FIELD-DAYS IN CALIFORNIA 



"Well, do you like wind ? " asked the returned 

 traveler. 



'♦No." 



" Do you like dust .? " 



"No." 



"Do you like fleas?" 



"No." 



" Then you would n't like California." 



A discouraging picture. And truthfully drawn, 

 of that I make no question, according to the 

 man's lights. No doubt there are many parts 

 of California — I myself could name one or two 

 — which suffer grievously from all these plagues, 

 as there are many which suffer from months of 

 intolerable heat. But I am talking of Santa 

 Barbara, and here is my testimony : — 



In my almost three years of residence I have 

 not seen so much as one flea, though I have 

 heard of those who have had a less happy ex- 

 perience ; I have been no more troubled by dust, 

 for all the regular annual drought of seven or 

 eight months, than I have been in many places in 

 the East ; while, as for wind, I have never lived 

 anywhere where there was not at least several 

 times as much. In that respect, indeed, the 

 place is nothing less than a wonder. To use the 

 word of the hour, I must believe that it holds 

 the world's record. 



6 



