The Democrat-sentinel. [volume] (Logan, Ohio) 1906-1935, 1907-06-13
Letter From Mrs. Will
Huls, to the Social Club
Of Logan.

| DEAR FRIENDS - VIII now Try
to write that promised letter to
the club as some of the ladies re-
quested, but Will not promise it to
be an interesting one. Well, to
begin with we left Sugar Grove
Tuesday April 16th., and arrived
at Los Angeles Saturday night at
IL o'clock. we enjoyed the trip
very much, and very thankful we
arrived safely, as there have been
such terrible wrecIs out here ate
ly, and one on the same route we
came, only one week before we
came, killing 25 and injuring
many.
Our train was long one drawn
by large overland engines We
came via Southern Pacific thro
New Orleans where our train was
cut in three sections and ferried
acros the MlssissiE pi river, which
took one hour. At Ell Paso, Texas,
the trucks on our sleeper broke
down and we were all hurriedly
dumped into another coach. We
had just spread our tables for sup
| .nnh ,,,eh ool h 1o
as there was. 1t might have been
a wreck right then and there, but
was discovered in the nick Of time.
We got some of the finest straw
berries we ever ate as we came
thro Mississippi and the corn in
the gardens was about four feet
tall. Also saw negro women clip
ing their husbands blowing and
working in t. e large cotton fields
The eastern part of Texas was
good land, but after leaving San
Antonio we came to the Great
Basin or desert, of which every
one grew very tired of looking at,
for miles and miles. There was
nothing to be seen except sand
and cactus as large as trees. 1t
seemed like an everlasting run to
cross it, then after striking New
Mexico and Arizona we began to
see plenty of dry barren noun
tains. If one cares to own a farm
in western Texas all you have to
do is stake off 100 acres and the
government will give you a title
for it and your associates would
be the rough dark MeXicans and
Indians, all lazy, indolent people.
If you owned a farm there the
next question would be how to ir-
rigate it, hard problem to solve,
for water is a scarce article and
the sand very deep and, as 1t
rains only in winter, it is neces-
sary to irrigate, which would be
very expensive. The water here
is neither hard nor soft and comes
from artesian wells and is used
Tor all purposes The Colorado
river forms the boundry line be.
tween Arizona and California, and
an out break of this river covered
thousands of acres of good land.
1t is called the "Salt and Sea"
Our route took us thro this body
of water for miles, on one side of
! the track it was so wide we
couldn't see across, but on the
other side was only about 100 feet
of water. To look from your win
dow one would imagine the train
was running in water, as the road
bed was only narrow trench
thrown up with thousands of bags
of sand piled evenly along the
track to keep it from washing
After striking California We
came thro large orange groves and
vineyards oe 10000 acres. If the
car windows had been up we could
have reached the oranges on either
side.
We stayed at Los Angeles one
week, and during that time Will
travelled here and there looking up
a location and finally decided on
this city of 10000, We are go
miles east of Los Angeles. They
have plenty of fees at the coast
towns and even at Los Angeles,
and that is about 10 miles from
beech, but none here, We visited
Long Beech and went out one-half
mile on the ocean pier to the pavi-
lion, where there was a skating
rink and other attractions, Most
of the homes here are cottages,
shingle rooted, painted red or