Manchester Democrat. [volume] (Manchester, Iowa) 1875-1930, 1905-01-18
Letter From California.
San Diego, California


Editors Democrat: Our stay in
San Francisco was of six days du-
ration, but the weather was bad
three Of the six 30 we did not sec as
much of the city as we would like to
have seen. Yet one day Mrs. Nc
Neil escorted us across the bay to
San Francisco and from there to the
Golden Gate and then to the Cliff
Hotel, which is built on a project
ing rock in the shape of an elbow on
the Pacific ocean. / will call this
the south side of the Golden Gate,
but it is perhaps mile west of the
Golden Gate proper. Here we saw
for the first time an ocean and we
looked steady and long. and won
dered at the mighty deep, and at
the waves that were dashing against
the shore in all their beauty and
grandeur. Our stay on the beach
was limited as we left after dinner
and had to return before night.
There were several parks we
would like to have visited, and many
other interesting places.
On Sunday forenoon, New Years,
Mr. Mcneil and l visited the Asylum
for the Blind in the city of Burkley,
another suburb of San Francisco,
also the Agriculture colleges and
the parks around the buildings. In
the afternoon we all assembled the
hills on the east of Oakland where
we could get a grand view of San
Francisco city, the bay, Golden
Gate, and all the surrounding towns
for many miles distant and in short,
its all San Francisco and claimed a
population of over four hundred
thousand.
On Monday morning at $50 we
boarded the Santa Fe train for San
Diego, and as we passed through
the last range of mountains, we
went through a number of tunnels,
some short and others quite long,
and finally we came out on the east
side and there were plenty OF
marshes in which ducks were plenti-
full. Soon we struck what would
call the California desert, and CON
tinued on this plain the rest of the
day. Once we passed through long
marshy place, and they were ditch
ing it out with steam shovels. We
saw them at work. All day long to
the east Of US we could see the white
capped mountains, and after leaving
this low marshy land we seem to
ascend a gradual incline and when
dark came we were at Bakersfield,
where we entered the mountains
again, but it was too dark to see
them.
We arrived at Barstow at 1880,
but our train out did not 20 until
l:45, but the conductor showed us
our car on side track which we took
and tried to get some rest, but in
stead of going out at las it got off
at five and we got off to San Bernar-
dino about seven a. m. Here we
left the Los Angeles train and took
a short cut across to connect at
Usage with the Los Angeles and
San Diego train, and as we left San
Bernardino we came into regular
orange country and all the way to
Orangs the groves were most beau
tiful, loaded as they were with this
golden fruit. At Orange we
changed cars for San Diego and
were soon out of the orange orchards
but we swiftly glided.along in sight
OF the ocean, sometimes near the
waters edge and again out of sight,
and reached our destination, San
Diego, on time, and at l2:45 p. m.
we took a hack and were driven to
our hotel, where we are comfortably
located at this writing we'll and
hearty. Yours Truly,
A. S. Coon.