Morning journal and courier., 1882-08-03
VOL. l..

| with towering vines and surrounded by semi
tropical trees and plants. It appears to have
been built regardless of the points of the
compass, and might be said to face almost in
any direction. Picture if you can large
plain, square box house, of weather stained
redwood. almost black with age, two stories
high and a roof almost fat, but sloping in
four directions from the center. The upper
story is reached by an outside stairway at
each end of the building, like most California
ranch houses built at an early day. A broad,
generous porch extends the entire length of
the front of the house, and upon this porch
the doors of each of the four front rooms
upon the ground floor open. This quaint
old house would be painfully plain were it
not almost completely embowered in garni
ture of flowers Although not pound of
paint has been used, even the very sim
plest effort at artificial decoration has been
attempted on the old house, no habitation is
more gloriously beautiful than this vine COW
cred house at Los Robes. Roses of snowy
wilderness lay in matted profusion upon the
eastern roof, mingling and blending with
blood red roses upon the very comb or apex
of the building--roses of delicate pink and
of lemon hue roses of brilliant carmine and
the paest saffron tint, roses of all shades
mingling and entwined with a profusion of
honeysuckle, red, white and orange, hello
tropes of blue and jasmine of Purest white.
Here over the old weather beaten porci.
droop vines and flowers known only to the
semi tropics, hanging in luxuriant festoons.
There is that most magnificent of all south
ern creepers, the curious passion fower,'
SO generally reverenced by the Spanish Cath
olic peasantry, this too entwined with the
dark green leaves of the hardy English ivy.
General Stoneman's home is home of roses.
This floral ornamentation of the homestead
is the work of Mrs. Stoneman and her chill
dren the general devotes his time to other
and more practical details of ranch life. The
interior of Los Robes is plainly finished
as its outside. The walls are devoid of plas
ter and wall paper. The principal rooms are
neatly ceiled with smoothly. polished red
wood, nicely vanished, and the walls are
hung with selection of modest pictures, in
Guiding some very fine paintings But there
is an air of comfort and refinement in and
about this place which renders it very beau
tiful Such is Los Robes, the home of the
Democratic nominee for Governor
The domestic life of General Stoneman is
similar to that of almost any southern Cali
fornia vine grower He gives personal su-
pervislon to the cultivation and management
of his vineyards and orange groves. Rising
regularly at specified hour winter or sum-
mer, he breakfasts with his little family, ard
may be seen shortly afterward out in the
vineyards, attended by his major -domo, di.
recting the workmen, and at times taking
full hand himself BY this close personal
supervision on his plantation. General Stone.
man has succeeded in making the handsom-
est and best vineyard in Los Angeles county.
While standing beside a beautiful, noisy,
babblIng brook, which rushes over its bright
pebbly bed in front of the house, General
Stoneman related brief but interesting rem
iniscence of his early days he said, as he
pointed with his pruning shears toward a
piece of rising ground toward the Sierras
Fright down there, at the foot of that hill,
just where you see that grove of live oaks, Is
where I was encamped with a squadron of
Dragons about thirty-three years ago. ]
was quite young man then. and had recent
ly made a march across the continent to
sist General Kearney and Commander Stock
ton to make conquest of California. l was
lieutenant of the first dragons then and
my company had been ordered out from Los
Angeles to San Gabriel mission on little
business connected with some of Colonel
Fremonts volunteers, who were camped at
the mission. It was then I first saw this
piece of land and fell in love with it. It was
wild, open, gravely land, and bore little re-
semblance to what you see now. Young as l
was-this was thirty-three years ago-I re-
solved to make my home here. 1t was more
than twenty years afterward before was
able to carry out my determination. But I
did so at last, and here I expect to live and
die
1t is little more than ten years since Cen
eral Stoneman and his family took up their
abode at Los Robes. At that time it was q
wilderness of scrub oaks, cactus and sage
| brush. He had about sc, 900 capital, and
l Will bDlS ne prOCSeueu TO carve MIN out q
home. He owns about GOO acres of land,
| little more than half of it in cultivation.
He has about 200 acres of Mission grapes
which are unsurpassed for vigor and beauty
| in the world. He has a large orange and
lemon orchard some of the trees nearly TWEEN
| ty years old, which were planted by the for
| mer owner of the place. His orange groves
| are as handsome and as prolific any in the
| South notable popularity in the ranch
| life of General Stoneman is his treatment of
| his employees. He seems to have adopted
real old-fashioned patriarchRr system. Hf<
ranch hands mostly natives. born upon
| the place, and all what commonly
| termed "Californiaps. Unlike most large
rancheros in that region, General Stoneman
never has employed Cinnamon to work his
| vineyard and fruit orchards. Instead of this
| he keeps up at least three little villages or
groups of cottages located near springs of
! water in different portions of the ranch. In
| these cottages reside the thirty or forty men
| and boys with their families He allows each
| family plot of ground to grow their vegs-
| tables such as potatoes, friioIes, peppers,
melons, etc, and furnishes employment to
the heads of each family the year round.
| The people reverence the general and never
| call him by any other name than that of PA
drone;" in fact, it is doubtful whether more
| than half of them know his name, although
(! they have lived ten years in his employment.
He is just and kind to all, and never finds any
difficulty in obtaining help, even in the bus
| lest time of the vintage. His hospitality is
proverbial through all that region, and his
| latch string" is always out.
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