snort of the iron horse; coal and iron are found to abound on the plains as soon as the railroad kings have need of them; the very desert becomes fruitful; and at Humboldt Wells, on the Central Pacific Railroad, in the midst of the sage-brush and alkali country, you will see corn, wheat, potatoes, and fruits of different kinds growing luxuriantly, with the help of culture and irrigation, - proving that this vast tract, long supposed to be worthless, needs only skillful treatment to become valuable. 8. One can not help but speculate upon what kind of men Americans will be when all these now desolate plains are filled; when cities shall be found where now only the lonely depot or the infrequent cabin stands; when the iron and coal of these regions shall have become, as they soon must, the foundation of great manufacturing populations; and when, perhaps, the whole continent will be covered by our Stars and Stripes. No other nation has ever spread over so large a territory or so diversified a surface as ours. From the low, seawashed shores of the Atlantic, your California journey carries you over boundless plains which lie nearly as high as the summit of Mount Washington. 9. Americans are digging silver ore in Colorado, three thousand feet higher than the highest point of the White Mountains. At Virginia City, in Nevada, one of the busiest centers of mining, the traveler finds it hard to draw in breath enough for rapid motion; and many persons, when they first arrive there, suffer from bleeding at the nose by reason of the rarity of the air. Again, in Maine half the farmer's year is spent in accumulating supplies for the other and frozen half; all over the Northern States the preparation for winter is an important part of our lives: but in San Francisco the winter is the pleasantest part of the year; in Los Angeles they do not think it needful to build fire-places, and scarcely chimneys, in their houses. 10. And one people, speaking the same language, reading the same books, holding a common religion, and paying taxes to the same government, pervades these various altitudes and climates, and is, with the potent help of the railroad, fused constantly more closely together as a nation. What manner of man will be the American of 1972, the product of so many different climes, of so various a range as to altitude? 11. In the plains and on the mountains, the railroad is the one great fact. Whatever you notice by the way, that is the handiwork of man, appears to be there solely for the convenience or safety of those who are passing over the road. On the Union Pacific you see miles upon miles of snow-fences. On the Central Pacific, thirty or forty miles of solid snowsheds, thoroughly built, and fully guarded by gangs of laborers, make the passage safe in the severest snow-storms. Great snow-plows, eleven feet high, stand at intervals on the plains and in the mountains, ready to drive, with three or four, or even seven or eight, locomotives behind them, the snow out of the cuts. 12. The telegraph accompanies you on your whole long journey Coal mines are opened to furnish fuel to your locomotives. At intervals of a hundred miles, night and day, you hear mon beating the wheels of the train to see if they are sound. Eating-stations furnish you your meals; ice is supplied on the way; laborers stand aside in the desert and on the mountains as the train sweeps by, and close up behind it to repair the track and keep it in order; there is a Chinaman on every mile of the Central Pacific Railroad. 13. And this road is not only a marvel of engineering skill and daring, running through a most difficult country, and abounding in deep rock-cuts, tunnels, and snow-sheds, but you will find its road-bed everywhere firm and solid, as though it had been laid for years, the cuts clean and clear, and on every part of the work an air of finish and precision, which shows the confidence of its owners, and the thorough spirit in which it was conceived and completed, and is maintained. 14. You reach San Francisco by passing through the great Sacramento Plain, one of the famous wheat-fields of the State, to Vallejo (Val la' ho), whence you sail down the magnificent bay of San Francisco to the city; and thus you have, to the last hour of your journey, some new scene opening to your eyes; and when you go to sleep in your hotel at last, you may dream of the Cliff House ride as a pleasure still to come. Charles Nordhoff. DEFINITIONS. Ac ces'so ry, that which belongs to something else as its principal. Cañ ́on (kăn’yun), a deep gorge between high and steep banks worn by water-courses. Flume, a stream; an artificial channel of water for gold-washing. Si ĕr'ra (Spanish, a saw), a chain of mountains. Ver'i ta ble (veritas, truth), agreeable to truth; actual. LESSON XXXIV. CHOICE EXTRACTS. 1. THE RAINBOW. My heart leaps up when I behold Or let me die! The child is father of the man, 2. AVOID ENVY. Wordsworth. Let no mean jealousies pervert your mind, 3. PRAYER. Prayer is the soul's sincere desire, Uttered or unexpressed, The motion of a hidden fire That trembles in the breast. Prayer is the simplest form of speech Prayer, the sublimest strains that reach The Majesty on high. 4. DOMESTIC PEACE. Tell me, on what holy ground Cowper. Montgomery. And, conscious of the past employ, 5. THE PATRIOTIC BRAVE. How sleep the brave who sink to rest, Coleridge. Collins. 6. THE SOUL ON EARTH. The soul on earth is an immortal guest A spark, which upward tends by nature's force, A drop dissevered from the boundless sea, A pilgrim panting for a rest to come, An exile anxious for his native home. 7. SYMPATHY. The heart, the heart! O, let it spare A sigh for others' pain; The breath that soothes a brother's care T. More. |