Travel report of the family Derogee from Rotterdam to Hamfort, California from Tuesday 19th October till 8 November 1920 with the s.s. Rotterdam.
The family, 4 persons, father Daniël, mother Marie and their sons Jan and Daniël.
The story (80 years old) came by our visit in May 2000 to the family in Michigan out an old box with old pictures and nobody did not read it.
I have write the story in Dutch and Winny has translate in English for send to the family so they can read what their parents and grandparents have go through.
Marijke van der Sluis-Dérogée
Pijnacker, Holland, July 2000
Winny de Graaff-Dérogée
Longwood, Florida, October 2000 mhthvds@kabelfoon.nl
Tuesday October 19
Departure, it was cold outside, but the sea was quiet and beautiful at 8 o'clock on the high seas. It was a great sight, that huge body of water. It's a pity that Van den Heuvel was not with us. The children were rejected, but we met others that also went to California.
We go to the best place. Nobody can sleep. Finally we are able to sleep a few hours.
Wednesday October 20
At 5.30am we are awake again. The engines are slowing down. We are at Boulogne. The weather is beautiful. 7 o'clock dinner.
It is very crowded in the common wash area. The Limburgia moores near us and many small fishing vessels surround us. Now that the fog lifts, we clearly can see the dunes and houses.
10 o'clock. The engines are quiet. The sea is as calm as the Dutch Rhine river. We are waiting for French passengers. The sun sparkles on the French coast.
Many sea gulls circle around the ship.
10.30am. We have an additional 450 passengers now. The deck resembles the Kalverstreet in Amsterdam.
12.30pm. We are still waiting in front of the coast. It is very warm on the back deck.
1.50pm. Dinner, soup, meat, potatoes, rice with currants and bread. All the Dutch people stay together. We go back to the deck now. We are departing.
3.15pm. The weather remains beautiful. The sea is green.
6.25pm. Soup and bread with tea and potatoes with plenty of meat.
From 6.50 till 7.20pm we take a rest and then back to the deck. Dark clouds are appearing.
10.15pm. We are going back to bed and soon fall asleep.
Thursday October 21
We are already up and on deck at 5 o'clock. The sea is restless. Many became seasick. We are going to lay down for another hour.
6.15am. We get dressed. Marie does not feel well and goes back to bed. We drink a little bit of cognac to stay with it. Then we go to eat. A lot of people stayed in their cabins, sick.
7.25am. We go to the deck. It is raining and very windy. Marie is better and also outside. We pass the English coast, but because of the rain, we do not see much. We only see pale faces. Now we can laugh, nut maybe it will happen to us later too.
We go to get ropes, it is quite something, there are not enough points of support. Marie is sea sick, not me, not yet.
7.45am. It is dry. Everybody sucks on a lemon. Not us. Daan is still O.K. The people from Russia and Poland dance on the cilonica (?). It is unorganized now. We are standing above the helm and have the whole sea in front of us.
8.15am. Plymouth is visible. A fishing boat passes us. We see a large white building in front of us. Marie is feeling better.
8.25am. We pass the light house and a small boat. We go into the harbor. It is beautiful. We go slow and finally stop and right away thousands of seagulls circle around the ship.
8.30am. Dutch time. Fjords and green mountains, no beach. We are anchored 150 meters from the coast, a sight never to forget. Shrimpboats are moving around us, it is raining again and humid.
10.40am. The passengers from the Sir Walter Raleigh have boarded.
10.55am. We depart and pass the Limburgia. The weather is good, no sun, the seagulls keep us company.
England is shrouded in a fog, a pity, because it is supposed to be beautiful. The waves are here noticibly larger.
11.30am. The sun breaks through.
12.20pm. Lunchtime. White bean soup, potatoes, pole beans and meat.
12.40pm. We talk with the neighbors, they are all Dutch and then we take a rest.
2.45pm. We pass the isthmus and are now in the Ocean. The waves are getting higher. More and more seasickness.
Marie is sick again too.
