The Saline County journal. [volume] (Salina, Kan.) 1871-1893, 1888-04-26
FREsNo. Cal. Anil Is. 1sss.

FRESNO, Cal, April IS, 1855.
ED. JOURNAL:
will endeavOr In this letter to
give you a description Of my trip
from Riverside to this place, some
800 miles, as well as my poor pen
will do IL. My brother and myself
left the former place at q. m. on
Monday. April sth, took a short run
OF l5 miles on the santa Fe to Col
ton. This Is the junction or cross
ing Of the $. P. and Santa Fe, and
that is about all the importance
which attaches to the town. With
san BernardinO 4 miles north and
Riverside : miles south, the former
being the county seat, and the latter
one Of the prettiest and most noted
towns in the southern part Of the
state. IL has little else but its rail
road interest, there is one or two
however, which / must mention, ,One
il. one OF the mountains i'm its
vicinity contains a fine quarry of
hard marble or onyx and they are
making some fine monuments, etc.,
from il. The same also contains
large quantities Of limestone, which
they can also utiliZe-the place also
has a cannery which / did not visit.
We left Cotton at $50 over the ;. p.
railroad for Los Angeles through
the San Gabriel valley, one Of the
prettiest and most productive val
leys in the state. On the left run a
range Of broken mountains or high
hills, while on the right the Cucu-
mOnga mountains present one un-
broken chain as far a. Pasadina, 10
miles from Los Angeles, and most OF
the way tipped with snow, while be-
hind them and away 20 miles TO the
north aud high enough to be seen
over them, old Badly looms up all
white with his winter OvercOat.
This valley is traversed by both the
;. p. and the Santa Fe, from TO b
miles apart, the former passing
through the towns of Ontario,
Pomona, SpadTa, San Gabriel and
several other pretty places. Orange
groves, vineyards and orchards of
other fruit dot the whole distance;
while the latter road passes through
Raymond, PasOdina, MOwrOOia,
AZusa, north Pomona, RealtO, &c.
Most OF those places are situated at
the foot Of CucumOnga mountains,
before mentioned, and presents a
very beautiful appearance from the
trains a. they pass at rapid rate.
Well, lest this letter should be too
long / must proceed. We arrived at
Los Angeles at II a. m. and proceed
ed to take in the town. As ] said In
a former letter this is the Kansas
City Of the west, and although an
inland town. il leads all others
i'm this part OF the state, and with
the general appearance of the
streets, character of buildings aud
rush of business, etc, one can easily
imagine himself to he on Main or
Delaware street in Kansas City.
There are one or two things agitat-
ing the people of this city, just at
~ esent the hanging Of Anschag the
murderer OF Hitchcock, of Santa
Anna, and the Hattie WOlstein trial
for the murder of DIR. Harlan-hut
am depressing. We ran across ID. +.
DOnegan, II. NJ. Sale, Al. Durant,
and Joe :. Johns, Of Long Beach,
who happened To he in town, and
spent a pleasant evening i'm their
cOmpany-many of your readers
will remember them. We did not
get away from Los Angeles till mid
night, the train being late, the train
was full-as were some of the pas
sengers-and we saw some fine
specimens of the great American
hog. You can always find them on
a crowded train, men or dudes will
spread themselves out to cover al
least one whole seat and perhaps
two, while other men and some
times ladies will be left standing or
crOwding beside his "hOgship"-we
had several fine specimens aboard
we each securing a single seat, and
was glad 10 get that, put in the rest |
of the night sleeping. Morning |
found US at Mojavs junction. We
had passed through tunnel ! 1,
miles long on the route. We now
passed through what is known a.
rehatchipi pass, and for about four |
hours we passed through some Wild |
scenery, one half of the run being a |
heavy down grade passing through |
Is tunnels, some so near together |
that before the last car Of our train |
was out of one, the engine was i'm an
other. There seems to be an inn |
mense amount Of spare dirt an d
rocks thrown down here i'm a pro-
miscous pile as il there was large |
surplus of earth material and was
piled up here to get il out of the |
way. On this down grade We passed /
the famous loop where the road
makes a circle of perhaps mile IN
circumference and passes about ~
feet under itself aud continues down
the mountain plunging through tun-
nels, over bridges, along the verge
of some frightful gOrges, sometimes
almost doubling itself and always
going down, down till we arrived at
the station of Caliante, at the foot Of
the mountains, which means hot.
and we found il so. We were now
i'm the San joaquin valley, the
southern portion of which is very
hot, vegetation for a good part get
ting dry and parched. 1t seems to
he devoted 10 sheep raising. As we
proceeded north through the towns
OF Tuhare, Goshen, Selma, &c, to
this place we found evidences Of
drOuth disappearing. We arrived
here at y. m. on Tuesday. While
the weather is far too hot for a Kan
san to enjoy, still mechanics are
busy, and so are the real estate men.
/ may write more about this place
some other time, my letter il too
long already. NJ. II. p.
I