ASIA GYP^ES ctf* m^J "''W^ «fe CHARLES WILLIAM WASON COLLECTION CHINA AND THE CHINESE THE GIFT OF CHARLES WILLIAM WASON CLASS OF 1876 1918 Cornell University Library F 866.L67 Gypsies or. Why we went aypsying in tiie 3 1924 023 250 784 Cornell University Library The original of tliis bool< is in tine Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924023250784 we went fivDSM in tlie Sierras. By DIO lewis, M.D., AUTHOK OF ■ OirH JJlGESTWX, UM Ml' JOILV FRIEND'S SECRET r' " VHASTITY on OUR SECRET SINS;"" WEAK LUNGS, AND HOW TO MAKF. THEM STRONG; " "OCfl GIRLS; " "NE W GYMNASTICS FOli MEN, WOMEN AND CHILDREN;" "FIVE MINUTE CHATS WITH YOUNG WOMEN;" Etc., Etc., Etc. 'Life In tile open air restores man to liarniony wltli nature." BOSTON : EASTERN BOOK COMPANY. r88i. Copyrighted, i88i, by DIO LEWIS. J. E, Simonds, PtHnter, 50 Bromfield Street^ Boston, C0 Mn Wif^. Ig constant companfon in alt tfjese faanStrtngs, IBKg ti^Dttgfttful, Bebotetr fjelper in eberg tasft, I inscribe tfjis bolume. Dio Lewis. .^br- COKTEiq^TS. CHAPTER 1 15 Feaxful Leaps — This Time By Rail — A Word About Cheyenne — Top of the "Eockies" — ^About Laramie — Off For Utah— The Mormons — Silver Palace Cars — ^Tricky Rivers — ^A Big Climb — You Can't Believe Your Senses. CHAPTER II 33 Our First Camp— A "Wild Cat^Much Better— Still Better— Joe And I Hunt Grizzlies — ^We Find Two Grizzlies. CHAPTER ni 44 The Pacific Saratoga Springs— "The Beautiful Heroine Of The Gold- en Mountain"^^An Affecting Spectacle — ^Balky Mules — We Climb Over The Santa Cruz Mountains — The Wonderful Redwoods — ^An Easy Road To Market— The Fall Of A Patriarch— A Small Rattle- snake Story — Curious Names — ^Poor, Ltttle Donkeys — Cruelty To Mr. Beecher — A Splendid Camp Fire — ^A Large Butter Dairy — The Missing Link — ^Picking Out A Good Cow — Sold By A Stage Driver — Fremont's Redwood Grove — We Camp Near Santa Cruz — "Yes, Right Smart"— "Go Slow, Guv'nor." CHAPTER IV 79 We Camp Near Monterey — Black Dick — Joe And I Go Fishing — ^The Abalona Shells— The Beautiful Sea Mosses— The Ruins Of The Old Spanish Missions — ^Monterey Whaling. CHAPTER V 89 We Start For The Yo Semite — How Gypsies Eat—A Pleasant Greet- ing—Tobacco And Alfalfa— We Try To Buy Some Hay— Wonderful Artesian Wells. 4 CONTENTS. CHAPTER VI 9i) Off Again For The To Semite— Fire! Fire! Fire!— The Camp At Cotton "Woods— Poor Jack— Horrible Turloek. CHAPTER VII 113 Our Camp At Slattery's— Sheep ! Sheep! Sheep !— Shepherd Dogs. CHAPTER VIII 122 Big Joe And The Big Grizzly— Another Grizzly Story— Stage Bothers — Digger Indians — An Indian Doctor. CHAPTER IX 135 TVe Climb To Deacon Moore's— "We Visit The Big Trees— All Keek- ing With Blood. CHAPTER X 147 The Yo Semite — Inspiration Point — A Rather Large Paw — Hay, Six- teen Dollars A Bale— The Climb To Glacier Point — Outlook From Glacier Point — A Eagged Do-Nothing — ^The Eace For The Cottage — How Bill Got Down The Cliff— "We Climb To Cloud's Rest— The Nevada And Vernal FaUs— We Climb To The Upper Yo Semite Falls. CHAPTER XI 176 We Camp Near Yo Semite Falls — Discovery Of The Yo Semite Val- ley — The Origin of The Yo Semite — The Very Place For A Socialis- tic Community— The Village In The Yo Semite— Big Rocks In The Yo Semite — Strawberries In The Yo Semite — Turkey Buzzards — Legend Of Tu-toch-ah-nu-lah And Tis-sa-ack — Hun-to And Tis-sa- aek — The English Gentleman's Testimony — Final Words About The Yo Semite— Three Months Of Paradise. CHAPTER XII 194 We Leave The Yo Semite — The Sierra Nevada Forests — A Runaway And A Business Gentleman — Off For The Low Country — Hydraulic Mining — We Move On To Stockton — Two Of Our Ladies Get Lost, CHAPTER XIII 209 We Reach Putah Creek Mountains And Go Hunting — A Change Of Heart — From The Putah Creek Mountains To Suisun Valley — The Petrified Forest — That Glorious Blow Out — The Geysers. CONTENTS. 5 CHAPTER XrV 228 Off For Lake County— Clear Lake — An Agreeable Scoundrel — We . Move Southward — Our Camp On Mount St. Helena — Curious Acous- tic Phenomenon — The Birth Of A World — Big Joe. CHAPTER XV 240 We Move Down Into Napa Valley — ^A Race For Buttermilk — My Friend Is Lost — ^Woman's Wit. CHAPTER XVI 249 From Mount Saint Helena To Lake Tahoe — Why Does Not The Government Interfere? — An Interesting Population — ^Wonderful Lake Tahoe — Caught In A Trap. CHAPTER XVn 257 A Singular Conversation — ^An Indian Scare. CHAPTER XVIII 269 Those Dreadful Clothes — Woman's Prayer In Grog Shops — The Ohio Movement. CHAPTER XIX 283 From Lake Tahoe To San Diego — Beautiful San Diego — The Num- ber of Squirrels To The Acre — Bee Pastures — Paradise Valley — Los Angeles — Santa Barbara — Dutch Flat, You Bet, &c. — ^A Mountain Party — The Kissing Game — Here I Languish. CHAPTER XX 298 Professor Tapp. CHAPTER XXI 307 About Snakes, Tarantulas, &c. — ^Earthquakes — The Bay Tree. CHAPTER ^PCEI 316 Mustang Horses — How Ladies Should Eide — A Sunday Horse Eace. CHAPTER XXIII 325 Lizards— Sea Lions— Seal Eocks— Jim And Bob— My Wife Trains Those Mules — What Beautiful Companions— Camp Meetings In Cali- fornia. 6 CONTENTS. CHAPTER XXTV 337 A Word About Farming Lands — The Wines Of California — ^Flowers — The Mormon Tabernacle. CHAPTER XXV 347 A Word About The Chinese — Chinese Waiters — Our First Chinese Cook — Sing's Flute — The Chinese As Workmen — The Chinaman's Hands— What Others Said About The Chinese— Chinese In The Tule Swamps. CHAPTER XXVI 361 Chinese Sabbath Schools — But They Come As Coolies — ^They Send Their Bones To China— They Send Their Money To China— The Chinese Merchant's Convenient Pigtail — Michael O'Shea's "Bit Of A Knock Down" — "A White Man As Is A White Man" — Curious Work Of The Hoodlums. CHAPTER XXVn 374 Reliable Testimony — Testimony Of Bayard Taylor — The Chinese Language — ^The Chinese Fill Our Asylums — As Citizens They Will Strengthen Us — In Conclusion. CHAPTER XXVni 388 About The Climate Of California — Variations In Teiwperature — Un- interrupted Sunshine — The Value Of Camp Life — A Word To Ex- hausted Brain Workers About Camp Life. CHAPTER XXIX 401 Climate Localizations — That Eastern Jerk — The Influence Of Cli- mate Upon The Body— The Influence Of Climate Upon The Mental Faculties. CHAi'TER XXX 412 A Word About Tobacco. PEEFACE. I never did know the difference between a Preface and an Introduction, but I always put them both ia for style. You will notice that my story is made up in part of thrilliug incidents. In truth, the average experiences were very quiet, but of coiu"se in three years of wild camp-life, we had many ex- citing adventures; and very naturally, in writing the story, I pass by the every day humdrum, and give the more striking haps and mishaps, just as I would if I were sitting face to face, telling you the story. I went to California to seek rest after thirty years of unbroken toll as physician, author and lecturer. It may seem incredible that one who had written so much on the value of recreation and change, should have worked thirty years, 8 PRErACE. often sixteen hours a day, without a vacation. But with a rich inheritance of vitality, and the best habits in everything but the hard work, I believed that I should never fail. Seeing so much to do, I kept on till I could do no more. Then I went to the Pacific coast, and rested for three years. Three summers of camp life in the mountains of California will restore a man from almost any condition of broken health. A humorist says: "It will restore a mummy; not one of the oldest, of course, but one of the fresher speci- mens." I have never seen it tried on a mummy, but I have seen a number of almost miraculous res- torations from a few months in the mountains of the Pacific coast. Nature is slow to forgive such a violation as that of which I was guilty, but I have retm-ned to my home and my work nearly as good as new. II^TEODUOTIOl^. "Big, big D's" are very bad, and things are perfectly blue with them, just now, over this !N^ew England weather. Cecelia, the youngest of my six daughters, started out this morning, for her music lesson. She got as far as the gate, stopped, started: stopped and started again, held her cape before her face, turned her back to the storm, then re- turned to the house on a run, stamped her feet a little harder than was needed to shake off the snow, and asked me : "Where is Charley?" " At the barn, I suppose." " I wish you would send for him." "What for?" " I want him to scold this weather." 10 BSTTKODUCTIOIf. I will remark here, that Charley is the only one in my family of more than fifty persons, who scolds, and so the others call on him, when a case demands a "big, big D." liTow Cecelia is one of the blondest of the blondes, and our Concord philosopher says that blondes are the natural saints; that they go to heaven by natural attraction; while brunettes, if they enter the kingdom at all, must enter it by violence. If my daughter Cornelia, a brunette, had de- manded Charley's assistance, it woitM not have so stunned me. Besides, Cecelia is a devout Presbyterian. As the climate of l^ew England is the source of her most precious treasures, — her forecast, prudence, patience, enterprise and force, it does seem to me, that ia the interest of the Anti-Pro- fane Society, something ought to be done. This book is devoted, in part, to a defence of the climate of i^ew England. While I wiU try to make this defence readable, I shall keep within the bounds of truth, and trust I may lead many ESTTKODTTCTIOlir. 11 people who have been restless and wicked, to add to their prayers, something like this : " And we thank Thee for our rugged climate. We thank Thee that our forefathers were led, in Thy Good Providence, to land on the coast of Kew Enigland, where the severe climate compels a vital, sturdy manhood; and not in southern re- gions, where -the climate indulges and pampers, until the faculties fall asleep. We thank Thee for this among the trials and struggles of our life, with- out which, we should ever remain idle children." I have another motive. A new treaty with China is about to come before Congress, and the country. "The " Chinese Question " will be ram- pant again; and the same people who devoted their lives to shouting " the IN"igger," will be at it again; only this time it williae " the Chinaman." You can't get rid of these profane people. They are here among us, and, fearful to think of, they are voters — law makers. The Chinese have come, and they have come to stay. They are a singularly quiet, inoffensive, 12 INTEODUOTIOSr. temperate and thrifty people, with a real genius for hard work. One would suppose that this was the right sort for a country, whose natural resources have hardly been touched, and whose wealth would be easily quadrupled, by doubling its labor. The labor, observe, and not the toss- ing and speculating ! "WTiUe digging on the railroads, and iu the tule swamps, " Tlie Little Brown Men " must defend themselves, as best they can, against the States- men and Patriots of the Saloon. And we must see, that they have jtistice. Having lived among them in California three years, I wish to tell you what I saw. This is another object in writing " Gypsies." I hope in this way, to contribute something to the just settlement of another " vexed question." I tried hard to help in the settlement of the IfegrO Question. Then I have somethmg to say about the pre- cious metals, which possibly may interest you. Finally, I will not deny, that it gives me great pleasure, to tell you the story of our Gypsy Life. INTEODUOTION. 13 Of course this will "occupy much the larger part of the book. I say of course, because other- wise the title would not be an honest one. I have selected a few incidents which occurred in the second and third year, and placed them in the story of our camp-life of 1876. I choose 1876 for my story, because duruig that year, we spent considerable time in and about the Yosem- ite, while we were not in The Valley during 1877 or '78. There are volumes in your libraries, giving a world of exact information about the Pacific EaUroad, and the country through which it runs, and about the wonderful Golden State. I propose a chatty story of travel, and not a volume of instruction. I may have forgotten, fig- ures. I kept no diary, and now, after four years, recall, as I write. LIST OF ILLUSTEATIONS. PAGE "OuK Camping Pabtt" 9 Peaephl Leaps 16 "We Find Two Gkizzlies" 38 " The Beautifol Heroine op the Golden MonNTAius" . . 45 "An Affecting Spectacle" > 47 The Pall op a Giant 54 "Poor Little Donkeys" 58 "The Missing Link" 64 "Go Slow, Guv'nor" 76 "Black Dick" 80 "Fire! Fire! Fire!" 101 "Poor Jack" 106 Poor, Dear, Little Flora 115 "And that's Good for Another Grizzly" . . . . ^ . 123 "Throw out Your Treasoeb Box" 126 "We Visit the Big Trees" 137 "Grizzly Giant" 138 YosEMiTE Falls 152 Fairly Treed 207 Thou Tyrant ! Take Thy Heel off the Nect op Lovely Woman! 235 "Woman's Wit" 245 "Do YoD Mean it?" 267 "Will You Please Carey my Basket up?" 270 "Here I Languish" 293 "How Ladies should Eide" 319 Sea Lions on Seal Rocks 328 "What Beautiful Companions!" 332 " You! Why don't you assimilate?" 386 View on the Pacific Slope 388 CHAPTER I. PEAEFUIi LEAPS. I read in a school physiology, that a flea can jump five feet, and that if a man could jump as far, in proportion to his weight, he would jump 500 miles. Let me suppose that a man could jump 500 nules. Place him on Boston Common. Give him room to swing his arms, and get good ready. His face is turned westward. He leaps, and lands on the square just in front of the old Court House in Buffalo. He keeps his face turned west, swings his arms, jumps again, and lands just in 'front of the Palmer House in Chicago. Still he keeps his eyes west, and makes his third jump, and lands just at the end of the Union depot in Omaha. With a good swing he prepares to take his fourth leap. He must now leap up hUl. The next leap of 500 nules 16 GYPSIES, OR "WHY WE "WBIfT lands him on top of the Eocky Mountains, right by the side of the railroad track. Still keeping his face westward, he swings his arms for his fifth. The next 500 mile jump lands him on top of the Wahsatch range of mountains in Utah. ]S^ow a strong swing, for he must leap across the entire state of N^evada. He jumps, and lands on the top of the Sierra IsTevada. When he takes the next leap, he must look out, or he will find himself 300 miles out in the Pacific Ocean. So this time he would better stand on one foot, have his hands tied behind him, and give a little hop of 200 miles, which will land him in the city of San Francisco. I have crossed the Continent foiu' times, but have always forgotten to take my wife's tape measure with me; so I am not sure about these measurements. They may vary a few inches either way, but they are about right. THIS TIME BY EAIL. I can say nothing new of the journey from Leaping 500 Miles, across the State op Nevada, from the top OP THE Wahsatch Mountains to the top op THE Sierra Nevada. {Seepage 16.) GTPSYTN'G EST THE SIEEKAS. 17 Boston to Omaha. I had many times passed over that part of the route before, and this time was only impressed with the fact that after all the good roads and fast trains, the 1500 miles are all there. You can't wink them out of sight. With all the improvements, it is a long, weary ride. The 500 miles between Omaha and the top of the Rocliy Mountains, are one long, long stretch of prairie. Of course, you climb the mountain, and when you get to the top, you are up 8000 feet. But you haven't realized that you were climbing, unless you may have observed that they use for Jhe last hundred miles, two very power- ful locomotives, with large, long cylinders, and small drivers. A WOED ABOUT OHETENKE. About 30 miles before you reach Sherman, (which is on top of the Eocty Mountains) , you come to Cheyenne. Ifow, you can't approach a place, without hav- ing some picture of it, before your imagination. 18 GYPSIES, OR WHY WE WBKT As we approached Cheyenne, I had an impres- sion that it was a small town, with a little stone raUroad station, and a few stone and sod huts. Of course, I had read that Cheyenne was the point from which stages and freighters left for the Black Hills j but then I knew that on the frontier it only required a few huts to do an amount of business that would fill blocks, in an eastern city. As we pulled up to the station at Cheyenne, with our two immense locomotives, there before my eyes was a large, brick depot building, and, backed up to the platform, were the same omnibuses that we had left in Chicago, and the same red-faced runners, crying, "right up town," to the " ISTational " or the " American." And there were several hacks, with their noisy drivers, shouting: " Take you to any part of the city." Getting out of the car, I walked down one of the streets. It was lined with brick blocks, high enough and handsome enough to grace an east- ern city. Moving about a little, I saw fine school buildings, church towers, the tightest kind of GYPSYING IN THE SIEKRAS. 19 puU-backs, and all the other features of a smart eastern city. Some one told us the number of the population, but, as in writing this book I do not propose to look up statistics, I will simply say that Cheyenne is a beautiful city, and would be so regarded at the east. You hear a good deal said of the " gentlemanly clerk " of the hotel. All that has been said of him, may be said with emphasis of the porter on the Pacific Railroad. He is a colored man, a polite gentleman, and is always on the qui vive to give information to inquisitive travellers. TOP OP THE "KOCKIES." We have left Cheyenne, and are climbing to the top, when the porter, or "steward" as he likes to be called, comes along, and, in a style that would have enhanced Chestei-field's reputa- tion, says: " Ladies and gentlemen you are now approach- ing Sherman, the highest point ever reached by a railroad train." 20 GYPSIES, OK ■WHT WE -WENT Soon we are there. Of course we get out, and purchase some poor little geological specimens of a forlorn little Irish girl, in a forlorn dress, seated on a forlorn stool, at a forlorn table. "Well, here we are on the top of the Kocky Mountains. But where are the Kocky Moun- tains? Certainly not here ! We expected, when we reached the top of the Rocky Mountains, we should be in or on the Rocky Mountains. But where are tlie ItocTcy Mountains'^ This is the same vast plain that we have plodded our way over, ever since we left Chicago. A rough be- whiskered fellow tells us, in order to make con- fusion worse confounded: "This is the finest pasture ground in the world." ABOUT LAKAMIE. We leave the city of Sherman, consisting of one wretched hut, and move westward on the broad, flat, Laramie Plains, and then begin to wonder what the city of Laramie may be like. We were so surprised with Cheyenne, that we GYPSTHSTG DSr THE SIERRAS. 21 determine to ask no questions, but to picture Laramie just as small as we can, that we may have the greater astonishment if it is large. "We say to ourselves: "Laramie, the city of Laramie ! " But we have seen more than one city in this western country, that had less than ten houses, and all of them little ones; so we venture to squeeze the city of Laramie into very small proportions. We say: ""Well, Laramie has four houses. They are aU miserable sod huts. One is the railroad depot, telegraph office, &c. The others are the houses of the cattle men, who pastm-e their herds on the Laramie Plaias." In an hour after leaving Sher- man, we are there. WeU! well! well! It is Cheyenne all over again; with the same fine depot, the same red- faced 'bus men, the same impudent hack drivers, the same fine blocks, school houses and churches, and the same tight pull-backs, only just a little tighter. These things seem to grow tighter every time. It is difficult to beheve, as you stand in Lara- 22 GYPSIES, OR WHT WE WBISTT mie, and look out over the vast ocean of prairie around you, that you are on the top of the Kooky Mountains. And when you think of your great altitude, and hear the cattle men say that these Laramie Plains are the best pasture grounds on the face of the earth, and that cattle ran here all winter long, taking care of themselves, you are still more puzzled. When I retire, I think I shall settle in Laramie. I am not sure, but it is a wonderful place; perhaps all things considered, the most wonderful plateau ' in the world. OFF FOE UTAH. But we have no time to speculate. "All aboard," intemipts my chat with a cattle man, a near relative of Baron Munchausen. He draws an amazingly long bow over the Laramie herds of cattle. The number, as he put it, was not 217,000,000, but it was so large that I was glad to get ba|k into the car, and into the atmosphere of my matter-of-fact friends. The trip from Laramie city to Ogden, and the GTPSYISrG- IN" THE 8IEEEAS. 23 end of the Union Pacific EaHroad, is all very in- terestiag. But as the trans-conthiental journey is not the subject of this book, I will hasten on. Instead of climbing over the Wahsatch Eange, as we have just climbed over the Rocky Eange we run through it. l^ature made a contract with the Union Pacific Railroad, to cut thl^bugh the "Wahsatch Range, and she put iu the cut a' river, for the comfort and convenience of the ancient men who did the digging. The Union Pacific Railroad had only to smooth the ground along by the river bank, and lay down their rails. I am not siu-e about the grades, but as I remem- ber, a railway train would run from Laramie Plains to Ogden, if let loose, in a very short time, and wotdd need nothing but brakes. The gorge through the Wahsatch Range is wonderful. It is very narrow, the walls mount- ing up into the heavens right over your head, and confronting you with a hundred mile pano- rama of magnificent, sublime, overwhelming cliffs and precipices. In all my travels in the western world, I saw 24 GYPSIES, OB WHY WE WENT nothing which I so long to see again, and to study; not from a passing railway train, but on foot, and in detail. It is one of the hopes I cher- ish, that I may soon return to that awful chasm in the.Wahsatch Mountains, and spend a month in wonder and worship. This chasm is known as the " Echo Canon and Weber Canon." As we emerge from the Weber Canon, the city of Ogden lies before us. We see it all at a glance. I believe it is mostly a Mormon city, but the two railroads, the Union Pacific and the Central Pacific, which meet there, make it an active and thriving town. Let us run down to Salt Lake City, and see the Mormons. We take the Utah Central, a rail- road owned and run by them. THE MORMONS. The reading pubHc is famihar with Salt Lake City, with its scattered houses and pleasant grounds, with its little clear brooks running through the gutters of the streets, with its Mor- mon Temple and Tabernacle, with its Saints and GYPSTESTG DT THE SIERRAS. 25 Gentiles, with its neighbor, the great Salt Lake, which does not seem able to preserve its saints from spoiling, and I propose to add only some personal experiences. I went'to call on Brigham Young, but he had the Mdney complaint, and couldn't see me. The next day, I called again at the " Beehive," and was informed that he had the Mdney complaint again. The third day I called, and found that he had the Mdney complaint once more. So I did not see him, but I did see some of his principal people. I asked a Gentile which of the Bishops was best worth visiting? He thought Bishop Sharpe. Bishop Sharpe is the rich Mormon, a Director of the Union Pacific Railroad, and stands high with the business men of 'New York City. I called at his handsome residence. " Bishop Sharpe is in ISTew York City, sir." " Can I see Mrs. Sharpe? " " She is engaged in her domestic affairs, and cannot see you." "Can I see Miss Kate and Miss ISTellie Sharpe?" 5i6 GTPSIES, OR WHT WB WENT "If you will take a seat in the parlor, I will ask." The parlor was richly furnished, and enter- tained a fine piano. While making an inventory of this best room in the house of a latter day saint, I was interrupted by the entrance of a stately Scotch lassie of twenty-two, announcing herself as Kate Sharpe. We talked about some interestmg subject for awhile; I think it was the subject of the weather; and I asked for Miss ]N"ellie. As her name was spoken, she entered, a bright, sweet petite of six- teen years. We soon got through with: "Is this yom- first visit?" and I asked Miss Kate: " What do you think of Polygamy? " " I Ziafe it!" " Are you not a Mormon? " " Certainly, but I hate Polygamy! " "Miss ]S"ellie, what do you think of it? " " I think just as sister Kate does ! " "What does your mother think of it?" GYPSYING EST THE SIEEEAS. 27 " She hates it worse than we do ! She loathes it!" " But I hear that your father has four other wives, beside your mother." " My father has only one wife, and that is my mother!" "If you feel that way, how can yoti ever marry?" " I never will marry unless I am perfectly cer- tain that I can have my husband all to myself! " "Why don't you Mormon girls marry Gen- tiles?" " Some of them do, and I woidd unless I could be perfectly sure ! " We talked for an hour, and mostly on Mormon subjects, but I will hardly venture to give more of the conversation. I am strongly tempted to repeat some other conversations with promuient Mormons, both men and women, but we must move on. I will, however, take the liberty to make one remark about the treatment of Polygamy, by our Government. I believe President Hayes's plan, 28 GYPSIES, OR "WHY WE WENT to disfranchise Polygamists, is a good one. Let there be the right of challenge at the polls, and compel the challenged party to swear that he is not a polygamist. If he refiises, throw out his vote. SILVER PALACE CABS. "We return to Ogden, and take up our quarters in a palace car, bound for San Francisco. Splen- did! Nothing east of the Mississippi so com- fortable and beautiful. Splendid is not too strong. Before we reach Ogden, we express astonish- ment at om- Pullman Palace Car. In If ew Eng- land, we have nothing like it. So comfortable, so clean, so rich, so perfectly balanced, alto- gether so perfect. "WhUe we are expressing oiu" admiration, some one says : " This is all well enough, but wait until you see the SUver Palace Cars. When you get to Ogden, and get into a SUver Palace Car, you will think you never saw a car before. The Pacific Koad does everything in a grand way. OTPBYma us THE SIEKEAS. 29 Leaving Ogden, we run three or four hundred miles over a very level plain, covered with sage brush where the alkali is not too strong. It is the valley of the Humboldt, and most of the time we run near the river. There is a strip of graz- ing land bordering the Humboldt, on which are more cattle than you can shake a stick at, unless the muscles of your arm have enjoyed special training. TRICKY ETVEES. At length we come to the Sink of the Hum- boldt, or the place where that river performs the little trick of dodging into the earth. It is a very common trick among the rivers west of the Rocky Mountains. Take for example, the San Diego Eiver, in Southern California. It comes down the mountains in a perfectly Orthodox manner, tiunbles down in the well-known cata- ract with propriety, runs along in its bed, quiet and respectable; not a wink which would sug- gest a tricky disposition, and all at once, while you are looking at it, and without a word, it 30 GYPSIES, OR WHY WE WENT dodges into the ground. Miles below, it quietly comes out again, and flows on to the ocean in a very stately and dignified manner. On the whole, for a low tumbler, it is the best piece of acting I ever saw. The people say it turns over on its back. And so with the Himiboldt Eiver. Passing the Humboldt Sink, you come to the only real desert, that is, the only one that seriously trou- bled the emigrant. Scattered thickly over it are bones, chains, vehicles, and other mementoes of terrible suffering and death. A BIG CLIMB. Climbing over the Sierra ISTevada Mountains is dizzy work, l^o man can make the trip with- out having his admiration for hitman enterprise and courage greatly enhanced. 'No where in the world does a railroad climb over such awful crags and chasms. Here you find 40 or 50 miles of snow sheds, without which, for sis months during the year, the passage would be impos- sible. GTPSTINGI- IK THE SIEEIIAS. 31 TOU CAK't believe TOUE SEIfSBS. The quantity of snow that falls on these moun- tain tops is incredible. They don't think of brag- ging, when it is only 60 feet deep. If I remember rightly, from the summit down to Sacramento, Cal., is a little more than a hun- dred miles, and the fall about 7000 feet. Suppose it is April. At the summit, you are in the midst of vast, immeasureable masses of snow. You run down to Sacramento, say in four hours, and find people in linen, sitting in the shade and fanning themselves. The change is stmming. You are now 100 miles or so from Frisco. You go by ears to OaHand, or all the way to San Francisco by steamer, down the Sacramento Kiver. If the river is high, you may find your- self sailing on a stream 10 miles wide. We arrived in San Francisco in September, spent the winter there, and saw much of its won- derful life. It has a great park, extending to the shores of the Pacific — the Golden Gate Park. 32 GYPSIES, OK WHY WE WENT Its streets and blocks, its newspapers, and its rush of business, will make you think Hfew Tork a slow, humdrum town. It has its peculiarities. Among them, a stranger from the east will be impressed with its active theatres on Sunday, with its numerous, splendid biUiard rooms, which are sm'e to be in front, wide open, and exceptionally active on Sunday. But the deepest impression will be of its immense vitality. San Francisco requires a volume. But as just here, I do not propose to speak of this wonderftil city, the most wonderful on earth, I hasten on to om* camp-life. CHAPTEE n. OUR FIRST CAMP. Our outfit for eight persons, four ladies and four gentlemen, consisted of a freight wagon with four mules, a light spring-wagon, seats for six persons, with a pan- of Mustang horses, three Mustangs with saddles, four tents with carpet floors and a number of large pockets ia the walls, eight camp beds with hair mattresses, pil- lows and blankets, eight folding arm-chairs, sheet iron cook stove with cooking utensUs, a folding table with tia dishes, one hundred cans of oysters and meats, a quantity of oatmeal, flour, butter, tea and coffee, and finally Jqe, a big N^orwegian teamster, and Sing, a little Chi- nese cook. From San Francisco, we moved down the 34 GYPSIES, OK WHY WE WENT coast twenty miles, and camped at Crystal Springs. It was the 4tli of April, 1876. Our friends had warned us that the rainy season was not over, but we hoped, and started. The very first night, it came in a flood. We had never slept out before, and did not know how to do it; got very wet, very cold, and were thoroughly wretched and sorry. Our horses had been living in warm stables, and the poor creatures all doubled up and shiv- ering, presented a pitiable sight. Daylight brought relief. The rain stopped, the sun came out, and we contrived to perpetrate a few feeble jokes at the breakfast table. A return to the city was suggested, but in- stantly voted down, because they would laugh at us. The next night was cold; we all suffered; the horses kept up their weary tramp all night. Then for three nights it rained hard. We were all disgusted, and would have given a small for- tune to have been back iu our comfortable quar- ters ia the city, but we assured each other it GYPSYnSTG EST THE SIERRAS. 35 was splendid; we had no idea camping could be BMch. fun, or we would have started in March. We were kept in this our first camp eight days. Glad enough we were when the clouds disappeared, and the clear, bright days and nights came. A WILD OAT. The last night at Crystal Springs furnished a sensation. "We were all awakened by the cry of a chUd in the woods, very near us. It distressed us that a child, even in the arms of its mother, should be out in the dark, dismal, cold woods. Sprmgiag from my bed, I was making hurried preparations of clothing and light, when at my very door a gun was fired. With my ears so keenly alert, the shot gun made the noise of a cannon. The ladies shrieked as loud as — as — well as loud as a woman, (nothing can shriek louder), and we men were speechless with fright. For my part I shoidd, on the instant, have parted with a large interest in the expedition, at a dis- count. 36 GYPSIES, OR WHY WE WENT Immediately after the explosion, Joe's voice was heard. "Keep still, it's a wild cat. If he gets in, cover up yonr faces and hold tight. I'm afraid I didn't hit him. He'U make fearftil work, if he gets at you." The poor baby out in the dismal woods cried no more that night. The nest morning I saw that poor baby, or its little brother, not far from camp, evidently drawn to us by the smell of our meat. It was a grey baby with a short tail, long legs, and about as large as two domestic cats. I shot at him, and he ran away with marvelous speed. The California variety of this terrible creature is large and fierce. MUCH BETTER. We moved south a few miles, and camped near the San Francisco Bay. This was an improve- ment. Our camp fire was a success, we sang some Moody and Sankey Songs, " John Brown," "Old Folks at Home" and "I^ellie Bly," and G-yPSTING Uf THE SIEERAS. 37 turned in, feeling sorry for campers who were trying to make it go without experience. STILL BETTER. The following day we moved south twenty- five miles, and camped in a pretty valley near the Coast Range, where our horses found good grazing, and we found good water, a rare thing in. California. JOB A2 GYPSTiKa rsr the sibeeas. 127 It is not improbable, though at the time he looked serious, not to say frightened. One bold, determined man can stop a stage with driver and guardsman, both armed, the stage full of passengers, also armed, and rob them of the treasure box without serious rist. The robber has a shot-gun, both barrels heavily loaded with slugs, and gets into position. When the driver appears, he finds himself looking right into those barrels, and knows, if he makes a mo- tion to use his pistol, he is a dead man. The robber cries : " Throw out your treasure box." The driver, guardsman and passengers may all be plucky to the backbonej but if they have any sense, the treasure box will be tximbled out. This box was so constantly demanded and giv- en up, that a duplicate was carried. Then it re- quired two men to rob a stage, — one to go for- ward, open and examine the box. I do not see why this crime is not more fre- quent; the robber runs no risk of being hurt at 128 GYPSIES, OK WHT WE WEST the time, and if disguised, very little of being caught afterward. Then it is so easy to conceal plunder in the vast stretches of chaparral. I know of no part of the country where a robber is so safe as in southern California; (gentlemen of the profes- sion should make a note of this) ; he can remain for weeks hidden in the chaparral protected by a single blanket, and with a little alcohol for cooking purposes, is as secure from observation and pursuit as though he were in the centre of the earth. DIGGf^EK ESTDIAJBTS. Sitting before our tents one day a group of Indians went by returning from the hunt. An old Indian carried a shot-gun so shockingly bad that Joe was sure that the two squirrels which were the only trophies, must have been killed with the butt-end of the weapon. There were two squaws who wore the cast- off garments of civilization, but carried on their backs bows and quivers full of arrows. Their GTPsyrma in the sierras. 129 nair htmg in native undress. Several half-grown boys were with them, and when, an hour later, two ladies of our party went to look at them they found also a number of mangy curs. One of the ladies gave the account of their call as fol- lows: We found them, not camping but literally squatting by a small stream. The old Indian seemed best to understand our pantomime, so I pointed enquiringly to the smoking embers which were in the center of a slight depression, circu- lar in outline, artificially made in the ground. With a friendly " ugh ! " he took a stick and thrusting it into the ashes, drew out before, our astonished, not to say disgusted eyes, the squir- rels which we had lately seen dangling over his shoulders. The hair was still there, though now crisped. Plainly the only labor spent on them had been to drop them into the ashes and to pry them out. The old Indian now tore them limb from limb and passed the pieces to the women, who devoured them with evident relish. The party had two courses for dinner that day. One 130 GYPSIES, OB WHY WE WENT of the women had stopped at the store, on the way from the hunt, and bought flour which now appeared in the form of a pasty gruel, served in a straw bowl woven so closely that I think it would have held water. I was surprised at the firm and exquisite workmanship, and especially at the design which was interwoven in darker color around the body of the bowl, and varied but little from the Greek chain. I have wished for that bowl ever since I came away. J!fot strange to say, I did not covet it just then, nor do I think you would have done so if you had seen the big squaw as she took her gruel by dipping her fingers into it and then drawing them through her mouth. The native untidiness and ugliness of the " diggers," would have seemed sufficient for all practical purposes, but this party added to both by being in mom'ning. It seemed that nearly a year before an enemy of the old Indian, aiming to kill him, had shot a squaw instead, a sister of these two women, one of whom was the Indi- an's wife. Their outward mark of grief was a GTPSYIKrG IN" THE SIEERA8. 