iSa^Sl^K3i'-<2S3"~.J^^<!2HH:i^i2?^'^'S2^i"Ct X

Ihrou^K

^TORYLAND

5VN5ET 5e^5)

'tr^

7 4 11 1 C

THROUGH STORYLAND TO SUNSET SEAS

THROUGH

Storyland to Sunset Seas

WHAT FOUR PEOPLE SAW ON A JOURNEY THROUGH
THE SOUTHWEST TO THE PACIFIC COAST.

H. S. KNEEDLER.

WITH ILLUSTRATIONS,

CINCINNATI:

The a. H. Pugh printing Co.,

i8yo.

TABLE OF CONTENTS.

PAGE

Chapter I.— A Parting Look at New Orleans— The River Scene, Quaint Life—
The " Sunset Limited "— Ofif for the Pacific Coast— The Bayou des AUemands
and its Traditions — Gibson and the Indian Mounds 7

Chapter IL — Morgan City and its Peculiar Industries— Fort Star, Oneonta Park
and the Baron Natili — Plantation Homes upon the Teche 21

Chapter III.— The Great Salt Mine of Petit Anse— Its Geology and History—
Where Tabasco Sauce is Made — The Islands of the Gulf Coast — The Prairie
Home of the Acadians — An Ideal Home 27

Chapter IV. — New Iberia and St. Martinsville— Ex-Lieutenant Governor
Mouton and the Narrative of Early Acadian Occupancy — Glimpses of Life in
the Bayou Region in the Early Part of the Century — A Land of Fertile Prom-
ise, as the Settler has Discovered 37

Chapter \'.— Traditions of La Fitte, the Pirate of the Gulf, that Adhere to the
Region Traversed — Exploits about Lafayette and on the Mermentau and
Calcasieu — Diggmg for Buried Treasure — Playing on Popular Credulity 41

Chapter VI.— Crowley and Lake Charles — A Life Romance that Runs Back to
the French Rebellion m Canada — The Thrifty City that has Grown up where
once the Rio Hondo Claims Excited Interest — A Pioneer's Reminiscence — The
Sulphur Mine 47

Chapter VII. — In the Great Pine Districts of Western Louisiana and Eastern
Texas — The Original Forests of the Continent — How the Lumber Interests
have been Developed — The Emigration of an Industry 51

Chapter VIII. — From the Texas Border to San Antonio — Sour. Lake — Thrifty
Towns upon the Way — A Word About the Road You Travel Over — The Busy
Commercial Center of Houston — The Colonel Relapses into Statistics 55

Chapter IX. — San Antonio, the Gem City of the Southwest — Its Ancient
Missions — The Alamo — In the Mexican Quarter — The Cuno Vender Appears —
The Birth of the Opal 7. 61

Chapter X— On to Devil's River — The Home of the Mocking Bird— The Land
of Promise when Water is Used— The Arid Region of the Continent— Plant
Life of the Plains — Sabinal and its Kaoline Deposits— Uvalde — Cline and its
New Industry — Spofford, the Junction Point for Mexico 69

Chapter XL— Del Rio and the Springs of San Felipi— FertiUty of the Soil
Demonstrated — A Sulphur Water — Duval West's Hunting Story— Along the
Banks of the Rio Grande, with Mexico in Sight — Devil's River— Santa Rosa
Mountains— Rarity of the Atmosphere— The Old Stage Routes Across the
Plains— The Great Pecos Bridge— A Girl's Intrepidity— The Fortitude of a
Mexican Teamster 75

Chapter XII.— Roy Bean and Langtry— " The Law West of the Pecos"'— Anec-
dotes of an Erratic Jurist in Adapting Law to the Requirements of the Fron-
tier : Divorces People, Fines Dead Men for Carrying Concealed Weapons, and
Knows no Law that Makes it a Crime to Kill a Chinaman 8i

Chapter XIII.— The Detectives of the Wilderness— Where Hold Ups used to
Occur— Silver Mines— A Woman's Courage and Affection— Down the Le Sano
Pass— Paisano. the Summit of the Sunset Route, elevation 5,082 feet — Sierra
Blanca and the Howard Massacre 9'

288502

4 THROUGH STORYLAND TO SUNSET SEAS.

PAGE

Chapter XIV. — El Paso and the Ancient Mexican Town of Ciudad Juarez—
The Thrilhng Early Life of the Place — Crossing the Plains when the Apaches
were Raiding— The Old Church and its Venerable Priest— The Smelter-
Monuments on the National Boundary Line 99

Chapter XV.— Across New Mexico — The Mirage— Possibilities and Wealth of
the Territory — The Climate — Early Court Incident— The Spanish Discoverers
— Deming — Through Stein's Pass into Arizona — Cochise's Head upon the
Mountain Top— Cacti and its Uses — Benson, the Junction Point for Guaymas
and Tombstone — Cieneta River Canon — Vails and its Bat Caves 107

Chapter XVI. — Tucson and the Ancient Mission of San Xavier — A City with a
Wild Past and Thrifty Present— Warm Valleys where Corn Tassels in a Month
— The Imposing Church under the Shadow of the Rincon Mountains — The
Indian School — Papago Reservation — Lost Civilizations of Arizona— The Casa
Grande Ruins and the Vast Irrigating Canals — Maricopa, the Junction Point
for Phoenix— The Painted Rocks of the Gila River — A Gila Monster — Lost
Mines — Yuma and its History 115

Chapter XVII. — First Glimpses of California — The Colorado Desert — Two Hun-
dred and Sixty-three Feet Below Sea Level — Bubbling Mud Volcanoes — Salton
and its Great Salt Sea — Nomads of the Desert— Indio, the Vidette of Verdure-
clad California — San Gorgonio Pass — The Snow Peaks of San Jacinto and San
Bernardino — Some Figures about California and a Bit of History — The Climate
— Redlands — Riverside and San Bernardino — A Veteran Politician 129

Chapter XVIII. — Los Angeles, its Flower-embowered Homes and Busy Com-
mercial Life — Fremont's Ride to Monterey— Santa Monica and its Surf Bath-
ing — Soldiers' Home and Ostrich Farms — Up the Great Incline Railway to Mt.
Lowe — Pasadena— Port Los Angeles — San Pedro and the Fair Island of Santa
Catalina — The Growler Feels Badly — An Ocean-hemmed Paradise 143

Chapter XIX. — Up the Main Line Through the Tehachapi Pass and the San
Joaquin Valley to San Francisco — The San Fernando Tunnel — How Banning
Drove Over the Line — Saugus, the Junction Point for Santa Barbara — The
Soledad Canon — A Bit of Mojave Desert — Wealth and Extent of the Great San
Joaquin Valley— The Wild Flowers — Irrigation Canals and Lumber Flumes —
Berenda and the Yosemite — First Glimpses of the Bays — Looking Out Through
the Golden Gate 155

Chapter XX. — San Francisco — The Story of a Great Capital's Growth Told in
Brief — The Golden Gate Park— rBuffaloes and Grizzly — Seal Rocks and Sutro
Heights — A Vision of Far Isles — An Inspection of the Curious Sights and Out-
of-the-Way Places of Chinatown — The Stores, Artisans, Street Life, Opium
Dens. Underground Dives, Theatre, Joss House and Restaurant— Pen Picture
of a Sail About the Bay 167

Chapter XXI. — On the Way to Portland and the Columbia River via the Shasta
Route, with a Long " Side Trip" to Ogden and Salt Lake— The Valley of the
Sacramento— Castle ICrags, Mossbrae Falls. Soda Springs— The Climb up the
Mountain and the Vision of Shasta— Over the Siskiyous into Rogue River Val-
ley — Portland — Across the Sierras — The Snow Sheds— Reno and the Truckee
River— Sink of the Humboldt— Indians by the Way— Ogden— Salt Lake and
its Sights 179

Chapter XXII. — Down the Coast Line to Santa Barbara — Stanford University—
The Santa Clara Valley— San Jose— Mt. Hamilton and the Lick Observatory-
Over the Narrow Gauge to Santa Cruz — The Big Trees and San Lorenzo River
Caiion— The City by the Sea— Monterey and the Great Del Monte— Its Won-
derful Gardens and Drives— Paso del Robles and its Hot Springs— Over the San
Lucia Range to San Luis Obispo — Pacific Coast Railway and Stage Ride—
Pismo Beach— Santa Barbara and its Venerable Mission— Along the Surf Line
to Saugus— And the Girl says "Yes" ^ 193

BY WAY OF INTRODUCTION.

MOST of us are egotists — and none more so than he whose pretense
makes him a good listener. So all of us profess, in a general way, a
knowledge of our own land. Yet few of us really do know any part of it
well, and it is akin to vanity to put forth the claim.

Now this modest brochure is the recital of some of those things which
one may see and learn on a trip from New Orleans to the Pacific Coast over
the lines of the Southern Pacific Company. Every traveler will note points
of interest and learn many new facts appealing particularly to him which have
been overlooked or ignored here. But when you grow critical, remember
that the author was not writing merely for " our set," nor endeavoring to
supply an encyclopedia.

All this would be dreadfully dry reading if put in the form of prosaic
narrative, so it has been told in dialogue to break the monotony, and the
characters introduced have a purpose related to the facts which are sought
to be brought out. Nor do the people go to bed at conventional hours, as
in most well-regulated books of travel ; for if they did, the continuity of
the narrative would be broken, and, like the Persian prince who travels on
the enchanted carpet, you might miss much of interest while they slept.

The description takes you where the road leads — from the quaint his-
toric city of New Orleans through the bayou region of Louisiana, where
summer Imgers and poetry is the hand-maiden of romance, across the sugar
and rice and cotton country, into the cathedral aisles of the vast pine
forests. Then beyond, where the great plains of Texas reach to far-off sky
lines, through quaint towns and cities, where foreign speech and manners
mingle with our Anglo-Saxon civilization. By the pillared Canon of the
Rio Grande the way leads, and past the sepulchral cleft which the Pecos has
worn in the bosom of the earth. On farther yet are the dim blue mount-
ains and cacti-covered, tradition-fraught plains of New Mexico and Ari-
zona ; the sand-girdled Gila and the implacable, mysterious Colorado that
steadfastly rolls to its union with the California Gulf. Then comes the
wonderland of the Pacific Coast — the jeweled, flower-begirt valleys and
snow-clad peaks of California; the glint of azure skies and sapphire seas;
of vine-clad hills and rose-embowered homes amid encircling groves of
olive and of orange. Up the great San Joaquin Valley you go, and down
the coast line, with many places of interest on the way to claim attention.

6 THRorr.H STORVLAND TO SUNSET SEAS.

There is a tour of San Francisco, with pen pictures of its points of interest ;
a suggestion of the beauties to be seen on a run up the valley of the mad
Sacramento ; close skirting Shasta's rugged sides ; the passage of the Sis-
kiyous, down Rogue River Valley to Portland and the majestic Columbia.
Then, too, the story takes you eastward beyond the Sierras, by Donner's
Lake, the wild Truckee River, the mysterious sink of the Humboldt, and to
Ogden and Salt Lake City, lying close by the Dead Sea of America.

The temptation is to be discursive, because there is so much that appeals
to one by reason of its novelty and charm. But if the writer had cultivated
such microscopic fidelity, this book would have been expanded into many
volumes, and you, my reader, would have put the work aside until the
prospective leisure of old age afforded opportunity to read it. So, in spite
of its shortcomings, the free-hand sketch is better for our uses, and if it
shall serve the purpose of inducing you to widen your mental perspective
by seeing those things it suggests and describes in the wonderland of our
country, it shall have accomplished its purpose. And in that hope it goes
forth with its message.

The Author.

TllROrGH STORYLAND TO SUNSET SEAS.

CHAPTER I.

WHEREIN OUR TOURISTS TAKE A PARTING LOOK AT THE CRESCENT CITY
AND THEN HIE THEM WESTWARD.

THE Girl insisted on going out on the bow of They take a
the boat. The Growler said something about ft'New\^riea
the fresh spring breeze from the Gulf and possible
twincres of rheumatism, but the Girl poohooed it.

The Colonel struck his umbrella sharply
on the deck and said, " Confound it, sir,
you're out of the rheumatic latitudes now,
sir," and we all went forward to get a
last glimpse of the great yellow river, the
ship-lined levees and the encircling
city of the crescent. Spire and
tower and frowning sugar refineries,
implacable grain elevators and
smoky oil mills, with their flanking
of cotton sheds and blanket-like
expanse of roofs beyond, great low-
lying steamers and pennant-be-
decked ships that made one's
thought run to far off seas and j

conjured up visions of busy spin- its exports and j

. - imports are j

dies in Lowell and Leeds and Man- more than |

, 1 1 n r 1 ;6oo.ooo,ooo per I

Chester, where the fleece of southern annum. i

fields is woven into snowy fabrics ; !

white river steamers that are the I

STATUE OF GEN. JACKSON IN NEW ORLEANS. carrlcrs of commercc on many a ;

thousand miles of swift river and placid bayou in the great Valley of the j

AMssissippi ; brown-canvased luggers manned by brawny Italians who ply ;

their trade as oyster-men and fishermen upon the gulf, dusky stevedores , j

who, with weird song, lighten their labor and link the traditions of far-off j

times in African jungles to the melody of to-day's toil as they roll corpulent I

7 1

TIIROLGH STORVI.AND 1 SUNSET SEAS.

The Girl grows
enthusiastic.

The Growler's
first growl.

Gallant
defense by the
Colonel.

hogsheads of sugar or bulging bales of cotton-so the panorama of the
city, with its harmonious and incongruous details, blended and softened by
distance, was merged into one composite picture that grew softer and fainter
as the great transfer boat crossed toward the Algiers shore.

"Good-bve, old city," said the Girl, radiantly. "I love your quaint old
streets and shops and piazza-befrilled French homes, and most of all your
French opera and your rare abundance of summer goods, for," she added,
pensively, "there is no place in the world where one can buy so many and
such beautiful things for warm weather wear. Why, the organdies and
muslins and dimities — "

" It's a great pity we don't all wear petticoats," broke in the Growler,

with dyspeptic irony. " For my
part I can't imagine what
there is to admire

LOADING COTTON ON THK NEW ORLEANS LEVEK.

about the place. It's as poky as a village in Flanders, and it must be as
hot as the tropics in the summer."

"There you go again," replied the Colonel. " I don't want to bore you
with statistics, but you have not seen as much of this old city as I have, nor
studied it as closely. Why, confound it, sir, you find no end of fault with
our English or Gallic cousins who come over to the United States, make a
flying trip from New York to San Francisco, and go home in three months
to write a book upon our social conditions. But here you are, after spend-
ing three days in a very cursory inspection of the city, passing peremptory
judgment upon it. You have only seen the surface, and mighty little of

A rARllNU LOOK A'l' THt CRESCEN 1" CITV.

that Of course it gets warm in summer, but I can prove by any well- Not the same

. , r -Ki ^^^ town.

regulated thermometer that it don t get as hot as it does north of Mason
and Dixon's line. It has nine months of the most delightful weather in the
world, and when you are courting pneumonia every time you put your nose
out of doors, the balm of its sunshine and the ozone of its breezes would
mean prolonged life and health to you. The New Orleans you persistently
keep in mind is the New Orleans you read about when you were a boy. How cities
That city is fast disappearing — and confound it, sir, I'm more than half
sorry it is, for it was a mighty good place in many respects. But now
foreign capital is supplementing local wealth in building here the great

modern metropolis justified by its loca-
* ■* tion and commercial

grow.

THK FRENCH MARKET.

importance. Sites for great commercial centers are not deliberately chosen
beforehand and cities built to order.

"Thev are the unlooked for expansion of trade conditions, of which Thecityof

-' ' • J 1 to-day IS up to

their founders could ordinarily have no adequate conception, or are devel- date,
oped by the necessities of a commerce which forced their location to some
readily accessible distributing point. The New Orleans of your vision w^is
a ragged town of hideously inadequate streets, dilapidated street cars
drawn by deliberately moving mules, — a town where sanitary conditions
were neglected, where business was carried on in a leisurely fashion, and
people were content to do pretty much as their fathers and grandfathers
had done. Hut the New Orleans of to-day has a couple of hundred miles
of street paved with granite from the hills of New Hampshire and Massa-
chusetts, it has a hundred and fifty miles of electric street railway, it will Audits ,

' -' commerce is

soon have one of the most wonderful sewage systems in the world, and its out of sight,
cleanliness is already ainjily i^rovided for. Its new hotels are thoroughly

THROUGH STORVLAND TO SUNSET SEAS.

modern, as are its great shops. Its musical and dramatic interests are
catered to by the best talent of the world. The homes that have spread with
wonderful rapidity of late years over large areas to the westward have con-
verted great districts into charming places of residence. Its business is
with the whole world. The railways that radiate from it and the hundreds
of steam and sailing craft that tie to its twelve miles of docks carry goods
to its customers all over the great Mississippi Valley, and bring their
wealth-producing raw products in to reship them to
every seaport of importance in the world. Great
as it has been in the past, it will be greater in

A CITY OF THK DEAD IN NEW ORLEANS.

But its future
is its own.

the future, for now it links with its traditions of chivalry and hospitality,
and to the romance of its history, all the spirit and enterprise that modern
methods and accumulating wealth hold forth as an incentive to progress in
industry and comfort in living. It will be more potent in the years to come
than it has been in the past, for it appeals both to the investor, the man of
affairs who has the foresight to see its expanding opportunities for wealth-
getting, and to the pleasure seeker of the North who flies to it to discover
in its cosmopolitan life and Latin graces the relaxation he needs, and llnds
here, too, the invigoration of a climate as seductive as the shores of the
Mediterranean. Tired of the rigor of those merciless northern winters, the
^vhy weofthe tourist will comc here in increasing numbers, to find in this delightful city,
with its historic and romantic memories, or along the pine-fringed, island-

North like it.

A PARTING LOOK AT Till-: CRESCENT CITY,

off his pins.

girdled gulf coast, the surcease from physical discomfort which a snow-
mantled, blizzard-invested northern climate implies. \\'hy — "

The Colonel had forgotten how closely the transfer had been getting to Almost shaken
the Algiers shore while he talked, and just at this point, as its broad prow
swung against the dock head, he was almost jostled off his feet. I steadied
him and said :

" I'm with you, in all you say, my dear Colonel, and you haven't put it a
jot too strongly. It's the only city in the Union
that isn't like every other city, and I
hope that it will never get s<
big or so modern
that it will lose
its distinctive

1,\V ORLE.\NS.

characteristics. If its French quarter is ever abolished and its old shops ukestheoid
wiped out, its Cathedral modernized and its picturesque population smoothed
and smothered by the process of assimilation, I'll stop running down here
for a month every winter, and not even the gaiety and glamor of Mardi
Gras shall tempt me."

"Yes, you will," replied the Ciirl, emphatically; "you would keep on Ah! a tender
coming just the same, and continue to bore us as usual by persistently
singing the praises of its oysters and fish and gumbo."

" Have no alarm," said the Growler, who seemed determined to have the
last word ; " the charming results of assimilation will have no perceptible
effect, young man, upon the characteristic elements of the population which
you admire. In a hundred years from now your alleged picturesque darkey

memory.

THROUGH STORVLAND TO SUNSET SEAS.

The pessimist
refuses to be
downed.

The "Sunset
Limited "
awaited them.

For the first
time the ladies
have a loung-
ing parlor of
their own.

will be as careless of to-morrow, and every whit as ragged and vocal, and
your Italian fisherman will wear the same blue shirt and red bandanna, live
on the same diet of claret and hard bread, and return to his beloved Italy
with his savings, as he does now ; and if you are here at that time to prowl

about your old shops and continue
eaten hangings and cracked china,
of attack by the same fleas that now

The Colonel was about to reply,
boat jostled into her berth, the
our luggage and started for the
awaiting to bear us toward the far
at night.

On the track, awaiting us, stood
solid vestibuled train of Pullman
ers the 2,489 miles between New
seventy-five hours. "You must
the world," the Colonel had said,
length. Back of the massive,
tion car — a baggage com
bath-room and toilet acces
in the center, and
ing-room in the rear
was in quartered oak,
fawn-colored plush,
invited to restfulness,
desk equipped with all
tempted one to pursue
ence. Through the

"^^f

the lee monument in new
orlf;.ans.

to buy rickety old furniture, moth-
I doubt not you will be the object
voraciously await the unwary."
but he didn't have time. The big
gates were opened, we all seized
train that seemed to be impatiently
off sea where the sun goes to rest

the splendid "Sunset Limited," the

cars, which, in its swift flight, cov-

Orleans and San Francisco in

see the finest up-to-date train in

and we walked through its entire

restless engine was the combina-

partment in front, barber shop,

series with luxurious fittings

smoking and loung-

end. The woodwork

the upholstering in

Wide wicker chairs

while a commodious

epistolary accessories

neglected correspond-

vestibule we stepped

-*»"

into the Ladies' parlor, the whole width of the compartment car, the
forward apartment of which was a commodious lounging-room for the use
of ladies, who thus, for the first time on any railway, enjoy the same priv-
ileges as the men. The windows at the sides are of plate glass, so generous
in size that no part of the fleeting landscape is obscured. The great com-
fortable chairs, like the hangings and curtains, were upholstered in slate-
green plush ; the woodwork of the car was in rich vermilion wood, trop-
ically soft and warm in its coloring. Seven drawing-rooms followed, each
capable of occupancy singly or en suite; each complete in itself. In these
the harmonious colors of the blue, olive and maroon plush harmonized
with the mahogany, vermilion and curly walnut of the wood finish. Still
beyond these were ample toilet-rooms. Then through two sumptuous ten-
section slee])ing cars we went. Each of these had double drawing-rooms,
together with snuiking compartments and toilet-rooms for gentlemen and

A I'AR'I'INC; LOOK AT THE CRESCENT CITY.

saloon and toilets for ladies. The bodies of the cars were in vermilion
wood and fawn-colored plush ; the drawing-rooms in red plush with white
mahogany wood work. Last of all was the dining car in quartered oak,
with individual chairs at the mahogany tables, potted plants in artistic
alcoves, and a sheen of snowy linen, glistening silver and cut-glass every-
where.

"This train," said the Girl, with a little gasp of delight as she settled Theciri

speaks her

herself, "is certainly the exemplification of all that is the outgrowth of mind about the
modern luxury. The Wilton carpets one treads, the artistic folds of the train,
draperies, the satiny finish of rare woods, the polish of the brass and silver,
the bevel of the plate glass windows — all the little things that satisfy one's
esthetic sense as well as the greater that minister to one's comfort — from the
harmony of color that i:)leases the eye to the menu that satisfies the palate.

Ki^iLiii'^^

imaa^mSbitt

THE CYPRESb SWAMP.

and the setting apart of a drawing-room that gratifies the vanity and minis-
ters to the comfort of womankind — all contribute to the pleasure of the
transcontinental tourist by the Sunset Route. And while you men are
getting shaved in your wheeled barber shop or lounging in your smoking-
room, we women now have a drawing-room all our own, wherein we can
peruse a well-selected library, pursue our music, or write our letters on the
daintiest of stationery furnished by the Southern Pacific Company at escri-
toires so adjusted that the oscillation of the train cannot affect them. It's

THROUGH STORYLAND TO SUNSET SEAS.

Settling for the
journey.

an affluent home on wheels, that's what it is, and I predict the ladies will
show their appreciation of the delicate compliment paid them."

The wise traveler, with a long journey in prospect, settles himself in his
car as soon after he gets into it as possible. Taking possession of his own
berth, he disposes his belongings about him with a view to having available
those in most demand. The Colonel, who sat with the Girl on the right,
arranged his luggage as the porter brought it in. His walking stick and
umbrella, his small traveling case with toilet accessories, and his corpulent
leather grip were put out of the way. Then he laid a time table and a few
pocket maps and a book or two carefully on the seat beside him. The Girl
had tucked back a stray lock or two that the river breeze had playfully
disengaged, adjusted her jaunty hat, smoothed out her gloves and composed
herself bv the window. The Growler and

He didn't need I had the
much baggage

then. seats oppo

OLD I»OUISI.\NA PLANTATIO.X HOMES.

site, and when
the train started the
former was remark-
ing that no one had
any business to travel
with as much luggage

as I had, tho' there were only two grips, an umbrella, a portable camera,
an overcoat and a few minor articles.

" I've traveled across this country with nothing but a blanket, a rifle and
a frying pan, before the railroad was built," he remarked.

"You've added to your equipage of late years," I replied, glancing
scornfully at the numerous satchels which now accompanied him.

The long train was moving swiftly out of the yards, jnist the big shop
with its oval front mantled in clinging ivy, jolting over switches and hurrying

A PARTING LOOK AT NEW ORLEANS.

by long lines of freight cars. Now we catch a glimpse of the elevators, off for the
the river with its double fringe of shipping, and the dark masses of the city
beyond. The picture is but for a moment and the train rattles through
Gretna, and in a little time is in a path cut through the great cypress for-
ests. Here the foliage lu.xuriates and runs riot. The trees are draped in
the long, silvery Spanish moss; vines twine like interminable serpents and The German
swing from limb to limb; the ground is carpeted with a thousand shrubs.
Now and again it opens into meadowy vistas where the succulent grasses
seem to invite to fat pasturage. Presently the train is crossing a bridge,
and to the right and left the windings of a deep waterway sinuously lead
into the distance. There are overhanging trees and boats moored to the
shore, and a darkey is pensively fishing.

"The Bayou des Allemands," remarked the Growler. "I once met a
most interesting character when I was exploring on this stream some years

IN A CANE FIliLD.

ago — old Felix Roux, an Acadian hunter and fisherman, a man who has
lived his life close to Nature and as much away from the haunts of men as
possible. He knows every voice of the forest and every denizen of the
water, and is himself known throughout all this region. He has never had
a photograph taken, and if you could get a shot at him with your camera it
would be worth a hundred such things as you will snap it on."

"■A very interesting region this, too," chimed in the Colonel; "we will premonitions
soon be in the land of the .Acadians, and when we are I shall tell you of theAcadians.
some I know."

"Oh, I want to know all about them," said the Girl

" I've re-read

THROUGH STORYLAND TO SUNSET SEAS.

He calls
"Evangeline"
a chestnut.

The exploits
of an early
Napoleon of
finance.

Evangeline specially in preparation for this part of the trip, and I want to
learn all about those dear romantic people."

"Heaven preserve us from that threadbare story!" said the Growler.
" If ever there was a chestnut, that is. One can't mention the Acadians
without having some one come naively to the fore with a quotation from
Evangeline. Goodness knows, the people are interesting enough of them-
selves, both in their historic past and quaint present, without lugging in
that lachrymose fiction."

"You're horrid — there isn't a particle of romance in your soul," replied
the Girl. " If it hadn't
been for EvangeHne I'd
like to know who would
ever have heard of the
Acadians."

" To me," spoke
the Colonel, "the
Bavou d es

-OUISI-^N.^.

A 1 1 e m a n d s
recalls some-
thing of
early history.
You may,

perchance, remember that notorious scoundrel — that Napoleon of finance
of the eighteenth century — John Law, the Scotch gambler, who, taking
advantage of the depleted condition of the French treasury at the
beginning of the reign of Louis XV, organized the Banque Royale, and,
under the title of 'the Company of the West,' secured a concession to
control all the trade of this vast Mississippi Valley. The Chevalier
d'Arensbourg, who had been aide-de-camp to Charles XII of Sweden,
and who had entered the French military service after the defeat of the
Swedish king at Poltava, was sent to this country by Law in charge of
some 230 families of colonists, principally from Alsace. When Law's

A PARIIXU LOOK AT NEW ORLEANS.

schemes went to smash, aiul he tied from Paris one stormy December night bui they staid,

- 1 , .. • 1 ■ TT- ■ 1 . ■ , .. , ami are here

to nnd satety m exile in Venice, the emigrants were completely discouraged yet.
and prepared to return home. But Bienville induced them to remain, and

presented each

family with a
t r a c t of land
fronting on the
river above New
Orleans. That
part of the river
is still known as
'La Cote des
Allemands' (the
German Coast),
and the generic a notable

, family history.

name has ex-
tended to the

.-•^ise

AN OLD I'LAXTATION HUM I

bayou and to the other geographical features of the country."

"And their descendants live hereabouts to this day?" I asked.

"Scattered all through this section," replied the Colonel. "The Chevalier
d'Arensbourg, who led them here, was the head of a large and honorable
line of direct and collateral descendants, and some of the great families of
Louisiana — like the Delhommer — trace their lineage directly back to him. He fails intoi
It is an interesting fact, and one not generally known, that Mrs. Lincoln, mooc"'^'^^°
the wife of Abraham Lincoln, was related to the family, her
brother having married a direct descendent of the Chevalier."

The Colonel continued to talk for some time about the
old families of Louisiana, and as great sugar plantations,
which now succeeded the cypress forests, were passed, almost
each one seemed to recall to him some anecdote or historic
incident or suggestive reminiscence which linked the lovingly
dwelt-on past with the present. "The old places have
changed hands," he said, " and new blood and new methods
have come in with the new conditions which the war implied.
But all this region of Southwest Louisiana is a fertile garden
and in the near future every acre of it will be under tillage.
Down along the border of the gulf between the Mississippi
and the Sabine rivers there is perhaps five thousand square
miles of sea marsh. It is largely subject to tidal overflow, is
intersected by innumerable bayous and arms of the sea, and
is covered with tall rank grass from which rise occasional islands The wonderful

ri' iTi . !• 1T11 /. ,1, sweep of the

of live oak. It is the sportsman s paradise, and jack there (the Colonel sea marsh.

OLD PLANTATION
DARKEY.

A PARTING LOOK AT NEW ORLEANS.

glanced at me affectionately) could find finer fishing than he ever dreamed where sport
of elsewhere. Every variety of fish known to the gulf is to be caught, while han/fn ha^d
bear and deer, ducks and geese are to be had in abundance. That Kansas
man who bought a million acres of it at a single stroke, not long since, knew
what he was about, and he didn't buy it for hunting purposes, either. It is
one of the finest winter cattle ranges in the world. The soil is incredibly
rich, made so by the decomposition of marine shells, dead fish and the salt
overflows of the gulf. In the years to come the oyster, terrapin and shrimp
industries will make the whole coast of incalculable value, and give profit- The same as
able employment to thousands of men as it now does in Maryland and other ^nd'^uch^^
points."

"Ah, those terrapin I" said tlie Growler, musingly, his face rela.xing into
something like a smile.

"Not the genuine diamond-backs'" I asked, incredulously.

"The same," responded the Growler; "the genuine article, as you find

them in the Delaware and
Chesapeake. If we had time

cheaper.

THK HKIUGK AUHOS?- Illl .\ 1 v H A 1- A I..A \ .\ Al M<lki..\.N <> 11 V

to stop over at Morgan City you could sample some, for thousands are
shipped from there annually. Besides, the Baron Natili has successfully
propagated them in his artificial ponds near the depot."

"We'll be there presently," said the Girl, who was consulting a map.
" This is Gibson."

"Gibson?" queried the Growler. " There are some remarkable Indian Remainsofa
mounds near Fandel's saw mill over there. I don't know much about arch- Gibson,
aeology, but Dr. Joseph Jones, of New Orleans, has matie an exhaustive
study of them and finds them of great interest."

"But look here, Colonel," I said ; "you were sidetracked ni your descrip-
tion of this section of Louisiana ; there is not much sea inarsli to ht seen
from here."

"No, and you won't see any of it from the cars," replied the Colonel,
"it lies off there to the south. The Southern Pacific line runs through a
superbly fertile prairie country which, as you will see, deepens into great

THROUGH STORYLAND TO SUNSET SEAS.

It isn't a desert pine forests Oil the western edge of the state. The farms are given over
means^^'^"^ to sugar, cotton and rice, while corn, oats, potatoes, beans, etc., grow lux-
uriantly, as do all the semi-tropic and temperate fruits. The resources of
this country have attracted, of late years, thousands of settlers from the
North, and tho' I have

AN OLD HOME ON BAYOU RAMOS, NEAR MORGAN CITY, LA.

Unfortunately
people have to
work here too.

traveled extensively among them, I have yet to find one who is dissatisfied
or who would wish to return to his old home. No profitable crop grows
here without labor — I haven't yet found the place where it does — but I
believe the rewards of well directed industry are larger here, and the life of
the agriculturist more endurable, than in any other place in the Missis-
sippi Valley."

CHAPTER II.

AT THK THRESHOLD OF THE TECHE THE NOVEL INDUSTRIES OF MORGAN

CITY THE OLD FORT, ONEONTA PARK AND THE BARON.

COMIN' into J
Blackston.

Morgan (jty. sah," said that prince of porters, John

"So we are," remarked the Growler. "By the way. notice the old a Monument
earthwork here on the left, just as we run into town. It is known as Fort °*^'*'^''"-
Star, and it has a unique place in history. There have been more extensive
and more important intrenchments — tho' this is by no means small or unin-
teresting. Here, July 4, 1893, a great popular demonstration took place,
the stars and stripes were run up on the old fort, saluted by the roar from
ancient Confederate guns and by the Washington Artillery of New Orleans.
That historic and honorable body performed a memorable deed that day,
when, under command of its veteran Colonel, John B. Richardson, it rededi-
cated the old fort to the age of peace."

The Girl came over to our side to see the fort, which was but a hundred
yards away — a star-shaped earthwork, the sloping walls rising thirtv feet
above the level of the encompassing ground.

The Southern Pacific Company restored the old works to their original a wt of history

J... i..^! -^ 11^1 t T- and a touch ot

condition some years ago, and mounted upon its walls the guns from rort seutiment.
Chene, which was located eight miles away, at the junction of the bayous
Boufe and Chene.

To-day this is one of the few perfect relics of the great war. Built by
the Federal forces early in the struggle, it was in 1863 garrisoned by 3,000
infantry, mostly colored regiments. Late in that year Captain Blair, of the
Eighteenth Louisiana, brought his forces across the river in sugar coolers,
for want of better transports, attacked the town in the rear and captured
it. The garrison took shelter on the gunboats in the river and escaped.
The Confederates soon abandoned the place and the Federal forces occupied
it until the close of the war. Then it was given over to decay until restored
in "93, and dedicated to the age of peace by a touching ceremony of jxitri-
otic purport.

"What a beautiful little park," exclaimed the Girl, rapturously, still she likes one-
looking out of the window on our side of the car. "and see the steamshijis
and the river beyond."

"The park," said the Growler, "is the creation of Baron Natili, who has

THROUGH SroRVLAM) TO SUNSET SEAS.

Steamer line
to the Texas
coast.

Of course you
recognize the
Baron.

charge of the Southern Pacific and Morgan line business at this point.
The Colonel is an old personal friend of the Baron and can tell you stories
about him by the hour. As to the park, it makes a spot of beauty in what
was once a desert place, and is named 'Oneonta' in honor of the birth-
place of the president of the system, C. P. Huntington. Over on the other
side of the track is a zoological garden. The steamers you see at the
wharf are those of the Morgan line, belonging to the Southern Pacific road,
and running from here to Brownsville, Texas. Their fleet of river steamers
and barges navigate the Teche and its affluents, and bring down huge

Atchafalaya
River ancf Ber-
wick Bay.

quantities of sugar and cotton, and carry in return the supplies which the
plantations consume. But let us go out on the platform for a few moments.
There are a good many things worth seeing."

When we alighted from the car we found the Colonel, who had preceded
us, talking to a stout, handsome, gray-whiskered gentleman. They were
too much engrossed with each other to notice us, and we strolled to the
end of the platform. Before us was a splendid body of water sweeping
majestically under the long iron railway bridge on its stately way to
the gulf.

"The Atchafalaya," said the Crowlcr, "which here so widens that it is
called Berwick Ikiy. The river is something like half a mile wide and a

THE NOVEL INDUSTRIES OF MORGAN CITV. 23

hundred feet deep at this point. Thirty miles below it empties into the
gulf. Nine miles above it receives the waters of the Teche."

"What a beautiful plantation," said the Girl, looking up the river to a
great white house embowered in trees and flanked by a huge sugar house
and rows of white cabins in the "Quarters."

"That is 'Fairview,' the home of J. N. Pharr," responded the Growler, some typical
"and across here," lie continued, turning to look down the stream, "you Soraes.'°"
can just catch a glimpse of another typical place, 'Avoca' — meaning, 'the
meeting of the waters.' for it stands on a point where Bayou Chene enters
Bayou Boufe. All about are lovely places worthy of this paradise. The
roads here are waterways, to use a Hibernianism, for this whole section is
intersected by an intricate system of bayous, — deep, narrow, navigable
streams which are to the country what the canals are to Venice. It would The mystery of

1 T • 1 1 1' 1 • • , ■ ■ 11 1 Ih*^ waterways.

take a man a lifetune to learn all their sinuous combinations, and then there
would be a iew left over that he had not discovered. Capt. T. L. Morse,
who has command of the S. P. fleet here, comes about as near knowing
them as any man that ever held a wheel."

"Why, those great white banks I have been looking at are oyster
shells," I said, pointing up to where huge white mounds marked the river
front of the town.

"Yes," replied the Growler, "millions of the finest oysters in the world they "shuck"

' , , . , ^ , , . Ill 1 f-n, 1 the unresisting

are annually shipped from the packing establishments here. T hese luggers bivau-e.
tied to the bank are engaged in the trade. The bivalves are brought from
inexhaustible beds out in the gulf, a sloop carrying from 125 to 250 barrels,
which bring a dollar a barrel at the factories. It requires from a week to
two weeks for the lugger to make a trip, and it is work that enlists a hardy
set of men, for it is often hazardous as well as arduous. The fish industry Hut the

, . ,1 1 •, '11 • ^1 ,.1 .. i" „»• bcwhiskered

IS also an important one, tho it will surprise you to learn that veiy tew ot catfish is

the splendid salt-water fish which could be taken here in infinite variety profitable, too.

and abundance are in demand. The humble but toothsome catfish, caught

in great quantities in Grand Lake, some thirty miles above, are shipped to

consumers all over Te.xas, Kansas, Missouri, Louisiana and Arkansas. It is

an interesting study for one to follow even so humble an occupation from

its source to its conclusion — to see the primitive fishermen in their cabin

boats on the lake hauling in their seines, the tugs of the dealers collecting

from them the spoils of their endeavor and towing the fish down in

huge floating crates, and finally to watch the expert dressers prepare them

for shipment at the rate of one a minute. '

"Skin and dress a catfish in a minute?" I said, incredulously.

"In a minute and less," replied the Growler ; "and these are not the
sort of fish vou caught on your pin-hook when a bov, either. The darkey our colored

'^ -' ' ." I 1 1 iv KiKtht-r IS at

expert will seize a twenty-five-pound catfish, swing it up on a hook, lop olt home here.

AT TIIK IHRESIIOLD OF THE TPXHE.

its fins, slip its skin off in three pieces, and have it disemboweled and its
head and tail chopped off before the fish really knows what is the matter.
There used to be another fiourishiny^ industry here in the collection and
shipment of alligator hides, but the supply is pretty well exhausted and the
demand is not now so great. At one time as many as thirty thousand
hides were shipped from here annually. IJut there goes the l)ell, and we
had better get back in our car."

"Where's papa?" said the Girl, looking around.

"Oh, he'll take care of himself," responded the Growler.

In fact the Colonel and his friend were wringing each other's hands
affectionately. "Take care of yourself," the Colonel shouted, as he swung
himself on the step. "Good-bye, old boy, God bless you," the gray-whis-
kered gentleman on the platform responded enthusiastically, waving his
hat.

"A most royal gentleman," quoth the Colonel radiantly, as he sat down.
"A man among a million — a scholar with the soul of
an artist, the courtesy of a Chesterfield, of infinite wit
and resource, and unfailing industry in setting the
world a lesson of the best companionship."

"Who was it. Colonel .'' " I asked.

"Randolph Natili," was the response; "by unani-
mous consent and deservedly dubbed 'The Baron,'
who, for seventeen years, has had charge of the
Morgan Line and Southern Pacific business at this
point. Some time I'll tell you of the Baron's won-
derful collection of Old Masters and the romance
of discovery that attaches to some of his pictures, as,
for instance, to that one known as the Venus Ana-
dyomene by Domenico Feti, which was discovered in an Italian lodging-
house in New Orleans, or that other, a Madonna, believed to have been the
last one painted by Titian, on the order of Philip II of Spain, and long
lost. And when I tell you of the pictures I'll not forget to tell you of
some of the pranks the Baron has played, for the stories of his practical
jokes would fill a book, and would be incredible if they were narrated
of any one else than Randolph Natili. What would you think, for instance,
of a man who could deceive the whole city of New Orleans by palming off
a couple of Chinese laundrymen as court dignitaries from China, and
holding a popular levee for them at the French Opera House, where
a performance was stopped to give them a public reception ; or of a
man who, on first meeting a lady in her home, would simulate a fit
and fall in her arms, with apparently just enough consciousness left
to gurgle an appeal for champagne, which was promptly administered,

An affectionate
parting.

Natili owns
some pictures.

THK BAKON,
RANDOLPH NATILI

But he will be
remembered
.IS the practical
joker.

THROUGH STORYLAND TO SUNSET SEAS.

A touch of jeal-
ousy, perhaps.

This is the way
into the Teche
countrv.

Glimpses in
the Land of
Romance.

You get it all in
this way.

or to do any of a hundred equally amusing things which I could recall
from memory as the e.xploits of this man who is beloved by all
who know him, who is equally at home in any of our great cities, and
whose acquaintanceship belts the globe."

" He's awfully nice looking," said the Girl.

" He's a grandfather," replied the Growler, with a grim smile of satis-
faction.

