Ellsworth American. [volume] (Ellsworth, Me.) 1855-current, 1909-02-03

was set upon it.
Our little steamer had called at Santa
Barbara during the night; and as now
remember, we stopped several hours
ashore. Some of the passengers walked
up to the centre Of the town, some little
distance, among them. But what could
we see OF town at midnight? l had
/ heard that it was beautiful town, with
fine climate; heard that in the East before
coming here.
| 1t was early one morning in April, 1876,
near the last OF the month, when we ar
rived off Santa Monica, the PROV of our
boat heading for the only pier there. 1t
was a bright clear morning and compare
lively calm. There were some swells with
small combers, losing themselves on the
beach of sand. There was nothing to me
strange about this, nothing grand. / had
| seen beat mes. and had, many time, seen
the Atlantic in its fury lashing them and
dealing siedge- hammer blows upon gran
ito cliffs and mighty natural bulwarks
along her awful coast in tempest.
But on this morning had beautiful
| view of a glorious sunrise. The sun as it
rose seemed to leap from mountain peak,
and as it did so gilded it and its neigh
boring peaks, chasing lazy shadows away
from their hiding in vale and gorge, light
ing up the whole landscape with new day.
l saw and felt things different from my
experience in old Maine. There saw hill
and vale and brook all tumbled in to-
gether. Here saw great valley, like
plain, spreading out to the right and to
the left, touching foothili and ridge,
reaching eastward as far as the eye could
reach, between mountain ranges, gray
nearby but Of . blush hue yonder; and
over It all and filing my lungs was q sweet,
soft, balmy atmosphere. Surely l had
reached the border of my promised land,
soon to enter it. I began to feel an up
lifting, buoyant influence creeping owe,
me. l felt like shouting and clapping my
hands for joy; but fearing that would be
taken for crazy man, restrained my
self. was seeing strange piece Of coun-
try and felt strangely in 1t.
On our way to Los Angeles on the train
saw great "bands" Of sheep and herds OF
cattle feeding on the level land; the herder
with his stick and dogs, the cowboy with
his pony and lariat. There were hum
dreds, maybe thousands, Of dirty sheep;
and many cattle not SO very sleek. Ny
father and his neighbors, in my old home
town, kept each a few sheep, dozen or
two, seldom half hundred; but they
were white as feecy clouds compared with
these have described; yes, and each
neighbor kept half dozen milch cows,
more or less, and a yoke Of steers, and
usually they were in fine condition, sleek ~
offers, especially when they fed in the
green pastures in summer time.
O, the summer time, the beautiful New
England summer time! 1t beats Califor-
mia summer time, for me. O, the winter
time, the New England winter timei
That's what did me up. l want no more
OF it in mine. Give me the southern Cal
ifornia winter time every time.
On this trip on the cars, saw squirrels,
the like of which had never seen before
to any great extent. Squirrels living in
the ground, burrowed, and burrowing
everywhere. Where I came from they
live in and feed on sweet nuts and buds Of
forest trees, from the lowest shrub to the
tallest pine. They have their nests in
hollow stubs and fallen trees, and in
them too they store their winter supplies
OF food. They face very little danger
from shot gun. Nobody wants to kill
them when he can find . partridge, or
deer, or moose. About the only fear he
has is the boy with hoe, for il the boy
sees him running along fence rail he will
try and knock him OF with the hoe
handle. But out here he has to contend
with the rancher and his pail of poison.
II were a squirrel I would prefer the
Maine woods.
The engineer whistles for the station of
Los Angeles. In minute we are in the
'sCity of the Angels. Everybody seems
to be going to the United States hotel
and so go there and get dinner, leaving
my baggage at the depot; for it is my in
tention to try and find room with some
Yankee American family for few weeks.
There were, believe, three other hotels
in the city, all on North Main street.
They were the Pico, st. Charles and Grand.
In front Of the United States hotel, on the
outer edge of the sidewalk, running be-
tween posts holding up an awning or bal
cony, was long bench or seat made OF q
single thick plank, which seemed to be
occupied most of the time with loafers,
and one could, if his ears were open, hear
many curious and amusing remarks as he
passed and repassed them on the SIDE
walk.
On one occasion as walked past, / over
heard a remark, which Il felt sure was
aimed at me. 1t was this: s'There's an
other poor TELLER come out here to die !;
he's too far gone for this climate to do
him any good" One ."feller" said: "He
ought to drink buttermilk." He said that
buttermilk had cured him. took good
look at the fellow, did not like his COM
plexion, and decided that would not diet
on buttermilk.
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