Fort Worth weekly gazette. [volume] (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1888-03-09
BOGUS MANCHESTER"
A SwIndling Paper City in Los Angeles
County, CaltforDis-An "AbOmi-
nS.icu OF DesolatiOn."
How Sharp Land Operators GuIl the
Observation-Disclosures Pursued By
the Climate Dealers.
New York Herald,

can succeed in describing what he has no
seen, forgetting that Dante was never II
Hsdes nor Milton in Paradise, and that l
is the highest praise OF Shakespeare Il
have "exhsusted world, and then por
treyed new" The exception certsinl,
does not apply to the proper
portrayal of some OF the desert tract
on which adventurous sWind
lers have located paper cities il
South California. 1t is necessary almost
to see in order to believe, and withou
ocular investigation the Herald CORE
spondent could never have developed the
frame Of mind to do justice to the bolC
frauds that were witnessed. When y0U
behold some of these bogus town site!
the understanding is at once reached tha
the boldest and most conniving humbus
of the Florida grist of shams did not sur
pass in point of sbsurdity certain of the
shining examples in this vicinity.
The cynical man of the world, even
whose faith in human nature is not senti
mental, is exposed to positive shocks to
his sensibilities when he looks over one
Of those grotesque conspiracies to rot
mankind. Certainly the thought arises
Do men and women exercise reason ir
allowing themselves to fall vic:ims to the
wiles of cunning land sharks? When you
apply the word treason" to such folly
you cannot help defining 1t as the proud
prerogstive which coniers On man the ex
elusive privilege of acting irrationally.
The fraudulent towns msy be divided
into several classes, which may be de-
scribed as follows: First, those that
were never intended to be established or
where no attempt has been made TO de-
ceiVe even by resortiug to the clsptrap OF
pretence Of making alleged local i'm
proYements. The promoters will merely
plot ont piece Of worthless land into
streets and house lots issue q Aiming
advertisement, descr be churches, thea
tiers, race-tracks, banks, hotels and rail
wSy stations which do not exist, and
which, as the promoter very well knows,
never will have foundation in fact.
TKNDERFOoT VICTIMS.
The victims in this particular class of
sWindle generally reside at distance and
buy their lots on heGrssy.
The second class are those where an
attempt has been made to locste
some vestiges of improvements. The
bare tract of land is plotted out, cheap
frame building, Yclept hotel, is either
completed or CONNIE need, few feet Of
cement sidewalk constructed and cheap
paling is placed around central plot OF
ground advertised as the spark" in
which, ss one veracious description goes,
"children and their nurses will enjoy the
bright sunshine as in the gardens of the
Tuileries at Paris"
Water is generally promised, and der
rick for sinking an artesian well is erect
ed. Street CIR and motor trsmwsys are
announced as to be established IL the i'm
mediate future.
The city of Burbank, in the San Fer
naudo valley, on the line of the Southern
Pacific Rsilwsy, not far from Los Angeles.
sffords bright and shining example Of
the nefarious ingenuity Of the lsnd
shsrps. A short range of cement side
walk, shsnty OF hotel few tents and
the GROWING glory of inventive humbug,
the alleged horse railway, compose this
delectabIe municipality. The ''horse rail
road" consits Of two rails laid on the
ground in the center Of the "street,"
with cement sidewalks at the point near
est the passing trains on the Southern
Pacific Railway. Ga the rails stands a
horse csr. The promoter Of the enter
prise can "point with pride" to Burbank
and assure the "tender-foot" by lette.
that 1--WE have our horse railway already
under way. The first tram car has ar
Tlyed, others will follow in due time"
And then the conhding "tender-t0ot"
surrenders.
The hotel Is always erected II the pro-
moter intends that q semblance Of truth
shall perVSde his advertising pronuncia-
mentos. But he touches lightly on the
character Of the csray1nsery. Il was but
a few days ego that 8 hurricane swept
over the valleys about Los Angeles.
A CALIFORNIA CYCLONE.
The !hotel at Crescenta CansdE was
grssped by the mighty hand of the blast,
twisted and twirled about and then
wrecked as II Il were house Of cards.
s. veral persons lost their lives by the
disaster. The roof OF one building in the
S1n Fernando valley WAS rolled into ball
as tin foil may ne compressed, and it lay
by the railway warning as to the force
of cyclones in 1.-THE glorious climate Of
California" The probability is that 8
building possessing any claim to strength
sud durability would have hung to-
gether, but the Conventional hotel OF he
new town ia only too often adelusion and
snare as regards SUBSTANTIALLY, and
over it goes before it hiss served the pur-
pose of the town builder.
The hotel may contain real estate
Office and nothing else. OF course there
is no call for public house on barren,
houseless town site any more than there
Is 6 demand for q horse railway. The
only patrons of the latter would be the
ground squirrels, the "pesky little
plaques" Of the sgriculturist, woo bur
row and undermine half Of the fields ABOUT
Los Angeles.
4 third class of humbug towns sgainst
wlich the EASTERN investor should enter
tIin burning suspicious are those where 8
considerable sum of money has been
scent by the promoters and an apparent
sembIance of g vlllsge is to be found.
The cement sidewalks are extended
further, 8 quantity of eucalyptus and
other quick growing trees have been
few semi-tropical shruos and
trees placed 10 the 'fpsrk," rather pre-
tentious "hotel" set up, and severGl-in
some instances q dozen or more-chesp
but s,hy Queen Anne cottages lifted up
above the surfsce Of the earth.
II there is any one general srchitec-
tursl style thatis entirely unsuited to the
hot, dusty weather which prevails two
thirds Of the year it is the bastard type
falsely credited to the age Of good Queen
Anne. The Spsnish-AmeIicans, the orig
inal holders OF the soil, knew how 10
build when they formed their low, spread |
ing houses, with overharging yersndss
and cool central pstios.
UNSUITABLE HOUSE BUILDING.
The Brummagem town builder ignores