Los Angeles herald., 1910-02-20

grew. toward nakedness and the
peerless valley gave it raiment.
The debt Los Angeles owes to those
who have reclaimed the desert and
built the highest type of civilization on
the frontier it's people do not realize.
But wait awhile. l am ahead of my
story. l want you to know. l want
you to see the panorama of a decade
of years move by.
There lay Los Angeles between her
rugged hills. To the north a gap
leading to a region of scant population.
To the west the narrow coastal plain
and the Pacific. To the south and the
east a fringe of verdure, a cluster of
gold-laden trees, and then leagues upon
leagues of desert where the desiccated
rats burrowed deep for scant roots and
the CasSius like coyote sought in soli-
tude for the rare morsel of food
But wait again. We are speaking
now of Los Angeles, and my pen per-
sists in rushing on to the desert story
We are speaking of Los Angeles, per-
fumed with her roses, decked with her
callas, entwined by little cities that
encircled her like a garland of sweet
scented and dainty blossoms.
But men can starve on roses and
thirst on perfume.
We had dreamed, you and I, of a
city of a million people there. Dreams
sometimes come true, but no dream
city of a million people ever became
a reality without bread and butter and
milk and meat and you and 1 know
that we needed the inspiration that
comes from potatoes and close social
relationship with the American hog to
make Los Angeles all that it should be.
Then came Imperial valley. 1t came
without any salvos of welcome. 1t
came without any general recognition
of what it's coming implied. 1t came
from the land man thought God had
forgot. 1t came strewn with the bones
of men and animals that had died of
thirst 1t came on the winds that had
through a lost eternity toyed with the
shifting sands of its indescrfbable
dunes. 1t came clad in soft tones of
grays and chocolates, and its dome
was a sky more clear and sparkling
with more diamonds than the sky
of Italy and its sunriseS and sunsets
were veritably confiagrations traced
by the great Limner
1t was the poor man who found I'M
perial valley. AS men had doubted
whether any good could come out of
Nazareth, so many refused to believe
that riches could be found in land
that had oft been referred to in Its
desert state as an earthly type of
hell.
And so the merchant prince closed his
eyes to Imperial valley, the real estate
operator turned his back, the banker
locked his vault. The people of Los
Angeles, the people who needed I'M
perial valley as much as the valley
needed Los Angeles, refused to be-
lieve.
But the poor man came, poor fellow.
For a century he had been hunting for
a new poor mans land, and he was
willing to go anywhere that he could
find a place to pitch a tent and call 1t
home, and goodness knows there was
room enough for tent in Imperial
valley, and the government made big
promises to him if he would settle
down and reclaim the desert.
And I see the poor man and his fam
lily, as 1 saw them nearly decade
ago, drive into Imperial valley with MS
family, and OH so tired. they looked,
man and woman and pitiful babe, after
drives that ranged all the way from
a hundred to thousand miles.
I see them alight and gaze about
and shake sample dust from hun
dred townships from their clothing,
and then l see them begin their strug-
giles to build homes. That tent they
h. do fhntnha6