THE SAN GABRIEL VALLEY 



ous antagonism. I believe there are some 

 fifteen thousand people here, and some of their 

 buildings are rather fine, but the gardens and 

 the sky interested me more. A palm is seen 

 here and there poising its royal crown in the 

 rich light, and the banana, with its magnificent 

 ribbon leaves, producing a marked tropical 

 effect not semi-tropical, as they are so fond 

 of saying here, while speaking of their fruits. 

 Nothing I have noticed strikes me as semi, save 

 the brusque little bits of civilization with which 

 the wilderness is checkered. These are semi- 

 barbarous or less; everything else in the region 

 has a most exuberant pronounced wholeness. 

 The city held me but a short time, for the San 

 Gabriel Mountains were in sight, advertising 

 themselves grandly along the northern sky, 

 and I was eager to make my way into their 

 midst. 



At Pasadena I had the rare good fortune to 

 meet my old friend Doctor Congar, with whom 

 I had studied chemistry and mathematics 

 fifteen years ago. He exalted San Gabriel above 

 all other inhabitable valleys, old and new, 

 on the face of the globe. &quot;I have rambled,&quot; 

 said he, &quot;ever since we left college, tasting 

 innumerable climates, and trying the advan 

 tages offered by nearly every new State and 

 Territory. Here I have made my home, and 

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