The Newtown bee., 1904-07-08
CALIFORNIA CITIES, As Seen Through the Eyes of
 an Esteemed Newtown
 Gentleman,
E. L. JOHNSON.

With regret we left the town on the afternoon of our third days stay, not because we had seen it all. but because other places for visiting are on our itinerary, to reach before we bid fare- we'll for good to the beautiful sunny cline that we have learned to love so we'll. Our ticket was to take us to Los Angeles, and we left in time to have the trip down the coastiby day light. Some people travel nights to gain time, but to us that way seems a loss of time. At three o'clock our train moved out, and very soon we were running along on the ocean front, an unobstructed view of which we were to have fors25 miles, where there was just room enough between the shore and the foothills to build the track. At our first sight of the ocean remarked to my wife: "We can see the ocean," A man sitting in front of us looked over his left shoulder and said, "You are tenderfoot. I said "How do you know that?" His reply was, "You just told your wife we can see the ocean," I said "How long must one live in this country to get rid of that name?" He replied "One year." 'Then," said I, "I own up, for l have not been here quite four months." Then followed some banter ing, until ;finally asked him, "Well what do you fellows live on out here, anyway?" He replied, "We live on tourists, after we have got all their money we eat 'em." I said, ."Don't you skin them first?' He said, "Yes, sometime" Soon after crossing the city limits we ran along side the little village of Summerland, where are sit- uated the famous submarine oil wells of California, so called because they are drilled from wharves that run out into the channel for hundreds of feet, and the oil secured from below the bed of the ocean. was told they are bored from five hundred to fifteen hundred feet. That some of them are free flowing wells, others have to be pumped, and that to strike oil they penetrate, not into rock bottom, but into what is called oil sand, to get the desired flow. The flow is kept up con- tinuously. did not count but would judge there might have been three or four hundred wells. l am told the
 OIL BELT IS SUPPOSED TO BE SOME
 THREE OR FOUR HUNDRED FEET
 WIDE
 in that locality, and other wells will be bored. On the line of road between Santa Barbara and Los Angeles are some thirty stations, many of them centers of much importance, for we travel nearly the whole distance through as rich valley land as lies in Southern California. And although a great citrus growing region, there are vast stretches or root crops, as we'll as barley, oats, alfalfa and corn, raised. All the country was of general inter- est to us, but we will be content to speak of it as a whole, with three ex- captions.
 San Buenaventura-Ven for short-takes it's name from the mis- sion located here by the Spanish Fathers in 1782. The mission is still in good repair. Ventura is the great est bean growing region in the United States and from this locality grow nearly all the lima beans of trade. It boasts the largest bean ranch in the world, as we'll as the largest lemon ranch, 37,0oO growing lemon trees. Our train took us through thousands of