Los Angeles daily herald., 1888-07-08
ONLY A STRAW
Shows How Los Angeles Has
Been Growing Lately.
sCHoDER, JOHNSTON Il co.
A Great Commercial House Which
Has Quietly Grown up During
the Boom.

SASSASA1 cOhhoeSh ~ OOsy 1uCOI DOldtC0
in 1882 with capital of 100000. The
store reaches back and abuts on Will
street, taking in numbers 25 to
30 on that thoroughfare. A few days
ago HERALD reporter was passing along
Los Angeles street, and at the
door Of the store he encountered
Mr.. Schoder, member of the
corporation. AS he knows all the mem
bers we'll, he stopped to chat for mo-
ment, and this led him to enter the es-
tablishment where Mr.. Johnston was
found up to bis eyes with business. These
gentlemen always were hard workers,
and the reporter readily recalls the days
OF small things, when the establishment
was first set up, seeing both of them with
coats off and sleeves rolled up, tugging
away at the hardest and dirtiest work
about the store. Things have greatly
changed since then, and now the concern
is one OF mammoth proportions. 1t is
such an excellent index of the growth of
Los Angeles, and its story is so we'll cal
culated to act as an incentive to others
to start some line of enterprise here, that
it seems as if something ought to be said
about the house.
Al htRE OF GROUND.
In order to do this some data had to be
gathered and this the reporter set about.
He said:,
Gentlemen, this is big affair, as
compared with the store years ago, when
l used to come here nearly every day.
You remember the time when l was
getting out that big illustrated catalogue
for you? By the way, that book was
the foundation Of all your prosperity. 1t
would take one ten times as big to give
all your goods now."
This little reminiscence broke the ice,
and so the two merchants, warming up to
the newspaper man, went on to tell him
of their great establishment with as
much conscious pride as the Kings oi
Babylon exhibited over the great city
they had built. In the course of the re-
cital 1t was developed that the store
is seventy-six feet on Wilmington street,
with 25 feet of spare room alongside. II
is about $50 feet long to Los Angeles
street where it fronts on that magnificent
thoroughfare 40 feet. The area covered
is AZ, 500 feet, or almost an acre of ground,
The building is two stories high, and the
walls two feet thick below, and 1S inches
above stairs.
In the rear part of the building is kept
the heavy bar, sheet and boiler iron
and steel. There are two doors, and
teams pass in at one, go around the in
side of the building, and pass out of the
other. The Los Angeles street end ol
the premises is devoted to shelf and
other light goods.
WHAT 1T CONTAINS. "
When one sets out to tell what there
is in the place, it would save time if he
were to reverse the operation and mere
ly catalogue what there is not there in the
way of hardware. There are all sorts and
descriptions of heavy, bar, sheet, and
hoop iron and steel. There is boiler
plate of all thicknesses and of the best
of all material. There are cast, wrought
and silver steel in all sizes and for all
purposes.
Above stairs there are to be found all
sorts of things that 60 to make a wagon.
There are hubs, felloes, spokes and tires
and wheels of all sorts ready set up.
There are great stocks of all sorts Of
wagon material which the newspaper
man cannot even tell the names of.
Alongside of these are great piles Of
forks of half hundred pattel n and for
all imaginable purposes-every kind OF
fork excepting the fork OF a river is there.
AS many varieties of shovels, of hoes, of
spades, of axes, wheelbarrows, and of
all sorts of helves and handles. as there
are OF forks, were observed by the tens of
thousands. There are blacksmiths' sup
plies, mining supplies and milling sup
plies of all sorts. Portable forges,
anvils, hammers, sledges, vices, bellows
and kindred articles lay all round in
immense supply. There were little ham,
mers which baby might WELD, and
there were enormous sledges which
would make stronger back than Syb-
arite's ache. Machinery supplies are as
numerous in variety and as lavish in
their amount as any other article in the
store.
If man thinks blacksmiths' supplies
too suggestive of heat for these midsum-
mer days, or if the reader be Prohibi-
ZIONIST, let him take look at the wa
terwork department. There is wa
ter pipe, and there is other pipe
Of all sorts that ever was made for any
use or purpose. II is OF all sorts Of
make that iron is used in. 1t is of all
sizes, from a one-half inch to two or
three feet in diameter, and there are
water gates to match. Then there are
couplings, faucets, and all that sort of
thing, enough to bewilder one. Rubber
in quantity made into hose of all sizes,
and in all other shapes is there. Belt
ing, both leather and rubber, lies about
in piles. Wire screens are there in tons.
And then the nails! They are piled
up to the dome. There are great stacks
of kegs all full Of nails. That is the only
fault the reporter has to find. No man
offered to open one of them to treat.
There are little bits of nails and there
are spikes foot long. Building nails,
shingle nails, finishing nails, horseshoe
nails, mule-shoe nails, jack-shoe nails,
ox-shoe nails!
There are as many kinds OF bolts as
there are Of nails and in as big heaps. The
reporter in his astonishment asked to see
a thunderbolt, but there was not one on
hand. The last had been shipped East
TO be used in the July thunder storms.
We have no use for them in the Semi
sropics.
BUILDERS HARDWARE.
Pes laps the nest display III the store
was in the line If builders hardware. A
inc OF Hopkins & Dickensons bronze
ocks and butts led off among all the var
ous. display. In 1882, when Schoder,
Johnston & Co. first opened their doors, |
here were being built here few small, |