The Republican journal. [volume] (Belfast, Me.) 1829-current, 1916-01-27
"reminiscences of
Western Travels.
In and About Los Angeles.
BY HELEN NJ, TODD.

Angeles, so weary that our only desire
was to hasten to our room to snatch
what sleep we could for the remainder
of the night. Our breakfast was CORE
spondingly late next morning; in fact
before we had breakfast at all visitors
arrived in the persons of my aunt, Mrs.
Hattie Bird Wentworth. and her daugh
tiers, all former Rockland people. Both
the daughters were at that time teach
ing in the Los Angeles schools. One of
them has since married and came to Bos-
ton to live, he other, Miss Malvina
Wentworth, is teacher of Latin and AL
zebra in Hollywood High school, one of
the best in the city, with an attendance
of about l, 400 pupils and 60 teachers.
The principal is, by the way, Maine
man, Mr.. Snyder, from Colby College.
We soon made arrangements for a
trolley trip around the city in the after
noon in one of the personally conducted
sightseeing trolley cars that seem pc
culiar to Los Angeles. The trip took US
over many trolley lines around the bust
ness and residential streets OF the city
and across the LOS Angeles River"
which looked more like gravel pit than
anything else, and which our guide ia
cetiously informed US chad to be irri-
gated in the dry season." It's imposing
bridge seemed entirely superiuous, but
we were creditably informed that DUR
ing the rainy season and in times of
freshets it was really ''some river"
The many oil wells in and about Los An
geles interested US greatly, the derricks
being erected in the back and even in
the front yards of houses in the oil dis
trlct. Every derrick, we were told,
represented a we'll in operation, as a
city ordinance forbade derricks being
left over dry wells.
parks, ard finally left the trolley car at
the Los Angeles Ostrich Farm, opposite
Eastlake Park, and near the imposing
entrance to the Selig Moving Picture
studios. At the ostrich farm we were
escorted through the salesrooms to the
grounds in the rear, where we were init
lated into the mysteries of ostrich rails
ing, and saw ostiches in all stages, from
the awkward brown chicks Just out of
the egg and looking like active bundles
Of excelsior to the full grown birds We
mad often heard it said that 1t was worth
a trip to California to see an ostrich swaI-
low an orange, and as we watched some
of the long-necked birds making wav
with halt dozen or more oranges at
once, We thought there might be some
truth in the saying. A friendly monkey
was not so fond of oranges, he pulled the
skin off one that we gave him, but threw
away the fruit in disgust. One of the
ostrlches was harnessed into little cart
and driven around a race track for our
benefit. ! think his speed would have
entitled him to place in the l. 80 class.
for snapshot taken with the fastest
shutter shows him only as sort of blur
Grafton Of twenty-five cents, please"
was permitted to be photographed in
the cart driving (?) the ostrich. The
picture turned out such a success that |
think we should consider that quarter
we'll invested.
Leaving the ostrich farm our next
visit was to It's next door neighbor. the
Alligator Farm, where we spent the
rest Of the afternoon. We found the al
llgators extremely interesting, all my
pfeJudlces to the contrary, notwith-
standing. There were thousands of
them, from babies few inches long to
Dig warriors and veterans a hundred or
more years OLD. The alligators of the
same age are kept in pens together,
those from fifteen to twenty years old
have the best hides fer commercial pur
poses. One of the sights of the farm is
the feeding process. An attendant pins
a huge lump of raw meat to the ground
with pitchfork, and when the gators
get a Whit of it they gather by the
scores. Each one clamps his jaws on
the meat wherever he can find hold,
then folding his short legs up close
against his body so that no excited new
conner can get hold of them by mistake,
he twists and rolls over and over, using
his tail as lever until the morsel is lit
orally twisted off and swallowed whole.
Hundreds of them. after the same piece
of meat, make sight long to be remem-
bered, and it gives one a vivid reaIiza-
ton of the consequences should hun
cry gator mistake human arm or leg
for his food portion.
A trained alligator was one of the in
rerestlng features of the farm" This
fellow climbed tediously up long in
cline which had Stats across for steps,
balanced a moment when he reached the
top, then slid swiftly down the smooth in
cline on the other side into a pool of
water, landing with a mighty splash.
He was minus goodly portion of his
tail, and in response to our questions on
the sui ject the keeper related that once
when two alligators were doing the