AMERICAN SUPERIORITY 283 



citizens of our free states are to be respected. Tell me, 

 has a single one of your papers given space to the answer 

 of our Secretary of State, Marcy, to the request of Aus- 

 tria for indemnity? Not one, I wager. Such tobacco 

 would have been too strong for a German smoker. It 

 pleases me to hear that at last you have a railroad. 

 Tilings do go dreadfully slow over there: nobody will dis- 

 pute that. Your road-building, above all gives ample 

 proof of it. Alongside of this, just allow me to hint at 

 a few things which have been accomplished here in Cali- 

 fornia, just a little of it, as it comes to my mind. And all 

 within two months: 



1. San Francisco has gas. The plant, the holder— 

 fifty-eight feet in diameter— twenty feet high— forty 

 thousand yards or one hundred and twenty thousand 

 German feet of pipes have been laid and by New Year 

 our city will be illuminated by gas. 



2. Four brand-new wharves of about two to four hun- 

 dred yards in length and forty to fifty feet wide have 

 been constructed and the old ones repaired. 



3. Electrical telegraphs, one coast-line, to report in- 

 coming vessels, and vessels in distress; the other from 

 San Francisco to Sacramento— about 100 miles distant. 

 Two or three branch lines have likewise been under con- 

 struction. Quite a number of surveyors and road-build- 

 ers are engaged in finding the most desirable passes 

 through the Sierra Nevada in order to plan the best pos- 

 sible and the safest possible route for the Great Eastern 

 Railroad which is intended to cross the desert. It is 

 contemplated to begin work at either end during the com- 

 ing spring. The costs are not expected to exceed fifty 

 million dollars and have been partly provided for before- 

 hand. Strong military escorts protect those commission- 

 ers and surveyors from attacks by the Indians. Soldiers 

 are often ordered to aid or protect commercial undertak- 

 ings,— a wise plan to keep those fellows (the Indians) 

 out of mischief. 



4. Three new river steam-boats,— one about two hun- 



