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YALE UNIVERSITY
LIBRARY

THE ROUND TRIP

BY WAY OF PANAMA

THROUGH CALIFORNIA, OREGON, NEVADA, UTAH,
IDAHO, AND COLORADO

NOTES ON railroads, COMMERCE, AGRICULTURE, MINING,
SCENERY, AND PEOPLE

JOHN CODMAN

^^^O^OVOUNG MENS,

NEW YORK
G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS
182 Fifth Avenue
1881.

COPI^ RIGHT,
G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS,
i»79.

MY COMPANION IN THESE JOURNEYS, AND ,IN THE JOURNEY
OF LIFE, THIS MEMENTO OF PLEASANT DAYS IS
AFFECTIONATELY INSCRIBED.

New York April, 1879.

PREFACE

Desiring to be on familiar terms with my readers, I
have adopted the unconstrained style of a personal narra
tive, without any affectation of modesty in avoiding the
use of personal pronouns.
Lest complaint should be made of anachronisms, and
there should be discoveries of ubiquity, the reader is
notified that this book is the result of more than one
year's experience, brought up as nearly as possible to
the conditions of the present day, and combined as con
tinuous. I wish to point out objects of interest not often
"written up." Thus, little is said of large cities, and
absolutely nothing of the Yosemite.
The tourist starts upon the Trans-Continental tour
with a library of illustrated guide-books and maps, some
of which are indispensable. If he goes directly from New
York to San Francisco, and thence directly returns, they
are all that are necessary.
If, however, he has the leisure and inclination to look
at some things not exactly on the Hne of railroads, he may
perhaps profitably make a selection from The .Round
Trip.

CONTENTS,

CHAPTER I.
A Winter Trip to California by the Isthmus Route —
Leaving New York — At Sea — Nearing the Warm'
Regions — Social Lines on Shipboard — San Salvador
— ^A Cultured Young Lady — Aspinwall — The Princess
Columbus Married — A Duel  Page i
CHAPTER II.
The Trip Across the Isthmus of Darien — The Commerce
OF THE Isthmus — Surveys for a Canal — Panama Rail
road Company — The Terminus on the Pacific Side —
Panama — Its Eventful History — Commerce of the.
City — British Enterprise  g,
CHAPTER III.
A Comfortable old Ship — Settling a Feminine Dispute —
" The Pacific Agitator " — Ports and Trade of Cen
tral America — Acapulco — Arrival at San Fran
cisco  it

^vm CONTENTS.
CHAPTER IV.
CALIFORNIA.
,A Fable — A Reminiscence of 1848 — The Comparative
Production of Gold and Silver — The Career of James
C. Flood, one of the Bonanza Kings .... Page 27
CHAPTER V.
Leaving for Southern California — The Pious Agricul
turist — Great and Small Farmers — Irrigation — Ridi
cule OF Fever and Ague — A California Editor's Home
stead  ¦  32
CHAPTER VI.
'The "Corkscrew" and "Loop" — The Autocrat of the
Desert — Below the Level of the Sea — A Crazy Plan
FOR Irrigation — The City of Yuma — The Onward March
OF the Southern Pacific Railroad — Future Prospects
OF Arizona — The Indians and their Chief ... 42
CHAPTER VII.
! Rival towns in the San Bernardino Valley — Newspaper
Enterprise — Paradise of Orange Trees — Intellec
tuality AND Laziness — Mormon and Roman Catholic
Civilizations — The Mission of San Gabriel and its
Good Wine  53
CHAPTER VIII.
Los Angeles — Disappearance of the Greasers — A Ken-
tuckian's Discovery of Contentment — The Founder of
the California Wine Industry — S'J'atistics of Orange
Culture  63

CONTENTS. ix
CHAPTER IX.
Natural Divisions of California — Anaheim — A Thrifty
German Settlement  Page 68
CHAPTER X.
Sanguine " Sanjaigans " — Effects of the Drought — Santa
Monica — A Steamship with a History — San Buenaven
tura — The Ojai Valley — Missionary Enterprise . 74
CHAPTER XL
A Stage Ride up the California Coast — The Coacher's
Yarns — How a Clergyman was Re-Baptized ¦ — The
City with the Perfect Climate — A Small Landowner
and his Trifling Possessions  79
CHAPTER XII.
The UPS and downs of Travel — The Death of the Herds
— A Sand Storm — San Luis Obispo — The Springs of Paso
de Robles — Baths of Water and of Earth — German
Explanation of the Mud Baths — Hotel Life in a
Cottage  84
CHAPTER XIII.
End of the Stage-coach Romance — The Boundary of
Southern California — Mexican Grants — Approach to
Santa Cruz— Its Early History— Its Attractions . 94
CHAPTER XIV.
From Santa Cruz to San Jose— The Garden of Santa
Clara Valley — The Towns of San Jose and Santa

X CONTENTS.
Clara — Another Mission — The Church and the
Grape-Wine and Brandy — The Enterprise of Gen
eral Naglee  Page 102
CHAPTER XV.
Northern California — Mount Shasta in the Distance — •
Railroads — Farming on a Large Scale  iii
CHAPTER XVI.
Review of the Mining and Agricultural Interests of
California — Along the Sacramento — Napa — Calistoga
— The Petrified Forest — The Geysers — San Fran
cisco  irg
CHAPTER XVII.
" The Chinese Problem "  126
CHAPTER XVIII.
Along the Coast to Oregon — Discovery of the Colum
bia River — The Bar — Industries of Oregon — Salmon
Fishery  '...........,.. 135
CHAPTER XIX.
Astoria — Portland — Willamette Valley — Scenery of the
Columbia — The Dalles — Indian Troubles— Oregon's Op
portunity — Departure  i^e
CHAPTER XX.
From California Eastwards — The Mines and Gardens of
Grass Valley — Lake Tahoe, Carson and Virginia City
— The Sinks of the Humboldt — The Great American
Desert — Arrival at Salt Lake City  158

CONTENTS. xi
CHAPTER XXI.
Sunset at Salt Lake — The Mormon Jerusalem — The As
sembly OF the Saints — The Late Brigham Young — The
Close of THE Conference — Society in Utah . . Page 169
CHAPTER XXIL
Out into the Country — The Great Salt Lake — Mormon
AND Gentile Towns — Elections — Ophir Camp — Success
ful Business Men  178
CHAPTER XXIII.
Camp Floyd Ruled by a Bishop and the BIshop Ruled
BY his Wife — William Hickman — Lehi and the Bishop
who Ruled his Wives and his Diocese — The Garden
OF Isaac Goodwin  189
CHAPTER XXIV,
Sorghum — Luzerne — The American Fork Canon . .202
CHAPTER XXV.
Provo — Factory and Co-operative Store — The Two Mor
mon Sects — The Childless Bishop and his More For
tunate Brother  207
CHAPTER XXVI,
The Journey to the South — The Hotel at Payson — Our
Landlady's Choice — Mormon and Gentile Amenities
— Hospitalities of the Bishops — Mount Nebo — En
ergetic Conduct of a Bishop's Wife — San Pete Val
ley — War, the Consequence of Miss Ward's Obstinacy
— A Monogamous Mormon Town — Reflections of Mrs.
Price — The Coal Mines  213

xii CONTENTS.
CHAPTER XXVII.
Towns and Villages in the San Pete Valley — German
Preachings-Providing Tabernacles for Disembodied
Spirits — Brigham Young's Journey — The Mountain
• Meadow Massacre — Life and Character of the Apostle
George A. Smith  Page 223
CHAPTER XXVIII.
Impressions of Travel in Ut'ah upon the Female Mind— The
Storm in Clear Creek Canon — Cove Fort — The Ute
Indians — Angutseeds and Kanosh — On the Way to the
North — Fillmore — Scipio — Lost on the Desert — The
TiNTEC Mines — Return to Salt Lake City. . . . 235
CHAPTER XXIX.
Idaho — Soda Springs — Natural Curiosities — The Utah
AND Northern Railroad — A Jumping Town — The Ban
nock Indians — Policy of the Government .... 254
CHAPTER XXX.
Travels among the Mormons — The Prolific Patriarch —
The Legend of Bear Lake — Brother Cook and his
Family — Vicarious Baptism — A Mormon Court — A Pros
perous Convert — Blacksmith's Fork Canon — Return
to the Line of the Union Pacific  268
CHAPTER XXXI.
The Union Pacific Railroad — The Rocky Mountains —
Easy-going Emigrants — Greeley, on the road to
Denver  282

CONTENTS. xiii
CHAPTER XXXII.
The City of Denver — Sunday — Climate — Railroads — En
thusiastic McAllister — Colorado Springs — Colorado
City — Manitou — " Garden of the Gods " and Can
ons  Page 286
CHAPTER XXXIII.
Ascent of Pike's Peak — The Hermit of the Mountain —
The Signal Station — A Hunting Expedition — On the
Denver and Rio Grande Railroad  297
CHAPTER XXXIV.
Pueblo — ^The Denver and Rio Grande, and the Atchison,
Topeka and Santa Fe Railroads — Canon City — The
Grand Canon of the Arkansas — Denver again — Colo
rado Central Railroad — Idaho Springs — Georgetown —
General Grant's Drive — Return to the Line of the
Union Pacific  . . 307
CHAPTER XXXV.
Cheyenne — Projected Railroad to the Black Hills —
The Great Cattle Range — Life of the Ranchman —
Suggestions to Young Men — Nebraska — Omaha — The
Bridge Across the Missouri — Railroads to Chicago —
The Chicago and North-West — A Dinner in the
Hotel-Car — Contrast of Mining and Agriculture —
Conclusion  320

THE ROUND TRIP.

A Winter Trip to California by the Isthmus Route —
Leaving New York — At Sea — Nearing the Warm
Regions — Social Lines on Shipboard — San Salvador
— A Cultured Young Lady — Aspinwall — The Princess
Columbus Married — A Duel.
There is not a gre'at degree of self-sacrifice in bidding
one's native land adieu when the eold March winds are whistling
around the corners of city blocks, and the i streets are ankle
deep in snow and slush.
Cheerless as were the skies overhead, their cheerlessness did
not pervade our hearts, and there were few among the passen
gers of the " Colon " who were not willing to say good-by to their
friends on the wharf, pitying rather than envying those who
remained behind. The " Colon " is one of the new iron screw
steamships of the Pacific Mail Steamship Company, complete in
all her appointments, and ably commanded by Captain Griffin,
who has had a long experience in the service. Before she had

2 THE ROUND TRIP.
reached the Hook and discharged the pilot there were ominous
signs of a gale — dark masses of clouds heaving up in the north
east, and soon spreading themselves like palls over the heavens.
Then came the rushing of the blast, bringing with it driving
hail and snow, covering the decks. The good ship plunged into
the south-west sea that fought in crested ranks against the ad
vancing waves from the north-east ; the red light on the port
and the green light on the starboard side glared into the gloom,
eyes of red and green shot across our foamy track, stared
at us for an instant as they passed, and we were alone upon the
deep. For us the whole world became concentrated in the
cabins covered by the small area of our decks.
For three days the north-east gale lasted and drove us across
the gloomy waters of the gulf stream down to calm and serene
regions in the balmy air of the tropics.
As many who had been snugly stowed away in their state
rooms came out to breathe the fresh air on deck, we began to
know each other. Heretofore the passengers had thought more
of themselves than of society. Now, some of the ladies who
had only occasionally appeared in very simple attire, the grace
of which was heightened by the looseness of their floating locks,
considered it necessary to " do up their hair " and to pull back
their flowing robes in such a manner as to make the ascent of
the companion-way more difficult. Fashion ' resumed its sway
in our little world. We were introduced over again to some of
those we did not recognize in their disguise, and long before we
arrived, the eighty cabin passengers had divided themselves into
coteries and sets, to the best of their ability, after the fashion of
people in larger communities. It is astonishing how quickly
women take the measure of each other. Men who belong to
them, and who are not able to make such nice distinctions, are

A WINTER TRIP TO CAIIFORNIA. ,
soon made aware that they will transgress by an innocent recog-
pition of " that woman," who has been tabooed upon su.spicion !
Oh, yes ! there is a West End and a Fifth Avenue on board of
a steamer. She has her South End and her Bowery. Big worlds
move and little worlds move, and ants of various degrees crawl
around upon them all.
Many people prefer, as we have done, to make the trip to San
Francisco by steamer and over the isthmus rather than by rail,
especially when for them there is no novelty in the overland road.
In summer the inducements of the route are not so great, but
for those who have the time to spare it cannot be more pleas
antly and healthfully employed at this season.
There is something inexpressibly luxurious in escaping from
the clasp of dreary winter, without even a day of intervening
spring, and falling into the soft arms of summer repose. Over
coats and sealskin jackets drop off as if by magic, and each pas
senger comes out from his chrysalis in a new dress.
It was almost sad to witness the calm delight of some in
valids who had left home with the fond hope that health would
come to them on the wings of the mild zephyrs of the South,
and from the ozone of the sea air. Alas ! how often they are
disappofiited ! But this is not apparent to them at the outset,
and they flatter themselves — and the well meant but feigned
encouragement of friends aids in the deception — that they are
realizing their fond expectations, while to strangers who look on
with quiet sympathy, the hectic flush, the glassy eye and hollow
cough tell the story of inevitable decline and death. The favor
able appearances caused by milder weather are evanescent; and,
as the flower that for a day turns its grateful face to the sun and
dies at night from the heat it has courted, the consumptive
becomes enervated by what at first seems a genial warmth, until

4 THE ROUND TRIP.
sooner than if he had remained at home he falls a victim to .a
a false hope. Too often the physician, fearful that the patient
may die on his hands, thoughtiessly recommends the trial of a
warmer climate, when change of any kind comes too late, whereas,
in the outset, he should have advised a person of delicate lungs
to hasten to the mountains of Colorado or Montana.
On the 2ist day of March, four days from New York, we
passed the island of San Salvador, or Watkins Island, as it is
now called, with disgraceful disregard of the renowned discoverer,
who gave its original name.
Well might Columbus have hailed this low islet on that
eventful morning when it met him, in advance of a new con
tinent, as the "Holy Savior" from the threatened mutiny
of his crew. While cities of the old world have contended
for the honor of his birth, and those of the old world and the
new have in turn served as places of his burial, this island com
memorates the most important event of his life, and is the earli
est landmark of American history. It would be a fitting tribute
to his memory, and, moreover, serve as a guide to passing nav
igators, if the American republics would raise upon its highest
mound a high and enduring monument in his honor.
" Dear me," exclaimed a young lady, as we were ^running
close under its lee, " so that is the island discovered by Co
lumbus ! " "Yes, ma'am," replied a nautical gentleman at her
side, " and that large house on the height is the one first occu
pied by him. He was married to the Indian princess in that
church at the foot of the hill."
"Oh, how lovely — how romantic it must have been ! I am so
glad you told me ! "
" Why, did you never read that in your geography, or history
of America ? "

A WINTER TRIP TO CAIIFORNIA. e
" Geography ? No ! I never had one, and histories are vulgar.
You know they are all written in English. I believe they do
teach them, however, at the primary schools in Boston. I never
heard Emerson or Weiss talk about such things. Oh, don't
you think that Emerson is splendid? How he takes one out of
one's self, and lifts the soul into the blue empyrean of the uni
verse, to revel in the realms of psychological investigation !"
Passing through the channel that separates Cuba from St.
-Domingo we were reminded of one of the most humiliating events
in our national history — the capture of the " Virginius " and
the unpardonable submissiveness of the United States govern
ment. The cheek of every American should blush with shame
and indignation when he remembers how in the autumn of 1874
that little blockade-runner, for she was neither more nor less,
commanded by an American citizen and under the American
flag, unarmed and without the intention of her captain or crew
to participate in active hostilities, was captured outside of the
prescribed distance from the Cuban shore by a Spanish gunboat,
brought into a Cuban port, and her captain and crew shot down
without a trial affording opportunity for defense. After the
deed was done our government remonstrated, we used diplomacy,
months passed on and we obtained possession of a useless old
hulk for future adjudication, and purposely allowed her to sink
off Cape Hatteras to avoid further trouble with " a friendly
power." After a run of three days through the Caribbean Sea, we ap
proached the end of our voyage on the Atlantic side. On
Sunday, the eighth day from New York, land at Navy Bay hove
in sight, and at an early hour in the afternoon we made the port
of Aspinwall. With what infinite delight did the first comers to the tropics

6 THE ROUND TRIP.
land on this shore, skirted with palms and bananas ! Lolling
negroes, chattering monkeys, croaking papagayas, piles of cocoa-
nuts, plantains, oranges and pineapples, thatched shanties, stag
nant ditches, clouds of mosquitos — all greeted us at once and
welcomed our ship's company to the Isthmus of Panama.
Aspinwall is the American, and Colon the Spanish name for
this miserable collection of huts, containing a few hundred in
habitants. The Panama Railroad Company own all the build
ings fit for dwellings and the docks, excepting that of the Pacific
Mail Steamship Company. A church where English service is
held, is the only public edifice.
Near by is a monument — of no especial attractiveness —
erected to Aspinwall, Chauncey and Stephens, the founders of the
Panama Railroad. Not far from it is a bronze statue of Colum
bus, of greater artistic merit, deserving a site where it might be
better seen and appreciated. It was a present from the Em
press Eugenie to this little town, because it bore the name of
the immortal discoverer. For want of a firm foundation —
difficult to find in this miasmatic swamp — it is blocked up with
a few stones upon the morass. Here it serves the convenience
of washerwomen, who hang their clothes upon the arms and
legs of Columbus and those of the Indian princess who, bending
before him, represents the continent on which he lays his hand.
" So that is the princess Columbus married," exclaimed Miss
Culture, of Boston. " What a disgraceful position ! I would
not stoop to any man in that way, even if he had a continent to
settle upon me."
" The dower was in the other direction ; she gave the con
tinent to him," I replied.
" More shame to her, then. She should be represented as
standing thus " — straightening herself to the utmost of her little

A WINTER TRIP TO CALIFORNIA. 7
height — " and he should have been at her feet. Woman did not
understand her true position in those days." Well, she has a
realizing sense of it now 1
On the passage there had arisen a fierce dispute between a
testy ex-Confederate major, of Baltimore, and a usually quiet
young gentleman of San Francisco, regarding the pre-eminence
of their respective cities. This resulted in a challenge on the
part of the military hero, which was promptly accepted by the
civilian, and an appointment made for a meeting, to take place
as soon as practicable after arrival. To do the major justice, he
was no coward. Preparing for a result, possibly fatal to himself,
with a steady hand he drew and signed his will, and gave direc
tions that in such case his body should be embalmed and sent to
his relatives.
A little party left the steamer late in the afternoon, and pro
ceeded to the outskirts of the village, where, in a beautiful spot
under the shade of palms, the ground was selected and measured.
Standing fifteen paces apart, the antagonists discharged theii
pistols simultaneously, without effect. At the second firfe, the
Californian brought his left hand to his forehead, and the red
current was seen to flow from between his fingers as he fell into
the arms of his second.
The major was now beside himself, actuated ' equally by a
feeling of remorse and a regard for personal safety. Like
Richard, he would have given his kingdom for a horse — nay, if
he had possessed a kingdom, he would have given it for a mule
— on which to escape into the wilderness.
But the ship's surgeon, who was on the ground, upon examin
ing the wound, pronounced it only a concussion of the os frontis
and a slight abrasion of the epidermis, suggestive of no serious
consequences ; and as all the requirements of honor had been

8 THE ROUND TRIP
satisfied, everybody returned to the ship in a happy frame of
mind. The doctor placed a patch upon the forehead of the Cali
fornian, which disfigured him somewhat on his appearance at
dinner ; and the major did not discover, until the next day, when
the plaster fell off, that there had been no wound, because there
had been no bullets in the pistols, and no blood had been shed,
because a sponge, saturated with red ink, had been used for the
occasion.

THE TRIP ACROSS THE ISTHMUS OF DARIEN, ETC. 9

CHAPTER II.
The Trip Across the Isthmus of Darien — The, Commerce
OF the Isthmus — Surveys for a Canal — Panama Rail
road Company — The Terminus on the Pacific Side —
Panama — Its Eventful History — Commerce of the
City — British Enterprise.
Notwithstanding the insignificant appearance of Panama,
its commercial importance cannot be overestimated. The Isth
mus of Darien holds two keys in its hands : one unlocking the
commerce of the world on the Pacific side, and the other open
ing it upon the Atlantic. Eight lines of steamships keep their
vessels loading and unloading at the wharves, and millions
of treasure and merchandise are in almost daily transit. On
the week of our arrival 80,000 bags — ^over 10,000,000 pounds
— of coffee were shipped from Aspinwall, and this product is
but a small part of its commerce.
The country about produces little comparatively, yet a
weekly shipment of 600 tons of bananas is not a trifling opera
tion. All the trade is now carried over the Panama Railroad,
whose construction has multiplied it a thousand-fold.
The Panama Railroad and the Pacific Mail Steamship Com
pany havebeen our great commercial missionaries in these latter

10 THE ROflND TRIP.
days, already rivalling in their work the steam and railroad com
munication with the East by way of Suez. Should the road be
succeeded by a canal, the victory would be complete. The sand
might then be allowed to fill up the work of M. Lesseps, as ages
ago it filled it after his predecessor under the Pharaohs, had
accomplished a similar undertaking.
It is now freely admitted that a canal across the isthmus of
Darien is practicable, and the only question is one of expense.
Two hundred million dollars are required ; and the great republic
that could spehd $4,000,000,000 in a civil war, nearly one-half of
which was, in one way or another, stolen by contractors and offi
cials, hesitates about this comparatively paltry sum ! If the work
is ever accomplished, it w'ill be done by British capital, for the
interest of British commerce that, with our concurrence of
indifference, now dominates the globe. How mortifying is our
commercial decadence ! While we quarrel about the personal
claims of candidates for the Presidency and the small politics of
the day, we do nothing for our commerce but fetter it with
new shackles. All the attention we have given to our ever-
changing "tariffs with a view to "protection," has had the effect
of protecting England aJnd Germany in making them the carriers
of the ocean. We argue that man can rise only by being made
free, and that commerce can rise only by having its freedom
taken away. This western continent is ours by the law of nature
and the opportunity of neighborhood, and we reject the boon
which Providence brings to our doors.
England is our great rival, and Germany is becoming a rival
not to be despised. Both these nations encourage their manu
factures, not by protecting mill-owners in order to keep out the ,
goods of foreign nations ; not by protecting ship-builders in order
that other people who can build cheaper ships may steal our

THE TRIP ACROSS THE ISTHMUS OF DARIEN. ETC. n
carrying trade, but they protect their subjects with the surest pro
tection — that of liberty : liberty to buy and sell every thing,
merchandise and ships included, in the most favorable markets
of their own selection.
Still, in spite of the neglect of our government, steamships
and railroads are introducing our manufactures on the west
coast of North and South America, while England is bringing
by far the greater quantity of cheaper goods in cheaper
ships. Our necessity in competition is to diminish the cost
of both. Reduce our tariff so that the operatives of Lowell
can live at the same expense as those of Manchester, and
repeal at once the odious registry laws, so that Americans
need no longer be the only subjects — and I use the word inten
tionally — on earth who cannot own a steamship without paying
one or two Delaware ship-builders whatever they see fit to de
mand for whatever kind of a ship they see fit to supply, and
then we shall be on equal terms with England. This done, if
the canal is constructed, we shall have the commerce and the
carrying trade not only of the west coast of America, but of the
world, in our hands.
The late explorations for a canal across the Isthmus of
Darien have been no improvements upon that made by our
distinguished fellow-citizen, the late William Wheelwright, whose
enterprises contributed so much to the prosperity of the South
American republics.
About the year 1825, Mr. Wheelwright ascended the Chagres
River and took an informal survey of the isthmus, with a view
of making a canal, or rather of demonstrating that the project
was feasible. He selected almost the identical route now oc-
' cupied by the railroad, tracing a line, the greatest elevation of
which was a little over 200 feet. Lloyd Falmark, Gavella,

12 THE ROUND TRIP.
Courtines, and the various exploring expeditions authorized by
the governments of England, France, and the United States, have
succeeded no better, and if ever the project is carried out, it
will doubtless be on the line of the first survey, unless the Nica-
raguan scheme should be adopted.
In the mean time, the Panama Railroad Company is in as
sured possession, and will maintain ^its power for many years to
come. Its profits are very large notwithstanding the enormous
taxation to which it is obliged to submit to meet the exactions
of the government of New Granada.
The greatest difficulty attending all enterprises in these
regions rises from the instability of the administrations. The
company made a bargain with the rulers who happened to be
uppermost at the time, and received a concession, upon the con
dition of paying $250,000 annually; but in various ways, such as
free transportation of troops, munitions, etc., the road is made to
pay the government a sum equal to $1000 per day, a severe sub
traction from its receipts.
It is the custom of the steamship company to forward its pas
sengers and fast freight immediately by railroad to Panama, in
time to meet the connecting steamer^the balance of the cargo
being more leisurely carried over, to be shipped in the succeed
ing one.
Our rate of progress was not rapid, nor did we regret its
slowness. Amidst tropical verdure and jungles surely breathing
miasma in the rainy season, and along the banks of the Chagres,
now almost dry, we wound at the rate of twelve miles an hour
the whole distance being forty-eight miles to the terminus on the
Pacific. A few wretched villages, inhabited by half, quarter and
other fractional breeds of the Indian, negro and Spanish races'
skirted the road. We occasionally stopped to take water for the

THE TRIP ACROSS THE ISTHMUS OF DARIEN, ETC. 13
engine and fruit for ourselves, in which novelty many indulged
freely, and fortunately without inconvenience ; but the practice
is not to be commended.
Mr. Mozly, the superintendent of the road, was on board
the train, and was never weary in answering the questions,
for which he had ready replies, as they had doubtless been
often proposed to him before. Nevertheless, our obligations
were as great as if he had been catechised for the first
time. He is the agent of the Panama Railroad and the Pacific
Mail Steamship Company, these corporations being connected
with each other in some way mysterious to the uninitiated, but
doubtless satisfactory to those most interested.
Totally different is the appearance of the ancient city of Pan
ama from the mushroom town of Aspinwall. It is built of stone
and brick, in distinction from adobe and palm-leaf thatch. Shorn
of its former splendor and wealth, now squalid and poor, it
still presents an appearance of solidity defying the total ex
tinction which a tempest might bring upon the other town in
an hour.The streets are paved — if huge, irregular bowlders may be
styled pavements — the houses are of a thickness intended to
ward off the intense heat, and churches, abundant in all Spanish
towns as in the city of Brooklyn itself, although many of them are
dilapidated and despoiled of their former glory, remain in suf
ficient preservation to make them worthy of nodce.
For us, the building of greatest architectural merit was the
Grand Hotel,- where we were pleasantly located for two days
awaiting the readiness of the " China " tq receive us on board.
The weather was far from oppressive, and the time passed very
agreeably in walks by day about the town and in evening strolls.
upon the Alameda, a long promenade built upon the seawall,,

J 4 THE ROUND TRIP.
against which the waves came tumbling over long reaches of
coral reefs. ,
The present city, dwindled from its former prosperity to a
town of 10,000 inhabitants, is more than 200 years old, and yet
is young compared with its predecessor. Old Panama, vestiges
of which may still be seen overgrown with jungle, now the abode
of serpents and wild beasts, was founded in 1518. It was the
earliest possession of Spain on the shores of the western con
tinent, and at the time of its destruction contained more than
7,000 houses, 2,000 of them built in the style of regal palaces, of
the finest stone and the variegated woods so abundandy produced
in this country. The walls of these sumptuous residences were
adorned with costly paintings ; statuary imported from Italy
graced their courts surrounded by gardens of rare exotics, and
the streets, tastefully laid out, were shaded with palms. It con
tained numerous monasteries and convents, and its churches ex
ceeded in magnificence those of the old world. All this was
produced by an abundance of silver and gold, dug not only from
the earth, but chiefly stolen from the natives reduced to slavery
by their cruel taskmasters.
The day of retribution came. The greedy eyes of the buc
caneers were attracted to Panama, the stories of whose wealth
had reached their ears. As the Indians had been the game
of the Spaniards, so in their turn the conquerors became the
prey of the English freebooters. After a terrible battle, old
Panama fell into the hands of Morgan and his ruthless horde,
on the 27th of January, 1671. It was at once sacked and
destroyed, the plunderers securing an immense booty, although
the Spaniards had fortunately taken the precaution to place the
valuable ornaments of the churches on board a vessel, which
¦eluded the pursuit of the invaders.

THE TRIP ACROSS THE ISTHMUS OF DARIEN, ETC. ic
When Morgan took up his march to return across the isthmus,
his train consisted of 175 mules packed with treasure, and 600
prisoners, men and women. Those who could not afford to pay
the ransom demanded, were transported to Jamaica and sold as
slaves. So totally was the city razed to the ground that the
present and more favorable site, six miles further up the bay, was
chosen for a new location.
This, too, being attacked by the buccaneers from sea and
land, at times suffered severely. Then came the separation from
Spain, involving repeated capture, until at last a nominal inde
pendence was secured, which makes Panama, like all Spanish
republics, the occasional theatre of riot and revolution, and will
chain the wheels of progress so long as the chariot of liberty is
drawn on its uncertain track by ignorance and superstition.
The railroad terminating at Panama, where the water is too
shallow to allow large vessels to approach the wharf, a steamboat
and lighters are required to transport passengers and freight over
a distance of three miles to the roadstead at Flamenco Island.
This, although a source of profit to the iroad of more than
$50,000 annually, is by no means a satisfactory arrangement for
the passengers and owners of merchandise. It is to be hoped
that the company will soon see the advantages of complying
with the terms of their charter, and completing the road to a
more convenient terminus, for as the means of saving no little
time and expense, it will eventually contribute more profit than
the comparatively slight gains from lighterage at present.
The harbor is more secure than that of Aspinwall, where
violent northers frequently oblige stearners to put to sea. In
the smooth waters of Panama such an emergency seldom arises.
Here centres the traffic of the whole west coast of North and
South America, most of it coming from the north in steamers of

1 6 THE ROUND TRIP.
the Pacific Mail Company, and from the south in those of the
British Pacific Steam Navigation Company.
This service of fifty-six well appointed steamers, sending its
semi-monthly ships from England through the straits of Magel
lan, and thence distributing traffic from ports in various connec
tions of its own to the isthmus of Panama, owes its origin to the
same energetic American whose name has been mentioned in
connection with the first survey of the Panama route for a canal.
In 1842, unable to obtain capital at home, Mr. Wheelwright
: formed this company in England, and brought out the first
steamers, the " Peru " and the " Chile," that ever ploughed the
waters of the Pacific.
Here is another instance of British enterprise in grasping
trade which we failed to secure for ourselves when the means
lay in our power. We are a loud mouthed people. We
talk of what we have done in carrying out ,the " Monroe doc
trine "by excluding foreign governments from our continent,
while at the same time we surrender into their hands our com
merce — a greater power than is wielded by the scepters of their
kings. The commerce of the Central American States, Mexico
and South America, has more than doubled within the past three
years. Forty-five thousand tons of sugar were shipped last sea
son from Peru, all for the English market. Being of a high
grade it is virtually prohibited by our tariff.
The coast line of the British Steam Navigation Company
receives a subsidy of ;^i,8oo. Their ships costing one-third less
than ours, this bonus secures to them an absolute monopoly.

A COMFORTABLE OLD SHIP, ETC. ij

CHAPTER III.
A Comfortable old Ship — Settling a Feminine Dispute —
"The Pacific Agitator" — Ports and Trade of Cen
tral America — Acapulco — Arrival at San Francisco.
However ill-adapted to compete with more modern steamers
in profitable business, the China was certainly a luxurious home
for passengers. She possessed every requisite excepting speed,
and fastidious must he have been who could find fault with the
ample accommodations, well spread table, attentive service, and
especially with the courteous captain who supervised all these
comforts. No travellers can so well understand the requisites of patience
and adaptability in a packet commander 'as those who have been
placed in the position themselves. When in the early days of
California gold hunting steamers were smaller and vastly over
crowded with all sorts and conditions of men, these qualities
were of the most intrinsic value, but notwithstanding their best
exercise, frequently of little avail. A ship was often a pande
monium of drunkenness and riot, from her departure until her
arrival. Our captain had passed through all this experience, so
that he was abundantly qualified to superintend the more civilized
company now under his care.
His was a calm philosophy, that settled a dispute between two

l8 THE ROUND TRIP.
elderly ladies who occupied the same stateroom. On a night
when the weather was intensely hot, one of them, and our sympa
thies were certainly with her, desired that the window should
remain open. The other wished to have it closed.
" I must have it open ! " exclaimed the first.
" I will have it shut ! " cried her room mate.
The altercation at length became so violent that it attracted
the attention of the steward, who vainly attempted to quell the
tumult. " I shall die if that window is shut ! " vociferated the occu
pant of the lower berth. " I shall die if it is open ! " screamed
the lady overhead.
" Well, ladies," said the patient fellow, who had no patience
equal to the emergency, " I'll report to Captain Cobb, and see
what he says."-
This he did accordingly, and he returned with the decision,
which, to my mind, equals the judgment of Solomon in the case
of disputed maternity.
"Ladies," Said he, knocking at the door, "the captain says
I'm to open the port, so that the one who is to die with it open
may die as soon as possible, and afterward I'm to shut it, so that
the other will die, and then, ye see, you can't either of you dis
pute any more about it."
With an exceptionally long voyage of twenty-three days still
before us, we cast about in our minds every expedient to make
it pass agreeably. Anticipating a pleasing variety in the frequent
stoppages on the way, having congenial society and a well-
stocked library, our only want seemed to be news from the outer
world. This we resolved to fabricate for ourselves.
We established a newspaper styled the Pacific Agitator. It is
true we had no printing press. The old Athenians had none, and

A COMFORTABLE OLD SHIP, ETC. jg
yet there must have been a public reading room at the Areopa
gus, " for all the Athenians and strangers which were there spent
their time in nothing else but either to tell or to hear some new
thing." How they could discover new things in any other way
than by reading newspapers, we of this generation cannot under
stand. It is certain that their journals were not printed, but
there were industrious scribes at Athens, and such, too, there
were on board the China.
This is the modest editorial of the Agitator: "The Pacific
Agitator is the outgrowth of a feeling of ennui inseparable from
a long voyage at sea. It is a pioneer effort, and will doubtless
disclose many errors more or less serious, but which indulgent
readers will pardon, both because of the brief period between
the conception and execution of the plan, and the inexperience
of those who control its destinies. The Agitator will be issued
from time to time during the trip to San Francisco, and will treat
of current topics, society gossip, light literature, together with
commercial matters of interest to the passengers. The editors
sohcit contributions, with the assurance to those volunteering
their aid, that their effusions will not be treated with the con
temptuous indifference usually bestowed by caustic editors. We
have no waste basket ; we can't afford it at present. Our ex
changes are exceedingly limited, and this journal will proba
bly contain more original matter to the square inch than
can be found in any newspaper on the Pacific slope."
Our telegraphic reports were received by " submarine tubu
lar," and were necessarily imaginative. A considerable space
was devoted to advertisements, the amusement column announc
ing very creditable performances of Ethiopian minstrels and
theatrical entertainments. Various items of a local character,
in which care was taken to avoid personal offense, were pleasing

20 THE ROUND TRIP.
contributions, and the illustrations were by no means of an in
ferior order.
This being the " coffee season," comprising nearly five months
of active trade, it was expected that we should call at several
small ports in the Central American States to receive cargo.
The delay was an unexpected pleasure rather than a troublesome
inconvenience. We must confess that the oldest part of the continent was
the least known and the most new to us. I am not ashamed
to admit that I was ignorant, in common with so many of my
countrymen at the North, of the political status and the re
sources of the countries lying between Mexico and South
America. We have a general impression that the isthmus of
Panama and its neighborhood is peopled by a set of half-
bteeds, whose principal business it is to quarrel with each other
and with themselves — and in this we are, in the main, correct.
But the opportunities of our voyage somewhat enlightened us~
respecting their nationalities and their commercial importance.
Panama is the capital of a State of the same name, forming
part of the confederation of New Grenada, or as it is sometimes
called, the United States of Colombia. These comprise an area
of three hundred and fifty thousand square miles, and contain
two million seven hundred thousand inhabitants. Its chief ex
ports are gold, silver, coffee, cocoa, hides, tobacco, quinine, India
rubber and straw hats, valued at from fifteen to twenty million
dollars annually, and this trade naturally, as it grows, calls for a
corresponding amount of imports from Europe and America in
exchange. Although, by means of the Panama Railroad and the Pacific
Mail steamship line, some of the profits are secured to the United
States, most of them are in English hands, and the carriage is

A COMFORTABLE OLD SHIP, ETC. 21
by British steamers. Trade is nominally free, there being no
import or export duties, but the freedom of trade like the free
dom of the people, is far from being real. The merchant pays
no impost at the custom house, but when the government has
need of money he is politely waited upon and requested to make
a loan, which the government forgets to repay.
This, in addition to the local taxes, makes free trade in
Panama somewhat more expensive and uncertain than our
tariff at home. We know precisely how much we have to
pay for the enrichment of our manufacturing monopolists. The
merchants in these regions can never calculate upon the de
mands that may be made upon them. It makes us somewhat
contented with our own system, when we see others imposed
upon to an infinitely greater degree.
Leaving Panama, we skirt along the coast until, in the 83d
degree of west longitude, we reach the boundary lines of the
Central American republics. There is no confederation here,
each of the five States — Costa Rica, Nicaragua, San Salvador,
Guatemala, and Honduras (the latter being entirely on the At
lantic coast) — governing themselves, and raising revolutions at
their pleasure. In all of them, until lately, there have been va
rious and excessive tariffs, deranging commerce even more by
their inequality than by their enormity. But three years ago Bar
rios, the Dictator of Guatemala, the most powerful and advanced
of all these States, overcame San Salvador and Honduras, his
border neighbors, by force of arms, and by treaty obliged them
both to conform their tariffs to those of Guatemala. Although
the duties amount to somewhat over 50 per cent, and, in some
instances, to 100 per cent ad valorem, established rates render,
trade more secure, and offer better inducements for the mer
chants to remain.

22 THE ROUND TRIP.
It is thought that San Salvador and Honduras will be united
with Guatemala, and that they will eventually bring Nicaragua
and Costa Rica into their confederation. A good government
being.impossible for any of these States, a strong government is
next in order. Self-government appears an impossibility for the
Spanish race.
The condition of affairs might have been very different on the
Isthmus of Darien had success attended the Scottish Expedition
of 1699. While Drake, Morgan, and other buccaneers had been
intent upon invasion for the purpose of plunder, the honest
Scots came to buy the ground from the aborigines, and, settling
among them, endeavored to teach them the religion of Christ
and the arts of peace. They numbered about four thousand in
all, and were well fitted out with provisions and the tools of
husbandry necessary to success. But internal dissensions,' first
incited by fanatics among them, who insisted upon a government
founded on church polity, with the jealousy of the Spaniards,
and the same feeling on the part of their own countrymen con
nected with the East India Company, who ridiculously imagined
their rights interfered with, soon brought the new colony to
grief, and caused the final abandonment of the scheme.
Had every thing gone well, the Anglo-Saxon race, instead of
the Latin, might now have peopled the isthmus, and we should
have been able to solve the problem of the demoralization of
Europeans in the tropics. We should have known if this is at
tributable to the fault of particular races, or to the physical
weakness of mankind in general, when transported to uncon
genial climes.
Our good ship, as intimated, makes no pretensions to speed
She starts upon her course at the rate of eight knots per hour.

A COMFORTABLE OLD SHIP, ETC. 23
having on board 700 tons of coal, 800 tons of cargo, and 80
cabin passengers, 100 steerage passengers, and a crew of 120
men, 100 of whom are Chinese. These men are excellent fire
men, cooks, and waiters, and although not equal to Europeans
in point of seamanship, answer all the requirements of a steam
ship in this respect. They are orderly and generally obedient.
When they are otherwise, it is only necessary to tie them to
gether with their tails, and mutiny is instantly quelled by a
threat of cutting off these hair pennants. Their wages are about
half those that white men demand, and the same ratio holds
good for their food.
Our first stop was at Puntas Arenas, the chief seaport of Costa
Rica, which we reached on the 31st of March, two days after
leaving Panama. It has one of the best harbors on the coast.
As for the town, the enchantment lent by distance was quite
lost when, on landing, we were nearly stifled with the heat, and
saw nothing but a few huts and their wretched inhabitants. Of
this town, and of the others at which we touched, it is sufficient
to say that Aspinwall is a favorable specimen. There are about
six hundred people in the village, a few of whom are employed
in carrying coffee to the wharf and , lightering it to, the ship,
while the others are actively engaged looking on. Here we re
mained two days, and received on board 9,150 bags of coffee;
and proceeded to our next port of Libertad, on the coast of
San Salvador. This is an open roadstead, and although a
strong iron wharf projects far out into the sea, the surf, rolls in
unceasingly, causing the boats to toss and surge in a style that
renders, loading, and even landing of passengers, .difficult, and
at times dangerous. Reseiving here 900 bags, we next called
at San Jose, a port of Guatemala, about the same size as Libertad,
' both smaller in population than Puntas Arenas, but all of com-

24 THE ROUND TRIP.
mercial value as ports of entry to their respective republics.
Here we received 2,500 bags, and sailed on the 5th of April, hav
ing completed all our business with the Central American States.
Fortunately, the Americans have control of the carrying trade of
these more northern republics, although the percentage of mer
chandise imported is in favor of Great Britain.
A Spanish merchant, who took passage with us at San Jose,
says that this is, in great measure, owing to the readiness of
the English to comply with the wishes of buyers by packing
goods, according to their desire, for mule carriage ; whereas ^he
New York or San Francisco merchants tell them to take the
large bales and boxes and pack them to suit themselves. " Our
people," he naively remarked, " do not like so much trouble.
They prefer other people should take it for them."
When we consider that the population of all this region num-
bers three millions, who have so much to give us in return in cof
fee, indigo, and other products — coffee alone amounting to 25,000
tons annually — we surely should endeavor to secure such a
valuable trade. There is no limit to the production of coffee in
the Central American States.
We made no stop at any of the Nicaraguan ports, but kept
on our way to Acapulco, where we arrived on the 9th of April,
for coaling purposes.
. This is a town of modern decadence from ancient commercial
prosperity. Like Panama, it has the remains of architectural
splendor gone to even greater decay. Its port must have been
formed by some volcanic freak of upheaval and explosion into its
present commodious basin. In its safe and land-locked harbor,
a hundred ships may ride quietly at tli^ir moorings in its smooth
waters, while tempests rage and seas lash the shores without.
The Spaniards discovered it at an early date of their con-

A COMFORTABLE OLD SHIP, ETC. 25
quest, and'put it to a practical use. Being only 180 miles south
west from the City of Mexico, which conducted its business with
Spain from Vera Cruz, Acapulco became the depot of Spanish
trade with the Manila colonies. Here were fitted out the galleons
which often became such valuable prizes for the buccaneers,
but more frequently carried their treasures of silver safely to
the Indies, and brought in return silks and spices, to be trans
ported overland to Vera Cruz. When they arrived, the Mexi
can merchants assembled at. great fairs, that were held for com
petition, and business must have been infinitely more active
than at present. Now, a Pacific Mail steamer occasionally calls
to receive her coal, while her passengers do a little shopping for
oranges and bananas.
In the rainy season, the high hills, sloping down to the bay
on all sides, are covered with verdure. In the ravines we could
see cultivated estancias and groves of trees, whose abundant
yield supplied the market with delicious fruit. Having every
thing so liberally bestowed upon them by nature, the people
have no necessity to labor to support existence. Lying upon the
ground or swinging in hammocks, they doze through days and
nights all merged together in their estimate and employment of
time. Too lazy to be vicious, too ignorant to be responsible,
their future cannot be one of punishment or reward. We can
imagine nothing in reserve for them but annihilation.
Leaving Acapulco, we soon steered in a more northerly
direction, coming into a cooler atmosphere, and though gen
erally at a greater distance from the land, higher peaks became
visible, and sometimes the smoke of volcanoes ascending
from their craters. The whole shore assumed a wilder and
more desolate aspect, and for the remaining ten days of the
passage there was little or no verdure to attract the eye. We

26 THE ROUND TRIP.
had left the tropics. When within four hundred miles of our
port, a fierce northwester, culminating in a gale unexpected on
an ocean supposed to be always pacific, materially impeded the
China's progress. At last, however, on the twenty-third day
from Panama, and thirty-fifth from New York, the Golden Gate
was before her, and on the morning of the 21st of April she
anchored in the splendid bay of San Francisco.
In this account of the voyage, I have endeavored to give
some commercial information, which, it is hoped, may prove
of value. All that we need, and all that we ask from our
Government, is the freedom in trade that is accorded to other
nations, so that every American citizen may stand upon equal
terms with their subjects. Our own energy can accomplish the
the rest. This investigation has been the chief piece de resistance
of the narrative — the little eiitremets of the trip, made up of the
episodes of daily life, serve to garnish it, so that the whole may
be digested as a palatable meal. I have desired, withal, to show
what resources may make a passage enjoyable, and can hold a
a company of eighty people in a bond of union strong enough to
overcome the little distinctions of society, born of exclusiveness,
but driven out of existence by mutual forbearance and good will.
We all agreed, and I hope my readers will be of the same mind,
that there is a pleasant variety in coming to San Francisco, via
Panama.

CALIFORNIA. 27

CHAPTER IV.

CALIFORNIA.

A Fable — A Reminiscence of 1848 — The Comparative
Production of Gold and Silver — The Career of James
C. Flood, one of the Bonanza Kings.
The hungry Seyd Ibrahim drew his bow, and his successful
shaft brought down a great bird to his feet. Ravenous for food,
he tore open his prey, and to his astonishment discovered a
sparkling diamond in its maw. " Now, God be praised ! " he
exclaimed, as he threw the bird away, " for we are rich ! "
" Can we eat the diamond ? " asked the practical Zulima. Ibra
him's senses returned to him, and the fortunate pair first made
a hearty meal, and then, recovering their strength, were able
to go to the bazaar with the jewel, which but for the food that
accompanied it would have been of no more value than a
stone. When California came into our possession we craved it for
the advantage it might bring, not only as an extension of our
boundary, but as a field for pasturage and agriculture, and for
its forests of timber. Its mineral wealth did not enter into con
sideration, for it was undiscovered. As Ibrahim opened his

28 THE ROUND TRIP.
bird, so we forthwith began to open the country, and as he dis
covered his jewel, we became crazy over our unexpected gold.
The hoe was abandoned for the pick. The cattle were allowed
to range at their pleasure, the woodman ceased to penetrate
the wilderness, ships were deserted to rot in the bay, and every
Ipody cried " now God be praised, for we are rich ! "
Although not "a fort3'-niner," I have my reminiscences of those
days. I happened to be at Manila in the spring of 1848, having
arrived there by way of the Cape of Good Hope. Just then came
into port the first ship that had succeeded in getting away from
San Francisco — the Rhone. She brought the news of the gold
discoveries, and fired the colony with the same intense desire
that inflamed the Spaniards of the sixteenth century. The fever
extended to China and down the coast to the Straits, where it
met the flow of news rolling in from the East, and thus the whole
world was made to feel the tidal wave.
The captain of the Rhone told us that he was obliged to pay
his sailors two hundred dollars a month to induce them to
leave San Francisco. " I took off my hat then to Jack," said
he. " Meeting an old shellback on the beach, I asked him if
he did not want a voyage." "Where's yer ship?" he asked in
the most independent style. " There she is," I replied, meekly
pointing to the vessel in the roads. " Here, what'll you take
for your old craft ? " asked Jack as he pulled a handful of nug
gets from his pocket, " I'll buy her of you ! "
John A. Sutter was the hero of a revolution in civilization.
The first discoverer of the gold at the " Mill Race " is yet living,
and his fate is an example of those who in adding to the wealth
of nations have impoverished themselves. He has still his un
audited claims before the government for supplies furnished the
army in the early days when by his means the infant settlement

CALIFORNIA. 29
was preserved from Indian depredations. If the matter ever
reaches a Congressional Committee, it is quite possible that it
will be rejected on the same ground with the French claims —
that the claimants are all dead, and if he is not dead, he ought
to be, for he is very old. It is worthy of remark that a member
of Congress is never too old to get his mileage and pay.
It is now only thirty-one years since Sutter's men brought
him a handful of glittering sand found in the mill sluice, and
from that day till the close of 1878, the product of gold and
silver has been one thousand five hundred and eighty nine mil
lions from the Pacific Slope. It is a common mistake to sup
pose that the production is regularly increasing.
From an interesting table of statistics compiled by the editor
of the San Francisco Commercial Herald, it appears that the
greatest yield was in 1853, namely, sixty-eight millions. In
1875 it was the smallest since 1848, namely, seventeen million
seven hundred thousand.
But I believe with Zulima that the flesh of the bird is of more
value than the diamond it had swallowed, and intend to show
how the wealth of California is to be found in its soil rather than
under its mountains and in its gulches.
One day we called upon James C. Flood. Who has not
heard of the raid of Flood & O'Brien on the Bank of Cali
fornia and the tragic death of Ralston consequent upon that
time of excitement ?
I asked Mr. Flood if all this was true.
" All was a lie," he said. " Ralston was a good fellow ; he died,
I don't know how — well, the coroner's jury gave its verdict, but
I tell you this : I did not drive him to it. He owed me a great
deal of money, and only two days before his death he told me
he was in trouble, and asked me not to present a check of his

30 THE ROUND TRIP.
for $200,000 which I held. I kept my word, and when I heard
of the run on the bank, although I knew it would go down, I
did not call for my money. He was my friend. Some news
papers are not my friends, for they lie about me."
Mr. Flood is a representative miner, I mean of the successful
class. The bar-room loafer,' the convict, the suicide represents
an infinitely larger constituency.
This fortunate gentleman is somewhat over fifty years of age,
of robust appearance and pleasing address. He was ready to
answer all our questions, and, moreover, volunteered some inci
dents of his personal history, which I reproduce in brief ; for
people like to hear how a " self-made man " made himself out
of nothing into a golden image of the value of twenty-five mil
lions of dollars.
"I came out here," he said, "in 1849. I was a coachmaker
by trade, and readily adapted myself to the business of a car
penter, at which I earned sixteen dollars a day. But I had the
gold fever like all the rest, and so I struck out for the mines.
Well, we had a rough time that winter. It was as much as we
could do to dig ourselves out of the snow without digging much
gold. But I stuck to it and I made three thousand dollars. I
thought I was rich, and so I went home and took my family out
west, where I bought a farm. I soon found that three thousand
dollars was not a fortune. Accordingly we sold out, packed up
and came here again. I went into business, was successful at
first, then went under owing $4,000. I earned that money and
paid up. From one thing to another I got into the Hale and
Norcross mine, and that gave me my first big start. I've been
in the mining business ever since. I never bought a share of
stock that I did not pay for and take away. I never sold a
share short. Mining is a risk, any way, but it is a risk almost

CALIFORNIA. 31
always the wrong way to people who speculate on margins.
You ask me about the Bonanzas. Well, I believe in them ; but
you need not pin your faith on me. I've a right to do what I
like with my own money. I've got a comfortable home for my
little family, and so I spend what I don't want for marketing
and clothes in Bonanzas. As to these mining boards, I don't
care if the Stock Exchange closes to-morrow and there is never
another share bought or sold. If the mines fail, why then I'll
take the money I've got out of them and set the timber on fire,
and that will be the end. No, don^t go, I'm not busy — I'm
never busy now. I was busy when I had to scull round to get
five dollars. Now I can afford to pay my clerks and talk with
my friends." In this style he ran on for an hour or two, and
then our own business called us away, for we do not possess
twenty-five millions of dollars, and cannot afford to pay clerks
for collecting our money.

32 THE ROUND TRIP.

CHAPTER V.
Leaving fob Southern California — The Pious Agricul
turist — Great and Small Far&ers — Irrigation — Ridi
cule OF Fever and Ague — A Caj[.ifornia Editor's Home
stead. On the 19th May, crossing the ferry to Oakland, we took
a palace car at 4:30 p.m., bound on a trip over the South
ern Pacific Railroad. It may be premised that this road, which
had been gradually extending for the last five years until it had
reached Yuma, in the territory of x\rizona, a distance of seven
hundred and fifteen miles, is the conception and work of Gov
ernor Stanford and his associates, who built the Central Pacific
and various other lines in the state, and whose surplus capital is
always expended in public works of this character. They are
regarded as the monopolists of California by some who consider
themselves oppressed. I do not suppose that such people could
be convinced of their error unless the rails should be taken up,
the grades destroyed, and travel again performed by wagons and
pack mules. Doubtless these few gentlemen have made princely
fortunes by the success of the Central Pacific, which would not
have been built but for their energy and perseverance. They have
developed the resources of Nature, and Nature has rewarded them

LEAVING FOR SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA, ETC. 33
for their outlay. Their present enterprise is of a similar char
acter. They are again planting ties and rails, the seeds of an
other fortune, if the enormous outlay is successful. I do not
believe that their harvest will be a failure, but should it prove
so, will the men who envy their past profits repay them for their
future losses? Not so. Capital takes its risk, and in either
case is entitled to its results.
All days are delightful here. We are in love with the climate
excepting when we have a lover's quarrel, and the weather gives
us a cold shoulder as the northwesters whistle through the
streets of San Francisco. But these little " spats " are soon
over, and the gentle zephyrs woo us again as they did on this
charming afternoon. We were drawn for miles through gardens
and orchards, passing the country-seats of the wealthy and the
more modest dwellings of less pretension in the display of grassy
lawns and smoothly rolled driveways, but whose taste was equally
shown in the ornamental culture of roses and other flowers of
sweet perfume everywhere abounding. When we see the vines
twining about a poor man's house, and shade trees planted by his
line of road, we place a higher estimate on his character than on
that of his neighbor who in his bare walls is mean to himself, to
those around him, and to posterity. Where there were contri
vances for artificial watering everything was green and luxuriant,
but as we emerged into the open country the unusual dryness of
the previous winter showed its impress upon the soil.
" I don't know if Providence does it accidentally or on pur
pose," said one of the inhabitants^ " but the rain is beneficial to
the soil and not hurtful to man ; when it comes it is generally
in the night, and I think that would be a good arrangement
everywhere, as people would get all the advantage without being
; put to inconvenience."

34 THE ROUND TRIP.
At the East the fields assume their most exquisite verdure in
May and June. Here they were putting off their green dress and
clothing themselves like autumn. The grain was fast ripening,
and was nearly ready for the sickle. It is cut when ours is
scarcely out of the ground. It needs no barns or storehouses.
It lies where it grew until it suits the convenience of the farmer
to thresh it and carry it to market. He knows that no rain will
fall, for he can trust Providence, who in summer, as in winter,
arranges every thing for the good of the Californian. " The Lord
did seem to go back on us this year," said the old farmer, " for
we shall have only a small crop ; but he is making up for it,"
added the pious man, " by letting 'em get into a war in Europe,
so that the price of wheat is likely to be doubled. He does all
things well ! "
Gradually our speed was diminished as we ascended the
grade surmounting the '' Coast range," that little extra backbone
running from north to south through this part of the State, and
dividing the last slope to the Pacific from the great valley of San
Joaquin and its southern continuations. In the dry season the
water slope fares better than that inclining to the valleys, for
the mists distilled from the sea lend it their gentle influence in
almost every month of the year. There are the prolific vegeta
ble gardens of the thrifty Italians and Chinese who supply the
daily San Francisco market. They are in a small dine of busi
ness compared with the rancheros of many thousand acres, but
they manage by hard toil to gather in a sure harvest of dollars
in return for their light truck. If the receipts of the " Italian
market" couldbe estimated, they would be found to swell to an
enormous amount, divided among these small farmers, who are
independent of the large landholders.
The land of the interior, where irrigation is a necessity, nat-

LEAVING FOR SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA, ETC. 35
urally falls into the possession of those who are able to improve
it. The farmer of moderate means is obliged either, to take up
his quarter section in a district where, in a dry season, his crop
may be a total loss, or to avail himself at higher prices of land
reclaimed by capitalists. It, is cheaper for him to acquire by the
last method a small property of forty acres than to be the owner
of three times the area free of cost. To say nothing of the
comparatively small productions from land dependent solely
upon rain in ordinary seasons, experience has demonstrated that
they are absolute failures in three years out of ten. Unfor
tunately the year 1877 was one of them. Some large proprietors
and many small landholders on the uplands became bankrupt,
but all farmers of either class whose soil was irrigated profited
by the misfortunes of their neighbors.
We descend rapidly from the Coast Range elevation to the
San Joaquin Valley. This is one of the greatest agricultural
districts of California, a plateau including the Tulare and the
Kern Valleys, geographically appertaining to it, three hundred
miles in length, and an average of thirty-five in width, not com
prising the bench hills mounting on either side to the coast and
Sierra Nevada ranges. If Providence would contrive every
thing to suit Californians it would make every man a millionaire
without labor, and every stock gambler among them a successful
operator. Unfortunately for this people, however, nature has left a little
something for them to do. They have a magnificent climate, an
atmosphere of elastic health, gold and silver mines, and rich soil
capable of producing the utmost that Mother Earth can bestow.
For the gold and silver the Californian has always been willing,
to dig, but he has asked of the soil to yield its increase with the
smallest demand upon him for labor. He has not ploughed the;

36 THE ROUND TRIP.
land, but he has scratched the dirt, carelessly dropped his seed,
expecting an abundant crop, which in this way he sometimes
gets ; and then he is not satisfied, for he is apt to make the field
do its own work afterward as a " volunteer." Eastern farmers
come out here and lecture the Calfornian. They tell him he is
exhausting the ground by repeated sowing of wheat. He says
he knows that, but land is plenty, and when it is exhausted he
will go for more. They tell him to plough deeper for a moister
soil. He says that is all nonsense. It may be necessary in
Massachusetts, but it is not so here. It takes too much time
and labor. In short, he will receive no lesson from any thing
but a good square ruinous drought. That is the lesson he has
had, and he has resolved to profit by it.
Here, now, is this beautiful far-famed San Joaquin Valley,
seven years out of ten nodding its myriads of wheaten heads
in the breeze, ready to fall before his hand, and to be garnered
for the market — now a scorched and desolate plain. Provi
dence did not send down its rain, nor has it made a sufficiency
of streams to gush from the canons on either, side and fertilize the
valley. The Californian must do it himself, and when he finds
he must do a thing he does it with a will.
A variety of plans for irrigation are now contemplated, but
they all look to watering this immense tract of land by taking
supplies from the Kern and Tulare Lakes at the southern end
of the valley, and carrying them down to the north, diffusing
their life-giving influences over the whole surface. That this
will be done within two or three years there can be littie doubt,
and then the annual yield of the State, instead of 700,000 or
800,000 tons, will be something incalculable. Then California
will show its true wealth, and its mining will be scarcely worth
• considering. Out of its population of 750,000, not more than

LEAVING FOR SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA, ETC. 37
150,000 engage in agriculture. There are more people working
in the mines of Nevada than are cultivating the ground of Cali
fornia, and California is larger than all New England, New York,
New Jersey, and Pennsylvania, possessing more arable land, if
reclaimed and irrigated, than all of them combined.
During the night, we passed through the property of Messrs.
Muller and Lux, the most extensive real estate owners in the
valley. Here is a farm seventy-three miles in length by twenty
in width. If a poor man owned one hundred and sixty acres of
it, it would be worth nothing to him, as part of it is swamp land
about Lake Tulare that he could not drain, and part of it a
desert sand, that he could not irrigate. But to these capitalists
it is valuable, because they can -cause the two unproductive parts
to fructify each other by, means of canals. At present, while
engaged in this enterprise, they content themselves with raising
a few thousand acres of alfalfa, and with the pasturage of their
eighty-five thousand head of cattle and forty thousand sheep !
One single straight fence on their property is seventy-three miles
long. Now, this has the appearance of "gobbling up land." But
when the small number of inhabitants and the vast area of terri
tory in the State are considered, and especially when the result
of this speculation is inevitably division after improvement pre
paratory to cultivation, it will be seen that the gobbling is for
the general good. Consulting the early history of New York
and New England, we find that the territory was ceded by the
Crown in patents to a few individuals. Property there hag been
divided and sub-divided, until one hundred acres is considered
a large farm. So in the future it will be here.
We travelled as far as Lathrop, eighty-three miles on the
Central Pacific. At this point the Southern Pacific branches

38 THE ROUND TRIP.
off in a southerly direction, passing Merced fifty-seven miles
further on our way. This is the railroad terminus of the best
route to the Yosemite. Tourists here take the stage for the two
remaining days of that journey. When we took the excursion
five years ago, part of the travel was done on horseback or on
foot, and I imagine that the present more comfortable mode of
locomotion has not added to enjoyment. A litde hardship gives
a zest to pleasure. If any one entertains the intention of making
this trip, he can readily follow us to Merced. Here he may part
from our company until he has made the Yosemite excursion.
He should go into the valley after visiting the big trees at
Mariposa, remain there a week to get some small idea of its in
comparable grandeur and beauty, returning by way of Coulters-
ville. In this way the Yosemite and Southern Californian jour
neys may be combined to the greatest advantage.
At five o'clock on the morning after the departure from San
Francisco, we left the train at Bakersfield, a small town three
hundred miles distant on the road. It was a pueblo of the old
Mexicans, and after the cession of the country to the United
States, was squatted upon by "pikes," a set of poor whites from
Pike County, Missouri, and a few .negroes, whom they brought
with the intention of maintaining the domestic institution. Here
was a rare chance for a miscegenous production of humanity by
the admixture of these immigrants with the " greasers " and the
Indians. The result of the experiment was that the new-born
population possessed about one-fourth part of manhood. I do
not know why the Pikes should have selected this spot, unless
because of its swampy proclivities to fever and ague, their favor
ite disease. Gradually a better immigration from the North
ousted them, drained the marshes, and made it a comparatively
healthy and thriving little town. There is still enough of the

LEAVING FOR SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA, ETC. 39
fever left in August and September to satisfy the few original
settlers, but for those who do not supplement "the shakes"
with bad whiskey, there is little danger now to be apprehended
from malaria. " It never was much anyway," said one of the
Pikes ; " all a feller had to do was to take sixty grains of quinine
when the fit came on, and then take forty grains of calomel to
work that off ; afterward he wanted to get about nine ounces of
iron into his blood to strengthen himself up, and then he was all
right. D  n the shakes ; I ain't afraid of 'em ! "
We drove first to the residence of Mr. Chester, the editor of
the Southern Californian. Mr. Chester resides in a pretty
country house, a mile from the village, where he has a little farm
of seven hundred and fifty acres, all in a high state of culti
vation. In his small garden were ten acres of grapes. He
does not trouble himself to pick them, but sells them on the
vines to the fruit dealers for $1,000 per annum. Then, there is
an orchard of peaches, another of cherries — trees bearing in
three years after planting the pits. Did he expect us to believe
it? Yet it was not more wonderful than many other things.
He did not care for his garden or his orchards, but he thought no
little of his wheat, turning out forty bushels to the acre, and two
crops at that, one of them a volunteer. But his chief delight
was his alfalfa, ten tons to the acre, worth $18 per ton, and five
annual crops ; four hundred acres were in alfalfa. From one
lot of one hundred and twenty acres he realized last year $6,000.
Beside his wheat and alfalfa, he has one hundred and twenty
acres in barley, yielding sixty bushels to the acre. These are
products of a " small farm," and I imagine the profits exceed
those of the Southern Californian, although it is an exceedingly
well-conducted journal, edited by Mr. Chester, with the sole view
of furthering the agricultural interests of the country.

