The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1902-05-23
LOS ANGELES.
Southern CALIFORNIA; Metropolis Most
EntertainingIy Described.

Editor Free Press: California
make the smallest matches and tell
the greatest lies of all the people in the
world. So declared a lady who
travelled part of the way with us
while en- route for the coast But she
lived in Arizona herself and possibly
Californians might characterize her
talk as the voice Of one crying in the
wilderness. In point of fact, however,
the average inhabitant here does net
deny the impeachment, but clears his
own skirts by reminding you that, of
the more than one hundred thousand
residents in Los Angeles. less than
five thousand are Californians. and it
is generally true that the person with
whom you are talking is not native.
| However it may be as to full fedged
| Clifornians, we are not yet accli-
mated and so trust for the confidence Of
your readers in what we here write,
and will hope to bring our letter writ
| ing to close before we have earned a
residence here and thus put ourselves
in the position of being open to sus-
picion.
Main street in Los Angeles, running
from northeast to southwest, lies al
most exactly as does Front street in
Mankato, and as Front is crossed by
Main in the latter city so is Main
here crossed at right angles by First
street. The lots and blocks are mum
herd north, south, east and west from
these two streets as they are from
Front and Main in Mankato, so that
your readers can almost see the plan
upon which is laid out this "city of
the angels. -
AS for the name Los Angeles, pro-
nounce it as you please. That is what
people here do. We hear all possible
twists given and have found none who
pretend to any official authoritive
pronunciation. For ourselves we have
changed from the hard to the soft
sound of the letter G and pronounce
the last syllable as though spelled
"lus.'' not that we either have any
authority back of us. but for the
reason that, anything being permisa-
BILE, we like it better.
| The city lies upon a generally level
plain excepting that the northern and
northwestern sections extend into
spurs of the foot hills, and are con-
sequently rolling. These hills attain a
height in places within the city limits
of possibly one hundred to one hun
dred and fifty feet. Along and over
these hills, and across The north
westerly part of the city, lie the oil
fields, where the derricks of the oil
wells are thickly located, often being
found in the front yards of the resi-
dences These wells have spoiled what
was doubtless at one time very
pretty part of the city, but probably
brought compensation to many own
ers of lots in increased incomes in some
cases fortunes. We believe none of the
wells flow, some do not produce at all,
but those which do are pumped.
The streets at right angles to Main
and south of First are all numbered
with the exceptions of Pico, Washing
ton, Adams and Jefferson, which re-
spectively take the places of thir-
teenth, nineteenth, twenty-sixth and
thirty fourth, and of an occasional
street which has been laid out as an
lafterthought and given name instead
of number. These last are generally
short streets, but the four with the
names above given extend across the
city nearly its entire width.
The streets north of First and all of
those running parallel with Main bear
names. The river runs straight south
through the city and for the most of
the way to the east of Main street
and distant there from half mile
to two miles. A considerable part of
the city is on the east side of the river
but the larger and the better part on
the west. ..
North of First and on either side of
Main is the old Spanish town, known
as Sonoratown. Here are many
ancient looking adobe buildings.
Some of them IL is claimed one hun
dred and twenty years old. Occupying
a part of this old town are now to be
found the Chinese. so that it is now
often spoken of as Chinatown. Next
to San Francisco it is said that Los
Angeles has in it's 5000 almond eyed,
pig tailed inhabitants the largest
Chinese population of any place in the
United States. The Cinnamon are
in evidence in all the streets. They
are the vegetable peddlers and of
course, in large degree the laundry
men of the city.
There are some negroes among the
population but not large number,
but there is goodly number Of
Spanish and Mexican descent.
The retail. business center is atSpring
andThird streets, Spring being the street
next west of and parallel to Main, and
the growth of the retail trade appears
to be toward the west and south,
which is natural, for the best resi-
dence part of the city is in the south
west. The wholesale district is east
of Main, Los Angeles street being the
principal one devoted to the jobbing
interests and it is next to Main on
the east.
The buildings in the business Sec
tions are generally brick and of from
two to six stories in height. The
streets throughout the city are usually
wide, those in the business section
being paved with asphalt as also are
several of the residence streets. The
latter, however, are mostly graded and
travelled with gravel taken from
the foot hills which packs and cement,
so as to form an excellent roadways
and which in appearance is somewhat
like unto the Indian Lake gravel.
Sidewalks are uniformly of cement,
are of good width down town, but IN
many places too narrow-four and
five feet, on the residence streets, and
many of them show poor material OF
poor workmanship in their construc.
ton. for they are badly cracked and
heaved and there is no frost here tc
guard against either.
The yards, lawns and boulevards
are with hardly an exception well
kept but no attention is paid te
vacant lots which are unsightly with
weeds and rubbish.
Il Flower and Figueroa streets run
ming north and south and Adams
street east and west are among the
finest residence streets. The last nam
! ed being perhaps the most aristo
, cratic single street in the city, bu