Barton County democrat. [volume] (Great Bend, Kan.) 1885-1915, 1891-01-08
THE AMERICAN ITALY.
a Short Review Of the Evolutien ei
Southern California

Southern California
Southern California has rapidfy
passed through varied experiences, and
has not yet had fair chance to show
the world what 1t is. Ithad its period
of romance, Of pastoral life. of lawless
adventure. of crazy speculation. all
within hundred years. and ii is inst
now entering upon its period of solid.
civilized development A certain light
OF romsnce is cast upon this coast by
the Spanish voyagers of the sixteenth
century. but its history begins with the
esta blishment OF the chain of Francis
can missions, the first of which was
founded by the great Father Junipero
Sierra at San Diego in l76e. The fathers
brought with them the vine. and the
olive, reduced the savage Indians to
industrial pursuits. and opened the way
for that ranchero and adobe civilization
which. down to the coming of the
American. in about 1S4o made in this
region the most picturesque life that
our continent has ever seen Follow
ing this is period OF desperate ad-
venture and revolution. of pioneer State
building; and then the advent OF the
restless, the cranky, the invalid. the
fanatic, from every other State in tho
Union The first experimenters in
making homes seem to have farcied
that they had come to a ready-made
elysium-the idle mans heaven They
seem to have brought with them little
knowledge of agriculture or horticulture
were ignorant of the conditions of success
in this soil and climate. and left behind
the good industrial maxims OF the East
The result was period OF chance ex-
pertinent one in which extravagant ex-
pectation and boasting to some extent
took the place OF industry. The imagi-
nation was heated by the novelty of
such varied and rapid productiveness.
Mems minds were infiamed BY the ap-
parently limitless possibilities. The
invalid and the speculator thronged the
trans-continental roads leading hither
In this condition the frenzy of 1857
was inevitable I saw something of is
in the winter of 1857. The scenes then
daily and commonplace now read like
the widest freaks of the Imagination
The bubble collasped.as suddenly as it
expanded Many were ruined. and left
the country More were merely ruined
in their great expectations. The spec
ulation was in town lots When it sub
sided it left the climate As it was, the
fertility as it was. and the value of ara
BILE land not reduced. Marvellous as the
boom was. / think the present recupera-
tion is still more wonderful In 1890, to
be sure. / miss the hustle of the cities,
ami the creating of towns in a week un-
der the hammer of the auctioneer But
in all the cities, and most OF the vii
lagos, there has been growth in sub
stantial buildings. and in the neces-
sites Of civic nfe-good sewer
age. water, supply and general
organization; while the country, rs the
acreage of vines and oranges. wheat and
barley, grain and corn. and the ship
metts by rail testify, has improved more
than at any other period. and commerce
is beginning to feel the impulse OF q
genuine prosperity, based upon the in
telligent cultivation of the ground.
School-houses have multiplied; libraries
have been founded: many boom
hotels, built in order TO sell city lots in
the sage-brush, have been turned into
schools and colleges.-Charles Dudley
Warner, in Harpers Magazine.