The Cambria freeman. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1867-1938, 1878-10-11
Letter from California.
TURLoCK, Stanfslaus Co., Cal.
Sept. q. ISIS.

TURLoCK, Stanfslaus Co., Cal,
Sept, %, 1878.
DEAR FREEMAS-The harvest Is past, the
summer is ended, and the grain is saved. /
cannot say so much for the people. They were
but their hearts are not as thankful as they
should he. We have escaped floods, fires. and
shine. We have had health, strength and plen-
ty. We hear of famine in other lands, and we
should be sorry. We hear OF floods, and we
should feel regrets. We bear of fearful storms
and should be astounded. We hear Of
plaques. and we should be appalled,. Our sym
pathy does not go out to other lands and other
people Our gratitude for safe deiverance
from all these things does not go up, in the in
cense of thanks, to the Author of all good.
True, here and there, like oasis in the desert,
we find a grat tefuI thankful heart, but the ma
not cail.
We have had no rain since April. hence our
roads are like ashes, or like your roads to fair
ground In the dry days or September. / walk
day by day three miles in dry, ashy dust, shoe
mention. We are furnished with green fruit
from the rivers and mountains, or foothills
such fruit as grapes. melons. apples, peaches
,1aars e. ar-;aS,- = - -, - - "a =
of it, yet no one gets sick. We have used many
cucumbers, but we are none the worse of IT,
Such long drought as we have each summer
would, I'm the States, most certainly produce
sickness.
The State Fair at Sacramento closed yester-
day, after having been open one week. There
was grand display of fruits and stock, women
and babies, mechanics and machinery. Hand
some ladies bore of all the prizes. The hest
butter was made by the handsomest LADY. WHO
ter? On the mems side, or in the male depart
men:, the richest men get :he greatest prizes.
through State Fair? This is not a peculiar
feature of our State Fair. 1t is so wherever one
goes. 1t is not the rule TO be just. Favoritism
rules all such gatherings. Still Fairs are use
ful, A stranger can, at a glance, see the pro-
ducts OF the country in which such a Fair is
held, and from this can draw his conclusions in
regard TO the thrift and prosperity of the peO-
pie Further than this they excite whole
some emulation and competition.
We had good crops this year. Our men raised
about 5000 bushels of wheat and 1000 bushels
of barley, besides fifty tons of hay-barley hay.
Our neighbOrs had equally good luck. A II are
flush of funds and seem happy. Wheat sells at
about one dollar bushel-say from ninety to
ninety six cents, payable in gold coin. Gold Is
the money in use here, though the silver coin
and Rreenhacks are at par with gold. For con-
venience ] should prefer paper money, when
at par with hard money But regular Cali
depreciate, and, hence, prefers the yellow
metal.
Now that the wheat Is sold, there Is n luU IN
the times-a kind OF breathing speli-before
piowing commences, which will be after the
iirst good rain falls. And the peopIe need q
rest. The last four months kept everybody
busy all the time and fourteen hours every day
at that ! never saw so much work done in
four months, in any neighborhood, not even
excepting the Cambria Iron Works, where la
OF labOrers. one for day and one for night
Here we have but one set. 1t is true are
aided greatly by machinery, but muscle has to
that was cut, threshed and hauled - the rail.
road in this county, amounts to about seven
million bushels 1t takes work to amass this
from single heads of wheat and barley Some
gruin has to be hauled twenty miles. Thresh.
ing is hard work When one man piles away
from one thousand to fifteen hundred sacks of
wheat in day he feels like taking a rest. The
same may be said of the sack sower, the sack
/ nler, the pitchers the fOrkmen, and others
To carry sacks one day is nothing, but to con-
time every day for two or three months, with
an average of twelve hundred sacks per day
tells on the muscles of any human being.
In a new country like this money seems to be
the only object. 1t is different in places long
settled. There people think something about
improvements, such as churches and the like
Here IL is money and wheat, wheat and money
or, in short, money, money, money.
We have a little Sunday school running, which
teaches the youth here, some twenty thirty
in number, to respect that day at least, and
perhaps, to make some other impressions. be.
fore the ''evil days come, and the years draw
nigh, when they will say they have no pleasure
in them" Adieu! may visit you next spring
Rob Roy.