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4 LOS ANGELES DAILY HERALD BY THE HERALD COMPANY. HUNK O. FINIAtfION.... ftwMmt ItOBT. H. TOST General Manage* OLDEST MORNING PAPER IN LOS ANOKLKS. Founded Oct. 2, 1873. Thirty-second Year. Chamber of Commerce Building. TKIVEPHONES— Bun»t. Pr«m It. Ham*. Th« H»r«ld. Th* enly TXtmoomtta fi«w«p»p«r In Southern CMlfornl* M««lv !n« th« full AMto6lat«<l premi report*. NBWB KERVtCE— Membm of th» A««net»ted Pr»M, r«c«l»ln« Iti full report, •vornfrlng 31,000 word* a rt»v. KASTKRN AGENTS— Smith A Thomesofl. Potter Bvildln*. New York; Tribune Building, CMoairo. CIRCULATION Sworn Dally Average for December ...24,690 Sunday Edition 31,160 RATKB OF SUBSCRIPTION. WITH BUNDAT MAGAZINE): Pally, by e*rrl*r, per month. .......I ••* ■ Pally, by mall, three months 1-J* bally, by mnil. nix monthe *-»0 Dally, by mall, on* year '■"" Punday TtornM. by mall, one year • J - fio Weekly Herald, by mall, one year 1 -°° Entered at Poitoffloe, Loa Angeles, an Beeond-claee Matter, THE lirilAl.ll IN SAN KRANCISCO— T,oe Anielea and Southern California vlnltora to Ban Francleoo will find The Herald en sal* dally at the newa etanda In the Palace and St. Franela hotels, and (or »ale at Cooper & Co., S4B Market; at New* Co.. ■. P. Ferry, and on the etreeta by Whratley. The California state building at the Lewis and Clark exposition will be in the mission style, as it was at, St. Louis. This state's display will, as expected, eclipse all others. A dispatch from Macon, (5a., tells of a boy who is likely to recover from a wound that caused a loss of his brains. But there are plenty of examples of brain less persons getting along fairly well. The negro rubbish monopolists are protesting against former Mayor Snyder's sanitary innovation. According to their intimation, it will be a dark lookout for Snyder if he ever again runs for the mayoralty. The great religious crusade, for which preparation has been in progress several weeks in this city, is near ly ready to begin. About $6000 is already in hand for the expense account, and it is said that 4000 workers are enlisted. i Again Tennessee comes to the front, this time with a bill introduced in the legislature making the playing of football a felony. Still, if they play the game as poorly in that state as is suspected, it ought to be - classed as a crime. : : Several local dentists were arraigned in court on Friday charged with practicing without a license. But as they probably practice with forceps and other homi cidal Implements customers get the worth of their money, license or no license. . It begins to look as if the czar may have made a mistake suggestive of the fable about the dog which dropped the meat in its mouth to grab the piece it saw reflected in the water. In grasping Manchuria he may have lost his grip on Muscovy. ', Another addition was made on Friday in the as sembly to the outrageous committee clerk graft that smirches the . present legislature. Another group of clerks, attendants and the like was appointed and the stipends of certain women attaches were increased. ■i Now comes the startling notice from the National Health club that in tablecloths and napkins used in hotels and restaurants "lurk millions of microbes." Well, a cloth \on the table is of no importance com pared with the victuals, and for the napkin there is still the coat sleeve fashion. William J. Bryan was welcomed cordially by the president at the White House yesterday. Subsequently Mr. Bryan said: "I think the president is unmistakably right in his demands in regard to railroad legislation, and I told him so." He voiced the general sentiment of the Democratic party. . Governor Brodie of Arizona has been appointed by the president to a fat office in the pension bureau at Washington. No mention has been made publicly in regard to Brodie's successor in the governorship. It Is understood, however, that several members of the Roosevelt Rough Rider regiment are still awaiting jobs. ' As a consequence of the bumptious action by Presi dent Castro it is said in Washington that "the relations between the United States and Venezuela are in a decided strain." The favor to Venezuela in saving it from the wrath of European nations two years ago was another example of the mistake in warming a serpent The fight in the Missouri legislature over the sena torship has reached a point where the Democratic nominee is ahead, although the Republicans have a good. working majority. It looks as If the contest might be long and bitter in the Republican ranks, with a bare possibility of the ultimate re-election of Senator Cock rell. A new industry is reported from San Bernardino. A 'desert teamster claims to have discovered a valley in which there are at least ono thousand wild burros. He estimates that by capturing them and selling them at only $10 each he will "clean up" $10,000. The views of the burros on this speculation have not been ascer tained. During the present month thus far the sojourners In this city have seen but little of the sunshine that was promised. There have been comparatively