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A TRIP TO THE UNITED STATES

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A TRIP

TO THE

UNITED STATES

IN i887

{Printed for Private Circulation. \

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Dear Mother,

As you said you would like to see the diary I kept
during my trip to America I have had it printed.

It is I fear very imperfect, but will nevertheless give
you a good idea of what we saw, and my opinions of the
different places we went to. It may even be a little con-
tradictory, as the people and the States vary so much
from each other that opinions formed in one State
may be to some extent modified or altered when visiting
another.

However, if it gives you the least pleasure to read, you

know it will be a sufficient reward to me for the trouble

I had in keeping it.

Yours affectionately,

Charles Beadle.
Belvedere, September^ 1887.

Pacific N. W. History Popt.

i=>ROVINCIAL LIBRARY
VICTORIA, B. 0^

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A TRIP TO

THE UNITED STATES

I HAVE been for some time thinking of paying
the United States a visit, for two reasons, the
first being that my son Charlie has now been
there with his wife for two winters, and I am
anxious to form my own opinion of his pros-
pects ; and the second that I have a great
desire to see what our go-ahead friends on
the other side of the Atlantic are like in their
own country, and to pick up as much useful
information as I can from them. I think,
also, it will do my boy Frank, who is to go
with me, good, and will open his mind con-
siderably.

We started on the i8th March to Liver-
pool, and slept the night at the Compton

ill

A TRIP TO THE UNITED STATES.

|uU

Hotel. At three o'clock . on Saturday we
went on board the steam tender which took
us to the Cunard steamer Etncria, the fastest
and nearly the largest ocean steamer afloat.
We left the Mersey about 5 p.m., and called
at Queenstown for mails the next day. Soon
after starting we had our seats at table
allotted to us, and afterwards sat down
to a splendid dinner, which we much en-
joyed.

I must now describe the ship, as it is the
iirst time I have made a voyage on one
anything like it. She is 505 feet long,
56 feet beam, and with 13,000 horse-power,
sufficient to drive her from twenty to twenty-
two miles an hour in any reasonable weather ;
her tonnage is over 7,800; she is licensed
to carry 1,040 passengers, has 16 boats, and
1,340 life-belts, so I expect the latter is sup-
posed to be the total number of people on
board when she is full. The upper deck is
clear on each side for a walk of 1 10 yards,
so that you can get plenty of exercise. The
next deck has in the fore-part a music-

THE STEAMER.

saloon, with a piano and organ in it. It is
beautifully fitted, and capable of seating,
say, 150 people. Then comes the staircase,
a double flight of stairs, very roomy and
pretty, leading down to the chief saloon,
which is capable of seating 370 people.
Further aft is another good staircase, and
large, beautifully fitted smoking-room ; and
beyond this the engines.

The state-rooms, or passengers' private
cabins, each having two berths, are very
nicely fitted with everything necessary.
There are also several bath-rooms, a barber's
shop, and in fact everything you can possibly
want.

The deck under this has again a smaller
dining saloon and a good many state cabins.
The second-class accommodation is quite aft
and not bad, although it will not do after the
first, and the steerage is only endurable in
case of necessity.

The thing to do on coming on board is to
go to the second steward and get him to
give you your place at table, which you keep,

A TRIP TO THE UNITED STATES.

if you are well enough, during the voyage ;
and then to the bath attendant and fix the
time for your bath — at the tick of the clock
he comes to you to say it is ready. And
splendid bath-rooms they are, with every
convenience. I don't know how many there
are of them.

This all sounds grand, but the one thing
needful to enjoy it is to be a good sailor.
This we neither of us turned out to be. The
second night was a very bad one, and the
ship rolled to such an extent that nine out
of every ten were ill, and the remainder fit
for nothing. Poor Frank is still in bed, and
has not yet had a mouthful of food he has
been able to call his own for five minutes ;
and I, although not really ill, have been sick
and altogether upset, and to mend the matter,
on the second morning I lost my foothold on
deck, and in one of the lurches slipped down
to the side of the deck with such force that on
striking a spar lashed there, I broke my nose
and blackened my eyes, so that while I am
writing this I am anything but a reputable-

SOME COMPANIONS.

looking- person. I was taken in to the doctor,
who is a very nice little man. He set my
nose for me and told me there had been
several other accidents of a trivial character.
I am now known among the passengers as
"the man with the broken nose," another
man is known as "the man with the broken
head." However, I think this little matter
has been the excuse for several of the pas-
sengers to address me and make my ac-
quaintance. 1 shall try to describe some of
them later on. Most of them seem quite
ready to tell you their history, their present
means, and their future prospects, and
many all their family affairs, which in some
cases are very amusing. One, for instance,
a man of about fifty, is going to America to
look up his father, who is on the Stock
Exchange there. The old man makes him
a good allowance, sufficient for him to keep
his wife and family and an establishment in
France, and even to go in for trotters and
racers, but, although seventy-eight, is one
of the largest operators in Wall Street. He

A TRIP TO THE UNITED STATES.

allows his other sons more than my friend,
and they keep very larg-e establishments^
and as he had just seen in the paper that
his father had lost ^100,000 in one specu-
lation, was going- over to see what it meant,
and he wanted my advice as to how he had
better play his cards. Another young man
at our table is a native of Holland, not a
bad sort of fellow, I should think. He made
a start for himself early in life. Although he
is now not above twenty-five, he has a busi-
ness as grease merchant in Chicago, and has
promised to take us over the various estab-
lishments there. He says he came into a
good bit of money on his own account, a
year or two ago, which he made over to the
other members of his family, as he had
established himself and could do without it.
I dare say we shall see more of him.

Then there is a Mr. Stanley, who brought
an introduction. He has been making rail-
ways in India and other parts of the world,
and is now on the look out for a gold
mine — something in Mexico. I expect I

I ■:

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SOME COMPANIONS.

shall know more of him too. There is a
young Canadian possessed of a large estate
and ample means, but who broke up his
health by nursing his first baby, as they
were afraid to trust it to anyone else. He
got up three or four times in the night to
feed it for nearly six months, and has not
been able to sleep since ; and as he cannot
stand the Canadian weather, he has to spend
the winter in a hotter climate, which is
sometimes in the south of Europe and
sometimes in Brazil. Anyhow, he is always
obliged to leave his wife and family for
four months in the year when it is cold,
and as his wife cannot stand the hottest
months, she has to leave the estate for the
sea-shore. They are very fond of one ano-
ther, which makes it all the worse. How-
ever, he is looking forward to the time when
the children are old enough to travel, so that
they may all go to the south of France in
the season, together. It certainly does seem
an unfortunate case as it stands.

March 21st. — Until now we have had a bad

i\\

8 A TRIP TO THE UNITED STATES.

passage— 430 miles first day, i.e. up to 12
o'clock yesterday, and 380 to noon to-day.
It was so rough last night the engines had
to be worked very slowly for many hours. As
it was, the water came on board and all down
into our staie-rooms, which I should have
thought, in such a ship as this, would have
been impossible, as the sea is not very high.
It must have blown hard, however, as one of
the sails was split all to pieces. Frank is still
in bed sucking ice. I hope he will soon be
able to take some nourishment.

24///. — The voyage so far has not been
what might be called a pleasant one; the
people are agreeable enough, but the weather
is what the boys would call beastly. The
roll has by degrees turned into a pitch. We
had one fairly fine day, but all the rest of the
time has been wet, cold, and rough. This
enormous ship sticks her nose into the waves
as much as my launch would do, or more ;
in fact, we have not had a sea the launch
would not have lived in, and yet our funnels
are coated with salt to the top. I have

•.I

THE STEAMER.

come to the conclusion It is not the size of
the boat that makes her a good sea-going
one. I expect the fact is that driving a boat
at over twenty miles an hour cannot be made
comfortable going, except in smooth water.
We are, they say, considerably behind in our
daily runs, and shall not arrive in New York
until Sunday at earliest. Frank is still very
sick. I shall be glad to get him on shore;
as yet I cannot get him out of the cabin.
Certainly the weather does not encourage
him to move ; for as I am writing this in our
little cabin sitting on a portmanteau, with
Frank on the sofa, the stern of the boat
comes out of the water every few minutes,
and allows the screw to run round in such a
way that you would fancy everything would
break to pieces. The engines are, as I said
before, very powerful, and it takes over 300
tons of coal a day to drive them. To-day,
to add to our enjoyment of the voyage, there
has been a fog, and the whistle has been
blowing at intervals. Moreover, we have
seen some ice, not much out of water, but

10 A TRIP TO THE UNITED STATES.

the sailors say there is no telling how much
there is just underneath, and so they are
keeping- a sharp look out.

Last evening-, althoug-h rough, we had
some good music in the music-room ; if the
weather is fine enough, we are to have an
entertainment to-morrow. I think I shall
begin some letters for home to-nieht after
dinner.

26///.--Have just (3 p.m.) taken the pilot
on board, 300 miles off New York. Good
enterprise to be knocking about so far out
at sea for a job in such weather. It is very
difficult to know what to do to amuse one-
self even on a short voyage. I don't know
what I should do on a long one. I suppose
I should go in for some regular occupation.
Many passengers amuse themselves by draw-
ing lots for numbers every night, each paying
5s., the one that gets the number nearest
to the number of miles run by the boat from
noon that day to noon the next, takes the
pool. When the pilot boat came in sight
the betting was as to whether his number

THE STEA^fER.

would be an odd or an even one, and then
as to whether he would put his right or his
left foot on to our vessel lirst.

Last night was about as wild as it could
be, blowing very hard right in our teeth, and
lightning every minute; and as the vessel
dashed into the waves at her enormous speed,
the water flew in all directions. I stood on
the deck under a shelter for some time and
never saw anything grander. I should say
this boat could not last very long, the strain
on her must be too great ; she shakes from
stem to stern, and as you sit in her cabins,
with everything creaking and twisting, you
want good nerves to believe it to be all
right. However, as I write, and the water is
smoother, she Is like a floating palace, and
you cannot help being proud of the nation
that can turn out such a vessel and run her
against such odds as If it were a matter of
course.

I am now about to pack up ready for
landing, which we hope to do early in the
morning.

12 A TRIP TO THE UNITED STATES.

27///. — We .si[,»-hted land early this morning,
but could not get over the bar until nine,
and then we had to wait to go through all
the formalities. First the mails were landed
in a small steamer with walking beam-
engines; then the health officer came on
board ; then the Custom House officers, and
after this we steamed up to the ship's berth
at New York. The captain put her alongside
a jetty as easily as we put colliers alongside
the wharf at Erith. We were quickly on
shore, but an hour before we got our luggage
examined and away. The system they have
here is a very good one : officers come on
board be ore you are able to land and take
the decla -ation of each passenger as to the
number f his packages and their con-
tents ; a nark is put on them with the
initial lett :r of your name, and when it is
landed you have not much difficulty in find-
ing it. An officer is deputed to examine
them, and if your declaration is correct,
you are off without further delay.

We took the omnibus to the Windsor

EXTRAXCE TO XEW VORh'.

»3

Hotel, and were in time for a late lunch ; after
which we went out for a walk, c.nd aft
dinner went to bed early, as we were tired.

The entrance to New York from the sea
like very much. The statue of Liberty stand
on a little island facing the entrance, and
then the two fine rivers which have New
York between them branch off right and left ;
and they are fine rivers, and what is more,
the tide rises and falls so little as compared
with our coast, that the boats can be kept
afloat alongside piers, and hence docks are
unnecessary. Each company has its own
landing stage, and really the water frontage
has a most business-like appearance. The
water is covered with steamers of all sizes.

2C}t/i. — We got up in good time; after
breakfast went down town, saw the public
buildings and general character of New
York. The Brooklyn Bridge is certainly
the finest thing to be seen. It is, I should
say, more than a mile long, has two lines
of rail, two cart roads and a wide foot-
passage over it, and is the best designed

1+ A TRIP TO THE UNITED STATES.

thing of the kind I have ever seen. Frank
is writing a description of it, so I shall not.

The peculiarities of New York, as far as
I have yet seen them, are that the roads
are bad, and the paved footpaths abomin-
ab' . The telegraph poles quite spoil the
appearance of the streets ; they are not poles
but large trees, and are stuck ever3^where ;
and the overhead rails, although useful, must
be the greatest possible nuisance to the
people who occupy the houses they run past.

The houses and shops generally are not
so fine as I had expected, but there are a
few which I suppose are specimens of what
will be seen in a few years — very fine indeed.
In the overhead railways you pay 5 cents
(2|d.) as you pass on to the platform, and get
out where you like ; there are stations about
every quarter of a mile. The trains run
without signals, and follow one another so
quickly that they are never more than two
minutes apart, and always seem to be
full. They do not stay at a station more
than half a minute at the outside. We have

THE WINDSOR HOTEL.

been in them several times to-day. For
two or three hours in the morning and even-
ing they run still more frequently.

This hotel is not so very large, but the
arrangement is very peculiar. There is
an immense hall open to all comers, and
out of it rooms of all descriptions, also
open to the public. In the hall are book-
stalls, post-office, telegraph -office, railway
booking-office, office for theatre tickets,
and everything you want. On the next
floor are the dining and drawing rooms,
very warm and comfortable and b-autifully
carpeted. In fact, the corridors and all are in
one ; there are no doors, and you can sit
about in at least a dozen rooms, all leadino-
one from the other. They charge so
much a day, and have meals going on
all day, except for about two hours in the
afternoon. I should think there are fifty
well-cooked dishes for breakfast to choose
from. They never ask you for jour number,
and, in fact, feed all comers. To-day I
said I expected a friend to dinner, and asked

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lb A TRIP TO THE UNITED STATES.

what I was to do. I was told it was not
necessary to do anything. If he was with
anyone staying- in the house, he would have
his dinner as a matter of course. The
dining-room has, I should think, four hun-
dred dining in it at once, and the attendance
is splendid.

We met two young Scotchmen to-day on
their way to Dakota to their farms. They
say they have between four and five thousand
acres out there for r^rowing wheat. They
put their crops in next month, reap it in
July, market it before winter sets in, leave
two or three men with the horses, and return
to Scotland to spend the winter. They can
get there now in ten or twelve days from
Scotland, and it works and pays very well.

30///. — We called on Mr. Matthews and
went up to the top of Mill's building yester-
da)^ I got a good view of the city. After-
wards we called on Captain Green, Vice-Pre-
sident of the Barber Asphalte Company. He
gave us a great deal of information, took us to
Delmonico's to lunch, and afterwards met us

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RAIL WAV TRAVELLING.

and took us over the asphalte works in New
York, where the Trinidad pitch is refined and
made suitable for the asphalte ; nice works and
well laid out. We returned to the hotel, and
then went to see Barnum's place, where the
amusements were carried on with the utmost
vigour, not a moment being- wasted, and
there were three or four different exhibitions
in some cases at same time.

30///. — We took the 9.50 train from Buf-
falo. This train is the best I ever travelled
in ; it does the journey of 440 miles in eleven
hours or a little less, i.e. forty miles an hour,
including stoppages, which are only four in
the whole distance. The drawing-room car
seats thirty-six in comfortable arm-chairs
fixed on pivots. At Albany they take on a
dining-car with dinner laid for fifty, and give
you choice of several good dishes (hot), in-
cluding soup and fish, and as many dishes as
you like, and fruit and coffee after, for i dollar
(4s.) per head. There are smoking and wash-
ing rooms ; you can get wines of any sort on
board, and can walk from one end of the train

■^

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1 8

A TRIP TO THE UNITED STATES.

to the other while going at full speed. We
were a few minutes (under ten) late at Buf-
falo, at which some of the passengers
grumbled. I am told there is to be an extra
carriage run on this train, with bath-room,
barber's shop, and several other conveniences
on it. Those going on to Chicago can sleep
in the train, and get there at ten next morning.

We found my son and his wife at the
station ; had some supper together at the
Genesee Hotel, and walked home to their
house, which is over a mile away.

31^^ — Had a good look round Buffalo.
Lunched at the hotel ; afterwards, Mr. Al-
bright, Mr. Barber's partner, and Mr.
Warren, the manager, came round in Mr.
Albright's carriage to take me for a drive
round. The roads in the town are as bad as
they can be. Those in the outskirts have
many of them been paved with asphalte (Bar-
ber's), and are certainly very nicely done.
The horses stand better on this asphalte than
any other, and if it is as durable, it must
come more into use. He also took me to

NIAGARA.

look at Lake Erie, which is narrow at the
Buffalo end. We looked at the coal-load-
ing arrangements and the docks. Saw a
very good system of feeding boilers to burn
small coal and avoid smoke, of which I
shall get full particulars. We then went to
my son's house to tea, had some music, and
returned to hotel to bed. To-morrow, if
fine, intend to go to Niagara Falls.

April 1st. — This morning we went to
Niagara as we intended; it is only about
twenty miles from Buffalo. On getting out
of the station we were very much bothered
by touts, who were anxious to drive us
round. They were so persistent that it be-
came quite a nuisance, and we declined to
employ one. There is no difficulty in finding
out everything to be seen, and there is no
distance to walk. We went first on to the
island above the falls (Goat Island), as there
is a bridge from the States' bank on to it.
From it you get a capital view of both falls.
I was not at all disappointed in them, though
I was told I should be. There was a lar<:re

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20 A TRIP TO THE UNITED STATES.

r, !•

amount of water, in consequence of the melt-
ing of the snow. We could not get down
into the Cave of the Winds, in consequence
of the ice. The sight was very grand ; the
rapids on the top, before the water reaches
the falls, are almost as impressive as the
falls themselves, and from the little islands
in them, connected by light bridges with
Goat Island, they can be seen to perfection.
The enormous power of the falling water
is astonishing. It has been estimated at
4,500,000 horse-power. Ac the foot of the
falls hills of dust ice had grown up to the
height of a hundred feet or more ; we were
told it would take two months to melt them.
After looking at the falls from the States'
side, we walked over the suspension bridge
and had a look from the Canadian side. As
the wind was blowing the spray on to that
shore, we should soon have been wet, but all
the same we had a first-rate view of both
falls at once, and it is a sight that once seen
will always be remembered.

We returned to Buffalo about three, had

VISIT TO IRONWORKS.

dinner early, and walked down to my son's
house.

Called on Mr. Letchworth, and arranged
to meet him to-morrow morning to go over
his ironworks, which are, I am told, the best
in the city.

2nd. — Spent the most interesting day I
have yet had. Met Mr. Letchworth at ten,
and he took me down to their works. They
make all steel work connected with carriages
and harness, and have works covering as
much ground as Easton's; but the work is
quite different, the castings they make in
most cases not weighing more than a few
ounces. He tells me the average value of
these castings is not more than about 3d. per
pound when finished. They are all made of
malleable steel, which is cast very much as
iron is cast, except that the furnaces used
are more like ovens, and that the fuel is not
mixed with the metal, but the metal is melted
by heated gases passing over it. The ovens
hold about six tons of metal at a time.* The
castings are at first as brittle as glass , they

2 2 A TRIP TO THE UNITED STATES.

are then roughly cleaned, and put into iron
saggers with charcoal and oxide of iron, and
baked at considerable heat for about three
days, by which time they are soft enough to
bend about as easily as wrought iron. Each
baking is tested to see that the temper is
right. The little articles are then placed into
revolving cylinders with small sharp stones,
sand, and water, and are made to revolve
very quickly for some time. When they
come out they are sufficiently polished, and
ready for use. They make very large quan-
tities of everything connected with the trade,
and export to Australia. They have a
thousand acres of forest in Texas, whence
they get the wood they want. They have also
some very useful wood-working machinery.
After lunching with Mr. Letchworth, junior,
at his house, and being introduced to his
wife and little girl, he took me to the prison.
Till recently they hired the convict labour
for a number of years, and used it on their
works.' I went over the prison, which is not,
I suppose, very different to any other. They

THE PRISON.

have cells about 6 feet by 5 feet, with strong
iron bar gates, and some of them seem to be
comfortably furnished, and have pictures and
ornaments in them. The inmates do the
washing and cooking. The chapel is divided
down the middle by a large partition, from
the pulpit to the end of the room, to separate
the sexes. The Roman Catholics meet at 8,
and any of the inmates can go to the
service ; the Protestants at 9.30, and any of
the first batch can stay on to hear the other
side of the question. The consequence is the
chapel, which is a large one, is crowded, as
I suppose it is a change for the prisoners,
but I should fancy their religious notions
get a bit confused if the preachers have the
same amount of tolerance for one another
they have in England.

The workshops are now no longer required
for the use of the prisoners. The Knights
of Labour have decided it is wrong for prison
labour to compete with the free men, and
the consequence is the prisoners are not to
be employed in that work, and Messrs.

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24 A TRIP TO THE UNITED STATES.

Letchworth have to move all their plant,
which is extensive. They are now working
with free men, and building new works in
another place for that portion of their busi-
ness.

After that a horse and buggie were put at
my disposal. I drove down to the bank, and
then to the house of the senior partner, who
had asked me to call on him. I should think
he was one of the leading men in Buffalo.
His house, which is a very fine one, in the
best part of the town, is beautifully fur-
nished. 1 was shown into what I suppose
was the drawing-room ; the lower part round
the walls to the height of about 4 feet was
fitted with book-shelves, and filled with a
splendid library of books. From there to
the ceiling the walls were covered with well-
chosen paintings and works of art, and the
taste displayed in the whole arrangement
was most finished.

I was at once made at home. Mrs.
Letchworth, who is much younger than her
husband, had her children sent for, so that I

START FOR PITTSBURG.

might see them, and two ladies staying in
the house were also introduced to me. I
found them a most hospitable and kind-
hearted family. They pressed me to stay to
dinner or spend Sunday with them. How-
ever, I got back to the hotel, but not until
I had promised to call again on my return,
if I came into Buffalo.

'^rd. — Sunday. Got up rather later than
usual. Went to a church at which there was
very little praying, but a very long sermon
from a man who studied effect rather than
matter, and would have done well for the
stage. Afterwards we went for a walk. My
son and his wife came to dinner with us, and
we went later on to tea with them. We
start early to-morrow for Pittsburg. Had a
good look at one of the elevators being con-
structed, and could see the construction of
it. They are built entirely of boards, piled
together in such a way as to form very deep
bins, which are filled from the top and drawn
off from the bottom. The one we saw seemed
to be built without fastenings of any kind,

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26 A TRIP TO THE UNITED STATES.

and must have taken several large cargoes
of boards to build it. Timber of all kinds is
about half the price it is in England. The
lake steamers, which in some cases carry
3,000 tons, are all built of wood. They are
frozen up about five months in the year ;
they will not get to work for some time yet.
The docks and craft of all kinds are much
behind those in England, and a good bit out
of repair. The snow is going away very fast,
and the roads look better and the town has
a much nicer appearance than when we
came into it. To-morrow we go through the
oil district, and over the ground the natural
gas comes from.

