The Oskaloosa herald. (Oskaloosa, Mahaska County, Iowa) 1885-1919, 1908-02-06
ROBT. DOAK'SLETTERS
Interesting Description of People
And Places.
San Diego, Cal, Jan. 26.

Herald Family: 1t has been very
| dry this winter, so to speak, when In
| reality it is summer all the time.
| There have ben occasional showers
| which were light, until the 23rd, when
everything let loose and the rain
| came down in showers during the
night and in daytime with sunshine
| intermingling. On Sunday morning
1t rained until the streets were run
ming with water like creeks. 1t was
cloudy most of the forenoon, with
showers; the. sun shone brightly and
was warm in the afternoon. Where
they farm here they will be busy SOW
ing barley, wheat and oats, to make
hay for their stock. Rain here IN the
winter months is the most profitable
boon this country has.
1t has been reported to me that
San Diego had seven thousand land
agents, exclusive of many that are
working on the side. Most of the
country around San Diego is laid Off
in town lots, with boom prices at
tached. San Diego Bay is a large
body of water, with the Coronado and
Speckles Island lying between it and
the ocean. The bay is eighteen
miles long. At the east end are
large salt works where the large
watts are made to hold the water un-
til it evaporates and the salt is
scooped up white as snow.
The last boom for San Diego is a
large glass factory to be erected in
the east part. Reports in the morn
ing papers are that the schooner
Vega, from Tacoma, had arrived with
about 100000 feet of lumber for the
construction OF the building to COM
mence at once, and would employ 135
skilled workmen to start with, and
also a $4,000 gasoline motor car
would be put on the Cuyamaca Ry.
March LIST, running to Lemon Grove,
La Mesa and Elcajon with running
capacity of 60 miles an hour, making
several trips to these places each day,
| The first stop would be at Lemon
| Grove, where you can hardly see the
| houses for the lemon ranches. One
| of the rich ranchers here is Col. Bry-
an, don't know if William Jennings
Bryan is related to him or not. La
| Mesa, think will make nice inland
town, surrounded by mountains. 1t
commenced to build about one year
ago and school was started with
sixteen scholars and now they have
| sixty-five and neat school building,
cement walks and curbs are being put
down. They have post Office, three
| general stores, a good hotel lemon
| packing house, printing office and
blacksmith shop. Excajon, is nice
4 valley with a boarder of several
| mountains around, with one above the
|, other all looking alike only one a
little higher than the other. This
road spoken of runs to Foster which
is the terminal, have not been Earth
er out than Elcajon, Is miles from
here.
was down on the Santa Fe few
days ago and saw a large freightel
unloading, it was the Alaskan, of New
York, she was 40 feet long, 81 fee
wide and had a capacity of 1900
tons and had on board chew OF A.
men. The make of the vessel wal
steel an inch thick, the mast was al
steel In looking over this larg'
freighter | saw no wood only in tn,
construction or the Office and sleeping
apartments.
J. B. Harris departed from here o.
the 10th and is now at Redlands. HI
was feeling well when he left here,
he had not had his baggage taken I
the depot, he talked that he Nigh
change his mind.
The rain here has not made 1t cold
am seated by an open window writ
ing and have had no heater In m
room. Sometime before going to be
I set a coal oil lamp on the floor an
hold my feet over 1t to dry the swea
Seldom have the windows been close
unless the rain was coming in.
made visit recently to the DIV
packing house here and found larg
force of Mexican ladies and lassiei
Most Of the olives put up there wer
ripe olives picked and put up in ii
cans There were great many larg
tanks where the olives go through tn
picking process, after canning the
are labeled and packed for shipmen
there was nearly a train load in tn
building and ouly very few woul