The Newtown bee., 1895-02-08

isolated peaks or buttes are to be sseen in every direction. California is gridi- roned with mountain systems, whose loftiest heights reach the line of we'll nigh perpetual snow. These mark the differance of temperature in day and night throughout southern California. The sun rules the open valleys by day, but no sooner has old Sol hidden his glorious rays or lost his grip while winteripg in the southern hemisphere, than the icy airs that perpetually bathe the mountain brow, descend upon the plain in frost, or less frequently in ice.
 It may be easily imagined by a thoughtful mind that such extremes of temperature, recurring each 24 hours, are trying to delicate health. No eli
 mate is more treacherous than that of southern California, and in few are the careless more certain to reap disaster.
 Hacking cough and distressing colds are contracted readily by the careless. The character of most houses here is not favorable for consumptives. Built with
 out cellar, the floors are cold in winter, the rains keep everything damp in wet season, and a consumptive is almost as badly off as in the East, especially if furnace heat and scientific ventilation mitigate the rigors of the season there. I. d. x,l. fxrn alone to any part of California. One such instance of friend who pined away in louliness in the Golden West, and then gathered his little remaining
 strength to frantically rush back to die amidst the comforts and love of home,
 convinced me on that score. So many die here in lonliness and distress! Cal ifornia has balm for incipient consump- tion, if love and caution cheer and guard the loved one. A room with fire always
 night and morning during the winter months; care in going out doors only in
 the sunshine and with the body and feet properly protected; ministrations and comforts that dispel homesickness- with
 safeguards relief is possible. Riverside
 seems especially helpful in some cases
 of heart trouble, being at the required elevation, 1000 feet above the sea. and far enough inland to escape the rough tension of old oceans breath without in- curriag the loss of it's ozone.
 The rainy season is almost misnomer
 here, though the rainfall seems to be gradually increasing, doubtless due to
 the increased acreage of trees, shrubs and plants. In 1880 but 2.46 inches of rain fell; in 1881, 3.95; in 1882, 5.7S; i; in 1883, 55l; while in 1890 the figures are l155 inches in 1891, 9.57; in 1892, l7.54; in 1893, 14,13. No dependence
 can be placed upon Jupiter Pluvius, however, for iu 1883 the rain gauge showed 20 32 inches and in 1889, another
 rainy year, 1903 inches. Occasionally
 hail enough falls to make sno wballs, but it remains only a few hours, furnishing unwonted sport while it lasts. Where the soil is composed of disintegrated granite, as they call the sand and gravel
 washed down from the mountains, the ground quickly dries after rain; but where there is adobe soil, as on my own house lot, the mud is deep and laste for days. Indeed the only way to get about at all with comfort during the rainy sea- son in such locality is by rounding up the road and sidewalk and covering it
 with sand or gravel.
 But to the robust tourist, pausing here but a few days, southern California must always possess charm. And what wonder! Most of the tourists flock ing here during the winter are from the frozen North, where snow, ice and slush alternate; where vegetation is dead for the time being. They reach the sunny valleys, whose citrus evergreen growth gives them an appearance of perpetual verdure, after crossing snowy mountain ranges and dreary desert wastes. Espe-- cially when, as at this glad Christmas season, the golden apples of Hesperus, the orange, gleam so beautifully in the sunshine from their dark background of leaves, it seems like glimpse of Para disc, to which the evergreen lemon tree, the gloomy, interminable cypress, the wiilowy pepper, the tall eucalyptus, the quivering olive, the branching, feathery palm, the australian grevilla, not to mention the beautiful rose, the sweet violet, the showy geranium, the stately calla and other tender, delicate bloom in winters. When rain is abundant and the thermometer registers 30 degrees or above as it has during many winters, what wonder, say, that the visitor from the Northland is enchanted with this new vision of loveliness! sThe evidence of winter in the leafess, deciduous trees, the pear, plum, fig, apricot, peach, Eng fish walnut and the like, are unnoticed or too few to affect the general evergreen landscape.
 It is because the world-famous Mag nolia avenue is lined with orange groves that it has such reputation. It's mag nolias are few and stunted, with only one planted at each street corner. some of which have died or been broken, but