3.55pm. Water and sky, we pass a lighthouse in the middle of the sea. Marie is in bed and quite ill now. The waves get higher and higher. It is interesting.
8.45pm. We just received a letter from Mr. Spruit from Oegstgeest and a postcard from the Hagen family by way of Plymouth. The engines are working hard, the ship rolls forward and backward.
I just came from the 2nd class. Where almost everybody is sick, also some of our servants. Marie and Daan have a headache. Me and Jan feel still great. Due to the mess on the deck we stay downstairs. We are with three other families in a hall with the best cabins, where you feel the movements of the ship the least. 1/3 of the passengers did not come to dinner this evening. I eat a lot, but drink little. The door of the cabin is kept open with a rope. It is getting worse, everything is creaking, it sounds like hail against the cabin. We use our little chest to sit on. I sit on bed now and the chest is sliding back and forward.
9.45pm. We go to the dining room. Jan plays the ocarina and right away a lot of Dutch people join us. Also some rats.
10.40pm. We go to bed.
Friday October 22
4am. On deck, the sea is not calm, very dark, go back to sleep again.
7.15am. Breakfast, bread, corned beef, coffee. Then I shave and to the deck.
8.30am. The sun breaks through. The sea is high. The waves are 8 to 9 meters and splash apart.
Marie is in bed and is very seasick. Daan looks pale, but still O.K. Me and Jan feel great.
I love being on the deck.
8.30am. Dark clouds gather. Foam falls like rain on the deck. I went downstairs to write this down. I could not do it upstairs, the ship creaks. The portholes are closed and there is hardly anybody on deck. I go again, to have a look.
12noon. Marie went upstairs but could not take it. She is deathly ill. It is a mess everywhere.
1.00pm. Dinner. Me and Daan are going. Jan brings food tot the cabin, we eat a lot and took for about 10 people meat, bread, barley with raisins to the cabin. I eat an awful lot, you need that to keep going. We do not go back to the deck anymore, it is not safe, the sea is high. Luckily we passed the worst spot in the ocean, the so called sailors graveyard. That is where all the oceans and seas meet and there are several currants. We now have a concert in the cabin of the boys. Jan plays on a borrowed banjo and Daan the ocarina. Right now 9/10 of the passengers are sick. I heard that there was a outbreak of smallpox on the New Amsterdam.
9.10pm. (Shiptime 7.40). It storms, we roll in bed and the waves go over the deck. Polish women are laying day and night, wrapped in their blankets on the deck, a big mess, the vomit runs through the halls. In our cabin is saw dust to cover it all. It is impossible to stay in the dining room, the ship is rocking to much. I just heard, that the Noordam is two days overdue, it left from New York. I do not know if it is the storm or the mist causing it. Nothing is going on. Jan is on deck and Daan is asleep.
10.20pm. We go to bed.
Saturday October 23
5.40am. We are going to wash ourselves. On leaving the washroom I throw up a little. We stay downstairs. While I am writing this I throw up. Me and Marie have a bad headache.
After the inspection we go fast to bed.
9.40pm. Evening. None of us went to the dining room. Daan brought everything to the cabin. Marie went to the deck for a little while, but felt worse when she came back. Jan is complaining all day, and that is what they call a calm sea. The water beats against the portholes. In the cabin next to ours, is a lady who has been sick all 4 days and does not dare to show herself. I was just offered to buy 4 eggs for $1, that is to high. Before I left I exchanged thousand guilders for dollars ad ƒ 3,20, which means, that one egg would cost ƒ 0,80. 1 glass of beer costs 10 American pennies, oranges 4 for ƒ 1,--, 1 bottle of Medoc 1 dollar.
Everything is much to expensive. Our cabin chief gets us only 4 oranges for Marie.
10.30pm. We go to bed.