131 broad stripe down eacli cheek of some black, sticky compound. I do not think it much mat- tered to them whether the substance was or was not waterproof. Time was gradually wearing it away and it was only a mitigated momruing which we saw. While not the less trying to wit- ness for that, we saw the advantage of this natu- ral dropping away of the outward symbol as the inward grief was assuaged. ^ I noticed that the big squaw who was not the wife had had her ears pierced. Pointing to the ear-rings which a friend with me wore, I motioned to the Indian to ask if the squaw was to wear such. His delighted nods proved that there we had found a bond of sympathy. As a China- man would have expressed it — " All - e - same white woman — all-e-same squaw." We met the same group farther on toward the Yosemite, and in the valley we found their kin- dred and bought photographs of the very party we had met. I think we prefered the photo- graphs, at least to take home, they were so clean. 132 GYPSIES, OR WHY WE WENT The tents of the Indians in the valley inter- ested us. They were built of poles and branches of trees which seemed to form pockets in which acorns were stored, and from which they rattled at any rough touch. "We saw the squaws pound- ing them iato meal. Fishing is the irregular occupation of the men and boys, and they sup- ply the hotels with fish. These Indians are not residents of the valley, but come over the mountains from Mono Lake to gather their winter's stock of acorns, like an army of squirrels. The squaws having gathered the acorns pound them into flour, and when their supply is ready, the load is piled on the backs of the ponies, or of the squaws, the latter often carrying a hundred pounds each, and they take their way back again, over the mountains, to their home by the desolate Mono Lake. AH" INDIAir DOCTOE. Speaking of Indians, I met an aged red man in GTPSTBSrG Df THE 8IEERAS. 133 a deep mountain canyon, hiding from pursuers. His tribe lived 300 miles north. This Indian was a " medicine-man," and had lost a patient. Among his people they have an unpleasant custom of killing a doctor if he loses a patient; so he had to flee. As a medical man I could enter into this poor fellow's feelings, and doubt not I speak for my craft, when I say that I was glad my profes- sional duties had not led me to practice among that tribe of Indians, I can imagine nothing more disagreeable, than knowing, if one lost a patient, his neighbors would turn out and shoot him. I am acquainted with one doctor, whose skin, as a humorist has expressed it, would be so full of holes, that it could not hold his principles. But then, as the timid orator puts it: "there is much to be said on both sides." This system would have its advantages. Hundreds of young men, graduates from our medical colleges, who now seek in vain for a location, could, under this system, quickly establish themselves. The old 134: GYPSIES, OR WHY WE WENT doctors, who are dull of sight and touch and mate mistakes, would soon disappear. Then again, doctors would be very anxious about the lives of their patrons. They would call, and carefully examine the ventilation, drain- age, baths, table, hours of sleep, and all the other habits. The doctor would soon find out what he does not now know, viz ; that an ounce of pre- vention is worth a ton of cure. And last but not least, it would introduce a heroic element into the profession. The world would feel toward doctors, as it now does toward soldiers in dangerous service. CHAPTER IX. WE CLIMB TO DEACON" MOOEE'S. "We left Cold Spring ranche, bidding good-bye to dear friends, whose hospitality had been of the whole-hearted, mountain sort, and began the as- cent, hoping to climb to Deacon Moore's before dark. Deacon Moore's ranche is in a valley, high up on the mountains, about twenty miles from the To Semite. It yields an enormous crop of hay, which is fortunate for the Mariposa Stage Com- pany in whose interests it is managed. "We had been told that Deacon Moore was a capital feUow, and would give us a hearty wel- come. Just before reaching his house, we stopped to rest our teams, and I rode forward to interview the deacon. 136 GYPSIES, OE WHY WE WENT He at once called me by name, grasped my hand warmly, and said: " Of course you are going to stop with me?" "No, we are camping." " Then you'll give me no chance at your pockets?" " Can't say. That depends. Perhaps we may wish to hire saddle horses for the big trees. How far from here are they?" "Come this way. Let me show you some- thing." We went round a point and looked up through a deep valley, which ended in a bold cliflf. "Do you see anything peculiar on the top of thatchff?" "Yes, deacon, I see five curious tree-tops, lifted up far above the others." "You've hit 'em the first time, and you've got the right number too. There are just five tops that can be seen from here. Of course you wUl need my saddle horses. I will let you have them for three dollars apiece, and five dollars for the guide." "We Visit thk Big Tkebs." {Seepage 137.) GYPSTDirG rsr the siekeas. 137 WE VISIT THE BIG- TUBES. Early the next morning, we started for the trees. Others joined us. The party numbered sixteen. The trail was perfect, the scenery won- derful. It was only seven miles; but moiantain miles are very, very long. As we neared the big trees, I said to the guide : "Don't teU me! Don't point them out! I want to see if I will know these famous chaps." Pretty soon I saw a large cinnamon colored tree with deep crevices ia the bark, and re- marked: " That, sir, is a big tree." "You are right, colonel, that's him! and that's the first one we come to." "We stopped, rode around it, and looked at it. "Well, I've heard of you for years. I've thought of you a thousand times, but this is the first time I ever saw you. You are splendid! I never heard about your color before, and that is one of your great beauties." We passed on, .and soon came to the largest 138 GYPSIES, OE WHY WE WENT tree in the whole Mariposa grove — the grizzly giant. He is an old fellow, and I took off my hat to him. It is my hahit, when in the presence of age. "Well, guide, what is the diameter of this tree?" " Thirty-two feet, sir." " Oh ! but you don't mean that. That tree is not more than fifteen feet in diameter. ]S^ow, Mr. Guide, I've brought with me a one hundred and twenty foot tape line, on purpose to draw about the necks of these giants, and choke them for their falsehoods." The guide and myself left our saddles. He held the riag end of the tape line at the height of our heads, and I walked around the tree, and brought the line back to the point of beginning. It was sixty-eight feet. " That's the way I choke the reputation out of big trees —.one-third of sixty-eight is twenty three." " Yes, colonel, but that isn't the way we meas- " Gbizzly Giamt- (See page 138.) GTPSYING rsr THE SIEKRAS. 139 ure the trees. "We measure them close to the \ ground." There was a path around the tree, and the guide said: " Ladies and gentlemen, please ride your horses into that path close against the tree. Let the head of each horse touch the tail of the next one, and we wiU see if there are enough of us to reach around it." When the sixteen horses were placed, we found there was quite a gap, and had to take three from the center of the string, to fill it. It required a continuous chain of nineteen horses to reach around the grizzly giant. The tree itself is of such perfect proportions, and is surrounded by objects of such magnitude, that it seemed not more than fifteen feet; but when we walked around it, we realized that we were in the presence of one of the famous big trees. This grizzly giant is falling into decay. The top has disappeared in part, and I wouldn't be surprised if it didn't last more than 600 or 800 years more. 140 GYPSIES, OR WHX WE "WENT The first limb of this tree is one hundred feet from the ground, and is either six or sixteen feet in diameter, I really do not remember Which. Perhaps it would be prudent to call it six. We passed on, and soon came to quite a grove of big trees; they were not all very large, some were not more than ten or twelve feet in diame- ter. A big tree of less than ten feet, is not re- garded as having any claim to recognition. Such a fellow is not even respectable. "We found a standing tree, which was hollow, rode in on one side, and out at the other. Kine of us were in there on horseback at once. One tree, lying on the ground, must have been twenty feet in diameter, although I did not meas- ure it. I think it was in this grove that we rode a long distance on horseback, through a hollow, prostrate tree, without bumping our heads. The names of these trees are painted on boards, and naUed to them. Here are " Blinois," "Ohio" " Grant," " A. Lincohi," " Andrew Johnson," (down and decaying), "Jay Cooke," and "John GYPSYBSTG IN THE SIBEEAS. 141 Smith." There are also groups: "The Two Brothers," " The Faithfal Group," &c. There are two groves of Mariposa big trees; the upper and the lower. The trees are most numerous, and in the best condition in the upper grove. A large number are extremely beautiful. Their peculiar color, their very rough bark, with the deep fissures running from the bottom to the top J the absence of limbs for one hundred feet, with the graceful, umbrella-like tops, make the Sequoia gigantea the most wonderful and beauti- ful of all trees. The seeds, which like those of all cone-beariag trees, lie naked at the base of the scale, are exceedingly small. There has been a great demand for these seeds from nearly all parts of the world, especially from Europe. There are probably millions of these big trees growing in Europe to-day. All over California, the gardens have little groves of big trees; though instead of being 200 feet high, and 20 feet in diameter, they may not be more than 6 inches high, and a quarter of an inch in diameter. As trees of 142 GTPSEES, OK WHY WE WENT this family drop their seeds before the cones fall, it became, with the demand and the enormous prices offered for them, an important question how they could be gathered. A bright young fellow, who lived in the To Semite, told me that he had devised a plan which would just "boost 'em all." It was to go up in a balloon, and pick the cones off before the seeds fell. With a rope in the hands of a man on the ground, the balloon could be held and guided. The big trees were first discovered by a hun- ter at Calaveras, m 1855. Since then a half score of groves have been found within an area of 200 mUes, containing from 30 to 10,000 trees each. In the largest of these groves, saw-nulls are busy cutting the big trees into lumber. An Englishman first described these trees, and, using his right, named them Wellingtonia gigantea. Our boys were up in a minute, and dubbed them WasMngtonia gigantea. The fight grew warm. Soon the American scientists solemnly entered the ring, separated the com- aYPSYDSTG nsr the sierras. 143 batants, and named the trees Sequoia gigantea. Sequoia was the chief of the Cherokee Indians, better kaown to Americans by his English name, George Guess. He it was who invented the Cherokee alphabet, in which books and newspa- pers are stUl printed. I notice that our English cousins haye not yet heard of the change in name. It seems only just that these trees, 1,000 or 2,000 years old, should bear the name of one of the aborigines. In the Calaveras grove, the tree known as " The Mother of the Forest" is 321 feet high, 84 feet in circumference at the base, and at 20 feet from the ground, measures 69 feet. It is 137 • feet to the first branch. "The Father of the Forest" lies sleeping near the "Mother", At his roots the circumference is 110 feet. His trunk measures 200 feet to the first branch. At the distance of 300 feet, the point at which the trunk was broken off by falling against another tree, the circumference is 18 feet. This tree was probably more than 350 feet high. Every one has heard of the stump on which 144 GTPSIES, OR WHT WB WENT 4 sets, or 32 persons can dance at once without collision. ATiTi KEEKING WITH BLOOD ! We had returned from the big trees very tired, and were resting in our arm-chairs, when a stran- ger came down from the mountains, entered our camp, and asked for me. In an alarming whis- per, he told me that he had just left a man up in the mountains who wanted to see me. " Wants to see me? " "Yes, and he wants to see you bad! " " I don't know any one up in the mountains. It must be a mistake." " 'No sir, it is not a mistake. There is a man up there who wants to see you awfully; he's cov- ered with blood from the top of his head to his boots." " What are you talking about? A man up in the mountains, covered with blood, who wants to see me? What sort of a man is he, and why is he covered with blood? What has happened to him?" GTPSTIN'G EST THE SIEKRAS. 145 I called for Joe. He was not in camp, and no one knew where he was. A horrible suspicion flashed upon me! Joe might be in the moun- tains, and dreadfully wounded. . I asked if the person wishing to see me was a big man? "Well, not very; about ten feet tall." " It is Joe ! He has had a terrible fall ! Per- haps he is dying! " I called for a fresh horse, and sprang into the saddle. We flew up the mountain trail. The gallop was not broken for four nules. There stood Joe — hair, face, hands and clothes reeking with blood. "Oh, Joe! what has happened? Are you hurt?" Joe laughed and squirmed all over. " Ah ! I've got a big one ! A bully one ! " "Got what? A big what?" "Oh, I tell you, he's an elephant! " "Joe, stop your nonsense, and tell me what you mean!" 146 GYPSIES, OR WHY WE WENT "Why, I've killed a buck, and he's the grand- father of 'em all." " Well, but why did you send for me ? You've frightened me to death, and I've nearly MUed my horse." "I thought if I sent for you, you would let me have the horse to pack him into camp. I didn't dare send word that I had shot a deer, for fear they would arrest me for killin g game out of season." "But this blood?" " He was not dead, and I had to cut his throat. The blood flew all over me." I left my horse, and went home on foot. An hour or two afterward, Joe brought the cook some venison steaks-, which were so deli- cious that we forgave him for the fright. When deer is killed out of season, you must call it "mountain-sheep," unless you are anxious to pay a fine of fifty dollars. CHAPTER X. THE TO SEMITE. The climb from Clark's is along a mountain ridge, which at its highest point is 7,400 feet above the sea. We pass twisted pines, moun- tain firs and ghostly birches, while our rugged road is made beautiful by the bright Mariposa flower, and occasional clumps of yellow azaleas. There are here as elsewhere on these moxm- tain roads, *sharp turns which demand careful driving. Fortunately, our drivers are sober and careftd. To the heavy team which carries our tents, the light wagon is fastened, so that Joe's skill may manage both. But the road into the valley is so narrow, steep and winding, that it was difficult to persuade even the stage drivers, that Joe had driven in 148 GYPSIES, OB WSY WE WENT his team, with a trail wagon attached. In fact, he only did it by leaving his seat when we came to the sharpest turns, and with his tremendous strength, boosting the wagon into a safe posi- tion. rsrsPiBATioiir point. As we approached the Yo Semite, a lady of our party left the carriage to sit with Joe on the high seat of the freight wagon, that she might take ia the glories to better advantage. When we reached Inspiration Point, and that matchless vision burst upon us, she was so overwhelmed that she covered her face with her hands, and burst into tears. Feeling as one does at such a moment the desire for sympathy, she turned to Joe, with the exclamation: " Oh, Joe, isn't it grand ?" " Just what I came from liTorway to get rid of," said Joe. She then turned to Sing, the little Chinaman, and said: "Heap fine! Lung Singl Heap fine I" GTPSTTKTG ISr THE SIEBKAS. 149 Sing turned his eyes toward the valley, and without any evidence of interest, remarked: " AU-e-same, China." "We stand on Inspiration Point. The match- less Yo Semite is before us. 7 miles long, 1 mile wide, and 1 mile deep. The bottom is level, covered with large trees. As seen from here they are mere brush. A deep, swift river, of which we catch glimpses through the trees, flows down the centre, and out of the valley through the awful Merced canyon, far below at our left. Stand by my side, and if you can restrain your emotions, I will point out some features. We will first examine the south wall, which as the valley lies nearly east and west, and we are standiag at the west end, is on our right hand. The first object is the Bridal YeU Falls, (" Po- ho-no," or " Spirit of the Evil Wind.") Happy name! The wind sways it fi-om side to side; it is a vibrating sheet of sparkling spray. The water falls nearly 1,000 feet, and at this distance is so small that it seems a mere ribbon, or a bride's veil. But when the water reaches the 150 GYPSIES, OE WHY WE WENT bottom and flows across the valley to the Merced, it forms three rivers so deep and swift that they are diflSlcult to ford. The next wonder is Cathedral Spires, (Poo- see-nah Chuck-ka," or " Large Acorn Store House,") a group of lofty spires, that stand out from the face of the wall, and are nearly 3,000 feet high. The next marvellous feature in the right hand wall, as seen from Inspiration Point, is Sentinel Eock, (" Loya," or " A Medicinal Shrub,") the most strongly individualized mass of rock in or about the Yo Semite. It stands boldly out from the wall, and lifts its crest rqore than 3,000 feet. On this crest once blazed the watch-fires of the Indians. The next object in the right hand wall is Gla- cier Point, (Br-na-ting Law-oo-too," or " Bear- skin,") of which we shall say more farther on. The last object I shall point out in the right hand wall, is at the very upper end of the valley, a grand mass of rock, more than a mile high, with a perpendicular wall on the valley side. It GYPSTUiTG IN THE 8IEEEAS. 151 is the famous South Dome, (" Tis-sa-ack," or " Goddess of the Yalley.") If you can bear more of this awful >dsion, let us turn our eyes and gaze upon the wonders in the left wall. Just over there, seeming so near that we may toss something against it, though in reality two or three miles away, is El Capitan, (" Tu-toch-ah-nu-lah," or " Semi-deity, and Great Chief of Valley,") a mass of light-colored granite, with perpendicular face, more than a mile wide, and nearly three quarters of a mile high. I do not believe that anywhere on the face of the earth is there another object which so over- whelms the imagination, and so lingers in and thrills the memory as this mass of rock. It is not easy to say why this is so, for it is less in size than the South Dome, and very much smaller than many mountains around the Yo Semite. But every visitor replies to the question: ""What impressed you most about the Yo Semite?" "Oh! El Capitan, by far the most." 152 GYPSIES, OK WHY WE WENT The next feature in the left hand wall of the Yo Semite, is three magnificent mountain masses, known as The Three Brothers, (" Pom-pom-pa- eus," or "Mountains playing Leap-frog,") the highest of which is almost a mile. The next striking object in the left hand wall is the Yo Semite Falls. This is the most re- markable waterfall in the world. The first leap is 1,600 feet. Then it rushes in a thundering cascade of 400 feet to its final plunge of 600 feet, — in all, about 2,600 feet. " The loftiest cataract in the world." "A cataract from heaven to earth, plunging from the clouds to bury itself in the abyss below." " A cataract half a mile high." "Setting its forehead against the stars, and planting its feet upon the eternal hills." The Yo Semite Falls by moonlight, are mag- nificent. Night after nighty we sat gazing at the vast shower of dazzling diamonds. !N"o one who has ever witnessed that scene can forget it! The last grand feature in the left hand wall is the ISTorth Dome, ( " To-coy-oe," or, "Shade to YosEuiTE Falls. (^Seepage 152. J GYPSTDSTG m THE SIEEEAS. 153 Baby Cradle Basket"), a mass of bold granite nearly 4,000 feet high. In its huge side is a co- lossal arch — ^the royal arch of Tecoyoe. Its span is 2,000 feet; the height from the valley to its crown, 1,700 feet. A RATHEK LARGE PAW. Before leaving Inspiration Point, I wish you to imagine something rather odd, viz.: that some god with a fancy for works of art, and particu- larly fond of big things, in travelling over the face of the earth, and looking for holes to be used as moulds, into which he could pour plaster of Paris, the casts to be hung in his art gallery, should come here. Let him mix his dish of plas- ter, and pour it into the Yo Semite till it was full. He would find when he lifted it out, that the shape would be that of the leg and paw of a lion, with three very big toes. "We stand at the west end. Seven miles from here, at the east end, are the three toes. The first toe on the left is the awful gorge be- tween the North and South Dome. Through this, 154 GYPSIES, OB WHY WE WENT the Tenaya river enters the valley. The center toe is the IsTevada gorge, through which the great Merced branch comes. The right hand toe is the Ulilouette gorge, through which the Ulilouette river flows. Soon after these three rivers enter the valley they unite and form the great Merced river. HAT SIXTBElir DOLLAES A BALE. When we reached what may be called the floor of the valley, I saw, stretching away at the left, what seemed a vast meadow. I congratu- lated myself upon a happy escape from the hay- fiend. " Here," I said, " we will pitch our tents, and the horses shall graze at their will." But alas ! it was only a bitter weed, which not even a hungry mule would touch ! This green stretch is knoAvn as the Bridal Yeil Meadows. Om' animals were tired and hungry, and I drove at once up the valley for hay. After a GTPSTnSTG IN" THE SIEBRAS. 155 two hours search, I found a bale, for which they asked sixteen dollars. "Yes, I replied, that is your asking price. What will you takei " " Well, seeing it is you, I will take twenty dol- lars, and discount four, for cash." I paid sixteen dollars in gold for that bale of hay, and was careless enough to mention the price ia the presence of the mides. Would you be- lieve it? — those scoundrels sat up all night and finished that hay. The next morning, Joe asked what we should do for hay. The horses had not had their break- fast. I sat down to a mathematical calculation, on the basis of the amotmt of hay given to the street car horses in I^'ew York, (fifteen pounds a day), and found that the bale should have lasted our stock forty-eight hours. I told Joe about it. You should have seen his look of disgust. " Why," said he, "I could eat more than fifteen pounds of hay, myself." 156 GYPSIES, OK WHT WE WENT I told Joe that I feared the horses had over- heard our conversation. During om* stay in and about the Yo Semite, I paid at least $90 a ton for all the hay we needed for ten horses, and $140 a ton for barley. It was the most solemn feature of our Yo Semite life. Appetite ! Appetite is no name for it. I always knew; that the mountaius increased hiunan appetite, but I never before realized that the law applies to mules and horses. THE OLIMB TO GLACIER PODSTT. "We left our wagon at the foot of the traU, where we found the guide with mountain ponies waiting for us. The trail looked so perilous that we meekly allowed the guide to mount us. Re- sult, — the tall woman on the low, Indian pony, the short, stout one on a mere skeleton, and the little member of the company on a large animal. Our guide, California Bill, ( with a dash in his name which did not appear tu his manner ), led the cavalcade on a wall-eyed, vicious beast, with GYPSYBSTG EST THE SIBERAS. 157 which, however, he seemed to have an mider- standing. A wedding party from San Francisco, with its guide, fell in behind us. The ladies had not yet been long enough out of civilization to wear loosely fitting gloves and garments, or to adopt the man's saddle for mountain riding. That our ladies used the man's saddle insured the hearty approval of the owners of the horses, and the best services, as well as the gratitude, I am sxire, of the animals themselves. When we had chmbed for some time, we all left oiu" saddles for rest. The ladies of our party enjoyed the change of position, but were nearly as fresh as when they started, and walked off for new points of view. But the others slipped from their side saddles with a "most dead" air, and lay down at full length on a flat rock. Some of them declared that they could not go another step. The trail, like most others in the valley, was well made, and perilous only from its narrowness. It was a series of zig-zags, so short that while we were ia siugle file, half a dozen seemed 158 GYPSIES, OE WHY WE WENT to be in a group. On our way up, I met a man who whispered to me : "A rattlesnake has just been killed a little way above here. Don't for the world say a word to the ladies." I cried out: "Ladies! A rattlesnake has just been killed up here." With the usual incalculableness of women, the cry came back: " Bring on your rattlesnakes I" OUTLOOK FROM GLACIER POINT. The views grow grander as we rise, until, standing on Glacier Point, we look down more than 3,000 feet into the valley. Before us is the magnificent sweep of mountain wall, with its bold projections and varied sky-line. Standing boldly out into the valley at its upper end, South Dome rises 5,700 feet in the air, a wonderful mountain of bare granite. Opposite us is the Yo Semite Falls, dazzling in its grand, misty beauty. GYPSTING EST THE SEEEEAS. 159 It is a view of exceeding grandeur, though hotels, fields and strawberry patch look home- like, nestling between the mighty walls. The walls shut in a green meadow which is dotted with trees, and divided by the silver Merced. Turning to the view behind us, we behold a scene of wild and desolate grandeur. Bare peaks, scored by ancient glaciers, rise thousands of feet, singly or in groups, and far away is the ^N'evada Fall, at the foot of which is the hotel where we are to pass the night. WhUe on Glacier Point I find myself near the leader of the wedding party. It is the groom. He is handsomely dressed. The expression on his face, at finding himself in the company of such ragamuffins as we, is funny enough. I try to get up a little conversation with him, but he turns away to talk with his wife. It is plain from their glances that they are discussing our costumes. A RAGGED DO-NOTHHSTG. But it was not only natty bridal parties who 160 GYPSIES, OK WHT WE WENT judged us by what we wore. After a few weeks of camp life, when my clothes were just about right, as I thought, I was walking one day in San Jose, when I saw a young lady talking with an Irishwoman. As I approached, I heard her eay: " I have nothing for you now, but I will give you my address, and if you will come to our house, my mother will help you." She took out a card, but could not find a pencil, so I offered her mine. She used it, thanked me and passed on. As I continued my leisurely pace, the Irish woman walked along by my side, and inspecting me, asked: " Where do you work now? " A full sense of the fact that I was doing abso- lutely nothiQg, came over me, and my tone was very meek as I confessed: " I'm not doing anything, just now." But she was not satisfied. "Do you work for the company?" " 'No, I don't work for the company." GTPSTnSTG IN THE 8IEEKAS. 161 Again sui'veyiiig my camping suit, from the hideous pith hat to the undressed shoes with their heavy spikes, she said, with a dubious air: " You're a mason." I made no reply. She became irritated, and settled it promptly for herself with : " !N^o, you're a hod carrier, and a mighty poor one at that." I fell behind my talkative and whisky-drink- ing companion, to think over the lack of respect the world has for ragged do-nothings. THE EAOE FOR THE COTTAGE. As we leave Glacier Point, and begin our de- scent over the rough mountain side into the val- ley of the Illilouette, Bill, our guide, suddenly exclaims : "See John! See him cutting through those bushes to get ahead of us. That's a mean trick! It's just like him. He's after Snow's cottage. Let my horse guide you. He can do it just as well as I can. I'm going to have that cottage." Snow had just built a new cottage. His old 162 GYPSIES, OE WHY WE WENT house was a regular tumble-down. "We were the first to leave the valley in the morning, and ac- cording to the custom there, had a right to the cottage. The white-eyed horse guided us over a wild trail to the Merced river, just above the Falls, where we crossed; then he led us down a zig-zag trail, the worst in California. Just before we reached the bottom, BUI came out from behind a rock, mounted his horse, but said nothing. "When we struck the bottom of the trail, a tall, rough man came out from behind another rock and asked: "Are you Dr. Lewis?" "Yes." ""Well, don't tell those other people that you didn't engage the cottage yesterday. Bill got ahead of them, and I gave it to him for your party. When John came, and I told him you had engaged the cottage, he flew up and said: " That can't be. We are here first." "I told him that you spoke for it yesterday. It's a whopper, but you mustn't tell on me." gypsyhstg Dsr the siebeas. 163 The cottage was beautifiil and nicely furnished. Everything in and about it, including even the timbers, had been brought up the mountains, piece by piece, either on the back of a man, or a mule. At the supper table, the party of the first part smiled. The party of the second part scowled. But we had a nice time, sang together, and at length the party of the second part became very agreeable to the party of the first part. The trail spoken of above as the worst iu CaH- fomia, is made in the talus of broken granite which lies at the base of the Cap of Liberty, which rises, on oiu" right, as we descend, a sheer wall of 2,000 feet. Close upon the left is a dash- ing cataract — the I^evada Fall. The descent of 700 feet is made by sharp tm-ns, over which even our mountain ponies stepped slowly and cautious- ly, and if ever we held our breaths with anxiety, it was there. HOW BILL GOT DOWlSr THE CLUT. As we stood at the foot of the l^evada Fall, 164 GTPSEES, OR WHY WE "WENT and looked up at the dizzy trail over which we had come, it was a mystery how our guide could have got down in any other way. " Where did you get down? " I asked. " If you will come out on this rock, I will show you." He pointed to a perpendicular wall, with trees rising row above row. " Is there a trail there? " "l^o, but I was in for it, and had to come down somehow. I swung myself iuto a tree-top, slid down its trunk, then into another, and so on, tUl I came where I could climb over the boulders, and get iu ahead of that other guide. I took a new look at the little feUow. So quiet 5 such a pleasant, low voice. "Where did he keep this amazing pluck? It seemed to me that such a feat would require the united grit of ten of these tremendous fellows. We learned afterward that our unobtrusive guide was one of the old time pony-express rid- ers, whose daring feats we were fond of reading by our camp-fire. After that, we were glad when GYPSYTSTG m THE SIEKRAS. 165 Bill would join us, and tell of his adventures. But they were never big stories so far as his own part was concerned. WE ClilMB TO cloud's EEST. Early the next morning we start for Cloud's Rest. We climb the same dreadful trail which my wife has declared she would never, never pass over again, and soon reach the little Yo Semite. This is so named, not from any striking resemblance to the big Yo Semite, but rather, perhaps, from their proximity. We pass through the little Yo Semite, and be- gin the ascent of a mountain, the culminating point of which is Cloud's Rest. It is the first of July, but soon we come to snow fields. The sun is exceedingly bright, and the glare of the snow blinding. "BiU, haven't you some colored glasses? " "Ilo, but I'll fix you." He brings some bits of charcoal from a burned stump, and blackens the upper half of our cheeks. One of our ladies takes a bit of the coal, and 166 GYPSIES, OE WHY WE WENT makes for herself a mustache and an imperial, which greatly" improves her face. To om- sur- prise, the charcoal relieves us as by magic from the painful glare of the snow, and we go on, without the least discomfort. At length we near Cloud's Rest, — a wild mountain peak, composed of huge masses of torn granite, thrown up in wild and indescribable con- fusion, over which we clamber with great dan- ger to our limbs and necks. Finally, we stand upon the highest point. What a vision! Up in the very heavens, we gaze down upon the Yo Semite and trace its walls. The South Dome, at the foot of which, two days before, we lingered with our faces turned heavenward to catch its lofty summit, we now see far below us. It is only a feature in the sublime scene. "When standing upon the floor of the Yo Sem- ite, its walls seemed immense. As we now be- hold them from Cloud's Rest, they are only a small part of the vast landscape. Facuag the Yo Semite, we see at the left, only QYPSTma us THE SEEEEAS. 167 a few miles away, Mount Starr King, which is the most symmetrical and beautiful of all these mountains. In California, the Rev. Starr King is regarded as the most interesting character in the history of the Pacific coast. He saved the State from going into the Rebellion. In their gratitude they have associated the loved name with this won- derful mountain. It is very difficult to ascend; but it will prove still more difficult for any man to climb to the height occupied by Starr King in the love and admiration of Cahfomia. More than once, while on the Pacific Coast, I heard his name mentioned with tearful voice. Still farther to the left, we see in the distance several mountains, from 14,000 to 16,000 feet high, which have true glaciers at their bases. Across, on the right, we see the l^orth Dome and Molant Hoffinan. Turning sharply to the right, we discover far below, and somewhat behind us, one of the most beautiful lakes in the world, Lake Tenaya. From this lake, a stream rims along the far base 168 GYPSIES, OR WHY WE WENT of the mountain on which we stand, making its way between the I^orth and South Dome, into the Yo Semite. ISTear the foot of the South Dome it forms " Mirror Lake," one of the great attractions of the valley. We remain here a long time, gazing in wonder and worship. One of our company, who had seen all the mountains of this world, and had ex- amined through a telescope the mountains of the moon, declared that this vast, magnificent stretch of mountains, lakes and valleys, in that clear at- mosphere, was the most wonderful vision he could hope to behold this side of the I^ew Jeru- salem. Reluctantly we begin the descent, and before sundown are again at Snow's, having returned over the same dreadful, zigzag trail, by the side of the ISTevada Falls, which had so frightened us all the day before. THE NEVADA AND VERNAL PALLS. At Snow's we were near the head of the !N"eva- da canyon, into which the Merced pours. GTPSTONG rsr THE SIBEEAS. 169 JSTevada Falls is the first great plunge (700 feet), which the river makes on its way to the valley, 2,000 feet below by perpendicular meas- urement. Its second is the Yernal Falls, a mile farther on, (350 feet). Between the two the river flows in foaming rapids over a granite bed. Standing at our cottage door, at Snow's, we seemed almost shut in by vast walls of rock. Over us hung the majestic mountain mass, the Cap of Liberty, ("Mah-tah," or "Martyr Mount- ain"), whUe at its side, looking like a bride's snowy veU, was the graceful iSTevada Fall. The water drops perpendicularly over the wall, but it soon strikes a hidden ledge, turns aside at an angle, and mdens "like a half-opened fan." As the falling water dashes into spray, it is caught in the sunlight, and fills the air with frag- ments of broken rainbows. When we made our second descent along the difl3.cult traU, the laggards found the advance guard arranging themselves at the foot of the trail to be photographed. To those who had 170 GYPSIES, OB WHT WE WENT already arrived, the late comers appeared descend- ing through the arch of a magnificent rainbow. Though the day had been filled with wonders, when we stood in the moonlight, and all the out- lines were softened to the eye, while the ear was quickened to a finer sense of the deep undertone of the falling waters, the last charm was added to this scene of beauty and grandeiu". Descending the canyon, we crossed the rapids on a bridge, over the railing of which we gazed, fascinated, into the whirling waters. Here the river rushed through a rugged gorge, emerging from which it falls 350 feet. Its wat- ers are deeply tinged with green, while all others in the valley are pure white. The Indians call it by the gxpressive name of "Piwyack," " Sparkling River." For half the height, the fall is hidden by a cloud of spray which rises from its base, and which in the sunlight sparkles with rainbow hues. There is an awfiiUy pokerish ladder fastened against the cliff, on which you can go down and get very wet. It is painful and rather dangerous, GYPSTIIfG IN THE SIEEEAS. 