El 68 
 
 m 

 
 THE LIBRARY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 LOS ANGELES
 
 /vc 
 
 iff.
 
 ACROSS THE CONTINENT 
 
 AND BACK AGAIN. 
 
 BY 
 
 REV. J. H. POTTER, . 
 
 KTST'S, FLA. 
 
 CINCINNATI, O.: 
 Klin Street Printing Co., Nos. 17(1 and 17H Klin St. 
 
 l.v.t::.
 
 TO THE READER. 
 
 The publication of these letters in The Presbyterian 
 Banner was at the earnest request of friends. It has been 
 gratifying to learn from many sources that they have been 
 read with interest; and they now appear in this form at 
 the solicitation of those who wish them preserved in more 
 permanent form. They grew from items picked up, and 
 
 thoughts suggested, while on the wing. 
 
 J. H. P. 
 
 801833
 
 ACROSS THE CONTINENT AND BACK AGAIN. 
 
 BY REV. J. H. POTTER, OF EUS I IS, FI.A. 
 
 A trip of over nine thousand miles, across the Western 
 continent from southeast to northwest and back again, was 
 to me one of pleasure, and has left pictures of joy in the 
 gallery of memory. I shall be pleased to have my friends 
 share the enjoyment with me. 
 
 I left Eustis, Florida, 160 miles south of Jacksonville, on 
 the 29th of April, 1892, and traveled via Jacksonville and 
 Tallahassee, taking in North Florida, which is so greatly 
 different from South Florida as to be of much interest to one 
 from the land of oranges coming to this country of grain 
 and farm land, deciduous trees, and slow-going people. 
 
 NEW ORLEANS. 
 
 Through Mobile and Pensacola we came on to New Or- 
 leans. The old portion of that city presents nothing very 
 attractive except to those that enjoy studying the past in the
 
 records it has left in the narrow streets and antique architec- 
 ture of the old French quarters. I was pleased in visiting 
 the new part of this old city. Long avenues, lined on both 
 sides with stately magnolias clad in their royal robes of 
 beauty, decorated as they then were with such flowers as 
 none but the magnolia produce, gave the streets an attractive 
 appearance. The lawns and the roses in wondrous profusion 
 added greatly to the scene, and in the middle of the avenue 
 were two rows of beauteous trees, the space between being 
 covered with a green sward, on which the street railway track 
 was laid, over which our cars ran free from dust. The city, 
 taken as a whole, is perhaps not growing, but -many are re- 
 moving from the older to the newer portion of the city. The 
 city lies below the level of the great river on whose banks it 
 is located. It is called the Crescent City, as is well known, 
 from the fact of the river flowing like a crescent in great 
 pan around it till on the west it flows from* south to north. 
 The " Father of Waters" holds his rod in his hand, and oft- 
 times keeps his children living on his banks in dread. Cease- 
 less vigilance is the price of safety. It is a high-water tax 
 they are obliged to pay continually. All property is subject 
 to this necessary rent. It never can be paid off so as to own 
 the property in fee simple. Every great rise in the river de- 
 mands attention. As we left the city we saw water-lines on 
 many tenements, some^kc or seven feet from the ground, 
 where the last high- water had marked its domain.
 
 From this city we took the through train for California, 
 and glided pleasantly on in a Pullman car by sugar-cane plan- 
 tations in Louisiana. 
 
 TEXAS. 
 
 We woke up in Texas to be greeted by the far-reaching 
 prairies, beautifully green with pastures for Texas ponies and 
 cattle. Clumps of timber here and there break the monotony 
 of the picture. We now approach Houston, whose aspiring 
 steeples and massive towers proclaim it a city of taste and 
 enterprise. It brings up memories of the long ago when 
 Sam Houston figured in the early history of the State. I can 
 readily believe Rev. Daniel Baker's account of his weary 
 wanderings in his own track on these seemingly boundless 
 prairies. The world does move. Texas has made amazing pro- 
 gress since it was redeemed from Mexican thraldom, and "our 
 boys" went with musket in hand to establish our claim to this 
 beautiful land. It did seem as though " might made right," 
 and we possessed Texas, and California was taken to pay 
 the expenses of the war. Then followed '49 and the golden 
 era, and the star of empire moved west. In all these move- 
 ments the Providence is visible pointing forward. As we 
 glided on across the enchanting prairies of Texas that seem 
 practically limitless, the cattle grazing, ponies feeding, sun 
 shining, fleecy clouds floating leisurely by as chariots of God, 
 with good angels lingering to take some message to heaven,
 
 it was manifest that He who spake in parables on earth is 
 so speaking yet, illustrating great truths of his nature and 
 government. By and by we pass through the city of San 
 Antonio, said to contain some forty-five thousand inhabitants. 
 Four cities in Texas claim pre-eminence Houston, San 
 Antonio, Dallas and Galveston. They are said to be of 
 about equal size. Surely Texas has vast possibilities. In 
 extent it is an empire equal to France. Its fertile soil and 
 genial climate make it attractive. I slept, and woke up next 
 morning in Western Texas, which presents a very different 
 picture from that of Eastern and Central Texas. It abounds 
 in arid foot hills, rainless and barren, barely enough grass to 
 starve a few specimens of cattle that dared attempt to live 
 so far away. Some timid antelopes were trying to feed their 
 scant bodies on the spare tufts of grass. Shy creatures ! I 
 do not see how the Chicagoans are going to catch them to 
 grace the World's Exposition. I enjoy thinking of their 
 freedom. Properly to prize the blessings of rain, one needs 
 to visit these rainless deserts. Bless God for seasonable 
 showers! We are told that in July and August it rains so 
 heavily here as to wash out these gutters we see along our 
 track. But these desolate plains are said to be as fertile as 
 were those in California, that with irrigation are now bloom- 
 ing as the garden of God and laden with the treasures of 
 earth poured forth in response to the water of life freely sup- 
 plied. So may our waste-places abound with the fruits of 
 righteousness when supplied with the water of life everlasting.
 
 9 
 
 II. 
 
 The Southern Pacific follows a valley mid these arid hills 
 in Western Texas that seems scooped out on purpose for 
 travel and commerce. Very few human beings live on these 
 plains. At long stretches there are desolate little groups of 
 adobe dwellings with a grocery and post-office and that other 
 great apparent neccessary accompaniment of civilization, 
 "The Lone Star Saloon." Satan permits no opportunity to 
 pass unimproved. 
 
 At Valentine, 1045 miles from New Orleans, the popula- 
 tion is badly mixed, Spaniards, Frenchmen, Indians, Chinese, 
 Mexicans, negroes, and American white men, all are seen 
 as we pass by. The plains seem more barren than those al- 
 ready seen. Bones of animals lie bleaching in the sun. At 
 Sierra Blanca I asked some Mexicans a question and they 
 replied, "No say." They were as dark as many Africans. 
 I asked a lady there if they grew anything in that region. 
 She replied, "Cactus only." Our railroad describes most 
 decided lines of beauty as it curves along between these 
 barren hills. The civil engineer must have had an interesting 
 time trying to find a line for the track. 
 
 On a desolate spot on the side of a hillock was a small 
 adobe about 8xio feet, and in front was a washing hung out
 
 10 
 
 to dry, near which was a similar building placaided with 
 " Room to Let." 
 
 A most careful company surely has this railroad in charge, 
 for the track is fenced in for hundreds of miles where no quad- 
 ruped large enough to be in the way of a train can exist. 
 This is an example to other companies in lands where cattle 
 live and roam. Here is an unbroken wire fence of 630 miles 
 on both sides of the track from Sin Antonio to El Paso. When 
 shall these deserts bloom? They were not made in vain. 
 Before one hundred years have passed our population will 
 crowd out here and some means of irrigation will be found, 
 and these plains will furnish homes for American citizens. 
 Fine opportunity is here opened to develop ingenuity and en- 
 terprise. Let young America try its head and hand and gain 
 fame in blessing our country by extending the bounds of hu- 
 man habitation. Here is a village built of adobe dwellings. 
 Fort Hancock is near by. Artists may here find something 
 new with which to embellish an illustrated magazine. We 
 are coming into a hotter clime and here houses have double 
 roofs, the upper some twenty inches above the under to keep 
 off the heat of the noonday sun. As we neared El Paso we 
 gazed across the Rio Grande into the Republic of Mexico. 
 On our side the river we found irrigation and luxuriant growth 
 of wheat, alfalfa, peach trees, etc. El Paso is a typical city 
 of some ten thousand inhabitants, I was told. It has a fine 
 court-house, some good hotels, but there are many low, flat-
 
 roofed, one-storied buildings and many adobes on the out- 
 skirts; good residences in the heart of the city. 
 
 About two miles west of El Paso we crossed the Rio 
 Grande and were in New Mexico, which is desert indeed in 
 that part. Drifting sands are a prominent feature, with sparse, 
 stunted vegetation. Mountains appear in the distance. We 
 turn our watches back two hours to keep company with the 
 sun, which we have so far outrun. Here we met more Mex- 
 icans than any other nationality. This part of New Mexico 
 is not very inviting mountainous, sandy, arid. But we are 
 told the soil is very fertile and, when irrigated, produces in 
 abundance. Arizona presents the same general appearance 
 as New Mexico, with like capacity for productiveness if irri- 
 gated. Surely, the water of life would be a benediction here. 
 Traveling in this region becomes monotonous. Mountains 
 and arid plains with cactus in stately loneliness, and small 
 bunches of guyetta grass. I feel deep sympathy for those 
 who traveled over these plains before the days of railroads. 
 It is good for us that somebody lived and traveled and 
 wrought before us. As we travel in Pullman palace cars, 
 how little we know of the toil and weariness of those who 
 came on horseback or drove teams. Good men and women, 
 too, many of them were. 
 
 At Yuma, we find numerous Indians with faces painted 
 and striped, and squaws arrayed in gorgeous robes. The men 
 wear long hair, but no hats, in the hot sun. They have bows
 
 and arrows, and apples and oranges for sale. Yuma is a 
 place of fifteen hundred people. The State prison is located 
 here on the Colorado river, a strong, muddy stream, which 
 we crossed into California. The same desolate appearance is 
 presented still. Soon we pass through a valley, in some 
 places 263 feet below sea level. In one locality pure, white 
 salt lies like sand on the seashore. The railroad has a switch 
 laid into it, and men are putting it on the cars for transporta- 
 tion. It is evidently the bed of a salt sea. Some day it may 
 be a salt sea again. Desolation reigns supreme, and in sum- 
 mer it is said the heat is intense. 
 
 As we travel on, mountains grandly tower among the 
 clouds in full view, and snow banks crown the peaks, the 
 first snow I had seen for nine years. The chilly air gives us 
 a cold greeting in this land of the setting sun. I put on 
 my overcoat for the first time since leaving the sunny South. 
 The mountains are utterly treeless, bleak and uninviting, 
 many showing lava formation. They present a striking con- 
 trast to the Alleghenies in their utter want of vegetation. 
 
 At Colton we stopped off, and visited Riverside, Cali- 
 fornia. Here we found the desert literally blooming with 
 roses, and every tree beautiful to the eye, and fruits abound- 
 ing in fine luxuriance. Wealth, ingenuity, skill and taste are 
 here combined with labor and patient perseverance to render 
 this place worthy of the reputation it enjoys. But more of 
 this in a future letter. The picture now stands out, we trust, 
 from the background, and we stop to look at it.
 
 III. 
 
 We are told that the land of Riverside was as barren and 
 the scene as desolate as much of th:it to-day along the line 
 of the Southern Pacific Railroad in Western Texas and in 
 Southern California. Irrigation and cultivation have changed 
 the face of the country. Surely God put man into the gar- 
 den to dress it and keep it. Though it produce thorns and 
 thistles it may be made to bring forth much that is good. 
 There is promise of better things to come. Beyond River- 
 side lies Pomona, in a beautiful valley, verdant in grass, 
 shrubbery, fruit and ornamental trees and fields of grain. 
 Roses bloom here in wondrous profusion and beauty. The 
 mountains in this region are of great variety. Some stand 
 off in solemn grandeur, wrapped in somber robes and wear- 
 ing snowy crowns, hiding their modest faces in veils of cloud. 
 Others, not so aspiring, are content with lowly heights, rise 
 in gentle slopes, and are clad in garments of green to their 
 summits. The vales between spread out in smiling beauty 
 where living waters bless the land. 
 
 Soon we reach Los Angeles, a city of sixty thousand in- 
 habitants, beautifully located on rolling ground, its streets 
 lined with good business houses and residences, their yards 
 delightfully decorated with a profusion of roses and gerani-
 
 14 - 
 
 urns of rare beauty. Fine churches bless the city, at whose 
 altars minister faithful pastors, among whom we are glad to 
 number our excellent Brother Chichester, greatly beloved by 
 his people and consecrated to the cause of God, eminently 
 blest in his work. Rev. Fay Mills was in the midst of 
 precious meetings in that city when we were there. Surely 
 God is with him. We greatly enjoyed his presentation of the 
 good old gospel in an interesting way. 
 
