A Truthful Woman In Southern California
Kate Sanborn
37 chapters
3 hour read
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37 chapters
HINTS FOR THE JOURNEY.
HINTS FOR THE JOURNEY.
The typical Forty-niner, in alluring dreams, grips the Golden Fleece. The fin-de-siècle Argonaut, in Pullman train, flees the Cold and Grip. En Sol y la Sombra —shade as well as sun. Yes, as California is. I resolve neither to soar into romance nor drop into poetry (as even Chicago drummers do here), nor to idealize nor quote too many prodigious stories, but to write such a book as I needed to read before leaving my "Abandoned Farm," "Gooseville," Mass. For I have discovered that many other trav
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AT CORONADO BEACH.
AT CORONADO BEACH.
I associate Coronado Beach so closely with Warner (Charles D.), the cultured and cosmopolitan, that every wave seems to murmur his name, and the immense hotel lives and flourishes under the magic of his rhetoric and commendation. Just as Philadelphia is to me Wanamakerville and Terrapin, so Coronado Beach is permeated and lastingly magnetized by Warner's sojourn here and what he "was saying." But I must venture to find fault with his million-times-quoted adjective "unique" as it is used. It has
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SAN DIEGO.
SAN DIEGO.
"The truly magnificent, and—with reason—famous port of San Diego."— From the first letter of Father Junipero in Alto California. Fifteen cents for motor, ferry, and car will take you to Hotel Florence, on the heights overlooking the bay, where I advise you to stop. The Horton House is on an open, sunny site, and is frequented by "transients" and business men of moderate means. The Brewster is a first-class hotel, with excellent table. The Florence is not a large boarding-house or family hotel, b
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EN ROUTE TO LOS ANGELES.
EN ROUTE TO LOS ANGELES.
On the Surf Line from San Diego to Los Angeles, a seventy-mile run along the coast, there is so much to see, admire, and think about, that the time passes rapidly without napping or nodding. Take a chair seat on the left of car—the ocean side—and enjoy the panoramic view from the window: the broad expanse of the Pacific, its long curling breakers, the seals and porpoises tumbling about in clumsy frolics, the graceful gulls circling above them, the picturesque cañons, and the flocks of birds star
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LOS ANGELES AND ROUND ABOUT.
LOS ANGELES AND ROUND ABOUT.
Los Angeles is the chief city of Southern California, and truly venerable in comparison with most places in the State—founded in 1781, now one hundred and twelve years old. Its full name, "Nuestra Senora la Reina de los Angeles," "musical as a chime of bells," would hardly do in these days, and "The City of the Angels," as it is sometimes called, scarcely suits the present big business-y place, which was started by those shrewd old padres when everything west of the Alleghanies was an almost unk
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PASADENA.
PASADENA.
For my own taste, I prefer Pasadena, the "Crown of the Valley"—nine miles from Los Angeles, but eight hundred feet higher and with much drier air, at the foot of the Sierra Madre range, in the beauteous San Gabriel Valley. Yes, Pasadena seems to me as near Eden as can be found by mortal man. Columbus in a letter to Ferdinand and Isabella said, "I believe that if I should pass under the equator in arriving at this higher region of which I speak, I should find there a milder temperature and a dive
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CAMPING ON MOUNT WILSON.
CAMPING ON MOUNT WILSON.
At Pasadena the mountain wall which guards the California of the South stands very near and looks down with pride upon the blooming garden below. The mountains which belong especially to Pasadena are but three miles away. Their average height exceeds slightly that of the Mt. Washington range in New Hampshire. The Sierra Madre system, of which they form a part, contains some peaks considerably higher. Farther to the East, "Old Baldy"—Mt. San Antonio—raises its snowy summit to a height just close
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CATCHING UP ON THE KITE-SHAPED TRACK.
CATCHING UP ON THE KITE-SHAPED TRACK.
Not the kite-shaped track of new-made trotting records and pneumatic tires, but a track upon which you may pass a pleasant day riding after the iron horse. The route extends easterly from Los Angeles to San Bernardino via Pasadena. Beyond San Bernardino is the "loop," which will take us twelve miles farther east to Mentone, and around an oval curve back to San Bernardino. Thence we kite down to Riverside, then southwesterly to Orange, and so up to Los Angeles. Leaving Los Angeles at 9 A.M. you m
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RIVERSIDE.
RIVERSIDE.
Yes, that describes Riverside, and reads like a prophecy. If Pasadena is a big garden with pretty homes scattered all through its shade and flowers, then Riverside is an immense orange grove, having one city-like street, with substantial business blocks and excellent stores, two banks, one in the Evans block, especially fine in all its architecture and arrangements, and the rest is devoted by the land-owners to raising oranges and making them pay. You will see flowers enough to overwhelm a Broad
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A LESSON ON THE TRAIN.
A LESSON ON THE TRAIN.
"The Schoolmistress Abroad." All through Southern California I hear words of whose meaning I have no idea until they are explained. For instance, a friend wrote from San Diego in February: "Do not longer delay your coming; the mesas are already bright with wild-flowers." A mesa is a plateau, or upland, or high plain. And then there are fifty words in common use retained from the Spanish rule that really need a glossary. As, arroyo, a brook or creek; and arroyo seco, a dry creek or bed of extinct
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SANTA BARBARA.
