Mck 
 
 ieo.

 
 <*-&
 
 NOTES 
 
 ON 
 
 NEW YORK, 
 
 SAN FRANCISCO 
 
 AND 
 
 OLD MEXICO, 
 
 BY 
 
 FRANK W . GREEN. 
 
 I'l BUSH HI' BY K. OARK, " HERALD '' OFFICES, WBSTGATE. 
 1886.
 
 . 
 
 \T. '.;..'. 1 **l 
 
 fVV.''-. ^" *>* I S 
 
 V. . -' f .ft ." 
 
 \ 
 
 E. CARK, STEAM PRINTING WORKS, "HERALD" OFFR'KS, 
 WESTGATE.
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 " And oftentimes, excusing of a fault, 
 Doth make the fault the worse by the excuse." 
 
 KING JOHN. 
 
 TUE FOLLOWING 
 
 betters 
 
 COMI'U.KIt OKIGINAT,1,Y AS A DJAUV, 
 AIM'EARKU IN 
 
 SEakcfirlti l^eralli.
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGE. 
 
 NIAGARA 1 16 
 
 NKW YORK TO THE GOLDEN GATE ... 17 53 
 
 THK GOLDEN STATE 54 82 
 
 THROUGH ARIZONA TO EL PASO DEL NORTE ... 83 98 
 KROM THE Rio GRANDE TO THE TROPICS . . 99 173
 
 "What dreadful sound of waters in mine ears." 
 
 KING RICHARD III 
 
 NIAGARA. 
 
 ARRIVED at Niagara a few days 
 ago. A welcome relief after New York, 
 that hottest of hot cities, with the 
 thermometer at a hundred in the shade, 
 the nights, if anything, worse than the days. 
 Travelling by the New York Central and Hud- 
 son River Railroad, up the magnificent H i dson 
 River, and through the Mohawk Valley, it took 
 only twelve hours to reach the Falls. The 
 trains are very complete, with dining, sleeping, 
 and smoking cars. On this train, as it was 
 limited, there were no ordinary carriages, but
 
 2 NIAGARA. 
 
 on the usual trains there is only one class, and 
 you pay extra to go into the drawing room car. 
 I went into the "smoker" during one part of 
 the journey, and was much amused by the sum- 
 mary method of dealing with those passengers 
 who prefer to travel without going through 
 the ordinary form of buying a ticket. We 
 had got some twenty miles from one of the 
 stations, when the conductor discovered an 
 individual who had evidently spent his all in 
 worshipping Bacchus. He pulled the alarm 
 bell, stopped the train, and ejected this worthy 
 at eleven o'clock at night, in what seemed to 
 be a howling wilderness, where he would have 
 had to spend the rest of the night, only some of 
 us " put up " enough money to pay his fare to 
 his destination. His gratitude knew no bounds, 
 and by way of showing it he pulled out a plug 
 of the blackest tobacco, which he insisted on me 
 chewing ! I only escaped by assuring him that 
 I was incapacitated by nature from spitting. I
 
 NIAGARA. 3 
 
 cannot but think that this method was a cheaper 
 and more effectual way than by taking him on 
 to his destination and hauling him before a 
 magistrate and condemning him to pass a week 
 in prison. The man only followed his natural 
 inclination to get to his home, at whatever 
 cost, and as quickly as possible. The conductor 
 was paid to stop him, and he did it ; one 
 achieves his object, though at the loss of his 
 liberty, the other does not. Hence the victory 
 for the authorities on the American plan. 
 
 It was too late to see the Falls that night, 
 so I turned in and enjoyed the only sound sleep 
 I had had for three weeks. The thermometer 
 was at seventy ; the bedroom door was removed, 
 and a sort of Venetian blind up in its place, and 
 all was cool and quiet. In the morning I tried 
 to make my way to a bath-room, but it was not ' 
 to be found on my floor. I was directed by a 
 " coloured gentleman " downstairs, where I was 
 told a " lady " would show me around. I think
 
 4 NIAGARA.- 
 
 the baths in the hotel are one of the charms of 
 the place. Picture a large room, out of the 
 windows of which you can see the rapids boiling 
 and foaming within six inches of your feet ; a 
 large, rough, stone bath, twenty or twenty-five 
 feet long by half as broad, and into the centre 
 of which a torrent of water leaps, a current two 
 or three feet thick, shooting six feet into the 
 bath, and escaping over a dam at the lower 
 end, going into the rapids outside. It certainly 
 was my idea of a morning tub. But the 
 question was how about getting into it. It 
 looked very dark and deep. Supposing I was 
 drawn under that forbidding looking dam into 
 the rapids outside ? The honour of England 
 forbade me enquiring the depth of the bath 
 from the " lady " outside. If I splashed a little 
 and pretended I had been in, then I should lose 
 the bath. No ; there was nothing to do but to 
 go in carefully, very carefully, toes first. The 
 depth was only four feet ! You were spared the
 
 NIAGARA. 5 
 
 announcement " Sad death in a bath of a 
 Waken" eld man." I could just swim against the 
 current, and two iron rings on each side of the 
 torrent enabled me to hold myself against it. 
 It was a rough luxury which few if any hotels 
 can boast. After breakfast the first thing was 
 how to see the Falls. I enquired of one of the 
 colored men, and he said "Walk." Another 
 colored one said ; " No, sar ; you gentleman, you 
 drive ; this man only one nigger ; he understand 
 nothing." So I thought I would go outside and 
 see for myself. If it was too far I could then 
 return and take a hack. I went down the 
 street, resisting the entreaties of the hack- 
 drivers to take me for three dollars, two dollars, 
 one dollar, even twenty-five cents, sooner than 
 see a gentleman walk, past the spurious Indian 
 stores. Did I want a pair of mocassins ? An 
 Indian canoe ? An Indian fan ? A set of 
 alligator teeth ? A piece of gypsum ? No ; 
 none of these things tempted me ; not even a
 
 6 NIAGAEA. 
 
 real pair of snow-shoes (a useful purchase at this 
 time of the year). I could also have had my 
 photograph taken, head washed, been shaved, 
 bought a railway ticket, or a sun-shade, a fancy 
 work-basket, or a*ham sandwich. In fact, had 
 
 ' Jt 
 
 you asked the vendors of these articles " Is life 
 worth living ? " the answer would have been, 
 " No, certainly not, unless you have a glass of 
 ice-cold lemonade, two photographs (one for 
 yourself and one to send home), an ice-cream, 
 and a camp-stool." I passed down the street, 
 and made my way to the bridge, to cross the 
 American rapids, and so got on to Goat Island. 
 The river is divided into two parts by this 
 Island, the larger portion passing round on the 
 Canadian side, the smaller, on the side I was, 
 the American side. The Island extends to the 
 brink, and so makes two Falls the large Horse- 
 shoe Fall and the American Fall. I struck across 
 the Island to see the Horse-shoe Fall first. It is 
 quite impossible to describe the deep impression
 
 NIAGARA. 7 
 
 the first view of the large Fall leaves on one's 
 mind. I have seen the Rhine and other Falls, 
 which, compared to Niagara, are as a jet from a 
 fire-hose to the Calder. It is a terrible sight. 
 To say that it is nearly two hundred feet high, 
 and a quarter of a mile across, and that it is 
 computed that one hundred million tons of 
 water go over that one Fall every hour, can give 
 you no idea of its terrific force. After being 
 tossed by rapids, and turned and racked by 
 rocks for over three miles, falling even then one 
 hundred feet, this enormous body of water falls 
 into a terrific abyss ; the foot is enveloped in a 
 vast cloud of spray, dashed up to three times its 
 own height ; the edge is a dark green curtain 
 twenty feet thick. It exceeded far away 
 anything I had expected. There is something 
 supernatural about it, and you gaze, fascinated 
 by the awful thunder and terrible plunge that 
 this ocean-like river takes ; it can be compared 
 to nothing ; it must be seen to be respected.
 
 8 NIAGARA. 
 
 Of course, the first thing is to tear around 
 and see everything, so crossing a little iron 
 bridge I stood immediately over where the water 
 curls and takes its headlong plunge. Here you 
 can get some idea of the height ; below you can 
 see nothing except spray and mist rising higher 
 and higher, and then the river glides away a love- 
 ly emerald colour without a ripple. I think the 
 colour of the water below the Falls is one of 
 the loveliest sights I ever saw. You can get 
 splendid views of it from all parts of the island, 
 notably from the " Three Sisters," where there 
 are some small tails of immense force. After 
 this I went and saw the American Falls, which 
 are grand but are smaller and more symmetrical. 
 
 Proceeding along the island I next saw 
 what to my mind is the most exciting part of 
 Niagara, what is called the Cave of the Winds. 
 At a house on the bank you exchange your 
 clothes for a suit of flannels, and if you wish, a 
 waterproof, which is not the least good, and a
 
 NIAGARA. 9 
 
 pair of canvas shoes, or rather sacking tied round 
 your feet to prevent you from slipping ; and 
 thus attired, are accompanied by a guide. The 
 man who went with me was a hard-bitten old 
 chap who had been at it five-and-twenty years. 
 You descend a circular stair about ninety feet 
 high, one hundred and fifty steps sheer down, 
 and get on the shelving bank of the river and 
 close under the American Fall. To go into the 
 " Cave of the Winds," so called on account of 
 the tremendous gusts, you must pass between 
 the back of the fall and the rock ; you only 
 really pass behind one-fifth of the Fall, which is 
 quite as much as you want. One cannot 
 adequately describe the deafening roar. The 
 only thing in miniature is the grinding of a flour- 
 mill intensified a thousand times. Suddenly 
 you descend a wooden stairs, and you are 
 drenched to the skin, and can neither see the 
 guide nor anything else. A terrific volume of 
 spray strikes you in the face, and you think you
 
 10 NIAGARA. 
 
 are going to be swept away ; you can hardly 
 breathe, such is the terrible commotion behind 
 these waters. You stagger after the guide, who 
 has disappeared in a sheet of water, scramble 
 over rocks, almost beaten back at times, and at 
 last turn to the left, passing through a crack in 
 the falling water curtain. You then get round 
 in front at the foot of the Fall, and endeavour 
 to get a glimpse of the plunging torrent of 
 water two hundred feet above you. Occasionally 
 you see it, and when you do, it is a sight most 
 magnificent ; you pass at the foot and in front 
 of the Fall, despite the driving hurricane of wind 
 and water, and cross the boulders by means of 
 frail wooden bridges, at last getting back again, 
 after a quarter of an hour's pitiless drenching 
 and excitement. The whole scene is grand, and 
 the rainbows, which form a complete circle, are 
 exceedingly beautiful. Some ladies go through 
 it, which says a good deal for their courage, as 
 a number of the opposite sex will not face it.
 
 NIAGARA. 1 1 
 
 This is at the back of the smaller Fall. 
 
 I then crossed to the Canadian side, and 
 went up in a small steamer called the " Maid of 
 the Mist " to the foot of the large Fall. This, 
 too, is certainly one of the most sublime sights. 
 You steam right up to the foot of the big Fall, 
 and such is the enormous mass of water dashing 
 down from it that you cannot really describe it. 
 Of course you are drenched again here. A 
 former steamer being unprofitable was run from 
 the Fall down through the dreadful " Whirlpool " 
 rapids to the lake below. These rapids here race 
 thirty miles an hour, and dash over the rocks 
 thirty and forty feet high. It was through this 
 that poor Captain Webb tried to swim, losing 
 his life in the attempt. It certainly was the 
 maddest freak ever conceived by man, and it is 
 a marvel he got as far as he did alive. A 
 Frenchman advertised a similar attempt, but 
 finding it too cold, or a shower of rain coming 
 on, prevented him taking the water. Froggy
 
 12 NIAGARA. 
 
 walked off with Uncle Sam's dollars in his 
 pocket, which only goes to show how well they 
 manage these things in France. lam afraid I have 
 only given but a poor idea of Niagara, at least 
 of the force of the water. To help you a little, 
 you might remember that the lakes and rivers 
 supplying Niagara cover one hundred and fifty 
 thousand square miles, and the land drained by 
 them some five hundred thousand. 
 
 The next day I went to see the Whirlpool, 
 which is very beautiful, but some of the prettiest 
 scenery in America is spoilt by rock-advertising. 
 It may be invaluable to the invalid in search of 
 health to know that " Dr. Pierce's Patent 
 Pleasant Purgative Pellets are the safest and 
 surest medicine, &c.," or to the man in search of 
 domestic reform to learn that " Robinson's 
 Insecticide is certain death to the New Jersey 
 bed-bug ; " but this useful information is lost to 
 the lover of nature, and succeeds in completely 
 spoiling the effect of the scene. Subsequently
 
 NIAGARA. 13 
 
 I visited the neighbouring tribe of Tuscarora 
 Indians. After a beautiful drive of some eight 
 miles I arrived at their church, which is presided 
 over by an Indian. On the way we met a 
 waggon-load of them going to fish for sturgeon 
 in the rapids below the Falls. They kill them 
 with a three-pronged spear. Their hunting is 
 done away with, and they are usually indolent, 
 preferring to fish and lie about. The church is 
 a small white building on a plateau, commanding 
 a view of the Genesee country, all fruit and corn, 
 with a stretch of the emerald-coloured river 
 tumbling between its steep banks and the deep 
 blue of Lake Ontario in the distance. It 
 certainly equalled anything I had seen in 
 Switzerland. In a few minutes Mr. Mount- 
 pleasant, chief of all the Tuscaroras, drove up. 
 He claims English descent, but I do not know 
 how he works this in with being an Indian chief ; 
 he looks more like the Prefect of a French town. 
 He hitched his horse to a tree, and secreted a
 
 14 NIAGARA. 
 
 cigar stump on a ledge of the porch. Preparatory 
 to going into the " meeting," I had a few words 
 with him. He informed me there were about 
 two hundred Indians on the reservation, which 
 is about seven thousand acres in extent. He 
 settled all civil disputes, but they were, he said, 
 very quiet except when they got any "fire- 
 water." The majority of those I saw bore 
 plainly the stamp of the North American 
 Indian ; the squaws do most of the work. The 
 tribe is fast dying out. What will become of 
 the land ? Will they have a Great Tontine ? 
 If so, the last survivor will have a nice property. 
 I went into the church with him. The 
 proceedings, to say the least, were certainly 
 conducted in a most irregular manner. The 
 congregation consisted of about ten, two old 
 squaws, two Indian lads, and the rest appeared 
 to be choir. One lad studied the index of his 
 hymn-book ; the other was reading I should 
 not like to say a comic, but certainly an
 
 NIAGARA. 1 5 
 
 ^ 
 
 illustrated paper. After playing the organ a 
 short time, the lady in charge of the choir 
 suggested that they should sing a hymn, and 
 this meeting with no opposition from the 
 congregation, with the exception of the two 
 youths, who left the church to lay down in the 
 sun outside, they began to sing what appeared 
 a hymn from Moody and Sankey's collection. 
 Shortly afterwards an Indian minister addressed 
 them in their own tongue, and I left, not very 
 much impressed. The hack-driver suggested 
 that I should give a trifling donation to the 
 chief, but I thought it would spoil all my ideas 
 of Indian chiefs by offering him fifty cents. 
 Subsequently I purchased some of the squaws' 
 work, which was rather clever. On the way 
 back I called at the farm house and had a glass 
 of cider. It was owned by a German family. 
 They came over here forty years ago without a 
 penny, and are now landed proprietors, living 
 happily on their savings, and free from fear of
 
 16 NIAGARA. 
 
 Mr. Chamberlain robbing them of their hard- 
 earned dollars. I thus finished a very enjoyable 
 trip, and will try and send you anything of 
 further interest I see.
 
 Ah ! world unknown ! how charming is thy view, 
 Thy pleasures many, and each pleasure new : 
 Ah ! world experienced ! what of thee is old 1 
 How few thy pleasures, and those few how old ! 
 
 CRABBE. 
 
 NEW YORK TO THE 
 GOLDEN GATE. 
 
 N TRAVELLING across America 
 .and seeing a few of its wonders, 
 the idea struck me that a slight 
 description, however badly put to- 
 gether, would amuse some of those at home, 
 who in all probability would never have an 
 opportunity of seeing them for themselves ; 
 therefore they must, in reading this letter, 
 remember that it is only a letter. The writer
 
 18 NEW YORK TO THE GOLDEN GATE. 
 
 is not gifted with Ouida's pen in describing 
 scenery, or George Augustus Sala's skill in 
 making it chatty and amusing. ' It is an 
 endeavour to give a slight a very slight idea 
 of what can be seen in travelling. I think I 
 told you in a previous letter about the wonders 
 of Niagara. Not to see Niagara by moonlight 
 is not to see it at all, so when I found myself on a 
 Saturday night at Cleveland, Ohio, I determined 
 to run over and see it once again, especially as 
 Cleveland is not an interesting place. It has a 
 few specialities. It is not unlike its namesake 
 in the old country, inasmuch as it is the centre 
 of the great iron industry of America. It has 
 likewise its strikes. Its walls are covered with 
 the stirring announcement that " Citizen So- 
 and-so will address the patriotic sons of So-and- 
 so. Come in your thousands, and assault with 
 rifle, torch, and dynamite ! Vive la drapeau 
 Rouge 1" etc. This last motto must have been a 
 little confusing to some of the untutored sons of
 
 NEW YORK TO THE GOLDEN GATE. 19 
 
 freedom. It is in this matter of Socialism that 
 I think Uncle Sam beats us ; he ignores it. 
 The banker and the landowner no not quake in 
 their shoes. The Socialist is laughed at at the 
 Polls ; he is treated as a " crank ;" off his head 
 in fact, he is not put into such a position of 
 notoriety that he can hold a mass meeting at 
 twenty -five cents a head, a few reserved seats at 
 a dollar, and 'then retire to a snug retreat in the 
 suburb. He may go out into the street and 
 proclaim the President of the Republic to be a 
 blackguard, liar, and thief, and no one would 
 care a red cent. Cleveland also resembles its 
 namesake, as it is fond of horseflesh, and has 
 one of the finest trotting tracks in the States; 
 the tracks here are gravel, not turf. The 
 celebrated Maud S. " lowered the record " from 
 29^ to 28f for trotting a mile just a few* days 
 after I left. Jay-Eye-See, and other celebrated 
 trotters, live here, and it is >a sporting place 
 generally.
 
 20 NEW YORK TO THE GOLDEN GATE. 
 
 It differs from Middlesboro', as it possesses 
 the finest Avenue in the States, it is, I believe, 
 thirteen miles long and broad in proportion 
 but even this did not prove a strong enough 
 attraction to stay Sunday over, so I made up 
 my mind to go again to Niagara. I did not 
 regret it, as by moonlight it is worth travelling 
 fifty times as far to see, and to stand on the 
 suspension bridge below the Falls at night and 
 watch the water below you defies description. 
 
 Below Niagara the river rushes between 
 high banks for some fifteen miles, and flows into 
 Lake Ontario. You take the train down for some 
 ten miles and then meet the boat from Toronto, 
 which takes passengers on board and then 
 returns. Just before you enter the town you 
 pass Hanlan's Island, called after the great 
 Canadian Sculler. 
 
 Toronto was in a state of the utmost 
 excitement in consequence of the return of the 
 expedition against Kiel the half-breed, and his
 
 NEW YORK TO THE GOLDEN GATE. 21 
 
 ally Big Bear the " Indian ;" the expedition con- 
 sisted almost of volunteers taken from the desk 
 and store, and as little accustomed to long walks 
 on empty stomachs as our own volunteers are. 
 They deserved, and I must say received, the 
 utmost credit for their arduous and difficult 
 campaign. They marched and fought for the 
 greater part in an unknown country against a 
 cunning and ferocious enemy, and beat him all 
 ends up. It only shows what volunteers can do, 
 and I think that expedition ought to be of the 
 greatest use in stimulating our own force, as we 
 never know when and for how long we may need 
 the services of those men who so patriotically 
 and generously give up their scanty leisure hours 
 to learn a little soldiering. 
 
 The town was' profusely decorated with 
 triumphal arches, flags, and all sorts of mottoes. 
 One in particular was very touching " Welcome 
 home, dear brother, to your own fireside." But 
 it had its dark side. Some were in mourning,
 
 22 NEW YORK TO THE GOLDEN GATE. 
 
 though I am glad to say the death-roll was very 
 small ; but in a small community it was felt 
 severely. 
 
