Part 5

The Times recently published a series of ten articles on the "Negro Question in the United States," and from them it appears that the position of that country is very serious in this relation. These articles commenced after I had started on my journey, so that I only saw one or two of the concluding ones and the Times leader upon the whole, but I was not surprised to see them, because in passing through the States which are principally peopled by negroes, I heard something about the matter from a thoughtful man, who regarded the subject with great gravity. The Times has shown that the attitude of one race to the other is that of "antagonism, discontent, and perpetual danger."

The negroes have the same constitutional privileges as the whites, and their overpowering numbers in certain places give the power into their hands, which, regarded in relation to racial hatred, renders them to be an object of danger to the country. It is proposed to emigrate the negroes to some part of Africa. It would be more consistent for certain Americans to interest themselves in solving this problem of their own rather than encouraging Irish agitators, and so assisting to prevent England solving her dark problem across St. George's Channel.

The proportion of coloured people to white in the three states of Georgia, Louisiana, and Alabama, is about equal, that is, there are as many coloured people as white. The population of coloured people throughout the whole of the United States is about 7,000,000 of coloured people to 59,000,000 of white people, but it is a sad fact, as stated in the Times of March 7th last, that a Government return, dated June 1st, 1890, showed that there were 45,233 convicts in the prisons of the United States, and that of this number no less than 14,687, or one-third were coloured people, and that out of these coloured people only 237 were Chinese, 3 Japanese, and 180 Indians, so that 14,267 were negroes. As the whites, counting all the States, are eight times as numerous as the coloured people, and yet the coloured convicts are one-third of the whole, it speaks badly for the morals of the negro race in America.

I was much struck with the immense development of electricity. Steamers, railway carriages, tramcars, hotels, shops, towns, villages, and railway stations, even those in remote places, with scarcely a building near to them, were all well lighted by electricity.

Railways run on scaffoldings down the centre of the streets, and horses with their vehicles run underneath them. The railway trains are well heated throughout by hot water pipes (every class), and reflect a grave reproach on our country, where, in the severest weather, it is difficult to get a foot warmer, except by certain main line trains, and, even then, one is expected to "tip" the attendant. Poor persons travelling in thin garments and poorly fed, in severe weather, scarcely ever dare to ask for a foot warmer unless they are prepared to fee someone, and, whether rich or poor, no one can get a foot warmer at any of our country stations. When we consider that railways originated in this country, and that some of the parts of America I passed through were, some 50, some 40, and some even 30 years ago, only known to the trapper and the Indian, it shows the increase of enterprise exhibited by our cousins over the Atlantic.

Tramcars are worked by electricity, by steam, by horses and mules, and by revolving endless cables. Telephones are everywhere. The railway journeys in America often occupying several days, the tickets are a kind of succession of coupons, parts of which have to be given up at various stages. Caution is exercised in selling railway tickets for long journeys--thus, you are required to sign the ticket, and observations are made of you, such as your height, probable age, colour of your eyes, hair, etc. Some of the lines of railway are not fenced in, not even in towns, so that the train runs through a town as openly as does an omnibus. I may convey some idea of some of the large American systems of agriculture, by referring to the estate of one of my clients, Mr. C.H. Huffman, of Merced, California. This gentleman has fields ranging from 1,000 to 15,000 acres each. He can plough 400 to 500 acres a day. By his traction engine he can strike 12 furrows at a time. He can put 70 teams (of eight mules or horses each) to work at one time. Each harvester will cut, thrash, and sack an average of 50 acres a day. The front part of the machine faces the standing wheat in the field, in the centre of the machine it is thrashed and winnowed, and at the rear it is thrown out in sacks ready for market. Mr. Huffman can sit in his study at home, and by his telephone talk to his clerks at Merced (he is the banker there), as well as to the foremen at his various ranches for 25 miles round the country. I particularly noticed one of his fields of wheat, comprising 2,000 acres, as level and clean as a well-kept lady's flower garden in England.

