Orleans independent standard. [volume] (Irasburgh, Vt.) 1856-1871, 1870-04-19
California Gossip.---No. l.

EDIIOR STANDARD :-1nero Is muCn 10
be said for California, and to condense
properly for publication implies mere light
and skillful skimming of the surface of
topics and times. Swimming implies that
one take only the cream-the richest and
best as for beloved guest; but the guest
in turn must not be such goose" as to
infer that there was nothing but cream all
the way down! So if one send you dish
of cream across the continent, forget not
wholly the deep pan of sky-blue milk that
was left behind
The request to 'Tell us all about Califor-
nia-climate, crops, people, scenery, relig
ion, society, etc." ffatters my penandink-
ability, but bethink you what stately vol
umes have grown upon these topics from
the observations of casual visitors. who
have merely "tripped" through our favor
ed land-wide- awake, thong htful-perceiv-
ing that ''it is good" But for an old resi-
dent-long ago recovered from the pangs
of homesickness-thoroughly in love with
the country and thoroughly content-what
vast shedding of ink" would suffice to
convey all that might be said? Suffer
me then to ignore statistics and those SOL
id subjects that ouly strong and skillful
pens can redeem from their utter heavi-
ness and if my homely talk touches them
it will be but gingerly, and with no posi-
bility of doing them justice.
As for climate, you have it ''all before
you where to choose when you reach this
state, whose southern boundaries are in
the latitude of South Carolina, and her
northern, parallel with Rhode Island
CAS- distinguished from Eastern States our
winters are warmer; summers-especially
at night-cooler; changes from heat to
cold not so great or frequent; quantity of
rain less and confined chiefly to the winter
and spring months; atmosphere drier /;
cloudy days fewer; thunder, lightning,
hail, snow and ice more rare; winds more
regular, and earthquakes more frequent
or rather rere when Prof Hittell penned
the sentence I have Just quoted from his
Resources of California" but recently
think your earthquakes and floods are a
match for ours while in the matter of tor
uadoes and hurricanes we have no show
ing at all.
Our coast counties are remarkable for
their healthful, equable temperatures
pecially the middle coast" and more es-
pecially Santa Cruz Co. where the most in
veterate weather-grumblers would soon be
out of practice and restored to the ordinary
level of amiability.
But those great interior valleys and
plains-there indeed the summers melt
. with fervent heat, aud autumn, thick-coat-
ed with gray summer-dust, pants thirstily
for tardy winters rain. By way of com.
pensation they have the most delightful
winter and spring that you can imagine
D such balmy air and beauty everywhere.
When you come to the SLOPES of the Ser
"a Nevada you can by change of altitude
secure as much or as little as you please o
the snow and ice charms of winter. II
5 towns six thousand feet above sea-leYel
. snow falls from five to ten feet deep ant
, remains four or five months of the year
and more so'' as you go higher
so if Vermonter gets homesick on tn,
D mild, ever blooming coast, he ean--sinc,
l.. completion ofthe railroad--transfer him
self in a few hours to roaring winter blast
and drifts of dazzling snow that even ole
Vermont could never rival.
The climate OfSan Francisco is Pecula
: to itself and usually strikes the new come
disagreeably; but so improves upon &C
quaintance that old residents are enthusi
astic in its praise.
quote again from Prof. Hittell
The mean temperature of the Who'll
e year is 54' and requires wooden clothing
!. for comfort. Vigorous, industrious mel
find the climate of San Francisco tn
healthiest and most agreeable in the world
1t allows a person to be out in the open al
all the time no hour is lost because of ex
: cessive cold or heat" He says again o
n the country generally-"0n an averag
there are two hundred and twenty clea
!, days in year; eighty-fve in which cloud
are seer but often attended with sunshine
n and sixty rainy days. 1t often happens tia
' weeks upon weeks in winter an
months upon months in summer pas
without a cloud that is, at a distance {
thirty miles from the ocean. Near tn
u shore clouds and mist blow in from th
], sea but usually disappear before ten o'cloc
in the morning" And these same mis-
are the peculiar blessing ofthe coast couI
ties-keeping everything fresh and grow
a ing without the bother of irrigation.
The profuse, tropical growth of the int
rior requires constant artificial supply
II water - thus furnishing the condition
!" requisite for breeding malaria-heat, moi
= ture, rank vegetation. And so surrount
&c ing ourselves with the loveliest garden
y the most marvellous orchards, wherein ri
= ened to perfection all desirable fruits know
}, to civilized man-we "came to grief" Their
al by for 'the trail of the serpent was oy
q them all" in shape of insidious and oftt
ne fatal malaria, that smote us fercely wi
t. such intermittent but persistent fevers
n quite destroyed the charm of that fair Edo
ks and we fed in dismay to set up anew o.
r. household gods in beautiful, healthf
O. Santa Cruz. We are rejoiced to be avn
be from the whitening, desolating blight tn
I'll mining has brought upon that unfortuna
if portion of Colifornia-and to incorpora
or ourselves with the comfortable, permane
he growth of manufacturing and agricultu
ID. al community.
he The results of mining" to those imm
re diately concerned are curiously meagre al
70. unsatisfactory. The yellow nuggets file
he ed so easily from the pockets of Moth
zee Earth, stay not to bless the finder, or t
no community in which he finds himsel
ne away they go easier than they came-a
de he too goes as easily, leaving and ev
on forming the same rude track of desolatic
DC To this general rule there are few exec
fol tons. The whole vast mineral regio
orb so called much of it however is excelle
for farmers and of "no account for mi
ersJ has hitherto been withheld from p,
sibiIity of ownership. The ''honest mi
dh' er" has had his own sweet will in evel
ur- thing; mining property has been exem
ay, from taxation, and behold the result, q
ars paIling to many a sick-and -sobered seel
en-, of swift-fortune the mining counties
led stepped in poverty most of them upon t
les verge of bankruptcy, and begging the st.
an to reach forth its mighty hand and plu
4 v | them from, this FtSlOuOb of Desmond: