Read here

California of the South. Its physical geography, climate ... and health-resorts, being a complete guide-book to Southern California ... Third edition, rewritten, etc

Walter Lindley · 1896 · Scanned text

104,555 words · about 7 h 19 min to read

Period artwork: Interior of the Bodleian Library, 1845
About this edition

Scanned text — may contain errors · original scans are not available here · view the original source

Licence: PDM · British Library Digitised Books dataset db14 (doi 10.21250/db14) marks the OCR texts CC Public Domain Mark 1.0 (c. 1510-c. 1900 publications); text+metadata JSONL release doi 10.23636/r7w6-zy15 is CC0 1.0. Public Domain Mark is a status label, not a new copyright licence. · Digitised by the British Library (with Microsoft). Text: British Library Digitised Books, CC Public Domain Mark 1.0.

Text from British Library, read from page scans by OCR and set out for reading on screen; no words of the book are rewritten or summarized. How RedLectern is built

About this book

Author
Walter Lindley
Language
English
Published
1896
Length
104,555 words · about 7 h 19 min
Sections
4 reader sections
Text
Scanned text, read from page scans by OCR; may contain errors
Rights
Public Domain Mark 1.0

 

Contents (4)

Continue:

Preface

TO THIRD EDITION. Nearly eight years have passed since the first edition of this work was published. Nine months later a second edition was issued containing an appendix, but no change was made in the main body of the work. The remarkable growth of Southern California during the past seven years, and the exceptional favor with which this book has been received by the public, have induced the author to prepare this thoroughly revised edition, in which all facts relating to Southern California are brought down to the latest date. In the closing months of 1887, when the first edition of "California of the South " was prepared, the remark able real-estate boom which swept over Los Angeles and Southern California during the years 1886 and 1887 had just culminated. We did not see it then, but can see it clearly now, that the fall of 1887 marked the beginning of the end of that wild era of speculation which did much good as well as evil in pushing forward Los Angeles and the surrounding country within three or four years to an extent which they could not have otherwise reached in three times that period.

It was prophesied by many that after the subsidence of the real-estate excitement this section would relapse info a moribund condition. It might have been so in any other section of the United States, but the marvelous resources of Southern California — the charms of its unique climate and the valuable products of its fertile acres — were sufficient not only to tide this section over the natural reaction from a period of crazy inflation, but to establish it on a path of still more remarkable and per manent progress. After the real estate excitement was over a period of planting and building and general improvement set in, which has continued until the present time, growing in force from year to year. The census of 1890 gave the city of Los Angeles a population of fifty thousand. The population to-day is not less that eighty thousand.

Three great systems of electric street railroads have been con structed, an ocean outfall and internal sewer system built, one hundred miles of streets graded and paved, buildings to the value of over twenty million dollars erected, and a good commencement made in establishing a manufacturing industry, to which the discovery of petroleum within the city limits has lent much assistance. In the country the progress has been no less remarkable. On every hand orchards of citrus and deciduous trees have been planted by thousands upon thousands of acres. A beet-sugar factory which utilizes the product of five thousand acres of land is in successful operation. Boom cities which were laid out merely on a real-estate basis — such as Monrovia, Whittier, Fullerton, and others — have grown to be flourishing, productive centers of population.

Towns which had scarcely had an existence when the first edition of this book was published — such as Pasadena and Redlands — are now cities with brick blocks, banks, and other appurtenances of modern busi ness life. The wonderful growth of Southern California during the ten years between 1880 and 1890 is told in a graphic manner by the figures of the United States census for those two years. Between 1880 and 1890 the counties of PREFA CE. V California showed an average increase of population of 39.72 per cent. Of the fifty-three counties in existence at the latter date, twelve showed a decrease in population, while the highest percentage of increase shown by any county outside of Southern California was 64.90 per cent, San Francisco showing an increase of only 27.80 per cent. Now, as against those figures, take the following remarkable record of the six southern counties (Riverside County not having then been formed).