4///. — Started ai 8.10 for Pittsburg. First
part of the ride by rail was not very interest-
ing, as the fields were bare, and there was
little else to look at. Later on we came to
a lot of woodland, where the trees had been
allowed to blow down and rot, the old stumps
remaining by thousands. There seems to
be the greatest waste of timber and land
about here, and everything is most untidy

■"Hi

carg-oes
kinds is
1. The
s carry
hey are

year;
ne yet.

much
bit out
y fast,
vn has
m we
L'-h the
atural

First
erest-
t was
Tie to
been
imps
s to
land
itidy

(')//. CI TV

and desolate. As we neared Oil City we
found traces of the oil wells, mostly, how-
ever, unused. Then came Oil City itself,
a strange place — pumps put up every-
where, and large tanks to hold the oil. It
seems that only a small pipe is put down to
each well, and a little engine and a very
rough pump put up. The oil is then con-
veyed in pipes to places where it is refined,
and these places are owned by large com-
panies, who buy the oil of the small men and
control the market. There is considerable
waste, and the river — which all along here,
and in fact to Pittsburg, runs by the side of
the line — is covered with it. The town of
Oil City is rather an important place, and
the centre of a considerable trade.

Just after we left it we found the first
indications of the natural gas, which was
burning in several places to waste on the
ground, not the least curious being a large
flame from the top of the water in the middle
of the river. The journey on to Pittsburg
was a beautiful and ii^teresting one, the

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2 8 A TRIP TO THE UNITED STATES.

banks along the river being high and well
wooded. The oil wells have a scaffolding of
timber not at all unsightly over each,
and in many places there are small coal
drops over the railway. Coal is found
all along this district at a level of from
200 to 300 feet above the river; the seam
is some six or seven feet thick and the
coal good. As we neared our journey's
end the symptoms of the presence of
natural gas became greater. Villages were
lit by it, common lamp-posts being placed
at the corners of the streets, with a large
torchlike flame to each burning day and
night. We arrived about 7.30 at Pitts-
burg, put up at the Monongahela Hotel,
which is large, and, like all the others we
have been in, a kind of public meeting-place.
We had very nice rooms given to us, and
after supper had a look into the town. We
went to bed tired.

5///. — Called on Mr. Veeder at ten o'clock.
He received us with the greatest kindness,
introduced us to his partners, and insisted on

I ill

PITTSBURG.

giving up a day or two himself to showing
us about. After an early lunch, we started
to look over the copper-rolling works he is
interested in, which are the largest in the
States. Nothing but gas is used in furnaces,
boilers, or any part of the works. They
smelt the copper ore into cakes, and after-
wards roll it out to any size or thickness
they require. I suppose it is chiefly used in
making kitchen things. They have one de-
partment devoted to producing copper pails
or boilers, which are made out of one piece
of copper without a single joint. There
seems to be a large quantity of gas used. I
should say the gas must be cheaper than
coal. Veeder puts the price at 2d. per thou-
sand feet. They pay about ^100 a month
for it, which is a considerable saving on what
they paid for coal previously. We also went
over some ironworks next door, again run
entirely by the gas They are able to
get any heat they like with it, and con-
trol it beautifully; bat the pressure is so
great that when it !S not being used for busi-

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30 A TRIP TO THE UNITED STATES.

iii

ness purposes, they are obliged to relieve the
pressure in the pipes by burning it to
waste, and on Saturday and Sunday they
say it is a curious sight to see these places
burning gas in jets throwing fifty feet c:f
flame. Veeder says, if the gas fails they hi'-e
made up their minds to make it out of wast3
fuels in Siemens' or other gas producers, as
they find it so much more suitable for their
work than coal. The engines are all high-
pressure and non-condenserSj and the waste
of fuel enormous, and lamentable.

Pittsburg is most beautifully situated, and
is a very fine city of nearly 300,000 inhabit-
ants. The electric light is used more than
gas in its streets and buildings, and is
perfectly managable. There is a notice
up m our hotel bedrooms that if gas is used
it must be paid for as an extra ; the electric
lights, which we can turn on or off at plea-
sure, are free. The city is situated some-
thing like New York, being at the confluence
of the Monongahela and Alleghany rivers.
Both are very fine rivers and m-r something

STEEL WORKS.

*,'^

like 1,800 miles before their waters reach the
sea. There is plenty of high ground round
the city. We went to the top of one place
on an inclined lift, and had a look at the
city from a height of 400 feet.

6///. — Mr. Veeder met us and took us over
the Bessemer steel works belonorine to Mr.
Carnegie. These are the largest works of
the kind in the States, and are given up to
making steel rails. They turn out, I think
they told us, 400 tons a day of finished rails.
The works are about twelve miles out of
Pittsburg, are very well designed, and beau-
tifully kept. The whole of the operations are
controlled by men at a distance from the hot
work, who stand on a platform in a corner.
Hydraulic power is used everywhere, and
nothing is done by hand that can possibly
be done by machinery ; and, which seems
most extraordinary, there is very little dirt
or dust about, as no coal is burnt, the most
intense heat being procured by the use of
the natural gas. It certainly does seem that
the people of Pittsburg have succeeded in

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32 A TRIP TO THE UNITED STATES.

opening" up a business communication with
the Old Gentleman, and that he is furnishing
them with as much heat for nothing as they
can possibly use, and even waste. The pres-
sure £ hich the gas comes up is, they say,
in man^ cases over 500 lbs. to the square
inch, and by mixing air with it in proper pro-
portion it will melt anything. The boilers
manage themselves ; the fronts are painted
in fancy designs and kept clean. I suppose
these works are not better than those in
Wales and other places at home, with the
exception of having this unusual advantage,
and being very well designed and con-
structed.

In the afternoon I went for a walk with
Mr. Veeder to the cemetery where his wife
was buried, and round that part of the coun-
try, from which we could see all over
Pittsburg and the three river?. We spent
the evening at Mr. Veeder's house, and he
did all he possibly could to make us at home
and comfortable.

7//^. — Got up early, and at nine started

?. r

SHOVEL WORKS.

with Mr. Veeder first to look over the glass-
works, where they were making* and moulding
glass by means of the natural gas. We then
went over Dr. Hussey's shovel works. These
were iiirnaged by a Mr. Wilson, a nephew of
Mr. Veeder' s, and a thoroughly business-like
young man he must be. The contrivances
they have for doing the work at small cost
are really wonderful. The whole of the
buildings and machinery are as little costly
as it is possible to fancy, and yet they turn
out hundreds of dozens of the very best
made shovels a day, and take the trade not
only of the States, but of Canada, Australia,
and other places, and have just appointed
agents for London — Welsh and Lea, 60.
Gracechurch Street. I have promised to
send them out samples of shovels mostly
used in England, and Mr. Wilson has pro-
mised to look into, and if possible take up,
my brother's patent horseshoe.

The contrivances of cheap hammers, with
indiarubber springs for starting them, the
emery wheels for cleaning and polishing,

34 A TRIP TO THE UNITED STATES.

1 i

which they make themselves by placing
canvas on wooden wheels and gluing emery
on to it, and also by gluing emery powder on
leather straps, are useful and clever. We
also went over Dr. Hussey's ironworks,
which are very large, and the steel works,
where all the best grades of steel are made ;
then over some nail works, which were ex-
tensive and in full work.

By this time we wanted something to eat,
and returned to the hotel. We then went
by appointment to the tube works, managed
by a Welshman, who seemed delighted to
see us, and asked us to come up again if
possible. This is an enormous place ; they
make welded pipes from the smallest sizes
up to eighteen inches in diameter. They
were making ten-inch when we were there.
The welding is done by rolling them when
at a white heat over a ball at the end of
a rod. They make splendid pipes. The
smaller sizes are tested to the extent of
2,000 lbs. to the square inch, and the
larger sizes to a high pressure, but not so

ALLEGHANY MOUNTALXS.

hip-h. The ends have flancres screwed on to
them, which make beautiful joints. These
pipes are in the States entirely superseding
the cast pipes. The present cost of the ten-
inch pipes is i\ dollars per foot run, equal to
6s. This seems high to me. The activity
in this place is great, and the quantity of
pipes turned out must be very large in-
deed.

We are to start to-morrow early for Phila-
delphia.

8///. — Started as arranged ; the first part of
our journey for some hours was up hill, and
most part of it along a river running back
into the Ohio. After this, we got on to the
highest point, which I suppose is about the
lowest pass on the Alleghany Mountains ; we
ran through a tunnel for some distance and
reached the watershed on the other side.
Here is the famous Horseshoe Bend, and a
beautiful view we had of it and of the valley
beneath. A little lower down we came
in sight of the river, which was at first a
mountain stream, widening afterwards until

' I

36 A TRIP TO THE UNITED STATES,

it becomes in some places half a mile wide,
but not deep enough to float a boat. As you
near Philadelphia, the land is well cultivated,
and the farmhouses remind one of those in
England — well-fenced fields, and comfortable-
looking places. The stations about here are
pretty and well kept, and would compare fa-
vourably with most of those round London.
The railway itself is the easiest riding one I
have ever travelled on, and the drawing-room
carriages are splendid. This time a kind of
bar was fitted up at the end of the carriage,
decorated with pretty china, and when we
' wanted refreshments, a table was fixed up
between the chairs, and what was ordered
brought to us; and although the journey
took eleven hours it was quite a pleasure
trip. We arrived at Philadelphia about seven
o'clock in the evening, put up at the La-
fayette Hotel, and after dinner had a walk,
and went to bed.

gth. — Went to call first on Mr. Barber's
friend, Mr. Warren, who was out, then on
Mr. Childs, of Philadelphia Ledger renown.

* i

FRIENDS rX PHILADELPHIA,

He was very civil, showed me his office and
curiosities, said he was to be from home to-
morrow (Sunday), but offered me his pew in
church, and asked me to dine with him on
Monday, and said I must at any rate brin^^
my children to see these curiosities, and
kindly added he would give my daughter-in-
law a cup in remembrance of the visit. I
thanked him, and told him I should be
unable to accept his hospitality, but that
having heard of him so often in England,
I could not, having an introduction to him,
pass without making his acquaintance. He
is an extraordinary man, with many good
qualities, and is generally and deservedly
respected. Afterwards I called on Detricht,
my brother-in-law, John Grei^'s old friend.
He at once gave up his time to me, sent
for Mr. Reany, and took possession of
me for the remainder of the day. First,
they took me to see the most interesting
business buildings, of which there are
many — banks and insurance offices in par-
ticular; then to Independence Hall. This

RBI

38 A TRIP TO THE UNITED STATES.

is a very interesting place: it is where
the Declaration of Independence was signed.
The room is the same (furniture and all)
as when the deed wasdone. I suppose
nothing would induce the people of the
States to alter it in any particular. There
are good portraits of the chief characters
of the time, original letters from Washing-
ton and others, and many other interesting
relics, and among them a bell cast in
England in 1753, before the separation
was thought of, on which was the following
inscription: "To proclaim liberty through-
out the land to all the inhabitants thereof."
In 1776 the bell obeyed its directions, and
was used to proclaim the freedom of the
States. I could have spent a long time in
this place. We then went over some large
wholesale stores, the chief feature of which
was the management, and among other
things a capital arrangement of pneumatic
tubes for conveying cash and bills for every
transaction into the central office, and the
receipt back to the customer. We then went

PIIILADKLPIIIA.

to the splendid marble City Hall, partly
finished, and paid for each year as it is built,
so that there is no debt on it. They
have already sp^nt ^3,000,000 sterling-, and it
will take another £ \ ,000,000 to finish it. The
tower is to be 500 feet high. They g-ave me a
very good dinner, and then had a carriage
ready to drive round Fairmount park, which
is really very pretty for so new a place, and
contains 4,000 acres, including the water of
the river, which passes through it. This is
where the exhibition was held ; some of the
buildings still remain. The rules are some
of them good ; for instance, if a party, rich
or poor, takes possession of a spot for a
gipsy party, or any other amusement, it is
theirs, and no one else is allowed to go
near it until they have done with it. We
also went over the waterworks. The water
of the Schulkill River provides motive power
for pumping and water for the town, and the
machinery is excellent and well kept. They
insisted on giving me supper, and I must say
it was the warmest reception I have ever

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40 A TRIP TO THE UNITED STATES.

experienced. John seems to have been a
great favourite with them. They call him
John, and seem to forget his surname. I
should think he has quieted down a good
bit since he was here.

10/// — Got up late, went to the Methodist
Episcopal Church. (There are hundreds
of churches of all sorts in this city.'
The service was strano^e to me — one Ion
prayer, some singing, a lot of notices of what
was to be done. An illumination of gas over
the pulpit, such as you would see over a west-
end shop on a Queen's birthday; splendid
decoration of flowers, and a long, good ser-
mon, but too much action and manner again.
After midday dinner, called on Mr. Warren,
2013, Spurce Street, on Mr. Barber's intro-
duction. He treated me, as everyone else
has done, as well as it was possible. Intro-
duced me to his family, asked me to bring
my children, and spend remainder of the day
and go for a drive to-mon^vv, which I could
not do. Then went for a walk with me, took
me to see some fine houses he had built,

START FOR BALTIMORi:.

and a church with a kind of a club built on
to it for the use of the members ; a splendid
place, having among- other things chairs so
arranged that they can be linked together
and arranged in any form desired. He then
took me over the picture gallery, where there
are some fine paintings ; ov<;r the club, which
is as well found as any in London, and quite
a large place ; and came back to the hotel to be
introduced to my children, Charlie, Polly, and
Frank, and ended up by giving us all a pressing
invitation to spend a week with him on Lake
George, where he has an island and a house,
and where the fishing is, he says, very good.
I \th. — Spent the morning in walking again
over Philadelphia and making a few pur-
chases. Started at 4.30 for Baltimore, which
is not more than a hundred miles away ; the
journey is along the Chesapeake River, over
several pieces of shallow water, and through
a country rather rough, which, if in England,
would be good sporting ground. In this
neighbourhood the celebrated, canvas-back
duck is found.

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42 A TRIP TO THE UNITED STATES.

Arrived at Baltimore about seven o'clock,
and found a wire from my wife. It is very
nice to have these messciges ; without them I
should not know anything about home. They
are all well, I am thankful to say. She wants
to know whether I will stand as churchwarden
at Belvedere. I have answered, will do what
Belvedere friends think best. The meeting-
is, I suppose, to-morrow.

12///. — Had a good look round Baltimore,
which is a fine city and a large port. The
streets are very well paved ; the public
buildings are large and good. Electric light
everywhere. The shop)s, particularly the
clothiers', large and gay. The climate alto-
gether milder, although not far south of
Buffalo. The one we left fast bound in
ice, and find the other as warm as sum-
mer, with trees coming into leaf. Many
river steamboats start from here. The water
accommodation is splendid ; something like
Portsmouth, only much larger and further in
from the sea. Tons of oysters are brought
here ; you can get them in any quantity at

WASHIXGTON.

every meal. The shells are ground for chicken
food or burned into lime. There was a
wood-cutting* machine here for firewood,
which would cut and split a cartload as fast
as cart could be loaded. The hotel (Bar-
num's) was a very large and old-fashioned
one, but not the most comfortable.

We had splendid ice here. Ice making
is a large business in the southern States ;
I should say it would pay in England. We
started at 745, but left Frank's bag behind.
I hope he will get it in the morning.

13///. — At Washington we put up at the
Arlington, I spent this morning in going to
the British Legation to swear to some docu-
ments, and in writing to London with them,
and several other letters, .-iid afterwards had
a w^alk round, the streets ri.::a.r the hotel. After
lunch we went to the Smithsonian Institution in
the park, where there are some very interest-
ing things, particuLarly the casts of sculpture
from Mexico, which seem to be as ancient as
the Egyptian, and very much like them ; in
fact, you cannot help suspecting that in very

' I

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dUMiiiiii

4+ A TRIP TO THE UNITED STATES.

ancient times there must have been some
communication between the two countries.
The various dresses and arms of the Indian
tribes might also be studied to advantage,
and the animals found in different parts of
the States, or rather on the American con-
tinent generally. The Department of Agri-
culture must be useful, as not only are the
seeds and products exhibited, but samples of
the earth from various parts oi che world which
grow crops of plants not yet introduced into
the States.

We also inspected the marble column
erected, partly by subscription and partly by
the Government, in memory of Washington.
It is a plain obelisk, 60 feet square at the
base and 555 feet high, and as far as I can
see will not last long, as it is built entirely of
marble and the bottom stones are beino-
crushed by the great weight. After dinner
we had a walk round the lighted streets
before bed-time.

14///. — Received some letters from home,
via Buffalo, but dated 20th March, so they

.1^

THE PATENT OFFICE.

must have been kept a long time. One from
mother ; I will answer it. They all seem to
have fancied we had a bad passage over.
We went again to" the Smithsonian Institu-
tion, and afterwards to the Patent Office, where
there are thousands of models of all sorts of
inventions. It is necessary to make a model
of everything that is patented, which has to
be deposited before the patent is granted,
although many are most absurd things.
Some good ideas may be got if you had time
to study them, which \\ had not. Frank's
horseshoe is not yet in its place. Women are
employed in the States much more than at
home, and seem most intelligent and pains-
taking ; they have almost entire charge of
all these institutions. You find them short-
hand writing or type-writing in almost every
private office, and they earn in some cases
15 dollars, or -£1, a week.

We spent the afternoon in visiting the
Capitol, which is really the Parliament house,
and a very fine, sensible, useful building it
is. Both the Upper and Lower Houses sit in

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46 A TRIP TO THE UNITED STATES.

large rectangular halls, where every word
spoken can be heard easily ; each member
also has a desk or, I should say, a small writ-
ing-table before him. In one of the halls,
formerly used by the representatives but now
only as a lobby, there are some most extra-
ordinary echoes — the most extraordinary I
have ever heard.

Charlie and Polly left us this afternoon to
return to Buffalo. We did not much like
parting, but they decided they ought to go
back, and we thought so too. We will look
them up again at Buffalo, if possible, as we
come home. They both look better for their
little change.

In the evening we went to the theatre,
which is a nice house. There was a very
good play well put on the stage.

15///. — I decided on doing some calling
to-day, and went to Mr. Barber's office,
but Mr. Warner was ill ; I then called on
Major Powell, who was out. So Frank and
I had another turn round, chiefly to see the
parts of the city we had not before seen.

! I:

J\[ORE FRIENDS.

The night turned out wet and we had a
thunder £<-orm.

1 6///. — This morning, when we had had
our breakfast, Mrs. Langdon called on us.
She is, I should think, nearly eighty, but has
as much go in her as a girl. She brought
Mr. Barber's carriage, and said she had
arranged to take us out, and so we went
with her. She took us for a long drive,
pointed out everything of interest, took us
to Mr. Barber's house, which stands on a
high piece of ground overlooking the city,
and will be a nice place when finished, and
then drove us to the Soldiers' Home, some
distance further out. This is a very pretty
place indeed, has a nice park round it, and
is very well kept.

She went back with us to the hotel to
lunch, and unfortunately had a fall down
some stone steps, which I fear must have
hurt her, but she would not acknowledge it,
and went at once (walked) to the Corcoran
Gallery of pictures, which we had not seen.
Here another friend of Mr. Barber's met us ;

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48 A TRIP TO THE UNITED STATES.

they did all they could to induce us to stay
over Sunday with them, but I thought we

had better get on. Mrs. Langdon is a

splendid old lady. She had just returned
from a trip to Florida where she had been by
herself, and she told me that two years ago
she went to San Francisco with another lady
on an excursion for a month, and lived and
slept on the train the whole time. She seems
inclined to go to Europe with us to join
Mr. and Mrs. Barber ; she is to let us know.
We started at 4.30 p.m. for Richmond, where
we arrived at 9.30 next morning.

17///. — The railway runs good part of the
way by the sea and over shallow arms of
it, and is rather pretty ; the stations are,
many of them, only stopping-places, without
buildings of any sort. The conductor takes
money, I suppose, as there are no station-
masters or anyone else at these little places.
The trains run through the streets without
the least protection, and children play within
a yard or two of them as they pass. The only
thing they do is to slack speed and ring a

RICHMOND.

bell when they get to a place where there
are many people.

Richmond, Virg-hiia, is a nice town and well
situated. It is the chief place of the tobacco
trade, and very interesting, as being so
much concerned in the slave war. There
are some finish streets and good buildings,
and the roads leading out of the town on
the higher ground have some good modern
brick residences on them, built as much like
such houses would be a little way out of
London as you can well imagine. The square
in the middle of the town, where the monu-
ment to George Washington stands, is well
kept, and has several tame squirrels running
about in it. They will feed out of your hand
and run over you ; one rather surprised me by
running up my umbrella. I suppose we could
tame them in England. There was nothing
whatever to keep them in, but little boxes in
the trees for them to sleep in. We went to
the Episcopal church, where they had the
Enelish service with variations, some of
course necessary, but many only for the sake

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so A TRIP TO THE UNITED STATES-

of making them. There was no congrega-
tional singing. Three professionals were al-
lowed to come in with their voices wherever
there was the slightest chance ; they had
good voices, but a curious selection of music.
The sermon was a good one, on the progres-
sive nature of sin. In this church spittoons
and fans were placed in each pew. We
started by the 9.30 p.m. train from Richmond.
There were no other passengers for the
Pullman sleeping-car, so we had the whole
to ourselves, and made friends at once with
the conductor and attendant. The conductor,
a well-educated man, who considered him-
self in every way equal to his passengers, sat
down at the same table to dinner, had a bed
the same as ours made up for him, and took
his seat in the car as if he were, as I suppose
he was, lord and master. The attendant, a
black, was very attentive. Our beds were
made uo at once, and very comfortable they
were, with curtains almost like a four-post bed
of old, and full size and width. We slept
well, were called an hour before we were due

* 5

THE PINE FORESTS.

at the station, where breakfast was ready,
and after a wash and shave we got there
and enjoyed our breakfast very much. The
railway ran through pitch-pine forests and
over rivers and thickly wooded swamps, and
then there were small patches cleared, and
houses, or rather huts, for the black people.
The beautiful pine-trees are being badly
used : they cut a great gash in them near
ths ground, chop into them a third of the
way and drain all the pitch they can out of
them, and at last kill them, and then, as if to
do them all the harm they possibly can, set
fire to thc^. I was quite sorry to see many
beautiful trees burning slowly in the heart,
smoke coming out of holes here and there
up higher. This has been going on I suppose
for a long time, as there are hundreds and
thousands of blackened stumps remaining. I
never saw such waste of timber, and as it is
near the coast I am sure something better
might be done.

We saw the first cotton-fields along this
trip. The flowers, azaleas and rhododendrons,

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52 A TRIP TO THE UNITED STATES.

were numerous, the former In full bloom, but
no sic^n of bloom on the latter ; thousands
of wild flowers and very large creepers, such
as you see in pictures of tropical forests.
The rivers, of which we crossed many, are
very pretty indeed, but I should say very
unhealthy to live near. We reached Charles-
ton at 3.30, and at once had a look round
the town, as we could not eat anything. The
town is situated, like most of these towns are,
on a tongue of land between two rivers only
five miles from the sea, and the harbour is as
good as New York, and not unlike it, except
that it is much smaller and there is very little
going on. The houses all show the effects
of the earthquake ; the porticoes of the pub-
lic buildings are most of them still in ruins.
This hotel, the "Charleston Hotel," is a
large one, and cracked all over. They have
stopped up the cracks in our bedroom, and
there is almost as much crack as wall. The
dining-room ceiling seems to have been all
down except a small piece In the middle.
They say the main shock only lasted four

CHARLESTON.

seconds ; a minute at the same force would
have levelled every place in the city. The
people even now seem very nervous. A
policeman told us he heard or felt a shock
almost every night, but that orders had been
given not to mention or publish it, so that
the people might be quiet.

