<h2>CHAPTER XIX<br/> STEAM-WAGON—ODD CHARACTERS<br/> 1860</h2>
<p>Early in 1860, Phineas Banning and J. J. Tomlinson,
the energetic rivals in lighterage and freighting at
San Pedro, embarked as lumber merchants, thereby
anticipating the enormous trade that has flowed for years past
from the North through Los Angeles to Southern California
and Arizona. Having many teams, they hauled lumber, when
traffic was not sufficient to keep their wagon-trains busy,
from the harbor to the city or even, when there was need, to
the <i>ranchos</i>. It must have been in the same year that F. P. F.
Temple, at a cost of about forty thousand dollars for lumber
alone, fenced in a wide acreage, at the same time building large
and substantial barns for his stock. By the summer of that
year, Banning was advertising lumber, delivered in Los Angeles;
and from October 1st, Banning & Hinchman had an office near
the northern junction of Main and Spring streets. A couple
of years before, Banning in person had directed the driving of
seventeen mule teams, from San Pedro to Fort Yuma, covering,
in twelve or thirteen days, the two hundred and thirty miles of
barely passable road. The following March, Banning and Tomlinson,
who had so often opposed each other even in the courts,
came to an understanding and buried the hatchet for good.</p>
<p>At this time, Joseph Everhardt, who, with Frederick W.
Koll, had conducted the Lafayette Hotel, sold out and moved to
San Francisco, marrying Miss R. Mayer, now John Lang's
widow, sister-in-law of Kiln Messer. Later, Everhardt went
to Sonoma and then to Victoria, B. C., in each place making
his mark; and in the latter city he died.
<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_275" id="Page_275">275</SPAN></span></p>
<p>Like both Messer and Lang, Everhardt had passed through
varied and trying experiences. The owner of the Russ Garden restaurant
in 1849, in lively San Francisco, he came to Los Angeles
and took hold of the hotel Lafayette. With him was a partner
named Fucht; but a free fight and display of shooting irons, such
as often enlivened a California hotel, having sent the guests and
hangers-on scurrying to quarters, induced Fucht to sell out his
interests in very short order, whereupon Everhardt took in with
him Frederick W. Koll, who lived on a site now the southeast
corner of Seventh and Spring streets where he had an orange-grove.</p>
<p>Pursuing Indians was dangerous in the extreme, as Robert
Wilburn found when he went after some twenty head of cattle
stolen from Felix Bachman by Pi-Ute or Paiute Indians in
January, 1860, during one of their marauding expeditions into
California. Wilburn chased the red men but he never came
back; and when his body was found, it was pierced with three
or four arrows, probably shot at him simultaneously by as
many of the cattle-thieves.</p>
<p>Don Tomás A. Sanchez, Sheriff from 1860 to 1867, had a
record for physical courage and prowess, having previously been
an officer under Pico in the Mexican War days, and having
later aided Pico in his efforts to punish Barton's murderers.
Sanchez had property; and in 1887 a patent was granted his
estate for four thousand or more acres in the ranch known as
<i>Ciénega ó Paso de la Tijera</i>.</p>
<p>Destructive fires in the open country, if not as common as
now, still occasionally stirred our citizens. Such a fire broke out
in the San Fernando Valley in the middle of July, and spread
so rapidly that a square mile and a half of territory was denuded
and charred. Not only were there no organized means to
fight such fires, but men were compelled to sound the alarm
through couriers on horseback; and if the wind happened to
be blowing across the plains, even the fleetest horseman had all
he could do to avoid the flames and reach in time the widely-separated
<i>rancheros</i>. Here I may add that as late as the sixties
all of the uninhabited parts of Los Angeles, especially to the
<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_276" id="Page_276">276</SPAN></span>
of Main Street, were known as plains, and "crossing the
plains" was an expression commonly used with a peculiarly
local significance.</p>
<p>So wretched were the roads in the early decades after my
arrival, and so many were the plans proposed for increasing
the rapidity of travel, that great curiosity was excited in 1860
when it was announced that Phineas Banning had bought a
"steam-wagon" and would soon introduce a kind of vehicle such
as Los Angeles, at least, had never before seen. This steam-wagon
was a traction engine built by J. Whitman & Sons, at
Leeds, England, and was already on its way across the ocean.
