The Wichita city eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1872-1883, 1882-12-07

penders and all ages, tailed up by little
black, ragged picaniny, and all singing mai
Ielujab, Back Of Oakland for twenty miles,
and reaching to the foot hills, lies Fruit Vale'
through which we were driven by gentle
man to whom we had u letter OF introduc-
ton. A description OF the productions ana
fertility of this vale we must forego. From
Piedmont springs, back Of this vale, on tine
brow of the mountain, we saw the sun SINK
down into the Pacific; saw the light OF DAY
20 out through the Golden Gate.
Take sheet of white paper two feet long
and four inches wide and with brush crisis
cross il with streaks of black paint. then with
q green pencil mark an hundred or so spots
promiscuously over it, and you have good
map OF California. The white places on
your paper Will represent desert or unirriga-
ted lands, the black streaks barren mountain
ranges, the little green spots earthly Edens.
California is land of barren noun
tains, arid plateaus and eircumscribed para
discs. Along its coast and around its bays
might be run u very thin streak Of green al
so. One day we spent in Los Angeles, the
City of the Angels, 4S0 miles south of Frisco.
on the Los Angeles river. forty miles north
Of San Diego and seventeen miles from the
coast. 1t is one of those earthly paradises.
From Frement's old breastworks, on high
precipce, we looked down upon little mar
row valley crowded with orange groves,
lines, lemons, olives and vineyards. Mes
tied ut our feet was the city OF 1900 inhab-
itants; the south half modern and respecta-
bic, with church upon whose tall spire was
posed flying angel whose outstretched
wings glistened in the sun. The north half
of the town is made up of miserable fiat
rooted mud buildings surrounding a plaza.
near by which stood the old Spanish, mud
walled church, with its chime of jangling
bells which for hundred years have waken-
ed the dismal echoes. Fitting about the
zigzag streets and pacitas were the
figures OF Spanish girls and women.
with black Grape sbawls lightly thrown
but homely of feature. LouDgipg every.
where, were lazy, indolent, dark-skinned
native men. The beautiful, fern-leaved,
spreading pepper tree, now in all its glory of
festooned clusters of crimson berries every.
where, with no rain and the dust settled an
inch thick over every thing, and, there you
have the far-famed City OF the Angels on
| that November day. What it is in the hot
months Of summer need not be limited ut
| when we tell our readers that the COM
mon prairie cactus growing hereabouts, and
generally known by the name OF devil tongue,
in Los Angeles grows to the size and height
| of an old apple tree, and that the oranges
then just turning yellow-wOuldw weigh more
than the trees upon which they hung, and
that the city is only separated from the iu-
ma desert by range of barren mountains
forty miles through. Hot. OF course it is
They talk about the ocean breeze, but We
guess the talk is about all there is Oft The
old town is over an hundred years old. The
new portion is bright and full of life. TIT
little circumscribed valley in fruits and flow
ers is an Eden, but we would prefer thu
broad, generous equitable valley of the Ar
kansas to live in, and SO wouli you.
The last Sabbath before reaching home wa
spent in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Those wit
love Santa Fe can live there. We want nom
Of it. OF all the disjointed, tumbe-down
inbarmonous mixture of the ancient and tn
played-out with the modernized, shoddy ant
unstable commend us to the capital of MeXi
co. Chucked down between the mountains
inaccessible to the world, built OF n conglom
Grafton of cobblestones and mud, covere
with sod, and inhabited by gIeasers an
, priests; laid out in short streets, wide at on
/ 10 w hara nj fhsl end
surrounding a dirty unattractve plaza, shat
owed by sickly, quaking asps and dead col
tonwoods and, generally spoiled by ne
, modern frame and brick buildings scattere
here and there which only bring into boldf
relief the surrounding squalOr, and I'll
A crumbling ruins OF degenerated race,
A Santa Fe. The old town has its bright sid
: no doubt, but it must have been turned Il
other way when we were there. Beside
4 the town was scourged with small poX {
. the occasion OF our visit. After two hou
n spent in the old San Miguel chapel-said
f be over three hundred years old. the olde
o building in America-and in the Cathedr
y examining the old shrines, paintings and or
a cifixes, we wandered down to the plaza
Y hear the military band belonging to re:
Y mept stationed there, where we met w.
a Thomas and wife and Mrs. Watt nee Sus
d Barnes and her very pleasant and genial hu
% band. With Al and Mrs. Thomas we spent
delightful evening talking Of Wichita, h
:. people and the old times. Houck and Thol
as are doing an extensive business in Nc
4 Mexico. They were just finishing two me
:, immense reservoirs in the mountains for t
; formation of ice, the firm supplying lite
or twenty places in New Mexico and Arizol
+ with all their ice.
If our readers will excuse us Tor the
much of these personal rambling notes OF o
10 trip already written we will omit the ma
things we had intended tn mention WI
starting out, and close by saying we
goodbye TO Santa Fe next morning at su
'o up, and after short ride of twenty-fo
Is hours, through mountain and valley, aligf
!! ed safely at home, where again we take
IL the burdens and joys of our every day life
e the best country and in the brightest city
ID be found between the metropolis of the Lila
y py Valley and the Golden Gate.
u. |