The Athena press. [volume] (Athena, Umatilla County, Or.) 18??-1942, 1895-07-12
A WONDERFUL STATE.
Points About California and Her
Aniabie People.
Plenty Of Rare Sights for the Tourist
But He Must Pay Well to Bee Them
Where the Zones Are Very
Close Together.

Take your average Californian and
you will find him to be an amiable
creature. Distance lends no enchant-
ment in his case. You have got to
meet the fellow on his own soil to get
thoroughly acquainted with him and
learn to admire all the good traits he
has stored away in his wel-nourished
frame. There is nothing mean or
small about the average Californian,
says the Chicago Herald. He lives
we'll, sleeps we'll and dresses in good
taste. He likes legitimate sport and is
keen critic at the theater. He doesn't
nourish throhbing love for China
men, and he looks with suspicion on
bank notes and gold and silver certifi-
Gates. lie prefers to collect and pay
his debts in coin, and considers apenny
as sort of tramp in our monetary sys-
tenn.
1t rains in.San Francisco during the
winter months-not every day, per-
haps, but possibly nine or ten times a
week. But the average Californian
doesn't appear to notice the precipita-
ton until he meets friend from the
east. Then he begins to apologize
something after this fashion:
How do you like this country?
Ever in California before? This rain
is something unusual. Thursday was
as clear as bell. Sorry it is so !disa-
greeable. Spring is quite as backward
this year as some merchants / know
are in their payments" Then you
laugh and stoop to let the water run
off your hat
But" the average Californian will
continue, "this fog in the morning
means clear afternoon. Never knew
it to fail. Win you bury your beak in
a glass of wine?"
There is the apologetic humanitarian
for you. You can find him almost
anywhere in San Francisco. He knows
that fogs and transforms are as preva-
lent in his town during the months of
November, December, January and
February as they are in the web-footed
state of Oregon. Yet when approached
by the tourist he manifests the most
acute astonishment at such climatic
GECGuBTlClUlCDs
is the average Californian to this harm
less and amusing form of tergiversa-
tion that he at once impresses you
with the belief that he actually thinks
he is telling the truth, and that the
doleful surprise he manifests is thor
oughly conscientious.
Things grow very large the moment
you leave the Mojave desert, with it's
bristling, stunted palms and miles and
miles of sage brush. just take a ride
with Los Angeles man through the
San Gabriel valley, if you doubt this
assertion. Let him do the talking.
He is sure to keep you thinking.
This is about the way he rattles along:
Peach treesP No: that's a prune
orchard. Why, last year Mr.. so-and-
So gathered six thousand tons of
prunes off these trees. Why, sir, the
crop was SO heavy that he had to hire
men to saw off the branches to pre-
serve the trunks of the trees. Oh, but
this country is a-coming. You can't
stop her. Just look at these noun
tains. They are fifteen miles from
town and you can't touch the land for
less than five hundred dollars an acre.
Look at that dirt Raise anything
here. This soil is blacker than Puget
sound and richer than Baldwin. It's
great country. Why, it's different
from anything on earth Here the
squirrels build their nests in the
ground and rats live in trees that shed
their bark instead of their leaves
See that orchard over there? Fifteen
years ago it was covered with sage
brush. Now there are eighteen thou
sand orange trees in that tract of land,
and the fruit the wind alone blows off
would pave every road and path in
Golden Gate park. What do you
think of our women? Not so pretty as
they are in Frisco, eh? will tell you
why. It's the climate. Up there they
have more moisture in the air and that
softens the complexion. Here it's dry
the year round and that is why the
faces of our women look harsher. But
lisa good country, isn't it? What do
you think of it anyhow"
And so this man of Los Angeles will
talk and talk until the sun goes down
in the ocean with sizzle But Cali
fornia has everything to brag about,
and the visitor can afford to stand this
good-natured hyperbole, The state is
bigger than the combined area of the
commonwealth of New York, Penn
sylyania, Vermont, New Hampshire
and Delaware. 1t is thousand miles
long. From the Mexican line to the
boundary of Oregon the distance is as
great as that which separates New
York city from Chicago, 1t lisa state
where the zones are so closely welded
that the visitor may pick straw
berries one moment and half an hour
later enjoy a sleigh ride on the fat top
of mountain. 1t is land filed with
flowers, fruits and birds, and just
enough snow and ice to drape in gilt
tering passementerie the purple peaks
and savage oataracts to the north.
A TRAGIC ROMANCE.
A Tayae neaDpradn WhOaa Vfcffnta VVara