Los Angeles herald., 1905-09-11
LOS ANGELES HAS A
YEARLY FLOOD OF GOLD
UPWARDS OF $25,ooo,ooo SPENT
HERE BY TOURISTS
clty's Growth as a chlcagoan Sees It.
OIL Makes 1t Possible-Mr. Hunt
lngton's Part-Finest Car System
on Earth-Homes and Homesites

'H9eoH . FaTt-FlneSt Sar system
on Earth-Homes and Homesites
William E. Curtis in Chicago Record
| Herald.
LOS ANGELES, Aug. 30.-According
to the statement of the railway pas
senger agents, tourists from the east
spend about 100000 down in this
corner of the country every year and
everybody gets a little of it. They
have to be fed and lodged and taken
around, and they waste a certain pro-
| portion of their funds foolishly on
trifles, so that the money that they
bring in is pretty we'll distributed. Not
less than 250,OOO strangers visit Los
Angeles every winter and spend more
or less time here and in the surround
| ing towns. One hundred and fifty
| thousand come in over the Southern
| and the Clark road from Salt Lake is
| beginning to contribute to the number
| Thus the tourist business is the basis
or the prosperity of Los Angeles and
| Indirectly the railroads are responsible.
The city began to be something in
1886. The Santa Fe railroad having
been completed during the previous
year, there was great desire on the
part of the restless people, particularly
in the central states, from Minneapolis
to Galveston, to see the glories they
had read about. The late w. F. White,
for many years general passenger
agent of the Santa Fe railroad, was
genius at advertising, and he made the
scenic wonders, the fruits and flowers
and the climate of Southern California
known in every household. The South
ern Pacific reached Ell Paso the next
year and gave Los Angeles direct line
from New Orleans to Galveston, which
was also we'll advertised. The city had
great boom.
Fortunes were made by clever specu-
lators and that advertised the town also
and attracted thousands of others. The
boom broke in 1888, but this falling off
was confined to the speculative dis
tricts. 1t is a significant fact that prop
has retained it's value and steadily ad-
vanced during the dull periods. This is
largely due to the never-failing flow Of
tourists.
The Population
In 1890 the population of Los Angeles
was $4,000 by the federal census and 1t
has continued to grow Things began
to pick up in 1898, when the panic swept
over the country. Los Angeles endured
it very well, there being only few
small failures. Only one bank went
under, and that was unimportant. For
the next four years business was dull
because the tourist trade practically
stopped.
Just at that time, fortunately, in the
midst of the financial depression of
1898, cheap fuel was discovered in the
form of crude petroleum, which lessened
the cost of industry at least 60 per
cent. attracted considerable manufac-
turing and prevented the sending out
of money for fuel, which up to that
time had been imported from Australia,
Wales, British Columbia and New
Mexico.
Confidence was restored; manufactur-
ing enterprises were stimulated. Be-
fore oil was discovered the country was
purely AGRICULTURAL; now it has many
small factories that pay big dividends.
All kinds of things are made here from
clay, brass, iron and wood--builders'
hardware chandeliers, construction
iron and many novelties in iron. steel,
made. Large numbers of patents are
issued to Los Angeles people every
year for novelties that are manufac-
tured here. The factories are not large;
most of them employ from three to
fifty men. Fine furniture is a speciality,
also, and nearly all the shops have ar
tistic wood carvers from Switzerland
and Germany.
Trainloads of readymade houses are
shipped to ranches and mining regions.
One of the newest enterprises is the
manufacture of splints, artificial limbs
and other surgical appliances from the
wood of the yucca palm, which is very
light and tough and is found in great
quantities in the desert. Several insti-
tutions are making patent pumps and
windmills for desert irrigation, orna-
mental terra Gotta, cement, asphalt and
all kinds of articles of clay. A New
York firm has recently established
factory for the manufacture Of felt from
Arizona and California wool; piano
hammers are shipped from here by the
carload and felt insoles are being dis
tributed all over the world. A new
bridge is being erected over the river
in the middle of the city and bears
signboards announcing it to be the first
steel bridge ever erected by local work.
men.
This manufacturing is all due to
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