The Evening statesman. [volume] (Walla Walla, Wash.) 1903-1910, 1906-04-16
COL. PARKER IS PLEASED
Al The New Activity Of the Gill;
zens Of Wa|Ia Wana.
PREDICTS GREAT FUTURE FOR CITY
HE SAYS LET THE GOOD WORK
GO ON WITHOUT A
FALTER.
PREDICTS GREAT FUTURE FOR CITY

pleasant reading for one who was,
and for the matter of that still Is,
identified with Walla Walla, to find
the wave of enthusiasm that pervades
my old stamping ground. Fifty thou
sand, Ell? Good enough for starter,
but mark me, the present generation
will see double that number in the
Garden City of the Valley of Many
Waters.
Let the good work go on unceas-
ingly, and you will be another Los
Angeles before you know it. l visited
that fair city recently and it, as we'll
as the whole of southern California,
was a revelation to me. Forty years
ago I was there Could walk all over
the Plaza in six minutes and that is
all there was of the city. Now how
different! 1 took a car and went as
far as it could take me, and was
fully three-quarters of an hour, and
have an obscure idea that it was the
shortest line at that. 1t is beautiful
city; everything so clean and neat,
with the handsomest streets of beauti-
full stores in the whole universe.
The Los Angelenos know how to
build city, get trade and have rail-
studying their methods and the result
of my cogitations is my old-time plat
form: Success depends more upon the
people than upon the country
Was a Desert.
When I first knew the country it was
a bloomin' desert, arid and dry-a
place a man lost no time in getting
away FROM Now it is covered with
orange and lemon groves, fields of
grass, clover and lafalfa, miles of fruit
trees and the most prosperous, con-
tented lot of people I ever wish to see.
Schools and churches everywhere; in
short paradise.
Your readers have all heard of the
California and Colorado deserts and
the horrors of the early days! When I
went through in 1864 1 left for San
Pedro June 10, and arrived at Yuma
July 4. Now it is a little over half a
day, and that is shortened by the di-
versity of scenery, cities and various
attractions as you travel. There are
large cities as pleasant and attractive
as money can make them in those old
deserts Dates and palm trees sur
round all the Southern Pacific railroad
stations all along the road. Yuma,
that formerly was a by-word, is now
forging ahead and l venture the pre-
diction that within five years it will
equal the beautiful San Joaquin valley
in it's semi-tropical productions. Ger
far and away ahead of anything I ever
tasted that was grown farther north.
naturally think that the people would
be lazy and inert, but it is altogether
the other way, and, compared with the
listless, born tired people of some Sec
tons farther north, they are as mar
BILE to mud. Hot as it was when l was
there recently, loafers were not to be
seen. l inquired about it and was tod
they were all at work, clearing up new
land and setting out orange, lemons,
grape fruit and other groves. Some
young ladies We're pointed out to me
and it was pleasant to hear the men
praise them for what they did at home
They work around the groves, pack
the fruit, and have not a lazy bone in
their bodies. Good looking too; slim,
with Drowned faces, replete with
health. The children are fat and rosy:
complaints are unknown among them.
Government Work.
The government is building an i'm
luSllSS udIu DIT Lid AdS UNA,
! about twelve miles up the Colorado
river, and about the same distance
down there is no Colorado river, for it
has broken through its bounds and CIV
en- the United States another inland
sta-the Salton sea, and the whole
volume of the great red river pours
into it.
1t is an object lesson for the people
of the upper country, and some of
you progressive citizens should come
down her AMI see for yourselves what
the people and the Southern Pacific
are doing and how they do it, 1t is the
cutting up of the immense ranches in
to small holdings that has built up
this new empire on the southern and
western boundary of Uncle Sans do
main and il has not hepun vet-fOr