TWENTY-NINTH FRUIT-GROWERS' CONVENTION. 



187 



We have a good example of foreign energy in our town. Most of our 

 business men are foreigners, who came here years ago and by their 

 thorough business methods, politeness, and honesty secured the confi- 

 dence and good will of the people, becoming one with them in the 

 financial and industrial interest of Fresno. We are justly proud of our 

 town. Thirty-five years ago it was a spot on the desert many miles 

 from civilization; to-day it stands the raisin center of the ivorld. It is 

 the place for rich and poor: work for one, investment for the other. In 

 what other State of the Union can eleven field laborers make over $1,400 

 in twenty days ? A gang of Japs made that amount last summer. I 

 know it to be a fact. 



No wonder people flock here and that we can not build houses fast 

 enough to accommodate them. A real estate agent told me that he 

 advertised a house for rent, and the applicants had him out of bed 

 before daylight to answer the 'phone. 



I'll take the house you advertised," shouted a woman. 



" Do you know the rent ? Have you seen the house ? " 



"No; but I'll take it any way. For eight weeks I've been paying 

 storage on my household goods for the mice to eat up, and I'll go crazy 

 if I don't get settled." 



The pessimists predict overproduction, and that raisins will be a 

 drug on the market in a few years. There might have been such a 

 possibility if the raisin-seeders had not come to our rescue, for since 

 the people have found out they have a rermiform appendix and that 

 it is a seed-catcher, it l^ehooves them to eschew all small seed fruits. 

 But now they can eat our raisins with perfect safety, and have no fear 

 for that dangerous little part of their anatomy — therefore, our raisins 

 are safe. 



I anticipate a great future for Fresno. Take a drive through our 

 suburbs and notice the houses springing up like mushrooms. Look at 

 the magnificent business blocks being erected on our streets. What 

 does it indicate ? Prosperity. With California's glorious sunshine, 

 and abundant snow on her grand Sierras, Fresno has everything to 

 make it and little to mar it. 



GOOD ROADS. 



By MRS. LAURA RHEA, of West Park. 

 (Read by Miss Ethel Rhea.) 



It is not my purpose to tell hoAv to maJce good roads, but rather to ask 

 ichy our roads are not in a better condition. Here in this broad and 

 almost level valley there are no great obstacles in the way — no hills to 

 level, no great engineering feats necessary, no storms or washouts, no 

 snow to be shoveled, no ice to make dangerous traveling; but one great 

 broad plain having many avenues systematically laid out, and named 

 like the streets of cities. 



