Los Angeles daily herald., 1886-10-10
SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA.
The secret 81 tho Prosperity OF
Los Angeles.
Maggie 7. In Record Union.
nj 10

The secret 81 tho Prosperity Of
Los Angeles.
maggie I. in Record Union.
Los ANGELES. September 81, 1856.
have been visiting in Los Angeles
county for the past month, and find it
80 totally different from the northern
portion Of the State, both as respecting
its topography and its people, that l
thought few lines from aSacramentan
would prove of interest to your many
readers. That it is to-day one of the
most thriving sections in the United
States there is no question OF doubt.
Business of all kinds is driving. No
one who is ou. of employment need be
SO if he is inclined to work, and the
wages paid for mechanics or general la.
borers Is equal to that paid in the north,
and the cost of living is as cheap here
as in Sacramento. The city of Los An.
geles is estimated to have population
Of some $4,000, SO per cent. of which
is an Eastern immigration that has come
here within the past two years. There
is no cessation TO the influx.
EVERY TRAIN BRINGS NEW ADDITIONS,
Men of means, who come here to buy
little homes, where they can enjoy the
delightfulness of this climate and edu-
cate their children in educational insti-
tutions that have no superiors.
The immigrant, in a majority OF
cases, is q man of wealth, who has a
business in the East, from which he de-
rives his support and who has come
hither to recuperate his declining health
or that of his family, or hearing the
glowing accounts of this "Eden of the
Pacific" has come to end his days in
ease and luxury. Such large addition
to the population sent the price OF real
estate up to figures that to the people OF
the north seems almost Incredible, but
which are considered by the eastern
people veritable bargains.
VALUE OF SMALL CULTIVATED FARMS.
The Los Angeles people are not slow
to see an advantage, and once seen it is
taken advantage of with an avidity
that is highly creditable. Not having
the advantage of forests of timber and
running streams, that are the pride Of
the north, they have turned other
things to account that have more than
offset this deficiency in natural advan.
taees. Her sterile hills and barren,
rocky plains have been made to pro-
duce crops of oranges and vegetables,
by systematic irrigation, that to the eyes
of Eastern people seem almost incredi-
BILE. A small tract of two or three
acres, watered by little spring, does
more to secure settler at fabulous
prices in this section than does thou
sand-acre wheat tract in Tehama or Co.
lusa counties. The great thing here is
the five, ten and iifteen-acre tracts, which
are improved, and which advertise the
county. Every other door, almost, on
Main and Spring streets, is real estate
agent, who has his bulletins covered
with subdivided tracts, which are sold
in small lots, Just large enough for a
building aud small garden, all the way
from $500 to $1,000 each.
THEY SELL LIKE HOT CAKES.
The real estate agents do q thriving
business, and for miles in every direc-
tion from the city of Los Angeles, the
county is subdividsd into homesteads,
tracts and villas, with regularly laid out
avenues and streets, and subdivlded
into blocks and lots. The people come
here to buy home. They look around
them; everything is business thrift, the
prices are seemingly uniform, and pur.
chases are made accordingly.
Not only is this true of Los Angeles,
but Pasadena, Riverside and other
places in this section are equally pros
pereus.
Why are the prices of this poor land
SO much in excess of that of the north?
is the question asked by everyone who
comes here from the San Joaquin and
Sacramento valleys, or the foothill Sec
tions of middle and northern California.
/ think l have found, at,least if not the
key to their success, the cause of the
greater portion of it, in the fact that
their society has been so shaped that
they have made of this section at least
A sEMBLANcE OF GODS COUNTRY.
Here the churches and schoolhouses
far outnumber the saloons. You would
hardly believe it, bat it is nevertheless
true, that there are more saloons-''gin-
mills" as they are called--in the town
OF Placerville, Ell Dorado couty, with
her 1000 inhabitants, than there are in
the city of Los Angeles with her 80, 900
souls. There are more saloons on either
j or X street, in the capt. Il city of the
State, than there is in this southern me-
tropolis; yet the population of Los An
geles is twice that of Sacramento.
While iudicious advertising brought
about this immense and valuable immi-
grafton, the society of Los Angeles, the
habits of her people, the thrift and
HAPPINESS OF HER LABoRING CLASSES
Is the prime cause of all her prosperity.
The citizsns of this enterprising city
have built two cable street railroads,
and another one is in course of con-
struction. The old fashioned "horse-
car" Ike the old-fsshioned "stage-
coach, is thing OF the past.
The hotel and restaurant accommoda-
tions are first-class. There are large
number of fifteen-cent restaurants and
ice- cream saloons, while the nickel is in
more general circulation than it is at
Sacramento.
The people af your city no doubt re-
member Prof. Ezra Carr, ex-State Su.
perintendent of Public Instruction. He
came to this county some two or three
years ago and purchased forty acres of
land near the town of Pasadena paying
therefor $4,000. Some two months ago
he sold ten acres for $50, foo. and un-
derstand has standing offer for the
other thirty acres of 500, 900.
CALIFORNIA LEADS THEM ALL.