Chapter XL: The First Fiestas

1892-1897

Accompanied by my family, I traveled to Alaska, in 1892, going as far as Muir Glacier and visiting, among other places, Metlakahtla (where we met Father William Duncan, the famous missionary and _Arctander_), Sitka, Juneau and the Treadwell Mines, near which the town of Treadwell has since developed. To-day, the tourist starts from Seattle; but we left Tacoma, sailing north about the seventh of July. I found much to inspire me in that rather extreme portion of the globe, where I was profoundly impressed with the vast forests and colossal rivers of ice, so emblematic of Nature's law of eternal change. Our party was especially fortunate in witnessing the rare sight of huge masses of ice as, with sound of thunder, they broke from the glacier and floated away, brilliantly-tinted bergs, to an independent, if passing, existence.

Having arrived in the Bay of Sitka, our ship, the _Queen of the Pacific_, struck a submerged rock. Instantly excitement and even frenzy prevailed. Levi Z. Leiter, a member of the firm of Field, Leiter & Company of Chicago, was so beside himself with fear that he all but caused a panic, whereupon the Captain ordered the First Mate to put the Chicagoan and his family ashore. Leiter, however, was shamed by his daughter, Miss Mary Victoria--afterward Lady Curzon and wife of the Viceroy of India--who admonished him not to make a scene; and having no desire to be left for a protracted stay in Sitka, he came to his senses and the commotion somewhat abated.

Meantime, not knowing how much damage had been done to the vessel, I hastily proceeded to gather our party together, when I missed Marco and only after considerable trouble found the boy in the cabin--such is the optimism of youth--with a huge sandwich in his hand, not in the least excited over the possible danger nor in any mood to allow a little incident of that kind to dissipate his appetite. When it became evident that the ship had sustained no vital damage, the Captain announced that as soon as a higher tide would permit we should proceed on our way.

In 1892, Abbot Kinney and F. G. Ryan, disregarding the craze for property along the bluffs of old Santa Monica, gave practical evidence of their faith in the future of the sand dunes hereabouts by buying an extensive strip of land on the ocean-front, some of it being within the town of Santa Monica but most of it stretching farther south. They induced the Santa Fé to lay out a route to Ocean Park as the new town was to be called; and having erected piers, a bath house and an auditorium, they built numerous cottages. Hardly was this enterprise well under way, however, when Ryan died and T. H. Dudley acquired his share in the undertaking. In 1901, A. R. Fraser, G. M. Jones and H. R. Gage purchased Dudley's half interest; and the owners began to put the lots on the market. One improvement after another was made, involving heavy expenditures; and in 1904, Ocean Park was incorporated as a city.

E. L. Doheny and a partner had the good luck to strike some of the first oil found in quantities within the city limits. They began operations in February on West State Street, in the very residence section of the town; and at about one hundred and sixty feet below the surface, they found oil enough to cause general excitement. Mrs. Emma A. Summers, who had been dealing in real estate since she came in 1881, quickly sank a well on Court Street near Temple which in a short time produced so lavishly that Mrs. Summers became one of the largest individual operators in crude oil. She is now known as the Oil Queen.

At the suggestion of Mrs. M. Burton Williamson, an interesting open-air meeting of the Los Angeles Historical Society was held on the evening of March 28th at the residence of Don António and Doña Mariana Coronel, near the corner of Central Avenue and Seventh Street. Three hundred guests assembled to enjoy the proverbial Spanish hospitality of this distinguished couple, and to hear reports of the activities of various Los Angeles societies. Don António possessed, as is well known, valuable historical and ethnological collections; and some of his choicest curios were that evening placed at the service of his guests. Professor Ira More participated, presiding at a table once used by the first Constitutional Governor, Echeandia, and I still recall the manner in which António chuckled when he told us how he had swapped "four gentle cows" for the piece of furniture; while, instead of a gavel, Señora Coronel had provided a bell long used to summon the Indians to Mission service.

