The record-union., 1892-06-18
OVERLAND TO PORTLAND.
" Di Vernon's" Notes of a Glorious
Journey.
Scenes Along the Upper Sacramento
Valley-Incidents of the Trip
Mount Shasta.
Especial Correspondence REcoRD-US1oS.l

| Especial Correspondence RECoRD-UNIoN.l
| y railroad depot offers a rich field of
! observation TO the student of human ma
tare. The crowd, the confusion, the rush
and tumble OF the ''last-minute' people,
the baggage and the bundles, the tourists
with umbrellas and lunch baskets-the
seven ages OF man, from the baby in
arms to gray-beard, leaning heavily on
his cane-all are being borne to their
goal.
Those bound for the Northwest from
San Francisco find themselves in just
such a crowd at the waiting-room of the
broad-gauge Oakland ferry, at the foot of
Market street. at the Z o'clock boat and
hasten on board, struggling with the lug
gage that nearly all travellers burden
themselves with at the start. Few have
| reduced themselves to the happy state of
gripsack and a celIuloid collar. 1t is
not long before the ferry-boat reaches the
Oakland Mole, and then comes another
! grand rush. Someone once described the
American people as always being in Il
/ hurry; always going somewhere; never
slttlng sun, but pacing up and down
! even While III transit, on boat or car.
| This is perfectly true, and shows out
never more plainly than when people are
rushing TO find their train.
| am sure that the great American pub
/ lie believe that ali the railroads in the
/ country are simply lying in wait for an
! opportunity to go off and leave would
! be passengers behind. So they hurry and
/ rush pell-men and besiege the porter
! stationed at every car and beSeech him
| in tense tones to tell them ii they are at
/ the right train, and so they finally settle
! Il III. L.
out OF the window with feelings of COM
miseration for those not SO fortunate as
| themselves; at those who are still afoat
III that sea of confusion and still being
startled by the ciang and clamor of bells.
locomotive puffings and shrill toots from
! steam whistles.
At last everybody is on board. with
! plenty of time to spare; no one had need
Of rushing. The caris crowded, there are
merry voices and nervous laughs, and u
! host OF, BE sure you remember" and
| Don't forget to write" 'and''-'' ''and''-
! then the train reaches Sixteenth-st
! station, more rush and hurry, hasty en-
| braces, resounding kisses, hand shakes.
and at last we are alone with our car full
! OF bona flde travellers. | never ride in the
cars that that merry, Jolly poem Of Oliver
! Wendell Holmes does not recur to nay
mind, and its refrain seems to be taken
up by the wheels themselves and at every
! turn they repeat:
Bless me this is pleasant
Riding on a rail.
Nor does 1t seem as if the journey would
| begin half SO pleasantly, were we to start
! at an earlier hour. We are seeking a
country, to us unknown; we leave our
| own dear city of San Francisco in the
light of a summer day; her hills, her ia
mlliar landmarks of tower and turret and
ambitious Spire stand out clearly against
! the sky, and then, as we wander away
from her, the light grows dim, the strange
| scenes become more vague and shadowy
! in the moonlight, and at last we reach
Port Costa, and are suddenly aware that
the carwheels are no longer in notion
and yet the scenery seems to be moving
The mystery is solved. We are on board
the massive, mighty ferry-boat, and are
! being transported, train and all, to
! Benicia. 1t is very wehd-in the moon
/ light. Look out of the car window: see.
there are men eating i'll the restaurant.
! The great smokeStaclS Of the steamboat
| loom up like gigantic columns, the moon
light strikes the waters Of the bay and
makes path clear, cold and fascinati ng
| best described by Coleridge's lines:
And on the bay the moonlight lay,
And the shadow of the moon.
Along the other side of our train lies
another. We can look through the win
| doWs Of the mail car and watch the clerks
| sorting the papers and flirting them with
the easy grace Of a boy throwing away
peanut shells while watching ball game.
| into the open mouths of the bags fastened
in regular rows on either side the middle
aisle. The combination of celerity, pre-
! clslon and nonchalance of the mail clerk
on a railroad train is something awe-in-
spring.
Some of the more energetic of the peo-
pie IN the Pullman have taken advan-
tage of the opportunity to change their
| position by getting out and walking
| about the broad surface Of the boat 4
deckhand informed me that the boat was
nearly 500 feet i'll length. Mighty mon
ster;, moving majestically without a
! throb of exertion, without tremor of
effort it carried its freight over to the
other side, and the train sped on.
/ a crying baby aroused grave apprehen-
sions in the mind of some as to how the
night would drag its weary hours away
! but older and wiser ones declared that the
child would cry itself out in the early
part OF the evening and give us peace
] later on. The slick, smooth, trim por-
ters, pale-faced darllieS in uniform, sped
noiselessly through the car, and in per
suasive tones inquired: Don't yo' want
yo' beth made upY' Nothing 10th.
many were glad to accept their proffered
service, and stood III the aisle or visited in
another section while, with the celerity and
/ dizziness born OF long practice, the porter
made up the berthS. 10 me The Pullman
| palace car was simply revelation. There
must be first time for everything and
! this was my first time on board a sleeper
| Every inch of space seemed 10 have been
utilized in the arrangement OF the car,
ana / noticed, with a grateful dismissal of
1 the fear OF black and blue spots, that the
corners of every turn were padded with
velvet. and that there wasn't an ag-
| gressive edge of anything to bump or
bruise a hapless wight. Alas, / had
counted without my cost, as | found out
after humping my head severely as L
moved around the lower berth later on,
preparatory to climbing up TO my own
elevated sleeping apartment.
What metamorphosis it is, to be sure,
! the sleeper by day, and the same by
night. The heavy curtains transformed
! the car into one long tapestry hung
aisle-through which IN various dis
! guises of shawls, wrappers and long
ulsters the ladies sped one after the other
/ TO the room at the end of the car, where
although the space was small. they could
stand up and prepare to retire. To un-
dress in ones birth is an act not to be
acquired in day. The curtains them
! selves seemed to become animated. and
I swung out with many q curious bulge
and waved with many an agitated move
| ment eloquent Of the attempts of some
owner of a berth to climb up into his
possession. Some passengers sat up until
sacramento was reached and then with
drew. To one who has never travelled by
night before the sensations of sleeping in
an upper birth are decidedly novel; the
motion, the noise of the train, the sudden
stops and starts, the half consciousness of
unfamiliar surroundings, the memory of
the way the berths came down into posi-
ton, the metamorphosis of the car to the
sleeper-all unite TO make dreams of
1 ct GOnpinfnpr4flOn Rylf