Sunday October 24
It is very windy. The water beats over the first deck. The clothes on the door swing back and forward. The railings along the cabin walls are used a lot. All who are still around walk in a slant. No shortage of vomiting. Marie stays in bed. She is not well at all. I stay downstairs too, just like Daan. We seldom see Jan, who is still on the deck. A lady gave us some pills against seasickness; will it help? Jan came into the cabin for a moment, he is soaking wet from the water.
3pm. Sunday dinner. But if you are not feeling well, you understand that you will not enjoy your food. Marie only had a slice of raisin bread and some plums. Me and Daan only two bowls of soup, 2 pounds of plums and 2 pounds of Raisin bread. That is when you do not feel well. The sea is at its worst. Nobody is allowed on deck. The sea beats the deck, it storms, nothing to do but back to sleep.
8.55pm. We tie the doors down, we did not eat tonight. If we are laying on our side, we fall over.
11.00pm. It is heavy weather. The waves beat over the highest deck. This is the 2nd class. We all stay awake. We lay in bed, very scared.
Monday October 25
It is three o'clock in the morning. Shiptime 1 hour.
It is very heavy weather, everything creaks, the machines thump something awful. I cannot sleep, but I will try.
9.10am. On the table are gale frames, to place the plates in, to prevent them from sliding away. The water is in the dining room. We are moving slowly to prevent breaking of the propellor, that comes out of the water a lot.
12 noon. The storm lessens a bit.
12.20pm. The cabins are being cleaned again, like every morning for the inspection. All is done with kerosene.
1.40pm. The storm is over. We are allowed on deck again. It took two days.
3.30pm. Dutch time. Brown bean soup, sauerkraut with bacon. The gale frames are still on the tables.
11.00pm. We go to bed. The sea is calm.
Tuesday October 26
9.00am. We are awakened by a gong and now I remember that it is my uncle Koos his birthday. I thought of it when we left Plymouth, but it was too late then to write. The ship is quiet now and is going full speed.
It is quite foggy today, now that we have passed the coast of New Foundland, but we did 450 miles in 24 hours. The sea is now calmer. It was terrible, when the sea went with waves of 35 meters high.
10.00am. Ship time. We are in our cabin, enjoying a turbot, some proscuto ham, roast beef, block sausage, nice sour apples and oranges from the 2nd class. We made a discovery. Jan met an old school buddy on the boat, who is in the kitchen and gave him several courses and I discovered the cook, who is a brother in law from Rubenkamp, who takes care of the fruit and meat products. This afternoon we had delicious pastries and a box with cakes, all from the 2nd class. All you need is a friend in the right places. In 3rd class you do not get that. Good night until tomorrow.
Wednesday October 27
The sea is calm. Just now the dollar was written up for ƒ 3,39. Good that I bought them at ƒ 3,20 in Rotterdam, so I made some money. It is here cold. For the rest not much new. This afternoon at 3 o'clock was the weather fine. Everything went well.
5.30pm. To the table.
It was beneath us. We had raisin buns, ham and two different veal cuts. You can understand that we are not going to get together with those Polish people for the evening meal to eat bread and cheese. There is not much news today.
Thursday October 28
3 o'clock ship time. We were already on deck and saw the Dutch moon shining over the water, in all her glory, at 6 o'clock a shipped passed us. We saw the lights from a great distance, the sea is like a mirror, it is all water and sky, what we see.
8.40am. There is a freighter visible. It is noticeable that we are nearing land.
10.45am. The sun is shining magnificent.
3.00pm. We pass a school of Brown fish.
5.30pm. I went to have a look at my friend the cook and came back with 1 chicken, 4 pieces of sole and 4 steaks. This evening rice with sweet milk. Great. The sea is still like a mirror.
10.00pm. We have a lady on board, who sang some songs. She had a beautiful voice.
10.45pm. We go to bed.
Friday October 29
The sea is getting rougher. We are approaching New York.
11.40am. It is now very neat aboard. There are some measles cases under the Polish children, they had to go to the hospital. The water is beating against the portholes again. Luckily we are almost there. The whole voyage was against the wind.
1.35pm. We can see Long Island with 2 light houses.