The Americans have a greater variety of foods served at their meals than we do, but I never got the flavour of meat cut from a joint to equal that which, when really well roasted and served, we get in England. As to bread, I never tasted bread worth the name, from the time I left London to the time I returned to it. Alike on the Cunard steamers, cars, hotels, etc., you can get no wholemeal bread. French and Vienna breads, and other very white abortions of that kind are obtainable in abundance, and even a kind of brown bread, and "Graham's" bread, but good honest wholemeal bread, containing all the properties of the full kernel of the wheat, it is impossible to get, and this to me was a very great deprivation, as my principal article of food is real wholemeal bread.

The system of the custody of letters at the large American hotels appeared to me rather unsafe. A visitor asks for letters, whereupon there are handed to him all the letters in the pigeon-hole marked with the initial of which the visitor's name commences. The visitor then proceeds to look through them, and takes what he chooses, and hands the rest back. The official is too busy, or it is not customary for him, to look through them for the visitor, or even to watch the visitor in his process of selection. I noticed one gentleman with a packet of letters, I should think considerably over a hundred, every now and then slip one into his breast pocket and give a furtive glance, which did not inspire confidence, but probably this is a well accustomed habit of the people, and the letters, perhaps, are as safe as the newspapers I frequently saw deposited on the tops of the street letter boxes (outside the boxes), because they were too large to be put inside; of course anyone could have taken them, but the custom not to touch them is probably honourably recognized. The street letter boxes are quite small square boxes, not large pillar boxes as are ours in this country.

I should like to have remarked more generally on America, but both time and space fail me. Of course, as most people know, the (to us) disgusting practice of spitting is common in America; spittoons are universally provided in public and private places. At Merced Court House is this notice: "Gentlemen will not, and others should not spit upon the floors." Huge spittoons are provided there.

The awful guttural which precedes the constant expectoration of Americans is most trying. It excites in persons near them and who are unaccustomed to it, a sensation of necessity to vomit, as it conveys a fear that your neighbour is about to vomit over you. It is not the excusable expectoration arising from an accumalation in the air passages, but a continuous fusilade of saliva. It is a disgusting practice, and I believe will die out in America as its citizens travel more in the old countries and become used to manners more refined than such a one as this. I observed that my clients in California, who have travelled in Europe, and other travelled Americans, are not guilty of this odious practice.

I would say to Englishmen travelling in America, don't condescend to the "guessing" and other loose styles of expression, and don't affect the nasal twang. Americans, with all their boast of one man being as good as another, are greatly pleased to entertain or travel with Englishmen having a title, and they pay a marked respect to Britishers who speak in a classical style, and who, while being devoid of foppishness, bounce, or vulgarity, conduct themselves with a genial dignity.

=California.=

I will now say something about California, and then proceed to describe the lands for sale, and the prospects of those who will settle upon them.

California lies on the genial coast of the Pacific Ocean, midway between the too cold regions of the North and the too hot regions of the South. To be exact, the mean temperature in San Francisco in the month of January, averages about 49°. It has varied from 53° to 39°. The record of 32 years shows that between sunrise and sunset it has not been so low as 32° on more than 10 days. Snow is sometimes seen to fall, but it melts immediately.

California has a bright, genial climate, and is described as "pre-eminently a sunny land." The early spring, commencing about the middle of February and lasting about six weeks, is a very pleasant part of the year, but April is described as the "cheeriest." December and January are the least pleasant, because it is the rainy and winter season.

Thunderstorms are rare, and no hurricane has ever been known there. The rainfall of California is about twenty inches, and the rainy days number about sixty in the year, or about half the number of rainy days experienced in the Atlantic States or Central Europe.

Amongst the fruits grown in abundance are the orange, grape, peach, apricot, plum, cherry, apple, nectarine, fig, lemon, lime, olive, date, and all the berries of value.

