South Bend news-times. (South Bend, Ind.) 1913-1938, 1915-04-13
Seeing America
First
BY Fred Kelly.

would not have had the heart to
write in my diary today except for
one thing 1 saw in the papers yes
terday that Washington young
woman has recovered the 5000 cigar
ct case she left in her wheel chair at
Palm Beach If she had not recov-
cred that $4,000 cigaret case il would
have spoiled the entire spring and
summer for me. l reckon l would
have cried myself to sleep every night
for a month. That she can smoke
once again from the $4,000 gem-stud-
ded case is the best news i have heard
since I read a while ago that a fam
cier had finally developed a perfect
cat Now. if / could just get some
positive assurance that Mabel Gilman
Corey will never write any more mag
azine articles and that Eleanor Sears
will soon be back safe and sound on
the first page / believe l could go to
work with a light heart.
The San Diego exposition must be
the best exposition, considering the
size of the town in which it is located.
that has ever been put on. San Diego
was a town of only 10000 when their
fair was started five years ago. Now
they claim 100000. That may be a
trifle high, but anyway the town has
Any town of 10000 population. con-
tanning people that have the nerve TO
undertake a show like that at San
Diego ought TO have anything it
wants
I am not going to do much describ-
ing of eXpositions, for that has been
done rather eXhaustiVely in folders
and booklets that may be had for the
asking, but the San Diego fair is char
81 f hxr n1 icif
that makes it a cameo of eXpositions.
1t must be borne in mind that it is
primarily a horticultural fair, show
ing>the products of southern Califor-
MIA. Hence the Out-of- doors part,
with it's flowers and landscape effects
is just as important as the inside. The
San Diego fair is worth going to see,
even if one didn't go inside a build
ing.
The most noteworthy exhibit at
San Diego, to my mind. is the fve-acre
model farm, with its model bungalow
and model gardeners cottage. 1t has
at least one sample of every kind of
fruit, flower, vegetable or shrub that
will grow in southern California, and
nothing on it was planted more than
two years ago. After the fair is over,
the city of San Diego plans to keep the
model farm for a permanent exhibit
but by the state, for it will bring
scores Of people to California. 1 can
not imagine any one of human i'm
pulses looking at the model farm
without feeling a desire TO live in
California on a ffve-acre farm some
what similar.
San Diego claims to have a climate
that shows less variation in the course
of the entire year than any place in
= ha Mo in, he
world. / forget now which. Anyway,
they insist that il is a great climate
warmer in winter and cooler in sum-
mer than any place else you can think
of. II you are too hot. just move
across the street into the shade, and
all is lovely If you are a trihe cool
reverse the process. I tried the
scheme to see if il would work, and
il did.
Then San Diego has other attrac-
tons 1t is on beautiful bay, within
sight Of snow capped mountains and
its people are real genuine folks. If
I were picking a town for the offhand
hospitality OF its peOple-people that
I would like to have for neighbOrs-I
believe / would select San Diego.
Down in the Imperial valley, q
stretch of fertile irrigated country
south of San Diego. overlapping into
old Mexico, they take a peculiar at
titude toward the weather. They have
less than one inch of rainfall a year
and everybody is mad because they
have that much. The people there
look at ii this way:
I'VE can't hope TO get enough rain
TO do anything any good. We must
depend entirely on water from the
Colorado river for our crops So why
have rain at all? Everything here is
arranged on no rainfall basis An
hour of rain muses. everything up.
Better have not a drop Of rain"
The clay soil is the kind that we
build adobe houses of. and when it
gets wet il sticks TO ones feet worse
than any clay YOU ever saw. If a
man Keeps chickens and they walk
about the yard after a rain the clay
has 10 be amputated from their feet
by hand. Is il any wonder they are
opposed TO rain2 Imagine having 10
go out and spend a day picking clay
from the feet of a lot of silly-lOoking
chickens. ] would rather make my
living tying string in almanacs.