Kimball enterprise. (Kimball, Brule County, Dakota [S.D.]) 188?-1883, 1883-04-20
A California CITY.

A Massachusetts correspondent, writ
ing from Oakland, Cal, the last of Oc-
tober, gives the following description Of
the place:
Oakland is a city of residences" as
the geography describes it, and that is
accurate. The residences are universally
freshly painted, with inside blinds, bay
windows, curtained with lace; trim gar
dens in which fourishes as much lawn
grass as you see at home. The grass
also grows on the broad sidewalks, on
either side of the central plank walk.
1t is charming to drive up and down
these wide, broadly-margined streets,
lined with unbroken rows OF
nice residences. No factory,
no shoe shop, no unsightly
row of tenement houses or slatternly
novels. Some streets run from an estu-
airy of the bay, called Lake Merritt.
These streets are avenues, with elegant,
often palatial, residences, by extensive,
perfectly kept lawns and Towering
shrubs, You think Of Newport or some
elegant suburb ofBoston, when suddenly
with the air of one at home, begins irri-
eating the lawn. Next a tall palm shows
its unexpected head, and your old friend,
the geranium, grows into a high shrub,
forms a hedge and proudly mods a well
come owe the ordinary height ola fence.
The tall shrub adjoining and clamberine
above the bay window at the end ofmany
a house is a fuschia. In my garden are
varieties Of greenhouse roses at home,
foarishing and just coming into bloom,
while hellotrope i'll great masses grows
here and there bravely. If you turn
from these fine avenues to more unpre-
tentious streets, though not any narrow
er, you come upon rows of houses too
small for man and too large for birds. /
stopped and laughed at my first sight OF
them. They present n bay window
and M door, no wider and only the
surface on the top. They run back to
give room for perhaps three or four
rooms, and that is all. Now and then
they have a basement under a flight OF
tiny steps. But after learning the price
and Importance Of kitchen help, from
the wearying perplexities Of your
own large house, you look after
wards with a feeling akin to regret al
these miniature homes. Yon notice the
spotten, nice lace curtains, the new
paint, the trim garden, and imagine that
one woman an keep it all clean with nc
help and no fatigue, the markets are
roomy, high and neat. Meats are much
lower than with us, if you are careful to
go where no ore will see a green pur.
chaser in. you. Nice porter house steak
for i5 cents per pound. mutton from Z to
10 cents, roast beef the same; fish comes
about the same, or a trifle higher than
in the east, except salmon. We had
some nice sturgeon yesterday for about
1912 cents per pound. The business
stores are made of wood, and low on ac-
count of earthquakes. We had a Sigh,
shock Friday morning at 8, but we
took no notice of it. There has beer
no heavy shock for ten years. These
stores, with often a row Of one-story
ones, look to us not business like or sol
id enough for the size Of the city. How
eve inside the stores the room is am
pie, the arrangement and display o.
goods very like our own. The prices
too, nearly; the ame Many goods are
of the same price, SO that you inquire
how. it is. They say that there is q
united cooperation of business firms,
who by unity and large importations
from New York and Boston compel the
freight companies to lower prices to two
cents per pound. Those not belonging
pay five or six cents per pound. Ofthe
people whom l have met I can speak
only to praise.