California of the South. By Walter Lindley and J. P.
Widney. (D. Appleton and Co., New York.)—This is a curious sample of American enterprise. It is, in fact, a glorified guide-book and advertisement of Southern California. But it begins with an elaborate and interesting scientific treatise on the climate of California, with its physical causes ; an equally elaborate sketch of its history, which is redeemed from the ordinary dullness of American history by the fact of its Spanish origin and develop- ment ; and excellent papers on the flora and other products of the country. The most salient facts appear to be that Southern- California is a cure for consumption, and that it wishes to set up. Home-rule apart from Northern California. Los Angeles, with already 70,000 inhabitants, is to be the capital ; the Angelis. already regard San Francisco as played out, and its merchants and men of business as an old-world and humdrum set, who are entirely behind the times and not in touch with modern develop- ment. Certainly, if its climatic and fruit-producing qualities are not exaggerated, Southern California has a brilliant future before it, as the Garden of Eden of the United States, with the advantage of sea-breezes and mountain-snows.
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