171 but a great many persons escape, and they only charge you seventy-five cents. Returning to the trail we mount our horses and continue our difl&cult descent through the wild canyon. On our way, at the head of the precipice we meet a little mule train. The poor animals en- joy a moment's rest while crowded against the moxmtain side to let us pass. They need it, for they are laden with bundles of hay* each carries up that steep incliae 300 lbs. At every turn in our downward path new glo- ries burst upon us. Mountains loom up suddenly in the distance, and in a moment disappear. I^^ow we are on the bank of a river which rushes downward in a wild torrent, and by a turn ia the path is lost to sight and hearing. Here we pass over an immense ridge of granite blocks, which seem to have formed a terminal moraine in the days when the moving glaciers tore the gran- ite from the mountain walls. We cross the Ehlouette near the point where it unites with the main river. Just as we reach the 172 GYPSIES, OK WHY WE WENT valley, we come upon a field of white azaleas which cover not less than fifty acres. They are in full blossom, and the air is heavy with their fragrance. The strain upon us is so great that the trot on level ground, as we return to camp through the valley, is an immense relief to both body and mind. WE CLIMB TO THE UPPER TO SEMITE PALLS. High up on the side of the north wall of the Yo Semite there is a wild and difficult trail, which terminates at the foot of the upper Yo Semite Falls. When we stood on the opposite side of the valley, the guide asked us to guess the size of the basin into which the Upper Falls poured. One said, "a quarter of an acre." Another, "half an acre." I boldly guessed " one acre." Bill de- clared it was forty acres. This seemed so ut- terly incredible that I resolved to see for myself. After a great deal of slipping and tugging, we came within 800 feet of the Palls. The air was GYPSYDSTG EST THE SIERRAS. 173 filled with a dense spray. Already we were wet to the sMn. I feared for the safety of a valuable watch, and wrapping it in a thick silk handker- chief, put it inside my flannel shirt, in the pit of my stomach. As I stooped in climbing, that seemed the best place to keep it dry. My companion declared he could go no far- ther. His age was 25; mine, 54. His weight, 140; mine, 215. I called his attention to these facts. He repUed: " I can go no farther." I handed him my watch, sent my love to my wife, and kept on. I was soon slu"ouded in spray. Breathing grew difficult; but when I dropped on the ground and put my arms about my face, it became easy. Then I could rise, climb around or over another boulder, drop down and breathe again. In this way I kept on until the mass of falling water beat me down. The expedient of putting my face to the ground with my arms about it, saved me from suffocation. I had gone as far as I could. 174 GYPSIES, OK WHT WE WENT The water, coming as it does from melting snows, was very cold. I tried to rise but found it impossible. The terrible thought flashed upon me that I must perish there. I struggled to rise, but ia vain. Finally,- lying there, I turned square about, and began to crawl back, as I thought, over the same rocks I had climbed in coming up; but it was soon evident that I was making my way in- to a denser mass of watef . Conscious that the icy water would soon para- lyze me, I turned in another direction, and made a great effort to crawl away from the over- whelming flood. I climbed to the top of a rock, and fell down on the other side, bruising my hands and knees. For the moment I almost gave up. !N"ot to make my description of this painful struggle tedious, I continued crawling, until at the end of about two hours, I reached my com- panion, whom I foimd in a state of the greatest alarm. I leaned upon him and we made our way GYPSTTPTG IN THE SIEEEA8. 175 back to camp. It was the most trying, danger- ous and exhaustive struggle of my life. I cannot say whether the basin of the Upper Yo Semite Falls measures forty acres or not. The only facts about which I am certain, is that on the 3d of July, 1876, there were at least forty acres of very cold water there, and that the rocks were harder than my flesh. CHAPTER XI. WE CAMP NEAE TO SEMITE FAIiLS. Returning from our several trips about the valley, we finally camp at the foot of the To Semite Falls. Here we have time to absorb the glories and exchange views. But first we must jot down some information about the To Semite, not to be omitted by any one who writes an account of a visit to this famous valley. DISCOVERT OE THE TO SEMITE VALLET. As early as 1850, the miners had established themselves as far up in the mountains as Mari- posa, where trouble with the Indians began. Among other depredations, many of their horses were stolen. GTPSTING n«r THE SIEKRAS. 177 Two Indian chiefs led Capt. Boling, witli sev- enty-five men, over an Indian trail, till they came into the valley, by almost the same route as that now known as the Mariposa road. This was in 185] . In the valley they found 500 Indians, and the scattered bones of their stolen horses. Indians have always been fond of horse flesh. In the contest which followed, some were kUled, and peace was made with the remainder. In 1852, two miners were killed in the valley. This led to farther hostilities. The Indians who escaped fled to Mono Lake, and were harbored in a friendly way by the Piutes. One day when the Piutes went hunting, the ungrateful To Semites stole their stock and fled with it into the valley. The Piutes followed and almost exterminated them. The only rem- nant of that band now in the valley, is one very old and dilapidated Indian, who, with his son, may still be seen going up and down in the vil- lage. 178 GYPSIES, OR WHY WE "WENT THE OEIGHN 01" THE TO SEMITE. The origin of this big hole is ta doubt. There are two theories. One is that glaciers dug it out; the other, that the bottom dropped out. The "dug out" theory is plausible tUl you get there. The "drop bottom" idea seems about right, and has this advantage: — as we know nothing of what has happened down below there, we may suppose anythiag we please. "We may suppose that a fire btirned up a great quantity of stuff, and let a part of the mountaia drop. IN^othing could be simpler; and yet scien- tists continue to afflict us with descriptions of great masses of granite-shod ice, which they pre- tend came down from the higher regions, got a big start, and scooped out this hole. I go in for the " drop-bottom," or " subsidence " theoiy. THE VERY PLACE FOE A SOCIALISTIC COM- MUNITY. The Yo Semite contains 3,000 or 4,000 acres, GTPSYING EST THE SIEKEA8. 179 much of it really fertile land. Twenty farms might be cut out of it. It would support a pop- ulation of 5,000. The water power is sufficient for all practical purposes, including irrigation. I can imagkie no more deUghtful spot for a little self-supporting community. The air and scenery would make it the most charming home on earth. It is never very warm — the floor of the valley is 4,060 feet above the sea — and never very cold. Whenever this community shall be established, I am going there to live, though not to practice my profession, for I fancy that sickness would be very rare. THE VILLAGUi IN THE TO SEMITE. In the valley were three hotels, two stores, a billiard hall, two or three drinking saloons, a laundry building and several barns. These were so grouped in the upper part of the valley as to form a httle village. The population was per- haps a hundred social and honest people. Their 180 GYPSIES, OR "WHY WE WENT charges for board, livery and washing were rea- sonable. The stores furnish the common groceries and dry goods, likewise barley for horses. One of them did an active trade in samples of the woods found in and about the valley, which were made into little boxes and various ornaments, beauti- fully polished. They showed me the most gor- geous piece of wood I ever saw. It was a plank of exquisitely polished sugar pine. The little ornaments are made for the most part of manza- nita, madrone, and a species of laurel, all of which are exceedingly beautiful. The manzanita cuff buttons are very pretty. I wonder they are not offered in this market. BIG ROCKS rsr THE TO SEMITE. In the talus about the Yo Semite there are rocks as large as a church, which have fallen from the walls, some of them within a few years. A gentleman who witnessed the fall of one of these huge masses, happened to be looking at that part of the wall from which it broke off at GYPSYnSTG ES" THE SIEEEAS. 181 the moment of its fallj but unfortunately for a studied observation, was very near the point where it fell. His description of the awful scene was more interesting to hear than to have wit- nessed at a near point of view. I should be willing to cross the continent and climb to the Yo Semite, if I might witness the fall- ing of a mass of granite 100 feet square, from a height of 3,000 feet. STEAWBBBEIES LN" THE TO SEMITE. The only really cheap thing in the valley was strawberries. Mr. Clai'k, State custodian for the Yo Semite and the Mariposa big trees, one of the noblest and most interesting old men I ever met, told us we were welcome to the strawberries if we would pick them. But three months of idle- ness had given us such a disinclination to in- dustry, that we preferred to pay ten cents a quart for the picking. It must not be supposed from this indolence that we had lost our appetites. I am sure the person who picked our berries did not suspect 182 GYPSIES, OR WHY WE -WENT we had lost them when we told him we would take twenty quarts a day. He asked in wonder: "How many are there?" « Ten." "You want two quarts apiece?" "Just so." Day after day we consumed twenty quarts of strawberries; but then, you Imow we had a good deal of company. I presume the company ate most of them. TUHKEY BUZZARDS. We frequently saw from our camp in the Yo Semite, turkey buzzards circling far above us. I have seen all the great flyers. All my life I have heard about the eagle — the Roman eagle, the French eagle, the American eagle — and I never listened to a 4th. of July oration with- out hearing him flap his wings, and scream at the universe. In my imagination he was the boss flyer until I saw the turkey buzzard of Cal- ifornia. We rarely looked up without seeing him. I have lain on my back on the top of a mountain GTP&rma nsr the sieeeas. 183 10,000 feet high, and through a field-glass, watched him hy the hour. The eagle is no more to be compared with the turkey buzzard as a flyer, than a lame cart-horse with the king of the turf. I will try to be mod- erate in my statements, but I really saw few things which thrilled me like the flying of the turkey buzzard. On the 4th. of July, 1876, when the nation was gathering at Philadelphia, with one companion I climbed to the summit of Knob Mountain in the Sierras. My companion, a young man, shinned to the top of a tree fully 100 feet, and nailed the American flag to the mast, where I presume it is flying to-day. Then we took ofi" our hats, salu- ted the flag, gave nine cheers and a tiger; sang the "Star Spangled Banner," the "Eed, White and Blue," "Hail Columbia," and fired ofi" our guns. "While looking up at the flag, we discovered six turkey buzzards 10,000 feet above us. I lay down upon my back, and with my powerful field glass watched their magnificent sweep. 184 GYPSIES, OE WHY WE WENT They did not go off like the eagle to Mil some- thing, or to eat, but were circling about ia the heavens for fun, and to celebrate the day. I have often watched the turkey buzzard, some- times when he was within 500 feet of me, and I have never seen him flap his wings imless he wished to come down. To maintain himself or to go higher, he never flaps. I asked Californians if they had ever seen the turkey buzzard move his wings to rise? They all stated that he only needed to flap when he wished to come down. I don't know how he contrives to keep up, but suspect that holding the tip of his wings always in the same position, he simply raises the shoulder a little, so as to glance up higher. Whenever the question comes up ia Congress, and I happen to be a member, I shall vote to de- throne, the eagle, and put the buzzard in his place. There is a strong probability that we shall soon need a scavenger more than a bird who de- votes himself to soaring and screaming. GYPSYESTG IN THE SIERRAS. 185 LEGEND OF TTJ-TOCH-AH-NTT-LAH AND TIS- SA-ACK. " In a far distant age, the Talley which we now name the valley of the Yo Semite, was the home of the children of the sun. They lived there peacefully under the guardianship of their chief, Tu-toch-ah-nu-lah, who dwelt upon the huge rock that still bears his name. "With a glance of his eye he saw all that his people were doing. Swifter on foot than the elk, he herded the wild deer as if they were sheep. He roused the bear from his mountain-cave that the young people might hunt him. From the crest of the moimtain height he prayed to the Great Spirit, and the soft rains descended upon the corn of the valley. The smoke of his pipe curled up into the air, and the warm sunshine streamed through it, and ripened the golden crops for the women to gather them in. "When he laughed, the river rippled with smiles; when he sighed, the murmurous pines re- 186 GYl'SEES, OB WHY WE WENT peated the plaint. When he spoke, the voice of the cataract was hushed mto silence j when his shout of ti'iumph rose over the bear he had slain, it was repeated by every echo, and rolled like a thunder-peal from one mountain to another. "His form was straight as an arrow, and elastic as a bow. His foot outstripped the red-deer, and the glance of his eye was like the lightning flash. "But one morning, when hunting, a bright vision dawned upon him of a lovely maiden, sit- ting alone on the very summit of the South Dome. Unlike the nymphs of his tribe, she was not wreathed in tresses black as night, nor was the gleam of darkness in her eyes ; but down her back fell the long golden hair like a stream of sunshine. Her brow was pale with the beauty of the moonhght; her eyes were blue as the mountains in- the hour of twilight. Her Httle feet shone like the snow-crests on the pine- woods of the winter; she had small, cloud-like wings drooping from her marble shoulders; her GTPSYIlSr& DJ THE SIEERAS. 187 voice murmured sweetly and softly, lite the tones of the night-bird of the forest. " 'Tu-toch-ah-nu-lah! ' she whispered, and was gone. From crag to crag, over gorge and chasm, rushed the impetuous chief in pursuit of the aerial beauty; but, lo! her enow- white wings had conveyed her to the unknown land, and Tu-toch- ah-nu-lah saw her no more. "Day after day did the young chief wander among the mountaias seeking after the beautiful one he had lost. Day after day did he lay sweet acorns and fragrant wild flowers upon her dome. Once his ear caught her footstep, light as the fall of a snow-flake on a river. Once he caught a glimpse of her form, and a tender glance from her radiant eyes. But he was voiceless before her, nor ever did her sweet tones fall upon his expectant ear. "So passionate was his love for Tis-sa-ack, so absorbed was he in his dreams and thoughts of the beautiftil maiden, that he forgot his people; and the rains ceased to descend, and the valley became athirst, and the crops withered where 188 GYPSIES, OR WHT WE WENT they stood; the beautiful flowers bent their heads and died; the winds lost their power, and ceased to cool the valley; the waters passed away, and the green leaves faded into brown. "!N'othing of this was seen by Tu-toch-ah-nu- lah, for his eyes were wholly fixed on the vision of the mountains. But Tis-sa-ack saw it, and saw with sorrow; and kneeling on the gray rock of the dome, she prayed to the Great Spirit that he would again give to the people the bright flowers, and delicate grasses, the leafy trees, and the nodding acorns. "Then in a moment, the great Dome on which she knelt was cloven asunder, and through the gorge thus opened, rushed the melting snows from the Sierra ISTevada, in the wide channel of the Eiver of Mercy. The rocks that simulta- neously fell from the mountain, banked up so much of the waters as were suflGicient to fill the Mirror Lake. Then, indeed, the scene was changed. "The birds wetted their wings in the rills and pools, and burst into joyful song; the grasses GTPSTIKG IN" THE SEEEEAS. 189 spread stealthily over the gladdened soil, the flowers received a new Ufe, which they poured out in grateful fragrance 3 the golden corn sprang up in its abundance ; and the merry wind aroused a thousand slumbering echoes. But in the con- vulsion which had inaugurated this transforma- tion, the maiden had disappeared forever. And forever the half-dome bears her name, in grate- ful recognition of her love for the Indian people — Tis-sa-ack. "Every morning and evening the sun lifts from or lays his rosy mantle upon the smnmit; and all around the margin of the lake bloom myriads of white violets, the memorials of the snow feathers dropped from Tis-sa-ack's wings as she flew away. "When Tu-toch-ah-nu-lah discovered that she would be seen no more, he abandoned his rocky fastness j and, with a bold hand, carving the out- line of his head and form on the face of the rock that still bears his name, a thousand feet above the valley, he went in search of the lost one. "On reachiug the other side of the beautifal 190 GYPSIES, OB WBX WE "WBITT ravine, a feeling of deep melancholy fell upon him. Unwilling to quit it, he sat down, gaziag far away toward the sunset, whither, as he be- lieved, his Tis-sa-ack had bent her flight. " And as he sat, his grief weighed heavily on his heart, and he ceased to have motion or life in his blood. Slowly he changed into stone; and the voiceless, breathless, lifeless figure may still be seen by every visitor to the Yo Semite, look- ing afar ofi" to the land of the sunset, in wistful inquiry for the loved and lost." All of which shows that Tu-toch-ah-nu-lah was stupid; for while he was looking all up and down through the mountains for Tis-sa-ack, she was hidden away in some nice little corner with another young fellow, as the following legend clearly proves. Hinsr-TO AKD TIS-SA-AOK. Just beneath Tis-sa-ack is Mirror Lake; and also a smaller lake which goes dry at times. The Indian legend accounts for it thus : "Juet opposite Tis-sa-ack is a point called GTPSTDTG IN THE SIBBEA8. 191 Hunto, or Watching Eye. Behind this are some cone-shaped roots. Hunto was the husband of Tis-sa-act, and the cone-shaped rocks were their children. The family m traveling, reached this point and were very thirsty. Tis-sa-ack greedily drank the little lake dry. Her husband, angry at it, put her on the other side of the lake, thus separating her from himself and their children. There he has watched her ever since, that the larger lake may not also be di'unk dry." You wUl notiqiB with satisfaction that Tis-sa-ack gets well paid for her coquetry. I hope this may serve as a warnuig. THE ENGLISH GENTLEMAN'S TESTIMONY. " An English gentleman, a member of the cel- ebrated Alpine club, spent seventeen days in the Yo Semite, and upon leaving, he remarked: 'I never in my life left a place with so much pleas- ureable regret. I have several times visited all the noted places in Europe, and many that are out of the ordinary tourist's round. I have crossed the Andes in three different places, and 192 GYPSIES, OK WHT WE WENT been conducted to the sights considered most remarkable. I have been among the charming scenery of the Sandwich Islands, and the monn- taiti districts of Australia, but never have I seen so much of sublime grandeur, relieved by so much beauty, as that which I have witnessed in the Yo Semite." FESTAL WOEDS ABOUT THE TO SEMITE. "In grandeur, sublimity and beauty, the Yo Semite valley stands alone. At the upper end there have been shakings and rendings, rocks thrown down on either side, sometimes as large as a great church, as if demons had been break- ing up and hurling the mountains at each other. The river dashes and bounds among the frag- ments as if frightened and infuriated; and then half an hour's ride brings you to the oaks, and pines and lawns, smooth as a garden, wild as nature, not showing the mark of an axe, or any- thing to alter this park from what it was when the eye of man first looked into it," GYfSYTN'G rfr THE SIERRAS. 193 THREE MONTHS OP PARADISE. The Yo Semite is the most interesting place in the world. My plan is to go there about the middle of June, with ten friends, and stay three months. We must take trained saddle ponies, a good guide, and have a camp which we can move in and about the valley on the backs of mules. The party must be at least half ladies. I have found them more enthusiastic, more patient with hunger and hard climbing, and more plucky than men. When a spirited young woman gets off her long skirts and corsets, gets on a pair of mountain boots and strong gloves, with a short, strong dress, she will come as near to flying as anything human I have ever met. As to daring in ticklish places, men are nowhere. CHAPTEK Xn. WE LEAVE THE TO SEMITE. At length with heavy hearts we break camp, mount om" horses, and turn our backs upon the matchless Yo Semite Falls, the Royal Arches, the ISTorth and South Dome, Glacier Point, the wonderful Sentinel Rock, pass down the valley, linger by the side of El Capitan, gaze at its won- derful walls, turn to fix in om- memories Cathe- dral Spires and Bridal Veil Falls, examine Vir- gin's Tears Falls, and then take our way through the great Merced Canyon, beside the Merced River. Soon we begin to climb a grade so steep and difficult that nothing but the long rest of our animals in the valley, and a full stomach of $90 hay and $140 barley, enables them to as- cend. We climb and climb ; the horses tug and pant GYPSYESTG nST THE SIERRAS. 195 and sweat, and as the sun goes down, we pass through the Merced grove of big trees, and after dark reach Hazel Green, a stage station on the Coulterville road by which we are leaviag the valley. In Ihe dense forest it is so dark that we have much difficulty in finding a good campiag place. By ten o'clock we are ready to retire, but sit till midnight, moumiag over the lost glories of the Yo Semite. THE SIERRA NEVADA FORESTS. All through the region of the big trees, for hundreds of miles north and south and from 4,000 to 9,000 feet above the sea, trees of every species grow to an enormous size. When camped at Hazel Green, we were within half a mUe of the Merced grove of big trees, and our tents were pitched among pines which stood so close together that it was difficult to drive a wagon between them; and yet many were from 8 to 10 feet in diameter, and more than 200 feet 196 GYPSIES, OB "WHT WE WENT high. In this neighborhood I measured one sugar pine, the queen of the pine family, which was 230 feet high, and 12 feet in diameter. One of the most striking facts in Physical Geography, is, that the largest trees are above the line of perpetual snow in Switzerland. Horace Greeley says: " The one feature in which the Sierra ]S"evadas surpass all other mountains is in their forests. Look down " he says, " from almost any of their peaks and your range of vision is filled, bounded and satisfied by what might be termed a tempest- tossed sea of evergreens, filling every upland valley, covering every hillside, crowning every peak but the highest, with their unfading luxu- riance." We remained three days at Hazel Green, for no very good reason, unless it was the undefined hope that something might turn us back into the Yo Semite. If we had remained in and about that wonderful valley six months, I fear we should have found it impossible to leave at all. aYFSYINGr DSr THE SIBEEAS. 197 A RUKAWAT, AND A BUSKTESS GENTLEMAtiT. Late one morning, after wisMng and wishing that we could see our way clear to return to the To Semite and spend the season, we resumed our descent of the Sierra [N^evadas, and before sundown camped in poulterville, far down tow- ard the San Joaquin Valley. • On the way down, the negk-yoke of the big team gave way. Joe forced the brake, but it failed to hold. The grade was steep; the wagon struck the heels of the wheel mules, and in a moment the four animals were rushing down the crooked mountain grade with fearfal velocity. Almost any man but Joe would have leaped from the high seat to save himself, but he kept his place, and at length saw a chance to run the team into an earth bank. The wagon struck and stuck. The whiffletrees broke, the mules freed themselves, and Joe was dragged from his elevated seat, but held on to the lines with the grip of death. When I came down an hour later, he was making a new whiffletree, and 198 GYPSIES, OR WHY WE WENT 4 mending the harness, — getting ready for a fresh start. It did not delay him more than two hours. We camped that night in a field near Coulter- vUle, a little mining town with a population of 2,000, and had scarcely taken our seats, when a boy not more than eight years old, with the au- and manners of a business man of forty, came in and spread out his goods for sale. His stock consisted exclusively of tarantula's nests. The little fellow had found an immense colony of tarantulas, and had gathered hundreds of the nests. Like a prudent business man he col- lected his stores, indulged in no juvenile non- sense about the locality of his bonanza, and at once went on change with his stock. He told us, with a grave air, that he had just returned from the Yo Semite where he had sold 116 at |] each. We purchased some, and when we paid for them he took out his pocket-book, put the money away, talked about the prospects of the mines, and expressed the hope that we were enjoying GYPSTING EST THE SIEKRAS. 199 our trip. Then he shook hands with each of the ladies, lifted his hat, bade us good evening and departed. I do not recall a pleasanter ioterview on the Pacific coast than that with this eight year old business man. * OFP FOK THE LOW COU2ITET. We left CoultervUle at six o'clock the next morning, and by the middle of the day passed through the village of Modesto, and camped a few mUes below at Paradise, or Paradise Mills ; I do not remember which was the right name, but considering the number of ants that crawled into our food, (I think the imcles must all have been there too), I will call it Paradise. A gentleman in the neighborhood had just gathered his wheat crop, and generously offered the stubble for our stock. Stubble in California is generally rich picMng, as there is no such care given to the stray wheat heads as we at the East are wont to bestow. We remained two days to think of the Yo Semite and let our ani- mals fill themselves with wheat. 200 GYPSIES, OK WHY WE WENT HYDRAULIC MUSTSTG. On the way from Coulterville to Paradise we passed through La Grange, and saw for the first time what greatly interests all travelers, — hy- draulic mining. I had read descriptions of^ hydraulic mining but never quite imderstood it. Let me describe, and that you may understand, I will try to make it very plain. A prospector runs down a shaft, and discovers at the depth of say 100 feet, an ancient river-bed. In this river-bed there is gold ; but in order to extract the gold, water is needed. There is none near, but up in the mountains, five, ten, or twenty miles away, there is a lake or river. A canal is dug and large iron pipes, say three feet in diameter, are laid to convey the water across the canyons and valleys. These pipes are sup- ported, in some cases 100 or 200 feet above the bottom of the canyon, by strong trestle work, until at an expense of perhaps |5,000,000, the water is brought down to the shaft. In the meantime, the shaft has been pushed GTPSTING TS THE SIEKRAS. 201 down, say fifty feet below the ancient river-bed, and then from the bottom of the shaft, a tunnel, or horizontal passage is dug, perhaps half a mile long, tiU it comes out of the side of the mountain at a point somewhat lower than its beginning. Large pans of quicksilver are placed in the bottom of the tunnel, from point to point, to catch and hold the gold. The water from the mountains, which has an immense fall, is now turned into the shaft at the top, through a metallic nozzle eight inches in diameter. The water tears out the sides of the shaft and soon produces a great chasm in the earth. The gravel, earth and gold, with the stream of water, pour down the shaft into the tunnel and flow on till they escape. As they flow through the tun- nel, the grains of gold drop into the great pans of quicksilver and remain there. Soon the open- ing in the earth above is 100, 200 or 500 feet in diameter. The big nozzle, which by an ingenious mech- anism, can be turned hither and thither with a 202 GYPSIES, OK WHY WE WENT man's hand, directs the stream of water at pleas- ure. At 300 feet away, the stream, if the head be 500 feet, will, when it strikes a ton boulder, make it hop and whirl as if a 100 pound cannon ball had hit it. When this has been going on day and night for a week or two, they shut off the water and " clean up." The hydraulic mining of California is very wonderful and gives one a new idea of the power of water. I asked an intelligent superintendent what would be the effect on a horse or ox, if the stream were to strike him at a distance of 300 feet? He said it would not only Mil the animal, but tear him to pieces. They frequently come upon blue gravel which is nearly as hard as granite, and much tougher. In order to break this up, and give the water a chance at it, they tunnel, say 100 feet, and carry in 1,000 kegs of powder, or perhaps three times that quantity, and fire it off with a slow match. I saw one of these big explosions at Dutch Flat. I do not recall the amovmt of powder used in GTP8TING EST THE SIEBRAS. 203 that case, but think it was several tons. I ven- ture the opinion that it blew off from the bank of hardened gravel half a million tons. WE MOVE ON" TO STOCKTON^. Leaving Paradise, we tm-n toward Stockton, crossing a dry region where it is difficult to ob- tain water. Twice we are deceived by a won- derful mirage in which is a beautiful lake. Passing through a scattered grove of live oak trees, we reach Stockton just as the sun is going down, and camp in an open field outside the city. Perhaps there is no better place than this to say a word about the live oak, which is the val- ley tree of California. It is scattered every- where, and so closely resembles a good sized apple tree that nothing short of a careful exami- nation will detect the difference. It is prized for its beautiful green, which withstands the longest dry season. For the greater part of the year it is the only green thing in the valleys. We were glad to get back to a city. Our 204 GYPSIES, OR WHY WE WENT larder was exhausted. We had not seen the papers for a loBg time, and did not know whether the Yankee nation had made a good start on the second century race. We needed some additions to our clothing, and it was pleas- ant to see again the streets of a busy town. The newspapers spoke kindly of us; we were put through the regulation interviews, were honored with a visit from a photographer, and presented with some group pictures. Our camp was near the great Insane Asylum of California. The State has an exceptionally large percentage of insane people, which is prob- ably owing to the wild mining speculations, and the absence of regular industries'. Here we found the only mosquitoes that we saw in California. The State is cm-iously free from insects. On a hot summer's day, I have seen om- mules and horses stand by the horn- without whisking their tails; there was not a fly to molest them. Many people complained of the fleas. We were not troubled with them in any GYPSYma m the seeebas. 205 part of the coimtry, though we slept on tlie ground, and were in many ways exposed to the little torments. House flies are far less numer- ous than in this Eastern country. But there are a great many ants, and in some portions of the Sacramento valley the little gnats are dreadful. We were driven from Stockton by the mos- quitoes, and moved on to Sacramento, intending to reach the Putah Creek mountains through Yolo County. The trip from Sacramento to Woodland was one of much difficulty on ac- count of a tule swamp, through a portion of which we were obliged to drive. After consid- erable balky mule, and a nimiber of mishaps, we reached Woodland, the thriving county town of Yolo. We camped on the railroad station grounds near the village, under a large live oak tree. I cannot say how many ants there were uader that tree, but think it might be put at 5.000,000. The body of the tree was alive with them. All the other trees about us entertained the same population. 206 GYPSIES, OR WHY WE WENT TWO OE OUR LADIES &ET LOST. Two of our ladies left camp about three o'clock in the afternoon for a little walk. They went into the village, called at a few of its handsome stores, completed their shopping, and started to return, but in a wrong direction. They stopped to gather some figs, and to talk with an old gentleman. At length they noticed that the sun was setting. It was suggested by one of them that they should wait where they were untU the sun went down, let us get anxious about them, quietly march in upon us, show they were not afraid of the dark and were quite at home. When it was dusk, they started, almost fright- ened that they had delayed so long. They hur- ried on a mile or two, and were alarmed to find that everything looked strange, and no signs of the tents. l!^"ow it was really dark. Back from the road a light shone from the window of a house. They cUmbed the fence, when a dog rushed upon Faibly Tkebd. (See page 207.) GTPSTING rsr THE SIBKRAS. 207 them, and frightened them out of a year's growth, — they shinned up an apple tree and the man of the house appeared. He was a bachelor and living alone; a big, jolly fellow, who had just returned from " seeing a man round the cor- ner." Having sold his watermelon crop, he had treated himself generously in honor of the event. They asked him to show them the way to their home. ""Where do you live?" They were greatly frightened at being lost, and what little wit they had left, the dog had completely scared out of them; so one of them replied: " I don't know where we live." " Then how can I tell you the way? " "We don't live anywhere. We are camping." "Well, where is yora* camp?" " It is near a village." "What village?" "We don't know." "Perhaps you had better stay with me to- night and we will try to find it in the morning." 208 GYPSIES, OR WHY WE WENT "liTot for the world! we must get home to- night." " Is yom- camp near Woodland? " "Yes, yes! that's it!" So he harnessed his team, took the ladies ia, drove to the village, and after an hour of inquiry and search the truants saw our camp, and begged the man to let them out just there. They came in, and to our anxious inquiries would give no other reply than that they had been to the village, had been walking about, found the cool of the evening so pleasant that they had remained out longer than they intended, hoped we had not been troubled about them, had seen a great many iateresting things, which they would be glad to show us, &c., &c. We soon detected them whispering to each other, and were sure, from their faces and man- ner, that they had had an adventure. For a wonder they kept the secret, and told us not a word till months afterward. CHAPTEE Xin. ■WE EEACH PUTAH CEBEK MOimTAIKrS, AliTD GO HUPfTrSTG. Over broad, hot, but fertile plains, lying be- tween Woodland and the Putah Creek Moun- tains, we take our way and just as the sun is set- ting, camp in the foot hills. This is one of the hottest localities of I^rth- ern California, and famous for its early vegeta- bles and fruits. Some young Californians urge me to go deer-hunting with them, so we pitch our tents ia the shade of large fig trees, and turn out our horses. Our hunting party numbers sis, all well niounted and armed. We start in the morning, but find no water for some hours. At length we reach what one of our young men promised would be a splendid spring. We find, instead. 210 GYPSIES, OB WHY WE WENT about three gallons of mud. Our horses are suf- fering, and my mouth is so dry I can hardly speak. The mud has been trodden by the feet of wUd animals, but I fill my mouth with it and let it remain long enough to relieve the painful dryness. We hurry on to reach the next spring. To our great distress, we find this in about the same condition; but there is filth in this one, which makes it impossible for us to touch it. By this time I am really frightened. It is very difficult to shut my lips, so swollen is my tongue. I in- sist that we shall turn back before it is too late; but one of the young men declares that a few miles farther up, there is a living spring which he has visited twenty times, and which always contains at least a barrel of water. "With painful misgivings, we go on. "We do not reach the spring until dark. It contaias about a barrel of thin mud. The yoimg men at once begin to squeeze the mud between their hands, and throw the solid portion away. In a few minutes, they have a small cup of muddy gtpsthstg Dsr the sieeras. 