The record-union., 1893-05-12
WANTS THE CAPITAL.
Why ReedIey is the Best of All
Locations.
The Very Remarkable Showing in Its
Behalf by An Enthusiastic
Citizen.


special Correspondence REcoRD-UNIoN.l
EDS. RECORD UNION: We are vitality
interested in the matter of Capital re-
moval to San Jose, which we find by scale
of miles on the map is only l49 miles
away, while Sacramento is $50 miles
distant from US. But here is the trouble;
TO go to San Jose, unless we go by mule
power across the mountain, or walt for
the Fresno and Monterey Railroad to be
built, we must go northward until we're
only thirty-five miles south of Sacra-
mento, and must then come back south
again over sixty miles to reach San Jose
must travel 300 miles to reach the
would-be Capital l49 miles distant, while
Sacramento can be reached by go miles
OF straightforward railroad travel, and
what is true in this respect of our locality
is equally true of all this great central
valley of California-San Jose is farther
away from it than Sacramento. Now,
we favor removing the Capital from Sac
ramento, but to san Jose, never! San
Jose had the Capital once and couldn't
keep it, away back in the 'fifties when the
rest of the State was wholly undeveloped.
Besides, this whole business of Capital re-
moval was started by reflections cast
upon the late unlamented Legislature
by certain Sacramento editors.
Removing the Capital to San Jose will
only augment this evil. | know the San
Jose editors; they all cast "re1lections'-
they're so bright they can't help it. No,
what we want is TO move the Capital to a
new, representative town, whose editors
are by nature exempt from the above
atyil--ard wa hax l,a oit ;s
right here i'll the geographical center Of
our State. And our editors, not only are
they free from casting reflections" but
so ethereallzlng Is their support that by
the time we get the Capital they'll not be
able to cast even shadow. Rcedley has
money-'tis only the modesty of her citi-
ZenS that has kept them from supplying
Carlisle with all the gold he needs for
national use. She also has a foreign min-
lister; he breaches in the scandinavian
Colony, western suburb of the town.
And when it comes to climate, space is
too valuable for me to more than touch
upon the delightful theme
Reedley is equi-distant from the Gulf
Stream of the Atlantic and the Japan cur
rent of the Pacific-realizing, as the
learned world does, The effect of these
currents upon climate-their equal and
united influence need but to he mem
toned to be appreciated. Reedley is not
only the geographical center of the State,
but Is equally so of the country at large
the sky is little higher right overhead
here than anywhere else-and the hori-
ZOn is equally distant from it on every
side-besides, to draw concentric rings
about our young city a hundred miles
apart, Reedley will be the central point
and the outermoSt ring will touch the
eastern shore of Maine and the WESTERN
most island of Alaska. showing Reedley
TO be the exact center of our national do
main, and within these concentric rings,
on every side, are mines of gold, silver,
copper, quicksilver, iron, coal, salt, lime
and other mineral wealth, as well as
scores of miles of fields OF waving grain,
groves of citrus and other fruits, giant
forests of pine and sequoias, and every
other other form OF material wealth-but
iorbear to pile up further these access
sories TO the glory OF Reedley.
1t Is not the seductive influence of per-
sOnal friendship for Reedley and its peo-
pie alone, but deep sense of dire. i'm
pending calamity il we, the people, iail to
act wisely that causes me TO write this
appeal. Here once roamed in untold
thousands the aborigine digger Indian
twas here he chased the painting antelope
and in salmon time" beneath the uin-
brageous willows of Kings River wooed
his dusky mate. Where are they now?
Gone! Gone forever, with Rome Greece
Babylon, Carthage and Medo- Persia, and
why? Because they knew not Reedley
AS our friends, the Populists, say: II
defy you to show any other cause for
their decay and retrogression." Contin-
uing i'll the Populists' impressive words,
do you invite similar calamity upon
our own people? If you do not, then do
that which is so necessary to the perpetu-
ity of republican institutions in our
country"-make Reedley the Capital of
our State.
Reedley, Reedley, what euphony for
the name of our future Capital. 1t re-
minds me of the name of the hero of one
OF childhood's happy songs, beginning
10, Bob Ridley! Can't you no! Bob Ridley.
The unknown author of the above gives
the name, with average newspaper cor
rectness, but is surpassed in descriptive
power by Byron's beautiful rhapsody:
Know ye the land of the cedar and pine,
Where flowers ever blossom. the beams ever
shine;
Where the light wings of zephyr, oppressed
with perfume,
Wax faint o'er the gardens OF Gull in their
bloom;
Where the citron and olive-flirest of fruit
And the voice OF the nightingale never is
Where the tints of the earth and the hues of
the sky,
IN color, though varied, in beauty may viel
Such is Reedley-and she'll give a
square mile OF her valuable estate as a
site for the Capital-a square mile to be
selected anywhere from Uncle Billy
WoottOn's cow pasture on the east to
Sanders blue gum grove on the west; or
my friend T. l.. Reed will give them a
title to his broad acres of orange grove
so that the Capitol may be built immedi-
ately upon the banks of our noble river;
SO that the future Hons" there assem-
bled, while exercising their massive
brains, can look upon the rivers broad.
placid surface, ana numerous bars-can
look across the bars without having to 90
down To Bascoms-if Reedley can only
arrogate TO herself the high honor TO
gather to her environs that collucation of
biennial wisdom, the lawmakers of our
State-but never will she give of her votes
or substance TO let this honor go to the
eX-played-out Capital, San Jose.
MARCUS WAN.
Reedley. Cal, May S, 1898.
rnTTT1