It had been ordered by Richard A. Ogden, of San Francisco,
for the Patagonia Copper Mining Company, a trial before
shipping having proved that, with a load of thirty-eight tons,
the engine could attain a speed of five miles an hour; and
Banning paid handsomely for the option of purchasing the
vehicle, on condition that it would ultimately prove a success.</p>
<p>The announcement was made in April, and by early June
the engine had reached San Francisco where it made the run
to Mission Dolores in three-quarters of an hour. All the San
Francisco papers told of "the truly wonderful machine," one
reporter averring that "the engineer had so perfect control that
a visit was made to various parts of the city, to the astonishment
and gratification of the multitude;" and since these
accounts were immediately copied by the Los Angeles papers
(which added the official announcement that Captain Hughes
had loaded the engine on board his schooner, the <i>Lewis Perry</i>,
and was bringing it south as fast as he could), popular excitement
rose like the mercury in summer, and but one more
report was needed to make it the absorbing talk of the hour.
That came on the twenty-eighth of July, when the <i>Star</i> announced:
"The steam-wagon has arrived at San Pedro;" and
it was not long before many persons went down to the port
to get a sight of the wonderful object.</p>
<p>And wait they did. Although the <i>Star</i> said that "all our
citizens were anxiously, hourly, expecting to see Major Banning
heave in sight at the foot of Main Street," no Banning hove!
<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_277" id="Page_277">277</SPAN></span>
Instead, on the fourth of August, the same <i>Star</i> broke forth
with this lament: "The steam-wagon is at San Pedro, and we
regret to learn that it is likely to remain there. So far, all
attempts to reach this city with freight have failed." And that
was the end of the steam-wagon experiment here.</p>
<p>In every community there are characters who, for one
reason or another, develop among their fellows a reputation for
oddity. We have all seen the good-natured, rather stout old
gentleman, whose claim to dignity is his old-fashioned Prince
Albert and rather battered-looking silk hat, but who, although
he boasts many friends, is never successful in the acquisition
of this world's goods. We have seen, too, the vender of ice-cream,
<i>tamales</i> or similar commodity, who in his youth had
been an opera singer or actor, but whose too intensive thirst
rendered him impossible in his profession and brought him far
down in the world. Some were dangerous criminals; some
were harmless, but obnoxious; others still were harmless and
amusing. Many such characters I have met during my sixty
years in Los Angeles; and each filled a certain niche, even those
whose only mission was to furnish their fellows with humor
or amusement having thus contributed to the charm of life.</p>
<p>Viejo Cholo, or Old Half-breed, a Mexican over sixty years
of age who was never known by any other name, was such an
eccentric character. He was half blind; wore a pair of white
linen pantaloons, and for a mantle used an old sheet. This he
threw over his shoulders; and thus accoutered, he strutted about
the streets like a Spanish cavalier. His cane was a broom-handle;
his lunch-counter, the swill-bucket; and when times
were particularly bad, Viejo begged. The youngsters of the
pueblo were the bane of Cholo's existence and the torment of his
infirmity and old age.</p>
<p>Cholo was succeeded by Pinikahti, who was half Indian and
half Mexican. He was not over four feet in height and had a
flat nose, a stubby beard and a face badly pockmarked; and he
presented, altogether, as unkempt and obnoxious an appearance
as one might imagine. Pinikahti was generally attired in a
well-worn straw hat, the top of which was missing, and his long,
<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_278" id="Page_278">278</SPAN></span>
hair stuck out in clumps and snarls. A woolen undershirt
and a pair of overalls completed his costume, while his
toes, as a rule, protruded from his enormous boots. Unlike
Viejo Cholo, Pinikahti was permitted to go unmolested by the
juvenile portion of the population, inasmuch as, though half-witted,
he was somewhat of an entertainer; for it was natural for
him to play the flute and—what was really interesting—he made
his own instruments out of the reed that grew along the river
banks. Pinikahti cut just the holes, I suppose, that produced
what seemed to him proper harmony, and on these home-made
flutes performed such airs as his wandering fancy suggested.
