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.A. 
 
 Canuck 
 down south 
 
 BY... 
 
 ARTHdR WEIR 
 
 MONTREAL. : 
 
 Printed by John Lovell & Son 
 
T. G. Roddick, Esq., M.P., M.D.C.M. 
 LL.D., &c. 
 
 My friend, I set it down with pride, 
 " My Friend," without whom I had died, 
 You, one of Nature's tireless police, 
 Who sent me forth, the Golden Pleece 
 Of health to find, will find herein 
 How I that priceless boon did win. 
 And, as my humble work you read 
 With patience (patients are your meed) 
 , ^ ^ Before you reach the end, you may 
 '•«* ••! .T^egcft yJQij ^adej me h'd^d ajvftf'' 
 ' ' * • If«notj awd yoii Jire g]g<5 fo;finfl 
 
 ^^ Mv health more robust than my mind, 
 [.•)•• . lAvii if llxe.*f olutnt* pleasfeS Jy ©U^ 
 
 •TalteSf-tltri^ IK)^]»lf youj flyu*. 
 
 A. W. 
 
 -d3 
 
 
 fs 
 
 ^ 
 
 
On the Trail of the Voyageur . . j 
 
 Across the Prairie . ♦ . -ii 
 
 Over the Divide ... _g 
 
 In Arcadia .... q. 
 
 In the Sierra j2. 
 
 Roughing It . . . , i^y 
 
 Derringer Dick, the Bicychst • .178 
 
OTHER WORKS BY THE SAM|E AUTHOR. 
 
 Pleura de Lys and other Poems- 
 
 The Komance of Sir Eichard, Sonnets and 
 other Poems- 
 
 The Snowflake and other Poems- 
 
 From Paddle to Propeller, a history of 
 Transportation in Canada (nearly 
 ready). 
 
gigaogatjggcgi^ KSt^KSfi^gogsf igstng^jg^ogsg a 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 On the Trail of the Voyageur. 
 
 When ray friends heard that I was or- 
 dered south for the winter, they remem- 
 hered not mine offences. One estimable 
 lady sent me a tract on Sudden Death, 
 and a bachelor friend came forward 
 with a bottle of his favorite Scotch. 
 It was evident; that both found in me a 
 lack of spiritual consolation, which 
 they proffered acoording to their lights. 
 A third friend termed my physiciams 
 quacks because they had not adopted a 
 certain system of treatment, and a 
 fourth called them quacks because he 
 thought they had. Within a week I had 
 prescriptions enough from non-profes>- 
 slonals to establish a druggist in trade, 
 and there was not a health resort on 
 
A CaiiiK-k (lovii F^nifth. 
 
 the face of the globe that some one did 
 uot beseech me to go to and some one 
 else with equal vehemence appeal to me 
 to avoid. 
 
 It would only renew the controversy 
 were 1 to state why certain i lacee 
 were rejected. We decided upon Califor- 
 nia because there we would have no un- 
 bearable heat r.or dangerous fevers, be- 
 cause we had known its curative power 
 in the case of one dear to us, and be- 
 cause there, across three thousand miles 
 of continent, faces awaited us expectant- 
 ly that we had never hoped to see again, 
 the face of Diogenes among them. The 
 last consideration went for much with 
 my physicians, who knew that cheerful- 
 ness is the best tonic and welcome com- 
 radeship better than hypodermics. 
 
 The Princess sent for her mother, who 
 enjoys the privilege of being my mother- 
 in-law. Only a base mind would sug- 
 gest that this was for the purpose oi 
 reconciling me to leaving the courtry.. 
 my mother-in-law being among tne few 
 who see none but my good points. She 
 Is so pretty and so nice in every wey 
 
On the Trail of tlie Yoyageur. 
 
 that, if needs were, I could without re- 
 gret treat her as Max O'Rell tells me 
 he treated his in earlier days. 
 
 "My wife," said that witty French- 
 man, ''invited her mother to visit us 
 when we were but a week back from 
 our honeymoon. Do you think I ob- 
 jected ? Not I; I said her presence was 
 necessaiT to complete my happiness, at 
 which my wife raised her eyebrows. My 
 mother-in-law came, and I did not ne- 
 glect her, as some men would have done. 
 I took her to cor certs, theatres — with a 
 petit souper a. *:erwai'ds — and, in the af- 
 ternoons, for long drives. And I left my 
 wife at home. In one little week my mo- 
 ther-in-law had departed for her charm- 
 ing home, and I have not seen too much 
 of her since. My wife looks after that. 
 She has great tact, I have none." 
 
 My mother-in-law came, and she and 
 tbe Princess began rifling the house like 
 experienced burglars, stood upon their 
 heads in trunks, gave me long lists of 
 articles to be brought from town, and 
 discussed bi asses, blouses, reveres and 
 what not, until from being the certne of 
 
A Canuck down South. 
 
 the projected flitting I sank to such 
 insignificance that I began to fear that 
 I would l»e accidentally left behind un- 
 less I packed myself away in a band- 
 box. 
 
 The day before we left I came home 
 and foiird the two sitting beside a pile 
 of trunks, with that contented look 
 upon their faces which a good woman 
 wears when she has crammed the last 
 movable thing in the house into the last 
 possible corner of her trunk, I said: 
 
 "Are you sure you are leaving noth- 
 ing behind ?" 
 
 "Nothing." 
 
 "Six trunks, about 150 pounds each, 
 saiy seven hundred in all. Do you know 
 that it will cost us over thirty-five dol- 
 lars for extra baggage?" 
 
 "What ! ! !" 
 
 "We are allowed 150 pounds of bag- 
 gage to each ticket, that's three hund- 
 red, and we pay nine cents per pound for 
 the rest. Is my calculation apjiroxim- 
 ately correct ?" 
 
 I thought I was having my revenge for 
 their neglect and I enjoyed the situation; 
 
On the Trail of the Voyageur. 
 
 that is, until the Princess spoJce. She 
 said: 
 
 "Well, of all the useless men — why 
 didn't you tell us that a week ago ?" 
 
 I knew better than, to argue with Dfy 
 mother-in-law there. I merely said, with 
 a fime sarcasm, that was utterly thrown 
 away: 
 
 "Don't see what you can take, but 
 what you can leave behind." And then I 
 fled. I was an invalid, and those two 
 women might have wanted me to help 
 them pack. 
 
 Tearfully, and with many protests 
 against the iniquity of railroad mono- 
 polies the Princess and her mother fce- 
 gea their task anew, and actually man- 
 aged to leave out a few pounds. Much 
 of the rest, consisting of household lin- 
 en, cut'cry and bocks a crartky s'udect 
 thought he could not do without (I 
 didn't mention my name, did I ?) we 
 ultimately decided to bocs up and send as 
 freight at about one-third the cost. 
 This is a great scheme, and I do not 
 charge anything for making it public. 
 By all means, if you are ever going to 
 
JL Canuck down South. 
 
 California, and have extra baggage, send 
 it by freight, and you will probably get 
 it again in time to ship it back, if you 
 have any luck. Our boxes were three 
 months getting to California, and they 
 did not go tourist, either. They got as 
 far as the States in pursuance of Horace 
 Greeley's advice, and then some brilliant 
 intellect ordered them back to Toronto 
 because a man with a name like mine 
 had lost one trunk somewhei-e between 
 Parkdale and Kalamazoo, or some other 
 points equally on the line to California, 
 ar^ although he said my boxes were 
 not his trunk, that they were consigned 
 neither from nor to the same place as 
 his trunk, the intelligent freight agent at 
 Parkdale, or wherever the boxes lay, 
 kept them, either because he thought the 
 man would take them as a compromise, 
 or because the freight hadn't been paid 
 on them back from the States, or for 
 some reason too deeply sented in the grey 
 matter he called his brain, for common 
 mortals to comprehemi. Anyway, it ne- 
 xer seemed to have entered his head 
 that he had any reason to send them on 
 
On the Trail of the Yoijageur, 
 
 to their destination as speedily as pos- 
 sible, with perhajs an apology. After 
 we arrived in California and began to 
 worry the company about the boxes, 
 we never ceased to have a source of in- 
 terest and the occasion for a walk to the 
 post of x^e. We had letters from the gen- 
 eral manager down to the office boy in 
 Montreal, letters from Port Huron, let- 
 ters from I.os Angeles, from the Cus- 
 tom's houses, from the Secretary of 
 State, the British consul, the Ambassa- 
 dor at Washingtoii, and the Foreign 
 and Colonial secretaries at London. At 
 least, if we didn't hare them, we might 
 have had them for the writing. We did 
 get some of thi «e, referring to "vours of 
 the — th,"' ''Please refer to our No. 117- 
 459A, in replying," and so on. Some- 
 times we would hear that the boxes had 
 been located at one place (whence they 
 had started) sometimes at another, then 
 the next letter would take it all back 
 and inform us that the boxes would be 
 immediately enquired after, as though 
 that was the first the railroads had 
 heard of them. There were four systems 
 
A Canuck down South. 
 
 over which the boxes had to pass, ard 
 each railroad was ferverishly hunting af- 
 ter them. Sometimes we'd hear of a hold 
 up on the line and the Princess was sure 
 the boxes were stolen, next there would 
 be an accident, of course the boxes must 
 be in it, and so foith. TJltimaiely tele- 
 grams began to pour in, and the last one 
 declaring that they had at last been lo- 
 cated at Toronto arrived five minutes 
 after they had been depc sited on the sta- 
 tion platform under the palms at Santa 
 Anita. Next to getting freight through 
 on time is the fun of hunting it up when 
 it fails to connect. By all means send 
 your belongings to California by freight, 
 if you desire ar interest in life and have 
 a few months to live. In justice to the 
 company, I must say this took place 
 some years ago. Matters are much bet- 
 ter now, and freight reaches California 
 within three weeks. 
 
 In undertaking any long journey the 
 traveller had best act upon the adage al- 
 ready quoted to leave what he can be- 
 hind, and to remember that it is usually 
 as cheap and far more convenient to 
 
On the Trail of the Yoyageur. 
 
 make his purchases not where he is, but 
 where he is going. This is particularly 
 true of long railway journeiys. We found 
 California prices on the average quite as 
 reasonable as prices in Canada. As to 
 clothing, baggage and like matters on 
 the overland train, they will be men- 
 tioned hi the proper place. I will merely 
 premise that we acted ow the principle 
 that the hoiding of one section did not 
 entitle us to overflow into a second. 
 
 The day of departure came at last. I 
 think women always laugh in their 
 sleeves when they hea^ man styled the 
 lord of creatior.. We were going to Cali- 
 fornia for my health, and I should have 
 been the most important one in the 
 party. With the exception of as brisk a 
 stag party in town the day before as my 
 debilitated frame could enjoy, I was not 
 in it, as the phrase is. The womer. 
 hung aboiit the Princess's neck. There 
 was not enough of her to go round, but 
 when I meekly expressed my willingness 
 to supply the deficiency I was grandly 
 scorred. I was, however, permitted to 
 get on the train at the fag end of the 
 
A Cainirk flown Soiiih. 
 
 prrcession, for which I was truly thank- 
 ful. 
 
 I waited for the blue to snine again 
 through the rain that dimmed the Prin- 
 cess's eyies; then I said: 
 
 "Considering- that I am expected to die 
 and go to heaven and never see them 
 again, those girls might have said good- 
 bye to me." 
 
 The Princess said: 
 
 "Mother did not forget how sick you 
 are." 
 
 "What did she say :" 
 
 '^She said I always did look pretty 
 
 in l>lack." 
 
 Et tu Brute. 
 ******* 
 
 The train had stopped for us by spec- 
 ial request at Lachine, where we had 
 been sojourning, Lachine the old Yoy- 
 ageur depot, whence these bcld and ener- 
 getic men ventured by canoe and snow- 
 shoe into the distant wilds of the far 
 West, peopled by savage Indians, the 
 bison and the bear. Not far from the sta- 
 tion whence we embarked still stands 
 tlie old Hudson Bay fort, and yonder 
 
 10 
 
On the Trail of the Toijagcur. 
 
 lake that is gleaming throngn the an- 
 timiDr-tiiited foliage has rippled many a 
 time and oft bereath the blade of paddle 
 or of oar, as? \A-ith soiig and chorus the 
 picturesque voyageurs bent to the 
 stroke, en route for the far reaches of the 
 Ottawa or the equally tumiiltuous ra- 
 pids of the Upper St. Lawrence. We are 
 at 8te. Aniie almost before we are well 
 sottled in our luxurious seats, and here 
 are the dashing surges that Tom Moore 
 sung of, on whose unbrageous brlnt the 
 voyageurs made their first bivouac upon 
 their western journey. Alas, the voyageur 
 is gone, and his place is filled by. yonder 
 wood-scow sailor man, who sits, smok- 
 ing his elay pipe, upon the long tiller, 
 while drowsy horses draw his craft 
 through the lock. We are on the trail of 
 the voyageur, and shall follow it for 
 some thirteen hundred miles. He was 
 months on the route; we shall do it 
 easily in sixty hour?, and have time to 
 see Chicago. 
 
 We began our journey a little after 
 nine in the morning, and all througli tfhe 
 daylight hours were speeding througli a 
 
A Cavuck dote II South. 
 
 fertile and proaperous country towards 
 Toronto. Hamlets, towns and village?, 
 with now and then a city, rose on the 
 horizon, approached, received as and 
 receeded along the narrowing lines of 
 9teel. Forests ar.d meadows and low 
 hills, with at times glimpses of the sil- 
 ver river rushing down to its tryst with 
 the sea. fields where the yellow wheat 
 had waved and been cut down, 
 ■fields where cattle browsed, still 
 makirg food for Britain's hungry mill- 
 ions, flashed upon us, and at times we 
 saw the smoke of manufactories in the 
 distance, hives of industry, i-eached by 
 these same bands of steel, or tributary 
 lines. Above us shone the clear October 
 sun through air just touched with frost, 
 not cold but bracing, so bracing that 
 even I, who knew the rigor of the ap- 
 proaching winter wondered why I should 
 be compelled to leave so fair a land, so 
 fine a climate. 
 
 How different it all was from what 
 we were shortly to see. Here old mother 
 earth's brown ribs do not lie bare to the 
 sweep of wind, she Is still clad in a 
 
On the Trail of the Vopaoeur. 
 
 mantle almost ,^reen. Here is no i arched 
 soil, thirsting for the rnin that never 
 comes, every farmstead has its winding 
 stream. Some even have their limits set 
 by majestic rivers whose volume changes 
 not but is fed uefailijigly the whole year 
 through by brooks and tributaries that 
 gather the water drops among still pri- 
 meval forests aaid' Laurentian lakes sil- 
 ent and solitary amid the hills of 
 gneiss. 
 
 If it was a land surveyor with ^.. 
 well thumbed copy of the Oddesy who 
 gave the iState of New York its Utica, 
 Troy and other classical names, to what 
 eiie do we owe the ii-ames of the sta- 
 tions and towns along the five hundred 
 miles of Canadian territo.ry between 
 Montreal and Sarnia j Shall we call it 
 the epic of life ? Here we have Lacbine, 
 the record of La Salle's di'eam, Vau- 
 dreuil, the last French Governor of Caai- 
 ada, Iroquois, name of dread import, 
 Lansdowne, a recent Governor, Colborne, 
 Grafton, Newcastle. Hamilton, great 
 names all, dear to Canadians. Brock- 
 ville, named after onr immortal general, 
 
 13 
 
A Canuck iloicii SoiiiJt. 
 
 we salute thee. Push on, like him and 
 his brave York volunteers. But staj, 
 eiLPely we are no longer in Canada, but 
 rather in some reconstructed Europe, 
 where the lion lies down with the lamb ! 
 Here are Breslau, Berlin, Petersburg, Ba- 
 den and Hamburg, with Paris not far 
 off. O Kaiser Wilhelm I is this fair town 
 your capital, and where is Unter den 
 Linden ? And thou, O Czar, we can 
 give you snow and ice and jingling bells 
 in their season, but neither serf nor nihil- 
 ist. Beyond Hamburg what comes ? Who 
 but S>^akespeare, only six miles away, 
 with visions following as a matter of 
 course, of Stratford, St. Paul's, St. 
 Mary's, London and the Thames. 
 
 The voyageur did not thread the path- 
 less woods, but preferred the river, not- 
 withstanding the foaming cataracts at 
 the Cascades, Cedars, Coteaii and Long 
 Sault, to say nothing of the scattered 
 rapids above. Wlmt though he spent 
 days in the toil, now in, now out of the 
 canoe, the swirling torrent pouring 
 shoulder high about his stalwart form, 
 were there not calm reachee, with gentle 
 
 14 
 
On the Trail of the Voyage ur. 
 
 current, bright with water lilies, where 
 the trees bent down to touch the mir- 
 roring crystal and the deer defiled 
 through wooded lanes. Were thei-e not 
 moonlit nights^ when he might lie 
 under the gleaming stars beside the roaa*- 
 ing camp fire, upon a couch of freshly 
 cut pine boughs, odorous and soft, and 
 spin his yaxns of Indian battles, strange 
 discoveries io the wilderness and deeds 
 of heroism and skill in rapids where 
 jagged rocks stood eager to rip the canoe 
 open in a brutal hari-kari. Ah, we like 
 the luxury of the Pullman, but apart 
 from the sariirg of time. I sometimes 
 question whether our forbears did not 
 enjoiy quite as much luxury as we, with 
 all our modern improvements. 
 
 The voyageur was an employe of the 
 fur company, the descendant ot the cour- 
 ier de bois. We shall be in the haunts 
 of these men as far as the Missouri, and 
 they often ventured far beyond. In Kan- 
 sas we sha] traverse territory full of 
 Canadian romance. On our route we 
 could pass through towns, such as De- 
 troit, which were founded by Montreal- 
 
 15 
 
A Canuck doicn South. 
 
 ers, shall follow or cross old portage 
 paths, such as at Toronto, where there 
 was a portage long before there was a 
 settlement, a portage that gave its 
 name to the town that was first named 
 York. We shall pass: E ngston, outlet of 
 a series of lakes and rivere long used by 
 the Indian and now the Rideau canal, 
 built as a military work by the British 
 Government, under the supervision of 
 Lt.-Col. By, perhaps the only large can- 
 al ever built in which the engineer-in- 
 chief could complain that he had only 
 on© theodolite, and that not a good one. 
 Ir. this well fortified harbor have rot- 
 ted large ships of war, built in Eng- 
 land, brought over in sections and car- 
 ried np the river by the voyageurs past 
 thirty miles of rapids, at a cost in some 
 cases of over sixty thousand dollars. 
 But, shade of President Jefferson, they 
 helped to disappoint you in the cam- 
 paign, of which you had said "the con- 
 quest of Canada will be only a matter 
 of marchingc" Gentlemen of Detroit, we 
 do not grudge you those captured can- 
 non with grandiloquent inscription in 
 
 IR 
 
On the Trail of the Yoyageur. 
 
 front of your city hall; you haye the 
 cannon, we held your city; and so are 
 quits. Yonder monument in the blue dis- 
 tance, within sound of Niagara, is it not 
 on Queenston heights ? Brother Johna- 
 than you are a brave man, and a deter- 
 mined, but you have fourtd this northern 
 thistle somewhat stinging in your grasp, 
 and I fancy that it was not fear but re- 
 spect and perhaps a little family pride 
 that always made you draw back and 
 not put your whole heart and hate and 
 power into the blows you dealt us. Not 
 so easily were jou driven back or dis- 
 couraged in your own great war, where 
 you conscience was with you, as it has 
 never been in any attempt upon your 
 northern brother. 
 
 We reached Toronto late in the even- 
 ing, and the customs officer with great 
 courtesy examined our baggage, which 
 the railroad officials with equal courtesy 
 dragged from tOie luggage van. We had 
 no claim on these offices as our trunks 
 should either have been examined at 
 Montreal before starting or have waited 
 for the regular examination at dead of 
 
A Canuck down South. 
 
 night at Port Huron. And then the train 
 went on, and we escaped the danger of 
 an experience the like to which for stag- 
 nation and petty, narrow annoyances 
 bred largely of religious or rather theo- 
 logical intolerance, is, I am sure, not 
 to be found elsewhere on the continent, 
 nor anywhere in history sirce the days of 
 the Commonwealth of England or the 
 blue laws of the New England States; I 
 mean, of course, a Sunday in Toronto, 
 where the street cars were stopi>ed and 
 a man could do nothing but sit still and 
 grow, and rot make any noise about it 
 either. Toronto is the place where truly 
 good people do not let their hens lay 
 nor their cows gire milk or, a Sunday, 
 and have a sincere regret that the Crea- 
 tor did not so arrange their anatomy as 
 to make their herirt and lungs cease 
 working during the twenty-four hours. 
 
 Toronto has dozens of connections" by 
 rail and water with all parts of the 
 country; time was when the legislature 
 conld not assemble there for lack of 
 communications. Within the memory of 
 livinor men a walk from Toronto to 
 
 18 
 
Ou the Trail of the Voyageur. 
 
 Montreal was a recognized way of mak- 
 ing the joumeiy, and people still talk of 
 the wonderful stage journey made by 
 Lord Sydenham in 1840. It was truly 
 a record breaker. At six o'clock on Mon- 
 day morning, February 18th, the four 
 in hand started, William Weller on the 
 box. What visions the name alone con- 
 jures up ! All day the light sleigh glid- 
 ed along, now crisping the snow, now 
 drawn over bare roads or through 
 mud where the February thaw had done 
 its work. Noon came, and night, the 
 tired horses were replaced by others at 
 frequent intervals, and still Mr. Weileir 
 held the ribbons. Darkness covered the- 
 face of the country the stars came out 
 amid flying clouds, and in all the circle 
 of the horizon there was nothing seen 
 but the naked trees and the flying 
 ground, and nothing heard but the musi- 
 cal beat of the hoofs of the flying steeds. 
 Immovable, wrapped in his great coat, 
 the sleepless driver sat, till, at twenty 
 minutes to six on Tuesday afternoon, he 
 threw down his reins in the yard of the 
 Exchange Hotel on St. Paul street, 
 
 19 
 
A Canuck down South. 
 
 Montreal, and was helped from the box 
 where he had eat for thirty-five hours 
 and forty minutes and guided his gallop- 
 ing horses over three hundred and sixty 
 miles of mother earth. Ben Halliday 
 wasn't **in it," Hank Monk, who drove 
 Horace Greeley and jolted the buttons off 
 his coat, made no such record as William 
 Weller, and I, who am going where 
 Hank Monk is still talked of, am proud 
 to place our Canadiar, record iu evi- 
 dence. 
 
