Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1880-05-17
TO THE MOUNTAINS.
AN EXCURSION TO TRUCKER AND BACK
AND WHAT THE PARTY SAW.
The snow-Wrecks Of the winter-Man's
Triumphs-1he Stormy Hills-snow-
Sheds and their Battles.

night Tor rapid trip to the SHOWS OF the
mountains and back. The party was made
up for the occasion by the following ladies'
and gentlemen Governor George G. Per-
kins, Superintendent r. II. Pratt, of the
G. P. r. r. w. II. Mills and wife, James
McClatchey, George F. Parsons, wife and
daughter Miss Fannie McClatchey, S. G.
benson and wife, J. F. Sheehan and wife, j.
A. Woodson and wife, N. Z. White, Miss
Jennie McMenomy, Mrs j. II. Lewis,
Frank Shay and wife, San Francisco; Frank
ID. Horton and wife, San Francisco ID. L.
Fletcher, San Francisco. On the return trip
the excursionists were accompanied by Sena-
tor Watson, of Nevada county.
The party had by virtue Of charter the
comfortable silver palace sleeping car No. Is,
In which at $50 on Saturday evening, re-
GREETING the unavoidable absence of other
members of the company and their wives.
the excursionists were
sNUGLY SLOWED,
And the car attached to the Virginia ex-
press. The plan was to utterly ignore and
forget ''the shop" for one season of twenty
hours; to murder, bury and sing songs over
the sod of any rash member who mentioned
ton of the eyebrows at the facts of daily
routine; to begin the excursion by retiring,
as good people should, to early touches; to
be switched off at Truckee, rise about 6:3O A.
NJ, breakfast, do Truckee, depart homeward,
'soger" on the way, and get back to the
fowery City of the Plains in time, with
whetted appetite for substantial Sunday din
ners. This plan, with two exceptions, was
carried out. There is an undehnable atmos-
phere of sociability pervading palace car
stocked as this one was, which brings the occu-
pants so much closer together than on other &C.
casions; such an unbendiug, and leVeling and
fraterniziDg, that it is not to be wondered at
the company in its cordial interchange of
thought and word, its fencing with humor,
its broad-sword exercise with wit, and its ra-
pier-like thrusts and guards with repartee,
should have forgotten, as it did, the passage
of time and have found itself, at l A. NJ Sun
day, only just beginning that most amusing
and skillful of all gymnastic exercises, UNI
dressing for sleep in rapidly-moving sleep
ing car, on the crookedest part of mountain
road. Shortly after that ho1r. however, the
curtains were drawn. and the only bald
headed man in tie entire group
GAVE THE WORD
From an elevated position to "shut off the
gas" a proceeding delayed by the feet of
well-knowp journalist which extended across
the aisle to an extent that prevented free
passageway of the chambermaid. By all
reasonable human calculation the company
should now have slept sound and well
full five and half hours, but in the de-
feat of this expectation came the
second variation of the original plans. At
4:30 A. NJ. an adventurous journalist resolved
for just once in his life to experience the SEN
sations supposed to be enjoyed by the early
bird. He chose for the worms needed to the
full exemplification of the fossilized and out
rageously unhealthy old proverb, several of
the members of the party, arousing them to
q realization of their choice and election by
liberal baptisms of snow, with which the
grit of Truckee's streets had made intimate
acquaintance. The sudden introduction of
the chosen to the first snow they had felt
under their shirt collars and along their
spinal columns for a score OF years produced
a chorus of yells and feminine shrieks that
murdered sleep as effectually as did the
bloody Macbeth, and made a hurried toilet
and dash into the chill air of morning a
positive act of self-defense.
TRUcKEE
Was done before breakfast; the brawling
river was called upon, the coasting hill ex-
perimented on to the detriment of the after
pdEI vi OAllSlGl dJOlicy lllS
of this active and energetic town invaded in
the midst of it's Sunday rest, and the streets
of the place taken in and digested for memo
ry's uses. At 6:45 the company-with fainting
stomachs and almost rebellious appetites,
that had so suddenly been introduced to the
sharpening process and under the influence
of which one lady lost her head for a few mo-
ments-sat down at MoodY's to trout
breakfast. The ladies of the party, with
wealth of floral decoration brought
from Sacramento's gardens, dressed the
table with flowers and every gentleman
with the regulation button-hole bouquet.
1t was a good breakfast and heartily dis
cussed to the disposition of a good-sized cargo
of the speckled beauties of the Truckee and
1.-THE Lakes A slight delay-occasioned
by a temporary ndisposition-and then
the excursionists' car, drawn by locomotive
226, started on its return trip. And now
Superintendent Pratt, over one of whose
official divisions the company was about to
pass by daylight, came out of his modest re-
TRACY and took the reins as guide. SO adj
mirably did he perform the self-imposed
duty, so patient and genial and accommodate
ing was his course, that the ride over was
doubly enhanced in its interest, and the
memory of his obliging acts remain insepara-
bic from the recollections Of what proved
A MOST DELIGHTFUL TRIP.
He knew the points of interest at which to
stop, and all such desirable pauses were made F.;
he was familiar with every feature of the
landscape and was not niggard of his infor-
nation he timed and regulated the progress
of 1.-The special, so that every point OF van
tage was taken in sightseeing. every wish
gratified, and all the excursionists returned in
better than sharp time to their Sunday din
neIs, for all which voluntary favors the one
day tourists, while at luncheon at Blue Can
yop, rendered the obliging railway official a
unanimous rising vote of thanks. AT
this same lunch there was INDUCED some
witty speech-making and some music, as
agreeable variations 10 the trip.
The company was landed safe and sound at
4:30 P NJ yesterday at the new depot, its mem
bers feeling as if they had embraced the ex-
perience of week of romantic travel, and
scarcely able to realize that it is possible in so
brief a space of time to see so much that is
grand and awe-inspiring to view the evil
dences of such gigantic conflicts between man
and the elements as now dot the route of the
railroad over the snowy Sierras and point in
every instance TO the final victory of the for
mer to take in such copious and satisfying
draughts of Nature in her whitened garb and
all the eloquence of her wintry frown to
look out upon some of the rarest landscapes
y
rigors of the clouds and look into the sunny
depths of spring below; to feel the inspira-
ton which moves the soul to its depths by
even momentary pauses upon the threshold
of the grandest gallery of wonders to which
the mountains hold key.
SOME DETAILS.
The valuable and interesting details of the
trip-brief though it was-if given in full
would make a volume of no mean dimeR-
sioLs 1t was a sermon of texts from begin
ming to end, and as food for thought may be
set out to mental appetite for many day to
come, producing by digestiug the best of edu-
cstional growth. He must be dullard who
can cross the Sierras by day and not come
down into the valley filed with themes for
mental reflection. A few of the more ordi-
nary details may be given.
At Truckee the curious were attracted by
an odd. and in some respects grim, collection
of relics gathered at the Starvation Camp "
of the Inflated Bonner party. There was
much of interest in the close study of the
topography Of the country about Truckee,
and much of value derivable from inquiry
into the sources of prosperity of that COM
munity, its lumber and manufacturing inter
ests, its position as a market town, its leca-
ton in relation to prominent lines of travel
and certain mining sections, and its hopes
and expectations for the future, which are of
the most buoyant character and have APP
parently good foundation in present realities.
AT Truckee the snow Is rapidly melting.
| 1t is absent mostly from the streets, but in
crusts the low ridges, mountain sides and
r Al