He always played weird tunes and danced strange Indian dances;
and through these crude gifts he became, as I have said, sufficiently
popular to enjoy some immunity. Nevertheless, he
was a professional beggar; and whatever he did to afford
amusement, was done, after all, for money. This was easily
explained, for money alone would buy <i>aguardiente</i>, and Pinikahti
had little use for anything else. <i>Aguardiente</i>, as the word was
commonly used in Southern California, was a native brandy,
full of hell fire; and so the poor half-breed was always drunk.
One day Pinikahti drank a glass too much, and this brought
about such a severance of his ties with beautiful Los Angeles
that his absorption of one spirit released, at last, the other.</p>
<p>Sometime in the eventful sixties, a tall, angular, muscular-looking
woman was here, who went by the singular <i>sobriquet</i> of
Captain Jinks, a title which she received from a song then very
popular, the first couplet of which ran something like this:</p>
<div class="poetry-container">
<div class="poem">
<p>I'm Captain Jinks of the Horse Marines,</p>
<p>I feed my horse on pork and beans!</p>
</div>
</div>
<p>She half strode, half jerked her way along the street, as though
scanning the lines of that ditty with her feet. She was strong
for woman's rights, she said; and she certainly looked it.</p>
<p>Chinamen were not only more numerous by 1860, but
they had begun to vary their occupations, many working as
servants, laundrymen or farm hands. In March, a Chinese
company was also organized to compete for local fish trade.
<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_279" id="Page_279">279</SPAN></span></p>
<p>In 1860, Émile Bordenave & Company opened the Louisiana
Coffee Saloon as a French restaurant. Roast duck and oysters
were their specialty, and they charged fifty cents a meal. But
they also served "a plate at one bit."<SPAN name="FNanchor_20" id="FNanchor_20" href="#Footnote_20" class="fnanchor">[20]</SPAN> Some years later, there
was a two-bit restaurant known as Brown's on Main Street,
near the United States Hotel, where a good, substantial meal
was served.</p>
<p>James, often called Santiago Johnson, who, for a short time
prior to his death about 1860 or 1861, was a forwarder of
freight at San Pedro, came to Los Angeles in 1833 with a
cargo of Mexican and Chinese goods, and after that owned
considerable ranch property. In addition to ranching, he also
engaged extensively in cattle-raising.</p>
<p>Peter, popularly known as Pete or Bully Wilson, a native of
Sweden, came to Los Angeles about 1860. He ran a one horse
dray; and as soon as he had accumulated sufficient money, he
bought, for twelve hundred dollars, the southeast corner of
Spring and First streets, where he had his stable. He continued
to prosper; and his family still enjoy the fruits of his industry.</p>
<p>The same year, George Smith started to haul freight and
baggage. He had four horses hitched to a sombre-looking
vehicle nicknamed the <i>Black Swan</i>.</p>
<p>J. D. Yates was a grocer and provision-dealer of 1860,
with a store on the Plaza.</p>
<p>I have referred to Bishop Amat as presiding over the Diocese
of Monterey and Los Angeles; but Los Angeles was linked
with Monterey, for a while, even in judicial matters. Beginning
with 1860 or 1861 (when Fletcher M. Haight, father of Governor
H. H. Haight, was the first Judge to preside), the United States
Court for the Southern District of California was held alternately
in the two towns mentioned, Colonel J. O. Wheeler serving as
Clerk and the Court for the Southern term occupying seven
rooms of the second story of John Temple's Block. These alternate
sessions continued to be held until about 1866 when
the tribunal for the Southern District ceased to exist and Angeleños
were compelled to apply to the court in San Francisco.</p>
<p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_280" id="Page_280">280</SPAN></span></p>
<p>For years, such was the neglect of the Protestant burial
ground that in 1860 caustic criticism was made by each newspaper
discussing the condition of the cemetery: there was no
fence, headstones were disfigured or demolished, and there was
little or no protection to the graves. As a matter of fact, when
the cemetery on Fort Hill was abandoned, but few of the bodies
were removed.</p>
<p>By 1860, the New England Fire Insurance Company, of
Hartford, Connecticut, was advertising here through its local
agent, H. Hamilton—our friend of the Los Angeles <i>Star</i>.
Hamilton used to survey the applicants' premises, forward the
data to William Faulkner, the San Francisco representative,
who executed the policy and mailed the document back
to Los Angeles. After a while, Samuel Briggs, with Wells
Fargo & Co., represented the Phœnix Insurance Company.</p>
<p>H. Newmark & Company also sold insurance somewhat
later, representing the Commercial Union Insurance Company.
