The herald., 1893-01-24
A TWENTY YEARS RETROSPECT.

nave grown up here. The writer ri
members taking trip from Los Angelo
70 San Bernardino county in April, 1875
That place was then reached by soil
tary stage line. The coach going u,
had but two occupants, and there wer
only TWO passengers coming down. Tn
whole intervening country, with the ex
ception OF a few orange groves and vine
yards In the San Gabriel valley, was one
immense sheep and cattle range. Their,
was scarcely an attempt to grow grain
except where there were irrigstins
bitches. The Monte, San Gabriel, Dow
ney City, Anaheim and Wilmington
were the only places with any preten.
slons to being called towns in
Los Angeles county. Pasadena had nc
existence, the old ranch heuse of the
San Pasouale rancho being about the
only dwelling where the unique and
picturesque crown of the valley now
stands. As to the Sierra Madre settle
ments, Monrovia, Pomona and score
OF other handsome and prosperous to owns
between here and San Bernardino, not
one OF them was even dreamed of.
Spadra was about the only place worthy
OF mention along the whole distance
and that was simply noteworthy as be-
ing the place where the stage coaches
pulled up before Uncle Billy Rubottom's ;
to get good, old fashioned Missouri
meal. Cotton had not then been even
dreamed of, and Judge North had lust
started out on his wonderful creation OF
Riverside-as distinctively the creation
OF North's genius as the telegraph was
that OF Morse. San Bsrnardino itself
was a tumble down relic of the Nor
mon days, with only old San Ber-
nardino, with her orange groves and
vineyards. to suggest the possibilities
OF the future. AS to Redlands, Lugonia,
Highlands, and other charming settle
ments, they are go recent that they are
nearly all, moth withstaading their su-
perb development, an afterm ath of the
boom. Redlands even sprang into be-
ing after the collapse of the boom,
maugre her superb beauty and prosper
ity OF today--a beauty so solid aud sub
stantial that it looLs s.s :. ~ wefe ene
growth OF forty years under specially
favorable conditions.
As we have said, one stage daily
amply suficed to carry all the passen-
gers on this road, and the coach was
rarely full. Now great many trains
leave Los Angeles daily in the direction
of San Bernardino, and they are nearly
always crowded. The Los Angeles
Terminal and the Rapid Transit rail-
ways carry one to different portions of
the San Gabriel valley. A train of the
Santa Fe carries one to Chicago and st.
Louis, and another enters Los Angeles
daily from those cities. The Sunset line
of the Southern Pacific sends train
daily to Ell Paso and New Orleans and
one enters the Angelic city daily from
them, passing through Cotton. Then
there are local trains of both of
these magnificent transcontinental
systems. Then we have the
splendid kite shaped track of
the Santa Fe, which whirls one around
the whole circuit of the beautiful Los
Angeles and San Bernardino valleys,
through ffty towns. some OF them cities
of the third class, that were not down
on the map or included ir the directory
twenty years ago. These passenger
trains, twenty or thirty in number,
taking all roads and counting both
ways, are nearly always crowded-far
more crowded than was the solitary
stage coach OF twenty years ago, and
day by day grows the demand for more
passenger and for more freight trains.
A single product of Southern California
mainly of Los Angeles and San Bernar
dino counties, the orange, is raised in
such abundance as to amount to ar
average of two trains of ten freight cars
each for every day in the year.
Day by day the amount and variety OF
the shipments from Southern California
to the east are increasing. Twenty
years ago we did not ship so much as {
pound OF anything but wool and hides
to that section, and those staples were
All this enormous overland business is
the creation of the development brought
about by railways. The record is m ar.
velous one. 1t is surpassed by no cpl
sode of development in the history Of
the world.
Now that we have go many agencies
of progress in our midst, that will null
tiply indefinitely in the future, is this
progress going to stop? If it is, it will
be reversal Of the whole history of tn
United States. In this country one seen,
ofmagical development succeeds another
There is no going back. The completion
of the railway between Los Angeles anl
Salt Lake will create new scenes of &C
tivity, in which the marvels which aligi
the Southern Pacific and Santa Fe road
will be repeated. Meanwhile, the worl
of exploiting the utmost possibilities O
the Los Angeles and San Bernardin
valleys will 60 on at an accelerated pace
New territory will be drawn within tn
magic circle of development.
Great have been the achievements c
} the last sstwenty years. Values hav
been created greater than those of man
Of the states of tine union. A region