few days not either rainy or cloudy. But these are our busy days In the storage of moisture. A few weeks later there will be sunshine to burn, if you use a double convex lens. It is somewhat difficult in these days to make tho complaints about the streets fit the conditions. By the time a complaint about dust is fairly lodged the rain converts the dust to the consistency of mortar and vice versa. But if the streets were kept clean there would be neither dust nor mortar to provoke fracture of the ten commandments. It is due to Judge Wilbur, to the Times and to the public to say that tho following paragraph was omitted from most of tho published accounts of the learned juiiHt'H decision in the recent contempt case aßaiiiHt Gen. 11. O. Otis, the editor, and Mr. Harry Chandler, as sistant manager of the Times: "I regret espoclally that I have to impose a judgment In this case for tho rea son that I have noted the course of the Times for years and have noted its valiant fight for law and order on all occasions. I regret that there has been a conflict between the powers and duties of the court and grand jury and the rights and privileges of the press, as I view it. As I stated in the opinion already filed, the constitutional question aa to the effect of the legislation which attempts to relieve newspapers from the effects of publications made by them during the pendency of judicial proceedings is not considered at this time." • PART 111. AN UNFAIR BURDEN In the city's commercial thoroughfares the wretched condition of the streets has led to vigorous action on the part of merchants and other business men. On Friday a committee composed of representatives from the commercial bodies appeared before the board of public works and urged immediate action looking to relief from the present unsightly condition of the thor oughfares. On behalf of the business men the proposi tion was made to the board that "the merchants and business men generally are willing to subscribe to a fund for caring for the paved streets until th« end of the present fiscal year." No doubt the enterprising business men of Los Angeles would gladly go down Into their personal pbekets for funds ■wherewith to give the city's streets a decent appearance. But It is the duty of the cM-y as a whole to keep its streets, and particularly its chlef_ business streets, in presentable condition. The comfort ot all citizens Is involved in this matter, and when It comes to the observation of the streets by st ßangers the class most directly interested are the property owners. Investors are not likely to jump at chances in a city that apparently has not enough civic pride to keep Its streets fit to walk In and breathe In. It Is getting to be a common practice to depend on the merchants and other business men to dive into their pockets whenever funds are required for a pub lic purpose that are not readily available. Such ex pectation Is "an imposition on good nature." Los An geles as a municipality Is abundantly able to keep Its streets clean and wholesome, as all other cities do that claim to be progressive. PRACTICAL USE OF EDUCATION In the current number of the Westjgrg Journal of Education, "the official organ of the department of pub lic instruction of the state of California," appears some pointed criticisms of our educational methods. For instance, the editor says: "Wo are vainly trying to make literati of boys and girls *in their teens before we have taught them how and required them as a habit to write a Respectable letter of business or friendship." As a consequence of this outreach for the upper rungs of the educational ladder the writer says further that "business men come to me and say they would be glad to give employment to high school boys, but they find they cannot Indite a business letter or put into correct figures and form an ordinary statement or account." "*" Is it for this result that a large percentage of Cali fornia parents subject themselves to pinching economy in order that their boys and girls may have the ad vantage of "higher education"? Tho presumable object of education from bottom to top is the equipment of the pupil or student for occupying a point pf vantage in the struggle of a life career. But this recognized authority on educational affairs in California intimates that such higher education as our high schools afford is a hindrance rather than a help when it comes to a question of business. That inference is warranted, because any California boy of average brightness, who has passed all the grades below the high school, surely can "write a respectable letter." The conclusion of the editor of the Journal of Edu cation tallies exactly with the observation and ex perience of many business men. Young men emerge from our higher institutions of learning with a sem blance of education that is to the real thing what a plated watch is to a solid gold one. That is true not only of many high school graduates, but of those also who come forth from colleges and universities. Their education is too high for serviceable reach. They are learned in things