Los Angeles daily herald., 1874-11-05
Mr.. Johnson In New York.


From papers received from Mr.. J.A.
johnson, we learn that his lectures
were to occur in that city on Tuesday
and Wednesday evenings, October
9th and 2Sth. That our citizens may
understand how Mr.. Johnson prose-
cutes his enterprise for the delectation
of the New Workers, we append por-
tions of Il circular of which he had
twenty thousand copies printed and
distributed in the schools, colleges and
hotels of the city. The circular states
that Mr.. j. A. Johnson editor and
proprietor of the Santa Barbara Press,
and of the Illustrated Weekly Press
of Southern California, has had the
chief objects of interest in the six
semi-tropical portion of the State,
photographed by Professor w. e.
James, the photographer of the expe-
dition to Egypt and Palestine, which
has been immortalized by Mark
Twain in his "Innocents Abroad.u 1t
took eleven weeks, nearly two thou
sand miles travel, and cost more than
two thousand dollars gold, to secure
these views, which embrace the or
ange groves, almond orchards, vine
yards, ranches, cities, villages, old
missions, and scenery of Southern
California.
Two hundred of these views are
presented to illustrate the two lectures
on Southern California by Mr.. John
son, who has resided there eight years,
most of that time as Editor of the
Press, and who has just spent six
months in travelling over the six
Southern counties, where the photo
graphs We're taken, and is able to
give full and reliable information
concerning the localities most favora-
ble for the cure of various diseases and
the places best suited for agriculture
or business. BY the aid of the stere-
Opticon these views are magnified till
they are twenty feet square, 80 that
an audience of three or four thousand
can examine them with perfect ease.
Views of Yosemite, scenes of the
railroad and views of San Francisco
and the Golden Gate, are also given
as Introductory to the first lecture,
which includes the counties of San
Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara and Ven
tura.
The second lectcture embraces the
counties of Los Angeles, San Diego
and San Bernardino, with views of the
orange groves, vineyards, etc.
Enough is now known of this Won
derful region to establish the fact that
Southern California has a climate
equal to any portion of Italy, or of the
world; but it is not generally known
that more than half a million acres
of land which produces the fig, the
olive, the orange, the lemon, the lime,
the almond, the English walnut, and
the Italian chestnut, all in perfection,
as we'll as the ordinary cereals and
ordinary fruits of other States of the
Union, has been put upon the market
within few months past. The territory
represented by these six counties is
almost equal to the whole State of IL
linois.
These statements and the genuine
ness of Mr.. JohnsOn's representations
are corroborated by favorable notices
re-published from the San Francisco
Alta and CdU Chicago Tribune
and Detroit Post, Tribune and
Free Press. The New York Times of
the 26th notices the lectures as follows:
Mr.. J. A. Johnson, editor of the Santa
Barbara Press, opens somewhat
novel exhibition at Cooper Institute
tomorrow night. He proposes to give
two lectures on Southern California, a
region which he calls "New Italy.n
The lectures are to be illustrated by
Illuminated stereoscopic views of the
localities, objects, and scenes described
by the speaker. AS these views are
taken from nature, and the lecturer is
"to the manor born" the attempt to
bring that far-off land to our very
doors cannot fail to be attractive as
well as honestly made.
In letter to the Santa Barbara
Press, Mr.. Johnson states that South
ern California is a land almost as
little known to the intelligent men of
New York in general as mid-Africa.
This ignorance of our portion OF the
State, Mr. Johnson is doing his best
endeavors to dispel and if he does not
succeed it will be neither his fault nor
that of the method of enlighten
which he adopts