The herald., 1894-10-01
An OUTSIDERS POINT OF VIEW.
Los Angeles the City of Sum
shine and Flowers.
Miss Kelso, lie Cadet, and DR.. Camp
BELLS Prayers.
Large Landholdings Drawback.
Something About Local Politics.
Tho Wonders OF Palm
Valley.

III. w. b., In tne brooRlVn Eagle,
has the following letter. 1t is well writ
ten and while some of the assertions
may be open to argument. it presents
an eastern mans opinion OF Los Angeles
and its ieatures;l
Los ANGELES, CAL, Sept. 9.-In the
nearly eight months that | have spent
In this beautiful city OF sunshine and Of
flowers, some opportunities have been
afforded me to learn something of it's
climate and the country in general.
The climate has been perfectly delight
full, mAtchless, l might say, ell cum
mer, only four days in August, when
the thermometer went into the nine
ties. Rarely ever was it over so de-
grees and oftener not higher than rs
degrees. The San Gabriel valley, in
which the city is situated, hedged in
and protected on at least two sides by
lofty and majestic mountains, gives the
valley most beautiful and picturesque
: appearance. The city contains about
$4,000 people and its avenues, shade
/ trees, palms and flowers are the delight
/ and admiration of all visitors. The
! nhade trees are all, or nearly all, exotlcs
! from Australia. They are too numerous
J to attempt to name in letter OF this
character; flowers, too, such as we
know nothing about In the east are to be
found here in great abundance. The
late lamented General Slocufn, when
4, here last spring, said to me that be
would like to bring his family out and
spend the remainder of his days in this
city. How little did he think that he
should be called away so soon after re-
turning home. / plead with him to
~, NJ, x,ntil Ia uaathar Was wafyY, and
pleasant in the east. Had he done so
he might be living yet. l am perfectly
safe in asserting that every state in the
union has ite representative here, as
we'll as every country almost on the face
of the earth; very Intelligent, gener-
Gus and home loving people withal,
with some exceptions. OF course, to this
! broad characterization. The human
vampire and blood sucker has alao his
representative here, men who will exact
! and 2 per cent @ month interest for
money and compound it every 80 days.
know Of actual cases OF this kind.
One of the most serious drawbacks to
the sure and speedy development OF this
wonderful state is the large landholders.
! have made the acquaintance OF quite
number of these gentlemen who own
10000 and even as high as 100000 acres
OF land each. Much OF this land cost the
owners only from 80 cents to So aa acre.
In talking with one of the large ranch
owners in Southern California, the other
day, he informed me that his land-100,-
600 acres-bed cost about 60 cents an
acre, and that he thought it worth 5000
an acre with water. A single firm in
San Francisco ia said to own 1,000,0 900
acres. What California greatly needs is
more funerals, if only the right kind OF
fellows will supply the corpses. Then
these great estates will be broken up and
sold to men who will develop the lands,
ana thereby add to the wealth of the
Btate. With this state of things 10 there
much wonder that there is a dissatisfied
class who are pleased to call themselves
Populists, foolish and absurd as are
their demands in many respects? The
fruit crop this year, though not so large
as some other years, owing to short
rainfall last winter, was, nevertheless, q
fairly large one, spricots leading in
quantity and quality.
met Mr.. Thorpe ON the street re.
Gently, who, by the way, is q great
grandson by lineal descent OF Patrick
Henry of revolutionary fame, worthy
eon of noble eire. He informs me
that in OIL think-he sold his apricot
rop, grown ON q 40-scre ranch, for $15,-
100, and that this year he expected to
. even better than that. He never
sells it green, but always dries his fruit.
The sugar beet industry Is attracting
attention out here now, or rather did
before congress repealed the bounty.
drove through the SAINTS Ana valley
short time since, and there saw thou
sands OF acres in sugar bests in fine con-
dition. l was informed by the ranchers
that at last years prices it paid them
about $75 an acre. SO far. there is only
one sugar (beet sugar. factory in South
ern California. the one at Chino. which
I also visited, and from all [ could
gather, from both the beet grower and
8the sugar manufacturer, have come to
the conclusion that sugar can be made
at profit without either bounty or tariff.
The beet grower would have to take less
for his beets, say $50 an acre instead of
$75, which after all would pay well.
What farmer in the Empire state gets
$75 an acre off his land? The neets.
was informed at Chino, run from 18 per
cent to "a per cent OF eaccharine matter
each load of beets is sampled and scien.
tifcAlly tested, and whom the percentage
of saccharine matter is aecertained the
farmer s paid accordingly. The maxi
mum price last year at Chino was, l
think, $5 per ton. After all, was it not
unwise to repeal the bounty? Had it
not been done there would unquestion-
ably now be three II not four beet sugar
factories south of the Tehschepi noun
tains, while at present there ia only one.
I was shown whore beet sugar factory
wac about being commenced, the ground
secured and everything ready, and only
<,f oil -
1892. Everyone knows what that was.
Not a stroke of work has been done on
it since the telegraph brought the news