Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1885-01-01

From California.

From California.
STOCKTON, CAL, Dec. Is, ST.
promised great many of my friends
and neighbors in Grant county letter
when reached my place of destina-
ton, bntm time has been SO employed
! find 1t impossible to write to them all
separately. Through the columns of tho
HERALD | can communicate with
them all at once.
We arrived here the 4th of June, and
stopped to visit old friends intend
ing to so on to Santa Clara. The first
friends we met On our arrival here were
Mr.. Dan Bel aid Mr.. VIM Bell, fami-
'iarly known as Uncle Billy, and their
families, old settlers of Grant county.
Uncle Billy is hale and hearty, and has
beautiful home which has increased
in value over one hundred per cent in
the last three years.
A few weeks sojourn here convinced
as that this was perhaps as good n
location as we could find in the state.
There are machine shops here covering
whole blocks, employing hundreds of
mechanics, and turning out agricul-
tnral machinery which is sold in the
San Joaquin Valley. The city is three
miles square, built of adobe, on an oak
Hat which is cut at intervals by deep
sloughs. The snow-capped Sierra Ne
yadas, a hundred miles distant, are
seen, and deep gorges cut through the
plain that intervenes between the city
and the foothills, and here are nayiga-
BILE sloughs which rise and fall with the
tide. On one of these. called Mormon
Slough, Stockton is situated, and
several steam boats regularly navigate
between here and San Francisco.
Every day in the week may be seen
wagons loaded with wheat brought to
this market. and often two or three
wagons so loaded and coupled together,
are drawn by a single team. The
ware houses are full of wheat. The
streets on either side are lined with
large stores carrying great stocks of
merchandise; and every Saturday, far
mers come to town with their families
in light spring wagons drawn by
splendid teams of horses, and the prin-
cipal streets are thronged with people.
Walk into Hale's dry-goods store on
Main Street. Twelve or fifteen clerks
are waiting on the crowd which is
densely packed in front of the long
lines of counters, so that one finds it
difficult to pass out or in; and it is the
same in a hundred other places of BUSH
ness in the city. In the public square
an auction sale of every Imaginable
kind of goods is going on, and makes a
sight worth witnessing.
The headquarters and barracks of
the Salvation Army are on the Leyee,
surrounded by low doggeries Ming
ling together the coarse songs of revelry
from the saloons, the regular beat of
the drum and the hymns of the Saliva
ton Army in their barracks. 1t indeed
makes a strange medley.
A few days ago we visited Mr.. Cutler
Solomon who is well known in Grant
county, and who now lives six miles
south of this city. The old gentleman
in a splendid home and surrounded
with comforts, is in the enjoyment of
good health and is contented and
happy. He has bored an artesian well
on his farm whlchis 1850 feet deep, and
which furnishes him with an abundance
of water for his stock and for irrigating
purposes, and also furnishes him light
and fuel. Itmay seem little strange
to your readers to talk about using
water for fuel, but it is nevertheless
done. A gas arises from the water
which on being lighted burns readily
and supplies him with both lights and
fuel
My health has improved, for which |
am thankful to Almighty God. We
like the climate very well. 1t is very
mild and pleasant. There has been no
rain here since the first of October, and
the streets arc very dusty. We have
had light frosts, but not enough to in
jure vegetables growing in the gardens.
This is for the benefit of all my old
friends in Grant county, and by giving
it place in the columns of the HERALD
you will oblige
ENos w. BRIGGs.