SANTA BARBARA.
Sweet sixteen and an "awful dad." Santa Barbara and Dioscurus. Such a cruel story, and so varied in version that the student of sacred legend gets decidedly puzzled. The fair-haired daughter was advised secretly by Origen, who sent a pupil disguised as a physician to instruct her in the Christian faith. She insisted on putting three windows instead of two into the bathroom of the tower to which her father sent her, either to prevent her from marrying or to imprison her until she would wed one of
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HER CITY AND COUNTY.
HER CITY AND COUNTY.
In walking through the streets of Santa Barbara you may still see the various types, but not so clearly defined as of old. Holy Fathers still intone the service within the massive mission walls; they still cultivate the large garden, from which woman is sedulously excluded. But the faces are German and Irish. At a street corner two men are talking earnestly, and as you pass you get a glance from Mexican eyes, dark and soft, but the hair shows Indian blood. A real old Mexican vaquero rides by in
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IN GALA DRESS.
IN GALA DRESS.
To see Santa Barbara at its best you must go there for the Floral Carnival. Then at high noon, on a mid-April day, all State Street is brilliantly decorated with leaves of the date-palm, pampa plumes, moss combined with tropical foliage, calla-lilies, wildflowers, bamboo, immortelles, branches of pepper trees, evergreens, lemon boughs laden with yellow fruit, and variegated shrubs. Draperies of white and gold, with green or red in contrast, or blue and white, in harmony with red flowers, or flor
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AU REVOIR.
AU REVOIR.
Just as a woman is leaving her friends she ever has the most to chatter about. How can I say au revoir briefly when there is so much more to tell? I so earnestly want to give California en verdad , or in truth. There has been too much bragging from the settlers, as in 1887 the Los Angeles Herald said that "New York would soon be excelled by that city." There is a general desire to surpass all the rest of the world in as many ways as possible, and a general belief that it can easily be done. And
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KATE SANBORN'S BOOKS. Adopting an Abandoned Farm.
KATE SANBORN'S BOOKS. Adopting an Abandoned Farm.
16mo. Boards, 50 cents. "'Adopting an Abandoned Farm' has as much laugh to the square inch as any book we have read this many a day."— Boston Herald . "If any one wants an hour's entertainment for a warm sunny day on the piazza, or cold wet day by a log fire, this is the book that will furnish it."— New York Observer ....
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A Truthful Woman in Southern California.
A Truthful Woman in Southern California.
12mo. Cloth, 75 cents. "Miss Sanborn is certainly a very bright writer, and when a book bears her name it is safe to buy it and put it aside for delectation when a leisure hour comes along. This bit of a volume is enticing in every page, and the weather seemed not to be so intolerably hot while we were reading it."— New York Herald . D. APPLETON AND COMPANY, NEW YORK. "EVERY AMERICAN SHOULD READ IT."— The News, Providence ....
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The Life and Times of Thomas Jefferson.
The Life and Times of Thomas Jefferson.
By Thomas E. Watson , Author of "The Story of France," "Napoleon," etc. Illustrated with many Portraits and Views. 8vo. Attractively bound, $2.50 net; postage, 17 cents additional. Mr. Watson long since acquired a national reputation in connection with his political activities in Georgia. He startled the public soon afterward by the publication of a history of France, which at once attracted attention quite as marked, though different in kind. His book became interesting not alone as the product
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History of the People of the United States,
History of the People of the United States,
From the Revolution to the Civil War . By John Bach McMaster . To be completed in six volumes. Vols. I, II, III, IV, and V now ready. 8vo. Cloth, gilt top, $2.50 each. "A history sui generis which has made and will keep its own place in our literature."— New York Evening Post . "Those who can read between the lines may discover in these pages constant evidences of care and skill and faithful labor, of which the old-time superficial essayists, compiling library notes on dates and striking events,
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With the Fathers.
With the Fathers.
Studies in the History of the United States . 8vo. Cloth, $1.50. "Professor McMaster's essays possess in their diversity a breadth which covers most of the topics which are current as well as historical, and each is so scholarly in treatment and profound in judgment that the importance of their place in the library of political history can not be gainsaid."— Washington Times . "The book is of great practical value, as many of the essays throw a broad light over living questions of the day. Profe
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History of the People of the United States,
History of the People of the United States,
From the Revolution to the Civil War . By John Bach McMaster . To be completed in six volumes. Vols. I, II, III, IV, and V now ready. 8vo. Cloth, gilt top, $2.50 each....
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The Beginners of a Nation.
The Beginners of a Nation.
By Edward Eggleston . A History of the Source and Rise of the Earliest English Settlements in America, with Special Reference to the Life and Character of the People. The first volume in a History of Life in the United States. Small 8vo. Gilt top, uncut, with Maps. Cloth, $1.50....
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The Transit of Civilization,
The Transit of Civilization,
From England to America in the Seventeenth Century. By Edward Eggleston . Uniform with "The Beginners of a Nation." Small 8vo. Gilt top, uncut. Cloth, $1.50....