 Canadians are lacking m one thing lor 
 which the United Statesian is noted, the 
 art of advertising. I do not believe that 
 there is any country which has done so 
 much as Canada, and at the same time 
 talked of it so little, unless it be our 
 motherland, and her natives make up for 
 this by an air which plainly denotes that, 
 if they do not boast of one achiefvement, 
 it is because they are perfectly convinced 
 of their superiority in all directions. 
 Mortreal was the first harbor in the 
 world to be lighted by electricity. Can- 
 ada sent the first ocean steamship on her 
 voyage, has the most extensive railway 
 
 20 
 
On the Trail of fhe Voyageur. 
 
 system In the world under one manage- 
 ment, the most stupendous canal system 
 the world has ever seen, the finest bank- 
 ing system. She has more ocean shippirg 
 than the United States, which could not 
 have even what it has but for the sail- 
 ors it draws from Newfoundland and 
 Canada. Canada had to lend her vaya- 
 geura to ensure the success of the Nile 
 expedition, her oarsmen have been and 
 her yachtsmen are world's champions. 
 She has had the strongest man in the 
 world, and my lady friends say she has 
 the har.dsomest. She has civil servants 
 who think nothing of making expedi- 
 tions that Franklin or Nansen would 
 have wrltteoi a book on, and they send 
 In only about a printed page. She has 
 mounted police who keep in order In- 
 dians the United Start:es permits to 
 massacre standing armies. She has gold 
 mine?! that surpass those which produced 
 the forty niners. Slie has wheat fields 
 that rival thiose of Eussia, she has the 
 highest mountains, the noblest glaciers, 
 the most fertile plains, and the most ma- 
 jestic rivers on the continert. She has 
 
 21 
 
A Canuck down South. 
 
 climates that equal those of the cham- 
 paigne country or Siberia; she has coasts 
 more worderful thcxD the Norwegian 
 fjords. She has the deepest river and 
 the oldest mountairs in the world, and 
 her shores witnessed the dawn of life. 
 Her history should he the envy of na- 
 tions. The stand at Therm oj viae was a 
 rout compared with Bollard's stand on 
 the Ottawa; the legendary founding of 
 Rome is prosaic compared with that of 
 Montreal. I^ven the defence of Lucknow 
 is paralleled in Canada, and by a woman 
 at that, Madame de la Tour, who wo- 
 man-like afterwards married her enemy 
 — and perhaps was duly avenged. Our 
 poets have no living superiors in the 
 United States and but few in Great 
 Britain, our statesmen have been a 
 match for those of the United States, the 
 most overbearing and grasping in the 
 world; we have lent other countries men 
 who have added lustre to their annals. 
 Fen wick Williams, of Kars, is one. We 
 have had singers like Albani, sculptors 
 like Hebert, musiciare like Deseve, — but 
 why prolong the list. I have not men- 
 
 22 
 
On the Trail of the Yoyageur. 
 
 tioned the tithe of what entitles Canada 
 to resi)ect among nations, but if we do 
 not show pride ourselves who is going 
 to proclaim our virtues ? It is not so 
 long since I read an immigration pamph- 
 let, published by the Quebec Govern- 
 ment. There was not one particle of fine 
 writing in it, scarcely even a reference 
 to our cities. There werp statistical 
 tables, there were no pictures of wonder- 
 ful beets, of lader/ fruit trees, of charm- 
 ing land sea pp^. no attempt whatever to 
 root the intending settler to the soil, or 
 weave around him the glamor of our his- 
 tory and our institutions. To read that 
 pamphlet, one would imagine that Can- 
 ada was still a wilderness. What is it 
 but the lack of proper advertising that 
 even to this day leaves the average 
 Briton under the impression that the 
 grizzly bear waiiders through the sub- 
 urbs of Montreal and that he who 
 returns home late at night in Toronto 
 may be found scalped on his own door- 
 step In the morning : I myself have seen 
 in the London Times the announcement 
 that the Governor-General embarked at 
 
A. Canuck down South. 
 
 Ottawa on the steamship for England, 
 and I have frequently seen British let- 
 ters adidressed Montreal, Ca^nada, United 
 States. Fellow Canadians, modest like 
 myself, I pray you for the love of your 
 country, do not hide her light ur-der a 
 bushel. Go through the United States 
 west, see the parched deserts, swept by 
 cyclones, that are advertised as the fin- 
 est grazing lands in the world, mark the 
 dead and dying cattle on the plains, 
 which have neither food nor drink, see 
 the gaunt hollow-eyed Britisher who 
 tries to live on an ash heap a thousand 
 miles from anywhere; and advertise, ad- 
 vertise, advertise, if only for the sake of 
 humanity. 
 
 Here is a sample of the average 
 Englishman. 
 
 "Bai Jove, you Canadians awre qwite 
 right to make a law against scalpers' 
 tickets. It fu^eezes ma blood, bai Jove, to 
 think that some blasted Indian may mur- 
 der me fow ma ticket, and then sell it, 
 you know." 
 
 My mind slowly returned to sublun- 
 ary aHalrs. There were voices outside 
 
 24 
 
On the Trail of the Voyageur. 
 
 the car window, the cars shuditefi, en- 
 gines coughed and panted, aaid we slow- 
 ly wenit forwiard. 1 lo'oked out, anid 
 there wais a fainrt twinkle of lights in 
 the darlaness, aind then a curtain oi ut- 
 ter gioom was drawn over the wind'ow, 
 while a strange subterraoiean rumble 
 came to my ears. My mind, only hialf 
 awake, reverted to trips to the JPtort- 
 lanid coast tlirough the piortals of the 
 Victoria Bridge, and then as the rumh- 
 llng continiued, amd no sudden and brief 
 flash of light came, such as one niotes 
 In pasisihg through that tunnel in mid- 
 air, each time a pier is reached, it slow- 
 ly dawned upon me that we were pass- 
 ing through the tunnel irom Sarnla t^o 
 Port Huron, undier a tide whieh upbeiaris 
 a moTO voluminous shippKng thajn passes 
 even through the Suez Canal. Here Is 
 another little umadvertised work of Ca- 
 nadians, compared with which the 
 famed Hoosac Tunnel (jalso Taullt by 
 Canadians, it may be memtiomeid), is hiut 
 a mole hole. The St. Clair Tummel is 
 nearly two miles in length; the Hloosiac 
 Tunnel is only 2504 feet ; the St. 
 
 25 
 
A Canuck down South. 
 
 Gothard Tunnel is 914 miles; but there 
 is none In America to compiare with the 
 St. Clfiir, and n^one anjywhere so exten- 
 siTe which is carried undier water, if we 
 except the insigaiificant water-pipe whioh 
 Chicajgo carried out into Lake Michi- 
 gan to draw a supply that is not pol- 
 luted by the sewerage of that wicked 
 and progressive city. 
 
 We were due to arrive in Uhicago 
 somewhere about !en to ihe morning, 
 but we did not draw up at Dearborn 
 Station until aiter two on Sunday. By 
 thiat time I stood in need of a shave. 1 
 would not mention this insiginiflcant de- 
 tail, only that my search for a barber 
 revealed the straaige fact that the skin 
 game is not played in Chicago on thiat 
 day of the week. At least I thought 9o 
 until, as I was returning to the depot, 
 I was stopped by a gentlemanly-look- 
 ing man, who drew me confidentially 
 aside. 
 
 "Sir," he said; "excuse my addressing 
 you, but I have just received a telegram 
 that my mother is dying in New York, 
 and I have nothing but my gold watch'. 
 
 26 
 
On the Trail of the Voyageur. 
 
 Now, if yiotu will take the watcii — it is 
 WiOrth sixtiy dOllaorsi — ^and give me twen- 
 ty-five, fny dying mwtheir's blessing will 
 rest upon the man wbo enaJbles Ioj&p fl(an 
 to reach her bedside." 
 
 All is not gold that glitters in Chi- 
 cago. 
 
 A few moments laiber, a well-dresseid 
 man rushed up tjo me and shook mo 
 violently by the hand. 
 
 "Well," he said; "this ie ft sight for 
 sore eyes. How did you ever come here, 
 John J. Aitkins, of Indianapolis ? I 
 haveai't sett ^yes du you for three years." 
 
 I said; 
 
 "I'm really very sorry, but my niame's 
 not Aitkiiis, and I never was in India- 
 napolis. My name's Bloidgett, Isa^ac K. 
 Blodgett, and I come from Austra'da. 
 I'm going bo the Alask'a gold mines." 
 
 With profuse lapologles, and the assur- 
 ance t(hat I was like enough to John 
 Aitktns to be his twin brother, my new 
 frlenid left me. Some tHne later, when I 
 was looking f!or a cab to drive about 
 the city, I was again seized by the hamd. 
 
 "Well, I never. Can this be B'todgeftt, 
 
 27 
 
A Canuck down South. 
 
 my xjld friend Istaae Blodgett? What on 
 ©artli brouigihrt yiou to Chicago. And 
 how are all the folk in Australta? I bet 
 you're comiing here to d'atoble in our 
 Alaska mines. Yon kn.ow me, of course? 
 I tell yon n.ow, you don't get out of 
 this town without seeing the elephant. 
 How do you do? I'm just wild at 
 meeting you!" 
 
 "Excuse me," I said, "I'm very sorry, 
 but my name is not Blodgett, and I 
 never was in Australia. My name's Ait- 
 klns — John J. Altkins, of Indianapo- 
 lis." 
 
 The effusive gentleman looked at me 
 a moment. Then his left eye closed 
 spasmodically, in what looked suspi- 
 ciously like a wink', and he left me sud- 
 denly. 
 
 We had a poor meal m the staition 
 restanrant, amid a gAod deal iof billings- 
 gate from the lady in attendance on 
 the wometn and children's waiting- 
 room (I hope I have her title right, or 
 she will probably exercise her tongue 
 further), and then we set forth to see 
 the sights. 
 
On the Trail of the Voyageur. 
 
 From the roof of the Masioinic Temple, 
 twetnty-onie stories hlglh (302 feet), a 
 fair, if eonfused, idea is had of the »ity. 
 Lake Michigan noils its greien waters on 
 the one hamd, and everywhere else are 
 vast building's and interminiable streets, 
 dimly seen, even on that Sunday after- 
 noon, through the smoke that seethes 
 and billows over the whole town, 
 quionehing the sunlight land miaklng 
 e\ierythlnjg look like a Dutoh picture. 
 Fork packers have discovered the secret 
 of (the old masters, such is civilization. 
 We were still on territoi>y pre^©mi>ted 
 by Canadians. The town is full of theni 
 now, and in the ages past her© cann* 
 Jean Nicolett, and crossed to tihe Missis- 
 sippi. Here came LaSalle and Mar- 
 quette ; here waved the fleur-de-lys, ajiid 
 here the miass was sung. Earlier still, 
 an extensive trade wias here, a trade 
 terminated so long ago that we learn 
 of it on'jy through excavations in Ohio 
 mounds, yet it extended nortih, east, 
 south and west, almiost to the confines 
 of thie continent. 
 A little before ten that evening two 
 
 29 
 
A Canuck down South. 
 
 very tired, adults and two still more 
 tired clilldreii, boarded the Atcheson, 
 Topeka & Santa Fe California Limited, 
 bribed the portei to make up their 
 berths, and slept a sleep that Argus 
 might hare coveted. 
 
 

 CHAPTER II. 
 Across thk Prairie. 
 
 •'It is all cliang-ecl now," said tlie Ar 
 goiiaut; "time was when out West a 
 pistol-pockeft was impenaitively \nec&s~ 
 sary. To-ctay we only require a pockiet- 
 pistol." 
 
 "Man always has a waint," moralized 
 the Capitalist. 
 
 "Especially if he is a Britisher," said 
 the Tail-twister. 
 
 "If it were not so," reauarkfed the 
 Lieutenant, with a sly ifnile, "our 
 frierd, the Capitalist, would lose his 
 vocation." 
 
 I said nothing, nor did the other ten- 
 derfeet offer a word. We had had our 
 innings as far west as thie Missiouri, but 
 since leaving Kansas City miodeisty had 
 fallen upon us, which was rather a 
 strange sensation. 
 
 31 
 
A CoAiuck down South. 
 
 The Argonaut w^as an elderly man 
 now, ODje who had borne the brunt of 
 early Ualiformia da,ys (they don't say 
 Californlan in Califcxmia). He did not 
 speak much — he belonged to days when 
 a loose tongue was fatal, unless Ihtmg 
 on a hair trigger — and when he did 
 make a remark, it was epigrammatic as 
 that of the derringer that had swung 
 at his belt in the early fifties, and like 
 that weapon, it usually let d;ay light 
 through the subject, as, for example, 
 the remark quoted above. 
 
 We were on the Sajnta Fe California 
 Limited, roUimg through Kansas, in the 
 sunshine of a late October day, — Kan- 
 sas dear to Caaiadians through its close 
 association with our early fur-trading 
 days, interestlug to scientists as an 
 anciemt sea-bottojn, and the cemetery of 
 geological monstrosities, valuable to 
 the Capitalist through its wealth of 
 gypsum and marbles, and hallowed in 
 the eyes of the Argonaut as the portal 
 through which a generation agio he 
 had sought the New West. 
 
 Our travelling companions were near- 
 
Across the Prairie, 
 
 ly all typi&al. Tiiere w<as tlie Argonaut, 
 going back for some unknown purpose 
 to his early home ; the Uapitalist, with 
 a new schefne in which to sink British 
 capital, to which he had promised the 
 extraction of sunbeams from cucumbers, 
 or the turning of cactus deserts into 
 ranch lands. There was the Tail-^twist- 
 er, narrow, uneducated, save in the af- 
 fairs of his own country, and still bit- 
 terly remembering the days of 1776, 
 which, he thought, formed a live issue 
 yet in the policy of the two great na- 
 tions. There was the Lileutenant, re- 
 joining his company in some far-away 
 fort among thie Indiams; and there were 
 a few stalwart ne'er-do-wells, who had 
 been shipped frojji England with a little 
 money to retrieve their fortune and 
 their fame, and who would probably 
 end their days on a '^tittle fruit ranch 
 high on the Sierra sides, mortgaged to 
 the roof-tree, their ambition crushed by 
 the dreamy, cloudless climate and dis- 
 appointment. 
 
 Alas, there were also others in high 
 hai)e3, do'omed to extinstion, — others 
 
 33 
 
2 Canuck down South. 
 
 with flushed cheeks and tranapareait 
 hands, with a racking coug-h, for which 
 they were seeking ease and eure by flee- 
 ing the wintry blasts of the east. Some 
 were alone, but several had relatives to 
 share their exile; and, as 1 looked upon 
 them, I thought myself, indeed, an in- 
 valid no i'M>nger, for among the blind 
 the one-eyed man is king. 
 
 But, such is the buoyancy of hop© 
 and the restorative power of change of 
 scene and interest, that we were o(ne 
 and all the joUiest set of invalids ever 
 seen. Cle\opatra may have wept on An- 
 tony's shoulder as she heard the melan- 
 choly "Remember, thou art mortal," 
 and Caesar may have flinched at the 
 phrase ere he went to his unexpected 
 death ; imt, though there were few 
 among us to whom those words might 
 not significantly have been addressed, 
 and notwithstanding that we knew the 
 fatal yellow lantern might at any mo- 
 ment flash out the sad intelligence of 
 death or mute cry for medical aid 
 through the night, as we rushed past 
 the stations, we laughed and talked, 
 
 34 
 
Across the Prairie. 
 
 full of tiope and seemingly heedless of 
 the progress of the dread malady, to ar- 
 res.t which we had said farewell to 
 friends and home, some of us for ever. 
 
 One night, long after every one had 
 retired, 1 went to the wasih-room to di- 
 lute a little water with whiskey. In- 
 stamtly, the recumbent porter sprang 
 to his feet, and asked if 1 wanted as- 
 sistance. As there was not much water 
 in the mixtui'e, I replied that I thought 
 that I could manage to get the "better 
 of it myself, whereupon he sank back 
 restfully, sa^ying; "1 thjought some on© 
 was dying." That was a decided shock 
 to me. It was disagreeable to have 
 forced upon one in so strong a manner 
 the fact that there might be a familiar 
 face missing some morning; but, as indi- 
 cating the hopefulness of consumptives, 
 It would have been ludicruous had it 
 not been pathetic, to see how anxiously 
 each far-gone invalid asked his com- 
 panions how they had rested during the 
 night. He saw the mote; he could not 
 see the beam. 
 But it must not be thought that our 
 
 35 
 
A Canuck down SoulJi. 
 
 Pullman was an hospital, it is not of- 
 teai that, even on such trains, the droad 
 ma'ady is brought too forcibly before 
 the eye. It is more frequently »o on the 
 east bound trains, when some heart 
 yearns homeward for a sight of haloed 
 scenes, arnd contests every inch with 
 death until the last sad wish has been 
 accomplished. Our evenings in the 
 smoking-room were among the pleasant- 
 eet experiences of my life, and interest- 
 ing as were the glimpses of life and 
 scenery from the car windows, they 
 were surpassed when the taciturn Ar- 
 gonaut or the Lieutenant could he 
 lured into conversation. 
 
 From the instant we had erossed the 
 Missouri, the Argonaut had been exhi- 
 biting a suppressed excitement. 
 
 "I kaow the signs," said the Capital- 
 ist. "He's got the fever on him again. 
 We're going over the old Santa Fe 
 trail, and the love of California and 
 the lust for gold have him once more, as 
 torty years ago. He'll break out soon, 
 and then you'll have some idea of the 
 kind of boys that made the biggest half 
 of this countiT." 
 
Across the Prairie. 
 
 That evening, after I had superintend- 
 ed the packing of the "enfant terrible" 
 of our party in the "top drawer," as he 
 persisted in calling the upper berth of 
 our section, much to the porter's dis- 
 gust, 1 entered the smoKing-room. The 
 Capitalist winked at me, and nodded 
 towards the Argonaut, who sat in th<i 
 most comfortable corner. Then he l)&- 
 gjRn to hum: 
 
 I soon shall be in Frisco, 
 
 And then I'll look all round, 
 And when I see the gold ".uinps there 
 
 I'll pick 'em off the groand , 
 I'll scrape the mountains clean my boys, 
 
 I'll drain the rivers dry. 
 A pocket full of rocks bring home ; 
 
 So, brothers, don't you cry. 
 
 The Lieutenant and Tail-twister took 
 up the refrain: 
 Oh! California! 
 
 That's the land for me. 
 I'm bound for San Francisco, 
 With my washbowl on my knee. 
 The Argonaut roused himself. *'The 
 railroad's good enough for California," 
 he said: "for it can't take you any 
 
 37 
 
A Canuck doioi South. 
 
 further unless you want to swim. But 
 it's killed the country between. Time 
 was when the whole overland trail was 
 settled and busy. Once 1 counted nigh 
 five hundred teams within nine miles. 
 From the Missouri to the Pacific ther« 
 was one long procession. Twenty thou- 
 sand people started in one body from 
 Fort Laramie, in May, 1849. Some got 
 to the very Sierra and turned back; 
 aome got left in the desert and stayed 
 there, and when the choleia caught up 
 with us," — 
 
 Here the old man stopped, and tne 
 Tail-twister broke in: "It's the British- 
 ers," be said. "They wanted California 
 then, and they want it now. Look at 
 them to-day. There isin't a horse in Los 
 Angeles or Pasadena that hasn't it's 
 tail docked ; theire isoi't a dinner-plate 
 that was made outside of England. They 
 sent the cholera then, and tihey come 
 out here now, and put tneir moneiy imlfco 
 everything — " 
 
 "Hear, hear," cried the Capitalist, 
 smiling over some luerry redollectiom of 
 some such investment, in which the 
 money had doubttless remained. 
 
Across the Prairie. 
 
 "Ajnd then they think they should be 
 elected mayor or alderman, or be pnt 
 on the police force. Confiscate 'em, I 
 say." 
 
 We side-tracked the Tail-twister with 
 some difficulty. 
 
 '*It seems to me," said the Lieuten- 
 ant, "that travelling this way is better 
 than by prairie schooner, and quicker." 
 "It's different," replied the Argonaut ; 
 "but it's roughing it in another way. 
 Here we are cooped up day and night, 
 without a chanoe to stretch our legs, 
 except for a few minutes at a station ; 
 no sport, held up by the porter when- 
 ever we speiak to hLn, bUckened by 
 train smoke, blinded by dust, and have 
 to wear a boiled shirt and high collar 
 In all the heat, just because some lad(y 
 with heir llap-dog is on board, aoid 
 doesn't want the dog's manners contam- 
 inated. Give me the old schxyoner, plen- 
 ty of time and grub, ^and a good horse. 
 What's yiour hurry in this world? You 
 young fellows want to get there as soon 
 as y,ou hlave started ; you might as well 
 want to be bom bald-headed and with 
 
A. Canuck doicn South. 
 
 spectacles. It's what comes between the 
 beginning and the enri that makes liie. 
 And, as for space! Why, sir, many a 
 prairie schooner was almost as big as 
 this car, and the outfit often cost over 
 $5,000. I 'have seefn f 8,000 paid for the 
 schooner alone, and $1,000 a pair for 
 mules; and that waggon took a dozen 
 yoke ; twenty thousand dollars with- 
 out the whip and the yeller dog." 
 
 I suppose I shjowed surprise, for th« 
 Argonaut turned or me. 
 
 "Ask ex-Postmaster-General J'ames if 
 that ain't true. And ask him if the 
 newspapers weren't printed on tissue 
 paper to save overweight. They charg- 
 ed five dollars a letter in those days, 
 and extra on love letters. It was big 
 money times; there wasn't a nickel or a 
 dime west of the Mis&ourl." 
 
 And so on amd so forth. The volcano 
 was going, with frequent geyser-like ex- 
 plosions, fnom the Capitalist ^and the 
 Lieutenant. We did not get to bed till 
 long after midmight. My last recollec- 
 tion that night was of seeing the por- 
 ter standing lon t<he rear platform, slow- 
 
 40 
 
Across the Prairie. 
 
 ly and regretfully dunnping ceptaln old 
 soldiers rnto the diarkness of the voice^ 
 less desert. 
 
 It is not surprising tliat the Argo- 
 naut was loqUiacDous om our first might 
 out from Kans'as City, as we rattled 
 through the scenes of his early days. 
 We who had not teem participators in 
 the opeaiing up of the West were not un- 
 moved. The sight of a solitary cow- 
 boy, long-haired, slouch hatted, big 
 spurred, sitting firmly in his ornate 
 Mexican saddle, and loping alomig on 
 the prairie, bad led the ladies to indulgp 
 In a WfaTimg of handkerchiefs, and, I 
 fear, a s'y throwing of kisses that filled 
 our hearts witih wrath; and had not the 
 train been going, we would hjave got 
 oiut aind siassed that cowboy, and some- 
 body misrht have been hurt. He had 
 astually the audacity to wave his glov- 
 ed hand towards the Princess, who las- 
 Bured me that she considered him highly 
 Impertinent, though she did not clinch 
 her hand, which is tne infallible sign ot 
 resenting an ifisnlt. We had passetd 
 Newton at dusk, now a quiet little 
 
 41 
 
A Camick down South. 
 
 town, but once a perfect hell on earth, 
 where murder was the daily occupation 
 of the population, and g-ambling and 
 drinking smd other vices their nightly 
 diverslom. When the much-meeded vigi- 
 lance conijjiittee got to w'ork, it handed 
 eleven men in one night, and would have 
 hanged more had the posts held out. 
 We had halted a moment at Dodge City, 
 and tbe Argonaut haa had to drag forth 
 a timid littie guide-book-devouring ten- 
 derfoot from umder his berth, and as- 
 sure him that the cowboys no longer 
 shot holes in white shirts and tveo-Inch 
 collars at that station. Strange as was 
 everythimg to a tenderfoot, it was still 
 diflacult to believe that we were actually 
 hi the land sacred to boyhood as the 
 scene of the most hairbreadth es-*- 
 capes on reaoiT-d, and of the ultimate tri- 
 umph ot truo love over the schemes ot 
 the villaim and his bartd of tawny cut-^ 
 throats. 
 
 I have made no reference m far to th« 
 women cm. board, except in connectioai 
 with the cowboy. "J'hey did not form a 
 coterie quite as we men did, since the 
 
 42 
 
Across the Prairie. 
 
 construction of even tlie PuUnnan car 
 does not provide for such a cluD-rooim 
 as we hiad in the smoker. Women laiust 
 sit amiong the boxes, laind must put up 
 with petty aninoyiainc^ of variuos kinds 
 !rom the familiarity of a porter, or his 
 Insolence, to drinklmg tepid instead of 
 iced wiater, just Ttjecause we men need 
 lee in the wash basin to keep jour iiquofrs 
 cool. If wo;nein thoroughly understood 
 the art of tipping, they would doubt- 
 less suffer less in traveling, but they do 
 aot. But of this hereafter . The JLieu- 
 tenant's wife was there , he and sh& 
 were the nabobs of the party, and occu- 
 pied the state-room. There was the 
 Princess, facile princeps, ol course, but a 
 little too dignified to be able to show 
 off all her accomplishmeaits before stran- 
 gers, however agi'eeable, whofna she 
 would iee .he llast of ii *ouir diays. The 
 Princess is nrery Englisih,ve(ry miodest ana 
 unassuming, amd very proud. AVi the 
 other women hung on her neck when sne 
 was leaving the train, and wavea their 
 handkerchiefs out of the window &t her 
 when she was gome, but of course I was 
 
 43 
 
A Caimck down Sovth. 
 
 with her, and besides she had always 
 been ready to talk to the moping, help 
 with a fretful child, ana laugh with the 
 cheerful, notwithstanding her own fa- 
 tigue aind two sturdy atoms of perpe- 
 tual motion. Then there was a young 
 wife going out with an invalid hus- 
 band. Her's was a strange position. 
 She had been s^o accustomed to having 
 him pet her, thmK for ber, save her in 
 things small and great, that she never 
 quite got over the impressiom that she 
 was the invalid and he the attentive 
 nurse; aii;d he never tried to undeceive 
 her. Many a ti)ne, in the night, when 
 he should have been resting, I have seem 
 him stealing down the aisle to get her 
 a drink of water. H^r's was the first 
 berth made up at nigbt, and the last 
 In the morning. JLet us h-ope she woke 
 to the situation in due time, for he was 
 going fast. Halt the trouble in this 
 world is broiUght about by not seeing 
 things as they are. There are more peo- 
 ple blind thiam selfish. 
 
