Jan. 1903 I 
THE CONDOR 
/ 
I recall vividly the experience of one night, which illustrates, if crudely, the sort 
of good fellow Mr. Barlow was with his friends. On bicycles with my younger 
brother-in-law. who had never met the Cooper Club’s Secretary, I left Ala- 
meda one evening for a spin on the country road. Having reached Haywards we 
yielded to a sudden impulse to keep on to San Jose. The small change we had 
with us was soon spent for crackers and cheese by the wayside, and after a toil- 
some run of fifty miles we arrived in San Jose after 9 p. m., hungry, dusty as 
tramps, and broken in spirit and purse as well. 
Barlow was our refuge. We prayed, very fervently, that Barlow might be at 
home. With trepidation we rang the bell. The landlady opened the door slight- 
ly and said, in response to our inquiry, that he was in Santa Clara. She did not 
know if Mr. Barlow would return before midnight, if then. Of course we said we 
were very sorry (we really were), that we had journeyed far to see Mr. Barlow, and 
felt deeply grieved at his absence. 
“Did he expect you?’’ said the landlady. 
“Oh yes, ma’am, yes indeed!” we unblushingly answered. 
Then to our unspeakable relief she said we might come in and ascend to his 
room. We accepted the invitation with alacrity. We furthermore made our- 
selves very much at home —used his towels, ate of anything we found about, en- 
joyed his books, and when tired of waiting for him to arrive capped the climax 
by retiring to rest in his bed. When he came home he was most happy to discov- 
er we had taken possession, and wanted to insist on our visiting a restaurant at 
once for further refreshment. Then we slept, three in a bed, or slept when we 
ceased talking in jolly vein. I believe the bed came down in the middle of the 
night, but a little thing like that did not feaze us. Next morning we borrowed 
from our kindly host, who insisted on our staying longer, fares to return by train. 
It is the fraternal feeling in the Cooper Club, the jollity and sociability which 
our friend did so much to foster, that has united so closely its members, encourag- 
ing them to travel over 100 or 125 miles on the round trip to attend a meeting. It 
is our happiness to know that this spirit survives and will long continue. 
Mr. Barlow was ever ready to give information to younger fellows anxious to 
learn, and no one can enumerate how many such he has aided in many wa3^s and 
induced to become members of our club. Some of these have since become writ- 
ers and ornithologists of note. 
The mystery and grandeur of the Sierra Nevada mountains held him in a 
spell which grew upon him year by j'ear, and in those wonderful mountain 
ranges he did his last work. The nests and eggs or the birds he might collect or 
record in that interesting region were subordinate to the love he felt for the won- 
der of the great woods, the songs of the birds of the wild, high Sierra he knew so 
well. 
So I have seen him on his last expedition to the Pracerville-Tahoe trail, re- 
posing beneath some forest giant on the mountain side, and lost in happy reveries, 
while he enjoyed it all supremely; and there was a look upon his face as though 
across the great, dark canyons, and over beyond, he saw a fairer land, a land 
where the birds still rapturously" sing, and a brooding peace awaits all those who 
keep their hearts sweetly in tune with the glories of the world, which seen 
aright, point the way to harmonies celestial and eternal. 
