THE CONQUEST OF ARID AMERICA 



vision equitable, those who obtained the choicest property 

 paid a premium, which was divided among those to whom 

 the poorer places had fallen. Most of the colonists devoted 

 themselves exclusively to agriculture, but enough opened 

 small shops and worked at their trades as blacksmiths, 

 carpenters, painters, shoemakers, and tailors, to meet 

 the needs of the community. With the division of the 

 land the association settled its accounts, and only the ir- 

 rigation canal remained public property. Co-operation 

 had served an excellent purpose, however, in enabling 

 the people to obtain their land at first cost, and to have 

 it improved skilfully and economically in advance of 

 their coming. 



Beyond the hope of dwelling beneath their own roofs 

 and working for themselves, the founders of Anaheim 

 had brought no special ideal to the southern valley. 

 They were people of common tastes, well content with 

 simple prosperity and comfort. The community was 

 thoroughly successful. It is also possible to record an 

 almost uniform story of individual ease of life for the 

 settlers. While a few became discouraged and sold out 

 to their neighbors, much the greater number remained 

 and became comfortably well off, while a few rose to 

 wealth. They had come to the colony from the employ- 

 ments of city life, yet readily adapted themselves to the 

 work of tilling the soil of their small farms. But the 

 true importance of Anaheim was seen in the impulse 

 which it gave to a new form of development in southern 

 California. It had been a region of great ranches, 

 where live-stock and grain held almost complete sway. 

 Anaheim pointed the way to the subdivision of large es- 

 tates and the intensive cultivation of the soil with the 



96 