that are of no practical value, but they are utterly deficient In lines required for their life work. The course of instruction in American schools is in need of thorough revision. It is admirable now as a means of affording educational polish for students whom fortune has placed above the necessity for earn ing their own livelihood. But for three-fourths of American boys the present system of education, from the high school to the university, is deficient in- the essential matter of being helpful in after life. The primary aim of education should be to fit the individual for life work. All else being equal, the man or woman of good education is better equipped for the life struggle than the person of meager education. But unless the favored one is educated on useful lines he or she may really be handicapped by learning, hav ing failed to acquire knowledge of greater practical usefulness. The young man who, in these days of strenuous business struggle, emerges from college with a bit of parchment in his hand and but little useful knowledge in his head, is a pitiable spectacle. In Los Angeles there are today dozens, probably hundreds, of such men, who envy the skilled mechanics earning from $3 to $5 a day, and who would gladly accept almost any job at half such wages. BLACKLIST AND BOYCOTT A bill is pending in the legislature aiming to make the laws of California conform to the judicial decisions of many states declaring the unlawfulness of the black list and the boycott in contests between labor and capi tal. As such means of obstruction to industry are con stitutionally unlawful, there can be no reasonable ob jection to putting California on record in the matter by legislative enactment, as has been done in other states. In tho bill referred, to there is no discrimination against either employers or workers. The lockout and the blacklist are the weapons with which employers fight when they claßh with their workers, and the weapons of the latter are tho strike and the boycott. As means of injuring one another the weapons are well matched. An employer who wishes to turn the thumb screws upon his men for any cause adopts the lockout, and If he is inclined to make the pinch particularly painful ho blacklists the men, furnishes other employers in his line with their names, and thereafter other doors are shut in the faces of the blacklist's victims. The operation of the strike and the boycott are familiar. Every step is commendable which tends to destroy the weaponß wherewith labor and capital make war upon each other. Every Impartial legal step aiming at that purpose should have the support of both employera and workers. The blacklist and the boycott are re- Bponslblo for much of the trouble and loss sustained by both Bides in labor troubles, and as one is an exact offset to the other as a weapon, it would bo a glorious thing for both sides If they were forever eliminated from American industry. Beautiful Altadena, at the mountain foot back of Pasadena, promises to blossom out soon as an incor porated city. It is not very big, but what it lacks in elze it makes up in plcturosque attraction. The town of Clarksvllle, Ind., has adopted a novel method of getting rid of its negro quarter, known aa "Coontown." The district occupied by the negroes oc cupies twenty-two acreß and the trustees hay* decided to "diiaanex" it. LOS ANGELES HERALD r SUNDAY MORNING, JANUARY aa, 1905. ABOUT A SO-CALLED DRY COUNTRY The mnftlral Increase of the popula tion of Southern California has had the natural effect of placing in the re markable region south of the Tehnchapl several hundred thousands of people whp know little of the Immediate past of the country. Well-read men often know more of the imimls of a nation, even of their own, dating back n. hun dred years ago, than of those of twenty years ngo. History has not dedicated itself to the Immediate past, nnd only the events of bygone time have been carefully and voluminously compiled. For Instance, there nre ten average Americans who know more about the detail* of the careers of Henry Clay mid Andrew Jackson than one who knows the Ins and outs of the lives of James O. Blnlne find William McKln ley. There ore now living In Los Angeles nnd the other southern counties hundreds of thousands of people who never hoard of the "No Fence" law, or what the significance of the mighty legislative struggle which once clus tered around those words. Just so there nre multitudes who hnve nn Idea that Los Angeles county Is a very <lry region, and that farming Bouth of the Tehachnpl Is absolutely and always a question of Irrigation. In the opinion of these worthy people It la "no Irri gation, no crops." Because this propo sition is true as to the citrus fruits and some other special staples It Is accepted as true of all farming operations. This general opinion 13 undoubtedly due to the fact that for the past ten yaars there has been a deficiency in the normal rainfall of Los Angeles county of something in the neighbor hood of sixty Inches. We have been suffering from a prolonged "dry spell" —it is that and