Read Ebook: A Flight in Spring In the car Lucania from New York to the Pacific coast and back during April and May 1898 by Knowles J Harris John Harris

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I PAGE The Circumstances of the Flight.--The Start.--The Car "Lucania."--The Kitchen.--The Cook.--The Poetic Dinner.--Our Accommodations.--Visitors at Newark.--Improvised Theatricals.--Philadelphia, Wilmington, Baltimore, Washington.--The Approaching War Crisis 1

On through the South.--Thomasville, Georgia.--Dr. Humphrey's Winter Home.--Southern Flowers.--The Old Plantation.--War Declared.--They Leave To-day 8

Departure from Thomasville.--Pet Superstitions.--Montgomery, Alabama.--The Capitol.--The Public Fountain.--Montgomery to New Orleans 15

New Orleans.--Surviving Traces of Spanish and French Occupation. --Jackson Square.--Cathedral of St. Louis.--The Cemeteries.--Melancholy Perspectives.--Audubon Park.--Graves for Sale.--The French Market.-- Mobile and New Orleans as Seen Nearly Thirty Years Ago.--St. Charles Hotel.--A Dinner at Dr. Mercer's 19

Impressions of New Orleans.--Its Harbor.--The Levee at Night.--Southern Texas.--Its Forests, Flowers, and Birds.--The Prairie Pool 25

San Antonio.--Work of Jesuit Missionaries.--Street Ramble.--The Old Cathedral.--Evenings in our Car.--A Mission Car.--The Tired Clergyman with his Renewal of Vigor.--The Alamo.--The Siege Sustained by Colonel Travis and his Men.--The Tragedy.--Hymn of the Alamo.--The Western Texas Military Academy 30

In Desolate Places.--Beauty Everywhere.--Railway Engineering.-- Analogy in the Conduct of Life.--El Paso.--The Sand Storm.--Human Grasshoppers.--The Placid Night.--Rev. Dr. Higgins.--Juarez.--Rev. M. Cabell Martin.--Strangeness of our Mexican Glimpse.--The Post-Office.--The Old Church.--The Padre's Perquisites.--The Prison.--El Paso Again.--Cavalry Going East for the War 47

Leaving El Paso.--Deming.--The Desert.--The Armed Guard.--The Cacti and Other Flowers.--The Yuma Indians.--Avoiding Kodaks.--Rossetti's "Sister Helen" 54

Los Angeles.--Our Beautiful Anchorage.--First Impressions.--Sunday Morning in a Garden.--St. Paul's Church.--Pasadena.--The Diva's Car.--Journeying to San Diego.--First View of the Pacific 60

San Diego.--The Bathing-House.--Alarming Disappearance.--The Mystery Solved.--Carriage Drive to Mission Cliffs.--Coronado Beach.--The Museum.--The Hotel.--High Fog 66

San Diego to Santa Barbara.--The Old Mission.--The Inner Cloister.--The Afternoon Ride.--The Lady of the Blue Jeans.--Samarcand 74

Leaving Santa Barbara.--Delay at Saugus.--Viewing the Wreck.-- Brentwood.--The Mission Mass.--The Social Afternoon.--The Garden and the Homing Pigeons.--The Grape-Shot.--The Chinaman's Pipe 82

San Francisco.--Bustling Traffic.--Railroad Employees.--The Flagman.--The Palace Hotel.--The Seal Rocks.--Sutro Residence and Baths.--The Presidio.--Sentinels.--Golden Gate Park.--The Memorial Cross.--San Francisco and Edinburgh Compared.--The Cable Cars.-- Chinatown.--The Opium Den.--The Goldsmiths' Shops.--Across the Bay to Tiburon.--The Bohemian Club 89

Departure for San Jos?.--Palo Alto.--Advertiser.--Leland Stanford, Jr., University 102

Through Santa Clara Valley.--Arrival at San Jos?.--Old Friends.-- Semi-tropical Climate.--An Excursion to the Stars.--The Lick Observatory.--Our Journey There.--Sunset on the Summit.--With the Great Telescope.--The Tomb of James Lick.--The Midnight Ride Down the Mountain 108

Sunday at San Jos?.--The Big Trees.--The Fruit Farm at Gilroy.-- Hotel del Monte.--The Ramble on the Beach.--The Eighteen-Mile Drive.--Dolce far Niente 121

Oakland Ferry-house and Pier.--The Russian Church.--Off Eastward.-- Crossing the Mountains.--Hydraulic Mining.--Stop at Reno.--Nevada Deserts.--Ogden.--The Playing Indian 130