As early as the height of the great Boom, Professor T. S. C. Lowe (to whom I have referred in the story of an experiment in making gas) advocated the construction of a railroad up the mountain later officially designated Mt. Lowe; and almost immediately financiers acted on the proposal and ordered the route surveyed. The collapse of the Boom, however, then made the financing of the project impossible; and the actual work of building the road was begun only in 1892. On the Fourth of July of the following year, the first car carrying a small party of invited guests successfully ascended the incline; and on August 23d the railway was formally opened to the public, the occasion being made a holiday. In 1894, the Mt. Lowe Astronomical Observatory was built. At one time, the railway was owned by Valentine Peyton, my agreeable neighbor and friend then and now residing on Westlake Avenue.

In June, 1893, the Los Angeles Post Office was moved from its location at Broadway near Sixth Street to the National Government Building at the southeast corner of Main and Winston streets, which had just been completed at a cost of one hundred and fifty thousand dollars.

Seized with the same desire that animated many thousands who journeyed to Chicago, I visited the World's Fair in the fall of 1893. Everywhere I was impressed with the extraordinary progress made, especially by Americans, since the display in Philadelphia; and I was naturally proud of the exhibits from California in charge of my fellow-townsman, Ben Truman.

Russell Judson Waters, a well-known banker and member of Congress from the Sixth District between 1899 and 1903, came from Redlands in 1894 and another Southern Californian who has turned his attention to literary endeavor: his novel, _El Estranjero_, dealing with past local life.

Joseph Scott, who has risen to distinction in the California legal world, alighted in Los Angeles in June, having tried without success to obtain newspaper work in Boston, in 1887, although equipped with a letter of introduction from John Boyle O'Reilly. In New York, with only two dollars in his pocket, he was compelled to shoulder a hod; but relief came: as Scott himself jovially tells the story, he was carrying mortar and brick on a Tuesday in February, 1890, and but two days later he faced a body of students at St. Bonaventura's College in Allegany, New York, as instructor in rhetoric! Within ten months after Scott came to Southern California, he was admitted to practice at the Los Angeles Bar; and since then he has been President of the Chamber of Commerce. He is now a member of the Board of Education, and all in all his services to the commonwealth have been many and important.

The existence of the Merchants' Association, which was organized in 1893 with W. C. Furrey as President and William Bien (succeeded the following year by Jacob E. Waldeck, son-in-law of Samuel Hellman) as Secretary, was somewhat precarious until 1894. In that year, Los Angeles was suffering a period of depression, and a meeting was called to devise ways and means for alleviating the economic ills of the city and also for attracting to Los Angeles some of the visitors to the Midwinter Fair then being held in San Francisco. At that meeting, Max Meyberg, a member of the Association's executive committee, suggested a carnival; and the plan being enthusiastically endorsed, the coming occasion was dubbed _La Fiesta de Los Angeles_. Meyberg was appointed Director-General; and the following persons, among others, were associated with him in the undertaking: Mayor T. E. Rowan, F. W. Wood, R. W. Pridham, H. Jevne, J. O. Koepfli, Leon Loeb, H. T. Hazard, Charles S. Walton and M. H. Newmark.

The _Fiesta_ lasted from the 10th to the 13th of April and proved a delightful affair. The participants marched in costume to the City Hall during a meeting of the Council, usurped the Government, elected a Queen--Mrs. O. W. Childs, Jr.--to preside over the destinies of the City during the _Fiesta_ and communicated to everybody a spirit of uncontrollable enthusiasm based on a feeling of the most genuine patriotic sentiment. The result was thoroughly successful, the carnival bringing out the real Californian fellowship--whole-souled and ringing true. Indeed, it is conceded by all who have seen Los Angeles grow, that this first _Fiesta_ and the resulting strengthening of the Association have been among the earliest and, in some respects, the most important elements contributory to the wonderful growth and development of our city. A few evenings after the conclusion of the celebration, and while the streets were brilliantly illuminated with Bengal fire, the leaders again marched in a body, this time to the hall over Mott Market, where they not only laid plans for the second _Fiesta_, but installed J. O. Koepfli as President of the Merchants' Association.

