Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2007 with funding from Microsoft Corporation http://www.archive.org/details/californiafairyOOstiprich .^ ■r^/\ A, GALiIPOI^NIA PAII^y CaliforHia FaiRy knanhUbmy HKX stocks and bonds, wheat and 'Change, the tariff, and questions of parity of gold and silver, creep away into some innermost cell of our brains, there to rest for the nonce in quiet slumber, reveries of sweet childhood's days freely take the places of these ponderous, busy -day thoughts. OW nimbly then troop forth those strange creatures of fanc}-, the fairies, the nymphs, the sprites, the gnomes, the great bats, the ugly vampires, the fiery serpents! The prowess of strange heroes and wonderful and mysterious transformations thrill and magnetize our senses. There is Jack and the beanstalk; the lillipu- ticin ,pavid^ who slew the giant Ooliath; Tom Thumb, ho was put in a int pot and bid to drum; Aladdin and his wonder- ful lamp; and, l)est of all, Cin- derella and her little glavSs slipper. Oh, what won- ders were accom- plished in fairy- land in those days of child- ish dreaming! OWLY hovels, by the magic wave of some kind fairy's wand, became, in the twinkling" of an eye, glorious pal- aces. Elegant carriages and gayly caparisoned steeds sprang from rusty pumpkin - shells . Good children forgot the miseries of poverty and be- came instantaneously rich, noble and powerful. Comforting improbabilities! And yet how true to life are all these infant fantasies! Even now do we live in an age of fairies. Dost thou, kind reader, believe it not? Touch yonder button, and forthwith appears a sprite to do your every bidding. A fairy taps a key which sounds your words of affection, friendship or business on distant shores. z:- T i WOULD yon f /-\ir>c» r\^ ill on listen to the voice of vSome friend in farthermost part of city or town ? Place to your ear this trumpet, and Nature's fairies will transmit his faint- est whisper. Do you wish to take a morning ride? Press this knob, and lol ij'our carriage waits for 3'OU at the door. Do you feel the chill of winter ? A turn of the key will send thousands ^ "^ '^ of fairies and sprites singing through coils of pipe to warm the air about you . Do you wish to go up stairs or down? h Step into this little room, and the attendant P'i sprite, by a stroke of his hand, wall cause the fairies to raise or lower you from floor to floor. Would 3^ou travel ? Are there not hundreds of fairy coaches to whisk you from town to country and country to town ? Speaking of traveling — have 3'ou not often longed, on the eve of your departure, for some faiiy^, who, appearing before you in all fairyland's resplendent beauty, would grant you, as of old, just "N^ three wishes, to be instantly fulfilled ? ILIlk'^^, i; m: I how hard 'twould be to choose those wishes aright ! Perhaps the first would be a safe and pleasant journey; the vSecond, success in every undertaking ; and the third, last and best of all, would be the wish to take with you on your journey that elegant, many storied hotel, with its marble halls, beautiful chambers, and frescoed walls ; its tapestried floors and rich appointments; its solid comforts and modem conveniences. Have you not often tried to cram all these into your little leather grip, and succeeded only in paclyng: there some crum- pled linen, a toothbrush, a hairbrush and a comb some samples of ore, ditto wheat, a photo- graph, a flask of some- thing brown, a box of pills, and the shriv- eled remains of a cake of hotel soap ? packing th ^^^ REAT^IKR, are yoii blind? Do j^ou not see the beautiful fairy standing there, with \va: ' uplifted, ready to grab! ^ m" last great wish, iinpossib h it may seem to you? Touch noi uie wrong button, my lord ! Turn not the wroilg ke}- ! Press not the wrong knob! Take not the wrong path! Let this kind fairy lead you, and she will guide /' you to that paragon of comfortable excellence, that acme of scientific thought and inven- tion, that perfection of modem travel, Sunset Limited. TEP into the fair\' coach, most noble sir! The smiling host is ,, ready to welcome you ; the genial porters are there to care for your lug- gage; the affable clerk will assign to you elegant apart- ments; the royal r// "^^^^4% %. t. s, it rolls on wheels, it speeds faster and faster, leaving ehind. HE frescoes of the walls have been transformed into polished woods, in grainings which are a perfect song of nature and of art. Golden thrones have faded away, and in their stead 3^011 will find easy chairs, divans, rich upholster- ings, handsome tapes- tries and every con- comitant of modern elegance, refinement and wealth. Noble courtiers keep you coi pany, — not h^meted nor periwigged, nor fur- belowed, as of old, but courtiers nevertheless. Handsome ladies, too, are there, attended by courtlv maids of honor. 4ii^ X chambers furnished with royal couch and private toilet, princely drawing-rooms, I libraries, dining-room whose board is sumptuously laden with tempting feast, crystal baths, splendid shaving par- lors, and all their respective attendants, make your reign complete. Your kind fairy has made for you a palace, a throne, a kingdom. By her gentle aid you have learned how to take our hotel with you when ,'^ou travel. Go, then, and enjoy the fullness thereof ! T T g-lides along the of the beautiful San Fraiicisro Hay it sweeps around curves, it dashes through tunnels, it crosses farms and bowls down pleasant country lanes. The light of the full moon reveals in uncertain outlines the distant undulating hills, while near at hand are verdant meadows in which to-morrow's sun will find contented herds. On and on, through the valley of the San Joaquin, through broad vistas of yellow grain waving in the gentle breeze, and across canals which slake the thirst of pur- ple vineyards and orchards in full fruitage, rushes this i^reat hotel. ]\^^: OW it rounds Tehachapi's " Loop ," now flashes through orange groves, vales of olives, and gardens fresh with morning dew and the sweet perfume of perennial fruits and flowers. It sweeps past houses, towns and cities, bounds o'er desert wastes climbs mineral hills, and glides along lone some plains. It leaps rivers, finds its devious j^ " way through forests, traverses marshes and bayous, and at eventide courses through cotton fields and sugar plan tations filled with negro melody 7, |T last it moves no more. It has reached a resting place beside the great Father of Waters, the Mis- sissippi River. It stands firm and still in the beau- tiful Crescent City, so interesting in romance and in histor>^ And you, sir, go forth into the redolence of magnolias, and into the balmy air of southern skies, refreshed by sweetest slumber, a well-filled larder, rich comfort, elegant ease, and every convenience that fairy genius or modern invention can con- jure for your ministration. You and your hotel, with all its varied and useful appurtenances, have traveled two thousand five hundred miles across the land. And, as you continue your journey to the north, the east, or the south, by land or sea, you become a firm believer in the powers of modem necromancy. Vi^O, too, you sing your loudest praises of the "^ — ^ beneficence of the good fairy and all her attendant retinue, who, by a wave of the wand, brought to you such sweet realization of the won- derful palaces, beautiful gardens, princely domains and rich courts, handsome courtiers and ladies, elegant coaches, comforts and pleasures, portrayed in the charming story of Cinderella and the glass slipper, and exemplified to the utnio.st in that model of marvelous, enchanting, delightful and speedy travel, the great Sunset LIxMited. i » t I