The Arizona sentinel., 1897-09-11
CALIFORNIA LETTER.
Another Leaf From An Editors Diary
 Who Drove 800 Miles Overland.
Written for the SENTINEL.


 Thirty , five miles west of La Punza, which settlement l describ- ed in my last, is the little town oi Santa Margarita. Here we are after I.aving driven four days and covered 127 miles. We have come off the mountains and are in mar. row valley with beautiful homes and cultivated fields all about us. The last ten miles of our journey has been pleasant except that it has been too cool for comfort. We are but few miles from the coast and the wind blows keenly. But how cloudy 1t is, and the air has an edge that chills This is fog comes off the ocean I am toid-rlses every afternoon by two or three o'clock and hovers over the earth like wet blanket until nlne or ten o'clock the next morning when il lifts, the sun peeps out, and for four or five hours it is as plea:ant and bright as in Arizona. This is peculiar climatic condition, and what is stranger still the farmers hereabouts tell me that they depend on these fogs for moisture for their crops. There's very little rain here, but these fogs are driven far inland by he ocean breeze and the result IS dampness is cast over the earth in the form of spray or mist. Every day during early summer this occurs for weeks.
 Santa Margarita is an old Spanish town, and it has more of that nationality today than English This is farming country but the principal industry now is stock raising. There is one big ranch here owned by the heirs of Patrick Murphy. They own thousands of acres and thousands head of stock and vaqneros handle the herds and drink most of the whiskey. At both they are adopts It was Saturday night when we arrived and we put up with the postmaster who is merchant and hotel keeper. over Sunday. And Sunday is the liveliest day of the week as 1t is the only day when the vaqueros can come in to enthuse. They always come in the saddle and tie in front of the first saloon they reach. If l may judge from their acts they have q most enjoyable time. They rotate in fours and sizes and tens from saloon to saloon from early morn until late at night. To sum it up they are shiftless vagabonds who are of little benefit to the country. Few of them can speak English. They cling tenaciously tu native dress and mother tongue, and look to the flowing bowel for th.ir chief enjoyment. Yet there are some good and thrifty farmers hereabouts. Barley is the princi- pal grain raised, great quantities of it being cut green and cured for ! hay. 1 have not seen an acre of Timothy or clover hay, and no corn is grown here. Neither is it an orange or lemon country. But vegetables grow to enormous size. This is the head of Salinas valley which extends i'll north westerly direction 125 miles to the coast In an air line 1 am 15 or IS miles from the sea and there is range of mountains between this valley and the coast, some of the peaks of which are 2UO0 feet high. I did not before reallze that California presented such an uneven surface. This valley varies in width from three to ten miles, and is fiat, level and sandy. All about us are the tains and againt their sombre peaks hangs the drifting fog in dense sheets.
 Santa Margarita probably has g population of 400 people, three fourths of which are of Mexican descent. There isn't church here, and Sunday is an ever recurring holiday. 1 never before witnessed such utter disregard and dissertation of the holy Sabbath day. Stores are all open, the saloons are rushed with business, and even the post office is open for business the live long day.
 Southward we start early Mon day morning for the coast. A