Los Angeles daily herald., 1888-01-29
California Letter.

CAitIOEnlA LctAeEs
Editor Gazette: 1t has now been
nearly four months since l left my
eastern home in Indiana and came to
the State of California. Like the ma
jority of those who migrate to this
wonderland, l was not favorably i'm
pressed with it upon my arrival, ev-
erything seemed so strange and un-
natural, but such feelings passed
away from me with the same rapid
ity ttat familiarized myself with my
adopted country and its people. All
the disgusting things soon turned in
to things of admiration, and L will
freely and candidly confess, in the
opening lines of this letter, that am
now thoroughly in love with the
beautiful Golden State.
The climate of Southern California
is all that could be desired. 1t is mild
and even every month in the year, the
mercury in the thermometer some
times running as high as 90 at noon
time in the days OF midsummer,
though the evenings are always cool
and bracing, while it seldom falls be.
low 36 during the coolest weather of
January. On this, Christmas day,
ladies are walking through the beau
tiful parks and blooming gardens
under the shade of parasols. Storms
and cyclones and billiards never come
to California. While the rainfall is
rare and unusual from April till
November, yet copious streams of
pure and clear water, flowing down
from the mountain reservoirs and
from deep driven wells, may be turned
all over the low and level lands at the
will of the irrigator. OF course people
get sick and die here as in other
countries, but not few invalids,
apparently on the brink of the grave,
have come to California for rest and
relief, and after Breathing our soft
and balmy air they feel quite conf.
dent of long and healthy life and OF
delightful old age.
Nor is Southern California less re-
markable for her natural wealth.
Aside from her rich deposits of silver
and gold, the marvellous producing
powers OF her soil, even surprising
and going far beyond those of the
Mississippi valley, are such as can be
found in no other region on the globe.
Raising nearly everything that is pro-
duced in the temperate zone, she also
grows in teeming abundance citrus
fruits, olives, figs, bananas. English
walnuts, persimmons, lines, lemons
and oranges, at every month of the
year. Not only do these valuable
productions supply in a great meas
ure the demands of the various mar
kets throughout the United States,
but they are exported across the ocean
to the distant nations beyond.
The great center OF this powerful
region is Los Angeles, situated about
eighteen miles from the ocean beach
on the west, and about the same dis
tance from the mountain range on
the east. Her people represent nearly
all races and nationalities, and in
color are black, white, yellow, red,
ard quite q number of them are
green. The lower classes Of the for
eign element, however, inhabit the
old adobe buildings of China and
Sonora towns, and are not permitted
to mingle in the society of the ma
tive citizens, who are intelligent, in
dustrious and affable, and who re-
ceive all visitors with open hands and
hearts. The streets of Los Angeles
are clean and beautiful, and many
of them are shaded and ornamented
on either side by pepper trees,
magnolias, eucalyptus, century
plants, giant cactus, spreading palms,
and other lovely trees and plants pc
culiar to this climate. Her churches
and school buildings are numerous,
her business blocks are solid and sub
stantial, and her dwellings are as fine
and artistic as any the country con-
tains. Having more than doubled
her population in the past three years,
she now has nearly $4,000 people.
To-day she is a regular bee hive.
Strangers are blockading her streets
and crowding her hotels, and when
we learn that $1S,000,000 is now on
deposit in her banks, awaiting invest
ment, it is rather difficult for us to be-
lieve with few Eastern papers that
our boom is about ''busted."
Under these happy and auspicious
circumstances moneyed men in the
East are continually pouring into
Southern California. They realize
the fact that the constant, rapid raise
in the value of real estate property
gives them a rare opportunity to in
crease and multiply their fortunes,
and to wallow in wealth and roll in
riches. The records in the Recorders
office show that the real estate trans.
fers, even in Los Angeles county
alone, sometimes amount to $4 900,
600 per week.
While this country is very inviting
! to capital, it is equally attractive tt
labor. Mechanics, skilled and un
skilled, fare especially well. Carpen
: ters, brickmasons, decorators. paint
| ers and paper-hangers are in grea
demand at remunerative wages
7 Many of them came here few year
7 ago worth comparatively nothing, bu