Omaha daily bee., 1885-01-24
WINTER IN CALIFORNIA.
How 1t Differs from Winter in New
England.
San Francisco Bulletin.

San Francisco Bulletin.
After Thanksgiving, winter. In the
Atlantic states, east of the Hudson, good
sleighing is expected at this date. Here
nothing more than a few white frosts in
dictate that winter has come. There have
been frosts in the lowlands during the
past week. Last night the frost crept
up on the hillside a little. The crystals
lay on the plank sidewalks in the subur-
ban towns, and sparkled as the rays of
the rising sun touched them. For a mo.
ment or two there were millions of dla.
monds, then small drops of water, and
then nothing But the frost makes clisp
mornings, and a coal or wood fire most
enjoyable morning and evening-the
wood fire especially. Moreover, the
frost helps to color the foliage, although
in this country the deciduous trees
drop the greater part of their foliage
before the frosts come. The soft
naples, elms, white birches and locust
trees, which have been naturalized here,
for the most part, have cast their leaves.
Yet the naples take on a wealth of color
before leaves fall; so the frost does not do
all the coloring. Even the eucalyptus,
which casts it's leaves at midsummer and
continues dropping them until late in
autumn, has a wealth of color which is
hardly noticed. The coniferous trees pre-
vail so largely in California that the high
colors of deciduous trees which grow on
the hillsides and mountain slopes of east
ern states are rarely seen here. Yet in
every dell after the first frosts have come
in this latitude, n may find patches of
color shading off from gold to scarlet, with
a great many subdued tones, which
artists, who are good colorists, do not fail
to notice. The frs and the pine clothe
many of the mountains in eternal green.
When they are bare, they are as desolate
as in Spain until the vernal season sets in.
The first rains have already come.
But the winter rains have not yet ap-
peared. There is q sort of hush between
the autumn and winter. If one goes to
the wood he will hear hardly any other
sound than that of the harsh and obstrep.
erous blu clay. Here and there will be a
tapping on the trunks, and an occasional
squirrel descends to see what provision
in the way of acorns there may yet be
left on the ground. In the open, where
the ground is soft, there are the tracks of
the sneaking coyote. Ever owls cease in
a measure to boot in the winter season,
and the mournful sound of doves has
altogether ceased. A great silence has
fallen upon the woods. There is hardly
a singing bird. The linnets in..the subur-
ban gardens, which two months ago
were 50 active in feasting
or the ripe fruit, beginning
even earlier with cherries, and
continuing until the last ripe pear had
disappeared, have become silent also. No
more songs and nc more depredations,
for the good reason that there is nothing
to steal, and the pairing season has not
begun. The white frosts are the fitting
Introduction of winter. They precede
the heavier rains.
The trade winds have died out. They
will not prevail In this latitude before
the middle of next May. Some are un-
kind enough to say that 1t is q pity that
they should ever prevail. But these
winds are the Lords scavengers, sent up
as 30 many messengers from the salt
ocean to deliver the city from plaques
and pestilenoe. San Francisco has not
been o clean city from the day of it's
foundation. There is oriental dirt, and oc-
c'dentsl dirt. 1t has come to be a foreign |
city. Merchandise fills the sidewalks, and
in many places crowds the pedestrian in
to the street. Ofsl is thrown there. The
six months trade winds of summer and
the ak months rain are the two sanitary
agents which keep watch aud ward over
the city. The most dangerous weeks of
the year, on the score of health, are those
whan naithar the trade winda nor tho |
rains prevail. The winter season being
less %pronounced in this latitude, there is
less disposition to store up anything. All
the season is open, and even now the
bees are making honey, or are going to
rob other hives. For in this state even
the bees have caught the spirit of the
m~onopolist. They get q part of their
honey honestly, and, as to the rest. they
do not scruple to get it diAhonestly.