About 1880, however, they disposed of their insurance interests
to Maurice Kremer, whose main competitor was W. J. Brodrick;
and from this transaction developed the firm of Kremer, Campbell
& Company, still in that business. Not only in this connection
but elsewhere in these memoirs it may be noted how
little specialization there was in earlier days in Los Angeles; in
fact it was not until about 1880 that this process, distinctive
of economic progress, began to appear in Los Angeles. I myself
have handled practically every staple that makes up the
very great proportion of merchandising activity, whereas my
successors of to-day, as well as their competitors, deal only in
groceries and kindred lines.</p>
<p>Two brothers, Émile and Théophile Vaché, in the fall of
1860, started what has become the oldest firm—Vaché Frères—in
the local wine business, at first utilizing the Bernard residence
at Alameda and Third streets, in time used by the Government
as a bonded warehouse. Later, they removed to the
building on Aliso Street once occupied by the Medical College,
where the cellars proved serviceable for a winery. There
they attempted the manufacture of cream of tartar from wine-crystals,
<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_281" id="Page_281">281</SPAN></span>
but the venture was not remunerative. In 1881, the
Vachés, joined by their brother Adolphe, began to grow grapes
in the Barton Vineyard in San Bernardino County, and some
time afterward they bought near-by land and started the
famous Brookside Vineyard. Émile is now dead; while Théophile,
who retired and returned to Europe in 1892, retaining
an interest in the firm of T. Vaché & Company, passes his hours
pleasantly on the picturesque island of St. George d'Oléron, in
the Charente Inférieure, in his native France.</p>
<p>On September 21st, Captain W. S. Hancock, who first came
to Los Angeles in connection with the expedition against the
Mojave Indians in 1858, sought to establish a new kind of
express between Los Angeles and Fort Mojave, and sent out a
camel in charge of Greek George to make the trial trip. When
they had been gone two and a half days, the regular express
messenger bound for Los Angeles met them at Lane's Crossing,
apparently in none too promising a condition; which later gave
rise to a report that the camel had died on the desert. This
occasioned numerous newspaper squibs <i>à propos</i> of both the
speed and the staying powers of the camel as contrasted with
those of the burro; and finally, in October, the following
announcement appeared placarded throughout the town:</p>
<div class="blockquot">
<p class="center"><span class="smcap">By Poulterer, De Ro &. Eldridge</span></p>
<hr class="l15" />
<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Office and Salesroom, Corner California &</span><br/>
<span class="smcap">Front Streets, San Francisco.</span></p>
<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Peremptory Sale</span><br/>
<span class="smcap">of</span><br/>
<span class="smcap">Bactrian Camels</span><br/>
<span class="smcap">Imported from the Amoor River</span><br/>
<span class="smcap">Ex Caroline E. Foote.</span></p>
<p class="center"><span class="smcap">On Wednesday, Oct. 10, 1860,</span><br/>
<span class="smcap">We will Sell at Public Auction</span><br/>
<span class="smcap">In Lots to Suit Purchasers,</span><br/>
<span class="smcap">for Cash,</span><br/>
<span class="smcap">13 Bactrian Camels,</span></p>
<p>From a cold and mountainous country, comprising 6 males and 7 females,
(5 being with young,) all in fine health and condition.</p>
<p>* * * For further particulars, inquire of the Auctioneers.</p>
</div>
<p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_282" id="Page_282">282</SPAN></span></p>
<p>In 1858, Richard Garvey came to Los Angeles and entered
the Government service as a messenger, between this city and
New Mexico, for Captain W. S. Hancock. Later, he went to the
Holcomb Valley mines, where he first met Lucky Baldwin; and
by 1872 he had disposed of some San Bernardino mine properties
at a figure which seemed to permit his retirement and ease
for the rest of his life. For the next twenty years, he was
variously employed, at times operating for Baldwin. Garvey
is at present living in Los Angeles.</p>
<p>What was one of the last bullfights here, toward the end
of September, when a little child was trodden upon in the ring,
reminds me not only of the succeeding sports, including horse-racing,
but as well that Francis Temple should be credited with
encouraging the importation and breeding of good horses.
