Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1886-09-25
Los ANGELES. September 81. 1886

a man of wealth, who has a business in
the East, from which he derives his sup
port and who has come hither to ~recuperate
his declining health, or that of his family,
or hearing the glowing accounts of this
Eden of the Pacific" has come to end his
days in ease and luxury. Such large addi-
ton to the population sent the price of real
estate up to figures that to the people of
the north seems almost incredible, but
which are considered by the Eastern peo-
Pile yeritable bargains.
VALUE OF NAL CULTIVATED FARMS.
The Los Angeles people are not slow to
see an advantage, and once seen it is
taken advantage of with an avidity
that is highly creditable. Not having the
advantage Of forests of timber and running
streams, that are the pride of the north,
they have turned other things to account
that have more than offset this deficiency
in natural advantages. Her sterile hills
and barren, rocky plains have been made
to produce crops of oranges and vegetables,
by systematic irrigation, hat to the eyes of
Eastern people seem almost incredible. A
small tract of two or three acres watered
by a little spring does more TO secure a set
tier at fabulous prices in this section than
does q thousand-acre wheat tract in Teha-
ma or Colusa counties. The great thing
here is the five, zen and fifteen acre tracts,
which are improved, and which advertise
the country. Every other door, almost, on
Main and Spring streets, is a real estate
agent, who has his bulletins covered with
subdivided tracts, which are sold in small
lots, just large enough for a building and a
small garden, all the way from $500 to
$1,000 each.
THEY SELL LIKE HOT CAKES.
The real estate agents do a thriving bust
ness, and for miles in every direction from
the city of Los Angeles, the county is sub
divided into homesteads, tracts and villas,
with regularly laid out avenues and streets,
and subdivided into blocks and lots. The
people come here to buy a home. They
look around them everything is business
thrift, the prices are seemingly uniform,
and purchases are made accordingly.
Not only is this true of Los Angeles, but
Pasadena, Riverside and other places in
this section are equally prosperous.
Why are the prices of this poor land so
much in excess of that of the north? is
the question asked by every one who comes
here from the San joaquin and Sacramento
valleys, or the foothill sections of middle
and northern California. You have up
there a better climate. better soil, more
abundant and varied crops, but while your
land is no more valuable to-day than ten
years ago, the poor lands of this section
have appreciated in value at least 500 per
cent. | think | have found, at least if not
the key to their success, the cause of the
greater portion of it, in the fact that their
society has been so shaped that they have
made of this section at least
A sEMBLANcE OF GoD's COUNTRY.
Here the churches ard school houses far
outnumber the saloons. You would hardly
believe it, but it is nevertheless true, that
there are more saloons, " gin mills" as they
are called, in the town of Placerville, Ell
Dorado county, with her 1900 inhabitants,
than there is in the city of Los Angeles
with her 10000 souls. There are more sa-
looms on either J or X street in the capital
city of the State, than there is in this south
ern metropolis, yet the population of Los
Angeles is twice that of Sacramento. In
the town of Pasadena, with her four thou
sand Inhabitants, there is but one saloon,
while the town of Folsom, in your
county, with her voting population OF less
than 200, finds it difficult to get along with
less than a dozen. There is not a wayside
GROCERY on any road in the county, and
while the laborer in the north spends his
time around 'five-cent beer shops" the
" horny-handed son of toll " of the south
must be content with an occasional sip of
lemonade, or a glass CT buttermllk.
As q result of this excellent state of
social affairs, the children of the poorer
classes are well clothed and fed. The credit
of all is maintained
WAN Is SOMETHING COMPARATIVELY IN
KNOWN.
All have neat homes, the husband and
father finds plenty of time to beautify the
grounds, and the place is thus given an APP
pearance of industry, thrift and apparent
happiness hat could not exist were it not
for the abstemious habits of the people.
which is largely, if not wholly, due to the
high license placed upon the liquor traffic.
The authorities have not stopped at high
license, but have done all in their power
to build UP a reputation for the young men
and women of their community, which is
commemorate in the highest degree. So
severe are the lines drawn between the
idle and dissolute on one side, and the in
dustrious and respectable on the other, that
no young man who values his position,
either in business or society, dares to be
seen enter or emerge from a place where
liquor is sold. A young lady who desires
to be "above suspicion dares not receive
the attention of
A YOUNG MAN WHO FREQUENTs SALOONS,
Or associates with those who do. In other
words, a man engaged in the saloon bust
ness is looked upon as an enemy of good
society, q corrupter of the morals of youth
and a stumbling-block in the way of the
communitg's prosperity.
! did not intend to write a temperance
lecture | ave not 0 n so these are plain,
unvarnished facts, which speak for them
selves. Let anyone from Sacramento who
hes passed by the numerous five-cent dives
and their frequenteTs in that city, visit
Pasadena, Los Angeles and Riverside, and
note the difference of the youth. One is
no more like the other than day is like
night. One will render night hideous with
their drunken revels, while the other are
young men with self-respect, excellent
characters, strict business habits, and pass
their leisure moments in reading-rooms,
lecture-rooms, good society or the church.
It is his, more han all other things, that
has made Los Angeles what she is to day,
and what will continue her prosperity for
years to ONE 1t is this which makes a
rich poor people, that makes happy moth
ers, educates children and makes our future
men and women capable of taking care OF
themselves, and in whose hands the Gov
eminent can be safely intrusted.
While judicious advertising brought
about this immense and valuable immi-
grafton, the society of Los Angeles, the
habits of her people, the thrift and
HAPPINESS OF E LABoRrNG CLASSES
Is the prime cause of all her prosperity.
The liquor license in Los Angeles City is
$3.50, in Pasadena 500, and in other local
tiles so high that it is impossible for the
yender of that which steals away ones
brains to pay the justly-imposed tax and
live.
While the Republican State Convention
was in session in this city, not a few of
the delegates from Sacramento-not alb
ones either-noted the absence of
saloons. the consequent absence of drunk
enness, the happy condition of the poorer
classes. and openly expressed the belief
that high license would operate equally as
well in northern California. Why a bust |
ness that makes the poor poorer. widows of
good wives, orphans of helpless children,
fills our jails. our insane asylums and
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