what cool, not
to say contemptuous, indifference people here re-
gard our pretty pieces of postal currency. Even
the vignettes have little charm for them. They
gaze unmoved on che leonine head of Stanton,
on the patrician face of Fessenden, on the fine
figure of Chase, with folded arms, awaiting the
Presidency ; on the engaging face of Spinner, —
even on that brilliant accomplishment, his signa-
ture, and on the flourish, which is in itself a
liberal education. It all comes from the influence
of that magnificent monopoly, the Bank of Cali-
fornia. This, by the way, was the first San
Francisco institution I visited. Here I found my
letters awaiting me, and here I saw more gold
and silver coin and bullion than I ever before
beheld at one time. Of course, I gazed upon
them with the calm curiosity of a virtuous soul,
rooted and grounded in the tenth commandment ;
but I can scarcely conceive of torture more se-
vere than that of a defunct Tweed or Connolly
wandering about these vaults o' nights, with
ghostly hands and diaphanous pockets. This
Bank of California is certainly one of the most

THE BANK OF CALIFORNIA. I95

marvellous growths of this marvellous New
World, and, doubtless, is a stupendous power on
the whole Pacific coast. Its officers are distin-
guished for their uniform courtesy and munificent
hospitality. I am indebted to them for much
kindness and many good offices, which I can
never pay back, even at simple interest. To the
account of Mr. Ralston and Mr. Franklin I place
some of the rarest and brightest of my long
succession of pleasant experiences out here. The
first was a drive to the Cliff House and the
Seal Rocks, a famous resort some six miles from
town.

The day was exceptionally clear and beautiful,
even for this coast, where " they make 'em." The
earth looked a little brown and dusty ; but sky and
sea and air were full of soft, heavenly splendors,
warmth, and serenity. We drove through some of
the finest streets of the pleasant, festive-looking city,
the roses of a thousand gardens nodding to us
as we passed, and out over the sandy hills, and
by green little nooks, market-gardens, and grain-
fields. I cannot tell how joyous and friendly looked
to me the whole strange landscape, after the bleak

196 CALIFORNIA.

hills of Nevada, where Nature frowns grimly over
her rough treasure-chests, like an unprotected female
at a San Francisco landing, standing guard over
her "effects" against a mob of cab-drivers. Even
the cemeteries on our route wore a cheerful, well-
to-do aspect ; and the monuments of men who have
had much to do with the history and fame of the
State — of such men as Baker and Broderick —
cast but a little shadow on the sunny day. Now
and then, on the road, there were little, silvery
glimpses of the Pacific ; but it was, after all, quite
suddenly and with a keen thrill of surprise that I
caught my first full view of it, lying almost at our
feet. — immense but not awful, majestic but passing
beautiful, smiling grandly under the sweet heavens,
in its wondrous peace. It did not beat upon the
sands like the gray Atlantic, in a sullen, thwarted
way, but seemed to feel them gently, and to spare
them, in a benign and sovereign self-restraint, call-
ing in its forces, and lying back from the land. It
appears older than the Atlantic, which somehow
seems to date from the time of the Pilgrim Fathers,
or of Columbus at the furthest. It murmurs of
the most ancient mysteries of the East. Its very

CLIFF HOUSE AND THE SEA-LIONS. I97

air smells of Cathay and tastes of old Ci-
pango.

Cliff House has a long, broad veranda, facing
the sea, and commanding fine views of the Golden
Gate, of the dark, bold bluff of the peninsula, and
of the rocky points beyond the curving beach. On
this morning, there were many sails in sight, some
passing through the grand gateway, some coming
up slowly before the soft wind, some melting into
dreams of ships down the misty horizon.

The Seal Rocks — three sharp, picturesque little
islands immediately in front of the hotel — were
crowded with sea-lions, whose strange, dismal, dis-
cordant barking filled the air. These particular sea-
lions are under the protection of the law, and are
such old customers that habitues at the Cliff House
are able to single out the leaders, the solid citizens,
and have given them distinctive and distinguished
names. I must confess I watched them with an
eager, childish interest and enjoyment. An Eng-
lish tourist at my side remarked with a happy
command of words, " What an extraordinary sight !
Really, you know, I had no idea of it ! What ex-
traordinary creatures ! and what an extraordinary

igS CALIFORNIA.

noise they make!" — which are my opinions, better
expressed.

Some of these sea-lions are monsters of their
kind, weighing a thousand or twelve hundred
pounds, they say. All seals, queer, grotesque, un-
canny creatures, have for me a strange fascination,
seeming like sinful human souls in mild torment,
— men, perhaps, who have warred and wasted, and
lived free and high and fast, going through an un-
comfortable metempsychosis, prisoned and pinioned
in these flabby, slippery, and clumsy forms. As
you first see those on this coast, they seem con-
tinually to be flopping over the rocks or down into
the water, and you say to yourself, " What a dreary
thing it must be, — an existence of flop!" But as
you watch them further, you see that even a sea-
lion's life is varied ; for there is the wallow in the
water, and the hitch up on to the rocks, the siesta
in the sun, and the bark. When he is awake, t/iai
is incessant. Day and night his "bark is on the sea."
Sometimes, when they are all barking at once, it
pleasantly reminds one of the House of Represent-
atives. Doubtless the sea-lion has his marital re-
lations ; perhaps the plural style of marriage pre-

A SEAL PRIZE RING. IQQ

vails in this thriving community, and all the
middling-sized monsters grouped around the big
ones are their consorts, — "sealed" to them. If
so, the ill-adjustment and discontent which nowa-
days seem almost inseparable from the blessed
estate of wedlock may account for some of the
little unpleasantnesses observable on the rocks in
the mildest and sleepiest times. Another reason
why not here, more than in Congress, do we find
peace and unity, is, perhaps, that here also they
have a Sumner and a Ben Butler. Another big
seal has been dubbed by some patriotic visitor
General Grant. This is a very quiet old fellow,
and sleeps most of the time. He has a sullen,
" deep-mouthed bay," yet I saw enough to be con-
vinced that his bite is worse than his bark ; for
while I was regarding him as he lay in profound
slumber, an enormous seal hitched himself up out
of the water near by, made a careful reconnoissance,
and deliberately went for him. You should have
seen the old Phocacean majestically rear himself on
his flippers, should have heard his roar of angry
defiance, which rang above the dash of the waves,
and was echoed by every loyal seal on the rocks.

200 CALIFORNIA.

except, perhaps, " Sumner." Then began one of
the most exciting contests I ever witnessed. It
seemed to come off in " rounds," Hke a prize-fight,
the first assailant continually getting the worst of
it. When he was severely " punished " by the Gen-
eral's tusks, he invariably fell back, and lifted up
his voice and wept. At last, after half a dozen
disastrous attacks, he fell so far back that he
flopped off the rock into the water, where he laid
his sore head on the bosom of the deep, and sub-
sided. The victor gave one triumphant bark,
turned over, and went to sleep.

We had a sumptuous lunch, followed by the most
invigorating, exhilarating, and altogether jolly beach-
drive I have ever had to record, and I have en-
joyed many an one during my weary earthly pil-
grimage. Our drive back to town through the old
Mission Dolores gave us charming views of the
ocean, the country, and the city. On the whole, it
was a day to be " marked by a white stone " ; but
my stock of pebbles of that sort is giving out.

From that noisy concourse of sea-lions and lion-
esses to a gathering of the " best society " of San
Francisco, from those gray rocks to elegant salofis,

PACIFIC SOCIETY. 201

from no dress to full dress, from wild barking to
classic music, from flopping to galoping, is a long
step ; yet the next incident of note marked in my
diary is a large party at the house of his Honor
Mayor Selby. It was as brilliant and enjoyable an
affair as the most cordial hospitality, the most
bounteous entertainment, fine music, flowers in
marvellous abundance, splendid toilets, beauty, grace,
and gayety could make it. San Francisco has, it
seems to me, an uncommonly large proportion of
beautiful women. I meet at every social gathering
matrons of mature age and over, with fine, sym-
metrical figures, and fresh, clear complexions ; and
I see everywhere young girls that match the other-
wise incomparable roses they tend on their lovely
garden terraces.

I have spent a couple of mornings in the Chi-
nese quarter; I have stood hushed in the "dim re-
ligious light" of the Chinese Temple, and snuffed
the incense that floats about the shrine of Josh ;
I have dissipated at the Chinese Theatre. But
these are themes to be served up by themselves,
and with more ceremony. I do not like to pass
over in silence, yet I have left myself no space

Q *

202 CALIFORNIA.

worthily to recount, my next and most delightful
experience, — a visit, with a party of dear old
friends, to Glenwood, Mr. Ralston's place near Bel-
mont, on the San Jose Road, with excursions to
the fine country-seats in that vicinity. We were
met at San Mateo, about six miles this side of
Belmont, by Mr. Ralston's char-a-banc and four,
and driven through the grounds of several noble
residences, — grounds generously open to the pub-
lic at all times. I have never seen anything in
America so fine as some of the avenues and parks
we drove through that golden afternoon. They
have not the dainty neatness of Eastern parks and
pleasure-grounds, but they are more picturesque by
far. They are less prim than primitive. Nature
has been respected as the great original landscape-
gardener. These are grounds to satisfy the artist
and delight the sportsman ; for wild vines and
shrubs run and spread " at their own sweet will " ;
the beautiful gray moss festoons the limbs of gnarly
old oaks, and droops and trails with indescribable
wild grace ; and fallen branches, and bushes, and
ferns make admirable covers for game.

Through paling sunset glories and freshening

A SUBURBAN VILLA. 203

evening airs we drove up the Devil's Canon, in
which is cunningly and cosily hidden away Mr.
Ralston's charming villa, — the representative " open
house " of California, the very temple of hospitality.
It may be expected that I shall describe at some
length a visit which was to me like a day in fairy-
land, or a chapter out of Lotbair ; but when I
entered that house I left the reporter outside.
The next day, after lunch, we had another drive
along magnificent roads, and through a bewildering
succession of stately avenues and noble parks, visit-
ing vineyards and almond orchards and wonderful
flower-gardens and palatial stables, strolling over
lawns still marvellously green, rowing in miniature
ponds, petting tame deer, — such lovely or lordly
creatures ! — and inspecting beautiful blood-horses.
" Beautiful ? Sir, you may say so ! " There was
one gray, I remember, with a mane like the surf
of the Pacific, and a tail like the Bridal Veil of
the Yosemite.

But the sun, that had shone all day long with
almost midsummer warmth and splendor, dipped
toward the waiting sea, casting back on the lovely
coast hills a smile of tender reluctance. So we

204 CALIFORNIA.

went, — even more tenderly reluctant, — met the
train at Menlo Park, and reached the city in the
early evening, — like children tired out with pleas-
ure.

December 19.

I do not much object to the steep hills of San
Francisco when the weather is fair and I am not
too tired. They give great picturesqueness and
distinctiveness to the city, and a peculiar foreign
aspect, reminding one of old Edinburgh or Genoa.
The higher you go, the purer and drier is the air,
and the finer the prospect. Invalids should not
remain down in the business part of the town, dur-
ing the winter at least. This, I am told, is the
most healthful and agreeable season for a sojourn
in San Francisco. The cold winds which blow
fiercely and continually through the mock summer
are laid, and bright and balmy weather is, after the
" big rain," the rule. Incredible as the stories of
Munchausen seem the accounts which come to us
of the heavy snows and intense cold on the other
slope of the continent.

Tie weather " sharps " of the signal service were
true prophets ; for the great coast-storm is upon us.

KILLING TIME. 205

It is something tremendous, stupendous ! We are
shut in by a leaden wall of rain, — " corralled," or,
to speak more poetically, "enclosed, in a tumultuous
privacy of storm." So at last I get a chance to
write. Duty is, at the best, a little dismal ; and I
go to my work on this dark and tempestuous day
in no hilarious mood. Yet everybody else is hav-
ing a damp jubilee. Universal California rejoices
in this flood as it never rejoiced in sunshine and
soft airs. What wonders it will do for the crops,
and what miracles for the gardens !

A fortnight or so ago, I visited San Jose, and
had an odd little adventure. Ill luck attended that
expedition from the beginning. A friend who was
to have accompanied me failed me at the last mo-
ment. It was Saturday afternoon. I went to the
station in good time for the 3.10 train to find that
on that day it went at 2.10, was already gone,
and I had more than two hours to wait for the
last evening train. I walked the platform furiously
for half an hour, like a Beecher or a Dickinson ;
then, seeing that " Woodward's Garden," a famous
and a really interesting and beautiful pleasure re-
sort, was near by, I went over there with mur-

2o6 ' CALIFORNIA.

derous intent against time. But can anything be
more melancholy than such a compulsory " bender " ?
Disappointed, vexed, tired, solitary, nothing moved
me to wonder or admiration. I went into the
tropical conservatory ; but saw nothing better than
we have at Washington, and nothing new, except
the " miracle flower," so called, named the Espiritii
Sanctii, or Holy Ghost, — a little white blossom,
which, to a devout imagination, bears some resem-
blance to a dove with extended wings. I was dis-
appointed in finding it so small, and said as much
to the Irish gardener, who took fire (holy fire) at
once, and indignantly asked if I had expected it
to be " as big as a live pigeon." I meekly an-
swered " No," but that the advertisement had led
me to expect something like a good-sized squab.
As I passed on, I have no doubt that man set
me down as having committed the unpardonable
sin.

I did not linger in the art gallery ; for " art is
long," especially the Greek Slave, "and time is
fleeting." I went into the skating rink, and sat
down in a festive crowd of my fellow-beings, who
knew me not. I could have eaten peanuts with

INCONSOLABLE ENNUI. 207

perfect impunity. There was a " skatorial queen "
and a " champion skater." But man on rollers de-
lighted not me., nor woman neither. The champion
imitated a drunken man to the life ; but even that
failed to cheer me. A handsome trapeze performer
leaped and plunged in mid-air, like a gigantic frog,
in tinsel and tights ; and not a pulse thrilled with
generous admiration or alarm. He performed, also,
as a tumbler and contortionist; but the prospect of
his tying himself in an acrobatic hard knot and
being unable to untie himself was naught to me.
I fear that if he had broken his neck in one of
his compound somersaults, I should have regarded
the catastrophe with something of the cool phi-
losophy of Bridget in the kitchen, " Sure, thin,
what's one tumbler more nor less.''"

After that exhibition I did not dare to visit
the monkey department, for fear that it would be
" borne in upon me " that Mr. Darwin's theory is
true. I did not even visit the pet seals, lest I should
wish myself one, with a nice little tank to disport
in, and a comfortable rock to sleep on, instead of
being obliged to flop over a continent, seeking rest
and finding none.

208 CALIFORNIA.

On the train, at last, and away ! It was early-
twilight when we passed Millbrae and the magnifi-
cent country-seat of Mr. Mills, the president of the
Bank of California, and dusk when we went by
Belmont. With the fall of night the wind rose.
There was a full moon, but it pursued its credit-
able career under difficulties, — now wading through
drifting clouds, now quite hidden from view, I sat
alone by a window, silent of course, looking out
on the shadowy, flying landscape, and watching
that determined and indomitable luminary, the only
familiar face in sight. I mused on the mysteries
of creation, and studied out the trimming for a
new gown. I yawned, I dozed, — the way seemed
intolerably long. At last came the conductor for
the tickets, and I asked, " How soon shall we reach
San Jose ? "

" In about fifteen minutes, ma'am."

I got together my traps ; then settled down
against the window, took another lunar observation,
and dozed, it seemed to me, full fifteen minutes.
The train stopped. A family party near me rose
and went out, and I rose and went out after them.
By the way, the names of stations are not called

LEFT OUT IN THE COLD. 209

on these California railroads. People hereabouts
are supposed to have cut their canines. I looked
neither to the right nor the left, but walked for-
ward to where I saw a light, to claim my baggage.
Here I soon discovered that I was not at San
Jose. The train was starting ; I started too, to
jump aboard, but suddenly changed my mind.
Five years ago I should have done it. Now I
have outgrown such follies. I found myself left at
a little way-station, several miles this side of San
Jose, and with scarce a house in sight ! My emo-
tions, when I saw that locomotive go snorting and
prancing off, whisking his tail of cars, and when
I looked around me, on the strange, lonely land-
scape, can be slightly better imagined than de-
scribed. I felt as felt my good friend " Sunset "
Cox, when he was caught out in the Rocky Moun-
tain storm, — I "wanted to go home."

Then began a hurried and, on my part, an excit-
ing dialogue with the station-master : —

" Can I hire a carriage here ? "

" No, ma'am ; there 's no such thing to be had.
I did have a buggy last year, but it 's broke."

" What is the nearest town ahead .-* "

2IO CALIFORNIA.

" Santa Clara."

" How far away.?"

" About four miles."

" Can't I telegraph to a hotel there for a car-
riage to be sent here for me ? "

" You might, ma'am, but the telegraph-opera-
tor has took sick and gone home."

" Well, what can I do .? I can't stay here all
night."

" Why, no, that 's so ! If you 're used to the
saddle, I 've got a horse you can ride to some
house hereabouts where you can get a vehicle
of some sort."

I assented gladly, and I flatter myself pluckily,
to this vague proposition ; but that romantic
horseback ride by moonlight was not to be.
The travellers who had left the cars with me —
a party consisting of a gentleman farmer, his
wife and baby (which their name is Putnam) —
had a carriage waiting for them. They saw my
painful embarrassment. Putnam himself, with true
Christian chivalry, refused to leave me there, or
to consent to the proposed equestrian arrange-
ment. In short, he invited me to go home with

TAKEN IN AND DONE FOR. 211

them, take supper, and then, if I could not
spend the night, he said I should be sent over
to San Jose. How pleasantly and gratefully I
remember the hearty, manly way in which this
" aid and comfort " was proffered. And yet he
had no idea who I was ; to him I was only
an unprotected and very stupid female in diffi-
culties. In fact, I was ashamed to reveal myself.
I accepted his kind offer ; I could not do other-
wise ; but I felt inexpressibly mortified and as-
tonished that I, old traveller as I am, could be
capable of making a blunder so incredible. My
new friend and helper tried to divert my thoughts,
as we drove over to his place, by remarking on
the moon and the ominous halo around it ; but
I had done mooning enough in the cars.
Before a pleasant wood-fire, in the parlor of a
pretty farm-house, I at last made myself known,
to find to my comfort that both my host and
hostess were old friends, "according to the
spirit." After this everything was lovely. We
had a warm supper, and then the whole party
of good Samaritans (barring the baby) went with
me over to San ]os6, — a six-mile drive, half of

212 CALIFORNIA.

it leading under tlie grand arches of the Ala-
meda, an avenue of oaks, willows, and sycamores,
planted nearly a hundred years ago by the pa-
dres of the old missions of Santa Clara and
San Jose. The night was still a little wild, with
cold winds and driving clouds. The shadows of
the gnarly old trees had a weird effect, tossing
and surging like spectral waves on the white
sand of the lonely road, where nothing was
heard but the quick fall of our horses' hoofs,
the creak of swaying branches, and the rustle
of drifting leaves. We reached San Jos^ at about
ten o'clock, took leave of each other, and my
adventure was over. Though the mishap was a
little rough at the time, I would not lose the
recollection of it for any entertainment my San
Francisco friends can give me, and that is saying
a great deal. It made me think better of human
nature (not that I ever thought very ill of it),
and love generous, hospitable Californians more
than ever; and it took the conceit out of me
as a strong-minded woman of the world, inde-
pendent, and knowing a thing or two about
traveling. Since that experience I am a sore

SANTA CLARA. 213

trial to conductors in my fear of getting some-
where, or not getting somewhere, without know-
ing it

I have tempted the gods by a second visit to
San Jos6 and Santa Clara. There is an odor
of defunct sanctity all over this region. San
Jose is a beautiful city, with some pleasant drives
beside the ever-charming Alameda, a noble new
court-house, and several fine private residences.
The show-place is General Negley's, and it is
one which any prince might be proud of, and
such as few princes deserve. At Santa Clara
there is a large Jesuit college and an old adobe
church- The latter is a dim, damp, musty,
weather - stained, and earthquake - marred edifice,
adorned with some curious, not to say grotesque,
frescoes, painted, it is said, long ago by a na-
tive artist, an Indian convert. If so, "the last
state of that man was worse than the first."
One of the pictures on the wall — that of a
saintly old monk in his cell — is so striking a
likeness of the sagacious and loquacious states-
man of Kentucky, Garret Davis, that one could
almost believe it a portrait of that venerable

214 CALIFORNIA.

senator, doing penance for his sins of speech,
or taking sanctuary here from the evil rule of
Republicanism and the buffetings of Butler.

We were very courteously shown all through
the college, which seems an excellent institution,
admirably practical in its character. The inner
court, or garden, with its long piazzas, its aloes,
myrtles, roses, and lemon, orange, almond, and
olive trees, reminded me of the cloisters and
court in the picturesque old inn of Amalfi,
once a convent. The whole scene was marvel-
ously like Italy, — the Jesuit priests, with their
long black robes ; the quaint old church ; the
older cross before it. Even the picturesque
peasant figures were there, lounging about the
church door, and kneeling before the shrine of
the Virgin. Some swarthy Mexicanos looked the
lazzaroni character to the life. But, thank Heav-
en ! they did not beg, nor smell of garlic, like the
genuine Neapolitan article ; and there were no
snuffy, shuffling, shaven old mendicant friars to
be seen.

San Francisco has been having a sensation lately,
which has shaken the many-hilled city like a mild

A GLIMMER OF GHOSTS. 2l5

earthquake. Ghost faces have appeared in divers
window-panes about town ! The first spectre of
this kind was discovered in the front window of a
very respectable house occupied by a widow, who,
it is said, recognized it as the apparition of her
late husband. It caused a tremendous excitement.
Jones, living, might have gazed out of that window,
with that doleful expression (for it is a most in-
felicitous-looking ghost) for every day of a long and
virtuous life, and nobody would have heeded him ;
but Jones, defunct, drew half the town to gape at
him. Of course / went to see the crowd. That, by
the way, was what everybody said they went to see.
I found that the widow had been so beset by visitors
and reporters that she had brought herself, for a
consideration, to part a second time with her hus-
band,— one gets used to these afl^lictions, — and
that he had been removed to Woodward's Garden,
where he was drawing well. Scarcely was he gone
when other ghosts appeared in neighboring win-
dows, staring out of their crystalline limbo on a
marveling or mocking world, looking more or less
miserable, as though in purgatorial panes. These
new-comers I saw, and I must confess that they

2l6 CALIFORNIA.

were to me something quite inexplicable. They
seem to have been done in, not on, the glass, and
are scarcely of a character to serve any purpose
of ornamental art. They are the very diabolism of
photography. I cannot even guess at the process
by which they are made to appear as and where
they are. But ghost "sharps" tell me they are
quite inferior to the original apparition now at the
Garden. That, however, is said to be fading
slowly away. Jones evidently does n't feel at home
there. He was a family man. Bids are not lively
for the other panes ; the spectre business has been
overdone, and speculators are fearful of taking a
glass too much.

During the dismal deluge which came upon us
in the holidays, I could not write, of course. I fled
to Belmont, to the society of the beautiful and
beloved Portia, who there presides, — to whom the
wise men of the East and the princes of Cathay
and Cipango pay homage. In those wide, hos-
pitable halls I found gayety unclouded and bloom
undrenched, — a clime and a climate of their own.
There it was out of the question for me to shut
myself up and work. I would be idle if I died for

STORM AND SUNSHINE. 217

it. Besides, it was so discouraging to hear of rail-
roads and bridges washed away in every direc-
tion, and mail-bags afloat. I half believed that,
should I write my MS., I would have to bottle it
up and let it drift. Then came the snow-block-
ades, and the prospect of all mail matter en route
being frozen up, not to be thawed out before
spring.

Since the storm, life in California has worn a
particularly festive aspect. The hills have put on
new coats of loveliest, liveliest green. In the gar-
dens, the lilies and geraniums have taken heart of
grace ; red and white roses have flung out fresh
banners of bloom, as though ready to resume the
old York and Lancaster strife. The beauty of
these winter days — falsely so called — is inde-
scribable. It is now, from morn to dewy eve,
one steady tempest of sunshine, as a little while
ago it was one steady storm of rain. Doubtless
we shall have plenty of dark and rainy days yet
this season, but the wettest of the wet must be
past. I had before heard of " sheets of rain," but
here it came down in blankets, — coverlets. There
was not, it proved, a perfectly water-proof house in
10

2l8 CALIFORNIA.

the city. You know all the Pacific coast Chris-
tians had been petitioning and sacrificing for rain
for some two years, so that there were long arrear-
ages of prayers to be answered ; and it descended
till every reasonable claim on the bounty of Provi-
dence was liquidated. After the storm, came the
Japanese Embassy, dropping down on " Frisco " as
though out of another planet. They have all been
very thoroughly lionized. The Prime Minister,
Prince Iwakura, is rnuch commended for his "wise
saws " and Oriental courtesy ; and the princesses
brought over for their education are admired as
remarkably modest and well-behaved young ladies.
They are said to be impatient to don the Ameri-
can dress, which they admire, " all but the hump
on the back."

Prince Iwakura gives it out as his opinion that
women should Le educated equally with men.
These heathens are getting on quite too fast. Let
the American Board of Commissioners for For-
eign Missions look to it, and send a fresh squad
of missionaries to Japan. And let care be taken
to select pious young men from Yale and Andover,
— not from the women-invaded universities of

LIGHT FROM THE ORIENT. 219

Michigan and California. They may be martyred,
these apostles of godly conservatism ; but they will
die in a good cause. This pestilent woman ques-
tion is traveling round the world in advance of
the telegraph. I have a poetic friend in this city
who is about to flee to a lonely island in the
South Seas to get away from it. I tell him he
flees in vain. The Robinson Crusoe of to-day
finds on the rocks of his Juan Fernandez notices
of Women's Rights Conventions pleasantly inter-
mingled with advertisements of patent-right medi-
cines.

I have lately paid a visit to Sacramento, and
seen the State Solons in council assembled, — a
fine, live-looking set of men. The new Capitol is
a noble building, bearing a striking resemblance to
the dear old national Capitol we fondly remember
as more symmetrical, if less magnificent, than the
sacred conglomerate edifice we all at Washington
turn our faces toward, at morning and evening
devotions.

I was charmingly entertained at the beautiful
residence of ex-Governor Stanford, — gracious King
Leland, — monarch of all the railroads he surveys ;

220 CALIFORNIA.

a man not only with a masterly brain for affairs,
for the management of gigantic enterprises, for
knowledge of men and means, but with a fair, lib-
eral mind and a kindly heart, — a true representa-
tive man for a grand State like California, almost
an empire.

The site of Sacramento is low and flat, and in
some of the lower grade unpaved streets there
were depths of mud apparently unfathomable ; but
still we drove much about town and a mile or
two into the country, our driver continually pick-
ing the way. There are in Sacramento many
elegant private residences, and it abounds and
superabounds in shrubberies and flowers.

With my ruling passion strong even in Califor-
nia, I was not long in making affectionate inquiries
of Governor Stanford in regard to his famous trot-
ting horse Charley, or Occident, as he had been
lately christened. In reply, my host offered to
drive me out to the race-course where the animal
is kept, that I might see for myself; and the next
morning I had the honor of a presentation to the
most princely piece of horse-flesh I have seen for
many a long day. Though not showy, and not, at

A PRINCELY STEED. 221

present, carefully kept up, he is really a grand
creature, beautiful almost equally in action and re-
pose, intelligent, gentle, tractable, yet full of joy-
ous fire. I did not see him in harness, as the
ground was too heavy to allow of his being put to
his speed ; but a little son of the trainer mounted
him bare-back, and let me see something of his ac-
tion. The morning was beautiful, and he seemed
to revel in the sunshine and fresh air, and to
thrill with a fine ecstasy of life. The trainer
of this horse is a Yankee of the Yanks, who
devotes himself to his charge with the utmost en-
thusiasm, and brings up his children in the same
fealty. Every night he or one of his boys sleeps
beside Royal Charley, ready to wake at his lightest
whinny. In truth, the horse is far less an object
of pride and solicitude to his owner than to his
trainer. No railroads come in to rival, no steam-
boats to run him down, in the loyal affections of
"Yank Smith." He is jealous of his record to
the fourth part of a second.

