USA > California > California of the South: Being a Complete Guide Book to Southern California > Part 16
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The afternoon was spent by the guests hunting, riding, singing, reading, talking, and mountain-climbing, just as each one chose. In. this way of entertaining, and yet giv- ing each visitor perfect freedom to do just as he pleased,
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the hostess and her daughters displayed rare tact. Water- melons and fruits of various kinds were always at hand.
At 7 P. M. another bountiful meal was served in the arbor, which was brilliantly lighted by lanterns fastened between the innumerable clusters of purple grapes that hung overhead. This time two roasted kids were served- and delicious they were. After an hour's walk, all gathered in the spacious parlor, and, with music on the piano, the organ, and the guitar, and vocal solos and choruses, time quickly sped. Fireworks in the garden closed the enter- tainment for the first day.
The next morning all were out bright and happy, and at breakfast, where everything was served with the usual profusion, the American would notice that olives were again eaten by all, which leads to a reflection in regard to the value of this ancient food.
"It took the English colony of India a century to find out that the strong meat-diet of the north used in the climate of India in- variably produced a diseased liver and death. Now that they, learn- ing by experience, are adopting the light vegetable diet of the na- tives, they endure the climate much better.
"The oil, which in southern latitudes has most generally taken the place of the animal fats, is the oil of the olive. It is lighter and less heat-producing than the oils or fats of animal origin. It is used in cookery, is an ingredient of every salad, and in the shape of the pickled fruit takes somewhat the place of meat upon the table. Its high nutritive value is shown by the fact that the laborers of the Riviera perform the severest toil upon a diet chiefly of black bread and olives.
" One who has never personally tested the olive as an article of food can hardly understand its value. The writer has frequently, for days at a time in the warm weather, almost lived upon bread and olives, feeling as well nourished as upon a meat-diet.
"The culture of the olive seems to be almost coeval with the races of the Orient. Under the shade of its fruit-ladened branches rested the patriarchs in the old tent of Syria. It accompanied the Græco-Latin in his migration along the shores of the Mediterranean.
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It passed with the Roman arms to Gaul and Hispania, and crossing the ocean with the Conquistadors, adds its pale-green foliage to the verdure of every old mission-orchard from Vera Cruz to Mon- terey.
"It is no chance, no mere sentiment that thus made it, like the vine and the corn-producing plants, the companion of race-migra- tion.
" Whenever we find a plant thus accompanying man for thou- sands of years in his migrations across oceans and continents, it is because of the positive utility of food-value which it is proved to possess for the human race.
"Somewhat of the extent to which that economic food-value is estimated by one nation may be surmised from the fact that in Italy the number of olive-trees under cultivation is one hundred millions, covering one million acres.
" It is a safe rule to follow, that the foods which a people have adopted after inhabiting for generations any especial belt of climate, are the foods best suited to the requirements of the system in that climate ; that back of it is the working of some general law."*
After breakfast, an hour was spent by the good hostess and her Catholic guests in the chapel.
A fat, young steer was then lassoed by a vacquero, the aorta was dexterously severed with a knife, and then began some dissecting that would have surprised the most skill- ful anatomist. The skin was quickly and neatly taken off and spread out to protect the beef from the earth, the mus- cles were then, layer after layer, deftly removed, and in an incredibly short time this Mexican butcher had the meat ready for the fire.
A fire in a pit near by had been heating stones, which were now red-hot. Iron rods were laid across the pit, and the whole beef put on to roast for dinner.
The noon train from Los Angeles added materially to
* " The Anglo-Teuton and the Olive," by J. P. Widney, A. M., M. D. (Sce p. 82, "Southern California Practitioner," March, 1886.)
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the number of guests, and seventy-five as happy people as ever lived sat around the heavily-laden table under the grape-vines. What a delicious meal that was ! The eat- ing was happily interspersed with laughter, conversation, and brilliant repartee.
After the dessert had been enjoyed toasts were in order, and among those to the Del Valle family, the State of Southern California, etc., a gray-headed Mexican gentle- man, after delivering a fervid, eloquent eulogy, proposed a toast to the memory of Mrs. Helen Hunt Jackson, which was drank standing. How true the statement made on another page : " Mrs. Jackson is dead, but ber work still lives in the hearts of the people of Southern California."