"So this is the way you go to get into the famous Teche," I remarked
tentatively, to avoid a clash which seemed imminent between the Girl and
the Growler.

"The best way," replied the Colonel. "There are others but they are
long and tedious. By this route a short ride of eighty miles from New
Orleans brings one to Morgan City, where steamers can be taken and the
trip made in a couple of days with every concomitant of comfort. Leaving
out all the element of poetic romance, with which Longfellow has environed
this waterway, it is one of the most enjoyable outings imaginable, and the
tourist who fails to take it when he gets as far as New Orleans does himself
a serious injustice. The Teche country is ' The Sugar Bowl ' of Louisiana.
Past the beautiful old towns of Pattersonville, Franklin, Jeanerette, New
Iberia and St. Martinville, it takes its way — a deep and narrow bayou —
lined with splendid plantations, great manorial homes, quaint negro quar-
ters, huge sugar houses. Here and there it is spanned with odd wooden
bridges which are swung back by hand to give passage to the steamer. The
live oaks almost meet overhead at times, and the boat brushes the foliage
on the banks as it passes. Here and there wide cane fields stretch out as
far as one can see, or vistas intervene where pensive cattle graze in wood-
environed meadows. If your captain happens to be a man like Capt. R. H.
Allen, a veteran in the service, he will invest every mile of the trip with
interest by pointing out some feature of historic or romantic note, and the
novelty and charm of the journey will be recalled with gusto for years to
come."

CHAPTER III.

THE SALT MINE OF PETIT ANSE AND THE PROBLEMS IT HAS CONFRONTED
SCIENCE WITH — A BIT OF HISTORY AND A GLIMPSE OF PARADISE.

I WISH," said the Colonel meditatively, "we had time to drop off at xewiberiaand
New Iberia and run over to the salt mine." the salt mine.

" Never went through before without doing it," said the Growler. " Ah,
there is your traditional Southern home — the best of its famous class —
where wealth is the companion of culture, and hospitality is gilded by every
refinement of good taste. Talk about your perfect places of abode — well,
it is complete."

" I have heard papa talk about it so often," said the Girl, " but it seemed
so far away I never paid much attention to it ; now I want to know all
about it."

"You'll never know all about it until you go there," responded the
Growler. " This is a case where words are inadequate to do the subject
justice."

"Well, tell me about the salt mine, anyhow. Colonel," I ventured.

"Avery's Island, or Petit Anse, meaning ' Little Goose,' as it was origin- PetitAnseand
ally called," responded the Colonel, after some moments of thought, " is Isiands^*^ *^°^^*
one of five so-called islands upon the gulf coast, south of New Iberia.
They are not now islands in the present sense, but rather knolls that rise
from the level of the surrounding marshes. On the other hand, they are
indeed such, from the fact that they are surrounded by narrow bayous.
Belle Isle, Cote Blanche, Weeks, and Jefferson's, or Orange Island, are the
others of the group. Their geology is peculiar, but Avery's is the most
remarkable of the five. I have its history from Capt. Dudley Avery, the
present owner, whose family has held possession of it for three genera-
tions. Under Spanish grants running back to 1765 it was originally par-
celled out to a number of holders. After the early French voyageurs came Here's its
the Acadians, and later the Spanish settlers from the Iberian peninsula. first°t?meand*
On the abolition of slavery in New Jersey in the beginning of the century, source"^'"^'
John C. Marsh, the grandfather of the present owner, came south with his
slaves. He bought out John Hayes, who was the first actual settler, having
located on the island in 1791, and Jesse McCall. Mr. Marsh at once began
clearing up a plantation, for at that time the entire island was heavily
wooded. Salt springs were known to e.xist before then, the discovery

THROUGH STORYLAND TO SUNSET SEAS.

How the salt
came to be first
discovered

It's a

deplorable
thing to
depend upon
water as a
beverage, you
see !

having been made by John Hayes in 1795. At that time Hayes was a
youth living with his mother, who was of Pennsylvania Dutch ancestry.
Young Hayes made his discovery by accident. He had been out hunting,
had killed a fine buck, and was carrying it home on his shoulders. The
day was warm, and when he came to a clear, beautiful spring under a great
oak, he threw the deer up in the forks of a tree and stooped to get a drink.
He was chagrined to find the water intensely salt. When he reached
home he told his mother of the incident. Now salt was a very scarce com-
modity in those days, and the old lady shrewdly realized that the saline
fluid might be made available for domestic use. She accordingly dis-
patched the boy for a jug full of the water, boiled it down and obtained the
salt. In this way the family continued to get their supply of the article.
Mr. Marsh pursued the practice after he obtained possession, and during the
War of 181 2-14 wells some twelve or sixteen feet deep were sunk and the
water boiled. The planter continued this primitive practice until 1828, all
the time clearing the land and cultivating sugar cane. In the year men-
tioned the price of salt was so low and the difficulty of getting it to market
from the island so great that it did not pay to manufacture it, and opera-

SCENE ON THE TECHE.

tions were abandoned. The existence of the salt wells became almost a
Saitwas worth tradition until 1861, when the price of salt was $11.00 a barrel in New
money then Orleans. In December of that year John Avery, a brother of Capt. Avery,
and then a youth of seventeen, asked his father to allow him to repair the
old kettles and begin again the manufacture of salt. The request was wil-
lingly granted, and the boy soon had his crude plant in operation. He was
able to make ten barrels per day, and could sell it readily on the ground
for $9.00 per barrel. The profits were tempting, and young Avery was

THE SALT MINE OF PETIT AXSE.

fired with an ambition to increase his output. So he took the kettles from The ancient
an old sugar house and set up a much larger plant. But he then discovered th^'front'ftl*'
that his capacity was greater than the supply of brine; the flow of the moment,
spring was not sufficient to keep the kettles going. At this juncture an old
darkey, Bill Odell, who had been one of the original slaves brought by Mr.
Marsh from New Jersey, and who lived until about 1892, came forward and
related that there had once been another well, at the bottom of which a
pork barrel had been sunk as a curbing. The well had been filled up years
before, but Bill remembered the place and pointed it out. On digging at

the spot the old barrel was discovered as

the ancient slave had predicted, but the

well was dry. Young Avery determined

to go deeper in the hope

LOOKING DOWN THK HAVOU TECIIE.

of Striking the flow of water, and while so engaged, at a depth oi about The great

^ ' o o T 1 deposit

sixteen feet, one of the workmen reported that he had struck a stump that laid bare,
covered the entire bottom of the well. Mr. Avery himself went down, and
with a pick managed to dislodge a piece of the 'stump,' which, when he
took it to the surface and washed it, proved to be pure rock salt; so pure,
in fact, that all analysis show it to be ninety-eight per cent pure chloride
of sodium. Various shafts were at once sunk in the neighborhood and the
great mass of solid rock-salt uncovered ; the old process of evaporation
was of course abandoned, and the mining of the article begun."

"The discovery must have created somewhat of a sensation when salt
was so scarce," I remarked.

THROUGH STORYLAND TO SUNSET SEAS.

There were
millions in
sight, as Col.
Sellers would
say.

It was a
bonanza for the
Confederacy.

A big business
boom was on
at once.

Had enough
Slock on hand
to start a paper
mill.

The Federals
make a call at
the salt works.

Some of the
people who
tackeled it.

"It did," replied the Colonel; "it at once attracted the attention of the
whole country as the South was in great need of salt, and as soon as the
Confederate government heard of the find it dispatched a special agent.
Major Broadwell, to the island, and he negotiated a contract with D. D.
-Vvery, the father of the present owner, by which a certain part of the
property was set aside to be worked by the Confederate government for the
supply of the army. The several states were deeply interested, too, and
Alabama, Georgia and Mississippi sent commissioners who made similar
arrangements that their people might be provided for. A scene of great
activity ensued. Many hundreds of men were at work, and at times as
many as 500 wagons loaded with the product left the island in a day.
Some of these ox-drawn wagons made long trips into Texas and northward,
while a great deal of salt was hauled to the Atchafalaya river, thence
shipped to Vicksburg by boat and from there distributed by rail. So great
was the rush that all else on the island was abandoned. A magnificent
crop of cane was left uncultivated and uncut in the fields. The price was
fixed at $9.00 per barrel, gold basis, and remained at that until after the
close of the war."

" And what a bonanza that would have been if the owner had only
demanded gold or turned his Confederate money into something of perma-
nent value," said the Growler.

"Unfortunately, he didn't," continued the Colonel, "and when the Con-
federacy succumbed he had $3,000,000 of this worthless paper on hand.
In .April, 1863, the Hebrews of Houston offered him a dollar in gold for
each three dollars in paper, because they could use it for the purchase of
cotton, but he unfortunately declined. Even 2,000 bales of cotton, which
the Confederate government had given him in part payment, and which was
stored on the Red River, was, through the complicity of dishonest officials,
lost to him."

" It's a wonder the Federals didn't try to capture the salt works," said
the Girl.

" They did," responded the Colonel. " When Banks moved up the Teche
in 1863 he drove the Confederates out, and destroyed the salt works. A
brigade was sent down from New Iberia for that purpose, but after they left
repairs were instituted and the work went on. The process of getting out
the salt at that time was entirely different than at the present ; the deposit
would be uncovered over a space of thirty or forty feet square and the salt
taken out of the bottom. Now shafts are sunk and galleries run as in any
mine. In 1868 a St. Louis firm, Choteau & Price, took hold of the work.
They sunk a shaft and opened the main galleries on the first or upper level.
Later the American Salt Co., of New York, leased the property and worked
the mine very extensively. They dug a canal through the marsh to the gulf

THE SALT MINE OF PETIT ANSE. 31

and secured the twelve mile branch of the Southern Pacific, which had by
that time been extended from Morgan City to New Iberia and beyond.
Later, under a royalty, the present company, Myles & Bro., of New Orleans,
control the output and operate the property."

" But isn't the supply likely to be exhausted ?" 1 asked.

"Not during your lifetime, young man," the Growler replied, with a Notukeiyto
tinge of sarcasm. "The deposit is known to be half a mile square, and has s^'^*""*"""-
been bored into to a depth of 1,200 feet without touching bottom. That's
pure, solid salt. Let's figure." The Growler extracted a pencil from his
pocket and looked about for something to " figure " on. I gave him a card. The Growler
"The salt weighs 140 pounds to the cubic foot," he began. " Now suppo>e fancy°figuring.
we say it is only 800 feet thick, tho' we know it to be half again as thick,
and it may be a mile. But we'll take half a mile square and 800 feet deep."
The Growler knit his brows and figured. "Give me another card." he said
presently. I handed him one and he labored for a few minutes longer, then
breathed a sigh of relief and said :

"Well, on that basis we have 1,609,432,346 tons of salt in sight. Do you
think there is any likelihood of its running short ? "

I had nothing to say, but presently the Girl, who had been engaged in
meditation for an unusually long period, remarked :

"Well, what I want to know is how the salt got there."

"Just what a lot of other curious people who are not content to accept The green-
Nature's pranks and practical jokes as they find them, but must go poking fisfup^a stump,
about to discover how the old dame played them, have been wanting to
know," responded the Growler. " It's all guess work. But the most reason-
able theory is that during the Eocene period, when a great sea stretched
over all this region, the present mine was an enclosed lagoon. Through
some process the salt water it contained was evaporated, the lake was again
filled, again evaporated, and so on, each successive stage depositing a strata How the salt
of salt, until the lagoon was filled. Then came a great overflow from the lueied'^at.
northward which brought a deposit of soil and left it there like a big blanket
over the salt. At some period there was a convulsion of Nature which
crumpled the whole mass. There were probably successive overflows at
long intervals of time, for there are evidences of prehistoric occupation,
many of which are now among the treasures of the Smithsonian Institution. Prehistoric
A basket, woven of rushes, was found fifteen feet below the surface, with a sau"too." ^
great oak growing over it. Successive stratas of broken pottery seem to
show that perhaps prehistoric man reverted here during long ages to get
salt. But the most interesting finds have been in the direction of animal
life. Preserved by the proximity of the salt these relics are of inestimable
value to the blue-goggled scientists, who have had all their preconceived
and cob-webbed theories knocked into smithereens bv them. The fossil

THROUGH STORYLAXD TO SUNSET SEAS.

The sloth, the remains of the sloth and tapir were found on the island before it was known
IrjJ-yein^pickie^ they had ever existed on this continent, Later, their remains were found on
the Brazos. The skeleton of the mastodon was unearthed sixteen feet below
the surface, and among the bones, preserved by the salt, were the masti-
cated remains of his last meal — the succulent ends of cane, etc. Professor
Marsh examined the jaw and teeth of the horse which were taken out at a
It was the first similar depth, and pronounced, them as belonging to the Equus Fraternus,
or ' Friendly horse,' closely resembling the equine as we know him to-day.
And yet we have not even a tradition of the animal existing on this conti-
nent prior to the Spanish invasion. Near the remains of the horse was found
a hickory nut so perfectly

of its kind.

This is not a
fish storj'.

How it looks
down in the
mine.

preserved that it showed
the marks of a squirrel's
teeth as freshly cut as
tho' he had but just
dropped it from a
tree-top." i

VIEWS ALONG THE TECHE.

" You are sure
it wasn't a chest-
nut, are you ?" I
asked. But the
Growler only looked at me scornfully and continued :

"There is a deposit of lignite on the island eighteen feet thick, large
beds of fine fire clay, kaoline in small quantities, and mineral salts are
believed to exist, though as yet none have been found."

"What does a salt mine look like, anyhow?" the Girl asked; "is it any-
thing like a coal mine?"

"I shall never forget my visit to the Avery's Island mine," the Colonel
responded, meditatively. "The exploit was no less beautiful than novel.
We were dropped down a shaft i8o feet deep. The first workings were loo
feet below the surface, but have been abandoned, owing to the existence of
surface water, due to a fracture of the roof while blasting, for dynamite is
used to get the salt out. From the lower level great galleries radiate, of a
uniform width of eighty feet and a height of sixty feet. For a quarter of

THE SALT MINE OF I'ETIT ANSE.

a mile they stretch out in cavernous recesses like colossal ice caves. The
walls glisten with a bluish radiance as the lights of the workmen fall upon
them. Beneath one's feet the white salt crunches like frost. Far off in
the black depths the ruildy tapers of the miners twinkle, and the figures
dimly moving about are like those of gnomes busy with some supernatural
task. It is weird and spectral. Suddenly a dozen sticks of dynamite are
ignited, and a blue radiance lights up the abysmal caverns. The walls
glow in a green sheen like the impalpable light of an arctic aurora. A
million diamond-like crystals flash from roof and floor. It is all a colossal
fairy scene, and infinitely more dazzling and superb and inspiring than any-
thing the mind could conjure up. Then the lights go out, and the Pluto-
nian darkness, with its occasional glint of cold blue color, and the flitting
red lamps that glimmer grewsomely, move one with a touch of the spectral

spirit of Dante and the weird

legends of the Inferno. Vougo

back to the surface to see

A fairj' scene
and the
Inferno
all in one.

Tin ~AI.T WORKS ON ANlkV

the salt crushed
and sifted into
grades, and to
learn that the
crystalized cubes
that look like per-
fect squares of
transparent glass

an inch on each angle, are used by the northern packers to cap the barrels
of pork designed for export, and, indeed, to get a deal of useful information
from all the courteous attendants."

"What a wonderful place it is," said the Girl.

"You haven't heard of half its wonders," replied the Growler. "The Thats where

, they make

pepperly Tabasco sauce which you find on tables all over the world, and Tabasco sauce,
which those of us who eat soups and oysters regard as indispensable, is
made on the island, and on the island only. It has a history quite as
romantic as the sauce is ' hot.' "

THROUGH STORYLAND TO SUNSET SEAS.

The Growler
gives the youth
a rap.

"Give US the histon-," 1 said, "but spare us any more hickory nuts of
the Eocene period."

" If you do not know more at the end of this trip than you do at pres-
ent," replied the Growler, with dignity, " it will not be my fault. The
Tabasco pepper is a native of the state of that name in Mexico. It is as
high tempered as are the natives of that region. In fact it is the very con-
centration of all that is demoniacal in pepper. When our troops returned
from the Mexican campaign, one of them, who was a friend of Mr. Mcll-
henny, a member of the Avery family residing on the island, brought that
gentleman some of these peppers. The plant was cultivated on the island
for a number of years and the product employed simply for domestic use.

Something of
the histor5- of a
famous sauce,
now for the
first time put
in print.

They are little,
but, Oh, my !

WOODEN BRi'PGE ON THE TECHE.

Mansell White, a well-known gentleman of New Orleans, for a number of
years made, for the use of himself and friends, a very fine sauce, the chief
ingredients of which were bird's-eye and Chili peppers. At the close of the
war this source of supply was cut off, and Mr. Mcllhenny began making
what has come to be known as Tabasco sauce. He had been a refugee in
Texas, and during his absence the cultivation of the pepper had been neg-
lected and only a few wild plants had by chance survived in a neglected
hedge where birds had dropped the seeds. Gradually as the fame of the
sauce spread and the demand for it increased, Mr. Mcllhenny engaged in
its manufacture commercially until now twenty-five acres are given over to
its culture, and from 75,000 to 125,000 plants are set out. It requires much
care and patience. The seed is sown in March, and the young shoots set
out in April. They are protected from the early chill winds by spreading
moss over them until strong enough to stand the weather. The picking
begins early in September and lasts until the first killing frost."

"Are they like our mangoes?" asked the Girl.

" Not at all," replied the Growler ; " they are from half an inch to an
inch long, very slender and very red. Besides they do not hang pendant
on the branches of the plant, but stand upright as though conscious of their
strength. After being picked when dead-ripe they are packed in barrels of

A GLIMPSE OF PARADISE.

stuff is made.

Strong brine and can be kept indefinitely. When wa-ited fur use they are
macerated, the mucilaginous pulp, which is pure pepper, is extracted and
with the addition of a preservative is bottled ready for the market. The How the hot
seeds and pulp which form the residue are ground up and sold as a flavor-
ing condiment for soups. The sauce has won three gold medals — at New
Orleans in '84, and at Chicago and Atlanta in '93.

" Quite a place where the residents can find their own supplies of pepper
and salt," I said.

" And their own sugar and cotton, fruits, grains and vegetables," replied

THE HOME OVERLOOKING THE GULF ON AVERY S ISLAND.

the Growler. "Where they raise their own beef and pork and mutton, kill
deer and bear in their own cane brakes, and can catch the finest fish in
abundance, or shoot wild ducks and geese and snipe by myriads with little
effort. In fact it's an ideal place, reached by a half hour's ride over the
great marshes. Then the land begins to grow higher ; oak covered iiills
rise on either side of the track, the highest point reaching an altitude of
180 feet. There are 3,000 acres of arable land besides I don't know how
much timber. Picturesque valleys and miniature plateaus are surrounded
or hemmed in by these billowy hills. The great oak trees have stood for
hundreds of years bedecked with trailing veils of moss and the tendrils of
wild vines. On the southeast side of the island is the sugar plantation and
the home of Capt. Avery. On the southwestern edge, on an elevation of
100 feet, the home of the other members of the family. The art and litera-

Au independ-
ent family of
course.

THROUGH STORYLAND TO SUNSET SEAS.

And the island
is as near a
paradise as we
get them.

The original
home of the
■wanderers.

All of which
arouses the
enthusiasm of
the Girl.

ture of three generations of culture are gathered here, in a mansion where
presidents, poets and statesmen have been guests. From its broad piazzas
one can look off through the cathedral arches of the great trees to what
seems is the very edge of the planet. To the south and west the salt
marshes stretch in infinite expanse that rests the eye. Slender bayous like
tangled strands interlace in a confused skein. Far out is a glimpse of
azure where Vermilion Bay throws its arm about the marsh to woo it to
the billowy gulf beyond. On the west 'Orange Island,' the home of Joseph
Jefferson, rises like a blue mound from the sea of undulating marsh grass.
To the west and north is the original home of the Acadians, those simple
folk whose lives are prose, but whose history is poetry and pathos. On
Grege, Carline, Vermilion and Petit Anse prairies, bounded by Avery's
Island on the east, Vermilion on the west, and New Iberia on the north,
are the descendants of those original settlers who fled before a military
mandate from their Acadian homes on the far northeast coast and trans-
planted to a sunny land the simple ways of thought and life they held a
century ago."

"Good, good," cried the Girl, clapping her hands ; "you're just lovely, if i
you are a Growler, and you ought to write a book or a poem, or deliver a j
lecture, or — or— something of that sort." J

CHAPTER IV.

NEW IBERIA AND THE LAND OF THE ACADIANS — WITH SOME REFERENCE
TO THEIR PAST AND MUCH AS TO THEIR PRESENT.

" T T ERE'S a thrifty town of the new school grown out of the old," said
1 1 the Colonel, as the train drew up to the station at New Iberia.
" It ought to be a good town, for it is in the center of the richest agricultural
section in the world — the very heart of the sugar lands of Louisiana.
From the depot to Bayou 'I'eche is only a few blocks. The town is built
between these two arteries of its commerce. To all the characteristics of
old time comfort it adds a stirring life of manufacture and trade. From
here one can run down on the branch line to Abbeville a town, which com-
bines an ancient air of (juaintness with much of
modern thrift."

" F5ut now that we are right in the land of the
Acadians, I want to hear something about them,"
said the Girl.

"And so do I," I chimed in, "about their past
and their present."

' \N'ell," said the Growler, "I'll let the Colonel
do most of the talking, for he has seen more of
them than I have, but before he begins I'll tell
you of a very delightful interview 1 had with a
splendid representative of the race the last time
I went over the road. I refer to the Hon. C. H.
Mouton, who was Lieutenant-Governor of Louisiana, 1S55-58. during the
governorship of Robert C. Wickliff. Mr. Mouton, who is now nearly
seventy-three years of age, lived at Lafayette, which was earlier called
Vermilionville, until about twelve years ago, when he niov'ed to St. Mar-
tinsville, where he now resides. He has practiced law for upwards of
half a century. Imagine a tall, straight old gentleman, with clear-cut,
intellectual face and bright gray eyes, and you have a picture of my subject.
The vigor of his intellect has been in no wise impaired by the years that
have come and gone. In talking with him of the Acadians Mr. Mouton
said that among the original settlers of this section were the Moutons,
Herberts, Duhons, Trahans, Le Blancs and Broussards. I recall that he

also told me that in his family there was a tradition that the real name of

New Iberia,
125 miles from
New Orleans.
Population

3.S00.

EX-LIKUT. GOVKRNOR MdUTON.

A bit of
Acadian
genealogy.

28850

THROUGH STORYLAND TO SUNSET SEAS.

The Mouton
family have a
tradition of
the real
Evangeline.

Gave

distinguished
sons to the
state.

A prolific
family.

They traveled
in this vp-ay
before the days
of "The Sunset
Limited."

And it was a
slow process,
too. as you can
see by this.

Longfellow's Evangeline was Emmeline Labiche, and that, as preserved in
this legend, the story of her life corresponded in the main with the story
of Longfellow's Evangeline. Mr. Mouton's maternal grandmother, whose
name was Robichead, came to this section of Louisiana in 1765. Her
journey from Acadia was not one a woman would be likely to take now-
adays, for she came as far as Baltimore by vessel, and from there to New
Orleans on foot. She married in the parish of St. Martin an ex-surgeon
of the French army, named Bordea. They had three daughters; one of
these married John Mouton, who became the father of the chivalrous
Alexandre Mouton, United States Senator, and in 1S42 Governor of
Louisiana; one married David Guidry, and one a man named Castille, and
later, after his death, the heroic Colonel Alcibiades de Blanc, of St. Mar-
tinsville, who became a distinguished Confederate commander, and after-
wards served on the supreme bench of the state. Besides the John Mouton
referred to, there was another brother, and from these two sprang the
hundreds of Moutons who fill the Vermilionville country. As an evidence
of the rapidity of the growth of the family, Mr. Mouton told me that he
had himself fourteen children, and that when the widow of Edward
Mouton died a few years ago, she was mourned by three living children
and ninety-seven grandchildren. You will pardon this genealogical digres-
sion. I have narrated it because it throws some light on one of the oldest
and most numerous of the original Acadian families in all this part of
Louisiana."

" Now to give you a glimpse of life in those times as related to me by
Mr. Mouton. All was wild prairie when his grandfather opened his store,
for he was engaged in trade with the Choctaw Indians, who then filled the
country. They were a peaceable race, and had not been spoiled by the
white man's whisky as our present Indians have been. Once a year his
grandfather would load a flatboat with peltries and other products, with
flour and sausages and meats to provide them on the way, and with his
family and his negro servants would voyage to New Orleans to replenish his
stock and enjoy the diversions of the city. It was a trip that consumed a
month or two, and was, of course, a great event in the domestic life. The
traders who did business at what is now known as Washington, but which
was then known by the less euphonious name of Niggertown, because of its
large population of free colored people, had an even more arduous task to
reach the city. Their flatboats went down the Bayou Court a Blanc, to the
Atchafalaya River, from there to Butte a la Rose and into Grand River,
and along that stream to Indian Village on Bayou Plaquemine. From
Indian Village to the Mississippi it was nine miles against the current, and
the boats were ' cordelled,' or drawn up by ropes from the craft to the bank.
The rope would be fastened to a tree on the shore and the boat "drawn up

THE LAND OF THE ACADIANS. 39

to it, and the operation repeated again and again until the distance was
covered. Sometimes a capstan was fixed on the boat and oxen used to
draw it up. From the mouth of the bayou the boats were floated down on
the broad bosom of the Mississippi to New Orleans. A round trip by this
now almost forgotten route not infrequently consumed five and six months.
Mr. Mouton also told me the family traditions of La Fitte, but I'll reserve
that until later, and let the Colonel tell you more about the Acadians,
because we will soon be out of their country, while we have La Fitte with
us from the time we leave New Orleans until we get past Lake Charles, so
he'll keep, you know."

" How the Acadians were expelled from what we now know as Nova Acadian
Scotia in 1755," said the Colonel, "is an old story. The more humanitarian not'enoughto
thought of our day regards it as an act of tyranny and brutality. The con- ^^^'■>'>°"-
science of that time could easily excuse it on the ground of military neces-
sity, because, tho' the Acadians were practically English subjects, they per-
sistently declined to take the oath of allegiance to the Crown, and were
regarded as a perpetual menace to the perpetuity of the colony. However,
under the governorship of Charles Lawrence, they were summarily deported
after the confiscation of their estates, stock and garnered crops — the accu-
mulations of a century and a half of industry. Scattered far and wide
throughout the American colonies, many of them made their way to Louisi- Thevknewa
ana, to be under the protection of France. But in this they were dis- IThentheysaw
appointed, for Spain had but just acquired control. However, they were
kindly received and provided for. They settled in what is now St. James
parish and scattered largely through the Attakapas country, populating
most generally what are the present parishes of St. Landry, Acadia, Vermil-
ion, Lafayette, St. Martin and Iberia. Here they live to-day much as their
forefathers lived on the Basin of Minas and the Prairie of Grand Pre. Their simple

,.,^ ,1 • 1 iTr 1 1," 1- wavs of living

U 1th a few notable exceptions, they are indifferent to the appeals of ambi- and homely

tion and to the allurements of affluence. Their homes are simple cottages,

very plainly furnished with the bare necessities of living. Their fare is

frugal in the extreme. Among the masses education is neglected. The

Acadian French, with the Creole patois, is their language. They marry at a

very early age and set up housekeeping in a modest cot, where the absence

of furniture is soon made up by a numerous progeny. Honest, industrious

as needs be to supply their own simple necessities, and religious to a

degree, they have few wants ami fewer cares, and if their women do most

of the work, the men are kept rea^^onably busy rolling cigarettes for their

own consumption. They preserve but one industry peculiar to themselves.

and this is in the weaving of cottonades from the nankeen cotton which The primitive

they grow. The fiber of this nankeen cotton is of a brownish golden color, peculiar to the

Woven by the women upon hand-looms in their own homes, a durable and p^°p ^'

THROUGH STORYLAND TO SUNSET SEAS.

Didn't know-
how to make
the most of
their
opportunities.

At this
juncture a
shrewd
northerner
came in.

Average vahie
of products to
the acre, S20.

pleasing fabric is produced in a variety of patterns. Up to the time of the
Exposition of 1884 in New Orleans the industry was in a state of decadence,
but Mrs. Sarah Avery Leeds, who took an active interest in the preserva-
tion of the handicraft and the welfare of the simple people, devoted herself
to encouraging the humble workers, and through the agency of the Chris-
tian Woman's Exchange of New Orleans directed attention to and found a
market for their wares. The people might all have been possessed of
wealth had they been reasonably industrious and acquisitive. They took
possession of a paradise, and for a hundred years and more were content to
find a frugal living. A few years ago the adventurous northerner, restless
and discouraged by the severity of his climate, came and looked at the
country. S. L. Gary, who came down to Jennings from Iowa, saw all its
possibilities and began telling the world of them. He found the land could
be bought for a dollar or two an acre. The natives lassoed long-horned
cattle, shot razor-backed hogs, planted the same seed over and over again,
and were serene in the enjoyment of what a couple of acres poorly cultivated
would produce. The northerner was discouraged by what the natives said
of the country, for they averred he'd starve. Nevertheless he pinned his
faith to Gary, came and brought his relatives and friends, and now they
own, populate and make productive some hundreds of thousands of acres.
He found a fertile soil awaiting intelligent treatment. There were no
stumps or stones to test his patience. He could get good water at from
ten to twenty feet through clay. Bermuda and Japanese clover grew to
perfection. Sugar cane yields twenty tons to the acre, rice ten barrels,
worth $3.00 per barrel. Hardy vegetables, like radishes, turnips, lettuce
and cabbage, grow all winter. Figs and oranges thrive and are profitable.
Poultry and stock are at home. With an average altitude of say seventy-
five feet, an evenly distributed rainfall of fifty-five inches, a death rate the
lowest of any of the states (8 to the 1000), and an immunity from a score of
diseases the northerner dreads, it is no wonder that thousands of northern
people have come and are annually coming to Southwest Louisiana, and
supplanting by magnificent estates the limited and poorly cultivated
'patches' of the Acadian. There are homes here for the millions who in
the East and North are looking about for opportunity to better their condi-
tion, and, thank goodness, they are beginning to realize it."

CHAPTER V.

THE TRADiridNS OF LA FITTE THAT ADHERE TO THE COUNTRY BEING

TRAVERSED.

VERY waterway we cross and all the bayous and harbors on the where

traditions of

gulf coast to the south of us, from Barataria Bay to the Sabine the piratical
River, are redolent with traditions of La Fitte, the pirate of the gulf," said
the Colonel. " 1"he Mermentau, which we cross just beyond Crowley, and

IN THE BAYOU COUNTRY OF LOUISIANA.

the Calcasieu, at Lake Charles, are peculiarly fraught with local legends of
the freebooter's presence, and whether he ever visited them or not, their
banks have been liberally dug up by the treasure-seeker, and the stt)ries of
his visitations are cherished with wonderful tenacity."

" And more unwarranted fiction of the yellows-backed variety has been
written ab<nit La Fitte than any other character that we have ever had in
evidence," remarked the Growler, savagely.

"The more I come to know of La Fitte the more respect I have for The pirate had
him," replied the Colonel. "Of course I don't admire his character, but,"
he added, musingly, "he had his good points. It seems a pity that history
should cruelly rob our cherished pirate of so many of the ferocious charac-

his good points

42 THROUGH STORYLAND TO SUNSET SEAS.

teristics that appealed to our youtuful but sanguinary imagination. Instead
of being the rollicking and reckless sailor we pictured him, he was merely a
shrewd blacksmith, doing business in the early part of the century at a little
shop on Bourbon street in New Orleans. The unsettled condition of the
Where the times in which he flourished made his subsequent career possible. FoUow-

freebooter got . , . . ^ . . ,_,..,„ -,^ jr.-L

in his fine mg the cession of Louisiana to the United States, France and bpain became
embroiled in war. Then the United States of Colombia declared their
independence of Spain. In the first of these struggles privateers commis-
sioned by the French authorities at Martinique and Guadalupe swarmed
upon the gulf and Caribbean Sea to prey upon the Spanish commerce.
Colombia took its cue from this example, and invited privateers to outfit at
Carthagena and sail under her flag for the same purpose. A surprising
number of excellent people who esteemed themselves eminently respectable
Avhen the engaged in this very profitable industry. The line between the privateers-

hadtowaikThe man and the pirate is necessarily an elusive one, for with a little practice
plank. ^^^ former finds it extremely difficult to distinguish between the vessel

which is his legitimate prey and the rich merchantman of any other nation-
ality. Jean La Fitte, the blacksmith, became one of the active and intelli-
gent agents in New Orleans of the gulf privateersmen, for it was obviously
important that, after capturing a vessel laden with goods, its cargo should
be disposed of to achieve the rewards of their industry. By degrees he
acquired influence and eminence among them, until in 1813-14 we find him
the undisputed leader, with a fortified post on Barataria Bay, a large fleet,
hundreds of men under his command, and an organization so complete that
Butfiuaiiythey its ramifications extended all over the country. In spite of the protests of
|ave a i e ^^^ reputable citizens of New Orleans, and of repeated efforts to bring him
to justice, it was not until 1814 that an expedition dislodged him, captured
and confiscated the accumulated plunder and effectually scattered the
band, and this final demolition of the coterie grew out of La Fitte's indig-
nant rejection of the overtures of the English who sought to enlist his aid
in their descent on the country, and which overtures he communicated to
the state authorities, at the same time protesting his loyalty to the govern-
ment and denying the charges of piracy brought against him. But if La '
Fitte was not the bold freebooter we used to believe him, there was cer-
tainlv enough of piracy connected with the men of his fleet and the opera-
tions of his vessels to stock every bay and bayou with traditions that will
la.st for centuries to come."
A brisk "And that they were slavers, too, I have no doubt," added the Growler, ,

bra^ck1:?rgoes. " for Ex-Lieut. (iovernor Mouton. of whom I told you, related to me incidents j
in the experience of his own family which go to prove it. La Fitte was often ',
reported to l)e at the mouth of tlic Mermentau, and vessels of his fleet
ascended the river and disjiosed of slaves to the planters. Mr.- Mouton's ■

THE TRADITIONS OK I. A 1 ITTE.

father had owned two slaves bought in this way. One time when hunting
in the canebrake not more than two miles from the present site of Lafay-
ette, the elder Mouton had been startled by a wild clamor among the hounds
ahead of him. Spurring his horse through the brush he came upon a party
of twenty slaves, men and women, in charge of one of the pirates named
Gamble. They were absolutely without clothing and terribly frightened by
the uproar of the dogs. At another time, in the same vicinity, (iambie was
taking a party of slaves northward in the winter time. He had them in an
ox cart, and they had no protection from the weather, were naked ami
almost starved. One night there was a heavy frost and several of the
unfortunate blacks died from the unwonted inclemency of the weather.
The penalty on slaving was so heavy that the
greatest caution was exercised in disposing of
the Africans, and a purchaser never really knew
of whom he bought his slave. The Mermentau
and Calcasieu rivers were favorite retreats for
the slaver, but once when Gamble ran his
schooner into the Nezpiguie, he had to sink it
to avoid capture, and one can still pick up on
the spot, iron pots, broken crockery, and other
relics of the destroyed vessel. Mr. Mouton had
(jften heard his father and other older men talk
of meeting 'Gamble,' 'Paul Clustine,' 'Corse,'
'Triest,' and others of the lieutenants of La
Fitte. I was interested in Mr. Mouton's telling
me that he had owned one of these original
slaves so brought in, and he described his
character as being very admirable. He said
that the idea of whipping him had never sug-
gested itself to any one, and that it was no unusual thing for the black to
'take the stick' to the white children when they offended him."

"And did La Fitte really bury any of his treasure about here?" asked
the Girl.

" I should not like to invest much on the strength of such a speculation,"
replied the Growler, "tho' there are plenty of people who are satisfied that
pots of gold are planted indiscriminately along the gulf coast and its trib-
utary bayous. I don't believe La Fitte buried any, or he would have taken
it with him when he sailed away in 1817 to find a place of refuge. If he
did take it it is lost, for the noted privateer and his vessel went down in a
terrible storm. However, the gulf coast has been pretty well explored antl
excavated, and people still have a try at it from time to time. Fitful lights
glow on the banks of these bayous at night, and mysterious parties go forth

Slaves in the
cane where
Lafayette
now is.

It was a
business that
required
discretion.

niLI. ODKH,,
THE HUNTER OF AVERY'S ISL.A.Nl).

The old darkey
stood on his
dignity.

Hunting for La
Fitte's buried
treasure.

THROUGH STORYLAND TO SUNSET SEAS.

These are the
fellows who
buy gold
bricks and
buck the three-
card-monte
man, too.

He had $700.00
worth of faith.

But these
fellows really
made a haul.

The

government
discouraged
their industry.

Slaves were
cheap, but
monej- was
scarce.

with time-Stained charts to seelc treasure trove. The most barefaced impos-
tures are practiced on the innocent, too. I remember an incident that
occurred near Crowley. Not long since an affable fellow visited the farm
of a rich and intelligent settler who lived on the Bayou Queue de Tortue,
near there. He had a divining-rod that would invariably and remorselessly
point to hidden gold ; and he confidentially gave the farmer the address of
the party in Denver who made and sold them for $700.00. Of course he
had made a fortune in a short time by its use. The gullible agriculturist
engaged him to look for La Fitte's treasure, first testing the power of the
rod bv burying in the garden a lot of jewelry belonging to his wife, while
the man with the divining-rod was in the house. The fellow with the rod
went right to the spot, a feat of divination doubtless due to successful
peeping through some convenient crack or window. Then the search for
the piratical treasure began. After several days the rod began to ' work '.
At this juncture the 'diviner' suddenly announced that he had to leave.
The farmer 'laid out,' as he described it, in the woods for a week, fully
convinced that the rod had located a barrel of gold, and that its owner
proposed to return by stealth and appropriate it. This project the farmer
determined to thwart, and as he said ' he'd kill that 'ere feller ef he tried to
rob him.' Then he came into Crowley, mortgaged his place for $700.00,
and sent the cash to Denver to get a divining-rod."

" And did he get it ? " I asked.

"Oh, yes." replied the Growler; "but I haven't heard that he has found
anything with it yet,"

" There is one place where I believe treasure has been found," chimed in
the Colonel, " and that is on the Calcasieu below Lake Charles. There is
living in that flourishing town a very old and very intelligent man by the
name of Jacob Ryan, whose present home looks out over the beautiful little
lake. He came to Calcasieu Parish in 181 7, when he was a child of one
year, his father settling at Rose Bluff, twelve miles below the present site of
the town. There were few settlers in the country then, and those few were
Acadians engaged in raising stock. All the country belonged to the parish
of St. Landry. The people were poor and money was scarce. Taxes were
a sixteenth of one per cent, with low rates of valuation. Directly after
Mr. Ryan's father moved to this place the United States gunboat Bull Dog,
Captain Ferrygood, came into the river and lay there a long time, so that
the pirates had no chance. Before that a good deal of traffic was carried
on in slaves and contraband goods, but Ryan, to whom I have talked, scoffs
at the idea that La Fitte ever made it much of a headquarters. There was
little market for the slaves brought in by the slavers, and they were taken
through to the Red River country where the planters had more means.
The slaves sold for from $250.00 to $300.00. But this was a gaod deal of

THK TKADrriONS OK I,A 1- ITTE.

money to a man who could only get $10.00 for a cow and calf, or $1 2.00 for a
steer. .Still some were bought by people there, and at least one of these yet
lives, known as Guinea Nigger Thomp.son. .Some of the settlers also received
slaves in payment for service in helping to run the darkies through. Hut
the search for the La Fitte treasure began early and has lasted ever since.
In 1830 two men, Moore and Queen, were reported to have found three
thousand doubloons in an old iron pot on Keogh's Island. They reached The lucky
there on a small schooner which they hired from its owner, a man named [heiTfinTon
Kelsey, and he sailed it for them. They worked according to the directions *''*^ ^'^'<^"s*«"-
of a chart which they possessed. Kelsey helped them a little in their dig-
ging, but one day they sent him to the garrison at Lake Charles to get some
supplies. When he returneil with the schooner they came on board with
two corpulent saddle-bags so heavy that they could

scarcely lift them. They
then told Kelsey they

A LOUISIANA SCENE.

had determined to abandon the search, and on arrival at Lake Charles hired Found
Louis Reon and James Pithon to take them to Opelusas. Pithon and Reon silence the
noticed the heavy saddle-bags. Both Moore and Queen came back several tr^easure^'^'°
weeks later, spent the remainder of their days in Lake Charles,, lived in '"" '"^■
idleness and always seemed to have plenty of money. Neither of them
ever revealed the source of their wealth or the result of their search. Queen
died of yellow fever some years afterwards, and Moore was blown up in a
steamboat explosion while returning from a visit to a brother in Kentucky."

" But how did the gold get there ? " I asked.

"Mr. Ryan said it was hidden by a party of pirates who were chased Howthegoid
into the river by a government cutter in 181 2 or '13. The water was too
shallow for the cutter to follow ttie light draft schooner and she stood off
the entrance ; after a council the ])irates buried the treasure and attempted
to slip past the cutter, one demurred and elected to take his chances in the

got there.

THROUGH STORYLAND TO SUNSET SEAS.

marsh. After the schooner sailed he stood on the shore and watched the
cutter overtake and sink her, and every man captured was hung to the yard-
Became a good arm. The pirate, lucky enough to consider discretion and the swamp the
deathbed and better part of valor, made his way to New Orleans, was taken ill and before

gave the thing

away. __ , ,- _,^ - -.

