USA > California > Los Angeles County > Los Angeles > Historical and biographical record of Los Angeles and vicinity : containing a history of the city from its earliest settlement as a Spanish pueblo to the closing year of the nineteenth century ; also containing biographies of well known citizens of the past and present > Part 11
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The same authority (Robinson) says of the women's dress at that time (1829): "The dress worn by the middle class of females is a chemise, with short embroidered sleeves, richly trimmed with lace; a muslin petticoat, flounced with scar- let and secured at the waist by a silk band of the same color; shoes of velvet or blue satin; a cotton reboso or scarf; pearl necklace and earrings; with hair falling in broad plaits down the back."
Of the dress of the men in 1829, Robinson says: "Very few of the men have adopted our mode of dress, the greater part adhering to the ancient costume of the past century. Short clothes and a jacket trimmed with scarlet; a silk sash about the waist; botas of ornamented deerskin and em- broidered shoes; the hair long, braided and fas- tened behind with ribbons; a black silk handker- chief around the head, surmounted by an oval and broad brimmed hat is the dress usually worn by the men of California."
After the coming of the Hijar colony, in 1834, there was a change in tlie fashions. The colonists brought with them the latest fashions from the City of Mexico. The men generally adopted calzoneras instead of the knee breeches or sliort clothes of the last century. "The calzoneras were pantaloons with the exterior seam open throughout its length. On the upper edge was a strip of cloth, red, blue or black, in which were the buttonholes. On the other edge were eyelet holes for the buttons. In some cases the calzonera was sewn from the hip to the middle of the thigh; in others, buttoned. From the middle of the thigh downward the leg was covered by the bota or leggings, used by every one, whatever lis dress." The short jacket, with silver or
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bronze buttons, and the silken sash that served as a connecting link between the calzoneras and the jacket, and also supplied the place of what the Californians did not wear-suspenders, this constituted a picturesque costume, that continued in vogue until the conquest, and with many of the natives for several years after it. After 1834 the fashionable women of California "exchanged their narrow skirts for more flowing garments and abandoned the.braided hair for the coil, and the large combs till then in use, for smaller combs."* For outer wraps the serapa for men and the re- boza for women were universally worn. The texture of these marked the social standing of the wearer. It ranged from cheap cotton and coarse serge to the costliest silk and the finest of French broadcloth.
The legendary of the hearthstone and the fire- side, which fills so large a place in the home life of the Anglo Saxon, had no part in the domestic system of the Californian, he had no hearthstone and no fireside; nor could that pleasing fiction of Santa Claus' descent through the chimney on Christmas eve, that so delights the young chil- dren of to-day, have had any meaning to the youthful Angeleno of the old pueblo days. There were no chimneys in the old pueblo. The only means of warming the houses by artificial heat was a pan of coals set on the floor. The people lived out of doors in the open air and invigorating sunshine. The houses were places to sleep in or shelters from the rain. The kitchens were de- tached from the living rooms. The better class of dwellings usually had out of doors or in an open shed, a beehive shaped earthen oven, in which the family baking was done. The poorer class of the pueblanos cooked over a campfire, with a flat stone (on which the tortillas were baked) and a few pieces of pottery. The culinary outfit was not extensive, even in the best appointed kitchens.
Before the mission mill was built near San Gabriel, the hand mill and the metete, a grinding stone, were the only means of grinding wheat or corn. To obtain a supply of flour or meal for a family by such a process was slow and laborious, so the family very often dispensed with bread in the bill of fare. Bread was not the staff of life in the old pueblo days. Beef was the staple article of diet.
As lumber was scarce and hard to procure in the pueblo most of the houses had earthen floors. The furniture was meagre, a few benclies, a raw- hide bottomed chair to sit on, a rough table, a chest or two to keep the family finery in, a few cheap prints of saints on the walls formed the decorations and furnishings of the living rooms of the common people. The bed was the pride
and ambition of the housewife and, even in hum- ble dwellings, sometimes a snowy counterpane and lace trimmed pillows decorated a couch, whose base was a bullock's hide stretched on a rough frame of wood. A shrine dedicated to the patron saint of the household was a very essential part of a well-ordered home.
