New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1891-11-08
THE EARLIER BIRD.

oartment of a Pullman, in an overland train head
ing Westward They talked Of California-of its
gold and the 49ers, Of it's fruits ana wine, OF
its people When the latter subject was reached,
one of the travellers fetched sigh SO longS ana
deep that it instantly attracted the notce OF tne
Others and they asked it's cause lie returning
no answer, one of them demanded to Know wheIner
he had ever experienced the famous hospitality
Of the and 70 TINS by ne proxy
Thereupon the others, burning with curiosity,
besought him to make himself understood. This
he did in the following tale y
Nv first visit to the Golden State took place
number of years ago, when 1 was an ineX-
perienced young man Of about tNventy-hve MY
home at that time was In Cleveland Where my
family had resided for many years trip 10
California. In those days, was looked upon as a
great undertaking, and / began to talk 1t over
with my friends and relatives-both OF wh1ch aot
out. Presently, | Iiade remarkable discovery
1t was that every one of these friends ana rela-
tivcs had some acquaintance on the Pacific Coast,
who would rejoice at the opportunity TO welcome
me, afforded by letter OF Introduction. A. ,
Now, 1t happened that several years before l
had had little experience With the praGTs ast t
college carried note to some peope In Boston
presented it, and am confident that no explorer
of the Arctic regions ever encountered a, lower 1--WE
come. Now, as | understand a letter OF lnuoduc-
tion it is sort Of sight-draft friendship being
the consideration, drawn by your friend on the
if you can. Your success depends on several
things your friends credit wit the stranger, for
one: the strangers general solvency-that - ms
opinion of you as a collector, for third Inc
whole transaction seems to me loose and irregular,
and the risk falls entirely on the unfortunate
bearer of the letter, who usually takes the thlhg
on its face value.
At first tried by various evasions to get ont OF
hse Ba it wSee
some enormous favor on me, which; with the
natural modesty Of youth. was seeking to de-
cline. The more held off, the greater was their
zeal in my behalf, and in several instances, l am
confident, il resulted in my having letters forced
upon me which would otherwise have been for,
gotten. What could | do? Nobody ever heard
of such thing declining letter Of introduction
it would be equivalent to saying Il don't want
to meet your friend he may be good enough for
you, but have no use for him." So | accepted
all that were offered, and concealed my true senti-
ments under an expansive mask OF gratitude:
The number of these epistes increased with
friends and relatives write themselves, but many of
them dementedly went about asking, people,, to
whom l was an utter stranger for Letters that
should make me known to their friends In Cali
fornia. Then there were some letters that came
spontaneously from the most unexpected quarters.
For example, friend would meet me and say:
You don't know Colonel Jim Fairfax, do you p
"No l don't"
well, he told me the other day he had friend
out the Coast that he would like you to meet
he had heard somewhere of your California trip.
So he gave a letter of intfoductiOn-here ii is.
It's to the Hon. Patrick Casey-a member of the
Legislature. thanked him, knowing. that You
would feel grateful for the attention"
Certainly" answered: but as | never met
Colonel Jim Fairfax, / hardly see how he
.oh, that was all right He just wrote the
/ Opcned the letter and saw. II was calculated
to deceive the Hon. Patrick into the belief that
Colonel Jim and were like Damon and Pythias.
/ shuddcringly added the letter to the heap, and
/ mention 1t now only as sample of it's class.
At last, when was ready to start, the bundle
Of letters, had grown SO large that II positively
frightened me. Indeed, at times | was half re-
solved to abandon the trip. solely on account of
the premonition Of evil that swept over me when
ever contemplated that awful heap But had
letters in one corner Of my trunk, took my de-
parture. There was a crowd at the station 10 see
NE OIL, AMI the last thing j heard, as the train
started was a general cry of:
" he sure and present my letter To-"
or Course the request was superiuous-like most
things said at partings-for the reason that had
already solemnly promised each one that / would
deliver his letter.
In the quiet solitude of the first days ride
had nothing TO do but think. and the bundle
Of letters provided me with plenty of subject
matter. They constituted q problem whose vex-
aious conditions drove me half distracted.
If failed to deliver them-ar to make at least
an honest effort in behalf of each-I would break
NY promise to number Of people whose good
opinion / held in high esteem. 1t would never
do for me deliberately TO admit on my return,
that I had scorned to make acquaintance with
their friends, that had been insensible to their
kindness in giving me the letters. On the other
hand l doubted whether l could manufacture
excuses delicate enough to be satisfactory. and at
the same time in large enough numbers to go
around. Having been trained to truth from my
b0yhood, | lacked the IMAGINATIVE power that is
needed for artistic mendacity. In fact. l was
likely to find myself in the same embarrassing
situation that is said TO have overcome the Father
Of his Country: could not tell le-that
would get me ont Of the scrape
So / finally settled it In my own mind that !
must present all the letters.
Then the other horn Of the dilemma began to
gore me. Here were lot of people who knew
nothing Of me nor / Of them. / was expected 10
hunt them up. at a great expense Of time and
trouble. and deliver 70 them letter apiece all
around. after the fashion OF conscientious and
impartial mailman. But that was not all. These
letters practically involved a demand on my part
for attentions, based on le-nc-saisquoi relation
ship between the sender and the recipient. Being
o very Young man. j was somewhat sensitive on
the score of snnbs and | saw them looming up in
unlimited numbers throughout the whole sit
uation. The Boston experience was liable to be
repeated on magnificent scale.
The second day out became acquainted with
several Of my felow-passengers: One of them. a
bright. young New-Yorker. by the name of Yelver.
ton. seemed TO take special fancy 20 me. and we
put In several hours conversing together. He
had visit,d the Coast before and, although only
few years my senior, was evidently a man
who had a good deal of experience in the world
Naturally, after our acquaintance had progressed
10 certain stage. talked Of the subject that was
uppermost In my mind and told him all about
the letters
had hoped he would say something that would
prove reassuring; on the contrary he aggravated
my wee
"Why, my dear fellow he said il Won are
going 10 undertake to deliver those episties. Won
have my sympathy. Just now. the very words
'letfer Of introduction are, 10 the average Cali.
fornian, like q red rag TO a bull They are n hos
pitabIe people but their good nature has been so
grossly imposed upon by the horde of impostors
and mountebanks that has poured in since the
building Of the railroad. that il is longer easy
for a stranger to get into their good 0races. The
Observation-Disclosures device has been worked until