AT THE SOUTHERN PACIFIC DOCKS IN ALGIERS.

dying gave a chart of the place to Moore and Queen for a consideration
sufficient to make his last hours comfortable. Now Ryan is a hard-headed
old fellow not given to illusions, and while he says he has never been able
to trace down any other discoveries, he believes that in this case the find
was genuine."

CHAPTER VI.

CROWLEY AND LAKE CHARLES — A ROMANTIC LIKE SOME PIONEER CON-
TRASTS — THE SULPHUR MINE AND PETROLEUM DEPOSITS.

WELL, thi
"For, 1

this section is certainly one redolent of romance," I said. Aiisortsot
between the pathos and tragedy of French and Spanish stock,
exploration and settlement, the story of the Acadians, the melodramatic
career of La Fitte and his followers, and the chivalrous exploits of the
people on many occasions, it would be difficult to find a locality of more
graphic interest."

*' While the stories of exploits of great bodies of men fill a larger place
in the eyes of the world, I have always had a fondness for the extraordi-
nary in family history and the tragedy of individual careers," replied the
Growler; "and you can often find the capacity for noble deeds and stirring
action under the most unassuming exterior. There could be no romance
of greater interest nor any more dramatic recital penned than the stories
that could be culled from the family histories of this section of Louisiana.
For instance, here is Crowley, which we have passed while we talked.
From here the Eunice branch runs northward through a section of wonder-
ful beauty and fertility, which invites the settler by every promise that can
appeal to his ambition or his comfort. Crowley is a new town, built up crowiey, a
since 1887 by the remarkable enterprise of the Duson Brothers. The land class of
was then worth from $1.00 to $4.00 per acre. They laid out the place,
built a big schoolhouse, got people to come there, secured the county seat,
and now they have a flourishing town and the land is worth $30.00 an acre.
Their career shows the wonderful influence of great personal enterprise,
and their family history embalms one of those remarkable romances I have
spoken about. Their father, Cornelius Duson, as he was known in Louisi- Thtsiorj-ot
ana, was born at Point Levis, on the St. Lawrence River, in Canada, in 1S19.
He was the youngest of a family of six sons, and the only one who, when
the French rose against the English in 1837, sided with the rebels.
Through the influence of a lifelong companion, S. Lombert, young Duson,
as we will call him, joined the French revolutionists. This caused a dis-
agreement with his family, and he left home saying they would never hear
of him again until the grass was growing on his grave. With a party of
nine other patriots he started up the Ottawa River to enlist the woodmen
and trappers in the cause, but the whole party fell into the hands of the

a patriot.

THROUGH STORYLAXD TO SUNSET SEAS.

The jailer
don't indulge

taken by a party of English soldiers,
them killed, others recaptured, but Duson,
wounded in the thigh
ball, managed to
pursuers, hid

English. Duson escaped, but the others were imprisoned at Ottawa. Our
hero determined to effect their release, and took up his residence in the
town, cultivated the acquaintance of the turnkey, and sought to get him
intoxicated. Failing in this, the jailor's suspicions were aroused, and he
ordered young Duson to leave the jail. With a pretense of complying the
enough to lose youthful revolutionist picked his hat up off the floor, and with it a stick of
IS wits. wood, with which he felled the jailor, took his keys, released the imprisoned

patriots^ and all started to cross the river at Kingston. They were over-

s o m e of
thou g h
by a rifle-
elude h i s
_.. ■ '.V^- in the hut

< , "^r of a wood-

man until
well enough
to travel, and then made
his way to Boston, finally
settling on the Mermen-
tau River in the parish of St.
Landry.

"The English offered a reward

for his capture, dead or alive, but

in peaceful security he married,

reared his family and amassed a

competence. He told his family

many incidents of his early life, of

his people and friends in far-off

Canada, but he never told them that

the name of Duson was not his real name. It was evident that he intended

Never revealed to reseive this revelation until his last hour, but the opportunity for making

his name. ° the confcssion never came, as death overtook him suddenly and while away

from home in 1857. In 1884 his two elder sons, C. C. and W. W. Duson,

made a visit to Canada, and hunted out the places of which their father had

so often spoken. They could find no one who remembered him. At last

they searched out the aged companion of his youth, S. Lombert, but he said

he had never known any one by the name of Duson. The visitors insisted,

and related the incidents of their parent's childhood, his association with

Lombert, and gave the Christian names of their father's brothers. Then the

The ancient feeble old man burst into tears, and rising to his feet with an eft'ort exclaimed,

thefact.^*^^ ^ * No. no, I scc it all now. Your name is not Duson, but McNaughton.

Let me lead you t(j your people.' .\nd thus the family was reunited and

A BR.\NCH OF THE TAB.ASCO PEPPER PLANT.

LAK1-: CHARLES. 49

the fact brought to light that the youth who had cast his fortunes with the
French cause, though he was of Scotch- Irish stock, had changed his name,
and for twenty years had maintained his secret and kept tu the letter the
vow that his family should not hear of him until the grass grew on his grave."

The Colonel and the Growler retired to the smoking compartment for a
time. The Girl was engrossed with a magazine, and I looked out of the
window at the wide prairies that open out to the horizon, dotted with com-
fortable looking homes, and fringed with blue masses of trees which mark Thepraine
with cypress, hickory, ash. oak and gum, the margins of the bayous. The s^!!thw^t
landscape recalls that of Northwest Iowa, or of Minnesota, with the possi-
ble difference that it is much better wooded. Presently great pine trees
began to appear, growing more dense as the train sped on until the wide
forest stretched on either hand and we could look off through cool
vistas of green as through the pillared colonnades of some great temple
whose fretted arches let in the sifted sunlight, and through whose airy roof
the mocking birds and finches fluttered with a revelry of song and color.

As the train ran into a station where the air was vocal with the urgent
appeals of hackmen, and where every indication pointed to the activities of a
flourishing city, the Colonel and the Growler returned, and the former said : Lakecharies,

"This is Lake Charles — the best town on the road between New Orleans pJoplelikc^'o
and Houston. It is essentially a northern city, with a population of some
7,000 people. Well built, with plenty of enterprise, fine stores and business
blocks, an ideal climate and every accessory to add comfort to living, it is
no wonder it is growing rapidly, and that people like to come here. Its
location on one of the most beautiful lakes in the country — a body of clear
deep water, two and a half miles long and about as wide, through which
flows the Calcasieu River on its way to the gulf — is admirable. The river
from the lake to the gulf is broad and deep, affording uninterrupted navi-
gation, and the present Government improvements to the harbor at its
mouth will make it a splendid anchorage for craft of any draft. Lake
Charles is the capital of a parish which is as large as the State of Delaware
or the Kingdom of Denmark. The accomplishments of its people are The
marvelous when one recalls that as late as the declaration of independence of threescore
bv Texas, both Mexico' and the United States laid claim to the territory ^'^^"
lying between the Calcasieu — or R.io Hondo, as it was then called — and the
Sabine River. The settlers who came here were given titles to 640 acres.
Up to as late as twenty years ago these claims, called Rio Hondo claims,
could sometimes be bought for a few dollars. The lake, and later the town,
were named for Charles Sallier. a Swiss, who settled there in 1S16. The
early settlers were a social and law-abiding class, who thought nothing of
visiting a neighbor or going to a dance twenty miles away. .Marriage cere-
monies were at first regarded as lu.xuries because at that time it was a

THROUGH STORVLAND TO SUNSET SEAS.

Pioneering had journev of loo miles to Opclousas where a license could be procured. The
its^pieasures, ^^j.^.^^ ^^ley raised were driven through the swamps to New Orleans. But in
spite of these pioneer discouragements the population mcreased, and
to-day the people look back with pride upon the achievements of the past."
As the train drew away from the station, skirted the head of the lake,
and plunged into the pine woods beyond, the Growler said :
" The sulphur mine is but ten miles beyond."
"What sulphur mine?" asked the Girl.
"There is a very remarkable deposit of sulphur at the point indicated,"

CREOLE WOMEN WEAVING COTTO.NADE.

The sulphur was the reply. " Petroleum of an excellent quality for lubricating purposes
fieids^^^™'^"'" has been struck at the same place. The oil region extends over some
200,000 acres, and on the coast, thirty miles from the sulphur borings, it is
poured out upon the gulf waters in quantities sufficient to cover several
square miles. The sulphur strata is sixty feet in thickness, but it was long
protected by several beds of quicksand overlying it. In vain fortunes were
spent trying to sink shafts for the purpose of reaching and mining the
product. But at last the Standard Oil i)eople purchased the property, and
sent down an expert, who drove a tubing into the strata, and by pumping
down water is enabled to pump the mineral up. As far back as 1820 the
settlers knew of the existence of petroleum, and they resorted to the places
where it oozed from the ground as a black and pasty mass to gather it,
tho' their only use for it was to grease the axles of their wagons and to
protect their implements froni rust."

Early known
but little used

CHAPTER VII.

THE GREAT LUMBER DISTRICTS OF WESTERN LOUISIANA AND TEXAS — THE
FORESIGHT THAT GAVE THEM TO THE WORLD.

LVKE CHARLES, Louisiana, and Beaumont, Texas, are the eastern and Lumber
^ western boundaries of the denser of those great pine districts which southwestern
fringe the Calcasieu, Sabine, Neches and Trinity rivers. The Southern EasteirT*^"
Pacific runs through this splendid timber belt for a distance which may be ^"^'
appro.ximately set down as two hundred and fifty miles, and at the towns
named and others, the tourist catches a glimpse of the great mills which
annually transform rough logs into hundreds of millions of feet of mer-
chantable lumber. At no other points in the world are the operatioiLs con-
ducted upon a vaster scale. The capacity of the great mills is fabulous,
their machinerv is of the latest design, and with a single circular they often
cut from 100,000 to 120,000 feet per day. Two hundred varieties of valu-
able timber are at their disposal, tho' the yellow pine is by far the most
abundant.

" Did you ever go into a large modern sawmill? " the Growler asked me.

I replied in the negative, and he said :

" It is a sight you would not be likely to forget. Rafted down from ihe xhe way they
the place where it is cut, the great logs lie in booms, a chain drags them '^" "'^ °^^'
into the mill, where steel fingers toss them on a sliding table. With incon-
ceivable rapidity they are thrown backward and forward against the great
circular saw which goes through them as tho' they were so much butter.
The three or four colored experts, who stand on this platform and operate
the levers that control the log, work like demons and look like them, as
thev are dashed to and fro through the cloud of sawdust. The roar of the
machinery, the terrible gnawing of the saw, the mad plunging of the log.
all make up a scene of indescribable interest, and unconsciously one's
thoughts are directed to the innumerable processes by which the needs of
civilized man are ministered to."

When the train stopped at Orange a portlv gentleman boarded the car. rheUimber-

'' 1 • J 1 '"311 boards

The Colonel rose and greeted him as an old acquamtance, and introduced the train,
him to the rest of us as Mr. Henry J. Lutcher. " Mr. Lutcher has been so
closely identified with the development of the lumber interests here that he
can tell us something that will be of interest, I know," said the Colonel,

THE GREAT LUMBER DISTRICTS.

after that gentleman had explained that he was going over to Houston on a
brief business trip.

"If I did that, I should have to tell you my own experience," replied
Mr. L.

'• It will doubtless be instructive," the Colonel said.

"Well," replied the lumber king of Orange, "up to the time I was six- Andsketches

. , ^ , ^ , , . , . the Tiistorj' of a

teen years of age Mame was the great source of supply for lumber m this great industry,
country. Monopolies soon secured control of the output, for shrewd men
came to realize its value. Then the Adirondacks were taken possession of,
and later, in the early '50s, the timber on the Susquehanna and in the Alle-
gheny region was levied upon. By ICS65, Williamsport. Pa., which was my
home, had become the great
lumber center of the country.
I can recall
the long
trains of
w a cr o n s

that, carrying this product, went west by what was known as the 'Cherry
Tree' route, across the headwaters of the Susquehanna. Then with cheap
freights on the lakes Michigan became pre-eminently the source of supply.
In 1S77 I had a mill at Williamsport, but recognized that to achieve any
large measure of success one must have the advantage of cheap stumpage
and profit by the increase of values."

"And how was your attention directed to this then far-off point?"
inquired the Growler.

"Almost by chance, if not entirelv so," replied Mr. Lutcher. '* I was Likedrawing

■ ' - ,, ... a prize in a

talkmg the matter over one day with my parter, who fully agreed with me. lottery.
'But where shall we go?' he asked. I happened to look down into the
waste-basket which stood beside my desk, and my eye fell on the word
'Texas' in a newspaper. I picked the sheet up, and it contained a map of

THROUGH STORYLAND TO SUNSET SEAS.

Original forest
of the
Mississippi
VaUev.

Timber in this
district
sometimes
runs as high as
30,000 feet to
the acre.

the Sabine River and a reference to its timber supply. At once the
thought of putting up mills and wing dams on these streams struck me.
Both my partner and I made a trip to Washington to consult the Texas
congressmen, and Judge Ragan told us the finest timber on earth was
in Eastern Texas. We came south early in 1877, found the railroad only
■built as far east as Beaumont, took horses and spent five or six weeks in the
great forests. We went up the western side of the Sabine and were
delighted ; but when we crossed at Bird's Ferry and came down on the
Louisiana side, we found the finest body of timber that I had ever seen.
Later I looked upon what I believe was the original forest of this valley, on
the Red River, in Cataboola and Wind parishes, where the trees were all
three and one-half to four feet in diameter, but of so great an age that they
were rotten at the heart. Of this Sabine River timber we bought great
tracts at $1.25 an acre, but not until I instituted an investigation and
found that the total Texas consumption of lumber was about 70,000,000
feet, of which at least 40,000,000 feet was imported. The largest mill in
the state had at that time a capacity of 10,000 feet per day. In the spring
of that same year I landed with a mill which had a capacity of 100,000 feet
per day, and put it up and begun operations in three months. People
thought we were crazy, but," Mr. Lutcher added, with a smile, " we were
not, and to-day ships leave the Sabine Pass carrying lumber to Europe and
all South American countries."

CHAPTER VIII.

FROM THE TEXAS IU)RDER TO THE CITY OF THE ALAMO, WITH POSSIBLE
REFERENCES TO THINGS ALONG THE WAV.

H.AT a funnv name for a station!" said the Girl, consulting a
guide.
What is it ? " I asked.
Sour Lake."
It has the merit of being expressive," replied the Colonel. "Seven Heres the

. • r- place for your

miles off the line of the road, and connecting with trains by stage, is Sour complexion.
Lake itself, so named because of the quality of its water and the soil upon
its margin. The water and'mud baths here have wonderful curative prop-
erties in cases of skin disease, and perhaps in other ailments. In the hands
of parties who had the money and enterprise to provide more modern and
adequate accommodations and better facilities for reaching the lake, it
would develop into a noted health resort. At present it is not so widely
known as its merits warrant, but it is destined to become a Mecca for cer-
tain classes of invalids."

From the Sabine to San Antonio there are a succession of thrifty towns
which bespeak local prosperity and enterprise. The roadway itself is a
delight to the tourist. Like the equipment of the trains and the service of
the employes, it is a very near approach to perfection. There is in all the a modest word

'^•'' ^ ^ ^ ^ . ..,-, about the road

country no more superb roadbed than that which the trains of the Southern you travel over.
Pacific traverse in their flight from the Crescent City to the Golden Gate.
Ballasted with rock, the greatest attention has been bestowed upon the per-
manence of its construction. The tourist may stand for hours upon the
rear platform of the train, anywhere across the wide plains of Texas or
Arizona, and see the same long, even, substantial line of rock ballast stretch-
ing out behind, each stone apparently laid with scrupulous care. At regular
intervals are attractive and commodious section-houses, neat in the glory of
bright paint and immaculate whitewash, each with its trim garden plot about
it and the refreshing green of near-by trees. At the station-houses bits of
garden brighten the landscape, and the sunset symbol of the company is
conspicuously wrought in stone to diversify some otherwise waste place.

It was near Crosby, eighty-four miles west of the Louisiana line, that the
battle of San Jacinto was fought April 12, 1836, and the independence of
Texas practically secured.

THROUGH STORVLAND TO SUNSET SEAS.

We all know that Texas is a big state. We have heard that since we

toddled to school in early infancy. But we are apt to forget just how great

an empire it is. Even when we recall that it is 800 miles from east to west,

Just to give you and 750 north and south, it does not give us so clear an idea as to remember

a faint idea of , . , ^ , .. . , . , . . _-

the size of that either of these distances is almost equivalent to a journey from New

Texas.

York to Chicago, or from
Orleans, or from
to Salt Lake City,
times as large as
New York. It
is two hundred
and eleven

Chicago to New

San Francisco

Texas is eleven

the State of

Ul HOUSE, HOUSTON.

times the size of Rhode Island. It has four hundred and eleven miles of
coast line ; its navigable rivers equal those of any other five states, and
within the 265,780 square miles of its domain are 9,500 miles of railroad.
The value of its agricultural and manufactured products reach the sum of
$185,000,000, and it has a permanent school fund of $100,000,000. We
think of it as an agricultural state, but it has vast deposits of coal, iron,
copper, gypsum, rock salt, asphaltum, mica, granite and petroleum. The
resources of its great forests are almost as inexhaustible as those of its rich
soil, which affords the greatest diversity of crops in abundant reward to
the farmer.

When our party reached Houston we all got out at the big and bustling

FROM THE TEXAS BORDER TO THE CITY OF THE ALAMO.

Station to look at the beautitul park and get a momentary msight mto the Houston, 362

1- IT r ^u » " miles from

busy hfe of the town. New Orleans.

"This is, in my judgment, the future great city of this part of the
country," said the (irowler. " Named for a man whose life history is as
strange as the phantasies of a delirium, it has become the center of a sub-
stantial and expanding commerce. Sam Houston was a brilliant and brave
man. who had the distinction of being a renowned soldier, the governor of Named for the

^ ^ ^ If , 1 T-> ■ 1 r m^ , • hero of San

two States, a member of congress and the President of 1 exas when it jacmto.
achieved its independence through the decisive blow which he struck in the
battle of San Jacinto where he annihilated the Mexican army. The only
blot upon his reputation — and whether that was one or not we can only
guess — was his strange abandonment of his wife and career in Tennessee
and his alliance with the Cherokee Indians. What , motives impelled

him. or what crisis prompted to
he never told, and perhaps we
not guess."

" At any rate a great and
growing city has sprung
up here in sixty years,"
replied the Colonel.
"The fortv thousand

so extreme an act
had better

POST OFFICE. HOUSTON.

people who live here a thrifty giant

, . J among our

to-day enjoy every ad- cities,
vantage of municipal
life. The pines that
fringe it about are the
western sentinels of
the great forests we
have been passing
throuo-h. Wide reaches

MAKKKT AND CITY H.'VLL, HOUSTON.

of primeval oak, in the somber drapery of the Spanish moss, are near at
hand, interspersed with sycamore, pecan, hickory, ash and cypress. Here
the magnolia grandiflora attains a luxuriance I know not of anywhere
else. It is but forty miles by air line to the gulf, and the summer heats
are cooled and winter chill dissipated by the equable breezes that blow

FROM THE TEXAS BORDER TO THE CITY OF THE ALAMO.

from that great body of water. The city is at the head of tide- water on
Buffalo Bayou, which has from ten to twenty-three feet of water between
this point and the gulf. But, as the great railway center of the state, it is
pre-eminent as a receiving and distributing depot, for eleven trunk lines
enter here. I could

give you some statis- 1

tics which might be
useful if you did not
think them dry."

" (iive us the statis-
tics. Colonel," I said.

•' But not too many,
papa," the Girl adde

MAIN- STREET, FROM CAPITOL HILL, HOUSTON.

"A woman rarely
sees the advantage of
figures," the Colonel
commenced, referring
to a little book he car-
ried, "but they convey
facts in a condensed
way as no other form
of statement possibly
can. For instance, it is easy enough to announce that the climate of a TheCoionei
particular place is equable, but it conveys a more rational impression when the'tempfation
I say that the average temperature in Houston in summer is 80° and in fewg^i^res
winter 60°. The actual valuation of property would probably be consider-
ably above fifty millions of dollars. As a cotton market Houston outranks
all the other cities of the Southwest, being exceeded only by New Orleans
in point of receipts. Upon the floor of its cotton exchange can be found
English, French and German dealers, as well as local buyers who represent
foreign houses. The receipts of the staple are in excess of 400,000 bales
per year. It will soon be a great rice center as well. Her lumber trade
amounts to over $15,000,000 per annum, and the extent of her miscellaneous
manufacturing can be understood when I say that there are about two

THROUGH STORYLAND TO SUNSET SEAS.

But what she
wanted to
know was —

hundred establishments, with a total invested capital exceeding $4,000,000
and an output of over $7,000,000, and giving employment to more than
5,000 employes. The great machine and car shops employ 2,000 men. The
jobbing trade of the city reaches throughout the entire Southwest and is esti-
mated at $30,000,000 a year. As a final summing up of these few random
figures, I might say that the volume of business transacted in the local
clearing house is about $250,000,000 per year."

"Well," said the Girl, with a sigh of relief, "I'm glad you didn't go into
the subject any more fully, and I don't remember a single one of your old
totals. What I want to know is, what kind of a place is it to live in ? "

" I'm sure I scarcely know how to answer," replied the Colonel, who was
somewhat disconcerted at the effect his statistics had produced upon his
daughter. " It's a very charming city, with a compact, handsomely built
business center, and lovely residence streets stretching into delightful sub-
urbs. It has the finest system of electric street railways, electric lights,
and water and sewage systems you will find anywhere. There are a great
many delightful places of resort about the city, and its people are cultivated
and hospitable. Now what else could I say?"

"Not a thing," said the Girl, laughingly; "you have done splendidly,
papa, and in spite of your dry statistics I believe I wouldn't mind living in
Houston."

CHAPTER IX.

SAN ANTONIO ITS OLD-TIME INTEREST AND LATTER-DAY PROGRESS

THE MISSIONS THE IJIRTH OK THE OPAL.

IT was part of our plan to stop over a day in San Antonio. The San Antonio,
, , , , 1 ■ 1 1 1 •' II • 1 57' miles from

Growler had protested that it would be just as well to go right New Orleans,

through as to devote but a day to the most beautitul city in all the long feet.^ '""

stretch of country between New Orleans and Los Angeles, but the Colonel,

while he acquiesced in all the Growler said as to the fascinations of the

place, protested that it was much better to make a hurried inspection than

to see nothing.

'• \\'e will lose no time," said he, and putting this resolution into prac
tice, he had a carriage at the door of our hotel almost as soon as the affable
clerk had assigned us to our rooms.

" Where away ? " he inquired.

" To the Missions ! " exclaimed the Girl.

\\'e assented, and the driver whipped up his horses. 'I'hrough the paved on the way to

' ' ' . . . ' the Missions.

business streets lined with handsome stores, past the exquisite little plaza
that, like a gem, is set down in the heart of the city ; the white stone
government building, with its romanes(iue architecture, its mediitval tower
and bold-angled turret, and its row of arches and arcades that belie the
accusation that federal architecture is a failure ; and then on into the
suburbs, through tree-embossed cottages, we rode. Then the highway
crept sinuously into the country, taking its way through cool and pretty
bits of woodland and across the pebbly beds of running streams, until the
gray, severe walls of the Mission of the Conception came into view two The

_ . ^ ..,,.., Conception is

miles from the plaza, i he general plan is that of a cruciform church, joined the first,
on the south by the monastery and sacristy buildings. Above the square
double doors is a triangular facade, and in angular spaces a Latin legend
invokes homage to the Mission patroness and princess. On each corner of the
western end is a square tower, but the bells that once hung in them are gone.

" It must have been gorgeous long ago," said the Growler, pointing with
his cane to the front of the edifice. '' One can still discover traces of the
gaudy yellow frescoes representing dressed stones, ornamented with red
and blue quartrefoil crosses."

As we drove on the Colonel pointed out the spot, near the crossing of

THROUGH STOKVLANl) TO SUNSET SEAS.

whereabiow the San Antonio River, where was fouofht in iS^S the first battle for Texas

was struck for o ^^

freedom. uidependence.

" The Mission of San Jose, the oldest and richest of them all," he said,
as the second ruin came in sight. " It was completed March 5, 1731. The
grand fagade, at the main entrance, shows what cunning workmen were the
priests, for it is a delicate piece of carving, rising in pillared arch from the
foundation, and culminating above in a wreath of acanthus-like curves and
conchoids. On either side were statues of saints, and above a representa-
tion of the Immaculate Conception. The massive doors were of native
cedar, with panels of mesquite carved in high relief."

We climbed the steep winding stairway made of self-supporting slabs of
oak that led into the tower at the southwest corner, and looked out over the
scene at our feet. All about the old Mission, with its range of cloisters and
cells, was silent. The deserted and crumbling walls were spectral. In
December, 1868, the falling of the main dome and roof made wreck of this
fair place.

Still two miles farther, and near by the San Juan ford of the river, the
Mission of San Juan de Capistrano, named for a Franciscan friar born in
Capistrano, Italy, in 1386, came into view. One bell still swings in the
pierced arch high above the
eastern wall. The almost
entirely obliterated

Looking off
from the tower
of San Jose.

scoes convey but little
ea o f their once great

THE C.'i.THEnRAL IN SAN ANTONIO. i . V 4. ' v 1 1

beauty, but m the glory-

The rewards of days of the cliurch they were famous far and wide, yet now even the name

such. of the artist whose brush wrought them is forgotten. About the old walls is

a cluster of Mexican huts where children plav and men lounge about smoking

cigarettes. Directly across the river is an old adobe saloon, where a gaudy

sign announces the cock fight that takes place every Sunday.

SAN ANTONIO.

The Mission of San Francisco de la Espada is the last of the chain
extending southward. This was the first camping ground of the Texas
army, and it was here that Stephen F. Austin took command of the forces.
Forty years ago the church was almost a complete ruin when Father
Boucher, the little French padre, came to lead the devo-
tions of the scat- /l^ ,^ <^ -— ^,^^ tered tlock. He worked as

iir- 1 1 • y'- Si ^UB^*^ ■•<jC~'*^ 1 1 1 well as taught

With his own ><->.<* .^KBt^ »*i ^*^'>^^v hands he and preached.

TVPIC.AI. MEXICAN J.\e.-\L NEAR SAN ANTO.NIO.

restored it, and while he has been pastor and schoolmaster, he has likewise
been carpenter and stonemason.

As we turned to drive back to the city by a different way, the Colonel
looked out over the landscape and said : "What devotion and self-renun-
ciation all this labor stands for. These Franciscans came into the wilder-
ness and bound its then uttermost parts to the world by their chain of
Missions, and hemmed the fringe of civilization upon the ragged garment
of savagery."

"And this is civilization!" replied the Growler, pessimistically, as we
passed the splendid buildings of the State Insane Asylum.

" Vcs, this is civilization, if you will," the Colonel responded; "a luimani- whatwereaiiy

1- 1 ^i..i-ii^i'i 1 need is more of

tarian socialism where man recognizes that he is his brother s keeper and them.
cares for him in the time of his distress."

Just before reaching the city we came to the Army post — Camp Sam
Houston — occupying an eligible site of 162 acres overlooking the city. Its
extensive buildings of stone, its wide sweep of perfectly level parade-
ground, and the high and graceful clock tower which rises from the quad-
rangular plaza, make it an interesting place for the visitor.

"This is the new — now for the old!" exclaimed the Colonel. "Here

64:

THRUUGII sroRVLAND TO SUNSET SEAS.

The Alamo and
its sacred
memories.

Begun as a
church in 1716,
occupied as a
military post
in 1718.

is the substantial beauty of structure and the suggestiveness of modern
power— the visible sign of a great nation. Now let us go to where a few
old walls make hallowed ground to those who venerate the heroism of men
who could die for a principle."

" The Alamo ? " I asked.

"The Alamo!" the Colonel responded. "If deeds of daring sanctify
the soil that witnesses them that should be to every American one of the
sacred places of the land."

We soon alighted in front of the old church and entered its broad portal.
A hundred and seventy-nine years have elapsed since its foundations were

begun. Its early history would be filled with the interest of tradition were
it not for the fact that one glorious deed of sacrifice dwarfs all that went
before. Here on March 6, 1S36, one hundred and eighty-one citizen-
soldiers, untrained to war, fought more than twenty times their number, and
scorning to retreat deliberately chose to die. The fight began February 23d,
when the Mexican army under Santa Anna began the assault. The attack
was continued day and night, and each time the Mexican column was hurled
back with frightful loss. Each day witnessed supreme examples of heroism
on the part of the beleagured men. One of the most inspiring of these was
the sacrifice of James Butler Bonham, a native of South Carolina, and the
friend of Colonel Travis, who commanded the Alamo forces. He had been
sent to F'annin and the government with appeals for aid, which were unavail-
ing. On March 2d, he reached, on his return, a hill overlooking the scene
of the siege, accompanied by two companions. Realizing the situation these
associates saw no necessity for further progress, and demanded of Bonham
that they retire. The reply of Boniiam immortalizes him. He said, " I will

SAN AN'IOXIO.

r)5

report the result of mv mission to Coloiif 1 1 ravis. He expects it of nic. I The bloodshed

,,,.,". ... 1111 that ijlorified

have to tell him there is no prospect ot reinforcements, that he has but to the oui church,
die in defend ini^ his cause, aiul tliat I come to tlie with him." Then bukling
farewell to iiis companions, mounted on a creani-culoreil horse, throuirti the
lines of the enemy and amid \ »■■ dU. :» ''
showers of bullets, this ,i4'allant Ij ^,V' \
son of South Carolina rode to his * ~ Rt.W;^ . •>
death. The .<2:ates of the fortress
opened to receive him, and he
presented himself to his chief, the
noblest incident in history of stern
adherence to solemn duly without
reganl to person. ()n the morn-
ing of the 6th of .March a general
assault took place. Slowly the
noble Te.xans were driven back
until inside the church they made
their last stand. No quarter was
asketi, none granted. Each
Te.xan died desperately, in hand-
to-hand conflict with overpower-
ing numbers. Col, James Bowie,
sick and unable to rise, was bay-
oneted in his bed. Col. David
Crockett died amid a circle of
slaugiilered foes. Travis fell
upon the wall where he was giv-
ing inspiration to his men. When
the last Te.xan died the tloor was
nearly ankle-deep in blood, and ghastly corpses were heaped everywhere. By Every mau

. ^ . 1,1- -111 -11 '^ ^\ t ' died fighting,

order of Santa Ana the bodies were piled in heaps and burned. On the andnoneasked

, . ,iiirr> -^ • -i- ^^1^ for quarter.

monument to these immortal dead I exas writes an inscription so great that
it makes the heart stand still : "Thermopylie had its messenger of defeat —
the Alamo had none."

Our partv scattered after this. The Growler said he was going out to
San Pedro S[)rings to see the park and the menagerie, but I suspected that
he had in mind the excellences of the fann)us San Antonio beer, rather than
any desire to study zoology or seek communion with nature.

The Colonel and the Girl started out to visit the great C'athetlral of San The cathedral
Fernando on the military pla/a. It was begun in 1734 and reconstructed
in large part in 1S68. It contains the beautiful old altar rescued from the
ruins of the Mission of San Jose.

.\ .MISSION DOOR.

SAN ANTOXIO.

As for myself 1 strolled idly about the city, charmed by its architecture,
its modern bustle and life, the intense cleanliness of the city, which in part
is due to the white stone and creamy brick so generally used in its buildings,
and in part to its excellent sanitary care. The San Antonio River, a deep. The city and its
narrow stream, whose water is a wonderful turquois-blue, winds in and out rfJer.^
all through the city, spanned by fifteen or sixteen bridges. Then I looked
in at the splendid new county court house and city hall, leisurely strolled
through the residence streets lined with handsome houses, embowered in a
wealth of shrubbery and perfumed by the flowers that riot on the lawns.
And finally I drifted back to the San Antonio Club, whose luxurious quar-
ters overlooking the delightful plaza are a joy forever to the clubman.

That evening we did what all tourists do — made a trip through the
Mexican quarter of the town. We had seen their houses, or jacals of stone
and adobe or of mud and sticks ; we had seen the people in picturesque
groups in their doorways, but in the evening on Milam Square we found
them in the characteristic attitudes of idleness. Here long tables were scenes in the
spread, illuminated by large mediaeval-looking lanterns stuck upon posts, quarter"of the
and spread with chili-concarne, tamales, frijoles, enchiladas, chili verde and " ^
tortillas, so hot with cayenne pepper that a mouthful feels like a mustard

THE TOWKR AT THK ARMY PObT, SAN ANTO.NIO, TEXAS.

plaster to an .\merican stomach. Dark-eyed and gaily dressed girls, or
witch-like old crones generally preside at the tables, though sometimes a
man who looks like a Sicilian brigand is doing the honors and taking in the
coppers.

When, late at night, tired but triumphant, we returned to the hotel, the
Girl displayed her purchases of the afternoon. "I was foolish enough to

68 THROUGH STORYLAND TO SUNSET SEAS.

The old take lier into Meyer's curio store," the Colonel sciid, "and you see the

gentleman's i .. -im i i ■ ^r • i • i " ■ i -i

pocketbook result. 1 he result was a big Mexican sombrero, trimmed with silver
braid. ''Isn't it swagger," the Girl said, holding it up triumphantly. Then,
there were wax figures, horned toads, a gaily colored serapa, some filagree
silver work and a half dozen opals that held scintillating red and green fires
in their bosoms. "Aren't they lovely," said the Girl rapturously,, as she
moved them about that the light might fall upon them.
"But they are stones of bad omen." said the Growler.
"Pshaw, I'm not superstitious." replied the Girl, with a toss of her head.
"I don't think there will be any bad luck about them, if papa consents to
have one or two of them set in diamonds."

"You have heard how Ella Wheeler Wilcox accounts for "The Birth of
the Opal ? " I asked, and, for fearsome one would too readily assent. I quoted
the poem ;

The Sunbeam loved the Moonbeam

And followed her high and low.

But the Moonbeam fled and hid her head,

She was so shy — so shy.

The Sunbeam woed with passion.

Ah, he was a lover bold.

And his heart was afire with a mad desire
• For the Moonbeam pale and cold.

She fled like a dream before him.

Her hair was a shining sheen.

And O ! that fate would annihilate

The space that lay between.

Just as the day lay panting

In the arms of the twilight dnn

The Sunbeam caught the one he sought

And drew her close to him.

And out of his warm arms startled

And stirred by love's first shock

She sprang afraid like a trembling maid

And hid in a niche of rock.

But the Sunbeam followed and found her

And led her to love's own feast,

And they were wed on that rocky bed

And the dying day was their priest.

And lo ! the beautiful Opal.

That rare and wondrous gem,

Where the Moon and Sun blend into one

Is the child that was born to them.

CHAPTER X.

BETWEEN SAN ANTONIO AND DEVIL'S RIVER — IRRUIATION AND MINERAL
INTERESTS SOME POINTS P,V THE WAY.

" A -^l^< >CK1 Nci-l!l Rl) sang under my window this morning," said the
Ix. (iirl. W'e were bowling along westward of San Antonio, and the
broad prairies swept to the horizon outside of the car.

■'This is a great country for mocking-birds," replied the Cirowler. Native haunts
"There is a belt fifty miles north and as much south of San Antonio where songster,
they seem to be at home. There is a peculiar fact which 1 learned while
camping in this section on hunting trips, and that is that the mockuig-bird
preempts his farm."

"Come, come, Growler," I said ; "this is too much."

" It is true, just the same," was the response. "Each mocking-bird has
his own range, which will supply berries enough to last him until spring.
The boundaries of the tract are determined with as much accuracy as a
mining prospector locates his claim. It varies from say fifty to a hundred
yards square. The mocking-bird defends this possession jealously. He Hes a selfish
takes his position in the top of the highest tree or bush when not feeding,
and woe to the * tramp ' bird that seeks to 'squat' upon his premises. On
the first alarm he is in the air ready to fight and pursue the intruder until
he drives him away. He is a selfish fellow, too, and in the winter turns his
mate out of house and home to look for a range of her own, lest his food
supply prove inadequate."

"You spoke about the hunting. Is it good in Texas?" I asked.

"There are plenty of deer as well as (juail and other game birds, while
jack-rabbit shooting is good sport," was the reply. "Of course coyotes, what the
wolves and fo.xes don't count, but you can find bear and panther if you fi?u[s^'n Texas,
know where to look for them. I5ut for the fisherman there is equal attrac-
tion, for from the trout streams to the home of the tarpon all along the
gulf coast, and particularly at Rockport and Corpus Christi, one can get all
the amusement desired."

"What a country for stock," .said the Colonel, meditatively, as he looked
out of the window where the high level plain — or Llano Alto, as the Mexi-
cans call it — grown thick with its peculiar herbage, but looking dry and
barren in places, was inanimate except for here and there a herd of cattle.

THROUGH STORVLAND TO SUNSET SEAS.

Water will
make it bloom
as the rose.

The arid
regions oi
America.

through here. Two milli(Mi of our young ||
ijority every year. They want homes of ■

"With water it will bloom as the rose," replied the Growler, "and some
day there will be great farms all thi
men and women reach their maj(
their own. The naturally watered lands will soon be exhausted, or too high
for struggling industry to acquire. In California, in Utah and in Arizona
we have seen the desert converted into a garden by artificial application of
water. It will be so here. Few people really realize how great is the scope
of arid country in the United
States."

" I will confess 1
do not," I said. ^^'

MISSIONS NEAR SAN ANTONIO, TEXAS

• ■■*. ^ .r^

'**^*^'^ "It is half the

whole country."
'• Not so much as
that, surely," I an-
swered, in surprise.

" Yes," said the Growler,
"it is really half of all
America, excepting Alaska. It can be defined in this way: If you com-
mence on the ninety-seventh meridian, on the west end of the Gulf of
Mexico, and run north to the British Possessions, then run a thousand miles
west to the one hundred and fifteenth meridian, at the east line of Idaho,
dropping down one hundred miles, then run west to the top of the Cascade
Mountains, in Washington, one hundred miles from the Pacific coast ; then
turning south, run along the top of the Cascade Mountains until you get j
forty miles below San Francisco, then turn west and run to the Pacific coast j
and follow that coast down to Old Mexico, then turning follow along the j
north line of Old Mexico down the Rio Grande and around to the place of
beginning, you will have gone around arid America, and you will have gone
around a tract of country half as big as all the United States. In the settle-
ment of arid America, as it was commenced in 1854, we never asked what ]
the country was when we set foot upon it, and it is only within the last few
years that we have come to admit to the world that Western Kansas, Western
Nebraska, the Dakotas, one-third part of Texas and Western Oklahoma, '
and all of the great region extending from the warm waters of the gulf to .

BETWEEN SAX AXTOMO AND DEVIL S RHER.

the British Possessions, cannot be settled and cannot support a population
in peace and happiness unless it be reclaimed by irrigation. Now," con-
tinued the Growler, " this bit of country has cost us a lot of money. We
paid first to Old Mexico, in 1848, $15,000,000 for New Mexico and Cali-
fornia. We afterward paid Old Mexico $10,000,000 for the 45,000 square
miles embraced in what is known as the Gadsden Purchase. We afterward
paid Texas $10,000,000 for releasing her claims to that portion of New
Mexico which lies east of the Rio Grande. It strikes me that the Govern-
ment, having invested so much, should put in a few more millions to
develop it, and make this vast area
the home of the contented and
prosperous millions who could be
supported here."

"Well," said the Colonel, "if
the Government is not doing very
much, private enterprise is. And
as we shall see before we get
through with this trip, it has made
a garden out of Southern Califor-
nia, and has progressed favorably
in the same direction with respect
to many points in Texas, Arizona
and New Mexico."

" But there seems to be a good
deal of verdure out on those
plains," I said.

" Yes," replied the Colonel,
"the soil is so rich that grass
grows with the slightest encour-
agement. Cattle in vast numbers
graze here and find abundant pas-
turage. Besides that there are
some forage plants peculiar to the
soil and climate. For instance,
there is the grease plant, which,
even when green, burns as tho' saturated with kerosene. The Siempre Viva
or Plant of Eternal Life, or resurrection plant, as it is variously called, often
has the appearance of being dead, but opens up in water, and becomes green
and thrifty even after years. The most peculiar growth is that which is
called the loco plant. It comes out in the early spring before the grass
sprouts, and when cattle eat it a species of insanity seizes them. It
affects horses in the same way, and the plainsmen describe the mania by

A good many
millions of
acres that cost
lis a great
many millions
of dollars.

Private enter-
prise is taking
the matter in
hand.

A MISSION WINDOW, SAN ANTONIO.

Herbage
peculiar to the
Texas plains.

J :rr

1 5^ I

«>\ '

SOME F'OINTS 1!V THE WAV. 7-3

saying they see gliosis. The sympionis indicate a sort of liallucination,
such as the inebriate is seized with when we say he has dehrium tremens."

".Sabinal will be the seat of an imi)ortant enterprise some day," remarked sabinai, 642

^1 ,, , , , . , , . „. ^ -1 r 1' 1 miles west of

the Lolonel. as the tram passed that station. " r ifty miles from here there are New Orleans,
very extensive deposits of a high grade of kaoline. Several thousand dol- and asphalt
lars have already been spent by St. Louis parties in prospecting and opening
it, and tho' the rough and mountainous country in which it is situated,
and its remoteness from railroads, are discouraging factors, I look for its
]3roritat)le development in the future. Four miles from here an asphalt
mine is l)eing opened up. The whole country is full of this valuable min-
eral, and it is only a (luestion of time when it will be profitably worked. I
also understand that silver-bearing ore has been discovered in paying cjuan-
tities near the town."

