Thus, Mount Saint Helena is not only a summit, but a
frontier; and, up to the time of writing, it has stayed the
progress of the iron horse.
PART I--IN THE VALLEY
CHAPTER I--CALISTOGA
It is difficult for a European to imagine Calistoga, the whole
place is so new, and of such an accidental pattern; the very name,
I hear, was invented at a supper-party by the man who found the
springs.
The railroad and the highway come up the valley about parallel to
one another. The street of Calistoga joins the perpendicular to
both--a wide street, with bright, clean, low houses, here and there
a verandah over the sidewalk, here and there a horse-post, here and
there lounging townsfolk. Other streets are marked out, and most
likely named; for these towns in the New World begin with a firm
resolve to grow larger, Washington and Broadway, and then First and
Second, and so forth, being boldly plotted out as soon as the
community indulges in a plan. But, in the meanwhile, all the life
and most of the houses of Calistoga are concentrated upon that
street between the railway station and the road. I never heard it
called by any name, but I will hazard a guess that it is either
Washington or Broadway. Here are the blacksmith's, the chemist's,
the general merchant's, and Kong Sam Kee, the Chinese laundryman's;
here, probably, is the office of the local paper (for the place has
a paper--they all have papers); and here certainly is one of the
hotels, Cheeseborough's, whence the daring Foss, a man dear to
legend, starts his horses for the Geysers.
Pages:
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25