Salt Lake City.--The Governor of Utah.--The Zion Co?perative Store.--Thoughts on Mormonism.--The Semi-annual Conference.--The Eisteddfod.--The Mormon Temple.--Organ Music.--Panoramic View of Valley.--Statue of Brigham Young.--Excursion to Saltair.--Departure from Salt Lake City 137

Glenwood Springs.--The Pool.--The Vapor Baths.--Through the Ca?ons.--Leadville.--Colorado Products.--Ca?ons in New York 149

Colorado Springs.--Ascent of Pike's Peak.--The View from the Summit.--The Descent.--The Springs at Manitou.--Treasury of Indian Myth and Legend.--The Collection of Minerals.--Glen Eyrie.--The Garden of the Gods.--Victor Hugo on Sandstone 158

Denver.--The Union Station.--The Departing Trains.--The Beauty of Denver.--Dean Hart and the Cathedral.--The Funeral Service.--Seeing Denver 166

Through Kansas.--Kansas City.--The Cattle Yards.--The Bluffs.--The Fight between the Merrimac and the Monitor 172

St. Louis.--Beautiful Residences.--Forest Park.--The Levee.-- Alton.--Old Friends.--Legend of the Piasa.--The Confluence of the Rivers.--The Union Depot.--The Car of the International Correspondence Schools.--Crossing the Bridge 184

Through Illinois, Indiana, Ohio.--Columbus.--The Beautiful Station.--Church Service.--Nearing Home.--Parting Thoughts.--Our Amusements.--To Ethel Asleep.--A Parting Wish.--Pilgrimages of Patriotism 194

A FLIGHT IN SPRING

The Circumstances of the Flight.--The Start.--The Car "Lucania."--The Kitchen.--The Cook.--The Poetic Dinner.--Our Accommodations.--Visitors at Newark.--Improvised Theatricals.--Philadelphia, Wilmington, Baltimore, Washington.--The Approaching War Crisis.

It seemed like a dream to be invited to join a party on a private Pullman car for an extended tour of close on eight thousand miles, all in these our United States! Yet such was the opportunity which was generously offered us in this springtime of 1898.

It was to be "A Flight in Spring" of most intense interest. The journey was to embrace in its continued circuit, from New York back to New York, points as widely separated as New Orleans and San Francisco. It was to traverse many States and Territories, and was to be accomplished with every adjunct of unstinted comfort and refinement.

The expected morning when we were to start on our journey came at last, with that subdued wonder in it that the dream, so unlooked for, was really to be a fact. Bags and satchels were all packed, and with that happy feeling which always comes to the tourist when, all ready, he is safely ensconced in his cab, we sped to the Twenty-third Street ferry for the Pennsylvania depot in Jersey City.

Never did the great Hudson River look so beautiful or New York so magnificent in our eyes as on that early morning of April 13th, when, through and beyond it all, we could see in imagination the great journey before us, all made more radiant by a munificent hospitality which had made it for us a fact--"A Flight in Spring"--which we had often thought of, but never hoped to see.

To start off on such a journey, with a six weeks' vacation in view, even if undertaken all alone and in most prosaic economy, would be an event; but when one was met by pleasant friends and ushered into an independent, self-contained flying home on wheels, it was indeed something ideal.

Among the further perfections of our land yacht were separate and secluded apartments for our married friends and other privileged parties, and ample berths for less favored mortals; there was also a spacious dining-room, and a generous lounging place at the end of the car, where after-dinner chats could be indulged in and mornings happily passed while watching the landscape as it seemed to fly past us and vanish in the ever-changing distance. But let us return to the events of our first day's trip. The marshes of the Hackensack valley were soon crossed, and at our first stop, at Newark, we rejoiced to find the Rev. Dr. Frank Landon Humphreys and his sweet wife, who were to make us glad with their company as far as Washington; and certainly this was done. There were quips and jokes without number from the ever versatile Doctor; and roars of good-natured fun, which he provoked, made us oblivious of the naked landscape, as yet with little more than a hint here and there of the coming springtime.