" In reference to the arid lands we were talking about awhile ago," said the
Growler, as the train drew up to the station of Uvalde, twenty-three miles
beyond Sabinal, " I am reminded of a big irrigating project which is now
approaching completion here. The Uvalde Irrigation, Manufacturing and
Water Co., of which Capt. B. F. Buzard is president, owns 25,000 acres of uvaidesbig
land lying north and south of the Southern Pacific track between the scheme.
Nueces River on the west and the Leona River on the east. Like all the
land in this part of Texas, the soil is very fertile. The irrigation scheme
contemplates the drawing of water from the Nueces River at a point on
the hills about twenty miles north of the town. The river there, tho' for
the most part fed from great springs, presents all the aspects of a mountain
torrent, having a fall of about twenty feet to the mile. Here a dam has
been built, and through cement-lined canals and wooden flumes the water
is carried over the land. There is water enough available to irrigate more
than 80,000 acres. Assuming that one cubic foot of water per second will Millions in

1 1 • • 1 /- 1 tr. • ) water and

irrigate 350 acres, and that it is worth for that purpose $1,000 per miners homes forthe
inch, or $50,000 per cubic foot as estimated in California, the present com- ^^
pany at one-fifth of this estimate will be able to supply $2,500,000 worth of
water per annum. Their plan is to sell their irrigated lands in small par-
cels to actual settlers, and I regard it as one of the methods which are so
important to the development of our country."

"All these places have something more than local interest," chimed in cune, 6S2 miles

1-1 1 XT 1 • ,,■ r ■ .1-1 T ■ . • west of New

the Cohjnel. " Now, here is Cline, for instance. 1 o the ordinary tourist it Orleans;

1 ,• T^-i r • ^ ' ^ ■ ^ ^ elevation 1,007

does not suggest anything. But it is the seat of a very important interest, feet, its new
The Litho-Carbon Rubber Co., whose stock is chiefly held by New York """'^''^ •
capitalists, owns some 17,000 acres of land five and a half miles southeast
of the station. This land contains vast deposits of a new mineral discov-
ered four years ago, and called by the geological department at Washington
Litho-Carl)on. The company has expended upwards of $200,000 in the

THROUGH STORVLAND TO SUNSET SEAS.

The rock gives
forth a paint
compound and
paving
material.

An original
and ingenious
process.

Ho! for Mexico
and its curious
cities and
people.

last couple of years in putting up an extraction plant and mastic works.
The bitumen which is extracted from the rock finds a ready market among
the paint and varnish manufacturers in this country and Europe, and the
present capacity of this plant has recently been increased from fifty tons
per week to eighty tons per day. The company also makes a compound
for rubber and an insulating material for electric wires and electrical
machinery. The mastic plant is a distinct business, the product
being extensively used for laying sidewalks and
roadways in cities. During the past year the
company contracted for several thousand tons t^
put upon the streets of Houston.
The daily capacity of this plant
is fifty tons. The rock deposit
crops up above the soil on the
company's property and is easily
mined, six charges of dynamite
dislodging some 200 tons. In ap-
pearance the rock is similar to
bituminous limestone. The ex-
traction is made with oil, under a
very ingenious process patented by the company. So far as the plant is
concerned it would be a model one in any of our great industrial centers
as well as out here on the Texas plains, for it has its own arc and incan-
descent electric lights, a ten-ton ice plant, comfortable quarters for its sev-
enty-five employes, and every facility for profitably doing business."

Spofford, 705 miles west of New Orleans, is the junction point for
Mexico, the Southern Pacific running a through sleeping car service via
Spofford to the City of Mexico. " It is a most delightful trip," said the
Growler. "The Mexican International is struck at Eagle Pass, and one
goes via Torreon. Coming from the west the tourist takes the Mexican
Central at El Paso. The service throughout is excellent, the roads and
their equipment perfect, and the novelty of the people one meets and the
sights one sees are a large reward for the small cost and additional time
consumed. It's a wonder to me that more of our people do not make the
tour through Mexico, where so much that is quaint and interesting invites
them. At every station one sees groups of natives full of picturesqueness.
The landscape is a great pleasure, for even the flat-topped mountains are
different from anything we have, and the old towns with their domed cathe-
drals are like cities in Palestine."

CARRIERS OF THE COUNTRY.

CHAPTER XI.

DEL RIO AND THE GREAT SPRINGS OF SAN FELIPI DEVIL's RIVER CA5fON

A HUNTING STORY THE FORTITUDE OF A MEXICAN TEAMSTER.

" ir~\EL RIO !" said the Girl, " tliat lias a Spanish sound."
J__>/ "I like the old name of the place best," responded the Colonel; Del Rio, 741

T^,--rTii iri- 1 t r niiles west of

"it was San relipi. 1 here are some wonderful springs a mile northeast of New Orleans,
the town. They burst from the foot of low, rocky hills, and so great is springs^of san
their flow that, besides furnishing water for the town and the railroad, for ^ *^*'
ice factory, cotton gins and grist mills, and irrigating 3,000 acres of land,
a great volume runs to waste in a swift, bold stream that flows toward the
Rio Grande. There are abundant deposits of red and yellow ochre a mile
east of town, and a thorough geological survey will doubtless reveal other
mineral wealth."

"The system of irrigation here proves what can be done in this soil and what can be
climate," remarked the Growler. "Something like 8,000 or 10,000 acres getwateron°"
are in cultivation. The soil is a rich loam and produces all sorts of fruits, '^"'^°' '
vegetables and grains. I have seen sixty bushels of corn, or one and a half
bales of cotton, or four hundred bushels of potatoes grown to the acre. It
is a great grape district, the Lenore or Black Spanish grape flourishing with
almost unexampled luxuriance, producing as high as 20,000 pounds to
the acre. A great deal of wine is made here, and sells at $1.00 per gallon
when new."

"Isn't there a mineral spring hereabouts, too?" I asked.

"Yes," said the Growler, " on the southern limits of the town there is a a spring for
famous mineral well, of which Prof. Everhart made the following statement : thenItionf.°
' So far as my own experience goes, there is only one sulphur water in the
state that possesses all the qualities of a first-class water, and that is
one found at Del Rio. This water stood for over six weeks in my labora-
tory without losing appreciably any of its properties. Taking everything
into consideration, it stands at the head of any sulphur water found in the
United States, and is probably equal to any found elsewhere in the world."

" I never think of Del Rio without recalling the hunting story that Duval oneof Dmai
West, of San Antonio, tells. West is as truthful as most lawyers, and I really yarns^ "" '"^
think he believes this," .said the Colonel. " He says that a couple of years
ago a party, of which he was one, went by way of Del Rio for a hunting

THROUGH STORYLAND TO SUNSET SEAS.

trip into Mexico. Their chosen ground was on the Sabinas River, eighty-
miles south of this point, where deer, turkey and the wild Mexican hog are
plentiful. A very wealthy New Orleans cotton broker, whom we will call
Jones because that was not his name, was in the party. After leaving Del
Rio, they traveled for two days over a very dry and dusty plain. There was
not a tree in sight and scarcely a blade of grass. The cotton broker lost
heart, and said to Comstock, an Englishman who was in the party, and who
X had never been known to kill anything,
AT^^ 'Comstock, I'll bet vou ,.-^"

ON MILAM SQU.\KE, SAN ANTUNIO.

Took big odds $i,500-00 to $i.oo that you do not shoot a deer to-morrow.' The bet was of
sport!^''* ^ course taken. Then J(^nes said to ancjther meml)er of the party who was a
fairly good sportsman, ' T will bet you $i,ogo.oo to $i.oo that you don't kill a
deer to-morrow,' and to ^^'est, '1 will bet you !Jj!5oo.oo to $r.oo that you do not
kill a tleer to-morrow.' 'J'hese bels were taken, and to the guide who was a
famous shot, and who hatl been talking a great deal about the superb turkey
sht)Oting, he said, 'I will bet you |tioo.oo to $i.oo you don't get a turkey.'
That night they reached the hunting grounds, and bright and earlv the next
morning each member of the party went forth, determined, if possible, to win
the big purses hung up as incentives to success. West said that after tramp-
ing for five or six miles he got a good shot at a doe at one hundred yards,
took deliberate aim and blazed away. The doe fell and disappeared over a
little swale in the ground. Confident that he had killed it he walked up
leisurely only to find when he reached the place that the wounded animal
had escaped. That was llie oiil)- shot that he got that day. Comstock fired
point-blank at a deer at sixty yards and missed it. He protested that if it
had not been for the nervousness produced by the consciousness of the bet,
he would have killed his game ; but he matle a clean miss. The other
member of the ]')arty got a good shot at a deer but also missed. The guide

West was sure
he was a
winner.

DKVIL S RIVER CANON.

was the only one who did not see any game, so that tho' they killed plenty of
deer and turkey during every other day of their stay, Jones who stood to
lose over $3,000.00 as against a winning of $4.00, took in all tiie bets."

Six miles beyond Del Rio the roatl enters a cutting and begins to skirt
the bank of the Rio (Irande. At times the waters of the river wash the
siielf of stone upon which the track is laid. On the right the great wall of
gray rock rises in castellated turrets, sometimes projecting in roof-like
masses that overhang the track. Here and there, from the cavernous
mouths of caves, great tlocks of swallows and bats issue forth as the train
clatters by. With affrighted cries they circle about for a time and then
retreat into the dark and mysterious recesses again. Off to the left arc the
misty blue mountains of Mexico. Here the two republics confront each
other belligerently and with the menace of stern granite walls, while between
the placid river flows. Ten miles beyond, and Devil's River, an affluent of
the Rio Grande, is crossed. Its crystal clear waters abound in trout that
tempt the sportsmen. After crossing the river the train runs through
Seminole Cave Caiion. Here again the great primeval rocks rise like the
buttressed walls of a castle in Lombardy. They are honeycombed with
caves, the interior walls of which are daubed in places with paint and

But Jones took
in all the
purses.

Caves on the
banks of the
Rio Grande.

X good place
for scientists
and ,\paches.

ON THE SAN .ANIOMO l<l\ IK

marked by indecipherable hieroglyphics. In these caves the roaming l)ands
of Apaches once sought shelter when too closely pursued by the troops, and
were wont to lie in secure hiding while the soldiers were mystified bv their
sudden disappearance.

When Comstock is reached, the Santa Rosa Mountains can be seen, The
towering blue and bold, seventy miles away in Mexico. Here one begins Mountains*

THE FORTITUDE OF A MEXICAN TEAMSIER.

to realize the purity and rarity of the atmosphere on these high plains. How the eye is

The eye acquires a power lost to it in other latitudes. That hill over there

is thirty miles away, but you would aver that it was only five at most. To

the foot of those bluffs is twenty miles, but if you relied upon vision you

would say you could walk to them in half an hour. Continuallv one is

deceived by this foreshortening of distance.

" We start upon a trip from New Orleans to San Francisco with indifference The old stage
now." said the Growler, "but it was very different when I used to go over the continent,
the route before the railway was built. I have crossed here when the stage
line was in operation, and it followed a route but a few miles north of the
road at this point. We had six and eight mule teams and covered the six

LOOKING OVER THE BUSINESS PAK

AXTONIO, TEXAS.

hundred and thirty miles from San Antonio to El Paso in six days, which
was not slow for that mode of conveyance. The fare per passenger was
i$4o.oo, and he carried his own life insurance, an extra-hazardous policy for
the insurance companies, too, for the Apaches made things lively. You can
imagine how a man felt after six days and nights in a stage. Why. he could
fall down and sleep anywhere."

"It was a little expensive traveling, too; was it not ?" I inquired.

"The last time I came that way," replied the Growler, "was on the
eastern trip. It was by sea from San Francisco to Santa Monica, $14.00;
thence to Los Angeles by rail, $1.00; from Los Angeles to Yuma by rail,
$23.00. There I took the old Southern Pacific mail stage line of Kerens
and Mitchell to Mesilla, N. M., and by way of Tucson and El Paso to San
Antonio, the total fare by stage being something over $200.00."

THROUGH STORYLAND TO SUNSET SEAS.

The Pecos
bridge, one of
the highest in
the world.

Patty and her
mustang.

Let his arm be
burned off
and never
whimpered.

The Pecos bridge, one of the most remarkable structures of the kind in
the world, is crossed just beyond Comstock. Its long steel spans, the mid-
dle one 185 feet in length, look like spider webs against the great depths it
crosses. The bridge is 2,184 f^^t long and 321 feet above the bed of the
river, which far below winds like an azure ribbon through its steep walled
chasm of rock.

Mr. J. R. Moorehouse, a former paymaster of the Pennsylvania Railroad
system, lives on the east bank of the Pecos, and has an extensive sheep
ranch. His young daughter, Patty, used to ride her mustang across the
narrow footway of the bridge, a feat so perilous that the railway company
finally put up a wire fence to prevent the hazardous undertaking.

"One of the most superb evidences of fortitude took place in Howard's
Well Caiion. forty miles north of here, in 1S76," said the Colonel, musingly.
"The occasion was one of those plains tragedies which were all too frequent
up to that date. A long Mexican wagon train was making its way north-
ward when it was attacked by Apaches in Howard's Well Canon. The men
were overpowered and most of them killed, the survivors tied to the wagon
wheels, and the train rifled and the wagons set on fire. Only one man escaped
to tell the story — a Mexican teamster, who had been shot through the breast.
As he lay upon the ground feigning death, an Apache brave, who was going
about convincing himself that the slaughter was complete, kicked him
toward the fire. The Mexican's hand fell among the blazing embers. To
have moved would have been to have invited death, and he lay there and
let his hand and arm shrivel to a cinder. When the Indians rode away he
crawled for ten miles to a ranch and told the storv of disaster."

CHAPTER XII.

ROY BEAN OF LANGTRY "THE LAW WEST OF THE PECOS " A PLAINSMAN

WHO RULES WITHOUT REGARD TO STATUTE.

HE train drew up to the little station where a big brown tank awaited Langtry, 806
to refresh the thirsty engine. The conductor said we would have Ne"orie™ns.

ten minutes, and we stepped out on the platform. The stony hills swept
away on the right and left, opening before us into narrow valleys toward
which the shining rails led. Half-encircling the little group of houses was
the deep Canon of the Rio . Grande, a precipitous cleft

in the ground, where y\

THE ARSENAL, SAN ANTONIO, TEXAS.

the walls have a sheer fall of two hundred feet from the level of the mesa to
the bed of the river. Across to the right, fifty yards away, was a low,
broad, white frame building, with a shaky veranda in front and a roof that
sloped flatly to the eaves. A big black bear, in an iron-barred cage, paced
restlessly to and fro. Over the front of the saloon, for such it was, a big
sign flaunted, bearing the legend, "The Jersey Lily."

"Well," said the Girl, deliberately, as she cast her eye over the landscape
and finally fixed them on the little cluster of houses ; " it would be hard to
find anything of interest about this place."

The Colonel chuckled and replied: "This is one of the most interesting The home of
points on the line. It is the home of one of the most original characters of^theprc^^*

THROUGH STORYLAND TO SUNSET SEAS.

Pen picture
the "Jedge.

A recital of
frontier life.

the frontier has given birth to — Roy Bean, by courtesy and reason of his
office called the Judge, and known throughout Texas as 'The law west
of the Pecos.' There he is now."
of A rather stout man of perhaps si.xty years came out of the door of

•' The Jersey Lily " and stood upon the porch watching the train. He was of
medium height. As he took off an old sombrero a splendidly shaped head,
covered with an unkempt shock of gray hair, was visible. His bearded face
was kindly, and had manifestly been handsome in his early manhood. He
wore a check shirt open at the throat and a pair of trousers supported by a
single suspender.

" Take a good look at the Judge," said the Growler, affectionately; " you
will never see another man like him."

When we had resumed our seats and the train was speeding on, I
reminded the Colonel of his promise to tell us something of Judge Bean,
and he answered :

"The whole story of Roy Bean's life is a recital of frontier exploit. It
seems far away to us because the times that made it possible have passed
forever. No quainter, __— — — — __ more original or self-
assertive ^..-^ — ~~~"~-— <.^ character

rL.VZA, S.\N A^•TONIO, TEXAS.

ever lived, and none who has drawn a larger stock of common sense f-rom the
hard school of experience. In the history of the southwest frontier he will fill
an important niche. Roy is a Kentuckian, born in 1829, but moving to
Independence, Missouri, soon after. When sixteen he made a trip to Santa
Fe, and in 1846 went into Mexico with General Donaphan. From then on,
for forty years, his life was one of wild adventure. How he was first

ROY BEAN OF LANGTRY. 83

arrested for shooting a Mexican, who tried to rob his brother's store in
Chihuahua, his novel-Hke adventures in El Paso, Tucson and other points,
would fill a book. Finally after running a gambling saloon and dance
house in 1850-51, at San Gabriel Mission, near Los Angeles, and selling
whisky at the Peno Alto mines in Arizona, he drifted back to Texas, and
during the war freighted cotton from Allerton, the terminus of the first
little railroad in the state, to Lodi, Eagle Pass and Brownsville, bringing opened a
on his return trips supplies for the Confederate government. When the bec°a°me^a
Southern Pacific was being built across these plains he was prompted to open p"ace^° * ^
a saloon and follow the camps. He first located at a place east of the
Pecos, to which he gave the name of Vinegerone. Here he piled up rock
walls, stretched a canvas awning across for a roof and sold whisky to the
thirsty laborers. Here, too, he began his celebrated judicial career. Gam-
blers flocked in and there was so much shooting and such a rapid increase
in the population of the little cemetery, that the contractor in charge of
the works wrote to Governor Ireland and had Roy commissioned as a jus-
tice of the peace, and a company of rangers detailed to assist him. From
then on Roy's course was marked by those extraordinary decisions which
are notorious, and I have sat by the hour, and the Growler there has, too,
and listened to Roy tell about them, while we shook with laughter at each
ludicrous result."

"Tell us some of them," I said; "I should like to know by what pro-
cesses the Judge has achieved such fame."

" Tell the Chinaman story," said the Colonel, turning to the Growler.

"When there were six thousand Chinamen working along here building Found no
the road," was the response, " it was pretty difficult to hold them in check. nmd'eVa^*
They were divided off into gangs and over each of these subdivisions there chTnaman.*"*
was a white boss. One day the Chinamen in one gang made an assault upon
the foreman, who retaliated by shooting and killing a Celestial. Another
white employe, who had a pique at the man who had done the killing, pre-
ferred a charge against him before Justice Roy Bean. The rangers were
sent out and duly arrested him. That afternoon a large party of white
men from the camp, heavily armed, rode over and demanded an immediate
trial of the prisoner, their intention being to release him in the event the
court did not. Roy told them that the inquiry would be held the next
afternoon, and invited them to picket their horses and to make themselves
at home in the meantime. They proceeded to do so, with the expected
result that they spent a great deal of money in Roy's saloon. The next
day that able jurist convened court, and taking his position on the counter
in his saloon, where he always sits v/hile conducting the trial of a case,
announced with great dignity that he had carefully studied the statutes but
that the most diligent search failed to show that it was a crime to kill a

THROUGH STORYLAND TO SUNSET SEAS.

Fined a dead
man for

carrying

concealed

■weapons.

Didn't mind
divorcing;
people, either.

Chinaman; that if any one could show him where it was made a misdemeanor
to take the life of a Chinaman he would hold the accused, but that otherwise
he should be compelled to discharge him — and discharge him he did."

*' He rendered a verdict at a coroner's inquest which is also historic,"
said the Colonel. "While the Pecos bridge was in course of construction,
one of the men fell from it and was killed. Roy was summoned to view
the remains, and in examining the person of the deceased to find possible
clews to his identity, he discovered a small revolver and a time-check for
$40.00 which was
good to bearer. The
Judge impaneled a
jury, who listened to
the evidence a n d
promptly brought in
a verdict of acci-

LOOKING OVKR THE CITY AND THE BEACH AT
CORPUS CHRISTI, TEXAS.

denial death. The
spectators started
to disperse, but Roy
called them to order,
and said: ' This is
not all, gentlemen.
The deceased came
to his death by accident, but there is another matter to be attended to.
I find upon the body a revolver and forty dollars. Now it is contrary to
the laws of Texas, and to the peace and dignity of the state, to carry con-
cealed weapons. I therefore confiscate the pistol and fine the deceased forty
dollars for this breach of law.' and he coolly pocketed the proceeds, and
laughs about it to this day."

" I never remember but one instance where the Judge's decisions brought
him into conflict with the higher authorities," remarked the Growler. "He
had married two Mexican couples- — and, by the way, in all this region they
won't have anybcKly but him perform the ceremony. In a month or two
they came back, and said they could not agree and wanted to 'swap ' wives.
Roy listened to the recital of their marital woes, and then with a pretense

THE LAW WEST OF THE PECOS.

of some sort of ceremony declared them divorced. Then he collected $15.00
from each released husband and they started away, the women simply
changing protectors and evidently designing to cling to the new spouse.
But Roy called them back and declared that this would not do ; that it was
contrary to law, and that they must be remarried under the new assign-
ment. He performed the double ceremony and charged each one an The higher
additional $5.00. When Judge T. A. Falvey of El Paso, who is upon the approve,
bench of this judicial district, heard of the affair, he wrote to Roy and
said, ' It is all right this time, but, for God's sake, don't divorce any more
couples.' "

" I used to know a young telegraph operator who was employed at
Langtry," continued the Growler, "and once he got into trouble with a
Mexican citizen, and apprehending that Roy did not like him and might fix a
severe punishment, hurriedly left for Sanderson, v-j^^fe*. The Mexi-
can swore out a warrant, but the guilty party
was gone. Roy strolled down to the agent and /*^

APPROACH TO SPANISH PASS, TEXAS.

asked him what had become of the operator. He told him he had fled Roy refuses to
for fear of punishment. 'Pshaw,' said Roy, 'have him come back, I'll take wlrranJ^*^
care of him.' The young fellow reappeared the next day and the Mexican
at once sought out Roy and demanded his arrest, but that dignitary gravely
informed him that the first warrant having been returned unsatisfied, the
constable not being able to serve it, a second warrant could not be issued,
as the law declared that a man could not twice be put in jeopardy of his
life. Another of the Judge's favorite and profitable methods of inflicting

THROUGH STORYLAND TO SUNSET SEAS.

His favorite
punishment is
popular with
the natives.

Roy are bitter rivals

But he insists
that the guilty
shall buy their
beer of him.

The Judge
enjoys the
joke, too.

punishment is to fine the convicted party, where the offense is not grave, a
couple of dozen bottles of beer, which, of course, are bought and paid for
on the spot at the rate of fifty cents each. There is a Mexican by the name
of Torreone who runs an opposition saloon in Langtry, and naturally he and

Some time ago Torreone
was arrested by a fellow-
citizen whom he had as-
saulted. He demanded
a trial by jury, and
after a good deal of
effort enough men
were mustered
up to compose
the panel.
When the evi-
dence was all in
they deliber-
ated for some
time and finally
returned a ver-
dict of guilty,
and fixed the
fine at two doz-
en bottles of
beer. Elated
at getting off so
easily the prisoner
sprang up and said,
'AH right, boys,
come over to my
place and have the
beer.' 'No you
don't,' responded
Judge Bean,
promptly and firm-
ly. 'The_ fines im-
posed in this yere court are paid right here, and don't you forget it,' and he
compelled the discomfited Torreone to patronize his bar, and pay the full
retail price, too."

"There are a hundred incidents of this kind I could relate," said the
Colonel meditatively, "and all of them have the advantage of being abso-
lutely true. Absurd as they seem, and as they are, they are based upon

JUDGE ROY BEAN OF LANCTRY, TEXAS.
"THK LAW WKST OF TIIK PECOS."

RULES WITHOUT REGARD TO STATUTE.

the same principles of law that actuated Solomon — good common sense.

Roy Bean's court is a product of the country, and his decisions are adapted

to the necessities of the life about him. Nobody enjoys the recital of these

legal comedies more than Roy himself, and the twinkle in his eye as he

quaintly narrates them shows his own keen appreciation of humor. One of

the best stories of Roy Bean's early career is told by Major Horace Bell, in

his book entitled 'Reminiscences of a Ranger,' published some fifteen years

ago, and dealing with the California life of the 50's. At that time Roy

was running his saloon at the San Gabriel Mission, and it was one of the

toughest of its class. On one Sunday some three thousand people had

gathered around the old Mission to amuse themselves in various ways. The

list of amusements included a horse race, monte games and cock fights. It

was a rough assemblage, the most of the crowd being Americans, all des- An incident

perate fellows, who cared nothing for killing a man. While the celebration iife^*^^'^^

was at its height a smooth-faced young man, of exceedingly polite and

graceful demeanor, rode up. dismounted and entered the saloon kept by

Roy. The new comer leaned against the bar and carelessly surveved the
scene. While quietly looking on he was roughly accosted by a ruffianly
looking man, who, taking a position directly in front of the young fellow,
and surveying him from head to foot, said, with a contemptuous grin :

" 'Well, whar in hell did you come from?'

" ' I ! ' replied the young man in a pleasant voice , ' why, I just arrived
from Los Angeles.'

" 'You weren't raised thar, war ye?' asked the bully.

" ' No ; I came from New York.'

" ' I jest don't know whar New York is ; I reckon it's way up north some-
whar, whar you pries the sun up with a hand-spike.'

RULES WITHOUT REGARD TO STATUTE.

'"The sun never sets in New York,' was the response.

''The quiet demeanor of the young man enraged the bully, and he be- The wiidwoif
came still more overbearing, declaring himself to be the 'Wild Wolf of the Arkansas.
Arkansas.'

'" I was the bloodiest man in the Cherokee Nation,' said he; 'lama
half-breed Cherokee, I am, and I belong to the Ridge party. I killed three
Mexicans on my way out here. I killed a soldier at Fort Yuma, and I have

been here three weeks and ain't killed anybody yet. I'm going to give He announces

J ■> -I o o jjjg intention to

these Mexicans a chance to have a funeral, and if you open your mouth do some killing
I'll kill you.'

" 'Please, sir, don't bury me alive,' said the young man, ironically.
" ' Be keerful, stranger ; I shoot, cut and kill, I do.'
"Roy was watching the proceedings from behind the bar. His sympa-
thies were all with the young man, and quietly slipping up to him he placed
a small derringer in his hand. The youth turned his hand so as to secrete the
weapon, and when the bully again continued his insulting remarks and
threats he coolly looked at him, and said :

"'You are not dangerous, and I don't think you will hurt me.'
"This caused the storm to break forth, and the bully jumped up, and,
cracking his heels, cried out to the crowd :

THROUGH STORYLAND TO SUNSET SEAS.

The youth did
not seem
alarmed.

But found he
had struck
the wrong
tenderfoot.

And the cigar
goes up his
proboscis.

" 'Get out of the way, I'm going to shoot.'

"A general rush was made for the doors, and, as the desperado reached
to draw his pistol, the young man with a quick movement placed the barrel
of the derringer, which he had been holding in his hand, against the breast
of the bully, and said in a firm tone :

" ' My dear sir, hold up your hands, or I will kill you.'

"The bully found that he had met his master, and mechanically obeyed
the command.

" ' Now,' said the young man, * unbuckle that belt and let your six-shooter
fall,' which command was obeyed without a murmur.

"'Now take a position at that corner of the room,' continued the young
fellow, pointing to the place indicated. The cowed bully obeyed, and his
conqueror picked up the six-shooter and calling for a cigar quietly lighted
it. The crowd was watching the scene with mute wonder. After thoroughly
lighting the cigar, keeping a drop on the bully all the time, he walked up
to his cowed victim, and thrusting the pistol in his face, said :

" ' Hold your hands behind your back : I'm going to stick the fiery end
of this cigar in your nose, and you must let it remain until it goes out. If
you flinch or attempt to take it out, I'll make a funeral for these Mexicans.'

"This threat was put into execution, and stepping back to the bar, the
young hero said :

"'Gentlemen, resume your games ; there will be no further trouble,' still
keeping a deadly aim on the bully.

"'My name is Joe Stokes, and I can whip any man in California who
don't like me. I like to lay for such soft snaps as 'The Wild Wolf of the
Arkansas.' '

"The young hero then went out, and mounting his horse, rode off amid
the wild cheers of the crowd. This was a brother of Ed Stokes of New
York."

CHAPTER XIII

FROxM LANGTRY TO EL PASO, WITH SOME PASSING COMMENT UPON THE

NATURAL AND HISTORIC POINTS ON THE WAY TRAGEDIES

OF THE BORDER A WOMAN's HEROISM, ETC.

ROM Langtry to El Paso every foot of the way seemed to suggest The landscape
something of romantic interest connected with the pioneer Hfe of the westernTexas.

country to the Colonel or to the Growler. The wide sweep of verdure-clad
or barren landscape, the rugged near-by butts or far-off blue chains of
towering mountains, the presence of a frontier fort, with its trim buildings

lAlsAI.NO r.\^S. .SUMMIT UT' 1 lU, .sLNbl.l KUUIL..

and flying colors, everything revived incidents that added an element of
acute interest to the journey.

" They have all the train robberies up north now, but we used to have a
few down here in the early days of lawlessness," said the Colonel when we
reached Samuels. "The train robbers soon gave up the business though,
because through this part of the country it was too easy to catch them."

"I should think they could get away very readily on these great plams
and among these mountain fastnesses," I said.

'' Not at all," was the reply. " Throughout all this country the presence Men become

. , .,',.., skilled in the

of a Stranger creates comment, and every movement is closely scrutinized art of
by a people given to the most minute observation. The man himself, the
clothes he wears, his accoutrements and the horse he rides — every peculiar-
ity is made mental note of. Thus it is easy to trace him. Cattlemen and

THROUGH STORYLAND TO SUNSET SEAS.

Windy Smith
taken by
surprise.

A wild chase
after the
bandits.

prospectors are always wandering about on the plains or in the mountains,
and the solitary life they lead develops an acuteness of observation and a
shrewdness of deduction which would put a detective to the blush. Now a
bold hold-up occurred just a mile east of Samuels a few years ago Horse-
shoes were placed on the track, and when the engine began bumping over
them, of course the engineer put on the brakes. The bandits raided the
express car where 'Windy' Smith was in charge. 'Windy' was a brave
fellow, and had killed two robbers who attacked his car the year before ;
but he was taken by surprise, and his safe relieved of $3,600. He was so
chagrined that he resigned at once and left the service of the Wells-Fargo
Co. Immediately after securing the booty the men, John Flynt, Jack Wel-
lington, Tom Fields and Jim Lansford, fled across the Rio Grande. Pur-
sued by a party of rangers under Capt. Frank Jones, they recrossed, bury-
ing the money at a camp near BuUis Crossing. The chase lasted some
three weeks, and finally the robbers were overtaken in the spurs of the Sra.
Charrote Mountains in Crockett county. A running fight took place.
Flynt, the leader, had declared that , . he would never be taken alive and

INTERIOR OF THE OLD INDIAN CHURCH AT YSLETA, TEXAS.

refused to surrender. His horse was shot under him, and as he fell to the
ground a bullet struck him in the heart. Raising himself on his elbow as
he lay dying upon the ground, he put his own pistol to his headland blew
out his brains. He was buried where he fell. Wellington's horse was shot
under him and he dodged behind a rock. Twice he leveled his pistol and
took aim at Jones, who dashed in pursuit of him, but each time he dropped
the weapon without firing, saying afterwards that ' tho' a robber and a
thief, ht' was not a murderer and could not take life.' The three men were

A WOMAN S HEROISM.

captured, and are now serving life sentences in the United States peniten-
tiary at Detroit. There was a mystery about the robbery which has never
been cleared up. The footprints of five men and five horses were found.
One of the human footprints showed a very small foot. Lansford, who
turned state's evidence, protested that there were only four in the gang, but
the rangers hold to this day that there was a fifth person who, for some
unknown reason, was shielded and escaped."

" Marathon is another place with a history," remarked the Colonel.
" Bv the wav, thev have struck some

Capture of the
robbers by the
rangers.

Marathon, 939
miles from
New Orleans ;
altitude, 4,042
feet.

N ,i,{t.'.x miohtv rich silver mines

^^'*^-.-- ; in Mexico, about eighty miles

southwest of here. The ore

THK RIO GRANDE AT EL PASO. l T-> •

IS brought across the Rio
Grande at Boquells, by team to Marathon, shipped thence in bond to Eagle
Pass, and from there to Monterey where it is smelted."

" But that isn't the history, is it, papa ? " asked the Girl.

" No, the story I had in mind deals with the courage and devotion of a Thestor>'ot

a woman s

woman," replied the Colonel. "W. T. Henderson, who formerly lived here, courage and

1 1-1 11- rr.1 devotion.

was extensively engaged in the stock business. 1 here was great temptation
to smuggle cattle or horses across the Rio Grande, because, while steers in
this country might be worth $20.00 a head, in Mexico they could be bought
for six or seven dollars. It was the same with horses. There was a duty
of something like $15.00 a head, and a man was making money pretty fast
who could run them over without encountering the custom-house authorities.
The river forms the frontier for 1,300 miles, and while the revenue officers
and river guard are vigilant and brave, there are not enough of them to
form an effectual cordon. In October, 1893, Henderson was arrested for
having eighty-seven head of smuggled horses in his possession. I should
not like to say, of course, that he knew they were smuggled, but anyhow
he was sentenced to two years in Kings county prison in New York. Just

94 THROUGH STORVLAND TO SUNSET SEAS.

before his conviction at El Paso for the offense referred to, his wife was the
heroine of a remarkable exploit. She had been a school teacher in Mara-
shewas thon before her marriage, and in addition to being a bright and cultivated

agun. ^ ^* woman, was very 'handy,' as they say hereabouts, with a Winchester. Hen-
derson and one of his Mexican cowboys were on the other side of the river,
herding some cattle, when thirteen soldiers of the sister republic, detailed
to protect certain American ranchmen there, who were enemies of Hender-
son, made an atack upon that gentleman, and drove him into a canon in
the mountains. Here the pursued held the soldiers at bay for a time, but
finding his ammunition running low, the vaquero slipped out, evaded the
soldiers, and rode to Marathon, where he notified Mrs. Henderson of the
situation. The Mexican was too much exhausted to return, and she took
Anightrideoi a supply of ammunition and started alone to her husband's rescue. She
the rescue. " rode the eighty miles, mostly by night, joined her husband, and together
they fought and put to flight the thirteen soldiers, and escaped to their
home."
The summit of From Paisano to Marfa the road runs through the beautiful Le Sano
Route.^gs^t Pass of the Santa del Muerto Mountains for fourteen miles. Paisano is the

New^oHeans. summit of the Sunsct Route, glorying in an altitude of 5,082 feet. The
whole pass varies but little from this high altitude. On either hand the
precipitous bluffs rise at an acute angle thirteen hundred feet higher.
Their steep sides are covered with a dense growth of live oaks that makes
a shimmering carpeting of living green all the year. The scenery is
In the Van exquisitc throughout the entire distancc. From Marfa to Sierra Blanca —
ey. ,.jjj.^g^y miles — the line follows the great Van Home Valley. The spurs of
the Eagle Mountains are on the left — the Caresas or Santa del Muerto's
on the right — and the valley, maintaining an average width of twenty
miles, is as level as a floor, the elevation above the sea being 4,512 feet at
the highest point and 4,012 at the lowest. The soil is as fertile as any in
the world, but the absence of water makes it unproductive. At Fay, almost
A deep well. midway of the valley, the Southern Pacific sank a well to a depth of 2,012
feet, but secured even then a very indifferent flow of the much sought fluid.
This is the favorite grazing ground of the antelope, and often herds of them
can be seen from the car window.
Sierra Blanca. "Sierra Blanca, just east of which is the monument marking the 120th

and the murder . ,. . , , . . i ■ i . i i • • i 11

of Howard. meridian of west longitude, is associated with the historic tragedy which
culminated with the mas.sacre of Charley Howard and others, in December,
1877," remarked the (Irowler. "It was an atrocity that will never be for-
gotten throughout all this region. Howard had achieved a good deal of
distinction and had been judge of the Twentieth judicial district. He had
necessarily incurred political and other enmities. His bitterest enemy was
a prominent Italian named Cardise, who had defeated him as delegate to the

TRAGEDIES OF THE BORDER.

constitutional convention of 1876. Their animosity culminated in a shoot-
ing affray in Schut's store, in El Paso, in which Cardise was killed. This
would not have aroused the populace of the country had it not been for
another circumstance. North of Sierra Blanca are extensive salt lakes to
which the Mexicans had been in the habit of resorting for generations.
Howard had acquired control of the adjacent property and objected to the
natives running over it. They were very bitter ^^■^^SmSSP^-^ on this

account. After the killing of Cardise, Howard x^:ya^'^ <?^-y-g^??gi|^»^\ went
to Mexico for a time, and when he
returned on his way to attend court at
Fort Davis, he learned, after passing
San Elizario, that a large party of Mexi-
cans had assembled for the purpose of
waylaying him. He turned back to San
Elizario, which we will pass twenty
miles east of El Paso, and sought the
protection of a company of rangers
stationed there. The Mexicans pur-
sued Howard, and gathered in the town
five or six hundred strong. Howard and
the rangers retreated to the corral and
held their assailants at bay for four or
five days, a desultory fight being kept up
all the time. During this time Charley
Ellis, a resident of the place who had
not retreated to the corral, was caught, interior of the old church at juarez.
killed and his body thrown into a well where it was found many days after-
ward. At the end of five days communication was established between the
two forces, and on the promise that their lives should be spared the
beleaguered party surrendered. Disregarding their pledge the Mexicans at
once proceeded to a viva-voce trial of their prisoners to determine whether
they should be executed or not. The verdict in Howard's case, the first one
to be tried, was death, and he was immediately led to a stone wall and
ridtlletl witli bullets. A Mexican named Desedario Appadoca sprang forward
as he fell, and placing his bare foot upon the dead man's breast, aimed a
blow at his throat with a macheta for the purpose of cutting his head off, but
the stroke was misdirected, and Appadoca's great toe was cut off instead.
John McBride was the next man tried. When he surrendered the Mexicans
had taken $1 1,000 which was in his possession. He was condemned to death,
and after being jeered at when he reminded them of the promised protec-
tion, he indignantly exclaimed: 'Shoot, then, damn you, and shoot high.'
The shots from the first volley struck him in the abdomen, and he called

Shot his
political
antagonist

Brought to
bay at San
Elizario.

Imposing the
death sentence
by popular
vote.

" Shoot, damn
you, and shoot
high."

THE TRAGEDIES OF THE 1U)RDER. 97

out: 'Shoot higher, you infernal cowards.' The next volley piercetl his
breast, but as he lay upon the ground, torn by a score of bullets, he raised
himself a little and pointed to his head. A blaze of rifles followed, and at
last he was dead. Charlie Atkinson was next shot to death, and then, sick
of the cruel slaughter, the Mexican leader checked his atrocious followers,
and declared that if another life was taken it should be his. The Mexicans
dispersed soon after, most of them crossing to their native soil, and though
several hundred indictments were returned none of the murderers were
ever brought to trial."

"Oh, how horrible!" said the Girl. "And do these awful things happen yet ?"
"Oh, no," replied the Growler; "they belong to the past of the country. They belong to
before society had become organized. This was the history of all new ^^^ o"?ago.
countries. To-day life is as safe in Texas as anywhere, and a man can
travel all over it unarmed and secure."

"While we are on the subject," said the Colonel, "it was just fifteen An eariv
miles north of the little station of Fay that the Graham family was mur- massacre
dered by the Victorio band of Apaches in June, 1880. Mr. and Mrs. "^^*^ ^^
Graham were in a wagon train and on their way to Silver City, then in the
heyday of its prosperous boom. They, with their wagons, were cut off
from the rest of the party and killed in Bass' Canon, named after Sam Bass,
a famous Texas outlaw of early days. General Grierson, in command of
the 10th Cavalry, took up the pursuit of the Apaches, and on August 2d
had a fight with them at the eighteen-mile water-hole west of Eagle
Springs. During the night the redskins broke camp and escaped, heading
for the Guadalupe Mountains, in whose fastnesses they would have been
comparatively safe from pursuit. But General Grierson, by a forced night
march, headed them off and drove them across the Rio Grande at Fort
Quitman. A month later the Mexican troops fell upon the band and anni-
hilated them. After the Indians had been tlriven into Mexico, Major J. R.
Livermore, in command of Troop K of the 8th Cavalry, operating with
General Grierson, did some engineering work in this part of Texas, and
among other things measured, in September, 1880, the peak which bears The measuring

, . ^ , .' , . . . . , ,^ • of Livermore's

his name, and which it so conspicuous, towering over against the Quitman Peak.
Mountains, seen beyond Sierra Iilanca. It is the highest on the Sunset
Line, rising to a height of 8,200 feet.

" Here's Malone Station ; come out on the platform, and see the horse-
shoe curve," said the Colonel.

The horseshoe is one of the most remarkable pieces of engineering on The great
this ])art of the road. On the wild sweep of broken and mountain-hemmed curve near
l^laiii it describes an almost complete circle — a ten-degree curve with a one
per cent grade all the way. It is a mile arountl, and after forming the loop
is less than two hundred yards between tracks.

THROUGH STORYLAND TO SUNSET SEAS.

Where the
Mission grape
grows.

Ysleta and its
quaint Indian
population.

A tradition
and an
inference.

For fifty miles on each side of El Paso is a country susceptible, with irri-
gation, of the highest cultivation. It is the natural home of the Mission
grape, which from the peculiarities of soil and atmosphere and climate here
takes on a flavor equaled by no other grown elsewhere. These grapes
were originally brought from Spain by the early Catholic priests, and have
flourished here ever since. Much wine was once made in the region, but
now so great is the demand for the product for table use that almost all are
shipped for that purpose as they ripen. The average altitude of the district

is 3,700 feet, but beside the vine, all varieties of
fruit, including quinces, peaches and pears, grow
to perfection.