 I was fortunate enough to meet some of 
 the staff officers, who gave me a very good 
 account of the campaign ; they were loaded 
 with booty, rifles, mocassins, beaded tobacco 
 pouches, snow shoes, and cases of furs. We 
 travelled together on the cars to Knighton, to 
 take the boat down the " Mighty St. Lawrence,'* 
 and as " firewater " formed a part of the booty, 
 and three warriors had not tasted any for some 
 six months, the noise was considerable, and to 
 add to this, we struck a skunk, and anyone who 
 has read the domestic history of this wonderful 
 animal must know that an artificial manure 
 works or an old bone store is a trifle to it. We 
 got on the boat about , four. in the morning, and 
 saw one of the ; prettiest pieces, of scenery in 
 America^-the sun rising on .the St. Lawrence 
 and the thousand isles ; -these innumerable (I
 
 NEW YORK TO THE GOLDEN GATE. 23 
 
 think there are about sixteen hundred of them 
 in all) isles are certainly very pretty : they vary 
 from a rock with a tree on it to a large island 
 some miles long. It takes three or four hours 
 to get through them, and then everyone is on 
 the look-out for " shooting " the rapids. The 
 first rapid looks about a quarter of a mile long ; 
 white foaming water rushing along about thirty 
 miles an hour. But the most exciting one is the 
 Lachine rapid, a few miles above Montreal. 
 There there is certainly an element of danger, 
 and you could step off the boat on to the rocks 
 as you rush past them. An Indian, represented 
 in war paint in the guide book, but in reality a 
 very greasy looking individual, steers the boat ; 
 he has done it over forty years and never had 
 an accident. I had intended to have "shot" it 
 in a canoe ; it is often done, but unfortunately 
 had no time. We passed subsequently under a 
 very fine bridge two miles long, and arrived, after 
 a fourteen hours' trip, at Montreal, one of the
 
 24 NEW YORK TO THE GOLDEN GATE. 
 
 nicest old towns I have ever been in. AJbout 
 the best thing to do at Montreal is to take a 
 carriage and drive up Mount Royal at the back 
 of the town. On the way up you pass the 
 " tobogganing " ground, and when you reach the 
 top you are rewarded by one of the prettiest 
 scenes you can imagine : right over the town of 
 Montreal, over the river St. Lawrence, you can 
 look clear over the country for miles. 
 
 On the way down you pass through a rather 
 rare thing a really picturesque cemetery. 
 The tombstones, just peeping out of the long 
 grass, made it seem the ideal of a last resting 
 place. 
 
 Montreal is the head-quarters of the 
 Canadian fur trade, and we spent some time in 
 looking through the large store of silver fox, 
 sable, wolverine, beaver, sea otter, buffalo, 
 musk-ox, oppossum, and other furs and robes. 
 We learnt that silver fox and sea otter were the
 
 NEW YORK TO THE GOLDEN GATE. 25 
 
 most expensive and most sought after ; the once 
 fashionable sable having decreased tremendously 
 in value. Our old friend the skunk is here 
 dressed up and re-christened Alaska Sable, and 
 his skin is sold mostly to make up those short 
 capes that are so much worn in England. The 
 sea otter and silver fox were quite lovely, being 
 deep black fur with silver points ; they cost as 
 much as twenty-five to thirty-five dollars for a 
 very small skin. Every one wears furs of some 
 sort in Montreal in the winter, either good or 
 bad. The usual kit is two robes and a coat or 
 a set of four for a buggy, two being of beaver 
 and the more lasting kind for the servant. Of 
 course the great thing is to get furs nice to look 
 at ; but light as well as warm. There were 
 some grand specimens of grizzly and polar bear. 
 There is a heavy import duty on furs from 
 Canada into the States, so much so that it is 
 cheaper to pay a man's fare to New York than 
 pay the duty. Of course he wears the furs and
 
 26 NEW YORK TO THE GOLDEN GATE. 
 
 is not taxed. This may not be strictly honest, 
 but is what is generally done. 
 
 Leaving Montreal at night, we passed on 
 our way to New York some lovely lakes, amongst 
 them being Lake George. The moonlight and 
 its shadows on the smooth waters of the lake, 
 and its banks clothsd with dark-looking foliage 
 down to the edge, was very effective. 
 
 Before taking you from New York a second 
 time, I should like to give you some idea of the 
 American hotels. First I would have you bear 
 in mind that many American families make an 
 hotel their home ; this may in some way account 
 for their general excellence. Also, as of course 
 with almost all their institutions, they have had 
 the benefit of European successes and failures to 
 guide them, but whichever way you try to 
 account for it, they certainly have succeeded in 
 placing themselves far away first as hotel keepers. 
 In a modern first-class hotel you will find on the
 
 NEW YORK TO THE GOLDEN GATE. 27 
 
 ground floor a large hall ; at one end is the office 
 where you register your name, get your letters, 
 etc. It is not an inconvenient little place, half 
 living room, half bar, but such an office as you 
 see at a first-rate bank ; here you can get all 
 information as to trains, etc. ; you also state 
 whether you wish to live at so much a day, all 
 included, or only take a room and have your meals 
 at the restaurant. I dislike the American plan 
 of feeding you for so much a day very much 
 if you miss a meal you must pay for it all the 
 same. My idea of living is to order what you 
 want at what time you like ; the American plan 
 is to eat what the cook sees fit, at his time, but 
 in all or nearly all the best hotels, you can live 
 either European or American which you like. 
 
 But to return to the equipment of the 
 house. In another portion of the hall is a 
 news-stand, bookstall, stamps, &c. ; in a third 
 place you find barbers' shops, Turkish and medical 
 baths, telegraph office for the States or Europe,
 
 28 NEW YORK TO THE GOLDEN GATE. 
 
 cigar store, hat and hosiery store, clothes cleaner, 
 and a variety of conveniences depending on 
 the liberality of the house ; and last, but by no 
 manner of means least, comes that great 
 American institution, the l^ar. Most of the bars 
 are gorgeously, and in many cases tastefully, 
 decorated. Here you can get almost any drink, 
 in the shape of a cock-tail, you can think of, but 
 the list of over three hundred names that you 
 see ornamenting some of the so-called American 
 bars in England is for the greater part made up. 
 The most general drinks are claret or whiskey 
 punches, mint juleps, whiskey, and cobblers, 
 but by far the most popular drink, more 
 especially "out West," is the sweetly simple 
 whiskey straight, " Old Bourbon." This is 
 also called " one hundred yard " (killing you in 
 that time) or Tarantula juice. 
 
 I cannot quit the subject of bars without 
 describing you the one at HoiFmann House. The 
 actual counter forms a circle in the centre ; on
 
 NEW YORK TO THE GOLDEN GATE. 29 
 
 the walls are hung costly pictures by celebrated 
 artists, more fitted for the Paris salon than 
 anywhere else, usually of the Nana type, nota- 
 bly beautiful pieces by Bougeran, some of them 
 costing as much as forty thousand dollars, also 
 bits by " Etienne ;" a specimen of Corregio's 
 inimitable work ; tapestries that adorned the 
 vestibules of the third Napoleon, Flemish 
 tapestries of the xvii. century, one or two pictures 
 by English Masters, whilst marble statues, 
 modern and antique bronzes, stand round the 
 room. Small parti-coloured lamps light this 
 costly shrine to Bacchus, and you can feast the 
 eye with real art at the same time as you feast 
 the stomach with real Stilton, lobsters on ice, 
 little neck clam, oysters, and any little delicacy 
 you may fancy, whilst for drink you can get 
 anything, from a glass of sarsaparilla or butter- 
 milk for twenty-five cents, to champagne and 
 claret at fourteen dollars a bottle. Before quitting 
 the liquor question I should just like to say that
 
 30 NEW YORK TO THE GOLDEN GATE. 
 
 prohibition of liquor in Maine, Kansas, and Iowa 
 States has proved an almost entire failure ; in 
 many towns the saloons are publicly open, 
 whilst in others it is always perfectly easy to 
 obtain liquor if you only "know the ropes." To 
 return to hotels, you find on the first floor 
 elegant suites of rooms, as a rule beautifully 
 furnished ; every precaution is taken against 
 fire, outside ladders at the end of every 
 corridor and red lamps placed that show their 
 position through the smoke ; whilst electric fire 
 alarms give the alarm to the night porter. As 
 for prices, at the first-class hotels they are very 
 high ; at medium houses it costs from three to 
 four dollars a day, including all charges. What 
 appears to me to be a paltry charge is fivepence 
 for blacking your boots each day. They are 
 generally blacked on your feet in the hall in the 
 morning. And now a few words as to food. 
 The above remarks as to excellence applies only 
 to the leading houses in large cities ; otherwise
 
 NEW YORK TO THE GOLDEN GATE. 31 
 
 they are often dirty and far too ambitious as to 
 their cooking, having an enormous number of 
 dishes, few of which are palatable. The prevailing 
 complaint in America is dyspepsia, and no 
 wonder. An American often starts each meal 
 with a glass of ice water, but what appears 
 extraordinary to a stranger is the enormous 
 variety and quantity of dishes that he has in 
 front of him, and the pace at which he eats. 
 He thinks nothing of having for dinner soup 
 and fish ; and then, all at one time, on 
 innumerable little dishes, he has, say roast beef, 
 roast duck, ham, potatoes, maccaroni, tomatoes, 
 beans, rice, artichokes, green corn, and other 
 dishes too numerous to mention, at all of which 
 he works rapidly, finishing up with ice cream, 
 and raw fruit and coffee. It takes some time to 
 learn the names of the new dishes, as there are 
 so many of them. Some of them are old friends 
 with new names. Let us take the restaurant 
 card at a first-class New York Hotel. We find
 
 32 NEW YORK TO THE GOLDEN GATE. 
 
 thirty different sorts of vegetables, nearly sixty 
 dishes to order, twenty different fish, and fifteen 
 different ways of cooking clams and oysters, to 
 say nothing of every kind of joint ; cold meat, 
 fifteen different salads, and twenty ice creams, 
 fancy cakes and fresh fruits too numerous to 
 mention, whilst such names as little neck clams* 
 chicken gombo, soup, sheeps-head, bass, baked 
 borgies, blue fish, and king fish, soft shell crab, 
 and boiled squab, golden buck, squash, mush, 
 oyster, plant, sweet peppers, chow-chow, and 
 others, render it at first nearly impossible to 
 order dinner, for fear you should get some new 
 sort of fish instead of an ice-cream, or a rockaway 
 oyster if you thought you were ordering some 
 mashed potatoes ; but after a while you discover 
 all these things, and learn that the cooking 
 equals, and I think excels, that of Eastern 
 cities. 
 
 With regard to the service, as you get 
 West you are waited on, as a rule, by niggers,
 
 NEW YOKK TO THE GOLDEN GATE. 33 
 
 but in the best houses East they have white 
 waiters. Some misguided individual told me 
 it was not the custom to tip servants in America. 
 The only difference I found was that you tipped 
 a great deal more and oftener. 
 
 The climate of the East Atlantic States is, 
 during the months of June, July, and August, 
 very hot and relaxing, and so, having business out 
 West, I took this time of the year to make my 
 journey there. After leaving the Hudson river I 
 again passed over the Niagara rapids on my way 
 West, but the country is entirely devoid of interest 
 till one arrives at Chicago. There I stopped and 
 took a ]ook at the great hog slaughtering 
 establishments. They were well worth a visit ; 
 the stockyards are some three miles from the 
 town ; you reach them by that most convenient 
 mode of travel in large cities, the cable car. 
 When once you get in the stockyards, you look 
 about for any signs of hogs, but can't see any ; 
 yet they are nevertheless steadily marching on
 
 34 NEW YORK TO THE GOLDEN GATE. 
 
 to death in those black wooden bridges that cross 
 the yards over your head. They are slipped out 
 of the cars and are gently driven in herds till 
 they all in time arrive at one point, the 
 slaughter-house. When you get to this same 
 slaughter-house, you are astounded at what one 
 could almost call the science to which pig-sticking 
 has been brought. Who has not been present, 
 when a boy, at the death of the domestic hog, 
 who after having been partially stunned by a 
 coal hammer in his stye, is hunted through the 
 asparagus bed and young potatoes, and is finally 
 killed by the gardener in the melon frame, with 
 a blunt pocket knife. But it is rather different 
 here. When they get to the slaughter, or to 
 speak more correctly, " packing house," they are 
 forced into pens a man with a " bull whacker " 
 driving them in, and in general, seeing to the 
 circulation ; they pass some five or six pens, till 
 finally they arrive at the last one. Here they 
 get a rather apprehensive air, not unlike the
 
 NEW YORK TO THE GOLDEN GATE. 35 
 
 patients in a fashionable doctor's waiting room, 
 but it's no go turning back ; an iron ring is put 
 round piggy's leg and he is hoisted up in the 
 air, and passes over the side to the hands of the 
 executioner. Here is a really disgusting sight. 
 As the hog passes him, he sticks it once, and it 
 passes on bleeding profusely into the " presence 
 room," as you might call it, where some score of 
 hogs are sliding away, kicking with their throats 
 cut. The executioner kills some four or five 
 thousand a day ; he receives a pound a day 
 wages, and deserves it, as he stands up to his 
 knees in blood. As each hoggets to the end of 
 the section he drops into a trough of boiling 
 water, and is, after a minute or two, pulled out, 
 and all the hair scratched off by machinery. He 
 is then rolled along a table, and any small 
 pieces of hair on him are taken off by hand, 
 when he is again hauled up by the hind legs, and 
 his inside taken out, each being neatly put into 
 its own barrel. A little of the smell here goes 
 a long way. He then takes quite a journey
 
 36 NEW YORK TO THE GOLDEN GATE. 
 
 round the room, through a passage, till he conies 
 to a large chamber. With one stroke he is 
 divided ; five more strokes make him into ham, 
 sides of bacon, and head. Salt is put over him, 
 and he goes through a hole in the floor to a 
 cooling-chamber, where he lays till he is wanted 
 for packing. They dispose of six hogs a minute, 
 for ten hours a day. 
 
 On the other side one can see the cattle 
 slaughtered. They are all separately penned 
 and then shot, afterwards going through similar 
 operations as the hogs. The amount of hogs 
 killed in one establishment daily was, when I 
 was there, 4,000, and cattle 1,000 ; but this 
 packing house is, I believe, capable of doing 
 double this business. Nothing is wasted 
 skin, hair, scraps, and blood, all are used, but it 
 must require careful management to work this 
 huge machine, so that nothing occurs to stop 
 the ever-coming pigs. Chicago received in one 
 year the enormous quantity of 7,059,355 hogs,
 
 NEW YORK TO THE GOLDEN GATE. 37 
 
 and 1,382,477 cattle. Of this she shipped 
 1,394,990 hogs, and 886,614 cattle. 
 
 The number of lines that run from Chicago 
 to Omaha, Kansas City, is legion. Each and all 
 claim some superiority; one has better "sleepers," 
 another better dining-rooms, whilst a third offers 
 you better sleeping, better eating than all the 
 rest together, to say nothing of the fact that it 
 has patent paper and steel rim wheels, Miller's 
 patent platforms, rock ballast, no "washouts," 
 and twenty other little advantages that are 
 supposed to decide the mind of the vacillating 
 traveller. I chose the line which connects up 
 with the Missouri River in Nebraska, which 
 eventually lands you in Denver. I divided the 
 journey into certain sections. The first is of 
 course the more civilized, and as you get further 
 West you get it wilder, but there is one thing 
 that is hard to impress on anyone who has not 
 crossed the States, and that is its immense size, 
 may say that it is three thousand miles
 
 38 NEW YOKK TO THE GOLDEN GATE. 
 
 across, or that it takes six days and six nights 
 continuous travelling, but that can give very 
 little impression of the apparently boundless 
 tracts of country one passes through one day 
 in a wheat field, another in a corn (maize) field, 
 a day on the plains, or a night in the mountains, 
 that is the scale on which things are done. 
 Let us take Illinois alone, the first State through 
 which we pass on our way West. This is highly 
 cultivated, and is not to be confounded with any 
 of the cattle raising States, such as Texas, 
 Wyoming, and New Mexico. Illinois produced 
 2,177,889,496 bushels of corn in ten years, or an 
 average of 217, 788, 950 bushels a year. Also an 
 average of 35,887,949 bushels of wheat, and 
 58,153,070 bushels of oats, in addition to which 
 she has enormous crops of rye, barley, and 
 buckwheat. Iowa, which is the next State, 
 produced similar amounts. I quote these figures 
 in order to give you some idea of the enormous 
 scale on which wheat, corn, and other cereals
 
 NEW YORK TO THE GOLDEN GATE. 39 
 
 are grown ; of course these are only two States, 
 and not large States either. When we think 
 of some forty other States all producing in 
 prodigious quantities, some wheat, rice, sugar, 
 cotton, tobacco, cattle, hogs, sheep, gold and 
 silver, if you can but grasp the idea of the 
 quantity of all these and many other articles, 
 you must be prejudiced indeed, if the manner 
 in which they are produced and handled does 
 not gain your praise. You may not care for their 
 politics, their form of Government, or their social 
 arrangements, but their success in business, 
 their energy, their push and daring in commerce, 
 and pertinacity and spirit of enterprise in 
 agriculture, must always make the Americans 
 the object of admiration to any-one who is 
 fortunate enough to see their country and study 
 their character. 
 
 One gets a little tired, after passing these 
 endless crops of corn, and you are glad when 
 the coloured man turns the car into a sleeper,
 
 40 NEW YORK TO THE GOLDEN GATE. 
 
 and you turn in. It is very disagreeable if the 
 car is full, as you have to go through the opera- 
 tion of dressing in the morning in bed. I usually 
 got up early and had comparatively clear decks, 
 but it is far from comfortable, as the washing 
 arrangements are very scanty, though the 
 company, with far-seeing liberality, supply the 
 car with a tooth brush for the crowd. The journey 
 as far as Denver is not very interesting ; you 
 still pass through corn, wheat, and small towns. 
 The rivers of Missouri and Mississipi afford some 
 little interest, but the principal excitement was 
 reserved till we were some two hundred miles 
 west of Denver. Here we met a storm, and a 
 storm on the plains is no trifle. I was asleep 
 with the window open and a dust window in. 
 It started by sweeping all my bed-clothes off. 
 Crash went the roof of a freight car next to us ; 
 the train was stopped, and the Pullman rocked 
 like a ship at sea. It is impossible to describe 
 the force of the wind ; for an hour the lightning
 
 NEW YORK TO THE GOLDEN GATE. 41 
 
 was terrible. Not for a single second did sheet 
 and forked lightning cease playing around us. 
 It was an awful storm, at least so it appeared to 
 me, and on enquiry subsequently I found it was 
 the worst one they had had for some time. It 
 stopped us for more than two hours, and then 
 we proceeded slowly with men on push cars in 
 front of the engine to look for "wash-outs." 
 
 The rest of the journey was still rather 
 monotonous, but interesting for the first time. 
 We gradually got out of the cultivated ground 
 and struck the plains those boundless billows of 
 short grass which at one time must have covered 
 nearly the whole cf the country West of New 
 York State. I " struck " an old resident, who 
 amused me very much -with his accounts of 
 buffalo hunting in old times, when his boat was 
 delayed half a day on the Missouri river by the 
 buffaloes crossing the stream. Indeed, not so 
 very long ago it was possible to see game from 
 the cars, but at present one sees nothing unless
 
 42 NEW YORK TO THE GOLDEN GATE. 
 
 it be a chicken hawk, or a few prairie dogs ; 
 in a great many places steps are being taken by 
 the far-seeing inhabitants to protect what Mr. 
 Chamberlain calls " the barbarous sports of the 
 well-to-do." A propos of that, I see that the 
 abolition of the game laws is a strong plank in 
 the Radical platform. Now, I should like to 
 ask any sensible working man, does he think 
 that if the game laws were entirely swept away 
 to-morrow, that he should be allowed, on a 
 Saturday afternoon say, to roam at his will over 
 the neighbouring farms and try his luck for a 
 hare for Sunday ? He may rest assured of this, 
 that whether the land was owned by landlord, 
 peasant proprietor, or some local communist, he 
 would no more be allowed to shoot on land that 
 he did not own, than that some sporting miners 
 would be allowed to enjoy free rat hunts in, say . 
 one of Mr. John Bright's mills. 
 