They seem to have got low-spirited about
this town. It was, they say, knocked to pieces
in the time of the war ; a year or two ago a
whirlwind broke up everything ; last year the
earthquake did hundreds of thousands of
pounds' worth of damage, and most of the
places will have to be patched up ; and now
they fear an inundation, as the town level is
very low, and they seem to think it stands
on a bad foundation. Our policeman said
he hoped for more thunderstorms than they
had had lately, as it was his opinion they
would draw the electricity out of the earth
and thus prevent earthquakes. There were
little m.achines on the dinner tables to fan
away the flies. The black population, I
should say, vastly outnumber the whites

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54 A TRIP TO THE CXI TED STATES.

about here. They are very obliging- and
seem to be happy and contented ; some have
nice manners, and all speak fair English. I
am speaking of those in the towns. There
is a considerable quantity of cotton shipped
from here. There is also a trade in pitch-pine
timber, but not so large as at Jacksonville.
I bought some photos of the ruins of the
town after the earthquake.

i()ih. — We started to-day by train for
Jacksonville at 3.30. The carriage, a Pull-
man sleeper, was all ours again, with three
attendants ; we made friends with them and
got plenty of attention. The road was through
a pitch-pine forest again, but shrubs became
more tropical. There is only a single line
of rails, other lines crossing it on a level. If
trains come in sight at the same time at one
of these level crossings the one that whistles
first has first turn ; if they both whistle to-
gether the man in charge of the crossing does
as he likes. All the management seems to be
rough and ready. Our train stopped on a
siding to let an express go by, but as there

FLORIDA.

was a poor woman in the express who had
overrun her station, they stopped the express
to let her get out and join our train. Con-
ductors and several passeng-ers q^ot out of
both trains, and I should think the operation
took several minutes.

At one station where we were timed to
stop twenty minutes, they told us if we liked
to have a walk they would not go without us,
as they were in no particular hurry. This
the result proved ; we were two and a half
hours late at Jacksonville. However, we
got there 8.30 on the 20th, and put up at the
Hotel St. James ; and a very nice house it
is. Jacksonville is a pleasure town on the St.
John's river. There is a little boat running up
it, starting at 2.30, and returning at the same
time to-morrow. We are going by it, as they
say the river is about as characteristic of
tropical scenery as any in this country. We
went up as arranged in a little steamer called
the Alanatce. The boat was very comfortable,
and the captain a most intelligent young man.
We called at many landing-places on both

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56 A TRIP TO THE UNITED STATES.

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sides of the river, the prettiest being that
at East Mandarin. This is the place where
Mrs. Beecher-Stowe lives, and a very nice
little cottage she has. The houses, of which
there are several, might be at Hampton or
anywhere on the banks of the Upper Thames.
The piers are all private ones, belonging to
orange-growers, and it was very strange to
see the pier-masters, most of them college
men from England, dressed in v/hite, attend-
ing the boat, and sending off their goods
and friends. They seemed to be a family
party on this part of the river. They get up
early, do a lot of the work themselves, dine
late, and afterwards take it in turn to have an
evening at home. There is always a musical
evening or private theatricals or some amuse-
ment on, and strange to say a Belvedere
man is one of the party ; he was on one of
the piers and came on board and to Jackson-
ville with us. He says it is the most natural
kind of life it is possible to lead. They have
a splendid climate, nice houses, splendid
river, always a^ nearly the same level and full

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ST. JOHN'S RIVER.

of fish and wild-fowl. The forest on the
banks round the clearings is composed of
pine, oak, magnolia, mixed with all sorts of
tropical plants and creepers. The settlers are
almost all educated men and women, and the
society is freer and better than you can get
near London. We went up to a place called
Green Cove spring, and put up at the Claren-
don Hotel. The spring comes up from a deep
hole, warm and as clear as crystal, just the
thing to bathe in. We had a walk after dark.
There were numbers of fire-flies, and as they
turned they flashed almost as brightly as the
stars. There is a good chance for a young
medical man in Mandarin, as the;,' are at pre-
sent without one. The captain of the boat
paid I dollar 75 cents per cord for his wood,
w^hich he used as fuel for the engine ; they
call a cord 8 feet by 4 feet by 4 feet. 1 le pays
his black men 15 dollars a month, and feeds
them on rice, and a very little meat.

There is a law in Florida a;^^ainst shooting
from a passenger steamer, or we could have
shot some ducks. There is a 25-dollarfnie

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5S /I TRIP TO THE UNITED STATES.

for opening an oyster after the loth of April,
and a 50-dollar fine for opening- a drain after
ATarch loth, as it is supposed to be dan-
gerous to health to do so in the hot weather.
There is a <>;o6d trade for a boat between
Jacksonville and Nassau. She should not
draw more than thirteen feet loaded, should
accommodate a hundred passengers, and
must have all the latest improvements as to
machinery, and burn either wood or coal.
Captain C. E. Garner, ofjacksonville, steamer
JManatce, could manage her, I have promised
to find whether there is such a boat in the
market in Knor]and and to write to him. We
got back to Jacksonville at eleven on the 2 ist,
and took ferry boat and train to St. Augus-
tine's, a watering-place on the coast, and
the first settlement the Spanish made in
America ; there are in consequence some in-
teresting buildings in it, a fort, &c., but the
streets are nothing but deep sand ; — alto-
irether I did not think much of it. The most
interestlncj slight was a tribe of Indians
(Apaches), who had lately been a great

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ST. AUGUSThXE'S.

trouble and had been taken — men, women,
and children — and put Into the fortress. There
were about four hundred of them, and a wild-
looking lot they were. The Europeans of all
nations and Americans were very curious
about them, and the dress of the European
ladies seemed to astonish the Indian women
as much as the want of dress in the Indian
women astonished the ladies. AVe crot back
to the hotel about six (the Hotel St. James),
and after dinner packed up for a start early
to-morrow.

I found out an average orange-grove could
be purchased at a pretty reasonable price
now, ready to bear fruit ; that it should be
on the east side of the St. John's river,
unless further south than this, when either
side would do. The russet oranges are
much the best. They grow strawberries,
which are now ripe, but not good sorts.
The land is nothing but line white sand, and
wants manuring for oranges or any other
crop, but the climate is so splendid, anything
with half a chance to erow will irrow. It

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60 A TRIP TO THE UNITED STATES.

is a wonder to me how such splendid trees
and shrubs can flourish as they do on such a
soil. The streets of this town are a foot
deep in sand, and except for boards laid
along the paths, it would be almost impos-
sible to walk.

22)2d. — We started after a good breakfast
at seven for New Orleans ; all day the
scenery was such as I have before de-
scribed — woodland, chiefly fir, the wood
being destroyed. As night came on, the
line, which runs throucfh Georgia for some
distance, ran back again into Florida by the
side of the Gulf of Mexico, and during the
night through part of Alabama, which state
we are told is to eclipse all others in the pro-
duction of iron and coeil, and has even more
advantages than Pittsburg; but this I doubt.
At any rate they have any quantity of iron
and coal, both on the surface, or rather in
the hill-sides. The line then runs into Louis-
iana. We arrived at New Orleans at seven
on the morning of the 23rd. After a bath we
had breakfast and walked to the side of the

'«ii!:i

A'JlW ORLEANS.

river, which is only three-quarters of a mile
wide, but in some places 300 feet deep. The
steamboats on it are the three-, four-, or five-
tier river steamers so often described, but
which will not much longer be seen, as the
railways are running them off. There were,
a captain of one of them informed me, ten
times as rnany a few years ago. Now the
largest remaining are laid up and have not
moved a wheel for the last two years. We
have decided to have a day or two on the
river, so that we may know something about
these wonderful boats before they become
extinct.

23;'^/. — AVe delivered Mr. Barber's Intro-
duction to Mr. Tupper, of 81, St. Charles
Street. He kindly introduced us to members
of the Cotton Exchange — a fine building —
and to the leading broker, Mr. J. Aldige,
who has offices at the Exchange, who in
turn introduced us to Mr. Maginnis, of the
Maginnis Oil and Soap Works. This gentle-
man devoted much time to us, took us all
over the works, and explained everything.

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C2 A TRIP TO THE UXITED STATES.

The cotton when it is grown has a seed
round which the fibre hangs ; this is partly
cleared by the growers, i.e. they get off as
much cotton as they can, leaving some still
hanging to the seed. This comes down to
their own and other mills, and goes through
another process, by which 1 5 per cent, of the
weight is saved in the shape of a good fibre,
worth say 5 cents a pound, and is chiefly sold
to Germany. The remainder is crushed, and
from it they make the oilcake and many
other products, including soap. The shells
of the seed, still having fibre hanging on, is
not used, but sold for cattle-food or burned in
the furnace, and is only worth about 25s.
per ton here. Two hundredweight of this
can be packed in a large sack, so that it is
not very bad for shipment. I arranged with
him to pack ten tons and consign them
to me in England. If it can be used I can
get a hundred thousand tons per annum,
and both ivlr. Aldige and ]\Ir. iMaginnis will
work with me. Promised to send them a
copy of the Colonial Fibre Report.

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iVFJV ORLEAXS.

Ice-making is a great trade here. We
went over a factory producing one hundred
tons of splendid ice a day. They sell it at
5 dollars, or^i, per ton. This would pay
in England, I am sure.

After dinner Mr. Tupper and a friend of
his, a railway director, drove us round the
town and district. There are some nice
residences. It is, however, on very low
ground — several feet below the level of the
river, which, if it burst its banks, would
sweep it away in no time. The town is older
than any other we have seen except St.
Augustine's, being one of the early Spanish
settlements. There seems to be a very large
trade going on.

On Sunday we went to the Episcopal
church where they had an almost perfect
English service ; good sermon, only one
hymn for the congregation but some pro-
fessional singing again. We spent all the
remainder of the day in writing letters.
We were told by all, we could not get
a boat to take us up the river until Tues-

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day night. We particularly wanted to go
earlier, and by day, so we decided to
board all the boats to see whether it was
possible. We were rewarded for our trouble.
We found a' stern - wheeler whose busi-
ness it was to go about seventy miles up
and call at each plantation on the banks of
the river, leaving- or taking anything, from a
letter to a steam-enghie, where required.
This was just what we wanted, and we at
once engaged a cabin, and started at noon.
The boat was like a large spoon, drawing
about three feet of water, with an overhan^r-
ing bow, so that she could run ashore. The
boiler was on deck, as were also the engines.
The cargo, which consisted of groceries,
farm produce and implements, steam-engines,
and many other things, was also stowed on
deck. Over this, at a height of eight or nine
feet, was another deck, supported on pillars ;
and on this were the sleeping and dining
cabins and oflice. At one end of the dinin"--
cabin was a piano ; and there were couches
and easy-chairs, and on the walls pictures

MISSISSIPPI STEAMER.

and texts. Above this again was another
deck, on which the captain and chief mate
had their quarters. And then there was a
kind of tower for the pilot-house, from
which the captain directed his ship. The
river is nowhere more than three-quarters of
a mile wide, and the banks not more than
six feet above the water; and as the boat
had long- landing-stages hanging from her
bow, say fifty feet long, which she could
raise and lower by machinery, she could
land goods at any spot. She made thirty
or forty calls before dark. Some of them
did not take more than a minute. The
cargo to go ashore on any given spot was
got ready, and the blacks, of whom there
were about twenty on board, ran on shore
with it like so many ants, and then scrambled
on to the stage as well as they could while
it was being hoisted, to get on board again.
They seemed to enjoy it as much as we did.
But the best of it was, after dark the landings
still went on, and we were surprised by
seeing a great illumination all at once. This

A TRIP TO THE UNITED STATES.

was a very strong electric light on board,
driven by a separate engine, which could be
directed in any direction on to the shore,
and made everything as light as day. As
the boat neared a landing this light came
out, and as soon as it left the shore, disap-
peared again. It was a most curious sight to
see the blacks running about in the light. It
would illuminate for a quarter of a mile inland.
When stuff had to come on board another
light was set going on the deck. We were
very anxious to see the cotton and sugar
plantations as they were before the slave
war, and this was the best possible chance,
the plantations along this district being con-
ducted as they were formerly, allowing for
altered circumstances as to labour. The
establishments are large : a good house in a
grove of trees for the planter, quite a costly
manufactory for the sugar-cane crushing,
well-built and with considerable engine-
power ; a village for the blacks, now free
people. The whole thing remains as of old
— gangs working in the plantations with the

SUGAR PLAIVTATIOXS.

overseer over them, driving them as well as
he dare, but no whip. They can and do leave
if they are not fairly well treated, and do not
do so much work as they used to do, but
still I should fancy do pretty well. We had a
good look at many of the plantations, and a
very fine chance of seeing and talking to
the black people. Most of them speak
French as well as English, and tha^ is the
case with all about here. Of course we got
all the people in the boat interested in us.
They laid a separate table at meals, and the
captain or purser came to entertain us. We
slept in a nice little cabin, and in the morn-
ing they arranged to land us at the nearest
point to a railway-station, and after consulta-
tion decided on running the boat back some
little distance, as they said in that case they
could land us at a point called Convent,
where we could get our luggage taken to the
station. This they did. We had two or
three hours to wait for the train, and walked
round some of the plantations.

The cotton and sugar seem to grow best

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on soil formerly left by the river, which
extends say two miles on either side of it.
It is below the level of the ordinary heig^ht of
the water, which is used for irrigation. If the
water rises too hi<di it breaks the banks and
ruins all the crops; if it falls too low, the
land cannot be irrigated and the crop dies.
That is what is feared now, as there has
been no rain for a month. Our passage on
the boat, including meals, cost us two dollars
each. This is the first cheap thing we have
met with.

26th. — We reached Convent station, as ar-
ranged, and travelled all the rest of the day
to Vicksburg. Perhaps before leaving the
sugar and cotton plantations I should give
my idea of the negroes. They are very
numerous here, much more so than the
whites. They seem happy enough in their
way. The women are fond of dress when
off their work, and dress in the loudest
manner possible ; the dress-improvers and
hats with feathers in them would be the envy
of many of our Irish servant-girls at home.

THE XKGROES.

Sometimes they even dress with some taste,
and you are rather surprised on walking* past
to find a very ugly black face under the
fashionable hat. In the fields, however, and
among the older women, the dress as drawn
in so many of the slave pictures is still the
correct one. The men joke and laugh just
as our mock nigger minstrels do, only "more
so," and sometimes a gang makes so much
noise that they attract the attention of every
one near them. They are as a rule obliging
and glad to have notice taken of them, and
seem as sensible, and many of them as well
educated, as their white fellow-creatures. In
fact, I should think they would in time be
entitled to rank with them, and be able to use
the power they possess by the vote properly,
although many seem to think voting power
was given them too soon. I had no idea
there were so many of them. They have
entire charge of the waiting at several of the
large hotels : one dressed completely up to
the mark, with his gold watch and chain, &c.,
acting as manager of the dining-room and

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showing- you Into your seats. I found, how-
ever, a quarter-dollar was necessary to g^et at-
tention ; but this understood, they would pile
plates of food round you until the sigh!: almost
made ycu turn sick. This reminds me that they
ask for your order, and expect a list of dishes,
which they will bring- all together, so that you
cannot possibly g-et a dinner without part
being- cold. If you order one dish at a time
you have to wait between each while they are
being cooked, which would take you hours,
• so we were obliged to fall into their ways.
VIcksburg Is a small town about 250 miles
up the Mississippi from New Orleans, and
a nasty little place It is. The hotel, the
Pacific, is worse than the town ; everything
was filthy, and we were glad to get out of it.
It was here one of the greatest battles of the
slave war was fought, but it has nothing else
to make it interesting. Memphis, a town
five hundred miles farther up the river, is a
much nicer place. We did not, however, stop
there, but came on to St. Louis. The train
is put on to a steamer at Memphis and

iHt

THE SWAMrS.

taken over the river; the op(!ration does
not take long, certainly not half an hour,
and is done very nir.-]y. From there the
road runs through a dreadful countr)', I
should say as unhealthy a swamp as any
in the world, full of snakes, small turtles,
and animals of various sorts; snakes sunning
themselves on logs of rotten timber. I never
saw such an uninviting place. Alligator
Creek and Bear Creek describe the stations.
It is too early in the season to see the alli-
gators, but they say there are thousands. We
saw the skeleton of a monster, as he had died
under a large stump. Thousands of trees,
sOiTie very large, lie about rotting. Now and
then a piece of ground, is a little higher than
the rest, and you find a hut or two and a
clearing ; but although fire is used to destroy
the timber in every possible way, it seeriis
almost impossible to get rid of it. I /ere
sticks of oak which would be worth m;£ny
pounds each at homCj are rotting by the
thousand or burning piecemeal. We were
rather relieved when we found it time to go to

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A TRIP TO THE UXITKl) STATES.

bed. The carnage was very full, every berth
taken, and too hot. There are some won-
derful earth-mounds in this valley, built by
some extinct race in far bygone times, worthy
of study.

28//?. — We arrived at St. Louis at 8 a.m.,
put up at the Lindell Hotel, got a nice room
with a bath in it, had breakfast, and went
out. First we took a tramcar and rode as far
as it went into a pretty district, where there
were some good residences and tastefully
laid-out gardens, green and well-kept lawns.
We then got into a tram moved by a cable
seven miles long. It has a large engine-
house about midway to provide the motive
power, and runs two cars together every few
minutes, so that the pow^-r used must be
very great, particularly as it winds round
several corners and up and down hills. The
outlay altogether must have been very con-
siderable. It seems to wofk well, but I
could not find out whether it was a paying
concern.

In the morning had another turn round

ST. i.nris.

/->

city and along- the water-side, and arranged
for a start up the river on tlie following; day.
Saw Messrs. W^anen & Co., Mr. Ikirber's
friends, corner Fifth and Olive Streets, wlio
were kind enough to give us some useful
information. 1' le river here seems to be as
larg-e a stream as it is at New Orleans,
although it has between here and there lost
several big" tributaries ; but I suppose It is
not so deep. There Is a very large business
doing here, every one seems alive. The
drygoods stores are numerous, and Cook's
of St. Paul's Churchyard would not outdo
some of them. The streets are well paved ;
electric light in common use ; more tele-
graph, telephone, and electric power wires
than in any other city we have yet seen.
This is now a large place, and will soon get
larger, as it is splendidly situated between
the eastern and western States.

30//^ — W^e left on board the Gcni City (a
steamer larger than the one we were on on
the Lower ]\Iississippi, but still not one of
the best) to go up the river a little way. This

1 1

yj TRIP TO THE UXITKD STATES.

ifi-

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boat was built like the last one 1 described,
but liad a much finer cal)in on the upper
deck, and had sixty state-rooms round the
dining cabin, with two berths in each. The
engines were for paddle-wheels, and the ma-
chinery was so much mixed up with the cargo
that you could not tell which was which when
the engine was not in motion. The beams,
or rather connecting-rods, were of wood, thirty
feet long, and with a fiveToot stroke or more ;
she went very well, but at each stroke of the
engine the whole boat bent, and, looking
along her long cabin, it appeared like a slight
swell of a sea, the deck Leaved so much.
The river above St. Louis is much prettier
than it is lower down, one l:>ank always high
and the other a level left by the river, and
now covered with trees. The little towns are
pretty and clean ; we passed, several before
dark.

Jkfay isf. — In the morning w^e found our-
selves a hundred miles or more up the river.
We first intended to land at a place called
Ouincy, but decided on going higher up and

KEOKCK

got out about six at a place called Keokuk,
a nice little town of some 14,000 inhabitants.
We put up at an hotel on the water-side which
turned out to be a very second-rate place,
but they were very attentive, and gave us
bed and breakfast for 75 cents each, which
was the cheapest lodging we have yet had,
and as we are out to see all sides of the ques-
tion, were rather pleased v/ith it than other-
wise. The inhabitants of this town seemed
to be nice sort of people ; there were no end
of places of worship, very well sup[)orted I
think. As we landed, a very severe thunder-
storm came up. I never saw more beautiful
lightning. We went into a little Episcopal
church ; there were only about twenty in the
congregation, and the old gentleman who
preached was about as queer a person as I
have ever seen, and preached a most extra-
ordinary sermon on common things. He
tried to be funny, but it was altogether a
failure.

We had to get up at five next morning to
start for Kansas City, and as our journey was

7^^

A TRIP TO THE i'XTTED STATES.

It 4ii

over three lines of railway, had a fourteen-
hours' ride. The country was altogether dif-
ferent from any we had seen — all _<4-ood agri-
cultural land, the first part in small farms well
kept and nicely fenced, houses neat and tidy.
As we got on, the fields were larger, and we
could see we had struck the corn-producing
districts ; there were also many large fields
with herds of cattle in them and some sheep.
The towns and villages had a different ap-
pearance, and the people too, but all seem
happy and satisfied, although they must work
hard. A newsboy amused me this morning :
on asking him whether he had a certain
])aper, he said, "Yes;" but after hunting
through his packet he said he " guessed he
had deviated," being his way of acknowledg-
ing he had not told the truth. The horses are
all small, but nicely bred. The land is a
dark rich soil ; I should think it would pro-
duce several crops without much manure.
The town of Kansas City has plenty of life
in it ; we shall see m.ore of it to-morrow.
I am glad to say I have letters from

A'AXSAS ('/■/•]'. 77

home up to 14th of last month, and J have
telegraphed and hope to i^^et a reply to-
morrow. If all at home are well, we intend
goin^" on to the Pacifie.

2;/^/. — Spent the day In Kansas Cit\', a
most interesting- town ; it is the typieal
city of the West, and a specimen of what
has been done here. The place is only
fifteen years old and has now 150,000 in-
habitants. Steam tramways constructed at
great cost and driven by means of a wire
rope and large powerful engines in centre
of the work, run round corners, and up and
down steep hills, and are splendidly con-
structed. The ropes, seven or eight miles
long, last only eight months. The fare is
5 cents, or 2kl., for any distance. They pay
well. Trains run to all parts, and the river
Missouri is navigable from the sea. There
are fine buildings and splendid residences.
The people are from all classes — cowboys,
Mexican farmers, blacks, speculators, miners,
and ...shionable ladies splendidly dressed. I
never saw a place so like making money, and

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7S A TRIP TO Till': UNITED STATES.

one in which people seemed to be doing so
well. A g-entleman informed me it would
not be much beyond the mark to say the
people were on the average doubling their
capital every year.

In the afternoon we went to see a base-ball
match, and I am glad we did, for I wanted
to see the game. The match was between
Topeka and Kansas City teams, and I should
say the play was good. It is a compound of
rounders and cricket. A ground is marked
out on any hard, flat place, turf not being
necessary.

Base Ball Coi'rt.

3ASir

3ASE

PITCHER
1 i

HOME

1 BASF

BASE

JLiSE BALL.

