212 A CALIFORNIA TRAMP. 



could get to sleep. I thought about my home in the distant East 

 and wondered why I had ever left it for such husks as I now 

 fed on. I compared myself with the Prodigal of old, though, I 

 am glad to say, with exceptions. I mentally traversed my 

 way to the " Pacific." I was again by rail and water travel- 

 ing to Kansas; then, by the side of my patient, sad-eyed 

 oxen, crossing the plains and mountains to Salt Lake. Then 

 came my trip with the Mormons, my walk to the coast and 

 my voyage to San Francisco. I reversed the line of travel 

 and extracted all the pleasant episodes from it I could, but 

 then there was no sleep for thoughts about my future. 

 ''Scottie" was of a more stolid nature and was soon asleep. 

 Our lodgings were of a low grade and frequented by sailors, 

 tramps and others who could not afford the luxuries of a 

 hotel. As these came straggling into their rooms during the 

 night I could tell by their brutal voices and blasphemous 

 talk w^hat manner of men they were. We were separated 

 from them only by thin board partitions, like stalls, which 

 did not run to the ceiling, so that we had a chance for a close 

 acquaintance with the strange bed-fellows we were thrown 

 among. In spite of the racket sleep came at last, and thus 

 ended my first and last Christmas Day in California. 



Late the next morning we were awakened by the "sound of 

 the church going bell " as it echoed from the many places of 

 worship in the city, ushering in a day unobserved by me for 

 many a long month. As the sweet chimes came floating to 

 my ears through the morning air memories of the distant land 

 I had so long ago departed from came to me, where the ob- 

 servance of the First day of the week was a rule and not, as 

 here, an exception. During the trip from Leavenworth to San 

 Francisco a single Sabbath had not been observed by our 

 party, and I had not entered a place of worship except a 

 Mormon church, where I had heard the most cranky doctrine. 



We laid abe(f as long as w^e dared to get the worth of our 