SAN DIEGO COUNTY.
San Diego County is nearly three times the size of Los Angeles County, having an area of 14,969 square miles (9,580,000 acres), and is nearly as large as Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, and Delaware combined.
This great territory is bounded on the west by the Pa- cific Ocean, on the south by Mexico, on the east by the Colorado River, and on the north by San Bernardino and Los Angeles Counties.
San Diego County first became noted on account of the beautiful bay of that name, a land-locked barbor of inesti- mable value as an inlet and outlet to a vast interior coun- try. This bay was discovered in 1542 by Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo, a Portuguese navigator in the employment of Spain. Sebastian Vizcaino surveyed and named it in 1602. Professor George Davidson, of the United States Coast Survey, says : " Next to that of San Francisco, no harbor on the Pacific coast of the United States approximates in excellence the bay of San Diego."
As the visitor comes into this beautiful sheet of water
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by sea from the north, he passes around a rugged prom- ontory known as Point Loma, on which is located the United States Light-House. To the south is the point of the peninsula now known as Coronado Beach, and in front is this placid resting - place for the storm-tossed vessel. " What a beautiful sight !" is the exclamation that involun- tarily springs to the lips.
This bay is about twelve miles long and one mile wide. If the visitor comes into the harbor by night, as many do who have first visited San Francisco and Los Angeles, he will be dazzled by the innumerable lights on Coronado Beach, and by the numerous electric lights from San Diego city, all giving a premonition of the commercial metropolis he is about entering.
Here there are none of the annoyances of lighterage that are encountered at San Pedro Harbor, but the gang- plank of the vessel lands one almost on the street-car.
CORONADO BEACH is the name of the peninsula that juts out in front of San Diego and National City, and gives them their excellent harbor and especially salubrious cli- mate. This peninsula was purchased a few years since by a company, with E. S. Babcock, Jr., as president. They have already erected there the largest hotel in Southern California, and have sold millions of dollars worth of lots. To-day this peninsula is the site of one of the liveliest, prettiest towns to be seen in California. One year ago a barren waste ; to-day a prosperous town with hundreds of pretty cottages, with beautiful shrubbery and flower-gar- dens, attractive parks, and delightful drives.
There are now on Coronado Beach several stores, sev- eral fine churches, and a good school-house. Arrange- ments have been made for the most complete historical and scientific museum on the Pacific coast, and added to these is Coronado Hotel, with its six hundred and fifty rooms.
Hotel dei Coronado, Coronado Beach, with a glimpse of San Diego Bay.
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NATIONAL CITY is near the head of San Diego Bay, at the terminus of the Southern California Railroad.
It is four miles from the business center of the city of San Diego, with which it is connected by a steam-motor street-railway and by the California Southern Railroad. In fact, National City can be said to be a part of San Diego, because it is almost a continuous town from one place to the other. Here are located the car-shops of the railroad, a carriage-factory, and an olive-oil factory.
Right here the value of this olive-oil should be im- pressed on the reader. Consumptives frequently find it far more beneficial than cod-liver oil ; it is also a choice article for the table. There are but two brands of olive-oil on the market in the United States that should be used on the table or as a medicine. One is that made by Elwood Cooper, of Santa Barbara ; the other, by Kimball, of Na- tional City. The writer of these lines knows the impor- tance of this statement, and has tested and satisfied himself of the universal adulteration of imported oils. Not being adulterated, the olive-oil of Santa Barbara and National City is more expensive than the imported, the cost being from two dollars to two dollars and a half per bottle.
At National City, as at San Diego, the ship comes along- side of the railroad track. There is a weekly newspaper, a bank, and the usual number of stores and churches for a town of twelve hundred inhabitants. National City is noted for its oranges, lemons, apples, and pears.
The San Diego Land and Town Company are building a great dam in the mountains, six miles east of National City, to divert the waters of the Sweetwater River so that they may be used for irrigating purposes. This dam is of solid masonry, and is made of huge rocks quarried on the spot. It is forty feet thick at its base and three hun- dred feet long at the top. The dam closes the mouth of Sweetwater Canon and makes a reservoir that covers one
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thousand acres. The company claim that this reservoir will furnish abundance of water for National City, and irri- gate twenty thousand acres of land in that vicinity. The motor-line that passes through National City extends south- ward through a beautiful country almost to the Mexican line.
