114 Transactions of thk 



say in lliis coniiectioji with a fact, an anecdote, and a hoijc. I do not 

 say that the people alluded to in this statement were wrong at any 

 time, but I do say that their conduct is illustrative of the mutability 

 of j)opular oi)inion, and the necessity for caution in important i>olit- 

 icai matters before action, rather than after. A few years ago a 

 proposition to take one million in stocks of certain railroads, equiv- 

 al(Mit, as was then thought, io a subsidy for that amount, was sub- 

 mitted to the people of .San Francisco, and was carried by over three 

 thousand majority. 1 venture the opinion that of those who voted 

 upon this (juestion who are in the habit of attending at the sand 

 lots, nine-tenths of them formed a part of that majority. And fur- 

 ther, that of those who now assail these enterprises there are not 

 many at least who cannot find in their i)ast opinions and conduct 

 mucli that requires exi»lanation, and still more that ought somewhat 

 to lead them to doubt the justice of their judgment, ])ast and i)resent 

 alike. Similar experience to that which follows has occurred to 

 scores of you who near me. Some years ago a Director of an over- 

 land road ottered me a j)ass to the East, which I declined. At a con- 

 venient time I went with my children. I returned alone, and 

 musing along I fell into observations and reflections upon the vast- 

 nc.ss of the work I saw — the i)luck, the hope, the sometimes despair, 

 with which it must have been prosecuted. By a natural transition 

 I thought of its influence upon the individual fortunes of its ])roject- 

 ors; their allluence and power, the vast subsidies they had received, 

 the adulation they had excited, while 1, an inconspicuous unit, was 

 simply i^epresented as first-cla.ss j)a.ssenger, with a constantly dimin- 

 ishing ticket. I soon became penetrated with the idea that 1 was the 

 object of great wrong and indignity, and that a i>roper self-respect 

 recjuircd that 1 should become a i»ronounccd anti-railroad man and 

 try and get even. I, hoAvever, happened to recollect that seventeen 

 years before I left New York on an unseaworthy tub for California; 

 that I paid three hundred and sixty-five dollars for my passage to 

 San Francisco. The disagreeableness of the voyage came back to 

 me; the sea-sickness, the twenty-five days' time, and here I was 

 crossing to and from the same termini, stopping along to see my 

 kinsfolk as comfortable as though 1 was at home, for one hundred 

 and thirty dollars. It did not seem after all, ui)on reflection, that I 

 was any great sufferer. Say one hundred millions of subsidy, forty 

 millions of inhabitants; my share, with my children's, ten dollars. 

 I had saved two hundred and thirty-five dollars on my fare alone, 

 in the whole journey about eight hundred dollars. Really my inter- 

 ests seem to be on the side of (piick travel and low i)rices. It is true 

 when 1 recollected that the steei)les on Nob Hill might be higher 

 than mine I was outraged, but on the whole 1 was content. I should 

 liave remained thus comfortable but for one unhai)py circumstance, 

 and as it shows the value of the exi)ression of what is called opinion 

 and piincij)le, I will state it. When 1 got down this side of the moun- 

 tains a gentleman, returning from the East, who had stojiped over, 

 got into the cars. lie was well known to me, a man of ability and 

 j)rominence. He had l)een before conventions as a candithite for 

 what were once high offices. He had made sjieeches about railroads, 

 dark and desjiondent in view of their terrible character and influ- 

 ence. The Contract and Finance Committee he had charged with 

 many crimes. The gross favoritism manifested by these corporations 

 to their friends, in fares and freights, had been duly held up, as 