 The proverbial old maid was there. 
 We thouglit she had a romance, for s'lie 
 
 44 
 
Across the Prairie. 
 
 was in perfeet health, and was always 
 consnlting the time-table. There was 
 nothing she liked better than to get a 
 man, preferably a married man, out on 
 the back platform and monopolize him. 
 She caught the Lieutenant that way 
 o[Dce, and for an entire morning he 
 named, described and gave the story of 
 every place and scene. The next mom- 
 ing there was a marked coolness be- 
 tween his wife amd the maiden lady, and 
 a glare in his wife's eye every time she 
 looked at him. All the virgin's bland- 
 ishments were subsequently thrown 
 away upon him, but she inveigled the 
 Argonaut into what we had begun tlo 
 term the chamber of horrors. Much to 
 our surprise, he returned in five minutes, 
 and upon our asking him how he man- 
 aged to escape, replied, as he settled 
 himself down for a comfortable smoke, 
 that he hiad mereliy tofid her a sitory he 
 had given us in the smioking-room the 
 previous night. 
 
 Robert Louis Stevensiom hias some uin- 
 kind words to say of the officials on 
 the line over which he passed on an im- 
 
 .... ..-M? 
 
 45 
 
A Canuck down South. 
 
 migrant train. Our experieoace om the 
 Limited was, of course, better, probal)- 
 ly as much better as the differeoice in ex- 
 peoises would certainly call for. But I 
 cannot refrain from reeounting a little 
 experience which I had which shiowed 
 the Dower :f noney. We aad wired to 
 Chicago for two lower berths, but had 
 ultimately been compelled to take a sec- 
 tion, which meant that a child would 
 have to sleep at the risk of its neck 
 somewhere contiguous to the roof. I 
 had been assured thiat this could be rec- 
 tified en route. On asking the comduc- 
 tor itor a lower berth in&tead of the 
 upper, and several lowers were empty, 
 he instantly replied that he had not one 
 to spare, that all were taken. Without 
 urging him further, I slipped a bill into 
 his hand, and he, on his part, not even 
 turning away, or pretending to recon- 
 sider the question, instantly made the 
 change I had desired. The act was as 
 barefaced as that of the restaurant wait- 
 er who changes the label on a wlme 
 bottle In your presence, to suit yxmr 
 t'aste. I had a similar experience, with 
 
 46 
 
Across the Prairie. 
 
 the same result, with the porter. I hiad 
 tipped him o/nce already, a large tip, 
 as I tihought, but on the third day out 
 I found that its influence was Just ex- 
 piring. I couldn't get him to make up 
 the children's berths at a reasonable 
 hour ; he grumbled because they had 
 left biscuit crumbs on the seat, and be- 
 gan ro hint that the regulations of the 
 company prohibited the use of alcohol 
 lamps, a fact. I believe, but winked at 
 when the eyes are eoYered with green 
 paper bearing a cooiple of signatures 
 and the portrait of some United States 
 dignitary. Five minutes afterwards he 
 was '*yes-«irring" me in the most cheer- 
 ful manner possible, romping about the 
 ?ar TOstibule with the 2lhildifen, and 
 keeping am eye on the teapot. 
 
 I mentioned this peculiar psychical 
 phenomeffion to the Capitalist. '*Sir," 
 he S'aid, '^yoii did right. It's just goit 
 to be done, and allowance made In the 
 estimates. Many a man has lost a fat 
 contract — I mean just been worried to 
 death by standing on his rights and re- 
 porting to the company. I tiled It once 
 
 47 
 
A Canuck down South. 
 
 with a porter. Not on this line. Demme, 
 sir, he made my life miserable. A 
 straight hold-up would have been more 
 humane. Wheme^er 1 sat down to read, 
 he would come along amid dust the seat, 
 and tell me between whiles about the big 
 tip he got from Vanderbilt last week, 'a 
 pufekt gemmen, sah.' If I moved across 
 the aisle he would gather up all the 
 stray valises in the car and put them 
 on my legs and into my ribs, explain- 
 ing that they belonged to de gemma© 
 dat holds dat seat. And every time I 
 stood up, he'd produce his whisK to 
 brush my coat, and stand there, just 
 stand. If I went to the smoker, he 
 would steal the matches and take away 
 the cuspidors to clean them, opening 
 the car door and filling the place with 
 train dust and alkali. When I wanted 
 to go to bed, he'd say cheerfully. 'Bed, 
 saJh; yes, sah; make it up at de nex' 
 station, sah,' and I'd have to roust him 
 out of his own eventually In the 
 morning he'd pull back the curtains 
 about daybreak, wakeoi me up, and the© 
 apologize. 'Tought you got out at de 
 
 48 
 
Across the Prairie. 
 
 las' atation, sah, beg paidon, sah ; de 
 car*9 mighty imowded • some gemmen 
 just got on lookin' foh a seat, sah. 
 We's goin' trou* fine scenery, sah.' 
 Why, if I hadn't tipped him at lasit, 1 
 migM better havf walked." 
 
 We had cast off our last dining oar at 
 Kamstas City, and were thenceforth to 
 depend upjon the dining stations along 
 thie Doiute. If we exciept the occasional 
 IrregTilarity of the meal hours, which 
 sometimes compelled us to €<ait a second 
 meal ere the first was well dtown, or 
 •ombine two into one, I must eaay no- 
 thimg that is mot in praise of the cater- 
 ing. Twemty minutes dioes mot seem a 
 looig time for a meal, and it is not, if 
 one contemplates a state dinner ; but, 
 from the time one sits down to the mo- 
 ment one gets up at one of these dining 
 stations, there is nothing left but to eat. 
 There seem to be three waiters to each 
 guest, amd tihe grass doesn't gnow un- 
 der their feet. The first course is on the 
 table as you sit diown; the next mysteri- 
 ously slips under your nose as you take 
 your lajst mouthful of the first, and so 
 
.1 Canuck down South. 
 
 on, till you find yiourself at peace with 
 tbe world, and ooiitentedly oiiewing a 
 tioiothpick apparently hours before the 
 train gives its preli^imary warning. To 
 the most nervous and most fastidious I 
 can only repeat, you will have plenty of 
 time, and you can sciaroely dine bettesr. 
 
 To invalids and those who have 
 yiouug children 1 would say, by all 
 means take a lun«h box. Our luinch box 
 proved a thing of beauty and a joy for- 
 ever. The Princess looked to that mat- 
 ter herself, and being blessed with a fine 
 appetite and a good digestion, to,ok 
 pride in her labor. That box was our 
 dearest friend on the journey. If time 
 fell heavy upon cuir hands, we dived into 
 that receptacle. If the children became 
 troublesome, which even such paragons 
 as ours siometimes did, we gave them 
 the lunch box. If we did not feel like 
 dining at the stations, we took care to 
 teed the box iroan the lunoh counter. It 
 was like the widow's cruise, inexhausti- 
 ble, and the pleasures of Three Men in 
 a Boat were fustian compared with ours 
 in that box. From hiome we brought 
 
 50 
 
Across the Prairie. 
 
 tea, sug-ar, pepper, salt, knives, forJjs, 
 spoons, cups and piatee, everything else 
 we readily got on the way, Including 
 dainty sections ol cold roast chickem. We 
 had an alcohol lamp, and made tea, 
 which was a Inxnir for the women. 
 
 As to clothes, a man may wear his 
 osTial costume, it it isn't a golf or a 
 bicycle suit. A man riding to Calltornia 
 In a bieyclo suit had best use his miu 
 chine; otherwise he may furnish occupa- 
 tion for a border town coroner. A wo- 
 mam ? Well, j approach this subje«t 
 with diffidence, having a constant ten- 
 dency to confuse their articles of attire 
 in a manner that the Princess says 
 is scandalous. Perhaps I had better 
 say that the Maiden Lady already men- 
 tioned came on board m some kind of 
 tight-fitting tailor-made dress, wltb 
 starched collar, the envy of her sex, tho 
 lodestone of ours, but before the jour- 
 ney was over she was a spectacle for 
 gods, not men. The starched collar waa 
 always getting limp amd black, the 
 dress buttons became gradually distribut- 
 ed along the desert, amd her elbows and 
 
 51 
 
A Canuck down South. 
 
 forearms wore through her sleeves. I 
 concluded theai, amd mow I Know, that 
 loose clothing is the sine qua non, some- 
 thi/ng in the blouse line I suppose. I 
 would suggest a pretty wrapper, such 
 as J saw on our trip, only that the 
 Princess says 1 was altogethea* too at- 
 tentive to that wrapper. 
 
 It was this same maiden who brought 
 a lot of ungainly valises into the car, 
 amd roused our ire. If she; put them on 
 her seat, they comstantly prodded her 
 ribs; if she put them on the floor, we 
 fell over them, and glared at her. At 
 ndgiht they lay on her feet and kept her 
 awake, at which we were savagely de- 
 lighted. The rest of us had valises that 
 would slip under the berth at night and 
 stand deeently up in the corner next the 
 window by day, miniature steamer 
 trunks. These hints cost us something 
 to learn, and are given without charge 
 to those contemplating such a jouimey as 
 ours. 
 
 One last piece of advice: Remember 
 Mark Twain's sad experiences with 
 Webster's Unabridged and Stevenson's 
 
 52 
 
Across the Prairie. 
 
 troubles with Bancroft's History, aire! 
 take no books yourself. You will be 
 lucky if betweem the sig^luts to be seefa 
 and tbe pleasiamt oonTersatioai of your 
 companions you get time even to oon- 
 Bult tlie guide-book you ought to buy 
 on the cars. If 1, who live chiefly b'y 
 and on boioks, say this, be sure it is so. 
 
 In Kansas we were first made ac- 
 quainted with the negro and the mule, 
 a combination which supports half the 
 comic papers of the Union; the man 
 with a great flapping hat and the mule 
 with two similar contrivances 'urnished 
 by nature. Sometimes the negro would 
 be asleep, and the mule's e«ars would fall 
 forward over the anlmial's eyee and 
 blind it, or get entangled with its feet 
 and nearly send it sprawling, at which 
 the negro would wakeai and tie the ears 
 back again. There was a slight breeze 
 blowing as we passed one such proces- 
 sion, and the mule had great trouble 
 tacking against it unt4l his master furl- 
 ed his ears. 
 
 'Now and again we had halted at 
 80»ne city of the plains, vigorous, 
 
 53 
 
A Canuck down SotitJi. 
 
 and youthful, with broad avenues and 
 frequent shade trees, and had then 
 sped out over the rolling prairie, seeimg 
 but few of the millions of cattle and but 
 little of the cultivated ranches which 
 make Kansas the secomd state of the 
 Union in agricultural importance. Some 
 of the towns have a reputation to sus- 
 taifn, but the majority would prefer to 
 lose theirs. They would evem exchange 
 It for the reputation of a Montreal al- 
 derman. 
 
 Be it remembered that it was towards 
 the close of October that we passed 
 through Kansas; the crops were garner- 
 ed, the plamted seed not yet quickened 
 Into life. Eeturning towards the close 
 of April following, we found the scene 
 v^astiy different. The bare ground was 
 now covered with tender green shoots, 
 the whole state carpeted with velvet. It 
 is one of the most striking features of 
 the Journey to one accustomed to the 
 well watered lands of Canada, to mark 
 how, in the dry season, the maked earth 
 lies a burned and heart-breaktag desert 
 between the Miss/ourl and the Sierra, but 
 
 54 
 
Across the Prairie. 
 
 ready to blooim, crop upon crop, the 
 whole year round, und^sr the favor of Ju- 
 piter Pin Tins. Happy the land, how- 
 ever, that has watercourses ! Was not 
 Palestine such a country, *'a land which 
 the Lord thy God careth for." The 
 United States west is a land of Egypt, 
 "where thou sowedst thj seed and water- 
 edst it with thy foot, like a garden ol 
 herbs," though the modern science ol 
 trrigatlon has done much to ease the 
 curse. Diogenes says they do not water 
 by the foot out West, but by the "inch " 
 
 A. Westemi rancher to whom I quoted 
 these Scriptural passages replied that 
 he had bieein told that there was a spe- 
 culator named Joseph who was able to 
 squeeze the shorts by getting a comer 
 in Egyptian wheat when the Palestine 
 crop ran out. It Is not safe to ai^ue 
 out West, or I would have suggested 
 that the Eigyptian crop was short that 
 year al»o, and that Joseph had ooily 
 cornered the supply. 
 
 From the moment we had left Chi- 
 oago, we had been climbing steadily 
 skyward, and when we passed Coolldge, 
 
A Canuck (foicn South. 
 
 the last station in Kansas, w« were 
 3,365 feet above tide-water, Chicago b^ 
 ing only 579 feet. We were to rise aa 
 high again, and higher, ere from the 
 suJimit of the Continenital Divide we 
 could sweep down towards the Pacific. 
 Hitherto, also, we had been speeding 
 straight into the pathway of the seitting 
 sun, but lat La Juinta, shortly after en- 
 tering Colorado, we turned southward, 
 leaving behind us the fametd health re- 
 sorts and mining districts of the state, 
 and seeiTig Pike's Peak dimly outlined 
 northward in the azure distance. 
 
 We cut off the oouth-easterm corner of 
 Colorado, a land of virtual desert, of 
 dry water courses, arid plains dotted 
 with sage brush, and enlivened at in- 
 frequent intervals only by the jack-rab- 
 bit, whiose long ears obscured the vi- 
 sion. Our train chased one of these 
 creatures, or rather we thought it did, 
 ontil he settled down to work, and them 
 we knew he had only been siauntering 
 before. Thetnei' was 'just one brown 
 streak, amd we were alone again in the 
 disconaolatte desierl:. 
 
 56 
 
Across the Prairie. 
 
 We were mot lomg in Colorado witih- 
 out rumning into a moxintaiii. T'He state 
 is not half the size of the PToviince of 
 Quebec, horizontally, but if it had npt 
 beem crumpled up s<o, it would probably 
 cover the wbole of Camada. At least one 
 getB this impTiessian friom glimpses of 
 Pike's Peak and tihe two miajestia Span- 
 ish Peaks that have been splittimg the 
 horizom for some time, to say nothing 
 of yonder w^all of rook through wihioh 
 we are abo^ut to pass, treading in the 
 footsteps of the Arsgomaiuts and of the 
 aborigines who, centuries before Colum- 
 bus, traversed the Raton Pass, one of 
 the few highways through the Rockies. 
 
 
 57 
 

 CHAPTER in. 
 Over thk Dividk. 
 
 Mounta ins have ever been the holy 
 places of the eartih. It was upon a 
 mountain that Moses spoke with God, 
 and troim a moointain that he brought 
 down the commandments to those who 
 on the plains below wee lost in super- 
 stition and worshipped the golden calf. 
 The world's two historic cities, Jerusa- 
 lem and Rome, were built upon moum- 
 talns, and the story of nations has 
 shown time amd a^gain that the love of 
 liberty and hooior amd great movementa 
 have originiateid among those who were 
 mountain bred. 
 
 The influence of the plains is deprcBS- 
 ing, their momioitoniy stagmatee the 
 
Over tlie Divide. 
 
 mind, or involves it m mystical theo- 
 ries. Witness tiie tbeologieis of Egyirt 
 and the Populist movement in Kansas. 
 The hills uplift to an approximiatiom of 
 their own grandeur; the vultui*e for the 
 plains, the eagle for the erags. Such, at 
 any rate, is the sentiment of tihe tourist 
 accustomed to a varied landscape who 
 has had a diay and two nights upon the 
 prairie, and sees before him for the first 
 time, rise upon rise, tiue oi^tllers of the 
 Rocky Mount ailns. 
 
 We were mow well on along the Saimta 
 Fe trail, every mile of whicn has had its 
 tragedy, death by Apache bullet, delath 
 by hunger, death by thirst, death by 
 torture, amid, perhaps worst of all, 
 death by heartbreak, when the sttout 
 heart that had braved the weary miles 
 from the Missouri gave out amd lay 
 down to die before the heeidless barrieir 
 that stood between him and the gold 
 fields where he had hioped to win for- 
 tune. The Arkansas River, alomg whose 
 banks we had for some time been rum- 
 ning, is now forsaken, and we shall 
 see but little wiater for the remalnider of 
 
 59 
 
A Canuck down South. 
 
 our jourtaey, save an occasional moun- 
 tain, stream. 
 
 We were awakeaied for an earJy break- 
 fast at La Junta, a little after six In 
 the morniing. La Jmitia, the Junction, 
 the name is sug-gestive of black-eyed sig- 
 norettas, with cigarettes and jealous 
 lovers, and,- unlike the bulk of United 
 States names, it does not dlsaippoint us. 
 Here a padre gets in, who has been re- 
 cuperating at Goloradio Springs or look- 
 ing at the mines at Detovesr. What 
 strange tales he will tell his little Mexi- 
 can mission floek! Will his peputation 
 lor veracity stand the strain ? He has 
 actually seen men workin^g, workln^g 
 while they had niiomey in their pockets. 
 Incredible ! And they did not celebrate 
 a single saint's day. Monstrous! Theiy 
 smoke pipes. Uaramba ! And drink 
 strong waters. Ah, mow the padre speaks 
 truth ; thiat is to be a man. 
 
 Meanwhile our train has resigned its 
 apparently interminiabie journey, and is 
 hurling itself like a battering ram 
 against the walls of rock that are draw- 
 ing ever nearer. We have reached Trini- 
 
 €0 
 
Goer the Divide. 
 
 dad shortly before 11, "and now," says 
 the Argonaut, "you ladies had better 
 oome upon the reiar platform." The Vir- 
 gin is tnere aircaay ; has sne not her 
 guide-boiok to direct her ? We notice 
 that the Argooiiaut avoids her. and £itt- 
 taches himself to the Princess. The 
 Lieutenant's wife looks carefully after 
 her personal property, but the Virgin is 
 serene. She has her guide-book. 
 
 Liike the breath of the sialt sea was 
 the first breath of the hills. Trinidald 
 ts at their foot, and here a seciomd pow- 
 erful engine was attached. Shades of 
 early scoffers who thought no train 
 could progress on smooth rails, what d)o 
 ye think of this ? We were going to be 
 hoisted 1,640 feet into the sky within 
 the next twenty miles, and would boldly 
 go through a mountain that barred our 
 further progress. Two engines to draw 
 us, and yet he who would might have 
 walked alongside the train, whose speed 
 did not exceed four miles an hour. We 
 wound round spurs, and rose upon tres- 
 tle-work and curves yard by yard, fthe 
 engines panting ajnd the wheels ac- 
 
A Canuck down South. 
 
 tiialliy screamliig on tlie rails a* the 
 train turned and twisted snakily in aaid 
 out among tlie hills, revealing to our de- 
 lighted eyes wondrous vistas, canons 
 and ridges. At times we clung oniracu- 
 lously to the face of a cliH, stole oai 
 filmy bridges over ravines shaded wttb 
 tremulous aspeais, slipped by long, 
 straight slopes, rugged with pines, aoid 
 anon paused, as though, at last, the en- 
 ergy of man and the power of steam to- 
 gether lespaired of surmounting the 
 rise upon -*ise of interminable rock that 
 overhung us. But man again proved 
 his invincibility, and still we climbed 
 the firemen feeding the insattiable fires, 
 up, ever up, throug^h the azure, such 
 azure and dreamful sunlight as beggars 
 description, until in the weirdest plaoe 
 of all, when the masses of rock seemed 
 closing in upon us frum all sides, we 
 plunged iinto the Eaton Tunnel with so 
 mighty a re-echoing roar and rumble 
 that all Inferno seemeid about to wel- 
 come us to its Walpurgis dance. 
 
 '•Uncle Dick','' it was the Argonaut 
 who was speaking, amd his words were 
 
Ovei' the Divide. 
 
 addressed to the PrtQcess. "Uncle Dick 
 lived there," point ing to a ruined shianlgr 
 on tlie rigiit of the traxjk as we had ap- 
 proached the tunjiel. "And if ever man 
 was glad to see his fellow-mam It was 
 OS the night we pulled up here. He 
 wasn't tcnuch on religion, bun it seems 
 to me that that man was another St. 
 Christopher or some kind of Broad 
 Church missionary just set down there 
 by God himself to do something to help 
 along a crowd of half-dead, gold-himt- 
 tng, profane, blackguardly fellows like 
 as, and put some heart into us and 
 some faith in mam after our fights with 
 the redskin devils all along the line. 
 Dick W:Ooten kept this pass ia order tor 
 the forty-niners, and if every man that 
 owed him anything for that was to sub- 
 crlbe two bits for a monument, it would 
 scrape the stars out of the sky as the 
 world turned round,'' 
 
 The Capitalist siaid: "I reckon he 
 made a good thing out of ithe pass, if 
 he charged toll." 
 
 The Virgin chirped blithely : **0h, 
 yes, he did ; it says so in the guide- 
 book." 
 
A Canuck down South. 
 
 Thje Arg-onaut said again, and Ms tome 
 checked the two like a cold water 
 douche ; **I reckon he made consideip- 
 able out of it, if the angels know their 
 busimess. He's dead, and T hope I'll be 
 good emougih tto meet him again." 
 
 We had entei-ed New Mexico an instant 
 before plumging Into the Raton Tunnel, 
 and were then 7,662 feet above the sea. 
 The tummel is 2,011 feet long, replacing 
 an old switch-back track that winds 
 like a eorkscnew over the mountain, amid 
 once through it our descent began, fast 
 and faster, the brakes on, the engines 
 reversed, and the smoke from the burn- 
 ing grease arouaid the hot wheels of- 
 fending our nostrils while we slid down 
 the mouaitain slopes into a valley thia/t 
 was but the prelude to another scram- 
 ble towards the stars. 
 
 A little more than a quarter of a mile 
 nearer the earth's ceoitre than Raton, we 
 stopped at lL.as Vegas, an important 
 town and health resort, an<d theoi we 
 began mountalneerimg again. From the 
 rear platform of the Pullman scetoe fol- 
 lowed scene until, near evening, we had 
 
 64 
 
Over the Diride. 
 
 tealtliily rigen to an altitude of 7,452 ft. 
 at Glorieta Pass. Glorieta oaeaois bower 
 or summer house, but the hame does iiiot 
 sound so sweietly in the ears of a con- 
 sumptive. That place is his Rubicon, 
 oftem his Waterloo. The high altitude 
 at which the traiin travel's for a diay and 
 a night is injurious to hemorrhagic pa- 
 tieintB, or those with heai-t com plica- 
 tions, thoug*h it may be mentiooaed that 
 the Santa Fe is about the safest trans- 
 oontinantal route in this respect. Sleep 
 fors'akes the pillow, ajnd, as the hlours 
 go by, with cruel slowness, the shorten- 
 ing b,rea,tti, twitching hands and distress- 
 ing cough make the officials watchful. 
 Then domes the hemoii'h'aige, sometimes 
 only a relief, but sometimes ushering is 
 the last sceme of all, — and the yellow 
 flag or yellow lantern announces that 
 another mortal has put on immortality. 
 Several of us felt the oppression of the 
 rarlfied air, and lost the night's sleep. 
 
 We pasisied Albuquerque after sunset, 
 and took om two dandified personiages 
 from New York, with hig'h collars, fash- 
 ionable beiavers amd frock soats, w^ho 
 
A. Canuck down South. 
 
 continually sucked the gold knoba of 
 their walking sticks, as though toto re- 
 cently from the nursery to have forgot- 
 ten the habits of babyhood. The Argo- 
 naut looked at them as they entered the 
 smoking room, got up, saldi Ireezlngly 
 that he feared his smoking might annoy 
 them, and went out upon the platform. 
 