3.55pm. The pilot comes on board.
Hundreds of ships and boats are sailing around. This is the most beautiful sight I have ever seen. America lies in front of us, it is grandiose.
4.55pm. The engines stop.
5.30pm. The American doctor comes aboard.
7.00pm. Everything along the harbor is lit up. At least it gives that impression. Hundreds of ships and boats surround us, well lighted. The Statue of Liberty is also beautiful lighted in green and clear to see.
10.20pm. Next to us is another large boat like ours, lit up from top to bottom. If only you all could see this.
Saturday October 30
5 o'clock. Everybody is up. We have to be checked by the American doctor. But we first have to eat our 4 chickens, ham, filet mignon and sausage.
Our 2nd class cook takes care of us.
11.00am. We are moored now, but are not allowed to disembark. Our hand luggage has been marked and punt in the hull.
12.30pm. Dinner. We had a collection for the people that served us at the tables, which did amount to quite a bit from 1800 3rd class passengers. You can loose a lot of money in tips here, but they work hard. Coming back to the arrival, that will be unforgettable. We could have never imagined something like this. Such enormous buildings, like the Singer and so on. When our ship first arrived, there were lots of little welcoming vessels and the shore was filled with relatives in cars and so on. The 1st and 2nd class passengers were allowed to disembark right away.
7.00pm. In Holland 12.13 night for there is a time difference.
5.13pm. All the hand luggage had to go to the 2nd class.
10.00pm. We go to sleep.
Sunday October 31
4.00am. We have to get up.
5.00am. Breakfast. This morning we did put the clock one hour back, just like in Holland.
7.40am. We all had to go in a hangar, about the lenght of the Breestreet, but four times as wide, since the boat had to be made ready for its departure Saturday. Some carts are entering the hangar filled with large ten inches in diameter cookies and apples. The vendors are not in charge anymore, people start to fight. 2 cookies and 6 apples for $1. Impossible to get near it. There are also buns, but I do not know what they cost.
3.00pm. We had dinner, but it is a mess.
6.30 in the evening. We go back on the boat, very tired and straight to bed.
Monday November 1
We get up in the morning at 4 o'clock and go to the hangar.
5.00am. Breakfast. Then to another hangar where our suit cases are checked, then we were herded like sleep in a boat and transported to Ellis Island, for a check up. Luckily we were all O.K. Except for Daan, he was separated with a lot of others, but after waiting for 2½ hours, he joined us. Then we had to buy train tickets on the island and were then given a number. All with a card with number 5 on our chest, back in the boat and to the train station. We did not have to take care of anything. One advice that I give to everybody and that is: never go 3rd class, because you are less then a beast as far as food, lodging and treatment is concerned.
7.00am. We sail over the Hudson, along palaces, that glitter like pearls.
8.30am. We are in the train.
In the train Monday evening 8.45.
The train starts to move. Very comfortable seats, you disappear until your neck and then with pillows. He is flying now. We are almost halfway from Rotterdam. This train is about 8-9 meters in length and provided with closets and drink water. All kind of stuff is for sale. I bought 5 apples for ¼ dollar.
1 package of cigarettes 20 cents.
1 box chocolates ½ dollar.
Tuesday November 2
1 o'clock night. We stop. Some passengers get off.
5am. The train stops again and a boy walks by, selling apples 5 cents a piece and another with coffee, 15 cents in a paper cup. Everything what you drink here is in huge cups.
6.20am. Daybreak.
7.05am. We stop. The train flies by beautiful forests and hills covered with trees, villages, factories and pittoresk small wooden houses, immense large factories are along the rails.
8.45am. We stop. It pours. We saw thousands of geese and chickens. All the houses we passed were made of wood.