 We received a royal welcome in this City of the Angels 
 by dear friends of former years. Rev. Robert Boag and his 
 estimable wife made our stay there most delightful. They 
 live in a house embowered in roses. Nothing that kindness 
 could dictate or thoughtfulness insure was left undone for our 
 enjoyment. Sweet memories hallow our visit to that delight- 
 ful city. Our friends took us out to Alhambra, a village of 
 quiet beauty joined to Passadena, where all thit money, 
 taste, irrigation, mountain scenery, soil, agriculture and time 
 can do to make a place attractive has been done, and has 
 made this locality worthy of its reputation. The view from 
 the grounds about the Raymond Hotel in Passadena deserves 
 special mention. In Alhambra we met our good brother 
 Rev. A. A. Dinsmore, who ministers to our church there. 
 Here again friends seemed to vie with each other in acts of 
 kindness and hospitality. 
 
 Leaving Los Angeles we went to San Francisco, where 
 we met the same sort of reception we had in Los Angeles,
 
 and were taken to see the places of interest in that mistress 
 of the Pacific which looks out through the Golden Gate to 
 the far away Orient till the West fades into the distant East. 
 We stood on Sutro Heights and looked out on the Pacific, 
 and thought of some dear ones who had gone out through 
 the Golden Gate to far-away lands to proclaim the gospel of 
 our Lord. We thought, too, of Sir Francis Drake sailing by 
 such a harbor as lay concealed beyond the narrow pass. Be- 
 low us lay the sluggish seals, barking and twisting their lazy 
 bodies. Then we strolled through the enchanting walks, 
 grottos and bowers of Sutro Heights, mid evergreens, statu- 
 ary and curiosities. The city park we found to be a place 
 of wondrous beauty and loveliness, where for many hours 
 one may wander admiring the combination of nature and art. 
 In quiet nooks we escaped the chilly breeze which, in exposed 
 places, detracts from the comfort of the visit. The ladies 
 wore their heavy wraps and furs, and gentlemen their over- 
 coats in May. They told us that ladies never wore light 
 dresses in San Francisco, and that in summer they went off 
 elsewhere to enjoy warm weather that indeed their win- 
 ters were milder than their summers. In Oakland, immedi- 
 ately across the bay, the temperature differs greatly from 
 that of San Francisco. We attended the First and Calvary 
 churches on Sabbath. We were told it was their time for the 
 summer exodus, which accounted for the churches not being 
 full.
 
 16 
 
 We were greatly interested in visiting the Chinese Home 
 for Girls. There were forty girls in the Home at the time. 
 They sang gospel hymns, and did wonderfully well in recit- 
 ing verses impromptu. Few of our sabbath-school children 
 would equal them in appropriate selections in like circum- 
 stances. A young Chinaman, trained in the seminary of San 
 Francisco, married one of these girls trained in this Home, 
 and he is now in charge of a Chinese church there. The 
 ladies have also a " house-to-house " female missionary. 
 There is another school for Chinese of both sexes and various 
 ages. This mission is greatly in need of a larger lot, a more 
 commodious building and a more healthy location for this 
 blessed work. Surely it is worthy of aid from good people 
 everywhere. It is a privilege to help such a work, and train 
 those who may return to bless the vast empire of China with 
 the gospel.
 
 IV. 
 
 f 
 
 San Francisco is a city of hills and cable cars, busy, bust- 
 ling and chilly, but abounds in kind people. They told us 
 their most disagreeable months were July and August, when 
 the dust flies and the fog dampens it into paste on faces and 
 clothing, when people find it convenient to take their vaca- 
 tion. 
 
 Taking the train for San Jose, we passed through a charm- 
 ingly rolling country clothed in verdure. Fifty miles to the 
 south we came to that city, in Santa Clara valley, one of 
 the most lovely I have seen. The city is one of the oldest 
 in the State, having been founded in 1777 by Spanish 
 soldiers and their families. Including the immediate suburbs, 
 it has now some twenty-eight thousand inhabitants. Forty 
 trains daily pass in and out. The city is distinguished for its 
 many handsome private residences and its costly and impos- 
 ing public buildings. For its size and importance i't is a re- 
 markably quiet, pretty place, nicely kept. It has a charming 
 park, and shade-trees everywhere; flowers on every hand, 
 rare and luxuriant. The kind pastor of one of our churches 
 there, Rev. J. W. Dinsmore, D. D., took charge of us, and 
 one afternoon drove with us some ten miles by orchards of 
 peaches, pears, almonds, cherries, plums, apples, apricots and 
 oranges, and vineyards in abundance.
 
 i8 
 
 On the next forenoon he took us over the opposite side of 
 the valley to the canon in the mountain. The valley here is 
 some seventeen miles in width. We drove perhaps fifteen 
 miles by immense orchards of the varieties we saw the day 
 before, only larger orchards; one contained three hundred 
 acres. Grain fields and fine residences gave variety to the 
 picture. From the mountain side we caught a glimpse of the 
 glory of this empire. Twenty miles southeast of the city, 
 4443 feet above sea level, Mt. Hamilton proudly lifts its 
 head. On its lofty summit the Lick Observatory is located, 
 containing the largest telescope in the world. Like a faith- 
 ful sentinel, the observatory eyes the stars in their courses, 
 and has one of the grandest outlooks in all the world over 
 the Santa Clara valley, the glinting waters of the San Fran- 
 cisco Bay, and still beyond where heaven and earth and the 
 Pacific Ocean blend. We called on that grand old man 
 whose writings we have so long enjoyed, who is known as 
 "Senex Smith," " Obadiah Old School," "Rusticus," and 
 " C. E. B." We found him genial, jovial and hopeful in one 
 of his orchards. Virgil under the spreading beech, or sur- 
 rounded by his herds, was never so happy as he. In this 
 valley of beauty and fruitfulness his fruits of goodness 
 abound, and many call him blessed. 
 
 In driving to the mountain, we had a decided optical 
 illusion. It surely looked as though we were driving on a 
 down grade of at least five degrees, and yet the horse was
 
 stretching his tugs to draw our buggy, and a stream of water 
 from the mountain was flowing in the direction opposite to 
 that we were driving. The illusion was caused by the sight 
 of the mountain we were facing. As we returned, we de- 
 scended from the mountain in appearance as in reality. 
 
 On our return towards San Francisco we stopped off and 
 visited the Leland Stanford University, and were charmingly 
 shown the substantial, extensive and conveniently arranged 
 buildings. The material is sand-stone in rustic dressing. 
 The buildings are arranged in a quadrangle of Moorish 
 architecture, generally one story in height, roofed with red 
 tiles. A continuous colonnade connect? all the buildings of 
 the main quadrangle on the inner side, and surrounds a court 
 adorned with native and exotic plants. The institution is 
 non-sectarian, but under religious control, free to both sexes. 
 As is well known, it is a monument to the only son of Sen- 
 ator and Mrs. Leland Stanford, who died in 1884. 
 
 The route on the Southern Pacific from San Francisco 
 to Portland is full of interest. Mt. Chasta towers in full 
 sight 14,444 f ee t in royal majesty, clad in robes of heaven's 
 own purity, and dwelling sublimely beneath the stars. While 
 traveling two hundred miles, we can feast our eyes occasion- 
 ally on this object of attraction. Here nature revels in her 
 wildest moods. Castle Crag and Sugar-Loaf stand in quiet 
 grandeur, while the Sacramento tumbles over rocks near our 
 track. The Black Buttes and snowless Sugar-Loaf stand out
 
 in contrast with Shasta, clothed in robes of ermine. A hot 
 spring flows from near the top of Shasta. Wood is floated 
 from mountain heights in water-chutes. There is good trout- 
 fishing in the upper Sacramento river. The winding of our 
 railroad is full of interest. It doubles on itself far worse than 
 the letter S. The scenery is picturesque and exhilarating 
 snow-capped summits and verdure-clad mountains, valleys 
 with streams and fountains. The day we passed through 
 these scenes was perfect. At Sisson we stopped to view 
 Mt. Shasta through a glass, fourteen miles away, eleven 
 thousand feet above where we stood. At Mt. Shasta min- 
 eral springs the water spouts like a geyser some fifty feet in 
 height, and falls in spray. The train stopped that the pas- 
 sengers might take a drink of the mineral waters.
 
 V. 
 
 After traveling thirteen hundred miles in California we 
 entered Oregon, and found it wild, mountainous, picturesque, 
 with snow-capped peaks and green valleys and hillsides, sun- 
 shiny and delightful, much milder than in San Francisco. 
 On Mt. Siskiyou I was reminded of Satan's offer of the king- 
 doms of this world and the glory of them, as they lay spread 
 out in loveliness before us in smiling valleys, quiet villas, 
 projecting cliffs, towering crags, romantic glens, mountains 
 of God, monuments of infinite power, homes of peace, 
 droves of beautiful horses, and a city amid the mountains. 
 Here, at the city of Ashland, we stopped for a few minutes, 
 and I met an old parishioner from Florida. We exchanged 
 glad greetings and made a few inquiries, and we were hurried 
 on. What a busy world ! Scarce time to cultivate the sweet 
 friendships of life. Here we can see only the beginnings, 
 put some seeds into, the soil and do a little cultivation. 
 " What shall the harvest be?" 
 
 We rush on through a beautiful valley. Young orchards 
 of pears are growing. Mountains in the distance border our 
 valley. Yonder, twenty miles away, Mt. Pitt rears its head 
 seven thousand feet towards heaven, clad in a hood of spot- 
 less white, which looks as if made in the clouds and fitted on
 
 by the angels. And here over against it are two gigantic 
 fortifications thrown up by the Creator. They stand as if to 
 defy each other to mortal combat. From the precipitous 
 height of this table-rock, we are told, the soldiers drove the 
 Indians over the edge into death below, and killed those who 
 would not take the fearful leap We are now in the Rogue's 
 River Valley, and will soon reach Grant's pass, so named 
 from Gen. U. S. Grant, who was here in his young soldier 
 days. Here the valley is narrow and clothed in green, and 
 we glide on in comfort into wider vales of beauty and down 
 the wondrous river, the Willamette, past those interesting 
 falls which attract the attention of passengers. Soon we are 
 in the city of Portland, and are met by our friends, who 
 welcome us to this beautiful city of the Pacific coast. 
 
 Portland is said to be the most wealthy city in the United 
 States in proportion to its size, having eighty-seven million- 
 aires, one of the number being a forty -millionaire. It 
 abounds in fine residences, surrounded by beautiful yards, 
 carpeted in green, ornamented with tree and shrub and 
 flower. The streets abound in shade trees. This city is 
 located on the Willamette, twelve miles above its junction 
 with the Columbia. The view from the heights in the rear 
 of the city is extensive, and takes in the two rivers with their 
 valleys. Portland is extending east beyond the Willamette 
 towards the Columbia. It is five or six miles between the 
 rivers at this point. Large vessels come up the Columbia
 
 - 23 - 
 
 and Willamette to the city of Portland. The Charleston and 
 Baltimore of the U. S. Navy, were lying at anchor here 
 when we reached the city. They attracted many visitors. 
 They told us it had rained here constantly from November 
 till in May, having cleared off the day before our arrival. 
 We were kindly told we had brought sunshine with us. The 
 soil seems so thoroughly soaked, it needs no more rain during 
 summer, and vegetation makes luxuriant growth, and fruits 
 and grains and vegetables are produced in great abundance. 
 This is a land of timber, too. Grand monarchs of the 
 forest tower in majesty sublime. Fir trees grow so tall that 
 a log 150 feet long can be cut from a tree. They are four 
 or five feet in diameter. The forest composed of them pre- 
 sents a majestic appearance. I felt sorry to see good, straight, 
 clear fir split into cord-wood and used as fuel. How differ- 
 ent from California, where timber is scarce and fuel is high- 
 priced. There they plant trees for fuel. This land was con- 
 sidered worthless, and Dr. Marcus Whitman found it very 
 difficult to convince statesmen at Washington that the great 
 far Northwest was worth keeping. They told him it was not 
 worth paying taxes for. He had gone out to Walla-Walla 
 Valley and found there was danger of our losing the whole of 
 it. The Hudson Bay Company was planning to secure it for 
 England. Dr. Whitman rode all the way from that far-away 
 wilderness on horseback to induce our people to secure it. 
 Surely our country is indebted to Home Missionaries more 
 than can ever be repaid.
 
 - 24 
 
 The General Assembly excursion on the aist day of May, 
 up the Columbia river to the Dalles, showed us scenes of 
 wondrous beauty. One of our company, a physician, whose 
 childhood home had been in the valley of Juniata, said to 
 some of us that when a child, he thought the scenery on that 
 beautiful river of the Keystone State was the finest in the 
 world, till he saw that on the Hudson above New York. 
 Then he yielded the palm to the Hudson. Now it is his de- 
 liberate judgment that the scenery on the Columbia as far 
 transcends that of the Hudson as that of the Hudson trans- 
 cends that of the Juniata. 
 
 The salmon fishery by means of great wheels is interesting. 
 The size of the fish and the amount caught seemed almost 
 incredible. 1 prefer not to give the figures given us and 
 what we saw ourselves, lest it be thought I was telling a 
 fish story.
 
 2 5 
 
 VI. 
 
