The morning call., 1890-05-05
OUR EASTERN TOURISTS.

In these days the cities of California are
overrun by an interesting class of people,
nearly half of whom are females who wan
der up and down the streets with nose in
air. staring curiously around them as il
they were lost and wished that some one
would find them. These are Eastern tour
lists, who are shipped in patches from East
ern cities and are under contract to pay so
much money for so many miles of travel,
to sleep at such and such hotels, to
take such and such trains, and to put
up with the dangers and drawbacks of
adventure with such philosophy as they
may possess. They come from all sorts of
curious places. The other day two pages
of the register Of leading hotel were filled
with the names of travellers from Ports
mouth. Shade of Matte Brun! Where is
Portsmouth? They are sometimes cheer
full, as becomes people who have crossed a
continent without loss of life or limb; but,
again, they are often low-spirited, like
people who. having neglected to fee the
waiter in advance, have had pOt-luck for
dinner.
Observation Of these tourists leads to the
impression that most Of them are des-
perately in earnest in their work of sight
seeing. They come here to spy out the
land, and they are Going it thoroughly. ex-
haustiyely When an old Californian meets
one of them after his return to his Eastern
home the Pacific Coaster is astonished to
find that the Yankee knows more about
California than he does himself having
used his eyes and his tongue to better pur-
pose. The tourists burrow down into the
subcellars OF Chinatown and climb Tele-
graph Hill; they inspect Alcatraz and in
vestigate San Quentin; they take trips TO
Mount Hamilton, and count the seals on
the Farallones; they visit every suburban
resort, fish for salmon in the Sacramento
aud battle in the surf near the Cliff House;
they infinitely examine the mineral collec-
ton in the Mining Bureau, spend a day in
the orchards Of Alameda and another in
the vineyards of Yolo. Nor do they con-
slider their work done till they have seen
Mount Shasta and TeVeled in the balmy,
though m0notOnOus, climate Of San Diego
When they leave here they are walking
cyclopedias on Pacific Coast matters.
When these tourists are compared with
that other class of travellers who, under the
direction of Mr.. Cook, execute contracts to
do Europe in periods varying from six
weeks to six months, the impartial observer
Is bound 10 pronounce the former the more
sensible of the two. 1t is an excellent thing
strange countries for to 90 see, as the ballad
says; but some strange countries are better
worth seeing than others, and certainly an
American should sea his own before he goes
wandering off to foreign parts. There is
nothing in Europe more interesting than
the Pacific Coast; the Rocky Mountains are
away above the Alps; the Rhine will not
compare with the Columbia, nor the plains
of Burgundy with the valley of Santa Clara.
And delightful as Paris and Rome are, an
American is always stranger in either of
them; surrounded by people who are for
eign in speech, habits, dress, thought, NOR
ais and purposes, lie never succeeds in
feeling at home, and he always longs to be
among his own people once more. Here,
on the contrary, there is nothing except,
perhaps, the climate to remind him that he
is not in New England. He is blood OF our
blood, bone of our bone. 1t is odds that
every man he meets will coincide with him
in opinion on the leading questions of the
day, and on matters of morals and life
aims they will agree. There is just that
difference between the American in Califor-
mia and the American in New England
which longitude might be expected to pro-
duce; the New Highlander who returns from
Europe feeling that he has learned nothing
except that after ali this is the best country
to live in, returns from California with a
perception of the changes which locality
may produce in the American mind.