Charley's pedigree has not been fully and accu-
rately made out. He is supposed to be of Mor-
gan stock, and was raised in the country, near

222 CALIFORNIA.

Sacramento, He passed into the possession of a
man who worked him in drawing sand for the
railroad, with a much larger horse, who was slow
and did not do his share of the work ; so finally
his owner sold him to a butcher for seventy-five
dollars, saying that he could get a horse for sixty
dollars that would answer his purpose as well.
The butcher sold him to a ranchman, who drove
him in a market-wagon. A neighbor, a little wiser
in horse-matters, bought him for two hundred and
fifty dollars, gave him a little training, and sold
him to Governor Stanford for four thousand five
hundred dollars and a valuable horse named
Grant. Since his wonderful speed has been ascer-
tained. Governor Stanford has received immense
offers for him. One demented admirer offered a
ranch and seventy-five horses of good blood, for
all of which possessions he would not take, he
said, seventy-five thousand dollars. In refusing
this handsome offer, the governor said he was re-
minded of a story he read in his boyhood of an
English highwayman (perhaps Dick Turpin), who
once, when fleeing from the sheriff and hard
pressed, caused his horse (perhaps Black Bess) to

Charley's "time." 223

take an astonishing leap over a chasm or stream,
which feat a wonder-struck farmer, beholding, cried
out, " I would give fifty bullocks for that horse ! "
But the flying robber shouted back, "Fifty bul-
locks could n't take that leap ! "

Charley is now eight years old. He is fifteen
and one half hands high, and, when in good con-
dition for speed, weighs eight hundred and sixty
pounds. He is in color a rich bay, which be-
comes a dark brown in winter.

The track of the Sacramento Trotting Park,
though the best in the State, is not in a condition
to make a perfect test of the speed of this re-
markable horse. It is too flat and sharp at the
turns. The governor is having these defects rem-
edied, so in a few months we may hear great
things of this wonder of the West, and Dexter
and Goldsmith Maid may have a rival in the
future. The tests of speed thus far (though
Smith declares that the horse has never yet put
forth his best energies) have given this result.
Ecco ! Best mile, 2. i8| ; best half-mile, 1.05;
best quarter, 3I2 seconds. Smith evidently believes
his pet to be the fastest horse in the world,

224 CALIFORNIA.

"when his work is fairly cut out afore him"; and
perhaps he is, as California is undoubtedly the
fastest country in the world.

I made the journey down to San Francisco on
a glorious afternoon. The country, such of it as
was out of water, looked green with promise where
the wild turf stretched away in mighty, magnificent
undulations, and where ploughed lands awaited the
planter and the sower. Ah, ' there 's richness ! ' "

We have lately had an Artists' Reception, —
a very gay and charming affair. All the beauty
and fashion and celebrity of San Francisco were
there, with several distinguished and many un-
distinguished strangers, and, of course, all the
editors and reporters and Bohemians. Bierstadt
was there with his lovely wife. They have come
here to winter, to be ready for another trium-
phant art-campaign in the spring. Stoddard, the
poet (he of the Pacific coast and strain), was
there with his kindly, languid smile, — a young
man whom everybody likes and calls " Charley " ;
and Joaquin Miller, rough of dress, but mild
of address, pale and pensive and peculiar, trying
his best to look unconscious of the wistful gaze

NOTABLE PEOPLE. 225

of hundreds of bright eyes. Quite the opposite
of this pale, wild Swinburne of the Sierras was
the genial and fresh-hearted English gentleman
and fine actor, Henry Edwards, with his won-
derful atmosphere of joyous vitality, naturalness,
and manliness. Everybody likes him too, and
calls him " Harry," but no man has more the
respect of the community. The stage, if it does
not meet all his aspirations, has not destroyed
them ; if it does not satisfy, it has not spoiled
him. He devotes himself with singular enthusi-
asm to natural science, and has one of the
very finest private collections of butterflies and
beetles in the world. A finished and conscien-
tious artist, he yet makes his art almost second-
ary to science. His theatrical tours are butterfly
chases as well. By the way, we have had a little
theatrical sensation here, — the appearance, for
the first time in English, of Madam Veneta, a
favorite German actress. I have seen her as
Lady Macbeth, and that heart-rending Deborah.
She is a woman of undeniable genius, some-
what unequal in her acting, but, for the most
part, playing with singular intensity and absorp-
10* o

!26 CALIFORNIA.

tion. She played poor, fiery, forsaken Deborah
with truth and tenderness, with superb scorn and
magnificent abandon. She is not very young ;
she could hardly have united such concentration
of passion and such self-mastery if she were.
She is not decidedly beautiful, but her face has
immense power of expression. She speaks Eng-
lish remarkably well, with but a slight accent,
and in a voice singularly like that of Charlotte
Cushman, whose magnificently passionate acting she
frequently reminds me of.

Sacramento, March 4.

All weather wiseacres unite in saying that
there has never been a winter like this on the
Pacific coast, for rain, since that of the great
flood in 1862. I was just getting disheartened,
had ceased my song of glorification, and was
ready to sing,

"I would not live alway, in California,
Where storm after storm rises dark o'er the way,"

when the wind changed, chopped round to
nor'-nor'west, and the sun came out in all his
splendor and bravery, to open his spring cam-
paign against flood and mud.

STOCKTON MUD AND DARKNESS. 227

Nothing could have been more dismal than
my visit to Stockton. For most of the time the
rain fell in torrents, and all the time the town
seemed one vast slough. In early days Stockton
was celebrated for depths of mud, not only un-
fathomable, but unimaginable, and it has bravely
held its own. By the way, it was the scene of
the old legend of the miner's hat, seen one still,
spring day mysteriously moving along the surface
of the ground ; which hat was discovered to have
a stranger under it ; which stranger, when extri-
cated, shouted that he had "a mule down thar."
I myself saw an enterprising lad, probably a
news-boy, going about town on stilts. Fortunate-
ly the sidewalks are high and dry above this
black profound.

They have in Stockton an uncommon com-
mon council for economy. They stoutly refuse
to light the streets, though they have good gas-
works, and though they have an excellent Mayor,
of Boston stock, who wrestles with them on the
light question continually. So, by night, when the
heavens are unpropitious, all is Tartarean dark-
ness, above and below. If nocturnally you would

228 CALIFORNIA.

" See fair Stockton aright,
Go visit it by the pale moonlight."

Stockton makes much of the moon. She has
the great State Lunatic Asylum. The same
economical city fathers who decline to light the
streets, so that good people can attend lectures on
dark nights with safety, actually levied on me a
tax of five dollars for the blessed privilege of
reading to a few citizens, who came out on that
dark and doleful night with lanterns and um-
brellas, a highly moral essay on " Heroism in
Common Life," and never did people stand more
in need of encouragement in well-doing. It was
the first experience of the kind I ever had ;
and I hope it will be the last, — for the good
of my temper, which it would be a pity to have
soured, at this late day. I resented it, as I
always resent " taxation without representation."
If the town had been represented in proportion
to its population — not counting the asylumites
— at my moral and aesthetic entertainment, the
thing would have been more endurable.

Sacramento is always pleasant to me, mud or
no mud, for its excellent society, for the cor-

SACRAMENTO SOCIETY. 229

dial hearts and keen intellects I meet here, for
the air of enterprise and activity which reminds
one constantly of the good fight this people have
made against adverse fortunes, against fire and
flood.

The house at which I am again entertained,
though for the most part new and altogether mag-
nificent,— the large house of a large man (in every
sense), — is already pervaded by the true home
atmosphere, suggestive of absolute ease and com-
fort. There is no grand apartment too grand to
be lived in and thoroughly enjoyed. None are
shut up for state occasions. No richest damask
chairs are tabooed^ or bagged in ghostly linen. The
whole noble mansion seems to me a type of the
generous, bounteous, almost prodigal hospitality of
this country.

Perhaps I may be pardoned for speaking more
particularly of Sacramento society. Like that of
all capitals, it is gay and fashionable; but I daily
meet with evidences of a good deal besides, and
better than gayety and fashion. The governor
himself, Mr. Booth, is a man of quite extraordinary
eloquence and culture, and several of the State

230 CALIFORNIA.

officers, men young or in their early prime, are
rare scholars and gentlemen. I find Sacramento
ladies very charming, with an unusual amount of
vivacity, and a graceful and gracious friendliness
of manner peculiarly pleasant to me as a stranger.
The city wants sadly a good hall for lectures and
concerts, and a museum of curiosities and art. The
wealthy citizens show a good deal of taste for art,
however. I have just returned from a visit to the
house of Judge Crocker, who, at a time of life
when most large capitalists hereabouts are utterly
buried and absorbed in gigantic enterprises and
splendid speculations, treated himself and family to
a long stay in Europe, threw care to the winds,
revelled in the beautiful, and bought pictures right
and left. He has brought home a large collection,
for which he is now building a fme gallery.

Chico, March 7.
I reached here last evening, so late that I
could see but little of the town ; but this morn-
ing I find myself amid the loveliest and most pic-
turesque scenery I have seen since I first came
into the State. Indeed, I believe this portion of

MELA'NCHOLY MARYSVILLE. 23I

the great valley of the Sacramento is called " The
Paradise of California."

'Marysville, in which for my sins of extravagant
laudation of this country, perhaps, I spent a dis-
mal, drizzling, lonely day, is a town of considerable
importance, and has been in times past even more
busy and prosperous. I should judge there was
plenty of money there yet, from the number of cit-
izens, who can afford to live without labor or
any apparent business, whom we observed lounging
about street-corners, or taking their otium cum
dignitate, if nothing stronger, in the bar-room of
the hotel. Yet, apart from these elegant idlers
and " bloated aristocrats," I suppose there may be
a hard-working class of merchants and professional
men, excellent people in their way ; and I doubt
not that Marysville is the dearest and most desir-
able spot on earth to all the inhabitants thereof
I have one pleasant association with the place. I
met there one friend, — a lovely, sympathetic Bos-
ton woman, who brought to see me a beautiful
little girl to whom she had given my name.

Here I am, resting for a few days on the mag-
nificent ranch of General . Bidwell, a distinguished

232

CALIFORNIA.

Californian, and one much respected, though he
has been a member of Congress. He Hves here a
life busy, but tranquil, in authority almost feudal,
in enjoyment almost Arcadian, on an estate of
twenty thousand acres, comprising some of the fin-
est wheat and fruit growing and pasture land in
the State. The pleasant town of Chico, built on
land which was once a part of this vast ranch, is
named from a creek, the loveliest stream I have
found in California. This runs the General's flour-
mills, supplies all his irrigating ditches, and flows
through his grounds. From the tower of his beau-
tiful house, and even from my chamber windows, I
can see far down the enchanting valley, on two
sides, mountains lovely and grand ; the Marysville
Buttes, the Coast Range, and the mighty Sierras
blue in the distance, and wearing the same night-
caps of snow they wore in the dark ages. Around
the house are flowers, of course, and shrubs and
trees just putting out their foliage, and a great
variety of evergreens. Among them are the grace-
ful Australian gum-tree, the Chinese camphor, and
the pepper tree. On one side of the house there
is an almond orchard in full bloom, looking like a

AN ARCADIAN PICTURE. 233

snow blockade. As I step out on the wide piazza,
which almost surrounds the house, the serene, sur-
passing beauty of the landscape takes my heart.
The air is filled and thrilled with the songs of
birds, — the robin, the thrush, the bluebird, and the
incomparable meadow-lark, — and pulsates with the
low, sweet gurgle of the stream, running crystal
clear over shining pebbles. The whole landscape
is peculiarly Italian in its character, and yester-
day, at sunset, I saw a group of picturesquely
dressed women coming from the mill. Large and
straight, and free in their movements, they reminded
me at once of Italian peasant women. Yet they
are native Indians, commonly called Diggers. They
are employed in the mill, and work well. They
live in a little village, or ranckeria, on the estate.
General Bidwell gladly employs all, both men and
women, who are able and willing to work, and sup-
ports the old and infirm — some sixty of them —
who were on the land when he came here. This
morning we drove over a portion of the ranch,
following, for the most part, a charming private
road along the Chico. We passed immense fields
of wheat, and a great meadow of the alfalfa, or

234 CALIFORNIA.

Chilian clover, which looked like a bright green
sea, surging in the fresh morning wind. This clover,
I am told, produces three bounteous crops a year,
without irrigation, never losing its peculiar vivid
green ; then, added to its other merits, it is sweet-
scented. We drove over a rolling plain, starred
with miniature daisies, dotted with buttercups and
tiny blue flowers, strange to me, but something
like our housatonias. But the flowers up here have
not come out as they have down on the coast.
Coming from Belmont, last week, I saw hosts of
harebells and patches of wild iris, that looked as
though the sky had come down in pieces ; while
all along the side of the road ran the yellow Cali-
fornia poppies, like a procession of fairy Orange-
men. The grand floral spring flood is rising all
over the State. Soon it will cover our feet, it
will rise to our knees, it will touch our saddle-
girths, and all the land will be drowned in bloom
and fragrance.

I am sorry I cannot see this charming Chico
region in its full glory of blossom and foliage ;
that I must leave before the trees. I want to be-
hold these grand oaks in all their summer bravery.

CHICO VEGETATION. 235

Just now, all the greenery about them is the fatal
garniture of the mistletoe, — that beautiful, inso-
lent parasite, that seems to have come sailing
through the air, out of the unknown, and boarded
the tree of its choice, and flung out its pirate ban-
ner from the topmost branches. Many of these
trees are burdened with oak-balls, — a black and
ghastly fruitage like unto baked "apples of Sodom."
They are all the tenements and nurseries of para-
sitic insects, and are formed from the sap, the life
of the tree going out in these ugly excrescences.
When the oak is stung, even to death, it sheds
tears of sweet forgiveness, drops on the earth a
white sugary substance, a sort of manna, which
these wild Children of Israel, the Diggers, gather
up in baskets, and eat almost as eagerly as they
devour a grasshopper cake or an angle-worm stew.
On our drive we saw away toward the mountains
an indistinct, white, moving mass, which looked as
though the fleecy clouds had settled on the plain.
It was our host's little flock of five thousand sheep
and fifteen hundred lambs. The stock I have not
yet seen, but I suppose it is in keeping with the
other belongings of this noble ranch.

236 CALIFORNIA.

General Bidwell has been on his land most
of the time for thirty years. He has given
much thought and study, as well as labor, to its
cultivation ; for not even in bounteous California
can such agricultural results be reached without
good, earnest, hard work, intelligent observation,
and watchful care. " While the husbandman
sleeps," the Devil is ready to sow tares here, as
elsewhere, and the way the pesky things grow
in this region would have astonished the ranch-
men " down in Judee." I could tell some stu-
pendous stories of the productiveness of grain-
fields, orchards, and vineyards on this ranch,
but will forbear for fear I lose my reputation
for veracity, — what may be left of it, after my
reports from Colorado. All the "small fruits" grow
here in great profusion and excellence. Among
these must by no means be classed the cherries,
— pride of the ranch ! He is set down as a
greedy fellow, an unmannerly knave, who does
not "make two bites of a cherry." All branch-
es of the melon family flourish here immensely :
in fact, all fruits not actually tropical, — pears,
peaches, apricots, nectarines, quinces, apples, the

A GRAND RANCH. 237

fig and the pomegranate, the pomme d'amour,
and the pomme de chou, and the pomme de terre ;
and the best of it is, that no pestilent insect,
unless it be a thieving Digger boy now and
then, ever attacks any sort of fruit in this re-
gion. Almonds are grown here of superior
quality, especially the soft-shelled ; also excellent
English and black walnuts and olives. His
fine grapes General Bidwell uses or sends to
market in their natural, innocent form, being con-
scientiously opposed to the manufacture of wine
and brandy.

I have been thus particular in describing this
ranch, because it is, on the whole, the finest I
have yet seen. Yet General Bidwell speaks of
it habitually as a place of fine " capabilities."
He has a thousand plans, partly originated by
his accomplished wife, for improving it, in every
direction and department. When they finish their
great and delightful task, may I be here to see !

Sacramento, March 26.
I have a new sensation to chronicle to-day, —
an event which I hope will remain among the

238 CALIFORNIA.

experiences of my life, alone, apart, unique. One
of the kind will do. Early this Tuesday morn-
ing we had an earthquake, — the most severe
earthquake ever known in Sacramento, which, in-
deed, has hitherto been singularly exempt from
such unwelcome visitations. It occurred — that is,
the great shock — at twenty minutes past two,
and then the clock stopped. It was late when
I went to bed last night. I was tired and weak
from recent illness, yet I could not sleep for a
long time. I fancied the air was heavy and
sultry. With a window wide open in my large
chamber, I still had a strange feeling of op-
pression and apprehension, though all without
was profoundly quiet, — a dead stillness. After
long tossing and weary waiting, I slept, it seemed
but a little while. I dreamed I was at sea,
and that the ship suddenly struck upon a rock,
and shuddered and shivered and creaked fearful-
ly. I woke to feel the rocking, straining motion
of the ship, and the roar of the winds and
waves. I had actually some moments of vague
distress and terror before I realized where I was,
and what was the strange tumult and shock, and

EARTHQUAKE TERRORS. 239

knew that the fearful power that was shaking
the great solid house, and rattling the windows,
and swinging the chandeliers about me, was nei-
ther of the air nor sea ; that the dull, appall-
ing roar was neither the sound of a mighty,
rushing wind, nor the voice of many waters, —
though it was like to them both ; nor could it
be taken for thunder, or the rumble of cars.
It was something peculiar, strange, terribly un-
familiar, yet impossible to be mistaken, — a name-
less horror of sound, muffled, portentous, and
all-pervading. It did not seem to me to belong
to the earthquake. It seemed in the air, not
under the ground ; it was not the growl of im-
prisoned thunder, but the ominous, defiant roar
of some unknown element of death and de-
struction, "flying all abroad." It was more terri-
ble to me than the rocking and trembling all
about me.

What moments were those for swift, solemn,
yearning thoughts ! Before I rose from the bed,
which shook and seemed to surge under me, I
seemed to pass in spirit over thousands of miles,
and to stand by the bedside of my dear ones,

24© CALIFORNIA.

sleeping in peace, in security. Something gave
me strength, and I rose quietly, went to a win-
dow and looked out, expecting to see the ground
heaving like the waves of the sea, and people
running frantically from falling houses. But all
seemed strangely still, except the swaying trees.
Nothing was disturbed, and few people were then
in the streets. It almost looked as though the
earthquake were confined to this house, — con-
tracted for, by the rampant enemies of the Cen-
tral Pacific and its president. The moon shone
through a mist with a peculiarly cold, almost
ghastly light. This effect, I heard afterward, was
noticed by others. I suppose it had no connec-
tion with the earthquake, yet it increased the
fantastic terror of the scene. My dear hostess
came to me to try to give me aid, or rather
comfort ; but as the shocks came in swift succes-
sion, running into each other, she was herself
almost overwhelmed with terror and apprehen-
sion. Yet after her tender, unselfish way, she
seemed to sufier most from fear for the fate of
friends in San Francisco. " If it is so severe
here, it must be terrible there" she said ; and

FINAL PULSATIONS. 24I

my own distress was very great for many dear
friends I pictured flying from their falling houses,
and wandering through the streets. But, thank
Heaven, they escaped the awful visitation this time,
almost entirely. We seem to have taken the full
brunt of it. We hear to-day that many people
rushed from their beds into the streets and re-
mained till the shocks were all past. My host,
Governor Stanford, was perfectly calm, and his
courage proved contagious. When he told me
that it was not, after all, a first-class earthquake,
I believed and trembled, respecting his long Pa-
cific coast experience, and not being a judge of
earthquakes myself When he assured me that
the worst was over, I went quietly to bed, and
there remained as quiet as my bed would allow
me to be. The shocks became much less vio-
lent and frequent, and at last were so gentle,
that, worn out by strange emotions, and faint
with a sort of sea -sickness, I said to the dear
old earth I never had feared before, " Rock me
to sleep, mother," — and she did it. At about
six o'clock I was wakened by a smart shock,
the last severe one we have had. During the
II p

242 CALIFORNIA.

day we have had several starts and trembleme7its,
so slight that it is probable we should not have
noticed them had we not been on the qiii-vive.
We are beginning to take some credit to our-
selves for good behavior, as we hear of many in
all parts of the city who were utterly panic-
stricken, rushing into the streets in their night-
clothes, shrieking and sobbing and praying, and
doing other strange and unusual things. One
frantic young man, very airily clad, leaped out
of a third -story back window of a hotel. He
alighted on the roof of an old shed, which gave
way, and let him gently down into a spring
wagon. So he escaped with his life, but has,
they say, gone into retirement and a course of
vinegar and brown paper. We felt assured that
we were as safe where we were as we could be
outside, and not a soul left the house.

Buckle, I believe, says that there is nothing
that so takes hold on the imagination as an
earthquake ; and very likely my imagination exag-
gerated the peril, the heaving, the roaring, as I
afterward found it did the duration of the shocks.
All the accounts I had ever heard or read of earth-

THOUGHTS FROM THE DEPTHS. 243

quakes came back to me, — the dreadful stories
of the destruction of Catania and Lisbon in the
old school-books, with their more dreadful pic-
tures, and the later horrors of South American
convulsions. There is in an earthquake all the
elements of panic, of wild, mad terror, especial-
ly in its utter unexpectedness and uncertainty.
Nothing in nature gives you warning that it
is coming, nothing assurance that it is past.
You cannot know during the first great shock
whether it is subsiding or culminating. Still, we
were more solemnized than terrified, at least af-
ter the bewildered waking out of sleep, and the
first surprise and alarm. There was something so
mysterious, so stupendous, so almost grand in that
shudder of the solid globe, — that nightmare of
the sleeping earth, moaning and tossing under the
still, bright heavens ! We were hushed and hum-
bled ; with a sense of the most utter helpless-
ness, we could but try to look beyond Nature to
Nature's God, silently to appeal from her piti-
lessness to His pity, from her restlessness to His
rest.

Now, in the brave light of day, we feel brave,

244 CALIFORNIA.

and wonder we were so awed and agitated, and
laugh at stories of wild excitement and demor-
alization in the hotels down -town ; yet it is
strange how every little new tremor of the smil-
ing earth gives one a sort of sickening electric
shock, and seems in an instant to resolve one's
heart into jelly.

This morning, to brighten our thoughts and
steady our nerves, we drove out to the Park, and
went like the wind around the track, and saw the
great Stanford trotting horse go like a whirlwind
over. ground which only six hours before, seen by
the pale moonlight, would have seemed scarcely
more substantial than the canvas waves of a the-
atrical sea.

Governor Stanford drove a pair of sorrels, very
fast and very beautiful, and there were a number
of fine horses on the track. But the observed of
all observers was Charley, or Occident, who was
taking his constitutional. He is now in splendid
condition, and seems to strike fire from the ground,
and to be charged with it, warming up grandly
with every round.

O, how pleasant and beautiful seemed the earth,

AFTER THE STORM. 245

in its fresh spring attire! how quiet, and inno-
cent and reliable! All along our way, going and
returning, we breathed in the intoxicating sweet-
ness of violets and roses and lilacs, and the more
delicate fragrance of fruit-tree blossoms and tender
young leaves. We had radiant sunshine instead of
the misty moonlight, associated with tumult and
terror; the song of birds in lieu of that sullen
roar more appaUing than the rush of a tornado or
the thunder of surf; in short, we had brightness
and peace instead of mystery and fear. It was
paradise regained.

Of course, we and our visitors talk earthquake
continually. One friend, who had experienced much
harder shocks, says he should not have left his bed
last night if it had not gone down under him.
Another friend has just been telling me a curious
earthquake story : A gentleman and his wife came
to San Francisco in the fall of 1864, intending to
make California their home. On the very night
after their arrival there occurred a frightful earth-
quake, which so shocked them that they took the
very next steamer and returned to the Atlantic
coast. After four years they were so far recovered

246 CALIFORNIA.

from their fright that they concluded to try it
again. They came this time determined to stay.
But, on their very first night in San Francisco, the
earthquake found them out. It was the great earth-
quake of October, i858, that finally utterly routed
them. They went home by the first train. They
had seen little in their two visits to California, but
they had felt unutterable things.

I hear with great regret that pleasant Chico
has suffered some damage, and that the beautiful
house in which I was most hospitably entertained
has been seriously injured. I thank God that no
lives have been lost ; and, on the whole, I am not
sorry to have had the experience. I shall never
now, like the boy in the quaint old German story,
be discontented and unhappy because I do not
■'•understand what it is to shudder."

San Francisco, May 4.
Since the coming in of fine, clear weather, since
the real royal entry of spring, the obstacles in the
way of study or writing, both without and within,
have seemed quite insurmountable. These glorious
days have rolled in upon me in a perfectly whelm-

THE DREAM OF A MAD FLORIST. 247

ing tide of fragrant and golden enticements,
floating me helplessly out into the lovely country,
up and down the great highways, and over the
bright waters, — to Sacramento, to Belmont, to
Oakland and Brooklyn and Sancelito. Much of
the time I have simply been flying like a shuttle-
cock back and forth across the bay. I had a
pass, and thought I must work it out.

The grand California flower-show is at its height.
Anything more gorgeously beautiful than the dis-
play in meadows and wild pasture lands, on hill-
side and river-side, it were impossible for any one
but a mad florist to imagine. Along the railroads
on either hand runs continuously the rich, radiant
bloom. Your sight becomes pained, your very brain
bewildered, by watching the galloping rainbow.

There are great fields in which flowers of many
sorts are mingled in a perfect carnival of color ;
then come exclusive family gatherings, where the
blues, the crimsons, or the purples have it all
their own way ; and every now and then you come
upon great tracts, resplendent with that most royally
gorgeous of all wild flowers, the yellow or orange
poppy, which an old Russian bear of a botanist

248 CALIFORNIA.

has Stretched on the rack of the name Eschscholtzia,
but which long ago some poetic Spaniard, not a
" flower-sharp," and so not above taking a hint
from nature, christened El-copo-d'oro. Every such
tract where the sumptuous blossoms stand thick
reminds one of the " field of the cloth of gold."
They are peculiarly joyous-looking flowers, massed
together, dancing and hobnobbing, and lifting their
golden goblets to be filled by the morning sun.
At night, emptied of that aureate air, the dainty
cups close up, and the tipsy revellers go to sleep.
Cool libations of watery moonshine are not to their
taste.

With the first dawn of spring I bravely under-
took to gather and preserve specimens of every
sort of wild flower in its season ; but I soon found
it was a losing game for me. As I put down my
specimens in my little herbarium, Nature would
" see " me and " go " me five, ten, twenty, fifty
" better," and, at last, " could give me a hundred,
and beat me every time."

Even Marysville and Stockton look bright,
festive, and hospitable, with their spring suits on.
I begin to repent me that I suffered vile March

THE DELIGHTS OF OAKLAND. 249

weather and the uncommon wickedness of com-
mon councilmen to color too darkly my impres-
sions of those two boroughs. Peace be with them !
Marysville, I am told, has some delightful society,
and Stockton is only to be avoided by lecturers
and lunatics. They fine the former and confine
the latter.

At my last visit, since the earthquake, I found
Sacramento with her feet clean out of the mud,
and sitting among the roses. It is really a beauti-
ful season there now, and a peaceful and virtuous.
The Legislature has adjourned.

