The Republican journal. [volume] (Belfast, Me.) 1829-current, 1916-03-02
Riverside behind and were once more nm


The Pacific Electric Railway offered
a very attractive especially conducted
tour of the beaches, and as we consider
ed a visit to California incomplete
without look at its pleasure resorts,
next morning bright and early we made
our way through Los Angeles badly
congested traffic to the P. E. station.
This being known as the Balloon Route
trip. as we bought our tickets we were
each given an identification badge in
the shape of button. bearing the sig
niticant word Balloon" | trust this
carried no personal application but was
only for the purpose of allowing our
guide to identify US in case we were
lost, strayed or stolen.
Our car ran first out Sunset Boulevard
to Hollywood, called the finest of Los
Angeles suburbs, and well deserving it's
title. The conductor directed our atten-
ton to an unusual sight, which has lin
gered in my memory. A fine specimen
of palm tree grew in front of an i'm
posing hotel. Pink geraniums clustered
thickly about its base, and some sturdy
sprouts had climbed the tree and twined
in and out among the branches. blooming
| in great profusion, until the effect was
that of new variety of pink Towering
palm.
Our first stop was at Sawtelle, the
National Soldiers Home. Here the
veterans are most comfortably housed,
and the commodious buildings have an
attractive setting of wide lawns and
luXuriant gardens, in a reservation of
some 700 acres. Some peculiar trees
which the guide called Norfolk pines
caught my attention. They We're so
symmetrical and regular as to seem
more like artificial trees than natural
ones, and their needles were shorter than
those of any pines had seen before.
From Sawtelle we journeyed to Santa
Monica, that paradise of the movies,
combining rugged canyons, wide beach
and beautiful residences set in the Won
derful gardens characteristic of South
ern California Here IN little pavilion
near the beach we were initiated into
the mysteries of the Camera Obscura,
combination of darkened room and re-
Elected light, that reproduced for US on
huge mirror in the center the passing
scenes on the pier and beach outside.
For over twenty miles our car sped
along the ocean shore. through Venice,
Moonstone and Hermosa Beaches to
Redondo, where a stop was made for
dinner. Here we saw the devastating
effect of the great storm that had swept
the California coast the previous winter,
and the shore was even yet strewn with
wreckage. Redondo was very evident
ly coming back, but the damage was
still painfully evident There was only
one feature to recommend our dinner
there-we didn't waste much money
on 1t.
Our guide soon called 'all aboard
and tore US away from the attractive
souvenir shops, to start back along the
beaches once more. One of my cherish
ed ambitions had been to gather moon
stones at Moonstone Beach, and the
promises held out by the circulars had
been most alluring, but alas for reality!
l almost quarrelled then and there with
our conductor because he did not think
it worth while to make the Moonstone
Beach stop at all, since the unusually"
high run of tides and the strong under
tow mad swept the beach so clean that
there was not so much as pebble in
sight. So although | brought home with
me some cherished uncut moonstones, |
shall have to confess that some were
presented me by my aunt as consola-
ton, and others purchased at a convent
ent curio store at five cents apiece.
Stops were made at Ocean Park and
Venice, and if we had held great ex-
pectations in regard to CALIFORNIA;
amusement beaches, fear we would
have been greatly disappointed. The
famous Ship Cafe on the pier at Venice,
and the Aquarium, containing speci-
mems of almost everything that inhab-
its the water, We're worthy of mention,
but with these exceptions the attrac-
tons were inferior to those of almost
any one of our Eastern beaches. Games
OF chance were particularly predomi-
nant, but if one did not care to indulge
in these, or to sit knee-deep in the soft
sand of dirty peanut strewn beach,
there was little else to do. The gon-
dolas in the inland canals that give Ven
ice its name were not in operation, and
we amused ourselves listening to the
semi selections rendered by
band on the pier, and in watching chill
dren driving about in tiny, fower-be-
decked carts drawn by docile little goats,
but we were not sorry when the time
came for our homeward journey.
Our guide experienced some little diff
ficulty in collecting his flock, and as he
counted noses to see if all were account.
ed for, we realized the value of the
distinguishing 'balloon" badges, We
rearhad op