 "Well," he said, as I joined him there, 
 "you wanted to know what changes 
 have taken place out west since forty- 
 nine Go back to the smoking car, 
 and look at them. They would have 
 been planted at Kansas City in my time. 
 They would have scared the stage mules 
 half to death. Did you niotice ihow I 
 bolted?" 
 
 The Argonaut had not meant this re- 
 flection upon himself, and J was too 
 wise to notice it. 
 
 New Mexico is almost the only portion 
 of the United States whioh can rival 
 Canada in ancient history, and, like 
 portions of the Province of Quebec, is 
 the only part of the country where an- 
 elent manners and customs and institu- 
 tlo<ns persist sidfe by side with modem 
 
Over the Divide. 
 
 twogrees Separated by nearljr -- 
 thousand miles, tbese two conservative 
 regions afford many similarities. In Que- 
 bec, the cross is in evidence at intersect- 
 ing roads, on hills, and in the villages ; 
 it is so also in New Mexico. The Mexi- 
 can oven is the habitant oven. Quebec 
 suffered from seigniorial tenure ; New- 
 Mexico suffered from the old Spanish 
 lamd grant Bysteiai. The Mexican chim- 
 ney eorner is a place whers Jean Bap- 
 tiste could sit and smoke and dream 
 himself at home. Only Jean Baptisite 
 would turn his m)se up at the cigarette, 
 and Ju.'an Bautista would sneeze over 
 the black pipe and kittikanik. Further- 
 more, neither will use his fists. The 
 Canadian habitant will fight by the 
 hour with his enemy, hulling worda 
 across the street, and getting his friends^ 
 to hold him so that he may do his to© 
 no bodily harm, while the Mexican will 
 smile under an insult if he does not 
 think it safe to resent it at once, and 
 your friends will find you with a stilet- 
 to in your back a week later. Jean 
 Baptiste will work ; Juan Bautista will 
 
 67 
 
A Canuck down South. 
 
 not work. Jean Baptist© hides hts 
 hoard in a stocking ; Juan Bautista 
 hides his wealth in the ground against 
 a rainy day, and that never oomes 
 In New Mexico. The Capitalist 
 says that thonsiantds of square 
 miles of territory throug'hout the South 
 are houey-comhed with deposits of trea- 
 sure, which the Mexican is too supersti- 
 tious to endeavor to unearth, but which 
 he thinks would yield a dividend on the 
 stock of his projected Mexican Buried 
 Treasure Company, to w tiidh he want- 
 ed me to suhscrihe. 
 
 The Mexican takes pride In his horse 
 and saddle, and every Canadian knowa 
 that Jean Blaptiste may be slow in many 
 things, but that he must have a fast 
 horse to speed on the ice in winter or 
 down the country road after mass, his 
 best girl by his side. Neither Mexican 
 nor habitant cares much for modenn 
 mprovements ; the Mexican still ploughs 
 with a sharpeaied stick. There is no- 
 thing in the Eoman creed itself that 
 should cause men to stagnate, but it is 
 an undeniable fact that a iarge Roman 
 
 68 
 
Ocer the Divide. 
 
 Cat}»oJic commimity is giemeirally behind 
 oiie whioh Is Protestant. Is it that men 
 who bow their wills in all things to ooie 
 man, be he priest or ruler under an^y 
 other name can-not hope tio compete 
 with men who have it Heir wits sharpen- 
 ed by self--TeliaTice ? Is it that the un- 
 numbered fete days and hiolldays ener- 
 vate them for business, as mem who 
 dine by candle-light and sip liqueurs and 
 wear gloves, go dlow^n before the brawtiiy 
 fisted noonday diners, lill, but loir the 
 inflow of farmers' sons from +he coaim- 
 try, great cities would deteriorate ? 
 Whatever be the reason, ft is Inidasr-'ut- 
 able that a priest-ridden people mujst 
 rest aomtenit witii the kingdom of hea- 
 ven, for they will get but little of the 
 good things of eaTth. 
 
 And yet they get hiappiniess. There is 
 no denying the fact. The Mexican is 
 born, marries and dies in oonstant snin- 
 light; he has no newep^aper, mo adver- 
 tising, no btisitness apparently ; no 
 booms, no speculative fever (unless gam- 
 bling means the s^ame); has probably 
 never hveard of the President ^ aiid would 
 
 69 
 
A Canuck down South. 
 
 show iko intetrest in an election that seta 
 every so-called cleveor man In the States 
 freDzied with excitement. He never 
 make himself a clothes-horse for election 
 badges before the day, nor trundles his 
 neighbor round town in a b'arrow, or 
 shaves the ome side of his face the day 
 after ; yet he is far more contented tlian 
 they. 
 
 We were now truly in a foreign land. 
 The United States owns it, but the 
 once masterly Spamiajrd has left the im- 
 press of his mailed hand upon It, And 
 a still more ancient civilization piques 
 the curiosity of the antiquary in the 
 pueblos, grouped on the top of some al- 
 most inaccessable rook or mesa, and 
 reached by sheer climbing of Ladders or 
 niches in the rock. What terrible Inva- 
 siom in prehistoric times drove this an- 
 cient people to sudh defensive meas- 
 uers ? Vamdals and Huns have roamed 
 on every continent, and the Israelitish 
 wanderings and conquent of the indwel- 
 ler have been exemplified even on these 
 Western plains at the very dawn of the 
 hnm^LD era. 
 
 70 
 
Over the Divide. 
 
 We passed In the night, but saw on oiur 
 return one eur*h Pueblo, Laguna, perch- 
 ed upon a barren hill some sixty odti 
 miles from Albuquerque, apparently one 
 house of adobe mud, flat-roofed and ca- 
 pable of accommodating faliy a thou- 
 sand people. In older days entry was 
 effected by climbing ladders to the roof, 
 and diescending through the scuttle, 
 after drawing the ladder up. The Capi- 
 talist says that a latch key must have 
 been a very cumbrous article in those 
 times, and that to have seen a party of 
 hilarious Pueblos staggering home In 
 the wee sma' 'ours, and trying to ex- 
 tract their ladders from their vest pock- 
 eits and lean them up against the right 
 house must have been a curious sight. 
 There is a legend mot set down in the 
 guide-books, that the PuebDo women 
 used to sit upon the house-tops while 
 their better halves were at the lodge, 
 and would not let the ladder down to 
 them unless they could pronounce Cua- 
 uhquichollam, Tequechmecaniani and 
 Tlacahuepancuexotzin, whiOh, one would 
 Judge, was a more severe ordeal thain 
 chry sasnt hem um . 
 
 71 
 
A Canuck dotcii Houth. 
 
 The Mexican houses are flat-roiofed, 
 on^-storied affairs, not U'lilik^ large 
 match-boxes, mad« of mu'd', which the 
 everlasting STiotilight bakes a ligbt yel- 
 low. This material is called adobe in 
 the guide-books, aaad doby by Western- 
 ers, and m that rainliess climate is prac- 
 tically indestructible. The old Pecos 
 ohlirch, visible in the valley shoo-tly af- 
 ter passing Gloriefta, is some 350 years 
 old, and its doby walls are as good as 
 ■new. On the top of the hauaited mesa, 
 the oibsea-ver imagines that he can still 
 see the remains of the Acoma which was 
 before the pnessent Acoma, and the pre- 
 sent Acoma claims to have had a few 
 years the start of the Tower of Barbel. 
 The legiend of the first town is a sad 
 one, with which the guide-books make 
 us familiar. It appears that a lar^ 
 landslide or a cloaidburst, or somefthing 
 of the kind, took place while the meai 
 were working on their farms Im the 
 plains below, and their mewms of getting 
 back to town was destroyed. Some say 
 all the women, some saiy only three, 
 were in the town when t<he catastrophe 
 
 72 
 
Over the Divide. 
 
 took pDace ; but, however the iniimber 
 varies, the leigjetnids all agree tihat the 
 mctti on the plains had th© agonized fate 
 of I'ookiaiig vainly up the face of seven 
 humdred feet of eliff. to where fra.ntic 
 womeii slowly sftacrved to deiatfh. And 
 fr,om that diay, sio mew here back in the 
 agies, to this, the foot of majn has neA^er 
 walked in these deserted chajiibers or 
 hum^oi etye loofceid o-ver the wall where 
 the dreiadful tragedy was enacted. It 
 is a strange thing to think of, a Pom- 
 peii in the sky, awaiting the comi/ng 
 of i'sjome iiimeteenth century investigator, 
 wliio shiall find, perhaps the children's 
 toys unt.oucJied upon tJie floors, the wo- 
 mem's domestic implements, the evi- 
 demcee on the long-deserted hearth of 
 thie meial that was joyfully betoiig pre- 
 pared for HoA'efd ones, «nd perhaps evetn 
 the Irodies of the dead, for In that at- 
 miosphere even flesh dries, a>n\d scarcely 
 will decay. Superstition has surround- 
 ed that lone rock an the Mexicjan plains, 
 and he who would solve the mystery 
 will require armed mem at his back. 
 Will it be worth the while, or will thje 
 
 73 
 
A Canuck dotcn South. 
 
 result of any investigatioji be bnt an- 
 other useless desecratlooi that shall 
 cause us once more to bless the natu- 
 ral law which decrees that even our 
 banes should vanish ere the time ar- 
 rives wheal we are strangers to the 
 earth where once we were familiar, aod 
 serve to gratify the curiosity of some 
 hum am mole. 
 
 From Glorieta to AiDuquerq^ue the air- 
 brakes were scarcely ever off. We were 
 virtually tobogganing down mountain 
 slopes, and within less than a hundred 
 miles had subsided to an elevation 2,500 
 feet lower than at Glorieta. We crossed 
 the Rio Grande in the gloom of night, 
 which rendered that stream more roman- 
 tically picturesque than was the Missouri 
 under the sunlijj^ht, which had revealed 
 the mud-flats diversified by a creek, the 
 enormous bridge over which iooked like a 
 piece of sarcasm. But the greater ease 
 in breathing which the lower level gave 
 us was not destined to last long, for from 
 Albuquerque we were again toiling up 
 grade towards the Continentnl Divide, 
 that mystic point whence a glass of wa- 
 
 74 
 
Over the Divide. 
 
 tep spilled east or west ml^tit seek the sea 
 of peace or that of storms, the grand old 
 ocean that for centuries has crowned Bri- 
 tish brows with triumph, or the vast 
 new waters destined to roar through co- 
 ral reefs or whisper on golden sands the 
 story of a dawning age. 
 
 Crossing the Divide ? The term Itn olden 
 times was synonymous with death. It 
 was used in this sense by the Argonauts, 
 possibly because their aeaven was on the 
 other or eastern side, probably because 
 they could think of no fate more dread- 
 ful than returning from their vast hori- 
 zons and high, bracing, soul-stirring lati- 
 tudes to a life on a lower level among 
 starched shirts and the fetters of cus- 
 tom and fashion forged about mankind 
 by a dea.d and gone generation, a place 
 where men are measured by their stone 
 frontages and their great grandlathers, and 
 no longer by their own human inches and 
 mental image of their Creator, it was 
 about three in the morning when we pass- 
 ed this "line," and most of us, notwltti- 
 standing our interest, were sleeping, 
 though restlessly. 
 
 75 
 
A Canuck dozen South. 
 
 It may have been tne effect of the alti- 
 tude, or it may have been something else, 
 but I know I dreamt a wonderful dream. 
 The romance of the Maiden Lady came 
 home at last. It was hroad daylight, 
 and we men were, as usual, sitting m the 
 emoker spinning yarns. The dandies who 
 had got on at Albuquerque were with us, 
 each sitting oai his hands and enjoying 
 the conversation. Suddenly the train jar- 
 red, and slowly came to a stop. The Ar- 
 gonaut leaned forward, a strange fixed 
 look on his face that was not agreeable, 
 and his hand stole round towards his 
 back, while he looked penetratingly into 
 all our faces in rapid succession. 
 
 "What is that?" said one of the tender- 
 feet. "Is it a hohl-up?" 
 
 I don't know why, but we all followed 
 the look of the Argonaut, which was 
 fixed on the New York dudes, and each 
 of these harmless creatures now held a re- 
 volver in eaci) hand, and each revolver 
 looked like a cannon. 
 
 Then one of the dudes said suavely: "It 
 Is a hold-up. I am sorry to interrupt the 
 tory, but can assure you, gentlemen, that 
 
 76 
 
Ot^er the Divide. 
 
 if you will only keep your hands above 
 your heads for a little while, we will do 
 you no harm. There's fifty thousand in 
 the express to-day, and our pals want 
 it. We don't intend you any harm if you 
 nave horse sense." 
 
 There were shots towards the front of 
 he train, then screams, screams of a man, 
 not reassuring if you have ever heard 
 them ; yet the dudes sat immovable with 
 their howitzers, that now looked like 
 hundred ton guns, pointing everywhere at 
 once, as it seemed. I was there but I 
 must have had a nightmare, for 1 couldn't 
 raise my hands, and my pistol in my hip- 
 pocket seemed to be about a thousand 
 miies away. 
 Then came the denouement. The Maiden 
 Lady entered, clad? — well, they »ay 
 dreams are made, as a mosaic, out of 
 waking experiences; but if I ever saw a 
 woman so dressed I want to know it. 
 She wore pajamas and carried a parasol 
 and said tragically : 
 
 "This is a hold-up.'- 
 
 The mouths of the revolvers had mean- 
 while expanded to about the size of the 
 
 W 
 
A Canuck down South. 
 
 Baton Tunnel; yet on the lett side of one 
 I saw the robber wiuce. The Maiden 
 Lady looked at him, and then there was 
 a shriek. I said to myself ; 
 
 • Now, we'll get a tirst-class corpse." 
 
 Instead of which she threw herself upon 
 the immaculate shirt front," 
 
 "Found, found !" she cried; "my long 
 lost brother." 
 
 And then, as I woke, 1 still heard the 
 long lost brother say "damn." 
 
 But the last part wasn't a dream, 1 
 heard the word over and over again, as a 
 night-shirted young husband who had got 
 on — well, I win not say where — paraded 
 the car with his squalling child. He did 
 not stay In one place, but with generous 
 Instincts distributed that squall ail ovtr 
 the car. Now he would hold the baby 
 to the keyhole of the Lieutenant's state- 
 room, and when he heard the Lieutenant's 
 remark, would bolt impetuously to the 
 other end of the car, distributing a war- 
 whoop at every berth. By and bye our 
 youngest woke, stretched himseL, put his 
 to© In my mouth, and said : 
 
 •*Pa, is that a new baby?" 
 
 J8 
 
Over the Divide. 
 
 1 said 1 didn't know. 
 
 "Well, pa, if that's a new baby, dion't 
 you think the angels put him out of he»- 
 yen because he cries so?" 
 
 Again 1 didn't know. 
 
 "Pa, don't you think it needs olllngV" 
 
 1 said 1 didn't think it could do much 
 better than it was doing. 
 
 Morning dawned at last after an un- 
 comfortable night, ushering in our fifth 
 day on the cars. I do not know how 
 others feel about it, but we felt after the 
 first day as if a change to a cofBn would 
 be a welcome relief, and give us more 
 room. On the second day we were willing 
 to stand another twenty-tour liours ; on 
 the third day, we didn't care how long 
 the journey lasted, and on the fifth we 
 thought of its termmation with regret. 
 There is no doubt that eels do get used 
 to skinning. 
 
 We had fallen so thoroughly into one 
 another's ways, made such delightful 
 friendships, and had, on the whole, so 
 much comfort on the long journey, that 
 we would indeed have been very hard to 
 please had we not begun to regret the 
 
A Canuck doivn ^outh. 
 
 now fast approacMug- hour of separation. 
 The warmth of a trans- Atlantic acquain- 
 tance is but cold and distant compared 
 with riiat which is engendered by such a 
 trip as ours. Compared with a Pullman 
 car, a steamer is a wilderness. On board 
 ship we can get away into nooks and 
 corners ; in a Pullman, even a flirtation 
 must he carried on under the eyes ot old 
 campaigners, and no one can get out of 
 reach of his neighbor's ears and eyes. We 
 ate together, talked together, almost 
 dressed together, and slept so closely 
 packed that one felt that his neighbor 
 read his very dreams. A filmy curtain 
 was our house front, and across the 
 street our fellow-citizen fared no better. 
 In our long journey from Chicago we had 
 nil become accustomed to much that 
 would have appeared odd in a drawing- 
 room, which reminds me of a ludicrous 
 Incident, which was, however, anything 
 but funny to the chief actors. 
 
 Some time during the night, at some 
 way-station, a man and his wife got on, 
 and we were immediately prejudiced 
 against them, because the man had wak- 
 
 80 
 
Over the Divide. 
 
 ened us with liis storming at tiae con- 
 ductor for not having a lower bertli to 
 give them, as though the Company should 
 have kept a berth empty for their conveni- 
 ence all the way from Chicago. In the 
 morning, while we were in the midst of our 
 dressing in our usual free and easy style, 
 the Argonaut, sweeping under his hertb 
 for his collar-button, and the Capitalist 
 making down the aisle towards the wash- 
 room, with the bulk of his clothing over 
 his arm, a flash of a neat ankle or bare 
 arm, fringed somewhere around the 
 shoulder with dainty lace showing 
 from behind the berth curtains the 
 kind of struggle the ladies were 
 having to dress ; when, I say, we 
 were thus engaged, this new comer, whom 
 we regarded as an interloper among our 
 party, returned from the wash-room, 
 where he had dressed himself. He took 
 the situation in at a glance. His wife, 
 who had been sitting in her seat, complet- 
 ing her toilet, was, in his opinion, in im- 
 minent danger, and he pounced upon the 
 mildest-mannered and most modest of 
 our party, an English Church clergyman, 
 
A Canuck down South. 
 
 who stood without coat or vest, giving 
 the finishing touches to the halyards that 
 upheld his lower rigging, his standing 
 rigging, as it were. 
 
 'Sir," screamed the irate and shocked 
 husband ; "what do jou mean by such 
 conduct. How dare you, sir, unblushing- 
 ly, dress in my wife's presence?" 
 
 If a thunderbolt had fallen amongst us 
 It would not have created more consterna- 
 tion. The Argonaut stopped peering un- 
 der the berth ; the Capitalist quickened hig 
 pace and disappeared into the smoking- 
 room, while there was a sudden stoppage 
 of the rustling behind the curtains, as 
 though the ladies had imagined it was to 
 them that loud-voiced Comstock address- 
 ed himself. 
 
 Our, shy clergyman had no idea that 
 he was being spoken to in that manner, 
 and proceeded quietly to put on his vest, 
 when a renewed roar in his ear lifted him 
 from the car floor, and when he landed 
 again he turned round and asked in 
 ome confusion, "Are you speaking to 
 ne?" 
 
 " To you, sir, yes, sir ; it's perfectly 
 
Over the Divide. 
 
 scandalous, sir ! Porter, do you not see 
 hat creature putting on his vest, his vest, 
 sir, before my wife's eyes." 
 
 But the porter was out on the back 
 platform, admiring the scenery by that 
 time. 
 
 The poor clergyman so suddenly as- 
 gaulted, lost his presence of mind for the 
 moment, or I'm sure he would not have 
 replied as he did. It was a good retort, 
 but too good to be intended. He said : 
 
 " I beg your pardon ; I — I, I really 
 didn't think she would object. I'm sure 
 I didn't when I saw her putting on her—" 
 
 "Sir, don't talk to me ; don't dare, sir. 
 You ought to be ashamed of your cloth," 
 the long coat being very much in evidence 
 on the car seat, and the clerical vest hav^ 
 mg been buttoned all awry in great 
 haste. 
 
 Then the clergyman recovered his senses. 
 He had not dealt with sinners for no- 
 thing, and this boor was very much in 
 his line. 
 
 •'My dear sir," he said, frigialy ; "if 
 you cannot be gentlemanly, you should 
 at least be consistent, 1 do not consider 
 
A Canuck down South. 
 
 that a man without his vest is so disre- 
 putable an object as to call forth such 
 remarks, and, at any rate, It Is preposte- 
 rous that you should cry out upon me at 
 one moment to be ashamed of ray cloth, 
 when you have just told me I should be 
 ashamed of the want of it." 
 
 Then followed language that I dare not 
 set down, and it was not the clergyman 
 who used it, either. But, fortunately, it 
 did not last long. With one bound the 
 Argonaut laid his still powerful arm on 
 that of the boor (we weren't shocked at 
 the lack of the collar-button just then), 
 and he said : 
 
 "You miserable hound, if you don't re- 
 cognise that there are ladies on this car, 
 and stop that profanity, I'll throw you 
 from the car window. You never were 
 on a Pullman before, nor mixed with de- 
 cent people." And the way that man 
 Rnbsided and took his meek wife off the 
 car at the next station is one of the plea- 
 sant memories of my life, f hough I, and 
 all of us, were deeply sorry for his wife. 
 
 When the morning sun gilded the peaks 
 about us we were in Arizona. If New 
 
 S4 
 
Over the Divide. 
 
 Mexico affords us a glimpse of prebistorio 
 civilization and peoples, surely Arizona re- 
 veals to us the secrets of the creation of 
 the world. Here we seem to be in Na- 
 ture's boiler-room, and her stupendous en- 
 ergy, which in other parts of the world 
 is concealed under vales smiling with 
 flowers and flowing rivers, is here demon- 
 strated in rivers of congealed lava and 
 ashes and cinders, Iheaped up mountain 
 high. Among yonder peaks lies cold and 
 still the crater of many a volcano which 
 once perhaps rivalled Krakatoa, Etna 
 and Vesuvius. In the dawning ages,when 
 the continent bore a different shape, and 
 strange monsters lurked in the sea and 
 stranger trod the earth, what a dreadful 
 scene must Arizona have presented, the 
 solid world trembling with pent-up va- 
 poi-s, the lava winding luridly down the 
 vast mountain slopes, the air thick with 
 steam and cinders and sick with the con- 
 tinuous thunder of mighty explosions I 
 For miles upon miles, upon all sides, as 
 the train swept on, we saw nothing but 
 the relics of subterranean fli-es. And then, 
 as the hours slipped by, and once more 
 
 85 
 
A Canuclc doicn South. 
 
 we were on the flanks of the mountains, 
 my heart went out to Arizona. We seem- 
 ed once more in Canada. Here were 
 whispering pines, long woodland aisles 
 where the sunlight steeped verdant Ivnoll 
 and rocky crag with color and with 
 warmth. Here were flowers, water- 
 courses and life, and the axe of the lum- 
 berman rang keen as in our woods at 
 home. Yes, I love Arizona. Even in its 
 deserts it has a charm such as endears 
 Sahara to the Arab, and its bare hills 
 have the strange, weird attraction such 
 as Rob Wanlock sings of in his Scottish 
 Hits. A.rizona, like a capricious beauty, 
 wins and holds us, in spite of will or rea- 
 BOD. Whether it be the unique Devil's 
 Canon, which the train leaps over, cling- 
 ing to a filmy bridge 225 feet above the 
 tiny stream beneath, or the incomparable 
 Grand Canon of the Colorado, which is 
 over 6,000 feet deep, or the 13,000 feet 
 of the San Francisco mountain, half of 
 which, even at the elevation we have 
 reached, still towers above us; whether it 
 be the chalcedony park, or the cave dwell- 
 ings, or only the natural mountain parks, 
 
Over the Divide. 
 
 the ruddy desert and cinder cones and the 
 'valuable copper mines of the country, Ari- 
 zona is a fitting gateway to California, 
 the land oi sunshine and treasure. 
 
 I shall not soon forget Canon Diabolo. 
 The Capitalist and I were standing on the 
 rear platform, when suddenly the level 
 prairie sank away swiftly from us to a 
 deptb that madJe us dizzy to look down, 
 as though the subterranean powers had 
 cleft the earth to claim their own. We 
 had lust time to gasp when the earth rose 
 again to meet us, and the train was once 
 more gliding along the level. There had 
 not been the slightest warning of what 
 was coming. At night a man would 
 walk clear off the prairie, and apparently 
 put his lifted foot down in tne streets of 
 Hong Kong. Tbe Capitalist mopped his 
 brow. 
 
