USA > California > California of the South: Being a Complete Guide Book to Southern California > Part 7
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If you arrive after 11 P. M., remain in the sleeper until morning. Thus you will have a good night's sleep. By · six o'clock in the morning numerous carriages will be at the train, with drivers vociferously claiming the privilege of carrying you to a hotel. Should you be fortunate enough to have friends whom you expect to visit, be sure and tele- graph them the time of your arrival and what route you will travel. Inform your friends that, if the train arrives at night, you will remain in the car until morning. The most dismal courtesy imaginable is to wait around a cheer- less depot from hour to hour through a chilly night in what Dr. Hammond calls an "abnormal state of uncertainty," expecting friends on a delayed train.
If you have no hospitable friends in Los Angeles, decide what hotel you are going to before you arrive ; and, in fact, it may save you trouble and annoyance to have written and secured accommodations before you left home.
By having these questions settled, you can have your baggage checked to your hotel or boarding-house before you arrive in Los Angeles, and thus avoid the risk of de- livering it to irresponsible carriers. The cars of several street railway-lines pass the depots and hotels at intervals of five minutes. Fare, five cents on all lines.
Prices in hotels and boarding-houses range from one to four dollars per day. Day-board at restaurants aver- ages five dollars per week. A wholesome and well-served meal, including meat, coffee or wine, and dessert, may be ordered at a restaurant for the small sum of twenty-five cents.
A Century in Los Angeles.
Los Angeles is not a new town like Kansas City, Omaha, or Minneapolis. It was a thriving pueblo when the Fran- ciscan Fathers established a mission here in 1781. On ac- count of its beautiful location midway between the mount-
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ains and the sea, its delightful climate, and the fertility of its soil, it was named Pueblo de la Reina de los Angeles ("Town of the Queen of the Angels").
Forty-one years later the first American, a man named Chapman, was brought to Los Angeles. He came as a pris- oner of the Mexicans, but soon fraternized with them, and afterward married into a Spanish family. Many similar marriages-i. e., American men to women of Spanish de- scent-have taken place in Southern California, and, as a rule, they have proved very happy. There are in Los Angeles to-day numerous young men of prominence and promise who have Castilian mothers and American fathers .*
In each of these marriages there was the stipulation that the woman should control the religious training of the chil- dren ; and, even from a Protestant standpoint, a fortunate proviso this was, because up to 1854 the only organization in Los Angeles upholding any standard of morality what- ever was the Roman Catholic Church. It erected houses of worship, hospitals, and schools ; it was the pioneer in all good works.
In 1824 a Scotchman came to Los Angeles and opened the first general store on the American plan. In 1831 the opening of the Sante Fe trail created a new outlet to the East, and was the means of developing an extensive trade.
In 1835 Los Angeles became the capital of California. Hostilities between the United States and Mexico having been precipitated, and the Mexican War inaugurated, Com- modore Robert Field Stockton t and Major John C. Fre-
* The writer has never known, although there are probably exceptional- cases, of a Spaniard or Mexican of this section marrying an American wife. Instances are not rare where Americans have married Indian wives, and these unions have also proved surprisingly happy.
t Afterward United States Senator from New Jersey.
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mont, on August 13, 1846, marched into Los Angeles and raised the Stars and Stripes.
Don Pio Pico, who was then Governor of California under appointment from the Mexican Government, had left the night before on a tour through what is now the southern part of Los Angeles County. Governor Pico is still a resi- dent of Los Angeles, and any Angeleno will cheerfully point him out to the inquiring stranger. The Governor is eighty- seven years of age, yet he has great vitality, and bids fair to be a centenarian. Although he still thinks that the capt- ure of California by the Americans was an unjust and am- bitions scheme of an "astute enemy," yet he has overcome his repugnance to such an extent that he is now a registered voter, and casts his ballot with as much regularity as though he had been born in Massachusetts or in Virginia.
Fremont and Stockton went north, leaving Lieutenant Gillespie in charge with but seventeen men. There was soon a general revolt under Captain José Maria Flores, and, in the latter part of September, Lieutenant Gillespie, after being in a state of siege for several days on Fort Hill,* surrendered Los Angeles to the Mexicans on condition that he and his men be permitted to march unmolested to San Pedro. The handful of men was taken on board the merchant-ship Vandalia. On January 10, 1847, Commo- dore Stockton and General Stephen W. Kearny recaptured the town, and on the 14th Fremont joined them with his forces after effecting a treaty with the Mexicans under Gen- eral Andres Pico at the Cahuenga, a beautiful mountain- pass eight miles from the city.
