Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1888-01-19
The California Crnro.

The California Craze.
A few years ago il was the Florida
craze that swept over the country. Then
ell thet was necessary for man dissatis-
fed with his circumstances ane surround
ings, was to emigrate 20 tho land of
health and oranges. He could lie in the
shade AID drink in the bai;ny air, while
boxes of golden fruit prepal ed them
selves for market, and raised him in short
order to the height of aftiuence. This
notion was not thoroughly dispeled until
long after pretty nearly the whole pen
insula had been plated into town Tote,
until orange farms had sold for from
$1,000 per acre upward, until hundreds
aud thousands of people of moderate
means had put their whole resources in
TO a few acres OF land from which the,
would get not penny OF return tor four
or i've years, and until, weakened By
fever and worn ont with malaria, numbers
OF them had dragged themselves back 10
their old homes to warn others against
an imitation OF their folly,
This lesson was not enough Centur-
les are not long enough, 10 appears, 10
prots ct SIMPLE folk from the recurrence
TO the same folly under the same tenn pts-
lons. For few years back it has been
the California fever that ragged, and this
year it continues. The great land craze
that has swept the coast from San Diego
upward has filled the imsginstions OF the
myrlads in haste to be rich. They think
only OF the perennial sunshine, OF tenn
peratures bounded by limit OF twenty
degrees rise or fall, or fruit farms which
yield profit OF $lCO per acre when
planted with almonds or prunes or the
raisin grape, and with the fortunes that
mature when all other crops fail, from
the riee in land values. The rush TO Cali
tornia is now at it's height. Trains leav-
ing Kansas City are run almost daily Ia
two or three sections. The railroads
reaching Southern California nave Dor.
rowed rolling stock from other lines 10
accommodate travel, and still they are
actually forced to refuse to carry paason
gers by reason of failure OF facilities. A
large part OF this travel, of course, is tho
regular winter migration of the well.to-
do who sock milder climate. Bat much
OF 1t consists of colonies going out for
permanent residence, deceived precisely
"a the Florida people we're deceived in
their time.
IL II is possible 20 get men and women
whose d. cams are haunted by the glowing
circulars of real estate agents to listen
to reason, they ought 10 be saved from
the fate upon which they are blindly
rushing. California is n delightful state
in many particulars. For the wealthy,
probably no region offers greater attrac-
tions for winter sojourn. For man
with, say t26I0i0 or more, who can afford
to put $4,000 into fifteen or twenty acres
of land, and live on the remainder until
his fruit farm is yielding and he himself
has learned tho business, 10 will do very
we'll as a permanent home. The proba
bility IL that he viii find out what other
men have been learning for few thous,
aud years past; that ono climate, taken
through the average of decade, has just
! about az many attractions and as many
! drawbacks as another. But, IL no better
OFT, he will be little or none the worse.
For the ordinary emigrant, however, with
his fortune TO make and his home to
build and without large resources behind
him, Southern California I'd. day is about
the worst possible destination. He will
mud land values risen to point which
they cannot by any possibility maintain.
lie VIII find thousands of new corners
like himself, searching for means of sub
sisteHce, and pressing the wages for every
kind OF service down TO the starvation
point He will 'nd section absolutely
dominated by one railroad corporation,
aud that as rapacioua and remoreeless as
any in the country. He will be lucky II
be can get back among his old neghbors,
to start over again with experience as his
only capital.
As n single instance, IL is stated that
party, which recently went out from Win
nebsgo City, in this state, ia Disguised
and homesick. The III Dorado for which
they hoped appears to be paradise Of
land agents. The inducements held out
to an immigrant vanish Ms soon ms his
ready capital has been placed in inflated
lots, or in farm land about whose resour-
ces and whose culture he knows nothing.
He must fill himself with tho reflo
that he has nothing but his own folly to
blame. IL seems as IL no amount OF rep
etition would teach me mass Of people
that there is no place in tho world, un
less IL be Rider Hagga, Us Central Africa,
where nature feeds man whether he la
b0rs or Is idle, and where wealth may be
had for the mere asking. The foolish
will continue TO be humbugged and 70
pay dearly for their folly. But II there
arc others who now mediate Ia joining
tho California caravan, let them consider
this plain and disinterested advice: Stay
az home until you haye made yourself
thoroughly aoq aaiited with tho country 10
which you are bound and tho business in
which you will engage as you would think
necessary If you we're asked to state all
your savings and all your future on the
success Of some untried enterprise in
your native town or nearest village.
Aher The Honeymoon.