 "I always forget that canon," he said ; 
 •*and my heart jumps into my mouth 
 when we leave the ground ao unexpected- 
 ly. I'm not as good now as the first 
 time I was bald-headed, and that gulf 
 scares me. What chances they lose out 
 West I If I had that canon in New York 
 
 87 
 
A Canuck doicn tiouth. 
 
 State, now, I could make a fortune out 
 of it. Just picture it, a big hotel on each 
 side, incline railway to the bottom, roller 
 skating rink, rope-walkers going across, 
 peanuts, banana stands, merry-go-rounds 
 for the children, and so on. Sir, there'd 
 be a fortune in that canon ; and I'd ad- 
 vertise it till there wouldn't be a man 
 would dare come to America and not 
 see it." 
 
 We supped in California that Wednesday 
 evening, at the Needles, and mirthful was 
 
 ur last night on the train. What a won- 
 derful creature is man ! While we, in the 
 luxury of a Pullman car s,at smoking and 
 spinning yarns over our ice-cold liquors, 
 we were boring through the gloom of 
 night over the great American Desert, 
 where many an unfortunate forty-niner 
 left his bones to bleach under the pitiless 
 sun of a parched sea of sand and giant 
 cactus. Here there was a sign of life only 
 at the little stations set down along the 
 line of steel, — one called Bagdad, a name 
 which fitted it , another called Siberia. 
 Whose grim irony named this hottest spot 
 m the world after that region of ice ? I 
 
Over the Divide. 
 
 stood a short time on the platform that 
 night, watching the placid stars and the 
 dim stretches of mesa, broken by cactus 
 shadows, and wondering at the energy of 
 those who in a prairie schooner traversed 
 the Western wilds, wound through the 
 mountain passes, and crossed these two 
 hundred miles of deadly alkali plains in 
 pursuit of gold. Starvation Peak, Los 
 Animas, the river of lost souls, Death 
 alley, and hundreds of places, named and 
 imnamed, witnessed the stern fight 
 waged between barbarism and civiliza- 
 tion and between man and nature, ere 
 the Stars and Stripes waved in Pacific 
 breezes. 
 
 The journey across the continent, is it 
 not an allegory of the journey of life ? 
 Such thought, as the car wheels clanked 
 rythmetically on the rails, shaped itself 
 in my mind as follows : 
 
 LIFE'S AEGONADTS. 
 
 Over the Red Missouri, 
 
 Out on the open plain, 
 Far from the hatmts of childhood, 
 
 They ne^er shall see again, 
 
A Canuck down South. 
 
 Seeking the golden treasure, 
 
 Braving the toil and strife, 
 Eagerly go the Argonauts 
 
 On the journey of life. 
 
 Vast and void and voiceless 
 
 To the horizon's rim, 
 Stretches the rolling prairie, 
 
 As day by day grows dim. 
 Beneaith the vrondrous star glow 
 
 That lights the heavens calm, 
 Come bivouac, rest and slumber 
 
 And dreams of the lone first palm. 
 
 Nor tree, nor gras6, nor blossom, 
 
 Anywhere under the eye, 
 Sage brush, sand and cactus 
 
 And glistening alkali; 
 Promise of water often, 
 
 But only a mirage sham. 
 Till lips can hardly utter 
 
 A sigh for the lone first palm. 
 
 The prairie dog has his burrow. 
 
 The prairie hen her nest; 
 Only we, under heaven, 
 
 Have neither home nor rest. 
 
Over tJie Divide. 
 
 Over the shimmering level, 
 
 Long as the hot sun ewam. 
 We plodded wearily forward. 
 
 Seeking the lone first palm. 
 
 Beyond the rolling prairie. 
 
 Beyond the desert drear. 
 At last, the rugged mountains 
 
 Their mighty flanks uprear. 
 Parched and starved and weary. 
 
 We face their pitiless calm — 
 Oh, that the journey were over, 
 
 Oh, for the lone first palm I 
 
 Indian braves in their ambush. 
 
 Hark! how th'i bullets sing! 
 While, through unfathomed canons, 
 
 Shrilly the war whoops ring! 
 Lying, face up to the heavens. 
 
 Silent are Dick and Sam, 
 God in His mercy bring the rest 
 
 Safe to the lone first palm! 
 
 Miles upon miles of desert 
 
 Under a burning sun. 
 Till the blood is boiling in our veins. 
 
 And life is almost done ; 
 Then rise upon rise of mountains, 
 
 And hope's eternal balm. 
 In the vales beyond is the goal we seek. 
 
 Hurrah! for -(he lone first palm. 
 
A Canuck doicn South. 
 
 Precipice, cliff and canon, 
 
 Torrent and icy peak, 
 Tempest, and whirling snow drifts 
 
 Hiding the trail we seek. 
 Then sunshine, warmth and pleasure. 
 
 And rest without pain or qualm 
 In a riotous garden of flowers 
 
 Beneath the lone first palm. 
 
 Prairie and peak and desert, 
 
 Hope, and the death of hope, 
 Joys and alluring visions, 
 
 Trials and the strength to cope ; 
 Success to him who struggles, 
 
 Defeat to him who faints, 
 So strives each soul to reach its goal, 
 
 The Haven of the saints. 
 
 Next morning palm trees and graceful 
 peppers, eucalyptus, poplar and other fa- 
 miliar and unfamiliar trees, greeted our 
 eyes. The desert had given place to a 
 garden, and through orange and lemon 
 groves, vineyards, apricot, prune and fig 
 orchards, and a riot of roses and other 
 flowers, we reached our destination. 
 
 92 
 

 CHAPTER IV. 
 In Arcadia. 
 
 When we reached Sierra Madre, after 
 60 long a railway journey that the time- 
 table had come to be regarded as a piece 
 of sarcasm, Diogenes met us at the sta- 
 tion. Diogenes is a Canadian, and that 
 is not his name, but as he sets up to be 
 a philosopher and came to meet us with 
 a lantern that glorious sunny morning — 
 a tribute to my honesty — he was so 
 dubbed instanter, and the name has 
 stuck to him. A short drive through 
 avenues shaded with pepper-trees, euca- 
 lypti, palms and live oaks, brought us 
 to the cottage that was to be our Cali- 
 fornia home, a sweet little place sun- 
 smitten all day long, its verandah 
 gloomed with morning-glories and climb- 
 
A. Canuck down South. 
 
 ing roses and its carriage drive lined with 
 broad-leaved palmettos drawn up sol- 
 dierly o-n either side, as though to keep 
 in cheek the mob of orange and lemon 
 trees that crov/ded the ranch. Here 
 in the golden afternoon was gathered a 
 party of reunited Canadians, and while 
 the children romped in the garden, pelt- 
 ing one another with roses and carna- 
 tions or playing hide-and-seek behind 
 banks of chrysanthemums, Diogenes and 
 I talked of the long ago, and offered 
 such incense of tobacco (brought from 
 Canada) to the Manitou as would have 
 made Barrie write a second volume in 
 hoDor of 'My Lady Nicotine,' and have 
 shamed the tribute of the Algonquins 
 who guided Champlain beyond the Chau- 
 diere Falls. 
 
 After that October day we hunted 
 health and killed time in Arcadia. Phyl- 
 lis was not there, nor Strephon, except 
 under less euphonious names and in more 
 unromantic guise, nor did we ever spy 
 a woodland nymph or hear the hoof of 
 
 94 
 
In Arcadia. 
 
 a satjrr among the live oaks' gospelling 
 glooms. Otherwise, it was Arcadia. 
 The sun sauntered lazily through the 
 sky, day after day, and let the seasons 
 take care of themselves. The century- 
 plant thought itself very energetic be- 
 cause it had bloomed cnce since the De- 
 claration of Independence, while the 
 flowers forgot time altogether, and blos- 
 somed the whole year round. There a 
 thousand years were as a day, and a day 
 as a thousand years. The inhabitants 
 seldom knew the month and hardly ever 
 the date. Calendars are handy when 
 promissory notes have to be renewed. 
 Diogenes had one, and so had I, but we 
 were never able to induce any banker to 
 allow us to put them to their proper 
 use, and the only interest we had in 
 keeping track of the date was connected 
 with our remittances. No one could 
 keep track of the days of the week in 
 this Arcadia, and Diogenes, who has a 
 deep reverence for the fourth command- 
 ment, made it a rule not to work at all. 
 
 95 
 
A Canuck down South. 
 
 lest he should inadvertently break the 
 Sabbath. 
 
 Phj'sieians the world over send con- 
 sumptives to southern California, but 
 they never seem to get there. At least, 
 there are none in Sierra Madre, although 
 a good deal is heard about lung trouble. 
 oSTo invalid dies there ; he does not even 
 slip awa, like Drumtochty folk. His 
 friends only say that he is gone, and 
 shake their heads, fearing that, having 
 gone farther, he may be faring worse. 
 In the various sanitoriums time is plea- 
 santly spent swapping symptoms, and 
 the man who has most is looked upon 
 with exceeding respect. Diogenes and 
 I secured a fairly good reputation in this 
 direction by the liberal use of a medical 
 dictionary. It is truly wonderful how 
 many symptoms can be got from an un- 
 abridged medical dictionary, assisted 
 by a vivid imagination. There was, 
 however, one man in the place before 
 whom we sank into irritating insignifi- 
 cance. He had more diseases tlhan a 
 
hi Arcadia. 
 
 civic hospital, and had a way of diagnos- 
 ing some fatal and insidious malady from 
 what his companions had mistaken for 
 signs of robust health. If he slept well, 
 paresis was coming on ; if he slept ill, 
 his days were numbered ; if he had a 
 good appetite, there was a secret waste; 
 if he ate but little, he was in the last 
 stages of something awful. Diogenes 
 and T could not boast of a single symp- 
 tom in his presence without being 
 swamped with a list of his maladies. He 
 was dying more variously than any par- 
 son we knew— and he is not dead yet. 
 The mystery was subsequently solv^ed 
 when we found that he religiously read 
 through all the patent medicine adver- 
 tisements of the Los Angeles 'Times,' 
 and we got to hating him so for his 
 symptoms that we used to wish he would 
 take some of the remedies prescribed, 
 and die a natural death — that is, a nat- 
 ural death for such an idiot. 
 
 Sierra Madre is an extensive hamlet 
 on the slope of the Sierra Madre moun- 
 
 E 
 97 
 
A Canuck down South, 
 
 tains, overlooking the fertile valley of 
 San Gabriel and about six miles from 
 Pasadena and sixteen from Los Angeles, 
 on the Kite-shaped Track, its station be- 
 ing Santa Anita. It is devoted to the 
 cultivation of oranges, lemons, apricots, 
 figs, grapes and the tuberculous bacillus. 
 As a health resort it is fast coming to 
 the front, and seems to merit its reputa- 
 tion. Its little cemetery does its best 
 to prosper with the rest, but is not a 
 success. It is a pathetic little God's 
 Acre under the kindly shadow of the 
 eternal hills. There are a few well- 
 kept graves and several costly head- 
 stones, but these are the exception. To- 
 mato cans usually do service as mortu- 
 ary urns and flower pots, but as the 
 weeds conceal them and the flowers as 
 i^ell, they are quite as good as Carrara. 
 The whole place is usually a blaze of 
 wild sunflowers, and honeycombed with 
 gopher holes, while often the jack rabbit 
 or the cotton-tail sits, lost in reflection 
 beneath its stupendous ears amid the 
 
In Arcadia. 
 
 lonely graves . The epitaphs, when de- 
 ciphered, are not cheerful. The young 
 may die, but the old must, says Long- 
 fellow, and in any properly regulated 
 cemetery youth finds comfort in reading 
 that so-and-so died at eighty or ninety, 
 and in finding that he stands a good 
 chance under the system of averages of 
 being able to revisit that cemetery many 
 times yet before he forgets to return to 
 the bustling world. But our cemetery 
 deals not easily with this simple faith of 
 the young. Here lie, in the majority, 
 tliose of our own age, stricken down be- 
 fore their prime, their ideals unsullied, 
 their hopes unrealized. Here lie some 
 whose history we learn, lonely strangers 
 Avhom a broad human sympathy has laid 
 in the bosom of the eternal mother, far 
 from heme and friends, some whose de- 
 serted and neglected graves bear mute 
 testimony to the haste with which the 
 nursing relative packed his or her trunk 
 with one hand and closed the dead eyes 
 with the other, grief long since discount- 
 
 99 
 
 LorC- 
 
A Canuck down South. 
 
 ed in the early stages of the wearying 
 malady and thoughts of home and relief 
 and rest making welcome the close of the 
 tragedy. 
 
 When I was in Southern California I 
 wrote an article in which I stated that 
 the country could not progress any faster 
 without pulling the earth out of its orbit, 
 and that a man going hunting over waste 
 lands in the morning, was apt to lose 
 his way on his return home at nigiht among 
 the orchards that had been planted on 
 the same ground during ihe day. A 
 Oalifomia paper piinted the article, but 
 on second thought, and at this distance, 
 I would qualify the statement, by admit- 
 ting that the bustle of trade in and 
 around Sierra Madre was not sufficiently 
 loud to prevent my sleeping at nig(ht. 
 Not that Sierra Madre was unenterpria- 
 ing. The place had a 'bus driver, in- 
 surance agent, press correspondent, pri- 
 vate banker, real estate broker, newi 
 agent, and so on. The only trouble was 
 that when this man wen>t to town, busi- 
 
 100 
 
In Arcadia. 
 
 ness languished until his return. He 
 was also agent for a firm of undertakers, 
 and was in consequence interested in 
 the progress of every invalid. He dis- 
 played great anxiety about my health 
 from the first, and although we are fast 
 friends, 1 feel that I disappointed him 
 by the rapidity of my recuperation. 
 
 Touting for trade, while the subject is 
 still alive, is not uncommon am.ong 
 Southern California undertakers. Cne 
 day a man came up our avenue while I 
 v,as on the verandah. 
 
 'How do you do?' he said, bowing. 
 Every one bows to us in the country 
 parts of California, whether they know 
 Uo or not, just as they do in French 
 Canadian districts. It saves trouble if 
 one leaves his hat at home. 
 
 I gave him good day and he came up 
 the steps, expatiating upon the view of 
 the valley and mountains. Oalifomians 
 have the idea that the rest of the earth 
 is flat, stale a.nd unprofitable, and it 
 does not do to try to undeceive them, 
 
 101 
 
A Canuck down South. 
 
 unless one is the bigger man. After he 
 bad heard my opinion, he said. 
 
 'Out here for your health, I suppose.* 
 
 'Yes/ I replied, 'ordered to a warm 
 place, to escape a warmer.' 
 
 He laughed so heartily that I at once 
 knew he was an agent of some kind. 
 Agents can always see the point of a 
 joke. But he quickly grew serious once 
 more, and said, 
 
 'You're cautious, you're shrewd, you're 
 the kind of man I like to meet. Xow 
 I'm sure you would like to have some 
 positive assurance as to your future com- 
 fort. I can give you that, at least, bo 
 far as your mortal remains are concern- 
 ed. I represent Messrs. Cofhn & Grave.^, 
 of Pasadena- Give me the date of j'^our 
 birth, and I'll get the other details from 
 your wife later. She can telephone 
 when you die, and we'll hiave you in cold 
 storage within forty minutes. And say,' 
 here he leaned confidentially towards 
 me^-'If your wife gets her message in 
 ahead of our regular agent here, wo'll 
 
 102 
 
In Arcadia. 
 
 allow her the usual commission, of 
 course.' 
 
 I told the man I would be deeply 
 grieved to give my custom to any one 
 else ; to arrange for a first-class funeral, 
 and to come back, in which event 1 
 would cheerfully supply the corpse. He 
 did not seem at all pleased when he 
 went away, and he never oame back. 
 Perhaps I looked too healthy. 
 
 When the two or three livery horses 
 of which Sierra Madre could boast were 
 engaged by luckier people, we walked, 
 but that was seldom. The grades are 
 too steep. There is not a level hundred 
 yards within the town limits, and in 
 many places one could step from one's 
 attic into a neighbor's parlor. It was 
 the easiest thing in tlie world to drop a 
 hint into a neighbor's ear, if one started 
 it right, and as for scandal, it never stop- 
 ped between the highest house in the 
 Sien-a and the lowest in the valley. But 
 it climbed up just as easij^ too. Every- 
 body helped it along, they were so soci- 
 
 103 
 
A Canuck down South. 
 
 able in Sierra ]SIadre, and so kindly. 
 Not being so active as scandal, we drove, 
 and tbe drives were delightful. There 
 was the Baldwin ranch to visit, where a 
 fine Tcicing stable is kept, there was pret- 
 ty Monrovia — whose lights glittered fic- 
 turesquely through the night, there wa^ 
 the San Gkubriel Mission, ^vit■h its quaint 
 Mexican village, and last, but by no 
 means least, there was Pasadena, the 
 Crown of tthe Valley, home of million- 
 naires and one of the show towns of 
 the state. If one cared for horseback 
 riding, it was to be had, and what could 
 be more delightful than a canter through 
 shady avenues in early morning, while 
 the birds were straining their harmoni- 
 ous throats to greet the sun, and the 
 mists were bathing the towering hills 
 or billowing in iridescent masses in the 
 valley beneath, for Sierra Madre, like 
 Mohammed's cotlin, hangs between 
 heaven and earth, between snovvy peak 
 and far-stretching plain. 
 We celebrated New Year's day in an 
 
 104 
 
In Arcadia. 
 
 unique manner. There are and have 
 been many carnivals in various parts of 
 the world, but to Pasadena alone be- 
 longs the honor of holding a midsummer 
 carnival in midwinter, a tournament of 
 roses on New Year's Day, and we, with 
 thoughts of Canadian carnivals, sparkling 
 with ice and snow, still treasured in our 
 hearts went to see the Pasadena pageant. 
 
 The drive of six miles to the town was 
 entrancing. The birds twittered and 
 rose and settled in our path, the gophers 
 scurried out of the way and an infrequent 
 hare sat up palpitating behind the sage 
 brush, petrified by the thunder of in- 
 numerable hoofs all trending towards 
 the one point. 
 
 The little town of ten thousand people 
 was a fairy-land that day. Its broad 
 avenues, shaded with paJms, eucalypti 
 and peppers, overflowed with a riotous 
 torrent of flowers, in whose odorous and 
 tinted billows the vehicles they adorned 
 seemed siwept along as though over- 
 whelmed by a mountainous wall cf 
 
 105 
 
A Canuck down South. 
 
 ■waters. The horses waded breast, and 
 even shoulder high in roses, the carriage 
 wiheels were clogged with calla lilies. 
 Mermaids, beautiful as a dreajn, rose, 
 wreathed with smilax, and blossoms, 
 from the sea of flowers, their lissome 
 forms gleaming through the billows of 
 greenery crested with rainbow-tinted 
 foam. Mermem not inharmoniously blew 
 horns dripping the universal sea. Here 
 floated along some vast ark, ponderously 
 magnificent, splasbed to the eavv-« with 
 living color, there all JapaD spoke from 
 mystic chrj-santhemums, Six-in-hands, 
 tally-hos, four-in-^hands, spans, tandems 
 and single vehicles abounded, and all 
 were a bank of flowers. There were bi- 
 cycles also, some a mass of moving blos- 
 soms; and it is impossible to estimate 
 the quantity of flowers tbat on that day 
 were used to grace the tournament. We 
 had never seen anything like it, and 
 never expect to again. 
 
 Our Arcadia was not without the 
 charms of sport. In the immediate vi- 
 
In Arcadia. 
 
 cindty and within sound of the dinner 
 bell we had quail among the copses, jack 
 rabbits in the vineyards and washes, 
 equirrels in the live oaks, gophers in the 
 wheat fields, wild pigeons, blue jays, 
 domestic cats that made night hideous, 
 an occasional coyote skulking round the 
 chicken corrals and the infrequent tramp 
 disposed to take charge of our valuables. 
 Among the mountains, the wild cat 
 crouched along the brunch, the mountain 
 lion stole through, the underbrusih, lihe 
 sheep clzimbered upon almost imaccessible 
 crags and the grizzly lumbered along, 
 covering the miles with an easy ra- 
 pidity that was astonisliing in one of his 
 build. I did not hunt for bim, hav- 
 ing gone to California for my health, 
 and I was careful where I went to 
 sleep. A man from Ventura, who went 
 to sleep in the Sierra, woke to find that 
 a grizzly bear had actually stepped across 
 his body. He has always boaslted what 
 he "vvould have done had he awakened at 
 that interesting moment, but we noticed 
 
 107 
 
A. Canuck dotvn South. 
 
 tliat he could now never sleep within 
 sight of a mountain. 
 
 I would have added blackbirds and tur- 
 key buzzards to my list, only that these 
 are sacred birds in California. Tlie 
 blackbirds throng the busy streets of 
 the towns as numerous and as imper- 
 tinent as the sparrows in Canada. I do 
 not suppose there would have been any 
 objection to my hunting them, on ac- 
 count of my peculiar sityle of shooting. 
 All the game in the neighborhood soon 
 got to know me as a mild mannered 
 gentleman of pacific intentions. Ev^n 
 the Jack rabbits entered into the true 
 spirit of the sport, and one in particular 
 would often sit on his haunches amo.ng 
 the orange trees and hoist his ears for a 
 target. When a bullet passed near 
 enough to suggest that I might be grow- 
 ing dangerous, he would shift his ground 
 a few yards and I would have to try for 
 the range again by sighting a few shots 
 on the bams or distant mountains. The 
 'enfant terrible,' -with fine sarcasm, always 
 
 108 
 
Ill Arcadia. 
 
 cliaracterized my rifle practice as ' bang- 
 ing the mountains/ 
 
 Not the least pleasing of our occupa- 
 tions, and one which, strange to say, 
 never tired Diogenes or myself, consisted 
 in lying beneath a spreading live oak on 
 some ranch and Tvatcihing the orange 
 gatherers at work, swart Mexicans and 
 yellow Chinese, imder huge sombreros or 
 wasihbowl hats of straw, who, pouch ou 
 shoulder and ugly knife ia hand, reaped 
 the juicy hai-vest that clustered so thickly 
 upon the trees that there s>Gemed no 
 shadow under the boughs but only a blaze 
 of sunshine. At hand hage waggons were 
 drawn up with their teams of patient 
 mules, or went lumbering down the 
 slopes, laden with full boxes, to the cry 
 of the driver and the incessant crackling 
 of his long whip. 
 
 When all else failed we derived con- 
 siderable entertainment from the climate. 
 California has more weather in a day 
 than Canada has in a year, and Old 
 Probs always explains a failure in his 
 
 109 
 
A CanucTc dotcn South. 
 
 predictions by the statement that hia 
 forecasts got mixed in the mails. It ia 
 to be understood that California extends 
 through about ten degrees of latitude to 
 begin with, then it extends up and down 
 about three miles, and altitude gives as 
 great a variety as latitude. Further, the 
 state is washed by tihe Pacific on the 
 west and dried by the American desert 
 on the east. A man can select his own 
 climate, and where we were he has a 
 variety of choice almosit every day with- 
 in walking reacli. This is very embar- 
 rassing to a stranger. He gets up in the 
 morning and perhaps happens to look in- 
 to the valley which is overcast and full 
 of fog, so he reaches for his waterproof 
 and umbrella- By the time he has thus 
 equipped himself, he looks at the moun- 
 tains, and when he sees them covered 
 with new fallen snow he rubs his eyes 
 and decides to wear an ulster and fur 
 cap. When he gets to the front door 
 in this guise, he sees the calla lilies and 
 the orange and lemon trees round about 
 
 110 
 
In Arcadia. 
 
 blooming in warm sunshine, and goes 
 back to put on a linen duster and som- 
 brero, and by-and-by he comes home 
 with a cold in his head, having acciden- 
 tally wandered into a climate that takes 
 not kindly to linen dusters. In time 
 he learns to wear heavy woollen under- 
 wear all the year round. 
 
