Corvallis gazette. [volume] (Corvallis, Benton County, Or.) 1900-1909, 1906-09-28
OREGON AHEAD.
OF California, Says a Corvallis
Man-What He Saw.

hooo AA NAA y ~
euin county, California, I found
that the country had retrograded
instead of advancing, since my
last visit there 80 years ago. Oh
course the cities are larger, but
in the rural districts things have
gone backward instead of for
ward"
Such is the statement of John
Senger of this city, who returned
few davs ago from an extended
trip through California. He says
that in San Joaquin county where
formerly there were fine, thrifty
orchards of luscious fruits there
is now ruin and no fruit, because
the San Jose scale has. made a
clean sweep of the whole thing
People do not seem to understand
how to protect themselves from
the pest, Mr.. Senger says, and
the orchards have literally been
laid waste.
Fruit is higher there than in
Oregon, which was great dis
appointment as we'll as a surprise
to the Oregon visitors. A branch
from a lemon tree, brought home
by the Corvallisites, has on it
blossoms, small green lemons,
large green lemons and the fully
ripened fruit.
Another thing that was observ-
ed was the poorer class of horses
used in California, compared to
Oregon, but the former state is
way in the lead on roads. Oil is
used for sprinkling the public
highways once a year, in San
Joaquin county, and the results
are entirely satisfactory, the me-
thod proving the most successful
ever tried. In Alameda county
the roads are sprinkled all through
the country as we'll as in the
cities. One piece of road that
Mr.. Senger had often travelled in
years gone by, and which was
loose and sandy has not been oil
ed for two years yet it is smooth,
solid, road bed today, showing the
lasting results of sprinklidg with
oil.
Speaking of conditions in ruin
ed San Francisco, Mr.. Senger
declares that most that is sent
out in reports to the newspapers
as to the building going on there,
is "hot air." Very little perma-
nent building is being done, coma
paratively speaking, although
there are many common buildings
and "shack" residences spring
ing up. Some of structures that
were begun before the fire are
now being rushed to completion,
among which is the Paramount
Hotel near Mob Hill. A large
part of the business houses now
occupy what were formerly resi-
dences. Many streets are still
almost impossible for foot pas
sengers, and there is ruin on
every hand.
A gentleman who has lived in
San Francisco tor years and who
was there during the disaster says
that he would wager all he has
that the number or lives lost dur
ing the honor would reach 49,
900, if there was any way of pro-
wing it. Great piles of debris
still remain everywhere and it is
certain that dozens of human
bodies were buried there when
the fire came, for those who es-
capped from the same neighbor-
hoods relate how scores of people
were lett shrieking and scream
ing in those very buildings when
the survivors ran in terror from
the place. The question is, then,
''How many perished?"
A sister of Mr.. Senger resides
"a miles from Oakland, and she
declares that for weeks the stencil
that came from the city of San
Francisco was almost unbearable
even at that distance, and it was,
she says, the stencil of human
flesh, burned and decomposed. |.
There are others who tell the
same story. ...
Prices have gone skyward in
Frisco, Mr.. Senger says, and
poor people can barely exist.
Rents and living are entirely out
of keeping with the wages paid