St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1902-04-02
In the American Riviera.
Editorial Correspondence

met man from Gloucester and the
stranger asked him if he was an East
erner. yes" he quickly replied I'm
from Galveston" And if you interro-
gate the residents of ''our Italy, as
Charles Dudley Warner calls southern
California. you will find they all came
from the East-somewhere between the
Rio Grande and Cape Cod. And when
they came in the 7Os this was land OF
sage bush and cactus with live oaks scat
tered around. Land was cheap, but
water was dear and today both are ex-
pensive luxuries, for by SC entihc irriga'
ton this whole section OF the state has
developed into a flower garden and acres
upon acres of navel oranges have sup
planted the sage brush and cactus.
Many OF the residents come here to
escape the rigors of New England eli
mate, and if man can live anywhere IN
the world he can live here where he can
be outdoors every day in the year and
sleep with open windows 800 nights.
OF course when it rains here, as it does
some days in winter it Pours, or as
Dooley has expressed it, when the tropl-
cal sky starts rainln it doesn't stop TIL
it's Imply" but the rainfall this winter
has been only II inches and the rainy
season is almost over. Rubber boots
are very handy in such doWnpours, and
fur capes and ostrich boas-tt you can
afford one-are welcome addition to
ladv's outfit. But this is a land OF plenty
of warm sunshine aud all the residents
prefer the summer to the winter. The
! days are warm in summer, but the nights
are always cool and blanket on the
bed is not only agreeable but necessary.
Miss Sanborn, in her interesting and
always truthful book on this region, re-
vels in adjectives in describing Pasadena
and has a little sport over its paradox
icaI antitheses; of h)wers and tlannes
Strawberries and seaEskn sacks; open
fires with open windows; y I"
where your principal rivers flow bottom
side up and invisible most Of the time,
where water runs up hill, and you go
outdoors in December to keep warm"
And this heroine OF an adopted farm
might have said more and still been "a
truthful woman" For here the boosters
crow all night and the hooking birds
sing at any old time when they ought to
be asleep. l was in a home yesterday
where they feed their Belgian hares on
oranges and their gold fish on water
cress, and my brother has a Langshan
that lays double yolk egg every fifth
day. l refrain from believing that straw
berries vines grow as high as the house
and you pick the berries from your bed
room window, but here is an incident
that happened at East Pasadena only 10
days ago,
A Santa Fe engine was taking an OBJ
servation car back to Los Angeles at l
O'Clock in the morning and making at
least mile minute on the trip. Round.
ing a sharp curve near the Raymond
hotel the engineer and fireman saw an
obstruction on the track just in time to
Jump and save their lives. The big loco.
motive was derailed and wrecked as
completely as if there bad been a head
on collision. The oil in the fire pot i'm.
mediately burned all the woodwork, and
wreck that cost the road at least
$4,000 ensued. And what do you sup
pose that obstruction was? 1t was q
California mule asleep on the track. Not
trace of the mule could be found after
the wreck. The point of this story which
has no moral is it's absolute tluthfulness
Pasadena was a desert in days gOno
by and only dates back to 1873 when al
Indiana syndicate started big sheer
ranch in this valley. That was the yea
; | first visited the state, coming dowt
from San Francisco in a coast steamer
We stopped al the only hotel in Los
Ang les, the PiCO House. | saw TIT
holl the other day and outside tin
broken glass on on the office door was (
sign. Beds, 10 cents and up hei
the city was no larger than St. Johns
bury; today its population exceeds 40,
+ 600 and it is destined to become one o
! Al. IA Il