Los Angeles herald., 1905-05-21

lneIe Is very general lueb dllOllbSJ
Eastern people that the climate of
Southern California is enervating.
Widely spread as this notion is 1t is
entirely erroneous.
The region south Of Point Concep-
cion has many climates, and they are
nearly all invigorating. Los Angeles
county alone has a variety Of climates.
The idea that men grew lazy in South
ern California was largely due to the
fact that the native Californian was a
devoee of la manana, but he probably
caught this strain from the Spanish
blood that was in him. 1t also grew,
in part, from the fact that the gentle
man from Pike county, Missouri, when
he arrived in such spots as the Monte
and Gospel Swamp, found production
so plentiful and spontaneous that he
could not resist a growing fondness for
bean pokes in the shady backroom of
the village tavern.
That the man Of energy and push
retains those qualities when he comes
to Southern California has been proved
by the thousands of alert and progress
sive business men who have helped 10
build up the fortunes of our southland.
The late San Bernardino banker Drew,
who arrived in San Bernardino from
New York in an almost dying state,
told me that he thought he would never
be good for anything, as he looked upon
himself as a victim of consumption. He
presently found himself able to fish
and hunt a little, and in little while
was one of the most resourceful busi-
ness men of this section and did thirty
years of good work after he had thought
he had reached the Jumping off place.
To many men who are victims of
anaemia and deficient vitality the cli-
mate of even so hot a region as San
Bernardino or of the far hotter 1ndfo,
on the desert, is highly stimulating and
life giving.
OF course, the highly ambitious people
of Southern California are not anxious
to recruit their population by consump-
tives and there is a general wish that
those poor people should stay away, but
there are multitudes of persons Of both
sexes who would fill consumptives'
graves if they remained in the east who
would live a generation or more In the
caressing climate OF Southern Cali
fornia. Whether we want them or not
they come here in great numbers ana
make great part of the business OF
our undertakers, who are naughty
and pampered class, and who excel
even the plumbers in their pride of
calling. Unfortunately the number of
these people who come here to die is 50
great that our death rolls are swollen
and some persons have been led to
suppose that consumption was a disease
peculiar to Southern California while
the truth is that the native California
population is notably free from 1t.
Donna EuIaia Perez de Gomez
The native population Of Cali
fornia is remarkably long lived.
When I came to Los Angeles there was
an old lady living in the town of San
Gabriel who was an object of great in
terest to the whole coast. This was
Donna Eulalia Perezde Gomez who in
1876 was 1877 years Of age. Unlike the
many cases of the venerable negroes
who were body servants to George
Washington and whose ages were not
verified, that of Donna Eulalia was es-
tablished by the records of the monks.
She had come from the old mission at
San Diego, where there was record of
her birth, to the Mission San Gabriel
in the opening years of the last CEN
When the centennial exposition was
under way some lucre loving people
formed the plan of sending her on to
Philadelphia to be exhibited. The con-
sent Of her relatives had been obtained,
and she would undoubtedly have been
taken on there and been one of the
wonders of the show had it not been
for a great indignation which was
aroused amongst the people. The case
was taken into court and the judge
promptly ordered the abandonment of
the plan. 1t would have been a most
brutal thing to have carried out, for
the old lady died during the exposi-
ton period.
Just about that time I attended a
picnic in the Santa Anita canyon with
some eastern friends I told them