Filial obedience and respect for parental au- thority were early impressed upon the minds of the children. A child was never too old or too large to be exempt from punishment. Stephen C. Foster used to relate an amusing case of parental disciplining he once saw: An old lady of 60, a grandmother, was belaboring with a barrel stave, her son, a man of 30 years of age. The boy had done something that his mother did not approve of. She sent for him to come over to the maternal home, to receive his punishment. He came. She took him out to the metaphorical wood shed, which in this case was the portico of her house, where she stood him up and proceeded to administer corporal punishment. With the resounding thwacks of the stave she would ex- claim, "I'll teach you to behave yourself ! I'll mend your manners, sir! Now, you will be . good, won't you?" The big man took his pull- ishment without a thought of resenting or rebell- ing; in fact, he rather seemed to enjoy it. It was, no doubt, a feeling and forcible reminder of his boyhood days.
In the earlier days of the pueblo, before revolu- tionary ideas had perverted the usages of the people, great respect was shown to those in au- thority and the authorities were strict in requir- ing deference from their constituents. In the Pueblo Archives of 1828 are the records of all impeachment trial of Don Antonio M. Lugo, held to depose him from the office of Judge of the Plains. The principal duty of such a judge was to decide cases of disputed ownership of stray cattle and horses. Lugo seems to have had a very exalted idea of the dignity of his office. Among the complaints was one from young Pedro Sanchez, who testified that Lugo had tried to ride his horse over him in the street, because he, Sanchez, would not take off his hat to the judge and remain standing uncovered while Lugo rode past. While the city was under Mexican domination there was no tax levied on land and improvements. The municipal funds were obtained from the revenue on wine and brandy, from the licenses of saloons and other business houses, from the tariff on imports, from permits to give balls or dances, from the fines of transgressors and from the tax on bull rings and cock pits. Then men's pleasures and vices paid the cost of governing. Although in the early '4os the city had a population of 2,000 the
*Bancroft's Pastoral California.
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revenues did not exceed $1,000 a year; yet with this small amount the municipal authorities ran a city government and kept out of debt. It did not cost much then to run a city government. There was no army of high salaried officials then, with a horde of political heelers, quartered on the municipality and fed from the public crib at theexpense of the taxpayer. Politicians may have been no more honest then than now, but where there was nothing to steal there was no stealing. The old alcaldes and regidores were wise enough not to put temptation in the way of the politi- cians, and thus they kept them reasonably hon- est, or at least they kept them from plundering the taxpayers, by the simple expedient of hav- ing no taxpayers. The only salaried officers in the days when the Most Illustrious Ayun- tamiento was the ruling power in the city, were the secretary of that body, the sindico or revenue collector and the schoolmaster (that is when there was one). The highest monthly salary paid the secretary, who was also ex-officio clerk of the Alcalde's Court, was $40; the sindico re- ceived a commission on collections and the school- master was paid $15 per month. If like Oliver Twist he cried for more he was dismissed for evident unfitness for his duties; his unfitness ap- pearing in his inability to live on his meagre salary.
The functions of the various departments of the city government were most economically per- formed. Street cleaning and the lighting of the city were provided for on a sort of automatic principle. There was an ordinance that required each owner of a house, every Saturday, to sweep and clean in front of his premises to the middle of the street. His neighbor on the opposite side met him half way and the street was swept with- out expense to the city. There was another or- dinance that required each owner of a house of more than two rooms on a principal street to hang a lighted lantern in front of his door from twilight to eight o'clock in winter and to nine in summer. So the city was at no expense for lighting. There were fines for neglect of these duties. The crows had a contract for re- moving the garbage. No garbage wagon witlı
its aroma of decay scented the atmosphere of the brown adobe fronts in the days of long ago. There were no fines imposed upon the crows for neglect of duty. Evidently they were efficient city officials.
It is said "that every dog has his day." There was one day each week that the dogs of the old pueblo did not have on which to roam about; and that was Monday. Every Monday was dog catcher's day, and was set apart by or- dinance for the killing of tramp dogs. Woe be- tide the unfortunate canine which on that day escaped from his kennel, or broke loose from his tether. A swift flying lasso encircled his neck and the breath was quickly clioked out of his body. Monday was a "dies iraé," an evil day to the youthful Angeleno with a dog, and the dog catcher was abliorred and despised then as now by every boy who possessed a canine pet.