8.50am. We bought ten sandwiches with ham in the train, for $ 1,50. It is crazy. We are now in Buffalo. In each station, where we stop, vendors, neatly dressed, enter the carriage with all kind of things. Apples, bread, coffee, chocolate, cigars and cigarettes, ice cream and so on. What we never have seen in Holland, is, that at the train that just stopped next to us, a small stool is placed in front of the step board, with next to it a black man, who takes over the suitcases from the travelers and places them neatly in the carriage with the traveler. To pass the time, we are singing national songs with some other 20 Dutch people.
Jan with the ocarina.
2.15pm. Finally we leave again. It is a miserable slow train.
3.15pm. Along Lake Erie, as large as the sea with a horizon.
4.30pm. We stop in Rosswood (??) A good sized city, with wide streets. You see more cars here then people. It is not like the clean Dutch streets, everything is very dirty.
5.45pm. It is dark.
7.30pm. We are now halfway, just as many more miles as it took from Rotterdam and then we are there. The speed is approximately 100 km an hour. The boat 18 miles. Each three minutes we pass trains that are 1000 to 1200 meter in length. There are 20 to 25 spurs next to each other. You see factories here as large as Leiden. From all the passengers from the boat we go the farthest.
We are close to Mexico. We see an awful lot.
Wednesday November 3
3 am. In the night, we are in Chicago. Factories and shops are open. Trams are going the whole night.
4.45am. We go to another station by bus. Within 5 minutes we are again in a hall, where we bought 100 (?) delicious buns at 5 cents each and for each one a cup of coffee for 10 cents. Everything is very good here. We bought 10 boiled eggs for $1, which are the best here, but not as large as in Holland. 3 cups of milk 10 cents. Everything American.
11.06am. We are having dinner. Soup, bread, water potatoes, cabbage, large steak, rice, coffee and butter for 4 persons for a total of $3.20. And we had plenty. We took a walk in town, but did not dare to cross the streets, because 1000 cars pass you every minute, going back and for cross the streets. My buddy Dutchman, who made the same trip had a shave for 25 cents. He only had to go to the 24th floor. If you want to see the roof of such a hovel, you have to lay on your back.
Jan stood on a bridge and counted 108 cars in 2 minutes.
4.00pm. We are sitting down, with a lot of people around us and we are singing patriotic songs with 20 other Dutchmen. The station chief played on a baby grand piano that is standing in the waiting room, some Dutch songs at 5.45pm. Loud applause.
That makes you feel good in a strange country. They were: "Dear homeland it will go well for you", "How wonderful life is", "The Tiperaai Sientje, let me go", "The cracking fire in the stove".
6.35pm. We take our seats, for California. These carriages are more luxurious and without other immigrants. We are sitting with our 11 Dutchmen. From the train we see the flag of wich the pole is decorated with electric lights, on top of a building. Also here the Dutch are privileged, for they did accommodate the Italians in another car. You can notice it everywhere and everywhere we are getting help.
6.45pm. We depart. We ride above the houses. Negroes in white jackets like snow walk through the carriages.
7.45pm. We pass a derailed train. A little later we see a chicken made of electrical lights laying eggs on a roof. You can see them fall. This area seems a lot nicer, not such high houses. It is evening although and you see everything by lamplight. All the streets of the cities we pass are long and wide and well lighted.
9.30pm. A quick visit to the smoking carriage, to light a cigarette and then to bed. Daan is already doing business, 1 guilder for $0,50. He made 70 cents.
Thursday November 4
5.30am. We had a good night sleep. I am going to wash up and shave. We make it ourselves comfortable. Ice and warm water and then back in the same clothes, eating a slice of bread and then sitting down and leering.
6.10am. Daybreak. We are at a small station and look through the curtains and see a woman combing her hair. Now that we are past Chicago, we get to see some beautiful scenery. All hills and valleys, with beautiful farms. The colors are green of the grass and between that the black of the soil that has just been ploughed, but everywhere yellow from the wheat. Here too all the homes are made from wood and painted white.
6.45am. We are now between mountains. Where we see a beautiful farm, with so many white chickens, that you can not see the ground. Thousands for sure, you must see it to believe it. We pass many clean villages. It froze last night. The grass is white.