40 THE ROUND TRIP.
We drove on four miles, to one of the ranches of Messrs.
Haggin & Carr, These gentiemen own one hundred and forty
thousand acres in the San Joaquin Valley, thirty thousand of
which they have already irrigated and prepared for cultivation.
On this property they have expended $650,000, digging one
hundred and fifty miles of canals. It is divided into several
ranches, the one we were to visit containing six thousand
acres. Driving two miles from the residence of Mr. Chester,
we entered the domain of the " Bellevue " ranch. Two thou
sand acres were taken in last year. At present, there are.
only four thousand under full cultivation. The force em
ployed consists of one hundred and fifty-five whites and ninety
Chinamen, who receive on an average one dollar per diem and
their food. Three hundred mules and horses are kept at work,
eight thousand head of cattle are on the place, a flock of twenty-
two thousand sheep occupying the uncultivated range. We
drove through alternate lots of wheat, barley, and alfalfa for
three miles before reaching the house. One of the proprietors
received us courteously, and entertained us at luncheon. Al
falfa, too, was his pride and delight. Every living creature on
the ranch, excepting man, feeds on alfalfa. The hogs, as well
as the horses, mules, and cattle, live on it when green, and fatten
on it when dry. Its roots strike more than sixieet into the soil,
and it never requires replanting unless the ground is broken up.
While every year there are five crops of alfalfa, there are two
only of wheat and barley 1 The income of such products is, of
course, very great ; but as yet the expenses are enormous, for
it is the intention to reclaim the whole one hundred and forty
thousand acres, and then the property will be for sale " in small
lots to suit purchasers." In the meantime, the expenses exceed

LEAVING FOR SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA, ETC. 41
one thousand dollars per day; so that the balance can hardly
be in favor of profit.
Pleased and instructed by our visit to the Bellevue ranch,
we returned to dine with Mr. and Mrs. Chester, whose cheerful
entertainment pleasantly closed the day. One little episode pre
ceding dinner diverted us. Hearing two or three reports from a
gun not far from the house, our hostess quietly assured us by
saying that a man was shooting chickens. " When we want tur
keys or chickens for dinner," she said, " we always shoot them,
for there are hundreds of them all over the place — they live on
the alfalfa." We returned at a late hour to the "Arlington
Hotel," to be in readiness for an early start in the morning.
Our sleep was pleasant, for in our dreams we were cradled in a
ten thousand acre lot of alfalfa.

42 THE ROUND TRIP.

CHAPTER VI,
The " Corkscrew " and " Loop "—The Autocrat of the
Desert — Below the Level of the Sea — A Crazy Plan
FOR Irrigation — The City of Yuma — The Onward March
OF THE Southern Pacific Railroad — Future Prospects
OF Arizona — The Indians and their Chief.
We again took the Southern Pacific train, reaching Caliente
just as the rising sun darted his rays through the rugged peaks
of the Sierras, among which we were about to climb a steep
grade of one hundred and sixteen feet to the mile. Skilful
engineers, after a study of three years to ascertain the most
practicable route, at length made this selection. It is here that
a spur of the Sierras, straying from the great chain, sweeps over
to join the coast range, closing upon the valleys stretching frorti
the Sacramento to the South.
On the plains we speak of the line of a railroad. Here it is
appropriately termed the " corkscrew," and beyond it is the
" loop." The " corkscrew " section winds around the sides of
the mountain exactly as its name indicates, affording passing
and recurring views at all points of the compass. The "loop "
is a still more wonderful exhibition of engineering ingenuity.
First, the road runs through a tunnel, then bridges an abyss, and

THE " CORKSCREW" AND "LOOP," ETC. 43
finally crosses over itself, seemingly tying a bow-knot with its
iron straps. By these skilful devices, it is brought to an eleva
tion of three thousand five hundred and forty-nine feet above the
plains. This is the Tehachapd Pass, by which Fremont first
crossed the mountain ridge between northern and southern
California. , The slow progression added to our enjoyment. On reach
ing the summit, the engine was allowed to take its ease, as
pushed by the train without effort, it rapidly slid down the
southern incline. This pass, with the desert beyond, forms
the barrier between the grain-producing plains of the north, and
the fruit-bearing valleys of the south, — for such is the general,
although not universal distinction to be made.
We were now on a desert utterly barren, a sea of sand with
out sufficient nourishment for a predatory grasshopper. One
hundred miles of road is laid over it. The desert has a capital.
States, territories and countries sometimes quarrel about their
capitals, but there was no opposition in the desert district to
Mojave. It has its railroad station, its county court, its church,
its hotel, its business quarter, all in one house, the landlord
being city government, judge, parson and everybody. The
autocrat said that Mojave was already a place of considerable
business as a mining depot, and " there is plenty of room for it
to increase," he added, as he waved his hand around the circle
of the sandy horizon. "Water is handy," he said. "Tain't
more'n twenty miles off, and provisions are getting plenty since
we've got the railroad. Before that we had to haul them a hun
dred miles."
We breakfasted at Mojave, expecting under the circum
stances to be charged an exorbitant price for our meal, which
was a very good one, and were agreeably surprised at the moder-

44 THE ROUND TRIP.
ate charge of seventy-five cents. That hermit of the desert is
actuated by generous impulses, or he is sadly ignorant of his
opportunity. Still journeying over the long reaches of sand, ribbed occa
sionally with reefs of rocks, we came to the tunnel under another
cross range of hills. This excavation is more than a mile in
length, and is shored with timber like a snow-shed. Boring
the mountains for the last time — for we have passed through
many tunnels on the way — we leave them and the Mojave desert
behind, and look down upon the vineyards and orange groves of
the southern valleys, where peeping through its vines and its
orchards, we see the lovely Pueblo de Nuestra Senora de los
Angeles. We will surely abide there a while on our return, but
now let us finish our journey " to the front," as the Californians
call it, to Yuma, in Arizona.
We have yet before us two hundred and forty-five miles on
the Southern Pacific road. From three o'clock in the afternoon
until dark, we run through the valleys of Los Angeles and San
Bernardino until the Gorgonio Pass is reached. This district
thus far is easily watered and naturally productive, but extensive
irrigation is required. That desirable improvement has been
accomplished, a flume bringing water from a distance suf
ficient to supply ten thousand acres. This wooden canal, called
a V from its shape, also brings logs and railroad ties, shooting
them fourteen miles in half an hour. A man said that he had
made the trip in a three foot boat, but he " felt like a hog in a
trough riding to the devil, and did not care to try it again."
The change was sudden from the green grass, the grain and
the semi-tropical fruit trees of the valley. Our pathway was
one of strong contrasts. Cultivation and desolation succeed each
other continually, and we have again the desert before us, " the

THE " CORKSCREW" AND "LOOP;' ETC. 45
Atstri" par excellence, if excellence means excelling all abomina
tions. But first we mount its arid wastes through the pictur
esque Gorgonio Canon. Moonlight lent its weird enchantment
to the shadowy outlines of distant mountains dimly seen beyond
the dark rocks through which the road was cut. The cold winds
reached us from their snowy summits. " Cold is it ? " asked the
brakeman. "Ye'll be begging for half a breath of it before
morning." We realized this when we descended into what might
be called " the valley of the shadow of death " — if there could
be a shadow there. There is no object on this vast area, one
thousand miles long, and from one to two hundred miles wide,
capable of making a shadow. In the deserts of Africa there
are oases with their shady palms and wells of living water ;
here there is nothing but stunted sage brush and straggling
spears of yellow grass. For miles not even these are to be
seen ; nothing, absolutely nothing, but an everlasting waste of
sand, bounded by the horizon or the bases of distant mountains,
whose blue outlines have so often mocked the hopes of weary
travellers doomed to perish for want of the water in their sight.
This is the great American Sahara, which, although mostly
in the limits of California, is called the " Colorado Desert," and
has become familiar to the public through the proposition of Dr.
Wozencraft. That enthusiastic gentleman has long been en
deavoring to persuade Congress to give the company he repre
sents a right to turn the Colorado River into the desert for the
purpose of irrigating a few million acres, and making them
profitable as farming lands. I have not heard a single individ
ual who has crossed this plain characterize this scheme as any
thing but insane, and now that we have seen it, I am fully of
that opinion.

46 THE ROUND TRIP.
The valley was unmistakably at one time a bay of the sea,
and if the experiment would not result in the destruction of the
railroad, it could not be put to a better use than to make it revert.
to the original owner. This could be accomplished easily by
cutting a canal only a few miles from the coast and letting in
the Pacific Ocean, which is higher than the plain. Our track
actually descended before reaching Yuma, to a depth of two hun
dred and fifty-three feet below the sea level, and we have some
marine shells picked up from the sand.
There are stories told of a wreck that was found here not
long ago, to prove that this was once a navigable sea. But such
apocryphal legends are needless. In this case fact can sustain
itself without the aid of fancy. The indications furnished by
the shells and other outward appearances are made still more
, conclusive by the extraordinary depression of the ground, and
by the fact that the water brought up from the low bottoms is salt.
On the higher grade water has not yet been reached. At
one station where we were delayed, men were boring an artesian
well. They had perforated one hundred and eighty-five feet of
sand, as dry at that depth as at the surface.
One glance at Dr. Wozencraft's scheme should be sufficient
to condemn it. The Colorado River, a stream whose importance
has been greatly exaggerated, is not an eighth of a mile wide
where it is crossed at Yuma, and is so shallow that it is only
navigable for stern-wheel boats drawing less than two feet. Still,
it is too valuable for purposes of navigation to be taken out of
its bed. But supposing it turned on to this desert, it would be
lost in almost the first acre of sand. The Mississippi would not
wander far before it would be literally sucked in, as Congress
would be metaphorically, if it should give its sanction to such an
absurdity.

THE "CORKSCREW" AND "LOOP," ETC. 47
The Southern Pacific Railroad, from its point of leaving from
the Central Pacific, has already been extended six hundred and
thirty-two miles, to Yuma. When it is considered that about
one-fourth of the distance is accomplished over an absolutely ir
reclaimable desert, where local traffic is reversed — the trains car
rying tanks of water for distribution at the stations — the question
naturally arises, on what sources does the road depend for its
profits ? An enterprise so vast, undertaken by men of such
known ability, must have had its foundation in sound calcula
tion. We must remember that they have first their individual in
terests at stake. These are located in California and centred
in San Francisco ; consequently, whatever is for the benefit of
the State and its capital redounds to their own pro'fit. It is
clearly not for their advantage that any road from the East
should find its terminus at San Diego, the extreme south of the
State. Perhaps they would not care to have any other commu
nication with the Atlantic coast than that afforded by their own
profitable Central Pacific, but as they are aware that a parallel
road in a more southern latitude is inevitable, they have deter
mined to control its terminus and its traffic — in short, to bring
the trade of the South to San Francisco, and to manage it in
such a way that the new road shall be an advantage rather than
a detriment to the old one.
To accomplish this result it pays to traverse an unproductive
desert. But this is not all. It is safe to predict the success of
the Southern Pacific even if it should not reach any connection
with the East. This is assured by the increasing importance of
Arizona as a mining region. It is the purpose of this railroad
company to secure the whole trade of Arizona for San Fran
cisco before any eastern communication is opened. When that

48 THE ROUND TRIP.
takes place it will join their road, and it will be too late to turn
the stream of traffic from its western course.
These considerations, with others of minor importance, fur
nish a sufficient answer to the question so frequently proposed :
" How can men be such fools as to build a railroad across the
desert ? " I am sure that we never should have thought it worth
our while to visit Yuma by crossing it on mule-back, or by the
still slower route of steamers around Cape St. Lucas, up the Gulf
of California and the Colorado River, the usual way of getting
here in twenty days' time, until this railroad was built. Now the
same end is accomplished, if no stops are made, in thirty-six
hours. What such rapid transit will do for Arizona, what
impetus it will give to trade, what influx of population, what
general prosperity to the territory, are all certainties of the im
mediate future.
We reached the terminus of the line at seven o'clock in the
morning, there being a mile of road yet to be constructed to the
river bank. On this two or three hundred Chinamen were busily
at work, and it was to be finished the next day to the river. I
shall have something more to say about Chinamen by and by,
but will only observe just now that railroads are very strong pro-
Chinese arguments. It would have been impossible to build this
road without their labor.
The Colorado having since been spanned by a bridge, the
road is now being extended along the banks of the Gila. Half
way between Yuma and the Maricopa Wells, in the heart of a
great desert, two. thousand men are busy laying rails at the rate
of two miles per day, pressing on we know not where. The
present objective point is Maricopa Wells, 160 miles east of
Fort Yuma, and 408 miles from Los Angeles. As Maricopa
Wells is a mere watering spot in the great desert of Arizona, we

THE "CORKSCREW" AND "LOOP," ETC. 49
assume that the work is to be pushed further eastward, at first
to Tucson, and then, perhaps, to the Gulf of Mexico, thus
forming another transcontinental railroad.
Two opposition wagons were ready to transport the pas
sengers for the remaining mile. " Git in here ! " yelled our
driver ; " that darned cuss wants to skin you. He charges five
dollars and I'll take you for three, if I do lose money by it." So
we went with this self-sacrificing man and contributed to his
poverty. Fort Yuma has a garrison of fifty or sixty soldiers, undei
command of Colonel Dunn, to whom, as well as to Majoi
Ernest, we were indebted for kind attentions. It is situated on
the California side of the Colorado, which is crossed by ferry to
the city of Yuma.
The city of Yuma — no pen can portray it ; no photography
can reproduce it ; no painting can by coloring represent the
sandy desert of its wide streets, the irregular blocks and
scattered houses, the lazy Mexicans lolling about the grog
shops, and gazing wistfully at their contents ; the glare of the
burning sun ; the total absence of trees, shrubs, grass, or any
green thing to vary the monotony of sand and dust. This is
Yuma, the thriving city, with its wealthy merchants, its newspa
per, its hotels, its court house, and probably its churches — al
though we did not happen to see or hear of them. This
is Yuma, with its two thousand inhabitants, the frontier settle
ment on the west of Arizona, situated at the confluence of the
Gila and the Colorado, one hundred and fifty miles from the sea
by the course of the latter river, and one hundred miles in a di
rect line. By and by, when it increases in wealth and import
ance, as its opportunities indicate that it will, a more refined
' taste will change its present forbidding aspect. A few thousand

50 THE ROUND TRIP.
dollars will pay for abundant irrigation, avenues of trees will su
persede the shadeless streets, elegant houses rise upon the ruins
of wretched abobes, and churches and schools will take the
place of saloons and gambling dens. The poor Indians and the
Mexican " greasers " will be drowned out by the coming wave of
civilization, and in ten years from this time, whoever may read
this description will say that it could not have been true of beauti
ful Yuma. The earliest occupation by the Spaniards of what is now
Arizona, was in 1769, and the first American settlement was
made in 1853. Until the recent discovery of silver no progress
was made, and it was valued only as a military post. The
whole territory now contains about thirty-five thousand whites,
beside the Mexican and Indian population, amounting in round
/ numbers to fifteen thousand more. The mining excitement is
drawing reinforcements so rapidly that estimates are good only
for to-day. Fabulous stories are told of the new bonanzas.
There is a perfect mining furor among these people, who talk
of the Comstock lodes of Nevada as " played-out pockets," and
hold with the utmost sincerity to the faith that Arizona will be
the greatest silver-producing district of the world. There is
abundant proof that this mineral was known to exist here one
hundred years ago, when mines were worked by Spaniards. It
is also shown by exhumations from the mounds that the Aztecs,
and probably races anterior to them, possessed the same knowl
edge and used it for their advantage. However great the amount
of silver they may have produced in those early days, it fades
into insignificance compared with what maybe turnsd out by
modern science and machinery.
Do not be induced by any thing I have said to abandon a
profession or trade that affords a decent subsistence and emi-

THE "CORKSCREW" AND "LOOP," ETC. 51
grate to Arizona to hunt for silver. Mining is a lottery in which
more blanks are drawn than prizes. There are always plenty
of fools, however, who will take tickets in it. Successful or not,
they must all be fed. So the safest and best thing you can do,
if, for health or a living, you wish to pass your days in the
purest atmosphere of the continent, is to take up farming land
in Arizona. This can be found in abundance in many parts of
the territory, although every thing around Yuma is a desert.
Thus you may have the benefit of mining without its attendant
risk. Still there is an excitement in " prospecting " that at
tracts many good and useful citizens to the territory. They like
the pursuit, whether they succeed or not, and they will either
become rich and acquire interests in real estate, or they will lose
all they have, and will not be able to get away. So both classes
will remain, and, their families increasing, Arizona will doubtless
soon be admitted as a State to the Union, and the Indians will
disappear, as their race has always passed away before advanc
ing civilization.
The principal tribes, most of whom are on reservations, are
the Mojaves, the Maricopas, the Apaches, the Navajos and the
Yumas. Of the last there were about fifteen hundred loitering
around the town. They are a quiet, inoffensive set of beings
now, though in times past warlike and ferocious. The men are
tall and finely formed, and the women, when not disfigured by
tattooing, are not remarkably repulsive. They are all fond of
dress, that is, as far as they dress. In distinction from the
habits of civilized life the men are much more vain of their per
sonal appearance than the women. They like to wear gaudy
colored jackets and vests. Both sexes content themselves with
the avoidance of absolute indecency, and all are literally sans
culottes. The men wear long strips of bright calico attached to

52 THE ROUND TRIP.
their belts, trailing behind them to the ground as they march
along, with the feeling of a Broadway beau fresh from the hands
of his tailor.
Visiting their camp, two miles from town, we called upon
Pasqual, the chief of the tribe, a man apparently eighty years
old. He sat upon his haunches, looking stolidly on as one
of his wives was bruising mesquit beans in a rude mortar.
The Yumas live chiefly on this bean, a sort of locust growing
wild and abundant in the river bottoms. They also plant corn,
squashes and melons, which they dry and preserve for winter
use. These articles constitute their diet, excepting an occa
sional rabbit or fish. They do not care to go upon a reservation,
but are quite satisfied with their present mode of life.
When Major Ernest came forward and addressed the chief,
the old man arose from his humiliating posture and assumed at
once his natural dignity of mien. He shook hands in the most
condescending manner, and uttered a few unintelligible words of
welcome. " He has been a great rascal," said the Major, to
his face, " a brave man, too, for he gave us lots of fighting
before he came in and surrendered. Now he is quiet as a kit
ten. We can rely upon his word that he will give us no more
trouble.'' The bright eyes of the old chief gleamed with satis
faction, for he seemed to know that something flattering was
said about him. He grunted approval at the end of the Major's
little speech, and shaking us again cordially by the hand,
intimated that the audience was at an end, and we left him
standing barelegged in front of his hut with an air of self-
possession equal to that of a field-marshal or an emperor.

RIVAL TOWNS. ETC. 53

CHAPTER VII.
Rival" towns in the San Bernardino Valley — Newspaper
Enterprise — Paradise of Orange Trees — Intellec
tuality and Laziness — Mormon and Roman Catholic
Civilizations — The Mission of San Gabriel and its
Good Wine.
Beauty and deformity are alike intensified by contrast. The
green carpets of the Swiss valleys owe their coloring to the
rugged crags and eternal snows of the Alps above them, and
those high surroundings seem more desolate when we turn from
the verdant fields to look upon them than if they stood alone in
the scope of our vision. Perhaps we have thus exaggerated the
desolation of Yuma and the Colorado desert, and now on
returning to the garden of Southern California, it may have
acquired for our eyes new features of loveliness. Still, we have
the best intentions to be honest to Nature in describing her lights
and shadows.
On our return from Arizona we alight at a small railway
station called Col ton. This city has five houses, a stable,
a church and a printing office. Civilization has triumphed!
'. lately over the old custom of forming settlements in this part of;
the country. The prime necessity was once the grog shop —

24 THE ROUND TRIP.
now it is the press. The very first thing to be done in these
days is to establish a local newspaper. Once it marched in to
supply the demands of the people j now the people are expected
to come at the call of the newspaper. To discover the age of
a town we need but to glance at the head of the newspaper
columns. Thus the Colton Semi-Tropic, published every Satur
day by Scipio Craig — for that is the name of the editor — leads
us to infer from its "Vol. i, No. 31," that the town is thirty-
one weeks of age. This may not be exact to a day, but appear
ances indicate that it is a fair ground for estimate. We called
upon Mr. Craig. Having written his leader and made up his
paper and his form with the assistance of a little boy, he
was busy working off his issue of May 26 with a hand
press. It is intensely local, for the map of San Bernardino
county, of which Colton is the capital, is stereotyped over a
large space. There is a corner for politics — and the editor is
politic himself, for he wants settlers, be they Democrats or
Republicans ; there is also a summary of telegraphic news.
But the animus, the strength, the true meaning of the Semi-Tropic
is, " Come hither, ye immigrants 1 This is the most favored
spot in creation."
It is on the line of the Southern Pacific Railroad, which
might, if it had been so disponed, have run through the old town
of San Bernardino, where there are four thousand inhabitants,
or through the newer settlement of Riverside, of greater promise.
But it did neither. Railroads have selfish ways. They study
their own interests as individual men study theirs. Railroads
own land upon their borders, and care more for them than for
the lands of others.
San Bernardino is four miles north and Riverside is eight
miles south of Colton. I asked one of the oldest inhabitants

RIVAL TOWNS, ETC. 55
about these towns. He shook his head ; he " didn't like to say
any thing agin his neighbors, but they have fever and ague
considerable in San Bernardino, and the water ain't fit to drink
at Riverside. Hows'ever, as I said, I don't like to say any
thing agin 'em, some folks , like them kind o' things — I don't ;
that's all."
As this impartial critic left us to form our own opinions we
set out to see for ourselves, on some capital ponies, which car
ried us forty miles over the ground that day with ease. There
is no difficulty in procuring good horses at reasonable prices in
all the towns of Southern California. You may buy them for
twenty-five dollars, or you may hire them for a few shillings.
We first took a survey of Riverside. Crossing the river
Santa Ana by a ford, we followed its banks under the guidance
of Mr. Evans, the president of a land company formed for the
purpose of colonizing the district. Eight miles above the town,
two canals are opened from the river sufficient to irrigate twenty-
five thousand acres of the property. Operations were begun
only six years ago. Within that time — a newspaper, of course,
being the precursor — a town of little gardens has been built in
the centre of the rancho. Four hundred thousand dollars have
been expended on canals and roads. An avenue one hundred
and thirty feet wide and eleven miles long, with triple rows of
eucalyptus and magnolia trees, has been laid out, and the land
on each side, with abundant water privileges, cut up into forty-
acre farms. Ten thousand acres have already been sold.
" I shall make it a paradise ! " exclaimed Mr. Evans, with
justifiable enthusiam.
Truly Adam and Eve never walked under such an avenue as
this will be, and they never saw such orange groves' as grow
on its borders, or apples would not have tempted them. Think

^6 THE ROUND TRIP.
of ten thousand acres planted almost exclusively with orange
trees, and the remaining fifteen thousand to be cultivated in
the same way. Many of the Riverside colonists are " eddi-
cated, intellectooal cusses," as an envious San Bernardino
farmer termed them. Many of them are invalids, who have
a littie property, so that they are not obliged to work with their
own hands ; most of them are a combination of ill-health, in-
tellectuahty, and comfortable circumstances. Orange culture
is eminently adapted to their condition and circumstances.
They can sit on the verandas of their pretty cottages — the
refined essences of abstract existences — inhaling the pure air of
the equal climate, reading novels or abstruse works of philosophy,
according to their mental activity, from day to day, and waiting
from year to year for their oranges to grow. Extremes meet.
This is the sort of farming agreeable alike to literati and
lazzaroni. After a long ride about Riverside and its environs, we re
turned to lunch at Colton, and in the afternoon rode over to
San Bernardino.
There is something romantic about the settlement of this
town — one of the earliest occupied by Americans in the State.
When the Mormons were driven out of Illinois, their astute
leader sent a colony to settle in California, preparatory to a
general exodus of his people. Their reports of the richness of
the soil led him wisely to infer that the country was altogether
too good for his purpose, as the "Gentiles" would soon drive
the "Saints" away again. He accordingly selected the alkaline
deserts of Utah, little .dreaming, prophet though he was, that
the railroad would soon be on his track, and that the roses
grown by his indomitable perseverance on that forbidden soil
would be plucked by Gentile hands. Most of the California

RIVAL TOWNS, ETC. 57
colony were recalled, and obedient to the mandate of their
leader, the reluctant band marched across the Sierras to the
land of promise — such promise as it gave whep compared to
the beauty and abundance they were forced to abandon ! The
Israelites escaped from Egyptian bondage to establish them
selves in a land flowing with milk and honey. These colonists,
after long persecutions, having found a refuge in this paradise
of the earth, voluntarily subjected themselves to new toil and
privation in the barren wastes of Deseret. They left the garden
that nature had planted for them to conquer from nature a bare
subsistence. Now that men speak all manner of evil concern
ing the Mormons, let this instance of self-devotion and religious
faith, fanatical but sincere, be placed to their credit, as it will
assuredly be by the Great Judge of all motives and actions.
A few of the Latter-day Saints were permitted to remain in
California. Two of them, Amasa Lyman and Charles C. Rich,
came here before 1850, and acquired the title of San Bernardino,
with eight square leagues of land and fifteen thousand head of
cattle. Three hundred persons formed a settlement, and laid
out the streets from north to south and from east to west, one
hundred and thirty-two feet wide; brought in irrigated canals,
planted avenues of trees, divided the town into garden lots, and
established every thing on the scale of villages now seen in Utah,
but with far greater beauty, for climate and soil beneficently
aided, instead of opposing, their efforts. The town is' now thirty
years old — a very ancient one for California — and by far the
prettiest place we had yet seen. The trees have grown to a
maturity that sixty years would not have given in the East.
Each street is a boulevard ; and every house, if we except the
few assigned to business purposes, is covered with creepers and
nestled in full-grown orchards and vineyards.

58 THE ROUND TRIP.
We talked with two of the old Mormon settlers. They said
that, with all the beauty around them, and all the comfort and
luxury afforded by the teeming abundance of the soil, some of
their number, sorrowing for their kindred and their religious
associations, like those who wept by the rivers of Babylon, had
gone over. the mountains to Utah; and now, in a population of
four thousand, not more than one hundred and fifty of the saints
were left. Their fellow townsmen speak of them as quiet, inof
fensive people, who have no disposition to make themselves
obnoxious by practices distasteful to the sentiments of the com
munity. They belong to the " Josephite " branch of the church,
in opposition to the Brighamites.
The old Spaniards were accustomed to christen their discov
eries and settlenlents with the names of saints upon whose pro
tection they relied. When they reached this vale of verdant
fields and rosy bowers in the spring of the year 1769, they
rightiy judged that no saint was entitled to the honor of being
its defender, and so, with a combination of piety and gallantry,
when they had founded their town, they christened .it and its
valley " Our Lady of the Angels." If in the wild luxuriance of
nature, with these grand mountains in the background and the
blue Pacific rippling on its shores, the picture seemed to them so
beautiful, how much more worthy of its' name would they have
thought it, could they have seen its gardens adorned by cultiva
tion and its surrounding plains made pastures for herds and
flocks ! Heretical as the present occupants may be, they have
only modified its title for an economy of words. For them the
valley and the town are still Los Angeles — " The Angels."
We are all more familiar with the conquests of Peru and of
Mexico than with the progress made by the invaders to the
North, resulting in the subjugation of the natives of California,

RIVAL TOWNS, ETC. 59
because it was slow and gradual, lacking that dashing effrontery
which Pizarro and Cortez displayed in conquering new worlds at
a blow. By other means Spain gained her foothold on the more
northern coast of America. Por one hundred and fifty years
after the conquest she vainly attempted to extend her dominions
in this direction by military force, and then turned over the en
terprise to religious zeal, commissioning the Franciscan Fathers
to obtain possession of the peninsula of Lower California. They
accomplished this successfully, and seventy-nine years afterward
pushed on to the region now known as Southern California,
where the line is drawn between Mexico and the United States.
In 1769, two small vessels, fitted out by the missionary
friars, reached San Diego, and simultaneously there came by
land a small detachment of men, driving before them two hun
dred head of cattle, and as many horses, sheep, and hogs, to
stock the country they intended to occupy.
These Catholic priests were practical missionaries. Their
doctrine was, that religion meant civilization and its attendant
benefits, as well as the mere adoption of certain articles of faith.
Until they were superseded by military robbers, their influence
over the Indians was, on the whole, for their temporal good,
though they doubtless attached more importance to the salvation
of their souls. They subdued them by a policy for the most
part of kindness, while they conquered new territories for Spain
without shedding blood. Their methods of conversion were
not in all respects justifiable. Their appeals were not always
founded on reason ; sometimes the argumentum ad hominem was
literally a lasso thrown over the head of the victim, by which he
was captured and brought into the mission grounds to be
baptized. The Church has always been accused of reducing men to

l6o THE ROUND TRIP.
slavery of the mind. Here the tyranny was chiefly exercised
over the body, for the Indians had not much mental nature to
overcome. The dazzling ceremonial of worship, the lighted
tapers and fragrant incense, were enough to subdue what litde
intellect they possessed ; their bone and muscle were made
serviceable in building monasteries, cultivating vineyards and
herding cattie. A quasi religion and a quaSi civiHzation thus
gained foothold together in California. They were the shadows
of coming events now realized and enjoyed by us.
Trees of bigotry were planted on the Atlantic and on the
Pacific shores. They were of different stocks, but ¦ they have
both been grafted with scions that have borne a better fruit. As
New England celebrates her anniversary of December 22d in
memory of 1620, so California should make a gala day of the
ist of May in gratitude to her pilgrim fathers of 1769. They
established their first mission where they landed in San Diego,
there beginning their efforts for the conversion of their heathen
neighbors to a civilization which, with these, as with all other
savages, must result in extermination, not attributable to relig
ions. Catholic, or Protestant, but to the advent and colonization
of a superior race.
From San Diego they advanced to the north and to the interi
or, driving their increasing herds before them, corralling Indians,
building monasteries and possessing themselves of the land. Of
the twenty-one mission churches founded by them, most remain
in some state of preservation — that at Santa Barbara being nearly
perfect. Some of them are occupied by a few Franciscan brothers,
who flit about the spacious cloisters like ghostly images of their
predecessors, the great territories surrounding them having long
since been secularized.
The fathers enjoyed their highest prosperity in the early part

RIVAL TOWNS, ETC. 6 1
of this century. It is said that the Mission of San Miguel in
1821 owned nearly one hundred thousand head of cattle, fifty
thousand sheep, and thousands of horses and mules, and the pros
perity of this mission corresponded with the rest. So much
for their stock ; as for the land, they owned it all. Mexican in
dependence, declared the year afterward, was a severe blow to
this ecclesiastical hierarchy. Military adventurers despoiled them
of their wealth, gradually reducing their property and infiuence,
until in 1840 the government took possession of their vast
estates, and five years afterward sold them to the highest bidders.
Hence came the " Mexican grants," which, being allowed when
the country was ceded to the United States, have been sold to
enterprising Yankees, and are now their colossal monopolies.
A few miles from Los Angeles is the famous mission of
San Gabriel. The church, one hundred and six years old, one
*
of the earliest built after the landing of the Franciscans at San
Diego, is in excellent preservation, though time-stained and
mossgrown with age. The mission no longer serves for the con
version of Indians. They have disappeared entirely, or left the
dregs of their blood to wander in a slow current through the
veins of Mexican " greasers." A few of these half-castes still
remain to prostrate themselves before the altar and to remind
the sad Franciscan brothers of their order's sway, when
clouds of natives flocked to the standard of the Cross, and
willing slaves stocked their larders with provisions and their
cellars with wine. Now they look about them 'and behold the
stranger and the heretic gathering the fruits of their labors.
The people of Los Angeles are indebted to those old fathers,
not only for their land, but for its most valuable productions.
They brought with them from Mexico the orange and the vine.
The mission grounds now contain trees one hundred years old,

62 THE ROUND TRIP.
and the mission grape, from which most of the wine of this
district is made, has been the most profitable product of the
soil. From the bottle of its pure juice before us, we drink to
the memory of the Friars of the Order of San Francisco.

LOS ANGELOS, ETC.

63

CHAPTER VIII.
Los Angeles — Disappearance of the Greasers — A Ken-
tuckian's discovery of contentment — The founder op
THE California wine industry — Statistics of orange
culture.The city of Los Angeles is in a condition of renaissance. It
is throwing off its old caterpillar Spanish nature, and coming
out to soar on the gay wings of its new existence. It is al
ready so changed that there are few traces of the Mexican
element which formed its total population thirty years ago.
In a score and a half of years it has grown from a slow
pueblo of adobes, to a thriving city of business streets and costly
dwellings. The old inhabitants who remain are driven into a
cluster of little hovels and vendas with Spanish signs, where
patois Castilian may be heard, brown senoras seen, and the
aroma of garlic scented. The disappearance of the "greasers"
is a more curious study than that of the Indians. They were,
and they are not; nobody has murdered them ; they have died
of no epidemic ; they have not emigrated, and there has been
no impediment to their birth. What has become of them no
one knows, they have only faded out of sight.
Los Angeles is now an American city of eighteen thousand

64 THEROUND 7'RIP.
inhabitants, prosperous and gaining in population and wealth,
having already reached the fourth rank in the State. It is not
strictly a sea-port, although it is connected with the ocean by
two railroads, one extending twenty miles to Wilmington, and
the other reaching Santa Monica by a shorter route. These
make it the favorite headquarters for invalids, who generally find
the air of the city agreeable ; but if they desire a change they
obtain it in an hour at the sea-shore. The temperature is re
markably even for the whole year, mostly averaging between
sixty and seventy degrees Fahrenheit, seldom exceeding the lat
ter. Many persons of delicate constitution, incapacitated for
work in the Eastern States, coming here" merely for their health,
regain it to such a degree that they are able to engage in busi
ness or farming. Of such persons and their families, no incon
siderable part of this population is composed. After remaining
a short time on compulsion, they fix their abodes for the remain
der of their lives from choice. When you ask them if they
never intend to return to their old homes, they invariably reply :
" Yes, I should like to go back — for a visit."
Mr. Bliss, a Kentuckian, told us that he came out prospecting,
not for silver or gold, but for a home. He tried all sorts of
homes for a while, living in cities and on ranches, and was finally
tempted to purchase his present dwelling, about a mile from the
centre of the city. This was a forty-acre lot, having on it an
adobe house which he made exceedingly pretty by adding
another storj'. His grounds were already planted with twenty-
two acres of vines, and one hundred and seventy-five orange
trees in full bearing, besides young orchards and vineyards rap
idly maturing ; and all the rest not occupied as a beautiful flower
garden, was laid down to alfalfa. I would not thus notice the
estate of a private gentleman who so kindly entertained us, with-

LOS ANGELES, ETC. 65
out his permission ; and I mention this instance mainly to illus
trate the comforts of life that may be acquired by those of
moderate means whose health or inclination leads them to
search for the desirable habitations easily attainable here. Mr.
Bliss purchased the place for $18,000, and has expended on his
house, stable and other outfits $7,000 more, so that it cost him
altogether, about $25,000.
Now let us see what this farm or garden — as one may choose
to call it — will yield in an ordinarily productive year, leaving out
of account the incipient orchards, whose profit is in the future,
and supposing the space they occupy to be planted with alfalfa :
32 acres of grapes, as sold on the vines  ,  $2,203-
3 acres, containing 175 orange trees, the oranges selling for I20 a tree. 3,500
2 acres occupied by house, stable and flower garden  
13 acres of alfalfa  ,  1,300

Total  17,000
The labor employed is little, as the oranges and grapes are
sold on the trees and vines. All the weeding, pruning and
mowing can be done by two Chinamen at an expense of seven
hundred dollars a year. It must be remembered that this value
of the crop will be greatly enhanced when the young orange
groves and vineyards come to maturity. It may be said that
every one has not the capital wherewith to purchase an already
productive estate. Very true ; but youth is capital, and young
men can afford to await its development. Land as good as this
can be bought for fifty dollars an acre or less, and in ten years
will be as productive. In the mean time, patient economy in
raising wheat and vegetables and the product of the wonderful
alfalfa will support life, and the sure hope of the future will give
it a xest.
It may be that the business of orange culture will be over-
S

66 THE ROUND TRIP.
done — this is a matter to be considered ; but the grape can
never be overproduced. It never has been since the time that
Noah came forth from the ark to give it his earliest attention.
One of the greatest advantages our country will derive from
California is the increasing manufacture of pure wine, which
introduced among the people will overcome their taste for
poisonous whiskey, and make them as temperate as the peasantry
of Southern France and Italy. Most of the California wine has
heretofore been made from the Mission grape, introduced at
their advent by the Franciscan Friars. Latterly the white Mus
cat has received more favor.
The name of the man who first showed the capabilities of
California as a wine-producing State, and whose childten have
seen his efforts crowned with success, was Haraszthy, a Hun
garian refugee, who came here not many years ago. I remem
ber hearing him in New York speak enthusiastically of his plans
for California, and I remember how, in common with others, I
regarded his schemes as wild and visionary. But he persevered
until he gained the confidence of the Legislature of California,
who sent him back to Europe to procure the choicest vines of all
its wine-producing countries. How he succeeded on his mission
the hillsides and valleys of the State from Sacramento to San
Diego attest. Millions of vines every year entwine their wreaths
to crown his memory, and to keep it green and fruitful like
themselves. We drove through the " Mission fruit belt " eight miles from
the city. After reaching it the road for miles was a perpetual
boulevard of orange trees — sometimes a forest of them — or of
lemons, limes, walnuts, almonds and olives. Where they were
not, the fields for hundreds of acres on each side were covered
with clustering vines just forming their blossoms into grapes

>. OS ANGELES, E TC Oy
The most extensive orchards and vineyards were those of
Messrs. Rose, Titus, Kewen arid Baldwin, whose acres are to
.-be counted by thousands. Beside these, the small proprietors
possess their hundreds and the cottagers their tens. All the
trees and vines are not yet fully grown, but an idea may be
formed of their present productiveness when it is remembered
that last year Southern California sent to market two million
seven hundred thousand oranges, three hundred and fifty thou
sand lemons, and one hundred and twenty-eight thousand limes,
most of them coming from Los Angeles and its immediate
neighborhood. Of the grapes I have no statistics, as most of
them are pressed into wine on the spot. The culture of oranges
is attracting the greatest attention.
The Southern Californian has " orange on the brain." He
dreams of oranges at night, and they are his realities by day.
Will the thing be overdone ? Let us see. There is one nursery
containing five hundred thousand slips destined to be trees ;
there are many more perhaps not so large. A tree reaches per
fection in fifteen years. In fifteen years, if one hundred thou
sand acres are planted — and that is an exceedingly moderate
estimate — with sixty-four trees to the acre, there will be six
million four hundred thousand trees. Each tree averaging one
thousand oranges, there will be six thousand four hundred
million oranges. We will suppose that in fifteen years from
this time the population of the United States shall reach sixty
millions, and that these people are all able to buy oranges and
cannot get them from any source but California. There will be
ione hundred and six oranges and two-thirds of an orange for.
icach man, woman and child in the country.

68 THE ROUND TRIP.

CHAPTER IX.
Natural Divisions of California — Anaheim — A Thrifty
German Settlement.
California is cosmopolitan in its inhabitants and universal
in its productions. As its people come from every part of the
world there is too great a variety for sharp divisions in religion
or social life. Their quarrels would be many-sided, so they
have wisely concluded not to occupy their time in fighting, but
to settle down into an olla podrida of good-fellowship. The
plants and cereals get on in the same amicable manner — the
orange trees forming avenues through the wheat-fields, and the
vine growing lovingly by the side of shocks of Indian corm
Climate, however, has drawn a line through the State. It does
not disturb the friendly relations of mankind and of nature, but
it gives a greater preponderance of different classes to different
latitudes. Thus Northern California is for the most part settled
by northern men, robust and enterprising farmers and miners.
They have taken possession of the lands best suited to their
character — lands where corn and wheat best thrive, and rocky
hills where gold abounds. On the contrary. Southern California
is more often the home of the less active southerners, who hail
from the lower Middle and Gulf States, or from France and Italy.

NATURAL DIVISIONS OF CALIFORNIA, ETC. 69
They become ranchmen or fruit-growers, their indolent habits
leading them to prefer the care of herds and the culture of the
grape and semi-tropical fruits to the harder toil of the husband
man and the gold-hunter. Here the atmosphere and soil kindly
respond to their more modest requirements, and yield a sufficient
reward for lighter labor.
It is true that northern and southern men, as well as wheat
and vines, gold and orange trees, are to be found everywhere,
but latitude draws a general line between them, notwithstanding
their universal harmony. It seemed to us that there was not
the same haste to be rich among the people of Los Angeles that
we found in San Francisco. We saw no excited crowds turning
the street corners into stock exchanges ; there was little talk
of Consolidated Virginia, California and Sierra Nevada ; but
people were mildly excited about cattle and sheep, vines and
orange trees. There must be something fascinating in having
beautiful things grow up around one's home, promising such
splendid results for so small an outiay. There is Mr. Wolfskill,
in the outskirts of the town, whose father planted an orchard
and vineyard now producing annually thirty thousand dollars for
his son, who has merely to look on from year to year as the
golden treasures fall into his lap, and the wine flows out in a
rich stream.
Not far from the city we found the " Indiana Colony," so
named, perhaps, from the fact that the State of Indiana is the
one least represented. Here are several thousand acres laid
out as orange plantations, and two or three dozen cottages
awaiting the shade trees growing up to beautify them. Some of
the residents expressed their doubts of rapidly acquiring a
fortune, but all agreed that the neighborhood was well adapted
to persons suffering from bronchial or pulmonary ailments.

-0 THE ROUND TRIP.
The land in these valleys is watered chiefly by the Los Angeles
and Santa Ana rivers, two queer little streams that play " hide
and seek " from their sources until they are lost in the Pacific.
It is supposed that they are continuations of the Humboldt and
other waters, which disappear far beyond the Sierras, and after
undermining them, gush forth in salient fountains on thewestern
slope. Thence they course down the plains, sometimes on the
surface, then sinking again but easily followed in their tracks,
and with a little digging brought to light. The Santa Ana
serves the purpose of abundant irrigation at Riverside, as we
have already seen, and then comes forth to be likewise employed
at Anaheim. This is an exceedingly pretty town of two thou
sand five hundred inhabitants, and has a history as romantic as
fiction. Twenty-one years ago some Germans who had drifted to San
Francisco in search of gold became dissatisfied with their
adventure, and, longing for the vineyards of the Rhine, would
gladly have returned to their old homes. While they were con
sidering this step it occurred to some of them that, as they could
not conveniently get back to Germany, they might in a manner
bring Germany to California. They had heard of the adaptation
of land in the South to the culture of the grape, and of its suc
cess in the hands of the old Franciscan monks. Accordingly,
with a spirit of enterprise which was creditable to their new
idea, and with a concentration of capital and labor attesting
their mutual confidence, they dispatched an agent to Los Angeles
to survey and purchase for them a tract of land. This agent,
Mr. Hansen, was a practical engineer, who is still living to
enjoy the satisfaction of witnessing the happiness to which
he so largely contributed. Armed with full authority and a
fund subscribed by fifty of his countrymen, he came to the

NATURAL DIVISIONS OF CALIFORNIA, ETC. 71
desert plain now occupied by Anaheim, took up the apparently
valueless land at small cost, dug a canal seven miles long from
the Santa Ana, and divided the area of eleven hundred and
sixty-six acres into fifty private lots of twenty acres each, reserv
ing the rest for schools and other public buildings. Before any
distribution was made he turned irrigating canals on every lot,
set out rows of willows or Cottonwood trees around them, and
planted eight acres of each with vines. When three years had
elapsed, and not before, the purchasers were called to take
possession. The distribution was made by lot, according to value — some
paying more and some less, all in just proportion. At the end
of three years every stockholder had paid on an average twelve
hundred dollars, including assessments, and when the property
was divided there was a surplus to each of one hundred and
twenty dollars, and they had their land nearly half planted with
thrifty vines and all irrigated and fenced. There was nothing
for them to do but to go to work, and this they did energetically,
in brotherly co-operation. Many of them are still on the spot,
having raised their families around them, built school-houses and
churches, a theatre, dance house and Weingarten, and now they
are the happiest people in one of the loveliest towns we ever
beheld. The history of Anaheim ig not unlike that of San Bernardino,
both having been started by a bond of fellowship productive of
good results. Each of these villages, so tastefully laid out by
their founders, so well cultivated and improved, blooms like a
little Eden of happiness and repose. As we walked through the
shaded streets of Anaheim, passing the cottages adorned by
trailing vines and flowers, and in the evening caught the chorus
of German songs, we seemed to be carried back to the Father-

72 THE ROUND TRIP.
land, where we had often witnessed similar scenes. But how
greatly was the Fatherland improved upon by the absence of .
poverty and the presenpe of comforts in this new home on the
banks of the Ana, so happily named the Ana Heim !
Such agreeable surroundings could not fail to attract others
to the town and its environs, where nearly three thousand peo
ple are now domesticated. The German purchase formed only
a small part of the extensive " Steam's Ranches," originally
comprising one hundred and forty thousand acres, of which
sixty-five thousand have been already sold and tenanted.
While at Los Angeles I received the following note from the
agent who has this extensive property in charge :
" Dear Sir : As I understand that you are travelling through Southern
California, and, of course, desire to see the best, as you have already seen
much of the worst part of it, I invite you to visit Anaheim ; and if you will
give me time I will take great pleasure in showing you the surrounding coun
try, which, in this dry season, presents a marked contrast to what you have
seen during your journey, excepting where the land was irrigated. We have
greater advantages for irrigation than any other part of California, and we
have, in addition, thousands of acres of land always moist and covered with
perpetual verdure, pastures that require no irrigation and never fail. I wish
to show you that, instead of the dry, hot country that we are supposed to
have, you will find a fertile soil with an ,abundance of water, a mild, genial,
temperate climate never either hot or cold, and a remarkable growth of vege
tation, such as is seen nowhere else. Yours truly, " Wm. R. Olden."
It affords us great pleasure to bear witness that Mr. Olden
has not by any means exaggerated the advantages of this region ;
moreover, he gave us the opportunity of much enjoyment and an
experience of the most agreeable hospitality.
Anaheim lies twenty-seven miles in a south-easterly direc
tion from Los Angeles, and is only thirteen miles from the sea-
coast. Its climate is somewhat cooler than that of its neigh
bor in the summer, as the sea breeze always prevails in the af-

NATURAL DIVISIONS OF CALIFORNIA, ETC. 73
ternoon. Satisfactory as this condition is to most persons, those
having weak lungs should give the preference to the interior, un
less they are willing to risk an occasional cold as an offset to a
constant tonic. The best advice to invalids is not to settle down
anywhere. They are often inclined to do so, and they should
always have a policeman after them ordering them to " move
on."

74 THE ROUND TRIP.

CHAPTER X.
Sanguine " Sanjaigans " — Effects of the Drought — Santa
Monica — A Steamship with a History — San Buenaven
tura — The Ojai Valley — Missionary Enterprise.
Had time permitted, we might advantageously have extended
' our tour beyond Anaheim one hundred and' ten miles to San
Diego, the last city of Southern California on the Pacific coast ;
No journal is absolutely complete that does not comprise a ref
erence to this point, not only connected With the earliest history
of the State, but one that purposes to be a rival of San Francisco
so soon as railroad communication from the East is perfected.
" That time is fast coming," said a visionary " Sanjaigan."
" We have the finest harbor on the coast." (By the by I have
heard that remark at every open roadstead between San Pedro
and San Francisco.) " We shall draw all the travel from the
East on a road not blocked with snow, and we shall of course
have all the trade with China by way of the Sandwich Islands.
In ten )'ears, sir, San Francisco will be nowhere." All the San
Diego people whom we met looked upon Tom Scott and Jay
Gould as their good angels. Scott would be sure to bring them
a road from Texas, and Gould would continue the " Utah South
ern " through the Gorgonio Pass to their town, thus connecting

SAlfGUINE "SANJAIGANS," ETC. 75
New York, the present greatest city on the Atlantic, with San
Diego, the future greatest city on the Pacific.
Before turning our faces to the North it may not be amiss to
refer once, more to the chief agricultural resources of Southern
California, compressing the trustworthy information obtained
into the smallest possible space. I have already described the
vineyards and orange groves, but those are by no means all
that the farmer depends upon. Indeed they are yet in their
incipient stages.
The old Mexicans relied for subsistence almost entirely upon
their flocks and herds, and these are still the most productive
sources of revenue to the rancheros. The unusually dry season
had made sad havoc among the cattle and sheep. The same
cause operated disastrously on the corn, barley and wheat of the
uplands. Of these nine-tenths were lost. The oranges, limes,
figs, lemons, olives, almonds, walnuts and grapes, being mostly
cultivated on irrigated land were in their usual abundance, and
the cereals grown on similar ground were more profitable because
of the general famine. The conclusion is that no man who is
not willing to take his chances in a lottery should invest in cat
tle or sheep, or in land that cannot be irrigated as occasion
requires. Sixteen miles from Los Angeles is the charming watering-
place of Santa Monica. As the village forms part of a large
ranche, the proprietors, of whom Senator Jones of Nevada is
chief, have laid it out with a view to make it attractive, and thus
to benefit the rest of their property. Is has been called the
" Long Branch of California," and is far superior to its name
sake in every natural resource. The town, consisting at present
of a large comfortable hotel and its adjacent saloons, billiard
rooms and stables, beside a few private cottages, stands on a

76 THE ROUND TRIP.
high bluff in the bight of a bay lined from point to point by a
hard, wide sand beach. The breakers seldom dash and roar as
they do on the. Long Branch of the Atiantic, but the milder Pa
cific sends them in to curl in long festoons of green water, and
to beat their time of softer music on the shore. Along the bluff
for two miles there extends a straight race course, for running
horses, on which not unfrequentiy may be witnessed such skilful
horsemanship in chasing and lassoing ^s would astonish our
eastern park equestrians. The temperature of Santa Monica is
very equable, and the daily sea breeze renders it a most agreea
ble spot. The company's steamers touch here three times a
week in their trips from San Francisco to San Diego, and on
their return.
We left Santa Monica at 6 o'clock of the afternoon on the
old steamer Senator, a ship that had been recently rebuilt and
put in excellent condition. This httie craft of one thousand
tons has a history. She has probably earned more money than
any vessel ever known. It was a daring but successful adven
ture to send her from New York through the Straits of Magellan
in 1848. When she reached San Francisco thousands of
men were there, and hundreds daily arriving, who had no means
of ascending the Sacramento River on their way to the placer
mines. The Senator, the first steamer that had ever floated on
those waters, was immediately placed upon the route. Her
owners were able to fix the rates of passage and freight at
any sum they pleased. Day after day and month after month
for the first year this bonanza boat gathered in not -unfrequentiy
fifty thousand dollars for the trip of a few hours' time. This
monopoly could not last forever ; one rival after another ap
peared on the Sacramento to claim a share of the spoils, and
finally the railroad settled their pretensions by taking the trade

SANGUINE "SANJAIGANS," ETC. -j-j
for itself. The race-horse who in his youth has won the stakes,
in his age draws the wagon ; so the Senator took her place in
the Coast Line, with newer but not better ships than her
staunch old self. The ancient " forty-niners " patronize her for
association's sake. " Yes, sir," said one of them whom we met
in her cabin, " this blessed old barkey carried me on my first
trip to the mines. She has earned money enough in gold to
sink her to her guards, God bless her ! " A Californian never
loses his respect for any person or any thing that has " made
money." After a run of six hours, we left the steamer at Buenaventura,
preferring, for the sake of seeing the country, to take the stage
for the remainder of the route. San Buenaventura richly de
serves its whole name. Its former owners found time to pro
nounce it in full, but the present proprietors, whose time is
money, have dropped the San altogether, and in common speech
cutoff half the remainder; with them it is Ventura. By and
by it will be Tura, and that will do better for men in too great
a hurry to adopt the present pronunciation.
Call it what they please, it is a lovely little town. Before it
rolls the broad ocean ; behind it is the Coast Range, through
which runs the lovely Valley of the Ojai, on whose slopes are
the old Spanish ranches, now divided into smaller farms, where
grain and fruit are raised in the greatest abundance. For tho
tourist and the seeker of health, the Ojai has great attractions.
It is far enough from the sea to escape its rough winds, and
near enough for its air to be tempered by them as they pass
over the intervening country. For the agriculturist no better soil
can be found. The recent discoveries of petroleum in this
neighborhood have given a new importance to Buenaventura,
and brought it into notice as a commercial port.

78 THE ROUND TRIP.
Those glorious old pioneer fanatics, the Franciscan monks,
who had already settied San Diego and Los Angeles, sailed
along the coast, and landed here in 1782, founding the mission
now standing in good preservation. They at once began their
double work of converting the natives and cultivating the soil,
and soon acquired a controlling influence over the Indians.
Twenty years afterward the convent records classify the abo
rigines — some as " gentiles, wild Indians," who refuse to be
domesticated ; others, " converted Indians, good Indians, In
dians fit to die." Of such who were living in the village about
the mission, there were then nine hundred and thirty-eight.
The success attending farming was equal to that of conver
sion. In 1825, the mission owned more than seventy thousand
head of cattle, horses, and sheep, beside orchards, vineyards)
and church property, and one hundred and fifty thousand dol
lars in cash. Now, that is making missionary enterprise a
profitable undertaking in the hands of good managers. Herein
those old Catholic padres have certainly shown more financial
wisdom than any of the Protestant societies have evinced in
their operations which call for constant outlay. Doubtless the
secret of their*conversions might be found in the greater adapt-
abihty of their forms and ceremonies to the character of the
Indians ; but their worldly wisdom was acquired by a more
thorough education and a closer study of nature at large, as well
as of human nature, than is now required for the outfit of a
missionary to the heathen.

A STAGE RIDE UP THE CALIFORNIA COAST, ETC.

