Los Angeles, like Colorado Springs, is the paradise of excursions. The trip up Mount Lowe to the observatory offers a magnificent panorama of landscape, including Pasadena Valley and Catalina and Santa Barbara islands. Old San Gabriel Mission and the San Gabriel Valley are infinitely interesting, and the famous bells of San Gabriel still ring in their quaint, rude stone framework even though they are jangled and out of tune with the lapse of years. The Sierra Nevada Mountains rise from the San Gabriel Valley.
One of the excursions has a feature that is new to every visitor,—that of glass-bottom power boats which give a view of the marvels of the ocean. These boats run from Avalon on the coast—an hour's express trolley ride from Los Angeles—to the submarine gardens adjoining Catalina Island, and they have a capacity to seat over a hundred passengers around the glass. In sailing over these submarine gardens the boats move very slowly, that the passengers may enjoy the view of the strange seaweed, the marine flowers, the varied aquatic vegetation. Catalina Island is a favorite sea resort, lying in such convenient proximity to the city.
Los Angeles seems to be the paradise of every one who has a new idea—or ideal—for the betterment of humanity. There is an atmosphere of idealism. Among the recent institutions is the Pacific School of Osteopathy, with a faculty of thirty physicians, men and women, who base their therapeutics on the scientific fact that the body is subject to chemical, electrical, thermal, mental, and mechanical treatment. In the line of ethics Rev. B. Fay Mills has established a comprehensive movement of "Fellowship," including religious services and social intercourse, with a large and enthusiastic membership drawn by this eloquent orator and preacher who for many years before in his pastorate in Boston preached to large congregations who gave him profound appreciation.
A most important centre that radiates sweetness and light in infinite measure is that of Christ Church (Episcopal), whose rector, Rev. Baker P. Lee, is not only eminent as a preacher, but as a leader and inspirer of a network of organizations connected with the church for the betterment of human life. Christ Church parish is a large one, numbering over two thousand in direct connection with the church, with a list of communicants of over twelve hundred. Within the past three years the parish has built a magnificent new church and a rectory, and the holy earnestness of the young and gifted rector makes the work one of vital spirituality.
No city can offer more beautiful homes than those of Los Angeles; more attractive parks, more enchanting scenery, or more delightful excursions over a network of electric lines which aggregate above five hundred miles of single track and reach one hundred towns and villages from Monrovia of the foothills to Redondo by the sea. The world has but one Southern California, with its cool, soft, gray sea-fogs in the early mornings, followed by its cloudless days of blue sky over golden sunshine; where the sea-breeze gladly brings its health-giving ozone in exchange for the odors of orange blossoms and roses; where the mountains stand glorying in the ruggedness of their rocky cliffs until, touched by sunset's wand, they glow with pink lights and purple shadows; and over all comes a golden radiance that changes the forbidding outlines of their jagged peaks into radiant beauty,—fitting features of the vast panorama of nature to hold their eternal place in the Land of Enchantment.
CHAPTER XI
GRAND CAÑON; THE CARNIVAL OF THE GODS
"What time the gods kept carnival!"