The Emporia news. [volume] (Emporia, Kan.) 1859-1881, 1868-10-30
Correspondence Cincinnati Commercial
LETTER FROM A CALIFORNIA
WATERTNG.PLACE.
LAKE TAHOE, CAL, August, 1868.

Thirty cents per mile in coin for
sIage-coachlng makes one content with
the governmental dabbling in railroads.
1t costs passenger eight dollars for a
ride from Virginia City to the Glen
brook House, situated on Lake Tahoe,
distance of thirty miles. The scenery
makes 1T worth the money, but / have
no intention of saying that the stage
people know anything about that. Cir
cumspect financiers should avoid this
region just now. They will contract
the heart-ache in having 81 600 in green
backs contracted to 500 in coin. and
then pay out twice as much in gold as
the same things cost at home in curren-
cy. The double eagle is pretty disc.
Folks naturally enjoy its graceful flop
In the hand, and feela shadow of sad
ness at parting. This is glorious lat
ltude to work a cure for all that. Cali
fornians, and Nevadians are hospitable
in the extreme. They understand min
ing in all its forms. Any particu-
larly rich deposit of precious metal III a
quartz ledge is called pocket" After
our experience, so far. in paying travel
ing expenses. we think we know why.
We left Virginia City early in the
afternoon in crowded coach, and
made our way down the ravine through
the chain of mining towns that have
sprung up in the Washoe Country. the
principal one of which, after Virginia
City, is Gold Hill Nomenclature here
is peculiar. OF course everybody has
heard of the Yuba Dams. the You Bets.
the Jackass Clutches, Dead-beat Bars,
and so on; but aside from these poetic
flashes many eccentricities exist. Gold
Hill is city in ravine; Grass Valley
isn't q valley, but town of four thous-
and inhabitants. set on hill; Dutch
Flat is mountain valley village. pre-
eminently free from Germans. past or
present. AS the French diplomat Ct
hesitate to call him statesman) used
language to conceal his thoughts. so the
Californian employs lefthanded geog-
raphy whose terms indicate what an
object isn't, not what it is.
Our little ride was grandly rich in
scenery. Off to the left lay a weired
and broken tumble of hills, ravines,
canons, shabby-lustrOus alkaline lakes,
stunted Vegetation, universal dryness
and nakedness. To the right, toward
the wonderful Sierra Nevada range, its
lofty peaks clad with snow and noble
FORESTS. One can ride from Indiana to
California without seeing a natural
grove worthy the name. The great
travelled route is across the prairies of
ley, with its few and worthless cotton
woods, over the Rocky Mountains,
where the sage-bnsh is the vegetable
monarch, and across the Great Basin.
where even the sage bush struggles for
life. This-dearth of trees ends sudden
ly. In the Sierra nature has planted
forests so magnificent that they amply
apologize for the thousand miles of
prairie and desert wastes.
These mining cities have labyrinths
of wagonroads scoring the mountain
sides, like tawny ribbons or yellow
serpents-take your choice of smile.
Teams, teaming and Transfers are arte-
rial among these silver lodes. Ore.
fuel, timber and salt must be hauled.
and they are hauled in the biggest of
wagons. drawn by six, seven or eight
pairs of horses. The grade of the road
is heroic. ''Where horse can go a
wagon can follow" seems to be the
motto. OF course the brake on the
wheel is matter of vital consequence
in such a system. 1t is curved block
of wood a yard long, ten inches thick,
and weigh forty pounds or more. In
going down a steep hill with heavy
load few days ago near Virginia City,
a teamster put down his brake and halt
ed his team. The brake snapped, the
twelve horses beneath it, sweeping
them down the mountain side in one
bloody mass of squealing animals and
tangled harness. Some of the horses
were killed outright; the rest had to
be shot.
Three hours ride carried us to Car
son, the capital of Nevada, a level little
city of gardens and neat houses planted
at the foot of the Sierra. Carson has
| just had stroke of good fortune and a
stroke of bad. The Central Pacific
Railroad has killed it as stage station
and Congress has voted several thous-
ands of. dollars to complete the mint
now partially erected within its limits
| So its citizens are undecided whether
to perspire or to put on more Goals. A
young Chinaman of nineteen or twenty
entered our coach at Carson. 1t is a
Hibernian fact that the only English
one-half of the imported Cinnamon
know is a scrap of bad french. NC
savee" is their universal refuge when
addressed in the language of William
| Shakespeare. In a stage-coach, howev'
er, they know their rights, and know
| ing, fail not to exercise. They ligh
/ paper cigarettes and puff the smoke
down your throat with as much uncon
Germ as though you were not a mar
with the franchise. So, one by one, arr
the props knocked from under the Con
stitution. Ii not exterminated, these
pig-tails will be putting pictures Per
haps caricatures) of Presidential candi
dates OH their tea chests-Schuyler Col
fax's face cut from ear to ear with
smile, or Frank Blair's countenanc'
; corrugated with iron-clad scowls
What a ferocious face the artists d.
i give Frank. But he has changed hi
creed so often that it is meet that h
should be limned as the incarnation o
steely infeXibility.
1t was nearly dark when we began
the ascent of the Sierra Nevada Noun
tains.. The huge pine trees were re
freshing, and after our long tree-fasi
even objects of curiosity. As nigh
deepened we wound up, passing from
one mountain side to another, catchin,
glimpses of tender new moon throug
the high branches, and listening to til
cheerful splash of water down the of
recurring ravines. At one of the mos
poetic moments of fading twilight on
vehicle was invaded by swarms G
wolflsh mosquitoes. The Chinana
slapped his shaved head and swore i
choice MongoliaTi. We waved hand
kerchiefs with credible energy. TIL
driver gave the comfortable assuranc
that mosquitoes were ''real BAD off til
road mile or two. Beside which b
1descahted on the charms of the hot.
we were bound for.
ssThey size your pile there-go fo
: your last cent. faint kept on the POI
q uiar plan. They don't want any bod
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