Los Angeles herald., 1890-04-09
EDITORIAL CORRESPONDENCE.


An Angeleno Found Under Pleasant Cir
cumstances-A City OF GrumblerS But
Progressive Withal-Mayor Pond and
the Governorship-The Standing of
other AspirantS.
DEAR HERALD-Happening into San
Francisco on business, nothing could be
more natural than that | should take Il
look in upon cur late townsman, Mr.. /.
w. Hellman, in his new quarters in the
Nevada Bank. Certainly he would be a
fastidious man who would complain OF
the appointments OF this institution,
and the new President is already quite
at home. He has accepted the tiatter-
ing trust thrust upon him with all the
sang froid of man accustomed to the
! handling of millions, and the tenor OF
comment concerning the new financial
! maenate amongst the business men and
clubs of San Francisco is highly favora-
BILE, and some of it amusing. One of the
| best known business men, not only of
San Francisco but of the State, told the
writer that he was recently present at a
discussion concerning Mr.. Hellman's
financial status in which he was held up
as the wealthiest Hebrew in America,
the "demnition total'' being placed at
$40, ,000, 900. This is figure probably in
excess OF what Mr.. Hellman would like
to claim in his intercourse with the as
SCISSOR One thing is certain, however,
and that is that whether the new Presi-
dent of the Nevada Bank is worth
$4,000, 900 or $4,000, 900, his brief con-
nection with the bonanza institution has
been signalized by the most remarkable
occurrence ever noted in the financial
annals Of California. Tuesday week was
the day appointed for receiving sub
scriptions to the stock OF the re-organ-
lied bank, and nothing like the spectacle
! then presented was ever recorded in San
Francisco. 1t resembled the old Post
office lines which signalized the boom
davs in Los Angeles. Millionaires stood
| in rows for hours waiting their chance
| to subscribe for the stock, and men
feeble from age were represented
amongst them. Only $4,000, 900 of the
$4,000, 900 worth of stock of the re-
organized bank was available for
! investors, as the Messrs. Flood,
Maekay and Hellman themselves had
taken 81 ,000,0 OF it, yet $4,000, 900
representing constituency of $250, ,000,-
900, were eagerly rendered to the new
management The extent of this COM
pliment to the Los Angeles financier can
be best understood when it is borne in
mind that when an attempt was last
made to reorganize the bank the task
was committed TO General HoughtOn,
one of the best known business men of
/ on off f,lrts 10
succeeded in getting just 500, 600 sub
scribed, and he dropped the project like
hot potato. | will add, for the in
formation of those interested in matters
of finance, that the stock OF the reorgan-
lied bank is already bringing IL per cent
premium. One Of the gentlemen who
had bought a considerable block of it
asked Mr.. Loomis, of the Pacific Coast
! Oil Company, if he should let it go.
NO" said Mr.. L., "hold on to it two
years and you win get so per cent. pre-
MUM" This remark shows the esti-
nation in which those who know him
hold our late townsman's talents as q
tinancier.
In this connection | will just add that
Mr.. Hellman receives AngeleiIos with
great cordiality, and that he requested
the writer to tell the people of Los An
geles that they would have in him q
! devoted and Interchangeable friend, and
that he hoped to have many occasions
to serve them. | am constrained to add
that he made several references to his
enemies down here which were not of
| this cordial character. But every one
| knows that the new President of the
Nevada Bank is good hater as well as
a fast friend. Let him be what he may
! in matters of friendship or enmity, he is
| the financial success and sensation OF the
day in San Francisco.
The Golden Gate and It's Grumb1crs.
Perhaps no city in the United States
has been characterized by greater transi-
tions than San Francisco. There have
been times in its history when you
could scarcely give real estate away on
the leading streets. Such period was
that of the Fraser river excitement
When | first saw San Francisco in July,
1872, there was a "To Let" or ''For
Sale" on every second house. A prom
inent Pittsburg builder whom ! encoun-
more building yearly than all the firms
of San Francisco and Oakland put to-
gether. Everyone was in the dumps,
and the Dismal family were lords of the
ascendant. And yet, presto. change
The winter of 1S74-75 saw the greatest
upheaval ever known in this most mer-
curial of cities The great bonanza did
the work, and it did it with the thor
oughness of Aladdin in the Arabian
Nights. Then uprose the Palace hotel,
the Nevada block, the new Stock Ex-
change, and scores of other buildings
which are now amongst the prin-
cipal ornaments of the city. The
years 1877 to 1880 were other
such periods OF depression, and it
was real time OF dependency, founded
at once upon the exhaustion of the
bonanza mines and the insidious en-
croachments Of the Chinese upon the
Industries of the city. One would sup
pose, from the foolish kilograms which
were sent to the East for aid for the
poor Of San Francisco, lately, that the
Golden Gate had reached another period
of disaster and destitution. To hear
many of her business men talk would be
confirmation sure as proof Of Holy Writ
Of this fact, and yet nothing
could be more absurd. There has
probably never been time in her
history when more buildings OF a
pretentious character were going up
! hara thop now The bio GLron;cIe bui1d-