 As long as property has any rights at all, 
 so long will the law of trespass have to be
 
 NEW YORK TO THE GOLDEN GATE. 43 
 
 respected. These laws exist in even the most 
 democratic countries Switzerland and America. 
 You have no more right to cross a man's land 
 even in the wilds of California, if he objects, 
 than you have to cross the park of a nobleman 
 in England. I cannot but think that those 
 who are opposed to our very liberal game laws 
 are opposed to them on the same grounds that 
 the Puritans objected to bull baiting : not 
 because of the pain it gave the bull, but because 
 of the pleasure it gave the spectators ; so it is not 
 because of any particular harm it does the 
 country, but because of the amusement it gives 
 to those who participate in the sport. I say 
 liberal game laws, because it is not confined to 
 any " lord of the manor " or "squire," as in the 
 old time, but is open to any one who can pay 
 for it. It is valuable because there is only a 
 certain amount. It is in great demand, so in 
 order to have it you must, as the Yankees say, 
 treat it as straight up and down business. I
 
 44 NEW YORK TO THE GOLDEN GATE. 
 
 do not shoot myself, or personally care twopence 
 if I never saw a pheasant again, but the only 
 result I can see of the abolition of the game 
 laws is, that wealthy people, instead of going 
 into the country and spending their money 
 there in the winter months, would spend it in 
 Egypt, shooting in Algeria, on the Rocky 
 Mountains, in Paris or Vienna, or generally 
 travelling abroad in a decent climate, as few 
 people would care to live six months in a 
 clay country, with nothing to do in the way of 
 recreation. The amount of damage done, except 
 in a few cases, is nothing as compared with the 
 trade it makes. It is in my opinion as 
 legitimate and sound an attraction to the 
 country as a new pier or an aquarium to a 
 struggling watering place. 
 
 But to resume our journey. I was advised to 
 stay a day at Denver, but regretted I did not spend 
 it at Colorado Springs instead, as I should then 
 have had time to visit the wonderful " Garden
 
 NEW YOKK TO THE GOLDEN GATE. 45 
 
 of the Gods," and other places. Denver is not much 
 of a place of interest ; it is simply remarkable 
 that such a large, thriving city should have been 
 established so many hundreds of miles from 
 anywhere. But it is here you get the first 
 glimpse of the Rocky Mountains. What first 
 strikes you is the crystal clearness of the air ; 
 everything seems so distinct, so sharp, and is in 
 this respect so different from any other mountain 
 scenery, not a cloud to be seen : 
 
 " And they were canopied by the blue sky, 
 " So cloudless, clear, and purely beautiful, 
 "That God, alone, was to be seen in heaven." 
 
 They seem to rise abruptly out of the prairie ; 
 you cannot take your eyes off them, whilst in 
 the background Pikes Peak keeps watch over 
 the enormous range. What strange scenes he 
 must have looked on, when the Indian, and the 
 bear, and jaguar held undisputed sway, when the 
 first adventurous settlers dragged their weary 
 way across the vast plains we have crossed with 
 such ease, and when the greed for gold created
 
 46 NEW YORK TO THE GOLDEN GATE. 
 
 the great rushes to that part of the country, 
 when every man's motto was, " Pikes Peak or 
 bust," when Denver and Pueblo were full of 
 miners, gamblers, thieves, and men and women of 
 the worst and wildest character, when " shooting 
 on sight " and lynching were of daily occurrence, 
 and when every man carried his scales (as well as 
 his pistol) in his pocket to weigh out his " dust," 
 but now the most warlike crowd you see is a 
 party of cowboys from the plains " painting the 
 town red," though, of course, there are 
 occasional shootings in the saloons. Denver is 
 an important town on account of its proximity 
 to the mining towns of Leadville, etc., some 
 twenty-six millions of dollars in gold and silver 
 being produced in the adjacent mines. There 
 are also some important copper smelting works. 
 A few hours after leaving Denver, and after 
 passing the small towns of Colorado Springs and 
 Manitou Springs, the line turns sharp to the 
 right, through Pueblo, which is, by the way,
 
 NEW YORK TO THE GOLDEN GATE. 47 
 
 one of the hottest places I ever was in, so hot, 
 in fact, that the natives assert that the railway 
 lines get up and lay in the shade till they see a 
 train coming, and then lay themselves down 
 again, and where just through the town we hear 
 several sharp shrieks of the whistle and we all 
 put our heads out of the window, just in time to 
 see the "cow-catcher" kill one heifer and break 
 another's leg. This is repeated two or three 
 times, once catching a horse, and as the company 
 has to pay for it, it must have knocked the 
 profit off that trip, but they go full tilt ahead all 
 the time. After these incidents we seriously 
 commence the attack, by entering the first 
 gorge of the Rockies, called the grand canon of 
 the Arkansas. It is indeed an awe-inspiring 
 sight as the train, a tiny speck, crawls round the 
 ledges of rock, shut in on each side by those 
 enormous rocks, which rise sheer away to the 
 almost incredible height of four thousand feet ; 
 you can just see the blue sky above by craning
 
 48 NEW YORK TO THE GOLDEN GATE. 
 
 your neck. The engineering and scenery on 
 this, the Rio Grande Railway, fairly defy 
 description, the gradient at times being as much 
 as two hundred feet in a mile. If one thinks 
 one is going to scale this range in an hour or 
 two, one is vastly mistaken ; the more canons 
 you go through the more ranges, hills, and 
 mountains one sees stretching away for hundreds 
 of miles, heaped up in a seemingly endless 
 confusion of jagged peaks. Each turn shews 
 you some new form of inimitable mass of 
 colouring. Each mountain is a vast range of 
 itself. In one canon vou can see the sun shin in g 
 
 u O 
 
 brilliantly, whilst in the same glance you see a 
 storm of mist and rain driving up a valley that 
 is a country of itself. The wildest scenery 
 you ever saw in Scotland is like, say Woodhouse 
 Moor, in comparison to the awful grandeur of 
 the Rockies ; all the time you are mounting up 
 the steepest grades, going so slow, although 
 driven by two powerful locomotives, that you 
 can get on and off the cars.
 
 NEW YORK TO THE GOLDEN GATE. 49 
 
 At 4,000 feet my aneroid goes smash, but 
 still there is no cessation in scenery. Chain 
 after chain of mountains, pile upon pile of rocks, 
 thrown into the most fantastic shapes by some 
 awful struggle, till after four or five hours 
 panting, groaning, struggling, we arrive at the 
 summit, only a few feet below the timber line, 
 and in the region of everlasting snow, twelve 
 thousand feet above the level of the sea. Here 
 the scenery is so unnaturally wild and weird 
 that one cannot but think of the insignificant 
 littleness of man. Once on the top we slide 
 pretty quickly through canon and under snow 
 sheds to the other side, but it takes most of 
 the night ; and in the morning, about four, we 
 are awoke with the pleasant intelligence that a 
 " washout" has swept away a bridge, and we 
 must transfer ourselves and baggage to another 
 train on the other side, which operation takes 
 about two hours. These washouts came down 
 like a torrent, rising as much as ten feet in five
 
 50 NEW YORK TO THE GOLDEN GATE. 
 
 minutes. One Chinaman, in fact, only just 
 escaped with his life, leaving his coat hanging 
 on the arch. After getting settled in the new 
 train we can take a look round. We find 
 ourselves in those terrible Alkali Deserts. I 
 say terrible because it is impossible to exclude 
 the dust, which is impalpable and covers every- 
 thing. The colour of the ground tries the eyes, 
 and you are tormented with an unconquerable 
 thirst ; for two days we go through this ; you 
 can see nothing but dried mud and alkali for 
 hundreds of miles. Sometimes you see a small 
 party of Indians, queer-looking objects, on their 
 funny Indian ponies, as ragged looking as their 
 owners. 
 
 At some of the stations there are a fe\v 
 Indian squaws, horrid looking, greasy, fat, and 
 ugly, with a curious looking " papoose," all 
 wired up in a wicker work basket, and carried 
 on its mother's back. They devour anything in 
 the way of broken meat with greediness, but
 
 NEW YORK TO THE GOLDEN GATE. 51 
 
 are almost too lazy to go and pick up coin ; as 
 for running to get it, the idea would never enter 
 their heads. They are the lowest type of 
 humanity, and after seeing a few for curiosity, 
 you are disgusted with them. 
 
 After the day's travel, which has indeed 
 been a trying one, you approach that much 
 talked of city, Salt Lake. I was assured there 
 was nothing very much to see except the 
 tabernacle, so did not stop. Some people 
 have an idea that they will see a Mormon 
 with half a dozen wives following him, but I 
 believe it is just like any other town. A man, 
 if he wants more than one wife, must keep 
 up a separate home for each, but the Government 
 are harassing them very much now, as polygamy 
 is illegal, and the poor old elders of the Church 
 are having a hot time of it. There are a great 
 many Gentiles, as non-Mormons are called, who 
 live in Utah, who don't believe in polygamy. 
 It is said to be impossible to sink in the great
 
 52 NEW YORK TO THE GOLDEN GATE. 
 
 Salt Lake, one native assuring me that it is 
 possible to drive a herd of cattle to an island on 
 the lake. But all the salt in the lake would 
 not make me swallow that. After passing 
 through Ogden we sleep, and on waking find 
 ourselves in Nevada. It is the same sort of 
 desert a journey to go on once, for curiosity, 
 but never again. What a blessing when the 
 Panama Canal is finished ! But it grows better 
 in the evening, as we approach the magnificent 
 cordon of mountains, the Sierra Nevada. The 
 range possesses, I believe, scenery equal to the 
 Rockies, but unfortunately we passed its glories 
 in the night. One thing we were lucky enough 
 to escape, we never struck any mosquitoes. 
 They are a great nuisance, and I suffered very 
 much from them in some places. Talking of 
 them reminds me of two Irishmen who were 
 sleeping in the same room for the first time on 
 a farm in South Carolina, and were terribly 
 bitten by these insects. At last, in desperation
 
 NEW YORK TO THE GOLDEN GATE. 53 
 
 they hid themselves under the clothes. After 
 half an hour one says to the other, " Pat," says 
 he, "lookout and see if those murtherous bastes 
 are gone." Pat looks out, and sees some fire- 
 flies at the foot of the bed. " Holy murther," 
 says he, " it's no good hiding, Mike ; there's 
 more than a hundred of the haythins come back 
 to look for us with lanterns." 
 
 We were glad indeed to get to Sacramento, 
 and have a decent breakfast. It seemed a nice 
 town, with its cupola of gold. In a few hours, 
 after crossing a ferry in the largest ferry boat 
 in the world the boilers fired by petroleum 
 we arrived at San Francisco, the Metropolis 
 of the Pacific, the Capital of the Golden State, 
 and the City of the Golden Gate.
 
 " The sim shall not smite thee by day, nor the moon by 
 night." PSALM cxxi. 
 
 THE GOLDEN STATE, 
 
 iHO has not thought of Cali- 
 fornia ? and queer thoughts, 
 too. some of them have been ; a 
 mixture of revolvers and bowie- 
 , knives,"^ silver kings and China- 
 
 men, of rough life, and association with men in red 
 flannel shirts and blue pants shoved into their 
 boots. And yet, with all its civilization, a savour 
 of these things lingers round the State even now. 
 Perhaps no State in the Union has seen such 
 changes, and gone through such " tough" scenes.
 
 THE GOLDEN STATE. 55 
 
 Inhabited by the Indians and the Mexican 
 " greaser" people, we knew and cared nothing 
 for California. Then came the gold rush of '46, 
 and American life and customs soon swept 
 away any wealth and luxury there might have 
 been among the Mexican Californian, and left, 
 as the only sign as to what had been, the much- 
 abused sun-worshipping "greasei." But now 
 all is changed ; and San Francisco is one of the 
 sights of America. No city in the Union 
 possesses such hotels, such streets, such luxury. 
 From a dirty little town where, in the wet 
 season, men, cattle, and trams used to be almost 
 buried in the sludge, it has sprung up to be, in 
 my opinion, the cleanest, brightest, and best 
 arranged town in America. Some say gold was 
 the curse of California, others that it was the 
 making of it. There is no doubt that, though 
 the wish to make money quickly, either by 
 mining or gambling in stocks, has produced some 
 terrible spells of depression, it nevertheless
 
 56 THE GOLDEN STATE. 
 
 attracted to the State all the most energetic and 
 venturesome people. The weak, plodding, look- 
 before -you -leap element dropped out on the way, 
 and only those with most push arrived in the 
 State, and the Pioneers had their reward, as the 
 handsome residences on " Nob Hill " testify. 
 
 We live in a lucky age, for now is the time 
 to visit California. You can still enjoy a certain 
 amount of the old wildness in the interior, and 
 when you are tired of it you can run to San 
 Francisco and sit down to an eight o'clock 
 dinner that even Paris could not beat. What a 
 starting point, too, for excursions for sport and 
 scenery ! Given six months vacation, there is 
 no place I would sooner start from than San 
 Francisco, for the Yosemite Valley, with its 
 wonderful scenery, the geysers, the petrified 
 forests in Calistoga county, the big trees at 
 Mariposa over three hundred feet high, and 
 through one of which an archway, capable of 
 sheltering a wagon and four horses, has been
 
 THE GOLDEN STATE. 57 
 
 cut a sail North to see the wonders of Puget 
 Sound, or further still, to the almost unexplored 
 regions of Alaska. Whilst for sport the 
 Columbia river and its tributaries give the finest 
 salmon fishing in the world, and you can, if 
 properly posted, shoot deer, antelope, black and 
 cinnamon bear, and in the Sierra Nevada get a 
 shot at a grizzly. But if you shoot at him, 
 shoot straight, and not when he is up hill, or 
 you will never again enjoy a canvass-back duck 
 at " Marchands," or stewed Terrapin at " The 
 Poodle Dog." 
 
 But to return to San Francisco. Of course 
 you stop at the Palace, far away the finest hotel 
 I have ever seen in any country, and when you 
 drive in through its enormous doors you are 
 astonished at its marble courtyard, whilst tier 
 after tier of white galleries run up to the glass 
 roof. It is a model house on an enormous scale, 
 capable of making up two thousand five hundred 
 beds, and every room has a separate bath-roorn
 
 58 THE GOLDEN STATE. 
 
 attached. And yet in a few days you are as 
 much at home as if you were in a private hotel, 
 whilst everyone seems to make it his especial 
 business to wait on you, and you are not 
 patronised by that objectionable Eastern American 
 individual, who, with his feet on the back of a 
 chair, hands you the key of your room, making 
 at the time an accurate shot at the spittoon at 
 your feet. One thing you do get West of the, 
 Kockies, and that is courtesy, and by courtesy, 
 I do not mean servility, but a wish to see you 
 " through " right. What fruit you can get at 
 breakfast ? And no wonder, for has not California 
 strawberries nine months in the year ? whilst 
 peaches, pears, orang-es, apples, figs, and grapes, 
 and every sort of berry follow each ether in rapid 
 succession. The fruit in the hotel is as dear as 
 in New York, but outside, Black Hamburgs. 
 such as you pay 8s. a pound for in England, are 
 sold for a mere trifle, and ordinary grapes at 
 something like three cents a pound. The first
 
 THE GOLDEN STATE. 59 
 
 thing to do is to drive out to the Cliff House 
 and get a glimpse of the Pacific, or better 
 still, take a cable car. These cars are very elegant, 
 no dirt, no noise. The cable runs underground 
 at the rate of eight miles an hour ; there are no 
 collisions, and no more people are hurt than by 
 the horse cars, and last, but not least, they run 
 up the steep California streets, at an angle of 
 45, as fast as they run on the flat. What a 
 blessing they would be at Bradford for instance ! 
 
 But they do not run through the park, so we 
 get out and enjoy a four miles walk over the 
 most level road, and through the finest park in 
 America. 1 do not know its acreage, but it is 
 four or five miles long, and I should say as much 
 in breadth ; the greater part of it is still 
 unimproved or only just straightened-up, but 
 about a-third is laid out most beautifully, and 
 contains a fine conservatory. A. band plays here 
 on Sundays, arid thousands of the toilers of San 
 Francisco come out, listen to the music, and enjoy
 
 60 THE GOLDEN STATE. 
 
 themselves in a rational manner, without, I think, 
 in any way having jeopardised their chances of 
 meeting their straight-laced English cousins in 
 the happy hereafter. Whilst on the topic of 
 parks, I have seen discussions ahout a public 
 park for Wakefield, and Heath Common has 
 entered into this discussion. Many people say 
 it is too far. I would say that all the parks of 
 the American cities are a considerable way from 
 the towns, but this does not seem any hindrance 
 to people visiting them. It is infinitely more 
 healthy, and does people a great deal more 
 physical good to get clear out of the town, than 
 to sit in a park surrounded by houses. 
 
 In the middle of the park there is also a 
 capital conservatory, at one time containing some 
 very rare flowers, but unfortunately, a short 
 time since, the greater part was burnt down, 
 and all the wonderful flowers were burnt with it. 
 The grounds and roads are capitally kept, con- 
 sidering the area of the place. It is a great
 
 THE ({OLDEN STATE. 61 
 
 resort for the well-to-do San Franciscans in the 
 afternoon. They come here in their characteristic 
 buggys, arid their chief enjoyment is to drive 
 slowly for a time, and then what they call ' speed 
 up." " Speeding up " is not the easy operation 
 you might imagine it to be ; all sorts of little 
 details must be observed. First of all it is no use- 
 speeding up when .there is no one to see you, 
 as part of the fun evidently consists in making 
 people stare at you. I remember an American 
 at Carlsbad, above all places, who used to speed 
 up amongst the water drinkers, which, as some 
 of them had come for the sake of their nerves, 
 did not afford them much gratification. But 
 then the American succeeded in attracting 
 attention, which was all he wanted. Then you 
 must take hold of your reins half way down ; it 
 is immaterial whether the horse pulls or not, and 
 <>f course you set your feet firmly against each 
 side of the buggy as if Maud S. herself was 
 pulling at you. Neither must you forget the
 
 62 THE GOLDEN STATE. 
 
 expression of your face; your eyes must be set 
 with a fixed determined sort of look, and you 
 must have a general sort of stern Napoleon-at- 
 the-battle-of- Waterloo expression in your face. 
 Then you carefully calculate your distance from 
 the largest and greenest looking party on the 
 side path, and with a dozen preliminary hauls 
 at the mouth of the wretched, long-jointed, weak 
 hocked, bad shouldered brute from the dollar- 
 an-hcur livery stable, you say, " git up and git," 
 and you fly past the admiring crowd. Of course, 
 directly you get round the corner out of sight 
 you pull up and "lay for" the next peail-pow- 
 dered group you see. Naturally there are a few 
 really neat looking turn-outs ; but the majority 
 are dirty, horse, harness, and carriage being as 
 a rule kept at a livery yard, where of course 
 they do not get much attention, and one misses 
 sadly the neat, clean, solid look of our English 
 turnouts. Not unnaturally, we felt rather excited 
 to get a whiff of the sea after a three thousand
 
 THE GOLDEN STATE. 63 
 
 mile ride, but I regret to say the smell of the 
 briny was not improved by the carcase of a dead 
 whale which Jonathan exhibited on the beach at 
 five cents a head, whilst the immediate approach 
 to the Cliff House was set off by an enormous 
 wooden figure of St. Jacob, holding in his hand 
 a bottle of oil with which his name has been 
 recently associated ; whilst on all sides we were 
 beset to buy the succulent parched pea-nut, or 
 the still more nutritious banana ; whilst, if you 
 are blase of these dissipations, a large beer hall 
 and skating rink are at your disposal. 
 
 We soon arrived at the Cliff House ; it is 
 built on the edge of the cliff, and faces the rocks 
 where the famous sea lions are. It was an 
 extraordinary sight to see these huge ungainly 
 animals lying out in the sun hundreds of them, 
 growling and yelping, and swimming around. 
 They are never molested, and apparently enjoy 
 themselves. We then went to the top of the
 
 64 THE GOLDEN STATE. 
 
 hill to go through Sutro heights, called after 
 Mr. Sutro, a gentleman whose acquaintance T 
 was fortunate enough to make in the interior, 
 and who very kindly permitted me to see hi* 
 grounds and library. Mr. Sutro is famous in 
 America for his great engineering feat of drain- 
 ing the celebrated Cornstock mines by a seven 
 mile tunnel, and is now devoting his millions to the 
 benefit of the San Franciscans. He has turned 
 several acres of barren sand into the most lovely 
 gardens, shaded from the wind, and filled with 
 flowering shrubs, eucalipti, and flowers from all 
 over the world ; he intends to place his library 
 of some three hundred thousand volumes, pur- 
 chased mostly in England, in a house in the 
 grounds, and make a present of it to the city. 
 It is just on the edge of the cliff, and commands 
 the most lovely view of the Golden Gate ; the 
 sea breaking over the bar, and the bay of San 
 Francisco, with its bluff headlands, forming one 
 of the prettiest scenes on the Pacific slope.
 
 THE GOLDEN STATE. 65 
 
 Before leaving San Francisco, this letter 
 would be incomplete without an account of China 
 Town, which occupies quite a considerable portion 
 of the city. It is safe enough to visit it during 
 the day, but it is better to go with a detective 
 at night, for* he will show you the sights most 
 worth seeing. There are some fifty thousand 
 Chinese living in it, and it is next to impossible 
 to say how they huddle together not an inch 
 is lost. For instance, a tailor will sleep under 
 his bench or a shop-keeper on his shelves. In 
 every nook and cranny there is John huddled 
 up. How they live, in the most abominable 
 stenches to which the hog slaughtering at 
 Chicago was a trifle with no drainage, no 
 ventilation, and the streets and alleys full of 
 people, resembling an ant's nest, beats me. 
 There is not the slightest attempt at cleaning 
 an alley, and yet, strange to say, they are 
 personally the cleanest people, living in one 
 continual wash, which is deposited on the floor.
 