211 water which they giye to me. My throat is so swollen it is (difficult to swallow; but before mid- night we are all, including the horses, tolerably comfortable. The mud removed, the water flows in, and we are soon enabled to give each horse two quarts of mud soup, and have a pint for our- selves. * After breakfasting on mud coffee and hard tack, the hardest breakfast I ever ate, we start out to hunt deer. N^ot being much of a hunter, I conclude, with one other gentleman of the party, who like my- self came just for fiin, to let the others go, while we hunt together near the camp. We are not more than a thousand feet from camp, when my companion points to the oppo- site bank of a deep canyon, and whispers : "Do you see that large buck standing by the manzanita bush?" "Yes, and as my gun is better than yours, I would better shoot him." " l^o sir, you'U have the buck fever, and couldn't hit a mountain." 212 GYPSIES, OE WHT WE WENT My companion fires. The deer falls, struggles a moment, rises, runs down the side of the can- yon, stops and looks about. I rest my gun on a rock to make sure the buck fever does not spoU my aim. My companion whispers : "Keep cool! Take good aim! " After a great deal of squinting and keeping cool, I fire. The deer jumps, runs up the can- yon and stops astonished. It was always my forte to astonish game. My companion reloads his gun, rests it across a rock, fires, and the deer falls. I take charge of the two guns, and my companion cuts the deer's throat, for he is not quite dead, and lifts the carcass to his shoulder. The blood saturates his clothes down to his very boots. We return to camp with the game, skin, and hide it. It is eleven o'clock before the others return. Tom, my pard, whose bloody clothes will betray us, steps out of sight when we hear Jim ap- proaching. " Well Jim, what did you get? " I ask. "mthing." G-YPSTISrG IN" THE SIEEBAS. 213 "Did you see nothing? You told me we should find them in droves." "Yes, I saw three, and wounded two bad. Where's Tom?" "Oh! he's just stepped out. He'll be back shortly." " Did you see anything? " asks Jim. " We only went round the point of this moun- tain. Of course you don't expect anything from us." WhUe we are talking, Hank returns. " HaUoo Hank! How many did you get? " "IS'ot a thing. I saw mor'n twenty, and wounded three bad," Hank turns to me with the question: " Did you get anything? " " Of course you didn't expect anything from us. We're no himters, and only just went round the point there." " Where's Tom? " "Oh! he's close by. He'll be here in a mo- ment." 214 GYPSIES, OR "WHY WE WENT Soon Jack and Bill return. Same result, same conversation. Tom hears all this, and is delighted with their bad luck. Then I say: "I can't live on that hard tack. We must have something to eat. Can't some one kill a bird?" Tom chuckles. One of the party begins to prepare the coffee-pot, another to take out the hard tack. Tom walks in. "Look at Tom! What in the world is the matter with him? " Tom has a handkerchief wound about his hand, and begins at once to talk of a terrible wound from a fallj but some one gets a glimpse of his back, and the thing is all out. The deer is a fat one, and venison in California is very sweet. We are all hungry and I never saw a happier crowd. Everything goes well, or would, were it not for the insufferable egotism of Tom and myself. We stay another day and bag six deer. Two GYPSTrdTG rtr the sieeeas. 215 of the young men walk home, using their ani- mals to pack the venison. A CHAISTGE OF HEART. The following night, lying on the ground, gaz- ing up into the heavens and thinking of our re- cent hunt, I experienced a change of heart. These innocent deer, living far up in the mountains, asking nothing of man, taking noth- ing from him, rearing their little ones without his aid, we had killed. We had woimded many and left them to suf- fer, perhaps for days or weeks, and after great pain, sleeplessness and thirst, to die in agony. We had broken up many families, leaving the mates to wander and mourn. I could not sleep. I asked God to forgive me, and resolved never again to harm one of these beautiful creatures. This led me to think about the birds. I owned a valuable double-barrelled gun, and was proud of my sMll as a wing shot. But the subject now presented itself in a new light. 216 GYPSIES, OR WHY WE WENT One shoots into a flock of birds, Mils one and wounds, it may be, several. But little imagina- tion is required to follow a wounded bird. It is not strong enough to keep up with its fellows, and is soon unable to cling to a tree. It lies or hops about on the ground, suffering much from its wound. Soon there is fever and thirst It is too weak to find water; it cannot sleep; it peeps and peeps, staggers and falls. It may be many days before death comes to its relief. Small shot scatter widely. Where one bird is killed, two are wounded. Even the dead bird leaves a mate to mourn. Lying there under the blue, starlit sky, I asked God to forgive me for shooting birds, and re- solved that I would not again be guilty of such a crime. This vow I shall never break. l^ext morning, at the breakfast table, I told my companions of my change of heart. One of them remarked: " Then of course you will eat no more beef; for the ox must be killed. You will never eat GYPSYDfG m THE SIEBRAS. 217 any more lamb, because they are the most helpless and innocent little things in the world." Another asked: " Do you think it wrong to kill a bird for a sick person? " I replied: " My friends, I shall not undertake to decide yoTir duty. I believe you will do what you think is right. I shall not discuss this question at all. A change of heart is something which perhaps will not bear a logical examination, I can only say, may God forgive me for wounding and kill- ing his innocent creatures. " I might, however, add, that we never wound an ox. When we Irill one, it is done in a way which involves no pain. In a moment he is in- sensible. We disturb no family relations. This is true of nearly all domestic animals. We can- not fail to see the singular devotion that exists between mates, among nearly all wild animals. The loves of these creatures have not been crowded out by the providence of man. " Hunting game differs very widely from the 218 GYPSIES, OB WHY WE WENT skilled and merciful kUling of animals for our tables. " There are persons who see in the torn limbs and dripping hearts hvmg up in a butchery, something which is not quite Christian. But it is not my purpose, as I said before, to argue the case. I only announce that I have experienced a change of heart, and never will I again kill or wound any creature, unless to defend myself. " My dear friends, I have had a hard night, and think I have worked out some important problems. I have recalled an old subject, which in the past has given me a good deal of thought; and lest tlie Spirit of God may not move my heart again, I will tell you another of my new resolutions." " Don't," said a member of the party, " pray don't tell us any more good resolutions, or I shall give up. I have myself been thiaking about the rights of animals. We have been a set of savages up there among the beautiful deer, but I fear if you go any farther, you will drive me off." GTPSTING KT THE SIBERAS. 219 " I must tell you one thing more, and then I am done. I have been thinking of the rights of horses. "What a royal gift to man is the horse. He has carried the human race from barbarism to civilization. He deserves every consideration and care, but receives innumerable and incon- ceivable cruelties. Of all these cruelties the most cruel is that device which compels him to eaiTy his head in an unnatural position. "Every horse's head has a natural place. Men compel him to hold it one foot higher. The strain on the muscles of the neck, under the col- lar, is very great. The pain is constant. He turns his head from side to side, throws it up, holds it still for a moment, with eyes and ears showing his sufferings, and soon again turns it from side to side, and so continues his struggles from momiag till night. Millions of horses are tortured in this way every day of their lives. "If a horse could talk, he would say: "My dear master, I am willing to work for you. I love the fields, the grass, the shady tree, the brook, the companionship of my brothers, 220 GYPSIES, OR wirr we "went but I am willing to be shut up in a stall, when I am not in harness, and to wear blinders when I go out. "I will not complain if you work me too hard, and sometimes neglect to give me proper food and drink. I will not complain though you whip me when I cannot understand you, when I stumble, or when I do not feel well. But, my dear master, one thing I do ask, and I hope you will listen to me. Pray let me have my head free! "If you compel me to carry it higher than the natural place, it produces a pain in my neck which is so severe that I sometimes wish I was dead. Then I can't see where to step, and often get my shoulders straiaed. " My dear master, if you will let me have my head free, and I can carry it in its natural place, I will do a great deal mOre work, and will be re- lieved of the worst pain a horse can suffer. " Your most humble and obedient servant, " CHAELIE." GYPSYINGI- nsr THE SIEEEAS. 221 " So Mends, I shall never use a cheek rein again." This was onr talk at the breakfast table, after the deer hunt in the Putah Creek Mountains. PEOM THE PUTAH CniEEK MOUSTTAIKS TO 8UI- BUSr VALLBT. From the Putah Creek foot hills, we drove nearly south twenty-five miles to Suisun valley, where we went into camp, turned out our stock and rested for two weeks. During this time we visited the objects of interest in the neighbor- hood. Then we added two strong animals to o\xv big team, and started for the Petrified Forest, The Geysers, and Lake County. Turning toward the coast, we passed across ]!^apa valley into Sonoma County, and camped in the neighborhood of Santa Rosa. THE PBTEIFIBD POEEST. The Petrified Forest lies northward from Santa Bosa, and is owned and managed by a 222 GYPSIES, OR WHY WE WENT queer bachelor Swede, known as PetrijSed Char- ley. We paid fifty cents a head, and Charley conducted us through his wonders. About fifty acres are covered with prostrate, petrified trees. In one place, forty lie side by side. They are principally redwood trees. The knots, slivers, sections and small pieces of bark, are all perfect in appearance; but on picMng them up, you find they are solid stone. I noticed a split log at least eight feet in diameter, ran my hand in the length of my arm, and found it was all stone. On asking Charley if we were at libei'ty to carry away specimens, he hesitated a moment and then consented. One of our ladies was very polite and atten- tive to him, and when the question of carrying away pieces came up again, he cried out: " Yes, ladies, yes ; carry away as many pieces as you like; for God's sake, help yourselves." Thus piously exhorted, the ladies filled their pockets. I selected a splendid specimen, which weighed about 200 pounds, and had it carried to our freight wagon. At Calistoga it was boxed GTPSYIN"G IN" THE SIBKEAS. 223 and forwarded to San Francisco for shipment to Boston, but was lost on the way. This petri- fied forest is one of the greatest curiosities in California, and is much visited. I have a theory about these petrifactions, but I really cannot afford to write a book of travels, and give away, after the chromo fashion, a quan- tity of philosophy and theories. THAT GLOEIOUS BLOW OFT. From the Petrified Forest, we passed through beautiful woods with thousands of stately trees. Here we came upon the home of a Methodist minister who had owned a ranche in a valley at OUT right. He had been preaching, speculating and covering his ranche with mortgaged, until at last he was obliged to give up everything j but had begged for one more week that he might have a glorious " blow out." He introduced himself, and urged us to attend, what he called, " A shindig that'll make 'em all howl." Emergiag from this forest, we found otu-selves 224 GYPSIES, OE WHY WE WENT at the head of N"apa valley, in the immediate neighborhood of the beautiful village of Cahs- toga. Five or six miles beyond, on the road to the Geysers, we camped at Kellogg's, where a high pressure Methodist camp meeting was in prog- ress. What splendid voices the Methodist brethren have! It was Saturday night. The brethren asted me to speak Sunday morning and evening on temperance. My clothes were no objection; in fact, they were just in the fashion. THE GEYSERS. On Monday morning we started for the Gey- sers, and soon reached Pine Flat, a played-out quicksilver village. So many quicksilver mines have been discovered in California, that the price of the metal is now very low. I know one case where a man sold a good quicksilver mine for a hunting dog, and it turned out the dog wouldn't hunt. From Pine Flat we climbed to the mountain- top, where Clark Foss came along with his stage GYPSTTN-G nr THE SIEEEAS. 225 nearly empty and invited the ladies to ride down to the Geysers with him. They joyfully em- braced the opportunity, and for a month, dwelt upon the awfvd whirl down the mountaui. At length we were at Geyser hotel, within 200 feet of the famous Geysers. I had read so much about the fearful hissing and roaring of the Geysers that I was greatly excited. But al- though we were within 200 or 300 feet of them, I could not hear a sound without putting my hand to my ear. I listened, wondered where those awfiil Geysers were, and wanted to go over at once; but was told it would be unsafe without a guide. Then I recalled how people's shoes dropped from their feet, and humbly waited for the guide. I found the Geysers very mild. A lady might walk through them in shppers; a boy might go bare-footed. There was no sound except a very slight one from the steamboat Geyser. The names at the Geysers are their most re- markable feature. The " Devil's Pulpit," " Dev- il's Inkstand," "DevU's Tea-kettle," "DevU's 226 GYPSIES, OK WHY WE WENT Soup-pot," &c., &c. Any one brought up in a Christian land can easily supply the first half of the names. "We wrote letters to our friends with ink from the " Devil's Inkstand," and brought away a bot- tle of it. The ink is very good, but of course there is a strong tendency while using it, to write diaboli- cal things. I strongly suspect that the remark- ably tall stories which have been told about the ' Geysers, were written with this ink. There are two theories about the source of the heat and steam. One, that it is the tail end of a volcano. The other, that there are certain chem- icals underneath, which through the agency of water mingle and effervesce. The first theory sounds the better; there is something awful in it, and we do like awftil things; but the second theory is undoubtedly the correct one. In any chemical laboratory you may see equal wonders. "We spent an hour about the Geysers. "We had come so far and heard so much we could not do less. . Soon after, GYPSTESTG IN THE SIEBEAS. 227 at the hotel, we heard a sweet Scotch lassie sing several Scotch songs. I must confess that I re- member those songs with more interest than I do the Geysers. If I could have my choice, I would rather hear that Scotch lassie sing one song than to sit right on the very hottest part of the Steamboat Geysers for ten years. CHAPTER XIV. OFF FOE LAKE COtWTT. From the Geysers, we passed down the can- yon to the little village of Glendale, turned about and came up on the other bank, creeping along on a little shelf of rock so narrow and high that it makes me dizzy to think of it, and just out of Kelloggsville, in Lake Coimty, we camped for the night. Remauiing one day, and guessing at the size of the horse on Uncle Sam, the largest mountain in the neighborhood, we left for Lakeport, at the head of Clear Lake. Just beyond Lakeport, in an oak grove, we camped several days and made some trips about the lake. A dozen or fifteen miles below, we visited Sul- phur Banks, where there is an extraordinary de- GYFSYISG IN THE 8IEREA8, 229 posit of cinnabar and sulphur. Tkis is the most profitable quicksilver mine in the State. In the building where quicksilver is extracted, the atmosphere is so poisonous that salivation, and destruction of the teeth and jaw bones often occur. The Chinese are the only persons will- ing to work there. They are so anxious to earn a little money that they wUl submit to great sac- rifices. CLEAE LAKE. Clear Lake lies in a beautiful valley, 1500 feet above the level of the. sea, and is surrounded by wild moimtains. They have discussed, from time to time, the bringiag of water from this lake to San Fran- cisco. I am surprised that this proposition should ever have been made. The lake is named on the usual plan. You can't see three inches into the water, so they call it Clear Lake. We never sailed on it without seeing dead fish, MQed by the poisonous water. 230 GYPSIES, OE WHY WB WBKT Steamboat-men, and those who are in the habit of sailing there, never drink the water. Why any one should seriously propose to bring water from Clear Lake at a cost of many million dollars, to supply San Francisco, is a puzzle. To be sure the .water which the city now uses is very bad, but you nevei see dead fish floating on it. The water throughout California, except in the high mountain regions, is far from good. It is one of the great drawbacks to life in that State. While camped at Lakeport, we visited Blue Lakes, a dozen miles north-west. The water here is good, and the newspapers frequently sug- gest supplying San Francisco from that som-ce. I should not suppose the quantity would be suf- ficient. A scheme more worthy of the enterprise and wealth of San Francisco has been discussed. It is to bring w^ter from Lake Tahoe. In this case San Francisco would have the best water of any city in the world, and the supply would be abun- dant. GYPSYINa IN- THE SIBKRAS. 231 AN" AGHSEEABLE SOOtrNDEEL. From Lakeport we journeyed down the south shore of Clear Lake and camped for a few days at Soda Bay, one of the prettiest spots in the State. Our tents were pitched under live oak trees, a little distance from the summer hotel. As the vehicles used in California are gener- ally coarse and rough, we were surprised one evening at the sudden appearance of a very handsome carriage, drawn by a pair of beaxitiful horses in gold-plated harness. Quite a flutter was experienced in our company at this gorgeous spectacle. A lady and gentleman, elegantly dressed, were the only occupants beside the driver. It must be an emperor, or at the very least, a king. Soon the gentleman came to our camp, and in- troduced himself as Mr. C from 'New Or- leans. "When he left, half an hour later, one of our company spoke for all, when she said: " That is the most perfect gentleman I have ever met." 232 GYPSIES, OB WHY WE WENT He soon called 'again, with his wife. She seemed an invalid, somewhat older than her hus- band, but a most accomplished lady. I doubt if I have ever seen a couple more quiet, simple and refined. They remained a day, and spent sev- eral hours with us. "When they left, we felt that a light had gone out. We mourned their absence, and spent much time in discussing the charm of their con- versation and manner. Two months later, in San Francisco, we learned that this gentleman had done some wealthy San Franciscans out of $100,000. Af- ter his trip to Lake County, he took up his quar- ters iu the city of San Jose. He had with him, beside his wife, a gentleman friend and several servants; kept a stylish turn- out, and "lived on champagne." When his swindle in San Francisco was dis- covered, officers were sent to arrest him. In some mysterious way he learned of their com- ing and vanished. Through Southern California GYPSTHiTG EST THE SIBERAS. 233 and Arizona he was followed, but not caught. His wife and friend were arrested in San Jose. Then we learned that this was the same per- son, who, some years ago, robbed one of the de- partments at Washington of a large sum of money, married the daughter of a distinguished citizen of Washington, and left with his bride for ]!feAV York, intending several years in Europe. His crime was discovered the hour of his mar- riage. The officers who went to the train to arrest him, chose to take the same car to Balti- more, and there make the arrest. When they reached Baltimore, he was sitting by his wife — a beautaful couple. The two officers stood by him, and one of them whispered their errand. Without apparent emotion, he told his bride that important business made a brief stop at Balti- more necessary. They entered a carriage, the two officers with them. She whispered to her husband: " What business have these rough men to ride with us?" " Oh ! they are friends of mine." 234 GYPSIES, OE WHY WE WENT On arriving at the hotel, he told her that im- perative business compelled him to return to "Washington, but he would rejoin her in time to reacli the steamer in JSTew York. She insisted that he should send a telegram to her father, who would transact the business. The gentlemen seemed to doubt the parental vpillingness and ability. Many of my readers will remeraber the sad story.. Young was sentenced for ten years. His broken-hearted wife obtained a di- vorce. He was pardoned at the end of six years, Went to !N^ew Orleans, married a wealthy lady ten years older than himself, and was on his weddiag tour when we met him in California. I have learned nothing of his subsequent his- tory, but we often recall the fascination of his manner, and do not wonder at his success in wheedling |100,000 out of the San Francisco gentlemen. WE MOVE 80UTHWAED. Leaving Lake County, we drove over a re- Thou Tyrant ! Take Thy Heel off the Neck of Lovely Woman 1 (&e page 235.) GYPSTTSTG DT THE SIEERAS. 235 markable district of glass, which extends for scores of miles. In many places the road is cut in the side of a mountain of solid glass. Ifature apparently found material here for the manufact- ure of glass, and with volcanic fire went into the business on a large scale. The night before reaching St. Helena, we pitched our tents in a beautiful grove that had been used for camp meetings. Several of our party were accustomed to public speaMng, and we took turns in addressing, from the preacher's stand, vast audiences on the most important and exciting topics. The subject most in favor was the beginning of our second century. Some very wonderful things were said by the ladies. A couple of woman's righters were members of our paiiy. They had long felt that the mil- lennium would begin when women could vote. Their passages upon the future of America were powerful. When Miss E reached her pero- ration, the multitude was so still you might have heard a paper of pins drop. The vast audience of nine persons was stirred to its depths, espe- 236 GYPSIES, OR WKY WK "WENT cially Sing, who occupied a reserved seat in the dress circle, but could not understand a word. I wonder it never occurred to any one seek- ing experience as an orator, to practice on trees. It is a beautiful audience, and always list ens with quiet and respectful attention. "While delivering your extemporaneous remarks, if you happen to forget, you can slip out your manu- script and there will be no sneering. OUR CAMP ON MOUNT ST. HELENA. Half-way up Mount St. Helena we pitched our tents. This mountaiu has two peaks. The highest was occupied at that time by the United States Coast Survey, as a point of observation. We determined to reach the Coast Survey sta- tion. There are no springs on this mountain, and we soon began to suffer from thirst. Assured that we should find plenty of water at the station, we kept on. A little farther up we met the Coast Survey man, with his telescope on his back. He had been signalled from Mount GYPSTEsra rsr the sieebas. 237 Diablo, seventy miles away, to come down and consult with some one at Calistoga. He iQvited us to help ourselves to food and water. As this was my first opportunity to get anything from the government, I resolved to eat and drink to my fullest capacity, especially after he told us that every gallon of water cost half a dollar, and that food was doubled in value. Having reached the station, we drank some warm water, flavored with the wood of the keg, built a fire, cooked and ate some government pork, tried to eat some government hard tack, and drank some government tea. CUBIOUS ACOTJSTIO PHENOMENON". It was getting late, and the ladies, fearing darkness might overtake them, began the de- scent. The gentlemen remained a little longer. Here occurred a most remarkable acoustic phe- nomenon. "When the ladies were fully three- quarters of a mile from us, I heard my wife talk- ing to our dog. Jack, in the low, gentle voice in which she always addressed him. Her back was 238 GTPsrES, OR why we went toward me, but I heard with perfect distmct- ness: " JacMe boy! poor JacMe boy! Where's mas- ter, JacMe boy? Is poor Jackie boy's foot sore?" "We were startled. After a moment I spoke in a low tone: " Helen, can you hear me? " " Perfectly," was her reply. I said: "You need not speak so loud." "We stood there for some minutes, and talked with each other in low tones, hearing distinctly not only the vowel, but also the consonant sounds. The distance between us was fiilly three-quarters of si mUe. "We puzzled sometime over the explanation, but were finally compelled to hurry down to the camp. "We subsequently learned that there are only two points between which this remarkable acoustic phenomenon occurs. "We happened to occupy those points. THE BIRTH OF A WORLD. On Mount St. Helena we witness a wonderful GXPSTING IN THE SIEEKAS. 239 spectacle. A dense fog covers the world, except the rock on which we stand. Soon, as in the long, long ago, a point of land rises. In the far distance, another gradually comes into view, and anon another. "We gaze entranced. Fifty peaks can now be seen. Soon mountains, hills and valleys appear in dim and shadowy outline. We have seen the birth of a world. Few visions will linger in memory so long. CHAPTBE XV. WE MOVE DOWIS^ INTO NAPA VALLEY. Our next campiag place was near Mount St. Helena, in INTapa valley. Up on the mountain, in a wild district, lived a man and wife with two children. He had a thousand sheep and a few cows. Some one remarked that during a moun- tain climb they had come upon this man's cabin, and been treated to delicious buttermilk. One afternoon about two o'clock, I challenged the members of our party to a climb for buttermilk. A RACE EOB BXITTEEMILK:. "We might not fibad the cabin; we knew there was no water, so I was not sorry when but two persons accepted the challenge. One was a gen- tleman from jN"ew York; the other, a California GYPSYING EST THE SIERRAS. 241 lady, the most beautiful and plucky woman I met in the State. She wore a short flannel dress, strong climb- ing boots, strong bucksMn gloves and a rough mountain hat. Mr. T and myself wore fus- tian pants, blue flannel shirts, strong buckskin gloves and pith hats. My companions were both yoimg. I, above fifty; and although I was in California for my health, it was because the brain, not the body, was tired out. I met no person in the State, of whom I had to ask any favor in hard climbing. In two hours we found the buttermilk cabin and drank our reward, having fortunately arrived just after a churning. Then began our return. The mountain man kindly showed us the nearest way back to our camp, pointing out various land- marks. When half-way down, I discovered the loss of a sUk handkerchief, and Mr. T , who had seen it drawn through my suspenders only a little way back, volunteered to find it. I remon- strated, but he said: 242 GYPSIES, OR WHY WE WENT "I am sure it is within a hundred yards." MY EErBOT) IS LOST. He left Miss H and myself sitting on a rock under a madrone ti*ee, in full view of the path over which he would seek the lost handker- chief. He turned around a little clump of man- zanita bushes and disappeared. We waited five miautes, then I ran to the clump of bushes round which he had passed, but he was not in sight. I began to " boo I boo ! boo I " l^o response. I gave an exti-a "boo." ]S"o answer. I could not believe be was out of hearing j but after a fniitless ten miautes search I returned to Miss H , and we hurried back to camp as rapidly as the growing darkness would permit. Arrived there, I sent Joe and Sing to a high point just above us to build a fire at the foot of a dry piae "tree. As soon as that was started, they were to go on to another point where there were dead pine trees, and set them on fire. After supper and a change of flannels, we GYP8YING IN" THE SIERRAS. 243 obtained lanterns and commenced our search for T -. It seemed a hopeless search, but we could not sit down and let our friend freeze to death, as he surely would before morning, for the mountains at night are very cold, even in the midst of summer. One of our party went down to the village to rouse the people, and tell them a man was lost on the moxmtain. Such an announce- ment, in a California settlement, awakens instant sympathy and help. When I had climbed half- way to the cabin, I saw occasionally, from some prominent point, lanterns moving about far below. By eleven o'clock I was again in the neighbor- hood of the buttermilk cabin; but six fierce dogs made approach dangerous. Indeed, nothing saved me but climbing to the top of a sharp rock, where with my boots I could defend myself when they scrambled up to seize me. My tremendous " hoos ! " and the fierce barking of the dogs awakened the man, and he came to my relief. I had hoped that T had found his way 244 GYPSIES, OB "WHT WE WENT back to the cabin, and as soon as the mountain- eer appeared, I asked him if the young man who was with me in the afternoon had returned. He replied: " No. I have not seen him since you left." My heart sank within me. T was at best a delicate man, was exhausted, had been perspiring for hours, and had no covering but pants and shirt. The mountaineer told me that his cousin was stopping at his house, and they would take my lantern and his own, and look for the lost man. As I was much exhausted, and knew nothing of the mountains, they thought it would be bet- ter for all if I would stay at the cabin. I finally gave them my lantern, and they started down the mountain to the point where, T was lost. I soon became very restless and unhappy, be- cause I was doing nothing for my friend. I very well knew he would, if need be, die for me. Creeping out on the point of an overhanging rock, I laid down and listened. I thought I 'Woman's Wit.'' (See page 2i5.) GYPSYESTG LKT THE SIERRAS. 245 heard him groan, and shouted his name ; begged him to try and tell me where he was, and what I could do. I knew how liable my ears were to deceive me, but eveiy few moments the groans seemed to be repeated. I crawled back to the house, and entreated the woman to devise some means by which we could reach the bottom of the canyon, for I was sure my friend was there. She told me it was diffi- cult even lq the day-time, and we had no lan- tern. woman's wrr. My earnest pleadings at length suggested an expedient. She took a stick about three feet long, wound a cloth about it, poured on some kerosene, of which she had two quarts in a can, and said: "I will go before you. I know every rock and place where we can hold on. I will light the kerosene; you come behind me with the can and some matches. "We will go as far as this kerosene bums, then pour some more on the 246 GYPSIES, OR WHY WIE WENT cloth and light it agaia, and so make our way to the bottom of the canyon." H^ little girl and boy insisted on going along. They could climb like goats. The mother had no anxiety about their being hurt. Two lambs, about three months old, went with us. The " sheep mountaineers have pet lambs who follow them like dogs. "We began the descent of the wildest cliff I ever attempted, — let ourselves down from point to point, holding on to bushes and fissures in the rocks. Soon the light began to grow dim, and then went out. The woman felt for the cloth, and found cloth as well as kerosene burned. There was nothing left but the stick. I ex- claimed: "JSTow we are stuck! At least, I am, for I cannot possibly climb back in tlie dark." After a moment, the woman said: "I'll fix it." Eeaching down, she tore from the bottom of her dress sMrt, half-way round, a strip about six inches wide, wound it about the stick, poured on GTPSTisrG nr the sieeeas. 247 the kerosene, lighted it, and we kept on. But soon the light again went out. She tore off the rest of that strip, and we got down twenty or thirty feet farther. I slipped, and for the mor. ment thought I was going to the hottom without delay. The light was out again. . She tore oflf another strip, and so on for eight times, using her dress, and then her petticoat. I saw she could not last forever that way, and said to her: " I think we'd hetter turn about. I'm afraid there isn't enough of you left to last back to the house." The httle girl bravely offered herself, but I no longer heard the groans, and was anxious to be- gin the ascent before our wick was exhausted. Finally, we were back at the house, where the good woman asked me to stay outside until she could dress. "We watched for lanterns, and listened for " hoos," but strangely enough, although a great many persons were looking for my friend, the mountain was so wild and rough that we could not see a lantern, nor hear a sound. 248 GTPSIBS, OR WHT WB WENT The two men from the mountain house soon found T.'s tracks, and by dropping on the ground and studying the marks of his boot- spikes, were able to follow. At half-past three o'clock they found him, four mUes from where he left us, climbing along on a steep mountaia side, in the belief that he was getting nearer home, when he was going farther from it. They reached our camp with him at day-dawn, and re- turned to their own house to teU me of their success. CHAPTER XVT. FKOM MOUlfT ST. HELENA TO LAKE TAHOE. From Mount St. Helena we passed down the beautiful liTapa valley, so rich, so fertile, sa ex- quisite ia its setting, and camped near ^JiTapa city. This city is the home of several educational in- stitutions, and of the new insane asylum, archi- tecturally the most beautiful I have ever seen, and which furnishes ample space and com- fort for 700 patients. The following day we reached Suisun valley and camped on our old ground. We procured from Suisun city new supplies of "can truck," and left for Lake Tahoe, far up in the Sierra I^'evada. "While passing through Sacramento valley we suffered much from gnats, and reached Davis- ville with heads, faces, necks and hands covered to protect them. Putting our horses and vehi- 250 G'TPSIES, OE WHY "WE "WENT cles on board the train, we crossed to Sacra- mento. Some of our hea"vy things were sent back to San Francisco, that we might climb the moun- tains more easily. Crossing the American river, we camped on one of those immense ranches, an old Spanish grant, which pastures numberless sheep. WHY DOES NOT THE GO"VnEENMENT INTEREEEE? These Spanish grants are a great curse to Cal- ifornia. Before the American people took pos- session of the State, favorites of the Mexican government received large grants of land, — from 30,000 to 100,000 acres. When our people took the reins, speculators purchased these grants for a song, and contrived, through a strong lobby at Washington, to get them confirmed. A Mr. Miller and partner own 750,000 acres of valuable farming land in the very centre of the State. The San Joaquin river runs through it for a distance of sixty miles. There are a great many large ranches scattered over the GYPSYING IN THE SIERRAS. 251 State, and generally they are choice land. For the greater part, they are used for sheep or cat- tle ranges, and are waiting for people to gather about the borders, improve their farms, and thus enhance the value of the large grants. I do not know whether the government can say to these usurpers : "You must let men who are trying to find homes for themselves and their families occupy these lands. If they give you ten dollars for every dollar you have paid, that must suffice. The new constitution, of which so much has been said, has, for one of its objects, a good round taxation of these idle lands, which will compel the owners to sell. It was the one feat- ure of the Kearney movement which all good citizens approved. "We soon found the old road over which, pre- vious to the building of the Central Pacific, stages and freight wagons were constantly pass- ing. This road was so important, that for 200 miles it was sprinkled like city streets. IsTow it is in sad decay. After two day's climb over rough 252 GYPSIES, OB WHY WE WENT roads, where the gravel had been washed out, leaving the road-bed covered with boulders, often of considerable size, we reached Lake Weber, and camped on its beautiful shores. Here our stock found good grazing, and we splendid fishing. "We remained a number of days, and then pulled on for Truckee, on the line of the Central Pacific. Passing through this pretty mountain village, we drove on up the Truckee river, and camped on the shore of Lake Tahoe. AN INTERESTING POPULATION. On the way up we visited a trout-breeding es- tablishment. The trout babies — one year olds, two year olds, three year olds and four year olds, constitute a highly interesting and valuable pop- ulation. "What a perfect occupation for a man ex- hausted with the noise and turmoil of a city! Ko fourth edition of a newspaper, issued to correct the distracting falsehoods in the third edition, GYPSTTSTG IN THE SIERRAS. 