In 1860 he paid seven thousand dollars, then considered an
enormous sum, for <i>Black Warrior</i>; and not long afterward he
bought <i>Billy Blossom</i> at a fancy figure.</p>
<p>A political gathering or two enlivened the year 1860. In
July, when the local sentiment was, to all appearances, strongly
in favor of Breckenridge and Lane, the Democratic candidates
for President and Vice-President, one hundred guns were fired
in their honor; and great was the jubilation of the Democratic
hosts. A later meeting, under the auspices of the Breckenridge
Club, was held in front of the Montgomery saloon on Main
Street. Judge Dryden presided, and Senator Milton S. Latham
was the chief speaker. A number of ladies graced the occasion,
some seated in chairs near by and others remaining
in their vehicles drawn up in a semicircle before the speaker's
stand. As a result of all this effort, the candidates in question
did lead in the race here, but only by four votes. On counting
the ballots the day after election, it was found that Breckenridge
had two hundred and sixty-seven votes, while Douglas,
the Independent Democratic nominee, had polled two hundred
and sixty-three. Of permanent interest, perhaps, as showing
the local sentiment on other questions of the time, is that Lincoln
received in Los Angeles only one hundred and seventy-nine
votes.
<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_283" id="Page_283">283</SPAN></span></p>
<p>Generally, a candidate persuaded his friends to nominate
and endorse him, but now and then one came forward and addressed
the public directly. In the fall of 1860, the following
announcement appeared in the <i>Southern News</i>:</p>
<div class="blockquot">
<p class="center"><span class="smcap">To the Voters of Los Angeles Township</span>:</p>
<p>I am a candidate for the office of Justice of the Peace, and
I desire to say to you, frankly, that I want you all to vote for me
on the 6th of November next. I aspire to the office for two
reasons,—first, because I am vain enough to believe that I
am capable of performing the duties required, with credit to
myself and to the satisfaction of all good citizens; second,
because I am poor, and am desiring of making an honest living
thereby.</p>
<p class="left65"><span class="smcap">William G. Still.</span></p>
</div>
<p>During my first visit to San Francisco, in the fall of 1853, and
while <i>en route</i> to Los Angeles, my attention was called to a line of
electric telegraph, then just installed between the Golden Gate
and the town, for use in reporting the arrival of vessels. About
a month later a line was built from San Francisco to Sacramento,
Stockton and around to San José. Nothing further,
however, was done toward reaching Southern California with
the electric wire until the end of May or the beginning of
June, 1860, when President R. E. Raimond and Secretary Fred.
J. McCrellish (promoters of the Pacific & Atlantic Telegraph
Company, organized in 1858 to reach San António, Texas, and
Memphis, Tennessee) came to Los Angeles to lay the matter
before our citizens. Stock was soon subscribed for a line
through the city and as far as Fort Yuma, and in a few days
Banning had fifty teams ready to haul the telegraph poles,
which were deposited in time along the proposed route. In
the beginning, interest was stimulated by the promise that the
telegraph would be in operation by the Fourth of July; but
Independence Day came and went, and the best that the
telegraph company could do was to make the ambiguous report
<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_284" id="Page_284">284</SPAN></span>
that there were so and so many "holes in the ground." Worse
than that, it was announced, toward the end of July, that the
stock of wire had given out; and still worse, that no more could
be had this side of the Atlantic States! That news was indeed
discouraging; but by the middle of August, twenty tons of wire
were known to be on a clipper bound for San Francisco, around
the Horn, and five tons were being hurried here by steamer.
The wire arrived, in due season, and the most energetic efforts
were made to establish telegraphic communication between
Los Angeles and San Francisco. It was while McCrellish was
slowly returning to the North, in June, that I met him as
narrated in a previous chapter.</p>
<p>Finally, at eight o'clock on October 8th, 1860, a few magic
words from the North were ticked out in the Los Angeles office
of the telegraph company. Two hours later, as those familiar
with our local history know, Mayor Henry Mellus sent the
following memorable message to H. F. Teschemacher, President
of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors:</p>
<div class="blockquot">
<p>Allow me, on behalf of the citizens of Los Angeles, to send
you greeting of fellowship and good-feeling on the completion
of the line of telegraph which now binds the two cities
together.</p>
</div>
<p>Whereupon, the next day, President Teschemacher (who, by
the way, was a well-known importer, having brought the first
almond seed from the Mediterranean in the early fifties) replied
to Mayor Mellus:</p>
<div class="blockquot">
<p>Your despatch has just been received. On behalf of the
citizens of San Francisco, I congratulate Los Angeles, trusting
that the benefit may be mutual.</p>
</div>
<p>A ball in Los Angeles fittingly celebrated the event, as
will be seen from the following despatch, penned by Henry D.
