Southern California, the Land of Perpetual
Sunshine--except when it rains!

_HOW DO YOU LIKE THE CLIMATE?_

[Illustration]

_How Do You Like the Climate?_

ONCE upon a time a stranger went to Southern California; and when he was
asked the customary question--to wit: "How do you like the climate?" he
said: "No, I don't like it!" So they destroyed him on the spot. I have
forgotten now whether they merely hanged him on the nearest tree or
burned him at the stake; but they destroyed him utterly and hid his
bones in an unmarked grave.

History, that lying jade, records that when Balboa first saw the Pacific
he plunged breast-deep into the waves, drew his sword and waved it on
high, probably using for that purpose the Australian crawl stroke; and
then, in that generous and carefree way of the early discoverers,
claimed the ocean and all points west in the name of his Catholic
Majesty, Carlos the Cutup, or Pedro the Impossible, or whoever happened
to be the King of Spain for the moment. Personal investigation convinces
me that the current version of the above incident was wrong.

What Balboa did first was to state that he liked the climate better than
any climate he'd ever met; was perfectly crazy about it, in fact, and
intended to sell out back East and move West just as soon as he could
get word home to his folks; after which, still following the custom of
the country, he bought a couple of Navajo blankets and some moccasins
with blue beadwork on the toes, mailed a few souvenir postcards to close
friends, and had his photograph taken showing him standing in the midst
of the tropical verdure, with a freshly picked orange in his hand. And
if he waved his sword at all it was with the idea of forcing the
real-estate agents to stand back and give him air. I am sure that these
are the correct details, because that is what every round-tripper does
upon arriving in Southern California; and, though Balboa finished his
little jaunt of explorations at a point some distance below the
California state line, he was still in the climate belt. Life out there
in that fair land is predicated on climate; out there climate is
capitalized, organized and systematized. Every native is a climate
booster; so is every newcomer as soon as he has stuck round long enough
to get the climate habit, which is in from one to three days. They talk
climate; they think climate; they breathe it by day; they snore it by
night; and in between times