79

CHAPTER XI.
A Stage Ride up the California Coast— The Coachman's
Yarns — How a Clergyman was Re-Baptized -— The
City with the Perfect Climate — A Small Landowner
and his Trifling Possessions.
Our thanks to you, Messrs. Flint, Bixby & Co ! We regard
you as the representatives of a method of locomotion fast be
coming obsolete, but kept alive by you for the benefit of those
who travel to see all that can be seen. Here the old stage
coach still lives. No iron horse snorts defiance to its prancing
leaders, or runs through cuts and holes in the mountains to shut
the light of day and the wild magnificence of nature from our
sight. Long may it be before his track is laid over these vast
solitudes of sierras and plains! It is not a wi.sh agreeable to
speculators in town lots and real estate. We speak only for
ourselves and for those who may follow in our wake.
At Newhall, a point on the Southern Pacific Railroad where
it crosses the Mojave Desert, this stage line begins and runs in
a north-west direction fifty miles to Buenaventura. Thence it
continues along the sea-shore thirty miles to Santa Barbara, and
thence two hundred and twenty-two miles further to Soledad.
We took the coach at Buenaventura. Nearly the whole distance

8o THE ROUND TRIP.
to Santa Barbara was accomplished on the beach, the tide being
fortunately at low ebb. The politeness of our fellow-passengers
gave us seats upon the box with the driver, whose ceaseless
yarns of border life divided our attention with the ceaseless roar
of the breakers. He, related, with great satisfaction, an exploit
of himself and six comrades in coralling eighty-five Indians who
had committed some depredations on a settlement. The red
skins were surprised on a small island, and, as they attempted
to leave, were shot from the shore of the lake, falling one by
one until none were left alive. This happened twenty years ago,
about the time of the Mountain Meadow Massacre. We have
all heard of that, but " who had heard this story before ? " I
asked him. " Like enough, nobody out East," he replied. "Per
haps they never heard of our killing about as many rattiesnakes
one morning, either ? "
It was a lovely day as we drove over the smooth surface of
the beach, fanned by the light breeze, and inhaling the pure air
of the sea. " Sometimes it isn't this way, though," said the
driver ; " I was coming along here Once at high water, when it
was blowing fresh. At such times I generally wait for the tide
to go down, but there was a parson inside, and he was in a big
hurry. He wanted me to drive on. Now that suited me, for I
hate parsons ; so I let the cattie go, and, just as I expected, a
big sea come in and went clean through the coach, landing a
pile of kelp on top. You should have seen that minister when
we got by the point ! I don't know what denomination he
started in on, but he wasn't a Free-Will Baptist when he got
out." Long before we reached Santa Barbara, the town looked
down upon us from the north cape of the bay, where it is spread
out on the southern slope of the hills, completely sheltered from

A STAGE RIDE UP THE CALIFORNIA COAST, ETC. 8 1
the cold winds of the coast. Probably more letters are written
to the Eastern press from Santa Barbara than from all the cities
and towns of California combined. It has come to be regarded
as the chief health resort of the State, and I am not sure that
it does not merit some of the praise that has been passed
upon it. As to its climate, its advocates go too far in claiming
for it perfection. We have never yet found a perfect climate
suited to all conditions of health and disease, and I do not be
lieve that such an atmosphere exists below the level of Heaven.
In many respects San Bernardino, Los Angeles and Anaheim
are superior to Santa Barbara, Santa Monica and Buenaven
tura. The former are at a distance, greater or smaller, from
the sea coast ; all far enough not to be affected by its rough
winds. As to the latter, for those who can stand the sea air,
there is probably little choice to be made, if climate alone is
considered. But Santa Barbara being voted the home of con
sumptives, every thing has been done to make it home-like
and attractive. The hotels are all comfortable, and some of
them luxurious. Their prices, as well as those of the many
boarding-houses, are graded to meet requirements of wealth,
competence and slender means. Three poor men can live on
the money one rich man pays, hotel prices running from one to
three dollars a day, and board by the month being still more
reasonable. There are churches of almost every denomination,
common schools, and a high school called a college. Many
people of leisure and culture being domesticated here, there is
no want of society and its attendants of parties, clubs, lec
tures, and libraries. The winter is the best season for health,
and for all these adjuncts to its maintenance.
At the time of our stay, the few days were termed " excep
tional." We meet a great many of these " exceptional " every-
6

82 THE ROUND TRIP.
where. Every morning a chilling fog arose from the sea and
shrouded the town in a veil of mist till nearly mid-day. They
said it never did so before, and never would do so again. The
weather is a pet of these Santa Barbarians, but like other house
hold pets, children and dogs, it does not always "show off well "
before strangers. There are many pretty drives and rides in the
neighborhood, and good carriages and saddle horses may be ob
tained on moderate terms.
Colonel W. W. Hollister, who is well known on this coast as
a political economist as well as a wealthy ranchero, invited us to
pass a day at his farm of three thousand six hundred acres, a
favorite part of his estate of nearly one hundred thousand. Be- '
side these, I may add, he owns one hundred and fifty-seven
thousand more in partnership with Mr. Dibblee. In 1870 these
gentlemen sold twenty thousand acres for three hundred and
seventy thousand dollars, part of a Mexican grant purchased by
them for almost nothing. In 1874 the crops of this twenty
thousand acres sold for one million five hundred thousand dol
lars. As we picnicked in a dell shaded by a forest of live oaks
arching their branches over our heads and forming an immense
arbor, the colonel sat on a stump and related the story of his
early life.
" I started with eight thousand sheep from Ohio," he said,
" in 1853. By loss and robbery in various ways they were re
duced to eight hundred when I arrived here. We were four
teen months on the way. When I struck the place where my
house stands yonder, I sat down to rest while the sheep were
grazing, and looking around at the beautiful prospect I resolved
to settle here. I took up a section, and as my sheep increased
and I got money, I bought out Mexican grants. Well, I don't
know," he continued reflectively twirling his walking-stick.

A STAGE RIDE UP THE CALIFORNIA COAST, ETC. ^r^
" somehow I grew rich ; I couldn't help it. The sheep and the
cattle would have young ones j I couldn't help that, could I ? The
Greasers wanted to sell out cheap ; I couldn't help buying, could
I ? Whose fault is it ? They say I'm a land-grabber. Well,
wouldn't they grab if they could ? I bought the land at market
prices, and I'll sell it at market prices now, in lots, small or large.
Well, well," he added, after another thoughtful twirl, as his eye
brightened with satisfaction, "my cattle and my sheep are dying
off for want of grass this year j nobody offers to pay me for my
loss, but I'm glad it will make some people happy."
We bade the hospitable philosopher good-by, expressing
our sympathy for him in his misfortunes ; and, after riding
through the grounds of Mr. Cooper and Mr. Stowe, planted
alike with vines and fruit trees, returned to our hotel from a
charming excursion of thirty-five miles.

84 THE ROUND TRIP.

CHAPTER XII.
The UPS and downs of Travel — The Death of the Herds
— A Sand Storm — San Luis Obispo — The Springs of Paso
DE RoBLES — Baths of Water and of Earth — German
¦ Explanation of the Mud Baths — Hotel Life in a
Cottage. Securing outside seats on the coach, we left Santa Barbara
at four o'clock in the morning. If day was breaking we knew
it not, for it must have been breaking far above the dense fog
that enveloped us in a wet blanket and dampened the enthusiasm
with which we had looked forward to a journey across the moun
tains. Driving ten miles over a level grade, we began to ascend
by a winding road until the highest elevation was reached. By
actual measurement we discovered that the fog was eighteen
hundred feet thick, and that was all the discovery to compensate
for our disappointment in losing the view of the plains, and
islands dotting the sea.
The driver jocosely remarked that it was a " pleasant morn
ing — pleasant, I mean, by contrast ; for coming down this moun
tain in a fog or on a dark night, on the full run round these
short turns to make time, when I can't see my whip handle,
why it ain't pleasant."

THE UPS AND DOWNS OF TRAVEL, ETC. 85
Occasionally, as we caught a glimpse of precipices overhang
ing unknown abysses when our wheels were a foot or two from
the edge of a narrow path, we realized the comparative danger,
and were willing to admit that by contrast the daylight was
cheerful and bright.
" Here, ma'am," said the driver to my wife, with a view of
allaying her apprehensions, " here's the place where my two
leaders slipped off last winter and went down. The passengers
jumped out lively and cut the traces and saved the wheelers and
the coach, but the leaders were killed. Now I never knew the
same thing to happen twice on the same spot." Coming to an
other sharp turn, he advised her to " hold on tight, but you needn't
be so particular as if you was coming down ; here's where poor
Tom Buddington fell off the box and rolled down two hundred
feet. The agent blamed me for being behind time that morning,
but we had to stop to pick up his body and fetch him in."
Surmounting the ridge at last, we had a littie experience of a
down-hill rush around corners for three miles, until we arrived at
the breakfast station. This shanty was in charge of an Irish
lady, who obligingly " shooed " the pigs out of the banquet hall
during our meal, which consisted of fried bacon to look at,
and some excellent roasted potatoes to eat. By time that we
were ready to start on our second stage the fog gathered
itself in great folds, mounted aloft in clouds to be dispersed
by the sun, and the bright day reigned supreme. The down
grade, though not so long as the ascent, was in many places
quite as steep, and, like it, circled round projecting crags,
and was cut through notches in the side-hills. Then we de
scended, perhaps a thousand feet, until we reached the plateau
of a park nearly one hundred miles in length, and ten miles in
breadth.

86 , THE ROUND TRIP.
You may have seen the parks planted with white-oaks on
some of the large English estates, adorned as they are by every
device of artistic taste ; but you would confess, on driving over
this park of nature, that they resembled it only in miniature, as
a hundred acres bear comparison with a hundred miles, and as
a hundred of their noble trees counted against thousands upon
thousands of these nobler live oaks. No forester could have set
them out at more proper distance with a view to effect ; no skill
in pruning could have made them more graceful, and no cultiva
tion could give to the English oaks the everlasting verdure of
this pride of California.
We were left to imagine what the landscape would be in or
dinary seasons, when beneath their overhanging branches is
spread a carpet as green as their leaves ; and when, instead
of the few lean straggling cattle and sheep, tens of thousands
of herds and flocks may be seen grazing upon the rich abundance.
Now, all was parched and barren, scarcely a spear of grass was
to be seen, and numbers of the poor beasts had literally starved
to death. I do not know what these inoffensive creatures have done
to suffer thus. Can anybody explain this mystery of Provi
dence ? Man is punished — we understand that in a degree ;
theologians attribute it to sin, either of our own or of Adam.
But what had these beasts or their progenitors to do with that ?
Lord Dundreary has been laughed at as a fool ; but when he
says of another matter as he would say of this — " It is one of
those things that no fellow can find out " — he shows himself
as wise as any of us who attempt to reason upon it.
Before the pasturage failed altogether, many of the herds and
flocks were driven away ; but now they could find nothing to
eat while on their journey. It was imperative, therefore, to

THE UPS AND DOWNS OF TRAVEL, ETC. 87
slaughter them. A man near Santa Barbara had been compelled
to sacrifice forty thousand sheep to save their skins. Another
shipped three hundred by steamer to San Francisco. He
showed us his account sales : Net proceeds of three hundred
sheep, three dollars and thirty cents — a little more than one cent
each. We passed through a ranche belonging to Mr. Pierce,
eighteen miles long and eight miles wide. Generally there is at
this season more than a foot of grass over it all, and it is well
stocked with cattle and sheep. . This year he could not cut a ton
of hay on the whole of it. A few of his animals had been
driven off, while most of them had been lost.
By the side of the road the land is portioned out in these
enormous estates, there being very few small proprietors. One
only remains in the hands of the Old Catholic Missions, and that
is managed in the interest of the " Sisters of Our Lady of Gau-
dalupe," who devote its proceeds to educating children of the
poor. We reached Bell's ranche for dinner after a drive of sixty
miles, not having met a single human being on the road. The
ground squir,rels might have been counted by thousands. They
are the only animals that get a decent subsistence, as the acorns
were as abundant as ever. Several deer ran across our track,
and quails trotted along as familiarly as chickens, all seeming
to be tamed by hunger.
Approaching Gaudelupe, near the sea, the country was
fenced in more for cultivation, but this, like the pasturage,
was a failure. .A few farmers had succeeded in raising a
scanty crop of corn, but a new plague had come to ruin them.
For three days the sand from the shore had been blown
over the fields by a heavy gale, completely covering the
crops. It was still blowing, and sadly incommoded travellers.

88 THE ROUND TRIP.
It blew into our eyes and nostrils so that we could hardly see
or breathe. It rolled up in large drifts like snow, frequently
bringing the coach to a standstill and obliging all the passengers
to' descend and wade behind. This disagreeable visitation of
nature detained us two hours, so that we arrived at San
Luis Obispo only at one o'clock in the morning, after making
one hundred and fifteen miles steady travel in twenty-one hours.
San Luis Obispo has recently been connected with the
shore by a narrow-gauge railroad to Port Hartford through
a canon nine miles long, and thus becomes another claimant for
future supremacy as a commercial mart.
Our opportunities for investigation were limited, as after
a rest of only five hours we were called to breakfast and
to resume our places on the coach. We went through an
experience like to that of the previous morning on leaving
Santa Barbara. The ascent, however, was not so long or so
steep, and the clear weather made it enjoyable, affording a
magnificent view of the valley and the western slope. We
reached the highest level in two hours and rapidly descended
into another immense park of live oaks. Winding through
this beautiful grove for twenty miles after reaching the plateau,
we came to Paso de Robles, one of the best-known watering-
places of California.
The law of compensation holds good for the Californian
throughout. His winters of rain are succeeded by cloudless
summers ; his occasional short crops are followed by years of
abundant harvests, and after the depression of his mining stocks
there is a rebound to a " booming market." Almost the only
local disease to which he is subject is rheumatism. It requires
but little medical knowledge to understand how a climate
unfavorable to free action of the skin should tend to this

THE UPS AND DOWNS OF TRAVEL, ETC. 89
distressing malady. It certainly prevails to an extent unknown
in the Eastern States, and persons affected by it there should
not attempt to better their condition by coming' here. But
nature has furnished an offset to this misery of her favorite
children in an abundance of mineral springs, most of which
are especially adapted to the prevailing disease. Nobody has
dyspepsia. If it is brought here it is cured by the air. , There
fore chalybeate waters are not required, while sulphur springs
are found in all parts of the State.
Notwithstanding its difficulty of access, this hot spring of
Paso de Robles is one of the most renowned and greatly
frequented. We reached the place by a stage journey of one
hundred and forty-two miles from Santa Barbara, and one may
come by a direct line of railroad and eighty miles of coaching
from San Francisco ; but the readiest approach is by steamer to
San Luis Obispo, thence over the mountain by a romantic
road twenty-seven miles long. Its situation is indicated by its
name, the " Pass of the Oaks," where the vast park is narrowed
between the ridges of mountains on both sides, and the scattered
live-oaks have drawn together in a grove of evergreen arbors.
Do not understand by the word " grove " a few trees in a clump ;
there are thousands within sight under whose branches we may
walk iqx miles. Among them is the hotel with its surrounding
cottages. When we reflect that everything in the way of materials
and furniture was dragged over the mountains for so many
miles, we cannot withhold our admiration of the energy that has-
accomplished so much. The hotel would not be discreditable tO'
Saratoga, and the cottages are pretty littie boxes scattered!
about the grounds under the oaks, most of them with a parioi
and two bedrooms to accommodate individuals or families.
Near by is one of larger dimensions elaborately furnished,.

go THE ROUND TRIP.
built by the late William C. Ralston, for his own use, but never
occupied, as it was hardly finished at his untimely death. It
is now leased by the proprietors of the hotel, who have estab
lished a novelty in hotel life. They have, a first and second
class price for rooms and table, the former paying eighteen
and the latter twelve dollars per week. Thus the facilities
of bathing are offered to many who cannot meet the higher
charges. Another novelty is that the baths are free. This
boon may be readily afforded, as Nature kindly aids in the
act of benevolence by furnishing subterranean fuel for heating
the water. The temperature of the great springs, gushing out
from a fountain twelve feet square, is from 105 to no degrees
Fahrenheit. Among my readers there may be chemists, physicians, inva
lids and hypochondriacs. As all who compose these various
classes are supposed to be interested in this most celebrated
of the California springs, I give the analysis, one in many respects
indicating the general character of mineral waters in this region.
Main Hot Sulphur Spring. (Temperature 110° F.)
One imperial gallon contains —
Sulphureted hydrogen gas  ."  4.55
Free carbonic acid gas  10.50
Sulphate of lime  3.21
Sulphate of potassa  88
Sulphate of soda (Glauber's salts)  7.85
Peroxide of iron  36
Alumina  .22
Silica  44
Bi-carbonate of magnesia  92
Bi-carbonate of soda  S°'74
Chloride of sodium (common salt)  27.18
Iodide and bromides, traces only.
Organic matter..,  1.64
Total solid contents per gallon  93.44

THE UPS AND DOWNS OF TRAVEL, ETC. gi
All mineral springs have histories. If they have none that
are authentic they have some invented for them. Carlsbad in
Bohemia owes its importance to the cure of a sick hound
belonging to the Emperor Charlemagne, followed by the cure of
the dog's master. Kissingen, Baden Baden, Vichy, Aix en
Savoie and all the rfest, according to the guide-books, " date
from a high antiquity," and so this hot spring of Paso de
Robles, most like that of Aix in its taste and temperature, " was
used and highly valued by the old mission priests eighty years
ago, and before that much frequented by the Indians," according
to the information that accompanies our bill of fare.
I do not doubt that in many cases the waters are efficacious,^
nor that in others they injure by injudicious use. One of the
chief adjuncts of European spas is lacking here, and the want
is a common one at American bathing resorts, namely, proper
medical advice. The reverse may be carried to an absurd extent,
as in Germany, where a whole town of five or ten thousand in
habitants is absolutely under the control of a board of physicians
who dictate the diet of the hotels and restaurants, stand by the
" quellen " to see that their patients do not drink one gill too much
or too little of the water, and prescribe baths of an exact degree
of heat. But this extreme is safer than the practice prevailing
here of placing no restrictions on the quantity of water taken
or the heat and duration of baths. Every man is " a law unto
himself," rivalling every other man in his ability to soak and to
be soaked. Time being always money, rheumatism is not sup
posed to wait for it, but its ejection from the citadel is carried
on so vigorously that the citadel is more likely than its tenant to
succumb. We have here a reproduction of a monstrous German ab
surdity, the mud bath. At best it is a filthy invention, but at

92 THE ROUND TRIP.
Franzenbad, where we first saw it, the nastiness of the thing
was somewhat qualified. For each patient fresh mud was
shovelled into a tub, so that he might be sure that the dirt in
which he chose to wallow was that of the earth alone. Do
you know the philosophy of the mud bath ? I never understood
it until the information was imparted by a Franzenbad doctor.
" How does it cure ? " I asked. " Veil, you see," he replied,
" dere is seven million littel pooahs in the hooman shkin. De
mineral of the mood goes into dem, and de disease comes out."
"But how is that?" I ventured to observe. "If the mineral
goes into the pores and the disease comes out, one would think
they would meet half way in the cuticle." " Oh, you don't
understand," answered the doctor after a littie deliberation as to
how this natural objection should be met. " Don't you notify
yourself that half of seven million is three million five hoonderd
towsand? In one tree million five hoonderd towsand dere is
room for de mineral to get in, and in de oder dere is room for
de disease to get out ! " Now that is an explanation of the
modus operandi of the mud bath as clear as the mud itself. So
much for the European " mood bad " as practised with a
decency superior to the habits of pigs.
The mud bath of Paso de Robles is a sulphur spring not
unlike the one used for general bathing and drinking pur
poses. Into this a sufficiency of dirt is thrown, and renewed
once every week to make a hot mush. Will it be credited?
There are "ladies' days" and "gendemen's days" alternating,
when a dozen or twenty people at a time go down to the hole
and plant themselves up to their chins in this horrid mixture,
simultaneously expelling and absorbing disease through their
seven million pores !
Notwithstanding all, cures are effected at Paso de Robles

THE UPS AND DOWNS OF TRAVEL, ETC. 93
:in spite of carelessness in water-drinking and bathing, and
the detestable mud baths. The pure air, delightful scenery,
freedom from care, horseback exercise and good table more
than counterbalance these pernicious practices. Here we passed
several days in the most independent style of hotel life, with a
lovely little cottage for our " own hired house," opening its doors
and windows for the refreshing air of the night, and by day
recubans sub tegmine " querci" more widespreading, green and
impervious to the rays of the sun than the beech tree of the
original text.

94 THE ROUND TRIP.

CHAPTER XIII.
End of the Stage-coach Romance — The Boundary of
Southern California — Mexican Grants — Approach to
Santa Cruz — Its Early History — Its Attractions.
The romance of the stage-coach was by this time nearly dis
pelled. We looked forward with modified enthusiasm to eighty
miles of travel on one of the hottest days of this " exceptional "
season to bring us to a railroad station. ,During this toil of
pleasure, however, we reflected that others suffered more, and
pitied poor Colonel Kane, who is obliged, by the force of cir
cumstances of his own making, to " coach it " day after day
over the same road, which time and habit must have made
uninteresting. At all events, the charm of novelty was not
exhausted, while the Colonel must sometimes feel like his
brother whip of the White Mountains, whose stolidity was
the wonder of the fashionable young ladies on his box. " How
can you drive along as you do," they exclaimed, " without being
enraptured with the beauties of nature on every hand ? " " Well,
I'm kind of used to it," he replied. " I wish I could see some
thing new, and then like enough I'd gawk 'round same as you
do now." There had come to be a weariness in this everlasting park

END OF THE STAGE-COACH ROMANCE. 95
of live-oaks ; the ascent and descent of the mountains from
repetition had grown tame. Rolling over the foot-hills we
came to dine at Pleito, a small relay station on the fifteen-
thousand-acre ranch of Mr. Pimberton, an English gentleman,
whose mansion, built in old country style, gives the wild park
of nature a striking likeness to the ornamented landscapes
of Britain. Only two or three thousand acres were cultivated,
and fortunately, as the land is low, the crops of barley were not
a total loss. No grain was saved this year, all of it having been
cut for hay to feed the starving cattle.
In the evening we reached the small village of Soledad, pass
ing the night at an adobe inn, thankful that our drive of two
hundred and sixty miles was at last accomplished, resolving to
recommend others to go over the same route, but to take it in
smaller instalments.
A branch of the Southern Pacific Railroad begins at Soledad
and runs through the Sahnas Valley for its especial benefit in
carrying its grain to San Francisco. Uusually this product is
abundant beyond the demand for domestic use. " Last year,"
said the conductor, " we hauled more than forty thousand tons
of barley ; this year not a single bushel." This was one of the
many tales of the famine.
Following the bed of the Salinas River, we crossed it where
it is usually passed by a ferry. Now, there was only a tiny
stream ' three or four yards in width and a foot in depth.
But drawing toward its point of discharge into the Bay of Mon
terey,, the moisture of the sea air began to affect vegetation,
and by the time the station of Pajaro, beyond Salinas, was
reached, we were in a land of comparative plenty, leaving behind
the saddest reminiscences of an otherwise pleasant journey
through Southern California. That district terminates about

96 THE ROUND TRIP.
here, and with it the desolation of its generally fruitful fields.
This is the dividing line of Southern California in distinction
from the more northern part of the State. The term should
not be confounded with "Lower" California, the country bounded
on the north by San Diego, and still under Mexican rule. The
annexation of that territory to the Union is not far distant, and
is already contemplated by land speculators.
On the passage from Panama the steamer landed a large
party of Mexicanized Americans at Cape St. Lucas, whose
avowed object it was to survey the most valuable lands of Lower
California, and obtain grants from the government of Mexico,
which, in its present condition of poverty, and with its uncertain
future, is ready to sell them for trifling amounts. After buying
up the whole peninsula for a few thousand dollars, these enter
prising gentlemen propose to colonize it at once, and, waiting
their opportunity to join some revolutionary faction, obtain inde
pendence in that way. After this, admission to the Union will
not be difficult, and the land-jobbing operation will in the end
prove a certain success. It will merely be a speculation somewhat
more extensive than those commonly undertaken throughout the
State by gentlemen who are content to " grab " only one or two
hundred thousand acres. " Grabbing" is a common practice, as
may be inferred from frequent notices of the ranches and the
rancheros. When men of large capital take advantage of the
" desert land " law, and avail themselves of land otherwise ur'-
productive for the purpose of extensive irrigation, they are the
benefactors of the community. But when, as too often is the
case, they keep the Mexican grants which they have purchased
for the sole purpose of pasturage, where the land is adapted to
grain and fruit, they can be regarded only as opposed to the best
interests of the State. The surest method of bringing them to

END OF THE STAGE-COACH ROMANCE. 97
the adoption of a liberal policy, is to force them to it by taxing
arable and grazing land at the same valuation.
The wretched little village called Pajaro, where the narrow-
gauge road to Santa Cruz connects with the main line, is re
markable for nothing except the number of its grog shops and
the grasping disposition of the landlord of a very bad inn. After
waiting two hours at this miserable den we were transferred to
the Santa Cruz train. The narrow-gauge road, twenty-two miles
long, was built by a few enterprising gentlemen with a view of
benefiting their large landed interests, while it gives to Santa
Cruz a circuitous communication with the capital. When the
more direct line now coming from San Josd is completed, the
value of the present road will be greatly lessened ; but tourists
and pleasure seekers will always enjoy the wonderfully pictur
esque scenery along its track. Climbing a grade one hundred
and thirty-six feet to the mile, spanning ravines on trestle-work
ninety-five feet in height, twisting through canons of enormous
redwoods, turning precipices that overhang the sea, it winds
along the northern side of the Bay of Monterey, affording a
grand and comprehensive view. The engineer who planned it
must have been a poet. Mr. Aptos is one of its owners, and he
has perpetuated his name by christening a charmingly romantic
glen, where he has built a large and costly hotel. This house stands
in a grove of tall redwoods, almost rivalling those of Mariposai in
size, and before it the ocean rolls in, dashing spray nearly to its
doors. Other stations like this are situated at points selected
by a judicious and refined taste, making the route to Santa Cruz
as inviting as the city itself is attractive.
The Rev. Dr. Willey, one of the Protestant pioneers of 1849,
and Father Adam, who occupies the old mission established by
his predecessors in 1791, have been indefatigable in searching
7

98 THE ROUND TRIP.
the ancient monastic records bearing upon the discovery and
settlement of Santa Cruz. From them we learn that this part
of the coast was known to the Spaniards as early as the year
1602, when Viscayno landed on the site of the present town and
gave a glowing description of the Bay of Monterey, on which it
stands, and of the surrounding country. In those days the
world was too large, and there were not enough people to make
available all the discoveries rapidly following the advent of Co
lumbus. So this region remained neglected until two centuries
had elapsed. Then the missionaries, who had landed at San
Diego in 1769, followed up their adventures along the coast, es
tablishing themselves here in 1791.
Fathers Salagar and Lopez arrived on the 25 th day of Sep
tember in that year. Practical old fathers were they. The rec
ord which Father Adam produces says nothing of the tracts they
brought for distribution, but it enumerates thirty cows, ten yoke
of oxen, fourteen bulls, twenty steers, nine horses and seven
mules. That was a missionary outfit in 1791. "And so they
begin their work ; they teach such Indians as they can collect
how to make adobes, and, as fast as they can, the arts of civilized
life. They teach the men the use of tools, and they teach the
women to weave." In three years the large church was built,
its ruins only now standing, not long ago shattered by an
earthquake.. Vineyards were planted, cattle increased on the
ranges, and Santa Cruz lived and thrived as a Spanish set-
tiement, although its population did not become large until its
occupancy by our countrymen at the close of the Mexican war.
Then occurred that rapid change we have noted in all the old
pueblos of California. The Anglo-Saxon race poured in with
its industries, enterprise and taste, and the people's wealth in
creased, until Santa Cruz, the mission station selected first for

END OF THE STAGE-COACH ROMANCE. gg
natural beauties, has become a city of six thousand permanent
inhabitants, and the favorite resort of sojourners from all parts
of the country. It is but a few hours distant by steam from San
Francisco, and as the time will soon be less by rail, its rapid in
crease and prosperity are assured.
Nature has scooped out with dainty hand a charming valley, in
which is nestled this pretty little city, sheltered from the rough
touch of the sea breeze that blows over the ridge and tempers the
air with the breath of healthful elasticity. The range of the
thermometer for the year is remarkably equal. There are" no
extremes of heat and cold, the humidity is sufficient to keep vege
tation green without having an injurious effect upon health, and it
is not surprising that so many invalids, to whom a modified sea air
is agreeable, have made it their home. The citizens are not
niggardly of their land. Here and there in the main street is a
block of stores and warehouses, but the dwellings are detached.
Doubtless the inhabitants are fond of society, for picnics and
excursions to the glens, the wooded hills and the shore seem to
be their chief occupation. But they are still more fond of the com
panionship of the trees, the flowers and the vines that surround
every house. Their gardens are their homes, of which the cot
tages form the smallest part. No man seems to have been al
lowed to build his house or to lay out his grounds in any way
that does not produce a pleasing effect.
With all their temptations to pleasure and indolence, the pic
nics, the riding and the bathing, in which so many persons ap
pear to be occupied, there is no want of energy and attention to
business. Santa Cruz is a town of many industries. The pow
der works are very extensive. Obtaining saltpetre at a cheap
rate of freight from the west coast of South America, they
manufacture this article at a large profit. Last year its sales ;

^oo THE ROUND TRIP.
amounted to nearly half a million dollars. The dairies are
their pride, for they send one hundred thousand dollars' worth
of butter annually to San Francisco. They export a great
deal of lime. The back hills being heavily timbered with
redwood, great quantities are reduced to lumber, not only for
home use, but to ship to other places on the coast. The grape
is in high cultivation, and excellent wine is made in large
quantities. Mr. Jarvis, one of the principal growers, took us
through his establishment and offered — please let it be under
stood, at various times — glasses of his port, sherry, muscatel,
angelica, hock and brandy. His wines readily command from
one dollar to one dollar and fifty cents per gallon, and his brandy
three dollars and fifty cents. One of his vineyards covers sev
enty-five acres, and produces three hundred tons of grapes. Ex
tensive as is the wine product of California, Mr. Jarvis thinks it
is only in its infancy. He has a correct view of its development
when he says that everybody is in too much haste. He has been
for years engaged in reaching after perfection, and has not yet
arrived at it. " Every man should plant for his own children,"
he observed, with more wisdom and regard for posterity than is
often displayed in this selfish age. " If we all do that, in the
next generation California will be the vineyard of the world."
A short narrow-gauge railroad has been recently built, chiefly
for the purpose of bringing lumber down from the forests, while
it serves admirably for purposes of recreation. It is only eight
miles long, but they are such eight miles as are rarely travelled.
In less than a quarter of an hour we began mounting a grade
of one hundred and twenty-six feet to the mile, through a
dense forest of redwood. We arrived at the station of the
" Big Trees," where was a forest compared with which the
pines of the eastern mountains are dwarfs. Leaving the train

END OF THE STAGE-COACH ROMANCE. loi
and walking under their shade for a quarter of a mile, we
came to the veritable giants of the forest. The great sequoias
of Mariposa are indeed somewhat larger than these, but it is a
long distance to them ; and if seeing big trees be the only object
of one's search, it maybe fairly counted that the difference in size
is not enough to counterbalance the length of the journey. Or
dinary sight-seeing can be more easily gratified by coming to
Santa Cruz and making the trip on this little railroad.
Is it not enough to look upon these slightly inferior giants,
one of which is two hundred and seventy-eight feet high, sixty
feet in circumference, and hollowed out at the base and occupied
as a house, with dimensions of sixteen feet by twenty ? This
is the largest of them, although there are many not much
smaller. To a casual observer the difference between these trees
and those of Mariposa and Calaveras is not apparent ; but it is
asserted that the latter are the true sequoia, and these a dif
ferent variety of redwood. The trees here are shorter lived ;
one of them, on being cut down, showed by its rings that it had
' flourished only two thousand eight hundred years, while an
ancient rival in Calaveras scored three thousand two hundred
and fifty-two years, during which it had grown to the height
of two hundred and ninety-six feet. It is to be hoped that the
public spirit of Santa Cruz will keep this noble forest intact and
secure from the ruthless woodman's axe until it has time to attain
to the size and age of its competitors.

102 THE ROUND TRIP.

CHAPTER XIV.
From Santa Cruz to San Jose — The Garden of Santa
Clara Valley — The Towns of San Jose and Santa
Clara — Another Mission — The Church and the
Grape-Wine and Brandy — The Enterprise of Gen
eral Naglee.
Wp left Santa Cruz on a hot summer morning in an open
wagon, uncomfortable from the heat and the dust while toiling
slowly up the mountain. That is now forgotten ; but we shall
never forget the view from the summit, which on one side com
manded the ocean, and on the other the lovely Santa Clara Valley
— a fruit garden, and, as its people boast, the most beautiful
one of California. There it lay before us, a garden of one and
a quarter million acres, fifty-two miles long, thirty-four miles
wide, variegated with grass-covered undulating hills, orchards,
vineyards and yellow fields of grain, spotted all over with the
ever-present great live-oaks that, from this height, seemed like
little green bushes no higher than the heads of wheat among
which they were scattered. The noble six-horse team had
brought the last strain upon their muscles to reach the summit,
and then, obedient to the crack of the whip in the hands of a

FROM SANTA CRUZ TO SAN JOSE. . 103
skilful driver, darted down the mountain, whirling round steep
corners and flying through a cloud of dust as if they enjoyed
the sport and were laughing inside their blinders at the ter
rified passengers behind them. The cultivated plains were soon
reached, and long avenues of trees lined the way to the capital
of the county, the first capital of the State before San Francisco
robbed it of its rank. San Jose has lost its political importance,
but the refinement and easy luxury for which its people are con
spicuous amply compensate for the loss of a noisy rabble of
office-hunting demagogues j and its nearness to the great com
mercial centre has given it many advantages beside those of its
natural opportunities.
The towns of San Jose and Santa Clara may be considered
as one. They are connected by a long avenue of willows,
planted by the missionary settlers in 1799. This wide street of
three miles, called the Alameda, is shaded by triple rows of
willow, poplar, and eucalyptus' trees, whose variety of foliage
has a most pleasing effect. The houses, with a good taste
that is very general, are at a little distance from the road
and partly concealed from it by a perennial shrubbery. It,
presents a gay scene in the afternoon, when ladies and gentle
men gallop at full speed with a display of daring horsemanship
that excites our admiration.
San Jose, and its suburb Santa Clara, embracing each other
as they meet under their Alameda, have twenty thousand inhabi
tants, and those of the whole valley number somewhat more than
thirty thousand. The lazy Mexicans, sparsely scattered over it
previous to the American occupation of 1849, devoted no atten
tion to its cultivation, hardly raising an acre of wheat, and al
lowing the whole of its area to be grown over with wild grass
for the pasturage of their cattle.

J 04 THE ROUND TRIP.
The wants of those people are few. Wherevei the Spanish
ranchero is to be found, he avoids, as much as possible, the
contact of what we deem civilization. He cares not for books,
for society, or even for fruits or bread, his body being as
insufficiently nourished as his mind. He never plants a
shade tree, and if one happens to grow near to his adobe
house he cuts it down as the easiest attainable fuel. Came
seca, his dried meat, which he prefers to fresh beef, and black
beans, the only vegetable he plants, compose his whole diet.
With this food, littie clothing, a good saddle and a good horse,
his existence is complete and all his wants are satisfied. The
old Catholic padres succeeded in domesticating and converting
the Indians, but their influence upon these gre.asers was of littie
account. The missionaries alone gave their attention to build
ing, manufactures, farming and vineyards, invariably selecting
such favored spots as the Santa Clara Valley for the scenes of
their operations. When Vancouver landed at San Francisco,
in 1792, and made an excursion into this part of the country,
he was astonished and delighted at the progress the Francis
cans had made. Their establishments were unfortunately
secularized when Mexico as unfortunately obtained her inde
pendence, and no further progress was made until this ter
ritory was ceded to the United States. Then the soil of the
valley was struck by the wand of a magician. The magic of
freedom, intelligence and enterprise gave it a new life, and robed
it with the beautiful garments which now cover the nakedness of
thirty years ago.
Already the assessed value of its real estate exceeds thirty-
one million dollars, the farming land commanding the highest
prices on account of its nearness to San Francisco, which is sup
plied with vegetables and fruit.

FROM SANTA CRUZ TO SAN JOSE. 105
We drove out to the old mission, whose great possessions
have now dwindled down toia parish church and thirty acres of
land. It is under the charge of Father Cassidy, who received
us courteously, and entertained us with histories of the olden
times when his predecessors flourished in their abundance, dis
pensing unlimited hospitality which he modestly emulated as he
offered us a bottle of wine of his own manufacture from
the vines they had planted. The good father, beside all his
parochial duties, attends personally to his vineyard, and it is his
chief satisfaction to furnish for the sacramental use of Cathohc
and Protestant alike the pure juice of the grape, which he pro
vides at the moderate cost of fifty cents per gallon. It is an
excellent red wine, bearing transportation, and quite as good as
the French claret, costing one dollar per bottle. Father Cassidy
says that the old missionaries understood the true theory of
vine culture, afid practised it successfully by planting their vine
yards on side-hills instead of upon levels — the latter mode now
commonly adopted increasing the crop, but producing more
watery grapes. Certainly this active priest combines much
, practical knowledge with his clerical duties, entitling him to
respect in a double sense as " a laborer in the vineyard."
The old church and cloisters of the monastery were built of
adobe, and notwithstanding the six feet thickness of the walls,
an earthquake had tumbled a part to the ground and shaken
the whole pile, so that it was riven by gaping seams. The
crumbling nature of the material and its dingy color, prematurely
gave the ruins an appearance of age equal to that of stone after
the lapse of many hundred years. General Naglee, of San Jose,
has devoted twenty years to the selection and culture of the most
desirable varieties of the French and German wine grapes, and
to experiments in the manufacture of brandy. His abundant

io6 THE ROUND TRIP.
means enable him to study the problem at his leisure, without
regard to immediate profits, for his only desire is that the com
munity shall benefit by his labor. His grounds are a mile
distant from the centre of the town, and he is generally at home,
taking pleasure in receiving his many friends, and in explaining
his processes to those who desire to be informed.
After driving over his grounds of forty acres, one-third of
them planted with foreign grapes, he introduced us to his manu
facturing establishment, where are tne presses and the distilling
apparatus. Four immense vats were capable of containing
16,000 gallons each, and nine others of 4,000 each, gave capacity
for 100,000 gallons of wine, and 20,000 gallons of brandy vintage.
General Naglee preserves but little wine, his chief object being
to make the purest and best brandy in the world at whatever cost
of time and money. Very few people know how brandy is made ;
very few know what brandy is, and, if truth were told, in our day
there is very little brandy. Probably 999 gallons out of every
1,000 that are sold as brandy are a vile compound of whiskey,
distilled spirits, and chemical abominations. This is equally
true of wines.
Now, if one thing is palpable without demonstration, it is that
the stomach craves stimulants, and these it will have either of food
or drink. The Bengalee and the Malay fortify themselves with
pepper and curry, the Dutchman uses schnapps for the same
purpose, and the Scotch and Irish have a pure whiskey ; the
Englishman has his beer and porter, the Frenchman, the Spaniard
and the Italian their wine, the Chinese his tea and the Turk his
coffee. Either of these articles of food and drink used to excess
is as injurious as the gluttony of plum-pudding or drinking too
much water. As I never suffered from indulgence in any stim
ulant, but have acquired a life long dyspepsia by aqueous in-

FROM SANl^A CRUZ TO SAN JOSE. 107
temperance at a hydropathic establishment, I hope I shall not
be misunderstood in advocating with earnestness the culture of
the grape, for the benefit not only of California, but of the peo
ple at large, so that the truest temperance may prevail through
the land. I would not say any thing to encourage the general use
of distilled liquors.; but no one except a fanatic will deny that
they are sometimes necessary, and that they are agreeable luxuries.
At any rate, the fact is patent that they will be drunk, and there
fore it is the more desirable that a pure article should take the
place of the villanous compounds by which dram-drinkers are
poisoned. General Naglee justly esteems himself a philanthropist in
devoting himself to this special object. His brandy is of two
classes, the inferior made after the process of most European
manufacture, which consists in distilling the dregs of mashed
grapes that have been used for wine. This he sells as fast as
it is produced. Fortunately he is a gentleman of great wealth,
or he could not afford the costly experiment of producing brandy
of the higher grade. This is made by using only the finest
French and German grapes, and separating the juice between the
pulp and the skin without any pressure to bring out the delete
rious essential oils which they contain, and thus the very purest
juice of the grape is fermented and distilled into the choicest
liquor. As yet he has not sold any, 60,000 gallons being in
store, some of it in the cellar ten years.
In distilling brandy from wine, the process results in saving
only twenty gallons out of a hundred.' When all the vats are
filled with one hundred thousand gallons, the residue is conse
quently twenty thousand gallons of pure spirit. This is stored
in immense casks, each labelled with revenue stamps, certifying
that ninety cents per gallon has been paid to the government.

lo8 THE ROUND TRIP.
By the exertions of the State Vinicultural Society, the law has
been so far modified that no excise is now paid on brandy
until it has been made three years. An important amount of
interest is thus saved. It would be curious to compute, if any
one cares to make more figures than I do, the cost of this' ten
years' old brandy that we tasted, supposing that at the outset,
including the tax, it cost the manufacturer $3 per gallon, and
that money has commanded here all the time the annual interest
pf twelve per centum, with an addition of twelve per cent, for
leakage and evaporation. Let this be compounded, and the
conclusion will be reached that the experiment is too expensive
to be productive of any thing but self-satisfaction to General
Naglee, and of gratitude from those enjoying his hospitality and
profiting by his outlay.
Temperance people and prohibitionists may settle the wine
question among themselves as far as it bears upon the morals
of the community of which they have assumed the charge.
There are, however, some people who do not choose to be
subject to their dictation. They may be pleased to know
what progress has been made by California in the production of
the grape.
From the most trustworthy sources at hand, it is established
that in the whole State not less than 50,000 acres are planted
with vines, numbering from 40,000,000 to 45,000,000, and aver
aging from 700 to 1,000 vines per acre. In the southern and
interior counties the yield is more plentiful, each acre producing,
on the average, six tons of grapes, while in the coast counties
four tons is considered a fair crop. From one ton of grapes
130 to 140 gallons of wine are pressed. Last year 8,000,000
gallons were produced, but the vine capacity this year is estima
ted at 10,000,000. Most of the wines have heretofore been

FROM SANTA CRUZ TO SAN JOSE. log
made from the old " Mission grape." The exact history of this
prolific vine is lost in the antiquity of one hundred years. This
only is certain, that it was introduced by the Franciscans with
their religion as a part of their civilization. It is worthy of re
flection that religious teachers have been the men to whom the
world is most indebted for good wine, from the " first preacher
of righteousness," down. It has been remarked, as a matter of
history, reflecting great credit upon the Catholic clergy, that they
first produced to perfection the grapes from which are manufac
tured the wines of Johannisberg, Steinberg, Hockheim, Clos-Vou-
geot, I'Hospice, Chambertin, Chateau Yquem, St. Julien, and
various other celebrated brands, and that the first champagne
was made by a priest.
We know that the first vines of California were planted at
St. Gabriel in 1771, but it is not settled if this was done with
roots or cuttings imported from Spain or Mexico. General
Vallejo, who has given no little attention to the subject, says
that the Fathers first attempted to make wine from the common
wild grape of the country, but not succeeding in this, they raised
them from the seeds of imported raisins. From these the white
and blue varieties were both produced, but the former was aban
doned, w'hile the latter was adopted and cultivated at all
the. mission establishments. Since the advent of Americans,
many other varieties have been introduced. Colonel Haraszthy,
who alone imported two hundred and fifty distinct varieties,
gave them all a fair trial, selecting from them, as adapted to va
rious parts of the State, forty or fifty of the best. These are
not all used for wine. Many are especially devoted to brandy,
table use and raisins. I have no data for these two latter pro
ducts, but it is known that one hundred and fifty thousand gal
lons of brandy are annually distilled, large and increasing quan-

no THE ROUND TRIP.
titles of raisins are cured, and beside the grapes eaten in the
State, many cars are laden with them in the season for distribu
tion from San Francisco to New York.
A very intelligent gentleman remarked, to my surprise, that
as the mining interest of California had been superseded by
cereals, so they will before many years be neglected, and the
specialties of the State be fruit and wine. It is possible that he
may be right, although the day is more distant than his prophecy
indicated. For grain production, this soil is inexhaustible, but
by means of careless farming is rapidly impoverished, while the air
and sunlight, which have more to do with the culture of the vine
than the ground, have life-giving influences that can never die.
Let the California farmer take warning from this prediction.
Let hira do something more for his soil than to comb it. It
needs care as his good horses need grooming, or he will run it
to death. He will realize this one of these days when he calls
on Oregon for bread.
San Francisco is reached in two hours from San Jose, by the
railroad passing through the beautiful suburbs of Menlo Park,
Belmont, and San Mateo. Scattered over them are the country
residences of those who can spare time from business to enjoy
the luxury of ease, and to dispense the sumptuous hospitality for
which so many of them have a merited reputation. The environs
have been often described, and are well known to every stranger
who visits the city.

NORTHERN CALIFORNIA.

CHAPTER XV.
Northern California — Mount Shasta in the Distance —
Railroads — Farming on a Large Scale.
We came north to get a nearer view of Mount Shasta ; it
seems but ten miles distant — a pyramid of snow from its .peak
to the pine trees that spread their branches at its base. It
seems So near ; and yet we might reflect that the apparent
base would have a far different color in this temperature of
100 degrees, if it were not merely a part of the summit, for
Shasta is one hundred miles away. So clearly defined are
its lines in the sky, that at Marysville, ninety miles further
south, it is often visible in a favorable atmosphere. Difficult as
the region about Shasta is in its approaches, the romantjc
scenery, cool atmosphere, mineral springs, and hunting and fish
ing, annually bring many visitors to Sessions — a favorite watering-
place of Californians who can afford to leave their business for
a long vacation. Tourists unwilling to go away -with only the
satisfaction to be obtained from the charmingly deceptive view
of Shasta at a distance, have only to follow up the Oregon Rail
road forty miles further to Redding, and then take the stage
coach for seventy miles to their destination

112 THE ROUND TRIP.
Eastern people have but a small conception of the railroad
enterprises of California. They are content with the knowl
edge that there is a direct route from New York to San Fran
cisco, but know little of its connections with the many domestic
tenders from which so much of its trade is derived. The rail
roads stretch out their iron arms to grasp every section of the
State. The Northern Pacific runs eighty miles along the coast to
Healdsburg, on its way to Oregon. A narrow gauge is looking
in the same direction. The California Pacific has reached Wil
liams, one hundred and twenty-one miles to the north, and the
Oregon branch, on which we arrive at Red Bluffs, distant two
hundred and seventeen miles from San Francisco, goes on forty
miles further to Redding, and is bound to extend beyond the
Oregon line. All these roads have lateral branches. Wherever
there is a valley for wheat to grow or a forest for timber to be
felled, a train of cars stands in waiting to bring produce and
lumber to market for shipping'or home consumption.
We came to Vallejo in two hours by steamer, leaving San
Francisco at an early hour of the morning, and passing the time
— which seemed only too short — in gazing at the surroundings
of the wonderful bay, which is equalled only by that of Rio de Ja
neiro, and, like it, surrounded by mountains whose verdant slopes
reach to the shore. Saucelito lay smiling under a high cliff, and
San Rafael coyly hid itself away in its dreamy valley of shade,
its church spires peeping up through the shrubbery to tell where
it might be found. Vallejo, fondly expected by its founder (fpr
whom it is called) to become the capital of the State, refuses to
be comforted for its disappointment, and will not put on any
beautiful garments. A plain, matter-of-fact suburb, it serves, in
connection with Mare Island, as a naval depot, beside deriving

NORTHERN CALIFORNIA. 113
some little importance as a point of railroad debarkation. The
train rolled into the country through a forest of fruit trees ;
and then, with the exception of little towns and villages on the
road, it ran through one far-spread field of wheat.
There were trees and vines in plenty, but their abundance
was lost in the immensity of the grain. It was the time of
harvest, and here plenty rewarded the toil of the husbandman,
and sleek cattle and sheep followed in the train of the reapers
to revel in pastures left for their use.
Stopping at " Knight's Landing," we called on Mr. Reed,
and were told that he was busy in the field. There he was found
in a two-thousand-acre, lot, superintending his force of thirty
men, his steam engine, headers, wagons, mules, thresher and
separator, all working harmoniously together, gathering in the
crop ; and this was a small outfit compared with that of Mr.
Boggs, at Princeton, with whom we passed two days, entertained
most agreeably in a princely farmer's mansion. There, in
a six-thousand-acre field, machinery was multiplied as one
hundred acres each day was harvested, and the stream of
wheat rolled into bags at the rate of twelve bushels per minute.
Not contented with farming, Mr. Boggs gives his attention to
raising some of the finest horses in the State. He owns one
hundred thousand acres in California, and fifty thousand in
Oregon. Most of it is pasturage, for he raises not more than
one hundred and fifty thousand bushels of wheat. He has a
few thousand cattle, he could not recollect the exact number,
nor could he tell if his sheep would count more than forty thou
sand, but he knew they were not below that figure. They are
sheared twice in the year, averaging eight pounds of wool each,
and netting, clear of all expenses, something more than one
dollar per head. Were they not thinned out for the market.

114 THE ROUND TRIP.
they would double themselves every two years ; and twenty
thousand being annually sold at one dollar a head, there is a
total income of sixty thousand dollars. Here is a model Cali
fornia farmer — a State Senator, honored by his fellow-citizens
with the directorship of various public institutions — who came
into Sacramento thirty years ago, with his boots hanging over
his shoulder, and who modestly says that he too has grown rich
because he could not help it. We have sojourned with nobility
in their castles, and have been accustomed to the etiquette of
flunky servility which calls for the address of " My lord " and
" Your lordship ; " but "John Boggs — hullo, John ! " is the style
our friend receives at Princeton, where he is the lord of manors
compared to which an English estate is a potato-patch.
A pleasanter, though longer route to Princeton, would have
been to ascend the river by one of the stern-wheel steamers that
ply upon it. Our host, Mr. Boggs, gave us a little experience
of steamboating when, from the bank near his house, he signalled
the captain to haul into the shore and take us all on board for a
short trip of a few miles. At this place the stream is scarcely
one hundred feet wide, but the romantic beauty of the scenery
in frequent turns is wonderful to contemplate. Tlie river is
bordered by a forest of oaks for miles, and these great trees are
draped with festoons of wild grape-vines, loaded with early
clusters that perfume the air. This little excursion was termi
nated on meeting the carriage that followed us along the
road by the shore. Before the advent of the railroad, all pas
sengers and freight were transported on the river; and the
wheat produced in the greater part of this district is still sent
down to market by steamers as a cheaper conveyance than by rail.
Jacinto, fifteen miles above Princeton, is the capital of
the dukedom of Dr. Glenn, for he owns its site and its sur-

NORTHERN CALIFORNIA. nc
roundings. I have gradually introduced you to Dr. Glenn,
first describing what might be termed a large farm at Knight's
Landing, next a larger one at Princeton, and now coming to the
largest estate under cultivation in California, or in the world —
fifty-six thousand acres planted in wheat ! The doctor's modest
cottage is a house indicative of occupation by a farmer of one
or two hundred acres. " Father is not at home," said one of
the young ladies, "but he is about the place somewhere; if you
like, I will go with you on horseback and find him." This ar
rangement being perfectly satisfactory, we were soon galloping
through the wheat fields. After a sharp ride of half an hour, I
began to think my little pilot had lost her bearings; but she
assured me that her father was only seven miles off, and we
should soon find him, and we shortly afterward met him on his
return. The crop of this year was below the average, as the doctor
said it would not yield more than twenty bushels to the acre. It
is his custom to plant two-thirds of the land annually and allow
one-third to recuperate. In this he shows more wisdom and
a greater regard for the future than a Californian farmer usually
has. He finds that the estate is so large that it is burdensome,
and has begun to lease parts of it on shares. It would be well
for themselves and for the community if all the great landholders
should realize their mistake in extending their territories beyond
moderate bounds. Most of them are never satisfied, out are
always craving more land. By this means some of the richest are-
absolutely poor. Every dollar they get being expended in the
purchase of other acres they are always borrowers.
In the neighborhood of Los Angeles we were taken by a.
: friend to visit a property of several thousand acres. The pro
prietor was not the owner of a decent suit of clothes, and as the

(l6 THE ROUND TRIP.
family had just dined upon all the bacon they had, he could not
offer us a morsel of food. The great productiveness of the soil
offers irresistible temptations to purchasing more and to borrow
ing money at high rates of interest. In ordinary seasons a man
may be able to pay eighteen per cent, for loans, and at the
end of four years to repay the money and to own the land. This
state of things encourages the establishment of banks in every
small village ; but, whatever are their profits, it cannot be
healthy practice for a man to keep himself poor in order to grow
rich. The private village of Jacinto is a curiosity. Dr. Glenn owns
it, and therefore cohtrols its religion, morals and trade. He
will not have any false doctrine, heresy or schism preached in
his church, nor any liquor sold in his tavern ; and the store, a
large two-story brick building, is well supplied with every con
ceivable necessity, furnishing at just prices all that the people
he employs require. An immense warehouse, capable of stor
ing four hundred thousand bushels of wheat, stands on the river
bank, where its contents can be slid on board the steamers.
There are the stage house, the wagon factory, the blacksmith's
shop, the shoemaker, the tailor, the butcher and the baker ; here
are Sam Lew's store and " intelligence office," the respective
laundries of Sue Wan, Clong Sing and Jim Yew, all these estab
lishments being necessary to the support of Dr. Glenn and his
family, and of the families of his laborers, or for conducting the
business of the ranch. And there sat the lord of the domain,
dressed in his home-spun suit, seemingly unconscious that he
owned a dollar. As he delights in hospitality, his cottage is al
ways full to overfiowing, and it needs no card of invitation to
make any lady or gentleman an acceptable inmate. Not content
with a welcome to the coming, but with a readiness to speed their

NOR THERN CALIFORNIA. 1 1 7
parting guests, one of the sons drove us over to Chico in the
evening. Crossing the Sacramento, the road lay for four miles through
groves of oaks and wild vines, and, emerging from the river
bottom, kept on through nine miles of continuous wheat fields
until it reached the town. Chico is a pretty village of three
thousand inhabitants, owing its prosperity to farming and to the
lumber brought down from the Sierras in a flume for a distance
of forty miles, and shipped by the Oregon Railroad running
through the place.
General Bidwell has a property of twenty-three thousand
acres in the immediate neighborhood, of which one hundred
and fifty are planted in vines, and as much in peach, cherry,
almond, olive, fig, orange and lemon groves. As from some
cause he has not been successful in making wine, he has turned
his attention to drying raisins, which industry promises larger
returns. His career affords another instance of prosperity
founded on energy ; for on the very spot where his castellated
mansion rears its walls, formerly stood the little adobe hut where
he once dispensed liquors and cigars over his bar. He may
justly feel a pride in the change of his fortunes.
After a description of Dr. Glenn's farm, that of Mr. Reavis,
near Chico, may seem to be scarcely worth a reference, as it con
tains only twelve thousand acres. Nevertheless, the manage
ment of the estate is admirable. After visiting the harvest field,
where fifty men busily worked together like so many parts of a
clock, we inspected the stables of blood horses, one of which,
" Blackbird," had been purchased from Mr. Boggs for ten thou
sand dollars. The young son of the proprietor said with becom
ing modesty, " Father hasn't much of a ranch, and doesn't care
to have a big one. He sticks to raising wheat, and doesn't care

Il8 THE ROUND TRIP.
for stock, for we have only two thousand head of cattle and three
hundred horses over yonder in the mountains."
The ranches of a few gentlemen have been mentioned, as .
specimens of the great landholders of California whose enterprise
is so creditable to their industry. It may be observed that their
present estates have invariably accumulated from small begin
nings. Indeed, there is scarcely a single instance of a man's
" starting in " with wealth that has not ended in failure, whereas
there are thousands of poor men who have become rich by
farming. When these great estates are divided — as they will be before
many years elapse — into small farms of one or two hundred
acres, capable of being easily worked by single families, and af
fording them a comfortable livelihood ; when seven millions in
stead of seven hundred thousand people live in California to
work, and work to live upon her wheat, corn, barley, oats, cattle,
sheep, hogs, fruits and vineyards, all its vast population may
boast of a solid wealth derived from its only true source ; for it
wjll be the reward of honest labor.

REVIEW.