8.50am. We stop in Omaha and have to wait 1 hour and 15 minutes, then we ride only 29 hour in one. You must count the hours that I show here. We had a nice cup of coffee in the coffee room for only 15 cents. In all stores and waiting rooms, you find in front of the counter, stools or easy chairs. You sit down and are being served. Everything is very good and for America not expensive. But for us it is, because we had to buy dollars. The difference is, that every dime is 32 cents in Dutch money. On this trip we can add 6 or 700 guilders for food, drink and treats. Anyway there is some left.
Each locomotive has a bell with a clapper. When they are shunting, it sounds automatically and it resembles a churchbell. Especially at the stations, you will hear 20 or 30 at the same time and no little ones either.
10.25am. We pass large oil wells, for the rest corn and nothing else. There goes a zeppelin. Didn't you see it? No? We dit.
We are being fried, that is how warm it is.
10.40am. We are riding between high mountains and beautiful valleys.
11.55am. We pass a large lake.
12.15pm. Some thousands of sheep. We stop. We notice that everybody here works with gloves.
1.45pm. Bought 4 coffee and 2 apples in the train. 1 dollar is approximately ƒ 3,52.
2.35pm. 4 pieces of apple pie, 60 cent, that is not much. Don't forget that I count with American cents and that is 3¼ as much as Dutch money. Everything was freshly baked. You can also dine here.
3.00pm. We stop at a crossing in front of a station, a street 2x as wide is the Hooigracht, where the cars are packed as the trees there.
3.30pm. Two American ladies from Ohio came to us, they were interested in us. She gave me her address and we gave her ours with a picture, with the request to keep in touch. The people here are very polite and friendly and not proud at all.
5.50pm. There is snow or hail along the sides here. The sun sets. We make a stop in North Platte. We see a bicycle, the 4th since we are in America.
8 icecreams in long cones. Excellent cream, 10 cents each, 6 apples for 50 cents.
6.00pm. We leave again.
7.45pm. A defect in the electricity. We are sitting in the dark.
8.00pm. It is fixed and we are on the move again.
Friday November 5
It is daylight again. At a distance of about 1000 meters we see beautiful, very high snow capped mountains. For the rest everything looks wild and desolate, a few wooden shacks in the valley. It is a magnificent panorama.
7.45am. We pass a frozen lake.
8.00am. We pass a house chiseled out of the rocks.
8.15am. We see hundreds of cows and horses walking in the snow between the mountains.
I do not know if they are wild. No house or shack in sight. Everything looks wild and desolate and still beautiful.
9.00am. The train rides now through the prairies. Everything wild and dorren, no living creature in sight. Yet, we see very small hares.
9.15am. We descend. We see a train with 43 carriages with coal. The mountains are beautiful. More trains with coal, about 500 meters away from us, that are special routes.
9.35am. We now ride between mountains with deep caves and precipices. If you all only could see this. They are laying more spurs. Old rail carriages serve as homes. In one we saw a woman with bedding. Also some shacks for the railroad workers, behind everyone in an outhouse.
10.00am. In the middle of the mountains we pass a coal mine. People live in dirty tents and shacks. A small pub is also nearby and wooden covers close off the openings in the mountains and in the ground. That is where the Polish immigrants go, like slaves. They are plowing with 10 horses a bit farther down. Which can be very good, because the rocks are from soft sandstone. It will be a railroad or a road, about 10 meters wide.
10.30am. 4 cups of coffee for 60 cents. Now we see rocky mountains of which one would think, that there are thousands of yellow columns next to each other and behind those, high snowcapped mountains with horses. Now we pass a mine and a village with shack houses. Finally we arrive in a city with nice stores. We are going fast through some small alleys chiseled out of the mountains. It is getting wilder and more magnificent.
1.15pm. We see an eagle.
2.10pm. We go through a tunnel.
2.15pm. We are outside again.
2.45pm. We stop at Evanston. Two elderly Chinese women dressed in men’s pants walk by.
