The Newtown bee., 1895-11-08
Town Topics.
FROM CALIFORNIA TO COLORADO.
AN INTERESTING EpIsTLE FROM THE PEN
OF R. II. SMITH.

Dear BEE: Leaving riverside. Octo-
ber 1, for a continental trip East left
Southern California swelteriDg in the
warmest season of the year, for the sum-
mer had been the coolest and most pleas
ant imaginable. The accident of July
which nearly broke my back had been
more painful than serious and, after
month and more at the Pacific coast re-
sort of Long Beach, was able to dis
card my crutches and walk erect and
unsupported once more.
Riverside has seen considerable ad-
vance in the three years Of my residence.
When reached the Orange City it was
mas before which wiped out three quar-
ters of q million dollars worth of fruit
In one night. Dauntless in misfortune,
this queen Of evergreen and gold plucked
fresh courage from her brave heart and
soon acquired civic independence by di-
vorcing herself from San Bernardino
County, which had been compelling her
to make bricks without straw in helping
build fine court house at San Bernard
ino that she didn't want. Now River
side is mistress of county of her own
as large in area as Massachusetts, and is
hiring, instead of building, county build
iDgs and is attracting the push and en-
terprise from her tributary territory
that always centers at county seat.
The Orange City's next declaration of
independence was to overthrow the
monopoly of commission men that had
hung like milestone about the necks of
her fruit growers, who established in
stead associations and central ex-
change in each fruit community of
Southern California. This gave the
growers the trials and profits Of the Or
ange crop directly and has proved great
advance in its marketing. There have
been troubles and Misunderstanding, to
be sure. The crop of 1S94-5 has not proved
as profitable as was anticipated when
frost.wiped out Florida's competing fruit.
The Navels did very well, but the Seed
lings suffered from the foreign fruit
with which Eastern markets were flood
ed, and noble looking Seeding orchards
have been cut back to the stump and
budded with Navel stock. Riverside
has taken the greatest step forward how
ever, in the public improvements she
has now in hand, macadamizing her
streets and lighting them with eleetriei-
ty at an expense OF over $1,000 her
first bonded debt.
THE BRILLIANT MOONLIGHT
of the first evening from Riverside re-
vealed the famous Southern Pacific loop
north from Tehachapi, in the descent in
to the San Joaquin valley. The railroad
rounds little hill and dives by tunnel
under the track where the train has just
passed. The San Joaquin wheat fields.
acre after acre and producing
some 100000 bushels, evidence whole
sale farming, but which has brought go
low price that the farmers are turning
loose all unnecessary help, glutting the
local market for ordinary labor. Fruit
orchards and melon patches intersperse
the wheat about Stockton and Sacra-
mento and as you rise into the majesty
of the Sierra Nevadas you realize what a
place the mountain fruit of this section
is already Wrestling for itself in Eastern
markets. Young orchards and irrigating
bitches appear here and there far up in
to the pines, until, after looking down
in places 1000 feet into the bed of the
American river, the train at Blue Can
red "bat," plunges into the semi-dark-
ness of 40 miles of snow sheds. Nevada
seems like vast desolation, an impress
sion that is deepened by the statement
that all but one of her streams, the head
waters of the Snake river, sink away in
to her own desert sands. Utah, which
enters statehood next Fourth of July as
the 45th in the national constellation, an
ticipates considerable increase of pop
ulation from the opening of the Uintah
Indian reservation to settlement.
The general impression of Colorado is
that the silver collapse practically ruined
her and it did scatter scores and hun
dreds Of miners and these dependent up
on their industry. When you read,
however, that
DENvER'S MANUFACTURING OUTPUT
last year was nearly $50, 600, 600, not to
mention Pueblo and lesser Industrial
centers and examine into the varied re-
sources of this area of 104, 500 square
miles, only little over % times the size
Of busy Connecticut, you begin to realize
that the closing of silver mines alone
cannot entirely ruin ethis mountain en-
pire of the Rockies. Especially as /
temporarily tarry under the hospitable
roof of Dewitt C. Jencks in Colorado
Springs, the center of Colorado's gold
output, and a city of substantial, thrifty
and even magnificent houses and bust.
ness and public buildings, do appre-
bend, as never before, little something
of what Colorado already is and is ulti.
mately to become. For Colorado
Springs, as has been aptly said, lying
east Of the mountains and west Of the
sun, has double golden income, owning
largely the gold mines Of the Cripple
Creek region. 20 miles distant in thu
mountains and receiving = considerable
stream of Eastern gold from the sale o.
these stocks, to deal In which she has es
tablished three mining stock exchanges
Cripple Greek produced $2O0, 600 in 1891
| its first golden year, but last August IL
output was $3.50, 600 and for 1895 is esti
mated at s., ,500, 900, 20 produce which
t->~-,.tx<.v, - IN M he. e,.tr,o-o.a ~ :.