The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1896-05-24

per acre IS annually paid as rental for
these bottom lands. The district has sew
eral times taken prizes at Eastern vege-
table exhibits for the largest vegetables
grown in America. l hesitate to say how
many hundred pounds the prize squashes
have weighed or how many feet long was
the prize carrot.
We have a fascinating glimpse of a blue
lake few acres in extent lying among the
high sand hills. In little while longer
we swing into Santa Maria Valley, an i'm
mense gray plain of fallow land ready for
beans and late crops and streaked with
broad green bands of growing cereals
Soon we are at Guadalupe and have
crossed the line into Santa Barbara
County. We look outward. TO vast circle
OF cloudy hills, the rim of the great valley.
Narrow ribbons of swamp lie near at hand.
Bits OF unbroken territory still unutilized,
dotted with gray sage, rise like islands
from the plain. The whole valley, though
pulsing with new life and vigor, is yet
near its sleepy past of Spanish dominion.
The new and the old are struggling to-
gether. Black shanties and crumbiing
adobes are on one side, while on the other.
browning hillock, is the new high school
building with its western frontage flaming
In the setting sun. AT the station is q
motley crowd, American, Norwegian, In
dian and Spanish. New farm wagons,
freshly painted, stand in line with buggies
oilA Ooit WAllO Ill OlQ mSAlCdu leu
on cavortlng mustang gallops down the
street
At Guadalupe we obtain the first clear
| evidence that we are in the midst of a
growing railroad division. Here are con-
! struction trains on four or five sidetracks.
Here also are huge piles of iron girders
and bridge timbers. Below the track one
sees half an acre OF carts and wagons. The
cities of tents are farther on, at the front.
Nevertheless Guadalupe swarms with
contractors, railroad men and Spectators.
A breezy life pulses through the place.
1t carries my thoughts back to pioneer
Salinas in the later COS, when the rail-
road had just reached that place and the
town concluded TO macadamiZe its main
street, do some builuing and wake itself
up.
The beauty of the Guadalupe region is
In its broad blue lagoon, the narrow, wind
Ing Lake of Guadalupe, three miles long
which adds great charm to the place
Grazing upon its banks are several hun
dred horses belonging to contractors. The
| word has gone out that they have gland
ers, and the whole band will fall before
the rifle within few days.
Schuman Canyon comes next. 1t is q
dairy region. One sees many cattle and
dozens of calves in pretty groups along the
| conyerglng ridges. Soon we reach Someo
the beginning of the tented towns of the
raliroad-builders, land of sea sights and
! sounds, an ocean rim of yellow lupins and
hills of shifting sands. Point Sal uplifts
from the sea its wild wave beleaguered
promontory. Far beyond it trails the
dark smoke Of passing steamship. A
lew moments more of this rapid rush
through the sand-drifts and we are where
the god Terminus, that lord of ever
advancing boundaries, at present holds
his court. The railroad ends in a mound
OF sand. Tents fill the adjacent hollows.
A vast barranca seems to forbid further
advance; but the framework of a half
built bridge blackens the last CLEANS of
twilight, and far beneath it, in the willows
OF the river, other tent-dwellers have taken
shelter.
Baggage and mail are tossed off in the
sand. We climb into the stage for ride
OF twelve miles to Lompoc. 1t takes six
| horses to pull the vehicle through the
sandhllIs and up the grade TO the mesa.
We go at walk for several miles; the
darkness deepens; the fog blots out the
stars. Congenial spirits begin to exchange
stories wild and weird; social life is evil
IDENTIFY the only resource left. After awhile
the driver lights the side lamps. The
road, long winding about tile desolate
chaparral heath, begins to swing down the
gulches toward the Lompoc- River. The
light CLEANS fitfully on the horses, chang
ing them to ghostly black and white mon
sters; 1t flashes into the pale tree tops
1t reveals unimaginable deeps beyond the
crumbling verge. AS we ride down the
ravlne some of us remem Der De Quincy s
famous description OF the flying stage
coach in his Vision of Sudden Death
Lompoc was reached at 9 o'clock and
we went TO bed at neat, well-kept new
hotel, credit to the town. In the morn
ing at the stage was ready to take US on
our way. Lompoc is a lovely and rich
valley, notable these many years for its re-
sources and for the sturdiness of its pio-
neers. The railroad line will pass about
nine miles west of the town, and for few
years the business of the valley will main
tam thriving stage line along the river.
But railroad men tell me that it is only a
question OF time when branch line will
thread the valley and reach the rich back
country. l remember Lompoc town in
the days of its beginnings, when half a
dozen new shanties clustered close to the
western ridge. Now it is as comforta BILE
and prosperous valley town as one could
wish to see. 1t did ones heart good TO
note how burly and strong the pioneer
baby OF a village had become.
The stage journey south of Lompoc be-
gins at once to be attractive. We pass
through rape fields in blossom. Children
are out, bean planting in the bottom lands.
Malya hedges twelve feet high are near
the roadside. We turn into the hills and
through gate enter the Sal 81 Puedes or
"Get out if you can" rancho, part of the
Hollister estate.
For nearly thirty miles we have now to
cross the great unpeopled land of magni-
ticent Spanish ranches. 1t is difficult to
describe its richness and beauty, the noble
aspects OF its scenery, the loneliness of its
wonderful fertile valleys, the silence of its
unbroken sleep. Thou marvellous, thou
long-beloved land of ruined Spanish
houses, of oak forests unsurpassed else
where in California, of mountains flaming
with bloom. golden spurs" OF mountain
ridges hi gh rising in the white clouds.
low sinking among the oaks. Thou land
OF the shepherd, the herdsman, the
hunter and the fisherman, fair, large,
h ospitable ranch-houses. where the
waDderer may rest. The end of it all
is very very near. Such land was
m cant for higher human uses. The Hol-
lister ranches, the great Dibblee ranch and
others that extend far west to Point Con-
cepcion will be divided and thousands of
homes will occupy the region.
Our route is past the famous San Julian
ranch house with it's sheltered courtyard,
its tall expresses, it's great sheep barns,
sheds, dipping-tanks and corrals. In it's
gardens are wide masses of Castilian roses
run wild; on it's hillsides are thou
sands of nibbling sheep, slow-moving