British crown, were coming with
credentials to represent Edward VII, the king of England." I was
looking forward to my visit to California, since I left New York, but I
never expected the time for me to go there would come so soon as it did.
I was longing to see a great gathering of Freemasons, of this class of
men, that, in every country represents the highest ideals of good
citizenship.

With a few days preliminary preparations, I bade good-bye to my
employer, and well supplied with recommendations from some influential
friends and acquaintances which I had made in Chicago, I saw myself off
to California, on the forenoon train, the 25th of June, 1904.

The trip was uneventful, excepting the unbearable heat and dust,
especially going through the States of Oklahoma, Arizona and New Mexico,
and the number of Indians, which, for the first time in my life I beheld
in their own skin living and moving contented as though they still were
the dominating race on the continent, with their square faces painted in
various colors, wrapped in their blankets, and bare-footed, their feet
being very much like those of a mud turtle, they were the real thing.

CHAPTER VIII

_Honorable Submission_

There was a time when the Eastern part of the United States looked upon
San Francisco as the coming New York of the Pacific Coast, but since the
disastrous earthquake in the year 1906, the stream of progress as a
great commercial center has been turned rather towards the Northern
Pacific Coast, yet San Francisco with its great harbor, the ever
increasing commercial developments and number of other advantages, still
is a magnificent attraction to the homeseeker, who for the last few
years has been very sceptical in his preference on account of existing
unfavorable conditions regarding the city's government which is the prey
of dishonest politicians. For this and many other reasons I should never
make my home within the limits of the city of San Francisco. There are
beautiful localities within short distances, desirable in every respect
and beyond the claws of the city hall of San Francisco.

Mount Tamalpais, I believe, is a most pleasant location for the lovers
of nature. Words fail, and it is beyond the ability of my pen, to even
attempt to describe, the beauties which nature has bestowed upon the
Mount of Tamalpais. Situated just across the bay of San Francisco, by
the way of Socialito, on the train to Mill Valley and whence on t