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About The Conservative (Nebraska City, Neb.) 1898-1902 | View Entire Issue (March 2, 1899)
8 Conservative * NOTKS OF TUANS-CONTINKNTAI- TKAVKL , rKllKUAllY , 181)0. ) The trnns-continoiitnl travel towards winter resorts in southern California over the A. T. & S. F. route is increasing in volume from year to year. The monthsof January and February , 1899 , are record- breakers in this line of passenger trans portation. At Flagstaff , on February 10 , the thermometer showed a tempera ture of about 30 ° above freezing. The pkieswere clear and the air invigorating , so that invalids , seeking milder climate , began visibly to recover spirits and am bition. Among them several from the cities of Detroit and Chicago were un stinted in their praise of the route and the sanitary influences of the climate. Those persons who have been troubled with insomnia and have suffered from nervous prostration in the northern lati tudes of the republic , declare that sleep begins to come to them hero oil the desert as it did when they were children , irresistibly , peacefully and refreshingly. The eating houses along the line of the A. T. & S. F. R. R. have been operated and managed for more than twenty years by Mr. Fred Harvey. The verdict of the traveling public is without any dissentient voices that these stations for the replenishing of the inner wants of the race are the best of any line of trans portation known to civilized man. The breakfast , luncheon , or dinner served by Mr. Harvey at an } ' station is equal to the same meal at the best res taurants of the large cities. It is agreeoblo to find , when one's train is behind time , that the more level headed passengers do very little as crit ics of the management , or as growlers and kickers in general. After a good deal of travel , during the hust forty-five or fifty years , the writer is pleased to record the fact that sensible Americans prefer being on the track and off time , rather than to be on time and off the track. The shipment of cattle from about Albuquerque , Now Mexico , and Flag staff , Arizona , will soon begin. The herds in these more southern latitudes have suffered less from the winter than those of Montana , Wyoming and Ne braska. There is one firm of ranchmen which will soon send to Chicago ten thousand head of steers from this vi cinity. The visible improvement of the road bed , tracks , engines , and freight and passenger cars on this line accentuates the superiority of its management dur ing the lost three years. Attached to the train , from which these notes are forwarded to THE CON SERVATIVE , is the perfect photographic car of that celebrated photographer of natural scenery , Mr. W. H. Jackson. Elderly Nebraska people will generally remember that all the magnificent pic tures of Rocky mountain scenery which were first gathered together by the United States geological survey were tt ' " > - 'IT" ft i aken by Mr. Jackson. His quick and analytical mind is always on the alert to discern striking , unique and startling features in mountain and valley views. 3is experiences as a photographer and success in his particular line have taken lim over nearly all the civilized globe. Eighteen months ago ho was travers ing Siberia by sledge , making a journey of more than seven thousand miles and irriving at Moscow at its , conclusion. That itineracy was for the purpose of : akiug photographs for the Field Museum of Chicago. Its success is attested by the splendid specimens of photography low on exhibition at that useful educa tional institution. It is at present the intention of Mr. Jackson to toke views in the most picturesque portions of south ern California and , in fact , views all along ; he Pacific coast which may strike him as worthy of being transferred , by color photography , to lantern slides , for illus- : rating lectures , and also to largo card joards and the pages of beautiful and choice albums of natural scenery. This tour of Mr. Jackson's is under ; ho auspices of the Detroit Photograph ing company and will probably bo one of the most extensive and successful of any similarly proposed trips during the present year. It is possible that the pat rons of the A. T. & S. F. lines may be soon furnished samples from Mr. Jack- sou's establishment illustrative of all the wonderful mountain and plain scenery which those lines present , in cluding the Canon Diablo , views of the various Indian Pueblos and of the Grand Canon of the Colorado. It may prove , however , that the pic tures , by their great truthfulness to na ture will so satisfy the curiosity of the tourist public that it may refrain from travel , and bo contented with the pic tures just as business men are deterred from making some journeys by the use of the long distance telephone. It will interest many readers of THE CONSERVATIVE to learn that this now word-famous photographer , who has practised his profession in Russia , China , India , Australia and Japan , started out upon his career from Ne braska City iu eighteen hundred and sixty-six. He did not then travel in a special car fitted up with all the instru ments , dark rooms and other conven iences of the photographic art. He went out on the old California trial , along the north line of Arbor Lodge , cracking a long whip over the backs ol six yoke of cattle and trudged across the plains and over the mountains to the Pacific slope in the capacity of a driver. He is a man of vast energy , industry and courage. His success iu life is a lesson to American youth. From this lesson they may learn that every human being has opportunities. Many young men , and women , too , for that matter seem near-sighted when opportunities are looked for , or , iii other words , lack ing in tho.power to perceive chances to success. Many of the comrades of Mr. Tackson in the great army of bullwhackers - ers that ( started across the continent as drivers in 1866 are probably not much jotter off now , than then , because of ion-capacity for recognizing opportun- ty. Of course , breeding , heredity in nankind , is as inexorable as in horse- kind , and trotters of great value and speed are descended not from Clydes dale , Percherons , nor Shire horses. Nevertheless the horse that is trained upon a proper track will always bo rather better gaited , whatever his breed , than one never broken to try for more speed ; and so menof whatever capacity , who try , who endeavor , who make ef- torts to grasp and utilize opportunity do jetter than those who are always dull ; o see and slow to act. On the evening of the sixteenth of February , 1899 , we came to a station called "The Needles. " It is twelve miles within the limits of the state of California. Here we had the pleasure of meeting again Mr. Dan Murphy , the arincipal merchant of the town and vi cinity. He kindly showed us two very pretty , valuable and attractive products of the country. A splendid turquoise stone weighing one hundred and four carats , and a gold nugget worth $80. The gem had been mined at Vanderbilt , sixty miles from the station and the gold at Temple Bar Placers , one hun dred and seventy miles from "The Needles. " A torquoise stone weighing , after being cut and polished , one hun dred and forty-four carats , had just been sold to a Denver banker for one thousand dollars , and forty thousand dollars' worth of the same gems from the same mine at Vauderbilt had just been disposed of to a jeweler of London , England. The Temple Bar Gold Placers whence the nugget came are owned by French men. They have four thousand acres of "claims" which have just been "ex- perted" by metallurgists from France and their report is that the pay gravel in which the gold is found averages a depth of twenty-six feet and is of an average value of seventy-five cents per cubic yard. Tremendous machinery is being instituted for washing out the gold of these placers by hydraulic pro cesses. Three hundred thousand del lars' worth of pumping apparatus has already reached the gold fields and will soon be in productive and very profit able operation. CONSERVATIVE readers may find amusement in computing the amount of gold in an area of four thous and acres , twenty-six feet thick , which contains "six bits , " seventy-five cents , iu each cubic yard. J. S. M. San Bernardino , 2-17-99. If any elderly fat gentleman , who looks as if he wore traveling incognito , conies to you and says ho is the Count of Chester , shako hands with him ; ho is the Prince of Wales.