The San Francisco call., 1898-12-18

1 rial had already been ordered, put tnou- sands more were still going out for dia- monds and a host of other things al- ready bought-things that only increase the general indebtedness of com- munity by making those who cannot af- ford them initiate those who can. Ana tens of thousands more were gong out for butter. eggs, pork and even potatoes and other vegetables, which the luxuri- ous boomers thought It beneath the dignity of millionaires to raise.
 But the normal growth of Los Ange- les and her sister towns has gone on, in spite of these spasms of fever and their consequent chills. Their real adVan- tages could not be obscured by the bursting of financial bubbles. By reason of situation and climate they nave con- tinued to attract men of wealth ana enterprise, as well as those in search or homes and health.
 The search for the unearned incre- ment in bodily health brings many to California who might better have re- health in California only if he is strong enough to grasp it. To one who can spend his life out of doors 1t IS indeed true that "our pines are trees or heai-
 ing" but to one confined to the house, there is little gain in the new condi- tions. To those accustomed to the close heat of Eastern rooms the California house in the winter seems depressingly chilly.
 I know of few things more pitiful than the annual migration of hopeless consumptiVes to Los Angeles, Pasadena and San Diego. The Pullman cars in the winter are full of sick people, ban ished from the East by physicians who do not know what else to do with their incurable patients. They go to the large hotels of Los Angeles or Pasadena and pay rate they cannot afford. They shiyer in half-warmed rooms; take cold after cold; their symptoms grow alarm ing; their money wastes away; and finally, in utter despair, they are hur- ried back homeward, perhaps to die on board the train. Or it may be that they choose cheap lodging houses, at prices more nearly within their reach. Here again they suffer for want of home food, home comforts and home warmth, and the end is just the same. People hopelessly ill should remain with their friends; even California has no health to give to those who cannot earn it, in part at least, by their own exertions.
 It is true that the 'one-lunged peo- pie" form considerable part of the population of Southern California. It is also true that no part of our Union has a better population, and that many of these men and women are now as robust and vigorous as one could desire. But this happy change Is possible only to those in the first stages of the dis ease. Out-of-door life and physical &C., tivity enable the system to suppress the germs of disease but climate without activity does -4ot cure. So far as cli- mate is concerned, many parts of the arid regions in Arizona, New Mexico and Colorado are more favorable than California, because they are protected from the chill of the sea. Another class of health-seekers receives less sympa- thy in California, and perhars deserves less. It is made up of jaundieed hypo- chondriacs and neurotic wrecks. These people shiver in the California winter boarding-h houses, torment themselves with ennui at the country ranches, poison themselves with nerve foods, and perhaps fiI-ally survive to write the sad and squalid truth about Califor- nia.'' Doubtless it is all inexpressiby tedious to them; subjective woe is al- ways hard to bear-but it is not Cali fornia.
 With all this, the social life is, in its essentials, that of the rest of the United States, for the same blood flows in the veins of those whose influence domi- mates it. Under all it's deviations and variations lies the old Puritan con- science, which is still the backbone of the civilization of the republic, Life there is a little fresher little freer, a good deal richer, in its physical aspects, but for these reasons, possibly more in- tensely and characteristically Ameri- can. With perhaps g per cent of iden- tity there is 5 per cent of divergence, and this 5 per cent I have emphasized even to exaggeration. We know our friends by their slight differences in feature or expression, not by their con- mon humanity. Much of this diyerg- ence Is already fading away. Scenery and climate remain, but there is less elbowroom, and the unearned incre- ment is disappearing. That which is solid will endure; the rest will vanish. The forces that ally us to the East are growing stronger every year with the immigration of men with new ideas. The vigorous growth of the two uni- versailles in California insures the ele- vation as well as the retention of these ideas. In this way. perhaps, California may contribute something to the social development of the East and be a giyer as well as a receiver. But to the last certain traits will persist It is the most cosmopolitan of all the States of the Union, and such it will remain. Whatever the fates may bring, the peo- pie will be tolerant. hopeful and ade- quate. sure of themselves, masters of the present, fearless of the future
 From December Atlantic Monthly,