The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1908-06-16

In the ten years between 1890 and
1900 the city doubled in population
that is it reached the hundred thousand
class with a few thousand to spare ac-
cording TO the federal census. The
school census taken this month shows
a population of 30t, 000-haying tripled
in eight years. Four years ago real
estate agent put up a number of
wooden for sale" signs on vacant
lots On each was the bold inscription:
Los Angeles, Population 200 600 in
1910'' Some Of the signs are still in
existence, but the painter has run a
line through the 200 000' and has
painted beneath it 1850, COO" Few cities
realize 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 a real estate man seem like the
conservative estimates of a property
holder talking business with the asses
sor.
There may be those who will say
that the school census is not good
authority. Even if the enumerators
have overstepped the bounds a little
bit, the United States census office has
declared that the growth of Los An
geles has been so much greater in pro-
portion than for the preceding decade
that it was forced to omit the city from
the list of mid decade population esti-
mates. The most conservative estf-
mate made places the present popula-
ton at 285 900, which is but little below
the three hundred thousand mark. OF
course none Of these statistics take
into account the many beautiful sub
urban towns which are a part of the
metropolitan clientele of Los Angeles.
When the last census was taken,
eight years ago, Los Angeles was the
thirty-seventh city in the United
States in the amount of receipts at the
postoffice. Now it has moved up to
eighteenth in the list, ranking just
ahead of Indianapolis. On account OF
the large number of tourists and other
transient visitors who come to stay
week or a month, the Los Angeles
postoffice has the largest general de-
livery service in the whole country 1t
has proved almost impossible to pro-
vide room in buildings to keep up with
the rapid expansion of the postal
business of the city.
Not all of the tourists who come to
Los Angeles are rich people who car
afford to stay in the magnificent hotels
with which the city is plentifully pro-
vided. The great majority of the Wis
tors take furnished rooms. The Cham
Der of Commerce helps the visitor to
find a place to stay and it has on its
list $4,000 furnished rooms. No city in
the country of the size has anything
like this number, and not even New
York can boast of a list or directory
nf
the kind. The Angeleno is always will
ing to help a stranger. Any policeman
can direct one how to reach. any adj
dress in the city by street car-some-
thing that can be done in very few
cities Of course the ''cop" is aided
by a book he carries, but Los Angeles
sees that he has the book.
The Los Angeles real estate agent is
in a class by himself. The stranger
within the gates cannot escape him.
He calls at the hotels. Let the stran-
ger declare that he is only a tourist,
that he doesn't want to buy any prop
erty, that he has a prejudice against
real estate that nothing on earth could
induce him TO become interested in
corner lot. The real estate agent smil-
ingIy replies: Certainly, certainly, but
I came around just to take you for a
drive over the city. just to show you
the town" From his tone one would
think that selling land was the last
thing on earth he would care to think
about.
The agent takes the stranger into his
motor car. He sweeps through the
welI-paved streets. He points out the
splendid system of ornamental street
lighting, and mentions, that Los An
geles was the first American city to
follow the lead of Paris in this par
ticular. He indicates new office build
ings and hotels with careless men
ton of millions of dollars in connec-
ton with each. He stops for a minute
on the crest of an elevation and says:
Il ook" The stranger looks about, and
as far as he can see in every rection
there are neat streets bordered with
roses and geraniums and fanked with
rows of homes and bungalows of every
style of architecture ex-
cept the square box effects of eastern
cities.
When the vision is all taken in the |
real estate agent casually remarks that |
four years ago there wasn't a house |
In all that section. Parks. CLUBS, paia- |
tial residences, avenues of palms, long
rows of pepper trees, PERCUSSION Oh |
tropic flowers and a maze of beautiful |
homes The real estate agent hasn't |
yet said a thing about lots. But he |
will. He knows that there is good |
chance to sell some of them, for that is
exactly the way some forty or fifty |
thousand people have been brought to |
Los Angeles.
The City of the Angels refuses point |
blank to look at the hole. 1t concen- |
trates its gaze upon the doughnut |
When the panic came last October it |
hit Los Angeles as it did every other |
city. But creditor wholesalers said to |
debtor retailers: You mustn't fail. We |
won't let you fall. We will give you |!
more time. We must look out for the |
of the town. The booster |
spirit here penetrates even into the re-
gion of the personal pocketbook. 1t
is a city of ideals. Even real estate |
agent, with his mind on business, said:
- Remember, Los Angeles can furnish
a geranium for every man. woman and
child in the United States every day"
AN AUSTRALIAN COMMERCIAL |
A IN