Putnam patriot., 1925-02-06

clothe the mountain sides we were forever crossing deep canyons and ravines. Finally, at the tremendously impressive River Canon there was a five minute stop when everyone pour ed out of the cars to stand on plat form at the canyons brink and look down a couple of thousand feet to where a silvery stream worked its eircuitous way over a rocky bed.
 Atrain again the coast downward continued We were passing through the old Bonanza district of Forty Nine days and here and there were point ed out the locations Of many Of the old placer mines, some of them still being worked at a profit. It was growing still warmer and by nine O clock the sun had come out and We found ourselves in the California of the eeographies and the railroad cir culars. Here was greenness on all sides. Palm trees began to appear and eucalyptus trees shedding their bark in long brown streamers. The. | plumpl-we were out of the mount. aims and in the great plain of the 1 Sacramento Valley. had We substi- tuted the nasal voices about us for i the soft batter of Italian and had we | changed the inevitable bungalow and l frame farmhouse for the pink and ! yellow stucco of Italy. we might well have imagined ourselves crossing the Roman Campagna to the Eternal l City All about us was the same blue sky of Italy sand all about us a misty. enveloping circle of mountains reminiscent of the Rocco di Papa and fka kfiIa ahon4 Ttv0lf s.
 Beyond Sacramento
 Now we are through with coasting and are steaming cut across the plain. | Everywhere we are passing through Z beautiful and fertile farminnds and ! fruit ranches. The highway that runs | beside the train teens with motor Tor | rics. q hundred makes of motor cars and a steady stream of those great 1 omuibuses which the East Is just beginning to know but which the 1 Californian discovered some years ago. We reach Sacramento for 4 i five minute stop and again we leavs ! the train and venture into the city's wide and busy Main street. Then We are of for the ferry, for Oakland and San Francisco.
 The lady who complained about the California climate and made many woefu predictions about the rainy season, began to have her in nings. Beyond Sacramento a mist arose and the sky changed from blue to lead. The mountains became mere shadows and the green of the valley grew darker. And with the sun gone il was cold with dank chill ! s. .s. A l,,r-k ia. b.. xsF.s were still speeding across the Valley. aiming our course directly at huge mountain that lowered ahead and behind which lay San Francisco Bay and the Pacific.
 In fact, Sacramento Valley Is an excellent introduction to California and to Californisns. It is so big and so spacious and so rich that it pre- pares one for the incessant superla- lives of the resident of the Golden State. IL does not require many hours within its boundaries for the stranger | to realize that, to the Californian, everything that IS and pertains to ! California ends in lest" There are no comparatives to the Californian. Everything out there IS biggest and best. There is, first of all. the cli- mate. Climate IS word which we ] firmly believe is mentioned by the resident Californian at least twice in the couese of every waking hour. Secondly, there is the scenery, thirdly, the rich variety of the state and fourthly, the personal accomplish ments of the Californians themselves. Nodesry in the matter of state pride and personal attainment was discard ed, evidently. very soon after Califor- nia passed from Spanish to American hands. At any event, modesty in the above mentioned topics is something that one traveller did not encounter in the course of three weeks travel through the principal points of inter est in one half of the state.
 California; State of Mind
 Our introduction to the California state of mind occurred just before we reached Oakland, the city on the other side of the Bay from San Fran cisco. There Is a point where an arm of the Bay compels the railroad limit ed to take to ferryboats. This is ac- complished with excellent celerity by cutting the train into two sections and running them aboard two huge ferries. We were watching the pro- cess leaning over the rail of the boat beside a Californian born in Berlin. Germany. We were informed that the ferries carrying these trains were the biggest ferry boats in the world. We feebly remarked that they seem ed somewhat smaller than the great municipal ferries which run between New York and Staten Island. But seorn was our answer. The San Franciscan born in Berlin would have none of it. And even if these are not the biggest, those which run from San Francisco to Oakland are" he concluded with not little fervor. The discussion ended as We watched the other ferry pass us carrying an eastward bound section of the Over land Limited on it's way, for us, home ward.
 It was extraordinary with what skill, however, the train was run from the boat and the two sections joined | together again. We were running now along the edge of the bay hid den in a growing fog. All our com panions of the past few days gather together their goods and chattels, their crossword puzzle books and their umbrellas and rugs and sticks. A half an hour later, exactly to the minute on time, the Overland rolls into the ferry house at Oakland and