I heard while there another story of the earth-
quake. A lodger at one of the hotels, when awa-
kened on that memorable night, supposed that
some mischievous or burglarious individual was
heaving up his bed. Leaning over its edge and
holding on with difficulty, he shouted, "Come out
of there, you son of a gun ! "

The idea of calling an earthquake a " son of a
gun" struck me as unspeakably droll.

Oakland, the city over the bay, that ought to
have been San Francisco, a heavenly spot, where
the sand and the wind trouble not, and earthquakes
II*

250 CALIFORNIA,

do not break through and shake, as here, is beau-
tiful at all times and seasons, but is now enchanting.
Such roses as grow there in marvellous variety and
profusion are a foretaste of paradise. By the way,
I do not believe that any writer has done full jus-
tice to the roses of California in their loveliness,
their bounteousness, their absolute perfection. They
are the tenderest, the most aerial hues, the most
transporting tints, of sunrise and sunset born again
in bloom. Next to the roses in beauty are, to me,
the scarlet geraniums, growing in great clumps and
long hedges, blazing up out of the green, like flow-
ering flame. Then there is the calla lily, fresh and
cool and pure, growing also in wonderful profusion.
In the decoration of one San Francisco church for
Easter service more than a thousand lilies of this
regal family were immolated.

Sancelito is the most poetically and perennially
attractive place of resort on the bay. Here grow
wonderful ferns, here are cliffs and dells, and lovely
little coves, and shadowy glens, and charming hid-
den brooks.

I really cannot see how this coast can ever make
a great record in scientific discoveries and attain-

INTELLECTUAL PROBABILITIES. 251

ments, and the loftier walks of literature ; can ever
raise great students, authors, and artists of its own.
Leaving out of consideration the fast and furious
rate of business enterprise, and the maelstrom-like
force of the spirit of speculation, of gambling, on
a mighty, magnificent sweep, I cannot see how, in
a country so enticingly picturesque, where three
hundred days out of every year invite you forth
into the open air with bright beguilements and
soft blandishments, any considerable number of
sensible, healthy men and women can ever be
brought to buckle down to study of the hardest,
most persistent sort ; to " poring over miserable
books " ; to brooding over theories and incubating
inventions. California is not wanting in admirable
educational enterprises, originated and engineered
by able men and fine scholars ; and there is any
amount of a certain sort of brain stimulus in the
atmosphere. She will always produce brilliant men
and women of society, wits, and ready speakers ;
but I do not think she will ever be the rival of
bleak little Massachusetts or stony old Connec-
ticut in thorough culture, in the production of
classical scholars, great jurists, theologians, histo-

252 CALIFORNIA,

rians, and reformers. The conditions of life are
too easy. East winds, snows, and rocks are the
, grim allies of serious thought and plodding re-
search, of tough brains and strong wills.

There are great hopes entertained of the State
University, now at Oakland, but to be, when its
new buildings are completed, at Berkley, some four
miles away, and in full sight of the Golden Gate.
It is already a noble institution, with an admirable
faculty. The Mills Seminary, a very large school
for young ladies, admirably situated, hid away in a
charming nook under the beautiful Brooklyn hills,
is certainly something for California to be proud
of I have found it a delightful place to visit.
The handsome, neat, bright, and every way com-
fortable house overflows with happy young life.
In its atmosphere, as in a magic bath, I seemed
for the time to renew my own youth, and to dwell
again in the school-girls' Arcadia. The bright,
blooming, eager, girlish faces I have seen there I
shall long remember with tender interest. " O
young and joyous creatures ! " shall I look upon
you never again .''

Oakland society is more literary and artistic in

SCRAPS OF TRAVEL. 253

its tone than that of any other Pacific coast town.
Still, I am told young Oakland dances and skates
more than it studies or sketches. Every great en-
tertainment winds up with a ball, every little one
with a " hop," — unless it be a christening or a com-
munion service. It is a merry people, and a kindly
and a generous, responding liberally to every ap-
peal of benevolence and good-fellowship. Such a
succession of " benefits," charitable and compliment-
ary, as we have had in this vicinity during the last
two months, I have never known. Everybody that
is deserving or unfortunate has a chance, sooner
or later.

Of the smaller towns I have visited, I think
pleasant Chico the most intellectually inclined. I
met there people of excellent literary taste. I must
mention the postmaster as a man especially fond
of letters. He kept a whole package of mine for
nearly two days, refusing to give them up at my
frantic call, and even denying that the documents
were in his possession. I was told that this affec-
tionate clinging to his mail-matter is an aesthetic
weakness of the old gentleman's. By the way, in
this same village I fell into the clutches of a hack-

254 CALIFORNIA.

man, who, for an hour's use of an indifferent old
vehicle, smelling of damp strangers, extorted from
me no less than eight dollars in gold and silver
coin ; and it has occurred to me that it would be
a good idea to station this same highwayman at
the window of the post-office to call on the vener-
able lover of letters to " stand and deliver ! "

At Chico I met with a very interesting woman,
the wife of General Cosby of Kentucky, during our
" late unpleasantness," in the Confederate army,
now very much reconstructed into a Butte County
California ranchman. Mrs. Cosby, since living a
life novel in its new cares and labors, but some-
what lonely and monotonous, has developed re--
markable artistic talent, in brighter years undreamed
of even by herself. She is a brave, cheery, ener-
getic young wife and mother, full of freshness, en-
thusiasm, and originality. It was actually by join-
ing in, after her merry fashion, with her children's
play one sunny day last winter, that she discovered
her talent for sculpture. The little ones were man-
ufacturing the immemorial mud-pie ; she took up
a lump of adobe, and fashioned, not a pie, but a
pretty little head. " The thing grew under my fin-

ART AND LITERATURE. 255

gers," she said. The finer touches of her play-
work were done by a hair-pin. She did not know
she had hit on Mr. Gibson's favorite Httle model-
ling tool. Finding the adobe not very pliable, and
having no other sort of clay to work with, — not
knowing anything of the first processes of sculpt-
ure, — she next cut an ideal head from a large
piece of chalk, chiefly with an old pair of scissors.
Next she purchased a block of marble, and, like a
small female Buonarotti, grappled at once with the
stone. Without a word of instruction, with no model
or drawing, with no proper sculptor's implements,
she has already chiselled a small ideal figure —
" Mignon," I believe she calls it — and an admi-
rable portrait bust. I have shown a photograph
of the latter to several artists, and they have pro-
nounced it, under the circumstances, a wonderful
production.

The literary publications of San Francisco seem
to me, for the most part, singularly spirited and
readable. We all know what the Overland is ;
how rich in original, sparkling, dashing, and, withal,
poetic contributors. It does not lose hope in losing
Harte ; its " luck " did not all belong to the " Roar-

256 CALIFORNIA.

ing Camp " ; it can never be " dead broke " while
Ina Coolbrith and Charles Warren Stoddard, and
Hannah Neall, and Joaquin Miller remain to it.

The Alta California, a pioneer journal, still holds
its own, and is an agreeable old newsmonger, when
it does not let its angry passions rise against
woman suffrage, or render railing for railing, in
a naughty way, against the Central Pacific. Just
iiow it is n't exactly pleasant reading for me, be-
cause of the hard things it says of my kind friend
Governor Stanford, a gentleman of high moral char-
acter, a good husband and father, but not inordi-
nately " stuck up " by such distinctions ; rich, but
not otherwise reprehensible ; fond of a fine horse,
a good cigar, and his wife's relations ; but a man
and a brother for all that.

The Bulletin is bright, but decorous ; entertain-
ing, but elegant, especially in its literary depart-
ment, managed by an able editor long connected
with that excellent daily, the Utica Herald. Mr.
Williams is a journalist of rare taste and cul-
ture, and helps to give to the Bulletin a certain
Boston form and flavor very agreeable to New-
Englanders.

NEWSPAPERDOM. 257

The Chronicle and Call are wide-awake, lively,
and chatty morning visitors. The Chronicle is
especially enterprising and ambitious in the inter-
viewing and reporting line. It will interview any
distinguished visitor short of an earthquake,
twenty-four hours before his arrival. Its reports
of the snow-blockade read like Abbott's account
of Napoleon's Russian campaign, and its great
woodcut of the Inyo earthquake was even more
appalling than that catastrophe ; people were
known to run out of their houses on behold-
ing it.

Among a host of other weeklies, religious and
agricultural, " content to dwell in decencies for-
ever," there is the famous and audacious News-
Letter, — half jester and half bandit. It has, I
hear, lately lost its wittiest and wickedest editor.
When he flung dirt there was usually a little
gold-dust mixed with it. The English he used
was terrible, but it was English, — a pure article
of venom.

The city has several fine libraries, chief
among them being the noble Mercantile. Though
I cannot see how anybody finds any time to

2S8 CALIFORNIA.

read real books here, book establishments seem
to flourish. Roman has a beautiful new store on
Montgomery Street, and Bancroft Brothers have
a magnificent building for both the sale and the
printing of books, on Market Street. I was sur-
prised by the elegance, extent, and completeness
of their establishment. This house does not
confine itself to modern publications. It shows
some veneration for the past, — considerable anti-
quarian research. I found on its shelves several
of the works of "G. G." They take them down
and dust them carefully about once a year. Oth-
erwise they are not disturbed.

The drama flourishes in " Frisco," and the
Gospel is not so much at a discount as they
who believe the two institutions essentially and
eternally inimical to each other would naturally
expect. Theatrical people, if they behave them-
selves, are held to be as good as stock-gamblers
and claim-jumpers ; and yet popular preachers
draw exceedingly well, especially when they hold
forth in a popular place. Dr. A. L. Stone, the
eloquent and elegant Congregational clergyman,
has, all through the season, attracted without the

THE PULPIT. 259

aid of a band, every Sunday evening, large
crowds to the Skating Rink, — the righteous sit-
ting "in the quiet," decorous, devotional, and se-
cure, on the very spot where, week-day evenings,
the "wicked stand on slippery places."

Dr. Horatio Stebbins, the prince of Unitarian
sermonizers to my mind, brings together for ev-
ery discourse a large, sympathetic audience of
cultivated and thinking people. For grandeur of
scope, for massiveness of construction, richness
and power of language, profound philosophy and
broad humanity, I have never known the equals
of the magnificent religious essays produced
Sunday after Sunday by this noble successor of
Thomas Starr King. I shall pass out most re-
luctantly from the large circle of eager hearts,
kindling souls, and receptive, but not unquestion-
ing minds to which he ministers, — first, as a
man, of a somewhat rugged and unpliant type,
brave, simple, direct, and independent ; next,
as the teacher, deeply learned in the truths
whereof he treats, and speaking by their author-
ity ; and lastly, as the pastor not much con-
cerned for the dignity of the character, not at

26o CALIFORNIA.

all presuming on its venerable associations, its
sacred privileges, its social and political immuni-
ties, evidently believing that his " high profession
spiritual " is neither above nor apart from ear-
nest practical life and Christian citizenship.

May 21.
I cannot too strongly impress upon the minds
of tourists the necessity of guarding with the
utmost vigilance against taking a San Francisco
spring cold. It is, of all known catarrhs, the
most obstinate, persistent, unconquerable, implaca-
ble. " Physicians are in vain," medicaments pow-
erless, mustard draughts and cephalic snuff, hot
baths and old Bourbon, inoperative ; it will run
its course, fierce and furious, to the end, leaving
you as suddenly, perhaps, as it came ; and if it
does not take you off with it, you find yourself
very little the worse for wear, — the wear and
tear of a cough which can only be compared
with other monstrous California products. The
air, at its harshest, is so pure and stimulating
here, that you keep your strength and spirit and
appetite in the midst of quite serious indisposi-

SAN FRANCISCO CLIMATE. 261

tion. You feel that you ought to give up and
go under, but somehow you don't. There is no
languor in the atmosphere ; it is veined with a
vital electricity, and in it you react and recu-
perate from any ordinary illness with marvellous
rapidity. But it is far better not to be ill at all,
even here ; and one could, I am convinced, es-
cape colds by remembering that, however sunny
and brilliant the day at this season, the biting
northwest wind of the coast, if not prowling
and howling through the streets, is, like the ene-
my of the dog Diogenes, always waiting "round
the corner." The only safe course is to make no
change in one's dress, except it be to wear even
warmer clothing than is needed in the mild,
damp winter. Flannel — good, genuine, honest
flannel — must be constantly worn, and furs are
occasionally needed. But for all its bitter winds
and sullen fog and Winding dust, San Francisco
still looks pleasant and home -like to me when-
ever I come back to the city, after a little ab-
sence. Beneath the shifting sands I feel the
abiding rock ; above the bluster I see the steady
sunshine. She is a little fickle in her favor, but

262 CALIFORNIA.

firm in her friendship ; she is tempestuous and
narrow in her local prejudices and animosities,
but genial and broad in her hospitalities.

I have just returned from what should have
been a pleasure trip, but which was somewhat
compulsory, on account of one of those fearful
coughs I have attempted to describe, and which
here would not depart from me. I went with a
single, dear travelling companion, first to the
White Sulphur Springs, the most fashionable
watering-place on the coast. Our route was by
steamer to Vallejo, thence by rail to St. Helena,
where we took stage for the Springs. The day
was beautiful, almost as a matter of course, and
the little voyage up the noble bay altogether
delightful. I never weary of looking at the ever-
varying shores of this most picturesque piece of
water, and at the grand heights and soft curves
of the Coast Range. Mounts Tamalpais and Di-
abolo are kingly old fellows, and many of the
hills are beautiful exceedingly, though now they
have almost lost their lovely green tints and are
fast assuming the dull, tawny hue which they
wore when I first beheld them in October. These

BRET HARTE. 263

changes about San Francisco are marvellously in-
dicated by Bret Harte in his exquisite legend,
" Concepcion de Arguello " in the May " Atlan-
tic." The longer I remain here, the more I see
that no writer, no painter even, has ever given
the local coloring of these California scenes like
Bret Harte. This strange, familiar, new, old, mo-
notonously restless Californian life must have ab-
sorbed, if it did not satisfy him. His genius
was thoroughly immersed in it, even if it went
down like an unwilling diver, and had little de-
light in the rough pearls it brought to the sur-
face. The more I see of California scenery, life,
and character, the more vividly I am impressed
with Mr. Harte's power in reproducing them all,
to the very hfe, and a little beyond. His genius
is 'photographic in its truth and in its exaggeration.
It may transcend the ordinary, — it never out-
rages the possible. His pictures are, on the whole,
boldly, ruggedly real ; yet touched by tender,
relenting, ideal lights, which only a poet could
see belonged there. I have seen two or three
miners who might have walked out of his verse,
so quaint and simple and sturdy and Bret Hartey

264 CALIFORNIA.

were they. But most of this class have the
swing and the slang and the swear, without the
sentiment. They can bring out " That 's so," and
" You bet," and " Little cuss," very satisfactorily ;
but somehow they don't look like men likely to
play Damon in a Drift, or Child's Nurse in
a Roaring Camp, or Santa Claus at Simpson's
Bar.

But to return to our journey. From Vallejo
the California Pacific passes up the smiling, wav-
ing, sunny, shadowy Napa Valley, one of the
most beautiful and fruitful of the many happy
valleys in this grand State. Napa City is a
charmingly situated town, neat and bright, and
embowered in vines and roses. St. Helena is
another exceedingly attractive place, and the drive
from there to the Springs was most enjoyable.
The White Sulphur Springs are in a canon, deep,
and with thickly wooded sides, but wide enough
to allow of the free entrance of sunshine during
a good part of the day. A clear, sparkling, mu-
sical stream runs through it, and ferns, mosses,
shrubs and flowers and vines abound. In fact, it
is one of the very loveliest spots I have seen in

WHITE SULPHUR SPRINGS. 265

■ - - -- ■ ■■ ...

California, — the very place to rest in from the
fatigue of overland travel, or the more intolera-
ble weariness of a sea voyage, or from the social
dissipation and fierce stock -gambling excitements
of the city.

I mean to tell the simple truth, in all good
feeling, in regard to these places of resort, having
some little sense of responsibility and of duty
toward the travelling public. Prices at these
Springs are high, as at all places of the kind on
the coast, unreasonably high for so fruitful a land
and so bounteous a market, and considering the
usually very indifferent accommodations and in-
sufficient attendance ; but at this particular place
courteous attention is paid to the guests, the table
is good, if not sumptuous, and neatness and good
order are the rule. It is worth while to visit the
place for the sake of the excellent society you
are very sure to meet there, and for the exquisite
pictures you will carry away with you of the flow-
ery canon, and the wild but lovely grounds about
the Springs. I shall never forget a delicious
horseback ride I took there one perfect afternoon ;
and I left my blessing on the sunny head of the

266 CALIFORNIA.

dear boy who generously denied himself the pleas-
ure of his usual gallop to lend his horse to me
for a few bright, swift, enchanted hours.

Calistoga Hot Springs, some ten miles up the
Napa Valley, has a very picturesque outlook, hav-
ing old Mount St. Helena in full sight ; but it is
not in itself attractive. It has too little shelter
from the sun, or privacy of any kind ; it is a dus-
ty, noisy, all-out-doors sort of a place during the
day, while mosquitoes of a peculiarly huge and fe-
rocious sort make night hideous. Yet the kindly
hotel people seem to have done their best to
protect their lodgers from these imps of darkness
by a very ingenious contrivance. Over each bed
is hung a mosquito-trap, in the shape of a small,
circular pink net, rather pretty to look at, which
revolves continually, swooping up mosquitoes at
every turn, till at last they are all snugly gath-
ered in, and you can take refuge outside and
sleep in peace.

The accommodations here are very unequal.
There are some quite pretty and commodious cot-
tages, and some miserable shanties, called by cer-
tain romantic names, as " Laurel," and " Willow,"

CALISTOGA HOT SPRINGS. 267

but Utterly forlorn and comfortless. Into one of
the latter was your correspondent put with her
indignant companion, with not even a rocking-
chair to soften the rigors of their lot. But luck-
ily a friend, with a nice room to spare in her
cottage, came to the rescue ; and after that, life at
the Springs was more tolerable, even with a bad
cold. We managed to worry through two or three
days, just. We found the landlord a genial, kind-
ly personage, and the landlord's wife a sweet, bon-
nie Scots-woman, and the landlord's wife's brother
very agreeable and obliging. I shall long pleas-
antly remember them. The waters here are doubt-
less very efficacious for various ills, and in the
baths you have a wide choice. You can dis-
port yourself in a great swimming-basin, you can
soak in bran-water, or be parboiled in steam right
out of a tame geyser, or simmer in the " medicat-
ed bath," or toast in the " sun-bath," or you can
be plunged in warm, soft mud up to the chin.
In old times the Indian doctors used to set their
rheumatic patients over night, and in the morning
they would pry them out, new men. This heroic
treatment was subject to a slight drawback ; oc-

268 CALIFORNIA.

casionally it was found that the cayotes had come
in the night, and eaten the patients' heads off.

About five miles to the southwest of CaHstoga,
lies the Petrified Forest, so called. The name,
I am sorry to say, is calculated to mislead and
delude the unsophisticated and confiding mind, as
the " Forest," which many picture to themselves
as standing in stony grandeur, full -limbed and
leafed, with petrified nuts and cones, and birds'-
nests with the birds on them, just as the petri-
faction struck them, is found to consist merely
of a few widely scattered, half-buried stumps and
sections of trees, — not by any means a full as-
sortment, — curious things, certainly, and respecta-
ble on account of age, but hardly repaying one
for the trouble and expense of seeking them.
The grotto of this same mummified sort of tim-
ber, to be seen near the Calistoga Hotel, is quite
as satisfactory, especially if one can grasp and
hold the idea that it grew, and stands where it
was petrified.

When, after a charming drive, we arrived at
the Forest, we were commended to a guide,
living on the land, which he has "taken up."

THE PETRIFIED FOREST. 269

A primitive and pensive solitary is he, a gentle
hermit of the dale, and known as " Petrified
Charley." He converses learnedly by the way on
the mysteries of science and nature, especially on
volcanoes, and gives you to understand that his
theory in regard to the trees differs from that
of Marsh or Whitney. He thinks they never
"growed" where they lie, but were heaved up
here from the " walley " in a " conwulsion."
That explains the petrified grotto down at the
Springs. He glows with mild enthusiasm over
his particular pet petrifactions, — one monstrous
trunk, a stump of ancient charcoal, another
stump, in the heart of which is yet to be seen
the almost unchanged fibre of the primeval red-
wood, a rare done petrifaction.

The most interesting of all his sights is a
huge trunk, one of the unhappy conifer family,
overtaken by that mysterious misfortune ages on
ages ago, out of a cleft of which trunk has
grown a stately young tree. It seemed almost
as strange as it would be to one, rambling in
the vicinity of old Sodom, to come upon Lot's
crystallized wife, with a live . baby in her arms.

270 CALIFORNIA.

This miraculous tree bore strange fruit, in the
shape of the following notice. You will observe
the petrified character of the orthography : —

" Visiters going on the forest without the
guide charder the same, when the guide is
Present, visiters are requoisted not to break, or
cary away any of the Ptrefid wod without the
oner's permistion."

Early every morning, during the season of
mountain travel, Foss and Connolly's six-horse
stages — which, by the way, are open wagons, but
as comfortable as they are safe — leave the hotel
at the Springs for the Geysers, over the hills
some twenty-eight miles away. One of these
wagons is always driven by the renowned Foss
himself, but now, in the immense increase of
travel, he has to divide himself, as it were, to
give all a taste of his quality, taking his pas-
sengers only to the half-way station, where he
meets the returning stages, one of which he
drives back to Calistoga, making his grand entry
at the hotel grounds a little after midday in
thoroughly magnificent style. It would thrill
your heart to see that entry as it has not been

TO THE GEYSERS. 271

thrilled since first you saw in your old childish
days the throbbing canvas withdrawn, the wooden
barrier removed, and the whole splendid troop
of circus-riders come dashing into the ring !

The route from here to the Geysers is not
the highly picturesque and perilous road so often
described by terrified tourists from Healdsburg,
over the Hog's Back and the Sugar-Loaf, and
down a grade that was simply something ap-
palling. Foss, the great driver, who has gath-
ered all his bristling honors on the Hog's
Back, professes to have become satiated with
renown, to have " supped full of horrors," and
will drive on that " parlous " mountain track no
more, for love nor money. His new road is
admirably constructed, commands some grand
views, and has some sufficiently dangerous and
awe-inspiring points. To me the entire drive
was full of keen and thrilling enjoyment ; the
magnificent and ever-varying views, the glorious
mountain air, the silver glimpses of mountain
streams, the dense summer foliage, the marvel-
lous multitude of flowers, the joyous company
of birds, all along the wild, winding, lovely,

272 CALIFORNIA.

lonely way. For many miles toiling up and dash-
ing down the mountain, we passed no human
habitation, encountered no human creature ; all
save the well-built road was primeval wildness
and shadow and savage mystery. Around point
after point and curve after curve, we crept or
swung, in slow ascent and swift descent. A
mountain wall on one side, a steep declivity,
dipping down to a dark caiion on the other,
and we soon ceased to repine for the Hog's
Back, with a sheer precipice on either hand.
We had scarcely room in our full hearts to envy
the fortunate tourists who, last summer, when
this road was first opened, saw sometimes a big
grizzly galloping along before them, like an
avant-com'ier. All the younger drivers on this
road have been trained by Foss. They have a
good deal of his nerve, his accuracy and careful-
ness, without his splendid dash. The two we
rode with, Nash and Gwin, we found rare good
fellows, sociable, obliging, and intelligent. We
were really surprised at their store of informa-
tion in regard to the plants, birds, and animals
of the region. Not a flower nodded to us from

THE GEYSER HOTEL. 273

the bank, but they knew its name. Not a
winged creature piped to us out of the soUtude,
but they recognized its note.

The Geyser Springs Hotel is a rough, rambUng,
rather picturesque edifice, embowered in shade, —
a cool, quiet, unpretending place. It is well kept
by a genial and intelligent German, " which his
name " is Susenbeth. Here we were kindly enter-
tained, and found, if not luxuries, some comforts,
which we were well prepared to appreciate. Here,
if they did not have bills of fare, they had fair bills,
and if we were not lodged luxuriously, we had no
reason to remember regretfully accommodations in
more pretentious hotels below, where beds were a
hollow mockery, where pillows dissolved and slunk
away under our heads, where mosquito-bars were a
delusion and a snare, where cleanliness, ventilation,
and slop-jars were not.

In the landlord's young wife we found a singu-
larly spirited and original character, an enthusiastic
mountaineer, a good rider, climber, and shot. In
rough Yosemite costume, she explores these heights
and gorges ; she hunts the deer, the fox, the hare,
though the wildcat is her specialty.

12* R

274 CALIFORNIA.

The air at this mountain retreat is pure and bra-
cing ; for though you descend for miles to reach the
spot, it has the respectable altitude of sixteen hun-
dred and ninety feet above the level of the sea.
The waters and baths are said to possess wonderful
curative powers. The great tragedian, Edwin For-
rest, while suffering from a severe attack of rheu-
matism, some years ago, went into the Indian mud-
bath one day, and came out all ready to play Othello
or Metamora.

Just opposite the hotel, across a little foot-bridge,
is the mouth of the great Geyser, or Devil's Canon,
This mysterious, vaporous gorge we had no diffi-
culty in exploring, attired as we were in short
dresses and stout boots, with a good alpenstock
in hand ; though, if you do not look where you
step, you may get your foot in, almost anywhere.
All the way you seem to be walking over a thin,
hard crust, just dividing you from black, boiling
abysses and sulphurous seas, — all the classic hor-
rors of Tartarus, and the later orthodox horrors of
" the lake of fire and brimstone." As I marked
the hissing hot steam and the stifling vapors burst-
ing out on every side, certain sacred texts, familiar

THE GEYSERS. 275

to my happy Sunday-school days, came back to me,
and I found myself pensively repeating, " The smoke
of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever."
Surely, "it is good to be here."

We had a guide who, though young, was wise,
and threw a blaze of light on our ignorance at
every step. The Devil seems to be recognized as
the original proprietor of this region : the gulch
is full of his diggings ; every point or object of
interest is named after him, with the exception
of the Great Caldron, named after the Witches of
Macbeth, but that's all in the family; and a grotto,
named Proserpine, on account of her Plutonian
associations. She gathered here the flour of sul-
phur, perhaps. Yet there is another grotto lately
named for Mr. Delano, who, in one of his little
excursions, dropped in on the Geysers. It strikes
me he may as modestly as appropriately accept
here some of the Devil's superfluous honors, being
Secretary of the Interior.

You are early invited to rest on The Devil's
Arm-Chair, and to pause in a dark rocky nook,
where things are- lying about loose, and wild
disorder reigns, called The Devil's Office. From

276 CALIFORNIA.

this point for nearly half a mile you meet no tree,
no shrub, scarcely a tuft of grass, on your rough
path. The earth along the stream, and far up the
steep banks, is like ashes, dead and dry, except
where the hot springs pour madly forth. But great
portions of both ground and rock are " ringed,
streaked, and spotted " by a vast variety of chemi-
cal deposits and compounds; for the canon is but
a huge diabolical chemical laboratory. There is
the Alum and Iron Spring, the Boiling Alum
and Sulphur Spring, the Black Sulphur Spring,
the Intermittent Scalding Spring, the Boiling Eye-
Water Spring, the Alkali Spring, and the Black
Spring, holding nitrate of silver, and called The
Devil's Inkstand. All these you are generously
invited to taste as you pass along. You can
reach out almost anywhere and help yourself to
Epsom-salts. Sulphur lies about you in tempt-
ing profusion, like yellow snow. What a paradise
for the female Squeers ! Then you have copperas,
iron, alum, tartaric acid, magnesia, and cinnabar —
holding mercury — and other allopathic horrors. No
wonder Nature is sick here, palsied, jaundiced, af-
flicted with sore boils and other eruptions. The

THE CANON OF EVIL. 277

usfliest of all her ailments is the " black vomit,"
the before-mentioned Devil's Inkstand. That nasty
little fountain seems to bubble forth with a spiteful
alacrity, as though to supply an unlimited order
from the satanic school of literature.

