Los Angeles daily herald., 1889-06-25
what Pluck and Genius Can DO

w.
what Pluck and Genius Can DO.
Years back-when Col. Tom Scott,
Col. John w. Forney, Hon. John Sher-
man and others came out to Southern
California on blooming" expedition
one of the editors OF the HERALD was
located at San Diego. He was wont to
become intoxicated with toe elixir of its
exquisite clim ate-all grosser forms of
inebriation being, of course, tabooed-
and to enjoy the Incompatible beauty Of
its bay. which is probably in nothing but
historical associations, and the orange
clad heights of Sorrento, surpassed by
the matchless Bay of Naples itself, cele-
brated for its memorable beauty both by
the Latin and modern poets, and per-
haps most felicitously OF all, by Feni-
more Cooper in ewing and Wing"
When the panic Of 1873 laid Tom Scott
and his Texas Pacific Railway out, post
poning the fruition of San Diego's hopes
for years, and forever extinguishing all
hope of the building of that road on
the direct route, the bay still remained
in its perennial and irridescent beauty
and possibilities of future greatness for
the place.
But any remarks which we make about
the bay are of purely Introductory
character to our real topic, the wonder
full pluck, energy and genius which
created the Hotel del Coronado. In the
days of which we speak the peninsula,
which formed the outer protection to the
bay, was refuge for jack rabbits and
squirrels, and overgrown with chapparal,
grease-wood and sage brush. While
schemes had even been formed for de-
veloping the fine quarries of brown stone
which exist on the Coronado islands, no
one had ever thought of utilizing the
peninsula. 1t was supposed that no pos
sibilities of any kind existed there until
one Babcock came along; and, presto
change.
This Babcock is still comparatively
young man. but he has shown him self
to possess the stuff which in war goes to
make hero, and in peace consummate
man of affairs. He saw the possibilities
OF the peninsula, and he and his associ-
ates proceeded to buy it up. The com.
pletion to San Diego Of the Santa Fe
road through its branch, the California
Central, made his gigantic project pos
sible. The main feature of his plan was
to erect superb hotel, designed for
tourists, pleasure-seekers and invalids,
which should not be surpassed in the
world, and to pay for this mighty struc-
ture out OF the profits accruing from the
sale OF the peninsula.
The results of this intelligent plan,
carried out with tremendous energy and
unfagging perseverance, are really mag
ical. Nothing that one reads of in the
Arabian Nights sur passes the realities
accomplished on that long time neglected
spot. A splendid water system was
devised, electric light plants were estab-
lished on grand scale, streets were laid
out and aligned with flowers, shrubs and
trees, railway lines were constructed
all these as preliminary to the work on
the hotel. Then great auction sale of
lots was held, which was an unexampled
success.
The work on the great hotel went on
apace, and it was long ago successfully
inaugurated. 1t is a mammoth affair,
and the tribute which we are paying to it
is referable neither to favors received nor
expected. 1t is not too much to say that
it is superb. In fact, no energy of
language would be strained in attempt
ing to describe it. 1t is only amenable
to the objection made by the fastidious
Ruskin, who thought that all great build
ings ought to be either stone or marble.
1t is possible that Mr.. Ruskin might
modify his views as to an edifce in a eli
mate like that of Southern California. The
Hotel Del Coronado is mainly of wood.
The architecture might perhaps justly be
particularized as somewhat bizarre, with
q predominance of the Gothic, but it is
on a scale of magnitude that would con-
done all possible defects of design. The
Hotel Del Coronado is to ordinary hotels
what the scenery along the line of the
Denver and Rio Grande Railway is to
that of ordinary railways.
The most marked first impression
made by the structure on the visitor, is
that OF vastness. The second is sugges-
tion of delicate and aerial beauty, which
it's great extent in no whit oontradics5
The courtyard of the Palace Hotel in
Gan Francisco is mere circumstance
to that Of the Hotel Del Coro-
nado. The Hotel Del Monte, at Monte
rey, pales into insignifcauce in the COM |