253 not a sound of any kind. IN^otliing but magnifi- cent silence. And then the gracefdl, lazy, contented move- ments of fish are so soothing. If my head ever gets tired again, I mean to go up in the Sierra iN^evada mountains, and raise trout. WONDEEFUIi LAKE TAHOE. " Lake Tahoe is a mile and a quarter above the sea level. It is in itself a little inland sea, thirty miles long, from eight to fifteen miles wide, and in some places nearly 2,000 feet deep. Its water is clear as crystal, cold as the melting snows and ice which form it, and the purest upon this continent. Floating on its surface, looking down through its water, one can easily count the pebbles and stones at a depth of sixty feet. One seems suspended between two firma- ments of ether, with birds flying above, and fish swimming below. Such trout! swimming forty feet below you, and plainly visible in all their quick and graceful motions between you and the rocky bottom. 254 GYPSIES, OE WHY WE WEKT " From the water's edge, grassy slopes, pebbly- beaches, rocky shores and precipitous bluffs lead the eye up through tree-dotted ravines, over for- est-crowned hUls to snow-clad mountams, white- headed with age, and ermine mantled upon their tremendous shoulders." We sailed around Lake Tahoe, touching here and there at the most unexpected and beautiful places; stopped at a large saw-mUl on the east- ern bank, and climbed to the top of a mountaia to study the forest work of the Virgiuia City Mining Companies. Here they cut timber and firewood, which are sent to the city in flumes. "We fished for trout and caught some big ones. 0AT7GHT rfT A TRAP. WhUe camped on the shores of Lake Tahoe, we drove down to Truckee, a distance of about twelve mUes. Our dog, Jack, followed. When about three miles from the lake, I no- ticed that Jack, who usually ran near my horse, had disappeared. I asked the boys where he was. Keither of them had seen him, but GTPSTIKG IN THE SIEERAS. 255 thought he must be near, perhaps was chasing game. I stopped and said: " We will go no farther tni we find Jack." Sam, who was light and well mounted, re- turned to look for him. In half an hour he re- joined us, and reported that Jack was not to be found. We rode back to the point where he was last seen, found his tracks and tried to fol- low, but soon all trace was lost. 'Near by was an old, tumble-down shanty which had blown over. The shingled roof was broken, but considerable sections of it were lying nearly flat, with perhaps a corner propped up. I blew my mountain whistle, to which Jack generally responded, but we heard no sound. I said: " We will find Jack if we stay here a month," and sat down upon the roof. It gave way, and we heard a scratching underneath. There he was. We raised the section and out he came, seeming to think there was nothing surprising about it; that, in fact, crawling under old roofs and getting caught, was the regular thing. He 256 GYPSIES, OB WHY WE WENT had evidently run under after a squirrel, tipped over a nearly balanced section, and was caught in a trap. If we had not been true to the brave fellow, he must have died there. My throat fills now, when I think of the two dreadful weeks he would have waited for the return of his friends before death came to his relief. CHAPTEE XVn. A SrSTGTJLAB OONTERSATION. One day, while camped at Lake Tahoe, we climbed, in company with other visitors, to a high point on one of the mountains which smround this wonderful lake, and seated ourselves on * some pine boughs, near the snow. "We fell into conversation about the various movements agi- tating the world, from which we had been so long separated, and finally into a free and easy chat on the subject of temperance. I shall not soon forget that conversation. One old gentleman, who had had much to do with the temperance cause, presented certain novel views on the subject of prohibition. I dis- tinctly recall his points, although, from time to time, members of the party interrupted him with exclamations of wonder and admiration at the 258 aYPSEES, OK wht we went magnificent panorama stretching away on every side. We were 10,000 feet above the level of the sea. Lake Tahoe, itself about 7,000 feet above it, was far below us. I will state, in a simple, condensed way, his thoughts. The wrong doing in this world may be di- vided into two sorts, — crimes and vices. A crime is a harm I do another; a vice is a harm I do myself. In order to make the harm which I do another a crime, it must be accompanied by an evil purpose. A vice is not a crime. It lacks the evil pur- pose. There can be no crime, no matter how much harm I do, unless I am moved by an evil purpose. If I Mil a man accidentally, it is no crime. Malice prepense is indispensable to a crime. A vice is an error into which I fall in the pur- suit of pleasure. Crimes may be punished by law or force. Yices must be treated with reason and persua- sion. GltPSYiKG IN TdB SiBEKAS. 259 Vices do a thousand times as much harm as crimes. For example, — excessive eating does a thousand times as much harm as counterfeit- ing. Counterfeiting may be justly punished by law. Excessive eating must be managed by rea- son and persuasion. Legislatures make laws against vices, but they always repeal them. Massachusetts has enacted many laws against vices. She has repealed all but two, and they are so dead that few persons know of their existence. Legislatures always repeal laws against vices. .Legislatures never repeal laws against crimes. Sometimes they change the penalty, but they never repeal. The God-ordained means of curing vices are reason and persuasion. "Whenever legislatures pass laws against vices, and thus call attention away from the God-ordained means of cure, and fix attention upon the constable, the tide of prog- ress is turned back. Prohibitionists say that the act of the drinker is a vice, but his accessory, the seller, is guilty of a crime. What logic ! 260 GYPSIES, OB WHY "WE WENT So long as a man is sane, until he has been tried by a jury of his peers and declared insane, he has all the legal rights of other men, and among them, the right to eat and drink whatever he pleases. The only possible legal way to de- prive him of this right, is to convict him of insan- ity, and put him under guardianship. But so long as he is sane, with all the legal rights of other men, he has a perfect legal right to eat and drink as he pleases. When he pleases to in- dulge ia the unhappy vice of drinking alcohol, it is as absurd to oharge the accessory to his un- happy vice with having committed a crime, as to say that he who is accessory to the crime of mm*- der, is guilty of arson. The prohibitory law, and the consequent draw- ing the attention of the people away from the social, moral and religious forces which alone can cure the drink curse, is a wretched blunder, and the most insurmountable obstacle in the pathway of the temperance cause. ISTothing effectual can be done until the law is put away and the vice of drink is referred to its natural province. GYPSTisrG rsr the sibkras. 261 People tell you that whatever a majority de- clare to be a crime is a crime. That if a major- ity of the people were to make a law, declaring that eating between meals was a crime, it would be a crime. A crime is a harm I do you or your property, with an evU purpose. Excessive law-making is a great and growing evil. If our national and State legislatures were to meet but once in five or ten years, and their sessions lasted but a few weeks, a great load woiild be lifted from the shoulders of the people. Some one in the party asked: " Then you believe in license? " The answer was : — . " The infamy of granting licenses for the sale of rum cannot be seriously discussed. It is one of the anachronisms of civilization. It is simply infamous. I would sooner license houses of prostitution." Another member said: "Drink is the source of nearly all vice and crime, and ought to be exterminated. I go for 262 GYPSIES, OK WHY WE "WENT breaking the eggs and not waiting till the foul brood is hatched and scattered all over the land." " Yes," said the old man, " I agree with you. Drink is such an enormous and prolific curse, that it requires more than human machinery. It demands divine forces. Such forces were em- ployed in the 'Washingtonian Movement' and in the ' Woman's Crusade.' Every real contribu- tion to the cause of temperance has come of social, moral and religious agencies." " How about Maine? " asked another. The old man replied: " N^eal Dow announced to the world that the rum traffic in Maine had ceased. At the close of the year during which this announcement was made, the State Prison Inspectors of Maine stated in then- annual report, that 17,808 persons had been arrested for street drunkenness." The conversation continued two hours. I have given the essential featiu-es of it. It was curious. I have often recalled it. GTPSTDirG IN THE SIEEEAS. 263 AN INDIAN SCAEB. During the summer of 1877, Oregon and Idaho enjoyed an Indian scare, which threatened to ex- tend southward. Even a small tribe on the east side of Lake Tahoe was restless. Just at that time, I happened to be separated from my party, camping on the western shore of the late, opposite the Indians. With me were only two young men, natives of California. One was cook, the other took charge of the horses. They were intelligent fellows and agreeable companions. Seated about a pleasant camp fire, I was tell- ing them of some curious experiences in Europe many years before, when Jack, our big dog, growled and walked out of our circle toward a clump of manzanita bushes. I ordered Jack to be still, and lie down. He replied by a loud bark. This was so imusual with our dignified dog, that Jake oflfered to bet, on the instant, it was 264 GYPSIES, OB WHY WE WEKT Injuns, and that we should all be killed and scalped. Soon Jack calmed down, but continued walk- ing about in the fashion of stylish watch dogs, head and tail erect, keeping up a low, angry- growl, which threatened every moment to break into a bark. Usually most obedient, he now re- fused to lie down, or to keep still. The conduct of the dog, and Jake's suspicion, opened the Indian question afresh. For days the subject had been constantly in our minds, for the mountains were filled with cattle which had been hurried down from the north to escape hostile Indians. It was a dark night, and we were several miles from any white settler. "When we had talked ourselves into the condition of children who have been listening to ghost stories. Jack suddenly burst into a tremendous roar, and flew at some- thing out beyond the clump of manzanita. A human voice cried: "Ugh!" The dreadful fear that we were surrounded by GTPSYING IN THE SIERRAS. 265 Indians seized ns. "We sprang to the tent, clutched our guns and flew into the bushes. Our first impulse was to get away from the light of the camp fire. We were scarcely a(»hundred feet from it, and had just turned our faces toward the danger, cocked our guns, brought them to our shoulders, and I was saying to my companions : "iSTow listen to what I tell you; keep cool, and take good aim," when two Indians walked out from behind my tent, and lay down by the fire as coolly as if it had been their own. I said to the boys : "Keep your guns cocked, and we will see what they mean." As we approached, they were conversing in their Indian jargon. I said: " Good evening." "Ugh!" " Have you had supper?" " Ugh! " with a negative intonation. " Would you like some? " "Ugh! " with an af&rmative intonation. 266 GYPSIES, OR WHY WE WENT " Sam, can't you give these men some supper? We must be hospitable if they are Indians." " "We h'aint got nothin'," said Sam. "We have canned oysters, hard tack and tea." * I knew we had these, for we had been living on them for several days. Sam opened a can of oysters, cooked and placed them on the table, with a dish of hard tack and three quarts of tea. In ten minutes the Indians finished it all, leaving not even a spoon- fdl of tea. The older one lay down by the fire again. The younger stepped to the pile of sticks which Jake had gathered, picked up an armful and was about to put them on the fire. I said: " Don't put those sticks on the fire." "Ughl All night!" " lS"o, you won't stay all night. If you don't ' git up and git,' I'll shoot youl " The Indian threw his sticks on the fire, got another armful and very deliberately threw those on. I called to my companions: "Do You Mean It?" {See page 267.) GYPSTDTG m THE SIEKEAS. 267 " Come here. Cock your guns. "When I give the word, shoot the young Indian. I will see to the other one. Shoot through the body. We brought our guns to bear upon them. The yoimg men who were standing close by me, whispered: " Do you mean it? " " I mean what I say. "When I give the word, fire! and fire to Mil!" liTatural language every one understands. The Indians slunk away. I do not now believe that we should have run any risk in letting them remain by our fire aU night. I think they were a couple of vagabonds, and imarmed, but I did not think so then. One reason which influenced me very much at the moment, was this, — I thought our big dog feared nothing that breathed the breath of life, but as soon as he rushed out into the dark and found what it was, he came back, slunk behind us, and disappeared. There was something so mysterious and awful in this behavior of the bravest dog I ever saw, that, taken with the re- 268 GYPSIES, OB WHY WE WENT ports of the Indian atrocities which filled the very air, and our position all alone in the moun- tains, I had no other impulse but to fight. We heard nothing of them from the moment they walked away, full of our oysters and hard tack. I am glad we did not Mil them. It must be a dreadful memory that you have killed a human being, unless, perchance, you have done it professionally, as a soldier or a doctor. CHAPTEE XVin. THOSE DREADPUL CLOTHES. « Coming down from Lake Tahoe, I reached Truckee at four o'clock in the afternoon, and went to the most ambitious hotel of that ambi- tious little to"wn. The fonniest incident of my California experi- ence occurred here. My dress was very bad. I changed my flannels frequently, and washed my- self all over in soap and water every morniag, thus keeping my sMn in immaculate condition ; but I had only one suit of clothes. They were very rough to begin with, and were now worn out. Besides, I had laia down in them in the dirt a hundred times. My head was "sand- papered " as the boys call it, and altogether I think I could have claimed the belt for bad looks. 270 GTi-stEs, oE war we went I entered the hotel, with face smutty from a long ride over a dusty road, and walked up to record my name. The clerk was writing in a big book. I asked him for a room. He wrote on for a minute, and then said: "I suppose so." " "Will you please have me shown to my room? " He wrote on for a minute or two longer, turned slowly, selected a key, and said to a rough looking fellow whose boot legs were out- side his pants: " Here, Jim, show this man 48." I had with me a large willow basket which contained some things from my camp on Lake Tahoe. Jim started on ahead with the key. I asked: " "Will you please carry my basket up? " He stopped, looked at me, and said: " I reckon, old feller, you can carry your own basket." I carried the basket and he conducted me to a little room in the upper story. So small and "Will you please carry my Basket up?" (_See page 210.') GTPSTEirG IN THE SIEKEAS. 271 poorly furnished a room you would not find in any but a mountaiu hotel. Soon the Methodist miuister noticed my name on the register and asked to see me. He ia- quired: " Are you the Dr. Dio Lewis who started the ' Woman's Crusade,' in Ohio?" - In his distant home he had heard glowing re- ports of my efforts in that wonderful movement, and at once said, with great eagerness : " You must lecture for me to-night." ""What, in these clothes? That is impos- sible!" " Oh, we will fix you. "We can borrow a shirt and coat, and if you stand behind the desk, they won't see your pantaloons." His impetuosity bore down all objections. He and several other gentlemen went about the streets and notified the people. The chm-ch was crowded. "Whatever may be said of the lecture, I vent- lu-e the opinion that another such sham ia the 272 GYPSIES, OE WHY WE WENT way of drees never stood before a civilized audi- ence. "When I returned to the hotel, accompanied by the nunister and some other gentlemen, the land- lord shook my hand, the clerk explained with labored politeness that they now had a room which would suit me better, &c., &c. Moral: — You should always wear your store dotkes. If I were discussing Social Ethics, I should generalize a little just here on the value of good dress. It is difficult to exaggerate its import- ance. WOMAJSr's PKATEE IN GEOG SHOPS. Seated in my new room, a gentleman touched upon the " Woman's Crusade," and urged me to relate its origin. I did so somewhat as follows : The story is a long one; I will only mention a few facts. In 1852, while in Fredericksburg, Va., with my invalid wife, I wrote a paper upon " Woman^s Prayer in Grog SJiops" It con- tained much of personal reminiscence and sor- GYPSYING TN THE SIEEEAS. 273 row, and was first read in Citizen's Hall in that city. In 1855, 1 abandoned the practice of my pro- fession, and began a public career, lecturing and laboring in behalf of my improved system of physical training for girls. The lecture "Wo- man's Prayer in Grog Shops " was generally de- livered on the Sabbath in some church. In 1858, while in Dixon, HI., I organized a movement on the plan I had so long advocated. I asked the Eev. Dr. Wm. W. Harsha, the Pres- byterian clergyman, well known for his services ia the Christian Commission during the war, and now pastor of a church at Jacksonville, HI., to omit his Sabbath evening service, and take his congregation to a large hall. He assented, as did also the Methodist and Baptist clergymen. ■ I gave my old lecture, and at the close of the meeting, a visiting committee of fifty ladies was organized from among the best women in the city. The wives of the three clergymen were appointed to prepare an appeal from the women of Dixon to the dealers in intoxicating drinks. 274 GYPSIES, OR WHY WE WENT At nine o'clock the next morning, the com- mittee met, adopted the appeal, and at once be- gan their work ia a grog shop under the hall. There they knelt, prayed, sang " !N"earer my God to Thee," "A Charge to Keep I Have," and pleaded in a gentle, patient, loving way with the saloon keeper. On that morning in that saloon, was heard the first prayer, the first song, and the first pleading of the Woman's Crusade. Dixon had thirty-nine grog shops. Six days afterward, not even a glass of lager beer could be bought ia that city. Strange to say, I was so impressed with the importance of physical education, to which I had given the busiest and best years of my life, that I did not heed the voice of God. Two months later, at Battle Creek, Mich., a similar movement was made. The Eev. Charles Jones, at present the Congregational minister at Tolland, Mass., then a leading clergyman at Bat- tle Creek, was most active in the new movement. It was managed as in Dixon, but the visiting GTPSTING rsr THE SIEEEAS. 275 committee ninnbered one hundred. The town was then what is called " a hard place." The temperance movement had never made a deep impression on that community. In two weeks its fifty rum holes were closed, with one excep- tion, and that, kept by a wealthy man, suc- cumbed in about six weeks. Between 1858, and the date of the well-known Ohio movement, I organized the Woman's Cru- sade in nuieteen places, and always with decided temporary results. In 1869, I felt the necessity of making a marked success iu some large town, and selected the city of Manchester, 1^. H. Hon. Luther Clark, U. S. Senator, presided at an immense meeting held in City Hall. It was magnificent in its enthusiasm and passion. I proposed that several committees of one hundred women each should be selected, and the work begun the next morning. It was soon apparent that I had miscalculated the temperament of l^ew England, for after much discussion it was voted that instead of the move- 276 GYPSIES, OR WHY WE WENT ment I proposed, a lai'ge number of small com- mittees should be appointed to circidate petitions through the city, and obtain the names of women over sixteen years of age. This work occupied a week. The names were then put into the hands of a printer, and in another week, a for- midable pamphlet was issued. I do not care to discuss this mistake, but I need hardly say that the " Woman's Crusade " conducted in this way, proved a very indifferent success. THE OHIO MOVEMENT. But what you wish to hear is the history of the Ohio movement. That began, you know, in the winter of '73 and '74. A series of lectui'e en- gagements before lyceums, took me from Bos- ton to the "West. At the close of my lecture Friday night, December 12, 1873, at Fredonia, Chautauqua Po., I?". Y., notice was given that I would speak on temperance the next Sunday, in one of the churches. I gave my old lecture, ""Woman's Prayer in Grog Shops," but when I proposed to organize, GTPSTXKTG IN" THE SIEEEAS. 277 the clergymen thought it would not be proper on the Sabbath day. "We adjourned to meet the next morning, when the crusade was organized. A long procession of women marched out of the church, and at once began their work. When I left at one o'clock, to go to Jamestown a few miles below, my hotel was filled with singing and praying women. The landlord came to my room to ask what he had done to offend me, that I should set a thousand women at him? He wished to know if I had seen anything in the conduct of his house that required prayer? Fredonia was im- mediately relieved of the drink curse, and staid reheved. Before the beginning of the lecture that Mon- day night in Jamestown, a report of the wonder- ful movement in Fredonia reached the people, and the clergymen asked me to remain and lect- ure on temperance the following evening. I was obliged to decline on account of a lyceum en- gagement. But early Tuesday morning we held a meet- 278 GTl'SIBS, OE WHY WE WENT ing in Jamestown, organized the crusade, and before the sun went down, more than half the rumsellers had signed a solemn pledge to stop. Monday night, December 22, 1 gave my lect- ure on " Our Girls " at Hillsboro, Ohio. At the close of the lecture there, I mentioned that I had no appointment for the next night, and would deliver a temperance lecture, in which I should advocate a new plan for ridding the community of the drink curse. Mrs. Thompson, in whose hospitable mansion I was entertained, told me a sad story of their struggle with the foe, and of their great discour- agement. At the close of the Hillsboro temperance meet- ing, T asked if the ladies present were disposed to organize? There was great enthusiasm. A visiting and appeal committee were elected. Next morning one of the friends drove me over to Washington, better known as Washing- ton, C. H., a very bright little village of about 3,000. Before the lyceum lecture began on that Wednesday evening, at Washington, news of GTP8TING Df THE SIERRAS. 279 the flame at Hillsboro had arrived, and the cler- gymen asked me to remain and hold a temper- ance meeting. Having an engagement to lecture the next evening on " A Higher Education for Our Girls," I told them if we held a temperance meeting, it must be very early in the morning. We assembled at nine o'clock Thursday morn- ing, and organized the two committees. A few days later, in the far West, I was urged by letters and telegrams to return to Ohio. Abandoning many important engagements, for I was then one of the busiest of men, I went back, spoke three or four times a day, and as- sisted everywhere ia organizing the Crusade. This excessive labor was continued till I could not utter a loud word. I did not recover the natural use of my voice for four months. This, gentlemen, is the simple story of the origin of the Woman's Crusade. I may mention that dear Mother Stewart, within two weeks after the movement began, came forward at a public meeting, gave in her 280 GYPSIES, OR WHY WE WENT adherence, and added her powerful influence to the great work. The Cincinnati " Gazette," " Commercial " and " Inquirer " kept reporters in the field from first to last. These gentlemen were cognizant of the Woman's Crusade as it developed itself in Ohio, and two of them wrote considerable volumes about it. If you are interested in details, you will find in a large book written by Mr. Brown, reporter for the " Gazette," much which you will read with pleasure. The reporter for the " Cin- cinnati Commercial," whose name I do not re- call, published a graphic account of the begin- ning of the Crusade, in a small volume, which I hear is stUl in the market. I neither ask nor deserve any commendation for what I did. It was the natural outgrowth of my mother's teachiags. Fifty tunes I have been asked to write the story of the Woman's Crusade. I have never complied, because it was so entirely my own work, that I have feared the public might sus- pect me of egotism. GTPSTIKG rsr THE SEEKRAS. 281 The facts are these, — I began the work in 1852, and before the well known outburst in Ohio, started it in nineteen different places. Even the movement in Ohio was anticipated ten days by a still more victorious effort in Western IS'ew York. "When the Ohio work began, Fre- donia and Jamestown had already achieved a complete victory. Some one asked: " Do you think the movement was wisely man- aged in Ohio?" "It was wisely managed until they consigned their holy cause to the politicians. That para- lyzed it. In all social, moral and religious move- ments that is a fatal blunder. " "Do you think the "Woman's Crusade will ever be resumed ia its original form?" asked one of the company. "ISTothing would be easier than to light anew the divine flame. But it is doubtful if it would serve the cause, until the people thoroughly com- prehend this vital truth, viz: that all moral and religious movements must be kept within the 282 GYPSIES, OK WHY WE WENT sphere of moral and religious agencies. Until the people learn this, temperance interest will he used as fuel to run some politician's machine. I pleaded with the women in Ohio not to let the men put their cause into the Spring elections. If women were voters, with the present misconcep- tion of the function of civU law, such a magnifi- cent outburst of moral and religious power as the Woman's Crusade would be impossible. A constable is no part of the remedy for intemper- ance. The " Washingtonian Movement " and the " Woman's Crusade," contained divine power, and illustrate the only law of cure. " CHAPTEE XIX. FEOM LAKE TAHOE TO SAIf DIEGO. The journey from Lake Tahoe to San Diego, the southennost town of the State, a distance of more than 500 miles, took more time and labor than the reading of this paragraph will give you. Let me say a few words about the southern portion of the State. BBATJTIFTJL SAIf DIEGO. San Diego, only ten mQes from the Mexican line, as seen from the ocean, is one of the most beautifiil towns in the world. The hospitality of its people is really phenomenal. Every new comer is treated as if he were the long-absent, rich, East India uncle. 284 GYPSIES, OB "WHY WE WENT "When we were in San Diego, hopes of Tom Scott's railroad still animated the people. The town has since become very quiet; but it can never cease to be a beautiful and healthful spot. Seventeen miles back in the country is the valley of the Cajon. Among the Spaniards, there is a saying, " See the beautiful Cajon, and die," This valley is surrounded by wonderful hills, and covered with the beautiful grey backs of squirrels. One of their plans for getting rid of these squirrels, is to keep two or three hundred cats, giving them shelter during the rainy season, but never any food. A, gentleman residing in the valley, who owned 1,000 acres of its squirrels, showed me some colts which he pastured upon the banks of the San Diego river. The two year olds were larger and handsomer than the father, or any of the mothers, all of which were shown us. I be- lieve California wUl become famous for its fine horses. It is a paradise for them. GYPSYTSTG IN THE SIEEEAS. 285 THE KUMBBR OF SQUIEEBLS TO THE ACRE. We often hear the expression, " I never saw a country where there is so much land to the acre," or " so many stumps to the acre," and in the West, the common conversation is filled with com, wheat, or other crops " to the acre." But in southern California, I heard a man talk of the number of squirrels to the acre. The country is overrun with them. They bxurow in the ground, and throughout much of the State seriously threaten agriculture. I asked the hotel keeper at San Felipe, how many squirrels there were in a six acre lot near his house. He leaned on the fence, watched their gambols awhile, and finally said: «I should think about 2,000 to the acre." Every good farmer is expected to do his part toward MUing them. Large cans of squirrel poison are among the staple articles in all stores and groceries. I fancy it is mostly wheat soaked in strychnine. WhUe we were in California, a Yankee came 286 GYPSIES, OB WHY WE WENT from the East with a new kind of squirrel poison. In order to advertise his goods, he went into a county where squirrels were rather thick, and where they gave one cent bounty for squirrel scalps. In two weeks he delivered scalps enough to amount to $600. The California squirrel is like the grey squir- rel of our woods, only his taU is not so long. They are excellent food, though not quite equal to the rattlesnake. I know, for I tried both. BEE PASTUKES. Did you ever hear of any one owning a past- ure for bees? This is regular property in south- ern California; as real as pastures for cows in 'New England. We visited a relative of my wife, thirty mUes back of San Diego in southern California, who was occupying a bee ranche, and had much to say of his bee pasture. He paid a rental of $200 a year for it, and complained not a little that a man had established himself eight miles down GTP8TrN"G- IN THE SIERRAS. 287 the canyon, whose bees were trespassing upon his pastures. The honey of southern California is regarded as the best in the market. I believe the white sage is the most valuable pasture, and as im-: mense districts of country gi'ow nothing but a little, starved, white sage, you can understand how bee pastures shoidd rise to the dignity of rentable property. Reading the southern California newspapers, you will observe constant reports of the pros- pects of the honey crop. Lite everything else in that part of the State, it sees hard times. PARADISE VAiLET. A few miles south of San Diego, lies Paradise valley, a wonderfiil spot. It has sufficient water for irrigation purposes, and tropical crops grow in amazing quantity and perfection. I met a correspondent of an Eastern news- paper, a highly intelligent gentleman, who in this beautiful place was seeking the restoration of his lungs. 288 GYPSIES, OE WHY WE WEKT I think he owned only an acre of land, but a couple of wind mills pumped water from produc- tive weUs, so he irrigated thoroughly, and was raisiag crops of various sorts, which would, in the aggregate, be larger than the products of a fifty acre 'New England farm. WhUe at San Diego, we drove to the Mexican line, a few mUes away, and crossed it. It was a dreadfully barren region. You have no idea how the changing governments of that land have blighted everything. On their side were noth- ing but rocks, gravel and miserable squirrels. On our side were beautiful squirrels, lovely boulders, exquisite pebbles, and over all, the glo- rious stars and stripes. » The Mexicans have a great deal to learn about republicanism. Let them send a coromittee to New York and study things. What a pity that Tweed is gone. But then, there is Kelly. He could give them some useful points. LOS AJS^GELES. On our way back from San Diego we stopped GTPSTBTG EST THE SIEREAS. 289 at Los Angeles, the most ambitious and prosper- ous town in the southern half of the State. While San Francisco must ever remain the commerciiil capital of California, overshadowing all other places, Los Angeles bids fair to reach a population and business of considerable mag- nitude. The orange groves in the neighborhood great- ly interested us. I have seen nothing in the tree world so beautiful as those orange groves. The day we left, the temperature was 103 degrees in the shade. We were fairly fric- asseed. The new railroad facilities are greatly enhancing the activities and chances of Los An- geles. As a home, San Diego is much. to be preferred. SAKTA BAEBAEA. Several years ago a Mr. Johnson travelled through the Bast, delivering lectures illustrated by maps, etc., upon the healthfulness and pros- pects of Santa Barbara and the surrounding country. These lectures, together with the many 290 GTPSIES, OE "WHY WE WENT glowing letters written upon the subject by newspapei' correspondents, gave a great impulse to the development of the city. Real estate and rentals soared skyward, and for a time it was extremely diflBLcult to raise money enough to buy a home, or even to hire a shelter. I don't kaow a place in the United States where it is easier to do it now. Houses that rented for $500 a year, now rent for f 100, or more likely, stand empty. What is meant by the " bursting of a bub- ble" is exactly what has happened in Santa Barbara. The climate is probably the finest of its kind in California. DUTCH PLAT, TOTT BET, &0. There are few things that strike a visitor more than the strange names of people, towns, mining camps, canyons, &c. Dutch Flat, a mining town on the line of the Central Pacific Eailroad, is called Dutch Flat because there is not an acre in it that is flat. GTPSTING IN THE SIEERAS. 291 It is a very briglit, active village, and has been so for a qxiarter of a century. In that neighborhood I visited "Yon Bet," "Eed Dog," "E"ary Red," and " Shirt-TaH Can- yon." In alluding to the last named place they generally leave out the word canyon. I heard a lady in the parlor of a hotel, ask a gentleman if he had been up at '* Shirt-TaU." California is full of the most grotesque, absurd and funny nomenclature. A MOTnTTATtJT PAETT. In a mountam district not a^ thousand mUes from Hog Canyon, we camped near the residence of an old Missourian. These Missourians are very warm in their neighborhood friendships, and after all that may be said against them, are among the most hos- pitable people on the coast. Our neighbor, before leaving Missouri, had been a regular hard shell Baptist preacher, but giving up his clerical profession had removed to California and become a moxmtain rancher. 292 GYPSIES, OE WHY WE WENT The day we pitched our. tents in his neighbor- hood, he and his eon were distributing invita- tions to a dancing, or what I should call a kissing party. We were all invited. Our ladies sent their regrets. I went. The dancing was peculiar. The gents were in shirt sleeves, boot tops and slouched hats; the ladies, of the roughest mountain pattern and of assorted ages, went in strong; the music was a horrible violin, with a style of playing which baffles description, and the movement, a hop, skip and a jump. THE KISSrSTG GAME. Whatever may be said of the advantages of youth, when it comes to kissing, a gray-headed gentleman of the portly variety can discount all your youngsters. The girls have doubts about young men, but with a touching trust- fulness they take to gray-headed men. It is beautiful. "Here I Languish. (.See page 2d3.) GTPSTIKG rsr THE SIEBEAS. 293 HEEB I LAJSTGUISH. One of their kissing games was truly refresh- ing. When yon " Go to Rome," you must take 'em as they come, and may strike one occasion- ally who is not to your taste. But with " Here I Languish," you take your choice. I know from experience its the best way. The play was this : A rough six-footer stood up against the side of the room, in his shirt sleeves and boot tops, with slouched hat on, turned his head on one side in the most ridicu- lous way, and said: ^" Here I languish." A person sittmg in the centre of the room, whose duty it was to manage the play, said: "What for?" " A kiss." " Who from?" " Betsey Stumps." Whereupon, Betsey, an overgrown girl, stepped forward. 