It was a strange, bewildering walk, or rather
scramble, up that desolate, dreary caiion, with its
countless evil sights and smells, over hot slag and
scoria, with the whistle and hiss and gurgle and
" chug, chug " of internal forces and infernal ma-
chinery beneath and around you. The most aw-
ful thing to see is The Witches' Caldron, a black,
mysterious, tumultuous, boiling well, " over seven
feet in diameter and of unknown depth." It has
been sounded four hundred yards and no bottom
found. Its temperature is 292° Fahrenheit. Eggs
are often boiled in it by tourists ; and a whole ox
can be as satisfactorily cooked in it, if you are
fond of ox boiled in sulphur water. All this is so,
for I heard the guide tell the story repeatedly. To
each of the party he told it in precisely the same
words ; indeed, I must confess to having com-
pelled the ingenuous youth to go over it several
times for my benefit alone, — I being blessed with

278 CALIFORNIA.

a bad memory, and having an unfortunate desire
to be accurate in my statements. The grandest
thing to hear of all these wonders is The Steam-
boat. A large portion of the bank, standing out
like a mound, seems alive with Geysers, throbbing,
shaking, roaring, and puffing with a stupendous force
and fury of fighting elements. This most vexed
and tortured point in the caiion sends up the
heaviest columns of steam, and never softens its
" terrible rumble and grumble and roar." Some
time since a tourist undertook to examine it from
above, but presently sank to his knees in the hot,
biting mineral deposits and made haste to depart.
He sacrificed a pair of trousers to science, and
came near having to throw in his legs.

A fine point of observation is a rocky height
just above and opposite The Steamboat, called
The Devil's Pulpit. How easy to preach from
this point a regular, old-fashioned Calvinistic ser-
mon! It would almost preach itself Here we
turned to the left, and began our descent by an-
other and a pleasanter way. We even found a
"Lovers' Retreat," a green and flowery nook; but
the Devil was even near that little sylvan paradise,

FREE FROM THE INFERNO. 279

with his Lunch-Table and his Teakettle, and
other culinary appointments, not comprehended in
the group of geysers known as his Kitchen. We
were shown the supposed crater of the extinct vol-
cano through which all these panting, hissing de-
mons once found vent for their angry passions.
It is a moderate-sized hollow in the earth, not
to be compared with the Solfatara near Naples.

It was strange with what jolly spirits and hearty
appetites we gathered at mess, after our perilous re-
connoissance of the great enemy's works, — strange
that we were not more solemnized by that awesome
stroll on the borders of another and a hotter world.
I have an idea that Mrs. Proserpine Pluto, when
she made her yearly visits to her mother, relished
the barley-cakes and cracked wheat poor Ceres
had ready for her, and that if Eurydice could have
got out of the infernal regions with her husband
Orpheus, before his charm was "played out," she
would have had no objection to a supper of wild
kid, or oysters from Lake Avernus ; I suspect that
if Dives could have returned to warn those wicked
kinsmen of his, he would have delivered his homily
over a smoking board and a flowing bowl.

28o CALIFORNIA.

The evening was cool, and we all enjoyed a
bright wood fire, sitting beside an old-fashioned
fireplace in the pleasant parlor. We made a call
on our fair landlady, the huntress of the Geysers.
We found her in her boudoir, quietly sewing on a
silken vestment, with her sandaled feet resting on
a barbaric brindled rug, the skin of one of her own
wildcats.

Early on a resplendent m.orning we drove reluc-
tantly from the pleasant inn, and out of the sight
and sound of the great Geysers. They do not
spout as high as I looked to see them, and they
" roar you more gently " than I expected to hear
them ; but they are well worth seeing for once in
one's lifetime, and must always be remembered as
something "grand, gloomy, and peculiar."

Wash. Gwin drove us to Pine Flat Station, be-
yond the summit, where we met Foss, who gave
my friend and me seats on the box. Let me give
a little sketch of this really remarkable person.
Clarke Foss, a New Hampshire man by birth, and
now about forty-five years of age, is tall, large,
sturdy, and ruddy, has a strong head, with close,
curling, dark hair, a rugged face, a clear eye, and

A MONARCH OF THE COACH-BOX. 281

a firm jaw, a look of mastery and will, matchless
courage, and a certain rude cynicism, — marks of
a character which would be hard and reckless and
even cruel, but for the quaint humor, kindly in
spite of him, — a native heartiness and sympathy,
and a large, dashing generosity, which a good deal
of misfortune and some bitter experiences in life
have never been able to destroy. The build of
the man is magnificent and his muscular power
is extraordinary.

Mr Foss has his own philosophy of life, his
own ideas on morals and religion, — ideas that
would slightly astonish a student of ethics, and
startle an Andover theologian ; but in the domain
of grand stage-routes, over subjugated horse-flesh,
lies his greatness. He is the monarch of the
coach-box. We may put faith in his subordinates,
may even admire their arts with the reins,
their little airs with the whip: but when we sit
beside Foss, and watch for a few moments his
magnificent driving, we see a difference : " the
substitute shines brightly as the king, until the
king is by." No driving I have ever seen has
given me such an impression of power and of

282 CALIFORNIA.

skill, of audacity and security. It is free and
dashing, yet marvelously accurate ; it is furiously
fast, yet smooth and even, and seems calculated in
every curve and angle with mathematical preci-
sion and certainty. In truth, I cannot conceive of
greater luxury of locomotion than a ride by the
side of Foss down those beautiful mountain slopes.
This mighty "son of Nimshi" is not rough or
rigorous with his horses, at least after they are
trained. He believes in a horse, and has great
patience and tact in breaking one in. Each horse
knows his name, and will answer to it instantly ;
indeed, seems always listening for it, with every
nerve strung and every faculty attent. His words
of command are few and simple. At his " All
right ! " " Shake out ! " or " Let go ! " all six spring
forward as one horse. To his " Steady, boys ! " or
" Slow ! " or " Look sharp ! " they pay instant and
perfect heed. He plays on their affection, pride,
ambition, all their grand equine passions, as a skillful
musician plays on his instrument. And yet these
horses seem not so much subjugated as inspired
creatures. They recognize authority in the spirit
of a glad obedience ; hardly seem to feel that they

THE VINEYARDS OF NAPA. 283

are driven, but evidently fancy that they are going
at that splendid rate of their own accord, and for
the fun of it.

All tourists ambitious of having an experience
like mine, — a wild, galloping drive like Phaeton's,
without the responsibihty and the peril, — should
lose no time in making this glorious excursion.
The great Geysers will spout forever, but alas ! the
great driver will not drive forever. The time must
come at last, may come soon, when his burly form
and bluff countenance will disappear from the box,
when his firm foot will press the brake, when his
strong hands will hold the reins and the whip, no
more ; when all those clever, half-human horses
will listen for his ringing voice in vain ; when the
renowned and lamented Clarke Foss will rest from
his labors, and retire on a comfortable competence.

On our way home we spent a night with friends
in pleasant Napa, and in the morning took stage
over the hills to Sonoma Valley, where we spent
two or three days among the vine-growers, very
agreeably. Our host. Major Snyder, a genial and
hospitable gentleman, has choice vineyards, and
manufactures wine of very superior quality. Ad-

284 CALIFORNIA.

joining his are the vineyards of the " Buena Vista
Vinecultural Society," who really do a business in
proportion to their name. They make various
kinds of white and red wine, brandy, and cham-
pagne of excellent quality. They have nearly five
hundred acres in vines. Their wine-cellars, now
containing two hundred thousand gallons of wine
and brandy and six thousand dozen of champagne,
are excavations in the solid rock. These sombre
halls, as we passed through them, tapers in hand,
reminded us of the Roman Catacombs ; but the
agreeable young men who escorted us were not
much after the Dominican order of guides, and the
entertainment they gave us was far other than
the droning out of old, saintly legends. The entire
process of manufacture was courteously explained
to me, and afterward impressed on my mind by a
sparkling glass of the last, highest result, — cham-
pagne of the most delicious flavor and delicate
pink topaz tint.

From Sonoma we had a charming morning
ride of ten miles, on the outside of the stage-
coach, to Lakeville, and from thence, by rail
and steamboat, a quiet little journey, through

HOW TO CURE A COLD. 285

dazzling sunshine and over placid waters, to the
city, — busy, gusty, dusty, dear old Frisco !

I ought not to omit stating that the cold and
cough that had oppressed and racked me for
two weeks suddenly and mysteriously departed at
Sonoma. So, if you have a cold which nothing
else can move or touch, the remedy is simple
and easy, and not disagreeable. Seek the wild,
sweet air of Sonoma, partake freely of it, then
take a glass or two of Major Snyder's El Cer-
rito, say once in six hours, alternated with Bu-
ena Vista champagne, abstain from stimulants,
and avoid all work, and you will see the result.
A cold that can't be cured by such means is n't
worth curing.

Vera Cruz, May 30.

Like the progressive women we are, my dear
companion and I rested but a short time in
town, and then resumed our jolly journeying.
We went first to Santa Clara, where we visited
some pleasant friends who own one of the great
fruit ranches with which that beautiful region
abounds. Here we revelled in bloom and shade
and fragrance; here we ate ripe cherries from

286 CALIFORNIA.

the trees and strawberries from the vines. Here
we rambled through long avenues of apple and
pear and peach trees of noble growth, and past
fine vineyards and raspberry and blackberry plan-
tations. Mr. Watkins, our host, has now a hun-
dred acres in fruit trees of the choicest varieties
and in the best possible condition. Twenty years
ago, on this ranch, there was but a single tree,
— a live-oak. All this seems rather creation than
cultivation.

Just as the brilliant summer day was melting into
the tender, purple twilight, we drove down to
San Jose, — that wonderful drive through the Ala-
meda,— and put up at the Auzerais House, a
handsome, but home-like hotel, and admirably kept.
Such a satisfactory stopping-place you do not find
everywhere, even in California. "When found
make a note of it."

On the morning of the second day we set out
with a party of friends for the New Almaden
quicksilver mines, some twelve miles away, in the
Santa Cruz range of mountains, and on the Ala-
mitos Creek, — a very charming drive ordinarily at
this season, when the road is well shaded. But

NEW ALMADEN QUICKSILVER. 287

a late spring frost blighted the young foliage
of the noble sycamores which stand all along the
way, and there is now little to soften or brighten
the sunny, dusty journey.

This quicksilver mine, the largest and richest
in the world with the exception of the old Al-
maden in Spain, has been systematically worked
for only twenty years. It was first known to
white men as long ago as 1824, worked a while'
for silver, and then for a long time abandoned.
The padres at the Santa Clara Mission had some
specimens of the cinnabar, and in 1845 hap-
pened to show them to a visitor, one Andreas
Castillero, a Mexican captain of cavalry, who
knew something of quicksilver mining. He pul-
verized a lump, and sprinkled the powder on
some live coals laid on a tile. He next flung
water on the coals, then placed a tumbler over
them, and presently had the satisfaction of see-
ing little globules of quicksilver forming on the
glass, — the tiny forerunners of rivers of wealth
yet to flow from the secret depths of the moun-
tain. With his simple little reduction-works, he
had solved the problem that had baffled the

288 CALIFORNIA.

miners, the prospecters, and the priests ; like Moses
he had struck the rock and let out the bright,
illusive, mysterious flood. I believe he did not
greatly profit by his discovery ; indeed, the mines
for many years were worked in a very unprofitable
and irregular way. As usual, a mine had to be
put into a mine, a fortune expended, before any-
thing could be realized. There are evidences
everywhere, in works, roads, shafts, and tunnels,
of immense expenditures.

In the last twenty years, some twenty-five
million dollars' worth of quicksilver has been sold,
and of late the discovery of rich deposits at a
great depth are very encouraging. But it is the
most uncertain sort of mining, there being noth-
ing like a regular vein of ore to follow, but
only in many places very slight threads connect-
ing the " ore-spots," while some of the deposits
are isolated, lying hidden slyly away in Nature's
most secret drawers and dark pockets. The
process of reducing the ore, of rousing the latent
mercury from its sleep of a million or so of
years, is very interesting and easy of compre-
hension, even to a woman, when patiently and

THE BIRTH OF MERCURY. 289

pleasantly explained, as it was to us. It is sim-
ply burned out of house and home, or its dull
old body perishes by cremation, that it may ap-
pear in a glorified form, to shine and serve in
a thousand beautiful ways. It is compelled to
wake and come forth, or, as an old miner said,
to " git up and git," by intense and long-continued
heat. The ore is put into furnaces, each holding
fifteen thousand pounds, and having in one end
the fire, which is kept up for about three days.
The vapors from the heated ores pass from the
furnaces through small apertures, like pigeon-holes,
into condensing -chambers, on the cool walls of
which the globules of mercury form, and glide at
once to the floor, where they collect in little
gutters and flow out into troughs, which convey
them to an iron caldron, from which they are
transferred to the wrought -iron flasks in which
they are sent to market. Each flask contains
seventy-six and a half pounds, the equivalent of
seventy-five pounds Spanish measure, and is
worth forty dollars.

It was strange to see this fluid treasure come
flowing and flashing down like a mountain stream,
13

290 CALIFORNIA.

to see it dipped up like so much spring water.
The unstable, illusive character of this costly prod-
uct is not understood by all visitors. Young and
curious tourists have been known to attempt to
carry away a thimbleful or so in their pockets,
and have confessed to having at once experienced
a singular trickling, tickling sensation, usually pass-
ing like a streak of cold lightning down the right
leg and into the boot. One elderly gentleman, by
profession clerical but by temperament mercurial,
once succeeded in secreting a portion of quick-
silver in his spectacle-case, which he carried in the
same breast-pocket with his watch. His little theft
was not discovered at the time, but the next morn-
ing he indignantly proclaimed that he had been
robbed. His valuable gold repeater had been taken
from his pocket, and a silver watch put in its place.
The contents of the spectacle-case had also mys-
teriously disappeared.

Quicksilver in the mass has such a molten look
that you shrink from touching it ; but it is exceed-
ingly cold. It gives you a strange sensation to
plunge your hand into the solid, fluid, heavy, buoy-
ant substance, which has the very chill of death,

SLIPPERY SILVER. 291

yet is alive in every infinitesimal globule. There
seemed to me something unsubstantial about it,
after all. I could clutch it, but not hold it. It
vi^as like palpable moonshine. I dipped my hand
in up to the wrist, and not a particle adhered to
my fingers. Silver never would stay by me.

The recent great influx of visitors has compelled
the directors of this mine to deny strangers access
to the reducing-works and the tunnels, unless they
come with a special order from the president of
the company or some other official personage. Of
course, the manager, Mr. Randol, resident at the
works, has the privilege of doing the honors at
any time to his friends and his friends' friends. I
was so fortunate as to bear a lettter to him from
one whose name is an " open sesame " everywhere
on this coast, because it is the synomyme of gener-
osity and hospitality, and all good and genial feel-
ing.

We met Mr. Randol on his way to San Jos6 on
business, and presented the letter, asking merely
for a line to some subordinate at New Almaden,
which would insure us a sight of the reduction-
works and something of the mine. To our sur-

292 CALIFORNIA.

prise he insisted on returning with us, on accom-
panying us everywhere, giving up the entire day
to us, in fact, and all with an air of such perfect
wilHngness and, indeed, enjoyment, that we could
not feel oppressed by such unusual and unlooked-
for courtesy. We gave ourselves up to the pleas-
ure of a perfect, golden day, full of rare interest,
and to the deHght of his bright companionship,
with careless but not unthankful abandon. Mr.
Randol is a cultivated gentleman, young for a po-
sition so responsible, a New-Yorker, and a good
Republican. Can I say more .'' Yes ; such bland
politeness, such gentle and smiling patience as his
in answering questions I have not found, — no, not
in California,

First of all, Mr. Randol showed us the reduc-
tion-works, of which I have tried to give some
slight idea. I was surprised at the number of
chambers necessary for the thorough condensation
of the vapor. It sometimes passes through ten or
eleven before all the quicksilver is precipitated.
The uncondensed, deleterious portions are carried
away by flues into an immense high chimney,
which lets them off where they can do no harm to

UNDERGROUND MYSTERIES. 293

man or beast. The stories of miners and mules
perishing gloomily of mercurial poison, of un-
happy smelters "working out their own salivation
with fear and trembling," are no longer to be
credited.

From the works we drove up the mountain
to the new tunnel, which is the one most
worked at this time. It is several hundred feet
below the old workings, is about twenty-five
hundred feet in length, ten feet wide, and well
timbered, where it is not cut through the hardest
kind of rock. Into this grand tunnel our party
was taken in grand style. We rode in ore-cars,
on blocks of wood, which made the most reliable
sort of seats. We were drawn by a stout and
serious-minded mule, and each fellow of us carried
a lighted candle stuck in a spHt stick. Thus
we plunged into the darkness and the silence
of inner earth, and woke the sullen echoes with
laughter and merry shouts, and called out with our
flickering torches momentary gleams from crystals
imprisoned in the dull rocks for ages, dreaming
of the light. Looking back from the first car
in the procession, it had a strange wild look,

294 CALIFORNIA.

and we all had a sense of something adventur-
ous and mysterious, and delightfully awful and
Arabian-Nightish, about the expedition. We for-
got that we lived in a prosaic Christian land,
and in virtuous Tammany times, and should
hardly have been surprised to come upon the
cave of the Forty Thieves, with all their
treasure in it ; or, when we turned back to the
day, to have found the door of the tunnel
closed against us.

When about eighteen hundred feet in, we left
our cars, and walked the rest of the way — and a
wild, rough, pitfallish way it was — to drifts where
the men are now working at the new discoveries.
The ore is very fine here, and apparently
abundant, the cinnabar showing, in wide, long
deposits, the rich, red arteries of the heart of
the old mountain.

The air in the tunnel and drifts we found
not impure, damp, or oppressive, yet we were
quite willing to return to outside wind and
warmth and sunhght. In going out our mule
was put to his metal, and made wonderful time.
It really seemed as if the animal had absorbed

A ROUGH BUT ROYAL DRIVE. 295

quicksilver into his veins or muscles. Ah ! it
was a jolly run, with nothing to break the
merry flow of talk and laughter but an occa-
sional shout from our driver of " Heads down ! " or
" Look sharp ! " as we passed under low-lying tim-
bers or round a sharp corner.

I have had many a grand drive in my day. I
have driven in the Corso in carnival time ; my
elegant hired hack figured in a procession miles
long, going to a Queen's prorogation of Parlia-
ment ; I have driven to weddings and races and
reviews and fashionable funerals ; but never
have I enjoyed a drive as I enjoyed this. It
was rough, but royal, — full of exhilaration and
jollity.

At this point two of our party felt compelled
to return to San Jose, taking our carriage. Mr.
Randol kindly took my companion and myself
into his own carriage, in which we proceeded
up the mountain. The second carriage-load — a
charming family party of five, who are doing
California in the most thorough and leisurely
manner — was happy to make a day of it
with us.

296 ■ CALIFORNIA.

The fine drive up the mountain and around
its summit gave us some of the most superb
and enchanting views I have yet had in Califor-
nia. I will not attempt to describe them ; in-
deed, in their peculiar, quiet loveliness, they are
as indescribable as unforgetable. Yet, after our
profound underground experiences and fine upper-
air exaltations, we had excellent appetites for the
generous lunch ordered for us by Mr. Randol,
whose health we joyfully drank.

Returned by a cool, dashing drive down the
mountain to the pleasant little hamlet at New
Almaden, we strolled for a while through the
grounds of the picturesque country-house built
by General Halleck when he was manager of the
mine ; and then our friend and host proceeded
to crown the courtesy which had made for us a
day of unequaled enjoyment, by having attached
to his carriage four fresh, spirited, handsome
horses. And so, in such state, he drove us back
to our hotel at San Jos6, through the splendors
of sunset and the freshness of evening airs.
Could anything have been finer or jollier, more
nobby or nabob-y, than that ?

ALONG THE ALAMEDA. 297

I take great satisfaction in assuring the Hon-
orable President and Directors of the Quick-
silver Mining Company in New York, that they
could not possibly have a more satisfactory man
for manager than Mr. J. B. Randol.

On the morning of the third day we took out-
side places on the stage-coach for Santa Cruz.
The drive down the Alameda was pleasant but
comparatively prosaic. It should be driven
through always in the twilight or moonlight.
Then your imagination goes back to the rough,
romantic, half-heathenish times, before gold or
silver was discovered on the coast, and when
these old willows were young. Then you easily
picture the padres walking under their mys-
terious shadows, and would hardly be surprised
to meet a procession of black-robed, keen-eyed,
tight-lipped Jesuit ghosts, taking their consti-
tutional, walking stealthily, two by two.

We were fortunate enough to find in an outside
passenger with us the husband of the Santa Cruz
friend we were going to visit. He had just been
taking a run over to England, and was full of
pleasant stories of travel and sight-seeing.
13*

298 CALIFORNIA.

This is called one of the grandest stage-routes in
the State ; but we found ourselves compelled to
pass through a purgatory of hot, blinding, stifling
dust, before reaching the " Delectable Mountains."
The ride across the San Jose Valley was tedious,
but it was soon forgotten when we began to as-
cend the splendid grade. The descent was, on
the whole, the wildest, most thrilling, and magnifi-
cent drive I have ever taken anywhere. It is more
perilous by far than the present Geyser drive, and
commands views of 'more savage grandeur. Our
coachman drove his six horses furiously, and there
were many narrow curves, where it seemed that
the least accident to the high Concord coach, or a
moment's fright or viciousness on the part of the
horses, would have been certain destruction for us
all ; but the fine mountain air and the beauty and
magnificence of the scenery supplied the necessary
nerve and excitement. On these mountains and
in their dark canons I had my first view of the
redwoods, in all their sombre grandeur,- — the most
primitive, peculiar, and individual of trees. Where
they are greenest, they have a look of age ; where
most congregated, a look of loneliness.

THE BIG TREES. 299

Santa Cruz is a beautiful, smiling town, seated
on the knees of pleasant terraces, with her feet in
the sea. It has no splendid residences, but many-
pretty, home-like houses, embowered in flowers and
foliage. Its handsomest edifice is the Unitarian
Church. We have enjoyed, with absolutely childish
delight, our visits to the beach, — watching the glo-
rious surf, looking out on the infinite blue reaches
of sea. It seems to me the Pacific has a more
cerulean hue than the Atlantic, perhaps because it
comes directly from the Celestial Empire.

We had a day of pure enjoyment in the woods.
We drove for five or six miles up the beautiful
caiion of the San Lorenzo, a shadowed, winding,
mountain road, such as we find nowhere but on
this coast, and picnicked among the "big trees."
These are gigantic redwoods, not quite equal to
the Calaveras or Mariposa trees ; but wait a few
hundred years and you will see. The largest,
named for Fremont, is two hundred and ten feet
in height and eighteen feet in diameter. In the
hollow trunk of another, Fremont had his quarters
for a while. A man can ride into this on horse-
back, and stable the horse. I was told that a

CALIFORNIA.

devoted wife once spent here several months with
her husband, a lumberman, and kept a couple of
boarders. I felt for her. I know what it is to
live in trunks. By the way, a young fellow-pas-
senger on the stage told us several astonishing
stories about some big trees near Visalia. One,
he said, parted into three about sixteen feet from
the ground, and at the point of separation there
was a hollow, which hollow was always filled with
water, — was, in fact a Httle lake, thirty feet wide
and seventeen feet deep. So you could bathe or
boat in it if you wished to, or bob for eels. He
described the monstrous hollow trunk of a fallen
tree, into which he once rode on horseback, and,
after trying in vain to reach the concave ceiling
with his cane, galloped on for some distance, and
then rode calmly out through a knot-hole, — a prov-
idential opening for the young man. But I have
found that the only safe way in this country is to
doubt nothing you hear, I have an impression
that I shall some time come upon that triune tree,
with its remarkable water privileges ; perhaps find
it utilized into a railroad-tank or a baptistery. I
half expect to ride into the same trunk prospected

DARE-DEVIL DRIVERS AGAIN. 30I

by ray young fellow-traveller, and to emerge at the
same knot-hole.

San Francisco, June 3,

We left Santa Cruz yesterday morning, and came
straight through by the Watsonville route. The
scenery on this route is pleasant, but rather tame,
with the exception of that in the Monterey Valley.
It gives you a good idea of the stupendous grain
and cattle business. The wild-flower show is pal-
ing out. The golden poppies grow small by de-
grees and beautifully less, but there are still, here
and there, blue lakes of lupin and larkspur. Mus-
tard grows everywhere, bright against the dull
green of the hillsides, — a beautiful pest. Even
the thistle -blossoms of California are handsome.
Some are of a peculiar dark blood-red.

We had the usual outside seat, and studied
nature along our route, especially the human
nature of the driver. There certainly is some-
thing in the employment of these men that
sharpens their wits in certain directions, and
individualizes them. They are almost always

quaint, droll fellows, kindly and companionable.

•
When, the other day, we were dashing down

302

CALIFORNIA.

the mountain at a frightful rate of speed, and
some of the passengers remonstrated, the driver
cheered us after Hank Monk's fashion, " Don't
be troubled, I '11 get you in on time." It was in
vain that we told him it was not time, but
eternity, we were troubled about : he was bound
to show us that Foss was not the only dare-devil
on this coast. Yesterday's driver cheered and
enlivened the way by stories of overturnings
down steep banks, and robberies by highwaymen.
The first he had, of course, no personal experi-
ence of, but from the latter he had suffered
on several occasions. The roads in the neigh-
borhood of Visalia he spoke of as especially
infested by bandits. I remarked that drivers
and passengers on those perilous highways should
always be armed, and ready for those melodra-
matic gentlemen. " Madam," said he, impressively,
" did you ever look down the barrel of a loaded
shot-gun ? " I acknowledged that I had never
taken that particular view of eternal realities.
" Well, madam (see that old cat thar, pros-
pecting about among them gopher-holes !), sup-
pose you sot here in my place, and out, from

THE YOSEMITE. 303

behind that bush, thar, should jump a masked
fellow, and cover you with a double-barrelled
shot-gun, before you could have time to even
think of drawing a pistol, and another masked
fellow should seize your leaders, and you knew
there were lots more of the rascals layin' low,
just ready to put a head on you, — what could you
do but ante up ? "

GOING INTO THE YOSEMITE.

The most popular present route to the valley —
and I am inclined to think the most picturesque
and comfortable, all things considered — is the
Mariposa, via Merced. We went that way, a
select party of seven, who left San Francisco on
the 4th of June. At Merced we left the rail-
way and spent the first night, stopping at the
elegant new hotel, " El Capitan," built by the
Central Pacific Railroad Company, — that dreadful
monopoly that brings about so many beneficent
improvements. Things were in rather an unset-
tled, unfinished state, but we found excellent
beds, and slept delightfully, as soon as we were

304 CALIFORNIA.

able to sleep at all ; but unluckily here, as at
several places farther on, we " seven poor travel-
lers " were sufferers from the untimely and un-
bounded hilarity of a large, conglomerate party
of tourists, mostly from Chicago and St. Louis.
These young and joyous creatures never sub-
sided into dull slumber till some time in the
small hours. To their ordinary nocturnal diver-
sions of dancing, singing, laughing, and whistling,
they occasionally added the unparalleled atrocity
of the accordeon.

