[Illustration: OUR HOST.]
A FLIGHT IN SPRING
IN THE CAR LUCANIA FROM NEW YORK TO THE PACIFIC COAST AND BACK DURING APRIL AND MAY, 1898, AS TOLD BY THE REV. J. HARRIS KNOWLES
NEW YORK 1898
SEVEN HUNDRED AND FIFTY COPIES PRIVATELY PRINTED FOR FREDERICK HUMPHREYS, M.D.
No. 750
COPYRIGHT, 1898, BY J. HARRIS KNOWLES
Dedication
_TO THE LUCANIANS_:
"THE KING AND THE QUEEN" "THE APOSTLE AND THE ANGEL" "THE FAIRY PRINCESS" "JUNO AND PSYCHE" "THE GYPSY QUEEN" "THE PRINCESS" "MINERVA AND JUPITER" "MERCURY," AND "THE SPANISH COUNT"
THESE RANDOM JOTTINGS OF OUR HAPPY "FLIGHT IN SPRING," ARE AFFECTIONATELY DEDICATED
BY THEIR FRIEND
"THE POPE"
CONTENTS
I PAGE The Circumstances of the Flight.--The Start.--The Car "Lucania."--The Kitchen.--The Cook.--The Poetic Dinner.--Our Accommodations.--Visitors at Newark.--Improvised Theatricals.--Philadelphia, Wilmington, Baltimore, Washington.--The Approaching War Crisis 1
II
On through the South.--Thomasville, Georgia.--Dr. Humphrey's Winter Home.--Southern Flowers.--The Old Plantation.--War Declared.--They Leave To-day 8
III
Departure from Thomasville.--Pet Superstitions.--Montgomery, Alabama.--The Capitol.--The Public Fountain.--Montgomery to New Orleans 15
IV
New Orleans.--Surviving Traces of Spanish and French Occupation. --Jackson Square.--Cathedral of St. Louis.--The Cemeteries.--Melancholy Perspectives.--Audubon Park.--Graves for Sale.--The French Market.-- Mobile and New Orleans as Seen Nearly Thirty Years Ago.--St. Charles Hotel.--A Dinner at Dr. Mercer's 19
V
Impressions of New Orleans.--Its Harbor.--The Levee at Night.--Southern Texas.--Its Forests, Flowers, and Birds.--The Prairie Pool 25
VI
San Antonio.--Work of Jesuit Missionaries.--Street Ramble.--The Old Cathedral.--Evenings in our Car.--A Mission Car.--The Tired Clergyman with his Renewal of Vigor.--The Alamo.--The Siege Sustained by Colonel Travis and his Men.--The Tragedy.--Hymn of the Alamo.--The Western Texas Military Academy 30
Table of contents (by pages)
- 1: A Flight in Spring by J. Harris Knowles
- 2: San Francisco and Edinburgh Compared
- 3: Treasury of Indian Myth and Legend
- 4: And glistening cooking utensils of most approved fashion
- 5: But our destination was Thomasville
- 6: Our stay in Thomasville was delightful
- 7: And Miss Jayta Humphreys and Mr
- 8: And as we were also shunted about a little at Thomasville
- 9: Some of us saw at Montgomery the spot in the Capitol
- 10: We were at the consecration of Bishop Pierce
- 11: As we looked back from our ferry boat over the levee
- 12: The Western Texas Military Academy
- 13: At the depot grounds in San Antonio
- 14: And the commanding officer in the Alamo
- 15: Colonel Travis assembled his men in the Alamo
- 16: The Texians fought like devils
- 17: Let The Stones Of The Alamo Speak
- 18: Yet hordes on hordes they onward rush
- 19: Into the Mexican town of Juarez
- 20: Until the following fete of the Epiphany
- 21: With their rich yellow blossoms
- 22: Why do you melt your waxen man
- 23: Where the Bishop of Los Angeles preached
- 24: We seemed to be quite on the outskirts of San Diego
- 25: Whose western terminus is at San Diego
- 26: When we arrived at Santa Barbara
- 27: But the ladies pooh poohed at our airs
- 28: We wanted to have an orange wallow
- 29: Saugus was as forlorn as a muddy beach at low tide
- 30: It was Sunday morning when we reached Brentwood
- 31: San Francisco and Edinburgh Compared
- 32: Outside were flowers and shrubs
- 33: The joss house itself was solemn enough
- 34: All over the bunks and floor were crawling black insects
- 35: We stopped off for some four hours at Palo Alto
- 36: The trees were the product of untiring care
- 37: Our journey revealed to us an ideal Californian landscape
- 38: The thing would have been the ancient tapestry
- 39: For recording seismic disturbances of any kind
- 40: By his munificent bequests to charity
- 41: We stayed at San Jose over Sunday
- 42: While in Gilroy I saw the little Episcopal church
- 43: During our stay at Monterey we that is
- 44: We availed ourselves of the splendid ferry here at Oakland
- 45: Towards evening we found ourselves at Reno
- 46: He seemed a perfect type of Utah
- 47: At its close Elder Woodruff rose
- 48: He further told me that he was a Mormon
- 49: Brigham Young had seventeen wives
- 50: When we reached Glenwood Springs
- 51: A fitting prelude to all that was to come
- 52: And pressed me to stop over at Leadville
- 53: And joining on to that is Manitou
- 54: The mineral springs at Manitou
- 55: Sandstone plays a fantastic part
- 56: We had two lovely days in Denver
- 57: Perhaps during our stay in Denver
- 58: But nothing in Kansas goes by halves
- 59: Just across the river from Norfolk
- 60: And the Merrimac could not reach her
- 61: The Merrimac presently withdrew
- 62: The Merrimac had been blown up by her commander
- 63: A book called Poems of the Piasa
- 64: The descending funnel or waterspout
- 65: A new piece of architecture at Columbus
- 66: We will first start out with the machine poetry
- 67: Until there was a muddle Soon afterwards a fuddle
- 68: Thus emphasizing the sense of national citizenship