 66 THE GOLDEN STATE. 
 
 In visiting their wooden houses you pass through 
 apparently miles of narrow streets ; you rather 
 rudely, I thought, investigate their houses, but 
 wherever you look there are innumerable (Jhinee 
 " Washee Washee " men cleaning themselves. 
 They just " lokee up " at the " Melikan man," 
 and go on " washee-washee." You are pretty 
 sure to be near the mark if you address him as 
 John Lee or Lee Sam or Ah Sam. They have 
 stores and very funny stores ; everything in a 
 food store, say, appears to be ready, roasted 
 whole, pig, sausages, greasy looking ducks, etc. 
 Their "joss houses" are very funny : gods are 
 all around, gods to the weather, gods to drink 
 gods to their food, and medicine. They are 
 rather dark and smell of some sort of incense 
 they burn. John lays around smoking ; he does 
 not drink much, but is an inveterate smoker, 
 and the whole interior reminds one, with its 
 gongs and carvings, of a rather dirty old curiosity 
 shop. We come out and go to have tea at a
 
 THE GOLDEN STATE. 67 
 
 restaurant. The tea is put in one tea cup and 
 boiling water poured on it, and then turned into 
 another cup to drink ; it is almost colourless 
 but very good. They give you the most 
 extraordinary, yet most delicious, preserved 
 fruits and ginger. We then prepare to visit 
 the opium dens. They are illegal and are 
 generally underground bare dark rooms with 
 shelves round them on which lie the Chinamen, 
 and the air is dense with an infernal smell. 
 They generally smoke in couples, helping each 
 other, and lay like logs with . a stare in their 
 eyes, far off in the land of roses. Occasionally 
 you are offered a pull with the words " Melican 
 man often smokee." The detective stands 
 outside ; he has often seen it, and cannot stand 
 the smell. I went in for a thorough investigation, 
 but it is sickening and disgusting. 
 
 After seeing a few, we paid a hurried visit to 
 the lady who keeps a live edible cat and dog store, 
 and proceeded by a variety of passages to the
 
 68 THE GOLDEN STATE. 
 
 theatre. Who can describe a Chinese theatre ? 
 I can't, at least, give you much idea as 
 to what it really resembles. The building 
 is like an ordinary music hall, and is chock 
 full of Chinamen. The piece lasts, I believe, 
 several days, and they usually play some ten 
 hours at a sitting. The thing that strikes 
 you most is the band. The bandsmen sit on the 
 stage just behind the actors, and make the most 
 dreadful din ever heard by human ear. No time 
 or tune. Every man has an instrument or two 
 which he hits or blows as he likes, or how he 
 likes, or leaves it alone. The noise is indescri- 
 bable. One man only appears to do anything 
 with any regularity, and for hours he bangs a 
 tin drum ; he pays no attention to anyone, but 
 just bangs away. Others produced sounds from 
 other I was going to say musical instruments, 
 but they simply clang, shriek, pull stringed 
 instruments which produce ear- piercing notes, 
 to which the shrill key of a bagpipe is as music
 
 THE GOLDEN STATE. 09 
 
 drifted down from heaven. Such an extraor- 
 dinary shindy is incredible, unless you have 
 heard it. In the midst of all this, a highly 
 decorated individual shrieks at the top of his 
 falsetto voice, and occasionally decapitates an 
 imaginary Chinaman ; then a crowd bustle on 
 the stage, and as quickly bustle off. The stage 
 is also crowded with all sorts of people having 
 nothing to do with the piece. We are on the 
 stage, sometimes with the band and sometimes 
 with the actors. I narrowly escaped a severe 
 blow on the head from the decapitating gentle- 
 man, and the rows of smug-faced Chinese in the 
 "stalls" sent up an oily smile. There is no 
 scenery. At last, deafened and hustled, and 
 sickened with the smell of the main drain, which 
 apparently flows under the stage, we left, and 
 were thankful to find ourselves in the open air 
 again. If we called again in a week or two we 
 should no doubt see the end of this extraordinary 
 drama.
 
 70 THE GOLDEN STATE. 
 
 There is a great agitation going on in the 
 Pacific slope as to the Chinese labour. Naturally 
 the working men don't " freeze on" John, as he 
 lives on a handful of rice, is a skilful copyist, 
 and controls the shoe and cigar business. The 
 middle classes pretend to sympathise with the 
 Americans, but patronise Chinese labour when- 
 ever they think no one is looking. The Govern- 
 ment forbids Chinese emigration, but somehow 
 or other they manage to slip in. I fully 
 sympathise with the white labour, and should 
 vote in favour of keeping cheap Chinese labour 
 out under the circumstances ; but I fail to see 
 how they can turn fifty thousand out all in a 
 batch, now that they are in. Besides, they are 
 not going the right way about it. Their meetings 
 are very lawless and demoralised, being presided 
 over by a very violent man, whose verbosity is 
 only equalled by the great and good Gladstone. 
 I fear there will be serious trouble before the 
 question is settled. The bottom of the whole
 
 THE GOLDEN STATE. 71 
 
 matter is that Chinamen will never mix up 
 with the white races, and that every penny 
 that they make here they invest in China, and 
 also have all their food sent from there. If they 
 only patronized American stores, people would 
 be more willing to receive them. 
 
 Another race of men who are slowly coming 
 into San Francisco are the Japanese. They are 
 employed in making the peculiar artistic articles 
 of their country, and some of their productions 
 are perfect gems. Their ivory carvings, screens, 
 little silver kettles, and different articles of 
 bronze, lacquer, and porcelain, show a laborious 
 attention to detail almost impossible to find in 
 any other work, besides which they produce an 
 immense variety of artistic ornaments at a very 
 much lower figure, and far superior in artistic 
 merit than the cheap ornaments we have in the 
 old country. It is curious that in this country 
 Gilbert and Sullivan's " Mikado" has drawn a 
 great deal of attention to Japanese art.
 
 72 THE GOLDEN STATE. 
 
 The principal thing foreigners hear about 
 California is the climate the glorious climate. 
 It certainly is glorious if you know where to go 
 for it, but it varies very much in certain places. 
 For instance, you might as well, if you are 
 rheumatic, live in Glasgow as in San Francisco, 
 in certain seasons of the year, as at a certain 
 hour every day a strong bitterly cold wind sets 
 in, and blows with a steady force that tears 
 down everything, and changes even the growth 
 of trees ; in addition to which there is often a 
 heavy fog in the morning. This is also the case 
 in some of the villages, and generally on the 
 coast. But a couple of miles away you get 
 under some hill or behind a ridge, and then you 
 find out what a glorious country it really is. 
 There are hundreds of snug secluded resorts in 
 the foothills of the Sierra Nevada and the coast 
 range, where the sun always shines, where you 
 can sit out of doors all day but sleep under 
 two blankets at night. where there is no dew.
 
 THE GOLDEN STATE. 73. 
 
 no damp, and no malaria. Perhaps the best 
 places for lung and chest troubles are in Southern 
 California, at San Diego, Sania Barbara, and 
 Los Angeles, where living, when you get the 
 " hang of it," is fairly cheap, where you have 
 good society, and you can amuse yourself with 
 quail shooting, or riding, or in superintending 
 a farm, on which you can grow almost anything 
 in the world. Or if you want a little out-door 
 exercise, you can also make a tour through the 
 country on horseback, shooting as you go along. 
 .'We had a most delightful trip of this kind 
 through the coast range, and saw some charming 
 scenery, not of course as fine as the Sierra 
 Nevada, but still such as if it was in England 
 would attract thousands of tourists. There 
 were swarms of mountain quail, and an occasional 
 crack at a wild cat the size of a small wolf 
 or deer. Sometimes we camped out, and slept in. 
 our blankets, with our toes to a big fire, and half 
 awake and half asleep watched the evening star
 
 74 THE GOLDEN STATE. 
 
 rise over those soft Californian hills, with nothing 
 to break the solitude but the weird yelping of 
 the coyotes, sounding at first like some spectre 
 pack running through the chapparal ; other 
 nights we would " strike " some hospitable 
 " greaser," who, driven back by the ever coming 
 emigrant, had " located" a mountain lot, where 
 he lived rich in a flock of snow-white goats and 
 a patch of land. Beans, served in the Spanish 
 style, and rice fried with onions and grease, were 
 his fare, and when we handed some bacon out of 
 the saddle bags, it made our mouths water more 
 than one of Delmonico's choicest plats. And 
 what a medley crew we were ! an American, a 
 German, an Englishman, and a family of Mexi- 
 cans, whilst his Swiss neighbour employed an 
 old negro, two Chinese, and an Indian. 
 
 To some people this might not seem amuse- 
 ment ; but I could have ridden through those 
 hills for weeks. Every day something new : 
 finding tarantula, that enormous loathsome-
 
 THE GOLDEN STATE. 75 
 
 looking spider, or the still more deadly centipede, 
 or poison oak ; hunting for a crutch-handled stick 
 in the manzanita shrub, or following the track of a 
 puma, or Californian lion a cowardly brute, 
 but a deadly enemy to stock and a hundred 
 and one other things that at any rate to me 
 were novel and interesting. 
 
 I was quite sorry when I came down the 
 hill and struck the dusty stage road leading 
 from Soledad to San Luis Obispo ; when I 
 say dusty I mean it in its full sense ; fine, 
 penetrating, choking dust, six inches to a 
 foot deep, and no beer to wash it down 
 either. I think it must have been the dust 
 which so much annoyed the " tenderfoot " 
 from down east, who, when stopping at an Inn 
 on the road, had a small bird placed before him. 
 " Say boss," said he, " What's this ?" " Guess 
 it's bird." "Has it got wings?" "Guess so." 
 "Can it fly?" asked he. "Why, certn'ly," 
 said the Boss. " Then take the doggorned
 
 76 THE GOLDEN STATE. 
 
 thing away. I don't want nothin' to do with a 
 thing that's got wings, and can fly, and don't 
 y out of this cussed country!" 
 
 And now, before leaving California, it 
 would not be amiss to say a few words 
 which may be of interest to the small 
 capitalist or to the working man. I have 
 endeavoured to give some idea of its luxuries, 
 its healthful climate, and its amusements, and I 
 can imagine a young man with enough money 
 to take him there wanting to know what sort of 
 a prospect he would have with no capital but 
 his health and strength to help him. But first 
 I should like to say I was only there two months, 
 and in that time one can only get a compara- 
 tively superficial idea of a country the size of 
 California. However, what information I have 
 is got from personal enquiry, or reliable sources, 
 as far as I could judge. To start with, it is no 
 place for men to go to with the idea of making 
 money easily in a short time. If and remember
 
 THE GOLDEN STATE. 77 
 
 I am speaking of a man with no capital but his 
 labour he takes up, or, to use the correct 
 word, " homesteads " a plot of land up in the 
 hills, it will be a hard life, very likely remote 
 from supplies. He will be able to get flour, 
 bacon, and coffee, and will have to make out 
 with very little else. He will be far from 
 society, and the nearest town will only consist 
 of a few general stores and saloons. 
 
 Generally speaking, the best lands, near 
 water, and near the railway, are taken up, 
 improved, and command prices of from five 
 dollars to ten dollars an acre, but where 
 new ground is opened up the man has a hard 
 life and may possibly work all of it before he 
 sees his farm complete, fenced, clear and 
 properly irrigated. Before giving you the 
 " homestead " and " pre-emption " laws, I will 
 also say it is no place for clerks in the office 
 or in a dry goods store. There are as many in 
 San Franscisco as there are in New York. A
 
 78 THE GOLDEN STATE. 
 
 Government homestead is a tract of one 
 hundred and sixty acres of land given away by 
 the United States on condition that the person 
 taking it lives upon and improves the same for 
 five years, paying only a fee of 3 10s. on 
 application at the U.S. Land Office and 1 on 
 making final proof. He must start living on 
 it and improving it as soon as possible, and 
 when at the end of the five years he shews that 
 he has honestly complied with the law he 
 receives a complete title. 
 
 The " pre-emption law " grants settlers 
 one hundred and sixty acres on condition 
 that he settles on the land and improves 
 it for one year only ; but for this the 
 United States charge 5s. an acre. He is also 
 entitled to certain forest land if he plants trees 
 in place of timber cut down. In addition to 
 this a settler may take up six hundred and forty 
 acres of land in the desert that cannot be 
 cultivated unless by artificial irrigation at a
 
 THE GOLDEN STATE. 79 
 
 cost of Is. an acre to begin with, and he must 
 show that in three years he has irrigated the 
 whole of it. Then he pays 4s. an acre to 
 complete the title. Besides this the railroads, 
 when in construction, were granted lands in 
 lieu of subsidies. These lands are alongside 
 the railroad in alternate sections, and can be 
 purchased for from 10s. to 1, 2, and 3 an 
 acre, according to their advantages. No timber 
 is to be cut except for domestic or fencing 
 purposes till completion of title. The railway 
 companies also make arrangements for allowing 
 time for payment, interest at seven per cent, 
 per annum being charged. 
 
 A settler must remember that apart from 
 the cultivation of his land, it will increase 
 in value by others settling near him, and 
 that his "unearned increment" will depend 
 on his sagacity in selecting his land. He 
 need not fear being over-taxed, or robbed of 
 his " unearned increment ; " doctrines of that
 
 80 THE GOLDEN STATE. 
 
 class have no show in America. Uncle Sam 
 wishes to attract capital to his country, and 
 not to drive it away. 
 
 Now as to hired labour. A strong active 
 man, who can drive a team or look after 
 horses, can get at least 6 or 7 a month, 
 and his board and lodging three good meat 
 meals daily. Clothes are rather dearer here, 
 boots about the same. Perhaps the best way 
 for a man to do is to go to some colony, 
 work a year or two, save money, and then buy 
 say ten acres of improved land, well watered, 
 work it himself, devote one third of his time to 
 say raising fruit on it, and the rest of his time 
 hire his labour out. He cannot buy a farm and 
 stock it to start with, but he can by these means 
 get the nucleus together. 
 
 With regard to the small capitalist, I 
 may say that there are a number of im- 
 proved farms always in the market to be 
 bought at reasonable rates, perhaps some
 
 THE GOLDEN STATE. 81 
 
 on mortgage. They are sold by two classes of 
 people, one class who pre-empt farms only to 
 sell again as soon as possible, and the other by 
 people who are retiring from business from 
 various causes. But to the small capitalist I 
 should say, live in the country twelve months, 
 or at any rate six, before investing much. There 
 are lots of worthless places ready to be sold to 
 you dearly ; in fact, to use an Americanism, they 
 will, if they can, play you for a sucker ! 
 
 To both classes T should say, you need fear no 
 storms ; you can work all the year round in your 
 shirt sleeves. Sunstroke or malaria are unknown, 
 and you can grow anything, from an orange or 
 olive to a pomegranate or potatoe. There are 
 in the country good schools, libraries, and 
 churches. And lastly, if you do go, remember 
 these things If you want to buy land or a 
 railway ticket, go to the head office. Do not 
 tell any stranger your business, or " blow" about 
 your money. Don't speak to anyone of your
 
 82 THE GOLDEN STATE. 
 
 private affairs, nor " freeze" on to the man who 
 knows the old man at home, and remembers 
 you when you were a little boy. Do not play 
 cards, nor drink with anyone at all, or you will 
 certainly be robbed. If a nicely spoken gentleman 
 wants you to buy a well-filled pocket-book he 
 has just picked up, or a new gold watch for five 
 dollars, don't trade. If you want information 
 or advice, go to the English agents or consul, or, 
 failing this, you generally get attention at the 
 head police station. The Central Pacific or 
 Southern Pacific Railway's land people are, I 
 believe, " on the square." Live economically, 
 work hard, and look to the future, and, with 
 strong arms and a stout heart, you will succeed 
 in California.
 
 : On sands and shores and desert wilderness." 
 
 MILTON. 
 
 THROUGH ARIZONA TO EL 
 PASO DEL NORTE. 
 
 N my previous letters I never said 
 a word about California's greatest 
 wonder her mineral springs ; but 
 I have omitted so many things that 
 are worth mentioning that the more I write the 
 more there seems to have been forgotten, till I 
 almost give it up in despair, and come to a 
 conclusion that to travel over ten thousand miles 
 of country, and attempt to describe it, without 
 the aid of a short-hand secretary, is a task 
 that is beyond my feeble powers. If, Mr.
 
 84 THROUGH ARIZONA TO EL PASO DEL NORTE. 
 
 Editor, the circulation of your paper falls off 
 because people say that they cannot wade 
 through the amount of trash that is written 
 about America, then put the blame on me, who 
 so inadequately describes it, and not on the 
 country. 
 
 Nature seems to have chosen California as 
 a safety valve for all the nasty tasting water she 
 could not provide for elsewhere. All over the 
 State it bubbles out hot and cold, with every 
 conceivable combination of chemicals. But 
 what a place for recovering your health ! Air, 
 water, and climate all seem to have united 
 together to help the poor mortal to get on a bit ; 
 talk to anyone in California about them either 
 the man who has suffered all his life from the 
 excruciating agony of inflammatory rheumatism 
 or the genial toper who for the last ten years 
 has averaged twenty cocktails a day all will 
 tell you the same story of relief and cure. At 
 Paraiso Springs you find one of the loveliest
 
 THROUGH ARIZONA TO EL PASO DEL NORTE. 85 
 
 secluded spots you can imagine, hemmed in on 
 every side by mountains cove red with chapparalle, 
 which grows from three to six feet high, and 
 resembles, in all but smell, a sage bush. You 
 live in a few wooden cottages, standing in 
 a wild sort of garden, where the geraniums 
 grow as high as your head, unless they are eaten 
 up by the cows, who occasionally in the night 
 bump against the sides of the cottages, and 
 frighten the life out of some stout old ladies 
 residing in them, and who imagine it to be an 
 uprising of the Mexican greasers, who live 
 higher up the canon. 
 
 And what extraordinary people you meet 
 there, and what tales are told under the old live 
 oak tree in the garden after dinner, of cattle 
 driving and gold finding in the old days, of 
 highway robberies and encounters with grizzlies, 
 but generally culminating in that all-absorbing 
 topic, the " Almighty dollar," arguing as to how 
 much Jay Gould and Vanderbilt are worth, or
 
 86 THROUGH ARIZONA TO EL PASO DEL NORTE. 
 
 whether Mackay made fifty, or only fifteen, 
 million dollars out of the Comstock mines. It is 
 astonishing to find what pleasure an American 
 takes in talking about or pointing out some rich 
 man. I remember with what awe I gazed on a 
 homely looking man eating baked pig's feet in 
 a Chicago hotel, who was said to be worth 
 twenty -five million dollars. Here almost every- 
 thing depends on what a man is worth. I have 
 never had a man pointed out to me as a clever 
 painter, a poet, or a soldier, but I have had 
 scores of men shown to me, in breathless 
 whispers, as worth so many millions of dollars. 
 I don't know why I should laugh at them for 
 it ; I don't blame them ; everything honour, 
 position, and place rests on their being first in 
 the race for gold. 
 
 But to return to the mineral springs. In 
 every county there are scores of the most 
 valuable soda, iron, and sulphur springs, as thick 
 on the ground as at Harrogate, though the
 
 THROUGH ARIZONA TO EL PASO DEL NORTE. 87 
 
 greater part of them are still unanalysed. I am 
 glad, however, to say the State Legislature are 
 having them put in order, and they will, in the 
 future, when California becomes the great health 
 resort of the Western States, be of the greatest 
 value. In fact, several of them now are worth 
 considerable sums of money, and were I an 
 invalid who wished to live in a delightful country, 
 and to invest my capital there, I should buy one 
 of the more important ones, with an absolute 
 certainty of its being a success. 
 
 Another great source of profit in the future 
 will be in raising fruit. Fresh fruit of course 
 does not fetch much, but if it can be combined 
 with " canning" and crystalising, a good profit 
 may be realised. Oranges, lemons, and limes, 
 planted in the proper place, must always be a 
 good investment out West, as they can only be 
 grown there, and the demand increases 
 enormously, whilst olives, almonds, and walnuts, 
 though more uncertain, yield enormous profits
 
 88 THROUGH ARIZONA TO EL PASO DEL NORTE. 
 
 if properly looked after. Californian wine is 
 well known in Eastern markets, and is used, I 
 believe, very extensively to blend with other 
 wines. It is rather heady, and if you drink a 
 bottle you have no cause to complain of " not 
 getting any forruder." In addition to this 
 there is a large business in raisins. Down in 
 Southern California all sorts of fruits are grown 
 oranges, apples, lemons, pears, figs, plums, 
 apricots, almonds, quinces, prunes, pomegranates, 
 peaches, and limes. Of course all these require 
 an intimate knowledge of their treatment, with 
 careful culture and attention. But no wonder 
 they grow so well with the delightful climate. 
 
