Lippincott's Magazine of Popular Literature and Science, Volume 11, No. 22, January, 1873Various
Science
Lippincott's Magazine of Popular Literature and Science, Volume 11, No. 22, January, 1873
Various
Literature, Modern -- 19th century -- Periodicals; Science -- Periodicals
Our first course after we left the cars was to the tavern, standing
close to the railroad on a little hill, whither the passengers hurried
for lunch. This so-called "hotel," the best known and most famous, as
has already been said, in all Oregon, I might compare to an
old-fashioned inn. The long table with its spotless table-cloth was
lavishly spread with genuine German dishes, excellently cooked, and we
were waited on by comely and neatly-dressed German girls; and though the
dinner would not perhaps compare with the same meal at the club-house of
the "San Francisco" I must confess that it was incomparably the best I
ever tasted in Oregon, in which region neither the cooks nor the bills
of fare are usually of the highest order.
Dinner being over, we made inquiry for Doctor Keil, to whom we were now
ready to pay our respects. Our host pointed out to us the doctor's
dwelling-house, which looked, in the distance, like the premises of a
well-to-do Low-Dutch farmer; and after passing over a long stretch of
plank-road, we turned in the direction of the royal residence. On the
way we met several laborers just coming from the field, who looked as if
life went well with them--girls in short frocks with rake in hand, and
boys comfortably smoking their clay pipes--and received from all an
honest German greeting. Everything here had a German aspect--the houses
pleasantly shaded by foliage, the barns, stables and well-cultivated
fields, the flower and kitchen-gardens, the white church-steeple rising
from a green hill: nothing but the fences which enclose the fields
reminded us that we were in America.
The doctor's residence was surrounded by a high white picket-fence:
stately, widespreading live-oaks shaded it, and the spacious courtyard
had a neat and carefully-kept aspect. Crowing cocks, and hens each with
her brood, were scratching and picking about, the geese cackled, and
several well-trained dogs gave us a noisy welcome. Upon our asking for
the doctor, a friendly German matron directed us to the orchard, whither
we immediately turned our steps. A really magnificent sight met our
eyes--thousands of trees, whose branches, covered with the finest fruit,
were so loaded that it had been necessary to place props under many of
them, lest they should break beneath the weight of their luscious
burden.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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