 The picture of the city of Portland and its surroundings 
 so impressed itself on us that we dwell on it with pleasure. 
 The soil is good, and blue-grass and white and red clover 
 carpet the floor of earth. Horse-chestnut, elm, locust and 
 maple adorn the streets. The hills are so terraced as to form 
 beautiful grounds about the homes of the people; cable cars 
 ascend the steepest hills and electric cars traverse the city. 
 From yonder heights we take in the city and the grand rivers 
 beyond. Mt. Hood stands on guard clad in his robes of 
 the snows of unnumbered years towering above the clouds. 
 Mountain streams flow perpetually, pure and clear. They 
 told us the weather was unusually fine while we were there. 
 The people of Portland made us glad we had gone to see 
 them ; they made us feel we were among friends. Day after 
 day they announced in the General Assembly, that if anyone 
 wished any change in his lodging place, or any change that 
 would add to his comfort, please let them know and they 
 would be glad to^serve us. Their kind attention to the mem- 
 bers of the Assembly we can not forget. Those people on 
 the Pacific Coast have a freedom of manner and a hearty 
 naturalness in greeting a stranger that has a charming fasci- 
 nation in it and makes one feel at ease. A man will leave
 
 26 
 
 his business and go with you quite a distance, if need be, to 
 show you the way. Their hospitality and kindliness to us 
 leave an aroma in memory that is delightful. 
 
 The General Assembly at Portland was properly called a 
 " Pacific " Assembly. Kindness and good will gave character 
 to it. There was a decided difference of opinion and of con- 
 scientious convictions on matters to be acted on, and there 
 was a noble manliness in speaking and voting, yet a spirit of 
 fraternity prevailed that gave every man credit for honesty of 
 purpose in differing from another. I think there was not in 
 all the speeches and remarks made so much as one sentence 
 intended to hurt the feelings of any or to treat disrespectfully 
 the views of those who differed from the speaker. The good 
 Spirit of the Holy One was manifestly present in all our de- 
 liberations. The Assembly was especially blest in having a 
 Moderator peculiarly endowed for the position. His quick 
 discernment, sound judgment, generous nature, orthodox 
 principles and genial disposition, eminently qualified him to 
 preside in such an Assembly. His interpretations of the 
 meaning of many points in our new book will doubtless stand 
 as wise precedents for future Assemblies. I never saw an 
 Assembly come nearer worshipping a Moderator than this 
 Portland Assembly. 
 
 The representative character of the Assembly reminded 
 one of the day of Pentecost where the people had come 
 rom so many countries. In a little group I noticed men
 
 - 27 - 
 
 from Corea, China, India, Rome, Tennessee, Arizona, Michi- 
 gan and Florida. Commissioners, corresponding members 
 and others who had a right to the floor, numbered over six 
 hundred. It was estimated there were at least one thousand 
 visitors. When that beautiful church was packed full on the 
 morning of May igth, and the vast congregation rose and 
 joined in singing " Praise God from whom all blessings 
 flow," it seemed as though there were some of heaven begun 
 on earth. The closing scenes of the Assembly were as near 
 what such ought to be perhaps as they ever are in this sinful 
 world. I trust the good Lord himself was pleased. I do 
 think the Apostle John would have enjoyed it much had he 
 been there. Then came the "good-byes," and we turned 
 away glad and sorry glad we had gone, and sorry we had 
 to come away. 
 
 We spent a day in Portland after the Assembly was over 
 and visited some kind friends we had not had time to visit 
 while the Assembly was in session. Then on the second 
 morning after the Assembly we left for Tacoma via the 
 Northern Pacific Railroad. We had come via the Southern 
 Pacific from New Orleans to Portland, and in leaving that 
 road I feel I would not do my duty did I not commend that 
 route to my friends. The "Sunset" and "Shasta" routes of 
 the Southern Pacific I do heartily recommend. The appoint- 
 ments of the Company are good, and I was treated with kind- 
 ness on the whole route. I was so comfortable that at the end
 
 28 
 
 of the four-thousand-miles' travel from home I was as vigor- 
 ous as when I started. On June zd we left Portland by rail 
 and came down the valley of the Willamette and the Columbia, 
 and were ferried over the latter river into Washington, and 
 found the country largely a forest of fir, many of the trees tall, 
 symmetrical, royal. We pass through some pretty valleys. 
 The first city of importance we touch is Olympia, located on 
 Puget Sound, over one hundred miles from the Pacific Ocean. 
 Puget Sound is the Mediterranean of the Western continent. 
 It is a study in itself. The largest ocean vessels can traverse 
 this body of water in all of its wonderful ramifications, which 
 afford ample, safe, unobstructed navigation. I know not its 
 equal as a sound in all the world. They have over five hun- 
 dred feet of water out in front of the wharf at Tacoma. 
 Great populations, thriving cities, shall surely abound on the 
 shores of this interesting inland sea. Tacoma and Seattle 
 are two of them already well under way.
 
 2 9 
 
 VII. 
 
 Tacomi is a city of some forty-seven thousand inhabit- 
 ants, located on Puget Sound, built on a bluff perhaps three 
 hundred feet high, beautiful for situation, on tide-water, the 
 tide rising six feet at that point. This is a thrifty, growing, 
 promising city, 102 miles from Victoria, on Vancouver Island. 
 Tacoma is destined to be a large and important city by means 
 of ocean-going vessels and through-railroads carrying men 
 and merchandise to and from this far-away land. It is well 
 supplied with saw-mills, in which we were much interested 
 while watching them saw huge fir logs of perhaps five feet in 
 diameter and forty feet in length. In "double quick time," 
 with two immense circular saws, they cut a giant log into 
 lumber. A stream of water in a chute carried off the saw- 
 dust, and an endless band, with slats across, conveyed away 
 the scraps, and supplied a fire which seemed continually 
 burning to dispose of constant accumulations. This city has 
 good, substantial business houses, and fine residences with 
 beautiful grounds. It is a city set upon a hill, and of mag- 
 nificent distances; has made an amazing growth in the past 
 few years, and surely has a grand future. From the higher 
 parts there is a fine outlook, the Olympian Mountains being 
 on the one side, and the king of mountains, Tacoma, tower- 
 ing 14,444 f eet towards the stars, clad in his robes of spotless 
 white continually. With joy and pride the people of Tacoma
 
 - 3 o - 
 
 point out this monarch of mountains to the visitor. He is a 
 little shy, and frequently refuses to appear in his ro'nes of 
 state, and veils his glory from anxious eyes. 
 
 In Tacoma we spent delightful days with friends of former 
 years, and were treated right royally. At church we met a 
 number of Western Pennsylvanians, and felt quite at home. 
 They are a sort of omnipresent race, and are found every- 
 where, and have the faculty of rinding out good places. 
 Western Pennsylvania is said to be not only a good place to 
 live in, but a good place to move from. My observation has 
 been that they are good material to build up new towns with, 
 and other people are glad to have them. Our good brother, 
 Rev. Jonathan Osmond, has a comfortable home here. Time 
 has dealt kindly with him, and he is happy in the vigor of 
 his years. 
 
 There is one remark I will make here that applies to all 
 the cities of the Pacific coast. It is this : The conductors of 
 electric and cable cars are, as a class, a remarkably fine-look- 
 ing set of men, well developed, with intelligent faces, gentle- 
 manly in their deportment, and much above the average in 
 that employment East. I was told the explanation was that 
 hosts of young men had gone West, many of them educated, 
 some of them college graduates, and finding the positions 
 generally filled, they had accepted any employment that was 
 offered. I was impressed with this fact in Los Angeles, San 
 Francisco, Portland, and also in this city. 
 
 Tacoma has a rival twenty-eight miles north on the Sound
 
 - 3 1 - 
 
 Seattle has fifty thousand inhabitants, and is a much older 
 place. It is situated on a hill which slopes gradually to the 
 water, and presents an imposing appearance from the steamer 
 as we come up to the harbor. In the rear of Seattle is Lake 
 Washington, a fine body of fresh water, with a park on the 
 edge of the lake, and cedar trees, said to be from eight to 
 ten feet in diameter at the stump, and two hundred feet in 
 height. The lake is fourteen feet above the Sound. A ship- 
 canal from the Sound into the lake will enable ships troubled 
 with barnacles to enter the fresh water, where they will soon 
 be cleaned by simply standing in the fresh water. This I 
 was told by one who claimed to know. It is proposed to 
 make this canal in the near future. 
 
 From Seattle we sailed to Port Townsend, a United States 
 porl of entry, a place of importance as such. We met Mr. 
 A. W. Bash, for many years collector of this port. He gave 
 us much information concerning this region. President Har- 
 rison lodged with him when on a vacation trip up here. He 
 pointed out to us the forest in which the President hunted wild 
 animals. From Port Townsend we sailed across the strait 
 Juan De Fuca to Victoria, on Vancouver Island. The island 
 is four hundred miles long and one hundred and fifty miles 
 wide, with snow-capped mountains, extensive coal fields, the 
 largest on the Pacific coast, and furnishes lumber for export. 
 Victoria is a city of ten thousand people, on the coast, with 
 a good harbor for the largest vessels. It is a trade-centre
 
 - 3 2 - 
 
 for all that region ; its gold mines on the island furnish now 
 only about half a million dollars annually. It was the head- 
 quarters of the old Hudson Bay Company. Objects of inter- 
 est there are the Esquimault harbor, British navy yard, gov- 
 ernment buildings, and Lord Dunsmore's castle. The clim- 
 ate is mild for so far north, but ladies dress in furs in June, 
 and wear heavy dresses and coats, and gentlemen wear 
 overcoats in summer. British sailors are seen everywhere 
 in town. The place has a different appearance from an 
 American town, but not antique, as Quebec. The streets 
 are narrow and the buildings substantial. Electric street cars 
 carry us where we wish to go, charging ten cents, Canadian 
 money, for what our cars charge five cents. Immediately 
 adjacent on the east of Vancouver Island are the islands, 
 sixty in number, of the San Juan Archipelago, which once 
 threatened to embroil two nations in war. Britain had pos- 
 session on the north end of one of the islands and Uncle 
 Sam had hold of the south end of the same island. A man 
 cut down a tree half-way between, and it was asked who was 
 entitled to the price of the tree. The question was referred 
 to good old King William. After looking the matter over he 
 drew a line on the west of the archipelago, and so decided it 
 belonged to us. This is said to be one of the most interest- 
 ing archipelagoes in the world, even to transcend in variety 
 and enchantment the One Thousand Islands of the St. Law- 
 rence. Old orchards abound on the islands.
 
 33 
 
 VIII. 
 
 Our trip on Puget Sound on the beautiful steamer City 
 of Kingston, from Tacoma to Victoria, was full of interest. 
 The Sound, with its harbors and its channels, its cities and 
 its adjacent forests of historic importance, kept us constantly 
 on the lookout. Its indented coasts, deep waters, mild 
 climate, and intensely patriotic people, brought in contact, 
 as they are, with those of the Queen's dominion, we can not 
 forget. We had the society of old friends, and of new ones 
 whose acquaintance we had just made, so that June 3d was 
 to us a red-letter day. 
 
 Victoria is nearly 49 north latitude, with the polar star 
 well up towards the zenith. One is able to read by natural 
 light at 10 o'clock at night in the long days of June. The 
 heartiness of the greetings we received, and the friendly 
 manners of those people of the Pacific coast, we can not 
 forget. Pleasant memories come up as we think of them. 
 As we look back on our mental picture of that Mediteranean 
 of the North, with all that belongs to it, we are sure it will 
 be the centre of a busy, earnest, active population, engaged 
 in the varied industries of civilization, and conducting an ex-* 
 tensive commerce with the eastern continent, as well as with 
 our own vast country and the British dominions.
 
 - 34 - 
 
 The vastness of our country can not be grasped without 
 traveling over it and stopping frequently to take it in. From 
 the peninsula of South Florida on the southeast, to Puget 
 Sound on the northwest, we have resources of such variety 
 in climate and abundance in all natural supplies, and in all 
 that is needed for the full development of a great and noble 
 people, that if we fail it will not be the fault of our Creator, 
 who has provided us richly with all material ready to hand. 
 Surely everyone ought to be suited somewhere in our extended 
 domain, and yet how many complain. A grander, nobler, 
 more varied inheritance we can scarce conceive how our God 
 could give us, far exceeding that granted to his chosen Israel. 
 That was only a miniature type of this promised land reserved 
 for us in this country of the setting sun beyond the western 
 ocean, as the ancient called the watery waste beyond. What 
 an incentive to secure this wondrous inheritance for Him who 
 gave himself to redeem this world from sin '. 
 
 On Tuesday night, at n 145, we left Tacoma and crossed 
 the Cascade Mountains. On the morning of the 8th of June, 
 we bade good-bye to that king of mountains, Mt. Tacoma, 
 as he stood in sacred robes of ermine, towering in the sun- 
 light of heaven to lift our thoughts on high. We fyin scarcely 
 wonder the ancients, without revelation, thought the mountain 
 tops the abodes of the gods so high, so commanding, so 
 pure. The sight of such heights sublime has a hallowing in- 
 fluence on minds properly disposed. By and by we lose
 
 - 35 - 
 
 sight of that royal eminence and pass on through the valley 
 to the Rockies. The plains in the valley are barren and mo- 
 notonous. Small towns here and there, and streams from 
 the mountains, occasionally break the monotony as we glide 
 smoothly on. Some valleys off the through-line of the North- 
 ern Pacific Railroad are said to be exceedingly fertile. Walla 
 Walla is one of them. It produces abundantly wheat, and 
 fruits of many varieties. The city of Walla Walla, with seven 
 thousand people and its institutions of learning, sits as a 
 queen in the midst of the valley. Here it was that man of 
 blessed memory, Dr. Marcus Whitman, first located as mis- 
 sionary to the Indians; he, with Spalding, introducing civil- 
 ization and Christianity to that hitherto unknown region, and 
 being instrumental in saving that empire of the great North- 
 west to the United States. This valley, blooming as the gar- 
 den of God, is a fit remembrancer of the early labors of a 
 Home Missionary in that distant western wild. The gavel 
 of the Moderator of our late General Assembly was made of 
 wood of an apple-tree planted by Dr. Whitman in 1838. 
 The world moves, the cause of righteousness progresses, the 
 land is being redeemed from savagery and sin ; the comple- 
 tion of th& good work is only a question of time. It is good 
 to look back through long reaches, and see what progress has 
 been made. 
 
