USA > California > Los Angeles County > Pasadena > History of Pasadena, comprising an account of the native Indian, the early Spanish, the Mexican, the American, the colony, and the incorporated city, occupancies of the Rancho San Pasqual, and its adjacent mountains, canyons, waterfalls and other objects of interest: being a complete and comprehensive histo-cyclopedia of all matters pertaining to this region > Part 33
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The battle was now fairly joined. A series of promissory notes was prepared, which recited on their face these words :
"WHEREAS, A certain 'Ordinance for Police Regulation' within the City of Pasadena, which excludes liquor saloons, and other things of vicious, immoral, or dangerous character, is being violated, and contested at law ;
AND WHEREAS, A Fund has been pledged for the purpose of aiding the City Authorities in the enforcement of said law, to which I subscribed the sum of $ therefore, in consideration of said pledge, and that the funds so raised shall be used as may be found necessary, to defray expenses of such enforcement,
I promise to pay, on demand, to the duly authorized Treasurer of said En- forcement Fund, ten per cent of my subscription ; and also in like manner an additional ten per cent from time to time as necessity may arise, to carry out the object and intent of said pledge."
PASADENA, CAL., Aug. 3, 1888.
* Note.
DR. H. A. REID - Dear Sir and Brother:
The Philistines are upon us. The liquor men are moving with a strong hand to force their dreadful traffic upon unwilling Pasadena. Fervent Prayer, strong Faith, and bold, prompt Work, are the call of the hour. With God's help, you led the work and won success in Pasadena's former struggle against the saloons, and now we prayerfully and trustfully ask you and appoint you to act for the Woman's Christian Temperance Union, in the same work again, for God and home and native land. MRS. O. S. BARBER, Pres't. MRS. C. H. DURANT, Ass't Supt. Evangelistic Work. MRS. C. M. PARKER, Sec'y. MRS. M. C. LORD, Press Sup't.
MRS. KATIE H. KEESE, Treas.
MRS. RACHEL F. REID, Vice-Pres't-at-large.
MRS. C. N. TERRY, Sup't Evangelistic Work.
JENNIE G. MONFORT, Pres't Y. W. C. T. U.
EVA LANDRETH, Rec. Sec'y Y. W. C. T. U.
FANNIE I. BRENT, Cor. Sec'y Y. W. C. T. U.
I7
258
HISTORY OF PASADENA.
The following is a list of the signers, and amounts of these notes- ninety-six in all, and amounting to a total sum of $2,770 :
Abbott, C. W Name.
42
$ 50 Hubbard, Geo. C.
28
IO
Allen, Lyman.
17
100 Hubbard, R. B ..
63
IO
Allin, John 33 25
I. O. G. T. (by J. W. Sed- wick). 18 25
Baldwin, A. E. 66
5
James, Smith. 91
25
Barber, O. S. 43
20
Keese, S. I.
92
IO
Barnes, Joseph 26
25
Ladies' Un. Prayer Meet-
Band of Hope (by C. B. Gray, supt. ). 96
ing (by Mrs. F. H.
Bennett, H. G.
8
25
Burdick) 73 25
Bent, H. K. W.
9
25
Martin, T. J. 30
15
Blakeslee, Elizabeth
74
IO
McGrew, S. O. 31
25
Burdick, F. H.
70
50
McLean, D. R. 19
3
50
Cambell, James.
35
25
Meyers, M. M.
37
IO
Carnahan, D. S.
27
IO
Michener, L. H. 38
14
100
Carter, W. L. 67
25
Mundell, I. N.
83
25
Case, C. L. 82
50
Nelmes, Thos. 64
5
Chapin, E. P.
53
IO
Nichols, A. E.
51
IO
Church, J. F
68
IO
Palmateer, S.
34
50
Clapp, W. T
84
25
Parker, C. M.
41
50
Clark, F. E.
54
IO
Pierce, E. T
86
Clark, Fredk. K,
44
Pinney, H. J. IO
94
5
Clark, S. A. D.