Barrows, who was then Southern California correspondent of
the <i>Bulletin</i>:
<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_285" id="Page_285">285</SPAN></span></p>
<div class="blockquot">
<p class="left65"><span class="smcap">Los Angeles</span>, October 9, 1860,<br/>
<span class="i4 s08">10.45 A. M.</span></p>
<p>Here is the maiden salutation of Los Angeles to San Francisco
by lightning! This despatch—the first to the press from
this point—the correspondent of the <i>Bulletin</i> takes pleasure in
communicating in behalf of his fellow-citizens. The first
intelligible communication by the electric wire was received
here last night at about eight o'clock, and a few hours later,
at a grand and brilliant ball, given in honor of the occasion,
despatches were received from San Francisco announcing the
complete working of the entire line. Speeches were made
in the crowded ball-room by E. J. C. Kewen and J. McCrellish.
News of Colonel Baker's election in Oregon to the United States
Senate electrified the Republicans, but the Breckenridges
doubted it at first. Just before leaving yesterday, Senator
Latham planted the first telegraph pole from this point east,
assisted by a concourse of citizens.</p>
</div>
<p>Barrows' telegram concluded with the statement, highly suggestive
of the future commercial possibilities of the telegraph,
that the steamer <i>Senator</i> would leave San Pedro that evening
with three thousand or more boxes of grapes.</p>
<p>On October 16th, the steamer <i>J. T. Wright</i>, named after the
boat-owner and widely advertised as "new, elegant, and fast,"
arrived at San Pedro, in charge of Captain Robert Haley; and
many persons professed to see in her appearance on the scene
new hope for beneficial coastwise competition. After three or
four trips, however, the steamer was withdrawn.</p>
<p>Leonard John Rose, a German by birth, and brother-in-law
of H. K. S. O'Melveny, arrived with his family by the
Butterfield Stage Route in November, having fought and conquered,
so to speak, every step of his way from Illinois, from
which State, two years before, he had set out. Rose and
other pioneers tried to reach California along the Thirty-fifth
parallel, a route surveyed by Lieutenant Beale but presenting
terrific hardships; on the sides of mountains, at times, they had
to let down their wagons by ropes, and again they almost died
of thirst. The Mojave Indians, too, set upon them and did not
desist until seventeen Indians had been killed and nine whites
were slain or wounded, Rose himself not escaping injury. With
<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_286" id="Page_286">286</SPAN></span>
the help of other emigrants, Rose and his family managed to
reach Albuquerque, where within two years in the hotel business
he acquired fourteen thousand dollars. Then, coming to
Los Angeles, he bought from William Wolfskill one hundred
and sixty acres near the old Mission of San Gabriel, and so
prospered that he was soon able to enlarge his domain to over
two thousand acres. He laid out a splendid vineyard and
orange grove, and being full of ambition, enterprise and taste,
it was not long before he had the show-place of the county.</p>
<p>Apparently, Temple really inaugurated his new theater
with the coming to Los Angeles in November of that year of
"the Great Star Company of Stark & Ryer," as well as with
the announcement made at the time by their management:
"This is the first advent of a theatrical company here." Stark
& Ryer were in Los Angeles for a week or two; and though I
should not vouch for them as stars, the little hall was crowded
each night, and almost to suffocation. There were no fire
ordinances then as to filling even the aisles and the window-sills,
nor am I sure that the conventional fire-pail, more often
empty than filled with water, stood anywhere about; but
just as many tickets were sold, regardless of the seating capacity.
Tragedy gave way, alternately, to comedy, one of
the evenings being devoted to <i>The Honeymoon</i>; and as this
was not quite long enough to satisfy the onlookers, who had
neither trains nor boats to catch, there was an after-piece.
