The Press., 1885-10-08
LETTER FROM CALIFORNIA.

Pomona Cal, Sept. 14th, 1885.
 The heat of August has passed and the weather is all that could be asked for in the way of comfort. The wine press is in operation again and the wine makers are happy, as they have formed ring and fixed the price of grapes until Oct. 10th, and then go as you please. The result will be, the manufacturers will get all the profits, and the growers none. The prics of grapes is to be nine dollars ton for muscats, ten and eleven for mission, and thirteen for Bergher and other foreign va- rieties, and as eleven pounds of grapes make gallon of wine, the first cost is on ly about five and eight cents per gallon aside from the work, and at this price there is very little temptation to adulterate it.
 Yesterday morning at four and half o'clock we were reminded that we live in land of earthquakes by the violent shaking of all things terrestrial. No damage done in this vicinity except to frighten few nervous people.
 There are at the present time eleven or ganized churches in Pomona, each one having different name and different creed, and like Brooklyn, N Y., it has been named the city of churches.
 On the other hand we have thirteen open bars where liquor is sold seven days in the week, yet with all these there is less apparent drunkenness and rowdyism up- on the streets i'll whole year than you will see in Stafford Springs in single week. The public sentiment will not tol- crate gang of low-lived loafers to stand upon the corners of the streets and insult all decent people who may chance to pass | that way. I have been on the main busi- ness street nearly every day for the last year and l have never seen people pass ing on the street or sidewalk treated un- civilly, and it's burning disgrace that the cities and villages of New England will tolerate these things as they do.
 John Brockbank has sold out his inter- est in Browns hotel to F. R. Moore, and will soon go to San Jacinto.
 If any of your readers contemplate con- ing to California it may be of interest to them to know the price of articles they must buy to live upon, and as everything but eggs and liquor is sold by the pound, l will give the price in that way. Salt pork and corned beef are not kept on sale except for short time ill the winter !; hams are IA to IF cts. bacon, 12 to 15 1; dried beef, 20 beef steak, 12a to 15 ; nut ton, 10 to 12a lamb, 10 to 15; cod fish, 1G; salmon, 8; butter, 35 and 40 :; cheese, l5; lard, 13; four, $1. .25 to $1. 40, per sack of 50 lbs. {; potatoes, 50 and 75 per 100 lbs. 1; apples, l peaches, pears II to 2; table grapes of all kinds, 2; water melons weighing from 10 to 40 lbs., 5 and 10 each; honey, ,; onions, l beana 3 and 4; sugar, l2 and IA lbs. for $1. l; quinces, T..
 Sept. 22d. Since the above was writ ton all sugars have advanced cents lb. Spreckles, the sugar king of San Francis co, has supplied the Pacific coast with sugar for long time He imported his raw sugar from the Sandwich Islands m der the reciprocrity treaty, free of duty, and could afford to sell refined sugar as
 low or lower than it could be sold in New
 York, but he has paid the railroad compa-
 nles $lOO, 900 year not to bring sugar
 from the east, and has compelled the peo-
 pie on this coast to pay 2 and cents a
 pound more than it was sold for in the
 east, and at the same time he would ship sugars to Kansas City, El Paso, and Albu querque and sell it | cents a pound less
 than 1t could be bought in San Fransisco.
 The people got tired of the state oi things and the Chronicle took up the cud , gel in behalf of the people, and young Spreckles walked into the office and shot the editor, DeYoung.
 A stock company was formed and an other refinery put up, and sugar has been as low ln San Fransisco the past season,
 as Tn New York. The supposition is tho
 two have now combined and the old rates will rule. For the present at least, sugar is high.
 The south side of the Sierra Madrt
 range of mountains north of Pomona have
 been on fire for the last two days. and the f heat at this place has been almost beyond ' endurance, thermometers ranging iron , 110 to 118 degrees in the shade. Tn, 2 sight of these vast fires is grand, yet no , pleasant to look upon. It must be similar 5 to what Abraham saw when he looked . toward Sodom and Gomorrah, and toward l: all the land of the plain, and behold ant To, the smoke of the country went up as the smoke of furnace .. E...H The association of the Baptist churches | of Los Angeles county was held at tn, I Baptist church of Pomona last week. Tn, - attendance was large, and about one hun 2 dred people from abroad were entertained , by the society. Since the close of the as n sociation, Rev. G. s. Bailey has preached ,, in the Baptist church every evening t. a good audiences. He is man of great tai . :, ent, and has formerly been settled in Yorl 7 state and Ohio.
 o o The low rate of fare is bringing man, :, a people here from the east, and many nor :, a are coming later ill the season, and vii T spend the winter here, as it is the bes II II part of the whole year.
 ', r The fires upon the mountains hay ~ mostly burned out, and the weather i s cool and delightful. G. l.. T.