294 GYPSIES, OE "WHT WE •WENT The Mss was an explosion. Then she took his place and sighed: " Here I languish." « What for?" «A Mss." "Who from?" She named the young man who had just kissed her. All the young fellows cried out : "Hold on! hold on! that ain't fair." After a rumpus she was compelled to languish for some other fellow. I never saw anything funnier than one of those six-footers, strong enough to lift an ox or whip his weight in wild cats, turning his head on one side and saying, in' a soft, lovesick way: " Here I languish." The young folks insisted that I should take my turn at languishing. There was trouble in store for me. In the corner sat a dreadftil creat- ure, enormously fat, with a red eruption all oyer her face. I had noticed that not one of the young fellows languished for her, and I did not blame them. GYPSTCSTG IN THE SIERRAS. 295 "When in position, I told the company that beiag a stranger and not kaowing the names of the ladies, I would thank some one to assist me. A young rascal cried out: "SaUyShin!" "We proceeded with the play, and I said: " Here I languish." ""What for?" « A Idss." « Who from?" " SaUy Shin." That dreadful eruptive mountain in the cor- ner slowly rose and waddled toward me, open- ing wide her aims Well, she had two big brothers present, and I am alive to tell the story. BIG JOE. Joe was our teamster. The rest of us were extremely sensible and respectable persons, but there, was not the vestige of a hero or heroiae about us. Born of poor but honest parents, we had contrived to preserve inviolate these family 296 GTPSIES, OR WHT WE WENT characteristics, but not one of us, in our most inspired moments, would have suggested any- thing you had eyer read in a novel. Joe was different. He was very different. He was romance itself. He was a sweet, gentle, loving, walking, kicking, smashing romance. His presence, even in the performance of the most menial services,' suggested thoughts of — of all sorts of beautiful things. Looking at one of his gigantic hands, one of our ladies remarked that that hand was made to guide a beautiful princess through the labyrinths of life. Such curious and foolish thoughts were constantly suggested by Big Joe — "Prince Joe" as one of our ladies always called him. Miss A., a young lady of fortune, a member of our party, our only aristocrat, thought it was " just dreadful " when it was suggested that we invite Joe to dine with us. "What! that hostler, with his great paws, sitting here by mel" Fourteen months later, in white satin, with elaborate trail, she stood by Joe's side, put her GYPSYma m the siekeas. 297 little hand in his " great paw," looked up into his face with infinite trust, and lovingly whis- pered the solemn vow. We all said, " she is rich, pretty and good, but not half good enough for Joe." Joe has since then, now four years, become a rich man, and is regarded as one of the coming men in Central California. His wife's friends are absurdly vain of " the grandest and best man that ever lived." CHAPTEE XX. PKOFESSOE TAPP. Speaking of professors, I have never met one who interested me so much as Professor Tapp of San Francisco, the horse tamer. He was terribly cruel to his mother tongue, but very gentle to horses. He occupied a num- ber of corrals, where he tamed wild and vicious horses. I had organized, in Oakland, a society for the prevention of cruelty to animals, and been honored with its presidency. Professor Tapp wished me to witness his method of training wild and vicious horses. He showed me a herd of wild horses from the mountains, which had never been handled, and said: " You may pick out any horse from this herd, and in two hoxirs I will drive him before a buggy, GTPSTING rsr THE SIEEEAS. 299 and when going down that hill will let the buggy loose on his heels, without the least risk." " Can you aceompHsh this miracle without violence or drugs?" "I won't give him no medicuie, nor draw nary a drop of blood." I selected one horse who was larger than the others, held his head very high, and always led when the herd ran. It took an hour to separate the chosen horse from his fellows. At length he was in the pro- fessor's private corral, which was the size of a circus riag, with sand sis inches deep, and sur- rounded by a strong, close, plank fence twelve feet high. I took a seat in the circle above, among the spectators. Professor Tapp entered the corral through a narrow door which he closed after him. In his right hand he held a whip with a short stock and long, heavy lash, and in his left, a strong halter minus the hitch- ing strap, two old potato sacks and two articles which looked like the interfering straps worn upon horse's fetlocks, and a strong rope about 300 GYPSIES, OK WHY WE WENT thirty feet long. Everything but the whip was put into a little recess in the fence, and Pro- fessor Tapp quietly and very slowly turned towards the horse. The animal was making the most frantic eflPorts to get away and actually attempted to jump over the twelve foot fence. The professor stood still a minute or so, watching his oppor- tunity. Then the whip cracker hit one of the horse's hind fetlocks, making the dust fly. The horse sprang and scampered from side to side. In a moment the long lash flew coiling through the air and the cracker reached the same place. Within flfteen minutes this was repeated from twenty to thirty times. Within thirty minutes ^ the horse had learned the lesson this treatment was intended to convey, which was — that there was only one safe place in the corral, and that- place was close by Professor Tapp. There, there was no hurt, but a very gentle, soothing voice. The professor stood so stUl, his voice was so gentle and persuasive, that in half an hour, when he ran across the corral, the horse would run GTPSTING EST THE SIEEEAS. 301 after him. He had learned that it was very dangerous to be more than about ten feet away. Professor Tapp at length succeeded in touch- ing the horse's head with his hand. This fright- ened the animal and he started away, but before he had taken three steps, bethought him- self and came quickly back. Within three quarters of an hour from the beginning the strong head stall was on. The wild creature was greatly frightened to jSnd something on his head which he could not remove, and used his feet with the agility of a dog in his efforts to remove the encumbrance. For a moment he agaia forgot about his heels and the danger of distance, but the silk cracker soon refreshed his memory. !N"ow it was very easy to rub his head and neck. The end of the whip stock then tickled his side. The horse switched the spot with his tail, and the professor caught the ends of the long tail hairs. This frightened the animal again. He forgot, and the whip cracker called him back. The second or third time of seizing the tail of the horse, the professor held 302 GYl'SIES, OR WHY WE WEKT it for a moment, drew it hard toward him and by a qnick movement of his hand, tied into the end of the long hairs a strong cord which he had taken out of his pocket j the other end had been already fastened to the iron ring in the head stall. This drew the head and tail strongly toward each other. The professor stepped back. The horse began to tm-n ia a circle. Soon he was turning as fast as he could move, and in a minute fell, drunk with dizziness. The professor quickly seized the potato sacks, wound one around a hind leg close to the hoof and fastened the strong short strap over it; the other leg was treated in the same way. There was an iron ring in each of the short straps; through both of these iron rings the strong rope was passed and tied upon itself, eighteen inches from the hind feet. The long, loose end of the rope was then passed between the horse's fore legs, through the ring of the head stall, and then tied into a heavy ring in the wall of the enclosure. The small cord connecting the head and tail was cut, and GYPSTTSTG BS" THE SIEKEAS. 303 after a little time the horse began to recover. Still dizzy and uncertain, he slowly rose; but when he found he was fastened he made a tremendous struggle. The professor stood by the ring where the horse was tied to the plank wall. The animal could not turn his head from side to side because the rope ran through the strong ring of his head stall. Finding he could not move his head first, he tried to back, but as he was tied by the two hind legs below the fetlock joints, his efforts to back resulted in his sitting down in the sand. It is difficult to conceive of a horse in a more helpless position. He instant- ly and violently sprang to his feet and tried to turn his head first in one direction and then in the other, but finding that impossible, he again backed with a tremendous effort, and sat down in the sand. The professor looked on as quietly as though the affair had been one in which he had no possible interest, and remarked to me, while the horse was making the most violent 304 GYPSIES, OE WHY WE WENT stiTiggles to get away, every one of which re- sulted in his sitting down in the sand: " Pretty soon he will switch his taU from side to side; that means he gives up." Sure enough, within eight minutes from the beginning, the horse moved his tail from side to side. The professor said slowly: " INTow he's done and you can crawl between his legs, he won't make no trouble." The j)rofessor at once knelt down by the horse's hind legs, untied the rope, unbuckled the straps, walked behind him, put his hands upon the horse's hind legs, stuck his head between them, walked all around him, patted his head, tied a rope into the ring of his head stall and led him about the corral. He urged me to come down and crawl under the horse's belly and between his legs. I told him I thought I would not do it just then, because of a slight rheumatic difficulty in my left knee. At length I was obliged to leave, but after- ward learned that he harnessed the horse, and performed the trick of letting the buggy strike GYPSTDTG DT THE SIEEEAS. 305 his heels while going down hill, -without the least trouble. Professor Tapp told roe that a horse trained in this way was always safe about his heels. I was with Professor Tapp a few days later, when a man drove up with a fine bay horse and said: " I have come. Professor Tapp, to see if you can cure my horse of his fear of buffalo skins and umbrellas. He is a valuable animal, • and was purchased for service in the Ten Cent Pack- age Delivery Company, but we must give him up unless you can cure him." Professor Tapp took the horse into the corral, put the potato sacks, which he always used to prevent the straps injuring the parts, about his fetlock joints, put on the straps, tied in his rope, and in every way managed as above. " I have forgotten what you said he was afraid of," said the professor. " If you have a buffalo skin or an umbrella and will take it within ten feet of hi« head,, you will soon find out." 306 GYPSIES, OE "WrHT WE WENT The professor sent for tlic two articles, and held the buffalo skm near the horse's head, whereupon the animal sprang back as if he had been attacked by wUd animals, and sat down in the sand. His fright was most touching. The professor again presented the robe and struck the poor horse over the head with it a dozen times. The animal was perfectly helpless, and sitting down with his hind legs drawn forward, could do nothing to get away from the hated skin. After a deal of snorting he smelt of it and found it would not hm't him. Then the umbrella was opened and shut in his face, and in three minutes tliat too was over. Prof. Tapp then said to the owner of the animal : "He'll never be afraid of buffalo sMns or umbrellas again. He has found out they don't hm't him." Professor Tapp treated all vicious horses in exactly the same way, and so far as I know, with precisely the same result. CHAPTER XXI. ABOUT SNAKES, TAEANTtTLAS, &0. California has the reputation of harboring many poisonous snakes, and other deadly creat- ures. It is easy for the reader, if interested in snakes, to look up what the books say about them. I "will only relate what I saw. While camping at Isabel Grove near Santa Cruz, an old resident invited me to go hunting with him in Blackburn's Gulch. "We had been looking an hour or two for the small game of the neighborhood, when my companion exclaimed: " See there ! that's the biggest rattle snake I ever saw." It was one of the long, dender sort, with black and white sMn. 308 GYPSIES, OE WHY WE WENT The snake saw us, and slowly coiled, opened his mouth, thrust out his tongue and was ready. He was under a manzanita bush in deep shadow, but the brilUant white spots of his skin and his dazzling eyes emitted a strange light. A more fascinating, thrilling sight I nevei be- held. It seemed too bad to disturb him, but cocking both barrels of my gun, I fired and killed him. He was four feet seven inches, with nine rattles. On a cliff over the Yosemite Valley I was walking a traU, and saw just before me, crawl- ing quietly along, a rattle snake of what I call the other variety, — brown with regular black stripes, and very thick for its length. I had no gun. He coiled, shook his rattle, and cried: " Come on, Macduff." I did not come on, but retreated and picked up a pine knot. It was too short, somewhat less than two feet. I dared not throw it at him, for only ten feet from the path was a fissure in a rock through which he might escape me. I knew GTPSYING DT THE SIEKEAS. 309 my only chance was to smash his head. I walked up within fiye feet. He was on the point of making a spring when I made one. It was a desperate business, but I would not have missed bagging him for anything. I climbed up around him, and down into the trail on the other side. . But from that point it was plain if I threw my club, no matter how I hit him, he woidd be sure to get away. When I struck the trail beyond him, he was facing that way, with the same open mouth, terrible fangs and wild eyes. I dared not leave him to look for some more effective weapon, for I knew when I came back my neighbor would be " not at home." I resorted to the dodge of rushing at him, hopiag he would uncoil, but he didn't scare worth a cent. My pockets were filled with small geological specimens which I tossed at him, and threw one or two at his head; but he stood his ground. At length a plan came to me. I took my long 310 GYPSIES, OE WHY WE WENT silk handkerchief, tied it to the end of the club, swung it round my head a number of times to make sure of the motion, then giving it an extra whirl, hit him just below the head. He lost the coil and squirmed in every conceivable way, evidently stunned and bewildered. Seiz- ing the end of my short club I approached and hit his. head when it was on the ground. This blow was followed by half a dozen others and the snake was dead. There were ten rattles. The snake was four feet eleven, and ia the largest part fuUy three inches and a quarter in diameter. I dragged him into camp and devoted my leisure moments for a month to bragging about it. The other small animals most feared on the Pacific coast, are the tarantula, the scorpion and the centipede. The tarantula is an enormous hairy spider, — the most hideous creature of its size imaginable. Its movements are slowj it rarely attacks, but if you happen to put your hand upon it, it will GTPSTING- IK THE SIEEBAS. 311 bite, and the chances are about one in five that the poison will kill. An estimable citizen of California, a friend of mine, while taking his siesta, lying without a blanket on the bank of the Russian River, was awakened by a stinging pain on the back of liis neck. He sprang up and saw a horrid tarantula walking slowly away. He ran to a ranche house a nule off, but they had no whiskey. He could get none for half a day, and twenty- six hours after the bite died in dreadful agony. It is rare however for a tarantula's bite to kill a strong man. The tarantula is a horrible creature to look at, and a terrible bed-fellow, but he has fine tastes about his private residence. He builds for himself a palace and lines it with white sUk. He is so confident of his skill, that he makes the door to open outward, hangs it on a perfect hinge, crawls in, shuts it right in the face of a furious storm, fastens it with a patent hasp and goes to sleep like any other nabob, quite indifferent to the troubles of the outside 312 GYPSIES, OB WHY "WTE WENT world. I brought home a tarantula's nest and find it difficult to conyince people that it was really made by a spider. Then comes the scorpion. The scientists will tell you he is a "pedipalpous, pulmonary arachnidan." I don't agree with them. My opinion is this : — The scorpion is a nasty, sneak- ing little brute, who crawled into my bed once up in the Putah Creek Mountains and would have stung me^ but I happened to be awake and felt him moving on my hand and getting ready. The scorpion is common in California, l)ut people are not often stung by him, because he is such a lazy sneak. And last, the centipede which I did not see, but which I was told had a great numbel' of feet, and was very fond of crawling on warm . human flesh. A lady, whose shoulder a centipede had chosen as the field of a little journey, told me that his feet felt like red hot needles. This is the way he poisons folks. GYPSTiNG rer the sieeeas. 313 EAETHQUAKES. When people hear California praised, they ask: "How about the earthquakes? I would rather live where it is cold, than have my house shaken down over my head." Since California has been occupied by the whites, I believe only two persons have been killed by earthquakes, and the damage to prop- erty has been very slight, A single tornado in the West has destroyed in one minute more lives and property than earthquakes in California are likely to destroy in one hundred years. Three times whUe we were in town there was a slight shake, just enough to move the pitcher and tumblers, and rattle the shovel and tongs. I saw no plastering cracked, nor chimneys sliaken down. In San Francisco they are put- ting up six and seven story brick buildings, and snule when you talk of earthquakes. 314 GTl'SIES, OR WHY WE WEMT THE BAT TREE. A curious tree known as the bay tree is scat- tered all over California. I was told that bay rum was distilled from the leaves of this tree. I have never taken pains to learn whether this is true or not, but certain it is that the odor is pre- cisely that of bay rum. Our Joe thought it contained the bay rum it- self, alcohol and all. He mferred this from the fact that the tree, although one of the greenest in California, will, if touched with a match, bum with almost explosive rapidity. "We burned hundreds 5 on two or three camp grounds de- pended upon them for our evening fires. Each tree burned but a brief time, but touching up one after another was splendid fhn. We found that burning did not kill them, although it would kill any tree at the East, as it not only con- sumed the leaves, but small limbs and much of the bark. The vitality and tenacity of vegetable groAvths in California is amazing. In Fremont's grove, GTPSTING EST THE SIERRAS. 315 "we camped near a redwood stump, close against the sides of which two young trees had sprung up. At the top of the stump, these young trees sent out pancakes of living vegetable matter which had united and extended completely across the top of the stump, entirely covering it. I guided several persons to this remarkable achievement of the two young trees, and we all agreed that as an illustration of devotion to ancestors, it beat the most extraordinary performances reported of the Chinese. CHAPTER XXn. MUSTANG HOESES. • The Mustang is a wonderful saddle horse, but worth little for draught purposes. For number- less generations he has carried a man on his back. The development of bone and muscle has conformed to this labor. A horse weighing but 800 pounds, will carry a heavy man thirty miles a day over mountain roads. The same horse in harness would look sorry enough, if compelled to draw the half of a small wagon load ten miles. Ot. the other hand, the large, strong har- ness horse of the East, who makes nothing of heavy wagon loads, would soon find himself used up, if obliged to carry a small man ten nules over mountain trails. The mustang weighs from 700 to 1,000 pounds. He rarely weighs as much as a thous- GTPsrma m the sieeeas. 317 and. He is not generally handsome, though some of the small ones are perfect pictures. It is a common notion that he is "wild and vicious; on the contrary, he is singularly docile and quiet. It is common to see a Mustang sad- dle horse standing in the street in San Francisco "without heing hitched, patiently waiting for his rider. If the wind is blowing hard, or the rain falling, he may go round on the lee side of the block to shield himself; but if accustomed to start at a certain hour, he will come round on time. Mustangs seem to me more thoroughly aliye than eastern horses, and cfen be ridden over rough roads where any other horse would be helpless. They look out for holes in the ground in such a wonderful way, and the fact is so well understood on the coast, that the most intelligent breeder of horses that I met in California, said, when I asked: " Why don't you bring the Kentucky saddle horse to this country?" " Oh, they wouldn't answer here at all. Our 318 GTPSIES, OE WHY WE WEKT country is dotted all over with squirrel holes, and your $1,000 Kentucky horse would break his neck. But," he added, "we might cross the Mustang with the Kentucky saddle horse. He must have enough of the Mustang to look out for squirrel holes." Taking one of my Mustangs to a blacksmith's shop in San Francisco, I objected to his stand- ing with several others, waiting to be shod. The blacksmith, Avho was from 'New York and had had much experience in shoeing horses, said: " Don't be alarmed! They won't kick. At the East, I was obliged to be very careful about put- ting horses together, but during the sixteen years I have been in this city I have never seen a native horse kick another in my shop." I owned a good many Mustangs, and every one was quiet, patient and obedient. The Span- iards practice the most inconceivable cruelties upon them; but they suffer and die, and almost never resent the wrong. Mustangs are very cheap. I bought one ex- cellent young horse for $10, and a number for "How Ladies should Ride." (^See page 319.) GTPSTmG m THE SIEREAS. 319 $25 and $30. They require very little feed, take care of themselves and are on the whole about as perfectly adapted to their circumstances as any creab-ires I have ever seen. They are curi- ously free from shying, and indeed from all vices. HOW LADEES SHOTILD En>E. The ladies of our party all rode horseback and all rode astride. In my camping party of the third year were quite a number of fashiona- ble young ladies. "When told that we never took any side saddles, some of them exclaimed: "^ever! never! never!!" Very soon they were not only satisfied with the man's saddle, but without exception became quite enthusiastic over it. One young lady declared that she could not begin that dreadful way of sitting on the saddle in the presence of the whole universe; she must practice a little privately. So we walked around the other side of some chaparral, I helped her into the saddle and we rode away together. In 320 GYPSIES, OE WHY WE WENT an hour we returned to camp and she sat in the saddle for some minutes, quietly saying that it was the only sensible way for any one to ride on horseback. My own wife, who had been unable to ride the lady's saddle, always suffering from pains in back and side, found no difficulty in riding six or eight hours in the man's saddle. The ladies wore over their flannels, pantaloons which from the knee to the ankle fitted as neatly as a stocking, and were closed with a row of buttons on the outside of the leg. They wore flannel dresses that reached to the ankle and unbuttoned in front. They would, when in the saddle, open the dress just enough to let it hang down over the knees like a gentleman's over- coat. You would hardly notice when a lady was thus dressed and sitting astride, that she was not riding as ladies usually do, except that she sat square instead of sideways. One of the most beautiful and wealthy young ladies in San Francisco, dressed in rich black . g-tpsyhstg in the sieiiras. 321 silk, I saw on the fashionable Cliff House road, riding astride. Of course the newspapers hit the ladies occa- sionally. They would say: "Dr. Dio Lewis's party passed through town yesterday, the ladies riding in the saddle, clothes-pin fashion." A SimDAT HORSE RACE. There is no Sunday in the mountains of Cal- ifornia. Many of the miners work every day in the year. The herders give the same attention to their flocks on Sunday as on Saturday. The lumbermen and ranchemen either hunt, fish, or attend a horse race. One Sunday morning whUe we were reading and singing in one of our mountain camps, people began to gather half a mile ^bove us. Some one in our party thought it might be a camp meeting. Soon the crowd was so large that I went over to see what it meant. It was a horse race. The course was about one eighth of a mile long. The active little Mustang mares were 322 GYPSIES, OK WHY WE WENT pretty and very restless. Each had her backers. The bets ranged from one dollar to one hun- dred. There were two active drinldng booths; in fact, everything was on a high key. One or two little preliminary spurts showed that some of the nags were flyers. A little calico mare, that betting men offered to back against the field, was so wild that no one could mount her. At length, a young fellow said: " If you'll put a surcingle round her, so that I can get hold, I'll ride her or bust." After a good deal of maneuvering, the sur- cingle was buckled. Our plucky young fellow seized it with his left hand, and after half a dozen attempts landed on the right place. Holding on with his heels, he seized the reins and cried out: " Let her go." Two men held the rope, while another suc- ceeded in UAtying it. Such rearing! Such springing! Such buck- ing! But she could not throw him. Though terribly shaken and deadly pale, he clung on, GTPSTDiTG IN THE SEEEEAS. 323 and Yirith a six-jointed oath swore he would " stick or die. " The crowd was wild. After a quarter of an hour, the little calico mare was on the road and runniag at a tremen- dous rate. It was half an hoiu- before this furious creature would make a fair start with the others. The running and jumping loosened the surcingle, which worked back almost to her hind legs and hung down some distance. The little calico outran everything; but when nearing the end of the course with tremendous strides, caught one of her hind feet in the sur- cingle, came down on her head, turned a com- plete summersault, threw her rider thirty feet, where he struck his hands, face and chest on a rough, rocky road, nearly killing him. The little mare dislocated her leg, besides terribly cutting her head and back. The young fellow was carried to a mountain house, the mare immedi- ately shot, dragged away and tumbled into a deep canyon. Then they proceeded with the next race, but I did not stay to see the finish. 324 GYPSIES, OR WHY WE WENT On my way back to camp, I slipped on a rock and sat down very hard. It htirt. Moral : If you wish to keep your horse's legs in joint, you must not run them on Sunday; and if you wish to sit down easy, you must never attend a horse race on that day. CHAPTER XXm. LIZAKDS. California has a small-sized lizard, the rapidity of whose movements is a constant surprise. Observers speak of these lizards "flashing across their pathway." They rmi up and down the side of the rough- est rocks, in. and out, here and there, with in- conceivable velocity. !N"othing but a thousand generations of life in the bright sunshine could develop such rapidity. I had always thought that the swallow, catch- ing thousands of flies while darting through the air, was the most striking illustration of rapid movement with definite aim. But I had not seen the California lizard. I cannot fully describe this flash of four- legged lightning, for we did not catch one; but 326 GYPSIES, OK WHY WE WBNT I should say it was about six laches long, brown and green, with eyes from the Golconda mines, — none of your South African diamonds. SEA liiosrs. One of the most attractive sights to visitors in California is the colony of sea lions which play about the Seal Rocks iu the Pacific Ocean, a hundred feet from shore. Seated on the elevated piazza of the Cliff House, you can watch their antics, their crawl- ing upon the rocks and diving into the water, and see every movement as distinctly as those of a colt in your dooryard. Some of the seals are enormously large, and must weigh more than a ton. The largest one is called " Gen. Butler." The next in size, "Gen. Grant." "When Gen. Butler crawls out on the rocks, if he happens to come near Gen. Grant, Grant immediately dives off. The voices of these animals, heard any- where but in the open air and tempered by the roar of the sea, would be anything but pleasant. Sea Lions on Seal Rocks. (See page 326.) G^SYINa IN THE SIERRAS. 327 The legislature of California has made a severe law against shooting or molesting these creat- ures. The result is the same that usually follows such mercy — the animals have become very tame. What a thought! that man should treat dumb animals so cruelly that their only impulse is to flee at his approach, when it is in- tended that he shall befriend them, and they be happy in his society and gratefiil for his kind- ness. SEAL ROOKS. " The seal rocks of San Francisco are well worth seeing. There is a weird fascination in them — something so hideously uncanny in the swarm of crawling things that rear themselves about among the jagged fissures, and so utterly unlike any other known voice of animate or inanimate nature is the hoarse, deep cry that goes up incessantly from all the million throats and predominates over the thunders of the ocean itself. Every rock, from the base of the peak, is alive with shapeless things in perpetual mo- 328 GYPSIES, OR WHY WE WENT tion? tumbling over each other, twistiag, roll- ing, fighting in a clumsy fashion with their uncouth flippers or phmgiug with marvellously smooth, graceful curves into boiling foam that breaks all around their rocty fortresses. " Some are tawny, brown or yeUow, and these have had their coats dried by the sim after a few hours basking on the rocks; but those wht^have just wriggled up out of the surf are dull slaty- black, and look like animated bags of wet gutta- percha. All ages and sizes are represented, from the monarch of the colony, a gray old giant who might weigh some three thousand pounds, down to the babies who are just learning to wriggle and leap after the fashion of their mammas, and add their infant notes to the gen- eral chorus." JIM AOT) BOB. We had fitted out for one of otit camping trips, but lacked a pair of mules. I advertised in the San Francisco papers, and looked through the sale stables. We found mules, but the price GYPSYBSTG m THE 8IEERAS. 329 was too high. While a pair of good Mustang harness horses can be purchased for f 100, $400 win be asked for a pair of good mules. At length some one directed me to a sale stable on Mission Street. There I found a handsome pair of mules, of about the right size. I asked the price, expect- iag it would be $300 or $400. To my surprise, the dealer named $100. I expressed no surprise, for one soon learns that is not the way to buy. I asked the age. It was four years. Well, I thought, that is the best age — four years for mules and six for horses. " Are they sound? " " Warranted perfectly sound." "Have they any vices, or stable tricks?" " Only one. Otherwise, they are perfect." " What is this vice or trick? " " Oh ! nothing in particular, except they will Mck the head off a cast iron dog. I'll warrant them to kick faster, stronger and straighter than any other mules in California. Why! 330 GYPSmS, OB WHY WE WENT those mules would be worth $400 if it wasn't for their kicking." " How long can I have the refusal of them? " " If you will keep away from their heels, you may have the refusal for some time, but if you get within six feet of them, the refusal won't do you much good." I went to fetch Joe. Joe liked them. He said their kicking would be nothing but fun. The dealer, fearing, I presume, that we would not return, told me if I woidd take them out of the stable at once, he would discount five dollars. "We took them. MY WIFE TEAESrS THOSE MULES. I wish to tell you something of our experience with the little mules. When we Ijrought them to our own barn, and reported our purchase in the house, my wife said at once: " That means beating. If there is to be any- thing of that sort you may count me out." I promised at once that only gentle means should be used, and we all went out to see the GYPSYTSTG m THE SIEKRAS. 331 new purchase. Joe was trying to saddle Jim, and was obliged to resort to the expedient of tying him up against a projecting timber, on the other side of which he stood while putting on the saddle. I never saw a pair of heels fly so persistently or so viciously. These mides were really wild animals. When we came to put on the bridles, we found they would not permit us to touch their ears. Indeed, the only way we could, bridle them was by tying them with a strong rope so that they could not possibly help themselves. Joe was very gentle and patient. Mrs. Lewis contrived to get near enough to give them lumps of sugar and bits of fruit. Within six months their gentleness was such that they became almost a nuisance in camp, fol- lowing my wife about to have their heads and ears scratched, and were just as safe about the heels as an old cart horse. The most vicious mules and horses can be cured by Mndness. 332 GYPSIES, OE WHT WE WENT WHAT BEAUTEFUL COMPANIOJiTS. Considering only our own pleasure, what a stupid blunder it is to treat animals so that they jiee at your approach. How much it would add to the sweetness of life if birds, squirrels and other pretty creatures would come and play about us. My wife and I spent the night at Dr. Mill's Ladies' Seminary, in the outskirts of Oakland. Early in the morning we were awakened by the sweet voices of many quails. I looked out of the window and saw near by at least 200 quails being fed with the crumbs from the kitchen, the servant standing in their midst as she scattered the bits. One of the young ladies told us that a little mother quail made her nest on the piazza under a vine, where himdreds passed every day within a foot of her. She laid eighteen eggs, and hatched every one. The bird made no objection to being fondled while sitting on her eggs. The " What BEAUiirnL Companioks ! " {See page 332.) GTPSTING nsr THE SIEREAS. 333 quail is a very wild bird, but aU they had done to tame these was to keep away guns and feed them. A new world would be opened to us if we treated animals so that they would gather about us to be petted. .1 woidd go half round the « globe to enjoy a month of such intimacy with these beautiful, innocent creatures. The birds thus encouraged would greatly multiply and take care of the iasects which now destroy our fruits and graias. Visiting a relative in a frontier village I saw a deer, pursued by hounds, fleeing down the main street. Perhaps the poor, helpless thing thought it might find protection among menj but every man seized his gun and soon the fright- ened creature was wounded; the dogs arrived and with their fangs tore the beautiful neck and kUled her. An examination showed that she was suckling a baby. Within a week it prob- ably died from hope deferred and starvation. A few years ago we had on Boston Common a large number of gray squirrels. Small boys 334 GTl'SEES, OR WHY WE WENT often chased them and threw things at them; but they were not very cruelly treated and be- came so tame that they would take nuts out of one's hand. It was really the great attraction of that beautiful park. Fox hunting in England imrproves horseman- ship and human health I suppose. I have been in England at different times, and on one occa- sion saw a fox hunt. I have never witnessed anything more unmanly than fifty men riding over people's fences and trampling down their crops, in pursuit of a poor, frightened little fox. I do not know but the low instinct of the hunter is so strong in the English Aristocracy that nothing but mortal terror, blood and death will attract them to the saddle and the field. But I try to think better of them. I wonder if a score of field sports, riding with friends on horseback, etc., etc., would not suffice. Or must there be flight, terror, blood, agony and death to attract ladies and gentlemen to the field? GYPSTING m THE SIEKRAS. 