In those days, when Los Angeles was entirely dependent on
the North for theatrical and similar talent, it sometimes
happened that the steamer was delayed or that the "star"
failed to catch the ship and so could not arrive when expected;
as a result of which patrons, who had journeyed in from the
ranches, had to journey home again with their curiosity and
appetite for the histrionic unsatisfied.</p>
<p>Prisoners, especially Indians, were employed on public works.
As late as November, 1860, the Water Overseer was empowered
to take out any Indians who might be in the calaboose, and
to use them for repairing the highways and bridges.</p>
<p>About 1860, Nathan Jacoby came to Los Angeles, on my
<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_287" id="Page_287">287</SPAN></span>
invitation, as I had known him in Europe; and he was with me
about a year. When I sold out, he entered the employ of M.
Kremer and later went into business for himself. As the
senior partner of Jacoby Brothers, he died suddenly in 1911.
Associated with Nathan at different periods were his brothers,
Herman, Abraham, Morris, Charles and Lesser Jacoby, all of
them early arrivals. Of this group, Charles and Lesser, both
active in business circles in their day, are also dead.</p>
<p>Toward the end of 1860, Solomon Lazard returned to
France, to visit his mother; but no sooner had he arrived at his
old home and registered, according to law, with the police,
than he was arrested, charged with having left his fatherland at
the age of seventeen, without having performed military duty.
In spite of his American citizenship, he was tried by court-martial
and sentenced to a short imprisonment; but through
the intervention of the United States Minister, Charles J.
Faulkner—the author of the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850—and
the clemency of the Emperor Napoleon III., he was finally
released. He had to furnish a substitute, however, or pay a
fine of fifteen hundred francs; and he paid the fine. At length,
notwithstanding his unpleasant experience, Lazard arrived in
Los Angeles about the middle of March, 1861.</p>
<p>Tired of the wretched sidewalks, John Temple, in December,
1860, set to work to introduce an improvement in front
of his Main Street block, an experiment that was watched with
interest. Bricks were covered with a thick coating of asphalt
brought from La Brea Ranch, which was smoothed while still
warm and then sprinkled with sand; the combination promising
great durability. In the summer season, however, the coating
became soft and gluey, and was not comfortable to walk upon.</p>
<p>I have already spoken of the effect of heat and age on
foodstuffs such as eggs and butter, when brought over the hot
desert between San Bernardino and Los Angeles. This disadvantage
continued for years; nor was the succeeding plan
of bringing provisions from San Francisco and the North by
way of the ocean without its obstacles. A. Ulyard, the baker,
realized the situation, and in December advertised "fresh
<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_288" id="Page_288">288</SPAN></span>
crackers, baked in Los Angeles, and superior to those half
spoiled by the sea voyage."</p>
<p>Previous to the days of warehouses, and much before the
advent of railroads, the public hay-scale was an institution,
having been constructed by Francis Mellus in the dim past.
Exposed to the elements, it stood alone out in the center
of Los Angeles Street, somewhat south of Aliso; and in the
lawless times of the young town was a silent witness to the
numerous crimes perpetrated in the adjacent Calle de Los
Negros. Onto its rough platform the neighboring farmers
drove their heavy loads, often waiting an hour or two for the
arrival of the owner, who alone had the key to its mysterious
mechanism. Speaking of this lack of a warehouse brings to
my mind the pioneer of 1850, Edouard Naud, who first attracted
attention as a clever pastryman with a little shop on
Commercial Street where he made a specialty of lady-fingers—selling
them at fifty cents a dozen. Engaging in the wool industry,
he later become interested in wool and this led him in
1878 to erect Naud's warehouse on Alameda Street, at present
known as the Union Warehouse.<SPAN name="FNanchor_21" id="FNanchor_21" href="#Footnote_21" class="fnanchor">[21]</SPAN> Naud died in 1881. His son,
Edward, born in Los Angeles, is famous as an amateur <i>chef</i>
who can prepare a French dinner that even a professional
might be proud of.</p>
<p>In May, as elsewhere stated, Henry Mellus was elected
Mayor of Los Angeles; and on the twenty-sixth of December
he died—the first to yield that office to the inexorable
demands of Death. The news of his demise called forth
unfeigned expressions of regret; for Mellus was not only a man
of marked ability, but he was of genial temperament and the
soul of honor.</p>
<p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_289" id="Page_289">289</SPAN></span></p>
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