This party afterward came to grief in various
ways, as all large parties are like to do, and
all extravagantly gay parties are sure to do, on
this grand but difficult and trying trip. It is a
pilgrimage to the most beautiful but awful, holy
places of Nature, her long secret, inaccessible
shrines, and should be undertaken with at least
a decorous seriousness and something of thought-
ful and intelligent preparation. Cheerfulness is,
of course, desirable, for one's patience and cour-
age may be severely taxed all through the ex-
pedition, and good-humor and good sense are
absolutely essential to anything like enjoyment

PILGRIMS FIT FOR THE PILGRIMAGE. 305

of the trip. At the beginning I would say, Let
all mere lovers of pleasure, fond of benders
and unbenders, all bon vivants, all dainty and
dandiacal people, all aged, timid, and feeble peo-
ple, all people without a disciplined imagination,
keep away from the Yosemite. The entire trip
will prove to all such a disappointment and a
drag, weariness, and hardship, and the valley it-
self a great hollow mockery of wild, vague, ex-
travagant hopes, — the biggest man-trap of the
world. When you hear a traveller ask of the
Yosemite, " Does it pay ? " you may set him
down as not fit to go there. But to men and
women of simple minds, to healthy, happy na-
tures, to brave and reverential souls, in sound,
unpampered bodies, to "spirits finely touched,"
I would say at the beginning and finally. Come
to the Yosemite, though you have compassed
the world all but this ; come for the crowning
joy of years of pleasant travel ; come and see
what Nature, high-priestess of God, has prepared
for them who love her, in the white heights
and dark depths of the Sierras, in the pro-
found valley itself, the temple of her ancient

306 CALIFORNIA.

worship, with thunderous cataracts for organs,
and silver cascades for choirs, and wreathing
clouds of spray for perpetual incense, and rocks
three thousand feet high for altars.

The stage-ride from Merced over the plain to
the foot-hills was not tedious, for the road led
through magnificent golden grain-fields, ready for
harvest ; but we were not sorry to reach the
rising ground and the shade of woods. Hornitos
was our dining-place, — a place to be remembered
for its nice hotel and nicer landlady. The drive
from this point to Mariposa is quite delightful,
the air as you ascend becoming purer, and the
way more green and flowery. At Mariposa we
were obliged to wait, with another party of tour-
ists, some five hours, till coaches should come
down from White and Hatch's, — the powerful
Chicago and St. Louis combination having swept
all before it. The little old mining town, so
long associated with the fame and fortunes of
General Fremont, has now but a dismal and dilapi-
dated look, though it is said business is reviv-
ing there somewhat.

We quickly looked up all there was to be

A GRANT MEETING. 307

seen in the town, and were reduced to extremi-
ties for amusement. Finally, we observed that
something unusual was going on in the office of
a justice of the peace, contiguous to the hotel, —
something interesting to young Mariposans. In
fact, preparations were being made in those nar-
row and awful precincts for an exhibition, by a
band of " champion minstrels " and a " celebrated
female contortionist," — not a singer but an acrobat.
We strolled into the place, and found a few
benches arranged for the generous public ; a stage
was partitioned off from the auditorium by a row
of tallow candles in tin candlesticks, and backed
by a mysterious green curtain. That stage and the
vacant hall were somewhat suggestive and tempt-
ing to the male portion of our party of idle
tourists, who proceeded to organize a Grant meet-
ing on the spot. One gentleman, a Boston offi-
cial, who, though a Grant man, controls a good
many Democratic votes (he having charge of
the city jail), made a rousing speech, and was
followed by other orators. The entire burden of
the laughter and applause did not fall upon us,
for the occasion had called into the hall a mot-

3o8 CALIFORNIA.

ley little " cloud of witnesses," — two or three
miners and drovers, several small boys, a Mexi-
can mule -driver, a Digger Indian, and a China-
man. A happy unanimity seemed to prevail in
our meeting. One English traveller, late of the
army, on whose military stomach the undigested
Alabama matter evidently set hard, stood proudly
neutral ; but all the others, from the sheriff of
Boston and the rich shoe-dealer of Lynn down to
the small boys of Mariposa, the Chinaman, the
Greaser, the Digger, and the women, were loyal
to the administration. Yet, no : there was one
hardy, grizzly old miner, with a throat like a
hoisting -shaft and a fist like a quartz - crusher,
who swung his dilapidated gray hat, which, per-
haps, once was white, and hurrahed for " honest
old Horace Greeley." I think Mr. Greeley would
have been gratified by this brave demonstration
in the face of an arrogant majority. Even we were
touched by it, and a hush fell on the gay assem-
bly ; but I am sorry to have to add that one of
our party, who had been in the bar-room and
knew whereof he affirmed, declared the gallant
minority to be in a state of semi-inebriation. The

BEFORE THE PERFORMANCE. 309

minstrels in undress here aiopeared from behind
the curtain, greeted us courteously, confided to
us that they were gentlemen doing a little min-
strelsy for the adventure of the thing, declared
for Grant, and solicited the honor of our patronage
for the evening.

As we looked every minute for the coaches, we
dared hold out no hopes to our patriotic friends,
and we almost grieved, when came still evening on
and twilight gray, to see them hurrying hither and
thither to procure for us arm-chairs, which they
placed before the rude benches provided for the
common people. I am afraid that, gentle Bohe-
mians and good Grant men though they were, they
prayed for our detention at Mariposa that night ;
and I must confess to an amiable desire to listen
to their wild warblings and to see their wilder au-
dience. I even felt that I could smile on the
modest efforts of the female contortionist, it being
my principle to encourage woman in entering on
new careers of fame and emolument, and knowing,
as I do, to what turns and twists feminine genius
is driven by cruel disabilities. Strange what an
interest we all took in the gathering of that small

310 CALIFORNIA.

audience. An infant drummer stood at the door,
and drummed vigorously ; but recruits came in
slowly. I, having been in the show-business a lit-
tle myself, was the most sympathetic. I strolled
carelessly up and down the sidewalk with a friend,
reconnoitring, returning now and then to the pi-
azza of the hotel with reports like these : " A force
of one old miner just marched in," "A woman
with a baby in arms," " A small detachment of
boys," "A file of servant-girls," "A squad of infantry
commanded by papa and mamma," "A reinforce-
ment of grandma," "A rear-guard of ranchmen and
Greasers."

Our coaches arrived, but it was announced that
they would not be ready to leave before nine o'clock.
During that half-hour we could see something of
the performance. A commutation of half price was
proffered, and we went in, — that is, a select few
of us. We declined the reserved seats, and quietly
sat down on one of the benches among the peo-
ple. We felt democratic. We fellowshipped the
rough miner, the ranchman, , the Mexican mule-
driver, even the Greeley ite. We could have tol-
erated, at a distance, the stern and haughty Dig-

THE CHAMPION MINSTRELS. . 311

ger, rightful sovereign of the soil, whose name is
a misnomer, for he toils not neither does he dig.
The orchestra chairs we had declined did not re-
main unoccupied. Eight small girls in their Sun-
day best entered the hall, with an imposing rustle
of starched ruffles, came calmly forward, and filed
into those seats of honor. There was more room
than their small crinolines could fill ; their little
feet dangled uncomfortably ; but they sat erect,
stately, and solemn, as so many delegates to a
female-suffrage convention, gazing intently at the
curtain throbbing with dark dramatic mysteries.
At last it was drawn aside, and tlie minstrels ap-
peared, bowed graciously, and set to work. Every
role was duly filled ; there was the aggravating
conundrum-man, and the proper middle-man, and
the funny end-man, who played on the tambourine
with his knees and his heels and his nose, and
banged it against his head, till he struck fire from
his wild, rolling eyes. It was curious to watch the
effect this personage produced on a row of small
boys just at his left. They watched him with rapt,
unsmiling eagerness, unconsciously imitating every
grimace and contortion of his countenance. It was

312 . CALIFORNIA.

as good as a play to watch the little chaps. As the
one door of the hall was closed with jealous haste,
and the shutters of the one window inexorably
barred against the crowd of impecunious Peris out-
side, the air within was, to say the least, not bra-
cing. So, when summoned to our coach, we were
quite resigned to go, even though the fair star
of the evening had not appeared. We shall all,
I am sure, long remember with a gentle human
interest that melancholy row of minstrels, and their
serious little audience.

We had a rather anxious night-ride of twelve
miles, over a rough road, through streams and gul-
lies, and along steep, rocky caiions, to the hotel of
White and Hatch, which we did not reach till one
o'clock in the morning. But the mountain air be-
gan to tell on us ; and after a brief sleep and a
good breakfast we were in condition thoroughly
to enjoy the superb forest ride, up the Chouchilla
Creek, over the Divide, and down, by a descent of
nearly three thousand feet, to the end of the stage-
road, the famous ranch of Clark and Moore, on the
South Merced, — a lovely, lonely, piny, primitive
place, with a peculiarly peaceful, restful atmosphere

"the way the ladies ride. ;)i;;^

pervading it. Here we were received with simple,
hearty cordiality, and proffered the freedom of the
Sierras and the ranch ; here we were entirely com-
fortable and very happy throughout our too brief
stay. The only drawback to the enjoyment cf the
ladies of our party was the discovery that the
great Chicago monopoly had, by the means of an
avant-coiirier despatched before daylight on a fiery
mule, secured all the side-saddles, and that we
must tarry there indefinitely, or take to the Mexi-
can saddle, and riding en cavalier, both for our
excursion to the Big Trees and our longer jour-
ney into the valley. So, with a tear for the mod-
est traditions of our sex, and a shudder at the
thought of the figures we should present, we four
brave women accepted the situation, and, for the
nonce, rode as woman used to ride in her happy,
heroic days, before Satan, for her entanglement
and enslavement, invented trained skirts, corsets, and
side-saddles. We were fortunately provided with
strong mountain suits of dark flannel and water-
proof, which fitted us for this emergency, and for
any rough climbing we had a fancy for ; and
that was not a little. Well, after a trial of some
14

3^4

CALIFORNIA.

fifteen miles the first day and twenty-six the sec-
ond, we all came to the conclusion that this style
of riding is the safest, easiest, and therefore the
most sensible, for long mountain expeditions, and
for steep, rough, and narrow trails. If Nature in-
tended woman to ride horseback at all, she doubt-
less intended it should be after this fashion, other-
wise we should have been a sort of land variety
of the mermaid.

Though the days were warm in that charming
resting-place, beside the unresting Merced, the
nights were very cool ; and a bright camp-fire in
front of the hotel was surrounded till a late hour
by a circle of tourists, guides, pack-mule men,
and stage-drivers. We took to reciting ballads and
telling stories. Of the latter, the most horrible
and hair-elevating sort were at a premium. There
was a generous and amiable strife as to who should
contribute most to the general discomfort, and pro-
duce the most startling and blood-curdling effects.
The English ex-officer carried off the palm. His
story, told in a characteristically cool way, so
chilled us with horror that we drew closer around
the camp-fire, and shuddered audibly. Just a little

THE MARIPOSA GROVE. 315

way off, under the pines, was a cluster of wig-
wams, and the camp-fire of the bloody Diggers, —
howling fitfully that night over the bear-skin couch
of a venerable savage, said to be over a hundred
years old, and dying without benefit of clergy.
Ah ! how novel and wild and primitive and de-
lightful it all was i

By the way, the old Indian did n't die after all
the ado. He was only testing the affection of his
heirs.

The Mariposa grove of Big Trees is about six
miles from Clark's, up a trail somewhat rough, but
leading through forests of great beauty. Many of
the pines along our way were of imposing breadth
and height, but the first regular Sequoia Gigantea
we came upon was lying prone upon the earth,
that had yielded to him, when he fell, almost as
the sea gives place to the hull of a great ship.
This mighty recumbent shape, whose battles with
winds and tempests are over forever, is a majestic
image of repose and release. What ephemeral
creatures we seemed beside that scarred and mould-
ering trunk, on the tender green of whose young
branches had glistened the dews of the night

3l6 CALIFORNIA.

which was the shadow of the most blessed day of
the world, — the day that dawned in Judaea, under
the watching of angels and the singing of stars.
Wild races had passed away under his shadow ;
he had greatened and towered, waited through
the slow cycles, and decayed and fallen before the
spiritual light of that dawning reached the dim
solitudes of the vast Sierras.

The largest of these Mariposa trees is The
Grizzly Giant, but perhaps the most satisfactory
is The Faithful Couple, — one solid tree at the
base, but separating at the height of about forty
feet into two equally fine Sequoias. Some of
our party saw in it, or them, a type of an un-
suitable early marriage, followed by divergence
and divorce ; others saw a type of perfect wed-
ded life and love, rooted and grounded in
equality and assimilation, starting as one, but,
with a higher development, asserting a nobler
independence and individuality. And so we spec-
ulated and discussed, while taking our lunch in
the dual shade of this new -world Baucis and
Philemon. We visited, I believe, all the groups
and solitary big trees of the great grove, riding

MONARCHS OF THE FOREST. 317

in solemn procession through two hollow trunks,
— one standing, and one fallen. This proceeding
undoubtedly gives one the most accurate idea of
the diameter of the trunks ; but for a full real-
ization of the height of any one of the finest
standing trees, of the grand grip it has on the
earth, there is nothing like lying on your back
and looking up to its huge, immovable lower
limbs, up, up, to where its tapering bole and
highest branches stand above the ordinary green
level of the forest tree-tops, like the mast and
spars of a great ship sunken in a shallow sea.

Grander and grander they grow to you, these
sombre, Titanic shapes, the longer you linger
and look ; and you feel that you shall never
quite pass out from their solemnizing shadow,
that fell on you like the shadow of the great
past. Some of the stateliest trees are named for
our poets. One noble trunk bears on it the
name of Whittier. So simple yet grand a me-
morial of his character and genius is most fit-
ting. Long may it keep his dear memory green.
Only think, it may have been a middle-aged
tree in Chaucer's time !

3l8 CALIFORNIA.

Before we left the haunted forest, we were
conducted by our pleasant guide to a high,
beetling cliff, a favorite perch of Bierstadt's,
from which we had an enchanting view of the
lovely Merced Valley, with emerald-green meadows
and waters flashing to the sun ; and what a setting
were the mountains for the wondrous picture !

Early the next morning we were mounted
and away, eager for the Yosemite, yet reluctant-
ly taking leave of our hosts, Clark and Moore,
both very interesting men, mountaineers of the
best type, — and their kindly household. Mr.
Moore walked out with us some little distance,
and blessed us with his pleasant blue eyes, as
he said good-by.

Perhaps it is well that I feel the impossibility
of describing that day's journey, — the wild and
constantly varying scenery, the strange shrubs
and flowers, the rocky steeps, the mountain tor-
rents, the snow-banks, the bogs, over which led
our narrow trail, the heaven of blue deeps and
fleecy clouds far above us, the half-way heaven
of snowy peaks and shining domes. It was a
wondrous day to live and to remember.

RIDERS AND GUIDE. 319

As we jogged along, single file, we formed an
odd, but not a very picturesque procession. Still,
we had our dash of color, — one bright, graceful
object in our moving picture. A lady of our
party, a fair young girl from Boston, was charm-
ingly dressed, for effect among the dim woods
and gray rocks. Her short Yosemite suit was
black, trimmed with scarlet, a long scarlet sash
falling at the left side ; to her straw hat was
attached a blue, floating veil ; her long, boun-
teous golden hair, all her own, fell in heavy
braids, tied with blue ribbons. Mounted on a
white horse, riding with quiet grace, she was a
perpetual delight to the eye, quite illuminating
our dull cavalcade.

We found our guide — Peter Gordon, at your
service ! a remarkably agreeable young man —
modest, but not averse to imparting information.
I kept near him most of the time, plying him
with questions. His patience was also severely
tried by our pack-mule, a diminutive animal, so
built on and about by valises, carpet-bags, and
bundles, that of the original structure only four
slender piers and two turrets were visible, from

^20 CALIFORNIA.

the rear, at least. The poor brute had a mild,
melancholy face, but was of perverse and erratic
tendencies. He seized upon every opportunity to
leave the trail and go off prospecting. When
brought back, by shouts and blows, to the path
of rectitude and the Yosemite, his countenance
always wore a touching look of humility and
penitence, that seemed to say,

"Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it."

We dined, and dined sumptuously, at Paragoy's,
the new half-way house, set under the pines, in
the greenest of mountain meadows, with melting
snows and rushing streams about it, and grand
white-headed mountains above it. I think tour-
ists, for whom the delay is possible, should
spend the night here, and go into the valley
in the morning.

Only a few miles from Paragoy's, and we
were on Inspiration Point, looking down on the
mighty Mecca of our pilgrimage, — on awful
depth and vastness, wedded to unimagined
brightness and loveliness, — a sight that appalled,
while it attracted ; a sublime terror ; a beautiful
abyss ; the valley of the shadow of God !

THE VALLEY WONDERFUL. 32I

It seemed to me as I gazed, that here was
Nature's last, most cunning hiding-place for her
utmost sublimities, her rarest splendors. Here
she had worked her divinest miracles with
water and sunlight, — lake, river, cataract, cas-
cade, spray, mist, and rainbows by the thousand.
It was but a little strip of smiling earth to
look down on, after all ; but ah ! the stupen-
dousness of its surroundings ! There were arched
and pillared rocks, so massive, so immense, it
seemed they might have formed the foundation-
walls of a continent ; and domes so vast they
seemed like young worlds rounding out of chaos.

The trail down from Inspiration Point is steep,
rough, and somewhat perilous for inexperienced
riders ; but I prefer it, for its variety, and cool,
shadowy places, to the shorter new trail by Glacier
Point, which is wide, even, monotonously good,
and almost wholly without shade. On our way
down, our guide pointed out to us a large hollow
tree fitted up with modern conveniences, in which
a real hermit had kept house for some years. Dis-
appointed in love or politics, he retired from the
world to this rather public spot, where, finally, he
14* u

CALIFORNIA.

died by his own hand. He left a large trunk, but
with little in it.

This trail enters the valley near the Bridal Veil.
Beautiful Pohono had dressed herself royally in
rainbows to receive us. The sight of this fall, in
the height of its summer glory, and the surpassing
loveliness of the valley through all the five miles
that remained for us to ride, charmed away our
fatigue and restored us to vigor and gayety. We
forded countless streams, cold as snow and bright
as sunshine ; we passed through forests of bloom-
ins: azaleas and sweet wild roses and wondrous
ferns, grand natural parks of oak and cedar, groves
and avenues of locusts and pines, — indeed, of all
sorts of trees ; for the variety of foliage in the val-
ley is wonderful. Much of the way we rode along
the rapid Merced, a passionate, tumultuous stream,
pushed on by cataracts. We readily recognized
all the great rocks, from Watkins's magnificent pho-
tographs, — the Sentinel, the Three Graces, the
Cathedral Spires, the Three Brothers, and El
Capitan, bluff and lordly, shouldering his way to
the front. At the second hotel — Black's — dear
friends ran out to meet us with a joyous greeting,

AN UNEXPECTED SYBARIS. 323

and we felt at home even before we reached our
pleasant quarters at the Hutchings House, and re-
ceived from Mr. Hutchings the hearty, happy wel-
come he so well knows how to give.

It was wonderful to us, if not to others, how
comparatively fresh we were after a day of un-
precedented fatigue and excitement. There must
be some magic of stimulus and sustainment in the
air of the Sierras. A good supper and good com-
pany further cheered and supported us, and, last
of all, before sleep, there was for us absolute physi-
cal rejuvenation in the warm baths of the Cosmo-
politan Saloon, just opposite our cottage. Here we
were astonished to find — when we had expected
to rough it — absolutely sybaritic arrangements, —
large, bright bathing-rooms ; spacious tubs, exquis-
itely clean ; a limitless supply of pure, soft water ;
towels, fine and coarse, in profusion ; delicate
toilet- soaps ; bottles of bay rum ; Florida water
and arnica, court-plaster, pins, needles, thread, and
buttons, for repairing dilapidations ; and late
Altas and Bulletins for fresh "bustles." The
floors are all handsomely carpeted, the walls are
hung with delicate paper, and decorated with pic-

324 CALIFORNIA.

tures and mirrors, and cornices are daintily gilded.
Here, after all our long excursions, hard rides, and
harder climbs, we took baths of balm, of delicious
soothing and healing. To find such luxury and
comfort in the awful sunken fastness of this valley
seems something absolutely marvelous, the work
of enchantment ; but the magical agencies have
been only keen business foresight, energy, pluck,
perseverance, and pack-mules.

To future Yosemite pilgrims, I would com-
mend the brave, benevolent young proprietor of
this establishment. I hope they will be careful
accurately to remember his name. It is Smith, —
John Smith. The pilgrims that have been here
this year will be in no danger of forgetting it, or
confounding it with Jones, Brown, or Robinson.

The Yosemite Falls proper, whose entire descent
is over twenty-six hundred feet, is immediately in
front of the Hutchings Hotel, on the north side
of the valley. Of course, from below, you can see
nothing of the Yosemite Creek. It looks as though
it was a cataract from the start, born of the sky

OPPOSITE THE GREAT FALL. 325

and the precipice. The roar of this king of water-
falls, in his grandest times, has a singular dual
character ; there is the eternal monotone, always
distinct, though broken in upon by an irregular
crash and boom, — a sort of gusty thunder. This
composite sound, so changing and unchanging,
floods and shakes the air, like the roar of the
deep sea and the breaking of surf on a rocky
shore.

On my first night in the valley, the strangeness
of my surroundings, a sort of sombre delight that
took possession of me, would not let me sleep for
several hours. Once I rose and looked out, or
tried to look out. The sky was clouded ; it seemed
to me the stars drew back from the abyss.
It was filled with night and sound. I could not
see the mighty rocks that walled us in, but a
sense of their shadow was upon me. There was
in the awe I felt no element of real dread or
fear, but it was thrilled by fantastic terrors. I
thought of Whitney's theory of the formation of
the great pit, by subsidence. What if it should
take another start in the night, and settle a mile
or two with us, leaving the trail by which we

326 CALIFORNIA.

descended, dangling in the air, and the cataracts
all spouting away, with no outlet ! But in the
morning the jolly sun peered down upon us,
laughing, as much as to say, " There you are,
are you ? " and the sweet, cool winds dipped down
from the pines and the snows, the great fall
shouted and danced all the way down his stu-
pendous rocky stairway, the river, and overflowed
meadows rippled and flashed with immortal glee.
It seems to me that darkness is darker and light
lighter in the Yosemite than anywhere else on
earth.

Yet, in the midst of its utmost brightness and
beauty, you are more or less oppressed with a
realization of some sudden convulsion of nature,
that here rent the rocks asunder, that shook the
massive mountain land till the bottom dropped
out ; or of the mighty force of drifting, driving
glaciers, grinding, carving, just ploughing their way
down from the High Sierra, leaving this stu-
pendous furrow behind them. Somehow you feel
that Nature has not done with this place yet.
Such a grand, abandoned workshop invites her
to return. The stage of this great tragic theatre

THE FORTRESS OF THE GODS. 327

of the elements waits, perhaps, for some terrible
afterpiece. But it may be a comedy after all, —
horse-railroads and trotting-tracks, hacks and hand-
organs, Saratoga trunks and croquet parties, ele-
vators running up the face of El Capitan, the
Domes plastered over with circus bills and adver-
tisements of "Plantation Bitters."

There is here, at first, a haunting sense of im-
prisonment, though on a grand scale, of course.
You feel like a magnificent felon, incarcerated in
the very fortress of the gods.

The outside world seems very far away, and
even recent events grow indistinct. There is an
impertinent telegraph-wire that comes into the
valley, but I fancy it does little business. There
is no regular mail, and few letters are written
or received. As for newspapers, I found only
one or two in the hotel parlor. They told all
about the snow blockade. We hardly knew Sun-
day when it came round. We were dropped into
the bosom of Mother Earth, out of the old life
of thought and feeling, out of business, fashion,
and politics. We could hardly tell whether it
was Horace Greeley, or Horatio Seymour, or a

328 CALIFORNIA.

man by the name of Davis, who was nominated
at Cincinnati. The news of the Philadelphia nom-
inations came to us incidentally, via Honolulu,
that is, we were told it by Consul Mattoon, just
from the islands. This sense of isolation inclines
people to be social and kindly. Petty convention-
alities are left outside the grand walls. Tourists
who have not been introduced, fall into conversa-
tion with each other in an easy, fraternal way,
which I have not found the fashion anywhere
else in democratic America. It is a pleasant
feature of life in the valley. I found it impos-
sible to work here, or even to talk fluently or
forcibly on what I knew about the Yosemite.
The theme mastered me. I no.ticed that there
were few singing-birds about, and was told by
an old guide that they, with most animals,
were afraid of the valley. Poetic thoughts and
gay fancies seem struck with a like fear. You
are for a time mentally unnerved ; but you feel
that in your powerlessness you are gaining
power ; in your silence, more abundant expres-
sion.

The vague sense of oppression and imprison-

GENERAL IMPRESSIONS. 329

ment I have alluded to, doubtless often drives
nervous tourists from the valley after so brief a
visit that it must seem to them ever after like
a wild, troubled dream of vast precipices and
domes, of dizzy points, of booming cataracts and
roaring rapids, of toiling up and plunging down
steep trails, on sore-backed mules and bucking
bronchos. In fact, the valley, in the height of
its short season, is a confused scene of hurry,
pushing, and scrambling. Horses, mules, mustangs,
and donkeys are burdened and goaded, and driven
to the last point of endurance, and too often
beyond. "All creation groaneth and iravdletk"
in the Yosemite. There is a vast deal to be
seen hereabouts,^ yet none of the great points
are very easy of access. There is no royal road
to them ; but if tourists who are strong enough,
would give themselves a reasonable amount of
time, they would see everything better by going on
foot and sparing the wretched animals who now
stagger under them in mute agony, and, per-
haps, execrate the picturesque in their meek souls.
Some unhappy people you see doing all the sights,
driving through all the excursions, with a sort

22,0 CALIFORNIA.

of gloomy desperation, as though obeying the in^
junction, " See the Yosemite and die," or under
a contract to return to San Francisco on the
very next Friday and be hanged.

Aside from the multitude of tourists from all
parts of the world, constantly coming and going,
there is a curious and picturesque variety of races
in the valley. Mexicans, Chinamen, negroes, and
Indians, Diggers of rather the better class, who
seem peculiarly to belong to the wild landscape,
sad, though so lovely. The few buildings in the
valley are of rather a primitive and temporary
character, and, with the exception of the sump-
tuous Cosmopolitan Saloon, very simply appointed.
Of the hotel-keepers, Mr. Hutchin^s offers the most
ample accommodations, having three good buildings,
comfortably furnished. His caravansery continues
to be the most popular, though there are travellers
who prefer the lower hotels, from gross consider-
ations of appetite. It must be confessed, even by
his warmest friends, that Mr. Hutchings is not an
epicurean caterer, — not "high-toned on grub," to
use the expression of an indignant California land-
lady. I do not myself think that it was in the

MR. HUTCHINGS. 331

purpose and plan of the Divine economy that
Hutchings should keep a hotel. There are better
things which he could do better. But the man is
already historical ; his name is wedded to that of
his beloved Yosemite, and it is not in the power
of jealous rivalry or legislative enactments to di-
vorce them. He is the recognized fountain-head
of Yosemite lore, such as intelligent tourists like
to get at, and, when from his burdensome cares
and bewildering worriments he gets a little time for
conversation, is a very interesting and picturesque
talker.

Our first little expedition in the valley was with
Mr. Hutchings, to his garden and grounds, on the
north side of the valley, in the neighborhood of the
falls. The Merced and Yosemite had so overflowed
the meadows, that, just beyond the bridge, we were
obliged to take a boat, and be rowed over by our
host, and a young man by the name of Lo. We
were told that such high water so late in the sea-
son, was quite exceptional. By the way, I have
noticed that everything unpleasant, or undesirable
in California is "exceptional."

