son declared his faith and the faith of the people of New England in the development of Southern California and closed by saying that he was sure of one thing: that if the road did not pay, the people who had put in the money could afford to lose it.
There was no such doubt regarding the railroads of Mexico. In Mexico were mines with long records of production, fertile soils, tropical fruits, millions of people. In Southern California there were no mines, few people, and only sunshine and honey bees as a basis for American enterprise.
Although Thomas Nickerson was well along in years, we took to the saddle and rode up through Temecula Cañon and the Temescal Valley over the line of the proposed Southern California Railway and on to the irrigated gardens of Riverside, with not a house or habitation between that town and the seacoast, although sheep grazed peacefully in the broad valley of Temescal.
A few days later I was in Sonora, journeying toward Guaymas. We made "Uncle Thomas," as we affectionately called him, a pallet of straw in the stable of the ranch of Jesus Maria, and then outside, before we said good-night to the stars and rolled up back to back in our blankets
