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 to the aged, the
invalids, the fugitives from frost, and the "fallen soldiers of
civilization," who are no longer able to make a courageous fight
with eastern storms and northern cold, San Diego is a climatic
paradise. Accordingly, from early October until April the overland
trains roll westward from a land of snow and frost to one of sun and
flowers, bearing an annually increasing multitude of invalids and
pleasure-seekers, some of whom have expensive permanent homes and
costly ranches here--like that of Mr. Andrew McNally, at
Altadena--while others find abundant comfort in the fine hotels.

[Illustration: AN OLD CALIFORNIAN TRADING POST.]

[Illustration: A BIT OF NATURE ON THE COAST.]

Perhaps the principal secret of the charm of the winter climate of
Southern California, as well as that of its wonderfulhealth-restoring
properties, lies in the fact that its dry, pure air and even
temperature make it possible for one to live continuously out of
doors. Yet, though not cold, it is a temperature cool enough to be
free from summer languor.

[Illustration: CALIFORNIAN PALMS.]

Especially attractive to the visitors from the North are the palms of
Southern California. Many of these resemble monstrous pineapples
terminating in gigantic ferns. What infinite variety the palm tree
has, now dwarfed in height, yet sending out on every side a mass of
thick green leaves; now rising straight as an obelisk from the desert
sand, and etching its fine feathery tufts against the sky; now
bearing luscious fruit of different kinds; now furnishing material
for clothing, fishing-nets, and matting; or putting forth those
slender fronds, frequently twenty feet in length, which are sent
North by florists to decorate dwellings and churches for festivals
and weddings! The palm is typical of the South, as the pine is of the
North. One hints to us of brilliant skies, a tropic sun, and an easy,
indolent existence; the other suggests bleak mountains and the
forests of northern hills, and symbolizes the conflict there between
man and nature, in which both fortitude and daring ha