nothing more— which has dried out the soil, worked injury to the trees and diminished the reser voirs, springs and streams. To those who are long familiar with Southern California it would seem, In the light of the past, that we are now entering upon a wet season which will be fol- ( lowed by twelve or movs other wet seasons, during which we will recoup the sixty Inches of which we are shy, and during which cycle we are morally sure of seeing such a season as that of 1884-85, in which we had thlrty-vjight inches of rain In the valleys and In which every bridge over the Los An geles river was swept away, with the exception of the covered bridge; in which some forty-odd houses marched down the stream, and in which gal lant Sheriff Martin Aguirre was plunging into the river on horseback and pulling out drowning people by the score. Of course, no one can tell just when such things are going to happen, but it is pretty nearly safe to assume that sometime lit the next dec ade history is very likely to repeat it self. Something About Drc.iths Now that we have already had 5.0< inches of rain, and the hills are already beginning to take on their vernal tints, it may be interesting to say something about the real drouths of the past. The last occurred In the season of 1876-77, when the total rainfall was" only 4.85 Inches. It was in Us results of mixed good and evil to Los Angeles and Southern California. It found this country a Bheep pasturage and cattle range and converted it into a horticul tural, vitlcultural and agricultural region. As has always been the case in good years, the ranges were allowed to be enormously overstocked. There SOUNDS OF FAMOUS CHURCH BELLS The oldest musicians of the worl-J are: Brama, among the Hindoos; Osiris and Hermes, among the Egyptians; Ju bal, among the Jews; Apollo and Mer cure, among the Greeks. | The three greatest musicians of the better known antiquity are Pytha goras, Arion and Orpheo. Pythagoras Is represented with the hammer ani the balance. He discovered the rythm of music In the motion of the stars. Listening to the percussion of differ ent hammers beating the anvil in a blucksmlth shop, he discovered the re lation of sound with the bulk of metal producing the sound. Arion is repre sented with the cornet and Orpheo with the lyra, which became later the violin. So that these musicians show to us the three great divisions of the known instruments, viz: Sounding, wind and string instruments. "■.••■', Among the sound instruments the bell is the most important. This in strument is nothing but a cymbal In ' a more developed and more perfect form. Prophet David mukes mention of the instrument in his 150 th or last psalm, where he sings: Laudate Deum in cymballs juhilutlonis. So thnt from the beginning of its existence the more perfect cymbal or bell was destined to praise the Lord. The oldest bell known In the civilized world is to be found in the church of Ht. Ceclle In Cologne (Koln, Prussia). It is not smelted or cast in a mould, Its shape or form haß been given by bringing together the two brims airi riveting them like the boiler of an en- Bine. That bell dates from the sev-j enth century, and Is made from v por tion of beaten or lumlnatud brass. j idllH are made of metal, glass, clay, etc. In the old mUnlon church of Ven tura some are made of wood, but theae ' last ones were only for show when hunglhg In the steeple. It Is strange that the Inventive monks of California never thought of making these show bells. In clay, the matter with which they made tiles for roofing their build ings. It would better have been to the purpose, sparing In the meantime a great deal of labor. A bell In clay or terra cotta can be moulded in a few minutes, while to make one of a log requires hours, and days. In a certain Recollections of California Drouths, by Colonel Joseph D. Lynch 'wnfl no accumulation of food— not a bale or bushel of Rrflln. Th« result oiißht to hnve bw>n known nnd guarded nftnlnnt. Flocks of sheep and bands of cnttl* nnd horses by the million were nwfpt away. Some were navert by being driven to the mountain*. Bear vnlley was ft favorite resort of the sheepme". nnd their flocks dropped by the thou sand on the way. The advent of that drouth prevented Los Angeles county from becoming the most notfld mutton producer In the tlnlte<l States, as thus: Sir nobert Burnett, from whom Mr. D. Freeman bought tlw Ontlnela-Bau srl Ttodondo ranches, had imported n flue bund of Southdown sheep and hnri «>me ten or twelve thousand of tho flnent graded sheep In the. United States when he turned them over to Freeman. Finding gross growing short, the bit ter sold them to K. J. Baldwin, who thought he oould pull them through on his bountiful Sierra Mndre ranch, which thnt gentleman had Ifitfly bought from the Newmtirks. Vain hope! They were sent up to Bear vnl ley, which Unldwin whs holding 1 at that time with a choice band of gun fighters on some mining proposition, and few of them over got back to Los Angeles. Tiw ordinarily folr land of Los An gelrs was a pitiful sight in that mem orable senaon of 1876-77. I