The Speed, Of Course, Is
Always The Same, Whether Up Or Down Hill, Or On Level Ground.
Telegraph
Hill is 394 feet high, Clay Street Hill 376 feet, and Russian Hill 360
feet.
A San Francisco Sunday is painful to one accustomed to our English
ways; travelling in every form, and buying and selling are very
prevalent. The Y.M.C.A. have a large building there, and get large
meetings. I attended one gathering, which I addressed shortly.
San Francisco is described as having "the mildest and most equable
climate known to any large city in the world." January is the coldest
month, and the mean temperature then is stated to be 50 deg.. September is
the hottest month, and the mean temperature then is stated to be 58 deg..
Thus only 8 deg. difference between the coldest and warmest months, and the
average for the whole year is 54 deg..
San Francisco has a population of about 300,000 (including some 40,000
Chinese), is the principal city of the State of California, and the
principal commercial centre on the Pacific coast. I must not, however,
dwell longer on this part of my journey. On Monday, December 8th, I left
San Francisco with one of my clients, Mr. C.H. Huffman, for Merced, by
the 4 p.m train. The sun was shining gloriously, producing a charming
effect upon the placid waters of the Bay and its beautiful surrounding
hills.
SAN FRANCISCO TO NEW ORLEANS.
The train reached Merced at 10.23 on Monday night, December 8th, 1890,
where I was met, and in a spacious family buggy, drawn by a pair of good
horses, I was very soon at the residence of my client, Mr. C.H. Huffman.
The continuous day and night travelling by rail, and the taking of
voluminous notes all along, had caused a constant excitement which told
upon the nerves, and for two days I felt as though I needed absolute
rest, but, remembering that I had already been long absent from my
office, I commenced my work at Merced the next morning. The town of
Merced is the capital of the county of that name; it is not many years
old, but it has a striking difference to many new small towns I have
seen in the Colonies, in that it has several very good buildings and
residences. It has seven churches and chapels of various denominations,
some good shops, medical men, society, schools, gas, water, electricity,
and a station on the main Great Southern Pacific Railway. It is
undoubtedly a town which must rapidly increase in value, for this
reason: My clients, Messrs. Crocker and Huffman, at a cost of some two
million dollars, have tapped the Great Merced River 25 miles off, and
brought water down to the town and irrigated the country round. They
have formed a reservoir 640 acres in extent. Hitherto the rich lands
around the town of Merced have not been irrigated, and consequently were
not suitable for growing the Fruits for which California is so famous;
but, now that a system of canals, formed by my clients, has irrigated
their estate, extending over some 50,000 or 60,000 acres, the whole of
this great area is changed in value, and is available, and will
eventually be used, for the production of choice Fruits.
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