Cameron County press. [volume] (Emporium, Cameron County, Pa.) 1866-1922, 1901-07-11
UP IN THE CLOUDS
An 0Iean Man Takes Aerial Flight
HeaVenWard.
TELLS OF HIS EXPERIENCE
rlr. J. S. Douglas Writes Entertain
ingIy From Los Angeles, Gallup
on a California Mountain.

The following interesting letter Is from
Mr.. J. S. Douglas, of the Douglas Graham
Company, and was written from Los.
Angeles, Cal, where he passed several
weeks during the late winter
AS bright morning as has dawned
on this sunny land since my sojourn in
the "City of the Angels was one about
the last of March, when at g. o'clock |
stepped aboard Pasadena electric car,
which was to take me as far as the
beautiful little city bearing the above
happy name, on my way to Mt. Lowe,
so-called after Prof. Love- the man who
had the courage to conceive and the
daring and grit to develop and push to
completion, the great incline railway by
which access is had to echo mountain
in making the accent Of Mt. Lowe. |
thought | had become pretty well ac-
quainted with this neig ghboring landmark,
by having 50 frequently seen it from
some Of the many points Of vantage in
Los Angeles, standing guard as it were
over one of Earth's treasure spots. ap-
parently outside the city's gates; and yet
it is twenty-five miles from this point to
the top of Mt. Lowe. [ had before this,
on some of my rides by Tally-Ho and rail,
passed hard by thee foothills that nestle
closely around the base OF the mother
mountain and | had longed to get into it
and experience if possible, some of the
thrills of rapture that California noun
tains are said to inspire in one, who has
desire thus to become acquitted with
nature through this great medium of
inspiration. After a ride of an hour and
a half, and having been twice tranferred
to other lines-the latter line having
very much lighter aud smaller cars, that
can the more easily wind their way in
and out throught the foot hills-now
creeping over trestles, and now winding
around short curves and stealing along
narrow lodges that ovcrhang, in rather
uncertain and precarious way, deep gorges
and young canons that have already
obtruded their presence before the nervous
tourist, as foretaste Of what he may ex-
pect as he goes higher; we find ourselves
landed at the great incline railroad in the
entrance to Rubio Canon. 1t is perfectly
proper to refer to this point as the foot
for it is what the thing stands on. This
particular railroad is not lying down; it is
standing up, and in quite a dignifed
manner, for in one long stretch OF its
5000 feet of length, grade of 62 per
cent in maintained and the lowest grade
it carries is 49 per cent. Upon getting
into the mountaia car, and signal having
been sent up the line TO the engineer at
the top to start the great cable to which
the car is attached, and, as the car begins
rising, thrill of anything but rapture
comes over some Of the occupants as they
get down in the bottom of the car, or
close their eyes or hide behind some fel-
low passenger so they cannot see the dizzy
heights, they know they are rapidly at
taining-an agony of rapture it must
be to such. One large gentleman, whom
his companions called "Mart, made his
escape somewhere in the bottom Of the
car, and was not seen, nor would he re-
spond to any inquiries by his friends,
until the summit Of the incline was
reached, and he was once more safely on
terra-frma "Mart," had evidently been
reared somewhere out on the plains and
had never laid in a very extensive stock
of mountain experience, and when he ran
up against one Of these Sierra Madre
propositions, he was wholly unprepared,
for it took his nerve away as it almost
did his breath. myself find that | can
sit here and write about this mountain
experience with a somewhat greater
degree of tranquility, than [ enjoyed at
the time | was getting the experience. As
we were approaching the entrance to Ru
bio Canon through the foothills, the
sky suddenly became clouded and low
ering, and it as suddenly became uncom-
fortably cold 1t began to grow rather
ominous looking for our days pleasure.
TO still further complicate matters, it
began to rain while we were making our
way up the incline, but as this part of
the journey only required seven minutes
to accomplish, and, as the rain was neither
very heavy nor very wet, it being partially
frozen in its decent, we were soon enabled
to take refuge on the top Of echo
mountain in an electric car, which stood
there waiting for us, without any cover
or roof over it, but it was car and we
felt conforted. We are now 800 feet
higher than at the foot of the incline,
and | think that we all felt degree OF
pardonable pride at our rapid rise in the
world, 300 feet in seven minutes is
pretty good and we have only gone dis
tance of 5000 feet, the length Of the
incline, to attain this altitude. While