made It a point to see the havoc for myself. "From the center till round to the «ea" "with desolntlon the land was made desolate," to associate the spectacle In a double quotation from "Robinson Crusoe" nnd the ancient testament. Hundreds of thousands of carcasses of dead sheep, dead horses and dead cat tte cumbered the earth. They were slaughtered for their hides. The ef fluvium made pestilence Imminent and It nn affliction to make the rounds. In one of my trips I saw a corral of twenty-five handsome young colts sold near Oompton for $5-20 cents apiece! Why the enterprising owner did not strip the hides himself I do not know. Perhaps he did not know how. I merely tell what I saw. The poor fellow was probably desperate and wanted to let the tall go with the hide. The great extent of the disaster of that year— the laßt year o£ drouth in its horrible sense— was the utter lack of any preparation to light it off. That it did good is unquestionable. It made Southern California the most prosper ous horticultural and agricultural region In the world. When this, in one sense baneful visitation, took place this section began to fill up with a highly Intelligent, resourceful and in dustrious population, who saw that there were better things ahead than surrendering fine lands to the shepherd and herdsman. The universal slaughter of sheep, cat tle and horses by the drouth of 1876-77 brought its lesson in prudential meas ures against a deficient rainfall. In 18S6 I paid a visit to the 450,000 acre f»rm of Messrs. Haggin & Carr, in Kern county. I was told by the manager of this splendid property that there was enough hay and grain stored upon it to take care of the whole southern end of tire state in the event of another visitation* of drouth. The lesson had been a costly one, but it had been well taken to heart. The example of the Meßsrs. Haggin & Carr was generally followed In the adjoining counties of Los Angeles, Santa Barbara and Ven tura. Short as was the rainfall in 1876-77, it showed what could be done in Los Written for The Herald by J^ev. Chas, de Ceuninck, Chaplain of the House of the Guardian Angel 9 Los Angeles terra cotta factory of Belgium a bell made of clay calls the workmen to their different occupations. The klepper of that bell is of wood and the sound of the instrument is very sweet. A curious contrast may be noted herp between the monks of California, who were fond of bells, and the monks ot Mount Athos, in Greece. The latter huve no bells in their conventß; they are called to their various occupations by the sound of a wooden board, which is carried upon the shoulder and pound ed at intervals with a stick. The great er part of the bells brought over to California by the Franciscan fathers arc cracked and give no good soun.l. The reason of this condition is to be found purtly In the bad quality of tha matter from which they are cast, anl partly in the way they have been tolled, or rung. When a bell is struck In different parts at once, or in quick succession, not having time to make regular vibration, It Is in danger of be ing cracked.- Not to mention the large gongs of China, whose sound Is striking and offensive to the musical ear, we find in history that Godfrey of Bouillon had the first bells cast In Jerusalem in the pear 1099, and the largest bell now to be found In Kurope Is standing upon a pedestal In the Kremlin of Moscow, Russia. On account of Its Immense weight it was never suspended, so that It never revealed the magnificence of Its sound. Some couple of centuries ago the building that covered it took fire, which made a conical crack at its base, and a piece six feet high fell out of it. At the end of the eighteenth century great havoc was made in the big bells by the I'Yitiuli revolution. The right tilven to the grand muster of iirtlllery, ufter a city wus taken by guns, ruined to v great extent the number of bella. That right extended to all the metal that was to be found In the city. In consequence the victor took: the heV.t out of the church and city hall steeples U> convert them Into guns and email coin. In different places, where time and secrecy was given, especially in villages, people saved the bells of thd community by burying them in th« ground. The casting of. balls is a special art. A good bell, beside the fundamental Angles county *yen In s, season In which th# total precipitation was only 4.85 Inches. Up till that year the C'en tlnela y Sausal Kedondo ranchos had only been used ns sheep ranges.