Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1888-03-09
OUTHERN CALIFORNT1.
Ecu Route 10 the Land of Eternal SUM
mer---NOtes by the Way.

| OF our California trip, it may he time that
I was about fulfilling them. Our overland
| journey was made in connection with the
Cook excursion party which left Boston on
Feb. lst. Joining the party at Greenfield
in the evening, we found ourselves next
morning beyond Albany, nearing Bingham
ton, with the snow gradually thinning out
and our train several hours behind time.
This Aforementioned fact delayed our break
fast (meals being served at way stations)
until noon, and other meals in proportion
and we found this trouble to be- chronic
one over almost the entire route In this
particular the Raymond parties are un-
| doubtedly preferable TO the Cook, the form
er having special trains with dining cars
attached, while the latter are dependent
upon the regular-or irregular-trains for
their motive power, and upon the hotels
and restaurants en- route for their subsist-
ence However, with the exception of this
drawback-which the convenient lunch
basket helps to remedy-the Cook manage
ment is unexceptionable The special at
tendants are gentlemanly and attentive,
aud do all in their power TO render the jour
ney pleasant.
The second morning we awoke to find
ourselves in central Ohio, with the snow
entirely gone and the country spreading out
into prairie Arrived at an early hour in
the great, interesting, semi-southern city of
Cincinnati, where we were to spend the
day, we made our headquarters at the Bur
nett House, and proceeded to ''do' the
town. A party of Brattleboro delegates
called at the residence of Rev. f. W. Whit
ney, which is pleasantly located on Walnut
hill, overlooking the business part of the
city. Mr.. Whitney was absent on pastoral
duty but the visitors were cordially vel
coined by Mrs. Whitney and the other mem
bers Of the household, and were pleased to
learn that all were contented and happy in
their new relationship.
Taking our departure in the evening, we
crossed the Ohio river and passed through
| Louisville and across most Of the state of
Kentucky in the darkness, and awoke
to find ourselves nearing the Tennessee
border, our route being over the Louis
vile q Nashville line. The broad, level
lands Of Tennessee, with their tinge of
greenness, suggested large agricultural ca
| pabilities, but the farm houses aud villages
along the line failed to bear out the sugges-
ton. Indeed, for absolute squalor, filth
and wretchedness, both of interior and ex-
terror whether inhabited by whites or
| blacks the houses exceeded as a rule, even
the adobe huts of New Mexico and Arizona
| Glimpses Of southern home life, caught from
the car-window as we passed were, how
ever, often picturesque. The tumble-down
hoyel set upon stills, the turbaued negress
standing in the open doorway, the half
/ dozen children Of all sizes, bare headed and
bare legged, grouped about in the dirt and
mud in various attitudes, and all eyes fixed
/ upon the passing train, were there. And
the men folks When we reached the sta
tion with its adjacent grocery store and
/ half dozen poverty struck dwellings forD-
ing the village, we found them forming an
other group of which the grocery was
the centre, with its various attractions dry
and wet, while around forming the outside
of the group, were hitched the horses and
mules astride which--for it had been rain
ing, and travelling in wheeled vehicles was
well-nigh impossible because of tine red, un-
fathomabe mud-their owners had come to
town to trans act their business and learn
the news. Oh, for a photographer to ac-
company us and spring his instantaneous
picture-trap upon the many interesting
scenes that mark our journey To be sure,
"a 4 1aal g 4
ness to the scenery here and elsewhere ON
our route. Much of Tennessee and Alabama
seems "a dreary, almost tenantless, waste of
low, wet lands grown up to pine and oak !;
and yet here and there we see the standing
stalks of a last years cotton or corn field,
or a group of haystacks, into and under
which the surrounding cattle have eaten for
themselves places of shelter like rats into
an old cheese and near at hand we espy
large farmhouse Of the traditional southern
type, with its group of negro cabins ada
cent and anon we cross low range of
hills or follow 4 stream from whose banks
we get views well worthy of remembrance.
The execrabe breakfast served us at
Nashville may have blinded our eyes some
what to the attractiveness of a city whose
chief redeeming features were plainly due
to northern enterprise and philanthropy.
Decatur, Ala, finely located on the south
bank of the Tennessee river, which is here
as wide as the Connecticut at Springfield
and navigable, is evidently destined to be-
come some day city of considerable i'm
portance and business activity. 1t has
been selected as the headquarters of the
Louisville < Nashville railroad company,
whose buildings are now going up. At
Birmingham we found ourselves in the cen
tire of an iron industry whose development,
like the growth of the city itself, has been
phenomenal, forming the strongest indica-
ton of the birth of New South" which
we had yet seen, The place now claims a
population of $4,000 or upwards mainly
the growth of the last two years As seen
from the line of the railroad, Birmingham
is one of the most unattractive places i'm
aginable its numerous coke-ovens with
their blazing cones, and its blast furnaces
with the thick smoke issuing from their tall
chimneys, made it seem, in the gathering
darkness, too near the confines of the in
fernal regions, even for one just escaped
from the frozen North.
1t was too dark when we reached Mont
gomery, Ala, the old capital of the Con
federacy, to discern its peculiarities, and
Mobile was passed before daylight, as also
was the home of jeff Davis We were now
upon the borders of the Gulf of Mexico.
The character of the vegetation which met
our eyes had changed we had reached the
land of the orange and the palm, of the
live oak and the cypress wierdly clothed
with the pendant Spanish moss, of swamps
and bayous wherein the pensve alligator
not to mention his worthy neighbors, the
moccasin and the incipient gallinipper-lay
dreaming (and doubtless smiled as he dream
ed of the young and tender pickaninnies
fattening for his summers larder. Cross
ing an occasional creek or arm of the gulf,
alternating with sunken meadows over
which the duck hunter or fisherman make.
TO his armpts, we find ourselves entering
the quaint old city of New Orleans in sea
son for a very timely Sunday morning
breakfast at the St. Charles hotel.
But | see that thiS letter will be too long
if tell the whole story at once. D, b. $.
Australia had glorious time celebrating
its centennial during the closing week of
January, 1t was just 100 years ago wher
Capt. Cook took possession of that vas
island for the British crown The frs
colony was a ship-load of convicts landed