182 A CALIFORNIA TRAMP. 



the Americans of Southern California, who saw in this settle- 

 ment a nest of corruption, an abiding place for all the villains 

 of the country, and where money was extorted by all manner 

 of means by unscrupulous Church dignitaries and forwarded 

 to Salt Lake. Collisions between the Saints and Gentiles 

 occasionally took place, and there was every appearance of a 

 renewal of the Nauvoo scenes, when luckily the mandate of 

 the Prophet came forth to call back the stray Mormon sheep 

 into their original fold. 



Several Americans now lived in San Bernardino; but its 

 population had greatly decreased since the time when Mor- 

 monism sat enthroned there, and tenantless houses gaped sadly 

 through unglazed windows at the few strangers w^ho visited the 

 city. The whole place, which contained six or eight hundred 

 inhabitants, had a tumble-down look ; and the fact of the 

 public business of the city being in the hands of Jews, did 

 not tend to make San Bernardino prosper. The signs on the 

 few business places gave the town somewhat of a foreign air: 

 Tienda Barata taking the place of " Cheap Store." 



And now in regard to the condition of our party of twenty, 

 who left Salt Lake six weeks before in such good heart. A 

 part had spent all their money, and those who had not, kept 

 the information for private use. Owing to reasons mentioned, 

 we were all glad to get to our journey's end and matterless 

 how soon we parted company. Our discordant mess passed 

 its last night on the floor of an old adobe house ; one of the 

 many deserted ones of that luckless town, bare of furniture and 

 cheerless in the extreme. In spite of temptations and theft 

 our provisions had held out, though we often went hungry to 

 accomplish this end. We were now to scatter, we knew not 

 where. Taking our party as a whole, w^e were about a fair 

 average of the thousands of ox-drivers who crossed the plains 

 in 1858, and that is not giving them a very high place. The 

 best of these was John Galdie, familiarly known as "Scottie," 

 a quiet fellow, who shared my fortunes much of the time 