119

CHAPTER XVI. .
Review of the Mining and Agricultural Interests of
California — Along the Sacramento — Napa — Calistoga
— The Petrified Forest — The Geysers — San Francisco.
Following the course of the Sacramento River on the Oregon
Railroad, we came to Marysville, fifty miles from Chico, still a
town of some importance as centre of. a large farming population,
although the activity it once displayed as a great mining camp of
the placer diggings has subsided. To this district the first pros
pectors were attracted, and for years the gulches and sluices
yielded them a golden harvest. Now there are no more nuggets
to be found by grubbing or chance, but in their place the fields
are covered with golden wheat.
, The changes of business and industries give force to a
remark made by Governor Stanford. "California," said he,
'^ owes her prosperity to agriculture. If every mine could be
sunk out of sight ten thousand fathoms deep it would be
for her advantage." Continuing the conversation, he added,
as nearly as his words can be remembered, " Mining is com
paratively an unproductive industry. All the laborers engaged
in it do not earn as much as farm hands upon the average,
while they are losers in health, and it gives rise to a species

120 THE ROUND TRIP.
of gambling which robs the whole community. Now, there are
three thousand people in San Francisco who live directly or in
directly from the purchase and sale of stocks, averaging in their
expenses $3000 per year. There are $9,000,000 which they cer
tainly do not earn, but take from their victims. These men
should earn this money for themselves by being producers.
Then they would not rob their fellow-citizens ; and if they and
the miners were all at work in the wheat fields, our railroads
could well spare the profits made from the transportation of ore
and bullion." What has been said of Southern California may
be quoted as proof that farming is as uncertain as mining when
the crops fail, and there is not only a loss of harvest, but of cat
tle and sheep. It is true that years of drought sometimes occur,
but these may always be provided for by selecting lands that can
be irrigated, while stock may be preserved by taking propei
precautions. The melancholy loss of animal life by starvation,
might have been avoided. There was an abundant harvest even
upon some uplands, but the farmers, after going through the wheat-
fields with "headers," and taking off the tops of the stalks, either
brought in their stock from the ranges to feed it down, or they
only set it on fire to be rid of it.
If that straw had been cut and stacked, the mute blessings of
hundreds of thousands of poor beasts would have come down
upon those farmers' heads, and what they would value more, the
lives of the animals would have been saved for their profit.
Passing through Sacramento we reached Napa on the 4th
of July. The anniversary was there celebrated by a great
barbacue, to which all were freely invited. Oxen and sheep
were roasted whole in long trenches, and brought upon the
grass for a general attack of pocket-knives and fingers, the meat
being finely basted by a dust storm that made it a more suitable

REVIEW. 121
food for chickens than for the men who had the grit to partake
of it. Then was read the inevitable Declaration, that shibboleth
of our political faith, which somehow, in spite of its accepted
truth, fails to convince the ragged tramp who looks up at the
palace windows of the millionaire that all men are free and
equal. After that came the oration, an echo of the hundreds of
thousands of orations that have resounded through a hundred
years, until the want is felt of a new revolution to give birth to
an original idea.
From Napa to Calistoga it is twenty-fiv;e miles by rail. Here
are the Hot Springs, a " resort," as every thing of that kind is
called in California. This must be chiefly a resort for people
who suffer from a deficiency of animal heat. Enclosed in a
deep and really beautiful valley, the sun has a full play upon the
soil, sometimes producing a heat of one hundred and ten degrees
in the shade, as it did at this time. By a little digging anywhere
hot water is reached. The condition of the inhabitants in the
summer season may be imagined j it maybe agreeable enough
in the winter, when fuel is not required on account of the subter
ranean steam apparatus.
We rode to the " Petrified Forest," six miles from town,
on the Santa Rosa road over the mountain separating the Napa
from the Sonoma Valley. This wood bears a name likely to mis
lead one's ideas of the reality. The forest is like all others, the
present generation of trees being green and vigorous. The
petrifaction is in the trunks of their predecessors, which were
discovered buried several feet in the ground, and were exhumed
for the gaze of the curious. The proprietor of the land is
an ignorant old Dutchman, who told us that the trees were
"feefteen t'ousand year old." When asked for the certificate of
their birth, he retorted, " Veil, how old you calls them ? " We

122 THE ROUND TRIP.
admitted our ignorance, which gave him the advantage, and he
triumphantly exclaimed, "Den vot for you doubts myvord?"
The age of the Petrified Forest may therefore be considered as
settied. Some of the fallen trunks are in absolute preservation,
the bark and broken segments having the exact appearance of
wood, although they have turned to heavy stones. They have
all the characteristics of the red woods which resemble the
sequoias of the Mariposa and Calaveras groves. It may be
possible to unearth some which equal or exceed them in size, with
a sufficiency of rings to corroborate the Dutchman's theory.
The largest one measured thirty-three feet in circumference near
its base. What peculiar properties of soil produced the petrifac
tion must be left to the investigation of naturalists, who may
obtain some further information from the intelligent guide.
Calistoga is on the direct road to the Geysers. These hot
spouting springs are visited by tourists not only for the sake of
the phenomena, but for the drive over the romantic mountain
road with the renowned Jehu Foss. It being all up-hill work,
there was no opportunity for him to display his skill ; so he
entertained us with descriptions of the country and the quicksilver
mines, formerly so productive to this neighborhood, but at present
greatly neglected. Descending somewhat from the highest point,
we came at evening to the hotel, twenty-six miles from Calistoga.
As to the Geysers, it is a mistake to suppose that they are
high spouts of water. They are simply a group of boiling
springs, extending half a mile through a mountain canon, where
we walked amid the hissing and roaring noises of steaming
sulphurous gases and over hot lava-beds. There is nothing
that is beautiful, but much that is fearful about them. The de
scent to- their valley seemed like the preliminary steps taken by
.iEneas, when he was piloted by the Sibyl to Hades. It is a fit

REVIEW. 123
place for the end of all things to begin ; and I seriously opine
that on some day these pent-up fires and boiling waters will ex
plode and send the mountain peaks flying in atoms down the
abyss. Before this comes to pass, however, a catastrophe is
more likely to befall Foss, his passengers and his horses. The
great object of this celebrated expert seemed to be to show us
how near he could touch upon total destruction and yet avoid it.
" Hi 1 Bummer, mind ! " he cried to the nigh leader of his six-
in-hand as we were whirled round a point of rocks and de
scended a grade apparently of forty-five degrees.
Bummer's track was within an inch of the edge, and there
was a chasm of hundreds of feet below. If his foot had slipped
one inch he would have taken horses, wagon, passengers and
driver with him into eternity. In this way we made a run of six
miles down the mountain in twenty-four minutes, and I came to
the conclusion that in point of comparative comfort, I have ex
perienced more of it in sending down a royal yard in a gale of
wind than in driving with Mr. Foss.
A modern Athenian had been " mapping out " for his friend
in London the tour of the United States. "You have men
tioned," said the Englishman, " many objects worthy of attention
in New York, Philadelphia, V/ashington and other towns, but
you have said nothing of your own renowned and beautiful city."
"Your appreciative remark," returned the Bostonian, "is suffi
cient evidence that it was needless for me to refer to a city so
universally knpwn."
While the most agreeable routes through the State of Cali
fornia have been described, San Francisco has scarcely been
mentioned. She has no history like the Puritan capital, of
two hundred and fifty years, no venerable shades of Harvard,
no old families who trace their lineage back to a convenient

124 ^-^^ ROUND TRIP.
epoch within the range of three centuries; for her aristocracy is
not developed, though its bud has the promise of a full-blown
flower. But while the queen of the Atlantic has her rivals, who
perhaps vainly atternpt to surpass her, the empress of the Pacific
has none.
Commerce settled upon the noble bay of San Francisco,
and laughs at the puny efforts of all the little sea-coast-towns
from San Diego to the north to divide the spoils. The history
of the city is one of thirty years — scarcely that — for her unkempt
infancy of three years should not enter into the account. The
" old forty-niners " consider themselves her founders, and when
they look back through a vista of little more than a quarter of a
century, and turn their gaze upon themselves and their surround
ings, they may well wonder if all is reality, and if some part of
their eventful lives has not been spent in Rip Van Winkle sleep.
With its three hundred thousand inhabitants, among them
scores of men exceeding in wealth fhe like number in the world,
its streets lined with warehouses, banks, churches, shops and
princely dwellings, its squares set apart for colleges and institu
tions of public charity, its hotels unrivalled in extent and mag
nificence, and, above all, its commanding situation, and climate
sans peur ct sans reproche for at least ten months of the year, San
Francisco, though yet in its youth, is the ruler of the Pacific
coast, and is fast becoming the commercial monarch to whom
the islands of the sea, Japan, China and New Zealand will pay
their abundant and willing tribute.
Every observant traveller discovers this at a glance, and it
needs not to be told. One learns it all in a day, but it took
the weeks that we so pleasantly passed to obtain a correct
idea of the natural beauties and the agricultural resources
of the State. It would be an ungracious task to criticise certain

REVIEW. 125
elements of society differing in many respects from the eastern
ideal. Praise might be regarded as fulsome, and dissent as
querulous. A regular standard of good breeding is scarcely to
be expected of a society recently in a chaotic condition, and now
hastily forming out of a mosaic of mankind which first requires
cementing before it can receive its polish. This in due time will
gloss over all its irregularities. '

126 THE ROUND TRIP.

CHAPTER XVII.
" The Chinese Problem."
The great social question agitating San Francisco, and to a
certain extent the State of California, is, " Shall the Chinese go ? "
Their presence is objected to because they teach immorality and
because they " take the bread out of the mouths " of white la
borers. ^
Now the danger of immoral teaching from a class who keep
their immorality, which is exaggerated to the last degree, chiefly
pent up in their own quarter of the city, is very sligbt in the way
of contagion, and the pretence of their " taking bread from
other people's mouths " is very feeble, so long as white hotel-
waiters can obtain thirty dollars per month, and chambermaids
twenty five dollars per month, including the bread for their
mouths and all the dainties offered to the guests.
There is no part of the United States where labor of all
kinds commands higher wages than in California, and none
where living is less expensive. Food is cheap, and rents
not exhorbitant, while people, if they choose, may live out of

" THE CHINESE PROBLEM." 127
doors, with advantage to health, the greater part of the year.
The Chinese confer a positive benefit upon the State in keeping
labor within reasonable bounds, and thus enabling it to raise and
export immense crops of grain. It would be well if they should
occupy all the servile positions in the cities and drive aristo
cratic white servants and troublesome " hoodlums " into the
country, where they can always find employment.
The worst that can be said of the Mongol is, that he is a
labor-saving machine, which is very much needed while labor
rules at its present high price. He may be classed with sewing
machines, reapers and headers. These are composed of needles,
springs and iron teeth, whereas he is a thing of bone and muscle.
They are the offspring of art ; he is the offspring of nature.
Voilct tout. The advantages of employing either kind of
machinery are equal, and the objections against the one are as
forcible as they are against the other.
Our sympathies were certainly with the 'Chinese when we
were told at a large wheat ranche, in reply to the question why
none of them were employed : " We dare not do it. If we did,
our crops and buildings would be burned, as for the same cause
they were burned at Chico."
Last summer I met a sociably-disposed gentleman on the
boat running from Vallejo to San Francisco. We drifted on to
the Chinese question, upon which he appeared to be thoroughly
informed. He was decidedly in favor of importing more
Chinese, instead of limiting the immigration. He said that as
house servants they were invaluable. He was confident that
without their competition the Irish waiters and chambermaids
would demand such wages that families in moderate circum
stances would be compelled to do all their own work. He
thought that instead of interfering with American mechanics

128 THE ROUND TRIP.
they were a positive advantage to the home, industry of Cali
fornia. He gave a forcible illustration of this. A large boot and
shoe factory in Sacramento was competing favorably with the
eastern market and lessening the demand from that quarter.
One hundred and fifty white men and fifty Chinamen were
employed in the establishment. About that time Kearney came
to Sacramento and said that " those Chinese must go." They
went accordingly, and the result was that white men not being
able to do the work for which they were appointed, the whole
concern was run at a loss and finally broken up, so that the hun
dred and fifty white men were thrown out of employment by their
own act. This was only one of many cases in point.
If I had not been convinced already that the Chinese are
profitable to California as railroad builders and fruit-growers
this intelligent reasoner would have satisfied me.
On parting at the wharf we exchanged cards, and I found
that he was the editor of the — well, I will not " go back " on the
profession — but he was the editor of a newspaper having as
wide a circulation as any other in the State. " May I use your
name in my correspondence ? " I asked.
" Good heavens, no !" he exclaimed, "this is only private
talk ; I don't utter such sentiments in my newspaper ! " I found
that he did not, for in all California there was not a more violent
anti-Chinese newspaper than the  !
The senseless nature of the excitement against the Chinese
should be at once apparent when we reflect that their number is
absolutely decreasing in a considerable ratio, while that of the
white population is increasing so fast that the next census is
relied upon to give California 900,000 inhabitants.
At the close of 1876 there were in the United States alto-

« THE CHINESE PROBLEM:' 129
gether 104,963 Chinese. They have since decreased 7,900,
leaving 97,063, of whom there are computed to be in California
and Oregon 62,500, and in San Francisco and its neighborhood
25,450. What a fearful " invasion of pauper labor " is this !
Now let us tabulate this invading army from data given by
the Chinese themselves which correspond with the acknowledged
statistics of our own authorities : —
Cigar-makers  ,  2,500
Clothing manufacturers  2,000
Vegetable pedlers  500
"Laundrymen  1,500
Shoemakers  1,800
Watch manufacturers  150
"Woollen mills  .'.,  350
Fishermen  ,  800
Jute factories  600
Various small manufactures  1,50°
Domestic servants  /  6,000
Doctors, druggists and teachers  3°°
Merchants, clerks and porters  2,800
All other occupations  2,150
No legitimate regular calling  1,200
Children of school age [denied admission to our schools)  i,309
25.450
There are twenty-five thousand four hundred and fifty Chinese,
most of whom it is admitted are mere sojourners without fam
ilies, who are expected to capture a city of three hundred thousand
•people, to reduce its laborers to starvation and to demoralize
them utterly ! And this list of their occupations is a proof of
their " enforced pauper labor ! "
We have no statistics of the employment of the other 37,050
Chinese who are about to subjugate a million people in Califor
nia and Oregon, or of the remaining 34,563 who are scattered
like incendiary fire-brands among the 45,000,000 people of the
9

130 THE ROUND TRIP.
United States. But it is fair to take the same divisions that
exist in San Francisco.
This table disposes of the question of pauper labor ; and
its enforcement may be set at rest by a declaration of six
respectable Chinese merchants : —
" We solemnly declare that we, the Six Chinese Companies,
are purely benevolent societies. We never, singly or collec
tively, as individuals or companies, ever brought one of our
countrymen to this free country, under or by any contract or
agreement, made anywhere, as a servant or laborer. We never
have before heard that our people desiring to come here sold
their relatives to obtain the means to come. We have never
yet let, hired, or contracted one of our people out to labor ;
neither have we ever exercised the slightest control or restraint
over our people after they came here, nor claimed, or demanded,
or received one dollar of their earnings. We have never acted,
directly or indirectly, as the agent or agents of any one of our
people who advanced the means for one of our people to come
here.
" Lin Chuck Fong,
" Lee Ge Qung,
" Wing Puey Yung,
" Wong Sue Foo,
" Lou KUNG Chai,
" Chin Kung Chen,
" Presidents of Six Companies.
" San Francisco, February 12, 1879."

" THE CHINESE PROBLEM." 131
Here is a statement compiled from Municipal Reports of
City and County of San Francisco : —
hospital.
City and County of San Francisco for the year ending June ^oth, 1878.
"Whole number admitted  3067
Natives of the United States  913
" Ireland  948
" China  o
" all other countries  1140
alms house.
City and County of San Francisco for the year ending June yth, 1878.
Whole number admitted  472
Natives of the United States,  138
" Ireland  .1 175
' China  1
" all other nations  158
CHIEF of police.
City and County of San Francisco for the year ending June y^th, 1878.
Number of arrests for drunkenness  6127
" Chinese  o
While there can be no question that Kearneyism and news
paper enterprise for political purpose^are at the bottom of all
the anti-Chinese agitation, there is one element in it that has
not been considered. It is a humiliating confession, but there
is a dread among business men that the Chinese merchants, by
their astuteness and quick-witted comprehension of commerce,
will take the profits out of their pockets, as they are accused of
taking the bread out of the mouths of Irish laborers.
While figures go far to prove that the Chinese are not
burdensome upon the community, as they pay their full quota
of taxation, they show, moreover, that they are competing for
trans-pacific commerce

[32 THE ROUND TRIP.
In 1878 the Chinese paid : —
Internal Revenue taxes in San Francisco alone.  ^8550,000
Poll taxes in the State  180,000
Licenses in the State  41,000
Property taxes  220,000
Duties paid on imports  1,768,000
#2,759,000
In the same year they exported merchandise valued at
$3,109,320, of which there were 209,000 barrels of flour.
In short, nine-tenths of all the exports to China were made
by Chinese Coolies !
The banking and insurance systems are now thoroughly
comprehended by the Chinese. They are establishing their
own banks and insurance offices, and they have in serious con
templation the project of a steamship line across the Pacific
under their own flag.
This enterprise is perfectly feasible. China, in one respect
at least, is more free than the United States. The Chinese may
buy their steamships where they please. With ships at a greatly
reduced cost, victualled and manned at half the expense, their
only necessity at first being that a few European officers should
be employed, these hated foreigners may sweep our commerce
from the Pacific seas, and the Stars and Stripes, even now rarely
seen upon those waters, may totally disappear !
This is another reason why " the Chinese must go.'' They
must go because they are too willing servants, and because they
may become too powerful masters.
For the prospective gain of Irish votes, demagogues on both
: sides, backed up by their partisan adherents, are willing to
'destroy the tools with which the prosperity of their State was
constructed.

" THE CHINESE PROBLEM." 133
Their railroads have been built "by Chinese. They have
drained swamps that by their labor only could have been
reclaimed, and made the most productive land, giving employ
ment to thousands of white men in agriculture.
They supply the markets with fruit and vegetables, which
otherwise could not be produced in such -abundance. They are
the best workers in the vineyards, and they perforin menial
services that no European would undertake.
It is not true that they invariably work for very low wages.
As soon as they work as intelligently as white men, they
often obtain equal rates with them. It cannot be otherwise.
Employers understand their value, as quiet, orderly, industrious
temperate men, and therefore prefer them at the same price.
That they live in crowded dens in San Francisco, not so
crowded, however, as the tenement dens of New York, is unde
niable, and it is a disgrace to the municipal government which
permits it. So far from being personally uncleanly, they are
remarkable for the neatness of their dress and the daily ablution
of their persons.
Like the Irish, they send money home to their relatives,
and are to be commended for it. The gold and silver of Cali
fornia is a product of its soil as much as wheat and wine, and
its export is of no greater injury to the country than the export
of cereals. When they go home they carry with them for dis
semination the knowledge they have acquired, some of which it
would be better for them to forget.
We send missionaries back with them in the same ships, to
tell their countrymen of American civilization, and of the religion
of peace and good will to all mankind, which strangely disagrees
with their experience on our inhospitable shores.
Can we remedy all this ? Can we convince California dem-

134 THE ROUND TRIP.
i ocrats and repubhcans that they have been laboring under a
serious mistake in their estimate of Chinese character and of
their value to them as immigrants ? •
Who doubts the ability of Congress to accomplish this desir
able end ? To its everlasting disgrace, in obedience to the
insensate clamor of politicians — but for the President's veto
power — it would have humiliated our nation in the eyes of the
Christian and the heathen world by the violation of a solemn
treaty. Now let this be partially atoned, by justice to the Chinese.
Because they are yellow, not white— yellow, not black, let
our treatment of them no longer give the lie to our Declara
tion of Independence and to our profession of religion. Let us
prove our belief that all men are free and equal, and that God
" hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all
the face of the earth."
Let us give the Chinese the boon of suffrage. Then, while
they are with us aiding us to develop our industries, they will
not be treated as pariahs and beasts of burden. The only danger
will be that they may be too much fiattered and caressed. And
when they return to their home, we may send missionaries with
them with better grace, for they can tell the Chinese that the
Christian religion is practised by ourselves.

ALONG THE COAST TO OREGON, ETC. 135

CHAPTER XVIII.
Along the Coast to Oregon — Discovery of the Colum
bia River — The Bar — Industries of Oregon — Salmon
Fishery.
The Californian measures every thing by the scale of his
own aspirations. A million of dollars for him is not a large
fortune. Beets and turnips of eastern immensity are vegetables
of a fair size at his agricultural exhibitions, farms of ten thou
sand acres are modest properties, a tree equal to a New Eng
land forest clamped together is not an extraordinary bit of tim
ber, and when he talks of a run among the Sierras or the ascent
of Mount Shasta he is merely " going to the hills." As to ex
cursions, he looks upon twenty or thirty miles up and down the
bay or a trip along the coast of one or two hundred miles to
Santa Cruz and other little outposts as afternoon relaxations
from business. A voyage to Japan or China to him is not much
in excess of a' New Yorker's idea of a visit to Fire Island or
Long Branch. As California can be compared to no other
country, so a Californian can be compared to no other man, in
his estimate of measures, weights, distances and himself. "You
ought, by all means," said my friend, " to make a little excursion

136 THE ROUND TRIP.
to Oregon. Everybody goes there now for an outing. The
whole ' paseo' " — this is a pleasant little word of the old Span
iards — " can be done in ten or fifteen days. It is only about
twenty-five hundred miles altogether, going and returning.
There are three lines of steamships. The accommodations are
excellent, the fare good, and the price reasonable. Go ! " We
went. The George W. Elder, of the regular line, was built by Mr.
John Roach, of the Delaware, a gentleman protected by our
government in the monopoly of shipbuilding, which means that
all Americans are obliged to buy ships upon his terms. This
theory of protection dOes not apply to the lives or purses of
the people, but merely to the emolument of Mr. Roach. In this
instance, the George W. Elder, of round bottom and needless
breadth of beam, not being quite ready to work herself to pieces,
pitched all the time that she was not rolling, and rolled all the
time that she was not pitching, and finally, though leisurely,
landed her passengers in safety. There were one hundred and
sixty-five in, on, and around the cabin, »and another crowd in the
steerage who were much more comfortable in regard to space.
We were four days in accomplishing seven hundred and forty
miles. One hundred and fifty of them were of river navigation,
during which the hitherto sea-sick wretches were able to stand
up and make more room for themselves and others.
Coasting along a bold shore for the first two days, the Cal
ifornia characteristics were predominant. The grass of the early
spring was dry, and the hills, cleared of trees, presented a
barren appearance. Yet the dry, yellow grass was good food
for cattle and sheep, while here and there, in some shady
canon, their owners lived in comfortable ranches upon the
increase of their flocks and herds. Across the Coast Range, and

ALONG THE COAST TO OREGON, ETC. 137
in the interval between it and the distant Sierras, the map tells
us of vast plains chosen by an ever-increasing population for
pasturage and farms. As we drew to the north and passed the
Oregon line, the dull, dry, barren appearance of the coast gave
place to verdant grass and thickly studded firs and pines. In
Oregon nature does not divide her rain and sunshine in two
great halves, as she metes them out in California. Here it rains
and shines by turns, as smiles and tears alternate on those happy
faces never distorted by immoderate laughter or drawn down
by persistent grief. The California farmer is contented in
one way, and the farmer of Oregon is contented in another.
The first consoles himself for the long winter rains with the fixed
assurance that he will have an abundant harvest, reaped at his
leisure, stacked and thrashed in the fields without fear of storm
and without need of a barn. Then he counts with certainty
upon his thirty-five bushels of wheat to the acre. But if the
winter be dry, what then ? Why he is happy all the same in
calculating that two dry winters never come in succession.
When short crops and starving cattle stare him in the face, his
philosophy is scarcely equal to the emergency.
On the other hand, the farmer of Oregon counts on a
smaller crop, but he counts with a greater certainty. There are
for him no alternating years of abundance and drought, no per
petually rainy winters and summers of steady sunshine. Prov-
¦ idence does not send for him its gifts in large parcels or none,
but it sifts them more equally over his path. He must build
barns and sheds as he was accustomed to build them in the
East, but his store-houses will be filled with plenty. In point of
prosperous agriculture and grazing, inasmuch as certainty is
preferable to spasmodic luck, the inducements to settle in
Oregon are' superior to those which California offers. And if

138 THE ROUND TRIP.
taste and beauty enter into a man's calculations, as they always
unconsciously touch his soul, the dark green forests, the mossy
rocks, the scarcely lighter shade of pastures and meadows, ever '
present to his eye of sense, educate and refine his inward
nature, and give him and his children a wholesome pleasure
unknown to those who dwell for half the year in a dust that
chokes all poetry out of their existence.
On a beautiful Sunday morning we approached the Heads of
the Columbia River. Before us lay basking in the sunshine the
smooth expanse of water which Vancouver in 1792 mistook for
a bay. It is surprising that, being on a special errand to find
the traditionary river or strait which in dreams of early nav
igators formed the connection between the Pacific and the
Atlantic, he should have passed the promising inlet with so little
examination. Equally remarkable it is that Captain Gray, of the
merchantman Columbia, whose only object was trade and a
speedy termination of his voyage, should have turned aside and
made the great discovery. The modest skipper did not seek
for the fame his name has acquired, but overhauling Van
couver, told him where he might find the river. His informa
tion treated with contempt. Gray resolved to prove the truth of
his impressions. Turning back from his route, he again sighted
the headlands.
The determination of purpose which overcame his scruples
may be imagined. His ship was commissioned for no scientific
purpose. She was not insured against any such attendant risk.
His business was to sell his cargo, to buy another, and to come
back to Boston. But the Englishman had ridiculed him, and he
would not stand it. The dawn of May 11, eighty-seven years
ago, found him again heading for the bar with a fair wind. The
water was too rough for a boat to take soundings ahead. The

ALONG THE COAST TO OREGON, ETC. 139
breakers were combing and dashing far out on the shoals from
either headland, and in view of the danger before him on this
unknown shore, the question arose with startling abruptness,
" Shall I haul off before it is too late, or shall I make the at
tempt ? " It was decided in an instant. " Hard a-port your
helm ; keep her E. N. E." Slowly the Columbia surged ahead,
and gathering way as the wind filled her sails, she dashed
onward, rising and falling on the foamy crests. Cool and calm
sat the " old man " on the foretopsail yard, with an eye on the
darkest and smoothest water ahead, changing the course as
these indications were before him. Regularly was " the lead
kept going " from the chains. Now she shoals from ten fathoms
to nine, and eight, seven, six, five 1 She is coming to the bar.
Suddenly the measured song, crying, " By — the — he — mark —
five ! " is followed by the excited leadsman, who has no time to
sing, with sharp conciseness, " and a quarter three, sir ! "
" Steady as you go ! " calls Captain Gray.
" Steady ! " repeats the mate.
" Steady, sir ! " echoes the man at the wheel. A' big sea
heaves the Columbia on its crest ; then she settles in its trough ;
then rises again, and slides before it.
" By — the — he — deep — four ! " is now the song from the
chains ; the next cast gives " and a quar-her-ter-five ! " the next
" By the — he — mark — ten ! " and the good ship is over the bar.
The long-time fabled great river of the West now found, had
come down from its still unknown mountains to meet and wel
come the daring sailor. With all this there came to him no
feeling of pride or exultation beyond the simple desire to fall in
with Vancouver again and to hail him with " I told you so."
This he did, and then the Englishman, piloted by the experience
of Captain Gray, entered the river and claimed it for his sover-

140 THE ROUND TRIP.
eign by the right of discovery ! History has told us how the
conflicting pretensions of America and England were adjusted,
how the title of the former was confirmed, and how the appro
priate name of Gray's little ship was given to the river.
The poetry and beauty of the Columbia remain to-day almost
as fresh as in 1792. True the Indian wjgwams have disap
peared. "Vast numbers of canoes come out to meet us" no
more as they met Captain Gray. Instead of these, towns and
villages are springing up on the river's banks, steamboats are
ploughing its waters, and wholesale trade in lumber, wheat, wool
and fish has taken the place of a simple exchange of commod
ities by barter. All these modern improvements mar the great
picture of Nature, but they have not yet cut down the boundless
forests, they can never level the grand moun-tains or turn the
channel of the mighty stream that rolls through their gorges to
the sea.
An early superstition, more inexcusable in our day than that
in ancient times hanging over the Cyclades and fearful Scylla
and Charybdis, is still attached to the bar of Columbia River.
It would not have been surprising if Captain Gray had hesitated
to cross it in 1792 when the soundings were totally unknown, or
if the navigators who immediately succeeded him had ap
proached the breakers first encountered by the Columbia with
nervous apprehension. But nearly a century has elapsed, the
river has been surveyed by officers of the British and Amer
ican navies, accurate charts have been published, experienced
pilots cruise in the offing, steam-tugs are always to be found,
and yet great fears are entertained by those who approach the
coast for the first time, and underwriters actually demand an
extra premium on vessels bound to ports in Oregon at any season
of the year. In the course of time this unfounded prejudice will

ALONG THE COAST TO OREGON, ETC. 141
be overcome, but while it lasts it certainly is a most needless
drawback to the prosperity of Oregon and Washington Territory.
On entering and leaving the river. Captain Bolles kindly gave
me the opportunity of examining his charts and observing the
courses. This, with what I have been told by pilots and have
gained from other authorities, establishes the conclusion that,
with equal care and prudence, the bar of the Columbia for the
greater part of the year is not more dangerous than that at
Sandy Hook. Even in comparatively early experience, from
1861 to 1869, when the north-west coast was by no means so
accurately surveyed as at present, there was this authentic
record of disaster : " In eight years there were one hundred and
ninety-eight accidents, one hundred and ten of which happened
to small coasting vessels, and of these only three occurred on
the bar of the Columbia. The records of the Pilot Commis
sion show that only nine vessels have been wrecked at or near
the bar in the last twenty-five years. Nine disasters in about
twelve thousand five hundred crossings give a loss of only seven
one-hundredths of one per centum."
Captain Maginn, formerly a New York Pilot Commissioner,
who ought to be able to make just comparisons, says : —
" There is deep water on the bar, it having four and one-half
fathoms without the addition of the tide, while New York har
bor has on the bar but four fathoms, without the addition of the
tide, which is six feet. The bar in the Columbia is about half a
mile across, while that of New York is three-quarters. The
channel of the bar at the mouth of the Columbia is about
6,000 feet, and shoals gradually, while the channel of the bar at
Sandy Hook is about 600 feet and shoals rapidly ; the channel
across the bar is straight at the Columbia ; that at New York is
crooked.''

142 THE ROUND TRIP.
On this authority it is safe to conclude that at high watei
vessels drawing twenty-two feet may cross the bar, and those
drawing nineteen feet may do so at half-tide. At low water and
in storms, when the breakers are making the rise and fall of the
sea unusually great, it is of course prudent to haul off and await
a more favorable opportunity ; and it must be allowed th,at such
occasions are not unfrequent in the winter.
This exaggerated dread of a bugbear has greatly retarded
the direct trade of Oregon with the outside world, and placed
her at the disadvantage of double shipments, making her a mere
tributary to California. The Oregon and Washington farmers,
upon the average, can produce greater crops of wheat than
their neighbor can depend upon in all years, some of which are
cursed with drought, but hitherto they have been able to ob
tain equal prices for their produce. They have had various
impediments in the way of success. In the first place, although
they are mostly settled in valleys watered by large rivers, these
are blocked by natural obstacles, some of which cannot be over
come by canals. Then the railroad system is not far advanced,
notwithstanding that it is measurably so for a sparsely inhabited
country. For most of the year, with occasional but very expensive
portages, the Columbia River is navigable two hundred and fifty
miles from its mouth, and the Snake one hundred and fifty miles
frorh its junction with it in Eastern Oregon. The Willamette,
one of the chief affluents of the Columbia, is for nearly all the
year navigable for more than one hundred miles. Now, Walla
Walla, the best producing county of the State, cannot send its
wheat to San Francisco at a cost of less than sixty cents per
bushel, a surrender of one-half its value. Near and distant
districts will average that ratio. This estimate holds good

ALONG THE COAST TO OREGON, ETC. 143
regarding wool, hides, and all other products. Even without
counting the necessary expense of transportation from the fields
to the principal shipping ports, the loss to the farmers in ocean
freight to San Francisco is from five to seven hundred thousand
dollars every year. The great requirements of Oregon and
Washington Territory are, therefore, internal facilities of carriage
and a direct export trade. The first must await time and capi
tal, the last can be brought about by ordinary intelligence and
enterprise. Already the advantages are beginning to be com
prehended. Seventy-five thousand tons of wheat were last year exported,
chiefiy to Great Britain. This was carried in sixty-nine vessels,
and it is incidentally worthy of remark that only nine of these
were under the American flag. The whole crop of wheat for the
last year was two hundred and fifty thousand tons, only about
one-third of which was directly exported. Beside this there was
no inconsiderable quantity of barley, oats, fruits, bacon and
hides, most of these articles having been sent to San Francisco.
Sheep-farming being a prominent industry, the export and
coastwise shipment of wool is annually becoming greater. The
quality is of a high grade, and the quantity last year amounted
to six million pounds: Not the least important of all is the
salmon trade, so enormously enlarged of late that it will soon
be destroyed by reckless fishing unless speedy precautions are
taken to regulate it. In view of such a result the Legislature of
Washington Territory has passed a bill not only exacting heavy
licenses, but prohibiting the use of traps, seines and nets of less
than eight-and-a-half inch meshes. This will prevent the cap
ture of yourlg fish, and as it is intended to stock the river yearly
with spawn the wholesale destruction now going on may be
averted. It is expected that Oregon will confirm this action.

144 "^^^ ROUND TRIP.
In 1877, the thirty-one canneries which we saw distributed
on both sides of the river packed three hundred and ninety-five
thousand cases of forty-eight pounds each. We had an opportu
nity to see the operations of several establishments. All is sys
tematic, from landing the fish to shipping the cases. The sal
mon are first chopped into sections, then into pound-pieces, then
put in tin boxes, soldered, subjected to various degrees of heat
and to exhaustion of air. The boxes are finally colored, labelled
and packed. Chinese are chiefly employed in all this' indoor
work, as their labor is not only less expensive but more expert
than that of white men, who are mostly occupied in catching the
fish. They have the use of the boats and nets of their employ
ers and receive thirty-three cents for every fish they bring in.
Six thousand men are thus engaged.
It is a curious fact that Columbia River salmon can never be
taken with the hook. When the British Commission came out
here to investigate matters during the dispute with the United
States, it is said that they attached little value to a stream
"where the blasted fish would not take a fly ! "
I have touched upon the principal industries of Oregon and
Washington Territory bordering upon and divided from it by the
Columbia River, which find a profit from abroad. As to the
lumber trade having a market at home and in California, indeed
all along the west coast of America, it is inexhaustible, for these
regions are forest homes. The mineral wealth of the country,
yet undeveloped, is incalculable.

WILLAMETTE VALLEY.

US

CHAPTER XIX.
Astoria — Portland — Willamette Valley — Scenery of the
Columbia — The Dalles — Indian Troubles — Oregon's Op
portunity — Departure.
Having crossed the bar of the Columbia, before us on the
Oregon side of the river is the little town of Astoria. City it is,
like every collection of houses, great or small, in the West. As
toria is the first city in the State — the first that was founded, as
it is the first in approach. It came into life with a struggle, was
choked in its infancy by the rivalry of the Hudson's Bay Com
pany, and has not yet recovered from the hardships of its youth.
Now it lives on its history of the past chronicled in the poetic
prose of Irving, on its expectations of the future, and on salmon.
It is supposed to belong to Oregon, but it seems to dread
going ashore, so it stays out in the harbor, built on piles. The
streets are all bridges, and the cellars of the houses are watery
depths. The Astorians say that lumber is cheap, and that plank
and water are not dusty. They are satisfied with the land they
see in abundance behind them piled up in the coast range of
mountains, where they occasionally go ashore to hunt deer and
grouse. This aquatic tendency is not peculiar to Astoria.
Every town at which we touched on the river pushes itself into

146 THE ROUND TRIP.
the water and has its plank-road streets and drives. Nobody
knows why, only it is the fashion.
The .steamship discharged a littie freight, took on board a
littie more, and then late in the afternoon steamed away for
Portland. We were to lose the anticipated view of the scenery,
but the loss was compensated by a brilliant sunset. The refrac
tion of the atmosphere magnified the sun to an unusual size, as
in his full blaze he dropped behind the waves and streamed his
rays along our path, just lighting us into the channel between
the hills that began to encircle us with their shadows. Long
after the bright day had left the lower plains its parting rays
gilded the snowy summit of St. Helen's, until at last this highest
peak was shrouded in darkness.
The morning found us at the wharf in Portland. This com
mercial capital of Oregon is one hundred miles from Astoria,
near the mouth of the Willamette, which. pours into the Columbia
and is its largest affluent. The city can be reached by vessels
drawing sixteen feet, and having been established early, has
maintained a business pre-eminence scarcely warranted by a situ
ation much less favorable than that of Astoria. It has its banks,
great shops, and not a few semi-millionaires, who live in costly if
not elegant houses, for wood, the universal building material, is
not susceptible of architectural beauty. This sentiment may be
treasonable to the shingle palaces not only of Portland but of
San Francisco, where such structures cost a million of dollars,
and yet are ugly in proportion to their pretentious magnificence.
Portiand is wood above and wood below, wood where'er we go ;
and now perhaps we have discovered why it is built over the
water, on which it has so frequent occasion to call for extinguish
ing its fires. Its population is fifteen thousand.
The California and Oregon Railroad is a projected thorough-

WILLAMETTE VALLEY.

147

fare, finished at each end, but exceedingly open in the middle.
It extends from Sacramento north to Redding, and from Port
land south to Roseberg, with a stage coach interval of two hun
dred and eighty miles. It is seldom used by travellers to Cali
fornia, who prefer the more comfortable steamship route, unless,
as does not often happen, a day or two are worth gaining at the
cost of no inconsiderable fatigue and expense. When the in
ducements become greater the whole line may be opened, but
the day is far distant when it can derive a profit from through
passengers and freight. We made an excursion upon it as far as
Albany, eighty-one miles from Portland. Its course is along the
banks of the Willamette River through the valley of the same
name. Every rule of pronunciation is set at defiance by calling
this word Will-Hammet, but, as the river belongs to the Orego-
nians, they are not to be held to account for naming their own
pets as they please. .
Scarcely do we leave Portland when we dive into a primeval
forest of fir and pine, giving out balsamic odors and yielding a
most grateful shade. Flickering rays of sunlight dart through
the deep shadows, and the sunbeams have full play on the river
flowing by our side, sparkling between its green borders. Fif
teen miles and we reach the falls of the Willamette — ^great rapids
that come tumbling down with a roar to the site of the " old city
of Oregon." Old ? Yes ; it was a trading post fifty years ago, ere Oregon
was a State, or even a territory. It is now a thriving manufac
turing village, its flour mills having a merited celebrity. The
falls are overcome by a short canal, allowing steamboats of a
light draught to pass upward.
We now come into a rich farming district, wheat being the
chief product. Land is worth all prices, according to its im-

148 THE ROUND TRIP.
provements and nearness to the railroad or river, most of the
government sections being taken up. The railroad has many
acres still for sale at low rates. Thirty bushels of wheat is an
average crop, and thus far the harvests have never been inter
fered with by drought or insects. Winding along through a well-
cultivated region, amidst wheatfields and orchards, with pretty
farm-houses ensconced in pine groves which an unusual eye for
taste and comfort among new settlers has left undisturbed, we
come to Salem.
Salem is neatly laid out with wide and shady streets, has
three thousand inhabitants, and, as the capital, yearly contains
the representative wisdom of one hundred and fifty thousand
people. The State House was pointed out to us. It was within
its walls that the Cronin certificate was signed, and, therefore,
although the political scheme was unsuccessful, the State House
of Oregon will be as memorable in history as those of Louisiana
and Florida, where the machinery of President-making was bet
ter oiled and made to run more smoothly.
For thirty miles we traversed a country similar to that
already passed, and were assured that it continued along the
whole line of the road to Roseberg. Then we reached Albany,
a town not much inferior to Salem. This was the limit of our
excursion. By no means did we see the whole of the Willamette
Valley, extending with its connections over a fine agricultural
country one hundred miles long and fifty miles' wide. It is one
of the most productive tracts of what is called Western Oregon,
a term comprising that part of the State lying between the sea-
coast and the Cascade Mountains, running from north to south
one hundred miles in the interior, from the forty-second to the
forty-sixth parallel of latitude ; and this is but a small part of
the State. Eastern Oregon has more than twice its extent, and

WILLAMETTE VALLEY. 149
its soil has equal capabilities. The whole of the State embraces
sixty millions of acres, very few of which are not susceptible of
cultivation. Vast tracts of the mountains are timber lands, and
stilh larger districts are ready for cattle, sheep-raising and farm
ing purposes. In fact, there is no State of the Union where
there is lesS waste land in proportion to the total area.
With all these advantages added to a convenient geograph
ical position and a salubrious climate, the present and future
population of Oregon ought to be prosperous and happy.
Beyond its commercial value, its trade and fisheries, its sites
for cities, and its valleys producing wheat and fruit, the Colum
bia is beautiful. As Niagara is never considered with calcula
tions of its mill-driving water-power, and the Rhine is not esti
mated according to its importance as a highway for transporta
tion, so the great river of the West "will ere long be visited by
tourists, painters and poets for the gratification of a higher taste
than the lumberman, the fisherman or the farmer connects with
his practical vocation. Unconsciously our people are being
educated to this standard.
As the memory of the rich morsels gathered in the universal
reading of the present age sweetens the daily toil of the laborer,
so the pictures of nature presented to his eye are ever hanging,
though unseen, in his workshop, his cabin and his tenement.
He joins an excursion party for the pleasure he anticipates from
the "refreshments" and a dance. He takes his children to
" give them a little fresh air," but he gets more than he bargained
for in gaining for himself elevation of thought, and for them
lessons from a teaching higher than that of their school-books.
As we leave Portland to visit the Dalles we find among our
fellow-passengers all sorts and conditions of men, women, and
children too ; some from the town and many who have come

150 THE ROUND TRIP.
from San Francisco to enjoy the wonderful scenery of the Co
lumbia River. They have taken it home with them as we have
done, and it will last us all forever.
The "Wide West" is, as all the river steamboats are, a
stern-wheel boat adapted to the navigation of shoal water. She
appeared to be about fifteen hundred tons measurement, an
immense raft carrying all her cargo on deck, and all her pas
sengers above it in an elegant saloon, where there is luxurious
furniture and well-spread tables, and in roomy staterooms, where
every appliance for comfort is at hand. Do you remember the
little steamboats on the Rhine with their narrow hmits ? You
may compare them with the " Wide West," as you may compare
the Rhine with the Columbia in size and scenery. You may do
this without detracting one iota from the Rhine of its beauty or
its history.
.Here we see nothing as yet of vine-clad hills, although our
descendants may, nor are there any remnants of feudal castles.
But there are hills that would be called mountains there, and
mountains so-called even in this land where ordinary moun
tains are spoken of as hills. They are on each side and around,
even above, as they seem ready to topple over from their sum
mits thousands of feet high, all covered with grand forests of pine
and firs from their base to their tops, where the tallest of them
seem like bushes and shrubs. The casties of the Columbia are
the masonry of Nature's hand, deftly chiselled by floods and gla
ciers, piled up in regular, irregular and fanciful blocks — battlements
designed by an Almighty architect, and existing from an age ap
proaching the eternity of the world's beginning. I do not pro
pose to describe the indescribable. You may import it in min
iature by photographic piecemeal, but to know any thing of its
beauty and sublimity it must be seen.

WILLAMETTE VALLEY. 151
Turning the point of the Willamette, by which we entered the
river twelve miles below Portland, we again ascend the Colum
bia. Six miles above the junction, on the Washington Territory
side, lies the military station of Vancouver. The hardships of a
soldier's frontier life are lightly estimated as we look upon the
green lawn charmingly sloping from the base of the moun
tains, and dotted with the neat quarters of the officers and bar
racks of the troops ; but when we consider their perilous duty
in Indian warfare, we think them entitled to all the enjoyment
they can get in so lovely a home. This was an old post of the
Hudson's Bay Company, and in early days was the scene of such
dangerous and romantic adventures as are now pushed far be
yond its limits.
As we wind through the tortuous channel, occasionally catch
ing glimpses of Mount Hood, eighty miles away, crowned with
perpetual snow, eleven thousand feet in the air, we come to the
" Gorge of the Columbia." For more than fifty miles we pass
through and among the mountains of the " Cascade range."
The river at its mouth, six miles wide, pinches into a deep and
narrow channel as it cuts through perpendicular cliffs with
smooth, straight sides, three thousand' feet high, where some
times the cataracts, beginning with a pouring stream at the top,
reach the base in a scattering spray.
Passing up forty-five miles from Vancouver we come to the
Lower Cascades, where the rapids are so impetuous that naviga-
' 'tion is interrupted. Here the steamboat discharges her passen-
; gers, to be transferred to a railroad six miles long, cut through 1
the rocky banks of the river. Reaching the end of the portage.-
we take passage in another steamboat of equal size and similar,
' construction, called the " Mountain Queen," and are carried by
her to the portage of the Dalles, sixty miles beyond. There is,
30

152 THE ROUND TRIP.
again a railroad transportation of fifteen miles, and navigation
is resumed by another steamboat, which goes one hundred and
twenty miles further to Wallula, and if the state of the water
allows, many miles above, far into the territory of Idaho, across
the limits of Oregon.
We reached the Dalles in the afternoon, when, by the courtesy
of General Sprague, the superintendent of the line, who accom
panied us, a special train was provided, by which we had an
opportunity to see the rapids and to return to the Mountain
Queen at night. " Dalles " is an Indian word, signifying a deep
narrow, racing, roaring, boiling, swirling, seething, leaping rush
of waters. It must be a more expressive word than is afforded
by our language, and it is wisely retained.
We followed the torrent up the fifteen miles of its course.
Sometimes it became smooth and wide for an instant, then,
darted down in its mad career through the lava-beds, impatient
of restraint. In one spot the great Columbia is narrowed to a
channel only ninety-five feet wide, and of a depth which the rapidity
of the, current has never permitted to be sounded. This was the
limjt of our voyage. Beyond, the scenery is not so interesting,
the mountains being less densely wooded above the Cascades,
and the river coming quietly down to the rapids and gorges
where it begins its wild activity.
A few days more, had they been at our disposal, might have
been profitably passed in visiting Walla-Walla and the other
farming regions on the upper Columbia and Snake rivers. It
would not have been prudent, however, just then to penetrate
the country so far that a return might be uncertain. The Indian
depredations had driven many of the frontiersmen to seek
¦safety in the settlements, and some of them were so thoroughly

WILLAMETTE VALLEY. 153
scared that they came on board our steamboat at the Dalles and
went with us to Portland.
In many cases they had left their crops already ripened, to
be destroyed by the Indians, or to perish for want of gathering.
The distress and loss to these poor settlers cannot be estimated
by people in the East or by the paternal Government at Wash
ington. It might be, if every member of Congress owned a
tract of land in the neighborhood of the Indian reservations.
In that case we should hear less of the reduction of the army,
and some means would assuredly be devised to prevent the re
currence of these unending border troubles.
This is by no means my first acquaintance with the frontier
or with its dangers. Here, as elsewhere, we see the effect of
cause — the cause, mismanagement, and the effect, inevitable dis
aster. Mismanagement is notorious in a system that encourages
it, and to this the uprisings of the savages are to be attributed
rather than to their inherent disposition. The Government and
the settlers are equally to be blamed for what has happened :
the former, for its small appropriations, made smaller still by
Indian agencies ; and the latter, for encroaching upon the
reservations. Our little army is employed in punishing the Indians for the
crimes these provocations have led them to commit. This
condition of things will never cease unless with their extermina
tion, till Indian agencies are abolished, and the army, now used
to chastise the savages, driven by their injuries to raiding, shall
have the jurisdiction which will render its present occupation
needless. This authority should be still further extended. It
should reach white men as well as Indians, and should punish
with equal severity violence on either side. The true policy is
to place every reservation, and a large area of territory around

154 THE ROUND TRIP.
it, under absolute military control. With a sufficient force,
probably no greater than we have at present, order would be
preserved. These are the convictions of the most intelligent
persons in the border settlements.
The principal Indian tribes in Oregon, Idaho, and Washing-
¦ ton Territory are the Spokanes, including the Pend d'Oreil-
des and Cceurs D'Alfenes, this tribe, under the leadership of
Chief Moses, being the most formidable in numbers of any in the
North-west, having a fighting force estimated at two thousand
warriors ; the Nez-Percds, on the Nez-Perces reservation at Fort
Lapwai, Idaho Territory, the tribe, which under Chief Joseph,
J created the Indian disturbance of 1877, and the Umatillas, on
the Umatilla reservation, in Umatilla County, Oregon, forty
miles inland from Umatilla, on the Columbia River, who number
about one hundred and fifty warriors. Umapine and Black
Hawk, of this tribe, led the party who attacked and killed Egan,
the Piute chief, during the recent fight in the Blue Mountains
near their reservation. In this part of the country, also, may
be included those on the Columbia River, who are non-treaty
Indians, gaining their subsistence by hunting and fishing. Their
numbers are variously estimated at from two hundred to three
hundred. The Piutes belong on the Malheur reservation in
south-eastern Oregon. The Bannocks are placed on the Fort
Hall reservation, in south-eastern Idaho.
The fighting force of the Bannocks and Piutes, who combined
in the raid of the last year, is estimated at four hundred. The
Bannocks and Piutes, also the Utes and Snakes, are all branches
of the old Shoshone tribe. The total fighting force of the com
bined Indian tribes of the north-western States and Territories, by
a late estimate, is placed at sixteen thousand. On the Umatilla
reservation are three hundred thousand acres of the finest wheat

WILLAMETTE VALLEY. 155
lands in eastern Oregon, less than one per cent of it now
being cultivated by the Indians, while the remainder is used by
them as a range for their horses, which they raise in great
numbers, one of the old Umatilla chiefs. Homily, alone owning
several thousand. This land will produce an average of forty
bushels of wheat to the acre the first season, and from forty to
sixty bushels annually thereafter.
One great cause of Indian insurrection is very evident. As
in the Black Hills, the gold in the reservation was too great a
temptation for white men to withstand, so on these rich lands
all treaties are set at defiance. It is the old, old story of the
wolf and the lamb. It was this accursed hunger for land, equal
ling the hunger for gold, that instigated the Nez-Perc^s war of
1877. This tribe was particularly inoffensive, more intelligent than
others, and rapidly adopting the habits of civilized life. They
were noted for their strict adherence to the treaty made with
them many years ago. The war began by no fault of theirs ;
simply by the encroachment of the settlers. It became neces
sary to punish them for asserting the rights in which Govern
ment failed to protect them. They were conquered, scattered,
and removed, and now their enemies have taken up their culti
vated lands under pre-emption laws. This is the punishment
for good behavior and the reward for robbery !
The Bannocks, in Idaho, driven to despair, have now joined
the hostile Indians. Our troubles, instead of being ended, are but
begun. The Indians are in arms, or ready to take up arms, all
over the sparsely-settled districts of the western territories. In
nocent or guilty, they must be subdued. Soldiers must fight in
a bad cause. Those agents and traders who have stirred up
the insurrection will pocket their profits and keep out of harm's

156 THE ROUND TRIP.
way. The farmers who have stolen land will suffer justly, but
others who were guiltiess must suffer with them. Harvests will
perish, and houses will be burned, immigration will be checked,
and no little money must be expended.
The worst feature in the Indian's warfare is his vengeance
upon the innocent for the deeds of the guilty. Now the Gov
ernor of Oregon proposes to adopt the same policy. In his
special lettef to the sheriff of Umatilla County, dated July 18,
1878, he says: "It is not necessary, in my judgment, that any
of the Indians taken should have been personally present at any
particular murder, in order to make them amenable to the law.
Their depredations in Umatilla County may be regarded as
parts of a general combination or conspiracy for the commission
of a crime, and all who are in any way connected with it may be
regarded as principals." In other words, " Shoot an Indian
because he is an Indian wherever you may find him."
Oregon wants peace, but she might get it in a different way.
She should appeal to the general Government to be just, rather
than to her people to be vindictive. When peace is finally re
stored, a great future of prosperity will open before her. The
district where the Indian war has raged is one of the richest
within her borders. She has already begun to connect it by
railroad with Puget Sound, where the security of the harbors of
Seattle, Tacomah, Port Townsend, Olympia, Stillicom, and Bel-
lingham Bay, and their plentiful depth of water, will give her
a thriving commerce, and enable her to reign with California as
joint queen of the Pacific.
Steaming down the Columbia, on our way to San Francisco,
as strangers who, having passed through the long galleries of the
Louvre, are charmed with new pictures on their return, so we
see upon either side of the river picturesque rocksj mountains,

WILLAMETTE VALLEY. 157
valleys and lawns on which the changing sunlight has thrown
; reversed shadows, and made them new objects of delight.
Again we cross the b^r, and imagine the old Columbia
steadily pursuing her way out of the channel she had surveyed,
and the proud satisfaction of Captain Gray in having discovered
the noble river that has made the name of his ship immortal.

1 53 THE ROUND TRIP.

CHAPTER XX.
From California Eastwards — The Mines and Gardens op
Grass Valley — Lake Tahoe, Carson and Virginia City
— The Sinks of the Humboldt — The Great American
Desert — Arrival at Salt Lake City.
The westward-bound traveller too often sees but one point
for which he goes as fast as steam can propel him — San Fran
cisco. He might with advantage read the beautiful poem of
Whittier where he describes the search for the waterfall, unsuc
cessful in its end, but along such a path of beauty that the water
fall itself is forgotten. When the old familiar lions, the city and
its suburbs, the Geysers and the Yo-Semite have been seen, he
turns his steps homeward with equal alacrity, traversing the
backbone of the continent unmindful of its vertebrae. These
spreading branches are almost as important as the great trunk
of railroad itself. Without them it could not exist as a profita
ble 'investment. The trans-continental tour cannot be made with
the fullest pleasure in the limited time usually allotted to it.
Neither time nor money should be an object when both knowl
edge and pleasure are to be attained.
There is a little way station, called Colfax, about two hundred
miles east of San Francisco. Like all the rest, it has its sta-

FROM CALIFORNIA EASTWARDS. leg
tion-house and "saloons." As we arrive at many of them, we
see the dust-covered Concord coaches drawn up ready to carry
passengers right and left to the mines, and long trains of wagons
awaiting their freight, Away they go, without much difference
in speed, for hundreds of miles, leaving us to wonder concern
ing their unknown destinations. Here and there the business of
the adjoining country has so much developed that side railroads
have been constructed, making the increase from ten to a hun
dred fold. Such are the roads to Denver, to Salt Lake City, the
narrow gauge to Montana, that leading to Eureka and the broad
track to Virginia City, Nevada, the home of the bonanzas. We
had traversed all these, and as for the fourth time we are
going toward home we are still so little in a hurry that we can
not resist the invitation of Mr. Coleman, who was fortunately
our fellow-passenger, to make an excursion on his narrow-gauge
road, and visit Grass Valley and Nevada City, and to descend
into the Idaho Mine.
Coming from the west everybody crowds upon the platform
or about the windows to get a view from " Cape Horn " of the
valley below, where one may step without difficulty twenty-five
hundred feet and be picked up in fragments. The idea of this
fate for a train-load of passengers would be something appalling
but for our faith in the engineering science that constructed the
road, and confidence in the brakemen who hold our lives in their
hands. Across the terrible chasm, and piled up around, the
monarchs of the Sierra, in regal robes of snow and forest-green,
with crests of rock, look down, we may fancy, with more of ad
miration than contempt, upon the little insects who have defied
their power and march in tortuous lines over their summits, and
bridge their depths with spiderwebs. Approaching the high
cape from the east, the view is still more startling of mountains

l6o THE ROUND TRIP.
piled on mountains till the distant peaks commingle with the
skies. This is magnified as we plunge down the narrow gauge
to the valley of the American River under the very base of Cape
Horn, where the train we have left is seen slowly creeping
around its verge.
On a serpentine track we ghde for fifteen miles, diving into
abysses, spanning rivers, and making steep grades of a hundred
and twenty feet to the mile, always through a forest of enormous
pines and firs. Mr. Kidder, the superintendent, tells us of the
difficulties overcome and the final success of the enterprise. It
is no stock-jobbing speculation ; but was built by the brothers
Coleman and a few other gentlemen for their own and the pub
lic good. They demand no higher rates of transportation than
are sufficient to ensure the interest on their investment, with
which they are content. If all railroad corporations were ac
tuated by such motives, gamblers would be poorer and the
people would be richer.
The town — I beg its pardon, the city of Grass Valley, where
we first arrive — has seven thousand inhabitants, and Nevada
City, three miles beyond, is about one-half its size. They differ
from ordinary " mining camps," generally devoid of any preten
sions to beauty or taste, where instead prevails a perverse desire
to set these qualities at defiance. To save a hundred yards of
travel every tree is cut down for timber or fuel, not a spear of
grass is allowed to grow, and the rudest architecture abounds.
It is the fixed purpose to make every thing as ugly and uncom
fortable as possible, and to proclaim by all the surroundings
that the supreme, the only object of life is to grub for gold.
Here, at variance with all the habits of miners,, there is refine
ment, education, society, pretty homes lost in shrubbery of
orchards and vines, and the air is perfumed with flowers.

FROM CALIFORNIA EASTWARDS. i6i
These lovely little places should eschew their vulgar titles of
cities, content to be as we shall always remember them, villages
of this enchanting valley. We had no claim upon the hospitality
of the people, but their houses were open, their tables spread
and their carriages freely offered. After driving through the
shaded streets we were taken to see the workings of some of the
mines. These are of two kinds — gravel and quartz. A gravel mine
is a magnified exhibition of the first rude process of washing
out gold in tin pans, by which the early miners gained their
wealth from the abundant placers, the surface deposits of ore
swept down by water-courses from the hills. These "were soon
exhausted. Now, gunpowder and the artificial apparatus of
hydraulic hose are brought to bear upon the gravel hills. They
are first undermined, and then blasts, frequently of eight qr ten
tons at a time, are exploded, pulverizing solid hills to be played
upon by streams of water with a force attained by descending
pressure. The dust washed by processes far in advance of the
original hand-pans, results in vastly greater abundance of gold.
In this way the " Milton Company " alone obtained the value
of $308,000 this last year. About one-half the mines of the
Grass Valley and Nevada districts, as well as at Bloomfield and
other places on stage routes from the railroad, are of this de
scription. The quartz mines are of more uncertain value, but
many of them are even more productive. We had the opportu
nity to examine only one, the " Idaho," the richest of all. It
belongs chiefly to the Messrs. Coleman, who own the majority
of its thirty-one thousand shares, which have paid already one
hundred and eight dividends of seven dollars and fifty cents
each per month, and promise good results for a long time tO'
come. Into its depths we descended eleven hundred feet, andi

i62 THE ROUND TRIP.
then far below the busy world on the earth's surface, wandered
about in tunnels and drifts, lighted by tallow candles, meeting
troops of begrimed miners and hearing the explosions of giant
powder echoing through the vast catacombs, astonished at the
ingenuity and perseverance of men who seem willing to pene
trate to the very centre of the globe, and to explode this great
terrestrial ball itself for the sake of the glittering dust it con
tains. In gravel and quartz mining alike, gunpowder is the
prime agent of development, and we sometimes wonder how the
gold and silver of antiquity was produced in such quantities
yvithout its use. Now, it is indispensable except in simple placer
workings. The gravel loosened by its force, as described, is
washed by hydraulic pressure, or the hard quartz is pulverized
by steam operating on powerful stamps. The result of both
processes is the fine dust from which the pure gold is extracted
by the amalgamation of quicksilver. We were pleased and in
structed by what was seen in the mines, but our more cheerful
remembrance of Grass Valley is of its romantic approach, its
groves, gardens, and its hospitable people.
Returning to the Central Pacific road at Colfax, we ascend
eight thousand feet through rocky defiles and around the hang
ing precipice of the famous Cape Horn, whence we take a last
¦ view of the beautiful, exchanging it for the grand and the pic
turesque. Hour by hour the grass exchanges its verdure for
faded russet, until the sage-brush usurps its place. The garden
trees are succeeded by the live-oaks, and these in turn by the
scrubby cedars, The cedars, too, after a while give up the battle
for existence, and all is bleak and barren rock excepting where
¦ on either hand the peaks are crowned with perpetual snow.
Reaching at length the highest point, we rapidly descend
two thousand feet, coming in sixteen hours to Truckee, the first

FROM CALIFORNIA EASTWARDS. 163
town of any importance. Its business is derived from its lumber
trade. The continual cuttin'g of timber, and the carelessness of
woodmen causing extensive fires among the pine forests, are
rapidly exhausting a great source of wealth. Already tens of
thousands of acres are laid bare, and water flumes bring the
timber many miles from the heights above.
We leave the train at Truckee with the intention of visiting
Lake Tahoe and Virginia City. The traveller from the East
should land at Reno, and reverse the trip by taking the rail
road to Virginia, thence crossing to Tahoe, and meeting the
Central Pacific again at Truckee. An open wagon is the con
veyance, much more suitable than a covered coach, as it affords
such commanding views of scenery that people are not disposed
to complain of hard seats and a lack of springs. If one has
time, a previous day may be passed profitably in a drive around
Donner Lake, a pretty basin, but not comparable to Tahoe in
extent. From Truckee to Tahoe the drive ascends for fifteen miles
along the banks of a noisy torrent, and for most of the way
through a dense forest of giant pines. Descending from the last
divide, a scene of wonderful beauty and grandeur spreads itself
before and around — the clear, placid lake lying at our feet, cir
cled with a vast amphitheatre of mountains, some of them even
at this season capped with hoary crowns of snow, and all sloping
from their rocky belts, beyond which no vegetation thrives,
through one thousand feet of forests of unfading green. The
great mirror, sixty miles in circumference, reverses its variegated
frame as the morning sun throws the shadow of the rocky peaks
far out upon its expanded plane.
The water is so clear that the bottom may be seen at a depth
of twenty fathoms, and so light that its touch is almost like that

l64 THE ROUND TRIP.
of air. It is nearly impossible for the best swimmers to float
upon it, and a body that sinks never rises again. Far down, the
water is cold as ice, and marvellous stories are told of unfortu
nates who have fallen overboard in some of its greater depths.
There, it is said, they can be seen occasionally, when the lake is
especially calm and clear, lying as they have fallen, and resting
forever in their watery shrouds.
There are old legends of Indian love and hate, offering an
excuse for future poets to invent Hiawathas and Minnehahas,
and to clothe squalid savages in garbs of imaginary tenderness
and nobility.
But more practical notions induced us to seek the com
fortable inn, which we assuredly found at " Campbell's Warm
Springs," on the eastern shore. From this point the best view
of scenery is to be obtained ; the fishing is excellent, and the
pleasure of hauling out salmon trout weighing twenty-five pounds
is equalled only by that of greeting their appearance afterward
on the table.
A little steamer called the " Governor Stanford " daily cir
cumnavigates the lake, stopping at all ports on the California
and Nevada shores, for the State lines, run through its deep
waters. A day may be pleasantly passed on her deck. By all
means take this excursion.
From Glenbrook, on the Nevada side, a stage runs to
Carson, on the railroad to Virginia City, distant fifteen miles. ,
There is nothing to recommend the dusty mountain road, except
ing that the stage is driven by a celebrated break-neck coachman
named Hank Monk, whose delight is to frighten women and
children. It is his boast that he " scared Horace Greeley into
fits." We did not avail ourselves of this route, as our landlord

FROM CALIFORNIA EASTWARDS. ige
offered us saddle-horses to cross the divide that separates the
Warm Springs from Carson. The trail is twenty-five miles long,
and we hoped to accomplish the distance in a few hours. Our
guide lost his reckoning; and we wandered for a whole day
through pathless solitudes, until, late in the afternoon, we fell in
with a strolling Indian. Instead of taking our scalps, this gentie
savage piloted us in the right direction, so that we reached
Carson in the evening. During a ride so tedious and difficult,
the romantic scenery in abundance, did not so much engage
attention as the prospect of food and rest.
The busy little town of Carson derives its chief trade from
the great mines of Nevada. On the route over the railroad to
Virginia City on every side were to be seen sluices, crushing-
mills and smelters. Everybody in this district seemed to be
living on a diet of mineral ore. That would be their actual sub
sistence if they depended upon raising food from the ground.
There are scarcely fifteen blades of grass in the whole district.
The railroad, in curves, tunnels and spans, and creeping along
precipices, claims precedence of all other roads for reckless
locomotion. A story is told of the death of an engineer who
leaped down a chasm of a thousand feet at the sight of an ad
vancing light, which proved to be the lantern suspended from
the rear car of his own train.
After the few hours' twist on this gigantic corkscrew we
reached Virginia City, whose foundations are over fabulous
millions of tons of silver and gold. Upon the profits of digging
these metals and gambling with them its people live. The town
has been burned since our last visit, and has risen from its
ashes in somewhat better form, though it still hangs its streets
and houses loosely on shelving rocks and over deep excava
tions.

i66 THE ROUND TRIP.
Nearly all the mines are unproductive, that is to say, they
pay no dividends. " But what's the odds ? " said a Virginian j
" the stocks go up and down, and they are just as good for spec
ulation as if they paid like bonanzas. In fact, they are better,
for they fluctuate more, and there is a greater margin for profit."
He did not say anything about the margin for loss.
We visited two famous bonanzas — the Consolidated Virginia
and the California, first going through the laboratories and
works above ground. Some of them were intensely interesting
and curious — none more so than the weighing office, where the
scale turned at an infinitesimal part of a grain. The appearance
of the reeking miners who came up from the depths decided us
not to accept the invitation to descend to their infernal regions,
as curiosity in such respects had been already gratified.
We came away, rattling down the railroad, flying past the
mills and crushers we had seen in the morning, and leaving
behind the mountains of gold and silver without a pang of envy
towards Mr. Fair, who, though worth $20,000,000, passed a part
of every day far down in the hot and darksome dens of the
mines, so that he might daily report the indications to his
partners, in San Francisco. One thing we discovered, and it
is this, that in speculation all outsiders are fools, and only the
men who have the " inside track " are wise ; for knowledge is
power, and ignorance is the victim of chance. On some day,
sooner or later, the near approach of exhaustion is discovered.
The partners are duly notified. Perhaps on the same day there
ar9 " well authenticated " reports of immense deposits " in sight,"
and the stock is parted with for the accommodation of new
investors, whose property will be found to consist of a big hole
in the ground.
This is precisely what has since occurred.