6
5
Raymond, W. H.
62
25
Conger, Dr. O. H.
I
100
Reid, H. A.
II
25
Conger, H. M., prest.
24
50
Reynolds Bros.
56
25
Curtis, Delia.
85
IO
Rice, Benj. A
29
25
Dagman, E. P.
80
5
Ripley, C. B.
52
50
Daily, Carmi E.
55
5
Shoup, J. G. 4
50
Doolittle, Mrs. S. H.
72
10
Stackhouse, J. B.
5 IO
Evans, E. D.
57
5
Strong, A. F. M.
16
50
Farey, H. N
I5
50
Taylor, George
76
5
Fleming, J. H.
32
25
Tebbetts, C. E.
60
25
Furlong, Thos. W
79
5
Thomas, G. Roscoe 2
100
Glass, J. M.
20
IO
Wallace, Joseph
59
100
Goodwin, H. F.
88
20
Gray, C. B.
8I
5
Keese, treas. ).
36
25
Green, P. M
39
100
Wood, Henry
40
25
Griffith, E. 78
I5
Wooster, P. G
100
Habbick, John
77
5
Wright, Amos 75
22
5
Harris, C. E
45
IO
Wright, Lulu 23
5
Harris, F. R.
7
25
Yocum, J. D 90
IO
Hazzard, Geo.
25
IO
Young, J. B. 89
25
Houlahan, D. J.
71
25
Smith, James .. 13
100
Dyer, H. 46
IO
Stevens, F. D. 58
25
Evans, Wm. Penn
61
25
Sturdevant, C. V
IO
25
Galbraith, D. 21
50
Vesper, A. E.
95
5
Goodwin, Mrs. H. F.
87
20
Wallace, Bros.
47
50
Caldwell, R. M.
69
5
Meharry, Geo. E
IO
Carpenter, W. C.
50
20
Mills, A. F.
Kernaghan, Geo. F 65
100
Ball, B. F. 48
100
No. of Note. Amt.
No. of Note. Amt. Name.
W. C. T. U. (by Katie
Dilworth, Benj.
93
25
20
5
259
DIVISION THREE - BRAINS.
August 15 a meeting of the committee was held, to hear a report from its chairman, who had been specially appointed and instructed to go ahead and carry out the resolutions adopted at the mass meeting of August 6, and the openly declared purpose of the Enforcement Fund Notes. He said to the committee :
" Eight days ago you appointed me chairman of your committee to en- force City Ordinance No. 45. I laid out our plan of campaign to whip these liquor outlaws so thoroughly that we will have no further trouble with them, except as we do with sneak thieves, blacklegs, prostitutes, and other sly and scaly law-breakers. And I have called you together this morning to report progress."
He then stated that he had been to Los Angeles and consulted with the U. S. district attorney, Geo. Dennis, Esq., and the U. S. revenue collector, Mr. Ed. Gibson ; and under the latter's instructions he had filed in the revenue office on August 14 a statement as to violators of the United States law in Pasadena, as follows :
Henry Beeste-Been selling beer. No U. S. revenue license.
Arthur Allen -Been selling malt beer under name of "birch beer." No revenue license [U. S. tax receipt] shown.
Terry & Hepburn, lessees of the Carlton Hotel-Been selling wine and whisky. No U. S. revenue license stamp shown in their place of busi- ness, * and they refused to show any when asked to do so.
John Senich- Been selling wine, whisky and beer. No revenue license shown.
Mrs. John Ziegler- Been selling beer. No revenue license.
Peter Steil - Selling beer. No revenue license shown.
Webb & Sawyer- Selling beer. No revenue license shown.
