Los Angeles daily herald., 1889-09-27


I be the best ever issued in this city.
A Crine sthat Should be Stamped
Out.
The recurrence about this time every
year of destructive fires all over the tim
Der portions Of this State is becoming a
matter of too serious moment not to ex-
cite the .gravest apprehension. There is
NO doubt that most of these fires are de.
iberately set by scoundrels who have an
object Of gain in views whilst nearly all
the rest are the result of q negligence
that is scarcely less criminal. This year
the fires have done more damage than
ever bef ,re, and have been more numer-
ous and widespread. People living near
the foothills and mountains have been
called out to fight the march of these
Ares so as to save their places from de-
struction, and many improved homes in
the mountains have been swept away.
After making careful inquiry Into the
origin of these fires, We find that some
are started by careless hunters. who neg
lect to put out their csmpfres when they
start out in the morning. The game law
against shooting quail is up on the 10th
Of September, and this brings out all
sorts of fowling- pieces, many Of them
old-fashioned muxzle-loaders that send
burning psper wadding into the
brush, soon to be followed by
> blazs. But the most dangerous
incenoisries are men who have sheep or
cattle and who deliberately set FIRE to
the brush in the mountains 30 as to clear
the land of timber, and thus make a
range for their stock where grass will
grew after the first rains set in. There
is no doubt, from the informa alton we
have received, that many of the worst
fires are due to this deli berate and
nefarious purpose of unprincipled sheep
and cattle men. Major Abbott Kinney
assured rs that seven fires were set in
different places in the Cahuenga range
on Tuesday in less than an hour. The
authors of these fires could certainly
have been run down, if the
State had made any provision
for arresting such offenders. But
there is another class of incendiaries
whose culpability is no less fagrant than
that Of the men who denude our timb Der
land 30 as 70 lay it open to the growth of
feed. These are the wood peddlers
There is no law against parties entering
upon Government timber land and car
rying away all the deadwood they can
Ind. Quite an extensive business is car
ried on by men who go into the noun
ltains, gather the deadwood and haul it to
the nearest settlement, where they sell it
for firewood. Some of these men, how
ever. are not satisfied with the loose wood
they can find, but deliberately start fires
30 as to burn the trees, and thus increase
the amount of deadwood they can draw
upon. The last, but not least culp able,
class of men who are responsible for fires
in the mountains, are prospectors for
mines. Some of these fellows are too lazy
to cut their way through brush and chap.
paral to reach the top of a mountain, and
just build fire, and when the country is
laid bare they proceed to prospect it.
We shall have, in self-defense, TO take
steps to put stop to these criminal
practices. The United States Govern
ment ought to take an active interest in
this matter, and do something to pre-
serve the timber lands from destruction /;
and the State cannot afford to let this
work OF denudation 60 on without making
a strenuous effort to stop it. 1t is not
alone the immediate danger which these
incendiaries inflict with their fires; but
they are bringing about such changes
in the face of the country as to seri-
ously interfere with agriculture. Within
the past two weeks fires have been
raging in the cations and ravines and
mountains at the head of Lyle creek
and other water courses in San Ber-
nardino. Trees, bushes. brush and
chapparal have been burnt away, and
the face of the declivities laid bare.
What will be the consequence? Next
winter when the rains come there will
be nothing to retard their precipitous
RhOS1o6S W tIA0 ~ flbuubs NUu0 VI tne
rain will be absorbed in the soil of the
mountains, but will rush off to
the valleys without having con-
tributed anything to the reproductive
capacity of the uplands. In the rush,
too, the falling waters, finding nothing
to impede or hold them, will seek the
deep courses in torrents, carrying with
them debris that may dam up the
gorges, only to be followed by bursts
that may work destruction to the farms
located in the valleys below.
These are all evils of too great mag
nitude to be lightly passed over, and the
State should take effective steps to arrest
and punish the incendisries. A few
signal examples made would probably |
bring these reckless fire. bugs to their
lsnses. The evil ought to be brought