Morning journal and courier., 1883-11-21

l to keep the maximum grade as low as 343
 feet to the mile, and all the while maintain
 the reputation of the driveway as inferior to
 none in the country. The United States 1 granted the land. Two springs of water ! were discovered about three hundred feet below the summit, and this settled the water 1 supply question. Then LOGO tons of trap l rock at the top were successfully blasted
 away. and fine plateau was made for the l buildings By the terms of MT. Lick's gift l $750, ,000 was to be expended for the con-
 struction and planting of telescope, "snpe- 1 rior to and more powerful than any telescope | ever yet made" in a suitable observatory, the observatory to be turned over to the Re- 1 gents of the University of California, and | become department of the university. The work is now going on with every assu- rance that three years hence, providing no l accident occurs, will see the observatory 1 completed. The magnificent telescope was | begun nearly two years ago by Alvan Clark
 & Sons, of Cambridgeport, who recently made the famous objective for the Russian government. It will have the unparalleled aperture of thirty-six inches. The main dome of the obser yatory Is to be seventy five feeE'in diameter. The vie Y from the summit I where this magnificent instrument is to be planted commands panorama of country ! reaching north even to Mt. Shasta, T75 miles away.
 San Francisco now vies with New York, | Chicago and the other fast American cities l in point of metropolitan features. Chief of l these is undoubtedly the cable system of | street railroads, which has here been intro | duced on an unprecedented scale and with pre-eminsnt success. It is marvellous, the | engineering difficulties which have been ! overcome by this system. There are proba- bly, more 'wrinkles" in San Francisco than l in any other American city. Going out the l California street line you are nearly all the
 time either ascending or descending the steepest inoliaes imaginable, and the same ! thing is true of the other thoroughfares.
 Horse cars are eternslly impossible, and even
 if possible could not make more than five per cent of the speed now attained. By the l cable cars you are carried swiftly up hill or 1 down, and experience thus far has justified | your feeling of entire safety. Of course l there will be an accident some day,-perhsps 1 a dire one but accidents are not altogether | unheard of in other departments. What | ever may be the result in Chicago and other 1 cities where the streets are level and there
 | fore much used by teams, the advantages 1 of the cable cars in San Francisco are too
 palpable for argument
 | I had time to visit the Cliff House while l in San Francisco, and hear the famous seals 1 bark as they laboriously drag their cum l brous bodies over the jagged rocks. Some l people now advocate the extermination of 1 these animals on account of the lnroads
 which they making upon the fish in | Gate Park, where the principal objects of | interest are the monument lately dedicated | to the memory of Garfield by the Knights
 Templar, and the rare and extensive floral
 l display in the conservatories. This now
 | nationally famous park has been almost, If
 | not entirely, constructed on 8 waste of drift
 ing sand, such as characterlzes the beach all
 l along in this vicinity, and many additional
 l acres are yearly being planted and sodded. l
 also walked through China town, there wit
 1 messing sights not only novel, but startling
 but as am to see the Chinese at home, !
 will defer writing of any of these things
 At Il o'clock on the morning Of September
 27th, I boarded the steamer Oceanic" 7"
 bound for Yokohama and Hong Kong, Short
 1 ly after 12 o'clock we weighed anchor and
 l bace American shores long adieu AS 8
 Pacific ocean voyage differs radically from an
 Atlantic voyage, even in the details Of wharf 1 scenes, 8 short account may not be out of l place. The hour before our departure was 8 1 lively one, filled with interesting sights on 1 board and ashore. Up to the last l moment there was rushing up and
 down the gang plank. Seven hundred l Chinese were filing Eolemnly into the hold of the vessel. while as many feliow-country- msn steo4 cR the wharf and jabbsred their | unintelligible farewells There were psrtings l Of every description, fearful, jolly, business | fled, sentimental, ludicrous. Long-drawn- out school girl kisses echoed in the saloon. l Even after all the warning bells and whistles 1 had sounded, and the boat had begun 10 re- l cede from the wharf, there was casting of | notes on board and others ashore by means l of attaching them to sticks and stones pro 1 vided for that purpose, tossing of bouquets | and other last tokens back and forth, waving 1 of handkeTchisfs and the usual lingering 1 farewells. 4 hotel porter rushed up and ges l ticulated frautically at some absent-min ded | passenger who had omitted to pay his board l bill. At last the slowly backing boat circled I around and headed out of the Golden Gate, 1 giving us a fine view of Fort Point, the Seal | rocks and the rocky islands of the bay.
 l had the fortune, the good fortune reok- 1 on it now, to be assigned to cabin in com 1 mon with travelled aud wealthy gentleman | from Cape Town, South Africa, member of | one of the leading English legal firms. who | was also bound on & tour of inspection 'around the world" He is not stilted or dig nifed at all and will give you little bit of | his experience somewhat as he related it to | me, in the hope that it may appear as anus l ing to you as 1t did to me, He is accom- | panied by his daughter, and I shall refer to l him by his initial, Mr. A. Said he Weeks | before I started from Cape Town on the Voy- l age to London, my wife was busy preparing | our elaborate warbrode for this circum-mun-
 dane tour. At last the work was all done, | and she congratulated herself that our outfit l was first-class. About forty friends accom- panied me to the boat, whither the baggage l had already been taken. l carried an um- brella and basket containing 150 oranges, the gift of thoughtful friend who knew ex- perimentally what it was to take 6,00o mile 1 ocean voyage. I inquired if the baggage had ] been brought on board, and upon receiving | an affirmative answer proceeded to devote l myself to those who had come to wish me 1 bon voyage. After we had been under way
 about ten hours l inquired Of the steward l for my baggage, and was mortified to learn 1 that it had simply been brought to the wharf, l but not put on the vessel! There l was 1 started on Q tour around the world with my l daughter, provided only with an umbrella l and 150 oranges! I was chaffed unmerclful | ly by those on board. Every beggage-day 1 the captain would say to me, Well, Mir. A., | which will you have up to-day, ths large or | the small trunk?' And whenever dance l was to come of, they would ask me If l wasn't going to dress for the occasion. Of l course I had to buy a complete new outfit at London, and this hindered ne so that ! near 1 ly lost the steamer. As 1t was, I only got | passage after telegraphing great deal, and then paying one hundred and | twenty dollars extra for an officers room l The boats coming to America are full for l weeks beforehand now. did not examine | nay things again until got to San Francisco, | when was again mortified to find that my l principal satcheI had been Tifed en route and stuffed with paper instead. As l Wear1ly l purchased the third new outfit in San Fran cisco my memories of the American baggage system were not very savory."
 The Oceanic was built at Belfast, Ireland, eleven years ago. Her complement of pas l seneers numbers thirty-four first cabin pas sengers for this trip, including fifteen mis- sionaries bound for Japan and China. These missionaries are some of them returning to the seat of former labors, while others are
 beginning the experience. I am surprised to see how anxious those who have once engaged
 in missionary work are to get back and re- sume their labers. The members of the party are almost without exception. gifted, cultured people, endowed with rare graces of heart and mind. They are as full of fun and animal spirits as anybody else on board, and in music, drawing, ond other accomplishments constantly inspire me with the sense of the wealth of gifts which they are about to hide [?) in heathen- dom. To show how much they sympathize l with "worIdIy ways," will quote the answer of one silvery-haired mother in Israel when asked to join in our dances one evening. Said | she: "pd love to, for feel as young as any 1 of you. But how it would sound were it to l be known by those who sent me out that the sedate Mrs. So-and-So indulged in Q dance on shipbosrd. while CD goyGge for China.
 There is the tyranny of public opinion, you