Los Angeles herald., 1893-01-01
ABOUT TOURIST TRAVEL.
The Reasons Why 1t Is on the
Increase All the Time.
The Fame of Southern California as
the Paradise of Sight Seers.
The Ease With Which Journey Is
Made from the East-seaside Re-
sorts Romantic Old Miss
ions - Fine Scenery.

| California, and the increase for the
season of 1898 promises to be phenom
email. Residents, witnessing this con
slant increase, find cause for mutua
congratulation in the growing fame O.
this beautiful land, but few, if any
seek the cause. 1t would be we'll fol
Southern California, If it's people were
of more analytical turn of mind and
more disposed to seek and weigh care
fully the influences which work for theil
advantage or disadvantage. 1t is true
that the superior climatic features, the
beautiful scenery, the variety of our
products and the opportunities for
pleasure seekers of every class, are the
magnets which attract, but it is also
true that merit rarely secures due recog.
milton, and without other and powerful
influences our sunny land would obtain
but comparative little notice from the
world at large.
We shall find the reason for the grow
ing popularity of Southern California
with tourists in the agency which
makes our valleys and orchards accessi
ble-and the agency which spreads the
knowledge of their. beauties. II the
residents of cities 1000 and 5000 miles
distant, were Obliged to travel by cir.
cuitous routes and incur the attendant
hardships, paying at the same time
high rates of transportation, fair indeed
would the land have to be which could
draw them to its shores. But thanks to
the enterprise of the Santa Fe company,
it is possible for the residents of the
great metropolis by the lake or of the
numerous cities in the west. to etep into
luxurious Pullman cars and there re-
main, if it be their pleasure, until they
reach the shores of the Pacific, and resi-
dents of New York, Boston, Philadel-
phia, Baltimore or other large Atlantic
coast cities, can make the journey across
the continent with equal comfort and
only one change of cars in union
depots at either st. Louis or Chicago.
But the Santa Fe company did not stop
with making the overland journey q
matter of pleasure. Its work would
have been fruitless if it had. By the
construction Of the lines known as the
Southern California railway it has
pierced our richest valleys, reached our
pleasantest seaside resorts, wound
through our most picturesque cafions
and along the base of our grandest
mountain peaks, and that line is today
the scenic line of Southern California
The advantages of climate and scenery
we possess would be of little value if
they were not made accessible-com-
fortably accessible. This is what the
Southern California railway has done
for their own benefit, doubtless, never
theless, for the benefit of Southern Cali
fornia.
But it has not stopped here; in vari
GUS ways it has influenced the establish
ment of many now noted resorts; it has
developed or made practicable the de-
velopment OF our lands, until they pre-
sent today the fairest picture to be seen
in the United States. Under the stim-
ulus of its construction and operation,
resort after resort has been opened up
and improved hotels of greater or less
magnitude are quietly going up month
after month. Again it is and has been,
since it's lines were first put in opera
ton, constantly distributing through its
agents in 10 states and at its offices in
New York, Boston, Montreal, etc., large
quantities of printed matter relating to
Southern California.
This unremitting work has borne
fruit, as we we'll know and as the in
crease of population will demonstrate.
To the uninformed these truths may
seem unnecessarily eulogstic of cor
poration which has, and will continue
to profit largely by it's enterprise, but
old residents who have witnessed the
transformation know that they are but
frank statements of the facts. We have
referred to the Southern California rail-
way as the scenic line of Southern Cali
fornia. This is so, not for the excel
lence OF the line from a railway stand
point, but because of the natural and
created beauties of the sections through
which it passes. From the time it's
trains wind down over the snow-capped
San Bernardino mountains, through the
terraced pass OF Cajon into the fruit laden
valley, to where it's painting engines
draw their last sobs by the glistening
bay of San Diego, the view from the car
windows is one continuous panorama in
which novelty and constant change are
among the distinguishing features-its
lines radiating in all directions intro
duce the tourist or home-seeker to a
succession of lovely valleys-the scenes,
the atmosphere, the fruits, and even the
nomenclature OF the stations, Mentone,
Elsinore, Capistrano, San Diego, Cars-
bad, etc., contributing to the impress
sion of foreign Landslide sunny lands
of Italy, France or Spain-impression
which are, however. dispelled later, for
even France and Italy cannot match
the beauty of Southern California 1t
is true that there are here no stupendous
cliffs rising in sheer walls to the height
of hundreds of feet, no Grand cafions of
the Colorado, but there are mountain
peaks whose glistening crowns and i'm
mensity of surface are of uDequalled
grandeur, and the contemplation OF their
beauty, associated as it is with lovely
landscape of minor effects, produces no
uncomfortable feeling of awe or over
powering weight, but instead only the
pleasantest emotions.
Passengers on the Southern California
railway passing through these lovely
scenes obtain lasting impressions which
will be the theme of many converse
tion, and cannot fail to constantly
add to the fame of Southern
California abroad. They roll through
the orange groves of Riverside,
San Bernardino, Redlands or High
land-the vineyards of Ontario and Po-
mona the walnut orchards of Rivera
or Santa Ana-the grain fields of the
Perris and San Jacinto valleys-past the
rose-emhowered homes of Pasadena, or