Lyon County times. [volume] (Silver City, Nev.) 1874-1907, 1875-05-02

Special Correspondence Of the Times
3 SAN FRANc1sco, April %, 1875.

amusements in Frisco. Did YOU
ever go to California picnic :?
Well, here is the programme. The
newspapers inform the world, in the
first place, that the most wonderful
region Of country has been discover
ed, just suited to such occasions.
1t is generally some distance from
the city, probably in some region OF
country which is bound to be recog-
nized, IT Is advertised as having
been created especially for this
amusement, as abounding in run
ming streams, delightful foliage, and
many colored aspects of nature,
supposed to be favorable. 1t does
not matter how many tibs are told
in the advertisements--the more the
better, provided they are sufficiently
alluring; and in some inimical mo-
ment the habitue of the dust and
fogs of San Francisco glances at
the attractive paragraph, and be-
gins to feel the balmy breeze Gn
imagination) of this delightful and
beatific region in store for the
blessed. After time some society
takes up the idea, and discourses
upon the possibilities and impos
sibilities of reaching this land for
picnics, and then the railroad com
pany joins in, or navigation COM
pany, sees how an honest penny is
to be made by it, and after an inter-
view, it is decided the effort is to be
made, and as many of our citizens
accommodated as possible, by a
journey to these Elysian fields, and
pastures green, and day is ap-
pointed. 1t may be cold, and it
may be hot, as was Saturday last,
when the Unitarians undertook to
visit Fairfax, some miles beyond
San Rafael. If cold, the necessity
fer an abundance of wraps is un-
questioned; if hot, heaven help us;
for no company is going to -
The day broke magnificently; not
a cloud in the sky, nor particle of
dust, with power enough to be ele-
waited into the nostrils, and the car
route in our vicinity was sought to
transport us to the landing at Davis
street wharf, from which the Contra
Costa was to leave for San Quentin,
and the patience necessary for the
undertaking was soon in full force;
for our distinguished horse car
monopolies allow of now extra ac-
eommodation on special occasions,
and the iaded looking horses before
nine A. NJ. seemed ready to lay
down their burden, and seek rest in
that land where there are no picnics,
and where good horses enjoy that
rest which it is supposed they have
fairly earned. There is no doubt
about the number of persons trans
ported to the wharf that morning;
all that could go did; those who
could not walked away, and as
every car was crowded to its utmost
capacity, which can easily be ascer-
tanned and multiplied by the num-
Der of trips made, there you have it;
but as to the number on the Contra
Costa-that delightful craft which
advertised allurlngly the fact that
another question. If 120 can dance,
how many can stand, we wonder?
Then there is the cabin, and little
hooks among the machinery; all the
way from one to three thousand was
the estimate hampers and lunch
baskets innumerable; and yet that
steamer foated on, ready to pack on
h. thnnSand
would only come, and ready to cry
up in the newspapers the wonderful
advantages of this splendid decked
vessel accommodating dancing.
Vive la humbug! and vive corpora
tions = those blessed things with
which California is so bountifully
endowed.
The boat reached the wharf at
San Quentin, and then scramble.
Nobody to direct it. Infants almost
in arms, beginning to learn their
responsibilities as individuals and
us American citizens in the art of
pushing, and why in the name of
all that is reasonable, a massacre of
the innocents, almost equal to that
in history, was not the consequence,
is hard to tell. The landing effected
and the cattle-pens crowded, for
such is the style of cars the rail-
roads offer for exclusions, and away
we go over narrow gauge railroad,
suspended upon embankments in
the mid heavens, and spinning
along-in some places over the water,
in some around points, until after
two hours and a half of sun-scorch-
ing, the grounds are reached, No
one stood, Of course, who could sit,
but as great many stood the whole
journey, it is fair to suppose the
cattle-pens gave out, and the human
cattle, for after all, corporations
only recognize as such the human
species in their way of management
Well, the grounds were reached and
we were glad to be released. 1t was
advertised that poison oak had been
carefully cut away nevertheless we
were poisoned), dancing hall erect
ed, tables spread beneath the trees
all this is charming. The neigbor'
ing land is probably for sale, and
had the travelling been less, who