The Press., 1897-06-03
SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA.
The following interesting letter was written IW. D. Holman, by Radcliffe Hicks.l
Los Angeles, Cal, May 1st, 1897.


 tow. D. Holman, by Radcliffe Hicks.l
 Los Angeles, Cal, May 1st, 1S97
 Let me tell you little something about SIuthern California, and hope some day yEu can come here and see 1t and enjoy 1t al yourself. While it Is a part of the Ubited States, the habits and customs of ttb people differ as much from those of oF New England folks as those of any n4ion in Europe.
 | will mention few things that strike a Btranger as odd: They have club con- sitting of one hundred and fifty of the lelding ladies of Pasadena, who all ride hdseback straddle, like man; they have tWo or three clubs of fashionable ladies, belonging to the first families, and each woman keeps one or two hunting dogs, ani rides and shoots like men. Last w@k they celebrated at Los Angeles what thy have named, ''La Fiesta de Los A1geles," About $25, ,0OO was raised by subscription, and the celebration lasted five days. One hundred thousand strang- CTS came to Los Angeles to witness the carnival, which consisted of a magnificent street parade, with the queen and the court in the procession; a fancy dress ball, Indian and Mexican cavalcades, dances and sports; winding up with wild revelry of the maskers in the public streets. All this combined to make a scene to be witnessed nowhere else in the world, and one we'll worth visiting.
 You see whole families living the year round in houses whose only covering is plain white cotton cloth. A prominent physician, having pleasant house, told me that he slept on his back veranda, latticed in, for nine months in the year, as he found it pleasanter and healthier.
 The sun in summer is very hot in the middle of the day, so much so that you cannot walk barefooted across newly ploughed field, as the ground is so hot, and you must wear gloves in handling iron pipes, they get so hot in the sun. In plain view are lofty mountains covered with eternal snow, while at their base lie beautiful valleys, where flowers are in perpetual bloom. One day last winter, as an advertisement, merchant sent to the mountain and got a snow man and paraded it through the streets of Los Angeles, and it created 8 great deal of excitement. And yet, the thermometer rarely goes above 90, and the average temperature for the summer is 68, and in the winter 60. The nights are most al- ways cool, so much so that you require wool blankets on your bed the whole year round.
 < This is real heaven to any man who snjeys cultivating the land. Crops grow here the year round, with water. The hay fed to cattle must be cut every three weeks, on some we'll watered land.
 This country is in its infancy. It has made more progress in the last ten or twelve years than any other portion of the United States. Los Angeles in 1880 was city of about 1000 inhabitants, and now has about 100000. It has the soil, the climate, and the enterprise to make California in fifty years the richest and most populous state in the union, with a representation In congress equal in num- bers, if not in excess, of New York and the New England states combined. The area of California is greater than the con- bined area of the New England states, New York, New Jersey, Delaware, Mary land, and few other states thrown in, and greater than the total area of Eng land, Scotland and Ireland, Belgium and Denmark.
 The great drawback to this country is it's distance from the market for it's pro- ducts, but the center of population of the United States is fast moving westward and will before long reach the Mississippi River, thus bringing California so much nearer it's market. Besides, in fifty years there will be on this side of the Rockies 25, ,00O,0 900 of people, and then the market will be largely at their own doors.
 It passes my comprehension how any intelligent farmer in New England car keep on in the old way, tilling the soil ot our rugged New England hills, and leav ing to his children patrimony of harC work, hard climate, and hard times, wher he might transplant them to this beauti full country, and leave them instead, { patrimony of good soil, magnificent eli mate, and an independence of the times No man can fail to get enough off hi farm for comfortable support, and the future promises far more to the farme here than he can ever expect to realize il New England.
 It is estimated that the annual agricul tural products of California exceed i, value $50, 100000, and it's mines abou $25, ,000, 900 more, requiring if 80, trail of fifteen freight cars, each carrying 20, ,000 pounds, loaded with gold, to b, forwarded here each year from the eas in liquidation. put it this way that yol may see the magnitude of the business If coined in silver 1t would take 1,83I wagons, making a procession more thar twenty-five miles long to carry it.
 Yours very truly,
 RAToLIFFE HIoKs. R