There was no fire department in the old pueblo. The abobe houses with their clay walls, earthen floors and rawhide doors were as nearly fire- proof as any human habitation could be made. I doubt whether any muchacho of the old régime ever saw a house on fire. The boys of that day never experienced the thrilling pleasure of run- ning to a fire. What boys sometimes miss by being born too soon ! There was no paid police de- partment in the old pueblo days. Every able- bodied young man was subject to military duty. A volunteer guard or patrol was kept on duty at the cuartel or guard house, north of the Plaza Church. These guards policed the city, but they were not paid. Each young man had to take his turn at guard duty.
Viewed from our standpoint of high civiliza- tion, life in the old pueblo was a monotonous round of wearying sameness-uneventful and un- interesting. The people of that day, however, managed to extract a great deal of pleasure from it. Undoubtedly they missed-by living so long ago- many things that we in this highly en- lightened age have come to regard as necessities of our existence; but they also missed the har- rowing cares, the vexations and the excessive taxation, both mental and municipal, that pre- maturely furrow our brows and whiten our locks.
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CHAPTER XIV.
HISTORIC HOUSES OF LOS ANGELES.
HE historic houses of old Los Angeles have nearly all disappeared. The perisha- ble material (adobe or sun-dried brick) of which they were constructed, combined with the necessity as the town grew larger, of more commodious buildings on their sites, hast- ened their demolition. The few houses of the Mexican era that remain date their erection well along in the first half of the present century. El Pueblo de Nuestra Señora La Reyna de Los Angeles of the last century has disappeared from the face of the earth. It is doubtful whether even a fragment of the ruins of any one of the old houses of a century ago exists. Even the exact location of the Plaza Vieja, on which they fronted, is unknown, and the narrow streets that led out from it have long since been ob- literated. The old Los Angeles of the eighteenth century, with its adobe wall that fenced out alike the hostile Indian and the lowing herds has dis- appeared as completely as have the mud walls of the town that Romulus and Remus built by the Tiber three thousand years ago.
The Church of Our Lady of the Angels, the only building in the city now in use that was erected during the Spanish era, is fully described in the chapter on churches.
THE CURATE'S HOUSE.
The curate's or priest's house, that formerly stood at the northwest corner of the Church of Our Lady of the Angels, was built in 1822. Excepting the cuartel, it was the only other building owned by the pueblo. It was a very useful building, and served a variety of purposes besides the one for which it was built. In 1834 Governor Figueroa notified the ayuntamiento that he was about to visit the pueblo and desired accommodations for himself and staff. The town council asked the priest to give up his house to the governor, but the padre refused, saying that his rooms belonged to the church, and to give them up was a surrender of his ecclesiastical rights.
The ayuntamiento did furnish the governor
some kind of a house, for we find in the sindico's accounts charges against the municipal fund: "Rent of house for gefe politico, $2.00; sealing-wax and quills for gefe politico, 3 reales." It did not cost much to entertain a governor sixty-five years ago. Notwithstanding the technical point raised by the padre, the civil power did make use of his house. When there was no resident priest in the pueblo, which fre- quently happened, the curate's house was put to a variety of uses. Several times it was used for a boys' school; once it was designated for a girls' school, but the school did not materialize; and after a revolution, if the cuartel was not large enough to accommodate all the prisoners of the victorious faction, it was taken for a jail. During the revolution of 1845 the school was turned out and the old house was taken for army headquar- ters by Pico and Castro. In the civil war be- tween Monterey and Los Angeles it was used as a guardhouse by the civic militia. It was torn down in 1861, and the present brick structure erected on its site.
THE CARRILLO HOUSE.
Of the historic dwelling-houses of Los Angeles, the Carrillo house, that stood where the Pico House, or, as it is now called, the National Hotel, now stands, was the most noted in the early days. June 21, 1821, José Antonio Carrillo petitioned the comisionado for a house lot near the "new temple which is being built for the benefit of our holy religion." The lot, 40x60 varas (114x170 feet), was granted next day. This is said to be the only recorded transfer of a lot in Los Angeles between 1786 and 1836-just one real estate transfer in fifty years.
