Los Angeles herald., 1905-04-02


California either are or pretend to be
possessed of an unspeakable wonder at
the fact, which is too apparent to them
to be ignored, that easterners coming
here during the past two decades or
so prefer Southern California to their
own portion of the commonwealth.
They look upon San Jose and Sacra-
mento and oakland and upon the
Santa Clara and sonoma and Sacra-
mento valleys, swell out over their
beauties and say. where in the
southland can you find the like of
this?"
They witness, or they read of the
whelming tides of settlers who pour
into Los Angeles, Riverside and other
southern counties, and find refuge in
the Shakespearean refrain, "Can such
things be and overcome us like sum-
mer's cloud without our special
wonder"
For a long time they sought to con-
sole themselves with the idea that this
preference for the southland was ow-
ing to the fact that the new comers did
not take the trouble to go and see
northern and central California; but of
late they have surrendered this idea.
They have come to look upon the east
ern settler as somewhat of the class
of the individual who was not prepos-
sessed with DR.. Fell, as the story was
told in the rhyme:
I do not like you, DR.. Fell;
The reason why I cannot tell;
But this l know full well,
/ do not like you, DR.. Fell.
Away back in the boom days of
1sS6-S7 the people of the upper counties,
having witnessed for so long the in
pouring of masses of desirable settlers
into Los Angeles and her 'back coun-
try" made up their minds to have
some of it themselves. The San Fran
cisco, San Jose and Sacramento papers
entered into a combine to boom their
section and made a mighty effort to
attract this immigration to themselves.
Amongst the most notable leaders in
this movement were Mike De Young,
proprietor of the San Francisco Chron-
icle, and the late lamented General
Thomas j. Clunie. On the expectation
of the benevolent assimilation of the
easterners they marked up the prices
of real estate in the sections which
were sought to benefit and prepared
to mark them up more. This was done
through an ingenius system of swap
ping jackknives They sent down
agents to Los Angeles to mingle with
the influx of eastern visitors, with the
view of in1octrinating them with the
idea that the climate of Santa Clara,
Sacramento and the country round
about the bay of San Francisco was
just as good as or possibly little bet
ter than that of Los Angeles.
These worthy gentlemen, having per-
fected their plans, advertised from Los
Angeles personally conducted train
for San Francisco, Alameda and the
central counties. One bright winters
day long train pulled out of the Ar
cade depot, loaded with eastern visit
ors, who were in search of good things
in the shape of climate, prospective
homes or what not-possibly of adven-
ture, as it subsequently proved AS
it progressed through the San Fer
nando valley the rays of a mid-May
sun were enjoyed. When the Tehach-
api mountains were reached a tale of
different color was unfolded, a smart
snowstorm being encountered.
When that fated train reached Oak
land in the pale gray of a snowy morn
ing 1t is no eXaggeration to say that
three or four feet of snow and icicles
encountered it. The greatest snow
storm ever known since the American
occupation was under way in San
Francisco and around the bay, accom-
panied by the lowest temperature ever
recorded there. Since that celebrated
excursion, designed to exhibit the bay
counties as a semi-tropical region,
many persons have made themselves
i'll trying to think out what kind of an
occult relationship the real estate deal
ers of Los Angeles had succeeded in
striking up with the weather clerk
During that memorable trip snow lay
three and four inches deep on the
roofs of the dwelling houses of San
Francisco and drifted in places in
Golden Gate park to a depth of seven
inches.
The completion of the Salt Lake rail-
way renders it absolutely certain that