 The day we drove from Parso del Robles to 
 San Luis Obispo we started in the middle of the 
 day in an open buggy, with the thermometer 
 110 Fahr. in the shade. We had a most 
 enjoyable drive through lovely valleys and 
 mountains, to take the steamer to return to San 
 Francisco by water, and we had less inconvenience
 
 THROUGH ARIZONA TO EL PASO DEL NORTE. 89 
 
 in that enormous heat than when the thermo- 
 meter stands at 90 in New York. 
 
 I left the Golden State with great regret. 
 My first plan was to go from San Francisco to 
 New Orleans straight, but I was afterwards 
 advised to travel down through Mexico to Vera 
 Cruz, and for the sake of the sea voyage, take 
 the steamer to New York. It is a long journey 
 even down to El Paso del Norte the junction 
 where you strike the Mexican Central Railway* 
 and you may say it is devoid of interest. But 
 at the same time it is an experience. After you 
 leave Goshen the line runs through the usual 
 endless hills of rocky sand and alkali plains, and 
 you have a foretaste of the interminable cactus, 
 which you get used to after passing through it 
 for seven or eight days. At first it is slightly 
 interesting and then it becomes irritating. You 
 think this cannot go on for long, even cactus 
 must have an end ; but no, it is simply cactus 
 and nothing but cactus, some round fat cactus,
 
 90 THROUGH ARIZONA TO EL PASO DEL NORTE. 
 
 some long lean cactus, crooked cactus, and straight 
 cactus, and you are glad when Los Angeles is 
 neared, and it disappears. But, alas, only for a 
 time. Here we get the pleasant intelligence 
 that the bridge over the Colorado river has been 
 burnt down, and there is 30 miles of "washouts " 
 beyond. Luckily someone kindly repairs the 
 bridge in time for us to go over, and on the 
 morning of the third day we find ourselves in 
 Arizona. 
 
 I think I explained in one of my previous 
 letters that a " washout " is where a large body 
 of water suddenly descends down one of the 
 dried up gulches, and sweeps all before it ; it 
 may only run for an hour, but all the same 
 everything is washed away. I have seen enor- 
 mous iron bridges carried a quarter of a mile 
 down the river, and yet when the train comes 
 a few hours later, nothing is to be seen but a 
 tiny rivulet. These " washouts " have been very 
 frequent in this State this year.
 
 THROUGH ARIZONA TO EL PASO DEL NORTE. 91 
 
 Arizona has long enjoyed the reputation of 
 being the " toughest " State in the Union, and 
 let me explain what the word " tough " in the 
 West means. Well, it is difficult to say what it 
 means, but you must suppose a combination of 
 gamblers, thieves, cut-throats, and cow-herders 
 of the worst description. Naturally, in the 
 Eastern States any murder in Arizona is put 
 down to the " cowboys," and for the sake of the 
 uninitiated I may say that " cowboys " are the 
 men who watch and herd the vast flocks of 
 cattle that roam over the feeding-grounds in 
 that part. A " cowboy " is not necessarily a 
 young man, as his name might imply, but he is 
 often a veteran ; neither is it necessary to suppose 
 that all "cowboys" are "toughs." Of course 
 they have gained a reputation for being 
 " toughs " because they do occasionally partici- 
 pate in shooting rows, and also because the 
 " cowboy," if he has any sense of dignity, never 
 goes around without a " shooter," or, as they
 
 92 THROUGH ARIZONA TO EL PASO DEL NORTE. 
 
 call it, a " gun," and a large belt of cartridges. 
 At the same time I should not like to paint 
 them as the most peaceable of citizens. They 
 are out sometimes for a month without tasting 
 a drop of liquor, and when they do get any 
 whisky they are apt to shoot without caring 
 much where their bullet has its billet. Some 
 nine months ago a party of " toughs " attacked 
 and robbed a store at Bisbee, near Tombstone, 
 killing four men, but met with their deserts, 
 four being hung and a fifth lynched, his swing- 
 ing body somewhat astonishing the President of 
 a large copper mine, who had come down that 
 day from Boston to inspect his property. 
 
 The Apache Indians and "cowboys" and 
 " toughs " in general render wearing a " shooter " 
 when out in the country an absolute necessity. 
 Some people sneer at it as bravado, but there is 
 a saying, and a true saying in those parts, that 
 you may not want a revolver for years, but 
 when you do want it you want it badly I
 
 THROUGH ARIZONA TO EL PASO DEL NORTE. 93 
 
 One of the most interesting and beautiful 
 sights I saw in Arizona was the mirage. We 
 were crossing a perfectly level plain of sand, and 
 looking out of the car window I saw the most 
 delightful and enchanting lake I could imagine. 
 I did not for a moment suspect what it was. I 
 only wondered how there could be such a lake 
 in such a terribly dry dusty spot, for not a drop 
 of water had we seen for hundreds of miles, but 
 yet there it was rippling, and breaking on the 
 sandy shore, with the mountains reflected in the 
 water, and cactus-growing islands in the middle. 
 I was only wishing that the train would stop, 
 when the coloured porter said, " Guess you ain't 
 seen that often," and I then learnt what it was. 
 Some people may imagine it took a stretch of 
 fancy to make one's self believe it was a lake, 
 but I can assure them that it took a very hard 
 stretch to make one's self believe it was not ; two 
 ladies in the car, one of them, by-the-bye, a U.S. 
 female detective, were deceived, and could
 
 94 THROUGH ARIZONA TO EL PASO DEL NORTE. 
 
 hardly be persuaded that the lovely vision they 
 had seen was really a delusion. I shall never 
 forget it, it looked like fairy-land, and I can 
 easily understand the thirsty dirt-begrimed 
 traveller on the old Mexican stages being driven 
 almost mad when he saw these fresh waters, 
 whilst he himself was choked to death as he 
 flogged his weary horses through the sand. 
 
 After crossing the Colorado river at Guma, 
 said to be the hottest spot in North America, 
 the mercury sometimes touching 130 in the 
 shade, we passed through a terribly sterile 
 country low hills of rocky sand, and that 
 beastly cactus, stretching for five hundred miles. 
 Occasionally, say every two hundred miles, one 
 passes a little town consisting of a few greasers' 
 houses, some Americans, and the inevitable gin 
 mill and gambling saloons. At other places you 
 pull up in the middle of a desert to take water 
 from an artesian well, where there lives only the 
 man who tends the engine, or perhaps a cow-
 
 THROUGH ARIZONA TO EL PASO DEL NORTE. 95 
 
 boy, who, in his big hat, and armed to the teeth, 
 gets on board for an old paper. 
 
 After passing Tueson, quite a little town, and 
 Benson, we get into the region where lately 
 there has been so much trouble. There is an 
 Apache reservation near, and a body of these 
 have been on the war path for some time. 
 Over a hundred ranchers and settlers have been 
 killed within the last year. Their plan of 
 operations is as follows : They split up into 
 bands of from eighteen to twenty, and leaving 
 the reservation, make for the Mexican frontier, 
 crossing the railway, as a rule, near Deming. 
 They do not attack openly, but pounce down on 
 some wretched rancher and murder him, and 
 not being burdened with any impedimenta, they 
 strike off to the Sierra Madre, travelling as 
 much as sixty or seventy miles in one night, and 
 by the time the news reaches the nearest 
 settlement, it is next to useless to follow them. 
 The day after I passed they cut the wires and
 
 96 THROUGH ARIZONA TO EL PASO DEL NORTE. 
 
 murdered the telegraph operator some fifteen 
 miles West of Deming. Things are really very 
 serious. Of course the State hushes it up, as 
 it prevents emigrants from coming, but what 
 makes the settlers so mad is, that if any Indians 
 are caught they are usually escorted back to the 
 reservation, whilst if a " cowboy " murders 
 anyone he is tried for his life. Some day the 
 settlers will rise and go into the reservation, 
 and there will be a bloody reckoning with 
 innocent and guilty alike. The State is, I 
 believe, really trying to gain a good name, and 
 it is absurd that so many lives should be lost 
 on account of a sickly sentimentality which some 
 Americans feel towards the "noble red man." 
 The United States Government have a 
 quantity of men supposed to be pursuing them, 
 but the general idea is that as the men receive 
 28s. a day pay and their rations, they are in no 
 hurry to catch them. I see, however, that the 
 Apaches shot five cavalry men a short time since^
 
 THEOUGH ARIZONA TO EL PASO DEL NOETE. 97 
 
 which will probably stir up a little activity. 
 Shortly after leaving Deming we arrive at 
 that most extraordinary frontier town, El Paso 
 del Norte. I say extraordinary, because it is a 
 typical American frontier town. Here there is 
 most chance for a man to make money quickly. 
 Wages are high, the greater part of the people 
 work fjr themselves. Here come all the 
 desperadoes from Texas, Arizona, and the South 
 Western States. The town boasts the highest 
 civilization and the lowest rowdyism ; the finest 
 hotels stand next to the worst gambling dens ; 
 shooting used to be rampant, averaging three a 
 week, and even when I was there two inoffensive 
 men were shot dead. All the " cowboys " come 
 here when they go on the spree, in fact you 
 find, if you wish, the same sort of thing that 
 existed in the Western States before they were 
 quieted down. It is built on the Bio Grande 
 del Norte, which at one time was a large and 
 deep river. I have seen pictures depicting
 
 98 THROUGH ARIZONA TO EL PASO DEL NORTE. 
 
 boats on it, but it is a small stream flowing 
 between long shores of sand. It is the junction 
 for the Mexican Central Railway which has 
 been built some three years, and from which the 
 town practically dates its commencement. 
 Money is to be made in a comparatively limited 
 way in El Paso which has all the push of a 
 thriving town, and is American to the backbone, 
 has no past but a great future, and is the gate 
 to old Mexico.
 
 FROM THE RIO GRANDE TO 
 THE TROPICS. 
 
 |0 one, who has ever read the 
 annals of Mexico, can deny that 
 they form one of the most interest- 
 ing and exciting histories of semi- 
 civilized countries. Unfortunately 
 only slight traditions are left of the aborigines ; 
 Toltecs, Chichimecs, and all sorts of other tribes 
 are lost in obscurity. The only people about 
 whom anything seems to be known are the 
 Aztecs, who appeared about A.D. 1196; their 
 capital occupied the same site as the present
 
 100 FROM THE RIO GRANDE TO THE TROPICS. 
 
 one ; their palaces and ruins are to be found, if 
 you care to look for them, in various parts of the 
 country ; but to the ordinary traveller Mexico 
 seems to date her greatness from the arrival of 
 Cortes in the sixteenth century. Poor Cortes, 
 after being driven out, died in Spain, and then 
 came a succession of changes, fights, revolu- 
 tions, and executions, which have lasted up to 
 the present time. Every nation seems to have 
 made it their business to try their hands at 
 governing Mexico. 
 
 Iturbide was made an Emperor, only to 
 abdicate, and was eventually shot. A Republic 
 was formed ; then came a constitution similar to 
 the United States ; a long list of Presidents 
 succeed each other, some of whom held office only 
 for a few weeks, whilst others are elected time 
 after time. Spaniards are turned out, the great 
 Santa Anna is head during the war with France 
 in '38 and '45 ; and not having had a serious war 
 for some time, (consequent on the annexation of
 
 FROM THE RIO GRANDE Tt) THE TROPICS. 101 
 
 Texas,) they engage with the United States. 
 Santa Fe is captured, and they are defeated at 
 Buena Vista by General Taylor ; General Scott, 
 landing at Vera Cruz takes the City of Mexico, 
 arid so the ball is kept rolling. Sometimes 
 they were busy sequestrating the property 
 of the Church, and when not engaged in internal 
 troubles, they secured the attention of the 
 whole of Europe, who after negotiating, fighting, 
 disclaiming, protesting, and generally disagree- 
 ing amongst themselves, placed the unfortunate 
 Maximilian on the throne, who, unconscious of 
 his fate, attempted to give to Mexico more 
 freedom than perhaps it ever had before, but,, 
 poor man, he only succeeded in meeting with all 
 manner of opposition, and was eventually shot 
 at Queretaro. 
 
 Why do not Americans, instead of pursuing 
 the meretricious dissipations of Europe, visit 
 Mexico ; it was, previous to the last three years, 
 a comparatively un visited place. The only way
 
 102 FROM THE RIO GRANDE TO THE TROPICS. 
 
 of reaching the capital was by steamer to Vera 
 Cruz, and then by rail to Mexico ; but now 
 there is a railway through the heart of the 
 country, enabling one to see an original people. 
 It is not, as yet, Americanized ; there are no fine 
 hotels, or saloons, or advertising ; you see no 
 Americans loafing and spitting about the 
 stations ; you only see the Mexican in all his 
 primitiveness, ragged perhaps, careless of the 
 gold if you will, but naturally polite, not prying 
 into other people's affairs, hungry, but content, 
 and regarding the Americans with a repugnance 
 that an old and impoverished people will always 
 feel towards a pushing, thriving neighbour. 
 
 On paper Mexico enjoys one of the most 
 perfect Republican constitutions, but in reality 
 it is nothing of the sort, the Government being 
 worked by a few swells at Mexico city. The 
 country, generally speaking, is owned by large 
 landed proprietors, who, in some instances, are 
 only too willing to sell, but they have, unfortun-
 
 FROM THE RIO GRANDE TO THE TROPICS. 103 
 
 ately for them, no opportunity of dealing direct 
 with genuine purchasers, but only too often find 
 themselves in the hands of middlemen who 
 not only do the proprietor, but also the 
 purchaser ; any man buying land in Mexico 
 ought to be most careful. I know instances of 
 young Englishmen, totally ignorant of ranching, 
 investing their money, only to find that either 
 water or grass or both are absent, to say nothing of 
 their ranche being subject to raids from hostile 
 Apaches, or the title utterly valueless. 
 
 Directly an Englishman appears at El Paso 
 and gives people to understand he wishes to 
 invest a sum of money in a ranche, he is infested 
 with sharpers of every kind ; they will sell him 
 a ranche with the best of " gramma " grass, water 
 all the year round ; a perfect climate, with rail- 
 way conveniences, and free from Indians, in. 
 fact, a spot where you not only " get rich while 
 you sleep," but also grow fat whilst you are 
 awake ; yet alas ! most of this fades away on
 
 104 FKOM THE RIO GRANDE TO THE TROPICS. 
 
 near acquaintance and inspection. Carefully 
 bought, a cattle ranche in Mexico ought to and 
 will pay, but anyone wishing to put money into 
 it should first live there a few months, say 
 nothing about his money, and watch his chance. 
 But to go there and proclaim that you have a 
 large sum to put in land, well, you are certain 
 to be robbed. Still, as I said before, there are 
 some fair ranches now in the market in Northern 
 Mexico, and you can buy a million acres now 
 from a Mexican gentleman who wishes to sell a 
 portion of his estate in order to stock the rest. 
 
 The same may be said as to mining ; you 
 may be an expert, and then get taken in. I 
 believe just lately a few mines have been 
 paying, but I think I am right in saying that a 
 great number are not worked at all. I have 
 seen flaming advertisements in England setting 
 forth that the rubbish thrown away by the 
 Mexicans, if only treated in a proper manner, 
 will yield enormous returns. It may be so,
 
 FROM THE RIO GRANDE TO THE TROPICS. 105 
 
 but what I look at is that Mexicans have 
 worked silver for three hundred years, whilst 
 we have been there about thirty. I should say 
 they know a great deal more about it than we. 
 I went down with one of the most practical 
 mining engineers in the States, and, as he said, 
 some mines, no doubt, might pay, but by the 
 time you have carried the machinery across, 
 perhaps fifty miles of mountain, on mule back, 
 and also probably pumped the mine dry, it 
 would be a different thing to working a mine 
 with only the paeons to pay, at the rate of perhaps 
 five pence a day. It is very easy to say in the 
 prospectus that such and such a mine has given 
 out so many millions of dollars, but they do not 
 say how much was spent in getting it ; and again, 
 one must remember that one hears, at every turn, 
 if there is a successful mine, but how much money 
 has been lost of which one hears nothing ? It is 
 like a Louisiana State Lottery, the lucky man's 
 name is on every tongue ; no one mentions the
 
 106 FROM THE RIO GRANDE TO THE TROPICS. 
 
 thousands of disappointed ones ; of course every- 
 one knows some Mexican mines pay, but I 
 would say, unless you are on the spot and know 
 all about it, put your brass into something else. 
 The paeons in Mexico are the labouring- 
 classes ; they are in a truly wretched condition. 
 The whole country, with the exception of a few 
 a very few enormously wealthy people, living 
 principally near Mexico, is in the same condition. 
 These paeons are mostly employed by the large 
 farmers, who cultivate what little ground is 
 under the plough. You may say they belong, 
 body and soul, clothes, house, and wife, to their 
 master, who lives in the square block of buildings, 
 surrounded by its white walls, which one sees 
 from the cars. From a distance these blocks 
 look very pretty, the buildings are of that 
 pure, glistening white, one only sees in such a 
 climate, and the tower of the little church, 
 which every "hacienda" has within its walls, 
 helps to relieve the peculiar squareness of the
 
 FROM THE RIO GRANDE TO THE TROPICS. 107 
 
 houses. This squareness can only be likened to 
 a large white brick ; with the exception of the 
 tower, nothing is to be seen inside the great 
 white walls, stockyard, paeons' huts, proprietor's 
 house, the well, everything is inside, but you 
 see nothing except the wall, which gives the 
 place a fortified look, and often they are fortified, 
 in fact the only decent-sized mill near Mexico 
 has cannon and a small regiment of soldiers, and 
 needs it too. Even whilst I was there, a revolution 
 broke out, and a detachment of soldiers was 
 sent to quell it, but only succeeded in fomenting 
 a revolution amongst themselves, so that two 
 more detachments had to be sent, one for the 
 people and the other for the soldiers ; I met the 
 unruly soldiers being brought back to prison. 
 Although these farms may be dirty inside, 
 they form a very pretty picture in the landscape, 
 surrounded by the greenest fields, whilst 
 scattered around are the wretched paeons 
 ploughing with oxen, their plough consisting of
 
 108 FROM THE RIO GRANDE TO THE TROPICS. 
 
 literally a crooked stick, and yet with this 
 primitive husbandry, the crops are enormous. 
 
 The paeons have about ninepence a day in 
 good places, and this is, for them, a high wage, 
 whereas the white man over the border gets 
 eight or ten shillings and his board and lodging, 
 and then of course he never tastes meat, and has, 
 I suppose, the most simple food that man eats. 
 His wife gets .a little Indian corn and grinds it 
 on a stone, mixes it with water, and throws it 
 on the fire ; this, with a chili, constitutes his entire 
 meal. At night he sleeps huddled on the floor of 
 his miserable hut, or in the open air ; I have seen 
 scores of them from the railway in the mountains, 
 when it was almost freezing, just squatting down 
 with nothing on but a ragged shirt and pants 
 and a dirty zareppe, a sort of blanket, worn true 
 Spanish fashion over their shoulders. 
 
 But to return to Del Norte, the little 
 Mexican town on the other side of the Rio 
 Grande. It is essentially Mexican ; directly you
 
 FEOM THE EIO GEANDE fo THE TEOPICS. 109 
 
 cross the footbridge and pass the sleepy-looking 
 custom-house officers, you feel that it is quite a 
 different place to the bustling self-asserting town 
 on the other side of the water. Like all 
 Mexican towns, its chief characteristic is its 
 plaza and its Church. The latter is built of 
 adobe, those sun-dried mud bricks of which all 
 the missions in Southern California were built, 
 and which, though built by the same people, are 
 never found in Mexico proper, with the, I believe, 
 sole exception of this little lost town. It seems 
 queer that all the turmoil and bustle on the 
 other side of the river should not have disturbed 
 this curious place ; its inhabitants do not seem to 
 trouble themselves much as to what is going on ; 
 they live in their squalid dirty-looking houses, 
 surrounded by luxuriant, unkempt gardens, 
 whilst it is difficult to say whether there are 
 more children or fowls in their houses. 
 