On January 16, 1847, Fremont became Governor of California, establishing his headquarters in the two-story adobe building yet standing at the corner of Aliso and Los Angeles Streets. This building was at the time the best
* Fort Hill is a point in Los Angeles well worth visiting.
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in town, for, as one old settler said, "Fremont always would have the best of everything." Fremont remained in Los Angeles until March 22d, when he took the famous mustang- ride with Jesus Pico and Jacob Dodson to Monterey, five hundred miles away. During this trip the dashing young officer averaged nearly one hundred and twenty-five miles a day, for the round trip of a thousand miles, being absent from Los Angeles just eight and one half days.
About this time the seat of government was removed to Monterey, and Kearny, in accordance with instructions from Washington, became Governor. On April 7th, Colo- nel Mason superseded Fremont as commander in Los An- geles, and May 9, 1847, General Kearny arrived and took command, and three days later Fremont left for the North.
Hon. S. C. Foster, one of the early mayors of Los An- geles, a resident of this city since 1847, gives many interest- ing reminiscences of Fremont's residence in Los Angeles. Mr. Foster was a member of the California State Senate when Fremont was a candidate before that body for re-elec- tion to the United States Senate. He says that he voted for Fremont one hundred and thirty-five times and that finally the Legislature adjourned without an election. Mr. Foster states that he was not voting so much for Fremont as he was for Senator Thomas H. Benton, Fremont's father- in-law, as he thought it would be the same as giving Benton two votes !
The first Protestant preacher in Los Angeles was Rev. J. W. Brier, of the Methodist Episcopal Church, who arrived here in 1850, his entire earthly possessions being contained in the ox-team which he drove. Ile held the first service in the adobe residence of Colonel J. G. Nichols, where the court-house now stands. Little did he reck that in 1887 his denomination would have nine churches and a collection of massive university buildings in this city. The first mayor of Los Angeles was elected in 1850. The first
.
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brick house was erected, at the corner of Third and Main Streets, in 1852. This building was one story high, and, in 1859-'60, was occupied by Captain Winfield S. Han- cock. This young military officer was very popular in Los Angeles, and when he became a candidate for President, many Republicans of this vicinity found the ties of friend- ship stronger than party ties and openly supported their hero. A few years before his death General Hancock vis- ited Los Angeles and received a great ovation. The first English-speaking school was taught by Rev. Dr. Wicks in 1850. The first American child born in Los Angeles was Gregg Nichols, who saw the light of day April 15, 1851. The first newspaper was born May 17, 1851, and was chris- tened "The Los Angeles Star."
In 1853 there were three dry-goods stores. In 1854 the population of Los Angeles was four thousand, of whom but five hundred were Americans.
In 1854 the first Masonic Lodge received its charter. The same year, in September, the first hive of bees was brought to Los Angeles. It had been purchased in San Francisco for the sum of one hundred and fifty dollars. The same year a tannery was established. In 1855 bull-fighting on Sunday was stopped. During the same year the first Odd- Fellows' Lodge was organized.
Although Judge Lynch had indulged in a few executions, the first legal hanging occurred in Los Angeles May 30, 1856. A few years later an atrocious murder was committed, and the murderer lodged in the Los Angeles Jail. A mob, thirsting for his blood, gathered around the jail, when Colonel John F. Godfrey, an able and popular lawyer, mounted the steps in front of the jail and readily gained the respectful atten- tion. of the would-be rioters. "Gentlemen," he said, "the widow of the murdered man is left in poverty and with a large family of children. I know you all sympathize with her deeply." (Approving responses.) "Then I will ap-
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point four men to go through this audience and take up a collection." The shrewd colonel then appointed several of the ringleaders to take up a collection, and the result was that the sight of the contribution-box dispersed that mob quicker than it could have been done by a battalion of sol- diers.