City of San Diego.
This is the great city of San Diego County. Situated on one of the most perfect harbors in the world, with ves- sels unloading at its wharves from all the chief ports of civilization, the culmination of the Santa Fe Railway sys- tem that brings it into intimate relations with Chicago, New York, and Boston ; planted on a series of hills that gently slope to the ocean ; with a soil that produces almost everything desirable from a pumpkin to an olive; with business blocks which for elegance, solidity, and size are rarely surpassed ; with a climate that is enjoyable and healthful both summer and winter ; with every facility for boating, fishing, and hunting ; with a population noted for culture and refinement ; with schools, churches, and hotels that would be creditable to much larger cities ; with com- mercial prospects of dazzling brilliancy-with all these at- tributes the visitor does not wonder when he finds that every one of San Diego's fifteen thousand inhabitants, from the infant just beginning to prattle to the great-grand- mother who dozes away the sunny Christmas-day in her arm-chair on the veranda, has learned to sing her praises loud and long. It was here that Father Francis Junipero Serra founded, on the 16th day of July, 1769, the first of the series of missions that he established in California.
The visitor should have a view of the old ruins of this most ancient of California missions. They are on Presidio Hill, at "Old San Diego," a romantic spot, with its adobe buildings, palm-trees, and orange-groves.
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Five years after the mission was founded here the loca- tion was changed to a point about six miles up the San Diego River in a very fertile valley. The ruins of these later buildings are well worth a visit. A drive from San Diego to the Presidio Hill and Old San Diego, then up the valley to the mission, and then to San Diego across the country, is full of delightful surprises.
San Diego was much involved in the war with Mexico. Among the several generals who were in San Diego during 1846 was General Emory, who reported that " the harbor of San Francisco has more water, but that of San Diego has a more uniform climate, better anchorage, and perfect security from winds in any direction."
In 1850 the population of San Diego was six hundred and fifty. The first newspaper-the " Herald "-made its debut under the management J. Judson Ames, May 29, 1851. It lived eight years, and then from 1859 to 1868 San Diego was without an organ. The San Diego "Union " then ap- peared to voice the advantages of the land-locked harbor and the blissful climate.
In 1867 A. E. Horton bought nine hundred acres where San Diego now is, and laid it off in lots and began to boom the place. Mr. Horton is popularly called the father of San Diego. What a typical Western history he could give ! How, when Scott promised to build a railroad to San Diego, his property became of great value ; then Scott disappointed them and property went away down, so that Horton had to sacrifice block after block of his property, and he was looked upon as a poor, visionary old man. But again out of the rifted clouds the sun shone forth upon San Diego, and the Santa Fe Company came to San Diego with their railroad, and now Mr. Horton, although somewhat ad- vanced in years, has again become rich, and the shrill whistle of the locomotive is music to his ears. Well may he feel rejoiced as he sits in his hill-side home that overlooks
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city, bay, and Coronado Beach, and watches the city of his faith growing to such astonishing proportions.
The increase in values here has been remarkable, and people have become wealthy so suddenly that some of them became dizzy. Some amusing stories are told of men who made fortunes in this rapid manner. One man had it announced in a daily paper : "We are glad to learn that Mr. Smithson, one of our most enterprising citizens, has exemplified his usual free-handed generosity by present- ing his wife with a magnificent thirty-five-dollar set of diamonds, and his daughter, Eilene, with a ten-dollar dia- mond ring."
Even the men who were dazzled at their prosperity soon settled down to work in an earnest way for the continuous upbuilding of their city.
San Diego is growing with most wonderful rapidity. Its population is doubtless twenty-five thousand. The cost of buildings erected in 1886 was $1,998,944, while the building in 1887 has been far more. During the first six months of 1887 over fifty-five million feet of lumber were received at the San Diego harbor.
SCHOOLS.
There are fifteen teachers in the public schools, and high standard is maintained. There is a Catholic school and a kindergarten. The Methodist Episcopal Church, through the efforts of Rev. E. S. Chase and others, has secured a donation of four thousand lots with which to endow a col- lege. This college will be located east of the town, adjoin- ing the city park. The first building will be completed within eighteen months. The college will be under the charter of the University of Southern California, and will be known as the College of Arts. The Catholics have about completed arrangements to locate a college at Juni- pero, about seven miles north of San Diego.
