Part 19 (2/2)

Then we visit the city park of twelve hundred acres, once nothing but flying sand At first they planted on these dunes, grass roots from South America; these fastened themselves to the sand and formed a little soil; then were planted shrubs to stop the sand storms, then trees, and now the real estate is not all in the air

This little nickel will take you to acity and ocean, where you can sit under the Eucalyptus trees which shed their bark instead of their leaves, and enjoy the e

The saloons, stores and theatres are open seven days and nights in the week, and multitudes of all nationalities, clad in their peculiar costumes, hobnob with each other in thefor introductions, in this the most cosmopolitan city on earth

Sometimes you will see the harbor literally covered with the etables, dues to market would more than eat up the proceeds of their sale I visited at San Jose, the large flourishi+ng fruit orchard of a college classs of a lifeti; but I found he had deserted his ranch because he could not one to preach for a little church far away, at five hundred dollars per annues frozen upon the trees; but the real estate sharks never allow these facts to be published, because they fatten on the profits ullible ”tender feet” froht these fareation from monopolists, at ruinous rates, else the soil is worthless Here as nowhere else is illustrated the truth of the Scriptural adage: ”To hiiven, but from him that hath not shall be taken away even that which he hath”

When you go to a place scarcely thirty land, you would reach in an hour, you are obliged to travel all night, as youht line; now you glide along close to the long, lazy waves of the great Pacific Ocean, where the grass kisses the salt lips of the sea; now from the tops of the Santa Cruz mountains, you survey the world at your feet; now you rush through the red-wood pri the clouds with their tops, while in the hollow trunk of one of these trees a faeles,--”City of the angels,” they call it--a beautiful city for those possessed of means or who are dispossessed of bodies which must be clothed and fed

[Illustration: The Dome of Mount Shasta Gleams like ”the Great White Throne”]

Sori wells have ruined the houses of hundreds who have reaped no profit fro lots where it was found; then on we go to lovely Passadena on a table-land surrounded by snow-capped mountains; but the winds fro with the heat, bringing plenty of catarrh for all; then on to San Diego on the hill by the sea, where the fog is sometimes so thick you can cut it into blocks with an axe; then on to the far-famed Coronado Hotel, close by the sea

In the boom-time, this was claimed to be the veritable ”Garden of Eden,” and soil was considered worth its weight in gold, but now uide offered me six house lots which cost him three thousand dollars, for two hundred dollars; the bubble had burst, a few had become rich, while hundreds of speculators had lost their all

I swam in the spacious warmed-water sea-baths, communed with the wild ducks, coriant ostriches, and sy wonder maze of life

At National City the refluent wave of the boom had left many of the houses and business blocks dilapidated and unoccupied save by bats, spiders and flies You could occupy free of rent s with none to molest or make you afraid

Thence on dashes the train to the celebrated Hotel Delmonte, at Monterey, the show place of the Southern Pacific Railroad, which, by its extortionate transportation charges, has ruinedfruit raisers in this state where hty sway

There are many hotels in Florida which far surpass this as far as the buildings are concerned; but the grounds are extensive and very beautiful, and the wide piazzas are e vines covered with the loveliest blosso away until earth and sky meet, is an iiants when Ada tru Gothic arches, cool and fragrant

Here is every arrangement conceivable for entertainment; on one side the Pacific ocean; on the other the Coast Range Mountains, a very pleasant resort for the very rich; but we found there at this tiuests

The town of Monterey is interesting only for its ruins of ancient monasteries and convents, where a few lazy half-breeds alone remain to tell the tale of ned supreary by their extortions Once these mountains were covered with vast flocks of sheep, but the foolish reduction of the tariff on wool by the Wilson bill, destroyed all profits, and the flocks disappeared into the hungry mouths of the people

Thence the iron horse took us back to 'Frisco, and we sailed all day and all night to Sacrarand, but the cold weather chilled us to the very bones Islands of old red sandstone loohthouses to warn the mariners The twin peaks of Montepueblo covered with perpetual snow, seemed to support the heavens as do the pillars the doulls fill the air, sohted on the steamer's deck Lonely ranches are seen, hereat, lazy boat, propelled by a stern wheel as big as a barn, paddled slowly over the reat Sacramento River, made yellow by the turbid waters sent to it from scores of hydraulicfurnace, the tall chierous to breathe, and covering everything with a coating black as soot Inhaling this, so Many islands are here scarcely above the water's edge, having little houses built on stilts occupied by the sal their nets, and around whose heads whirl and scream flocks of fish hawks, ravenous for their prey

After a successful book fight at the capital city, I went to Red Bluff where I was broiled and roasted in a day and night terees in the shade I survived only by keeping my head wrapped in ice water; I could neither eat nor sleep, and like dickens, I longed to ”take off my flesh, and sit in my bones” It was a veritable hell on earth

The county superintendent of schools here, told me he sold his prune crop that year for five thousand dollars, and went away leaving the purchaser to pick the fruit On his return, he found that the red spiders had anticipated the pickers, and destroyed the entire crop, so that his work of years caht, as the buyers of course refused to pay to feed the spiders

Thence I went to San Luis Obispo, and on the e struck the Coast Range Mountains The tortuous upcli and grand You looked down the precipitous rock-ribbed sides thousands of feet to the narrow, beautiful valleys,waterfalls We circle theht-line mile

These valleys are lovely to look down upon; but the fogsover them like a pall, and catarrh and rheumatism render life one of misery to many of the people

[Illustration: Above the Clouds]