The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1907-09-19

1t slowly, so as not to seattle the soft
surface, which flying hoofs and rapidly
revolving wheels throw like mud.
The climate of Southern California is
its greatest attraction to those who do
not like cold weather. The months
which are the most unpleasant in Gar
rett county, December to April. are
liked best by some people IN Southern
California, as the sunshine is relieved
by frequent rains. there is absence of
dust, and the weather never is hot.
From the first of May the rains become
less frequent and by June they have
ceased entirely. not to begin again for
five or six months. The heat and dust
increase in Los Angeles, Pasadena,
Riverside, Redland, and all places dis
tant twenty miles or more from the Pa
cifio Ocean, but near the sea the climate
is delightful. Fogs rise in the night and
sometime are not dissipated until late
IN the morning or noon. They prevent
the suns rays from beating down the
whole Of long summers day and
have somewhat the same effect upon
flowers and plants as does dew
in the East These fogs are
so heavy at times that the mois-
ture can be seen falling like very fine
rain. As the season advances the fogs
or mists become less frequent and dur
ing September and October are rare.
lrese two months, and November also.
If the rainy season does not set in,
which are delightful months in Western
Maryland, are the most unpleasant Of
the year in Southern California. In
tea dry heat, dust so thick and com
mon as to cover everything within a
hundred yards of each street or road,
and scarcity of water makes a third of
the year very unpleasant Work has
to go on, heat or no heat, in the orange
groves. track farms, and chicken
ranches, but The natives do as little as
possible. A man in Santa Barbara,
who sold rope and baskets made by
Mexicans from plated grass and PUSHES,
found his stock getting low. One day
he drove out in the country several
miles to hamlet where rope and bas-
kets were made, to learn why the sup
ply had fallen off. He found most of
the women seated in the shade Of the
largest adobe house, caring for their
babies, sewing or preparing vegetables
fc' the midday meal, while opposite
them were grouped the men, all smok-
ing cigarettes and listening to one of
their number who was playing upon
guitar. White people from the East,
if hey stay here continually, lose their
energy also, and it is advisable that such
should spend winter in a cold climate
a. least every three or four years.
Curiously enough people who live here
five or six years become so used to warm
weather that temperature of forty or
fifty degrees is as uncomfortable to
them as Is zero weather TO a Garrett
county farmer family. All the bet
ter class Of houses and public buildings
have tireplaces, stoves or furnaces.
Coal costs in Southern California $l2 a
ton and fire wood, SIC cord, but fuel
oil, which is mostly used, is cheap, one
dollar barrel for fifty gallons. So
much IS written here about the climate,
for the information of those who may
imagine they would be better off in
Southern California than where they
are
During the last ten years more than
seven hundred earthquakes shocks in
California have been recorded. Most
or these shocks were so slight as not
to be felt, and their existence might
not have been known were it not for re-
cording instrument in observatories and
scientific laboratories. Many of the
shocks, however, were felt, and some,
especially the one which caused the par
tial destruction of San Francisco a year
ago last April, caused damage to proper
ty and loss of life. Up to the date of
the San Francisco disaster, residents
paid little attention to earthquake
shocks, they were so common.
An acquaintance of the writer said
she counted five shocks in one morning.
Since the big quake of 1906, all people
are more or less nervous when they
feel shocks, these are most common in
early Spring and late Fall. Last June
the writer was awakened out of sleep
at night by violent shaking of the
room door. He thought some one was
trying to enter, but there was no more
disturbance; the next morning he was
told that there had been a slight earth
quake. A month later, as he was seated
on porch, about nine o'clock in the
evening, the floor swayed and the posts
supporting the roof appeared to be
about to fall, the shock lasted second
only, but was accounted a sharp one.
In the theatre in Santa Barbara, six
miles away, when the shock came the
audience climbed over the backs Of the