The herald., 1896-09-27
NEW WESTERN METROPOLIS
Los Angeles Rapidly Outstrip-
ping San Francisco
MOST REMARKABLE GROWTH
Ten Years Of Unparalleled Prosperity
and Development
Old and New Los Angeles-Founding of
the Pueblo and Its Transforma-
ton Into Great City

When will Los Angeles take rank as
the metropolis of the Pacific coast?
Had this question been asked decade
ago the answer might have been
"never, or at least not for many years
hence" Now, however, the supremacy
of this city is regarded as a not alto
gether remote possibility. 1t is quite
probable, In fact. that Los Angeles may
o1tstrip San Francisco in population and
commercial Importance before the pres
ent generation has passed away. This
surmise is based not on the postulate
that the wish is farther to the thought,
but on the rate of progress made the
last ten years, which If continued few
more decades will place the City of the
Angels ahead Of the great city Of the
bay.
To the man who has observed the mar
velous growth and development of Los
Angeles since the boom of 1886. twenty
five years does not seem an extravagant
guess of the time required in which to
see the result conjectured an accom-
plished fact. And why should not this
anticipation be realized? With her ex-
cellent railroad facilities-two direct
transcoptinental lines and third in
near prospect, not to mention the num-
erous local competing lines and the
nearly completed coast line to San
Francisco-her three seaports, at one of
which the government is about to ex-
pend $3,000000 in the construction of a
deep sea harbor; with her incompatible
climate, and situated as she is in the
midst of one of the most fertile and pro-
ductive regions of the globe, with thous-
ands of square miles Of land rich in
minerals contiguous and tributary to
her. there appears to be no good reason
why grown up men now walking our
streets may not live to see Los Angeles
lead San Francisco in population and
wealth.
While some insist that the outlook
is painted in too glowing colors, brief
review of Los Angeles from its earliest
days to the present time, together with
what has been accomplished, will con-
vince the most skeptical that the claim
is at least not an impossibility.
Los Angeles is not a new town. 1t has
had place on the maps Of the Pacific
coast of North America for more than
a century, but during the first hundred
years of it's existence it made compar-
atively little progress. Although for
years the seat of government of the vast
territory of Alta California, it was little
more than a sleepy Mexican pueblo. 1t
was not until after the American oc-
cupation and the advent of the railroad
and telegraph that it became a live
American city. Its real growth dates
from the completion of the Santa Fe
railroad in 1885, since which time it has
made more rapid strides than any other
city west of the Missouri river.
49,
visited by the Portuguese explorer and
navigator, Don Juan Rodriguez, as early
as 1872 when he anchored in the bay OF
San Pedro, which he named Bahia dc
los Fuegos, (thebay Of fires,) and which
he described as "a good port, with good
lands, valleys, plains and groves" The
Spanish voyagers, Vizcayno and Ca
years afterward. but whether they &C.
tually set foot on land now embraced in
Los Angeles county, Is not known. To
Governor Gaspar de Portola and his
party, who arrived in 1869, this honor
has been accorded. for on August 1st
of that year, the expedition reached
the place where now stands the city OF
Los Angeles, having travelled north from
San Diego. AS far as can be known they
camped on the bluff overlooking the
river where Sonoratown is now situated
and the next day, August I'd, being the
IedSL OIL NueStTd oeHOTa, Id felHa Qe los
Angeles (Our Lady, the Queen of the
Angels,) the usual mass was solmonized
and the camp named by Father Crespi.
From this time dates the Spanish occu-
patton.
On August 6, 1771, Somera and Cam
bon, with guard Of ten soldiers and a
supply train of mules, left San Diego
brief mission. They followed the old
route of Portola, which was the same
used in more recent times by the stage
between Los Angeles and San Diego,
and over which now lie the rails of the
Santa F'e railroad. On September 9Th
performed which instituted the found
ing of the mission. About It's the site
of the mission was changed, and 1897
the present stone building was half
completed.
For some ting after the padres first
made their appearance in Los Angeles
county they lived in what was COM
paratlvely wilderness, but their pres
ence soon brought others, and ten years
after the starting of the mission the
town of Los Angeles was founded by
Gov. Felipe de Neve. Eleven families
consisting of forty-four persons, were
the first residents Of the little town or
pueblo. There were two Spaniards, nine
Indians, one mestizo, eight mulattoes
and two negroes. The rest were child
rem. Not one of them could read or write,
and only one had trade-Navarro, the
tailor. They were poor in purse, learn
ing and blood-in truth, the scum of
Mexico-yet from this humble settle
ment has grown the second city on the
Pacific coast, and unless all signs fail,
the one destined to be the largest.
In l790 there were twenty-nine adobe
residences, besides the town hall, bar
racks; guardhouse and granaries, all en-
closed by an adobe wall, and the popula-
ton was 141 persons. In 1890 the census
showed population of more than so, 600.
So much for one hundred years growth.
But of that $4,000, $4,000 represented the
growth of ten years, for the census of
1880, showed q population of only a little
over 11,000. Since 1890 the population
has again doubled itself and is now NOT
less than 100000.
But to return to the early history of
the pueblo. During the Spanish and
Mexican regimes events were quiet and
commonplace enough, but in the 40's
American immigration began to be ex-
tensive, and in 1841 party Of twenty
ave arrived from Santa Fe, NM, known
as the Workman-Row company, and
headed by William Workman and John
Rowland. During the same year Joseph
r. Walker and party Of fourteen
American trappers and traders came to
the city. From this time the stream of
settlers continued and the American
population increased. Then came the
Mexican war and Don Pho Pico, the last
of the Mexican governors, saw Califor-
mia go into the hands of the United
States, May 80, 1S48.
From this time the future Of the city
was assured. The growth was, however,
u1n TY1rfr fIA arfN 80 i,