Southern California

“ Southern California is not only a locality, it is a type. It cannot be defined by merely mentioning parallels of latitude. We think of it and love it as the dreamland of the Spanish Missions, and as a region rescued from aridity, and made a home for the invalid and the winter tourist. Los Angeles is really its metropolis, but San Diego, Pasadena, and Santa Barbara are prosperous and progressive cities whose population increases only less rapidly than their ambition. ”

“ Since 1885 the eight counties south of the Tehachapi Range, which are known collectively and specifically as Southern California have greatly advanced in population. In 1880 their population was 7.3, in 1890 17.2, and in 1900 20.1% of the total population of the state. The initial impulse to this increase was the beginning of the “fruit epoch” in these counties, combined with a railway “rate-war” following the completion to the coast in 1885 of the Santa Fe, and an extraordinary land boom prevailing from 1886 to 1888. ”

“ Southern California was now prospering; in fact, the whole State was enjoying wonderful advantages. The great Comstock mines were at the height of their prosperity; the natural resources of this part of the country were being developed; land once hard to sell, at even five dollars an acre, was being cut up into small tracts; new hamlets and towns were starting up; money was plentiful and everybody was happy.
About this time my brother, J. P. Newmark, and I made a little tour, visiting Lake Tahoe—an unusual trip in that day—as well as the mines of Nevada. ”

“ Southern California combined a wild independence with a languor that blunted too sensitive nerves, offered an equable climate with months on end of out of door life, boating, shooting, riding, driving, motoring, romantic excursions, and even sport if a distinguished looking couple played the game well and told a plausible story. ”

“ Above all there is an art sense all through the populace which sets it off from any other population of the country. This sense is almost Latin in its strength, and the Californian owes it to the leaven of Latin blood. The true Californian lingers in the north; for southern California has been built up by "lungers" from the East and middle West and is Eastern in character and feeling. ”

“ In deciding whether Southern California would be an agreeable place of residence there are other things to be considered besides the productiveness of the soil, the variety of products, the ease of out-door labor distributed through the year, the certainty of returns for intelligent investment with labor, the equability of summer and winter, and the adaptation to personal health. There are always disadvantages attending the development of a new country and the evolution of a [Pg 110] new society. ”

“ That there would be an A. P. L. organization in San Francisco admitted of no doubt. The city was ably organized [Pg 333] and certainly took able care of Fritz and his Boche-loving friends. But all California is divided into three parts: Northern California, Southern California—and all California! An offense to one means a fight for all, although each allows a certain amount of thumb-biting on the part of a native son. The A. P. L. in California followed precisely this ancient line of cleavage, so that there was established a Northern Division, a Southern Division—and a State Inspectorship! ”

“ That the winter climate of Southern California, not only on the coast, but in the interior, is delightful, is beyond question. What was healthful a hundred years ago to the Spanish monks who settled here, proved equally so to those adventurous "Forty-niners" who entered California seeking gold, and is still more beneficial to those who now come to enjoy its luxuries and comforts. Flowers and fruit are found here throughout the entire year. The rainy days are few, and frosts are as ephemeral as the dew ”

“ And he lifted up his spirit in the sentiment expressed aloud by one tourist.
"Why should anybody die out here? They'll never get any nearer to heaven!"
Since the journey was long, short visits were unknown. People came in December and stayed through until June at least. By that time the country had them. They returned to their homes as insufferable nuisances. The exceeding pleasantness of Southern California was a new thing: it had not been described and over-described and advertised and made most of. ”

“ The discovery of these evidences of primeval animal life, already concentrating the attention of the scientific world, may well be regarded with pride by every Southern Californian; while the proper housing here of precious souvenirs recalling those whose lives have contributed so much 646 to making Los Angeles what it was and is, will permanently add to the attractions of the Southland. ”

“ Southern California, by its topographical position alone, is called to occupy an important place, not only among the integral parts of the nation, but even among foreign parts of America which are bounded by the Pacific. If its first necessity is attended to, with the augmentation of population commerce will come to give it the consequent movement and animation, and the Mineria will come to complete the circle of its prosperity ”

“ California in the spring is an ideal State in which to motor. We were sorry that we could not accept our host's invitation to motor still farther north into Lake County, a county of rough roads but fine scenery.
Northern California has not yet been developed or exploited for tourists as has the southern part of the State, but there is beautiful scenery in all the counties north of San Francisco. As we drove through Sonoma (Half Moon) Valley, we saw the green slopes of Jack London's ranch, not many miles away. ”

“ The town is situated on a short bend near the entrance of the bay, upon its southern side. The point of land which partly protects its harbor from the sea is called Point Pinos. A very neat and pretty appearance is presented by the houses of the native Californians, which are generally constructed of adobés and white-plastered. Those of the Americans are easily distinguished by their being built of logs and planks, and presenting a more substantial, but rougher appearance. ”

“ We prospered from the beginning, deriving much benefit from our San Francisco representation which resulted in our building up something of a wholesale business.
In the early fifties, Los Angeles was the meeting-place of a Board of Land Commissioners appointed by the National Government to settle land-claims and to prepare the way for that granting of patents to owners of Southern California ranches which later awakened from time to time such interest here. ”

“ The intervening space is somewhere overspread with hills and vales, but for the most part comprises an oblong plain, the Valley of California, the northern portion being called the Sacramento Valley, and the southern the San Joaquin Valley, from the names of the streams that water the respective parts. The prospect thus presented opens toward the setting sun.
Humanity here is varied. There is already round San Francisco Bay raw material enough of divers types to develop a new race, howsoever inferior the quality might be. ”

