Morning journal and courier., 1886-08-21
ACROSS THE CONTINENT,

santa Cruz, CAlifornia-Ranek Life,
 Following is an extract from a letter writ ten from Santa Cruz, California, by Fred F. Babcock, who is now upon ranch in Santa Cruz and tuus far likes rsnching. He is 8 son of Mr. 4. L. Babcock, of this city, and Was, previous to going to the Pacific coast, connected with the paper warehouse of F. S. Bradley in this city. After edscribing his l journey from this city to Kansas City, which | was via Buffalo, South Bend, ind, Chicago, | where some of the principal sights were viewed, Davenport and Rock Island, the writer says he was impressed with the clumsy river boats of which Mark Twain has written and | the first the writer had seen outside of pie lures and plays, and which, though clumsy, carry heavy burdens. Owing to 8 bad washs | out on the Atchison. Topeka 2 Santa Fe l railroad, Mt. Babcock went by the Denver & 1 Rio Grande route, the most desirable for 1 anyone fond of fine scenery. Pueblo, Col was reached the next morning. During the night 1 the axle on the baggage car broke. letting
 the truck en to the track and sending one oi l the wheels flying up through the car Nc one was killed, but it caused four hours l delay. This caused 8 loss of connections at
 Pueblo and a further delay of several l hours. Pueblo has now horse railroad, and
 
 boys to- be seen in their peculiar and negli- | gent attire. The next event of interest was | the ride up grade crossing the Rocky Noun tains. ''Talk about up grades. In some l places we seemed to be going up at an angle | of 45 degrees. We went through passes with walls of rock hundreds of feet high on both sides of us, and on the brink of canons as many hundred feet straight down. The cars rocked pretty badly, and sometimes in going | around sharp curves they seemed to hang right over the side, and you could look down samobt as far as the eye could reach and see nothing but bed of rocks to land on if you | did go over. It makes 8 man feel old and 1 his hair stand right straight out going around | some of the curves.
 l "We reached the summit at 8 D. m. having passed through snowsheds and, tunnels too numerous to mention, and the seenefy we saw was beautiful beyond description; it was grand. One must take the trip to ap- preciate it. At the summit the snow is from six to eight feet deep and the air very cold. My overcoat came in handy, I tell you. They doubled up the train again here and began to descend at 8:15 p. m., and we went down with a rush. At about 9:3O D. m the train stopped at 'Sar gent's' for sup per. Left 'Sargent's' at 10 p. m. and con- tinued to descend. We crossed the desert in Utah during the night, which we were very thankful for, and by daylight we had begun to cross the Wasatch range of mountains. At about ! a. m. we stopped in at what is called Castle Gate for about half an hour for the engine to take water. It is a natural gate of rock about twenty five feet through and hundreds of feet high with the river running through it. The passengers got off and strolIed around, stretching their legs and enjoying themselves in their own way generally. Ali ter leaving here we saw nothing of note ex- cepting the Great Salt Lake until we arrived ct C.,1f T<a61a Ia@ Sunday, the 9th. Here all the women were out in their Sunday clothes enjoying the Sabbath. We could see the old temple from the depot. It is very large white building They are building new temple and have been for seven years past. A great many think it will never be finished. It is being built entirely by subscription and will cost nearly three millions when finished. It is an immense building. Our next stop after passing Og- den was at Carline, where we arrived at about a. m. Monday, the 7th Here we had breakfast and also a wait of fifteen hours to help us digest it. On our arrival here we learned that the train that left day in advance had gone into the river, and we could not go on until they had cleared the wreck, laid new track and repaired the bridge, so we made the best of it. In the accident (which happened about four miles from where we had to wait), the conductor
 
 and the fireman, badly injured. We all turned in about eight o'clock that night, and were run over the river about midnight so we did not see the wreck
 "After leaving Carline we ran abont forty five miles per hour to make up a lost mile. The regular running time is from thirty to thirty five miles hour. We ar rived at Ellks at about a. m. Tuesday, the Sth, and stopped for breakfast. We stopped at Reno short time, where we obtained some fine fruit. All through Nevada we saw throngs of Indians, all 8 ragged, dirty and ugly lot. The ride up the Sierra Neva- da mountains is imposing and thrilling. The scenery is fine. We went through one snow shed forty miles long and it was very cold going through. We reached the summit at D. m. Here we all got off while the train was being doubled up again and had a good snowballing racket. Men, women and children snowballed each other to their hearts content It was great fun, tell you.
 ''We started down the mountains at about 5:30 and went for all we were worth. Col fax was our next place of note. Thence we left for Los Angeles. This was the hardest nights travel we had. We were passing over the desert of California. Talk about dust and heat. you don't know the meaning of the words. When we woke up in the morning we had to call in the brakeman to shovel the dirt up so we could get up, and if you ever saw two dirty mortals we were the two. We soon got cleaned up, however, and got breakfast, and as we were gradually coming into a more civilized looking coun- try, we began to feel better.
 "We arrived at Sumner at 10 m. and had lunch. From here on the country is per feet garden. Fruits and vegetables as far as one can growing in the greatest profu sion. We passed through a tunnel one mile long about noon, and just as we came out we saw over large gate the word 'Por- ter Mir. Porter's rancho begins there. He has a very large and beautiful place. We arrived in Los Angeles at p. m., Wednes- day, the 9th of June, having been on the road days and nights instead of as we expected. At Los Angeles we stayed with our friends two days, thence to San Francis co, Monterey, Salina City and Santa Cruz"