spiriting. But when the sun comes forth again
and the flowers (that look to me a little tired of blooming all the
time) brighten up with fresh washed faces, and all vegetation rejoices
and you can almost see things grow, and the waves dance and glitter, and
the mountains no longer look cold and threatening but seem like painted
scenery, _a la_ Bierstadt, hung up for our admiration, and the valleys
breathe the spicy fragrance of orange blossoms, we are once more happy,
and ready to rave a little ourselves over the much-talked-of "bay 'n'
climate." But there are dangers even on the sunniest day. I know a
young physician who came this year on a semi-professional tour, to try
the effects of inhalations on tuberculosis, and it was so delightfully
warm that he straightway took off his flannels, was careless about night
air, and was down with pneumonia.

The tourist or traveller who writes of San Diego usually knows nothing
of it but a week or two in winter or early spring.

Southern California has fifty-two weeks in the year, and for two thirds
of this time the weather is superb.

I can imagine even a mission Indian grunting and complaining if taken to
our part of the country in the midst of a week's storm. We flee from
deadly horrors of climate to be fastidiously critical. If, in midsummer,
sweltering sufferers in New York or Chicago could be transported to this
land they would not hurry away. The heat is rarely above eighty-five
degrees, and nearly always mitigated by a refreshing breeze from the
bay. I am assured that there have not been five nights in as many years
when one or more blankets have not been necessary for comfort. In summer
everything is serene. No rain, no thunder-storms, no hail, or
water-spouts. (The dust pest is never spoken of!) The picnic can be
arranged three weeks ahead without an anxious thought about the weather.
The summer sunsets are marvellously beautiful.

One must summer and winter here before he can judge fairly, and the
hyper-sensitive should tarry in New Mexico or in the desert until
spring. I believe that rheumatic or neuralgic invalids should avoid the
damp resorts to which they are constantly flocking only to be
dissatisfied. Every sort of climate can be found in the State, so that
no one has the right to grumble.

Do not take off flannels, although the perspiration does trickle down
the side of your face as you sit in the sun. A fur cape is always needed
to protect one shoulder from