Los Angeles herald., 1891-02-03
TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 8. 1891.
AN INEVITABLE AND BRILLIANT FRUI.
TlON. 6.


TlON.
Readers of the HERALD have doubt
less had occasion to observe that spirit
of cheerfulness pervades the columns of
this journal. And why not? 1t was
started in what was then called boom
that is to say, in the spring OF 1873.
The Los Angeles Of that day was very
primitive affair indeed. The Dovney
and Temple blocks, the Pico house. and
a very few other modern looking ediices,
were all that in this at present captivat-
ing and exquisite city bridged the chasm
between the old Mexican days and the
inrushing tide of American improve
ment. The very first note of the HERALD
was sanguine one. 1t foresaw the
roseate future of it's section. and it al
ways placed its gaze on a rising sun go
fruitful of good things to this section.
1t had no use for any but the matin
hours of that luminary; and when old
Sol sank behind Point Dune, in the
western heavens, we cared nothing for
his doings till he again emerged resplen-
dent, with golden aureola, behind the
mountains to the east of Los Angeles,
which have seen the miracles OF Ana
helm, Riverside, and score of other
poetical and profitable colonial expert
ments carried to climax of success
never heretofore chronicled on earth dur
ing an equal period of time.
And what wonderful things the
HERALD, with it's invariable spirit of
cheerfulness and prescience, has seen
mature in this wondrous land of ours
1t has not needed the spirit of Mark
Tapley, who came out strong under diff
fculties. The people hereabouts have
really had no difficulties to encounter,
although it looked at times as if they
had. For instance, when the drouth of
1876-77 dropped in on us, in a compan-
ionable way, it was supposed that we
had encountered a disaster. On the con-
trary, if ever there was blessing in dis
guise it was that notable year, in which
the total rainfall was only 4.S5 inches.
1t is true that the grass failed us all over
the county, and that the crops were total
failures in many portions of our
ample domain. But the lesson
learned then ! has been availed of
in many splendid schemes of
irrigation that would never have been
known of if it had not been for that
crucial experience. 1t would really
seem as if an overruling providence had
decreed that before we started out in an
imperial career OF prosperity we should
be tried as by fire, and should come out
as though twice-refined gold from the
furnace.
For the drouth of 1S76-77 was led up
to by the most tremendous financial
disaster ever known in California. The
banking firm of Temple &Workman had
failed in the fall OF 1875 for a million
and quarter of dollars, not one cent of
which was ever returned to its depositors
and other creditors. The bank had re-
opened after it's first failure, on money
advanced by Mr.. E. j. Baldwin, and
closed forever just as the fateful year of
1876 opened.
AS if financial and meteorological dis
asters were not enough to break
the spirit OF the people OF Los
Angeles, the celebrated smallpox
epidemic OF the winter of 1857
was added to the sum of our miseries.
This was tremendous visitation, whose
disasters were added to by lack of in
telligent sanitation and hygienic precau-
tion.
That these were all blessings in dis
guise the HERALD steadily held at the
time, and holds now. From that time
forward our banks have been on an as
sured and conservative basis, our sewers
have been extended and perfected, and
our system of irrigation has been cx-
panded to splendid results. These
undoubtedly for the moment
initiated against our progress in popu-
lation and wealth. So much so that the
census Of 1880 showed only II, 800 people
in the city of the Queen OF the Angels.
That the lesson was we'll learned and
profted by is shown by the fact that,
the collapse Of the
boom, in the winter Of 1887, the city OF
Los Angeles was able to show, by the
census OF 1890, a population OF 50,3S5.
In other words, after three years of a
most drastic experience, this city
as the second in size and
wealth on the Pacific coast.
Today the most interesting develop
ment ever recorded in any portion of
The worlds expanse is going on in Los
Angeles and her sister counties. In the
citrus fruits our advances have been
simply wonderful. Southern California
will shortly produce as many oranges
and lemons as the Two Sicilies and
Florida combined. In canned, jellied,
dried and crystalized fruits, we will soon
rival the sum total of the products of
Ill the Mediterranean countries Of Eu-
rope put together. We have made an