The chairman further reported that upon consultation and agreement with the city trustees, in accordance with resolutions No. 2 and No. 7, and the Enforcement Fund Notes, he had employed the city attorney, F. J. Polley, Esq., to act also as attorney for this committee .; He had engaged the services of a regular and lawfully established detective agency. He had engaged Williams & Mckinley of Los Angeles (the original attorneys on this ordinance) to counsel with our attorney and detectives. He had engaged the professor of chemistry at the University of Southern California, Prof. E. R. Shrader, to make a legal test analysis of any falsely-named liquors that might be contested in court as non-alcoholic. And he closed with this sentence :
"Gentlemen, we are now ready to move on the enemy's works all along
*He had shown to the committee that if any liquor seller had a U. S. revenue tax receipt, but did not keep it " placed conspicuously in his place of business," he was violating the United States law as well as the city law.
+August 8. 1888. " Moved and supported that the city attorney be and is hereby instructed to prosecute all violations of ordinance No. 45, when in his judgment there is evidence enough to warrant such prosecution."-| City clerk's records.]
260
HISTORY OF PASADENA.
the line; and if any of them want to appeal to higher courts we are ready to go right along with them, clear through to the United States supreme court if necessary."
The report was formally received, adopted, and ordered placed on file. After the committee adjourned, the newspaper men got wind of this report and went to the secretary demanding a copy. It was furnished, and they published the whole business. Then there was fire and fury and bloody vengeance in the air, around all the liquor camps. Dr. O. H. Conger, who had signed an Enforcement Note for $100, said facetiously, "I guess hell's broke loose ! I think I can smell brimstone along the streets !"
Within a week the committee had evidence and witnesses ready to prosecute twenty-three cases of violation of the ordinance. But now the attorney discovered that the ordinance was utterly null - wasn't worth the paper it was written on ; for in its original enactment four specific require- ments of the state law in regard to such procedure had not been properly complied with. It had not been formally put upon its passage and then waited the "legal" time before being finally passed. It had not been "legally" enrolled in the Ordinance Book. Printer's affidavit to its pub- lication had not been "legally " made and placed on file. It had not been "legally " signed by the President of the City Board of Trustees. The city attorney and city clerk then in service were unfriendly to the or- dinance ; yet it is generous to presume that it was ignorance, carelessness and indifference combined, rather than design on their part, that caused these fatal omissions in details which it was their official duty to look after. At any rate, the committee and its attorney were now obliged to stop all pro- ceedings, abandon their accumulated evidence, wait till the ordinance could be re-enacted, and then commence anew by getting new evidence after the ordinance had been passed again in manner as required by the state law. . However, they met the emergency without flinching, and submitted the fol- . lowing document to the city council :
To the Honorable, the Board of Trustees of the City of Pasadena:
GENTLEMEN: We, the undersigned committee duly appointed by the people of Pasadena to act for them, find that the violators of ordinance 45 claim they can defeat it in court on some technical informality in its original enactment -a point of law on which attorneys differ, and which might lead to long and fruitless litigation. We therefore request, in order to place this matter beyond a peradventure or the hair's-breadth of a doubt, that you have said ordinance re-introduced and put upon its course of re-enactment, whenever in your judgment you think best; so that this last possible hope of those who have set themselves to violate the law may be deprived of the least vestige of even a technical quibble to stand upon.
September 3, 1888.
Signed,
H. A. REID (acting by appointment for the W. C. T. U.). JOSEPH BARNES (acting by appointment for the Baptist church).
FRANK D. STEVENS (acting by appointment for the M. E. church).
261
DIVISION THREE- BRAINS.
P. M. GREEN (president First National Bank).
W. AUG. RAY (president San Gabriel Valley Bank).
I. B. CLAPP (acting by appointment for the Congregational church).
I. J. REYNOLDS (for C. C. Reynolds ; acting by appointment of the Friends church).
GEO. C. HUBBARD (acting by appointment for the Christian church).
