Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1879-04-22
CALIFORNIA.
From Memphis to stockton on an Emil
grant Train Scenes by the Way
The Poetic and Real Indian
Maiden and
Railroad MOnODOIies,
From an Appeal Correspondent. ]

From an Appeal Correspondent
STOCKTON, CAL, April I2.-At Council
Bluffs, opposite Omaha, l met Ben and
Barney Coleman, OF Memphis, and to be with
them | changed and took an emigrant train
l am fully persuaded that one may see
humanity in every other phase. yet he will
find something new on an emigrant train.
Still it has its pleasant side-one sees more
and takes life easier. At the foot of the
Rocky mountains is Cheyenne, the "Magic
City of the Palms," here you can take the
stage for the Black Hills, one hundred aud
fifty miles distant. Cheyenne, though a
beautiful little city, is now dead, as the
Black Hills, excitement is over, and all are
rushing to Leadville, Colorado. The Rocky
mountains are bare, and their grandeur and
sublimity alone render the view attractive.
As l came, mountains ard valleys were alike
covered with snow, and as we crossed the
Rocky mountains at sunset the intermingling
of light and shade presented scenes beautiful
to behold. | stood on top of the car, and
some of the highest peaks seemed swimming
silver. AS the last rays of the dying sun il
lumined the horizon, some of the mountain |
peaks were tinged with vlolet-others with |
the deepest rose. The Sierra Nevada noun
tains are in striking contrast to the Rocky
they are completely covered with the green |
Utah are the Utah mountains, and here |
saw scenery unequaled, | suppose, by any
thing In America, unless it be Yosemite val |
ley. Echo and Weber canons awe and |
astonish you; for ten miles you pass |
at the foot of perpendicular cliffs, |
fifteen hundred feet high, and their faces |
wear the most striking contrasts. Walls. |
towers, battIements, domes, spires, feudai |
castles and Catholic cathedrals are all repre- |
sented, wrought" as Prentiss says, "by the |
magic fingers of the drops" Echo canon |
runs abruptly into Weber, but the scene is so |
different that one might well imagine he was
in a different land. Weber loses nothing in
point IF grandeur or sublimity, but It is |
clothed with green and garmented with |
beauty. Ages have elapsed since those con-
vulsive throes which shook the earth to its |
center, and Echo and Weber canons, twin
sisters, sprung into existence. Time and the |
elements have done their work, yet the deli
cate frost and fretwork of Echo and Weber
still remain to surprise and delight all be-
holders. On the plains | saw tie Indians,
and | 10 longer oppose their determination.
saw group of noble warriors standing
on the platform at the depot with war-paint
and eagles feathers. approached, and
found the war-paint to be
a smearing of pokeberries, and l think l
risk nothing in saying the eagles feathers
were plucked from some farm yard puddle
luck on rainy day. The ''lovely Indian
maidens'' l had read about In novels and
poems, besieged our train to beg for bread
my interest in Indian maidenhood | will
present to any man gratis. If dirt and
allure man, then the charm will never be
dissolved. | lett the train to inspect wig
Iam some distance off No one was at home
the mistress was at the train begging for
bread, and "the lord of the mansion" was
,ne OF the doughty warriors above men
Toned. l drew near and found some brush
such as we use in sticking beans-stuck in
he ground in circle, hole at the top and
N one side, and some rags and tufts of grass
brown over the twigs. | crawled half way
n at the door, and found a little ''year-old-
r" strapped to board, and one end of that
tuck in the ground; a few tat
cred skins to sleep on, few bits
f mouldy bread and well-knawed beef bones
nothing else. | left, exclaiming aloud,
shades of Tecumseh and Black Hawk, blush,
lush for your race" | have travelled over
lmost the entire State of California, and |
nd no State so fearfully overrated. The
Innate OF San Francisco is very unpleasant
D are all coast towns, except San Diego, aud
ven there the sea-breeze is so heavily laden
18th mois ure that it superinduees rheuma-
SIN; no other disease is incident to that
lace, however. At San Bernardlno | took
2 an envelope of business firm and found:
This is the most beautiful valley in the
tate and the air is always bracing, being,
} it Is, perpetual spring." At that time
March 25th) the thermometer stood at one
undred IN my hotel, and, although l was
cry much enaciated from recent sickness.
had broken out with the heat as thick as
ettlerash. IL runs to one hundred and |
yenty, and sometimes more. l feel
ke telling the man who says southern
alifornia Is pleasant ''he's another one"
IL an arrant falsehood, and no
lie need assert it. The valley last men
oned is the best watered of any in the south.
hey sink shaft and have an artesian well
r irrigation. Without irrigation all is a
ndy waste. Twelve miles from San Ber-
lrdino is Riverside. Five years ago it was
desert waste; now, by irrigation, they have
and vineyards for ten miles by
re, all as beautiful as a garden. At San
lego | was told they obtained water from
q San Diego river, six miles off, and on NV
ny to the old Spanish mission l crossed the
yer. l found dry sandy branch meander-
g through canyon, the banks of which
ere at no place over a foot high, and it
emed that about a thousand years ago
tie spring branch might have run through
e vale. The water composing ''the rlver'
supposed to be somewhere between the
y sandy branch and the crust of the earth
the opposite side of the globe. Even that
| think REPUTABLE. This de- -
ription fills the bill SO far as southern rivers
=
ople there could see respectable river -
t the Mississippi, but Hatchie, or Wolf, for
stance-they would be as much astopished
old bllooa was when he first behed the
cifc ocean. From LIS Angeles | came
rough the central part of the State, the
asst range plainly visible on one hand and +
e Sierra Nevadas on the other For FIVE L
ndred miles, very nearly, all was barren
d desolate. | failed to see the fascination.
would as readily start for the Desert of Sa-
"a at once. The northern part of the State A
as different as any country could be. Here,
seventy five miles in every direction, Won
d 1ne hnest farming lands on earth, so far
wheat is concerned. | have seen but one
Tie patch of corn in all California. This
ice is beautiful city, surrounded by the
est lands, and it has by far the best eli
lite IN the State. am highly pleased, de-
hte with Stockton, but ute, ly disappolnt- =.
with all south here Had been displeased n
re, should have gone to Portland,
egon. Politically speaking, | consider
3 State in the worst condition of all the
ties OF the Union. Moncyed monopolies -
g everything. The stockboard at San E
ancisco is crying shame; they are a set
INSCRIPTIONS thieves and scoundrels. In
,, language OF Shakespeare. Its offense is
most az bad-at Los Angeles I was asked Al
entY-three dollars to San Francisco, a dis.
ice of five hundred miles, but as [ wished ~
see Fresno and Merceed, asked the fare 8
Fresno, one hundred and eighty miles-it
s twenty three dollars also 1t is this
y the entire length Of the Pacific road.
It year the net proceeds of that road were
hin fraction OF eighteen million dollars.
people are at last awakened. A new
stltutlon has been framed, to be voted for .
t month; it shivers the stockboard and all
nopolles. IL will be a close contest, as the M
neyed men are raising heaven and earth so
teteat 1t. Enough for the present tn
JAMES s. REAMEY. uy
How They Do 1t In Russia. slr
arls figaro: IN a hotel in Moscow, on