Spirit of Jefferson. [volume] (Charles Town, Va. [W. Va.]) 1844-1948, 1868-08-25
MISCELLAN e Gus.
California.

How big pear dlu you say you mad
seen?"
A small party had CHANGED to meet at a
little station where (owing to defect in the
track,) both trains were detained many of
them were x-Californians, and the conyersa-
tion naturally turned upon that country, and
the g. big things" they bad seen there.
1t was stranger quiet inoffensive man,
that asked the question of Joe Ransom, who
was somewhat fond of drawing the long bow
when he thought he could gull listeners.
about four or five TONS" answered Joe,
without even the ghost of smile. "I was
treed by one once for four days, the brute"
didn't you get hungry" questioned Tom
Perkins.
Hungry Not bit. I went two weeks
water; but l tell you l made a square meal
when got chance. A whole deer first, and
then finished off with a couple of water
melons, each as large hogshead."
"Ah !' interrupted the stranger, the
vegetable productions must grow to an i'm
mense size in that country"
You bet on that. l was at the State
Fair at Sacramento once, and Saw cabbages
stripped of their outside leaves and ready
for boiling, you know that were as large as
coach body and weighed from four to five
hundred pounds each. As for the beets, you
wouldn't have known them from pine tree
stripped of its bark. There were potatoes
nearly the size of -four barrel grapes that
weighed forty pounds to the bunch turnips
that wouldn't 20 in a bushcl basket; pears
as large as the pumpkins here and-but
speaking of pumpkins, they just took the
rag clean off the bush l saw one that man
had scooped the inside out Of, and used it for
a house"
1t must have made large number of
pies" said the stranger.
"Pies l am glad that you reminded me
of that, for l had the figures in my pocket
book for long time, and [ remember them.
There was a regiment of dragons cam ping
there at the time, and they lived on pumpkin
pies for nine weeks. Besides, every one who
visited the fair had one given him to carry
home. l tell you it took power of milk
and eggs, and flour to make them. Here are
the figures, and l will swear to them any day
in the week Twenty-seven thousand gal
Ions of milk; one hundred thousand dozen
of eggs; FIVE tons of butter and lard, and Just
an even clipper ship load of -four
''Did you ever see the great trees" quer>
ried the stranger, as if intent upon gaining all
the information possible.
Joe winked at his friend, took an extra
pull at his cigar, and continued in the most
matter-of- fact manner possible.
''To be sure I did-camped under them
often There were the three sisters and the
'old man. and the latter just beat anything
[ ever saw.
Joe, have you any idea Of its dimen-
sions?"
II should rather think I had. Jim Town
send and I started to measure it with tape
line after sundown. I don't distinctly re-
member the extra feet and inches, but it girt-
ed over ten miles. A big tree trunk that,
stranger but it was nothing to its height
[ saw an eagle try to fly to the top once, and
had to rest at least twenty times before it got
up. [ got an old Vermont lumber man to
scale it, and he said it would cut something
over nine hundred million feet Of lumber,
clear stuff at that, and that there would be
about five hundred thousand cords Of wood
left. I tell you, big things grow in the
Golden State, stranger"
81 am satisfied of that. Particularly one
thing"
"What is that 2" asked Joe, turning
around sharply, and fearing that he had for
gotten an article upon which the stranger
could 'overlay' him.
"Liars :"
Joe arose, buttoned his coat, drew himself
up and said with dignity:
"Boys, shall never speak of the big things
of California, after having my yeracitJ once
questioned"