P. G. WOOSTER (acting by appointment for the Universalist church).
C. M. PARKER (acting by appointment for the Y. M. C. A.).
G. A. SWARTWOUT (manager Pasadena National Bank).
C. H. CONVERSE (acting by appointment for the Presbyterian church).
The council was not averse to re-enacting the ordinance, word for word, as it had been sustained by the supreme court ; yet it was not until Septem- ber 15 that this could be properly effected. And the liquor men, not know- ing of the defectiveness'of the ordinance, had already gotten up a petition which claimed to have 513 lawful signers to it, and reading thus :
"We, the undersigned citizens of Pasadena, county of Los Angeles, and State of California, believing the present ordinance No. 45 to be detri- mental to the best interests of this city, do respectfully petition your honor- able body to call an election at an early day, of the voters of this city to vote on the question of the repeal of said ordinance No. 45, and the adop- tion in the place thereof of an ordinance to regulate the sale of intoxicat- ing liquors by the high license system"; etc.
This petition had been referred to the judiciary committee of the City Council-and while it was held under consideration, the Enforcement Com- mittee by its chairman made the following points or suggestions, during various personal interviews with regard to it :
Ist. The petition and its signers' names ought to be published so that all citizens concerned may see whether the signers are all voters and tax- payers here or 110t. The original petitioners for the ordinance did this at their own expense; and these petitioners against it ought to be put to the same test.
2d. The original petitioners for the ordinance pledged money in bank to indemnify the city against any expense which might arise from the granting of their petition. These high license petitioners had asked the city to incur the expense of a special election. They should be required to put up the money themselves, just as the other petitioners were.
3d. Such an election would be a non-statutory affair, not governed by any law of the state ; and hence any amount of fraudulent voting could be practiced, without any recourse at law to prevent or punish it.
4th. The question of maintaining ordinance No. 45 was distinctly in issue at the last city election, and the present council was elected on a plat- form in favor of its maintenance. Hence, by our republican system of gov- ernment, that policy has a right to stand in full force until the next lawful city election.
262
HISTORY OF PASADENA.
In accordance with the first point, the petition and appended names was published at city's expense [the getters up of it were strongly opposed to its publication] in the Daily Union of September 8, 1888-the Union being at that time the official paper of the city. It was then discovered that the names of O. H. Conger and James Smith were on it, although both of them had signed notes of $100 for the enforcement fund-yet these names had been shown around by solicitors for this petition as proof that the original supporters of the ordinance had changed in favor of "high license ;" and thereby some were influenced to sign it who otherwise would not have done so. Dr. Conger and Mr. Smith took prompt measures to in- vestigate this outrage upon their names and personal honor ;* and it was found that a Los Angeles carpenter named James Smith, who happened to be in Pasadena on a three weeks' job, had signed his name to it .; The other case was another Conger whose initials happened to be so nearly the same as the Doctor's that they were easily mistaken and misprinted for his.
These frauds becoming known, led two men, T. J. Martin and Merritt Allen, without any knowledge of each other, to go through the whole list of names and carefully compare them with the Great Register ; and they found signed to this liquor license petition 160 names that were not lawful voters in Pasadena-most of them not even in the county, although a few names were found belonging to other precincts and to Los Angeles city. The petition was finally reported from the judiciary committee to committee of the whole. On November 13, the committee of the whole reported ad- versely to calling any such election, and this report was duly adopted in regular session that day. Meanwhile, however, on September 15, 1888, the anti-saloon ordinance had been re-enacted as No. 125, "by the votes of Trustees M. M. Parker, A. G. Throop, Stephen Townsend, Edson Turner, and J. B. Young-unanimous."
During these weeks there was a concentrated effort to break down the chairman of the committee in his personal character and good name, so that he was frequently obliged to make reply through the press, in denial of some false report published. There were then five papers here pitted against the ordinance - theDaily Star, Daily Union, and Weekly Critic of Pasadena; and the Daily Times and Daily Tribune of Los Angeles which both had regular staff reporters here. Thus every foolish, malicious or false imputa- tion against him which was concocted in the drinking places, billiard rooms and cigar stands, was eagerly caught up by the reporters, in their zeal each to get into print first with the latest sensation ; and thus it came about, that no matter what the committee did do, or did not do, their position and action and purposes were constantly misrepresented and falsified and sensationalized
*In the Daily Star of Sept. 11, 1888, Dr. Conger offered a reward of $100 for evidence to convict the forger of his name to this document.
