The herald., 1896-10-28
THE D|SOBED|ENI RIVER
That Will Not Keep in Its
Own Bed
THO CITY COUNCILS Spank II
And by Ordinance Define Its
Proper Course
FRED EATON'S GREAT SURVEY
The Terminal Railways Right Of Wsy
a Puzzle
FRED EATON'S GREAT SURVEY
Tending to Drive Any Sane Surveyor to
Strong Drink and Despair
The Map on Exhibition at The Herald
Business Office Illustrates the As
ininity That Moved the City Faith
ers to Lift River from its Course

ers to Lift River from its Course
When the Mexicans climbed the Ely
sian hills in 1881 and, in surveying the
wide expanse of virgin land, gazed down
upon the silvery thread which they call
| ed the ''Rio Porciuncula," they had lit
| tile idea what the future had in store
! for the fair land where they pitched their
tents.
Nor had they any conception of the
| utter contempt that the little river had
| for people in general and officials in par
ticular This they discovered later.
These emigrants from the south squat
| ted along the river bank and laid out
the little village which in the evolution
of time developed into the puebla and
| finally the City of the Angels. They
planted gardens and sowed their crops
and then-well. then the river broke
| loose, as it has done many time since,
and scattered the belongings of the good
| people from San Pedro to Ballona, and
over the intervening mud flats. To rem
edy this evil and teach the erratic little
water course manners, the "illustrious
ayuntamiento" passed an ordinance
| specifying exactly where the river should
| run, and the space which it should oc-
cupy while passing through the puebla
| Metaphorically 1t was spanked and put
| into its bed, as it has been many times
since-on paper. But like naughty
| boy, this contumacious boy would not
| stay in its bed. 1t respected the die
tum Of the "illustrious ayuntamiento'
| just until it was ready to break loose
again, and then the disaster wrought
| was worse than ever. The ayuntamiento
were on the point of appealing to the
superior powers in Mexico in order to
nave some drastic measures adopted for
| the purpose of teaching the rebellious
| river how to keep it's place, and put a
| stop to the scandalous insubordination
| that had become altogether too frequent.
Just about that time, however, the
| American forces came along and COB
bed up the state of California, and for
! the nonce the "Rio'Porciuncula' gurgIed
along in peaceful quietude.
| A REBELLIOUS RIVER
But not for long, for we learn by the
| records that the Mexicans appealed to
| the American authortiesfor relief from
| the encroachments of the river, and the
new town council followed the example
VI lto NcAlt4p predecessor ana passed
| an ordinance regulating its behavior
But the plan did not work and some
thing had to be done, for If the council
| lost the confidence of the Mexicans their
| dignity would suffer- and in early days
| dignity was at a premium and had a
| distinct market value. Indirectly, per-
| haps, but value nevertheless. The
| council, consequently, employed A. F.
| Waldemar, the Polish count, to whom
w 10 tn
week ago, to survey the river and
| make map. OF course the council and
| surveyor soon became entangled in a
| very pretty row; that has been the gen.
| eral rule whenever the council has en-
| pioyed any one to make a survey as
| has heretofore been explained. At any
| rate Count Waldemar surveyed the river
| and made map which is pretty enough
| to look at, and is really good map,
| save for the fact that the scale and the
| figures don't agree, and that there is
| nothing on it to Indicate where the sur
| Vey started from except a dam or ito
| ma" as the MeXicans called it, All the
same. the council passed the usual ordi-
nance making it official, and for a short
time everything was lovely and the goose
hung high, until the river again took
| a tantrum and occupied the whole space
between Alameda street and Boyle
Heights. This was case of pure cussed-
| ness on the part of the river, and so the
| council employed George Hansen to
| make new survey and map, and re-
lieved its feelings by passing more ordi-
| nanceS.
Hansen got his. scale and figures to
| agree on his map, but as to just where he
started from and where he went to was,
and yet remains, a mystery. But the
| city council was not wise in its genera
| ton and didn't keep that map hidden
under a bushel, and as a consequence
old Pluvius came to the conclusion that
| as he couldn't tell'where the wise coun-
| Gil wished him to operate he would Just
let things rip In addition, however,
| the council granted II the river bed to
| private parties, and so between the
| councils foolishness and the acts of
these private parties the old water god
again ran things as he pleased, the river
tearing its way along and making gen.
| eral havoc.
EATON'S SCIENTIFIC SURVEY.
This city council died of grief, and no
other dared attack the matter until
Fred Eaton took charge of affairs in the
! city engineers office. A number of ten
derfeet had been elected as councilmen
and were not posted on the vagaries of
! the river. Eaton did not know where
the river was. except by reputation, but
1t does not appear thatthe lack of knowI-
edSe IN lhlS respect troubled him much
or caused him to lose much sleep at
night. He was graduate of scientific
college and knew all about logarithms
and series and tangents and other
things of that kind that don't sound as
If they were good for eating.
All that he wanted was an order from
the council to bring the river into place
and he got that easily enough. He load
ed himself for bear and went for the
river with a vengeance He found a
post, which answered as well as any
thing else for a "toma," and struck out
for the south city boundary He made
splendid straight lines, and his curves
were "beauts," although it is not every
one who could get on to them. Very
possibly he had been reading, in deed
for county road. wherein a party con
veyed to the county a strip for road
purposes, the description as thus given
| by the county surveyor: "Commencins
at corner Of a mans ranch, and then
on graceful curve to the left 1000 feet,
| etc.
Be that as 1t may, Eaton put in the
curves, graceful and otherwise. sand-
papered the sharp angles. and sent the