FROM CALIFORNIA EASTWARDS. 167
It is fifty-one miles by rail from Virginia City to Reno on
the Central Pacific. There we resumed the direct route to
sOgden. The road passes through a country often described by the
guide books, which has many points of good scenery and is here
and there diversified by large tracts of pasturage. Naturalists
have studied its peculiarities with an intense curiosity to discover
the meaning and intention of its phenomenal " sinks," where
streams and lakes disappear, as they imagine to rise again on
the Western side of the Sierras and finally to enter the Pacific.
This theory is supported by the fact that on the Western slope
of the range, water suddenly gushes out from the ground in such
quantities that rivers of considerable size start at once in their
course, but it has not been satisfactorily demonstrated.
The solution would be of as much practical value as the dis
covery of the North Pole, and the investigation would involve
less hardship and expense. A scientific corps might be detailed
whose business it should be to throw chips into the Humboldt
river and watch for their appearance in the Santa Ana. This
modest suggestion is made with a view of " appropriating " a
little more money from the Treasury in addition to the amount
annually expended for purposes of similar utility.
The stations along the route, mark the locations of small
towns of apparent insignificance, but many of them are the
depots of valuable mining districts in the interior with which a
large trade is carried on, and whence an abundance of ore is
brought for transportation to San Francisco and the East. Some
of the most noteworthy of them are Wadsworth, Humboldt,
Winnemucca, Battie Mountain and Elko. At Terrace, we come
to the Western limit of what is called " The Great American
Desert," once undoubtedly an inland sea, now settled down to

¦I 68 THE ROUND TRIP.
the comparatively small surface of the Great Salt Lake. We
get an extended view of its waters at early morning when Mon-
Bment Point is reached. After a few hours the train arrives at
Ogden, the terminus of the road at its junction with the Union
Pacific. There we take passage for Salt Lake City over the Utah
Central Railroad for a distance of thirty-eight miles. This road,
now owned in part by the Union Pacific, to which it is a most
profitable auxiliary, was built under the direction of the late
Brigham Young. That politic leader of the Mormons, finding
his hopes of isolation destined to be thwarted, turned his mind
to making his defeat successful in a pecuniary way. He re
solved to balance his loss of religious influence by worldly gain,
and entered heartily into the railroad enterprise, detailing his
people to build, not only this road, but also many miles of the
main trunk Line. His success is apparent, for at his death he
held, at a cost of little or nothing to himself, a large amount of
the bonds of the Utah Central road which annually pays to its
stockholders a dividend of twelve per cent, on a capital stock of
a million and a half of dollars.

SUNSE T AT SALT LAKE. 169

CHAPTER XXI.
Sunset at Salt Lake — The Mormon Jerusalem — The As
sembly OF THE Saints — The Late Brigham Young —
The Close of the Conference — Society in Utah.
Bierstadt should paint for us this dissolving view of Salt
Lake City. He should sit at this upper window as the sun is
going down beyond the Oquirrh Mountains, and, looking east
ward upon the Wasatch range, under which this beautiful city is
nestled among gardens of fruitful trees and shrubbery, he should
watch the changing colors, catch the passing shades, and follow
with his artistic eye the long shadov/s as they creep up the in
clined plane that leads to the foot of the mountains, see the
sombre tints climb higher and higher among the rugged crags,
until they reach the snow-clad summits and suddenly change
into sunlight, which rests for an instant, a narrow gilded strip of
light, and then vanishes, leaving the dark outline against the
clear sky. He should seize some best moment of this serene
death of the day, and transfer to his canvas a scene that cannot
be expressed by words.
I do not wonder at the poetic faith of these Latter-Day
Saints; that they should so often exclaim, " Beautiful is Mount
Zion, the joy of the whole earth," and that they should quote

170 THE ROUND TRIP.
the inspired prophecies of Isaiah as foretelling the glories of
their kingdom.
The time of our arrival was the season of the semi-annual
conference of the church. Salt Lake City is the Mormon Jeru
salem. Here is their holy of holies, the site on which their
great temple is slowly creeping up from its foundations, to be ,
the wonder of the world ; here is their enormous Tabernacle ;
here their beautiful streets, ere long to be paved with silver and
gold ; here dwells their great high priest, and his chief Levites
make it their home ; here, the Sanhedrim being assembled to
preside over the semi-annual conference, the tribes of Israel
have been gathered together. From north and south, from east
and west, down from the mountains and up from the valleys,
they have poured into the city, nominally to confer with one
another about the interests of Zion, but in reality to receive
counsel and dictation.
Since the railroads have been constructed, the means of
access to the town have been increased, and the throng of people
is greater than ever. But the picturesque effect is diminished.
The streets and market places are no longer crowded with
wagons and saddle-beasts. These may still be seen in great
numbers, and every night in the outskirts of the town the light
of camp-fires falls upon them. Altogether the scene and occa
sion are such that a stranger would not willinglybe absent.
The Tabernacle is the chief attraction. There sat the
Prophet on his pulpit throne. Around him were his council
lors ; ranged below him were the Twelve Apostles, and all
about him were gathered the Council of Seventy, while presi
dents, elders, and bishops of high and low degree were the
numerous satellites of his train.
St. Peter's Cathedral is more splendid than this Mormon

THE ASSEMBLY OF THE SAINTS. 171
Tabernacle, and the cardinals flaunt in scarlet robes ; but Brig
ham Young, in his plain clothes, with his white handkerchief
always tied about his neck, surrounded by his body-guard of ill-
dressed, illiterate men, possessed a power and influence over
his people such as the Pope would not venture to exercise on
those who call him the Vicegerent of Christ.
For one, I have never been disposed to reverence, esteem,
hate, or slander him, but to regard his character from a strictly
impartial point of view.
When we looked around upon that great assembly of twelve
thousand persons, representing ten times as many more, whose
condition in this world his sagacious administration had so
greatly advanced, and in whom he had inspired such joyful an
ticipations of the life to come, I did not wonder at their enthu
siastic adjniration of him ; and when outside, I saw the small
Gentile minority, some of whom were scandalized by the revolt
ing practice sanctioned by him, while many of them opposed
him because he was an obstacle to their political influence, I
was not surprised that he was honestly detested and maliciously
abused. It must be admitted on all hands that no religious
fanatic ever succeeded more peacefully in obtaining such an
ascendancy, and no one of them has, upon the whole, used it
more wisely and beneficently.
Not touching upon the objectionable doctrine, he urged the
people to the completion of the temple, advising every one who
could afford it to devote half a dollar monthly to the object ;
and then,. taking some of the rules of the "united order" as a
text, proceeded to enforce their observance on all present. I
quote a few of these rules :
" First — We will not take the name of the Deity in vain, nor
speak lightly of His character, or of sacred things.

172 THE ROUND TRIP.
" Second— We will pray with our families, morning and even
ing, and also attend to secret prayer.
" Third — We will observe and keep the word of wisdom ac
cording to the meaning and spirit thereof.
" Fourth — We will treat our families with due kindness and
affection, and set before them an example worthy of imitation ;
in our families and intercourse with all persons, we will refrain
from being contentious or quarrelsome, and we will cease to
speak evil of each other, and will cultivate a spirit of charity
towards all. We consider it our duty to seek the interest of
each other, and the salvation of all mankind.
" Fifth — We will observe personal cleanliness, and preserve
ourselves in all chastity. We will also discountenance and
refrain from all vulgar and obscene language or conduct.
" Sixth — We will observe the Sabbath day, to keep it holy
in accordance with the ' revelations.' "
All the other rules are equally commendable, and some of
them, relating to "foolish and extravagant fashions," might well
be preached in cities where they are less likely to be practised.
In the assembly of the saints the proportion of old men is
very noticeable. The seats were dotted with white heads, like
blossoming trees amidst the green foliage of spring, and, like the
isturdy weather-stained oaks of the forest, these venerable men
istiU hold their own among the young saplings springing into life
beside them. They were the old pilgrims who traversed the
desert a quarter of a century ago, and yet bravely hold on to
life, and enjoy, in the eVening of their days, the well-merited
reward of their toil in the ease and comfort they have earned for
themselves and their descendants. Many of their aged wives
;are remaining with them, " mothers in Israel," worthily entitled
to our respectful admiration ; haggard, worn out with hard

THE CLOSE OF THE. CONFERENCE. 173
labor, and too many of them carrying heavier burdens on their
hearts than they have borne upon their backs, yet unswerving in
that faith in God which overcomes the faithlessness of man, they
are among the truest heroines on this earth. Hundreds of young
men were present, dressed in the home-spun clothing made by
their mothers and sisters, strong and athletic lads, and hundreds,
perhaps thousands, of girls, whose simplicity of costume, al
though still to be admired, is fast giving way to the omnipotence
of fashion. Last and least, but not least to their mothers, was
the little infantry of babies, brought here because they cannot be
left at home, and because to exhibit them is the greatest pride of
a Mormon mother. A few Gentiles, who came from motives of
curiosity, were added to the immense crowd on Sunday, the
closing day of the conference.
The benediction was spoken by one of the apostles. The
great organ pealed forth the first notes of that magnificent, and,
to these people, appropriate anthem :
" Daughter of Zion, awake from thy sadness :
A-wake, for thy foes shall oppress thee no more."
The well-trained choir threw their hearts as well as their voices
into the music, and when its last notes had died away, twelve
thousand men, women and children poured out in the streets
and scattered to their homes.
It might be supposed that such an influx of people from the
country at the time of the conference would have brought no
little money to hotels and the shop-keepers. But this would be
a mistake. Scarcely a Mormon name was registered at the
hotels, for the countrymen were quartered upon the faithful in
the city, or camped in and under their wagons in the streets and
outskirts of the town. As to money, although there is an

J 74 THE ROUND TRIP.
abundance of food, clothing, and home comforts, it is an ex
ceedingly scarce article in Utah. When at Lehi, the bishop
told us, not many years ago a book was wanted wherein to keep
the accounts of the settlement. A suitable one was in the hands
of an Englishman. The price demanded for it was fifty cents,
and that cash. Eggs, potatoes, chickens, and such common
currency were obstinately declined, and as ten cents was all the
ready money that could be collected, Lehi was obliged to wait a
considerable time for its account-book. Within twelve or fifteen
years, impecunious applicants for tickets at the theatre have
procured them at the office in exchange for potatoes, onions
and cabbages.
At every meeting of this conference there was a crowded
audience, who listened as attentively as circumstances would
permit. These circumstances were babies, of whom there must
have been always at least a thousand present. There was an
all-pervading continual infantile wail, and at times, when this
came in chorus, the speaker was obliged to "wait for a lull in the
storm. Many of the discourses were moderate in character, and
some of them dwelt with sincere earnestness on the necessity of
a religious and virtuous life. Frugality, temperance, chastity
and industry were urged upon the people, and while the open
attacks of the " enemies of Zion " were deprecated, moderation
and forbearance were counselled even by that violent declaimer
John Taylor. When this old apostle did break out with occa
sional bitterness, we were willing to excuse him. He was one of
the earliest converts, and suffered all manner of persecution for
his devotion to Joseph Smith. He was imprisoned with him at
Carthage, and when Joseph and his brother Hyrum were dragged
from the jail by a mob and killed in the street, Taylor at the
isame time was repeatedly shot. He still carries three bullets in

THE CLOSE OF THE CONFERENCE. 175
his body, and it is when these give him an extra twinge of pain
that he scowls fiercely upon us Gentiles, and reproaches us as
if we had actually participated in that murderous affray.
But most frequently the saints were reminded how the Lord
in all times of their past tribulations had delivered them from
the hands of their enemies, and how the same God would do it
again, however much the heathen might rage, and whatever vain
things the people might imagine against them. The oft-repeated
story of their miraculous deliverance from the army of crickets
was again and again rehearsed. They were told how, in answer
to their prayers, a great army of gulls overshadowed the land,
and, swooping do'wn on their tormentors, gorged themselves with
their prey, and vomiting them when full, returned again to the
abundant feast, until, when these angels of deliverance took their
leave, not a cricket was left in the fields. This apparent miracle
is a matter of history, and as prayer undoubtedly preceded it,
the prayer and the gulls are naturally connected. So now the
Gentile ravagers of the land are to be disposed of in some such
providential manner. It may be safely assumed, that whatever
course the Government or the people of the United States may
take in regard to these " Latter-Day Saints," there will be no
armed resistance by them or withdrawal from the territory'. If
" the Lord God of Israel " does not deliver them from us as he
did from the crickets, they will patientiy submit, like the Jews
in their Babylonish captivity, and like that ancient people, who
awaited their return to Jerusalem and the rebuilding of the
temple, the Mormons will expect in the fulness of time to be
gathered together, that they may reign as kings and priests, all
nations being subdued unto them.
George A. Smith, an apostle of a milder type than Taylor,
delivered the last address.

176 THE ROUND TRIP.
We have often seen children running into the country stores
on errands like this : " Ma wants a pound of sugar, a quart of
molasses, a frying-pan." The articles were furnished and paid
foi at the established rate in eggs, butter, or some other domes
tic production. In this way trade was carried on at conference
time more extensively. Wagons came in loaded with all de
scriptions of farm produce, and when they departed they carried
to the country those articles of necessity that could not be pro
duced or manufactured at home. Thus trade was brisk without
money. You might imagine that one-half of Brigham Young was
born in Pennsylvania and the other half in Massachusetts, so
strongly was he impressed with the idea of " protecting home
industry." Indeed, there are many Gentile shop-keepers to
whom this doctrine, so constantiy enforced by him, is more re
pugnant than his practice of polygamy. As home industry is
carried out, however, it is not a misnomer for taxation in favor
of monopolists. It is a wise plan, by which simplicity of living
and frugality are encouraged for the benefit of the people them
selves. For this purpose, undoubtedly, no small part of the
tithing is applied, in the construction of mills and factories, the
digging of irrigating ditches, and other works of public improve
ment. The Mormons are drawn mainly from the most ignorant and
debased populations of Northern Europe. At home they were
fortunate if, as serfs of the soil, one-tenth of their earnings
remained their own. Here their tithing is nominally ten per
centum, although upon an average not more than one-half of it
is paid in. It results, therefore, that, as they become property-
holders instead of ill-paid laboring peasants, and are enabled to
hold on to more than nine-tenths of their earnings instead of

SOCIETY IN UTAH. 177
paying it in toil to their masters, they can well afford to pay
tithing to the church as an equivalent for their opportunities
and instruction.
The condition of society in Utah may be briefly summed
up. There are two classes of Mormons — the bigot.ed and the
liberal. The first would perpetuate polygamy and drive the Gen
tiles out of the territory, were it in their power. Their influence
is decreasing, while that of the liberals is on the increase.
Superstition and lust are the allies of the former. Railroads,
newspapers and fashions are filling the ranks of the latter.
These are more efficient missionaries than ministers or tracts,
and more powerful forces than legal enactments.
There are two classes of Gentiles — the meddlesome, and
those who attend to their own affairs, exerting a peaceful influ
ence upon their neighbors. The first, many of them office
holders or office-seekers under the Federal Government, and
desirous of high positions in the territory, are constantly stirring
up absurd rumors of Mormon insurrection and outrage, fright
ening away immigration of other sects, and thus playing directly
into the hands of the Mormon priesthood. The last, the most
estimable and useful class of all, are business men, who are
developing the resources of the country, by opening the mines,
building railroads, bringing in capital and men to aid them in
their enterprises. They are the civilizers of Utah.
12

,,S THE ROUND TRIP

CHAPTER XXIL
Out into the Country — The Great Salt Lake — Mormon
AND Gentile Towns — Elections — Ophir Camp — Success
ful Business Men.
Scarcely a traveller on the pleasure trip to California omits
to spend a day or two at Salt Lake. In a short stay tourists are
unable to form correct opinions of every thing they see and hear,
although they often persuade themselves that they have acquired
the fullest information. Yet they do succeed in furnishing the
press with such abundant descriptions of the town and its imme
diate surroundings that I should not be thanked for again trav-
¦elling over their narrow but well-beaten paths.
I prefer to take my readers at once on excursions over
'those less frequented. These journeys of several hundred
miles have been chiefly accomplished on horseback, by which
pleasant and exhilarating method of travelling we were enabled
to see more of the country, and to form more correct ideas of its
peculiar people, than by observation in any other way.
My wife and myself were every where hospitably entertained
in a region which fortunately for our purpose was generally with
out hotels. It is almost superfluous to remark, that as ladies are
¦more communicative with each other than with a sex less accus-

THE GREA T SALT LAKE. 1 7 9
tomed to questions and answers, there were unsurpassed opportu
nities for obtaining information of domestic affairs.
It would certainly have been impolitic and ungracious on
our part to have undertaken missionary work. When the sub
ject of polygamy was introduced by our hosts, we did not fail ,to
accept the challenge to dispassionate argument, but our object
being to investigate, rather than to instruct, we looked upon so
ciety as we found it, extracting all the amusement it afforded.
Without more preface, we will leave the city on a pleasant
day about the close of September, and as we travel west and
south will see the Great Salt Lake, the mountains, the valleys,
the mines, and the people.
The distance from Salt Lake City to Ophir canon is fifty-
five miles. When the Utah Western Railroad is completed as
far as contemplated, this will be one of the most agreeable ex
cursions from the city. It was a tedious, dusty drive in the stage
coach. Still, there are many pleasant views to be had from the
road, passing across long desert waste's and over spurs of the
mountain range. We reached the shores of the Great Salt Lake
after a drive of .three hours. Such is the optical illusion caused by
this rarified atmosphere, that the city, left eighteen miles behind
us, seemed to be only four or five miles distant, the houses being
distinctly visible. The formation of the land contributes to this
deception, ridges of mountains running north and south, and en
closing valleys of a width of about twenty-five miles, with no in
tervening elevations. We drove for an hour along the southern
bank of Salt Lake, fanned by the breath of its sea air, and look
ing over its waste of waters dotted with mountain islands. It
required but little imagination to transport ourselves to the
shores of the Atiantic, for extending, as, it does, ninety miles to
the north, no land could be seen beyond the line of the clearly

l8o THE ROUND TRIP.
defined horizon. Some years ago a steamboat of three hundred
tons was built for freight and passenger traffic, in connection
with the Union and Central Pacific roads ; but her fair prospects
were ruined by the construction of the Utah Central, and she
now lies at the wharf, her only value consisting in her occasional
use for pleasure excursions.
How this great basin of salt water came to be deposited in
the interior of the continent, has been a study for geographers
and naturalists. The changes taking place in its character
at the present day are observed with much interest. It was
first discovered by a party of trappers, long before the relig
ious discovery of Joseph Smith. When they had tasted of its
waters they supposed that it was an arm of the sea coming in
from the Gulf of California ; but, on their attempt to sail into the
Pacific by that route, they experienced the same disappointment
which befell the Dutchmen in their exploration of the North
River, although they might have been led to just conclusions from
different tests.
The trappers should have realized that the water was too
salt, and the Dutchmen should have found that the water was too
fresh to communicate with the Pacific Ocean.
Salt-making has been a business of great importance on the
banks of the lake since the occupation of this territory by the
Mormons. The water is so densely saline that it is impossible
for a body to find the bottom. It is a capital place to acquire
the art of swimming, with perfect safety. In former times three
barrels of water left to evaporate, would produce one barrel
of salt ; but it has so weakened in the last twenty years that
four barrels of it are now required to obtain that quantity. It
has become fresh, therefore, in a proportion of somewhat more
than one per cent, yearly. Hence it follows that in less than

THE GREAT SALT LAKE. l8i
one hundred years the name of Great Salt Lake should be
changed, fon by that time, it will, like Mormonism, be cleared of
all its impurities.
We notice the regular water lines, called benches, dis
tinctly defined on all the mountain ranges surrounding these
valleys, affording unmistakable evidence that in former days they
enclosed vast inland seas. The deep alkaline soil of the bot
toms has led to the supposition that these seas were of salt
water, and that they have been completely evaporated. Salt Lake
being the sole survivor, and that destined to dwindle to a
puddle and then to dry up forever. But the last part of this
theory is negatived by the evident intention of the lake to as
sume something of its original proportions ; while it is becom
ing fresher, it is growing larger. Within the twenty-nine years
that the country around it has been settled, it has encroached
along its low banks nearly a mile upon the land, and deepened
five feet. Several fine farms are now permanently under water,
and the road on which we travelled has been moved far inward
to accommodate its aggressiveness. At the same time that this
change is going on, atmospheric causes for a part of it are ap
parent The climate is becoming more mild, although it is still
excessively dry. But each succeeding season brings a greater
rainfall. This has doubled within twelve years.
The lake is fed by the Bear and Weber rivers on the north,
and the Jordan on the south, besides some small rivulets that
find their way into it. Every year their volumes increase, and
contribute to the filling up of the great basin into which they
pour. Notwithstanding, the increase of the lake cannot be
thus accounted for, as the}- are still but insignificant streams.
It must be true that new fresh-water fountains have burst
from the bottom. A like phenomenon has produced the lake

1^2 THE ROUND TRIP.
near which we afterward passed at Stockton, where, on the
ground encamped upon by Connor's army, there is now a
body of water two miles square, and of considerable depth. If
these changes go on as they have commenced, the Zion of Brig
ham Young will ere long become completely submerged. His en
emies will say that a second flood has been commissioned to over
flow the desert that he reclaimed, because of the sins of the
people, and that, like Sodom and Gomorrah, these modern cities
of the plain have been overwhelmed as a punishment for their
unnatural crimes. But those judgments are yet afar off. Brig
ham taught that when Utah is destroyed all the earth will perish
likewise, excepting that favored spot, Jackson county, Missouri.
There it was, a divine revelation commanded him to build a
temple which is destined to rise again from the ashes of the one
destroyed by the Nauvoo mob. All the lowlands around it will
rise at the same time, and the chosen remnant of mankind will
flock to this elevated plateau, from whence, like Noah looking
over the bulwarks of the ark, they will behold the drowning
Gentiles struggling in the deep waters, while Mormons, in dry
white robes, with harps in their hands, shall, like Nero, touch
the strings, in mockery at the ruin of the universe. Then Jack
son county itself is to be caught up, and its glorified saints be
distributed among the stars of the firmament. Thus the
gradual rise of Salt Lake is not an indication of their destruc
tion, but a harbinger of their glory.
Leaving Salt Lake far behind, our way led over the spur of
the, Oquirrh ridge, which there terminates and forms the eastern
boundary of Tooele valley. Soon after dining at a wretched
" half-way " house, we came in sight of the pretty little town of
Tooele, that springs into life by the side of a mountain stream-
which enriches it by its irrigation, and presents it in beautiful

ELECTIONS. 183
contrast with the surrounding desert. It is not like a town laid
out in blocks and squares, but is literally an accumulation of
garden spots. The trees and vines were loaded with apples,
pears, peaches, melons, and grapes, which are dried and pre
served for use and exportation. Entering one of the gardens,
we were offered an abundance of the delicious produce. The
peaches were large and luscious — quite equal in flavor to those
gathered on the Delaware.
This little village, now so peaceful and quiet, was lately the
scene of intense political excitement. The election quarrels at
Tooele have not related to Republicanism or Democracy. Such
trifling issues did not affect votes in any degree. The great
question was, shall Judge Rowberry, the Mormon bishop, who
for years had presided at the Probate Court, retain his office, or
shall the Gentile Brown occupy his place ? In short, it was a
religious fight. Bunyan's " Holy War " and Milton's " Paradise
Lost " can only convey an idea of the fury of the battle. Mor
mon hosts were marshalled against the Gentile cohorts, the one
considering themselves the armies of the Lord, and the others
willing to be called the soldiers of Lucifer, so that they might
gain the victory. Mormonism pressed every man and woman
into its service, and the Gentile element ransacked all the min
ing camps of the country for its supplies. It was Lowlander
against Highlander — the saints dwelling on the plains against
the irreverent " cusses " of the mountains, who had invaded the
soil heretofore sacred to the religion of the prophet. It was
the first organized attempt to gain a Gentile foothold in any part
of the territory. The means used for the assault were as unscru
pulous as those wielded for the defence. A federal official
descended from his dignity to mingle in the broil, threatening,
when he was interrupted in his speech, to " punch the head " of

i84 THE ROUND TRIP.
his assailant, and to "boot out" the county clerk if he did not
" dry up." Parson Smith, of the Methodist persuasion, is such
a muscular Christian that when he was damned by some devout
Mormons, he replied that he was not allowed to swear, but,
throwing off his coat, said he " would lick the whole crowd,
three at a time." Per contra, in a rather more quiet style of
warfare, when they found the election was going against them,
the Mormon judge and his clerk carried off the records of the
court, which were not recovered without much difficulty.
There was doubtless a great deal of illegal voting on both
sides, from Mormon women who paid no taxes, and from Gentile
miners who constituted themselves residents of two or three
different camps at the same time. The end attained was a Gen
tile victory.
Like travellers on Sahara, we had espied the green oasis of
Tooele from afar. We had entered beneath its shady trees and
luxuriated in its fruitful gardens, and now, leaving it regretfully
behind, we were whirled through clouds of dust, over the
desert again. All was a barren waste of stunted sage brush and
alkali, till after three hours' drive we came to the Gentile set
tlement of Stockton, presenting itself in strong contrast to the
charming little village of the saints. There the people, having
planted their own vines and fig trees, were content to sit down
beneath them and enjoy their fruits, with no ambitious desire
of aggrandizement ; satisfied with the sure returns of hus
bandry, from which, after paying their tithing to the church,
there is an abundance left to supply all the absolute wants of
life. Tooele is a picture of happiness, if not the realization of
what can never be fully attained ; Stockton seemed a represen
tation of misery sought for and found.
Pitched on one of the bleakest spots that could be selected.

OPHIR CAMP. 185
where no trees can take root, and scarcely a sage brush can show
its head, built of rambling piles of logs, the only exception an
abortive frame-house called a hotel, where bad dinners are eaten
and worse liquors are quaffed, it is the home of a few workmen,
who are employed in the neighboring furnaces of ore. What
wages these men earn to repay them for passing any part of their
¦existence in this execrable hole I do not know, but I am sure
that a Tooele Mormon would not exchange his home for this,
unless some special " exaltation " be promised in the world to
come. Passing the lake of recent formation, we drove on toward Ophir.
From the level of Salt Lake our ascent had been gradual.
Over what appeared to be vast plains, the grade was scarcely
discernible, but now it was quite apparent as we drew on
toward the foot hills of the range looming up gradually before
us. The sun had been pouring hotly down all day, and it was an
inexpressible relief and pleasure when we entered the mouth of
the cafion, and the first tall cliff on the left threw its shadow
over our path, permitting us to trace its dark outlines on the
opposite mountain, whose summit was still in a blaze of bright
ness. In this delightful coolness of evening below, under the
light of sunshine from above, we followed up the canon for three
miles, and arrived at the city of Ophir.
Like all the mining " cities " of these mountains, Ophir is a
mere camp, containing a few stores, bar-rooms, and shanties for
the supplies and accommodation of the miners, who are mostly
distributed in the hills, only visiting the cities for their necessi
ties, or for the enjoyment of Sunday after their own fashion.
One of the buildings serves the purpose of city hall, lyceum,
dance-house and church, as occasion demands. The day

i86 THE ROUND TRIP.
after our arrival the pulpit scaffolding was occupied in the morn
ing by an Episcopal clergyman, and in the evening by a Cath
olic priest, both of "whom came in the same coach from Salt
Lake. When the latter preached, his Protestant brother aided
with us in making up the congregation, numbering a little more
than a dozen. ' On the previous evening the hall had been crowded
with dancers, who kept up a hideous noise till morning. Never
theless, it is fair to say that Sunday was very quietly observed,
and there were few cases of drunkenness which caused much dis
turbance. Ophir citizens are not church-goers as a class, but they are
as tolerant as they are ignorant in religious matters. The other
Sunday a Methodist clergyman officiated, opening the services
by requesting them to sing the hymn commencing,
" O for a closer walk with God."
After the meeting one of the congregation thanked him for his
preaching, adding : " But, parson, you was more comp'mentry
than we deserves. I dunno's Ophir camp's any better'n the rest
of 'em ; we all walks a good deal closter the other way."
Whenever a stranger comes into these .camps he is immedi
ately encompassed by a crowd of kindly disposed gentlemen,
who are willing to divide their interests in the most promising
mines, which only require a little of his money for their devel
opment. They have prospects of wonderful "indications," " true
fissure veins," " limestone and quartzite formations," " hanging
and foot walls," " carbonate," " chloride," and other certainties
of producing unlimited quantities of rich ore, thousands of tons
of which are frequently " in sight." They want you to invest in
the " running of tunnels " and the " sinking of shafts," and then
to "put the mine in the market," in New York or London. As

SUCCESSFUL BUSINESS MEN. 187
1 to " prospects," the mountains are as full of them as sandbanks
1 are ever bored by swallows for their nests.
The laboring miners are universally poor. They keep them
selves industriously in that condition, toiling away at their
" prospects " until their flour and bacon give out, and then work
ing by the day in the large mines until they get money enough
to buy powder and provisions to work on another prospect,
when they find a " trace " or " cropping out " that affords them
any hope. They have known or have heard of a few men who,
having " struck a good thing," have risen from a condition like
their own to the rank of millionaires, and why should not the
same good fortune at last be theirs ? Instead of gambling with
dice and cards, they gamble with the spade and pick, working
harder and gaining as little.
Among the thousand blanks there is occasionally a prize.
The Walker brothers have drawn their full share. They came
to Utah as members of the Mormon Church, toiled in the
canons, cutting and drawing wood, gained a little property in
this way, invested in land and merchandise, paying their tithing
with regularity, until they accumulated a property on the income
of which they did not care to pay ten per cent. One day they
were reminded of their duty by Brigham Young, and sent
him a check for ten thousand dollars. Brigham returned it with
a notice that it was insufficient. Whereupon they tore it up, paid
tithing no longer, and left the church.
They say the Lord has prospered them ever since. Brigham
said the devil was their friend. No matter who has assisted
them, the Walkers have done something for themselves. Their
great warehouses are potent rivals of " Zion's Co-operative
Mercantile Institution," and every hole of ground into which
they dig becomes a mine of wealth. They own them in every

THE ROUND TRIP.

canon, and here in Ophir they reign supreme. What wonder is
it that poor men, who but a few years ago worked side by side
with these Walker brothers, should ask themselves, "As we
have been equals once, why should we not be equals again ? "

CAMP FLOYD. i8q

CHAPTER XXIIL
Camp Floyd Ruled by a Bishop and the BIshop Ruled
BY his Wife — William Hickman — Lehi and the Bishop
who Ruled his Wives and his Diocese — The Garden
of Isaac Goodwin.
The pursuits of Utah people may be classed like medicines,
" vegetable " and " mineral." The Mormons are almost strictly
agricultural, and the Gentiles devote themselves almost univer
sally to mining labor and speculation. Brighanj encouraged his
saints to cultivate the soil, and preached farming to them as a
religious duty. The wisdom of his advice is apparent in the
prosperity attending its practice. They abandon the precarious
chances of the mines to others, who too often, after years of
unavailing toil and broken down with disease, are forced to
admit the worldly wisdom of the prophet. The entire attention
of the dwellers in the mountains is given to silver mining, smelt
ing and milling.
Where there is an abundance of lead present in the ore — and
it frequently runs from forty to sixty per cent. — the silver is
extracted by the process of smelting. The furnaces generally
purchase the rough mineral as it comes from the mines, on a
basis of forty to fifty per cent, lead ; that is, if the ore yield that

igo THE ROUND TRIP.
amount, the smelter takes it for his work and delivers the
miner one dollar per ounce for all the silver that it contains.
If the basis agreed upon falls short, the miners pay the smelter
the difference per ton. If it overruns, the payment is reversed.
Good smelting ore is that which being clear of pyrites comes up
to the basis required, and then yields to the miner — pays him
for the cost of his labor and transportation — thirty ounces of
silver to the ton.
Besides the mines of smelting ore, there are many of milling;
that is, they produce a greater amount of silver than some of the
others, but so little lead that the silver cannot be extracted
by the smelting process. It is therefore crushed in stamp mills.
This is milling ore. It is likewise mostly purchased by those
who convert it into bullion. The rate given is nicely graded
according to the assay. The lowest ore which will pay for
crushing is that yielding $40 per ton ; on this is returned twenty-
five per cent.; on that yielding $100, fifty per cent. ; $200, sixty-
five per cent. ; $500, seventy-nine per cent. ; $1,000, eighty-
three per' cent. These are mentioned to give an idea of the
scale of intermediate assays. But expenses are very heavy ;
charcoal and coke are the only fuels that can be used for smelt
ing, the former becoming every day more scarce in this thinly
wooded country, and coke has been supplied from Pittsburgh,
Pa., at a cost of $30 per ton. As to the mills, there is not a
sufficiency of the ore they require to keep them in operation
more than four months in the year. Nevertheless, when well
managed, smelting and milling both give large profits. The
great requirement for Utah mining, is the proper fuel for smelt
ing purposes. When this is obtained more abundantiy, the low-
grade ores, which will not pay for working, will give steady
employment to all the furnaces at present partially operated, and

CAMP FLOYD. 191
will cause many more to be profitably run. The railroads now
being rapidly constructed in tlie south and south-west will bring
coal cheaply to market. Some of this, especially that from
San Pete, two hundred and fifty miles from Salt Lake, it is
claimed, can be coked, but owing to the quantity of sulphur it
contains, the experiments thus far have not been entirely satis
factory'. We spent a day in climbing the mountains on horse
back and on foot, with the purpose of looking at some of the
mines on the summit of Zion mountain. At an almost perpen
dicular height of twenty-five hundred feet above the village, and
consequently eleven thousand feet above the level of the sea, is
a mine owned by the Walker Brothers, which they work to sup
ply the demands of their mill, getting out yearly, without any
special development, the interest on the sum of $1,500,000, the
price at which they offer to sell this property. As we wound up
the mountain on the opposite side of the valley to a still higher
point, we looked down upon their extensive works and tramways,
on which the ore slides to the mills.
Our trail led first to Dry Canon, to arrive at which we passed
through Jacob City. This city, not " set upon a hill," but hang
ing like a collection of crows' nests on the side of a mountain,
cannot be approached on wheels. Sure-footed horses and mules
are rather doubtful of their foothold in its streets paved with
boulders and drained by the gully of a torrent. If heavy rains
should swell the stream, as they are liable to do, or an avalanche ¦
of snow, which every winter threatens, should descend, the flimsy
structures of Jacob City would fly into the abyss below,
like a pile of shingles before the storm. Precarious indeed is
the existence of the capital of Dry Canon. As we ascend, we
see on the left the celebrated " Mono " mine, one half of which
has been sold for $400,000. We met Mr. Gisborne, who owns

192 THE ROUND TRIP.
the other half. The net income of the mine is said to average
$60,000 per month. When we looked at Mr. Gisborne, living in
Jacob City, clothed in a shabby suit that at most could not have
cost twenty dollars, smoking a cigar made far away from Cuba,
and all his surroundings betokening a man in debt for his last
meal, we asked ourselves, what is the use to him of an income
of $360,000 per year ? A little boy once wished he was a king,
for "then he would swing on a gate all day and lick 'lasses."
We perhaps would do something similar if we had the income of
Mr. Gisborne. We would buy a house on the Fifth avenue,
loaf about the streets of New York, visit the clubs, and do noth
ing. We would have the dyspepsia and die of ennui. I appre
hend that Mr. Gisborne values his immense fortune only as a
proof of his success as a business man, and is far happier in his
mountain life, in exuberant health, than he would find himself if
he follott'ed any bad advice that we might give him.
On the other side of the valley is the scarcely less noted
Chicago mine. There we dismounted and descended a shaft
hundreds of feet, through tunnels and drifts, dropping down
on ladders, crawling on all fours through damp caverns, as we
carried lighted candles in our hands. Here .we saw the ore,
deep buried for ages, now to be excavated, smelted, refined,
coined and made into wealth for the luxury of those who will
never see and pity, as we have done, the hard toil by which
it is obtained. A very productive property in the mountains
is a beautiful spring of water, running in a small stream over a
great cliff of a thousand feet, descending in thin spray to
an unapproachable chasm. The proprietor located this claim,
and there he has established himself for the sale of all the water
on the mountain ; for it is only after the melting of the snows
that, for a short time, the watercourses are known in this " Dry

CAMP FLOYD. 193
Caiion." There is no drilling or blasting needed to produce
wealth for this fortunate man. He sells the water for two and a
half cents per gallon, realizing thousands of dollars annually
without the outlay of a penny. The " Mono '' and the " Chi
cago " may give out, but the spring is not likely to dry up.
Leaving our horses at a place where their further progress
was impracticable, we proceeded on foot, often swinging
by our arms from one craggy rock to another, over the topmost
ridge, to survey some prospects in which the gentlemen who
accompanied us were interested. The location of a " prospect "
is determined by various indications, the chief of which is the
presence of a yellow ochre-colored dust. This leads to " crop-
pings,'' the ore on the surface containing mineral. These
" croppings " afford encouragement for the miner to sink a shaft,
upon which he works nine times out of ten without success.
We return to the place where our horses had been left, and
mounting them again, rode over the divide above the Chicago
mine to the side of the mountain sloping down toward Ophir.
If we could have taken passage in a balloon, or held on to
the tail of a kite, we might have mounted to the top of the per
pendicular cliff a.bove the village of Ophir, and dropped down
on the other side to the settlement of Camp Floyd in Salt Lake
valley ; but, until aerial navigation is more advanced, a stage
wagon performs the mail and passenger service between these
towns along the road over the foot hills, making a circuit of
eighteen miles.
It was a delightful drive, for, as we were hurried away at an
early hour, the sun, rising out of sight on the opposite side of
the mountains, had barely reached their summits before we had.
completed this first stage of our journey, so the road lay
under the shadows, while far away in the west was the:
13

194 THE ROUND TRIP.
view of gilded peaks gradually brightening to their base, and
the sunlight came step by step over the plains to meet us,
till the dazzling sun himself mounted to the crest on our left,
and poured around us the full blaze of day. By this
time we had nearly approached Camp Floyd, once the location
of a military post, but now a little Mormon village, where all
vestiges of its former occupation have given place to cultivated
fields and orchards.
Bishop Carter presides over the spiritual interests of the
people, his office also giving him the right to counsel them in
temporal matters, in accordance with the recognized authority
of the priesthood. It is a grave cause of complaint against the
Mormons that they do not encourage the presence of any of the
three learned professions. Unless the town is unusually large,
the bishop is able not only to do the preaching, but to settle all
disputes and to cure all ordinary diseases, by " the laying on of
hands," quite as effectively as they are treated by the adminis
tration of drugs. It is only in cases that require the prompt
services of a surgeon that he is forced to admit the inadequacy
of his spiritual power.
Bishop Carter, who rules supreme over all other households
in Camp Floyd, we were told had lately found that laying on of
hands has not acted well in his own case. He was originally,
as he is now, a monogamist. But not long ago he saw fit to
have a revelation commanding him to take another wife. Mrs.
Carter did not see the angel who brought the message, for that
angel was careful to avoid her. The bishop, however, trusting
in divine protection, went up to Salt Lake "on business," and
-returned in the evening with another woman. It was then that
he experienced an effectual laying on of hands, and Mrs. Carter
No. 2 felt the laying on of a broomstick. Feminine muscular

WILLIAM HICKMAN. 195
Christianity prevailed over spiritual enforcement, and the bishop
was made to realize that the power of a determined woman is
one that cannot be withstood by a Mormon any more successfully
than by a Gentile. The difficulty was settled by the bishop's
marrying No. 2 after all — to another man. Mrs. Carter keeps
a very excellent hotel, the breakfast provided for our company
evincing that, as far as the travelling public are concerned, the
lady at the head of the house is able to meet all their require
ments, as well as those of her husband, alone.
The distance from Camp Floyd to Lehi is eighteen miles.
As we drove out of the town the driver pointed to a seedy-look
ing vagabond, apparently sixty years of age, who was walking
slowly along, smoking his morning pipe. The expression of his
countenance was truly diabolical, and betokened a scoundrel
whose society one would instinctively avoid. This was the
notorious Bill Hickman, whose residence is in the neighbor
hood. Why the fiend is permitted to live is a mystery. His confes
sions of bloody deeds, if true, should expose him to the ven
geance of Gentiles whose friends he has slain ; if false, the won
der is that he is not riddled by Mormon bullets. It is a mark
of the astonishing forbearance of this people that, believing him
to be a malignant liar, they allow him to go about the country
unmolested ; and the only accountable reason for his safety
from the wrath of the Gentiles is, that they hope at some future
day to use him as a witness to prove the murders committed
by him at the bidding of the church. But the troubled con
science of the desperado is never at ease. He must have
revelations, and terrible ones too ; he must have angel visits at
night, for the angels of darkness must hover around his unquiet
bed, and hell must yawn at its side. He walks the streets by

196 THE ROUND TRIP.
day armed with two revolvers and a belt of cartridges, looking
furtively about him to see if some avenger is not nigh. He
steeps his damning memory in rum, yet dares not drink him
self totally insensible, lest, if found dead drunk away from
home, he should never wake again. So fearful is he of a
surprise that he never enters a bar-room where other men
are present without standing with his back to the bar when
the liquor is poured out for him. And thus he lives in a con
tinual hell.
Happily he soon passed out of our minds, as after a short
drive across the plains we came to a slight elevation, from which,
in the distance, we could see the pretty town of Lehi, not
far from the northern bank of Utah Lake. The lake extends
in a southerly direction twenty miles, and is five or six miles
wide, its western limit washing the foot of the Wasatch moun
tain. It is of fresh water, and contains an abundance of trout and
other fish. Its outlet is the Jordan river, a narrow but deep and
sluggish stream, connecting it with Great Salt Lake, forty miles
north. Far away to the south stretched the glassy lake, reflect
ing the noonday sun ; the rugged rhountains its background, and
the town, sheltered in the foliage of fruitful orchards, fringing its
northern edge. Lehi is a much larger settlement than Camp
Floyd, and contains 1,500 inhabitants under the paternal
care of Bishop Evans, to whom we had been commended as
willing to provide us with better accommodations than those
at the littie hotel.
The Bishop is a jolly old Pennsylvanian, who came to this
territory many years ago, and has contributed his share to in
crease its population, not being under such salutary restraint as
his brother Carter. His No. i being dead. No. 2 has been

LEHL 197
advanced to the rank of chief mate, six more of his female crew
living in cabins of their own. He was very communicative on
family matters. He evidently regarded No. 2 as the most val
uable wife, on account of her producing qualities. " I ought to
have more children than I have," he said. ",Why, I should have
quite a family if all the rest of them' kept up with her. She has
had fifteen, and all the others together have not had but twenty-
four." Discoursing upon matrimony in general, he observed that he
considered all Gentile forms null and void. " But," he added,
" I wouldn't take a woman that belonged to .a Gentile, because I
consider it mean. I don't justify Parley Pratt in having done
it — no — I want to avoid even the appearance of evil." The
self-complacency of this prelate was something of the subhme,
as he continued, " No, I would not take such a woman even if
she asked me to, as these others did."
" Do you mean to say, bishop," asked my astonished wife,
surveying the unctuous plurajist, " that these women ask for the
privilege of marrying you ? " " Yes, ma'am," he replied, with
some hesitation ; " three of 'em went for me straight, and the
rest of 'em hung round gitten me to ask 'em."
In this way did the garrulous old fellow go on until we were
glad to be shown to our room. We had no reason to complain
of our bed and board, nor of the attentions of No. 2, who man
ifested her interest in our welfare by shouting, as we left in the
wagon, to be driven by our host to the station after breakfast,
" Look out now for the bishop ; after all what he said last night,
remember the more men have the more they want. When a
man has one wife he's tolerably well satisfied ; but when he gets
another he keeps going on, and there's no knowing where he'll
stop."

igS , THE ROUND TRIP.
Lehi is upon the Utah Southern Railroad, thirty-one miles
south of Salt Lake City. Here we had arranged to meet a
party of friends, who were to leave the town in the morning train,
and accompany us on a visit to the American Fork Canon. To
while away the time before they should arrive, we sauntered
about the neighborhood of the station, under the shade trees
of the wide streets, and looked with longing eyes upon the fruit
ful orchards surrounding almost every house.
Entering a gate, and asking if the owner of the premises
would sell a few peaches, we were met by a plump refusal.
" No," replied an elderly man, " but you can take as many as
you please. Come in and let me show you my garden." A
second invitation was not needed, although it was extended with
equal cordiality by his wife. The garden was what is called a
double lot. It comprised two and one-half acres of ground,
every foot of which, except the walks, was under complete culti
vation. Nothing can exceed the richness of this soil, irrigated
at pleasure fiom the mountain streams. Although subject to
grasshopper visitations and the like casualties, a drought is
never apprehended, for that is impossible.
Mr. Isaac Goodwin, who so kindly entertained us, was a Con
necticut farmer, but has lived here for twenty-eight years. He
was an earlier Mormon than any of the first settlers of Utah, for
he was a California pioneer. The little band of 321 pilgrims, of
which he was one, that sailed in the ship Brooklyn from New
York for San Francisco, landed there in July, 1846. This was
two years before the discovery of the gold that brought such a
different class of pilgrims to worship at its shrine. The Mormon
settlers formed the colony of San Bernardino already described,
then, like Utah, a part of the Mexican territory.
Mr. Goodwin gave us many interesting reminiscences of

THE GARDEN OF ISAAC GOODWIN. 199
their early sufferings and privations, and of their final success in
acquiring, by peaceful overtures, the friendship of the Indians
whom the Mormons have always had a peculiar tact in concilia
ting. If gold had not been discovered, if the Mexican war had
not supervened, if Brigham's revelations had not induced him to
order the colony to break up and remove to Utah, we should
have seen at this day what an empire these indomitable enthu
siasts would have obtained in a country where nature did not
oppose such obstacles as they have here overcome. No railroad
would have approached them or ridden over them rough-shod,
but they would have been allowed to work out the problem of
their distinct civilization unmolested in their freedom of action.
But Providence determined that they could be put to a better
use here in paving the way for a higher civilization than their
own. Goodwin was the man who, with only one companion,
travelled across the continent, successfully braving natural obsta
cles and hostile Indians, until they met Brigham Young on the
eastern slope of the Rocky Mountains, and told him of the fer
tility of the soil of California. It was by his report Brigham
was induced to act in accordance with his revelation, as the
Mormons believe, but, as we are inclined to think, from the con
viction that he would not be allowed to remain there. Their
first settlement here proved of the greatest advantage in aiding
emigrants to cross the plains in the earlier days of the occupa
tion of California, and subsequently in the construction of the
Union and Central Pacific Railroads, which have bound them in
the embrace of our common country.
We are fond of listening to the tales of these gray fathers of
the land, especially when, as coming from such a one, they bear
the impress of unquestionable truth. He was a man of great
sagacity and general information — a New Englander imbued

200 THE ROUND TRIP.
with those Puritan principles that make martyrdom an absolute
pleasure. Yet, like all who come here from that section, his faith
in Mormonism is not exceeded by that of the most ignorant
and superstitious Dane or Norwegian. '
As Mr. Goodwin talked, we supplied ourselves abundantly
with peaches, plums and grapes. Still waiting, not impatiently,
for the train, we entered the tidy little cottage, where the pro
prietor and his only wife devoted themselves still further to our
entertainment. " I have a kingdom of my own," said he, " with
out going into polygamy : this old lady, seven children, and
thirty-three grandchildren. I believe in the doctrine for those
who like it, but God never required it of me. Matrimony is a
'straight and narrow path.' I like to go it alone. Now you
hang a plummet down from the wall and let it drop between two
women. Each of them will say it swings nearer the other one
than toward her. I might be straight up and down like that
plummet, and though the women mightn't say any thing, both of
them would think I was leaning the wrong way from her. So
much for two women. Now hang yourself like a plummet in a
circle of half a dozen, and then you can make some calculation
what kind of a time you would have through life."
Thus within the last two days we have seen three different
representations of matrimony. Bishop Carter is a monogamist
because he dare not open the door to another woman ; Bishop
Evans is a pluralist because he likes polygamy, although he says
the seven women will cleave unto him whether he wants them or
not ; and good, honest, straight and narrow-walking Isaac Good
win gets along through the world in peace and contentment with
only one wife, because he loves her too well to take another.
Let those of troubled conscience at home, who think that " no
good thing can come out of Nazareth," be consoled with the

THE GARDEN OF ISAAC GOODWIN. 201
knowledge that there are many more like Goodwin in the Mor
mon church, and that such leaven as this will yet leaven the
whole lump, if meddlesome fingers will but leave it alone.
The shrill whistle of the engine was heard in the distance,
and we hastened to meet our friends in the train, parting reluc
tantly with those, who now bade us farewell, loading us with
fruits and benedictions.

202 THE ROUND TRIP.

CHAPTER XXIV.
Sorghum — Luzerne — The American Fork CaSon.
We entered the train at Lehi and were landed at American
Fork station in a few minutes, the distance being only three
miles south, along the shores of Utah Lake. While waiting for
the cars in which we were to be taken over the narrow-gauge
railroad to the canon, we had an opportunity to inspect a sor
ghum plantation. The surroundings reminded us of Louisiana
and Cuba, excepting that the whole arrangement was on a
minute scale, and that a few white men and boys were doing
the work there performed by an ebony crowd.
An inexperienced cockney would readily mistake a plantation
of sorghum for a field of broom corn, which it so much resem
bles. It is thickly planted, like sugar cane, and similarly har
vested and ground. The stock has the same saccharine prop
erty, though in a lesser degree. The grinding apparatus is not
unlike a cider mill, and was worked by a patient mule, busily
engaged in making his distances on the small circle. The juice
is boiled down from one kettle to another, until at last it ac
quires the consistency and flavor of good southern molasses.
But its sweetness refuses to consohdate itself into anything
better than what Jack of the forecastle calls " long sugar." The
cultivation of this cane is rapidly increasing in Southern Utah,

THE AMERICAN FORK CAlfON. 203
where the climate is exceedingly favorable. One hundred gal
lons of molasses are produced to the acre, and this, clear of all
the expenses attending it, nets to the planter one hundred dol
lars. If a farmer in New York State or New England could
make $10,000 per annum from his farm of 100 acres, he would
not have his present complaints to make.
Another very productive industry of this district is the cul
tivation of what is called luzerne, and in California styled
alfalfa. Four crops are here cut in a year, while further south
seven harvests of it are obtained. The old Scripture simile of
the " desert blossoming as the rose," beautifully and poetically
expresses the change that has taken place in these valleys in
twenty-seven years, but it is inadequate to give an idea of a
land whose very paths drop with the fatness of rich abundance.
Leaving these fertile plains behind us, we were shown to an
open observation car, which the superintendent of the American
Fork Railroad had added to the train for the comfort and
pleasure of our party.
Messrs. Howland & Aspinwall of New York are the chief
owners of the Miller mine, the principal property in this
caiion. It is located at the highest point, twenty-three miles
distant from this, the nearest station on the Utah Southern
Railroad. Although the mine was at one time very productive
of valuable ore, it was almost inaccessible, on account of the
roughness and steepness of the trail. To overcome these
obstacles, this narrow-gauge road was constructed for fifteen
miles. Its cost, comprising the equipments, has amounted to
nearly four hundred thousand dollars. So great has been the
expense and so much disappointment has been experienced in
the productiveness of the mine, that although the road has been
graded for a great part of the distance, the eight miles at the

204 '^^^ ROUND TRIP.
upper end of the canon is still only a rough wagon road. But an
unselfish happiness .should be theirs. Among the many tourists
who avail themselves of the pleasant means they have afforded
the public of visiting some of the most magnificent scenery in
the world, we tender them our hearty thanks.
The excursion must now be made for the whole distance on
a wagon road, the railroad having been discontinued.
We began a gradual ascent over the foot hills for three
miles, drawing nearer and nearer to the grand massive range
of seemingly impenetrable mountains, till they loomed up like
impassable barriers to our progress. Suddenly a chasm was
opened between two enormous perpendicular cliffs, and through
this narrow valley a way was afforded hardly of sufficient breadth
to allow of the passage .of the train. Creeping up a grade of
316 feet to the mile, we wound round one point after the other,
sometimes under the dull shadow of dripping rocks, and then
coming out into the warm sunlight that fell upon hill slopes car
peted with the loveliest velvet green, and figured with clumps of
pine trees and autumnal tints of wild shrubbery.
It was a glorious day of this most glorious season of the
year, when Nature in her harvest robes is joyful on the plains,
and in her mountain plaids surpassingly attractive. The
mountains, as they gathered round us, in our ever-changing
progress, seemed to leap for joy, and the sparkling brook danced
to its own melody. The sublimity and beauty of the scene spread
over our littie company such a feeling of awe, that at times we
were lost in silent admiration, and again were carried to such
ecstasy of delight, that words could not be found for its expres
sion. Scenery like this always forces from the observer the con
viction that all he has seen before is tame and insignificant in
comparison.

THE AMERICAN FORK CAlVON. 205
So the White mountains, the towering Appenines, Mont
Blanc, the Bernese Oberland, and even the Yo Semite faded away
into dim pictures of the past, in the transcendent light of this
almost unknown caiion of the Wasatch Mountains.
A bountiful lunch was provided for us at Deer Creek, the
terminus of the railroad, and then, some in a wagon, some on
horseback, and one on foot who arrived first of all, we ascended
the canon for four miles to " Forest City," a municipality com
prising some smelting works and charcoal furnaces for its public
buildings, and four shanties for the inhabitants of its various
wards. The Miller mine is four miles still higher up. Two
of us ascended to it by a bridle path, varying our route to
examine another newly developed mine.
Finally, by a zigzag trail we reached the Miller at a short
distance from the summit of the mountain, a few moments before
the sun went down. His last rays lingered long enough to light
the high peaks, while the deep valleys were almost shrouded in
night. There we stood, 11,000 feet above the level of the sea,
and surveyed the great panorama of alternate day and night,
extending to mountains around, and over chasms below.
It was the very night of the full moon, when she rises at the
moment of the setting of the sun. Strangely then the picture
¦changed ; the splendor and the grandeur faded and vanished
away, but a softness and a beauty succeeded, even more pleasing
than the magnificence of the day. The sharp outlines of the
mountains were toned down to the smoothness of grassy mounds,
all colors were blended into a grayish blue, the hills were drawn
together, and the hazy bottoms of the valleys rose to the appear
ance of elevated plains. So contracted did all things now
appear, that but an hour before were spread abroad in immensity.
Daylight and darkness are alike in mines. Mr. Epley showed

2o6 THE ROUND TRIP.
US a part of the works which had been commenced four years
ago. He lives at the mine during the winter as well as summer
months. For weeks at a time he is often alone, so far as con
genial society is concerned, but in his little cabin there is a
choice library well stocked with standard works. There, when
the snow flies and the tempest howls, he sits with Shakespeare,
Addison, Pope, Macaulay, Scott, Cooper, and Dickens, besides
a number of scientific gentlemen, whose companionship we should
not so much covet, and communing with these, is at peace,
though all without is elemental war. " Is it not cold ? " we asked.
" Not very ; the glass seldom falls to lo deg. below zero.'' "A
great deal of snow, is there not ? " " Why, yes ; about forty feet
deep." "Hard place to live in the winter?" "No; not with
my books." Happy Mr. Epley !
By moonlight we descended to Forest City, and, after our
long and romantic ride, were right glad to enjoy the supper, at
which we were anxiously awaited by our companions. In the
morning we were rattled down to the railroad station at Deer
Creek, where we again took the observation car, descending
without the company of an engine. A brakeman sat at each end
of the carriage and moderated its speed, and thus we glided
smoothly down.

PROVO.

207

CHAPTER XXV.
Provo — Factory and Co-operative Store — The Two Mor
mon Sects — The Childless Bishop and his More For
tunate Brother.
We came again to what was then the tefminus of the Utah
Southern Railroad, a pretty little city of 4,000 inhabitants,
fifty miles from Salt Lake, where the mountains overshadow it
from the east, and the waters of Utah Lake ripple on the shores
at its feet. This is Provo.
We came on a lovely summer afternoon, for it was the Indian
summer of October. The mountains were still hiding in their
rocky clefts clumps of shrubbery, variegated with every hue.
Quantities of apples, peaches and plums were yet remaining
upon the garden trees, and winter seemed to be far a-vi'ay.
But as evening drew on, dark clouds gathered over the
Wasatch peaks, and dropped in misty curtains over the valley,
the trees swayed in the fitful gusts that filled the air with dust,
and the placid lake scowled darkly, and broke into a miniature
sea of white-capped waves.
In the wild night the rains descended and the winds blew,
and when the morning dawned the streets and gardens were
overflowed by water, floating away the fallen fruit and leaves,
and the mountains, from their summits down to an even, dark
line, where the snow changed to rain, were covered with a

2o8 THE ROUND TRIP.
white mantle, concealing beneath its folds alike the bare rocks
and the autumn-tinted shrubbery. Winter had come.
Within doors we were comfortably lodged, fed and warmed
by Bishop Miller, and there we proposed to remain until summer
should return, not for months, but for a few days.
Utah seasons are not like those described by Thomson
as changing with great regularity. They come and go. The
autumn here is not a season by itself. It is made up of alternate
summer and winter. "Wait a day or two," said the bishop,
" and summer will come again ; then you can go on your way.
In the mean time I will look up a couple of good saddle beasts,
and you can go out 'between the drops and see the city."
We readily acquiesced in the title given to Provo. It is
one of the earliest Mormon settlements, and its prosperity
always was a pet delight of Brigham Young. To describe the
laying out of one Mormon town is to describe them all. There
are the same methods of rectangular streets, bordered on each
side by running water, and shaded by cottonwoods and locusts,
all the house lots and orchards enclosing cottages, and every thing
about the localities betokening quiet contentment.
As we go further from the metropolis we see less of what
in the East is styled comfort, and as we become accustomed
to its absence we are apt to think that our idea of comfort is
after all one of luxury not absolutely necessary to the enjoyment
of life. Good taste is invariably displayed in the selection of
town sites. This is involuntary, but the effect is none the less
charming. Each settlement, large or small, nestles under some
mountain range and at the mouth of a caiion. The streams
that run down these narrow defiles are caught in ditches before
they waste themselves on the plains, and are rpade useful in
irrigating the village gardens and the fields surrounding them.