+The city records show that twice afterward this same James Smith was arrested as "drunk and disorderly," plead guilty, and paid a fine of $5. See Recorder's Book No. 1, cases 76 and 206.
263
DIVISION THREE - BRAINS.
to the reading public- and this had much to do with the number of names signed to the "high license " petition. This vicious policy culminated at last in a boldly slanderous article by W. H. Storms, city editor of the Daily Union, against Dr. Reid as chairman of the committee. Dr. Reid went directly to Mr. Storms in person, assuring him of the falsity of the accusations, and asked on whose authority he made the statements. Mr. Storms de- clined to give any name. And the next day the following document was formally served upon the "Union Publishing Co. : "
To the Proprietors or Stockholders of the "Union Publishing Company" of Pasadena, California :
6
GENTLEMEN : - Your paper, the Pasadena Daily Union, of date Sep- tember 4, 1888, makes certain grave accusations against me as chairman of the "Enforcement Committee," with this declaration - "and which, if necessary, we are prepared to prove."
Gentlemen, that article is libelous, is slanderous, is scandalously false. It is injurious and damaging to me in person. And it is due to myself-it is due to the twelve reputable business men who constitute the "Enforce- ment Committee" and made me their chairman-it is due to the seven large churches and other organizations which that committee represents - that your editor's pretended proofs should be produced to us at once, or else that the slanderous article be retracted through your editorial columns in as broad, unqualified and public a manner as the accusations were made.
This I require, both on my own behalf and on behalf of the churches and people whom I represent.
Respectfully,
Dated September 6, 1888.
H. A. REID, Chairman Enforcement Committee.
We consider Dr. Reid's requirement above to be reasonable and just - that the proofs which the editor of the Union claims to have, should be produced at once, or else the accusations be retracted as unqualifiedly and publicly as they were made.
Signed :
Reynolds Bros.,
Lyman Allen,
O. H. Conger, A. K. McQuilling,
B. F. Ball, J. M. Glass,
P. M. Green,
Delos Arnold,
D. Galbraith, W. T. Clapp,
F. R. Harris & Co.,
W. Aug. Ray,
M. D. Painter,
G. E. Meharry,
Stevens Hardware Co. H. D. Bennett,
G. A. Swartwout, J. H. Fleming,
H. G. Bennett, Henry N. Farey, L. C. Winston.
The name of informant was still withheld, but ample proof promised very soon ; so that evening's paper contained an affidavit from one John Gorthy, a drunken loafer then temporarily in the city, who had reported an interview, false in every detail, which he pretended to have had with Dr. Reid. The next morning Dr. Reid got L. C. Winston, notary public, to go and procure statements under oath from E. H. Hyde and A. A. Chubb, who were present all of the time on the only occasion that said Reid had ever seen John Gorthy. [The statement of Geo. Hazzard, who had also been present, was procured some days later.] And the result was that John
264
HISTORY OF PASADENA.
Gorthy was proved to be a liar, a slanderer and a perjurer-and he left the city forthwith. The same paper which contained Gorthy's drunken im- aginings, sworn to as fact, contained also a lot of falsehoods about the Carlton hotel case, in which the committee had been the means of detecting its lessees in selling whisky by the bottle and sent to private rooms, besides other out- lawry going on there. The lessee had given a bond agreeing to get all his liquors out of town within three days, and not sell any more liquors during the life of this bond (six months), under penalty of five hundred dollars. The city attorney had granted him his own free choice, to sign this bond, or go on trial and take the chances of what the court and jury would give him ; and he chose the bond. The committee was thus prevented from making public its evidence, and this left the field open for the most unconscionable falsehoods to be put forth about the case. This open field was industriously worked for months afterwards ; and these falsehoods were publicly repeated on the liquor side in the city campaign of 1890-nineteen months later. But at that time, in a public meeting in Williams Hall, April 8, 1890, A. R. Metcalfe, Esq., being called out, made an able speech defending the city council then in office, in reply to false accusations against them ; and in- cidentally he alluded to this Carlton hotel case. The Los Angeles Tribune and the Pasadena Star both reported his speech, and I quote from them the passage referring to this particular case. Tribune's report :
" The trouble is not with the law. I understand that great stress has been laid on the fact that the Carlton hotel was closed under the provisions of this ordinance. I say boldly, the Carlton hotel should have been closed. It would cause the blush of shame to mount the cheek of any gentleman in this room if he knew all that went on there; and if the Web- ster or Acme should have such scenes enacted in them, I would favor closing them also."
