EARLY VICISSITUDES.--PRODUCTIONS.--SANITARY CLIMATE.
Southern California has rapidly passed through varied experiences, and
has not yet had a fair chance to show the world what it is. It had its
period of romance, of pastoral life, of lawless adventure, of crazy
speculation, all within a hundred years, and it is just now entering
upon its period of solid, civilized development. A certain light of
romance is cast upon this coast by the Spanish voyagers of the sixteenth
century, but its history begins with the establishment of the chain of
Franciscan missions, the first of which was founded by the great Father
Junipero Serra at San Diego in 1769. The fathers brought with them the
vine and the olive, reduced the savage Indians to industrial pursuits,
and opened the way for that ranchero and adobe civilization which, down
to the coming of the American, in about 1840, made in this region the
most picturesque life that our continent has ever seen. Following this
is a period of desperado adventure and revolution, of pioneer
State-building; and then the advent of the restless, the cranky, the
invalid, the fanatic, from every other State in the Union. The first
experimenters in making homes seem to have fancied that they had come to
a ready-made elysium--the idle man's heaven. They seem to have brought
with them little knowledge of agriculture or horticulture, were ignorant
of the conditions of success in this soil and climate, and left behind
the good industrial maxims of the East. The result was a period of
chance experiment, one in which extravagant expectation and boasting to
some extent took the place of industry. The imagination was heated by
the novelty of such varied and rapid productiveness. Men's minds were
inflamed by the apparently limitless possibilities. The invalid and the
speculator thronged the transcontinental roads leading thither. In this
condition the frenzy of 1886-87 was inevitable. I saw something of it in
the winter of 1887. The scenes then daily and commonplace now read like
the wildest freaks of the imagination.
The bubble collapsed as suddenly as it expanded. Many were ruined, and
left the country. More were merely ruined in their great expectations.
The speculation was in town lots. When it subsided it left the climate
as it was, the fertility as it was, and the value of arable land not
reduced. Marvellous as the boom was, I think the present recuperation is
still more wonderful. In 1890, to be sure, I miss the bustle of the
cities, and the creation of towns in a week under the hammer of the
auctioneer. But in all the cities, and most of the villages, there has
been growth in substantial buildings, and in the necessities of civic
life--good sewerage, water supply, and general organization; while the
country, as the acreage of vines and oranges, wheat and barley, grain
and corn, and the shipments by rail testify, has improved more than at
any other period, and commerce is beginning to feel the impulse of a
genuine prosperity, based upon the intelligent cultivation of the
ground. School-houses have multiplied; libraries have been founded; many
"boom" hotels, built in order to sell city lots in the sage-brush, have
been turned into schools and colleges.
There is immense rivalry between different sections. Every Californian
thinks that the spot where his house stands enjoys the best climate and
is the most fertile in the world; and while you are with him you think
he is justified in his opinion; for this rivalry is generally a
wholesome one, backed by industry. I do not mean to say that the habit
of tall talk is altogether lost. Whatever one sees he is asked to
believe is the largest and best in the world. The gentleman of the whip
who showed us some of the finest places in Los Angeles--places that in
their wealth of flowers and semi-tropical gardens would rouse the
enthusiasm of the most jaded traveller--was asked whether there were any
finer in the city. "Finer? Hundreds of them;" and then, meditatively and
regretfully, "I should not dare to show you the best." The
semi-ecclesiastical custodian of the old adobe mission of San Gabriel
explained to us the twenty portraits of apostles on the walls, all done
by Murillo. As they had got out of repair, he had them all repainted by
the best artist. "That one," he said, simply, "cost ten dollars. It
often costs more to repaint a picture than to buy an original."
The temporary evils in the train of the "boom" are fast disappearing. I
was told that I should find the country stagnant. Trade, it is true, is
only slowly coming in, real-estate deals are sleeping, but in all
avenues of solid prosperity and productiveness the country is the
reverse of stagnant. Another misapprehension this visit is correcting. I
was told not to visit Southern California at this season on account of
the heat. But I have no experience of a more delightful summer climate
than this, especially on or near the coast.
[Illustration: AVENUE LOS ANGELES.]
In secluded valleys in the interior the thermometer rises in the daytime
to 85°, 90°, and occasionally 100°, but I have found no place in them
where there was not daily a refreshing breeze from the ocean, where the
dryness of the air did not make the heat seem much less than it was, and
where the nights were not agreeably cool. My belief is that the summer
climate of Southern California is as desirable for pleasure-seekers, for
invalids, for workmen, as its winter climate. It seems to me that a
coast temperature 60° to 75°, stimulating, without harshness or
dampness, is about the perfection of summer weather. It should be said,
however, that there are secluded valleys which become very hot in the
daytime in midsummer, and intolerably dusty. The dust is the great
annoyance everywhere. It gives the whole landscape an ashy tint, like
some of our Eastern fields and way-sides in a dry August. The verdure
and the wild flowers of the rainy season disappear entirely. There is,
however, some picturesque compensation for this dust and lack of green.
