The Leon reporter. (Leon, Iowa) 1887-1930, 1907-04-04
California Letter.
Campbell. Cal. March q


EDITOR REpORTER-After reading so
many letters in your paper which people
have written who are absent from Leon,
thought perhaps a few might be in
terested in letter from me.
We arrived in this part of the globe,
which call almost to the jumping off
place, on the 9TH of November. We ar
rived at Oakland pier the night before
about II o'clock it was raining, which
made it very unpleasant.
We had to stay at the pier until
7 O'clock, when we took the train and
arrived at our destination about
10 o'clock. We are living in town Of
about 1000 inhabitants, in the Santa
Clara valley. We live five miles from
San Jose. 1t is quite a city and very
nice, but still shows signs of the great
earthquake, as lots of the buildings are
twisted and have very dilapidated
appearance. We are surrounded with
mountains from to 20 miles away, al
though at times they don't look to be
more than mile distance. At times
they look beautiful while other times
they look gloomy. 1t hss rained al
most all the time since we have been in
this God forsaken country, but when
the sun takes a notion to shine but
that isn't very often. They say there
has beer greater rainfall this winter
than they have had here since the year
of 1861, of course can't say, but agree
we have had plenty to satisfy me. 1t
has been very cold and damp most of
the time this winter with several heavy
frosts and quite fall of snow in the
foothills and also along the coast. We
are just Is miles from the coast and
so miles from San Francisco. 1t also
has frozen ice here this winter which
old settlers say is very unusual for this
country. AS for me believe l prefer
old Iowa, the land l love the best. In
the summer they say it gets very hot
with no rain, at that season Of the year
the dust they say will be SO bad you
can't stand to have your doors and
windows open.
Some call this fine country; everyone
to his notion. am not from Missouri but
will have to be showed just the same.
They say the fruit crop will be very
light here this year on account of SO
much rain and heavy frosts. Wages
are nothing extra here but general
merchandise is frightfully high and a
working man stands very poor show
as the Japs have most all of the work
corralled at 6 bits day. They car
live cheap you know. Where they would
live fat we would starve to death
There are several ranches here where
they employ from $50 to 200 Japs, there
is where the ranchmen gets his coin
the laps do the work and the ranchmcr
looks after the money. This country
is populated with all nationalities o
people. We live in sight of Mt. Hamil
! ton and the great Snow Cap mountain!
where the snow lies on the tops of then
] the year round this looks very pictur
esque. We had very pleasant tril
coming out here as we saw very man,
fine sceneries and passed through til.
4 very heart of the great Rockies linet
up and down with great pine trees.
could imagine | could hear the sal
4 murmuring Of the pines. We passet
through Royal gorge which was
y grand sight, although | must agree i
made one feel a little nervous. There
are some flowers in bloom here but the
are little backward on account of tn
weather. While some people like thi
j country can't say that l do, woul'
prefer Old Iowa with her cold weathe
in preference to California with tn
damp, chilly and disagreeable weather
here are fleas and mosquitoes. The
aim to keep every body busy. All c
the coast towns are full of them the
say. We have felt five earthquak
shocks since we have been out here
the Lord only knows what will be mex
likely; can tell you later. Well wi
close as likely have made this lette
too long. If this escapes the tras
basket and see it in print I likel
will write again. Best wishes to all.
Yours truly,
NIpc w