Los Angeles herald., 1906-07-16
CLAY BEDS NEAR LOS ANGELES
OFFER OPPORTUNITIES
San Francisco Refugees, Working
Under Drawbacks, Turn Out
Beautiful Creations ina
Smlthy
All the soul In rapt suspension.
All the quivering palpitating
Chords of life In utmost tension,
WITH the fervor of invention.

0nOrdS OF Ire IN utmost tension,
With the fervor Of invention,
With the rapture Of creating!'
Away down in one corner of Los An
geles. surrounded by commerciaism In
its most commercial sense. iron foun-
dries and workers, machine manufac-
turing and brick making. in a little
shed, is perhaps one of the few spots
in Los Angeles where money-for the
sake Of ltself-does not count.
Here Beauty and Grace are the ruling
goddesses and the willing worshipers
are Alexander william Robertson and
his son. Frederick H. Robertson.
Driven from the northern metropolis
by the combined furies which so re-
Gently rent the once fair city and which
in the twinklirg of an eye entirely de-
molished the work of over twenty years
in a material form, these two refugees
have come to the Angel City to continue
their work of love.
Create the Beautiful
Money? oh, yes, these two men
know its worth, for it buys food, cloth
ing and a place wherein to live, but the
ruling power of their lives is to create
the beautiful-to take a shapeless mass
of clay, mere mud, and form a thing of
beauty which will be a JOY forever
They practice the craft of the ancient
Egyptians which was more fully de-
veloped by the Greeks and which to
this, the advanced of advance ages, has
been one of the most important indus
tries.
In the olden days-days when the
pyramids were building-an armful of
reeds, the ever present lotus, were
smeared with mud and baked in the
hot sun, which did for utensils.
Then the beauty love of those people
asserted itself, and on the outside were
drawn crude lines, which gradually took
shape in figures and designs of the
lotus.
This same creative in dustry, worked
to it's fullest beauty, is carried on and
is made on the same kind of throw
ing wheel today which the Egyptians
invented and which has not been i'm
proved.
Once a Smithy
After walking two blocks in dust
ankle deep, the reporter arrived at a
very urpromising entrance to the brick
yards at the corner of Date and AL
hambra streets. and on the right beheld
smallsized building that once might
have been used for blacksmith shop.
But there all was changed. An in
teresting little man, the elder of the
two with gray hair. kind blue eyes
which looked through a pair of glasses,
and a Chesterfeldian manner, was at
the door to receive his visitor and
made her feel as though she,were enter
! ing a drawing room.
This little man, working with his clay
which he takes in the rough and care
fully sieves and sieves until it Is the
required perfection and then mixes with
water to the right consistency, handles
his material with the care and love that
a father would bestow on his child.
Like Prometheus of old, this mar
of modern times takes a piece of clay
from mother earth. and instead OF
forming it into man shapes it into
beautiful utensils for the use of the
men whom the first created.
And then, after many hardships, this
modern creator calls on the fire god tc
complete his work And is not this
modern Prometheus, separated forever
from the works which he himself fash
ioned, now destroyed, suffering his pair
or the crags?
Opportunity Knocks
1t is said that opportunity knocks but
/ once at each ones door.
Then surely she is knocking at tht
| citys door now, for nevCr before ha: