Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1883-03-02

ment Of Celestals, and so far as we wer
able to discover none Of them had wings no
even pin feather, and so far as we coul
Judge none of them need stand in fear Of be
ing suddenly translated.
Los Angeles is the largest city Of Southern
California and one Of the oldest, aud has
population of over ten thousand.
1t is surrounded by groves of orange, linn
and lemon trees and an abundance Of vine
yards, and has many beautiful gardens with
in its lin its filled with tropical shrubs ant
| flowers
Wilmington, twenty-five miles by rail, il
the chief shipping point.
Here can be seen the pomegranatc, fig ant
all tropical fruits in perfection the grea
palm tree and the eucalyptus.
There are several good business blocks il
the city and four or five good hotels, but tho
Pico house is by far the best.
| In the rear of the Pico House block is the
Chinese quarter, and it looks as though il
might have been carved out OF Pekin OF
Hong Kong and transplanted in. this Ameri.
can city.
All vines and trees must be irrigated in
this season in order to get good yield OF
fruit.
The first impression of Los Angeles to a
stranger is not very imposing, for the ride
from the station TO The hotels Is chiefly
through streets which are lined on both sides
by law, pla stored onc-story houses, resem-
bling the old Spanish adobe dwellings, and
the city is also scattered over On era of many
square miles.
To the west or south may be seen extern
sive plantations as far as the eye can reach,
but last and not least we will mention a
curious inhabitant of this region who lives
in finely wrought dwelling and it is the
trap-door spider the Tarantula of Los An
geles.
San Francisco is four hundred and seventy
miles to the north and Yuma two hundred
and fifty miles to the east
The 2lst day of the month we were COM
fortably seated in buggy behind livery
span and making our way through vineyards
and orange groves for thirteen miles to San
Gabriel, intent upon inflicting call upon
General Stoneman, having provided our
selves with letter of introduction from the
generals sister, Miss Kate Stoneman of AL
bany, n. Y.
We found tho house of General Stonen.an
at home, but not the general
His home is pleasantly located in fertile
plantation of grape vines, orange and lemon
trees with the finest water privilege in this
section and the luxuriant growth Of every
thing shows that the General is skilled in
the use of the plow-share and .pruning- knife
as well as the sword.
His house is a plain home-like cottage,
unpanted but almost buried in vines and
climbing roses and looks as though its own
er might enjoy his otium cum dignitate.
Our next cline Of march" is to Sierra
Madre Villa, pleasant hotel three miles
further among the foothills Of the noun
iains.
Near the San Gabriel station we find for
the first time an odd variety of cactus grow
ing to a height of nearly ten feet and is the
pad species, that is, they grow in success
sion of great pads all the way up TO eight
inches in width and fifteen in length and
from one to three in thickness.
These pads are covered with sharp thorns
and connected by tough stem.
These cacti bear fruit of pleasant flavor.
A visit to Sunny Slope Vineyard" which
consists OF five or six hundred acres of grape
vines aud beautiful groves of orange and
lemon trees, is pleasure Of the day.
Messrs Stern and Rose are the proprietors
and do business on grand scale, and claim
TO he the largest dstillers in the United
States if not in the world
Last year they manufactured one hundred
thousand gallons of brandy and between
four and five hundred thousand gallons of
wine.
The machinery in use is abe 10 crush
ton of grapes every five minutes. The sam
pie room was shown us and we were allowed
to wash away cares with delicious wine
sweet wine OF twelve years ripening- and
then pleasant surprise was in store for US,
for we found General Stoneman at the hotel
and were permitted to present our "creden-
tials" and shake the hand OF plain, kind
hearted gentleman who urged us 10 make
him call, at his house, on our way back to
Los Angeles, but we were on short allow
auce for time aud had to pass the General by,
no doubt to his pleasure but our pain.
General Stoneman has since been elected
Governor of California, and We have no
doubt of his executing the duties of the
office with proper dignity, justice and
ability.
There were two fine specimens of the
agave or century plant growing in the lawn
in front the hotel At which we took Dime r,
the flower stalks of which were over thirty
fee. high.
We arrived at Los Angeles and took the
$50 train for San Francisco and reached
here the next day at 4 p. M, safe and sound,
having slept in the Yosemite, where we
needed all the clothes we could pile on to
keep lis warm at night, and in Los Angeles,
where with nothing but the clothes of night
about us-darkness--we were too warm even
then. +. B. T.