As he was to return for a couple of other friends,

33^ CALIFORNIA.

waiting on the bridge, Mr. Hutchings sent us three
pilgrims (we know who) on through the wicket-
gate, and directly into his fine strawberry patch.
We justified his trust, and partook generously of
the delicious fruit, feeling that he should be en-
couraged in the culture of such delicacies in this
wild spot. We would a little rather have had them
gathered for us, though, for the sun was " exception-
ally " hot. On a flowery bank, under a noble oak,
we soon sought rest and shade. Here, where a
delicious breeze reached us, we revelled in the un-
speakable loveliness of the scene. Above, below,
on every side, was the fullness of beauty and life,
— light, color, fragrance, graceful motion, grand re-
pose. Here, while watching the Fall of Falls, the
steady plunge of the great central column, the
ever-varying swing and sway of the silvery mist
that encircled it hke a garment, the peculiar shoots
of tiny side-streams and jets coming down like
arrows or rockets, — passing beautiful; here, while
listening to the many-voiced shout of the leaping
waters, the shout that speaks alternately of joy, of
dread, of defiance, and despair, we heard also, from
the grave lips of the poet himself, Joaquin Miller's

POETIC CONTAGION. 333

" Yosemite Song, " — a poem which ahnost expresses
the inexpressible. Perhaps the fine frenzy was
catching ; perhaps we are never too old to catch
it : certain it is, that one of the other three pil-
grims, glowing with a mild poetic fervor, here took
the word and said, "Ah, fellow -pilgrims, here,
where every sense is enthralled with beauty and
sublimity, where

• The wild cataract leaps in glory ' ;

here, with the tremble of its melodious thunder in
the air ; here, in this summer, enchanted among
eternal snows, this smiling valley, lapped in frown-
ing sublimities ; here, amid the shine and shimmer
and shade and fruitage and fragrance, — is Para-
dise ! "

As if to make the words true, to render the
Sunday picture scripturally correct, just at this
point the Serpent started up from the grass and
the flowers, and came boldly into the path, near
the gate through which our host and his friends
were just entering the garden. It was an "excep-
tional " rattlesnake ! Ah ! if the " grand old gar-
dener" of Eden had served the father of serpents

334 CALIFORNIA.

and lies as Mr. Hatchings served this rash in-
truder,.— mashed his head and cut off his rattles,
— what a dififerent world we should have had of
it ! Then, every first family could have had a Yo-
semite to itself, — a private Paradise, with no angel
of expulsion to drive us down the valley and up
the trail. Somehow, after that little snake inci-
dent, we did n't poetize much, nor run at large
about the grounds, for fear of meeting the mourn-
ing widow. It was time to go to dinner.

Among our visitors in the evening was Mr.
Muir, the young Scottish mountaineer, student,
and enthusiast, who has taken sanctuary in the
Yosemite, who stays by the variable valley with
marvellous constancy, who adores her alike in
her fast, gay summer life and solemn autumn
glories, in her winter cold and stillness, and in
the passion of her spring floods and tempests.
Not profoundest snows can chill his ardor, not
earthquakes can shake his allegiance. Mr. Muir
talks with a quiet, quaint humor, and a simple
eloquence which are quite delightful. He has a
clear blue eye, a firm, free step, and marvellous
nerve and endurance. He has the serious air

A GUIDE, PHILOSOPHER, AND FRIEND. 335

and unconventional ways of a man who has been
much with Nature in her grand, solitary places.
That tourist is fortunate who can have John
Muir for a guide in and about the valley. He
will thus see sights not set down in the Yel-
verton chronicles, learn facts which not even
the most careful student of Olive Logan has
come at.

The scene at the hotel, on the morning of
my second day, was something memorable. The
grounds and piazzas swarmed with tourists and
guides, all demanding animals at once to make
the excursions to Glacier Point, or the Vernal
and Nevada Falls. Not only were there the
Hutchings House people in the crowd, but
strangers from the other hotels, frantically dash-
ing about, calling for horses like so many Rich-
ards. Perhaps, in his emergency, Richard would
have come down to a mule ; it is certain that
some of these gentlemen were glad to, after
swearing as he did, and bribing the hostler as
he did n't. There is always more or less trouble
here about horses, as they are not kept up, but
turned loose at night in the wild pastures, and

336 CALIFORNIA.

have to be lassoed in the morning by Indians,
who are not remarkably early risers. This
morning the demand greatly exceeded the sup^
ply. All of us, guests and interlopers, "went
for" Mr. Hutchings. Unhappily, the half-distract-
ed proprietor did n't know the sheep from the
goats. He frequently gave the wrong man the
right horse. He did his best at omnipresence
and omnipotence ; but nobody he wanted to see
could find him at the right moment, and nobody
he especially wanted to serve could he do any-
thing for. He was here, he was there, he was
nowhere. We all mobbed him, and we all missed
him, — poor, kindly, harassed, illusive Mr. Hutch-
ings !

Out of the difficulties of the horse question
grow minor difficulties and disputes, which break
up many a pleasant party in the valley. Ours
went to pieces very gently that very morning.
It was inevitable disintegration. The more for-
tunate part, who got horses early, went to Gla-
cier Point ; others went to Nevada Falls and
had a splendid dinner, and in the midst of it
were called out of doors by the thunder of a

EXCURSIONS. 337

great stone avalanche, which came down from
the Cap of Liberty and almost buried the hotel.
It covered them with dust, and they thought
it was an earthquake, or the day of judgment,
and would n't have missed it for anything. The
rest of us finally straggled off one by one for
the Bridal Veil, some on foot, some on a gal-
lop, — the name we politely applied to a Yo-
semite animal's best speed, — a sort of distracted
walk. Some of us found the place, others got
lost. The party that got lost had the lunch-
basket.

The Bridal Veil is my favorite Yosemite cata-
ract. There is for me a tender, retrospective
charm in the name. Just opposite to the Bridal
Veil is the lovely little trickling cascade called
the Virgin's Tears. Had the sight of the float-
ing, flouting Veil anything to do with that
lachrymose condition ? We, who reached the
Veil, Hngered about it for hours, — read and
slept, botanized and shouted poetry in each
other's ears. When the rainbows came, we went
far up into the very heart of the splendor. We
could have jumped through the radiant hoops
IS

338 CALIFORNIA.

like circus performers. Of course, we got well
soaked with the spray, and had to hang our-
selves out on the rocks to dry. Then we mount-
ed and rode down the valley and some dis-
tance up the trail, to meet the travellers coming
in from Clark's. As they came in sight, headed
by the patient pack-mule and our old guide,
Peter Gordon, it was with a certain agreeable
sense of proprietorship and patronage that we
welcomed them to the valley. They looked ja-
ded, travel-stained, and very sober ; but we
cheerfully assured them that the worst was over,
that they had the Bridal Veil before them
(though they were rather late for the rainbows),
and the glorious valley, at least five good miles
of it, and a dozen or so fine streams to ford,
very full, and only a few bogs to cross. Yes,
the hotels were crowded, but they could get
in somewhere, doubtless, if they were willing to
rough it, take up with half-rations, and beds
on the floor for a while. It was pleasant to
be able to cheer them up a bit. In the late
twilight, after supper, I found two or three
gentlemen of this party sitting forlornly on the

EQUESTRIANISM. 339

hotel steps, with their modest Kttle parcels be-
side them, like so many foundlings, Mr. Hutch-
ings provided for them in some mysterious way,
but they soon disappeared from our midst. They
endured but for a day.

As a rider a little difficult to please, I tried
many experiments while in the valley. I rode
Mr. Miller's horse, and one of Mr. Muir's. They
were my Sunday best. I drew largely on Mr.
Hutchings's variegated stud. I see-sawed from
horse to mule. I aspired to the refined precari-
ousness of the side-saddle, and backslid to the
masculine security of the Mexican saddle, with
its high pommel and its long, roomy stirrups,
which give one such a certain hold on the brute.
However mounted, I found all my old wild prac-
tice in horseback-riding tell in the valley, as
nowhere else, in a comfortable, almost unconscious
confidence, that left me free to enjoy all I saw
and to see all there was to be seen. Many an
unhappy lady we saw utterly and anxiously ab-
sorbed by the spiritless but trustworthy animal
she rode. The falls she looked for were not
waterfalls, the ears of her mule could shut out

34° CALIFORNIA.

the grandest prospect. It is important to be well
mounted, on the expedition to Glacier Point, as
the trail, though wide and even, is a little fright-
ful, winding as it does almost up the face of
Sentinel Rock, and having many dizzy points
and sharp turns. You have to pay a dollar toll
for going over this trail ; but it does not seem
unreasonable, as a temporary tax at least, when
you see the amount of labor and expense and
the enterprise and courage required to execute
this astonishing work. Glacier Point is on the
south side of the valley, three thousand seven
hundred feet above the meadows. It is the
point that gives you the finest comprehensive view
of the valley, especially of its upper waterfalls,
canons, and rocks, with vast views of the High Si-
erra. All the great heights were pointed out to
us, — Mount Hoffman, Mount Lyell, Mount Dana,
Mount Clark, and Mount Starr King. This last
had for us a tender human interest. It seemed
a most fitting monument of a noble, aspiring life
and a broad, well-balanced character, being a sin-
gularly symmetrical cone, steep and smooth, a
shape grandly massive, but not heavy. It had no

GLACIER POINT. 341

clouds, no snows on its summit ; it was bathed
in sunlight, like his beautiful beloved memory.
It stands up among the hoary, scarred old moun-
tains in eternal youth and strength, like his un-
worn and steadfast soul. Its summit, though so
undefended by sharp peaks and threatening gla-
ciers, is absolutely inaccessible, like the sacred
heights of his nature, known only of God.

The vast view from Glacier Point is the despair
of poetry and art. Certainly its grandeur can
never be compassed by the grandest sweep of
human language. Its divine loveliness floats for-
ever before the mind, in smiling, radiant defiance.
It is glory that tmist be seen ; it is sublimity
that must be felt ; it is the " exceeding great
reward " that must be toiled for. Yet I would
not care to linger long here, or on the loftier
Sentinel Dome, near by. These heights supernal,
toward which the stars stoop, against which the
heavens trail their garments, are awesome places.
How dreadful to be alone, up here, at night,
with the lower world all drowned in darkness !
Some of us proposed to stay and see the sunset
from the point, but the guides, more practical

342 CALIFORNIA.

than poetical gentlemen, overruled us, fortunately
perhaps, for non facilis est descetisus into the
Yosemite.

So ended my third day.

Perhaps the most delightful excursion it is pos-
sible to take in the valley is the one to the
Vernal and Nevada Falls. The trail to these, up
the Merced Canon, crosses the beautiful Illilouette
River and several small, sparkling streams, pierces
the green depths of fragrant woods, winds among
the massive rocks, under mighty mountain walls,
passes a glorious succession of cascades and rap-
ids, and finally leads you out into full view of the
grand, green, columnar masses of the Vernal and
majestic white splendor of the Nevada. Both
these falls, and the cascades between them, have
a singularly joyous look ; they leap and tumble,
hurry-skurry, over the rocks, as though glad to
escape from the cold, gray mountain solitudes,
and the dull pressure and sullen push of snows,
out into freedom, down through kindling sunlight,

VERNAL AND NEVADA FALLS. 343

to the bosom of beauty and peace, in the fair
valley land.

Across the Merced, — the ubiquitous Merced, —
between the two falls, and right under the old
Cap of Liberty, called by the Indians Mahta, is
a summer hotel, well kept, neat, and comfortable.
Here we concluded to spend the night, in order
thoroughly to see the two falls, — the only way
it can be done. All the afternoon was spent
beside the cascades and rapids and about the
beautiful Vernal. This is the only waterfall in
the valley which has any color. One portion of
it is of the brightest emerald. There is on the
edge of the precipice a singular parapet of
granite, behind which you can stand and look
down four hundred feet into a dim world of
mist and spray. At one side of the falls there
is an easy stairway, leading down to lovely, ferny
grottos, and little hanging-gardens, kept green
and cool by the perpetual baptism of the spray.

The night came on cold and wild, with clouds
and wind and fitful moonlight. The guides built
a camp-fire on the rocks before the hotel, which
we gathered about, and roasted our faces while

344 CALIFORNIA.

our backs were shivering. The only chance of
comfort would have been in continually revolving,
by some sort of spit arrangement, — to turn
one's self was too much like work ; yet we were
very merry, — not at all put down by little dis-
comforts and great sublimities. Mr. Muir built
large fires down by the river. The effects of
the red gleams and wavering flashes among the
rocks and dark pines, and of the reflections on
the rapids, were marvellously picturesque. We
slept well that night, to the grand lullaby of the
cataracts, only disturbed by the fall of a small
avalanche from the Cap of Liberty, and a mild
earthquake shock. Old Mahta is given to ava-
lanching, and vagrant earthquakes to prowling
round the valley. The latter do little harm, —
they knock and run. When I felt this one
gently shaking my bedstead, I recognized the
peculiar jog I had felt at Sacramento and San
Francisco, and, familiarized with subterranean
visitors, the irreverent words of Hamlet occurred
to me : —

" Old mole ! can'st work i' the earth so fast ? "

A climb up a steep, rough foot-trail to the

SUBLIMITY AND SANDWICHES. 345

top of Nevada Falls was the morning's gallant
undertaking. It was real work, though full
of rare, hearty enjoyment. In the river, above
the falls, is a picturesque, rocky island, near the
shore. By crossing on a bridge of one log over
the rapids of the small side fall, we reached
this island, and secured the finest near view
of the grand cataract, — one of the greatest in
the world. From a projecting ledge, a sort of
Table Rock, we were able to follow its mad
leap down seven hundred feet, to look straight
into the chasm where it was deepest and dark-
est, into the vortex of swirling, wrestling, fight-
ing waters, — a mighty agony of contending
forces. Turning from that image of eternal
unrest to the serene blue sky and the steadfast
white domes, we stored our brains with pictures
of sublimity unimaginable, steeped our souls in
beauty inexpressible, and then — we went to
lunch.

Mr. Muir thinks he finds in this particular

region abundant evidence of the truth of the

theory he holds of the formation of the valley

by glacial action. At the falls, and on our way

IS*

346 CALIFORNIA.

down, he pointed out rocks showing, as he
thought, distinct marks of the drift. Professor
Whitney, the eminent State geologist, scouts at
the idea of glaciers " sawing out these vertical
walls," carving the spires and " turning " the
domes, and is as certain of " subsidence " as
though he " was there all the while." But he
comes whose right it is to decide all glacier
questions, Louis Agassiz. If he claims the val-
ley, the subsiders will have to subside. I have
endeavored to maintain a calm neutrality, though
feeling, of course, the tremendous issues involved
in the dispute. Forever unforgetable the last views
we had of the two cataracts from the trail
below the hotel, on our way down into the val-
ley ! They were absolutely resplendent in the
afternoon sunlight, each plunging joyously into
piles of welcoming rainbows, — a vortex of splen-
dors. They were clothed in glory as a garment.
The ride on the lower trail was even more
charming than it had been in the morning. In
the deep, sweet-ferny wood the sunset glories
were exquisitely tempered by foliage of every
shade of green ; the air was delicious with the

LUMBER. 347

fragrance of great white buckeye flowers, creamy
azaleas and wild roses and lilacs. Then there
was the jubilant singing of the- swift mountain
streams, broken into, now and then, by the deep
bass of cascades. A brief, rough mule ride; but
what a joy it was, and is, and ever shall be !

My sixth day was a deliciously lazy day, spent
mostly in rowing and in strolling and idling
about with a lovely friend over the river, and
beside the Lower Yosemite Falls. On our way
we passed the saw-mill that furnishes all the
lumber used in the valley, and, after our fashion,
stopped for a little chat with the workmen we
found grappling the great logs and putting
them through. There is a law prohibiting the
feUing of live trees in the valley, and all these,
we were told, had fallen in the natural way, —
were doubly dead trees. But they looked sin-
gularly sound and plump, as though they had
died a sudden death, — not, I am sure, from
heart disease; and I fear no "crowner" sat on
them. One of the men, who was opposed to

348 CALIFORNIA.

the anti-chopping law (I suspect he was a
Greeley man), said, speaking as an unprejudiced
sawyer, " I think the pines, at least, ought to
be excepted ; they might all be cut down ; they
are no ornament to the valley."

In the evening, about sunset, I rode down to
Black's, for a little gossip with some gay friends.
A woman cannot dwell in sublimities forever.
On the way, I drew rein, as I frequently did,
beside a little sheet of water, an overflowed
meadow, to look at a wonderful reflection, in
the clear, still water, of the Yosemite Falls, the
neighboring rocks, and the sky. I was presently
joined by a rough but kindly stranger, who,
with the pleasant freedom of the valley, asked
what I was " lookin' at .-' " " At the reflections
there," I said, pointing to the wondrous pic-
ture of waterfall, precipice, and sky. He peered
down in a puzzled way for a moment, then
started back, as though fearful of falling into
the abysmal blue, and exclaimed, " Well, now,
I 've been in and about this valley, in the pack-
mule business, for ten years, but never noticed

that thar before. Why, it 's as good as the real
thing ! "

SIMULATED SAVAGERY. 349

How many such people we meet, men and
women, who, " having eyes, see not " ! If the
sky were full of tilting comets, they would ask,
" Why stand ye gazing up into heaven ? " I
doubt many a pack mule, since the time of the
prophet Balaam, has seen more than his master.

There was a grand aboriginal entertainment
before the hotel that evening, — a horse-race and
a dance of Diggers. A "war-dance," they called
it ; and, by means of burnt cork and wild berry-
juice, bunches of turkey-feathers and tags of
bear-skin, they had managed to impart a feeble
ferocity to their meek, moony faces, — a faint
touch of barbarism to their stunted, slouching, and
pantalooned figures. But there is more of insolent
cruelty in one slow, sullen glance from old Red
Cloud's bloodshot eyes than in the concentrated
savagery of the whole Digger tribe. Squaws
and pappooses followed the festive braves in gig-
gling adoration. One tattooed princess, resplendent
in a yellow calico robe and a tinsel coronet,
passed round the hat. It was doubtless a poor
show to travellers who had been in the wild
Territories, where there are Indians that are

350 CALIFORNIA

Indians ; who have seen war-dances where the
dancers were armed with real tomahawks, and
decorated with real scalps ; but, after our show,
I was quite willing to ride home through the
dim moonlight alone ; glad to be alone with the
shadow and the shine, the fine silence and the
great sound.

On the seventh day we found our Gospel
privileges, which were already not inconsiderable,
increased by the arrival of a number of clergy-
men, — distinguished divines, but (I mean no ir-
reverence) good fellows for all that. They had
evidently retained on entering the ministry,
among their reserved rights, a good deal of hu-
man nature, some practical sense, and a healthy
jollity. At table they were especially merry,
and laughed generously at little jests ; indeed,
it was pleasant to see how far a very little joke
would go with them, and how long it would run.
They tossed it about tenderly, like good boys
playing " throw-and-catch " with a Sunday-school
book. The morning's programme was a visit to
the Yosemite Falls on the north side, and a
ride up the valley to El Capitan. I was with

A REVEREND RIDER.

351

a charming family party of old friends, with
whom I was to make the overland journey
home ; but we were joined by several other
tourists, making a large cavalcade. The Church
was out in force. During the latter part of the
ride, where the trail widened into a good road,
and there was a chance for a gallop, and my
old propensity for hard riding came over me, I
suddenly found myself neck and neck with a
clergyman, one of the gravest and gentlest of
the new-comers, and an eloquent and eminent
D. D. of Philadelphia, — a city as renowned for
its preachers as it is proverbial for its lawyers,
favored, indeed, both by the law and the Gospel,
I should be only too proud to find myself in
this friend's edifying company any day ; but I
doubt if he would be willing to ride through
Fairmount Park, where he might meet his re-
spectable parishioners, with his Yosemite com-
panion, dressed as she was, mounted as she was,
on that golden Saturday. Here was a clergy-
man of reverent, poetic spirit, whose ideas of
this beautiful world were not darkened by the
traditional curse of Eden, — one who could find

352 CALIFORNIA.

" Books in the running brooks,
Sermons in stones, and good in everything."

For him there was a " whole body of divinity "
in El Capitan, as was shown by the reverential
glow, the devout delight of his face, when he looked
up the three thousand three hundred feet of
broad, vertical rock from the vast mass of debris
(which at a little distance attracts no notice) at
the base. We were too much impressed by
the grand aspect of this stupendous rock as
an image of Eternal Majesty and strength, to see
or seek in it any likeness to anything human ;
but what is called " the Old Captain " was after-
wards pointed out to us, — a face and figure dis-
tinct enough, but not as fine by far as the Shake-
speare at Lake Tahoe. On our way back, we were
called on to pay fifty cents toll for passing a crazy
old bridge, which we had to eke out by some rods
of fording and floundering. Almost every excur-
sion you take here subjects you to a tax of this
sort ; you cannot say of the valley, that the half
has not been tolled. If the bridges and trails
were in better condition, one would not be dis-

A SUNDAY MORNING. 353

posed to grumble, except to show people that
one has travelled.

In the afternoon, the Bridal Veil again, and the
rainbows, of which we found a full variety. That
was a memorable last ride we had up to our
hotel, through the lingering sunset. The gilding
of the Cathedral Spires and Sentinel Rock was
something marvellous to behold. The valley was
just brimmed with tender, tremulous, aureate light.
We felt that we had hardly seen it till then ;
but so we thought every latest time we beheld it.
The beauty, the splendor, the height, the depth,
the impression of infinite variety, grow upon you
continually.

On Sunday morning it was announced at
breakfast that there were to be divine services in
the parlor of the Hutchings House. Couriers had
been despatched the night before to the other
hotels, with the glad tidings that Rev. Dr. Or-
miston, of New York, was to preach ; and at the
usual hour for such gatherings in the world out-
side, a good-sized congregation was brought to-

354 CALIFORNIA.

gather in that wild little inside world, without
the aid of " the church-going bell." By the way,
I wonder some enterprising Yankee doesn't put
one up on Cathedral Rock, if only for the sake
of collecting toll. We tried to do the decorous
thing on that occasion. Mr. Hutchings put on a
" biled " shirt and a coat. I donned a long black
skirt and a new paper collar. I think I must
have looked respectable, for the minister himself
did me the honor to invite me to lead the sing-
ing. This was an exquisite, though unconscious,
joke on the part of Dr. Ormiston. Without me
that portion of the exercises partook of the na-
ture of a failure : with me it would have been
a disaster. That was an eloquent discourse and
an orthodox, given in a round and resonant voice ;
but over against us, just across the valley, there
was a grand old preacher, thundering forth from
a pulpit of immemorial rock, his long, white beard
waving in the wind. He preached out of Eternity,
into Eternity, and finally preached the good
Doctor down.

After service I felt inclined to seek the "dim
relio-ious light" of Nature's minster of rocks and

MIRROR LAKE. 355

woods ; to tell the truth, I mounted, and hurried
away to Mirror Lake, whither some friends had
preceded me. I keenly enjoyed my solitary ride
on that cold, cloudy, gusty day ; and though the
way was new to me, I had but one little ad-
venture. As I was riding rapidly up a part of
the trail which wound around a boulder as big
as a meeting-house, I came suddenly on a mounted
Indian, wildly clad and gorgeously decorated,
for Sunday, doubtless. I had heard no sound:
perhaps Indian ponies have a stealthy tread ;
certain it is that all horses but Indian horses
are afraid of Indians. Mine shied, reared, and,
for a moment, was badly demoralized. Now, if
I had been perched on a side-saddle, of the nar-
row, " double-decker " sort used in the valley,
there would probably have been a tragedy, with
no one but the savage left to tell the tale.

Mirror Lake is a pretty little sheet of water,
about two miles up the caiion of the Tenaya Creek.
It reflects with marvellous accuracy, morning and
evening, the grand heights above it ; that is, when
the current of the stream passing through it is
not too strong. Some tourists, who have "done"

356 CALIFORNIA.

Europe, but will never have done with it, on
visiting this modest Httle lake with great ex-
pectations, have been heard to denounce it as
" a sell." But the lake smiles on as placidly
as ever. She never set up for a Como, or a
Maggiore ; but she bears in her bosom the im-
ages of precipices and domes such as those fine
Italian lakes never dreamed of.

Here I found my friends and the lunch wait-
ing for me. From here, under the guidance of
Mr. Muir, we set out on a tramp to find Te-
naya Falls and the cascades of Porcupine Creek,
— beauties blocked and curtained away from or-
dinary tourists by great masses of rock and
thick foUage. We passed first through a lovely
piece of woodland along the creek ; grassy and
flowery it was, with great patches of wonderful
ferns. It was the sweetest, peacefullest place I
had found anywhere within Yosemite bounds.
There was something so deliciously and dream-
ily poetic about it we named it the " Enchanted
Forest." It might have been the wood of " Mid-
summer Night's Dream " or a strip of the For-
est of Arden. Through this was, of course,

TENAYA FALLS. 357

pleasant, easy travelling, or loitering ; but beyond,
every step was a toil and a pull. We had to
creep up and slide down boulders ; cross streams
on logs and slippery stones; to jump like the
goat and climb like the bear, — at least Mr. Muir
was pleased to compare me as a climbist, to
that agile animal. I thought it best to take the
remark as a compliment, and, in return, paid a
tribute to his transcendent climbing : it was the
best proof I had ever seen of the truth of
the Darwinian theory. On account of the high
water, we could not, with all our super- or sub-
human efforts, get very near to the beautiful,
lonely falls of the Tenaya, but we did get quite
close to the more beautiful cascades of the
fretful Porcupine. These come down the steep
narrow cafion in a lovely, winding procession,
dazzling to behold. Clad in foam, sparkling with
spray, like fine lace lit with diamonds, they look,
as they leap down those steps of light, strange-
ly glad and exulting, full of frolic and passion,
reminding one of the naiads of Mysia, who
stole young Hylas from Hercules, and ran away
with him. This is the way they ran, this is

358 CALIFORNIA,

the way they laughed. Taken as a whole, this,
I think, would be pronounced the most radiant-
ly lovely of all the Yosemite waterfalls ; and
yet what a shy, secluded little savage it is ! To
look on her face, you must fight your way
through brake and brier, as the fairy Prince
fought his way to the Enchanted Palace of the
Sleeping Beauty. You have to brave perils of
poison-oak, tumbles and bruises, torn clothes, wet
feet, and scratched faces. This should not be. A
good trail should be made to both the falls and
the cascades, — sights which alone would, if in
Europe, call crowds of tourists to their vicinity.
I take occasion to say that several new trails
are needed in and about the valley, and that the
old ones call loudly for reconstruction ; and I
cannot think that California, into whose care
Congress gave these wonderful places, so long
God's inviolate preserves, is fully justifying that
noble trust. A generous fund from the treasury
of the generous State should be set aside by
every Legislature for Yosemite improvements.
But whether the fund be large or small, the
commissioners, certain magnificent and myste-

A DAMAGED CATARACT. 359

rious gentlemen of whom you hear much but
see nothing in the valley, — should look to it that
the money be judiciously expended. I was told
that the sum of five hundred dollars had been
or was to be allowed a certain " cute " Yankee,
in payment for the extraordinary enterprise of
cutting off the pretty little side cascade of the
Nevada, by means of a dam, and turning all
the water into the great cataract. " Fixing the
falls," he calls the job of tinkering one of
God's masterpieces. There is a chance to pun
on "the deep damnation of that cutting off";
but I forbear. All the rights of toll-gate keep-
ers should be bought up, and all the trails and
bridges be absolutely free. This would be not only
the most liberal, but the most politic course to
pursue, and all such expenditures would be returned
a hundred-fold to the State. Let it not be said,
even by fools, that the Yosemitc "doesn't pay."
Let it not be said by any visitor that it is a
new Niagara for extortions and impositions, — a
rocky pitfall for the unwary, a Slough of De-
spond for the timid and the weak. I doubt
not all the improvements I have indicated, and

360 CALIFORNIA.

more, will come in time, if not in good time ;
and though I shrink from seeing engines snort-
ing about in the very face of El Capitan, and
puffing sooty smoke through the pure mist of
the Bridal Veil, I hope to hear soon of the
fine stage-road being continued from Clark's,
by the old Indian trail along the Merced, into
the valley. That will enable invalids and people
of advanced age to make the great trip without
peril or hardship, and release a few miserable
mules and horses from the torture of the side-
saddle.