At Ysleta, a quaint town of adobe houses set
down in broad green fields and shady orchards, an
ancient irrigating system shows what can be done
with even primitive agricultural methods. Here
lives the remnant of an old tribe of Indians be-
longing to the Pueblos, maintaining their language,
Catholic in their belief, but preserving their ancient
traditions in spite of the innovation in their faith,
and celebrating, with weird rites and spectral
fires upon the mountain tops, the season of harvest
and of sowing. They keep to themselves, and
will take no part in any mining, tho' credited with
a knowledge as to the location of rich and virgin
veins. The story goes that when the Spaniards
conquered Mexico, the forefathers of these Indians
of Ysleta were among the natives who were confined in the silver mines and
compelled to work, ill fed and oppressed by a slavery that was the death of
thousands. After the Spaniards were driven out, the aborigines entered
into a compact never to show a mine to any one nor to work in one them-
selves. They even filled with dirt and rocks the old shafts which were the
scenes of their sufferings, and planted trees and cacti over them to hide all
traces of their existence. And the traveler who looks out of his window at
the bronzed and stolid faces in the fields must wonder whether under those
grim and expressionless features is hidden a memory of their wrongs and
the secret of wealth locked up in the somber hills that buttress- the world
hereabouts.

A NATIVE OF JUAREZ.

CHAPTER XIV.

EL PASO, JUAREZ AND THE GATEWAY TO MEXICO THE MECCA FOR

THE INVALID THE ROMANCE OF ITS EARLY FOUNDING

THE SANTA FE EXPEDITION.

UNDER the shadow of iVIt. Franklin, and with the blue peaks of the
Organ, Hueco and Guadalupe Mountains grimly guarding it on
the north and east, and the Sierra Madre standing like a wall far off to the
south — girdled about by the turbid Rio Grande, and fringed with a scat-
tered tracery of low adobes — El Paso stands as the .«^i»*_
western gateway to Mexico. Across the river is the old
Mexican town of Ciudad Juarez, or Paso del Norte,
as it was set down in the geographies of our boy-
hood. In its ancient church built more than three
hundred years ago, and dedicated now to the Lady
of Guadalupe, the worshipers come and go as they
have for ten generations, kneeling or crouching
picturesquely upon the puncheon floor, in the dim
light and before the tinseled altar with its twink-
ling tapers. On the rude walls are the pictures
of saints, and above is the ceiling of wondrously
carved logs that were carried in on the backs of
burros. Overhead in the squat tower, surmounted
by a tall cross, the clamor of harsh bells rings out,
to be softened into faint melody as the sound is borne to the fields beyond,
where the humble tiller of the soil looks up from his work to reverently
cross himself. Here, for sixty years, Cour Ortiz has said mass and done
good deeds of charity among his simple flock, and with his kindly face will
greet you heartily, if you go that wyy.

There is a wonderland all about El Paso that the uninformed tourist
wots not of. Indeed, it is yet a sealed book, but to the few. To the north
and northeast, in New Mexico, are wild mountam chains with snow-capped
summits, twelve thousand feet in height, clad to the verdure line with the
long-leaf yellow pine, with spruce and cedar, junij^er and oak. Game
abounds, and the swift streams are filled with trout. It is a region wonder-
fully rich in mineral, with vast deposits of gypsum, gold, silver, lead, copper,

El Paso, the
western
gateway to
Mexico, 1,194
miles from
New Orleans.

NOT PRETTY, BUT HE S A
GOOD INDIAN.

Is the ancient
church of
Juarez.

The fruitful
land you do not
see from the
car.

100

THROUGH STORYLAND TO SUNSET SEAS.

Wealth locked
up in the
mountains.

Don't think of
El Paso as a
slow place.

You can have
any kind of
time you want.

nickel, coal, salt, crystalized borax, sulphur, etc. Under the spurs of the
Sacramento Mountains, Tiffany, the New York jeweler, owns a turquois
mine so rich that two men working in it sixty days each year bring to the
surface $25,000.00 worth of the precious stone, and for the rest of the year,
lest the market be overstocked, the mine remains locked up. In the shel-
tered valleys of this region fruits and every field product grow abundantly.
One hundred and twenty-five miles southwest, in the Valley of Corralltas,
in the Sierra Madres, is another region of wealth, where the richest silver
and copper veins await development. Of this region, of which El Paso is
the commercial center, comprising the states of Chihuahua, Soiiora and
Durango, in Mexico, and of Arizona and New Mexico, in the United States,.
Humboldt said it included the greatest and most varied mineral deposits in
the world.

El Paso, with its present population of 11,000, was first connected with
the world by rail when the Southern Pacific reached there May 13, 1881.
It is now the most progressive, substantial and enterprising city between
San Antonio and the coast, and the progress of its past is only a foreshad-
owing of the greatness of its future. Everything about it is modern, its
superb business blocks, handsome Federal building, its homes, its shops and
stores, its municipal administration. And in addition to all this, it has the
best climate in the world for people suffering from pulmonary affections.

The only thing perplexing about El Paso is the time. It has four brands
of time, and the citizen takes his choice. They used to have four or five

other varieties, but so many people became insane
in the attempt to keep their
watches right and

rr. BLISS, EL PASO, TEXAS.

meet a[)|)uintnients that now they have only four. Between New Orleans
and El Paso Central time is adhered to, Pacific time from there west. The
difference is two hours, so if you arrive at El Paso at 11. 15 A. M. and wait
there an hour and three-quarters, you still get away at 11.00 A. M., and
experience no delay. Then there is local time and Mexican time besides.

This Valley of the Rio Grande, of which El Paso is a little north of the
center, extends from Rincon to the Quitman Mountains — a distance of 190-

EL PASO. 101

miles, and with an average width of three. At present it has a population Thevaiieyof
of about sixty thousand people. With irrigation its fine alluvial soil will Grande,
support millions. There are several propositions for more extensive irri-
gating schemes than are now used.

We were all glad that our train stopped here long enough for the Colonel
to introduce us to Judge J. F. Crosby, who fortunately happened to be at
the station, and we were glad to chat with him about the early life of the
place.

"This was all known as Ponce's ranch when I came here in May, 1852," The story of
remarked the Judge. "It was the property of a somewhat distinguished time^s^*^^
Mexican named Ponce de Leon. A few Americans had preceded me, drift-
ing here after the close of the Mexican War when General Sterling Price
and Colonel Donaphan had marched through here. The old adobe buildings
of the hacienda were clustered close to where the Southern Pacific depot
now stands. Franklin Kuntz had bought the ranch in 1850, but failed to
pav for it. and after the death of Ponce, in 1857, the estate was purchased
bv W. T. Smith. In the same year I was elected Judge of all the territory
lying west of the Pecos River. In 1859 I organized a syndicate of St. Louis The real-estate

• 1 11 1 1 • 1 rr r ■ ' i ryi mail appears

parties, bought the estate and laid ori forty acres in town lots. 1 he coming onthescene.
on of the war balked our financial venture for the time, but in spite of all
vicissitudes the place throve."

" Pretty rough in those days, was it not. Judge ? " I asked.

"Well," said the Judge, with a sly glance at the Girl, " I was married in Abndaitour

„, ,." .,.' ^ . _ , . for your life.

Austin in 1856, and it required a journey of sixty-five days for my seventeen-
year-old bride and myself to reach home."

"What a wedding trip! " exclaimed the Girl.

" Yes, and it was one made exciting by the constant menace of hostile
Apaches, as well as irksome by the cruel jolting of the wagons." was the
reply. "Between the years 1852 and 1862 I crossed the plains twenty-two
times, and never made the trip in less than fifty days. Now you think noth-
ing of going from New Orleans to San Francisco on the ' Sunset Limited '
in seventy-seven hours, with sumptuous palace cars at your disposal, a perfect
cuisine, library, barber shop and smoking compartments; you go to bed vourscaipis
when you feel disposed and get up when you please, knowing that perfect traveTnow.^
service to satisfy all needs awaits you, but we had the rough experience of
jolting wagons or stages, camp-fire cooking, constant menace from warlike
Indians, and often a scarcity of palatable water."

"How did you keep in touch with the outside world ? " I asked.

" Fairly well," replied the Judge. "We did not then seem to need the Thisistheway
daily telegraphic report. The first mail service we had brought in the mail from the rest ot
every two months. Then it was made monthly, and finally, at the break- ^
ing out of the war. made semi-weekly from San Antonio to Fort Smith.

102

THROUGH STORYLAND TO SUNSET SEAS.

The mail route — by stage, of course — was from Sail Antonio to Fort
Clarke, then to Fort Hudson, on Devil's River, thence to Fort Lancaster,
near where the Southern Pacific now crosses the Pecos, then up that stream
and westerly to Fort Stockton, then on to Fort Davis, ten miles from the
present site of Marfa, then to Fort Quitman, San Elsiana, Fort Bliss and
El Paso. Six or eight guards were carried on the mail coaches and the
passengers, who were all armed, were expected to take their turn at guard

A STREET SCENE IN JUAREZ. OPPOSITE EI. PASO.

duty. In 1852 there was not a human habitation from Fort Clarke, 130
miles west of San .\ntonio, to El Paso. The Apaches, Comanches and
Mescalero Indians roamed the plairts, and no one went beyond the outskirts
of the settlements without the menace of massacre."

" But there must have been plenty of business of some sort here to draw
Americans," I ventured.

"An immense traffic grew up," was the reply. "Long wagon trains
came in from Independence, Missouri, over the Santa Fe trail. These were
loaded with dry goods, groceries and hardware, and here met the equally
extensive .shipments of bullion and other products of Mexico. It was not
unusual for a single store to sell $100,000 worth of goods in a day, and
Money was the money was actually more plentiful than any of the commodities demanded
^^mnfod'Uy^^"* in daily living. We paid fifty cents per pound for coffee, sugar and rice;
twenty-five cents a yard for calicoes and domestics, and twenty dollars a
pair for boots."

" What was the character of your population then. Judge ?" I asked.
Thefeiiow "Border outlaws were numerous and vicious, for when the vigilance

wasthfre" committees drove them out of California thev sought this as neutral ground.

EL PASO.

103

They did not steal, were deferential to women and lenient with men of
family, but shooting and killing affrays were of daily occurrence, and mur-
derers were seldom, if ever, convicted ; for it was an understood principle
that as each man knew what was likely to occur and went prepared, he con-
stituted a law unto himself. Yet, even in that lawless era, property was so
secure and honor so highly esteemed that there was not a safe in the coun-
try, and mortgages were unknown. The failure to pay a debt or meet an
obligation, when it matured, was tantamount to ostracism and compelled
the defaulter to leave."

" There is a fact in Judge Crosby's life which should be remembered," was with the
said the Colonel, reflectively; ''because it is a curious circumstance, and five'years ^^ ^'
perhaps a unique one. He was the attorney of the Southern Pacific Rail- bum.^''^^^
way Company thirty-five years before it was built."

The Judge smiled, and replied : "That is true, and the circumstance is
a peculiar one. The Southern Pacific was the first of the transcontinental
railways to be projected. The proposition took shape durnig the adminis-
tration of Franklin Pierce, in 1853, when Jefferson Davis was Secretary of
War. The latter took much interest in it, and Senators Rusk and Houston
were its earnest advocates. The company was organized in New York,
and John C. Fremont was sent to France to float the bonds. In the Te.xas

MEXICAN VILLAGE .SCENE NEAR EL PASO.

legislature of 1854, of which I was a member, a charter was granted, Levy
S. Chatfield, of New York, the president of the company, being in Austin
to help influence the members. After the close of the session I was
employed as attorney for the road at El Paso, and instructed to investigate
the probable resources of the country tributary to the line. For this pur-
pose I made an extensive trip into Mexico, as well as through Arizona and
New Mexico, and duly forwarded my report to the capitalists interested.
A controversy over the bond issue, and the coming on of the war, delayed

104

THROUGH STORYLAND TO SUNSET SEAS.

Time squared
the account.

An Indian
fighter with a
record.

Where the
National
boundary line
runs.

The Santa F6
expedition.

A pleasant
walk of 2,000
miles.

the actual work of construction and led to the disorganization of the orig-
inal company, but twenty-five years later, in 1870, I was instrumental in
helping to build the old 'I'exas & New Orleans R. R. from Houston to the
Sabine River, and it afterwards became a link in the great Southern Pacific
system as it exists to-day."

"There is a typical frontiersman," said the Girl, pointing to a bronzed,
wiry looking man who had just ridden up to the depot.

"That," said the Growler, " is George Herold, one of the noted Indian
fighters of the West. You can find many men like him hereabouts, and
their lives would read like romances of the most vividly yellow-backed
order. He spent twenty years as a scout and Indian fighter, part of the
time employed by the United States, and part by the Mexican government.
He has been shot a dozen times. He was present at the fight in which
Victorio was killed in the Custac Mountains, two hundred miles southwest
of El Paso. In that memorable encounter ninety-eight Indians were killed
and ninety-four captured, and the most desperate band of Apaches thus
quieted. Herold was the first man to reach Victorio after he fell, and took
his scalp, which he carried to the City of Mexico, where the government
paid him $250 for it, as they did for all Indian scalps at that time. He
scouted after Geronimo twice, and was with Lieutenant Finley at the time
of his capture."

Three miles out of El Paso, set down among the sand bluffs, is the great
smelter of the Consolidated Kansas City Smelting and Refining Co., and but
a little further on one catches sight, in the river bottom and on the distant
hilltop, of the first and second of those stone monuments which mark the
boundary between the two countries, and which are set down every few
miles from here to the Pacific Ocean.

" No more graphic story of suffering could be written," said the Colonel,
"than that which was enacted hereabouts in 1841. Under the presidency
of Mirabeau B. Lamar, of the Texas republic, an expedition, composed of
some 350 adventurers, was fitted out at Austin, then the extreme western
limit of settlement, to establish trade relations with the people in this sec-
tion. Texas claimed the country, and so did Mexico. The expedition,
after suffering untold hardships, and being subject to continuous harassing
of the Indians until their number was reduced to two hundred, fell into the
hands of the Mexicans, who marched them to the City of Mexico, more
than two thousand miles away, where the survivors were imprisoned. The
horrors of that march are indescribable. P>efore starting on their long
journey the prisoners were paraded on the plaza of the little town of San
Miguel, and two of their number shot as a sort of object-lesson. These
poor fellows were compelled to kneel and be shot in the back, by a file of
soldiers at six paces. One of them, Howland by name, had his ear and a

THE SANTA FE EXPEDITION.

105

portion of his clieek cut off by a sword, and, though bloody and disfigured, showed them

111 11 1 • 1 1 ' T T 1 1 1 ' 1 ■ 1 lio^' 3 man

walked proudly to his death. He was thus murdered while protesting could die.
against the indignity of dying 'face to rear,' but with a firm 'good-bye.
boys,' upon his lips.

" The story of the weary tramp to Paso del Norte (now El Paso), with its
accompaniment of brutalities, the lack of food and clothing, of hunger,
would be long in telling. These ^,^

THF. SMELTKR AT EL PASO.

almost entirely upon the charity of the noble women of the country through
which they passed for food and succor. The crowning atrocities of the
creature Salazar, who was in command of the guard, were perpetrated to the
northeast of where the Southern Pacific Railroad crosses the Rio Grande,
and during the few days marches before arriving at El Paso. A man named Tooktheirears

T^ ,-irr- 1 ■ TT- rr 1 as vouchers.

Earnest died of latigue and starvation. His ears were cut oft and care-
fully preserved, as evidence of the fact that he had not escaped.

"Shortly afterwards something even more horrible occurred. A tall
Tennesseean, by the name of McAllister, had sprained his ankle, and was
besides so exhausted and footsore as to be incapacitated from further
marching. McAllister declared his inability to proceed on foot. Salazar
drew his sword and peremptorily ordered him to hurry on ; and this when
there were half a dozen led mules, upon either of which he could have
placed the unfortunate man. Again McAllister, pointing to his swollen and
inflamed ankle, declared himself unable to walk. Once more the blood-
thirsty savage, pointing to the main body of the prisoners, ordered the
cripple to hurry forward and overtake them. He could not. 'Forward,' Murdered
said Salazar, now wrought up to a fit of frenzy; ' Forward, or Ell shoot you couidn'twaik.
on the spot.'

'' 'Then shoot,' replied McAllister, throwing off his blanket and exposing
his breast; 'and the (juicker the better.'

" Salazar took him at his word, and a single ball sent as brave a man as
ever trod the earth to eternitv. His ears were then cut ot'f his shirt and

106

THROUGH STORYLAND TO SUNSET SEAS.

Knocked his
brains out this
time.

pantaloons stripped from him, and his body thrown by the wayside as food
for the wolves.

"Another man named Golpin, a merchant, who had joined the expedi-
tion with a small amount of goods, was shot by the rear guard for no other
reason than that he was too sick and weak to keep up.

" Yet another instance : A man named Griffith, who had been wounded
by the Indians, too lame and weak to go further, sank down. A soldier
told him to rise. He made a last feeble but ineffectual effort, casting an
imploring look at the soldier, and while doing so the miscreant knocked his
brains out with a musket. His blanket was torn from him, as the reward
of his murderer, his ears cut off, and he was thrown by the roadside, another
feast for the buzzards and wolves. These atrocities are facts testified to by
more than two hundred witnesses.

And such as
these made
settlement
possible.

INTliRNATIO.NAL CROSSING ON THE RIO GRANDE JDST WEST OF KL PASO.

'•'A few miles out from El Paso, about where the smelter now stands,
yet -another poor devil succumbed to the hardships. His body was stripped,
Salazar taking his usual voucher as evidence of his not having escaped.

"Arriving in El Paso, or rather* Paso del Norte, now known as Juarez,
the prisoners were treated by the whole population with exceeding kindness.
Salazar was removed from the command and imprisoned. The journey
from El Paso to the City of Mexico was, as compared with the horrors
endured before, but an evening promenade."

CHAPTER XV.

SOME NOTES ON THE LINE ACROSS NEW MEXICO — A FRONTIER COURT
INCIDENT MOUNTAIN CHAINS AND FERTILE VALLEYS.

- — TN a few minutes after leaving the smelter the Across New

' ^^^^^^^^ X train passes over the iron bridge of the Rio

^^vHHH^|L. Grande, and the tourist is in New Mexico, across
m '^^^5^^ "-'^^ southwestern corner of which the road runs

If "i / ^mk '^'^^ some 250 miles. For a long time the track

T^i \ ' y ''Wm follows closely the windings of the river, amid
blue lines of hills, while far-off high peaks stand
like solitary sentinels. Then yellow and white
sand plains intervene, clad in scant verdure of
cacti, spear-grass and mesquite.
A NATIVE OF THE COUNTRY. " What a bcautlf ul lake ! " exclaimed the

Girl, suddenly. " See its little islands and the
fringe of cool-looking trees along the shore."

The Colonel laughed softlv. "You will see charming lakes from now on The mirage

. shows up.

at intervals until we get across the desert of the Colorado, well mto Cali-
fornia," said he. " They are such stuff as dreams are made of. There is
no water here, no dreamy isles, no fringe of foliage, nothing but the desert
sands and the palpitating air that makes the illusion. Your lake is a
mirage, and you will see many such."

"The people scarcely know what the possibilities of the territory are," a territory

1.1 ^ 1 '/,-r-r 1-- • ^ -ix-n- few know

remarked the Growler. "Her hmits comprise some seventy-eight million much about.

acres, and the population is perhaps two hundred thousand. It has great

valleys, susceptible of the highest cultivation, and its fruit and live-stock

interests are as extensive as its mining and timber industries. The wool

clip of 1894 was over twelve million 'pounds, the coal fields are extensive,

the timber districts vast and profitable. Besides, it is a land of blue skies

and sunshine, where in winter it is not uncomfortably cool in the sun and in

summer never disagreeably warm in the shade, where the dryness of the

climate is not intermittent but perpetual, and the average relative humidity a climate that

^ . , . ... .is death to

is from twenty-nine to forty-three per cent, agamst sixty-nme per cent in microbes.
Boston and seventy-three per cent in Buffalo. Practically the climate is the
same as Arizona, where, in the Salt River Valley, the average spring tem-

107

108

THROUGH STORYLAND TO SUNSET SEAS.

as humorous a
Pioneer justice A Mexican whom

in Donna Ana

he was well

county-.

The attorney
makes a grave
charge.

rather touchy
man whom

perature is 70", summer go'^, autumn 73°, winter 56°; highest ever recorded,
115°, lowest 22°, average annual 72°."

" We are just now in Donna Ana county," said the Colonel. " It extends
from the boundary line almost to Deming, and was for a good many years
a pretty wild region. There was a trial here /at one time which had about

denouement as I recall.
I will call Dorengo, as
related and his kin are
about him yet, killed a
\ he had forbidden to
meet his daughter ; just
took a double-barreled
shotgun and went into a
neighbor's house, where
the young fellow was
sitting with the girl on
his lap, and blew the top
of his head off. Colonel
Rynerson was prosecut-
ing attorney at the time,
and Colonel Fountain
was employed by the
defense, thus putting the
two leading criminal lawyers
against each other in a bat-
tle royal.
" Colonel Fountain soon found
that if he relied on facts and evi-
l „ dence to clear or even postpone the
fate of his client, he would be 'up a
tree,' so he cast about for other means
of getting his man off, but apparently
to no purpose.

"At last the day of the trial came,
and the court-room was crowded. The
examination of the witnesses- for the
prosecution was over, and Colonel Fountain arose and addressed the court.
Said he: ' May it please the court, if any one had told me that an attorney
of the standing and reputation of Colonel Rynerson would stoop so low for
the sake of the paltry praise that might come to him for the conviction of
my poor client here as to browbeat and intimidate my witnesses, suborn
others — I say it bolcjly — and thus procure the absence of any testimony

GLIMPSES OF NATIVK LIKF,
IN NEW MKXICO.

NOTES ON THE LINE ACROSS NEW MEXICO.

109

which might be used in our favor, I should have repelled the accuser and
his accusation with scorn, but here I stand without a witness to-day, and
the attorney for the prosecution knows why.'

"With that Colonel Rynerson sprang to his feet shouting: 'It's a d — d
lie,' and leaped at Colonel Fountain.

" Both men were old frontiersmen and ex-officers of the famous California
Legion, who had each gained fame for personal bravery during the war, and
had added to their reputation for courage in the turbulent years that suc-
ceeded the close of the conflict, and every one in the court-room was on
tiptoe to see the two men come together, for they knew that blood would
flow. The sheriff and his deputies crowded between them and pandemo-
nium reigned for a time, when Colonel Fountain was heard addressing the
court. Quiet was in a measure restored, and the Colonel said :

"'Your honor, I am at a loss to understand the violent language and the
threatening attitude of the attorney for the prosecution toward me, as I am
not conscious of having said anything calculated to provoke any such
demonstration.'

"' In the name of Jupiter Ammon, if such charges as you just made were
not sufficient provocation, what would you think would be, you infernal
hound?' roared Colonel Rynerson.

"'May it please the court,' replied Colonel Fountain, 'I think your honor
will bear me out in , , what I am about to say ; that

It is prompUy
resented and
bloodshed is
imminent.

Feigns a
childlike
innocence.

The

explanation
and the
apology.

A C.\TTLE ROU.N'D UI'.

is, I made no charges against Colonel Rynerson. So far from it was I
that I stated that if any one had brought such accusations agai^ist him I
should have indignantly refused to listen, and I further started to say that
I was without a witness for the defense to-day, and the prosecution was
aware of the fact that it was simply because we had none to bring, and that
we would rest our case and rely upon the mercy of the court, when Colonel

110

THROUGH STORYLAND TO SUNSET SEAS.

But the
prisoner had
fled.

Rynerson sprang up and interrupted me and all this uproar began. I am :

sure if anything I said has unintentionally on my part wounded the feelings ]

of Colonel Rynerson, he will accept my sincere regrets and count it unsaid.' j

"Colonel Rynerson declared himself fully satisfied with the explanation I
made by Colonel Fountain, who also expressed his own regret at having

been touched so easily, hoping his words, used in the heat of passion, would I

be forgotten. The case was then taken up, and as Colonel Fountain arose j

to announce formally that the case for the defense would rest, the Judge i

Aset of curious
coincidences.

Spanish
exploration
and early
myths.

BRINGING IN WOOD ON BURROS.

cried : '\\here is the prisoner?' All eyes turned to the dock, but it was
empty. There is a statutory provision in New Mexico that no man shall be
brought to trial in irons. He must be absolutely free in the court-room,
subject only to the vigilance of the officers.

" During the intense excitement, when every eye was straining in the
direction of the belligerent attorneys, the prisoner had quietly walked out
of the room, and by a strange coincidence found a fast horse awaiting him,
and by a set of similar coincidences, he found such a horse about every five
miles until the Mexican border and safety were reached.

" Rynerson always said that was one of the shrewdest legal moves he ever
knew of being resorted to."

" Didn't you tell me the old Spaniards explored this region in a very
early day, papa?" asked the Girl.

''Yes, and we have in our whole national area no section more fraught
with picturesque adventure. About 1530, when Nuno de Guzman was gov-

MOUNTAIN CHAINS AND FERTILE VALLEYS. Ill

ernor of New Spain, word was first given to the world of this region. It
was called the country of the Seven Cities, and was reputed to be fabulously
rich. Guzman tried to explore it and dismally failed. Then eight years
later Alvar Nunes Cabeza de Baca and three companions, survivors of the
unfortunate expedition of Navarez for the conquest of Florida, wandered
overland to Culiacan, bringing tidings of the region. In 1540 came
Coronado, with whose name all the region is associated, and from whose Theremainsof
explorations we have learned so much of its early life. He came with three
hundred adventurous cavaliers and eight hundred friendly Indians,
and spent a couple of years campaigning through the region, sub-
duing the belligerent natives, establishing posts and writing in his
reports a very fair account of things as he discovered
them. He found, in the great pueblos then existing,
an industrious race who raised maize, beans, cotton
and pumpkins, wove their own clothing, made pottery,
lived under a well-regulated social order, and were
disposed towards the customs of civilization. From
then on the story of the country was linked with the
narrative of Spanish conquest. Greed for the pos-
session of its rich mines overreached itself, and the ^ child of destiny.
natives were continually revolting and driving their oppressors out. After
the region fell into the possession of the United States under the Gadsden
Purchase a new' era dawned, and to-day its resources are bemg developed
by a far-sighted and energetic race, who are building here a great common-
wealth."

Beyond Deming — an advantageously situated point, with branch lines Deming, 1,283

1" -vT 1 1 r--i' 1 .-1, miles from

northeast to Nutt and northwest to Silver — is the same succession of high New Orleans

plains with scant vegetation. Water is easily obtained, but not always feet^ '°^ '''^^'*

good, a strong alkali impregnation sometimes destroying its palatability.

At Deming, however, splendid water is found at a depth of forty feet. At

Lordsburg the railroad draws its supply from the mountains, piping the

useful fluid for a distance of more than four miles. Beyond Lordsburg

the road bisects Playes, Animas and San Simon Valleys, and between san simon

o • . T, , IT , ,• • Valley and

Stems Pass and Vanarman crosses the line into Arizona. The rugged stein's Pass
grandeur of the scenery at Stein's Pass is refreshing. The bold crags rise
on the right in pinnacles of red rock, seamed and disjointed by the weather-
wear of centuries. On the left the valley opens out with receding lines of
purpling hills that grow fainter and fainter upon the far horizon. Looking
off across San Simon Valley one sees in the far southwest, where the sky-line
meets the earth, the outlines of a great face turned upward. The profile
is called "Cochise's Head," and has long been a landmark. Cochise was the
greatest of that long line of Apache chiefs whose fame upon the border lin-

112

THROUGH STORYLAND TO SUNSET SEAS.

Those herds ot
cattle graze
here.

Cacti— the
fruit and
timber of the
desert.

gers in traditions of their subtlety and cruelty. With a Napoleonic regard
for strategy, and with an absolute knowledge of the mountain fastnesses he
inhabited, he combined a marvelous control of the people he ruled. Over
beyond the range, whose rocky profile outlines his face against the sky, is
a great cavern where the scattered remnants of his tribe yet resort to
invoke with weird ceremony the spirit of their great leader, and amid wild
incantations renew the allegiance which once, in their days of power, gave
them undisputed possession of a wide region.

" Looks dry, don't it ? " I said, as the train bowled along.
"Looks that way," replied the Growler, "but it isn't. Here, at San
Simon, is the center of a vast cattle interest. The San Simon Cattle Com-
pany alone has a herd of 75,000 head. Back in
all these valleys there is good grazing, the nutri-
tious gama grass growing everywhere. Off there
to the south, in the Chiricahua Mountains —

A NEW MK.XICO OLLA MAKER.

great piles of syenite, paleozoic strata and porphyry — was the favorite
rendezvous of the latest bad Apache Indian, the Arizona Kid, to whose
door all the depredations of stray scoundrels has been laid."

" ^V'hat wonderful cacti ! " exclaimed the Girl, enthusiastically. "How
lu.xuriantly it grows, and how many varieties there are of it ! "

"Gives the landscape a weird and grewsome sort of appearance, don't
it?" I said.

"A very useful plant, too," spoke the Colonel.

" Useful ? " asked the Girl. " Why, it's only an ornament, isn't it ? "

"Yes, with the ladies of the North who cultivate a little bulb for years,
and are excessively proud of ihe prickly growth if it assumes the propor-
tions of a cocoanut. Hut iicre it is quite different. You see that big
sahaura ?'

MOUNTAIN CHAINS AND FERTILE VALLEYS.

113

We looked quickly out of the window to where a great cacti reared its
stunted head forty feet in the air — a sturdy, branchless, bulbous growth.

"That," continued the Colonel, "is only one of some sixty or seventy TheCoionei
varieties of the family. It bears in its season a large white flower, that ofthemany.*^
opens like a chestnut, and has inside a red, flesh-like pulp, of which the
Mexicans and Indians are very fond. It has a sweetish, insipid flavor. The
stalks of the sahaura are divided through their length by strong white ribs,
which the natives use as beams for the roofs of their houses. Of the other
members of the cacti family which you will see, is the cholla, a bush-shaped
plant covered with white spines ; the bisnaga, low and round, and contain-
ing no woody fiber. The spines with which the bisnaga are covered are
barbed like a fish hook, and woe to the unwary who gets them into his flesh.
The Mexicans cut the white pulp of the plant into small pieces, boil them
in sugar and obtam a confection of which they are very fond. The datil Fmit and flour
grows to a height of five or six feet, with branches that diverge at right '^^y^^^''-
angles. Its fruit resembles a cucumber, and contains a black seed which

ON THK CACTI I'l.AINS.

the Indians grind for flour. The petella is the greatest of the fruit pro-
ducers — you will frequently see it with twenty stems springing from a
single root. The — "

"Never mind, papa," the Girl broke in; "I'm sure I couldn't remember
any more. What place is this ?" Benson, 1,458

"Benson," replied the Colonel, a little stiffly. " It is the junction of the New Orleans.
New Mexico & Arizona and the Arizona (\: Southeastern railroads. The ^-^^^^^^ '°" 3,578

114

THROUGH STORYLAND TO SUNSET SEAS.

Canon of the
Cieueta.

Vails and its
guano filled
cave.

former runs down to Nogales, where it connects with the Sonora R. R. for

Guayamas, and the latter runs out to the celebrated
Copper Queen mine." From here Tombstone, the
most famous, or shall we say notorious, town in
all the Southwest, is reached.

"I have always thought this a pretty bit of

scenery," the Growler said, calling our attention

to the Cieneta River Canon, twenty-four miles east

of Tucson. We agreed with him, for, as the train

whirled along the brink of the deep

narrow gorge we could look down

to where its turbid waters boiled far

below.

" Near the little station of Vails,"
the Colonel remarked, "is a curious
dimensions filled with guano. It
home of myriads of bats since time
and a great deposit of fertilizer has
The cave was opened some three or
and a company organized to make
some reason the venture was not
prosecuted, and natives of new mexico. after about seventy-five car loads
had been forwarded to Los Angeles and San Francisco operations were
suspended."

cave of great
has been the
immemorial,
accumulated,
four years ago
shipments. For

CHAPTER XVI.

TUCSON AND THE ANCIENT MISSION OF SAN XAVIER — ARIZONA AND ITS

LOST CIVILIZATIONS.

"A";

H ! we should stop here," the Growler said, as the train, passing the Tucson, 1,506

miles from

Territorial Universit}- and Indian School on the right, ran into the New Orleans.
station at Tucson. " It is the quaintest old place you will find in the United {eet.^ ion 2,390
States. The fringe of trees over there marks the windings of the Santa

Cruz River. The mountains to the north

and east are

CLIFF DWELLINGS IN THE ARIZONA MOUNT.ilNS.

the Santa Catalina's and Rincon's, and those to the northwest the Tortola's.
Thank goodness, the train schedule gives us time enough to get a glimpse
of the queer place, even if we cannot spend a few days here, which would
well repay us."

It would not be far wrong to put down the population of Tucson at The first

-T^u 1 • r ■ r • A • u I- impressii

7,000. i here is a large infusion of progressive Americans, who have the place
carried into the commercial life of the town an aggressive spirit of enter-
prise, extended its trade into Mexico, planted manufacturing industries,
and given it the comforts of modern municipal life. But all the bizarrie
characteristics of quaintness adhere to it. The narrow streets are lined

ll.T

116

THROUGH STORYLAND TO SUNSET SEAS.

Second oldest
city in the
United States.

American
invasion and
Apache
attention.

The ancient
Mission of San
Xavier de Bac.

with buildings whose architecture often seems mediaeval. In the residence
portion the stolid fronts of adobes give the passer-by no idea of the ample
and luxuriously furnished apartments within, where everything that culti-
vated taste can suggest adds to the luxury of living.

" What an awfully old place it must be ?" the Girl remarked

"Well, I should say so," the Colonel replied ; "we only have one older

in the whole country — Santa Fe. Some historians claim a settlement here

as early as 1560. It was a Spanish and Mexican presidio, or fortified town.

In the center was the universal plaza, surrounded by a high wall, against

which all the
wall was some
resist attack
their assailants
Later, a fort
from

houses were built, so as to face the square. The
four feet higher than the roofs, so the natives could
from their safe vantage point, shooting down upon
while themselves in a measure protected,
built outside the walls, and separate
the presidio, gave further protection. In
the Americans took the town, but
"7'-''^ the fort too strong for them. In the
of the California gold excitement
the place became a sort of half-way
house for immigrants from the
South. After the war Amer-
icans began to drift in in
increasing numbers, and it had
all the elements of a frontier
camp. Soldiers, teamsters and
* miners soaked themselves with
the fiery poison of the mescal
shops, and were ready for any
deviltry. The Apaches made
life miserable for those who
ventured outside of the walls, or,
rather, did not give them a
chance to be miserable for very long
when once they got hold of them.''
"And don't forget the old Mis-
sion," the Growler remarked, sen-
tentiously.

"What! more old Missions?" said the Girl.

"Nine miles south of here is what I consider the most interesting mis-
sion in the country," replied the Colonel; "the Mission of San Xavier.
The best authority goes to show that the original building was constructed
in 1690. The present structure, which occupies the same site and is prob-

THE GIANT SAHAURA.

THE ANCIENT MISSION OF SAN XAVIEK.

Santa Cms

that line the Saiua Cruz River— so valicy

ably an enlargement of the former, was begun in 176.S and finished main
years later. The Jesuit map of 1698, which is recognized as wonderfully
accurate, marks a mission here."
•' Did you ever visit it ?" I asked.

" Yes, I drove over one delightful day in early spring, through the fertile Fertility of the
and cultivated fields
fertile that /^

potatoes
blossom
in seven-
teen days,
radishes
are p u t
on the

FT. l;n\\Il,

N .MorNT.M.NS, .NKAR TltSON.

table in less than three weeks from the
seed, and corn tassels in a month.
Why, these valleys are merely vast
canons that have been filled with the debris carried down in past ages. In
the Santa Rosa Valley borings 520 feet deep go down all the way through
rich soil mixed with bowlders."

"Come back to the Mission, papa," said the Girl, who saw that the
Colonel was wandering from the subject.

"Oh. yes. Well, as I was saying, I drove down through these fields, and Mexicans and
across the higher plains, beyond where the road winds through low hills mecion^he
covered with forests of giant sahaura. Here you pass sombreroed Me.xi- ""''■
cans with trains of loaded burros, or driving flocks of sheep, and Indian
women carrying on their backs great loads of pottery of their own manu-
facture. By and by the reservation of the Papago Indians is reached, their
village of squat reed wigwams scattered over the j^lain near by the church.
The great edifice itself seems solemn and imposing in that wide landscape,
where the Sierreta, Rincon and St. Catalina mountains hem it about. On The Mission as

a low, rocky, cone-shaped hill, just back of the church, a high wooden cross
stands, outlined against the sky. The church, built of brick, is of Saracenic

it is t(Mlay.

ARIZONA AND ITS LUST CIVILIZATIONS.

119

V^ I.

the six

■ . n e of

architecture. The front is covered with rich ornamentation in tanciful
patterns, and a lofty bell-tower rises at each corner, one capped by a dome.
Over the rear chapel is a large dome also. Off to the side stretches the
cloisters, and here two sweet-faced, gentle Sisters of Charity, leaving the
cities of the east, which were their homes, have immured themselves to teach
two-score brown-faced Indian children. The interior of the church is in
the form of a Latin cross, the foot being to the south, in which direction
the edifice faces. The main altar is at the north end. The walls are
covered with frescoes, once garish perhaps, but now subdued by time, until
their tints blend into a harmonious color scheme. Four large paintings
represent the Annunciation, the Visitation of the Virgin to Hli/.abeth, the
Nativity of Christ and the Adoration of the Magi. The altar work and all
the cornices are done in cement, as are also
arched ceilings overhead, the main
which is fifty feet above the floor.
In fact, the whole mission, in all its
details of decoration and architec-
ture, is complete, and the edifice
would be an ornament in any
capital."

''I have heard the Papagos
have always been the friends of
the whites," I said.

"So they have," replied the
Growler, " and they ought to
have some credit for it; there
are about 600 of them living
on the reservation the Colonel
just mentioned. They cultivate
a little land, and when the
Apaches were killing the white
settlers hereabouts, they were
most of the fighting, and chasing
warlike tribe on all occasions. But ris.no generation ok thk sorrnwrsT all this
country was settled by an earlier race than any of the present Indians."

" How do you know ? "

"The cliffs all through these Arizona mountains are covered with hiero-
glyphics and pictographs. The Salt and Gila River valleys are full of old
ruins of early occupancy. There are artificial mounds hundreds of feet
long, extensive canals for irrigating purposes, and vast debris— all a class
of work the present races are unfamiliar with. The most wonderful— or at
least the best known of all these ruins— lies three hours by stage north of

Teaching ihe
papijuso of the
Hajtago*.

The art of
altar waUs.

The: friends of
the whites for
?oo years.

civilization."?
that h.Tve
come and
grone

120

THROUGH STORYLAND TO SUNSET SEAS.

The ruins of
the Casa
Grande.

The ancient
irrigating
system of vast
extent.

The remote
age in which
they lived.

the station of Casa Grande (65 miles west of Tucson). Father Niza, who,
in 1539, visited the country, heard of these ruins, which were then regarded
with awe and veneration by the native tribes. Coronado's people visited
them in 1540, and since then many explorers have come and gone, and left
descriptions to tell us what they were and are. As they exist to-day they
still show ^, the towering adobe walls that once are believed to

have -' f^JI^HS. been seven stories in height.

^' J

A.N .\KIZONA LANDSCAPE

Some of the rooms
were thirty and forty feet long.
Archreol();rists and ethnologists have puzzled over these ruins for ages.
To-day, with their remains of great irrigating ditches all about them, they
present a hard nut for scientists to crack. However, we must stand amazed
at the extent of these ruins. One of these great canals tapped the Salt
River on the south side near the mouth of the Verde. For three and a
half miles it passes through an artificial gorge in the Superstition Moun-
tains, cut out of the solid rock to a depth of a hundred feet. After passing
the mountains it divides into four branches whose aggregate length is 120
miles, independent of the distributing ditches. This system of canals irri-
gated 1,600 square miles of country. The engineering is perfect."

" And isn't there a trace of these people that would give us a clue to
them ?■ "

"Not even a tradition," was the reply. "We only know that at a period
fixed by scientists as 2,000 years ago, the Bradshaw Mountains were active
volcanoes, and the lava making its way through Black Cailon flowed into
these canals. Still later, a great deluge flowed over McDowell Mountains,
segregating their granite sides and depositing their wash over the upper
valley and the canals to a depth of from three to five feet. This gives us
testimony as to the age of these vast works, but it tells us nothing of the

ARIZONA AM) ITS los r ( IVILIZATK »N.S.

121

millions of people who must have on. c iived here in a high state of civil-
ization."

" What in the world do people go to Europe to find ancient civilizations
for, when they can get them right here at home? " exclaimed the Girl.