335 CAMP MEETINGS UST OALIPOllNIA. At the East, camp grounds have become so common and are resorted to by so many persons for rest and recreation as well as religion, that it seems like one illustration of the famUiar phrase . " combining business with pleasure." In California, this is tenfold more so. There are camp meetings every where and every one goes to them. If a young man wants to take his girl riding in sumpaer, he takes her, as a matter of course, to a camp meetmg. In California, everything in life is of a mild type. There is nothing bigoted nor puritanic in religion, and people are as jolly and happy, socially quite as boisterous on a camp ground as they would be if the meeting were a political, rather than a religious one. Some of the most delightful days in our life were spent at camp meetings in California. The brethren often asked me to speak for them, and when I in- quired what the subject should be, they usually said: 336 GYPSIES, OE WHY WE WENT "Anything you please." I don't mean to say that the christians of Cal- ifornia are less sincere or less genuine than those of Massachusetts, but they have a free and easy manner that is exactly adapted to out door camp meetings. A physician in California could hardly do better than advise his dyspeptic patients to spend a few weeks visiting camp meetings. Some of the grounds are very grand, though perhaps none of them are equal to Martha's Yineyard or Old Orchard. CHAPTEE XXIV. A WORD ABOUT PAEMTNG LANDS. A very large part of California is mountain- ous, and of no value for agricultural purposes. The valleys, with the exception of the San Joa- quin and the Sacramento, which are in fact one valley and not two, are limited in extent, ex- ceedingly fertile, and the land held at fahulous prices. There was no congruity between the fee simple price and the rental. Land that rented for five dollars an acre may have sold for two hundred. This is the more remarkable, as money commanded from ten to thirty per cent. But we need not go far for a solution of the incon- gruity. There are a great many people at the Bast with money, who, tired of cold weather, jeek Jiomes in California. The general impulse is to 338 GYPSIES, OB WHY WE WENT purchase land and grow fruit. The new comer inquires for land. He says : "My idea is to buy a small farm and raise fruit." He is told that grapes require little culture, have no diseases, and that the crop is uniformly large. He instinctively figures the income, at eastern prices, of the tons of grapes which an acre will produce. He sees a bonanza 1 But when he learns that he must gather the grapes, cart them ten or twenty miles and sell a ton for five or eight dollars at one of the wine presses, he clutches at his bonanza and shuts his hand on nothing. Two things are indispensable to the success of fruit culture, — a good crop and a good market. In California the crop is immense, the market very small. I saw twenty herds of swine in beautiful vine- " yards. Thousands of tons of delicious grapes are yearly consumed by hogs. The ranchemen cannot afford to pick them. A few ranchemen who live in the warm belts GYPSTTKra mr the sierras. 339 that are screened from, the west wind by the mountains, make money by early tomatoes, early cherries and other early fruits. But when we consider the population of California and the wonderful capacity of its soil, we shall see that only a very small proportion of the fruit growers can profit by the early crop. There is not a farm crop in Kew England, grown under average conditions, but will pay better than fioiit in California. An efibrt is now being made to grow fruit that may be dried or otherwise preserved, and sent abroad. California raisins are already in the market; but they are not equal to the best European article. Until the people learn in its perfection, the art of preserving, and organize Chinese labor, even this new departure is not likely to prove successful. THE WINES OP CALIFORNIA. Connoisseurs agree that the wines of the Pacific coast are infe^or to the best European wines. The wine grower thinks this is preju- 340 GTTSrES, OE WHT WE WENT dice. . But assuming that the wines of Califor- nia are inferior to the wines of Southern Europe, (and I believe they are,) the explanation with- out doubt is to be found in the very cold nights of our western coast. For example, in Sonoma County, where the temperature at noon is often 100 degrees, or more; at three o'clock in the .morning, if sleeping out, you will need two thick blankets. With such cold nights through- out the season, the grape juice must lack some- thing, which the more imiform temperature of Southern Europe imparts to it. I rejoice with the friends of temperance that these cold nights prevent California from taking high rank as a wine producer. The oranges of California strikingly illustrate the influence of its cold nights. It is very rare to find even among the Los Angeles oranges, which are the best on the Pacific Coast, one that is really sweet. I wonder if people really believe that the gen- eral use of wine lessens intemperance. I wish that any one who entertains this idea could have GYPSTXPTG IN THE SIBERAS. 341 taken a Mustang and ridden with me through Sonoma County. Hiding a few nules iu advance of my party, I came upon a school house. Leaving my Mustang by the roadside without hitching, (for although he had a fierce temper, he would, like many Mustangs, remain where he was left until his rider returned,) I knocked at the school house door. The teacher, a tall, keen Yankee, invited me in. I asked him if he could spare time to answer a question. He said: . " Let me appoint a monitor, and I will come to you." We leaned agaiust the fence, and I said : " Through the East there is an impression that wine countries breed few drunkards. This county I hear is devoted to wiae. What is the influence upon the habits and morals of the people?" " Very bad, sir, very bad. More than half of the boys and girls in this school drink wine. •They are frequently incapacitated for school 342 GYPSIES, OB WHY ^0! WENT work. The grossest drunkenness prevails. You see that little brown house yonder?" I nodded. " Well, sir, a few weeks ago the woman who lived there failed to appear on Sunday morning. On Monday she was not seen. On Tuesday morning some neighbors knocked at her door. !N"o answer. They broke in, and she was lying on the floor, dead. She died of beastly drunk- enness, and she is the fourth woman who has died in the same miserable way, in this neigh- borhood, within a few months. It is dreadful. I don't know what is to become of them. I teU you, sir, wine curses everyone that touches it." Similar testimony I heard from intelligent men and women in several wine districts. FLOWERS. In California everything goes by contraries; so by travelling in summer we were not in the season of flowers. Yet we never missed them long at a time. The Mountain Lilac, a small tree, hung out GTPSYING IN THE SIERRAS. 343 its clusters of white or lavender colored flowers on every hUl-side from the coast to the high Sierras. The Buck-eye, a variety of horse- chestnut, was always in season as we climbed. For a time the fields were yellow with the Cal- ifornia poppy. But after awhile, it suffered from the drouth, became smaller and smaller, and at last lost its charm. In the mountains we admired the Mariposa Flower with its bright petals; the Azalea patches were of great extent and exceeding beauty. Near the Yosemite Valley we found the wonderful Snow-flower, so called because it springs up near the snow. Its spikes of flowers, sometimes nearly a foot long, are as red as blood. It is a parasite, and grows on the roots of several species of trees. THE MORMON TABERNACLE. I forgot to mention in its proper place some- thing I had in mind to say about the Mormon Tabernacle, and because the thought seems to 344 GYPSIES, OB WHY WE WENT me to have possibly some practical value, I ven- ture to introduce it here. The acoustic problem of a hall in which 10,000 people can distinctly hear an ordiaary speaker is becoming urgent. We manage three or four thousand, but not ten thousand. Mr. Spurgeon's auditorium seats 4,000, (his enthusiastic people will tell you 8,000) and you can hear him well; but the ordinary speaker faUs even in that room. Music Hall, Boston, seats between two and three thousand, and the average speaker is weU heard by only about half of them. An auditorium which will seat 10,000 people, all of whom can hear the speaker without effort, is a problem, that in the future will become so important it must be solved. All the architects will have to do, will be to go to Salt Lake City and copy the Mormon Tabernacle. In that room 10,000 persons can see and hear the speaker without the least effort. In explanation of this surprising restilt, GTPSTING IN THE SIEKRAS. 345 Brigham Toung used to say that an angel gave liim the plan. I fancy he always laughed in his sleeve when making this statement, because of the curious fact that an English mormon, by name of Angell, went with Brigham Toung to Utah, and being a builder and architect, made the plans for the tabernacle. There is not in Europe or elsewhere in America, a large auditorium which approaches the Mormon Tabernacle in acoustic advantages. Set down in !N'ew York, it would conunand an enormous rental for great musical conventions, political meetings, and lectures. Suppose Mr. Beecher were announced to lecture in this tabernacle, centrally located in New York, the admission might be ten cents and the receipts large enough. The influence of such a building on popular intelligence, and the progress of good causes, can hardly be ex- aggerated. I do not doubt that within a hundred years, 20,000 people will listen to the burning words of a fiiture Patrick Henry, while he presents 346 GYPSIES, OE WHY WE WENT the duty of the hour. If worse comes to worst, we can get a Mormon angel to build a large haU for us. The only thing in the revelations of the latter day saiats, which seems to give any color to their claims, is found in the acoustic miracle of their great tabernacle. We must not' decide against them until some one else can furnish a comfortable auditorium for 10,000 persons. CHAPTEE XXV- A "WOllD ABOUT THE CHINESE. One cannot write a book about California "without saying something of the Chinese. In California there are 140,000 Chiuese men, and about 6,000 Chinese women. With the exception of a few hundred mer- chants, the men are engaged as farmers, house servants, miners, shoemakers, cigar makers, manufacturers of ready-made clothing, and other mechanical occupations. They are industrious, honest, sober and thrifty. They do not get into the poorhouse, are remarkably healthy, rarely become inmates of hospitals, and are singularly quiet and peaceful. A large part of the 6,000 Chinese women are occupied as a majority of the first 6,000 white women were. 348 GYPSIES, OR WHY WE WENT OHTNESE WAITERS. This side of Ogden the eatiBg-houses em- ployed white waiters J beyond Ogden we ex- plained our stomach needs to the Mongolian. The contrast was striking. This side of Ogden the waiters rushed, shouted and blundered. The other side they glided, spoke just above a whisper, forgot noth- ing, and made few blunders, in spite of the language difficulties. At each station beyond Ogden, I asked the proprietor or person in charge how he liked Chinese help. The first one replied: " It is the best help I ever employed." All spoke favorably of it. I stood on the rear platform of the car while crossing the Sierras, and observed standing by my side, an intelligent Irishman intent on the track. I inquired if he was a track master. He said, "Yes," and I asked him what he thought of the Chinese as railroad laborers. He exclaimed: GYPSTHSTG nr THE SIERRAS. 349 'I wish they were all at the bottom of the sea." "But what do you think of them as laborers?" " Oh ! they are good enough." "But tell me more. "What do you really think of them?" " They are good men on a railroad." " Suppose you owned the road yourself, which would you prefer, Chinese or white laborers?" " On some accounts, I should prefer the Chi- nese." " On what accounts would you prefer them? " " Well, one reason would be because they al- ways come on Monday morning." To a railroad man, the fact that laborers do not get diTink on Sunday, but come promptly on Monday morning, fresh from Sunday's rest, is important. OUR PIEST CHINESE COOK. Our first camp cook was a very little China- man, not more than four feet ten, and weigh- ing not more than ninety pounds. I think 350 GYPSIES, OE WHY WE WENT he knew eight words — eat, co£fee, tea, oysters, beef, chicken, rice and all-e-same. Rice he pronounced with an L in place of the E; the common Chinaman cannot speak the let- ter R. You can imagine how we felt at the pit of the stomach when Sing asked us if we would have rice; and to make the matter worse he would repeat the word several times — "Eieel rice! rice I" I tried to teach him how to speak it. It reaUy did seem necessary to our digestion, that we should either give up rice, or that Sing should learn to begin the word with an R; but I found that his tongue could not compass it, so we continued to eat rice with a " hell " to it, as our young Englishman put it. Just before we broke up in the Autumn we reviewed our Summer iu the mountains. We differed about many things, but we all agreed that Sing had never failed to have our food on time when it was possible, that he had never failed to make good coffee, good tea and good roasts; that he always came to the table GTPSTING IN THE SIBEIIAS. 351 in a clean jacket and with clean hands; that in short he was a perfect cook and waiter. "When yon are told that the difficulties in the way of a cook in camp-life are numerous, that often in California it is well nigh impossible to get fuel or good water, and that we had no ice, you will conclude that SiQg achieved a great victory. We were conscious all summer that our food department was managed by a superior intelli- gence. I do not believe we could have found a white man on the coast, who under the same circiunstances would have achieved such com- plete results. Considering that our little cook could not understand our conversation, that he was prac- tically living alone ia the mountaias, he was wonderfully cheerful and contented. He went about his tasks humming some Chinese air, and always seemed to feel that his $25 a month fiUed the measure of his ambition. He did the laundry work for the party, and always to our satisfaction. Sometimes it was 352 GYTSIBS, OE WHY WE WBIfT difficult to get the needed water, but he kept us clean, and besides managed to have a few quarts of water for his evening bath, which he contrived to take after we had all turned in. His cleanliness of person, of his clothing, of his cooking utensils, and our " silver plate " or tin dishes, was a surprise and pleasure. sdtg's flute. We were camping in the neighborhood of a small mining camp, when Sing came to ask permission to visit some of his countrymen who were serving as cooks among the miners. I gave the desired permission. Sing was gone till a late hour, and came back full of Chinese brandy. There was no staggering, no uncer- tain movements. The breakfast was ready a little earlier than usual, but Sing did a good deal of laughing, a very unusual thing for him. We moved up the mountain side about fifteen miles that day, and after supper Sing disap- peared. We wondered why he was absent, and were afraid he had found some more country- GYPSYBSTG IN" THE SIEEEAS. 353 men, and more brandy. "While talking about him we heard sweet music. The tune was not familiar, but the tone of the instrument was clearly that of a flute. It was very sweet, and we listened for an hour, when Sing returned and in a shy way showed us his flute. He had procured a piece of Chinese bamboo from his friends in the mining camp below, and with a hot nail burned the holes which transformed it into a flute. The instrument was one with which I had long been familiar, and I found that all the intervals were exact. This illustrates Chinese accuracy and precis- ion. All their manipulations in cooking, in wrapping and parcelling, in measuring, in every- thing I have seen them do, are singularly exact and precise. If I were asked what mental peculiarity of the Chinese had most impressed me, I should say it was this precision and exact- ness. It may be observed in all their laundry work. I may as well state here that our Chinese 354 GYPSIES, OR WHY WE WENT cook during the second and third summer was quite as satisfactory. He was a very large man, about six feet, well shaped and strikingly dis- tingue in bearing and manner. I have seen in San Francisco not a few China- men weigliing from 200 to 240 lbs. Among the better classes the men are often very large and of noble presence. THE CHINESE AS WORKMEN. During the three winters of our stay in Cali- fornia we resided in San Francisco or Oakland, and saw much of the Chinese. We studied them. They are so deft with their fingers that a Chinaman is worth much more than a white man in picking berries and fruits. The raUroad bosses spoke to me of their skill in the use of the shovel and pick. More than one of them said that while a Chinaman was not as strong as a white man, he would accomplish quite as much work with the pick and shovel because of his greater intelligence. GTPSYING DiT THE SIEERAS. 355 Their gardens are managed with rare skill. I was struck with their ingenuity in conducting water for irrigation. Our laundry work was done by Chinamen. We foimd them uniformly honest, clean, prompt and courteous, while their charges were reasonable. We boarded at a hotel in Oakland two win- ters. The cooks, table waiters and chamber- maids were all Chinese. The general opinion in the house, was, that the service was the best they had eyer enjoyed. A Chinaman made my shoes, and they were satisfactory. For a wonder the shoes were done on time. That comes near being a miracle. The feat was performed three times. THE CHTN'AMASr'S HATJDS. The Chinaman shows a pair of handsome hands. They are small, the fingers taper and the skin does not readily harden under rough labor. I saw 800 Chinamen at work upon the Central Pacific railroad, and studied their hands. Not one hand showed the usual large joints 356 gtjPsies, ok wht we went and clump fingers of the pick and shovel brig- ade. The overseer pointed out a group, with the remark: " They have been at work upon the Central Pacific four years and it is rare that one of them misses a day." These men all had the pretty, taper fingers. I spoke of it to the overseer. He said: "After four years of pick and shovel, their hands are handsomer than those of our dry goods clerks." " Why do not their joints swell like those of the white laborer?"! asked. " I don't know, unless they are a finer blooded race. You know that is one of the peculiarities of the blooded horse — his joints and limbs never swell, while the legs of the scrub swell by simply standing in the stable." This was an intelligent white man's reply. WHAT OTHERS SATT) ABOUT THE CHINESE. My wife and I, being quite at leisure, gave ourselves up, for the first time in our united life, GTPSTrN"G EST THE SIEIIRAS. 357 to social enjoyment. Our contact with families from the East was broad and constant. Such persistent and thoughtftil hospitality, I ventiire to say, cannot be found any where else in the world. Just as in the South before the war the I^egro question was sure to figure in every conversa- tion, so in California, the Chinese question was always before the house. Since our return to Boston, we have frequently recalled those conversations about the Chinese. We cannot remember one word from an intelli- gent, respectable white man or woman against them. I wish to be careful in my statements. What I mean is, that we cannot remember one word spoken against the Chinese, growing out of the personal observations of any intelhgent, re- spectable white man or woman. Many told us dreadful stories of the conduct down in the Chinese quarter. But not one of the 200 ladies and gentlemen with whom we dis- cussed the Chinese, uttered one word against them, of her or his own knowledge. 358 GTl'SIES, OB "WHT "WE "WENT And "when we remember that they nearly all employed Chinese servants, this is a very re- markable fact. We often contrasted it with the conversations about servants among ladies at the East. Scores of ladies commented with much feeling upon the change in their households since the employment of the Chinese. In a company of about twenty of the better class of ladies, they all agreed to the statement: "I never knew the comfort and pleasure of housekeeping till we hired Chinese." We dined one evening "with the R's, one of the wealthy families. The dinner was elaborate; the plate very rich. When engaged upon the last of the eight perfect courses, my "wife asked the lady of the house: " What had you to do with the preparation of this dinner?" "]S"othing whatever. I did not kno"w what our dinner would be any more than you did. I only told Charley that "we were to have six friends with us. He buys everything and man- GTFSTTSa IN" THE SIEKEIAS. 359 ages just as he would if we were boarding here. My husband pays the bUls once a month. I turned to the husband with the question : " How do you find the bills compare with the former regime?" " The bUls are not as large and the meals are ten times as good," was his reply. " Do you know any one else who manages as you do? " I asked. "Oh! yes, I fancy they all manage about the same way. If you trust these fellows they won't cheat you. I am confident the girls we used to employ stole ten dollars where these chaps steal one." CHINESE EST THE TTJLE SWAMPS. The tule swamps of California, when tiu-ned up to the air, emit a deadly malaria. White men quickly succumb. I saw a party of thir- teen Irishmen ditching a tule patch. Within four days six were attacked with malarial fever. The others quit work in fear, not one being quite well. Eight Chiuamen were employed 360 GYPSIES, OE WHY "WE WENT to finish the job. In three weeks the ditch was done. The little brown men took their money and left, healthy and happy. The tule swamps of California are immense in extent. Their redemption, by -a system of enormous levees, is one of the great tasks of the country. Thousands of Chiaamen wallow in the black mud, often up to their hips. They live iu this foul mire year after year, giving to white men vast areas of the richest land in the world, and receiving themselves only a dollar a day. These redeemed tule swamps are by far the most valuable land in the State. None but the Chinese could redeem them. CHAPTER XXVT. CHINESE SABBATH SCHOOLS. 4 Another fact, which will help the reader to arrive at a true conception of the standing of the Chinese among the better class of white people on the Pacific Coast, is the CMnese Sabbath School. Almost every Protestant church has one. The vestry room is used for this purpose. I think I visited ten of these schools, and was everywhere assured that the ladies who teach in them were among the bestj often wealthy and fashionable. The Roman Catholic Church has not, as yet, joined in this Christian work. But this church has done a vast deal of earnest work in China. Father Buchard, a Catholic Priest, declared in a famous address in San Francisco, delivered in the midst of a shouting, yelling crowd, and 362 GYPSIES, OB WHT WE WENT reported in " The Monitor," a Catholic paper in San Francisco, that: "These pagans, these vicious, these immoral creatures are incapable of rising to the virtue inculcated by the religion of Jesus Christ, the world's Redeemer." But the best men in that church do not cherish this opinion, else their missionary work in China would be abandoned. They claim 2,000,000 communicants there, and have welcomed, in San Francisco, Father Peter, Father Theodore, and Father Sian, priests of the Chinese race, who have baptised white children and shrived white adults. The Chinese Young Men's Christian Associa- tions are numerous. They have fine rooms, pay all their expenses themselves, and entertain with prodigal hospitality. I frequently visited them and never without receiving some proffer of food, or tea. BUT THET OOME AS COOLIES. But they come as slaves! They are " coolies!" GYPSYESTG BSr THE SIEBEAS. 363 I suppose I have heard this statement from the enemies of the Chinese, fifty times. l^ot one of these objections, so far as I know, were ever made against Negro slave labor. But all at once people have found out that it is very dangerous to have slavery among us. I do not propose to argue the coolie ques- tion; everyone who cares to know has learned that Chinamen have never come to this country as coolies or slaves. They come just as free as our own people go from the East. It is true that a great many of them emigrate with the aid of money furnished by the six companies; if they live, they pay back the money. But it is not true that the six companies have any other claim upon them than that which one white man has upon another. You remember that Congress sent a committee of our best men to the Pacific Coast, to investi- gate the Chinese question. That good and great patriot. Senator Morton of Indiana, was the chairman of the committee. 364 &TPSIE8, OE WHT WE -WENT At the conclusion of a long and patient inves- tigation of the coolie charge, during which the enemies of the Chinese resorted to every means to sustain it, Senator Morton, in summing up, said, it was plain that there was not the slightest taint of the coolie or slave in the case. He said it was true that a good many of the Chinese emigrants borrowed money to come with, but so did thousands of our men from the East. He said he saw no difference between them, except the Chinese paid the debt, and the whites often did not. The only grain of truth in the coolie charge is this — the Chinese prostitutes are generally owned by those who import them; but even this ownership does not hold a moment when the girls appeal to the courts. In the case of the men there is never anything like ownership. They simply agree to return money lent, and if the money is not paid the lender can sue. He rarely has occasion to urge his claim. The Chinese pay their debts. GTPSTIKG IN THE SIEBRAS. 365 THBT SEND THEIR BONES TO 0H3NA. " They send their bones to China," is a con- stant complaint. I found the Chinese graveyard of San Fran- cisco large and beautiful. My companion, who hated the Chinese, said, when I called his atten- tion to the stretches of graves. " Oh ! yes, but they are sure to take them up by and bye and ship them to China. They won't leave the least bit of a finger." I suggested to him, and repeat the suggestion here, that some arrangement might be made, perhaps through a new treaty, to keep those bones in this country. Let the deep anxiety among our people in regard to them, be vividly portrayed to the Chinese government. It might be well to send a commission. If a dignified course should be pursued, I have no doubt that the Chinese government would issue a solemn mandate to its people: " Let those tones remain in America" And pending these negotiations, something 366 GYPSIES, OR WET WE WENT might be done by a direct appeal to the Chinese in this country. A kindly temper on our part might at least induce them to leave the smaller bones. Even the bones of the little toe would be some comfort. THET SEND THEDl MONET TO CHINA. Another common complaint against the Chi- nese in California, is that they send their money to China instead of spending it here. Those who have studied this question, think the Mongolians send home about ten per cent of their earnings. This estimate is .probably too high. I do not believe that five per cent of the money earned by the Chinese in this country, goes to China. In this estimate I do not include the money sent there to buy rice and other arti- cles consumed here. And where the Chinese send one dollar to China to buy food and clothing, the whites on the coast send fifty dollars abroad to purchase articles of luxury. ^ But suppose that the Chinese send half their gtpsthstg in the sieeeas. 367 earnings to China, they can't send their laboi away J that remains here, in the railroads, tule swamps, levees and other monuments of their patient toil. What is the cloud hanging over the future of the Pacific States? Is it not the certain de- preciation of silver? The whole world has banded against it. Even in this country where it is one of the great products, we are piling it up in countless millions, with little prospect of finding use for it. About the only spot on earth where it can be put away and not come back to trouble us, is China. The Chinese send home silver, not gold. If they could be induced to send all their earnings to China and would contrive to keep them there, California cotdd afford to pay them large wages. I have heard more than one intelligent gentle- man on the coast make exactly this statement. There is less than nothing in the objection that the Chinese send their money out of the country. 368 GTPSEES, OB WHY WE WENT THE CHINESE MEBCHAIinD'S CONVENIENT PIGTAH,. One day while in Oakland, I saw a gentle- manly Chinaman, who I afterward learned was a merchant in San Francisco, entering a car. A young hoodlum, about ten years of age, seized him by the queue or pigtail and jerked him to the ground. The boy did not run; he had no occasion to. If the Chinaman had re- sented the wrong he would have been set upon by a dozen men. That trick of jerking the Chinaman by the queue, which forms such a convenient handle, is good fun for the hoodlums. A boy eight years old can go into a company of a dozen Chinamen and jerk one or all of them by the queue, Avithout risk. If the Chinaman should chastise one of these rude boys, no matter under what provocation, he would be guilty of attack- ing a white child, and that would be the begin- ning of a " terrible uprising among the Chinese." GYPSTING EST THE SIEKRAS. 369 An uprising, it is always best to put down with a strong hand. MICHAEL O'sHEA'S "BIT OF A KNOCK-DOWIfr." I was passing up beautiful Broadway in Oak- land, arm in arm with a friend, when Michael O'Shea, walking in the same direction, passed us. I knew Mr. O'Shea, a man of property but who was in the habit of drinking to excess. As he passed, he was saying to himself with a threatening movement of his fist: " I'll give it to 'em." I said to my friend : " He's after the pigtail brethren." "We hurried on to see what might happen. "Within a block, Mr. O'Shea came upon two Chinese boys, standing by the window of a book store, looking at some pictures. The boys were not more than thirteen or fourteen years old, quite small, and dressed in pretty hats, blue broadcloth blouses and white soled shoes. Mr. O'Shea, a large, strong man, struck the first of the two boys on the side of the head, 370 GYl'SIES, <)E WHY WE "WEK"T knocked him against the other, and both fell. I was President of the Society for the Pre- vention of Cruelty to Animals, and wore on the lappel of my vest, a silver star as a badge. Under the laws of the State, I was obhged to wear this as evidence that I had certain powers of arrest without warrant. I turned back my coat collar, showed my star, and siezed Mr. O'Shea. He was astonished that I cared for " a bit of a knock-down " like that. "The blatherfng haythen had no business ia this counthry." I took him to the lock-up and next morning appeared against him. A crowd of Mr. O'Shea's friends were in coiirt, astonished that any one should interfere with their " Chinese-must-go " friend. Mr. O'Shea was fined six dollars for getting drunk, and twenty dollars for striking the boys. He paid the fine, and on passing out of court said to me with ominous fist movements: " You wUl hear from me." GYPSTTPTG IN THE SEEEEAS. 371 I sprang to my feet and demanded that Mr. O'Shea be arrested for his threat; but withdrew my demand upon receiving from him an humble apology and a promise to behave himself. The attacks upon the Chinese are of daily occurence, the Chinaman has no rights which the smallest hoodlum is bound to respect or fears to violate. "A WHITE MAK AS IS A WHITE MAST." The following is a specimen of the proceed- ings of the Anti-Chinese meetings as reported in the daily papers of San Francisco. "The Seventh Ward Anti-CooHe Club met last evening. After the business was transacted, a gentleman who had felt the evils of Chinese in- vasion, asked permission of the club to make a few remarks, and said: "'Mr. Gintlemin and Prisidint, I have some re- marks to make on this great thiag. I've been wurricMng amongst these haythens as foremin and head boss over some iv 'em, and you bet your life I knocked 'em down whin iver they tuk 372 GYPSIES, OB WHY WE WENT any airs on themsilyes wid me. I am a white man as is a white man, and, Mr. Prisidint, I claim as how whin a man is a white man, he should aither be a white man or lave the comi- thry. I showed thim are haythens as I was a white man, and fominst such empliyed China- men. Why, sur, I seed these min who empliyed these Chinamin, actually give 'em a chaw of ter- backer, and indulgin 'em in every way and man* ner as was possible to indulge 'em, and I was discharged because I knocked 'em down whia they tuk too many liberties wid me. Yis, sur.'" CUEIOtrS WORK OP THE HOODLUMS. "While we were in San Francisco, the following appeared in one of the morning newspapers : " On Sunday afternoon while a small Chinese youth was pursuing the even tenor of his way along Clementina street, near Eighth, he was suddenly set upon by a crowd of hoodlums, one of whom bravely knocked off his hat. As the little fellow turned around to regain his lost property, the entire gang of valiant young Amer- aTPSTiisra imr the sierras. 373 icans pitched into him with rocks, clubs and articles of warfare, cutting a large gash in the back of his head, and finally left him sense- less on the pavement. He was picked up bj some of his countrymen and carried into a wash- house where his wounds were dressed. During this outrage, a crowd of interested, full grown male and female hoodlums stood rubbing their hands over the fun, which they did not try to in- interrupt." CHAPTER KELIABLE TESTIMONT. Mrs. Arthur, the widow of Eev. J. H. Arthur, the lamented Japanese missionary, writes me after four years of life in Japan and much ac- quaintance with the Chinese, that she thinks the Japanese compare with the Chinese about as the French compare with the English. She says the Japanese hold the Chinese in very high esteem. The Court language of Japan is Chinese. Japanese law books and im- portant scientific works are printed in the Chi- nese language, and in the Japanese magazines and newspapers there is hardly a paragraph in which a Chinese character is not employed to give fulness and strength. Mrs. Arthur informs me that the foreign bankers in Japan employ GYPSYING IN THE SIEEIIAS. 375 Chinese in important and confidential positions. They are regarded as able financiers. Mr. N". T. Allen, principal of the old and ex- cellent preparatory school at West I^ewton, Massachusetts, has had several Asiatics in his school, and speaks very warmly of their morals and manners, and with great enthusiasm of their intellectual capacity. At my bank of deposit in San Francisco, I noticed a Chinaman at work among the clerks, and asked the teller if they employed Chinese. Thinking, I suppose, that I might be picking up evidence against the bank, he sent me to the cashier. I told that gentleman I was very much inter- ested in the Chinese, and wished to learn what his experience with them had been. Conducting me to the door of his private ofl3.ce, he pointed to the Chinese clerk whom I had observed, and said: "That fellow is a miracle! We have a good many complicated interest problems, some of which would require considerable time and care 376 GTTSIES, OK WHY WE WENT with the pencil; we give such difficult problems to that pigtaUer. He is ready with the answer as soon as the question is stated. I tell you he's a miracle! There's a mighty sight more behind those quiet faces than most of us im- agine." I visited a large shoe manufactory in which the workmen were Chinese. The proprietor told me the Chinese overseer was the brightest man in accounts he had ever met,, and then added: "I reckon if we got right down to naked facts, a Chinaman has a mighty sight sharper brain than a white man." An intelligent, wealthy and christian lady, who has been greatly interested in the Chinese, told me some remarkable stories of their mental aptitude. She took a class of six boys, who as household servants had become familiar with many words of our language, and undertook to teach them to write. After two lessons of an hour each, one of them sat down in her presence and wrote a letter, bad enough in its spelling GYPSTEPTG W THE SIEKEIAS. 