Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1903-10-08
TENTING BY THE SEA
CANVAS CITIES THAT DOT COAST
OF CALIFORNIA.
Communities by the Pacific in Coun-
try Where It Never
Rains.
!, tho New York Mail and EXPRESS.

From the New York Mail and Express.
The tent city in southern California TINS
past summer has been more popular than
ever before. In point Of fact, this curious
institution fiourishes the year round, both
in the verdant winter and the yellow sum-
mer OF this land of sunlight. On the At
lantic coast we have our Ocean Spray ana
Sea View hotels. our cottage cities, ana
our park beaches; here on the Southern IA
cifc they have all of these and the peo-
pie who take their recreation under canvas.
Now it must not be considered that TINS
means what call in the east camping
out" where man and his family pfch
a tent by d Maine lake or under the lee
of a Long Island sand dune. The tent set
Elements on the California coast are cities
some of them large enough for lncorpora-
ton. There are hotels where every room Is
the patrons own little castle, and each year
more and more persons are discovering
that, in land where there is practically no
rain, living in tent either Tor the year
round or for a two days vacation, is not
only healthy and inexpensive, Tut also
more pleasant and comfortable. Every sea-
son capital is being invested in canvas and
tent poles. camp stoves ana bahd stiihdS.
rustic theaters and bath houses, and all
the other requisites for typical tent hotel;
the advertising is done, the patrons come,
and the tent city is in existence.
The first tent hotel of Importance was
started not many years ago on the Island
of Santa Catalina in August. 1903, there
We're nearly six hundred persons under the
canvas. Farther down the coast, nearly
into Mexico, there is another large settle
ment at Coronado marking the sand break
water of San Diego harbor with patches
of white; at Redondo new city has grown
up this summer and at several other places
smaller settlements have Squatted near the
booming surf of the Pacific
Hotels Made of Tents.
These canvas cities, or, to more
correct term, the tent hotels, are managed
and supervised in the same manner that a
big summer hotel is conducted. The ground
is marked off in small lots and with a fur
nished tent is rented just as room is rent
ed. You can have a tent to yourself or
partitiOned tent for your family. You can
do your own cooking eat at the cafe.
A bed and its furnishings, chairs, a table
and a washstand, and a constant supply
of clean linen-these are the outfit, and If
there are only two of you you can enjoy
all this outdoor luxury for $6 a week Then
there are all sorts of things you can hire
separately, from gasoline stove on which
you can prepare your meals to extra
blanket to keep you warm at night. But
still more of novelty-here is a hotel
where you can bring your own room with
you. for there is space which is rented to
persons who wish to erect their own tents.
Water is supplied to the whole settlement
through pipes, and iced water for drinking
is dispensed from barrels, placed along the
streets Streets? Indeed there are with
numbers and avenues-streets that are
macadamzed and streets lined with arching
trees. In the center of the larger cities
there are drug stores and cafes, groceries
and dentists offices, just as If it were a
settlement of brick blocks instead of canvas
tents. And. just like other cities, there
is water supply and system of sewer
age; there are street sprinklers and a fire
department.