They use an ash staff about the length of
a cricket-bat, but round, and largfer at the
strlkini^'' end than the handle. There areei_L;ht
players on each side. The man that throws
the ball is called the pitcher, and stands in
the centre, throwing- the ball as hard as he
possibly can at striking height over point c,
where the striker stands. If he hits the ball
it must be sent between A and r., the fielders
being placed out as at cricket. The first
man runs as many sides of the sc^uare as he
can on his hit. If the ball is thrown up to a
fielder stationed at the corner before the
striker gets there the striker is out, and the
next man goes in ; and the number of bases
made — i.c, the number of men who s^et back
to the hitting base — count one each on score.
Each side has eight innings, and the total of
the score on either side decides the j/ame.
Some of the catches were excellent, and the
fielding was very fine, and I should say it
is altogether a very good game.

/[III. — We packed up this morning, and
started at 11.15 for Salt Lake City. The

A TRIP TO THE rX/7'i:/) STATES.

i i

ilii

distance is 1,280 miles, and we oui^^ht to g^et
there on Friday afternoon. The first part of
the way was not very interestinLf ; but later
in the day we got well into the oi)en country
and on to the prairies, and as nii^dit came on
the prairie fires lit up everything" round. It
seems at this time of year they burn the old
L'-rass left over from last season to make it
easier for the young grass to g-row. The
effect was splendid, but we were at last too
sleepy to watch it and went to bed.

5///. — The morning fou..d us 480 miles on
our journey, and we arrived at a place called
Pueblo to breakfast. There was nothing
interesting here ; it was, in fact, only a rail-
way junction town, and we had to change
cars, but we started at one o'clock for one of
the most beautiful rides I have ever had.
The railway was a narrow gaug-e (3 feet),
but they had a very powerful engine and
tender, fifty feet long together, and a Pull-
man car built to suit it. It Is almost im-
possible to conceive how well the whole
thine was done. The car was of course

P;M. ■*.

RIO GRAXDK.

narrower than the ordinary ones, but still
quite comfortable. The raihvay, a single
line, was laid up the slope of the mountain
in such a way that I suppose the gfradc did
not at first exceed i in 50, and we went up
at afme pace, I should think thirty-five miles
an hour. We were, however, soon stopped
by a cow, but not before we had knocked
her into the river. We were now so used to
this that no particular notice was taken.
After about two hours we came upon the
mountains themselves, and dashed into them
by the side of a mountain stream, or rather
river, which had cut its way throug-h the
rocks. The canon (as they call the clefts in
the rocks made by the water) was so narrow
that the place for the line had to be scooped
out of the face of the perpendicular rock,
and in one place a kind of bridge was hung
on, so that we went right under the pro-
jecting rock and over the torrent. Up to
the time the railway was made no man had
ever passed up it, and men had to be let
down from the top by ropes to construct

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82 A TRIP TO THE UNITED STATES.

the line. We had two or three miles of this
kind of thing, after which the way opened
out a little more, giving the engineers a
better chance to make it. Farther in still,
and higher up, there were little pieces of
pasture and some huts and tents. Then we
got to a kind of railway depot, where our
train was divided, two engines being put on
to the first part, and our engine taking up
the two Pullman cars, say a quarter of a mile
behind them. The road was now very steep
indeed, and wound among such sharp curves
that you could constantly see the engine
almost looking as if it were coming back to
run into us, and as we kept sighting the first
part of the train a little above us there were
mutual greetings from the passengers. At
last we met with cold and snow, ^nd the line
was protected by snow sheds ; and then we
reached the highest point in the pass —
10,850 feet. The air was so rarefied it
made us all quite deaf. The train was here
made into one again, and our two extra
engines sent back, and we slid down the

OVER THE MOUNTAINS.

Other side at about thirty miles an hour as
easily as possible. It was getting late, but
we had a beautiful moon. We stopped at a
place on the mountain-side, where we had
a good supper, and a little later, about ten,
all turned into bed. My berth was on the
river- side of the train (they always seem
to follow the course of the rivers in making
railways), and as the full moon was shining
in at my window, and I could see almost as
well as if it were day, I drew up the blind,
perched myself up in the corner so that I
could look out, and spent about an hour
and a half in watching the river ; and glad I
was I did, as the exit from the mountains by
the west side was much like that by which
we had entered them, and by moonlight
under such circumstances it was like a beau-
tiful dream : splendid rocks, sometimes quite
darkening the river, and then, again, the moon
shining through on to the torrent or seme
waterfall, and we gliding down without steam
and almost noiselessly. Altogether, I shall
be a long time before I forge^ the delightful

^^^ii^

84 A TRIP TO THE UNITED STATES.

sensations it gave me. As soon as the best
of it was past I fell off to sleep, and in the
morning woke up to find we were in the most
uninviting country I should think in the
world — a plain without a bit of grass or her-
bage except a kind of wild sage, and here
and there a prairie dog sitting up looking at
the trains. I had no idea there could be such
a dreadful place. It would frighten a strong
man to find himself there alone, as it extends
two hundred miles each way, I should think,
the only break being at Green River, where a
dirty river runs through it, and there are a
few shrubs a foot or two high. As this is
the only point at which the engine can get
water or the passengers could be fed, the
company have made a real station, and
built a nice little hotel, which they have lit
by electric light. They have made a gar-
den and fountains, and they have managed
to get a rim of grass about a yard wide,
just where the fountain keeps it moist. But
the people in the hotel gave us the best
breakfast it was possible to desire, and

SALT LAKE CITY.

seemed as pleased to see us as we were to
see them.

"VV e had had several hours through this kind
of country, when we came on some more rough ,
uninviting mountains, up which we had to
wind our way to the height of about 6,000 or
7,000 feet, and again met with snow. Then
we opened on to the Salt Lake Valley, and
the Salt Lake City at last came into view.
These people, the Mormons, must have had
good pluck to settle down in such a place.
There are no natural advantages about it,
except that the mountain-streams can be
used for irrigation. They avail themselves
of this one advantage to the greatest extent.
Every street has a stream of water running
on each side of it, and every garden has a
spray of water playing on the grass. By
this means vegetation is kept up, ant' ^ sup-
pose the people manage to exist in tolerable
comfort. Anyhow, the dinner here at the
hotel was one of the best we have had in the
States, and very well cooked and served.
The game dish was black bear, which 1

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86 A TRIP TO THE UNITED STATES,

tasted and enjoyed. The train leaves at 2 to-
morrow. We shall have time to look round
us before we start, and perhaps to bathe in
the lake.

7///. — It was too cold for a bathe in the
lake and some distance to get to it ; we
therefore took a carriage, with Mr. Todd and
his wife, and drove round the place. The
Mormons who are well-to-do have in some
cases many wives, and have houses built one
beside the other and a wife in each ; but they
say, not above one in fifty has more than
one wife. In some cases they have many
wives, and it does not seem to work so badly
as might be expected, the first wife having
to give her consent to any future marriage.
The central government have now made
these marriages illegal, and are punishing
the offenders — several are now in prison.
They have constructed a fort on high ground
overlooking the town, and have some big
guns and a thousand soldiers in it, so that
I expect the Mormons will have to give in.
However, it is quite on the cards there will

THE TEMPLE.

be trouble over it, as there are five Mormons
to every Gentile here. The Tabernacle, a
very large building with an arched roof, will
seat 10,000 people. You can hear a pin
drop from the reading-desk when standing
at any part of the building. This is a fact, as
we tried it. The Temple is a very ugly
stone building not half completed, but al-
ready thirty-two years in building. I should
say it never will be finished. I fancy the
whole thing is a swindle by the leaders on
the people, who are uneducated. Emigrants
are constantly coming in ; five hundred arrived
from Sweden and other countries last week.
The Salt Lake is a large piece of water, very
salt, about one-fifth being solid salt. It is a
miserable place, and smells badly in shallow
places in the sun. The lake is 100 miles
long, and has an island in it 10 miles
long. We started in the afternoon on a
journey from Salt Lake to San Francisco,
about 800 miles. It is not a nice ride, many
hundred miles of it being over sand without
vegetation ; and as this lasted all Saturday

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88 A TRIP TO THE UNITED STATES.

night and Sunday, we got rather tired before
we finished the day. We were in a most
splendid Pullman car, a new one, but with a
disagreeable attendant, and we did not enjoy
our Sunday, although there were nice sort
of people in the train. The feeding v/as at
the stations, where good meals were pro-
vided at 75 cents each, and twenty minutes
given to eat them. I would not be the
keeper of one of these places on any condi-
tion. Some Indians found their way to each ;
they spoke English very well. The women
are very ugly. They bring their packed-up
babies (papooses) to be looked at at lo cents
a peep ; one, on being offered 5 cents (2|d.)
refused, and returned tho money. One of
the men, on being asked why the women
painted their faces so m.uch, said he did not
think they were worse in that way than our
girls out East. The Indians are allowed to
ride free. When the line was constructed It
was thought this privilege would Induce
them to protect It, and it Is found to have
that effect. We went to bed early, and got

SACRAMENTO VALLEY.

up at 4, hoping to get a view of the scenery
on the ascent of the Sierra Nevada, but we
lost some of it.

We, however, did see the top and the
splendid country down into the valley of
Sacramento. It is very fertile, loaded with
fruit-trees and flowers. The town of Sacra-
mento itself is fine but on low ground ; the
river is several hundred yards wide but
dirty. The land from there to Oakland is
flat but fertile. The train crosses the Sac-
ramento river on a very large ferry-boat — I
am told and believe the largest in the world ;
she brought over three engines and two
trains of cars, and yet there was room. At
Oakland we had to get into another splendid
ferry-boat to take us over the bay, but this
does not take the train over. This boat has
a cabin on the upper deck more like a very
large waiting-room at a railway station, large
enough to seat several hundred people, and
well-furnished with comfortable seats. She
has a large crank engine with at least twelve-
foot stroke. These boats run their noses into

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90 A TRIP TO THE UNITED STATES.

a space, enclosed by two rows of piles driven
close together, made to exactly fit the boat.
The piles are left so that they have a spring
in them, and as the boat touches them in any
place they spring her off until she is exactly
in her berth, so exactly that the rails meet
and the engines and carriages run on board
without trouble.

gth. — On reaching San Francisco we went
to the banker* s to get some money, and
to the agents to make arrangements for
visiting the Yosemite Valley, which we find
we can do, as it is just open. We took a
steam rope-tram to the end of a long street
running on to high ground, and then walked
on to a hill overlooking the town, harbour,
and ocean, so that we might see where we
were and find our way about.

It is a fine city, and may be called the
wooden city. I should have thought it al-
most impossible to build such splendid, well-
designed, enormous buildings of wood. No
wonder these places burn ; the wonder to me
is they do not all go when one starts. To-

SAN FRANCISCO.

night the boys are crying- full particulars of
the fire, so I suppose there has been a large
one somewhere.

We have put up at the Baldwin Hotel, a
very fine place, but nothing like so large as
the Palace Hotel, which makes up a thou-
sand beds. Both these places are of wood, and
wonderful places they are. Some travelling
companions, Mr. and Mrs. Todd, came to
dine with us here, and we went to the Palace
Hotel, where they were staying, to hear the
band in the covered courtyard there. Mr.
Todd is a young engineer, but has broken
up his business in the East in order to settle
in a western town, as the only chance of
saving his wife, who is consumptive. They
are Americans of very good type, but under
the circumstances a little low-spirited. A
clergyman stopped us in the street. We came
across the Atlantic with him, and now have
run against him again, after having each
travelled some four or five thousand miles
since we parted.

10///.— Went with Mr. and Mrs. Todd to

i I

91 A TRIP TO THE UNTTED STATES.

the park, and on to the coast at a place
called the Seal Rocks, where a fine view is
to be had of the Pacific Ocean and coast.
The harbour is a splendid one, large enough
to take all the fleets in the world, and the
entrance through the Golden Gate very
fine indeed. There is an island in frr^^t to
protect the harbour, something like Spike
Island at Cork, and the harbour is not very
much unlike it in many respects. The seals
playii g about the rocks are very numerous
and large; they seemed to me more like
sea-lions than seals. An old king-seal, well
known, sat on one rock. He was much larger
than the rest, and we were told was absolute
lord and master of the lot. There is no law
against shooting these seals, but good feel-
ing and public opinion protect them. We
had lunch at a place overlooking the rocks,
and returned to the city to dine. After
dinner I hired a guide to take us over the
Chinese quarter of this city. There are,
I am told, about fifty thousand Chinese
here; one part of it is given up entirely

Tin: cfnxFSE orARTi'R.

to them, and they live I suppose much In the
same way as they do in the low parts of the
cities in China. The shops in the respect-
able streets are not at all bad, and seem
to be kept b rfspectrMe members of
society ; but as we w-inted to see everything,'-,
and we had as a !^^uide a very intelligent
man, who got his living in the daytime by
interpreting for the Chinese who cannot
speak English, and seemed to be well
known, we got him to take us into some of
the worst districts. First we went into a
sort of temple where there were five of their
gods. These were supposed to be the an-
cestors of the race this particular temple
belonged to, and the records dated back
some three thousand years, but from what I
could see and find out I fancy it was more a
sort of divining-room than a place of wor-
ship. Tiiere were vases filled with slips of
hard wood, each having certain words on it.
In cases of illness, it is the custom for them
to draw out one of these pieces of wood ;
the word on it has then to be turned out on

9+ A TRIP TO THE UNITED STATES.

some scroll, and opposite the name of the
medicine to be taken is given, and the
patient takes whatever it may be. Then
again there are pieces of wood, shaped some-
thing like a boat. These are thrown up, and
if they fall in a certain way the question to
be decided is favourable, if in another un-
favourable. A tray of sand is kept, over
which a kind of stick pointed at one end is
suspended, and touched so as to make marks.
These marks are supposed by those con-
cerned to be like certain characters in their
writing, and some kind of an answer is manu-
factured out of them. This is done after ask-
ing the gods to guide them. The room, which
is about thirty by twenty feet, and up-stairs in
a back court, is filled with all sorts of images
of bronze, and wood carving, and some really
interesting things. A man to whom we were
introduced pays i ,000 dollars a year for the
place, and takes a certain charge from the
worshippers and makes a good thing out of
it. They burn candles and incense, and offer
flowers to their gods, and the place has a

THE CHINESE QUARTER.

peculiar odour, but not very disagreeable.
Below this is a meeting-house or committee-
room, where the Chinaman in charge was not
very civil.

We then went through some of the
lowest and worst streets and alleys, some
very filthy, and up into an opium-smoking
establishment — a dirty loft with shelves for
the smokers. A man in charge, in a sort of
bed, prepares the opium by burning it in a
lamp. It is quite an art, they say, and when
cooked smells quite nice. The smoker then
takes it and swallows all the smoke he can
get from it, passing it out (after retaining it
as long as possible) through his nose. The
agreeable sensation comes on some time after-
wards and leaves them in a sort of dream.
There were twenty men I should think in
this place, and all looked more dead than
alive ; none seemed to have enough energy
to look at us even. The place smelt very
strong. We paid a quarter of a dollar
for the information and instruction, and
were glad to get into the air. A more

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96 ^ TJ^/P TO THE UNITED STATES.

dreadful place it is almost impossible to
conceive.

After this we went into a better sort of
place, a really nicely fitted up cafe or tea-
house, or whatever you may call it ; so much
better that we decided on having some tea
and preserved fruit. For the latter we had
chopsticks. The wood carving about this
place was really interesting.

In a silversmith's we went into, we saw
them working in a primitive way. Their light
was from a sort of lamp made by putting oil
into a saucer, the wick being a kind of grass,
which was kept over the edge of the saucer
in such a way that it formed a wick.

We then went into a lodging-house where
there were several hundred of the lowest
Chinese living, and where filth and vice
seemed to be allowed to run mad. Then
into a street given up entirely to gambling-
dens, with men watching at every door to
give the alarm in case of an officer of the law
being in sight ; when one appears the doors
are closed and a stand is made. We were

CHINESE THEATRE.

told that these dens are winked at, and that
those who ought to prevent such places from
being open take their weekly blackmail of
the proprietors for leaving them in peace.
Some of the courts and dens were fearful.
That human creatures should be created to
live such a life seems extraordinary. We saw
more vice and depravity than I can possibly
describe, and were pleased to get into a
comparatively pure sort of place, and this
was on the stage of one of their theatres.
We went through their dressing, or what we
should call green rooms — a filthy set of cellars
very little higher than your head, where the
smell was as strong as ever, and where the
Chinese actors were in a state of dress or
undress, as the case may be. These rooms
were entered by passages so long, dark, low,
and narrow, that it gave you a feeling of
suffocation. We were introduced to and
shook hands with the stage-manager, who
seemed also to be chief performer, and who
at the time was changing his costume and
had nothing but his trousers on. We were

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98 A TRIP TO THE UNITED STATES.

accommodated with seats on the stage and
spent best part of an hour watching the
performance. It was a tragedy, and spoken
in a kind of blank verse ; between each line
there was a crash of cymbals, and at cer-
tain parts, other instruments: a one-stringed
fiddle and three trumpets, altogether a most
fearful sound. There was no scenery : it was
imagined. A door was pretended to be opened
at the proper time, and in one part horses
were supposed to have been brought in, and
several of the characters mounted. We were
told we must always consider the characters
mounted when they had whips in their hands,
of which there was a stock on the stage.
They never allow women to go on the stage,
but men dress up and paint like women, and
really make up very well and imitate a
woman's voice in their parts. The house
was crowded. The women do not sit with
the men, but in a gallery by themselves.
We left by another set of private dens and
underground passages, in some of which men

CHINESE QUARTER.

were asleep. In this place there was a kind
of a temple over the stage with the gods of
the theatre in it, and we went up to see it,
but at the time there were no worshippers.

We went into the private dwelling of the
oldest Chinese inhabitant of the town : a room
perhaps seven feet by ten, very low, with a
bed in it. It was in a back court under the
level of the road. The old man asked us in,
but the stench was so fearful I could not get
rid of it, and should have run out, but that I
felt bound to give him something as I had so
far intruded on him. I have never before
spent such an evening. The worst Indian
savage cannot be as badly down in the social
scale as some of these people ; there is an
utter want of nobility about them. Those
Indians we saw at St. Augustine's were
splendid specimens of humanity compared
with many we saw to-night.

The sights have almost upset me. I sup-
pose the low parts of London may be bad ;
is it possible they can be anything like what

• I

ICO A TRIP TO THE UNITED STATES.

we have seen to-night ? I can only hope not
quite so bad.

It is twelve and I must be off to bed. We
intend to have another look at the Chinese
quarter to-morrow by daylight.

1 2th. — On inquiry we found we could not
get seats for the Yosemite Valley coach on
Thursday, but could this afternoon, and so
took them while we had the chance. The
round trip, i.e. from San Francisco to Yose-
mite and back, is 50 dollars per head, which
seems a very big price, but I think it is a pity
not to see it. We started at 3.30, slept in
the train, and got to a station called Ray-
mond about six in the morning, had breakfast
there, and took our seats on the coach for the
first day's ride up the lower part of the Sierra
Nevada mountains. It is a fertile slope
covered with oak and small shrub trees, and
game of all sorts. Although the distance is
under forty miles it took us the whole day to
travel the first stage, which was to a place
called Clarke's Hotel, built in a pretty dent in
the side of the mountain. We changed horses

SIERRA lYEVADA MOUNTAIXS.

lOI

four times, and had to our coach sometimes
four, once five, and once six, according to
the steepness of the road. The farther we
got on the way the larger the trees became
and the more dangerous the roads. At last
the trees were nearly all firs and some very
large. Clarke's Hotel is a nice one. We
were put up in a detached building which had
twenty or thirty rooms on the ground floor,
and we were comfortable, although very cold.
We rose at live the next morning, had
breakfast at six, and I had time for a little
walk before the start. The sheep from the
lowlands were being driven on to the moun-
tains. The men in charge sleep out of doors
alongside their sheep, and are arrned against
the wild animals, of which there are plenty
about here. I was told if I liked to spend
the night in the forest above where the sheep
were sheltered, I was almost sure to get a
shot or two either at bears or Californian
lions, something like a panther, large animals
whose weight averages about 130 lbs. How-
ever, whether it was from fatigue or whether

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ro2 A TRIP TO THE UNITED STATES.

I thought perhaps the wild animals might
have the best of it I cannot say, but I decided
on going to bed, which I did. The drive from
Clarke's on to the valley, twenty-six miles, is
a most wonderful one; the road is too narrow
and steep, and sometimes the wheels seemed
to go too near the edge and the distance to
fall was very great, but we arrived safe and
sound in time for lunch. There is a place
called Inspiration Point, where the valley first
comes into view, and where you can form a
very good idea of it. It is a tremendous gap
cut by the river through granite moun-
tains ; the sides are in many places almost
perpendicular. At one part a rock named El
Capitan stands like a wall 3,300 feet high
(more than half a mile) — you can hardly
realise it. The fir-trees are enormous, many
over 200 feet high, and yet they look as
nothing against this rock. There was one fir,
150 feet high, standing on a little ledge part
of the way up the rock ; I was a long time
before I could see it, it appeared to be so
small.

YOSEMITE VALLEY,

103

The waterfalls from the tops of these clefts
into the valley fall such a distance before they
touch anything that although they are large
streams, they are completely broken up
into a kind of thick mist, and, if there is any
wind, water the valley for some distance
round. There are three of these splendid
falls (beside many smaller) opposite the win-
dow of the room I am writing in. There are
three little hotels here — rough but comfort-
able. Frank and I have walked about ten
miles since we came here. We think of
staying two days. We slept well last night,
as we were very tired, and as we had to get
up at half-past five to go to the Mirror Lake
to see the sun rise, we went to bed early.
Breakfasted at six, and reached the lake, three
miles off, about seven, just in time. The
mountains and trees are reflected in the
lake most beautifully, and as the sun does
not rise above the tops of the mountains for
several hours after he is seen in other places,
he is not visible here until past seven. As
you look in the lake and he lights up the

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104 '-^ T-R/P TO THE UNITED STATES.

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I

tops of the mountains, the effect is very beau-
tiful and quite repaid us for our trouble. It
is necessary, in order to obtain a full view of
this extraordinary valley, to get on some
high point, so that you can see the whole
formation — the waterfalls and the surround-
ing mountains. The best point, we were
told, was Glazier Point — in fact, this is the
highest point accessible, and this only by a
mule-path several miles in length cut in
the rocks and having over fifty zigzags in it.
As some others were going up this morning
we joined them and hired some little horses
and guides. It was a rare climb and a slip
would have been serious, as in many places
there was nothing to prevent a fall to the
bottom. At first it was not nice to look
down, but as we got higher that feeling
went off, and we had more the feeling of
being up in a balloon. We went up about four
thousand feet above the valley, and the view
from the top was glorious — the little river,
green as grass, winding its way along the
valley, and a full view of the enormous rocks

GLAZIER POINT.

»05

that enclose it on every side. The trees,
that looked from the bottom like small
shrubs, were, when we were near them, 150
to 200 feet high, and from the top you could
hardly distinguish the cattle in the valley.
We threw some pieces of rock down, but
lost all sight of them before they were a
tenth part of the way to the bottom. I do
not suppose there are any other cliffs so
sheer upright, or falls that leap into the air
and break up, first into silver, and then into
spray, as these do here. How the valley
has been formed I cannot make out ; it
seems almost impossible that such a river
can have cut it, and if it has cut it, it must
have taken millions of years.