 One of the great bugbears of travelling in 
 Mexico is the custom house. Only a few months
 
 110 FROM THE RIO GRANDE TO THE TROPICS. 
 
 ago it was worse than it is now ; every little 
 State had separate custom houses, and you 
 were pulled out of the train every few hundred 
 miles to have your baggage examined ; the 
 system was no doubt kept up to find places for 
 a crowd of hungry politicians, but now they are 
 all abolished except the frontier custom house 
 and the examination when you enter the City 
 of Mexico. But at the same time, they are very 
 strict on the frontier. During my travels, I had 
 collected a quantity of stuff, which hardly came 
 under the head of personal effects, and as the 
 duty is sixty to a hundred per cent., I hardly 
 knew what to do. Luckily I made the chance 
 aquaintance of a man who seemed to know the 
 whims and ways of the potentates who ransack 
 your baggage. Are you travelling for pleasure ? 
 says he. Partly for pleasure and partly for 
 business. Are you an English lord ? No, said 
 I. Pity says he. Why ? says I. Well, if you 
 were, I guess you would get through without
 
 FROM THE EIO GRANDE TO THE TROPICS. Ill 
 
 much trouble, but if you say you are travelling 
 for business, then they will think you want to 
 sell these things in Mexico ; say guess you'd 
 better be a lord. Well, I'll be anything you 
 like sooner than pay five or six hundred dollars 
 duty. Well, says he, just you go and get fixed 
 up kinder smart, and I guess we'll work it. 
 That was all very well, but what was I to do ? 
 I had not the remotest idea, as to what kind 
 of " fixing " would enable me to appear in the 
 character of a blue blooded bondholder. 
 However, I must do something, or else pay 
 five hundred dollars for looking like trade. 
 I had on a filthy suit and a cow-boys hat; I 
 unearthed a billycock, had my boots blacked, 
 shaved, bought a clean pair of cuffs, and with 
 the assistance of my ingenious friend, hired a 
 carriage and pair of greys, and I flatter myself 
 there wasn't a man in Texas who was better 
 got up than I was. Need I say I was 
 successful ; whether the carriage, or the cuffs.
 
 112 FROM THE RIO GRANDE TO THE TROPICS. 
 
 did it, I don't know, but the result was 
 undeniable. Japanese costumes were explained 
 away as being dressing gowns without 
 which no real English nobleman thinks of 
 travelling. Curiosities were presents for high 
 and influential personages, whilst the most 
 elegant lacquer boxes were only receptacles for 
 carrying my ties. The circulars certainly were 
 suspicious, though I think I must have been 
 saved, owing to their mistaking the vignette 
 of the works for the Baronial Castle ! I really 
 think, had I only been firm, I might have got 
 something out of them as a reward for my 
 honouring them with my presence in their 
 benighted country. As it was, I was only too 
 glad to get out of their clutches, and prepare 
 for what I knew would be a long and dusty 
 journey, by laying in a stock of bottled beer, 
 which I regret to say, in consequence of my 
 making pals with a party of thirsty cow-boys, 
 only lasted one night.
 
 FROM THE RIO GRANDE TO THE TROPICS. 113 
 
 A great nuisance in Mexico is, that there 
 is practically speaking, no gold, or paper, and 
 one is obliged to carry all ones cash on ones 
 person in Mexican dollars, that is to say, unless 
 you have a draft on Mexico. The best way to do 
 this, is to carry it in a belt round your waist ; 
 there are some very good belts which hold your 
 money, and shooter, and cartridge ; you can 
 carry it in a bag, but you have in that case 
 either to chain it to you, or continually keep 
 your eye on it, which is next to impossible, as 
 you have to get out three times a day to feed, 
 and if you take your bag with you, every one 
 in the car thinks you have untold gold on you. 
 Every one on the train carries a revolver, and a 
 large belt of cartridges. The cow-boys have 
 formidable looking weapons a foot long, whilst 
 the train men have small ones. It is better 
 to carry arms, and if you are in a strange 
 town, let them be seen. 
 
 The first town we arrived at, after
 
 114 FROM THE RIO GRANDE TO THE TROPICS. 
 
 travelling all night, was Chihuahua. It lies some 
 way from the railway, like many of the Mexican 
 towns. It is up near the Sierra Madre, and is 
 notable, principally, I think, for being the 
 rendezvous of all the blackguards who cross the 
 frontier. They seem to be a bloody lot here 
 Only a short time since the natives made a raid 
 against the Apaches, and returned carrying 
 their heads in triumph, on poles, and still later, 
 a fortnight ago, two perfectly innocent Americans 
 were killed by Mexican banditti. 
 
 We still travel through the same style of 
 country as was Arizona, only the cactus seems 
 to get thicker and more variegated. The only 
 really interesting cactus is Mescal, which bears 
 a little red fruit, costing about ten cents a 
 hundred, and which only a Mexican knows how 
 to peel. He kneels at your feet with a basket 
 full, and you eat as fast as he peels. It resembles 
 a small beetroot, and I think is called " tuna " ; 
 but I ate so many different fruits it is quite
 
 FROM THE BIO GRANDE TO THE TROPICS. 115 
 
 impossible to remember all. Occasionally, after 
 rounding one of the low hills, a brilliant landscape 
 will burst on one, and you wonder why all the 
 country is not like this. For a few miles 
 everything is green and under cultivation ; the 
 little town, with a picturesque Moorish Church 
 to apparently every five or ten houses, appears 
 to be all that could be desired. And then all 
 of a sudden you find yourself plunged again into 
 desolation and cactus. It is a constantly 
 recurring puzzle as to whether Mexico is the 
 most smiling, luxuriant, plentiful country you 
 ever saw, or the most infernal, detestable 
 wilderness man was at any time compelled to 
 traverse. 
 
 Gradually we begin to climb the mountains 
 and get into the mining regions ; my engineering 
 friend's keen eye soon picking out the places 
 where they had tried for silver. He was on his 
 way to inspect a mine some sixty miles from 
 Zacatecas, and was kind enough to invite me to
 
 116 FROM THE RIO GRANDE TO THE TROPICS. 
 
 accompany him. I only wish I had, as, strange 
 enough, I struck him again on my return, and 
 his adventures were most unheard of. I shall 
 never forget his description of his start, carrying 
 a sword and two revolvers, which, not being a 
 man of war, he did not even load. 
 
 Perhaps Zacatecas is the town that strikes 
 the traveller more than anything else he sees in 
 Mexico ; it is the first thoroughly Mexican town 
 he sees. The extraordinary clearness of the air, 
 the beautiful tints of the houses, the whole 
 marvellous combination of colour you never 
 see a false colour in Mexico, the walls, the 
 dresses of the women, and different costumes of 
 the men, even the rags of the wretched paeons, 
 all seem to have been touched up by some 
 artistic hand. Everything is so brilliant, and 
 yet so delicate and soft. 
 
 We go down into the streets, passing the 
 innumerable sellers of strange fruits and still 
 stranger sweets down the little narrow dirty
 
 FKOM THE RIO GRANDE TO THE TROPICS. 117 
 
 streets (if you wish to retain a pleasant 
 recollection of Zacatecas keep to the bird's 
 eye view, do not penetrate into its domestic 
 economy) passing flocks (I know no better word) 
 of sedate donkeys carrying all sorts of things 
 water, stones, corn, merchandise. Everything 
 in this country is carried by donkeys, who are 
 stimulated by ragged little boys ; and great is 
 the commotion in the little public way when a 
 flock, carrying, let us say, stones, meets one 
 carrying hay, as the hungry stone-carriers snatch 
 a hasty breakfast from their country cousins. 
 
 There is a strange way they clean their 
 streets in this unusual town. A second flock, 
 not of donkeys this time, but of men hardly 
 less beasts of burden with little short brushes, 
 bent double ; (the men not the brushes) grub in 
 every corner. They also are driven on by an 
 individual who apparently had spent some time in 
 a Mexican Billingsgate ; and still another flock 
 the saddest of all flocks of convicts, ragged, fed
 
 118 FROM THE EIO GRANDE TO THE TROPICS. 
 
 on a handful of Indian corn and water ; dirty, 
 shoeless, footsore, kept at a trot all day, carrying 
 huge blocks of wood, and urged on by mounted 
 soldiers with drawn swords and bayonets. 
 Surely, had I my choice of the three flocks, I 
 should choose the first. 
 
 We go to the Zacatecano, quite a clean 
 place, where we have a delicious wash, and a 
 still more delicious cup of Mexican chocolate, 
 and then sally forth to see the town, and do 
 some shopping ; but there is nothing to buy, 
 and nothing much to do ; so after haggling 
 over the price of an old hand worked revolver 
 case you always haggle over everything here 
 we stroll up the hill into the old tumble down 
 cemetery, with its quaint fantastic tombstones ; 
 on the top of some of which are the polished 
 skulls of defunct Mexicans, one of which 
 my American friend wished to annex, doubt- 
 less to shew to his admiring friends in 
 Jersey City. However, I prevailed upon him to
 
 FROM THE RIO GRANDE TO THE TROPICS. 119 
 
 let the head of the defunct swell rest in peace. 
 I couldn't help laughing, it was such a 
 thoroughly American idea. 
 
 I was sorry to leave the old burying ground, 
 and return to the gilded ginger-bread Pullman - 
 car ; it seemed such a change, but it does not 
 do to be too romantic in a place when there is 
 only one train in a day, so I and the skull snatcher 
 had to tear ourselves away. If Zacatecas was 
 picturesque on entering, it was doubly so on 
 leaving a bird's-eye view of the whole town 
 met our eyes. In the distance lay the equally 
 lovely village of Guadalupe, situated in the 
 most fertile valley I ever saw, and possessing 
 one of the most beautiful churches in Mexico. 
 Troops of donkeys were being driven round and 
 round in the valley, mixing up the silver and 
 chemicals, whilst trains of their brethren kicked 
 up clouds of dust on the winding white roads, 
 carrying the precious ore to the smelting 
 furnaces ; the men riding on their necks, with
 
 120 FROM THE RIO GRANDE TO THE TROPICS. 
 
 their knees up to their chins, reminding one 
 strongly of the pictures one sees of scenes in the 
 Holy Land. It was a good thing, however, 
 we were allowed to enjoy this almost unequalled 
 scene, without a foreknowledge of the amuse- 
 ments in store for us. 
 
 Immediately after leaving Zacatecas we 
 plunged into the usual desert of cactus and 
 stones, but sixty miles south we found ourselves 
 at a bad " washout," whilst three others were 
 further on. The worst of a washout is no 
 one exactly knows how long one may stop. 
 The train can't go back as another train might 
 come up the other side and exchange passengers. 
 So there we were. My small stock of beer 
 and canned stuff soon gave out, so the coal 
 contractor for the line and myself went down 
 the line to see if we could strike anything to 
 eat. We soon found a dozen dirty grass huts 
 shaped like umbrellas, but the Indians had nothing 
 to eat. Yes, there was a live turkey, but it was
 
 FROM THE RIO GRANDE TO THE TROPICS. 121 
 
 sold to the chief bridge mender for five dollars. 
 At last, to my great joy, we found one of 
 them had some jerked beef, i.e., raw beef cut 
 in strips and dried in the sun a Sunday dish 
 for a Mexican Indian. They also made us some 
 tortillas, and I found some coffee at the bottom 
 of my basket and a tin of prawns, so we invited 
 another passenger and the conductor to dinner, 
 and I assure you afterwards, with a cigarette, I 
 felt as if I had dined at Delmonico's. But the 
 days were awfully monotonous, there we were 
 in a desert ; now what can you do in a desert ? 
 Not a thing, except watch the crowd of paeons 
 working at the bridge for us to go over. Fancy 
 the Lancashire and Yorkshire bridge over the 
 Calder breaking down, and being obliged to sit 
 down on the Heath footpath till it was mended. 
 The thing seemed too absurd. Gradually we 
 had an encampment of people, who brought us 
 milk and bread from the towns, and tinned 
 .sardines. Imagine sardines and bread and bad
 
 122 FROM THE RIO GRANDE TO THE TROPICS. 
 
 brandy, subsequently a detachment of ragged 
 cavalry came on the field. I wanted to hire a mule 
 team and go on to Aquas Calientes, but was 
 assured I should be robbed and perhaps murdered, 
 so I stuck to the sardines and bad brandy. At 
 length, on the evening of the third day, just as 
 the crowd was seeing the last round between a 
 telegraph operator and his Mexican mistress, 
 whistlings were heard from the South, and we 
 saw the headlight of the long wished for 
 locomotive. As it came near it stopped for a 
 moment to pick up some of the officials, and a 
 dash was made for the flat cars by the horde of 
 paeons, to ride back the two miles to the wash- 
 out. I made a dash too, but owing to the 
 darkness and the vigorous competition for seats 
 I was launched somewhat unexpectedly into 
 space, and then up to my neck in water ; and 
 worse still, as I struck for the shore I nearly 
 broke my arm against the bank, it was rather 
 deep, but only a few yards across. It might
 
 FROM THE RIO GRANDE TO THE TROPICS. 1 23 
 
 have been a mile for the fright I got. I ran all 
 the way to the cars, heartily cursing washouts 
 and everything connected with them. 
 
 It is only on an occasion like this that one 
 discovers the meanness of some people ; the 
 porter taking pity on my condition, hinted that 
 one of the passengers had a large bottle of good 
 whiskey, and I discovered that this same 
 passenger was the viper we had been cherishing 
 on jerked beef and bad brandy truly a 
 villain with a smiling face. 
 
 We got settled in the new train at last, 
 and some hours afterwards arrived at Aquas 
 Calientes, famous, as its name implies, for its 
 hot springs. 
 
 Here we had the first decent meal we had 
 obtained since I left San Francisco ; and here we 
 got a taste of the numberless fruits that come 
 up from the tropics ; there were lots of oranges, 
 lemons, citrons, and pines, also a large fruit like 
 the green wax apples that adorn the mantel-
 
 124 FROM THE RIO GRANDE TO THE TROPICS. 
 
 shelves of sea-side lodging-houses, inside which 
 was a sort of gooseberry jelly, and called, I 
 think, grenadita. But perhaps the strangest 
 was a fruit which resembled mayonaise, and, 
 mixed with pepper and salt, made the most 
 appetizing salad. In appearance it was not 
 unlike butter. We had to tear ourselves away 
 from these good things to continue our journey, 
 which had been a gradual descent of about two 
 thousand feet since leaving the mining regions 
 of Zacatecas. 
 
 At Leon and Silao, they bring vou handsful 
 of opals, gathered by the Indians in the neigh- 
 bouring hills, and worth from fifty cents to five 
 dollars a piece. You must be careful, as they 
 are only too ready to " put up a job " on a 
 stranger. Then we began the steep climb up to 
 the Mexican plateau. Here the scenery changed 
 a little. For a time we left the cactus, and the 
 spots of cultivation, with their glistening white
 
 FROM THE RIO GRANDE TO THE TROPICS. 125 
 
 haciendas, and got into a tract of mountainous 
 country, the low hills covered with close grass, 
 on which herds of Mexican cattle were feeding. 
 Every now and then we saw bands of horses, 
 one of them nearly bringing us to grief. I just 
 happened to look out of the car window, and saw 
 a mixed band of donkeys, horses, and mules 
 driven close to the track. The trail they were 
 following crossed our track at what we should 
 call a level crossing. The whole band, catching 
 sight of the cars, started off at a mad galop. 
 There could not have been less than three 
 hundred, and it was a race for life with us, as 
 well as them, as to who should reach the 
 crossing first. The few " vaqueros " with them 
 were helpless. We rushed on to the outside 
 platform and held the handrail, to say nothing of 
 our breath ; and only just beat them, the leading 
 horses getting to the crossing as we thundered 
 by. We were going down hill, forty miles an 
 hour. The whole band seemed to be thrown
 
 126 FROM THE RIO GRANDE TO THE TROPICS. 
 
 on a heap horses and mules seemingly piled up 
 one on the top of the other. It was a lucky 
 squeak, as we must have "jumped the track " if 
 we had gone into them. It was a difficult piece 
 of country for the driver, being thickly grazed, 
 and going down hill it was impossible to avoid 
 all the stock on the line. The donkeys are far 
 the worst ; you can't frighten them off with the 
 whistle, and if you slow-up, they trot quietly on 
 in front of the engine, in some cases actually 
 being caught up on the cow-catcher, and 
 carried along unhurt. Then the train has to be 
 pulled-up, and the angry stoker gets down and 
 twists their tails. 
 
 At last we reach Marques, the highest 
 point, eight thousand one hundred and thirty two 
 feet above the sea, a great, fine, wild stretch of 
 country, extending for miles on all sides. The 
 atmosphere reminded me of the Scotch highlands 
 more than anything I can think of. I should 
 have liked to have stopped up there for a
 
 FROM THE EIO GRANDE TO THE TROPICS. 127 
 
 week. What untamed looking men they 
 were living there. One wild boy who came on 
 the train to sell goats' milk, at a little station 
 where we took in wood, was carried off for 
 twenty miles, by mistake, and cowered in a 
 corner of the Pullman, the magnificence of which 
 would be told to many of his wondering friends 
 when he returned to his home. 
 
 Our descent (about eight hundred feet, 
 to get to Mexico,) took us through 
 the roughest valley that I ever saw. There 
 was not a square inch of ground that was not 
 covered with the most cruel brush imaginable ; 
 but it got more interesting later on, when we 
 struck the remains of the canal by which, a few 
 hundred years ago, the Mexicans tried to drain 
 the valley of Mexico ; it is an extraordinary 
 work, (I forget how many thousands of men 
 toiled at this colossal undertaking) and is cut 
 clean through an enormous mountain. I may 
 be wrong, but I think at one time, some twenty-
 
 128 FROM THE RIO GRANDE TO THE TROPICS. 
 
 five thousand Indians found employment here. 
 When short of money, they stopped for a 
 hundred years or so, the work being taken 
 up by their grandchildren. Much of the 
 masonry is still there ; they must have had 
 some good county bridge-surveyors in those 
 days ; but they got their levels wrong, or 
 something ; at any rate, they never drained the 
 valley. Travelling alongside the canal for some 
 time, we enter on the plateau of Mexico. 
 
 Being rather excited after our week's 
 journey, we strain our eyes to get the first 
 glimpse of the most beautiful capital in the 
 world. We had a pleasant party, and felt sorry 
 to break up, but as Mexico is not a big place, we 
 all meet again at the Iturbide or the San Carlos 
 in spite of the entreaties of the gentleman who 
 hands the following card : " Are you looking 
 for appartements, come to the Grate Barding 
 Hous. Daccomadation for one hundred of 
 persons. All kinds of milkis at from 8, 10, 12
 
 FROM THE RIO GRANDE TO THE TROPICS. 129 
 
 Reals a day, according to situations of apparte- 
 ments. I make known to persons of Europe 
 that I beared the same business at Cuba, 
 Cienfugos, etc., etc." 
 
 We resisted him. Even a variety of milkis 
 (meals) at 8, 10, 12 Reals a-day did not tempt 
 us, and we went to the San Carlos. 
 
 I am afraid I shall only be able to give but 
 a dim idea of the beauties of the City of Mexico. 
 When the original founder of Mexico came to 
 this benighted country, he was told by someone 
 who* does not appear by name in the legend, 
 that he was to found his capital where he 
 discovered an eagle with a snake in its mouth, 
 seated on a cactus. Eagles, snakes, and cactuses 
 being then, as now, more particularly the latter, 
 fairly common, he was not long before he 
 detected the King of Birds, perched on this 
 particular vegetable. The only marvel is he got 
 as far as he did. If this mud-loving fowl of the 
 air had only established himself two miles
 
 130 FROM THE RIO GRANDE TO THE TROPICS. 
 
 further on, Mexico would have been situated on 
 the finest conceivable site for a city. It would 
 have had drainage and cellars, and have been 
 free from malaria ; but no, this unsanitary bird 
 chose to sit on a cactus on the very edge of 
 either Lake Texcoco or Lake Xochimilco, and in 
 consequence the town suffers from bad drainage 
 and malaria. The only thing that saves Mexico 
 is its height eight thousand feet above the sea. 
 On the top of this plateau, just where the city 
 is, there is a valley which you may say consists 
 of a few large lakes, and right in the middle 
 of them is Mexico. The result is that there 
 is absolutely no drainage. The sewage just lies 
 in the suburban streets, and outside the town ; 
 somewhat in the fashion of the fens in Lincoln- 
 shire ; as a consequence the inhabitants are 
 subject to low fever. With the exception of 
 this, and small-pox (which is looked on 
 with less dread than a bad cold with 
 us), it is the most healthy city I know. There
 
 FROM THE RIO GRANDE TO THE TROPICS. 131 
 
 are no variations of the temperature, which is just 
 hot enough in the day, and just refreshing, not 
 r :;old, at night. Can I say it, after what I said 
 hefore ? It excels even California in climate. A 
 peculiarity is, as I was informed, that there is 
 not a fireplace (with the exception of those used 
 for cooking) in the whole of Mexico. 
 