" Because it is a fad," said the Growler. " It's all right to go t<. Europe, why ao. >u>ow
of course, but it makes me have 'that tired feeling' when I see people ^nto"fir^f
rushmg over there who have no adequate knowledge of their own country.
There isn't any thing in history more fascinating than the story of the con-
quest of this very region we are traveling through. There is a dramatic
recital of Spanish occupancy reaching back 2S0 years beyond the Guada-
lupe-Hidalgo treaty of '46. The gold and silver hungry Madrid govern- Thcromance
ment was pretty nearly pushed out by the Indian outbreak of 1S02. the s^ni'-^
Mexican revolution twenty years later, and the Apache uprising of 1827. «^p»°^
The country became a wilderness almost, until from 1S45 to i860 hardy
settlers forced their way into the rich valleys, established homes and begen
developing again the resources of the

country. Tl^^.^ our war

came

on, protec-
HE CASA GRANDK RciNs IN ARIZONA tlon was wlthdnuvn, the

Apaches swooped down, and it took ten years to undo their work and begin
again the building of a commonwealth. Now here's an empire as large as
the six New England states with New York thrown in. Its climate, Arizona as it u
scenery and fauna are so varied that they appeal to every interest. All
the semi-tropical plants grow in the southern valleys, while the peaks of its
northern mountains are clad in perpetual snow. Here is the awe-inspiring
Cafion of the Colorado, the greatest and most mavelous cleft in the
mountains of the world. You can see a petrified forest here, with the Thcireasur«
trees congealed into stone, rearing their rugged trunks fifty and seventy wonderland.

122

THROUGH STORYLAND TO SUNSET SEAS.

Connection for
Phoenix.

feet in the air. What
else does man want
than that which he
can fmd in Arizona ?
It is rich in mines, in
timber, grazing land,
soil for fruit culture,
the best climate to
be found any-
where. T h e
wealth of the
territory is
more than

a hundred mil-
lions of dol-
lars, and is in-
creasing with won-
derful rapidity as people
are coming to know its lim-
itless resources."

At Maricopa theSouthern
Pacific makes connection
with the Maricopa & PhcLMii.x
Railroad, reaching that city
after a run of thirty-five

ARIZONA CACTI.

ARIZONA AND ITS LOST CIVILIZATIONS. 123

miles through a region which, beyond Tempo, wears all the aspect of an old
and thrifty agricultural region.

9.li'^'^°"'l'T\'''''.'^'' ^^"^"'^ •' fortunately situated, or whether the ThcsaUR.v«
bait River Valley has been made by it," said the Colonel, "but I do know ''""'^
that It IS in the center of some of the greatest irrigation schemes that have
been undertaken ^^ r^ ,., , ,

. , , ^.'^^^ r — -^ in our age. It used

to be that ...--'^djSH^ / ^->-^

"'•• consump-

tive had
to himself. H e
climate gave him
but of late years
and fruit-raiser

THE GILA RIVER AND THE HERBAGE
OF THE PLAINS.

l'h(vni.\ all
went there and the
life and health,
t h e agriculturist
and the bee-keeper

have crowded him pretty closely, so that now you find the thrifty modern
city set down among groves of orange and lemon and plum and apricot
and peach trees that make a paradise out of all that beautiful vallev, so
that men find there not only health but wealth."

"There's the first station name that recalls the Aztecs," I said, when we
reached Montezuma.

"We have Montezuma himself right north of us, in the Estrella Moun- Mountain
tains," said the Colonel. "There is a mountain top clearly cut in the M*M^ie2°uma.
image of a man, and the Indians say it is Montezuma asleep, and that some
day he will awaken to gather his people together in the empire of which
the hidalgos robbed him."

"Why is this place called 'Painted Rocks' .'" I asked.

"Just because some very celebrated painted rocks are scattered along painted rocks
the Gila River near here," replied the Cirowler. "The characters on the Riw.^*^
rocks are not really painted, but engraved with some coarse instrument, by
which the soft and rather thin coating of oxide of manganese was scraped
off. The stones themselves are hard bowlders, of entirely different char-
acter from the partially decomposed granite of which the small peak upon
which they rest is constituted. \or, indeed, are the adjacent mountain

124

THROUGH STORYLAND TO SUNSET SEAS.

The Gila
monster,
pronounced
"Hela."

ranges composed of any similar material. I presume they were carried
there by the energetic action of water at a remote period. The inscriptions
probably commemorated some battle or other important event pertaining to
intertribal relations.
The strangest thing
about the rocks is that
a magnetic compass
placed on top of one
of them ver-
tically over
its center of
gravity is un-

I'KISON YARD AND CoLORAHO RU'ICK SCi;Nli AT YUMA, ARI/ON\

disturbed in its polarity, but this fact is nearly reversed when the compass
is placed near the ends. It was while examining them that I first saw a
Gila monster."

"What in the world is a Gila monster?" asked the Girl.

"An overgrown variegated lizard, to which all sorts of deadly attributes
used to be ascribed, but which has been unjustly accused," was the reply.
" It is certainly a most hideous creature, sometimes almost three feet long,
sluggish, puffy, and with a frightful mouth."

" Perhaps it was from Arizona Montezuma drew some of his treasure,"
I said.

"Well, we know that a good many million dollars have been taken out
since his time anyhow. It would set your mind ablaze to listen to the stories

ARIZONA AND ITS I.oSl < IVI I I/A I K )\s.

1-2:

of lost mines of fabulous richness, whicli every prospeci.ir expccis lu nnd j-abieioMoit
some day. One of the most famous of Arizona's 'lost mines' was the '"*°"
Planchas de Plata, or planks of silver. A Yaqui Indian first made the mine
known, and the Spanish records show that some five tons of silver were actu-
ally taken out near the surface of the ground, the silver being found in large
sheets of pure metal, reputed to weigh, in some instances, more than a ton.
The Madrid government seized this fine lot of virgin ore. appropriated it
as the property of the crown, and declared the mine confiscated to the same
end, and this summary proceeding naturally discouraged operations to such
an extent that the mme was abandoned and subsequently forgotten."

Following close and closer the Valley of the Gila, our way to Vuma winds Along the
down from an altitude of 2,390 feet at Tucson to 140 at the bank of the Yumf'^"***
Colorado Riv-
er, a distance
of 250 miles.
Always moun-
tains are with-
in sight or
near by —
now the Su-
perstition,
theEstrella.

Pacific
town of
banks of that
has cut its way

SOVTHERN PACIFIC DEPOT AND TERRI-
TORIAL PRISON AT YfMA, ARIZONA.

Lunas Ne-
gras. Through
patchesof des-
ert, and by .An-
telope Peak,
the Southern
leads until the white
\"uma is reached on the
mysterious Colorado, which
through its great mountain

gorge to mingle its waters with those of the California Gulf. Peyond the

big airy station, with its green expanse of garden, you will see the fort -like

walis of the territorial penitentiary crowning a low eminence. Your train TheCoiorada^

steps right at the river bank, and the other end of the long steel bridge beyond.

]E'«!lK3»rSS»-— -Ti

V <«

ARIZONA AND ITS LOST CIVIIJZ \TlU\S.

121

rests on the soil of California. Steamboats that ply up and clown the tnrl)id.
swift-flowing stream are anchored to the bank, and at the station you will
always find a picturesque group of the Yuma Indians, whose reservation is
just across the river. Their copper-colored faces glow with stripes of ver-
milion and green paint laid on in fanciful patterns, and tht-y wear gay fab-
rics that heighten |^^^^ ^'u^. lustrous
blacknessof their ^K^Pt^... eyes and hair.

dream, and you r ^tJSi^SBn will pay him a

wares ni<t j^^m^vjK^^-r -sa-jist--. -^ t.ir the

chance to talk
a counterpart of
greatest Indian
age, and who
feared through
Y u m a the

chieftain of any

made the Yumas

all the land. At

atmosi")here in-

Vutna Indiaas
one finds at
the depot.

A glimpse

spires you, it is so dry and so surcharged with ozone. The sky is surroundings,
a clear blue — the atmosphere as translucent as a jewel. The moun-
tain tops — Castle Domes, the Chimney Peak, the Purple Hills. Cargo
Muchacho — tower all around. Your mind is diverted alike by the story of
the wild past of the place — its romance of Indian and frontier times — and
by its busy present. As early as 1771 a detachment of Franciscan friars
settled opposite the present site of the town and sought to Christianize the
aborigines. However, the Indians made it so decidedly hot for them that
they were glad to get away — that is, the few left alive after the natives got
through. Then came the gold fever and a ferry was established. The
government built a fort, the town spread, and afterward the railway came.

128

THROUGH STORYLAND TO SUNSET SEAS.

In its early
days.

What a little
water will do.

Here the temperature has reached ii8° in the shade, but no one has ever
been known to be sunstruck. The Southern Pacific has large interests in
the place, which is an important division headquarters, maintaining ex-
tensive yards and depot of supplies, ice house, water works that furnishes

employes,
and it

the town as well as the trains, a reading-room for
etc. A large irrigating scheme is being worked out,
should be profitable, for here the orange, lime and
lemon, cotton, the fig and pomegranate, grape,
olive, date, plum, apricot and sugar-cane grow
profitably. Wheat, barley and corn are the
staple field products, and vegetables thrive
all the year round with an abundance un-
known elsewhere. It is in the center of a
rich gold, silver and lead region, where the
mines have been long and remuneratively
worked, for here the granite ribs of the
mountains, like the alluvial carried down by
the Gila and Colorado, is affluent in the ele-
ments of wealth. But the traveler looks impatiently beyond, for there
California, with all the interests that lay hold of us, awaits the guest who
comes to share in the prodigal pleasures that it pours out.

YUMA BILL, A CHARACTER
OF YUMA.

^^^2^^

ch.\1'ti:k xvii.

FIRST GLIMPSES OF CALIFORNIA NOT PREPOSSESSING, BUT FULL OF WONDERS

— IHE MUD VOLCANOES AND THE DEAD SEA OF SALTOX —

A TRINITY OF BEAUTIFUL TOWNS.

S this California?" said the Girl, with a strong atccnt on the
"this."

We had left Yuma behind us, and were traversing a region of absolute First ^jUmpse
desert. A thin herbage scantily covered the waste of sand. The mountain "'' ^*'''''"'""-
chain upon the right looked bare and bald.

■'No," replied the Colonel, "this is only a little bit of California. We
are crossing the Colorado Desert, and beyond here an hour or two's ride
will bring us into the paradise you have thought so much about. But you
will see wonders on this bit of desert you never dreamed of. perhaps.
Beginning at Flowing Well and continuing sixty-one miles, the railroad
passes over what was once the bed of an ancient sea. It has left the water »c,o« ,La irvc,

I 1 11 1 /- 1 • inthcbfdolan

mark upon the hills to show where for ages its surf-ime beat upon their ancient ocean,
granite walls. From Flowing Well, which is five feet above sea-level, to
Volcano Springs, a distance of ten miles, we drop to 225 feet below the tide-
line. At Salton we reach the lowest point — 263 feet — and from then on
we climb upwards until at a point some two miles beyond Indio the level is
again reached. It is supposed that once the Gulf of California e.xtended
up and flowed all over this region, and there is an ancient tradition that
once this section was fertile and populous, the seat of a great city, the cap-
ital of a race that has disappeared."

"What sort of a place is Volcano Springs?" I asked.

"Quite remarkable in its way," replied the Colonel. " I'here is a per-
petual mirage in view, which spreads a beautiful lake off to the south.
From the windows of the car you can see many mud volcanoes or springs, the mud
which bubble up to a height of from five to twenty feet. They are cone- voican?***
shaped, and very curious, tho' dangerous to approach, owing to the thin- ^p""^-
ness of the earth crust about them. Venturesome explorers have been
badly burned by breaking through this crust in the attempt to examine
them too closely. Sulphur, soda and salt impregnate the mud discharged,
and some of the springs emit a strong odor of sulphur gas and send up
d'scolored bubbles, which, as they burst, discharge little pnPs of bluish

li9

130

THROUGH STORYLAND TO SUNSET SEAS.

Great place for
a sanitarium,
this.

smoke. There are also circular pools filled with water, and, like the aiud
springs, some of these are cold and others hot."
" Does the volume of the flow vary ? " I asked.

"It is greater in summer than in winter I have been told," was the
response. ■>

"A good place for a sanitarium I should think," remarked the Girl.
"All this old sea-bed would be a good place for a sanitarium," replied

the Growler. ^^.^-"^ ~~-~--~_ " I'^idio already has a wonderful

reputation ^.^"^""''''^ ^^''-'V^ as a favorable resort for consump-

tives, y^ ^S. I have known men who came

)ut to points along here
what certainly appear-
ed to be the last
stages of phthisis,
and w'ho recovered.
The desert is a rain-
less and cloudless
region, with but six-
teen or seventeen per
cent of humidity in
the atmosphere, and
that atmosphere
charged with chlo-
rine gas arising from
its immense fields of
salt. These elements
have restored many
to health who had
long despaired of re-
covery."

We watched with
wonder the mud vol-
canoes at the place of
•that name, and the
Colonel and the
Growler entertained
us with stories of
Death's VaUey far to
.\N .\Ri/.o.\A MOUNTAIN RAviNK. thc nortii oi iiere,

Death's Valley where the great borax mines are situated, where emigrants have oftentimes
and^the borax pg^jg^^g^i^ ^^j ^^^^^^ prospectors Still seck for the mythical Peg-Legged

Smith or Gunsight mines.

FIRST GLIMI'SES OF CALIFORNIA.

There are prospectors who constantly roam all through thi.s section/' Nomads of the
said the Growler. "I've sat by the hour and listened to tiieir yarns and ***""'
there is nothing they like better than to get hold of a tenderfoot and prevail
on him to grub-stake them for a sixty or ninety-day prospecting tour. This
is a veritable picnic for these nomads of the desert. A hundreii dollar> will
buy a couple of bronchcjsand a stock of fl„ur, coffee, sugar, pork and beans.

A GLIMPSE OF RIVKRSII

Then they go off into the mountains, liiul a quiet sj'jring. and grow fat while
they loaf about. When the provisions are gone they return with some
pieces of ore picked up at a mine, tell a few fairy stories about a rich ledge
or a big vein, and 'strike' the tenderfoot for another stake to develop it.
These men know the desert as no one else possibly can, because thev spend
their lives upon it, and while others would perish they are acquainted with
every water-hole, and can get along with as little of that fluid as a canu-l."

"Beg pardon," said the Colonel ; "but here is .Salton. and we must get
out and take a look at the salt sea."

To the south of the railway track, a couple of miles away, lies the
remarkable salt lake — a sheet of snowlike whiteness that glistens in the
sun. It is thirty miles long and ten miles wide. So clear is the air that
you look across it and would swear the further shore was not more than
two miles away. It is a vast marsh, fed by thousantis of springs that rise,
perhaps, in the far-off mountains, and whose waters are rapidly evaporated
as they reach the surface, leaving over the whole lake or marsh a white
expanse of pure salt that sparkles like a vast rippled field of ice. The
marsh is seventeen feet lower than the rest of the vallev, and is thus a

" Working"
the Kullible
lenderfojt.

Salton, the
lowest spot on
the continent,
i.S^i miles
from New-
Orleans.

The KTcat sea
of salt.

132

THROUGH STORYLAND TO SUNSET SEAS.

How the saline
fields are
worked.

When the
Colorado
flooded all the
region

Got a new pair
of lungs and
will help
others.

natural sink or basin. The salt is packed and shipped upon a large scale,
extensive works having been erected. A portable railway runs out three
miles from the shore-line, and here a steam plow gathers the white harvest,
which is earned to the mill on cars, ground and put in packages for mar-
keting. The company, whose interests are looked after on the ground by
Vice-President and General Manager J. W. Durbrow, has a capacity for

taking off eight hundred tons per day and for stor-
ing twelve thousand tons. As Nature replaces the
salt as rapidly as it is gathered, the supply is inex-
haustible. The work is done by Cahuilla Indians,
who live in a little village near the station. They
endure the blinding glare and excessive heat of
the salt sea as no other laborers could, and are
faithful and industrious. It was upon Salton
that the eyes of the world were turned in
June, 1891, when the Colorado, breaking its
banks below Yuma, backed up through the low
valleys until it flooded all this region. There
was vast agitation among the wise men then, for
ley professed a belief that the alleged sea might
e permanent, and the climate of the whole
gion undergo a consequent change. But the
ry desert air took the water in hand, and it
absorbed the prospective sea in a very few
months, so that the coyote soon came back
and the horned toad took possession of
his lair again.

" I knew Durbrow when he came here
first, eight or nine years ago, an almost help-
less consumptive," said the Colonel. "Now
he is as well and strong as anybody. That
is what the climate has done for him. If he
can, by sinking an artesian well, find good
water, he proposes to put up a hotel at this
point, specially adapted for persons suffering from pulmonary complaints.
He has prepared a plan for a house with hollow tile walls, through which
cold air can be pumped, and supplied to the rooms, so as to maintain an
equable temperature at night. In the daytime he says his patients must
be kept out in the air. At present the water is all brought in here ; that
which flows from the springs being too saline for use. The railway company
hauls water cars, to supply its engines, across the arid stretch."

" To see the splendor of this region you should be here on a moonlight

TUNNEL ON .A.N IRRIGATING DITCH
AT RIVKRSIDE

I-IKST GLIMl'SIiS ()!• ( Al.II . .RMx.

^ii' '\s -main k (I

tr. "anil see tin.

laciiuo, eleven thousand five hun- D.*rn.Bd

teet. anil San Hcrnardinc,. ten cOl^rido'^''

thousand feet, glorified by the ""*"

wliite light, while their vast black

shadows rearh far

V >-:>, out over the illumi-

"\s- ^ nated width of the

plain ; or be here to

rise with

'^ the sun and

pinnacle
of the
great ba-
salt ridges glow
redder and red-
der with the fire
of the coming
day, while all the
colors of the spec-
trum mingle in the
cloudless sky."

A few miles
farther on w -
reached Indio— a
verdure-clad gem
set down as a vi-
detteupon the out -
skirts of fertilr
California. Here
an abundance of
good water ap-
plied to the soil has [j
created an oasis so f
productive that :;
grape vine made a
growth of thirty-
six feet in a year.
Just bevond Indio

puosrtxrroRS and an olu olive mill, caluorma.

the road traverses the San llur-onio Pass throu-h the San Bernardino

FIRST GLIMl'SES OI- CALIFORNIA.

135

Range, and reaches an altitude of 2,560 feet. All about are rugged clifTs of
syenite, and gneiss and basalt, that in Miocene times were thrust skyward,
while the eye catches the foamy spume of a mountain torrmt tli.n wvirl.
beside the track and is lost among the cliffs.

While we were still admirmg the rugged scenery, the l.irl turned lu the
Colonel, and said :

" It seems to me you should have a little something to tell us about
California. Here we are now on the threshold of it, and if you have any
particularly poky information it would be a good time to give it to us."

The Colonel looked aggrieved. "I am sure," he said, "that I have
dealt very leniently with you. The trouble st-enis to be that you alwavs

want a sort of
earamel enlij^ht-
tnment. In other

Iiidio. the

vidcllc of
vcnliirr I lad
Califuriiia

A word about
the state.

Difficultir* of
ftu^ar coating
dr>' facts

N.VTIVES OF SOUiHKK.N U.VLH OKNIA.

words, you want mighty little and you want that little sugar-coateil. 1 low m
the world do you think any one could condense the history and resources of a
great and diversified commonwealth like this into a few words? To these
shores first came Cabrillo, a Portuguese navigator, who sailcil under the Span-
ish flag. That was in 1542. Then fifty-four years later came Sebastian Vi.sca-
ino, and after him, in 1769, Junipero Sierra, and planted the first mission at ^^Hy Spanish
what is now Old Town. The different Catholic orders had been importun-

136

THROUGH STORYLAND TO SUNSET SEAS.

The Dons took
things easy

Then the
"Gringos "
came.

ing the crown for authority to establish missions for a long time, and at
last, to balk Russia, which threatened to occupy the country, Carlos III
sent out a military command and after them followed the zealous priests.
How the colony, if such it could be called, drifted on would be a very long
story. By the year 1800 the sixteen padres had 13,500 Indian converts,
and many of these had been tramed to useful pursuits, and were fairly
skilled in handicraft. The Spanish settlers did little to develop the country.
They had great
herds of cattle ' ^^'f^'JW^^SSJ^'^'^'W

Treasures of
mine and field.

and horses, but the
cultivation of the soil
was neglected, and civilization
did not materially progress. In
August, 1833, the Mexican congress
passed the order of secularization,
and the missions, which had been gain-
ing wealth at the rate of more than
two million dollars per year, lasped into
a condition bordering on ruin, as we find
so many of them to-day. After this date
came the thrilling story of American oc-
iN i....> .^:^..i■.l.).^,. cupancy, the gold fever of the .Argonauts,

and the later developments of the agricultural resources. The California
of to-day has a length of 770 miles and a breadth of 330. It has fifty
million acres of arable land and twenty million of forest."

" Having produced over a billion and a quarter dollars in gold, it is no
wonder it is a rich state, with the largest per capita wealth in the Union,"
I said.

"Yes, but its wealth is in its fields and orchards," replied the Colonel.
"It raises more than fortv million bushels of wheat, fifteen million bushels

FIRST CiLIMPSES OF CALIFORNIA. l:;7

of barley, seventy million pounds of raisins, thirty million pounds of pruiH-h.
and eight thousand carloads of oranges ; wine, twenty million gallons ; heet-
sugar. twenty-six million pounds; wool, forty million pounds: hops, forty-
five thousand bales ; petroleum, six hundred thousand barrels ; olive (iil.
four thousand five hundred gallons, and a multitude of other products for
export and home consumption. Everything grows here. It affords any
sort of climate and every possible soil, and its waste places neetl onlv water
to transform them into orchards and gardens. It has hundreds of square
miles covered with orchards of citrus fruits, which make its valleys so
beautiful that, to the eastern tourist, they seem like a vision of Hesperides."

"But, after all, its climate is its chief attraction." I said.

" As one can readilv understand when one knows that the eastern tourists wii.,t cMcm

1 . 1 ,- Ml- 1 11 1 II .. lonrists pav for

who wmter here spend some five million dollars in the state annually, climate.

said the Growler. "That shows appreciation of climate. Some of them

have a wrong idea of it. They think if ^hey get anywhere in California

they are safe. They do not pause to consider that the great state runs

through many degrees of latitude, with every range of temperature and

humidity made possible by high mountain chains, deep valleys, sea-coast

and plain. But there are certain peculiar features which obtain all over the

state. In the first place, the division of the year into two sea.sons — a dry

and rainy one — is the most marked general characteristic of the Califor-

nian climate. But as one goes further north, the rains are found to begin

earlier and last longer ; while on the other hand, the southeastern corner of ^hmatras you

*> hiul il here.

the state is almost rainless. Again, the climate of the Pacihc coast along
the whole length is milder and more uniform than that of the states in a
corresponding latitude east of the mountains. Thus, we have to go as far
north as Sitka, in latitude 57. to find the same mean yearly temperature as
that of Halifax, N. S., in latitude 44° 39'. And in going south along the variations

.- I » 1 1 c producea by

coast, we observe that the mean temperature ot Los Angeles ami ban U-ai
Diego is six or seven degrees less than that of Charleston and Vicksburg, '"p°'^'1' ^
which are nearly in the same latitude, and situated one on the Atlantic
coast, the other on the Mississippi River. But. in atldition. we notice that
the means of summer and winter are much nearer the mean of the year in
California than in the east. Thus, comparing Washington and San Fran-
cisco, we have :

Mean ot Mean ol Mean ol

Year. SuinnuT Winter.

San Francisco 5^- ^- 5'-

Washington 56.07 76-3 3^05

" This condition of things is not so marked as we advance into the interior si|imucrand
of California, but everywhere in the state the winters are comparatively
mild, and the heat of summer is much less disagreeable in its effects, because
the air is exceedinglv dry and the evaporation proportionately rapid."

THE GREAT INCLINE UP MT. LOWE.

A TRINITY OF BEAUTIFUL TOWNS.

130

" Enough of speculation and deduction," exclaimed the Colonel, as the jeweUofthe
Growler paused. " Here we are at Redlands Junction. Redlands is the vaUcy^""

younger and easternmost of those three jewels of the Santa Ana Valley

the other two being Riverside and San Bernardino. Its growth has been
wholly since 1887, and yet it now has almost four thousand acres of orange
orchards. In eight years it has developed from nothing into a town of
paved streets, sewered, lighted by electricity, and adorned by handsome Redlands.
homes and every public improvement. The other two towns are reached
by a motor line in a ride of a few minutes from Colton. The three towns
form a triangle. Their charms are well nigh equal. The pioneer settlers
located at Riverside in 1871. Then it was a desert. Now it has 7,500
people, and the assessed valuation is upwards of $6,000,000. You have all
heard of Magnolia Avenue in Riverside — that broad thoroughfare which Riverside,
for ten miles is lined with magnolia, pepper, palm and euca-
lyptus trees, and flanked by ten thousand acres of mag-
nificent orange groves. The hard-graveled road rings
^^^pBUL^ under your horse's feet, and the homes that line this

f^mUK^M/ i- ^' 1^' ^~ great highway are worthy

J^ "^>.,Z_ \ f ~ ' ■ of their surroundings. The

A-Mum; nil '-imi lunric homi-:

SOUTHIiK.N CALirORNIA.

extensive irri-
gating systems which
have made this desert
blossom now furnish water for twenty-five' thousand acres of land. The city
of San Bernardino, which has an altitude of a thousand feet, was originally
a Mormon town, planned after Salt Lake City. Long since the Mormons
lost their hold and went back to Utah, and now successive avenues fringed
with hedges and feathery palms, and lined by great orchards, nestling
affluent homes, bespeak prosperity. The business center of the city is
substantially built, and everything indicates order and progression. These
three towns are the fit representatives of the great orange indu.stry, and I
have never known any one who visited here who did not feel a longing

Sail
Bernardino.

A TRIMIV OK BKALTIl-UI. TOWNS. 141

to take up his residence in some one of iliem. and enjoy the delights ot liv-
ing under such attractive conditions."

"While we are running through this land of perpetual bloom, 1 am An anecdote of
reminded of an amusing story my friend Horace Hell used to tell, of a time "''> '•"'•*'*=^
when everything was very different," remarked the (Irowler. " It was a
true incident, occurred right here, and will give you an illustration of the
social order of early California. There was in the early 50's a doctor who
had come to California with Stevenson's pioneer regiment. He was a
useful character, who soon won local distinction as a Democratic politician
and filled suiKiry municipal offices. In the Presidential canvass of 1S52,
the twtj parties. Whig and Democrat, were warmly arrayed one against the
other. The Democratic outlook was good except in one particular i)recinct,
that of Jurupa — and it is here proper to say that Los Angeles county at that
time embraced all the territory of San Bernardino, the division having been The field ot
made in 1854. Old Louis Roubideau.x was the lord of Jurupa, that is, he "i'^'^"°"*-
owned and occupied the Jurupa Rancho, and he was a Whig, and could not
be won over in any way. The case seemed hopeless, ami the Doctor was
sent out with his saddle-bags full of Democratic tickets to act as a forlorn
hope in the cause. Then and the.e was where the transcendent genius of
the embryo politician cropped out. Abt)Ut half way from Jurupa, which
was then a mditary post, to San Bernardino was situated the most beautiful
little settlement I ever saw. It was called ' Agua Mansa,' meaning gentle -AjruaMansa."

, ,.,... . X - , r ■ 1 « place of unso-

watei, and was composed entirely ot emigrants from New Mexico, number- phisticaied
ing some two hundred souls — simple, good souls they were, too : primitive
in their style of living, kind and hospitable to strangers, rich in all that went
to make people happy and content, never having been, up to that time, vexed
by the unceremonious calls of the tax collector, owing allegiance to none
save the simple, kind-hearted old priest who looked after their spiritua'
wellfare. In the winter of 1862 a tlood in the Santa Ana River swept away
their houses, gardens, orchards, vineyards, in fact all of their splendid
agricultural lands, leaving nothing save a hideous plain of black boulders
and cobble-stones to mark the place where once stood this modern minia-
ture Eden.

"There must have been at least fiftv voters at Agua Mansa, which had The wiiy

, . ' , , .^ , • politician

been designated as the voting place tor the Jurupa precinct. So to thi> arrivtsomhe

scene.

place hied the noble Doctor as the avaunt courier of American civilization,
to give this primitive people their first lesson in tlie mysteries of citizenship.
"The Doctor was a New Yorker, and may have had past experience in
the management of elections. In this instance he not only proved himself
an adept, but a perfect master of the business. Arriving at Agua Mansa, His religious

,., ,. II- irri'ii devotion

he dismounted, tied his hungry mustang, divested himself of his leatiier inanifested
Mexican leggings and jingling spurs, and with the sacred saddle-bags on

142

THROUGH STORYLAND TO SUNSET SEAS.

his arm, with solemn step and downcast eyes, he bent his way to the little
adobe church that stood on a mound in the center of the village. Arriv-
ing at the door he piously uncovered, reverently crossed himself, entered
The old priest and prostrated himself in front of the little altar, and was then and there
trap/'^ ° ^ discovered by the simple old priest, who sprinkled him with holy water and
offered him sweet words of consolation. Within the next hour the Doctor
informed the priest that his piety (the priest's, not the Doctor's) had a world-
wide fame, and that in the distant land of New York the sacred name of
Friar Juan of Agua Mansa was a household word among all good Catho-
lics, and he, the Doctor, had made a pilgrimage hither to invoke the prayers
of the saintly Juan for the repose of the soul of his mother (the Doctor's
mother, not the priest's), at which period the Doctor slipped a 'slug' into
the palm of the astonished Juan.

"Suffice it to say that prayers and masses were the order of the day, and
on the following morning, at the breakfast table, the Doctor informed the
priest that an election would be held on that day for President of the United
States ; that one candidate, General Scott, was a great heretic, and was the
tyrant who made war on the Catholics of Mexico ; and that it would be a
greatcalamity to the Catholic world should Scott be elected; that Pierce, the
other candidate, was a good Catholic, and if elected would build Catholic
churches all over the world, and that it therefore behooved them, as good
Catholics, to see that Agua Mansa cast its vote for Pierce. And Agua Mansa
did, under the pious instructions of the saintly Juan, subject to the satanic
Doctor, vote early and all day for the Democratic candidate, to the great
chagrin of old Louis Roubideaux, who felt, for the first time, that he had
lost his influence with the gentle people of Agua Mansa."

And the people
vole solidly for
his candidate.

CHAPTER XVIII.

IN THE CITY OF THE ANGELS, TOGETHER WITH S(JME SIDE TRIPS To

PASADENA AND MT. LOWE, SANTA MONICA AND ITS GREAT

WHARF, AND THE ISLAND OF SANTA CATALINA.

FROM now on the road was through the gic.ii orange district — pa^i »•a^t u,, ..i.i
Pomona and through the San Gabriel Valley where is the Mission oabric"/' ^^
which Padres Somera and Cambon established in August, 1771. Under the
very shadow of its chapel General Kearney defeated the Mexican forces in
his memorable battle. The Girl was in a continuous ecstacy of delight,
and she went into raptures over the beautiful views from the window. The
Colonel was pointing out the different varieties of fruit, and explaining
something of their cultivation and profit. Even the Growler wore a com-
placent look — a sort of " Isn't-it-all-I-toId-you " air. In an hour or two —
in the very midst of our enjoyment of it all — the train ran into the env.rtms
of a city, and presently came to a standstill in a great cool depot — the AndimoLos
Arcade at Los Angeles. As we were driven through the busy streets, with imies^rom
their tall modern buildings, their hurry of electric cars and bustle of com-
merce, the Colonel said :

"Looking now at this metropolis of 75,000 people 11 i> pn.-u_\ iiard iu
realize that it was a thriving pueblo when the Franciscan Fathers estab-
lished their Mission in 1781. The name given to it ' The Pueblo de la Reina
de los Angeles/ or town of the queen of the angels — bespoke the impression
the early beauty of the place made upon its founders. Here, in 1S22, the
first American came, brought as a prisoner. In 1835 the place became the
capital of California, and in August, 1846, Commodore Robert F. Stockton
and Maj. John C. Fremont marched in and raised the stars and stripes on
Fort Hill. When, in 1847. Fremont became Governor he established his
headquarters here. It was from here he made his famous mustang ride to tik- city before
Monterey — a round trip of a thousand miles, which he covered in just eight
and a half days — an average of nearly one hunilred and twenty-five miles
per day. Through the first stormy years, when lawlessness was more or less
prevalent, the town grew by gradual accretions of a more desirable class,
and with the usual adventurous circumstances attending the building of a
citv, it increased in importance until when in 18S1 it celebrated its centen-
nial thirty thousand people were in line. From then on the growth of the

143

it was a citv

144

THROUGH STORYLAND TO SUNSET SEAS.

Now it is city was rapid and its improvement marked. To-day its limits comprise an

todTte^^'" "^ area of thirty-six square miles, through which flows the Los Angeles River.
The municipality controls a very extensive irrigating plant as well as a
system for the supply of water for domestic purposes. In every element
that goes to make up city life, it is not surpassed by any place in the
countrv. The cleanliness of its well-paved streets, the architecture of its
busmess center, and the charm of its residence thoroughfares, where hedges

Easy to get
around

Plans for
seeing things.

-.--.. .:--- CALIKORNIA INDIANS IN CA.MI'.

of calla lilies supplant fences, and great rose trees hide roofs and walls and
clamber in a clinging mass over porches — all make up a picture which can-
not anywhere be duplicated."

During the two or three days that we spent there we found our time
fully occupied. The extensive cable and electric lines make all parts of the
city and the adjacent suburbs easily accessible. The parks, the gardens,
the places of public amusement, kept us busy in our tour of sight-seeing.

Then, one evening, when the Colonel said : " Now we must prepare to
visit a few of the points of interest about here." we were ready to hear what
else there possibly could be more interesting than that which we had seen.

"In the first place," he continued, deliberately, "Los Angeles is the
center of a great many attractions, and it is the strategic base to move on
them, from which the tourist naturally makes headciuarters. As we came
past Riverside, Redlands and San Bernardino, and will stop and visit them
on our way back, we need not make a special trip there now, tho' they are
points which every traveler will wish to inspect. But we will take a run
over to I'asadena and Mt. Lowe ; go down to Santa Monica, over to Santa
Catalina Island, and on our way northward will slip over to Santa Barbara.
If we had time we would take a run down to San Diego and Coronado
Beach, which are reached from here by an easy run of a few hours."

'' Thai's a list of attractuMis that no other point can offer," said the

IN nil-: cnv oi- iii

\\<.i:ls.

u:.

Growler. "The most sublime mountain scenery and a ride up to it on the
steepest railway in the world, a s^limpse of one of the j,'reatest piers ever
constructed, and a dip in the surf of the Pacific at a place where you can
take a header in the breakers all the year round without discomfort ; a
thirty-mile sail over the bluest of seas, and an island harbor at the end of
the ride which would delight any lover of nature."

" Let's have the surf-bath first ! " cried the (iirl.

"All right ; then it's Santa Monica we go to," replied the Colonel. - It's
only a run of an hour and it's almost due west of here. I'he Southern
Pacific runs frequent trains to Port Los Angeles, just beyond, where it has
its big wharf, and does an innnense excursion business."

We went down to Santa Monica the next day, visiting the soldiers' home
and the famous ostrich farm on the way. At Santa Monica the train runs
into a flower-bespangled park, while just beyond the sea beats upon a wide
beach of white sand. The ride, all the way down, is through the rural
beauties of the orange country. The shore line of the bay has a graceful
sweep. In the summer the ..;t^\ /x^ cool winds from the

northwest are \ I ^''"'"^^•s^ diverted by the

Sierra Santa
Monica,

AttrnrliooS
nrat l.ua

Angeles.

>>anta Monica
.111(1 its K'^at
wharf

a billowy range '\^|2K^f^^^'^'^^$|S^Hf ^'

of coast mountains ^^^BSa/^^dgt/j^SBIf/m lying along the northern
shore. Hencetheocean ^^^^^H^H^^>^ =^^v^" is long and gentle,
and the breakers are ^^^^BRe?---''''^^ never annoying. There are
beautiful eucalyptus scknes .n ..os ant.ei.es. jrroves. and the streets of the
old town are lined with trees, while the admirable Hotel .Arcadia, with
every concomitant of elegant comfort, stands upon the beach with a
perpetual invitation to guests to linger for a time. There is besides
the unexcelled surf bathing, a great bath-house where huge pools invite
those who refuse the ruder play of the waves. C.athering shells and moss,
bathing in the surf, and visiting the great Southern Pacific wharf, at Port
Los .Angeles, 4,600 feet long, that curves out into the turcjuois waters, occu-
pied our time. The wharf is a huge structure, with coal bunkers that will
hold more than 8,000 tons, depot buiUlings aiul freight sheds that will

Di lights of the
sra side.

146

THROUGH STORYLAND TO SUNSET SEAS.

Pasadena and
Mt. Lowe.

Into Rubio
Canon.

DiflBculties of

construction

illustrated.

Up the Great
Incline, where
the grade is 62
per cent.

accommodate the longest trains. The next day was given over to Pasadena
and Mt. Lowe. Pasadena, the gem of the San Gabriel Valley, with its
twelve thousand people, nestles between the Sierra Madre Range and the
Puente Hills. Here, where once the indolent dons had their ranches and
the jovial friars cared for the docile Indians, the Anglo-Saxon has built a
beautiful city. Here wild flowers bespangle the fields, and rugged old trees
of native growth mingle with the orchards of orange, lemon and olive.
Here the clouds only obscure the sun on fourteen days of the year,
and the mean of the thermometer is 59°. Winter does not exist and
summer is not a season to be dreaded. The homes all wear an air of
cheerful content and plenty, while many of them bear evidence of the
wealth of their occupants. The newly opened line of the Southern Pacific
soon carried us from Los Angeles to and through Pasadena, and the electric
line toolc us into Rubio Caiion, named for the venerable padre of the Mis-
sion of San Buenaventura. The line winds about the base of the hills,
higher and higher, crossing gorges and through deep cuts in the spurs that
jut out. At the foot of the Great Incline we alighted and walked up Rubio
Canon, half a mile or more.

"I'm out of breath ! " the Girl exclaimed.

" Shall we go back ? " the Colonel asked.

" No, indeed, it is too lovely — I want to see it all," was the response.

The pathway leads through deep gorges, where the gray and mossy walls
rise on each side to shut the canon in. We are following up a mountain
brook that dashes madly along. In places the way is blocked by a sheer
precipice, over which the stream falls in foamy spray, but here wooden steps
clinging to the precipice makes progress possible.

" Every bit of this timber was carried in here on the shoulders of men,"
says the Growler.

At last we turn an abrupt angle of the rock wall, and before us a silvery,
veil-like mist of water falls from a hundred feet or more above. At our
feet is a pool so clear that every shining grain of sand at its bottom is visible.
All about the tall cliffs hem us in, their cool black faces blotched with green
mosses. After standing in silent admiration for a long time, we turn and
retrace our steps.

" I never will go up there," said the Girl, firmly, as we stood at the foot of
the Great Incline ready to take the car.

" It is perfectly safe, my dear, or I would not trust you to it," replied the
Colonel, persuasively.

"This," said the Growler, craning his neck to look up to where the track
disappeared over the hill ahead, " is what Count Commodensky, imperial
superintendent of the military roads of Russia, pronounced tfie most won-

IN THE CITY (JF TIIK AN(,i;i,S.

147

1 a ifiiglii c>t j.ooc It

THE WILD FLOWKRS OK CALIFORNIA.

derful engineering feat he had seen anywhere, li
makes a direct ascent of over 1,300 feet."

By the time the conductor called "all aboard." we had taken our places Thctartfor
in the open car, which is so arranged that the seats are always on a level. Mounutn.*^*^
regardless of the steep grade. There was a signal by wire to the motor-
house on the mountain, the long steel cable tightened and we moved
upward. At every foot the panorama of seamed ami ruijurd nKtuntain grew
beneath us, and then we caught glimpses ^^^ of tlic

great valley that spread below, with /^ ^\ its

clustering houses and
its shining reser-
voirs. When we
stepped out on
the plateau at
the top, where
a commodious
hotel awaited
us, it was to
have an unex-
ampled pano-
rama unfold-
ed at our feet, for here one looks off across the intervening valleys to the far The paniram*
Pacific, and sees the islands whose green heights rise from the waves thirty bciow
miles off shore. Field and garden and orchard are lying below like the
squares of a vast checker-board ; and one waits on the wide verandas or
walks along the edge of the high ridges to rest the eye upon this changeful
picture of delight.

'• Well, I know there is nothing more beautiful than this I " said the Girl, at
last.

" It is only one of the wonders California is so prodigal in." was the
Colonel's reply. '* Vou will .'^ay that same thing a hundred times before we
leave the state."

"That's the trouble!" chimed in the Growler. "There is so much to ^Ycx'^ranl"''''
see and admire. It's like looking at good pictures. A few of them delight good things
one, and you can restfuUy enjoy them, but when you visit a great gallery
crowded with superb canvases the senses become dulled and one grows
weary."

•• Well, well," responded the Colonel, "never fear, we won't see half the
wonders of California, try as we will, and each place is so different in its
beauty or its character of novelty from all the others that there is not much
chance of getting tired."

On up the mountain, to the very summit of tail Mt. Lowe, an electric

148

THROUGH STORYLAND TO SUNSET SEAS.

San Pedro

Off lor Santa

Catalina

Island.

A paradise in
the Pacific.

Cabrillo spied
it out in 1542.

railway runs — a marvelous piece of construction, which, at times, juts out
from the sheer face of a precipice, while one looks out of the car window
into chasms thousands of feet deep.

We took the train for San Pedro the next morning, and another ride of
sixty minutes landed us at the pretty little seaport town with its island-
sheltered bay and its white lighthouse. The steamer was awaiting us and
as we went on the upper deck, the Growler looked about ecstatically, and,
with a genuflexion of his arm toward the sea, exclaimed :

"Ah, this is something like it — nothing like the sea to brace you up, my
boy ! Why, this trip will make us all feel younger."

