The Prince George's enquirer and southern Maryland advertiser. (Upper Marlborough, Md.) 1882-1925, 1897-06-11

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play it more and more frequently every
year Of your life.
SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA.
Hon. Robert B. Roosevelt has come
back from California, charmed, as
every one else is, with it's climate and
pleasures, but better able to express
his appreciation than most. He says:
eff our Dutch ancestors had come
to America through the Golden Gate
instead of through the Narrows, the
appearance OF the United States would
have been vastly different from what
it is. In these two hundred years we
could have received some idea as to
what the possibilities of that wonderful
land are. California is one of the
most wonderful lands on the globe.
There is nothing in Europe to CON-
pare with our great western State.
don't believe there is place with
climate to equal that of California.
The atmosphere is positively intoxicat-
ing-just the air bicyclists like, and l
speak from experience, as l am an en-
thusiastic cyclist. The entire popula-
tion of Southern California is the vic
tim of the atmosphere. The people
are in state of constant exhilaration,
and they know no such diseases as ma
laria or the blues. The absence of ma
laria is due; it is said. and l believe it
is true, to the presence of the encalyp-
tus trees. The trees give out strong
odor, for which malaria germs seem to
have marked antipathy. The alb
sence of the blues is due entirely to the
presence of the peculiarly stimulating
atmosphere.
IL left New York in Il state of awful
depression. After [ had been in San
Diego for week, / could not be de-
pressed if tried. | believe that the
peculiar life of the people, and espe-
cially their natural gambling instincts,
is due to the stimulation in the air. In
California men do not settle down to
make money, as We do here in the east.
They are for striking it rich all at
once. Mining is one great gamble,
and they do not expect to make money
in anything but mining fortunes in
oranges, but so much fruit was raised
that the market broke. Olives came
next, and fabulous fortunes were in
sight, but the world did not seem to
take to California olives, and so the
people still look to mining for their
money. Two rich strikes of gold were
made just before left for the east. It
seemed to me that the happiest lot of
men in Southern California are the
day laborers. Like every body else,
the laborer is full of the intoxication
in the air. Their humble homes are
all overgrown with the rampant growth
of roses so peculiar to that locality.
The life problem is simple one. They
always find labor, and yet they take
life in manner as if it We're not nee
essary for them to work.
1.-The poorest man in Southern Cali
fornia raises his own oranges. In the
east we have no idea of what Califor-
MIA oranges are. The best fruit does
not seem to reach us. The cheapest
oranges-and | like their flavor the
best-are only five cents a dozen. The
very best oranges, the navels, for
which we pay here fifty and sixty cents
a dozen, never cost more than fifteen
crnts dozen there. The Southern
California oranges are crammed full of
juice, and the pith, so tough in the
fruit we get here, melts away in Your
mouth. One of the impressions of
Southern California, which will last
longer with me than any other, is the
marvellous beauty of the flowers and
foliage. The size, beauty, and endur-
ance Of the flowers are Just about
double what they are here. 1t is i'm
possible for one to tell you of the Won
dertul mass of colors seen in even semi
cultivated nature.
IL was very much interested in the
pepper tree, an odd and hardy little
tree, and apparently so conscious Of
its own peculiarities that it won't die.
You cannot kill the pepper tree unless
root it up. Cut one Of the trees Off
near the ground, and in few weeks
the stump will begin to bud. The foli-
age is a brilliant green, and among the
leaves are clusters of red fruit, resem
bling the red peppers which grow in
our gardens. The fruit is not, how
ever, peppery. Think of it, there are
no weeds there to any extent. The dry
season kills the weeds Off
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