The Semi-weekly leader. (Brookhaven, Miss.) 1905-1941, 1909-04-14
CALIFORNIA LETTER.
John {. Penn Gives an Interesting Sketch
Of CALIFORNIA; Capitol.

where / spent couple of months
very pleasantly. / am very favor
ably impressed with this little city
of sixty thousand polulation. Sac
ramento is one of the oldest places
in the State. 1t was first settled
in 1888. A man by the name of
lSutter was the founder. In laying
off the town into lots, he reserved
six squares or blocks in different
parts of the town to be used as
public parks. The city having
grown to such an extent, these
parks are virtually in the heart of
the city, beautifully embellshed
with a variety@of palms of large
proportions. These little parks
are beautiful all kinds of flowers
growing in them. They are kept
up and cared for by the city. This
being the capital of the State. the
citizens take great pride in keep
ing the city always in nice shape.
The capitol building and grounds
are perfectly grand. 1t is divine
pleasure to walk through the
grounds-nicely paved walks,
beautiful palms, elegant fountains.
shooting out sprays of water, close
ly moved grass cover most of the
grounds. Many comfortable bench
es are arranged all through the
grounds. You can take seat and
enjoy the surroundings.
i1his city is situated on the Sacra-
mento river, which is quite a
stream, navigable for steam boats
at all times. Some of the boats
run north of this city 125 miles;
south to San Francisco through the
| Bay of San Francisco a distance of
lao miles. These boats all do
large freight business. Several
railroads running in here do big
passenger and freight business.
The business houses are quite large
and "up to date in every particu-
lar. The residences are very pret
ty, nice yards with lots of fragrant
flowers. The streets are very
wide and nicely paved. There is
fine electric street car system
throughout the city. The electric
current for the street cars and
lighting the city is generated some
sixty miles away from here in the
mountains by water power and then
distributed to several places quite
a saving of fuel by this means.
Stone coal is very expensive in this
country, six dollars per ton by the
car load. Oil is used for fuel by
all the railroads and factories of all
kinds. This is a great country for
fruits. Oranges, apples, pears,
peaches, prunes and grapes are the
chief products of this valley. Many
orchards of English walnuts and al
monds, which are very profitable to
the farmer.
The Sierra Mountains are forty
miles east of here. You can see
them plainly on clear day. The
extreme top of this range of noun
tains is still covered with snow.
have enjoyed this trip. to the
Pacific coast, and will never regret
the money spent in sight seeing. f"
The attractions are many and quite
interesting. The scenery is beyond
description. | can't do it justice;
would exhaust my vocabulary and
then make a failure. Why should
home people go to Europe for
scenery, when they can find it out
West? Nothing equal to it. | ex
pect to leave here about the first of
May for Portland, Oregon. Will
spend a couple of weeks there and
then go to Seattle, Washington.
The big exposition opens in Seattle
June first. All foreign countries
will be represented with exhibits;
grand preparations are being made
to make it a success. | want to
spend a couple of weeks there.
Brother Hobbs, please pardon
the length of this article. Remem-
Der, this is a large country.
Wishing you and all the good
people Of Lincoln county health
and happiness. Yours,
JOHN E. PENN.