Los Angeles is a city of churches, and its philanthropies are many; its educational advantages are remarkably good. At the head of a noticeably complete system of training stands the University of Southern California, which opened its doors in 1880, with Dr. Bovard as President. Its College of Medicine is a well-equipped institution, and its progress is identified with the name of Dr. J.P. Widney. An exceptionally fine normal school completes the training given by the public-school system, with its high schools and fifty-five grammar schools, all housed in buildings which might be the pride of any community. The buildings which house its free library system, its City Hall, and its County Court-House, are well conceived for their several purposes, and architecturally of great beauty. [Illustration IMPROVED HARBOR OF SAN PEDRO, PORT OF LOS ANGELES.] But Los Angeles is above all a city of homes and of gardens. The mildness of the climate permits the most delicate plants and trees to flourish throughout the winter. Giant bananas, fan and date-palms, rise above the houses, and at Christmas are seen hedges of callas, geraniums ten feet high, heliotropes covering whole sides of houses, and such wealth of roses and orange blossoms as baffles description. A feature of Los Angeles is its beautiful sea beaches. Easily accessible by trolley and by rail, Santa Monica, Redondo, Long Beach, and San Pedro provide unsurpassed facilities to the citizens, and the island of Santa Catalina, twenty miles off the coast, is even more attractive--a seashore resort where bathing is a comfortable pastime every day in the year, and where fishermen find delights unending. The construction of the Government breakwater at San Pedro is a great commercial enterprise and will be of certain benefit to the city, which will thus gain a larger share of the increasing trade with the Orient. Three million dollars have been appropriated for deepening the water over the bar, so that large vessels may come to the wharf. Dry docks and fortifications are to follow; and a new railway, with its terminal at San Pedro, will connect Los Angeles with Salt Lake City, and open to trade a new and rich section of country in southern Nevada and in Utah. [Illustration] INDEX A Abbott, Lieut.-Gov., at Vincennes, 177, 178 Abeel, D.K., 389 Abila, Don Enrique, 669 Abraham, Plains of, 136 Acadia, colonizing of, 88 Accault, Michael, 266 Acts of 1862 and 1863, Congressional, 415 Adams, Henry, quoted, 202 Adams, J.Q., 84, 116, 356 _Advertiser, The Kansas City_, 392 Agency City, 305 Ailes, Milton E., on Cincinnati, 55-85 Alameda, California, 610 Alamo, the, 473 Alarçon, 648 Alaska, 547 Albany, 92, 109, 196 Aldrich, Charles, 330 Alexander, David W., 672 Allen, Capt. James, 306, 308 Alta California, 646, 649, 658 Alvarado, 662, 663 American Bar Association, 420