New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1870-07-11
THROUGH TO THE PACIFIC.
NO. vi.
NJ, vi.
SAN ER ANCIsNO H0p THE rIIIpD

and passengers for San Francisco now carried TO
Oakland, on the bay, by way of Stockton The Calfor-
MIA Pacific to Vallejo and thence by steamer forty or
fifty miles shorter and far pleasanter route Summer
but after travelling eighteen hundred miles the passen
gers generally stick to their for the last hundred and
thirty.
Having previously seen the Sacramento and San
Joaquin Valleys only at the end Of Summer when ali
heritage has disappeared, expected 10 find fresh
ness and greenness OF May about them. The drouth,
however, has already parched the fields the soil is so
baked and cracked by the heat that every sign of Spring
has vanished. On swampy bottoms along the Costume
and Mokelumne Rivers there is still little grass; but
the farmers cutting their wheat and barley for hay
since there little hope OF grain anywhere The heat
sitting the dust penetrated wherever air could go,
and there was none Of the old aroma, which so wen
remembered in the breezes. settlement Is little more
extended than in 1859, but less than had anticipated
The orchards have grown vineyards are SEEM yet
the broad expanse Of the valley almost bare and
brown ever, and has lost nothing of its monotony.
The great brick mass OF the state Insane Asylum an
nOunced our approach TO Stockton. Seven hundred
patients already, and more accommodation needed!
Poor human intellect seems to become easily unbalanced
in these new countries and IL will be blessing when
the rage for speculation pals Of It's Not
much OF stockton he from the road, but the
foliage which hides the town agreeable to the eye
than its dry baked houses We have15 minutes for lunch
at the station aad ind cold sleeps tongues and cold
ham and eggs to be the prevailing diet There also
spOngeake and candy for such prefer Eastern fare
and presently boy with peanuts passes through the
train; they change their sky not their Diet who run
across the Rocky Mountains.
Leaving Stockton, the muddy, ugly San
joaquin River and speed towards the Coast Range
plain burned almost into blackness. Thousands OF
Of gram either side, viii hardly yield one per
feet Of wheat barley. All is drOuh dust aridty
desolaton Even the mountains, stretching away to the
lonely summit of Monte Diablo shine red and bare as
~ Sahara climb through
the winding glens towards Livermore Pass and then
descend towards the Bay, there is change for many
and many mile. And rain cannot he expected for FIVE
months 10 come.
III Livermore Valley, however, the scenery began to
improve. the fogs and moist winds of the Pacific
blowing through low gaps in the mountains, have re-
taried the baking Of the soil the trees show richer
foliage and a fresher green; the gTainfeds, not yet
prcmaturey ripe, promise olerable harvest. 1t was
twenty years since had the LivermOre Valley,
then wilderness Of wolves with fOrlorn rancho and
few D,ipGs, Indian brush-huts-nOw noble farming
RECON- with fair homes on the Oakstudded knobs, and
Lie and labor To the very SUBMITS OF its incosing noun
taus Already the furnaceeat Of the air began to be
tempered and the plague of dust which had followed us
so long now Jagged behind; when entered the Ala
media Canon, running for two or three miles beside
sparkling stream and its belt Of foliage, cool wind came
up from the Bay then the pass opened and the great in
let Of The Pacific lay before
The remainder Of the journey luxury. All the
landscape the Bay lay in sunshine except the north
ern point OF the opposite shore, which covered with
white wooden blanket lying close to the face OF the
hills and revealing their conformation, yet wholly
ccalng the City This daily phenomena must be puz-
ze 20 the stranger. The road skirts the base Of the
mountains which here cultivated to their submits.
The plain at their feet under its wealth of hay,
wheat. barley, and magnificent frdt-orchards As we
approach LeandrO stately country residences take
the place Of the cheap frame farmhOuses gardens and
small private parks succeed; then Alameda is passed,
aud luxury begins to multiply its signsin villas of
the most fashionable design) in fountains in turf kept
green by much money in blazing masses Of flowers, in
macadamized roads, stylish vehicles, and in Gmpses of
indolent existence through the open windows, we
shoot past This is Oakland, the Roxbury or German
town Of san Francisco venerable with its grand, old,
twisted evergreen oaks which hint of mid8val man
sions traditions and long pedigrees where we only find
fresh paint business, and the family pride OF Dollars
descended from Dimes This is the most honored genoa
illogical tree in California.
mile more over the level sand, and we reach the
shore OF the bay but the train sweeps on, hanging on
what seems to Dc a very ra scaoding above the TOSS
ing waters On, for two miles more, and we are fast
approaching Goat Island where somebody Il cannot yet
say who is sure make money at the expense of the
United states-but the piles cease, and double
dcckcd crybOat, with bar and OyseTsalOon on board
receives We near the San Francisco fog that
the air gray and chill is breathed in our faces; and
perhaps this circumstance accounts for the fact that the
bar is hidden from sight, for some minutes after we
start by a crowd of curious individuals. Two hours
before painting with the heat now put on our over
coats, take station the bow and look for San
Francisco. There is faint glimmer OF sunset some
behind the fog blurred outline of the three or
four hills thin struggling grove rather than forest
Of masts, and finally masses Of dngy buildings heave
into sight draw up to the pier.
NewYOrk is repeated in the crowd at the ferry gate
the cries and whips of hacmen the cards of runners,
the bland welcome Of the pckpocket and the threaten
ing brow Of the legal protector, who is Irish here as
there One dollar is the carriage fare and after waiting
the usual for the gentleman who can't make mp his
mind which hotel TO paronize, set out for the Grand
Hotel as being the newest and most gorgeous recog
nized MOntgOmeryst by certain physognomy which IL
preserves although every house has been rebuilt and at
It's southern end where the broad Market-et strikes
away toward the old Mission, set down at
portal between enormous sheets of plate glass-regis-
tered MY name at a counter OF carved wood, took TEN
porary possession OF lot OF expensive furniture, and
was presently paraking of salmon and caulihower lob
ster and lettuce.
The night was so cold that fire in the crate
agreeable; the next morning so dark, moist, and
windy that rain would have been certainty anywhere
else IN the world at 10 O'Clock the hot and the
sand few by T. IT foggy and cold againand 50 the
days pass in this singular place.
/ had 10 begin anew and learn San Francisco over
again. in 1882 ten years after my first acquaintance; and
find myself obliged 10 do the same thing in 1870 OF
course there few bindings, here and there which
were standing eleven years but the city has dsap-
peared and third arisen in Its place. Few changes
have been made the streets they still try 10 scale the
hills and falling succeed, dwndle away at the sum
ts 50 that front, there does not appear 70 be
much growth The city, in fact, has gone around the
hills and covered the waste, sandy tract which
used 10 extend from Rncon Point 10 the
Mission. In this direction its area was more
than doubled the old features Of the scenery have
disappeared and found it difficult TO recognize any for
mer landmarks From the Plaza the original nucleus OF