But dear me! We are now skirting the beautiful ocean curve which leads to the "Channel City"-- so near the beach that the waves almost touch the rails and the dash of the surf seems under the cars.

See how fine a situation! The coast line taking a sudden and most fortunate turn, the trend of mountain range and plain land is east and west, instead of north and south.

Sheltered by mountains and mesas, and nestled in the green foot-hills, with the ocean breeze tempered by a chain of islands, making a serene harbor, Santa Barbara has much to make it the rival of San Diego and Pasadena.

Pork and beans must now give way to legend and romance, martyred virgin, holy monks, untutored "neophytes," handsome Castilians, dashing Mexicans, energetic pioneers, the old Spanish, the imported Chinese, the eastern element now thoroughly at home, and the inevitable, ubiquitous invalid, globe-trotter, and hotel habitue--each type or stratum as distinctly marked as in a pousse cafe, or jelly cake.

What a comparison! I ask Santa Barbara's pardon, and beg not to be struck with lightning, or destroyed by gunpowder.--"_Yes, to the Arlington._".