Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1917-01-16

|
has envied the grocery clerks of tbs
east who We're getting their $50 pc:
week in munition factories and stories
| of wheat going to market at $3.50 anc
! of Sill hogs in the farming country OF
| the Mississippi valley have caused tbs
| people of this Pacific coast TO feel that
| they were going to be left out OF al
| the functions that are being given b!
| the war brides of the nation
those dehutante profits arising from,
markets which are determined by the
European war hut in the last days
when diplomats are sparring for ad-
vantage in peace negotiations rert-
| table horde of all degrees OF prosperity
from all the states has descended upon
Southern California for the winter.
Timpkin, of the T.mpkin bearings,
has rented a furnished house in
Pasadena at $4,000 per month. The
Swifts and John D. Rockefeller Jr., are
looking for furnished homes rich
enough for their price, 1t is re-
ported in the newspapers that twenty
homes have already been rented in
Pasadena at rentals above $1,000 per
month. over in Los Angeles where
the chamber OF commerce maintains
an open booster exposition of Cali
fornia products the registration Of
tourists shows 500 per day where the
same days last year showed $50. These,
of course, are not of the millionaire
class. They are of the middle classes
and our own rural observer G. z. VIII
son will be vindicated in his prediction
that the average Iowa farmer is GO
ing to California for a trip this Win
ter since the Los Angeles Times COM
ments this morning upon the surpris-
ing fact that a majority of those regis
tering at the exhibit of the chamber
of commerce are giving their occu-
pations as farmers.
II is having its effect upon prices.
Those who have been coming regularly
find the price Of their favorite apart
ments boosted so per cent. Eggs,
potatoes and butter are as high in
price as in any of our snow bound
states. Green vegeta bles, of course.
are cheaper. 1t took me three days to
find a suitable furnished home for rent
and then l had to pay much higher
price than two years ago. Then the
problem Of the unemployed was acute
in this land and the tourist crop was
short. OF the seven homes offered 10
ne then the one l rented and one other
were the only ones occupied that win
ter. Five harvested no tourists that
year. This year one agent called at
five places in one forenoon with me
only TO find that some other agent-had
rented them the day before.
This business of renting homes
furnished is peculiar to a coun-
try that thrives upon its tourists. Just
imagine what would happen at the
front door Of the Willard home in Mar
shalltoHn if Sam Bell should bring
some stranger up the steps with a re-
quest TO rent the place furnished for
three months? And yet out here it is
the custom to rent much more magnif-
cent homes with all their costly fur
nishings and also those of less luxury
down to a three-room bungalow unit
in court of a dozen on one lot. l
rode out on the Santa Fee in the same
train with Senator J. A. Smith, Of
Usage, Iowa, VINO owns a very beauti-
full home in the fashionable section of
this city and he remarked that his
California home never seemed such
an eXtrava gance to him as it did this
year for he had been compelled to re-
fuse an offer of $500 per month for
it for five months. AT that price it
would he the best paving investment
he had ever owned for he had bought
it two years ago, when times were
II Ia1g a.
We are located in a home fully as
well furnished as our own in Marshall
town and at price which we could
we'll afford to pay and still save eX-
pense as compared TO hotel or apart
ment living with a large family.
can't ina CINE what could have tempted
the owners to rent for they moved into
a small apartment in this city to
vacate their home for us. / have a
suspicion that some easy money from
Iowa is going to add some more fur
nishings to this home for the lady be-
gan buying new rugs Immediately up
on receipt of my rent and I am re-
minded of the mistress of one of our
best homes in Marshalltown who
filled up her house with convention
delegates at.s1 per night so as to
possess a much more expensive hat
than she felt she could afford other
wise. However, if these people out
here are satisfied am.
AS write I am sitting on the open
veranda looking over palms and
orange trees and directly up at the
snow capped Mt. Badly. 1t is a bright
clear day and the observatory on top
of Mt. Low, 10000 feet elevation, is in
clear view, while the children are
playing horse in the yard without
wraps or hats and mother is picking
roses. Fine, business for vacation
but it would make a man lazy if he
took it as a steady job.
Kemble, the florist, has rented a
cottage for three and is awheel in a
second hand Cadillac. He has called
on me twice while have been waiting
for my car to come by freight. Kemble
was to have shipped his car with mine
but he found that he could beat that
plan which would have cost him $240
for freight both ways or about s1.20
per hour running time for all that he
could possibly drive in three months.
Cars with drivers and gasolene fur
nished can be rented out here for $3.50
per hour. Kemble got a serviceable
Cadillac for $500 and expects to sell
it for nearly as much. Second hand
autos are parked in the open on vacant
dots along the main business street
with for sale tags on them at prices all
the way from SIS" 10 si.""3. Almost
any kind and description Of a car can
be had at these open air bargain stores.