But to return to Tenaya Canon. As we faced
about to return to the lake, we perceived that
the storm that had been sullenly brewing all
day was almost upon us. One dark cloud, like
a vast, broad-winged bird, came swooping down
from Mount Watkins. The summit of the great
Half-Dome had so vanished in mist and mys-
tery that you could easily imagine that vast
vertical wall miles high. The winds soughed
mournfully in the pines of the Enchanted Forest,
and made a terrified tumult in the poplars as
we hurried through. By the time we reached

A GATHERING STORM. 361

our horses the rain came down, though very
gently at first. Indeed, the entire preparations
for a storm were very solemn, stately, and delib-
erate. The thunder was low and slow ; the very
lightning seemed languid. As for us, we took
matters as quietly, wrapped ourselves in our
water-proofs, and gave ourselves up to a profound
enjoyment of the strange, sombre beauty of the
scene. Over the smooth domes and jagged
precipices the heavy rain-clouds continued to roll
lazily down. As we looked behind us we saw
how they blotted out the Enchanted Forest and
the lake, and filled the canons like the waves of a
dull, gray sea; but in the great valley they
were floating and surging here and there, filing
down every pass and trail, toppling off peaks
and pinnacles, — some of them looking so solidly
dark they almost seemed a part of the mighty,
many-towered walls. As we neared the hotel,
still riding quietly and in rapt (well wrapt) si-
lence, though the sprinkle had steadily increased
to a respectable summer shower, we noticed that
half the great fall was shrouded from sight,
— clouds and rain come to visit their cousins,
16

362 CALIFORNIA.

mist and spray, — while tlie* great gorge to the
right, Indian Canon, was dark as night, crammed
with tempest. Of course, for these clouds there
was no blowing over, no getting out ; they were
" corralled," and had to rain themselves away,
which most of them did in the course of the
night.

After dinner all the guests — tourists from many
parts of the world — gathered about the huge fire-
place of rough granite in the primitive parlor at
the old Hutchings House, enjoying the sparkling
flame and genial warmth immensely, considering
that it was the 15th of June. The next morning I
rose bright and early, — no, early, but not bright.
I was not by any means in a jubilant mood. I
was to go out of the valley that day, — the dread-
ful, delightful, overwhelming, uplifting valley ! I
had chosen to depart by the Big Oak Flat and
Chinese Camp routes, the chief recommendations
of which are that you have only about eight miles
of horseback-riding, if that be a recommendation ;
and that it gives you a chance to visit the Cal-
averas big trees, if, after Mariposa and Yosemite,
you have not had enough of big things. The

A JUNE VISION OF WINTER. 363

Steep mountain trail iS only three miles long. You
take the stage at Gentry's, and go by the route I
have indicated, or by the Coulterville route, said
to be even more picturesque and interesting. This
strikes the railroad at Merced. But I am poach-
ing on the guide-book man's preserves.

When I left our cottage that morning, to go to
my breakfast at the hotel, I found that the rain
had ceased, but that it was still cloudy and
strangely cold, and — had I risen from a small
Rip Van Winkle sleep.? — all along the upper edge
of the valley, and in some places half-way down,
the rocks and wooded steeps were white with
snow ! How grand the pines looked, standing up
white and still, like so many ghostly sentinels ! A
winter view of the Yosemite was what I had
keenly desired, but never hoped to see. This was
a little dream of it, — a hint of the holy white
beauty, the fearful splendor, which Hutchings and
Muir know so well, and which Bierstadt endured
and braved so much to see and transfer to his
canvas, last winter.

With a choking good by to my host and his
family, who had been most kind to me, — with lin-

364 CALIFORNIA.

gering backward looks at the pleasant places that
would know me no more, and not know their loss, —
I rode gloomily down to Black's, where there were
other leave-takings, sad enough, heaven knows, for
all the jests and brave words, — the froth on the bit-
ter stirrup-cup, — and then away under the dreary
clouds and chill mists. I had lingered till all the
friends with whom I came into the valley had left.
Other friends were going by the other route ; and
the small party I found myself with to-day were
strangers, as much so as any fellow-pilgrims to the
sacred Sierras can be to one. Yet, in the mood
I was in, I did not mind it. Indeed, I rode, wher-
ever it was possible that morning, quite apart and
alone, feehng in the gusty mountain air and wild,
tempestuous surroundings a peculiar stormy delight
which is quite inexpressible. My last view of the
Yosemite was the grandest I ever had, — full of
majesty and mystery. Great, billowy rain-clouds
were driving across the valley and breaking against
the tremendous rocks of the south side like surf
against a craggy shore. The beautiful Cathedral
spires faded out of sight ; the Bridal Veil wavered,
glimmered, and was gone ; the valley itself van-

LEAVE-TAKING. 365

ished like a magnificent, fantastic dream ; and
there was only left the steep, narrow mountain-
path before me, with its noisy brooks and snow-
dropping pines and beetling rocks, and to my left
a dark gorge, in which I caught faint, far-down
glimpses of the swift and sounding Merced.

RETURN FROM THE YOSEMITE. — LAST DAYS
IN CALIFORNIA.

The views from the high mountains we had
looked to enjoy, on coming out of the valley, were
mostly lost to us through the mist and rain. The
morning was for two or three hours cold and raw,
and the snow fell so heavily from the loaded pines
that we seemed to be journeying through a tre-
mendous winter storm ; but by the time we
reached Hodging's Ranch, which I remember as a
good dining-place with very much good landlady,
all was bright and clear, and the remainder of
our day's journey was altogether enjoyable. We
found the mountain roads admirable, and the gi-and
old forests full of inviting vistas and enticing mys-
teries. Along this route stand the Tuolumne Big

366 CALIFORNIA.

Trees, not a large grove, and containing no very
distinguished Sequoias, and yet bearing in it some
stately old fellows, who might stand up before the
Mariposa best eleven, and " be bold."

During that first day's journey, before our way
brightened, and while we were yet quiet and silent,
absorbed and vaguely oppressed with Yosemite,
memories " pleasant and mournful to the soul," a
chatty young ranchman got into the coach for a
short journey, and for an hour or two amused us
not a little. He was a Vermont boy, to whose
Yankee sharpness and cleverness were added the
broader foresight and more dashing energy in busi-
ness affairs of the Californian. His face was su-
pernaturally wide-awake, yet strangely vacant, —
full of that peculiar 'cuteness which is a sort of
unripe sense. He showed a confiding simplicity,
most naive and childlike. He had actually no re-
serves. The varied tale of his fortunes was poured
into the unresponsive bosom of the stage-coach as
into the ear and heart of a long-lost brother. I
think I know that same ranchman's autobiography
as well as I know the history of the young man
Joseph, perhaps a little better. He had got on

GUMPTION versus LEARNING. 367

famously ; owned two large cattle-ranches, one in
the mountains, one in the valley. He told us the
number of his flocks and herds, at a rough guess,
with astounding stories of their yearly increase.
He spoke rather contemptuously, I am sorry to
say, of old Vermont, except as a good State from
which to start a young man in life, in a moral sort
of a way, and dwelt rapturously upon " Californy "
as a land of magnificent chances. " Any man,"
he said, " with any sort of gumption, can get along
in the mountains or mining districts, except preach-
ers ; there ain't any kind of show for them. They
come out here with a lot of sermons and a little
book-learning, and fire away pretty smartly for a
while ; but sooner or later they find that they must
do something for a living, like the rest of us. No-
body goes to hear 'em preach but old ladies, and
there 's mighty few of them in this country, you
know ; and they see it won't pay. Now, there 's a
clergyman down in our settlement who 's college-
bred, and did n't seem good for anything else but
preaching ; but after trying it for a spell and getting
dead broke at it, he just turned over a new leaf, went
into stock-raising, and is a man among men. You

368 CALIFORNIA.

ought to see how the minister is rubbed off from
him ! and yet he 's a good fellow. He don't
come out as a preacher nowadays, except when
there 's a funeral ; then he comes out strong.
Why, ma'am, see him on such an occasion, in the
morning, and he will make as good a prayer as
you would care to hear ; and see him down to
the saloon in the evening, and he will play as
good a game of euchre as you would care to see.
I don't want you to think I don't believe in re-
ligion. It 's a good thing to keep children straight,
and to make old folks feel comfortable. But we
business men here in Californy have to let it slide.
It's generally in the way of making money, — that
is, the real article is, — and we must make money.
I had a pious mother, one of the good, old, true-
blue sort ; she used to send me to Sunday school
regular, and if she heard me saying a wicked word
she 'd go for me, as quick as wink. And I 've
never forgotten her teachin's. To this day, if
you '11 believe me, I can't swear before a lady."

Our ingenuous friend said that, as the season
advanced, he had to drive his cattle from the
lower to the upper ranch, and that he made

FIRST AND SECOND GAROTTE. 369

many horseback journeys back and forth and
after runaway cattle, camping out in the vast
forests alone ; no, not often quite alone ; he did n't
fancy that ; not that he was afraid, but that he
" must have somebody to talk to, if it was only
an Indian." There was a small Digger that he
often took along, just to talk to, he said. Poor
little Lo!

We came just before night to a cluster of
small houses, called Second Garotte, and were
told, as we passed under a large oak, that the
name came from the hanging from its limbs, some
years ago, of two or three notorious gamblers
and horse-thieves. At First Garotte, where, from
its greater size, I should suppose a round dozen
gamblers had some time met their deserts, we
spent the night in a comfortable hotel, kept by
the most obliging of landlords.

" At five o'clock in the morning " we had break-
fasted and were off, driving through Big-Oak Flat,
— a rich and busy mining region once, but now
utterly desolate and deserted, except by a few
melancholy Chinese gleaners. But a little more

than the stump of the gigantic oak that gave
16* X

the name to this place remains. That is enor-
mous.

For miles along the creek, which had been
tortured out of all its natural semblance, the
ravaged and ransacked earth had the most dreary
and forlorn appearance. Here and there Nature
is making a desperate effort to recover the lost
ground. She sends out brave little vanguards of
thistles and sunflowers, and by the aid of winds
and spring floods she is slowly rebuilding her
earthworks.

During this morning's ride we met the stage,
packed with passengers, among whom I recognized
" H. H." and "Susan Coolidge," the Indepeiidenf s
delightful contributors, travelling quite independent-
ly, like the brave women they are. They were
going into the Yosemite, looking singularly bright,
fresh, and neat. I wonder how they came out !

The next pleasant object on our way was the
Tuolumne River, a full, bright stream in a great
hurry, as all streams in this country are. Beyond
the ferry we passed a famous vineyard and fruit
and flower garden. Here were the largest fig-trees
I had seen in the State, and magnificent oleanders,

ABANDONED HOPES AND HOMES. 371

each great tree one brilliant mass of blooms as
sweet and rich and passionate as the cry it sug-
gests of poor Hero to her lover across the Helles-
pont.

At Chinese Camp we turned aside from the reg-
ular road to the railway, and took the stage for
Murphy's and Calaveras Big Trees. Our road for
the remainder of the day was exceedingly inter-
esting, leading, as it did for the most part,
through old mining districts, abandoned now, but
full of suggestions of human passions, struggles,
sorrows ; of wild hopes and wilder dissipation ; of
back-breaking toil and heart-breaking disappoint-
ment ; of madness and crime, heroism, home-sick-
ness, and death.- But the empty and closed houses
in the little mining towns seemed even more deso-
late than the worked-out diggings. How melan-
choly to look on the deserted saloons, those once
brilliant and festive haunts to which the pictur-
esque and generous miner came every Saturday
night, and at aristocratic inonte or democratic
poker staked and lost his week's hard earnings
with a magnificent recklessness which a prince
might envy, but never emulate. Scarcely less mel-

372 CALIFORNIA.

ancholy is the aspect of the "little church round
the corner," or up on the lonely hill, — a pretty
edifice, perhaps built in the old flush times, when
people did n't care what they did with their money,
but now abandoned to silence and solitude. Just
beyond Sonora — a charming, shady, foreign-look-
ing town — we came upon the most singular field
of mining operations I have ever beheld. The
ground on each side of the road for miles has
been dug and washed clean away from the under-
lying rock, which is of a peculiar broken and
jagged character, apparently volcanic formation.
The earth has been completely dissected, and her
skeleton laid bare, — a strange and ghastly sight.
In some places the denuded rocks look like enor-
mous tusks, fangs, and snags, as though Cadmus
had been about his old business, sowing monstrous
dragon teeth. In and about the town of Colum-
bia we found work, principally h3'draulic mining,
recommenced, and going on vigorously. It prom-
ises soon to destroy all the comfort and come-
liness of the pretty little town. In every direction
houses are being besieged and undermined. Even
the church seems in as imminent peril from the

"cloth of gold" roses. 373

encroachments of mammon as though it stood on
Broadway. One white cottage we noticed, stand-
ing out bravely. It had a fine garden about it,
smiling with roses. There was no telHng, of
course, what great treasure lay in Nature's gran-
ite vaults underneath, drawing no interest, and
rendering every one of those festal roses as costly
as a Chappaqua cabbage ; but I honored the
woman who had held on to beauty and simple
comfort, untempted by possible riches, with certain
desolation. But she may not endure much longer:
she is cut off on every side. The gorgeous
" cloth of gold " roses seem to understand the situ-
ation, and to be crowding the bloom of many
summers into one.

It was near Columbia that we met our friends,
Rev. Dr. Furness and his wife, just from Cala-
veras, bound for the Yosemite. The smile of the
good minister was like a benediction on the day.
He seemed a little apprehensive about his brave
undertaking, and asked, in his quaint way, "Will
I be frightened much ? " I told him I hoped not ;
that heaven was over the Yosemite, though an
unconscionable way off. I might have told him

374 CALIFORNIA.

how another distinguished divine had even found
courage to preach in the awful valley, amid the
sound of many waters and the gloom of a gather-
ing tempest. But then, he was orthodox.

On this route there is some fine river and moun-
tain scenery. We crossed the Stanislaus, rendered
classical by the story of the scientific society and
the fatal " row " that broke it up ; and we saw
Table Mountain, so tenderly associated with
"Truthful James."

Murphy's is a quiet little town, with one of the
very best hotels in all California, where we had a
delightful rest, in beds that were absolutely lux-
urious.

The stage-ride of sixteen miles, from Murphy's
to the Big Trees, we found very pleasant in the
early morning. The grove itself, containing nearly
a hundred of the giants, is a most lovely place ;
and as there is here an excellent hotel, it is be-
coming more and more a summer resort for Cali-
fornians. I doubt if any traveller willingly leaves
it after a visit of only a few hours. I met here a
dear old friend in the noble wife of Professor Whit-
ney, who, with her young daughter, is spending

THE GIANT GROVE. 375

the summer in the grand, beneficent shadow of
the Sequoias, finding inexhaustible deHght in
this wood of woods, so green and clean and aro-
matic, and in watching it under all the changes of
light and shade, of day and night. They say that
the moonlight effects here are inexpressibly lovely.
The trees of the Calaveras grove are less injured
by fire than those of Mariposa, and are generally
taller and more symmetrical. Mrs. Whitney gave
me a vivid realization of their height by saying
that, when she looked out upon them from her
chamber-window at night, she saw " the stars en-
tangled in their branches."

In entering the grounds you drive between two
superb trees, standing like gate-posts, and called
" the sentinels." How grand it would be to see
these stately old monarchs bowing to each
other in an earthquake ! You drive past the
stump and a section of the trunk of the im-
mense tree felled several years ago. It was in
its prime, only about thirteen hundred years
old, and sound to the heart. Its fall shook
the grove, as Caesar's fall shook Rome. It took
half a dozen men with pump-augers and wedges

376 CALIFORNIA.

twenty-two days to do the dreadful deed. Over
the stump is built a pavilion, dedicated to re-
ligious services, political meetings, dancing and
tea parties. It is thirty-two feet in diameter.
Were it in Rhode Island, it would be large
enough for all campaign purposes ; you could
" swing round the circle " on it, and stump the
State.

The tallest tree now standing is the Key-
stone State, three hundred and twenty-five feet ;
but one of the fallen trees, the largest and best
preserved, looked to have been much taller,
perhaps from its position. Abraham Lincoln
never looked so tall as when he lay under the
dome of the Capitol, dead. This grand old tree,
lying in state under the blue dome of the sky,
had for me something of the rugged majesty and
awful repose of that ungainly, pathetic figure,
which we remember with smiles that soften into
tears, and tears that brighten into smiles. The
sturdy tree must also have gone down in or
after a great tempest. It fell up hill, but is
very little broken. By a ladder at the root you
can mount the trunk, and walk all the way by

THE GIANT GROVE. 377

a good trail to the topmost branches. It is like
following the Nile to its source. In truth, it is
rather a fatiguing and perilous expedition, as
portions of the tree are very slippery. A rail-
way up there would be an improvement, — a
grand trunk railroad. The route seemed to me
quite practicable : the grade is not heavy ; there
would be but little trestle-work required at the
breaks, and only a few sharp curves, around
knots. The larger limbs could be tunnelled.

There are here some curious hollow trees, —
snug retreats for disappointed spirits, flying from
the more hollow outside world ; and there is one
dead tree yet standing, called the Mother of
the Forest, which presents a peculiarly melan-
choly, not to say ghastly, appearance, it having
been actually flayed alive some years ago.
Think of a skin eighteen inches thick, cuticle
and cutis, being stripped from one hundred and
sixteen feet of a poor old mother's body, — and
in this climate too ! Of course, she died. The
impious speculators took the skin to the Syden-
ham. Crystal Palace, where it was burned, — and
served them right.

378 CALIFORNIA.

The only woman, beside this unfortunate
" mother," who has been distinctly honored by
having a tree dedicated to her, is Florence
Nightingale, whose name naturally associates
itself with a grove.

The Church is nobly represented by Henry
Ward Beecher and Thomas Starr King ; the
State, by Webster, Clay, and Cobden ; the Litera-
ture, by Bryant ; the Presidency, by Washington,
Jackson, Lincoln, and Grant. The last is a
solid, stately tree, two hundred and sixty-one
feet high. It seems perfectly sound, and may
stand a good five hundred years, unless flayers,
choppers, and augerers prove too much for it.

Here, as at Mariposa, we noticed the diminu-
tive size of the cone of the Sequoia Gigantea.
If proportioned to the tree, it would be about
as large as a flour-barrel. But Nature, who
showed a tender regard for our heads in declin-
ing to hang pumpkins on oaks instead of acorns,
has shown equal consideration in this case. As
I looked up into the lofty gloom of the dark
branches, I wondered if little birds ever nested
so high up. It seemed that only eagles be-

THE SILENCE OF THE GREAT TREES. 379

longed there. It was a breezy day, yet I lis-
tened in vain for the sea-like surge, the sough-
ing of the wind among those mighty branches, —
lateral trees. No distinct piny murmur came
down to me, and I do not believe that the
sound they give forth in their upper solitudes is
in proportion to their size, so unbending and
immutable they seem. Sorrowful, but majestic;
elect, apart, lonely, lordly monuments of the sol-
emn, silent ages, they surely do not make the
ado of lesser conifers, — answering every imperti-
nent gust, complaining of every summer storm.
But if we were lifted up nearer to their dark
tops, we could perhaps hear a sad, incessant mon-
otone, a low murmur of weariness and unrest,
out of the midst of rigid stateliness and sombre
grandeur ; the low sob of a passion of strug-
gle and aspiring, spent centuries ago ; a plaint,
proud but patient, that were like a sigh from
the burdened heart of the earth. We might
hear at twilight mysterious whispers of old element-
al tragedies ; of primeval portents and convulsions ;
of the blaze of comets and the murk of eclipse ;
of star-showers and tornadoes, that never had
human chronicler in all the wild continent.

380 CALIFORNIA.

About five miles from the hotel is the South
Calaveras Grove, but lately made accessible by a
trail. It contains more than a thousand Sequoias,
some of them of stupendous size. Here, it is said,
sixteen horsemen may be seen slowly ascending a
hill, and congregating in the hollow of a single
tree at one time. Did the genius of James ever
conjure up a scene more novel and strange ? I
was grieved that time did not allow of my seeing
this wonderful grove, being obliged to return to
Murphy's that night. This is the best place to
procure a tarantula's nest, — a curious little adobe
house, hung with white paper with satin finish ;
having a round door swinging on a perfect hinge.
You can purchase one with the tarantula shut up
in it, if you are willing to take charge of such an
ugly prisoner, and run the risk of his breaking
jail and being the death of you.

The first place of any note on our next day's
journey to San Francisco was Angel's Camp, the
naming of which was a profane piece of irony. I
remember noticing at a store, before which we
stopped for a moment, a large lot of pitchforks,
which struck us as rather an incongruous commodity.

"the house called beautiful." 381

Here we took in a substantial Dutch angel and
a pair of cherubs, who beguiled our way by sing-
ing Sunday-school hymns. With all these evan-
gelical alleviations, Jordan was still a hard road to
travel, — stony, dusty, bare of shade. The day was
excessively warm ; our " stage-coach " a mere " mud-
wagon " ; there was absolutely nothing of interest
on our way, except a few rich ranches, vast and
lonely ; and when finally we struck the railroad at
Milton, we were in a mood to bless fervently the
"heathen Chinee," the Wilmington Car Manufac-
tory, the memory of Watt, and the name of Stan-
ford.

My last visit in California was made where I
made my first, — at beautiful Glenwood, the home
of Mr. Ralston. It was so pleasant to take again,
even though we knew it to be for the last time,
those incomparable drives, over perfect roads, and
through the gardens and parks of the noblest
country-seats on the coast ; to see all these won-
derful places in their full summer glory ; and to
enjoy with it all the matchless driving of our host,
who manages fine horses and finances in the same
masterly way. How cruelly fast were all the

382 CALIFORNIA,

watches that day ; and how the hours tore along,
Hke the dishevelled young ladies in Guide's pic-
ture, and brought the sad moment when I must
pass for the last time through the hospitable doors
of the " house called Beautiful " ! Not its wealth
and luxury had so endeared it to me, but a heart
that was richer than riches ; a face fairer to me
in the light of its full-orbed womanhood and gen-
tle motherhood than the fairest pictured faces on
the walls. Madonna, — my lady! strong and ten-
der, proud and gracious.

At Glenwood I met again the friends with whom
I was to make the overland journey, — Mr. Sickels,
the superintendent of the Union Pacific, and his
family party. With these pleasant companions I
left San Francisco on the 24th of June. At Oak-
land, where the superintendent's car awaited us,
we were joined by Mr. Joaquin Miller, poet of the
Sierras, who was going East with some new wild-
mountain airs, and looking more high -booted,
haughty, and hirsute than ever.

I will not here attempt to describe with what
emotion I looked for the last time back, over the
bright bay, to the new city of my love, rising

FAREWELL TO THE GOLDEN GATE. 383

terrace upon terrace, and hill above hill, — some-
what too bare of foliage and decoration, — proud
and rugged and a little defiant of aspect, but of
young cities "the chief among ten thousand," if
not " the one altogether lovely," — the royal wed-
ding-place of the Occident and the Orient.

HOMEWARD JOURNEY.

COLORADO REVISITED.

Chicago, July lo, 1872.

I CHOSE a beautiful season for leaving Cali-
fornia,— too beautiful, for it intensified my re-
gret. I went, even homeward, with a backward
tug at my heart. Though on the edge of July,
the land was still radiant with fresh verdure
and bloom. Of the wild flowers along the road,
the yellow were holding out best. By the way,
the prevalence of this color in California land-
scapes is always noticeable, — as it were the floral
symbol of the aureate treasure hid under so much
of the soil for so many centuries. Nature, being
feminine, was bursting with the secret, and sent
forth these beautiful little telltales ; but stupid
man was long enough in taking the hint, and
following it up, or, rather, down.

Flower-gardens, harvest -fields, vineyards, or-
chards, oak groves, pine forests, mines, rocks, snow-

TO THE ROCKY MOUNTAIN SUMMIT. 385

sheds, — these were the gradations, like steps, by
which we ascended from the lovely valley-land
to the grand Sierras. It was early twilight when
we rounded Cape Horn, scarcely realizing its
terrific grandeur when thus softened. Night came
on very slowly, with almost imperceptibly chan-
ging and deepening shades of purple light, veiling
those sublime solitudes in tender mystery. We
sat out on the platform till late that night, and
for nights after, never wearying of the wide,
wild waste of silent earth, and the vast, strange
expanse of brooding, breathless sky. Even after
the Yosemite, we found the Valley of the Great
Salt Lake, the Wasatch Hills, and Weber and
Echo Canons beautiful, more beautiful than ever
before; for a genuine love of grand scenery "grows
by what it feeds on " ; so when we came again to
the familiar snowy peaks -and sombre gorges of
the Rocky Mountains, we found we had " stom-
ach for them all." I believe the wind is always in
full blast at Sherman, and that Cheyenne always
seems like a place of desperate undertakings and
temporary expedients, — has a strange look of new-
ness and abandonment, half underdone and half

386 HOMEWARD JOURNEY.

undone. The one finished and flourishing and
thoroughly satisfactory thing they have there is
the new hotel.

All the way from the Summit down, at every
exposed point we found new precautions against
snow and ice, — immense sheds and fences, line
on line, being built, and cuts widened, putting
another snow blockade like that of last winter
out of the question. At Cheyenne we left the
Union for the Denver Pacific, and ran down into
Colorado for a week's visit. It was a glorious
little journey. The plains I had always before
seen dry and tawny were now green and flowery
and fragrant ; and that magnificent line of moun-
tains at our right, beginning with Long's Peak
and ending with the legendary Pike's Peak, stood
out in wondrous beauty, unveiled by smoke or
mist. The sunset was the most joyous I ever
beheld, wrapping that vast congregation of peaks
and domes in unimaginable, almost intolerable
splendor ; and all the while, in the eastern sky,
was a wondrous display of storm-clouds, lightnings,
and rainbows. Such a grand combination show
I never before beheld in any theatre.

GREELEY AND DENVER. 387

The unique town of Greeley, capital of the
Union Colony, we found much improved. It had
gone on adding field to field, and ditch to ditch,
and putting up buildings in all directions, — cosy
houses, which already were girt about with pleas-
ant gardens. Indeed, the thriving place is some-
thing quite cheering to see, — a smile on the wide,
dull cactus waste.

Denver still leads the march of empire in
Colorado. They have street-railways here now.
During the past year they have put up new
railroad buildings, hosts of stores, and innumer-
able hotels. They have graded streets, and
planted trees, and built a new church, and
painted the front of the old theatre.

I was one of a happy party of tourists for
whom Mr. Supenntendent Sickels planned and
conducted a charming excursion up Clear Creek
Caiion, over the bed of the new narrow-gauge
railroad, a section of the Colorado Central, run-
ning from Golden to Blackhawk. It was a per-
fect summer day, bright but breezy ; and our
gay party made the trip of twelve miles, by
carriage and on horseback, with the utmost com-

388 HOMEWARD JOURNEY.

fort, with absolutely unalloyed enjoyment. This
canon has some grand points of scenery, even
reminding one of the Yosemite. But grand as
it is, it scarcely diverts your attention, your
wondering admiration, from the road that winds
and climbs along the deep, narrow gorge, where, a
year ago, it seemed that a mule trail was scarce-
ly practicable. To Mr. Sickels is due the chief
credit of projecting and executing this bold en-
terprise, — a work of immense importance to
Colorado in the development of her vast mineral
resources. Down this shadowy canon, till now
only the bed of devastating wintry floods, will
pour the boundless wealth of the great moun-
tain mines. Through the magnificent rocky gate-
way of little Golden City will issue a new Pac-
tolus, whose waves may touch the far shores of
the world.

