Excerpt from Along the Pacific by Land and Sea: Through the Golden Gate After being engaged in the active practice of law at Des Moines, Iowa, for thirty years, I concluded to discontinue and enter upon a period of travel in this and foreign countries, both for pleasure and information. Being interested in political, social and governmental questions from past activities and studies in these various lines, my purpose was to broaden and enlarge my information on these subjects for my own personal benefit and pleasure alone. On my departure the editor and manager of the Register and Leader of Des Moines, Iowa, came to me and requested that I write my observations and send them to his paper for the benefit and pleasure of its readers. As it is located in the state capital and is the largest and possibly the most influential political paper in the state, with the largest daily circulation, I concluded to do so. On my return I found my letters had been extensively read by all classes of people, and commented on by individuals and periodicals of standing and reputation, many requesting me to put the same in book form for preservation, and this is the reason the letters in this volume have made their appearance in this form. He who reads and finds pleasure and information herein gives me much pleasure in thus honoring me. 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.