Los Angeles herald., 1891-07-03
Judge Magee and the Super.
visOrs Climb 1t.
A Pleasant Trip to Wilson's
Peak on Wednesday.
The New Toll Road to the Summit
Open for Travel.
Toll Fixed at Fifty Cents for Equestrians
and Twenty five Cents for Tramps.
Incidents of the Journey Re-
counted-The Journey
Pleasant One.

of enjoying himself as busy man upon
the occasion Of an infrequent holiday.
1t was therefore very jolly party which
composed the supervisorial party of in
spection over the new trail up Wilson's
peak. The party started on Wednesday,
with the ostensible object of fixing the
rate of toll to be charged on the new
road to the ever-popular peak.
The party that left Los Angeles over
the Terminal road was composed
of Messrs. Perry, Cook, Davis,
Hubbard and Forester, and news
paper representatives. At Pasa-
dena the party was met by Judge
Magee, who had Wiley & Greeley's large
six-seated carriage, drawn by four fine
horses, ready to convey them to the foot
of the trail in Eaton's cafion. On the
road Mr.. Gardiner of the Pasadena Star
was picked up, and at 10 O'Clock the en-
tire party arrived at the foot of the trail.
Here Mr.. Greeley had provided horses
good, reliable apimals-upon which all
were soon mounted.
The start was made at 10 80, and for
the next two hours the motto of men
and horses was Excelsior" if it was
anything. The trail soon raised the
party up to where the scenery came fair
ly in view, and the immense superiority
of the new over the old route is at once
apparent when it is known that it rises
continually, with uniform and easy
grade, and does not once dip down into
hollows or cations.
A short or ,,,oIa ~ -3o
fiat, where the newspaper men inter
viewed old Captain Henniger and looked
over his neatly kept and fertile little
ranch.
A short time afterwards the trail en-
tered the forest and passed among
gigantic and symmetrical pines and
venerable oaks, whose shade was very
welcome after the heat of the MONDAY
sun.
Just about this time the thoughts of
the supervisors began to take a serious
turn, and one or two of them were
heard to murmur words which sounded
like repetitions of the trite remark OF
the governor of North Carolina to the
governor of South Carolina, to which
the newspaper men furnished a prompt
and vigorous echo.
Longing looks we're cast at a small
satchel carried by Judge Magee and a
suspicious looking parcel in the possess
sion of newspaper man, but when one
developed only a supply of cigars and
the other kodak camera. the supervis-
ors gave up in despair and looked long
ingly upward. ,,
The scenery occupied the party from
then until turn in the trail brought
them in sight of the camp at the sum-
NIT, Where they were Hospitality re-
ceived by Mr.. Martin, who, with Mr..
Lynch, keeps the camp, and were ush-
cred to table with an enticing array of
glasses, sugar bowls, water pitchers and
other suggestive articles. None of the
thirsty party had time to even look
inquiringly before Mine Host Martin
had set out corpulent looking bottle of
Monogram whisky, aad then retired to
corner where popping of
corks spoke of beer, which soon
appeared, and the white-winged dove of
peace, who had been left back in the
trail somewhere, scared in at the side of
the tent and perched on a stool as if it
meant to stay there.
Next came dinner, and the size of the
appetites that sat down to that dinner
table were certainly not commensurate
with the size of the men in possession of
the same.
The party felt as if quiet was what
they wanted after dinner, and one party
sat down to whist and another to poker.
Judge Magee was persuaded to join the
poker party, though he declared himself
ignorant of the game. The HERALD
representative retired to hammock and
read sentence by Evarts in an eastern
paper. When he returned to camp, the
whist party had wandered off; the rest
of the camp was asleep, but the poker
party was still playing, and Judge Magee
had all the chips on the table in front
of him.
The supper bell brought back all the
wanderers, and after another meal to sur.
prise hotel keeper, the entire party
set out for the peak selected for the OBJ
servatory. 1t was sharp pull up ovel
rocks and stumps, and when the party
finally perched itself on a big rock al
the very tiptop of the peak it was minus
one supervisor, and the press was repre-
sented only by the HERALD man.
Back again, and the party sat on the
verge of the bluff and watched the
shadows deepen in the valley, and when
night had fully come the myriad cleo
trio sparks that denoted the position oi
Los Angeles suddenly flashed out, fol.
lowed few minutes later by the lights
of Pasadena. The newspaper men
swepped snake stories, and Judge
Magee passed around the cigars; then,
one by one, Messrs. Martin and Lynch
led the travellers off to their tents
where, with the soughing of the wind
among the trees, sounding like the surf
on the seashore murmuring in their
ears, they slept until the sun, who gets
up early up there, arose, and called
them up also.
An excursion was made to the end oi
the new trail, where blasting is still
going on; then the supervisors held an
informal meeting and fixed the toll at
30 cents the round trip for mounted
men and Is cents for each pedestrian.
Breakfast was the next occurrence
followed by the arrival of the horses fol
the return of the party to Pasadena.
The return began auspiciously at about
s O'Clock. The difficulties in the way oi
the construction of the trail were more
apparent on the second trip, and it ap.
peared wonderful feat of engineering
to all. The mountain side is composed
of much loose matter, and in the effort
to blast out road it quite frequently
occurred that the only result was the
sliding down of larger mass of rocks
and earth than before, which in it's turn
had IN ha blasted ont the narformance