]3« 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Fkk. 15. 



went over it all. step by step. As soon as she 

 started I began to pray that she might not be 

 made sick by so much travel. 1 prayed, and 

 then worried for fear she migltt get sick and 

 have to wire me or Ernest. I kept thinking 

 she might get thi'oiigh on that eventful Sun- 

 day : but experienced travelers and railroad 

 men told me it was impossible before Monday. 

 and so 1 was going to all the churches and Sun- 

 day-schools, to pass the time until I might look 

 for her. 



Let me now go back again to that Fourth 

 Congregational church in San P"'rancisco. In- 

 stead of staying at Sunday-school I thought I 

 would just go over to the place we had arrang- 

 ed for our meeting. 



" Right there is Hill Street," said the con- 

 ductor of the street-car; '"and if you will walk 

 up on this side you will soon come to No. 20." 



I looked at the numbers, and walked along. 

 Sure enough, here is No. 30, and somebody is 

 just closing the door. As I rang the bell a gen- 

 tleman opened the door, and, with a smile, said: 



" And this is Mr. Root, I believe." 



His next words seemed to stun me. I could 

 not take in his meaning until he repeated them. 

 He said : 



" Your wife has just arrived.'" 



" You surely do not mean she is here now. in 

 this house f '" 



" Yes, I do: and she is right in that room." 



I saw that the door was ajar. The fever had 

 made me nervous. I pushed open the door, and 

 there she stood — not used up and woi'u out with 

 travel, but looking unusually well, happy, and 

 just a ti'ifle saucy. My prayers were all ans- 

 wered — yes, 7norc than answered, and, as usual, 

 I \\2if. astonished. 



" O thou of little faith! \pherefore didst thou 

 doubt?" 



The night before she started she had been 

 awake a good deal; but after she really got on 

 the way she slept soundly every night; yes. and 

 she enjoyed the scenery on the way as she nev- 

 er enjoyed any thing before. As she did not 

 leave the Pullman car for three days and four 

 nights, the inmates got pretty well acquainted, 

 and she says she never before met so many good 

 and kind people in her life. I give all this in 

 detail, for I feel sure that others may have the 

 same mistaken notions in regard to ti'avel at 

 the present day. There are many advantages 

 in having your wife with you in traveling. In 

 fact, Mrs. Root ha> saved expense in many 

 ways. When we came to Los Angeles a hotel- 

 keeper wanted S14.0() for just a room, without 

 any meals, for one week I Sue declared we 

 would not stay there a single night: and she 

 very soon found the pretty room, where I am 

 writing now, for only ^4.50 per week. It is nice- 

 ly furnished (in fact, better than the one at the 

 hotel), of good size, gas and other conveniences, 

 near the business part of the city, and has a 

 very pretty bay-window reaching out over the 

 street. We can see up street or down, and 

 street-cars are all around us, going for miles in 

 any direction. We can get our meals at a 

 choice of more than fifty restaurants: and there 

 is scarcely an article of food to be had in the 

 world that is not to be found here. There are 

 so many nice dishes served for only five cents 

 each, that, if one wishes to use economy, he 

 can live very cheaply. Our meals usually cost 

 us 30 or 40 cents for J>oth of us; and a few days 

 ago we got every thing we wanted, and the bill 

 was on]y tJt'entji- five cents for both. The gro- 

 cers, bakers, and restaui'ants have such a great 

 nuiltitude of things, in the most convenient 

 form, that, with the help of a little coal-oil 

 stove, a good meal can be quickly prepared, for 

 only a few cents. Many restaurants make a 

 great specialty of fifteen -cent meals. You get 



almost any kind of nn^at or fish, including plen- 

 ty of potatoes, bread and butter, and a large 

 cup of good coffee, foi- the 15 cents. Fruits of 

 all kinds known are in wonderful abundance, 

 and are also very cheap. As neither of us car- 

 ries a trunk, we can leave our baggage at the 

 depot until we look up a furnished room to suit 

 us, both in location and quality. Some of you 

 may think it not much style to travel in this 

 way. We don't care for styli' very much, and 

 some of the finest people who travel do just this 

 way. In fact, a lady in the Pullman car told 

 me about it, and gave us the address of parties 

 having nice furnished rooms to let. 



As my sickness had thrown me back on my 

 appointments we missed many points around 

 San Francisco. In fact, we were obliged to start 

 off Monday so as to be in time at the convention 

 in Los Angeles. I mention this that the friends 

 around San Francisco may not think we passed 

 them by intentionally. Our kind friends, Mr. 

 Bostwick, father and sons, did us very great 

 •service in showing us around the city. You 

 should have seen Mrs. Root open her eyes as 

 she saw the beautiful yards with their strange 

 new forms of vegetation. Mr. Frank Bostwick 

 seemed to be a privileged character in China- 

 town, and he even went so far as to get tis a 

 pass into a Joss house during some great feast 

 or event. We saw the idol, and the temple and 

 worshipei's. Their ceremonies and incantations, 

 and the wonderful and varied apparatus, are 

 wonderfully complicated. One would think, 

 from their motions, that they were performing 

 complicated problems and computations in as- 

 tronomy or mathematics, while the real fact is 

 there is no more sense in it than in the ravings 

 and jargon of a maniac in some asylum. We 

 saw Chinese, both women and children. If the 

 latter could be educated, as we educate every 

 other race, there would be some hope. Aban- 

 doning their queue means abandoning their re- 

 ligion, and there is no real hope for them until 

 they do that. There are a few business men 

 who have done that, and in Los Angeles we 

 have a converted Chinese who is a minister of 

 the gospel. I am sure it is all wrong to have so 

 many men and almost /lo uornen. with any race 

 of peoole. It seems to me there should be some 

 law against it. I do not mean by this to tread 

 on the toes of any of my bachelor friends. 



We made one very interesting excursion to a 

 beautiful park, where we saw seals climbing 

 out of the ocean and clamliering up on the 

 rocks. These are not the fur-bearing seals, but 

 are much like them. Their bark sounds like 

 that from a lot of dogs, and one can hear them 

 frolic half a mile away. 



Between San Francisco and Los Angeles we 

 did not see much of particular interest until we 

 came to the Mojave (pronounced Mo-/ir(/i-vay) 

 Desert. In many places vegetation is almost 

 entirely lacking, and only the sandy gravel 

 covers the boundless waste; and at noonday, 

 even in the month of January, the glare and 

 glitter of the sun's rays seemed oppressive. I 

 am told that, in the summer time, it has been as 

 hot as 11(1° in the shade. I began to look for the 

 bones of animals that had perished, and soon 

 found plenty of them, even in plain sight along 

 the railroad track; and befon^ long not only 

 the bones were visible, but their partially de- 

 cayed bodies. The air is so dry that no at- 

 tempt is luade to bury them, for they soon dry 

 up, giving oft' little or no offensive smell. 



Not far away is the far-famed Death Valley, 

 where not only horses and cattle, but even hu- 

 man beings, have died in such numbers that 

 skeletons are said to be in plain sight every- 

 where. In former times a superstition sur- 

 rounded this place; but now travelers well pro- 

 vided for and well attended go through it safe- 



