Daily Los Angeles herald., 1882-05-25
Texas Siftings.

The band of genial Texas editors who
lately visited Los Angeles have been en-
thusiastic and cordial in their apprecia-
tion of the city of Los Angeles. We
cannot forbear reproducing number of
these hearty testimonials. First we
shall give extracts from the correspond
ence of Mr. r. NJ. Mckee, the editor of
the El Paso Herald, who gives our
charming valley the following esthetic
{" send off.
After thirty-six consecutive hours of
travel, one hundred and fifty miles or
more being through the Great Desert,
one of the hottest, dustiest, dirtiest,
dryest, dreariest, most God -forsaken
stretches of the country that man or
beast ever saw, | arrived here and am
stopping at the Cosmopolitan Hot Il. Iim-
mediately proceeded to inspect the null
tifarious attractions abounding in this
city by the sea, Fifteen miles away. In
company with several brother journal
lists / ascended high knoll overlooking
the city and the beautiful Arcadian val
ley spread out like map, and drank in
the wondrous beauty that greeted my
enraptured vision. Los Angeles, which
means "the angels, is lit abode for
the celestial denizens, as it is the pret-
test place | ever saw. As | stood on
the eminence in mute rapture over the
landscape smiling in manifold vernal
beauties-the seni-tropical luxuriance
commingling with picturesque pastoral
scenes with glimpses of mountains in
the background and the bluest of blue
skies mirrored in the ocean, | had no
trouble in concluding that this is the
identical spot where the devil took the
Saviour to tempt him with the beauties
of the world. What a contrast to the
sandcursed, wind-swept region behind
me, extending l50 miles toward Ell Paso.
Oh!
Mr.. c. E. Gilbert, editor of the Abb.
lene (Texas) Reporter, is not to be dis
counted by his brother from Ell Paso.
He writes thus
After leaving the desert twenty or
thirty miles behind, we came into
country in striking and pleasing contrast
to that we had seen the past two days.
Lovely green valleys and picturesque
mountain scenery, on either side, above
and beyond us; the different shades of
verdure blending harmoniously with the
varied colors of the howery kingdom
r,,t.ah aax-ava1 ,,,,., aaI -.
side, was delightfully."- refreshing to the
sight after so long gazing upon sterile
plain and rugged, barren mountain.
About fifty miles through this charming
scenery and we'll improved farms, on
which were large and handsome frame
and brick dwellings, and we arrive about
4 o'clock in Los Angeles, a city of 5000
within twelve miles of the
Pacific ocean.
We are all quite in love with this city,
by far the most beautiful-in natural
surroundings and elegant and tasty inn
provements- any l have ever seen.
There are buildings here, business and
residence, as handsome and expensive as
any in Houston or Galveston; and the
flower gardens and front yards orna-
with evergreens and rare plants
and trees, are not to be excelled in the
South. If some of our ladies', who the
whole year through so carefully nurse
few geranium plants in jars under so
many difficulties, could see these inn
mense hedges of the finest rose geran-
iums, six feet high, in full bloom, and
other equally as luxuriant growths of
choice flowers, they would be as much
in love with Los Angeles as some of our
party who declare they will "swap
stakes ;" with these Californians who
talk of going to Texas. Farming lands
here are worth from $50 to $3.50 per
acre; and all the farming is done
by irrigation, as are also cultivated
all the gardens, flowers, orchards,
etc. Oranges and lemons grow here to
q very large size and of excellent flavor.
Of newspapers there are three morn
ing, one evening and four weeklies, and
three or four first class hotels.
Los Angeles was settled by the Span
iards or Mexicans neatly two hundred
years ago, and there are here now some
adobe buildings a century old, among
them the Mexican Mission. The streets
are much after the style of those of Paso
del Norte and other Mexican towns.
You will get a pretty fair idea of their
by the lines of an M, II and
A, written one over the other. The
population is about II, 900, 1900 of which
are Chinese. Wines, wheat and fruits
are the principal articles of commerce.
l visited one of the largest orange or
chards in the suburbs of town. In the
100 acres are 10000 trees from one to
thirteen years old. The trees begin
bearing at the age of eight years and
improve in yield and quality with each
year, bearing from 600 to $500 per sea-
son. The orange and lemon orchards
las the vineyards, parks and gardens)
are watered by acqueducts from the
irrigation company's water works. Will
write you of the Mongolian in future
letter.
Of course, a certain allowance has to
be made for errors of Typography and
dates, which the Texas gentlemen could
not be expected to grasp in their exacti-
tude in stay which was brief-too
brief for the hospitable intent of the
people of Los Angeles. We shall round
up these honest and hearty utterances
by the opinions of Mr.. j. F. Mitchell,
the editor Of the Independent Banner,
published at Greenville, Texas, who
says
The end of our last article found us
in the California desert, which we have
already described. The most of this
desert is below the sea level. Instead of
cool mountain winds and snow-capped
peaks we are in torrid climate with
the mercury at 100 degrees in the
shade. Near Dos Palmos are mud vol
canoes and boiling springs from which
sulphurous and other diabolical gases
escape. Our stay at these mud volca-
noes is short, for one seems to be little
too near the internal regions.
On we speed and we soon enter the