Besides the immense growth of choice and luscious Fruits, for which California is famous all over the globe, it claims to have the largest milk, butter, and cheese dairies in the world. It is also renowned for its mineral riches, its immense mercantile business, its manufacturing industries, its production of wool, its gigantic timber, its wealth of beauty in flowers, its fast horses, its grand scenery, embracing lofty mountains, deep valleys, expansive fertile plains, and all the variations of a beautiful country, with many rivers, and a magnificent sea coast, whilst the "coast range" and the slopes of the "Sierra" offer to the sportsman such game in abundance as grizzly and cinnamon bears and Californian lions. There are also deer, hare, rabbit, quail, large flocks of wild ducks and geese, and the rivers afford such fish as salmon and trout, and the deep sea splendid fishing.

San Francisco has been called "a city of 100 hills." It has a population of nearly 300,000 inhabitants, amongst whom are no less than 50 millionaires. Its harbour is known all over the globe as the "Golden Gate," and it has answered well to its name, for an entrance to its vast resources has made the fortune of multitudes of people, and many going there now are laying the foundations for future wealth.

The lands of California have the two essentials for successful culture--a rich soil and genial climate, with plenty of sun, yet never too hot and never too cold for out-door work, and most of its domestic animals are never housed, and require no food but wild herbage.

FRUIT CULTURE IN CALIFORNIA.

Our lands at Merced, in California, offer to gentlemen wishing to make a first or a fresh start in life a really good opportunity. It is difficult to conceive how men with energy, enterprise, and a little capital, can be content to sit in an office in foggy, blocked-up London, "quill driving" from year's end to year's end, when a prospect is afforded them, such as we now offer, of establishing a pleasant home in a luxurious land, with a sunny, genial climate, and within about a fortnight's travel of England, and where they would have the liberty of being their own masters, and lay the foundation of a future competency.

CURRENCY.

As the currency in California is dollars, not pounds, we must ask our readers to accustom themselves to dollars. A dollar is 100 cents, and, roughly speaking, a cent is equivalent to a halfpenny, so that a dollar would be worth, of our money, four shillings and twopence. Its value, however, varies a few cents according to the place where it is exchanged. Bank of England notes or pounds are never worth less than four shillings and twopence, i.e., 480 cents or halfpennies, which, of course, is four dollars and 80 cents, there being 100 cents in a dollar. The decimal currency is extremely simple when once understood. Never less than 4.80 is given for an English pound, but sometimes 4.82 and 4.85 is obtained.

MERCED.

The lands I have for sale are situate in the County of Merced, in California, about 150 miles by rail from the City of San Francisco, They are designated "British Colony," and at the nearest point are just one mile from the boundary of the town of Merced, and two miles from the railway station, hotel, shops, etc. Merced town is lighted by gas and electricity, has water laid on, telephones, telegraphs, Court House, Episcopal Church, Presbyterian Church, Cumberland Presbyterian Church, Methodist Church, South Methodist Church, Baptist Church, and Catholic Church, two schools, shops of various kinds; two railroads, the main one running up to San Francisco, and down to Los Angeles and on to New Orleans, etc., and the other, a branch line to Stockton, Sacramento, etc. Merced is 175 feet above the level of the sea; it is a pleasant little town, affords some congenial society, and I firmly believe will, before many years have passed, become an important centre, because my clients have brought water from the Merced River more than twenty miles off, by a system of canals, and have formed a reservoir of 640 acres in extent, with an average depth of 30 feet, and thus have given facilities for irrigating the country round the town. It is certain to become a great Fruit-growing district, as its soil is so fully adapted for the purpose. It is much nearer to San Francisco than Los Angeles, and is nearer also than Fresno and other districts which have already made themselves a name for Fruit culture.

The country around Merced has a natural fall, and is drained by many creeks, which are dry in summer, but contain more or less water in winter.

THE LANDS FOR SALE.