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CHURCHES.
The Methodist Episcopal, Protestant Episcopal, Bap- tist, Presbyterian, South Methodist, and Unitarian churches, all have places of worhip.
Bishop Fowler recently laid the corner-stone of a new Methodist Episcopal church in San Diego, and on the same day laid the corner-stone of a three-story brick business block that is owned by that church. This block will con- tain a lecture-hall, stores, and offices, and the rents are to go to assist weak churches in San Diego County.
Public organizations, societies, and orders are repre- sented by a Chamber of Commerce, Public Library Asso- ciation, Society of Natural History, Philharmonic Society, Young Men's Christian Association, branch of the W. C. T. U., Benevolent Association, Indian Aid Society, Fire Department, a company of the National Guard of Califor- nia, athletic club and several social clubs, Masonic Lodge, Masonic Chapter and Commandery, Odd Fellows' Lodge, Odd Fellows' Encampment, Knights of Pythias Lodge, Uniformed Division and Section of Endowment Rank, A. O. U. W. Lodge, O. C. F. Lodge, two lodges I. O. G. T., and a post of the G. A. R.
The late James M. Pierce recently left one hundred thousand dollars to found a home for boys and girls. The trustees-Bryant Howard, M. A. Luce, and C. S. Hamilton -expect to begin active work on the buildings at an early date.
San Diego is a port of entry and United States military post, with custom-house and barracks. The "Daily Union," the "Evening Sun," and " The Bee," are the daily papers. There are four banks and three first-class hotels, the St. James, the Horton, and the Florence.
The San Diego Flume Company are building immense dams in the mountains, thirty-five miles away, at the head-
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waters of the San Diego River, and are preparing to flume this water to San Diego and vicinity. They propose to furnish water to irrigate fifty thousand acres of land.
Every tourist should take the sixteen miles' drive to the monument that marks the boundary between Mexico and California. The light-house is also well worth visiting. Thus, with driving, fishing, and boating, the tourist can interest himself ; but he will also find that city has pleasant social features, and he should not shut himself up like an oyster if he wishes to enjoy himself.
From San Diego East and North.
From San Diego eastward for twelve miles, rising higher, are the noted table- or mesa-lands, until suddenly a fertile valley of many thousand acres is reached. This valley is EL CAJON. There are here several thousand acres in raisin-grapes and other fruit. The town of Cajon has shops, stores, school-houses, churches, and several lines of telephone.
Eighteen miles northeast of El Cajon is NUEVO, with school-houses, shops, and post-office. This is the center of the Santa Maria Valley, which contains about fifteen thou- sand acres, while between the Santa Maria and El Cajon Valleys is the San Vicente with its four thousand acres. BALLENA is a pretty little village, with store, post-office, and school-house. It is four miles from Nuevo and thirty-five miles from San Diego, and has an elevation of twenty-five hundred feet above sea-level. Ten miles northeast of Bal- lena is the rich Santa Ysabel ranch of eighteen thousand acres.
Fifteen miles farther east is JULIAN, a flourishing mining-town with a population of one thousand. Julian is not only a mining-town, but is also the center of a good fruit and agricultural country. It is true, they have snow
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JULIAN.
and frost in this mountain town, and can not raise oranges and lemons, but the vicinity is noted for its apples and pears. Julian is four thousand two hundred feet above the sea, and for certain classes of lung-troubles is doubt- less very desirable. It is soon to be connected with San Diego, sixty miles away, by a railroad, and then the whole country will doubtless receive a greatly increased popula- tion. Julian now has stores, public hall, blacksmith-shops, school-houses, quartz-mills, and a telephone line to San Diego.
Three miles east of Julian is the mining-town of BAN- NER, with its quartz-mills, school-house, etc. A short dis- tance east of Banner the mountain-range is crossed, and the traveler looks down several thousand feet upon that great ocean of sand-the Colorado Desert. This immense bar- ren plain occupies three fifths of the area of San Diego County. It is to this worthless waste that San Diego County is indebted for her incomparable climate.
A few miles north of Julian is Warner's Ranch, con- sisting of twenty-six thousand six hundred acres of valu- able land, owned by ex-Governor John G. Downey, of Los Angeles.
