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The Pamphlet Collection of Sir Robert Stout: Volume 77

Southern Pacific Railway, On the Sierra Nevada, November 25th, 1904

Southern Pacific Railway, On the Sierra Nevada,

This will be my last letter, for I am making my way homeward by express, and if I wrote again it would not reach you more than two or three days before my arrival. On Sunday I preach at Salt Lake City, the Zion of the Mormons, thence we go to Albany to make the acquaintance of my future daughter-in-law, thence to New York, where I hope to grasp, or rather be grasped by, the big hand of our dear Robert Collier, and on Saturday, the 10th, we sail by the Cunard fast steamer "Etruria," due at Liverpool the Friday following.

We landed at San Francisco six weeks after our departure from Auckland, on Monday, the 21st. We did not know anyone there, even by name, but were not long in making friends, who kept us busy with kindliest attentions throughout our four days' stay, and made us regret that we could not spend a longer time with them, as they pressed us to do. On our page 70 arrival at the hotel recommended to us we found Mr. Leavitt, the young and very successful minister of the First Congregation, enquiring if we had put up there. He and others had been notified of our coming by the President of the American Unitarian Association, and had been on the look-out for us for the previous six weeks. He took immediate charge of us and showed us over the city, whose roads are the steepest I have ever seen, though the cable cars run up and down them with more rapidity than safety, at least so it appears to a stranger, but accidents, we are told, are of rare occurrence.

The same evening there was a dinner of the Unitarian Club to which I was invited. The Club has a membership limited to 200, and there are always many applicants waiting for election. It consists of Unitarian gentlemen, many of them of the highest position in the city, but, of course, there is no declaration of faith required of candidates, and many liberal-minded men of other denominations are glad to be admitted to fellowship, for here Unitarians are held in high esteem, and the name is no bugbear to frighten would-be sympathisers from enrolling themselves under it There were about 150 present, and the Chairman kindly called upon me to address them before the discussion on "Nature in California" was given. I was very tired and sleepy, for the day began early for us, and with a thorough and fatiguing Custom House examination of our baggage and other business, and seeing things and people, I had been kept fully employed. All the same, I was very glad of the oppor- page 71 tunity of addressing so representative an audience of our American brethren, and assuring them of our goodwill towards them both as Englishmen and as Unitarians.

On my return home at 11 o'clock I found a heap of letters waiting for me, hut was too worn out to give them more than a glance and a grateful welcome. I had little time for reading all the next day, for at an early hour of the morning the Secretary of the Western Churches took us in charge and showed us over the University, and took us to two of our churches on the other side of the bay. I had the happiness to be introduced to Mr. Hosmer, whom I have long known through his hymns, several of which are in our Berwick Hymnal, and so we were kept busy all day till dinner-time. After dinner we went to a reception at First Church, a reception not indeed intended for us, though I was told there would have been one if they had been sure what time we were coming. However, it answered the purpose quite as well, and gave us the opportunity of making a brief acquaintance with the leading members of the most influential of the five Unitarian congregations here.

Thursday was "Thanksgiving Day," and a public holiday, and I was very glad of the opportunity of seeing how all Americans joined in keeping up this observance, first instituted by Governor Bradford some 250 years ago. I went to the Congregational Church in the morning, when a joint service was held for our people and theirs—shared with Mr. Leavitt the "thanksgiving dinner" of his household, a kind of page 72 holy feast—drove with him in the afternoon through the outskirts of the city and returned in the evening to pack up for the next day's journey.

I had many visitors; the only one I knew already was Mr. Gaunt, a member of our choir twelve or fourteen years ago, whom I married to Miss Grasshara before he left for California. He is getting on well here, for wages are high and the climate makes life easy. He told me the one thing he missed was Mill Hill and its choir, and he often dreamt he was back again. He is settled now at San José, and had come fifty miles to see me.

I heartily thank all the dear friends who have written to me. I have no doubt others would have done so, but they feared to repeat what I have been told already. But assurances of esteem and goodwill from so many are very welcome.

Very soon now I shall be with you, and all this travel will be like a dream of the past. My one desire is that I may, during the few years left to me, be more helpful than I have ever yet been.

C. H.