Alma record. (Alma, Mich.) 1878-1928, 1912-03-07
}. |. MILLER 5 OPINION
Of CalifOfnla-Lettcr Written from
San BerndrdiDO
San Bernardino, Cal, 2 10 IL.
Ir. {. | Brown

D WI. - J, blOWH
My Dear Sir and Friend:
Thinking that some of my friends
and the readers of your valuable pa
per might be interested in some of
the things | have seen and heard |
would write you and you might Sc
! lect out a few Of the many things and
! give them a short hand sketch OF a
few things as they exist as | have
seen them with my eyes and heard
them with my ears.
When ! left Alma | had made al
arrangements as ] supposed 10 say
| good bye to Alma, not because there
was not a good loyal lot OF people
and good country back of it but
! better and untold advantages here
! in the beautiful California which Of
course cannot be described, but must
be seen 10 be believed. / did not be-
/ lieve the newspaper advertising but
! all that has been said is nothing but
what is or has been true as far as |
can see While 30 days from home
| have gained Ga pounds over normal
weight, "a pounds more than In
30 years as far as | know, with renew
ed vigor | am just ready to put forth
the greatest effort TO do more in the
next year than the past 62 years.
My first stop over was Mansfield,
H., on Saturday. To say was roy
ally entertained by one Charles w
Firke, fathers family would be
mild, the Charles Firke is young
attorney and the hustling real estate
man that is bringing lot OF the
illinois men to Gratiot county, Alma,
Breckenridge and has an office at
Ashley and we'll may they come to
Gratiot county to buy and live for
they can find plenty of land just as
good as theirs and with good build
ings for half that price and less
There are no barns to speak OF around
central Illinois in this section fine
farms for miles and seldom have
house as good as our ordinary coun-
try house. If the average Michigan
man should waste his fodder as they
do we would not be in the farming
business long The average Illinois
man that | got acquainted with is by
no means proud, they are more like
back where or when Adam lived,
what will answer is plenty good
enough, a few thousand does not set
the men or even the women wild or
crazy for alluring things but comfort =
and contentment seems to prevail
The men ! met in the town were the
class that made their fortunes by
cutting them out of raw material in
a rough way. mostly 30 or 10 years
ago they commenced
Los Angeles is the hub OF Califor-
MIA, for 1900 miles away there seem
to be heralded from Evening News
boys Los Angeles. More than any
other town all seemed to be headed
for Los Angeles, and if you who have
never been there should see it you
would say il is the hub sure; but
Long Branch is the best place or
home, il is unlike any other place
il seems more like some Sunday at
ternoon no one seems TO be in a
hurry and have plenty of time to en-
Joy the beautiful sunshine and pure
air but the most marked thing I
saw was so many old men and wo-
men at the great NJ. T. Church
building, who came with wheel chairs
canes. crutches, some being led as
we'll as the fine ladies well but plain
ly dressed to hear man preach that
undrcssed all forms of sin even from
the wash woman to the highest poll
tical position in society, rich and poor
alike, the laborer stood on the same
platform as the man of wealth. I
said to several men, "is this the way
your pastor breaches" they told me
I ought TO have heard him last Sun
day The large gallery will hold
about as many as our church and all
space seemed TO be packed. Well
this made a strong impression on
my mind. | set out to find a place
here in the land of Eden as a good
comfortable place for home
| spent more than one week to find
that alfalfa clover field that would
yield s. 10 and 10 tons of fine hay
and traced it down to San Bernard
ino. in a valley where there are
claimed TO be the greatest flowing
wells in Lower California Real estate
men showed me lands that had some
alfalfa that claimed to be good Judges
of lands and everyone was buying
hay. One man on 90 acres had
horses, cows with five acres of al
falfa and he was Dragging that his
horses was doing as well on so small
amount of land and he bought 30 tons
of alfalfa last fall to feed his stock