Excerpt from By Motor to the Golden Gate "Qui s'excuse s'accuse." Which, I suppose, proves this a defence to start with! But having been a few times accused, there are a few explanations I want very much to make. When this cross-continent story was first suggested, it seemed the simplest sort of thing to undertake. All that was necessary was to put down experiences as they actually occurred. No imagination, or plot or characterization - could anything be easier? But when the serial was published and letters began coming in, it became unhappily evident that writing fact must be one of the most unattainably difficult accomplishments in the world. In the first place, only those who, having lived long in a particular locality and knowing it in all its varying seasons, are qualified truly to present its picture. The observations of a transient tourist are necessarily superficial, as of one whose experiences are merely a series of instantaneous impressions; at one time colored perhaps too vividly, at another fogged; according to the sun or rain at one brief moment of time. It would be very pleasant to write nothing but eulogies of people and places, but after all if a personal narrative were written like an advertisement, praising everything, there would be no point in praising anything, would there? About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

Excerpt from Five Years Within the Golden Gate The northern part of the great valley above mentioned is drained by the Sacramento river and its tributaries. The southern part is watered, but less effectually, by the San Joaquin stream, which also receives a number of subordinate feeders. Both these main rivers, ap preaching each other for some distance, at length mingle their waters at a point nearlv midway in the great valley, a little distance above San Francisco, through the noble bay of which, so denominated, they finally escape to the ocean. The bay itself is about seventy miles long by fifteen broad, being, at the entrance, narrowed into a channel only about a mile broad, but fully five long, through which its waters escape in a current at the entrance, as the tide ebbs and ows to and from the ocean. But for that channel or strait, the inner waters would remain like a noble lake. This channel or strait, from the western side of the bay, passes on the northern shore between high promontories, which gradually ascend to the Coast Range Mountains, and in the same manner on the Opposite side to the bold but less elevated coast on the south. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works."

Excerpt from The Golden Gate and Back: Travel Letters Grand Canyon, Arizona, May 9, 1913. - Shortly after Mrs. Smith and I returned from the Pacific coast two years ago, I met an acquaintance who greeted me by saying, Well, I read your pieces in the paper. A good many times the Agitator has opened its gracious columns to me, and numerous friends have been kind enough to say nice things re garding my letters of travel. It is doubtless true that many people, whether they themselves have trav cled or mostly stop at home, enjoy -descriptions of faraway scene-s, and of lands that differ from their own. I like to feel that not only my friends but also others whom I have never met, do me the honor to read what I find pleasure in writing. And so I am going to talk to you all again through the paper, and I begin with this toast. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

Excerpt from Golden Gate to Hell Gate I doubt not that Hammond has told the same story about me. The important thing is, that we made the trip - we did it together, and our friendship has suf fered no serious impairment. Constant and inevitable palship for 5000 miles of canon, desert, and a submarine coun try pike, makes a severe test of friend ship. To bridal cogples who may come to contemplate it as a transcontinental honeymoon, I offer a vigorous dispar agement. As soon as Hammond and I had decided to make a stagger at it, ' we began to find a great deal of trouble in re straining o u r selves from stop ping everybody on the street and breaking the news. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

Unlike some other reproductions of classic texts (1) We have not used OCR(Optical Character Recognition), as this leads to bad quality books with introduced typos. (2) In books where there are images such as portraits, maps, sketches etc We have endeavoured to keep the quality of these images, so they represent accurately the original artefact. Although occasionally there may be certain imperfections with these old texts, we feel they deserve to be made available for future generations to enjoy.

Excerpt from The Motor Boat Club, at the Golden Gate: Or a Thrilling Capture in the Great Fog At the present moment both boys were sitting comfortably facing each other in their section in a sleeping car on the luxurious Overland Mail. It was early forenoon. They had left Sacra mento behind some time before, on the last stretch of the run across the state of California. Joe Dawson was riding facing forward. Tom Halstead, in the seat opposite, half lolled at the window-ledge, with his back toward the engine. Both boys had slept well on their last night out from San Francisco. Both had breakfasted heartily, that morning, in the dining car now left behind at the state capital. The next thing that would interest them, so far as they could now guess, would be their arrival at Oakland, and the subsequent ferry trip that would land them in San Francisco. It may seem a curious fact to the reader, but neither Tom Halstead nor Joe Dawson knew just what new phases of life awaited them in the City by the Golden Gate. They were engaged to enter the employment of a man who owned a motor yacht. The owner had agreed to their own terms in the way of salary, and he was pay ing all their expenses on this luxurious trip west ward. Moreover, the same-owner had engaged some of the other members of the Motor Boat Club of the Kennebec, as will soon be told. Readers of the preceding volumes of this ser ies are already well acquainted with bright, energetic, loyal and capable Tom Halstead, who, from the start, had held the post of fleet captain of the Motor Boat Club. The same readers are equally familiar with the career of Joe Dawson, fleet engineer of the Club. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.