- Of all times this hsd been hit upon by Mr. Fryman for trying the experiment of growing grain. He made a contract with Farmer Flood to put In on the shares a thousand acres of the Cen tlnela in wheat nnd barley. As the days passed by Flood grew very much disheartened. As wwki nnd months passed on with skies of brass and not n. drop of rain the farmer could stand It no longer. He finally went to Freeman nnd offered to turn over to him his whole plant, horpes, wagons, ploughs nnd the crop for ft release from his contract and a thousand dollars in cash. Thnt gentleman had very little hope of any crop outcome himself, but he cheered up his tenant and succeeded, with great labor, In Inducing him to hold on. Strnnge to say an abundant crop followed on land which, as most people supposed, it would have been Impossible to rnlse one, no matter how large the rainfall might have been. As a result of his yielding to Freeman's advice Flood passed $6000 to his bank nccount ns his share of the crop nnd hnd his valuable plant to .the good. .a Brute Aceldama In this connection It may be well to state that, nt one time, It was thought in California thnt It was Impossible to raise wheat anywhere in this stnt<e. The late Isnnc Lankershlm, the father of our townsman, Col. James B. Lanker shlm, was the great pioneer In the wheat Industry. His experiments were conducted at first In the central coun- ties and later he came down to the south. He and his son-in-law, Mr. I. N. Yon Nuys, were the first wheat growers of the San Fernando valley, where. for long years it was thought wheat or barley growing was out or the question. Early Disasters From Drouth Of course, while It is well understood that absolutely reliable data as to the weather in Southern California only goes back some thirty years, there is much tradition that has a basis of fact. In the same way in which we learn that there were tremendous floods In '48 and '50, we know of two excep tional years of drouth in the early six- ties—two seasons of awful severity. Coincidently with the full operation of the American reign of twelve and a half per cent a month compounding monthly, these seasons of drouth worked awful havoc amongst the Sepulvedas, Sanchezes, Picos nnd other old-time Southern California families, compelling them to release princely possessions to the stranger which had been the center of native Callfornian hospitality for generations. By all accounts this double visita tion of the early sixties must have been Indescribably grievous. The sheep, cattle and horses had been multiply ing with more than the usual native Callfornian heedlessness. The first dry season did its work of destruction with great completeness. Hundreds of thousands of dead sheep, cattle and horses stretched from the Malibu ranch to San Juan Capistrano and, for thac matter, to the Mexican line. Many ot tlvem had been slaughtered, in a half starved condition, for their hides. The country must have presented much such a picture as that painted of the "Carnatic" by Edmund Burke, after it had been swept over by Hyder All and his still more ferocious son, Tippoo Sahib. tone, gives a harmonlcal tone which is related to the natural tone, so as to make an accord of tierce minor. A bell struck on the lower edge gives the natural or ground tone; struck a little higher than the middle it gives the har monlcal tone. The big Bourdon in Paris, France, weighing 32,000 pounds, Is cast in such a way that, beside its fundamental tone it gives four tones in perfect accord. This bell was cast in 1860. The Belgians were the first to ring different bells in harmonle, and to make what we call a chime, in French carillon; in Spanish quadrllla. Longfellow celebrated In verses the belfry of Bruges, Belgium, with Its en trancing chime containing forty-eight bells, beginning with G major under the scale; all the others following- up ward in chromatic scale or gamut. From the balance of Pythagoras to the composing of the chime, great progress has been made. In the abbey of Fulda (Prussia), at the enerance of the vestry may be seen a wheel In the form of a star, of which every ray carries different small bells. By turn ing the wheel every bell Is set tinkling. This contrivance, made in the fifteenth century, is a first development of Pythagoras' balance. Bells In glass have been made on a small scale. Such a one is to be found in the hospital of Ypr*s (Belgium), and who is the one that has not heard of the Matophone; that musical contri vance to which Mato, the inventor of It, has given his name? On the etag« and In some brass bands, other varia tions are heard of chimes made with steel lamlnas, earthen flower pots, empty bottles, reeds, pieces of hard wood, all beaten with two little sticks and changing the monotony of the melody. The bells, in tho Cathollo church are christened, that means that they m celve a special blessing. Symbolically they represent the preachers of tho gospel and receive different names Just as the lutter perform divers functions. Instead of. bells the modern industry uses now the steam whistle, except upon the boiler of a locomotive where both are used alternately. A bell may be perforated without losing ita sound, but this will lie weaker, and the more holes In it the higher the tone also. As the vlbra Budden and Brent w«* the visitation, I but the hand of rrovlrlence was to b« laid still heavier on thin devoted peo ple. Still another drouth must be en dured. We may he sure that whatever little might have been left by the first drouth was gathered as nn alms of ob livion Into the wallet of time by the nwxt. Never were a people so grievously tried ns those of Southern California In those