2.55pm. We go again.
3.10pm. We made a curve and now all we see are green mountains with dunes under the snow. We pass prairie fires (?).
3.20pm. We go over mountains through tunnels and valleys. Like a snake we see the locomotive up front ever so often. Also a snake was sighted. The mountains are red now. Wild riverstreams.
4.10pm. Mountains that are more then 1000 meters high. Hundreds of cows, all red, guides by two shepherds on horses. It is snowing. Not a single sole will be able to describe the magnificence of this all. Now through forest, 2 mountain ridges, steep, so called devils slide.
4.30pm. Green pastures and trees, in the background thousands of cows and horses. Glittering snow mountains. It still snows.
4.40pm. We go through clouds and even higher ice mountains. We pass a waterfall.
4.55pm. We stop. Ogden, Utah and here we went into town for dinner, because we had to wait until.
11.40pm. We dined in a Japanese hotel for 35 cents, the meal consisted of soup, bread biscuits, water, butter, meat, fish, potatoes, pudding, coffee, carrots and pasta. We could not eat is all, for 35 cents a person. There also was tomato jam and so on. We went shopping afterwards. Let me tell you, that we met a Dutchman there, who came along with us. We bought a can sardines for 25 cents, two loaves of bread for 15 cents each, pastries 5 cents, 2 boxes with figs 25 cents each, 3 lb. potatoes for 25 cents. We saw football players, while we were walking, who had just won. It was a club of about 200 boys and girls. They were yelling and shouting at first and then made some fire works and after that they set a fire of about 40 meters square. The police was ready with fire hoses to take care of it. They made it wet all around the fire, mainly for a telephone pole that was there. We watched it for more than an hour, but the police let it burn.
Cars by the thousands. You do not have to be afraid of being hit, cars stop for the pedestrians. You walk leisurely, all the cars wait until you have crossed, it is a beautiful city, right outside the train station you see snowy mountains 5000 feet high and many of those.
At 8 o'clock we went home with him and we got nice cherries and plums in water. We were treated very well.
At 8.30pm. We left again. Streets so wide and beautiful. Billboards with electric lights. It is great, now it is snowing. The sea voyage was nothing compared with everything we see these last days. In every street you see porcelain drinkwaterfountains.
You hold your mouth above it and it spouts in it. You find copper ones in stations and lunchrooms. There are also places where you get a shoeshine. Everything in the street, you climb on a high stool and you shoes are made neat and shiny. There are also stores, where they sell vegetables and meat and a lot of other things. There are no butchers. Everything comes straight from the meat factory. Nice roast and roast beef 25 cents a pound. Lamb 18 cents a pound. We bought the best chocolates for ƒ 0,50 a pound. Ice cream , extra whipping cream in a cone for ƒ 0,10, twice as large as the ones in Holland. You all have to make this trip yourselves. The most beautiful men's and ladies boots. Never saw these in Holland for 9 dollar and pipe tobacco 25 cents. My pipe just broke.
11.40pm. We are off again.
Saturday morning November 6
5.30am. I open the curtains and see a lot of snow. Still mountains, but not so high anymore.
6.30am. The sun shines beautifully over the snowy mountains. We stop at WillsPhaar (?). On both sides snow and mountains, many hares and magpies are here.
7.40am. We go through tunnels.
8.00am. We stop at Elko, a nice city of village against the mountains, with shops and hotels.
8.30am. Here too again proud rocky mountains where the cows are herded by a farmer on horseback.Also beautiful valleys and lakes.
9.40am. A fox sneaked through the heather into the mountains.
12.00 non. It is snowing. We passed Golconda. We see some sheep, about 2000. The heather areas are decreasing and we see more cattle, but very few farmhouses.
12.15pm. It is snowing so hard, that the mountains are invisible.
12.50pm. We stop at Winnemucca. It seems like a nice city with wide streets. The streets on the outskirts are not paved, very rural. From Ogden to here was 365 miles. From here to San Francisco is another 417 miles, we can be there Sunday morning.