 If a man stays at home he can enjoy 
 the same climate for six months at a 
 time, and the next six months is the 
 twin brother of the first. When a San 
 Franciscan sees the sun he thinks he has 
 discovered a comet, and the Los Angel- 
 enian will write a column editorial and 
 half a dozen sonnets on a shower of 
 rain one could carry in a bucket. And 
 the biggest newspaper in the southern 
 counties will publish his efforts. But 
 I am not surprised at this. After one 
 has lived some months in souTliem Cali- 
 fornia, a vague dissatisfactioa permeates 
 his soul, and it finally dawna upon him 
 that a continuity of fine days is mono- 
 tonous. When, day after day, week 
 
 111 
 
A Canuck down South. 
 
 in and week out, the sun shines, the 
 fio^\'ers bloom and the birds sing, the 
 stranger finds himself praying for rain. 
 Then he praj'S for snow^ and as the 
 Land of Sunshine continues to verify its 
 name, he gradually increases his demands 
 until he is importuning heaven for hail, 
 wind, cyclones, blizzards, tornados, 
 waterspouts, cloudbursts, anything in 
 fact which will afford a change of weath- 
 er even at the expense of all his wife's 
 relations. But, if he is wise, he will not 
 confess this weakness to a Californiaji. 
 During our sojourn a man was arrested 
 in Los Angeles for beating his wife, and 
 it came out at his trial that he knocked 
 her down with the family thermometer 
 because she had complained that the 
 temperature did not fall low enough in 
 a California winter. 
 
 Once, and once only, we had snow on 
 the level, and it scarcely remained long 
 enough to permit a snowball to be made. 
 That. was on March 2 and 3, 1896, and 
 the whole country turned out, including 
 
In Arcadia. 
 
 the governor of the state, to iuvestigatt 
 the phenomenon. When we arose that 
 morning the ground was dusted over 
 with snow, and through the cool, snow- 
 seented air every wind waft brought the 
 heavy perfume of orange blossoms. The 
 sky was overcast. Great clouds rolled 
 down the mountain slopes, coming and 
 going and changing shape every few min- 
 utes, while through the otherwise quiet 
 air, from some height above the clouds, 
 wild geese were screaming discontentedly 
 on their way seaward. Whenever the 
 clouds lifted, there, on the bold sunmiits 
 of the Sierra, the snow lay piled, and in 
 the canons back among the mountain* 
 we heard the sullen reverberation of 
 thunder peals rolling like the sound of 
 some titanic drum calling to battle the 
 powers of evil. The power of prose is 
 inadequate to do justice to the weird- 
 ness and beauty of the scene, and even 
 the following attempt to describe it in 
 verse falls far short of conveying th» 
 proper impression : 
 
A Canuck doicn South. 
 
 A WINTER DAY IN THE SIERRA. 
 O'er the Sierra scarce the moon yestre'en 
 Was risen, to flood each aombre peak with 
 light. 
 
 Ere came a cloud host through the gusty 
 night. 
 Storming the crags. Sheer canon walls be- 
 tween, 
 
 They swept, and hid bare ledge and living 
 green. 
 
 Hoarse thunder pealed frcm unseen height 
 to height, 
 
 As though the vast hills boasted of their 
 might, 
 
 Though Chaos' self upon them seemed to 
 lean. 
 
 Dawn drew aside night's veil of mist, and 
 came 
 
 Across the hills. The clouds retired, 
 and lo! 
 On every wind swept crag, as Day look- 
 ed forth. 
 Bright in tlie southern sunshine gleamed 
 th9 snow, 
 A vision of the unforgotten North 
 *Twixt golden skies and poppy fields aflame. 
 
 IN THE VALLEY. 
 
 Snow on the hills, but in the valley, flow- 
 ers, 
 Pepples aflame aed orange blooms who8« 
 scent 
 
 114 
 
In Arcadia. 
 
 with the faint odor of the suow is blent. 
 Snow on the peaks, bat in the canons, 
 
 showers, 
 And torrents drinking strength from stormy 
 hours. 
 The geese wheel seaward through the 
 
 clouds half spent, 
 neeing the snow and screamiag discon- 
 tent. 
 But in the vale birds trill in odorous bow- 
 ers. 
 
 Summer is in the vale, though in the 
 heights 
 The bandit Winter lurks to sei:2e his prey. 
 Still springs the grain, vines grow and 
 fruit delights 
 Sun and soft winds through many a gold- 
 en day 
 In many an Eden valley, nestling warm 
 Below the stern Sierra, wrapped in 
 storm. 
 
 The Slimmer of southern California 
 corresponds in its effect with our winter. 
 It is the fallow season, during which 
 the toil bakes and brings nothing forth. 
 The trees do not sit in sackcloth, but 
 they certainly don ashes enough to sat- 
 isfy the greatest mourner at the wailing 
 J^&ee of the Jews, till the whole country 
 
i. Canuck down South. 
 
 looks like a tramp badly in need of soap. 
 Even in winter there is an occasioaal 
 Sant'Anna which sweeps up the dust 
 till it shrouds the hills and obscures the 
 very sun, and that dust will remain float- 
 ing in the atmosphere for several days, 
 without, however, affecting the lungs. 
 Farther north, in Utah, we heard ot' a 
 similar storm which so coated the tele- 
 graph wkes and poles with salt that a 
 hose reel had to be called into requisi- 
 tion . A common error concerning the 
 California summer is that it is unendur- 
 ably hot . The story is often told of 
 the bad Californian who died, and after 
 a day or two in the place modem theol- 
 ogy does not believe in, sent back for 
 his blankets . Californians tell that 
 story, but they tell it is a man from 
 Yuma, Arizona, where, it is said, the 
 hens lay hard-boiled eggs in winter. 
 From what I could gather about the 
 California summer, the thermometer is 
 entirely to blame. It persists in trying 
 to make people believe it is overworked. 
 
 116 
 
In Arcadia. 
 
 In this dry climate, even in winter, I 
 have known it go up to a hundred and 
 twenty, when the heat was really no 
 more oppressive than it would be at 
 Montreal with the thermometer at 
 eighty. Heat out there is not oppres- 
 sive, hut pleasant, if somewhat ener- 
 vating. One just wants to lie out and 
 scak in it. I do not mean perspire, 
 for that is a rare phenomenon . And if 
 one feels too hot he has only to go 
 around the house into the shade, and put 
 on an overcoat. Often one might 863 
 a man go down the sunny side of a 
 street in Los Angeles with his ooat over 
 his arm, while on the opposite side hi» 
 friends were wearing overcoats. At 
 sundown the man who has no overcoat 
 is like to perish with cold. These pe- 
 culiarities of climate explain why ladies 
 are to be seen dressed in muslins and 
 with gay sunshades, while around their 
 necks are twined huge furs. 
 
 It rains about a fortnight, off and on, 
 during the -winter or rainy season. Then 
 
 117 
 
A Canuck down South. 
 
 from the middle of ]\lay to the end of 
 October there is never a cloud in the 
 sky. Once in a dozen years a section 
 of the Pacific Ocean that has lost its 
 way runs up against a Sierra peak, and 
 there is a cloudburst. One such visited 
 Sierra Madre in 1894. It dropped in for 
 five minutes, and by that time the m An 
 stret -was a foaming torrent flowing 
 breast high. One man told me tliat he 
 had not seen such an active Tnovemciit 
 in real estate since the boom. Moun- 
 tain property that even the boom coiJd 
 not sell was carried down and turned 
 into town lots. He himself had every- 
 thing clean washed o£E his land except 
 the mortgage, and that, he said, he had 
 to liquidate himself. The canons were 
 roaring sluices, filled to the brim with 
 whirling whitecaps that bore down every- 
 thing before them, even vast trees and 
 huge boulders, and ploughed across the 
 country rofds, cutting deep trenches. 
 And to make matters worse, the poet 
 of the Los Angeles 'Times' came out 
 
 118 
 
In Arcadia. 
 
 simultaneously with a poem in blank 
 verse, beginning — 
 
 Drop, gentle dews, from heaven till the 
 
 mirth- 
 F\il earth Is moved with an ecstatic thrill. 
 
 He ^\ihiO imagines tiiat because two 
 nations speak the same language, they 
 miist of neceesity go hand in hand, like 
 loving children, through the world has 
 never read the history of Greece, amd 
 ki'ows nothing of the real feeling which 
 the limited States entertains towards 
 England and Canada. We were in Oali- 
 fornia during the Venezuelan trouble, 
 and the best I can say foir the spirit of 
 the United Statesians is that those who 
 do not hate us, have no more love for tw 
 than they have for Germans, Turlis or 
 Fiji Islanders. Our one terror was that 
 the editor of the Los Angeles 'Times,' a 
 mild mannered, kindly gentleman in pri- 
 vate life, would leave his sub-ediltor to 
 attend to the ferocious editx>rials against 
 all things British, and girding on his 
 e^vord again, make a descent upon Sierra 
 
 119 
 
A Canuck down South. 
 
 Madre, and butcher us one and all. He 
 Avould have had some difficulty, hovr- 
 excT, for the Canadians were in pretty- 
 strong force there, while the entire 
 «tat€ could, and would, have afforded a 
 batt^ion to defend the flag that for a 
 thousand years has braved the battle 
 and the breeze. Tliere is not, in fact, a 
 Californian in California, or, ait least, 
 they are very scarce. Bees gather where 
 th-ere is honey, and the state is full of 
 ^ircwd down-easters, canny Scotchmen, 
 .stalwart Chinese, ciuaint Japanese, Eng- 
 lishmen and Canadians. If the flood 
 wea-e repeated, and California spared, the 
 races of man would not lack representa- 
 tion. One cannot throw a stone any- 
 where in CaJifomLa without hitting a 
 Canadian. A Canadian has been mayor 
 of Los Angeles, a Gaaiadian has been 
 prefddent of the Chamber of Commerce 
 in the same city, a Canadian is at the 
 head of several railways, and he has 
 Cajsaidian brakemen and conductors un- 
 der him. JTiere are Canadian physi- 
 
 120 
 
/»- Arcadia. 
 
 cians, engineers and ranchers. I have 
 met Canadian cowboys. The British 
 vice-consul is a Torontonian. Ontario, 
 the model colony of the state, was found- 
 ed by Canadiaiis, they thirong Redlands 
 a-nd Eiverside, and in. one toAvn they 
 elected a Canadian mayor and board of 
 aldexmen, as a protest againsit the tail- 
 tv;isters. The only place I did not find 
 a Canadian was in gaol, but I think 
 Diogenes will rectify that if he keeps on. 
 They do not really speak English in 
 California. "Wihen people go there first, 
 they call a burro a donkey, but when 
 they have resided there a while they 
 call a donkej- a burro, realizing the 
 value cf foreign words in cultured 
 speech. Since we have returned I am 
 ahvays, quite inadverten'tly, calling a 
 horse a broncho; I have ceased to canter, 
 and now lope; every back yard is a cor- 
 ral, and garden a ranch. "We no longer 
 water our flowers, we irrigate them, and 
 I never borrow a quarter, though I 
 gometimcs ^rike a friend for two bit*. 
 
 121 
 
A CanvcJc down South. 
 
 In this way my friends know I have tra- 
 velled. A few days before we left, Di- 
 ogenes came to mc and said, tiiat aa I 
 was going, he had no longer an iacentive 
 to be idle, and so had gone to work. I 
 asked him what kind of work he was 
 doing, and he said he -»vas a solicitor. 
 
 'A what!' I said. 
 
 'A solicitor.' 
 
 'How much did you pay for your de- 
 gree?' ■ 
 
 ']!!^o thing. I jiLsit jnade up my niirid I 
 would like the work.' 
 
 'Your usual modesty. Because you 
 mnrage to keep out of gaol, you fancy 
 you know somatliing of law.' 
 
 'Who said anything about law,' he 
 cried, indignantly, 'I'm going to sell 
 bicycles.' 
 
 And then I learned that in California 
 a canvasser is a solicitor. 
 
 Our Arcadia was not without its myths 
 aud legendi!, its oracJes and seers. One 
 can best arrive aJt the vices aud vir- 
 tues of a people by reading the aiver- 
 
In Arcadia. 
 
 tisements in the daily press. The people 
 may indignantly repudiate a charge oc 
 superstition or gullibility, but if the 
 papers are filled wiitli fortunetellers' cards 
 and patent medicine and specialist ad- 
 vertisemenits, it is not because the ad- 
 vertisers are eager to add t-o the revenue 
 of the press. The columns of the soutli- 
 em California press are filled with such 
 tbangs. Then there is always a column 
 devoted to business eluances, some of the 
 bargains offered being truly generous. 
 One I remember was an offer of a half 
 interest for one hundred dollars of a 
 business that brou^t in two hundred 
 dollars per month. If the advertiser 
 had braved it out a fortnight, he might 
 have been his own partner. 
 
 123 
 

 CHAPTER V. 
 
 In the SlEKKA. 
 
 'Nmetecn of the Sierra peaks rise to 
 a height of ten thousand feet, and seven 
 of them rise still higher, until Mou.it 
 Whitney wears the crown, rising to the 
 lieavens to the height of 14,900 feet. 
 Seme of these summits are stiil warm 
 with volcanic heat. There they stand, 
 white-hooded, with glaciers moving along 
 their flanks, as if a thousand years were 
 but as yesterday, letting loose the moun- 
 tain strer.ras that go singing down to the 
 sea. There is the divine sculpture of 
 •fche rocks, the lakes that mirror those 
 eternal ramparts, the great forests that 
 sing in the storm and »igh in the sum- 
 mer breeze and the groups of sequoia 
 overmatching in height and circumfer- 
 
 124 
 
In the Sierra. 
 
 ence any other conifers on the globe. 
 There the clouds come down and kiss 
 the mountains, and the lesson is renewed 
 every day of eternal repose and majesty 
 and strength. The mountains are not 
 solitary, but are rich in floral and ani- 
 mal life. There butterflies flit and 
 birds sing and huge grizzly bears corae 
 out of caves and caverns. There the 
 mariposa lily unfolds its petals and the 
 snow plant, red as blood, springs in a 
 day mysteriously out of the margin of 
 receding banks of snow. And there the 
 lakes repose in bowls with the moun- 
 tains for rims.* 
 
 These words of Senator Perkins are 
 very pretty and very tme, but one has 
 to run almost throughout the state to 
 see all that he depicts. On a mare 
 moderate scale, however, almost any por- 
 tion of the mountain region affords such 
 beauty and even approximately such gran- 
 deur, and no small portion of our plea- 
 sure while at Sierra Madre was derived 
 from watching the ever-changing aspect 
 
 125': 
 
A CanucJc down South. 
 
 of the hills and wandering among their 
 ■verdant canons and upon their lofty 
 heights 
 
 When we arrived at our cottage home 
 in Sierra Madre the children were no 
 sooner out of the carriage before they 
 clamored to be taken up the mountains 
 that seemed to rise out of our back 
 yard. It was almost impossible to con- 
 vince ourselves, much less them, that the 
 first outlier of the range was quite half 
 a mile away, and it was still more diffi- 
 cult to believe that tho^e rock masses 
 were towering up four, five and six thou- 
 sand feet. The only occasion when a 
 proper estimate of the height of the 
 range could be formed was upon a cloudy 
 day; when the mists would ebb and flow. 
 Then, while the upper part of the range 
 would be wholly hidden, some magnifi- 
 cent knoll that on fine days we mistook 
 for a gentle elevation would stand out 
 against the background of fleecy white, 
 towering up to twice the height of our 
 ewn Mount Royal. Ten minutes later 
 
Ill the Sierra. 
 
 the clouds would pait, and that WU 
 would sink into insignificance and be- 
 come merged once more in the general 
 contour of the range. Morning, noon 
 and night, the hills seemed instinct with 
 life. Even in the sunshine and basking 
 under a cloudless sky, they changed from 
 hour to hour ; and in the monotony of 
 our California life we grew to love them 
 and to watch their every mood. On 
 them alone was to be seen any semblance 
 of the green robe to which we were ac- 
 customed and for which we vainly 
 yearned in the general landscape of the 
 more level valley. Sometimes, too, a 
 careless hand would start a fire, and all 
 night long it would seethe and bUlow far 
 up among the stars, sometimes creeping 
 like a fiery serpent aroimd a projecting 
 crag and sometimes rushing up a piny 
 canon, which at dawn gleamed, a black- 
 ened ruin, in the rising sun. 
 
 Among these hills and upon their very 
 summits are to be found sanitoriumis 
 vAxere the oonsumptive flees from tbt 
 
 127 
 
A Cdnwlc down South. 
 
 great flood of death which, is corLsfcajitly 
 rising about the race of man. Mount 
 Lowe and Wilson's Peak are two such, 
 adjacent to Sierra Madre, both attainable 
 bj^ trails and the former reached also by 
 a mountain railway rivalling the Pagi. 
 On the trails, especially that to Wilson's 
 Peak, the burro is used, an animal which 
 has done as much for the developnrieriit of 
 California as the railway itself, for with- 
 out the burro to bear the pioneer and his 
 pack over and among the mo-imtains Cali- 
 fornia had hardly even j-et stood in need 
 of the iron horse. 
 
 The burro is not quite a donkey, though 
 I doubt whether his own mother could 
 explain the <iifFercnce. He is a kind of 
 Shetland pony run to ears, or more cor- 
 rectly a mongrel or poor relation of every 
 member of the equme race. He is cot 
 described in Dr. Goldsmith's 'Anima.ted 
 Xature,' for obvious reasons. His move- 
 ments are so slow that physicians pre- 
 scribe burro riding aa a sedative. It is 
 impossible to catch any disease on burro 
 
 12K 
 
In the Sierra. : 
 
 back, not even locomotor ataxia. He 
 haa a voice nearly aa big as his ears and 
 as musical as a boiler factory. Oa -lie 
 other band, if the burro is not fass^, he is 
 safe. His surefootedness in. nariOAV 
 JJaces is tb-e envy of politicians, and 
 wben we decided that it would be a pleas- 
 ant departure to celebrate Christmas Day 
 by an open-air picnic among the mauin- 
 tains, we decided also thait we would 
 make the excursion on burro back. 
 
 WOson's Peak is reached by two trails, 
 one a waggon, road from Pasadena, which 
 concerns us no farther, and one the old 
 trail from Sierra Madre, on which two 
 counterfeit bills could scarcely pass one 
 another. When in a generous mood this 
 latter is about sdx feet wide, but it fre- 
 quently narrows to less than three. A 
 yard is enough for a burro, since he al- 
 ways finds four feet to walk on, but the 
 accommodation seems unduly limited 
 where there is a rise of some thousands 
 of feet om the one side and a sheer fall 
 of other thousands on the outer edae, 
 
 129 
 
A Canuck down South. 
 
 especially if tke borro pauses absent- 
 mindedly and reaches ouit after a spray 
 of leaves, while the ground begins to^slip 
 from under him. In such a case the rider 
 wishes for the wings of a dove or for a 
 parachute. 
 
 The road to the foot of the trail skirts 
 the flank of the Sierra, under majestic 
 uplifts, in contour rot unlike the triangu- 
 lar folds of silk ghopkeei)er& display in 
 their windows. At evening the depart- 
 ing rays of the sun light up and mellow 
 these peaks until they resemble silk in 
 texture also, but in tthe unromantic day 
 the sparse pines that cling to each round- 
 ed mass make a pate not unlike that of 
 Diogenes, who has a hair restorer which 
 he recommeads to every one as infallible. 
 Immediaitely below, here and there, amid 
 slender leaved peppers, with drooping 
 scarlet berries, or the eucalipti, Austra- 
 lian visitants which shed their bark and 
 not their leaves, or oftener still among 
 graceful palms and vast leaved bananas, 
 the cottages of Sierra Madre cling to the 
 
In the Sierra. 
 
 hillsides, always surrounded by lemon and 
 orange groves, at tihat time heavy with 
 golden spheres. The San Gabriel valley 
 lies outspread beyond, white in patches 
 of arid, cactus breeding mesas and in 
 places green with fruit plantations; and 
 SUII farther off the horizon is serried 
 with a line of mountains, rise above lise, 
 the higher peaks dazzling with their 
 crowns of snow. And over all that day 
 was such peace that the buzzing of a fly 
 or clear call of the cicada through the 
 ambient heat was eoul stirring as the 
 bugle blare to troops inactive on a bat- 
 tle's edge. 
 
 But there was not one blade of gra -s. 
 Here, indeed, distance lends enchant- 
 menit. Wherever we might ride, save in 
 the mountains, nature mourned for hor 
 children. Her sweet form lay bare to 
 curious eyes, '•acking the soft, clinging 
 drapery of verdure that tempts the soirl 
 as thei Greek gown lures to love. But all 
 was shortly to change with the coming of 
 spring, a season more etherial than 
 any other land can boast, and amid 
 
 131 
 
A Canuck down South. 
 
 'The lisp of leaves and ripple of rain.' 
 earth was to rejuvenate herself and mesa 
 and bare hillside to don an emerald ce- 
 ment the like to which few other lands 
 might shoAV. 
 
 Even though grass was lacking I waa 
 charmed with the scene, and said so -to 
 Diogenes, who was riding in the rear. 
 I had not turned my head and when I 
 was answered by a word much used in 
 excommunications, I turned round in 
 amazement, only to find that the epithet 
 had not been intended for me. Diogenea 
 is built like a pair of compasses, and 
 when he rides a burro is apt to stub his 
 toe unless he keeps his knees as hifjh as 
 hd'S head. He had forgotten this while ad- 
 miring the prospect, and had let his legs 
 hang doAvn, whereupon he ran the gamut 
 of evolution and became transformed 
 from a quadruped into a biped. His 
 burro slipped from under and left him 
 standing in the road. He resigned his 
 position as superintendent of the local 
 Sunday-school the next day, although I 
 had told him I would not turn informer. 
 
In the Sierro. 
 
 Tbe Princess's daughter, who is in- 
 cidentally mine also, five years of age, 
 had her own burro to ride and was se- 
 cured to the saddle. She rode astride. 
 The side-saddle can be seen in southera 
 California, in museums, where the new 
 woman can laugh at it and scoff at her 
 mother. A few such saddles are kept by 
 liverymen for the use of tourists from 
 the east, but as a general rule women in 
 this region ride nature's way, and I have 
 seen so many girls ride astride, so many 
 bloomers and hundred-button gaiters in 
 California that I am sure I will blush at 
 the suggestiveness of the side-saddle for 
 many a day to come. The first time I 
 saw a young woman riding in bloomera 
 I thought an accident had happened, and 
 took to the woods to relieve her embar- 
 rassment. Mais nous avons change tout 
 cela, and, after all, bloomers are not im- 
 moral — they are only distressdngly ugly. 
 If women want mare freedom in th-sir 
 garments, let them by all means drcsB 
 like a man, and a graceful shape will look 
 
 133 
 
A Canuck doicn South, 
 
 rv\'eet and modest enough. Compromisea 
 are never artistic. 
 
 We used tlie Mexican saddle, though a 
 •awnhorse or a tea-tray w ould have done 
 as well, for any one who would fall off 
 a burro would be immediately arrested 
 for aitt^mpted suicide. The Mexican sad- 
 dle has huge stirrups of vrood or leather 
 that would fib a Chicago girl, and lias 
 also a platform in front upon which to 
 stand while admiring the scenery. This 
 pommel, as it is called, was, I am told, 
 devised by a vigilance committee to pre- 
 vent cruelty to animals, as it requires 
 a limited corporation to ride a saddle so 
 equipped. A dear fat friend of ours could 
 not accompany us because, as he jocu- 
 larly remarked, he could not 'stoma^a' 
 a Mexican saddle, unless he rode back- 
 wards, in which case the draught betweco 
 the burro's ears would give him lumbago. 
 
