Los Angeles herald., 1905-02-27
O.W. Orcutt, Visitor From
the East, Full of
Grievances
WRITES HIS HOME
PAPER ALL ABOUT 1T
Even the Soil Produces Nothing
and the Lamp Posts Yield
Him No Delight

ulIU NO DbllSub
To learn the news about yourself
you must go away from home, is
about the way a famous old adage
runs.
And the latest news about our
selves. that is Los Angeles, appears
in the Worcester (Mass.) Telegram
of February 20, which, under black
scare head. publishes a letter from o.
w. Orcutt of that snowbanked town
that reads thusly:
"Owned by railroads
Los Angeles no place for the poor
man.
Dreams of wealth are not realized.
20. w. Orcutt writes about con-
dltions.''
Wouldn't those headlines stop n
chug chug wagon? And to think that
we in Los Angeles have been enter
tanning Orcutt. This Orcutt is suf-
fering from mental indigestion and
writes strabismicalities. He sees wrong
in everything and everything is wrong
in him, and his fairness and sense of
justice is wrapped up in that horrid
case of indigestion.
Orcutt Not Believed
That Orcutt is not believed at home
is shown by the appended letter and
the spirit breathed by the writer also
shows that CIRCUITS are the exception
and that only once in a generation
does the state of Massachusetts rid
herself of the Orcutt variety of hu-
manicus freakus.
The letter is as follows:
WORCESTER, Mass, Feb. 20, 1905.
II Wellington street.
Editor Los Angeles Herald, Los An
geles, Cal:
Dear Sir-The writer takes the lib
erty of inclosing herewith for your
perusal a clipping from one of our
local (Worcester) papers of this date,
and, as a citizen of assachusetts and
this fair city, begs to voice an indigna
ton that it seems as if every fair
minded person, and especially those
who have ever visited your state and
city, should feel upon reading such an
article.
Much of that which this Mr.. Orcutt
writes is true, so far as my personal
observation has taken it in, but his
article is so full of unreasonable and
exaggerated statements that such part
of it as might have proven acceptable |
and interesting to many of us is |
dwarfed into insignificance by a lot of
scurrilousness, which if it were not so
extremely nonsensical might be anus
ing.
1, too, have visited your city, as we'll
as other parts of your state, and, as
evident in the case of our friend Or
cutt, I went there a comparative
stranger; but unlike him, who, it
would appear, has been up against
it, good and hard, l found your city
clean and wholesome. There were some
fieas to be sure, but L allowed that, as
Mark Twain said in reference to the
dog, they We're sent by God Just to re-
mind us that we were human.
found your people agreeable and hos
pitable; your business men gentleman
ly, upto-date, and comparing quite
favorably with those of our own city
Your public servants, especially the
poor policeman and your railroad en-
ployes were civil and attentive to duty.
1 patronized your BARRIERS and had
as good service and at the same price
as is afforded by my Worcester or
Boston artist. / saw your cheap"
Chinese help though not in as large
numbers as our friend Orcutt seems to
have seen, and, whatever your local
opinion may be, l am free to say that
were 1 a citizen of your state | would
employ them every time in preference
to much of the poor white help you
have, even if the wages were the same
(and 1 pride myself upon being in
tensely Amerlcan).
1 visited some of the places that Mr..
Orcutt claims to have seen, but my
vision was neither obscured by my
love for Massachusetts nor blinded by
prejudice, and how any sane person
could visit the places and see the
sights which our friend describes as
mot much anyway" without having
a lasting impression of their beauty
made upon his mind is beyond my
comprehension.
fear that the hopes of our friend
Orcutt were raised too high before he ]
started for the land of sunshine and {
flowers but aside from a natural dis
appointment he may have experienced
in not finding veritable heaven, he
seems to be suffering from an aggra-
waited attack of blues or homesickness.
Whatever it may be, 1 sincerely trust
that he will remain with you long
enough to become better acquainted
with truly fine country and a fine
people, and that having been more
successful in finding the dollars he ,
may have gone for, he will have the
manliness TO write another letter to ,
fc a.,I | ,