In the fall of 1857 the citizens of Los Angeles sent the Hon. H. D. Barrows to Washington with a barrel of old port wine, two cases of white and red wines, some choice varieties of brandies and angelica wines, and a great variety of oranges, lemons, almonds, citrons, English walnuts, and grapes, as a present for President Buchanan. United States Senator Gwin was a passenger by the same steamer, and voluntarily proffered to present Mr. Barrows to the Presi- dent.
Mr. Barrows, in conversation recently, said he found the President a very courtly elderly gentleman. He received them with quiet cordiality and made many inquiries about California and especially about Los Angeles, which at that time was almost a terra incognita to the people of the At- lantic States. President Buchanan thanked Mr. Barrows particularly for the wines, and said, with a twinkle in his eye, that he "claimed to be a good judge of wine." Sena- tor Gwin, on the same occasion, gave the President a bottle of very old California grape-brandy.
In 1858 Lieutenant Beale (now General Beale, of Wash- ington) brought a number of Arabian camels to Los An- geles, believing they would prove profitable as beasts of burden. The experiment proved a failure, and the animals were finally sold to a circus company.
In 1860, the population of Los Angeles was four thousand five hundred, and the first telegraph line was constructed. In 1867 a castor-oil mill and gas-works were established. In 1868 the Los Angeles City Water Company obtained a fran- chise, and the first railroad was built. The road was twenty-
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three miles long, and united this city with the harbor at San Pedro.
In 1871 there occurred a disgraceful riot, in which eight- een Chinese were killed. The same year the first fire-com- pany was organized and at once entered upon the arduous duties of controlling the city's politics.
The first woolen-mill was established in 1872, and the Public Library was founded in 1873. In 1874 the first fruit- drying establishment was established, on an extensive scale. The year following a broom-factory and artificial-stone works began operations.
In 1876 Los Angeles had a bank failure, a drought, and the small-pox. The only silver lining to this cloud was the completion of the Southern Pacific Railway from San Fran- cisco, thus giving Los Angeles for the first time railway communication with other cities. Railways were soon built to the sea-shore at Santa Monica, sixteen miles away ; to Santa Ana, in the rich Santa Ana Valley, thirty miles away ; and ere long the Southern Pacific Railway was ex- tended directly east through Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas, to New Orleans.
On October 6, 1880, the College of Letters of the Uni- versity of Southern California was formally opened, with a large attendance. The Rev. M. M. Bovard, its first presi- dent, is still at the head of the university, which is the out- growth of the college.
September 5, 1881, Los Angeles celebrated her centen- nial anniversary with great enthusiasm. Over thirty thou- sand people were in procession. The Mexican population took an important part in these ceremonies. Thousands of them were in line, on spirited horses. There was a Mexican carita,* drawn by two oxen, a carriage containing two Mexican women, aged respectively one hundred and three
* A primitive two-wheeled cart, with solid, hewed wheels.
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and one hundred and seventeen years, and many other features peculiarly Mexican.
During this same year the first four-story block was erected, the owner being Remi Nadeau, who made his advent in Los Angeles in early days as the driver of an ox-team. In 1882 the State normal-school building was erected, and during the same year the United States Magnetic Observatory-the only one in the country-was removed from Madison, Wisconsin, and established in this city. A still more important enterprise was the inaugura- tion of an elaborate system of electric lights. The city is now lighted by about one hundred three-thousand-candle- power arc-lights, supported by about twenty-five high tow- ers. No other city in the world surpasses Los Angeles in the matter of street illumination.
In 1884 Mademoiselle Rhea appeared in "The School for Scandal," in the dedication of the Grand Opera-House. The first cable of several street-railways was also built dur- ing this year. But we will cease the enumeration of the many important events which have taken place in Los An- geles during these last few years, as we have already in this brief historical outline recounted enough data ; so that the reader may understand that, while Los Angeles is over a century old, yet it is, at the same time, a comparatively new town. It is old as a picturesque, sleepy, free-and-easy, Spanish pueblo, but new, as a thriving, progressive Ameri- can city ; old, as a center for an extensive grazing coun- try-new, as a distributing commercial mart ; old, as a station where the solitary horseman stopped for rest and refreshment-new, as a railroad center, where nearly a hun- dred loaded trains daily discharge their passengers and merchandise ; old, as a Catholic mission, where the noble- hearted, self-sacrificing priests, under the beneficent guid- ance of Padre Junipero, held sway-new, as a cosmopolitan city, where a hundred Protestant churches vie with the
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cathedral chimes in directing the thoughts of man heaven- ward.