opening years of the sixties. It speaks volumes for the recuperative powers of the people who Inhabited the country south of the Tehachapls that they were not swept off the face of the earth, root and branch. It was In those days that the fore handed man found his opportunities for loading up with the realty of South, em California. During thw first drouth lnnd went abeßglng, but during the second you could hardly give It away. Even such men ns old Don Abel Htcnrns was obliged to let go of his real «stnte by the hundred thousand 'acres, and Don Abel had been looked upon ns being as solid as the eternal hills. It was during the»e terrible times that the San Joaquln ranch, now of Oranga county, and consisting of 105,000 acres, was purchased by the Irvlnes for about $37,000, In greenbacks, eta time when greenbacks were only worth 40 cent* on the dollar. These figures may not be exact, but they are nearly so enough so for nil practical purposes. On portions of that superb ranch the prosperous cities of Orange nnd Tustln now stutvl, and others are destined to grow tp. Even the hard-fisted and hard-headed Don Abel Steams had all he could do to prevent himself from em-erglng a bankrupt from those times which tried men's souls. I have advanced the theory that we shall this year see the advent of a wet season. In my opinion, Hatfleld has his money as good as in his pocket. If his $1000 were ten 'times as much I would not discount 5 per cent of it for the ready cash. He has as much to do with the eighteen inches and upwards of rain which will have fallen in Los Angeles by May 1 as any groundhog or coyote which may lurk in the Sierra Madre range. It is my belief that the current wet year will prove to be the return to a cycle which will give us a succession of them, and renew the productive capabilities of the country. We shall never again know the mean ing of the word drouth in its old-time significance. A failure of crops under present conditions means merely a loss to the farmer and not a depriva tion to an entire people. Actual suffer ing on an extended scale is no longer to be expected. A failure of crops in any portion of California can. readily be made good by the abundance in other sections of the state. Our facilities of communication by local and transcon tinental railway lines assures abun dance from Kern and other counties, where the facilities for irrigation are unlimited. In ten years from now-, indeed in a much less time— the ' old, dread Colorado desert itself will fur nish abundant supplies to tide over a dry season. In all likelihood, the word drouth in Southern California will in ten years have become as infrequent in' daily conversation as it is today in New York, Philadelphia, Chicago or any of the leading cities of the United States. We have entered into entirely new conditions in which we are meas urably independent of the weather clerk, and in which Jupiter Pluvlus will be regarded with no more aw« than old Neptune. ttons are compelled to be longer on their way, in a given time, they will be less numerous, and the empty parts of the bell not concurring to the for mation of the sound, the tone in const quence will be weaker and higher. A bell, like a violin, becomes better by old-age, provided it has been cast from good material, and that tho clapper does not strike its brim too long time in the same place so that it is advisable to turn a good bell, which is rung frequently, at least once In twenty-five years. The full tone of a bell is brought out by swinging It on its axis. The rea son Is that sound is in proportion ' to the greatest number of undulations produced in the air. In consequence, a bell hanging altogether under the revolving axis when rung is heard ut greater distance than a bell hung in a trapezium or horse-shoe. In the first condition the clapper strikes the bell on the upper part; in the second case tho clapper, not having any centrifugal force, falls down upon the lower part of the bell, and without the springs put Inside to catch the clapper after a first contact, there would be heard a dis agreeable tremolo. Moreover, a bell hung In a horse-shoe cannot be swung and tolled with one rope. For simply tolling a second rope and a second hammer are required. Single big bells may be usefully hung in a horse-shoe when they are to b* swung; they save labor and shaking in a tower, but all bells under 600 pounds which are to be tolled, as In churches and religious communities, should be hung under a straight re volving axis. After the Franco-Prussian war the Germans, In commemoration, had a big bell cast to which they gave the name of Kaiserß-Qlocke, the imperial bell. More than twenty men were used to make It swing. It revolved all right but it would not talk. Some superstitious spectators began to Bay that it wus bewitched, until It was found that the bell was suspended in such a way that the clapper could not strike upward or downward, having a dead center. All that was necessary to hear the boll was to suspend It a little higher, or to lower it a few inches. (.Continue! in next Sunday'i Huald),