Just west of Warner's Ranch is MESA GRANDE, with its cattle, hogs, bees, and mines. There are in the territory just traversed in coming from San Diego forests, rivers, and mountains, with many picturesque scenes and romantic spots. When the Julian Railroad is completed, it will be a region well worth visiting.
Starting again from San Diego, and going southeast through National City, the National Ranch, the Otay, Janal, and Jamul Valleys are all soon traversed. On, east of them, forty-five miles from San Diego, is POTRERO, an agricultural village. Fifteen miles farther east, almost on the Mexican frontier, is CAMPO, another agricultural vil- lage and trading-post. Cattle, horses, hogs, grain, hay,
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and honey are the chief products. The fact that the honey-crop of San Diego County for 1885 was over 2,500,000 pounds gives some idea of the extent of this in- dustry.
Going north from San Diego over the California South- ern Railroad, the visitor passes through numerous sea-side villages, but the first place of importance is DEL MAR, a delightful summer resort. The beautiful ocean-beach, clean streets, and pretty cottages attract the eye. Del Mar is twenty-three miles from San Diego. Here are bath-houses and excellent hotels. The proprietors will not sell a lot except the buyer binds himself to put on improvements of not less than a fixed value. No saloons are permitted, and the class of summer visitors is of the very best.
A few miles east of Del Mar is PowAY, the center of a rich agricultural and horticultural valley. It has stores, schools, churches, and post-offices.
Six miles north of Del Mar is ENCINITAS, another sea- . side village with flattering prospects. East of this village are the Encinitas and San Dieguito ranches, both large bodies of rich productive land that are being rapidly put under cultivation.
Ten miles east of Encinitas is BERNARDO, another agri- cultural center. A village with the usual stores, school- house, and shops.
The next railroad station north of Encinitas is STEW- ARTS, six miles and a half away. This station is important as the point where visitors take stage for Escondido, ten or twelve miles to the east.
ESCONDIDO is a beautiful town in the center of one of the richest regions in San Diego County. It is starting with a highly-educated class of citizens. In fact, the object is to make this delightful place an educational center. Al- ready the University of Southern California has established a preparatory school here, called the Escondido Seminary.
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OCEANSIDE.
The seminary building cost thirty thousand dollars, and, like the numerous other branches of this university, is under the control of the Methodist Episcopal Church. The school has an endowment of one hundred thousand dollars. A railroad will shortly connect Escondido with the outside world.
Two miles north of Stewarts is Carlsbad, a sea-side re- sort noted for its mineral waters.
Three miles north of Carlsbad is OCEANSIDE, the chief town in San Diego County, not on the bay. Here within a few months has sprung up a town of two or three thousand inhabitants. It has its newspapers, numerous stores, hotels, bath-houses, and, in fact, everything a well-regulated water- ing-place should have. Two more railroads will doubtless be here inside of six months, and the prospects of this town are altogether very bright. The surf-bathing at this point is good.
'Here the California Southern Railroad deflects to the east, and the north-bound tourist can no longer sit by the car-window and feast his eyes on the limitless expanse of the deep blue sea. But no visitor to Southern California should fail to stop at Oceanside ; not for the surf-bathing and invigorating ocean-breeze alone-those he can get at Santa Monica, Long Beach, San Juan-by-the-Sea, Del Mar, and numerous other places-but near Oceanside is the won- derful San Luis Rey Mission. This mission is located at the town of SAN LUIS REY, four miles east of Oceanside. It was established in June, 1798. The population of the · town is about six hundred. There are the usual stores, school-house, etc. The town is at the mouth of the San Luis Rey Valley.
North of Oceanside the railroad crosses the Santa Mar- garita Ranch, a principality in itself of one hundred and thirty-three thousand acres. Meadows, brooks, lowing kine, fat hogs, and playful lambs delight the eye.
The Call to Sunrise Mass, Pala Mission.
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MURIETTA.
Nineteen miles north of Oceanside is FALLBROOK, a mountain station, near which is good agricultural and fruit land. The road runs through the picturesque Temecula Cañon to the station of Temecula, one hundred and twelve miles from Los Angeles and seventy-four miles from San Diego. Here is an historic section. The reader, who has read " Ramona," already knows of Temecula and the beau- tiful Pala Valley twelve miles inland, where the old Pala Mission stands.
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