There is very seldom any rain here, but a
good depth of snow on the mountains. As we
came down again a storm-cloud gathered
and looked as if it would burst on us ; but
it did not, and it is now Ciear and the sun
shining again.

The ride down seemed more dangerous
than the climb up, as at some of the angles

I^9<

1 06 A TRIP TO THE UXITED STATES.

there seemed to be much too little room for
the horses and mules to turn, and the <jreat
depth was always before us. I and one or
two others walked and led our horses down
the worst places, and we were all rather glad
to get down, and were tired.

I forgot to mention that an enterprising
man lives with his family on the top, and
crave us a verv irood lunch and a bottle of
Californian wine. I should like to stay here
for some time ; I have never seen a place
where the same effects are produced. If
you were an artist you might spend the
summers of your life here. There are some
nice mountain trout in the rivers and streams,
and they cook them very well. They are
caught by the Indians for the hotel.

The tribe of Yosemite Indians, never a
very large one, has dwindled down to thir-
teen. They are living in three huts in the
valley ; they live on bread made of acorns
prepared in a curious way, and other pri-
mitive food. I should say a few years would
see the end of them. They are a very infe-

1 IM

YOSEMJTE IXDTAXS.

107

rior race and have some strant^e customs.
They burn their dead, and during the cere-
mony dance and make a great noise in
order to attract the evil one's attention, that
the heart may not be stolen by him, as they
suppose that the heart passes into a future
existence.

Wild animals, i.e. the large ones, seem to
keep clear of the valley since it has been taken
possession of by the whites ; but there are
plenty all round. Our guide tells us some
very large bears have been killed on the
mountains. The timber land round here can
be bought of the Government for from \\ to
2\ dollars per acre. The timber, if it could
be marketed, would be valuable ; but as it
is it is useless and is being destroyed. The
valley is reserved for the public, and will be
some day visited by the million. The reser-
vation extends for one mile round the cliffs,
i.e. outside of them. In one place we passed
there was to me a novel kind of conveyance
for taking timber to market. A trough, fifty-
six miles long, has been constructed of wood

\\\

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IM ^1

1 1;

M i

11 i

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ill

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io8 A TRIP TO THE UXITED STATES.

along-side a stream, and water enough turned
into it to fill it and float timber, one log, or
several boards at a time. As the trough is
at a hanging level the water runs at about
five miles an hour. The timber put in at the
saw-mill at the upper end takes thirteen
hours to do the journey, and of course there
is a continuous succession of pieces floating
down, so that it would convey an immense
quantity. I understand this mode of con-
veyance is in existence in Norway, but I
have never before seen it.

The gold-mining interest in Californir.
seems to be great. We passed one large
gold mine, and trial holes have been sunk in
various places. There are also several sul-
phur and other springs, so that I suppose
what with its mineral wealth and climate ii
will some day be a well-populated country. -

15///, Sunday, — Had a walk all round the
valley. Started between eight and nine and
did not get back to the hotel until lunch time.
We miscalculated our distance, or should
have srone to a service held in a little wooden

A JlfORNIXG'S WALK.

109

church, conducted by a lady staying in one
of the hotels. All v/ho attended said she
did it beautifully, and preached a most
telling sermon ; as it was, our sermon was
one from the rocks, and a very impressive
one too. The size and grandeur grew upon
us. The trees at their feet, some 200 feet
high, looked nothing against the vast mass
of rock. All the morning, part was being lit
up by the glorious sunshine and part thrown
into deep shadow. The birds were of the
brightest colours, and the butterflies three
times the size of those at "iT^me, and the most
beautiful I have ever seen ; waterfalls, some
taking a clear leap into space, their spray
producing rainbows in the sunshine, alto-
gether the scene was almost unnaturally
beautiful. Another long walk in the evening
finished our day. We started at six on Mon-
day morning on our return journey, arrived
at Clarke's Hotel to lunch, after a mountain
drive of twenty-six miles, had an hour's rest,
and started again for a journey and climb of
2,600 feet to the Mariposa grove of big trees.

I \

no A TRIP TO THE UNITED STATES.

All the trees about here are very large; but the
Wellingtonias — the same as we have small
specimens of in England — grow in one or
two places to an enormous size. Where we
went to-day there were about three hundred
large ones and a great many smaller ones in
a sheltered position on the mountain side*
They are, I suppose, the largest trees in the
world — many are 15 to 20 feet through the
butt, and 200 to 250 feet high; but there
are several specimens much larger — one
TOO feet in circumference and nearly 300 feet
hic:h. We measured the circumference our-
selves, and I measured the length of a fallen
one and made it 260 feet ; it had been down
for years, and as the top was large, it must
have been much taller. The highest spe-
cimen, they say, is 326 feet, or nearly half
as high again as the Monument.

A carriage-road has been cut through the
butt of one, and the section (I measured it)
is 27 feet through. By counting the rings
they make the ages of some of the largest
trees to be three or four thousand years.

in\

THE BIG TREES,

III

Whether this is right or not I cannot tell,
but certain it is the trees are most wonder-
ful in size.

The wood is of a darkish pink colour, and
the trees themselves are not so beautiful as
some of the other fir-trees, and are all more
or less damaged by fire. One has the centre
burned completely out— you can get inside
and look up, as though you were looking up
a very large chimney. This sort of fir only
grows in one or two spots, and is quite dif-
ferent from any of the other kinds which sur-
round it.

We shall sleep at Clarke's to-night, and
go to bed early, as we have to start in good
time to-morrow. The drive back to Ray-
mond enabled us to see the view looking
west on descending the mountains. The
slopes below are not covered with fir-trees
but oak and small shrubs, leaving room for
herbage between, and look very beautiful,
just like an immense park. In fact it would
make a splendid preserve of unlimited ex-
tent, and I should think mio-ht be boucrht

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112 A TRIP TO THE UNITED STATES.

for a few shillings an acre, and used for that
purpose and grazing to advantage, as the
winters are not very severe on the western
slopes, and there are many streams of good
water.

We fell in with one of Raymond's excur-
sion parties. He manages excursions as Cook
does in England. They were rather a mixed
lot, but a few were very superior, nice people.
A Mr. Whiting, a molasses merchant of Bos-
ton, travelling with his wife and daughter,
seemed to be very well-informed. I promised
to send him out a photograph of the small
Wellingtonias we have, as they do not seem
to cultivate them in the States, and also to
send him the particulars of the Willesden
water-proof paper. Then there was a Mr.
Jayne, a friend of his, who had travelled a
good bit, a very nice man ; a small lady of a
lecturing turn of mind, who I should think
could take the chair at a meeting called for
the protection of woman's rights ; an oldish
lady who had lived principally in the train
since January ; and a married lady of the

\ ¥

SAN FRANCISCO.

shady side of forty, who was full of fun, and
many others. They were all particularly
kind to us, and were constantly asking our
opinions of the States and Americans gener-
ally. We joined their party back into 'Frisco,
and had a private Pullman car. This little
trip off the road is looked upon as a small
one, but it involves four hundred miles of
railway travelling, and nearly a hundred and
fifty miles of staging over one of the most
difficult roads I have seen.

1 8///. — We passed the remainder of the day
in the city of San Francisco, walking again
round the Chinese town, and looking into
stores, &c. We spent part of the evening with
our friends at the Palace Hotel, and were in-
troduced to a Mr. Newton, of Holyoke, Mass.,
a young partner in a large paper-making
firm. They have four mills, and make forty
or fifty tons of paper a day. Delegates from
the Young Men's Christian Associations,
which are very numerous and powerful in the
States, have a series of meetings at Oakland
this year. Mr. Whiting attended to take part

yiJ; '

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hi •'

J 14 A TRIP TO THE UNITED STATES.

in the proceedings. He informed me the
Association had, I think he said, 1,100 dif-
ferent branches, and 1 50,000 members ; they
do not work with any particular Church, but
embrace the whole of the Christian denomi-
nations, and work independently of the
clergy. They have very fine buildings in
almost every town.

Next morning we had a ride to the higher
part of San Francisco, and went to the sta-
tion where the power is provided for the
cable railways. It is splendidly arranged ;
they have two pairs of engines, 150 horse-
power each pair, one pair being used as a
stand-by in case of a breakdown. The cable
is endless, working over grooved wheels, and
as it expands and contracts in consequence
of the alteration of the temperature of the
weather, it is led over a grooved wheel
placed on a trolly, having a weight to keep
it extended to the necessary strain.

There is a machine for making the cable
on the spot. The cable is a little over an
inch in diameter, made over a core of Manilla

l!-J>

Lble

;nce
the
[leel
:eep

pable

tr an
Liiilla

SAiV FRAXCISCO.

1 1

rope. They can put a new cable on to the
works for the whole length of several miles
in an hour and a half, by splicing the new
to the old, and leading the old off on to
some spare drums. I was pleased to find
the best wire could be got from Gateshead,
England, and that they were using it, although
more expensive, in consequence of the duty ;
it stood the work better, and the cable now
running is made of it. They have 150 tons
of the Gateshead wire on the way out.

These cable tramways are an undoubted
success out here ; they run up and down the
steepest hill with perfect safety, can be
stopped and started with ease, and pay well.
It has altogether passed beyond the stage of
experiment ; they are being put down every-
where. The climate of this place is not
satisfactory : it is cold and damp, there is
almost always a fog hanging over the town,
and although the variation of the tempera-
ture is not great between summer and winter,
it is certainly not the place for invalids. In
the afternoon we started on our trip to Port-

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116 .1 77?/P 7'6> T//£ UNITED STATES.

land, Oregon. It is about 800 miles off, and
getting there takes forty-eight hours, as part
of it has to be done by stage coach. The
land is for a long distance flat between the
mountains, and seems to be very good for
agriculture. This is one of the largest wheat-
producing states of the Union, and the wheat
grown here fetches the highest price in the
English market. We slept on the car, and in
the morning arrived at the end of the rail, the
last few miles being over an unfinished road,
very uneven, and with temporary bridges,
over the streams. The country is wooded
and beautiful, and the railway runs up the
sides of the mountains in splendid style. The
rivers, they say, are full of fish. After great
trouble the passengers were packed into
three of the regular old American coaches.
Our baggage had to be left behind, as there
was no room for it, and we commenced the
roughest ride by far I have ever had. The
road, or rather track, was entirely without
hard material of any kind, and the ruts so
deep, we were in constant danger of turning

1 ii-

^1'

A ROUGH RIDE.

over. We had to ford the streams, and only
progressed over part of the road at the rate
of two miles an hour. In fact, we had to
walk very often. In one case the coach stuck
fast going down a steep hill ; although we
had six horses the wheels sunk in so far they
could not go round, and we had to clear out
the passengers before it could be got out.
In some places small trees and branches
were laid over the road. We had no springs
but leather, and the shaking and cramping
was dreadful. We, however, came through
a delightful country, first over the northern
spurs of the Sierra Nevada, and then along
the Umpqua river and the middle of the coast
range of mountains, having Mount Shasta
and the Cascade Mountains in sight. At one
little shanty a very old black man, whose
hair was perfectly white, gave us some splen-
did hashed venison ; although it ought not to
have been shot at this season of the year, it
was very good. We got to Ashland late,
but the train waited for us, and we are now
comfortably installed in a Pullman car again,

' ')

ii8 A TRIP TO THE UXITED STATES.

having- had our dinner, and the beds are just
being made up. The fields are green and
full of crops and cattle. Except for the
winters, I should prefer this part of the
country to most others I have seen.

2ist. — We arrived in Portland at lo a.m.,
and put up at the Esmond Hotel, the largest
hotel having just been burned down. Our
yesterday's drive and rail ride was all
through Oregon Territory, and a splendid
district it is. Portland is a very nice busi-
ness city on the Willamette River. There
are some very fine stores here, and at the
back there are capital residences with good
well-kept gardens. The people are not so
much in a hurry as those in most of the
other cities, and seem contented and well-to-
do. We turned the hotel register back some
distance, but could not find a name from
England. As there is splendid fishing,
shooting, and scener}^ I wonder more do not
come. There are two beautiful mountains —
extinct volcanoes — Mount Hood and Mount
St. Helen — in sight, covered with snow a

\ i

ORl'JGCLY.

I IQ

long way down. The river Is a very fine
one; any-sized vessel almost can g-et up
here. Several English vessels are now tak-
ing In timber, as this is one of the greatest
timber-producing States. The lumbering,
/>. cutting timber, Is a big trade. A dis-
trict Is purchased and a reofular lumberlno-
gang formed, usually about 150 hands; a
tram Is laid down one of the valleys to the
nearest stream to bring the timber down,
and a small winding engine Is used to pull
ths logs to the trams. The trees are cut off
about six feet from the ground (timber is so
plentiful they do not mind how much they
waste). It Is then cross-cut Into the desired
lengths; one man does this, even for the
largest logs, and they are sent down to the
mill, usually on the creek. The men get
if dollars a day and their food ; the foreman
this year S^ dollars a month. The cook of
the camp is an important personage and well
paid. The men are a rough lot, work ten
hours a day, and gamble and sleep away the
rest of the time. A tree six feet through

I2C A TRIP TO THE rNITED STATES.

and 200 feet high is not at all an unusuai
size.

Washington Territory is just over the
Columbia River. We are trying to arrange
to go to Puget Sound and to Vancouver
Island, but we must draw the line somewhere,
or we shall not be back in New York in time
to catch our boat. Highway robbery has not
altogether ceased here yet. We were shovn
the remains of some mail-bags taken from a
stage some little time ago, just on the brow
of a hill ; and on one of our stages, when
they were carrying some bullion, there was a
man placed with a double-barrelled gun on
the box and another behind to protect it, as
there had been several robberies withir a
little time. The labour on the coast is done
in a great measure by Chinese. The railway
in course of construction to cover the country
over which we last drove was being made
entirely by them. There were several thou-
sands of them in camps in different places.
They get about a dollar a day and their
food, but work slowly. They make curious

i « ' i

PORTLAND,

121

ovens in the earth for cookin^f their food, and
seem easily managed. Not far from our
road was a large vineyard of over two thou-
sand acres, getting- into good order. The
Californian wines are, I think, very good,
and will come into the market shortly. The
best, I think, is a kind of claret, but they
also make a fair white wine and champagne.
The street cars here, as at some other places,
are driven by a man who also acts as con-
ductor, and has no help. You have to put
the fare into a box yourself as you get in.

22nd. — We went to one of the prettiest
little wooden churches I have ever seen. It
was made of Californian red wood and the
white pine, mingled in such a way as to be
very ornamental. The mouldings and all
interior fittings were of wood, as also
was the ceiling. I should think something
might be done in this way, i.e, mingling the
woods of di/Terent colours, in England. As
we passed the St. Charles Hotel, we heard
the fire-alarm given, as there was a fire on the
back premise^. We timed the fire-engines,

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111 A TRIP TO THE UNITED STATES.

Sic. The reel of hose was on the spot in
one minute, the fire-escape and ladders in
under two minutes, and two steam fire-
engines in under four minutes, and they
were pumping almost immediately after-
wards. This seems to me good work ; the
engine-house was, however, close by. The
Columbia River is, I find, some distance down.
The Willamette is a very beautiful stream,
with plenty of fish in it. We shall see the
Columbia to-morrow. There is a bridge
over the river here constructed very cheaply.
Part of it swings to let vessels through, and
although the piece swinging is 308 feet long,
it is so nicely balanced it is moved easily by
one man ; it is balanced on a pivot in the
centre, and turned like a turntable. The
young fellow at the desk in the hotel here is
the son of a man in good position in Edin-
burgh, and has been educated as a dc [ .r — a
most gentlemanly young fellow. He says he
brought a little money out, but lost it in
mining speculations. He has driven a coach,
and been so hard up that he has only had

THE COLUMBIA RIVER.

12.3

,1 \

two meals in three days; but he says he
likes the place, and thinks he shall now get
on. His case is that of many thousands. You
need not feel at all surprised if you find that
the man blacking your boots is much better
educated and better informed than yourself.
I have found that out already several times.

2yd. — Our journey to-day was at first for
forty miles down the Columbia River, one of
the finest streams, I suppose, in the world ;
it drains a district as large as France and
Germany, and that, too, where there is con-
tinual snow on the mountains. The land by
the side has been turned into water meadows,
where the high bank and timber is suffi-
ciently far back. The train was taken over
the Columbia River on one of the laree
ferry-boats. The operation occupied about
three-quarters of an hour, during w^liich time
a very good lunch was served in a dining-
room on board the ferry-boat for half a dollar;
the food was well cooked, and the room
nicely decorated with flowc;rs. We then had
a five hours' ride through W'ashington Terri-

12 4- A TRIP TO THE UNITED STATES.

tory to a place called Tracona. The country
we passed through was partly cleared, and
had some very nice streams through it.
Tracona is at the southernmost point of Puget
Sound, and will, I suppose, be i.^ade into an
important port and a wate'-^ni.^ jjiace ; but
the shore is very flat just here, and the tide
when out leaves a large space uncovered,
which is a very great drawback. The moun-
tain — now called Tracona, after the town,
which stands some distance behind — you can
see from every point; it looks very beauti-
ful ; we could see the outline even when it
was nearly dark. We went on bourd the

steamer and took our berths, as lI:^

:.^Js

4 in the morning, and then went to h yp a
look at the large hotel, a well-built brick
building of considerable size and well-found.
We were very much amused by an advertis-
ing gang, who had a kind of musi*- -hall plat-
form fitted upon wheels, and drt ^ by two
grey horses. A well-dressed womar. played
the harmonium, ?nd the three men had good
voices, and san',- a gouc! selection of semi-

PUGET SOUND.

125

comic songs. Between each, one of the men
made a humorous speech, puffing- his patent
medicines, and his wit was extraordinary ; he
turned any chaff he received to account at
once. He would have done for an Irish
member. The whole party were staying at
one of the best hotels.

24///. — Got up between five and six to see
as much as possible of Puget Sound. It is a
splendid piece of water, something like the
Solent, but much more extensive, and having
all sorts of islands and headlands in it, nicely
wooded, with snow-clad mountains behind.
There are some good towns on the shore ; one,
Seattle, we called at ; it has some fine school
and other buildings, and seems to be a good
place for trade. The next was Port Towns-
end, where we had time to land and walk
round. There are collieries here, and con-
veniences for loading a 2,500-ton steamer in
twelve hours. We then had a thirty-five-mile
steam over a large piece of water. Strait of Juan
de Fuca, open at one point to the Pacific and
consequently a little rough, but of a splendid

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126 A TRIP TO THE UNITED STATES.

colour. The mountains of the coast range
could be seen at several points above the
clouds and looked very strange. We got
to Victoria, Vancouver Island, about 3.30.
As this was the first Canadian port, and as
there were three English men-of-war here, it
looked very homelike, and the people much
more like ourselves — English carriiiges, and
dog-carts, and other things ; but the place
has less life about it than the States' towns.
The Island of Vancouver is in many respects
like Great Britain ; it is about the same dis-
tance from mainland as England is from
France. The climate and vegetation is very
much like that of the south of England, with
a fair amount of rain, and very little snow and
frost. The roads are made as we make ours,
and good. The island is about 300 miles
long and something under 100 miles wide; but
the population is at present very small, 7,500.
I looked in at a land agent's ; he had a farm
of 1,760 acres (600 acres cleared and culti-
vated) he asked ^1,760 for, or 5 dollars an
acre. Another of 600 acres for 3 dollars, or

VANCOUVER'S ISLAND.

127

I2S., an acre; and a little shooting-box on
sixty acres of land and boat-house, with water
frontage, for ^200. I dare say he would have
taken less. This gives some idea of values.

There are ver}^ good coal mines here yield-
ing a considerable quantity. I made the
acquaintance of the owner; he said he had
to raise it about 300 feet, and sent 1,500
tons a month to San Francisco alone. He
surprised me by telling me a considerable
amount of coal came from England to San
Francisco. This island should be better
known ; it would be just the place for English-
men to settle in, if they could only get here.

The railways of the States are doing all
they can to injure the Canadian Pacific Rail-
way. They will not grant through tickets
over it from any of their western cities. I
arranged a through rate with the agent at
Portland from Portland to Winnipeg, but
had to get money enough returned out of the
rate to p£iy our fare to this place, as the com-
panies working up to here will not let the
Canadian Pacific people handle any of the

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128 A TRIP TO THE UNITED STATES.

money, although they grant through rates
over each others' lines all over the States.
I am writing this rather late at night on board
a very fine steamer, vv^hich is to sail during
the night for Vancouver, i.e. the town, which
is on the mainland. It is the largest we have
been on, and makes up a number of berths.
There are several people about the cabins
talking before they turn into bed. In the
morning we found we had got a considerable
distance on our way, and were in sight of the
mountains surrounding the new town of Van-
couver. The entrance to the harbour is
between high hills covered with timber and
very narrow. When you are. in, it is a most
beautiful and convenient harbour, with water
for any sized vessels, and as this is the west-
ern port of the Canadian Pacific Railway, I
suppose it is destined to be one of the great
})orts of the western coast. Nothing could be
more protected, more convenient, or more
picturesque. There was a small place on the
spot before the construction of the railway,
but it was cleared off by fire eleven months

VANCOUVER.

I2g

ago in thirty minutes. The fire got hold of
the forest, which was very dense, and simply
licked the small town of wooden houses out
of existence. The people ran for their lives
to any spare space, and chiefly into the water,
but many were burned. The exact number
is not known. This place is now laid out as
a large town, and if ever built as designed,
will be as big as some of the large eastern
cities of the States. There are at present wide
streets paved with planks, and with plank
side walks, and some very tidy houses,
several built of brick and stone, and it is,
for the time it has been in existence, a won-
derful place. The stumps of the trees left
by the fire are still standing all round, and
a more extraordinary sight you cannot ima-
gine. They must have stood very thick in-
deed, and been very large. This is another
place where a young man with a little money
and brains could get on well. It simply must
go ahead, it has everything that is neces-
sary to create a large port and place of
business. We met a gentleman, a clergy-

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130 A TRIP TO THE UNITED STATES.

man, here we crossed the Atlantic with,
and when we were in a shanty buying a
photograph a young man walked in who
was in the Cunard office in London when
I got my tickets. He said he remembered
my face again, and asked if we were going
back to England, and, on being told we were,
begged Frank to call on his parents at Cat-
ford Bridge to tell them we had seen him.
Frank was to be sure to drop in just at din-
ner-time on them, which he promised to do.
This young fellow was on the Stock Ex-
change, but is now in a surveying party for
the railway company. We spent the morning
in going over a large saw-mill ; the mill was
home-made and old, but some of the contriv-
ances were very good. All the work was
done on a floor about fifteen feet from the
ground. The logs were floated up to one
end of the mill, and drawn on to the platform
by means of an endless chain having very
large links set in motion at pleasure by press-
ing a pulley on to a loose band, same as we
make small lifts at home, a smaller chain

A SAW-MTLL,

'3'

being attached to the timber and hooked into
one of the links of the large chain. The log
was then placed on a bench on which there
were two circular saws, one working over the
other, so that where the bottom saw was not
deep enough to go through the cut, the other
one came in and helped. It cut through a
log twenty feet long in thirty seconds. The
log was canted as required by means of
another chain with a hook on end, and fixed
to a pulley overhead, also worked by pressure
gearing, and very easily. When the stuff
was planked, it passed on to another saw-
bench further ahead and \/as edged ; then it
was pushed along rollers into a vessel wait-
ing for cargo. The mill was turning out cut
timber as fast as the vessel could be loaded
with it. The boilers were kept going by the
sawdust, which was conveyed from the dif-
ferent places by pieces of board 3 inches
by 6 inches by i inch, drawn along the
bottom of a wooden box, on an endless
chain or wire. When the loaded pieces of
board got in front of the boiler- furnace the

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132 A TRIP TO THE UNITED STATES.

sawdust was swept off by means of pieces of
leather hanging down and left exactly where
it was wanted.