 Shortly we reached the commencement 
 of the trail, and I may as well confess 
 that it was not long before I had to be 
 careful when shutting my mouth not to 
 
 134 
 
In the Sierra. 
 
 bite my lieart in two. Tlie lieii- to my 
 debts, aged three, wiho sat at my saddle 
 bow, added to my delight at intervals 
 by iisking me what I would do were the 
 burro to fall down this or that abyss, at 
 the bottom of which tiit; pine trees look- 
 ed like grass and the rushing torrent like 
 a silver thread. At tim^, one foot vvas 
 contracting rheumatism from the draught 
 of some unfathomable gorge over which 
 it hung, while its fellow had difficulty in 
 avoiding a square league of mountain. 
 Once the child leaned over to pluok 
 some blossoms growing on the edge of a 
 precipice. He did not get them, and I 
 got only half a breath, while the burro 
 cast a reproachful glance at both of us as 
 he awung suddenly in towards safety. I 
 gave him no sympathy, however, sis for 
 some time he had been displaying a sav- 
 age joy in walking upon the outermosv 
 edge of the trail, heedless of my nerves 
 and of the interest of the company which 
 carries an insurance upon my life. I 
 ha-d frequently heard of this peculiari!-y 
 
 135 
 
A Canuck down South. 
 
 of the burro and never thought of the 
 cxpianniiou of it until I saw Diogenes 
 on one. It is a mistake to say the burro 
 takes the outer fdge of the trail because 
 he is accustomed to carrying packs, he 
 does so either to get room for his own 
 or his rider's ears. 
 
 We reached a height from which we 
 could look down upon San Gabrdel Val- 
 ley, and what a sight that was! The or- 
 ange and lemon trees looked like those 
 pjgmy plants the Chinese excel > in culti- 
 vating. The scattered cottages looked like 
 dolls' houses, the orchards like checker- 
 boards, the waste lands showed their dr>' 
 watercourses which give them the IocaI 
 name of washes, hills once respectable 
 became mere ant hi51s, and Pomona and 
 Los Angeles seemed near enough to one 
 another to have the one board of alder- 
 iT'.en. And beyond, through a gap in 
 the distant mountains, gleamed the Pa- 
 cific, a broad sheet of silver, with Santa 
 Catalina Island set in its midst, like a 
 sapphire. 
 
 136 
 
I7i the Sierra. 
 
 Th€re is one loop on the trail, scratclied 
 on the face of a perpendicular cliff, from 
 whicJh, we looked across a canon and saw 
 ■w3\eire our burros were about to carry 
 US. It was not a soothing prospect. A 
 cloud or two hid the view, somewhat, 
 but, all the same, we noted the sheer 
 rise from base to summit certainly not 
 less than three thousand feet, and up the 
 face of that magnificent uplift winds the 
 trail, a mere line in the sky, enough to 
 make one dizzy merely to look at it. We 
 had a camera with us and a picture of 
 one of us on that cliff now adorns my 
 library. I wanted to get a companion 
 picture of Diogenes falling down the 
 canon, but he very selfishly declined to- 
 accommodate me. He could have done 
 it just .as easy as not, since the trail is 
 only two feet wide at one of the most 
 dangerous places. Monitreal readers will 
 get some idea of thia trail if I ask them 
 to pile several French Churob towers one 
 upon ihe other and then ride round the 
 topmost coping, till they have accom- 
 
 137 
 
A Canuck down South. 
 
 plished a few miles. Nay, this is below 
 tfae truth, for there are places where we 
 skirted precipdces at whose base the 
 French Church towers could scarcely 
 have been distinguished. And yet we 
 were not balf-way up that tower of Ba- 
 bel of mountains, giant reared to heaven,, 
 beyond the reach of flood, silent, desert- 
 ed, awful in their titanic majesty. 
 
 After an eternity of this tight-r>pe 
 business the scene changed. We were 
 still creeping skyward, but were now so 
 deep among the hills that the ravines 
 began to grow shallower. And then, 
 amiid the sliifting shadows of that golden 
 day, flung from aromatic pines, steeping 
 tlie soul in memories of Canadian woods, 
 I drew one easy breath at last. We 
 were not at the summit, for we contem- 
 plated returning the same day to close 
 onr Christmas in Canadian fashion with 
 a heavy dinner and an evening round a 
 roaring grate fire. But we were so high 
 that we feared our burros' ears would dis- 
 turb the astral maps, and had St. Pst-er 
 
Ill the Sierra. 
 
 appeared to ask for our passporte we 
 would scarcely have been surprised, al- 
 though Diogenes would certainly have 
 been embarrassed for once. 
 
 Our picnic was a success, and none of 
 us win ever forget that Christmas meal 
 amid the shifting shadows of the pines 
 upon a golden, glowing afternoon, beside 
 a purling stream, cryaital clear, ice cold. 
 Our ride homeward was thrilling, but un- 
 eventful. The burros actually trotted at 
 tinges, and the rattle of stones loosened 
 by their dainty feet to bound and re- 
 bound into the sullen gorges was not the 
 sweetest nor the most reassuring masic 
 in a timid ear. 
 
 That was my firsit venture among the 
 Sierra, but their spell was upon me, and 
 many a day thereafter I used to roam 
 on foot upon the same trail, visiting 
 canons and crags, at times with rifle or 
 revolver, at times trusting entirely to the 
 charm of nature for entertainment. One 
 deserted shack, I shall not say where, 
 for fear of reprisals, once tempted me to 
 
A Cmiuclc (loicn ^onth. 
 
 iiicvestigate. }>elo\v stairs it was innocent 
 enoiigii, but venturing further, into the 
 attic, to which early gymnastic training 
 alone enabled me to hoist myself, I found 
 that I was among the haunts of 'moon- 
 shiners.' There was no liquor, but there 
 was case upon ease of little flasks, dry 
 as myself, awaiting the nig-ht, Avhen 
 stealthily through the gloom to that 
 lonely six)t some desperate law-breaking 
 private distiller, Adth revolver at his belt, 
 would steal from some still more lonely 
 recess among the mouu tains with a sus- 
 picious barrel upon the back of a secrc- 
 tdve burro and make those particles of 
 blf wn glass capable of administering to the 
 joys and sorrows of his felloAv-men. Some- 
 times I would, when pining for the snows 
 of Canada, pluck a rose in our garden, 
 stack it in my button hole and breast 
 the trail, to luxuriate within the half 
 hour in banks of snow. Ouce when I 
 had been thus engaged I found on my 
 rettirn, M'ithin a few hours, that a friend 
 kad been wrestling with the angel of 
 
 140 
 
1)1 the Siara. 
 
 God ai)d secured the blessmg of imiuor- 
 tality, by so slender a hair is life held in 
 that land of invalids. He had been scarce 
 half an hour dead when I atrived, ye4; by 
 that time his body was on the road to 
 Pasadena in an undertaker's van, and all 
 the world w^^s changed for those who 
 loved hira. Some people have presenti- 
 ments of such things, but I never have. 
 Nothing important can happen to those 
 the Princess loves but w^hat she feels it. 
 Once she hurried me upon a railway 
 journey on what I thought was bitt a 
 wild-goose chase, upon one such presenti- 
 ment and we arrived as though in re- 
 sponse to the telegram we had never re- 
 ceived. And sihe knows by intuition 
 •whether I have been delayed by business 
 or a fiiend at the club, w:hich renders 
 her a somewhat embarrassing wife, or 
 would do so if I were not the sainfc I 
 am. Psychologists may explain this a^s 
 they will, the fact remains, as I can at- 
 test. Perhaps one must tndy live in and 
 for others before such a gift is vou»ch- 
 safed. The selfish are beneath it. 
 
 141 
 
A Canuck down Soiiih. 
 
 It was my good fortune to form one of 
 a party invited to dedicate a new trail 
 through the Sierra. A number of 
 ladies had decided to be the first whose 
 skirts would flutter at that high alti- 
 tude, and the officials of the trail invited 
 a number of men to accompany them in 
 self-defence. We formed a gay caval- 
 cade, and all the ladies rode astride 
 (the Princess was not with us). A 
 temporary trail, corkscrewing up a 
 dreadful slope, almost made some of us 
 slip over our burro's tail, a possibility 
 which was, however, partly robbed of 
 its terrors by the fact that, in such an 
 event, we knew we would land in the 
 lap of some of the opposite sex behind 
 us, the cavalcade being in such manner 
 arranged. The completed trail was not 
 different from any other except that na- 
 ture was still virgin about us. No van- 
 dal hand had cut down the tavmy ma- 
 drona or still more swarthy and snaky 
 manzanita. The holly berries flashed 
 their scarlet glow upon us, the bay tree 
 
 142 
 
In the Sicrya. 
 
 fanned us and the live oak scattered its 
 shelly leaves and tremulous shadows 
 everywhere. Graceful ferns and starry 
 yucca pleased the eye, and we needed 
 no warning to avoid that slender- 
 €teramed, dark-leaved skulker among the 
 heavier wood, for we knew the poison 
 oak of old. So, on and up we mounted, 
 now looking across a canon to the sheer 
 sides of Monrovia mountain towering 
 4,410 feet into the air, now looking down 
 to catch a glimpse of tapering pines and 
 to hear the murmur of some mountain 
 stream. 
 
 When the trail became too narow for 
 our burros we advanced on foot. The 
 line of the road had only been marked 
 out, and we had some training in true 
 mountaineering. At one point it was 
 necessary to step from one spur of rock 
 to another with a gorge seven hundred 
 feet in depth yawning hungrily below. 
 The ladies were more indefatigable than 
 the men, and it shortly transpired that 
 their enthusiasm arose from the fact that 
 
 14.-] 
 
A Caiiurk down iSouth. 
 
 a few hundred yards in advance on the 
 line of the trail was a mountain stream 
 upon whoso brink no woman had ever 
 stood, and they were determined to visit 
 and christen it. The chosen sponsor 
 was a charming young lady, whose Chris- 
 tian name was Oline, and after her the 
 stream was to he named, with the pre- 
 fix 'Saint,' 'all places and things being 
 saints hereabouts, if Oline isn't,* as a 
 maiden friend remarlced. The ceremony 
 was short and simple. Standing on the 
 ferny margin of the pool, which mur- 
 mured down a shady and rocky canon, 
 the slender, girlish figure bent, and in 
 the hollow of her hand took up a sunny 
 wavelet with which she performed the 
 mystic rite. It was my privilege as 
 poet laureate to record the christening 
 in simple verse, .is follows : — 
 
 144 
 
In the f^ierra, 
 
 THE POOL OF SANT' OLINE. 
 
 Ere yet the Spanish cavalier 
 
 For this new world set sail, 
 Ere yet the Padres came anear 
 
 San Gabriel's sunny vale, 
 Ere yet the thirst for gold drew men 
 
 Across the western hills. 
 I rippled down this rocky glen, 
 
 The happiest of rills. 
 
 The shadows of the spreading oak 
 
 Oft lay upon my breast; 
 Oft through the brown madronas broke 
 
 The bear upon his quest. 
 Past starry yuccas to my brink 
 
 At many a crimson dawn 
 The mountain lion came to drink. 
 
 And oft a timid fawn. 
 
 The golden moments came and went 
 
 Of many a sunny year, 
 And still I rippled on, content 
 
 And solitary here. 
 At times a weary miner came 
 
 And quaffed my cooling stream. 
 At times T saw the camp fire flame 
 
 Of hardy hunters gleam. 
 
 145 
 
A Canuck down South. 
 
 Though oft I paused to hear some bird 
 
 Trill In the leaves above, 
 A maid I never saw nor heard. 
 
 Nor knew the name of love. 
 Oh, there was never rivulet 
 
 So merry in a glen; 
 But now I never can forget, 
 
 Nor happy be again. 
 
 She came in thoughtless girlish mood. 
 
 The dizzy trail along. 
 Upon my ferny marge she stood 
 
 And listened to my song. 
 I saw her and I leapt for glee 
 
 In many a lucent wave. 
 And when she stooped to dnnk from me 
 
 My very heart I gave. 
 
 She passed, and now no more I sing 
 
 Among the granite hills; 
 Instead, my ceaseless murmuring 
 
 The sombre canon fills. 
 Oh, ye to whom that maid divine 
 
 Hath also heartless been. 
 Come join your mournful plaint with mine. 
 
 The Pool of Sant' Oline. 
 
 146 
 
n^^SiK^MSiK'Si]smKSi'AUX^!^S^K^i^i:^l^iM^ 
 
 ROUGHING IT. 
 
 The luxuries of to-day are the neces- 
 saries of to-morrow. We Ihad been 
 blessed in Camada with a comfortable, 
 well-built and well-fumished home, and 
 had followed our own habits and cus- 
 toms. But in California we, in company 
 with thousands of other winterers, found 
 ourselves o'h-''lccd to conform to new cus- 
 toms, adopt new habits and rough it 
 somewhat disagreeably in a house lack- 
 ing many conveniences, and which, while 
 said to be fumiathed, resembled nothing 
 else so much as a Canadiaai home after 
 seizure for rent, inasmucih as it contained 
 only the bare necessaries whidh cold- 
 
 147 
 
A Canuck down South. 
 
 hearted justice deems imperatively requi- 
 site for tlie existence of even a bank- 
 rupt. 
 
 One rents a fumished hou^ in Sierra 
 Madre witliout the formaJlity of am in- 
 ventory, but one lias toi pay renit in ad- 
 vance, the landlord taking no risks of 
 one's death before the month is up; and 
 as tihe first month's rent vs^ouild pay for 
 the entire funniture, making an inven- 
 tory would be too much like work foo* 
 the average Sierra Madran. We could 
 probaibly have taken away the hooise at 
 the expiry of our six months' term with- 
 out amy questions being askfd— ait all 
 events, we thought we had paid about 
 ail that it was worth. 
 
 In our ease, however, we heard long 
 after that there had been an inventory. 
 The house agemt from wfhbm we had tak- 
 en the cottage knew nothing of it, and 
 no tenant ever saw it, but it reposed in 
 the dhaiige of a friend of our estimable 
 landlady, our landlady being an absen- 
 
 148 
 
RougMng It. 
 
 tee, and afforded the lady "wiho held it 
 the coTigefiiial pleaisune of privately ia- 
 veetigaiting tbe damage done by each out- 
 going vandal, and retailing it to her 
 cronies over a cup of tea. No official 
 compilaint had ever been lodged, but by 
 this merciful dispensation of pi'C'vidence 
 a certain stratum of society wias enter- 
 tained and occupied at a very small ex- 
 pense. I imagine the inventory ran 
 about as follows. It will do for mamy a 
 cottage in tlhe place, and, indeed, Dio- 
 genes saj's thalt a't least two invalids lay 
 down and died of sheer chagrin when 
 they heard how luxuri'ously we lived. 
 
 Inventory. 
 
 Beet bedroom — ^The usual hard-wood 
 set found in seaside hotels, bureau mir- 
 ror making a hat on the left ear appear 
 to be on straight, carpet made by Noah 
 after he had troddem the wine-'prese. 
 
 "VVoiwt bedroom — One cheap folding- 
 bed, variegated with a chintz front, war- 
 
 149 
 
A Canuck down 8outh. 
 
 ranted better tlian an alarm clock at 
 daybreak, one enamelled cbair, fonnerly 
 ■w!hit€. T!he occupant of itliis room 
 mlg^Kt use the kitchen sink for a wash- 
 Sband and finish dressing at the mirror 
 in tihe other room. The floor had a 
 straw matting on parts of it. 
 
 Dining-room — HardWood table and four 
 chairs. There wouldn't have been room 
 for any more, anyway. When we had 
 guests, we moved the table into the par- 
 lor. This room ailso oointained a diminu- 
 tive stove, called a 'Ohromo/ and it 
 was one. It was spavined in the o£E 
 hind leg, and was rarely on speaking 
 terms with the dbimney. 
 
 Parlor — One antique rug (amtique 
 BO>unds better than antiquated), eked out 
 wit3i pieces of straw matting, an in- 
 toxicated bamboo easel warranted to fall 
 upon the nearest person, a visdtor for 
 choice, in order to afford a theme for 
 conversation. (' How horrid ! I do 
 hope it did not hurt you. No ? How 
 
 150 
 
Roughing It. 
 
 fortunate. It didn't injure your bon- 
 net ? No ? I'm glad. It's sucli a 
 beautiful bonnet ; last year's styles were 
 obarming, weren't tney ?') There was a 
 bamboo lounge in the parlor, the only 
 comfortable piece of furniture m iJie 
 house, and there were six dhairs, no two 
 alike, none uplholstered, and tihree were 
 rockers. There were two small tables. 
 
 Cutlery, kitchen utensils, china (no, 
 I mean crockery), and linen to match. 
 We had napkins on Sunday, till our 
 own supplies turned up. 
 
 In describing their oontcmts, I have 
 incidentally mentioned all the rooms of 
 <mr house, except the kitchen, which 
 could be called a room only by courtesy, 
 The architects of the houses in Sierra 
 Madre were dyspeptic, and always forgot 
 to make provision for the kitchen, wihioh 
 had to be subsequently added by making 
 use of a cupboard. I do not think tihere 
 was a kitchen in the place any bigger 
 than the buffet in a Pullman car, and 
 
 151 
 
A Canuck down South. 
 
 some were so small that it was impos- 
 sible to avoid 'barking' one's elbows. Be 
 it understood, once for all, that the 
 whole time we were housekeeping in Ar- 
 cadia, Ave had to do our own work. Had 
 we been willing even to pay twenty 
 dollars a month for a domestic, we would 
 have had to put her in the cellar, or 
 sleep there ourselves, the second contin- 
 gency being the more probable in the 
 land of freedom, where even the wash- 
 lady pursues her vocation 'to accommo- 
 date/ and from whom we feel that, we 
 should receive our laundrj'- on bended 
 knees. We did our own work, I repeat, 
 and my share of it was that of Robert 
 Louis Stevenson, the lighting of the fire 
 and the preparation for if not always of 
 the breakfast. The Princess seldom rose 
 until she had her matitudinal cup of tea, 
 but when she did arise, my labors of the 
 day were over. 
 
 The lighting of the fire is a question 
 which has disturbed many a household, 
 
 152 
 
Roughing It. 
 
 and it is a ^ise husiband who bows to 
 the inevitable. When we first saw our 
 kitdaen it had at one side a pretty little 
 mechanism that I thought shooild be 
 placed upon the parlor mantel. I was 
 looking for my magnifying glass in order 
 to ettudy the details when the house 
 agent said with enthusdasm, 
 'There! what do you think of thait?' 
 'It's very pretty/ I said, hut why isn't 
 ^A> im the parlor under a glass case? And, 
 excuse me, hut what is it ' 
 
 Mr. T- groaned. 
 
 'What is it!' he re-eohoed. 'Why, man, 
 that's the stove, one of the best in the 
 place.' 
 
 And it was the stove, the only cooking 
 stove we had, if I except the gasoline 
 demon we knew better than to experi- 
 ment with, not being certificated en- 
 gineers. And on that microscopic thing, 
 and in its still more microscopic oven we 
 cooked many a good meal. Our Thanks- 
 giving turkey was cooked in it. We 
 cooked the front half the day before and 
 
 153 
 
A C amuck doton South. 
 
 the rear half on Tlianksgiviiig Day prop- 
 ping up the half that woiildn't go into 
 the oven by resting it on a chair. 
 
 The lightioiig of that stove was an ope- 
 ration of exceeding nicety, and was ac- 
 complished as follows. I first put in 
 four square inches of newspaper, prefer- 
 ably an aniti-British editorial from the 
 Los Angeles 'Times/ which was not 
 merely always certain to be dry, but 
 contained so many inflammable state- 
 ments that I kept sucih clippings in a 
 tin box for fear of spon'taneous combus- 
 tion. I then added a sHver of dry wood, 
 or a split mastoh, and topped off with a 
 spliuiter of live oak. If the live oak was 
 green, as it generally was, I added a 
 spoonful of coal oil, and weoiit out 
 through the window. When th« meal 
 was cooked, we blew out th.e fire. 
 
 The fuel used in Sierra Madre was 
 scrub oak cut by the Mexicans on the 
 waste lands, and sold the same day at 
 about eight dollars per cord, and a soft 
 coal from New Mexico, which sold at 
 
 154 
 
Roughing It. 
 
 eleven dollars per ton. The ooal burned 
 a-way -vvitli great rapidity, and the scrub 
 oak -would go out the instant one's at- 
 tention was relaxed. There was no x>os- 
 sibility of maintaindng a fire through the 
 night unless one sat up with it, the 
 stoves were so miserably small. We 
 sometimes got a little comfort by taking 
 them to bed with us els foot-warmers, 
 but notwithstanding all our ingenuity, 
 there was seldom a morning during our 
 atay thart; it did niO(t require a great effort 
 of will to put foot to the floor or when 
 the thermometer in the room registered 
 higher than foiiy-five. K one made a 
 bolt to the open air with his clothes over 
 his arm, and dressed there, the air waa 
 balmy enough, but a modesit man like 
 myself did this but seldom. 
 
 The hiou'se had no attic, but to make 
 things even it had a cellar, wihere the 
 wind piped eerily through the night. 
 There also all tiie cats of the nedghbor- 
 hood held nightly revel just under my 
 bed, a single thickness of planking inter- 
 
 155 
 
A Canuck down South. 
 
 vening. As the cellar was reached onlv 
 by an outside door, a white-robed, shiver- 
 ing figure, clutching a huge navy re- 
 volver, might often have been seen 
 stealthily stealing through the gloom 
 beneath the starry canopy of heaven to 
 apply the cloture to that inliarmonious 
 gathering; and five minutes after, when 
 I had got back to bed and had jusft be- 
 gun to distinguish my feet from lumps of 
 ice, the charivari would recommence. 
 It did m> good to stop holes or lock 
 doors, the cats pawed their way in, bur- 
 rowing like gophers,and as for shooting 
 any, tJie man who has not tried to fire 
 a revoivei- when he can not see it, does 
 not know how far astray a point blank 
 shot will go. 
 
 Tins kind of house and this kind of 
 dscomfort is ehared by the bulk of those 
 wh.0 wTnter in California for their bealth. 
 But hotel life, which we allso tried, and 
 life in the cities, is charming. 
 
 ^Vfter we liad been some time in Cali- 
 fornia Diogenes and I developed an in- 
 
 156 
 
Roughing It. 
 
 tense scorn of the useless, lazj' life of 
 the natives, and decided (for a week) to 
 set a shinixig example to tihe State. It 
 was not long' before we had devoured all 
 the chickens of the neigh^borhood, but 
 that is not saying much, the chickens of 
 California are raised by incubator, and 
 fed by band, and cost their weight in 
 gold to bring tfeem inbo the world. And 
 they no sooner see the kind of country 
 they have got into than they pine away. 
 Diogenes and I decided thait; there was 
 money for two clever men in a chicken 
 raincb, and we started one. It was a 
 beautiful ranch, electro-plated ■wire fence, 
 fine view of ithe Sierra, one clump of 
 grass six inches square, imiported at great 
 expense, and a hen house tihat was the 
 pride of Sierra Madre. The incubator 
 was exquisately polished and varnished, 
 and the oil we burned cost a fabulous 
 sum, while the thermwmeter was one 
 that could give any other tlhemiometer in 
 the place a start of ten degrees and beat 
 it out of sight before the afternoon. It 
 
 157 
 
A Canuck down South. 
 
 had one of <tho<se affairs in it far re^ater- 
 ing ihe maximum temperaiture and we 
 tad only to told it over the lajnp a few 
 mimutes, and it would keep up the tem^ 
 penature of that incuhaitor during the 
 coldest nigiht, even if the lamp went out, 
 Diiogeniea called me one night just to see 
 it. We were shivering, wiith blankets 
 ■vvraipx/ed round us like Pueblo Indians, 
 but through the glass of the incubator 
 tha/t needle in the ineade of the thermo- 
 meter was sticking as close to a hundred 
 as if the lamp hadn't been exihausted 
 long before. And the mercury wasn't 
 near it, either, But we never seemed to 
 get any chickens, so we used to buy 
 tihem from the butcher ajnd x>ay sixty 
 cents apiece for them, and it took two to 
 make a meal for one person. 
 
 Besides, we had trouble with the in- 
 cubartor. It is bad enough to see a full- 
 sized hen fussing over a solitary dhick, 
 but it passes the bounds of tiolerance to 
 see a big incubator clucking about the 
 yard, scratching the paint off the fence 
 
 158 
 
Roughing It. 
 
 and trj'ing to convince a drooping 
 chicken that it is fattening diet. And 
 to see an incubator stand ruefully beside 
 the dirigation tamks while some duck- 
 ling swam out on the. "w^ter was enough 
 to give a man a delirium, No, when we 
 began to have dreams like that, we knew 
 it was our reason or the incubator that 
 would have to go. 
 