The mountains and hills and great plains take on wonderful hues of
brown, yellow, and red.
I write this paragraph in a high chamber in the Hotel del Coronado, on
the great and fertile beach in front of San Diego. It is the 2d of June.
Looking southward, I see the great expanse of the Pacific Ocean,
sparkling in the sun as blue as the waters at Amalfi. A low surf beats
along the miles and miles of white sand continually, with the impetus of
far-off seas and trade-winds, as it has beaten for thousands of years,
with one unending roar and swish, and occasional shocks of sound as if
of distant thunder on the shore. Yonder, to the right, Point Loma
stretches its sharp and rocky promontory into the ocean, purple in the
sun, bearing a light-house on its highest elevation. From this signal,
bending in a perfect crescent, with a silver rim, the shore sweeps
around twenty-five miles to another promontory running down beyond Tia
Juana to the Point of Rocks, in Mexican territory. Directly in
front--they say eighteen miles away, I think five sometimes, and
sometimes a hundred--lie the islands of Coronado, named, I suppose, from
the old Spanish adventurer Vasques de Coronado, huge bulks of beautiful
red sandstone, uninhabited and barren, becalmed there in the changing
blue of sky and sea, like enormous mastless galleons, like degraded
icebergs, like Capri and Ischia. They say that they are stationary. I
only know that when I walk along the shore towards Point Loma they seem
to follow, until they lie opposite the harbor entrance, which is close
by the promontory; and that when I return, they recede and go away
towards Mexico, to which they belong. Sometimes, as seen from the beach,
owing to the difference in the humidity of the strata of air over the
ocean, they seem smaller at the bottom than at the top. Occasionally
they come quite near, as do the sea-lions and the gulls, and again they
almost fade out of the horizon in a violet light. This morning they
stand away, and the fleet of white-sailed fishing-boats from the
Portuguese hamlet of La Playa, within the harbor entrance, which is
dancing off Point Loma, will have a long sail if they pursue the
barracuda to those shadowy rocks.
[Illustration: IN THE GARDEN AT SANTA BARBARA MISSION.]
We crossed the bay the other day, and drove up a wild road to the height
of the promontory, and along its narrow ridge to the light-house. This
site commands one of the most remarkable views in the accessible
civilized world, one of the three or four really great prospects which
the traveller can recall, astonishing in its immensity, interesting in
its peculiar details. The general features are the great ocean, blue,
flecked with sparkling, breaking wavelets, and the wide, curving
coast-line, rising into mesas, foot-hills, ranges on ranges of
mountains, the faintly seen snow-peaks of San Bernardino and San Jacinto
to the Cuyamaca and the flat top of Table Mountain in Mexico. Directly
under us on one side are the fields of kelp, where the whales come to
feed in winter; and on the other is a point of sand on Coronado Beach,
where a flock of pelicans have assembled after their day's fishing, in
which occupation they are the rivals of the Portuguese. The perfect
crescent of the ocean beach is seen, the singular formation of North and
South Coronado Beach, the entrance to the harbor along Point Loma, and
the spacious inner bay, on which lie San Diego and National City, with
lowlands and heights outside sprinkled with houses, gardens, orchards,
and vineyards. The near hills about this harbor are varied in form and
poetic in color, one of them, the conical San Miguel, constantly
recalling Vesuvius. Indeed, the near view, in color, vegetation, and
forms of hills and extent of arable land, suggests that of Naples,
though on analysis it does not resemble it. If San Diego had half a
million of people it would be more like it; but the Naples view is
limited, while this stretches away to the great mountains that overlook
the Colorado Desert. It is certainly one of the loveliest prospects in
the world, and worth long travel to see.
Standing upon this point of view, I am reminded again of the striking
contrasts and contiguous different climates on the coast. In the north,
of course not visible from here, is Mount Whitney, on the borders of
Inyo County and of the State of Nevada, 15,086 feet above the sea, the
highest peak in the United States, excluding Alaska. South of it is
Grayback, in the San Bernardino range, 11,000 feet in altitude, the
highest point above its base in the United States. While south of that
is the depression in the Colorado Desert in San Diego County, about
three hundred feet below the level of the Pacific Ocean, the lowest land
in the United States. These three exceptional points can be said to be
almost in sight of each other.
[Illustration: SCENE AT PASADENA.]
I have insisted so much upon the Mediterranean character of this region
that it is necessary to emphasize the contrasts also. Reserving details
and comments on different localities as to the commercial value of
products and climatic conditions, I will make some general observations.
