The herald., 1896-10-19
Lancaster Brent to prosecute the claim
THE CITY GETS DONE UP BY "HIs
HONOR"

claim was, like all Mexican claims
bounded by adjoining property. and
knowing that he could not get any very
large slice of the city lands by purchase
or by fees, conceived the idea of repre-
senting before the same commission the
interests of the adjoining land claims
and take land claims for his fees. AS he
looked after the adjoining land claims
with rather more zeal than he did the
city's, the city got decree for only four
leagues, instead of sixteen, and the ad-
joining neighbors followed UP to the
boundaries. Brent collected his fees
from the city in cash and from the ad-
joining claimants in land
When this decree came to hand, this
elaborate map made by Hancock was
in the mayors office. 1t was about ten
feet long and six feet high, and conse-
Quently rather unwieldy. The decree
placed the boundaries one league in
each direction, north, south, east and
west, from the center of the plaza. John
G. Nichols was the mayor and math-
ematician of some responsibility, as has
since been proved, but would have made
a better tailor. He took this map and
drew lines one league from the plaza, in
accordance with the decree, and coolly
produced his tailor implements and
sheared off the. eXteriors of that map,
wiping out all field notes, title and every
vestige of memoranda there were on it,
leaving it as bald as a billiard ball so
far as data Of any kind was concerned,
and on a par with the Ord map. This
precious remnant is now in the possess
sion of the city engineer and pasted in
the center of it is the Ord map.
And this compound and fool map is
the foundation of all difficulties in To-
eating the present lines of the streets.
Some clerks-it is stated in an affidavit
conceived the idea that actual surveys
were of little use, anyhow, and proceed
extend nf ha
map lines enclosing the exact area of
thirty-five acres or. in other words, an
extension of the Hancock idea. I'm
medfately boom was gotten UP in real
estate circles; an auctioneer wanted a
job, and he got it. These thirty -five-acre
lots were auctioned off; the more he sold
the more commission he got, and the
more the mayor got for signing deeds.
History does not tell how much the city
council got for passing convenient or
dinances. Some of the old residents, who
are now posing as municipal reformers,
might throw some light on the matter
If they would, but it would probably
hurt their dignity to make extended ex-
planation at the present stage of the
political game. At any rate, they kept
on selling as long as the buyers held
out, and the consequence was that many
lots were sold two or three times the
same day to as many different people.
The spectators in these incipient
boom lots did not pay much for them,
about $40 for a building lot on Spring
and Main streets, and 25 cents an acre
for the rty-five-acre Hancock, or
donation" lots, as they We're sometimes
called. But even those sums in the
early days never reached their legiti-
mate destination. The early mayors
land auctioneers knew good thing
when they had it, and when the treas
urer called upon Ibis honor" for the
funds there was no response for the
proceeds of the sales had found a per-
manent, if not legitimate, resting
place elsewhere.
THAT ERRATIC MAGNETIC
NEEDLE.
Hancock seemed to be a little ashamed
OF the affair of surveying the city,
About the time he came to the CITY
there also arrived a Mr.. Hansen Just
from the old country. Hansen, as the
story goes, was sent out by Hancock
TO do the compass work, with instruc-
tlons to run the streets north and south
ana east and west In Sweden the vari-
alton is west, but here the needle point
ed at that time about north IA degrees
east, and this IA degrees should have
entered into Hansen's calculations. He
got tangled, however, in his figures and
turned off this variation the wrong
way, which accounts for the direction
of the streets today. Hancock got $500
for his job and number Of lots, but. as
usual, the city council and the SURVEYOR
got into wordy war over the survey.
and the surveyor never turned in anv
neld notes. So the map, as Lecouver-
eur expresses it, lis map Of about as
much use to surveyor as gun without
lock, stock or barrel" Everybody is
familiar with the Hancock or Ord lots
or surveys, and by them nearly all Of our
conVeyances are made and ali deeds re-
Ter TO them. The streets are there
rf- oil
the decision lately rendered in the case
OF Mooney vs.. Morford is based on them.
ana all subdivisions refer to them and
purport TO be subdivision of the lots
ana blocks laid down upon them.
And yet as standard of authority
they are drawn.
COMPLAINTS CHOKED OFF.
George Hansen in 1855 was the assist
ant in chief Of Henry Hancock in the
survey of the pueblo lands of the city of
Los Angeles, and in note appended to
map made by Hansen he charges one
A. +. Waldamar with putting the addi-
tlonal lines on the Hancock map. WAL
damar was Polish count, an excellent
draughtsman and is reputed to have
been polished gentleman. In some way
a row, which is very usual thing
among surveyors, was provoked be-
tween Waldamar and Hancock WAL
damar made affidavit regarding the
hancock surveys to the United States
surveyor-general, in which he charged
Hancock with falsifying field notes and
turning into the United States SURVEYOR
generals office false data compiled from
the lnnermost rcesses of his own brain.
Hancock couldn't make a map even to
save his immortal soul, and while he
could make survey if he wanted to he
couldn't keep field notes that any one
could understand, even himself Wal
damar had been employed by Hancock
to make the necessary maps for the
United States surveyor-general, but the
field notes were so unintelligible that
Waldamar used to puzzle over them un-
til he could stand it no longer and
then go on. prolonged spree in sheer
desperation. Hancock would insist
on fixing up the notes in the office, and
Waldamar kicked, hence the row and
the subsequent charges against Han
cock. The United States surveyor-gen- ]
eral sided with Hancock and Waldamar
got fired, because he wasn't in the list
of employees named in Hancock's re-
turns" The result in epitome was that
the surveyor-general approved the
notes; Waldamar was fired with charges
preferred against him by Hancock of
blackmail; the surveyor-general got all
the money for the Hancock surveys and
Hancock himself got busted.
A WATER COMPANY'S MANEJTV-
ERING.
It is worthy of remembrance that the
tract north Of Pico street and west of