FACTORY AND CO-OPERATIVE STORE. 209
At the mouth of Provo Canon this little city is not only well
watered and pleasant to the eye, but, owing to the volume and
rapid fall of the river, is happily situated for manufacturing en
terprise. We were shown through the largest cloth factory in
the Territory, a capacious stone building which, with its machin
ery, cost over $200,000. It has been in operation six years, and
besides giving employment to one hundred operatives, is a very
profitable concern to its stockholders. The blankets, flannels,
shawls and cloths turned out by this establishment are finished
goods that would not disgrace the counters of the fashionable
dealers in our great cities. It is certainly creditable to Brigham
Young that he introduced the best breeds of sheep into Utah,
and in such a short period followed the experiment from the
beginning to the end, and through all the processes produced
these proud results.
The manager of the co-operative store explained the working
of the institution. Like the woollen factory, it is a stock concern,
and as far as possible is made subservient to the profit as well
as the wants of the community. The shares are issued at twenty-
five dollars each, in order to induce all classes of people to
participate in the copartnership.
In no community are wealth and poverty more evenly dis
tributed. It may be said of Provo, a city of 4,000 inhabitants, that
there is not a rich man or a poor man in its limits. It would be
difficult to find anywhere an assemblage of an equal number of
inhabitants so contented with the answer to Agur's prayer, " Give
me neither poverty nor riches."
Our host, the bish6p, was one of the " early pioneers." I have
previously noticed the unusually large percentage of old people
we everywhere meet. It would seem that the pilgrimage over
the desert in 1847 gave to everyone who undertook and finished
14

2IO THE ROUND TRIP.
it, a new lease of life. These old folks never die, for they have
earned a claim to immortality. The bishop was an intimate
friend of Joseph Smith the prophet, sharing with him many of
his adventures and persecutions.
His conversation elicited the truth of a very important but
much disputed matter of church history. The question has
often been discussed, was Joseph Smith, the originator of the
Mormon sect, a polygamist ? The Josephites, or as they are
sometimes called, the members of the " Reformed Church of the
Latter-Day Saints," deny it emphatically, claiming that his own
life was one of purity, and that he did not countenance impurity
in others. They accordingly discarded this pernicious doctrine
which they say is a device of Brigham Young.
In almost every other dogma of their religion they are in
accord with the dominant sect. We have listened to their
preaching and never discovered any other material difference.
They use the same religious books in their worship, and argue
from them the prohibition of polygamy with as much earnestness
as Orson Pratt displays in its advocacy. They all accept the
Bible as a literally inspired book from beginning to end.
The outside Christian world, desirous of establishing a purer
form of worship in Utah, would best attain its object by en
couraging this sect of Josephites. The prevalence of their
teachings would reform Mormonism, and that certain result
would be better than all that can be accomplished by uncertain
missionary effort. It may be said of this, in general terms, that
it is a waste of time and money, and that all that the Presby-
¦ terians, Methodists, and Episcopalians havSdone in the Territory
has been among themselves, few converts having been made
from Mormonism.
When a Mormon apostatizes he almost always becomes an

THE TWO MORMON SECTS. 211
infidel or a spiritualist. It will be admitted by most people that
Christianity of any kind is better than infidelity, and no un
prejudiced person can study the Mormon religion and its effects
upon those who embrace it without coming to the conclusion
that if it could be shorn of its one objectionable excrescence, it
would confer as much happiness upon this condition of society
as any other form or creed could bestow. I should like to see
the Mormons complying with the law of the land, which has
made polygamy a crime, but apart from this I have not the least
desire for their conversion.
Unfortunately for the Josephites and for the reformation they
propose to bring about, they will be unable to establish the fact
that Joseph Smith was a monogamist. His earlier writings and
practice, and all the teachings of his " Book of Mormon,'' were
clearly in favor of monogamy ; but, however willing to be vijrtuous
was his spirit, his flesh became weak, and ^or several years
before his death he was living in violation of his own precepts.
There are old men in Utah who say that he had at least nine
wives. Our friend Bishop Miller produced this conclusive testimony.
He and another member of the church told us that the revelation
of polygamy was read openly three years before the death of the
prophet, and that they had heard it. Moreover, Bishop Miller
was married to his wife No. 2, at Nauvoo, by Hyrum Smith, the
brother of the prophet Joseph, two years before those two men
were killed by the mob at Carthage.
Such proofs, easily brought forward, will lessen the influence
of " Josephism." But despite of them, the name itself of the
sect, and the purer morality of its teachings, will be powerful
arguments in its favor. Combining -with other causes, they will
surely produce the needed reformation in the church.

212 THE ROUND TRIP.
The surroundings of our host evinced that he was a prosper
ous man. Yet there was sometimes a shade of melancholy
passing over his genial face. This was always apparent when
children were referred to in conversation. At first we thought
that he had lost some of his littie ones, but we afterward dis
covered that he had had no little ones to lose. Hinc illae lach-
rymoe. Two comely and agreeable matrons in his household took
excellent care of him. Besides, he had been owned by four
more, now deceased ; and yet the poor bishop was childless.
Each woman thought it the greatest curse that could fall upon
her, and their general head considered that he was six times
accursed. True, they had been exemplary Christians to the best of their
knowledge and ability, conscientiously fulfilling all the duties of
this life, but they had done absolutely nothing toward peopling
the " celestial kingdom." Those crowns of glory to be fitted on
to the heads of their productive neighbors were not for theirs,
and their " exaltations around the throne " would be of a low
degree. How much happier both in this life and in the life to come
is and is to be the condition of one of their venerable townsmen !
He is ninety-two years of age and the father of sixty children.
The eldest is seventy years old and the youngest is sixty-seven
years his brother's junior. We were sorry that this patriarch
was not at home. How delightful it would have been to see him
trotting these two children of seventy and of three on his knees,
and to hear him repeat from " Mother Goose " —
" Tom Brown's two little darling boysl
One wouldn't stay, and t'other ran away —
Tom Brown's two little darUng boys ! "

THE JOURNEY TO THE SOUTH. 213

CHAPTER XXVI.
The Journey to the South — The Hotel at Payson — Our
Landlady's Choice — Mormon and Gentile Amenities
— Hospitalities of the Bishops — Mount Nebo — En
ergetic Conduct of a Bishop's Wife — San Pete Val
ley — War, the Consequence of Miss Ward's Obstinacy
— A Monogamous Mormon Town — Reflections of Mrs.
Price — The Coal Mines.
After two days the storm abated, and on the third morning
the sun rose brightly over the mountains, now covered nearly to
their base with snow. Winter seemed to have fixed his per
manent abode among them, while summer was permitted to re
turn for a short visit to the valleys. It was summer, with all its
agreeable warmth, but not too hot for travel ; summer, lacking
somewhat of the pleasant views of green meadows, ripening
harvests, and fruitful trees, but compensating these losses by
enhanced beauty of mountain scenery.
The bishop had secured two ponies of promising character,
but with peculiarities subsequently developed. As we were pro
vided with our own outfit of saddle and side-saddle, we had noth
ing more to ask for, but cheerfully agreeing to pay half a dollar
a day for each of the animals, for the time they might be
required, we packed our lliggage, and, mounting them, bade the

214 THE ROUND TRIP.
bishop and his family good-by for the present. Then, over a
ground made soft by the late rains, we took our course to the
south, along the eastern shores of Utah Lake.
On the first afternoon we passed through Springville and
Spanish Fork, and arrived at Payson, eighteen miles from Provo,
in the evening. The road lay along the " bench " below the
Wasatch mountains. By turning our faces to the left we could
enjoy a continual view of winter magnificence, and then looking
down upon the bottoms, find enough of summer still there to
make a pleasing picture, while beyond the dark blue waters of
the lake contrasted beautifully with the snowy Oquirrh range in
the west. As we rode up to the door of the neat little inn, we were
agreeably surprised to meet Judge Emerson, who, with a party,
was on his return from the Tintec mines to Provo. This gentle
man, although a Federal officer, is highly respected and esteemed
alike by Mormons and Gentiles.
The Mormons accept his decisions as made in accordance
with the spirit of the law he is placed here to enforce. No one
of them, excepting the most bigoted, can complain of him for
being the agent of the Government, and no Gentiles, excepting
the mischief-makers of the "ring, " assert that he is too lenient
to the Saints.
His present journey was an instance of his ability to hold
their mutual confidence. There had been a dispute concerning
a mine between a Gentile and a Mormon. Each of them, desir
ous of avoiding legal expenses, had agreed that the judge should
go with them to the spot, and there decide the question. This
had been done, and all parties were returning amicably together.
The arrangement was especially agreeable to us, as it afforded
an evening of pleasant entertainment.

OUR LANDLADY'S CHOICE. 215
In the course of conversation a Mormon of the party observed
that, although he was a "pluralist," and was very happy in
his domestic relations, he recognized the right of Government to
enforce its law against polygamy, provided it was constitutional.
He and many other refiecting men were perfectly willing that
some test case should be brought into the courts, in order that
the vexed question might speedily reach the highest tribunal and
be forever set at rest. This desire has since been gratified.
The little hotel at Payson was a model of comfort. It had
lately been established by a young couple, the husband a Gen
tile and the wife a Mormon. The linen and the table service
were faultless. There was no abominable stove to burn out the
oxygen and poison the atmosphere, but a soft coal fire was
flaming cheerfully in the grate, and every thing reminded us of
the easy luxury of an English country inn.
We asked our pretty landlady how she came to marry a Gen
tile. " Why, isn't he handsome ? " she replied ; " and then he
is good, and then — and then — I wanted every bit of him to my
self ! Father didn't like it, mother didn't like it, but I did."
We had known of similar vagaries among other young women,
and as fathers and mothers become reconciled to them after a
while, we sincerely hope that the obdurate hearts of these Mor
mon parents will relent. Payson, containing about 2,000 in
habitants, is a thriving farming town.
In the morning we went on our way south, leaving the shores.
of the lake, which here has its south-western limit. We had'
passed out of Salt Lake valley before coming to Provo, and now
on reaching Santaquin, came to the southern end of Utah valley,
following the new grade of the Utah Southern Railroad. Every
mile this thoroughfare progresses is a gain to the mining and
agricultural interests of the South. These Utah railroads . are

2i6 THE ROUND TRIP.
dependent upon no land grants, concessions, or subsidies of any
kind. In the exact proportion of the demand and necessity for
them, they are constructed by the people and for the people who
need them. Bonds are issued for two-thirds of the cost, and
they are not dependent upon Government charity or the chances
of Congressional action. There is no watering of stock. In
short, they are built by honest men for honest purposes. To
meet the wants of the newly developed mines at Frisco, this road
is now under contract to be extended one hundred and fifty
miles in a south-westerly direction, and by other connections will
doubtless in due time reach the Pacific. At Santaquin 'we
reached, by a somewhat sharper grade, the more elevated valley
of Juab, three or four miles wide and thirty miles long, Nephi,
sixteen miles south of Santaquin, being its shire town.
Progressing ten miles in that direction, we came to the small
settlement of Willow Creek. We were provided with an encyc
lical letter from a church dignitary in Salt Lake, addressed " to
all the bishops south. " It was intimated therein that we were
in search of information, and we were accordingly commended
to the courtesy of these country ecclesiastics, who were request
ed to furnish refreshments when the lack of hotels obliged us to
claim their hospitalities. We found them assiduous in contrib
uting to our comfort, and ready to impart all the knowledge
they possessed. Many of them are in very moderate circum
stances, but all have enough and to spare. A Mormon brother
is always welcome to board and lodging gratis, and even a Gen
tile often finds it difficult to make them accept any remuneration.
At Willow Creek we accordingly called upon Bishop Kay
for the requirements of ourselves and our animals. Again we
found an early pioneer, and listened to the oft-repeated story of
crossing the desert.

SALT LAKE CITY 217
Salt Lake City is 4,300 feet above the level of the sea. We
had mounted 700 feet in a distance of ninety miles. Here,
directiy against and almost above the village, is Mt. Nebo, the
highest peak in the Territory. It was incomparably magnificent,
clothed in its spotiess robe shaded into a delicate pink at its
summit, 7,000 feet above us.
The wonderful rarefaction of the atmosphere plays curious
freaks with our estimation of distance. I said to the bishop
that I should like to spend a day, if time allowed, in going up to
the peak. " Well, " he replied, " you might start this afternoon
and if you did not freeze in the night you might possibly get
there by sunset day after to-morrow. You remind me of an
Englishman travelling through this back country a few years ago.
He thought everything looked so near that he hadn't far to go, and
he never could understand why he could not get along faster.
At last he got on a little ahead of the party. They came up to
him on the bank of a small brook two feet wide. He was
taking off his boots to wade over. 'Why don't you jurrip across?'
somebody asked him. ' Aw, you see,' replied the Englishman,
'I've been deceived so often that I fancied this brook might be
half a mile wide, and I might be obliged to swim ! ' "
After dinner we rode to Nephi, over a level bench of sage
brush for most of the way.
I have described Nephi in the mention of Payson and
Provo. There is a sameness of beauty in them all. It contains
about 2,000 inhabitants, and two hotels, one of which we know
to be well kept by Mr. Seeley, an old Californian. " Are you a
Mormon or a Gentile ? " I asked. " Nary one, " replied Seeley,
" I'm a neutral." He had been to California in search of gold,
he said, and had not found it. So he had come here in search
of peace and quiet. Surely he has attained it.

2i8 THE ROUND TRIP.
California and Utah solve the problem of longevity. The
gold hunters went to California in 1849. Ten years earlier
the religious enthusiasts came to Utah. At San Francisco the
veterans of '49 have the annual meetings of their society. Very
fe-w of them are now left ; of these too many are broken down
old men. Auri sacra fames produces an equal appetite for
whiskey, and together they craze the brain. In no country is
suicide so common, or old age so rarely attained, notwithstand
ing its unrivalled climate, as in California. In Utah, where
winter howls among the mountains for half the year, and the toil
of the farmers in the valleys is incessant, the robust exercise of
the woodman and the quiet existence of the agriculturist, their
temperate habits and the training of their minds in continual
regard to the practice of religion in this world with reference to
its hopes for the future — these conditions bring but little wear
and tear on the human frame. Men live out their three score
years and ten, and if by reason of strength they be fourscore
years, the Psalmist would admit that their strength is not always
labor and sorrow.
The extensive Tintec silver mines can be reached from Nephi
by an easy grade for a narrow gauge road of twenty miles in a
westerly direction, while it is also the nearest and most con
venient junction for the narrow gauge road contemplated and
surely to be built for the San Pete valley, that will contribute its
coal and its grain. This is reached by the Salt Creek caiion,
through which we took our road.
The ascent is very gradual, little of it being on its steepest
grade of 200 feet to the mile. The canon is so wide that the
height of the mountains at its sides is not fully realized, and
there are always perplexing ideas of distances. By a circuitous
track "we wound along, keeping mainly a southeast course.

SAN PETE VALLEY. 2ig
but often steering due north. In this way we circled Mt. Nebo,
until we had a full view of its eastern slope, as beautiful in the
morning light as its western side appeared in the sunshine of the
previous afternoon.
With the exception of a saw-mill and one cattle ranch, there
was no sign of habitation or life upon the road until we came to
Fountain Green, the first village in San Pete valley, into which
we descended from the divide, after making fifteen miles from
Nephi. Bishop Johnson not being at home, Mrs. Johnson gave
us a kindly welcome, and spread before us an abundant and
cleanly meal.
Polygamy is not much countenanced in San Pete, as would
appear by the energetic conduct of our hostess not long ago. I
have related the experience of the bishop of Camp Floyd, when
he pursued matrimony under difficulties. His brother of Fountain
Green fared even worse. He also conjugated surreptitiously.
When Mrs. Johnson discovered that he had another house, she
dressed herself in male apparel, and armed with an axe, de
stroyed the honeymoon. Fortunately mistaking the bedpost for
one of their heads, she hacked it into a broken shaft over the
grave, as it were, of love nipped in its early bud.
The valley was originally called by the Indian name of San
Pitch, a chief of this region. San Pitch headed the war which
devastated these settlements ten years ago. As in the difficulty
that occurred at Eden, Troy, and thousands of other places, a
woman was the cause of this trouble. Barney Ward, an old
settler before the time of the Mormon occupation of the valley,
was on such terms of friendship with San Pitch, that he promised
him his daughter in marriage when she should become of a
suitable age. But when that time arrived, the young woman was
found to have a will of her own. She rejected the advances of

2 20, THE ROUND TRIP.
the swarthy Ute, and he took vengeance on the whites for the
jilting he had received. The innocent people who had begun to
settle in the valley were murdered or driven out, their habitations
laid waste, their crops burned, and their cattle stolen. All this
happened because of the obstinacy of Miss Ward.
At the close of the war the Mormons returned, and again
built their homes, fortifying their villages with rude forts for de
fence in case of other outbreaks. The wisdom of their precau
tions has been obvious, for two raids have since been made upon
them, the last of which occurred five years since when several
individuals were killed, and a large number of cattie driven off.
Already nine towns, including Fountain Green, containing alto
gether ten thousand people, have been rebuilt, and are in a
flourishing condition.
The valley is forty miles in length by four or five in breadth,
and is very productive of wheat, barley, and oats. Potatoes are
raised in great abundance, and celebrated for their excellent
flavor. The average grain yield of San Pete is 450,000 bushels,
a great part of which is exported to the mines of Pioche, Tintec,
and other districts. The chief future product of San Pete will
be its coal, already attracting much attention, and promising
great results.
After dinner we rode from Fountain Green, on the west side
of the valley, south to the small collier hamlet called Wales.
This is an absolutely monogamous Mormon town. There had
been a feeble attempt on the part of the male members to intro
duce polygamy, but the women so rudely handled the intruders
on their domestic peace, that the men surrendered uncondition
ally, and now the single broomstick reigns supreme. No woman
has presumed to dispute the sway of a rightful wife since the last
audacious hussy was mounted on a rail, and carried by these

SAN PETE VALLEY. 221
Amazons down to the meadows, where she was dumped and left
to find her own way out of the neighborhood.
A kind old Welsh couple took us into their little log hut of two
rooms, giving us the best. There were holes in the roof, the
sides and the floor, thus affording plenty of ventilation without
windows. Mrs. Price told us heart-rending tales of the poverty
they had endured before they were now so comfortably situated.
Her husband had been superintendent of a colliery in Wales,
with a good salary which he had abandoned for the sake of his
religion. " I've often wondered," remarked the thoughtful old woman
" why we couldn't have been Mormons in Wales as well as
here, and had some comfort in life besides what we get in
religion. They talk about coming to these holy mountains — well,
and aren't there mountains there too, and don't they belong to
the Lord just as much ? "
She did not see the advantages of martyrdom. She had ex
perienced it enough not to yearn after more, and she was the
first emigrant we had found in all Utah who was willing candidly
to confess that she was sorry she had come, and would now pre
fer to be living in her old home.
In the morning we rode up to the principal coal mine in the
canon, three miles behind the village. The president of the
company, the secretary, the treasurer and the superintendent,
were all living together in a comfortable log cabin, serving them
for sleeping, cooking meals, store-room, offices of their various
departments, and other general purposes.
They received us very politely and escorted us further up the
canon to the place where the works are in active progress, ex
plaining all matters of interest by the way.
The veins are distinctly traced for seven and three-quarters

22 2 THE ROUND TRIP.
miles. It is a solid stratum of five feet and eight inches, en
closed in flat limestone walls, and running into the mountain at
a pitch of twenty degrees. Along this incline they have run a
shaft two hundred and fifty feet, and from various points have
drifted tunnels of from four hundred and fifty to six hundred
feet. Sixty men are now employed at the works. The actual
cost of mining is $2.50 per ton, and it is sold at $4 on the dump.
The coke is made at the mouth of the canon, and the full cost of
it there turned out is $4 per ton. It cannot probably be made
for less in Pennsylvania.

VILLAGES IN THE SAN PETE VALLEY. 223

CHAPTER XXVII.
Towns and Villages in the San Pete Valley — German
Preaching — Providing Tabernacles for Disembodied
Spirits — Brigham Young's Journey — The Mountain
Meadow Massacre — Life and Character of the Apostle
George A. Smith.
We left the hospitable mud thatch of Mr. Price at Wales on
a lovely Sunday afternoon. Sabbath, it might more appropri
ately be termed, for all animate and inanimate nature seemed to
be at rest. The slow pace of our lazy ponies was so near to a
standstill that so far as using them is considered, we could not
be accused of breaking the commandment, for they certainly did
no work.
As for ourselves, we did not " sit under " any preacher, but on
our saddles we sat under the smiles of the great Creator, who
made such days as this for the enjoyment of his creatures.
Descending the bench sloping from the western mountains,
the little villages of Mount Pleasant, Spring City, Maroni, and
Ephraim were in full view on the eastern side of the valley, their
green orchards variegating the sage-brush deserts. The towns
were all abandoned and destroyed when the Indians ravaged the
valleys of San Pete, Sevier, and the surrounding country. Their

224 "^^^ ROUND TRIP.
present condition evinces the energy the settlers have displayed
in rebuilding their homes.
The forts they have constructed are not unlike many old
European fortresses of the middle ages, being provided with loop
holes for rifle shooting, as those were for the use of bows and
, arrows. This is quite sufficient, as the Indians are unprovided
with artillery, though some of them have been furnished by
greedy and unscrupulous traders with the best Henry rifles. We
occasionally met bands of them armed in this way and belted
with metal cartridges.
These fellows, although now peaceable perforce, carry in
their devilish faces the inclination to pull the triggers of their
fancy weapons whenever they can do so with impunity. Most
of them, however, are but rudely armed, some still carrying old
flint-locks, and not a few relying upon their original bows and
arrows. But the same disposition is left in them all to use what
ever will serve the purpose of getting a white man's scalp.
It was but twelve miles' travel from Wales to Ephraim, the
most southern town of importance in the valley. As we came
down from the western bench we passed over three miles of
river bottom watered by the San Pete, a narrow, sluggish stream
tapped by irrigating ditches several miles above. The villages
on the benches are watered, and their gardens made produc
tive, by the torrents frqm the canons, while the farming lands
are spread over the rich bottoms of the meadows.
The cattie either find pasturage on the benches and in the
canons or are herded on the low lands. Ephraim contains about
1,700 inhabitants. As we entered it on this quiet Sunday even
ing, it would have seemed like a city of the dead had it not been
too beautiful for such a melancholy idea.
The Mormons believe in spirits of the air. These might

VILLAGES IN THE SAN PETE VALLEY. 225
have been dwelling here unseen. They could not have had a
more heavenly home on earth. Lovely as were the many vil
lages we had seen, this last one, with its neat cottages, and streets
shaded by long lines of trees, with not a sound to break the still
ness, but that of the running roadside streams, .and the setting
sun gilding the snowy mountains in its background, leaves in our
memory one of the fairest pictures of the journey.
At last the herd boys came driving in their cows, and the
blowing of their horns, the tinkhng of the bells, and the lowing
of the cattle awakened the little town from its dreamy repose. A
few people came out from their cottages and leaned listlessly
over the fences. From one of them we obtained a direction to
the inn.
Ephraim is almost entirely settled by Danes and Germans.
In the evening we attended the " meeting " in a large, taste
fully built church. It stands in the centre of the stone fort,
presenting a formidable appearance, surrounded by walls and
bastions. The preaching might have been in Danish so far
as it conveyed any instruction to us. Few of the speakers had
pure English at command, but they all seemed to comprehend
each other with the same accustomed facility with which we
understand " Pigeon English " in China. Tlie church does not
encourage the continuance of old national habits or language in
Utah. Therefore the new comers are required to speak in
English as best they can.
Now and then we could make out a little of the discourse.
In descanting upon the " United Order " which Brigham Young
was laboring to introduce, one of the brethren observed, "Ven
de Presdent tell vat he tinks am recht, I vas alvays know das ist
recht : who vas ever know him tell lie ? If angel vas coom
down from himmel and vas say something dif'frent, I moost
IS

226 THE ROUND TRIP.
believe der angel vas lie. Cause vy ? Vasn't ter duyvil fix him
self up like angel mit shnake's face and coom to ter garten mit
Adam and P:ve and tell 'em lies ? Brigham Young is ter great
prophet. I don't believe vat all de priests in de voorld say agin
him. He is yoost like Lijah ven he shtand oop agin der vier
hoonderd und fumfsig prophets von Baal, and beat dem all."
The next day I had a pleasant talk with Bishop Peterson.
He is the " husband of one wife " and several more. He looked
upon polygamy as a hardship but a duty, expressing not only a
perfect willingness but a wish that the question might be fairly
tried by the supreme court. If the law of 1862 and the Poland
bill are declared to be constitutional he will cheerfully refrain
from being married again. In fact he would be glad of an
excuse for not complying any longer with revealed orders, when
the orders of the Government legally enforced, oppose them.
The mind of the bishop must now be relieved.
One of the Mormon theories being that the air is full of dis
embodied spirits in want of earthly habitations in which to do
penance for their sins, in order to obtain salvation, our good-
friend has hitherto considered it his duty to "provide taber
nacles " for them to enter. He who provides the greatest
number of tabernacles is instrumental in saving the greatest
number of distressed spirits, and is accordingly a benefactor to
the spirit world, deserving of the highest exaltation.
This is a man's excuse for polygamy. The woman gains for
herself also exaltations in proportion to the tabernacles pro
duced. This glorious hope of the future reconciles her to the
humiliation of her condition, to the mere participation of her
husband's affection, to a small share in his property, to jealousy,
heart-burnings, domestic quarrels, and all the unmentionable
miseries of this damnable system. It is true that Brigham
Young urged it only upon those men who think that they are

VILLAGES IN THE SAN PETE VALLEY. 227
able to support more than one family, and upon those women
only who think that they will be happy in the relation. But I
have not yet seen one man who has become richer by polygamy
while I have met hundreds who were impoverished by it, nor in
all the families we visited in our extended tour, where the sub
ject is always broached by the Mormon women themselves,
have there been found but three individuals among them who
claimed to be happy.
Bishop Peterson gave us an interesting narrative of the
Indian raids and the consequent sufferings of the settlers who,
unable to defend themselves, sought shelter in the rocky fast
nesses of the mountains.
The United States Government afforded them not the
slightest aid. The bishop observed, with no more bitterness
than was warranted by the fact, that the only troops sent to
Utah came as enemies, not as friends to the Mormons. He
thought it unreasonable in the Government to exercise control
over their social relations, while it treated them as a separate
and distinct people by leaving them to fight their own battles.
We were taken into the large co-operative store, and told
with pride of the great dividend of sixty per cent, declared last
year. This seems enormous, but it is really nothing more than
the taking out of one pocket and putting into the other. Almost
every purchaser is a stockholder. If he gets sixty per cent.
dividends — always, by the by, payable in goods — it is only be
cause he pays sixty per cent, too much for all that he buys. The
system varies from a high tariff policy, inasmuch as the people
who pay the high duties that make high prices do not receive
again the profits. These go into the pockets of monopolists.
The Utah farmer pays himself back. The people of the United
States pay manufacturing corporations. That is the difference.

228 THE ROUND TRIP.
In a succeeding chapter will be found a relation of the
e.xperience of travel from the little town of Ephraim to the
southern point of our journey. Among the places worthy of
remembrance on the route, Richfield, the county town of Sevier
valley, is most prominent. The valley, fifty miles long, watered
by the river of the same name, is easily irrigated, and although
it has not been under cultivation until recently, has abundant
promise for the future.
We happened to be in Richfjeld, as in Gunnison, at the same
time with Brigham Young and his party of about twenty persons,
on their way to " Dixie," as the extreme south of Utah is termed.
The imperial crowd being entitled to the best hospitalities of
the people, unbelieving Gentiles could expect but poor accom
modations unless they chose to attach themselves to the suite.
Brigham himself was very ill, making no public appearances on
the route, and although we were acquainted with several of the
elders who accompanied him, we kept aloof from their society, as
their journey was a sort of religious procession of praying and
preaching in which we were not especially interested.
When notice was given that he was expected in a settlement
on his line of march, a cavalcade went out to meet him, and when
he departed he "was escorted in the same way until met by other
horsemen. The poor old gentleman could only look from a
window of his carriage and thank them with a silent blessing.
It was perhaps his last journey. Thirty years ago, in his full
vigor of mind and body, he made his entrance through the wild
Emigration canon into what is now the fruitful United States Ter
ritory of Utah.
Then it was a Mexican desert, uninhabited, save by roving
savages, unproductive of a blade of wheat. He had now left the
city whose fotindationshe then laid. More than a hundred miles

THE MOUNTAIN MEADOW MASSACRE. 229
north of it the country is already thickly peopled, and as he
travelled through these valleys three hundred miles to the south,
he beheld thousands of acres that had just yielded a bountiful
harvest, thousands of catde and sheep grazing upon th'em, and in
the hills, orchards, and gardens, lovely villages, and above all
tens of thousands of happy, industrious people settled in these
towns and on their farms, every one of whom was indebted to his
energy and foresight.
I cannot yet comprehend his character. I cannot believe that
a man of his astuteness could have been totally led away by the
delusions of Joseph Smith, nor can I think that one of his
unswerving fidelity to the religion he embraced, maintained and
successfully propagated was a consummate hypocrite. At all
events I am persuaded that he became at last convinced of his
own sincerity. He looked upon the end of his labors as justify
ing the means taken to achieve the grand result.
There have been committed in the early years of the settie-
ment by the Mormons, single murders rivalling in atrocity those
now perpetrated in the mining camps with horrible frequency by
Gentiles ; but to reproach the Mormons as a people with whole
sale atrocities as premeditated, or to accuse Brigham Young of
instigating them, are slanders worthy only of those who invent
them and sustain them for base political ends.
The Mountain Meadow massacre, a crime unparalleled in
barbarity by either Mormon or Gentile, furnishes the chief
ground of these accusations. I have made inquiries in every
direction regarding this celebrated, most wretched affair, and am
thoroughly convinced that the emigrants themselves excited the
animosity of the Indians, who were joined by white men of
notoriously bad character. The emigrants were butchered from
motives of revenge and plunder. Brigham Young and the

230 THE ROUND TRIP.
Mormon Church had no more concern in its perpetration than
the Pope of Rome or the Catholic Church has in any murder
committed by men who acknowledge their authority.
The preaching of " blood atonement " as a doctrine of relig
ion in former years will forever stand against Brigham Young,
although he long ago discontinued its advocacy. His main
tenance of the polygamous practice was a disgrace to his name,
but it is contemptibly mean and unmanly to vilify him for crimes
of which he was not guilty and to refuse him the credit due for
the good that he accomplished.
His conscience, unless it was perverted by fanaticism, must
have marred the satisfaction with which he viewed the accom
plishment of his work. Still, it would not be wonderful if he drew
the balance greatly in his own favor. Like the patriarchs whom
he sought to imitate, whose good deeds were many and whose
misdeeds were few, he was ready to depart in peace and to be
gathered to his fathers.
President George A. Smith, next in council to Brigham Young,
accompanied him on this journey. Mr. Smith was my favorite
apostle. We had often heard him preach at the Tabernacle in
Salt Lake. His views -were more liberal than those advocated by
many of his co-religionists, and his plain, practical teachings were
in.structive to Gentiles as well as to Mormons. He was fifty-
seven years of age, of tall, portly figure, with a face of infinite
jollity and expressive humor. This cropped out so frequently
that the audience always expected to be entertained when
" Brother George A." held forth.
His private character was without reproach, excepting on the
score of polygamy. I do not believe all we hear of the grasping
propensities of the heads, of the Church, for on visiting Mr.
Smith at his residence in the city, we found him living in the

THE MORMONS. 231
simplest manner consistent with ordinary comfort, and I scarcely
know one of the apostles, elders, or bishops not engaged in some
lucrative business of his own, who maintains a style above that of
a laboring mechanic.
Mr. Smith was the historian of Utah. He came out originally
with Brigham Young, and his personal experiences, united with
the material he had diligently collected from other sources,
would make volumes of exceeding interest and entertainment.
On the occasion of his visit to Richfield we attended the
crowded meetings and listened to the discourses of Mr. Smith
and several others.
Mr. Smith told of his adventures thirty years ago, when he
explored the south of Utah, before the idea of a settlement in
the region was seriously entertained ; of his camping out when
th» mercury stood 19 deg. below zero : how an Indian and a
lonely trapper stole his mule ; of the lesson he then got " never
to trust a mule, an Indian, or an old bachelor ;" hovi' after the
settlement was made at Salt Lake he preceded Fremont three
years in the exploration of this valley of San Pete ; how his party
was snowed up for a whole winter in the neighboring mountains,
and how under difficulties and dangers he had travelled the whole
territory from north to south, three or four times a year, for
several years, to get an accurate knowledge of its topography.
Then he gave the people some very good advice : " Make the
most of materials at hand, without procuring luxuries from
abroad. Skin every dog or cat that dies or is killed. If that
don't give you leather enough for shoes besides what you get
from cattle, make the soles of wood ; wooden soles are preventi-
tives of rheumatism. They are better than the sponge soles you
import from the East. Raise your own sheep. Manufacture
your own wool. Make your women useful as well as ornamental.

232 THE ROUND TRIP.
Work outside, and they will be encouraged to work inside. You •
have got everything you want right here at home — the best of
land, the best of cattle, the best of religions, the best of every-
' thing. Thank God for his continual mercies. Pray to Him
morning and evening, and at every meal. When the railroad is
completed you can have some luxuries you cannot now procure,
and you can pay for them in the abundant excess of your own
productions. Pay up your tithing like good Latter-Day Saints ;
not a particle of it shall be misappropriated. We want more
temples for the Lord, and whatever excess there is shall go to
bringing people from all parts of the earth to participate with
you in your blessings. Never get into debt. When you take Up
land pay for it as soon as you can, whether obliged to do so or
not ; for I have always noticed that people get into debt when
they are flush and have to pay up when money is scarce. I'o
those of you who were so unfortunate as to have come to this
country with your clothes on, I would say, get clothed at once
with all the rights of an American citizen. You have a judge in
this district who is a just and honorable man, and who does not
consider himself a missionary sent here expressly to convert you.
If you are drawn on a jury don't shirk your duty. Don't lie
before God or man. If a man is indicted for polygamy entered
into since the law of 1862, and it is proved, convict him accord
ingly. We know that law is unconstitutional, and we can beat
them in their own courts. Don't be nervous about it. Take a
littie valerian tea and , put your trust in God. Everything will
come out all right. Show to the world that you are a quiet, law-
abiding people. We have stood a good deal, and we can stand
it to the end. May every blessing attend you. I ask it of the
Eternal Father in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen."
We have listened to worse sermons than that.

THE MORMONS. 233
Soon afterwards, the whole community of Utah was saddened
by the death of this excellent man. His history is almost as
remarkable as that of Brigham Young. Indeed, he was the right
hand of the head of the Church. He most sincerely believed in
the inspiration of his cousin Joseph Smith, and from the date of
his baptism into the Church of the Latter-Day Saints in 1832, he
devoted unselfishly every day of his life to its interests.
He seemed to entertain the same ideas of polygamy which, in
a letter to me, he attributed to the founder of the sect. He says :
" He was a rigidly moral, virtuous, and pure man, and nothing
but a sense of the awful responsibility of disobeying the Almighty
caused him to teach or practice a principle which increased
manifold the responsibilities and burdens of men." A. Gentile
finds it hard to believe that duty is the motive to influence a man
in that direction. Nevertheless, knowing the honesty of the
writer, I can credit it in his case at least.
I am indebted to him for many anecdotes of the early settle
ment of Utah. The following extract from one of his letters
is characteristic of frontier life.
The school-room and school library of the pioneer school
master teach us how education may be obtained under
difficulties. " St. George, Washington Co., Utah, Nov. 14.
Dear Sir : Your letter from Cove Fort of November 7 has
been received. I should take much pleasure in giving you the
desired information concerning the settlements in the southern
country, with the history of which I have been familiar from
the beginning, were it not that my time is so much occupied with
other duties as to render it impossible.
I camped with my party in Cove on the 4th of January,

234 THE ROUND TRIP.
1851. We ploughed the first ground and sowed the first wheat;
built the first saw and grist mill — two hundred and twenty miles
from any other. I taught the first school opened in the settle
ment ; and some of my scholars are now the principal men in the
county. My first grammar class of eighteen had only one book —
a copy of Kirkham's grammar — the instruction being given by
lectures and repetition. Our school-room was out of doors by an
immense fire of dry cedar and pinion pine, around which we
spent the evenings of the entire winter.
Walker, the IJte Indian chief, who had for half the generation
been the terror of the entire California frontier, came to our
camp with his warriors, and we were very much pleased to find
he was disposed to be friendly. He was mourning over the bad
luck he had had on his last raid for stealing horses, which he
said San Pitch, his brother,, had made a failure of ; although he
was lucky in stealing one thousand head of horses at one haul,
he got sleepy, and the Spaniards overtook him and got back
eight hundred of them. I persuaded Walker to quit that business,
as the Americans had got possession of California, and they
would surely scalp him if he continued it. Walker and his
Indians never made a raid on California since, though they had
made one annually for twenty-five years previous."
Every right-minded man entertains a respect for sincerity of
belief even in those from whom he differs in many questions
of doctrine and practice. No one can fail to appreciate the
practical character of this pioneer of .religion for his sect, of
civilization for his countrymen at large. The good that he has
done will live after him in the grateful memories of many others
besides those for whos^e interest his life was especially devoted.

IMPRESSIONS OF TRA VEL IN UTAH.

2.35

CHAPTER XXVIII.
Impressions of Travel in Utah upon the Female Mind— The
Storm in Clear Creek Caiion — Cove Fort — The Ute
Indians — Angutseeds and Kanosh — On the Way to the
North — Fillmore — Scipio — Lost on the Desert — The
Tintec Mines — Return to Salt Lake City.
As it is my desire to introduce some of the readers of these
notes to follow upon our tracks, ladies will appreciate my candor
if I enable them to form an idea how travelling in these regions
strikes the female mind. With this purpose I introduce a
familiar letter from my wife to her daughter which has the merit
and the interest of not being intended for publication. It is fair
to say that the inconveniences experienced were unusual, and
that they were endured with patience and fortitude, and that their
recollection has afforded an enjoyment corresponding to the
difficulty of surmounting them. " Cove Fort, November g.
My Dear  : We made a delightful journey on horse
back of about a hundred miles from Provo. As I am not able
to ride comfortably more than twenty-five miles a day, in order
to gain time and to obtain the least uncomfortable lodgings on

236 . THE ROUND TRIP.
the road, whenever there is an opportunity I shall avail myself of
the mail carrier's conveyance. Your father meantime will lead
my horse or fasten him to the wagon.
In this way we started from Ephraim on Monday afternoon,
for Gunnison, the most southern town in San Pete valley, on the
Indian reservation, and distant twenty-five miles. The stage
proved to be a rickety open wagon with two seats.
The country was very barren and uninteresting — s.age-brush
plains, with lovir hills. We passed a settlement called Manti
about half-past six o'clock. Here we changed horses, and I had
a cup of tea, made in a miserable adobe cabin, which warmed
and made me more comfortable for the next two hours. Your
father rode his horse, and mine was led by the side of the horses
of the wagon.
I had for a companion from Manti to Gunnison an Irishman
named Reed, 'an educated man, who was converted and came to
this country some twelve years ago. He told me that I was the
first "outsider" that he had seen during that time. From the
bitterness with which he spoke of England's course towards
Ireland, I fancy that his discontentment drove him out West.
Here he embraced this religion and provided himself with an
extra wife.
We reached Gunnison about half-past eight o'clock. It was
very dark, but it appeared to us a very small collection of houses,
and we found to our dismay that Brigham Young, with some of
his family and friends, on their way south to St. George, had
arrived and occupied every house. At last we found a Danish
cobbler who consented with some reluctance to take us in his
little adobe cabin of two rooms.
While your father attended to the horses and to the arrange
ments for the next day, Mr. Ludwigsohn made a great fire in

IMPRESSIONS OF TRAVEL IN UTAH. 237
the "living room," and his wife being out, I surveyed the
premises, while my heart sank within me. A very small room,
with one bed and filled with chests and hanging clothes evidentiy
of Danish manufacture, and with that indescribable odor acquired
by age, sea voyage, and travel — this apartment was intended
to accomodate Mr. and Mrs. Ludwigsohn, two children, a young
brother and sister, and ourselves, while the " living room " had
a double settee for the use of three Mormon brothers who had
come from the next settlement to meet President Young. I felt
quite desperate, and suggested to Mr. Ludwigsohn that we might
occupy the settee in the " hving room, " and not disturb the
rest of the family, as the stage would leave at four o'clock in the
morning, and we should not sleep much at any rate. His wife
soon came in, and with four children and the four men, their
little room was very full. She gave us some bread and milk,
made up the settee with clean sheets and blankets, and then
went away to nurse a sick woman.
After discussing as usual their religious tenets, the father,
four children, and three men went into the bedroom. Where or
how they slept I cannot say. We kept up the wood fire all
night, for it was very cold, and of course I could not undress ;
but I rolled myself up in my plaid, and actually slept well.
At four in the morning we arose, and your father arranged the
horses,, one to saddle and the other to lead. Pretty Mrs. Lud
wigsohn returned from her sick friend and gave us some bread
and milk. The stage, a light spring cart for mail carriage,
arriving, I mounted by the side of the driver, a young Dane, and
we started in the darkness of the early morning.
The country was barren and desolate, a valley with abrupt hills
on each side. We were three hours driving to Salinas, a most
forlorn, wretched looking collection of huts. Here we stopped

238 THE ROUND TRIP.
to breakfast, having driven fifteen miles. " Dirty " would not
express the condition of the hut in which we breakfasted, or of
the woman who ruled there and her six children. To do it
justice I must reserve it for oral description. Suffice it to say, I
did breakfast on tea, eggs, and bread and butter, while trying to
be oblivious of the surroundings.
The unfortunate people of this settlement had been driven
away many times by the Indians, who seven years ago made a
raid upon them and stole everything, cattle, horses, grain, etc.,
leaving them absolutely destitute. So much excuse can be made
for their poverty, but not much for their filth.
On leaving Salinas we found ourselves in Sevier valley, and
after driving some three miles came to a gully in the road, about
ten feet deep, called Lost Creek. Here the driver advised me
to jump out, as, he remarked, " Wagons generally upset in this
mean hollow." I did not require a second suggestion, but jumped
out over the wheel. Down went the horses, down went the
wagon over the holes and rocks at the bottom, not wrecked, but
stranded. Your father and the driver were obliged to unharness
the horses, pull up the wagon, and finally succeeded in righting
the whole concern upon the opposite bank without other damage
than breaking the bit of the led pony. Meanwhile I was in high
spirits, as I had been saved from the agony of going down with
the horses and wagon.
We continued our road on the east side of the valley, follow
ing the foot hills for seven miles, when we entered a mountain
pass called the "Twist," -which exceeded all the roads I had
ever heard'of for misery. It was originally an Indian trail wind
ing round and about the foot of little hills, and had been much
washed away by the late storm. Sometimes the right wheel
would be on a high bank and the left wheel in a deep rut ; then

IMPRESSIONS OF TRA VEL IN UTAH. 239
these conditions would be reversed. The descents were not long,
but nearly perpendicular, and the wagon jumped up and down
and swayed about like a ship in a heavy sea.
This state of things continued for five or six miles, during
which time I said many prayers. We reached Glenwood, a small
settlement, about twelve o'clock, and I entered the postmaster's
house to warm myself. His wife opened the mail-bag, and I had
much quiet arhusement at the distribution of the letters. Four
or five children assisted ; the baby played with the postal cards,
and the odd letters were put away in a stocking box. We dined
with these people, and then drove across to the west side of the
valley, to a settlement called Richfield, making our day's journey
thirty-seven miles.
We found this small town in great excitement, awaiting the
arrival of President Young. I had risen at four o'clock that
morning, and now sat in the wagon waiting for shelter until six
o'clock in the evening, when Judge Morrison, the postmaster,
coming into the village with the President, kindly offered his
hospitality. His wife was down south on a visit, but her four
small children, fourteen, ten, eight, and five years of age, were
keeping house. The Judge lived on the next block with another
Mrs. Morrison.
This lady came round and arranged a bed for us, while we
took entire possession of the sitting-room, lighting a great wood
fire. Although I found a Miss Morrison aged eight doing the
family washing in a tub much larger than herself, and with a
washboard of about her own size, I doubted her capacity for
cooking, and we gladly accepted the proposal of Mrs. Morrison
No. 2, to take our meals at her house. We remained one day
in Richfield to recruit.
Our next journey being forty miles through the mountain

240 THE ROUND TRIP.
pass of the Sevier, and through the famous Clear Creek cafioUj
I did not venture to attempt it on horseback, and your father
engaged Judge Morrison to carry me through in a light spring
wagon, and to lead my horse.
We accordingly left Richfield on Friday morning at nine
o'clock. The wind commenced to blow on the previous after
noon, and howled and whistled all night, filling me with many
forebodings for our journey. Although it still continued very
strong in the morning, the clouds seemed to follow the ranges of
mountains on each side of the valley, and -B'e hoped for a clear
day. We should have started at seven o'clock for a forty miles
mountain journey in these short days, but the Judge is one of
those unfortunate men who leave their properties and belongings
out of repair, trusting that the Providence of the shiftless will
carry them through every necessity and danger. His horses he
represented as fine animals, but they proved to be unfitted for
travelling, having been used entirely for ploughing and teaming.
We drove down the valley, twelve miles over a level plain of
sage-brush, to a wretched-looking hamlet of adobe huts, called
Joseph City, situated at the extremity of the Sevier valley. The
wind, although very strong, was from the south, and not as
piercing as it might have been from another direction, but it was
in our faces and very uncomfortable. After leaving Joseph City
we turned to the west, making our way over and through the foot
hills at the edge of the mountains, following the windings of the
Sevier river.
At one o'clock we arrived after four hours' driving, at the
entrance of the mountain pass called Clear Creek caiion. Here
we found a camp of teamsters and a fire, and we stopped to rest
and feed the horses and to lunch. While thus occupied the sun
disappeared behind a gray bank of clouds that loomed over the

IMPRESSIONS OF TRAVEL IN UTAH. 2 41
mountains. Very soon came some premonitory drops, and before
we could get on the wagon cover and attach the horses, we were
overtaken by a heavy rain. There was no shelter and no course
before us but to proceed and face the storm, which now descended
the sides of the opposite mountain in driving sheets of sleet.
The mountains were very high and the passage narrow, allow
ing room for only the creek and the road ; and as we slowly as
cended, winding about, the wind fiercely facing us at every turn,
the rain changed to snow, and we soon found ourselves in a
whirling tempest of rain, sleet, snow, hail, and wind, while the
howling, near and distinct, of some wolves on the mountain gave
us an intimation of our probable fate, should any disaster befall
the horses or vehicle.
Still we plodded on, urging our horses to their best ; the
scenery, at all times grand, magnificent, sublime, under such cir
cumstances became really terrible. Sometimes we were covered
with snow, then the sleet would come, and it would change to
ice, and my wraps were frozen stiff about me ; the rain and the
snow dripped over me, and I was wet through. Your father
galloped on to keep himself from freezing, as he had no shelter,
even of a wagon cover. Unfortunately the Judge had omitted
to bring strings for the cover, and it could not be secured at the
sides ; the wind, coming in great gusts, would raise it, frozen
and stiff as it was, and shake it until it seemed sometimes as if
we should be carried off in the whirlwind.
Each turn made the scene more grand and more fearful. The
famous gap in the mountains, where they rise in great palisades
of rock on each side, is a perfect wonder of nature, and the
entire pass, twenty miles in length, in sunshiny weather must be
of surpassing beauty ; but as we were exposed to the tempest,
the moments seemed hours, and the hours were long.
16

242 THE ROUND TRIP.
At every turn we made, new mountains seemed to block our
path, and when we vainly hoped the summit had been reached,
the little brook would come gurgling down as if to mock our
anxious hearts.
It was twenty minutes to five o'clock when we really reached
the summit. The storm had then abated a little, but the day
light was almost gone, and we had long and steep descents of
nearly six miles before we could reach the valley and the shelter
of Cove Fort. Judge Morrison did not know the road, and it
soon became so dark that we were obliged to trust to the horses.
Your father took the lead, and we followed in the wagon. It was
ten hours since we started from Richfield, and for five of the ten
I had been exposed to the driving storm ; and now again there
gathered and broke over us a tempest of wind, hail, and rain,
and I was quite broken down and in despair. I thought we
must surely perish in the darkness, when a shout from your
father and a stream of light from an open door proved to us that
we had at last found a refuge in Cove Fort."
I doubt not that the writer for the occasion, in depicting the
adventure happily ending at Covq Fort, has convinced those of
her sex who may propose to follow her through Utah, that there
are some inconveniences and possible dangers in the way.
There are truly many annoyances and some perils quite un
avoidable on a journey like this, but these as well as the enjoy
able incidents work up admirably into winter drawing-room tales.
In this case, leaving out of the account the feminine trials, which
must draw sympathy from feminine hearts, there was not a littie
in the passage through the canon in the wild storm and the dark
ness of the night that made the danger far from imaginary.
With an inexperienced guide, a pair of broken-down horses,
a treacherous road covered with snow, alternate gusts of snow

FORT COVE. 243
hail, and rain, the freezing of garments until they became
stiff as boards, no habitation within many miles — these were
circumstances in which no lady would care to be placed for the
purpose of enjoying scenery.
For my own part, as I ranged along ahead on horseback,
hoping to discover some place where we might find shelter, the
pelting hail blinding my eyes, I had little leisure, inclination, or
opportunity to gaze about at the wonders of this grand defile. In
one instance only, and that lasting but a moment, as I rode upon
the narrow track by the side of the torrent, where the chasm at
most was fifty feet wide, did the storm relent, so that I could
look aloft two thousand feet, where the overhanging cliffs came
so closely together that the leaden sky made but a thin strip
overhead. Fort Cove was built by the Mormons twelve years ago, for a
place of refuge, when the Indians were committing their depre
dations. Now it was a welcome refuge for us. A family is
maintained here for the purpose of affording entertainment to
travellers, many of whom pass this way on their road to the south
and to Nevada. We paid little attention to its massive walls
and battlements when we arrived, but the blaze sent out by the
cheerful fire upon bur dark surroundings, as the door was thrown
open, warmed our hearts with gratitude to those who had pro
vided this asylum.
The idea of building the fort and afterward devoting it to its
present purpose originated with Brigham Young. As we took
possession of the room he had vacated in the morning, we prayed
the good Lord to forgive him his sins and to put this good work
to his credit in account.
In the morning we took a survey of the fortress. It stands
at the outlet of the Sevier pass, through which we travelled

244 THE ROUND TRIP.
the previous night. There is a lofty background of moun
tains in the east, an extinct volcano on the south ; on the north
and the west are spread out the extensive plains of Dog valley,
the Beaver range looming up twenty-five miles beyond. The
walls of the fort are of solid limestone, eighteen feet high and
one hundred feet each side of its square. It is not intended for
a defence against artillery, but opposed to a moderate cannon
ading, it would stand for a long time.
The Indian outbreaks which have three times within the last
twelve years partially desolated the neighboring settlements, may
possibly recur, and Fort Cove revert to its original use. The
ferocity of the untamable Indian nature is liable to crop out at any
moment. Should one of them be killed in a quarrel, or even
accidentally, a general raid on the peaceful farmers will be likely
to ensue, and murder, rape, and arson will follow in its train. It
is well that this place of refuge remains, to which -men, women,
and children may flee from the wrath to come.
Here the Mormons have tried to domesticate a few of the
Utes. Last year they began the experiment mildly by breaking
up the land and planting wheat for them, only requiring the lazy
aborigines to take off their own crops. Unfortunately an early
frost killed the wheat. The Indians attributed this to the Divine
displeasure at their abandonment of their primitive habits, and
consequently very few of the half-tamed creatures will be induced
to try it again.
Angutseeds — Red Ant — is the chief of this tribe of Utes. He
is a friend of the whites, and possesses considerable influence
not only over his immediate dependents, but with the other tribes
in southern Utah.
This instance will show how a great war may arise from a
trifling provocation. Fourteen or fifteen years ago a chief, the

THE UTE INDIANS. 245
notorious Black Hawk, went to a person at St. Peter's, with
whom some flour had been left for him by the Indian agent. The
man was drunk, and whipped Black Hawk. The chief took re
venge by murdering a herdsman. The herdsman's friends killed
another Indian, and these murders originated a war which lasted
three years and cost $1,500,000 and numerous lives.
Red Ant did all in his power to restrain the others, but
was in this case unsuccessful. In several instances he has
prevented quarrels which might have had equally fatal results.
Tamaritz — White Horse chief, who sometimes calls himself
Chenowicket — " saved by Almighty power " — is another celeb
rity among the Utes, with whom the settlers are now on friendly
terms. " Ah," said the bishop, who gave us many Indian incidents,
" we have had a hard time in keeping peace as well as in fight
ing these Lamanites, but our greatest enemies have been the
white men, for they have always been the aggressors. We ask
no aid from the Government, only this — let it keep its agerits
away." Formerly the Moquis tribe was powerful in these regions.
They had a civilization of their own, living partly in towns. At
Richfield some, ruins of their dwellings were pointed out, and
we picked up some specimens of their crockery which proved
that they were advanced in manufacturing skill far beyond the
Indians of the present day. Two or three hundred years ago, •
after many bloody battles, they were finally driven beyond the
Colorado, by the victorious Utes.
The Navajos still remaining in Utah, hke all the other tribes
nomadic in their habits, are wonderfully proficient in weaving
icloth. We purchased some of their blankets, beautifully woven
in variegated colors, and perfectly impervious to water. The

246 THE ROUND TRIP.
mills of Manchester or Lowell have never produced anything of
the kind that can equal them.
Beaver lies twenty-five miles south of Cove Fort. We
intended to continue our tour to that town, having travelled
already two hundred and forty miles in a southerly direction
from Salt Lake, but the shocking condition of the roads, and
the prospects of more inclement weather, were considerations
inducing us to return from this point.
The homeward route led us over an entirely different ground.
We now returned by way of the valleys on the west of the ranges,
which had been upon our right.
Twenty-five miles from Cove Fort are- the two adjoining
nominally Indian settlements of Corn Creek and Kanosh. In
the former we made a short stay for dinner. Kanosh is sup
posed to be the dwelling place of the chief of that name. Here
he owns an adobe hut where he keeps a squaw, while he ranges
the mountains and valleys in an independent way, on his own
account. Kanosh is a devout Mormon. He preaches to his tribe " to
love God, and not to drink whiskey, or tea and coffee ; to love
God because he is good, to hate whiskey because it is bad, and
to abstain from tea and coffee because they are dear." Not a
bad Indian that. General Sheridan, after all !
Fillmore, once the seat of the territorial government is a
pretty village of two thousand inhabitants. The town and the
county of Millard, of which it is the capital, were both named
in honor of the President, who was in office at the time of their
settiement. Fillmore is about forty miles north of Cove 5"ort.
The road approaching it from the south is dreary, and possesses
no attractions beyond those of the sublime mountains that ever
wall the sides of our way. An old volcano looms up in the west,

SCIPIO. 247
which has been an active operator in its day. Immense blocks
of lava are strewn for many miles over the plain, and from the
mountain side there runs far to the north a black wall once a
stream of fire.
There is a good hotel at Fillmore, its chief attraction. Re
freshed by its excellent larder, we pursued our way the next
morning, making a short day's journey of twenty-eight miles, to
Scipio. This is a wretched little hamlet, looking more wretched
still after passing through Holden, an American settlement,
where the houses are all of frame or brick, and the appearance
of the people emphatically what is called " well-to-do."
Scipio, if he is an uneasy spirit, wandering about in the hope
that some polygamist will provide him with a " tabernacle,"
must wonder why his name was disgraced by attaching it to this
little collection of Danish hovels. It is better to be a spirit of
the air than to live in any tabernacle here.
The situation is as charming as can be imagined. In the
centre of a green meadow, aptly called Round valley, it is closely
circled by a range of high mountains, a tiara of snow now crown
ing their summits. We were almost inclined to camp in the
streets of the village, but the uncertainty of the weather obliged
us to seek lodgings under some roof.
The bishop was not at home, and the bishopess (if we may
coin a new name) No. i was not able to accommodate us, as she
had a large family of children requiring all her room. She said
that she knew of no other place where we could find shelter.
•Here was an illustration of polygamous jealousy, for we after
ward discovered that bishopess No. 2 had one of the best houses
in the village, small, it is true, but tolerably comfortable.
This more amiable young woman gave us a room, and with
her sister joined us in a game of cards. Occasionally the poor

24S THE ROUND TRIP.
little bishopess would start at any noise from the outside, with
evident fear that the virago was coming in upon us. It is not
unlikely that when their joint head came home she was made to
suffer for hospitality to unbelieving Gentiles.
On the following day we went on through Juab valley, stop
ping at a small village called Chicken Creek. Here a young
gentleman, who was tending sheep, informed us that he came
from " loway " two years ago. " Father," he said, " told us all
along the road that we was coming to Zion. Well, this is the
cussedest old Zion I ever want to see. I'd rather have a foot of
ground in loway, than all these here mountings of the Lord, and
I guess the Lord would too if he had ever seen loway ! " After
riding forty miles from Scipio, we reached Nephi in the evening.
In the morning we turned from the main road with the pur
pose of visiting the Tintec valley and mining camps. There is
scarcely a mountain in Utah where silver may not be found.
There are mines of low grade ore in the immediate vicinity of
Nephi on Mt. Nebo. These will not yield any profit until fuel
becomes cheaper, but at some future day their value will be
assured. The Tintec mines being of a higher grade, and mostly
producing milling ore, are not so dependent upon the cost of
coal and coke.
We had been rather unfortunate in being misguided on more
than one occasion. This time a young man was also going on
horseback to Tintec. He knew the trail perfectly. He had
driven cattle across frequently. It was eighteen miles to the
Miller and Shoebridge mills. He knew it. No, he did not.
We started under favorable circumstances, for it was a
glorious day. Crossing the divide, we looked back through the
narrow vista formed by the precipitous cliffs, upon the lofty
summit of Mt. Nebo, and then descended into a valley, between

LOST ON THE DESERT. 249
which and Tintec there is an intermediate range. Had the in
telligence of our guide equalled his professions, we might have
crossed the narrow plain of separation and entered a romantic
caiion that would have speedily led us through into the valley be
yond. But he chose to follow a wagon track, the course lead
ing far to the south in order to cross the spur of the mountains.
We travelled on over a broad expanse for hours, until this point
was reached. Then rounding it, we made our way again to the
north. " I guess we'll get out of this now and take a short cut across
the sage-brush," said Mr. Daniels. Short cut ! We wandered on
till the sun, having long ago passed his meridian, descended
over the western peaks and left us in approaching darkness on a
desert waste, where there was no water for ourselves or for our
animals, no sign 'of a habitation, and no hope of any other
covering at night than could be found under the threatening
clouds. Our intelligent leader had lost his way. He was evidently
uncertain if Tintec was in this valley or the valley beyond. We
shot a jack rabbit, and proposed soon to camp and to make our
supper of this providential supply. Just as we were about to
resort to that necessity we fortunately struck the wagon road
again. Encouraged with new hope, we pushed our thirsty
animals along, and were soon overjoyed at beholding the smoke
from the chimneys of the Miller and the Shoebridge mills.
Arriving there after this tedious journey of thirty-five miles, we
were welcomed, without letters of introduction, by Superin
tendent Lusk and Secretary Berkley of the latter establish
ment. Captain Lusk is an old sailor, and I felt immediately at home
with one of my own profession, from which no one has ever

250 THE ROUND TRIP.
withheld the credit of generous hospitality. We shall always
cherish with gratitude the kindness with which he attended to
our necessities, providing us with a substantial supper, feeding
our horses, and then, as his accommodations were limited,
though freely at our disposal, in consideration of my wife's
fatigue from her long ride of thirty-five miles, sending her in his
buggy six miles further, to Diamond City.
Diamond City, a lucus a nan lucendo, as it appeared to us when
coming out from the hotel of Mrs. Jones in the morning, is the
chief mining camp of Tintec. There are others, Silver City and
Eureka, rivalling Diamond City in splendor and architectural
magnificence. They are alike in the style of their bar-rooms and
in the quality of their " tanglefoot." They all do a good busi
ness, and yet they are the most quiet mining camps we have
seen. Perhaps the hard journey of the previous day gave us sounder
sleep than we usually enjoyed, but certainly we were not dis
turbed by conventional noises in the streets, nor by the shrill
music and the loud stamping of the dance-houses. It was
several days since a murder had been committed.
It is asserted that the ore of these mines averages in value
$75 per ton at the dump. If ten dollars be assumed as the cost
of getting it out and hauling it to mill, where it is converted into
bullion at twent}f-five more, there , is a profit of forty dollars on
every ton.
But let not the reader be so sanguine as to come immediately
to Tintec for the purpose of making his fortune. There are
heavy expenses in continual development, great cost of shafts,
tunnels, and timbering. Sometimes there is a " pinch," and the
vein for many days, perhaps vyeeks, is nearly lost ; and then
there are many other contingencies, expected and unexpected.

THE TINTEC MINES.

25

that should enter into the calculations. The forty dollars suffer
many subtractions.
Division is the safest mode of arithmetic in mining calcula
tion. You are shown a mine that will, beyond all doubt, allow
ing for every thing, give you forty per cent, annually on your in
vestment. Divide this by two. Result, twenty per cent. To be
a little more sure, divide it again. Result, ten per cent.. Keep
on with your division for still greater security — ^for there is
nothing like being perfectly safe — until you get down to zero.
Then, for fear of any possibility that you may be brought into
debt by assessments, inform the gentleman who is urging you to
purchase, that you have concluded not to accept his offer. That
is the only perfectly safe way of dealing in mines.
At Diamond City we met a gentieman from New York, ad
vanced in years. His whole soul appeared to be centred in
mines. Here he stays through the heats of summer and the
frosts of winter, daily superintending his workmen, careless of
the comforts of life that he might enjoy at home, finding more
pleasure in roughing it in this little mining camp, than he could
realize surrounded by luxury and educated friends.
With him I visited the Mayflower and Gold Hill mines,
which certainly were rich in the quality and abundance of their
ore. The ride to them for three miles over a bridle path cut
into the almost perpendicular mountain cliffs, affords an exten
sive view of the Tintec ranges and valleys, embracing the whole
of this rich district. The air, keen and invigorating, was as
delicious to me as the contemplation of prospective wealth to
my companion. I left him burrowing in his mining den, and
descending to the village we resumed our journey.
Mounting our horses at noon, we kept on the ascent for four
miles until reaching the divide, about seven thousand feet above

252 THE ROUND TRIP.
the sea level, constantly looking back upon the g-reat picture of
heights and depths in the south and west. But when the highest
ridge was reached, beyond which we had as yet only seen the
blue ocean of sky, there was presented to our admiring gaze one
of the greatest paintings ever touched by the incomparable hand
of nature. A long slope of two thousand feet terminated at the
western shores of Utah Lake, on which the coloring from the
heavens had descended. The plains beyond it were not per
ceptible, for the snowy Wasatch mountains seemed to have
drawn themselves down to its eastern edge. They were fifty
miles away, but the atmosphere had so closed the far and near
together that if some great artist had stood beside us, he would
have found the splendid immensity, as it were by transposing
the lens of a camera, brought down to a size that he could
readily transfer to his canvas.
We had progressed but a mile or two on our descent, when
ominous clouds began to gather on the mountain tops. Slowly
they crept down upon the plain, circling round to our side of the
valley, and drawing their dark curtains over the bright scene that
we had but just contemplated with such infinite delight. Then
came rain and hail on the wings of the howling wind.
" The sky was changed, and such a change ! " — a change we
might well compare with that witnessed by the great poet when
he saw the placid Leman made angry by the tempest that swept
from Jura to the joyous Alps, as they talked aloud in their shroud
of mist. But he saw all that from the windows of his hotel.
Our experience was from the saddles on our horses.
We galloped rapidly on until the plain was reached. Thence,
passing through the wretched little town of Goshen, we waded
for a few miles through mud and darkness, the storm still
raging, till we arrived at the inn where we had once before been

RETURN TO SALT LAKE CITY. 253
SO agreeably entertained. Welcome again a good coal fire, and
welcome the smiling face of httle Mrs. Macbeth !
On the following day we arrived at' Provo, having been absent
three weeks. Here we returned our horses, and proceeded by
rail to Salt Lake. We had leisurely traversed a distance of four
hundred miles, having passed over but eighteen miles of the
road for the second time.

2-4 THE ROUND TRIP.

CHAPTER XXIX.
Idaho — Soda Springs — Natural Curiosities — The Utah
AND Northern Railroad — A Jumping Town — The Ban
nock Indians — Policy of the Government.
After visiting the renowned watering-places of Germany,
France and America, we are contented of late to come year after
year to this remote corner of Idaho, satisfied that at last we have
discovered the true fountains of health in an atmosphere of purity
beyond comparison.
This is Soda Springs — not Saratoga with its magnificent
hotels, balls, regattas, and races, not Carlsbad, Baden-Baden,
Kissingen or Vichy, with ih&vc dolce far nienie under shady trees
and in cur-gartens, where soft strains of music usher in the day
and lull one to sleep at night, the only variations, the casinos
a.nd booths where curiosities and coffee are sold by pretty
madchens ; where all that is desired and dispensed is the luxury of
pleasurable laziness. Soda Springs is the reverse of all this :' a
little hamlet of a dozen log huts far away from the world of
society and business, ensconced in a lovely valley seven thousand
feet above the level of the sea. with ranges of mountains two

SODA SPRINGS. 255
thousand feet higher on every side ; the rapid Bear River, rush
ing through its green meadows, where herds of cattle, the only
property of its people, find choice pasturage ; where the warm
sun comes down by day, and the cool breezes sweep over at
night — this is our summering place.
True, we have none of the allurements of the great spas, but
we have what is far better, nature in her wild majesty, an elastic,
stimulating air, curiosities of volcanic formation, and what is the
chief attraction to invalids, an endless abundance and variety of
mineral springs.
They gush out of the ground, warm and cold, in all directions,
and need no tubing to increase their volume, but boil and sparkle
in their great pools like reservoirs. The favorite springs are
chiefiy magnesia, soda and iron, highly charged with carbonic
acid gas, so agreeably refreshing that it is fortunate there are no
doctors to limit indulgence in their use. At the continental spas
we did not object to short allowances of the nauseating water.
Here we should rebel if not allowed to drink our fill of the
reviving springs.
I would fain tell those suffering from maladies not absolutely
incurable what certain relief may be found in these wonderful
waters, and that long and tedious as the journey to reach them
may be, it will amply repay their toil and expense by its lasting
benefit. The place itself is nothing as a town. It is merely a sort of
Mormon outpost beyond the confines of Utah, with scarcely fifty
inhabitants. At one time it was of some importance as a military
station, and afterward derived a little business in supplying the
mining camp of Cariboo, forty miles north of it. The removal of
the post to Fort Hall, and the failure of the water at the mines,
have nearly depopulated this once thriving village, and unless

256 THE ROUND TRIP.
means are found to renew the working of the mines, this settle
ment must rest its future on its attractions as a health resort.
The springs are resorted to from the surrounding country.
Men, women and children come in great Bain wagons, with sail
cloth awnings, turn their horses out to feed on the wide prairies,
make their beds in, under and around their vehicles, gather cedar
and sagebrush for their camp-fires, and are at home without
further trouble. In this way they pass days and weeks, and are
happier during their stay and more robust on their return than if
they had indulged in the luxuries and dissipations of hotels, in
stead of gaining their own food by their guns and rods, and
cooking it themselves. The free air of these mountains is sus
tenance beyond meat and drink, a consideration which few
invalids regard. Most of them are rigidly exact in diet, while
entirely indifferent how much poison they take in by their lungs.
There is not much to be said for hotel accommodation at the
springs. Our little party took possession of a vacant log cabin,
and extemporized chairs, table and bedsteads, the latter rather
unusual luxuries insisted upon by the ladies. Our beds were
made from fresh hay, and with the addition of a cooking stove,
obtained from a neighbor, we were " fixed." Perfectly independent
of butchers, bakers and grocers, our only outside wants were met
by the little girl who brought us butter and eggs, and by the
Indians, who occasionally " swapped " bear meat and venison.
We provided ourselves abundantly with ducks, geese, prairie
chickens and trout. Best gift of freedom, there was the absence
of the Irish Biddy ! As to our stable, the ponies we rode from
the railway station were retained for daily service, and when not
in use were turned loose to get a good living with the herd. As
they were neither shod nor curried, we could dispense with
farriers and grooms.

NATURAL CURIOSITIES. 257
Time never hung heavily on our hands, although society, with
the exception of our guests, was limited. We were amused
without the luxuries of lectures, theatres or concerts, and on
Sundays we always attended the little Mormon meeting, where
gathered the settlers of the neighborhood.
People become liberal in a country where the very mountains
and rocks teach them that every thing gives thanks unto the Lord
who will not refuse the sincere offerings of any men that he has
made. Even our Congregational parson realized this sentiment
when he accepted an invitation to preach. He told the bishop
that there was plenty of religion on which we could all agree.
The latter replied, " Give us some of that, then. You can't use
it all up on one Sunday."
Sometimes we " want- a carriage." Then we hire a farm
wagon and drive where there is a road ; where there is none,
through the sagebrush, carrying our guns on the way to visit the
Sulphur Lake, the Swan Lake, Formation Springs, the Devil's
Icehouse, and other sights within the radius of a few miles.
Sulphur Lake is a sheet of water an acre in extent, many times
stronger of mineral than the springs of Sharon and Richfield,
and bubbling over its whole surface with escaping gas, whose
noise is heard a mile away. Behind it is a mountain of sulphur.
Its shore last year was a yellow sulphur beach, now black as
charcoal. A few months before our visit, some curious persons,
anxious to know what a literal lake of fire and brimstone was
like, visited the place one dark evening. They dropped their
matches on the beach, and in a moment found their most vivid 1
anticipations realized. The lurid flames circled the mad, fuming;
waters, and threw their light on the crags, and thus these amateur
artists painted a horrible picture, which absolutely scared them-
as they looked from fire to lake and from lake to mountains, and,
17

258 THE ROUND TRIP.
then at the unearthly faces of each other. The venturous souls
carried away a most vivid realization of the awful significance of
the Scripture allegory whose representation they had produced.
A few miles beyond is Swan Lake, a most pleasing contrast to
this infernal pool. Lying on the top of a high hill, it occupies
what must have been the crater of a volcano. Its waters are so
exquisitely transparent that the bottom can be seen at the
distance of sixty feet, but their alkaline action has coated the
rocks and fallen trees with a white covering, and as one looks
over its edge at any part of its circumference of three hundred
yards, he sees that he stands on a crust ; for the water, or its pre
decessor the fire, has eaten away the rock hundreds of feet under
the shores. This is wonderful and grand ; but a prettier sight is
the escape of the water as it seems loth to run down to the plains,
but leaps in silver cascades from one moss-crowned basin to
another in lovely embellishments, the sight of which would reward
a landscape gardener for his journey.
The Formation Springs are courses of water constantly
changing their currents, leaving deposits, petrifying trees and
bushes, and creating substances like the brittle coral of the sea.
They have hollowed out large caves, frescoing their walls with
festoons of white drapery, and then, finding a subterranean
outlet, have disappeared beneath the surface, how deep no one
can tell, until three miles below the darkened stream rushes up
again to the light of day, and runs sparkling to the river.
Down the valley in another direction is the old volcano. It
is more easily climbed than Vesuvius, and its ashes have been
blown away or have consolidated themselves during the ages
since the crater emitted its fires, but far around lie the huge
blocks of lava, and the earth is ploughed into gigantic furrows of
stone.

THE UTAH AND NORTHERN RAILROAD. 259
What we have named " the Devil's Icehouse," was but lately
discovered. Some young men on a hunting excursion found a
deep cave where snow and ice could be seen at the bottom. We
went up to visit the place, and our party was the first to explore
it. There we found hundreds of tons of pure ice, from which we
brought home a supply. 'It is a permanent icehouse, not affected
by the upper air, which marked eighty-five degrees, while in the
cavern the glass stood at twenty-nine.
Compare such wonders as these with the sights and curiosities
of a German spa ! I do not mean to be enthusiastic, but take
all the famous watering-places of Europe, with the little that
nature and the much that art has done for them — combine them
all, and you will find that this wild sanitarium of the Idaho
Mountains will send you back to your home with better health
and more interesting recollections when your summer is ended.
The most convenient way to reach Soda Springs from the
East is by the Union Pacific to its terminus at Ogden, where the
" Utah and Northern " narrow gauge railroad branches north to
Montana, at the same point whence the Utah Central run's in an
opposite direction to Salt Lake City.
This Utah and Northern Railroad, commenced by a company
whose capital soon became exhausted, was seized by those terri
ble monopolists, Sidney Dillon and Jay Gould, and by them
started into new life and a prospective career of prosperity. In
the estimation of Mr. Kearney this was probably unjustifiable.
The enterprise should have remained passive until labor could
have completed it without the aid of money. The new company
has made it an important auxiliary to the - Union Pacific line, to
which it will largely contribute from the traffic with Idaho and
Montana. Indeed the unexpected success of the main trunk road from

26o THE ROUND TRIP.
the Eastern States to the Pacific is attributable to <;uch enter
prises as these. It is no more than justice to the present man
agers to say that by their energy and capital they have brought
it to a position not attainable by any other means. The road
would have been bankrupt long ago but for the business they
have made along its line, in the lateral branches, which, unlike
the branches of a tree, bring nourishment to it instead of taking
it away. The Utah and Northern line was already in operation one
hundred and twenty-seven miles in a north-west direction from
Ogden to its temporary terminus at Oneida. That is the nearest
point from which Soda Springs may be reached over a wagon
road of thirty-two miles. It is possible, if the recent gold dis
coveries at Cariboo are as productive as is anticipated, that at an
early period a branch may be built from Oneida. This, moreover,
would be the easiest way of reaching the Yellowstone Park.
At present that magnificent national domain is almost inac-
cessible. I am no advocate of subsidies for the benefit of indi
viduals or corporations, but in this instance it may be suggested
that a vast pleasure-ground like the Yellowstone is of little use
to the people unless the donor adds to the gift the opportunity
of approaching it. The Utah and Northern Railroad takes us
to Oneida in the direction of the Park, and then goes about
its business to the North-west. The settlers of Idaho and Mon
tana hail with joy every rail that is laid down for their benefit.
They have been too long condemned to journeys of from three
to five hundred miles in stage-coaches, and to the payment of
enormous and slow wagon freights, not to realize the benefit con
ferred upon them. Already the track is advanced forty miles
beyond Oneida through the Bannock Reservation, and soon the
new terminus will be beyond it.

A JUMPING TOWN. 261
Oneida is an itinerant town. It journeys onward as the road
progresses. Hotels, houses, stores, saloons, stables and all
other buildings are put up in sections marked and numbered.
When the active Superintendent Mr. Dunn gives the order, the
whole town is taken to pieces in two days, packed on the train,
and with all its inhabitants moved to the next stopping place.
New streets are then laid out, and a new city, formed of the
old materials, springs into life, flourishing until fifty miles more
of railroad is completed. Then it moves again. Thus it will
continue to move till the travelling municipality is merged in
the permanent city of Virginia or Helena, at whichever of them
the road may terminate.
Oneida seemed to us full of life and vigor. As we came out
from our tent-covered hotel in the morning, horses,- wagons and
teamsters were camped far and near. The men were turning
out, rubbing their eyes, accounting for the infernal racket of
music and dancing we had heard in the night, when saloons and
faro tables were doing a profitable business.
The train had come in loaded with freight of all kinds of mer
chandise and agricultural tools. Twenty-six wagons with their
four-horse teams were drawn up at the station waiting to reload
and begin their long journey of three hundred miles, and the
coaches were off already with their passengers. Their owners and
drivers will doubtless regret every shortening of fifty miles, but
the owners of the goods and the tired travellers will rejoice. Many
more wagons with their downward freights of bullion, and ores of
silver, copper and lead, were discharging their loads, and our
hotel was filled with jaded, dusty passengers, who congratulated
themselves on the comfort in store for them in the easy motion
and rapid transit of a railroad car. Each of the coaches that
had arrived carried three of Wells, Fargo & Co.'s messengers,

2^2 THE ROUND TRIP.
with double-barrelled guns, loaded with buckshot, and they were
preceded by forerunners on horseback armed in the same way.
This is the habitual style of travelling in these territories, and
do you wonder if the new style is a welcome improvement ?
Wlien I had occasion to visit Oneida three weeks afterwards,
it had taken a short jump of twenty-two miles. Its last situation
was on the eastern border of the Bannock Reservation, and it
was intended by the railroad company that it should make a
flying leap across the forbidden ground to the banks of'the
Snake River. But as this was not practicable before the winter
might set in, a compromise was made with the Indian Agency,
whereby no liquor was to be sold, and so the town was permit
ted to make a temporary stand on this nominal ground of the
Redskins. Of course, there were no " saloons," for what is a
saloon without whiskey, and what is a railroad town or any
other town in this western country without both ?
All the noise, bustle, snap crack and devil-may-care exhila
ration that pervaded Oneida by night and day were consequentiy
wanting in this new settlement of Black Rock. The coaches
and wagons were drawn up at the station to receive their passen
gers and freight. They earned their money, but it seemed to
afford no pleasure, for they came and went like funeral proces
sions, mourning because whiskey was not. Nevertheless, I
apprehend that the real business of the country did not suffer
by the deprivation. Every mile gained in the direction of Mon
tana is a step leading to the comfort of individuals and the
prosperity of the nation.
The extension through Marsh valley winds along on a level
surface smoothed out by nature among great bowlders of lava,
which, if continuous, would have defied engineering science,
giant powder and money. Before we came to this slightly down-

A JUMPING TOWN. 263
ward slope we ascended the grade until we passed through a
narrow gate-way, whose buttresses of encircling mountains stand
perpendicular but a few feet from either gide of the track.
In remote ages this must have been the northern boundary
of the Great Salt Lake, which has now receded more than a
hundred miles south. Precisely in this gate-way the water-
springs now divide, part of them trickling down to Snake River,
and thence through the Columbia to the Pacific in the channel
forced by the disruption, and the others seeking the level of
Salt Lake.
The "bench marks" easily traced through all the valleys to
Southern Utah showing the former flow of the water, begin at
these enormous gate-posts, and keep their exact line of altitude
for four hundred miles. Repeatedly in journeying across the
country we traced these indications, and it is absolutely demon
strable that what is now called the Great Salt Lake, was once an
inland sea not less than four hundred miles from north to south,
and two hundred from east to west, more than twice the size of
Lake Superior. The long chain of the Wasatch Mountains was
its eastern barrier, while it spread itself over a great part of
Utah and Nevada in the west, and of Idaho at the north. Its
recession has left bare the Cache and Salt Lake valley and their
connections, as well as what is called the Great American Desert,
through .which the Central Pacific road is built.
Probably there is no area on the continent more barren in its
natural state than this old lake bottom, and none that has been
made so productive by irrigation. The Utah and Northern, the
Utah Central, and the Utah Southern Railroads traverse it
lengthwise, and their branches spread across it, so that if, as
some persons think possible from a recent rise of the lake, this
whole ground should be again submerged for a few centuries

264 THE ROUND TRIP.
and then become dry, the people of a future age may wonder
who dropped this big gridiron in the basin.
Yet our eastern friends seem to know as little about these
great railroad enterprises of the West as may come to the knowl
edge of our imaginary descendants. Their stock and bonds are
not for sale in the gambling market, but are owned chiefly by
the Mormons, who manage their property economically and
profitably to themselves, in opening up this great agricultural and
mining country.
A few miles beyond the little station of Black Rock, the
Marsh Valley opens upon the rich and extensive plains of Snake
River. Here is an unlimited range of pasturage, and for a hun
dred miles the road will run through what is to some extent a
farming land of the Indians. When it is stolen from them after
its value is ascertained, it will speedily be peopled by settlers.
Almost on the line too are the new gold mines of Lost River,
to which a large emigration is predicted.
The especial object of my visit to Black Rock was to find
Mr. Danilson, the Indian agent. While at Soda Springs, we had
seen many of the Indians who are scattered in the summer sea
son through the region bordering on their reservation, to which
they generally return in the winter to live upon the crumbs from
the government table.
Now, it'is a fact, attribute it to what cause we may, that there
is not the slightest danger to life or property from Indians in
Mormon settlements. Gentiles say that this safety arises from
the joint hatred of Mormons and Indians to the government.
Mormons say — and I believe them, for I am a witness of its
truth — that it is because their people never cheat the Indians
and never refuse them food. At any rate, I felt perfectly safe,
even when mounted on a good horse and with a good gun — most

THE BANNOCK INDIANS 265
desirable of all property — among the many Indians we met miles
away from the village. These Bannocks, whose tribe was on
the war-path at the north, never molested us. They came to our
door with game, fish and skins, for which we " swapped " with
them, if we had occasion for such things. If not, we gave them
bread, meat and coffee. We never locked our doors against
Indians, but we slept at night with loaded guns by our bedsides,
in anticipation of possible visits from white " road agents."
From the Bannocks who could speak English we heard the
same universal tale of woe. How I wish that one eloquent old
man whom we heard could have some useless politician's half
hour on the floor of Congress ! He did not talk from a rostrum
or a pulpit in fine periods of rhetoric, but mounted on a sorry
pony, whose drooping head seemed to be bowed down in sym
pathy with his master's grief, he told of the wrongs of his people.
" Indian kill 'em two white men 'cause white men steal 'em
squaw. Spose Indian steal white man squaw? White man no
kill Indian ? So white man clean 'em out all Indian ! steal 'em
land, steal 'em squaw, steal 'em horse, cheat 'em Indian, starve
'em Indian, kill 'em Indian! All right; Indian die!" And
suiting the action to the word the old man rolled off upon the
ground, folded his arms across his breast in imitation of death
as he added, " Heap happy now ! "
The Bannocks were loud in their complaints against the
Indian agent, and many of the settlers seemed to think they had
cause. They said that in winter they had scanty food on the
reservation, and in summer were driven off to get their own sub
sistence without powder or shot. It was intimated that the
agent drew their rations in the mean time for his own profit.
When I came to call upon Mr. Danilson I frankly told him what
was said of him by the Indians and by the settlers.

266 THE ROUND TRIP.
" It is not the first time that I have heard these stories," said
he, " and I am sorry to say that there is some truth in them,
only they unfortunately accuse the wrong party. It is Congress
that is to blame for making insufficient appropriations."
In a long conversation with Mr. Danilson, some curious de
velopments came out touching the philanthropic policy of the
government, which acts like a mother-in-law in her attempt to make
people happy in her own way. The religious welfare of the
Indians is impartially cared for by allotting, the reservations
among the different sects.
The Shoshones and Bannocks, of whom there are one
thousand of the former, and six hundred of the latter, are turned
over to the Methodists, the agent forcibly remarking that he
" would be d  d if anybody but a Methodist should preach to
them, for it was the order." At the same time he observed that
an Indian had no idea of religion, anyway, and government
didn't do this with the expectation of converting them, it was
only to keep the churches from quarrelling.
In a temporal way it desires to civilize the wild Bannock, and
the ingenious plan it adopts to make him a farmer, is this :
when the spring opens, every Indian who will work on the land has
his rations continued — that is, the ratio of the rations that the agent
has been able to serve out. Then, those Indians who do not choose
to be farmers, are turned loose to hunt upon the reservation, whence
all the game has been killed off by the emigrant and cattle trains,
or to search for it where they can. And this hunting is to be done
without powder or shot ! To sell ammunition to them is a penal
offense. This is simply turning them over to the charity of the
settlers, who are themselves poor, but who are prompted by
policy, as well as humanity, to see that they do not suffer for
want of food.

POLICY OF THE GOVERNMENT. 26"
"In fact," said Mr. Danilson, "the amount of rations allowed
by government is so miserably small, that most of the Indians
must be driven off for the greater part of the year, or all of them
would starve. If I divided equally what I have, it would not
amount in value to five cents per head daily." By dint of teach
ing Indians in this novel way to become farmers, one hundred
and twenty-five families have been forced to cultivate some of
the bottom lands on the Snake River ; but from all accounts the
product of their farms does not exceed the government stipend
of five cents per day to each individual working upon them.
Upon asking Mr. Danilson what he thought of the proposition
to turn the management of the Indians over to the army, he re
plied that while the Indian agents were the best civilizers, the
officers of the army could undoubtedly maintain better order,
and might entirely prevent war and raiding, if they were allowed
to feed and clothe the Indians comfortably, but that neither
civilian nor soldier could keep them quiet in any other way.
I am more than ever convinced by this interview that the
civilization and conversion of savages is of small account, even
if practicable, in comparison with full stomachs for them, and
the safety to white men that would result from placing all these
tribes under the absolute control of the army, which should be
sustained in its duties by sufficient appropriations.

268 THE ROUND TRIP,

CHAPTER XXX.
Travels among the Mormons — The Prolific Patriarch —
The Legend of Bear Lake — Brother Cook and his
Family — Vicarious Baptism — A , Mormon Court — A Pros
perous Convert — Blacksmith's Fork Canon — Return to
the Line of the Union Pacific.
Our equipage was what my facetious friend " Sunset " Cox
once called a similar outfit — " a horse and a half." The half in
this instance was the best part of the whole, for the patient mule
was more enduring, whereas the horse advanced, as the Dutchman
expressed it, " mit a yerk." Stopping was his favorite gait,
which whip and spurs induced him to change occasionally. Both
animals delighted in straying. Even when hoppled at night they
strayed miles away, and all the "^yalking I required was obtained
in hunting them up in the morning. But they were of great ser
vice for daily use at Soda Springs, or rather they were indis
pensable luxuries.
Taking a farewell glass at Nature's great soda fountain, the
animals were packed for the journey with valise, saddlebags,
fishing rods and gun, and about noon we mounted them and
took our way south-easterly, for the Bear Lake region.
We followed the banks of the Bear River for eight miles, to

TRAVELS AMONG THE MORMONS. 269
the most practicable ford, and wading its rapid current, crossed
a divide which brought us into the Nounan Valley, a grassy
meadow where the cattle and sheep of Bishop Merrill were grazing.
After travelling nineteen miles, we arrived at the Episcopal
mansion, a log house of one story, but a home where we were
kindly entertained by the hospitable prelate and his wives.
Some twenty children were running about the premises, and
several of them dined with us. A leg of good mutton was upon
the table, but the fresh butter and rich cream were the chief
attractions. Again mounting our animals we left this quiet littie'valley.
Still following up the Bear River, and leaving on our left the
towns of Bennington and Montpelier — names that reminded us
of those Green Mountains nearer home — and travelling twenty
miles further we came in sight of Paris at sunset. No Arc de
Triomphe shone in the distance, no Dome des Invalides or
Column of Vendome, nor did we approach the city through in
viting suburbs. Descending into a valley just coveredby the
dark shadow of the western mountains, and extending over it
to the foot of the still sunny range of hills at the east, there lay
before us a Mormon village of less than a thousand inhabitants,
scarcely one of whom was to be seen. We reached the house of
Mr. Rich, who had kindly offered us his hospitalities while at
Soda Springs.
" Is your father at home ? *' I asked of a youngster who proved
to be a brother of our friend.
" Yes, sir, I guess so," he replied. " He must be in one of
his houses." " But isn't this his house ? "
" Oh ! no ; this is my brother Joe's, who is expecting you.
Father's got five houses, because he's got five wives."

270 THE ROUND TRIP.
" And how many brothers and sisters have you ? '"
"Well, I had about sixty once, but there ain't more'n forty of
us alive now."
Mr. Joseph Rich gave us a cordial welcome, and in the even
ing we were introduced to the patriarch, a hearty-looking man of
sixty-five, who from his jollity one would have supposed a
bachelor, rather than a five-fold husband. He is a high dignitary,
the-president of this district, having the supervision of all the
bishops of the neighborhood. He " gives counsel." This means
that if his advice is followed in secular affairs, persons to whom
it is given are absolved from responsibility in their dealings with
their neighbors.
Having obeyed the divine command to increase and multiply
to such an extent, an extra degree of holiness is attached to him,
and he seems very fond of his superiority in this respect. Lately
there was a gathering of the Rich family at Cape Cod, where it
is supposed to have originated. Our venerable friend was present
as a full representative, and on that occasion he astonished his
relatives by the time he occupied in reciting the names of his
children. Cape Cod and all " down east " were forced to yield
the palm of productiveness to the representative from Idaho.
In the evening he talked very freely about family matters, in
which he took a numerical rather than an ancestral pride. We
were surrounded by a dozen or two of his children of all ages,
from babyhood to manhood. One of them, a sprightly young
woman, the mother of children older than some of her brothers
and sisters, told us that she. had failed in the task of counting her
relations. " Say, father," she asked, "isn't Eliza the oldest of 'em all ? "
"Well," answered the prolific parent, " I believe she does
come somewhere among the first."

THE PROLIFIC PA TRIARCH. 271
" Now look here, old man," she exclaimed, " this kind o' thing
has been well enough for you, but I don't mean my husband shall
be bothered as you are in taking count. He shan't have no
body's young ones to count over but just mine. Let me catch
him gettin' sealed in this world ; he may get sealed for eternity
as much as he likes, but nary a seal shall he have down here —
not if I know it ! "
In saying this she gave expression to the almost universal
sentiment of the younger Mormons of both sexes. It is now
useless for the church to preach polygamy, holding up Abraham,
Isaac, Jacob, David and Solomon as examples. A woman of the
present day is contented with no fraction of a man, be he prophet,
priest, or king. She wants an individual whole.
There was the usual morning exercise in hunting for the
horse and mule. Both had been hoppled, but the former was
attracted by a passing drove, and was found consorting with
them three miles out upon the plains ; and the latter, who with
his legs tied could jump a four rail fence as easily as a convict
can scale the walls of Sing Sing, was discovered helping him
self to the oats of a neighboring farmer.
In the mean time, while a dozen boys were looking for them
we were breakfasting with Bishop Budge. Our kind entertainer
was a Scotchman, converted many years ago from Presbyterian-
ism, as he said, to " a saving knowledge of the truth." His
notion of the truth has gradually been enlarged until he reached
his present dignity, and lest there should be any mistake in his
obeying the Scriptural command, that a person of his order shall
be " the husband of one wife," he has provided himself with a re
lay of two more, so that in the case of the death of No. i, he
may not be disobedient for a moment.
" Ah, well," said he, " they think ill of me at home for changing

272 THE ROUND TRIP.
my religion ; but there was my brother Aleck who took it most to
heart. He was on his way last year to California, and turned off
the road a bit to see me, and to try to bring me back into the fold.
When he got here he spent the whole evening in lecturing me,
and then went to bed. In the morning I gave him the best
breakfast the country would afford — coffee and rolls, trout, beef
and venison steak, and such like. Poor Aleck ! he looked all
over the table, and then turned upon me his sorrowful face,
blurting out, ' Oh, Jamie, mon ! Jamie, mon ! did I ever think it
would come to this. I could hae forgi'en ye a' yer poleegamy,
but hae ye gien up yer parritch ? ' "
As the dwellings occupied by No. i and No. 2 were under
going repairs, we were welcomed in his smallest house by No. 3,
a young Danish woman, of neat appearance and pleasing address,
who informed us that she accepted her present situation when
she was only fifteen years old. When a No. i is married, she
generally speaks of herself as a married woman. Later wives,
although pretending to be married, speak of their change of state
as the time when they " went into polygamy."
We had an excellent breakfast, and Brother Budge gave us a
very flattering account of the spiritual and temporal condition of
his flock. " Paris," he said, " is the principal town of that part of
Oneida county called the Bear Lake district, which as you go
south you will find to be the most fertile of any part of Idaho
that you have seen. We raise an abundance of wheat, oats,
vegetables of all kinds, and the small fruits. Our people are in
dustrious and thriving. They have a rich soil, a great deal of
which requires no irrigation, and produces freely forty or fifty
bushels to the acre. The climate is healthy, and the scenery of
the lake and the mountain caiions is unsurpassed for beauty and

THE PROLIFIC PATRIARCH. 273
grandeur. The people are virtuous, as a class, and consequently
happy." What we saw afterwards, justified the truth of his encomium.
The large Mormon majority of this district is due to the fact
that when it was settled, the territorial line of Utah was supposed
to include it, but the new survey placed the inhabitants on the
outside of that line, and as they had already brought the land
under cultivation, and were unmolested by their fellow-citizens,
with whom they are on amicable terms, they preferred to remain
in the enjoyment of their possessions.
On the morning of our departure a very funny incident
occurred. The old patriarch had discovered, on the evening
before, that one of his sons was becoming weak in the faith and
intended to abjure his religion. Moreover — and with a family,
of fifty it will not seem strange — he had forgotten to baptize
this one black sheep. Accordingly, vi et armis, he dragged the
young man from his bed and put him under the cold waters of
the neighboring creek before breakfast.
At noon the horse and mule were saddled, and bidding adieu
to our hosts, who as usual declined all offers of money, we passed
on to St. Charles, the next settiement, where at the distance of
eight miles from Paris we came upon the shores of Bear Lake, at
its northern extremity. Our road lay through great fields of
wheat, in the harvesting of which the whole population, men,
women and children, were busily engaged. The farms extended
to the borders of the lake, now spread before us in all the beauty of
pleasing contrasts of the yellow wheat-fields and blue waters,
darkening to the lofty range of gray mountains that extended
along the eastern shore.
Skirting the western bank we came to the small village of:
Fish Haven, where we stopped to lunch with Mr. Stock. The.

2 74 THE ROUND TRIP.
lady of the house told us that she and her husband heard the
glad tidings of salvation at Port Natal, beyond the Cape of Good
Hope, and on embracing the faith they sold out all their posses
sions, and sought the Lord in these "his holy mountains."
Thus the Mormon missionaries penetrate the remotest corners
of the earth, even " carrying the war into Africa."
But they are not solicitous about the negroes. They consider
them, to be the descendants of Ham, " cursed with a curse."
They are rather pro-slavery in their notions, the negro in their
estimation being doomed by the Almighty to be a " servant of
servants " forever. They admit that he has a soul, but although
he may have a place in heaven, he never can be "exalted."
He is sometimes baptized, but is not admitted to the priesthood,
that is, he is not permitted to "talk in meeting," a privilege
the negro is always ambitious to secure, and consequently
seldom embraces " the faith delivered to the saints."
There were several Mistresses Stock, and each one had a
stock of children. Beds, cribs and cradles constituted the furni
ture of the house. We took lunch under difficulties, and then
rode five miles further down the lake to Swan Creek, the first
settlement within the boundaries of Utah territory, where we had
been commended by Bishop Budge to the hospitalities of Mr.,
Mrs. and another Mrs. Cook.
Two or three rude cabins, a sawmill and gristmill constitute
the settiement of Swan Creek, and all these are the property of
our host, Mr. Cook. All around the borders of the lake were his
fields of wheat and corn, and the green meadows where his catde
feed extend far and near. When this part of the country becomes
better known, tourists will frequent Bear Lake, hotels will stand
upon its banks, and steamboats will stir its waters. But now only
a passing stranger visits it. Here and there may be found a

THE LEGEND OF BEAR LAKE. 275
hamlet on its shores, and perhaps the only navigable craft upon
it are the littie skiffs, in one of which we paddled out on its deep
waters and beheld the bottom, many fathoms beneath, as cleariy
as the blue sky over our heads. It abounds in salmon trout and
fish of various other kinds, and has a romantic reputation.
No Indian was ever known to launch his canoe upon it, to
bathe in it, or even to fish from its banks. They believe it to
be sacred to the monsters of its depths, and dare not pollute its
waters, or take from them a single fish put there for the food of
the dreaded proprietors.
The legend is that centuries ago, when the Sioux and Ban
nocks were at war, a chief of the former tribe became enamoured
of a dusky Bannock maiden. The course of true love, which
never did run smooth, led them over mountains and canons in
their escape from the pursuit of the hostile tribes, whose mem
bers were for the time in league for mutual vengeance.
At last, like the Highlander with Lord Ullin's daughter, they
came to the shores of the lake, their angry relatives close behind.
There was no gallant old ferryman willing to risk his life for the
" winsome ladye," and so they plunged into the waves to become
targets for arrows and tomahawks.
But suddenly the Great Spirit transformed them into two
enormous serpents. Rearing their heads from the water they
shot from their mouths a voHey of beach stones on their paralyzed
foes, but few of whom escaped to hand down to succeeding
generations the warning to beWare of this enchanted lake.
Aside from all such superstition as this, there really is good
reason to believe that the lake is inhabited by some abnormal
water animals. We conversed with seven persons, among them
our friend, the bishop, who at different times had seen them, and
they told us that many other individuals could verify their report.

276 THE ROUND TRIP.
The length of these monsters varies from thirty to eighty feet,
and their bodies are covered with fur like that of a seal. The
head is described like that of an alligator. In one instance the
animal came close to the shore, and was entangled in the rushes,
where he squirmed and splashed, and made a horrible noise like
the roaring of a bull.
It is true the Mormons are a very credulous people. They
believe in all sorts of revelations and appearances, angelic and
diabolical. Some allowance should therefore be made for this
tendency of their minds, but with all that considered, it cannot
be possible for so many people to be utterly mistaken. There
are unquestionably in Bear Lake some fish larger than the
ordinary salmon trout. Whatever they may be, they did not
exhibit themselves for our benefit.
We remained three days with the kind people on whom we
had been quartered. Mr. Cook was an elderly man. His family
consisted of two wives and twenty children, ranging from man
hood to infancy, and a sister who had just left her husband in
the east, to join the church. I have not been slow to criticise
the bad features of polygamy, but, with a disposition to do the
institution whatever justice it may be entitled to, I readily admit
that this was in every respect a happy family. The utmost
conjugal, parental and fraternal affection prevailed among them
all. The head of the establishment was a sincerely religious man.
His devotions, morning and evening, and before every me-al,
breathed the spirit of earnest love for all mankind, and of desire
¦ for their conversion to what he believed to be the truth. He
had implicit faith in every dogma of his church, and oh how he
did wrestle with the Lord for the strangers under his roof, and
how he did urge upon us the duty of entering the fold !

VICARIOUS BAPTISM. 277
Like all Mormons, he believed in " baptism for the dead."
He said he had been baptized in one day two hundred and forty
' times for his dead relatives and friends. He seemed to wish
that I might die before him, in order that he might be baptized
for me : and in case his wish for my early death was not gratified,
and he should pass first through the dark valley, he enjoined it
upon his sons to go into the water for me. So all the male
members of the Cook family are enlisted for my salvation.
Good, kind-hearted old enthusiast, far be it from me to ridicule
your faith !
Jane and Adeline, the two wives, were equally interested in
the eternal welfare of my wife. If either of them survives her,
whenever her death is announced, baptism by proxy will be per
formed for her, and if their death precedes hers, as, with all due
regard for these excellent ladies, I hope may be the case, then
one of the girls is to take the mother's place in the ceremony.
The elderly Mrs. Jewett had the zeal of a new convert in
complying with all the formalities of Mormonism. She must
now be " sealed " to some other man. She remarked : " This
troubles me more than any thing else. I don't see who theycan
get for me. At my age I am not very marketable, and then I
was always so neat and particular. Folks out here are most of
'em dreadful dirty. To be sure it will be celestial marriage, and
I needn't stay with 'em on earth without I've a mind to : but I
wouldn't like dirty folks even in heaven ! "
Mr. Cook proposed to seal himself "celestially" to any
unmarried ladies of our acquaintance, and we gave him a list of
several who have passed beyond matrimonial chances in this life,
and who are probably now, without their knowledge, the brides of
Mr. Cook for the future world. Poor man, he little knows what
¦ hard bargains he has made !

278 THE ROUND TRIP.
I have no space to write about all his revelations, manifesta
tions, and various extravagances. According to his belief, the
garden of Eden was in Ohio, and the ark was built in Missouri.
He produced the Bible to prove that it could easily have drifted
to Ararat in seven months. As this could not be denied, he
claimed for himself the full force of his argument.
Such were some of the wild notions of this curious family :
and yet with all thejr religious insanity they attended most in
dustriously to their farm and their mills. Their house was
scrupulously neat, and their table loaded with substantial food.
Before leaving Swan Creek we attended an ecclesiastical
court. It is the practice of the Mormons to settle all disputes
with each other by referring them to a tribunal of their own,
rather than to encourage litigation and employ lawyers. Mr.
Cook had "jumped " an adjoining tract of land which a brother
Mormon had pre-empted five years before, but never occupied.
In strict conformity to the laws of the United States — and this
was not disputed — Cook had gone upon the land last year, put
up fences and raised a crop of wheat. Finding the land had
now become valuable, the origihal pre-emptor came back and
took possession. This was the case before the tribunal.
The court was held in a log cabin fifteen feet square. At
one end was a chair for the president, and on extemporized
benches sat the council of twelve, six on each side. The plain
tiff, defendant and witnesses were between the two rows of
councillors. This is the regular form. The court was opened
with prayer, and then the parties to the suit each told his own
story, producing his own witnesses. They both agreed to let the
question be settled by the council, reserving the right of appeal
to the head of the church at Salt Lake, but in no case to the law
courts of the land.

A PROSPEROUS CONVERT. 379
When the evidence was all in, and the arguments had been
concluded, which occupied two hours, the president gaVe his
decision, subject to objection from any of the council. There
was no opposition to it, beyond some slight modifications. The
.-erdict was that the original pre-emptor should retain the prop
erty, but that he should pay brother Cook for all the expense he
had put upon it.
As Cook wanted the land more than the money, he took an
appeal. Then everybody shook hands all round, and the court
was closed with an invocation of the divine blessing. The farm
ers harnessed their teams and went home satisfied with the
reflection that, if they had done no good, they had certainly done
no harm, and — a consolation that no lawyer ever feels — that they
had put nobody to the expense of a dollar.
Leaving, Swan Creek we rode along the lake for seven miles,
under the shade of a natural avenue of Cottonwood and willows,
forgetting our curiosity to see the " lake monsters " in the
beauties of water, sky and mountain, that needed no legends or
aid of imagination to make them attractive. Then our road led
us around the foot of a mountain to a town fitly named Meadow-
ville. Fording a stream called Duck Creek, fifteen miles from
the house of Mr. Cook, we came to the ranche of Mr. Kerl, a
Mormon of a different stamp. Whatever religious bigotry he
had, he kept to himself ; and if in the neighboring houses we
had not seen two young women and a crowd of children who
evidently belonged to him, we should not have surmised that the
family who entertained us were other than ordinary Gentiles.
Mrs. Kerl is an Englishwoman, who, as she frankly confessed,
had been at service in her youth, when her husband was a game
keeper's boy in the "New Forest." It is their only boast of
Mormonism that it has been the means of elevating them from

28o THE ROUND TRIP.
their former condition to the proprietorship of this valuable
ranche". Here they have great droves of cattle, flocks of sheep,
and herds of horses ranging the slopes of mountain pastures, and
three hundred acres of land, producing full crops of wheat and
oats. Here they make tons of butter and cheese, and live
literally on the " fat of the land ; " while, if there is any poetry in
their souls, their notions must be enlarged with their estate.
When Goldsmith mourned over his deserted village of the plain,
could his eye have rested on a scene like this, where man be
comes his own master ui^der Nature's smiles, and fed by her
teeming abundance, he would not have deplored the fate of
" Sweet Auburn " in his plaintive verse.
Did the sun shine brighter, were the meadows more green,
the mountains more purple, the stacks of yellow grain more
abundant, or was there not, besides all these, something in the
quiet contentment of the people around us that caused us so
fully to enjoy the day spent in this happy valley ?
Very opportunely Mr. Kerl was intending on the next day to
go down in his wagon through the caiions tpwards Logan, a dis
tance of fifty miles, and we took advantage of this to ease our
animals of their heavy packs of luggage. After a morning of
successful shooting on the meadows we left the ranche, in com
pany with its owner. Passing the first divide we obtained a fare
well view of Bear Lake, and after that our path wound through
a labyrinth of mountains, up and down wild caiions, by the side
of their streams, the scenery ever changing ; green slopes, per
pendicular crags, lovely valleys, succeeding each other so rapidly
that only a confused memory of beauties was left upon our minds.
In this way we passed over twenty-seven miles, and at even
ing came to " Blacksmith Forks," where the caiion of that name
begins its descent to Logan, and the Ogden Caiion branches off

THE LINE OF THE UNION PACIFIC. 281
to the left. We camped on the banks of the head-waters of
Logan River. Having hoppled our saddle beasts, and tied the
others to the wagon wheels, we built a fire and cooked some
grouse and ducks shot on the way, and then, after a social game
of euchre by the light of the camp fire, made our preparations
for the night.
Mr. Kerl kindly gave up his bed by stepping out of his wagon,
where we lay down upon the hay with a glorious blue canopy
spangled with stars over our heads, and although the frost was
so severe at this altitude of seven thousand feet that our breath
froze upon the blankets, we passed a night of luxurious sleep
unknown to those who lie upon " downy beds of ease."
The morning was excessively cold, but we were soon com
forted by a good fire and an excellent breakfast like our supper
of the evening before ; and then, at sunrise, we saddled and
harnessed our beasts and resumed our journey.
The remaining twenty-five miles was a continual descent, and
an uninterrupted scene of grandeur until, emerging from the
canon, we came down on the plains of Cache Valley, and then,
beautiful as were the meadows and the harvest of grain, how
tame every thing appeared compared with the remembrance of all
that we had left behind ! The atmosphere had lost its elasticity,
and for the time we experienced a depression of spirits which led
us to look back regretfully upon the mountains, and to sigh for
a breath of their pure air. Unmindful of the fatigue, we would
fain have turned and retraced our steps.
We arrived at Logan soon after noon 'and there took the
train for Ogden, after returning our animals to their owners. Ap
preciating their many good qualities their faults were freely for
given, and the mule's rider thought that she detected a tear in his
eye when she bade him an affectionate farewell.

282 THE ROUND TRIP.

CHAPTER XXXI.
The Union Pacific Railroad — The Rocky Mountains-
Easy-going Emigrants — Greeley, on the road to Denver.
On leaving California, after crossing the Sierras Nevadas, the
traveller is carried over an elevated plateau, as before described,
until by a somewhat gradual descent he comes to .the valley of
the Great Salt Lake, the lowest level between the Sierras and
the Rocky Mountains. From Ogden begins the ascent of the
great range through the Weber and Echo Canons, amidst the
wildest scenery of the route.
The Sierras, soorier traversed, may leave more pleasant memo
ries of thickly wooded valleys which offset the ruggedness of their
peaks. These bare and lonely mountains, with their sharp out
lines of adamantine rocks, impress us with ideas of stern sub
limity, in which not a single thought of beauty enters.
We rise to a grade 1125 feet higher than any on the Central
Pacific Road, and among innumerable buttes and glacier-worn
crags are carried on towards the breezy plains of Laramie.
The Union Pacific Railroad is coming to be considered a fre
quented avenue leading out of New York. It is well known in
the courts and in the halls of Congress, where it is annually made

THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS. 283
the object of attack, and its present stockholders subjected to
punishment for the Credit Mobilier transactions and the crook
edness of old contractors. It will be a happy day for them and for
the public when all disputes are finally settled, and this great
work, constructed for the relief of the country in its dire neces
sity, shall have free scope to develop its peaceful industries.
Aided by nature, whose obstacles its first mission was to over
come, it is already opening vast fields of mineral wealth. When
the road was, begun, the presence of gold and silver ore on this
side of the Pacific slope was almost unknown. Now its feeders
from Utah, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, Dakota and Colorado
bring thousands of tons to its depots.
Of coal, then absolutely undiscovered, its own mines in
Wyoming alone last year produced 276,000 tons, and the best
iron in the continent has been found abundantly on its route,
where foundries and works have been established. Besides these
metals, vast deposits of sulphur, soda and oil-bearing rock are
now being exploited.
Not the least of its resources are the ever multiplying herds
of cattle and flocks of sheep that roam the fertile plains. These
old homes of the buffalo and antelope have been captured
by them ; for the inexorable laws of nature dictate " the survival
of the fittest," in an invariable line of progress. Useless ani
mals are superseded by those that are necessary to man, as use
less men, Indians, greasers and negroes are being swept away
by those lords of creation born of the Anglo-Saxon race. It is
a high title, but they have assumed it, though all of them do not
bear the stamp of nobility.
When Mr. Greeley advised the young man to "go west," a
compliance with his counsel was a literal obedience. The young
man went. He was not carried ; he went, either on a solitary

284 ' THE ROUND TRIP.
march with gun and pickaxe over his shoulders, or walked by
the side of slow moving oxen drawing all his worldly goods.
Among them, and first of his articles of necessity, was his youth
ful bride, wh'o, leaving the comforts of her eastern home, fitted
herself on the long tramp to become his helpmate and not his
expensive toy.
Emigrants of this style are not yet extinct. On the prairies
we often passed them taking their weary road that had its ad
vantages in reconciling them to their new home. At one of the
stations on the plains west of Cheyenne, while other passengers
were at their meal, we strayed away to look at a temporary house
keeping arrangement not far from the train.
The horse and cow were grazing at a little distance from the
empty wagon, from which the top had been removed and con
verted into a tent. Out of doors a rosy cheeked young woman
was preparing the dinner upon a miniature cooking-stove while the
husband was engaged in an employment that would not have
.suggested itself to us — beating into flat slabs the tin cans that he
had picked up on his journey. These, he said, were to cover his
roof when he built a house somewhere.
" Somewhere ? And where is that ? " we asked.
"Well now, mister," he replied, "you are too much for me
there. I suppose we must stop somewhere by and by, but the
further we go, the less we want to. I like to keep going this
way. My wife, she likes it ; and the baby in there seems to like it
too, for she grows like a weed. We are none of us sick ; we
always have plenty to eat, and so we don't see the use of stopping.
But one of these days I suppose we shall get to the Pacific, and
then we shall have to stop. In the mean time, if we strike a good
place we may build a house to live in for a spell, but for the pres
ent we are well enough off."

GREELEY. 285
The shrill whistle hurried us back to the train, whence from
the windows of our car we looked back with a feeling almost of
envy upon the happy vagrants.
That young man was not the one the Tribune philosopher had
in mind when he gave his memorable direction. From present
appearances, he will not contribute much to build up the waste
places, although from a selfish point of view he is happier than
the pioneer, whose object it is, first of all things, to make himself
rich. Mr. Greeley was a man of ideas, some of them, as many people
think, erroneous, but he was undeniably right in wishing, for the
good of the nation and of the individual, to send the poor labor
er away from the crowded city to the new soil of the great West.
Approaching Denver, after branching off at Cheyenne, the
road passes through a town called by the name of the philosopher,
founded two years before his death, and intended to realize
his favorite scheme of communistic labor. Had he lived, he
might have rejoiced over the success of this experiment on a
small scale, dnd had he lived many years more he must have dis
covered what almost everybody anticipates, that the plan would
fail when carried out on a large scale.
Greeley is very like a Mormon town. About two thousand-
people of advanced ideas gathered here and established a com
mon home, tilling the land, pasturing flocks and herds for mutual
support and profit. They have co-operative| mills and stores,
and possibly will live together, so long as their number is small,
in happiness and peace. Unlike the Mormons, however, who in
many of their towns have adopted this system, they are divided
into different religious sects, thus lacking a common bond of
union which might presage a more assured success.

286 THE ROUND TRIP.

CHAPTER XXXII.
The City of Denver — Sunday — Climate — Railroads — En
thusiastic McAllister — Colorado Springs — Colorado
City — Manitou — " Garden of the Gods " and Canons.
On the morning after our arrival at Denver, we started on a
tour of observation, guided by a citizen who reckoned himself
among the "oldest inhabitants.'' We were shown the wide
streets on whose borders some little cottonwood trees were
struggling for life and promising a future shade in return for the
labor of irrigation. The hotels were in number and capacity
sufficient to accommodate the whole population. There were
houses in various gradations, from the elegant residences of the
rich to the wretched dens of the Italians and Chinese.
The stores — in the relative proportion of one to each dwell
ing — ^were all open, for it was Sunday, and Sunday is the busy
day of Denver. It is the day when the miners pour into the town
to supply themselves with provisions, and the farmers bring in
produce to exchange for their wants. The bar rooms, billiard
halls, sample rooms and saloons were reaping their richest
harvest of the week ; all was life, bustle and confusion. What
a busy place it is, we thought ! If the exuberance of trade can

SUNDAY. 287
only find vent by encroaching thus upon the Sabbath, what must
it be Upon weekdays !
Mingling with the uproar of trade, the church bells chimed
in from all quarters, calling upon the people to divide the
service of Mammon with God, by giving him at least one hour
of the day. It is fair to the Denverites to say that they are
willing to make this compromise. They generally close their
stores, and some of them are even willing to vacate the bar rooms,
at II o'clock. After service, our guide took us to view the
antiquities, pointing with all the pride of an Italian cicerone to
a log cabin built in the almost forgotten past of twenty years ago ;
for in the great West decades and even single years are centuries.
The settlement of Denver ¦was begun in 1859. For the first nine
years of its existence it was a mere mining camp, or rather a
deposit of stores for miners. Then it lingered along, its popu
lation barely increasing to the number of four thousand, until
railroads, the great pioneers of civilization, brought to it a sudden
accession of inhabitants and wealth. Then it was the point to
which the roads from Kansas and from Cheyenne approached.
Now it has become the centre from which new railroads diverge.
Southerly the Denver and Rio Grande has advanced far on its way
to Mexico, forming connections on the line, with the Atchison,
Topeka and Santa Fe joining it from the east. South-westerly
the Colorado Central has grasped the oldest mineral regions.
Westerly the Denver and South Park is looking steadily towards
Salt Lake City, 450 miles to the west. From all these, lateral
branches fertilize the productive capital of this new State of the
Union, as the streams from its irrigating canals permeate
its soil. With gold and silver in its depths, corn and fruits upon its
surface, tens of thousands of cattie and sheep roaming upon its

288 THE ROUND TRIP.
hills and plains ; above all, with health wafted in every breath
of its invigorating air, it needs no prophet to predict the future
of Colorado. The stormy season of Denver is when it seldom rains. It
would have been a pleasure to close our umbrellas on those
October days and to welcome a deluge upon our heads. A dust-
storm such as we experienced would have been harder upon
the animals under the care of Noah than the great flood.
Forty days' dust ' like this would have effectually killed every
man, beast and creeping thing within, as well as without, the ark.
It penetrated the houses so that the color of the carpets was a
uniform gray ; it mixed with the food dnd was inhaled by the
throat and lungs till the mucous membrane became like sand
paper and the voice between sneezes was like the caw of a raven.
Nor was it common dust. It was alkaline, as universal redness
of the eyes testified in addition to all the other miseries it
inflicted. The Denver optimists said that it was a special occasion.
They never knew any thing like it before, and it would probably
never happen again. The pessimists, and there are always some
of them everywhere, said " that was just the way of it all the
year round."
One should remain here a year in order to give a candid
weather report. As we had not that time to spare, we are
obliged to rely upon the mean of the metereological reports
and statements of the people. From these it appears that it is
sometimes very hot in midsummer, the mercury attaining oc
casionally loo degrees in the shade, and it is sometimes very
cold in winter, the glass showing 30 degrees below zero. But as
these extremes are seldom reached, summer may be rated at 75
and winter at 40 degrees.

RAILROADS. 289
Rain falls freely at the opening and the close of summer, but
seldom, alrtiost never, from October to May, although snow is not
infrequent. This condition of things will suit those who desire
a " dry climate." But all the advantage derived from this dry
ness would seem to be counterbalanced by the dust storms.
Despite this almost intolerable nuisance, thousands of invalids
make Denver a winter resort. Over five thousand feet above
the sea level, the air is bracing and pure, dust always excepted,
and this requisite for people with lung diseases, combined with
the comforts of civilization afforded by hotels, stores and society,
induce those who place, as we think, too much dependence upon
such home luxuries, to settle themselves here to live or die.
We left Denver one morning for the south, on the Denver
and Rio Grande Railroad, a cheaply constructed " narrow gauge,"
but a profitable investment for the present, and of well founded
expectations for the future. The grade is of easy ascent for fifty-
two miles to the " divide," along the banks of the South Platte,
overlooking a valley on the right made fertile by canals which
everywhere draw water from higher levels for irrigation. On the
left was a wide stretch of pasture land, unbroken by forest or hill
as far as the eastern horizon. In the valley the settlers grow
their corn and grass, and on these boundless uplands they
pasture their cattle which divide the grass with herds of antelope.
These were so abundant and unsuspicious of evil intent that
hundreds of them came down almost within pistol shot from the
train. At the " divide " there is a pretty lake of two or three acres,
supplied by living springs in its centre. It has two outlets, one
at its northern and the other at its southern border. The former.
meanders down into the Platte, the latter into the Arkansas, and.
after travelling thousands of miles apart in far different directions-
19

290 THE ROUND TRIP.
meet again in the Mississippi, and journey in each other's embrace
to the Gulf of Mexico.
Passing numerous hamlets and ranches we arrived soon after
noon at Colorado Springs, seventy-five miles south of Denver.
This misnomer, for it has no springs, is a tastefully laid out settle
ment of between three or four thousand inhabitants, with good
hotels, numerous churches, shops, banks, a high school, an
incipient university, a deaf and dumb asylum, and all the con
comitants of an advanced civilization. As a place of residence
it is every way superior to Denver, and for invalids has incom
parable advantages. Though 5986 feet above the sea level, the
climate is far more equable, and its neighborhood to the springs
from which it takes its name gives it a sanitary pre-eminence.
It is the centre of trade for the large agricultural districts, and
derives much of its prosperity from the mines, which it supplies
with merchandise and provisions paid for in gold and silver.
The first attempt at mining was made in 1858, by a few
straggling bands from the east and west, who had heard of the
marvellous richness of the region about Pike's Peak. That
fever soon abated, but new discoveries drew greater multitudes ;
and when the Kansas Pacific Railroad was completed ten years
later, mining was a regular and increasing industry. Until lately
the mines on the Colorado Central Railroad have furnished
most of the supply, as that part of the territory was settled at an
earlier date, and was easily accessible from Denver. For the
same reason, stock raising and farming have made more advance
in this region. Yet this is but a small portion of the 106,000
square miles comprising the State, which until the last twelve
years was absolutely unexplored.
In 1873 some adventurous miners penetrated beyond the
" snowy range " that divides the sources of the waters running

ENTHUSIASTIC MCALLISTER. 291
into the Pacific and the Atlantic, returning with almost incredible
stories of the wealth of those mountains. This produced as wild
an excitement as lately prevailed about the Black Hills of
Dakota, and it was complicated with similar difficulties. The
western part of Colorado had been kept as a reservation for the
Ute Indians, and it was much more valuable to them for agricul
tural purposes than the bleak mountains of the Sioux could
possibly be to them. Fortunately the Utes -n'ere more tractable,
and they wisely accepted from the government a fair price for the
right of miners to occupy that part of the reservation suitable for
mining, while the Indians still enjoy all that is of use to them
for cultivation. A new mining region is the famous San Juan country,
which is expected to eclipse all previous discoveries. It is one
hundred and seventy-five miles long from north to south, and one
hundred miles wide, lying chiefly in Lake and La Plata counties.
Major McAllister, a prominent citizen of Colorado Springs, to
whom I am indebted for much valuable information, has investi
gated the facts connected with San Juan, so far as they have been
reported, and is very enthusiastic in his belief of their just foun
dation. " Gold and silver, sir ! " he exclaimed, " there are mountains,
yes, solid mountains of it ; you absolutely stumble over rocks of
solid silver. No other mineral country approaches it in value !
To my certain knowledge there is enough of the precious metal
in sight to pay the national debts of the whole world. You do
not dig for it as elsewhere. It is all over the surface in every
direction, in ridges of rock a hundred feet wide and many
miles in length. I have seen a specimen weighing more pounds
than I could lift, knocked off from one of these surface rocks ! "
With proper allowance, the general idea obtained from Major

2g2 THE ROUND TRIP.
McAllister was that the whole of that country is traversed in
every direction by seams of silver ore, in number practically
unlimited, in width from two feet to three hundred, and in rich
ness from fifty dollars to five thousand dollars to the ton.
We took the stage for Manitou, the real fountain of the
mineral waters of Colorado, distant six miles from these nominal
" springs." Half way, we passed through the old city of Colo
rado, built nineteen years ago for the capital of the territory.
But misfortune or mismanagement followed it from its birth.
The capital was removed by political adroitness to Denver,
and when the railroad was contemplated the new colony at the
" Springs " offered superior inducements for changing its line
from a direct course. The city of Colorado was built on the piles
of false expectations, and is now crumbling into the dust of
oblivion. Large hotels were erected for guests, who never
occupied their rooms, stores were built for goods they never
received, banks for the deposit of money never entrusted to their
vaults, and churches for swallows only to nestle under their eaves.
It wears the melancholy air of Pisa without its magnificence.
Hidden under a lofty range of mountains, looking majestically
down upon it from the west, with the towering summit of Pike's
Peak standing sentry over the lesser giants of the air, is the little
village of Manitou, the real Colorado Springs. It has been called
the Chamounix of America, but Chamounix might be proud to be
styled the Manitou of Switzerland.
Here is a land of lights and shadows. The morning sun
streams through the valley by which we approach, and warms it
at noon with its kindly but not overpowering heat, which the
freshness of the air always tempers ; and the evening sun setting
behind these overtopping cliffs, projects their shadows upon the
brighter scenes with a softness and beauty indescribable.

