Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1872-01-10
A Trip TO California...No. 10.

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agreeable one must make friends with the engi.
neer, the mail agent or the baggage-master, 20 as
to improve the chance to ride on the engine or in
the postal or baggage car and escape the dust,
which, when the train is under full Roadway,
closes in upon It about one car to the rear Of the
baggage car, and wraps the entire rear part Of
the train wholly from sight. | made friends with
the mail agent by arguing for civil service re-
form FOR the appointment Of postal clerks and
the like, not because they were sound on the
" main question, +" but because they were sound
in head and heart their retention in the service
as long as they behaved themselves, subject to
| promotion if fitted for it, and to retirement on
hallpay when superannuated. These ideas just
suited him, and 50 got a hearty invitation t.
seat in his Office CHAIR TO which was added the
freedom Of the car-an invitation ayailed 'rysef
Of by seating myself where | could gaze at will
from either door Of the car the doors Of the
postal car, as is well known. being upon either
side instead Of at the end of the car, and paneled
with glass
Not the least interesting sight of the way is
the inside OF the car and its grizzly-bearded
ruler. lie is the first 10 cr," las those who
tWlAt INiM Tue AalHt wien Ailt uINN great NANt VI
the gold excitement in 1919 broke over the Fast
crn States, are caled), we met. lie tells Us he
was among the first that were swept out here by
the undertow Of that wave. And here he has
stuid ever since If We could get the simple rec
ord Of this grzzed clerk life for the last twenty
one years, the story Of California would be before
us for from the detached portions Of that record,
to which we listened most eagerly, while we look
out upon the desert scene before u.s. we learn that
he has turned his hand TO every kind Of trade aud
work has been chased by the Indians, lassoed
by the guerrillas, leeced asa miner by backlegs
he has served on vigilance committees innumcr-
able in all the principal cities and mining camps
has been in at the ynching Of scores OF despera-
does has lost his way among the Serras and
been frozen has lost his way in the desert and
been starved has lost his way in cities and been
aecccd but each time somehow or other has re-
gained his feet aud stumped sturdily on until
here lie stands before Us, monarch Of this ear,
faithful servant Of Uncle sam, with no thought
Of anything but how to do the thing that lies
next his hand with an equal hatred in bis heart
for four things Rum, Bhckegs, Indians and
California women with nm equal love in his
heart alsJ for four things his car his rifle,
swaying to and fro in It's feathers just over his
head the mother Of his childhood 5 home, and the
sweetheart of his youthful years, both Of whom
are lying where the plush Of the Androscoggin
over its pebby bed and the soughing Of the wind
through the Maine Pines, fall gently upon the
ear Here he stands sorting his letters and chat
ting away over the events Of his twenty-one years
battling with the sings and arrows Of a pio-
necr s fortune as uncoucenedly as we do about
the SNOWFALL Trays, the games of tag and Morris,
and the hunting the gray loH--or the happy
schoolboy days long-syne
When you aai wcrc boys. dear Tom.
] just twenty years ago"
need not tell You that this chatting about
wild days and wilder scenes was a charming ac-
compartment to what ! was gazing out upon
through the car doors the vast, wild, desert
waste, hcdged in on either side by a monotonous
appearing range Of hills that seem low, probably
because OF their distance away, since we see them
| frequently well capped with snow but the day.
50 like an after sumner day in New England
with its mellow sunlight, its delicate golden haze,
lies upon the plain in such way that the scene
doesn't seem so strange after ALL though no dwell
/ ing, no trees, no vegetation other than the low
sage bush, meets the glance Of the eve as it
sweeps the PLAIN from verge 10 verge Just as
/ the friendly, familiar good natured chatting Of
our grizzly bearded friend makes the dark experi.
enccs and startling events Of his twenty wears
life on the Pacific slope seem kind of natural TO
US, something that we might easily have expert
encod ourselves, so docs this homelike day cause
the desert to an aspect to our eyes that is
not 50 strange after all Though we know we
never have looked upon its like before yet it seems
as though we had seen something strangely like
1t mirrOred in the hazy sunlight OF IN Indian sum
mer day at home.
9ui i..S"d Eeops ms feuer sorting moment
and steps to our side at the door Looking out
upon the plain moment he says" Do you see
away yonder those two white pillar-ike appear.
ances - 81 do, and they are not the first have
seen. have been wondering what they were "
The first and the iarthest away, the one that is
the highest, and has more Of a brown tinge that
is a column Of dust raised and propelled by a
whirl-wnd.' And sure enough, as gazed more
closely upon it, could see it, form was like the pic
lures one sees Of a water spout at sea- and in the
course Of the days journey one sees any amount
20 NN ''"'N''i- "N''77 WIZ HAailii nuN III TINS Ill
rcction and now in that. "The other. continues
3 our FRIEND " Is column Of steam from hot
spring, kind Of spring thot fnges the desert
all around 10" You may be sure that it was with no
small degree Of interest we gazed over the plain
upon this, that is perhaps the most singular Of
all natural phenomena and the feeling of regret
was very pronounced within, that we could not
pause on our journey long enough to make a
near examination OF the mystery but we had to
content ourselves with the view Of the jets Of
steam lenplng sky-ward, and with the curious
questions and queer reflections upon what is pos
sibly going ON in the subtenanean realm to
which the sight naturally directed the mind
, We have already noticed the soft, golden haze
like the coloring in one of our altersnmmer days
which laid itself upon the plain. But it is haze
only in appearance, and that appearance is owing