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First draft of letter, in note-book 59 (5) Miss Alice Sargent Martinez, Sep. 28 1901 . My dear Miss Sargent: I received
a letter from your father a few days ago with the good news that you would be in California with Mrs. Thayer about the 1st
of next month, and asking me to advise you as to places and things you should see. As to the city there is not much to see
- hardly more than in Boston,-the Park with a good many interesting bushes gathered from everywhere, something like your Arboretum,
and the Cliff House, and other odds and ends. I don't know the way to these places, but my daughter Wanda does* Then there
are the Santa Cruz redwoods and Mt. Tamalpais, no sae bad, as the Scotch say, and within easy reach of the city. If you would
like to visit these places we could plan for trips to them on Saturdays when Wanda, who is at the University in Berkeley,
would go with us as guide, and perhaps we could get Miss Eastman. You would be a true Alice in wonderland. But if after Convention
work is over you can go to the mountains, I'm your man. There I have a thousand glorious things awaiting you - the sugar pines
and ilver firs of the Sierra, the giant forests of the Kaweah, Yosemite valleys, glaciers, glacier meadows, glacier lakes,
rejoicing streams, clear as the River of life, in glorious array, and new-born landscapes of sublime glacial architecture,
glowing with life, bathed in divine light, a' that and a' that and twice as muckle 's that. Write and tell me how much time
you have for excursions, and when it will be convenient for you to see me. Any time from 9:30 to 3 o'clock will suit me. Why
not make our house your headquarters instead of a city hotel? You could reach the city by the Santa Fe from M uir Station
every morning shortly after 9 o'clock or 1 o'clock in the afternoon, and return by 6 P.M. by a train which leaves the city
at 4:20. The Palace Hotel always seems to me a dreadful place where multitudes of all sorts of people chafe and grind against
one another like bowlders in a pot-hole on the mountains when the snow is melting. Anyhow, write and tell me about the time
you have and how I can help to make your visit a happy one, or come up. Telegraph the train. Faithfully yours, John Muir
I'll meet you at Muir Station. The grapes are ripe, and my wife and girls will be glad to see you. 02890