Webster City freeman. [volume] (Webster City, Hamilton County, Iowa) 1884-1946, 1912-11-26

are great marshy tracts which in
the rainy season are covered with
seas of water.
An obliging little lady on the
train lent me book entitled The
truth about California" (by q
woman. The inference might be
drawn that no man has told the
truth about the state However, the
author in her preface discredits
such writer's as Helen Hunt Jackson
characterizes as prejudiced all ad-
verse criticisms, and proceeds with a
fulsome and flowery account Of her
visit to the golden state. We might
with profit inquire what truth is in
this connection. Truth is what APP
peals to the perceptions of the indi-
vidual as reasonable and just, but
the truth to one individual is not
truth to another, and from day to
day the basis shifts as a fuller
knowledge permeates the individual
understanding. Truth is one of the
elusive quantities which cannot be
"cornered.' No one can possess all
the truth, and no one but who may
seek out some particles of truth.
California covers an immense area
and the properties of soil and eli
mate are infinite. For one who has
not covered every foot of her area
and studied every phase Of her pos
sibilities to make the claim of tel
ling "the truth about California" is
presumptuous, to say the least. Had
the author added, 'as see it," to
the title, her personal conclusions
would have borne the weight which
is due to any transient tourists re-
port, whereas the too expansive
claim for truth telling places her in
the prejudicial list. Besides, the
truth about California--or any 9TH
err state-cannot be told in one short
volume.
At San Ardo we reach the limit of
the heated section. In these parts
an offensive member of society is
told to go to San Ardo, instead of
the usual expletive which consigns
one to a sulphurous climate. AS we
passed the town the thermometer
marked los degrees and We were
loosely told that the day was I'M
usually cool. The contemplation of
sheol's climate should hold no ter
rors for San Ardoite.
At Crista Garden We encounter
the first tunnel on this trip, but it
is not the last, for we pass through
several in quick succession and be-
fore reaching our destination, we
speed through the darkness Of one
tunnel for twenty minutes.
At Santa Margarita and along the
line are immense bill tanks with pip
ing, should Judge, of eight inches
or more capacity, for the distribu-
tion of oil from Bakersfield to var
ious points and to the boats along
the coast. There are pumping sta
lions every five miles and at times
steam has to be injected into the
pipes to facilitate the flow. If Cali
fornia does not produce corn, she
furnishes an abundance of other life
sustaining material. Corn is one
form of stored energy, crude oil is
another, and each in it's especial
way creates still another form of en-
ergy, and so on throughout the
alembic of nature. If the heat which
scorches these southern districts
could be manipulated as other forms
of force and substance are being
harnessed, the contribution to man
would be illimitable.
At San Mignel we passed frown-
ing old mission. While it does not
claim the distinction of being
"builded without hands," it is said
that no hammer or nails We're used
in its construction, COW or horse
hide thongs furnishing the method
of uniting the wooden parts and
adobe solidifying the walls. The
mission, as such, is now abandoned
but still contains rare paintings, so
we were told At San Luis Obispo is
a polotechnic school; we saw the
diversified fields of products and the
students carrying on the work, and
further along the line we observe
immense areas of lima beans and
truck gardens grow more numerous.
Pismo is pointed out on account of
its celebrated clam bakes. At Ocean
Beach is an immense bathing pa
vilion, and thereabouts the wind
seems to have played hide and seek
with the sand, as great dOons are