The herald., 1897-02-14
THEY WANT THE TOURISTS

THEY WANT THE TOURISTS
The citizen of the cold and frigld
east, looking for a land Of sunshine and
climate, naturally turns his thoughts
toward Southern California, and, sooner
or later, comes here to rest and recup-
crate. Once here, he is 10th to go away,
and usually remains until pressing busi-
ness or the expiration of the time limit
on his round trip ticket makes it abso-
lutely necessary for him to return home.
And. having once tasted of the sweets
of winter in this delicious latitude, ne
longs to come again and renew his
youth for another brief season. With
this tourist there is usually wife, and,
possibly, one or two daughters, and on
future trips few friends and neighbors
are in the circle, making altogether a
party which our hotel and storekeepers
are delighted to see. Actuated by mo-
tives not unlike those which prevail
among business men in other cities, our
hotel and storekeepers make the stay
of these tourists as pleasant and
agreeable as possible. Visitors are en-
couraged to make excursions into the
country, to Pasadena, to Santa Barbara
and to San Diego-to Mount loves
snowy canyons and to Elsinore's hot
springs and pretty 1ake-to the Red
lands orange groves and to Riverside's S
beautiful Magnolia avenue, and to the
score of other attractive and delightful
points of interest surrounding Los An
geles. Our merchants do all this glad
ly, because they know that these trips
here from a land of ice and frost, and
for the additional reason that they also
know that the future of Los Angeles
is dependent on the prosperity of Po-
mona and Santa Ana, on the growth of
San Bernardino and Ventura, and the
full development of all the rich country
stretching from the mother mountains
to the sea.
But this state of affairs is not at all
pleasing, strange to say. to the hotel
keepers and grocers of Northern Cali
fornia. 1t is charged by them, very
curiously, that we of the sunny south
land are leagued together in keeping the
tourist and his wife, and one or two
daughters, together with a more or
less numerous coterie of neigh
bors and friends, away from the
delightful retreats of the north.
1t is said up there, with something of
tourist to read the advertisements of San
Francisco and Mipitas hotels, which
are published in the San Francisco
newspapers, and we fail of our duty to
the stranger within our gates in not ac-
uuainting him with the delight of trip
into the Yosemite in February, or of a
tour among the snow sheds and orange
groves of Truckee and Yuba Dam.
Therefore. a meeting was called of
hotel and shopkeepers at at therooms of
the San Francisco board.of trade to con-
slider the question. 1t was decided at
this meeting to open an agency in Los
Angeles which shall lay before the Wis
itcrs to this section, in IL fitting manner,
some of the attrac tions Of Northern
California, and an effort will be made
to induce some of them to cut short their
visit here and spend a portion of their
vacation elsewhere in the state.
There is no reason why the tourist
should not see more of California than
he does in a trip to the coast, but the
truth is that he sees about all that is
easily accessible to him. From Los An
geles excursion trains run daily to ia
nous orange groves and most charm
ing seaside and mountain resorts. These
places are all reached at reduced fares,
and efforts are made on all sides to make
the stay of our visitors delightful. Our
tourist so restful that he is sorry when
the time comes to finally pack up and go
home, and it will require some most mar
velous arguments to induce the South
ern California visitors to change thei,
lodging places here for any which may
be offered them elsewhere. In contrast
with the facilities offered the tourist for
seeing Southern California what oppor-
tunities are afforded him to see the
country from San Francisco to the Ne