Mower County transcript. [volume] (Lansing, Minn.) 1868-1915, 1885-11-18
FROM CALIFORNIA.

FROM CALIFORNIA.
THE following letter from Miss Ger
trude C. Ellis was not written for publ
cation, but as it is very interesting. we
take the liberty of giving it to the public.
ED.
CLovERDALE, CAL, Oct. Is, 1885.
When visited Southern California. l
still telt that one grand treat waited for
me when should return to Cleverdalc,
place would bring me to the wonderland
of the state-the Geysers. So when Mr..
Shaw CHATS my distant uncle) said to me.
Gertrude, we will 20 to the Geysers Sat-
urday If 1t does not rain. ".my delight was
boundless. This morning not q cloud
was to be seen, and almost before it was,
daylight, the stage ratified up to the door
1t is said that California's palmy staging
days are over, but as did not happen to
be in California twenty years ago, was
glad to test its merit as it Is now. in its
decline. When consider the speed. the
jolting. the sharp turns and the constant
prospect OF bath in some little stream
on whose brink we we're careening, hun
dreds of feet above, was content with
the decline, and would give the more
palmy ride of the past II some one of a
more heroic nature. wish you might
have been with us. for it is impossible for
me to give you any idea what a twenty
mile stage ride in the mountains of Cali
fornia means. until you have heard the
sounds, seen the depths and heights. and
felt the dizzying sensation of being
vhirled along narrow. tuning, sloping
bride paths. Finally, abandoned fear,
hnn 70 In
beauties around. But beauty to me is to
be found in the calm, placid lake, the halo
of sunset, or the tints of our own au-
tumn woods, but not in the rugged up
heaval of mountain canon. There is
something inspiring and awful in the
over-hanging rocks. seemingly almost
bottomless gorges. rapid mountain tor
rents coming from where you can't ina
CINE, and going to place you know far
less about. As say, there is something
awful about such scenes, but it is not
beauty. We enjoy them for their lack of
symmetry, and because our natures crave
variety. But l will not stay too long on
the road. lest you weary Of 1t. for can
| not give you the constantly changing pic
| lures that every turn IN the road land there
| were hundreds) brought before US, but
| will hasten to the object of many pill
grimage. 1t was just noon when we
reached the hotel. = long, pretty, two
story building, with porch extending the
| entire distance around, and this made al
most as secluded as the inside by the
English ivy and passion flower. that
| climbed and twined and matted itself
about the posts. After a good dinner,
not of fine French cooking, but of veni-
son, rich cream, fresh butter and light
| Hro I'm o1 oh # haf I
the women did, took our staff in eur
hands, and started in the direction we
saw the steam rising, to find the Geysers.
We had gone but short distance when
we found that the ground was warm, and
here and there jets of steam coming out
of the earth. A sharp turn in the trail
| showed US the most wicked rocks, in
shape, had ever seen. Our guide took
us over the river Styx. through the Devils
Office, into Devils Pulpit. Devils Kitch-
en-, Devils Machine Shop. and great
| many other bad places. Two thousand
| miles away from this Plutonian realm,
rocking with sulphurous steam, you may
think these names too internal. But
with the ground hot under your feet. the
strongest oder Of sulphur in the atmos-
phere. and the continual roaring of the
| steam trying to escape more freely. and
fantastic shaped rocks about. you can
think the names only suggestive. The
| whose black boiling, Fahren.
mountain tops. There are hot alum and
sulphur springs. and boiling springs con-
tanning ammonia, epson salts, magnesia,
salt, iron, etc., and under your feet con.
tinually, are these substances IN their
crystal forms. and so hot you cannot
pick them up without burning tho hands
Truly, it is the great laboratory of
Nature, and God is the Chemist. We
passed on to the "Ink-stand," where a
substance black and boiling answers
every purpose of ink. Not foot away
from this black sink, was another boil
ing spring. but so white in its color that
it IA called "Chicken- broth" There
were other marvels cannot tell you Of,
but at the end of the canon we looked
down on the ceaseless action, the war,
the commotion, the steam, and the bub-
bling of more than q hundred medicated
springs, while the steam ascends above
them all. Going back things were more
peaceful. There was Lovers Retreat,
which did not enter. Lovers Leap,
which did not test, Lovers Heaven,
in which did not remain. The trip waf
brim full of interesting wonders Of nature
and a. looked at it all, thought Of my
friends in Au,tin, and how much
should have given could some of those
dear circles Of friends look on thu
scene with me, but none Of you came
and in short time the roaring aud steam
was behind, and again the stage wal
swaylng over the tortuOus road, and tn
Geysers were left in the distance.
was a rare. wonderful daY, and a. W,
rode home in the moon light. though
who can witness such exhibitions o.
power and not fear and reverence tn
Hand who forms the hills and the Voic
at whose command the wheel of Natur