Page:The Tourist's California by Wood, Ruth Kedzie.djvu/400

 342 THE TOURIST'S CALIFORNIA negotiations were not long suspended before he bought the plain from bay to hills at twenty-six cents an acre. For years the San Diegans shrugged negligent shoulders at his credulity and lived on near the old presidio at the river-mouth. This situa- tion had been chosen by the first Spaniards ; it was well enough for them. . . . They scarcely knew when the tract was mapped street-wise, with blocks drawn close to make as many corner lots as possible to bait reluctant buyers. They made no visits of sympathy when New Town suffered a serious attack of infantile boom fever, and convalesced slowly. But houses appeared on the brand new plots, and a few timid shops. And one day the Estudillos and the Ban- dinis, happening to glance bay-ward, saw there a town, an arid, wishful town, awkward as a child in knee dresses. There came a fairy prince in a white yacht and he looked on the child who had grown to woman- hood and saw that she had capabilities that lay dormant, and he filled her purse with gold so that she might array herself in a manner befitting her inborn talents and beauty. The first one to have faith in San Diego was the San Franciscan whom a later generation called " Father " Horton. In 1910 he died in a cobbled house at the age of ninety-six. The second, he of