 We pass on and enter the Rocky Mountains. Mountains, 
 like men, greatly differ. Some are tall, some are low, some
 
 - 36 - 
 
 are bald, some well covered with natural growth, some wear 
 an earth-grown head-dress, some are arrayed in those woven 
 without seam in the loom of heaven, and these they have 
 worn for centuries. Some mountains are gray and some are 
 green, and yet are old. Some are well supplied with full 
 pockets and are liberal in dealing out precious metals. Others 
 are like ordinary mortals. 
 
 Here we are at Butte City, rich in mines of silver and 
 copper. Its mountains are bald, their sides bored by pro- 
 spectors. The city consists largely of plain, wooden houses. 
 This is said to be one of the richest mining regions in the 
 country. We pass so rapidly along through vast extent we 
 scarce realize its magnitude. Since leaving Oregon we have 
 traveled through Washington, an empire of itself, Idaho, and 
 well into Montana, abounding in mountains, mines and fir 
 trees. The plains east of the Cascades produce only sage 
 brush. The western portion of the Rockies are something 
 like the Olympians, clad in trees and verdure. The eastern 
 Cascades and the Rockies on the "divide" about Butte are 
 bald like the Southern Sierras of Southern California, Ari- 
 zona, New Mexico and Western Texas, treeless, desolate, 
 and grassless. But generally the Rocky Mountains have 
 much of the beautiful as well as the grand, carpeted with 
 grass, ornamented with firs, and alive with streams fed by 
 melting snows on the mountain tops.
 
 37 
 
 IX. 
 
 ROCKY MOUNTAINS. 
 
 As we glided smoothly on through a quiet valley in the 
 great Rocky Mountains, looking out on their sublime heights 
 and wondrous solitudes, and tumbling streams of limpid 
 waters sparkling in the sunlight, we were reminded of that 
 stanza of our childhood : 
 
 '' Morn amid the mountains, 
 
 Lovely solitude ; 
 Gushing streams and fountains 
 Murmur ' God is good.' " 
 
 Waking from a good night's rest in our Pullman palace 
 car, we were in fine condition to take in the grandeur of our 
 surroundings. One pleasant thought insisted on being promi- 
 nent in our musings. It was of the abundance of material 
 the Creator had on hand when he formed these mountains. 
 Towering in peaks and strewn profusely in lofty ranges they 
 crowded thickly on every hand, and it seemed so easy for 
 the Omnipotent to toss the plastic material into such fantastic 
 shapes and inextricable confusion, yet with a certain orderly 
 system apparent everywhere. We had been traveling amid 
 mountains so long they seemed familiar friends ; yet we con-
 
 - 3 s - 
 
 tinued to climb till at last we were nearing the "grand 
 divide " of the continent, from which the waters flow east 
 through many rivulets and larger streams into the Missouri 
 and on down the "Father of Waters" into the Gulf of 
 Mexico. Those falling west of this water-shed contribute to 
 the great Columbia which bears them on to the Pacific. 
 
 The Northern Pacific Railroad runs two loops or branches 
 from Garrison to Logan. The northern loop leads through 
 Helena, the other through Butte City. We do not know 
 how grand the former is, but we enjoyed the scenery on the 
 latter to the utmost of our capacity. The mountains here 
 are rugged, bald, bold, picturesque, and well deserve the 
 name of " Rockies." After leaving Butte City the sublimity 
 of the mountains deserves special mention rock piled upon 
 rock all the way up, as we gazed on the heights above us 
 built of Nature's solid masonry, till the clouds were left be- 
 low, and, looking out on the other side of the train, it seemed 
 rock all the way down canons and gulches vast, built of 
 basaltic rock in Nature's careless, rugged architecture, not 
 marred by any stiff rules, but easy, flowing, natural. From 
 these towers of God much material, left over, lies tumbled 
 about in Divine profusion in the shape of bowlders, countless 
 as the grains of sand upon the ocean's shore. Yet these 
 sacred places have been profaned, for on these wondrous 
 bowlders we were compelled to read, "Southern Hotel. 
 Meals twenty-five cents," and many similar notices, and this,
 
 - 39 - 
 
 too, in one of the most wild, picturesque points. Love of 
 money ! Enterprising Yankee ! Is there no hallowed spot 
 you dare not desecrate ? I am heartily glad of that short 
 sentence in the Book of God which reads, " Without are 
 dogs." There is some place in God's dominions they can 
 not invade who do not prize the sacred. 
 
 But here look from the car-windows ! Above us, below 
 us, and on every side of us tower mountain peaks in close 
 proximity. Mighty, wondrous are the works of the Creator ! 
 We held our breath as our train passed over yawning chasms. 
 on slender-looking trestle-work. The rocky formations here 
 are tilted sixty degrees or more, and giant pillars occasionally 
 stand perpendicular. Ofttimes the rocks are built in solid 
 mass for long distances and tower in majesty. Again, they 
 are built as if by design in walls, and here they lie in careless 
 style so closely, that the stunted fir tree has found no starting 
 place. Wherever soil sufficient has been gained, the seed of 
 the fir has lodged and the tree has reared its aspiring head. 
 Here as we pass on we see the whole army of God drawn 
 up, too vast to review. Mountain ranges tower in the dis- 
 tance and stretch in the blue atmosphere far away, determined 
 to shut us in, while nearer peaks clad in fir, and broken by 
 canons and narrow vales, lie between. Mountains snow- 
 capped ; mountains without caps ; mountains black and 
 mountains blue ; mountains green and mountains gray, at- 
 tract our gaze on every hand. Mountains to the right, to the
 
 left, behind, before, shut us in, and mountains beneath hold 
 us aloft till heaven seems near. Tall, towering mounts stand 
 as sentinels to guard these sacred grounds. Silence reigns in - 
 our car, for it seems that God is here ; some of us uncover 
 our heads in his presence, and tears unbidden come. The 
 very train moves slowly and reverently on amid these hal- 
 lowed scenes. As we look, yonder mountain with a beaute- 
 ous valley this side bursts with enchantment on our view to 
 the right, and another peak and gorge on our left ciaim our 
 unbounded admiration. Here the mountains are devoid of all 
 vegetation except a sickly-looking grass which tries to grow 
 on the detritus of rock, but does not make much of a success. 
 We now start on a down grade, for we've passed the crest 
 of the Rockies. I confess to feelings of regret at coming 
 down ftom those rare and sacred retreats. Gradually we 
 wind down into the valley of the Gallatin river, one of the 
 head waters of the Missouri. This valley is irrigated from 
 mountain streams, so we see large droves of horses and cattle 
 grazing in pasture-fields, and here are cultivated lands, with 
 farm-houses and barns, presenting a thrifty, home-like ap- 
 pearance. Farmers are plowing, with four horses abreast 
 drawing a gang-plow. Snow on the mountains makes the 
 air chilly. A shower of rain is coming over the city of Boze- 
 man as our train comes in. Bozeman is a candidate for 
 the State capital. Flags are floating in the city in honor of 
 the Democratic convention to nominate delegates to the 
 National convention to meet in Chicago, June 2ist.
 
 - 41 
 
 Soon we reach Livingston, a rather pretty town in a valley 
 in the mountains, where we spent the night, and next morn- 
 ing we took the train for the Yellowstone National Park. 
 Our train leaves the main line of the Northern Pacific and 
 at once enters the canon and runs up beside a rapid stream, 
 the Gardner river, between mountains towering in rugged 
 sublimity. Through scenes of beauty and of grandeur we 
 passed on to Cinnabar, so named from the red ore of quick- 
 silver in mines near by. Here we took stage coaches for the 
 Mammoth Hot Springs Hotel, where we must stop with our 
 friends and begin to view the wonders of the Yellowstone 
 Park.
 
 X. 
 
 YELLOWSTONE PARK. 
 
 This park lies mainly in the northwestern corner of Wy- 
 oming, with a narrow slice only from Montana and Idaho. 
 It is a rectangular plat of fifty-five miles east and west and 
 sixty-five miles from north to south, containing about 3575 
 square miles, being about two hundred square miles larger 
 than Rhode Island and Delaware combined. It is on top of 
 the Rocky Mountains; the lowest elevation of any of its- 
 narrow valleys is six thousand feet above the sea, and several 
 of them are said to be from one thousand to two thousand 
 feet higher. Lofty mountain peaks rear their proud heads 
 capped with snow, from ten thousand to twelve thousand feet 
 above sea level, giving variety to the scenery. 
 
 In 1872 Congress "reserved this ground from settlement 
 and set it apart as a public park for the benefit and enjoyment 
 of the people." It is about the only way it can be profitably 
 used. It is utterly unsuited to agriculture, and so volcanic in 
 origin minerals are not sought for within its limits. Sheep or 
 cattle would surely starve or freeze if they attempted to live 
 there. But the Yellowstone is an interesting region to visit. 
 We spent five days and a quarter in this wonderland. 
 
 We traveled through the park in stage coaches. We
 
 - 43 - 
 
 entered it from Cinnabar and stopped at the Mammoth Hot 
 Springs Hotel, where a good, lively fire in a large stove made 
 us comfortable on the loth of June. After lunch a company 
 of us, with a guide to lead the way, made the tour of the Hot 
 Springs, walking some three and a half miles up an ascent of 
 seven hundred feet over terrace formations of wondrous 
 beauty. At times we threaded our way through rills of hot 
 water issuing from the depths. On the heights we looked 
 down into deep caves bearing Satanic names. Some of our 
 company descended into the dark abysses; some of us were 
 satisfied with looking down into the caverns. We stood on 
 the height, seven thousand feet above sea level, and gazed at 
 Mt. Evarts, six hundred feet above us. 
 
 Next morning, June nth, seven of us took a stage coach, 
 drawn by four strong, reliable horses with a good driver. It 
 is not safe to start with any other kind to travel up steep 
 ascents and on the ragged edges of frightful precipices. 
 We traveled forty-two miles that day through a snow-storm, 
 over mountainous heights through an untamed country, by 
 obsidian cliffs, boiling springs, steaming fountains, and by 
 streams that in surging rapids plunged on to where they had 
 a more peaceful flow. At times our roadway was exceedingly 
 precipitous, winding around mountain peaks where gorges lay 
 below, and at times up ascents where our noble horses would 
 have to stop for a minute to blow and rest, before going on 
 again to take us over the crests and down the other side.
 
 44 
 
 Then our way led us through a narrow valley and by a boil- 
 ing fountain ; we soon, however, began to ascend again an- 
 other hill covered with small fir trees. There is really no 
 summer here. It may snow any month in the year. We 
 were told that winter lasted every year for nine months and 
 there was rough weather the other three. 
 
 At noon we stopped at Norris' Springs and took lunch 
 and rested for an hour and a half in a large canvas tent, 
 the hotel having been burned a short time before. It was 
 cold and snowing, but we were so wrapped in great overcoats 
 and shawls and blankets our intimate friends would scarce 
 have recognized us. Again we went over mountain and by 
 steaming fountain and stream and rugged highland, enjoying 
 views that we ^ere told by those who have been in the Alps, 
 much resemble those of Switzerland. They who have been 
 there say our own wonderland, in grandeur and sublimity, 
 exceeds anything Eu*ope can furnish. 
 
 At the end of an eight hours' stage ride we reached the 
 "Lower Basin" and put up at the "Fountain Hotel" a 
 very extensive and comfortable lodging place. It is supplied 
 with the modern conveniences electric lights and steam- 
 heaters, a spacious dining room, large sleeping apartments 
 with heaters in them, and tables with a good bill of fare, all 
 of which were prized by weary, hungry, chilly tourists. An 
 extensive fire-place, all aglow with blazing fir five feet in 
 length, gave us a welcome appreciated by our company. As
 
 - 45 - 
 
 soon as we had been assigned our rooms and thoroughly 
 warmed and had eaten our dinner, we started for the gey- 
 sers one quarter of a mile distant on an elevation in full 
 sight. 
 
