Daily capital journal. (Salem, Oregon) 1903-1919, 1904-03-14
Where One Can Dream
and Idle HalCyOn
Days Away
Groves of Lemon and Orange,
Where the Desert Held
Sway, Mark the En-
ergy of the Saxon
Editorial Correspondence.)
San Diego, March 8.

San Diego, March 8.
We cannot leave San Diego with
out another word for the very com
Portable and homelike Robertson
hotel. It has an elaborate roof garden
and sun terrace. There are single
apartments, with decorated ceilings
costing $1,000, and furniture and up
holstering to match. There is an
aluminium room, with all the furniture
and fixtures Of that precious metal
The dining room opens on a central
court, and the meals are cooked to
order. The capacity Of the house Is
300. and although open but a few
months, 1t was well filed with guests.
The rates are $500 per day and up.
wards, but the table is the same for
all, and on the American plan. There
are fine tallyhoes and other rigs to
take you on drives to Old Mission up
the San Diego valley, to Point Iona,
where the Katherine Tingley theoso-
phists hold forth, 10 Tia Juana, in Old
Mexico and to La Golla pronounced
la Hoya"O on the beaches north
about II miles-tha latter trip by
steam cars. Here are caves, gold fish
banks, and once a month, at lowest
tide, the large abalone shells can be
gathered It is the Newport OF the
Pacific
The trains stop at Old Town, a
quaint, abandoned Spanish town on
False bay where the Franciscan faith.
ers first landed on what is now the
American territory, and historic ruins
mark the site of their first house of
worship, In which we are shown the
chapel where Ramona was married.
and the registry place Of the heroine's
marriage VOW is shown to the tourists.
These moldering walls still surmount
ed in places by the ancient tiles in the
shape OF half a stovepipe joint, are
the Mecca of the ladies, the men not
so much adoring the dead novel hero
Inc as they do the living senoritas
and pretty half-caste maidens in
snowy shirt waists. The early mis-.
slonaries who landed here mistook
False bay for the real mouth Of the
San Diego river. which emptied farth.
er south into what is now San Diego
harbor proper The government en-.
giEeers found that river was gradu.
ally filling that deep harbor with
sand, and diverted its stream into
False bay which is slowly but sure.
ly being filled up.
You have never seen bmest waters
and bmest skies until you have been
at San Diego. Those who have been
abroad say nothing short Of Capri.
Italy, can compare with il. There is
quiet and dreamy effect In the atmos.
phere that Is missing at any OF the
other places We visited going down
through the interior OF California
though we find something Ike Il. inn.
agine, going mp the coast There is
an impression that you have come 10
the jumping on-place in Uncle Sans
territory as It is but a few miles over
into Mexico, Not being a manufactur
ing city, there is none OF the CHICAGO
rush and hustle, that one experience,
az Los Angeles, although San Diego is
past the 10000 mark and undergoips
a veritable boom There are many
beautiful residences and the style of
architecture grows distinctly foreign.
Spanish and Mexican predominating
and the palms being In evidence
everywhere, Helen Hunt Jackson,s
story, "Romona has immortalized the
city.
The first Spanish architecture WAS
n sun-baked brick. covered with the
Tiles In the shape Of a piece OF stove
pipe sawed In two lengthwise. There
vas great fear OF earthquakes in those
lays. The adobe walls were then
nlas'ered on the outside with mud. and
'oated with a yellow lime wash. The
emon yellow walls, with red tile roofs
ormed a distinctive style OF eonstue.
ion' that is being adopted for the
most fashionable city dwellings In Cal
tornia today. Il is also found thar
hose tile roofs are the most durable
md coolest in the dry, hot season. as
hey allow air to circulate between the
oof and tho apartments underneath
arse missionary churches were bunt
y the monks two centuries aeo and ,
heir ruins are the most picturesque
nd interesting objects TO the tourist
California One of the largest ana l
iost perfect Is a. Rey Luis. Ocean