 The first thing to do after the long and 
 dusty journey, is to go and have a Russian bath 
 at the Banos del Factor, where I had a battle 
 royal with the bath-room man about the charges 
 the first of many mistakes I made not 
 knowing either the language or the coinage. 
 The man was perfectly right, and I had a capital 
 steam bath, and a cup of coffee and cigarette, 
 for a moderate sum. There were two things 
 that struck me forcibly on leaving the bath. 
 First, it was broad day -light when I went in ; I 
 only stayed in three-quarters of an hour, and 
 when I came out it was pitch dark. I had 
 forgotten that there was no twilight. The
 
 132 FROM THE RIO GRANDE TO THE TROPICS. 
 
 second was, the strange quiet that reigned in 
 thestreets,there being no street-cries or shouting. 
 The crowds seemed to shuffle past in a mysteriously 
 pathetic manner. I say these two things struck 
 me. I ought to say they were the first to strike 
 me, for so many things struck me, it was 
 almost impossible to put them down. 
 
 The San Carlos is situated at the corner of 
 the Calleo San Francisco and the Coliseo Viejo. 
 It is built like nearly all the better Mexican 
 houses, with an open courtyard in the centre, 
 and galleries, ranging round, which are the 
 rooms. Need I say that, after the American 
 houses, they are extremely comfortless. The most 
 ordinary conveniences were absent. The other 
 leading house is the Iturbide, built, I think, by a 
 strange lady, who designed it with a view of 
 preventing her heirs living in it. It was inhabi- 
 ted some short time as a palace, by the transient 
 emperor after whom it is named. The living is 
 shocking compared to New York. The best, to
 
 FROM THE RIO GRANDE TO THE TROPICS. 133 
 
 my mind, is at the Hotel del Cafe Anglais. The 
 restaurant is situate in the usual open court- 
 yard in the hotel. Some prefer the Concordia ; 
 but there is not much difference. 
 
 A rather nice way is to take one of the 
 little rustic arbors round the gardens of some of 
 the restaurants, and have your meals served 
 there. A continuous stream of little boys and 
 girls pass round, selling oranges, and different 
 fruits, and, when the proprietor is not looking, beg 
 for bread and scraps. It is impossible to get any 
 substantial breakfast ; all you have in the morning 
 is coffee and bread, or a cup of that celebrated 
 chocolate which can only be got in Mexico. It 
 is delicious in flavour, and whipped into a thick 
 foam. I wonder Cadbury doesn't get hold of 
 the secret ; it would make him a second 
 fortune. 
 
 In the morning we pass up the compara- 
 tively modernized Calle de Plateros, strike into 
 the Plaza Major, and here the most beautiful
 
 134 FKOM THE RIO GRANDE TO THE TROPICS. 
 
 sight we shall see in this charming city greets 
 us. The grand old Cathedral, with its peculiar 
 whitey-grey colour, and its friezes, statues, and 
 basso-relievos of white marble, stands out 
 against the clear blue sky. No wonder an 
 ignorant impressionable race like the Indian- 
 Mexicans are influenced by religion when their 
 House of God is such a stately edifice. You may 
 enter the Plaza every day, still your eyes will 
 always turn to that glorious pile. Part Doric, 
 part Ionic, its height appears enormous ; it seems 
 in fact a collection of huge churches. The towers 
 are indeed colossal, so are the statues, the 
 portales, balustrades, and buttresses, all 
 forming one gigantic structure, and all 
 carved and worked out in the most 
 delicate manner. The whole is crowned bv a 
 
 j 
 
 large and massive dome, and this is surmounted 
 by an exquisite lantern. The length of the 
 building inside the thick walls is some four 
 hundred feet, and the great bell, the Santa
 
 FROM THE RIO GRANDE TO THE TROPICS. 135 
 
 Maria Guadalupe, is twenty feet high. The 
 approximate cost of building it was some two 
 million dollars. And yet, with all its vast extent 
 and its architectural features, it would not have 
 the same effect if it were not for the clear 
 atmosphere, the peculiar light and blue blueness 
 (if I may use the words) of the sky. 
 
 On the opposite side the plaza is flanked by 
 the Palacio Nacional, built on the land once 
 given to Cortez, a long, rather low, picturesque 
 line of buildings, not unlike some of the public 
 buildings in Paris. Inside is a series of courts, 
 and round the entrance stand the dirty looking 
 sentinels ragged and unshaven, filthy in their 
 soiled uniforms, with no shoes, but a coarse sort 
 of sandal, and when they march, they shuffle along 
 in a disorganised way, like criminals go on the 
 way to gaol. The other sides of the square are 
 occupied by the Portales or arcades, under which 
 the footpath passes, and which footpath is 
 occupied by the sellers of a hundred-and-one
 
 136 FROM THE RIO GRANDE TO THE TROPICS. 
 
 curious articles bridles, pistol-pouches, fancy 
 zareppes, sombreros, sweet-stuff, cigarettes, and 
 matches. These are the men who will trade 
 for half an hour over a, medio (12^ cents). They 
 always ask at least four times more than they 
 expect. For my zareppe a handsome shawl of 
 its kind, and for which I gave sixteen dollars 
 I was originally asked fifty. I walked straight 
 out of the store, followed by the merchant 
 shouting in Spanish. I turned round, and held 
 up ten fingers ; he regarded me with disgust, 
 and I never went near him for two days. I 
 then sauntered past his shop, and pretended I 
 did not even recognise the place ; but the rascal 
 knew me, and flew out of his den. I offered 
 him then only eight dollars. We haggled as 
 well as we could by signs, and at last he came 
 down to twenty. I left him for two more days, 
 eventually securing it for sixteen. This was no 
 particular struggle, as, with all but the most 
 respectable stores,- you have to bargain, or pay 
 five or six times too much.
 
 FROM THE RIO GRANDE TO THE TROPICS. 137 
 
 Near the Cathedral is the flower market ; 
 a place to spend hours in. A hundred 
 new flowers, of the most indescribably soft 
 tints and lovely shades, and of the most 
 extremely delicate hues, tempt one to buy. 
 Never have I seen, nor ever do I expect to see 
 again such a lovely collection of tender colouring. 
 There is no wonder you never see anything 
 inartistic in Mexico. Look at the masses of 
 market women in their rags, sitting round in 
 little groups on the plaza. Where else can one 
 see such a wonderful wealth of colour ? Even 
 the paeons in their white shirts and trousers, 
 have a bright bit of stuff round their waists ; 
 but a bright bit with just the trespassing 
 brightness rubbed off. 
 
 Go to the end of the Portal de los Flores, 
 and look down the Calle de Zaragoza, or the 
 Porta Coeli. There is the Seven Dials of Mexico. 
 The stench is abominable, and nearly all the
 
 138 FROM THE RIO GRANDE TO THE TROPICS. 
 
 people seem to be marked with small pox, though 
 walking about in convalescent stages, yet 
 one forgets all these disadvantages, being 
 absorbed inadmiration. of the marvellous collection 
 of colour shown up by the white walls cf the 
 houses, and the blue sky beyond ; whilst on a 
 feast day, and when the band plays in the 
 Alameda or the plaza, the Mexican countryman 
 will mostly demonstrate to you his love of finery. 
 He is now indeed a swell, with his silver 
 mounted saddle, with its enormous peak in front 
 and behind, with large stirrups and terrible 
 looking silver spurs, with his silver lace and 
 buttons on his pantaloons, whilst his worked 
 leather jacket is quite a marvel of minute silver 
 and leather work ; and he crowns the whole with 
 that typical sombrero, loaded with silver, 
 two feet across the brim, and costing from 
 twenty to a hundred dollars. At the same time 
 he parades his courage by his sword, and 
 silver and pearl-handled shooter. That is your
 
 FROM THE RIO GRANDE TO THE TROPICS. 139 
 
 real Mexican. Now the high-toned men, from 
 " away back," as Jonathan would say, have been 
 educated in Europe, and dress rather like seedy 
 looking Parisians, so do their wives, putting on 
 the most extraordinary looking silks and satins, 
 the patterns of which I remember seeing cut 
 from the " Journal des Modes," and placed in 
 my scrap book in days when I kept one. Why 
 do they not stay by their picturesque blue black 
 dresses and the dignified but graceful mantilla > 
 like their less fashionable sisters ? 
 
 I should say there was more to be done in 
 the way of sightseeing in Mexico than in any 
 other city of its size in the world. Of course 
 you visit the interior of the Cathedral. Tn the 
 days of my extreme youth I consulted one of 
 those learned gentlemen who for a trifling obli- 
 gation examine your head and tell you which 
 qualities should be encouraged and which re- 
 pressed. The one, I remember, that in my case 
 was most in want of stimulation was veneration
 
 140 FROM THE RIO GRANDE TO THE TROPICS. 
 
 for the antique. I think this venerable 
 craniologist in that case was right. I remember 
 staying at Cologne without entering its 
 Cathedral, and had it not been perhaps for the 
 advice of the corrector of my youthful mind, I 
 might even have left Mexico without going 
 inside the magnificent building whose exterior 
 impressed me so forcibly. I cannot give you 
 much idea of the interior. It is an exaggeration 
 of some of the large Roman Catholic Cathedrals 
 seen on the Continent more pictures, larger 
 altars, more chapels, enormous masses of heavy 
 gilt carving. It has a wooden floor, which 
 rather spoils the effect of its solemnity. We also 
 went round some of the other churches. I say 
 some, as if I had gone round all I should have 
 been there now, examining organs, stalls, silver 
 handrails, and dingy paintings. I believe there 
 are about seventy churches in the city, all of 
 which have more or less long histories, but the 
 exteriors of which redeem the interiors by
 
 FEOM THE RIO GRANDE TO THE TROPICS. 141 
 
 adding to the beauty of the city. Much 
 interested as I was by the churches, there were 
 other things to be seen the Museums. I hate 
 Museums worse, far worse, than old churches, 
 but it had to be done. The collection of stuffed 
 animals, &c., was amusing, the singular shapes 
 the taxidermist had given some of the beasts 
 were remarkable. There was also Maximilian's 
 state coach, compared to which our Royal 
 carriages are nothing, also a fine service of plate 
 belonging to the unfortunate Emperor, and a 
 quantity of other relics. We were accompanied 
 round by a very dirty individual, who instead 
 of showing us Aztec relics and Indian curios 
 paraded the monstrosities that are seen at shows 
 at the seaside ; for instance he would hustle us 
 past some prehistoric ornaments or jewelry or 
 the sacrificial stone to shew us a kid with two 
 tongues, nor would he, in his ambition to point 
 out a calf with seven legs, permit us to inspect 
 the Indio Triste or the mode of waging warfare 
 amongst the ancient Mexicans.
 
 142 FROM THE RIO GRANDE TO THE TROPICS. 
 
 Therefore my ideas of the Museo-Nacional 
 are obscured by unnatural productions, other- 
 wise I should have been glad to have given 
 some further information on the really valuable 
 collection of antiquities there. The Academia 
 de Bellas Artes, is worth visiting, where 
 are some good pictures by the old Mexican 
 Masters, and also some reputed and real 
 Murillos, an attributed Vandyke, and two by 
 Teniers, and, as I thought the most striking, a 
 possible Leonardo da Vinci. There are lots 
 of other places to be seen in Mexico city. The 
 Monte de Piedad (Pawn Shop), where you may 
 perhaps pick up something worth buying. 
 
 One day was very interesting, or rather it 
 appeared interesting to me. I don't suppose 
 it was a bit interesting for the Mexicans ; 
 great preparations were made for a fair, 
 and I expected to be able to purchase a lot of 
 Mexican curiosities ; but when I went round 
 the stalls there was nothing but Death in all
 
 FROM THE RIO GRANDE TO THE TROPICS. 143 
 
 his most horrible shapes coffins, tombs, and 
 skeletons, represented in card board or paper, 
 in bread or biscuit. It seems that out of their 
 many fete days they reserve one for the man 
 on the Pale Horse, and they bring him in his 
 various representations and place him on the 
 tombs of their dead forbears. 
 
 The Alameda or public park is a fine one^ 
 on the way to the Paseo de la Keforma, a 
 beautiful drive two miles long with double 
 rows of trees on each side and ending up by 
 the heights of Chapultepec, on the top of 
 which stands a castle of the same name. The 
 Paseo is the fashionable drive for the Mexicans 
 in the afternoon. They drive very slowly in 
 order to see and be seen ; but as they, even in 
 the height of summer, drive in close carriage* 
 it is difficult to see what object they have in 
 view. Few better places could have been 
 chosen for a castle than this rocky eminence, 
 standing out of the low-lying marshy land
 
 144 FROM THE RIO GRANDE TO THE TROPICS. 
 
 around it, surrounded by a small forest of 
 ahuehuetes, a species of Cyprus, the most 
 magnificent trees I have ever seen, dating 
 from before the Conquest, and towering in a 
 melancholy sort of way, like everything in 
 Mexico, almost as high as the castle itself. 
 Draped in hanging moss, they seem almost to 
 be mourning for the past greatness of the 
 country ; not entirely past though, for the 
 castle is now under repair as the summer 
 residence of the President of the Eepublic. 
 
 What a view there is from Chapultepec ! 
 The luxuriant valley of Mexico stretches for 
 miles on every side. At your feet is the city 
 and its lakes ; while far away in the di&tance 
 tier upon tier of hills rise till they are crowned 
 by the snow-capped summits of Popocatepetl 
 and Ixtacci'hual the two volcanoes which 
 are first looked for and last remembered by 
 anyone whose good fortune may lead him to 
 Mexico.
 
 FROM THE RIO GRANDE TO THE TROPICS. 145 
 
 Of other excursions there are a score to 
 Tacubaya where there are churches of 
 course, a small palace, and a smaller Alameda, 
 and some lovely garden-parks, where dwell the 
 richer Mexicans. Moliuo del Key, the mill 
 where General Scott first turned the Mexicans 
 before taking Chapultepec ; Atzcapotzalco, 
 where we buy eartheruware jars for a cent, a 
 piece (not a centre piece), is more peculiar to 
 me for the time it takes to pronounce its name 
 
 than for anything else I can remember about 
 
 * 
 it, and last, but not least, to Guadalupe, where 
 
 there is a charming view, a lovely church, 
 notable for the solid silver rail round the altar, 
 and for a variety of other curiosities. The 
 church alone cost over a million of dollars, and 
 its possessions in jewelry and plate, which long 
 since have passed into Government hands, 
 made up some two millions more. Here is a 
 marvellous picture, which I did not see a 
 puzzle to Mexican artists to discover how it
 
 146 FROM THE RIO GRANDE TO THE TROPICS. 
 
 was made. It is painted on a sort of canvas 
 made from that interminable cactus, but there 
 is still a doubt whether it is painted in oil or 
 water color, and what it is beats the Devil and 
 the good people of Guadalupe. According to 
 . the fable, one Juan Diego, a gentleman of 
 Tolpetlac, saw a vision of the Virgin, who 
 commanded him to go at once to the Bishop 
 and tell him to build a cathedral, as soon as 
 he could, on the spot. Juan Diego at once 
 went to the Bishop, who to use an Americanism, 
 11 didn't catch on," so Juan Diego returned 
 disconsolate, again saw the Virgin and again 
 saw the Bishop, who remarked that he 
 only partially believed the tale, but that at 
 any rate some sign should be brought him, 
 and subsequently the Bishop ordered two of 
 his servants to follow the discredited Juan. 
 They followed him, and lo ! and behold ! Juan of 
 Tolpetlac vanished from their sight. Juan 
 met the Lady of Guadalupe and told her he
 
 FROM THE RIO GRANDE TO THE TROPICS. 147 
 
 had been required to bring some sign of her 
 appearance to the Bishop. She told him to 
 come again, but when he arrived home he 
 found his Uncle, Juan Bernadino, lying ill of 
 a fever, called by the Indians the mellifluous 
 name of cocolixtl. Juan, the younger, went 
 for a doctor and on his way he met the Lady 
 of Guadalupe, who told him his Uncle was 
 cured, and bade him pluck flowers off the 
 barren hill where never flowers grew before, 
 ji-nd give them to the Bishop as a sign. Juan 
 did so, and marvellous to relate, a spring 
 of water gushed from where the Lady of 
 (J-uadalupe stood, and her picture, beautifully 
 painted appeared on Juan's zareppa, and the 
 Bishop placed it in its frame, where it now is. 
 Juan returning home, found Uncle all right. 
 
 This is the story ; you may believe it or 
 not as you like. I did not see the picture, for 
 the simple fact the doors were shut ; aud as it 
 lay between waiting two hours in a hot sun to
 
 148 FROM THE RIO GRANDE TO THE TROPICS. 
 
 see a picture which was probably not dissimilar 
 to scores of others and returning to Mexico 
 for dinner, I chose the latter. The spring 
 of water marking the spot where Juan cut 
 the flowers is there, and remarkably good 
 water it is. 
 
 A magnificent chapel, the Capilla del 
 Cerrito was built over it by Cristobal de 
 Aquirre in order to celebrate the vision every 
 12th December. Near here is an extraordinary 
 looking structure a ship's mast and sails, 
 enclosed in stone, and dedicated to the Virgin 
 of Guadalupe by some mariners, thankful for 
 their escape from shipwreck off the coast of 
 Yera Cruz. 
 
 One of the principal sights we looked 
 forward to was a bull fight. A description of a 
 bull fight has been written so often I had not 
 intended to say much about it, but as two or 
 three people have told me since my return that 
 they thought the bulls fought each other, it is 
 as well to remove such erroneous impressions.
 
 FROM THE RIO GRANDE TO THE TROPICS. 149 
 
 For a week before the great event the 
 walls were covered with huge posters .stating 
 that the fight would take place at Tacubuya, 
 just outside the town, in the old bull ring, as 
 bull fights are illegal, strange to say, within the 
 city boundariss, The proprietors of the ring 
 announced that at great difficulty and enormous 
 expense they had procured six arrogant and 
 ferocious bulls from a famous frontier herd ; that 
 these bulls would fight till the death. Then 
 followed the names of the Toreadores, Picadores, 
 and others, who guaranteed to give the original 
 entertainment, as given at Madrid. In fact, we 
 were to have the whole bag of tricks, and no 
 shuffling. 
 
 We hired a sort of closed landau, in the 
 Plaza Major, drawn by mules, and started off with 
 two individuals on the. box. I was at a loss to 
 to account for the presence of the extra lacquey, 
 but unhappily soon discovered, One man was 
 to drive, the other had his pocket full of stones
 
 150 FROM THE RIO GRANDE TO THE TROPICS. 
 
 to urge the mules to greater exertions. It was 
 a most jumpy drive. The holes and ruts defy 
 description, and by way of strengthening our 
 nerves a large mule cart of " paeons" upset just in 
 front of us, squashing the life out of half a dozen 
 miserable wretches by the heavy cart falling on 
 them. But such is the indifference of the 
 Mexican to suffering that, though there were 
 plenty of men about, no one moved a hand to 
 help them, and had we not rushed to their aid 
 they would have been there to-day. Then our 
 mules, with their innate obstinacy, would not 
 pass the fallen animals, and a gay party of 
 Mexicans had to attach their lassoes to our trap. 
 and pull us along. 
 
 Have any of you been in the long valley at 
 Aldershot, or watched the guns at a sham fight 
 at Cobham. If you have you may have a faint 
 idea of what tortures we went through before 
 arriving at the arena. We charged great dykes, 
 bounded over fallen trees,took bridges like country
 
 FROM THE RIO GRANDE TO THE TROPICS. 151 
 
 stiles, being thrown first to one side of the 
 carriage then to the other. 1 never was in such a 
 funk in all my life ; and all the time our footman 
 kept up a volley of stones and oaths at the mules ! 
 Of course, had we known better we should have 
 ridden like every one else. There were hundreds 
 of silver-bedizened Mexicans on horseback, in 
 all their tawdry finery, on their way to the 
 fight. 
 
 At last we got to the ring a huge arena, 
 the seats being arranged in the same way as at 
 a circus, but with a strong palisade round to pre- 
 vent the bulls getting out, and then a second 
 one with a rope on the top, outside that. The 
 exterior resembled the hoardings of an agricul- 
 tural show. After providing our coachman and 
 mule stimulator the wherewithal to buy some 
 liquid, we disposed ourselves to see what was to 
 be seen. The crowd gradually thickened, though 
 the show did not begin till four o'clock. The 
 .seats were of different prices, and, as there is
 
 152 FROM THE RIO GRANDE TO THE TROPICS. 
 
 no roof, the dearest ones are those in the shade, 
 whilst the crowd sit in the sun, where the seats 
 were all occupied. 
 
