210 AMERICA : GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION 



he says feelingly, ' of railway cars and perpetual packing of 

 traps, drying plants, writing notes and seeing endless people 

 and things.' This was more trying than the dust and dirt, 

 though these were ' horrible ' on the railway and in driving 

 and riding. In the dry Californian climate not only the roads, 

 but even the mountain paths were loaded with dust, and a light 

 camping outfit did not provide much in the way of change and 

 comfort. What troubled him least, though he had passed 

 his sixtieth birthday, was the fact of being never in bed till 

 midnight and up at five or six. 



A sketch of a mining city, Georgetown, in Colorado, and of 

 a visit to Brigham Young, deserve quotation. Colorado had 

 but recently transformed from a Territory into a State which 

 should take care of itself with no questions asked by the 

 Central Government as to how criminals are punished and how 

 laws are evaded. Public organisation was inefficient, and the 

 better disposed were still compelled to keep order by lynch- 

 ing the incorrigible. But this voluntaryism was often very 

 efficacious. 



Here, at this little town at the extreme finger-end of 

 civilisation [Georgetown] the streets are watered better than 

 at Kew, people sleep without locks to their doors, the fire- 

 engines are well manned and in capital order, and of food 

 there is no end, though it is too high to raise vegetables or 

 any garden produce ! — all is brought up by train from Denver 

 to within a few miles of the City. The smallpox has been 

 raging in a neighbouring mining village, i.e. city, to this, and 

 the authorities sent the beds and bedding of the sick to the 

 Capital City (about 50 houses) to be stored there for the casual 

 poor. The citizens sent a vigorous remonstrance to the said 

 authorities, who paid no heed, upon which they coolly set fire 

 to the building. The alarm bells were rung, and the fire 

 brigade refused to turn out, and so infection was stamped 

 out by ' lynch law ' ! This is the sort of way matters go on, 

 quite illegally, but in the right direction and in the interests 

 of the community. (To his Wife, August 5, 1877.) 



August 8, 1877. 



To-day we called on Brigham Young and had a chat with 

 him. He is about 70, stout, well dressed, and with rather a 



