Connecticut western news., 1915-07-08
TRIP TO CALIFORNIA
Paper Rea4 bv Miss Lillian Parsons at
 Commencement.

Commencement.
 l The paper by Miss Lillian Parsons.
 descriptive of her recent trip to Cali fOrnia, read at the grammar school con-
 mencement exercises, proved so inter
 esting, that a number of listeners have
 suggested its publication in The News.
 In accordance with that suggestion the paper is herewith printed:
 MY TRIP TO CALIFORNIA.
 On the morning of March l6 we went
 to New York, spending a day there,
 on the next morning we took a south.
 ern Pacific Steamer for New Orleans.
 About the first things we saw were DOT
 pniSes and jelly fish. The jelly fish
 had beautiful shells of rainbow hue and
 they tioated on the waves in large mum
 berS. There were great many light
 houses off the coast of Florida. X
 large lightship off Cape Hatteras
 evidently in distress signalled to our
 boat and put out several life boats. 1
 couple large boxes of food were thrown
 to them aud taken back to the ligh-
 ship. The next thing of interest was
 the Gulf Stream which we entpreG
 around Flt rida The warmth of tie
 stream could b, felt immediately aftel
 entering it. The water was intensly
 black and the boundary of the greeh
 sea water couli be seen on either side.
 We continued to follow this bluch stream until the day before landing. The shores of the Mississippi River were very beautiful and green. Thr
 levees also were interesting, bsing made of mud, stones and old logs.
 After reaching the city of New ! Orleans we went sightseeing. There were many old Spanish buildings to see, the most inter esting of which was museum. This contained ie original bird paintings of Audubon. They are in two books about l ] feet thick, 8 1 feet long and , feet wide. X strungt' visiting place was the cemetery, tLe walls and several tombs Cf which were built by the first explurers. The tomhs are like chest of drawers. All th. bodies of one family are put in one 1 drawer and it is never to be opened under any circumstances but this. The French markets were established by the first French settlers and they are still busy
 After leavi lg this old French city we crossed the desert of Texas and Ari. zona. The large ranches of these ! deserts have hundreds of COWS. Every few feet we W ,uld see the skulls, few loose bones, the entire skeleton, or the 1 body of a COW which had been deal but few days. Sjme parts of the desert were cove ed with beautiful magenta flowers. d their sweet fragrance filled the car. They frequently have sand storms u ere which are always pre- ceded hy fieecy white clouds. There are great mady Indians on this desert The goveInme It pays them every month for renting tn .ir land and soon us they get this money they 20 and buy what ever takes their fancy. One woman had dirty little papoose wrapped in beautiful kewpi blanket and put in a ] linden cradle. Another woman had a baby strapped to her back and a younger woman had dozens of thimbles hanging like fringe from the edge of her shawl. Just one bought 25 spools of the best sewing silk, brightly colored which she braided in her hair. Others bought bright green, red, purple and blue silk cloth and blankets. Then they spread large horse blanket on the floor, put ] all their bundles in it, tied it up and fastened it up securely between two burros. Their next move was to sit down and eat their upper on the side walk.
 Another interesting feature of Doug las were the schools. The Mexican and Indian children were of the most interest. The children were more polite here than in any schools visited while away. Douglas is a good sized city, the largest copper smelters in the world are situated there and also 5000 United States troops to protect the Mexican border.
 After leaving this desert we went to Riverside, California. The great fields { all the way from Douglas to Riverside were full of California poppies, colored orange, light yellow and white. We reached Riverside the day before Easter Sunday. On Easter Sunday morning at four o'clock we took an auto and fol lowed the rest to the cross on the top of Mt. Phewfadeux. There was con tinual stream of autos from the Mission
 Iuu hO up Ol sbllS llblll , three o'clock to six o'clock. The sing ing was very wonderful. After the service while waiting for the auto to come to us celebrated author told the following story:
 The school children had been asked to write play in three acts. The fol. lowing play was written by one of the . bright bows of the class:
 Act one. A colonel sitting in a room remarked to general who had just en- tered: Gee, general, it's fierce fighting without flag! Gee tis fierce fighting without flag! answered the general. Act two. The French and Indian war The colonel said to the general, Gee, general, it's fierce fighting without flag! Gee, tis fierce fighting without a flag! answered the general.
 M fbraa Ravnl1fip Txy