 We wouid ha\e gone into market 
 gardening but that seemed overdone. 
 A^'egetables were a drug on the market. 
 When I first dealt with John Wee Oieii 
 Yen, and asked bii-m for tyenty-five cents 
 worth, he got down, phlegmatically, smd 
 began to unhamesis his team. 
 'What's the matter?' I said. 
 'Me keep horses; you keep rest,* he 
 said, and John's vegetable waggon was 
 larger than a hay cart. But they can 
 not grow a vegetablel in California to 
 compare, for taste, with thiose of the 
 East. They are like the cliimate, mono- 
 tonously alike. Of! what use is a pump- 
 kin that cannot be moved without a der- 
 
A Canuck down South. 
 
 rick and a team of horses, if it wtill not 
 make a New England pumpkin pie? 
 Califomians will say we didn't know how 
 to cook them. Our butcher used that 
 excuse. He had sold us the last hen in 
 the state, one wihieh had been brought 
 in by the early missio^naries, and of 
 course I broke my carver on it, and sub- 
 sequently splintered the axe-handle. 
 Then I coonplained to him. 
 'How long did you cook it?' he asked. 
 'An hour.' 
 
 'You should have cooked it three.* 
 And when I told him that witli fuel 
 as expensive as it was he would have to 
 bring me a government contract with 
 each hen, he merely laughed at me. 
 
 After our unfortunate experience with 
 the chicken corral, Diogenes and I cast 
 about for some other occupation. At 
 first our inclinations were towards some- 
 thing involving brain work, something 
 which we could do while eittdng on the 
 verandah smoking and discussing plans. 
 But after a while we realized that there 
 
 160 
 
Roughing It. 
 
 is no labor ga ddignified ag manual labor. 
 We would become 'bomy banded sons of 
 toil, and after a few years maybe we 
 migbt become walking delegates and Na- 
 poleonic leaders of a strike. We asked 
 the Princess wbat sbe tbougbt. Sbe 
 told us sbe tbjougbt tbat 'was about tlhe 
 kind of workmen we would be and of 
 course, that compliment froan her settled 
 the miatter. So we went out to see if 
 there was any job to be bad washing 
 oranges. In some localities, apparently, 
 where the fogs reach, oranges get touched 
 with a kind of smut, wihich ig scnibbed 
 off after plucking, and laborers get about 
 three cents per box of two hundred. We^ 
 made six cents each that day, enough to 
 make a Mexican feel like a nabob. We 
 would have miade more only we fell into 
 a discussion as toi what bank we would 
 put our savings into, and, of course, our 
 discussion was so briglht that tlie other 
 workers crowded round till the rancher 
 came and sadd he would save us the 
 trouble of quarrelling on the subject. 
 
 161 
 
A Canuck down South. 
 
 We decided after that one experience 
 of the grasping nature of capitaliats that 
 we would be our own masters, aaud with 
 our wealth buy up the mortgage on tliat 
 man's estate and squeeze him. I am glad 
 now that we did not, for we might have 
 found ourselves like anany others in the 
 region, tied for eternity to a ranch that 
 barely paid expenses. 
 
 There was an old mine tunnel in the 
 hills nearby, and we decided that A^ihere 
 there was a mine shaft there was sure 
 to be gold and silver. We had not read 
 mine prospectuses for nothing. The 
 mine was deserted, but we knew that 
 the general thing is that the poor fellow^ 
 whio dig in and blast and get 'busted,' en 
 a mine, leave off about six inches from 
 the blind lead, or the hanging wall, or 
 the mataix; so we determined to open 
 up tiiat half-foot. But there seemed to 
 be a hiteh somewhere, and after boring 
 a hole and examining the rock we went 
 back home and spent the afternoon 
 
 162 
 
Roughing It. 
 
 pleasantly and instructively studying 
 Mark Twain and Bret Hart. 
 
 Witih renewed courage we decided to 
 prospect, especially as thie guide books 
 declared that th« SierTa/ of Southern Oali- 
 fomia have never been thoroughly pros- 
 pected, and ought to contain unibold 
 mineral wealth. For a few days we wan- 
 dered among the canyons and peaks, oc- 
 casionally forgettdng our object in the 
 charm of the scenes. On the lower 
 slopes the soft glow of the purple penste- 
 mon and the deep indigo of the lark- 
 spur diversified the scene, mth an ooca- 
 sionail flaaih of the scarlet larkspur, which 
 is indigenous to California. The lavender 
 tulips nodded across the plaans, and in 
 the washes the white petals of the tall 
 bush poppy shone around a golden cen- 
 tre. Hei-e and there among the rocks 
 the mimulus was wreathing its orange 
 and red, and the soft purple of the 
 nightshade lighted up its deeper hues. 
 The open slopes were thronged ■s'vTith sun- 
 flowers, and with the advent of spring 
 
 163 
 
A Canuck down South. 
 
 the ptoppies had sprung up, like higli- 
 lamdera from the correi, and their fiery 
 cax)98 "was blaziimg far and wide, vi-ible 
 even to the woiwiering sailors far out at 
 sea for the color of the poppy is a land- 
 mark to the mariner upon that dreamy 
 ocean. 
 
 On the higiher levels or slopes the cbap- 
 arrel robed the hills in shaggy green, the 
 mountain streams sang as they leaped 
 from cliff to cliff. The wihite sage uplift- 
 ed its tall spires, tlie verba santa attract- 
 ed the eye and the fragrance of the white 
 and bluish blocm of the miountain ma- 
 hogany wag upon the air. Here the 
 yucca lifted its lilies, the bimch grass 
 grew and tlie veteihes trailed their gar- 
 laids of purple and green over the rusty 
 wihite of the wild buekAviheat. Willows 
 and cofttooiwioods, sycamores and live 
 oaks deepened the shadows, ferns de- 
 pended from moisit banks, and far aloft, 
 tihoiisands of feet above U5 we could 8ec 
 the sunlig'nt silvering gdgaintic masses of 
 granite, and hear the breezes whispering 
 
 I6t 
 
RoiKjhing It. 
 
 aniiong Uie pines that wound intermin- 
 ably upwards around the flainks of tlie 
 Sierra, until lost amid the azure clouds 
 where tlhe condor was %viheeling upon 
 motdonless wings. That was the kind of 
 day labor Diogenes and I delig'lit'ed in, 
 but we fiound no gold. 
 
 One day Diogenes came to me and said 
 we had been a pair of fools. I asked him 
 to explain. 
 
 'Well, we haven't gone the rigiht way 
 about our prospecting. Listen to this. 
 It's an acoount of the disciovery of on© 
 of the nidhesit veins in Colorado. 'Two 
 prospectors who were grub staked by Mr. 
 Tabor (since Sena»tor), chanced to be 
 cnossdng Fryer Hill and sat down to im- 
 bibe casual refreshment from a jug of 
 whiskey. By the time they had become 
 satisifactopily refreshed all kinds of 
 ground looked alike to them, and \vithout 
 the slightest justification they began to 
 dig w^here they had been sitting. They 
 uncovered the ore body of the famous 
 Little Pittsburg mine.' 
 
 165 
 
A Canuck down South. 
 
 There was silence for a few momeirts. 
 Then I leaned forward. 
 
 *^Did yoai say wliiskey?' 
 
 'Yes.' 
 
 'Do you think it was United States 
 whiskey ?' 
 
 Diogenes did not say a word for a few 
 minutes. Then his face lengthened. 
 
 'Because/ I continued, 'if it has to be 
 Uuited States whiskey, I am a pnoihibi- 
 tiondst.* 
 
 I h.ave always felt proud that when 
 the choice etood between a gold mine 
 wa)th (United States) whiskey amd a 
 poor but honest Ufe with prohibition 
 principles, I chose the better part. Di- 
 ogenes has not yet discovered a gold 
 mine, but I have my suspiciioma that he 
 has tried to. 
 
 Throughout southern California, as in- 
 deed throughout any other country dis- 
 trict where the residents are not them- 
 selves producers of their own food, the 
 tradespeople call at tihe house for orders. 
 The procession used to begin about seven 
 
 166 
 
Roughing It. 
 
 in the onorning in my time, when the 
 grocery boy would pound on the door un- 
 cea'singly until I rose from my beauty 
 sleep to chide him. On tihe banks of 
 the lower St. Lawrence they are more 
 courteous. They don't knock; they just 
 come right into the bedroom. I have 
 known a bowing and gesticulating butch- 
 er enter the room of an astonished cus- 
 tomer, with a leg of mutton in his hand, 
 and expatiate on its merits while the 
 mistress of the house said naughty words 
 about him with her head under the bed- 
 clothes. After the grocer's boy would go 
 away, happy for having ruined my rest, 
 the milkman would drive up, deposit haa 
 self-sealing jars and rumble dowm the 
 avenue. Then there would be a breath- 
 ing sipell for bath and breakfastb. 
 
 When I say bajth I speak with a men- 
 tal reservation. There was one bath in 
 Sierra Madre, and when it was being 
 brought in itt frightened the horses worse 
 than a steam roller, and the Mexicans 
 couldn't be got to go near the 'house 
 
 167 
 
A Canuck down South. 
 
 where it wa3 for love or monoy. The 
 man who had tha/t bath kept it in his 
 parlor, and those of us who were not so 
 fortunate tJiought he only did it justice. 
 Diogenes and I occasioinally turned the 
 hcse on ourselves in the wood-shed, but 
 as a general rule we bathed in sections, 
 beginning at the head on Sunday morn- 
 ing and mauaging to reach the feet by 
 Saturday night. As the largest vessel 
 in the house was a dishpan, our ten- 
 acity of purpose can be understood. We 
 would have preferred the hose process, 
 but the water company sent us a letter 
 tiat general irriga/tion was only permit- 
 ted three days in each month. 
 
 After breakfast came a man who was 
 our thorn in the flesh. Either he sel- 
 dom had the article we w^tnted or was of 
 the opinion that it was not good for us, 
 for he invariably spent half an hour trj-- 
 ing to persuade us to take something else 
 and as he had a monopoly, the discussion 
 usually terminated by his having ,his way. 
 He had a cheerful air of superiority 
 
 168 
 
Roughing It. 
 
 about him tiiat made one willing to be 
 an asisassdn, and lie was a lightning cal- 
 cvlator. While I would be lalboriously 
 calculating with pencil and paper what 
 pounds and fractions of our purchasea at 
 varying prices and half cents came to, he 
 would nonchalantly jot the total down 
 in our book and drive away to infitruct 
 some one else in arithmetic. And to 
 make matters worse, after I had work- 
 ed the sum out by algebra, which is 
 easier to me than arithmetic, I would 
 find that he had been right after all. 
 
 Next came the fishmonger with oystew 
 in tirs and fresh salmon and halibut 
 from the ocean and northern streams. 
 After him the wine merchants would be- 
 gin to arrive, half a dozen of them some- 
 times, and every one would insist upon 
 my taking a glass Whether I intended to 
 purchase or not. By the time they were 
 dtie Diogenes would be on hand to see 
 that I had some one to help me, for it is 
 too serious an insult to think of refusing 
 the proffer. It would have been kindlier 
 
A Canuck down Ronth. 
 
 to kick t,h,9m downstairs. I may say, 
 •n passant, that I do no-t too emtliusias- 
 ticaUy adniire the wines of California, 
 ex<>e(pt the clarets, than which. I do not 
 hope to drink better; and claret was 
 fifty cents per gallon in Sierra Madre. 
 Water soon became good enough to wash 
 in. The brandy of California requires 
 to be tried to be appreciated, and after 
 a man has thoughtlessly taken a glass of 
 it, he is verj'' likely to be tried himself, 
 in the police court, for it is nearest to 
 being liquid fire of any drink I know, 
 and creates a perfect frenzy of intoxics^- 
 tion. Diogenes says so, too. Experte 
 credo, he «SLys. 
 
 John Chinaman did not come with the 
 commonalty; his visits took place in the 
 afternoon.'?. John is an important fac- 
 tor in California life. He has settled 
 the servant girl question, for which he 
 merits the legion d'hoomeur. Easternei^ 
 at first shrink from his cat-like tread in 
 the house, but soon become accustomed 
 to it and by and bye get to wonder how 
 
 170 
 
Roughing It. 
 
 they ever tolerated Sally with her fol- 
 lowers and her objection to cap and 
 apron. In Sierra Madre John entered 
 oi ly incidentally into domestic life. He 
 sold U3 onr vegeitables and washed oar 
 linon. I will not isay that the same 
 Chinaman did both, but I would hessi- 
 tate to swear to the contrary in a court 
 of laAv. I know that tbere were two ri- 
 val markei gardeners for John Wee Ohen 
 Yen, or Sunny Slope, assured us with 
 dreadful solemnity that the *oller feller* 
 ill^gated A\'ith sour water, though where 
 he could nave got it in tha^t r<^on of 
 mountain streams I am unable to say. 
 Those who judge Chinamen from the un- 
 dersized specimens of eastern ciities will 
 be surprisi*^ when told that John in 
 California is a stalwart, broad-shouldered 
 fellow, who would cut a pretty figure in a 
 r€gimonit of the line. His visits wee* 
 among the pleasant events of our mon- 
 otonous days. He brought an air of 
 cheerfulness with him that was con« 
 tagious. His n<^ver imduly familiar man- 
 
 171 
 
A Canuck down South. 
 
 ner always seemed to be conveying the 
 eentimenit thit it was good to be alive, 
 and that life had grown ever so much 
 mere delightful since our arrival. When 
 we paid him in cash, he grnw aa shy as a 
 maiden receiving her first offer, and was 
 ill at ease until th^e mercenary transaction 
 was over. Wben we ceased so to trouble 
 him he would smile all over and 'mlark* 
 it on the wall with such delight that we be- 
 gan to think his country must be an Eden 
 for impecunious men and to credit him 
 with an insane desire to cover cottages 
 with Ids quaint hieroglyphics. And when 
 he went away he alw^ays said good-by so 
 heartily that it sounded like a benedic- 
 tion. One couldn't spank the enfant 
 terrible for an hour after. There are bad 
 Chinamen, I have no doubt, very bad 
 Ohdnamen, but before despising the Chi- 
 nese naition it would be well for other 
 nations to ascertain whether they, too, 
 have not a few black sheep. If John 
 likes to hit the pipe a, little too much,- 
 John Bull and Brother Jonathan are by 
 
 172 
 
Roughing It, 
 
 no means proihibitioniats, and while John 
 is revelling in heavenly dreams that even 
 opium will not bring to the others, John 
 Bull 13 belaboring his wife and Brother 
 Jonathan challenging all creation to a 
 round. All three may end in the same 
 policei court in California, and John may 
 get the heaviest sentence, it is true, but 
 that does not settle the superiority of 
 race or morals. 
 
 W« were not the only people who were 
 roughing it in southern California. When 
 the winds begin to blow keenly in the 
 east, and the fallen leaves lie thick upon 
 the sward, when the lilies that toil not 
 disappear, so also disappear from familiar 
 haunts others who do not spin, and like 
 to whom Solomon in all his glory wa.^ 
 never an-ayed. The genus tramp, the 
 palmers of the nineteenth century, steal- 
 ing rides when they can, begging or walk- 
 ing, succeed, in some mysterious way, in 
 crossing the arid plains and the cloud- 
 hooded Rockies, and become a genuine 
 and not altogether safe affliction in the 
 
 173 
 
A Canuck down South. 
 
 Laud of Sunshine. I do not think the 
 Princess ever turned a beggar from the 
 door, for she has a maxini that a meal 
 can do no haxm to any one, but by and 
 by our tramps began to flock ia from all 
 quarters and capped the climax by steal- 
 ing our very dinner on one occasion, af- 
 ter having been given a good breakfast. 
 60 at last I put up a sign at the turn of 
 the road as follows: — 
 
 SOAP! 
 . Tramps Accommodated with Soap, 
 Water Supplied Opposite. 
 
 This sign served its purpose, especially 
 after I had erased the private marks of 
 the fraternity. It was a source of plea- 
 sure to Diogenes and me to sit on the 
 verandah and see a tramp come expec- 
 tantly up the road till within sight of 
 that sign. He would go up to it, and 
 BometiTOee we would hear him solUoquize. 
 
 174 
 
Rougliing It. 
 
 'Soap, what's tihat ? I never heard <)i 
 it. Water supplied opposite. Who wants 
 water ? Only a fool would come to Cali- 
 fomy for waiter. It looks riskV' I gtiess 
 ril try next door.' And off he would go, 
 looking anything but happy. 
 
 Pasadena and Los Angeles turned all 
 the itramps they caught to stone-break- 
 ing. One day was enough; they never 
 stopped running till they reached the city 
 limits. Another town kept a reservodr of 
 water in^to which it tossed them, like 
 witches of old and to the same purpose. 
 Before we found it absolutely necesaar>' 
 to set our faces against them, I occasion- 
 ally spent a pleasant half hour with a 
 tramp. These fellows are> not lacking in 
 intelligence, indeed it is their stock in 
 trade. They expend as much «nergy and 
 use up as mudb intellect in wheedling a 
 dinner amd avoiding work as would make 
 a successful senior partner in a large 
 business. And what a miserably poor re- 
 turn tihey get upon their investment. The 
 man who, whether with truth or false- 
 
 175 
 
A Canuck down South. 
 
 hood, at least entertained me with a 
 description of hi3 picturesque life and 
 "svith tales of places he had visited, will 
 ?cme day be tossed from the car upon 
 which ho is stealing a ride, and the cor- 
 oner "wnll ask no embarrassing questiona 
 of the brakemen. 
 
 One of the customs we had brought 
 wi-th us from Canada was that of using 
 ice in hot "weather to preserv^e food and 
 to cool our drinks, and, of course, we 
 immediately ordered ice to be supplied 
 daily. But we countefrmanded that or- 
 der after the first ball came in. We 
 found that we had luxuriously been con- 
 suTO.ing a dollar's worth of ice to pre- 
 serve a fifty-cent breakfast and the ice 
 never seemed to cool anything, anyway. 
 California was always surprising us in 
 eome such simple matter. If we wanted 
 a drink of cold water, we naturally ran 
 it fresh from the tap, but Avhen Diogenes 
 wanted one he let it sitand quite a while, 
 and his was cooler than ours. And be 
 told us that the use of lice was a]l tom- 
 
 176 
 
Roughino it. 
 
 foolery so far as preserving meat was 
 ooncemed. 'Hot weatliea' here,' he said, 
 'may cook your meat, (but it will not 
 spoil it. But doui't lay in a Mipply in 
 rainy weather; or you will kave to move 
 into the next lot in an hour or two And 
 you'll be fortunate if the meat doesn't 
 follow/ All the cortJtages have a kind of 
 screen box nailed up on their shadiest 
 side, and in this butter, meat and other 
 perishable articles of diet are placed, in 
 the open air, covered, to prevent their 
 drying up. 
 
 Everj'thing, or almost everything, was 
 sold in Sierra Madre by weight, and 
 thi** frequently included the purchaser. 
 Travelling vans carry spring scales, such 
 as are prohilbited by Canadian law, and 
 no two of these scales agree. The scale 
 of one of our tradespeople made our 
 grocer's pound ^^-eigh nineteen ounces, 
 and I us?ed to lie awake at night trying 
 to decide whether, if I made trouble, the 
 *roce(r or the other man would alter his 
 scale. But the spring balance was not 
 
 177 
 
A Canuck down South. 
 
 the only scale whicli deceived. Having 
 gone to Sierra Madre for my health, 1 
 naturally was wont to weigh myself 
 r^iilarly. At our groceir's I weighed 
 a humdred and twenty-four pounds. Two 
 dayg later I weighed a hundred and 
 twenty-seven at another grocer's, and 
 went albout praising Sierra Madre for it« 
 curative powers. A week later I was 
 weighed at X's, and then turned the 
 beam at a hundred and thirt3\ I be- 
 gan to fchink tha-t I woidd soon i^uire a 
 derrick or a jack-screw to move myself 
 about. But a day later I took to my 
 bed and sent for the doctor and the un- 
 dertaker. I had beep, weighed at my 
 grooeir's again and had lost six pounds in 
 twenty-four hours. 
 
 178 
 

 DERRINGER DICK, THE BICYCLIST. 
 
 Derringer Dick was a Western man, who 
 
 was always on the shoot, 
 He had twenty nicks in his pistol butt, 
 
 each nick for a gone galoot; 
 He'd a private graveyard all his own, 
 
 was coroner of Lone Trees, 
 And sat in state on the cold defunct, and 
 
 smilingly took the fees. 
 
 But Derringer Dick fell on evil days; a 
 
 tenderfoot crowd swarmed in. 
 And shootin' at sight didn't go no more. 
 
 He sighed fur the might hev been, 
 And he folded his hands, and pined away, 
 
 and longed fur the happy land. 
 Where a feller kin do pretty much ez he 
 
 wants, and folks like a man with sand. 
 
 One day, ez he sat on his lone front stoop 
 
 a-cleanin' his rusty gun. 
 He saw a bicyclist comin' along, a-scorch- 
 
 in' just like fun; 
 
 179 
 
A Canuck Dnirn Sottllt. 
 
 And Derringer Dick his eyes lit up ez they 
 
 hadn't lit fur years, 
 An' he sez "I guess I'll kill some more 
 
 ere I leave this vale of tears." 
 
 Then Derring-er Dick laid his gun away. 
 
 and bought fur himself a bike. 
 He wobbled around in his big corral in 
 
 a way that he didn't like, 
 Fiir the blame thing bucked and balked, 
 
 and threw poor Dick all over the place: 
 But Dick was grit, and he'd mount again, 
 
 with a dogged look on his face. 
 
 Xow. behold at last, this westerner astride 
 
 of his steed of steel. 
 Tt was a solemn and awful sight to see 
 
 him upon the wheel, 
 He didn't wear no bicycle suit, nor put 
 
 on a bit of style, 
 But there wasn't a scorcher in the town 
 
 could stand to his pace a mile. 
 
 His pants was tucked in his cowhide 
 boots, his old red shirt he wore, 
 
 His long grey locks sireanied in the wind 
 and a huge slouch hat upbore. 
 
 ISii 
 
Den'ingei' Dick. 
 
 And ez he wheeled into Bunker street I 
 tell you he looked quite pert, 
 
 But his eye had its old time glare that 
 meant "some feller will be hurt." 
 
 The Editor of the Bugle Horn was the 
 
 first to come his way, 
 And Dick he owed him a little grudge 
 
 ('twas all Dick would ever pay). 
 He caught the editor in the back— Dick's 
 
 gearing was seventy-four— 
 And the editor of the Bugle Horn won't 
 
 go to press no more. 
 
 It tickled the soul of Derringer Dick as 
 
 he heard the jury say, 
 "The editor of the Bugle Horn hadn't 
 
 orter bin in the way." 
 Fur that was the selfsame verdict Dick 
 
 had passed on many a cop 
 Ez stopped a Derringer bullet when the 
 
 other chap got the drop. 
 
 He filed a nick on his sprocket wheel and 
 mounted his bike again, 
 
 And that afternoon another foe was re- 
 moved from this world of pain. 
 
 181 
 
A Canuck Down South. 
 
 So day by day es he scorched along, 
 some citizen would be missed, 
 
 And Richard rose into high repute es a 
 masterly bicyclist. 
 
 Sez Dick to the coroner over their drinks 
 
 when the last inquest was done, 
 " Human natur's forever the same. 
 
 Though you've called in the gun. 
 Fur lording it high and ruling the roost 
 
 and settling on the spot, 
 A bicycle rough is twice ez tough ez the 
 
 chap that hacked and shot. 
 
 The code's the same with another name. 
 
 It's just 'git outer my light, 
 Don't cross my path, I'm a man of wrath, 
 
 I'll do you up on sight.' 
 That's how I felt in the olden time, that's 
 
 how I'll allers feel, 
 But a feller don't hev no need fur a 
 
 gun ez long ez he rides a wheel." 
 

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