“ The wild mustard in Southern California is like that spoken of in the New Testament, in the branches of which the birds of the air may rest. ”

“ Both these companies now have lines from Los Angeles to San Diego, and the Southern Pacific has a coast road the length of the state, along which the scenery is of great beauty.
Indians
In the history of the state the most pathetic portion is that which relates to the Indians. Bancroft says, “The California valley cannot grace her annals with a single Indian war bordering upon respectability. It can boast, however, a hundred or two of as brutal butcherings on the part of our honest miners and brave pioneers as any area of equal extent in our republic.” ”

“ The Indian woman cuts her hair straight across the forehead and allows the sides to drop along her cheeks, presenting a square [324] face, which the Indians account the acme of female beauty, and they think they discover this square face in the vast front of South Dome.”— (Powers’ Tribes of California.)
Cho-ko-nip-o-deh, translated as “baby basket” in the Southern Pacific folder, means literally “dog-place” or “dog-house.”— (Powers’ Tribes of California.)
MONO
Mono is the name of a county on the eastern border of the state, and of the lake near the eastern base of the Sierra Nevada. ”

“ Stone, as a building material is scarce; and at several of the points where it may be desirable to establish military posts, grain for forage is out of the question, and grass can only be found in exceedingly limited quantities. I expressed a hope in my despatches to the War Department of June 30, that I would be able to make an examination of the country along the western slope of the Sierra Nevada, from the source of the San Joaquin to the southern boundary of California ”

“ Making your way through the mazes of the Coast Range to the summit of any of the inner peaks or passes opposite San Francisco, in the clear springtime, the grandest and most telling of all California landscapes is outspread before you. At your feet lies the great Central Valley glowing golden in the sunshine, extending north and south farther than the eye can reach, one smooth, flowery, lake-like bed of fertile soil. ”

“ The Indians were early converted to Christianity, gradually weaned from their nomadic and barbaric state, and induced to lead a settled life. They were taught farming and other civilized pursuits and became in time a peaceful and industrious people. The Spanish Government, which intended eventually to turn the mission estates into administrative districts, never acknowledged the title of the priests to the land, and in 1777 began the founding of pueblos or towns. Upper California was divided into the four provinces of San Diego, Santa Barbara, Monterey, and San Francisco. ”

“ In the intervals scatter colonies of vine and orange growers, the numbers and dimensions of which are rapidly increasing.
The mountain barrier across the State is deemed by some to be of such importance that it should be a political as well as a natural division. They call for the construction of a distinct new State, to be called South California, its capital at Los Angeles. ”

“ The remains of a vast number of villages in all the valleys of the Sierra Nevada, and among the foot-hills of that range of mountains, show that at no distant day there must have been a numerous population, where there is not now an Indian to be seen. There are a few still retained in the service of the old Californians, but these do not amount to more than a few thousand in the whole territory. ”

“ To know the glory of California scenery, one must live close to it through the changing years. From Siskiyou to San Diego, from Alturas to Tia Juana, from Mendocino to Mariposa, from Tahoe to the Farallones, lake, crag, or chasm, forest, mountain, valley, or island, river, bay, or jutting headland, every one bears the stamp of its own peculiar beauty, a singular blending of richness, wildness and warmth. ”

“ U. S. Work Projects Administration. Inventory of American Imprints, No. 25. Check list of New Mexico Imprints and Publications, 1784- 1876. Michigan Historical Records Survey, 1942; U. S. Works Projects Administration. Calendar of the Montana Papers in the William Andrews Clark Memorial Library (Uni- versity of California at Los Angeles) . Los Angeles, Southern California Historical Rec- ords Survey Project, 1942; U. S. Works Projects Administration. American Imprints Inventory, No. 31. ”

“ Each senatorial district shall choose one Senator, and each assembly district shall choose one member of Assembly. The senatorial districts shall be numbered from one to forty, inclusive, in numerical order, and in the assembly districts shall be numbered from one to eighty, in the same order, commencing at the northern boundary of the State, and ending at the southern boundary thereof. In the formation of such districts, no county, or city and county, shall be divided, unless it contain a sufficient population within itself to form two or more districts ”

“ The Californians like most other Mexican Spaniards, are a lazy, indolent and cowardly people, and have neither enterprise nor spirit of improvement in their disposition, they are only a grade above the aborigines, and like them they will soon be compelled from the very nature of things, to yield to the swelling tide of Anglo-Saxon adventure. Almost every thing which the Californians possess, is of the rudest and simplest construction. ”

“ The native Californians form a goodly proportion of the gold-seekers. Many of the men are accompanied by their wives, who are attended by Indian girls. The graceful Spanish costume of the Californians adds quite a feature to the busy scene at the mines. ”

“ The great influx of emigrants to Upper California has brought the subject of the settlement of the peninsula into consideration. There is but little doubt that Lower California will, sooner or later, become the property of the United States, and then its settlement and progress will be rapid. The coast upon the gulf affords many excellent harbors, and the mountainous region of the interior gives abundant evidence of mineral wealth, as far as it has been explored. ”

“ The circle of engaging objects in a community, just emerging into the refinements of civilization, is never broad; but every phase in the great change going on possesses an intense individuality, and leaves its ineffaceable impression, like a ship sweeping a solitary sea, or a bird scaling a sunset cloud. California will be no more what she has been: the events of a few years have carried her through the progressive changes of a century. ”