LETTEli NO. X 



Alameda, November 2d, 1853. 

 My Dear Ones: 



Though I do not exactly know what to write to-day, I 

 trust the material will come as time progresses. As you 

 will notice, I am still at Alameda, with Etonhleau. I 

 like it very well and have no intention at present of 

 changing my place, so long as I cannot better my circum- 

 stances materially, though so far, there has been no raise 

 of salary. You will therefore realize that everything 

 continues as heretofore, with no changes worth mention- 

 ing to report, so far as I am concerned. Alameda, which 

 three months ago existed only on the map, counts now 

 from fifty to sixty block-houses to which number, one is 

 added daily. "We have daily communication with the 

 principal places along the bay, and a special small 

 steamer runs twice a day, from here to San Francisco 

 and back. This is the way we populate towns and cities 

 in America! Can you figure out how long it would take 

 the good people of Germany to build up a place like this, 

 and how much red tape and many parliamentary actions 

 would be necessary to bring stage and even steamer com- 

 munication to the new town? As most American towns 

 and cities have arisen, as I may say, like our Alameda, 

 a more detailed description will not be amiss. This will 

 prove to you that we are in the habit of doing things 

 over here and of doing them to suit the present need, to 

 suit— I repeat it— the purpose. W. Chipman, an Ameri- 

 can, settled in this part of the country about three years 

 ago when hardly anybody thought of going into agricul- 

 ture and when land had hardly any value at all. Being 

 pressed by new settlers who curtailed, what he had con- 

 sidered his birth-rights as senior squatter, he bought the 



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