377 and arrangement, but there was clearly an intel- ligent use of certain words. After four lessons of an hour each, another boy wrote a letter in her presence. After six lessons, stUl another; and after eight, ten and twelve lessons respec- tively, the other three each wrote her a letter. She gave those letters to me; I still have them. The last three were beautifully written, intelli- gible and intelligent; one of them bright and playful. I asked a gentleman famUiar with the Chinese people, a missionary among them for seventeen years and well acquainted with the intellectual capacity of our own people, how long he thought it would take six bright white boys to perform a similar feat in the Chinese language. The an- swer was, "From three to five years; but then, I suppose their language is more difficult than ours." The teachers in the Chinese eveniiig schools of San Francisco and Oakland, spoke with the warmest enthusiasm of the mental capacity of the Chinese boys. 378 GYPSIES, OB WHT WE WENT I visited the famous Mission Woollen Mill in San Francisco, and asked tlie overseer, an Irish- man, what he thought of the capacity of the Chinese. He said: " They're as smart as lightning." When I asked what the residt to that corpora- tion would be if the Chinese were driven out of the country, he replied with emphasis: "We should close our doors and stop busi- ness." Another woollen manufacttu-er told me they could not carry on business without the Chinese. He said their nimble fingers, close attention, patience and freedom from intemperance made them invaluable. When I speak of their freedom from intem- perance, you will ask, " How about opium? " The Rev. Otis Gribson, who knows more of the Chinese in California than any other man, who has no maudlin sentimentality about them, and who commands the respect of their bitterest enemies, said, in answer to my question : "What proportion of the Chinese use opium?" gypsthstg nf the sieeeas. 379 "Of the Chinese now in San Francisco, whose habits are worse than those outside the city, about one in eleven uses opium." TESTIMONT OF BATAED TATLOE. Keturning from China, Bayard Taylor wrote that Chiaa is perfectly honeycombed with name- less and destructive vices. Bayard Taylor was a good and great man. I think there have been but few Americans so thoroughly goodj but it is never safe to trust a white man in his state- ments about one who is not white. It is the habit of the white man to see crooked and talk crooked about people who are not white. I have no doubt Mr. Taylor heard such testimony from white people living ia China, but it is not true. Like most statements by Americans and Englishmen about the Chinese, it is false. You hear the same statement about the Chinese in California, and there is no doubt that the Chiaese there, like the Americans who first went to that State, have exceediagly bad habits. I heard it stated, in a public address in San 380 GYPSIES, OE WHY WE WEKT Francisco, by a highly intelligent and respectable gentleman, that the Chinese in California were honeycombed with horrible vices which must ever remain nameless among a christian people. Suppose, dear reader, some one should point to a group of men and tell you that they were honeycombed with horrible vices, and you were to learn that they were the healthiest men in the community, working, if you please, in a laundry from sixteen to eighteen hours each day, and almost never falling sick; that they were won- derfully hardy and enduring, and retained a strange youthfulness into and past middle age: what would you think about the statement that they were " perfectly honeycombed with horri- ble vices?" You would know it was false. It is for exactly this reason that I know that the statement about the Chinese in California, and Mr. Taylor's statement about the Chinese in China, are among those reckless misrepre- sentations which the Anglo-Saxon is constantly making about the Indians, IN'egroes and Mon- golians. The white man never has, and I fear G-TPSYINQ m THE SIEKRAS. 381 never will tell the truth about a black, a brown or a yellow man. There is no doubt the Chinese have bad habits ; but their opium is not half so bad as om- tobacco, and they are not given to drunkenness and other vices as are white men. THE CHINESE LANGUAGE. The Rev. Otis Gibson, the famous Chinese missionary, now resident in San Francisco, one of the strong men of the Pacific Coast, to whom reference has already been made, greatly inter- ested me in his portrayal of the difficulty of learning the Chinese language, and of the cor- responding difficulty of the Chinese learning our language. He said that to learn all the languages of Europe is child's play; but when you approach the Chinese language you, find yourself stand- ing before the Himalaya range of mountains. He tried to explain to me that the whole habit of thought, the whole mental drift was so utterly unlike ours, that one had to create a new world w 382 GYPSIES, OR WHY WE WENT before he could construct sentences in the Chi- nese language; and that after years of labor in China, the missionary would con(juer only two hundred words or so, while before him was that vast mass of 150,000 words. THE CHINESE FILL OUR ASYIiUMS. At a memorable Anti-Chinese Convention in San Francisco, presided over by the Governor of the State, and held under circumstances wliich gave it commanding influence, an Anti-Chinese Memorial to Congress was adopted and a com- mittee of well-known citizens appointed to bear it across the Continent. The writer of that document was mistaken about the facts. The Memorial stated that " the Chinese fill our asylums." The Almshouse, one of the asylums of San Francisco, had, during the year previous to the meeting, 498 inmates. Among them were 143 natives of the United States, 197 natives of Ireland, and 158 of all other nations, but not a GYPSTESTG IN" THE SIEKRAS. 383 single Chinaman. This was the official report of the Superintendent. In the other asylum, the hospital, there have heen during the year, 3,975 patients. Of these 1,112 were natives of the United States, 1,308 natives of Ireland, 68 were natives of China. But my reader will exclaim: " This is impossible ! they certainly would not manufacture lies out of whole cloth." My dear innocent, the Anti-Chinese move- ment in Cahfornia has never given any atten- tion to facts. To state that the almshouse of San Francisco was filled with Chinamen when there had not been one in it during the previous twelve months, would not choke the Anti-Chi- nese party in San Francisco. I have known them to circulate scores of stories without a shadow of truth. AS CITIZEN'S THET WTLL STRENGTHEN US. Ameiica is engaged in a great experiment. Thousands in Europe watch our progress with t 1 384 GTPSIES, OR WHY WE WENT deep anxiety. Should we fail, I believe they would mourn more than we. If we could fully comprehend the value of the great woi-k we have in hand, we should be filled with painful solicitude. The great danger that hovers over our ex- periment in self government comes from igno- rance and intemperance. To these I would add a certain temperamental incapacity among a large class of oxir adopted citizens. This temperamental incapacity, with ignorance and drink, has almost resulted in a wretched faUure in New York, 'and perhaps I might add, in two or three other cities. 'New Yprk has been carried on the shoulders of its native and agricultural population for many years. I have lived much in France, and think I un- derstand the incapacity of French people for self government. In my own country, I have studied the political drift of Germans, French, English, Irish and Scotch, and believe I have learned to rate them, as citizens of the Republic, at their true value. It is my opinion that no GYPSTING EST THE SEEEEAS. 385 foreigners have ever come to our shores whose temperament, intelligence and habits so fit them to contribute to the permanency of our govern- ment, as tlie Chinese. I am certain that the addition of 5,000,000 Chinese to our popidation would add incalculably to our chances of final success. Americans laugh at the possibility of any danger to om* government. Let us forget, if we can, our narrow escape in the war of the Re- bellion. Surely we cannot ignore the events of the winter of '76 and '77, when through good luck or good Providence, we were saved from a bloody and final civU war. This, the Maine election case, and the govern- ment of l^ew York City for the last twenty years, warn us that we are drifting on the rocks. It is not the part of wisdom or patriotism to sing " all is well " with such startling events in our recent history. The Chinese possess in rare degree the tem- perament and habits which will help us to secure the permanence of oiu" institutions. If we would 386 GYPSIES, OE WHY WE WENT treat them so that they would love us and our institutions, they would become an invaluable factor in the great citizenship. People in California complain that the Chinese will not assimilate. A fJicture which would exactly illustrate the situation, would represent a white man sitting astride a Chinaman, pound- ing his face with his fists, and crying out: " you, why don't you assimilate?" I do not recall, in the public life of America, anything more undemocratic, anything meaner, nor any more shameful subserviency to street ignorance and brutality, than the recent Chinese treaty, permitting educated Chinamen to come to this country at pleasure, and shutting out those who come to work. Kine Americans out often, who have read this treaty, are ashamed and indignant. ICf OONCLUSION. The white man will continue to over-ride and wrong the Mongolian, because the white man can fight; the Mongolian cannot. " You! Why don't you assimilate?" {See page 3S6.) GYPSTHsTG- nsr the seeeeas. 387 A few thousand English soldiers, for the greater part low, ignorant men, but with great fighting capacity, will continue to rule India, though in point of intellectual, moral and re- ligious development they are greatly inferior to the natives of that country. I have seen a dozen or more Hindoos, and have been im-i pressed with their intelligence and refinement; but it was clear they were not fighting men. A tiger would put to flight a thousand horses. A brutal bully, with a club, entering a drawing room filled with the first ladies of the land, would soon put them all to flight. I do not mean to compare the tiger or the bully to the white man. I am only trying to illustrate the advantage of fighting talent. I suppose we shall continue to treat the China- man as we treated the 'Negro. It would seem that our experience with the black man should have taught us something; but it evidently has not. CHAPTEE ABOUT THE CLIMATE Or CALIFOBNIA. • Of all the agencies which influence our happi- ness and destiny, climate is the most potent. If our Pilgrim forefathers had landed at the mouth of the Mississippi instead of on the coast of !N^ew England, the character of American civilization would have differed widely from that which prevails to-day. During the discussion of the proposition to annex San Domingo to the United States, one of our brightest thinkers said: "Select ten choice families from 'New Eng- land, the heads of which may all be exemplary deacons. Let them remove to San Domingo. The third generation will not, on Sabbath morn- ings, dress in immaculate suits and demurely walk to church, but in shabby clothes, bare- "In the distance are mountains covered witli snow. In a few- hours the train brings you down to Sacramento and sweltering heat." (See chap, xxviii. p. 388.) GYPSYIKG IN THE SIEEEA8. 389 footed, hair sticking out of the tops of their hats, armed with pistols and bowie knives, a rooster under each arm, they will make their way to the cock fight." It is hardly possible that such a climate as that- of San Domingo should produce a high type of civilization. Give Massachusetts the climate of Florida, and within two years her people will begin to lose the moral vitality which is their most pre- cious characteristic. The inhabitant of the Torrid zone is the son of a rich man. He has no need to exert him- self. His faculties sleep. The inhabitant of the Frigid zone is the son of a very poor man. He must devote his whole life to the struggle for existence. The inhabitant of the Temperate zone is the son of a man who has enough to give his offspring leisure for mental growth, but not enough to excuse him from constant effort. VABTATTOTsrs rsr temperatuke. The climate of California differs greatly from 390 GYPSIES, OE WHT WE WEST that of the Atlantic States in the same latitude. In San Francisco there are but eight degrees difference between the mean temperatures of summer and winter. The ground is never stiff- ened by cold, and the ice never forms thicker than window glass. During our winter in San Francisco there was not a day we could not pick fragrant roses from the bushes in our front yard. From the latter part of April no rain falls for six months; during the other six, there is more or less rain, though sometimes in the middle of winter, when rain is expected and most needed, not a drop will fall in two months. During the two winters we remained in Oakland there was rain one day in ten; but most of the time we had beautiful, sunny weather. The nights in California are strangely cool. The thermometer may be one hundred at noon, and at night, if sleeping out, you will need thick blankets. Snow is very rare on the coast and in the GYPSTrniTG m the sierras. 391 valleys, but upon the mountains it often falls to the depth of sixty to eighty feet. 'No country in the world has such cool sum- mers and warm winters. When the winds blow from the ocean it never rains; when from the land it is showery, and resembles May day on the Atlantic Coast. At London and Amsterdam there are about sixty unclouded days in the year; at N"ew York, one hundred; at Los Angeles two hundred and forty. During the summer, the atmosphere, away from the immediate coast, is so exceedingly dry that meat hung up in a sack on the limb of a tree, dries without taint. One often sees by the roadside the carcass of a sheep or cow dried like a mummy, without any rent in' the hide. I left a pocket knife lying on the ground. Two months after, I returned and found it in the same place, as bright as when I left it. The weather bureau in Washington may de- vote the entire month of June to getting up weather for the 4th of July, and the chances 392 OYTSIES, OE WHY WE WENT are two in three that they will miss it. But in California, a child six years old, with both hands tied behind him, can tell you the weather for the 4th, ten years ahead. This goes far to con- firm the opinion, prevalent on the coast among parents, that their children are the smartest in the world. TmrSTTBERUPTED SmSTSHrNE. The climate of California is a great surprise to the new comer. He, perhaps, is from New Eng- land, and has always been accustomed to sudden and sharp changes. He is now in one of the interior valleys of California. It is April. For 150 days the sun rises clear every morning and sets clear every evening. Every day is filled with bright sunshine. Every night the heavens glow with stars. N"ot a drop of rain, no dew. The 150 days are all alike. The 150 nights are all alike. The !N'ew Englander makes an appointment with a friend to go fishing the 4th of July, and GTPSxnsrG nsr the sieeeas. 393 forgetting where he is, adds, "if it does not rain." But he soon learns better than to indulge in that sort of if. He can prognosticate weather for the 4th of July with absolute certainty. ~So umbrella need be taken, even on a six months' trip. During our first year, beginning with the 10th of April, we had 166 days and nights almost without a cloud. It really takes a whole season to get over the astonishment. The weather, which has all yotu" life been a syn- onym for fickleness, you find as reliable as the law of gravitation. One of our camping companions rung the changes, day after day, on: "Strange! Surprising! Wonderful! Amazing! Why this is not weather! Well I never! " &c. The first morning after you arrive in Califor- nia, you exclaim: " This' is a delightful morning !" The next you say: " This is another delightful morning!" The next you declare: "This is superb!" But you soon notice that people smile, and then laugh at you. For six months you say not 394 GYPSIES, OB WHY WE WENT another word about the weather, but wonder and wonder! It certainly is delightful, — this balmy, sweet, bright sunshine, and it certainly is very conven- ient to plan business or pleasure without regard to the weather. My Eastern reader will recall the hail storms, snow storms, 20 degrees be- low zero, sweltering heat, drenching rains and all the rest of the 267 kinds of weather of which Mark Twain speaks, and think that the climate of California must be a paradise. "We all enjoyed it immensely, and were unani- mous in the opiuion that climate is an important factor in the comfort and pleasure of life. THE VALUE OE CAMP LITE. In reply to any disparagements which may be made on the climate of the Pacific Coast, you will say: "My friend was in consumption. He was emaciated and coughed day and night. The doctors gave him up. He went to California, GYPSYnsTG rsr the sibeeas. 395 and in six months was fat and hearty. What do you say to that?" I do not doubt it. Thousands could tell the same story and tell the truth. Let me relate a very wonderful case of restora- tion in California. It is true and only one of thousands that might be cited. A little girl was desperately sick with bowel disease. The malady had gone on until the sufferer was but a shadow. The mother was at length told that she must try out-door air, in the Foot Hills. So leaving her beautiful home in a California village, she took her dying child, borne gently upon a stretcher, out into the Foot Hills. She was warned that a tent might spoU all. There must be no roof over them. They had been out two weeks when we came upon them, and we shall never forget the joyful tears and ejaculations of that happy mother. "Why! we had not been out here twenty- four hours before my darling smiled and begged for something to eat. She has improved so rapidly that I can't believe my eyes. I really 396 GYPSIES, OR WHY WE WENT think she is gaining half a pound every day." This patient was not from New England, but from one of the most beautiful and healthful villages in California. Thousands of sick persons resident in the State have been cured by camping out. This is well imderstood there. You frequently hear even farmer's wives and daughters say, after complainiug of ill health: "Oh! I shall be all right as soon as I can camp out for a few weeks." I could fill this volume with the recital of cases which came under my observation, or which were enthusiastically related to me, of sick persons residing in California who were cured by camping out. Indeed, the most remarkable cases that I met with, were of persons who resided in the State, and not of persons recently from the East. All of which means, that house air is bad and out of door air good. About this there can be no doubt, and it is well to intimate, just here, that all persons who GYPSYING IN THE SIEKEAS. 397 have not the courage to dress properly and go out freely and constantly in this climate, will do well to go where it is so warm that they cannot live in doors, and so are compelled to live out. It is these indolent, timid people who get the most good from Florida and Southern Califor- nia. They will not live out in the sunshine and fresh air, here or anywhere, unless the heat com- pels them to leave the house. I have an invalid brother-in-law, living ia Kohala, Sandwich Islands, who has abandoned his profession and become a sugar planter. He left his home in Kohala in August, weak, thin and miserable, and came to l^ew England, where he stayed till the Jfirst of December, a part of the time at my house. During his three months here he gained twenty-five pounds, and returned, apparently a well man. Hundreds of persons in California, suffering from various forms of chronic invalidism, have found in the 'Kew England climate a vitalizing sanitarium. 398 GYPSIES, OE WHY WE WEKT A WORD TO EXHAUSTED BRAIBr WOEKBES ABOUT CAMP LUFE. The number of exhausted brain workers is very large. They rest a little, resume work, rest again, work again and soon break down and disappear. Many of them know that they need a long and complete rest, but business and the great expense of hotel life renders pro- tracted rest unmanageable. The testimony of those who have camped out and slept in the open air, is that this sort of life builds up rapidly and radiiSally. Three months of campiag out and sleeping in the open air will do more for the restoration of exhausted brain workers, than six months of the usual seaside or mountain hotel life, while the expense of camping is merely nominal. Or- dinarily it will come within quarter or half a dollar per day for each person. If saddle horses are added the expense is increased. It is a common impression that camp life in California or Colorado may do well enough, but GTPSTING- IN^ THE SIEREA8. 399 camping out east of the Rocky Mountains, where rain is frequent, is impracticable. Camping can be just as well managed in [N'ew England as in California. The only difference is that here one is obliged to use some India rubber. If a party of half a dozen persons who leave Boston on the 1st of July for two months, camp- ing wish to economize, they may obtain one of the camp beds, of which there are quite a number of good ones now in the market, two pairs of blankets, a rubber blanket and a rubber oil cloth cape for each person; a sheet iron cook stove, a few cooking utensils, tin dishes, knives and forks, some canned meats and veg- etables, a little oat meal or flour — in brief, whatever they choose to eat — some fishing tackle, and if disposed to Mil birds and other game, a shot gun: go by rail to some point in New Hampshire where they will not be troubled by mosquitoes, and in some dry, sunny place near a good spring and shade trees, pitch their tent, put up their stove, arrange their services as 400 GTPSIES ON WHT WE WENT. cook, dishwashers, etc., etc., and their prepara- tions are complete. The tent should not be used for sleeping, but only for baths, change of flannels, etc. A rub- ber blanket which can be drawn over the -head, leaving a breathing place, will protect from the severest rain storm. After remaining two or three weeks, a change of location would be advisable and can be easily managed. CHAPTEK XXIX. CLIMATE LOOALIZATIONS. The localization, as it may be called, of the climate of California, is one of its most curious features. The most striking contrast I experi- enced was that between San Francisco and San Rafael, which are on opposite sides of the bay, about fifteen miles apart. San Francisco is naked to the ocean winds, while San Rafael nes- tles in a little valley behind Mount Tamalpais. On the 2d. of July, at noon, on the wharf in San Francisco we waited for the boat, and in overcoats shivered with the cold. An hour later we were in San Rafael, where the ther- mometer stood at 103. San Francisco and Stockton, which are in the same latitude, not far apart, will average thirty degrees difference during the year. 402 GYPSIES, OR. WHY WE WENT Judging by your sensations, July and August, in San Francisco, are the coldest months in the year. You need more clothing than iu Decem- ber or January. This queer July weather does not last through the twenty-four hours, only through the middle of the day; the early morn- ing and evening may be oppressively hot. But this is exceptional in the climate of Cali- fornia, and is owing to the strong sea wind from which San Francisco has no protection. There is also another curious fact. The wind comes from the west and blows furiously over this city, but scarcely affects Oakland, although Oakland is just across the bay east from San Francisco, with nothing intervening. People who cannot bear the winds of San Francisco cross the bay to Oakland for a change of climate. And it really is a great change. I have frequently during the summer gone to San Francisco from Oakland with an overcoat on my arm, and found the overcoat a comfort on the other side. Returning at four o'clock in GYPSYTSTG IN" THE SIERRAS. 403 the afternoon, and sailing from San Francisco straight across the bay with the wind, by the time we reached Oakland, only a few minutes, I had to remove my overcoat and perhaps use a fan, for the wind had ceased. Turning, and looking back across the bay, one could see, by the clouds of dust, that the San Francisco winds were still rampant. It is precisely the same as if some one living on a prairie, tired of a cold west wind, should hitch up his team and move five miles east on the same flat prairie, for a change of climate. Of course you will ask the explanation. I could easily repeat the one given, but the cli- mate of the Pacific coast is 'too large a subject for this little volume. I have only space for a few curious facts, and must i-efer the inquisitive reader to the more ambitious volimies in which these meteorological questions are discussed. THAT EASTEESr JERK. In Southern California, they say of any one who walks with a spring: 404 GYPSIES, OK "WHY 'WE WEKT "He is from the East, but he will soon get over that jerk." During our first year in California, I suppose fifty persons said to me: " You are recently firom the East, I see. That is not a California walk, but you will learn after awhile." Give Massachusetts the climate of Southern California, and in one year she would begin to lose her most precious treasures — the force and enterprise of her people. THE rNELUENCE OF CLIMATE TTPON THE BODY. The best men and women in our labor market to-day are from ftie British Provinces north- east of us. The stock of blood does not differ from a large portion of the average working men and women who belong among us ; but in the market, a iN^ova Scotia young woman or yoxmg man is preferred to one born and reared in New England. I do not say that this advantage comes alto- gether from the difference in climate, but cannot GYPSTESTG IN THE SIEEEAS. 405 doubt that a considerable part of it does. I have asked many about their diet and other habits, and cannot learn that they are better or essen- tially different from those which prevail in New England. There can be no question that a part of the superior health, strength and toughness of these men and women who come from IlsTova Scotia is due to their more rugged climate. In one year, there were buried in Chris- tian, I^orway, 6,929 persons. Of this number 394, or 1 in every 18, had lived to the age of 90, and 63 to the age of 100. In Iceland, as is well known, a remarkably large percentage of the inhabitants live to be over 90 years of age, and retain their youthful vigor and activity to the last. This statement is also strikingly true of the people in some of the colder portions of Russia. Considering their modes of life, the people of Siberia retain their youthfulness to a very ad- vanced period. I^ot one of these statements can be truly 406 GYPSIES, OB WHY WE WENT made of any portion of the human race living in tropical climates. 'No influence, no agency at work upon the human race contributes so directly, uniformly and effectively to the development of fore- thought, energy and endurance, as a cold cli- mate. I do not mean the degree x>f cold which is found in Arctic regions, but that degree found, say, in New England. Considering the barren soU, and recently the sharp competition with the most favored agri- cultural districts in the world, I aflSrm that New England has achieved the largest and most complete results to be found anywhere in the world. If o one doubts that the climate of South- ern California would have prevented these won- derful results in that part of the country. During the last thirty years, I have seen, per- haps, as much as any man in the country, of consumption and its treatment. I have known hundreds to leave !N"ew York and !N"ew England for Florida and Southern California. I have induced many hundreds to remain here, dress in GTPSTING EST THE 8EEREA8. 407 flannels and live in the saddle. My patients who have remained in the !N'orth, for the greater part at home, dressed in flannels and lived in the saddle, have more frequently recovered, and have done far better than those who went to Florida and Southern California. I have just written a prescription for a young man, a consumptive, who came to ask what por- tion of Southern California would be best for him. My prescription was this : " First: Go back to your home in Maine. " Second : Retire at eight o'clock in the even- ing. On going to bed fill your stomach with cold water. " Third: Eise early in the morning. Fill your stomach with cold water and a little lemon juice. Eub your skin all over hard with hair gloves. Fully inflate your lungs and frequently strike your chest half a dozen hard blows with the flat of the hands. " Fourth : Dress in warm flannels. Keep the feet and legs warm. Spend four hours during the morning in the saddle. Eide slowly. Spend 408 GYPSIES, OR WHY WE WENT two hours of the afternoon in the same way. For breakfast and dinner eat a good meal — beef, mutton, bread, potatoes, etc. Driak with each meal a cup of weak tea. Eat nothing for sup- per. " Tour pulse is now, at six o'clock in the even- ing, 120; in one month, at the same hour, it will be less than 90. "The apex of your left lung is studded with tubercles. At one point they have softened. You have genuine consumption. In three months you will be ten pounds heavier. Come back at that time, and see me again. It is my judgment that you will get well." It is a general impression that if you can only get far enough away from where you now are, all will be well. If you could go to Santa Barbara, and see, as I have, a crowd of consumptives from all parts of the Eastern States sitting about in the shade of piazzas and trees, and could talk with the physicians and others who live there, and learn how few improve, you would, when GTPSYDfG EST THE SIEEKAS. 409 sick with lung disease yourself or interested in some other sufferer, feel far less interest in Florida and Southern California. Even in the spring of the year, which is by far the most trying season on this seaboard, con- sumptives who dress in flannels, keep feet, legs, hands and arms warm, and throwing aside those sUly chest protectors, live in the saddle, or trudge about on foot, are better here than they would be in a warm climate; though I do not hesitate to say that an indolent person, who wishes to eat three square meals a day, cover his chest with foolish pads called chest protect- ors, and sit over a register ia a hot, unventilated room, will do better if in a climate so warm that he is driven out of doors. There is, even in the 'hottest parts of Florida and Southern California, more vitality than in an air-tight, furnace-heated room at the north. The most thrilling passages in the history of Europe picture the mighty avalanche of those northern hordes rushing down upon Southern Europe. The power with which they swept 410 GYPSIES, OE WHY WE WENT over the fairest portions of the south, resembled a tornado. IN'orthem countries, covered with ice, full of rugged severity, have always been the breeding places of power. I have no doubt that Russia wiU figure con- spicuously in the history of the future, because the climate of a large part of her country is so severe. THE IBrFLUEKCE OE CLIMATE UPON THE MEN"- TAI, EACDXTIES. The influence of the climate of California upon the intellectual activity of children is note- worthy. I had many conversations with teachers on the subject. One of the brightest teachers I met in the State, one who had had large experience as a teacher of the Latin language, both in Illinois and in California, told me that boys in California learned not more than seventy-five per cent as much Latin as in Illinois, about seventy-five per cent as well, and forgot it with alarming facility. GTPSYING nr THE SIEEEAS. 411 A high-school teacher in one of the cities who had been formerly a teacher in Massachusetts, told me that his boys learned about half as much Latin as boys in Massachusetts, learned it about lialf as well, and forgot it so quickly that it fiightened him. There is a striking difference between the con- versation in California and that in 'New England. The people in Cahfornia are very bright, but soon fall into a monotonous conversation about " stocks, " " striking it, rich, " " style," &c., &c. The cool nights of California greatly retard the physical and mental demoralization which the absence of a cold season woidd inevitably produce. CHAPTEE XXX. A WOED ABOUT TOBACCO. I am afraid no one will believe me when I say that tobacco is used in far greater excess ia California than ia this part of the country. It would seem impossible. I think, however, that the statement is really true. Yery small boys smoke, and smoke excessively. It is rare to find a man of any age or color who does not smoke. If the facts could be known, I am confident it would be found that California uses more tobacco in proportion to her population than any other part of the country. This is more remarkable as these people can live out of doors almost con- stantly, and it is true that our in-door life during half of the year, fosters the tobacco habit. Dm-ing my journey ings in California, I dehv- ered a good many lectures on the subject of to- GTPSYING ES^ THE SIEBEAS. 4-13 bacco, and in connection with them, had some curious experiences. For instance: "While visiting Dutch Flat, a gen- tleman passing through the street was pointed out to me as Prof. A , principal of the village school. He was puffing away as if for dear life. It struck me as monstrous that the one man to whom the boys of the village looked for instruc- tion and guidance should smoke tobacco in the public street. I expressed surprise, but the gen- tleman who was with me laughed and said: " Oh, we all smoke. The boys begin just as soon as they are out of frocks." It was exasper- ating to hear people talk and laugh about the worst habit among our people as being a part of the established usage. I sought an acquaintance with the professor, and after some conversation, proposed to deliver a public lecture on the subject of tobacco. He was a bright man, and whUe it doubtless seemed nonsense to him, he said he would be glad to hear a lecture because they had so few. ilifotice was given. The house was crowded. The professor .414 GYPSIES, OE WHY WE WBKT presided. The editor of the paper was present to take notes. After some statistics and argu- ments, I tried the experiment of a most deter- mined exhortation. I pleaded as if for my life. After a while the professor came to the ft-ont of the platform, raised his hand, and made a solemn vow that he would never use tobacco again. The editor, who like editors everywhere, smoked like a bad chimney, soon got into the tearful and re- pentant mood, and gave in his adherence. Upon going to his office to make out his report for the paper, he enclosed the worst looking and worst smelling pipe I ever saw, in a strong wrapper and sent it to me with the following poem: TO DR. DIO LEWIS. A TROPHY OF HIS SUCCESSFUL LECTURES AT DUTCH FLAT, 1878. I thank you, Dr., in that as a friend, You've taught me I've some dirty ways to mend ; So, filled with resolution fresh and new, I now present my dear " old pipe " to you. I say it not in sorrow, yet I say in pain, Farewell, old pipe, we ne'er shall smoke again. For sweet companion thou wert long to me. All charred, and brown, and filthy though thou be. In years past a present from a much loved friend, — No matter, all such feelings now must have an end; aYPSTESTG IN THE SIEEEAS. 415 To decency and right I must be trae, So good-bye, pipe — " I'm wearing of the blue." Legh Haknett, Forum Office. Journeying on horseback over a rough trail in the high Sierras, I fell in with a stalwart young man, who, for his health, was spending a few months hunting. He was from Philadelphia, a graduate of Tale CoUege, had been admitted to the bar, and was really a splendid fellow. He ought to have known better, but he was puffing away at a large meerschaum. He talked about his health, and said he was disappointed that his recovery was not more rapid. He had been seven weeks in the mountains. We rode together some hoiu-s, and he smoked almost constantly. I asked so many questions about his habits that he finally inquired if I was a physician, and then began to advise with me about his diet, &c. I spoke of the smoking. He had for several years smoked a little, but had taken it up in this constant way since he came to California. I ad- vised him to stop. This led to a long discussion. Among other points made against the use of to- 416 GYPSIES, OR WHY WE WENT bacco, was this, — that every one who aspired to a high physical condition was obliged to shun the weed. I asked him if he had ever attended a pedestrian exhibition. He had seen many of them. I asked him if he had ever seen boat racing, and if he had witnessed the billiard exhibitions by the champions. He had seen both, and was interested in billiards. I asked him if he had ever seen boat racers, pedestrians, or billiard players smoke. Oh! yes, he had seen billiard players smoke frequently. But had he seen any of the master players smoke. Perhaps not; he couldn't remember. I assured him that no ambitious billiard player, pedestrian, boat racer or prize fighter dared smoke. 1^0 matter how confirmed a smoker a bilhard player might be, he was obliged to desist during the four (3r six weeks he was preparing for the tournament, and that the same was true of all the rest of them. That, in truth, every one am- bitious of the highest level in any physical or in- tellectual game, was obliged to abstain from to- bacco.