I am convinced that the fig can not only be grown here in sufficient
quantity to supply our markets, but of the best quality. The same may be
said of the English walnut. This clean and handsome tree thrives
wonderfully in large areas, and has no enemies. The olive culture is in
its infancy, but I have never tasted better oil than that produced at
Santa Barbara and on San Diego Bay. Specimens of the pickled olive are
delicious, and when the best varieties are generally grown, and the best
method of curing is adopted, it will be in great demand, not as a mere
relish, but as food. The raisin is produced in all the valleys of
Southern California, and in great quantities in the hot valley of San
Joaquin, beyond the Sierra Madre range. The best Malaga raisins, which
have the reputation of being the best in the world, may never come to
our market, but I have never eaten a better raisin for size, flavor, and
thinness of skin than those raised in the El Cajon Valley, which is
watered by the great flume which taps a reservoir in the Cuyamaca
Mountains, and supplies San Diego. But the quality of the raisin in
California will be improved by experience in cultivation and handling.
The contrast with the Mediterranean region--I refer to the western
basin--is in climate. There is hardly any point along the French and
Italian coast that is not subject to great and sudden changes, caused by
the north wind, which has many names, or in the extreme southern
peninsula and islands by the sirocco. There are few points that are not
reached by malaria, and in many resorts--and some of them most sunny and
agreeable to the invalid--the deadliest fevers always lie in wait. There
is great contrast between summer and winter, and exceeding variability
in the same month. This variability is the parent of many diseases of
the lungs, the bowels, and the liver. It is demonstrated now by
long-continued observations that dampness and cold are not so inimical
to health as variability.
The Southern California climate is an anomaly. It has been the subject
of a good deal of wonder and a good deal of boasting, but it is worthy
of more scientific study than it has yet received. Its distinguishing
feature I take to be its equability. The temperature the year through is
lower than I had supposed, and the contrast is not great between the
summer and the winter months. The same clothing is appropriate, speaking
generally, for the whole year. In all seasons, including the rainy days
of the winter months, sunshine is the rule. The variation of temperature
between day and night is considerable, but if the new-comer exercises a
little care, he will not be unpleasantly affected by it. There are coast
fogs, but these are not chilling and raw. Why it is that with the
hydrometer showing a considerable humidity in the air the general effect
of the climate is that of dryness, scientists must explain. The constant
exchange of desert airs with the ocean air may account for the anomaly,
and the actual dryness of the soil, even on the coast, is put forward as
another explanation. Those who come from heated rooms on the Atlantic
may find the winters cooler than they expect, and those used to the
heated terms of the Mississippi Valley and the East will be surprised at
the cool and salubrious summers. A land without high winds or
thunder-storms may fairly be said to have a unique climate.
[Illustration: LIVE-OAK NEAR LOS ANGELES.]
I suppose it is the equability and not conditions of dampness or dryness
that renders this region so remarkably exempt from epidemics and endemic
diseases. The diseases of children prevalent elsewhere are unknown here;
they cut their teeth without risk, and _cholera infantum_ never visits
them. Diseases of the bowels are practically unknown. There is no
malaria, whatever that may be, and consequently an absence of those
various fevers and other disorders which are attributed to malarial
conditions. Renal diseases are also wanting; disorders of the liver and
kidneys, and Bright's disease, gout, and rheumatism, are not native. The
climate in its effect is stimulating, but at the same time soothing to
the nerves, so that if "nervous prostration" is wanted, it must be
brought here, and cannot be relied on to continue long. These facts are
derived from medical practice with the native Indian and Mexican
population. Dr. Remondino, to whom I have before referred, has made the
subject a study for eighteen years, and later I shall offer some of the
results of his observations upon longevity. It is beyond my province to
venture any suggestion upon the effect of the climate upon deep-seated
diseases, especially of the respiratory organs, of invalids who come
here for health. I only know that we meet daily and constantly so many
persons in fair health who say that it is impossible for them to live
elsewhere that the impression is produced that a considerable proportion
of the immigrant population was invalid. There are, however, two
suggestions that should be made. Care is needed in acclimation to a
climate that differs from any previous experience; and the locality that
will suit any invalid can only be determined by personal experience. If
the coast does not suit him, he may be benefited in a protected valley,
or he may be improved on the foot-hills, or on an elevated mesa, or on a
high mountain elevation.
One thing may be regarded as settled. Whatever the sensibility or the
peculiarity of invalidism, the equable climate is exceedingly favorable
to the smooth working of the great organic functions of respiration,
digestion, and circulation.
It is a pity to give this chapter a medical tone. One need not be an
invalid to come here and appreciate the graciousness of the air; the
color of the landscape, which is wanting in our Northern clime; the
constant procession of flowers the year through; the purple hills
stretching into the sea; the hundreds of hamlets, with picturesque homes
overgrown with roses and geranium and heliotrope, in the midst of orange
orchards and of palms and magnolias, in sight of the snow-peaks of the
giant mountain ranges which shut in this land of marvellous beauty.