Wilmington daily commercial., 1875-12-09
FIRST EDITION.
Overland 10 San Francisco.

SKETCH OF THE RAILROAD JOURNEY AoRoss ruf
cosrIsEsT-LETrER OF DR.. cARRow EN- ROUTE
TO CANTON.
Correspondence Of the Commercial
In conformity with my promise. and desire
to inform you Of our whereabouts, during o
quiet hour at the Brookly House will con,-
mune with you, giving you a somewhat hurried
account of our trip across tho ''Great American
Continent Leaving New York at 0, p. NJ, op
Friday the 18th, we passed through dear ola
wilmington, and thence to Baltimore and
Washington, arriving at the latter place by 6, A.
M.,Saturday. We stopped here only teniniinutes
and were then on, cid the Baltimore and Ohio
X. r., skirtiDg the banks of tho Potomac, pass
ing through Harper's Ferry. and ARRIVING at
Martinsburg, that real !" old Virginny town, at
0, A. NJ, for breakfast. Here good meal is
served for 81 cents. Bnt in twenty minutes we
were OF again, getting glimpses of grand
mountain scenery which made the time seem
seem short i'll reaching Cumberland Here
the Railroad Go. have erected fine hotel call
ingit the "Qneen City Hotel" from the bal
cony of which ladies' were straining their eyes
perhaps to SEQ lovers upon the arriving train
or-to do them justce-perhaps for other pur
poses. Only five minutes we're given US here
and now we are Off again for Piedmont. From
this place we begin to climb the mountain. An
immense engine is taken on to pull us up thu
grade of 1lG feet to the mile. Seventeen miles
We climb, and then begins the descent, BRING
ing us to Grafton, where We stopped
twenty minutes for dinner. | may mention here
that our party. Consisting Of Judge Johnson, of
Washington, Mrs. Moore OF San Francisco, my
wife and myself, were always anxious az re-
CARDS the meal stations inquiring the distance,
&c, &c., and were not sorry to hear the sound Of
that instrument, musical to all travellers, the
gong. Our lunch baskets were made to yield lis
our supper, and as We left the region of the
atala xpnh hn1n aant,A l,t o,.l
were soon asleep III the berths of the msgnh-
cent Pullman sleeping cars built by
the Harlan and Hollingsworth Co., OF our
old home. Our waking found us nearing Chica-
go, and soon Lake Michigan was seen, Just along
the banks OF which the cars ran into the great
city OF the West. Two hours Of Sunday morn
ing were consumed IN being transferred from
the Baltimore d. Ohio depot to.that of the Chi
cago, burlington Quincy. At the end OF this
time we were steaming over one OF the most
beautiful and surely one Of the finest roads in
tho United States. Its care are extra fine,
Quilt by the H. & II. Co, OF Wilmington,) and
every means ia adopted for the comfort of pas
sengers. Mr. Gray, the Superintendent OF the
Pullman cars, and y wealthy citizen Of Chicago,
Joined lis bero and entertained lis by deHcrip-
tions OF the road and 30 made himself q decided
acquisition to our party.
Our Sunday dinner was taken at Mendoza and
between this place and Burlington. whore we
stopped for supper, the fields were covered
with snow with the thermometer standing at 15
degrees. Another night upon tho cars, waking
in the morning to find we, had added
to our train hotel, car 'on which Nwo
and we reached Omaha at 10, "a M,
Monday,and fnding,we had two hours before. tile
departure OF tho train, we took a carriage and
drove to the Grand Central Hotel, the principal
house OF the city, and a now one. Wa were
here by seeing number of the Warm
Spring Indians, (who were travelling with us,
they having been at Washington) at dinner.
They were seated upon the floor of the depot
waiting room, squaw in their midst, and all ap-
parently enjoying their bread and coffee. These
Indians are under tho control OF DR.. Mckay,
who WAS with them and seemed to take pleasure
in describing their habits, &c, &c. Leaving
Omaha at IL, NJ, We were soon upon the great
plains skirting tho Platte River, and anon having
in view the old pioneer road to the % Far Vest"
Soldiers, antelopes, prairie dogs, wide plains
and low bluffs, were all that we could see
until, reaching Weber Canon, magnificent
scenery was presented to our view, lasting
indeed till the conductor called Ogden"
Here is the terminus of the Union Pacific R.
r., and the beginning OF the Central Pacific.
Pullman has not been given the contract, as yet
for running his ''sleepers" over this road con-
eequently tho cars are not as fine or commo-
dious, although the owners OF the road have
coaches that are very comfortable Many miles
of desert plain we pass over stopping at stations
which have unpronounceable names, taken from
the Indian tongue, and now begin the Sierra
Nevadas, covered with snow and hemming in the
railroad track on either side. Here wonderful
change occurs, as retiring at night looking out
upon snow scene, we awake in the morning to
And ourselves in almost tropical climate, the
trees clad III a bright green foliage, and all Ma
ture wearing her spring garb Sacramento,
Stockton, and now Oakland where we exchange
the cars for a ferry-boat which takes us across
to San Francisco.
On Wednesday, December 1st., we shall take
ln IL Yokohama.
point will write again. Till then adieu.
H. c. NJ. d.