MANITOU. 2g3
It were far better if those who come here to regain their
health were compelled to live out of doors or in tents, but the
more than comfortable hotels offer inducements not to be resisted.
Three of these are of the first class, equalling the great Saratoga
caravansaries in luxury, while second-class hotels and boarding-
houses are open for people of moderate means.
The springs have already acquired a world-wide reputation.
They are not unlike the fountains of Vichy or Kissingen ; the
waters cool and sparkling with gas, holding in solution a strong
body of soda and iron. Dr. Solly, an English physician of high
repute, has recently published a complete analysis of the waters.
Many of his countrymen have settled in Colorado, who have
come here to invest their capital in loans, which they can readily
do at a high rate of interest, securing a far better income than
they can get from their three per cent, consols at home. They
are captivated with a genuine country life, which they can enjoy
only on a small scale in their little island. Here they establish
themselves on ranches, roaming wherever they please the vast
plains abounding with game, and occasionally looking after their
investments which yearly roll up into fortunes, while in the mean
time they live in the enjoyment of a healthy and pleasurable
existence. Some of them are the owners of neat cottages in and
near Manitou, tastefully built and surrounded by green lawns,
enclosed with rustic fences.
Nothing is more pleasing to an Englishman than to imagine
himself " lord of the manor." Everywhere among the mountains
there are natural parks, far surpassing in beauty and magnificence
any that belong to the British nobility and gentry in their own
kingdom. Here the Enghshman of moderate means at once becomes an
aristocrat. He builds for himself a log cabin, set with taste

294 THE ROUND TRIP.
and an eye to the picturesque, on some sheltered spot on one of
the vast domains " taken up " by him without cost. Here he
establishes himself as lord of all he surveys ; buys cattle and
sheep, and commences a business in which a " gentleman " can
engage without a feeling of self-abasement, getting out of his
employment, pleasure and a profit to be added to his accruing
interest. He gradually becomes Americanized by adding man
hood to his gentility, and in course of time proves a valuable
citizen of the great republic. If he can gather a little settlement
about him and become the patron of a tiny Episcopal church,
with a rector who will dine with him on Sundays, he is supremely
happy, comparing himself to the proudest duke or prince of his
native land ; for "with his broad acres, his horses, his dogs, gun
and parson, what can an Englishman ask more !
This settlement of Manitou was founded under the auspices
of the " Colorado Springs Improvement Co." They acquired
possession of the whole valley by taking up, pre-emption and
purchase of claims,-at little or no cost. They have laid out roads
and shady walks, and in other respects adorned what nature had
already beautified. They either own shares in the hotels or have
sold the land on which to build them. Thus they have made a
profitable investment for themselves, and have become entitled
to the gratitude of the ever increasing crowd of visitors.
About five hundred strangers, not only from other points in
the State, but from all directions, settle here during the season.
The fame of the springs has gone out through all the world. In
our estimation they rank next to the soda springs of Idaho. In
four days they can be reached from Boston, New York, Philadel
phia or Washington, a less time than was formerly occupied in
travelling to Saratoga from either of these cities ; and when
Manitou is once reached, the object desired by invalids and true

MANITOU. 295
pleasure seekers is attained. Even Europeans, having heard its
fame, are willing to tempt the dangers of the seas, and instead of
resorting to the sleepy spas of Germany, come to Colorado to
view its glorious scenery, to breathe its life-giving atmosphere,
and to drink its health-bestowing waters.-
After having tried all the resources of the pharmacopoeia, the
nostrums of quacks, the reputed virtue of Bourbon whiskey, the
climate of Florida and Nassau, and experiencing relief from none
of these expedients, attenuated consumptives come to Colorado.
Alas, they too often come to die. For it is certain that in the
last stages of the disease the stimulating temperature of this
region almost invariably proves fatal. The true physician is he
who unselfishly counsels the afflicted, in the first stages of the
disease, to abandon drugs, business, and home, ^and fly at once
to the high plains and mountains of the west. The wisest invalids
are those who come here with something to do as well as to, be
and to suffer. Occupation distracts the mind from self, and offers
the best prospects of relief. The man with consumptive ten
dencies should sell out his possessions in the east and remove for
life to Colorado. Here let him establish himself in business, and
the best business he can find will be on the open plains or among
the mountains, where he must daily ride to look after his cattle
and sheep.
No one has described this region with more enthusiasm
than Mrs. Lippincott (Grace Greenwood). She has done for the
beauties what Major Powell has done for the sublimities, and is
credible while he is almost incredible. I mean that while allow
ing for certain female poetic tendencies of embellishment with a
pencil dipped in couleur de rose, Grace is to be generally believed,
as she would scarcely draw the long bow, when others are so con
stantly hunting over the same ground. On the contrary, the gal-

296 THE ROUND TRIP.
lant major has told such fearful stories of hair-breadth escapes,
that no one, at least until his Munchausenism is forgotten, will
be likely to follow in his tracks. Mrs. Lippincott has proved her
sincerity by building for herself a " love of a cottage," shaded by
cottonwoods, entwined with clematis, on the banks of Fountain
Creek, the rapid little stream whose ceaseless music is her daily
and nightly serenade.
Two miles below the town, the " Garden of the Gods " is ap
proached from a turn of the road leading over a rough path to
the " Gates of Paradise," which form high battlements at the
entrance. Why this area of curious sandstone formation should
have received its title is not apparent. The name is calculated
to raise different expectations from those eventually realized.
There are hundreds of acres of hard red soil, with here and there
patches of wild grass, disappointing our anticipations of shaded
walks and beds of flowers. But the tall fantastic columns, turned
by the lathe of glaciers thousands of years ago, are impressive
monuments of the unknown past. These tower above our heads
hundreds of feet and are of endless variety, of grotesque shape
and outline.
The canons in the neighborhood of Manitou, particularly that
of Cheyenne, are grand and beautiful. An unending variety of
walks and rides lead upward to the mountain peaks. All
around Manitou within an afternoon's ride are scenes like these
approached by gallops over the " Mesa " or high plains, where
the fresh air and distant views add delight to the continual sur
prises of the road.

ASCENT OF PIKE'S PEAK. 397

CHAPTER XXXIII.
Ascent of Pike's Peak — The Hermit of the Mountain —
The Signal Station — A Hunting Expedition — On the
Denver and Rio Grande Railroad.
There are two ways of making the ascent of Pike's Peak
from Manitou. One is by following an ill-defined bridle path over
a very rough country to the " timber line," where vegetation
ceases, and then scrambling up an almost perpendicular slope of
about eighteen hundred feet to the summit. Although the rocks
are broken and slippery the enterprise would be a matter of small
account, if the start were to be made at this point from a sea
level. But it must be considered that the end of the " timber
line " is already between twelve and thirteen thousand feet high,
and every step is more fatiguing than a hundred on the plains.
The longer but more easy method is by the government trail,
following the signal telegraph wire. Nor is the length to be
regretted, for that route is vastiy more picturesque than the short
and painful one.
The ladies, for once, were willing to, allow men to precede
them, but they accompanied us about half the distance through
Ithe prettiest part of the scenery. Leaving the hotel at early

sgS THE ROUND TRIP.
morning we rode rapidly in the cool air over the Mesa of six
miles, between Manitou and the mouth of Bear Creek Caiion.
Here the wagon track comes to an end and a tortuous trail be
gins, crossing and re-crossing the stream continually, over rocks
and through dense underbrush, beneath overhanging cliffs and
through forests of cedar and pine.
The roar of tumbling cascades subsides into the rippling of
comparative levels, and alternates with noisy uproar like the
varying melody of the organ in its dulcet tones and deep diapason.
We wound along for miles until we came to a zig-zag path cut
in the sides of a high mountain descending to meet its opposite
neighbor abruptly in the stream.
To those of us who first arrived at the dizzy height it was a
curious sight to behold the long straggling line of our companions,
creeping up the winding trail, clinging like flies to the sides of a
wall. A light snow had fallen the night before, feathering the
pines and frosting the rocks, adding greatly to the picture, but
somewhat endangering the foothold of our animals in places
where the road was but three feet wide, and they might fall by a
misstep a thousand feet. It was better not to touch the reins,
for to the unaccustomed it was a risk even to look down. Leaving
the beasts to their instincts. Excelsior was now the watch-word.
The danger past, a lovely scene opened before us. As the
Hudson spreads above the Palisades into the Tappan Zee, and
contracts again towards the Catskills, so here the pass had
scooped a plain out of the surrounding hills, and left a natural
park for miles of comparative level. Such spots as these are
often selected for cattle and sheep ranches.
But the owner of the park had squatted here, pre-empted and
purchased the whole of it for a different purpose. His only
desire was for a " lodge in some vast wilderness," where he might

THE HERMIT OF THE MOUNTAIN. 299
seclude himself from the world and never see any more of his
numerous relations, whose names are Jones.
By actual measurement the lodge of Mr. Jones is 10,080 feet
in the air. He has perched himself there for summer and winter,
dwelling alone in a neat log cabin with windows of the largest
plate glass, from which he can look boldly out upon the world
while the world cannot look in upon him. Evidently Mr. Jones
is a peculiar man. We were sorry that he was not at home, but
were glad that, in accordance with the universal practice of ran
cheros, he had no lock upon his door, for by this time, although
the air was clear and the sun bright, the ample fire-place of his
mansion offered inducements not to be resisted. We made our
selves at home, kindling a roaring fire from the abundance of
cedar logs at hand, giving out an odor like a hecatomb of lead-
pencils. In the silent blessings which it is hoped our grateful
hearts bestowed upon our luncheon, we did not fail to remember
the hermit, who in the attempt to hide himself from his fellow-
creatures had made a few of them so happy.
We were ten miles on our way, one half the distance to the
Peak, and now sending back the ladies with an escort, three of us
continued our upward journey. At the farther end of the
park, the mountains drew together and enclosed us in their grasp
until, as we emerged from the dense shrubbery, they opened
once more and exposed to view on either side and beyond a
scene of utter desolation.
Many years ago, ere the foot of the explorer had crossed the
wilderness, a wide spread conflagration had raged. The Indian
camp fires or the lightnings of heaven might have kindled it,
but it was a melancholy sight, whatever may have been the cause.
Tens of thousands of acres of a once living forest were reduced
to an area of blackened stumps, and the fallen timber lay thickly

300 THE ROUND TRIP.
as far as the eye could reach. Through five miles of this
wretched field of desolation, we ascended to the Lake House, a
log cabin erected for the convenience of tourists and the supply
of the Government corps stationed at the Peak. A clear, trans
parent basin of water of twelve acres is here a perpetual spring
from which the streams flow down into the plains. We were
told that the water is so cold that even trout cannot live within
it, but as that useful experiment had never been tried, we
scarcely credited the information. If the keeper of the shanty
had been sufficiently enterprising to stock the lake with fish, he
could with much less cost to himself have provided us with
something better than fried ham, for which we angled in a sea of
grease. Here our ponies, who are as accustomed to the route as camels
to the desert, exercised the same forethought. They knew that
they would get no more oats or water until the next day, and ac
cordingly ate and drank their fill. As we started onward we
passed through a green timber line not reached by the great fire,
encircling the sumrhit like a garland. While crossing this belt a
covey of mountain grouse whirred overhead, giving each of us a
successful shot. Tying the game to our saddles we were happy
in having secured a breakfast for the morning.
Then we came to the limit of the " timber-line," and by a
scarcely perceptible trail wound our way among huge rocks for
the rest of the journey. Colder grew the air as the day drew to
a close, and we urged our tired beasts along that we might reach
the Peak before darkness should come upon us. Our arrival
could not have been at a more favorable moment, for as we
stood upon the summit, the last rays of the sun were streaming
upward from the Utah mountains, more than a hundred rtiiles
away in the west, gilding their clearly outlined summits, and re-

THE SIGNAL STATION. 301
fleeting changing colors from their snowy ranges to the skies.
Then evening drew its gray shades over the vast panorama, and
-we stood alone upon the mountain with a world below us sleep
ing in the silent night.
We were cordially welcomed at their little stone shanty by
Lieut. Brown and his comrade of the U. S. Signal Corps. They
warned us not to approach the stove hastily in coming in from
a temperature of eight degrees below the freezing point, as
others who had neglected this precaution had been attacked by
apoplexy, endangering their lives.
Our first business was to carry some faggots to the brow of
the peak overhanging the settlement of Manitou, and to kindle
a bonfire by which our friends, 10,000 feet below, were assured
of our safe arrival ; and then we gradually accustomed ourselves
to the heat within doors. The peak is 14,216 feet above the
level of the ocean, and Lieut. Brown said that next year it would
be seventy feet higher by the new measurement which, having
already elevated the plains, will push the mountain still further
up. It was high enough for us without this complement.
We experienced some peculiar sensations difficult to relate
or even to remember. A little walk, if walk it could be called,
where we stumbled over disjointed fragments of rocks, shortened
our breath almost to suffocation, and when at night we endeav
ored to sleep, although we were told that the attempt would be
useless on the first experiment, the hour of semi-wakeful dozing
was as unpleasant as can be imagined.
Queer fancies took possession of our brains. Every thing,
including ourselves, seemed to be afloat in the air. New York
and Boston rose up and danced about in an altitude of immeas
urable leagues, with sun, moon and stars all round them. When
we gasped for air, as we were often obliged to do, our lungs and

302 THE ROUND TRIP.
chests seemed like pliable India-rubber bellows, expanding to
the size of the body of an elephant.
The officers stationed here at first experienced similar incon
veniences and hallucinations, but had gradually become accus
tomed to the novelty and necessities of their condition. For
tunately their time is much occupied in noting and recording
observations, and telegraphing them to Washington ; otherwise
existence would be intolerable.
Here might be a favorable place for the cure of intemper
ance, for the smallest draught of alcoholic liquor produces nau
sea at once, and gives a forcible hint in favor of total abstinence.
The exact latitude of the Peak is 38 degrees 48 minutes north,
and longitude 104 degrees 59 minutes west of Greenwich, as
determined by Lieut. Brown. His scientific instruments for as
certaining the velocity of the wind, humidity of the air, rain-fall,
cold and heat, and other matters considered worthy of daily
reports, were shown and explained, and we listened to an exceed
ingly interesting lecture, illustrated by charts and diagrams, ex
planatory of the theory of storms and probabilities, a synopsis of
which is read in the daily papers by thousands who never give a
thought to the wonderful agencies of science by which they are
evolved. This service was commenced in 1868. Then " Old
Probabilities " was in his infancy, and for lack of a thorough
education committed many blunders. Possibilities would have
been a better title for him, but now probabilities amount almost
to certainties, and soon will become absolute truths. Every vil
lage newspaper chronicles a prophecy of invaluable worth to the
farmer and to all the millions who daily look to these records for
calculations of business or pleasure, and what a debt of gratitude
the seamen on our coasts and lakes owe to the storm signals of
this faithful monitor !

THE SIGNAL STATION. 303
The highest temperature on the mountains last year was
reached in June, when the mercury stood at 57 degrees above,
and the lowest was in February, when it marked 37 degrees below
zero. Cold, however, depends more upon the wind than upon'
the thermometer. Late in the evening of our visit the glass
stood at twenty-two degrees ; but as the air was calm we were
not uncomfortable out of doors without overcoats, although
when the wind is yiolent the piercing blast is unendurable.
Snow is scarcely a respecter of seasons, for on July fourth it
fell to the depth of fifteen inches, whereas in the winter it is all
blown away, excepting the provision caught among the rocks
which serves for the only supply of water all the year round to
the hardy inhabitants, of the hut. The velocity of the wind is
occasionally one hundred miles an hour, and at such times no
one would envy the signal corps the scanty pay they receive for
the invaluable service they perform.
There was no signal corps in the days when it was said,
"The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound
thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh and whither it
goeth.'' Now, the desert of the west is known to be the place of
its birth, and science has traced its almost invariable course
from west to east, with a precision equal to the knowledge of the
ocean tides.
Although the cold was intense, the mercury being but little
above zero and the wind whistling fiercely around the corner of
our stone cabin, we were up and out berimes to see the rising
of the sun. As the dawn approached, the gray chaos of the
world below shaped itself into lesser mountains and plains
painted in the sombre colors of mingled day and night. Then
light glimmered and brightened on the eastern horizon, the
dark tints of early dawn came out in rapid and changing dashes of

304 THE ROUND TRIP.
brightness over the snows of the mountains, the green forests of
the canons and the boundless russet plains. The sunset of the
previous evening impressed us with majesty, but the darkness
^oon gathering tinged our admiration with melancholy. Far
more glorious was this clear sunrise glowing with the promise of
a perfect day.
All our anticipations were more than realized ; and with
many thanks to our kind entertainers, we began the descent.
The famished animals, expectant of water and oats at the Lake
House, skipped nimbly over the rocks and fallen logs, and when
refreshed finished the journey with spirit, bringing us back to
Manitou early in the afternoon.
I have not space to enumerate all the pleasant excursions
taken from that delightful watering-place. ¦ The mountains are
intersected by romantic canons, through which leap the streams
pouring at last into the Arkansas. One of the wildest of these
is the Ute Pass, leading to some of the mining regions in the
west. By this canon Manitou Park is approached, distant twenty
miles on an elevated plain one thousand feet above the village.
This is a property belonging to Dr. Bell, an English gentleman,
who has erected a comfortable hotel for the accommodation of
summer visitors. In the winter it is a place of occasional resort
for sportsmen, deer and other game abounding in the surround
ing mountains.
Having formed a hunting party, we took advantage of a
wintry day of the autumn to visit it. The seasons are singularly-
changeable in these regions. At times in November and Decem
ber the snow covers the ground in the valleys and the frost seals
up the streams, every thing betokening a Siberian winter. On
the very next day, perhaps, nature is freed from her icy fetters.

A HUNTING EXPEDITION. 305
and all is genial summer again. The days of cold are really the
most enjoyable, for the effect of snow upon the mountains and of
the icicles pendent from the trees is exceedingly beautiful.
Ascending the " Ute Pass " on horseback, our camp equipage
and provisions followed in a wagon. We were fitted out for the
capture of herds of deer and antelope, to say nothing of expected
grouse and rabbits, and it may be mentioned in the outset that
we were disappointed in our anticipations in this respect, our
spoils, after three days' hunting, amounting to one deer, five jack
rabbits and a black squirrel. Nevertheless, we had no reason
to complain, as we were compensated for this small result in
healthy exercise and the wonderful scenery.
Arriving at evening, a blazing fire of pine logs gave a cheer
ful air to the almost deserted hotel, or rather to the adjoining
ranche-house, which is occupied by the family in the winter.
Mr. Thornton, the superintendent of the property, is an English
man, and as Englishmen always bring their habits with them, we
were reminded of the hospitality of British country squires on
Christmas holidays. An immense round of beef graced the
table, and venison in various forms kept it goodly company.
We were waited upon by English servants who asked us what
we would " be pleased to 'ave," and altogether the combination
of English style and American backwoods life formed a pretty
picture, lighted as it was by the cheerful glow from the ample
stone fireplace.
If we did not kill much game, we sang many songs, told
many stories, cracked many jokes, and when we rolled into our
blankets at night, we slept the sleep of the weary, more soundly
than others slumber in cities on their beds of ease.
As Mr. Thornton carried on the farm upon an expensive as
well as extensive scale, he had a numerous retinue of laborers to

3o6 THE ROUND TRIP.
care for the cattle and crops. We all messed together, the land
lord and his guests at the head of the long taKe, and a dozen of
his dependants at the other end. We thought of Cedric the
Saxon and his family, so graphically described in Ivanhoe,
when England, like Colorado, was comparatively a new country,
for there was a bonhomie and roughness in the men of those
times like our own grade of civilization in the west.
By day we roamed the mountains for game, and at night
came home to enjoy the ample repast and comforts of the
enormous fireside. Let no future sportsman be discouraged,,
however, by our want of success. We were a month too early
for the game, as the deer were still upon the mountains. By and
by, we were told, they would come down to the park, and even
to the plains about Manitou ; moreover be it considered, we
were all amateurs, and I verily believe that if some of us had
seen a buck he would have stared us out of countenance.
Leaving Manitou as we journeyed south on the Denver and
Rio Grande Railroad, the country appeared to be better watered,
both naturally and artificially. Farm ranches with large fields
that had apparently yielded abundant crops, joined each other
for miles along the way, and here and there were to be seen col
lections of pretty white frame houses, not unlike New England
villages. All this land is fertilized by various little streams,
leisurely doing good on their way to the Arkansas.
Forty-three miles from our starting point, brought us to
Pueblo.

PUEBLO. 207

CHAPTER XXXIV.
Pueblo — The Denver and Rio Grande, and the Atchison,
Topeka and Santa Fe Railroads — Canon City — ^The
Grand Canon of the Arkansas — Denver again — Colo
rado Central Railroad — Idaho Springs — Georgetown —
General Grant's Drive — Return to the Line of the
Union Pacific.
Pueblo was the first place of more than ephemeral existence
we had entered. It claims an antiquity of a far greater boast
than the two decades which are the longest measure of modern
settlements. It was a Mexican town, as its name indicates. When our
countrymen obtained possession of the unknown regions ceded
by the treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, the pioneers found on this
spot a collection of adobe huts, a Catholic church and a pul-
peria, which are the elements of a Mexican town, as one or two
frame buildings and a billiard saloon are of an American city.
Why the name was not changed to Smithville or Brownopohs
does not appear. For once we were out of names, and Pueblo
was adopted into the family without a new christening. Its
" greasers " became free and enlightened Americans by a stroke

3o8 THE ROUND TRIP.
of a pen, as the negroes rose to that proud distinction by the
fifteenth amendment, and, like them, they have since aided in
making our laws, and assessing property-holders for taxes. Indi
ans and Chinese will come into possession of the franchise
next, if they can be calculated upon to vote for the party in
power. But Pueblo has been rescued from the hands of its original
inhabitants. The Denver and Rio Grande Railway passes
through it from the north, and the Atchison, Topeka and Santa
Fe has reached it from the east. Already it is the second town
of the State in number of inhabitants, and rivals in hope the
settlement of Colorado Springs. Here too is established the
Central Improvement Company, whose profits are invested in
ditching, grading, laying out town lots, building school-houses,
and making ready for the immense population expected to pour
into it as soon as business is lively again.
When one of these western railroads commences its travels, no
prophet can tell where it will bring up. It goes on^its mission
of civilization, comfort and wealth, stretching itself in length and
ramifying right and left until it spreads like arteries and veins
over the body of the land.
So this enterprising railroad company, hearing of coal mines
to the west, have projected and completed a branch to Canon
City, along the banks of the Arkansas. As we turned off upon
this road from Pueblo, our way through the canon was a delight
ful contrast to the uninteresting road over the plains. Passing
a few miles beyond the coal mines, which by means of this
branch are made productive for the region round about, we
arrived in the evening at Canon City, and were quartered at a
hotel which might have seemed comfortable if we had not been
spoiled by the luxury "at Manitou.

CANON CITY. 309
The bright sunlight of Colorado, where clouds and storms
are rare, displayed in the morning a pretty littie town nestied
¦under the mountains at the outiet of the Great Canon of the
Arkansas. Caiion City derives its name from this wonderful gorge in the
cliffs, and owes its prosperity to its facilities for supplying the
mines of the upper regions. Its mineral springs are not unlike
those of Manitou, soda and iron being the chief ingredients ;
and it may be safely affirmed that they are good for all imagin-
arj' diseases.
When the country is more developed, and better hotels and
lodging-houses are furnished, doubtless the advantages of Caiion
City as a health resort will commend themselves. Behind the
town the mountains rise abruptly, forbidding a further progress
of the railroad. over an insurmountable grade. But it has been
estimated that the road could be continued through the Grand
Canon, eleven arid a half miles, by being chiselled out of the
rocks, at a cost a little short of $100,000 per mile.
The cost scarcely enters into consideration in view of the
recent developments in Leadville, which almost justify the wildest
dreams of the exuberant Major McAllister. Leadville is now
the great objective point to which all the Colorado railroads
are extending, each eager for its share of the prey. The
Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe, having leased the Canon City
branch of the Denver and Rio Grande road, are actually carry
ing it in through the pass, presently to be described.
In treating of Colorado, I realize the truth of a remark made
by a friend who has just returned. " If one undertakes to show
the exact situations of things there, he must print his sketches
on the day they are written." A year ago we would have
said that seven or eight million dollars would be its annual

310 , THE ROUND TRIP.
yield of silver and gold. As these pages are going to press,
we have from a reliable source the following estimate of its
prosperity. " During the last few days estimates have been shown, made by
old miners, of the gold and silver product of Colorado for 1879.
The lowest is about as follows : —
Leadville and Ten Mile  jSi2,ooo,ooo
Silver Cliff, Rosita, &c  5,000,000
Gilpin County  4,000,000
Clear Creek County  4,500,000
San Juan County  1,000,000
Park, Summit, and Boulder  1,500,000
Total  $28,000,000
" This would be more than three times the yield of any pre
vious year. But so good an authority as Senator Chaffee is of
the opinion that the output at Leadville alone, from the time that
a railroad gets there, will reach $3,000,000 a month. Whatever
the results of this year's mining shall be, depends more upon the
milling and transportation facihties than any thing else. It is
agreed upon all sides that the ease with which the carbonates are
mined, and the wonderfully rich manner in which they are show
ing up, make it no exaggeration to expect a bullion output of all
the way from $20,000,000 to $40,000,000 from Colorado this
year." We took a wagon to ascend by a zig-zag" road to the top of
the mountains, through "which the Arkansas pours its waters
from the plains nearly twelve miles above. To reach this emi
nence, whence the best view is obtained, is a labor lightened by
varying glimpses of distant snow-capped mountains and passages
through the natural parks with which the country abounds.
These are the abodes of elk and deer in abundance, although
the enterprising rancheros are encroa'ching on the wild domain

THE GRAND CAAON. ,11
for their own cattie and sheep. The side-hills abound in timber,
and the levels are covered with luxuriant grass in summer, turn
ing to standing hay in the winter, thus offering abundant pas
turage all the year.
We made the ten miles in a littie more than three hours, and
came to the summit table-land. Between us and the plain beyond
was a yawning chasm, of such fearful and precipitous depth that
we were brought to a sudden stand, from which we stared into
the gulf below, appalled at its immensity. To look down perpen
dicularly two thousand five hundred feet, was something to make
the brain whirl with dizziness.
The Arkansas, no insignificant river as we found it when
crossing it, threaded its way along like a narrow ribbon dropped
from these serial heights, and the tall trees, as the glass revealed
them to be, swept down by the current and piled here and there
on the rocks, were to our unaided vision like handspikes or
walking-sticks. We rolled some of the largest rocks that all our
appliances could bring to the edge of the cliff into the river.
When they reached the water they dropped noiselessly as fine
shot into a basin ; all things, and we ourselves more than all,
lessening to nothing in our august surroundings.
We strayed from one point of observation to another for miles
along the cliffs, catching the sunlight touches and the dark
shadows onthe winding walls of this wonderful gorge, and tracing
the stream in its tortuous course, sometimes black as night and
again glistening like a silver streak in the sunshine. There are
photographs of the Grand Caiion of the Arkansas that may be
purchased, but the photographs of art cannot overcome its per
verse propensity to cheat in proportions. The photograph of
the memory is distinct, clear and indelible, and such will ever be-
our recollection of this stupendous scene.

312 THE ROUND TRIP.
From Pueblo, the point of return on the route north to
Denver, the railroad continues southerly through Trinidad, to
which place the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe have extended
their road from La Junta, proposing to go on toward the Rio
Grande, looking, like it, for a terminus on the Pacific. The
resources upon which it depends are the pastoral and farming
lands of the new country, and the business that increasing immi
gration will bring.
These references to various railroad ramifications may perplex
the tourist, but wherever he goes in Colorado he will soon find
some railroad on which he can travel in any direction and
for any distance.
First impressions Of Denver were not favorable, for they were
of dust in the air, dust on the floors, dust everywhere. Scarcely
were they blown away when our second impressions were given
in snow. Not a good healthy snow storm, such as in Vermont
gives promise of the music of sleigh bells and warm comfort
under buffalo robes ; but each flake brought with it a drop of
water, and when they reached the ground they carpeted the
streets and sidewalks with gray slushy mud, unpleasant to look
at, and unhealthy to wade through. Yet Denver is the winter
resort of invalids. It was the middle of November, and they were
pouring in from the springs and ranches where they had passed
the summer and autumn. Hotels and boarding-houses were full
of them. Ghost-like they glided through the corridors and
shivered in the parlors and at the dining tables. Waiters vpere
seen on the staircases carrying meals to the rooms of those who
would never leave them again, and the direful echos of hollow
coughs resounded through the halls. On sunny days, pale men
, and women crept out upon the balconies, or were propped by
^tender hands in pillowed easy chairs to bask in the warm light.

COLORADO CENTRAL RAILROAD. 313
Just then the slaughter-house cure was a favorite treatment at
Denver. Every day the death of oxen and cows was anticipated
as renewed life to men and women. When the doors of the
slaughter-houses were opened, a throng rushed in ready to catch
the ebbing life of the doomed animals. As the warm red current
gushes forth, glasses were held to be filled from the stream by
people who stood around like the habitues of Congress Spring,
to have their tumblers replenished. The blood of beasts is thus
better utilized than in ancient sacrifices, if indeed its virtue is not
imaginary. The Colorado Central was the first railroad to radiate from
Denver after the Kansas Pacific had reached it from the east,
and assured the development of the territory. To the Ames
family of Boston belongs the inception of this undertaking, as to
one of them, whose meritorious enterprise will be remembered
after the unjust obloquy which has been attached to his name
shall have passed away, may be attributed the most efficient pro
motion of the Great Uniori Pacific.
The Messrs. Ames carried their broad gauge track as far
as it was feasible, to Golden City, and then as the only means of
reaching the mineral district through Clear Creek Caiion, adopted
the narrow gauge,^ which has since come into general use in the
west. It was .an imperative necessity, for it must pass over a
grade of one hundred and twenty-five feet, and for a short dis
tance of even two hundred and seventy-three feet to the mile.
Moreover, it has been found that in point of cost and in the
expense of working, only about one-half the outlay is required by
the new system. No one can pass over its line without admiring
the engineering skill of its construction, surmounting obstacles
that many incredulous minds considered impossibilities.
The credit of this stupendous work is due to Mr. T. E. Sickels

314 THE ROUND TRIP.
whose name ought to be identified with the enterprise carried
through by his resolute skill.
It has already reached the apparently insurmountable barrier
of the " Snowy Range," the eastern slope of the Rocky Mountains.
We left Denver in a driving snow storm, scarcely an object
of interest visible from the windows of the railway carriage, and
arriving at Golden, were transferred to the narrow gauge. As
we passed upward through the narrow and precipitous canon,
the clouds broke and displayed a scene of wonders. The
bare rocks stood out in bold relief from the sparkling snow, and
the pines in their fleecy dress of winter were more than ever
beautiful. Turning and twisting through rocks and ice-clad
defiles for eighteen miles, we thought of the great power that had
riven the cliffs asunder with only more admiration than we ac
corded to the daring engineers, who, lowered in ropes from the
crags overhead, first surveyed the route, and ventured with their
human skill to combat the forces of nature.
This caiion, twenty-five years since bordering smoothly the
side of its stream, has been, for its fifty miles of length, picked
and turned over to the bed rock and sifted for the precious
deposits, until it is as rough as the overhanging crags. Along
the railroad line are to be seen conduits, sluices and winches,
used in the process of placer mining, or abandoned when they
have served their purposes. A few miners of the ancient per
suasion still pursue their labors, although the best pockets have
been cleaned out, and the chances of nuggets are so small that
average daily earnings are scarcely more than the miner's sup
port. The great crowd have left the exhausted placers for the
mountains, where, underthe organized system of capitalists or
corporations, there is either great wealth to be gained or dis
astrous failure to be experienced.

GEORGETOWN ^ic
The poor man, instead of working for himself is a day-
laborer for hire, and the rich man becomes either a millionaire
or a bankrupt. This is the tendency of all business at the
present day as conducted by " soulless corporations," and yet
corporations have done a good work for the country. Without
them railroads and telegraph lines could not have been built, and
progress would have come to a stand-still.
A corporation might do something for Idaho Springs. It
began its career as a mining camp, and now aspires to be a
watering-place and sanitarium, like Manitou.
Here is also a fine climate, unusual seasons excepted. It is
in the midst of romantic niountain scenery, 7,400 feet above the
sea level. Its mineral springs, hot and cold, of iron and soda,
are said to be wonderfully efficacious. It is of easy access, only
thirty-six miles or three hours from Denver, but there is no
" Improvement Company " to spend money in making it attrac
tive. No pretty temples are built over its springs, which resemble
unreclaimed cesspools. No shady walks with arbors of trained
clematis are laid out, and there is no order or beauty in the
buildings that straggle about in the uniformity of ugliness, still
preserving the wretched characteristics of a mining camp.
Georgetown, fourteen miles beyond Idaho Springs, is the
terminus of this branch of the Colorado Central.
In 1866 it was a mere " camp " in the first year of its exist
ence, and the total value of its productions was only $500. It
is now forced up against the abrupt precipices of the Rocky
Mountains, the human current having flowed upwards to a level
of 8,400 feet, and there spread itself into the streets of a city.
Its people may well be proud of their enterprise and wealth.
Before them they have bright anticipations reflected from the
tons of solid orgHnexhaustible in the mountains around them.

3i6 THE ROUND TRIP.
Already they have churches of every denomination. George
town has its high school, its halls for theatrical representations,
lectures and political gatherings, without which the mountain
eagles would droop and die, if they could not pick at each
other with their beaks. It has its fashionable Stewart's for
ladies, and saloons and billiard rooms for gentlemen, hotels for
genuine comfort, newspapers, libraries and museums for general
entertainment, in fact, all that can make happy this little secluded
world. In wintry weather we could not visit with advantage the sur
roundings of Georgetown. Above it is " Green Lake," a favorite
resort in summer, and then clear and transparent down to its
emerald depths. The " Devil's Gate," the " Bridal Veil," and
other resorts of fantastic names are in the list of show places,
and beyond all rises the lofty summit of Gray's Peak, in summer
as well as winter wrapped in perpetual snow. Even had it been
practicable to climb to its top, we would have been satisfied with
our ascent to Pike's Peak, of equal height, as adventure enough for
one summer. Warned by the portentous snow clouds wreathing
the mountains and creeping towards the caiion, we hastened
back to Idaho Springs, where, sorely against inclination, we were
blocked up by storms for nearly a week.
Central City is situated on the branch of Clear Creek, from
which we diverged in ascending the railway. A ridge of the
mountains known as " the divide " separates it from Idaho, six
miles away. The summit of the pass is about equi-distant from
the two towns, and the route between them, an equal transit up
and down hill with an elevation of one thousand feet to be over
come, must be through Virginia Caiion on the Idaho side, and by
Russel's Gulch from Central City. In many places the road is

GENERAL GRANT'S DRIVE. 317
very steep and cut around sharp turns. It was on this moun
tain that Gen. Grant took his memorable drive.
" You see," said Opdyke, " this was how it was. I've been
twitted about it because I'm a democrat, and folks said I wanted
to kill him on that account — just as if I wanted to kill myself
too ! I hain't got enough political principle for that. It was
all a mistake about our getting down so quick. After we got a
little over the divide, and I was puttin' on 'em along tol'ble fast,
the president says he, ' Bill, how long will it be before we get
down ? '
" ' About twenty minutes, or it may be twenty-five,' says I.
" 'Couldn't you make it twice as much? ' says he.
" Now I understood him ' twice as quick,' and accordln' I slung
out the silk to please him. Well, they did lick it, that's a fact !
Why, sir, we come around some of the curves with both side
wheels in the air for forty rods at a time, so that a fellow who
come along a spell behind us said I drove down in a wheel-barrow.
" The general, he gripped on to the bars and clinched his
teeth, and actooally bit his cigar in two, so it dropped out of his
mouth, but he didn't say nothin' till I reined up at Beebe's just
ten minutes from the time he spoke first, and them six horses
stood smoking like six high pressure ingines. When we got off
onto the stoop, the president drawed back, and showing his ha'r
says he, ' Mr. William Opdyke, take my hat, you're the only man
that ever scared me ! ' "
It was not in the power of Opdyke to frighten us with this
style of driving, for the journey over the mountain from Idaho
Springs to Central City was the work of a whole day. The snow
had fallen to the depth of two feet, and in some places much
more. As we toiled up the ascent with frequent stops that
almost amounted to an habitual stand-still, we had abundant

3l8 THE ROUND TRIP.
leisure to admire the charms of the wintry landscape, but the
poetry of " Beautiful Snow " was not inspiring enough to over
come the weariness of slow progress, the biting nips of the frost,
and the sweeps of the fierce nor'-wester that whirled its white
wreaths around us.
As we came down the slope towards Central City there was
no display of coach driving calculated to alarm timid outsiders,
but the jaded beasts, urged on by an unsparing lash, barely suc
ceeded in staggering to the door of the Teller House, the
principal hotel of the place, and considering its first-class pre
tensions, realized only in its high prices, the most cheerless and
uncomfortable house of entertainment we had yet seen in
Colorado. Central City was almost totally destroyed by fire a few years
ago. It is now rebuilt and ready for another similar experience.
Here where gold has been scooped up by the handfuls no use
is made of it to make life comfortable or any thing more than
endurable. The town is one vast mining gulch, with shapeless
houses dumped here and there among the excavations, and cling
ing to the side hills.
Black Hawk, where the reduction works are chiefly in oper
ation, so closely connected with Central City that it may be
considered a part of the town, is at the terminus of the western
fork of the railroad.
Silver is the great product of the East Creek Caiion. On
this side of the ridge the m.ineral chiefly produced is gold. We
were escorted by a guide for more than a mile under the^
mountains through the tunnel of the Bob-tail works, turning off at
different points to inspect side galleries, steam engines and little
colonies of people busy in the subterranean darkness, by the dim
illumination of tallow candles.

RETURN TO THE UNION PACIFIC. 319
It was Sunday, the day on which in quiet towns there is a
hallowed rest from labor, the stillness of th^e air only broken by
the music of church bells, and godliness and cleanliness sit down
together for one-seventh of the week in peace. There is hap
piness without gold. Here is gold without happiness. Ever
toiling, day and night, week-days and Sabbaths, in darkness,
begrimed with dirt, amidst the clatter of machinery, under the
drippings of shafts and tunnels, the pale-faced miner works for
the yellow dust that blinds his eyes to the sweet enjoyment
of life. We descended the western branch of the railroad until we
came \o the point from which we had diverged on the upward
track to Georgetown, and then through Clear Creek Caiion came
out at the foot of the narrow gauge road in Golden City. This
little place may be said to live from the gold and silver washes
of the upper caiions, having its refineries and works for reducing
both metals.
At Golden we come again to the broad gauge track, by which
a direct connection is made with the Union Pacific five miles
west of Cheyenne, distance iig miles. One may return, if de
sirable, from Golden to Denver, 17 miles, and thence take the
Kansas Pacific for the east.
From a more southern part of the State, the Atchison, Topeka
and Santa Fe form a straight line to St. Louis.

32 0 THE ROUND TRIP

CHAPTER XXXV.
Cheyenne — Projected Railroad to the Black Hills —
The Great Cattle Range — Life of the Ranchman —
Suggestions to Young Men — Nebraska — Omaha — The
Bridge Across the Missouri — Railroads to Chicago —
The Chicago and North-West — A Dinner in the
Hotel-Car — Contrast of Mining and Agriculture —
Conclusion.
Various points on the Union Pacific afford communication
with the Black Hills, north of its line, in Dakota.
The measured distance from some of these places may be
less than from Cheyenne, but after careful surveys for grade
this has been found most suitable for the starting-point of a
branch railroad. Moreover, the selection has been influenced
by the connection here with Colorado. Accordingly, the con
struction of a narrow gauge has been determined to Deadwood,
the chief mining camp of the Black Hills, this summer, the
whole distance to be not far from two hundred miles.
The ore of the Black Hills, although of low grade, is abun
dant, and gold mining has been very profitable, notwithstanding

LIFE OF THE RANCHMAN. 321
the disadvantages of transportation. The " Homestake " and
other mines -have put up their machinery at excessive cost, and
yet are able to declare large dividends upon their stock. As
soori as the railroad reaches Deadwood, or by the time it has
made any considerable advance, such a stimulus will be given to
mining and the business connected with it, that the enterprise
cannot fail to be successful.' Already Cheyenne derives no
small profit from this trade.
Before the gold discoveries, it was a large town centred in
the best cattle district of the West. Whatever the success oi
miners, whether there may be exhaustion or new discoveries of
mines, ranchmen will never be poor and cattle will multiply
beyond calculation. These vast plains, watered by the Platte
river and its branches, in summer covered with luxuriant grass
converted to rich standing hay in winter, are capable of sustain
ing cattle, sheep and horses in numbers that I will not estimate
for fear of being accused of exaggeration.
The life of a ranchman — at least of some ranchmen — doubt
less has its hardships. Before undertaking it, a man should
make his calculations. A trial balance should suggest itself to
his mind. Ranch life is debtor to a total change of habits, to the
loss of " society," theatres, lectures, clubs and churches, besides
many bodily comforts and table luxuries. It is creditor by profit
able business, out of door exercise, the society of nature in
stead of fellow-creatures, and above all, by health of body and
of mind. With this account before his eyes, let a would-be
ranchman sit down, calmly reflect and decide. Were I a young
man looking about for a business in life, I should draw a balance
in favor of Laramie plains.
It may be asked, "Would you take a wife to live with you on
a ranch ? " 21

322 THE ROUND TRIP.
Certainly I would not take the Miss Culture introduced in
the early part of this narrative ; I would not take there a woman
who is merely a fine lady, but I would take a lady whb is a
true woman.
This is not poetry ; it is not the sentimentality of "love in a
cottage ; " it is practical. It is not the whole solution of prob
lems of financial depression, over-production, unequal divisions
of property, vice and miser}-, but it is a skirmisher upon the
flanks of those evils.
Ranch life is a return to first principles of living to patri
archal simplicity. When we talk of " sitting down in heaven
with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob," let us begin by sitting down
after their example on earth.
But young men must not be led to suppose that cattle raising
is an invariable success. Even to those who thoroughly under
stand the business, there come years of failure, occasional severe
winters, distemper among the herds, Indian raids, thefts b)' white
men, dull markets, and many other discouragements.
Experience is more necessary than is generally supposed.
Don't imagine that you may lay aside your walking cane, quit
the Fifth avenue promenade, jump out of your faultless clothes,
rig yourself out in blue woollen shirt and buckskin trousers, take
the train for Laramie plains, buy a herd of cattle, mount a mus
tang and be an accomplished ranchman in a week.
You would be bucked from your horse in less than three
minutes ; you would lose your cattle in the first year by theft and
your own ignorance, and then you would come home disgusted.
Abandon the city and all your old conventional habits. Go
west to seek employment from some man who has been success
ful in the business. Get what wages you can for one or two
years ; work for nothing if you can get no pay, and if no one

OMAHA. 323
will employ you on these terms, pay for the privilege of working.
Your father has probably paid ten times more for your useless
Latin and Greek than it will now cost you to get the practical
information you require. Remember that no log cabin is so rude
that it cannot contain a library, and reading is never so well
digested as when it is an accompaniment of work.
We are at Cheyenne, six thousand feet above the sea level,
five hundred and sixteen miles west of Omaha, towards which we
gradually descend over this great cattle range to the lower plains
of Nebraska. Here are the rich farming lands owned by Government and
the Union Pacific railroad in alternate sections. They are fast
coming under cultivation, so that in five years from this time there
will scarcely be an unfilled acre on the line of the road through
the whole State.
" Oumahaw," on the west bank of the "Mizourah," as town
and river are called in the vernacular, was once the capital and
is still the most prosperous city of Nebraska.
Although it does not correspond with our Eastern ideas of
municipal grandeur, it is a very respectable town of 20,000 in
habitants, well provided with saloons, churches and schools, of
which the High School, set on its chief eminence as a proud
monument to be seen by all travellers, boasts facilities for
" giving a fellow all the learning worth having."
Wiser than the Knickerbockers, who did not foresee that the
avenue they called Broadway would be in the future too narrow
for traffic, the people of Omaha have laid out all their streets
one hundred feet wide, so that when the day comes for rapid
transit, they will not be blocked up by omnibuses while the
question is debated.
That eccentric gentleman, George Francis Train, who has

324 THE ROUND TRIP.
cultivated many grains of sense with all his wild tares, had much
to do with the development of Omaha. He fully appreciated its
natural advantages, and earnestly advocated the construction of
the Union Pacific Railroad which starts from this point.
This great work was begun in the latter part of 1865. It was
then Train made the prophecy that it it would be completed
in less than five years. He was called a crazy enthusiast for this
speech, as well as for many other sayings and doings for which
he merited the name. But when the road was actually com
pleted in a little more than three years and a half, no one gave
him the credit his prediction deserved. Train invested all his
money in Omaha lands, but taxes and financial panics have been
too much for him to bear while he had also on his hands the
liberation of Ireland, the prospective Presidency of the United
States, and the conversion of all mankind to his own skeptical
philosophy. The" Union Pacific Railroad may well be proud of the great
bridge that spans the river here.
A steamboat captain on the train, however, remarked that
" the durned river ain't to be trusted ; the channel changes so
often that the bend that's here to-day may be ten mile off in a
year or two, and then what's the good of this bridge ? " He was
opposed to railroads, as they had injured his business, and so he
trumped up this charge against the river that refuses to sup
port him any longer.
I suggested that, in case his anticipations were realized, the
bridge could be removed to suit the convenience of the Missouri,
to which he replied that "it might not fit." " Anyway," he said,
" railroads are a perversion of nature ; the Lord made rivers to
raft and steamboat on, and if they ain't enough men could make
canals, and He'd find water for 'em. He never meant that

A DINNER IN IHE HOTEL-CAR. 325
these corporations should take away the business of honest
men." After crossing the bridge there is a choice of three railroads
from Council Bluffs to Chicago — the Chicago and North-West,
the Rock Island and the Burlington and Quincy roads. They
run on nearly parallel lines at sufficient distance apart to de
velop the resources of Iowa and Illinois, States excelled by
none of the Union in soil adapted to wheat and corn.
These roads are all singularly profitable notwithstanding
their close competition. Their trains leave at the same time and
arrive in Chicago together to form a connection with the Lake
Shore Railroad to Buffalo. Without disparaging the others on
which we have sometimes travelled, we cannot too highly praise
the management of the Chicago and North-West.
Rolling along upon its smooth track we reach Chicago in
twenty-two hours. Not the least of our enjoyments is the
luxurious hotel-car. We dispense at last with the lunch-basket
which has been the stay of life along the line from San Francisco
to Omaha. The Government directors who annually travel over the
Pacific roads, do them no more than justice in reporting that
they are well built, kept in excellent repair, and intelligently
managed. Yet the public has one favor to ask of them. Let
them come without notice upon the sharks who furnish meals
for other passengers along the route, and let them breakfast,
dine and sup as ordinary mortals do for five days.
Passengers pay their dollars not complaining that ninety per
cent, is the landlord's profit, but they find fault with reason be
cause they cannot get decent and digestible food at any price.
Hasty perpendicular feeding is in a great measure the cause
of what Germans call " the American complaint," dyspepsia.

326 THE ROUND TRIP.
I am not partial to the Continental cooking — to sauerkraut,
sausages, raw ham, caviare, lager beer and sour wine, but I do
commend the practice of their railroads in permitting passengers
.to sit down at well served tables in well ordered restaurants,
where even incongruous articles may be placed in the stomach at
such considerate distances that they are comparatively harmless.
What a change from the " twenty minutes for dinner ! " when
we were obliged to leave our rolling homes, often crossing over
mud and snow to cheerless barracks where supercilious waiters
dashed upon the table cold and repelling dishes of tough steak,
floating baton, pies and baked beans, and cups of coffee and
tea, the steeped productions of hom^ industry ; and then to
listen as we bolted the indigestible mass for the expected scream
of the whistle. Now, the polite negro, yes, I will call him the
colored man, if he pleases, and in the joy of the moment, my
colored brother, politely hands us a bill-of-fare at which
Delmonico need not sneer, lays a spotless cloth, and sets upon
it warm plates, silver ware, goblets ahd wine glasses. Then
follow in their regular order soup, fish, entries, tender meats with
succulent vegetables, dessert of ice cream and fruit ending with
the best gift of Araby the blest, while sherry and champagne
have moistened the abundant and comfortable repast.
All these roads make an uninterrupted progress through
cultivated farms, and the green fields, or the harvest ripe and
bending to the breeze, are in lovely contrast with the sterile
mountains and plains of the uncultivated territories.
Happy farmers I we often exclaimed, as we saw them gath
ering in their golden treasures.
Poor devils ! too, we sometimes called them when in one
night the grasshoppers blasted their labor of a year, swept their
green fields and left them desolated as by fire.

CONTRAST OF MINING AND A GRICUL TURE. 327
I have in my mind an indelible picture of an Iowa farmer
leaning over his fence and surveying his stripped corn stalks,
with an expression on his face of resignation, though a shade of
it mingled with the query, " Is this the work of Providence or
of the devil ? " If the train had stopped long enough I would
have tried to console him. I would have said, "My friend, we
must all take our chances ; mines peter out, cattle starve on the
plains, ships are wrecked, merchants fail, tradesmen are un
employed j all these things happen, but they do not happen all
the time, and it is equally true that the grasshopper does not
always come in his might, and that he does not always come to
the same place."
So, sons of the soil, take courage in the reflection that hap
piness and misery are mingled through the world, but the distri
bution of happiness is greater for you than for any of the rest
When you dream of rich deposits of gold and silver, imagining
you may find them and help yourselves to unlimited stores like
Aladdin or Monte Cristo, remember the comparison made by
Governor Stanford, of the mining and agricultural industries of
California, and see now how it has been justified by results up
to the close of 1878. Take the mining interest in which I in
clude Nevada, as the stocks of all the mines are quoted on the
San Francisco Exchange. The total amount of dividends from
California and Consolidated Virginia, the two great " Bonanzas,"
from the time of their first working has been —
$71,180,000
Less assessments  411,200

$70,768,800

showing this net profit, nearly all of which was pocketed by four.
men. Flood, O'Brien, Mackay and Fair.

328 THE ROUND TRIP.
Per contra, the whole amount of assessments on the other
178 mines quoted on the list, has been —
Less dividends  45,039,500

Loss  126,213,540
To this may be added the commissions and charges of
brokers which, at a moderate estimate for all these years, may be
computed to be $50,000,000.
If the stock list may be taken as a criterion it would appear
that the whole people have lost more than a few men have
gained. On the other hand, it is to be admitted that the labor
ing miners have gained a living, and that there are many other
mines productive and unproductive not on the stock list where
profits and losses cannot be estimated from rehable data.
My object was to make a comparison of the mining and
agricultural resources of California, which should properly ap
pear in a previous chapter. I had hoped to obtain the agricul
tural statistics of 1878, but as they are not yet forthcoming, I
here introduce some figures kindly furnished for my purpose by
Mr. Elmore H. Walker, of the New York Produce Exchange.
It may be premised that the year 1877 was one of extraordinary
drought. The cereal crops of California in 1877 were —

Indian Corn . 1,550,000

bushels of the value of

$ 1,472,500

"Wheat . . . 22,000,000

If a

u

28,600,000

Oats .... 1,750,000

(c ff

t(

1,277,500

Barley . . . 7,800,000

(f tt

It

7,020,000

Potatoes . . . 3,200,000

ti II

((

2,400,000

Hay .... 560,000

tons "
y and potatoes

K

8,400,000

Total value cereals, ha

$49,170,000

CONTRAST OF MINING AND AGRICULTURE.

329

In 1876 the California crops were as follows : —

Indian Corn

. 1,600,000 bush

"Wheat .

. 30,000,000 "

Rye . .

78,000 "

Oats . .

. 2,450,000 "

Barley .

. 11,800,000 "

Pota,toes . .

. 4,000,000 "

Hay . . .

850,000 tons

Total value cereals, potatoes and hay

34,200,000 74,100
1,813,000
8,142,000 3,320,0009,868,500
159,129,600

The wheat crop of California in 1878 was about as large as
the crop of 1876, and is much larger than the crop of 1877. The
barley crop of that State in 1878, was, it is bfelieved, larger than
the crop of 1876. Can any one doubt that the interest of Cali
fornia will be promoted by the encouragement of this more reg
ular permanent and widely diffused industry, rather than by
the development of mining, the source of speculation and
gambling ?
And now as we come so near the end of our journey among
the farmers of the " Old West," the reports of their productions
find an appropriate place following those of California.
Cereal Crops of Nebraska.

Bushels.

Acres.

Value.

Indian Corn 
"Wheat 
Rve 

38,500,000 5,640,000
5,400,000 520,000
1,500,000 475,000

1,013,158 376,000 I'is.ooo 21,667 14,286
327,586

$6,930,000 4,^1,200

Oats 
Barley 
Buckwheat 
Potatoes 
Hay, tons" 

810,000 140,400
600,000
1.733.750

Total 

1,887.697

114,885,350

33°

THE ROUND TRIP.
Cereal Crops of Iowa.

Bushels.

Acres.

Value.

Indian Corn 
"Wheat 
Rye 
Oats 

156,000,000 37,810,00042,000,000 5,300,000
9,500,000 2,550,000

4,800,000 ¦
2,607,584 1,105,263 230.43s 95,000
1,961,568

j539,ooo,ooo 32,894,700 8,400,000

Barley 
Buckwheat 
Potatoes 
Hay, tons 

2,120,000
3,610,000
12,112,500

Total 

10,799,820

^98, 1 37,200

Cereal

Crops of Illinois.

Bushels.
Acres.
Value.
"Wheat 
Rye 
Oats 
Barley 
Buckwheat 
Potatoes 
Hay, tons 
260,000,000 33,000,000 2,844,000
59,200,000 2,760,000 176,000
12,834,009 3,936,000
8,865,517 2,000,090 1 58,000
1,600,000 120,000 11,000
138,000
2,466,006
75,400,00034,320,000 1,422,000
13,024,000 2,152,800 128,480
5,046,960
23,104.320
Total 
15,452,517
1155,198,560
The products of three great States whose industries are
chiefiy agricultural for one year amount to a value of $268,231,-
110. This has not been divided among a few men ; its profits
have been evenly distributed, and the aggregate loss falls upon
none. Farmers, stick to your ploughs and thank God that you
have inherited the curse upon Adam I
Arriving at Chicago we are so near to our homes that my
readers will not care to be piloted over the well-known tracks
that lead to the Atlantic coast. If they have been entertained I
shall be pleased, and it will be a greater source of satisfaction
if they have in any degree been instructed.
CONCL USION. 33 1
We have travelled together over seas and mountains, beheld
nature in her beauty and sublimity, and I hope that more prac
tical observations have shown that, as a nation, we owe our
wealth, number and power to what we produce, and are able by
a great railroad system to transport from our rich and boundless
acres. Manufactures and commerce, shackled as they are by
tariff legislation, are small and of little account in comparison
to this. Even agriculture feels the pressure of the burden im
posed upon it by a monopoly that enhances the cost of the
farmer's tools and household wants.
But notwithstanding all, with its natural advantages, it
overcomes every obstacle that opposes its progress. With new
and increasing appliances of machinery, guided by intelligent
labor, it outrivals the old-world systems of tillage and harvesting,
and insures us a lasting peace with the nations of Europe, for
it brings them to our feet as suppliants for their daily bread.

PUBLICATIONS OF G, P. PUTNAM'S SONS.
CONSTANTINOPLE. By Edmundo de Amicis, author of **A Journey
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Octavo, cloth.
A trustworthy and exceptionally vivid description of the city which, in the present
reopening of the Eastern question, is attracting more attention than any other in the
world. De Amicis Is one of the strongest and most brilliant of the present generation of
Italian writers, and this latest work from his pen, as well from the picturesqueness of its
descriptions as for its skilful analysis of the traits and characteristics of the medley of
races represented in the Turkish capital, possesses an exceptional interest and value.
THE GREEKS OF TO-EAY. By Hon. Charles K. Tuckerman,
late Minister Resident of the U. S. at Athens. Third Edition. i2mo,
cloth,  $1.50
This work attracted special attention at the time of its publication, in 1872, as giving
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and 1B53. By Alexander D. Anderson. 8vo, cloth, with Hypso
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•' The book will unquestionably become the authority on the subject 0! which it
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VI. Recollections of a Tour Hade in Scotland in 1803.
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*' The volume glistens with charming passages, showing how rich in ' Words-
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Or, II volumes, neatly put up in box, . . . . 16 50
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RECENT BOOKS OF TRAVEL
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The Great Fur Land ; or Sketches of Life in the
Hudson's Bay Territory. By H. M. Robinson^ Second
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Roman Days. By Viktor Rydberg, authcr of ' The
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with a Biographical Sketch of the Author, by Dr. H. A. W.
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Studies of Paris. By Edmondo de Amicis, author of
"Constantinople," "Morocco," " Holland," etc.
i6mo, cloth, f I 25.
" A marvel of intense, rapid, graphic and poetic description, by one of
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G- T. Putnam's Sons. 182 Fifth Ave., New York.

PUBLICATIONS OF G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS.
A "NEW BOOK BY THE AUTHOR OF "CONSTANTINOPLE."
HOLLAND AND ITS PEOPLE. By Edmundo de Amicis, author
of " Constantinople," " Studies of Paris," " Morocco," " Spain," etc.
Octavo. With 1 8 full-page plates  $2 00
In this volume of which editions are appearing at once in Florence, Paris,
London and New York, the brilliant author of " Paris " and " Constantisiogle " has
turned his steps to a land abounding in picturesque effects and whose history is full of
dramatic interest, and his vivid descriptions of the Hollanders and their homes show
that his pen has lost none of its eloquence or delicacy of touch. His analysis of the
traits and characteristics of this sturdy race, which has played so important a part in
the history of Europe, is most interesting and valuable.
" In descriptive passag^es, Signer Amicis is at home, A wealth of imagery
flows from his pen and lightens the pages into prose poems. He has a quiet humor of

a Barneveld, and a Rembrandt." — Boston Traveller.
" Edmundo de Amicis has transformed the land of dykes into a land of beauty*
of wonder, and of enchantment. He has written, in a word, a book in every sense
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" It is only simple justice to say that a more delightful volume of travels
hardly may be found." — Philadelphia Times,
" His sparkling, graphic book is a thoroughly charming one, to which we give
the most unaffected praise." — Louisville Courier-lournal,
BY THE SAME AUTHOR.
CONSTANTINOPLE. 8vo, cloth,  Ji 50
De Amicis is one of the strongest and most brilliant of the present generation
of Italian writers, and this latest work from his pen, as well from the picturesqueness
of its descriptions as for its skilful analysis of the traits and characteristics of th» med
ley of races represented in the Turkish capital, possesses an exceptional interest and
value. " The most picturesque and entertaining volume contained in the recent litera
ture on the Eastern question." — Boston Journal.
" A remarkable work * » * the author is a poet, an artist, a wonder
worker in words * * * his descriptions are given with rare skill." — N.Y. Evening
Post. STUDIES OF PARIS. By Kdmundo de Amicis, author of "Con
stantinople," " Morocco," "Holland," etc. i2mo, cloth extra, $1 25
A series of wonderfully vivid and dramatic pictures of the great world's me
tropolis, by a writer whose previous books have gained a reputation for exceptional
clearness of perception and facilit;- in description. There is hardly a writer who can
rival him in his power of reproducing for his readers the very atmosphere of the place
he describes. These " Studies " include original and characteristic papers on the two
authors whom he considers especially representative of the Paris of to-day— Hugo and
Zola. " Poet in prose, painter in phrases, subtle musician in the harmonies of lan
guage, de Amicis has comprehended the manifold amazement, the potent charm of
Pans as no writer before him has done." — Portland Press,
" A marvel of intense, rapid, graphic and poetic description, by one of the most
brilliant of modern Italian writers. The chapters on Hugo and Zola sliow the same
power of description and analysis in dealing with mind and character."— C/ij-zi//a«
Register.

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