Los Angeles herald., 1891-04-07
AN ERA OF MAGICAL DEVELOPMENT,
ACCOMPLISHED AND TO COME.

Is written ABOUT the PROGRESS anu u0Ncr
.opment of Southern California should
be looked upon as hyperbole. 1t is hard
for people, for instance, who have grown
up in countries where the agricultural
staples are few and prosaic-regions
where hog and hominy, of themselves
most valuable products, comprise the
source of growth and prosperity-to
grasp the varied and delightful possibil-
tiles of semi-tropic land. Their diff
Guilty is enhanced by the fact that only
recently Southern California was known
distinctively as that of the COW counties
"a section where scarcely anything was
grown outside of the limited area OF q
few orange groves and vineyards.
The evolution of genuine development
and prosperity in Southern California is
absolutely without rival in its mani
fold character and sensational aspects in
the history of the world. The precipita-
tion of immense masses of people on the
rich prairies of Illinois, and the lavish
expenditures of English capital in the
construction of the Illinois Central rail-
way, of course made Chicago miracle of
growth. st. Louis and Kansas City,
each in their way, illustrated the capacity
for urban expansion of the American
people, as have many other eastern and
western cities. But these places were
all directly in the line of prodigious
tides of immigration and settlement.
Yet Los Angeles, situated in the extreme
southwestern border of the United
States-Los Angeles, to reach which re-
uuires journey of thousands of miles
over expensive routes of travel-in-
creased in the decade between 1880 and
1890 nearly at the incredible ratio that
signalized Kansas City between 1850
and 1870. Even with burked census
we made a record of five hundred per
cent.incrementi in population during that
period. Our advances in all lines OF pro-
duction, besides, have been incompara-
bly greater than our growth in numbers.
Today there is probably a greater va
riety of products in Los Angeles county
than in any other portion of the footstool.
Ten years ago we raised scarcely any
thing. Now there is hardly thing
grown in the world that is not raised
here, with the exception of few dis
tinctively semi-tropical fruits.
Sixteen years ago the city of Los An
geles was 'dobie town. There were
scarcely score of American buildings
within the thirty-six square miles that
comprise our municipal limits. Today
it is really the handsomest city in the
United States. Let nobody treat this
assertion incredulously until he has
gone thoroughly all over the town.
1t really takes great deal of energy to
get over Los Angeles, although the labor
is we'll rewarded.
Sixteen years ago the only railway
reaching in any direction from Los An
geles was the San Pedro line. Shortly
afterwards John P. Jones spent
million dollars on the Santa Monica
branch of his Los Angeles and Inde-
pendence railway. Then came the San
Francisco branch of the Southern Pa
cific. Following fast upon that came
the Sunset route, stretching from Los
Angeles to New Orleans. Still on the
heels of this magnificent scheme
of development came the purchase
by the Atlantic and Pacific railway OF
the Mojave line of the Southern Pacific
railway. And still faster and faster
came the tide of development, which
never rested until the Atchison, Topeka
and Santa Fe had its own line into Los
Angeles, with terminus at tidewater
on the Pacific ocean at Redondo.
And that by no means told the story
of railway development. A dozen local
roads ramifed through the country,
some of them such magnificent schemes
as the Belt line Of the Southern Califor-
MIA railway. The Rapid Transit, the
Glendale, the Pacific coast line to Santa
quick order. These have finally been
supplemented by the Terminal system,
which is backed by some of the heaviest
capitalists of the country.
Not only have we witnessed the
building of remarkable series of great
railways, some of them mighty transcon-
tinental trunk lines, but the city itself
has been the theater of a remarkable
railway activity. While the Terminal rail-
way has already spent million dollars,
and is preparing to spend couple of
millions more in the near future, on
their railway schemes, Chicago capital
lists have put several million dollars into
the construction of one of the most per-
feet cable systems of street railways in
the United States. And today the Belt
Electric system is being pushed with
great energy. Intelligent San Francisco
moneyed men are about to show their
faith in the future of Los Angeles by
spending number of millions on this
electric system. Their power house.
which will be one of the most complete
in the United States, is going up with
great celerity near the Arcade depot,
$4,000 bricks day being laid by the
masons.
What is the meaning of all these col