The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1888-03-28

panied by priests from the San Gabriel
mission, having located here under the
authority of the Spanish king away back in
the last century AT first the city consisted
OF group of huts made Of adobe or mud
taken from the neghborng hills. They are
about eight feet in height, square or box
shaped, and often plastered with mud in
side. Many of them are still to be seen in
the city, and many more in the surrounding
country. When this country surrendered
to the Americans under Admiral Stockton
and Generals Kearney and Fremont in 1Si7,
and for twenty years later, Los Angeles had
all the elements Of a frontier town but
since then, especially during the last ten
years, IL has been an American city in all
that the term implies. As the surrounding
! country became populated under the stimu-
! lus of American enterprise, a line of steam
ers down the coast enabled tourists to reach
| 1t, and finally one day, some twelve years
or so ago. the iron horse-that advance
guard of true civlization-burst through
the very center of the long-considered i'm
penetrable Sierra Madres, rumbing down
the peaceful valley, among the adobe homes
of the sleepy old Mexicans, and in almost
single step Los Angeles became the thriving
city of to-day with its seventy thousand
| inhabitants. It's growth has few parallels
in this or any other country. Banks, blocks
| of buildings, electric lights, belt roads, and
! all the Conveniences of the East are here;
| while its suburbs, rich in the wealth of
semi-tropiCal fruits and flowers, breaking
ton toward the blue Pacific and in the
other along the slopes of the mountain bar
riers to the north and east. The city is
cosmopolitan in the highest degree-all
| races seeming to meet on equal ground.
With liberal sprinkling of the old Span
ish element, though essentially American
lied, is found the French baron, the Chinese
official, the Greek, the Jew, the negro, and
indeed almost every other nationality. Like
any other city enjoying a sudden growth,
| strange contrasts aDOIn1. NpDprablp
adobe hut nestles in the shadow of a mod
ern brick block of magnificent proportions
and adornments, and it is often but step
from the finest pavements and the Costliest
cement sidewalks to mud almost without
soundings. 1t is also true that the sudden
growth of the city has outrun its police reg
ulations. Many of the streets and walks are
in fearful condition, and an easterner is
| surprised TO see here some elements of that
license, almost amounting to lawlessness,
which was associated with California life in
the earlier period. The theaters, the liquor
saloons, the cheap shows and many places
of business, are run regardless of the Sab
bath, and gangs of men are seen at work
upon the highways. But closer inspection
develops the fact that the better elements
are girding themselves up for the eXigency,
and make no question but that very few
years will see Los Angeles not only the Sec
ond city on the Pacific slope in point of
material development and beauty, but Sec
ond to none in all that belongs to true
greatness.
In addition to this exceptional growth of
Los Angeles-which has really doubled its
population during the last two years
during the same time there have been a
large number of new towns projected and
laid out in Los Angeles county, of which |
can not speak in this letter but which are al
present in tlourishing condition.
The story of the wonderful development
OF Southern California is short plain and
simple. 1t is stated that ten of the Western
States received in a single decade an access
sion of five millions of people to their pOpu-
latlon. The Pacific coast has received its
share of this immense throng. California
and especially the southern part is to-day
receiving larger share of this influx of
population than any other state on the
coast These thousands of men and women
from the best classes in the Eastern States
have come and are coming to Southern Cali
fornia to make this their permanent home,
and expend their means here. They are
planting with choice fruits land that has
been until recently range for sheep and
cattle; are building beautiful and solid resi-
dences, and surrounding them with shrub
berry, lawns and shade-trees. For hundreds
of miles back and forth through the San
Gabriel Valley on every hand we have seen
the plowman turning the furrow, gathering
brush into piles for burning, and sowing the
grain. Here and there is seen plain,
matter-of-fact building, gotten up in the
quickest manner possible to serve the pur-
poses Oh SutlItr, ana generally located upon
the higher ground The old Spanish fami-
lies made their homes in the valleys, and
dilapidated and mOsS-grown adobes still
mark the landscape-more romantic, per-
haps, than the Yankees first Improvement
but the old-time spirit of contentment
which dwelt amid mud walls, and counted
its wealth in t1ocks and herds, has departed
forever; and soon the hill-tops will be
crowned with orchards and vineyards, and
these quiet, sleepy valleys awaken to bet
for fa IL,
versihed industry. Still another class of
confident citizens who are to be found in
every city and village in Southern Cali
fornia, are building hotels that challenge
the admiration of eastern tourists, costly
and elegant banking and commercial build
ings, blocks of brick, iron and stone, and at
the same time expanding thousands and
thousands of dollars in laying out streets
and avenues across broad fields, and in
cutting roads over the hills and through
the mountains. OF course there is more
or less shady side to all this. Southern
California is not Eden, or entirely Eden
like; but how any person of intelligence
thought or reading can visit the re-
gion for even a few months and take pains
TO look around and inform himself, and fail
TO observe the evidences on every hand of
the settled belief of the very best people
that this region is only in its infancy 50 far
as its wonderful resources and possibilities
are concerned is mystery indeed
" But what of the real estate boom?" 1
fancy is on the lips of many In the judg
ment of the coolest headed the real estate
market during the coming season will be of
a different character from that which so
generally prevailed the past summer and
fall There will be less wild speculation
and more solid investment There will not
be so many lots bought on a margin with
the view ofdoubling or trebling their money
in few weeks or months. Purchasers of
lots will buy for the purpose of building
homes, or building to rent and in the latter
case they will calculate what interest the
investment will bring them; while those
who buy acre property will estimate the
profit they may expect in cultivating it, and
govern themselves accordingly. Inside
property will be held firmly, while new
" towns" whose only assets are map and
a real estate office, will find it hard to at
tract attention. The days of the brass band
and free lunch are past. This may not
please the greedy speculator, but the change
will be a healthy one for the country at
large. That there has been altogether too
much wild, reckless speculation is unde-
niable. Many persons bought on margins