The herald., 1896-11-23

California or Mexico. ana II surveyed
out on the ground wouldn't b found
anywhere near where they are suppoeo6
to be. And so lover the hills and fnf
away" continues this new charter bound-
ary line, and finally It again reaches tho
point of original departure-nqt becauSg
the courses and distances would bring
it there but because whoever ran the lino
said it did.
With the passage of this section Of tie
charter the census ta!se- ..s!!M "!!l hare : 50
time trying to count noses, and santa
Monica and Pasadena will be ANNEXED
before they know it.
THE FIRST BASE LINE.
In making allusion to the boundaries
of the city ones thoughts almost inev-
itably revert to the time in 1858 when Col,
Washington was sent to California tn
lay out base line, and teach the sur>
veyors proper methods in making sur
veys Of the public and private land1. He
climbed to the top of Mount San Bernar-
dino and set up his flag and laid out
base line which ran a short distance
north Of Los Angeles. Having done 90
much he let other United States deputies
mark out the range and township lines.
Among these gentlemen was Henry
Hancock, he of the elongated neither
limbs that enabled him to cover so much
ground.
Hancock started out to locate the city
of Los Angeles, but somehow he failed
to read his notes Alright and got II locat-
ed about three miles too far south. The
notes were passed by the United States
surveyor general, however, for that gem
tleman, doubtless, was not onto Han
cocks little curves" or mayhap he
didn't care continental where Los An
geles was, anyway. When Hancock
turned in another batch of notes, how
ever, the surveyor general discovered
things wouldn't jibe, and SO he hauled
him over the Goals and refused approval
of the deputy's notes.
After considerable amount of fooling
around-tO use an absolutely precise
term-it was finally agreed that Los An
gees was in Southern California, 1t
didn't much matter as to the exact
whereabouts, and there the matter rest
ed. Hancock, having surveyed the pu-
eblo for the government and got his pay
for his work, presented second bill to
the city dads for the same labor He
threw in about three miles and half in
order, perhaps, to make up for the bad
quality of the land he was obliged to take
in settlement of this second account. In
his bill he had included $35 for eight
painted posts, but what he did with
these posts is mystery. OF course the
city council had row about paying the
OIL, Out Ilndlly f1dHcOCk SOt dDOQt oVV
acres of land from the city and he crted
quits. Having been paid by the govern
ment and also by the city he did pretty
well.
Matters ran along pretty smoothly un-
til the then city council developed an en-
quiring mind and wanted to f1nd the
city boundaries. They themselves didn't
know, Hancock wouldn't tell and Han
sen-who was assistant to Hancock
also persisted in maintaining an OYSTER
like attitude. Then the council got mad
and engaged Reynolds to try his hand,
and later still Lecouvreur, and with two
or three acts of the state legislature they
finally succeeded in getting six official
boundaries on the west, seven on the
north, five on the south and six on the
east, ranging all the way from 100 to 500
and 600 feet
And now, to crown all this expensive
monkeying. the new charter officially
defines the boundaries in as foolish and
dangerous a fashion as when the city
was in the infantile stage of its exist
ence and when to define boundary was
merely an excuse to rob the public.