The herald., 1893-01-16
SOMR TIMBLY CONTRASTS.

general way about the unparalleled
advantages the people of Southern Cali
fornia enjoy from climatic point of
view. For week or more past the tele-
graph has been busy with stories of the
intensity of the cold which has prevailed
all over the east. The lowest tempera
lures known in years have there ruled
over extensive areas, ranging from five
or six degrees below zero in New York
to forty. five in portions of Canada and
the northwest. 1t is impossible to ex-
aggerate the misery attendant on such
extremely low temperatures except to
the very rich and the very strong ply
sically, both limited in numbers. To
endure them with any degree of comfort
one must be we'll to do both in fortune
and person. A few minutes exposure
to such rude weather would result in
pneumonia in the case of a
feeble person. The freezing up
of rivers and other navigable streams
makes coal scarce and high in price at
the very time when it should be abund-
ant and cheap. If sanitary statistics
had attained anything like the accuracy
which has been achieved in other
branches of inquiry, we would be sur
prised at the tremendous death roll
directly traceable to the low temper
atures which prevail over the greater
portion of the American continent in
winter. The blizzard of March, 1855,
drew attention to the fatal effects of
such visitations in striking manner
because it happened to carry off many
eminent men, amongst them Roscoe
Conkling. But the deadly work lies in
the havoc wrought in enfeebled ply
siques, and of these the public rarely
hears anything. The outright misery
resulting from the piercing cold should
also be taken into the count. King
Lear's fool is not the only unfortunate
wight who can blow on his fingers and
say, Poor Toms a-cold."
As against the alternate rain, hail,
sleet, snow and ice of the east, Los Ar
geles presents striking contrast. The
probability is extreme that on no spot
of earth has there ever been more beau
tiful weather than has characterized
this region this winter. Always benign
in his treatment of our people, the
weather clerk this year seems to have
made it q point to see how genial he
could be. Day after day he has given
US perfect skies, airs that have realized
the utmost significance of the meaning
of the word balmy, and wealth of flora
and vegetation that runs through the
whole tropic and semi-troplc ranges. 1t
is impossible to advert to matter upon
which we have a right to ring all the
changes without an appearance OF ex-
aggeration. Hyperbole seems to spring
from every prosaic statement of fact.
And yet nothing is truer than that
man could not exaggerate our special
attractions of climate if he desired to do
30. Today, yesterday, or any day for
weeks past, rivaled any day that old
E agland or New England could furnish
forth for the delectation of man in mid
May or mid-June. The flora is in keep
ing with such spring and summer sug-
gestions. The rose, the tuberose, the
heliotrope, the violet, csmellia and a
hundred others OF the most exquisite
and aristocratic members of the floral
family, are blooming in the open air all
over Los Angeles county. The Roman
hyacynth and the chrysanthemum kiss
hands to each other across parterres.
The orange and lemon and lime avow
their cousinship over hedges OF pome-
grsnate, and the air is heavy and
languorous under their fragrance. No
air hereabouts blows harshly enough to
shock 80 much as one of their petals.
In the east the hot house and con-
servatory have to be relied upon to deck
the mantel or the dinner table. 1t must
not be forgotten that the same Southern
California air that is good for flowers is
also good for man.
Thus far the poetical and patholog-
ical aspects of the question. But when
it comes to the solid comforts of life we
get our work in with vengeance on our
eastern neighbors. We can go out and
sit in the sunshine all day long and look
at sky more cerulean than that of
Naples. We can garnish our Christmas
dinner tables with spring lamb and
veal, as we'll as canvasback and turkey.
We can eat our fill of straw berries
grown in the open air, and alternate
them with luscious Washington navel
oranges. We can enjoy ripe tomatoes,
some of them taken from vines three
years old, while nobody would think of
sitting down to dinner without green
peas. We can have all these dainties
not only at Christmas and New Years,
but every day in rhe year. Green corn
in the ear is luxury with which Mr..
E. ]. Baldwin frequently supplies his
hotel of that name in San Francisco
from his Santa Anita ranch, in Los An
geles county. This last is not a general
garniehment of our midwinter table, but
it can be made go if our farmers will
only turn their attention to it.
The foregoing are some of the things
that Los Angeles has to oppose to the
ice, sleet and snow of the east. To
those who have years of vigorous life
and usefulness before them we offer
iodine and ozone, meaning health. To
those who enjoy comfort we offer it in
ideal and idyllic shapes. To the gour-
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