n
built. We left the Yellowstone Park, at Cinabar, and went direct to
Seattle. During our stay in Seattle the whole town was excited one
morning by the arrival of a ship from the Klondike, that region of
golden romance and painful reality. The Doctor and I went down to the
wharf to see the great ship disembark these gold-diggers; but for
several hours the four hundred passengers had been detained on board
because $24,000 in gold dust, carried by two miners, had been stolen;
and though a search had been instituted, to which everyone had been
compelled to submit, no clue to the thief had been found. Dr. Talmage
was profoundly impressed by the misfortune of these two men, who after
months of exposure and fatigue were now obliged to walk ashore
penniless. A number of these four hundred passengers had brought back
an aggregate of about $4,000,000 from the Klondike; but many among them
had brought back only disappointment, and their haggard faces were
pitiful to see; indeed, the Doctor told me that out of the thousands who
went fortune hunting to Alaska, only about 3 per cent. came back richer
than when they started.

In the early part of September Dr. Talmage lectured in San Francisco on
International Policies. His admiration of the Czar's manifesto for
disarmament of the nations was unbounded, and he emphasised it whenever
he appeared in public. He prophesied the millennium as if he looked
forward to personal experiences of it; this came from his remarkable
confidence in the life forces nature had given him. At Coronado Beach we
determined upon a rest for two weeks; but the Doctor could in no wise be
induced to forego his lecture at San Diego. A pleasant visit to Los
Angeles was followed by a delightful sojourn of a few days at Santa
Barbara, the floral paradise of the Golden Coast; here the Doctor was
met at the station by carriages, and we were literally smothered in
flowers; even our rooms in the hotel were banked high with roses. In the
afternoon we accepted an invitation to drive through Santa Barbara,
hoping against hope that we might do so inconspicuously. But the same
flower-laden carriages came for us, and we were driven through the city
like a miniature flower parade. Much to the Doctor's regret he was
followed about like a circus; but his courtesy never failed.

On our route East we again stopped in San Francisco. An announcement had
been made that Dr. Talmage would preach for the Sunday evening service
at Calv