The times dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1903-1914, 1908-05-30
The Cityofthe Angels
ny rI,lrDnnIC y. HAsK1N.

The Los Angeles Country Club Is get
country ens club in America = which iiie 0Ais Is
migratory by habit ii has moved be-
fore. and 1t will move again, because
III has to !. move to keep IN the coun-
Wy. Years "a! ago Wien u. the club was
| the rural districts and established II.
self. BY and by the city OF Los Ange.
les followed It, streets and city homes
Country club in name only. So tho
club cut up its ground into city lots,
sold them for fortune and went miles
away out into the country But the
lefty of Los Angeles pursued 1t. The
Country Club is surrounded by paved
streets and houses regularly planted
on hundred-foot lots. IT is no more
| in the country that the Madison Square
of Manhattan. 1t Is preparing to sell
| time, and 1t Will pitch Its tent some
where five or six miles away from the
city.
abandoned all idea Of permanent
home. 1t knows 1t can find no rest
from its wandering Said the club.
speaking through one OF Its members:
where we can stay for eight or ten
years. We can't hope for more, be-
cause u we went beyond the city lin.
It's OF Los Angeles OF 1920 we would
have to get SO far away that 1t would
take nearly all day to go and come
from the club"
Country clubs live a precarlous life
In this part OF the world. There is no
tive adjective country" is like a red
rag to u bull when waved in the face
of city that doubles its population
every five or six years. Another Los
Angeles Country Club. whose members
has undertaken the most elaborate pre-
cautions. to prevent the city from
swallowing It whole. It has establish
protected on the city side by high
lmountain. The, trolley line Will
|approach 1t on the outside OF the
mountain wall. But no city-building.
country. troying, trolley win be per
BY no means. The members Of the
iclub will alight from trolley cars in
the face of a blank and forbidding
f See T Frank M T1sf n er sny oes
Iagent OF the city.extending Chamber
|of Commerce is about. II the coast
lis clear the club member Will dart
quickly into half concealed opening
the mountain which leads to the coun-
try club. 1t is n private tunnel to
be used by members only. Even so
robust and all-devouring a city as Los
Angeles will have to look alive IL it
ever succeeds In capturing this we'll
fortified Country Club.
Nuestra Sonora la Reina de Los An.
geles, as this city was called when 1t
of the good people who play golf and
tennis. But 1T is the implacabie foe of
rural territory. 1t pounces upon farms
and orchards and transforms them into
flare against the rural territory sur
grounding It. Los Angeles has grown
more rapidly than any other Ameri-
can city Of importance. 1t has kept
IN
ito keep 1t going.
Los Angeles was hundred years old
lin 1880. 1t then boosted OF popula-
Ition OF 1900 people. Five, years later
Itranscontnental transportation facili-
tiles. Apparently the first thing the
railroad brought was regiment OF
real estate agents and boom, Like
the other town booms of the eighties,
things went too far and too high.
There was a great Initiation. and then
the bubble burst But even after the
boom had collapsed, Los Angeles stu
had $4,000 people. which means that
Its population was multiplied by five
lin five years. The real estate agents
were left here when the bottom feii
out OF the boom. 1t was resolved that
1.-The good work that had been done
J should not perish.
So 1t came about that on the ruins
OF the boom was born the Chamber OF
ICommerce. The men who went into
THAT organization proclaimed that doc
Urine OF boost. They Furthermore de-
clared that he who does not boost Is
an enemy to the city. That was twen-
Ity years ago. The Chamber Of Com
merce has an influence greater than
lany other single organization of Its
kind in any American city. Boosting
lis the essence OF the life work Of every
tAngeleno. A knocker is not permitted
to live in the town. This is not a
fanciful characterization: 1t is litera
fact that a resident of Los Angeles
, who begins to "knock" on the town Is
so completely ostracized that he must
!. choose between exile and becoming a
tpariah among his own people. The re,
cord of men who have been fired
!, from good jobs at the public request
because OF the heinous guilt of Knock
; ling" Is a long one in Los Angeles
In the ten years between 1890 and
!, 1900 the city doubled in population
that is, 1T reached the hundred thou
8 sand class with few thousand to
spare, according to the Federal census.
The school census taken this month
: shows a population of 3o4. 0oo-havins
tripled In eight years. Four years ago
II a real estate agent put up a number
lots. On each was the bold inscription
: LOS Angeles, Population 100000 in
; 1910"
Some of the signs are still in exist
ence, but the painter has run line
! through the 100000" and has painted
beneath 1t 1850, 1000" Few cities realize
r 1.-THE ambitions of real estate agents as
presented on For Sale" signs within
the limit of time fixed. Los Angeles
has made even the optimism of real
estate man seem like the conservative
estimates OF a property-holder talking
] business with the assessor.
There may be those who Will say
! that the school census is not COOS
, authority. Even II the enumerators
have overstepped the bounds little
bit, the United States census office has
!. declared that the growth of Los, Ange-
les has been SO much greater In pro
portion than for the preceding decade
that It was forced to omit the city
4 from the list of mid-decade population
!. Eestimates. The most conservative esti-
: mate made places the present population
: at 2S5000. which is but little below the
100000 mark OF course, none of thest
y |statistics take into account the many
beautiful suburban towns which are :
/ part of the metropolitan clientele o.
+ Los Angeles.
y When the last census was taken
eight years ago. Los Angeles was the
: thirty seventh city in the United State:
In tho amount of receipts at the pos {
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