But the old has not entirely passed away. Many of the one-story adobe buildings still remain. Especially in that portion of the city known as Sonora-town several thou- sand descendants of the old Spanish families, who in their wisdom founded Los Angeles, are yet among us to claim the credit due their race.
The distinguishing virtues of the Spanish-American population are charity and fidelity. Go to our county hos- pitals and almshouses, and you will look in vain for the Mexican or Spaniard.
The German and the Irishman are there ; the English- man and the Frenchman are the county's wards ; the Afri- can from Mississippi and the American from Virginia sit side by side at the pauper's table ; but the Mexican and Spaniard will share his last crust with a distressed country- man. The ties of kinship are not necessary to call forth from a Mexican the last dollar for a common fund. He who would criticise these descendants of early settlers for their lack of thrift, their impulsive tempers, and their ways of idleness, could, by looking a little closer, learn of virtues that would make the average American blush for his own race.
But this Spanish population is rapidly disappearing. Death and emigration are removing them from the land. During the first half of this century they were noted for health and longevity. They spent their days in the saddle and their nights in sound sleep in well-ventilated houses, or wrapped in a serape, with the faithful stars watch- ing over them. Their diet was fresh meat or game ; their drink, water, milk, and claret. These healthful habits have all changed. They no longer have unnumbered horses to ride and vast herds of sheep, from which one for a meal would never be missed. Their broad acres now, with few
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A Veranda in Los Angeles.
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exceptions, belong to the more acquisitive American or Hebrew. Grinding poverty has bred recklessness and mo- roseness. Simple healthful amusements have in many in- stances given way to midnight carousals, and long-contin- ued dissipation and want are huddling them together in the most unwholesome localities in the city.
But upon this dark picture the morning light is break- ing. Here and there the scion of some old Spanish family is distinguishing himself as a statesman, an attorney, or a business man. The reader has doubtless seen a merchant who had been regarded as a financial leader suddenly suc- cumb to some irresistible disaster ; for years after he would appear to be irretrievably crushed, and then gradually he would recover his former ability. The keen light of intel- ligent activity would again shine forth through the luster- less eyeballs, and ere long this disheartened man would mount up to achievements he had never before dreamed of. So to-day we see, springing from the loins of these Spanish families, who have been so ruthlessly crushed to the earth, ambitious, industrious, brilliant young men, some one of whom may prove to be the guiding star that will yet lead his fellow-countrymen to a position which this race has not known for decades.
The Los Angeles of To-day.
The Los Angeles of to-day is a rapidly-growing city of nearly seventy thousand inhabitants. The Los Angeles River, a turbulent stream in winter and a beautiful creek in summer, runs through the city. This stream, according to an old Spanish grant, belongs to the city from its mount- ain source downward. The municipality includes a large irrigating system, the water for which is brought from this river. The irrigating ditches are called zanjas, and the superintendent of them is the zanjero. The city limits
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comprise an area of thirty six square miles, and every vine- yard and orchard within these limits receives its water-sup- - ply from the city system.
Orange-groves need irrigating about once in six weeks, from the 1st of May to the 1st of November. Vineyards do not need nearly so much water, and in many sections of Southern California, after the vines are once rooted, they need no irrigation. Heretofore the water has been carried in open ditches, but latterly a system of cement pipes has gradually superseded the open zanjas. To supply this water the city has two reservoirs-one, in East Los An- geles, having a capacity of 150,000,000 gallons ; the other, on the line of the Temple Street cable railway, with a ca- pacity of 700,000,000 gallons. In addition to the reservoirs, five large ditches tap the river, bringing their supply di- rectly to the city zanjas.
The city sells this water at two dollars per head per day, or one dollar and a quarter per head per night. Tbe head of water is equivalent to about one hundred inches .* Mr. E. H. Dalton, the Los Angeles zanjero, says that this head of water, properly used, will irrigate eight acres of orange-trees in twelve hours, and is equivalent to a rainfall of three and a half inches. Six times annually insures a healthy growth to orange-orchards, and three times a year suffices for vineyards. Consequently, an eight-acre orange- grove requires seven dollars and a half worth of water, if irrigated at night, or twelve dollars' worth per year if the irrigation is done in the daytime, while an eight-acre vine- yard will require but half this amount.