When Lieut. Ord made his plan of the "Cuidad de Los Angeles," in1 1849, he took as the initial point of his survey the northwest corner of Car- rillo's house that stood on this lot; and his bear- ings from a point opposite that corner gave direc- tion to the lines of our streets and virtually de- cided the plan of the city. The building was begun in 1821 and completed in 1824. It was
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the most pretentious and aristocratic residence in the pueblo at that time. It fronted on the plaza, and had wings extending back on Main street and from its eastern end to an adobe wall in the rear, thus inclosing a patio, or inner court. The rear wall stood on the brink of a deep ravine that crossed Main street diagonally and opened out on the wide space at the intersection of Aliso and Los Angeles streets. (All traces of the ravine have long since disappeared.) Although but a one-story building, its height gave it the appear- ance of a two-story house. Its high-gabled roof of red tiles and its white walls were a pleasing contrast to the prevailing clay-colored fronts and the flat asphaltum roofs of the neighboring houses.
For nearly half a century it stood a historic landmark of old Los Angeles. It was torn down in September, 1869, and the Pico House erected on its site. Within the old Carrillo House was held many a royal feast and revel, and within its walls, too, were concocted many a political plot and intrigue, for its owner was a scheming poli- tician as well as a right royal entertainer. In its spacious ball-room many a gay assemblage gath- ered-the beauty and the chivalry of the pueblo -and the lamps shown o'er fair women and brave men as they whirled through the giddy mazes of the dance. In this historic old house was held one of the most sumptuous and prolonged mar- riage feastsever celebrated in Alta California. It was the celebration of the marriage of Pio Pico to Maria Ignacia Alvarado, in 1834. Carrillo was a brother-in-law of Pico's (being married to Pico's sister). The feasting and dancing continued eight days. All the aristocracy of the southern country and all the retainers of the houses of Pico and Carrillo from San Diego to Monterey gathered to do honor to the nuptials.
Its builder, José Antonio Carrillo, during the Mexican era, was the Warwick of California pol- itics. He was not a king-maker, but he did inake and unmake governors. He was leader in the revolution that deposed Governor Victoria. He intrigued against Echeandia, Gutierrez and Chico. Governor Chico banished him from California. While representing California in the Mexican Congress, in 1837, he had his brother Carlos made governor of the territory. He was the leader of the sureños (southerners) in the civil war between northern and southern Califor- nia. He was taken prisoner after the battle of San Buenaventura and imprisoned in Vallejo's bastile at Sonoma. He was one of the ten sureños that Governor Alvarado threatened to have shot for treason. He was mainly instrumental in the overthrow of Governor Micheltorena, which made his brother-in-law, Pico, governor of Cali-
fornia. He plotted against Pico, and was arrest- ed and again banished from the country. He was a man of great natural abilities, but wasted his time and talents in intrigues. So entirely was he devoted to politics that at one time his sowing fields were denounced because they had not been cultivated for eight years. He was never happier than when he was fomenting a plot or leading a revolution. He filled many civil offices in the department, and was a military con- mander of no mean ability. With an inferior force, poorly armed, he defeated Mervine at the battle of Dominguez Ranch, and by a well-con- trived stratagem frightened Stockton's forces away from San Pedro. He commanded a squad- ron of cavalry in the battles of Paso de Bartolo and La Mesa, and was one of the commissioners on the Mexican side that negotiated the treaty of Cahuenga, which gave California to the United States. He was a delegate to the state constitu- tional convention of 1849. This was the last official position he held. He was one of the ablest of the native-born statesmen of California during the Mexican period. Many of the lead- ing men of that era were born in Mexico or Spain. Carrillo was born in San Diego April 11, 1794. He died at Santa Barbara April 25, 1862, aged 68 years.
"EL PALACIO DE DON ABEL."
