The record-union., 1892-08-06
A GRowLING CRITIC.

II 1t lay in its coffin. It quotes from the
REcoRD-UNI literally concerning the
publicity given to California's geography.
resources scenery, products, etc., by the
late Eastern editorial visitors; it admits
that all over the Union in home papers
California was written of in tens of
thousands of columns, and in nine cases
out Of ten most favorably.
But here is where the CaLps prowl
comes IN; viz: the guests were carried
free by the Southern Pacific Company at
the request OF home Press Associations
as well as by other railway companies.
and that it would appear, therefore, as if
the editors were expected to write in a
complimentary vein, especially as the
visitors were otherwise well entertained.
and therefore we viii not gain much by
the writing up''
Was ever idiotic stupidity before so man
1fest2 Did any guest ever before receive
such gratuitous insult from within the
house Of the host? The Cali cannot rest
IN peace if anyone has a good word to
say for this State who mayhap has rid
den, by invitation of State association.
over portion of the California railway
system as a guest.
The truth is that the CaLl has not seen
the letters referred to; it does not know
Of what it speaks; it is there
fore in its inuendo malicious, for
which it cannot be pardoned. as
well as stupid, for which it can in mercy
be forgiven. The RECORD UNION took
pains to secure copies of all the papers.
1t read and analysed all the letters that
appeared; it examined them with nm
usual patience and care. The Judgment
arrived at was weeks ago stated to be
that the Eastern journalists were owned
by no one; that they wrote with freedom
and in a critical attitude; that they forti-
ned their statements by statistics, cleaned
from authentic data furnished to them bv
the State Board of Trade, the California
Press and Southern California Editorial
Associations, the Chambers ofCommerce.
City Boards of Trade and reputable news
papers; that they saw clearly, reasoned
intelligently and wrote fairly, and if not
at all times in the most scholarly man
ner, as honestly and as would be expected
OF such journals as the Colusa Sun, Au-
burn Herald, Napa Register, Alameda
EncfnGl, Chico Enterprise, Stockton In
dependent, Fresno Erpos5tor, Santa Cruz
Sentinel, Santa Barbara Independent, Santa
Rosa Republican, Sonoma Democrat.
Woodland Mail and Democrat, Auburn
republican, Nevada Transcript, Los An
geles Times, Pasadena Star, Stockton
Mda, Oakland Tribune and Santa Bar
bara Times, and all the other three hun
dred and fifty newspapers of interior
California, if their editors were to make
an excursion through an Eastern State
as the guests of the Press Associations of
that State. The imputation of the Cali
is Jas ignoble as it is undeserved: it is
vulgar, mean and pettifogging and
makes interior journalism blush for the
Grabbed and senile spirit of the metro
politan paper. The Gail adds:
OF course our citizens realize that the State
OF California has been pretty Thoroughly
written up in handbooks and in various other
papers have been doing this thing from the
discovery of the gold mines and that they
nave done II much better than men can do II
who come here and pass through the state
hurriedly over a single route and when the
season is unpropitiouss
But has not that journal wit enough
remaining at this late day to see and un-
derstand that the difficulty with all such
literature has been that the Eastern
reader has always received it with broad
margin of allowance because of the fact
that it was written by our own and in our
own interest?
Truth is, boom literature of California,
expository California newspaper matter
OF California, falls upon the Eastern in
teliigence, as rule, like rain upon
ducks back, it simply runs off-a rude
but pardonable and expressive illustra-
ton. We attach more value to the ex-
with considerable clientage among his
own people concerning California, if it be
fair and with honest intent delivered.
than to years issue of California boom
literature and all the unauthoritative
handboolzs, folders. circulars and real es-
tate agency pamphlets and special illus
trated newspaper edition gash that has
been ground out since the word 'boom',
was coined.
We have come to know the precise
value of all of that order of writing. 1t
has done more harm than good to Cali
fornia. taken all in all. We except from
this condemnation only publications is
sued for home as well as Eastern circula-
ton, uninflated expression and exposi-
ton in regular home editions, which
carry to the Eastern mind the thought