The Bennington banner. [volume] (Bennington, Vt.) 1858-1894, 1888-11-08
FROM SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA.


an Acre lis this Spring, or WHAT
REDLANDs, CAL, Oct. 80, 1888.
Editor Banner Some Of your read
ere, no doubt, will be among the multi
tude who will visit this part of the coun-
try the coming winter. Already the sd
vance guard is beginning to arrive. Let
me tell these visitors, beforehand, some
of the characteristic sights that will ar
rest their attention when they wander
about under these sunny skies.
Along the lines of railroad every
where the visitors will observe traces Of
fictitious towns, towns that were expect
ed to be, but never were; towns with
pretty names and nothing else; towns
that never existed except in the brains
of spectators. The prairie is unbroken
and unimpIoved; nothing is growing
there except cactus and wild sage;
nothing is living there but rabbits and
gophers; yet the visitors will sec wide
avenues laid out, perhaps worked 80
that they look like real roads, though no
vehicle ever passes through them.
Along these avenues, twenty five to
fifty feet apart, white stakes indicate
the boundaries of town lots. Many of
these lots have history, and could tell
sad tales of infatuation and loss. They
were bought mostly by persons of mod
crate means, usually without the pur-
chasers' ever seeing them except on
maps; and in some instances, euch was
the frenzy of the times, that men stood
up in lines all night in front of real es-
tate offices to secure chance TO bid for
the lots as soon as they should be offered
for sale ! Multitudes lost more than
they could afford; whatever was paid
was wasted; there are today no inhabi-
tants and no prospects of any.
In some OF these sham towns begin
nings were made for settlements, but
the projectors began at the wrong end.
The natural way would have been to get
inhabitants first, and afterwards stores
and other conveniences for their accom-.
modations. Instead of this, the first
thing done usually, was to build huge
hotel, costing twenty to fifty thousand
dollars. The theory seems to have been,
that people would come and live at the
hotel while building their homes. ANY
how, some twenty of these hotels, most
of them handsome brick structures, may
be seen along the railroad between here
and Los Angeles, unoccupied and quite
useless. One of them which cost sixty
thousand dollars, has lately been given
TO college to be used as a preparatory
school.
Elsewhere visitors will see in the
midst of a vast waste, two-story and
three-story business blocks, of brick,
some of them larger and more orna-
mental than any in Bennington. These
elegant and costly blocks were designed
to contain stores, and to be the begin
ming of business centres; but the busi-
ness never came, nor the people who
were to do it, and the empty buildings
appear strangely out of place. A block
of stores with plate glass fronts, out in
the wilderness where are no dwellings
or inhabitants, will be sight to make
our Eastern friends rub their eyes in
amazement.
Or again where there are no buildings
of any kind besides, you will see an am
pie and fully equipped railroad station.
comprising passenger and freight de-
partments, telegraph and express offices.
These stations were of course built al
the expense of the land owners, and are
as supernuous as the solitary hotels and
stores in other paper towns.
Within three miles of my house is one
Vi lIlt5G bDtCuldlINt Clllt6t "ulCll mas
not, and never has had, a single inhabi-
tant. Yet it is the terminus of that
branch of the Santa Fe railroad which
runs through this place. 1t is a mere
arbitrary spot in the desert, unmarked
by any description of building, and with
not even a shelter for the engine; and
five trains daily arrive at and depart
from it ! The only feature that reminds
one of a town, at this remarkable rail
road terminus, is half mile or so of
cement sidewalks, costing some thou
sands of dollars 1t was common, last
year. for projectors of towns to begin by
laying ample sidewalks of artificial stone
along the front of all the lots, as induce
ment to people to come and build. Yet
there is not only no business there for
railroad, and no beginning of a village,
not even a solitary inhaUitant, but the
men who run the trains have to return
to Redlands to lodge, going back in the
morning to start the trains from the
terminus !" The inquiry may natur-
ally be, why trains should run to town
that has no existence. 1t is because a
bargain was made to that effect between
the railroad company and the men who
started the "town."
These are relics Of the boom" that we
had last year, which seemed to craze
everybody for the time. Those who had
passed for prudent and sensible business
men went to laying out villages and
trade centres when nature had decreed
that there should be only farms and Or
chards. The boom has gone; but the
hotels and blocks and cement sidewalks
remain, and will strike our visitors as
genuine curiosities-such, it is to be
hoped, as can be found in no other
country.
All the real towns, however, go on
growing and developing with wonderful
rapidity. Thus this Redlands from
which write, which has swallowed up |
Lugonia, goes on expanding and dilating. |
People are flocking in, dwellings are CO.
ing up, business of every kind is being |
introduced, with rapidity quite I'M
known in any New England town.
Just now the people are principally |
occupied with the raisin crop. which is
larger than ev, before and the quality |
better. A single packing house in Red
lands employs hundred women assert
ing and boxing this fruit. The finest
punches are packed under the name Of
London layers though I cannot tell
you why this name is given to the choic
est raisins intended for table Use.
Our visitors will think our land high
priced, compared with farming land in
the older States but there is a reason
for the high price. Fruit growing in
general may not be very profitable;
there is little money in peaches and april
cots, which can be produced equally
well in the Northern portions of the
State, where land is much cheaper; but
it is quite otherwise with raisins. The
usual price obtained by the grower is six
two hundred boxes to the acre There
are twenty pounds in box. Now II an
acre OF land yields two tons of raisins,
worth two hundred and forty dollars, it
pays good interest on higher valuation
than is usually put on 1t. And it is uni
Versally believed here that oranges pay
much better than raisins, besides being
less trouble to raise and get to market.
This explains why land here is held at
three hundred to five hundred dollars an
acre for farming purposes.
| visited yesterday the vineyard OF a
friend,to get basket Of half-ripe grapes
for jelly; the ripe ones being too sweet
for that purpose. All over the ground :
were innumerable trays covered with
raisns, cured and ready for the packing
house where they are assorted and
graded. On the vines was hanging the :
equal in quality to the first, and
men were picking the huge clusters and
spreading them on the traysfrom which
the first batch of raisIns had Just been
emptled. In three weeks these later
grapes will also be cured. And besides {
these two ripened and matured crops,
we're plenty OF unripe grapes, too late to !