1.20pm. It stops snowing. It is all heather and mountains again.
1.40pm. Snowing hard again.
3.45pm. Still wilderness, but fields in the background. Mountains but no houses, and also no snow.
4.15pm. 4 coffee 60 cents.
5.00pm. Between the mountains.
5.30pm. It is dark. We are in the middle of heather again.
7.00pm. We stop in Sparks, 240km from San Francisco.
Sunday morning November 7
3.55am. They wake us up.
4.20am. We are in Sacremento and have to change trains.
9.20am. We continue.
At 4.30pm. We went into town, a dirty city. But all the lunchrooms were filled nevertheless. No stool in front of the counter was empty. There are shops also. Everything, from lunch, vegetables, tobacco, everything together, even fresh meat and fish are available in every store. As we were walking in the dark, we saw a car parked with bread and so we bought 2 meter bread. 2kg. for 35 cents. The bread is a super quality, white as snow. We are sitting in the waiting room again and order 4 coffee and 8 pieces of apple pie for $1,20.
7.30am. We went into town again, but in daylight it looks more like a Chinese then a Christian city and dirty. It is hard to believe, we never saw anything like it and then they place containers in the streets, to spit in, because it is not allowed to spit on the sidewalks. It is Sunday too, you would never know. Everybody is working and all stores are crowded. We bought 10 large bananas for 5 cents each.
9.10am. We are back in the train again. Like in every other railroad station, here too are wagons with blocks of ice to add to the drink water in the carriages and washroom reservoir. There is also central heating in every carriage. Conductors and servers are all very polite and helpful. If they see, that you do not speak their language, they do anything to help and nobody laughs at you.
Here too are shoe shiners in the station. Even though they are so fat, they are like new after a shine. Here too, like at all the other stations are Negroes servants. They ask where you are going and let you know when your train is leaving. Some even bring you luggage in the compartment. They do not take tips.
10.00am. The train departs. We are sorry, that we did not see the changing, as we arrived at night. Now we are surprised. Green meadows, multi colored cows, green trees, palmtrees, beautiful streets and roads. They do not observe the Sunday, we see them ploughing.
10.20am. We make a short stop in Florin.
10.50am. The speed is awful.
11.15am. Melons by the thousands. As far as we can see fruit farms.
11.25am. Wagons with cases rumble by the railway.
11.50am. We stop in Stockton, a beautiful city with parks full of flowers and palmtrees. Here Jan, take it, 4 ice cream cones.
12.30pm. Get off. Lathrop. We stop for the sixth time since New York.
12.40pm. We go again.
1.30pm. Orange trees. The first ones we saw in Modesto.
2.00pm. We stop in Turlock. A clean town or village. There are at least 500 cars parked in the street. Beautiful hotels and shops, no shortage in anything, also lunchrooms.
4.40pm. In Fresno we get off again. Of course we went into town, what we saw there went above all expectations. Ogden is nice, but a normal city compared to Fresno. Everything is lit up, like it is day. Shops from top to bottom lighted with commercials. Streetlights every 10 meters and the cars. The streets are wide as nowhere else and on both sides of the streets are cars parked with the hood pointing to the curb. It is so bad, that when you want to go into one of the shops, you have to maneuver between the cars to get on the curb and that is how it is everywhere. If you do not believe me, I am sorry, but it is unreal but true. We also saw the Kurhaus, a beautiful palace with a nice park and high trees and palm trees. We made a walk underneath them. To bad it was raining cats and dogs, but fortunately there was an overhang, along the whole street, to keep you dry when walking by the stores.
6.45pm. We depart.
9.00pm. We got off in Harwick (?). Because our Dutch travel compagnions had relatives there. We were received well, but could not stay there. We were taken by car to Hamfort (?) and are for the time being in Hotel Vendame(?). Here it is beautiful too.
With this I end my travel story and come to the conclusion that America is great in its magnitude and also great in its works and energy.
