Los Angeles herald., 1906-03-11
Early Efforts to Bring
Water to Los Angeles

than a minimum Of FIVE and a max
imum of ten millions of dollars. The
gentlemen who organized the water
company away back in 1867 were wise
In their day and generation; but, when
they came to part with q property
which they had held on to for thirty
years and upward, they actually did
not know what 1t was worth, and prac-
tically gave 1t away.
All sorts of memories hang around
the old water board and it's employees.
the latter of whom were always
amongst the most alert people about.
Los Angeles. Those who could not get
In the favored lines were always ready
to bear harsh witness to it's doings, to
heighten the enormities of its propon-
ents and to discover If not invent new
delinquencies. I remember seeing the
fiery and eloquent Gen. Volney e.
Howard standing on a platform in
front of Temple block and denouncing
the dirty squirts," with which DR..
Griffin, 1. w. Hellman and other mem
bers and directors of the hated COM
pany undertook to corrupt and deluge
the morals and politics of the town.
All the time there was q pretty
general belief that If these righteously
worthy gentlemen had been located
where the water dispensers were they
would have done xactly the same thing
that Griffin, Hellman, Beaudry ct al.
did, only perhaps worse and more of
1t. While these gentlemen not only did
not nonopolize all the virtue extant in
the community. and perhaps were not
examples of modesty. they probably
gave their fellow citizens as good a
game as would their accusers. Water,
as the basis of civic agitation, may not
az yet have done all its stunt. as is
evidenced by the Donnybrook Fair
shindy anent the board of public
works.
Miles Sad End
OF all the big fellows and the good
fellows that were connected with the
water company in the old days there
was one that old-timers think of nova
days with great regret. This was
Charles E. Miles. who was for years
on the administrative staff of the cor
poration and who drifted into politics
and fell into hard lines. For years he
had disappeared from affairs, and at
last the water company called him to
mind again and he was appointed COL
lector of rates. The poor fellow was
so rejoiced at this sign Of returning
good fortune that he started into cele-
brating with his friends, and to their
great surprise and to the great regret
of the community of which he was a
great favorite, maugre his occasional
shortcomings, he fell over dead.
One of the most interesting features of
the completion Of the city water COM
pany's system was the requirement of
the rights of G. ]. Griffith to the water
of Los Feliz ranch. 1t is very much to
be doubted whether. under recent de-
cision of the supreme court, it would
have been necessary to buy these rights. |
AS 1t was the city paid Griffith $4,000
to wipe out his title The Los Feliz !
had gone into the possession of Leon
Baldwin, who for years had dispensed
an elegant hospitality at the old place. |
Griffith is now serving a term in the |
penitentiary, which will shortly expire. |
1t is said that during his incarceration
his extensive property interests have
doubled in value.
Apropos of the waters of the Los
Feliz ranch and the associations of the
old Feliz homestead. there is a legend
connected with house standing up the
river some distance which is said to be
haunted. 1t is in plain sight from
trains of the Southern Pacific entering
and leaving the city to and from San
Francisco. Some of the able young
men connected with the press might
find an interesting story hanging
around this incident.
AS the water question has been of
absorbing interest In the past, we may
be sure it will not be less so in the
future. The spending of the twenty
three millions of dollars which will be
needed for the work will stir the inter-
est of the contractor and the boss
manipulation to the quick we may be
sure. However, that has always been
the case and always will be. 1t is an
incident of yesterday, the day before
and the day after tomorrow and will
confront mankind to the crack of doom