The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1889-02-24
BOOM RESULTS.

want come from LOS Angeles. Two
years ago all eyes were turned in the
direction of the City of the Angels,
and good many feet also moved in
that direction. Extra trains of cars
were daily running there from the east,
and the transportation facilities OF The
railway companies were taxed to the
utmost to carry the people who wanted
to go thither. There was "boom" on
and many feared they would not reach
the place in time to get any of The eli
mate or before the fruit was gone.
Men, women and children walked the
streets at night, slept under sheds or
made their homes in canvas tents
whicb,cons derate individuals permitted
them to pitch on the sand lots until
green and enthusiastic persons with
money came along and paid fabulous
prices for the land. Business houses,
dwelling houses, hotels and lodging
houses sprang up like magic, blocks
and even miles of brick, stone and NOR
tar being laid AT the speed at which
the place was going, Los Angeles would
soon have been the largest and most
pcpulous city in America. OF all the
booms, hers was the biggest, the
most sudden and phenomenal, and
the least substantial. People were
actually crazy, so reckless and
unreasonable had they become, and
such firm hold had the Los Angeles
mania taken upon them. They would
not listen to words of caution and de-
fed those who babe them beware.
Observant, thoughtful people could
foresee what was coming. They knew
that the boom could not las:, and pre-
dicted the crash which was inevitable
1t is now more. than year since the
decline set in, and it has been as swift
as the ascent was rapid. Recently one
of the newspapers devoted over twelve
pages of fine type to list of the
delinquent taxes on lands which two
years ago were rated at millions. To-day
the owners cannot or will not pay the
taxes; in many instances it is said the
land will not fetch under the hammer.
more than enough to satisfy the col
lector. A gentleman writing from
there says there are fully fifteen thou
sand people in the city without visible
means of support and unable 10 pay |
railway fare out. They tramp the
streets in day time, and at night find |
shelter in stables, dry goods boxes and |
houses maintained by charity. The |
hotels and lodging houses are by no |
means full, and rents are about 80 per |
cent. of what they were in 1887. There
are hundreds of vacant dwelling houses, |
which the owners would be glad to lease |
for enough to pay the taxes and keep
the places in repair. Formerly the |
tt aims left hundreds in the city every |
day; now, no more get off than stop at |
any ordinary village, but more get on.
Briefly, there has been a complete col
lapse of the Los Angeles boom, and the
city is eminently worse off than if it
had INDUCED it no phenomenal growth.
1t will take years to recover from the
black eye, and regain its lost reputa
ton. Climate" has come to be a |
hiss and term or contempt, |
and a "boomer" is looked upon
as worse than thief. Los Angeles |
has before her a long period of
financial prostration. The business
failures which are now reported as forty |
or fifty a week will continue until the
spectators have paid for their reckless
ness, and reparation been made TO.
doing business by wrong methods.
The HERALD does not refer tt th se
things for the purpose of refec ng on
Los Angeles, but rather that Sa l. Ike
may congratulate herself tn t the
boom" which threatened to tIrn
peoples heads here as it had done else
where, quickly subsidized and left the
city to grow and progress by regular
and legitimate methods. The advance
has not been as swift as sore
would have made it, but tie
g-ound covered has been held. The
growth has been healthy and the foot
hold is firm. If we have INDUCED in
no mad excitement and wild specula-
Jon, neither are we TO be afflicted by
4 financial crash; the populstion has
not increased rapidly, and it will con-
tinue to grow; there has been no craze
Tor building, and the result is that the
demand for houses is always little
ahead of the supply. Ours is de-
,idedly the better way for everybody
save the few spectators, and what is
good for them is generally bad for the