Daily State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis, Ind.) 1861-1865, 1864-06-10
Correspondence of the State Sentinel.
An Overland Trip to California
Noses By the Way.
Sr. JosEPH. No, Junl

Mr. EDIroR: Blessed is the man who inventet
"iirst class hotels !" He needs the prayers of III,
| righteous to save him. Apt illustrations of tn.
saving, "a fool and his money are soon parted,
nothing can be more incompatible than such In
stitutions TO the tastes and habits of country
gentleman and family. | always associated
| them with heavy whiskered gamblers and broker
down libertnes. Spacious halls. grand parlors
pretty Irish girls, finikin, dainty, sweet little
clerks of the "dem foine" order, printed bills OF
fare with French names for very common dishe:
poorly prepared, with servants whose attentions
to your wants are exactly proportional to the
consequence they invest you with. constitute the
major part OF the attractions OF First class
hotel" You are ushered into the dining room
by a fancy looking steward, who, with keen
glance at your wearing apparel, at once reads
your social status, and slips the wink to the ser
wants. You are seated at respectable distance
from the McFlmseys, so that your plebeian pres
ence may not offend their arstocratic preten
sons. You are presented with bill OF fare
You order up meat with a French name to it
and are surprised when it does not come, which
is never the case until everybody else is served
that you have a very small bit of beef. badl y
cooked and presenting inimitable evidence oil
little manipulation. notwithstanding its changed
name, since il came from the bullock yesterday
You feel then very much like Sailors of Mar
tinsville when presented with bill of fare at the
Palmer House, expressed himself Z" If that's your
bill, ill it." In truth the whole bill, filled at
their rates, would scarce suffice for decent meal
There is class who enjoy, 10 the uttermost
these order your meal houses. They look fierce
and with an air OF command plainly saying I've
been aroused" deliver their orders with an en-
phasis admitting of no denial. lmpudence, al
such an institution, is necessity. Modesty
however commendable a virtue elsewhere, is
here the handmaiden of starvation, and, trans
lated into the hotel idiom. means verdancv
Wayfaring friend, unless you are a faded
beauty in silks, gambler with huge whiskers
and ponderous watch chain, or a railroad con-
ductor pass by these immense piles of brick
yclept First Glass Hotels, unless you feel in
clined like cavalry horses. TO feed fence rails
A second-rate house, after the manner of your
fathers, with loaded tables and food within reach
will meet your wants and accord with your habits
Besides, you there pay for food, and not furni
ture / make these observations out of no spite
to any one, but rather as warning TO travellers
who, like myself. hate show. and prefer the sub
stance to the shadow.
From the balcony of the house where | am
now writing can be seen an encampment of U
5. soldiers, cavalry and mounted infantry. They
are well behaved here, and are punished severely
whenever they commit depredations upon person
or property. The consequence Is, no inconveni-
ence is felt at their presence. j doubt not, too.
a man might express dissenting opiuion, posi-
bly, doubt OF the propriety of some of the mea-
sures of policy of the present Federal Admins
tration, without mourning their displeasure. This
city claims fourteen thousand Inhabitants, and is
in the heart of as fine country as can be found
in the West, for soil and productions But such
winds Hoped skirts and straw hats, unless well
eabled, suffer; and DO the eyes of the luckless
wight who travels with his face TO these simoons
of sand and dust Throughout all the country
west of the Mississippi to the foot of the Rocky
Mountains. these winds prevail. and hence the
climate is changeable and disagreeable. Other
wise no country on earth can compare with it in
natural adv sntages.
Though the actual frontier is pushed many
hundred miles west of this, yet the town wears
the habit. of a border town. The muleteer ana
Mexican spmbrero. speak of Santa Re; the long
haired, sun Drowned man. with a slouched hat
and devil NAV care look tells the story OF the
plains People talk here necessarily of sulches
and gorses claims and prospecting quartz mills
and aqueducts. All else j. secondary 20 these
absorbing themes "H0w many were killed on
the Potomac1" gives place to How much a
claim AZ Pixies Peak or in Idaho yieldedT
Gold Al 81 S5 aud white mans blood at sad
discount. battle fields red with fraternal blood.
all the ''pomp and circumstance of war, the
great rebellion aud It's countless lis. subordi
nate - the absorbing theme, How will the claim
payg' FAR WEsr.