Pleasantville weekly press. (Pleasantville, N.J.) 1890-1911, 1897-03-24
LETTER FROM CALIFORNIA.

LETTER FROM CALIFORNIA.
A Journey Across the Continent
BY a Pleasantville Citizen.
NUMBER ELEVEN.
In the year 4545, Juan Rodriguez
CabrillO, (nOw this is CLEANED from
history, for such a name could not
be handed down many generations
by tradition set sail from Navidad,
New Spain, to explore the upper
coast. Sailing NOrthward he stop
ped at a little harbOr, now called
San Pedro, and for which congress
sional appropriation OF 5000, 900, is
soon to be be expended to enlarge it.
While hauling a netfO fish he was sur
prised by Indians who showed some
signs of hostility at first, but who
soon became friendly and well dis
posed. The country was then in a
state OF nature; it's plains covered
with sage and cactus, crossed by a
tumble of mountain ridges; water
less, save few mountain streams
that disappeared on the plains; and
painless, except few Indian trails
to the ocean. Cabrillo's exploration
had no immediate results. With the
exception OF one or two visits by eX-
plorers, the country lay fallOw until
1863, when Fra Sierra and his COM
panions, came and founded Missions
in Southern California, which proved
profitable, and the sO-called good
work" went on until q Missions
were established and many thousand
Indians gathered in" to till the soil
and enrich their piOus teachers for
which no good results are shown.
But what contrast now! The
Missions are old, crumbling ruins,
old land marks, merely matter for
history, The Indian tribes are fast
disappearing. The advancing civili
zation is roofing up the soil, and the
wild parched plains are blooming
beyond comprehension. What a fu-
ture there is for this splendid cOun-
try where land is SO productive, and
the climate SO lovely. Visitors write
OF it as a fairy land. Intelligent,
educated people with means are COM
ing and buying homes. The journey
across the continent is no longer
dreaded. All the comforts that inge-
nuity can devise are provided, and
instead OF fatigue there is rest.
With a grand panorama Of Nature
moving competition will bring short
er routes. and greater speed until the
journey of five days is shortened by
half. With the present conditions,
and prospects of improvements in
transit, this portion of the country
should soon lead in population, and
when it is full, Arizona, her neighbOr,
has soil and climate to spare, as fine
as that of California. But with all
the favorable prospects reverses may
come. Three years ago in some To-
calities, oranges froZe on trees as
hard as bullets, and this Winters
frost has done some damage. At
Riverside and Redlands, the two
chief shipping points, owners Of
groves on cold nights shiver for
their fruit, and are trying different
devices for warding off frost. There
may be some Winters with little
rain, and an insufficiency of irrigat-
ing water; but with the great in
crease OF fruit acreage rain-falls
should be more frequent. For des-
tructive insects and diseased trees, a
close watch is kept. For smut or
black rust, fumigatiOn is resorted to.
In my first letter / said / would
write of California as / saw it, and
l have given the good and bad side.
| believe this part OF the United
States will improve faster than any
other, and with the agreeable clim-
ate and cheapness in living shonld be
preferable to the ''up to date young
man to grow old in | shook hands
with a man here who Twas told was
116 years old, but 101 is the correct
age People up in the nineties forget
when they were born. He was born
ard, then Mexican, but now is an
American. He can speak but little
English. His youngest daughter is
81 years old. He has lived "a years
in California, and may see more
years. This mornings paper, the
Times, gives an account of John
Bradbury, a native of Buckingham
shire, England, who is lying at
Deaths door near Eureka, California,
He remembers distinctly the Napole-
onic wars, and was OF middle age
when Napoleon was exiled at st. He
lena in 1915. 1t was shortly after
that event, he came to this country,
and settled in New York. He then
spent an ordinary lifetime travelling
over the country and finally settled
in California and continued to live.
His exact age is not known, but is
somewhere between 125 and 130
years.
There is an old Indian near here
that is 103 years old named La Jolla.
He appears annually with other In
dians in La Fista carnival. By the
way-this La Fista de Los Angeles
is big thing here. 1t commences
April Goth, and lasts four days.
There will be over 100 Indians and
they will perform their war, fire and
snake dances. The Chinese will carry
their Sacred Dragon, 500 feet long.
The floral parade will be immense.
1t will be three miles long and every
conceivable vehicle from a horse
tally-ho to wheelbarrow will be
decorated with flowers. The carni-
val will wind up with a masquerade
and an exhibition OF revelry that will
make it a very lively affair, although
it may not be quite mp to the stand
ard of the Seeley dinner and the
other performances Of the tribe OF
Manhattan.
My next letter may be from San
Francisco.
Los Angeles, Mar. 10th, 1897.
At the school district meeting last
week, L, Fl. Barrett. Harry Conover and