These six coun ties showed the following percentage of increase in population for the ten years : Per cent increase. San Diego 305 . 98 Los Angeles and Orange 244.63 Fresno 237.90 San Bernardino 227.47 Ventura 98.52 Santa Barbara 65 . 60 It should be noted that most of this remarkable ad vance was made during the closing half of the decade, from the middle of 1885 to the middle of 1890, when the census was taken. It is evident to the most superficial observer that the progress of the past ten years in Southern California is but an index of that which is in store for this favored sec tion. In no period of its history has the outlook for Los Angeles and Southern California been brighter than it is to-day. On every hand one sees activity, enterprise, progress. The eyes of many thousands in the East are turned to this promised land, and the immigration to this section of health, pleasure, and home seekers promises to be greater than it has been in any previous year since 1886, with the difference that those who come now do not come for the purpose of gambling in town lots, but of making for themselves productive homes, or, in the VI case of those who have a sufficiency of this world's goods, of passing the closing years of their lives in a balmy cli mate where every day in the year a man may " sit under his vine and fig tree, with none to make him afraid."

It was for the purpose of giving authentic informa tion regarding this much-talked-of section of the country to those who are thinking of coming this way, either for a visit or to reside, that California of the South was written. From the warm reception which it has received, the author believes that it has fulfilled its mission, and that the present revised edition will be welcomed by thousands who desire to learn the truth about South ern California as it is. In the work of revising the book for the third edition I have been materially assisted by Harry Ellington Brook, of the editorial staff of the Los Angeles Times, author of the Land of Sunshine and other works on Southern Cali fornia, which have had a wide circulation. Walter Lindley. CONTENTS

Part I Climatology Of The Pacific Coast

By J. P. WIDNEY, A. M., M. D., LL. D. PAGE Two Californias ........... i The Pacific Coast of America as contrasted with the Atlantic Coast . 2 Seasons ............ 8 Topographical and Climatic Features in which the Different Portions of the Pacific Coast are unlike ...... 13 Rainfall ............ 33 Fogs 37 Atmospheric Humidity ......... 37 Sunshine 38 Winds . 38 Temperature ........... 43 Agriculture ........... 46 Commercial Development 51 Transcontinental Roads 53 Harbors ............ 56 Type of Civic and Country Life ....... 58 Education . . . . . . . . . . . .61 Diseases 62 CONTENTS. VIII

Part II. Los Angeles, Orange, San Diego, San Bernar Dino, Ventura, Santa

BARBARA, AND RIVERSIDE COUNTIES. By WALTER LINDLEV, M. D. PAGE The Overland Trip — How to enjoy it ...... 69 The Arrival in Southern California ....... 72 A Century in Los Angeles ......... 73 The Los Angeles of To-day ........ 83 What to see in Los Angeles ........ 85 The Los Angeles Crematory ........ 103 Los Angeles a Cosmopolitan City ....... J04 Religious and Educational ........ 107 Parks ............. 113 Manufactures in Los Angeles . . . . . . . 117 Trade and Commerce of Los Angeles ...... 121 Climate of Los Angeles 124 Los Angeles County, Soledad Township 128 San Fernando Township 132 La Ballona Township, Santa Monica ...... 136 Los Angeles Township 140 Wilmington Township, San Pedro 141 San Antonio Township ......... 144 Los Nietos Township, Long Beach, and Santa Fe Springs . . 144 San Gabriel Township 148 El Monte, Azusa, and San Jos- Townships ..... 158 San Antonio Canon .......... 168 Orange County ........... 172 Anaheim Township — Westminster, Santa Ana, and San Juan Townships . . . . . . . . . . , .172 Orange, Santa Ana, and Tustin. . . . . . . .178 San Juan ............ 181 Mineral Springs in Los Angeles and Orange Counties . . . 183 Helen Hunt Jackson and the Mission Indians ..... 188 San Diego County 208 City of San Diego .......... 215 From San Diego East and North CONTENTS.

IX PAGE Climate os San Diego County ........ 224 Mineral Springs of San Diego and Riverside Counties . . . 225 San Bernardino County ......... 230 City of San Bernardino ......... 232 East San Bernardino Valley ........ 239 Mineral Springs of San Bernardino and Riverside Counties . . 245 Riverside County .......... 252 Riverside ............ 261 Santa Barbara and Ventura Counties 270 The Riviera of the Pacific 270 Nordhoff— The Ojai Valley 275 Santa Barbara — America's Mentone 278 Along the Coast 291 The Islands of Southern California 294 Mineral Springs of Santa Barbara and Ventura Counties . . . 301

The opening of the book is shown; the full text loads in the reader.

Loading the full text…