The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1902-04-26
The COTTACERS.
Another California Letter From
VIM. Allen White.
Writes of People Who Do Not
Live in Hotels.

The following is William Allen Whites
latest letter published in the Emporia
Gazette:
OF the three ways to live in California
at hotels. in rooms and restaurants
and in cOttages-the last to the affiant
seems the best. Everyone of course
thinks his way the best, but the cottage
dwelling tourist has one unanSWerable
reason for his felicity: the cottage IS
like home. 1t is admitted that there is
course those who add-Thank Heaven.
But they are not to be reckOned with.
being exceptions to the rule of the Eng
llsh speaking race. All uD and down
the Pacific coast-and they say who
Know, at every Am erlcan resort OF tour
istS-furniShed cottages may be rented
It is safe to estimate that a thousand
rentable furnished cottages may be
found on the Pacific coast between San
Diego and Seattle. Most of these cot
50 to SO q week. In these cottages are
a complete outfit of modern kitchen
furniture, better than the average Wo-
man at EmDoria. has at home: a gaso-
line stove, a chiffonier full of bed and
table linen, and abundance Of dishes
and good, we'll built beds to accommO-
date from four to sixteen people accord
ing to the size and rental of the cot
tage. Many of these cottages, even the
very cheap ones, are designed with taste
being built after the Swiss style or in
various modern architectural fashions.
They are clean. bright and thoroughly
decent.
BY living in cottage one gets the
local color of the markets Hotels ana
restaurants are the same in every nook
and corner of the land. The California
fruit does not appear on the California
best hotels nor at any restaurant. Qua
vas and loquats and Japanese persim-
mons which were in season when We
were stopping at a fashionable hotel
did not appear on the table. The oys-
tiers served were New York oysters; and
the fish of the Pacific coast has no dis
tinctive place on any tavern's bill. The
idea of restaurant and hotel keepers
seems to be and is to serve meal ey-
| erywhere exactly like the same n cal
served everywhere else. Originality IS
tabooed. Yet California is chock full OF
good things to eat that may be obtain
I ed nowhere else in the world On Ca
talina Island there were thousands OF
delicious mushrooms; the cottagers had
| them as big as your two hands
| lots of them, on steak. in steWs.
smothered in butter. But the
hotel dwellers and restaurant
eaters knew nothing of them.
/ On the island we had abalOni, q
delicious shell fish not found in Atlantic
| waters. But no hotel on the coast
| serves abalOnies- We had sheep -head
| ehowder, a chowder made of the head
/ Of the red cod We had chCplnl-made
by stewing an onion in half a pint OF
olive oil, adding tomatoes, chilli pep
1 pers and fish and finally after the fish
has cooked done. a bit Of garlic. Yet
not a hotel from Coronado to Santa
Barbara serves it. Have you ever
eaten loquats with cream? Or fried salt
| water crayfish2 You never will eat
them until you rent a cottage.
Neither will you know much about
| the people by hanging around the YER
! andas of hotels or the halls of the
rooming. houses. But the cottager
knows the people. He neighbors with
them. They show him how to market;
he hears them guy the hotel guests
The cottager hears the truth about local
| stories which the bird of passage, do
/ ing the country on a hop, skip and a
| jump swallows whole. The cottageT
| becomes to all intents and purposes a
1 probatiOnal native. He sees the coun-
try as it is; not with Sunday clothes
on, over the index finger of a guide who
| is striving to make marvels and earn
his salt. The delivery boy from the
grocery store can tell you more of the
| real situation in given town or section
of moral, evil and of good, than all
the sages can!" He reflects local SEN