 We went direct to the most noted one in that basin the 
 "Fountain" which was at the time preparing to give us an 
 exhibition of its wondrous power. We stood by its basin and 
 watched it boiling. As it did not seem quite ready for dis- 
 play, I walked a few rods further on where another geyser 
 was at work. Looking about after I stopped, I saw I was 
 standing about the centre of a square containing four geysers. 
 One of them was named " Clep-Sydra" which seemed about 
 as regular as a clock in throwing forth its boiling contents, 
 shooting a volume of water scalding hot about twenty feet 
 into the air, sometimes higher. The water that spouts from 
 these geysers is clear as crystal, boiling, some of them, here 
 on the mountain top, at 197 Fahrenheit and some at 188. 
 Repeatedly I put my fingers in to try it and jerked them back 
 as if I had put my finger in the spout of a boiling tea-kettle. 
 The force with which these streams of water were driven into 
 the air was such that if confined an earthquake would inevi- 
 tably follow. Presently another geyser near by, that had 
 been fiercely boiling, was shooting its hot waters into the air, 
 and its neighbor was in full sympathy and strove, if possible, 
 to outdo its rival in tossing boiling waters. 
 
 Meantime I heard a call, and looking towards the " Foun-
 
 - 46 - 
 
 tain" geyser I had left, saw a dense cloud, and my friends 
 were not in sight. I knew the "Fountain" was playing and 
 started towards it. I found my traveling companions in full 
 delight, looking on. It was shooting up a river of boiling 
 water, some jets of which reached the height of fifty feet. 
 The water falling back was dashed and churned till it seemed 
 as if a terrific storm was raging, at whose grandeur we could 
 gaze in perfect safety, standing a few feet away. This geyser 
 has its regular appointment once in every five hours and fif- 
 teen minutes, and it is much more prompt in beginning 
 service than many people. Its devotions last just half an 
 hour and it quits accurately on time. It is surely faithful in 
 rendering praise to the omnipotent Creator.
 
 - 47 - 
 
 XI. 
 YELLOWSTONE PARK. 
 
 I found it exceedingly interesting to wander all alone at 
 "my own sweet will" over the vast mound covered with 
 geyser formation, and hunt up geysers, large and small, and 
 boilers here and there I had not seen or been told about. 
 The Creator's law of " unity amid variety" finds beautiful 
 illustration there. All sorts of figures and devices appear in 
 the spouting of hot water from the depths. From the mighty 
 "Fountain" already described, down to tiny geysers one- 
 fourth of an inch in diameter, and some growlers, bitterly 
 complaining because of their inability to send the waters 
 above the surface and attract the gaze of the passers-by. 
 Looking down the openings, I saw the water furiously boil- 
 ing, and the steam issuing through the orifice. But they 
 were only boilers, and could not aspire to be geysers, and so 
 spend their days in unavailing growling. One can wander 
 where he please, with care, and enjoy these ebullitions of 
 power, seen in such variety, and of such character nowhere 
 else on earth as far as reported. 
 
 I stood in wonder by the " Paint Pots," in a basin forty 
 by sixty feet, with a rim from one to four feet high. This 
 vast pot or cauldron is filled with a fine, white, pasty mass
 
 - 48 - 
 
 of silicious clay in constant agitation, bursting in bubbles 
 with a flop-flop like boiling mush on an immense scale. 
 Mud puffs send out spurts of mud, or paste, with steam, and 
 this keeps up continuously day and night the year round, 
 and has done so from time immemorial. After boiling for a 
 long time, the white clay turns to a light pink. In the distance 
 we saw steam slowly and constantly rising, indicating that 
 this great basin on top of the Rockies was one of Nature's 
 safety valves to prevent volcanic eruptions. 
 
 We were told the geysers in the park number seventy- 
 five, and the boiling springs and paint pots between four hun- 
 dred and five hundred. So there being more to see, we took 
 our stage coach and traveled on ten miles to the Upper Gey- 
 ser Basin. We got out at the hotel and inquired for "Old 
 Faithful." "Yonder he is," said our guide, pointing to a 
 mound eighty rods away that is as near as a hotel is permit- 
 ted to be to a geyser. " How soon will he play?" was our 
 next question. "It will be nearly an hour, for he has just 
 played," was the answer. As we stepped into the office of 
 the hotel, we saw the "time-table" giving the times of "Old 
 Faithful's" playing, as we have railroad time-tables. We 
 soon walked over to the famous geyser. In playing for 
 ages it had accumulated a mound thirteen feet in height, 
 gradually sloping on all sides, by the deposit from the hot 
 water spouted from below. The deposit consists chiefly of 
 carbonate of lime.
 
 - 49 - 
 
 While waiting for "Old Faithful" to complete prepara- 
 tions for exhibition, we wandered off to other geysers across 
 the brook that flows near by. We kept our eye oil our watch 1 
 so as not to rniss "Old Faithful's" playing. We returned 
 when time was nearly up, and were ready, standing close by., 
 when, true to his name, he gave us, on time, a magnificent 
 display of his powers, and we stood and gazed for five min- 
 utes at the stream of hot water thrown with terrific force per- 
 pendicularly into the air from no to 150 feet high. There 
 it stands, a column of water, constantly supplied and as con- 
 stantly falling back outside of the column. It appears like a 
 living thing of rare beauty and grandeur. In the sunshine it 
 shows us diamonds of exquisite brilliancy and rainbows of 
 celestial glory. We stood with feeling of unutterable awe and 
 delight, looking at one of God's fountains playing for the en- 
 joyment of his children. Surely our Father is pleased to have 
 us enjoy such sights as lift our thoughts to him, and intimate 
 to us how great and good he is, and what charming entertain- 
 ments he can give in a world where sin mars nothing. 
 
 The waters of "Old Faithful" issue through an orifice, six 
 feet long by two feet wide its throat, into which we looked 
 after it ceased to belch forth the hot stream at two hundred 
 degrees Fahrenheit. If there be a breeze, one needs to ob- 
 serve the direction of it, and keep on the side the wind is 
 from to escape being enveloped in steam and hot water. I 
 was caught in that way the first time I approached the
 
 - 5 o - 
 
 * 'Fountain" geyser. I soon beat a retreat and was careful 
 afterwards. We stood very close to" Old Faithful" during 
 two exhibitions. A third time we stood three or four rods 
 away. A fourth view I had all to myself some eighty rods 
 distant, just before leaving this interesting locality. It was a 
 parting salute I greatly prized. 
 
 " Old Faithful's" predecessor stands a few rods from him, 
 witli his mound as a great tomb with orifices yet, through 
 which we distinctly heard his doleful bemoanings that he 
 could be active no longer. In his days of active service 
 doubtless the only visitors he had were wild animals of the 
 lonely mountain heights for methinks it was in the days be- 
 fore even the red men of the forest wandered there; and 
 they are said to be exceedingly superstitious in regard to the 
 geysers and will not approach them, declaring the Spirit of 
 Evil presides over these amazing manifestations. 
 
 This Upper Geyser Basin has more geysers than any other 
 locality in the park. They are named generally from some 
 peculiarity in formation or of action. Some of the names are 
 as follows: "The Constant," " The Twins," The Triplets,'' 
 "The Minute-man," "The Oblong," with four eruptions 
 daily; "The Bee-hive," "The Sponge/' "Castle," "Mon- 
 arch," "Splendid," "Giant," "Giantess and Cubs," "Grot- 
 to," "Grand" and "Riverside." "The Chinaman" is a 
 geyser playing from a great wash-bowl in which clothes can 
 be washed.
 
 5 1 - 
 
 One morning it was found that a chip had been taken 
 from "The Sponge" geyser. On inquiry it was learned a 
 man at the hotel had been up before day. His trunk was 
 searched and the missing chip was found in it, and the man 
 was taken in charge by the soldiers and marched out of the 
 park at the point of the bayonet. The park is under military 
 rule. Soldiers follow visitors, keeping in sight all the time 
 when near beautiful " forma'aons " to protect them from 
 vandalism. 
 
 On our way back from the upper basin we got out of the 
 stage coach to view again the "Excelsior" on the bank of 
 Firehole river. Its basin is an immense pit of irregular out- 
 line, 350x200 feet, containing water of a deep blue tint, in- 
 tensely agitated, all the time boiling, and with dense clouds 
 of vapor arising from it. Its walls are perpendicular, cliff- 
 like, overhanging on three sides, fifteen feet to the boiling 
 water. We stood on its wall and gazed into the most horrid 
 looking pit we had ever conceived possible on this earth. 
 No wonder it is called " Hell's Half- Acre." For three years 
 it boils and steams and seethes, and in the fourth year shows 
 ittelf to be the most stupendous geyser in existence. Colonel 
 Norris tells us he heard it spouting six miles distant. It 
 causes the earth near by to tremble and rumble, and fills the 
 valley with dense vapor. It throws rocks weighing a ton, 
 and water in such quantities as to raise the river one foot in 
 height where it is nearly one hundred yards wide. It sends
 
 - 52 - 
 
 away a torrent of foaming, steaming hot water and hurls 
 rocks over surrounding acres. It is active tur the greater 
 part of every fourth year, giving two or more displays daily, 
 sending forth a compact body of water from sixty to seventy- 
 five feet in diameter. Here is a good-sized river shot straight 
 into the air some three hundred feet in height. Niagara 
 Falls is considered quite a sight. But there the river falls 
 doum 150 feet. Here it is shot up three hundred feet, boiling 
 hot, with rocks thrown for variety. To stand, as we did. at 
 the verge of this steaming lake, upon the hollow crust which 
 projects over the boiling gulf, and peer down upon the agi- 
 tated surface as clouds of scalding vapor arise, is awe- 
 inspiring. When the geyser is in action, the terrific con- 
 cussion produced by falling water, accompanied by rumblings 
 like those of an earthquake, together with its disagreeable 
 habit of vomiting rocks of various sizes, as if shot from an 
 immense cannon, warns visitors it is safer to keep at a re- 
 spectful distance during one of its exhibitions of terrific 
 power.
 
 53 
 
 XII. 
 SABBATH IN THE PARK. 
 
 Soon after entering Yellowstone Park we learned there 
 was no arrangement for stopping over Sabbath. I went to 
 the master of transportation and told him I did not wish to 
 travel on the Sabbath. He replied that they had no Sab- 
 bath there, but if I would get up a stage-load of the same 
 mind as myself, we could have command of the stage, and 
 our stage could stop over Sabbath. I soon found a stage- 
 load of my way of thinking, and on Saturday evening we put 
 up at the Fountain hotel. On Sabbath morning I found 
 quite a goodly number who revered the sacred day and were 
 going to spend it quietly. Among them I found two physi- 
 cians, Presbyterian elders, and their wives, from Western 
 Pennsylvania, and several more from the same region; a 
 Presbyterian minister and his wife from New York, and quite 
 a. number of others. One of the elders insisted that I must 
 preach there that day. I insisted on the other minister 
 preaching, but they overruled me. I then made inquiries 
 for a place where we could assemble, and the use of the parlor 
 was given us. I ask for a bible, and the hotel manager said 
 they had none. I got one out of my satchel and inquired
 
 54 - 
 
 for a hymn-book, but none could be found. One of the 
 ladies of our company agreed to assist in singing. 
 
 The soldiers of the camp nearby came in, dressed in their 
 best suits of uniform. The hotel people came in, our tour- 
 ists assembled, and we had a very interesting congregation. 
 The ministerial brother from New York conducted the intro- 
 ductory services. We joined in singing the doxology, and 
 after reading and prayer all engaged in singing " Nearer My 
 God to Thee." Then for half an hour I preached to a most 
 attentive audience. The surroundings were inspiring. We 
 were on top of the Rocky Mountains, higher far than Moses 
 was when on Sinai's top he received the law and communed 
 with God. No human abode was near us. A little company 
 there alone with God on the silent heights. God's wondrous 
 power seemed visible in the rearing of those mountains and 
 in the playing of those amazing fountains, almost in full 
 view of where we were worshiping. The day was all we 
 could ask. Bright sunshine was flooding the sacred scene. 
 We felt that God was there. I announced a text and it 
 preached itself. I felt I was only an instrument through 
 which God was speaking to that little congregation. But 
 rarely, if ever, have I enjoyed a service more in all my min- 
 istry. The audience seemed in full sympathy. The brother 
 from New York followed with excellent remarks. After 
 prayer we united in singing "Blest be the Tie that Binds." 
 
 It was a service we can never forget. They told us it was
 
 - 55 
 
 a very unusual occurrence in that place. The soldiers seemed 
 greatly to enjoy it. I had long, close religious conversa- 
 tions with some of them that evening. They seemed hungry 
 for such interviews. Their religious privileges are very few 
 indeed. Satan has his missionaries there. Intoxicating 
 liquor, I was told, was secretly taken into the park, and 
 other evil influences are there. I have no doubt but we had 
 a much happier Sabbath at that quiet Fountain hotel than 
 they had who left in stage coaches that morning to travel dur- 
 ing the sacred hours. I was told of one gentleman who 
 had control of a conveyance and had intended to stop over 
 till Monday, but yielded to the persuasions of a lady in the 
 company and went on. Some who observe the Lord's day 
 at home seem to think the Fourth Commandment is not bind- 
 ing when they are on a journey. Some of Eve's daughters 
 resemble their mother, and some of Adam's sons yield to 
 their influence, and sin as did their first father There is a 
 growing tendency to desecrate the hallowed hours of God's 
 precious day even among good people. 
 
 CAUSES OF THE GEYSERS. 
 
