Baraboo weekly news. [volume] (Baraboo, Wis.) 1912-197?, 1915-12-16
BaraboO, Wis.

to be procured until Reno was reached
near midnight. Every berth was fillec
IN the car. 1t was q dusty. thirsty
crowd, sleeping in that air, or lack OF
air-much different than sleeping out
doors in old Wisconsin the year around.
| spent the night sitting in nv berth
watching the scenery by moonlight as
we climbed mountains or went through
them in tunnels or around the gorges
. where broken rail or rock on the
track might send the train down thous-
ands of feet. In order to protect tray
elers from danger by snow slides and
keep the tracks free from snow the
railroad company has built an almost
uninterrupted chain of snow sheds
for forty miles which We went through
that night. They have oil lamps hang
ing at intervals, open spaces every few
rods left in the sheds for ventilation
through which the traveller catches
glimpses of mountain peaks, tall pine
trees growing on the sides of the mot n j..
tains and deep gorges. By moonlight
everything looked as if covered with
snow. We reached Sacramento, Cali
fornia, at in the morning and from
there on to San Francisco Bay.
We saw splendid farms with acres
orchards and gardens. In the gardens
they were gathering ripe vegetables,
had some just out of the gvourd sn1
were planting some the same kind.
Flowers and shrubs that we must Guilt
vate here, were growing there in abun-
dance like our wild flowers, geraniums
were as common as our golden
rod. They grew as high as small trees.
They blossom the year around and do
not have to be taken up for winter.
The farmers were harvesting wheat,
cutting it with headers, threshing it in
the field, bailing the straw end selling
it. They leave the grain the in field piled
in sacks until ready to sell, months
sometimes. We saw on the wharf at
Los Angeles thousands of sacks of grain
waiting to be shipped, no protection
against rain or thieves. They claim
that they have neither thieves or rain
at that season, but they did have a
nice thunder shower at Los Angeles anf
at several places on the coast the firstp
week in September
AS the ferry boat, largest in the
world, that takes passengers from Oak
land to San Francisco was out of repair
we went eighty miles farther on the
train than we expected to. We left
the train at Berkeley and took a steam
er to San Francisco. A man employed
by the exposition came onto the boat
and those who had not decided upon
hotel; if they wished to, could come to
the company's office, they would give
them list of hotels and their prices,
and when they had chosen one send
them in bus to that hotel or another
if that did not suit them. The man
did not leave them until they located
all free of charge. Many such deeds
of courtesy is what helped to make the
Panama exposition such success and
enabled them to pay off all Indebtedness
the first six months of the fair
We took street car at our hotel
mornings to the fair and transferred to
car that took US to a different en-
trance each day and looked through the
buildings in that vicinity The build
ings of the fair closed at five or six.
We went to the zone, the place of
amusement, similar to the Plazance at
the Chicago Exposition. for the even
ng. There we went through the Pana-
ma Canal and the Grand Canon of Ari-
iona which gives one good idea of
these places. To see the canal we went
up two flights of stairs, were seated,
placed a telephone receiver to each
ear and man talked in the phone, de-
scribing each place on the canal, the
cast and time of building it. The plat
form on which we were seated moved
by electricity around several acres of
ground on which was built miniature
canal. Starting on the Pacific coast,
small boats, lighted, started through
the canal, going through the locks and
reached Colon just as we arrived at that
city. The cities and streets were rep
resented by toy houses and lanes. This
trip makes real to our minds all we
have read of the canal.
The Grand canyon