Tliey have circular saws out here with
teeth made to take in r.nd out, so that when
a saw wants sharpening you put in a fresh
set of teeth, which can be done in a short
time; but they cut away an immense quantity
of stuff, waste of timber being of no conse-
quence. The best timber boards are sold at
1 5 dollars per thousand superficial feet, i inch
thick, which is the standard all cut lumber,
as they call it, is sold by. We are now pass-
ing up alongside the Fraser River, the best
fish stream in the world. The salmon are so
thick at some seasons of the year they stop
boats going up. This sounds too much, but
it is told me by a most sober Canadian, and
not by a Californian. The information given
by the latter is generally doubted, but I
don't like to begin to doubt the Canadians
already. However, there is no doubt the
river, which is an immense one, is very full
of fish, and the trade done in tinned salmon

FRASER RIVER.

»33

is one of the leading Industries of the district.
It is also true that a twenty-pound salmon can
be got for a few pence. The Indians are very
numerous here, but seem to work. There is
a Roman Catholic mission for Indians on the
opposite shore to Vancouver. The little
settlement is clean and pretty. I bought a
picture of it.

The station at Vancouver was only opened
yesterday by the directors, on the Queen's
birthday, and this is the first train out. We
are therefore the first passengers. They
made a bit of a fuss. There are triumphal
arches of evergreens and the remains of
yesterday's decorations. Most of the men
have sleepy eyes, as if they had lived freely
yesterday. The train was consequently a
little late in starting. A farmer I asked as
to the climate tells me it is quite mild here
up to the Rocky Mountains. It is just like
England, with perhaps a little more wet.
The greatest objection is that the woods in
summer are always burning, and for weeks
together whole districts are enveloped in a

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134 A TRIP TO THE UNITED STATES.

yellow, pitchy-smelling smoke ; but that will
cure itself, as if they persevere there will
some day be no more beautiful timber to
burn. They have a curious arrangement
here for unloading railway trucks loaded with
mould. The trucks are simply platforms
made to project at the ends, so that they form
a continuous floor ; the mould ' piled up on
this, and there is a kind of pi- 1, made of
wood shod with iron at the end furthest from
the engine; the plough is made so as to throw
the stuff off each side, and when the trucks
are blocked the plough is attached by a
chain to the engine and drawn forward, and it
clears all the trucks of their load in a minute
or two. The truck with the plough on is then
shunted to rear of the train and the operation
can be repeated. The plough is kept from
leaving the trucks by two guides, one hang-
ing over each >ide.

We are climbing up by the side of the
Fraser River on a road cut in the rocks
alongside. It is a beautiful river, narrowing
between high rocks as we get up it, with

A MOUNTAIN LAKE.

•35

here and there a rock in the middle trying
to stop the water from flowing down, but
only with the result of heading it back and
making the rushing torrent more beautiful.
The railway in some places is on a doubtful
foundation, as clay is mixed with the rocks,
and when it is disturbed the clay washes
away and the rocks tumble over. The snows
are melting, so that the railway traffic has to
be carried on with the greatest care. The
train due Friday last was two days behind
time, and the train to the west to-day is
seventeen hours behind. We, however,
seem to be keeping time so far.

We dined at a little hotel put up by the
company on the side of the mountain. The
hotel is very tastily built of wood, and the
food good. The next morning found us on
the lower east side of Coast Mountains, by
the side of a splendid lake surrounded by the
fir-clad mountains of the Gold Range. The
lake is very much like some of the Scotch
lakes, and full of fish and wild-fowl. More
mountain climbing led us to what is called

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136 A TRIP TO THE UNITED STATES.

the Divide Lake, water at one end running
out to Fraser River and the other to a
branch of the Columbia River. We had
our breakfast car with us. This is very
well found and fitted ; ferns on the table,
and good food and attendance for 75 cents,
or 3s., a head. All up the Fraser River
men seem to go in for gold washing on
their own account, i.e. two or three work-
ing together washing the sand brought
down by the melting snows. They must
get some gold or so many would not be
at it.

The forest fires have literallv devastated
a good bit of the countiy alongside the
railway about here, and spoiled its beauty.
Nothing but charred remains of trees,
mostly on the ground but many standing,
like blackened spectres. The destruction
is awful. All parties seem to combine to
destroy; timber being treated as an enemy
everywhere, and destruction carried on where
it cannot possibly have an excuse. Not one
forest fire, but hundreds are now burn-

THE ALBERT CANON.

'37

ing. We are scarcely ever out of sight of
one, although they do not at this time of
the year assume large proportions.

We, at about nine o'clock, began to
ascend by the side of a branch of the Colum-
bia River, or rather of a mountain river
running into the Columbia, through a beau-
tiful valley to the Albert Canon, which is
not so dark or deep as that passed on the
Rio Grande, but still very grand and beau-
tiful. They allow you on the trains to run
about as you like, and to stand on the out-
side platforms, no matter how dangerous the
places are. It makes the time pass more
quickly. As I. am writing the train has just
brought up for a rock ahead, one having
slipped down on to the track. We are in a
pretty spot, the water dashing down from the
mountain and sparkling in the sunshine.
This obstruction is scarcely removed before
we have news of another landslip, or rather
rockslip, Ixirther in front, and have taken
aboard some men and dynamite so that we
may clear our way. The train ran on a mile

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13;? A TRIP TO THE UNITED STATES.

or two until she got to the obstruction. We
have walked over a river bridge and through
a snow-shoot to see what it is. It is not very
serious. A couple of charges has broken it
up sufficiently to allow the men to remove it.
In the broken rock there are pieces contain-
ing lead and silver, and something resembling
gold but much lighter. We got some speci-
mens. They say we shall have all clear
in two or three hours. We are to lunch
about ten miles further ahead if we can get
there. Our breakfast car left us to tack on
to a train going the other way to provide the
passengers with lunch. The snow has slid
down from the mountains on to the stream
and has bridged it over in several places, the
water having cut holes and made large snow
arches. There are, they say, about thirty
snow-shoots or sheds on these mountains, all
very well constructed. As soon as the slip
was cleared and we started on our journey
we were brought up by a heavy freight train
coming down the other way, and as there
are no sidings except at points some miles

SELKIRK MOUNTAINS.

139

distant each way, considerable delay was
caused in settling which should go back.
The passenger train has the right of the
road, but the freight train is very heavy, and
although she has two engines can hardly
get up the hill. However, it is settled she is
to try, and there is now a kind of procession
of trains climbing the mountain at walking
pace. We are all getting hungry, as it is
past lunch time, and our lunch-station is
some distance ahead. There must have been
something v rong to allow two trains running
in opposite directions to get on the single line
together, and the landslip may have served
us a good purpose. After several stoppages
we managed to get by at the siding, but the
road was so bad and had been washed away
by the melting snow in so many places we
were two hours more in getting to the Glacier
Hotel, which is nearly at the top of the pass
of the Selkirk Range. This range seems to
be more difficult to get over than any of the
others. We had our midday meal here
some hours late, and it was, in consequence.

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140 A TRIP TO THE UNITED STATES.

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rather overdone but extraordinarily good for
such a place, as everything around was buried
in snow. Just here a train is buried and has
been there since February, when the snow
came down and wrecked it, killing several
men. They are digging it out. It was
completely smashed, and was covered up with
snow, trees, and stones brought down by the
sliding snow. Our difficulties were not over,
however. On starting again the road was
found to be bad, the foundation having
been washed away, and then a rock of some
tons weight had got on to the road, which
had to be broken up and removed. In many
places timber had been put under the road
into the bank, the outer end being propped
up from the rock below. The road was so
uneven the carriages lurched, sometimes
dangerously. However, at last we reached
the highest part. On crossing the ridge the
water began to run with us, so that we knew
we were over the pass. Altogether there are
miles of beautifully constructed snow-sheds
and immense cuttings through snow. In

i f

TRESSEL-BRIDGES.

some cuttings there was a spare line of rails,
so that the men might have a better chance
of keeping one clear. We passed over some
very fine tressel-bridges, one 280 feet high
and another 1,100 feet long and 170 feet
high, vi^ith 1,250,000 feet of timber in it.
There were many landslips on this side, but
nothing to stop us. Lower down there was a
valley not unlike the Yosemite, having about
such another river running through it, but
the mountains round were not so high or so
steep, and no large waterfalls. There we
hit the Columbia River again, which takes a
very strange bend north, and is here, as
elsewhere, a beautiful stream. The railway
company lost several cars here last year,
consumed in a forest fire. The anxiety in
running this line must be great, as from hour
to hour something seems to happen to make
parts unsafe. Some of the bridges over
the river have been carried away by the
sliding snow four times already. They are,
however, gradually getting everything more
safe ; and as they find out the tricks of the

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.42 A TRIP TO THE UNITED STATES.

snow and shifting rocks in different places,
are able to make some provision against
them.

We got down to a place called Donald, on
the low land between the Selkirk and Rocky
Mountains. This is the only place the com-
pany could find flat enough to build engine-
sheds, &c., and they have formed a sort of
colony here, and as it is completely buried
in the mountains, and the men are cut off
from civilisation, it is about the roughest
place we have seen, and I should think
resembles a mining camp. Some young
Englishman belonging to a good family who
had gone to the bad and was out here, was
shot in a gambling saloon a few nights ago.
We now began to ascend the Rockies. Here
they are not so difficult to cross as they
were further south ; there are no difficult
places or snow-sheds. Although we had to
climb steep grades, with two engines, and
pass through the usual canon by the side of
the river on entering (it was still a branch
of the Columbia), we got on easily and had

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THE BEA VER RIVER.

1^3

no further adventures. The Beaver River,
where the Hudson Bay Company used to get
so many skins for hat-making in times gone
by, is here ; in fact this is part of the district
over which that Company held sway. I pre-
viously thought their territory was confined
entirely to snow-covered districts, but it, in
fact, includes large districts as fertile as
England, with a similar climate. They have
still a large share of the land, which they
are selling as they can find a market
for it.

27//^. — The morning found us down on the
prairie, with nothing but rolling grass lands
as far as the eye can reach ; they say it
extends i ,000 miles from here, and although
it looks fresh and green we shall soon
tire of it. The Indians (here a finer set
of men than many we have seen, clothed
in whitish sort of cloaks) are now and
then seen galloping over the plains on their
ponies. We have taken a dining-car on,
which is to accompany us until we get
into inhabited parts again, and have just

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iH A TRIP TO THE UNITED STATES.

had breakfast served in an elegantly fur-
nished dining-room. We had fruit, fresh fish
nicely cooked, oatmeal porridge and cream,
buttered toast and eggs, and could have had
manv more dishes if we had wanted them,
and as much ice and fruit as we liked. The
tables are very beautifully set out ; cost of meal
75 cents, or say 3s. The silver is as bright
as possible. At the end of the car a side-
board is set out with wines, vases, and
flowers. This is a curious mixture of rough-
ness and luxury. Indians as nearly wild,
and without clothes or proper food, as you
can imagine, living almost like animals,
look in at the windows of Pullman drawing-
room and dining cars, filled with every
convenience the ingenuity of man can de-
vise, and decorated in an absolutely artistic
manner, regardless of cost. These cars
cost the company ^3,000 each, but six new
ones they have just had built they say are
altogether more costly and beautiful ; the
sleeping berths are as comfortable as a four-
post bed at home, but the necessary curtains

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THE PRAIRIE.

make them a little close, and when ladies are
in the car the greater part of the dressing-
has to be done inside the berth, which is,
until you get used to it, difficult. How the
ladies can manage as they do is a marvel.
They come out looking as fresh as daisies.
At one end of the car there is a retiring
room for the ladies, with every convenience,
and at the other, one for gentlemen. I have
shaved aboard every morning ; the vvashing
arrangements are capital ; two can wash at a
time. There is a nice smoking-room for
gentlemen, and also a drawing-room for
general use. One of the men hvas just shot
a lynx at the last station ; it seems to be a
young one, like a very large cat, with extra -
strong hind legs and claws. They have
brought it on to the train ; I should like to
have it stuffed. The prairie is like the At-
lantic after a storm, when the wind has gone
down, leaving heavy rolling swells. Every
now and then you can see for miles and
miles, the distance looking just like water ; and
then you get down into a little hollow, where

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.46 A TRIP TO THE UNITED STATES.

Ill

the roll nearest you takes off all view, as it
does when you get into the trough of a sea.
We have just passed " Medicine Hat," a set-
tlement on the banks of a branch of the Sas-
katchewan river, which is navigable up to
this place from some rapids lower down,
small steamers having been built up here
to ply on it. We are now in Assiniboine,
having left Alberta early in the morning.
We have just had dinner in the dining-car,
served as well as it could be in a well-
managed house. We had good soups, white
fish from the Pacific, 1,200 miles away;
salmon from the Columbia river ; lamb and
green peas ; boiled mutton and caper sauce ;
beef ; three made dishes ; three sorts of
pastry ; fruit, oranges, and apricots from
California, good cup of tea, plenty of ice,
for 75 cents, or 3s. We had some good
claret, 50 cents half bottle. This, so far
from the base of supplies, is uncommonly
good. The only drawback is that the
coloured conductor, or rather porter, to the
Pullman car, is a lazy, dirty fellow ; but I

THE DINING CAR.

'47

have blown him up and made him better.
There are very few passengers in this car,
but there are seven other cars of different
kinds on the train, and in all, I suppose,
seventy to one hundred passengers, some
returning from Australia this way. When
the line is finished over the mountains, which
it will be when the nineteen miles of extra
snow-sheds are completed, it will be the best
and quickest way from ocean to ocean. The
way all difficulties are tackled and overcome
makes me think that it will be a good paying
line some day, as no trouble is spared to
serve passengers properly.

This district was formerly the great field
for buffalo; they were here in enormous herds,
so numerous that even now the collection of
their bones for manure forms a large industry.
We saw a large heap of them at one of the
stations, and quite a gang of men with
waggons and horses employed in the trade.
The bones are worth 1 5 dollars a ton here,
and cost another 1 5 dollars a ton for carriage
into agricultural districts.

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.48 A TRIP TO THE UNITED STATES.

There are no buffaloes to be seen now, all
having been destroyed for their skins, which
fetched only i dollar, 4s., each. A few are
found farther north, and one small herd is
living- under protection near the Yellowstone
Park. They are trying to get them to breed
with ordinary cattle, as their skins are good ;
it is therefore possible some of their blood
may be saved in this way.

The Indians bring buffalo horns polished
up for sale to almost every station ; the
horns are quite small for such large animals.
I have bought a pair for 50 cents, or 2S.
There is much more water than I expected
to find ; small lakes or large ponds are plen-
tiful, and all of them have lots of wild-fowl
on them. We are told any quantity can be
shot in the season ; it is now their breeding-
time ; there are several different sorts, and
wild geese. Here the Indians have rugs of
bright colours over their shoulders, and the
women have their legs and feet bound
round with a kind of scarlet cloth. They
have very wide faces ; they paint their fore-

PRAIRIE LAND.

'49

heads and chins red, leaving the middle of
their faces the natural colour. They do not
seem to be able to understand much English,
but are quite friendly. It would be safe to
employ them on a hunting expedition.

We have just had our evening meal in the
dining-car ; it is called tea, but good enough
for dinner, as well cooked and served as the
other meals have been. The car leaves us
to-night and goes back to feed another train
going west; in the morning we pick up
another. The line is worked in twelve sec-
tions, a kind of sub-superintendent being in
charge of each, and he seems to arrange by
telegraph where the different trains are to
shunt. I wonder they can do so well on a
single line, as there are several trains run-
ning each way, and we are now running
thirty-five miles an hour to pick up time lost
on the mountains.

I am informed that prairie land can be
rented of the Government at 2 cents, or id.,
per acre per year on lease for grazing
purposes, and got in any desired quantity in

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150 A TRIP TO THE UNITED STATES.

any position not taken up, as it extends for
something like a thousand miles from east to
west, and perhaps as many from north to
south ; there is plenty of choice.

We have just passed a lake called Rush
Lake, literally covered with wild-fowl; they
looked almost like flies on a fly-catcher. There
are numbers on every little pool. We have
also seen a prairie-wolf, but not much cattle
and no sheep. We had a view of the Aurora
Borealis, which is constantly seen here at
night.

In the night we ran through the remainder
of the perfectly open prairie, and came on to
a district where large patches were cultivated
with corn. It appears the w^ay this is managed
is that small owners cultivate as much as they
can by their own strength and by the little
labour they can command, growing chiefly
wheat. They sell to men who have small
elevators (warehouses), holding on an aver-
age 25,000 bushels of wheat, at the nearest
station. The elevator-owners are the ship-
pers or millers, and when they have bought

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CORN GROWING.

i^i

enough at any place to make a consignment
to the mill or for shipping, they draw it
down spouts into the railway trucks and send
it away. The settlers are extending farther
west every year, leaving the ground they
have exhausted and taking fresh; but as
there is such an immense field this process
mav po on for a long time. The land
through here is, I am told, almost exactly
like that in the north of the United States.
h is not very good, and produces what we in
Enoland would call a small crop, twenty
bushels to the acre; it takes eight or ten
acres to support each head of cattle, i.e. the
averav^e of it; of course there are spots
where it is better than in the northern states.
The climate, although farther north, is not
colder. There seems to be less difficulty as
to wvater here than farther south., I should
fancy a man would do as well to come here
as into the northern states of the Union.

An elevator to hold 25,000 bushels, with
a small engine to hoist the grain, costs on
the average 7,000 dollars, or say / 1,400;

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152 A TRIP TO THE UNITED STATES.

they are neat little places, and take up but
little room.

This district is beginning to have patches of
scrub wood on it, and the settlers' houses are
more numerous, but they are terribly lightly
built of wood, and how they can exist in them
during the winter I do not know.

Land is to be bought of the Government
and the Hudson Bay Company at 2\ dollars
per acre, with certain allowances, amounting
to I J dollar, for improvements if made.

The import duties of Canada average
about 25 per cent, on invoice price. Almost
everything pays duty, even to plants, young
fruit-trees, seeds, and other things abso-
lutely necessary for the development of
the country; for instance, seedling fruit-
trees, 20 per cent. ; flower seeds 15 per cent.,
some 20 per cent. ; while spades and ploughs
pay 35 per cent., and works of art and things
calculated to improve the taste and add to
the enjoyment of the colonists pay 35 per
cent. There is, however, a provision that
paintings by Old Masters may be exempted.

CUSTOMS TARIFF.

»53

Paper pays from 25 per cent, to 30 per
cent.

I understand there is law against the ex-
port of waterfowl or game, although there
is such an immense quantity of it. I should
have thought, with a close season, an export
trade in it might be allowed. The Customs
taiiff seems to be directed against the
United States more than against any other
country. There does not appear to be the
best feeling between the two countries
(Canada and the States), although I should
fancy the interests of both would be
better served by free intercommunication.
In case of a fall out, the States are so much
the stronger, and Canada has such a very
extended frontier, she is bound, even with
the assistance of the mother-country, I fear
to get the worst of it, although I really do
hope and think, from what I have seen and the
good feeling generally expressed in the States
towards the old country, it will be most
easy to keep on good terms, and it would be
a great pity if Canada should do anything to

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154 A TRIP TO THE UNITED STATES.

upset that good feeling. If England, her
colonies, and the United States can agree
and have a good understanding, their united
influence in the affairs of the world will be
strong indeed, and with a determination
to keep command of the sea at any cost,
can continue to do more for progress, free
institutions, and civilisation than all the rest
of the world together.

I cannot help thinking the Government of
the States should be very closely watched
and studied by our statesmen. The States
are in themselves in some respects too free,
and laws are being and will have to be passed
to override the individual States in some
instances. The Inter-State Commerce Law
is an instance of this, and as the country gets
more thickly populated other matters must
be dealt with In the same way ; but at the
same time most of the powers now left with
the States Governments may remain, and I
think the time Is not far distant when we in
England will confer local powers on county
boards something resembling what will ulti-

WINNIPEG.

155

mately be left to the different States of
America, and that very many matters now
occupying the time of our Parliament will be
dealt with by these boards, and that in fact
only the more important matters will be left
to the House of Commons.

The Irish question is perhaps only the
beginning of a much larger one, one that
will lead up to the local self-government
of the different parts of the United Kingdom
and also influence the future of our colonies.

As we near Winnipeg we are taking some
of the farming aristocracy into the train.
They resemble our country gentlemen in
dress and get up ; they talk with a great
deal of manner, and are evidently the society
of the place, different to anything we have
seen in the States, where equality is the order
of the day. They talk of their balls, dinners,
&c., and rather look down on common people.
I should say the Canadians are a rather Con-
servative set of people, and cling to old ways
perhaps a little too much.

Even the Indians are superior as you get

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156 .1 77?/P TO THE UNITED STATES.

East. I have seen some quite swells, and
one with a fairly good moustache.

Five o'clock brought us to Winnipeg, the
advanced western town of Canada, corre-
sponding to Kansas City and Omaha in the
States, but not so lively. It is built on a
perfectly flat plain having a clay soil, and
although the streets are well laid out and
wide, and the main street is paved with
round blocks of wood, and has tramcar lines
down it, the houses are not yet numerous
enough to cover the sides. The corners of
the different blocks have been covered with
large brick buildings, stores, shops, &c.,
some very well built, and there are several
very good churches. The climate is bad, I
should think, as vegetation is very back-
ward, and no fruit will grow here. This is
one of the Hudson Bay Company's stations.
They have a large store here, as they have
in most of the large places, but I should
think modern enterprise would cut them
out, as they will not go into new ways,
and until lately did not put their names up

Ill

WINNIPEG TO ST. PAUL.

157

I ;■

or give any indication that business could

be done.

I saw maps showing the land they have
for sale, an enormous quantity, which some
day must be valuable. We slept the night
here at the Leland Hotel, and started this
morning (28th) for St. Paul, through the
flattest and most uninteresting country pos-
sible, but here and there cultivated with corn.
At Emmerson, the boundary between the
two countries, our baggage was passed.
There is at present nothing on this road
worthy of note.

