The herald., 1895-08-04
WHAT HE THOUGHT OF 1T

WHAT HE THOUGHT OF 1T
The Omaha World Herald of recent is
| sue prints an interview with Il. W.
| Black burn. which is full OF good points
| which will interest all Los Angelenos.
| Mr.. Blackburn was a resident of this city
! some six years ago, and recently paid q
| short visit to Southern California, and
the changes he saw are very indicative of
the way in which our bustling city i'm
presses those who we're familiar with the
city few years ago and revisit it now.
Those who have remained here do not, as
rule, appreciate the rapid growth of the
city. They have become familiar with
the every day events and take things as
a matter OF course, rather than of won
derment. For a city OF 40. 900 to double
its population within a few years, and
that without any of the attendant char
acteristics os boom or overgrowth is
truly matter of wonderment. What is
more encouraging in the situation is
that every indication points to the fact
that we have just began to grow.
Mr.. Blackburn in the World Herald
interview says:
hustle and solid growth. The population
has doubled since | left there six years ago,
and the city is crowding up to the l00
600 rank very rapidly. The fertile val
leys tributary and nearly or quite all the
adjacent villages ana cities are also pros
their development Three hundred oil
cerricks marx the location Just north OF
the city of the oil wells discovered within
two years. Great handsome business
blocks ara going up in all the business sec
tions Mansions costing from $40, 006 to
$3.50, 900 are springing up everywhere, and
hundreds of the fastest cottages L ever
saw tell of the new homes being estab
lished in what / think is the prettiest
city in America. 1t was the dull season,
but the streets were crowded, street cars
full and the retail stoI ekeepers and hotels
busy.
The city Ipresents very metropolitan
appearance in every way, and although
there are hundreds of persons there seek
ing employment and finding none, one
cannot escape the conviction that Los
Angeles is making a very substantial
growth. The newspapers are enjoying as
good business as they had in the crazi-
est days of the boom. Advertising
crowds reading matter every day, and
classified ads in the Sunday editions run
into eight pages.
Mr.. Blackburn reference to our
crowded thoroughfares is quite apropos.
He was here some weeks ago, and since
then the month of July has passed and
August entered upon. These are always
the dullest months of the year, yet no
one would ever suspect from trip down
Spring or Broadway that at least one-quar-
ter of the inhabitants of thelcity are out
of the city. Spring street today should
be twenty feet wider to comfortably ac-
commodate the people who crowd Its
sidewalks every afternoon and evening.
When such is the condition during the
dullest months what will it be this win
ter when Los Angelenos are al at
home and thousands OF eastern tourists
visit us?
Again, Mr.. Blackburn says:
l have been asked to explain this un-
expected prosperity in times like these,
but cannot. Southern California has less
than half the population of Nebraska and
not more than one-fourth as many pro-
ducers. Perhaps the lavish expenditures
of wealthy tourists the purchases of in
valids and the large transient tourist
businessl are the principal sources of
growth, but there arc local resources, too.
Saying nothing OF the climatic advant-
ages it will be admitted that the pro-
QuCllNcHtSS OIL JuC SOll WILL 6UHDlG u very
dense population to live from the cultiva.
tion OF the valleys. They are being de-
veloped with wonderful rapidity The
beautiful region lying between Los An
geles and San Bernardino, spoken of gen.
orally as the San Gabriel valley, will soon
look like succession of villages. WITH
the boundaries joining each other, and
south of Tehachepi sum mit there will be
1,000 600 people, lover half of whom will
be directly dependent upon the soil for
their su ubsstence. This Will make several
good cities. and if Los Angeles continues
TO be the metropolis she will have not
less than $50, 900 people.
While tourists do undou btedly leave
considerable money each season in South
ern California, we are not by any means
dependent upon tourists as a source Of
income. As a matter of fact, the money
they leave with us is but drop in the
bucket compared with the income OF Cali
fornia from "ther sources. 1t is fr ON the
soil that Southern California does and
must OBTAIN her great wealth. Nowhere
else from the broad acres OF the whols
United States can there be found acres
from which so much can be taken with
so little effort nor with such profitable
results.
OF other matters he says:
The discovery of oil solves the fuel
problem. The people are manufac turing,
TO meet home consumption. hundreds of
articles formerly purchased in the east.
The holiday attire of seven or eight years
ago is laid aside for the garb OF the or
chardist, dairyman or farmer. The
real estate man shows his victim fruit
and grain, water and work, now upon
acres, instead OF burrclover and pine
stakes upon twenty five foot lots.
If the railroads should make low rates
thele will be great rush to California this
fall, and in my judgment the great state
will nave its high tide OF prosperity dur
ing the coming five years.
Conditions all point to a most prosp
Gus future and undoubtedly Mr.. Black
burn has 'sI2ed up" the situation cor
rectly when he predicts that the next five
years will see marked increase in our
prosperity. California is the one state
toward which the eyes of the whole
country are turned. The fact that ours
is the one state in the union where there
was no panic in 1893 is widely known
and people inquiring into the reason are
more than anxious to join the colony
of stalwarts.