We had summer along with us, however, if good nature and pleasant chat can symbolize the warmth and comfort of that happy season. The ladies' bonnets and wraps, discovered by the Reverend Doctor in one of the staterooms, made impromptu material for much rapid-change dramatic performances, exquisitely absurd, and altogether entertaining. On we sped, with our jolly company, through New Jersey, rich and populous; on to Philadelphia, our great city neighbor, which, however, seems to most of us as far distant and unknown as Mars or the moon. Yet what a happy home place it is to those who dwell therein, and know the many advantages of its vast area, and consequent freedom from tenement drawbacks and other evils which we know too well. On we went through old Wilmington on the Delaware, with its red brick sidewalks and black lounging denizens; on through Baltimore, famous for good living and beautiful women; until in the afternoon we reached Washington and looked with admiration at the stately Capitol in the distance, with its splendid and graceful dome, and gazed with a sort of awe at the far-off Washington monument, that huge white obelisk, so gigantic, so spectral, so magnificent, but which is yet so chimney-like in its immensity as to be almost forbidding, if not revolting, to the aesthetic sense. I presume, though, that a nearer approach to the vast structure would overawe us with its colossal appearance. I have been told that the effect of that unbroken shaft near by, eighty feet wide at its base, and mounting skyward without a break, in perfect plainness, for five hundred and fifty-five feet, is almost supernatural and overwhelming. The very sight of the Capitol could not but bring to our hearts the great crisis which was there impending. The huge dome seemed, as it were, to cover in the great brain of the nation struggling with the question, "Is America to engage in war? Is the nation which stands most for peace and humanity to enter on a career of aggressive arms?" It seemed an added wonder to our "Flight in Spring" that we were entering thereon at such a momentous time. But life flows on in many currents; and no matter what great crises may occur in human affairs; duties, and even pleasures, have each their place, and draw us after them in either work or play.

On through the South.--Thomasville, Georgia.--Dr. Humphrey's Winter Home.--Southern Flowers.--The Old Plantation.--War Declared.--They Leave To-day.

Soon after leaving Washington the night came on, but ere darkness settled down upon us, we had already seen the fresh verdure, and the trees and flowers in full, radiant bloom.

Night closed in as we whirled on through the Southern land. We took the Atlantic Coast line, passing through many historic spots, well worth a stay; but our destination was Thomasville, Georgia, where we were to join our good host, Dr. Humphreys and his family, and rest with him at his winter home for a day or so, before starting on our full trip from New Orleans, by the Sunset Route, directly west, for Los Angeles.

Our stay in Thomasville was delightful. We found ourselves at home in the broad ample residence of our good host. The house is a large, one-story, double structure, standing in its own spacious grounds. A large hall, more than ninety feet long, runs through the midst of it. There we spent two days with our host, enjoying every moment of our stay. Flowers and roses were on every hand, and great trees with grateful shade, and the songs of many birds, and the pealing laughter of young folk, and the quiet happiness of those who loved to see others happy all about them.

We had another great treat while at Thomasville, in a drive out to a Southern plantation of the old-time type. How sad and silent, though, it all seemed! It was like a charmed castle, waiting for the arrival of some one whose footsteps should quicken all to life again. There it stood, all ready for an awakened hospitality, at a moment's notice. We wandered through the great parlors, the spacious bedrooms, and out on the shaded balconies and verandas, peopling all, in imagination, with the home happiness for which it seemed so well prepared. The ample portico, with its great pillars; the luxuriant trees; the stately, silent house, and the tangle of roses and creeping plants made a picture long to be remembered. It did not seem quite right to romp and frolic in such a place, but such is the limit of our nature that one always loves and longs for contrasts; that is the reason, doubtless, why we awoke the echoes with many peals of ringing laughter and good fun. The ever-present kodak had its own share in our comedy, and brought away a shadow of our sport in the picture of "Rebekah at the Well."

The time came all too quickly for our departure from Thomasville. Even in our short stay we were charmed by the visits of many friends, among them some old acquaintances of other places and other times. We met, too, the genial editor of the "Daily Times-Enterprise," and found our departure duly mentioned in the issue of Saturday evening, April 16, 1898. It contained also the stupendous announcement of the certain opening of the war with Spain, which appeared in these startling head lines:

UNITED STATES ARMY ORDERED TO COAST

FIFTY THOUSAND VOLUNTEERS TO BE ORDERED OUT NEXT

SENATE STILL IN CONTINUOUS SESSION

But They Are Warming Up.--Money Calls Wellington a Liar.--The Queen Regent Contributes 0,000 to Equip Army and Navy.--Official Denial that European Powers Will Interfere.--Spain Says She Will Never Evacuate Cuba.--Uncle Sam Buying More War Ships.

Separated from the above, with the telegraphic detail following, was another head line which read:

"THEY LEAVE TO-DAY."

"THEY LEAVE TO-DAY."

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