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The Household History of the United States and its People.
The Household History of the United States and its People.
By Edward Eggleston . For Young Americans. Richly illustrated with 350 Drawings, 75 Maps, etc. Square 8vo. Cloth, $2.50....
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Bancroft's History of the United States,
Bancroft's History of the United States,
From the Discovery of the Continent to the Establishment of the Constitution in 1789. (Also Edition de Luxe , on large paper, limited to one hundred sets, numbered.) Complete in six volumes, with a Portrait of the Author. 8vo. Cloth, uncut, gilt top, $15.00; half calf or half morocco, $27.00; tree calf, $50.00. D. APPLETON AND COMPANY, NEW YORK. HISTORIC LIVES SERIES. A series of popular biographies dealing with famous men of all times and countries, written in brief form and representing the la
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Father Marquette, the Explorer of the Mississippi.
Father Marquette, the Explorer of the Mississippi.
By Reuben Gold Thwaites , Editor of "The Jesuit Relations," etc....
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Daniel Boone.
Daniel Boone.
By Reuben Gold Thwaites , Editor of "The Jesuit Relations," "Father Marquette," etc....
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Horace Greeley.
Horace Greeley.
By William A. Linn , Author of "The Story of the Mormons."...
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Sir William Johnson.
Sir William Johnson.
By Augustus C. Buell , Author of "Paul Jones, Founder of the American Navy."...
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Anthony Wayne.
Anthony Wayne.
By John R. Spears ....
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Champlain: The Founder of New France.
Champlain: The Founder of New France.
By Edwin Asa Dix, M.A., LL.D. , Formerly Fellow in History in Princeton University; Author of "Deacon Bradbury," "A Midsummer Drive through the Pyrenees," etc....
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James Oglethorpe: The Founder of Georgia.
James Oglethorpe: The Founder of Georgia.
By Harriet C. Cooper . D. APPLETON AND COMPANY, NEW YORK. A NEW VOLUME IN APPLETONS' HISTORIC LIVES SERIES....
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Horace Greeley.
Horace Greeley.
By William A. Linn , Author of "The Story of the Mormons"; formerly Managing Editor of the New York Evening Post . Illustrated. 12 mo. Cloth, $1.00 net; postage, 10 cents additional. It is remarkable that so little has been written about Greeley since he died; in fact, since Parton's book appeared, just before the civil war, no one has undertaken a comprehensive life of Greeley. Greeley's own autobiography, which he called "Recollections of a Busy Life," has been the only later work of note to w
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The Autobiography of Joseph Le Conte.
The Autobiography of Joseph Le Conte.
With portrait. 12mo. Cloth, $1.25 net. Professor Le Conte was widely known as a man of science, and notably as a geologist. His later years were spent at the University of California. But his early life was passed in the South; there he was born and spent his youth; there he was living when the civil war brought ruin to his home and his inherited estate. His reminiscences deal with phases of life in the South that have unfailing interest to all students of American history. His account of the wa
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Abraham Lincoln: The True Story of a Great Life.
Abraham Lincoln: The True Story of a Great Life.
By William H. Herndon and Jesse W. Weik . With numerous Illustrations. New and revised edition, with an Introduction by Horace White. In two volumes, 12mo. Cloth, $3.00. "It will always remain the authentic life of Abraham Lincoln."— Chicago Herald . "A remarkable piece of literary achievement—remarkable alike for its fidelity to facts, its fulness of details, its constructive skill, and its literary charm."— New York Times . "The three portraits of Lincoln are the best that exist; and not the l
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Lincoln in Story.
Lincoln in Story.
The Life of the Martyr President told in Authenticated Anecdotes . Edited by Silas G. Pratt . Illustrated, 12mo, Cloth, 75 cents net; postage, 9 cents additional. "A valuable and exceedingly interesting addition to Lincoln literature."— Brooklyn Standard-Union . "An excellent compilation on a subject of which the American people never grow tired."— Boston Transcript . D. APPLETON AND COMPANY, NEW YORK. A PICTORIAL HISTORY OF THE WAR WITH SPAIN ....
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Cannon and Camera.
Cannon and Camera.
Sea and Land Battles of the Spanish-American War in Cuba, Camp Life, and the Return of the Soldiers. Described and illustrated by J. C. Hemment . With over one hundred full-page pictures taken by the Author, and an Index. Large 12mo. Cloth, $2.00. "Accurate as well as picturesque.... Mr. Hemment has done his work well. In point of faithful realism there has thus far been nothing better in the whole war literature."— Boston Journal . "Clever and picturesque.... Over one hundred capital instantane
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Recollections of the Civil War.
Recollections of the Civil War.
By CHARLES A. DANA. With Portrait. Large 12mo. Cloth, gilt top, uncut, $2.00. "The book will rank among the trustworthy sources of knowledge of the civil war."— New York Evening Post . "Mr. Dana's official position as Assistant Secretary of War while the rebellion was in progress gave him exceptional opportunities of observation which he was keen to take advantage of, while his rare gift of terse and vivid expression enabled him to record what he saw in a series of pen pictures that are little l
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