The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1888-08-01

1911 lOhC NaAlAOl lila W do oNlllCN OAAil
along the Pacific coast There
were about twenty missionary es-
Establishments, independent of each other,
founded during the last quarter of the
eighteenth century, from Monterey to San
Diego, whose mission was 10 extend the
Spanish domain and convert the Indians
to Christianity and not neglect the treas
ury OF the missions. These missionary
colonies monopolized all the lands and
business and carried on the work of
aggrandizment through the forced labor of
the Indians. Christianity, to the natives
in those days, meant peonage. The chief
occupation was grazing, and the missions
of Monterey, San Luis 0bispo, Santa Bar
bara and San Diego, counted their flocks
of sheep, herds of cattle and bands of
horses by the ten thousand. Cattle were
slaughtered for hides and tallow only, the
export trade of which, together with the
wool clip, amounted to many million dol
lars annually. When the range was
overstocked by rapid increase
roundup would be ordered
and all the horses were slaught-
cred except the best ones saved
for domestic use and breeding purposes.
The hides and tallow were removed and
were then there, are they as now in Argen-
tine Republic, where half million head of
horses are killed annually for their hides
and tallow, important articles of COM
merce. True to their Castilian tastes, the
olive tree was not neglected and olive
groves were numerous especially in the
Santa Barbara mission. North OF this
mission, with a wet and dry season, irri-
CATION is unnecessary, but south OF it the
grain, fruit and vegetables TO supply the
missions could only be raised by irriga-
ton. Asceques many miles long were
constructed by the pious for this purpose,
but the Mexican government
soon overthrow ecclesiastical rule and
turned the missions into civil institu-
tons. The successive revolutionary
governments of Mexico plundered the
missions and granted their lands away TO
individuals, and when California came
under the American flag there remained
nothing but the large stone and adobe
buildings in ruins. The indefatigable
gold hunter of 40 completed the ravages by
cutting down the olive trees to cook his
bacon, and there remain to-day not a
dozen trees on the whole coast planted by
the missionaries. The gold excitement
brought thousands of adventures, and
when the "yellow fever" was over Cali
fornia was state in the Union
with a large, rich population settled
down to agriculture, commerce and
legitimate mining. But the once popu-
lous lands OF the missionaries,
with the exception of Santa Barbara and
Mnnfaraxy haH rrrif d .,nnt1Ia-
ton or by development through the in
flux of the yellow dust seeker. The min
ing camps were adjacent to the SanJoaquin
and Sacramento valleys. The disappoint-
ed miner turned his attention to cultivat-
ing the yellow grain instead OF digging
for the yellow dust, and these two great
valleys soon became the renowned wheat
fields OF California. The Napa and San
Jose valleys and the foot hills of the coast
range were turned into vineyards and
fruit ranches. Nine-tenths OF the popula-
ton was within 100 miles of San Fran
cisco, which limits also supplied
nineteen-twentieths of the agricultural
products OF the state, and to-day
with ali the noise about southern Cali
fornia, statistics will show five-sixths of the
population and four-fifths of the agricul-
tural and horticultural products OF the
state within the same compass. Califor-
MIA has passed from a land OF gold and
silver to one of grain and fruit.
Southern California, whose climate,
resources and booms l intended to de-
vote this entire letter, cannot come
under this heading, although few
oranges are raised here. 1t was the first
section OF the coast settled, and can boast
OF a continuous habitation by white men
since l770. Miners have tramped over
every foot of it; railroads have been run
ming though it for more than ten years,
and it has always been accessible through
the natural harbor of San Diego, yet
it was only within three years that some
discovered it to be a Garden of Eden,
with tropical fruit without tropical heat,
with a rejuvenating glorious climate where
consumptives could live with one lung,
and old people sprout new teeth and bald
heads get a second growth of hair-a land
OF perpetual spring, land OF fruit and
flowers and milk and honey, a paradise
where one could live in his orange grove
and eat bananas swinging in a hammock
in January under an olive tree, famed
with q native palm leaf-all this was
promised by the discoverer of this ideal
land to the half million people who came
here during the last two years. How
many realized their hopes? Better ask
how many are back to the land of four
seasons, and why so many Of them came
in Pullman and returned in emigrant
cars and not a few became tie inspectors
on railroads with Eastern termini, and
why it is that so many young men OF edu-
cation are herding sheep here for a living
and so many Yankee school teachers be-
came dishwashers and chambermaids in
hotels soon after arriving here. AS Tor
the invalids, let the graveyards OF Los
Angeles and San Diego answer for those
who could not appreciate newspaper
paradise" and have gone to seek one not
created with printers ink. Yes, let the
express messenger tell how many long
boxes kept him company on every trip
eastward. II was paradise-to the real
estate sharks, hotel barons and other
fiends who preyed upon the newcomer;
but to the latter it was nothing but boom
land, which boom has been busted
for four months, and for the good OF that
class of people that railroads always lure,
il is to be hoped that it will remain on
"a bust" Before proceeding with the
boom and boomers, let us turn back
to the possibilities and climate Of
this so-called Southern California, which
nature has isolated from the rest of
the state by a barrier OF mountains
and from the east by sand-wastes. Three
fifths of Southern California may be al
lotted to the irredeemable deserts OF the
Colorado and Mojave-areas larger than
the state of Indiana-one-fifth TO the chain
of irregular mountain spurs which trav-
erse Southern California along the coast
Al -