A Truthful Woman in Southern California

Truthful Woman in Southern
California, by Kate Sanborn

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Title: A Truthful Woman in Southern California
Author: Kate Sanborn
Release Date: September 27, 2006 [EBook #19391]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
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TRUTHFUL WOMAN ***

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A TRUTHFUL WOMAN IN SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
BY KATE SANBORN

AUTHOR OF ADOPTING AN ABANDONED FARM, ETC.
NEW YORK D. APPLETON AND COMPANY 1906
COPYRIGHT, 1893, BY D. APPLETON AND COMPANY.

CONTENTS.
CHAPTER PAGE
I.--HINTS FOR THE JOURNEY II.--AT CORONADO BEACH
III.--SAN DIEGO IV.--EN ROUTE TO LOS ANGELES V.--LOS
ANGELES AND ROUND ABOUT VI.--PASADENA
VII.--CAMPING ON MOUNT WILSON VIII.--CATCHING UP ON
THE KITE-SHAPED TRACK IX.--RIVERSIDE X.--A LESSON ON
THE TRAIN XI.--SANTA BARBARA XII.--HER CITY AND
COUNTY XIII.--IN GALA DRESS XIV.--AU REVOIR

A Truthful Woman in Southern California
CHAPTER I.
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 travellers are as ignorant as myself

regarding practical information about every-day life here, and many
others at home may know even less.
So let me say that California has not a tropical, but a semi-tropical
climate, and you need the same clothing for almost every month that is
found necessary and comfortable in New York or Chicago during the
winter.
Bring fur capes, heavy wraps, simple woolen dresses for morning and
outdoor life; and unless rolling in wealth, pack as little as possible of
everything else, for extra baggage is a curse and will deplete a heavy
purse,--that rhymes and has reason too. I know of one man who paid
$300 for extra baggage for his party of fifteen from Boston to Los
Angeles.
Last year I brought dresses and underwear for every season, and for a
vague unknown fifth; also my lectures, causing profanity all along the
line, and costing enough to provide drawing-room accommodations for
the entire trip.
Why did I come? Laryngitis, bronchitis, tonsilitis, had claimed me as
their own. Grip (I will not honor it with a foreign spelling, now it is so
thoroughly acclimated and in every home) had clutched me twice--nay,
thrice; doctors shook their heads, thumped my lungs, sprayed my throat,
douched my nose, dosed me with cough anodynes and nerve tonics,
and pronounced another winter in the North a dangerous experiment.
Some of you know about this from personal experience. Not a human
being could I induce to join me. If this hits your case, do not be
deterred; just come and be made over into a joyous, healthful life. I
would not urge those to take the tedious journey who are hopelessly
consumptive. Home is the best place for such, and although I see many
dragging wearily along with one lung, or even half of that, who settle
here and get married and prolong existence for a few years, and
although some marvellous cures have been effected, still I say the
same.
And what is to be put in the one big trunk? Plenty of flannels of
medium thickness, a few pretty evening dresses, two blouses, silk and

woolen or velvet for morning wear, with simple skirts, a gossamer,
rubbers, thick boots for long tramps and excursions, parasol, umbrella,
soft hat to shade the face, and gloves for all sorts of occasions. I do not
venture to suggest anything for men, they travel so sensibly. The more
experienced one is, the less he carries with him.
So do not load up with portfolio and portable inkstand, your favorite
stationery, the books that delighted your childhood or exerted a
formative influence upon your character in youth. Deny yourself and
leave at home the gold or silver toilet set, photograph album, family
Bibles, heavy fancy work, gilded horseshoe for luck, etc. I know of
bright people who actually carried their favorite matches from an
eastern city to Tacoma, also a big box of crackers, cheese, pickles, and
preserved fruits, only to find the best of everything in that brilliant and
up-with-the-times city. One old lady brought a