So enthusiastic had the citizens of Los Angeles really become that in the years 1895 and 1896 the _Fiesta_ was repeated and many prominent people supported the original committee, assisting to make the second festival almost equal to the first. Among these patrons were John Alton, Hancock Banning, W. A. Barker, A. C. Bilicke, L. W. Blinn, W. C. Bluett, R. W. Burnham, John M. Crawley, James Cuzner, J. H. Dockweiler, T. A. Eisen, J. A. Foshay, John F. Francis, A. W. Francisco, H. W. Frank, Dan Freeman, Mrs. Jessie Benton Frémont, W. M. Garland, T. E. Gibbon, J. T. Griffith, Harley Hamilton, R. H. Howell, Sumner P. Hunt, A. Jacoby, General E. P. Johnson, John Kahn, F. W. King, Abbot Kinney, E. F. C. Klokke, J. Kuhrts, Dr. Carl Kurtz, J. B. Lankershim, General C. F. A. Last, S. B. Lewis, H. Lichtenberger, Charles F. Lummis, Simon Maier, D. C. McGarvin, John R. Mathews, James J. Mellus, L. E. Mosher, Walter S. Newhall, J. W. A. Off, Colonel H. Z. Osborne, Colonel H. G. Otis, Madison T. Owens, W. C. Patterson, Niles Pease, A. Petsch, John E. Plater, R. W. Pridham, Judge E. M. Ross, F. K. Rule, Frank Sabichi, J. T. Sheward, Colonel W. G. Schreiber, John Schumacher, Professor P. W. Search, Edward D. Silent, Alfredo Solano, George H. Stewart, Frank J. Thomas, D. K. Trask, Ben C. Truman, I. N. Van Nuys, K. H. Wade, Stephen M. White, Frank Wiggins, C. D. Willard, Dr. W. Le Moyne Wills, W. B. Wilshire, H. J. Woollacott and W. D. Woolwine.

This second _Fiesta_ brought into the local field two men then unknown, but each destined to play an important part in the affairs of Los Angeles. J. O. Koepfli, President of the Merchants' Association, and M. H. Newmark, Chairman of the Finance Committee, selected Felix J. Zeehandelaar (a reporter for the Los Angeles _Herald_ during the short ownership of John Bradbury) as financial and publicity agent; with the result that more than thirty thousand dollars was collected and valuable advertising was secured. At that time, the Finance Committee also discovered the undeveloped talent of Lynden Ellsworth Behymer, since so well known as the impresario, who, in managing with wonderful success the sale of tickets for the various events, laid the foundation for his subsequent career. Commencing with Adelina Patti, there have been few celebrities in the musical world that Behymer's enterprise has not succeeded in bringing to Los Angeles; his greatest accomplishment in recent seasons being the booking of the Chicago Grand Opera Company, in February, 1913, under a guarantee of eighty-eight thousand dollars.

Second in chronological order among the larger societies of women, and doubtless equal to any in the importance of its varied activities, the Ebell Club was organized in 1894, due time providing itself with a serviceable and ornate home, within which for years broad courses of departmental study have been prosecuted with vigor.

After worshiping for more than fifteen years in the old Synagogue on Fort Street, and five years more after that name was changed to Broadway (during which period, from 1881 until I started, in 1887, on my second European trip, it was my privilege to serve as President of the Congregation), the reformed Jews of Los Angeles built, in 1894, the Temple B'nai B'rith on the corner of Hope and Ninth streets. In the meantime, following the resignation of Dr. A. W. Edelman, in 1886, Dr. Emanuel Schreiber for two years occupied the pulpit; and then Reverend A. Blum came from Galveston to succeed him. From the early part of 1895, Rabbi M. G. Solomon held the office until 1899. It was during his administration, it may be interesting to observe, and while Herman W. Hellman was President, that the present Temple was consecrated.

In 1894, Homer Laughlin, of Ohio, during a visit purchased from Mrs. Mary A. Briggs the property on Broadway between Third and Fourth streets, where she had lived. Three years later, he moved to Los Angeles and began the erection of the Homer Laughlin fire-proof building, adding to the same, in 1905, a reinforced concrete annex.