May 29//^.— On the train from Winnipeg
to St. Paul we met a very intelligent Scotch
farmer, who had been in the States thirty-
seven years. He farms a large farm south
of St. Paul, which he said had now nearly
worked itself out by continual wheat crops,
and he had just bought a section, 640 acres,
on the northern border of Minnesota, which
he cropped entirely with wheat. He said he
and his four sons did most of the work ; that
they ploughed with four horses eleven hours

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158 A TRIP TO THE UNITED STATES.

a day, turning a 14-inch furrow; that in the
flat country there was nothing* to hinder the
cultivation. They never hoed the wheat,
and in fact did nothing but roll it until har-
vest, when he had to pay men 8s. a day ;
but that he got good work out of them for
this, as they had to move with the machines,
which were driven by members of his family.
They use light horses, as they walk so much
faster. As a rule they thresh and market
their wheat as soon as possible. It is now
worth about 80 cents a bushel (26s. a quar-
ter), delivered to the nearest elevator. He
said also, hardly anything but wheat is
grown about here, as it is too cold for
Indian corn. The land costs but little; they
have no tithes, and very little to pay for
taxes, and they can just do at present prices,
although it is not good work. I suppose,
therefore, this is what the English farmers
have to contend with. I will get cost of
railway and ship freight to an English port
if I can.

St. Paul is a fine city, well situated, with

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ST. PAUL,

159

high land on each bank of the river, but
enough flat along the shore to leave room
for business property. The country round
is well cultivated; in fact, almost as well
as one of the home counties of England.
It is not a great manufacturing town, but
I suppose has a large trading business as
the centre of a fine agricultural district.
The buildings are very large in some cases,
and the foundations have to be piled, as
it is on a sand. The bridges over the
Mississippi are high up and useful, but not
beautiful. The roads are paved in most
cases with round wood blocks. This hotel,
the Ryan, is built by a man who made a
very large fortune in California in mining,
and is now spending it in blocks of buildings
in this city. He must be a man of considerable
judgment and very rich, as it is splendidly
built and very well managed by himself.
The portion he has built cost ^150,000, and
the size is now being doubled.

There are some fine residences and roads
on the high ground, some of the roads

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i6o A TRIP TO THE UNITED STATES.

paved with asphalte; and electric light every-
where.

This is Decoration or Commemoration
Day, set apart for decorating the graves
of those who fell in the slave war. There
was a funny kind of procession, each mem-
hQV dressing and marching as he thought
best, and then some carriages filled with
girls dressed as soldiers. They all went to
the Town Hall, before which there was a
platform erected, and a mixed entertain-
ment given : prayers, speeches, music,
recitations and singing, one recitation by
a lady.

Just as the most important part was com-
ing off, the floor of the platform gave way,
and about one-third of those on it fell through,
but as they only had about six feet to fall no
one was much hurt. This incident, combined
with a heavy shower of rain, rather spoiled
the effect of the meeting.

The old farmer told me they had a machine
to press the straw into compact bundles, so
that they could send it by rail to the towns

MINNEAPOLIS.

i6i

where much of it is used for paper-making
and other purposes. It costs not quite
2 dollars, or 8 shillings, a ton to do it at the
high price for labour they pay here.

3i^/._\Vent to Minneapolis this morning.
It is a very well built, fine city, and increas-
ing very fast. There were 30,000 immi-
grants to it last year. The buildings are
almost all stone and brick, and the streets
well paved. The chief source of wealth is
the power given by the river Mississippi
here, as there are falls of 50 feet and an
immense volume of water. The falls have
been lined over with wood to keep the rock
from wearing away, as it is soft ; and the
water is led, part of it at least, into channels
by the side, and turbine-wheels fixed, pro-
ducing an enormous power altogether, but
still not half of it is utilised. The Knights
of Labour have just begun to build a trade
hall at Minneapolis. There is great fear
here that they will run up labour too high,
and injure the trade of the country. Labour
is at present very unmanageable, but a good

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162 A TRIP TO THE UXITED STATES.

feature in it is, that when men do work
they work well, and do not skulk, as some of
our English mechanics do. We went over
one large flour-mill, Pillsbury's. It is a
sample of what enterprise will do. The
power is derived from two turbine wheels,
54 inches diameter and 4 feet deep, with a
head of water of 50 feet. This they say gives
an effective power of 2,400 horses. There
are 240 pairs of rollers in it on one floor;
the rollers were made in Buffalo. The wheat
is run through seven times, or rather through
seven pairs of rollers, and the flour finished
by ordinary stones. The whole concern
works like a piece of clockwork, and turns out
7,000 barrels of flour in twenty-four hours.
They have other mills, making their output
altogether 10,500 barrels daily, or sufficient
to feed two cities the size of New York. They
have two immense elevators in Minneapolis
for storing wheat, and have small ones at
almost all the railway stations in the sur-
rounding wheat districts, all in communica-
tion with the chief office by wire, so that

1!^

FLOUR MILLS.

'^^

supplies of wheat can be got along as re-
quired. They have a railway into the mills,
and use two hundred trucks a day to take
wheat into, and the productions of it out of,
the mills. They have a fine system of pre-
cautions against fire : sprinklers which come
into play at temperatures below fire heat, and
tell-tales which g-ive indication at a less high
temperature. The water-power used in these
mills as well as the mills belong to the
Pillsburys, on whom I called, and found to be
very nice people. Their agents in London are
Messrs. W. Kline and Son, of Tower Street.
The one drawback is that for three months
in the winter the sources of the river are
frozen, and they are therefore obliged to have
a stand-by in the shape of steam engines,
which they use during that time. Everything
that could be done to save labour was done ;
the casks were delivered at a spot where they
rolled themselves into position and counted
themselves. The sacks were put into a spout
with a slope to it and then a slight rise, so
that they sprung themselves into the con-

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1G4 ^1 7'A'//' TO 77/ f: UXITED STATES.

veyances used to remove them. No wonder
our millers have a hard time of it with such
competition, and I am afraid it looks like
lasting-. Of course this mill is only one of a
number, but I suppose the largest. The
best hotel in Minneapolis is large, new, and
built of brick and stone. The building-s and
shops are altogether excellent. We return
to St. Paul in time for dinner, and leave to-
night at 8.40 for Chicago.

We started as arranged and slept on the
train. We got up at six and had a splen-
did breakfast in the dining-car at seven.
The land about here is well fenced and
beautifully cultivated. There are good-
looking small towns every twenty or thirty
miles. At 9.30 we arrived at Milwaukee,
a fine cit\' on Lake Michio^an. There are
docks and a good bit of lake shipping here.
The town is more than half peopled by
Germans, and has plenty of beer and other
German characteristics about it. We just
had time to look into the city, which seemed
to be a well-built and thriving place. The

iiiii

CmCAGO.

165

country still resembles one of our own home
counties in a prosperous time. The crops
look V'^y promising, fences, &c., well kept
up, small woods between some of the fields,
and just enough hill and water to give
it a comfortable, pretty appearance. Of
course this is a nice time of year, as the trees
are well in leaf and the wild flowers plentiful.
Chicago was reached about noon, and the
rest of the day was spent in looking round
the best streets, which are mostly very
wide. The buildings are many of them
larger than we have in the City of London,
and all are now built of stone and brick.
1 he system of having lifts in all blocks of
business premises enables them to be used
though built very high ; in fact, the best rooms
are on the highest floors. Many of the busi-
ness blocks have three a^sd four lifts always
at work, and the office rents seem lo hn about
the same here as in the City of London. Thofi?
is a little river running out //f the lake
through the town, and as it has a br.'/irh
to it, it gives over twenty miles of water

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1 66 A TRIP TO THE UNITED STATES.

frontage, which is used for business pur-
poses. But this river is an inconvenience
to the town itself, as the bridges over it are
constantly opening to let vessels through,
and thus hindering the land traffic. The
people, however, are getting over this diffi-
culty by making tunnels under the river.
Cost seems no object here. Thev i ave two
already made, although this place has only
been begun fifty years, and it has been de-
stroyed once and very much damaged by fire
on a second occasion, it is now a very well
built city, having seven hundred thousand
inhabitants, and some of the finest streets
and drives I have ever seen. You would
fancy you were in a large seaport town by
the shipping and docks, instead of in an inland
town on a lake. In the later part of the day
we drove out about seven miles, to the park
and racecourse. The park is new, but well
laid out and kep^, and of considerable extent.
After dinner we v ent to Hooley's Theatre,
built entirely of iron. The private boxes
were more like cages of iron (ornamental,

PJG-KILLIXCx.

167

ir-
ce

of course) than those we have in Eni^land.
The American ladies do not seem to wish to
be shut in, and in these boxes you can see
them all round.

2nd. — This morning- we called on Mr.
Monier Williams and delivered the parcel we
brought for him, and then went to the office
of Mr. Armour, the great meat merchant.
His office is in itself a curiosity and the pic-
ture Df life and business, telegraphs and tele-
phones going in all quarters, and an army of
clerks all at work and open to view, Mr.
Armour himself at a desk like the rest, and
only to be distinguished by having a large
bouquet of flowers near hi*Ti. They gave us
an order to go over the works, about six miles
off, and we started at once.

The works are in the middle, or nearly so,
of the vast stock-yards, covering, I should
think thiee hundred acres or more. We were
shown first into the pig-killing department,
which is really a rather fearful place. Pigs are
driven into a large pen, holding perhaps a hun-
dred, where two men are engaged in placing a

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1 68 A TRIP TO THE UNFTED STATES.

chain round one hind leg of each. They are
then caug-ht up by machinery and hoisted over
a platform, where the executioner stands;
he takes hold of one of their fore feet and
cuts a gash in their throats, which at once
makes them lose all the blood they have
in them, and they slide along, still hung
up, over a grating, and in less than a minute
seem to be dead ; at least, they have done
squeaking and struggling. They then fall off
into a long trough of boiling water, and are
passed on by other dead pigs pressing on
behind until thev come to a machine which
takes nearly ail their hair off. What little
remains is taken oft' by hand. They are then
hoisted up and again passed on to another
kind of executioner who severs the head all
but a little piece. Further on, several more
men turn to and disembowel them, and a
number more sort and dress the refuse, and
chop them in two down the spine ; the
halves then run by a little overhead railway
into a large warehouse, where they hang
from twenty-four to forty-eight hours, to

"tosutms^^aim

KILLING CATTL.E.

lOo

cool and harden, after which they are
cut up, and the parts prepared for sausages
(which are made by machinery), or made
into hams, or bacon, or whatever may be

required.

In this way five thousand pigs a day are
killed and cured, or, say, eight a minute.
The bullocks are treated in a different way.
There are several pens just large enough
to hold a bullock alongside the dressing-
house. They are driven in at one end, and
a man, who stands on a platform on the top,
shoots them through the brain with a small
rifle-bullet, about the size of a pea; they take
some little time to die, but do not appear
to sufier much. Two thousand a day, or
nearly two a minute, finish their existence in
this way. We had seen enough of blood,
and did not see the execution of the calves
and sheep. The rnen are as strong as lions,
and seem to enjoy their work. The whole
place is unfit for any sentimental person
to visit, but I suppose it is only concen-
trating the horrors of ordinary slaughter-

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170 A TRIP TO THE UNITED STATES.

houses. This firm sells meat, &c., to the
value of 43,000,000 dollars, or nearly
^^9,000,000 per annum. There are several
other firms of the same sort here, but not so
large. They have twenty acres of refrigerat-
ing space to keep the meat ready for market,
and everything else in proportion.

The number of cattle received in Chicago
altogether is almost incredible.

We next drove to one of the large eleva-
tors, but not the largest. The wheat as it is
sent into the towns is examined by a Govern-
ment official, who pronounces it to be of either
first, second, or third quality, and it is bought
and sold in the market on these grades, so
that a dealer never need see a sample. When
the wheat is sent into store it arrives with a
certificate giving the grade and year of
growth. The owner of the elevator, which is
in fact a storehouse, is not obliged to deliver
the particular wheat any man sends him,
but is obliged to deliver wheat of the same
grade and year of growth. This arrangement
.simplifies the business very much. The ele-

1 Si

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■!<:

AN ELEVATOR.

171

vators or storehouses are very large wooden
structures, built up almost entirely of boards,
the outside boards 8 inches by 2 inches, and
the inside boards 4 inches by 2 inches ; they
are so piled and interlocked as to form a num-
ber of bins, which average, say, 1 5 feet square
and 50 feet deep. These are so arranged
that they can be filled by means of a Jacob's
ladder lift from trucks below, and can be
emptied by spouts into trucks or ships as re-
quired. The only thing the owner of the
storehouse elevator has to do is to take care
the grade and years' growth is kept separate,
and that the weights in and out are correct.
The systems for lifting and weighing are
very good. An elevator to hold 750,000
bushels, or say 100,000 quarters, costs
nearly/ 100,000, at least so they say, but I
should not have thought it. We drove round
the docks and business part of the city, and
afterwards walked to the lake, which, of
course, looks like the ocean, as there are
no shores to be seen on the opposite side.
There were, however, ten good-sized vessels

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172 A TRIP TO tut: united states.

of different rigs in sight. I may remark
the gasometers are all under cover in the
towns we have lately passed through, as a
protection from the frost.

The brick buildings are erected without
scaffold, the bricklayers working from the
inside, and laying the bricks overhand, as
we build our chimneys.

We are altogether among the black waiters
again. They are under better control here
than farther south, but are rather a queer lot,
and love a talk. I complimented one at St.
Paul on the way he waited, when he made
the remark that he certainly knew how to
wait properly, but that his trouble was that
so few of those he waited on knew how to
eat properly.

This hotel (the Palmer House) deserves
description. It is a very large building
on one of the best streets ; it has a large
hall in the centre, where there are seldom
less than one to two hundred people. Round
it and leading out of it are three wait-
ing-rooms, two telegraph offices, a railway

THE PALMER IIOV^K.

'73

ticket office, a cafe, beautifully fitted, hair-
dresser's shop, large enough for thirty or
forty people to be attended to at once; large
billiard saloon; chemist's shop, open all
nio-ht; and a dozen other shops of different
kinds. The hotel office has half a dozen
attendants. It is paved with marble, and
is lit by hundreds of electric lights. There
is a double marble staircase, and there
are two hydraulic lifts. Upstairs there is
a dining-room fitted and decorated much
like the large rooms at Versailles, with
two smaller dining-rooms leading out of
it. The corridors are very large and high,
beautifully carpeted, with easy-chairs and
seats at every convenient place. There are
several drawing-rooms leading out of them,
and above and around are eight hundred
bed and sitting-rooms. Many of the bed-
rooms have bath-rooms with them, as ours
has. There are between fifty and sixty
coloured waiters, who are drilled like
soldiers, and marched in and out of the
room after inspection, and a small army of

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174 A TRIP TO THE CXTTED STATES.

boot-blacks, porters, and servants. There
are seldom less than a thousand people stay-
ing here; and there is a resident physician,
with rooms on staircase landint;-. Such a
place must rccjuire very good management
to run it as this is worked.

In the evening we went to another very
pretty theatre, decorated in the Eastern
style, having little Eastern-looking balconies
arranged so that the occupants of one could
see the stage without any one else getting in
the way, and with lisfhts at back to throw
out the tracery, whicn looked very pretty.

2^7'd. — We went round the docks and busi-
ness premises, and afterwards took the train
to Pullman, a town created entirely by the
car-builder of that name. It is about sixteen
miles out of Chicago, on the shore of a
sm.all lake. It is entirely given up to those
engaged in the works. As you leave the
station, which is an ornamental one, you go
into the park, where the works stand, and
past a piece of ornamental water having a
fountain in it. The whole is kept as well as

PULLMAN.

'75

a private garden could be. The office-block
is in the centre of the main front building.
There is a notice up, " Public allowed to
visit engine-room and tower" only. So I
thought our journey had been in vain. How-
ever, I went to the manager, and, on pre-
senting my card, and telling him we were
from England, he gave us an order to visit
all the shops, and what is more, and pleased
us much better, the order passed us every-
where alone, so that we could poke about as
we liked, and we had two or three hours real
enjoyment. The works consist of three rows
of buildings, one behind the other, with rows
of rails, or what they call traversers, between
each. These traversers are as wide as the
sleeping-cars are long, and have a little
engine attached to them, to enable the cars,
in the different stages of progress, to be
moved about from shop to shop, co receive
the next stage of work. The front row^ of
shops is a splendid pile of buildings. The
machinery is driven by an engine of 1,500
horse-power, one very large shaft running

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(716) 872-4503

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176 A TRIP TO THE UNITED STATES.

the whole length. The engine-house is a
large building, almost like a church, with
ample room in it. It has several park seats,
and an ornamental armchair, for the use of
visitors. The wooden floor is kept as white
as possible, and altogether it is quite a show
place. The first buildings of the block are
used for making paper wheels — that is, the
centre^, of the wheels are made of paper.
Discs of that material are piled together and
compressed by very powerful hydraulic presses
until they adhere, and become almost as
hard as iron ; they are bolted on to the tyres
and bosses very much as Mansell's wooden
wheels are bolted on, having iron plates on
either side, but so as to allow play for the
elasticity of the paper. To me there seemed
no very great advantage in it, but I suppose
there must be or they would not be made.
The car-making proper came on next : first
the shops for cutting up and preparing all
the difterent pieces of wood required for the
framework. Then the shops for making all
the fitting and cabinet work of the cars, and

\j-{

PULLMAN. 177

as this is very beautifully done (the carving
and inlaid work being equal to any furniture
I have ever seen) the machinery is propor-
tionately fine, and several hundred men were
employed at it. Then come the shops for
putting all together, each shop taking a
different branch of the work. The next row
of buildings was given up to the preparation
of the ironwork, which is very complicated
and difficult, but the order of manufacture is
preserved, as in the wood-work. Behind are
the shops for the rougher work, such as
making the bogies the carriages run on.
There are also kilns for drying the timber,
so that not the slightest shrinkage may
be observed in the finished work. The
works employ 6,000 men. The town is
nicely laid out ; in the best part there is a
very fine hotel, built in the same style as
the works — red and black bricks. The hotel
has all necessary requirements, including a
large barber's shop. There is a fine build-
ing containing lecture-hall, library, &c., the
centre forming an arcade with shops whicn

178 A TRIP TO THE UNITED STATES.

any town might be proud of. The houses
for the managers are prettily designed, and
have avenues of trees before them ; behind
are the houses for the workmen. Ten years
ago the place was a swamp ; the works were
erected in three years, and have since been
in full work. They are now largely increas-
ing them. There is a staff of men whose
whole duty it is to keep the place tidy and
clean, and they have inspectors always going
the rounds to see it is so.

We returned to Chicago to dinner, started
at nine, had a good night in a sleeping car,
and at six in the morning were at Detroit.
Although the train ran to Montreal our
sleeper was detached at Detroit, in order to
give the occupants more sleep, as six is too
early to turn out for business, so we were
able to wash and shave in peace.

^th.— Detroit is situated on the American
side of the Windsor river running between
Lake Erie and Lake Huron, and thus connects
the two great lakes. The river is about as
wide as the Thames at Gravesend, but always

DETROIT. 179

at one level, and the current always setting
towards Lake Erie, and thus supplying the
water for the Niagara Falls. All the vessels
trading between the different lakes have to
pass here. The traffic reminds you of the
Lower Thames, so numerous are the craft ;
but instead of ocean steamers there are very
curious-looking ones, constructed for the
lake traffic. The town is an important one,
having 130,000 inhabitants, and very exten-
sive manufactures. It is, moreover, very well
laid out, paved and lighted, and seems to be
as thriving as the other towns about here,
which is saying a great deal. The train wrs
put on to a large ferry boat and brought to
the Canadian town of Windsor, on the other
bank of the river. This is not a very large
place, but fairly prosperous, I should think.
We then passed through Chatham, and while
I am writing this we are in London, so we
ought to feel nearly at home. A man is in the
carriage calling " London evening paper.'*
Farther on we passed a very nice place,
Port Hamilton, situated at the south-west

,8o A TRIP TO THE UNITED STATES.

point of Lake Ontario; it appears to be pros-
perous, and the country round is pretty. Be-
tween that and Niagara there are two canals,
connecting Erie and Ontario, the old one only
deep enough for a very light-draft craft, the
new one taking vessels through of fourteen
feet draught of water. It seems to me a
very important matter to have a canal deep
enough to allow any sized ocean steamers to
pass through. It would allow trade to be
carried on between the immense region
round the shores of the lakes and the coun-
tries of the world without having to tranship

the cargoes.

I expect the Canadians will have one be-
fore long; the States would have had one
before this, I believe, had they been masters
of the situation. The land in this part of
Ontario is good and well cultivated, and the
country altogether pretty and well-to-do, and
has an undulating surface. We crossed the
suspension bridge at Niagara in the train
over the rapids, which are indeed wild. A
man trying to swim them must be mad.

BOSTOiX.

i8i

There are three bridges : a light suspension
bridge near the Falls, a cantilever bridge,
and the lower suspension bridge. The two
last are the best structures.

The water was very high, and the cloud of
spray from the Falls nearly hid them from
our sight. Lake Erie was very much swollen,
and many parts dry when we were last
there, are now under water. Buffalo looked
better, as the snow had vanished and the
trees were in leaf. We spent a quiet Sun-
day with Charlie and Polly, and called on a
few of the friends we had made. On Mon-
day we took train for Boston, doing the chief
part of the journey in the night. However,
we were able to see some of the country in
the morning. It is pretty, very rocky, with
nice streams, and small trees, and sufficiently
hilly to make it pleasing. There are also
some fertile districts between the rocks, and
some small lakes.

The city of Boston struck us as being
very much like a good English town. The
streets are not too regular, and there is a

1 82 A TRIP TO THE UNITED STATES.

beautiful park, called the Common, in
the middle of the town. The buildings are
good, and there are certainly more pretty
things to look at than in any of the newer
cities—in fact, the place is riper and more
to my taste. I expect the other American
cities will get more like this place in time.
Moreover it seemed to me the people were
not in such a hurry, and have begun to
realise there are other objects in life than
simply making money. We had a good
look round the business quarter and were
much interested in the way the different fruits
and vegetables came to market. They take
more pains in packing them than we do ;
the strawberries, for instance, come in nicely
made wooden trays, packed thirty-two in a
large case, and so arranged that air can get to
them and no one package can touch another.
The thirty-two small trays, and the large
packing-case to hold them, with divisions,
&c., complete, are supplied by the maker at
one dollar, or four shillings each. The beans,
onions, and many other vegetables or fruits

THE FALL RIVER. 183

are supplied in little six-sided wooden cases.
I should think they could be made cheaper
than any packages used in England. The
garb of the butchers also pleased me —
trousers, vest, &c., were made in one piece
of thin white material, and evidently clean on
every morning ; they were put on over their
ordinary clothes. We came away to New
York by the Fall River railway and boat.
The railway took us about two hours ; as we
started from Boston about six, we arrived
at the Fall River at eight. Whilst in the
train we were handed, in exchange for our
tickets, keys of the state-rooms we were to
occupy on the boat. When we arrived at
the wharf we found the boat Bristol there and
a very nice dinner ready in her dining saloon.
About two hundred and fifty of us sat down
to first dinner, and afterwards went up to the
main saloon, which was a splendid apartment,
beautifully furnished and carpeted; it was
very high, 20 feet or more, with a large
gallery round it, and at one end a capital
band, which played an excellent selection of

i84 A TRIP TO THE UNITED STATES.

music. There were between six and seven
hundred sleeping berths in cabins round
the different decks, an electric light in each,
and a kind of double-story bedstead, with
ample room ; and on the lowest deck about
twelve hundred second-class horsehair beds,
without blankets or other clothing.