 I've been repeatedly asked for an explanation of the peri- 
 odic geyser display. I will simply give that of Professor Bun- 
 sen, endorsed by Professor Tyndall and other eminent men 
 of science, ist. The presence of igneous rocks still retaining 
 their heat far below the surface of the earth. 2d. Water
 
 - 56 - 
 
 (supplied mainly by snow and rain) having access to these 
 heated rocks. 3d. Natural tubes by which the heated water 
 may reach the surface of the earth. The tubes are filled with 
 water from lateral drainage. The mountains there are on 
 an average of seven thousand feet above sea-level ; the ig- 
 neous rocks are certainly as deep at least as sea-level, per- 
 haps much deeper. The presure of a column of water in 
 one of these tubes from which the geysers spout must be 
 exceedingly great, putting the boiling point much above that 
 at the surface. It can not boil, it can not create a geyser 
 till the heat has reached a certain point. When that is 
 reached there is a boiling-over there is an explosion, and it 
 continues till the heat is relieved and then it ceases till there 
 is sufficient accumulation for another explosion. Such is 
 Professor Bunsen's theory. It seems to explain the facts. 
 Before leaving the park we must take a look at the Grand 
 Prismatic Spring or Pool whose dimensions are 350 feet by 
 250 feet. The water is of a deep blue, changing to "green 
 toward the edge. Gazing into this pool we saw the most beau- 
 tiful prisms, apparently cubes of about one inch and a half in 
 size, showing the colors of the rainbow, in a soft brilliancy 
 
 
 
 that was charming. I felt chained to the spot, and I forced 
 myself away only after all my traveling companions had 
 gone. I feast on that picture yet and cannot forget it while 
 memory lasts. It seems too beautiful for earth, and points 
 perhaps to the better land where beauty reigns supreme.
 
 - 57 - 
 
 It was with peculiar feelings our little company stood 
 around the " Fountain " geyser the last evening before leaving, 
 and for half an hour watched its resplendent playing in 
 cloudless grandeur. It was calm, and the sunshine was warm 
 enough to prevent the formation of mist. We approached 
 very near the column of ascending water, and that one sight 
 repaid us for all the visit to the park had cost us. I slept 
 that night, June i3th, with a snow bank three feet deep 
 just outside my bed room window, and outside the dining- 
 room there was a pyramid of snow eight feet high. They 
 told us the snow was five feet deep in the stage road to Yel- 
 lowstone Lake, so they could not take us there. But we 
 were not sorry for we saw lakes enough elsewhere. 
 
 We traveled in a stage-coach all day Tuesday till five 
 o'clock, when we reached the Mammoth Hot Springs Hotel 
 in good time to miss the stage going to the train. It had 
 gone one hour before our arrival. We learned it was so or- 
 dered by the transportation company, as one of the tourists 
 told us he tried to hire the driver to arrive in time, and he 
 said the driver told him he should lose his place if he did. So 
 we spent another day and paid $4 apiece for board and lodg- 
 ing. We wandered over the heights, examining the forma- 
 tion, and looking at beaver, bear, antilope, elk, porcupine, 
 etc., caught in the park, to be sent on to Washington for ex- 
 hibition. No shooting is permitted in the park. Brown
 
 - 5 8 - 
 
 bears come up in the forest near the hotel and eat food car- 
 ried out for them. 
 
 I would advise my friends to visit the park the last of 
 July or first of August, as at that time the snow may not be 
 quite so deep on the mountain top. We headed a petition, 
 prepared in a blank-book, to be signed by visitors, asking 
 Congress to authorize the building of an electric railway 
 through the park. Such a road would greatly facilitate 
 travel, save labor, time and expense in the visit.
 
 59 
 
 XIII 
 
 While we stand looking at these mountain tops and 
 heights of grandeur, some one of a utilitarian cast of mind 
 asks : What were they made for? Of what use are they? 
 Well, their uses are various. 
 
 ist. They are sources of water supply. Yonder peak of 
 everlasting snow, covered to depths that have never been 
 measured certainly a mile of frozen snow if perpendicularly 
 measured at the melting line forms a perpetual supply of 
 water, a never-failing fountain, and at such heights tremen- 
 dous hydrostatic pressure is furnished for natural hydraulics 
 on a very extended scale. Through underground channels 
 pure, cold, limpid waters flow for many hundreds of miles, 
 and rush forth in powerful springs that never fail. 
 
 But for these mountain reservoirs Florida perhaps could 
 not have her wonderful mammoth springs, that prove a very 
 interesting study and are visited by thousands of tourists. 
 One of these springs furnishes a stream so strong a steamboat 
 goes on its waters up to the very fountain whence the river 
 issues. This is only one of many wondrous springs, of such 
 amazing volume as to prove the source must be some such 
 abundant supply as we have described from those mountain 
 tops. There are no mountains anywhere near Florida to fur-
 
 60 
 
 nish such a water supply. Chemists who have examined the 
 waters of this peninsula say it is similar to that found in the 
 Rocky Mountain region of the far-away northwest. It looks 
 as though the southeast gets its water supply from the north 
 west. This great country seems mutually dependent, one 
 part on the other. 
 
 2. These mountains are regulators of climate They 
 prevent stagnation in the atmosphere, and make North 
 America very different from the continent of Africa, and from 
 India south of the Himalayas, whose range runs chiefly east 
 and west, and so cuts off the cooling winds from the north. 
 Our mountain ranges, running north and south, are an incal- 
 culable blessing to our climate in the matterof health and 
 comfort. The physical geography of a country has much to 
 do with the character of its people. 
 
 3d. These mountains are vast treasuries of valuable min- 
 erals and precious metals, and furnish material for wealth 
 that cannot be estimated. 
 
 4th. They are educators of the sublime. No one who has 
 taken in those inspiring sights, that fill the soul with awe and 
 bring him into touch with the great Invisible, can ever 
 wholly forget them, or be just what he was before. Those 
 peaks of grandeur, towering beneath the stars, are great 
 object lessons of the all-wise, omnipotent Creator. 
 
 On Wednesday, June i5th, we took the stage-coach and 
 rode eight miles to Cinnabar, at the gateway of the park,
 
 61 - 
 
 where we took the train and enjoyed the scenery of the canon 
 all the way to Livingstone. The Gardner River tumbles hur- 
 riedly down by our track to join the Yellowstone. Here, 
 right by our train, towers a crag, on top of which an eagle 
 has her nest. "The Devil's Slide," on the opposite side, 
 rises in a regular slope to heights that would delight a 
 vigorous youth to climb. 
 
 Soon we emerge from our canon, and are on the main 
 line of the Northern Pacific Railroad, 1048 miles from Port- 
 land and 1007 from St. Paul. The vastness of our country 
 can not be taken in till we travel over it. Our PuJman car 
 stood waiting for us on the side-track, and we were soon fast 
 asleep. When we rose next morning we found ourselves 
 still amid the mountains, with the Yellowstone flowing rap- 
 idly at our side. We followed its course for about 340 miles. 
 At Glendive it left us to join the Missouri, and we felt we 
 had parted with a familiar friend. 
 
 At Livingstone we had been told of immense bowlders, 
 clinging by uncertain tenure to cliffs, at inaccessible heights 
 overhanging the railroad track, liable to fall on us as we pass 
 by. But the same kind Providence brought us safely all 
 the way, and we came on, enjoying the scenery of that wild, 
 romantic, historic region, past Park City, Pompey's Pillar 
 and Custer, from whence the lamented general of that name 
 took his last departure before meeting death by the Indians. 
 
 Sentinel Butte and Pyramid Park are most interesting ;
 
 62 
 
 there nature revels in a magnificient park of pyramids of 
 every variety. Some run up as needles, tall and slender ; 
 others stand as towers of regular geometrical contour. Some 
 are after the pattern of the great Pyramid of Gezeh, in 
 Egypt ; others quite diminutive. Nature loves variety, and 
 has shown her taste in this uninhabited city. These, as seen 
 from the train, appear to be earthworks, having the appear- 
 ance of water formation, well rounded, the line of beauty 
 evidently being used in their construction. Nearly all these 
 wonderful structures were painted in choice emerald, and the 
 valleys between were neatly carpeted with the same. The 
 picture was most beauteous to behold, all blended in perfect 
 harmony. I would gladly have stopped off and wandered 
 long in that secluded, lovely paradise. 
 
 Strange scenes of unusual beauty these, treeless but by 
 no means unadorned. Picturesque they surely are. Mem- 
 ory loves to linger there. One might suppose these treeless 
 stretches were sterile, but we were told that not even the val- 
 ley of the Nile possessed such fertility. Like the rolling 
 Pampas of South America, these prairies, carpeted with the 
 most nutritious of native grasses, were, till lately, the home 
 of the roving bison, as countless as the yellow daisies that 
 nodded in the breeze. 
 
 Still on and on our faithful train steadily goes, by the 
 headwaters of the Red River of the North and through the 
 vast Dalrymple wheat farm, where farming is done on a scale
 
 - 6 3 - 
 
 of magnificence that excites admiration. Fargo and Bis- 
 mark attracted attention. The huge steel bridge over the 
 Missouri River, costing upward of a million dollars, is a fine 
 piece of engineering skill. Remains of a pre-historic race are 
 found on the high, rolling bluffs south of Mandan, on the 
 west side of the river. On we go, till we find we are ap- 
 proaching St. Paul and Minneapolis, and a home-like feeling 
 possesses us, as though we were coming back to where we 
 had been before. 
 
 Then the good-byes began with our charming traveling 
 companions. Some of us had been in company ill the Pull- 
 man car since leaving Tacoma. We had occupied the same 
 stage-coach in the Yellowstone Park, had stood together 
 and gazed at the wondrous geysers, and were in sympathy 
 with nature in her wildest moods. From the East and West, 
 North and South, we had, in our pleasant car, compared 
 notes and found much in taste and sympathy congenial. 
 For our company to separate was akin to the parting of a 
 pleasant family. The good-byes were warmly spoken, and 
 many a kind wish expressed, and soon the twin cities were 
 reached and we saw our friends of the Northern Pacific no 
 more, but pleasant memories linger ever. 
 
 We crossed the Mississippi River immediately below the 
 Falls of St. Anthony that were. They are now only rapids, 
 sliding furiously down a great apron, placed under the waters 
 of the river to keep them from wearing the bed of the stream
 
 - 6 4 - 
 
 from the height over which once they plunged. Grandeur 
 has been sacrificed to utility. Water-power thus preserved is 
 one of the chief sources of prosperity to the city. These 
 twin giants of the North are vigorous in their youth, and 
 buoyant with the hope of a noble manhood in the coming 
 years. 
 
 Now, methinks, surely is one of the most desirable times 
 to live of all periods of the world's history up to date. It is 
 undoubtedly a time of grand opportunity. I'm glad Ldid not 
 come into the world any earlier.
 
 XIV. 
 
 While waiting for a short time at St. Paul, some one 
 wishes to know in detail as to certain localities we've passed 
 over. For instance, what is there in the scenery on the 
 Columbia river that makes it charming ? Well, from the hurri- 
 cane deck of our steamer, on excursion day, the panorama 
 we took in included mountains standing as a wall, grouped 
 in some localities like a vast amphitheatre. Soon the scenery 
 changed, presenting pictures of romantic grandeur and wild- 
 ness. Yonder a stream, from heights sublime, on the Colum- 
 bia's banks, plunges perpendicularly down a distance of 850 
 feet, striking only once or twice while taking the fearful leap. 
 And here in the foreground stand the " Pillars of Hercules," 
 two immense columns of rock, hundreds of feet in height. 
 Not far away, ' ' Rooster Rock " rises out of the river. ' ' Castle 
 Rock " proudly rears its lofty head more than a thousand 
 feet in stately grandeur. Cape Horn shows a menacing pre- 
 cipice abruptly ascending from the water, over two hundred 
 feet above us. So passes the changing scene of terraced 
 heights, abrupt cliffs, crags in curious shapes and mountain 
 rising still above mountain, and over all towers Mt. Hood in 
 serene majesty. But we must come on to other scenes, not 
 so sublime yet no less interesting.
 
 66 
 
 From the capital of Minnesota we traveled directly to the 
 capital of Iowa, sitting right royally on the east and west 
 banks of the Des Moines river. From afar you are attracted 
 by the shining dome of the capitol, that crowns a massive 
 building, well constructed after a model that charms and 
 pleases, neatly finished, and surrounded by grounds laid out 
 with taste and kept in good order. It stands aloft on Capitol 
 Hill and commands a fine view of the city and country for 
 many miles. In June the city was so embowered with foliage 
 that it could be seen but in part. Good residences, with spa- 
 cious grounds about them adorned with shrubs, trees and 
 flowers, and carpeted with well-kept lawns, and fine long 
 avenues running far out on gently sloping hills, make the 
 city of Des Moines beautiful and desirable. The most com- 
 plete system of electric cars traverses the city on both sides 
 of the river, furnishing easy and rapid transit to every part. 
 Tall, substantial, well-built business blocks occupy the cen- 
 tral division of the city. Business activity was apparent 
 everywhere. Some of these stately business houses now 
 stand on lots formerly occupied by liquor saloons, and 
 proclaim in language not to be misunderstood, that a city can 
 prosper without the saloon. Nine years before, Des Moines 
 had scarcely thirty thousand inhabitants, and abounded in 
 licensed institutions for supplying the people with that which 
 intoxicates. A distillery too was then deemed an auxiliary 
 to the business prosperity of the city. But prohibition was
 
 - 6 7 - 
 
 declared to be the law of the State, the distillery and saloons 
 disappeared, and the city has survived. The census in 
 1892 reports sixty-eight thousand inhabitants, more than 
 twice the number that lived there nine years before, when the 
 prohibitory law took affect. On Fair days, when crowds of 
 people congregate, quietness, order and sobriety prevail, 
 such as did not on like days when the saloon poisoned the 
 atmosphere. Children of fathers, once drunkards, are no 
 longer pointed at as drunkards' children, but are fed and 
 clothed and sent to school. Boys are now comparatively free 
 from temptation to the intoxicating cup. Though there may 
 be some drinking on the sly, the prohibitory law is evidently 
 as well maintained in that city as other good laws. Churches 
 and educational institutions abound and prosper. We found 
 our friends doing well there, contented and happy. 
 