We found the Denver and Rio Grande nar-
row gauge just completed to Pueblo, one hun-
dred and sixteen miles ; and another pleasant
incident of our visit was an excursion to that
town, where a grand entertainment, a dinner
followed by a ball, was given to all Denver and

THE NEW NARROW-GAUGE ROAD. 389

the rest of mankind. Pueblo is on the Arkansas
River, which is even here a full, rapid stream.
The town has picturesque surroundings, but lacks
trees, gardens, and pleasant, home-like places
sadly. With plenty of water at hand, it may
easily be made a more attractive spot. The din-
ner, which was given in the new Court House, a
very handsome building, by the way, was a most
enjoyable affair. Ladies and gentlemen, after set-
ting the most generous of " grub-piles " before
us, waited on us at table. I am persuaded that
a future governor stood more than once be-
hind my chair, and that a senator's wife brought
me ice-cream. We had fine music and witty
sentiments, and eloquence and merriment un-
stinted.

This section of the Denver and Rio Grande
Railroad runs through the most picturesque por-
tion of Colorado, outside the mountains, — over
the Divide ; past wonderful rocks of castellated
and monumental forms ; along lovely green val-
leys ; and for some distance in sight of the great,
snowy range. Colorado Springs Station and the
colony of that name are on this road, though the

39° HOMEWARD JOURNEY.

springs proper are some five miles away. Near
the station is a good hotel, where we spent a
night, sleeping deliciously under the shadow of Pike's
Peak and a couple of blankets. All the morning
of the next day was spent in drives to the most
attractive points in the vicinity. We first visited
Glen Eyrie, a lovely, romantic spot, in which
General Palmer has built an elegant country-
house. In this glen are congregated and shut
away marvels and beauties of rock and gorge,
stream and waterfall, enough to stocT^: an Eastern
State like New Jersey. We next dropped into
the Garden of the Gods, a wild, singular, nat-
ural park, the gateway of which is formed by
two stupendous rocks, marvelously architectural
and cathedral-like in character. They always
look solemn and worshipful, and there is cer-
tainly no hollow mockery of religion about
them.

The famous mineral springs at Manitou have
delightful surroundings, and we found the waters
exceedingly pleasant and sparkling. But a mile or
so up the lovely canon of the Fountain Creek is an
iron spring, which I found absolutely delicious.

VIEWS OF DISTRACTING LOVELINESS. 391

I should haunt that, should camp beside it,
were I spending a summer in this grand half-
way heaven of pure air and pure water and
tenderly tempered sunshine. There is in this
neighborhood a wild, rocky gorge, known as
the Ute Pass, up which a wonderful road has
been lately constructed. Shut away in this pass is
one of the finest waterfalls I have ever seen. Be-
side its plunging and thundering flood Southey's
Lodore were a trickle and a murmur. Through
Colorado City, once a very important mining
depot, but now in its decadence, we returned to
our hotel, the glorious morning over, but not gone.

The monotony of our return journey to Denver
was varied by a ride of some thirty miles on the
pilot, or cow-catcher. The situation gave a rare
opportunity to study the lovely and peculiar scen-
ery of the route, with distant pictures of mountain
and sky ; but for myself, I must confess that my
attention was a good deal distracted by occasional
water-views through trestle-work below us, and
spirited cattle-pieces on the track before us.

We left Denver on the morning of the glorious
Fourth, and ran a gantlet of salutes, roqkets, and

392 HOMEWARD JOURNEY.

fire-crackers all the way to Omaha, where ended
my journeyings over Pacific railroads in a director's
car.

But it really does not seem quite the thing to
dismiss the great trip so lightly and quietly. I
feel bound to give something like a detail of its
hardships and privations, after the manner of old
trans-continental travelers. This may seem a little
ungracious toward the superintendent, whose guests
we were ; but independent itinerant journalists are
held by no such ordinary scruples. The "bridge
that carries them safe over " comes in for a double
share of dispraise usually.

Fortunately our party started with the idea of
"roughing it," and so were able to take things as
they came, being all tolerably good-humored peo-
ple. But we had our trials. In the first place,
our car was fastened to the tail of an immense
train, and took the brunt of the wagging. Our
coffee and tea were frequently slopped over at
table. As to the table, though it was always
bountifully supplied, it was not, I must say, as
elegantly and thoroughly appointed as one could
wish. There was no ^pei-gne, no printed bill of

ROUGHING IT BY RAIL. 393

fare. There were no finger-glasses, and the sup-
ply of nut-crackers was limited. There was not
even a full assortment of wine-glasses ; and when,
on the Summit, Mr. Joaquin Miller treated to
champagne, we were obliged to worry it down out
of lemonade goblets. We had, of course, napkins,
but the rings were evidently of plated ware. A
pretty idea would have been a set of solid silver
lined with gold, each one engraved with the name
of a guest of the superintendent of the Union
Pacific, and designed to be taken away as a sig-
nificant souvenir of California and Colorado. When
a man sets out to do a handsome thing, I like to
see him do it.

It is true that we had for desserts and lunches
a large variety of fruits and nuts, — too large, if
anything. We became satiated with oranges, ba-
nanas, apricots, strawberries, peaches, and cherries ;
but I missed blackberries and pears, my favorite
fruit ; and the almonds were all hard-shelled, and
1 decidedly prefer the soft. The milk and eggs
were not as rich and fresh as they might have
been if a new-milch cow and a hennery had been
attached to the car. Our party of ten was put
17*

394 HOMEWARD JOURNEY.

upon a rather short allowance of servants, having
only Henry the cook, and Thomas the excellent
colored steward. It is but justice to them, how-
ever, to say that they multiplied themselves by
the utmost devotion, energy, and ingenuity. They
constantly surprised us with new dishes and de-
coctions, putting us in peril of surfeit and all the
horrors of dyspepsia. On the last morning of the
trip we had set before us fish, steak, chops, ham
and eggs, corn-bread, light biscuit, and pineapple
pancakes. How in the name of Dio Lewis were
we to choose ? In an agony of indecision we ap-
pealed to the steward, but he answered by a mute,
diabolic grin ; so we partook of all, not willing to
hurt his feelings ; for was he not a man and a
voter ? At such times we thought enviously of
the old emigrants camping on the plains. How
simple their choice : black coffee, saleratus-bread,
and bacon, or bacon, saleratus-bread, and black
coffee ! However, we uttered no complaint of our
fare ; but I remember that one morning when we
had ordered chops and expected chops, we had steak
without mushrooms, and on that very day the
soup was too salt. Our sleeping arrangements

HARDSHIPS OF THE OVERLAND ROUTE. 395

were comfortable, but not exactly sumptuous. The
linen, though always clean and well aired, was not
superfine, the pillow-cases being quite plain. The
towels in the dressing-room, though plentiful, were
by no means of the daintiest sort. In the sa-
ponaceous line, I found nothing more rich and
rare than Colgate's Honey Soap. Now, if there
is anything I am tired of, it is Colgate's Honey
Soap. In the evening we gathered in the little
drawing-room, and were almost compelled to be
sociable, as the light, neither of gas nor of wax-
candles, scarcely permitted of our reading. In the
day we had so much room that we wandered aim-
lessly about, lounging on the sofas and platforms,
no one of us seeming to know where he or she
really belonged, — a most unsettled and demoral-
ized condition, but aristocratic, doubtless. We
tried not to be puffed up, and, when stopping at
stations, went forth in rough hats and dusters,
and mingled with our fellow-beings, remembering
the days when we, too, had traveled with tickets
and passes, had been called on to pay for extra
baggage, and had been obliged to bolt down exe-
crable meals.

39^ HOMEWARD JOURNEY.

We were whirled along so relentlessly over
that world-renowned overland route that we had
no time to study its geological features, its
faicna or its flora. Often we thought of the
old emigrants, who sometimes had six months
in which to become familiar with it in all its
changing phases. How we would have liked
to visit some of the graves along that old emi-
grant track, with time to drop a few tears on
the deserted hunting-grounds of the noble red
man ! We had wild longings to lie by at night,
like those old emigrants, and study the stars
and hear the coyotes howl, while the sage-brush
camp-fire burned. Mr. Joaquin Miller once point-
ed out to us the scene of an old Indian fight,
whereof he bears a reminder in one of his arms,
somewhat troublesome in damp weather. For a
poet, and a philanthropist of the Vincent Colyer
school, he seems to have had a large number of
"scrimmages" of this sort. But no such romantic
adventure broke the monotony of our journey
across the plains. Not a Piute menaced us, not
a Digger defied us. We tried to keep up our
spirits, however. We told stories and laughed

A SILENT MINSTREL. 397

at each other's jests, whatever it cost us. We
laughed most generously at the superintendent's
pleasantries, of course. They were not bad ; but
if they had been, we should have laughed all
the same, having made up our minds to rough
it. Though we had a minstrel at the festive
board, he harped not, neither did he sing. He was
apparently in low spirits at leaving his Sierras.
Crossing the alkali desert is also depressing,
inclining even a poet to keep his mouth shut ;
but when we struck the grand Rocky Range,
something in the poetic line was expected from
him. Still he kept his place on the platform in
sombre silence, smoking cigarettes under the
shade of a huge Panama. We suspected that
he was secretly wrestling with the Rocky Moun-
tains, and that they were having rather the best
of it. But if our wild singer warbled not, he
wrote many autographs, — triumphs of illegibility.
The motion of a train is not usually favorable
to the production of elegant articles of this sort.
In fact, the only handwriting I have ever known
improved by it is that of Mr. Greeley. It were
a good idea when a celebrity is on the rail to

398 HOMEWARD JOURNEY.

Stop the train now and then and announce,
" Twenty minutes for autographs ! "

The superintendent was annoyed by telegrams,
and we were all troubled by the train outrun-
ning our watches. We missed our morning pa-
pers, and were really obliged to look through
some of the books we had with us. We were
cheered by no visits from venders of figs and
candy cash-boxes ; we were cut off, in our haughty
isolation, from the companionship of young chil-
dren and innocent babies. I one day rashly
borrowed a dear little fellow from a lady who
had a fine assortment of small boys. I bore him,
with the help of conductors and brakemen, from
the first Pullman through, it seemed to me, a
mile- of cars, under full headway, down grade, to
our palatial establishment. He gazed around the
sumptuous apartment, and, chilled by its cold
splendor, immediately wanted to " go home."
We showed him a bottled tarantula and gave
him a horned toad to play with ; but they failed
to console him, and we were compelled to return
him to his mother. He retained our toad to
frighten his little brother with, and we left him

MARK TAPLEIAN SERENITY. 399

happy. On the whole, we got along very well
on our long, hard, precipitate pilgrimage. Being
all old travellers, and, as I said, rather good-na-
tured people, we did not quarrel about the easi-
est seats. I suppose they were all what you
would call comfortable, though, if roughing it had
not been in the programme, a velvet rocking-
chair or two would not have been out of place
in the little salon where we spent much of our
time. Still, we came into Omaha quite fresh,
and were sorry to separate, and especially to part
from our kind host and hostess and their sweet
young daughters, who had cheerfully roughed it
with us, day and night, across deserts and moun-
tain ranges, from San Francisco Bay to the
Missouri River, — almost across the continent.

But now I come to a theme which is both too
grave and too grand, too sad and too glad, to jest
over, — the desolation and the resurrection of Chi-
cago. The morning after my return to the city
of my old love, I drove over the entire burned dis-
trict. The North side, once so fair and flourishing,
is still very desolate, though showing life here and
there, amid the ruins of its elegant homes, noble

400 HOMEWARD JOURNEY.

churches, and beautiful parks ; but the South side
is a marvelous, bewildering scene of industry and
enterprise, of almost superhuman energy. Not the
story of Chicago's early life of Titanic toil and
struggle, when she rose, like a second Venice,
from the midst of a dark flood, and then banished
the flood ; not the marvels she wrought under the
sea ; not the miracle of turning a river on its im-
memorial course, of smiting the nether rock and
calling water from the vasty deep ; not all its
wondrous transformations, enterprises, and victo-
ries have equalled this brave, stern struggle with
immeasurable misfortune, this triumphant upris-
ing from defeat and desolation. I believe that the
world can present no grander sight than this ; and
remembering the sadness, the utter heart-sickness
with which I named the name of Chicago less
than a year ago, I thank God that I am per-
mitted to see her at this great time, when she is
shaking the ashes from her unblanched head, and
setting upon it again, with her own strong hand,
her noble civic crown.

COLORADO IN AUTUMN.

Greeley, Colorado, November 5, 1872.

IT is odd to be here, of all places in the Ter-
ritory ; on this day, of all days in the year, —
day " big with the fate of CEEsar and of Rome,"
day which is to decide forever the destiny of that
eminent citizen whose name is identified with
this noble young colony. Whatever the result
of the great political struggle in the States, here
Horace Greeley is the elect man, with no question
of a second term. Here his honorable fame
will grow with the fortunes of an intelligent and
industrious community, and faithful irrigation shall
keep his memory green.

A more peaceful retreat could scarcely be found
at this eventful and tumultuous time, by a quiet,
unenfranchised citizen like your correspondent.
Not a surge of popular excitement penetrates to
these flat shores, not an echo of the roar of the

402 COLORADO IN AUTUMN.

great conflict rouses or vexes our souls. Even
the Liberals, though anticipating the defeat of
their party in the States, do not seem as much
cast down as you would expect. The old Happy
Valley of Rasselas could hardly seem more shut
away from the world of political strife and as-
piration than this busy young town, with tributary
rivers and vast, snowy mountains on one side of
it, and railways and an infinity of sky and plain
on the other. Here men and women are to-day
on an absolute equality, — an equality of " no con-
sequence " to the State. Here man and wife do
not even count one. I rather like it : it is good
discipline for the men.

I have now spent more than a month in Col-
orado,— more than a month of determined and
unmitigated idleness. I came in search of the
health lost in your dreadful Eastern summer,
and have, I trust, found it. But though return-
ing strength has brought with it constant and
almost ungovernable impulses toward outdoor life,
wandering and climbing, and vagabondizing gener-
ally, it brings no inclination toward mental exer-
tion of any kind. " I kin work, but I don't hanker

TAKING THE BACK TRACK. 403

arter it," in this bracing, bright, resplendent au-
tumn sunshine, and under these deep, sparkling,
frosty November nights.

It was on the ist of October that we left
Chicago. We had just been visited by a severe
storm, and the air, both of lake and prairie, had
a peculiar vindictive sharpness and rawness that
cut into weak lungs savagely, and pierced to the
very marrow of one's bones. It was not till we
passed the Missouri that the chill and the damp-
ness quite disappeared, and the air, though cool,
became balmy, at night frosty, but kindly, at
the same time exhilarating and soothing. Courage
came back to me on every invisible wave of the
boundless, aerial sea of the plains. I was again
content with this world, the goodly, broad, gen-
erous world. I was inclined to take stock in this
life once more. Colorado still looked beautiful to
me, though " wildly clad " in russet brown. Every
faintest green tinge had died out of the rough
turf Every flower had gone under, except an
occasional belated poppy ; the snows had descend-
ed on Long's Peak and lovely Mount Rosalie ;
and here and there on all the great range, adding

404 COLORADO IN AUTUMN.

the last unimagined glory to the splendors of
sunset and sunrise.

After a few days of delicious rest at Denver,
we drove over to Boulder, that picturesque little
town, nestled like a darling up against the moun-
tains. It was evening when we arrived ; and
dimly could be discerned those famous rocky land-
marks, the dusty and dilapidated Buttes ("butes"),
lying on the plains, just where the foot-hills
•kicked them off, some night, long ago. The next
day we gave to exploring Boulder Cailon, the
most beautiful of all the wonderful canons of Col-
orado. I had seen it last in midsummer, when
the river was high and its banks green and flow-
ery. Now the scene seemed almost new. The
autumnal tints of the foliage, every shade of red
and gold and brown, were absolutely transporting,
— a feast, an ecstasy, an intoxication of the sight.
And then the mighty, majestic rocks on either
side, softened by clinging vines, mosses, and
lichens, and made beautiful and gracious by faith-
ful, adventurous pines, climbing up everywhere,
from base to summit. We drove up some twelve
miles, and picnicked in a lovely spot, in full sight

NARROW GAUGE IN A NARROW GORGE. 405

of the magnificent " Castle Rock." Ah, the pic-
tures above and around and beneath us! — preci-
pice and pinnacle of gray granite, with rich pur-
ple shades ; dark pines and silver cedars, and
golden willows ; and, at our feet, the swift, bright
stream, with its foaming rapids and fairy cascades.
It was a scene as impossible to describe as to
forget. It had about it a sort of august and
sacred loveliness and loneliness. The spirit of
that serene mountain solitude was solemn, yet
glad. The golden autumnal silence praised God.

In strong contrast to Boulder is Clear Creek
Canon, up which runs the Colorado Central Nar-
row Gauge. We revisited this with an excursion
party of journalists and railroad people, the guests
of the superintendent and chief engineer, Mr.
Sickels. The trip by rail was from Golden City
to the present terminus of the road, some seven
miles below Central. It was a wonderful little
expedition. I do not believe that there are any
where else in the railroad kingdom eighteen consec-
utive miles of such grand and peculiar scenery.
Streams and waterfalls, and tremendous boulders ;
mountains rising above mountains, sombre and

406 COLORADO IN AUTUMN.

monstrous shapes, brooding sullenly over yet undis-
covered and unthought-of treasure hid in their
hard, secret hearts ; and the rocks that walled us
in, — rocks riven asunder in some awful, imme-
morial convulsion ; rocks in domes, and towers,
and turrets, and bastions, and vast, vertical pre-
cipices ; rocks daintily festooned by vines, white
with the fleecy tufts of the clambering clematis ;
rocks toiled over by straggling processions of pines ;
rocks black, savage, and bare, save where far up, in
hollows and crevices, the first snow of the mild
autumn rested and gleamed in the midday sunlight.
The road itself, that triumph over the faithless
and unbelieving, was a perpetual marvel to us
all, with its skilful doubling of bold capes, its
curves and cuts and convolutions. The day was
so mild and still, that we found an " observation
car" quite comfortable, while giving us admirable
opportunities for seeing everything on our way.
Ours was a special train, and not heavily freight-
ed; yet the sturdy little engine toiled up the
steep grade with much ado, puffing and panting,
and wheezing in an asthmatic way which was
really quite distressing. The fame of this bold,

COLORADO S FUTURE. 407

picturesque route, the peculiar sombre beauty of
this canon, now first made accessible to tourists,
will secure for the little pioneer mountain road
a great amount of summer travel, and already
its business is more than it can well dispose of.
When its continuations and tributaries are com-
pleted, trains will follow each other up und down
this canon like the curious processions of ants
we have watched on summer days, moving con-
tinuously up and down a wall or a tree, with
never a break nor a collision.

This road will be completed to Blackhawk,
about a mile below Central City, by the ist of
January. Then will begin its great traffic, con-
veying ore to Golden and Denver to be smelted
and crushed, and carrying coal and merchandise
to Central ; and when the other proposed routes to
Idaho, Georgetown, and to the new and rich
silver mines of the South Park are completed,
will begin Colorado's great days. Then she will
come into possession of her magnificent birth-
right, her imperial inheritance, hid away for ages
of ages in the mysterious treasure-vaults of nature.
Then, too, will agriculture receive new impulse

4o8 COLORADO IN AUTUMN.

and inspiration. Tlie rivers must send forth their
missionaries of fruitfulness and verdure, and lace
the land with irrigating canals. The brown plains
v/iU be tapped with wells, and the prairie winds,
wild and idle since the creation, will be set to
work to turn those picturesque mills, whose mis-
sion it will be to transform the desert into a
garden of delight, of matchless melons and mon-
strous cabbages, beets and onions, pumpkins and
turnips, such as New England farmers never dream
of, even after a Thanksgiving dinner. It is easy
to see that this system of narrow-gauge railroads —
the only system practicable in these mountains —
will enrich this section, add materially to the
wealth of the whole country, and not be a bad
thing for the parties particularly engaged in it.
The Union Pacific Railroad Company are men
wise in their generation. They know when the
harvest of golden opportunity is ripe, and just
where to thrust in their keen Sickels.

The weather in Colorado was, all through Octo-
ber, brilliant, dry, and warm, — too warm some-
times for comfort in the middle of the day.
The contrast between day and night we found a

FOUNTAIN CANON. 409

little too sharp. For that reason I do not think
Denver, or any of the mountain towns, the best
place for invalids during the autumn and winter.
Of all the points I have yet visited in the Ter-
ritory, I think Manitou Springs, near the mouth
of Fountain Canon, decidedly the safest and pleas-
antest spot for an invalid. It is sheltered from
the sharp winds, yet sufficiently open to the sun-
light ; it has a great deal of foliage, yet is sin-
gularly cheerful ; it is near the grand mountains,
yet is not darkly domineered over by them.
There is there now a beautiful, comfortable, and
home-like hotel, admirably managed, which is to
be kept open all winter for the special benefit
of invalids. Friends of ours, who spent last win-
ter in this neighborhood, give enthusiastic accounts
of the mild and brilliant weather, and the pure,
bracing air, which kept them and their young
children in perfect health and joyous spirits all
through the season, — a season exceptionally cold
and stormy in the northern part of the Territory.
People who come to Colorado for their health
make, I am assured, a grave mistake in leaving
with the summer. If they find themselves bene-

4IO COLORADO IN AUTUMN.

fited at all by the air and the altitude, they
should remain through the autumn, at least, and
then, if still better, try the winter.

The finest grounds about the Springs have
been laid out in villa lots, and are rapidly being
built upon ; so the time is not distant when
Manitou will be, not only the loveliest spot in this
lovely wild land, but a thronged and fashionable
watering-place.

The railroad ride from Colorado Springs to Den-
ver we found almost as delightful as in the sum-
mer ; but, after all, it was tame compared with
the stage ride we took, a few days later, from
Central to Georgetown, over a wonderful moun-
tain road. We set out from Central on a breezy
but sunny day, under a heavy press of parasol :
we reached Georgetown amid darkness, cold, rain,
and snow. But the morning dawned brightly,
and we enjoyed to the utmost our brief visit to
that queen of the old mining towns. We took
advantage of every burst of sunlight, we drove
and walked in the teeth of the keen wind, and
took horseback excursions under the gray wings of
hovering snow-storms ; and when we departed, the

THE TRIUMPH OF TRAVELING. 4II

winter seemed closing in upon the town, sweep-
ing down the dark canons ; and the whole grand
mountain and valley picture was something to
look back upon with a thrill of admiration, also
of joy at having safely run the blockade. By
the way, they are having at Georgetown what they
call an "ore blockade." The miners have got out
more ore than they can dispose of by sale at paying
prices, or by reducing, though the mills are crush-
ing, and the smelting-works fuming, like so many
mferttos day and night. Here, as in other mining
towns, "the whole creation groaneth and travail-
eth together" for the happy day of railroad fa-
cilities. But I shall be sorry to see even the
pretty passenger-cars of the "baby railroad" su-
persede the admirable stage-coaches of this most
picturesque mountain route. Life will have lost
much of its savor when we can hope to sit no
more on the lofty box beside pleasant Hiram
Washburn, and watch his splendid handling of
his handsome six-horse team, hear his jokes and
stories, look over mountain and valley, away and
away, drink in the heavenly air, and peer down
occasionally on the inside passengers, getting

412 COLORADO IN AUTUMN.

all the dust and little of the prospect. It is
the very bliss and triumph of traveling.

We found sunny, sheltered Idaho still attrac-
tive, though almost deserted by visitors. The
bright, cosy parlor of the Beebe House looked
so precisely as it did during my summer visit
of last year, that I looked round involuntarily for
the pleasant friends that there used to gather
for long, merry evenings. Alas ! they are widely
scattered ; and one young girl, whose sweet, yearn-
ing face had a look, even then, of having done
with all earthly things, except love, has since
passed through a valley more shadowy and yet
more peaceful than this, and stood on more de-
lectable mountains than these, and is now breath-
ing an air that has in it no faintest taint of
mortal decay, no threatening of winter, no chill
of death.

We leave for the East next week, and, late as
it is, we leave with regret. The weather has been
thus far so almost miraculously beautiful and
bright, and the air of the day of so divine a
quality, that in every way we feel " it is good to
be here." In this transparent air, the views both

A LAST FOND LOOK. 413

from Denver and here of the snowy peaks and
domes on the vast range are marvelously grand
and uplifting, especially at sunset and sunrise.
And the tawny earth, in the wide, still plain that
weds the sky in the utterly level horizon, like a
sea becalmed, and in those grand ground-swells
that reach the purple foot-hills, has a beauty of
its own, — a stern, grave, uncompromising beauty,
which seems to say, " Nature and the grand forms
she first created, mighty, unsubdued creatures,
were content with me, and I am content with
myself. Better to be the free waste of God, the
pasture of his wild flocks, the racing-ground of
his winds, than the garden of man, fenced and
ditched and harrowed and burdened."

I dread to think how we shall miss this sense
of magnificent altitude, of infinite roominess, when
we get down home, by the Potomac, into the
damp, low region of fogs and politics, where we
can only get views of river or hills in street-
wide vistas, and aggravating glimpses of sunset
over the gloomy roof of the Coast Survey.

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^^ The above Books are sold only by Subscription through our
Agents. fe

27 Pa7k Place., and 24 ^ 26 Murray Street, New York.

Works Published by J. B. Ford 6- Co.

^eriobttds.

THE CHRISTIAN UNION.

AN TTNSECTARIAN RELIGIOUS WEEKLY NEWSPAPER.
HENRY WARD BEECHER, Editor.

GENERAL CONTENTS.

The Outlook,
Editorial Articles,
Poetry,

Contributed Articles,
Lecture-Room Talk,

Foreign Notes,
Books and Authors,
The Household,
The Little Folks,
The Church,

Questions from Correspondents are answered under the head of
"Inquiring Friends."

The Week,

Scientific and Sanitary,

Savings and Doings,

Financial,

Farm and Garden.

PARTIAL LIST OF CO.

Rev. H. Allon, of the British Quarterly

Review,
Chas. Dudley Warner, of the Hart-
ford Cotirant,
Edward Everett Hale, of Old and

Neiv,
Rev. Abel Stevens, of the Methodist,
J. B. T. Marsh, of the Advance,
Rev. Lyman Abbot, of the Christian

IV 'eekly,
R. W. Raymond, of the Engiiuering

and Mining yonrnal.
And other famous Newspaper men. Also,
Jas. Freeman Clarke,
John G. Whittier,
J. W Deforest,
Charles L. Brace,
Elihu Burritt,
Mrs. H. B Stowe,
Mrs. H. W. Beecher,
Mrs. Lucia Calhoun Runkle,
Louise Chandler Moulton,

SERIAL STORIES BY

LOUISA M. ALCOTT, HARRIET BEECHER STOWE, EDWARD
EGGLESTON, and ROBERTSON GRAY.

Terms : $ 3.00 a Year, with Premium Oleognraph.

NTRIBUTORS FOR iS73.

Celia Burleigh,

Rose Terry,

Mrs. R. S. Greenough,

Louisa M. Alcott,

Grace Greenwood,

Carl Spencer,

Mrs. Amelia E. Barr,

And other famous women. Also,

Resident Porter, of Vale College,

President Oilman, of University of

California,
Rev. Leonard Bacon, D. D., Yale

Theological Seminary,
Bishop Huntington, of Central New

York,
Bishop Clark, oi Rhode Island,
Rev. W. M. Taylor, D. D-,
Rkv. R. S. Storrs, Jr., D. D.,
Thomas K. Beecher,
Rev. Edward Beecher, D. D.,
A nd many others-

PLYMOUTH PULPIT:

A WEEKLY PUBLICATION OF SERMONS.
By HEIS^LY ward BEECHER.

From Verbatim Reports by T. J. Ellinwood, for 15 years Mr. Beecher's

Special Reporter.

Terms : S 3.00 a year, with Steel Portrait of Mr. Beecher.

27 Park Place, and 24 6r» 26 Murray Street, New York.

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