In Spite Of Pullman Cars And Automobiles - Or, Rather, Perhaps On
Account Of Them - The Only Way To See A Country, To Get Into Touch With
Nature And Meet The Inhabitants On The Dead Level Of Equality And Human
Sympathy, Is To Use Nature's Method Of Locomotion.
Equipped with a stout
stick - with a view to dogs - a folding kodak camera, and your "goods
and chattels"
Slung in a haversack across your shoulders, you feel
independent of timecards and "routes;" and sally forth into the world
with the philosophical determination to take things as they come; keyed
to a pleasurable pitch of excitement by the knowledge that "Adventure"
walks with you hand-in-hand, and that the "humors of the road" are yours
for the seeing and understanding.
Chapter II
Inception of the Tramp. Stockton to Angel's Camp. Tuttletown and the
"Sage of Jackass Hill"
Following as near as might be the route of the old Argonauts, I avoided
trains, and on a warm summer night boarded the Stockton boat. In the
early morning you are aware of slowly rounding the curves of the San
Joaquin River. Careful steering was most essential, as owing to the dry
season the river was unusually low. The vivid greens afforded by the
tules and willows that fringe the river banks, and the occasional
homestead surrounded by trees, with its little landing on the edge of
the levee, should delight the eye of the artist.
I lost no time in Stockton and headed for Milton in the foot-hills, just
across the western boundary of Calaveras County.
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