The Somerset reporter., 1902-02-06
GIimpses of Southern California.

MIA is always contradicted by someone
else, 80 there is only one thing for one
to do,-tell things rs he sees them him
self and do as did the child who WAS
challenged for his opinion-''thlnk his
own think"
First | will attempt brief character
ization of the people, and then touch up
on a few places,-not many because in
paper this size 1t would only re-
suit In cataloguing them, and | would
like TO give you spy-glass view OF two
or three very attractive resorts.
Southern California has social At.
mosphere of Its own, with something of
the freedom of the middle West, minus
its crudeness, and much OF the culture of
Boston without its Stiffness and exclu-
siveness. Here are met people from ali
over the world,-phlosoph from In
dia, cultivated Jewish rabbis from Rus
STA, artistic japanese, etc, etc, and hun
dreds of Englishlnen. Many people
broken down In professional life come
here to live In repose away from the
rush and hurry of more competitive
civilization, and authors aud scientists,
about whom there used to be such halo
to my youthful fancy, favor US with
their society.
A wonderful social independence ex-
lists. People who go about much usually
become very tolerant OF others ways,
and Indifferent TO them. No one cares
here whether his neighbor has one hat or
six, attends Church twice a Sunday or
never, and the effect is very broadening
to the mind,-iU freedom from belittlng
interference and gossip, especially as 1t is
accompanied by cordiality and kindness.
The greatest diyersity>of dress and style
of living exists here, though there are
no squalid sections In Pasadena.
In New England certain uniformity
of dress and manners is pparent-here
the reverse, and you learn to place peo-
pie after while without hearing their
state mentioned. Going down Colorado
ST., Pasadena, you will meet as elegant
turnouts as you would on Fifth Ave.
N. Y, and also see styles as remote
from 1902 as would come from the back
woods, worn, however, oftentimes, by
very nice intelligent people who have
spent every cent upon getting some dear
sick one to a sunny cline.
Famous as Is our climate, it is gener-
ally misunderstood by Fasteners. We
do not roast here summer or winter. Our
summers are cooler than the Eastern
hot summers and we alone in this little
protected spot escaped the prostrating
heats felt everywhere else in our land
last summer. Nights are very cool. A
cool sea breeze blows FROM May to Octo-
| Der and most summer afternoons our
south porch is too cool for comfort, so
we find a sheltered place north of the
house among the apricot and neetarine
trees. Excepting in February, when we
are sure to have 1t very warm, our win
tiers are cool like fall days in Maine, with
frosty feeling in the air night and
morning. Although one can usually be
out doors, he needs warm clothes, and
some times furs, for when snow cools the
mountains on our north there is a great
chill in Pasadena. Yet the seasons vary
so that no one statement always holds,
and you can't go by the the mOmeter at
all. AS for rain, we haven't generally
so many rainy days here in year as
you have in a Maine summer, out when
they come we have sheets OF il.
Ii would be superogatory to write you
of our fruits, or even of the flowers.
You all know about the thousands of
roses on one climber, the geraniums
| twenty feet high, etc., ETC., but less is
said of our charming single and double
| violets, sweet and blue, whose souls
imprison in my letters to some of you
| and which scatter their delicious breath
on thought waves Gas | imagine) all
along the way from here to Maine, and
| give their messages in dying zephers of
sweet perfume to dear far-away friends.
From October to March | have them,
and no flower on earth to me is so beau
tiful, so spiritual and poetic, or fraught
with such tender memories.
OF Pasadena | have written so much
to some of you, that | will try to say
little here. OF course | think it is the
| best place to live in in California. 1t
has IL, 900 or IA. 900 inhabitants, charm
ing climate. streets beautifully laid out
and graded, beautiful homes of every
variety Of architecture, society noted for
its culture and is within nine miles of
Los Angeles, which is as near as ! care
to be to large city. We get all the in
fluence of city life, without its draw
backs. The tropical and other vegeta-
tion is beautiful and varied, and imported
from every climate under the sun. Pas
adena means "the crown of the valley"
and it indeed crowns an elevated plateau
900 feet high, Is miles from the ocean,
and has on its northern and eastern sides
the Sierra Madre mountains.
| stand in the screen doorway of my
chamber and look out upon them before
| go TO bed at night. Sometimes the
moon Is rising behind them through
their tops into sharp relief, as sombre
and dark they loom against the heavens,
and | wonder in what grand primeval
storm, when all the elemental forces OF
earth rose convulsed, tumultuous, gigan-
tic, those Titanic waves of matter were
petritied in serred points against the
sky.
again at broad day | wander up the
street and see eleven miles away [air
'line) some noble tree silhouetted against
the clouds, and with its great arms 1t
beckons me to its heights, 5000 feet
above, where in sublime silence, and the
peace and grandure of "the everlt sting
hills it leads its lonely life. 1t carries me
in thought up those winding trails, where
in and out, in and out, among chapsrril,
manzanita wood, and flowers which
crimson or gid the gray rocks from
whose very bosom they seem to spring,
one may wind his way for hundreds of
miles In the very heart of wild nature,
wooded wall on one side, and down the
other steep precipces. and off toward
south and east mountain range below
mountain range beneath you, and on the
north seemingly interminable ascent
into the heavens. No word can describe
ones feelings. Solemn and still as is
the silence, one feels not alone, but in