Los Angeles daily herald., 1874-05-06
An Adverse Argument.

A gentleman in New York, writing
to a friend now in this city under date
of April Goth, uses the following lam
guage concerning California:
III have taken considerable interest
in the climate of California, read most
everything on the subject, and talked
with many from there. There has
recently been written pamphlet on
the counter side, showing some of the
disadvantages of an invalid living in
California, and why considerable dis
appointment has been experienced by
that class. 1t says in Southern Cali
fornia the accommodations are very
poor. In San Francisco and some
coast situations the afternoon air and
wind have aggravated many lung,
throat and catarrh difficulties; that
from May 1st to October 1st scarcely
drop of rain falls, and then the vege-
tation, and particularly the grass,
dries up, and the dust is something ter
rible; that the fruits, though much
more prolific than with us, lack the
fine flavor and the delicate taste. l
know that much can be said in favor
of California, but you arrived there
after the Winter and Spring rains,
when everything was fresh and ver-
dant and looked 'coleur de rose On
this side of the continent much bet
ter average of health is attained in
Vermont and the Canadas than in the
latitude of the Virginias and Carroll
nas.n
That pamphlet must be interesting
reading of the light fiction order. The
author probably never saw foot of
the State of California, or if he did,
ran over on the railroad as far as San
Francisco. Hiseyes were so jaundiced
with prejudice, and his mind, if he had
such thing. so befogged with ignor-
ance, that he would not see beauty if
he could help it, nor appreciate it
when it's existence was forced upon
him. Dust is an unpleasant thing in
ones soup, but as the world and all it
contains, including the writer of the
pamphlet, is but dust, it seems useless
to whimper about too much of thing
of which we have only that and moth
ing more. One must be hard pushed
10 find reasons for not liking place
when he urges the disagreeableness of
his own composition against it. There
is dust in California, but no more than
may be found on the same area of any
other portion of Gods footstool. The
afternoons of portion of San Fran
cisco's Summer days are slightly
windy, but during the entire days for
the same period in New York and
other Eastern cities, people drop on the
streets with sunstroke. No one
dies from San Francisco's winds
and the citys mortuary reports
from year to year show it to be one Of
the healthiest localities in the world
Her breeze is her pannacea Of health,
her safeguard against epidemic and
disease of every chara cter. Like all
tropical and semi-tropical climates,
California has her dry and her wet
seasons, and while we do not seek to
deny that grass dries up, we are thank
fuf that it does not go into humid de-
composition, filling the air with mi
asmic poison. Besides, it is only in
certain localities, comprising not all
nor one-half the agricultural area of
the State, that vegetation must have
artificial irrigation in order to main
tain its dress of green. The fallacy
that California fruit is wanting in
richness and delicacy of flavor was eX-
ploded years ago. 1t was exploded by
connoisseurs from the East, who unhes-
itatingly and without exception pro-
nounced California fruit superior in
size and equal in flavor to that of any
section of the world. We produce
more and better fruit in proportion to
the area cultivated than any other
locality in the United States. This is
true of everything that grows out of
the ground. The unknown PAM
phleteer may scatter his misrepresen-
tations broadcast, but people only
need come here to Los Angeles to
find the Italy of the Pacifc-the
finest climate and the richest soil ever
turned from Natures laboratory.