I have thought it very good of you to write me so much. Of course I am
feeling rather fagged, and the next four days, which will include San
Francisco, will be tiresome; but I am very well. This is a beautiful
hotel in which we are spending Sunday, with gardens and a long
seventeen-mile drive beside the beach and the rocks and among the
pines and cypresses. I went on horseback. My horse was a little beauty,
spirited, swift, sure-footed and enduring. As is usually the case here
they had a great deal of silver on the bridle and headstall, and much
carving on the saddle. We had some splendid gallops. By the way, tell
mother that everywhere out here, from the Mississippi to the Pacific,
I have seen most of the girls riding astride, and most of the grown-up
women. I must say I think it very much better for the horses' backs. I
think by the time that you are an old lady the side-saddle will almost
have vanished--I am sure I hope so. I have forgotten whether you like
the side-saddle or not.
It was very interesting going through New Mexico and seeing the strange
old civilization of the desert, and next day the Grand Canyon of
Arizona, wonderful and beautiful beyond description. I could have sat
and looked at it for days. It is a tremendous chasm, a mile deep and
several miles wide, the cliffs carved into battlements, amphitheatres,
towers and pinnacles, and the coloring wonderful, red and yellow and
gray and green. Then we went through the desert, passed across the
Sierras and came into this semi-tropical country of southern California,
with palms and orange groves and olive orchards and immense quantities
of flowers.