At midnight, on April 17th, Don António Franco Coronel died at his home in Los Angeles, aged seventy-seven years. In less than four months, his life-long friend, Don Pio Pico died here--on September 11th, aged ninety-three years.

The Belgian hare aberration was a spasmodic craze of the nineties and when I remember what the little rabbit did to our judgment then, it brings to mind the black-tulip bubble of Holland though, in point of genuine foolishness, I should award the prize to the former. A widely-copied newspaper article, claiming for the flesh of the timid Belgian rodent extraordinary qualities and merit, led first hundreds, then thousands, to rig up hare-coops for the breeding of the animal, expecting to supply the world with its much-lauded meat. Before long, people abandoned profitable work in order to venture into the new field, and many were those who invested thousands of dollars in Belgian hare companies. During the wild excitement attention was also given to the raising of hares for exhibition, and fancy prices were paid for the choicest specimens. At last, the bubble burst: the supply far exceeded the now-diminishing demand and the whole enterprise collapsed.

A lively election in 1895 was that which decided the immediate future of a suburb of Los Angeles where, on April 27th of the same year, Don Juan Warner, who had lived there with his daughter, Mrs. Rúbio, went to his rest. This was University Place, in 1880 a mere hamlet, though three years later it had a post office of its own. In 1895, an effort was made to annex the community, with Vernon, Rosedale and Pico Heights; but the measure was defeated, and only on June 12th, 1899 was the college district annexed to Los Angeles. For some years, the boundary line of the town at that point followed such a course through house-lots that residents there, still at home, often ate in the county and slept within the city!

The early nineties were full of the spirit of accomplishment, and notwithstanding the failure of the Electric Homestead Tract Association and its street car line, already described, a successful electric railway system for Los Angeles was at length installed. In 1892, a route was laid out to Westlake Park, the company having been encouraged by a subsidy of fifty thousand dollars pledged by owners of property most likely to be affected by the service; and by 1895 the electric traction system was so general that even the bob-tailed cars on Main Street gave way to the new order of things. At this early stage in the application of electricity to street cars, some of the equipment was rather primitive. Wooden poles, for example, were a part of the trolley; and as they were easily broken, conductors were fined a dollar for any accident to the rod with which they might have to do! Electricity--when it was forthcoming at all--was only harnessed to impel the vehicle; but there were no devices for using the current to warm the car, and instead of an electric light, an _oil_ lamp, hung onto the dashboard, faintly illuminated the soft roadbed of the irregular tracks. The most active promoters of the improvements of 1895 were the two brothers, William Spencer and Thomas J. Hook, who operated mainly in the southwestern part of the city, developing that rather sparsely-settled district and introducing what was the best and most handsome rolling stock seen here up to that time.

B. F. Coulter, who from 1881 to 1884 had preached here as a clergyman of the Christian Church, in 1895 built a place of worship at his own expense, on Broadway near Temple Street, costing twenty thousand dollars--no inconsiderable sum for that time.

Sometime in March appeared the first issue of the _Los Angeles Record_, a one-cent evening paper started by E. W. Scripps as "the poor man's advocate." It was really another one of the many enterprising Scripps newspapers scattered throughout the country and championing, more or less, Socialistic principles; in accordance with which Scripps, from the outset, distributed some of the stock among his working associates. At the present time, W. H. Porterfield is the editor-in-chief, and W. T. Murdoch the editor.

Thomas J. Scully, a pioneer school teacher who came to Los Angeles the same year that I did, died here in 1895. For some time Scully was the only teacher in the county outside of the city, but owing to the condition of the public treasury he actually divided his time between three or four schools, giving lessons in each a part of the year. After a while, the schoolmaster gazed longingly upon a lovely vineyard and its no less lovely owner; and at last, by marrying the proprietress, he appropriated both. This sudden capture of wife and independence, however, was too much for our unsophisticated pedagogue: Scully entered upon a campaign of intemperance and dissipation; his spouse soon expelled him from his comfortable surroundings, and he was again forced to earn his own living with birch and book.

