The herald. [microfilm reel] (Los Angeles [Calif.]) 1893-1900, 1895-03-20
HEATERS and ELEVATORS
Which Neither Heat Nor Elevate
Satisfactorily
SOME COURT HOUSE GROWLS
Judge Smith Speaks About the Heating
Apparatus
And the People Who Use the Elevator Gro n
Because the Obsolete Machine Is
Useless

There is a good deal OF growing going
on among attorneys, employees and peo-
pie whose business calls them often to the
court house, at some of the mechanical
contrivances in that poorly furnished
building. Ii the supervisors ever hear
the groans they don't let on that they do.
Yesterday, however, Judge Smith, Of
Department. One Of the Superior Court,
registered a well defined kick. which he
directed should reach the ears OF the
board just so and not in any other way.
The heating apparatus OF the court house
is none of the best, and its working is
unevenly divided. In Department Five,
for instance, it gives out enough heat to
grow pineapples and bananas, whereas in
the Township Justice Court, it seems
colder when you hug the tubes than
when you are near the window. Some OF
the old pipes leak, and thati the reason
that in Judge Shaw's department there
hangs up five-pound baking powder can
against the door. 1t has been mistaken
for a spittoon and for flower pot. The
can is picturesque enough where it is, but
it is out of place and does not add to the
dignity of a hall of justice.
But in Department One, where Judge
Smith presides, it is still worse. The
machine there emits q noise comparable
only to the explosion OF gas engine. 1t
comes regularly and yet is always unex-
pected, SO that it unnerves every attorney
whose mind is on tension because OF
the business he is transacting. Judge
Smith has been away for few days owing
to illness and upon his return imme-
diately noticed this exasperating racket to
which he probably had grown used before.
He Immediately directed his court clerk
to notify the supervisors that if the noise
could not be obviatfd he would see to it
that good old fashioned stove took the
place of the snide heating tubes. Creak-
ing. swinging doors, doors that pull ones
arms off. chairs that catch in your coat
pockets and tear them off. carpets over
which one stumbles, all these are among
the comforts which the taxpayer enjoys
in the court house. But the contrivance
that takes the cake is the obsolete, super
animated elevator, which would be
sneered at in a fifteen cents night lodg-
ing house. On slack days it is wholly
insufficient and on busy days. while the
poor man who pulls the rope is working
himself into a shadow and making maybe
1900 trips up and down, most of the people
use the stairs and swear.
The old elevator is slower than the
seven-year itch 1t is one of those old
fashioned cOntrivanceS which is worked
by pulling cable, and would wear out
Hercules in no time in a building with
the traffic of the Court House. Two such
elevators could not do the work needed at
the rate of speed that can be gotten up.
If the elevator is not on the floor you are
on, if your legs are young and your wind
unimpaired, just walk up flight or two
and you will get there before the old box
What is needed to make an elevator a
useful continuance, and not a thing to
loose the temper over, is one that is
worked by hydraulic power or by steam,
with controlling lever. 1t is rough to
expect 5000 worth of elbow grease out OF
an old soldier for $55 per month. The
Board of Supervisors is continually going
out into the country on inspecting visits.
Why shouldn't they set day and ride up
and down the elevator during working
hours, and see whether that like all other
things. might not keep up in the process
sion of improvement?