 Another young city, forty-two miles further on to the south- 
 west, has attractions for us and we pass on. Winterset, "the 
 Gem of the Prairies," the county seat of Madison county, is 
 a place we can not pass by. There we received a greeting 
 such as few perhaps know except pastors who return after 
 years of absence to a kind people with whom many years had 
 been delightfully spent. Here language fails. To see the 
 faces so familiar, and feel the hearty grasp of the hand, and 
 look into the eyes of a host of those tested and known during 
 years of pastoral service and familiarity in times of joy and 
 sorrow, is a privilege above all estimate.
 
 68 
 
 Twenty-two years ago I had taken charge of our church 
 there, and for thirteen years had ministered to those people 
 in sacred things. Many changes had taken place, but the 
 body of the congregation remained as it was nine years 
 before. A goodly number had gone some to the better 
 land. The marked changes were in the boys and girls and 
 the trees. The boys and girls had come to be men and 
 women, in whom, sometimes, we recognized only the eye of 
 years ago. The body changes, but the soul that looks out 
 through the eye remains essentially the same. Shall it not 
 be so when we meet on the other shore and friends of here 
 shall greet each other there ? It was an ovation day by day 
 while nearly a month of days passed quickly and delightfully 
 away. It was a joy to preach again to those dear people. 
 And how many social reunions in church and in homes and 
 quiet talks in little nooks where scenes of other days p issed 
 in review! 
 
 The town is still in good condition. Many new residences 
 had been erected, the streets were beautiful with overhang- 
 ing shade-trees, and the yards with swards of green", varie- 
 gated with flowers. The surrounding country was in its mid- 
 summer glory. When on top of the Rocky Mountains we 
 longed for comfortable warmth a few days before. Now we 
 reveled in the genial sunshine in a land of plenty, in homes 
 of joy, with friends we knew full well. 
 
 To see the children of former years now active leaders in
 
 - 6 9 - 
 
 church-work made our hearts throb more quickly, and we 
 saw that the God of the covenant was true. Those dedicated 
 to God in years gone by and taught the way of the Lord are 
 now flourishing as palm-trees in the house of the Lord. 'Twas 
 surely pleasant to review what God had done. But we had 
 to say " Good-bye " and come away. We hope to meet again 
 meet ne'er to sever. 
 
 From Winterset and the capital of Iowa we came to the 
 capital of Wisconsin, that sits so queenly between her lakes, 
 beautiful for situation, the joy of the whole State. The cen- 
 tral object is the capitol, standing proudly apart from the rest 
 of the city, in a spacious campus of forest trees, on rising 
 ground midway between Third and Fourth Lake. The 
 streets radiate from the capitol. About one mile from the 
 capitol stands the State University. The grounds are ex- 
 tensive and well cared for, and the buildings are numerous 
 and appropriate to the purposes intended. The museum 
 well repays a visit. You may linger long and be deeply in- 
 terested. You will find the same to be true when you go to 
 the Historical rooms of the capitol. Do not be in a hurry 
 when you go, for you'll be sorry to tear yourself away. 
 
 We visited the city at the time of the annual assembly of 
 the Chautauqua, and took it in quite satisfactorily. Many 
 excellent lecturers were there and spoke to the edification of 
 large and attentive audiences. I consider such assemblies 
 fountains of blessing mentally, morally and religiously, as
 
 - 70 - 
 
 well as socially, under proper management, as I think they 
 usually are. The day that drew the largest number of people, 
 perhaps ten thousand, was devoted to the discussion of po- 
 litical issues by three prominent political speakers, representing 
 three parties The Chautauqua grounds are reached by 
 crossing Third Lake in steam yachts. The grounds are ex- 
 ceedingly beautiful. Part of the time the weather was ex- 
 ceedingly hot and close, notwithstanding the lakes and 
 prairies adjacent. 
 
 On the opposite side on Fourth Lake, on a retired bank 
 rising gradually from the water, stands the State Asylum for 
 Insane, which we visited. The location, the grounds, the 
 buildings and the management, impressed us as about as near 
 what they ought to be as anything we expect to find in this 
 sinful, imperfect world. Such Christian care for the unfortu- 
 nate we find only in Christian countries. 
 
 We were told that with all these good things with which 
 the city of Madison is blest, the influence of seventy-five 
 saloons rests like a pall of evil on her. During the last 
 quarter of a century we learned she had increased only three 
 thousand in the number of her inhabitants, while tee capital 
 of Iowa has inci eased nearly forty thousand, much more 
 than doubled her population this since she became a prohi- 
 bition city. Is this chance, or is it in the line more or less 
 of cause and effect ?
 
 XV 
 
 From the capital of Wisconsin and her lakes of beauty we 
 had a charming ride across fertile prairies, yielding golden 
 harvests, some sixty miles east to Delafield and Ottawa, 
 where we received another welcome like that at VVinterset. 
 There we found a goodly number of parishioners of a quarter 
 of a century ago, where we had spent some years in pastoral 
 service, recuperating after seven years' pastorate in the city of 
 Baltimore. There we were met by friends as true, with hearts 
 as warm, as can be found in this world. These precious 
 jewels, how we prize them ! We think more highly of hu- 
 manity when we find how good and pure and true many of 
 the race of man really prove themselves to be. What cor- 
 dial greetings ! What kindness ! How pleasant to recount 
 scenes of days long gone by, and look into the eye beaming 
 with goodness ! 
 
 The years had made changes. The country was beautiful 
 in former years, but more beautiful now. Villages and coun- 
 try homes had been built, shade trees had grown, and much 
 adornment had been made. The whole community had be- 
 come a favorite resort for summer visitors. One evil the 
 good people complained of was the desecration of the sacred 
 hours of the Sabbath by the great majority of those who
 
 72 
 
 come for recreation. It has a demoralizing effect on the resi- 
 dents. The tendency in many directions now is to banish the 
 hallowing influence of God's holy day. 
 
 We could not stay long, so bidding good-bye to our friends 
 we took the train and were soon brought from the quiet, 
 peaceful homes of that lovely retreat to the bustling, busy, 
 rushing metropolis that stands so proudly on the western shore 
 of Lake Michican. The contrast was most striking. We 
 could not but ask ourselves : What makes the people all wish 
 to live so close together ? There is plenty of room in our 
 great country. Why insist on crowding, so as to destroy 
 comfort, safety and health? "God made the country, man 
 made the town." " God made man upright, but he has 
 sought out many inventions." The invention of city building 
 has its advantages, no doubt, but it surely has many evils. 
 As far as the record goes, I believe it was the man that killed 
 his brother that built the first city. I have wondered some- 
 times whether he would have gone into the business of build- 
 ing cities if he had not killed his brother. He seemed to feel 
 very badly and be anxious for something to occupy his 
 thoughts, so as to forget what he had done. Evidently he 
 did not enjoy being alone in the quiet of the country with his 
 own recollections, and seemed to be afraid somebody would 
 kill him, so he wished to be within call of neighbors. He 
 went out from the presence of the Lord, and there is no evi- 
 dence that he ever built a church in his city.
 
 73 
 
 Modern cities are much better, morally and religiously, 
 than ancient cities, because of the influence of the gospel in 
 them. The churches are fountains of blessing. But for 
 them we doubt whether some of our cities -would be much 
 better than Sodom and Gomorrah. The ramified influence 
 of the churches, with all that belongs to them and issues from 
 them, so permeates the atmosphere of such a city as Chicago 
 that their benediction cannot be estimated. This city, with 
 its fourteen hundred thousand inhabitants, claims that the 
 next decennial census will show New York to be the second 
 city in size in the United States. Indeed there is no comfort 
 now in driving through the crowded throughfares of this 
 young Western giant. They say it is twenty-five miles from 
 the north to the south boundary of the city. It seemed to lake 
 our train with locomotive about half an hour to come from 
 the depot out to the limits where the houses were scarce. 
 They boast of their twenty storied building. 
 
 We sauntered through the Exposition grounds and viewed 
 the buildings where the world is to show what it can do. I won- 
 der if somebody will not be saying, "This is great Babylon 
 that I have built !" If the sacredness of the Sabbath is to be 
 ignored and liquor dealers have their way, I fear the result. 
 "The heavens do rule" and God will not be mocked. 
 " Whatsoever a" nation "soweth, that shall" it "also reap." 
 
 We had a delightful visit with kind fiiends in the city; 
 also in that charming suburb, " Highland Park" on the bluff
 
 74 
 
 of Lake Michigan, a quiet resort where Chicago people have 
 pleasant homes. 
 
 From Chicago we came to the " Queen City of the West," 
 that peacefully rests on the northern bank of the Ohio. 
 Coming into Cincinnati from Chicago seems like going from 
 New York into Boston, or into Philadelphia as it was some 
 years ago. There is some comfort in getting about cities of 
 the latter class; one has time to stop and think, and not be 
 carried along by the crowd. He can get a seat in an electric 
 car and can ride without holding on for his life, as in Chicago 
 cable cars sweeping round a corner. 
 
 Chicago's parks are places of enchanting loveliness, and 
 so is " Eden Park " on Walnut Hills, Cincinnati. We spent 
 delightful days with friends in the latter city, as we had done 
 in Chicago. 
 
 A trip up the Miami valley showed us it had lost none of 
 its beauty or fertility for which it was famous years ago. 
 Middletown and Franklin have spread out and seem well- 
 nigh like taking on city airs. Their paper mills have greatly 
 multiplied and business prospers. Their churches have so 
 grown as to demand new and more stately edifices. Leba- 
 non moves on in the even tenor of her way, dignified, aris- 
 tocratic, with educational attractions that draw hundreds of 
 young people to her far-famed institution. Oxford, as of 
 yore, stands a city on a hill, crowned with her university and
 
 75 
 
 seminaries, of which she is justly proud. Ohio is a grand 
 old State, and the Miami valley is the garden of it. 
 
 Our visit to that region brought back days of former 
 years, and memory was busy with associations most sacred. 
 The tablets of memory have many records that are inefface- 
 able. How we love to read them ! How interesting when 
 the books shall be opened in the great hereafter! Nearly 
 thirty five years ago, in the days of our youthful ministry, 
 we had charge of a church in this beautiful, fruitful valley. 
 It was before the war. Times and homes and people have 
 greatly changed since then. But few remain to whom we 
 ministered there. To recall these scenes brings solemn 
 thoughts to mind. Busy, happy years have passed 'tween 
 then and now. We've no wish to live them over. A kind, 
 gentle handjias led us, and we bless our Leader. 
 
 From Cincinnati we dropped south to Chattanooga, Ten- 
 nessee, and spent ten days 'mid scenes of historic interest. 
 On the crest of the " Missionary Ridge," a friend living 
 there showed me in his yard a spot of mortal combat; two 
 trees stand as sentinels to guard the sacred place where 
 rest the bodies of some that fell there and were buried. 
 Stone breast-works still remain as in the day of battle. I 
 stood on a spot where two brave men in single contest met, 
 and neither would yield till one fell mortally wounded. A 
 soldier returned years afterwards and located the position 
 where he was captured. His captor came at another time,
 
 - 76 - 
 
 and without knowing what the other had said, showed where 
 he had taken his prisoner. Each told his story to my friend 
 now living there. 
 
 As I was slowly walking over the battle-field, I saw two 
 men who seemed to be looking for something. When I came 
 up I found they were Confederate soldiers who had been in 
 the battle. They were from a distance, and were now look- 
 ing for relics on that interesting field. One of them asked if I 
 could tell him where that house had stood a little below us, 
 where the Federal sharpshooters were concealed and were 
 picking off their gunners. He was one of the gunners. He 
 went down and burned the house, and so dislodged the sharp- 
 shooters. Now he would like to find the location of the 
 house. I did not find the place where the house he burned 
 had stood, but I did ascertain where his battery was located 
 and told him, which seemed to be a satisfaction to him.
 
 77 
 
 XVI. 
 
 There are some localities that seem burdened with sacred 
 memories, the mention of which starts a stream of thought 
 freighted with treasure. 
 
 When a few years since we stood on the "Plains of 
 Abraham " at Quebec, and walked around the monument of 
 General Wolfe, on the spot where that noble rmn fell, mem- 
 ory was busy with the past. " I die content," said he, when 
 he learned that the French were flying. As I thought of the 
 results of the victory of that memorable day, giving vantage 
 ground to protestants on this continent that has never been 
 lost, I seemed to be standing on holy ground. I love to think 
 of this mighty nation, which acts as a balance to the rest of 
 the inhabited planet, coming on the stage on that eventful 
 epoch. From that victory onward it was a possibility; a 
 foothold and protection was secured for those who believed 
 in freedom in the exercise of conscientious convictions. 
 