Inoffensive in the extreme, yet with an aberration of mind more and more evident during twenty years, Frederick Merrill Shaw, a well-informed Vermonter born in 1827, shipped for California as cook on the brig _Sea Eagle_ and arrived in San Francisco in September, 1849, where he helped to build, as he always claimed, the first three-story structure put up there. Well-proportioned and standing over six feet in height, Shaw presented a dignified appearance; that is, if one closed an eye to his dress. Long ago, he established his own pension bureau, conferring upon me the honor of a weekly contributor; and when he calls, he keeps me well-posted on what he's been doing. His weary brain is ever filled with the phantoms of great inventions and billion-dollar corporations, as his pocketful of maps and diagrams shows; one day launching an aerial navigation company to explore the moon and the next day covering California with railroad lines as thick as are automobiles in the streets of Los Angeles.

On September 21st, my brother, J. P. Newmark, to whom I am so indebted, and who was the cause of my coming to California, died at his home, in the sixty-ninth year of his age; his demise being rather sudden. During the extended period of his illness, he was tenderly nursed by his wife, Augusta; and I cannot pay my sister-in-law too high a tribute for her devoted companionship and aid, and her real self-sacrifice. Mrs. Newmark long survived her husband, dying on January 3d, 1908 at the age of seventy-four.

The reader will permit me, I am certain, the privilege of a fraternal eulogy: in his acceptance and fulfillment of the responsibilities of this life, in the depth and sincerity of his feeling toward family and friend, my brother was the peer of any; in his patient, silent endurance of long years of intense physical suffering and in his cheerfulness, which a manly courage and philosophical spirit inspired him to diffuse, he was the superior of most; and it was the possession of these qualities which has preserved his personality, to those who knew him well, far beyond the span of natural existence.

In May, 1896, the Merchants' Association consolidated with the Manufacturers' Association (of which R. W. Pridham was then President), and after the change of name to the Merchants & Manufacturers' Association, inaugurated the first local exhibit of home products, using the Main Street store of Meyberg Brothers for the display. On August 1st, 1897, Felix J. Zeehandelaar, later also Consul of the Netherlands, became the stalwart, enthusiastic and now indispensable Secretary, succeeding, I believe, William H. Knight.

This same year Major Ben. C. Truman, formerly editor of the _Star_, together with George D. Rice & Sons established the _Graphic_, which is still being published under the popular editorship of Samuel T. Clover. In 1900, Truman was one of the California Commissioners to the Paris Exposition. After his foreign sojourn, he returned to Los Angeles and, with Harry Patton, started a weekly society paper called the _Capitol_. Rather recently, by the advantageous sale of certain property early acquired, Ben and his good wife have come to enjoy a comfortable and well-merited degree of prosperity. Clover came to Los Angeles in 1901; was editor and publisher of the _Express_ for four years; and in 1905 started the _Evening News_, continuing the same three years despite the panic of 1907. A year previously, he purchased the _Graphic_, more than one feature of which, and especially his "Browsings in an Old Book Shop," have found such favor.

W. A. Spalding, whose editorial work on Los Angeles newspapers--dating from his association with the _Herald_ in 1874, and including service with both the _Express_ and the _Times_--in 1896 assumed the business management of his first love, the _Herald_. After again toiling with the quill for four years, he was succeeded by Lieutenant Randolph H. Miner.

The magnificent interurban electric system of Los Angeles is indebted not a little to the brothers-in-law, General M. H. Sherman and E. P. Clark--the former a Yankee from Vermont, and the latter a Middle Westerner from Iowa--both of whom had settled in Arizona in the early seventies. While in the Territory, Sherman taught school and, under appointment by Governor Frémont as Superintendent of Instruction, laid the foundation of the public school system there. Both came to Los Angeles in 1889, soon after which Sherman organized the Consolidated Electric Railway Company. In 1896, the old steam railroad--which about the late eighties had run for a year or so between Los Angeles and the North Beach, by way of Colegrove and South Hollywood--was equipped with electrical motor power and again operated through the enterprise of Eli P. Clark, President of the Los Angeles Pacific Railroad Company. Together, Sherman and Clark built an electrical road to Pasadena, thus connecting the mountains with the sea.