The water for drinking and domestic purposes is brought
* An inch of water is the quantity that will flow through a hole an inch square in the side of a box four inches below the surface of the water in the box. Fourteen thousand gallons will flow through this opening in twenty-four hours ; consequently, a head of water for twenty-four hours gives fourteen hundred thousand gallons.
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from the head-waters of the Los Angeles River in the Sierra Madre Mountains, and is supplied through an entirely dif- ferent system. While the irrigating system is owned by the city, the house supply is owned by two corporations- the Los Angeles City Water Company, and The Citizens' Water Company. The former supplies the principal part of the city, the latter furnishing water for the residents of the hills in the western part of the city ; only the water- rates are regulated by law, being one dollar and a half per month for an average residence. There are also many wells within the city limits, water being reached at a depth of from twenty to eighty feet. The water from these wells is usully pumped by windmills.
What to see in Los Angeles.
The tourist who has leisure will be well repaid by visit- ing one of the open zanjas in the suburbs, where the Mexi- can population is numerous, and watch the señoras doing their weekly washing. The tomale man is another Mexi- can feature, who is very similar to the hot-corn hawker of Eastern cities. The tomale consists of green corn mashed and mixed with chicken, olives, chile (red-pepper), and nu- merous other ingredients, all wrapped in a corn-husk, tied at the end, and furnished hot. It is really a delicious morsel.
If the tourist desires a genuine Mexican meal, he should go to Illich's-an old-time Los Angeles restaurant-and order a regular " Spanish breakfast."
Los Angeles is midway between mountain and sea, being fourteen miles from each. It is also midway between Santa Barbara and San Diego-the former being one hundred miles northwest, the latter one hundred miles southeast. The altitude of the city varies from three hundred and fifty to five hundred feet. Much of the residential portion
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is built on hills that are traversed by cable street-railways, by which it can be easily reached on payment of a five-cent fare. No visitor should miss the ride over these hills, and the bird's-eye view of the city and valley. A satisfactory plan is to get on the cable-car at the corner of Second and Spring or Second and Fort Streets, and ride to Grand Avenue or Bunker Hill Avenue. Then, by walking two or three squares to the southwest, a beautiful panoramic view of the city greets the sight. Then, taking the cable- car again, ride to the terminus of the line. After viewing the mountains, ocean, and valley from that vicinity, walk two squares northward to Temple Street, and there take a car on another cable line. Returning to Bunker Hill Ave- nue, walk one square south to Court-House Street, and then three squares east on Court-House Street to Hill Street, where a magnificent view of the city and its environs can be obtained. From this point, away to the south, a chain of hills on Catalina Island, thirty miles out at sea, is spread upon Nature's canvas in panoramic splendor. After linger- ing at this point for a while, and, if possible, watching the sun as it goes to rest in its ocean-bed, the tourist should walk down the stairs directly in front of him on Court- House Street. These will lead him to Fort Street, between Temple and First, at a distance of about two squares from the leading hotels.
In architecture, Los Angeles presents every variety, from the quaint adobe of the Spaniard to the four-story brick or stone building of a modern type. There is a no- ticeable preponderance of one- and two-story buildings. The first, three-story building was erected but a few years ago, and there are now only about a half-dozen four-story structures. For homes, the popular building is the rose- embowered cottage. These beautiful cottages, surrounded by well-kept lawns, with hammocks swinging on verandas or under pepper-trees, and with fuchsias, heliotropes, and
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Kinneyloa Ranch, thirteen miles east of Los Angeles.
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roses clambering to the roofs, are the choice of many wealthy people. Mechanics and even day-laborers here easily have homes that delight the artist's eye.
Yet there are many handsome structures. The most noticeable business buildings are the Baker Block, North Main and Arcadia Streets ; the Clinton Block, Main and New High Streets ; the Times - Mirror publishing - house, Fort and First Streets ; the Fort Street bank-building, Fort and Second Streets ; the Phillips Block, Spring and Franklin Streets ; the Nadeau, Spring and First Streets ; the Calla- ghan, Spring and Third Streets ; and the bank-building corner of First and Spring Streets.
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