 Battle-fields, where earnest men with honest purposes con- 
 tended unto death for principles that to them were more sac- 
 red than life, can not be uninteresting to thoughtful people. 
 Such thoughts possessed me as I wandered over the fields of 
 conflict about Chattanooga. One place of intense interest 
 pointed out to us Avas General Grant's headquarters, from
 
 -78 
 
 which he surveyed the situation and commanded the mighty 
 forces under his control. One there can learn something of 
 how much depends on the skillful locating of the different 
 wings of an army, taking advantage of mountain and plain, 
 ravine and river, day and night, and the proper moment of 
 time to move. Over and through and behind all we can 
 plainly see a superintending Providence, without whose or- 
 dering the best laid human plans utterly fail. The counsel 
 of Ahithophel will surely be defeated if He who rules in 
 righteousness so orders. 
 
 I spent days amid those historic scenes, thinking over the 
 past and seeing, as I had not before, much as to how those con- 
 tending forces were managed on those grounds now sacred 
 to memory. "Chattanooga," " Chickamauga," "Mission- 
 ary Ridge " and " Lookout Mountain" are suggestive names. 
 On to Atlanta the armies marched and fiercely contended all 
 about that city, making it historic. And "from Atlanta to 
 the sea" Sherman led his men, the North knowing not where 
 he was till the Confederacy was cut in two. Great principles 
 were contended for and victory was slowly and surely com- 
 ing. The final surrender was being made possible at Appo- 
 mattox. 
 
 So methinks it is in the conflicts with moral forces and in 
 the continuous struggle for God and the right. The true and 
 the brave that fall in times of temporary defeat are to be 
 honored equally with those who shall be present at the final
 
 79 - 
 
 victory, and those Qn guard or in out-of-the-way places who 
 did faithful service and endured patiently and waited un- 
 repiningly, without the inspiration of numbers, deserve re- 
 cognition as well as those in more prominent positions. But 
 for the former the latter could not have accomplished their 
 mission. Each are only various parts of the one great army 
 under the one Commander in the one grand cause of God. 
 
 We spent some time in wandering through that interesting 
 city of the dead, the National Cemetery near Chattanooga. 
 The grounds are surely of wondorous beauty and adaptability 
 for the purpose. In a valley, accessible, yet sufficiently re- 
 tired, gently rolling grounds nicely kept, there he the remains 
 of the mortal part of thousands of our country's defenders. 
 A single white stone marks the graves of four thousand un- 
 known soldiers. Here are memorials of a conflict that devel- 
 oped mutual self-respect in the practical acquaintance made 
 in a terrible way. Each knows the other can not be trifled 
 with, and perhaps we have learned enough of mutual for- 
 bearance and national patriotism to make our nation great 
 and strong. 
 
 Yonder, towering as a sentinel of grandeur far above us, 
 stands Lookout Mountain. It rises with precipitous sides 
 some sixteen hundred feet above the Tennessee River, which 
 sweeps in graceful curves through the plain at the base of the 
 mountain. It well repays one to ascend that lofty peak. 
 We took the cable car up the incline, and from our seat at
 
 8o 
 
 the rear of the car we looked out at Missionary Ridge, which 
 from the valley looked like quite a mountain. But as our rar 
 rose on the side of Lookout, the ridge gradually seemed to melt 
 away and minify till it resembled a plain, and no longer ob- 
 structed our view. Soon we looked over and far beyond it 
 and enjoyed a panorama that was certainly charming. We 
 spent the day on the mountain top, from which we looked 
 out on parts of seven States. Mountains and famous battle- 
 fields, ridges and heights, valleys, plains, rivers, railroads and 
 the abodes of men, contribute each their part to form a pic- 
 ture we shall carry with us while memory lasts. 'Twas not 
 one of such awe-inspiring sublimity as from the top of the 
 Rocky Mountains, but of soul-stirring beauty and scenery 
 comparatively so near that one can take it in and quietly en- 
 joy it. 
 
 At the Point Hotel we took the train and traveled round 
 the summit. Our company stopped off and we wandered 
 away into a lonely wild recess, where silence reigns and na- 
 ture revels as she pleases, and we sat alone and thought and 
 communed with Him who reared these lofty heights. We 
 returned by the zigzag railway, which gave us great variety of 
 scenery and more time to feast on it and digest it. When 
 the government builds the boulevard along the side of Mis- 
 sionary Ridge and on through Chickamauga battle-field, con- 
 necting these many historic grounds, this region will be one 
 of more than ordinary interest tc thoughtful visitors.
 
 8i 
 
 Chattanooga has grown so that we could not recognize 
 anything in the city we had seen nine years previous. In 
 this place we have an illustration of what is meant by "the 
 New South." It is an enterprising, wide-awake, go-ahead 
 city. During the troubles with the miners loyalty to order 
 was conspicuous. The citizens at once offered their services 
 to maintain the law. There seems to be less of the spirit of 
 anarchy in the South than in many parts of the North. I 
 found business firms constituted of men from the North and 
 South working harmoniously together. Half the extensive 
 business men here, I was told, were from the North. The 
 editor of the leading "morning paper" is a Northern man 
 and was a Union soldier. Large numbers of Union soldiers 
 were born and brought up here. 
 
 Two good drug-stores here are owned and managed by 
 colored men. The colored people have a savings bank office- 
 red by themselves, and run successfully. They also have two 
 or three church buildings nearly as fine as any in the city, 
 and ten or twelve colored physicians, three or four of whom 
 are educated men. They propose building an Opera House for 
 themselves. They have three or four large brick school build- 
 ings.^ Hacks are owned and driven by colored men. They 
 have a weekly newspaper of their^own. They own a large 
 number of residences and have houses to rent. They refuse 
 to sell their property, and quite a number of their cottages are 
 located on one of the best streets, A colored man owns and
 
 82 
 
 manages a coal business. Fully one-third of the population 
 are colored. They have an Orphan Asylum for their children. 
 Gradually they separated from the white people and are be- 
 coming more independent and self-sustaining. A colored drug- 
 store has a colored physician, who sends out his prescriptions 
 for colored people who patronize their own drug-store. They 
 hold " Fairs," managed successfully by themselves. So they 
 are learning to depend on themselves, and trying to rise by 
 doing for themselves. The white people are disposed to give 
 them a chance and to encourage them. The Southerners are 
 greatly pleased at the progress of the colored race, and ready 
 to help them. The colored people here prefer being by them- 
 selves, and do not wish to mingle socially with white people. 
 In education, accumulation of property, and in business 
 capacity, they are making decided progress. Their gravest 
 defect, I wa ; told, was in the line of chastity. In Chatta- 
 nooga there seems to be no race quarrel ; but they do quarrel 
 among themselves. They greatly need the gospel in its 
 purity and simplicity exemplified in daily life among their 
 own people.
 
 - 83 - 
 
 XVII. 
 
 From Chattanooga it is a pleasant ride to Atlanta, "The 
 Gateway to the South," as it is called. Ten years had passed 
 since we first visited Atlanta. Its transformation in those 
 years has been amazing ; there was scarcely anything we re- 
 cognized as familiar. It impresses one as a beautiful new 
 city full of vigor and enterprise, and exerts an influence for 
 good on all the South. Beyond Atlanta we soon reach Ma- 
 con, Ga., a somewhat typical city in the midst of an extensive 
 cotton-growing district. By Way Cross we rush on till we 
 cross the State line into Florida, which at our entrance does 
 not present a very attractive appearance. 
 
 We are not long in reaching Jacksonville, called the " Gate 
 City" of Florida. In former years tourists seemed to think 
 they had taken in the State if they visited Jacksonville and 
 made a trip up the St. John's River by steamer. That illus- 
 ion has long since faded away. The glory of the Peninsular 
 State is in its being in great part a peninsula. It lies four 
 hundred miles North and South and juts out far into the 
 Southern waters of the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Mexi- 
 co. There is no other peninsula on the globe as extensive 
 and situated as it is, running far out from the body of the 
 continent, cooled by the breezes that constantly play across it.
 
 - 84 - 
 
 The different sections of the State are quite distinct in 
 their characteristics. First comes the northern division, cal- 
 led North Florida, devoted chiefly to raising grain, grass and 
 stock, and the cultivation of deciduous fruit trees, as pears, 
 peaches, plums, figs, also grapes and berries. This section 
 is not really on the peninsula, and is too cold for the success- 
 ful cultivation of citrus fruits or tender plants of any kind. 
 Next comes Middle Florida, where cotton and tobacco are 
 extensively grown, and more or less oranges. It is some- 
 times called the Black Belt because so many colored people 
 live there. Beyond this is South Florida, where the peninsula 
 becomes in places only one hundred miles wide, and is called 
 the Orange Belt, the natural home of the orange, where it is 
 found in its native state, growing and fruiting without any 
 care or cultivation. Semi-tropical plants abound in this sec- 
 tion. It is this part of the State that has been settled largely 
 within the last seventeen years. 
 
 Most of the northern people that have located in Florida 
 have made homes for themselves in this southern division of 
 the State, the true Peninsular Florida. The currents of air 
 that flow so gently across this narrow strip of rolling land 
 from the encircling Gulf stream bring balmy invigoration that 
 is peculiarly delightful. The days are never suffocating, and 
 the nights are charming. The breezes from the ocean im- 
 part a mild tonic that is exhilarating. The pine forests add 
 to the healthfulness, and the sandy soil at once takes up the
 
 - 85 - 
 
 heavy rainfall, so that stagnant water in the rolling high 
 pine lands of the interior is rarely if ever seen. The chief 
 production of this portion of the State is the orange, where 
 it grows in fine luxuriance and comes to a condition of per- 
 fection perhaps not attained in other lands. Vegetables are 
 grown in immense quantities for the early northern markets. 
 Many thousands of acres of orange groves, set out some years 
 ago, are now coming into bearing, and good living prices are 
 given for the golden fruit. As a consequence a feeling of 
 encouragement and assurance is possessing the people, and 
 many coming in from other parts of the country see how pro- 
 mising the prospects are, and are securing homes in this part 
 of the State. 
 
 The churches are making progress here as never before. 
 Good, neat, tasteful church buildings are going up, and man- 
 ses, too, are being secured by the churches Schools of a 
 better grade are being established. 
 
 The Presbytery of South Florida extends from the Ocean 
 to the Gulf, and embraces all the south end of the peninsula. 
 Last fall we met on Indian River, on the Atlantic coast. 
 Our spring meeting has just been held at Crystal River, a few 
 miles from the Gulf. These churches, planted and cared for 
 now, will, we trust, in a few years, like the orange groves 
 properly cared for, become self-sustaining and fountains of 
 blessing in this fair, sunny land on which heaven has so richly 
 showered its benedictions.
 
 86 
 
 The south end of South Florida is a tropical land where 
 the cocoanut, the pineapple and numerous other fruits grow 
 in luxuriance south of the line of injurious frosts, in a land 
 of perpetual summer. That region is now attracting many 
 immigrants from northern regions of our vast country. 
 
 The rainy season in Florida comes in midsummer, and 
 has much to do in modifying the heat. These brisk showers, 
 coming daily for a time, cool off the atmosphere and impart 
 a freshness that is most charming. This, taken with the fact 
 that the sun rises later and sets earlier here than it does in 
 the North, giving the land and water longer time to cool off 
 and less time to warm up, has a decidedly modifying effect 
 on the climate. The length of the summers produces a 
 growth in vegetation that is wonderful to observe. Hence 
 groves make amazingly rapid progress when well cared for. 
 The dryness of the winters renders this climate specially good 
 for invalids, and many come from the North. 
 
 The lake regions in the interior constitute an interesting 
 feature. These lakes are fed from springs, invisible, sup- 
 plying waters from beneath, clear, pure, soft, good for drink- 
 ing purposes if need be. The large majority of these 1 ikes 
 have no connection with each other excepting the larger 
 lakes. Many of the lakes are on the ridge running north 
 and south through the central portion of the State, which fur- 
 nishes the highest land in the State. Much of that land is 
 high pine, sandy, rolling, with nothing to create disease.
 
 - 87 - 
 
 Statistics prove it to be certainly one of the most healthful 
 regions in all the United States. So low indeed was the 
 death-rate that the Superintendent of the last census refused 
 to accept the returns till they were verified by a number of 
 witnesses whose testimony could not be doubted. These 
 lakes, where they lie near each other, furnish protection from 
 frost in time of a cold snap. Hence the southeast side of 
 such bodies of water is considered a choice locality. 
 
 From Jacksonville we had a ride of one hundred and 
 sixty-two miles south to Eustis, where we received such a 
 welcome as made us glad we were at home again. With 
 church, academy, public schools and friends, in the enjoy- 
 ment of health, and plenty to do in the service of the good 
 Lord, we surely are satisfied with the kind providence of our 
 God about us. 
 
 Now we have gone across the continent and have come 
 back by a different route. The picture of the many scenes of 
 beauty on the way and of rare objects of interest, and the 
 cordial greetings we received, stands out vividly before us 
 and is a constant source of joy. If our readers have enjoyed 
 the reading as we have the writing of these "Notes by the 
 Way," I am satisfied.
 
 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY 
 
 Los Angeles 
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