Los Angeles daily herald., 1889-10-31
A Practical View of Los Angeles
and the Boom.

The father of Emma Abbott was out
to this country lately, and he wrote back
his Impressions to the Minneapolis
Spectator. He had been all over the
State, but his opinions were decidedly.
favorable TO Southern California IL, the
comparison. He says:
In going to Los Angeles I carried my
prejudices with ME till l rode through
the city, and saw the beautiful resi-
dences and business houses. Instead of
sandy streets and fess, I found it we'll
paved, with clean streets, and good
brick, stone and iron blocks on all the
principal streets, surrounded by stately
mansions with evergreens and fowers
that cannot be seen in Minneapolis.
But ono OF the finest suburbs near Los
Angeles, and the most beautiful
In Southern California, is owned
by W. A. Nimocks, one Of the former
proprietors of the Journal of Mime
apolis. The Champs Elysee in Paris
cannot be any handsomer, as far as the
banks of flowers, evergreens, arbors,
grottoes and walks are concerned. Near
the dwelling, on high elevation, which
looks down on the broad acres of ever
green, is alfalfa, of which they cut from
seven to eight crops a year. Strangers
looking over the city of Los Angeles, Of
10000 inhabitants, should see this beau
tiful place.
Mr.. Abbott, who signs himself "Uncle
john" had evidently been loaded up
with the usual stories which figured in
the Minneapolis papers concerning
Los Angeles. The calumny about
heas existing here in any great
amount was certainly one OF the most in
defensible of these. He was also primed
with all the stories current in his home
papers while the boom was at it's height.
He puts great deal of sense in the fol-
lowing reminiscence:
Pasadena is also fine place, and
few towns on the coast, San Diego, Santa
Monica, Santa Ana, and some other
towns, ARE all right, land good places to live
in, but give ms for residence Los An
geles for the year round, cool nights in
summer, good society, etc. Real estate
has settled down to bed rock, with
steady growth. This is good time to
by residence property, as the sharks
that gave it bad name have nearly all
been run out. Their mode of operation
was to buy some large tract of land ten to
thirty miles from Los Angeles, survey it
into small lots, run motor line to it,
get up flaming bills, and with brass
band, free ride, free lunch, free drinks,
raise mems brains to fever heat, during
the excitement sell the lots out to the
new corners from Boston and other
places, till they had disposed of lots for
five to ten times the value, then clean up
the lunches, drinks, and clean out men
pockets, salt down the cash, take up the
| motor track, and put it down in another
place, five miles away, then another
flaming bill, for the new corners, and
ready to swindle them out of their shin
ing gold.
This convert to the substantial attrac-
tons of Los Angeles undoubtedly exag.
gerates trife in the foregoing. That
thing of taking up motor tracks and lay
ing them down in another place to induce
buyers is trifle too heavily favored.
The fact is that, while it was q
wholesome thing for Los Angeles
that the boom was checked in
time, and the check really came from our
own conservative bankers, the prices of
real estate in this city were never rela-
lively half as high as in Portland, Tacoma
or Seattle, and scarcely as high as those of
Spokane Falls. There will be great
revulsion of opinion on this point inside
Of a year, when people come focking
down here from the North. Still "Uncle
John" does us substantial justice, and it
is somewhat surprising that his spinions
obtained circulation in the columns of a