The Sunday tatler and Jersey City express. (Jersey City, N.J.) 1883-1886, 1886-08-22
HOME FROM CALIFORNIA
THE GRAND ARMY BOYS STRdGGLIN @
EASTWARD ONE By ONE.

of the Republic, held on the Pacific coast is
over at last, but it's memories will last
probably much longer than the lives of the
4svets and their friends who were present
during all the excitement and hurrah it
crested in the great Californian capital for
SO many days Many Jersey mother and
sister, aunt, cousin, wife and sweetheart
has been humming to herself during the
past week, no doubt, the old familiar tune
of
Hurrahl hurrah
Wen give him hearty welcome now.
Hurrahl hurrah!
The boys and girls they all will shout,
The ladies they will all turn out.
And we all feel glad now Johnnie comes marching
home"
The first of the Hudson County delega-
ton consisted of two of the boys, and they
were both all there, too. They were De-
partment Commander Frank o. Cole and
the happy Gus Letter, whose genial smile
beams radianily on everybody in the
neighborhood of his Junction saloon.
A TATTLER representative stopped IN at
Mr.. Coles drug store, on the corner OF
, Grand street and Summit avenue, yester-
day. to hear what that gentleman had to
relate of his trip aud the trip of the Jersey
contingent generally
"Well." he started in, " after having
travelled 5000 miles across nineteen states
and territories, many of which taken alone
are vaster in extent than all the British
ohNrt Tn the
conclusion that while the west is glorious
country. teeming with great men both in
stature and intellect, as we'll as the most
beautiful women in the world, and while
the landscape with its lofty hills and noun
ta;ns. as well as It's beautiful fertile valleys,
: too numerous to mention, are on a scale
the grandeur of which must be seen to be
conceived, Jersey City, after all, is pretty
good place
chow did you like the trip homer"
ssPretty we'll. Although the trip was some
: what tiresome, we had good time. We left
San Francisco on Monday, August 9th, and
arrived in Jersey City on Wednesday last.
In all or nearly all of the cities and
towns we visited took pains to inquire
concerning the liquor traffic, and IN all
cases l found system of high license,
ranging from 81 200 in Salt Lake City to
$500 in Helena. From Denver west to the
Sierras the country is one vast desert,
destitute of vegetation and almost OF life,
vet even this desert spot can be made to
bloom by irrigation In tact salt Lake
City, when occupied by the Mormons
some forty years ago, was waste To-
day the valley produces as me crops as
I, can be grown. Denver, / think, is the
nrettiest city I ever saw. and next 10 that
Portland. Oregon. By the way, in Port
land they have High School building
more magnificent than any structure IN the
State of New Jersey. In every portion of
the West liberal appropriations are made
for public schools, and in every place the
principal building is the school house.
San Francisco is horrid place. Every
day about P. NJ o wind blows in from the
bay. and before sunset the air is permeated
with damp cold fog, which lasts till about
10 o'clock next morning, when it becomes
SO warm that one would wish to go live
in his shirtsleeves. There are few fine
buildings there, except the Palace Hotel.
But they have one thing superior to any
CITY in the world-that is their street car
service, mostly cable cars, running at the
rate of eight miles an hour, In which
one can travel nearly six miles for five
cents. Two lines, aggregating nine miles,
run by one stationery engine. 1t occurred
to me at once that if President Thurston
could only imagine how nicely these
frisco cable roads work. he would give us
a sample Of them in our own city.
s'Can't you give us some interesting in
cidents of the trip which would interest
the public ?" continued the reporter.
eyes, I recollect several interesting
anecdotes. The funniest thing Of all
probably was the experience of Gus Letter
at the great Salt Lake. You know he
weighs about 225 pounds. Well, we went
to the lake to battle, and the largest bath
ing suit accessible only reached just above
LETTERS waist. He went into the lake,
however, and the great buoyancy of the
water turned Gus feet up, and as his feet
pointed skyward his tight fitting suit split
from top to bottom, and Gus was escorted
from the water embarrassed beyond meas
ure. He survived the shock. though.
Another incident happened at Denver
City. The fire laddies had been showing
US the workings of their department, and
on the return trip of the parole wagon q
party of us were invited to jump aboard
We did so, and were brought up in front
of station house. AS we alighted the
Sergeant on duty, for a bit of amusement,
: grabbed Editor Merritt, of the MT. Holly
Mirror, by the shoulder and run him in
double quick order to the lookup. He
was let out in about two MINUTES, the
worst scared fellow you ever saw. He
was gasping for breath. but when the little
job was explained to him he regained his
color and made the best of the joke
ssThe Jersey boys played huge joke on
the Iowa delegation, which occupied the
cars Immediately in front.of us. Notwith-
standing the fact that the Iowans were all
prohibitionists, the boys had brought
goodly supply of bottled beer along with
them, and for appearance sake brought it in
and by PERMISSION placed it in our ice box
Gus Letter heard of it, and in his uncon-
trollable desire for the malt beverage and
sport, the Iowa beer bottles were emptied
and refiIled with water. Pretty soon the
owners of the stolen liquor came back to