" How far out is it to Santa Catalina, the isle of summer, you have been
talking about so much, papa ? " the Girl asked, looking a little timorously at
the long ocean swell outside.

"It lies about nineteen miles off the "coast," the Colonel replied, "and far
enough south of here to make the voyage one of almost thirty miles. But
don't be alarmed ; you know you are on the Pacific now."
" How much of an island is it ? " I asked.

"Well, say twenty-three miles long, with a breadth of from eight miles to

half a mile. Its hills rise to a
height of three thousand feet,
and they shelter lovely valleys,
woodlands, and in fact a great
diversity of natural scenery.
James Lick bought the island
liom the Government in 1864
for $12,000 and made a mighty
good bargain. It is now owned
by the Banning Brothers of Los
Angeles, and is one of the most
resorts on the whole coast."
course its discovery was due to the old
navigators?" I said; "they seem to have
monopoly of discovery in the South and

replied the Colonel. "Cabrillo, when
looking for the mythical Straits of
came upon Santa Catalina in September,
1542. Cabrillo died on one of the islands of the Santa Barbara channel ; but
his pilot, Ferrello, has left a diary which tells us that a large Indian village
was located on what is now known as Avalon Bay on the south sid^ of the Cata-
lina. Doubtless Drake, Woods, Rogers, Sherlocke, and the buccaneers who
were much in evidence shortly afterwards, all visited the place, but it was not

A CATALINA ISl.A.Nl) MOUNTAIN
SHEEP.

IX THE CITV OK TIIK ANCELS.

149

until sixty years later, when the expedition wliich Philip III sent out under
Sebastian Vizcaino landed there an<l s^ave it its nam.-, tliat we hear much

SOCTHURN I'ACIl'IC WIIAKK AT PORT H

of it. The large native population deserteil, at the instigation o' the
Franciscan fathers, about the middle of the last century."

"And more's the pitv," said the Cirowler ; "for they left a lovely home tik- natives

,-,,■■■, , ' I I'l- !•■' 1 >javc up a good

and a life of independence to take up peonage under their religious task- thing,
masters. But the island shows ample evidence of an older civilization, and
one which presents a good many problems to the ethnologist."

"Well, don't let's have any problems," exclaimed the (iirl : " the sea and
the day are too delightful."

It was, indeed, a charming day, and for a quarter century an annually

IN nii; CITY OF TIIK ANCKlS.

151

growing throng of tourists have been singing the praises of the voyage.

The sea is wimpied in great billowy undulations that shade off in every

range of color — from turquois, as you look over the side of the vessel, to

emerald, where heaven clasps it far away. White sea-gulls follow close

behind the steamer, or sweep ahead and over it in long graceful curves of

flight. In the water you discern great masses of kelp that some far-off The wytge to

storm has dislodged from ocean caves perhaps a thousand fathoms deep.

Flying fish rise in swift flight and skim the surface for a hundred yards

until their gossamer wings fail them and they fall back into their element.

There was just enough sea to be exhilarating, and we were all somewhat

surprised to notice the Growler rise a little shakily from his chair just as

CaUlina

^^■^v

KOM PASADENA

the island was coming well mto view and say, with the aspect of a man who
is going to keep his secret if he dies for it :

" Excuse me, please; I will go down on the lower deck and look over the
vessel."

" Don't look over the side," said the Girl, airily; " vou might tall over, you

The Growler

ilisappeara

lielow.

"I have no intention of looking over the side," replied the Growler, with
pale dignity. "I have been to sea too often to indulc:e in anv such tom-
foolery."

"The Growler's sea-sick," said the Girl, heartles^-ly ; •woni wi- lease

him, tho'."

" Don't be too sure you won't be in the same condition yourselt," replied

her father.

IN THE CITY OK THK ANUlil.S.

153

The little town of Avalon clusters close under the encircling hills upon Avaion and iu

hcItrr^d bay.

the sheltered bay of the same name. On either liand the bold [iromontories
push themselves out into the sea, and offer a front of rock to the great
billows that beat against them. 15ehintl and on either siile of the scattered
^' the hills slope sharply, with here and there a nodding tree,
t the vivid green of thick grass and the brilli-
flowers. The boats of the fishermen are drawn
lie white strand, and on the beach their nets are
spread. The shells they gather upon the Cata-
lina shores are wonderful in their variety, and
more wonderful in the diversity of their color-

" It all seems like a pretty bit of stage-
setting," said the Girl, delightedly, as the
A steamer drew close to the dock.

"\N'hat an ideal place it is. to
be sure I "'

The Growler was standing paie, but

, , 111 resolute I

on the lower deck when we starchy,
prepared to disembark. He
looked pretty pale, and there
was a sad, far-away gleam in
I tried to be jocose, and e.\-
" Nothing like a sea trip to
one up, eh ! makes us feel
don't it?" But our comrade
humor for badinage, and he re-
" There are certain conditions
system when the oldpst sailor
uncomfortable, but — "

his eyes,
claimed:
brace

younger,
was in no
plied :
of the
is apt to feel^
He did not's^'
glad of it, for I;
I knew he felt

JN C.\ 1 .^MN A 1--I \N1>

have time to hnish anil I was Thcynii

, , , , wanted to stay.

I really pitied the Growler, and
badlv. Hut we were at the dock.

and while we walked up to the hotel the Girl chatted away at a rate which
soon smoothed thin-s over. It was four or five days bef..re we could induce
the Growler to start on the return trip. The Clirl sided with him and wanted
to stay and it did no good for the Colonel to protest that we would not get
back home in a vear unless we cut our sight-seeing shorter, and it was only
when I intimated that he was afraid of the return voyage to San Pedro that he
showed a willingness to go. That touched his vanity. I confess I was m
no hurry to leave mvself, for after we took the famous coach ride from
Avalon to the isthmus, through Middle Ranch Cafton, winding about the

154

THROUGH STORYLAND TO SUNSET SEAS.

Sports of the
island.

The island
goat.

Treasures of
the sea and air.

Cabrillo Range, under the shadow of the Peaks of Orizaba and Viscaino,
there was plenty to occupy our time. We tried to catch a jevv-fish, but
didn't succeed. However, we had no end of sport with yellow-tail— the
salmon of these waters — and caught barracuda, rock-bass, white-fish,
grouper and tuna enough to supply the hotel. The Growler and I spent a
day in the mountains in chase of the agile mountain goat, which here
abounds. It was a long tramp, but it had its rewards, for we bagged a fine
specimen. We both caught sight of him at the same time, and made a long
detour to crawl up within rifle shot. He stood like a sentinel guarding a
little flock that was feeding in a hollow below. The Growler and I both
fired at the same time, and the goat, with a high bound in the air, fell dead.
A shot had struck him just back of the left shoulder. I protested that I
had killed him, but the Growler said he knew it was his shot because he
always fired for the left shoulder when hunting big game. To settle the
matter we agreed to have the head mounted and give it to the Girl as a
souvenir of the trip.

Everything tempted us — the gray rocks covered with sea anemones of
varied colors, and with star-fish hiding in the crannies ; the jelly-fish which,
in bulky mass or long glass-like tendrils, floated in on the tide ; the brown
pelicans that haunt the shore with lumbering flight ; the loon, and gulls, and
eagles. So it was small wonder that we saw the fair shores of Santa Catalina
fade, and the mists, that distance drops like a curtain, hide the island head-
lands from our sight.

CHAPTKK XIX.

UP THE MAIN LINE, THROLC.H IHE lEMACHAPI PASS AND IHK SAN
JOAQUIN VALLEY lO SAN KRANCISCO.

" T 'VE got a better plan for seeing California." the ('olonel announced
i the night before we left Los Angeles.

Of course we were all attention at once, for we knew the C."ol(jnel would
devise the best methods for systematic sight-seeing.

"The main line of the Southern Pacific," he continued. " runs the full Southern

.... Pacific lines In

length of the state, entering at its northern line and leaving it at the south- California.
east corner, traversing the entire central part of the commonwealth. It also
has a coast line, which runs south from San Francisco, and soon to be
connected at Elwood with the present road from that point to Saugus on

N A l.\I.Ti-(lKNI.\ 0--TKK1I lAKM

the main line. The many branches of the system which diverge from these
principal lines, without speaking of the Union Pacific to Ogdcn, make every
point of California readily accessible. Now we will go up on the main line
to San Francisco, perhaps take a run up to Portland. Oregon, out to Salt
Lake, Utah, and when we are ready to come home we will return via the
coast line. In this way we shall save doubling back over the same road and
will see the whole country."

155

156

THROUGH STORYLAND TO SUNSET SEAS.

The

advantages of
a great system.

Through the
San Fernando
tunnel.

Driving over
the trail before
the railroad
was built.

"Couldn't be better," said the Growler. " Now that's the advantage of
this great system. It is so e.xtensive that it reaches every point of interest,
making the very best of connections and being in the hands of our friends,
as it were, all the time. '

Leaving Los Angeles the road follows for a time the bank of the
beautiful river, and then commences its -w ...----r --^^ r^

climb of the valleys of the Los Angeles «L^' ' ^-"^

and San Fernando until, twenty-si.x miles

IN THE YOSEMITE VALLEY.

from the city,
and 1,200
feet above it,
or at an alti-
tude of 1,469

feet, it goes through the great San Fernando tunnel in the range of that
name. The tunnel is 6,967 feet long. Across here the old Mexican pack-
trail led, and in the years before the railroad had projected its daring feat
long strings of burros, loaded with the products of the country, wended
their devious way through the mountain defile. When Fort Tejon was
established, the firm of Alexander & Banning, pioneer stage operators of
Los Angeles, determined to run a six-horse stage over the old trail. People
i:)ronounced the project visionary and no driver could be found who would
assume the responsibility. Then Phineas Banning himself declared that
he would drive the stage and prove that the road was practicable. So one
day in December, 1854, found him seated on the box at the summit of
the San Fernando. His six panting mustangs were covered with foam, and
his nine passengers looked at the seemingly sheer precipice of hundreds of
feet which was before them, and chose to walk. But nothing could terrify
Banning. With a crack of the whip and a tightening of the rejns, he
urged his trembling mustangs forward. They gave a tug and the stage
started down the mountain side — rackety, crash, bang, it went, sometimes
the horses ahead of the stage, and sometimes the stage ahead of the horses,

Ur 11 IK MAIN LINE.

157

iiicif wf were saugu»,ihc

jiiiictiou point
fur Santa
Barl>arn

until it landed in a thicket of chaparral at the foot of old San Fernando, a
wild conglomeration of harness, coach, mustangs, and Banning. " Didn't 1 nrK..iij,crc
tell you so, gentlemen," the driver e.vclaimed, as he extricated himself from J"" ""■»•"«
the wreck. "A beautiful descent; far less difficult than I anticipated. I
intended that staging to Fort Tejon and Kern River should be a success,
and, you see, my judgment was correct." .And ^.-k^^^^ Banning was
right, for later on the road was improved to such '\J||^^^^ an extent that
staging was not attended by imminent risk to V^IHB ncckandlimb.

" This is where we wcjuld leave the main
going direct to Santa Barbara," said
the (irowler, when Saugus, thirty-two
miles from Los Angeles, was
reached. " It is the junction with
the Santa Barbara branch and a
delightful run. But we will come
down on the coast line and see
it all, here reaching the main
line again on our return."

Beyond Saugus the line follows
for the most part the Soledad Caiion ||r
through the San Gabriel Range, with
the headwaters of the Santa Clara
close at hand, until at Alpine it enters ■
ernmost corner of the Mojave Desert. ^
vation is greater (twenty-seven hun-
than the Colorado Desert, but it wears
same aspect. Here the yucca palm grow^,
seem to the ordinary tourist as tho' it had no
add to the dreariness of the scene, it is made
English firm who manufacture from it

quality of printing paper. One .sees " but little of Thc^Mojave

the great desert which stretches off to the west far into .Vrizona and
Nevada. There are thrifty looking towns at intervals, and at Mojave a
junction is formed with the .Atlantic cV Pacific Railway.

" I want you all to be on the alert now," said the Colonel, when the road
began winding along Cache Creek and among the spurs of the Tchachapi
Range. " This mountain chain was long the serious barrier which prevented
access by railroad to the southern part of the state, and one of the most
remarkable triumphs of railway engineering ever achieved in any part of
the world is just ahead of us. North of the summit, which has an elevation
of 3,964 feet, a group of mountain peaks and vast crags belonging to the
terminating southwestern spur of the Sierra Nevada disputed the advance

the west- XhrouRh

SolirdaUCauoo

1 he ele-

tired feet)

much the

and tho' it might

other use than to

available by an

an excellent

THE C.iLIl-uK.NIA POPPY.

The I'assol
IheTehachapi.

CASCADE FALLS.

THREE BROTHERS.

NORTH DOME.
IN THE YOSEMITE VALLEY.

EL CAPIT.\N.

THE SAN JOA(jLIN \ Al LEV.

159

AMONG THE POPPIES.

of the steel higluvay. but by a series of complex and bewildering *>..,... and
finally by actually making a turn where the road crosses itself at the famous
'Loop,' the pathway was made."

"There was a hardy class of settlers here in early days, and antelope and
deer were abundant and. indeed, may be yet in the
.'* "^ small valleys and romantic canons scattered throutrh

the range; the forests of pine and s|)reading oaks
and groves of evergreen giving them safe retreat.
while the many springs and brooks afford delightful
camping grounds under the shelter of rugged crags.
During the dark days of the civil war a desperado
named Mason collected about him a gang of cut-
throats who robbed and murdered all who failed to
pay them tribute. They made the Pass their head-
(juarters, and terrorized the country until Mason was
killed by one of his own men, when the organization
was broken up and a good many of the members
expiated their crimes on the gallows."

"The scenery is too beautiful to listen to those
horrid stories," said the Girl. " Every view from the
window is different — now a glimpse of a venlant
valley through great canon walls, and now a dashing brook or a colossal
mountain mass that makes one feel subdued."

"Impossible !" replied the Growler. "Certainly nothing could have that
effect upon a woman."

"Well, the trip to Catalina had that effect upon you," retorted the (lirl.
and the Growler subsided.

Now we entered the great San Joaquin WiUey, that vast basin bounded
on the east by the Sierra Nevada, and on the west by the Coast Range, a
great arable plain seventy miles wide, and stretching four hundred and
eighty miles north and south, from Mt. Shasta to Tehachapi I'ass. Watered
by the Sacramento and its tributaries in the north, and by the San Joatiuin
and King's rivers ami their tributaries in the south, sheltered by its
mountain chains, and with a variety of soil and climate found nowhere else,
it is the granary of the Pacific coast and one of the great fruit centers of the
world. The six counties into which the lower 250 miles of the valley are
divided would each make a state larger than Connecticut, individually
capable of supporting, as its commercial center, a city of more than 50,000
people. The average rainfall of this section is ten inches, but agriculture is
expedited by irrigation on a stupendous scale, the main canal alone of one
system tapping the Merced River is over twenty-seven miles long, ten feet
deep, one hundred feet wide at the top antl seventy feet at the bottom. Its

The Unoos
" Loop

It wai a
liandit
slronRholit
once

ThrouRh the
Oreat Sau
Joaquin
Valley

The granary
and vineyard
of the coast.

GLACIER POINT, M)SEHlITr, VALLEY.

THE SAN JOAQUIN VAI.l.KV.

161

carrying capacity is 3,400 cubic feet per second. This canal, which is but coio*«i
one of many in this immense valley, was constructed at a cost ..f $3,242,000 iTh?™!^'
to benefit the territory in its wide neighborhood.

The temperature of this section rarely falls below 30 . The fertility
of the soil is amazing, and the profits of agriculture almost beyond
credulity. Here are orange groves producing eight hundred dollars per
acre per annum, and blackberry and strawberry gardens yielding to their
owners up to $1,500 per acre. The vineyards and fruit orchards are Kvemhiug on
measured by miles square, and their great size corresponds with the almost • ••^•^'^ •***«•
fabulous yearly revenues derived from them. Among them are scattered
edifices which resemble the suburban homes of capitalists rather than farm
houses, which they are — the homes of the owners.

The local attractions have naturally drawn hither a large number of

Tin; I EKRY SLIP AT PORT COSTA.

wealtln- people, including many high class and enterprising English : and
the money spent by such settlers has enhanced the value of neighboring as
well as their own property.

rhenomenal natural advantages, industrious development, sagacious The homes it

'^ . offers.

expenditure, such are the elements that have made o( the San Joaquin
Valley a picture of prosperity, whether seen as a sea of green in early
verdure or glistening with the brown richness of harvest time.

As the train ran on mile after mile through this wide sweep of fields,
the Girl broke forth in exclamations of delight.

162

THROUGH STORYLAND TO SUNSET SEAS.

The field
flowers of

California.

Bakersfield.

"Oh, what wild flowers! " she exclaimed. "Why the fields are carpeted
with them! "

While the train stopped at a station I got out, and gathered an armful to
bring in to her, and the Colonel said :

"This is the land of flowers as well as fruits, you know. The poppy, or
eschscholtzia Californica, is the flower emblem of the state. Its petals are

larger than your hand, a bright yellow
shading off into a brilli"ant orange at
the center. It is in evidence every-
where, with a
range from
]..:'• '^, gold to

scarlet,

sometimes

AND FERRY LANDING AT S.^N FRANCISCO

and glorifying

alike their

genus and the

fields where

they grow. Then there is the violet and the primrose, the sweet-clover that

ranges from yellow to purple and rose, and the wild geranium, the blue

larkspur and the scarlet silene. Mingling with the green of the fields they

make a vivid carpeting that would delight Pan and his attendant satyrs in

their sylvan revels."

Talking thus we passed on our way many thrifty towns and cities, the
Colonel and the Growler indulging in a friendly rivalry as to which should
give us the most useful information.

At Bakersfield the Colonel said : " The people of Kern county, of which
this is the prosperous capital, have turned a river on their farms, for they
have made Buena Vista Lake a storage reservoir for water, and diverted

SAN J(>A(jriN V A I. LEV.

i»;3

Kern River from its natural bed and compelled it to pour its waters on their
fields."

When we reached Fresno the Growler took a hand and remarked: " Now FresDo.ndiu
here's a good city, a railroad center and a manufacturing point. From here fnurcitl*"*
comes one-half of California's enormous crop of raisins. They will soon be
shipping 4,000,000 boxes a year and it isn't any wonder, for ten and fifteen
tons of grapes to the acre is nothing unusual hereabouts. A little way
eastward, in the same county, are vast forests of pine, spruce, hemlock and
cedar, among which are scattered many specimens of the sequoia gigantea,
those giants of the forest which attain a diameter of from twenty-five to
forty feet and grow to a height of five hundred feet sometimes. Vou
should see how- they bring the timber down from the mountain forests into
the mills at Madera, which is our next stop."

'• How do they do it ? " I asked.

" Well, the timber is cut up in the mountains, and of course a long way off LogKingby
the railroad. Ordinary means of transportation would not be available, so a

V-shaped wooded flume has been constructed. . — . • . . The one

running to Madera is the longest in the
world, sixty miles. A torrent of (^
water pours through

flumes

AT THE GOLDEN O.ATE.

it and the logs are floated down it. The water not only transports the logs,
but it furnishes power for the mill which cuts them up and for a number of
other industries, and is finally made to serve a good purpose in irrigating a
large area of land."

" But don't the logs stick sometimes," I queried.

164

THROUGH STORYLAND TO SUNSET SEAS.

The millions
locked up in
the forests.

" I never heard of them doing so/' was the reply. " You would not think they
would stick at anything if you saw them come down. It is with a rush that
would send them right through a brick block. The flume has a carrying

capacity of 350,000
an idea of
California,
careful

feet per day. Just to give you

the timber resources of

it is well to state that a

estimate of Fresno

county's timber interests,

n the basis of

ten dollars per thousand, °^ ''°'' ""■'" ''*^' francisco. j^ eighty million dollars."
At Berenda, three hundred and four miles from Los Angeles and less
than two hundred miles from San Francisco, the Colonel said :

"This is the junction point for Raymond, beyond which lies the
Yosemite and the Mariposa big trees, the veritable Garden of the Gods.
It is but a short rail ride to Raymond, and from there by stage into the
wonderland of the Yosemite, that great cleft in the Sierras, over whose
creation scientists have vainly puzzled for so long. The floor of the valley
is four thousand feet above the sea level, and its towering walls rise five
thousand feet higher, in sublime massiveness like El Capitan — the fit corner-
stone on which to set a world — or in spire-like peaks as at the Cathedrals.
All about are great earth masses, Mt. Dana, Tenaya Peak, South Dome,
Cloud's Rest, and a score of others, from ten to fourteen thousand feet high.
Its waterfalls are like veils of mist dropping from their great heights of a
thousand and sixteen hundred feet ; its pellucid lakes and the brawling
Merced River, its still forests, all these things have been sung by a host of
poets, dwelt on lovingly by many writers and made famous on canvas by
artists like Bierstadt, Hill, and Hertzog. In the Mariposa Grove are 450

SAN jDAtjllN \Al.l.hV

IGO

of the sequoia gigantea, where specimens of trees thirty feet in diameter
and three hundred feet tall are not uncommon."

So we drifted on, crossing presently the San Joaquin River after leaving Dr.w,nR
Lathrop, where the main line swings to the left while a branch continues "'"
on to Stockton and Sacramento. Before long we look off across wide
meadows where the rank water-grass grows. A pleasant, moist, saline odor
steals into the air, which tells of the near-by ocean, and then we see the
white sails of moving craft, whose hulls we cannot discern, sunk in the
devious waterways that are hidden from us by the lush growth of waving
tule. Presently the glint of blue water comes to us, and before many
minutes Suisun Bay breaks upon our vision
and San Joaquin is but a little way back of us

The delta of the Sacramento Byihc»hore»

of Suuun and

The line hugs the coast san p«bio
closely now all the way into Oakland, the little waves sometimes lapping
the roadway almost beneath the car windows. Constantly the waterscape
is changing — always it is lovely. At the Straits of Carquinez, through
which the waters of Suisun Bay discharge themselves into San Pablo and
hence into San Francisco's broad harbor, we find a line of tall-masted ships ships that

1 1 1 1 1 11 1 1 • 'I'l 1 11- 1 carrv the bread

and black-hulled steamers lymg. 1 hey are the gram carriers loading wheat stuffs t<. the
from the monster elevators of the Southern Pacific Comjiany to carry it to '"^
all parts of the world. At Port ("osta you can get a glimpse of the largest
ferry boat in the world. It is used to carry trains acro.ss in their flight to
Sacramento and Ogden. On the other side of the bay. on the shelving pon costa and
promontory, is the old town of Benicia, which once hopefully anticipated
commercial and politi-
cal greatness. At San
Pablo station, as we
skirt the bay of that
name, we look across to
the harbor of San Fran-
cisco and out through
the portals of the Gol-
den Gate to where the
broad Pacific stretches
to the Orient. It is a
glorious vision, look at
it when you w-ill — in
the dim light of early
morning, the glow of

afternoon, when it is gilded by the splendor of the sunset, or mysteriously
veiled in the shadows of the gathering dusk. To the right is the rocky jieak
of Alcatraz Island, crowned with frowning guns and the gloomy walls of
the military prison. On the left Goat Island, with its white buoy station

nrFI-ALO IN (.OLDICN GATE I'ARK

166

THROUGH STORYLAND TO SUNSET SEAS.

The vision of and light-housc, while beyond it rises Telegraph Hill, with the crowding
Ga%° ^" city pressing all about it — to the water front and farther back than the
eye can follow toward the great park and the cliffs beyond. And while
you are drinking in all the beauty and majesty of the splendid panorama,
the train sweeps into the outskirts of Oakland and down the whole length
of the mile-long pier to where the huge ferry waits to carry you to the place
of your hopes, to the city where all that is picturesque and fascinating in
AndthicisSan anomalous ways of living and traits of national life invite to sight-seeing

Francisco. i ^ i i • ,. o t7

and study and enjoyment — San trancisco.

CHAPTER XX.

A LOOK ABOUT SAN FRANCISCO — THE SEAL ROCKS — GOLDEN GATE PARK.

CHINATOWN, ETC.

ON the manv hills that give to it pic- san j-ranciKt*.
iiiresqueness and variety, San rran- s<|u«rr miirs;

' pij|iiilatii>n

Cisco clambers back from the tlock line front- 350..,. From

New orleanH

ing the bay where the earners of its com- 1,41,9 mil"
merce lie, toward the beautiful park of
the C'.olden Gate that stretches well
to the westward where the great
white sand dunes lead to the ("liff
House and Sutro Park. The
promontory on which the city
stands is swept in summer by
the winds from the west and
southwest, and in winter by
those that blow from the south-
east and north. It is but little
colder in winter than in sum-
mer, the mean of the temper-
ature being from 55^ to 57".
Invariably the trade wind
springs up in the morning, and
tho' the C.irl was distressed by
its want of consideration for
milinery, we all agreed that it
and invigorating.

realize that this great center hail The^^^ ^.^^
within a short lifetime, ' ex- meiuofa

her hair and

was refreshing

"Who could

i t s inception

claimed the .oss-housk and i-ortim: ni.i.i k.

cable cars on our wav to the Cliff House and C.olden Gate Park. "1 he obscure
little Spanish village of Verba Buenaof ,835 has become the great metropolis
ofsixtv years later? There were probably not five hundred people here when,
in Tanuarv 1S48. James W. Marshall made his gold discovery, forty-five

C'oionel, as we sat on one of the

iles northeast of Sacramento.

Then the current of immigration turned

168

THROUGH STORYLAND TO SUNSET SEAS.

Days of its
early growth.

Characteristics
in which it is
alone.

this way, and in the last ten months of 1849 nearly 40,000 people landed
here. The story of its turbulent early years, of the prodigal richness of the
mines and placers that flowed a stream of wealth in here to make men mad,
of the five great fires that nearly annihilated it, of the fluctuations that
made stagnation follow eras of activity — but always led to more enduring
prosperity ; of its millionaires, its sand-lot disturbances, its Chinese agita-
tion ; these things are matters of common knowledge, for, in a peculiar
sense, all men have had their thoughts turned to San Francisco, and so
people who come here for the first time are not surprised either at the
splendid solidity of the city, its great enterprises or its cosmopolitan life,
yet the vividness of the charm and novelty of its individuality impress us at
the beginning and we never quite escape it."

" Does it differ materially from any other great city in those respects,
Colonel ?" I asked.

"Very materially," was the response. "Where will you find another
Chinatown, for instance — a foreign city, where the natives dress and live in

every essential respect just as they do at
ime — in the heart of a thoroughly

GOLDEN GATE PARK, SAN FRANCISCO.

American city. In my judgment Chinatown is the greatest show-place
in the country — it is worth a trip across the continent to see it any time.
Golden Gate Park — tho' it is one of the most beautiful in the world
— does not, perhaps, differ so radically from any other great public
pleasure ground. But when you think that it has been created upon what
twenty-five years ago were bare and shifting sand dunes, the fact impresses
you. The city street-life takes its coloring from the cosmopolitan character
of the population, and this infusion of many nationalities and tastes runs
into all its public life — the diversity and degree of its restaurants, the

A LOOK ABOUT SAN 1- KAN. Ix . ).

)••.•.♦

Characters one sees on the streets and about the wharves, its amusements,
etc. But thes-e things you will learn for yourselves better than I can tell

you."

"1 think it is so delightful to see all thuse (lower sellers about the Lotta
Fountain," said the Girl. "Where else could one ^^et an armful of ros,-s ..^
sweet peas for twenty-five cents?"

^Well, here is where you will see tlowcr>,' rc-nuirked mc i.nnvler, a> wc

alighted at the park entrance
and strolled in. The band
was playing in the pa-
vilion, and a great
wd was listening
with manifest

Praturcs uf a
ooamopuliian
popuUiiun

O.jMcn 'late
FarW I. coo
acre* 'jf
garden.

IN 1.1UN V IliW.N

enjoyment to the excellent music. W'e listened, too, for a little tune, and

then went on to view some of the beauties of the place — the impressive

statuary, the great aviaries with their fairy host of Hitting birds, native

and e.xotic, that here have so wide a range, with running streams of water

and trees that nod above close thickets that they do not know they are

captive, and fly about or rear their young in all the abandon of outdoor life;

the deer glen, where elk and antelope browse complacently ; the great cage, Buffalo and

where is the monster grizzly bear — now so fallen from his high estate that captmu"

he opens his great jaws for expected morsels of candy ; the park, where a

herd of buffalo graze and shake their massive, shaggy heads in simulated

ferociousness ; the parks and sylvan solitudes, where the feathery fronds of

lace-like ferns hide in the crevices of dripping rocks, or bright-hued flowers

lure one to trespass the injunction not to pick them.

170

THROUGH STORYLAND TO SUNSET SEAS.

CliflF House,
Seal Rocks and
Sutro Park.

The seals are

privileged

characters.

From here we went out to the Cliff House, and, walking up the winding
roadway cut into the rugged face of the promontory, stood watching the great
sea-lions that swarmed upon the rocks just off shore.

"It wouldn't be hard to get a sealskin coat here," said the Girl. "Any-
body could go out there and capture a seal."

"No, they couldn't," replied the Growler. "The authorities take good

FLASH-LIOUT riCIIRliS IN 1111 iHlIM DENS OF CHINATOWN.

care of those fellows, and tho' the fishermen complain that they eat the
salmon the people are too fond of their pets to permit them to be -harmed.
You wouldn't find another city that could invite you to come and see its
seals in their native element like this."

Strolling through the sightly Sutro Gardens that crown the cliff, we sat
down finally, overlooking the blue ocean.

A LOOK AIJOUT SAX FRANCISCO. 171

" I see islands far out there," said the Ciirl.

"I used to be able to," her father replied, "but my eyes are not as The und-*
strong as they once were. The islands are those of the Farallones, the ^st °'^'*''
veritable ' land's end ' of America, and they are good places for the mariner
to keep away from in bad weather."

" I'm so anxious to see Chinatown that I don't want to risk postponing
it by enjoying this lovely view another minute," said the Girl.

" Not to-night ; I am tired," said the Colonel.

"It don't matter — you must go," replied his daughter, inexorably, sheinsut*
" You've been talking Chinatown to me ever since I could walk, and now I chrnat'own
want to see it." =*'"""

It goes without saying that she had her way — the Girl generally does —
and that night found us strolling down Uupont Street in charge of a
"guide," a wholly useless personage, unless one wants to see more of the she saw the
seamy side of Mongolian life than he would care to open to the view of the but n^^the'
ladies of his acquamtance. "I want to see it all," the Girl announced, and
she really believes to this day that she saw it all, tho' a sly twinkle is dis-
cernible in the Growler's eye when she mentions it, and I suspect there
were a good many things the guide did not show us on that or subsequent
occasions. But, goodness knows, some of them were bad enough.

For three blocks after you reach the confines of Chinatown, below Cali- where the

/••r- .T-v -fi-.i .....1 If ciirii I dealers

forma Street, Dupont is lined with stores given up to the sale of wares keep
from the Flowery Kingdom. You can buy anything — from silk embroid-
eries to tea, and from carved ivory to cloisone and satsuma ware. There
is such a variety of things, and they all seem so cheap, when the Mongolian
gets down to the bottom of his sliding scale of prices, that one is tempted
to buy everything in sight. I pitied the Colonel, for the Girl made heavy Thecoionei
drafts on his e.xchequer, but he stood it like a stoic, and, as the Growler man"^
remarked, "he never even whimpered."

The streets we wandered through were thronged with Chinamen — the
poorer classes dressed in cotton blouses over their wide trousers, the mer-
chants in softly ru.stling silks or shiny black cambric jackets, in whose
ample folds they looked like grotesque manikins. From the little conical
caps, surmounted with a scarlet knot of braided cord, to the slipshod san-
dals in which they shuffled along the pavements, their apparel was quaintly
striking, and as they stood in little groups at the corners or hurried along
intent on business, the tenor of their conversation or the salutations they street scenes

, ,,,•/--. »i. » » 4" in Chinatown.

exchanged were those one would hear in Canton or upon the streets ot
Hong Kong. Now and again a woman toddled by. her mincing gait made
unsteady by the high convex shoes she wore, her well oiled black hair fan-
tastically braided and coiled; or olive-tinted infants, just old enough to walk,
perhaps, yet perfect fac-similes of their elders in all the details of their cos-

RAG PICKERS' A/,LEY, CHINATOWN.

A I.oitK AKiil 1 SAN FRAN'CISCO. IT;)

tumes, would cause the Girl to exclaim, "Well, if they are not the ciiiining-
est little things '. — wouldn't I like to take one home, tho'."

We went into a drug store where the most conspicuous object m the what the
window was a featherless chicken in a bottle of blood-stained alcohol — a {;'\J';^""'=»^ '°
sovereign remedy, this, for certain affections we were told. The almond-
eyed pharmacist was compounding a prescription which would have fiiltrd a
half-peck measure when he got all the ingredients together — a handful of
moss from one box, and a double handful of bark from another, a piece of
reindeer horn, the leg of a frog, a few choice dried beetles and a multitude
of other stuff, all to be boiled and the resulting litpiid administered to the
unfortunate patient.

The C.iii was interested enough in the grocery stores, where were Thetui-biuot
displayed dried batsextended upon sticks, and rats smoked until they looked Ltw-c'^'**^^'^
like attenuated slices of well cured bacon ; curious roots grown in China
and various preparations imported from the same "^ ^ i~^^

far-off home to tempt the Celestial epicure to in- j if- *'§\M

dulgence — I say she was interested in all this and " — * '
in the narrow and crowded little shops where all
sorts of handicraft were carried on — in the sil-
versmiths and shoemakers and pipe repairers who
prosecuted their avocations at wee benches in the
street with supreme indifference to the passing
throng — but when the odors from an underground
restaurant were wafted to her nostrils she took her
nose firmly in her hand and quickened her gait.

She was vastly edified, and somewhat mystified "^ '^"'^''' ' '"■ -"'-^■^^'*^^^"
to boot, bv the fortune-teller who, sitting in his stuffv little room, with rhtr prophecy
the mvsterious symbols of his craft upon the walls and the odor of burnmg the mark,
incense hovering about him, told her " past and future," with creditable
accuracv, as to the past anyhow. Then a peep into the Chinese theatre. At the lUeatre

, " , 111 1 ■ • ,- >t was had

where we sat upon the stage and watched the actors whose mimicry ot enough,
emotion struck us as even more ludicrous than the infernal din of the
orchestra that thumped and shrieked at intervals. From here the guide led Ras pickers'
us into the underground dens and noisome alleys, where squalor lurks and oprumaeii*.^
vice hides itself in the gloom of out-of-the-way places.

"Oh, this gives me the shivers!" exclaimed the Girl, in an awe-struck
whisper, as she raised her skirts to keep them off the filthy lloors. "We'll all
be murdered ; I know we will."

We were groping down a dimly lighted alley, with tall walls all where they
about us, the stain of years upon them, and overhanging balconies of wood " leinpe.
that seemed on the eve of tumbling down. Then we turned into a stone-
paved area, went down a couple of tlights of rickety steps and through a

111

174

THROUGH STORYLAND TO SUNSET SEAS.

She wanted to
get out then.iD

111 the

underground

places.

passage-way, at the end of which a sputterhig lamp gave faint light.
Through a door and we were in an opium den where the air was heavy and
blue with the pungent odor and fumes of the narcotic. On the low couches
men lay in trance-like stupor that was the counterfeit of death, or in the
stolidity of waning consciousness puffed uncertainly at their long pipes,
while they held the bowl over the flame of small tapers, or worked with
nervous manipulation the little globules of black paste to make it ready for
the drowning of their senses.

"Let's go out," said the Girl ; "I don't want to see any more of it — I
can't breathe in here."

" And yet," said the Growler, " white women do come to these hideous
dens and 'hit the pipe,' in the inelegant vernacular of the habit."

Through underground rooms, where men herded like cattle and with less
of the instinct of cleanliness than the beast of the field, we went, seeing the
old blind woman who, with a room full of cats, inhabits a miserable hole

.\ CHINKSE RESTAURANT.

under the very street ; now looking on at greedy-eyed gamblers who, with
fierce guttural ejaculations of rage or gratification, watched the turn of the
cards, and again picking our way past groups that huddled in corners to
divide the spoil gathered in ash heaps And the choice morsels rescued from
refuse barrels.

A LOOK ABOUT SAX FRANCISCO. 175

"To the joss-house and the restaurant, and then to the hotel and t<>
bed," said the Colonel at last.

" I've seen all of this locality I want to," said the Girl ; " but I'm coming
to Chinatown to look through the stores every night we stay here, and I
think some of these Chinese merchants are just as nice as they can be."

There are half a dozen joss-houses in Chinatown, but the one we visited wiu-reihe
on this first night was the temple of Kwan Kung, on the west side of woM,Tp false
Waverly Street, between Clay and Sacramento. The guide explained that it ^"^^
was in connection with the Ning Yeung Company, the richest and most
powerful Chinese guild in California. The entrance bears the inscription,
" Purify thyself by fasting and self-denial," and the walls of the staircase
are covered with thousands of slips of red paper that bear the names of
adherents who have posted them that they may be borne in kindly
remembrance by their deity. The walls are hung with emblazoned banners,
and covered with purple and crimson tablets and rich embroideries. The Kwan Kung s
pagentry of royal courts in the far East is recalled by elaborate carvings, gorgeous^™'*
and there are stands of spears and battle axes, while brass dragons and ^^"^^
bronze bells and great metal bowls, and images of gods are everywhere.
Beyond the splendid altars, with their costly service of urns and vases and
censers, enthroned in an odor of incense, is the image of Kwan Kung, the
god of war, the flower of the chivalry of far Cathay.

" He isn't very handsome, is he ?" remarked the Girl, irreverently, as she it did not
gazed upon the hideous features and the seated figure decked in all the "evcrence^"^
finery of gorgeous apparel.

" And wouldn't the wind play havoc with those whiskers ? " replied the
Colonel, pointing to the jetty hirsute that swept over the bosom of Kwan
even unto his waist.

It was only a few steps round to the restaurant where we designed taking The Chinese

, , ■ , n 111 • ^ restaurant.

tea — a spacious apartment on the third floor, approached by an imposing
staircase. Carved dragons amid intricately wrought foliage — all done in
ebony — formed a frieze around the walls ; colored lanterns shed a soft glow
over the apartment, which was reflected back from the gorgeous scrolls of
golden embroidery on the walls. The chairs and tables were of ebony.
inlaid with pearl.

•'This tea," said the Growler, balancing one of the delicate little cups,
" is the perfumed, flowery pekoe. The aroma is delicious."

"So is the flavor," said the Girl; "but what is this?"

"Rice cake," was the reply; "and these are 'lichee' nuts in this saucer. Fiowerypekoe
»•, . , . • ",- 1 • 1 1 ..1 and a few-

Here s a confectiou — strips of cocoanut, melon rind and other preserves minor

of a like character. I confess I'm not fond of them myself."

"With due notice we could have had a genuine Chinese banquet here,"

said the Colonel, " the bill of fare would have doubtless included shark's

176

THROUGH STC^RVLAND TO SUNSET SEAS.

Epicurean
possibilities
not realized.

Nob Hill and
other sights.

fins and bird-nest soup, pickled eggs and spiced duck heads direct from
China, varnished pig and a few other delicacies of the kind, with sweet-
meats first to cloy the appetite and 'sham shu ' or rice brandy to give
piquancy to the gastronomic revelry."

" I think you and the Growler could eat anything," remarked the Girl ;
" but as for me I'm too tired to even think, and I propose that we take the
shortest way to get to bed."

It would require too much time to tell all we saw in San Francisco — the
palatial homes of the millionaires on Nob Hill, the mammoth in the
Academy of Sciences, the Mint, the great collection of the State Mining
Bureau, where one can profitably spend hours; the theatres and gardens, the
Board of Trade display, etc. We went down one day to see the starting of
a China steamer, an event which is always significant and interesting to the
stranger. There is all the ordinary bustle attendant upon such an occasion,
and in addition to this there is the scramble of departing Chinamen to get
on board. They must have their identification papers examined by the
custom's officers, who sit at a Ion- '"""" table and inspect

them one by one. Then
they run the gauntlet of the
representa- ^
lives of

Sailing of a
China steamer.

''- mf^

FISHERMAN S \V 1 1

X IRANCISCO.

the Six Companies, to whom they exhibit the proofs that all their dues are
paid and that they owe nothing to these organizations, which, for a certain
fixed amount, have perhaps defrayed their passage out here, agreed to care
for them if ill and ship their bones back home should they di^ abroad.
These preliminaries disposed of they go on board, preempt a bunk in the
quarters set apart for them and jirepare for the long voyage ahead.

And before we left the city we " did " Oakland and Berkeley and Alameda,

A LOOK ABOUT SAN FRANCISCO.

177

and visited the great navy yard at Mares Island, and saw where the iron Mecca oi the
men-of-war are built up the bay, and visited the fishermen's dock where the "*"»'"'■''»■"'««•
luggers lie and the swarthy fisher-folk mend their nets and talk in the

accent of many tongues; and ^. ^""-^—.^ ^hen we drove

down to Fort Mason and ^^^""^ ^"""^'-s.,^^ the Presidio,

where '^^ ^ \^ the army

AI.CATRAZ. WITH SEAWAKlJ lul.Nltl)

The guardians
of the harbor.

posts are situated, with cozy homes for the officers and comfortable quarters
for the men, and where grim-visaged War, as represented by frowning para-
pets and big black guns, is hidden under the green of shorn lawns and the
shade of many trees.