The vessel was brilliantly illuminated in
all parts by electric lights, which were partly
turned down about eleven, as a hint to go to
bed, which we did. In the morning we got
up between five and six o'clock and found
ourselves well on the way to New York,
having taken the East river passage between
New York and Long Island. The remaining
part of the journey was so pretty and in-
teresting I could not go down to breakfast,
although I ought to have had coffee in my
berth at 5.30, and breakfast in proper saloon
at seven.

However, we did very well by watching the
boat find its way among the rocks and craft
and through a district full of life and beauty
until we got to our landing in New York,

CONEY ISLAND. 185

which we did at the appointed time, although
gre L part of the night had been foggy.

gth. — We are back again in New York,
which looks better now than it did when we
first visited it. The day is hot and bright.
We spent the morning in the park, which
is well laid out and has some pretty pieces
of water in it. We went over the museum
and picture gallery, which is well worth
seeing, although not yet up to those in
most European cities. In the afternoon we
wanted a blow, as it was hot, and so we
took a steamer to Coney Island, a little
place at the southern end of Long Island ten
or twelve miles from New York, where there
are several piers, music halls, &c. It is
something in style between a French fair
and Margate. The people of New York go
there to spend a happy day, and there are
some very strange amusements and build-
ings — among other things a house built in
the shape of an elephant ; and as it is very
large — in fact, three or four times as high
as any of the houses— it looks very peculiar.

iS6 A TRIP TO THE UNITED STATES.

There are also several enormous restaurants.
Among other things we took note of at Boston
were some launches driven by means of a
small engine using naphtha. There was no
boiler, but the naphtha was converted into
gas and pressure as it was used, and after
being used in the engine was condensed
again and pumped back to the tank. The
only heat used was a petroleum lamp. For
a 25-feet launch the .hole apparatus could
not have weighed more than I could easily
lift. I should say more will come out of
this invention, as it could be applied to all
sorts of power purposes. I saw one of the
launches under way and she went remark-
ably well. I shall call at the factory, which
is in New York.

lofh. — On Friday we called at Captain
Green's office. He had gone to the West,
but had left us an order to see the new gas-
engine, or rather an engine made for steam
driven by ammonia gas. It seems water
will hold a large quantity of ammonia at a
low temperature, which it gives off at a

AN AMMONIA ENGINF:.

187

higher temperature, and this at any pressure
required, provided it is heated enough ; and
as it is more volatile than wau r, it gives the
necessary pressure at a IcaS temperature,
nnd therefore saves fuel. After il is used in
the engine it is exhausted iito water of low
enough temperature to hold it, and again
pumped back into the boiler. That we saw
working seemed to answer admirably; no
smell of ammonia was noticeable. Of course
all leakage had to be avoided, and brass-
work to working parts removed and replaced
by iron ; but in this case there seemed to be
no difficulty.

We then went to the Gas Engine and
Power Company, 131st Street, Harlem River,
where we saw the naphtha engines I spoke
about as having been seen by us in Boston
on launches. Thii invention is certainly a
success. There is a tank of naphtha in
the bow of the boat, which is led to the
stern by a pipe. Part of it is burnt by
a kind of lamp, which heats up a small
quantity of the spirit, pumped out of

1 88 A TRIP TO THE UNITED STATES.

the tank into a coil, and it is converted
into vapour and pressure by the heat and
passed through a little three-cylinder engine
and exhausted rnto a pipe passing outside
of the boat under the water-line, where it
becomes cool again and returns to a liquid
state, and is then pumped back into the tank
and used over and over again. The engine
takes about as much room as a man would
sitting in the stern of the boat. They lent
us a launch to take us up to the station,
which was about a mile up the river.

The lamp was lit as we got on board
and in less than two minutes we went off
at a very good speed. I reversed the
engine myself in a moment She was so
handy, you could run her at full speed, say
eight or nine miles an hour, and by reversing
the engine stop in her length. No arrange-
ment has been made as to working this
patent in England yet. The owner has pro-
mised to communicate with me previous to
doing anything in it. I don't think it would
be much trouble to get the works at Erith.

START FOR HOME. i8g

It is bound to be a success. They are work-
ing at the launches night and day, and have
more orders than they can possibly execute.
Moreover, I think the principle might be
applied to other purposes without end. This
and the ammonia engine indicate mediums
for producing power from heat which may
make some strange alterations during the
next few years ; and although both working
in the same city, one was being worked out
without the knowledge of the other.

1 1///.— This morning we started for home in
the Umbriu, a sister ship to the one we came
out in. It is the pet voyage of the season ; that
is to say she carries nothing but first-class
passengers, and has between five and six hun-
dred on board. Her resources are taxed to
the utmost. The string of carriages con-
j veying passengers to the pier reached a

long distance. Friends brought great baskets
of flowers set up in all sorts of designs, in all
enough to fill the big saloon. Some of the
designs were full-rigged ships, with flowers
for the sea and strings of flowers for ropes,

I I

1 90 A TRIP TO THE UNITED STATES.

and heavier than one man could carry. There
were several cartloads of them altogether.
The tables were covered with telegrams from
friends wishing passengers a good voyage.
The pier was crowded with friends, some
having flags made on purpose to wave as we
left. Then there were two steamers loaded
with friends and having bands on each to
accompany us to sea, the cheering and
waving lasting an hour or more.

We were some time getting clear of Sandy
Hook and the bar, but about i 2 o'clock we
put the pilot on board his boat and started
the engines full speed. The vessel need not
be described, as she is in all respects like the
Etruria. The passengers are very much
more numerous and consequently not quite
so easy to know. As we knew how to
manage, we secured seats at the centre table
for the first set of meals, and also secured
the turn we wanted for our morning bath.
The voyage turned out not a very good one.
Most of the passengers being ill and very
difficult to please, food was served in any

THE CAPTAIN. lOJ

cabin and on deck all day, but most of the
people only looked at it after they got it. I
heard one steward ask a lady whether the
beef-tea was to her liking, and when she told
him it was just right, the man remarked,
*' Thank God, I have got it right once ! " We
had twenty-four hours fog off the Banks of
Newfoundland. The water got very cold, so
the engines were slowed, as ice was feared.
The Captain was on the bridge all this time.
He is an old weather-beaten sailor, and it
was grand to hear him read the Church ser-
vice beautifully on Sunday morning in the
presence of many of the passengers and crew
and several clergymen. Afterwards he asked
one of them to address us, and the Rev. Dr.
Hall, a leading Presbyterian clergyman of j

New York, gave us a short but good sermon.
There is a bishop on board, but he did not
take any part. During the voyage we made
many acquaintances, and there was some
heavy play in the smoking-room.

We had Sir Edward Thornton on board
(formerly the British Ambassador to the

192 A TRIP TO THE UNITED STATES.

States), who I should think was a very nice
man. But no one avoided conversation
or put on airs, so that the voyage was a
pleasant one, and with music and singing*
every evening we got on very well. On the
last two days there was less motion and there
were many fresh faces on deck, and those
who up to now had looked the picture of
rrisery began to dress up a bit and do their
hair, and the men began to shave. By the
time we reach Oueenstown we shall be a
fairly good-looking party, but one and all
will be glad to get the voyage over.

i^th. — We are to have a concert to-night.
It is about the first time enough of the pas-
sengers have felt up to it. The concert came
off, and very good it was ; some of the comic
songs were much beyond the average, and
one man gave some excellent recitations.
There was a collection afterwards for sailors'
orphans, by which between ^60 and^yo was
raised. Oueenstown was reached next day,
the mails landed, and in a few hours more
we were off Liverpool, but too late to land;

ARRTVING AT LIVERPOOL. m

we therefore had to stay on board until
Sunday morning.

The arrangements at the Customs were
abominable; it took several hours to get
through and then only by finding the dif-
ferent pieces of luggage ourselves and being
our own porter. We found ours at last and an
officer to look over and pass it. We carried
it out to a cab, and as a crowning point a
rough kind of porter followed us out and
demanded so much a package, although he
had not touched it. Of course I did not pay,
but I daresay some of the strangers did, and
I could not help feeling ashamed that such
confusion and imposition should be possible,
and that it should be the first introduction of
many foreigners to our way of doing such
things.

Before closing my diary I must give a few
of the opinions I have formed of the people
and the country of the United States.

The people are, I think, more lively, free,
and enterprising than we are. There is no

194 ^ TRIP TO THE UNITED STATES.

difficulty in approaching them. From the
shoeblack to the most important men I have
seen, they are well-informed and always ready
and pleased to give information, even at some
inconvenience to themselves ; and this not
from anything they expect in return, as, with
the exception of the blacks, they never even
thank you if you offer them anything. There
is a certain air of equality about all of them,
and they require as a first step that you
should acknowledge this. The cabman talks
to you not as a servant, but as an equal, and
asks for information in exchange for what he
can give you. The conductor of the train
shows his authority at once in a civil sort of
way, sits down in the opposite seat, and
engages the passengers in conversation,
whether they be ladies or gentlemen, and is
always well-informed. He dines at the same
table, has his bed made up, and is, although
perfectly civil c^nd obliging, entirely one of
the party, having and expressing his opinion
on all subjects; even the porters act very
much in the same way. The better, or I

THE AMERICANS. 195

should say, the better-to-do classes, are, as
far as I have been able to know them, most
courteous and oblig'Ing'; they are very anxious
to know your opinion of themselves and their
country, and are a little hurt as a rule if it is
not favourable in every instance. At the same
time they almost one and all express some
opinion more or less unfavourable to the
institutions of England. In fact they are a
little thin-skinned ; they profess to have
grown entirely out of the influence of their
old mother England. It is natural enough
her conservative ways should not suit them,
and properly so too. The young blood start-
iiipf in life for itself must strike out in a new
direction, and I am rather inclined to think
they have got the right one. Nevertheless
they like the parents' approval, although they
will not acknowledge it. The nation is, in
my opinion, more vigorous in consequence of
the admixture of German and other blood.
There are a great number of Germans, and
many French, Italians, and others, and a
good deal of intermarrying ; and this I am

Bp^

Kjr, A TRIP TO THE UNITED STATES.

sure is good for the strength of the nation.
The people in the country districts are very
industrious ; they go to bed early and are up
by daylight. There may be drinking in the
saloons, and I am told there is, but I have
never seen anything like we have in England.
They drink iced water, which is to be had in
all public places and in every railway carriage.
In the hotels nothing but water, tea, coffee,
and milk is taken ; not one in a thousand
drinks wine or beer, and I did not see a man
or woman the worse for liquor throughout the
States. The women seem very self-dependent.
They fill all sorts of situations, such as clerks
and shorthand writers i.'< offices, wait well at
country hotels, and are entirely in earnest
over their work. They, however, go their own
way very much, constantly travelling alone,
whether married or single.

The children areas a rule spoiled, and put
their word in and give an opinion before they
leave off pinafores, although they are good
in travelling. They are mostly a little
objectionable through being too forward.

THE A^FERICAXS. 107

The blacks are, as a race, Improving, I
should think. Some are well educated, well
informed, and in good positions, but the
great bulk of them in the South, I should
fancy, are pretty much as they were in slave
days, except that they are not slaves. The
Indians are done for ; they cannot live along-
side the white man. The more they are
ji studied the sooner they will become extinct,

|. because, with a few exceptions, their rough

I life is a necessity to them, and being kept by

; the whites will only make them die out

f the faster. Those we saw at St. Augustine's

j were like caged animals. A few months in the

fortress would destroy half of them. I think,
on the whole, they are to be pitied, although
they have very few good qualities to boast of.
The great size of the country can hardly
be realised until you begin to travel over it.
It includes all soils and all climates, from the
mountains covered with perpetual snow to
the semi-tropics, and consequently produces
everything that can be wished for. Florida
and South California produce oranges and

K,S A TRIP TO THE UNITED STATES.

all fruit that will grow in the temperature
required for them. In the lower Missis-
sippi Valley cotto*: and sugar-cane ; and
further north there is a wheat district almost
without limit; while the cattle ranches can
be established on the prairies running for
more than a thousand miles each way. The
timber districts are so extensive they have
certainly made the impression on the people
here that no amount of cutting, or waste, or
destruction by fire will ever too far reduce
them ; but with this I cannot agree. There
is a very large district in the north of New
Mexico, which I should think never can be
profitably cultivated ; but even here minerals
are found.

Then there is a supply of coal easily obtained
all over the States, and some of it very good,
to say nothing of that wonderful production,
natural gas, which in some districts has super-
seded coal. They seem to have found every
mineral but tin. Gold and silver are found
in larger quantities than in any other country.
Brick earth and slate do not appear to be

iBi

THE CorXTRV. 190

plentiful, although I have seen some very
I good of both. The only thing I have not I

** seen is tin and chalk. Grapes grow splendidly J

in California, and some of the wine is very
good. I heard of one vineyard of over
two thousand acres, and the wine made from
*' it is fast gaining a name.

In the Southern States there are very
large districts to be had at a nominal price,
but my idea would be to buy land in Upper
California, Oregon, or Washington. From
: San Francisco to the upper part of Wash-

ington territory there is a fertile country,
! with a good climate, to be had for next to

\ nothing, and it is certain to grow in value in

\ a few years ; and the rivers there are not to

f be surpassed in the world. i

i The railways, all but those round the prin-

j^ cipal eastern cities, are single lines, and are

not fenced in, and cross one anothe* jn a
level. There is scarcely any system of
signals, but the telegraph is depended upon
alone. They run the trains, on an average,
not much over twenty miles an hour, but

200 A TRIP TO THE UNITED STATES.

sometimes thirty-five or forty. The bridges
are much lighter than ours, and in the
western districts arc mostly made of timber.
The railway carriages I like for travelling
lone distances. There is more freedom of
action ; you can walk from one end of the
train to the other, shift your seat, or ride on
the platform. They will let you jump up and
down when the train is going, it being your
own look-out if you are hurt. The sleeping-
carriages enable you to do long journeys
without being fatigued. You can have your
bed made up when you like.

They are like the berths on a ship — one
over the ot \er. The upper one folds up in
the daytim- and contains the clothes, &c.,
and when cl 3ed forms part of the roof, and
could not be noticed by a stranger. It is a
little difficult to dress and undress, as you
have to do most of it in your berth, where
there is only just room to sit up, and it
requires a bit of an education. There is a
nice retiring-room and washing-room at one
end of the carriage for ladies, and another at

SLEEPIXG CARRIAGES. 201

the other end for gentlemen. It Is, however,
^ a little awkward having the ladies and gen- I

7 tlemen so mixed in sleeping; and as one *

pair of curtains protects both the upper and |

lower berth, it is almost impossible to get |

out 01 the top berth without disturbing the ^

lady in the lower one. Moreover, you have jf

to be very careful not to drop any part of |

your clothes over the side.

They have racks for small things, and
hooks for coats, &c., but you cannot very
well put them entirely out of your way. I
think it would be better to divide the car-
riages into two at night, giving one part up
to the ladies and the other to the gentlemen.
Thev have on some lines just put on some
new carriages having also baths and barbers'
shops in them. It is the fashion among j^

wealthy people to have private carriages put
on the rails, and live in them. One gentle-
man on the Umbria told me he had, with
three friends, been round the States in one
which had parlour, sleeping-berths, kitchen,
and servants' apartments in it. They got it to

202 A TRIP rO rilE UNITED STATES.

San Francisco and wanted to come home by
the Canadian Pacific, as we did, but as there
is no railway up the west coast they went on
by boat and sent the carriage back and round
the cier way to meet them at Vancouver,
which it did after a journey of between four
and five thousand miles. This was an
English gentleman. His way of travelling
had not enabled him to mix much with the
people, and he had consequently not formed
such a favourable impression of them gener-
ally as I have done. The ordinary roads
all through the States, with one or two ex-
ceptions, are as bad as they can be, both in
town and country. This quite spoils the
appearance of some districts and renders the
comparison between them and similar dis-
tricts in England most unfavourable to the
States, but we must remember that the
railways are their high roads. Electricity
is used in every way much more than in
Europe. Telephones are used everywhere,
and it surprised me very much to hear
a woman in a little roadside house in the

■^

■?

THE CHURCHES. 203

Sierra Nevada Mountains, many miles off
the railway-station, blowing some one up
for not informing her of the number of pas-
sengers likely to arrive by the stage, as she
had not prepared enough dinner for them.
The telephone-wire, we found out afterwards
had been hung on the fir-trees through the
forest. There are a very large number of
Roman Catholics in the States. Priests have
the usual power over the people, and in some

cases use it badly. |

The churches are numerous and well sup- . \

ported, but, as far as I could find, the 1

preachers are obliged to preach and act in
such a way as to make themselves popular
with the members of the congregation, and
are in consequence not so independent as
miglit be desirable. The pew sittings are sold
by auction from time to time in most of the
churches, and the more popular the preacher
the more they fetch. Almost every man,
woman, and child can read and write, and
almost every one can express him or herself
readily and to the purpose.

!i,

EUTHifl

204 -4 TRIP TO THE UNITED STATES.

As since visiting Pittsburg I have ob-
tained some more information about the
natural gas which abounds in that district,
I make a note of it here. The whole sub-
soil of Western Pennsylvania is more or
less permeated with natural gas. It is stored
up in the sandstone, and is generally found
in the neighbourhood of petroleum or salt
water. The depth of the wells varies from
one thousand to four thousand feet. It was
first used in working iron in 1874.

Its existence has been proved in twelve
other States, but as yet it is not found there
in sufficient quantities to be of much use.

Some seem to think it has been formed
for ages and stored in the sandstone, where
it is sealed up by rock so that it cannot
get out until it is tapped. Others think
it must be formed by the action of salt
water (which is known to exist, and which
may have found its way in from the ocean)
on the carbon, which lies at various depths
in the earth. All this seems but conjecture.

The supply, all agree, must sooner or later

t" r

NATURAL GAS.

205

be exhausted. In many cases wells have
already failed, and in almost all cases the
supply becomes less and less as time goes
on. As a rule, the shallowest wells have the
shortest existence.

The pressure at which the gas comes to
the surface is in some instances enormous ;
in a few cases nearly 1,000 lbs. to the
square inch, and in many over 500 lbs. This,
of course, renders it difficult to control, and
makes it almost impossible to prevent waste.

They have some plans for preventing it
blowing off, but it is very difficult to get
anything that will stand the pressure.

The companies have a regular scale of
charges for the gas — so much for each ton of
iron puddled, so much for use for a certain -
sized boiler per month, and so on. An iron-
master told me the charges worked out, as
nearly as he could get at it, from 5 cents to
6 cents, or 2^ to 3d., per 1,000 cubic feet at
ordinary gas pressure.

One company, the Philadelphia, supplied
last year over one thousand boilers, one

,. ^

:o6 A TRIP TO THE UNITED STATES.

thousand four hundred furnaces, many hun-
dreds of other manufacturing heats, besides
heating four thousand five hundred houses.
The daily consumption was 182,000,000
cubic feet, which took the place of 10,000
tons of coal. This company alone has be-
tween three and four hundred miles of pipe
laid, varying from 24 inches down to 6 inches
in diameter. The total length of pipe laid in
Western Pennsylvania is estimated at one
thousand miles.

The gas is used at all pressures, varying
from 50 lbs. to 2 ounces per square inch, but
the most usual pressure is i lb. to the square
inch. The exact quantity of air to mix with
the gas, so as to get the best results, is ascer-
tained by experience, and varies a little with
different work. There are also many kinds of
fuHKices, some giving better results than
others. In glass-manufacture, particularly,
the use of this gas gives results not to be
got by any other known method.

It struck me forcibly as being the most
wondexfiil and useful natural production I

NATURAL GAS. 207

had ever seen. It is cleaner, cheaper,
and more easily used than coal ; it con-
veys itself along" the pipes to the places \\
where it is wanted, can be lit in a moment,
will produce any required heat, and its use
can be discontinued by turning" a tap. The
manufacturers are so pleased with it that
one and all of those who spoke to me about
it told me they should certainly put up gas-
producers if the natural gas failed, as after
once using the gas they could not go back
to coal with any comfort.

Last year there were sixty-five companies
for the supply of natural gas in Pennsylvania,
with a capital of over 50,000,000 dollars, or
^10,000,000 sterling".

The cost of drilling" a gas-well varies from
3,000 to 6,000 dollars, according to the
depth. A derrick is first erected, and a
wrought- iron pipe driven through the soft |^

earth until it reaches the rock. The drills
weigh, with the "jars," 3,000 to 4,000 lbs.
These rise and fall four to five feet, turning"
constantly, so as to bring" the bit in contact

2oS A TRIP TO THE UNITED STATES.

with the entire circumference of the hole.
An 8-inch hole is bored to a depth of say
five hundred feet, and a 5f inch casing put
down to shut off the water. The hole is
continued 6 inches in diameter until gas is
struck, when a 4-inch --pe is put down.
From forty to sixty days are required for
drilling a well.

The Government. Well, unless I am
careful I shall be saying something I do not
understand ; but, as I'ar as I can understand
it, each State has in theory entire control
over nearly all its internal affairs— railwavs,
and all public works, liquor laws, divorce,
and the life and death of its people, and in
fact can do almost anything an independent
nation can do, except putting on protective
duties as against other States or foreio-n
countries; and had even the power of
withdrawing from the Union. The conse-
quence is that in travellino- throuo-h the
country as we have been doing it may be
perfectly legal to do something at one
minute which at the next may be punishable

^ATES.

THE GOVERN M EXT.

209

the hole.
)th of say
asing put
le hole is
itll gas is
•ut down,
quired for

ss I am
>• I do not
nderstand
e control
-railways,
I divorce,
e, and in
dependent
)rotective
* foreign
)Ower of
le conse-
'Ugh the
may be
at one
mishable

by imprisonment. This is no exaggeration,
as in some States you can buy and sell spirits
or shoot game, and then just over the bor-
der both be treated as crimes. Then each
State has control of the army raised in it
until it is wanted to fight for the general
good of the Union, when it is under the con-
trol of the Central Government. Every year,
however, seems to modify the relations be-
tween the individual States and the Central
Government, and this, I think, must be so, as
intercourse becomes greater. Even now there
is a great talk as to the action of an Inter-
State Commerce Bill, which over-rides the
separate States and controls all the railways ;
and the question as to the power of any
State to retire from the Union was settled in
the negative by the slave war. What must
happen, I think, is that the law-making in
some very important matters will be cen-
tralised, and that the institutions must so far
be made more to resemble ours; and as I sup-
pose our course of legislation will be in the
other direction, and that we shall before long*

210 A TRIP TO THE UNITED STATES.

have county boards and local self-govein-
ment in many ways; perhaps twenty years
will find the institutions of the two Govern-
ments more alike than most people now
think they are likely to be. I fancy politicians
would do well to make a study of the progress
of the States in law-making, as many ques-
tions which before long will be of promi-
nent importance — such as the relation of
labour to capital — may first be fought out
over there.

I am myself so far interested in the
country and government that my trip and the
information I have gained will, I am con-
fident, have a distinct influence on my
thoughts and judgment in the future, and I
am therefore very pleased that I made up
my mind to give up three months to a visit
to the most interesting of the modern
countries of the world — the United States.

PRINTED nv J. S. VIRTUE AND CO., LIMITIiD, CITY ROAD, LONDON.

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