Star's report: "The prosecution of the Carlton hotel proprietors was referred to as having been one of the best things ever done in the city, for it would bring the blush of shame to any man's cheek to know what scandalous things went on in that hotel."
This was the first recognition or acknowledgement ever made in a public way of the good work done by the enforcement committee in that case ; while on the other hand they had borne for nineteen months the grossest misrepresentation and most vindictive contumely both at home and abroad, on account of it. And the lives of members of the detective agency were so virulently threatened that they had to leave town. One very prominent citizen said, "They ought to have been tarred and feathered ! " Another said of the chairman, "O, we'll make it so d-d red hot for that fellow that he can't stay in this country !"* Another, shaking a fist in bis face, said, " We can put up ten thousand dollars to beat you ! We have plenty of backing in Los Angeles and San Francisco!" Another said,
*This man was a foreigner ; had then been only six years naturalized.
265
DIVISION THREE- BRAINS.
" We're going to see to it that you shan't enforce it." Another said, "We'll show you up to be the d -- dest liar in all this country !" Another said, "He helped to ruin Iowa, and now he's come here to ruin this country !" These were all prominent, well-known citizens at that time, and members of the "Progressive League," but it would not be proper to give the names here. Yet these are only a few sample instances of what that committee had to undergo. Nevertheless, it went right on with its work of aiding the city officers in detecting and prosecuting liquor selling outlaws.
In September, 1888, a strong effort was made to commit the Board of Trade as an organized body in opposition to the prohibitory ordinance ; but this did not succeed ; and the next historic move was the organization of a "Progressive League," so-called, to fight the ordinance and all its sup- porters, on the basis of the high license saloon petition, an account of which I have already given. On October 20, 1888, a mass meeting of this "League " was held on an out-door public assembly ground then known as Haymarket Square. Justus Brockway served as chairman ; W. P. Hyatt, then democratic deputy district attorney, was secretary ; and there were called to the platform a list of twenty-seven vice-presidents. A series of resolutions was adopted, misrepresenting the action of the city council in regard to the saloon petition, and denouncing it as "an arbitrary and tyran- nical exercise of power and in derogation of the right of petition." Numerous speeches were made in virulent denunciation of the city council and the Enforcement Committee. But the whole situation was summed up in a brief speech toward the last by B. A. O'Neil, one of the most active and earnest workers of the League, who boldly and frankly said :
"There is no need of long speeches. It's saloons we want, and saloons we're going to have ; and we're going to have good ones, too."
Full reports of the meeting, with its array of vice-presidents, officers, speakers, resolutions, committees, etc., were published in the daily papers the next day ; and if the reader wishes to see further about it he can find it in their files for that year. On October 27, a committee from the League, consisting of B. A. O'Neil, W. U. Masters, and M. H. Weight, visited the city council, with complaints and demands in regard to their petition for licensed saloons. I was present, and heard the whole proceedings. Their claims and grievances were heard respectfully, and on every point were shown to be erroneous. The city council then consisted of Prof. M. M. Parker, Hon. A. G. Throop, Edson Turner, Stephen Townsend, and J. B. Young, who severally showed that the petition had been referred to the judiciary committee, and had in every respect taken the regular and lawful course customary and proper in all such cases. There were legal questions as to the validity of such an election ; and a new Great Register for the county was being prepared ; and other points to investigate, which made
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