In 1896, I dissolved partnership with Kaspare Cohn, taking over the hide business and, having fitted up a modest office under the St. Elmo Hotel, revived with a degree of satisfaction the name of H. Newmark & Company.

A notable career in Los Angeles is that of Arthur Letts who in 1896 arrived here with barely five hundred dollars in his pocket and, as it would appear, in answer to a benign Providence. J. A. Williams & Company, after a brief experience, had found the corner of Broadway and Fourth Street too far south, and their means too limited, to weather the storm; so that their badly-situated little department store was soon in the hands of creditors. This was Letts' opportunity: obtaining some financial assistance, he purchased the bankrupt stock. His instantaneous success was reflected in the improvement of the neighborhood, and thereafter both locality and business made rapid progress together.

Meredith P. Snyder, who became a resident in 1880 and started business by clerking in a furniture store, in 1896 was elected to the office of mayor, on a municipal water-works platform.

During the presidential campaign of 1896, when the West went wild over "16 to 1," and it looked as if W. J. Bryan would sweep aside all opposition here, an organization known as the Sound Money League undertook to turn the tide. George H. Stewart was elected President, the other members of the Executive Committee being John F. Francis, Frank A. Gibson, R. W. Burnham and M. H. Newmark. So strenuous was the campaign, and so effective was the support by the public, that when the sun set on that memorable Tuesday in November, Los Angeles was found to be still strong for sound principles. Perhaps the most remarkable outpouring in the political history of the city took place during this period when business men, regardless of previous party affiliations, turned out to hear Tom Reed, the "Czar" of the House of Representatives.

It was in the Christmas season of 1896 that Colonel Griffith J. Griffith so generously filled the stocking of Los Angeles with his immensely important gift of Griffith Park, said to be, with its three thousand and more diversified acres, magnificent heights and picturesque roadways--some of which, with their dense willow growth, remind me of the shaded lanes described in earlier chapters--the second largest pleasure ground in the world.

On July 1st, 1897, the Atlantic & Pacific Railroad was absorbed by the Santa Fé; Charles W. Smith, the receiver, having brought order out of chaos after the former road in 1895 had met with disaster.

Dr. Henry S. Orme, H. W. O'Melveny, J. M. Griffith, J. W. Gillette, A. L. Bath, J. M. Guinn, M. Teed, J. M. Elliott and W. A. Spalding on August 2d met in the office of the _Daily Herald_, in the Bradbury Block on Third Street, to consider the organization of an Old Settlers' Society. At that meeting a committee, consisting of Dr. J. S. Griffin, Henry W. O'Melveny, Benjamin S. Eaton, H. D. Barrows, J. M. Guinn, Dr. H. S. Orme, J. W. Gillette and myself was appointed to direct the movement. On August 10th, we selected the Los Angeles County Pioneers of Southern California as the name of the society and decided that eligibility should be limited to those who had resided in the county twenty-five years. A public meeting was held at the Chamber of Commerce on September 4th, 1897 and the twenty-five persons present signed the roll. The first President chosen was Benjamin S. Eaton and the first Secretary, J. M. Guinn.

Dr. William F. Edgar, who had resided here continuously for over thirty years, died on August 23d, at the age of seventy-three; a sword given to him by General Phil Kearney resting among the floral tributes. The tenth of the following November witnessed the death of George Hansen, the surveyor, whose body (in accordance with his expressed wish) was cremated. On the same day, J. J. Ayers died.

This year, when the town was full of unemployed, hundreds of men were set at work to improve Elysian Park, a move suggested by Judge Charles Silent.

Frank Walker, who had been here for a while in the middle of the eighties and had gone away again, returned to Los Angeles about 1897 and set himself up as a master builder. While contracting for certain unique bungalows, his attention was directed to the possibility of utilizing the power of the sun, with the result that he soon patented a solar heater, similar to those now extensively built into Southern California residences, and organized a company for exploiting the invention.