EDITORIAL 



CALIFORNIA is so bountifully endowed with natural riches that even 

 in a conservative statement of facts it is difficult to avoid the ap- 

 pearance of "making copy." Her mining resources, the unmeasured 

 millions of feet of timber, the enormous output of her varied agri- 

 cultural and horticultural products, leading up to her wonderful 

 climate as a culminating asset, would seem to leave no room for a further 

 exposition of resources. It is nevertheless true that the mineral springs, 

 having distinctly curative properties, and distributed quite generally 

 throughout her area, are sufficient in themselves to give the Golden State 

 a place of importance. The fame of the curative springs of the Old 

 World is due partly to their actual merit in the relieving of physical ills, 

 and partly to the tradition which arises out of centuries of usage. Many 

 of the springs of California appear to be no less potent in their curative 

 properties than the most famous of the world-renowned fountains of 

 Europe. There is this difference, however: that, while their remedial values 

 have been amply demonstrated, they have not as yet been heralded abroad 

 with that great volume of publicity which has given the Old World waters 

 their standing. Two forces, working together, are requisite for material 

 success in any connection. One of these is intrinsic merit and the other 

 copious advertising. For the mineral springs of California the second of 

 these agents has its work still to do. Even as the traveling public are yet 

 ill-persuaded that Yosemite and Shasta are as worthy their pilgrimage 

 as the attractions of the Swiss plateau, so the busy world has still to learn 

 that, in the favored land of sunshine west of the Sierran divide, there 

 await the traveler literally scores of healing jets from the depths of the 

 earth, no less efficacious than those elsewhere which have achieved a 

 fame through centuries of advertising. Also many a reader will have as- 

 sumed that the springs of California are in the inaccessible places of the 

 land and are poor in the creature comforts which mean even more to the 

 afflicted than to those in health. Nothing could be further from the truth, 

 as will be seen in a perusal of the ensuing pages. Hundreds of thousands 

 of dollars have been expended in various parts of the State in making the 

 more important of California's medicinal springs all that they should be 

 in hotel equipment and the accessories of comfortable living; while, added 

 to the healing value of the waters themselves, is the unique advantage of 

 the outdoor life, v^hich can be enjoyed here as nowhere else in the world 

 by the seeker after health. 



It has been the aim, in the present number of FOR CALIFORNIA, 

 to add our little mite to that legitimate publicity by which alone connec- 

 tions are made between the good things of the earth and the masses who 

 are ever seeking them. The endeavor has been made to favor no particular 

 locality and to serve no individual interest, but to present a resume, as far 

 as the data have been obtainable, of California's resources in the way of 

 curative mineral springs. 



The Californian looks placidly abroad, over his mountain-girded acres 

 of bloom and fruit, and realizes, in a take-it-for-granted way, that he 

 has drawn a lucky number in the allotments of fortune. The beneficent 

 airs of mountain and vale join forces with the genial sunshine in a gentle 

 conspiracy to make the world look good to him. And even as the general 

 traveler, in crossing the Sierran divide, enters a new world of pleasures 

 and incentives, so it may be said of the visitor to many a mineral spring 

 in the State that "he who enters here leaves care behind." 



