News Letter 10 Final.pub (Read-Only) - The Binns Family

Here is the third and final instalment of aletter written by Arthur William Binns (1858-1931) in 1890 from Springfield, Ohio to hisparents Wilkinson and Martha Binns, ofOakworth, near Keighley, Yorkshire. In theletter he describes a visit he made toCalifornia under the auspices of TheBrotherhood of Locomotive Firemen andEngineers. The original letter is now sadlylost but this early transcription was made byJoyce Kidd, to whom the editor is mostgrateful.After dinner we took the cars to goout to visit the Presidio, FortWinfield Scott and the GoldenGate. The Presidio is the firstplace on the bay that was settledby the Spaniards. It is about threemiles from the centre of the city,and is about a mile east of theGolden Gate. It is at the presenttime a Military Reservation of theU.S. There are large barracks fordifferent branches of the services.The grounds near the officersquarters are laid out with niceflower beds and grass plots, butthe quarters of the men looksomewhat forlorn. I did not seemany soldiers about, I supposethey were all at work. After lookingabout for a while we started forwardto Fort Winfield Scott. It wasone of the longest miles I everwalked across the salt meadows.We passed the Lifeboat Stationand went in and saw the boats androcket apparatus. Everything wasas clean as paint and elbowgrease could make it. Some timelast year, during a fog, a steamercalled the City of Chester was rundown and sunk, right opposite theboat house. Some of the peopleon her had taken breakfast inFrisco and were back there fortheir dinner. Others went down intheir cabins and were taken outafterwards by divers. The day wewere there, it was difficult to imaginethat such a calamity couldhave occurred and leave no trace.We passed yards where therewere scores of cannons and guncarriages. They were old muzzleloaders, some of them monsters,but sadly out of date. Fort WinfieldScott is situated on the point ofland that forms the southern wallof the Golden Gate. The entranceto the Bay is about ½ mile wide, sothe guns at this place commandthe passage. The Fort is built ofGranite and iron. It has three gunplatforms and places for light gunson the roof. On the inside thefloors are arched and supportedby big granite pillars. There areentrances to the magazines oneach floor. I think there are about100 guns in the place about 8inches bore muzzle loaders perhaps20 feet long. A modern Ironclad with her 80 ton guns wouldbring the whole place down in tenminutes. It was a famous placewhen it was built 30 years ago, butit is only useful for a show place atthe present day. On the headlandabove it they are making earthworksand putting big breech loadersin them, so that they will notneed to get in a panic for fear of aChinese iron clad coming to bombardSan Francisco. At the time ofthe Chinese exclusion act passing1888, the people of Frisco wereterrified lest a Chinese fleet shouldcome over to argue the point.They could scarcely sleep. I guessthey feel better now. The UnionIronworks Co. of San Franciscoare now at work building Men-of-War for Uncle Sam, so they oughtto be able to fix up something totake care of themselves. After gazingour fill at the Golden Gate, andwatching several ships go by, westarted back for town. I think themile from the Fort to the Presidiowas about equal to three ordinarymiles. My poor feet suffered terribly,but we got over it somehow. Iwas glad when we got back to theplace for street cars. We had afine view of the bay as we weregoing back. It looks splendid withits ships and islands with the distantmountains for a background. Ithink I could have looked at it awhole day and not been tired. I amnot surprised at Californians thinkingso much of their state. I wastaken with it myself.After dinner that evening I metFrank Rennie for the last time beforestarting east. We sort of madeit up to meet in Chicago in 1892 allbeing well. He told me that hewould introduce me to a new dishthat would keep our friendshipwarm. We went to a restaurantand he ordered some tamales. Heexplained that they were a Mexicandish, and were much esteemedby some of the people ofFrisco. They came to the table allhot. They looked like a bunch oflong leaves tied at both ends, anda string round the middle. Theleaves are the husks of Indiancorn. We took our forks and wentto work to dissect them. First cametwo or three layers of leaves, theninside was a little pudding aboutthe size and shape of a sausage.Inside, the pudding was filled withhot spices and a piece of chicken,it tasted first rate, but it nearlyburnt the skin off your mouth. Iwould not doubt that they would dofamously for a bad cold. After thiswe walked round the streets untilmidnight, then shook hands andwent our respective ways, to meetagain in 92 at the Exposition ifpossible. I went back to the Hoteland packed up my traps ready forthe return trip. We were to leaveSan Francisco at 7 a.m. in themorning, to catch the train at Oaklandfor the east. I tumbled intobed and took three or four hourssleep, to brace me up for my journey.We were up early next morningand ate our breakfast with arelish, our appetites were not spoiltby being journey proud. The last Isaw of San Francisco was as shewas swallowed up in the mist thatwas hanging round. We arrived inOakland in due time and took ourseats in the train. The journey toSacramento was accomplished by11 a.m. Here wemet ne of the !!