And finally, on the last day of all, when the Colonel was well nigh out
of patience with our repeated postponement of the date of departure, we
took a sail on the bay.

"You could spread Rhode Island down in San Francisco Bay and have The panorama
plenty of room left," said the Growler. "It's the finest harbor in the country, bay***^***
with an admirable entrance, plenty of room for the navies of the world, and
depth to float any ship and leave a few fathoms under her keel. Coming in
from the Golden Gate it spreads southward to within a few miles of San
Jose and Santa Clara, with the bay cities of Oakland, Alameda and Berkeley
opposite its entrance, occupying there a portion of the old San Antonio
Rancho, which was in 1820 granted to Luis Maria Peralta. Northward and
eastward it stretches off into San Pablo and Suisun bays, with hundreds of
miles of connecting straits and rivers all about."

From the Heads we came down through the Golden Gate, where the great sailing in
modern guns were being mounied on an eminence, as a warning to hostile Head! * *

178

THROUGH STORYLAND TO SUNSET SEAS.

The bay
extends 25
miles north
and 40 miles
south of the
city, and has
an average
width of 8
miles.

Far vistas
beautified.

The vision of a
land that flows
with milk and
honey.

fleets, should such, perchance, approach with a menace to the safety of the
city.

As we sailed swiftly inward the wide expanse of dancing water and far-
off shore unfolded like a scroll. Here to the right was the green garden of
the Presidio, and just beyond the jutting headland of Fort Mason, with its
vine-clad cottages perched on the shrubbery-hung cliff. Beyond the
massed buildings with their cobwebby network of cable railways climbing
the steep incline. Off to the left was Sausalito and Tiburn hiding back of
Angel Island, with tall Mt. Tamalpais in the background. Before us were
the grim wave-girt walls of Alcatraz, with seaward pointed guns. The
coloring of the water you will see nowhere else, for it partakes of the
wonderful transparency of the sunlight and the opalescent atmosphere and
the azure of the sky. The hues drift and shade into each other continually,
and the creamy crestings of the waves are but a satiny frill upon the
changeable greens and blues of the expanding flood. When we got upon a
line between Alcatraz and Goat Island we could look northward to where
the sister bays led off beyond Red Rock and San Quentin ; across to the
growing centers of population that spread toward the foot-hills of Mt.
Diablo, and south along the shining, shimmering pathway flecked by white
sails and skimming gulls that soared and dipped to where the water kissed
the sky this side of the vast Valley of the Santa Clara. Around us were ten
thousand happy homes that nestled among the foliage of perpetual bloom ;
tall city spires and streets that ran between grim blocks of brick and stone
like white lanes ; mountain peaks and hill tops guarding with jealous care
the sheltered valleys that lay within their strong embrace ; and the soft
breeze that blew — no less than the sunlight that was over and about us —
brought to mind a prophecy of the olive orchards and the vine-clad steeps,
the ripening peach and orange and the waving fields of dimpling grain, that
make this the capital of what to the elder seer athirst upon Judean plains
was the veritable vision of the land that flowed with milk and honev.

CHAPTER XXI.

THE VERY MUCH CONDENSED NARRATIVE OF TWO TRIPS OUR PARI V MADE

ON SOUTHERN PACIFIC LINES TO PORTLAND. OREGON,

AND SALT LAKE, UTAH.

HERE IS a poignant grief in recalling the heartlessness of publishers it is thus the

• , , , ,• , , ,• • good things

who inevitably compel struggling authors to condense or eliminate go.

the very best of their throbbing thoughts.

Thus the narrator finds the
limitations of his space
forcing him to draw his
recital of a transconti-
nental journey to a close
and tell in brief of the
two trips our party made
from San Fran-
cisco before
starting home —
the one to Port-
land, O r egon,
"•=i travel i n g

slowly over

what is ■ • «•.•.:..,-' "■''
known as the beauti-
ful "Shasta Route"—
the other to Ogden and
Salt Lake City on the
Central Pacific division.

,,, , c, III.ADWATERS OF THE SACRAMKNTO.

We got away from ban
Francisco on the evening train, and while we slept were hurried up through
the great Valley of the Sacramento, through the capital of the state, and by

17!)

CLI.MHI.NG THE SISKIVOIS.

180

THROUGH STORYLAND TO SUNSET SEAS.

From San
Francisco to
Sacramento,
the distance is
90 miles.

many thrifty cities and towns. Here there are immense grain fields, luxuri-
ant orchards and vineyards where the world's wine supply will some day
be grown. Marysville is the center of great hydraulic mining enterprises,
whereby hills were torn down and washed away to get at their gold; Chico,
where General Bidwell's __— — ___^^^ extensive orchards demon-
strate the possibilities .^^-"""''^ ^~~""-^»-,.,,^^_^^^that await the fruit
grower; Red ^^ ^^^\^^Bluff, where
lumber X ■ ^\ is floated

There is plenty
to be seen all
the way.

The glory of
the upper
Sacramento
River.

The railroad
crosses it
rightccii times.

MT. SHASTA, FROM SISSON.

from the distant mountain sides to meet the needs of commerce, and a
score of other points well worth seeing, until at Redding we got up to find
the Sacramento River winding close to the track. Now for eighty miles
the scenery was a perpetual delight. About us were the Shasta and Mc-
Cloud mountains and the road follows a narrow rift that winds deviously
through them. .-Xlways the Sacramento is alongside — now on the right
hand and now on the left — a stream of infinite beauty. It is a mad moun-
tain torrent that grows wilder and more impetuous as you near its head-
waters far up toward the timber-line of Shasta. Over its rocky bed, ob-
structed by massive black bowlders, it churns itself into foam. It dashes
furiously against granite walls that impede its progress, or swirls in green
eddies beneath the protecting (lanks of cliffs where deep pools invite the
angler to the finest trout fishing. The road crosses and recrosses it
eighteen times in all before we finally leave it far up in the higher ranges.

"There are ragged peaks for you! " I said, as the train stopped.

" And look at that green dell, and the beautiful house !" said the Girl.

TRIP TO PORTLAND, OREGON.

181

''Castle Crags — a naked ritlge of granite," remarked the Growler. Th«.-castie
"That far high peak is 6,ioo feet high and it towers more than 4,000 feet
above the river bed. The Crags belong to the Trinity Range, a spur of the
Sierra Nevadas, and the dividing line between Shasta and Siskiyou counties
crosses them. Col. Hastings was the first owner of Soda Springs ranche
back in 1844. Since then the Indians and miners and hardy trappers have
had their day, and there have been bloody battles and ambuscades and
solitary duels that the world will never know of. Now the tavern of Castle
Crags invites the dilettante to spend his hours of idleness here, in the
enjoyment of the finest hunting and fishing to be found anywhere and the
revelry of a climate unsurpassed. And now for the Soda Springs."

It would be a thankless task to attempt a description of Mossbrae Falls Mossbrae Faiu
and Shasta Soda Springs. Imagine a great mountain canon with pine clad soda springs.
sides that reach hundreds on hundreds of feet above your head. At the left
the dashing river — on your right a sheet of water that pours across the face
of a cliff hung with the green tendrils of dense moss. And a little way
beyond are the Soda Springs — the sharp hillside
broken bv rills that toss madlv down from far

C.'VSTLE CRAGS AND SIIA<T\ I. II. 11 S

heights, while in places jets of water

spout up eighty or a hundred feet and fall in plume-like showers of glisten-
ing spray.

"It isn't really soda water?" the Girl asked, incredulously.

"Get out and see," replied the Growler, and we did, drinking deep from carbonated
the stone-walled spring under the pavilion. The pure carbonated and that you buy.
ferruginous water was as cold as though it flowed from the icy heart of the
mountain.

"I think this is the most beautiful spot on earth," said the Colonel, as

182

THROUGH STORYLAND TO SUNSET SEAS.

The climb to
Shasta's
widespread
base.

At Sisson the
best view is to
be had.

we walked slowly back to the train. "There is every element that could
add charm to the landscape. Four and a half miles from here, at eigh-
teenth crossing, we will part company with the Sacramento. The elevation
there is |HHH^^^^HH^^HIH||^^|HB 2,SiS feet, and we enter
upon the ^^^^^^^^^P^^^^^^^^^^^^H' mountain climb in

The road swings about
and runs for five and a
ich the next station —
lis distance we have
lundred and thirty feet,
'he scenery is impress-
ive. Through black tun-
nels the way winds,
now on the edge
of dizzy gorges,
where far below
the deep caiion
yawns. The grade
is two and a half
feet to the hun-
dred, and grows
even steeper be-
fore you drop into
the valleys of Ore-
gon that await you.
The building of
the road through
this colossal bar-
rier was a vast un-
dertaking, deemed
an engineering
and financial im-
possibility for a
longtime. But the
two powerful loco-
motives draw us steadily upward until at Sisson the great view of Shasta
breaks upon us in all its majesty. Fourteen thousand four hundred and
forty feet it lifts itself, the vast old volcanic pile. At its base the dense
chapparel clusters with spruce and pine and cedar, sentinel-like, towering
above the lower growth. Then come the firs, the stunted tree stalks and
the scant litchen that encroach upon the l^ald peak. Above, about the
great extinct crater, the crown of snow lies glowing in the sunlight.

~1IASTA SODA

'.- AM' MOSSBRAE FALLS.

TRIP TO rORTLAND, OREGON.

183

The longest observed lines in the world were taken from the summit of Ba>«r of ionK«t

Shasta to connect the lines of the main triangulation, of the coast and
geodetic surveys— from Mt. Shasta to Mt. St. Helena, one hundred and
ninety miles as the crow tlies. On the summit Capt. A. F. Rodgers set up
the geodetic monument twenty years ago — an iron column carried up in
sections on the backs of Indians. It is from Sisson that parties start to
make the ascent of Shasta. In talking about the feat, the Growler said:

" The trail is up through the great lava trough off there on the right.
The distance from snow or timber line to Thumb Rock (a sharp projection
on the crest of the south flank of the mountain) is between four and five

KfiKlrtic line
in the worUl.

How ihe ascent
is nia<le.

NORTH FOkK CASCADl

II AS I \ Ror riv

kelic of the
oUl volcanic
fires.

miles ; from Thumb Rock to the summit, three-quarters of a mile ; from
there to Shastina or Crater Peak on the north, say a mile and a half.

"A relic of the ancient volcanic fires is to be found a few hundred feet
below the main summit, in the shape of a hot steam solfatara. The ascent
is not dangerous, and to persons in sound health and possessing will-power
not very difficult ; yet quite a large percentage of starters never reach the
highest point, the reason, no doubt, being that the sensations produced by
severe exercise in high altitudes are sometimes alarming. The general rule
is to leave Sisson about noon, or in time to reach the upper camp by
nightfall, to which point there is a good saddle trail. .\n early start is
made the following morning, while the snow crust is strong, and after from
six to eight hours of tramping, the summit is reached. The view from the The panorama
crown, it is needless to observe, is one of boundless sublimity: the Modoc

from the top.

184

THROUGH STORYLAND TO SUNSET SEAS.

Mountain tops
like tents all
about.

The beauties
of the
Siskivous.

lava beds, the giants of the Southern Cascade Range, the Siskiyou, Salmon
and Scott ranges, Castle Crags and the deep gorge of the Sacramento,
Lassen's Peak and the receding snowy shafts of the Sierra on the south,
and on the east a far-reaching panorama of mountain, lake and forest.
The eye is gorged with visions of grandeur and magnificence. The time
to climb the old peak is from the first of June to the last of September."

All the way down the long plateau of Strawberry Valley we watched the
great pinnacle whose majestic summit was eleven thousand feet above us.
Off to the west were the Scott Mountains whose main cloud cap gives birth to
three rivers. To the north is Black Butte or Muir's Peak. In the south-
west the serrated columns of Castle Crags rise above their setting of pine.

On the Siskiyous the grade reaches one hundred and seventy-four feet
to the mile, and from Gregory to Ashland is a continuous succession of
awe-inspiring pictures. Up and ^^.-'-— ^' —^ — ^ up the road

climbs to the summit, and ^-'"""'^ ^ ^^^ then it creeps

sinuously down the great

turning on

itself

time

and

slopes,

again until you look from yuur

window to see

Ten pouiiils of
air on the
brakes.

three lines of rails on successive looking into kogue rivick val- steps of the

. , , , „,, LEY FROM THK SISKIYOUS. . , ■ ,

mountain side below. 1 here are wide chasms

spanneil by trestles, from whose clear heights one looks off over the tops
of tall pines to the Valley of the Rogue River spread beneath. When the train
stops at Ashland and one of the engines is detached, inspectors tap the car-
wheels and feel them furtively, while the engineer, in his blue overalls, says:
" It takes ten pounds of air on the brakes comin' down there, and some-
times the wheels are rt-d-hot when we get to the bottom."

TRIP TO I'OKl LAND. OREGON.

185

" There are many tempting things about Rogue River Valley," said the
Colonel. " It is not only a sheltered and fertile garden spot, but it has
natural wonders singular to it. Of course you know that it was up in the

\\ II I I AMinTE FALLS, OREGON.

north end of it that 'Old Joe Lane' fought the Indians and pretty nearly j^J^^^e Rogue
wiped them out. From Medford you can reach by team Crater Lake, lying
on the summit of the
Cascade Range.
Here is a

PORTLAND AND ITS SNOWCLAD SENTINEL.

great cup hollowed out of the primeval rock, eight thousand feet above th-
ieve! of the sea. It is twenty miles in circumference and a mile deep, and is
half full of the purest water you ever saw. The walls of rock rise to a sheer
hei^i-ht of from one to two thousand feet above the surface. The Klamath

■

TRIP Tf) PORTLAND, OREGON.

187

Indians have a superstition that no member of their tribe can look upon this

lake and live."

Througli the Umpqua and Calapooya mountains into the Valley of the

Williamette, down whicli stream we follow — past Oregon City, where the

wide white fall of tumbling water charms us, ami at last into Portland we

s I c a m — I'orilanil,
with its mountain-set-
ting ami its near-by
Columbia that rolls
majestically to the
sea. capable of carry-
ng any commerce on
Its broad bosom, and
hiding in its depths
the vast wealth of the
salmon fisheries. Hu-
man vision never rest-
ed on a fairer spot for
a city — a plateau be-
side the Williamette,
where the great busi-
ness center stands,
with its perpetual tes-
timony of wealth and
enterprise, and rising
into the thorough-
fares of homes that
climb to the overlook-
ing heights. Off in
the distance three
snow-clad peaks raise
their \vi d e- f a me d
brows dauntlessly —
Mt. St. Helen, Mt.

MAIDEN HAIR FALLS, MCAR PORTLANO, OUKCON. ^^ ^^ .^ j^^ ^ jj „ ^j ^[^

Ranier. From here the Southern Pacific tourist may easily run over to Taco-
ma and Seattle, the twin emporiums that stand guard over Puget Sound, there
to take a steamer voyage of a night over the most entrancing of waters to Vic-
toria and Vancouver, to tread the soil of Her Britannic Majesty. Or he can
find nearby Portland enough of sight-seeing to occupy many days— on the
Columbia River, which for si.xty miles above, to the Dalles, runs through
colossal cliffs that dwarf the Palisades of the Hudson into insignificance:
where waterfalls eight humlred feet high loss their milky veils into the air ;

By the
Williamette
into Portland.

Where the city
is built.

The Sound
Country
invites one.

Cp and
<lown the
Wonderland of
the Columbia.

188

THROUGH STORYLAND TO SUNSET SEAS.

The 833 mile
trip from San
Francisco to
Ogden.

In the warm
valleys
sheltered by
the Sierras

where islands of curious form rise, pine-begirt, from the swift, broad river;
seeing the salmon fishers, whose slow wheels compel the river current to do
their work. Or on the lower reaches toward Astoria he can visit the great
canneries and see the fleet of iisher-boats that sail out across the treacherous
bar to make capture of the silver-armored fish.

Nor was our trip to Ogden and Salt Lake a whit less filled with vivid
interest and the novelty of new sensations awakened by the changing scenes

upon the way. The
building of this line
in I S63-9 completed
the first of the great
transcon ti nen tal
railways, made pos-
sible the vast de-
velopment of the
Pacific Coast.

and awakened new inspiration

.iKi.1,1 scicNK AND pntLie iuiiLDiN(;s IN t li TO Ugh out t hc natlou . The march

OGDEN, UTAH. ^^ empire took its way across the

inland realm, which Lewis and Clark and Bonneville and the argonauts of

'49 had found so strange and terrible.

In the warm valleys beyond Sacramento the orchards of olive and
orange sleep, with every fruit and flower of the Mediterranean zone finding
a congenial home, while but a little way beyond the pine-clad Sierras are
dotted by crystal lakes. At Bucklin we are two hundred and forty-nine
feet above the sea, and now the road begins its ascent of the mountains,
for the elevation rises swiftly until at Summit, one hundred and ninety-five

TO (){;i)EX AM) SAl.r LAKF.

189

miles from San Francisco, we are seven thousand and seventeen feet above
tide water. Off from Colfax one may take the narrow gauge into Grass Val-
ley and Nevada City, where deep mining can best be seen and where the
rich quartz ledges seem inexhaustible. Between Colfax and Cisco, thirty-
eight miles, the ascent is thirty-five hundred and twelve feet. Whirling The snow
through the snow sheds, catching glimpses of Donner Lake, lying like a great oJiinc's uke.
sapphire in its pine setting among the clustering crags. .At the summit we
got out to have a snow-balling bout in the tunnel-like sheds.

At Truckee, the Growler said :

"This is the favorite point of departure for fishermen who seek Donner, The

sportsman's

Tahoe, ^^ ebber and the other lakes, or the innumerable trout streams within paradise.
a radius of a few miles. Vou should eat these trout, fresh from their cold
element, broiled in camp style, to know what a fish can taste like."

Then the road begins its long descent of the mountains, with tlu- serene
handiwork of the Creator all about — the great buttresses of rock carved in
every fantastic shape — the fir-clothed steeps whose bold heads are lost in
the clouds, the mountain streams that swirl and eddy madly beside the
track or are lost like metallic threads at the bottom of profound abysses in
canons into v.'hose precipitous depths you look for a

fleeting y^" ^^ instant as

the jOS S^ J^^ k i-.i.^^..^ L^ s ..^<^ train

i^^!:.

N THE COLUMBIA.

goes by. At Reno you feel as tho' you had reached the lowlands again, but
the elevation is forty-four hundred and ninety-seven feet, and the great plateau
varies little from this for six hundred miles — until you reach the end of the
road at Ogden. Reno is the thriftiest citv in Nevada. The commercial me- Reno. Nevada,

'' , .. - and the

tropolis — made beautiful by the Truckee River that divides the town — the Truckee
loveliest stream upon the continent, if we except only the upper Sacramento.
"There's another thing we can't afford to miss but must," said the

TRll' TO PORTLAND, OREGON.

I'.U

Colonel. "The trip to Carson and tlie great lionanza muies upon the famous Thebig mines

Comstock Lode at Gold Hill and \'irginia City.
"Is this the point of departure ?" 1 inquired.

"Yes," was the reply. "It is only a run of a few hours through a
country the like of which you will never see elsewhere. Toward the end

of the line, at

Virginia City,

the road winds

a bout the

mountain

^ tops, on

some ot

'' the

of the

Comstock

Lode.

heaviest /%
grades
known,
until you look

upon the great takes tahob and donnkr

'Camps' which have, in something like thirty vears, added four hundred mil-
lion dollars in gold and silver to the wealth of the world. To make the descent
into one of these mines, dropping, say eighteen hundred feet — tho' some
have been worked as deep as thirty-three hundred feet — and then explore a
part of the vast underground city which has been excavated, the galleries
where the heat is so intense that men could not work in them but for the
constant supply of air pumped in under great pressure ; the Sutro tunnel
that pierces the mountains for a distance of five miles to drain the mines,
labyrinthine passages which lead forbiddingly in every direction — is indeed
an experience never to be forgotten, but one made wholly agreeable by the
courtesy of all you meet."

There were picturesquely dressed but sore-eyed Indians at Reno, and
from now on a little group of them appeared at each station almost — the

The

underground
world, where
the precious
metals hide.

Fiutes and

their

privileges.

19:

THROUGH STORYl-AND TO SUNSET SEAS.

God's
wonderland

old crones begging, the men standing about with an expression of stolid
indifference. They ride without money and without price on the trains of
the Central Pacific, confining themselves to flat cars or the platforms of
passenger coaches, however. Wadsworth is the point of departure for the
Pyramid I.ake region, and beyond this the great sage brush desert reaches out.
On the gray hills juniper grows, but it disappears as you get farther east-
ward. There is plenty to attract attention, however — the sink of the Hum-
rbo"[t^tife"sink boldt River where it loses itself in the desert sands; the lake of the same name,
Humboldt lying in a region which once, science declares, was made fertile by copious

rains after the great sea that covered it had subsided ; the sharp hewn hills
of blue, and the clear high table-lands, until Ogden is reached, with its stir of
metropolitan life, and but a few miles beyond, Salt Lake City, near by the
Dead Sea of America.

Here the traveler finds much to interest. He wants to see the Bee Hive
house and the grave of Brigham Young, the great Salt Lake itself, the
splendid temple with its airy angel on the topmost pinnacle, the tabernacle
where the thousands of Latter Day Saints congregate to hear their laws
expounded, and the huge choir sing; ^ g^sai— "^^Bafci ^ ^^ the govern-
mentpostupontheoverlooking ^^li^^^ ^^^W hill, and,

above all, the city itself, with JT ^V its one

The City of
the Saints by
the Dead Sea
of Utah.

hundred and
thirty-two-foot wide streets,
shaded with swaying trees
and flanked by flowing water
PALISADES oi- Tin-; HUMBOLDT. brought lilthcr from its far-

off sources in the hills. It is a city with every modern charm set down in what
was a desert when Brigham Young and his enthusiasts came upon it in their
pilgrimage, and one who looks upon it has a startling awakening as to what
courage and labor can accomplish upon these great plains of our arid region.

CHAPTER XXII.

DOWN THE COAST LINE TO SANTA BAKIIARA, WITH SIDE TRIPS TO MT.

HAMILTON, THE BIG TREES, SANTA CRLZ, DEL MONTE

AND OTHER POINTS ON THE WAY.

HKN we turned our faces homeward after weeks of wandering, we Down the
took the Coast line of the Southern Pacific. " You have seen the

garden and the granary of the world in our tour through California," said
the Colonel ; " now you will get a glimpse of Elysium. The Coast division
runs through a section which to California is what the rest of the state is to
the blizzard-haunted Dakotas. It's a little nearer perfection than any other
portion of the slope."

" Every body talks so much about the great hotels that I don't believe
there's a thing to be seen all the way down to Saugus but big resorts," said
the Girl, saucily.

"Wait and see," replied the (irowler, and straightway relapsed into
silence.

The Southern Pacific's Coast division is the only road having a depot Through the
and running directly into the city of San PVancisco. Starting from the thedty.^"^
Townsend Street station the train winds out through the city and over the
low hills, which, rib-like, jut across the isthmus, ^^'e pass the great ceme-
teries, wisely set well out from the tenements of the living, and presently
are in the Santa Clara Valley, passing suburban towns, where handsome
residences, hidden in great clumps of foliage, suggest how affluence has
added art and lu.xury to the comforts of the country.

"There is a beautiful drive which one can take, starting say from San MenioPark
Mateo or Menlo Park," remarked the Colonel, "and leading through the fiouaires!'
loveliest of highways past the houses of some of the great millionaires.
They have been generous in expending their millions upon their homes and
in the grounds about them, and have carried the art of the landscape gar-
dener to its highest perfection.

"The Spring Valley Water Works, located in this county, supply the Adamthat
greater portion of the water consumed in San Francisco, and the dam which
holds the gathered stock is one of the remarkable things of the kind in the
world — two hundred and si.\ty-five feet high."

Just beyond here, at Mayfield, is the Stanford University, with an

193

194

THROUGH STORYLAND TO SUNSET SEAS.

The Stanford
University.

endowment of twenty million dollars from Mr. and Mrs. Leland Stanford.
Created but a few years ago, it already ranks as one of the foremost schools
of the world, and in no essential other than its architec-

ture does it differ from any great
/ institution of learning. The

buildings conform to the
climatic conditions*
^ and are ar-

ranged with
a view to
indefinite

massive,
mostly one
story, with

SEAL ROCKS AND BEACH, SAN FRANCISCO.

Be sure and
pronounce this

tile roofs, and wholly harmonious in design and the details of construction.
" To me this is the jewel of the whole coast," said the Colonel, that even-
ing, as we sat upon the broad veranda of the sumptuous flower-begirdled
Vendome in San Jose. " I know no lovelier place than this to which the
San Ho-say." Spanish soldiers first came with their families as a protection to the Santa
Clara Mission in 1777. Subsecjuent generations have confirmed the good
taste of those first settlers and have built here a city distinguished for its
costly and imposing public and private buildings. The people who live
here like to call this the 'Athens of the Pacific Coast,' because it is the seat
Thevaiieyof of SO many placcs of learning, but I like it for the activity of its business

the Santa

Clara. life, the charm of its shaded and well kept streets and for the beauty of all

its environments. Off there a few miles is the richest quicksilver mine in
the world, the famous Almeden. The level vallev and the foot-hills which

DOWN" THE CUASr LINK K ) SAMA liARlJARA.

i:»r,

rise upon either side are the homes of the contented Iruit-grower and
farmer, who find them inexpressibly productive."

"For a little while after the meeting of the Legislature of 1849 San Jose
was the capital of the state," spoke the Growler, reminiscently. "and it has
kept on growing ever since with no apparent regret that Sacramento won
its statesmen away from it."

At seven o'clock the next morning we were off to Mt. Hamilton and the
Lick Observatory. F. H. Ross, Sr., was there himself to see the passengers of
his stage line get under way. And Frank Ross, Jr., was there, too. Every-
body who visits Mt. Hamilton — and everybody who visits San Jose does —
knows the Ross family, and it is wonderful how their courtesy and care has
impressed itself upon those who have made that ideal journey. Well, they
bundled us into the long, comfortable stage, gave a few parting instructions
to the driver " to be sure and point out" such and such a feature, of the way-
side. The grizzled Jehu nods a gruff but kindly promise to care for us,
cracks his long whip over the heads of the leaders, and we are off. Now
we rattle through the streets, down miles of shady avenue on Alum Rock
Highway and then into the foothills, up which we wind amid orchards and
vinevards until at Grand \'iew House the panorama of the Santa Clara

Mt HatniUoD
and I.ick
Observatory.

Sta>;e ride
across the
ranges.

Valley is laid before

Growler

held hi s

" O If
tains, and
Sierra Mo-

i/w/'f :

us. The Girl was in ecstacies, the

complacent, and the Colonel, as he

hat in his hand, said :

there are the Gavilan Moun-

here the Santa Cruz and there the

rena. That silvery sheen far off is

San Francisco Bav."

Below us the valley
lay like a vast checker-
board with the city in
the middle distance —

i^f" the deep brown of the new
^:% plowed fields harmonizing with
'I '"ikiiSfP the vivid greens of the expanses
, ^ -^/•''i^' I ' V where young grain waved and
y^""'-" j^il^^Ca!?*. with the darker shadings of
the budding orchards. Then
the road wound down into
Hall's Valley, up again around Cape Horn and into Santa Ysabel Caiion.
Then the seven mile climb of Mt. Hamilton begins. More than three
hundred times the road turns upon itself — winding now on the brink of great
gorges, and again zig-zagging through narrow caiions or on the wide shelf
of sloping hillsides beneath which the landscape unrolls and the eye looks

The view of
the valley
below.

A BIT OF STA.NTOKD UNIVERSITY ARCHITECTURE.

196

THROUGH STORYLAND TO SUNSET SEAS.

Like a bit of
some other
sphere.

Things that
one recalls.

off over the valley and woodland and low-lying pasture with the great white
dome above, seemingly as evanescent and unreachable as the pot of gold at
the end of the rainbow. At last we are at the summit, beside the world-
known institution which that stolid, reserved man, James Lick, created by

his bequest
of seven
hundred
t h ousand
dollars.

" There's
something
uncanny
about all
this," said
the Girl,
v\ h e n the
courteous
guide had
shown us

through,

and we stood ^' ^'l^^g£^jm

again upon i-

the wide portico

in front of the mam

building. " It don't

seem as tho' it really belonged

to the earth and was of things earthly.

"I feel like a boy who has had a hard lesson at school," I replied. " I
remember that the dome containing the great thirty-six-inch equatorial has a
diameter of seventy-five feet and weighs a hundred and thirty tons; that it,
like the great fifty-six foot telescope could be moved by a child. I can
recall how the earthquake register works, and something about the meridian
circle, the photographic telescope, and even have a faint recollection of the
horizontal photo-heliograph, but that's absolutelv the limit.''

ON THE ROAD TO THE LICK OBSERVATORY.

SANTA CKl'Z.

107

" But none of us will forget the toml) of James Lick," replied the The
Colonel. " As I stood before the simple slab that covered the mausoleum j^m«'uck.°^
in the base of the great telescope where his ashes sleep. I felt tiiat nobler
burial or greater monument could no man have, and that the kings of earth
might envy the sluewtl old miller who had builded for himself a tomb so
noble."

The next mornnig we took the narrow gauge to Santa Cruz. Tlie ride

THE CANON OF THE S.\N LOKl.NZO KIVER. CAI.Il-ORNI.\.

is one which rivals anything upon the Shasta division or over the Sierras,
for tho' the mountain groups are not so massive the effects are equally fine.
The line follows a mountain gorge so deep and sinuous and narrow that
there is just room for the roadway and a brawling brook that boisterously
disputes every inch of the way. At the big trees we left the train to drive To the big
over with M. C. Hopkins, the tourist stage man of Santa Cruz, who awaited santa cru?
us. One spends an hour, with admiration that merges into wonder, in the
great grove of Powder Hill Canon, where the sequois sempervirens grow.
These colossal forest giants that spring three hundred feet skyward, and
measure sometimes twenty feet in diameter, awe one. There is a reveren-
tial silence that steals u])on the consciousness like the recollection of the
lullaby your mother crooned in the eventides of long ago. antl one feels that,
indeed, these were the trees among which God's first temiiles were. Then uown the

. , . Canon of the

the six-mile drive to Santa Cruz is one of infinite delight. 1 he wav is san Lorenzo

* River

through the Canon of the San Lorenzo River. Hundreds of feet below the
river dashes — a white ribbon, foam-flecked and mad witli the revelrv of

198

THROUGH STORVLAND TO SUNSET SEAS.

Early Spanish
visitors made
note of it.

Shoreline
sketches.

near-by commingling with the sea. On each side the sheer cHffs rise, or
pine- clad slopes that seem too steep for mountain goat to climb.

When Juan Cabrillo came in 1542, he noted the wooded mountains that
rose back of where Santa Cruz now stands. Sir Francis Drake made men-
tion of the place and so did Viscaino, but it was not until 1791 that Padres
Salazar and Lopez established the Mission of the Holy Cross. If we should
travel "due east "
of Santa Cruz, we
would pass say
seventy-five miles
south of St. Louis,
would strike St. /
Vincent, the
extreme /
southern
point of

Portugal,

then south

of Seville,

n d but a

little north of

(libr altar, while

Nice and Cannes

and Mentone and

-Jt all the famous Ri-

ON THE liliACH .•VT SA.NTA CRUZ. ■ 1 1 1 •

viera would lie
four hundred miles to the north of the direct line pursued.

Beyond where the town lies under the shelter of the mountains and
stretches towards the sea, the wide blue Pacific expands. Toward the
north the shore line rises into cliffs, where the breakers have worn caves
and natural archways, into which the long rollers crash with reverberant
boom and the lashings of spray. To the south, where the sightly and
homelike Sea Beach Hotel stands in its bankings of flowers, the shelving
white beach of the bay sweeps like the curved blade of a scimiter.

THE DEL MONTE. 199

"And now for Del Monte," exclaimed the Girl. "What times we'll have Ah: it u Dei

^1 I I T> I. ■ r 11 Monte, at last.

there ! — why, 1 ve been wantmg to see it for years.

"There is no danger of our discounting your enjoyment by talking of
it," said the Colonel ; "it will be all that you e.xpect. We could have come
down here via Carnadero and the Cafion of the Pajaro had we been disposed
to have missed Santa Cruz."

" Well, it 's near Monterey, isn't it ? " I asked.

"Just a mile," was the reply, "and a strange old town it is, founded by oidiownof
the Spanish long before Shakespeare wrote. It became the birthplace of
the commonwealth of California. The old mission, which stands near by,
was established in 1770. Here Commodore Jones planted the American
flag in 1842, and Fremont was succeeded by Commodore Sloat in 1846.
But however quaint and interesting the old town is, the modern art which
has fashioned the great pleasure-ground there has given it more fame. The
ocean does not bite deeply into the land. The great Del Monte stands in a
grove of ancient oaks but a few hundred vards from the surf-line. North- Thecedarsand

. " . 1 /•- 1 ^^*^ seasons.

ward the splendid beach spreads, affording a drive ecjual to that at Galves-
ton. To the south and west, where the peninsula reaches out, the coast is
wild and rocky. On the peninsula the Santa Lucia Mountains find their
northern terminus, and here the pines grow, a species resembling the cedars
of Lebanon. In the summer the soft trade winds blow in from the far
northern ice fields, tempered by the Japan current, which brings the balm of
Asia to our shores. In the winter the winds come from the south, with
their tropic heats cooled by the great expanse of sea over which they
travel."

"But Del Monte, and its gardens and drives!" exclaimed the Girl,
impatiently.

"Oh, those are things you must see to appreciate," was the suave reply.

If vou care to get at the old Spanish significance of the name of the Local

•^ ° I c significance

Hotel Del Monte you will find it means " Hotel of the Forest. It was very ofthename.

wise to preserve in its nomenclature the characteristics of the place, for

the oaks and pines of incalculable age, among which it is set, possess

a perennial charm. Gnarled and distorted, voluptuous with abundant

glaucous foliage, grotesque in whimsical distortion, or aggressive in their

serene and implacable individuality, the hoary oaks cluster thick, while .\ncientoaks

among them are the dignified, symmetrical and shadowy pines, with the pines""

exudations of their balsam, the fragrance of their breath and the crooning

of their boughs, in whose harp-like melody the storm and the summer

zephyr sound their requiem or iheir vesper hymn. The great hotel, where

five hundred guests may find a home, stands in the midst of a garden of a

hundred and twenty-six acres — a garden that would experience no lessened

dignity in a competition with those of Kew or Kensington. All the year

TIIROUC.II Tin; ,sAI.INA>. 2(»1

round myriads of flowers bloom and run riot in the glory of color and The luxuriance
fragrance. From every country in the world and every tropic they have "'"'*'* s^""*^"*-
been gathered, and scientific hybridization in the extensive propagating
houses has evolved unique varieties of great beauty.

What a delight it all was! How we lost ourselves in the cypress maze, The maze, the
roamed on the Laguna del Rey. or '-Lake of the King;" studied with great drivl^'
renewed interest the hundreds of curious fauna that grow in the Arizona
garden, reveled in the sylvan delights of the seventeen-mile drive, where
every phase of scenic effect reveals itself ; bathed in the breakers on the
beach or in the great pools of the enclosed, glass-covered, palm-decorated
bathhouse. The days drifted by in the enjoyment of it all, until there
came the poignant realization that there was a limit to our time, and we
left it regretfully and with many inward promises that wc should come
again.

Now down through the Salinas V'allev our way led, the molten thread southward by

r I ■ 1 r t ■ 'rr>i ^ 1 Ihe Salinas.

of the river near by most of the time. The names of the stations were
imbued with the euphony of their Spanish derivation that gave a liquid
softness to their pronunciation, even in the speech of the brakeman whn
bawled them in at the car door.

"This means 'The Pass of the Oaks,'" the Colonel said, when the Paso del Robies
brakeman called "Paso del Robies," shortly after he had pointed out the springs,
old Mission of San Miguel. " It is a good place to come to," he added,
pointing up to the great hotel in its setting of encompassing lawn. The
hot sulphur and mud baths here have a world-wide fame, and for the cure
of rheumatism and a score of other diseases are unsurpassed. Indeed, this
is a region of springs. There is one of sand not far, off with a temperature
of one hundred and forty-si.\ degrees, soda and white sulphur, and an iron
or chalybeate spring.

"And there are plenty of things to interest a well person, too," chimed Things to be

• , ■ ■. r T. seen near by.

in the Growler. "It is any easy drive over to Morro Bay, on the coast.
The Adelaide quicksilver mines are near ; so, too, are the Painted Rocks, the
trout fishing of Santa Rosa creek, the great prune orchards, the glens and
canons of the mountains, the diversified landscape of the ranches and the
oak-clad valleys and hillsides that stretch away in every direction."

"This whole country is Nature's wonderland," said the Colonel, as we overthe
stood on the rear platform of the car, approaching San Luis Obispo. The san'mis
line is another marvelous piece of railway construction as it scales the
Santa Lucia Range. Within a few miles there are seven tunnels, the longest
a mile and a quarter. Swinging down from the last declivity the road makes
a ten per cent curve with a grade of one hundred and sixty feet to the mile.
The climb over these heights is of continuous interest. The clouds seem not
far off, and below, far, far down in the depths of green caiions, or upon the

Obispo.

202

THROUGH STORYLAND TO SUNSET SEAS.

Pismo Beach
and other
wonders.

A spread for
any one.

Treasures of
the hills.

distant hillsides, one sees the white trail of the old stage road winding ser-
pent-like.

"San Luis is a place to be remembered," the Colonel continued, -'per-
haps not because it is a pretty town or the seat of the old mission merely,
but because of all its environments. Twenty miles away, through the love-
liest of mountain drives — where you see ^^.^-— — ~~ — ~-*..,.,^ flowing
gas and' sulphur wells, or mountains of
bituminous rock so skillfully com-
pounded in
the labora-
tory of na-
ture that it
only needs

Beach, the most magnificent sweep of sand in the world, twenty miles long,
hundreds of feet wide and hard as a floor."

"And what clams one can gather there," said the Growler, with a remi-
niscent twinkle in his eye. "Each tide brings in thousands of them, of a
flavor I have never known equaled. Some day great summer resorts will
make this beach known to every lover of the sea."

" Why, you can find anything in these hills," continued the Growler.
"Cinnabar, quicksilver, silica, chromium, asphaltum, gold, silver, iron, cop-

SANTA MAKlJAkA.

203

per, coal and alabaster. Vast fortunes arc auaiuni^ develojjnit-nt. N(j\v, if
I was younger I "

" Younger," said the Girl ; "why, you dear old creature, I wouldn't want
you to be a day younger.''

" No, I suppose not," replied the Growler, with a pretense of sadness.

The Southern Pacific line is being built through from San Luis Id join
the Santa Barbara division. .Already it is some thirty or forty miles beyond,
but one can take the Pacific Coast Railway, which e.vtends from San I.uis to
Los Olivos, through a region of romantic beauty, and at Los Olivos boarii nycoa.stiine
a stage for a ride of forty miles across the mountains to Santa Barbara, sa ma Barbara.
The drive is one to be made by every tourist, for it is over the rugged
summits of the mountains, with visions of the far Pacific and its jewel-like
islands, of wooded hillsides and fertile valleys in between. And when the
coach rolls into Santa Barbara there is the final reward of an unrivaled
and a splendid scene. 'Ihree hundred and fifty years of romance and the
pathos of many life tragedies cling about this lovely spot, where now
handsome modern homes and wide paved streets and busy shops hem in
the great grav mission, where the cowled monks walk the stone corridors

&AN t.TMS o:'.:.TPO.

with whisnerin<r footsteps and guard with zealous care their prim garden This little bit

' '^ ' ... of paradise at

where no woman dare enter. Here (lowers not everywhere, and there is agiance.
music that is echoed from bower-ensconsed villas to rakish yachts and
white men-of-war that lie at anchor in the offing. The annual average
temperature is 72° and neither summer sun nor winter chill ever comes
to enervate or affright the happy mortal who tarries here beneath the
embrace of the Santa \'nez.

Al lllli SANTA liARHARA Ml-

AND SIIK SAID " VKS.

205

Beyond here on our 'vay to Saugus the track follows close to the sea-line
for miles and miles — carved now and again out of the very face of the rocky
bluff at whose feet the green surges beat ant! churn themselves into foam.
Then a little way anil we come to places where pure bitumen (jozes from the
ground, and further on run for an hour or more through an orchard-dotted
valley, where every landscape that meets the eye is a pastoral miniature, as By the sea to
perfect as color and grouping and the fertile master-mind can make it. ■ ""*^"'*-
And when we catch the train at Saugus and the porter disposes the luggage
in our section in the New Orleans car, and our faces are turned toward the
east once more, the Girl looks out of the window with something of sadness
as she says :

"It has all been like a pleasant dream, and — and Jack and I will take it Not the least

, .,, " important

all over agam some day, won t we? result of the

And I squeezed the dear Girl's hand a little l)it harder than need be,
perhaps, and whispered. "On our wedding trip."

'r4ii 10

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, LOS ANGELES

THE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY

This book is DUE on the last date stamped below

,#'

IHTERLIBFARY LC^ANS

DEC 2 1969

Three wefHJtgrTt^atfttlf P

receipt — Non-RenewabJi ■* LX*^ t^

8EC 519(>S

Form L-0
■^r,iii-2,'itHzaoSi

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA
AT

r?7ot Kneedler

storyland to
sunset seas.

OCT i '^ ^^^

'^786 .K73t

L 009 549 886 1

F786
K73t