The Palatka daily news. (Palatka, Fla.) 1884-1888, 1888-02-08
IN SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA.
House Lots Laid Out at Prices Above Those In
Boston-Good and Bad Points of Wonderful
Land Climate as Mild in January as an East
ern October.


Bos,on-Good and Bad Points of a Wonderful
Land Climate as Mild in January as an East
ern October.
Boston Herald.
When | left Somerville, writes resi-
dent of that city, who, with his wife, is
making an extended tour in Southern
California, promised to send you let
ter during my absence, giving brief ac-
count of a few of the matters of inter-
est passing under my observation. Per-
hapS should not have made the promise
had / foreseen the effect of this Califor-
MIA climate upon my mental faculties.
The fact is, | have been so intoxicated
by the soft air that | have hardly cared
to ask questions about practical con-
Germs, but have preferred rather to let
the days glide by in simple, sensuous en-
joyment | have been in Southern Cal
ifornia about five weeks. in what is
called the rainy season. and during
that time have seen Just four rainy DAYS.
The first two weeks 1 spent at Pasadena,
and every day, save one, was pleasant,
just such weather as we have in New
England in October, except that here
the nights are slightly cooler. In some
respects Pasadena excels any town in
California | have yet seen, particularly
in grandeur of mountain scenery. The
view from the Raymond is superb. The
hotel stands upon a quite high hill. from
which an extensive outlook is had. No
valley which | have seen compares in
beauty with the San Gabriel, while the
Sierra Madre Mountains, and the still
loftier peaks farther away, are grand
4
and admiration in the most prosaic mind.
The city of Pasadena is a marvel of
growth and development, even in this
phenomenal country. 1t makes man
rub his eyes to look down upon a city of
10000 inhabitants where, three years
ago, there was hardly twenty houses,
and to see land sold at a price equivalent
to SO per square foot, which few
years back was sheep ranch of such
small value that the owner gladly dis
posed of it at a few dollars per acre. In
the business center of Pasadena land has
been actually sold within a few months
at higher rate than so per square foot,
and residence lots are being sold at dis
lance of half mile from the business
streets for higher prices than are OBJ
tanned for land within two and half
miles of the State House in Boston, this,
too, on streets where there are TO side
walks, sewers or gas, and where the wa
ter supply is somewhat precarious, in a
city which has no well equipped fire de-
partment, where great expenditures
have yet to be made for school houses
and other public purposes, where the
highways are in
UNSAFE AND UNSIGHTLY
condition, and the rate of taxation is al
ready exceedingly high. In Los Angeles
there Is no measure of values save the
audacity of the real estate dealers and
the gullibility of eastern capitalists, who
seem never to consider how much land
there still is out of doors, even in South
ern California.
The method of creating real estate
boom and founding a city out here is
novel in the extreme. A company of
gentlemen purchase a large tract of land
off i'll the wilderness, where even a jack
rabbit is forced to struggle for a subsis-
tence. A surveyor is employed to plot
IL off in lots and drive the stakes in each
corner. The service of a laborer and a
pair of mules are secured to run q few
burrows with a plough to indicate the
streets. Glowing advertisements are
inserted in the newspapers and flaming
posters pasted IN oyery available spot.
A great auction sale is arranged for, an
excursion train secured to carry purchas-
ers to the nearest station. a brass band
hired to discourse shrill music, caterer
paid to deal out stale sandwiches and q
black decoction called coffee to the as
sembled crowd. and then the sale goes
on. Very little money is paid down.
and in most cases the purchases are
made by interested parties The news
papers contain highly colored reports of
the sale, and an announcement that a
few choice lots remain, which may be
secured, if Immediately applied for at
slight advance over the auction price. A
few simple souls catch at this bait. In
few weeks comes the announcement
that the prices of the lots have been still
further advanced, and so the farce goes
on. They have staked out enough build
ing lots IN this country to accommodate
the millions of prospective population.
As | drove over the mountains, back of
San Diego, few days ago, l saw stakes
driven in the walls of precipices and
streets blazed across tablelands. where
rabbits frisk by day and coyotes howl
all night. Lots along these beautiful
boulevards" are more valuable, in the
estimation of their owners, than they
would he if situated in the centre of a
unity NEW EIlSidnu NlIdGe.
But this is not, by any means, the
whole story; and it is unfortunate for
California, and will retard her true de-
velopment, that such spirit of reckless
speculation pervades the country. be-
lieve Southern California has grand fu-
ture before her and the elements of per-
manent prosperity, and ON every hand
you see the genuine development by the
side of the spurious. By and by the
bubbles will burst and the fictitious val
ues will melt into thin air. Then the
people will have time to
CULTIVATE THE NEGLECTED LOTS,
and viii tie their grape vines TO the
stakes which now mark the sites of vii
lage lots. So high has the fever of spec
uiation run that vineyards and fruit or
chards have been neglected and are
slowly dying out. | found Col. Dickin-
son thoroughly wide awake man, pos
sessed of unbounded faith in Southern
California He is a very busy man, and
has the management of vast financial
interests. The San Diego Land and
Town Company is located at National
City, and is doing wonderful work in the
development of TINS country. Col. Dick
inson introduced me to a Mr.. Kimbail.
Tho kimballs are pioneers in this
country, having come here from San
Francisco more than twenty wears ago.
They formerly owned tract of land EN-
braclng forty-two square miles. a con-