The Press., 1886-01-21
SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA IN WINTER.


 SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA IN WINTER.
 Pomona, Cal. Jan 8, 1888
 In the month of November, after six months of almost continual sunshine, thick clouds shut off the rays of the sun, and for seven days and seven nights rain fell in abundance, and was absorbed by the dry and thirsty earth, which in turn was soon clothed with O carpet of green, and the oc- casiOnal rains that have fallen since have served to keep up continual growth, SO that now, with it's warm and balmy air and beautiful sunshine, California Is seen at its best
 This fact was doubly impressed upon my mind on a recent trip to the city of the Angels, (alas mostly sick or fallen Angels). The heights were clad in the habllments of an Arctic winter, the waving grass upon the hillsides was dotted with hundreds of cattle grazing lazily in the sunshine, under the watchful eye of the rough and ready cowboy sitting costly in his saddle, (but not half as rough as he is supposed to bel. while thousands of sheep fed upon the plains, guarded by the gentle shepherd, with the same kind of a crook or wolf hook they used in Palistine two thousand years ago, when shepherds watched their fiocks by night. Vast fields of wheat reached out in the distance, laden with promise of an abundant harvest and plenty of bread, while every available horse and mule were hitched to the gang plough, the harrow or seed-sower, and the great crop of barley thet supplies all Southern California with hay was being sown.
 The orange and lemon trees bow grace fully under their load of yellow fruit, aud the birds chirp merrily among their branches. The flower gardens are adorn- ed ln colors of every hue, and spread themselves like the green bay tree. The stately eucalyptus, whose leaves never fall, towers above all others, and reaches his arms high up towards the heavens.
 l might enlarge this picture, but will not intrude upon your space or weary the patience of the reader, but as all photo graphs have negative so has this. We have the largest and richest deposit of pe- troleum in the United States right at our doors, yet the Standard Oil Company con- trols everything in that line, and we must pay twice as much for kerosene oil as you do in the east. Nine-tenths of our insur- yet they invariably charge us twice as much for the same class of risks as they do east of the Rocky Mountains.
 Every desirable piece of land where wa ter can be developed is gobbled up by land companies, and sold out to settlers at the highest possible prices for climate and wa ter, and the land thrown in.
 If you call physician across the street he will charge you two dollars for an order on the druggist, ond you are lucky if you get away from there by paying less. Near ly every plece of property is for sale, and a stranger would be led to think there mus be some good bargains among them all, but is sure to realize his mistake when he inquiries the price.
 Southern California has climate which for comfort aud healthfulness has no equal III the United States, and there is no rub brng the fact out of sight, and it makes nc difference who rubs.
 Lus Angeles is the Mecca to which thousands and thousands of unfortunate people who are afflicted with pulmonary diseases make pilgrimage, and thousands more would follow if they had the means. Many come here in the last stages of con- sumption who suffer many times more than they would at home, and reach here only to die in strange land among stran- gers, who care nothing for them but to get the dollars they bring with them.
 The city is full of strangers from every state in the union, and, judging from the sight of the eye, you would say it was the most unhealthy city in the world. About one in four of all the strangers you meet n the crowded streets bear unmistakable marks of consumption. You meet walking skeletons, with hollow cheek and hollow chest, passing with slow and measured step, their minds absorbed with their own troubles and wasting form. You pass an- other walking more erect, with flushed cheek, short breath, and half suppressed cough, full of hope that the dry and balmy air and the invigorating rays of the sun will restore him to health, but he is doom- ed to disappointment, for it is only n mat ter of time when the disease that has 'ts IL "