The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1906-07-22

the tennis court is a cubic block OF gold.
Here. sunshine is so golden. so intense,
so tangible that you feel you can step out
and gather it in flakes and sparkles and
chunks-or should 1 say nuggets?
The patch of blue. the block of gold
is all that l can see from the edge of
the drawn blind this April Sunday morn
ing at 1920. Shocking hour for blinds to
be drawn, but it was 2 o'clock this morn
ing when 1.-The man from Chicago" left
us and we must get our beauty sleep
like TIiplng's soldiers and their bath. you
know
1t was good to see "a man from Chi
cago' with quick, keen eyes and every
nerve on the alert. We had dinner at
the Angelus and l came out of the semi
comatose state that six months in this
dream-world has induced and how l did
enjoy limbering my tongue. 1t was fun
to discover that my speech-producing
machinery had not atrophied, but had
only hibernated and l enjoyed the breath
of Chicago in the midst Of this country,
the anththesis of Chicago. We left the
great dimly lighted. Oriental-draped rooms
above the grill-room and stepped out
where the potted palms high over the
portal, wave their fronds twelve months
in every year under the sky and over
the arriving and departing people who
sojourn at the Angelus-out into the street
where open-air band concerts end every
week in a blare Of brass above the crowds
of Mexicans and Indians, Japanese and
Chinese, tourists from everywhere, ranch
men and miners, soldiers and sailors that
swarm in the streets every Saturday night
ladies bareheaded and carrying flowers
on their way 10 the theatres-that is
Saturday night in Los Angeles streets in
January as well July.
Then we explored Chinatown In lazy
fashion and walked home past the plaza
with its sleeping pansy beds that have
bloomed diligently all winter, past the
fountain and the old, old mission-but
that is the story of Saturday night and
not of this glorious Sunday morning and
our jaunt to do" our first old mission.
We are starting for breakfast which
we will find under some startllngly yell
low awnings in the text block, just past
the vivid green parrot that says "Oh,
My, N.Y. ha ha ha ha ha' as l pass and
l wonder IL my hat does look so awfully
funny and has Polly just arrived from
New York.
Oilcill luAC lily JoSNSbt
Eyes. better, we may not come back
until bedtime" (After the sun sets, the
/ air is always cold-the breeze coming in
from the ocean,
That tells the tale of the gypsies we
are.
Tapping up our Strawberries and cream
which in this luxurious land Is as regu-
lar a diet as oatmeal in the bleak lat
itudes-Norris asks the usual Sunday
morning question
"Where do you want to go today?"
That is his version Of
Where shall we land you, Sweet?
1--WE are in Loves hand today"
I When one has had moonstone beaches,
fields of peoples. wonderful mountains,
pastel-tinted vloud-enwrapped, snow
capped hazy blue, all kinds OF mountains;
smiling valleys all green and gold;
orange groves, golden-glob and snowy
blossomed at the same moment: green
foothills, canyons, gurgling mountain
streams, the smiling Pacific Ghe sea that
swallows the sun every evenng)-it is
rather difficult to think of something
new on each recurring Sunday.
We wandered forth undecided, pausing
here, and there catching for inspiration
from the cars that D. music for pla-
cards-"Rendondo Beach and Playa Del
Rey"-we have been there. Three MOON
stones repose in my wrist-bag, picked up
on that fairy beach, where the green
hills sink into the sea and the sea gulls
circle and swing and sweep In fascinat-
ing lines, where the evergreen hedge walls
the path and the sound of the waves
swash in through a piney smell and you
can peer through balsmatic greenery and
see a sunlit sea. Rendondo, the fairy
est beach of all, but we have been there
and must not duplicate these beautiful
wanderings for life is short and there is
much to see.
Csarvanza Heights. Altadena and Pasa-
dena! Garvanza Heights, that early in
February became hills of gold-the pop
pies bloomed then, you see Altadena,
more famous poppy fields-Altadena in
cloth of gold. Pasadena, where flourish
eth the multi millionaire and the rose
tree; 139 of the former species being
crowded into small area in that beautiful
town during the winter, but the rose trees
are native and are delightful. Tree, not
bush a tree of goodly girth and branches
you could climb and fall out of. Pasa-
dena, where the dividing lines of prop
erty are hedges of Gala lilies, miles of
Gala lily hedge-can you craps it
where the rose vines Chamber to the top
of tall pines and simply cover them with
roses; not tent of roses but a sky
scraper of roses; can you see it? That Is
Pasadena.
Here come the Rubio Canyon cars They
swing YOU past the ostrich farn-note of
South Africa in America-past Acadia on
Lucky Baldwins ranch; Acadia in
name only being undiluted Bohemia by
temperament; through Pasadena again;
past the magnificent hotels past Hotel
RAYMOND perched high on the terraces
above terraces of dazzling red and yell
low bloom, where all winter long in white
gowns and flower hats they sit and swing;
past Hotel Green with its wings and
arches, are they Moorish, Mission or
Just picturesque. all done in yellow. plas-
ter with dark red relief and acres and
acres of sward and landscape garden
ing and bloom of flowers; this too. we
have SEEN so let pass the Rubio canyon
cars on their way through the San Ca
briel valley, that doesn't simply smile in
the sunlight, but really laughs--up and
up winds the car until you are on
narrow ledge of mountain side, up In the
shadow where you meet the clouds and
look down into the canyon where the
brake grows and the stream gurgles amid
moss and ferns. There. too, we have been
There go the cars that run straight to
Elysium-the Elysian park cars, where
on terraces of palms and roses amid
SQUARE yards of heliotrope and mignonette,
Marsuerites and flowers, l know not by
name. we sat at high noon one jan
nary dav and looked afar to the white
CLEAN OF snow on Old Baldy-a WIDE ex-
nanse of dazzling high light relieved by
nalest Of bluette gauze shadows. like
snow thus served. The eucalyptus trees
grew above us. the gardeners pushing
them farther and farther up the hill to
make room for cultivated beds of flowers
and here and there a stray cactus evad-
inc the pardener-a note from the mighty