 It made a very pretty sight, with the 
 Mexicans in their picturesque clothes. There 
 must have been some four or five thousand 
 persons present, with a good sprinkling of 
 women. It was a good natured crowd, as crowds 
 who have had their dinner and lots to drink 
 often are ; and it beguiled its time in chaffing 
 and smoking till the fun should begin. At times 
 a whole row of Mexican swells, sitting on the 
 barricade, would go heels up, as some wag 
 slackened the rope they held on to. This would 
 produce a roar of derision from the opposition 
 benches the democracy in the sun. Then a 
 little bird flew into the middle of the ring, and 
 frightened to death at the waving of hats if it 
 attempted to fly out, suffered itself to be pelted 
 with sticks and stones. The savage yell that 
 went up from those three thousand throats when
 
 FROM THE RIO GRANDE TO THE TROPICS. 153 
 
 some one killed it with an orange, showed the 
 blood-thirsty nature of the assembly. 
 
 But at last the crowd gets really impatient, 
 and the appearance of a regimental band is 
 greeted with cheers and shouts for El Toro. At 
 last a pair of doors are thrown open, the band 
 strikes up that charming old Toreador tune, 
 and in marches the little gallant band, in half 
 sections, led by the senior Toreador, followed 
 by the Picadores on horseback, and the men to 
 lasso the bulls ; then lastly the gaily caparisoned 
 mules which are to pull away the dead beasts. 
 None of your Mexican shuffling in this band ; 
 but fine, tall, well-made men, active as cats, 
 and with muscles like prize fighters', yet with 
 a jaunty step and head erect such good-looking 
 men, with a devil-may-care expression, still 
 stern and slightly anxious. They cross the ring 
 and march to the judge's box. It reminds one 
 of the old gladiators, " Ave Caesar, morituri te 
 salutant." Then they dispose of themselves
 
 154 FROM THE RIO GRANDE TO THE TROPICS. 
 
 evidently in well arranged positions, and all eyes 
 are turned to a little door at one side of the, 
 ring. It opens, and urged on from behind, a 
 small sturdy active black bull bounds out, 
 stimulated by receiving two darts, with iron 
 spikes in them, in his back. These darts have 
 white rosettes, and are always shoved into the 
 bull as he enters the ring by way, I suppose, of 
 making him come in with a little spirit. 
 
 But the little black bull stops in spite of 
 the stimulant ; he doesn't like the look of 
 things. This is different from his quiet life at 
 home. 
 
 Who are those gay-looking tormentors ? 
 What is this enormous crowd ? And still further 
 what are those nasty things sticking in his 
 back ? Even branding at his home on the 
 frontier is different to this. Such a scene at a 
 " round up" is quite unknown, and after a kick 
 or two he makes up his mind to seek egress 
 where he came in. In vain do the Matadores
 
 FKOM THE RIO GRANDE TO THE TROPICS. 155 
 
 tempt him to charge with the variegated shawls. 
 In vain do the Picadores stand temptingly in 
 front of him. No ; he has quite made up his 
 mind to " quit," as our Yankee friends say ; but 
 how ? He runs round the ring looking for the 
 door, and then you feel the temper of the crowd. 
 They have come for blood. They have paid 
 to see blood ; and blood they must have. They 
 don't want to see a bull run round and round a 
 ring. Loud are the cries for " El Lisso." 
 
 Matadores, Picadores, and all try hard 
 to get their bull to toy with them. But he 
 won't have it at any price ; and Caesar has to 
 give the signal. 
 
 Then two elaborately dressed Mexican 
 Vaqueros canter out, and lasso the animal in an 
 inimitable manner, one by the horns, the other 
 by the hind legs ; and he is pulled out of the 
 arena I 
 
 We are somewhat disappointed. Is this 
 the far-famed Spanish Bull Fight ? If so we
 
 156 FROM THE RIO GRANDE TO THE TROPICS. 
 
 will climb down, and, risking the terrors of the 
 drive, go home and spend our afternoon under 
 the Portales, or even in the Museo Nacional, 
 and yet, perhaps, this was only a bad bull. We 
 will stop and see another. We have a short 
 interval, the band strikes up, the doors fly open, 
 and with a kick and a plunge, in comes another 
 bull a sturdy roan chap, a sporting looking 
 customer. He regards all for a second, and 
 then gives a toss of his head which brings a 
 cheer from the spectators. Yes ! We shall 
 have a bit of fun with this chap. He cheerfully 
 responds to the blandishments of the gay colored 
 shawl fluttered in front of his eyes. This part 
 of the performance is perhaps the prettiest, to 
 see the bull attacking the man who so skilfully 
 mocks him with his shawl. If only the bull 
 could get past this vexatious shawl, and give the 
 man a good toss, what a gratified howl would 
 go up from the crowd ; but the Matador is too 
 skilful ; sometimes in front, sometimes behind,
 
 FROM THE RIO GRANDE TO THE TROPICS. 157 
 
 turning and twisting, he chaffs the bull, till he 
 is tired, and another one takes his place ; but 
 this man has not such an easy time. Our little 
 roan friend has had enough of thistomfoolery,and 
 makes several determined dashes, compelling 
 the matador to seek refuge behind the little 
 wooden shields built round the ring. A third 
 man has a try, and now it gets quite exciting. 
 The bull chases him round the ring once and 
 finally crosses in full pursuit and charges to 
 some purpose. The man just manages to jump 
 over the barricade, and the bull goes with a 
 crash against the timbers, turning round only 
 to find himself with a Picador on an old gray 
 horse. The Picadores, as I ought to have 
 explained before, are mounted on the most 
 miserable old quads, bought for a few dollars a- 
 piece. They are shielded with leather, and in 
 their old ramshackle gear present a queer 
 contrast to their beautifully dressed com- 
 panions.
 
 158 FROM THE EIO GRANDE TO THE TROPICS. 
 
 The Picadores themselves are armed with a 
 long pole, with an iron spike at the end, not so 
 much to attack the bull, as to receive the shock 
 of his charge. The roan has an exciting 
 tussle with the gray, and finally knocks him 
 end over end, the laughing Picadores pretending 
 to enjoy it. But there is no time to enquire 
 after this Picador, for the bull catches sight of 
 another, who resists his first charge successfully, 
 but is bowled off, and though eventually getting 
 up is made to canter round the ring with his 
 entrails trailing on the ground. A third 
 Picador has a go, and for some time succeeds 
 in keeping on his legs, but the bull gets his 
 horns fairly under him and carries horse and 
 man with a terrible crash against the barricade. 
 The horse is killed and the Picador is hurt, 
 whilst the Matadores strive to get the bull's 
 attention from their fallen companion by trailing 
 their flags under his notice. 
 
 The excitement is intense. " El Toro !"
 
 FROM THE EIO GRANDE TO THE TROPICS. 159 
 
 " El Toro !" Every one applauds the bull. No 
 one cares for the men ; and the culminating 
 point is reached when a Matador trips up and 
 falls, to be gored by the infuriated beast. But 
 alas for the blood-thirsty crowd, the bull does 
 not get home ; it only rips his breeches off. Oh ! 
 if only that man had been gored ! The spectators 
 would have indeed considered that they had 
 not invested their dollars in vain. But pending 
 some one killed they have to put up with torn 
 breeches ; yet even this raises them to the 
 highest pinnacle of pleasure, and loud cheers 
 greet the trumpets when they sound the 
 " Banderillas." 
 
 The banderilias are sharp barbs, gaily 
 da3orated with festoons and flowers of coloured 
 papers. One of the leading bull-fighters takes 
 one in each hand, and places himself in front of 
 his antagonist, who makes a dash at him. This 
 man, who appears to be popular with the crowd, 
 gets the bull to pass under his arm, and plants a
 
 160 FROM THE RIO GRANDE TO THE TROPICS. 
 
 banderilla in each shoulder, which feat, if he 
 does it cleverly, is greeted with applause. Then 
 another pair is planted in. 
 
 Each movement of the bull drives them in, 
 and goads him to fury, and he gallops round the 
 ring in the maddest anguish, taunted by the 
 Picadores, chased first by one man, then by 
 another ; anon making a successful charge at a 
 horse, which he gores in the most savage manner, 
 and then, narrowly missing a man, who slips 
 behind a screen, all the people are in the bull's 
 favour. How is it we love the animal we wish 
 to kill ? All our sympathies are with the bull, 
 and yet we cannot satisfy those sympathies 
 unless we kill the animal we so admire ! 
 
 But this tormenting cannot go on for ever. 
 The bull is getting pumped, and his attacks 
 are less vigorous. He stands and glares at his 
 opponents, inviting attack. He is too blown to 
 follow them, but stands, covered with blood arid 
 foam, prepared, if he can only get the chance, to
 
 FROM THE RIO GRANDE TO THE TROPICS. 1 6 t 
 
 have a terrible reckoning with either man or 
 beast whom he can catch. 
 
 The crowd cheer ; Caesar gives the word ; 
 the trumpets sound, and this brave bull must 
 die. The head Matador advances, with a long 
 sword in one hand, and a wand with a parti- 
 colored ribbon in the other. He advances by 
 himself. The maimed horses have been dragged 
 off the field ; his companions are standing round 
 the arena, and he knows well that he has only 
 two inches wherein to place his weapon to 
 succeed, and if he fails the jeers of four thousand 
 people will sound in his ears. He taunts the 
 bull with the muleta, which causes him to 
 charge, and the Matador, with a sharp turn of 
 his wrist, runs the sword in that difficult spot 
 between the point of the shoulder and the 
 shoulder blade. The bull stops, staggers, blood 
 gushes from his nostrils, the band strikes up a 
 triumphant refrain, the other bull fighters 
 dance a mocking dance before the poor brute,
 
 162 FROM THE RIO GRANDE TO THE TROPICS. 
 
 and this good, plucky bull falls down, and IK 
 dragged out of the ring by a pair of mules, 
 whilst the crowd discuss the fight, smoke, and 
 drink. 
 
 The fights that follow vary. Sometimes it 
 is " El Lasso," the sign of a bad bull, sometimes 
 " El Toro." We leave shortly, and mindful 
 of the amount of liquor our Jehu must have 
 imbibed, and the stones the flunkey must have 
 collected, walk home in the evening to Mexico 
 city. 
 
 The next day we start on our journey to 
 the Tropics. It is necessary to get up at four 
 o'clock in the morning to catch this tropical 
 train. One of the advantages about Mexico is. 
 that you start in the morning, reach Vera Crux 
 in the evening, enjoy the tropical scenery, and 
 should you feel a touch of malaria, or get afraid 
 of yellow jack, you can, in twelve hours, be back 
 in the Terra fria. 
 
 I am not sure if I previously explained that
 
 FROM THE RIO GRANDE TO THE TROPICS. 163 
 
 Mexico is divided into three climatic zones ; i.e. 
 the Terra fria, at the top of the mountain range, 
 the Terra templada, the moderate climate, half- 
 way down ; and the Terra caliente, or the 
 Tropics. 
 
 The railway we take to descend to the 
 Terra caliente is the Mexican National Railway. 
 It was made by English contractors, and many 
 of the drivers, guards, and foremen on the line 
 are English. It is curious to see the English 
 carriages after the Yankee cars ; but this is a 
 day of curiosities. What are all those soldiers 
 for, all huddled up in a cattle truck? They are 
 the guard to protect the train against banditti, 
 though I should imagine they would all lie 
 down on the floor and cry, if one real fierce- 
 looking brigand appeared such as one sees in 
 certain strong domestic pieces at second-rate 
 theatres. A favourite plan of the Mexican 
 brigand is to uncouple the last cars, and then 
 pillage them. To all appearance the country
 
 1G4 FROM THE RIO GRANDE TO THE TROPICS. 
 
 must be in a most dangerous state. Lines of 
 guards surround the train at every station, 
 acting, after the departure of the train, as escorts 
 to the diligences that come to meet us at every 
 little station. 
 
 A few hours after leaving Mexico we go 
 through the most valuable agricultural country. 
 Here are all the large Pulque (pulky) Farms. 
 The pulque is the popular beverage in Mexico. 
 In color it resembles milk, and has a taste not 
 unlike sour yeast. It is slightly medicinal, and 
 is said to be very xvholesome. As you may 
 imagine, it is quite an acquired taste, and forms 
 the only drink of the middle and lower classes. 
 It is procured from the aloe, or what is 
 commonly called, I think, in England, the century 
 plant. It is planted in long rows, with geome- 
 trical precision. A plant, taking many years 
 to ripen, remains for a certain period in good 
 condition for tapping, and then dies away. On 
 the outside cover of this book th^re is an
 
 FROM TEIE RIO GRANDE TO THE TROPICS. 165 
 
 engraving of a Mexican extracting the juics 
 from the aloe. He has a long gourd with a" hole 
 at each end. He cuts out the centre of the 
 plant, and sticks the pointed end of the gourd 
 into its heart. He then applies his mouth to 
 the other end, and sucks till he fills his gourd 
 with liquid, afterwards emptying it into the 
 sheepskin on his hack. It is then taken to 
 Mexico, allowed to foment, and is fit for drinking, 
 but keeps fresh only a few days. I cannot say 
 that I cared much for it, though a drink, called 
 pulque con pino (that is, flavoured with the 
 juice of the pine-apple) is excellent. 
 
 We pass for miles through these valuable 
 farms. You may form some idea of the quantity 
 drunk when I tell you two long trains go to 
 Mexico daily with pulque. This drink is only, 
 I think, to be found in the city. It is certainly 
 not to be had in Central or Northern Mexico, 
 though there they have a drink called mescal^
 
 166 FROM THE RIO GRANDE TO THE TROPICS. 
 
 concocted from some species of cactus, and 
 poisonous stuff it is too. 
 
 The next six hours' ride is too terrible to 
 describe. The dirt was fearful, compared to 
 which the dust on the plains of Utah was 
 nothing, and we are glad to get to a really 
 comfortable luncheon station, where we have a 
 capital lunch, and prepare for the wonders to 
 come. 
 
 Shortly after leaving the plateau we pass 
 through a tunnel and commence our descent of 
 the mountain. We turn a corner and in a 
 moment the whole scene bursts upon us, and we 
 gaze on the marvellous sight, fascinated in the 
 same way as when first one sees Niagara. We 
 are on a narrow ledge on the side of the 
 mountain, and see sheer down four thousand 
 feet into the most beautiful valley. The sides 
 of the canons are clothed with the most 
 extraordinarily luxuriant vegetation. Far 
 down below us, we see a little white glistening
 
 FROM THE RIO GRANDE TO THE TROPICS. 167 
 
 church and houses, the size of a pin's head ; whilst 
 ten miles across, the lovely mountains of the 
 Sierra Madre tower up in clear deep blue masses, 
 set off by an exquisite color of light and shade, 
 only possible in such a climate. 
 
 The temperature gets hotter and hotter, 
 and the vegetation more and more striking the 
 lower we get. The people are even more 
 picturesque than their brethren in the Terra 
 Fria. We cross fairy bridges over bril- 
 liantly clear little mountain streams, a 
 hundred feet beneath, and one trembles to 
 think how almost a puff of wind would send us 
 tumbling down into that smiling valley below. 
 After an hour of the most unsurpassed scenery 
 we cross a terribly narrow rocky gorge which 
 contrasts strangely with the brilliant scene we 
 have just passed. 
 
 At last we reach the bottom after ap- 
 parently endless twistings and turnings, and 
 find ourselves in the loveliest village it is 
 
 o
 
 1C8 FROM THE RIO GRANDE TO THE TROPICS. 
 
 possible to imagine. This is Orizaba, wbere we 
 determine to pass the night. 
 
 Can you imagine a little town hidden amid 
 the mountains, which rise on each side, clothed 
 in that lovely green that is only seen in the 
 tropics ? Conceive yourself to be in a vast 
 conservatory, where broad leaved palm plants 
 and tree ferns of various shades of green, grow 
 together in the most luxuriant fashion, relieved 
 here and there by a dash of gorgeous scarlet. 
 Carry your eye up to the sky line, and see 
 how the light and shadow varies from the most 
 tender blue and then deepens into a still more 
 exquisite violet, till the color fades away in the 
 distance, and your eye lights upon Orizaba's 
 snow-capped peak, which forms the crowning 
 point of this charming picture a different 
 picture to what we have ever seen before ; 
 different from the stern grandeur of the mighty 
 canons of the Rockies ; different from the sun 
 setting, blood-red, over the glorious majesty of
 
 FROM THE RIO GRANDE TO THE TROPICS. 169 
 
 Mont Blanc ; different from the enchanting 
 views one sees in England, of the smoke circling 
 away from the red roofs of a peaceful English 
 village in the early morning, or the sweet calm 
 of a Scottish lake ; surely of all beautiful 
 scenes, Orizaba is the most beautiful. A lovely 
 place to stay in ; the more we see of it, the 
 more charming it appears its church, its plaza> 
 its groves of coffee, bananas, and oranges, all 
 wild' all natural, all rank and green and 
 uncultivated. At last we think we have lit on the 
 earthly Paradise ; but, alas, we are soon to be 
 undeceived ! Some man wiser than his fellows 
 wrote a too true line. It is old, and it runs 
 
 If she be not fair to me, 
 What care I how fair she be? 
 
 Probably the poet only referred to some capri- 
 cious lady of his heart, yet it applied only too 
 much to my new sweetheart Orizaba. 
 
 One reads daily in our papers a notice 
 which cautions us against a disease that is
 
 170 FROM THE RIO GRANDE TO THE TROPICS. 
 
 stealing upon us ; it treats of pains between the 
 shoulders, pain in the side, and a variety of 
 other hideous symptoms, which, if not attended 
 to, end in insanity and subsequent death. 
 
 The advertisement is usually headed, "One 
 bottle did it." Oh, if I had only had "one 
 bottle," or even half a bottle, I might have 
 continued my tale. I would have taken you 
 to Vera Cruz, only twenty miles off. I would 
 have told you of Vanilla and Cochineal, of 
 monkeys and parrots, and then of Cuba and 
 cigars ; but I hadn't the bottle, and I had the 
 pain in the side and between the shoulders, and 
 I came to the conclusion that the Tropics were 
 not good for the liver, and that the fair Ori- 
 zaba was most unfair to me. It is no use hiding 
 it, visions of vomito in other words, vellow 
 
 w 
 
 jack appeared before my eyes in its most hor- 
 rible shapes. I never was in such a solid funk 
 before in all my life, and without much difficulty 
 I persuaded myself that it would be far nicer to 
 take the overland route to Texas.
 
 FROM THE RIO GRANDE TO THE TROPICS. 171 
 
 So I started back the next day to Old 
 Mexico, back without a mishap this time, 
 through the cactus-covered country to El Paso, 
 then over the sunset track in Texas a long, 
 dusty, weary journey, relieved only by the brief 
 excitement of a herd of antelopes or a prairie 
 fire, or by the sight of the magnificently weird 
 passes of the Del Norte at night, the gloomy 
 heights of Eagle Pass lit by a Texan moon, 
 being a something never to be forgotten. 
 
 On the sixth day we cross the mighty 
 Mississippi. We get just a glimpse of New 
 Orleans through the fog before passing across 
 the swamps and pine forests of the South, 
 but only a glimpse ; and we spend the whole 
 day passing woods, and swamps, and cotton 
 fields, and listen to stories of the darkies we 
 see picking cotton, and the past glories of the 
 old slave days. 
 
 As I was in a great hurry to get back to 
 the old country, I did not stop, despite Florida.
 
 172 FROM THE RIO GRANDE TO THE TROPICS. 
 
 i 
 
 and its oranges, then in full swing ; besides I 
 hated fried chicken, and colored folk make me 
 sick, as the "down Easter" says. Louisiana, 
 Alabama, Virginia, appealed in vain. Wash- 
 ington might have looked like Warrington or 
 have smelt as much as Widnes. All I wanted 
 was to get back to the old country. Hew 
 strange it is that when one is far away one 
 imagines home to be the only doctor that can 
 cure you of all your cares and ills, and you 
 get there, only to find that after all you are 
 disappointed, and perhaps wish yourself back in 
 tVie place that lately you had been so heartily 
 cursing. 
 
 Eight days and nights without leaving the 
 cars, brings one to Washington, and on the 
 ninth we cross the Hudson and land again in 
 New York not the damp, sultry New York we 
 left, but dry New York, with sleighs, and 
 the thermometer at zero. 
 
 I have heard that it is as difficult to end a
 
 PROM THE RIO GRANDE TO THE TROPICS. 173 
 
 story as to begin it ; yet when there is nothing 
 more to tell, where can be the difficulty ? My 
 unambitious little tale is told ; nothing more 
 remains to be said, save the final dinner at The 
 Hoffmann, save the final bottle of " pop" a 
 useless waste of gold when one thinks of the 
 apoplectic scene that must be enacted before 
 the North German Lloyd, best of all lines for 
 cuisine and appointments, lands us in London. 
 
 If I have interested, amused nay, even 
 bored my friends, by getting them to read this 
 my plain unvarnished tale, my ambition is 
 attained. 
 
 THE END. 
 
 K. CARR, STEAM PRINTING WORKS, "HERALD" OFFICES, \VAKEFIKLD.

 
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