EVOLUTION OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA 



is a farming population, the homes are so close together 

 that the people enjoy the convenience of free postal de- 

 livery. They fill their bath-tubs with water piped 

 through the streets. They light their homes with elec- 

 tricity. In the centre of the colony they have fine stores, 

 churches, hotels, and public halls. Their schools are of 

 the highest standard, and are housed in buildings the 

 beauty and convenience of which bespeak the good pub- 

 lic taste. A well-patonized institution is the club-house 

 and its reading-room. There is but a single saloon, and 

 it is considered decidedly disreputable to frequent it. 



The first result of the early colonies was to give a tre- 

 mendous impetus to the settlement and development 

 of southern California. The fruits of this new impulse 

 are seen in the scores of charming communities which 

 stretch eastward to the margin of the Colorado desert 

 and southward to the border of Mexico. Redlands, On- 

 tario, and Pomona are typical examples. The impres- 

 sive city of Los Angeles, which grows alike in good times 

 and in bad, is another product of the movement which 

 traces back to the humble beginnings of these pioneer 

 settlements established by a superior class of eastern 

 emigrants. High land values and costly irrigation works 

 have naturally resulted. But these are only the super- 

 ficial evidences of economic forces which lie deeper, and 

 which should be noted as the peculiar product of the 

 colonial life of southern California. 



The germ of Riverside, and of the civilization which 

 it inaugurated in the San Bernardino Valley, is the small 

 farm made possible by irrigation. This is alone respon- 

 sible for the character of industrial and social institu- 

 tions and of the people who sustain them. Where farms 



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