Another house of historie note was the home of Don Abel Stearns. It stood on the site now occupied by the Baker Block. Stearns bought the lot in 1834. The house was erected between 1835 and 1838. It was probably several years in the course of erection, for in the days of poco tiempo a house was not built in a day nor yet in a year. Robinson, in his "Life in Cali- fornia," says: "We took up our quarters with Mr. Abel Stearns. His house, the handsomest in the town, was a place of resort for the Ameri- cans who occasionally visited Los Angeles, which, in consequence of its dimensions, was called by the natives "el Palacio de Don Abel" (The Palace of Don Abel). It was a flat roofed one story structure covering considerable area. At the corner of Arcadia and Main streets a wing ex- tended out to the line of the sidewalk. This was used for a storeroom where Stearns conducted his mercantile business. From the southern end there was a similar projection. The central part of the building stood back from the street twenty- five or thirty feet, and the space between it and the sidewalk was paved with cobble stones. In the rear was a large patio or courtyard partially inclosed by wings extended from the main build- ing. The patio was an appurtenance of all the better class of California houses of early days.
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There was a large dancing hall in the building nearly one hundred feet in length. The lot ex- tended through to Los Angeles street. The Arcadia Block, covering the Los Angeles street front, was erected in 1858. It was then the largest business block in town, and for at least fifteen years after its erection the central point for the business of the town. Stearns' Hall, in the second story of this block, was for many years the principal assembly room for social and politi- cal gatherings. Stearns, although a man of quick temper and strong prejudices, was withal hospit- able and generous to those he liked. He was a convivial and genial entertainer. Within the walls of his rambling old adobe home the elite of the Angel City, as well as the foreign gnest, were often right royally entertained. Here Commodore Ap Catesby Jones of the United States navy and his officers were lodged and entertained when the commodore came to Los Angeles to find Gov- ernor Micheltorena and apologize to him for capturing Monterey. After waiting nearly three months for the governor to come to Monterey, the commodore was compelled to come to Los Angeles to find him. Peace restored, the civilities closed with a grand ball, which was held in the only two-story building at that time in Los An- geles-a building on the east side of the plaza, in what is now Chinatown. This was probably Sanchez Hall, which is thus described in the diary of an old pioneer writing in 1842: "We arrived in the Pueblo at 8 P. M. We had a couple of dances. There was one in Sanchez Hall and the other in Stearns. Sanchez Hall is painted out in the most comical style-with priests, bishops, saints, horses and other ani- mals, the effect is really astonishing." At the Stearns' house occurred the famons flag episode of 1839. California had been divided into two districts or cantons, with a Prefect or petty gov- ernor for each. Los Angeles was made the capital of the southern district, and Cosme Peña was appointed Prefect. The priest's house was fitted up for the capital of the district by the ayuntamiento. But the priest's house was too humble for aristocratic Peña. Nothing but the Palacio of Don Abel would suit his purposes. He had a flag staff erected in front of it on which to raise the flag of his prefecture, and a cannon planted near the pole to give tone to his head- quarters. The ayuntamiento "supplicated him to remove to the priest's house; because the peo- ple did not like to see the government established in a private house." Peña removed his office from Stearns' "palacio," but left the flag pole still standing. Stearns utilized the flag staff to tie cattle to that had been roped for slaughter. This desecration the patriotic young Angeleños
resented; and while Peña was absent at San Pedro on duty, a number of them gathered to pull down the pole, or as another account says, to sacrifice a calf that was tied to the pole as a peace offering to the outraged dignity of the cactus perched eagle of the Mexican flag. Peña on his return had the leaders arrested for sedi- tion, and obtained a guard of ten soldiers to pro- tect himself from insult. The citizens held a public meeting and twenty of them signed a petition to the ayuntamiento, saying that since the "said Stearns ties and kills calves at the flag pole it should be erected at the residence of the Prefect or at the Hall of Sessions, as it be- longs at the public building and not at a private house." Peña, in a rage, turned over his office to Tiburcis Tapia and left breathing vengeance against the "Pueblo de Los Diablos"-town of devils. He reported his grievances to Governor Alvarado. At the next meeting of the ayun- tamiento the alcalde reported that "the Gover- nor of the Department has imposed a fine of $5 each, upon the twenty individuals of this city who complained of the actions of the Prefect on the 25th of last month; and a fine of $10 on each member of the ayuntamiento who attended the meeting wherein the said complaints were up- held, which was equivalent to approving the same." Snch were some of the uncertain re- wards of patriotism in the decade of Revolutions. The Stearns house was demolished in 1876 and the Baker Block erected on its site.
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